Elagabalus

### Relatives

Septimius Severus (Great-uncle/Alleged grandfather)Caracalla (Uncle/Alleged father)

Geta (Uncle)

Julia Domna (Great-aunt)

Julia Maesa (Grandmother)

Julia Soaemias (Mother)

Julia Mamaea (Aunt)

Severus Alexander (Cousin)

## Physical description

### Gender

Transgender

**Varius Avitus Bassianus** (204-222), better known as **Elagabalus,** was one of the youngest Emperors in Rome's history, as well as its most controversial due of his scandalous behavior. He was the third emperor of the Severan dynasty, succeeding Caracalla (Mainly because his mother and grandmother lied by saying that he was Caracalla's bastard son of his predecessor, so that he could have command of the empire). His most well-known achievement was the introduction of the cult of DEVS SOL INVICTVS.

## **In "Unbiased History"**

### **"Rome XII - The Severan Dynasty"**

After Caracalla was overthrown by Macrinus, Julia Maesa devised a plan to put one of her two grandchildren on the throne. As Elagabalus was the elder of the two, he was chosen to lead the revolt after Julias Maesa and Soaemias lied about Elagabalus being Caracalla's bastard son. As the revolt began and ended in the defeat and death of Macrinus, Elagabalus sent a portrait of himself alongside a statue of Victoria to the Senate.

At this point, his backstory comes to light. As a devotee of Sol, he would soon be enlightened by depicting all gods as part of a whole, thus creating DEVS SOL INVICTVS, the overarching divinity of the Roman pantheon. He would then be proclaimed as the high priest, and adopted the name "Elagabalus" after the ancient Syrian sun god.

However, his word had trouble spreading to the masses, so his partook in activities meant to draw attention to him, like dressing and speaking like a prostitute, dropping gold onto the streets to see the ensuing carnage, and feeding the testicles of an enemy to a monkey, a lion, and a snake.

Autonomous in his religious mission, Julia Maesa became sick of her grandson not being her puppet, so planned to betray him and replace him with Severus Alexander. He would adopt Alexander as Caesar, but would take it back after finding out about his assassination, which he would avoid multiple attempts of. He would declare that Alexander was dead, but when he revealed to Maesa and the Praetorians that Alexander was alive, said Praetorians praised Alexander and slaughtered Elagabalus and his mother.

### "**Rome XVI - Constantine The Great"**

Alongside Caracalla, Pertinax, Gallienus, Probus, Caligula, and Aurelian, Elagabalus oversaw the massacre of the Praetorians.

### "**Rome XIX - The Fall of Rome"**

He is seen in the ending montages alongside Septimius Severus and his sons, the four Julias, Severus Alexander, Ardashir and his Sassanids, Plautianus, Pertinax, and DEVS\*SOL\*INVICTVS.

## **"Trivia"**

* Along with Caligula, Nero, Caracalla, and Maximinus Thrax (or even Commodus for comedic purposes), Elagabalus is one of a select few bad emperors who was portrayed as Chad, usually reserved for folk nobler than him.
	+ He is regarded as one of Rome's worst emperors. His reign is characterized as hedonistic and over-sexualized, similar to hated emperor turned Chad Caligula, with little in terms of political accomplishments.
		- However, the accusations relating to his hedonism might be completely wrong, as speculations about him being no more than a puppet have become prominent in recent times. It's now more widely accepted that he was more like a puppet emperor.
	+ The probable reason why he portrayed as Chad was because he founded Sol Invictus which adopted by Roman much better emperors, including Aurelian.
* Whether or not Elagabalus is gender non-binary is up to question due to his outlandish behavior, the traditionally patriarchal Roman culture with strong dislike for third gender despite their tolerance towards homosexuality, and Historia Augusta's biased writings.