Elagabalus or Heliogabalus is a Syro-Roman sun god.

Elagabalus was initially venerated at Emesa in Syria. The name is the Latinized form of the Syrian Ilāh hag-Gabal, which derives from Ilāh "god" and gabal "mountain" (compare Hebrew: גבל‎ gəbul and Arabic: جبل‎ jabal), resulting in "the God of the Mountain" the Emesene manifestation of the deity. The cult of the deity spread to other parts of the Roman Empire in the second century. For example, a dedication has been found as far away as Woerden, in the modern-day Netherlands.

The cult statue was brought to Rome by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who before his accession was the hereditary high priest at Emesa and is commonly called Elagabalus after the deity. The Syrian deity was assimilated with the Roman sun god known as Sol Invictus ("the Undefeated Sun").

A temple called the Elagabalium was built on the east face of the Palatine Hill, to house the holy stone of the Emesa temple, a black conical meteorite.Herodian writes of that stone:

Elagabalus (Latin: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; ca. 203 – 11 March 222), also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal in his hometown, Emesa. Upon becoming emperor he took the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus and was called Elagabalus only after his death.

In 217, the emperor Caracalla was assassinated and replaced by his Praetorian prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus. Caracalla's maternal aunt, Julia Maesa, successfully instigated a revolt among the Third Legion to have her eldest grandson, Elagabalus, declared emperor in his place. Macrinus was defeated on 8 June 218, at the Battle of Antioch. Elagabalus, barely fourteen years old, became emperor, initiating a reign known mainly for sexual scandal and religious controversy.

During his rule, Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with a god held in comparable esteem in Syria, Deus Sol Invictus (in Greek: Helios, hence the name Heliogabulus). He forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, rites over which he personally presided. Elagabalus was married as many as five times, lavished favours on courtiers popularly thought to have been his homosexual lovers, employed a prototype of whoopee cushions at dinner parties, and was reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace. Reports of his behaviour estranged the Praetorian Guard, the Senate, and the common people alike.

Ralph Gordon Ellis (1885–1963) was an English painter and designer of inn signs.

Ralph Gordon Ellis was born in Arundel on 31 January 1885 at no.12 the High Street, overlooking the square. His father William was in business as a taxidermist.

On leaving school, Ralph went away to London as an apprentice to a furniture draughtsman and designer, but never settled to the work. Instead, he turned to painting - an interest of his father's - by day making his living by painting houses and after work attending evening classes in drawing and painting.

In 1913, three years after his marriage to Gertrude Seymour, a stonemason's daughter, he opened a little shop in her home town of Bognor as an 'oil and colour man', selling home decorating materials and artists' supplies as well as his own paintings.

During the First World War, Ralph saw action with the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment. Injured by shrapnel in July 1917, Ralph was discharged and returned to England. He then enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he studied until 1919.