The RomanColoniaeof the Near East far more frequently, for the much better-known deity whose temple was to
be found at Heliopolis: Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus. He also
is sometimes described in simpler terms, for instance in the inscription of
../ put up at Puteoli by thecultores Iovis Heliopolitani Berytenses qui
Puteolis consistunt.^52
The question of how we should approach the nature of the Iuppiter of
Heliopolis will be considered below. For the moment it is essential to stress
that the entire situation, and the relation of theBerytensesto that cult, cannot
be understood correctly unless we accept the validity of the case argued by
A. H. M. Jones and ultimately refined by J.-P. Rey-Coquais that, as Strabo
clearly states, the Bekaa valley, and with it Heliopolis, was from the begin-
ning part of the territory of Berytus.^53 The cult of Iuppiter Optimus Maxi-
mus Heliopolitanus will thus have evolved as one observed primarily by the
Latin-speaking (and Roman-thinking)coloniof Berytus; and it was in this
period that the extraordinary group of temples was built, while the cult of
Iuppiter of Heliopolis steadily achieved an empire-wide fame. It was only
after two centuries, partially no doubt in recognition of that fame, and of
the fact of an urban complex existing around the temples, and certainly as
a product of the local tensions engendered by the civil war of –, that
Septimius Severus made Heliopolis a separatecolonia. The fact is stated with
perfect clarity by Ulpian:Est et Heliopolitana (colonia) quae a divo Severo per belli
civilis occasionem Italicae coloniae rem publicam accepit.^54 The fact that when this
status was granted, the newly acquired title,Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Heli-
opolis, reflected the settlement of veterans by Augustus two centuries earlier
cannot weigh against the clear and irreducible facts. Pliny the Elder, who lists
thecoloniaeof Berytus (Nat. Hist. , ), Ptolemais under Claudius (, ) and
Caesarea under Vespasian (, ), knows Heliopolis only as a topographical
item (, ). There is no coinage of Heliopolis until the third century, and
no epigraphic evidence unambiguously denoting Heliopolis as acoloniauntil
the same period.
Thecoloniaof Heliopolis, as it was in the third century, will be discussed
later (text to nn. – below). It should be accepted beyond all doubt
that in the first two centuries Heliopolis was a place (however described),
and a rapidly evolving cult centre, in the territory of Berytus. Inscriptions
from Heliopolis of this period which refer to thecolonia,ortoitsdecuriones
.ILS.
. See A. H. M. Jones,Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces^2 (), – and n. ; cf.
J.-P. Rey-Coquais,IGLSVI:Baalbek et Beqa(), –;JRS (): .
.Dig.,,,.