Æ17 - Elagabalus ΚΑΡ ΚΟΛω Π

Carrhae's numismatic output under Elagabalus is sparse, and this small bronze is among the more elusive of the city's provincial issues. The city itself carried enormous psychological weight in Roman memory — it was where Crassus met his catastrophic defeat against the Parthians in 53 BC, a loss the Romans never fully processed. By Elagabalus's reign, Carrhae had long been a Roman colonial foundation in name, its COLonia status embedded in the reverse legend, though it remained culturally Semitic and religiously distinct, home to a pagan lunar cult that persisted well into late antiquity.