OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

237

ravished by force from her sacred asylum , 1 were chap.-

insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his pas--*

sions. The master of the Roman world affectedto copy the dress and manners of the female sex,preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and disho-noured the principal dignities of the empire bydistributing them among his numerous lovers ;one of whom was publicly invested with thetitle and authority of the emperor’s, or as hemore properly styled himself, of the empress’shusband.™

It may seem probable, the vices and follies of ContemptElagabalus have been adorned by fancy, and whlchaS?blackened by prejudice." Yet confining our-^Ro?** 1selves to the public scenes displayed before the ™*" s ty 'Roman people, and attested by grave and con-temporary historians, their inexpressible infamysurpasses that of any other age or country.

The licence of an eastern monarch is secludedfrom the eye of curiosity by the inaccessiblewalls of his seraglio. The sentiments of honourand gallantry have introduced a refinement ofpleasure, a regard for decency, and a respectfor the public opinion, into the modern courtsof Europe ; but the corrupt and opulent nobles

1 Dion, 1. (xxix, p. 1358. Herodian , i. v, p. 192.

m Hierocles enjoyed that honour; but he would have been supplant-ed by one Zoticus, had he not contrived, by a potion, to enervate thepowers of his rival, who being found, on trial, unequal to his reputa-tion, was driven with ignominy from the palace. Dion, 1. lxxix, p.

1303, 1364. A dancer was made prefect of the city, a charioteer pre-fect of the watch, a barber prefect of the provisions. These three mi-nisters, with mSny inferior officers, were all recommended, enormitotemembrorum. Hist. August, p. 105.

” Even the credulous compiler of his life, in the Augustine his-tory (p. Ill), is inclined to suspect that his vices may have been ex-aggerated.