on of Commodus, the Roman world had
experienced, during the term of forty years, the successive and various
vices of four tyrants. From the death of Elagabalus, it enjoyed an
auspicious calm of thirteen years. * The provinces, relieved from the
oppressive taxes invented by Caracalla and his pretended son, flourished
in peace and prosperity, under the administration of magistrates, who
were convinced by experience that to deserve the love of the subjects,
was their best and only method of obtaining the favor of their
sovereign. While some gentle restraints were imposed on the innocent
luxury of the Roman people, the price of provisions and the interest
of money, were reduced by the paternal care of Alexander, whose prudent
liberality, without distressing the industrious, supplied the wants and
amusements of the populace. The dignity, the freedom, the authority of
the senate was restored; and every virtuous senator might approach the
person of the emperor without a fear and without a blush.

The name of Antoninus, ennobled by the virtues of Pius and Marcus, had
been communicated by adoption to the dissolute Verus, and by descent to
the cruel Commodus. It became the honorable appellation of the sons of
Severus, was bestowed on young Diadumenianus, and at length prostituted
to the infamy of the high priest of Emesa. Alexander, though pressed
by the studied, and, perhaps, sincere importunity of the senate, nobly
refused the borrowed lustre of a name; whilst in his whole conduct he
labored to restore the glories and felicity of the age of the genuine
Antonines.

In the civil administration of Alexander, wisdom was enforced by power,
and the people, sensible of the public felicity, repaid their benefactor
with their love and gratitude. There still remained a greater, a more
necessary, but a more difficult enterprise; the reformation of the
military order, whose interest and temper, confirmed by long impunity,
rendered them impatient of the restraints of discipline, and careless
of the blessings of public tranquillity. In the execution of his design,
the emperor affected to display his love, and to conceal his fear of the
army. The most rigid economy in every other branch of the administration
supplied a fund of gold and silver for the ordinary pay and the
extraordinary rewards of the troops. In their marches he relaxed
the severe obligation of carrying seventeen days' provision on their
shoulders. Ample magazines were formed