this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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Rough Roman Memes
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Elagabala made it very clear to her contemporaries how she wanted to be addressed, I don't understand why people insist on acting like they're being enlightened by disrespecting her wishes. It's privileging transphobes to let them tell us we can'r trust people like Elagabala to tell us who she was.
There's an enduring question as to how reliable the sources are as to Elagabalus's wishes. As such the question of whether Elagabalus was trans, or nonbinary, remains. I would regard only referring to Elagabalus as a man as inappropriate.
We don't have to make her fit into a contemporary gender model to respect her clearly stated wishes.
I'd like to ask you about your sources now, but I don't know how not to make it sound like I don't believe you :) I just became really interested in Elagabalwhatevertheendingofthenameis and I'd love to read some more. I know nothing about Syrian history, unfortunately.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/80*.html
Cassius Dio here refers to Elagabalus as 'The False Antoninus', 'Avitus', and 'Sardanapalus'; Elagabalus was the name of the Syrian sun god they identified with.
Thank you. And now excuse me, I'm jumping right into this rabbit hole!