T INIL Dion Cas assius had commanded the Pannonian legions with the spirit ent discipline. Their brethren of Rome, embracing Danger of mon cause of military licence, demanded the head us. eformer. Alexander, however, instead of yielding to their clamours, showed a just sense of his merit and services by g him his colleague in the consulship, and defraying from reasury the expense of that vain dignity; but, as it was ehended that if the soldiers beheld him with the ensigns of hey would revenge the insult in his blood, the nominal first of the state retired, by the emperor's advice, from the ent the greatest part of his consulship at his villas in 7 of the emperor confirmed the insolence of the troops; itated the example of the guards, and defended Tumults of tive of licentiousness with the same furious the legions. The administration of Alexander was an unavailing ast the corruption of his age. In Illyricum, in Maurienia, in Mesopotamia, in Germany, fresh mutinies ke out; his officers were murdered, his authority was is life at last sacrificed to the fierce discontents of the articular fact well deserves to be recorded, Firmness the manners of the troops, and exhibits a peror. e of the em Ce of their return to a sense of duty and obedience. moved eror lay at Antioch, in his Persian expedition, the Et; fch we shall hereafter relate, the punishment of s evement of Cr grunds was effac been discovered in the baths of women excited a ion to which they belonged. Alexander ascended the tardy but with a modest firmness represented to the armed Te fa just and rilute necessity, as well as his inflexible resolution, instant death his h the author ices introduced by his impure predecessor, and of scipline, which could not be relaxed without the name and empire. Their clamours interrupted "Reserve your shouts." said the undaunted of m. mentions the ake the field against the Persians, the Germans, designed omissi Be silent in the presence of your sovereign and ian's fate and his own danger, see the mutilated conclusion. [c. 2 and 4] p. 1371. in Cassius, 1. lxxx. [c. 2] p. 1369. tenor of her her son and senate she chose sixtee Annal. xiii. 5. " GENERAL HAPPINESS. at bern addressed to the maste be was at liberty to cons add of a few select friends mart Ulpian was constantly amar and instructive; a ... by the recital of s eace of the dancers core amed to the tables of Atander was plair an = taff at the proper 1 te voice of a crier w ng the same salut wia unless he is conse form tenor of hie w:. compilation of Lam 4-ara, the successive an he test of Elagabalus it ens relieved wars' The provinces. erence that to deserve t on young Diadumenianus, and attenti Trestle I dministration of Alexander Wiston was enforced ter, a more necessary. bur: & mort difcur formation of the minary order, whoe meres aux. by long impunity, rendered then mater σ te pline, and careies of the message of pusin trai xecution of his design the emperor affeciet u d to conceal his fear of the army. TIH DIE TEH ther branch of the administrator CTRL 1 100 r the ordinary pay and the extraordinary rewarde heir marches he reased the severe ofdiganos of lays provision on ther stoluere ong the public roads: and as a tu emeret a numerous trail of mules and car watter of ss. As Alexander desparret of correcing ta 8, he attempted at least to drer ones o ament, fine horses, splendid armour, aut s and gold He shared water inige R ited in person the sick ani wonder meeTRI their services and he grainute s asion the warmes regant for a way σ THE affected to declare, va a doer m e. By the must get an 200 titude with a sense of tuny, and to se that discipline at which the mone › oth 1369. thout the interrupted e undaunted the Germans, our sovereign and the mutilated conclusion. peror in Campania. He asked and aed leave to pass the rest of his life is native city (Nice, in Bithynia): it there that he finished his history, loses with his second consulship. the name of Astarte," was deemed a more suitable companion for the Sun. Her image, with the rich offerings of her temple as a marriage portion, was transported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Rome, and the day of these mystic nuptials was a general festival in the capital and throughout the empire. 55 His profligate and effeminate luxury. A rational voluptuary adheres with invariable respect to the temperate dictates of nature, and improves the gratifications of sense by social intercourse, endearing connections, and the soft colouring of taste and the imagination. But Elagabalus (I speak of the emperor of that name), corrupted by his youth, his country, and his fortune, abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust and satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory powers of art were summoned to his aid: the confused multitude of women, of wines, and of dishes, and the studied variety of attitudes and sauces, served to revive his languid appetites. New terms and new inventions in these sciences, the only ones cultivated and patronised by the monarch, 56 signalised his reign, and transmitted his infamy to succeeding times. A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance; and whilst Elagabalus lavished away the treasures of his people in the wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit and magnificence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors. To confound the order of seasons and climates,57 to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of his most delicious amusements. A long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin, ravished by force from her sacred asylum," were insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female sex, preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonoured the principal dignities of the empire 55 Dion, 1. lxxix. [c. 12] p. 1360. Herodian, 1. v. [c. 6] p. 193. The subjects of the empire were obliged to make liberal presents to the new-married couple; and whatever they had promised during the life of Elagabalus was carefully exacted under the administration of Mamaa. 56 The invention of a new sauce was liberally rewarded; but if it was not relished, the inventor was confined to eat of nothing else till he had discovered another more agreeable to the Imperial palate. Hist. August. [Lampr. Heliogab. c. 29] p. 111. 57 He never would eat sea-fish except at a great distance from the sea; he then would distribute vast quantities of the rarest sorts, brought at an immense expense, to the peasants of the inland country. Hist. August. p. 109. [Lampr. Heliogab. c. 23.] 58 Dion, 1. lxxix. [c. 9] p. 1358. Herodian, 1. v. [c. 6] p. 192. Astarte was a Syrian name, though the goddess was also worshipped in Africa (in Carthage and the other Phoenician colonies). Dion and Herodian say that her African name was Urania, that is, the queen of heaven.-S. by distributing them among his numerous lovers; one of whom was publicly invested with the title and authority of the emperor's, or, as he more properly styled himself, of the empress's husband. 59 which dis tinguished It may seem probable the vices and follies of Elagabalus have been adorned by fancy and blackened by prejudice.60 Yet, Contempt confining ourselves to the public scenes displayed before the of decency Roman people, and attested by grave and contemporary the Roman historians, their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any tyrants. other age or country. The licence of an eastern monarch is secluded from the eye of curiosity by the inaccessible walls of his seraglio. The sentiments of honour and gallantry have introduced a refinement of pleasure, a regard for decency, and a respect for the public opinion, into the modern courts of Europe; but the corrupt and opulent nobles of Rome gratified every vice that could be collected from the mighty conflux of nations and manners. Secure of impunity, careless of censure, they lived without restraint in the patient and humble society of their slaves and parasites. The emperor, in his turn, viewing every rank of his subjects with the same contemptuous indifference, asserted without control his sovereign privilege of lust and luxury. tents of The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can Disconreadily discover some nice difference of age, character, or the army. station, to justify the partial distinction. The licentious soldiers who had raised to the throne the dissolute son of Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious choice, and turned with disgust from that monster to contemplate with pleasure the opening virtues of his cousin Alexander, the son of Mamæa. The crafty Mæsa, sensible that her grandson Elagabalus must inevitably destroy himself by his own vices, had provided another and surer support of her family. Embracing a favourable moment of fondness and devotion, she had persuaded the young emperor to adopt Alexander and to invest him with Alexander the title of Cæsar, that his own divine occupations might declared be no longer interrupted by the care of the earth. In the 221. Severus Cæsar, A.D. Hierocles enjoyed that honour; but he would have been supplanted by one Zoticus, had he not contrived by a potion to enervate the powers of his rival, who, being found on trial unequal to his reputation, was driven with ignominy from the palace. Dion, 1. lxxix. (c. 15, 16] p. 1363, 1364. A dancer was made præfect of the city, a charioteer præfect of the watch, a barber præfect of the provisions. These three ministers, with many inferior officers, were all recommended enormitate membrorum. Hist. August. p. 105. [Lampr. Heliogab. c. 12.] 60 Even the credulous compiler of his Life, in the Augustan History (p. 111) [Lampr. Heliogab. c. 30, fin.], is inclined to suspect that his vices may have been exaggerated. • Wenck has justly observed that Gibbon should have reckoned the influence of Christianity in this great change. In the most savage times and the most corrupt courts, since the introduction of Christianity, there have been no Neros or Domitians, no Commodus or Elagabalus. -M. |