Rome and the East
was the native city of the Emperor’s uncle by marriage, Gessius Marcianus,
the husband of his aunt, Iulia Mammaea.^188 Consequently the city was also
the native city of her son, Elagabal’s cousin and successor, Severus Alexan-
der.^189 But it was in fact early in Elagabal’s reign, soon after his coup d’état
in Syria in , that the elevation took place.^190 The evidence in this case
is provided solely by the city coinage, which begins under Antoninus Pius
with the designation of the city asΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΛΙΒΑΝΩ
orΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑΣ ΛΙΒΑΝΟΥ. Then in the Seleucid year ,../,
coins appear with the Latin legend COL CESARIA LIBANI; under Severus
Alexander as Caesar,../, there is the variant COL CESA ITUR. Why
the historical connections of the city with the Itureans of Mount Lebanon
and Anti-Lebanon should have been recalled at this point is not known.
It seems similarly to have been under Elagabal that Petra received the rank
ofcolonia.^191 Nothing whatsoever is known of the circumstances, but we find
on its coins from the reign of Elagabal the Latin legend COLONIA PETRA,
sometimes also written PETLA COLONI(A). Here again, therefore, the for-
merly Nabatean city, whose formal character had been for a century that of
a Greek city, with the titleἉδριανὴΠέτρα Μητρόπολις, was transformed
into a Romancolonia. By luck, given the very slight harvest of Greek and
Latin inscriptions from Petra, there is at least one which confirms the new
status. A statue base from thetemenosof the Qasr Bint Far’un is inscribed in
Greek with the name of Valerius Iulianus,procuratorof two emperors, hon-
oured by themētropolisandmētrokolōnia, and is dated by the twostratēgoi/
duumviriin office:ΟὐαλέριονἸουλιανὸντὸν/κράτιστονἐπίτροπον τῶν/
Σεββ.ἡμητρόπολιςκαὶμητροκολ(ωνία)/τὸνἑαυτῆςεὐεργέτην/διὰ[...]
ρ.Θεοδώρου καὶἈριστείδου στρατηγῶν.^192
The hybrid Latin-Greek wordmētrokolōnia/μητροκολωνίαthus appears
once again (cf. text to nn. – above). The inscription, modest as it is, is
.PIR^2 , G ; see G. W. Bowersock, ‘‘Senators from the Near East,’’ in S. Panciera,
ed.,Epigrafia e ordine senatorioII (), , on . I am not convinced, however, thatDig.
, , , shows that he had been adlected to the Senate, as against Dio , , , who says
merely that he had held procuratorships.
. So Aurelius Victor,Caes.,:Aurelio Alexandro, Syriae orto, cui duplex Caesarea et
Arce nomen est.Cf.HA,Sev. Alex.,;,.
.BMCPhoenicia, lxxi–iii, –; see H. Seyrig, ‘‘Une monnaie de Césarée du Liban,’’
Syria (): .Non vidiJ. Starcky,Arca du Liban, Cahiers de l’Oronte (–): .
. See S. Ben-Dor, ‘‘Petra Colonia,’’Berytus (): ; A. Spijkerman,Coins of the
Decapolis and Provincia Arabia(), –; G. W. Bowersock,Roman Arabia(), .
. Published by J. Starcky and C. M. Bennett inAnn.Dept.Ant.Jordan– (–):
, no. xii, and inSyria (): , no. xiii. See now in Sartre’sIGLSXXI., no. .