Not many Roman Emperors are mentioned in the comic operas of
Gilbert and Sullivan, but one who does is an early 3rd century
Emperor who crops up in the patter song of Major-General Stanley in “The
Pirates of Penzance” when he boasts that he can “quote in elegiacs all the
crimes of Heliogabalus”. The name is more usually given as Elagabalus, but even
so it is unlikely that many hearers of the song would know to whom the
Major-General was referring. So who was Elagabalus and just how criminal was
he?
Comparisons can be made between Elagabalus and some other
Roman Emperors, such as Caligula and Commodus, in that they had short and
disreputable reigns that ended by being murdered when their activities could no
longer be endured. Elagabalus shared with Caligula the distinction of being
known to history by a nickname rather than the name he was given at birth.
Elagabalus started life in around the year 203 as Varius
Avitus Bassianus, his birthplace being Emesa in Syria. His father was Sextus
Varius Marcellus, a politician based in the Roman province of Syria, and his
mother was Julia Soemias Bassiana, a member of the powerful Severan clan that
had already produced the emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, the latter
being Julia’s cousin.
As a young man, Varius Avitus became the chief priest of a
religious cult dedicated to the Syrian sun-god Elagabal. However, Julia and her
mother (Julia Maesa) saw the boy as their way to regain power for the Severan clan,
which had been sidelined by the accession as Emperor in 217 of an outsider,
Macrinus, who may have been responsible for the murder of Caracalla. They
therefore started a rumour to the effect that Varius Avitus was the illegitimate
son of Caracalla, to whom he did bear a passing resemblance.
They persuaded the local legion to accept Varius as Emperor,
at the age of 14, which naturally led to Macrinus declaring war on him. The
Severans won the ensuing battle and Macrinus was captured and executed, leaving
Varius as Emperor with the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
The new Emperor, together with his mother and grandmother, spent
a year at Nicomedia (in what is now northern Turkey) then proceeded to make
their way to Rome, but they also took with them a large conical black stone that
had been the centrepiece of the Elagabal cult at Emesa. Convinced that this
Semitic former mountain god was the supreme deity, young Marcus was determined to
convert Rome to this view and he intended to do so by moving the large black
stone, and hence the the worship of Elagabal, to Rome. That is why he is known
to history as Elagabalus.
Once in Rome, Elagabalus enlarged a temple on the Palatine
Hill (formerly dedicated to Jupiter) in lieu of building one dedicated solely
to Elagabal. The new supreme god clearly needed a partner, so he moved the
image of Vesta from her temple in the Forum. The Emperor followed suit by
marrying a Vestal Virgin, but this marriage ended in divorce. Elagabal therefore
also had to take a new wife, this being the sky god Urania.
Eventually the purpose-built temple of Elagabal was
completed on the Capitoline Hill and an elaborate ceremony took place in which
the sun god appeared to drive a chariot to his new home, with the Emperor
walking backwards in front of it.
Despite Elagabalus’s obsession with religion, the government
of the Empire was not neglected, because his mother and grandmother made sure
that things ran smoothly. They were clearly the real rulers of Rome, and they
were the only two women in the history of the Empire ever to attend meetings of
the Senate.
So what were the “crimes of Heliogabalus”? The main one, in
the eyes of the people of Rome, was his upsetting of the religious status quo,
coupled with the terrible offence of marrying a Vestal Virgin. He also appears
to have indulged in a particularly lascivious lifestyle, carrying on with many
women apart from his various wives (he may have been married as many as five
times during his short reign) and indulging in orgiastic ceremonies, same-sex
relationships and transvestisim. However, it is always possible that some of
the stories grew in the telling, especially if related by his enemies.
Elagabalus’s failure to produce an heir was almost certainly
not the result of any failings on the part of his various wives, but it was
clearly a problem. There was also a serious rift between the two women who were
the real power behind the throne. His grandmother, Julia Maesa, could sense
that the Roman Senate and people could not tolerate the Emperor’s
eccentricities for ever and that a violent end to his reign was possible if not
probable. She therefore persuaded him that he should adopt as his successor his
cousin Alexander Severus who, at the time of this move, was probably around ten
years old. The older Julia would thus cement her own position should events
turn out as she feared, in that one grandson might die but another become
emperor in his place.
Her daughter, Julia Soemias, did not see things in the same
light. Naming Alexander as successor to her son would, in her view, only
increase the threat to Elagabalus, given that the former did not share his
cousin’s extreme views on religion and would clearly be seen as a more
acceptable alternative. The younger Julia therefore had a perfect motive for
getting Alexander out of the way.
In March 222, Elagabalus and Julia Soemias went to the camp
of the Praetorian Guard and ordered them to murder Alexander Severus. However, things
took a very different course because the guards promptly murdered the young
Emperor (still aged only about 19) and his mother and threw their bodies in the
River Tiber. It is always possible that Julia Maesa had foreseen such an event and
bribed the guards to do precisely what they did.
The net result was that Alexander Severus became Emperor and
the cult of Elagabal was sent packing back to Emesa.
© John Welford
