But Caracalla
was the common enemy of mankind. He left capital (and he never returned
to it) about a year after the murder of Geta. The rest of his reign was
spent in the several provinces of the empire, particularly those of the
East, and province was by turns the scene of his rapine and cruelty.
The senators, compelled by fear to attend his capricious motions,were
obliged to provide daily entertainments at an immense expense, which
he abandoned with contempt to his guards; and to erect, in every city,
magnificent palaces and theatres, which he either disdained to visit,
or ordered immediately thrown down. The most wealthy families ruined
by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of his subjects
oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes. [34] In the midst of
peace, and upon the slightest provocation, he issued his commands, at
Alexandria, in Egypt for a general massacre. From a secure post in the
temple of Serapis, he viewed and directed the slaughter of many thousand
citizens, as well as strangers, without distinguishing the number or the
crime of the sufferers; since as he coolly informed the senate, all the
Alexandrians, those who perished, and those who had escaped, were alike
guilty. [35]

[Footnote 33: Tiberius and Domitian never moved from the neighborhood
of Rome. Nero made a short journey into Greece. "Et laudatorum Principum
usus ex aequo, quamvis procul agentibus. Saevi proximis ingruunt."
Tacit. Hist. iv. 74.]

[Footnote 34: Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1294.]

[Footnote 35: Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1307. Herodian, l. iv. p. 158.
The former represents it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a perfidious
one too. It seems probable that the Alexandrians has irritated the
tyrant by their railleries, and perhaps by their tumults. * Note: After
these massacres, Caracalla also deprived the Alexandrians of their
spectacles and public feasts; he divided the city into two parts by a
wall with towers at intervals, to prevent the peaceful communications of
the citizens. Thus was treated the unhappy Alexandria, says Dion, by the
savage beast of Ausonia. This, in fact, was the epithet which the oracle
had applied to him; it is said, indeed, that he was much pleased with
the name and often boasted of it. Dion, lxxvii. p. 1307.--G.]

The wise instructions of Severus never made any lasting impression on
the mind of his son, who, although not destitute of imagination
and eloquence, was equally devoid of judgment and hum