THE BARRACKS EMPERORS 3

The End of the Severans

Back in Rome was . . . the Imperial Cult 

Augustus Caesar as Pontifax Maximus 

The Chief Deity of Rome was Jupiter and the upon accession the Emperor automatically became the Pontifex Maximus or chief high priest of the Cult. 

But it was also customary for Military and political leaders to adopt their own Patron God so importing a new religion was not unheard of in Rome. 

Helios galloping across the Heavens in his fiery Chariot

The Sun God

Everyday, the sun god would drive his golden chariot across the sky, therefore representing the rising and eventual setting of the sun. He is depicted in his Quadric a four-horse chariot first driven by the Titan god, Helios, who was later replaced by the Olympian Apollo. 

Worship of Helios was imported to Rome under the new guise of Sol Invictus (the unconquered sun) and was gaining in popularity at this time. So in true Roman Syncretistic fashion the Syrian deity Agabalus was assimilated into the Pantheon as the Roman sun God.

Depiction of Sol Invictus 

The God Elagabal 

Related to Baal a generic name for the Canaanite supreme God worshipped in various Guises in the middle east. El ( El - Baal) also a term well known in this area and in the Hebrew Scriptures, for God usually a prefix in the Hebrew texts eg. El Elyon (God-Most high) or El Shaddai (God-Almighty). Also 'Gabal' relates to the Arabic 'Jabal' meaning mountain therefore 'God of the Mountain'. ( El-Jah-Baal) Perhaps with a mixture of 'Ra'? or even Jah from Jahweh.

 In Rome there was an even earlier deification of the sun in the God 'Sol' which apparently faded before Imperial times. There may have been a Roman connection to the God Apollo or Helios (there seems to be some dispute about whether Apollo was combined with the worship of the sun since Helios was already the sun God) riding across the Heavens in his solar chariot exactly as depictions were made for Sol Invictus in Rome. Later it was felt to have been introduced through Mithraism. Sol Invictus as the chief religious deity was instituted later by Aurelian in 275 AD.

Elagabalus had a Temple constructed on the Palatine Hill which housed a meteorite (which was venerated since it obviously fell from heaven.)

Meteorites falling from the sky are pretty common objects in 

religions . . . as well shall see. . . 

 Herodian wrote "this stone is worshipped as though it were sent from heaven; on it there are some small projecting pieces and markings that are pointed out, which the people would like to believe are a rough picture of the sun, because this is how they see them".

Before the construction of the temple Elagabalus placed this meteor next to the statue of Jupiter. After he built the temple he then placed all the most sacred religious artefacts of Rome into the temple so that nobody could give obeisance to another God without first acknowledging Egalabal. 

The Roman populace did not appreciate this departure from tradition they could accept a new patron God but a usurper of Jupiter might be a little hard to swallow. But perhaps this could have been tolerated had not Elagabalus caused a great many other offences as well which was to cause his downfall.

So it would seem for the moment,  the Severan's were back in business, the pretender to the throne had been dealt with and at last Julia Maesa could relax and enjoy her hard earned victory.

But it was not long before cracks began to show.

Elagabalus the Weird

We have established that Julia Maesa was the decision maker in the new administration, but the title and privileges that went with it were being throughly enjoyed by the still (very) young Elagabalus. He had some strange personal tendencies which soon began to surface to the ever growing alarm of the court of Severus.   

Bronze statue of an aristocratic boy 27BC - 14AD

He had strange cross dressing tendencies together with some rather unorthodox religious practices. He married more than 5 times and had numerous alleged relationships with male courtiers just for starters. . .

Elagabalus tried to have his presumed lover, the charioteer Hierocles, declared Caesar,while another alleged lover, the athlete Aurelius Zoticus, was appointed to the non-administrative but influential position of Master of the Chamber, or Cubicularius. He stirred further discontent when he himself married the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, claiming the marriage would produce "godlike children".

A Vestal Virgin 

In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. A Vestal virgin could only be chosen from an aristocratic family and it was certainly regarded as a high honour for a young girl. 

Vow of Chastity

They were required to take a vow of chastity and service for 30 years, and were tasked with protecting the sacred fire of Vesta and making preparations for rituals in her temple, and as such, their role was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. 

Along with these noble tasks came a number of privileges not afforded to other women. A Vestal’s person was sacrosanct, and the penalty for injuring one of Vesta’s priestesses was death. 

Punishments for breaking the Oath

However, if any Vestal was found to violate her oath of Celibacy, she would be condemned to burial alive or more accurately holed up in an enclosed space where she died of starvation. 

This painting, which depicts a Vestal Virgin condemned to death for breaking her vow of chastity, appears to be the preliminary study for a similar version by Pietro Saja (1779-1833) that hangs in the Palazzo Reale in Caserta, near Naples 

For Elagabalus to marry a Vestal virgin was a flagrant disregard for a very sacred Roman tradition. 

In Ancient Rome it was not unusual for emperors to have homosexual lovers, this was not the issue but rather the effect on the troops having to see their emperor dressing up like a girl, This was going too far and  totally unacceptable in a militaristic world where leaders had to be able to demonstrate their toughness. 

Cassius Dio reported that Elagabalus would "paint his eyes, epilate his hair and wear wigs before prostituting himself in taverns, brothels, and even in the imperial palace". According to Cassius Dio, his most stable relationship seems to have been with his chariot driver, a blond slave from Caria named Hierocles, whom he referred to as his husband.

There was the very real danger of losing the support of the Praetorian guard which any Emperor depended totally upon for their physical protection. In the vipers nest of roman political machinations nobody could afford this. 

The Roses of Elagabalus Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadeema 1888

The Roses of Elagabalus

Taken from the "Augustan History" a compilation of 'apocryphal' works by six different authors (collectively known as the Scriptores Historiae Augustae), written in the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine I.

The true authorship of the work, its actual date, and its purpose, have long been matters for controversy. 

In this Painting Alma-Tadema depicts a story in which Elagabalus plays an ironic and deadly prank on his unsuspecting guests smothering them with a huge barrage of rose petals released from a false ceiling, the delicate and sweet smelling roses overcome them and slowly crush and asphyxiate them.  

The original reference is this: In a banqueting-room with a reversible ceiling he once buried his parasites in violets and other flowers, so that some were actually smothered to death, being unable to crawl out to the top. 

It is unknown whether this is a true event or not although it would appear that Elagabalus was quite capable of such bizarre and cruel behaviour. 

Plan B

Perhaps he had been warned, maybe several times, and one can easily picture an exasperated Julia Maesa trying to talk sense into an out of control adolescent refusing to listen. 

The stakes are very high and Julia must have seen her great plan of restoration evaporating in front of her eyes. She had to formulate a desperate plan, and soon, before the incensed Praetorian guard took the law in their own hands. If her family was going to survive, she needed Elagabalus out of the way, but who would rule in his stead?

Fortunately she had another daughter who also had a son so a new plot was hatched this time against her own family. Her second daughter Julia Mamaea also had a son. . . Severus Alexander who was getting older. . .

First she made sure that Elagabalus named his cousin Severus as his heir. He was younger than Elagabalus but had by now turned 14 which was the age his cousin was when he took the throne. That was good enough for Julia Maesa. 

Elagabalus not being a complete idiot, suspected something was up, and tried to have Severus removed several times, eventually a confrontation took place in which the Praetorian guard knowing Julia Maesa had already given her consent murdered Elagabalus with his mother Julia Soaemias in 222 AD.

The Assassination of Caligula by the Praetorian Guard.

Cassius Dio reports . . ."So he made an attempt to flee, and would have got away somewhere by being placed in a chest, had he not been discovered and slain, at the age of 18. His mother, who embraced him and clung tightly to him, perished with him; their heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, then the mother's body was cast aside somewhere or other while his was thrown into the Tiber."

Julia Maesa's work was largely done and she died in 226 AD it is hard to imagine if she died confident in the future consolidation of the Severan dynasty, it seems that Alexander was doomed from the start. Which certainly is a pity because he was quite different in character and behaviour to his deranged cousin in every possible way. 

Julia Mamaea 

His Mother was Julia Mamaea and she stepped confidently into the shoes of her mother as de facto ruler of the empire.  

Severus Alexander becomes emperor at age 14

 His education had been carefully conducted by Mamaea at Antioch, and it is reported that she invited sometime in 228 AD, from the Egyptian School, the great Scholar Origen to educate her and her son.  

Eusebius relates (Church History VI.21-28) that she was "a very religious woman", and that Origen remained some time with her, "instructing her in all that could serve to glorify the Lord and confirm His Divine teachings." 

The Historian Lampridius gives a record of Alexander's very favourable dealings with Christianity. 

"He placed in his private oratory (lararium) images of Abraham and Christ before those of other renowned persons, like Orpheus and Apollonius of Tyana (Vita Alex., xxix); he tolerated the free exercise of the Christian faith ("Christianos esse passus est", ibid., xxii); he recommended in the appointment of imperial governors the prudence and solicitude of the Christians in the selection of their bishops (ibid., xiv);" He even went so far as to suggest the building of a temple to Jesus Christ but his advisors persuaded him against the idea. 

whilst Severus it seems had the makings of a good Emperor, his mother went everywhere with him and as he got older perhaps this could have been instrumental in the decisions made that eventually led to both her and her son’s demise. 

Severus was a well educated and enlightened man it would seem and apparently surrounded himself with wise and prudent advisors.

The Military 

The problem was the relationship between the ruling class and the military who had by now already tasted power and was quite conscious of their collective ability to appoint and depose rulers as and when they chose to.  

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Severus was simply living in an impossible situation in which trying bringing the military to heel was inviting one’s own demise.

Which is exactly what happened 

234AD -The 'barbarians' crossed the Rhine and Danube in hordes that even caused panic at the gates of Rome. Roman troops had only just managed to contain a resurgent Parthian invasion in the east.

Alexander tried to negotiate with the invading Germans perhaps trying to avoid a bloody battle after the tremendous cost of the Persian wars. His troops were unimpressed with this decision and probably it made Alexander look weak in their eyes.

They had by this time already nominated their choice of leader in the person of Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus who had worked his way through the ranks through sheer determination and strength, demonstrating the kind of qualities much admired by the legionaries.

Predictably and tragically Alexander was murdered together with his mother in 235 by his own troops on the Rhine. 

This is NOW officially the end of the Severan Dynasty