army brought about his ruin. On June 7,
218, he succumbed to the superior fortune of Elagabulus, the grandson of
Severus, a youth trained in all the superstitions and vices of the East.

Under this sovereign Rome was prostituted to the vilest vices of which
human nature is capable. The sum of his infamy was reached when the
master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the
female sex. The shame and disgust of the soldiers resulted in his murder
on March 10, 222, and the proclamation of his cousin, Alexander Severus.

Again the necessity of restoring discipline within the army led to the
ruin of the emperor, and, despite thirteen years of just and moderate
government, Alexander was murdered in his tent on March 19, 235, on the
banks of the Rhine, and Maximin, his chief lieutenant, a Thracian,
reigned in his stead.

_IV.--Tyranny and Disaster_

Fear of contempt, for his origin was mean and barbarian, made Maximin
one of the cruellest tyrants that ever oppressed the Roman world. During
the three years of his reign he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy,
but from the banks of the Rhine and the Danube oppressed the whole
state, and trampled on every principle of law and justice. The tyrant's
avarice ruined not only private citizens, but seized the municipal funds
of the cities, and stripped the very temples of their gold and silver
offerings.

Maximus and Balbinus, on July 9, 237, were declared emperors. The
Emperor Maximus advanced to meet the furious tyrant, but the stroke of
domestic conspiracy prevented the further eruption of civil war. Maximin
and his son were murdered by their disappointed troops in front of
Aquileia.

Three months later, Maximus and Balbinus, on July 15, 238, fell victims
to their own virtues at the hands of the Praetorian guard, Gordian became
emperor. At the end of six years, he, too, after an innocent and
virtuous reign, succumbed to the ambition of the prefect Philip, while
engaged in a war with Persia, and in March 244, the Roman world
recognized the sovereignty of an Arabian robber.

Returning to Rome, Philip celebrated the secular games, on the
accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the
foundation of Rome. From that date, which marked the fifth time that
these rites had been performed in the history of the city, for the next
twenty years the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and
military tyrants, and the ruined empire see