220

'IHE DECLINE AND K4LL

chap, ed the senate, all the Alexandrians, those who

__had perished, and those who had escaped, were

alike guilty. 1

Relaxation The wise instructions of Severus never madepiine. " any lasting impression on the mind of his son,who, although not destitute of imagination andeloquence, was equally devoid of judgment andhumanity. m One dangerous maxim, worthy ofa tyrant, was remembered and abused by Cara-calla, “ To secure the affections of the army,“ and to esteem the rest of his subjects as of“ little moment.” 0 But the liberality of thefather had been restrained by prudence, and hisindulgence to the troops was tempered by firm-ness and authority. The careless profusion ofthe son was the policy of one reign, and the inevitable ruin both of the army and of the em-pire. The vigour of the soldiers, instead of be-ing confirmed by the severe discipline of camps,melted away in the luxury of cities. The ex-cessive increase of their pay and donatives, 0 ex-

1 Dion, 1. lxxvii, p. 1307. Herodian , 1. iv, p. 153. The former re-presents it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a perfidious one too. Itseems probable, that the Alexandrians had irritated the tyrant by theirrailleries, and perhaps by their tumults.

m Dion, 1. lxxvii, p. 1296.

" Dion, 1. lxxvi, p. 1234. Mr. Wotton (Hist, of Rome, p. 330) sus-pects that this maxim was invented by Caracalla himself, and attribut-ed to his father.

0 Dion (1. lxxviii, p. 1343) informs us, that the extraordinarygifts of Caracalla to the army amounted annually to seventy mil-lions of drachmae (about two millions three hundred and fifty thou-sand pounds). There is another passage in Dion, concerning themilitary pay, infinitely curious; were it not obscure, imperfect, andprobably corrupt. The best sense seems to be, that the prastorian

guards