HISTORY 351 



efforts to preserve the empire from further diminution. 

 On his death, 180 A.D., a son for the first time succeeded 

 his father. This was Commodus, who was a monster of 

 vice and cruelty, and was murdered after a reign of 

 twelve years. A worthy successor, Pertinax, was chosen, 

 but was murdered in less than three months by the 

 soldiery, who then sold the empire to Didius Julianus, 

 who was beheaded after sixty-six days, when Septimus 

 Severus, an African, having avenged Pertinax, reigned 

 from 193 to 211. Thus his reign introduces us into the 

 third century of our epoch. He was succeeded by both 

 his sons, Geta and Caracalla, with such hatred and 

 jealousy between them as a consequence, that the former 

 was soon murdered. His successful rival, a monster who 

 by his cruelty afflicted the whole empire, was in turn 

 murdered 217 A.D. 



After a brief attempt to hold power by the militarily 

 elected Macrinus, he was succeeded by two Syrian youths, 

 each a son of two sisters, daughters of Caracalla. The 

 first, Reliogabalus, was a priest of the Sun, and in him Rome 

 for the first time became subject to an Eastern sovereign. 

 He was a wonderful example of effeminacy and vice, who, 

 having been murdered by his guards 222 A.D., was 

 succeeded by his worthy cousin, Alexander /Severus, under 

 whom the empire enjoyed unwonted happiness. He, in 

 turn, was murdered A.D. 235, owing to a conspiracy of 

 his successor Maximin, who, though born within the 

 empire, was by blood a Goth. 



From the time of the Antonines (Pius and Marcus 

 Aurelius) the condition of the inhabitants of the Roman 

 provinces was greatly ameliorated, and by the beginning 

 of the third century all the inhabitants of the provinces, 

 who were not slaves, had become Roman citizens. Thus 

 the empire had become a monarchy a homogeneous 



