Elagabalus or Heliogabalus, officially known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222. His short reign was conspicuous for sex scandals and religious controversy. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity Elagabal, of whom he had been high priest. He married four women, including a Vestal Virgin, and lavished favours on male courtiers thought to have been his lovers. His behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike. He was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander in March 222.
About Elagabalus in brief
Elagabalus or Heliogabalus, officially known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222. His short reign was conspicuous for sex scandals and religious controversy. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity Elagabal, of whom he had been high priest. He married four women, including a Vestal Virgin, and lavished favours on male courtiers thought to have been his lovers. His behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike. Amidst growing opposition he was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander in March 222. Some scholars do write warmly about him, including 6th century Roman chronicler John Malalas, and Warwick Ball, a modern historian who described him as innovative and ‘tragic enigma lost behind centuries of prejudice’ He was cousin to the emperor Caracalla, and came from a prominent Arab family in Emesa, Syria, where in his early youth he served as head priest of the sun god Elagabal. The Latin name is a Latinized version of the Arabic Ilāhāh and gabal, meaning ‘God of the Mountain’ and ‘God’ of the Emesene’ Mountain has been found near Woerden in the 2nd century as far away as Woergen, in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and has been used as a dedication to the deity since the 4th century. He was the son of Sextus Varius Marcellus and Julia Soaemias Bassiana, who had probably married around the year 200.
His grandmother, Julia Maesa, was the widow of the consul Julius Avitus, the sister of Julia Domna, and sister-in-law of the emperor Septimius Severus. There were rumors that Elagabealus was Caracalle’s child. Elagubealus’s tombstone attests that he had at least one brother, about whom nothing is known. His full birth name was probably Varius Avitus Bassianus, the last name being apparently a cognomen of theEmesene dynasty. He took the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and became known by the Latinised name of his god only after his death. He is considered by some historians to be an early transgender figure and one of the first on record as seeking sex reassignment surgery. He wore women’s clothing, preferred to be called a lady, and sought vaginoplasty, and is said to have prostituted himself. He developed a reputation among his contemporaries for extreme eccentricity, decadence, and zealotry. This tradition has persisted, and with writers of the early modern age he suffered one of his worst reputations among Roman emperors. An example of the modern historian’s assessment is Adrian Goldsworthy’s: ‘Elagaballus was not a tyrant, but he was an incompetent, probably the least able emperor Rome had ever had.’
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This page is based on the article Elagabalus published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
