Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 26050514, member: 128351&quot;][ATTACH=full]1656529[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Are we absolutely sure Elagabalus was that crazy teenager only devoted to silliness and debauchery? This is what is told in mainstream modern history books, and what we can read from Cassius Dio (a senator who didn&#039;t live in Rome under Elagabalus and wasn&#039;t neutral regarding political questions) and the <i>Historia Augusta</i> (a late 4th c. work very suspect of historical inaccuracy). Herodian, who lived in Rome and was contemporary with Elagabalus, is much less severe. This should be noticed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Elagabalus&#039; name was Varius Avitus Bassianus. His mother, Julia Soaemias, was Julia Domna&#039;s niece. He was probably not born in Emesa but in Rome, as a member of the imperial family. His father, Sextius Varius Marcellus, held several high offices in Rome from 204 to c. 215 : the young Bassianus was more than probably educated in Rome, not in Emesa. He moved with his mother and grandmother to Emesa in 217, under Macrinus, after Caracalla was assassinated; maybe a little earlier if his mother left Rome after her husband&#039;s death in 215.</p><p><br /></p><p>In Emesa he became the high priest of Elagabal, the local Sun-god. This is the most significant moment of his life : he became a radical believer. When his grandmother Julia Maesa made him an emperor, pretending he was Caracalla&#039;s son, he accepted ONLY if he could transfer the sacred stone of Elagabal to Rome, make Rome the new holy city of this god, and continue to worship him publicly as his high priest. He valued this more than being emperor ! </p><p><br /></p><p>His project was more serious than usually said, and everything he did in Rome was in conformity with Roman law, Roman <i>mos majorum</i> and oriental religious traditions. </p><p><br /></p><p>Moving the sacred stone to Rome and building a new temple for it on the Palatine hill was in conformity with the <i>mos majorum</i> : it had already been done in the 200s BC when the Black Stone of Pessinus had been settled on the Palatine hill, with all its picturesque and scandalous priests. Being Augustus meant being Pontifex Maximus, a status enabling him to touch sacred things nobody else had the right to touch : he had the right to move sacred relics such as the Palladium and the <i>ancilia</i> (shields) of Mars, he had the right to marry a vestal virgin (his supposed father, Caracalla, had already slept with a vestal virgin too). Prostitution, male or female, was a sacred practice in Oriental religions at the time. Bringing these religious practices in Rome, he could summon all Rome&#039;s prostitutes and address them as their leader, for in Syrian religious traditions these women were not whores but priestesses. </p><p><br /></p><p>To sum up, Elagabalus wasn&#039;t so crazy, after all... He has been defamed after his assassination to make his cousin and successor, Severus Alexander, look a good emperor. Introducing in Rome the Sun-god <i>Sol Invictus</i> (that was Elagabal&#039;s Roman name) as the new supreme deity wasn&#039;t so foolish : Aurelianus did exactly the same thing a few decades later, not to mention Constantine !...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1656532[/ATTACH]</p><p>AE coin from Laodicaea (Lattaqiyeh, Syria)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in