Elagabalus Birthday, Date of Birth
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, c. 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus ( EL-ə-GAB-ə-ləs) and Heliogabalus ( HEE-lee-ə-, -lee-oh-), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was notorious for religious controversy and alleged sexual debauchery. A close relative to the Severan dynasty, he came from a prominent Syrian Arab family in Emesa (Homs), Syria, where he served as the head priest of the sun god Elagabal from a young age. After the death of his cousin, the emperor Caracalla, Elagabalus was raised to the principate at 14 years of age in an army revolt instigated by his grandmother Julia Maesa against Caracalla's short-lived successor, Macrinus. He only posthumously became known by the Latinised name of his god.
Elagabalus is largely known from accounts by the contemporary senator Cassius Dio who was strongly hostile to him, Herodian, who likely relied extensively on Dio, and the much later Historia Augusta. The reliability of the accounts of Cassius Dio and the Historia Augusta, particularly their most salacious elements, has been strongly questioned. Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions. He brought the cult of Elagabal (including the large baetyl stone that represented the god) to Rome, making it a prominent part of religious life in the city. He forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, presiding over them in person. According to the accounts of Cassius Dio and the Augusta, he married four women, including a Vestal Virgin, in addition to lavishing favours on male courtiers they suggested to have been his lovers, and prostituted himself. His behaviour estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike. Amidst growing opposition, at just 18 years of age he was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander in March 222. The assassination plot against Elagabalus was devised by Julia Maesa and carried out by disaffected members of the Praetorian Guard.
Elagabalus developed a posthumous reputation for extreme eccentricity, decadence, zealotry, and sexual promiscuity. Among writers of the early modern age, he endured one of the worst reputations among Roman emperors. Edward Gibbon, notably, wrote that Elagabalus "abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury". According to Barthold Georg Niebuhr, "the name of Elagabalus is branded in history above all others; [...] "Elagabalus had nothing at all to make up for his vices, which are of such a kind that it is too disgusting even to allude to them". An example of a modern historian's assessment is Adrian Goldsworthy's: "Elagabalus was not a tyrant, but he was an incompetent, probably the least able emperor Rome had ever had". Despite near-universal condemnation of his reign, some scholars write warmly about his religious innovations, including the 6th-century Byzantine chronicler John Malalas, as well as Warwick Ball, a modern historian who described him as "a tragic enigma lost behind centuries of prejudice".
Modern scholars have questioned the accuracy of Roman accounts of his reign, with suggestions that the reports of his salacious behaviour and sexual excess likely reflected a desire to politically discredit him in the immediate aftermath of his death, as well as reflecting Roman stereotypes regarding people from the Orient as effeminate.
Read more...- Birthday, Date of Birth
- Sunday, March 20, 203
- Place of Birth
- Roma
- Age
- 1822
- Star Sign
- ♓
The March 20, 203 was a Sunday under the star sign of ♓. It was the 78 day of the year. President of the United States was N/A.
If you were born on this day, you are 1822 years old. Your last birthday was on the Thursday, March 20, 2025, 183 days ago. Your next birthday is on Friday, March 20, 2026, in 181 days. You have lived for 665,656 days, or about 15,975,767 hours, or about 958,546,027 minutes, or about 57,512,761,620 seconds.
Some people who share this birthday:
- Chester Bennington (actor, record producer, singer-songwriter, songwriter, born March 20, 1976)
- Fernando Torres (association football player, born March 20, 1984)
- Ruby Rose (actor, disc jockey, film actor, model, music critic, television presenter, born March 20, 1986)
- Spike Lee (actor, film actor, film director, film editor, film producer, mascot, screenwriter, television actor, television producer, born March 20, 1957)
- David Thewlis (actor, film actor, film director, stage actor, television actor, voice actor, born March 20, 1963)
- Michael Rapaport (comedian, film actor, film director, podcaster, television actor, born March 20, 1970)
- Holly Hunter (film actor, film producer, stage actor, television actor, television producer, voice actor, born March 20, 1958)
- Fred Rogers (author, composer, educator, minister, puppeteer, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, television actor, television presenter, television producer, theologian, born March 20, 1928)
- Daniel Cormier (amateur wrestler, mixed martial arts fighter, sports analyst, born March 20, 1979)
- William Hurt (film actor, film producer, stage actor, television actor, voice actor, born March 20, 1950)
- Freema Agyeman (actor, film actor, singer, stage actor, born March 20, 1979)
- Napoleon II (drawer, military officer, born March 20, 1811)
- Leila George (actor, born March 20, 1992)
- Sting (actor, film actor, professional wrestler, television actor, born March 20, 1959)
- Elagabalus (politician, born March 20, 203)
- Carl Reiner (actor, comedian, film actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, television actor, television producer, voice actor, writer, born March 20, 1922)
- Mariya Takeuchi (composer, lyricist, record producer, singer, singer-songwriter, born March 20, 1955)
- Robbie Lawler (karateka, mixed martial arts fighter, professional wrestler, born March 20, 1982)
- Jung Woo-sung (actor, film actor, model, television actor, born March 20, 1973)
- B. F. Skinner (autobiographer, ethologist, inventor, philosopher, psychologist, university teacher, writer, born March 20, 1904)
- Henrik Ibsen (artist, author, director, librettist, playwright, poet, writer, born March 20, 1828)
- Xavier Dolan (actor, costume designer, dub actor, film actor, film director, film editor, film producer, music video director, screenwriter, television actor, born March 20, 1989)
- Murray Bartlett (film actor, stage actor, television actor, born March 20, 1971)
- Rama I (sovereign, born March 20, 1737)
- Frederick Winslow Taylor (economist, born March 20, 1856)
- Alexis of Russia (monarch, born March 20, 1629)
- Marcos Rojo (association football player, born March 20, 1990)
- Bianca Lawson (actor, film actor, television actor, voice actor, born March 20, 1979)
- Li Jingliang (Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts fighter, wrestling, wushu, born March 20, 1988)
- Krzysztof Kowalewski (actor, film actor, born March 20, 1937)
- Pat Riley (American football player, basketball coach, basketball player, coach, born March 20, 1945)
- Jerry Reed (actor, composer, film actor, film producer, guitarist, musician, recording artist, singer, singer-songwriter, television actor, born March 20, 1937)
- Stacy Martin (actor, film actor, born March 20, 1990)
- Christy Carlson Romano (actor, film actor, musician, singer, stage actor, television actor, voice actor, writer, born March 20, 1984)
- Sloane Stephens (tennis player, born March 20, 1993)
- Alka Yagnik (actor, composer, film actor, singer, born March 20, 1966)
- Ivan Mazepa (diplomat, politician, born March 20, 1639)
- Paul Merson (association football manager, association football player, autobiographer, born March 20, 1968)
- Anna Todd (novelist, writer, born March 20, 1989)
- Jamal Crawford (basketball player, born March 20, 1980)
- John de Lancie (actor, comedian, film director, film producer, musician, screenwriter, singer, stage actor, television director, television producer, voice actor, born March 20, 1948)
- Loko (jurist, military officer, politician, revolutionary, born March 20, 1820)
- Danny García (boxer, born March 20, 1988)
- Mattia Destro (association football player, born March 20, 1991)
- Vanessa Bell Calloway (actor, dancer, film actor, film producer, screenwriter, television actor, voice actor, born March 20, 1957)
- Marc Warren (film actor, stage actor, television actor, born March 20, 1967)
- Ryszard Kotys (actor, television actor, born March 20, 1932)
- Ryūtarō Kamioka (owarai tarento, tarento, born March 20, 1942)
- Jô (association football player, born March 20, 1987)
- Aimi Yoshikawa (AV idol, actor, glamour model, pornographic actor, born March 20, 1994)