9. Elagabalus Could Not Get Enough of Trolling the Romans
At times it seemed as if Emperor Elagabalus was simply acting out in the most outrageous fashion possible in order to shock people and get a reaction. Which is perhaps not that surprising, considering that he was a teenager, and he would not have been the first teenager to go out of his or her way to act outrageously in order to get attention. Unfortunately, there was one key difference that set Elagabalus apart from all other teenagers: he was the Roman emperor.
In an act that seems to have been deliberately intended to troll his Roman subjects, the teenage emperor ramped up the shocking conduct by marrying a Vestal Virgin – one of Rome’s most sacred priestesses. It was an exceptionally flagrant breach of customs and laws. For centuries, Romans had been so uptight when it came to the Vestals’ virginity that they were punished with getting buried alive if they ever engaged in sexual behavior. Elagabalus justified the scandal by claiming that the marriage would produce “godlike children”.
