page_title: Elagabalus
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Elagabalus / Legacy / Music
context_page_description: Elagabalus or Heliogabalus, officially known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222. His short reign was conspicuous for sex scandals and religious controversy. He belonged to the imperial Severan dynasty, and came from a prominent Arab family in Emesa, Syria, where in his early youth he served as head priest of the namesake sun god Elagabalus. After the death of his cousin, the emperor Caracalla, Elagabalus was raised to the principate at barely 14 years of age in an army revolt instigated by his grandmother, Julia Maesa, against Caracalla's brief successor, Macrinus. As a private citizen, he was probably named Varius Avitus Bassianus. Upon becoming emperor he took the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He was called Elagabalus only after his death.
  Later historians suggest Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity Elagabalus, of whom he had been high priest. He forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, over which he personally presided.
context_section_description: Eliogabalo (1667), an opera by Venetian Baroque composer Francesco Cavalli
  Elagabalus is mentioned in the Major-General's Song (1879) from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.
  Heliogabale (1910), an opera by French composer Déodat de Séverac
  Eliogabalus (1990), title of both the second album and second song by the experimental rock band Devil Doll (Slovenian band)
  Heliogabalus imperator (Emperor Heliogabalus) (1972), an orchestral work by the German composer Hans Werner Henze
  Six Litanies for Heliogabalus (2007), an album by American musician John Zorn
  The Pale Emperor (2015), an album by American musician Marilyn Manson, was inspired by the life of Heliogabalus and more specifically Antonin Artaud's book
caption: The Roses of Heliogabalus by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1888)
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