Biography Of Elagabalus, The First Transsexual In History And Roman Emperor
They say that history often hides the essence of the truth, but only if you look for it. That details are ignored, secrets are kept and, often, reality is disguised, giving it an interested touch. The Roman Empire has always been shown to us as a period of great warriors, excellent thinkers and fathers of modern politics. Nevertheless, Heliogabalus is an exceptionality that deserves a few lines
And the emperor Heliogabalus is the great unknown, often removed from Greco-Roman books due to the supposed need to preserve “the historical honor of the founders of the West.” It turns out that this young man was anything but normal and, specifically, he is especially offensive to Christian moralism that has always tried to link itself to European values.
It’s not that he was the typical excessive governor with his public appearances or that he enjoyed all the lovers that his privileged status granted him. Heliogabalus was a character outside of his time, in part, because he was the first known transsexual in history in addition to being a danger to people close to him, for other reasons.
Many history books have tried to forgive the misdeeds of the most controversial politicians, exalting their figure as if it were a Hollywood movie, in order to create a romantic story about the epic of the ancestors of certain nations. In other cases, however, embellishing a biography is too difficult so we choose to ignore those figures who, despite having merit to be remembered, do not fit with the “official” story.
Some of the most famous Caesars of Rome, such as Nero, Commodus, Caligula and Galba, were directly responsible for the fall of what was one of the largest empires in all of history. Among all these names there is one that magically disappears from all the texts that we know or have read diagonally about the Roman Empire, perhaps, because it was considered one of the worst of its kind by historians, at least until not so long ago. .
Elagabalus, Elagabalus in Latin, was born in the city of Emesa, in the Roman province of Syria in 203, and was murdered in Rome in 222, having barely left his adolescence. He was a Roman emperor with a short-lived mandate, since he reigned only from 218 until the date of his death, a total of four years. It was his grandmother Julia Mesa who, with her political influence, hatched a plot against the current emperor, Marcus Opelius Macrinus, to elevate her grandson Heliogabalus.
Heliogabalus, the first transsexual in history
The convergence among historians who are experts in Ancient Rome is unanimous. “He was one of the worst in his class,” say those who have published about him. Some of the most recognized authors such as Elio Lampridio or Barthold Georg, They even apologized for describing in detail some of Elagabalus’s actions
As emperor, Elagabalus was a ticking time bomb. Having risen to power at the age of fourteen, his tenure as emperor was a kind of constant festival of eroticism. It is said that he practiced prostitution, hired a regiment of prostitutes and, most importantly, wanted to change sex surgically However, the level of technological development of the time did not allow it, no matter how much he insisted to the doctors.
Of course, the fact that from a very young age Heliogabalus wanted to have a woman’s body, as well as his attraction to men, has earned him the rejection of many historians over the centuries. However, today, in a context in which homophobia is rapidly receding in many Western countries, there are still many reasons to consider Elagabalus a chaos and a public danger.
From a very young age, Heliogabalus became the pontiff of the god El Gabal of his city Emesa (present-day Homs, Syria), an ancient deity of the time, god of the Sun. The curiosity of this god is that It was carved in a stone in the shape of a penis It was quite a declaration of intentions when, shortly after landing in Rome, he legislated the mandatory worship of the phallic statue in an area where the absence of followers of that religion was total.
The most serious thing was not the object to be worshiped itself, but rather in the rituals as an offering. Senators and praetorians had to attend these affronts, without objection Scenes that were anything but conventional, especially for the time: the emperor dressed in feminine outfits with his chest exposed, wearing makeup and with a feminine attitude. But this was the least of it.
On the other hand, Elagabalus killed several people as a result of his need to constantly have fun. When he organized parties and orgies, He used to make such a rain of petals fall on his guests that some were buried and they suffocated.
The sex regiment
The young emperor’s behavior was as antisocial as it was erratic and marked by the strangest ways of escaping boredom at the expense of the well-being of others. He formed an entire paramilitary group to search, track and recruit men with the largest penis of Roman dominions. He wanted the best endowed men for his personal enjoyment.
He met Hierocles, a slave from Smyrna, and Zoticus, a burly Greek athlete more famous for his sexual gifts than his sporting achievements. He married both of them and, far from hiding, he came to publicly acknowledge his happiness with these men so that everyone would know, attitudes that began to annoy his senators and his own praetorian guard. He boasted in the plenary sessions about the physical consequences that his lover left on him when they had sadomasochistic sex (imagining the faces of the attendees is downright funny).
The attitude of this young man, whose empire depended on him, did not remain mere sexual attitudes on a private level. In the same Roman capital he frequented the darkest bars in the entire city practicing prostitution professionally, built public baths to expose the virile virtues of citizens and established circus shows in the imperial palace itself.
All this exceptionalism and socio-political chaos ended because those who helped him to rise to power in a corrupt way through the plot, did the same with Heliogabalus, murdering him.
Did Elagabalus have any mental imbalance?
Under no circumstances should the gender identity or sexual orientation of this grotesque emperor be confused with his tendency to attack the well-being of others. It is very relevant identify the context in which Elagabalus was appointed leader of the Roman Empire at the age of 14, when he is still thinking about playing ball with his friends.
The adolescent age, that stage of life where one begins to outline one’s personality, tastes and sexual orientation, was disturbed by his grandmother’s delusions of grandeur, by the excess of power that comes with being Emperor of Rome and by nature. perversion of the politics of that time, caused an emotional imbalance in Heliogabalus. Everything indicates that Elagabalus did have mental disorders, although this is not related to the fact of being transsexual or being attracted to men.
