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 pre-eminence of rank seems to have been allowed to the elder brother; but they both administered the empire with equal and independent power.* 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 ate 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. No Mr. Hume is * Dion, 1. 76, p. 1284. Herodian, 1. 3, p. 135. justly surprised at a passage in Herodian, (1. 4, 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 wo should recollect that the opulent senators had almost surrounded the city with their extensive gardens and superb 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 inhabited the gardens of Maecenas on the Esquiline, the rival brothers were separated from each other by the distance of several 168 PROPOSED DIVISION [CH.V communication was allowed between their apartments; the doors and passages were diligently fortified, and guards posted and relieved with the same strictness as in a besieged place. The emperors met only in public, in the presence of their afflicted mother, and each surrounded by a numerous train of armed followers. Even on these occasions of ceremony, the dissimulation of courts could ill disguise the rancour of their hearts.* it was accuracy. govern This latent civil war already distracted the whole ment, when a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual benefit to the hostile brothers. It was proposed, that since impossible to reconcile their minds, they should separate their interest, and divide the empire between them. The conditions of the treaty were already drawn with some It was agreed that Caracalla, as the elder brother, should remain in possession of Europe and the western Africa, and that he should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might fix his residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to Rome itself in wealth and greatness; that numerous armies should be constantly encamped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard the frontiers of the rival monarchies; and that the senators of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of Rome, whilst the natives of Asia followed of the east. The tears of the empress Julia emperor interrupted the negotiation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman breast with surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest was so intimately united by the hand of time and policy, that it required the most forcible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans had reason to dread that the disjointed members would soon be reduced, by a civil war, under the dominion of one master; but if the separation was permanent, the division of the provinces must terminate in the dissolution of an empire whose unity had hitherto remained inviolate.† the miles; and yet the intermediate space was filled by the imperial gardens of Sallust, of Lucullus, of Agrippa, of Domitian, of Caius, &c. 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 Herodian would require, though it ill deserves, a particular dissertation, illustrated by a map of ancient Rome. *Herodian, L 4. p. 139. Ibid. 1. 4, p. 144. Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign of Europe might soon have been the conqueror of Asia; but Caracalla obtained an easier, though a more guilty victory. He artfully listened to his mother's entreaties, and consented to meet his brother in her apartment on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the midst of their conversation some centurions, who had contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted mother strove to protect him in her arms; but, in the unavailing struggle, she was wounded in the hand, and covered with the blood of her younger son, while she saw the elder animating and assisting the fury of the assassins. As soon as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla, with hasty steps, and horror in his countenance, ran towards the prætorian camp as his only refuge, and threw himself on the ground before the statues of the tutelar deities. The soldiers attempted to raise and comfort him. In broken and disordered words he informed them of his imminent danger and fortunate escape; insinuating that he had prevented the designs of his enemy, and declared his resolution to live and die with his faithful troops. Geta had been the favourite of the soldiers; but complaint was useless, revenge was dangerous, and they still reverenced the son of Severus. Their discontent died away in idle murmurs, and Caracalla soon convinced them of the justice of his cause, by distributing in one lavish donative the accumulated treasures of his father's reign. The real sentiments of the soldiers alone were of importance to his power or safety. Their declaration in his favour commanded the dutiful professions of the senate. The obsequious assembly was always prepared to ratify the decision of fortune; but as Caracalla wished to assuage the first emotions of popular indignation, the name of Geta was mentioned with decency, and he received the funeral honours of a Roman emperor.§ Caracalla consecrated, in the temple of Serapis, the sword with which, as he boasted, he had slain his brother Geta. Dion, 1. 77, p. 1307. + Herodian, 1. 4, p. 147. In every Roman camp there was a small chapel near the head-quarters, in which the statues of the tutelar deities were preserved and adored; and we may remark, that the eagles, and other military ensigns, were in the first rank of these deities; an excellent institution, which confirmed discipline by the sanction of religion. See Lipsius de Militia Romana, 4. 5. 5, 2. Herodian, 1. 4, p. 148. Dion, L 77, p. 1289. § Geta was placed among the gods. Sit divus, dum non Posterity, in pity to his misfortunes, has cast a veil over his vices. We consider that young prince as the innocent victim of his brother's ambition, without recollect ing that he himself wanted power, rather than inclina tion, to consummate the same attempts of revenge and murder.* The crime went not unpunished. Neither business, nor pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings of a guilty conscience; and he confessed, in the anguish of a tortured mind, that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry forms of his father and his brother, rising into life, to threaten and upbraid him.t The consciousness of his crime should have induced him to convince mankind, by the virtues of his reign, that the bloody deed had been the involuntary effect of fatal necessity. But the repentance of Caracalla only prompted him to remove from the world whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recall the memory of his murdered brother. On his return from the senate to the palace, he found his mother in the company of several noble matrons, weeping over the untimely fate The jealous emperor threatened them of her younger son. with instant death; the sentence was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the Emperor Marcus; and even the afflicted Julia was obliged to silence her lamentations, to suppress her sighs, and to receive the assassin with smiles of joy and approbation. It was computed that, under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta, above twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death. His guards and freedmen, the ministers of his serious business, and the companions of his looser hours, those who by his interest had been promoted to any commands in the army or provinces, with the long-connected chain of their dependants, were included in the proscription; which endeavoured to reach every one who had maintained the smallest corressit vivus, said his brother (Hist. August. p. 91). Some marks of Geta's The favourable opinion consecration are still found upon medals. entertained of Geta by posterity, was not inspired by pity alone. It was confirmed by the universal sentiment of the Romans, and the testimony of contemporary writers. He indulged too freely in the luxuries of the table, and was distrustful of his brother to a violent extreme; but he was kind, affable, and well-informed, and often exerted himself to soften the rigorous orders issued by his father and brother. Herot Dion, 1. 77, dian, L 4, c. 3. Spartianus in Geta, c. 4.-WENCK. ** pondence with Geta, who lamented his death, or who even mentioned his name. Helvius Pertinax, son to the prince of that name, lost his life by an unseasonable witticism.+ It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus to be descended from a family in which the love of liberty seemed an hereditary quality. The particular causes of calumny and suspicion were at length exhausted; and when a senator was accused of being a secret enemy to the government, the emperor was satisfied with the general proof that he was a man of property and virtue. From this well-grounded principle he frequently drew the most bloody inferences. The execution of so many innocent citizens was bewailed by the secret tears of their friends and families. The death of Papinian, the prætorian prefect, was lamented as a public calamity. During the last seven years of Severus, he had exercised the most important offices of the state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the emperor's steps in the paths of justice and moderation. In full assurance of his virtues and abilities, Severus, on his death-bed, had conjured him to watch over the prosperity and union of the imperial p. 1307. *Dion, 1. 77, p. 1290. Herodiṛn, 1. 4, p. 150. Dion (p. 1298) says, that the comic poets no longer durst employ the name of Geta in their plays, and that the estates of those who mentioned it in their testaments, were confiscated. + Caracalla had assumed the names of several conquered nations; Pertinax observed, that the name of Geticus (he had obtained some advantage of the Goths or Getæ), would be a proper addition to Parthicus, Alemannicus, &c. Hist. August. p. 89. Dion, 1. 77, p. 1291. He was probably descended from Helvidius Priscus, and Thrasea Pætus, those patriots, whose firm, but useless and unseasonable virtue has been immortalized by Tacitus. [Virtue is not a good, the worth of which may be calculated like the income of a capital; its noblest triumph is, that it does not succumb, even when it is "useless" for the public advantage, and "unseasonable" amid surrounding vice, as was that of Thrasea Pætus. "Ad postremum Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere voluit, interfecto Thrasea Pæto" (Nero at last wished to exterminate virtue itself, by putting to death Thrasea Pætus) was the remark of Tacitus. How cold is the language of Gibbon, compared with the animated expres sions of Justus Lipsius, who, when he came to this illustrious name, exclaimed-"Salve! O salve! vir magne, et inter Romanos sapientes sanctum mihi nomen! Tu magnum decus Gallicæ gentis; tu ornamentum Romanæ curiæ; tu aureum sidus tenebrosi illius ævi. Tua, inter homines, non hominis vita; nova probitas, constantia, gravitas; et vitæ et mortis æqualis tenor!" (Hail! Oh hail name of a great man, sacred to me among the wise of Rome. Glory of the Gallic race Ornament of the Roman senate-house! Refulgent star of that be |