VI. CHA P. friend and his infulted dignity, without ftooping to the arts of patience and diffimulation. Epagathus, the principal leader of the mutiny, was removed from Rome, by the honourable employment of præfect of Egypt; from that high rank he was gently degraded to the government of Crete; and when, at length, his popularity among the guards was effaced by time and abfence, Alexander ventured to inflict the tardy, but deferved punishment of his crimes 4. Under the reign of a juft and virtuous prince, the tyranny of the army threatened with inftant death his moft faithful ministers, who were suspected of an intention to correct their intolerable diforders. Danger of The hiftorian Dion Caffius had commanded the Dion Caf- Pannonian legions with the spirit of ancient dif cipline. Their brethren of Rome, embracing the common caufe of military licence, demanded the head of the reformer. Alexander, however, instead of yielding to their feditious clamours, fhewed a juft fenfe of his merit and fervices, by appointing him his colleague in the consulship, and defraying from his own treasury the expence of that vain dignity: but as it was juftly apprehended, that if the foldiers beheld him with the enfigns of his office, they would revenge the infult in his blood, the nominal firft magiftrate of the state retired, by the Emperor's advice, from fius. 74 Though the author of the life of Alexander (Hift. Auguft. p. 132.) mentions the fedition raised against Ulpian by the foldiers, he conceals the catastrophe, as it might discover a weakness in the adminiftration of his hero. From this defigned omiffion, we may judge of the weight and candour of that author. the the city, and spent the greatest part of his con- CHAP. fulfhip at his villas in Campania ". 76 VI. The lenity of the Emperor confirmed the in- Tumults folence of the troops; the legions imitated the of the legions. example of the guards, and defended their prerogative of licentioufnefs with the fame furious obftinacy. The adminiftration of Alexander was an unavailing ftruggle against the corruption of his age. In Illyricum, in Mauritania, in Armenia, in Mefopotamia, in Germany, fresh mutinies perpetually broke out; his officers were murdered, his authority was infulted, and his life at laft facrificed to the fierce difcontents of the army ". One particular fact well deferves to Firmness be recorded, as it illuftrates the manners of the of the Emtroops, and exhibits a fingular inftance of their peror. return to a sense of duty and obedience. Whilst the Emperor lay at Antioch, in his Perfian expedition, the particulars of which we fhall hereafter relate, the punishment of fome foldiers, who had been difcovered in the baths of women, excited a fedition in the legion to which they be-longed. Alexander afcended his tribunal, and with a modeft firmness reprefented to the armed multitude, the abfolute neceffity as well as his inflexible refolution of correcting the vices introduced by his impure predeceffor, and of maintaining the discipline, which could not be relaxed without the ruin of the Roman name and empire. Their clamours interrupted his mild ex 75 For an account of Ulpian's fate and his own danger, see the mutilated conclufion of Dion's Hiftory, 1. 1xxx. p.1371. 76 Annot. Reimar. ad Dion Caffius, 1. lxxx. p. 1369. poftulation. VI. CHA P. poftulation. "Referve your fhouts," said the undaunted Emperor, " till you take the field "against the Perfians, the Germans, and the "Sarmatians. Be filent in the prefence of your 66 fovereign and benefactor, who bestows upon "you the corn, the clothing, and the money of "the provinces. Be filent, or I fhall no longer "ftyle you foldiers, but citizens", if thofe in"deed who difclaim the laws of Rome deferve "to be ranked among the meaneft of the peo"ple." His menaces inflamed the fury of the legion, and their brandished arms already threatened his perfon. "Your courage," refumed the intrepid Alexander, " would be more nobly dif "played in the field of battle; me you may deftroy, you cannot intimidate; and the severe 66 justice of the republic would punish your crime, "and revenge my death." The legion still perfifted in clamorous fedition, when the Emperor pronounced with a loud voice, the decifive fentence," Citizens! lay down your arms, and de"part in peace to your refpective habitations." The tempeft was inftantly appeafed; the foldiers, filled with grief and shame, filently confeffed the justice of their punishment and the power of difcipline, yielded up their arms and military enfigns, and retired in confufion, not to their camp, but to the feveral inns of the city. Alexander enjoyed, during thirty days, the edifying spec 77 Julius Cæfar had appeased a sedition with the fame word Quirites; which, thus opposed to Soldiers, was used in a sense of contempt, and reduced the offenders to the lefs honourable condition of merè citiTacit. Annal. i. 43. zens. tacle VI. tacle of their repentance; nor did he restore C H A P. them to their former rank in the army, till he had punished with death thofe tribunes whofe connivance had occafioned the mutiny. The grateful legion ferved the Emperor, whilst living, and revenged him when dead ". and cha The refolutions of the multitude generally de- Defects of his reign pend on a moment; and the caprice of paffion might equally determine the feditious legion to racter. lay down their arms at the Emperor's feet, or to plunge them into his breaft. Perhaps, if the fingular tranfaction had been investigated by the penetration of a philofopher, we should discover the fecret caufes which on that occafion authorized the boldness of the Prince, and commanded the obedience of the troops; and perhaps, if it had been related by a judicious hiftorian, we fhould find this action, worthy of Cæfar himself, reduced nearer to the level of probability and the common ftandard of the character of Alexander Severus. The abilities of that amiable Prince feem to have been inadequate to the difficulties of his fituation, the firmness of his conduct inferior to the purity of his intentions. His virtues, as well as the vices of Elagabalus, contracted a tincture of weaknefs and effeminacy from the foft climate of Syria, of which he was a native; though he blushed at his foreign origin, and liftened with a vain complacency to the flattering genealogifts, who derived his race from the ancient stock of Ro, 78 Hift. August. p. 132. man 79 CHA P. man nobility "9. VI. Digreffion on the fi nances of The pride and avarice of his mother caft a fhade on the glories of his reign; and by exacting from his riper years the fame dutiful obedience which she had juftly claimed from his unexperienced youth, Mamaa expofed to public ridicule both her fon's character and her own $0. 80 The fatigues of the Perfian war irritated the military difcontent; the unfuccefsful event degraded the reputation of the Emperor as a general, and even as a foldier. Every caufe prepared, and every circumstance haftened, a revolution, which diftracted the Roman empire with a long feries of inteftine calamities. The diffolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occafioned by his death, and the new maxthe empire. ims of policy introduced by the house of Severus, had all contributed to increase the dangerous power of the army, and to obliterate the faint image of laws and liberty that was still impreffed on the minds of the Romans. This internal 79 From the Metelli. Hift. Auguft. p. 119. The choice was judicious. In one fhort period of twelve years, the Metelli could reckon feven confulships and five triumphs. See Velleius Paterculus, ü. 11. and the Fafti. so The life of Alexander, in the Auguftan History, is the mere idea of a perfect prince, an awkward imitation of the Cyropædia. The account of his reign, as given by Herodian, is rational and moderate, confiftent with the general hiftory of the age; and, in some of the most invidious particulars, confirmed by the decifive fragments of Dion. Yet from a very paltry prejudice, the greater number of our modern writers abuse Herodian, and copy the Auguftan Hiftory. See Meff. de Tillemont and Wotton. From the oppofite prejudice, the Emperor Julian (in Cæfarib. p. 315.) dwells with a visible fatisfaction on the effeminate weakness of the Syrian, and the ridiculous avarice of his mother. change, |