Description

On 8 June AD218 a fourteenyearold Syrian boy egged on by his grandmother led an army to battle in a Roman civil war Against all expectations he was victorious

Varius Avitus Bassianus known to the modern world as Heliogabalus was proclaimed emperor The next four years were to be the strangest in the history of the empire

Heliogabalus humiliated the prestigious Senators and threw extravagant dinner parties for lowerclass friends He ousted Jupiter from his summit among the gods and replaced him with Elagabal He married a Vestal Virgin twice Rumours abounded that he was a prostitute In the first biography of Heliogabalus in over half a century Harry Sidebottom unveils the high drama of sex religion power and culture in Ancient Rome as weve never seen it before