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Roman Emperor, Syrian “Other”: Elagabalus, Anti-Syrian Stereotypes, and Political Invective in the Historia Augusta

Stefan Loos, University of Houston, Class 2020

Abstract

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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

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:

While he was a private citizen, he never went on a journey with less than sixty wagons […] but when he was emperor he would bring up to six hundred, or so they say; he asserted that the Persian king went on journeys with ten thousand camels, and that Nero travelled with five hundred carriages. 11

Here, Elagabalus is compared with two decadent kings of the past: Nero and the king of Persia. Other scholars have established that the biographer uses Nero as a model for Elagabalus’ rule, but the juxtaposition with the king of Persia deserves further examination. 12 The Persians had been castigated for their decadence in earlier Greek literature, including Aeschylus, Plato, and Xenophon. 13 A near-contemporary of Elagabalus, Athenaeus of Naucratis, wrote that the Persians were “the first people who became notorious for living luxuriously.” 14 Alluding to the Persian king in this manner, the author of the Historia Augusta construed Elagabalus as an extravagant eastern autocrat, with all the trappings and moral shortcomings of the great kings of antiquity.

Elagabalus’ native Syria was also a target for charges of decadence. The city of Antioch in Syria was especially known for its extravagant feasting, and Athenaeus described day-long feasts that led the Syrians to effectively live inside their banquet halls. 15 A similar accusation appears in the Historia Augusta: Elagabalus apparently held at least one banquet that was “difficult” to complete in the course of a single day. 16 This was precisely what one of Juvenal’s xenophobic characters had feared in the Satires, famously complaining that “the Syrian Orontes has long flowed into the Tiber,” and brought with it all the decadent practices of the eastern provinces. 17

Beyond Elagabalus’ feasting, the author connects his attire with the decadent and “barbarian” East. Elagabalus dressed in extravagant Persian garments, and preferred silk (an eastern import) to Roman linen. 18 Herodian expounded upon this idea and its ramifications in his work:

Maesa kept on trying to persuade Elagabalus to change into Roman clothes before he came into the city and went before the Senate. She was worried that his outfit would be viewed as too foreign and totally barbaric, and (since it was strange to them) they would think that his ornaments weren’t manly enough, but effeminate. But he didn’t listen to what the old woman said. 19

Elagabalus’ appearance was closely related to his origins in Syria, and especially to his practice of Syrian religion. Herodian elsewhere described Elagabalus’ “barbarian costume” in connection with his role as the high priest of Elagabal, an aniconic sun god whose cult centered around Emesa. 20 The Historia Augusta has much to say on this topic. Elagabalus brought the god and his cult with him to Rome, building a new temple for him on the Palatine and demanding that no god be worshipped but Elagabal. He supposedly appropriated both Roman and eastern sacred objects (including those of the “Jews, Samaritans, and Christians”) and placed them in the temple of Elagabal, subordinating all other gods beneath Elagabal. 21 While Elagabalus’ affinity with the god also appears in numismatic evidence, Elagabalus probably did not seek to subvert Roman religion. 22 Some scholars saw his efforts as an early iteration of monotheism in the Roman Empire, but these views have been rightfully discounted. 23

Nevertheless, according to the Historia Augusta, Elagabalus’ religious enthusiasm resulted from his Syrian origins. In his devotion to the Great Mother, he behaved like a eunuch priest; he worshipped the eastern deity Salambo “with all the wailing and shaking of a Syrian cult.” 24 The connection between these eunuch priests, wild religious practices, and the province of Syria also appears in the best surviving account of Syrian religion, Lucian’s On the Syrian Goddess. Written in the second century CE, Lucian’s work attempts to transculturate the worship of Atargatis in the Syrian city of Hierapolis for a Greek-speaking audience. 25 The priests mentioned in this work, known as the Galli, are effeminate, castrated devotees of the goddess who “put on women’s clothes and do women’s work.” 26 The type of worship which Lucian described also appears wild, as in the Historia Augusta’s account. 27 Moreover, there is likely a connection between the sacred pillars described by Lucian and the pillar which Elagabalus supposedly hoped to build for Elagabal in Rome. 28 Whether or not Elagabalus actually practiced religious rites in this manner, the Historia Augusta constructed this narrative around Elagabalus, hearkening to contemporary conceptions of Syrian religion in this account.

In either case, the Historia Augusta’s aim is unmistakable: the reader is supposed to understand Elagabalus’ religious activities through his identity as a Syrian “other” in Rome. Even the inaccurate tales of Elagabalus’ religious activities presented his Syrian origins in an unfavorable light. The Historia Augusta’s accusation of Elagabalus’ child sacrifice, for instance, reflects historical Roman practice more than any contemporary religious customs in the East. 29 Nevertheless, the biographer still claimed that Elagabalus sacrificed Roman children “according to his native rites,” falsely associating him with a practice that, by this point in Roman history, was universally abhorrent. 30

The author of the Historia Augusta ultimately sought to contrast Elagabalus with his cousin and successor, Severus Alexander. While the sources unanimously condemn Elagabalus’ rule, they present Severus Alexander in a kinder light, despite the alleged negative influence of his mother, his familial relationship to Elagabalus, and his youth — both rulers were about fourteen years old when they first took up the imperial purple. In Cassius Dio’s case, the discrepancy between the portrayals is easily explained: he claims that Severus Alexander had been especially kind to him. 31 The Historia Augusta’s merciful depiction is not so easily understood, but becomes clearer upon examination of Severus Alexander as a literary opposite to Elagabalus.

Even the Historia Augusta recognized that some of the anecdotes of Elagabalus’ life were unbelievable, blaming these falsehoods on Severus Alexander’s supporters who wanted to express their contempt for Elagabalus’ rule. 32 This is the very thing, however, that the Historia Augusta does. Nowhere is the contrast between Elagabalus and Severus Alexander more apparent than in Severus Alexander’s supposed attitude towards his own origins in Syria. The Historia Augusta reports that Alexander “wanted his lineage to seem to be derived from the Roman race, since he was ashamed to be called a Syrian;” apparently, he had been made fun of by some residents of the eastern provinces as a “Syrian synagogue-ruler” and “high priest.” 33 Alexander thus embarked on a propaganda effort to clear his name: “he imagined that his ancestors were Romans, and had a family tree painted which declared that he was descended from the Metelli.” 34 Admittedly, the Historia Augusta listed Severus’ concealment of his Syrian origins as one of the “charges” brought against him. 35 However, this can be excused, as according to the biographer, this “Syrian” became a better emperor than many individuals of “the Roman gens,” due to good (i.e. Roman) advisors. 36 In this manner, Severus Alexander presented a sharp contrast to Elagabalus; by ignoring his Syrian origins, Alexander could adopt a Roman identity and become a “good” emperor.

The Historia Augusta’s accounts of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander illustrate an important trend in the second and third centuries: the growing presence of a Syrian elite in Rome. 37 The account of Elagabalus, however, represents something of a reaction against this new, eastern elite: by presenting Elagabalus through a series of anti-Syrian literary stereotypes, the Historia Augusta reflects the repudiation of their influence in later antiquity. 38 Even the relatively benign rule of Severus Alexander appears through this lens; only by suggesting that Alexander rejected his Syrian ancestry can the author of the Historia Augusta plausibly suggest that his rule was beneficial to Rome. More importantly, the presentation of these stereotypes had a profound influence on later conceptions of Rome’s fall — later scholars could blame the Orientalizing influence of Elagabalus and his contemporaries for the breakdown of the Roman Empire. 39

While the negative portrayal of Elagabalus in the Historia Augusta may have resulted from mere literary construction, the legacy of this presentation has far-reaching consequences. Beyond the repudiation of Elagabalus as a ruler, the proto-racist portrayal of Elagabalus influenced the modern, racist depiction of Syria and the Near East. 40 The author of the Historia Augusta had political reasons for his negative portrayal of Elagabalus, but the results of such an account had a far more insidious effect: the perpetuation and growth of racially-charged stereotypes of the Near East which have continued into the present.

Footnotes

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 2 nd 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. 4See 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): 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. 11 Ibid., 31.4-5. All translations presented here are my own, unless otherwise noted. 12 Ibid., 1.1, 33.1. See Maria Beatrice Bittarello, “Otho, Elagabalus and The Judgement of Paris: The Literary Construction of the Unmanly Emperor,” Dialogues d’histoire ancienne 37/1, no. 1 (2011): 93–113. 13 Aesch. Pers. 41; Xen. Cyr. 8.8; Pl. Leg 694ff. 14 Ath. 12.8. 15 Ibid., 12.35; See Haddad, “Aspects of Social Life in Antioch in the Hellenistic-Roman Period.” 16 SHA Heliogab. 30.4-5. 17 Juv. 3.62. 18 Ibid., 23.3, 26.1, 29.6. 19 Hdn. 5.5.5-6. 20 Ibid., 5.3.6-5.3.8. 21 SHA Heliogab. 3.4-5, 6.7. 22 Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus, 70–71. 23 This view is espoused by Hay, The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus, 273; Gaston H. Halsberghe, The Cult of Sol Invictus, Etudes Preliminaires Aux Religions Orientales Dans l’Empire Romain 23 (Leiden: Brill, 1972), 79; cf. Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus, 52–54 for an excellent counterpoint to this notion. 24 SHA Heliogab. 7.3. 25 Jaś Elsner, “Describing Self in the Language of Other: Pseudo (?) Lucian at the Temple of Hierapolis,” in Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 123–53; J. L. Lightfoot, Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess: Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); Andrade, Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, 288–313. 26 Luc. Syr. D. 27. 27 Ibid., 50. 28 Luc. Syr. D. 28-29; SHA Heliogab. 24.7 29 Bittarello, “Otho, Elagabalus and The Judgement of Paris,” 103; Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus, 51. 30 SHA Heliogab. 8.1-2. 31 Cass. Dio80a.5.1. 32 SHA Heliogab. 30.8. 33 SHA Alex. Sev. 28.7. 34 Ibid., 44.3. 35 Ibid., 64.3. 36 Ibid., 65.1, 68.4. 37 Barbara Levick, Julia Domna, Syrian Empress, Women of the Ancient World (London; New York: Routledge, 2007), 22. 38 SHA Heliogab 18.1. See David Noy, Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers, (London: Duckworth, 2000), 236. 39 e.g. Bouchier, Syria as a Roman Province, 53. 40 See Ibid., 101-103 for an example of these racist overtones.

Works Cited

Andrade, Nathanael J. Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World. Greek Culture in the Roman World. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Arrizabalaga y Prado, Leonardo de. The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Bittarello, Maria Beatrice. “Otho, Elagabalus and The Judgement of Paris: The Literary Construction of the Unmanly Emperor.” Dialogues d’histoire ancienne 37/1, no. 1 (2011): 93–113.

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Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776. Grant, Michael. The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire. London; New York: Routledge, 1996.

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Icks, Martijn. The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Isaac, Benjamin. The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Levick, Barbara. Julia Domna, Syrian Empress. Women of the Ancient World. London; New York: Routledge, 2007.

Lightfoot, J. L. Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess: Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Loos, Stefan. “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.

Mader, Gottfried. “History as Carnival, or Method and Madness in the Vita Heliogabali.” Classical Antiquity 24, no. 1 (2005): 131–72.

Millar, Fergus. The Roman Near East, 31 BC - AD 337. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Noy, David. Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers. London: Duckworth, 2000.

Sommer, Michael. “Elagabal. Wege zur Konstruktion eines ‘schlechten’ Kaisers.” Scripta Classica Israelica 23 (2004): 95–110.

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