|
Elagabalus
–
Roman Emperor
: 218-222 A.D. –
Bronze 30mm (11.08 grams) of
Perinthus
in
Thrace
Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Nude
Ares (Mars)
wearing helmet and holding shield.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Ares is the
Greek god
of war
. He is one of the
Twelve Olympians
, and the son of
Zeus and Hera
. In
Greek literature
, he often represents the
physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored
Athena
, whose functions as a
goddess of intelligence
include
military strategy
and
generalship
.
The Greeks were
ambivalent
toward Ares: although he embodied
the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force,
“overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering.” Fear
(Phobos)
and Terror (Deimos)
were yoked to his battle
chariot
. In the
Iliad
his father Zeus tells him that he is
the god most hateful to him. An association with Ares endows places and objects
with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality. His value as a war god is even
placed in doubt: during the
Trojan War
, Ares was on the losing side, while
Athena, often depicted in
Greek art
as holding
Nike (Victory)
in her hand, favored the
triumphant Greeks.
Ares plays a relatively limited role in
Greek mythology
as represented in literary
narratives, though his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often
alluded
to. When Ares does appear in myths, he
typically faces humiliation. He is well known as the lover of
Aphrodite
, the goddess of love who was married
to Hephaestus
, god of craftsmanship, but the most
famous story involving the couple shows them exposed to ridicule through the
wronged husband’s clever device.
The counterpart of Ares among the
Roman gods
is
Mars
, who as a father of the Roman people held
a more important and dignified place in
ancient Roman religion
for his agricultural and
tutelary
functions. During the
Hellenization
of
Latin literature
, the myths of Ares were
reinterpreted
by Roman writers under the name
of Mars. Greek writers under
Roman rule
also recorded
cult practices
and beliefs pertaining to Mars
under the name of Ares. Thus in the
classical tradition
of later
Western art and literature
, the mythology of
the two figures becomes virtually indistinguishable.
Names and epithets
The etymology of the name Ares is traditionally connected with the
Greek
word ἀρή (arē), the
Ionic
form of the
Doric
ἀρά (ara), “bane, ruin,
curse, imprecation”. There may also be a connection with the Roman god of war
Mars
, via hypothetical
Proto-Indo-European
*M̥rēs;compare
Ancient Greek μάρναμαι (marnamai), “to fight, to battle”, or
Punjabi maarna (to kill, to hit). The earliest attested form of the name
is the
Mycenaean Greek
a-re, written in
Linear B
syllabic script.
Walter Burkert
notes that “Ares is apparently
an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war.”
The adjectival
epithet
Areios was frequently appended
to the names of other gods when they take on a warrior aspect or become involved
in warfare: Zeus Areios, Athena Areia, even Aphrodite Areia.
In the Iliad, the word ares is used as a
common noun
synonymous with “battle.”
Inscriptions as early as
Mycenaean
times, and continuing into the
Classical period
, attest to
Enyalios
, another name for the god of war.
Character and origins
Ares was one of the Twelve Olympians in the archaic tradition represented by
the Iliad
and
Odyssey
, but Zeus expresses a recurring
Greek revulsion toward the god when Ares returns wounded and complaining from
the battlefield at Troy
:
Then looking at him darkly Zeus who gathers the clouds spoke to him:
‘Do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar.
To me you are the most hateful of all gods who hold Olympos.
Forever quarrelling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.
…
And yet I will not long endure to see you in pain, since
you are my child, and it was to me that your mother bore you.
But were you born of some other god and proved so ruinous
long since you would have been dropped beneath the gods of the bright sky.”
This ambivalence is expressed also in the god’s association with the
Thracians
, who were regarded by the Greeks as a
barbarous and warlike people.
Thrace
was Ares’ birthplace, true home, and
refuge after the affair with Aphrodite was exposed to the general mockery of the
other gods.
A late 6th-century BC funerary inscription from
Attica
emphasizes the consequences of coming
under Ares’ sway:
Stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos
Whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks.
In
Macedonia
, however, he was viewed as a bearded
war veteran with superb military skills and physical strength. The
ancient Macedonians
looked up to Ares as a
divine leader as well as a god.[citation
needed] In
Sparta
Ares was viewed as a
masculine
soldier in which his resilience,
physical strength and military intelligence was unrivaled.[citation
needed]
Attributes
The
Ares Borghese
The birds of Ares (Ornithes Areioi) were a flock of
feather-dart-dropping birds that guarded the
Amazons
‘ shrine of the god on a
coastal
island
in the
Black Sea
. Vultures and dogs, both of which
prey upon carrion in the battlefield, were
sacred
to him.[citation
needed]
Cult and ritual
Although Ares received occasional sacrifice from armies going to war, the god
had a formal temple and cult at only a few sites. At
Sparta
, however, youths each sacrificed a puppy
to
Enyalios
before engaging in ritual fighting at
the Phoebaeum. The
chthonic
night-time sacrifice of a dog to
Enyalios became assimilated to the cult of Ares.[citation
needed]
Just east of Sparta stood an archaic statue of the god in chains, to show
that the spirit of war and victory was never to leave the city.
The
temple
to Ares in the
agora
of
Athens
that
Pausanias
saw in the second century AD had only
been moved and rededicated there during the time of
Augustus
; in essence it was a
Roman temple
to the Augustan
Mars Ultor
. The
Areopagus
, the “mount of Ares” where
Paul of Tarsus
preached, is sited at some
distance from the Acropolis; from archaic times it was a site of trials. Its
connection with Ares, perhaps based on a false etymology, is purely
etiological myth
.[citation
needed] A second temple has also been located at the
archaeological site of
Metropolis
in what is now Western
Turkey
.
Attendants
Deimos
, “Terror” or “Dread”, and
Phobos
, “Fear”, are his companions in war and
also his children, borne by
Aphrodite
, according to
Hesiod
. The sister and companion of the violent
Ares is
Eris
, the goddess of discord, or
Enyo, the goddess of war, bloodshed, and violence. Enyalius, rather
than another name for Ares, in at least one tradition was his son by Enyo.
Ares may also be accompanied by
Kydoimos
, the demon of the din of battle; the
Makhai
(“Battles”); thev “Hysminai” (“Acts of
manslaughter”); Polemos
, a minor spirit of war, or only an
epithet of Ares, since it has no specific dominion; and Polemos’s daughter,
Alala
, the
goddess
or
personification
of the Greek war-cry, whose
name Ares uses as his own war-cry. Ares’s sister
Hebe
, “Youth,” also draws baths for him.
According to
Pausanias
, local inhabitants of
Therapne
,
Sparta
, recognized
Thero
“feral, savage” as a nurse of Ares.
Founding of Thebes
One of the roles of Ares that was sited in mainland Greece itself was in the
founding myth
of Thebes: Ares was the
progenitor of the water-dragon slain by
Cadmus
, for the dragon’s teeth were sown into
the ground as if a crop and sprung up as the fully armored
autochthonic
Spartoi
. To propitiate Ares, Cadmus took as a
bride
Harmonia
, daughter of Ares’ union with
Aphrodite, thus harmonizing all strife and founding the city of Thebes.
Consorts and children
The
Areopagus
as viewed from the
Acropolis
.
The union of Ares and Aphrodite created the gods
Eros, Anteros
,
Phobos
,
Deimos
,
Harmonia
, and
Adrestia
. While Eros and Anteros’ godly
stations favored their mother, Adrestia by far preferred to emulate her father,
often accompanying him to war.[citation
needed]
Ares, upon one occasion, incurred the anger of
Poseidon
by slaying his son
Halirrhothius
, who had raped Alcippe, another
daughter of the war-god. For this deed, Poseidon summoned Ares to appear before
the tribunal of the Olympic gods, which was held upon a hill in Athens. Ares was
acquitted, and this event is supposed to have given rise to the name
Areopagus
(or Hill of Ares), which afterward
became famous as a court of justice.
There are accounts of a son of Ares,
Cycnus
(Κύκνος) of
Macedonia
, who was so murderous that he tried
to build a temple with the skulls and the bones of travellers.
Heracles
slaughtered this abominable
monstrosity, engendering the wrath of Ares, whom the hero wounded
Marmara Ereğlisi is a town and district of
Tekirdağ Province
in the
Marmara
region of
Turkey
. The mayor is İbrahim Uyan (CHP).
Ereğli is 30 km east of the town of
Tekirdağ
, and 90 km west of
Istanbul
near a small pointed headland on the
north shore of the
Marmara Sea
. It is called Marmara Ereğlisi (or
Marmara Ereğli in colloquial usage) to distinguish it from the two other
large towns in Turkey with the name Ereğli (deriving from the
Greek
name
Heraclea
), one in
Konya Province
(Konya
Ereğlisi), the other on the
Black Sea
coast (Karadeniz
Ereğli).
An ancient Greek
colony of the island of
Samos
was founded here in 600 BC. The area was
known in Ancient Greek as Perinthos (Πέρινθος) later called Heraclea
(Ἡράκλεια), It is said to have been a
Samian
colony, founded about
599 BC
. According to
John Tzetzes
, its original name was Mygdonia;
later it was called Heraclea (Heraclea Thraciae, Heraclea Perinthus).
It is famous chiefly for its stubborn and successful resistance to
Philip II of Macedon
in
340 BC
; at that time it seems to have been more
important than
Byzantium
itself. Christian virgin
Saint Glyceria
suffered her martyrdom at
Heraclea (modern Marmara Ereğli) in the year
177.
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
|
Roman imperial dynasties |
Severan dynasty
|
| |
|
Chronology |
|
Septimius Severus
|
193
–198 |
-with
Caracalla
|
198
–209 |
| -with Caracalla and Geta |
209
–211 |
Caracalla
and
Geta
|
211
–211 |
|
Caracalla
|
211
–217 |
Interlude:
Macrinus
|
217
–218 |
|
Elagabalus |
218
–222 |
|
Alexander Severus
|
222
–235 |
|
Dynasty |
Severan dynasty family tree
Category:Severan dynasty
|
|
Succession |
Preceded by
Year of the Five Emperors
|
Followed by
Crisis of the Third Century
|
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
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
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