223
bold assassin was instantly killed by a Scythian chap.
archer of the imperial guard. Such was the end_
of amonsterwhose life disgraced human nature,and whose reign accused the patience of the Ro-mans. 1 ’ The grateful soldiers forgot his vices,remembered only his partial liberality, and ob-liged the senate to prostitute their own dignityand that of religion, by granting him a place a-mong the gods. Whilst he was upon earth,Alexander the Great was the only hero whom i mirationthis god deemed worthy his admiration. He cx<inassumed the name and ensigns of Alexander ,formed a Macedonian phalanx of guards, per-secuted the disciples of Aristotle , and display-ed with a puerile enthusiasm the only senti-ment by which he discovered any regard forvirtue or glory. We can easily conceive, thatafter the battle of Narva , and the conquest ofPoland , Charles the Twelfth (though he stillwanted the more elegant accomplishments ofthe son of Philip) might boast of having rival-led his valour and magnanimity; but in no oneaction of his life did Caracalla express the faint-est resemblance of the Macedonian hero, exceptin the murder of a great number of his own andof his father’s friends. q
After the extinction of the house of Severus, Electionthe Roman world remained three days without a
Macrinug.
p Dion, I. Ixxviii, p. 1312. Herodian , I. iv, p. 168.q The fondness of Caracalla for the name and ensigns of Alexander ,is still preserved on the medals of that emperor. See Spanheim, de UsuNumismatum, Dissertat. xii. Herodian (1. iv, p. 154) had seen veryridiculous pictures, in which a figure was drawn, with one side of thfface like Alexander, and the other like Caracalla .