and his fortune, abandoned himself
to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust
and satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory powers of
art were summoned to his aid: the confused multitude of women, of wines,
and of dishes, and the studied variety of attitude and sauces, served
to revive his languid appetites. New terms and new inventions in these
sciences, the only ones cultivated and patronized by the monarch, [56]
signalized his reign, and transmitted his infamy to succeeding times.
A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance; and
whilst Elagabalus lavished away the treasures of his people in the
wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers applauded
a spirit of magnificence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors.
To confound the order of seasons and climates, [57] to sport with the
passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of
nature and decency, were in the number of his most delicious amusements.
A long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives, among whom
was a vestal virgin, ravished by force from her sacred asylum, [58] were
insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the
Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female sex,
preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonored the principal
dignities of the empire by distributing them among his numerous lovers;
one of whom was publicly invested with the title and authority of the
emperor's, or, as he more properly styled himself, of the empress's
husband. [59]

[Footnote 56: The invention of a new sauce was liberally rewarded; but
if it was not relished, the inventor was confined to eat of nothing else
till he had discoveredanother more agreeable to the Imperial palate
Hist. August. p. 111.]

[Footnote 57: He never would eat sea-fish except at a great distance
from the sea; he then would distribute vast quantities of the rarest
sorts, brought at an immense expense, to the peasants of the inland
country. Hist. August. p. 109.]

[Footnote 58: Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1358. Herodian, l. v. p. 192.]

[Footnote 59: Hierocles enjoyed that honor; but he would have been
supplanted by one Zoticus, had he not contrived, by a potion, to
enervate the powers of his rival, who, being found on trial unequal
to his reputation, was driven with ignominy from the palace. Dion,
l. lxxix. p. 1363, 1364. A dancer was made prae