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Rh It was impossible that such a reconciHation 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 pretorians, 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 ; the justice of whose decree has been ratified by posterity.

In the room of Elagabalus, his cousin Alexander was raised to the throne by the pretorian guards. His relation to the family of Severus, whose name he assumed, was the same as that of his predecessor ; his virtue and his danger had already endeared him to the Romans; and the eager liberality of the senate conferred upon him, in one day, the various titles and powers of the imperial dignity. But as Alexander was a modest and dutiful youth, of only seventeen years of