P. 54.-* M. Guizot denies that Lampridius means Cleander as præfect a pugione. The Libertinus seems to me to mean him.-M.

P. 54.- It seems to me there is none. The passage of Herodian is clear, and designates the city cohorts. Compare Dion, p. 797.-W.

P. 55. Commodus placed his own head on the colossal statue of Hercules, with the inscription Lucius Commodus Hercules. The wits of Rome, according to a new fragment of Dion, published the following epigram, of which, like many other ancient jests, the point is not very clear. “ Διὸς παῖς Καλλίνικος Ἡρακλῆς, οὐκ εἰμὶ Λεύκιος, ἀλλ' ἀναγκάζουσί με. It seems to be a protest of the god against being confounded with the emperor. Mai. Fragm. Vatican., ii., 225.-M.

P. 56. The naturalists of our days have been more fortunate. London probably now contains more specimens of this animal than have been seen in Europe since the fall of the Roman empire, unless in the pleasure gardens of the Emperor Frederic II. in Sicily, which possessed several. Frederic's collections of wild beasts were exhibited for the popular amusement in many parts of Italy. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, v. iii., p. 571. Gibbon, moreover, is mistaken, as a giraffe was presented to Lorenzo de Medici either by the Sultan of Egypt or the King of Tunis. Contemporary authorities are quoted in the old work, Gesner de Quadrupedibus, p. 162.-M.

P. 57.- Commodus had already resolved to massacre them the following night; they determined to anticipate his design. Herod., i., 17.-W.

P. 58. The senate always assembled at the beginning of the year, on the night of the 1st January (see Savaron on Sid. Apoll., viii., 6), and this happened the present year as usual, without any particular order.-G. from W.

P. 58. That which Gibbon improperly calls, both here and in the note, tumultuous decrees, was no more than the applauses and acclamations which recur so often in the history of the emperors. The custom passed from the theatre to the fo

Parricidæ honores detrahantur. Ut salvi simus, Jupiter, optime, maxime, serva nobis Pertinacem. This custom prevailed not only in the councils of state, but in all the meetings of the senate. However inconsistent it may appear with the solemnity of a

religious assembly, the early Christians adopted and introduced it into their synods, notwithstanding the opposition of some of the fathers, particularly of St. Chrysostom. See the Coll. of Franc. Bern. Ferrarius de veterum acclamatione in Grævii Thesaur. Antiq. Rom., i., 6.-W.

This note is rather hypercritical as re gards Gibbon, but appears to me worthy of preservation.-Μ.

P. 58. No particular law assigned this right to the senate: it was deduced from the ancient principles of the republic. Gibbon appears to infer from the passage of Suetonius, that the senate, according to its ancient right, punished Nero with death. The words, however, more majorum, refer not to the decree of the senate, but to the kind of death, which was taken from an old law of Romulus. See Victor. Epit. Ed. Artzen, p. 484, n. 7.-W.

P. 61- Not on both these hills; neither Donatus nor Nardini justify this position (Whitaker's Review, p. 13). At the northern extremity of this hill (the Viminal) are some considerable remains of a walled enclosure, which bears all the appearance of a Roman camp, and therefore is generally thought to correspond with the Castra Prætoria. Cramer's Italy, i., 390.-M.

P. 63. One of the principal causes of the preference of Julianus by the soldiers, was the dexterity with which he reminded them that Sulpicianus would not fail to revenge on them the death of his son-in-law. See Dion, p. 1234, c. 11. Herod. ii., 6. W.

P. 63.- A new fragment of Dion shows some shrewdness in the character of Julian. When the senate voted him a golden statue, he preferred one of brass as more lasting. He "had always observed," he said, "that the statues of former emperors were soon destroyed. Those of brass alone remained." The indignant historian adds that he was wrong. The virtue of sovereigns alone preserves their images: the brazen statue of Julian was broken to pieces at his death. Mai. Fragm. Vatican., p. 226.-M.

P. 63. The contradiction, as M. Guizot observes, is irreconcilable. He quotes both passages: in one Julianus is represented as a miser, in the other as a voluptuary. In the one he refuses to eat till the body of Pertinax has been buried, in the other he gluts himself with every luxury almost in the sight of his headless remains.-M.

P. 66. Carnuntum, opposite to the mouth of the Morava: its position is douotful, either Petronel or Haimburg. A little intermediate village seems to indicate by its name (Altenburg) the site of an old town. D'Anville, Geogr. Anc., Sabaria, now Sarvar.-G. Compare note 37.

P. 66. These elephants were kept for processions, perhaps for the games. See Herod. in loc.-M.

P. 67.—* Quæ ad speculum dicunt fieri in quo pueri præligatis oculis, incantato vertice, respicere dicuntur. Tuncque puer vidisse dicitur et adventum Severi et Juliani decessionem. This seems to have been a practice somewhat similar to that of which our recent Egyptian travellers relate such extraordinary circumstances. See also Apuleius, Orat. de Magiâ.-M.

P. 68. Lord Byron wrote, no doubt, from a reminiscence of that passage: "It is possible to be a very great man and to be still very inferior to Julius Cæsar, the most complete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of all antiquity. Nature seems incapable of such extraordinary combinations as composed his versatile capacity, which was the wonder even of the Romans themselves. The first general, the only triumphant politician, inferior to none in point of eloquence, comparable to any in the attainments of wisdom, in an age made up of the greatest commanders, statesmen, orators, and philosophers, that ever appeared in the world; an author who composed a perfect specimen of military annals in his travelling carriage; at one time in a controversy with Cato, at another writing a treatise on punning, and collecting a set of good sayings; fighting and making love at the same moment, and willing to abandon both his empire and his mistress for a sight of the fountains of the Nile. Such did Julius Cæsar appear to his contemporaries, and to those of the subsequent ages who were the most inclined to deplore and execrate his fatal genius." Note 47 to Canto iv. of Childe Harold.

P. 69. There were three actions, one near Cyzicus, near the Hellespont, and one near Nice in Bithynia, the third near the Issus in Cilicia, where Alexander conquered Darius. Dion, lxiv., c. 6. Herodian, iii., 2, 4.—W. Herodian represents the second battle as of less importance than Dion. -M.

P. 69.- According to Herodian, it was his lieutenant Lætus who led back the troops to the battle and gained the day, which Severus had almost lost. Dion also attributes to Lætus a great share in the victory. Severus afterward put him to death, either from fear or jealousy.-W. and G.

Wenck and M. Guizot have not given the real statement of Herodian or of Dion. According to the former, Lætus appeared with his own army entire, which he was suspected of having designedly kept disengaged when the battle was still doubtful, or, rather, after the rout of Severus. Dion says that he did not move till Severus had won the victory.-M.

P. 70. There is no contradiction between the relation of Dion and that of Spartianus and the modern Greeks. Dion does not say that Severus destroyed Byzantium, but that he deprived it of its franchises and privileges, stripped the inhabitants of their property, razed the fortifications, and subjected the city to the jurisdiction of Perinthus. Therefore, when Spartian, Suidas, Cedrenus, say that Severus and his son Antoninus restored to Byzantium its rights and franchises, ordered temples to be built, &c., this is easily reconciled with the relation of Dion. Perhaps the latter mentioned it in some of the fragments of his history which have been lost. As to Herodian, his expressions are evidently exaggerated, and he has been guilty of so many inaccuracies in the history of Severus, that we have a right to suppose one in this passage.

G. from W. Wenck and M. Guizot have omitted to cite Zosimus, who mentions a particular portico built by Severus, and called apparently by his name. Zosim., Hist., ii., c. xxx., p. 151, 153, edit. Heyne. -M.

P. 71.-* Wenck denies that there is any authority for this massacre of the wives of the senators. He adds, that only the children and relatives of Niger and Albinus were put to death. This is true of the family of Albinus, whose bodies were thrown into the Rhone; those of Niger, according to Lampridius, were sent into exile, but afterward put to death. Among the partisans of Albinus who were put to death, were many women of rank, multæ fæminæ illustres. Lamprid. in Sever.-M.

P. 71.- A new fragment of Dion describes the state of Rome during this contest.

All pretended to be on the side of Severus; but their secret sentiments were often betrayed by a change of countenance on the arrival of some sudden report. Some were detected by overacting their loyalty, τινὲς δε καὶ ἐκ τοῦ σφόδρα προσ ποιεῖσθαι πλέον ἐγινώσκοντο. Mai. Fragm. Vatican., p. 227. Severus told the senate he would rather have their hearts than their votes, ταῖς ψυχαῖς με φιλεῖτε, καὶ μὴ τοῖς piopaoiv.—Ibid.

P. 72. Not of the army, but of the troops in Gaul. The contents of this letter seem to prove that Severus was really

Dion, by the savage beast of Ausonia. This, in fact, was the epithet which the oracle had applied to him; it is said, indeed, that he was much pleased with the name, and often boasted of it. Dion, ixxvii., p. 1307.--G.

P. 79. Valois and Reimar have explained, in a very simple and probable manner, this passage of Dion, which Gibbon seems to me not to have understood. 'O αὐτὸς τοῖς στρατίωταις ἆθλα τῆς στρατείας, τοῖς μὲν ἐν τῷ δορυφορικῷ τεταγμένοις ἐς χιλίας διακόσιας πεντήκοντα, τοῖς δε πεντακισχίλιας λαμβάνειν. He ordered that the soldiers should receive, as the reward of their services, the prætorians 1250 drachms, the others 5000 drachms. Valois thinks that the numbers have been transposed, and that Caracalla added 5000 drachms to the donations made to the prætorians, 1250 to those of the legionaries. The prætorians, in fact, always received more than the others. The error of Gibbon arose from his considering that this referred to the annual pay of the soldiers, while it relates to the sum they received as a reward for their services, on their discharge: 0λov Tñs oтpatɛias means recompense for service. Augustus had settled that the prætorians, after sixteen campaigns, should receive 5000 drachms: the legionaries received only 3000 after twenty years. Caracalla added 5000 drachms to the donative of the prætorians, 1250 to that of the legionaries. Gibbon appears to have been mistaken both in confounding this donative on discharge with the annual pay, and in not paying attention to the remark of Valois on the transposition of the numbers in the text.-G.

P. 80.- Carrhæ, now Harran, between Edessa and Nisibis, famous for the defeat of Crassus; the Haran from whence Abraham set out for the land of Canaan. This city has always been remarkable for its attachment to Sabaism.-G.

P. 82. As soon as this princess heard of the death of Caracalla, she wished to starve herself to death: the respect shown to her by Macrinus in making no change in her attendants or her court, induced her to prolong her life. But it appears, as far as the mutilated text of Dion and the imperfect epitome of Xiphilin permit us to judge, that she conceived projects of ambition, and endeavoured to raise herself to the empire. She wished to tread in the steps of Semiramis and Nitocris, whose country bordered on her own. Macrinus sent her an order immediately to leave Antioch, and to retire wherever she chose. She returned to her former purpose, and starved herself to death.-G.'

P. 82.-† He inherited this name from his great grandfather on the mother's side, Bassianus, father of Julia Mæsa, his grandmother, and of Julia Domna, wife of Severus, Victor (in his er tome) is perhaps the only historian who has given the key to this genealogy, when speaking of Caracalla, Hic Bassianus ex avi materni nomine dictus. Caracalla, Elagabalus, and Alexander Severus, bore successively this name.-G. P. 83. Gannys was not a eunuch. Dion, p. 1355.—W.

P. 83.- The name of Elagabalus has been disfigured in various ways. Herodian calls him Ehalayúbaños; Lampridius and the more modern writers make him Helio gabalus. Dion calls him Elegabalus ; but Elagabalus was the true name, as it appears on the medals. (Eckhel. de Doct. num. vet., t. vii., p. 250.) As to its etymology, that which Gibbon adduces is given by Bochart, Chan., ii., 5; but Salmasius, on better grounds (not. in Lamprid. in Elagab.), derives the name of Elagabalus from the idol of that god, represented by Herodian and the medals in the form of a mountain (gibel in Hebrew), or great stone cut to a point, with marks which represent the sun. As it was not permitted at Hierapolis in Syria to make statues of the sun and moon, because, it was said, they are themselves sufficiently visible, the sun was represented at Emesa in the form of a great stone, which, as it appeared, had fallen from heaven. Spanheim, Cæsar, notes, p. 46.-G. The name of Elagabalus, in "nummis rarius legetur." Rasche, Lex Univ. Rei Numm. Rasche quotes two.-M.

P. 85.-* Wenck has justly observed that Gibbon should have reckoned the influence of Christianity in this great change. In the most savage times and the most corrupt courts, since the introduction of Christianity, there have been no Neros or Domitians, no Commodus or Elagabalus.-M.

P. 86. This opinion of Valsecchi has been triumphantly contested by Eckhel, who has shown the impossibility of reconciling it with the medals of Elagabalus, and who has given the most satisfactory explanation of the five tribunates of that emperor. He ascended the throne and received the tribunitian power the 16th of May, in the year of Rome 971; and on the 1st January of the next year, 972, he began a new tribunate, according to the custom established by preceding emperors. During the years 972, 973, 974, he enjoyed the tribunate, and commenced his fifth in the year 975, during which he was killed on the 10th March. Eckhel, de Doct. Num., viii., 430, &c.—G.

P. 87.- Alexander received into his