ugust. p. 65.]

[Footnote 46: This practice, invented by Commodus, proved very useful
to Severus. He found at Rome the children of many of the principal
adherents of his rivals; and he employed them more than once to
intimidate, or seduce, the parents.]

[Footnote 47: Herodian, l. iii. p. 95. Hist. August. p. 67, 68.]

Whilst Severus was engaged in his eastern war, he had reason to
apprehend that the governor of Britain might pass the sea and the
Alps, occupy the vacant seat of empire, and oppose his return with
the authority of the senate and the forces of the West. The ambiguous
conduct of Albinus, in not assuming the Imperial title, left room for
negotiation. Forgetting, at once, his professions of patriotism, and the
jealousy of sovereign power, he accepted the precarious rank of Caesar,
as a reward for his fatal neutrality. Till the first contest was
decided, Severus treated the man, whom he had doomed to destruction,
with every mark of esteem and regard. Even in the letter, in which he
announced his victory over Niger, he styles Albinus the brother of his
soul and empire, sends him the affectionate salutations of his wife
Julia, and his young family, and entreats him to preserve the armies and
the republic faithful to their common interest. The messengers charged
with this letter were instructed to accost the Caesar with respect, to
desire a private audience, and to plunge their daggers into his heart.
[48] The conspiracy was discovered, and the too credulous Albinus,
at length, passed over to the continent, and prepared for an unequal
contest with his rival, who rushed upon him at the head of a veteran and
victorious army.

[Footnote 48: Hist. August. p. 84. Spartianus has inserted this curious
letter at full length.]

The military labors of Severus seem inadequate to the importance of his
conquests. Two engagements, [481] the one near the Hellespont, the other
in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, decided the fate of his Syrian
competitor; and the troops of Europe asserted their usual ascendant
over the effeminate natives of Asia. [49] The battle of Lyons, where one
hundred and fifty thousand Romans [50] were engaged, was equally fatal to
Albinus. The valor of the British army maintained, indeed, a sharp and
doubtful contest, with the hardy discipline of the Illyrian legions. The
fame and person of Severus appeared, during a few moments, irrecoverably
lost, till that warlike prince rallied his fainting troops,