You probably didn’t think of what these British curators did to the statue of one of the most controversial Roman emperors.
The North Hertfordshire Museum in England, under a left-leaning administration, has declared that the ancient Roman Emperor Elagabalus, who lived in the third century, was transgender. The museum plans to use female pronouns to refer to the emperor for the sake of… “inclusivity”!. The decision is based on dubious historical accounts, primarily from Roman senator Cassius Dio, who asserted that Elagabalus was dressed as female. Among other things not confirmed by other historians, Dio claimed that the emperor preferred to be addressed as “she” and had even requested the creation of mock female genitalia… However, the reliability of Dio’s accounts has been widely questioned, as he was an ally of Elagabalus’ successor and might have had a motive to discredit the former, murdered ruler.
The move to label Elagabalus as transgender is part of a broader trend to reinterpret historical figures in terms of contemporary gender and sexual identity concepts. Other recent similar moves include the portrayal of Joan of Arc as “gender-neutral” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London the previous year.
He (or she) who control the present controls the past.
