2023-11-25 21:52:00
He Museo de North Hertfordshire of United Kingdom will begin to refer to the Roman emperor Elagabalus with the feminine pronoun ‘her’. The decision was made following concluding that it was a transgender person who wanted to be called “lady,” according to ancient writings.
The main reason for concluding that the governor of the Roman empire perceived herself as a woman arises from what she says in her texts Cassius Dion in the 3rd century AD Supposedly, when an attractive man referred to Elagabalus as “my lord emperor,” the leader responded: “Don’t call me sir, because I’m a lady.”.
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Both the present and the past are being reinterpreted from a gender perspective. Today we seek to review history from the perspective of gender and diversities to rethink how history has been told, especially in a sexually varied culture like the one that lived in ancient Rome.
Heliogabalus: A transgender empress?
The British Museum of North Hertfordshire made the decision to recognize Elagabalus as a transgender woman during the exhibition that will be held in his honor. In a supposed act of reparation for their gender identity, historians will use the pronouns of ‘she’ and ‘them’ to refer to the leader.
“Definitely preferred this pronoun and that is something that we reflect when we talk regarding it in contemporary times,” a museum spokesperson explained to The Daily Telegraph. In turn, in statements to the BBC he highlighted that “being sensitive when identifying pronouns of people from the past” was an act of “courtesy and respect” towards them.
Cassius Dionsenator and contemporary of Elagabalus in the 3rd century AD, states in his chronicles that the emperor not only gained fame for his way of exercising sexuality but also for his conjugal union.
According to the story, the emperor was married five times, four with women and once with a former slave, in addition to other male lovers. In this final marriage, Dion writes that the emperor “was bestowed in marriage and He was called wife, lover and queen”.
However, the debate regarding Elagabalus gender identity divides historians. Unlike those who agree with the museum’s position, on the other side there are those who consider that the Romans constructed a feminized image of him as way to “weaken” it.
“There are many examples in Roman literature of times in which effeminate language and words were used as a way of criticizing or weakening a political figure,” he noted. Shushma Malik, professor at the University of Cambridge, for the BBC.
He added: “References to Elagabalus wearing makeup, wigs and shaving his body may have been written to undermine the unpopular emperor.”
On the other hand, Keith Hoskinsexecutive member for Business and Arts at North Herts Council, defended Dion’s writings on the grounds that they provide evidence “that Elagabalus definitely I preferred the pronoun ‘she’”.
“We know that Elagabalus identified as a woman and was explicit regarding what pronouns to use, which shows that pronouns are not something new,” the councilor emphasized.
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Who was Elagabalus?
Born as Marcus Aurelius Antoniusbetter known as Heliogabalus, in the then Roman province of Syria, the emperor ruled the Roman Empire for only four years, since 218 AD until his murder, at the age of 18, in year 222 AD.
Beyond the current controversy with his self-perception, Elagabalus was an immensely controversial figure during his brief mandate, being that ignored religious traditions and the taboos of Rome. That is why he has been included in the list of “bad” or scandalous emperors of the Roman Empire.
It is said that for four years He abused his power and reversed many of the moral orders of the time, for example, when he decided to replace Jupiter, the main god of the Roman pantheon, with Elagabalus, deity of his hometown of Emesa, modern Homs, and from whom he took his name when he assumed the throne.
The short reign of Elagabalus was the product of growing opposition that would lead to him being murdered and replaced by his cousin Alejandro Severo, in a plot hatched by his grandmother, Julia Mesa, and by members of the Praetorian Guardthe military body that protected the Roman emperors.
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