Episode 02 of Doomed Republic: a podcast about ancient ideals, modern utopias, dystopias and attempts at democracy, including Greece, Rome China, India, Europe and America. (AR+IO-005)
LINK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1C5ZwBqaTEd150XGBefnPs?si=YmYb9Cj-T0KOeqbuRWEmkQ
Elagabalus is now celebrated as "the first transgender emperor of Rome", raising questions of the limits of tolerance in the Ancient Greco-Roman world: did he cross some line that Nero never crossed? And was that line sexual, religious or political? Why is it that Elagabalus would be remembered as the lowest of the low by Roman historians who had already narrated the excesses (gay, straight and bisexual) of Nero and so many others? Why would Elagabalus have his name scraped off of monuments at the command of the senate after his death, while others who'd committed worse offenses would undergo apotheosis, and instead be referred to as gods?
