ELAGABALUS Rare Ancient Roman Coin Serpent Symbol of medicine Tripod i49404

Item: i49404

Authentic Ancient 

Roman Coin of:

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

Bronze 19mm (3.71 grams) from the Roman provincial mint
Laureate head right.

Serpent entwined around central leg of tripod.

You are bidding on the exact 

Guarantee of Authenticity.

A sacrificial tripod is a three-legged piece of religious furniture 
used for offerings or other ritual procedures. As a seat or stand, the
tripod
is the most stable furniture 
construction for uneven ground, hence its use is universal and ancient. It is 
particularly associated with
Apollo
and the
Delphic oracle
in
ancient Greece
, and the word “tripod” comes 
from the Greek meaning “three-footed.”

 

Apollo and
Heracles
struggle for the Delphic 
tripod (Attic
black-figure

hydria
, c. 520 BC)

Ancient Greece

The most famous tripod of ancient Greece was the
Delphic
tripod from which the
Pythian priestess
took her seat to deliver the
oracles
of the deity. The seat was formed by a 
circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which a branch of
laurel
was deposited when it was unoccupied by 
the priestess. In this sense, by Classical times the tripod was sacred to
Apollo
. The
mytheme
of
Heracles
contesting with Apollo for the tripod 
appears in vase-paintings older than the oldest written literature. The oracle 
originally may have been related to the primal deity, the Earth.

 

Priestess of Delphi (1891), as imagined by
John Collier
; the Pythia is 
inspired by
pneuma
rising from below as she 
sits on a tripod

Another well-known tripod in Delphi was the
Plataean Tripod
; it was made from a tenth part 
of the spoils taken from the
Persian
army after the
Battle of Plataea
. This consisted of a golden 
basin, supported by a
bronze

serpent
with three heads (or three serpents 
intertwined), with a list of the states that had taken part in the war inscribed 
on the coils of the serpent. The golden bowl was carried off by the
Phocians
during the
Third Sacred War
(356–346 BC); the stand was 
removed by the emperor
Constantine
to
Constantinople
in 324, where in modern
Istanbul
it still can be seen in the
hippodrome
, the Atmeydanı, although in 
damaged condition: the heads of the serpents have disappeared, however one is 
now on display at the nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The inscription, 
however, has been restored almost entirely. Such tripods usually had three
ears (rings which served as handles) and frequently had a central upright as 
support in addition to the three legs.

Tripods frequently are mentioned by
Homer
as prizes in
athletic games
and as complimentary gifts; in 
later times, highly decorated and bearing inscriptions, they served the same 
purpose. They also were used as dedicatory
offerings
to the deities, and in the dramatic 
contests at the Dionysia
the victorious
choregus
(a wealthy citizen who bore the 
expense of equipping and training the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He 
would either dedicate the tripod to some deity or set it upon the top of a 
marble structure erected in the form of a small circular temple in a street in
Athens
, called the street of tripods,  
from the large number of memorials of this kind. One of these, the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
, erected by him 
to commemorate his victory in a dramatic contest in 335 BC, still stands. The 
form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the Lysicrates monument, 
has been rendered variously by scholars since the 18th century.

 

An ancient Greek coin c. 330-300 BC. Laureate head of Apollo (left) 
and ornate tripod (right).

Martin L. West
writes that the sibyl at Delphi 
shows many traits of
shamanistic
practices, likely inherited or 
influenced from Central Asian practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a 
tripod, while making her prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state, 
similar to shamans, and her utterings, unintelligible.

According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not 
to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there as dedications.

Sometimes the tripod was used as a support for a
lebes
or cauldron or for supporting other items 
such as a vase.

• 
  

  Delphic tripod (red-figured
  bell-krater
  ,
  Paestum
  , c. 330 BC)

Ancient China

 

A
ding
from the late
Shang Dynasty
.

Tripod pottery have been part of the archaeological assemblage in China since 
the earliest Neolithic cultures of
Cishan
and
Peiligang
in the 7th and 8th millennium BC. 
Sacrificial tripods were also found in use in ancient
China
usually cast in bronze but sometimes 
appearing in ceramic form. They are often referred to as “dings” 
and usually have three legs, but in some usages have four legs.

The Chinese use sacrificial tripods in modern times, such as in 2005, when a 
“National Unity Tripod” made of bronze was presented by the central Chinese 
government to the government of northwest China’s
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
to mark its 
fiftieth birthday. It was described as a traditional Chinese sacrificial vessel 
symbolizing unity.

Marcianopolis, or Marcianople was an ancient Roman city in

Thracia

. It was located at the site of modern day

Devnya
,

Bulgaria
.

The city was so renamed by Emperor

Trajan
after 

his sister

Ulpia Marciana

, and was previously known as Parthenopolis. Romans repulsed a

Gothic
attack to 

this town in 267
(or

268), during the 

reign of Gallienus

.

Diocletian
 

made it the capital of the

Moesia Secunda

province.

Valens
made 

it his winter quarters in 368 and succeeding years, Emperor

Justinian 

I
restored and fortified it. In 587, it was sacked by the king of the

Avars

but at once retaken by the Romans. The Roman army quartered there in 

596 before crossing the Danube to assault the Avars.

Between 893 and 972 it was one of the most important medieval cities in 

south-eastern Europe.

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