HELIOGABALUS. We have a profusion of materials regarding the person, habits, and fashions, as well as the follies and vices of Heliogabalus, that strange compound of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Vitellius, and Commodus, with the Assyrian Sardanapalus; for there was a more Orientalt aste about this effeminate creature than about any other of the Roman emperors. The circumstance was observed by the populace, who, as we learn from Dion, amongst the other epithets which they bestowed on him, called him Sardanapalus and Assyrius.* * Dion, "Hist." lib. LXIX, p. 906. This boy, for he was but a mere youth when he was killed, had before his death rivalled the varied wickedness of all the worst of his predecessors. The Augustan historian Ælius Lampridius is copious to overflowing in all manner of details about his daily life, and between him and the curious Dion and the elegant Herodian, which two last historians may have seen the emperor, we have the complete picture of this monster of depravity. Lampridius in his narrative refers to many records which he says were compiled of the private life of Heliogabalus, and especially to a biography of him by Marius Maximus. In the midst of all the horrible details with which he furnishes us, Lampridius professes to have made merely a decent selection out of the materials before him, omitting the more infamous particulars, and veiling in as modest language as he could command what he was obliged as a faithful historian to relate. From his selection, a re-selection is all that can be made fit for presentation to modern readers. Lampridius, in his voluminous description, does not allude to the figure and face of Heliogobalus. This we have, however, described by Herodian, who more than once alludes to the great beauty of his countenance, regretting that he spoiled it with painting and unguents. Herodian's description of the appearance of the young emperor as the priest of the god Heliogabalus, whose name and honours he afterwards assumed, is exceedingly striking and picturesque, Bassianus (Heliogabalus's name was Bassianus Antoninus) and his younger brother, Alexianus, afterwards Alexander Severus, were both priests of the Assyrian god Heliogabalus, or the Sun. "Bassianus, as the elder," says Herodian, discharged the office of chief priest. He walked in the Eastern dress, wearing a cloak interwoven with gold, having long sleeves, and which, falling down to his feet, covered all his limbs to the toes. His other robes were of purple, entwined with gold. On his head he bore a coronet, glittering with precious stones of various colours. He was then in the flower of his youth, and the most beautiful man of the times. Hence, with his personal charms, his boyhood, and the remarkably effeminate dress which he wore, he was naturally compared with the most beautiful pictures of Bacchus."* It will be observed that the historian censures as effeminate the close dress of Helio gabalus. It is probable that the emperor, who indulged in every art and device of lasciviousness, entertained the Eastern notion that a close dress is the costume of indecency, and that virtue and innocence are betokened by looseness of garments, and an approach to nudity. It is somewhat curious, that the figures of the effeminate Sardanapalus, and of the licentious Semiramis, and the statues and medals of the Byzantine Theodora, who rivalled the wickedness of the most wicked of the ancients, represent them as completely wrapped up in their robes, from the throat to the toes. At this day, the virtuous Malabar woman goes all uncovered above the waist, while almost * Herodian, lib. v, c. 5. everywhere in the East, the dancing-girl-who is unchaste by religious obligation—is loaded with clothes. It was while celebrating the worship of his god, and leading his chorus round the altar, in Oriental fashion, to the sound of flutes and pipes, and other musical instruments, that the Roman soldiers beheld their future emperor, and were struck with his extreme beauty. The directors and guides of Heliogabalus's youth were his mother, who is called Semiriama, or Soæmis, and his grandmother, Mæsa, and both of these women he seems to have honoured and loved. His mother, who is described as the most profligate woman in Rome, rivalling in licentiousness the Messalina of a former age, instructed him in all manner of wickedness. The emperor introduced both his mother and his grandmother into the senate; and there was then a senate occupied with legislation on women's interests and affairs. This senate declared what dress women were to |