Elagabalus
Not a lot has been written or recorded about Elagabalus but he had ruled Rome from 218 to 224 as a teenager, who was a very unpopular emperor seeing as he was originally from Syria. Due to this, there was a large amount of skepticism throughout the empire as many people did not trust their leader. Also, Elagabalus, while being an outsider, tried to enforce his religion of Baal upon the Roman citizens, which then increased their resentment towards him. As well as being unpopular among Roman citizens, Elagabalus grew unpopular among elevated officials as well. He ordered the execution of a large number of generals for no apparent purpose. Similarly to Caligula, during Elagabalus's reign, no real improvements were made in the empire and the population was not unified or happy. A stagnation in growth occurred as an unfit teenager who had wished to become a woman ruled the empire with no real authority and plan to strengthen the empire. After his death, the empire was left in a terrible state as riots were frequent and there were quite a few violent outbursts within the senate, leading the empire into a ditch that would be hard to climb out of as there was a division in social and political life.
What separated Elagabalus from connecting with the Roman citizens and gaining trust from them was that he was a very peculiar man interested in many strange practices. Elagabalus was homosexual and had the hairs plucked from his body in order to appear more like a woman, and was delighted when he wore makeup publicly. It has also been noted that Elagabalus enjoyed pretending to be a prostitute, offering himself naked to people walking around or in the palace, or even offering his services to others throughout the brothels and Taverns of Rome. Like in Caligula’s case, Elagabalus Praetorian guards rebelled against their leader and killed Elagabalus and his mother, thus ending the life of the unfit emperor.
