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MACRINUS.
the empire on which he conferred real benefits: he further
formed a phalanx of Macedonians, and even assumed the
name of Magnus, so that we find him called Antoninus
Magnus. The idea of overthrowing the Parthian empire
was also suggested to him by the exploits of Alexander;
and when he invaded that country, he was accompanied by
his Macedonian phalanx. He shewed in all things a great
partiality for what was Greek ; and it is not improbable that
this partiality was greatly attributable to his Syrian mother.
He made war upon the Parthians without the least provoca-
tion on their part. According to Herodian6, he acted with
monstrous treachery towards Artabanus, whom he tried to take
prisoner during an interview to which he had invited him : he
also murdered a number of Parthians. But the detail of all
those occurrences is very doubtful. Severus had already taken
possession of Osroene. The dynasty of its king, Abgarus, had
occupied the throne at Edessa for three hundred years, whence
the legend of one Abgarus writing a letter to our Saviour, in
which he implored his assistance in an illness.7 The present
Abgarus was a vassal king of the Parthian empire, but subject
to Rome; and Caracalla now expelled him from his kingdom,
and changed Osroene into a Roman province. But, while
serious preparations were there making for the Parthian war,
Caracalla was murdered, ʌ.I>. 217, in a conspiracy headed by
M. Macrinus, the praefectus praetorio, who saw that his own
life was in danger. The soldiers, however, were indignant at
the emperor’s death; and had not Macrinus succeeded in de-
ceiving them, he would not have escaped from their fury.
As, however, the army wanted a leader, M. Opilius Macri-
nus was proclaimed emperor. The testimony of Dion Cassius8,
his contemporary, and Herodian, that he had honourably dis-
charged the duties of the high offices to which he had been
appointed, is worth more than the opinions expressed in the
“ Historia Augusta.9” Whether, if he had lived longer, he
would have been a praiseworthy sovereign, and would have
conducted the government in a noble manner, would have
depended upon his obtaining the mastery over the soldiers.
The moral dissolution of the army had increased to a monstrous
degree under Caracalla, who had connived at every thing it
6 iv. 10, foil. Compare Dion Cass, Ixxviii. I. 7 Ensebius, Hist. Eceles. i. 13.
‘ Ixxviii. 11. s J. Capitolin. Opil. Macrin. 2, foil.
Elagabalus.
271
did. In the reign of Severus, the soldiers had been kept in
check: they trembled before him, and never thought of rising
against him. Macrinus endeavoured to restore discipline among
them : and, as he could not safely take from them what his
predecessor had senselessly given them, he tried to diminish
the expenditure, at least as far as he could. It appears to me
probable that he disbanded whole legions as veterans : he then
formed new legions, or recruited the old ones with new men,
and enlisted them upon lower terms. But it was to be fore-
seen that the old soldiers would not tolerate this. Whether
the state could afford what they wanted, was a question about
which they gave themselves no concern, and they revolted.
They would perhaps have chosen Maximinus as their leader,
had not young Avitus been brought forward.
Julia Domna, the widow of Severus, had put an end to her
life after the death of Caracalla, as she was condemned to soli-
tude by Macrinus.10 Her sister Maesa had likewise been
removed from the court, and was now residing at Emesa. Both
were the daughters of one Bassianus. Maesa had two daughters,
Soaemis and Mamaea, both of whom were married in Syria.
The names of their husbands are Roman. Soaemis was married
to Sex. Varius Marcellus, who, notwithstanding his name, may
have been a Syrian, though the high offices with which he was
invested might incline us to believe that he was a Roman;
and the younger, Mamaea, to Gessius Macrianus. Each of
these two sisters had a son ; Soaemis had also several daughters,
and Mamaea at least one. The son of Soaemis was Avitus, the
same who afterwards assumed the name of Aurelius Antoninus,
and is better known under the name of Elagabalus or, as it is
corrupted, Heliogabalus.11 His real name was Avitus, or Bas-
sianus; but people at that time assumed a new or dropped an
old name for the most trifling reason. He was then, at the
utmost, seventeenycars old: he was a complete Syrian, both
by education and through all his relations, and was priest of
the god Elagabalus at Emesa, where meteors, which had once
fallen from heaven, were worshipped as divinities. His grand-
mother Maesa and his mother Soaemis declared that he was
the offspring of an adulterous intercourse between Caracalla
m J. Capitolin. Opil. Macrin. 9; Dion Cass. Ixxviii. 30.
“ The word Helios is introduced into the name without any reason, and has
nothing to do with it.—N.