Elagabalus

Proper noun

Elagabalus

1. The deity Elagabal, venerated in ancient times at Emesa in Syria (and later elsewhere in the Roman Empire), identified with a large black stone.
   • Elagabalus, who was a Sun-god and the patron deity of Emesa, was worshipped […]1958, Ivar Lissner, Power and Folly: The Story of the Caesars
   • Obviously, they hoped to conceal the failure of their unhappy experiment in emperorship before, when they stressed the priesthood of Syrian Emesa's main deity Elagabalus as the key factor […]2019, Elias Koulakiotis, Charlotte Dunn, Political Religions in the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 111
2. (Ancient-Rome) The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (reigned 218–222), noted for eccentricity, femininity, decadence, and disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos.
   • Racial prejudice also played a part, says Icks: before coming to Rome to rule it, Elagabalus was a priest in an obscure cult in Syria that venerated a black stone meteorite – a culture that would have been deeply strange to the Romans.2023 November 24, Esther Addley, “Was Roman emperor Elagabalus really trans – and does it really matter?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN