The Roses of Heliogabalus
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The Roses of Heliogabalus is a famous painting of 1888 by the Anglo-Dutch academician Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, at present in private hands, and based on a probably invented episode in the life of the Roman emperor Elagabalus, also known as Heliogabalus, (204–222), taken from the Augustan History. Elagabalus is portrayed attempting to smother his unsuspecting guests in rose-petals released from false ceiling panels.[1]
In his notes to the Augustan History, Thayer notes that "Nero did this also (Suetonius, Nero, xxxi), and a similar ceiling in the house of Trimalchio is described in Petronius, Sat., lx." (Satyricon) [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Augustan History, Life of Elagabalus 21 "In a banqueting-room with a reversible ceiling he once overwhelmed his parasites with violets and other flowers, so that some were actually smothered to death, being unable to crawl out to the top."
- ^ Note by Thayer to Augustan History, Life of Elagabalus Note 84
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