Roman Seleucis et Pieria Emesa, MACRINUS, tetradrachm Start Price USD 225.00 Current Price USD 225.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price USD 255.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Tuesday, August 26, 2008 End Time Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Location European Union See more about 'Roman Seleucis et Pieria Emesa, MACRINUS, tetradrachm' Description Visit my page with the offers, please. You will find many interesting items, related to this subject.     If you wish to see AUTHENTIC coins, click here; Coins; Originals    If you wish to see the REPLICAS, click here; Coins; Replicas       Ex Auction 147 Gorny & Mosch         Roman Province Seleucis et Pieria Emesa (contemporary Homs) Macrinus; 217 - 218 A.D. Prieur; 961; Rare!!!       Size; ca 22 mm, Weight –  13.20 gr; (0.47 oz) Metal – billon silver     For military actions near the city, see Battle of Homs. Homs (Arabic: حمص‎, transliteration: Ḥimṣ, anciently called Emessa, or "La Chamelle" during the Crusades[1]) is a western city in Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is 450 m above sea level, and is located 160 km away from Damascus and 190 km away from Aleppo. It is located on the Orontes river. It is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean Sea coast. In Roman times it was known as Emesa. The famous Crac des Chevaliers is built on the mountain overlooking the Homs Gap. Sites of cultural significance include the tomb of Khalid bin Walid, celebrated Arab Muslim general, Krak des Chevaliers, a Crusader fortress, and Al Fadael Mosque, the city's oldest surviving structure. The 2007 population estimate of the city is 1,647,000. The history of the Homs as a metropolis (city) remains obscure until the times of the Seleucid Empire, when it was founded after the death of Alexander the Great. Ancient Hemesa, in the Seleucid district of Apamea, was devoted to the worship of El-Gabal (also known as Baal), the sun god, of whose great temple the emperor Elagabalus was originally a priest (218 AD). As a center of native influences it was overawed by the Seleucid foundation of Apamea. During this period Sampsiceramus or Shams'alkeram, an Aramaic chieftain reigned over Hemesa (Emesa) and Rasten (Arethusa). In 64 BC Sampsiceramus killed Antiochus XIII, the last Seleucid king, at the behest of Pompey the Great. During this period the Hellenistic culture flourished, however the Aramaic language prevailed throughout the eastern regions as it was the language of the natives. Emesa had a temple to the Syrian sun god El-Gabal (Aramaic), also called Elagabalus (Latin) and Heliogabalus (Greek). During Roman times Emesa was ruled by its local dynasty of priest-kings (see Royal Family of Emesa). It was the birthplace of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Elagabalus, who was a hereditary priest of his namesake deity and succeeded his cousin Caracalla in 218. Emesa was also Roman Emperor Aurelian's headquarter during his campaign against Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. Caracalla made it a Roman colony (the colonia status being the highest urban status in the Roman Empire), and later it became the capital of a small province, Phoenicia Libanesia or ad Libanum. After the division of the Roman empire in 395 AD, Emesa remained part of the Byzantine Christian empire until the forces of Rashidun Caliphate captured Emesa in March 636 AD, and they renamed it Homs. Homs became an administrative/military center (jund) under the first under Rashiduns and then under Ummayads. With the fall of the Ummayads the city gradually lost its importance it also suffered two destructive earthquakes in the 12th century. After the Ummayads it passed to the hands of the Abbasides, Hamadanites, Fatimid, Seljuks, Ayoubids, and Mamluks. It also fell briefly to the Crusaders and the Mongols. In 1516 it passed into Ottoman hands, where it remained as a capital of a sanjak in the wilayah of Damascus until the creation of the modern state of Syria after World War I. The city flourished under the newly formed Syrian state due to its central location and partial destruction of its rival city Hama in 1982 when Hafez al-Assad ordered the Syrian army to quell the Muslim Brotherhood rebellion. Israel bombed Homs oil refinery during the Yom Kippur war in 1973. In 1982 the security services sieged the industrial zone to capture renegade Muslim brotherhood members, and there is a report of full scale beatings and strip-searching of citizens present at that location.   Place a Bid!