Forgotten story. Eliogabalo, the Roman emperor who wanted to be a woman

Text by José Luis Villalobos published on the blog "El Mundo Según Ionath" on November 26, 2015, freely translated by Marco Marco Galvagno

Eliogabalo was appointed emperor (Roman) at the age of fourteen, his kingdom was marked by a revolution that ended the sexual taboos and changed his religious customs. The opposition of his enemies handed over numerous legends on him who still arouse debates today. Parlalar of homosexuality in antiquity is not something new, not even among the Roman emperors. In fact, we know the report of the famous emperor Adriano with his own slave Anti -Egypt and the fact that he made him divine after his premature death. It is clear that sexuality in the ancient world, and more particularly in Greece and Rome, was considered differently from how we see it today by the company.

Then the terms homosexuality and heterosexuality did not exist. Although this considered homosexuality, at least inadequate behavior, even if in practice these laws that repressed it were not applied or were not taken seriously. The female adultery than homosexuality was considered much more serious. It should not be forgotten that Roman culture was distinctly male chauvinist, so it should not be surprised that the Roman emperors had homosexual relationships: they had Adriano, Caligola, Julius Caesar for example.

One of the most openly homosexual emperors was Eliogabalo, belonged to the Severi dynasty and reigned a few years, from 218 to 222 after Christ, since it was assassinated by the Praetorians after an intrigue of the court.
His kingdom was marked by a great cultural opening and a renewal of Roman traditions in particular religious ones, which caused him many enemies. Among the measures taken was to replace the top of the Roman Panteon Jupiter with the new god "Solis Invictus", also introduced new costumes that came from the eastern Mediterranean. He forced Roman elites to participate in the cult of the new God, so he scandalized even more conservatives.
In the midst of this traditionalist opposition, the Praetorians were bought by the most influential senators. His grandmother wondered a conspiracy against him, so at the age of eighteen he was assassinated by the Praetorians. Starting from then the negative legend of Eliogabalo grew and his successors deliberately exaggerated the voices on his extravagances, true or presumed they were. He was accused of being eccentric, decadent and of being a religious fanatic. Does this historiography have mythological has elements of truth?

Eliogabalo shows us like a lewd gay whose maximum pleasure had been penetrated by very gifted men. In fact, this sexual obsession for the size of the penis would have meant that he ordered the constructions of public bathrooms in his palace in order to see the attributes of the passing Romans. The same would have happened in other public bathrooms, where imperial agents would have had the task of observing and sending the most gifted men to the palace. All this would have happened with public money, many would have used sex as a springboard for a rapid social rise, given that the emperor rewarded his lovers.

In addition to the criticisms of being depraved there was to disguise themselves as a woman, what we said in a particularly male chauvinist society was considered a particularly degrading thing. It is stated that he wanted to be called lady and that he had asked the whole empire from medicine because they made him a surgical gender exchange operation, although the results of these experiments on slaves or sentenced to death had not been very successful.
In reality he married various women and had relationships with various prostitutes. Among his best known male lovers, Erache stands a driver of Aurighe. The legend says that he offered to appoint him emperor, considering him to be the imperator.

All these stories truths or legends that ended with a conspiracy hatched against him and with his next assassination. His inert body together with that of his mother were dragged on the streets of Rome and thrown into the Tiber [1].

His other close collaborators were killed the next day, so it happened for example to his lover Heracles. After his death, it was the cousin Alessandro Severo who took place at the helm of the empire. The latter will be remembered as a defender of Roman religious traditions and had a Damnatio Memoriae dropped on his predecessor, that is, he was canceled by the memory of Rome as a scandalous emperor who had overwhelmed the tradition.

_________

[1] Eliogabalo «was attacked [...] and killed in a latrine in which he had tried to take refuge. He was then dragged through the streets. By full of dishonor, the soldiers threw the corpse into a sewer. Since the case wanted that the cloaca was too narrow to receive the body, they threw it down from the Emilio bridge in the Tiber, with a weight linked to me so that he had no floating, so that he could never have to receive burial. Before having fallen into the Tiber, his corpse was also dragged through the circus. By order of the Senate, the name of Antonino was canceled by the inscriptions, which he had assumed pretentiously, wanting to appear son of Antonino Bassiano, and remained that of Vario Eliogabalo. After death, the "Tiberino", the "dragged" the "impure" and in many other ways was called, whenever it happened to give a name to the facts of his life. And he was the only one among all the principles to be dragged, thrown into a cloaca, and finally crashed into the Tiber ». (Historia Augusta (17,17.1-6)

Original text: Heliogábalo, Emperador Y Homosexual