The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction?

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Rubbed jacket, p. 107-110 dog-eared, otherwise very good and clean. / Beriebener Umschlag, S. 107-110 eselsohrig, sonst sehr gut und sauber. - The third-century adolescent Roman emperor miscalled Elagabalus or Heliogabalus was made into myth shortly after his murder. For 1.800 years since, scandalous stories relate his alleged depravity, debauchery and bloodthirsty fanaticism as high priest of a Syrian sun god. From these, one cannot discern anything demonstrably true about the boy or his reign. This book, drawing on the author�s detailed research and publications, investigates what can truly be known about this emperor. Through careful analysis of all sources, including historiography, coins, inscriptions, papyri, sculpture and topography, it shows that there are things of which we can be sure, and others that are likely. Through these we can reassess his reign. We discover a youth, thrust by his handlers into power on false pretences, who creates his own more authentic persona as priest-emperor, but loses the struggle for survival against rivals in his family, who justify his murder with his myth. - Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado is a graduate of Cambridge University. Recently he taught at Tsukuba University, Japan, where he published many articles, in English, on the Roman emperor commonly but wrongly known as �Elagabalus�. ISBN 9780521895552