assassin was instantly killed by a Scythian archer c HA P. of the Imperial guard. Such was the end of a

'monster, whose life disgraced human nature, and

VI.

of Alexan

der.

whose reign accused the patience of the Romans. The grateful soldiers forgot his vices, remembered only his partial liberality, and obliged the senate to prostitute their own dignity and that of religion by granting him a place among the gods. Whilst he was upon earth, Alex- Imitation ander the Great was the only hero whom this god dr deemed worthy his admiration. He assumed the name and ensigns of Alexander, formed a Macedonian phalanx of guards, persecuted the disciples of Aristotle, and displayed with a puerile enthusiasm the only sentiment by which he discovered any regard for virtue or glory. We can easily conceive, that after the battle of Narva, and the conquest of Poland, Charles the Twelfth (though he still wanted the more elegant accomplishments of the son of Philip) might boast of having rivalled his valour and magnanimity: but in no one action of his life did Caracalla express the faintest resemblance of the Macedonian hero, except in the murder of a great number of his own and of his father's friends †.

After the extinction of the house of Severus, Election the Roman world remained three days without a and cha

Dion, I. Ixxvin. p. 1312. Herodian, l. iv. p. 168.

racter of

master. Macrinus

+ The fondness of Caracalla for the name and ensigns of Alexander, is still preserved on the medals of that emperor. See { Spanheim, de Usu Numismatum, Dissertat. xii. Herodian (1. iv. p. 154.) had seen very ridiculous pictures, which a figure was drawn, with one side of the face like Alexander, and the other like Caracalla..

in w

CHAP. master. The choice of the army (for the autho VI. rity of a distant, and feeble senate was little re

garded) hung in an anxious suspense; as no candidate, presented himself whose distinguished birth and merit could engage their attachment and unite their suffrages. The decisive weight of the Prætorian guards elevated the hopes of their præfects, and these powerful ministers began to assert their legal claim to fill the vacancy of the Imperial throne. Adventus, however, 'the senior præfect, conscious of his age and infirmities, of his small reputation, and his smaller abilities, resigned the dangerous honour to the crafty ambition of his colleague Macrinus, whose well-dissembled grief removed all suspicion of his being accessary to his master's death. The troops neither loved nor esteemed his character. They cast their eyes around in search of a competitor, and at last yielded with reluctance to his promises of unbounded liberality and indulgence. March 11. A short time after his accession, he conferred on his son Diadumenianus, at the age of only ten years, the Imperial title and the popular name of Antoninus. The beautiful figure of the youth, assisted by an additional donative, for which the ceremony furnished a pretext, might attract, it was hoped the favour of the army, and secure the doubtful throne of Macrinus.

A. D. 217

Discontent of the se

nate.

1

26

The authority of the new sovereign had been ratified by the cheerful submission of the senate sand provinces. They exulted in their unexpected deliver

受

Herodian, 1. iv, p. 169. Hist. August. p. 94.

VI.

deliverance from a hated tyrant, and it seemed CHA P. of little consequence to examine into the virtues of the successor of Caracalla. But as soon as the first transports of joy and surprise had subsided they began to scrutinize the merits of Macrinus with a critical severity, and to arraign the hasty choice of the army. It had hitherto been considered as a fundamental maxim of the constitution, that the emperor must be always chosen in the senate, and the sovereign power, no longer exercised by the whole body, was always dele gated to one of its members. But Macrinus was not a senator *. The sudden elevation of the Prætorian præfects betrayed the meanness of their origin; and the equestrian order was still in possession of that great office, which commanded with arbitrary sway the lives and fortunes of the senate. A murmur of indignation was heard, that a man whose obscure + extraction had never been illustrated by any signal service, should dare to invest himself with the purple, instead of bestowing it on some distinguished senator, equal VOL. I.

Q

in

* Dion, 1. lxxxviii. p. 1850. Elagabalus reproached his predecessor, with daring to seat himself on the throne; though, as Prætorian præfect, he could not have been admitted into the senate after the voice of the cryer had cleared the house. The personal favour of Plautianus and Sejanus had broke through the established rule. They rose indeed from the equestrian order; but they preserved the præfecture with the rank of senator, and even with the consulship.

+ He was a native of Cæsarea in Numidia, and began his fortune by serving in the household of Plautian, from whose ruin he narrowly escaped. His enemies asserted, that he was born a slave, and had exercised, among other infamous professions, that of Gladiator. The fashion of aspersing the birth and condition of an adversary, seems to have lasted from the time of the Greek orators, to the learned grammarians of the last age.

CHAP. in birth and dignity to the splendour of the Im

VI.

and the army.

perial station. As soon as the character of Ma crinus was surveyed by the sharp eye of discon→ tent, some vices, and many defects, were easily discovered. The choice of his ministers was in many instances justly censured, and the dissatisfied people, with their usual candour, accused at once his indolent tameness and his excessive severity *.

His rash ambition had climbed a height where it was difficult to stand with firmness, and impossible to fall without instant destruction. Trained in the arts of courts and the forms of civil business, he trembled in the presence of the fierce and undisciplined multitude over whom he had assumed the command; his military talents were despised, and his personal courage suspected; a whisper that circulated in the camp, disclosed the fatal secret of the conspiracy against the late emperor, aggravated the guilt of murder by the baseness of hypocrisy, and heightened contempt by detestation. To alienate the soldiers, and to provoke inevitable ruin, the character of a reformer was only wanting: and such was the peculiar hardship of his fate, that Macrinus was compelled to exercise that invidious office. The prodigality of Caracalla had left behind it a long train of ruin and disorder; and if that worthless

tyrant

* Both Dion and Herodian speak of the virtues and vices of Macrinus, with candour and impartiality; but the author of his life, in the Augustan History, seems to have implicitly copied some of the venal writers, employed by Elagabalus, to blacken the memory of his predecessor.

tyrant had been capable of reflecting on the sure ¢ HA P. consequences of his own conduct, he would per+ haps have enjoyed the dark prospect of the distress and calamities which he bequeathed to his

successors.

attempts a

In the management of this necessary reforma. Macrinus tion, Macrinus proceeded with a cautious pru- reformation dence, which would have restored health and of the army. vigour to the Roman army, in an easy and almost imperceptible manner. To the soldiers already engaged in the service, he was constrained to leave the dangerous privileges and extravagant pay given by Caracalla; but the new recruits were received on the more moderate though liberal establishment of Severus, and gradually formed to modesty and obedience *. One fatal error destroyed the salutary effects of this judicious plan. The numerous army, assembled in the East by the late emperor, instead of being immediately dispersed by Macrinus through the several provinces, was suffered to remain united in Syria, during the winter that followed his elevation. In the luxurious idleness of their quarters, the troops viewed their strength and numbers, communicated their complaints, and revolved in their minds the advantages of another revolution. The veterans, instead of being flattered by the advantageous distinction, were alarmed by the first steps of the emperor, which they

Q 2

* Dion, 1. lxxxiii. p. 1336. The sense of the author is as clear as the intention of the emperor; but M. Wotton has mistaken both, by understanding the distinction, not of veterans and recruits, but of old and new legions. History of Rome, p. 347.