As described in the novel, Origen’s father was killed in the persecution of Septimius Severus, and Origen would have joined him if his mother hadn’t hidden his clothes, his modesty preventing him from going out. He is thought to have castrated himself after a literal misreading of Matthew 19:12, an act he came to regret later in life, although some believe this event was actually malicious gossip spread by his enemies. Origen’s numerous works were highly influential in the early Christian church, although in the years and centuries after his death, his work was condemned as heretical. He died a year after being released from two years of imprisonment during which he was repeatedly tortured in an unsuccessful attempt to force him to renounce Christ.
Incidentally, it was rumoured that Gannys was also a eunuch. This may have been a detail invented by Gibbon, but I have chosen to have him pretend to be a eunuch to conceal his affair with Julia Soaemias.
The religion of the god Elagabal is not Alexandrian, but originated in the city of Emesa, modern-day Homs in Syria, although he was probably worshipped as a major deity throughout Syria. Although he represented the sun, his name was thought to mean the god of the mountain. He was venerated as a black conical rock, with a rounded base and a pointed top. Ancient sources suggest that this stone was a meteorite, and it would not be surprising for a stone that in ancient times fell from the sky in a blaze of fire to be venerated or worshipped.
Varius Avitus Bassianus, the Avitus of this novel, who was later to become the Emperor Elagabalus or Heliogabalus, was descended from the royal priesthood of Emesa, and was the grandson of Julia Domna’s sister, Julia Maesa. As such he had royal lineage. His mother later claimed that Caracalla was his father, although this may have been invented in order to give extra validity to his claim to the purple. There is speculation that Avitus had an older brother, since he is named after his mother’s father, and an older brother would have been named after his father’s father. Moreover, the tombstone of Avitus’ probable father, Sextus Varius Marcellus, was dedicated by his wife and sons. However, it is reported that Julia Maesa had only two grandsons, who were cousins (Avitus/Elagabalus and Severus Alexander), and if there was an elder brother, why did Avitus take precedence when being elevated to the throne? I have therefore concluded it most likely that Avitus did have a brother, but like so many children of the times, he died young.
Avitus himself is a fascinating character. Although more roundly vilified than any Emperor, even those habitually demonised such as Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus and Caracalla himself, most of the criticisms, accusations and smears of his character and his reign centred around his sexual behaviour and his religious zealotry. That he wished to introduce his god Elagabal as the supreme deity into Rome is no worse behaviour than that of the only Roman Emperor to bear the title ‘Great’, Constantine, and in fact Avitus probably believed profoundly in his god, while Constantine likely introduced Christianity for cynical political purposes.
As for the sexual scandals, Avitus became Emperor unexpectedly at the age of fourteen, a role he had had no preparation for. A hormonal teenage boy with gender identity issues, whose father had died a few years before and who was brought up by a manipulative and overbearing mother, suddenly being given supreme and absolute power over the entire civilised world – what could go wrong?
I have tried to write the young Avitus from a sympathetic point of view, taking into account both modern sensibilities towards gender identity, while not glossing over the reaction that Avitus’ contemporaries would have had towards his behaviour. Avitus, of course, will become a much more important figure in Rome’s history a few years after the point at which this novel ends, and perhaps if both reader and writer have the stamina to reach that far, we will see what sort of ruler he becomes!
Historical Texts
Herodian on the death of Septimius Severus and the co-reign of Geta and Caracalla
Transl. J. Hart 1749. Adapted from Herodian’s history of his own times, original book IV, chapters v–vi.
Antoninus thought it was proper to stay the night in the temple of the camp, to bind the army firmly to his interest and to make them his own by distributing large sums of money. The next day he went to the Senate house, attended by all the Praetorians, more heavily armed than usual when they only attended the Emperor in State. After the divine service was performed, he ascended the Imperial throne and delivered the following speech to the Senate.
‘I am not ignorant that every domestic murder is no sooner heard than detested, that the very name of parricide, the moment it strikes the ear, raises indignation and calumny. The unfortunate are always objects of compassion, the powerful of envy. In these cases, the vanquished party is thought to be injured, and he that gains the victory is always accused of having done wrong.
‘But if anyone will consider the case with reason, and not form his judgement from affection for the fallen person, and to maturely weigh and examine the motive and intent of both parties, he will see that it is sometimes not only reasonable but necessary for a man to defend himself, because to fall by injustice carries with it a strong suspicion of cowardice, while repelling violence with success has, besides the defending his safety, the added glory of a bold and manly spirit.
‘What frequent snares have been laid for my life, by poison and every other kind of covert treason, it is in your power to find out by torture. For I have ordered his ministers and servants to be present, that the truth of this might be discovered. Some have already been examined, and you may presently hear their confessions. In the meantime, let me inform you of his last wicked attempt on my life. He came to me in the presence of my mother, attended with armed men, with the intention of murder.
‘But having previous suspicion of his villainy, I boldly defeated his attempt and I viewed him not with the affection and nature of a brother, but as an avowed enemy. To punish such traitors is undeniably just, as shown by numerous examples. Romulus, the great founder of this city, would not bear his brother vilifying and deriding his work.
‘I pass over Germanicus and Titus without comment, the former being the brother of Tiberius and the latter the brother of Domitian. Marcus himself, that sage and meek philosopher, would not bear the arrogance of his son-in-law Lucius, but cut him off by secret treachery.
‘So too, I, while poisons were being prepared for my food, and the sword was already lifted to my throat, struck the blow and revenged myself on my enemy, for his actions sufficiently justify that name.
‘And therefore you should give thanks to the gods who have saved at least one of your emperors, and to cease henceforth your animosities and pass the remainder of your days in security and peace, looking only to one sovereign for protection. For as Jupiter reigns sole monarch of the gods, so he now gives the government of men into the hands of one supreme.’
These words were uttered with a strong and stern voice, after which having cast a look full of wrath and terror upon Geta’s friends, he left most of them trembling and pale, and returned with haste to the Imperial palace.
Here he soon let loose his fury against all in his brother’s service, whether ministers, counsellors, friends, officers or servants. Neither age nor sex was spared. Children and even infants were massacred, and their dead carcasses were thrown into carts with all the marks of indignity and contempt, and carried out of the city, burnt in huge heaps in the order they arrived.
No one who had the least familiarity or acquaintance with Geta escaped death. Wrestlers, charioteers, players, musicians, dancers and everyone he kept for the diversion of his eyes or ears shared the same fate. And those of the senators most distinguished by blood or wealth were, upon the weakest evidence or even surmise or hearsay, condemned and executed as sympathisers of Geta. He even put to death the eldest sister of Commodus, now an old woman, who was held in honour by all the former emperors, as she was the daughter of Marcus. He alleged, as a heinous charge against her, that she was found weeping in his mother’s apartment, and consoling her for the loss
of her son. Plautian’s daughter, his divorced wife, who was now an exile in Sicily, his first cousin, named after his father Severus, Pertinax’s son, the son of Lucilla, Commodus’s sister – all the descendants of the former emperors, and those of the most illustrious families in the Senate, he cut down, as if he designed to extinguish the very relics of Imperial and patrician blood.
He then sent assassins to the provinces, and put to death the governors and procurators who were friends to his brother. Not a night passed without the frequent murder of men of every nation. The Vestal Virgins were buried alive for violating their oaths of virginity. And to complete all this, he committed an action so strange that it was almost without parallel. Some of the crowd at the races in the Circus mocked and laughed at one of his favourite charioteers. He took this to be a personal affront, and ordered the army to fall upon the spectators and to murder those who had the impudence to abuse the charioteer. The Praetorians, having being given the power of doing mischief, did not spend much time investigating who had so impudently affronted the Emperor, and it was impossible to find the persons among the numerous crowd of people, nor would any dare to confess the truth, so they seized all they could lay their hands on and either cut them to pieces or stripped them of all they had on them as a ransom for their lives, after which they reluctantly allowed them to escape.
Dio Cassius on Caracalla
Transl. Earnest Cary PhD, 1914, Adapted from an English translation of Dio’s Roman History, Epitome of book LXXVIII iii–xi.
Source: the Lacus Curtius website: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html
Antoninus, although it was evening, took possession of the legions, after crying out the whole way, as if he had been the object of a plot and his life were in danger. On entering the camp he exclaimed: ‘Rejoice, fellow-soldiers, for now I am in a position to do you favours.’ And before they heard the whole story he had stopped their mouths with so many and so great promises that they could neither think of nor say anything to show proper respect for the dead. ‘I am one of you,’ he said, ‘and it is because of you alone that I care to live, in order that I may confer upon you many favours; for all the treasuries are yours.’ And he further said: ‘I pray to live with you, if possible, but if not, at any rate to die with you. For I do not fear death in any form, and it is my desire to end my days in warfare. There should a man die, or nowhere.’ To the Senate on the following day he addressed various remarks, and then, after rising from his seat, he said as he reached the door: ‘Listen to an important announcement from me: that the whole world may rejoice, let all the exiles who have been condemned, on whatever charge or in whatever manner, be restored.’ Thus did he empty the islands of exiles and grant pardon to the basest of criminals; but before long he had the islands full again. Of the Imperial freedmen and soldiers who had been with Geta he immediately put to death some twenty thousand, men and women alike, wherever in the palace any of them happened to be; and he slew various distinguished men also, including Papinianus.
When the Praetorians accused Papinianus and Patruinus of certain things, Antoninus permitted them to kill the men, saying: ‘It is for you, and not for myself, that I rule; therefore, I defer to you both as accuser and judges.’ He rebuked the slayer of Papinianus for using an axe instead of a sword to kill him.
He also wished to take the life of Cilo, his tutor and benefactor, who had served as prefect of the city under his father, and whom he himself had often called ‘father.’ The soldiers who were sent to Cilo first plundered his silver plate, his robes, his money, and everything else of his, and then led him along the Sacred Way with the purpose of taking him to the palace and there putting him out of the way; he had only low slippers on his feet, since he had chanced to be in the bath when arrested, and was wearing a short tunic. The soldiers tore the clothing off his body and disfigured his face, so that the populace as well as the city troops began to make an outcry; accordingly, Antoninus, in awe and fear of them, met the party, and shielding Cilo with his cavalry cloak (he was wearing military dress), cried out: ‘Insult not my father! Strike not my tutor!’ As for the military tribune who had been bidden to slay him and the detail of soldiers sent with him, they were put to death, ostensibly because they had plotted Cilo’s destruction, but in reality because they had not killed him.
Antoninus pretended to love Cilo to such a degree that he declared, ‘Those who have plotted against him have plotted against me,’ and when commended for this by the bystanders, he continued: ‘Call me neither Hercules nor any other god’ – not that he did not wish to be termed a god, but because he did not want to do anything worthy of a god. He was naturally capricious in all things; for instance, he would bestow great honours upon people and then suddenly disgrace them quite without cause, and again he would spare the lives of those who least deserved it and punish those whom one would never have looked to see punished.
Julianus Asper, a man by no means to be despised either on account of his education or of his intelligence, was first exalted, together with his sons, by Antoninus, so that he paraded about surrounded by ever so many fasces at once, and then was suddenly insulted by him outrageously and sent back to his native town with abuse and in terrible fear.
Laenus was another whom he would have disgraced or even killed, had not the man been extremely ill. Antoninus before the soldiers called his illness wicked, because it did not permit him to display his own wickedness in the case of Laenus also.
He also made away with Thrasea Priscus, a man second to none either in birth or intelligence. There were many others, too, formerly friends of his, that he put to death.
‘All could I never recite near the names number over completely’ of the distinguished men that he killed without any justification. Dio, because the slain were very well known in those days, gives a list of their names; but for me it suffices to say that he made away with all the men he wished without distinction, ‘both guilty and guiltless alike,’ and he mutilated Rome by depriving it of its good men.
Antoninus belonged to three races; and he possessed none of their virtues at all, but combined in himself all their vices; the fickleness, cowardice, and recklessness of Gaul were his, the harshness and cruelty of Africa, and the craftiness of Syria, whence he was sprung on his mother’s side.
Veering from murder to sport, he showed the same thirst for blood in this field, too. It was nothing, of course, that an elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, and hippotigris were slain in the arena, but he took pleasure in seeing the blood of as many gladiators as possible; he forced one of them, Bato, to fight three men in succession on the same day, and then, when Bato was slain by the last one, he honoured him with a brilliant funeral.
He was so enthusiastic about Alexander that he used certain weapons and cups which he believed had once been his, and he also set up many likenesses of him both in the camps and in Rome itself. He organised a phalanx, composed entirely of Macedonians, 16,000 strong, named it ‘Alexander’s phalanx,’ and equipped it with the arms that warriors had used in his day; these consisted of a helmet of raw ox-hide, a three-ply linen breastplate, a bronze shield, long pike, short spear, high boots, and sword. Not even this, however, satisfied him, but he must call his hero ‘the Augustus of the East’; and once he actually wrote to the Senate that Alexander had come to life again in the person of the Augustus, that he might live on once more in him, having had such a short life before. Towards the philosophers who were called Aristotelians he showed bitter hatred in every way, even going so far as to desire to burn their books, and in particular he abolished their common messes in Alexandria and all the other privileges that they had enjoyed; his grievance against them was that Aristotle was supposed to have been concerned in the death of Alexander. Such was his behaviour in these matters; nay more, he even took about with him numerous elephants, that in this respect, also, he might seem to be imitating Alexander, or rather, perhaps, Dionysus.
On Alexander’s account, then, he was very fo
nd of the Macedonians. Once, after commending a Macedonian tribune for the agility with which he had leapt upon his horse, he asked him first: ‘From what country are you?’ Then, learning that he was a Macedonian, he asked again: ‘What is your name?’ And hearing that it was Antigonus, he further inquired: ‘And what was your father’s name?’ When the father’s name was found to be Philip, he declared: ‘I have all my desire,’ and promptly advanced him through all the other grades of the military career, and before long appointed him a senator with the rank of an ex-praetor. Again, there is the incident of a certain man who had no connection with Macedonia but had committed many crimes and for this reason was being tried by the emperor on an appeal. His name changed to be Alexander, and when the orator who was accusing him kept saying, ‘the bloodthirsty Alexander, the god-detested Alexander,’ Antoninus became angry, as if he himself were being called these bad names, and said: ‘If you cannot be satisfied with plain “Alexander,” you may consider yourself dismissed.’
Now this great admirer of Alexander, Antoninus, was fond of spending money upon the soldiers, great numbers of whom he kept in attendance upon him, alleging one excuse after another and one war after another; but he made it his business to strip, despoil, and grind down all the rest of mankind, and the senators by no means least. In the first place, there were the gold crowns that he was repeatedly demanding, on the constant pretext that he had conquered some enemy or other; and I am not referring, either, to the actual manufacture of the crowns – for what does that amount to? – but to the vast amount of money constantly being given under that name by the cities for the customary ‘crowning’, as it is called, of the emperors. Then there were the provisions that we were required to furnish in great quantities on all occasions, and this without receiving any remuneration and sometimes actually at additional cost to ourselves, all of which supplies he either bestowed upon the soldiers or else peddled out; and there were the gifts which he demanded from the wealthy citizens and from the various communities; and the taxes, but the new ones which he promulgated and the 10 per cent tax that he instituted in place of the 5 per cent tax applying to the emancipation of slaves, to bequests, and to all legacies; for he abolished the right of succession and exemption from taxes which had been granted in such cases to those who were closely related to the deceased. This was the reason why he made all the people in his Empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honouring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes. But apart from all these burdens, we were also compelled to build at our own expense all sorts of houses for him whenever he set out from Rome, and costly lodgings in the middle of even the very shortest journeys; yet he not only never lived in them, but in some cases was not destined even to see them. Moreover, we constructed amphitheatres and race-courses wherever he spent the winter or expected to spend it, all without receiving any contribution from him; and they were all promptly demolished, the sole reason for their being built in the first place being, apparently, that we might become impoverished.
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