|
The source of many of these stories of Elagabalus's depravity is the Augustan History (Historia Augusta), which includes controversial claims.[51] The Historia Augusta was most likely written toward the end of the 4th century during the reign of emperor Theodosius I.[52] The life of Elagabalus as described in the Augustan History is of uncertain historical merit.[53] Sections 13 to 17, relating to the fall of Elagabalus, are less controversial among historians.[54] Cassius Dio Sources often considered more credible than the Augustan History include the contemporary historians Cassius Dio and Herodian. Cassius Dio lived from the second half of the 2nd century until sometime after 229. Born into a patrician family, he spent the greater part of his life in public service. He was a senator under emperor Commodus and governor of Smyrna after the death of Septimius Severus. Afterwards he served as suffect consul around 205, and as proconsul in Africa and Pannonia.[55] Alexander Severus held him in high esteem and made him his consul again. His Roman History spans nearly a millennium, from the arrival of Aeneas in Italy until the year 229. As a contemporary of Elagabalus, Cassius Dio's account of his reign is generally considered more reliable than the Augustan History, although by his own admission[55] Dio spent the greater part of the relevant period outside of Rome and had to rely on second-hand accounts. Furthermore, the political climate in the aftermath of Elagabalus' reign, as well as Dio's own position within the government of Alexander, likely influenced the truth of this part of his history for the worse. Dio regularly refers to Elagabalus as Sardanapalus, partly to distinguish him from his divine namesake,[56] but chiefly to do his part in maintaining the damnatio memoriae enforced after the emperor's death and to associate him with another autocrat notorious for a dissolute life.[57] Herodian Medal of Elagabalus, Louvre Museum. Another contemporary of Elagabalus was Herodian, who was a minor Roman civil servant who lived from c. 170 until 240. His work, History of the Roman Empire since Marcus Aurelius, commonly abbreviated as Roman History, is an eyewitness account of the reign of Commodus until the beginning of the reign of Gordian III. His work largely overlaps with Dio's own Roman History, but both texts seem to be independently consistent with each other.[58] Although Herodian is not deemed as reliable as Cassius Dio, his lack of literary and scholarly pretensions make him less biased than senatorial historians. Herodian is considered the most important source for the religious reforms which took place during the reign of Elagabalus, which have been confirmed by numismatic[59][60] and archaeological evidence.[61] Edward Gibbon and other, later historians For readers of the modern age, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1737–94) further cemented the scandalous reputation of Elagabalus. Gibbon not only accepted and expressed outrage at the allegations of the ancient historians, but might have added some details of his own; he is the first historian known to state that Gannys was a eunuch, for example.[62] Gibbon wrote: To confound the order of the season and climate, to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of his most delicious amusements. A long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin, ravished by force from her sacred asylum, were insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the Roman world affected to copy the manners and dress of the female sex, preferring the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonored the principal dignities of the empire by distributing them among his numerous lovers; one of whom was publicly invested with the title and authority of the emperor's, or, as he more properly styled himself, the empress's husband. It may seem probable, the vices and follies of Elagabalus have been adorned by fancy, and blackened by prejudice. Yet, confining ourselves to the public scenes displayed before the Roman people, and attested by grave and contemporary historians, their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or country.[63] Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure, or even of mixed silks, was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man.[64] Some recent historians argue for a more favorable picture of his life and reign. Martijn Icks in Images of Elagabalus (2008; republished as The Crimes of Elagabalus in 2012) doubts the reliability of the ancient sources and argues that it was the emperor's unorthodox religious policies that alienated the power elite of Rome, to the point that his grandmother saw fit to eliminate him and replace him with his cousin. Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado, in The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact of Fiction? (2008), is also critical of the ancient historians and speculates that neither religion nor sexuality played a role in the fall of the young emperor, who was simply the loser in a power struggle within the imperial family; the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards was up for sale, and Julia Maesa had the resources to outmaneuver and outbribe her grandson. According to this version, once Elagabalus, his mother, and his immediate circle had been murdered, a wholesale propaganda war against his memory resulted in a vicious caricature which has persisted to the present, repeated and often embellished by later historians displaying their own prejudices against effeminacy and other vices which Elagabalus had come to epitomize. Legacy Elagabalus on a wall painting at castle Forchtenstein Due to the ancient tradition about him, Elagabalus became something of an (anti-)hero in the Decadent movement of the late 19th century.[45] He often appears in literature and other creative media as the epitome of a young, amoral aesthete. His life and character have informed or at least inspired many famous works of art, by Decadents, even by contemporary artists. The most notable of these works include:[65] Poems, Novels, and Biographies Joris-Karl Huysmans's' À rebours (1884), one of the literary touchstones of the Decadent movement, describes in chapter 2 the ingenuity behind a banquet designed by Des Esseintes, the protagonist, consisting solely of black foodstuffs, intended as a kind of perverse memorial to his lost virility. The episode is partly inspired by the highly artificial, monochromatic feasts that Elagabalus is said to have contrived (Historia Augusta, Life of Elagabalus, chapter 18). L'Agonie (Agony) (1888), the best known novel by the French writer Jean Lombard, featuring Elagabulus as the protagonist In 1903 Georges Duviquet published what purports to be a faithful biography of the emperor: Héliogabale: Raconté par les historians Grecs et Latins, [avec] dix-huit gravures d'après les monuments original. The previous pair of works inspired the Dutch writer Louis Couperus to produce his novel De Berg van Licht (The Mountain of Light) (1905), which presents Elagabalus in a sympathetic light. Algabal (1892–1919), a collection of poems by the German poet Stefan George The Sun God (1904), a novel by the English writer Arthur Westcott The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus (1911), a biography by the Oxford don John Stuart Hay Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronné (Heliogabalus or The Anarchist Crowned) (1934) by Antonin Artaud, combining essay, biography, and fiction Family Favourites (1960), a novel by the Anglo-Argentine writer Alfred Duggan in which Heliogabalus is seen through the eyes of a faithful Gaulish bodyguard and depicted as a gentle and charming aesthete, personally lovable but lacking in political skills. Child of the Sun (1966), a novel by Lance Horner and Kyle Onstott, better known for writing the novel that inspired the movie Mandingo Super-Eliogabalo (1969), a novel by the Italian writer Alberto Arbasino Boy Caesar (2004), a novel by the English writer Jeremy Reed Le Scandaleux Héliogabale: Empereur, Prêtre et Pornocrate (2006), by the novelist Emma Locatelli Icarus and the Virgin (2013), a novel by William Nicol Plays Zygmunt Krasiński. "Irydion" (1836), in which Elagabalus is portrayed as a cruel tyrant Mencken, H.L. and Nathan, George Jean. Heliogabalus A Buffoonery in Three Acts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920 de Escobar Fagundes, C.H. Heliogabalo: O Sol é a Pátria. Ed. Devir. Rio de Janeiro, 1980 Gilbert, S. Heliogabalus: A Love Story. Toronto, Cabaret Theatre Company, 2002 Ferreyra, Shawn. Elagabalus, Emperor of Rome, 2008 Arelis. Heliogabalus (2008) Paintings The Roses of Heliogabalus, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1888. Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun (1866), by the English decadent Simeon Solomon One of the most notorious incidents laid to his account[66] is immortalized in the 19th-century painting The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), by the Anglo-Dutch academician Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. It shows guests at one of his extravagant dinner parties smothered under a mass of "violets and other flowers" dropped from above. Heliogabalus (1974), by Anselm Kiefer Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus (2010–11), by Anselm Kiefer Music Eliogabalo, an opera by Venetian Baroque composer Francesco Cavalli (1667) Heliogabale, an opera by French composer Déodat de Séverac (1910) Heliogabalus Imperator (Emperor Heliogabalus), an orchestral work by the German composer Hans Werner Henze (1972) Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, by the composer and saxophonist John Zorn (2007) Dance Héliogabale, a modern dance choreographed by Maurice Béjart Film Héliogabale, a 1909 silent film by the French director André Calmettes Héliogabale, ou L'orgie romaine, a 1911 silent short by the French director Louis Feuillade Vocabulary The Spanish word heliogábalo means "a person overwhelmed by gluttony".[67] |
About us|Jobs|Help|Disclaimer|Advertising services|Contact us|Sign in|Website map|Search|
GMT+8, 2015-9-11 21:00 , Processed in 0.156406 second(s), 16 queries .
