sheer force: such was the sum total of his policy. He was a most war-loving emperor, and when lying on his death-bed, the last advice he gave to his sons Caracalla and Geta was this, that they should make any and every sacrifice to secure the allegiance of the army, and that with that once gained they might defy everything else. Little did he think then, that in refusing to choose a more solid foundation, he was slowly but surely preparing its downfall. Antonius Caracalla, the successor of Septimius, was as passionately devoted to the pursuit of arms as his father had been before him, but he possessed neither the same firmness of character nor the same administrative talent. He murdered his brother Geta, who would probably have murdered him had he not taken the initiative, and he played at the game of war for six years; eventually he was assassinated near Edessa by the praetorian prefect Macrinus, who wore the imperial purple for a very short period, as the army remained faithful in their allegiance to the family of Septimius Severus; and Elagabalus, the reputed son of Cara-
