d to her ill-fated son at Antioch, where she
was then residing. The warning it contained did not arrive, however, till
after Caesar's death, and before the new sovereign could effectually
protect the soothsayer. As soon as Macrinus had mounted the throne the
persecution of those who had roused the ire of the unhappy Caracalla was
at an end. Diodoros and Melissa, Heron and Polybius, could mingle once
more with their fellow-citizens secure from all pursuit.

Diodoros and other friends took care that the suspicion of treachery
which had been cast on Heron's household should be abundantly disproved.
Nay, the death of Philip, and Melissa's and Alexander's evil fortunes,
placed them in the ranks of the foremost foes of tyranny.

Within ten months of his accession Macrinus was overthrown, after his
defeat at Immae, where, though the praetorians still fought for him
bravely, he took ignominious flight; Julia Domna's grandnephew was then
proclaimed Caesar by the troops, under the name of Heliogabalus, and the
young emperor of fourteen had a statue and a cenotaph erected at
Alexandria to Caracalla, whose son he was falsely reputed to be. These
two works of art suffered severely at the hands of those on whom the
hated and luckless emperor had inflicted such fearful evils. Still, on
certain memorial days they were decked with beautiful flowers; and when
the new prefect, by order of Caracalla's mother, made inquiry as to who
it was that laid them there, he was informed that they came from the
finest garden in Alexandria, and that it was Melissa, the wife of the
owner, who offered them. This comforted the heart of Julia Domna, and she
would have blessed the donor still more warmly if she could have known
that Melissa included the name of her crazed son in her prayers to her
dying day.

Old Heron, who had settled on the estate of Diodoros and lived there
among his birds, less surly than of old, still produced his miniature
works of art; he would shake his head over those strange offerings, and
once when he found himself alone with old Dido, now a freed-woman, he
said, irritably: "If that little fool had done as I told her she would be
empress now, and as good as Julia Domna. But all has turned out
well--only that Argutis, whom every one treats as if our old Macedonian
blood ran in his veins, was sent yesterday by Melissa with finer flowers
for Caracalla's cenotaph than for her own mother's tomb--May her
new-fangled god forgive her!