AR23 - Elagabalus L Δ

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.