Severus
celebrated the secular games with extraordinary magnificence, and he
left in the public granaries a provision of corn for seven years, at the
rate of 75,000 modii, or about 2500 quarters per day. I am persuaded
that the granaries of Severus were supplied for a long term, but I am
not less persuaded, that policy on one hand, and admiration on the
other, magnified the hoard far beyond its true contents.]

[Footnote 60: See Spanheim's treatise of ancient medals, the
inscriptions, and our learned travellers Spon and Wheeler, Shaw, Pocock,
&c, who, in Africa, Greece, and Asia, have found more monuments of
Severus than of any other Roman emperor whatsoever.]

[Footnote 61: He carried his victorious arms to Seleucia and Ctesiphon,
the capitals of the Parthian monarchy. I shall have occasion to mention
this war in its proper place.]

[Footnote 62: Etiam in Britannis, was his own just and emphatic
expression Hist. August. 73.]

Although the wounds of civil war appeared completely healed, its mortal
poison still lurked in the vitals of the constitution.

Severus possessed a considerable share of vigor and ability; but the
daring soul of the first Caesar, or the deep policy of Augustus, were
scarcely equal to the task of curbing the insolence of the victorious
legions. By gratitude, by misguided policy, by seeming necessity,
Severus was reduced to relax the nerves of discipline. [63] The vanity
of his soldiers was flattered with the honor of wearing gold rings their
ease was indulged in the permission of living with their wives in the
idleness of quarters. He increased their pay beyond the example
of former times, and taught them to expect, and soon to claim,
extraordinary donatives on every public occasion of danger or festivity.
Elated by success, enervated by luxury, and raised above the level of
subjects by their dangerous privileges, [64] they soon became incapable
of military fatigue, oppressive to the country, and impatient of a just
subordination. Their officers asserted the superiority of rank by a more
profuse and elegant luxury. There is still extant a letter of Severus,
lamenting the licentious stage of the army, [641] and exhorting one of
his generals to begin the necessary reformation from the tribunes
themselves; since, as he justly observes, the officer who has forfeited
the esteem, will never command the obedience, of his soldiers. [65] Had
the emperor pursued the train of reflection, he would have d