The Haley Classical Journal, an undergraduate research publication affiliated with Hamilton College
Roman Emperor, Syrian “Other” Elagabalus, Anti-Syrian Stereotypes, and Political Invective in Historia Augusta Stefan Loos, University of Houston, Class 2020
Abstract
The Historia Augusta presents a hostile account of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, relating lurid accounts of his decadence and religious practices. Upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that this negative portrayal drew upon a series of anti-Syrian stereotypes derived from elsewhere in ancient literature rather than any accurate account of Elagabalus’ life. The author of the Historia Augusta uses these anti-Syrian stereotypes as a political invective against Elagabalus: he portrays Elagabalus as a Syrian “other” and a poor ruler, while simultaneously elevating his relative and successor Severus Alexander as “Roman” and as a more competent emperor. As one of the most scandalous figures to ever hold sway over the Roman Empire, Elagabalus (reigned 218 — 222 CE) holds a prominent place among the more infamous Roman Emperors, alongside Nero, Caligula, and Commodus.1 Elagabalus was born in the provincial town of Emesa (modern Homs) in Syria and became emperor at the age of fourteen. His rule was poor at the outset; according to the ancient sources, Elagabalus allegedly ordered extrajudicial executions, practiced child sacrifice, committed lurid sexual acts, and subverted the worship of Jupiter.2 The Historia Augusta specifically details his decadence, disregard for governance, and extravagant behaviors. His brief and unorthodox rule ended in violence: Elagabalus’ soldiers murdered him and proclaimed his cousin Severus Alexander as emperor in 222 CE.3 The Historia Augusta, along with the other chief accounts of Elagabalus’ life (those of Cassius Dio and Herodian) maintained a uniformly hostile perspective on the boy-king’s rule. For centuries, scholars have questioned the veracity of these sources, especially the exaggerated and incredible version of Elagabalus’ life in the Historia Augusta, written well over a century after his rule.4 Several scholars have recently noted a series of anti-Syrian tropes in the accounts of Elagabalus’ life, including the Historia Augusta.5 1 The argument presented here is adapted from a conference paper which I presented about Elagabalus’ portrayal and anti-Syrian stereotypes. Stefan Loos, “Refashioning Elagabalus: The Construction of Anti-Syrian Stereotypes in Herodian, Cassius Dio, and the Historia Augusta,” Paper presented at the 2nd Annual NYU Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Conference on the Ancient World, New York, New York, February 7, 2020. 2 SHA Heliogab. 5.1-5, 6.7, 8.1, 10.5; cf. Cass. Dio 80.3.3-7.4, 80.9.3-4, 80.11, 80.13.1-15.1; Hdn. 5.6.2. 3 Cass. Dio 80.20.2; Hdn. 5.8.8-9; SHA Heliogab. 17.1-3; Aur. Vict. Caes. 23.5-7. For a complete biographical sketch of Elagabalus’ life, see Michael Grant, The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire (London; New York: Routledge, 1996), 87–90; Martijn Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2012), 9–91. 4 See Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776), 150–51; Orma Fitch Butler, Studies in the Life of Heliogabalus (New York; London: MacMillan, 1908), 19–36; John Stuart Hay, The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus (London: MacMillan, 1911), 16–19; Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado, The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 294–346. 5 Fergus Millar, The Roman Near East, 31 BC - AD 337 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993), 308; Michael Sommer, “Elagabal. Wege zur Konstruktion eines ‘schlechten’ Kaisers,” Scripta Classica Israelica 23 (2004):
The Haley | Volume I | Issue II | July 2020
While they have not expounded upon these stereotypes in detail, their assertion is correct: many of the negative anecdotes in the Historia Augusta’s biography of Elagabalus are proto-racist, anti-Syrian literary constructions. Greek and Roman observers saw Syrians through a variety of unfavorable stereotypes, calling them luxurious, effeminate, untrustworthy, practitioners of outlandish religions, and destined for slavery.6 The author of the Historia Augusta reiterated these stereotypes, especially with respect to Elagabalus’ supposed decadence and religious innovation, as part of a political invective against him.7 By degrading Elagabalus in this manner, the Historia Augusta celebrated Elagabalus’ successor Severus Alexander as an “un-Syrian” counterpoint to Elagabalus’ rule. The author of the Historia Augusta was especially interested in Elagabalus’ supposed decadence, and devoted the second half of the Life of Elagabalus to these fantastic, unbelievable accounts.8 He tells of extravagant modes of dress, sumptuous and exotic feasting, and massive expenditures on trivialities. Many of these tales seem to be the wild fantasies of the biographer, or etiologies of luxury in his own time.9 Other anecdotes, however, have a distinctly “eastern” tone to them. The reader learns that Elagabalus served ostriches at his feasts, supposedly in accordance with Jewish law; he also kept Egyptian animals with him in Rome, and burned Indian perfumes in the palace on occasion.10 Elsewhere, the Historia Augusta mentions the size of his retinue: 95–110; Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus, 44; Nathanael J. Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, Greek Culture in the Roman World (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 27, 322–23. 6 Edmund Spenser Bouchier, Syria as a Roman Province (London: B. H. Blackwell, 1916), 9; George M. Haddad, “Aspects of Social Life in Antioch in the Hellenistic-Roman Period” (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1949); Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 350–51. 7 For additional discussion of Elagabalus’ gender and sexuality in connection with anti-Syrian stereotypes (more prominent in Cassius Dio than the Historia Augusta), see Loos, “Refashioning Elagabalus,” 5-7. 8 SHA Heliogab. 18.4ff; See also Gottfried Mader, “History as Carnival, or Method and Madness in the Vita Heliogabali,” Classical Antiquity 24, no. 1 (2005): 132. 9 e.g. SHA Heliogab. 19.4. 10 Ibid., 28.3-4, 31.4.
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