ear 186. M. de Tillemont is miserably
embarrassed with a passage of Dion, in which the empress Faustina,
who died in the year 175, is introduced as having contributed to the
marriage of Severus and Julia, (l. lxxiv. p. 1243.) The learned compiler
forgot that Dion is relating not a real fact, but a dream of Severus;
and dreams are circumscribed to no limits of time or space. Did M. de
Tillemont imagine that marriages were consummated in the temple of Venus
at Rome? Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 389. Note 6.]

[Footnote 4: Hist. August. p. 65.]

[Footnote 5: Hist. August. p. 5.]

[Footnote 6: Dion Cassius, l. lxxvii. p. 1304, 1314.]

[Footnote 7: See a dissertation of Menage, at the end of his edition of
Diogenes Laertius, de Foeminis Philosophis.]

[Footnote 8: Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1285. Aurelius Victor.]

Two sons, Caracalla [9] and Geta, were the fruit of this marriage, and
the destined heirs of the empire. The fond hopes of the father, and
of the Roman world, were soon disappointed by these vain youths, who
displayed the indolent security of hereditary princes; and a presumption
that fortune would supply the place of merit and application. Without
any emulation of virtue or talents, they discovered, almost from their
infancy, a fixed and implacable antipathy for each other.

[Footnote 9: Bassianus was his first name, as it had been that of his
maternal grandfather. During his reign, he assumed the appellation of
Antoninus, which is employed by lawyers and ancient historians. After
his death, the public indignation loaded him with the nicknames of
Tarantus and Caracalla. The first was borrowed from a celebrated
Gladiator, the second from a long Gallic gown which he distributed to
the people of Rome.]

Their aversion, confirmed by years, and fomented by the arts of their
interested favorites, broke out in childish, and gradually in more
serious competitions; and, at length, divided the theatre, the circus,
and the court, into two factions, actuated by the hopes and fears of
their respective leaders. The prudent emperor endeavored, by every
expedient of advice and authority, to allay this growing animosity. The
unhappy discord of his sons clouded all his prospects, and threatened to
overturn a throne raised with so much labor, cemented with so much
blood, and guarded with every defence of arms and treasure. With an
impartial hand he maintained between them an exact balance of favor,
conferred on both the rank