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内容説明
Elagabalus is one of the most notorious of Rome's 'bad emperors': a sexually-depraved and eccentric hedonist who in his short and riotous reign made unprecedented changes to Roman state religion and defied all taboos. An oriental boy-priest from Syria - aged just fourteen when he was elevated to power in 218 CE - he placed the sun god El-Gabal at the head of the established Roman pantheon, engaged in orgiastic rituals, took male and female lovers, wore feminine dress and prostituted himself in taverns and even inside the imperial palace. Since his assassination by Praetorian Guards at the age of eighteen, Elagabalus has been an object of fascination to historians and a source of inspiration for artists and writers. This immensely readable book examines the life of one of the Roman Empire's most colourful figures, and charts the many guises of his legacy: from evil tyrant to firebrand rebel, from mystical androgyne to modern gay teenager, from decadent sensualist to ancient pop star.
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This is not a routine imperial biography, but a much wider study of the nature of religious belief, culture, and ethnicity in the Roman Empire, on the staging of the emperor's image and the subsequent response throughout the Empire. In this accessible and lively study, Icks sheds new light on the dissemination of classical culture and the reception of Rome in later periods by following the evolving figure of Elagabalus in opera, drama and fiction through the centuries.
--Brian Campbell, Queen's University, Belfast --このテキストは、 ハードカバー 版に関連付けられています。
--Brian Campbell, Queen's University, Belfast --このテキストは、 ハードカバー 版に関連付けられています。
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Not Guilty
2011/10/3
形式:ハードカバー
"I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus" sang a certain Modern Major General in 1879; whereas John Stuart Hay in 1911 warned us in his `The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus' that the Vita Heliogabali "is written in Latin, and has never been translated into English, to the writer's knowledge, nor has he any intention of undertaking the work at this present or any other time, as he has no desire to land himself, with the printers and publishers, in the dock at the Old Bailey, in an unenviable, if not an invidious and notorious position".
The author of this book has spent many years carrying out a forensic investigation into the life and crimes of Elagabalus (as he is currently known to the authorities), alias Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, alias Varius Avitus Bassianus, and has determined that, while offending the Senate and People of Rome sufficiently to warrant the `gruesome' massacre of himself and his courtiers, it was for offending their religious and social proprieties, rather than for any moral lapses that he met his fate.
The Contents are -
P001: Introduction
P009: The boy on the throne
P044. The child priest from Emesa
P061: The invincible priest-emperor
P092: The rejected ruler
P123: The evil tyrant
P148: The decadent emperor
P180: The modern prince
P215: Epilogue
P219-P276; Appendices, Notes, bibliography & index
The first chapter details the history of the life and reign of Elagabalus; the second examines the Syrian cult of Elagabal, from which Elagabalus took his name, and its introduction to Rome by Elagabalus; the third looks at the images of the emperor propagated by his administration; the fourth looks at the Ancient literary sources and their hatchet-job on the now-discredited emperor; and the following chapters deal with his image in history and the arts, along with the development of the modern study of ancient history in the subsequent centuries. Even in the 19th century, serious historians (when they paid him any attention at all) were still taking the ancient sources at face value, and not subjecting them to full analysis. Today, although the sources are now better understood, allowing the author to give us a reasonable view of the events of the reign of Elagabalus, the emperor has also become a modern artistic and sub-cultural icon.
Dr John D. Grainger, a historian of the Hellenistic period, had a rant in one of his prefaces against publishers who keep churning out biographies of historically insignificant Roman emperors (he had Nero in mind at the time), simply because there were lots of historical sources, and therefore research was so easy that even journalists could write a book about them; whereas major historical figures such as Antiochus the Great had no studies, and no publisher was even interested in commissioning one. The question now is whether you are interested in the subject of Elagabalus to want to read a book about him. I remember reading a novel by Alfred Duggan many years ago on Elagabalus (Family Favourites), which is discussed here - though the Dutch author thinks Duggan is an Argentinian writer - and I knew nothing else about him. While the life and reign of Elagabalus is not particularly interesting (though this is a well-written and researched book), and his later appearances in art and literature are of no historical importance, the discussion of the development of modern historical research was extremely interesting, especially the way anti-semitism became almost institutionalised in 19th century historical studies, particularly in Imperial Germany. The comparison of the Cambridge Ancient History for 1939 and 2005 shows the sea-change in the academic view of `foreign' cults. Elagabalus was deposed for trying to change the classical Roman pantheon (amongst other things), and this view had carried forward to the 19th century, as each successive imperial power adopted Rome as its patron.
Anyway, this book is an exhaustive and well written account of the life and reign of Elagabalus, and an account of his subsequent literary fate. There is nothing prurient or salacious in the narrative; it is an academic study that took many years of research to compile. It is readable and interesting, but only if you are really interested in the subject.
Further reading:
Family Favourites :
Child of the Sun
The author of this book has spent many years carrying out a forensic investigation into the life and crimes of Elagabalus (as he is currently known to the authorities), alias Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, alias Varius Avitus Bassianus, and has determined that, while offending the Senate and People of Rome sufficiently to warrant the `gruesome' massacre of himself and his courtiers, it was for offending their religious and social proprieties, rather than for any moral lapses that he met his fate.
The Contents are -
P001: Introduction
P009: The boy on the throne
P044. The child priest from Emesa
P061: The invincible priest-emperor
P092: The rejected ruler
P123: The evil tyrant
P148: The decadent emperor
P180: The modern prince
P215: Epilogue
P219-P276; Appendices, Notes, bibliography & index
The first chapter details the history of the life and reign of Elagabalus; the second examines the Syrian cult of Elagabal, from which Elagabalus took his name, and its introduction to Rome by Elagabalus; the third looks at the images of the emperor propagated by his administration; the fourth looks at the Ancient literary sources and their hatchet-job on the now-discredited emperor; and the following chapters deal with his image in history and the arts, along with the development of the modern study of ancient history in the subsequent centuries. Even in the 19th century, serious historians (when they paid him any attention at all) were still taking the ancient sources at face value, and not subjecting them to full analysis. Today, although the sources are now better understood, allowing the author to give us a reasonable view of the events of the reign of Elagabalus, the emperor has also become a modern artistic and sub-cultural icon.
Dr John D. Grainger, a historian of the Hellenistic period, had a rant in one of his prefaces against publishers who keep churning out biographies of historically insignificant Roman emperors (he had Nero in mind at the time), simply because there were lots of historical sources, and therefore research was so easy that even journalists could write a book about them; whereas major historical figures such as Antiochus the Great had no studies, and no publisher was even interested in commissioning one. The question now is whether you are interested in the subject of Elagabalus to want to read a book about him. I remember reading a novel by Alfred Duggan many years ago on Elagabalus (Family Favourites), which is discussed here - though the Dutch author thinks Duggan is an Argentinian writer - and I knew nothing else about him. While the life and reign of Elagabalus is not particularly interesting (though this is a well-written and researched book), and his later appearances in art and literature are of no historical importance, the discussion of the development of modern historical research was extremely interesting, especially the way anti-semitism became almost institutionalised in 19th century historical studies, particularly in Imperial Germany. The comparison of the Cambridge Ancient History for 1939 and 2005 shows the sea-change in the academic view of `foreign' cults. Elagabalus was deposed for trying to change the classical Roman pantheon (amongst other things), and this view had carried forward to the 19th century, as each successive imperial power adopted Rome as its patron.
Anyway, this book is an exhaustive and well written account of the life and reign of Elagabalus, and an account of his subsequent literary fate. There is nothing prurient or salacious in the narrative; it is an academic study that took many years of research to compile. It is readable and interesting, but only if you are really interested in the subject.
Further reading:
Family Favourites :
Child of the Sun
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