Museum rankles historians with dubious claim that a Roman emperor was trans

A British museum has decided to retroactively claim a Roman emperor for the LGBT community, suggesting — on the basis of an apparent 3rd century character assassination justifying an actual assassination — that Marcus Aurelius Antonius was a "transgender."

The North Hertfordshire Museum has conferred female pronouns to Antonius, better known as Elagabalus, citing a classical text alleging he asked to be called a "lady" and wanted mock female genitals crafted, reported the Telegraph.

The retroactive transitioning is driven by an apparent desire on the part of the museum to be "sensitive" to the emperor's disputed wishes as well as an outreach policy demanding representation of "different groups through exhibitions dealing with Black History, LGBTQ+ History and so on."

Elagabalus ruled as emperor of Rome from 218 until his assassination at the age of 18 in 222. He was succeeded by Roman emperor Alexander Severus. Both men shared a power-hungry grandmother in common, Julia Mamaea.

Mamaea — who ultimately wielded much of the real authority during her son's fruitless reign — is suspected of prompting the Praetorian Guard to murder Elagabalus. Since Mamaea had previously persuaded Elagabalus to name his cousin as an heir, Severus was able to nominally take power without incident following the assassination.

The museum has based its opportunistic claim on a text from Cassius Dio, a Greek senator and "slapdash" chronicler who held a consulship with Alexander Severus. Extra to having a possible motive in both denigrating his boss' predecessor and justifying his assassination, Dio apparently had a rather loose relationship with facts.

Oxford Reference indicates Dio's writing, like that of other chroniclers of his time, "is often thin and slapdash; errors and distortions are quite common, and there are some surprising omissions. However, Dio does show much independence, both in shaping his material and in interpretation: he freely makes causal links between events and attributes motivations to his characters, and many of these explanations must be his own contribution rather than drawn from a source."

Dio reportedly claimed the emperor was "termed wife, mistress and queen"; told one lover, "Call me not Lord, for I am a Lady"; and asked for female genitalia to be made for him.

Christian Laes, a University of Manchester classicist, stressed that classical accounts about Elagabalus should be taken with "a huge pinch of salt," stressing, "Most of this is related to the aristocratic and senatorial disdain for the emperor's oriental origins and beliefs."

There are numerous stories telling of the emperor's degeneracy and cruelty. For instance, he is said to have freed poisonous snakes at the gladiatorial games, maiming and killing various audience members. In another apocryphal telling, Elagabalus is said to have thrown gold from a high tower in order to watch the mob below tear itself apart for the promise of enrichment, reported the Daily Mail.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, a Cambridge classics professor, told the Telegraph that Elagabalus was a Syrian, not a Roman, so behind Dio's claims "there's racial prejudice going on there too."

The historians agreed that claims about feminine behavior and lady-identification were likely attempts at character assassination.

"The Romans didn't have our idea of 'trans' as a category, but they used accusations of sexual behaviour 'as a woman' as one of the worst insults against men," said Wallace-Hadrill.

"As regards trans, this was of course never seen as a category by the Romans," said Laes. "But it remains the case that in times of troubles and crisis, so-called transgressors of the sexual norms were subject to scapegoating."

Severus' reign was marked by troubles and crisis. During his 13 years as emperor, trust in government dwindled, anarchy prevailed, Roman territory was swallowed up by invading forces, and his attempts to militarily restore confidence proved disastrous, partly because those under his command refused to heed his orders.

Nevertheless, on the word of Severus' consul, the council-run museum has determined the emperor was body dysphoric and a member of the ancient LGBT community.

The museum notes on its website that it is in possession of a "broken base denarius of Elagabalus." Plural pronouns are used when referring to the emperor in the museum's description of the coin and its significance.

"The Emperor was long regarded as mad and one of the worst Roman emperors, but is perhaps now best thought of as a transgender teen, who referred to themselves as 'lady' and 'queen,'" says the description. "The Roman world did not have a transgender category, but the phenomenon of those assigned male at birth transitioning to female to become priestesses of Cybele is well known."

The North Herfordshire Museum is reportedly committed to using pronouns in displays that "the individual in question might have used themself" or whatever pronoun "in retrospect, is appropriate."

The Telegraph indicated the museum looks to the radical LGBT activist group Stonewall and the LGBT wing of the trade union Unison for guidance on how best to ensure its "displays, publicity and talks are as up-to-date and inclusive as possible," meaning its framing of history is being used for activistic purposes.

Keith Hoskins, a leftist councilor with sway on the North Herts Council overseeing the museum, said, "Elagabalus most definitely preferred the she pronoun, and as such this is something we reflect when discussing her in contemporary times."

"We try to be sensitive to identifying pronouns for people in thee past, as we are for people in the present," said Hoskins. "It is only polite and respectful. We know that Elagabalus identified as a woman and was explicity about which pronouns to use, which shows that pronouns are not a new thing."

The coin has apparently been sued in multiple LGBT-themed displays.

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