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Rh intellectual power and political and literary ability, and as collaborating with her husband in the conduct of state affairs. After his death in battle she attempted to wield control over her sons Caracalla and Geta, who succeeded their father as co-emperors. But in 212 Caracalla had Geta murdered in his mother's arms in her own apartment; Julia herself received a wound in her hand trying to shield her son. She stood by, helpless, as Caracalla continued his blood-stained career, killing some twenty thousand persons including the jurist Papinian. She was put in charge of his correspondence and the state papers. Her salon included Papinian 5 s successor Ulpian, the Greek physician Galen, the Roman historian Dio Cassius and other notable thinkers. After Caracalla's death in 217 she committed suicide, not from grief but because she could not face retirement to private life.

The Syrian dynasty did not end, however, for the imperial power was soon captured by her younger and abler sister Julia Maesa for her grandsons Elagabalus (21 8-2 2 2) and Alexander Severus (222-235). Elagabalus was a priest of the Baal of Horns, whose sacred black stone accompanied him to Rome, and whose worship became for a few years supreme in the empire. Alexander, at his accession a lad of thirteen under his mother's control, was the last and best of this Syrian dynasty. He sent the black stone back to Horns, forbade the worship of himself while alive, put down court luxury, lightened taxes, raised the standard of the coinage and encouraged art and science. After recovering Meso- potamia from the Persians, he was killed in a mutiny in 235. Another Syrian, called Philip the Arab, was enthroned in 244, presided in 248 at the ceremonies commemorating the thousandth birthday of Rome and fell victim to a mutiny in 249, ending Syrian influence at court. His coins depict the great temple of Heliopolis.

Syrian economic penetration in the Latin provinces was manifested by the number of commercial settlements which, Rh