WEBVTT - The Impossible Identity of Elegabalus 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:09.800 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Just a 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.480 quick content note before I begin. This episode contains some 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:18.560 sexual content and descriptions of in vague terms of sexual acts. 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.200 So if that's something that's uncomfortable for you, or something 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.959 that you know you'd be sensitive about listening to with 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:31.520 young children around, just be aware of it. In twenty 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:36.600 twenty three, North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin, a town north 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.440 of London, made the decision to edit some of the 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:45.120 informational text it had on its walls. In referring to 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:49.560 the Roman emperor Eligobolis, the museum would now be using 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:56.840 feminine instead of masculine pronouns, consistent with the interpretation that Eligobolis, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:01.400 who ruled Rome beginning in two hundred and eighteen, was 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:06.639 a trans woman. Elle Gobles was emperor for just four 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.480 years before her assassination in two hundred and twenty two, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.399 a d at the age of eighteen. During that time, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:20.000 she developed a reputation for pushing gender and sexual boundaries. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:25.480 According to one classical source, she preferred she her pronouns 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.919 and announced on one occasion quote call me not lord, 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.600 for I am a lady. Ancient historians reported that she 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:39.560 wore makeup, shaved her body, and worked wool, a typically 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:45.320 feminine craft. One ancient historian, Diocassius, said that she would 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:50.320 stand outside taverns in a wig, soliciting lovers who walked by. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.680 He further alleged that she had planned to approach a 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:59.320 physician about performing what today we would describe as a 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:05.680 vagino plasty. Those accounts led Keith Hoskins, executive member for 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:10.160 Arts at North Heartz Council, to say in a statement, quote, 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:16.360 Eligobolis most definitely preferred the she pronoun and as such 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.800 this is something we reflect when discussing her in contemporary times. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.000 It is only polite and respectful to be sensitive to 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:30.359 identifying pronouns for people in the past. But this decision 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:36.000 proved controversial among classicists because none of those stories about 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:41.720 Eligobolus's gender presentation came directly from her. All of them 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.080 came from classical historians with something of a bone to 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.440 pick with the emperor. Dio Cassius, the ancient historian with 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.480 the most details about Eligobolis's femininity, was not a fan. 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.280 He was a senator under the emperor who had murdered her, 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.320 and therefore he had good reason to slander Eligabolis in 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:09.320 his writing. Masculinity was incredibly important to ancient Romans, and 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:13.360 so it was a common strategy for ancient historians to 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:19.639 depict emperors they didn't like as emasculated or feminine. Other emperors, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:24.200 like Nero, Caligula, and even Julius Caesar were accused of 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.120 being too feminine. Nero was said to have worn the 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.440 bridal veil to marry a man, while Roman elder Curio 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.840 once said that Caesar was quote every man's woman. In fact, 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.320 because of his alleged affair with King Nicodemus, the fourth 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:46.680 of Bethenia, Caesar was called the Queen of Bethenia. In 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.440 the same way, you wouldn't turn to an attack ad 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.240 to write a political candidate's biography. It would be a 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:58.200 mistake to take those ancient invectives too literally. In an 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.720 article in The Guardian, Zach HER's, assistant professor of classics 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:07.240 at the University of Colorado in Boulder, said, quote these 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:12.280 quote unquote biographies of Eligobolis are hit pieces, and that 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.880 he would be inclined to read them as basically fictional. 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:22.000 Without any narrative accounts of Eligoblists from her perspective, It's 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:26.040 difficult to know what to make of these competing interpretations. 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.320 On one hand, there is no definitive proof of how 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:36.160 she identified, and contemporary classicists agree that these sources attesting 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:42.240 to her transness were biased, even offensive, political propaganda. But 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:47.920 at the same time, ancient Rome was an incredibly misogynistic 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:55.400 and transphobic society that prized a stoic, austere, tough masculinity 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.440 above all else. You could also argue that those sources 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:05.520 were so insulting because Eligobolis was threatening the gender norms 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.320 of the time. Many historical queer lives have shown up 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:14.520 in the archives in biased sources intending to smear them. 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:20.799 Given the dearth of transfigures in recorded Western history, Eligobolis 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:25.920 could be an important node in queer history. But given 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:30.040 that Roman visions of gender were so different from our own, 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.080 what does it mean for Eligobolists to have been trans? 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.600 How do we divine whatever Eligobolis's own desires were for 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:45.600 her gender when the historical record is so murky. I'm 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:54.080 Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. You probably noticed 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.360 that I'm also choosing to use feminine pronouns to refer 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.360 to Eligobolis. My reasoning is given that there is no 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.760 way of knowing for certain in this situation from more 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.039 than eighteen hundred years ago, I figure there's no harm 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.839 in choosing to be more inclusive rather than less. But 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.159 I do want to be very clear my analysis is 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:20.840 no means prescriptive or even necessarily correct. Given that gender 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:26.600 identity is an incredibly complicated topic, especially from historical eras 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:31.120 that didn't share a modern vocabulary or understanding, I don't 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.440 think we will ever find a definitive, quote unquote right 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:40.200 answer to how Eligabolis would have wanted to self identify. 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:43.719 But what we can do is examine her story with 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.119 nuance and try to understand it as best we can 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:53.440 given all the context available to us. Anyway, Eligobolos's rule 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.160 was controversial from the beginning. A little bit of background. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.640 The previous emperor Macrinus had got the job by assassinating 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:06.720 the other candidate, Karkala, who was Eligabolus's cousin, and then 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:12.480 to ensure that Eligabolis's family wouldn't enact revenge. Macrinus exiled 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:18.200 the family to Syria, where Eligablis's family was originally from, 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:23.200 but exile did not stop Eligabolis's grandmother from plotting to 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:29.120 overthrow Macrinus. Their family led a religious sect that worshiped 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:34.280 the sun god eligabel The young Eligabolis, named after the deity, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.720 was the heir to the priesthood of that religious sect, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:42.000 even though at this time she was just fourteen. Soldiers 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:47.080 who visited Syria, many of whom supported the assassinated Caracala 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.200 over the new emperor, often stopped to see Eligabolis perform 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:57.560 her priestly rituals. They were purportedly captivated by her good 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:02.320 looks evocative of those of the young god Dionysus, and 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:09.040 her sensual dancing. Eligoblis's grandmother took advantage of that, lying 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.600 to the soldiers by telling them that Eligobolus was Caracalla's 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.720 illegitimate son and positioning her as the true heir to 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:22.400 the throne. The grandmother also bribed these soldiers with her 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:26.600 vast wealth, which these soldiers were excited to receive since 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:32.480 they already resented Macrinus for his stingy wages. These soldiers 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.720 declared Eligobolus the emperor and brought her to Antioch, where 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.800 Macrinus was based, to overthrow him and install her as 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.800 his replacement. When they got there, the troops launched an 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:50.080 attack on Macrinus, and they won, executing both Macrinus and 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:54.080 his son. Their severed heads were brought to Eligobolis as 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.960 war trophies, and the Roman senate was forced to accept 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:03.880 teenage Eligobolis as the new emperor. As Eligoblis made her 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:08.959 way from Antioch to Rome, ancient historian Herodian said that 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.640 Eligoblis had a painting of herself sent ahead to be 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.360 hung over a statue of the goddess Victoria in the 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.320 Senate house. She was said to have done this so 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.880 that the people would get to know her as the 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.760 new emperor in advance of her arrival, but many considered 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.760 it an act of hubris. Roman senators making an offering 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.199 to the goddess Victoria would have to kneel in front 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.320 of the painting of Eligoblis, seeming to put the new 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:43.360 emperor and the goddess on an equal playing field. Eligobless 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.559 finally arrived in Rome in the late summer of two 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.160 hundred and nineteen AD, refusing to wear the usual Roman 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:58.480 garb of wool togas. Instead, she donned a luxurious silk robe. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.160 Given that Eligobles was barely through puberty when she began 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.080 her reign, her grandmother treated her as a proxy ruler. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:11.760 During her rule, Eligoblus's mother, Julius Semias, and grandmother Julia 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:16.520 Mesa were the first women allowed into the Senate, Soemius 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:21.320 was given the senatorial title of Clarissima and Maisa was 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.839 deemed Mater castorum et senatus, or mother of the army 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:31.000 camp and of the Senate. Ancient historians noted how unorthodox 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:35.360 it was for women to be so influential on Eligoblus's rule, 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:41.520 with her mother and grandmother's likenesses printed on coins and inscriptions. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.760 Another controversial aspect of Aligobolus's rule was her religious beliefs. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.280 At the end of two hundred twenty, Eligoblus declared Eligobel 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.080 to be the central god of the Roman pantheon instead 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:00.800 of Jupiter, and made herself the quote highest priest of 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:07.160 the unconquered God, the son Eligabel, supreme Pontiff. Every summer 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:12.000 solstice she put on a festival in Eligobel's honor, distributing 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.920 free food and riding through the streets on a jewel 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:21.520 encrusted chariot. The Roman elites were scandalized that the populace 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:26.199 was worshiping a foreign god, and Eligobolus was to blame. 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.680 Eligobolus's love life was just as salacious. She took a 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.280 number of lovers, both male and female. Rumor had it 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:42.000 that Eligobolus wanted to marry a male charioteer named Heracles, 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.079 declaring him Caesar and herself his wife. She was also 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:50.760 said to have had an affair with athlete Aurelius Zodocus, 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.760 allegedly making him her husband and allowing him to have 0:11:54.840 --> 0:12:01.040 political influence behind the scenes. Her most controversial relationationship was 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:07.480 with Vestal virgin Aquilia Severa, Vesta's high priestess, who Eligbleis 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.200 was said to have married in order to produce quote 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:17.520 godlike children. This was extremely taboo because any Vestal virgin 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.880 who had sex was supposed to be punished and buried alive. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:28.600 These relationships were all speculations, but officially speaking, Eligbless would 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.640 end up marrying four times to four different women in 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:37.000 just four years. The emperor was also known to have 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:41.960 bizarre dinner parties. She gave her guests strange delicacies, like 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:46.240 camel's heels or flamingo's brains, or all green or all 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.200 blue meals. Sometimes she was said to have brought out 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.160 lions or bears to freely wander around the dining room. 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:59.040 One Roman historian alleged that she placed whoopee cushions on 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.920 all of the chairs as a prank, the first recorded 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:08.160 use of whoope cushions in Western history. These deviations from 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:14.880 quote normal Roman life made Eligoblis unpopular. When her grandmother, 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:20.439 Julia Mason, noted that Eligabless's reputation had soured, she decided 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:25.120 to replace her with her other daughter's son, Severus Alexander, 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:30.600 who was fifteen. Alexander was elevated to caesar in June 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.559 two hundred and twenty one, and Eligables and Alexander were 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:39.760 expected to rule together over the following year. Eligobless went 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.480 along with it at first, but she grew disillusioned with 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.480 being a co emperor. When she started noticing that the 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:52.880 Imperial Roman army liked Alexander better. She petitioned the Senate 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:57.280 to depose Alexander, and when they refused, she tried to 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:02.160 have him assassinated to no avail. According to ancient historian 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.960 Cassius Dio, Eligablis started a rumor that Alexander was about 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.640 to die to make sure the Imperial army wasn't on 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:15.000 his side. A riot broke out, with many soldiers trying 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:20.040 to throw Eligabolis into the barracks. On March thirteenth, two 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:25.120 hundred twenty two, Eligableis appeared to step down, she and 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.320 her mother performing a ceremony where they officially passed the 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:34.760 torch to Alexander. Upon hearing the soldiers cheer louder for 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.360 Alexander than they did for her, she was incensed and 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.160 immediately changed her mind. She called for the arrest and 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:48.160 execution of everyone there. The imperial army responded by attacking 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.840 Eligabilis and her mother. They tried to flee, but she 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.560 was found her mother holding her tight. They were both killed, 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.400 with their heads cut off and their bodies stripped, naked 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:05.880 and dragged across Rome. Not everything in that story, compiled 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:11.680 together from various and all very biased sources, can be verified. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:17.400 Modern classicists have confirmed only the basics that Eligabolis was 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.360 the head priest of the worship of the Sun god. 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.920 Eligabel arrived from Syria to violently take over the Roman 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.680 government when she was fourteen, ruled for four years, married 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:34.680 four times, and was executed and succeeded by her cousin Alexander. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:40.960 The most lurid details, including unfortunately planting whoopee cushions on 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:46.400 unsuspecting dinner guests, were all possibly fabricated. Many of the 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:50.400 most controversial aspects of her rule were related to her 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:56.040 gender and sexuality, from dancing sensually to posing as a 0:15:56.160 --> 0:16:00.520 sex worker outside of a bar, to marrying a vestal 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:06.000 virgin and proposing to a male charioteer. But where did 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.160 those details come from and why would ancient historians have 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:17.040 invented or exaggerated them. Why was Eligobolis's gender and sexuality 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:23.160 such an issue for ancient historians? As I mentioned earlier, 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:28.280 Eligabolists reigned during a time when Rome had extremely strict 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:35.200 standards for masculinity. The ideal Roman citizen exhibited masculine characteristics 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:41.120 like valor, excellence, courage, dominance, and an austere presentation, as 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:46.560 opposed to women who were considered decadent, soft, and extravagant. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.760 Men who didn't fit the masculine ideal were considered to 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.680 be afflicted with molita, a Latin term which can be 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:02.440 translated as softness or effeminacy. Those with mantilla were considered 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:06.879 to be preoccupied with their appearances. They shaved their bodies, 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.000 wore perfume, and rouged their cheeks. They were also seen 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:16.359 as overly indulgent, eating rich foods and seeking out sex. 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:23.000 These tropes almost perfectly describe ancient historians' depictions of Eligobolis. 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.960 Eligobolus was considered to have molita, uniting her love of 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:34.600 lavish dinner parties, expensive robes, and voracious sexual appetites. The 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.359 term molita also gives us a clue as to why 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:45.280 Eligabolis's sexuality and gender were such huge issues for ancient historians. 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:51.920 Because sexuality was so deeply tied to Roman ideals, molita 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:57.439 was typically assigned to outsiders, especially from the quote East. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:05.159 Romans viewed Persians and Syrians as overly extravagant, feminine, sexual, 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:10.280 and servile. A common trope of Molita was the mythical 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:16.800 Sardanopoulis of Assyria. Allegedly, Sardanopoulos lived as a woman during 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.160 his rule, hanging out with his concubines, putting on cosmetics, 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:26.879 speaking with a higher tone, wearing women's clothing, and spinning wool. 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.800 He also drank heavily and pursued both men and women 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.840 without a care for his reputation, much to the chagrin 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:41.000 of Roman authors. Many of those same tropes also show 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.760 up in descriptions of Eligabolis, who was also said to 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.800 have affected a quote soft and melting voice to sound 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:52.840 more like a woman where eyeshadow, work with wool, and 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.760 hang out with sex workers. Cassius Dio, the ancient historian 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:02.280 who had the most issues with eligablo alleged femininity, even 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:09.119 called Eligoblis Sardanopoulos. According to contemporary historian martin Ix, many 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:15.719 Romans nicknamed her the Assyrian. Ancient historian Herodian also ties 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:21.000 Eligoblis's femininity to her status as a foreigner, especially as 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:26.679 the high priestess of an unfamiliar religion. Herodian emphasizes that 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:32.920 Eligobolus performed orgiastic dances in the temple of Amisia in Syria, 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.920 and then brought those dances to perform in altars around 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:41.720 Rome and even in the theater, embodying a sensual foreign 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:46.520 sensibility inappropriate for the leader of Rome. He also suggests 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:52.240 that Eligoblis's Syrian origins caused her to reject standard Roman 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:57.679 men's clothing, preferring silk dresses with gold embroidery and gem 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:03.880 covered golden tiaras, which Herodian associates with the Phoenicians, as 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:08.359 opposed to the plain wool clothes worn by most Roman men. 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:14.400 Eligoblis's foreign femininity was such a problem for ancient historians 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.800 because the emperor, as the most powerful person in Rome, 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:25.040 was expected to embody their version of ideal manliness. The 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:30.080 perfect Roman man was expected to dominate in his relationships 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.680 with women or boys, but also on a wider scale 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:38.920 with foreigners. The emperor being a foreigner herself not only 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:42.359 meant that she didn't care to be the ideal Roman man, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:47.880 but also that she wasn't advancing Roman cultural dominance by 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:54.879 embodying absolute masculinity. This helps us to explain another aspect 0:20:55.240 --> 0:21:01.879 of Eligboless's transness, her stereotypically feminine and passive role in sex. 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:06.360 In her sexual life, she was said to quote recreate 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:12.840 female characteristics within the male. The Historia Augusta presents Eligabolis 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.960 as quote taking the role of Venus in her private 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.000 re enacting of the story of the Judgment of Paris, 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:24.240 even going so far as to quote model the expression 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.200 on her face onto which that Venus is usually painted. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.840 Cassius Dio adds that she slept with women to learn 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.359 to quote imitate their actions when she should lie with 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.119 her male lovers. She was said to have hired agents 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.160 to find and bring well endowed men to her quarters, 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:50.160 occasionally seeking them out herself at public baths. Ancient Romans 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:56.119 saw gender and sexuality as inexorably intertwined. They had a 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.880 gender binary, but one's gender identity was determined by someone's 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.480 birth sex, as well as the role they played in 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:10.000 sexual encounters. One half of the binary was the penetrators, 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:14.439 who were seen as strong, stoic, aggressive, and masculine, and 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:19.719 the other half were the penetrated, who were seen as weak, frivolous, 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.080 vein and feminine. If you were a penetrator. Who you 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.199 were attracted to didn't matter. You could have sex with 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:31.080 men or women, and you would still be considered masculine 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.520 as long as you took the active role during sex. 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:37.720 On the other hand, if you took a passive role 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:43.280 during sex, that would fundamentally change your gender identity. Women 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.720 and men who were penetrated in sexual encounters were both 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:52.040 considered to be feminine. As long as your sexual role 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:57.040 aligned with your societal role. Men being the penetrators and 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:02.840 women being the penetrated, you'd fit within Roman gender norms. 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:07.359 If you deviated from those norms, most commonly by being 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:11.160 a man that also wanted to be penetrated, you would 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:16.040 be humiliated and insulted for being too womanly. It also 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.400 went the other way around. If a man were thought 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:23.000 of as too womanly or soft, he would be assumed 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:27.480 to be the passive partner in sex. Who was allowed 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:31.320 to be the passive partner in sex depended not only 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:36.320 on one's gender, but also on their societal role. Women, 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:42.080 being the quote inferior gender, had to always occupy a 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:48.200 sexually passive role. Boys, slaves, and foreigners were also permitted 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.840 to be sexually passive. In their relationships with adult men. 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:57.480 This dynamic shows up in historical accounts of eligobolists. It 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.040 was fine for Eligoblists to do sexy dances as a 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:04.880 young attractive boy, but she was expected to age out 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:08.760 of it in her adulthood. It was extra scandalous that 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:12.479 she was sexually passive, given that she was the ruler 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:19.040 of Rome, expected to dominate everyone at all times. Contemporary 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:24.720 classicist Zachary Hurs alludes to another Roman trope to describe 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:31.160 why Eligabolis was depicted as sexually passive, the Canidis. This 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:36.160 word does not have a direct translation, It functions as 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:41.000 a kind of slur that describes foreign born men who 0:24:41.160 --> 0:24:46.880 dance sensually and like to be anally penetrated, which nearly 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:52.159 exactly lines up with depictions of Eligabolis. Given that the 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:57.880 Canidis only shows up in politically charged smear campaigns, historians 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:00.240 tend to think of the Canidis as more of a 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:05.680 concept character or trope than an actual identity. Hers calls 0:25:05.720 --> 0:25:09.639 the Cannidis a quote public identity, comparing the concept to 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:15.080 the contemporary idea of the stereotypical welfare queen. While the 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:20.040 character could describe real individuals. It functioned more as a 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:25.800 rhetorical tool, intended to draw the public's attention to dangers 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:31.840 to the status quo. Hers read depictions of Eligobolus's canidis 0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:36.959 like sexual passivity as an expression of anxiety about the 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:42.199 state of Roman political life. Emperors previously had been chosen 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:46.840 from an elite class of senators and died peacefully after 0:25:46.880 --> 0:25:52.160 a successor had already been determined. But Eligabolis was symptomatic 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:56.840 of a new status quo in which military support mattered 0:25:56.880 --> 0:26:01.480 more than senatorial support, and new two emperors, most of 0:26:01.520 --> 0:26:04.199 whom had barely gone through puberty by the time they 0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:09.280 came to power, rose to the throne violently. Cassius Dio 0:26:09.400 --> 0:26:14.199 and Marius Maximus, senators who wrote popular histories of Eligobolis, 0:26:14.560 --> 0:26:18.240 would have been salty about losing power in that new system, 0:26:18.720 --> 0:26:23.160 and they used the power of their pens to denigrate Eligabolis. 0:26:23.800 --> 0:26:28.280 The stock character of the Canidis was a powerful tool, 0:26:28.840 --> 0:26:32.800 not only because the Canidis was viewed in derogatory terms, 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:38.760 but because canidie never spoke for themselves. Lacking the political 0:26:38.840 --> 0:26:44.359 upper hand, ancient historians took the rhetorical one. As Hers 0:26:44.400 --> 0:26:48.119 put it Quote Doo and Maximus could no longer govern, 0:26:48.560 --> 0:26:54.639 but they still could write ancient historians bias against Eligobolists 0:26:55.000 --> 0:26:59.320 could partly explain why she was feminized in the historical record. 0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:03.280 As we mentioned earlier in the episode, it was common 0:27:03.440 --> 0:27:08.359 practice for ancient historians to call leaders quote too feminine 0:27:08.720 --> 0:27:13.360 as a means to discredit them. But still, even considering 0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:20.800 that tradition, Eligobolis remains an outlier. Other leaders like Julius, Caesar, Nero, 0:27:20.960 --> 0:27:26.040 and Caligula were all alleged to be keneidie, wearing women's clothing, 0:27:26.200 --> 0:27:30.640 acting passively during sex, and shaving their bodies, but none 0:27:30.720 --> 0:27:35.240 of them have been reconsidered by contemporary historians to be 0:27:35.600 --> 0:27:43.520 trans women. What makes Eligobolis so different. What's so striking 0:27:43.640 --> 0:27:48.480 about Eligobolus's gender presentation is that she bucked traditional Roman 0:27:48.560 --> 0:27:52.760 understandings of sex and gender. While Caesar may have been 0:27:53.000 --> 0:27:56.520 every man's wife and Nero was said to have acted 0:27:56.600 --> 0:27:59.760 as a bride in a marriage ceremony to one of 0:27:59.800 --> 0:28:04.240 his freedmen, Elligoblis asked to be treated as a woman 0:28:04.400 --> 0:28:08.560 throughout her life, not just during sex or in relation 0:28:08.880 --> 0:28:13.200 to a male partner. She appeared to have a remarkably 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:17.720 modern view of gender as an identity separate from her 0:28:17.800 --> 0:28:23.400 sexual role, but whether or not Eligblis actually represented herself 0:28:23.440 --> 0:28:28.440 as a woman remains up for debate. Unlike many historical 0:28:28.520 --> 0:28:33.680 queer figures, Eligoblis, as the ruler of Rome, had power 0:28:33.800 --> 0:28:38.120 over how she represented herself through statues and coins she 0:28:38.200 --> 0:28:44.240 commissioned as official representations of her and her reign. According 0:28:44.440 --> 0:28:49.600 to scholar Eric R. Varner, imperial portraits and coins were 0:28:49.880 --> 0:28:54.400 actually at times a space in which rulers blurred gender 0:28:54.440 --> 0:28:59.719 boundaries in their self presentation. Beginning with Augustus, male rulers, 0:28:59.800 --> 0:29:05.240 ais and goddesses were visually conjoined. For example, on certain coins, 0:29:05.600 --> 0:29:10.400 Augustus's face was put on the goddess Diana's body, with 0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:14.440 her hair cascading from his head. There's also an example 0:29:14.480 --> 0:29:17.880 of a statue of Marcus Aurelius with his head added 0:29:17.920 --> 0:29:22.800 to a female body dressed in an ornate toga. That said, 0:29:23.040 --> 0:29:27.560 even with that precedent for gender bending in Roman imperial representations, 0:29:28.080 --> 0:29:33.640 Eligoblus's portraits adhered to masculine standards. This isn't to say 0:29:33.640 --> 0:29:36.920 that her coins were typical, fitting the rest of her 0:29:37.120 --> 0:29:42.080 norm flouting rein Her coins are strange. Roman coins typically 0:29:42.120 --> 0:29:44.880 have a head's side with a portrait of an important 0:29:44.920 --> 0:29:49.280 person and a tail's side with a scene including Roman 0:29:49.360 --> 0:29:54.160 gods or a personification of Rome, intended to reinforce the 0:29:54.280 --> 0:29:57.479 dominance of Rome and the legitimacy of the current ruler. 0:29:58.120 --> 0:30:03.480 In Eligobolus's coins, the quote tales side has a chariot 0:30:03.640 --> 0:30:06.360 pulling a meteorite with an eagle on top of it, 0:30:06.760 --> 0:30:11.800 an image utterly unique to her rule. On the head's side, 0:30:12.120 --> 0:30:16.680 her portraits depict her wearing her sacred robes, again flouting 0:30:16.840 --> 0:30:21.760 Roman norms of austere dress. Even though these coins break 0:30:21.840 --> 0:30:26.400 from conventions in most ways, they do portray her as male, 0:30:26.880 --> 0:30:31.200 with sideburns and a mustache. That said, she could have 0:30:31.360 --> 0:30:36.400 publicly identified as male and expressed her transness in private, 0:30:37.240 --> 0:30:40.200 or she could have tried to persuade the members of 0:30:40.240 --> 0:30:43.719 her court for her coins to represent her as a woman, 0:30:44.120 --> 0:30:48.400 and they could have refused. It remains unclear whether and 0:30:48.560 --> 0:30:52.720 to what extent Eligabolis wanted to be seen as a woman, 0:30:53.440 --> 0:30:57.440 given that the one source that attests to her requesting 0:30:57.560 --> 0:31:01.160 to be referred to by feminine pronouns and requesting a 0:31:01.280 --> 0:31:06.040 vaginoplasty come from one source with every intention to slander 0:31:06.120 --> 0:31:09.840 her and her feminine qualities. It's hard to argue that 0:31:09.840 --> 0:31:13.640 that is inherently an accurate rendering of her wishes to 0:31:13.680 --> 0:31:17.640 be treated as a woman. There's no evidence that explicitly 0:31:17.800 --> 0:31:22.800 refutes that framing, but there's nothing that directly supports it either. 0:31:24.040 --> 0:31:27.640 With the evidence we do have, it seems most likely 0:31:27.840 --> 0:31:32.560 that she was, at least to a certain extent, transfeminized 0:31:32.640 --> 0:31:37.600 by a society hostile to any form of gender nonconformity. 0:31:38.240 --> 0:31:44.120 Her religious dancing and silk robes threatened Roman norms of masculinity, 0:31:44.320 --> 0:31:49.720 especially for emperors. Ancient historians interpreted this as evidence that 0:31:49.800 --> 0:31:53.120 she presented herself as a woman, both in terms of 0:31:53.160 --> 0:31:57.080 her appearance and her sexual role. They portrayed her this 0:31:57.160 --> 0:32:00.440 way not necessarily because they took any interest in how 0:32:00.480 --> 0:32:04.640 she understood herself, but in order to emphasize the danger 0:32:04.760 --> 0:32:08.840 of her foreign influence. It was a kind of trans 0:32:09.000 --> 0:32:13.520 panic about excessive femininity at the center of Roman life, 0:32:13.960 --> 0:32:20.920