He became emperor of Rome at fourteen. He arrived in the capital dressed as a foreign priest of a god Rome had never heard of. It got stranger from there.
This Elagabalus canvas wall art features a dramatic portrait of Rome's most unconventional emperor, part of the Bad Boys of Rome collection. A distinguished piece for the home, office, or classroom - and a compelling gift for history enthusiasts, classics lovers, and students of Roman power.
ABOUT ELAGABALUS (c. 204 AD – 222 AD)
Born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus in Syria, he came from a prominent family of hereditary priests of the sun god Elagabal at Emesa - modern-day Homs. His connection to the Severan imperial family came through his mother Julia Soaemias, niece of Septimius Severus's wife Julia Domna. When Caracalla was assassinated in 217 AD and replaced by the praetorian prefect Macrinus, his formidable grandmother Julia Maesa orchestrated his path to power - spreading the claim, almost certainly false, that he was Caracalla's illegitimate son, and rallying the eastern legions behind him. He was proclaimed emperor in May 218 AD at fourteen years old. It was, from the beginning, a family project as much as an imperial one.
When he arrived in Rome in 219 AD, he came not as a Roman statesman but as the high priest of his Syrian god, wearing eastern robes and performing ritual dances. His first act was to install the sacred black stone of Elagabal - a meteorite revered as the physical presence of the deity - in a new temple on the Palatine Hill, and to declare Elagabal supreme over Jupiter and the entire Roman pantheon. This was not political theater. He appears to have been entirely sincere, which made it considerably more alarming to the Roman establishment than cynical manipulation would have been.
The four years that followed generated a body of ancient testimony that is genuinely difficult to evaluate. The sources - Cassius Dio, Herodian, and the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta - describe behavior so extreme as to strain credulity, written by authors who had every reason to delegitimize a foreign-influenced emperor whose memory had already been formally condemned. What is not seriously disputed is that he made no effort to govern conventionally, that real power rested largely with his mother and grandmother, and that by 222 AD the Praetorian Guard had concluded his cousin Alexander Severus was a more manageable proposition. On 13 March 222 AD, Elagabalus and his mother were killed by the Guard and their bodies thrown into the Tiber. He was seventeen or eighteen years old.
Whatever the truth behind the ancient accounts, Elagabalus remains one of history's most genuinely singular figures - a teenage priest-emperor dropped into the most powerful office in the world, who seems never to have particularly wanted to be Roman at all.
PRODUCT FEATURES
- Available in 3 sizes in vertical orientation (300 dpi)
- Museum-quality printing with Greenguard Gold certified inks
- Non-toxic latex inks, safe and eco-friendly
- Made from FSC certified sustainable materials
- Anti-slip rubber dot backing to secure canvas when hung
- Wipe clean gently with a damp cloth if needed
- Arrives ready to hang