rayed, despoiled them of their
splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance
of a hundred miles from the capital. During the transaction, another
detachment had been sent to seize their arms, occupy their camp, and
prevent the hasty consequences of their despair. [38]

[Footnote 38: Dion, l. lxxiv. p. 1241. Herodian, l. ii. p. 84.] The
funeral and consecration of Pertinax was next solemnized with every
circumstance of sad magnificence. [39] The senate, with a melancholy
pleasure, performed the last rites to that excellent prince, whom they
had loved, and still regretted. The concern of his successor was
probably less sincere; he esteemed the virtues of Pertinax, but those
virtues would forever have confined his ambition to a private station.
Severus pronounced his funeral oration with studied eloquence, inward
satisfaction, and well-acted sorrow; and by this pious regard to his
memory, convinced the credulous multitude, that he alone was worthy to
supply his place. Sensible, however, that arms, not ceremonies, must
assert his claim to the empire, he left Rome at the end of thirty days,
and without suffering himself to be elated by this easy victory,
prepared to encounter his more formidable rivals.

[Footnote 39: Dion, (l. lxxiv. p. 1244,) who assisted at the ceremony as
a senator, gives a most pompous description of it.]

The uncommon abilities and fortune of Severus have induced an elegant
historian to compare him with the first and greatest of the Caesars.
[40] The parallel is, at least, imperfect. Where shall we find, in the
character of Severus, the commanding superiority of soul, the generous
clemency, and the various genius, which could reconcile and unite the
love of pleasure, the thirst of knowledge, and the fire of ambition?
[41] In one instance only, they may be compared, with some degree of
propriety, in the celerity of their motions, and their civil victories.
In less than four years, [42] Severus subdued the riches of the East, and
the valor of the West. He vanquished two competitors of reputation
and ability, and defeated numerous armies, provided with weapons and
discipline equal to his own. In that age, the art of fortification,
and the principles of tactics, were well understood by all the Roman
generals; and the constant superiority of Severus was that of an artist,
who uses the same instruments with more skill and industry than his
rivals. I shall not, however, enter into