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The deity Elagabal, venerated in ancient times at Emesa in Syria (and later elsewhere in the Roman Empire), identified with a large black stone. quotations examples
Elagabalus, who was a Sun-god and the patron deity of Emesa, was worshipped […]
1958, Ivar Lissner, Power and Folly: The Story of the Caesars
Obviously, they hoped to conceal the failure of their unhappy experiment in emperorship before, when they stressed the priesthood of Syrian Emesa's main deity Elagabalus as the key factor […]
2019, Elias Koulakiotis, Charlotte Dunn, Political Religions in the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 111
(Ancient Rome) The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (reigned 218–222), noted for eccentricity, femininity, decadence, and disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. quotations examples
Racial prejudice also played a part, says Icks: before coming to Rome to rule it, Elagabalus was a priest in an obscure cult in Syria that venerated a black stone meteorite – a culture that would have been deeply strange to the Romans.
2023 November 24, Esther Addley, “Was Roman emperor Elagabalus really trans – and does it really matter?”, in The Guardian