Finding More about Elagabalus/Illah Al-Jabal 1

So Elagabalus or Illah Al-Jabal is a God I am very interested in so I figured I would share what I find on here. (I usually call him Illah Al-Jabal, which is the Arabic translation of the name, cuz I know more Arabic than I do Greek so I find that more easier personally) This is also my first type of this kind of post, so please forgive me if it’s all over the place

Molefi Kete Asante and Shaza Ismail, Interrogating the African Roman Emperor Caracalla: Claiming and Reclaiming an African Leader:

“Severus's wife, Julia Domna, came from a famous city in the ancient world called Emesa. She was well regarded when married to Septimius Severus due to the temples from her home which were dedicated to the God Elagabalus (the Sun God), represented by a black stone which is said to have fallen from the sky as a meteorite (Haynes, 1993). When Septimius Severus died in 211 a.d. while on campaign in Britain, he left the Roman treasury with a secure surplus and the military at a height of loyalty to the emperor that it had not seen in many years. Unlike his father, unfortunately, Caracalla was just not likable (Boatwright et al., 2004).”

This was interesting mainly in that it was said that Illah Al-Jabal was represented by a black stone that was a meteorite. I am sure for everyone a certain black stone came to mind, which was also said to be dedicated to a different God in the area. But with this I wanted to look up what this source was so I decided to find this Haynes source. And well....... it wasn’t exacty what I was looking for but it was still a great treasure.

Haynes,  The Romanisation of Religion in the 'Auxilia' of the Roman Imperial Army from Augustus to Septimus Severus

“Emesa was famous in the ancient world for its magnificent temple to the god Elah-Gebel (Elagabalus). The city was ruled by the Sohemais family of priest-kings for many generations and it was the daughter of one of these, Julia Domna, that the ambitious Septimius Severus married. It was not until the reign of the emperor Heliogabalus (June A.D. 218-March A.D. 222) that the city's god became widely known in the Roman empire. Dedications from Intercisa indicate that the god was venerated by the Hemeseni based in the fort. A number can be dated reasonably accurately. The most interesting is a unit dedication datable to the 23 August A.D. 214.71 Even if it is accepted that the regiment could have been receiving Semitic recruits as late as A.D. 183, as Kennedy argues, such soldiers would have retired at least six years before this inscription was erected. The inscription cannot be explained as the result of imperial dictates as Domaszewski argued, because Heliogabalus was still four years away from ascending the throne. Its date shows that even after the ethnic composition of the regiment may have changed the cult was sufficiently popular to attract such dedications. The naming of Elagabalus on two other datable inscriptions, both recording work on a temple,73 reinforces the impression of strong links between the regiment and the god. Indeed, it is quite likely that cohors I Hemesenorum was responsible for the initial construction of the temple at Gorsium and that later soldiers simply followed the practices of their predecessors. Three further undated inscriptions from the area attest to the worship of the god, but, with the exception of one which records a Semitic soldier from an unknown unit, they are of little interest. The veneration of other gods was less common among the followers of Elagabalus than those of other deities. It is not therefore surprising that Dea Syria, for example, does not receive the attention at Intercisa that she does elsewhere. The area around Intercisa has produced a number of altars and dedications to gods other than Elagabalus. Significantly almost all of these are to gods of the Roman pantheon or the Imperial cult. The only possible exceptions to this are dedications by an eques (AE 1956, 16) and a veteranus (Alba Regia ii (1970), No. 463) to a probably localised form of Jupiter, IOM Culminari. The inscriptions left by cohors I Hemesenorum indicate that where a wide range of datable epigraphic material is available it is possible to show that beliefs originating in regimental homelands could survive even after a unit's ethnic composition had changed.”

While I was unable to find any information about the black stone mentioned, I found a lot more information, maybe even more interesting! Even when this auxiliary unit that it is mentioning no longer has Syrian or Semitic recruits, the worship of Illah Al-Jabal stayed with the auxiliaries, even to the exception of other Gods. While I am certainly just starting with my research with this, this definitely tells me that there is more to Illah Al-Jabal than can be seen at first glance

Sources

Asante, Molefi Kete, and Shaza Ismail. "Interrogating the African Roman Emperor Caracalla: Claiming and Reclaiming an African Leader." Journal of Black Studies 47, no. 1 (2016): 41-52. Accessed December 29, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24572958.

Haynes, I. P. "The Romanisation of Religion in the 'Auxilia' of the Roman Imperial Army from Augustus to Septimus Severus." Britannia 24 (1993): 141-57. Accessed December 29, 2020. doi:10.2307/526726.

So don't know if it is a hyperfixation or what, but I am getting increasingly attached to Syrian and I guess Canaanite Gods. Have know idea where this will end me up (Be a Syro-Roman polytheist or something) but I just really feel this draw every single time I see some info about a Syrian God. I just saw something about Adad and really got this out from it. Time to add more research I need to do.