200
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.
VI.
Their mu-tual aver-sion toeach other
the most splendid reputation. She was the pa-troness of every art, and the friend of every manof genius. g The grateful flattery of the learnedhas celebrated her virtue; but, if we may cre-dit the scandal of ancient history, chastity wasvery far from being the most conspicuous virtueof the empress Julia. 1 *
Two sons, Caracalla 1 and Geta , were the fruitof this marriage, and the destined heirs of theempire. The fond hopes of the father, and ofthe Roman world, were soon disappointed bythese vain youths, who displayed the indolentsecurity of hereditary princes, and a presump-tion that fortune would supply the place of me-rit and application. Without any emulation ofvirtue or talents, they discovered, almost fromtheir infancy, a fixed and implacable antipathyfor each other. Their aversion, confirmed byyears, and fomented by the arts of their inte-rested favourites, broke out in childish, andgradually in more serious competitions, and,at length, divided the theatre, the circus, andthe court, into two factions, actuated by thehopes and fears of their respective leaders.The prudent emperor endeavoured, by every
6 See a dissertation of Menage, at the end of his edition of DiogenesLaertius , de Fceminis Philosophis.h Dion, 1. ixxvi, p. 1285. Aurelius Victor .
* Bassianus was his first name, as it had been that of his maternalgrandfather. During his reign, he assumed the appellation of Anto-ninus , which is employed by lawyers and ancient historians. AfteF hisdeath, the public indignation loaded him with the nick-names of Ta-rantus and Caracalla . The first was borrowed from a celebrated gla-diator, the second from a long Gallic gown which he distributed to thepeople of Koine .