o
adopt Alexander, and to invest him with the title of Caesar, that his
own divine occupations might be no longer interrupted by the care of
the earth. In the second rank that amiable prince soon acquired the
affections of the public, and excited the tyrant's jealousy, who
resolved to terminate the dangerous competition, either by corrupting
the manners, or by taking away the life, of his rival. His arts proved
unsuccessful; his vain designs were constantly discovered by his own
loquacious folly, and disappointed by those virtuous and faithful
servants whom the prudence of Mamaea had placed about the person of
her son. In a hasty sally of passion, Elagabalus resolved to execute
by force what he had been unable to compass by fraud, and by a despotic
sentence degraded his cousin from the rank and honors of Caesar. The
message was received in the senate with silence, and in the camp with
fury. The Praetorian guards swore to protect Alexander, and to revenge
the dishonored majesty of the throne. The tears and promises of the
trembling Elagabalus, who only begged them to spare his life, and to
leave him in the possession of his beloved Hierocles, diverted their
just indignation; and they contented themselves with empowering their
praefects to watch over the safety of Alexander, and the conduct of the
emperor. [61]

[Footnote 61: Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1365. Herodian, l. v. p. 195--201.
Hist. August. p. 105. The last of the three historians seems to have
followed the best authors in his account of the revolution.]

It was impossible that such a reconciliation should last, or that even
the mean soul of Elagabalus could hold an empire on such humiliating
terms of dependence. He soon attempted, by a dangerous experiment, to
try the temper of the soldiers. The report of the death of Alexander,
and the natural suspicion that he had been murdered, inflamed their
passions into fury, and the tempest of the camp could only be appeased
by the presence and authority of the popular youth. Provoked at this new
instance of their affection for his cousin, and their contempt for
his person, the emperor ventured to punish some of the leaders of the
mutiny. His unseasonable severity proved instantly fatal to his minions,
his mother, and himself. Elagabalus was massacred by the indignant
Praetorians, his mutilated corpse dragged through the streets of the
city, and thrown into the Tiber. His memory was branded with eternal
infamy by the senate; t