Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, or "Elagabalus", is not the most famous of the 70 emperors who ruled over Rome. He came to the throne aged 14 through the string-pulling of his powerful mother, and was assassinatedMurdered for political ends. The word is thought to derive from the name given to a Shia Muslim sect based in medieval Persia, the Hashshashin, who carried out high-profile murders of important leaders. just four years later.

But now, 1800 years later, his reign has sparked a new wave of interest after the North Hertfordshire Museum announced that it believes Elagabalus was a transgender woman, and that it would start referring to him with female pronouns.

According to contemporary accounts, Elagabalus frequently wore make-up and wigs, asked to be called a lady rather than a lord, and may even have sought to get gender reassignment surgeryA range of surgeries that some transgender people choose to have so that their body matches the gender they identify with. .¹

And the stories of Elagabalus's time in power are unusually juicy, even for a Roman emperor. He married a Vestal VirginRoman women who were chosen as children to tend the fire in the temple of the goddess Vesta. They had to serve for 30 years and remain virgins in that time. , which was against the very oldest Roman laws, and justified himself by claiming their children would be "godlike". Some think he may have invented the whoopee cushionA rubber cushion that makes a sound like the breaking of wind when someone sits on it..²

But the problem facing historians is that there is no real way of knowing how much of this is true. There are few impartial sources covering Elagabalus's reign.

Many historians believe that the stories about his immorality might have been invented by his opponents. The claim that he wanted to be treated as a woman, they argue, might likewise have been made up by critics who wanted to present him to posterity as weak and unmanly.

The Romans, they say, had no concept of being transgender. So it is ahistoricalLacking historical perspective or context. and anachronisticSomething belonging to the wrong time period. to talk about a "transgender emperor".³

But others argue this does not give the Romans enough credit. In fact, they say, our ancient forebears might just have had different attitudes towards gender identity.

After all, Roman myth was full of examples of people who changed their gender. The poet Ovid wrote the story of Tiresias, a man who was transformed into a woman and then back again.⁴

And the satirist Lucian wrote an exchange between two courtesansWomen who had sexual relationships with wealthy and powerful men, normally for money. about a lover who was "born a woman" but has the "mind and the desires and everything else of a man".⁵

So, they say, we should recognise the truth of LP HartleyA British novelist, born in 1895.'s famous saying that "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

Yes: We should not assume the ancient Romans must have been backward by our standards. Rather than seeing Elagabalus's reputation as ancient libelA false written statement about someone that damages their reputation. , we should recognise they did many things differently from us, including gender identity.

No: We know ancient Rome was a masculine, patriarchalA society in which adult men have a monopoly on power. In these societies, men tend to hold all political positions, and women and children are also expected to obey the men in their families. society. If we take descriptions of Elagabalus at face value we obscure the fact that gender-fluid people faced terrible repression in history.

Or... Like any other society, Rome was divided. It had both prejudiced chauvinistsPeople who have unreasonable belief in the superiority of their own group, particularly men prejudiced against women. and gender-fluid people. We can excavate their histories while remaining alive to the discrimination they suffered.