nent lawyers Paulus, Papinian, and Ulpian, and Philostratus, the biographer of Apollonius. The influence she exercised over her husband must have been extraordinary, for Plautianus, the favourite of Severus, never ceased to offer her the most systematic opposition, and at last fell a victim in the deadly strife. We may, perhaps, attribute the disparaging rumours which were circulated concerning the chastity of Julia Domna to the interested calumnies of Plautianus. Her husband was not the man to wink at such aberrations of duty, more especially if it be true that to conjugal infidelity she added political treason. Her evil reputation increased in the reign of her son Caracalla, though, by-the-bye, according to some historians she was only his stepmother, Caracalla being the son of Septimius by a former wife. On the same authority it is stated that the imperial buffoon was captivated by her admirably-preserved charms, and that he contracted with her an incestuous marriage, a circumstance which led to her being called Jocasta by her enemies. Bayle maintains the improbability of the
