On This Day In Roman History, March 11
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, confusingly known as Elagabalus, and his mother are assassinated following a revolt carried out by the Praetorian Guard on March 11, 222 CE. This decline of relations was occurring in early 221, when Elagabalus' relationship with Hierocles began provoking the Guard. As relationships declined due to Elagabalus' own eccentricities and paranoia about his newly appointed Caesar, his fate became sealed. Cassius Dio writes about the situation: "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]."
Did you know?
Many individuals publicly questioned Elagabalus' sexuality due to him quickly moving through a series of five different wives and his relationship involving a chariot driver slave named Hierocles. This man was referred to by the Emperor himself as his "husband" and is rumored to have married another man named Zoticus in a public ceremony in Rome. It was also rumored Elagabalus asked several physicians if they could equip him with female genitalia in exchange for a large sum of money.
Pictured: 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. Photo by: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, via Wikimedia Commons.
Today I have again selected to quote Dio, this time talking about the inappropriate acts Elagabalus committed: "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."
Opinion
Welcome to my daily opinion! The moral boundaries of sexual interaction within the spec of Roman tolerance were pushed continuously by this man. We often hear of accounts where individuals were uncomfortable around the actions Elagabalus committed. As we continue to see the cultural changes moving towards a more Christian set of values occur, we can see the difference in acceptance of individuals preforming acts considered sexually inappropriate. While these changes were still in their infancy, Elagabalus pushed them to the limit with his somewhat perverted actions and this caused him a serious amount of discrediting.
Sources
Cocceianus, C. D., Cary, E., & Foster, H. B. (1970). Dio's Roman history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
De, A. Y. (2011). The Emperor Elagabalus: fact or fiction? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grant, M. (1996). The Severans: the changed Roman empire. London: Routledge.
Further Reading:
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