Editing Elagabalus

{{Short description|Roman emperor from 218 to 222}}
{{For|the god with the same name|Elagabalus (deity)}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Elagabalus
| image        = File:Marble bust of Roman emperor Elagabalus, ca. 221 AD, Capitoline Museums (20814003112).jpg
| alt          = White head statue of a young man
| caption      = Marble bust, [[Capitoline Museums]], Rome
| succession   = [[Roman emperor]]
| reign        = 16 May 218 – 13 March 222
| predecessor  = [[Macrinus]]
| successor    = [[Severus Alexander]]
| birth_name   = (Sextus) Varius Avitus Bassianus{{sfn|de Arrizabalaga y Prado|2010|p=231}}
| birth_date   = {{circa|204}}
| birth_place  = [[Homs|Emesa]], [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]] or [[Rome]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]]
| death_date   = 13 March 222 (aged 18){{sfn|Arrizabalaga|2010|p=27}}
| death_place  = Rome, Italy
| burial_place = Corpse thrown into the [[Tiber]]
| spouses      = {{ubl|[[Julia Cornelia Paula]]|[[Aquilia Severa]]|[[Annia Faustina|Annia Aurelia Faustina]]|[[Hierocles (charioteer)|Hierocles]]}}
| issue        = [[Severus Alexander]] (adoptive)
| full name    = 
| regnal name  = Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus
| dynasty      = [[Severan dynasty|Severan]]
| father       = [[Sextus Varius Marcellus]] (Legal)
[[Caracalla]] (Claimed as Biological)
| mother       = [[Julia Soaemias Bassiana]]
}}

'''Marcus Aurelius Antoninus''' (born '''Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus''', {{circa}} 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames '''Elagabalus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɛ|l|ə|ˈ|g|æ|b|əl|ə|s}} {{respell|EL|ə|GAB|ə|ləs}}) and '''Heliogabalus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|h|iː|l|i|ə|-|,_|-|l|i|oʊ|-}} {{respell|HEE|lee|ə|-|,_|-|lee|oh|-}}<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Heliogabalus|access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref>), was [[Roman emperor]] from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His<!--Please do not waste your time changing the pronouns on this article. There is a long standing consensus on talk, and among historians, to use male pronouns.--> short reign was notorious for religious controversy and alleged sexual debauchery. A close relative to the [[Severan dynasty]], he came from a prominent [[Syrian Arabs|Syrian Arab]] family in Emesa ([[Homs]]), [[Roman Syria|Syria]], where he served as the head priest of the [[Solar deity|sun god]] [[Elagabalus (deity)|Elagabal]] from a young age. 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.{{efn|The first known instance is in the [[Chronograph of 354]], in the list of emperors in the section titled ''Chronica Urbis Romae'', where he is called "Antoninus Elagaballus".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Chronography of 354 AD. Part 16: Chronicle of the City of Rome |website=tertullian.org |language=la, en |access-date=14 November 2020 |url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_16_chronicle_of_the_city_of_rome.htm |archive-date=1 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001193103/http://tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_16_chronicle_of_the_city_of_rome.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Elagabalus is largely known from accounts by the contemporary senator [[Cassius Dio]] who was strongly hostile to him, [[Herodian]], who likely relied extensively on Dio, and the much later ''[[Historia Augusta]],'' The reliability of the accounts of Cassius Dio and the ''Historia Augusta'', particularly their most salacious elements, has been strongly questioned.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Osgood |first=Josiah |url=https://brill.com/view/title/33612 |title=Cassius Dio: Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician |date=2016-11-28 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-33531-8 |pages=177–190 |chapter=Cassius Dio’s Secret History of Elagabalus |doi=10.1163/9789004335318_011 |access-date=24 June 2024 |archive-date=21 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621104530/https://brill.com/view/title/33612 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Kemezis |first=Adam |date=2016 |title=The Fall of Elagabalus as Literary Narrative and Political Reality A Reconsideration |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.25162/historia-2016-0019 |journal=Historia |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=348–390 |doi=10.25162/historia-2016-0019 |issn=0018-2311}}</ref> Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions. He brought the cult of Elagabal (including the large [[baetyl]] stone that represented the god) to Rome, making it 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,{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=129–130, 135–137}}{{sfn|Zanghellini|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B1ChCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 59]}} and prostituted himself.{{sfn|Campanile|Carlà-Uhink|Facella|2017|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=39ENDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT113 113]}} His behaviour estranged the [[Praetorian Guard]], the [[Roman Senate|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 (behavior)|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".<ref name="Gibbon">Gibbon, Edward. ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', Chapter VI.</ref> 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".<ref name="Niebuhr1844">{{cite book |last1=Niebuhr |first1=Barthold Georg |title=The History of Rome: From the First Punic War to the Death of Constantine |volume=2 |date=1844 |publisher=S. Bentley |page=306 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wygGAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA306}}</ref> 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".{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2009|p=81}} 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".{{sfn|Ball|2016|p=464}}

Modern scholars have questioned the accuracy of Roman accounts of his reign, with suggestions that the reports of his salacious behaviour and sexual excess likely reflected a desire to politically discredit him in the immediate aftermath of his death, as well as reflecting Roman stereotypes regarding people from [[the Orient]] as effeminate.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bittarello |first=Maria Beatrice |date=2011-09-15 |title=Otho, Elagabalus and The Judgement of Paris : the literary construction of the unmanly emperor |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-dialogues-d-histoire-ancienne-2011-1-page-93.htm?ref=doi |journal=Dialogues d'histoire ancienne |volume=37/1 |issue=1 |pages=93–113 |doi=10.3917/dha.371.0093 |issn=0755-7256 |access-date=24 June 2024 |archive-date=24 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240624192632/https://www.cairn.info/revue-dialogues-d-histoire-ancienne-2011-1-page-93.htm?ref=doi |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Family and priesthood==
{{Further|Severan dynasty family tree}}
{{multiple image
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| caption1=An ''[[Antoninianus]]'' coin of [[Julia Maesa]], inscribed: {{Smallcaps|ivlia maesa {{abbr|avg·|AVGVSTA}}}}
| image2=Perge - Julia Soemias 2.jpg
| width2=150
| caption2=A sculpture of [[Julia Soaemias]]
| align=
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Elagabalus was born in 203 or 204,{{efn|[[Herodian]], who lived during Elagabalus' reign, writes that he and Alexander were "about fourteen and ten, respectively" in May 218.{{sfn|Herodian|loc=[https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/herodian_05_book5.htm 5.3.3]}} The ''[[Epitome de Caesaribus]]'', written over a century later, states that "he lived sixteen years", while Alexander died in his "twenty-sixth year".<ref>''Epitome de Caesaribus'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20220311020340/http://www.roman-emperors.org/epitome.htm 23, 24]</ref> Only the latter figure coincides with Herodian, and it is unclear if they are using regular or [[inclusive counting]].}} to [[Sextus Varius Marcellus]] and [[Julia Soaemias|Julia Soaemias Bassiana]],{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=83–84}} who had probably married around the year 200 (and no later than 204).{{sfn|Millar|1993|p=119}}{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=84}} Elagabalus's full birth name was probably (Sextus) Varius Avitus Bassianus,{{efn|For a detailed discussion of his nomenclature, see {{harvtxt|de Arrizabalaga y Prado|2010|p=231}}}} the last name being apparently a [[cognomen]] of the [[Emesene dynasty]].{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=59}} Marcellus was an [[Equites|equestrian]], later elevated to a [[Roman Senate|senatorial]] position<!-- (though sources disagree on exactly when he assumed his various offices, and even on when he died, between 213 and 217)-->.{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=83–84}}<ref name="Blois">Lukas de Blois, ''Image and Reality of Roman Imperial Power in the Third Century AD'', 2018, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1wtpDwAAQBAJ&dq=Sextus+Varius+Marcellus+Equites+OR+Equestrian+Senator&pg=PT72 72] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014144817/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Image_and_Reality_of_Roman_Imperial_Powe/1wtpDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Sextus+Varius+Marcellus+Equites+OR+Equestrian+Senator&pg=PT72&printsec=frontcover |date=14 October 2020 }}</ref>{{sfn|Millar|1993|p=119}} Julia Soaemias was a cousin of the emperor [[Caracalla]], and there were rumors (which Soaemias later publicly supported) that Elagabalus was Caracalla's child.<ref name="Blois"/><ref name="Lightman">Marjorie Lightman, Benjamin Lightman (2008), ''A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women'', p. 174</ref>

Marcellus's tombstone attests that Elagabalus had at least one sibling, possibly a brother,<ref>Anthony R. Birley, ''Septimius Severus: The African Emperor'', pp. 217, 222–223</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/person/varius-marcellus |title=Sextus Varius Marcellus |website=Livius |access-date=2 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810194509/https://www.livius.org/articles/person/varius-marcellus/ |archive-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> about whom nothing is known.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=84}} Elagabalus's grandmother, [[Julia Maesa]], was the widow of the [[Roman consul|consul]] [[Gaius Julius Avitus Alexianus|Julius Avitus Alexianus]], the sister of [[Julia Domna]], and the sister-in-law of the emperor [[Septimius Severus]].{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=83–84}}{{sfn|Millar|1993|p=119}} Other relatives included Elagabalus's aunt [[Julia Avita Mamaea]] and uncle [[Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus]] and their son [[Severus Alexander]].{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=83–84}}

Elagabalus's family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of the sun god [[Elagabalus (deity)|Elagabal]], of whom Elagabalus was the [[high priest]] at Emesa (modern [[Homs]]) in [[Roman Syria]] as part of the Arab [[Emesene dynasty]].{{sfn|Ball|2000|pp=35–37, 412}} The deity's Latin name, "Elagabalus", is a Latinized version of the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] إِلٰهُ الْجَبَلِ ''Ilāh al-Jabal'', from ''ilāh'' ("god") and ''jabal'' ("mountain"), meaning "God of the Mountain",<ref>''The Journal of Juristic Papyrology'', volume 23, p. 116: "und mit palmyrenischer Inschrift "Gott Berg" steht die umstrittene Etymologie des Namens "Elagabal" (ilah ha-gabal) fest"</ref> the Emesene manifestation of [[Baal|Ba'al]].{{sfn|Ball|2000|p=37}}

Initially venerated at Emesa, the deity's cult spread to other parts of the Roman Empire in the second century; a dedication has been found as far away as [[Woerden]] (in the [[Netherlands]]), near the Roman ''[[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]]''.<ref>"[https://www.livius.org/sources/content/the-woerden-elagabal-inscription/ The Woerden Elagabal Inscription] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808040115/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/the-woerden-elagabal-inscription/ |date=8 August 2020 }}" at [[Livius.org]]; the inscription is now in Woerden's [http://www.stadsmuseumwoerden.nl/ city museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528161711/http://www.stadsmuseumwoerden.nl/ |date=28 May 2010 }}.</ref> The god was later imported to Rome and assimilated with the sun god known as [[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol Indiges]] in the era of the [[Roman Republic]] and as [[Sol Invictus]] during the late third century.<ref>{{cite web |author=Devlaminck, Pieter |title=De Cultus van Sol Invictus: Een vergelijkende studie tussen keizer Elagabalus (218–222) en keizer Aurelianus (270–275) |publisher=University of Ghent |year=2004 |language=nl |url=http://www.ethesis.net/invictus/invictus_inhoud.htm | access-date=7 August 2007 | archive-date=16 August 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816193605/http://www.ethesis.net/invictus/invictus_inhoud.htm | url-status=live}}</ref> In Greek, the sun god is [[Helios]], hence Elagabal was later known as "Heliogabalus", a hybrid of "Helios" and "Elagabalus".{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=227}}

==Rise to power==
Herodian writes that when the emperor [[Macrinus]] came to power, he suppressed the threat to his reign from 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 (Roman province)|Syria]].<ref name="Whittemore 33"/> Almost upon arrival in Syria, Maesa began a plot with her advisor and Elagabalus's tutor, [[Gannys]], to overthrow Macrinus and elevate the fourteen-year-old Elagabalus to the imperial throne.<ref name="Whittemore 33">Walter J. Whittemore Jr., ''Untimely Deaths by Assassination'' (2012), p. 33</ref>

Maesa spread a rumor, which Soaemias publicly supported, that Elagabalus was the illegitimate child of Caracalla<ref name="Lightman"/>{{sfn|Ball|2000|p=412}} and so deserved the loyalty of Roman soldiers and senators who had sworn allegiance to Caracalla.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=11}} The soldiers of the [[Legio III Gallica|Third Legion ''Gallica'']] at [[Raphana]], who had enjoyed greater privileges under Caracalla and resented Macrinus (and may have been impressed or bribed by Maesa's wealth), supported this claim.<ref name="Blois"/>{{sfn|Ball|2000|p=412}}{{sfn|Burns|2006|p=209}} At sunrise on 16 May 218,{{sfn|Dio|loc=Book 79.31}} Elagabalus was declared emperor by [[Publius Valerius Comazon]], commander of the legion.{{sfn|Potter|2004|p=151}} To strengthen his legitimacy, Elagabalus adopted the same name Caracalla bore as emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=12}}{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=106}} Cassius Dio states that some officers tried to keep the soldiers loyal to Macrinus, but they were unsuccessful.<ref name="Blois"/>
[[File:INC-2961-r Ауреус. Элагабал. Ок. 218—219 гг. (реверс).png|thumb|Reverse of an ''[[aureus]]'' of Elagabalus, marked: {{Smallcaps|salus antonini {{abbr|aug·|AUGUSTUS}}}} ("''the Health of Antoninus Augustus''")]]
[[Praetorian prefect]] Ulpius Julianus responded by attacking the Third Legion, most likely on Macrinus's orders (though one account says he acted on his own before Macrinus knew of the rebellion).{{sfn|Scott|2018|pp=26, 89}} Herodian suggests Macrinus underestimated the threat, considering the rebellion inconsequential.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=89}} During the fighting, Julianus's soldiers killed their officers and joined Elagabalus's forces.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=12}}

Macrinus asked the [[Roman Senate]] to denounce Elagabalus as "the False Antoninus", and they complied,{{sfn|Southern|2003|p=300}} declaring war on Elagabalus and his family.{{sfn|Burns|2006|p=209}} Macrinus made his son [[Diadumenian]] co-emperor, and attempted to secure the loyalty of the [[Legio II Parthica|Second Legion]] with large cash payments.<ref name="Kulikowski">Michael Kulikowski (2016), ''The Triumph of Empire'', p. 105</ref><ref name="Dando-Collins">Stephen Dando-Collins (2013), ''Legions of Rome'', p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5e8RBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT324 324] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014144841/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Legions_of_Rome/5e8RBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT324 |date=14 October 2020 }}</ref> During a banquet to celebrate this at [[Apamea, Syria|Apamea]], however, a messenger presented Macrinus with the severed head of his defeated prefect Julianus.<ref name="Kulikowski"/><ref name="Dando-Collins"/>{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=26}} Macrinus therefore retreated to [[Antioch]], after which the Second Legion shifted its loyalties to Elagabalus.<ref name="Kulikowski"/><ref name="Dando-Collins"/>

Elagabalus's legionaries, commanded by Gannys, defeated Macrinus and Diadumenian and their Praetorian Guard at the [[Battle of Antioch (218)|Battle of Antioch]] on 8 June 218, prevailing when Macrinus's troops broke ranks after he fled the battlefield.<ref>Cassius Dio [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/79*.htm 79.38–39]</ref> Macrinus made for Italy, but was intercepted near [[Chalcedon]] and executed in [[Cappadocia]], while Diadumenian was captured at [[Zeugma, Commagene|Zeugma]] and executed.<ref name="Kulikowski"/>

That month, Elagabalus wrote to the Senate, assuming the imperial titles without waiting for senatorial approval,{{sfn|Southern|2003|p=58}} which violated tradition but was a common practice among third-century emperors.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=33}} Letters of reconciliation were dispatched to [[Rome]] extending [[amnesty]] to the Senate and recognizing its laws, while also condemning the administration of Macrinus and his son.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=14}}

The senators responded by acknowledging Elagabalus as emperor and accepting his claim to be the son of Caracalla.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=33}} Elagabalus was made consul for the year 218 in the middle of June.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} Caracalla and Julia Domna were both [[Imperial cult (Ancient Rome)|deified]] by the Senate, both Julia Maesa and Julia Soaemias were elevated to the rank of [[Augustus (honorific)|Augustae]],<ref name="benario-soamias-mamaea">{{cite journal |last=Benario |first=Herbert W. |title=The Titulature of Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea: Two Notes |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=90 |pages=9–14 |year=1959 |doi=10.2307/283691 |publisher=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 90 |jstor=283691}}</ref> and the memory of Macrinus was expunged by the Senate.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=33}} (Elagabalus's imperial artifacts assert that he succeeded Caracalla directly.){{sfn|Arrizabalaga|2010|p=156}} Comazon was appointed commander of the Praetorian Guard.{{sfn|Southern|2003|p=301}}{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=20}} Elagabalus was named ''[[Pater Patriae]]'' by the Senate before 13 July 218.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}} On 14 July, Elagabalus was inducted into the colleges of all the Roman priesthoods, including the [[College of Pontiffs]], of which he was named ''[[pontifex maximus]]''.{{sfn|Kienast|1990|pp=165–170}}

== 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]}}

== Sources ==

===Cassius Dio===
[[File:INC-2961-a Ауреус. Элагабал. Ок. 218—219 гг. (аверс).png|thumb|An ''[[Aureus]]'' of Elagabalus, marked: {{Smallcaps|{{abbr|imp·caes·|IMPERATOR CAESAR}} {{abbr|m·aur·|MARCUS AURELIUS}} antoninus {{abbr|aug·|AUGUSTUS}}}}]]
The historian [[Cassius Dio]], who lived from the second half of the second century until sometime after 229, wrote a contemporary account of Elagabalus. Born into a [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] family, Dio 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]], and then he served as suffect consul around 205, and as proconsul in [[Africa province|Africa]] and [[Pannonia]].{{sfn|Dio|loc=Book 80.18}}

Dio's ''Roman History'' spans nearly a [[millennium]], from the arrival of [[Aeneas]] in Italy until the year 229. His contemporaneous account of Elagabalus's reign is generally considered more reliable than the ''Augustan History'' or other accounts for this general time period,<ref>Maggie L. Popkin, ''The Architecture of the Roman Triumph'' (2016), p. 170: "[of] Cassius Dio, Herodian, and the ''Historian Augusta''[,] Dio is generally considered our most reliable source for this period [the Severan era]"</ref><ref>Martin M. Winkler, ''The Fall of the Roman Empire: Film and History'' (2012), p. 63: "Dio, a close contemporary [of Aurelius] and generally considered the most reliable source for his own time"</ref> though by his own admission Dio spent the greater part of the relevant period outside of Rome and had to rely on second-hand information.{{sfn|Dio|loc=Book 80.18}}

Furthermore, the political climate in the aftermath of Elagabalus's reign, as well as Dio's own position within the government of Severus Alexander, who held him in high esteem and made him consul again, 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,{{sfn|Dio|loc=Book 80.11–12}} but chiefly to do his part in maintaining the ''[[damnatio memoriae]]'' and to associate him with another autocrat notorious for a dissolute life.{{sfn|Syme|1971|pp=145–146}}

Historian Clare Rowan calls Dio's account a mixture of reliable information and "literary exaggeration", noting that Elagabalus's marriages and time as consul are confirmed by numismatic and epigraphic records.{{sfn|Rowan|2012|p=169}} In other instances, Dio's account is inaccurate, such as when he says Elagabalus appointed entirely unqualified officials and that Comazon had no military experience before being named to head the Praetorian Guard,{{sfn|Dio|loc=[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/80*.html#79-4 book 80.4]}} when in fact Comazon had commanded the Third Legion.{{sfn|Southern|2003|p=301}}{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=20}} Dio also gives different accounts in different places of when and by whom Diadumenian (whose forces Elagabalus fought) was given imperial names and titles.{{sfn|Scott|2018|p=62}} Martin Icks has written that "It is clear that Dio was not attempting an accurate portrayal of the emperor", an assessment endorsed by Josiah Osgood, who described it as "put[ting] it mildly".<ref name=":0" />

=== Herodian ===
[[File:INC-1854-r Ауреус Элагабал ок. 218-219 гг. (реверс).png|thumb|Reverse of an ''aureus'' of Elagabalus, marked:{{Break}}{{Smallcaps|fides exercitus}} ("''the Faith of the Army''")]]
Another contemporary of Elagabalus was [[Herodian]], a minor Roman civil servant who lived from {{circa|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'', and the texts, written independently of each other, agree more often than not about Elagabalus and his short but eventful reign.{{sfn|Herodian}} Herodian may have used Dio's work as a source for parts of his account about Elagabalus.<ref name=":0" />

Arrizabalaga writes that Herodian is in most ways "less detailed and punctilious than Dio",<ref>Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado, ''Varian Studies Volume One: Varius'' (2017), p. 131</ref> and he is deemed less reliable by many modern scholars, though Rowan considers his account of Elagabalus's reign more reliable than Dio's{{sfn|Rowan|2012|p=169}} and Herodian's lack of literary and scholarly pretensions are considered to make him less biased than senatorial historians.<ref>{{harvtxt|Sorek|2012|p=202}}: "Modern scholars have regarded Herodian as unreliable. However, [...] his lack of  literary and scholarly pretensions make him less biased than the senatorial  historians".</ref> He is considered an important source for the religious reforms which took place during the reign of Elagabalus,{{sfn|Sorek|2012|p=202}} which have been confirmed by [[numismatics|numismatic]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Henry | author-link=Henry Cohen (numismatist) |title=Description Historiques des Monnaies Frappées sous l'Empire Romain |year=1880–1892 |location=Paris |page=40}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Babelon | author-link=Ernest Babelon |first=Ernest Charles François |title=Monnaies Consulaires II |year=1885–1886 |location=Bologna |publisher=Forni |pages=63–69}}</ref> and [[archaeology|archaeological]] evidence.<ref>''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum]]'', {{CIL|02|1409}}, {{CIL|02|1410}}, {{CIL|02|1413}}, and CIL III: 564–589.</ref>

=== ''Augustan History'' ===
The source of many stories of Elagabalus's depravity is the ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', which includes controversial claims.{{sfn|Syme|1971|p=218}} It is most likely that the ''Historia Augusta'' was written towards the end of the fourth century, during the reign of emperor [[Theodosius I]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cizek |first=Eugen |title=Histoire et historiens à Rome dans l'Antiquité |publisher=Presses universitaires de Lyon |year=1995 |location=Lyon |page=297}}</ref> The account of Elagabalus in the ''Historia Augusta'' is of uncertain historical merit.{{sfn|Syme|1971|p=263}} Sections 13 to 17, relating to the fall of Elagabalus, are less controversial among historians.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Butler |first=Orma Fitch |year=1910 |title=Studies in the life of Heliogabalus |journal=University of Michigan Studies: Humanistic Series IV |location=New York |publisher=MacMillan |page=140}}</ref> The author of the most scandalous stories in the ''Historia Augusta'' concedes that "both these matters and some others which pass belief were, I think, invented by people who wanted to depreciate Heliogabalus to win favour with Alexander".{{sfn|Ball|2016|p=464}}  The ''Historia Augusta'' is widely regarded to have been written by a single author who used multiple pseudonyms throughout the work, and has been described as a "fantasist" who invented large parts of his historical accounts.<ref name=":1" />

=== Modern historians ===
[[File:Elagabalus aureus - obverse only.png|thumb|209x209px|''Aureus'' of Elagabalus, inscribed: {{Smallcaps|{{abbr|imp·c·|IMPERATOR CAESAR}} {{abbr|m·aur·|MARCUS AURELIUS}} antoninus {{abbr|p·f· aug·|PIUS FELIX AUGUSTUS}}}}]]
For readers of the modern age, ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' by [[Edward Gibbon]] (1737–1794) further cemented the scandalous reputation of Elagabalus. Gibbon not only accepted and expressed outrage at the allegations of the ancient historians, but he might have added some details of his own; for example, he is the first historian known to claim that [[Gannys]] was a [[eunuch]].<ref>Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado, [http://www.cambridge.org/gb/download_file/202595/ "Pseudo-Eunuchs in the Court of Elagabalus"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013038/https://www.cambridge.org/gb/files/7113/6689/9908/8871_Pseudo-eunuchs_in_the_court_of_Elagabalus.pdf |date=4 April 2021 }}, 1999, p. 4.</ref> Gibbon wrote:

{{blockquote|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.<ref>Gibbon, Edward, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', Chapter VI</ref>}}

The 20th-century anthropologist [[James George Frazer]] (author of ''[[The Golden Bough]]'') took seriously the monotheistic aspirations of the emperor, but also ridiculed him: "The dainty priest of the Sun [was] the most abandoned reprobate who ever sat upon a throne&nbsp;... It was the intention of this eminently religious but crack-brained despot to supersede the worship of all the gods, not only at Rome but throughout the world, by the single worship of Elagabalus or the Sun".<ref>Fraser, J. G., [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.70276/2015.70276.Worship-Of-Nature-Vol1#page/n515/mode/2up ''The Worship of Nature, Volume I''], London: MacMillan and Co., 1926, pp. 496–498.</ref>
The first book-length biography was ''The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus''{{sfn|Hay|1911}} (1911) by J. Stuart Hay, "a serious and systematic study"<ref>[[J. B. Bury]] in introduction to {{harvtxt|Hay|1911|p=xxiii}}</ref> more sympathetic than that of previous historians, which nonetheless stressed the [[exoticism]] of Elagabalus, calling his reign one of "enormous wealth and excessive prodigality, luxury and aestheticism, carried to their ultimate extreme, and sensuality in all the refinements of its Eastern habit".{{sfn|Hay|1911|p=2}}

[[File:Medal of Elagabalus.jpg|thumb|Medal of Elagabalus, [[Louvre Museum]]. Inscription: {{Smallcaps|{{abbr|imp·|IMPERATOR}} antoninus pius {{abbr|aug·|AUGUSTUS}}}}]]
Some recent historians paint a more favourable picture of the emperor's rule. Martijn Icks, in ''Images of Elagabalus'' (2008; republished as ''The Crimes of Elagabalus'' in 2011 and 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. He described ancient stories pertaining to the emperor as "part of a long tradition of '[[character assassination]]' in ancient historiography and biography".{{sfn|Icks|2011|pp=345–346}}

Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado, in ''The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or 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. Prado instead suggests Elagabalus was the loser in a power struggle within the imperial family, that the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards was up for sale, and that Julia Maesa had the resources to outmaneuver and outbribe her grandson. In this version of events, once Elagabalus, his mother, and his immediate circle had been murdered, a campaign of character assassination began, resulting in a grotesque caricature that has persisted to the present day.{{sfn|de Arrizabalaga y Prado|2010|pp=1–13}} Other historians, including Icks, criticized Prado for being overly skeptical of primary sources.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leadbetter |first1=Bill |title=An eccentic book on Elagabalus (or Varius) – Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado (2020), ''The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction?'' |type=book review |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/an-eccentic-book-on-elagabalus-or-varius-leonardo-de-arrizabalaga-y-prado-the-emperor-elagabalus-fact-or-fiction-cambridge-university-press-2010-pp-xxxvii-381-figs-isbn-9780521895552-99/42A0C3AAC8C849F011421E7C83A88CB7 |journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology |pages=677–680 |doi=10.1017/S1047759414001731 |year=2014 |volume=27 |s2cid=220616205 }}</ref>

[[Warwick Ball]], in his book ''Rome in the East'', writes an apologetic account of the emperor, arguing that descriptions of his religious rites were exaggerated and should be dismissed as propaganda, similar to how pagan descriptions of Christian rites have since been dismissed. Ball describes the emperor's ritual processions as sound political and religious policy, arguing that [[syncretism]] of eastern and western deities deserves praise rather than ridicule. Ultimately, he paints Elagabalus as a child forced to become emperor who, as expected of the high-priest of a cult, continued his rituals even after becoming emperor. Ball justified Elagabalus's executions of prominent Roman figures who criticized his religious activities in the same way. Finally, Ball asserts Elagabalus's eventual victory in the sense that his deity would be welcomed by Rome in its [[Sol Invictus]] form 50 years later. Ball claims that Sol Invictus came to influence the monotheist Christian beliefs of [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]], asserting that this influence remains in Christianity to this day.{{sfn|Ball|2016|pp=462–466}}

==Cultural references==
Despite the attempted ''damnatio memoriae'', stories about Elagabalus survived and figured in many works of art and literature.<ref name="Chrystal-337" /> In Spanish, his name became a word for "glutton", ''[[:wikt:heliogábalo|heliogábalo]]''.<ref name="Chrystal-337">Paul Chrystal, ''In Bed with the Romans'' (2015), p. [//www.google.com/books/edition/In_Bed_with_the_Romans/reMgCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&pg=PP337 337]: "Despite the ''damnatio'', many works of art and literature have been spawned by the emperor's memory. He lives on in the Spanish word ''heliogábalo''"</ref><ref name="DRAE">''[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=heliog%C3%A1balo heliogábalo] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130106144501/http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=heliog%C3%A1balo |date=6 January 2013 }}'' in the [[Diccionario de la Real Academia Española]]. Retrieved on 3 May 2008.</ref> Due to the ancient stories about him, he often appears in literature and other creative media as a decadent figure (becoming something of an anti-hero in the [[Decadent movement]] of the late 19th century, and inspiring many famous works of art, especially by Decadents)<ref name="glbtq-enc-elagabal" /> and the epitome of a young, amoral [[aesthete]]. The most notable of these works include:<ref>For detailed lists of the appearance of Elagabalus in various media, and a critical evaluation of some of these works, see Icks (2012), pp. 219–224.</ref>

===Fiction===
[[File:L'agonie (1902) Elagabalus conduisant un char a seize chevaux blancs, ou, sur un autel de pierreries, reposait le cone de pierre noire.jpg|thumb|Illustration by [[Auguste Leroux]] for the 1902 edition of [[Jean Lombard]]'s ''L'agonie'' showing the migration of the ''baetyl'' of Elgabal, though with the emperor riding rather than leading the god's chariot]]
*''[[L'Agonie]]'' (1888) by [[Jean Lombard]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/lagoniel00lomb|title=L'agonie|first=Jean|last=Lombard|date=27 June 1902|publisher=Paris : P. Ollendorff|access-date=27 June 2022|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> which was the inspiration for [[Louis Couperus]]'s ''[[De berg van licht]]'' (''The Mountain of Light'') in 1905–06.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
*''[[Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronné]]'' (''Heliogabalus or The Anarchist Crowned'') by [[Antonin Artaud]] (1934), depicting the life of Elagabalus and combining essay, biography, and fiction.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boldt-Irons |first=Leslie Anne |date=1996 |title=Anarchy and Androgyny in Artaud's "Héliogabale ou L'Anarchiste Couronné" |journal=The Modern Language Review |publisher=[[Modern Humanities Research Association]] |location=Cambridge, UK |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=866–877 |jstor=3733514 |doi=10.2307/3733514}}</ref>
*Historical novels ''[[Family Favourites (novel)|Family Favourites]]'' (1960) by [[Alfred Duggan]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duggan |first=Alfred Leo |url=https://archive.org/details/familyfavorites00dugg |title=Family favorites |date=1961 |publisher=[New York] Pantheon Books |others=Internet Archive}}</ref> and ''[[Child of the Sun (novel)|Child of the Sun]]'' (1966) by [[Kyle Onstott]] and [[Lance Horner]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Glenn |first=Ray |date=October 26, 1972 |title=Book Reviews - Child of the Sun |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPArAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA39&dq=child%20of%20the%20sun%20kyle%20onstott&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q=Kyle%20Onstott&f=false |access-date=January 10, 2025 |work=The Kentucky New Era}}</ref> in the former of which an ordinary Roman soldier witnesses the reign.
*[[Victor Pelevin]]'s novel ''[[Sol Invictus (novel)|Sol Invictus]]'' (2020), which depicts Elagabalus as a key unrecognized spiritual figure.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

===Plays===
* ''[[Heliogabalus: A Buffoonery in Three Acts]]'' (1920) by [[H. L. Mencken]] and [[George Jean Nathan]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Heliogabalus: A Buffoonery in Three Acts |author=Mencken, H. L.|author-link=H. L. Mencken |author2=Nathan, George Jean|author2-link=George Jean Nathan |url=https://archive.org/details/heliogabalusabu00nathgoog |location=New York |date=1920|publisher=A. A. Knopf}}</ref>
* ''[[Heliogabalus: A Love Story]]'' (2002) by [[Sky Gilbert]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Heliogabalus: A Love Story |author=Gilbert, Sky |author-link= Sky Gilbert |location=Toronto |publisher=Cabaret Theatre Company |date=2002}}</ref>

=== Dance ===
[[Image:Elagabalus Forchtenstein.jpg|thumb|upright|Elagabalus on a wall painting at [[Forchtenstein Castle]] in [[Austria]]]]
* ''Héliogabale'', a modern dance choreographed by [[Maurice Béjart]]<ref>Giorgio Lotti, Raul Radice, John Gilbert, ''La Scala'' (1979), p. 232: "In ''Heliogabale'', created for the Yantra Ballet (Ballet of the Twentieth Century) and performed for the first time at the Shiraz Festival, Béjart drew inspiration from three sources—African music, used to conjure up the magical atmosphere surrounding Heliogabalus; Italian opera, reflecting the grandeur of Imperial Rome; and Verdi's Macbeth, expressing the power of the feminine will".</ref>
* ''The Legends'', a dance performed by [[Sebastian Droste]] as Heliogabalus, as part of the ''Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy'' performance staged by Droste and [[Anita Berber]] in 1923<ref>Mel Gordon, ''The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber'' (2006), p. 175</ref>

===Music===
* ''[[Eliogabalo]]'' (1667), an opera by Venetian Baroque composer [[Francesco Cavalli]]
* Is mentioned (as Heliogabalus) in the "[[Major-General's Song]]" (1879) from [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://genius.com/2863863 |title=I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General|access-date=29 June 2019|archive-date=4 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013137/https://genius.com/Gilbert-and-sullivan-i-am-the-very-model-of-a-modern-major-general-annotated?referent_id=2863863|url-status=live}}</ref> "I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/poems/gilbert1.html|title='I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General' (lyrics)|website=Naic.edu|access-date=27 June 2022|archive-date=15 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815183532/https://naic.edu/~gibson/poems/gilbert1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''[[Heliogabale (opera)|Heliogabale]]'' (1910), an opera by French composer [[Déodat de Séverac]] 
*[[Artaud (album)|''Artaud'']] (1973), an album released by Argentine band [[Pescado Rabioso]], particularly the track "[[Cantata de Puentes Amarillos]]", was heavily influenced by Antonin Artaud's book, ''Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronn''é, as well as the life of Heliogabalus.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spinetta |first=Luis Alberto |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/905840105 |title=Spinetta : crónica e iluminaciones |date=2014 |others=Eduardo Berti |isbn=978-950-49-4055-5 |edition=Enlarged, corrected and updated  |location=C.A.B.A. |page=44 |oclc=905840105}}</ref> 
* ''[[Eliogabalus]]'' (1990), title of both the second album and second song by the experimental rock band [[Devil Doll (Slovenian band)]]
* ''[[Heliogabalus imperator]]'' (''Emperor Heliogabalus'') (1972), an orchestral work by the German composer [[Hans Werner Henze]] 
* ''[[Six Litanies for Heliogabalus]]'' (2007), an album by American musician [[John Zorn]]
* ''[[The Pale Emperor]]'' (2015), an album by American musician [[Marilyn Manson]], was inspired by the life of Heliogabalus and more specifically Antonin Artaud's book<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.revolvermag.com/music/marilyn-manson-devil-beneath-my-feet |title=Marilyn Manson: The Devil Beneath My Feet |date=1 March 2015 |work=Revolver|access-date=12 March 2018 |language=en|archive-date=12 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312083436/https://www.revolvermag.com/music/marilyn-manson-devil-beneath-my-feet|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.thefader.com/2015/02/20/marilyn-mason-makeup |title=Marilyn Manson Explains His Life-Long Love Affair With Makeup |work=The Fader|access-date=12 March 2018 |language=en|archive-date=7 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207192354/http://www.thefader.com/2015/02/20/marilyn-mason-makeup|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Paintings ===
[[Image:The Roses of Heliogabalus.jpg|thumb|300px|''[[The Roses of Heliogabalus]]'' by [[Lawrence Alma-Tadema]] (1888)]]
* ''Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun'' (1866), by the [[Pre-Raphaelite]] [[Simeon Solomon]]
*  ''[[The Roses of Heliogabalus]]'' (1888), by the Anglo-Dutch academician Sir [[Lawrence Alma-Tadema]], depicts one of the most notorious incidents laid to Elagabalus's account, an extravagant dinner party in which guests were smothered under a mass of "violets and other flowers" dropped from above.<ref>{{cite news |work=Augustan History |title=Life of Elagabalus |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/2*.html#21 |page=21|access-date=19 February 2021|archive-date=4 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013046/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/2%2A.html#21|url-status=live}}</ref> 
* ''Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus'' (2010–11), by [[Anselm Kiefer]]<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.artribune.com/2012/02/kiefer-a-bermondsey-prima-personale-alla-nuova-white-cube/anselm-kiefer-antonin-artaud-heliogabalus-2010-11-a4-1 |title=Anselm Kiefer – Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus – 2010–11 – courtesy White Cube, Londra – photo Ben Westoby |date=21 February 2012 |publisher=Artribune |language=it|access-date=9 July 2012|archive-date=11 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611063121/http://www.artribune.com/2012/02/kiefer-a-bermondsey-prima-personale-alla-nuova-white-cube/anselm-kiefer-antonin-artaud-heliogabalus-2010-11-a4-1/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Poetry===
* ''[[Algabal]]'' (1892–1919), a collection of poems by [[Stefan George]]
* In "He 'Digesteth Harde Yron{{'"}} American poet [[Marianne Moore]] describes a banquet at which Elagabalus served six hundred ostrich brains, a detail she found in George Jennison's book ''Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome''.

===Television===
* In [[CBBC (TV channel)|CBBC]]'s adaptation of ''[[Horrible Histories (2009 TV series)|Horrible Histories]]'', Elagabalus is portrayed by [[Mathew Baynton]] as a laddish teenager with a cruel sense of humour.

===Film===
* Elagabalus is the subject of the  1911 French short historical drama ''[[A Roman Orgy]]'', in which he sets a pride of lions on an unfortunate slave.{{sfn|Icks|2011|p=241}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Cyrino|first=Monica S.|title=Screening Love and Sex in the Ancient World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=byvaE0aTiXUC&pg=PA244|date=6 February 2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-29960-4|page=244}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/O/OrgieRomaine1911.html|title=L'orgie romaine|publisher=Silentera.com|accessdate=6 November 2014}}</ref>

==Severan dynasty family tree==
{{Severan dynasty family tree}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==

===Primary sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Lucius Cassius Dio]] |year=1927 |orig-year={{circa}} 230 |title=Roman History |publisher=[[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]] |location=Portsmouth, New Hampshire|edition=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |series=Books 79–80|language=en |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html |ref={{sfnRef|Dio}} |access-date=14 November 2020 |archive-date=4 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013041/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |author=[[Herodian]]|year=1961 |orig-year={{circa}} 240 |title=Roman History |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley, California|language=en |translator=Edward C. Echols |series=Book 5|url=https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Herodian_Roman_Histories|ref={{sfnRef|Herodian}} |access-date=24 August 2019 |archive-date=29 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229010221/https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodian-s-roman-history/ |url-status=live }} Published on Livius.org in 2007
* ''[[Historia Augusta]]'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/1*.html The Life of Elagabalus Part 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013042/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/1%2A.html |date=4 April 2021 }} and [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/2*.html 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013046/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Elagabalus/2%2A.html |date=4 April 2021 }}, Latin text with English translation.
{{refend}}

===Secondary material===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Arrizabalaga y Prado |first=Leonardo de |title=The Emperor Elagabulus: Fact or Fiction? |year=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-89555-2 |ref={{sfnRef|Arrizabalaga|2010}} }}
* Arrizabalaga y Prado, Leonardo de. [http://www.cambridge.org/gb/download_file/202595/ "Pseudo-Eunuchs in the Court of Elagabalus: The Riddle of Gannys, Eutychianus, and Comazon"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404013038/https://www.cambridge.org/gb/files/7113/6689/9908/8871_Pseudo-eunuchs_in_the_court_of_Elagabalus.pdf |date=4 April 2021 }}, ''Collected Papers in Honour of the Ninety-Fifth Anniversary of Ueno Gakuen'', Tokyo, 1999, pp.&nbsp;117–141.
* Arrizabalaga y Prado, Leonardo de. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130309063829/http://www.couperusmuseum.org/varian/01_papers.html "Varian Studies: a Definition of the Subject"], opening address to the Varian Symposium, [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], 30–31 July 2005.
* {{cite book |last=Ball |first=Warwick |author-link=Warwick Ball |year=2000 |title=Rome in the East |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |isbn=978-0-415-11376-2 |url={{googlebooks|8Q2XxXx5ZdsC |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Ball |first=Warwick |author-link=Warwick Ball |year=2016 |title=Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames|isbn=978-0-415-71777-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Birley |first=Anthony R. |year=2002 |title=Septimius Severus: The African Emperor |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames|isbn=978-1-138-13416-4 |oclc=1062302222 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Bowman |editor-first1=Alan |editor-last2=Cameron |editor-first2=Averil |editor-last3=Garnsey |editor-first3=Peter |year=2005 |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |volume=12. The Crisis of Empire, AD 193–337 |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, England |url={{googlebooks|MNSyT_PuYVMC |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Burns |first=Jasper |year=2006 |title=Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |isbn=978-1-134-13184-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hL99AgAAQBAJ |access-date=20 December 2021 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429004508/https://books.google.com/books?id=hL99AgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Campanile |editor-first1=Domitilla |editor-last2=Carlà-Uhink |editor-first2=Filippo |editor-last3=Facella |editor-first3=Margherita |year=2017 |title=TransAntiquity: Cross-Dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |isbn=978-1-317-37737-5 |url={{googlebooks|39ENDgAAQBAJ |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=de Arrizabalaga y Prado |first=Leonardo |year=2010 |title=The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact Or Fiction? |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-89555-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Tin5C1YnaAC&pg=PA1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Goldsworthy |first=Adrian |author-link=Adrian Goldsworthy |year=2009 |title=How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven, Connecticut |isbn=978-0-300-15560-0 |url={{googlebooks|HOdcA1nqY7cC |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Grant (classicist) |year=1996 |title=The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames|isbn=978-0-415-12772-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Halsberghe |first=Gaston H. |title=The Cult of Sol Invictus |year=1972 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden}}
* {{cite book |last=Hay |first=J. Stuart |title=The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus |location=London |publisher=MacMillan |year=1911 |url=http://members.aol.com/heliogabby/amazing/aeh1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080202104958/http://members.aol.com/heliogabby/amazing/aeh1.htm |archive-date=2 February 2008 |page=124 |access-date=3 May 2008 }} [https://archive.org/stream/rsamazingemperor00hayjuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Additional copy]. Introduction by [[J. B. Bury]].
* {{cite book |last=Icks |year=2011 |first=Martijn |title=The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome's Decadent Boy Emperor |publisher=I.B. Tauris |place=London |isbn=978-1-84885-362-1 |url={{googlebooks|_g-MDwAAQBAJ |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Kienast |first=Dietmar |year=2017 |orig-year=1990 |title=Römische Kaisertabelle: Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie |chapter=Elgabal |publisher=[[Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft]] |location=Darmstadt, Germany |language=de |isbn=978-3-534-26724-8 |ref={{sfnref|Kienast|1990}} }}
* Kienast, Dietmar. "Heliogabalus, a Monster on the Roman Throne: The Literary Construction of a 'Bad' Emperor," in Ineke Sluiter and Ralph M. Rosen (eds), ''Kakos: Badness and Anti-value in Classical Antiquity'' (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008) (Mnemosyne: Supplements. History and Archaeology of Classical Antiquity, 307.
* Kienast, Dietmar. [http://www.sehepunkte.de/2010/10/18108.html "Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado: ''The Emperor Elagabalus''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605074833/http://www.sehepunkte.de/2010/10/18108.html |date=5 June 2012 }}.
* Kienast, Dietmar. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130309063816/http://www.couperusmuseum.org/varian/16_papers.html "The 'Vices and Follies' of Elagabalus in Modern Historical Research"], paper delivered at the Varian Symposium, Trinity College, Cambridge, 30–31 July 2005.
* {{citation |last=Meckler |first=Michael L. |title=Elagabalus |work=[[De Imperatoribus Romanis]] |url=http://www.roman-emperors.org/elagabal.htm |access-date=21 November 2004 |archive-date=15 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515234707/http://www.roman-emperors.org/elagabal.htm |url-status=live }}, 26 August 1997.
* {{cite book |last=Millar |first=Fergus |author-link=Fergus Millar |year=1993 |title=The Roman Near East, 31 B.C. – A.D. 337 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-77885-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Niebuh |first=B.G. |author-link=Barthold Georg Niebuhr |translator1=Julius Charles Hare |translator2=Connop Thirlwall |year=1844 |title=The History Of Rome |publisher=Taylor and Walter |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofrome001903mbp }}
* {{cite book |first=Pat |last=Southern | author-link=Pat Southern |year=2003 |title=The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames|isbn=978-1-134-55380-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Potter |first=David Stone |year=2004 |title=The Roman Empire at Bay: Ad 180–395 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |isbn=978-0-415-10057-1 |url={{googlebooks|qDVXRO1CFXAC |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Rowan |first=Clare |year=2012 |title=Under Divine Auspices |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-1-107-02012-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Scott |first=Andrew G. |year=2018 |title=Emperors and Usurpers: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford|isbn=978-01-90-87960-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Sidebottom |first1=Harry |title=The mad emperor : Heliogabalus and the decadence of Rome |date=2022 |location=London|isbn=978-0861542536}}
* {{cite book |last=Sorek |first=Susan |year=2012 |title=Ancient Historians: A Student Handbook |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-4411-1135-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Syme |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Syme |year=1971 |title=Emperors and biography: studies in the 'Historia Augusta' |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-814357-4}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130309063825/http://www.couperusmuseum.org/varian/index.html Varian Symposium] Acta and links for a conference held at Trinity College, Cambridge, 30–31 July 2005.
* {{cite book |last=Varner |first=Eric R. |year=2004 |title=Monumenta Graeca et Romana: Mutilation and transformation: damnatio memoriae and Roman imperial portraiture |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=Leiden, Netherlands |isbn=978-90-04-13577-2 |url={{googlebooks|5IpPhTqnDJkC |plainurl=y}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Zanghellini |first=Aleardo |year=2015 |title=The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=Abingdon-on-Thames|isbn=978-1-134-06706-0}}

====Images====
* [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/elagabalus/t.html Wildwinds coin archive: Elagabalus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517072528/http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/elagabalus/t.html |date=17 May 2008 }}. Large archive of ancient Roman and provincial coins bearing the image of Elagabalus. Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
* [http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100&search=Elagabalus Coinarchives coin archive: Elagabalus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927182819/http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100&search=Elagabalus |date=27 September 2007 }}. Large archive of ancient Roman and provincial coins issued under Elagabalus, including coins of family members. Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Severan dynasty]]||{{circa|204}}|11 March|222|}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Macrinus]]
}} 
{{s-ttl
| title = [[List of Roman emperors|Roman emperor]]
| years = 218–222
}} 
{{s-aft
| after = [[Severus Alexander]]
}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Macrinus]]
| before2 = [[Marcus Oclatinius Adventus|M. Oclatinius Adventus]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Roman consul]]
| years = 218–220
| regent1 = [[Marcus Oclatinius Adventus|M. Oclatinius Adventus]],<br />[[Quintus Tineius Sacerdos|Q. Tineius Sacerdos]],<br /> [[Publius Valerius Comazon|P. Valerius Comazon]]
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[Gaius Vettius Gratus Sabinianus|G. Vettius Gratus Sabinianus]],<br /> [[Seleucus (Roman usurper)|M. Flavius Vitellius Seleucus]]
}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Gaius Vettius Gratus Sabinianus|G. Vettius Gratus Sabinianus]],<br /> [[Seleucus (Roman usurper)|M. Flavius Vitellius Seleucus]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Roman consul]]
| years = 222
| regent1 = [[Severus Alexander|M. Aurelius Alexander Caesar]]
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[Marius Maximus]],<br />[[Luscius Roscius Aelianus Paculus Salvius Julianus|L. Roscius Aelianus Paculus Salvius Julianus]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Roman emperors}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Elagabalus| ]]
[[Category:200s births]]
[[Category:222 deaths]]
[[Category:3rd-century murdered monarchs]]
[[Category:3rd-century Roman emperors]]
[[Category:People of Arab descent]]
[[Category:Ancient child monarchs]]
[[Category:Assassinated religious leaders]]
[[Category:3rd-century Roman consuls]]
[[Category:People from Homs]]
[[Category:Roman emperors murdered by the Praetorian Guard]]
[[Category:Roman emperors to suffer posthumous denigration or damnatio memoriae]]
[[Category:Emesene dynasty]]
[[Category:Severan dynasty]]
[[Category:Aurelii]]
[[Category:People from Roman Syria]]
[[Category:Arabs in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:220s in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Historical figures with ambiguous or disputed gender identity]]
[[Category:Historical figures with ambiguous or disputed sexuality]]
[[Category:Assassinated heads of state in Europe]]
[[Category:Damnatio memoriae]]
[[Category:Varii]]