 When the emperor Macrinus came to power , he suppressed the threat against his reign from the family of his assassinated predecessor , Caracalla , by exiling them — Julia Maesa , her two daughters , and her eldest grandson Elagabalus — to their estate at Emesa in Syria . Almost upon arrival in Syria , Maesa began a plot with her advisor and Elagabalus ' tutor Gannys , to overthrow Macrinus and elevate the fourteen @-@ year @-@ old Elagabalus to the imperial throne . 
