Editing Elagabalus (section)

===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>