Biography of Heliogabalus, first transsexual in history and Roman emperor.

The life of this emperor was impressive, although marked by violence and eccentricity.

They say that history often hides the essence of the truth, but only if you look for it. That details are left out, secrets are kept and, often, reality is disguised by giving it a self-serving touch. The Roman Empire has always been shown to us as a period of great warriors, excellent thinkers and fathers of modern politics. Nevertheless, Heliogabalus is an exception that deserves a few lines..

The fact is that the emperor Heliogabalus is the great unknown, often set aside in Greco-Roman books for the supposed need to preserve "the historical honor of the founders of the West". It turns out that this young man was anything but normal and, in particular, is particularly offensive to the Christian moralism that has always sought to be linked to European values.

It is not that he was the typical governor inordinate with his public appearances or that he enjoyed all the mistresses that his privileged status granted him. Heliogabalus was a character out of his time, in part, because he was the first transsexual in history. the first recorded transsexual in history, as well as a danger to the public.He was also a danger to those close to him for other reasons.

Who was Heliogabalus?

Many history books have tried to forgive the misdeeds of the most controversial politicians, magnifying his figure as if it were a Hollywood movie, in order to create a romantic story about the epic of the ancestors of certain nations. In other cases, however, embellishing a biography is too difficult, so we choose to ignore those figures who, despite their merits to be remembered, do not fit the "official" story.So we choose to ignore those figures who, despite having merits to be remembered, do not fit the "official" story.

Some of the most famous Caesars of Rome, such as Nero, Commodus, Caligula or Galba, were directly responsible for the fall of what was one of the greatest empires in history. To all these names there is one that magically disappears from all the texts we know or have read diagonally about the Roman Empire, perhaps because he was considered one of the worst of his kind by historians, at least until not so long ago.

Heliogabalus, Elagabalus in Latin, was born in the city of Emesa, in the Roman province of Syria, in 203, and died assassinated in the Roman Empire. in 203, and was assassinated in Rome in 222, barely out of his teens. He was a Roman emperor with an ephemeral mandate, since he reigned only from 218 until the date of his death, a total of four years. It was his grandmother Julia Mesa who, with her political influences, hatched a plot against the current emperor, Marcus Opellius Macrinus, to elevate her grandson Heliogabalus.

Heliogabalus, the first transsexual in history.

The convergence among expert historians on Ancient Rome is unanimous. "He was one of the worst of his kind," say those who have published about him. Some of the most renowned authors such as Elius Lampridius or Barthold Georg, even apologized for describing in detail some of Heliogabalus' actions..

As an emperor, Heliogabalus was a time bomb. Having risen to power at the age of fourteen, his tenure as emperor was a kind of constant festival of eroticism. It is said that he practiced prostitution, hired a regiment of prostitutes and, most importantly, he wanted to change his sex surgically. However, the level of technological development of the time did not allow him to do so, no matter how much he insisted to the doctors.

Of course, the fact that from a very young age Heliogabalus wanted to have a woman's body, as well as his attraction to men, has earned him the rejection of many historians over the centuries. However, today, in a context in which homophobia is rapidly receding in many Western countries, there are still many reasons to consider Heliogabalus a chaos and a public danger.

Exponential murders and authoritarianism in Rome.

At a very young age, Heliogabalus became the pontiff of the god El Gabal of his city Emesa (Homs in modern-day Syria), an ancient deity of the time, god of the Sun. The curiosity of this god is that he was carved on a stone in the shape of a penis.. It was quite a statement of intent when, shortly after landing in Rome, he legislated the mandatory worship of the phallic statue in an area where the absence of followers of that religion was total.

The most serious thing was not the object to be worshipped in itself, but rather in the rituals as an offering. Senators and praetorians had to attend these affronts without objection.. Scenes that were anything but conventional, especially for the time: the emperor was dressed in feminine attire and with his breastplate in the air, with make-up and a feminine attitude. But this was the least of it.

On the other hand, Heliogabalus killed several people as a result of his need to constantly amuse himself. When he organized parties and orgies, she used to shower her guests with petals in such a way that some of them were buried and suffocated. and suffocated.

The sex regiment

The young emperor's behavior was as antisocial as it was erratic and marked by the strangest ways of getting out of boredom at the expense of the welfare of others. He constituted an entire paramilitary group to seek out, track down, and recruit the males with the largest penis in the Roman dominions. He wanted the best endowed men for his personal enjoyment.

She met Hierocles, a slave from Smyrna, and Zotius, a strapping Greek athlete more famous for his sexual prowess than his athletic achievements. She married both of them and, far from hiding, came to publicly acknowledge her happiness with these men for the whole world to know, attitudes that began to annoy her senators and her own praetorian guard. He bragged in plenary sessions about the physical scars left by his lover when they practiced sadomasochistic sex (imagining the faces of the attendees is frankly amusing).

The attitude of this young man, whose empire depended on him, did not remain in mere sexual attitudes at a private level. In the same Roman capital he frequented the darkest tuburios of the whole city, practicing prostitution professionally.He built public baths to expose the virile virtues of the citizens and established circus shows in the imperial palace itself.

All this exceptionality and socio-political disorder, ended up because those who helped him to rise to power corruptly through the plot, did the same with Heliogabalus, killing him.

Was Heliogabalus mentally unbalanced?

Under no circumstances should the gender identity or sexual orientation of this grotesque emperor be confused with his tendency to attack the welfare of others. It is very relevant to to identify the context in which Heliogabalus was appointed as leader of the Roman EmpireIt is very relevant to identify the context in which Heliogabalus was appointed leader of the Roman Empire, at the age of 14, when he was still thinking about playing ball with his friends.

The adolescent age, that stage of life where one begins to outline his personality, tastes and sexual orientation, was disturbed by his grandmother's delusions of grandeur, by the excess of power involved in being Emperor of Rome and by the perverse nature of politics at that time, provoked an emotional imbalance in Heliogabalus. Everything indicates that Heliogabalus did have mental disorders, although this is not related to the fact of being transsexual or being attracted to men.