The Emperor Elagabalus

Anarchist adolescent or Mystical Androgyne?

Bust of Varius Avitus Bassianus (Elagabulus). Wikimedia Commons

I am gradually working on a history of the Roman Empire in the third century. The third century was not only a precarious time in church history with the climax of imperial persecutions of the church, it was also a perilous time for the Roman empire which nearly collapsed under the weight of external pressures and internal fissures.

According to Averil Cameron, during this period there was, “A constant and rapid turnover of emperors between A.D. 235 and 284 … near-continuous warfare, internal and external, combined with the total collapse of the silver currency and the state’s recourse to exactions in kind.”

So, for members of the Aviary, please find below the first draft of my section on the Emperor Elagabulus (reigned 218-22), the K-pop kid of the Severan dynasty, whose religious revolution and pan-sexual behaviour was too much for Rome to handle.

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