the hands of two women, of his mother Mamaa, and of Mæsa, his grandmother. After the death of the latter, who survived but a short time the elevation of Alexander, Mamæa remained the sole regent of her son and the empire. In every age and country, the wiser, or at least the stronger, of the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In hereditary monarchies, however, and especially in those of modern Europe, the gallant spirit of chivalry, and the law of succession, have accustomed us to allow a singular exception; and a woman is often acknowledged the absolute sovereign of a great kingdom, in which she would be deemed incapable of exercising the smallest employment, civil or military. But as the Roman emperors were still considered the generals and magistrates of the republic, their wives and mothers, although distinguished by the name of Augusta, were never associated to their personal honours; and a female reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy in the eyes of those primitive Romans, who married without love, or loved without delicacy and respect. The haughty Agrippina aspired, indeed, to share the honours of the empire, which she had conferred on her son; but her mad ambition, detested by every citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome, was disappointed by the artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus.† The good sense, or the indifference, of succeeding princes, restrained them from offending the prejudices of their subjects; and it was reserved for the profligate Elagabalus, to discharge the acts of the senate with the name of his mother Soæmias, who was placed by the side of the consuls, * Metellus pretenders, and prevent the factions of the armies. Numidicus, the censor, acknowledged to the Roman people, in a public oration, that had kind nature allowed us to exist without the help of women, we should be delivered from a very troublesome companion; and he could recommend matrimony only as the sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty. Aulus Gellius, 1, 6. [This reproach, though mainly just, particularly in reference to earlier times, is expressed in terms too harsh, and ought not to have excluded respect. M. Thomas, in his Essai sur les Femmes (Euvres, tom. iv, p. 321) has made ample amends to the matrons of Rome. There the rough heroes of the Republic, returning from battle, lay their trophies at the feet of their chaste wives as respectfully as any Duc et Pair could bow before a Clairon.-WENCK.] Tacit. Annal. 13, 5. and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees of the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamaa, 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.* The substance, not the pageantry, of power was the object of Mamma'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 Mamæa. 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.† Notwithstanding this act of jealous cruelty, as well as some instances of avarice, with which Mamma is charged, the general tenor 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 to remove his worthless creatures from every department of public administration, and to supply their places with men of virtue and ability. Learning, and the love of justice, became the only recommendations for civil offices: valour, and the love of discipline, the only qualifications for military employments. ‡ * Hist. August. p. 102, 107. Dion, 1. 80, p. 1369. Herodian, 1. 6, 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 witness of the jealousy and cruelty of Mamma towards the young empress, whose hard fate Alexander lamented, but durst not oppose, Herodian, 1. 6, p. 203. Hist. August. p. 119. The latter But the most important care of Mamma and her wise counsellors, was to form the character of the young emperor, on whose personal qualities the happiness or misery of the Roman world must ultimately depend. The fortunate soil assisted, and even prevented, the hand of cultivation. An excellent understanding soon convinced Alexander of the advantages of virtue, the pleasure of knowledge, and the necessity of labour. A natural mildness and moderation of temper preserved him from the assaults of passion and the allurements of vice. His unalterable regard for his mother, and his esteem for the wise Ulpian, guarded his inexperienced youth from the poison of flattery. : The simple journal of his ordinary occupations exhibits a pleasing picture of an accomplished emperor,* and with some allowance for the difference of manners, might well deserve the imitation of modern princes. Alexander rose early the first moments of the day were consecrated to private devotion, and his domestic chapel was filled with the images of those heroes, who, by improving or reforming human life, had deserved the grateful reverence of posterity.† But, as he deemed the service of mankind the most acceptinsinuates, that when any law was to be passed, the council was assisted by a number of able lawyers and experienced senators, whose opinions were separately given and taken down in writing. * See his life in the Augustan History. The undistinguishing compiler has buried these interesting anecdotes under a load of trivial and unmeaning circumstances. Alexander admitted into his chapel every form of worship practised within his empire: that of Jesus Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius Tyaneus, and others. (Lamprid. in Hist. Aug. c. 29.) It is almost certain that his mother Mamaa had instructed him in the morals of Christianity. Historians generally say that she was converted to its faith; there is, at least, reason to believe, that she had begun to favour its principles. (See Tillemont on Alex. Sev.) Gibbon did not call this circumstance to mind; he seems even to have been desirous of lowering the character of this princess, by following, in almost all its parts, the narrative of Herodian, who is admitted by Capitolinus (in Maximino, c. 13) to have disliked Alexander Severus. Without trusting to the exaggerated praises bestowed by Lampridius, he might have distrusted the unjust severity of Herodian; above all, he ought not to have omitted to state, that the virtuous Alexander Severus confirmed all the privileges enjoyed by the Jews, and granted to Christians the free exercise of their religion. (Hist. Aug. p. 121.) Some public situation, used by the latter as a place of worship, was wanted for the purposes of a tavern. Application was made to Alexander, who answered, that it was much better to honour God there, no matter in what form, than to encourage sottishness.-GUIZOT. able worship of the gods, the greatest part of his morning hours was employed in his council, where he discussed public affairs, and determined private causes, with a patience and discretion above his years. The dryness of business was relieved by the charms of literature; and a portion of time was always set apart for his favourite studies of poetry, history, and philosophy. The works of Virgil and Horace, the republics of Plato and Cicero, formed his taste, enlarged his understanding, and gave him the noblest ideas of man and government. The exercises of the body succeeded to those of the mind; and Alexander, who was tall, active, and robust, surpassed most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed by the use of the bath and a slight dinner, he resumed, with new vigour, the business of the day; and, till the hour of supper, the principal meal of the Romans, he was attended by his secretaries, with whom he read and answered the multitude of letters, memorials, and petitions, that must have been addressed to the master of the greatest part of the world. His table was served with the most frugal simplicity; and whenever he was at liberty to consult his own inclination, the company consisted of a few select friends, men of learning and virtue, amongst whom Ulpian was constantly invited. Their conversation was familiar and instructive; and the pauses were occasionally enlivened by the recital of some pleasing composition, which supplied the place of the dancers, comedians, and even gladiators, so frequently summoned to the tables of the rich and luxurious Romans.* The dress of Alexander was plain and modest, his demeanour courteous and affable; at the proper hours his palace was open to all his subjects, but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, pronouncing the same salutary admonition: Let none enter these holy walls, unless he is conscious of a pure and innocent mind.† Such a uniform tenor of life, which left not a moment for vice or folly, is a better proof of the wisdom and justice of Alexander's government, than all the trifling details preserved in the compilation of Lampridius. Since the accession of Commodus, the Roman world had experienced, during a term of forty years, the successive and various vices of four tyrants. From the death of Elagabalus, it enjoyed an auspicious calm of thirteen years. The provinces, relieved from the oppressive taxes invented by Caracalla and his pretended son, flourished in peace and prosperity, under the administration of magistrates, who were convinced by experience, that to deserve the love of the subjects, was their best and only method of obtaining the favour of their sovereign. While some gentle restraints were imposed on the innocent luxury of the Roman people, the price of provisions and the interest of money were reduced by the paternal care of Alexander, whose prudent liberality, without distressing the industrious, supplied the wants and amusements of the populace. The dignity, the freedom, the authority, of the senate were restored; and every virtuous senator might approach the person of the emperor, without fear and without a blush.* The name of Antoninus, ennobled by the virtues of Pius and Marcus, had been communicated by adoption to the dissolute Verus, and by descent to the cruel Commodus. It became the honourable appellation of the sons of Severus, was bestowed on young Diadumenianus, and at length pros * Delighted with his picture of Alexander's virtues, and contemplating as their result, the universal happiness of the Roman empire, Gibbon forgot the facts of history, some of which he himself had presently to relate. How could he otherwise have said, that the people enjoyed an auspicious calm of thirteen years"? The disturbances and confusion which agitated that period, made the empire more like a scene of Mameluke dominion than of ancient Roman government. In city and province the despotic will of the soldiers was the only law; magistrates who displeased them were murdered; successive revolts instigated; rival emperors set up; and the hired defenders of the empire deserted their ranks, to swell the forces of its enemies. To these disorders of the tottering state, the well-meaning emperor could not, or at least did not, offer any other resistance than ineffectual wishes. The east was harassed by the Persians, and Gaul by the Germans, to say nothing of minor wars in Mauritania and Illyricum. In such circumstances imagination itself cannot create public or private happiness.-WENCK. [In M. Guizot's last note Gibbon is condemned for being too cold in his praises of Alexander Severus. Here we find him censured by M. Wenck for the contrary fault of being too encomiastic. It may, then, be inferred, that he has actually kept the middle path of truth, between the opposite extremes which his French and German translators accuse him of having reached. The latter should have borne in mind that the happiness of the Roman people, described by Gibbon, was comparative, as contrasted with forty preceding years of tyrannical misrule; and Dr. Milman has justly told the former, that circumstances, the omission of which he |