whole story, and rests his opinion on the fact that it is not mentioned in any way by two contemporary historians, Dion Cassius and Herodian, neither of whom manifests the slightest predilection for the family of Severus, and both of whom mention Julia as the mother of Caracalla, without the slightest allusion to so disreputable a connection. We may safely infer, then, that it is a gross calumny invented by her enemies. She died a few days only after Caracalla, but she had long had an intimate and faithful companion in the person of her sister, Julia Maesa, a woman of great determination and greater ambition. She it was who brought the young Elagabalus from the temple of the sun, and introducing him to the troops, declared that he was the natural son of her daughter Soemis and Caracalla. Having triumphed over Macrinus, she and her daughter held the reins of government, whilst Elagabalus, the grandson of the former, was scandalising Rome by his habits as a sun-worshipper, and by his fanatical desire to introduce the Syrian worship of the sun. It was probably at
