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The Emperor Elagabalus and the Construction of Anti-Syrian Stereotypes in Roman Historiography by Stefan Loos, Mentored by Dr

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The Emperor Elagabalus and the Construction of Anti-Syrian Stereotypes in Roman Historiography by Stefan Loos, Mentored by Dr The Emperor Elagabalus and the Construction of Anti-Syrian Stereotypes in Roman Historiography by Stefan Loos, mentored by Dr. Kristina Neumann; UH Department of History Historical Background Elagabalus and Anti-Syrian Stereotypes • Elagabalus ruled the Roman Empire from 218 to 222 Eastern Decadence and Elagabalus Eastern Decadence in Literature CE as a member of the Severan Dynasty. • Elagabalus is compared with the Persian • “out of all people, the Persians were the first • He was born in Emesa in the Roman province of Syria king; he supposedly traveled with a 600- people who became notorious for living (modern Homs) in 204 CE, and served as the high wagon retinue, wearing exotic and luxuriously” (Ath. 12.8). The Persians were priest of Elagabal, a local cult to a sun-god in Emesa. extravagant clothing in the Persian style also criticized as decadent in earlier Greek • He seized control of the empire from a pretender named (SHA Heliogab. 23.3, 31.4-5; Hdn. 5.5.4). literature (cf. Xen. Cyr. 8.8; Pl. Leg. 694ff). Macrinus at the age of fourteen, in 218 CE. • Elagabalus held feasts that were difficult • Greek authors accused the Syrians of all-day • His rule was notorious for excess and bizarre behaviors; to complete in one day (SHA Heliogab. feasts: they “effectively lived inside their ancient accounts accuse him of ordering extrajudicial 30.4-5. banquet-halls” (Ath. 12.35). executions, subverting the cult of Jupiter, performing child sacrifice, and engaging in various “un-Roman” • Elagabalus is called “Sardanapalus” after • Beginning as early as the fifth century BCE, sexual acts (including his marriage to a Vestal Virgin). a legendary decadent king of Assyria (at Greek literature used King Sardanapalus as a • He was murdered by his own guards in 222 CE, at the least 15 instances in Cass. Dio 80). proverbial example of extravagance and age of eighteen. decadence (e.g. Ar. Av. 1021). Bust of Elagabalus in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. Syrian Effeminacy and Elagabalus Syrian Effeminacy and Literature • Elagabalus was accused of presenting • Ath. 12.38: King Sardanapalus was “dressed himself as a woman in public, contrary to up like a woman, sitting with his concubines Roman notions of masculinity: “He was and carding purple wool […] and putting given away in marriage, and called ‘wife,’ even more white under his eyes” ‘mistress of the house,’ and ‘queen.’ He • The accusations against Elagabalus may worked with wool, often sported a have stemmed from the association of eunuch women’s hairnet, and put makeup priests with Syrian religion. One such group, around his eyes, rubbing them with white the Galli, “put on women’s clothes and do lead and alkanet” (Cass. Dio 80.14.3-4). women’s work” (Luc. Syr. D. 27). A denarius of Elagabalus, featuring Elagabalus’ connection to Syrian religion and the cult of Elagabal on the reverse. It shows the aniconic representation of the god Elagabal (a black stone) in a Roman four-horse chariot. Conclusions • The ancient historians elevated the portrayal of Severus Alexander (Elagabalus’ cousin Alma-Tadema, Lawrence. “The Roses of Heliogabalus,” Oil on Canvas, 1888, The Pérez Simón Collection, London and successor) by depicting Elagabalus as his opposite, an undesirable Syrian “other.” The painting depicts a notorious incident in which Elagabalus smothered his dinner guests to death with flower petals that fell from the ceiling, illustrating both the decadence and wanton cruelty of the boy-king’s reign. • Severus Alexander hoped to distance himself from his Syrian origins: “He wanted his lineage to seem to be derived from the Roman race, since he was ashamed to be called a Syrian” (SHA Alex. Sev. 28.7). The Formation of Anti-Syrian Stereotypes • These accounts of Elagabalus’ life perpetuated longstanding prejudices against Syrians. • Since the 18th century, scholars have doubted the veracity of the accounts of Elagabalus’ life in the chief literary sources. Many of the hostile references to Elagabalus in these biographies were refashioned, proto-racist stereotypes applied to Syrians and Easterners Bibliography elsewhere in Greco-Roman literature. Note: All translations of the ancient Greek and Latin texts presented here are my own. 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. • Ancient writers saw Syrians as shifty, restless, extravagant, prone to excessive partying, 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. Bouchier, Edmund Spenser. Syria as a Roman Province. London: B.H. Blackwell, 1916. effeminate, practitioners of strange religious rites, and only good as slaves. Butler, Orma Fitch. Studies in the Life of Heliogabalus. New York; London: MacMillan, 1908. 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. • Cassius Dio, Herodian, and the author of the Historia Augusta transmitted wildly Haddad, George M. “Aspects of Social Life in Antioch in the Hellenistic-Roman Period.” Ph.D., The University of Chicago, 1949. Icks, Martijn. The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2012. exaggerated stories about Elagabalus’ life, drawing from these preexisting stereotypes Isaac, Benjamin. The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press,2004. Millar, Fergus. The Roman Near East, 31 BC - AD 337. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,1993. Sententiae Antiquae. “How to Live from Ashurbanipal,” November 18, 2019. https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2019/11/18/how-to-live-from-ashurbanipal/. (such as decadence and effeminacy) to serve their deeper political aims. Sommer, Michael. “Elagabal. Wege zur Konstruktion eines ‘schlechten’Kaisers.” Scripta Classica Israelica 23 (2004): 95–110..
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