Sebaste, Samaria, in Syria Palęstina (now Chiemrum). -- A city of very great antiquity, situate on the mountain Samaria. After becoming subject in succession to kings of Israel, to the Assyrians, to Alexander the Great, to the Ptolemies, and to the Jews, it was augmented by Herod the Great, and called by him Sebaste in honour of Augustus (about the year 26 B.C.). Its imperial coins do not, however, commence before the reign of Nero ; and afterwards appear only under Domitian, Commodus, and Caracalla. It was not until the reign of Septimus Severus that Sebaste, (or Samaria) was made a Roman colony ; on which occasion it took from that Emperor the names of Lucia Septimia ; and the colonists, out of gratitude to the founder of their privileges, struck on their coins the heads of Severus's family -- namely, Julia Domna, Caracalla, and Geta, with the inscription COL. CEBACTE, and on some others COLonia Lucia SEPtimia. No later medals of this colony than these are extant. -- The imperials of Domitian and of Commodus are bilingual Greek and Latin. -- The colonial imperial have als Latin inscriptions on the obverse, and Greek on the reverse. Vaillant gives the two following types of this colony from coins of the greatest rarity, viz. :-- 1. -- On a second and third brass of Julia the empress of Severus, three figures standing within a temple of four columns, accompanied by the legend of COL. CEBACTE, Colonia Sebaste. [The middle figure of this group is that of Jupiter, whose temple it appears to be.] 2. -- On second brass of the same empress, a figure in military garments standing, is crowned by Victory ; on the other side stands a woman, clothed in the stola, wearing towers on her head, her right hand extended towards the centre figure, and her left hand holding a cornucopia. [The colonists of Sebaste here dedicate to Julia Domna, the wife of their founder, a medal on which his effigy, taken perhaps from a statue erected in their forum, is exhibited, crowned by Victory in presence of the Genius of their city, in memory of Severus's splendid exploits against the Parthians, Adiabenians, and Arabians. View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins| |