The North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin, a town north of London, has changed its display about a Roman Emperor after concluding that the Elagabalus was a trans woman.
The classification change comes after the museum’s team came across classical texts by well-known Roman historian Cassius Dio which claimed that Elagabalus — who ruled from 218 to 222 AD — identified as a woman.
According to Dio who was alive during Elagabalus’ reign, the emperor once said, “Call me not Lord, for I am a Lady.”
Now, the museum has decided to refer to Elagabalus with she/her pronouns.
“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,” said spokesperson Keith Hoskins, per The Telegraph.
“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.”
Elagabalus ruled the Roman Empire for four years until they were assassinated at age 18.
They were quite the controversial figure with a cheeky reputation for being sexually promiscuous. According to Dio, Elagabalus was also married to both men and women during their 18 years, which is kind of a slay, if you ask me.
However, the debate over Elagabalus’ gender is pretty divisive among academics as there is no direct evidence from the emperor themself about how they liked to be addressed. Also, it was commonplace for historians of the time to use effeminate language to weaken an emperor’s political standing.
Mary Beard, the author of Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World, expressed to TIME that gender and pro-noun politics are just as tricky now as they were in the ancient world.
“What is said by Romans about Elagabalus powerfully reminds us that debates about the boundaries between male and female go back thousands of years (we are not the first generation to have those debates),” she said.
“There were ancient debates about the boundaries between male and female, but we can’t apply our own modern categories to the ancient world.”
Either way, I think the museum’s effort to be inclusive and respectful of desired pronouns is pretty lovely.
