Page:The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus.djvu/175

 The theory had its points. Unfortunately, Rome did not see them. She stood obviously aghast, thoroughly disliking the notion. Then, as now, Rome disliked the public repudiation of vows; it was an unforgivable scandal. As Clement VII. remarked some years later to Henry Tudor, with an equally genuine fervour, "Pray, please yourself by all means, but don't let me know." That was and always will be the true Roman attitude. Concubinage amongst these ladies was perfectly natural, in fact fairly usual, if we can believe Suetonius, but matrimony never; it offended the susceptibilities, and hence the subsequent trouble. Antonine does not seem to have grasped this fact, and, if any one told him, he was too much enamoured of his scheme to resign it without an effort. But even the Senate seems to have protested, and a plot, in which Pomponius Bassus and Silius Messala were implicated (probably inspired by that upright lady Julia Mamaea), was set on foot. It was an attempt to substitute some other personage for the youth who knew so little of Roman feeling as to commit this act of sacrilege. These two men were well-known busybodies, who had already dethroned one Emperor, and were obviously anxious for further employment in the same direction. Unfortunately for them, the plan was discovered, and their secret court, held to consider the Emperor's actions, raided. They were immediately arraigned before the Senate, and condemned for the crime of lèsemajesté, or treason, probably both, thus meeting the fate they had so richly deserved; but of these