Journey to Rome and political appointments of Elagabalus, inscribed: on the obverse and on the reverse, showing Fortuna with a cornucopia'' and a rudder on a globe in the
Horti Spei Veteris on the
Esquiline Hill in Rome Elagabalus stayed for a time at Antioch, apparently to quell various mutinies. Dio outlines several, which historian
Fergus Millar places prior to the winter of 218–219. These included one by
Gellius Maximus, who commanded the
Fourth Legion and was executed, and one by
Verus, who commanded the Third Legion
Gallica, which was disbanded once the revolt was put down. 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, the year of Elagabalus's second consulship. Herodian says that Elagabalus had a painting of himself sent ahead to Rome to be hung over a statue of the goddess
Victoria in the
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. 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. 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. Dio states that Elagabalus wanted to marry a charioteer named
Hierocles and to declare him
caesar, just as (Dio says) he had previously wanted to marry Gannys and name him
caesar. 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. 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. Accordingly, they became the first women allowed into the Senate, 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"). though
antoniniani had a higher metal content than under Caracalla.
Religious controversy . Inscription: ("to the Holy Sun God El-Gabal''") Since the reign of
Septimius Severus,
sun worship had increased throughout the Empire. At the end of 220, Elagabalus instated
Elagabal as the chief deity of the
Roman pantheon, possibly on the date of the
winter solstice. In his official titulature, Elagabalus was then entitled in . That a foreign god should be honored above
Jupiter, with Elagabalus himself as chief priest, shocked many Romans. 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. 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, and Minerva. He aroused further discontent when he married the
Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, Vesta's high priestess, claiming the marriage would produce "godlike children". 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. A lavish temple called the
Elagabalium was built on the east face of the
Palatine Hill to house Elagabal, who was represented by a black conical
meteorite from Emesa. 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". 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
abstain from swine. He forced senators to watch while he danced circling the altar of Elagabal to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals. 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. During this festival, Elagabalus placed the black stone on a
chariot adorned with gold and jewels, which he paraded through the city: The most sacred relics from the Roman religion were transferred from their respective shrines to the Elagabalium, including the emblem of the
Great Mother, the fire of
Vesta, the
Shields of the
Salii, and the
Palladium, so that no other god could be worshipped except in association with Elagabal. Although his native cult was widely ridiculed by contemporaries, sun-worship was popular among the soldiers and would be promoted by several later emperors.
Marriages, sexual orientation and gender identity , 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: 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 to women five times (twice to the same woman). 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 Julia Aquilia Severa as his second wife, divorced her, and took a third wife, who Herodian says was
Annia Aurelia Faustina, a descendant of
Marcus Aurelius and the widow of a man Elagabalus had recently executed, Pomponius Bassus. In the last year of his reign, Elagabalus divorced Annia Faustina and remarried Aquilia Severa. Dio states that another "husband of this woman [Elagabalus] was
Hierocles", an ex-slave and
chariot driver from
Caria. The
Historia Augusta claims that Elagabalus also married a man named
Zoticus, an athlete from
Smyrna, while Dio says only that Zoticus was his
cubicularius. Dio says that Elagabalus
prostituted himself in taverns and brothels. Some writers suggest that Elagabalus may have identified as female or been
transgender, and may have sought
sex reassignment surgery. Dio states that Elagabalus came to be called "woman, lady, empress" after marrying Hierocles. 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, 80.16.7).
Fall from power Elagabalus alienated the Roman elites and the
Praetorian Guard through his perceptibly foreign conduct and his religious provocations. 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. Prevailing on Elagabalus, she arranged that he appoint his cousin Alexander as his heir and that the boy be given the title of
Caesar. Alexander was elevated to
Caesar in June 221, possibly on 26 June. Elagabalus and Alexander were each named
consul designatus for the following year, probably on 1 July. Elagabalus took up his fourth consulship for the year of 222. Alexander shared the consulship with the emperor that year. Elagabalus reconsidered this arrangement when he began to suspect that the Praetorian Guard preferred his cousin to him. Elagabalus ordered attempts on Alexander's life, after failing to obtain approval from the Senate for stripping Alexander of his shared title. According to Dio, Elagabalus invented the rumor that Alexander was near death to see how the Praetorians would react. A riot ensued, and the Guard demanded to see Elagabalus and Alexander in the
Praetorian camp. (
National Archaeological Museum, Naples) On 13 March, 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 arrest and execution of anyone who had taken part in this display of insubordination. In response, members of the
Praetorian Guard attacked Elagabalus and his mother: Following his assassination, many associates of Elagabalus were killed or deposed. His lover
Hierocles was executed. His religious edicts were reversed and the stone of Elagabal was sent back to
Emesa. Women were again barred from attending meetings of the Senate. The practice of
damnatio memoriae—erasing from the public record a disgraced personage formerly of note—was systematically applied in his case. Several images, including an over-life-size statue of him as
Hercules now in Naples, were re-carved with the face of Alexander Severus. == Sources ==