As soon as he sat on the throne, he began to shock his subjects. He led such an unfettered sex life that, instead of a ruler, he became a prostitute in their eyes. Eventually he decided to change his gender. This was too much for the ancient Romans ...
In 218, a fourteen-year-old boy was elevated to the imperial throne, allegedly the illegitimate son of Emperor Caracalla (murdered a year earlier). The teenager's name was Warius Avitus Bassjanus. He came from Syria, from the priestly lineage of the sun god Baal, known there as "Elah-Gabal". It was from him that the name under which the young ruler went down in history came from:Elagabalus.
Madam Emperor
The young boy was, of course, susceptible to the intrigues of those around him:his grandmother, mother, flatterers. But he seemed to be interested in two things more than politics. First, his god whom he fanatically served. He personally made sacrifices to him during bloody and obscene rituals, in which he also forced Roman notables. Second, sex.
Contrary to all rules, he took a vestal, or a priestess of the hearth, for his wife. He stated that this was the will of his god:that he be united with Vesta. He wanted to beget "divine children" in this way, but eventually lost his enthusiasm. He turned the imperial court into an ordinary brothel, in which he turned from the role of the ruler of the harem into a prostitute, tempting both women and men . The Romans could endure a lot. At that time, however, it might have seemed to them that the world was turned upside down.
Elagabalus was born in Syria to the high priests of the sun god Baal. His mother and grandmother had successfully convinced Rome that he was the son of Caracalla, the previous emperor. Pictured is the bust of Elagabalus in the Palazzo Nuovo in Rome.
Living at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd century CE the Roman historian of Greek descent Cassius Dio wrote about an anecdote with Heliogabalus and the athlete Zoticus. The athlete was famous for its stately private parts. He was also accompanied - like most contemporary professionals - the fame of a great lover. The emperor brought him to Rome and began to flirt. At the greeting, "I greet you, my lord and emperor," the ruler assumed a feminine pose and replied, "Don't call me lord, for I am a mistress."
Sexual fantasies
Then, after having checked during the bath that Zoticus' genitals were indeed impressive, Heliogabalus was getting ready to have rough sex with the athlete. However, nothing came of it, because the rival to the king's bed - the chariot driver Hierokles - added a mysterious measure to the athlete's dinner, which temporarily made him impotent. The emperor got angry and drove Zoticus away. Hierocles turned into feathers. Elagabalus began to call himself his wife and practiced with him even analingus, that is quite a specific type of anal caresses, involving the stimulation of the anus area with his mouth (or at least he was kissing it on the anus) . Over time, however, he began to get the punches from his furious "husband" and walked around the palace with black eyes.
Probably more such stories circulated. Let us add that Elagabalus was circumcised, and this practice - typical of the followers of Eastern cults - was perceived in Rome as deviation (similarly to tattoos or piercing of men's ears, which additionally smacked the Romans with effeminacy). And in this world where Hellenized Jews used special genital covers to mask the embarrassing lack of a foreskin, the emperor decides to mutilate his own manhood! Scandal!
Transsexualism at the imperial court
That's not all. Elagabalus urged the medics to castrate him and mold his vagina into his body . An emperor like some kind of Corbant, mutilating himself in the name of goddess worship ?! Or maybe a ruler who decided to change sex and wanted to become a woman? It was too much. These were not times that would tolerate transsexuality - especially in the case of the emperor, who also had a reputation for being sexually obsessed and in no way controlling his desire.
After four years of Elagabalus' idiosyncrasies, the soldiers were fed up with the ruler, whose most serious initiatives were distributing key offices to dancers and charioteers, establishing a women's senate dealing with issues of etiquette and women's clothing, and an attempt to spread the cult of the black stone - a meteorite associated with the sun god Baal described by the Greek historian Herodian . As a result of a palace plot, the assassins murdered the eighteen-year-old ruler. And that's how his sexces ended .
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The text was created during the author's work on his latest book. " Ages of shame. Sex and erotica in antiquity ” .