Meantime Albinus, the British commander-in-chief, had already been won
over by the title of Caesar, or adopted heir to the new Augustus. But the
hollowness of this bribe soon became apparent, and the two competitors met
to decide their pretensions at Lyons. In the great battle which followed,
Severus fell from his horse, and was at first supposed to be dead. But
recovering, he defeated his rival, who immediately committed suicide.
Severus displayed his ferocious temper sufficiently by sending the head of
Albinus to Rome. Other expressions of his natural character soon followed:
he suspected strongly that Albinus had been favored by the senate; forty
of that body, with their wives and children, were immediately sacrificed
to his wrath; but he never forgave the rest, nor endured to live upon
terms of amity amongst them. Quitting Rome in disgust, he employed himself
first in making war upon the Parthians, who had naturally, from situation,
befriended his Syrian rival. Their capital cities he overthrew; and
afterwards, by way of employing his armies, made war in Britain. At the
city of York he died; and to his two sons, Geta and Caracalla, he
bequeathed, as his dying advice, a maxim of policy, which sufficiently
indicates the situation of the empire at that period; it was this--"To
enrich the soldiery at any price, and to regard the rest of their subjects
as so many ciphers.
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