had never ceased to be a target of persecution by the emperors before him; and no long time had passed since the death of Caracalla, who had brought down upon the Christians the greatest of persecutions. In his palace Alexander set up a place of worship in which he joined the Christian religion with the Roman religions, and by this act he was the first of those who lightened the burden upon the Christians.

Alexander's reforms went beyond administrative, military, and polit-ical matters to education: he founded elementary schools in most of the villages belonging to his empire, and there remain to us to this day papyri in Egypt

that were used as textbooks in the elementary schools.

Although Alexander remained in power for a considerable time, his war with Ardashir exhausted his strength and cost him much of his money, which left room for revolts in his empire. The Illyrian tribes rose against him and threatened northern Italy while he was still with his mother at the Persian war. When he could not master these tribes he took to bribing their chiefs, which lost him the confidence of his troops, who were already disgusted at his mother's domination over him; so they mutinied and abandoned the two of them, and the Syrian armies on which mother and son had relied mutinied as well,

fell upon them, and killed them together in the year 235 A.D.

By this deed they left a vast void in the empire, for with the death of this woman and her son there began an age of military anarchy; and exposure to the assaults of the barbarians was a powerful factor in the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Thus ended the life of this woman of Homsi origin. And how many are her likes among great women of whose very existence we are ignorant — in this age in which woman in our country is trying to take her place beside man, to serve her nation as he serves it, and to prove that the nation's weak half is strong in its right to life, liberty, honor, and dignity.