[Born at Cæsarea, in Numidia, A.D. 164. Died near Archelaïs, in Cappadocia, A.D. 218. Aged 54.] An Emperor of obscure birth. He is said to have been, in his youth, a gladiator. When Præfect of the Prætorian guards, he contrived the murder of Caracalla, then at Antioch, in order to fulfil the prophecy of a soothsayer, who had predicted his accession to the throne. Elected Emperor by the soldiers, he was himself dethroned and assassinated in Cappadocia, after a brief reign of fourteen months. He is represented as haughty, bloodthirsty, cruel, and cowardly. [From the marble in the Capitoline Museum at Rome.]