[751]

[Footnote 731: Gibbon has confounded two events altogether different--
the quarrel of the people with the Praetorians, which lasted three days,
and the assassination of Ulpian by the latter. Dion relates first the
death of Ulpian, afterwards, reverting back according to a manner which
is usual with him, he says that during the life of Ulpian, there had
been a war of three days between the Praetorians and the people. But
Ulpian was not the cause. Dion says, on the contrary, that it was
occasioned by some unimportant circumstance; whilst he assigns a weighty
reason for the murder of Ulpian, the judgment by which that Praetorian
praefect had condemned his predecessors, Chrestus and Flavian, to death,
whom the soldiers wished to revenge. Zosimus (l. 1, c. xi.) attributes
this sentence to Mamaera; but, even then, the troops might have imputed
it to Ulpian, who had reaped all the advantage and was otherwise odious
to them.--W.]

[Footnote 74: Though the author of the life of Alexander (Hist. August.
p. 182) mentions the sedition raised against Ulpian by the soldiers, he
conceals the catastrophe, as it might discover a weakness in the
administration of his hero. From this designed omission, we may judge of
the weight and candor of that author.]

[Footnote 75: For an account of Ulpian's fate and his own danger, see
the mutilated conclusion of Dion's History, l. lxxx. p. 1371.]

[Footnote 751: Dion possessed no estates in Campania, and was not rich.
He only says that the emperor advised him to reside, during his
consulate, in some place out of Rome; that he returned to Rome after the
end of his consulate, and had an interview with the emperor in Campania.
He asked and obtained leave to pass the rest of his life in his native
city, (Nice, in Bithynia: ) it was there that he finished his history,
which closes with his second consulship.--W.]

Chapter VI: Death Of Severus, Tyranny Of Caracalla, Usurpation Of Marcinus.--Part IV.

The lenity of the emperor confirmed the insolence of the troops;
the legions imitated the example of the guards, and defended their
prerogative of licentiousness with the same furious obstinacy. The
administration of Alexander was an unavailing struggle against the
corruption of his age. In llyricum, in Mauritania, in Armenia, in
Mesopotamia, in Germany, fresh mutinies perpetually broke out; his
officers were murdered, his authority was insulted, and his life at last
sacrificed to the fi