Elagabalus | |||||
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![]() Bust, Capitoline Museums | |||||
Roman emperor | |||||
Reign | 16 May 218 – 13 March 222 | ||||
Predecessor | Macrinus | ||||
Successor | Severus Alexander | ||||
Born | Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus[1] c. 204 Emesa, Syria or Rome, Italy | ||||
Died | 13 March 222 (aged 18)[2] Rome, Italy | ||||
Burial | Corpse thrown into the Tiber | ||||
Spouses | |||||
Issue | Severus Alexander (adoptive) | ||||
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Dynasty | Severan | ||||
Father | Sextus Varius Marcellus | ||||
Mother | Julia Soaemias Bassiana |
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, c. 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus (/ˌɛləˈɡæbələs/, EL-ə-GAB-ə-ləs) and Heliogabalus (/ˌhiːliə-, -lioʊ-/ HEE-lee-ə-, -lee-oh-[3]), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was notorious for religious controversy and alleged sexual debauchery. A close relative to the Severan dynasty, he came from a prominent Arab family in Emesa (Homs), Syria, where since his early youth he served as head priest of the sun god Elagabal. After the death of his cousin, the emperor Caracalla, Elagabalus was raised to the principate at 14 years of age in an army revolt instigated by his grandmother Julia Maesa against Caracalla's short-lived successor, Macrinus. He only posthumously became known by the Latinised name of his god.[a]
Elagabalus is largely known from accounts by the contemporary senator Cassius Dio who was strongly hostile to him, and the much later Historia Augusta. The reliability of these accounts, particularly their most salacious elements, has been strongly questioned.[5][6] Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions. He brought the cult of Elagabal (including the large baetyl stone the god was represented by) to Rome, making a prominent part of religious life in the city. He forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, presiding over them in person. According to the accounts of Cassius Dio and the Augusta, he married four women, including a Vestal Virgin, in addition to lavishing favours on male courtiers they suggested to have been his lovers,[7][8] and prostituted himself.[9] His behavior estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike. Amidst growing opposition, at just 18 years of age he was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander in March 222. The assassination plot against Elagabalus was devised by Julia Maesa and carried out by disaffected members of the Praetorian Guard.
Elagabalus developed a posthumous reputation for extreme eccentricity, decadence, zealotry, and sexual promiscuity. Among writers of the early modern age, he endured one of the worst reputations among Roman emperors. Edward Gibbon, notably, wrote that Elagabalus "abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury".[10] According to Barthold Georg Niebuhr, "“the name of Elagabalus is branded in history above all others; [...] "Elagabus had nothing at all to make up for his vices, which are of such a kind that it is too disgusting even to allude to them".[11] An example of a modern historian's assessment is Adrian Goldsworthy's: "Elagabalus was not a tyrant, but he was an incompetent, probably the least able emperor Rome had ever had".[12] Despite near-universal condemnation of his reign, some scholars write warmly about his religious innovations, including the 6th-century Byzantine chronicler John Malalas, as well as Warwick Ball, a modern historian who described him as "a tragic enigma lost behind centuries of prejudice".[13]
Modern scholars have questioned the accuracy of Roman accounts of his reign, with suggestions that the reports of his salacious and homosexual behaviour may have been related to Roman stereotypes regarding people from the Orient as effeminate.[5][14]
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