VARIUS VESTMENTS ELKE KRENGEL 1 The vestments that Varius wore as Sacerdos amplissimus dei invicti Solis Elagabali  his official priestly title  were extraordinary for his Roman contemporaries. Modern research has not yet uncovered any comparable vestments. Not even in Emesa have corresponding artefacts been found. Yet we have abundant pictures of the emperor in his priestly vestments, on Roman imperial coins struck at Rome. It is with reference to these that I shall here, for the first time ever, precisely analyse this garment, and compare it both with written accounts by contemporary historians, and especially with extant iconographic evidence from northeast Syria. According to Herodian, the emperor was advised by his grandmother, Iulia Maesa, before his arrival in Rome, to send ahead a painting of himself in priestly vestments, so that the people could become accustomed to his outlandish appearance. The Romans would consider this clothing quite barbaric, and in any case designed for women. 2 H. R. Baldus suspects that a coin type, known till now only by three examples, shows this painting, but the sacrificing emperor, even on the recently discovered third specimen, dated to the end of 219, does not wear the ankle-length priestly vestment, but a short tunic (fig. 1). 3 Moreover, on a denarius coined at an Eastern mint before his arrival in Rome, Varius is not yet shown in his special priestly vestments, but in the sacrificial dress of a Roman emperor, with toga draped over his head (fig. 2). 4 1 My sincere thanks go to Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado for his perfect translation of the German manuscript, to Hans Dietrich Schultz for the permission to photograph the coinage of Elagabalus in the Münzkabinett Berlin, to Curtis Clay of Harlan J. Berk Ltd., Hubert Lanz and Cristoph v. Mosch for the approval to publish some pictures sold in their coin auctions and to Klaus Böse for creating the photomontage. 2 Herodian 5, 5, 9f. 3 H. R. Baldus, Das Vorstellungsgemälde des Heliogabal. Ein bislang unerkanntes numismatisches Zeugnis, Chiron 19, 1989, p. 467-476. 4 The coinage of the Emperor Elagabalus is catalogued in: H. Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum (BMC), vol. V, Pertinax to Elagabalus,