Biography of Heliogábalo, the first transsexual in history

They say that history often hides the essence of the truth, but only if it is sought. That details are ignored, secrets are kept and, often, reality is made up giving it an interested touch. The Roman Empire has always been shown to us as a period of great warriors, excellent thinkers and fathers of modern politics. Nevertheless, Heliogábalo is an exceptionality that deserves a few lines.

And it is that the emperor Heliogábalo is the great unknown, many times separated from the Greco-Roman books due to 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, specifically, he is especially offensive to Christian moralism that has always tried to link itself to European values.

It's 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 of which there is evidence

, as well as a danger to people close to him, for other reasons.

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Who was Heliogabalus?

Many history books have tried to forgive the misdeeds of the most controversial politicians, magnifying their figure as if of 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 it is decided to ignore those figures who, despite making merits to be remembered, do not fit with the "official" story.

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

Heliogabalus, Elagabalus in Latin, was born in the city of Emesa, in the Roman province of Syria. in 203, and he was assassinated in Rome in 222, barely out of his teens. He was a short-lived Roman emperor, as he only reigned from 218 to the date of his death, a total of four years. It was her grandmother Julia Mesa who, with her political influences, hatched a plot against the current emperor, Marco Opelio Macrino, to elevate her grandson Heliogábalo.

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Heliogábalo, the first transsexual in history

The convergence among expert historians in Ancient Rome is unanimous. "He was one of the worst in his class," say those who have published about him. Some of the most renowned authors such as Elio Lampridio or Barthold Georg, They came to apologize for describing in detail some actions of Heliogábalo.

As emperor, Heliogabalus was a time bomb. Having risen to power at fourteen, his tenure as emperor was something of a constant erotica fest. It is said that he practiced prostitution, hired a regiment of prostitutes and, most importantly, wanted to change sex surgically. However, the level of technological development of the time did not allow it, no matter how much he insisted on doctors.

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

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Grotesque murders and authoritarianism in Rome

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

The most serious thing was not the object to be worshiped itself, 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 dressed in feminine attire and with his pectoral exposed, made up and with a feminine attitude. But this was the least of it.

On the other hand, Heliogábalo killed several people as a consequence of his need to constantly have fun. When he organized parties and orgies, he used to make such a shower of petals fall on his guests that some were buried and they suffocated.

The regiment of sex

The behavior of the young emperor was as antisocial as it was erratic and marked by the strangest ways of getting out of boredom at the expense of the well-being of others. He set up a whole paramilitary group to find, track and recruit the men with the biggest penis of the Roman dominions. He wanted the most endowed men for his personal enjoyment.

He met Hierocles, a slave from Smyrna, and Zoticus, a burly Greek athlete more famous for his sexual prowess than his sporting achievements. He married both of them and, far from hiding himself, came to publicly acknowledge his happiness with these men to that the whole world knew, attitudes that began to annoy his senators and his own guard praetorian He boasted in the plenary sessions of the physical consequences that his lover left him when they practiced sadomasochistic sex (imagining the faces of the attendees is downright funny).

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

All this exceptionality and socio-political mess ended up because the very people who helped him rise to power corruptly through the plot, they did the same with Heliogábalo, killing him.

Did Heliogabalus have some mental imbalance?

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

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