ELAGABALUS Authentic Ancient 219AD Rome Roman Coin w SALUS & SERPENT i42025

Item: i42025

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

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

Silver Denarius 20mm (2.85 grams) Rome mint 219 A.D.
Reference: RIC 139b, C 261
IMPCAESANTONINVSAVG – Laureate, draped bust right.
 SALVSANTONINIAVG – Salus standing right, holding and feeding snake.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In
Greek
and
Roman mythology
, Hygieia (also Hygiea
or Hygeia, Greek Ὑγιεία or
Ὑγεία, Latin Hygēa or Hygīa),
was the daughter of the god of medicine,
Asclepius
, and
Epione
. She was the goddess/personification of
health, cleanliness and sanitation.

Hygieia
and her five sisters each performed a facet of
Apollo
‘s art: Hygieia (“Hygiene” the
goddess/personification of health, cleanliness, and sanitation),
Panacea
(the goddess of Universal remedy),

Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness),
Aceso
(the goddess of the healing process).

Hygieia also played an important part in her father’s
cult
. While her father was more directly
associated with healing, she was associated with the prevention of sickness and
the continuation of good health. Her name is the source of the word “hygiene“.
She was imported by the Romans as the Goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal
health, but in time she started to be increasingly identified with the ancient
Italian goddess of social welfare,
Salus
.

History

At Athens, Hygieia was the subject of a local cult since at least the 7th
century BC. “Athena Hygieia” was one of the cult titles given to
Athena
, as Plutarch recounts of the building of
the Parthenon
(447-432 BC):

However, the cult of Hygieia as an independent goddess did not begin to
spread out until the
Delphic oracle
recognized her, and after the
devastating
Plague of Athens
(430-427 BC) and in Rome in
293 BC.

In the 2nd century AD,
Pausanias
noted the statues both of Hygieia and
of Athena Hygieia near the entrance to the
Acropolis
of Athens.

Worship

Hygieia’s primary temples were in
Epidaurus
,
Corinth
,
Cos
and Pergamon
.
Pausanias
remarked that, at the Asclepieion
of Titane
in
Sicyon
(founded by
Alexanor
, Asclepius’ grandson), statues of
Hygieia were covered by women’s hair and pieces of
Babylonian
clothes. According to inscriptions,
the same sacrifices were offered at
Paros
.

Ariphron
, a Sicyonian artist from the 4th
century BC wrote a well-known

hymn celebrating her. Statues of Hygieia were created by
Scopas
,
Bryaxis
and
Timotheus
, among others, but there is no clear
description of what they looked like. She was often depicted as a young woman
feeding a large snake that was wrapped around her body or drinking from a jar
that she carried. These attributes were later adopted by the
Gallo-Roman
healing goddess,
Sirona
. Hygieia was accompanied by her brother,
Telesphorus
.

The
Pythagoreans

called the pentagram ὑγιεία Hugieia (“health”); also the Greek goddess of
health, Hygieia

and saw in the pentagram a mathematical perfection.

Salus (Health) a Goddess of the Romans, the same that was worshipped under
the name of Hygiea by the Greeks, who feigned her to be the daughter of
Asclepius and of Minerva. On a denarius of the Acilia family appears the head
of the goddess and on the reverse a female standing with a serpent in her hand.
The types of this divinity on imperial coins most frequently present to view a
woman clothed in the stola; sometimes
she is sitting, at others standing; in others in a recumbent posture, with a
serpent either on her right or her left arm in a quiescent state, rising in
folds or entwined round an altar before her, and receiving food from a patera,
which she holds in her extended hand. It is in this form (which was doubtless
that of her statues and with these symbols) that she is exhibited on most coins
on the imperial series from Galba to Maximianus. She had a celebrated temple at
Rome, painted, it was said, by Q. Fabius, who thence was surnamed Pictor (the
painter) . – There appears to be some affinity between this personification of
Salus, when offering food in a patella to a serpent, and the Lanuvian virgin
represented in the same act on coins bearing the head of Juno Sospita. – The
opinion also has the probability on the face of it, which refers the serpent on
coins, where mention is made of Salus Augusti, or Augustorum, to Aesculapius and
his daughter Hygaeia (or Salus) as deities of Health. – Certain it is that when
those sanitary divinities, and especially when Dea Salus, occur on coins of
Emperors, they indicate that those princes were labouring at the time under some
diseases; on which account, it would seem, sacred rites had been performed for
them and the memorial of the event recorded on public monuments

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

A Roman
denarius
depicting Elagabalus. The
reverse reads Fides Exercitus, or The loyalty of the army,
depicting the Roman goddess
Fides
between two
Roman army

standards
. Many coins issued during
Elagabalus’ reign bear the inscriptions Fides Exercitus or
Fides Militum, emphasising the loyalty of the army as the basis
of imperial 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