Sun worship has increased throughout the Empire…

Sun worship has increased throughout the Empire since the reign of Septimius Severus.

Elagabalus, in his dual role as Roman Emperor and hereditary priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa, sees this as an opportunity to install El-Gabal as the chief deity of the Roman Pantheon.

The god is renamed Deus Sol Invictus, meaning God the Undefeated Sun, and placed over Jupiter.

As a sign of the union with the Roman religion, Elagabalus gives either Astarte, Minerva, Urania, or some combination of the three, to El-Gabal as a wife.

He provokes further outrage when he takes as his second wife the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, claiming the marriage will produce "god-like children".

This is a flagrant breach of Roman law and tradition, which holds that any Vestal found to have engaged in sexual intercourse before her thirty-year vow of celibacy has been fulfilled is to be buried alive.

A lavish temple called the Elagabalium is built on the east face of the Palatine Hill to house El-Gabal, who is represented by a black conical meteorite from Emesa.

Herodian wrote "this stone is worshipped as though it were sent from heaven; on it there are some small projecting pieces and markings that are pointed out, which the people would like to believe are a rough picture of the sun, because this is how they see them".

(Herodian, Roman History V.3) In order to become the high priest of his new religion, Elagabalus has himself circumcised.

(Cassius Dio, Roman History LXXX.11) He forces senators to watch while he dances around the altar of Deus Sol Invictus to the sound of drums and cymbals, and each summer solstice he holds a festival dedicated to the god, which becomes popular with the masses because of the free food widely distributed there.

During this festival, Elagabalus places the Emesa stone on a chariot adorned with gold and jewels, which he parades through the city.

The most sacred relics from the Roman religion are transferred from their respective shrines to the Elagabalium, including the Great Mother, the fire of Vesta, the Shields of the Salii and the Palladium, so that no other god except El-Gabal will be worshipped.