times, Elagabalus marries five women and a man named Zoticus, an athlete from Smyrna, in a lavish public ceremony at Rome; but the Syrian's most stable relationship is with the chariot driver Hierocles, and Cassius Dio says Elagabalus delighted in being called Hierocles' mistress, wife, and queen. The emperor wears makeup and wigs, prefers to be called a lady and not a lord, and offers vast sums to any physician who can provide him with a vagina; for this reason, the emperor is seen by some writers as an early transgender figure and one of the first on record as seeking sex reassignment surgery. 244–249 – Emperor Philip the Arab tries and fails to outlaw homosexual prostitution. 4th century 342 – The first law against pretended same-sex marriage was promulgated by the Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans. 390 – In the year 390, the Christian emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius I and Arcadius declared homosexual sex to be illegal and those who were guilty of it were condemned to be burned alive in front of the public. 5th century 498 – In spite of the laws against gay sex, the Christian emperors continued to collect taxes on male prostitutes until the reign of Anastasius I, who finally abolishes the tax in favor of sampling of the best men. 6th century 529 – The Christian emperor Justinian I (527–565) makes homosexuals a scapegoat for problems such as "famines, earthquakes, and pestilences." The Justinian code is the first time active as well as passive homosexuals are punished; prominent religious leaders are castrated, tortured, dragged through the streets, and executed. This code shapes the status of homosexuals in Europe for the next several hundred years, until the Napoleonic Era. 1000-1599 1051 – Peter Damian writes the treatise Liber Gomorrhianus, in which he argues for stricter punishments for clerics failing their duty against "vices of nature." 1140 – The Italian Monk Gratian compiles his work Decretum Gratiani, in which he argues that sodomy is the worst of all the sexual sins because it involves using the male member in an unnatural way. 1179 – The Third Lateran Council of Rome issues a decree for the excommunication of sodomites. 13th century 1232 – Pope Gregory IX starts the Inquisition in the Italian City-States. Some cities called for banishment and/or amputation as punishments for 1st- and 2nd-offending sodomites and burning for the 3rd or habitual offenders.