CHAP. VI.
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Death of Severus, and accession of his tow sons. A.D. 211. Feb. 4.pire than a long series of cruelty[1] . The disorder of his mind irritated the pains of his body ; he wished impatiently for death, and hastened the instant of it by his impatience. He expired at York in the sixty-fifth year of his life, and in the eighteenth of a glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the understanding, of the impetuous youths ; but the more obedient troops, mindful of their oath of allegiance, and of the authority of their deceased master, resisted the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both brothers emperors of Rome. The new princes soon left the Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, celebrated their father's funeral with divine honours, and
were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sovereigns, by the senate, the people, and the provinces. Some preeminence of rank seems to have been allowed to the elder brother ; but they both administered the empire with equal and independent powers[2].
Jealousy and hatred of the two emperors. Such a divided form of government would have proved a source of discord between the most affectionate brothers. It was impossible that it could long subsist between two implacable enemies, who neither desired nor could trust a reconciliation. It was visible that one only could reign, and that the other must fall; and each of them, judging of his rival's designs by his own, guarded his life with the most jealous vigilance from the repeated attacks of poison or the sword. Their rapid journey through Gaul and Italy, during which they never eat at the same table, or slept in the same house, displayed to the provinces the odious spectacle of fraternal discord. On their arrival at Rome, they immediately divided the vast extent of the imperial palace[3]. No communication was allowed be-
- ↑ Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1283 ; Hist. August, p. 89.
- ↑ Dion, 1. Ixxvi. p. 1284; Herodian, 1. iii. p. 135.
- ↑ Mr. Hume is justly surprised at a passage of Herodian, (1. iv. p. 139.) who, on this occasion, represents the imperial palace as equal in extent to the rest of Rome. The whole region of the palatine mount, on which it was built, occupied, at most, a circumference of eleven or twelve thousand feet. See the Notitia and Victor, in Nardini's Roma Antica. But we should recollect, that the opulent senators had almost surrounded the city with their extensive gardens and suburb palaces, the greatest part of which had been gradually confiscated by the emperors. If Geta resided in the gardens that bore his name on the Janiculum, and if Caracalla nhabited the gardens of Maecenas on the Esqueline, the rival brothers were separated from each other by the distance of several miles ; and yet the intermediate space was filled by the imperial gardens of Sallust, of Lucullus, of Agrippa, of Domitian, of Caius, etc. all skirting round the city, and all connected with each other, and with the palace, by bridges thrown over the Tiber and the streets. But this explanation of Ilerodian would require, though it ill deserves, a particular dissertation, illustrated by a map of ancient Rome.
