Christmas means a lot of things for a
lot of people. A time of giving and sharing. A time to spend with
your love ones and to remember love ones who have passed. A time to
experience the pure joy of children, and maybe recapture that joy for
ourselves. However, many Christians will remind you that we should
take our minds of our selfish celebrations, and remember the reason
for the season. I personally am all for that! So, let me tell you a
little story, about the reason for the season.
The Second Century CE is widely
regarded to be the Zenith of Imperial Rome, in terms of wealth,
power, stability and cultural importance. It was a time of the Five
Good Emperors. If you were a wealthy Roman citizen, there were few
times and places in history better to be alive ( though not so much
if you were a subjected people, like the Jewish people of Judea, but
that's another topic) , All good things come to an end, and after
the last of the “good “ Emperors died, Rome (at least the Western
Roman Empire) started it's long, slow and steady decline. There was a
time of chaos following the Death of Commodus ( the son of the last
“good” emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and decidedly NOT a good
emperor. Unlike what Gladiator would have you believe, his death lead
to chaos and the “year of five Emperors”). Rising out of that
Chaos was Septimius Severus, founder of the Severan dynasty. Severus
was a strong and capable leader, unfortunately his line would not
share those traits. His son, Caracalla, was assassinated in 217 CE by
the Praetorian guard, and they lifted one of their own, Marcianus, to
the Purple. His reign did not last long. The living Severan women
plotted to put up a living 15 year old male nephew of Severus as his
heir, Marcus Aurelius Antonius, known to history as Elagabalus. In
May of 218 CE, the Third Legion hailed him as Emperor and fully
backed his claim. They marched against Marcianus, defeated him, and
Elagabalus was the undisputed Emperor of the Roman Empire.
Backing up a moment, let me explain why
he was known as Elagabalus. El Gabal was an ancient Syrian sun god,
who's worship was wide spread in the Eastern Empire (though not so
much in Rome itself). Elagabalus was raised in the religion and had
been a priest of that god at an early age. In this, and many other
ways, he is set apart from all previous Emperors. Though Maternally
part of the Dynasty, he had been raised in Syria, and had never been
to Rome, That made him the first emperor not culturally “Roman.”
The Roman Senate got first wind of that when, before his arrival to
Rome, Elagabalus sent paintings ahead of him, to put in the Senate
building. The idea was to let the Roman people know who their new
emperor, but it did not have the effect he desired. Elagabalus was
not dressed “Roman” at all. He was dressed in silks. He wore
rings and what appeared in the painting to be makeup. This concerned
the Romans, as Ancient Rome was an extremely patriarchal society.
Their ethics were not based on religion, but based on a fetishization
of “Masculine virtues”. They viewed the Eastern Empire as having
a corrupting influence, of “softening” Romans, of being more
decadent and “feminine” than than Rome. However, Roman elite's
concerns were just beginning.
You see, Elagabalus's fashion in those
paintings wasn't just “decadent” eastern style. Elagabalus had,
by a modern way of looking at it, a transgendered sexual identity.
Elagabalus dressed as a female, and would often refer to himself as a
female.When he took on a lover who was a famous charioteer ,
Hierocles, who called himself the Charioteer's wife, he was the Queen
and Hierocles was his king.. This was doubly scandalous to the Roman
elite. First of all, charioteers, while popular with the masses, had
a social status akin to prostitutes, gladiators and actors in ancient
Rome. An Emperor openly consorting with one was a scandal. More than
that though , the whole idea of Roman virtue was offended. Ancient
Rome did not have a modern view of homosexuality. It wasn't a “sin”
in any kind of way, and it wasn't taboo, exactly. If you were the
“male” partner, IE the top, homosexual relationships were fine.
However, if you were the bottom in a relationship, that did have
sigma ( particularly if it occurred in adulthood). Even more stigma
was attached to what the Roman's called the “third gender”, what
we would call m2f trans females. People who were born male that
identified as female had no place in Roman high culture, in politics,
in the military, in commerce. They were outcasts of sorts, pushed off
into prostitution and acting and having little status elsewhere (it's
sad that we've made such little ground in that respect after 2
millennia). So a Roman Emperor who identified as female was almost
too much for the Roman elite to bare.
The final straw, however, was not
Elagabalus's scandalous sexual and gender behavior. It was his
religion. Elagabalus insisted on changing all of Roman worship when
he ascended to the throne. He came to Rome and took Jupiter off the
top of the Pantheon and put Elgabul in his place. He forced Senators
to join him in worship of the diety. He even married Elgabul off to
many Goddesses in the Roman Pantheon. He himself married a Vestal
Virgin, to have “godlike” children. This was utter blasphemy in
Rome, as anyone who sleeps with a Vestal Virgin was to be put to
death. Roman Religion is not like modern western Christianity. They
did not have a 'close, personal” relationship with the gods
typically. They viewed the Gods more akin to the Mafia, as celestial
extortionists, whom they had to sacrifice to so the gods would leave
them alone. They feared the God's wraith, and Elagabalus was
absolutely courting the wrath with all his blasphemy. So, in 222, at
only the age of 18, Elagabalus was slain by the Praetorian Guard and
Rome went back to it's old Pantheon and it's pure, unsullied
Patriarchy.
Though he died, Elagabalus's legacy
lived on,. The worship of El Gabul caught on in Rome, where the god
became known as Sol Invictus ( the Unconquerable Sun). Over the
course of the 3rd century, worship of the God spread
rapidly, and was likely the dominant religion in Rome at the time of
Constantine's conversion to Christianity in 312. Of particular
popularity was the cult's major festivals for summer and winter
solstace. The winter celebration spread to not just devotee's of Sol
Invictus, but to Rome as a whole, where the people would have a great
feast on Dec. 25, would give gifts, and would wander the streets
singing about the Sun's birth/rebirth and it's victory over darkness.
The popularity of this festival was of particular issue for early
Christianity in their attempts to convert the masses of Rome. So,
since the date of the birth of Jesus was not known, the early church
declared it was December 25 , so they could co-opt the traditions and
festivals of Sol Invictus as their own. And so began a great
tradition in what would become the Catholic Church, of converting
Pagans by co-opting their beliefs, gods and traditions into
Christianity.
So this year, when your obnoxious
religious uncle or humorously devout co-worker tells you to remember
the reason for the season, say “Oh, of course I remember it! The
reason for the season is a teenage sun-worshiping transgendered pagan
Roman Emperor named Elagabalus!”