has failed to notice the powerful influence of a priestly family composed entirely of women during its most flourishing days, and which, so long as the dynasty of Severus lasted, did imperceptibly, yet most really and powerfully, turn the tide of events and direct the current of thought in the Roman empire. By the expression "dynasty of Severus" I understand the reigns of the four emperors, beginning with Septimius Severus (A.D. 193), and ending with Alexander Severus, who died A.D. 235.
Septimius Severus ascended the throne during one of these critical revolutionary periods when it was doubtful whether the gigantic piece of state machinery founded by Julius Caesar and Augustus was not crumbling to pieces and doomed to be split up into five or six different kingdoms. On the death of Nero a similar shock had been experienced; Vindex, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius had succeeded each other with alarming rapidity. Fortunately for the stability of the empire, Vespasian, a soldier of great energy and greater genius, seized hold of the reins of government
