ELAGABALUS
I´M TOO SEXY FOR MY TOGA
He would wear a tunic made wholly of cloth of gold, or one made of purple, or a Persian one studded with jewels, and at such times he would say that he felt oppressed by the weight of his pleasures. He even wore jewels on his shoes, sometimes engraved ones - a practice which aroused the derision of all, as if, forsooth, the engraving of famous artists could be seen on the jewels attached to one's feet. He wished to wear also a jeweled diadem in order that his beauty might be increased and his face look more like a woman's; and in his own house he did wear one.
--- Historia Augusta Life of Elagabalus XXIII
The antics of the Syrian emperor Elagabalus perplexed and horrified ancient historians. It was quite a bizarre thing to have a fourteen year old priest of an Oriental sun god traipsing around the palace in women's underwear. Nero probably did the underwear thing, but at least he respected the old Roman gods in the process. Elagabalus did not.
Elagabalus, born Varius Avitus Bassianus, became emperor of the Roman world in 218 AD and reigned for four years thanks to some scheming by his mother, who claimed he was Carcalla's son. In reality he was, in fact, his nephew, but it sounded a whole lot better to the army, which had still held the memory of Caracalla dear.
He was acclaimed Emperor on May 16, 218 and took the title Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, another beloved name. But it was as Elagabalus, the name of the sun god he worshipped, that he became known.
After being acclaimed emperor, the rebels of the legion who claimed him overthrew the troops of Macrinus, the reigning emperor. This was done on June 8, 218 outside Antioch and Elagabalus was recognized immediately as emperor throughout the empire.
Gabby (I´ll call him that. It's shorter) hung around in the east for a year. When he finally came back to Rome with his mother and grandmother, he brought back with him a black stone. This was the cult symbol of the god Elagabalus. Herodian describes it as being round at the bottom and coming to a point at the top with lots of spikes sticking out that were supposed to make it look like the sun. Sounds like it looked more like an S&M toy or a gruesome pre-Christian French tickler. Gabby built a big temple for it on the Palatine Hill, the Elagaballium, and installed the rock there.
