was the same as that of his predecessor; his virtue
and his danger had already endeared him to the Romans, and the eager
liberality of the senate conferred upon him, in one day, the various
titles and powers of the Imperial dignity. But as Alexander was a
modest and dutiful youth, of only seventeen years of age, the reins of
government were in the hands of two women, of his mother, Mamaea, and of
Maesa, his grandmother. After the death of the latter, who survived but a
short time the elevation of Alexander, Mamaea remained the sole regent of
her son and of the empire.

In every age and country, the wiser, or at least the stronger, of the
two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and confined the other
to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In hereditary monarchies,
however, and especially in those of modern Europe, the gallant spirit
of chivalry, and the law of succession, have accustomed us to allow
a singular exception; and a woman is often acknowledged the absolute
sovereign of a great kingdom, in which she would be deemed incapable of
exercising the smallest employment, civil or military. But as the Roman
emperors were still considered as the generals and magistrates of the
republic, their wives and mothers, although distinguished by the name
of Augusta were never associated to their personal honors; and a female
reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy in the eyes of those
primitive Romans, who married without love, or loved without delicacy
and respect. The haughty Agripina aspired, indeed, to share the honors
of the empire which she had conferred on her son; but her mad ambition,
detested by every citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome, was
disappointed by the artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus. The good
sense, or the indifference, of succeeding princes, restrained them from
offending the prejudices of their subjects; and it was reserved for the
profligate Elagabalus to discharge the acts of the senate with the name
of his mother Soaemias, who was placed by the side of the consuls,
and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees of the legislative
assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamaea, declined the useless and
odious prerogative, and a solemn law was enacted, excluding women
forever from the senate, and devoting to the infernal gods the head of
the wretch by whom this sanction should be violated. The substance, not
the pageantry, of power. was the object of Mamaea's manly ambition. Sh