 Some recent historians argue for a more favourable picture of his life and reign . Martijn Icks in Images of Elagabalus ( 2008 ; republished as The Crimes of Elagabalus in 2012 ) doubts the reliability of the ancient sources and argues that it was the emperor 's unorthodox religious policies that alienated the power elite of Rome , to the point that his grandmother saw fit to eliminate him and replace him with his cousin . Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado , in The Emperor Elagabalus : Fact or Fiction ? ( 2008 ) , is also critical of the ancient historians and speculates that neither religion nor sexuality played a role in the fall of the young emperor , who was simply the loser in a power struggle within the imperial family ; the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards was up for sale , and Julia Maesa had the resources to outmaneuver and outbribe her grandson . According to this version , once Elagabalus , his mother , and his immediate circle had been murdered , a wholesale propaganda war against his memory resulted in a vicious caricature which has persisted to the present , repeated and often embellished by later historians displaying their own prejudices against effeminacy and other vices which Elagabalus had come to epitomize . 
