Elagabalus

The Roman emperor commonly known by this name, was the son of Julia Soemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus, and first cousin once removed to Caracalla. [See genealogical table prefixed to the article Caracalla.] He was born at Emesa about A. D. 205, and was originally called Varius Avitus Bassianus, a series of appellations derived from his father (Varius), maternal grandfather (Avitus), and maternal greatgrandfather (Bassianus). While yet almost a child he became, along with his first cousin Alexander Severus, priest of Elagabalus, the Syro-Phoenician Sun-god, to whose worship a gorgeous temple was dedicated in his native city. The history of his elevation to the purple, to which in the earlier portions of his life he was not supposed to possess any claim, was effected in a very singular manner by his grandmother, Julia Maesa. She had long enjoyed the splendors and dignities of the imperial court in the society of her sister, Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus and the mother of Geta and Caracalla. But after the murder of the latter by Macrinus, Maesa was compelled to return to Syria, there to dwell in unhonoured retirement. While still smarting under a reverse peculiarly galling to her haughty temper, she received intelligence that the army was already disgusted by the parsimony and rigid discipline of their new ruler, and was sighing for the luxury enjoyed under his predecessor. Maesa, skilled in court intrigues and familiar with revolutions, quickly perceived that this feeling might be turned to her own advantage. A report was circulated with industrious rapidity that Elagabalus was not the son of his reputed father, but the offspring of a secret commerce between Soemias and Caracalla. The troops stationed in the vicinity to guard the Phoenician border had already testified their admiration of the youth, whom they had seen upon their visits to Emesa gracefully performing the imposing duties of his priesthood, and, having been further propitiated by a liberal distribution of the wealth hoarded by Maresa, were easily persuaded to receive Elagabalus with his whole family into the camp, and to salute him as their sovereign by the title of M. Aurelius Antoninus, as if he had really been the undoubted progeny and lawful heir of their late monarch. These proceedings took place on the 16th of May, A. D. 213. Macrinus having received information of what had happened, despatched Julianus with a body of troops to quell the insurrection. But these, instead of obeying the orders of their general, were prevailed upon to join the mutineers. Whereupon Macrinus advanced in person to meet his rival, was signally defeated in a battle fought on the borders of Syria and Phoenicia, and having escaped in disguise was soon afterwards discovered, brought back, and put to death. [Macrinus.] The conqueror hastened to Antioch, from whence he forwarded a letter to the senate, in which he at once assumed, without waiting for the form of their consent, all the designations of Caesar, Imperator, son of Antoninus, grandson of Severus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, and Proconsul, together with the tribunitian authority. At the same time he inveighed against the treachery of Macrinus towards his master, his low birth, and his presumption in daring to adopt the title of emperor, concluding with a promise to consult the best interests of all classes of the community, and declaring that he intended to set up Augustus, whose age when he first grasped the reins of power he compared with his own, as a model for imitation. No resistance to these claims was testified on the part of the senate or people, for we find from a curious inscription, discovered some years ago at Rome, that the Fratres Arvales assembled in the Capitol on the 14th of July, that is scarcely more than five weeks after the decisive victory over Macrinus, in order to offer up their annual vows for the health and safety of their young prince, who is distinguished by all the appellations enumerated above.

Elagabalus entered upon his second consulship in A. D. 219, at Nicomedeia, and from thence proceeded to Rome, where he celebrated his accession by magnificent games, by prodigal largesses, and by laying the foundation of a sumptuous shrine for his tutelary deity. Two years afterwards, when he had rendered himself alike odious and contemptible by all manner of follies and abominations, he was persuaded by the politic Maesa to adopt his first cousin, Alexander Severus, to proclaim him Caesar, and nominate him consul-elect. Soon after, having repented of these steps, he endeavoured to procure the death of his kinsman, but was frustrated, partly by the watchfulness of his grandmother and partly by the zeal of the soldiers, with whom Alexander was a great favourite A repetition of a similar attempt the year following (A. D. 222) proved his own destruction; for a mutiny having arisen among the praetorians in consequence, he was slain along with Soemias in the camp while endeavouring to appease their fury. The two bodies were dragged through the streets and cast into the Tiber, and hence the epithet or nickname of Tiberinus, one of the many applied in scorn to the tyrant after his death.

The reign of this prince, who perished at the age of eighteen, after having occupied the throne for three years, nine months, and four days, dating from the battle of Antioch, was characterised throughout by an accumulation of the most fantastic folly, and tire most frantic superstition, together with impurity so bestial that the particulars almost trauscend time limits of credibility. Had he confined himself to the absurd practical jokes of which so many have been recorded; had he been satisfied within shipping on the tongues of peacocks and nightingales, with feeding lions on pheasants and parrots, with assembling companies of guests who were all fat, or all lean, or all tall, or all short, oi all bald, or all gouty, and regaling them with mock repasts; had he been content to occupy his leisure hours in solemnizing the nuptials of his favourite deity with the Trojan Pallas or the African Urania, and in making matches between the gods and goddresses all over Italy, men might have laughed goodnaturedly, anticipating an increase of wisdom with increasing years. But unhappily even these trivial amusements were not unfrequently accompanied with cruelty and bloodshed. His earnest devotion to that god whose minister he had been, and to whose favour he probably ascribed his elevation, might have been regarded as excusable or even justifiable had it not been attended with persecution and tyranny. The Roman populace would with easy toleration have admitted and worshipped a new divinity, but they beheld with disgust their emperor appearing in public, arrayed in the attire of a Syrian priest, dancing wild measures and chanting barbaric hymns; they listened with horror to the tales of magic rites, and of human victims secretly slaughtered; they could scarcely submit without indignation to the ordinance that an outlandish idol should take precedence of their fathers' gods and of Jupiter himself, and still less could they consent to obey the decree subsequently promulgated, that it should not be lawful to offer homage at Rome to any other celestial power. Buut by far the blackest of his offences were his sins against the decencies of both public and private life, the details of which are too horrible and too disgusting to admit of description. (D. C. 77.30-41, lxxix.; Herodian, 5.4-23 ; Lamprid. Elagab.; Capitolin. Macrin. ; Eutrop. 8.13; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xxiii., Epit. xxiii.) A coin of Elagabalus is given under Paula, the wife of Elagabalus. [W.R]

(1) Elagabal, a deity among the Phoenicians. This deity, according to Capitolinus (Macr. 9) and Aurelius Victor, was the Sun. Lampridius, however, fluctuates between the Sun and Iupiter, while Spartianus (Caracall. 11) leaves it uncertain. The orthography of the name is also disputed, some writing it Elagabal, others Eleagabal and Alagabal. Herodian gives us an accurate description of the form under which this deity was worshipped (v. 3, 10 foll.); he also informs us that by this appellation the Sun was meant, and that the deity in question was revered not only by the Syrians, but that the native satraps and barbarian kings were accustomed to send splendid presents to his shrine. According to Herodian, the god Elagabalus was worshipped under the form of a large black stone, round below and terminating above in a point— in other words, of a conical shape. This description is confirmed by the medals of Emesa, the principal seat of his worship, on which the conical stone is represented. So also, on the medals of Antoninus Pius, struck in this same city, an eagle appears perched on a cone. The same thing appears on medals of Caracalla, and on one an eagle with expanded wings stands before a conical stone in the middle of a hexastyle temple.

(2) M. Aurelius Antonīnus, a Roman emperor. He was the grandson of Maesa, sister to the empress Iulia, the wife of Septimius Severus. Maesa had two daughters, Soaemias or Semiamira, the mother of the subject of this article, and Mammaea, mother of Alexander Severus. The true name of Elagabalus was Varius Avitus Bassianus, and he was reported to have been the illegitimate son of Caracalla. He was born at Antioch, A.D. 204. Maesa took care of his infancy, and placed him, when five years of age, in the temple of the Sun at Emesa, to be educated as a priest; and through her influence he was made, while yet a boy, high-priest of the Sun. That divinity was called in Syria Elagabal, whence the young Varius assumed the name of Elagabalus. After the death of Caracalla and the elevation of Macrinus, the latter having incurred by his severity the dislike of the soldiers, Maesa availed herself of this feeling to induce the officers to rise in favour of her grandson, whom she presented to them as the son of the murdered Caracalla. Elagabalus, who was then in his fifteenth year, was proclaimed emperor by the legion stationed at Emesa. Having put himself at their head, he was attacked by Macrinus, who at first had the advantage; but he and his mother Soaemias, with great spirit, brought the soldiers again to the charge and defeated Macrinus, who was overtaken in his flight and put to death, A.D. 218. Elagabalus, having entered Antioch, wrote a letter to the Senate, professing to take for his model Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, a name revered at Rome; and he also assumed that emperor's name. The Senate acknowledged him, and he set out for Rome, but delayed for several months on his way amid festivities and amusements, and at last stopped at Nicomedia for the winter. In the following year he arrived at Rome and began a career of debauchery, extravagance, and cruelty which lasted the remaining three years of his reign, and the disgusting details of which are given by Lampridius, Herodian, and Dio Cassius. He surrounded himself with gladiators, actors, and other base favourites, who made an unworthy use of their influence. He married several wives, among others a Vestal. The imperial palace became a scene of debauch and open prostitution. Elagabalus, being attached to the superstitions of the East, raised a temple on the Palatine Hill to the Syrian god whose name he bore, and plundered the temples of the Roman gods to enrich his own. He put to death many senators, and established a senate of women, under the presidency of his mother, Soaemias, which body decided all questions relative to women's dresses, and to visits, precedence, and amusements. He wore his pontifical vest as high-priest of the Sun, with a rich tiara on his head. His grandmother Maesa, seeing his folly, thought of conciliating the Romans by associating with him, as Caesar, his younger cousin, Alexander Severus, who soon became a favourite with the people. Elagabalus, who had consented to the association, became afterwards jealous of his cousin and wished to deprive him of his honours, but he could not obtain the consent of the Senate. His next measure was to spread the report of Alexander's death, which produced an insurrection among the praetorians; and Elagabalus, having repaired to the camp to quell the mutiny, was murdered, together with his mother and his favourites, and his body was thrown into the Tiber, A.D. 222. He was succeeded by Alexander Severus. Elagabalus was eighteen years of age at the time of his death, and had reigned three years, nine months, and four days (Lamprid. Elagab.; Herodian, v. 3 foll.; Dio Cass. lxxviii. 31 foll.; lxxix. 1 foll.).