ELAGABALUS, TEMPLUM
a temple of the Syrian god, known officially as
Sol Invictus Elagabalus (MIist. Aug. Elag. 1. 7, 17. 8), erected on the
Palatine close to the imperial palace (see
JUPPITER ULTOR for a conjectural site) by the Emperor Elagabalus, into which he proposed to
transfer all the principal cults of Rome (op. cit. I. 6, 3. 4. 6. 7;
Herodian.
v. 5. 8 ; Aur. Vict. Caes. 23. I ; Cass.
Dio lxxix. 11). It was dedicated in
221 (Chron. 147:
Eliogaballium dedicatum est; Hieron. a. Abr. 2236),
survived the death of Elagabalus for some time (Hist. Aug. Elag. 17. 8),
but was afterwards destroyed by fire (Passio S. Philippi AA. SS. Oct. 9,
545;
Mitt. 1892, 158), presumably before the date of the Notitia, in which
the temple is not mentioned (HJ 106;
RE v. 2221 ; WR 365-366; Rosch.
iv. I 143-1 146;
DE ii. 2089; see
GRADUS HELIOGABALI). V. Domaszewski,
however, thinks (
SHA 1918, 13 A, 150-153) that there would have been
no more room on the Palatine, and puts it
in eo loco . . .in quo prius
aedes Orci fuit (Hist. Aug. Elag. I. 6; cf.
DIS PATER, AEDES). He also
maintains that this suits the passage in the Vita S. Sebastiani (Acta SS.
Jan. 20, p. 642), in which the martyr addresses the emperor'
stans super
gradus Heliogabali'-in which case the martyrdom took place in the
circus Maximus.
For a coin showing this temple, and coins and a capital representing
the stone that embodied the god, see Ann. de
Numism. 1890, 468;
Mitt.
1901, 273-282 ;
1902, 67 ; SScR 310-312.