Æ24 - Elagabalus ΒΟϹΤΡΗΝωΝ

Bostra served as the capital of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea and maintained an active civic mint throughout the Severan period. Elagabalus, elevated to the purple at just fourteen after soldiers of the Third Gallic Legion were convinced he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla, received the expected loyalty coinage from provincial centers — Bostra among them. The city had particular reason to perform such gestures, having held colonial status since the reign of Alexander Severus's immediate predecessors.

The Third Legion itself was garrisoned nearby at Legio, giving the region an outsized military-political weight in Syrian dynastic transitions.