Editing Elagabalus (section)

== Emperor (218–222) ==

===Journey to Rome and political appointments===

[[File:Elagabalus Denarius Fortuna.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''[[Denarius]]'' of Elagabalus, inscribed: {{Smallcaps|{{abbr|imp·|IMPERATOR}} antoninus pius {{abbr|aug·|AUGUSTUS}}}} on the obverse and {{Smallcaps|fortunae {{abbr|aug·|AUGUSTI}}}} on the reverse, showing [[Fortuna]] with a ''[[cornucopia]]'' and a rudder on a globe]]
[[File:Orto s Croce e mura 1120340.JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Amphitheatrum Castrense]] in the [[Horti Spei Veteris]] on the [[Esquiline Hill]] in Rome]]
[[File:Esquilino - Sessorium 1120325.JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|The apse of the Sessorium basilica in the Horti Spei Veteris]]

Elagabalus stayed for a time at Antioch, apparently to quell various mutinies.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=116}} Dio outlines several<!-- (seemingly aiming to suggest that Elagabalus's claim to power was shaky from the start)-->, which historian [[Fergus Millar]] places prior to the winter of 218–219.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=122}} These included one by [[Gellius Maximus]], who commanded the [[Legio IV Scythica|Fourth Legion]] and was executed,{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=122}} and one by [[Verus (senator)|Verus]], who commanded the Third Legion ''Gallica'', which was disbanded once the revolt was put down.<ref name="van Zoonen">{{cite web |last=van Zoonen |first=Lauren |year=2005 |title=Heliogabalus |publisher=livius.org |access-date=18 August 2007 |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/person/heliogabalus/heliogabalus-2/ |archive-date=14 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314155402/http://www.livius.org/articles/person/heliogabalus/heliogabalus-2/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Next, according to Herodian, Elagabalus and his entourage spent the winter of 218–219 in [[Bithynia]] at [[Nicomedia]], and then traveled through Thrace and [[Moesia]] to Italy in the first half of 219,{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=116}} the year of Elagabalus's second consulship.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} Herodian says that Elagabalus had a painting of himself sent ahead to Rome to be hung over a statue of the goddess [[Victoria (mythology)|Victoria]] in the [[Curia Julia|Senate House]] so people would not be surprised by his Eastern garb, but it is unclear if such a painting actually existed, and Dio does not mention it.{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=129–130}}{{sfn|Arrizabalaga|2010|pp=82, 172}} If the painting was indeed hung over Victoria, it put senators in the position of seeming to make offerings to Elagabalus when they made offerings to Victoria.<ref name="van Zoonen"/>

On his way to Rome, Elagabalus and his allies executed several prominent supporters of Macrinus, such as Syrian governor Fabius Agrippinus and former Thracian governor C. Claudius Attalus Paterculianus.{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=118–119}} Arriving at the imperial capital in August or September 219, Elagabalus staged an ''[[Adventus (ceremony)|adventus]]'', a ceremonial entrance to the city.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} In Rome, his offer of amnesty for the Roman upper class was largely honored, though the [[jurist]] [[Ulpian]] was exiled.{{sfn|Grant|1996|p=51}} Elagabalus made Comazon [[praetorian prefect]], and later [[Roman consul|consul]] (220) and prefect of the city (three times, 220–222), which Dio regarded as a violation of Roman norms.{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=118–119}}  Elagabalus himself held a consulship for the third year in a row in 220.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} Herodian and the ''Augustan History'' say that Elagabalus alienated many by giving powerful positions to other<!-- supposedly unqualified--> allies.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=48}}

He developed the imperial palace at [[Horti Spei Veteris]] with the inclusion of the nearby land inherited from his father [[Sextus Varius Marcellus]]. Elagabalus made it his favourite retreat and designed it (as for Nero's Domus Aurea project) as a vast suburban villa divided into various building and landscape nuclei with the [[Amphitheatrum Castrense]] which he built and the [[Circus Varianus]] hippodrome<ref>Barbera, M. (2000). "Dagli Horti Spei Veteris al Palatium Sessorianum," in Aurea Roma: Dalla Città Pagana alla Città Cristiana, eds S. Ensoli and E. La Rocca (Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 104–112.</ref> fired by his unbridled passion for circuses and his habit of driving chariots inside the villa. He raced chariots under the family name of Varius.<ref>Cassius Dio LXXX 14, 2</ref>

Dio states that Elagabalus wanted to marry a charioteer named [[Hierocles (charioteer)|Hierocles]] and to declare him [[Caesar (title)|''caesar'']],{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=122}} just as (Dio says) he had previously wanted to marry Gannys and name him ''caesar''.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=122}} The athlete [[Aurelius Zoticus]] is said by Dio to have been Elagabalus's lover and ''[[cubicularius]]'' (a non-administrative role), while the ''Augustan History'' says Zoticus was a husband to Elagabalus and held greater political influence.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=137}}

Elagabalus's relationships to his mother Julia Soaemias and grandmother Julia Maesa were strong at first; they were influential supporters from the beginning, and Macrinus declared war on them as well as Elagabalus.<ref>Barbara Levick, ''Julia Domna: Syrian Empress'' (2007), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=JIB_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PR71 71] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013100/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Julia_Domna/JIB_AgAAQBAJ?gbpv=1&pg=PR71 |date=4 April 2021 }}</ref> Accordingly, they became the first women allowed into the Senate,{{sfn|Burns|2006|p=214}} 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").<ref name="benario-soamias-mamaea"/> They exercised influence over the young emperor throughout his reign, and are found on many coins and inscriptions, a rare honour for Roman women.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=19}}

Under Elagabalus, the gradual devaluation of Roman ''aurei'' and ''denarii'' continued (with the silver purity of the ''[[denarius]]'' dropping from 58% to 46.5%),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081101003844/http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm|url-status=dead|title=Tulane University "Roman Currency of the Principate"|archive-date=1 November 2008|access-date=27 June 2022}}</ref> though [[antoninianus|''antoniniani'']] had a higher metal content than under Caracalla.{{sfn|Arrizabalaga|2010|p=60}}

=== Religious controversy ===
[[File:Baetylus (sacred stone) on four-horse chariot.jpg|thumb|Reverse of an ''aureus'' of Elagabalus, with the ''baetyl'' transported in a ''[[quadriga]]''. Inscription: {{Smallcaps|{{abbr|sanct·|SANCTO}} deo soli {{abbr|elagabal·|ELAGABALO}}}} ("''to the Holy Sun God El-Gabal''")]]
[[File:Baetylus (sacred stone).jpg|thumb|The ''baetyl'' of Elgabal back in its home temple at Emesa, on a coin of [[Uranius]]]]
Since the reign of [[Septimius Severus]], [[sun worship]] had increased throughout the Empire.{{sfn|Halsberghe|1972|p=36}} At the end of 220, Elagabalus instated [[Elagabalus (deity)|Elagabal]] as the chief deity of the [[Roman pantheon]], possibly on the date of the [[winter solstice]].{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} In his official titulature, Elagabalus was then entitled in {{Langx|la|sacerdos amplissimus dei invicti Soli Elagabali, pontifex maximus|lit=highest priest of the unconquered god, the Sun Elgabal, supreme pontiff}}.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} That a foreign god should be honored above [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]], with Elagabalus himself as chief priest, shocked many Romans.{{sfn|Icks|2011|pp=14–15}}

As a token of respect for Roman religion, however, Elagabalus joined either [[Astarte]], [[Minerva]], [[Urania]], or some combination of the three to Elagabal as consort.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=63}} A union between Elagabal and a traditional goddess would have served to strengthen ties between the new religion and the imperial cult. There may have been an effort to introduce Elagabal, Urania, and Athena as the new [[Capitoline Triad]] of Rome—replacing Jupiter, [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], and Minerva.{{sfn|Icks|2011|pp=32–33}}

He aroused further discontent when he married the [[Vestal Virgin]] [[Aquilia Severa]], Vesta's high priestess, claiming the marriage would produce "godlike children".{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=62}} 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]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vestal Virgins|newspaper=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vestal-Virgins|access-date=30 August 2020|archive-date=26 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171026220341/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vestal-Virgins|url-status=live}}</ref>

A lavish temple called the [[Elagabalium]] was built on the east face of the [[Palatine Hill]] to house Elagabal,{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=54}} who was represented by a black conical [[Baetyl|meteorite]] from Emesa.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=14}} This was a ''[[baetyl]]''. [[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".{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=89}}

Dio writes that in order to increase his piety as high priest of Elagabal atop a new Roman pantheon, Elagabalus had himself [[circumcised]] and swore to [[Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork|abstain from swine]].{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=54}} He forced senators to watch while he danced circling the altar of Elagabal to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=89}} Each summer [[solstice]] he held a festival dedicated to the god, which became popular with the masses because of the free food distributed on these occasions.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=49}} During this festival, Elagabalus placed the black stone on a [[chariot]] adorned with gold and jewels, which he paraded through the city:{{sfn|Icks|2011|pp=59–60}}

{{Blockquote|text=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.{{sfn|Herodian|loc=[https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodian-s-roman-history/herodian-5.6 Book 5.6.7]}} }}

The most sacred relics from the Roman religion were transferred from their respective shrines to the Elagabalium, including the emblem of the [[Cybele|Great Mother]], the fire of [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]], the [[Ancile|Shields]] of the [[Salii]], and the [[Palladium (mythology)|Palladium]], so that no other god could be worshipped except in association with Elagabal.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=113}} Although his native cult was widely ridiculed by contemporaries, sun-worship was popular among the soldiers and would be promoted by several later emperors.{{sfn|Meckler}}

===Marriages, sexual orientation and gender identity===
[[Image:Aquilia Severa coin obverse.png|thumb|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. Inscription: {{Smallcaps|iulia aquilia severa {{abbr|aug·|AUGUSTA}}}}]]

The question of Elagabalus's [[sexual orientation]] and [[gender identity]] is disputed, owing to salacious and unreliable sources. [[Cassius Dio]] states that Elagabalus was married five times (twice to the same woman).{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=129–130}} His first wife was [[Julia Cornelia Paula]], whom he married prior to 29 August 219; between then and 28 August 220, he divorced Paula, took the [[Vestal Virgin]] [[Aquilia Severa|Julia Aquilia Severa]] as his second wife, divorced her,{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=129–130}}{{sfn|Grant|1996|p=25}} and took a third wife, who Herodian says was [[Annia Faustina|Annia Aurelia Faustina]], a descendant of [[Marcus Aurelius]] and the widow of a man Elagabalus had recently executed, Pomponius Bassus.{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=129–130}} In the last year of his reign, Elagabalus divorced Annia Faustina and remarried Aquilia Severa.{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=129–130}}

Dio states that another "husband of this woman [Elagabalus] was [[Hierocles (charioteer)|Hierocles]]", an ex-slave and [[quadriga|chariot]] driver from [[Caria]].{{sfn|Zanghellini|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B1ChCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 59]}}{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=135–136}} The ''Historia Augusta'' claims that Elagabalus also married a man named [[Zoticus (husband of Elagabalus)|Zoticus]], an athlete from [[Smyrna]], while Dio says only that Zoticus was his [[cubicularius]].{{sfn|Zanghellini|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B1ChCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 59]}}{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=136–137}} Dio says that Elagabalus [[prostitution|prostituted]] himself in taverns and brothels.{{sfn|Campanile|Carlà-Uhink|Facella|2017|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=39ENDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT113 113]}}

Some writers suggest that Elagabalus may have identified as female or been [[transgender]], and may have sought [[sex reassignment surgery]].<ref>Abbie E. Goldberg, Genny Beemyn, ''The Sage Encyclopedia of Trans Studies'' (2021), p. 32</ref><ref>M. Nugent, ''[https://www.academia.edu/28632384/From_Filthy_Catamite_to_Queer_Icon_Elagabalus_and_the_Politics_of_Sexuality_1960_1975_ Helios] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925202902/https://www.academia.edu/28632384/From_Filthy_Catamite_to_Queer_Icon_Elagabalus_and_the_Politics_of_Sexuality_1960_1975_ |date=25 September 2023 }}'' 35 (2008) pp. 171–172</ref><ref name="Varner-2008"/><ref name="glbtq-enc-elagabal">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Godbout |first=Louis |title=Elagabalus |encyclopedia=GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture |publisher=glbtq, Inc. |location=Chicago |year=2004 |url=http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/elagabalus_S.pdf |access-date=6 August 2007 |archive-date=17 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117023701/http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/elagabalus_S.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Benjamin |first=Harry |year=1966 |title=The Transsexual Phenomenon |journal=Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences |publisher=[[The Julian Press Inc.]] |location=New York |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=428–430 |doi=10.1111/j.2164-0947.1967.tb02273.x |pmid=5233741 |url=http://www.symposion.com/ijt/benjamin/ |isbn=978-0-446-82426-2 |access-date=27 April 2005 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050424080535/http://www.symposion.com/ijt/benjamin/ |archive-date=24 April 2005}}</ref> Dio says Elagabalus delighted in being called Hierocles's mistress, wife, and queen.<ref name="Varner-2008">{{cite journal |last=Varner |first=Eric |date=2008 |title=Transcending Gender: Assimilation, Identity, and Roman Imperial Portraits. |jstor=40379354 |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Supplementary Volume. |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |location=Ann Arbor |volume=7 <!--Role Models in the Roman World. Identity and Assimilation--> |pages=200–201 |issn=1940-0977 |oclc=263448435 |quote=Elagabalus is also alleged to have appeared as Venus and to have depilated his entire body. ... Dio recounts an exchange between Elagabalus and the well-endowed Aurelius Zoticus: when Zoticus addressed the emperor as 'my lord,' Elagabalus responded, 'Don't call me lord, I am a lady.' Dio concludes his anecdote by having Elagabalus asking his physicians to give him the equivalent of a woman's vagina by means of a surgical incision.}}</ref> The emperor reportedly wore makeup and wigs, preferred to be called a lady and not a lord, and supposedly offered vast sums to any physician who could provide him with a vagina by means of incision (Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'', 79.16.4).<ref name="Varner-2008"/>{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=137–138}} Some historians, including the classicists [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]], Zachary Herz, and Martijn Icks, treat these accounts with caution, as sources for Elagabalus' life were often antagonistic towards him and largely untrustworthy.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Burga |first1=Solcyre |title=U.K. Museum Says Roman Emperor Was a Trans Woman |date=22 November 2023 |url=https://time.com/6338587/u-k-museum-roman-emperor-trans-woman/ |publisher=Time |access-date=22 November 2023 |archive-date=22 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231122224032/https://time.com/6338587/u-k-museum-roman-emperor-trans-woman/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="guard-24nov2023">{{cite news |last1=Addley |first1=Esther |title=Was Roman emperor Elagabalus really trans – and does it really matter? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/24/was-roman-emperor-elagabalus-really-trans-and-does-it-really-matter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213191404/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/24/was-roman-emperor-elagabalus-really-trans-and-does-it-really-matter |archive-date=2024-02-13 |access-date=24 November 2023 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=24 November 2023}}</ref> 

In November 2023, the [[North Hertfordshire Museum]] in [[Hitchin]], United Kingdom, announced that Elagabalus would be considered as transgender and hence referred to with female pronouns in its exhibits due to claims that the emperor had said "call me not Lord, for I am a Lady". The museum has one Elagabalus coin.<ref name="guard-24nov2023"/><ref>{{cite web |year=2023 |title=Museum reclassifies Roman emperor as trans woman |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67484645 |access-date=21 November 2023 |archive-date=21 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121165259/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67484645 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Fall from power===
Elagabalus stoked the animus of Roman elites and the [[Praetorian Guard]] through his perceptibly foreign conduct and his religious provocations.{{sfn|Icks|2011|pp=83, 88–89}} When Elagabalus's 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. As alternatives, she turned to her other daughter, [[Julia Avita Mamaea]], and her daughter's son, the fifteen-year-old [[Severus Alexander]].{{sfn|Bowman|Cameron|Garnsey|2005|p=22}}

Prevailing on Elagabalus, she arranged that he appoint his cousin Alexander as his heir and that the boy be given the title of [[Caesar (title)|''caesar'']].{{sfn|Bowman|Cameron|Garnsey|2005|p=22}} Alexander was elevated to ''caesar'' in June 221, possibly on 26 June.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} Elagabalus and Alexander were each named ''consul designatus'' for the following year, probably on 1 July.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} Elagabalus took up his fourth consulship for the year of 222.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} Alexander shared the consulship with the emperor that year.{{sfn|Bowman|Cameron|Garnsey|2005|p=22}} However, Elagabalus reconsidered this arrangement when he began to suspect that the Praetorian Guard preferred his cousin to himself.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=74}}

Elagabalus ordered various attempts on Alexander's life,{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=75}} after failing to obtain approval from the Senate for stripping Alexander of his shared title.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=77}} According to Dio, Elagabalus invented the rumor that Alexander was near death, in order to see how the Praetorians would react.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=78}} A riot ensued, and the Guard demanded to see Elagabalus and Alexander in the [[Castra Praetoria|Praetorian camp]].{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=78}}

[[File:Napoli, museo archeologico (18330093110).jpg|thumb|Statue of Elagabalus as Hercules, re-faced as his successor, [[Alexander Severus]] ([[National Archaeological Museum, Naples]])]]

On 13 March,{{efn|{{harvnb|Dio|loc=80.3.3}} writes that he ruled "three years, nine months and four days during which he ruled,—reckoning from the battle in which he gained the supreme power". However, he's most likely not counting to Elagabalus' death, but to the official accession of his successor. Alexander was proclaimed ''[[imperator]]'' by the army in 13 March and was named ''[[augustus (title)|augustus]]'' by the Senate in 14 March, as attested in the ''[[Feriale Duranum]]''. Given Dio's account, Elagabalus' murder and Alexander's first acclamation almost certainly took place on 13 March.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgess |first=Richard W. |url=https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Roman-Imperial-Chronology-and-Early-Fourth-Century-Historiography/9783515107327 |title=Roman imperial chronology and early-fourth-century historiography |date=2014 |publisher=Steiner |isbn=978-3-515-10732-7 |series=Historia Einzelschriften |location=Stuttgart |pages=65–66, 121 |access-date=16 June 2024 |archive-date=14 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614223454/https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Roman-Imperial-Chronology-and-Early-Fourth-Century-Historiography/9783515107327 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} the emperor complied and 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 execution|summary arrest and execution]] of anyone who had taken part in this display of insubordination.{{sfn|Icks|2011|pp=77–79}} In response, members of the [[Praetorian Guard]] attacked Elagabalus and his mother:

{{blockquote|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 eighteen. 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, and then the mother's body was cast aside somewhere or other, while his was thrown into the [[Tiber]].{{sfn|Dio|loc=Book [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/80*.html#79-20 80.20]}} }}

Following his assassination, many associates of Elagabalus were killed or deposed. His lover [[Hierocles (charioteer)|Hierocles]] was executed.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=78}} His religious edicts were reversed and the stone of Elagabal was sent back to [[Emesa]].{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=15}} Women were again barred from attending meetings of the Senate.{{sfn|Hay|1911|p=124}} The practice of ''[[damnatio memoriae]]''—erasing from the public record a disgraced personage formerly of note—was systematically applied in his case.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}}<ref>Hans Willer Laale, ''Ephesus (Ephesos): An Abbreviated History From Androclus to Constantine XI'' (2011) p. 269</ref> Several images, including an over-life-size statue of him as [[Hercules]] now in Naples, were re-carved with the face of Alexander Severus.{{sfn|Varner|2004|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5IpPhTqnDJkC&pg=PA192 192–194]}}