Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/203

CHAP. VI.
_____the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamaea, declined the useless and odious prerogative, and a solemn law was enacted, excluding women for ever from the senate, and devoting to the infernal gods, the head of the wretch by whom this sanction should be violated^[1]. The substance, not the pageantry, of power was the object of Mamaea's manly ambition. She maintained an absolute and lasting empire over the mind of her son, and in his affection the mother could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her consent, married the daughter of a patrician; but his respect for his father-in-law, and love for the empress, were inconsistent with the tenderness or interest of Mamaea. The patrician was executed on the ready accusation of treason ; and the wife of Alexander driven with ignominy from the palace, and banished into Africa^[2].

Wise and moderate administration.Notwithstanding this act of jealous cruelty, as well as some instances of avarice with which Mamaea is charged; the general tenour of her administration was equally for the benefit of her son and of the empire. With the approbation of the senate, she chose sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators, as a perpetual council of state, before whom every public business of moment was debated and determined. The celebrated Ulpian, equally distinguished by his knowledge of, and his respect for, the laws of Rome, was at their head; and the prudent firmness of this aristocracy restored order and authority to the government. As soon as they had purged the city from foreign superstition and luxury, the remains of the capricious tyranny of Elagabalus, they applied themselves to remove his worthless creatures from every department of public administration, and to supply their places with men of virtue

1. Hist. August, p. 102. 107.
2. Dion, 1. Ixxx. p. 1369 ; Herodian, 1. vi. p. 206 ; Hist. August, p. 131. Herodian represents the patrician as innocent. The Augustan History, on the authority of Dexippus, condemns him, as guilty of a conspiracy against the life of Alexander. It is impossible to pronounce between them : but Dion is an irreproachable vvitness of the jealousy and cruelty of Mamaea toward the young empress, whose hard fate Alexander lamented, l),ut durst, not oppose.