ELAGABALUS 218AD GALLEY Ship Authentic Ancient Silver Roman Coin i44573

Item: i44573

 Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Elagabalus
–
Roman Emperor
: 218-222 A.D. –

Silver Denarius 19mm (2.35 grams) Antioch mint: 218-219 A.D.
Reference: RIC IV 188; Thirion 348; RSC 27a.
ANTONINVS PIVS FEL AVG,
Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
FELICITAS TEMP, galley with eight rowers right and large vexillum.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

The vexillum (English pronunciation:
plural vexilla was
a flag
-like object used in the
Classical Era
of the
Roman Empire
. The word is itself a diminutive
for the Latin word, velum, sail, which confirms the historical evidence (from
coins and sculpture) that vexilla were literally “little sails” i.e. flag-like
standards. In the vexillum the cloth was draped from a horizontal crossbar
suspended from the staff; this is unlike most modern flags in which the ‘hoist’
of the cloth is attached directly to the vertical staff. The bearer of a
vexillum was known as a
vexillarius
or vexillifer. Just as
in the case of the regimental colors or flag of Western regiments, the vexillum
was a treasured symbol of the military unit that it represented and it was
closely defended in combat
.

Nearly all of the present-day regions of
Italy
preserve the use of vexilla. Many
Christian processional banners are in the vexillum form; usually these banners
are termed labara
(Greek:
λάβαρον) after the standard adopted by the
first Christian Roman emperor
Constantine I
which replaced the imperial eagle
with the “Chi-Rho”
symbol
☧
.

The term Vexillum is also used by the
Legion of Mary
as the term for its standard. A
small version is used on the altar and a full size Vexillum leads processions.

A
galley  is a type
of ship
propelled by
rowers
that originated in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea
and was used for
warfare
,
trade
and
piracy
from the first millennium BC. Galleys
dominated
naval warfare
in the Mediterranean from the 8th
century BC until development of advanced sailing warships in the 17th century.
Galleys fought in the wars of
Assyria
, ancient
Phoenicia
,
Greece
,
Carthage
and
Rome
until the 4th century AD. After the fall
of the
Western Roman Empire
galleys formed the
mainstay of the
Byzantine navy
and other navies of successors
of the Roman Empire, as well as new
Muslim
navies. Medieval Mediterranean states,
notably the Italian maritime republics, including
Venice
,
Pisa
,
Genoa
and the
Ottoman Empire
relied on them as the primary
warships of their fleets until the 17th century, when they were gradually
replaced by sailing warships. Galleys continued to be applied in minor roles in
the Mediterranean and the
Baltic Sea
even after the introduction of
steam propelled
ships in the early 19th
century.

The galley engagements at
Actium
and
Lepanto
are among the greatest
naval battles
in history.

Elagabalus (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, ca. 203 – 11 March
222), also known as Heliogabalus, was
Roman Emperor
from 218 to 222. A member of the
Severan Dynasty
, he was
Syrian
on his mother’s side, the son of
Julia Soaemias
and
Sextus Varius Marcellus
. In his early youth he
served as a priest of the god
Elagabal
(in Latin, Elagabalus) in the
hometown of his mother’s family,
Emesa
. As a private citizen, he was probably
named Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus. Upon becoming emperor he took the name
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus. He was called Elagabalus only after his
death.

In 217, the emperor
Caracalla
was
assassinated
and replaced by his
Praetorian prefect
, Marcus Opellius
Macrinus
. Caracalla’s maternal aunt,
Julia Maesa
, successfully instigated a revolt
among the
Third Legion
to have her eldest grandson (and
Caracalla’s cousin), Elagabalus, declared emperor in his place. Macrinus was
defeated on 8 June 218, at the
Battle of Antioch
. Elagabalus, barely fourteen
years old, became emperor, initiating a reign remembered mainly for
sexual scandal
and religious controversy.

Later historians suggest Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious
traditions and sexual taboos. He replaced the traditional head of the
Roman pantheon
,
Jupiter
, with the deity of whom he was high
priest,
Elagabal
. He forced leading members of Rome’s
government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, over which
he personally presided. Elagabalus was married as many as five times, lavished
favors on male courtiers popularly thought to have been his lovers, employed a
prototype of
whoopee cushions
at dinner parties, and was
reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace. His behavior
estranged the
Praetorian Guard
, the
Senate
, and the common people alike.

Amidst growing opposition, Elagabalus, just 18 years old, was assassinated
and replaced by his cousin
Alexander Severus
on 11 March 222, in a plot
formulated by his grandmother, Julia Maesa, and carried out by disaffected
members of the Praetorian Guard.

Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for extreme
eccentricity
,
decadence
and
zealotry
. This tradition has persisted, and in
writers of the early modern age he suffers one of the worst reputations among
Roman emperors.
Edward Gibbon
, for example, wrote that
Elagabalus “abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures and ungoverned fury.”
According to
B.G. Niebuhr
, “The name Elagabalus is branded
in history above all others” because of his “unspeakably disgusting life.”

Family and priesthood

Elagabalus was born around the year 203^[7]
to
Sextus Varius Marcellus
and
Julia Soaemias Bassiana
. His father was
initially a member of the
equestrian
class, but was later elevated to the
rank of senator
. His grandmother
Julia Maesa
was the widow of the
Consul
Gaius
Julius Avitus
Alexianus, the sister of
Julia Domna
, and the sister-in-law of the
emperor
Septimius Severus
.

His mother, Julia Soaemias, was a cousin of the Roman emperor
Caracalla
. Other relatives included his aunt
Julia Avita Mamaea
and uncle
Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus
, and their son
Alexander Severus
. Elagabalus’s family held
hereditary rights to the priesthood of the sun god Elagabal, of whom Elagabalus
was the high priest
at Emesa (modern

Homs) in
Syria
.

The deity
Elagabalus
was initially venerated at Emesa.
This form of the god’s name is a Latinized version of the Syrian Ilāh hag-Gabal,
which derives from
Ilāh
(“god”) and gabal (“mountain”
(compare
Hebrew
:
גבל‎ gəbul and
Arabic
: جبل‎
jabal)), resulting in “the God of the Mountain” the Emesene manifestation
of the deity.^[9]
The cult of the deity spread to other parts of the Roman Empire in the 2nd
century; a dedication has been found as far away as
Woerden
(Netherlands).^[10]
The god was later imported and assimilated with the Roman sun god known as
Sol Indiges
in
republican
times and as
Sol Invictus
during the 2nd and 3rd centuries
CE. In Greek the sun god is
Helios
, hence “Heliogabalus”, a variant of “Elagabalus”.

Rise to power

When the emperor
Macrinus
came to power, Elagabalus’ mother
suppressed the threat against his reign by the family of his assassinated
predecessor, Caracalla, by exiling them—Julia Maesa, her two daughters, and her
eldest grandson Elagabalus—to their estate at Emesa in
Syria
. Almost upon arrival in Syria she began a
plot, with her advisor and Elagabalus’ tutor Gannys, to overthrow Macrinus and
elevate the fourteen-year-old Elagabalus to the imperial throne.

His mother publicly declared that he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla,
therefore due the loyalties of Roman soldiers and senators who had sworn
allegiance to Caracalla. After Julia Maesa displayed her wealth to the
Third Legion
at
Raphana
they swore allegiance to Elagabalus. At
sunrise on 16 May 218,
Publius Valerius Comazon Eutychianus
, commander
of the legion, declared him emperor. To strengthen his legitimacy through
further propaganda, Elagabalus assumed Caracalla’s names, Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus.

In response Macrinus dispatched his
Praetorian prefect
Ulpius Julianus to the
region with a contingent of troops he considered strong enough to crush the
rebellion
. However, this force soon joined the
faction of Elagabalus when, during the battle, they turned on their own
commanders. The officers were killed and Julianus’ head was sent back to the
emperor.

Macrinus now sent letters to the
Senate
denouncing Elagabalus as the False
Antoninus and claiming he was insane. Both
consuls
and other high-ranking members of
Rome’s leadership condemned Elagabalus, and the Senate subsequently declared war
on both Elagabalus and Julia Maesa.

Macrinus and his son, weakened by the desertion of the
Second Legion
due to bribes and promises
circulated by Julia Maesa, were defeated on 8 June 218 at the
Battle of Antioch
by troops commanded by Gannys.
Macrinus fled toward Italy
, disguised as a courier, but was later
intercepted near
Chalcedon
and executed in
Cappadocia
. His son
Diadumenianus
, sent for safety to the
Parthian
court, was captured at
Zeugma
and also put to death.

Elagabalus declared the date of the victory at Antioch to be the beginning of
his reign and assumed the imperial titles without prior senatorial approval,
which violated tradition but was a common practice among 3rd-century emperors
nonetheless. Letters of reconciliation were dispatched to

Rome extending
amnesty
to the Senate and recognizing the laws,
while also condemning the administration of Macrinus and his son.

The senators responded by acknowledging Elagabalus as emperor and accepting
his claim to be the son of Caracalla. Caracalla and Julia Domna were both
deified
by the Senate, both Julia Maesa and
Julia Soaemias were elevated to the rank of
Augustae
,^[20]
and the memory of both Macrinus and Diadumenianus was condemned by the Senate.
The former commander of the Third Legion, Comazon, was appointed commander of
the Praetorian Guard.

Emperor
(218–222)

A denarius
commissioned by Elagabalus,
bearing his likeness

Elagabalus and his entourage spent the winter of 218 in
Bithynia
at
Nicomedia
, where the emperor’s religious
beliefs first presented themselves as a problem. The contemporary historian
Cassius Dio
suggests that Gannys was in fact
killed by the new emperor because he was forcing Elagabalus to live “temperately
and prudently.” To help Romans adjust to the idea of having an oriental priest
as emperor, Julia Maesa had a painting of Elagabalus in priestly robes sent to
Rome and hung over a statue of the goddess
Victoria
in the
Senate House
. This placed senators in the
awkward position of having to make offerings to Elagabalus whenever they made
offerings to Victoria.

The legions were dismayed by his behaviour and quickly came to regret having
supported his accession. While Elagabalus was still on his way to Rome, brief
revolts broke out by the
Fourth Legion
at the instigation of
Gellius Maximus
, and by the Third Legion, which
itself had been responsible for the elevation of Elagabalus to the throne, under
the command of Senator
Verus
. The rebellion was quickly put down, and
the Third Legion disbanded.

When the entourage reached Rome in the autumn of 219, Comazon and other
allies of Julia Maesa and Elagabalus were given powerful and lucrative
positions, to the outrage of many senators who did not consider them worthy of
such privileges. After his tenure as
Praetorian prefect
, Comazon would serve as the
city prefect of Rome three times, and as
consul
twice. Elagabalus soon devalued the
Roman currency
. He decreased the silver purity
of the denarius
from 58% to 46.5% — the actual
silver weight dropping from 1.82 grams to 1.41 grams. He also demonetized the
antoninianus
during this period in Rome.

Elagabalus tried to have his presumed lover, the charioteer
Hierocles
, declared
Caesar
, while another alleged lover, the
athlete Aurelius Zoticus, was appointed to the non-administrative but
influential position of Master of the Chamber, or
Cubicularius
.^[29]
His offer of amnesty for the Roman upper class was largely honored, though the
jurist

Ulpian
was exiled.

The relationships between Julia Maesa, Julia Soaemias, and Elagabalus were
strong at first. His mother and grandmother became the first women to be allowed
into the Senate, and both received senatorial titles: Soaemias the established
title of Clarissima, and Maesa the more unorthodox Mater Castrorum et
Senatus (“Mother of the army camp and of the Senate”).^[20]
While Julia Maesa tried to position herself as the power behind the throne and
thus the most powerful woman in the world, Elagabalus would prove to be highly
independent, set in his ways, and impossible to control.

Religious controversy

Since the reign of
Septimius Severus
,
sun worship
had increased throughout the
Empire. Elagabalus saw this as an opportunity to install Elagabal as the chief
deity of the
Roman pantheon
. The god was renamed
Deus Sol Invictus
, meaning God the
Undefeated Sun, and honored above
Jupiter
.

As a token of respect for Roman religion, however, Elagabalus joined either
Astarte
,
Minerva
,
Urania
, or some combination of the three to
Elagabal as wife. Before constructing a temple in dedication to Elagabal,
Elagabalus placed the meteorite of Elagabal next to the throne of Jupiter at the
temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

He caused further discontent when he himself married the
Vestal Virgin

Aquilia Severa
, claiming the marriage would
produce “godlike children”. This was a flagrant breach of Roman law and
tradition, which held that any Vestal found to have engaged in sexual
intercourse was to be
buried alive
.

A lavish temple called the
Elagabalium
was built on the east face of the
Palatine Hill
to house Elagabal, who was
represented by a black conical
meteorite
from Emesa.
Herodian
wrote “this stone is worshipped as
though it were sent from heaven; on it there are some small projecting pieces
and markings that are pointed out, which the people would like to believe are a
rough picture of the sun, because this is how they see them”.

In order to become the high priest of his new religion, Elagabalus had
himself circumcised.^[33]
He forced senators to watch while he danced around the altar of Deus Sol
Invictus to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals.^[19]
Each summer solstice
he held a festival dedicated to the
god, which became popular with the masses because of the free food distributed
on such occasions.^[34]
During this festival, Elagabalus placed the Emesa stone on a
chariot
adorned with gold and jewels, which he
paraded through the city:

A six horse chariot carried the divinity, the horses huge and flawlessly
white, with expensive gold fittings and rich ornaments. No one held the
reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if
the god himself were the charioteer. Elagabalus ran backward in front of
the chariot, facing the god and holding the horses’ reins. He made the
whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of his
god.

The most sacred relics from the Roman religion were transferred from their
respective shrines to the Elagabalium, including the emblem of the
Great Mother
, the fire of
Vesta
, the
Shields
of the
Salii
and the
Palladium
, so that no other god could be
worshipped except in company with Elagabal.

Sex/gender
controversy

Roman denarius depicting
Aquilia Severa
, the second wife of
Elagabalus. The marriage caused a public outrage because Aquilia was
a
Vestal Virgin
, sworn by Roman law
to celibacy
for 30 years.

Elagabalus’
sexual orientation
and
gender identity
are the subject of much debate.
Elagabalus married and divorced five women, three of whom are known. His first
wife was
Julia Cornelia Paula
; the second was the
Vestal Virgin

Julia Aquilia Severa
.

Within a year, he abandoned her and married
Annia Aurelia Faustina
, a descendant of
Marcus Aurelius
and the widow of a man recently
executed by Elagabalus. He had returned to his second wife Severa by the end of
the year. According to Cassius Dio, his most stable relationship seems to have
been with his chariot
driver, a blond slave from
Caria
named
Hierocles
, whom he referred to as his husband.

The Augustan History claims that he also married a man named Zoticus,
an athlete from Smyrna, in a public ceremony at Rome. Cassius Dio reported that
Elagabalus would paint his eyes,
epilate
his hair and wear wigs before
prostituting
himself in taverns, brothels, and
even in the imperial palace:

Finally, he set aside a room in the palace and there committed his
indecencies, always standing nude at the door of the room, as the
harlots do, and shaking the curtain which hung from gold rings, while in
a soft and melting voice he solicited the passers-by. There were, of
course, men who had been specially instructed to play their part. For,
as in other matters, so in this business, too, he had numerous agents
who sought out those who could best please him by their foulness. He
would collect money from his patrons and give himself airs over his
gains; he would also dispute with his associates in this shameful
occupation, claiming that he had more lovers than they and took in more
money.

Herodian commented that Elagabalus enhanced his natural good looks by the
regular application of cosmetics. He was described as having been “delighted to
be called the mistress, the wife, the queen of Hierocles” and was reported to
have offered vast sums of money to any physician who could equip him with female
genitalia. Elagabalus has been characterized by some modern writers as
transgender
, perhaps
transsexual
.

Fall from power

By 221 Elagabalus’ eccentricities, particularly his relationship with
Hierocles, increasingly provoked the soldiers of the
Praetorian Guard
. When Elagabalus’ grandmother
Julia Maesa perceived that popular support for the emperor was waning, she
decided that he and his mother, who had encouraged his religious practices, had
to be replaced.^[26]
As alternatives, she turned to her other daughter,
Julia Avita Mamaea
, and her daughter’s son, the
thirteen-year-old
Severus Alexander
.

Prevailing on Elagabalus, she arranged that he appoint his cousin Alexander
as his heir and be given the title of Caesar. Alexander shared the
consulship with the emperor that year. However, Elagabalus reconsidered this
arrangement when he began to suspect that the Praetorian Guard preferred his
cousin above himself.

Following the failure of various attempts on Alexander’s life, Elagabalus
stripped his cousin of his titles, revoked his consulship, and circulated the
news that Alexander was near death, in order to see how the Praetorians would
react. A riot ensued, and the guard demanded to see Elagabalus and Alexander in
the
Praetorian camp
.

Assassination

The emperor complied and on 11 March 222 he publicly presented his cousin
along with his own mother, Julia Soaemias. On their arrival the soldiers started
cheering Alexander while ignoring Elagabalus, who ordered the summary arrest and
execution of anyone who had taken part in this display of insubordination. In
response, members of the
Praetorian Guard
attacked Elagabalus and his
mother:

So he made an attempt to flee, and would have got away somewhere by
being placed in a chest, had he not been discovered and slain, at the
age of 18. His mother, who embraced him and clung tightly to him,
perished with him; their heads were cut off and their bodies, after
being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, then the
mother’s body was cast aside somewhere or other while his was thrown
into the [Tiber].

Following his assassination, many associates of Elagabalus were killed or
deposed, including Hierocles and Comazon.^[44]
His religious edicts were reversed and the stone of Elagabal was sent back to
Emesa
. Women were again barred from attending
meetings of the Senate.^[31][46]
The practice of
damnatio memoriae
—erasing from the public
record a disgraced personage formerly of note—was systematically applied in his
case.

Sources

Augustan History

The source of many of these stories of Elagabalus’s depravity is the
Augustan History
(Historia Augusta),
which includes controversial claims. The Historia Augusta was most likely
written toward the end of the 4th century during the reign of emperor
Theodosius I
. The life of Elagabalus as
described in the Augustan History is of uncertain historical merit.^[50]
Sections 13 to 17, relating to the fall of Elagabalus, are less controversial
among historians.

Cassius Dio

Sources often considered more credible than the Augustan History
include the contemporary historians
Cassius Dio
and Herodian. Cassius Dio lived
from the second half of the 2nd century until sometime after 229. Born into a
patrician
family, he spent the greater part of
his life in public service. He was a senator under emperor
Commodus
and governor of
Smyrna
after the death of
Septimius Severus
. Afterwards he served as
suffect consul around 205, and as proconsul in
Africa
and
Pannonia
.

Alexander Severus held him in high esteem and made him his consul again. His
Roman History spans nearly a
millennium
, from the arrival of
Aeneas
in Italy until the year 229. As a
contemporary of Elagabalus, Cassius Dio’s account of his reign is generally
considered more reliable than the Augustan History, although by his own
admission Dio spent the greater part of the relevant period outside of Rome and
had to rely on second-hand accounts.

Furthermore, the political climate in the aftermath of Elagabalus’ reign, as
well as Dio’s own position within the government of Alexander, likely influenced
the truth of this part of his history for the worse. Dio regularly refers to
Elagabalus as
Sardanapalus
, partly to distinguish him from
his divine namesake,^[53]
but chiefly to do his part in maintaining the
damnatio memoriae
enforced after the
emperor’s death and to associate him with another autocrat notorious for a
debauched life.

Herodian

Medal of Elagabalus,
Louvre Museum
.

Another contemporary of Elagabalus was
Herodian
, who was a minor Roman civil servant
who lived from c. 170 until 240. His work, History of the Roman Empire since
Marcus Aurelius, commonly abbreviated as Roman History, is an
eyewitness account of the reign of
Commodus
until the beginning of the reign of
Gordian III
. His work largely overlaps with
Dio’s own Roman History, but both texts seem to be independently
consistent with each other.

Although Herodian is not deemed as reliable as Cassius Dio, his lack of
literary and scholarly pretensions make him less biased than senatorial
historians. Herodian is considered the most important source for the religious
reforms which took place during the reign of Elagabalus, which have been
confirmed by
numismatic

and
archaeological
evidence.

Edward Gibbon and other, later historians

For readers of the modern age,
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

by Edward Gibbon
(1737–94) further cemented the
scandalous reputation of Elagabalus. Gibbon not only accepted and expressed
outrage at the allegations of the ancient historians, but might have added some
details of his own; he is the first historian known to state that Gannys was a
eunuch, for example.^[59]
Gibbon wrote:

To confound the order of the season and climate, to sport with the
passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of
nature and decency, were in the number of his most delicious amusements.
A long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives, among whom
was a vestal virgin, ravished by force from her sacred asylum, were
insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the
Roman world affected to copy the manners and dress of the female sex,
preferring the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonored the principal
dignities of the empire by distributing them among his numerous lovers;
one of whom was publicly invested with the title and authority of the
emperor’s, or, as he more properly styled himself, the empress’s
husband. It may seem probable, the vices and follies of Elagabalus have
been adorned by fancy, and blackened by prejudice. Yet, confining
ourselves to the public scenes displayed before the Roman people, and
attested by grave and contemporary historians, their inexpressible
infamy surpasses that of any other age or country.

Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure, or even of
mixed silks, was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens
of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example
of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the
dignity of an emperor and a man.

Some recent historians argue for a more favorable picture of his life and
reign. Martijn Icks in Images of Elagabalus (2008; republished as The
Crimes of Elagabalus in 2012) doubts the reliability of the ancient sources
and argues that it was the emperor’s unorthodox religious policies that
alienated the power elite of Rome, to the point that his grandmother saw fit to
eliminate him and replace him with his cousin. Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado,
in The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact of Fiction? (2008), is also critical of
the ancient historians and speculates that neither religion nor sexuality played
a role in the fall of the young emperor, who was simply the loser in a power
struggle within the imperial family; the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards was up
for sale, and Julia Maesa had the resources to outmaneuver and outbribe her
grandson. According to this version, once Elagabalus, his mother, and his
immediate circle had been murdered, a wholesale propaganda war against his
memory resulted in a vicious caricature which has persisted to the present,
repeated and often embellished by later historians displaying their own
prejudices against effeminacy and other vices which Elagabalus had come to
epitomize.

Legacy

 

Elagabalus on a wall painting at castle Forchtenstein

Due to the ancient tradition about him, Elagabalus became something of an
(anti-)hero in the
Decadent movement
of the late 19th century. He
often appears in literature and other creative media as the epitome of a young,
amoral aesthete. His life and character have informed or at least inspired many
famous works of art, by Decadents, even by contemporary artists. The most
notable of these works include:

Poems,
Novels, and Biographies

• Joris-Karl Huysmans
  ‘s’
  À rebours
  (1884), one of the literary
  touchstones of the Decadent movement, describes in chapter 2 the ingenuity
  behind a banquet designed by Des Esseintes, the protagonist, consisting
  solely of black foodstuffs, intended as a kind of perverse memorial to his
  lost virility. The episode is partly inspired by the highly artificial,
  monochromatic feasts that Elagabalus is said to have contrived (Historia
  Augusta, Life of Elagabalus, chapter 18).
• 
  L’Agonie
  (Agony) (1888), the
  best known novel by the French writer
  Jean Lombard
  , featuring Elagabulus as the
  protagonist
• In 1903 Georges Duviquet published what purports to be a faithful
  biography of the emperor: Héliogabale: Raconté par les historians Grecs
  et Latins, [avec] dix-huit gravures d’après les monuments original.
• The previous pair of works inspired the Dutch writer
  Louis Couperus
  to produce his novel
  De Berg van Licht
  (The Mountain of
  Light) (1905), which presents Elagabalus in a sympathetic light.
• 
  Algabal
  (1892–1919), a collection of
  poems by the German poet
  Stefan George
• The Sun God (1904), a novel by the English writer Arthur Westcott
• 
  The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus
  
  (1911), a biography by the Oxford don
  John Stuart Hay
• 
  Héliogabale ou l’Anarchiste couronné
  (Heliogabalus
  or The Anarchist Crowned) (1934) by
  Antonin Artaud
  , combining essay, biography,
  and fiction
• 
  Family Favourites
  (1960), a novel by
  the Anglo-Argentine writer
  Alfred Duggan
  in which Heliogabalus is seen
  through the eyes of a faithful Gaulish bodyguard and depicted as a gentle
  and charming aesthete, personally lovable but lacking political skills.
• 
  Child of the Sun
  (1966), a novel by
  Lance Horner
  and
  Kyle Onstott
  , better known for writing the
  novel that inspired the movie
  Mandingo
  
• Super-Eliogabalo (1969), a novel by the Italian writer
  Alberto Arbasino
• 
  Boy Caesar
  (2004), a novel by the
  English writer
  Jeremy Reed
• 
  Roman Dusk
  (2008), a novel in the
  vampire

  Count Saint-Germain
  series by
  Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Plays

• Zygmunt Krasiński
  . “Irydion”
  (1836), in which Elagabalus is portrayed as a cruel tyrant
• Mencken
  , H.L. and
  Nathan, George Jean
  .
  Heliogabalus A Buffoonery in Three Acts.
  
  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920
• de Escobar Fagundes, C.H. Heliogabalo: O Sol é a Pátria. Ed.
  Devir. Rio de Janeiro, 1980
• Gilbert, S.
  Heliogabalus: A Love Story.
  Toronto, Cabaret Theatre Company, 2002
• Ferreyra, Shawn.
  Elagabalus, Emperor of Rome
  , 2008
• Arelis.
  Heliogabalus
  (2008)

Paintings

 

The Roses of Heliogabalus
,
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
, 1888.

• 
  Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun
  
  (1866), by the English decadent
  Simeon Solomon
• One of the most notorious incidents laid to his account is immortalized
  in the 19th-century painting
  The Roses of Heliogabalus
  (1888), by
  the Anglo-Dutch academician Sir
  Lawrence Alma-Tadema
  . It shows guests at
  one of his extravagant dinner parties smothered under a mass of “violets and
  other flowers” dropped from above.
• 
  Lui
  (1906), by
  Gustav-Adolf Mossa
• Heliogabalus (1974), by
  Anselm Kiefer
• 
  Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus
  (2010–11),
  by
  Anselm Kiefer

Music

• Eliogabalo
  , an opera by Venetian
  Baroque composer
  Francesco Cavalli
  (1667)
• Heliogabale, an opera by French composer
  Déodat de Séverac
  (1910)
• 
  Heliogabalus Imperator
  (Emperor
  Heliogabalus), an orchestral work by the German composer
  Hans Werner Henze
  (1972)
• 
  Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
  , by the
  composer and saxophonist
  John Zorn
  (2007)

Dance

• Héliogabale, a contemporary dance choreographed by
  Maurice Béjart

Film

• 
  Héliogabale
  , a 1909
  silent film
  by the French director
  André Calmettes
• Héliogabale, ou L’orgie romaine
  , a
  1911 silent
  short
  by the French director
  Louis Feuillade

A rudder is a device used to steer a

ship, boat
,
submarine
,
hovercraft
,
aircraft
, or other conveyance that moves
through a medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used
primarily to counter
adverse yaw
and
p-factor
and is not the primary control used to
turn the airplane. A rudder operates by redirecting the fluid past the hull or
fuselage, thus imparting a turning or yawing motion to the craft. In basic form,
a rudder is a flat plane or sheet of material attached with
hinges
to the craft’s stern, tail, or after
end. Often rudders are shaped so as to minimize hydrodynamic or aerodynamic
drag
. On simple watercraft, a
tiller
—essentially, a stick or pole acting as a
lever arm—may be attached to the top of the rudder to allow it to be turned by a
helmsman
. In larger vessels, cables, pushrods,
or hydraulics may be used to link rudders to steering wheels. In typical
aircraft, the rudder is operated by pedals via mechanical linkages or
hydraulics.

History of the rudder

Generally, a rudder is “part of the steering apparatus of a boat or ship that
is fastened outside the hull”, that is denoting all different types of oars,
paddles, and rudders. More specifically, the steering gear of ancient vessels
can be classified into side-rudders and stern-mounted rudders, depending on
their location on the ship. A third term,
steering oar
, can denote both types. In a
Mediterranean
context, side-rudders are more
specifically called quarter-rudders as the later term designates more exactly
the place where the rudder was mounted. Stern-mounted rudders are uniformly
suspended at the back of the ship in a central position, but the term has
historically been found wanting because it does not take into account that the
stern rudders were attached to the ship
hull
in quite a different way: While the
European

pintle
-and-gudgeon
rudder was attached to the sternpost by pivoting iron fastenings, the
Arabs
used instead a system of lashings.
Chinese
stern rudders also featured
tackles
, but, unlike their medieval and Arab
counterparts, had no sternpost to which to attach them.
Roman
and particularly
ancient Egyptian
stern rudders featured again a
different method of fastening where the stock, having a single point of contact
with the stern, was additionally secured to the ship body by an upright
rudderpost or braced ropes.

Although Lawrence Mott in his comprehensive treatment of the history of the
rudder, Timothy Runyan, the Propyläen History of Technology, the
Encyclopædia Britannica
, and The Concise
Oxford Dictionary
of English Etymology classify
a steering oar as a rudder,^[2]
Joseph Needham
,
Lefèbre des Noëttes
, K.S. Tom, Chung Chee Kit,
S.A.M. Adshead, John K. Fairbank, Merle Goldman, Frank Ross, and Leo Block state
that the steering oar used in ancient Egypt and Rome (and even ancient China)
was not a true rudder; the steering oar has the capacity to interfere with
handling of the sails (limiting any potential for long ocean-going voyages)
while it was fit more for small vessels on narrow, rapid-water transport; the
rudder did not disturb the handling of the sails, took less energy to operate by
its helmsman
, was better fit for larger vessels on
ocean-going travel, and first appeared in
ancient China
during the 1st century AD In
regards to the ancient
Phoenician
(1550–300 BC) use of the steering
oar without a rudder
in the Mediterranean
, Leo Block (2003) writes:

A single sail tends to turn a vessel in an upwind or downwind direction,
and rudder action is required to steer a straight course. A steering oar was
used at this time because the rudder had not yet been invented. With a
single sail, a frequent movement of the steering oar was required to steer a
straight course; this slowed down the vessel because a steering oar (or
rudder) course correction acts like a brake. The second sail, located
forward, could be trimmed to offset the turning tendency of the main sail
and minimize the need for course corrections by the steering oar, which
would have substantially improved sail performance.

Ancient Egypt

 

Stern-mounted steering oar of an Egyptian riverboat depicted in the
Tomb of Menna (c. 1422-1411 BC)

Rowing oars set aside for steering appeared on large Egyptian vessels long
before the time of Menes
(3100 BC). In the
Old Kingdom
(2686 BC-2134 BC) as much as five
steering oars are found on each side of passenger boats. The
tiller
, at first a small pin run through the
stock of the steering oar, can be traced to the fifth dynasty (2504–2347 BC).
Both the tiller and the introduction of an upright steering post abaft reduced
the usual number of necessary steering oars to one each side. Apart from
side-rudders, single rudders put on the stern can be found in a number of tomb
models of the time,particularly during the
Middle Kingdom
when tomb reliefs suggests them
commonly employed in Nile
navigation. The first literary reference
appears in the works of the
Greek
historian
Herodot
(484-424 BC), who had spent several
months in Egypt
: “They make one rudder, and this is
thrust through the keel
“, probably meaning the crotch at the end
of the keel (see right pic “Tomb of Menna”).

In Iran
, oars mounted on the side of ships for
steering are documented from the 3rd millennium BCE in artwork, wooden models,
and even remnants of actual boats.

Ancient Rome

Stern-mounted rudder of a Roman boat, 1st century AD (RG-Museum,
Cologne).

Roman navigation used sexillie quarter rudders which went in the
Mediterranean through a long period of constant refinement and improvement, so
that by Roman times ancient vessels reached extraordinary sizes. The strength of
the quarter rudder lay in its combination of effectiveness, adaptability and
simpleness. Roman quarter rudder mounting systems survived mostly intact through
the medieval period.

By the first half of the 1st century AD, rudders mounted on the stern were
also quite common in
Roman
river and harbour craft as proved from
reliefs
and archaeological finds (Zwammderdam,
Woerden
7). A tomb plaque of
Hadrianic
age shows a harbour tug boat in
Ostia
with a long stern-mounted oar for better
leverage. Interestingly, the boat already featured a
spritsail
, adding to the mobility of the
harbour vessel. Further attested Roman uses of stern-mounted rudders includes
barges under tow, transport ships for wine casks, and diverse other ship
typesAlso, the well-known
Zwammerdam
find, a large river barge at the
mouth of the Rhine, featured a large rudder mounted on the stern. According to
new research, the advanced
Nemi ships
, the palace barges of emperor
Caligula
(37-41 AD), may have featured 14 m
long stern-mounted rudders.

Medieval Near East

Arab
ships also used a sternpost-mounted
rudder, but which differed technically from both its European and Chinese
counterparts, indicating an independent invention.^[39]
On their ships “the rudder is controlled by two lines, each attached to a
crosspiece mounted on the rudder head perpendicular to the plane of the rudder
blade.” The earliest evidence comes from the Ahsan al-Taqasim fi Marifat
al-Aqalim (‘The Best Divisions for the Classification of Regions’) written
by al-Muqaddasi
in 985:

The captain from the crow’s nest carefully observes the sea. When a
rock is espied, he shouts: “Starboard!” or ‘Port!” Two youths, posted there,
repeat the cry. The helmsman, with two ropes in his hand, when he hears the
calls tugs one or the other to the right or left. If great care is not
taken, the ship strikes the rocks and is wrecked.

Arabs
used instead a system of lashings.
Chinese
stern rudders also featured
tackles
, but, unlike their medieval and Arab
counterparts, had no sternpost to which to attach them.^[2]
According to Lawrence V. Mott, the “idea of attaching the rudder to the
sternpost in a relatively permanent fashion, therefore, must have been an Arab
invention independent of the Chinese.”

Medieval Europe

Pintle
-and-gudgeon
rudder of the
Hanseatic league
flagship
Adler von Lübeck
(1567–1581), the
largest ship in the world at its time

Oars mounted on the side of ships evolved into quarter rudders, which were
used from
antiquity
until the end of the
Middle Ages
in
Europe
. As the size of ships and the height of
the freeboards increased, quarter-rudders became unwieldy and were replaced by
the more sturdy stern-mounted rudders with
pintle
and
gudgeon
attachment. While stern-mounted rudders
were found in Europe on a wide range of vessels since Roman times, including
light war galleys in Mediterranean, the oldest known depiction of a
pintle-and-gudgeon rudder can be found on church carvings of
Zedelgem
and
Winchester
dating to around 1180.

A ship’s rudder carved in oak, 15th century,
Bere Ferrers
church, Devon.
Heraldic
badge
of Cheyne and Willoughby
families

Historically, the radical concept of the medieval pintle-and-gudgeon rudder
did not come as a single invention into being. It presented rather a combination
of ideas which each had been long around before: rudders mounted on the stern,
iron hinges and the straight sternpost of
northern European ships
. While earlier rudders
were mounted on the stern by the way of rudderposts or tackles, the iron hinges
allowed for the first time to attach the rudder to the entire length of the
sternpost in a really permanent fashion. However, its full potential could only
to be realized after the introduction of the vertical sternpost and the
full-rigged ship in the 14th century. From the
age of discovery
onwards, European ships with
pintle-and-gudgeon rudders sailed successfully on all seven seas.

Contrary to an older hypothesis, all evidence indicates that the European
hinged stern-mounted rudder, whose technical specifications considerably differ
from the Chinese one, was invented independently:

The only actual concept which can be claimed to have been transmitted
from the Chinese is the idea of a stern-mounted rudder, and not its method
of attachment nor the manner in which it was controlled. Since that idea of
putting a rudder on the stern can be traced back to the models found in
Egyptian tombs, the need to have the concept brought into the Middle East is
questionable at best. There is no evidence to support the contention that
the sternpost-mounted rudder came from China, and no need to call on
exterior sources for its introduction into the Mediterranean.

Boat rudders details

Boat rudders may be either outboard or inboard. Outboard rudders are hung on
the stern or transom. Inboard rudders are hung from a keel or skeg and are thus
fully submerged beneath the hull, connected to the steering mechanism by a
rudder post which comes up through the hull to deck level, often into a cockpit.
Inboard keel hung rudders (which are a continuation of the aft trailing edge of
the full keel) are traditionally deemed the most damage resistant rudders for
off shore sailing. Better performance with faster handling characteristics can
be provided by skeg hung rudders on boats with smaller fin keels.

Rudder post and mast placement defines the difference between a ketch and a
yawl, as these two-masted vessels are similar. Yawls are defined as having the
mizzen mast abaft (i.e. “aft of”) the rudder post; ketches are defined as having
the mizzen mast forward of the rudder post.

Small boat rudders that can be steered more or less perpendicular to the
hull’s longitudinal axis make effective brakes when pushed “hard over.” However,
terms such as “hard over,” “hard to starboard,” etc. signify a maximum-rate turn
for larger vessels. Transom hung rudders or far aft mounted fin rudders generate
greater moment and faster turning than more forward mounted keel hung rudders.

There is also the barrel type rudder where the ships screw is enclosed
and can swiveled to steer the vessel. Designers claim that this type of rudder
on a smaller vessel will answer the helm faster.

Aircraft rudders

On an aircraft, the rudder is a directional
control surface
along with the rudder-like
elevator
(usually attached to horizontal tail
structure, if not a
slab elevator
) and
ailerons
(attached to the wings) that control
pitch and roll, respectively. The rudder is usually attached to the
fin
(or
vertical stabilizer
) which allows the pilot to
control
yaw
about the vertical axis, i.e. change the
horizontal direction in which the nose is pointing. The rudder’s direction in
aircraft since the “Golden Age” of flight between the two World Wars into the
21st century has been manipulated with the movement of a pair of foot pedals by
the pilot, while during the pre-1919 era rudder control was most often operated
with by a center-pivoted, solid “rudder bar” which usually had pedal and/or
stirrup-like hardware on its ends to allow the pilot’s feet to stay close to the
ends of the bar’s rear surface.

In practice, both aileron and rudder control input are used together to turn
an aircraft, the ailerons imparting roll, the rudder imparting yaw, and also
compensating for a phenomenon called
adverse yaw
. A rudder alone will turn a
conventional fixed-wing aircraft, but much more slowly than if ailerons are also
used in conjunction. Use of rudder and ailerons together produces co-ordinated
turns, in which the longitudinal axis of the aircraft is in line with the arc of
the turn, neither
slipping
(under-ruddered), nor skidding
(over-ruddered). Improperly ruddered turns at low speed can precipitate a
spin
which can be dangerous at low altitudes.

Sometimes pilots may intentionally operate the rudder and ailerons in
opposite directions in a maneuver called a
slip
. This may be done to overcome crosswinds
and keep the fuselage in line with the runway, or to more rapidly lose altitude
by increasing drag, or both. The pilots of
Air Canada Flight 143
used a similar technique
to land the plane as it was too high above the glideslope.

Any aircraft rudder is subject to considerable forces that determine its
position via a force or torque balance equation. In extreme cases these forces
can lead to loss of rudder control or even destruction of the rudder. (The same
principles also apply to water vessels, of course, but it is more important for
aircraft because they have lower engineering margins.) The largest achievable
angle of a rudder in flight is called its blowdown limit; it is achieved
when the force from the air or blowdown equals the maximum available hydraulic
pressure.

In multi-engined aircraft where the engines are off the centre line, the
rudder may be used to trim against the yaw effect of asymmetric thrust, for
example in the event of engine failure. Further, on large jet airliners, during
non-autopilot flight, the rudder is mainly used to compensate for side wind
composants. Turns can be done by the use of ailerons only. For taxing and during
the beginning of the take-off, large aircraft are steered by a special steering
wheel that is directly connected to the nose gear. Rudders (and ailerons) have
no or very little effect below airspeeds of around 50-60 knots. 80 knots is the
usual airspeed, at which the rudder (and thereby the pedals) gets more important
than the
nose gear steering
.

Trim tab

Trim tabs are small surfaces connected to the trailing edge of a
larger
control surface
, such as a rudder, on a

boat or
aircraft
, used to control the
trim
of the controls, i.e. to counteract hydro-
or aerodynamic forces and stabilise the boat or aircraft in a particular desired
attitude without the need for the operator to constantly apply a control force.
This is done by adjusting the angle of the tab relative to the larger surface.

Changing the setting of a trim tab adjusts the neutral or resting position of
a control surface (such as an
elevator
or rudder). As the desired position of
a control surface changes (corresponding mainly to different speeds), an
adjustable trim tab will allow the operator to reduce the manual force required
to maintain that position—to zero, if used correctly. Thus the trim tab acts as
a servo tab
. Because the
center of pressure
of the trim tab is further
away from the axis of rotation of the control surface than the center of
pressure of the control surface, the movement generated by the tab can match the
movement generated by the control surface. The position of the control surface
on its axis will change until the torque from the control surface and the trim
surface balance each other.