the Syrian troops had joined the pretended Antoninus, the prefect
Basilianus at once put to death the public couriers that brought the
unwelcome tidings. But when, a few days afterwards, it was known that
Macrinus had been defeated and killed, the doubts about his successor
led to serious struggles between the troops and the Alexandrians. The
Alexandrians could have had no love for a son of Caracalla; Basilianus
and Secundus had before declared against him; but, on the other hand,
the choice of the soldiers was guided by their brethren in Syria. The
citizens flew to arms, and day after day was the battle fought in the
streets of Alexandria between two parties, neither of whom was strong
enough, even if successful, to have any weight in settling the fate of
the Roman empire. Marius Secundus lost his life in the struggle. The
prefect Basilianus fled to Italy to escape from his own soldiers; and
the province of Egypt then followed the example of the rest of the East
in acknowledging the new emperor.

For four years Rome was disgraced by the sovereignty of Elagabalus,
the pretended son of Caracalla, and we find his coins each year in
Alexandria. He was succeeded by the young Alexander, whose amiable
virtues, however, could not gain for him the respect which he lost
by the weakness of his government. The Alexandrians, always ready to
lampoon their rulers, laughed at his wish to be thought a Roman; they
called him the Syrian, the high priest, and the ruler of the synagogue.
And well might they think slightly of his government, when a prefect of
Egypt owed his appointment to the emperor's want of power to punish him.
Epagathus had headed a mutiny of the praetorian guards in Rome, in which
their general Ulpian was killed; and Alexander, afraid to punish the
murderers, made the ringleader of the rebels prefect of Egypt in order
to send him out of the way; so little did it then seem necessary to
follow the cautious policy of Augustus, or to fear a rebellion in that
province. But after a short time, when Epagathus had been forgotten by
the Roman legion, he was removed to the government of Crete, and then at
last punished with death.

In this reign Ammonius Saccas became the founder of a new and most
important school of philosophy, that of the Alexandrian platonists. He
is only known to us through his pupils, in whose writings we trace the
mind and system of the teacher. The most celebrated of these pupils were
Plotinus, Herennius