the roses of elegabalus - a photo on Flickriver

the roses of elegabalus

At the Getty Villa in Malibu, CA. The tour guide referred to rose petals having been dropped from the roof of a dining room under the reign of the emperor Nero to perfume the room, and describing one notorious incident in which the emperor invited a group of his enemies to dine, only to drop such a profusion of petals as to smother them entirely. I was appalled at the misinformation by the guide: although the tale is almost certainly apocryphal, the emperor to whom the infamous floral asphyxiation is generally attributed was the child-emperor Elegabalus, widely (and largely inaccurately) vilified after his deposition and assassination, and among my favorites of the later Roman emperors. The petal-painted ceiling at the Getty Villa, of course, naturally calls the tale to mind.

I'm actually quite fond of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's painting of the incident. I later discovered that Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars indeed attributed a similar incident to Nero -- but assuredly the more notorious flower-massacre was (allegedly) committed by Elegabalus.

Taken in: United States / California / Los Angeles / Castellammare (show map)

Taken on: June 19, 2011

Tags:

los angeles

getty

villa

roman

circle

rose

roses

flower

flowers

nero

caesar

pillar

corinthian

malibu

ceiling

mural

painting

elegabalus

heliogabalus « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FH20, f/3.3, 1/160 sec, 5mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FH20
Aperture:	f/3.3
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	5mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
Show full info

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