|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] Elagabalus Biography ELAGABALUS, incorrectly HELIOGABALUS (204-222). Emperor of Rome from 218 to 222. He was born at Emesa, Syria. His real name was Varius Avitus Bassianus; but having, when a mere child, been appointed high priest of the Syro-Phoenician sun god Elagabal, he assumed the name of that deity. Soon after the death of his cousin Caracalla, Elagabalus was proclaimed Emperor by the soldiers, in opposition to the legitimate sovereign Macrinus, who had offended the troops from the severity of his discipline. The rivals met in battle at Antioch in 218 A.D. Macrinus was defeated, and Elagabalus quietly assumed the purple. His reign, which lasted rather more than three years and nine months, was infamous for the almost unparalleled debaucheries in which he indulged. He was murdered in an insurrection of the praetorians on March 11, 222, and was succeeded by his cousin and adopted son, Alexander Severus. Consult Duviquet, Héliogabale (1903), and Butler, Studies in the Life of Heliogabalus, in "University of Michigan Studies: Humanistic Series," vol. iv (1908). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 560-561. |