tor, at the price of one thousand
dollars to each soldier. Such a bargain disgusted the capital, and raised
the legions in the provinces to revolt. Each of the three principal armies
set up their own candidate, but L. Septimius Severus, who commanded in
Illyricum, was the fortunate one, and was confirmed by the Senate. Didius
Julianus was murdered after a brief reign of sixty-six days, and the
praetorians who had created the scandal were disbanded.

The reign of this general was able and fortunate, although he was cruel
and superstitious. His vigor prevented the separation of the empire for a
century; but he had powerful rivals in Clodius Albinus, in Britain, and
Pescennius Niger, in Syria, both of whom he subdued. At Lyons it is said
that one hundred and fifty thousand Romans fought on both sides, when
Albinus was killed. The full of Niger at the Hellespont insured the
submission of the East, and the victorious emperor penetrated as far as
Ctesiphon, and received the submission of Mesopotamia and Arabia. The
triumphal arch erected by him celebrated those military successes.

(M1106) Having bestowed peace, and restored the dignity of the empire,
this martial prince established an undisguised military despotism, and
threw aside all deference to the Senate. He created a new guard of
praetorian soldiers four times as numerous as the old, which were recruited
from the ranks of the barbarians, who thus began to overawe the capital.
The commander of this great force was no less a man than the celebrated
jurist, Papianus, and he was the prime minister of the emperor. It was
during his reign that a violent persecution of the Christians took place,
A.D. 200, which called out the famous apology of Tertullian. Severus died
in Britain, to which he was summoned by an irruption of Caledonians, A.D.
211, having reigned nineteen years, and with a vigor worthy of Trajan.

(M1107) He left two sons, who are best known by the names of Caracalla and
Geta, and both of whom, in their father's lifetime, had been raised to the
dignity of Augustus. The oldest son succeeded to the empire, and the year
after his elevation murdered his brother in his mother's arms. He also
executed Papinian, the praetorian prefect, because he refused to justify
the fratricide, together with twenty thousand persons who were the friends
of Geta. After this wholesale murder he left his capital, and never
returned to it, spending his time in different provinces, which