242

THE DECLINE AND FALL

C H A I*.VI.

haughty Agrippina aspired, indeed, to share thehonours of the empire, which she had conferredon her son; but her mad ambition, detested byevery citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome,was disappointed by the artful firmness of Se-neca and Burrhus. 3 The good sense, or the in-difference, of succeeding princes, restrainedthem from offending the prejudices of their sub-jects; and it was reserved for the profligateElagabalus , to disgrace the acts of the senate,with the name of his mother Soaemias , who wasplaced by the side of the consuls, and sub-scribed, as a regular member, the decrees of thelegislative assembly. Her more prudent sis-ter, Mamoea, declined the useless and odiousprerogative, and a solemn law was enacted, ex-cluding women for ever from the senate, anddevoting to the infernal gods, the head of thewretch by whom this sanction should be violat-ed. 1 The substance, not the pageantry of powerwas the object of Mamma’s manly ambition.She maintained an absolute and lasting empireover the mind of her son, and in his affectionthe mother could not brook a rival. Alexan-der, with her consent, married the daughter ofa patrician; but his respect for his father-in-law, and love for the empress, were inconsist-ent with the tenderness or interest of Mamaea.The patrician was executed on the ready accu-

out the help of women, we should be delivered from a very troublesomecompanion; and he could recommend matrimony only as the sacrificeof private pleasure to public duty. Aulus Gellius , i, 6.

■ Tacit. Anna 1. xiii, 5.

* Hist. August, p. 102, 107.