22. An Emperor’s Weird Sense of Humor
Heliogabalus (204- 222) was made ruler of the Roman Empire when he was barely fourteen. As might be expected, handing that kind of power to a teenager did not turn out well. While not as horrible as some of Rome’s more monstrous rulers – he was no gratuitously cruel Caligula or Commodus – Heliogabalus did display the occasional mean streak.
That streak often showed in his practical jokes. Some were funny, some were weird, and some were scary and weird. Considering that he was the emperor, with nobody above him, Heliogabalus’ pranks always meant punching down. At the milder end of the emperor’s pranking was his propensity for seating some of his more pompous dinner guests on the ancient Roman version of whoopee cushions, that emitted farting noises when they parked their posterior. At the crueler end of the spectrum, as seen below, was putting people in fear of their lives.