along the public roads, and as
soon as they entered the enemy's country, a numerous train of mules
and camels waited on their haughty laziness. As Alexander despaired of
correcting the luxury of his soldiers, he attempted, at least, to direct
it to objects of martial pomp and ornament, fine horses, splendid armor,
and shields enriched with silver and gold. He shared whatever fatigues
he was obliged to impose, visited, in person, the sick and wounded,
preserved an exact register of their services and his own gratitude, and
expressed on every occasion, the warmest regard for a body of men, whose
welfare, as he affected to declare, was so closely connected with that
of the state. By the most gentle arts he labored to inspire the fierce
multitude with a sense of duty, and to restore at least a faint image of
that discipline to which the Romans owed their empire over so many other
nations, as warlike and more powerful than themselves. But his prudence
was vain, his courage fatal, and the attempt towards a reformation
served only to inflame the ills it was meant to cure.

The Praetorian guards were attached to the youth of Alexander. They loved
him as a tender pupil, whom they had saved from a tyrant's fury, and
placed on the Imperial throne. That amiable prince was sensible of the
obligation; but as his gratitude was restrained within the limits of
reason and justice, they soon were more dissatisfied with the virtues of
Alexander, than they had ever been with the vices of Elagabalus. Their
praefect, the wise Ulpian, was the friend of the laws and of the people;
he was considered as the enemy of the soldiers, and to his pernicious
counsels every scheme of reformation was imputed. Some trifling accident
blew up their discontent into a furious mutiny; and the civil war raged,
during three days, in Rome, whilst the life of that excellent minister
was defended by the grateful people. Terrified, at length, by the sight
of some houses in flames, and by the threats of a general conflagration,
the people yielded with a sigh, and left the virtuous but unfortunate
Ulpian to his fate. He was pursued into the Imperial palace, and
massacred at the feet of his master, who vainly strove to cover him with
the purple, and to obtain his pardon from the inexorable soldiers. *
Such was the deplorable weakness of government, that the emperor was
unable to revenge his murdered friend and his insulted dignity, without
stooping to the arts of patienc