p. 1317. Hist. August. p. 89 Aurel. Victor. Euseb. in Chron.
ad ann. 214. Note: The historical authority of Macpherson's Ossian has
not increased since Gibbon wrote. We may, indeed, consider it exploded.
Mr. Whitaker, in a letter to Gibbon (Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 100,)
attempts, not very successfully, to weaken this objection of the
historian.--M.]

The declining health and last illness of Severus inflamed the wild
ambition and black passions of Caracalla's soul. Impatient of any delay
or division of empire, he attempted, more than once, to shorten the
small remainder of his father's days, and endeavored, but without
success, to excite a mutiny among the troops. [15] The old emperor had
often censured the misguided lenity of Marcus, who, by a single act of
justice, might have saved the Romans from the tyranny of his worthless
son. Placed in the same situation, he experienced how easily the rigor
of a judge dissolves away in the tenderness of a parent. He deliberated,
he threatened, but he could not punish; and this last and only instance
of mercy was more fatal to the empire than a long series of cruelty.
[16] The disorder of his mind irritated the pains of his body; he wished
impatiently for death, and hastened the instant of it by his impatience.
He expired at York in the sixty-fifth year of his life, and in the
eighteenth of a glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he
recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The salutary
advice never reached the heart, or even the understanding, of the
impetuous youths; but the more obedient troops, mindful of their oath of
allegiance, and of the authority of their deceased master, resisted the
solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both brothers emperors of
Rome. The new princes soon left the Caledonians in peace, returned to
the capital, celebrated their father's funeral with divine honors, and
were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sovereigns, by the senate, the
people, and the provinces. Some preeminence of rank seems to have been
allowed to the elder brother; but they both administered the empire with
equal and independent power. [17]

[Footnote 15: Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1282. Hist. August. p. 71. Aurel.
Victor.]

[Footnote 16: Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1283. Hist. August. p. 89]

[Footnote 17: Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1284. Herodian, l. iii. p. 135.]

Such a divided form of government would have proved a source of discord
between the most affectionate