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Fair enough, I missed that line. But I don't think that's actually claiming they became women tbh.

The author of that article.

Another group of people who could wear women’s clothing were the galli, who served as priestesses of Cybele or Magna Mater. These people were born male but self-castrated in a religious frenzy to make themselves women

My eyes are rolling so hard about this it’s quite difficult to type

That doesn't claim they were trans though, or that they'd be considered trans. It just says they were effeminate.

We have effeminate men today, that doesn't mean they're trans or ID as women either.

Has anyone claimed otherwise?

Anc before that there id a long patagraph about cinaedi.

"However, we know from ancient literature that certain Roman men known as cinaedi behaved effeminately, wore women’s clothes and make-up, and had sex with other men. Some served in the army. In a short story by Phaedrus, a freedman of the Emperor Augustus, a tall and very effeminate cinaedus heroically defeated and decapitated a barbarian enemy after begging Pompey to allow him into battle. Although this is fiction, Phaedrus’s work shows that it was possible for cinaedi to serve in the army, even if they were not always respected by their commanding officers. Perhaps some hair pins are evidence for such men serving in the army in Britannia."

Wikipedia has a different slant: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elagabalus

not sure the target audience would want to adopt Elagabalus as an icon

Women aren't castrated men.

It doesn't do that at all.

It mentions the galli (castrated male priests) and says that in modern days they might perhaps be considered trans women.

And here we have a post on the museum's website, from February this year (LGBT+ History Month) attempting to trans Roman soldiers on the basis of hair pins
https://northhertsmuseum.org/lgbt-history-month-roman-hair-pins/

That's the same article, just rehashed. It offers no new evidence.

I don't think it's made up. I do think it likely to be unreasonably exaggerated which is why I said I would withhold judgement without seeing the exhibit (or photos of it, which are mysteriously absent) for myself.

Flickersy · Today 08:33

To which I would ask: where is this declaration? Can anyone provide the source?

Do you think that this is entirely made up?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12772931/Roman-Emperor-Elagabalus-transgender-referred-museum.html

A Roman emperor has been branded transgender by a British museum provoking uproar among historians. The North Hertfordshire Museum has decided to refer to the 3rd-century AD ruler Elagabalus as 'she' to be 'sensitive' to their pronoun preferences in a display.

It is all very odd.

As an ex-museum professional and archaeologist, I admit I am always extremely wary of these sorts of articles by certain sections of the media. They often take a small item, extrapolate it beyond all sensible means, ignore any relevant context, and then try to claim that it's somehow reflective of an official policy or a grandiose declaration of adherence to a particular ideology / party line.

Oh god. That absolutely makes me despair. Young people are being taught this shit and apparently there's nothing we can do about it.

I haven't managed to read the Telegraph article but there is actually quite a lot out there about Elagabalus who appears to have led a very varied life! Rather than imposing today's notions of gender on the past, it seems that the museum is doing its duty to highlight contradictions across different sources and how Roman ideas about sexual and gender identity were influenced by the status of men and women in society as a whole.

I did laugh at the Lib Dem councillor's coment about pronouns, as if Elagabalus wore a she/hers badge on their toga.

https://northhertsmuseum.org/work-experience-week/

Guest blog post by a work experience school student dated April this year

"I found it very interesting to see how far back in time some of the objects displayed at the museum go and loved learning the history behind them, my favourite being a Denarius of Elagabalus from Baldock which is being shown in their LGBT+ display where I learnt is considered to be one of the first known genderfluid Roman rulers."

Ok, but the councillor is not the museum. Where's the curator in all this, a photo of the offending exhibit?

It is all quite odd. It doesn't look as if the museum announced the change of policy with a press release or social media statement or anything like that. My best guess is that someone visited at the museum, saw the exhibit and tipped off the Telegraph, who then failed to source a comment from the museum so sourced a comment from the councillor instead. Or possibly someone who worked at the museum tipped off the paper. But it's all very unclear.

On R4 they reported that the council had "advice" from Stonewall.

"..Elagabalus was high priest(ess) of a religion very similar to that of Cybele..."

Eh, what?

He was hereditary high priest of the sun god Elagabal, Latinised as Elagabalus.

That's how he got the nickname Elagabalus - his birth name was Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus and his official name as emperor was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The only things I can see in common between Elagabal and Cybele is that they were deities originating in the eastern Mediterranean (Syria and Phrygia) and the element 'mountain' in their names, posdibly.

Ok, but the councillor is not the museum. Where's the curator in all this, a photo of the offending exhibit?

Yes I can't find what precipitated this either - the article you've linked to is from just over two years ago so I wonder what has brought this up now.

Elagabalus is certainly a figure who divides opinion. But there are many out there who believe he did identify as a woman (correctly or otherwise) so I'm not sure why this particular museum has drawn ire for noting that he "might now be considered" (paraphrasing that article) transgender.

To which I would ask: where is this declaration? Can anyone provide the source?

Difficult to find a source for the exact story (the Times account is based on the Telegraph's report), but here's an article on the museum's website, which states:

"If we look back into history, there are people whose identities we might now describe as transgender. The Roman Emperor Elagabalus (AD 204-222) was born a male but by their teenage years, identified as a woman and tried unsuccessfully to find a doctor who could carry out sex reassignment surgery. Elagabalus was high priest(ess) of a religion very similar to that of Cybele that they promoted above the official state religion focused on Capitoline Jupiter. This was the main reason for their murder, not their unconventional gender."

https://northhertsmuseum.org/katie-wilsons-the-woman-inside-and-transgender/

The rest of the article is equally nonsensical.

You can see the whole article on the archive site. They quote a Lib Dem councillor about the museum's decision.

Keith Hoskins, a Liberal Democrat councillor and executive member for arts at North Herts Council, which is run by a Lib Dem and Labour coalition, said: “Elagabalus most definitely preferred the ‘she’ pronoun and as such this is something we reflect when discussing her in contemporary times.”

He added: “North Herts Museum has one coin of Elagabalus, which we periodically put on display as it is one of a few LGBTQ+ items we have in our collection.

“We try to be sensitive to identifying pronouns for people in the past, as we are for people in the present, it is only polite and respectful.

“We know that Elagabalus identified as a woman and was explicit about which pronouns to use, which shows that pronouns are not a new thing.”

Precisely what crossed my mind this morning

There's also that banker.

Pretending to be a woman part-time was just an attempt to express his sexuality without losing status

Does that sound like any marathon-running actor/comedian/political wannabes we might have heard of?