and at his feet lay the two halves of the wax tablets which he had torn
apart when the convulsion came on. He foamed at the mouth, with low
moans, and, before Alexander could prevent him, racked with pain and
seeking for some support, he had set his teeth in the arm of the seat off
which he was slipping. Greatly shocked, and full of sincere pity,
Alexander tried to raise him; but the lion, who perhaps suspected the
artist of having been the cause of this sudden attack, rose on his feet
with a roar, and the young man would have had no chance of his life if
the beast had not happily been chained down after his meal. With much
presence of mind, Alexander sprang behind the chair and dragged it, with
the unconscious man who served him as a shield, away from the angry
brute.

Galen had urged Caesar to avoid excess in wine and violent emotions, and
the wisdom of the warning was sufficiently proved by the attack which had
seized him with such fearful violence, just when Caracalla had neglected
it in both particulars. Alexander had to exert all the strength of his
muscles, practised in the wrestling-school, to hold the sufferer on his
seat, for his strength, which was not small, was doubled by the demons of
epilepsy. In an instant the whole Court had rushed to the spot on
hearing the lion's roar of rage, which grew louder and louder, and could
be heard at no small distance, and then Alexander's shout for help. But
the private physician and Epagathos, the chamberlain, would allow no one
to enter the room; only old Adventus, who was half blind, was permitted
to assist them in succoring the sufferer. He had been raised by
Caracalla from the humble office of letter-carrier to the highest
dignities and the office of his private chamberlain; but the leech
availed himself by preference of the assistance of this experienced
and quiet man, and between them they soon brought Caesar to his senses.
Caesar then lay pale and exhausted on a couch which had hastily been