Elagabalus was barely sixteen when this tetradrachm was struck, having seized the throne on the strength of a claim — almost certainly fabricated by his grandmother Julia Maesa — that he was an illegitimate son of Caracalla. Alexandria's imperial mint continued operating through his chaotic four-year reign with little interruption, even as Rome lurched through religious scandal and court intrigue that ended with his murder by the Praetorian Guard in 222. The regnal year Δ places this piece in his third Egyptian year, just one year before his assassination.
Elagabalus was barely sixteen when this tetradrachm was struck, having seized the throne on the strength of a claim — almost certainly fabricated by his grandmother Julia Maesa — that he was an illegitimate son of Caracalla. Alexandria's imperial mint continued operating through his chaotic four-year reign with little interruption, even as Rome lurched through religious scandal and court intrigue that ended with his murder by the Praetorian Guard in 222. The regnal year Δ places this piece in his third Egyptian year, just one year before his assassination.