vi.

CHAP. they considered as the presage of his future intentions. The recruits, with sullen reluctance, entered on a service, whose labours were increased while its rewards were diminished by a covetous and unwarlike sovereign. The murmurs of the army swelled with impunity into seditious clamours; and the partial mutinies betrayed a spirit of discontent and disaffection, that waited only for the slightest occasion to break out on every side into a general rebellion. To minds thus disposed, the occasion soon presented itself. *** Death of The empress Julia had experienced all the vithe empress cissitudes of fortune. From an humble station Julia. Education, she had been raised to greatness, only to taste the Superior bitterness of an exalted rank. She was

preten

sions, and

revolt of

Elagabalus,

called at first Bas

sianus and

doomed to weep over the death of one of her

sons, and over the life of the other. The cruel fate of Caracalla, though her good sense must Antoninus. have long taught her to expect it, awakened the feelings of a mother and of an empress. Notwithstanding the respectful civility expressed by the usurper towards the widow of Severus, she descended with a painful struggle into the condition of a subject, and soon withdrew herself, by a voluntary death, from the anxious and humiliating dependence* Julia Mæsa, her sister, was ordered to leave the court and Antioch. She retired to Emesa with an immense fortune, the fruit of twenty years favour, accompanied by her two daughters, Soemias and Mamaa, each of en and Bod of Tord whom

* Dion, 1. lxxviii. p. 1330. The abridgment of Xiphilin, tho' less particular, is in this place clearer than the original.

whom was a widow, and each had an only son. CHAP. Bassianus, for that was the name of the son of VI. Soæmia, was consecrated to the honouroble ministry of high-priest of the Sun; and this holy vocation, embraced either from prudence or su perstition, contributed to raise the Syrian youth to the empire of Rome. A numerous body of troops was stationed at Emesa; and, as the se vere discipline of Macrinus had constrained them to pass the winter encamped, they were eager to revenge the cruelty of such unaccustomed hardships. The soldiers, who resorted in crowds to the temple of the Sun, beheld with veneration and delight the elegant dress and figure of the young Pontiff: they recognised, or they thought that they recognised, the features of Caracalla, whose memory they now adored. The artful Mæsa saw and cherished their rising partiality, and readily sacrificing her daughter's reputation to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that Bassianus was the natural son of their murdered sovereign. The sums distributed by her emissaries with a lavish hand, silenced every objection, and the profusion sufficiently proved the affinity, or at least the resemblance, of Bassianus with the great original. The young Antoninus A. D. 218, (for he had assumed and polluted that respectable May 16. name) was declared emperor by the troops of Emesa, asserted his hereditary right, and called aloud on the armies to follow the standard of a young and liberal prince, who had taken up

CHA P. arms to revenge his father's death and the opVI. pression of the military order *.

Defeat and death of

Whilst a conspiracy of women and eunuchs was concerted with prudence, and conducted Macrinus. with rapid vigour, Macrinus, who, by a decisive motion, might have crushed his infant enemy, floated between the opposite extremes of terror and security, which alike fixed him inactive at Antioch. A spirit of rebellion diffused itself through all the camps and garrisons of Syria, successive detachments murdered their officers †, and joined the party of the rebels; and the tardy restitution of military pay and privileges was imputed to the acknowledged weakness of Macrinus. At length he marched out of Antioch, to meet the increasing and zealous army of the A. D. 218, young pretender, His own troops seemed to 7th June. take the field with faintness and reluctance; but, in the heat of the battle t, the Prætorian guards, almost by an involuntary impulse, asserted the superiority

* According to Lampridius, (Hist, August. p. 185.). Alexander Severus lived twenty-nine years, three months, and seven days. As he was killed March 19, 235, he was born December 12, 205, and was consequently about this time thirteen years old, as his elder cousin might be about seventeen. This compu tation suits much better the history of the young princes, than that of Herodian, (1. v. p, 181.) who represents them as three years. younger; whilst, by an opposite error of chronology, lengthens the reign of Elagabalus two years beyond its real du fation. For the particulars of the conspiracy, see Dion, Ixxviii. p. 1839. Herodian. 1. v, p. 184.

he

By a most dangerous proclamation of the pretended Anto ninus, every soldier who brought in his officer's head, became entitled to his private estate, as well as to his military commission.

Dion, 1. lxxviii. p. 1345. Herodian, 1. v. p. 186. The battle was fought near the village of Imma, about two and twenty miles from Antioch.

VI.

superiority of their valour and discipline. The a HA P. rebel ranks were broken; when the mother and grandmother of the Syrian prince, who, according to their eastern custom had attended the army, threw themselves from their covered chariots, and, by exciting the compassion of the soldiers, endeavoured to animate their drooping courage. Antoninus himself, who, in the rest of his life, never acted like a man, in this important crisis of his fate approved himself a hero, mounted his horse, and, at the head of his rallied troops, charged sword in hand among the thickest of the enemy; whilst the eunuch Gannys, whose occu pations had been confined to female cares and the soft luxury of Asia, displayed the talents of an able and experienced general. The battle still raged with doubtful violence, and Macrinus might have obtained the victory, had he not be trayed his own cause by a shameful and precipi tate flight. His cowardice served only to pro tract his life a few days, and to stamp deserved ignominy on his misfortunes. It is scarcely necessary to add, that his son Diadumenianus was involved in the same fate. As soon as the stubborn Prætorians could be convinced that they fought for a prince who had basely deserted them, they surrendered to the conqueror; the contend ing parties of the Roman army mingled tears of joy and tenderness, united under the banners of the imagined son of Caracalla, and the East acknowledged with pleasure the first emperor of Asiatic extraction, oral

CHAP.

VI.

2

The letters of Macrinus had condescended to inform the senate of the slight disturbance occa sioned by an impostor in Syria, and a degree imElagabalus writes to mediately passed, declaring the rebel and his fathe senate. mily public enemies; with a promise of pardon, however, to such of his deluded adherents was should merit it by an immediate return to their duty, During the twenty days that elapsed from the declaration to the victory of Antoninus (for in so short an interval was the fate of the Roman world decided,) the capital and the provinces, more especially those of the East, were distracted with hopes and fears, agitated with tumult, and stained with a useless effusion of civil blood, since whosoever of the rivals prevailed in Syria, must reign over the empire. The specious letters in which the young conqueror announced his victory to the obedient şenate, were filled with. professions of virtue and moderation; the shining examples of Marcus and Augustus, he should ever consider as the great rule of his administration; and he affected to dwell with pride on the striking resemblance of his own age and fortunes with those of Augustus, who in the earliest youth had revenged by a successful war the murder of his father. By adopting the style of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, son of Antoninus and grandson of Severus, he tacitly asserted his hereditary claim to the empire; but, by assuming the tribunitian and proconsular powers before they had been conferred on him by a decree of the senate, he offended the delicacy of Roman prejudice. This new and injudicious violation of the constitution

was