nd cowardice, dismissed them with
ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their
splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance
of a hundred miles from the capital. During the transaction, another
detachment had been sent to seize their arms, occupy their camp, and
prevent the hasty consequences of their despair.

The funeral and consecration of Pertinax was next solemnized with
every circumstance of sad magnificence. The senate, with a melancholy
pleasure, performed the last rites to that excellent prince, whom
they had loved, and still regretted. The concern of his successor was
probably less sincere; he esteemed the virtues of Pertinax, but those
virtues would forever have confined his ambition to a private station.
Severus pronounced his funeral oration with studied eloquence, inward
satisfaction, and well-acted sorrow; and by this pious regard to his
memory, convinced the credulous multitude, that he alone was worthy to
supply his place. Sensible, however, that arms, not ceremonies, must
assert his claim to the empire, he left Rome at the end of thirty
days, and without suffering himself to be elated by this easy victory,
prepared to encounter his more formidable rivals.

The uncommon abilities and fortune of Severus have induced an elegant
historian to compare him with the first and greatest of the Caesars. The
parallel is, at least, imperfect. Where shall we find, in the character
of Severus, the commanding superiority of soul, the generous clemency,
and the various genius, which could reconcile and unite the love of
pleasure, the thirst of knowledge, and the fire of ambition? In one
instance only, they may be compared, with some degree of propriety, in
the celerity of their motions, and their civil victories. In less than
four years, Severus subdued the riches of the East, and the valor of
the West. He vanquished two competitors of reputation and ability, and
defeated numerous armies, provided with weapons and discipline equal to
his own. In that age, the art of fortification, and the principles
of tactics, were well understood by all the Roman generals; and the
constant superiority of Severus was that of an artist, who uses the same
instruments with more skill and industry than his rivals. I shall not,
however, enter into a minute narrative of these military operations; but
as the two civil wars against Niger and against Albinus were almost the
same in their