I have also to acknowledge with sincere thanks the permission of Mr. E. E. Saltus of Harvard University to quote his vivid and beautiful studies on the Roman Empire and her Customs. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Walter Pater, Mr. J. A. Symonds, and Mr. Saltus for many a _tournure de phrase_ and picturesque rendering of Tacitus, Suetonius, Lampridius, and the rest. I also desire to thank Dr. Counsell of New College, Oxford, and Dr. Bailey of the Warneford Asylum, not only for their help in correcting my proofs, but also for their assistance in the preparation of my chapter on Psychology. To all these gentlemen I owe a great debt, which, I hope, the general public will repay by an appreciation of their work. We have endeavoured to right a wrong; if our efforts are in any way successful, the reader will acknowledge that this _mauvais quart d’heure_, which has been stigmatised as full of impossible situations and intolerable surprises, is in reality a very human life which, like our own, has its exquisite moments of which we would as soon deprive ourselves as Elagabalus. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION xxiii PART I CHAPTER I General sketch of conditions, 1. The Augustan Histories and their writers, 2. Lampridius, author of the Life of Elagabalus, 4. First attempts at criticism, 4. Modern criticism, 4. Latin sources: Marius Maximus, 5. Greek sources: Dion Cassius, Xiphilinus, 7. Herodian, 8. General attack on the authenticity of the “Lives,” 9. Mommsen’s opinion, 10. Peter, Richter, Dessau, Seeck, Klebs, Kornemann, 11-15. Italian opinion, 15. General opinion of the biographies, 16. Reasons for the tainted sources, 18. Church historians, 19. Jurisprudence, 21. Numismatists, 21. Object of this work, 23. CHAPTER II Emesa, 24. High-Priest Kings, 25. Septimius Severus, 27. Julius Bassianus, 27. Julia Domna’s marriage, 28. Caracalla’s birth, 29. Septimius Severus, Emperor, 30. Julia’s court, 31. Maesa comes to Rome with her family, 31. Marriage of Soaemias, 34. Birth of Elagabalus, 35. Paternity of Elagabalus, 35. Birthplace of Elagabalus, 36. Julia Mamaea, her marriage, and her connection with Caracalla, 38. Macrinus Praetorian Praefect, 41. His plot against Caracalla, 42. Election of Macrinus, 43. Julia’s position, 43. Her work to recover the empire, 43. Banishment and death, 44. CHAPTER III