The Mad Emperor

Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome

Harry Sidebottom

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Hardback

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English

One World
10 January 2023

Biography: historical, political & military; History; European history; Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Social & cultural history

On 8 June AD218 a fourteen-year-old Syrian boy led an army to battle in a Roman civil war. Rallying his retreating troops in person, 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 his lower-class 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, that he enjoyed sex with men, that he wanted his physicians to give him a vagina. His contemporaries were unanimous: Heliogabalus was the worst emperor ever. For Antonin Artaud, his life was ‘anarchy in action’.

But we’ve forgotten all about him. How did a teenager from an obscure imperial outpost rise up to the very top? 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 we’ve never seen it before.

By: Harry Sidebottom
Imprint: One World
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9780861542536
ISBN 10: 0861542533
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 10 January 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Harry Sidebottom teaches Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. Since publication of Fire in the East in 2008, he has written and published a novel each year, all of which have been Sunday Times top 5 bestsellers. His Warrior of Rome series has been published in 14 countries. Harry is also the editor of the forthcoming Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Ancient Battles.

Reviews for The Mad Emperor: Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome

'The Mad Emperor recreates the Ancient World with the eye of a poet and the sure hand of a scholar.' -- Barry Strauss, author of Ten Caesars 'A scholarly but highly readable account of the teenager who became classical Rome's most reviled emperor, but who may be viewed with a touch more sympathy now.' -- Matthew Kneale, author of Rome: A History in Seven Sackings 'A riveting and rollicking account of a much maligned but truly thrilling era in Roman history.' -- Emma Southon, author of A Fatal Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum