Hic finis Antoninorum nomini in re publica fuit. Assassination of Emperor Elagabalus and Condemnation of His Memory

Abstract

The following article discusses the events that took place in Rome on 12th March 222 AD. On that day, the Roman emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, also known as Elagabalus or Heliogabalus, was assassinated. Together with him perished his mother, Julia Soaemias, as well as some persons from his nearest circle. However, Elagabalus’ death did not put an end to the spiral of violence: the city of Rome saw then, for the second time in its history, the maltreatment of the emperor’s body, which was denied the right of a worthy burial. Elagabalus was not only brutally murdered, but he also became a victim of the policy of condemnation of memory (so called damnatio memoriae) which was ordered by the Roman senate. The senators decided that the part of emperor’s name, i.e. the nomen Antoninus, had to be removed from all official documents and inscriptions. The portraits of the emperor were also destroyed. Shortly afterwards, Elagabalus was stylized as a personification of all kinds of evil and as a true monster on the throne, and thus immortalized in the historical memory of Rome.