Author Description

The exquisite Emperor Elagabalus is reported to have married his charioteer, Hierocles, and the athlete Zoticus. Elagabalus made no attempt to hide his true nature: stark-naked, he would stand at the door of his palace or a tavern or the entrance to the baths and offer himself to all comers, out Messalina-ing Messalina. About Elagabalus historian Edward Gibbon wrote, ''his inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or country.'' That a man so unique in the annals of history remains so obscure can only be attributed to the insurmountable pronunciation of his name, and the fact that what we do not know about him far exceeds what we know, and what we know has been so altered throughout the ages as to leave a portrait which is basically impressionistic, a Monet or Manet that becomes increasingly blurred as we approach it. Because the life of Elagabalus was short, so are books that recount it, this one included. One major author devotes the second half of his short book to how Elagabalus was perceived by writers, playwrights and artists, from the Renaissance to our own days. I personally have chosen to place Elagabalus in the context of his times, and relate the lives of the emperors who laid the groundwork so that Elagabalus could flourish, especially the lives of two emperors who may never have even touched a woman in that way, Trajan and Hadrian, along with the lives of Tiberius, Nero and Caligula, all of whom were men who preferred other men. I've priced this book at the lowest cost permitted by the editors, in the hope of attracting as many young readers as possible.