a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual benefit to the hostile
brothers. It was proposed, that since it was impossible to reconcile
their minds, they should separate their interest, and divide the empire
between them. The conditions of the treaty were already drawn with some
accuracy. It was agreed that Caracalla, as the elder brother should
remain in possession of Europe and the western Africa; and that he
should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might
fix his residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to
Rome itself in wealth and greatness; that numerous armies should be
constantly encamped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard
the frontiers of the rival monarchies; and that the senators of European
extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of Rome, whilst the natives
of Asia followed the emperor of the East. The tears of the empress Julia
interrupted the negotiation, the first idea of which had filled every
Roman breast with surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest
was so intimately united by the hand of time and policy, that it
required the most forcible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans had
reason to dread, that the disjointed members would soon be reduced by
a civil war under the dominion of one master; but if the separation
was permanent, the division of the provinces must terminate in the
dissolution of an empire whose unity had hitherto remained inviolate.
[20]

[Footnote 20: Herodian, l. iv. p. 144.]

Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign of Europe
might soon have been the conqueror of Asia; but Caracalla obtained
an easier, though a more guilty, victory. He artfully listened to his
mother's entreaties, and consented to meet his brother in her
apartment, on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the midst of their
conversation, some centurions, who had contrived to conceal themselves,
rushed with drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted
mother strove to protect him in her arms; but, in the unavailing
struggle, she was wounded in the hand, and covered with the blood of
her younger son, while she saw the elder animating and assisting [21] the
fury of the assassins. As soon as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla,
with hasty steps, and horror in his countenance, ran towards the
Praetorian camp, as his only refuge, and threw himself on the ground
before the statues of the tutelar deities. [22] The soldie