THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC (133-31 B.C.)

Introductory.--We have now traced in broad outlines the development of the institutions of republican Rome, and have told briefly the story of that wonderful career of conquest which made the little Palatine city first the mistress of Latium, then of Italy, and finally of the greater part of the Mediterranean world. In the present chapter we shall follow the declining fortunes of the Republic through the last century of its existence. During this time many agencies were at work undermining the institutions of the Republic and paving the way for the Empire. What these agencies were will best be made apparent by a simple narration of the events that crowd this memorable period of Roman history.

The First Servile War in Sicily (134-132 B.C.).--With the opening of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in Sicily between masters and slaves,--what is known as the First Servile War. The condition of affairs in that island was the outgrowth of the Roman system of slavery.

The captives that the Romans took in war they usually sold into servitude. The great number furnished by their numerous conquests had caused slaves to become a drug in the slave markets of the Mediterranean world. They were so cheap that masters found it more profitable to wear their slaves out by a few years of unmercifully hard labor and then to buy others than to preserve their lives for a longer period by more humane treatment. In case of sickness they were often left to die without attention, as the expense of nursing exceeded the cost of new purchases. Some estates were worked by as many as twenty thousand slaves. T hat each owner might know his own, the poor creatures were branded like cattle. What makes all this the more revolting is the fact that many of these slaves were in every way the peers of their owners, and often were their superiors. The fortunes of war alone had made the one servant and the other master.

The wretched condition of the slaves in Sicily, where the slave system exhibited some of its worst features, and the cruelty of their masters at last drove them to revolt. The insurrection spread throughout the island until two hundred thousand slaves were in arms,--if axes, reaping hooks, staves, and roasting spits may be called arms. They defeated four Roman armies sent against them, and for three years defied the power of Rome. Finally, however, in the year 132 B.C., the revolt was crushed, and peace was restored to the distracted island. [In the year 102 B.C. another insurrection of the slaves broke out in the island, which it required three years to quell.]

The Public Lands.--In Italy itself affairs were in a scarcely less wretched condition than in Sicily. At the bottom of a large part of the social and economic troubles here was the public land system. By law or custom those portions of the public lands which remained unsold or unallotted as homesteads were open to any one to till or to pasture. In return for such use of the public land the user paid the state usually a fifth or a tenth of the yearly produce. Persons who availed themselves of this privilege were called possessors or occupiers g we should call them "squatters" or "tenants at will."

Now it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part of these public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. They alone had the capital necessary to stock with cattle and slaves the new lands, and hence they were the sole occupiers of them. The small farmers everywhere, too, were being ruined by the unfair competition of slave labor, and their little holdings were passing by purchase, and often by fraud or barefaced robbery, into the hands of the great proprietors.

There was a law, it is true, which made it illegal for any person to occupy more than a prescribed amount of the public lands; but this law had long since become a dead letter. The greater part of the lands of Italy, about the beginning of the first century B.C., are said to have been held by not more than two thousand persons. These great landowners found stock raising more profitable than working the soil. Hence Italy had been made into a great sheep pasture. The dispossessed peasants, left without home or employment, crowded into the cities, congregating especially at Rome, where they lived in vicious indolence. Thus, largely through the workings of the public land system, the Roman people had become divided into two great classes,--the rich and the poor, the possessors and the non-possessors.

The Reforms of the Gracchi.--The most noted champions of the cause of the poorer classes against the rich and powerful were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. These reformers are reckoned among the most popular orators that Rome ever produced. They eloquently voiced the wrongs of the people. Said Tiberius "You are called ' lords of the earth ' without possessing a single clod to call your own." The people made him tribune (134-133 B.C.); and in that position he secured the passage of a law for the redistribution of the public lands, which gave some relief

As the end of his term of office drew near, Tiberius stood again for the tribunate. [This was unconstitutional, for at this time a tribune could not hold his office for two consecutive years.] The aristocrats combined to defeat him. It came to riot and street fighting. The partisans of Tiberius were overpowered, and he and three hundred of his followers were killed m the Forum and their bodies thrown into the Tiber (133 B.C.). This was the first time that the Roman Forum had witnessed such a scene of violence and crime.

Gaius Gracchus now came forward to assume the position made vacant by the death of his brother Tiberius. In the year 124 B.C. he was elected tribune. Once in the tribuneship, he entered with energy upon the work of reform. He won the affection of the poor of the city by carrying a law which provided that every Roman citizen, on personal application, should be given corn from the public granaries at half or less than half the market price. Gaius could not have foreseen all the evils to which this law was to lead. It led eventually to the free distribution of corn to all citizens who made application for it. Very soon a large proportion of the population of Rome was living in vicious indolence and feeding at the public crib.

Gaius proposed in the interest of the people other measures which were bitterly opposed by the aristocrats, and the two orders at last came into collision. Gaius sought death by a friendly sword (121 B.C.),and three thousand of his adherents were massacred. The consul Lucius Opimius had offered for the head of Gaius its weight in gold. "This is the first instance in Roman history of head money being offered and paid, but it was not the last" (Long)

The common people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs, and their memory was preserved in later times by statues in the public square. To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was erected, bearing the simple inscription, "The Mother of the Gracchi."

The War with Jugurtha (111-106 B.C.).-- After the death of the Gracchi there seemed no one left to resist the heartless oppressions of the aristocratic party. The Gracchan laws respecting the public lands were annulled or made of no affect. Italy fell again into the hands of a few overrich landowners. The provinces were plundered by the Roman governors. The votes of senators and the decisions of judges, the offices at Rome and the places in the provinces,--everything pertaining to the 'government had its price, and was bought and sold like merchandise. This is well illustrated by affairs in Africa.

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, had seized all that country, having put to death the rightful rulers of different provinces, who had been confirmed in their possessions by the Romans at the close of the Punic wars. Commissioners sent from Rome to look into the matter were bribed by Jugurtha. Even the consul Bestia, who had been sent into Africa with an army to punish the insolent usurper, sold himself to the robber. An investigation was ordered; but many prominent officials at Rome were implicated in the offenses, and the matter was hushed up with money. The venality of the Romans disgusted even Jugurtha, who exclaimed, "O venal city, thou wouldst sell thyself if thou couldst find a purchaser !"

In the year I06 B.C. the war against Jugurtha was brought to a close by Gaius Marius, a man who had risen to the consulship from the lowest ranks of the people. Marius celebrated a grand triumph at Rome.

Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons (113-101 B.C.).-- The war was not yet ended in Africa before terrible tidings came to Rome from the north. Two mighty nations of "horrible barbarians," three hundred thousand strong in fighting men, coming whence no one could tell, had invaded and were now desolating the Roman province of Gaul, and might any moment cross the Alps and sweep down into Italy.

The mysterious invaders proved to be two Germanic tribes, the Teutons and Cimbri, the vanguard of that great German migration which was destined to change the face and history of Europe. These intruders were seeking new homes. They carried with them in rude wagons all their property, their wives, and their children. The Celtic tribes of Gaul were no match for the newcomers, and fled before them as they advanced. Several Roman armies beyond the Alps were cut to pieces. The terror at Rome was only equaled by that occasioned by the invasion of the Gauls three centuries before. The Gauls were terrible enough; but now the conquerors of the Gauls were coming.

Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was looked to by all as the only man who could save the state in this crisis. He was reelected to the consulship, and intrusted with the command of the armies. The barbarians had divided into two bands. The Cimbri were to cross the Eastern Alps and join in the valley of the Po the Teutons, who were to force the defiles of the Western or Maritime Alps. Marius determined to prevent the union of the barbarians and to crush each band separately.

Anticipating the march of the Teutons, Marius hurried into Southern Gaul, and falling upon the barbarians at a favorable moment almost annihilated the entire host. [In the battle of Aquæ Sextiæ, fought 102 B.C.] He now recrossed the Alps and hastened to meet the Cimbri, who were entering the north-eastern corner of Italy. Uninformed as to the fate of the Teutons, the Cimbri sent an embassy to Marius to demand that they and their kinsmen be given lands in the peninsula. Marius sent back in reply, "The Teutons have got all the land they need on the other side of the Alps." The devoted Cimbri were soon to have all they needed on this side.

A terrible battle almost immediately followed at Vercellæ (101 B.C.). More than one hundred thousand of the barbarians were killed, and sixty thousand taken prisoners to be sold as slaves in the Roman slave markets. Marius was hailed as the "Savior of his Country."

The Social or Marsic War (91-89 B.C.).--Scarcely was the danger of the barbarian invasion past before Rome was threatened by another and greater evil arising within her own borders. At this time all the free inhabitants of Italy were embraced in three classes,--Roman citizens, Latins, and Italian allies. The Roman citizens included the inhabitants of the capital, of certain towns called municipia, and of the Roman colonies, besides the dwellers on isolated farms and the inhabitants of villages scattered everywhere throughout Italy. The Latins comprised the inhabitants of the Latin colonies. The Italian allies were those conquered peoples that Rome had excluded wholly from the rights of the city.

The Social or Marsic War (as it is often called on account of the prominent part taken in the insurrection by the warlike Marsians) was a struggle that arose from the demands of the Italian allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship. [It should be carefully noted that the opposition to the admission of strangers to the rights of the city was no longer based on religious grounds, as was the case in the earliest days of patrician Rome. The opposition now arose simply from the selfish determination of a privileged class in the Roman state to retain Its monopoly rights and immunities.] Their demands being stubbornly resisted by both the aristocratic and the popular party at Rome, they took up arms, resolved upon the establishment of a rival state. A town called Corfinium, among the Apennines, was chosen as the capital of the new republic, and its name changed to Italica. Thus in a single day a large part of Italy south of the Rubicon was lost to Rome.

The greatness of the danger aroused all the old Roman courage and patriotism. Aristocrats and democrats hushed their quarrels and fought bravely side by side for the endangered life of the Republic. The war lasted three years, and was finally brought to an end rather by prudent concessions on the part of Rome than by fighting. In the year 90 B.C., alarmed by signs of disaffection in certain of the communities that up to this time had remained faithful, Rome granted the franchise of the city to all Italian communities that had not declared war against her or had already laid down their arms. The following year the full rights of the city were offered to all Italians who should within two months appear before a Roman magistrate and express a wish for the franchise. This tardy concession to the just demands of the Italians virtually ended the war. [After the close of the war the rights that had up to this time been enjoyed by the Latin towns were conferred upon all the cities between the Po and the Alps.]

Comments on the Political Results of the Social War.-- Thus as an outcome of the war practically all the freemen of Italy south of the Po were made equal in civil and political rights. This was a matter of great significance. "The enrollment of the Italians among her own citizens deserves to be regarded," declares the historian Merivale, "as the greatest stroke of policy in the whole history of the Republic." This wholesale enfranchisement of Latin and Italian allies more than doubled the number of Roman citizens.

This equalization of the different classes of the Italian peninsula was simply a later phase of that movement in early Rome which resulted in the equalization of the two orders of the patricians and plebeians. But the purely political results of the earlier and those of the later revolution were very different. At the earlier time those who demanded and received the franchise were persons living either in Rome or in its immediate vicinity, and consequently able to exercise the acquired right to vote and to hold office.

But now it was very different. These new-made citizens were living in towns and villages or on farms scattered all over Italy, and of course very few of them could ever go to Rome, either to participate in the elections there, to vote on proposed legislation, or to become candidates for the Roman magistracies. Hence the rights they had acquired were, after all, politically barren. But no one was to blame for this state of things. Rome had simply outgrown her city constitution and her system of primary assemblies. She needed for her widening empire a representative system like ours; but representation was a political device far away from the thoughts of the men of those times.

As a result of the impossibility of the Roman citizens outside of Rome taking part, as a general thing, in the meetings of the popular assemblies at the capital, the offices of the state fell into the hands of those actually living in Rome or settled in its immediate neighborhood. Since the free, or practically free, distribution of corn and the public shows were drawing to the capital from all quarters crowds of the poor, the idle, and the vicious, these assemblies were rapidly becoming simply mobs controlled by noisy demagogues and unscrupulous military leaders aiming at the supreme power in the state.

This situation brought about a serious division in the body of Roman citizens. Those of the capital came to regard themselves as the real rulers of the empire, as they actually were, and looked with disdain upon those living in the other cities and the remoter districts of the peninsula. They alone reaped the fruits of the conquered world. At the same time the mass of outside passive citizens, as we may call them, came to look with jealousy upon this body of pampered aristocrats, rich speculators, and ragged, dissolute clients and hangers-on at Rome. They became quite reconciled to the thought of power passing out of the hands of such a crowd and into the hands of a single man. The feelings of men everywhere were being prepared for the revolution that was to overthrow the Republic and bring in the Empire.

Mithradates the Great establishes an Empire in the Orient.--While the Social War was still in progress in Italy a formidable enemy of Rome appeared in the East. Mithradates VI, surnamed the Great, king of Pontus, taking advantage of the distracted condition of the Republic, had encroached upon the Roman possessions in Asia Minor, and had caused a general massacre of the Italian traders and residents in that country The number of victims of this wholesale slaughter is believed to have been at least eighty thousand.

Mithradates now turned his attention to Europe and sent his army into Greece. Athens and most of the other Greek cities renounced the authority of Rome and hailed Mithradates as the protector of Hellenism against the barbarian Romans.

Marius and Sulla contend for the Command in the War against Mithradates.--The Roman Senate now bestirred itself. An army was raised for the recovery of the Orient. Straightway a contest arose between Marius and Sulla for the command of the forces. The Senate conferred this upon Sulla, who at that time was consul. Marius was furious. By violent means he succeeded in carrying a measure in an assembly of the people whereby the command was taken away from Sulla and given to him. Sulla now saw that the sword must settle the dispute. He marched at the head of his legions upon Rome, entered the gates, and "for the first time in the annals of the city a Roman army encamped within the walls." The party of Marius was defeated, and he and ten of his companions were proscribed. Sulla soon embarked with the legions to meet Mithradates in the East (88 B.C.).

Marius massacres the Aristocrats (87 B.C.).--Leaving Sulla to carry on the Mithradatic war [This was what is known as the First Mithradatic War (88-84 B.C.)] we must first follow the fortunes of the proscribed Marius. Returning from Africa, whither he had fled, Marius joined the consul Cinna in an attempt to crush by force the senatorial party. Rome was cut off from her food supplies and starved into submission.

Marius now took a terrible revenge upon his enemies. The consul Gnaeus Octavius, who represented the aristocrats, was assassinated, and his head set up in front of the Rostra. Never before had such a thing been seen at Rome,--a consul's head exposed to the public gaze. For five days and nights a merciless slaughter was kept up. The life of every man in the capital was in the hands of the revengeful Marius. As a fitting sequel to all this violence, Marius and Cinna were, in an entirely illegal way, declared consuls. Marius was now consul for the seventh time. He enjoyed his seventh consulship only thirteen days, being card tied away by death in the seventy-first year of his age (86 B.C.).

The Proscriptions of Sulla (82 B.C.).--With the Mithradatic war ended, Sulla wrote to the Senate, saying that he was now coming to take vengeance upon the Marian party,--his own and the Republic's foes. The terror and consternation produced at Rome by this letter were increased by the accidental burning of the Capitol. The Sibylline Books, which held the secrets of the fate of Rome, were consumed. This accident awakened the most gloomy apprehensions. Such an event, it was believed, could only foreshadow the most direful calamities to the state.

The returning army from the East landed in Italy (83 B.C.). After much hard fighting Sulla entered Rome with all the powers of a dictator. The leaders of the Marian party were proscribed, rewards were offered for their heads, and their property was confiscated. Sulla was implored to make out a list of those he designed to put to death, that those he intended to spare might be relieved of the terrible suspense in which all were now held. He made out a list of eighty, which was attached to the Rostra. The people murmured at the length of the roll. In a few days it was extended to over three hundred, and then grew rapidly until it included the names of thousands of the best citizens of Italy. Hundreds were murdered simply because some favorites of Sulla coveted their estates. A wealthy noble, coming into the Forum and reading his own name in the list of the proscribed, exclaimed, "Alas ! my villa has proved my ruin." Julius Cæsar, at this time a mere boy of eighteen, was proscribed on account of his relationship to Marius, but, upon the intercession of friends, Sulla spared him; as he did so, however, he said warningly, "There is in that boy many a Marius."

The number of victims of these proscriptions has been handed down as forty-seven hundred. Almost all of these must have been men of wealth or of special distinction on account of their activity in public affairs. The property of the proscribed was confiscated and sold at public auction, or virtually given away by Sulla to his favorites. The bases of some of the most colossal fortunes that we hear of a little after this were laid during these times of proscription and robbery.

This reign of terror bequeathed to later times a terrible "legacy of hatred and fear." Its awful scenes haunted the Romans for generations, and at every crisis in the affairs of the commonwealth the public mind was thrown into a state of painful apprehension lest there should be a repetition of these frightful days of Sulla.

Sulla made Dictator, with power to remodel the Constitution (82 B.C.).--The Senate now passed a decree which approved and confirmed all that Sulla had done, and made him dictator during his own good pleasure. This was the first time a dictator had been appointed since the war with Hannibal, and the first time the dictatorial authority had ever been conferred for a longer period than six months. The decree further invested Sulla with authority to make laws and to remodel the constitution in any way that might seem to him necessary and best. The power here given Sulla was like that with which the decemvirs had been clothed nearly four centuries before this time.

The reforms of Sulla had for their chief aim the restoration of the authority of the Senate, which recent revolutions had reduced almost to a nullity, and the lessening of the power of the tribunate.

The Death of Sulla; Result of his Rule.--After having exercised the unlimited power of his office for three years, Sulla, to the surprise of everybody, suddenly resigned the dictatorship and went into retirement. He died the year following his abdication (78 B.C.). One important result of the reign of Sulla as an absolute dictator was the accustoming of the people to the idea of the rule of a single man. His short dictatorship was the prelude to the reign of the permanent imperator.

The parts of the old actors in the drama were now all played to the end. But the plot deepens, and new men appear upon the stage to carry on the new, which are really the old, parts.

Spartacus; War of the Gladiators ( 73-71 B.C.).--About a decade after the proscriptions of Sulla, Italy was the scene of fresh troubles. Gladiatorial combats had become at this time the favorite sport of the amphitheater. At Capua was a sort of training school from which skilled fighters were hired out for public or private entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian slave, known by the name of Spartacus, who incited his companions to revolt. The insurgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius and made that their stronghold. There they were joined by gladiators from other schools, and by slaves and discontented persons from every quarter. Their number at length increased to a hundred and fifty thousand men. For three years they defied the power of Rome, and even gained control of the larger part of Southern Italy. But at length Spartacus himself was killed and the insurrection crushed.

The Abuses and the Prosecution of Verres (70 B.C.).--Terrible as was the state of society in Italy, still worse was the condition of affairs outside the peninsula. At first the rule of the Roman governors in the provinces, though severe, was honest and prudent. But during the period of profligacy and. corruption upon which we have now entered, the administration of these foreign possessions had become shamefully dishonest and incredibly cruel and rapacious. The prosecution of Verres, the proprætor of Sicily, exposed the scandalous rule of the oligarchy, into whose hands the government had fallen. For three years Verres plundered and ravaged that island with impunity. He sold all the offices and all his decisions as judge. He demanded of the farmers the greater part of their crops, which he sold to swell his already enormous fortune. Agriculture was thus ruined and the farms were abandoned. Verres had a taste for art, and when on his tours through the island confiscated gems, vases, statues, paintings, and other things which struck his fancy, whether in temples or in private dwellings.

Verres could not be called to account while in office; and it was doubtful whether after the end of his term, he could be convicted, so corrupt and venal had become the Senate, the body by which all such offenders were tried. Indeed, Verres himself openly boasted that he intended two thirds of his gains for his judges and lawyers; the remaining one third would satisfy himself.

At length, after Sicily had come to look as though it had been ravaged by barbarian conquerors, the infamous robber was impeached. The prosecutor was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the brilliant orator, who was at this time just rising into prominence at Rome. The storm of indignation raised by the developments of the trial caused Verres to flee into exile to Massilia, whither he took with him much of his ill-gotten wealth.

Growth of Piracy in the Mediterranean; War with the Pirates (78-66 B.C.) .--Another most shameful commentary on the utter incapacity of the government of the aristocrats was the growth of piracy in the Mediterranean waters during their rule. It is true that this was an evil which had been growing for a long time. The Romans through their conquest of the countries fringing the Mediterranean had destroyed not only the governments that had maintained order on the land, but at the same time had destroyed the fleets, as in the case of Carthage, which, since the days when the rising Greek cities suppressed piracy in the Aegean Sea, had policed the Mediterranean and kept its ship routes clear of corsairs. In the more vigorous days of the Republic the sea had been well watched by Roman fleets, but after the close of the wars with Carthage the Romans had allowed their war navy to fall into decay.

The Mediterranean, thus left practically without patrol, was swarming with pirates; for the Roman conquests in Africa, Spain, and especially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused thousands of adventurous spirits in those maritime countries to take to their ships and seek a livelihood by preying upon the commerce of the seas. These pirates had banded themselves together in a sort of government and state. They had as places of refuge numerous strong fortresses--four hundred, it is said--among the inaccessible mountains of the coast lands they frequented. They had a fleet of a thousand sails, with dockyards and naval arsenals.

The history of this pirate state is as interesting as a pirate's tale. Its swift ships, sailing in fleets and squadrons, scoured the waters of the Mediterranean, so that no merchantman could spread her sails in safety. Nor were these buccaneers content with what spoils the sea might yield them; like the Vikings of the Northern seas in later times, they made descents upon every coast, plundered villas and towns, and sweeping off the inhabitants sold them openly as slaves in the slave markets of the East. The pirates even ravaged the shores of Italy itself. They carried off merchants and travelers from the Appian Way and held them for ransom. At last they began to intercept the grain ships of Sicily and Africa and thereby threatened Rome with starvation. Corn rose to famine prices.

The Romans now bestirred themselves. In the year 67 B.C. Gnæus Pompey, a rising young general of the aristocrats, was invested with dictatorial power for three years over the Mediterranean and all its coasts for fifty miles inland. He quickly swept the pirates from the sea, captured their strongholds in Cilicia, and settled the twenty thousand prisoners that fell into his hands in colonies in Asia Minor and Greece. His vigorous and successful conduct of this campaign against the pirates gained him great honor and reputation.

Pompey in the East; the Death of Mithradates (63 B.C.).--Pompey had not yet ended the war with the pirates before he was given, by a vote of the people, charge of the war against Mithradates, [ The so-called Third Mithradatic War (74-64 B.C.). What is known as the Second Mithradatic War (83-82 B.C.) was a short conflict that arose just after the close of the First. The chief conduct of the present war had been in the hands of Lucius L. Lucullus.] who now for several years had been in arms against Rome. In a great battle in Lesser Armenia Pompey almost annihilated the army of Mithradates. The king fled from the field, and soon afterwards, to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans, took his own life (63 B.C.). [Some authorities, however, say that he was murdered by his son.] His death removed one of the most formidable enemies that Rome had ever encountered. Hamilcar, Hannibal, and Mithradates were the three great names that the Romans always pronounced with respect and dread.

Pompey now turned south and conquered Syria, Phoenicia, and CÏle-Syria, which countries he erected into a Roman province under the name of Syria (64 B.C.). Still pushing southward, the conqueror entered Palestine, and after a short siege of Jerusalem, by taking advantage of the scruples of the Jews in regard to fighting on the Sabbath day, captured the city (63 B.C.).

The Conspiracy of Catiline (64-62 B.C.).--While the legions were absent from Italy with Pompey in- the East a most daring conspiracy against the government was formed at Rome. Catiline, a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large company of; profligate young nobles, weighed down with debts and desperate like himself, and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls, and the chief men of the state and to plunder and burp the capital. The proscriptions of Sulla were to be renewed and all debts were to be canceled.

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to the consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately clothed the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula that they "should take care that the Republic received no harm." Then in the Senate chamber, with Catiline himself present, Cicero exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known as The First Oration against Catiline. The senators shrank from the conspirator and left the seats about him empty. After a feeble effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his guilt, and the cries of "traitor" and "parricide" from the senators, Catiline fled from the chamber and hurried out of the city to the camp of his followers in Etruria. In a desperate battle fought near Pistoria he was slain with many of his followers ~(62 B.C.). His head was borne as a trophy to Rome.

Cæsar, Crassus, and Pompey: the so called First Triumvirate (60 B.C.).--Although the conspiracy of Catiline had Bailed, still it was very easy to foresee that the days of liberty at Rome were over. From this time forward the government was practically in the hands of ambitious leaders or of corrupt combinations and "rings." Events gather about a few great names, and the annals of the Republic become biographical rather than historical.

There were now in the state three men--Cæsar, Crassus, and Pompey--who were destined to shape affairs. Gaius Julius Cæsar was born in the year coo B.C. Although descended from an old patrician family, still he had identified himself with the democratic party. In every way he courted popular favor. He lavished enormous sums upon public games and tables. His debts are said to have amounted to 25,000,000 sesterces (about $1,250,000 [ca. 1900]). His popularity was unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had already made known to himself, as well as to others, his genius as a commander.

Marcus Licinius Crassus belonged to the senatorial or aristocratic party. He owed his influence to his enormous wealth, being one of the richest men in the Roman world. His property was estimated at 7100 talents (about $8,875,000 [ca. 1900]).

With Gnæus Pompey and his achievements we are already familiar. His influence throughout the Roman world was great; for in settling the countries he subdued he had filled the offices with his friends and adherents. This patronage had secured for him incalculable authority in the provinces.

What is commonly known as the First Triumvirate rested on the genius of Cæsar, the wealth of Crassus, and the reputation of Pompey. It was a private arrangement entered into by these three men for the purpose of securing to themselves the control of public affairs. Cæsar was the manager of the "ring." Through the aid of his colleagues he secured the consulship.

Cæsar's Conquest of Gaul (58-51 B.C.).--At the end of his consulship Cæsar had assigned him, as proconsul, the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, together with Illyricum. Already doubtless he was revolving in his mind plans for seizing supreme power. Beyond the Alps the Gallic and German tribes were in restless movement. He saw there a grand field for military exploits, which should gain for him such prestige as in other fields had been won and was now enjoyed by Pompey. With this achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his interests, he might hope easily to attain that position at the head of affairs towards which his ambition was urging him.

In the spring of 58 B.C. alarming intelligence from beyond the Alps caused Cæsar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against the various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his admirable Commentaries Cæsar himself has left us a faithful and graphic account of all the memorable marches, battles, and sieges that filled the years between 58 and 51 B.C.

The year 55 B.C. marked two notable achievements. Early in the spring of this year Cæsar constructed a bridge across the Rhine and led his legions against the Germans in their native woods and swamps. In the autumn of the same year he crossed the channel that separates the mainland from Britain, and after maintaining a foothold upon that island for two weeks withdrew his legions into Gaul for the winter. The following season he made another invasion of Britain, but, after some encounters with the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the mainland without having established any permanent garrisons in the island. Almost one hundred years passed away before the natives of Britain were again molested by the Romans.

Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by Cæsar's victories over the Gauls. . "Let the Alps sink," exclaimed Cicero; "the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the barbarians; they are now no longer needed."

Results of the Gallic Wars.--One good result of the Gallic wars of Cæsar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The country was opened to Roman traders and settlers, who carried with them the language, customs, and arts of Italy. This Romanization of Gaul meant the adding of another to the number of Latin nations that were to arise from the break-up of the Roman Empire. There can be little doubt that if Cæsar had not conquered Gaul it would have been overrun by the Germans, and would ultimately have become simply an extension of Germany. There would then have been no great Latin nation north of the Alps and the Pyrenees. It is difficult to imagine what European history would be like if the French nation, with its semi-Italian temperament, instincts, and traditions, had never come into existence.

Another result of Cæsar's campaigns in Gaul was the checking of the migratory movements of the German tribes, which gave Graeco-Roman civilization time to become thoroughly rooted not only in Gaul but also in Spain and other lands.

Rivalry between Cæsar and Pompey; Cæsar crosses the Rubicon (49 B.C.).--While Cæsar was in Gaul Crassus was leading an army against the Parthians in the East, hoping to rival there the brilliant conquests of Cæsar. But his army was almost annihilated by the enemy, and he himself was slain (54 B.C.).

The world now belonged to Cæsar and Pompey. A struggle between them was inevitable. While Cæsar was carrying on his campaigns in Gaul, Pompey was at Rome watching jealously the growing reputation of his rival. He strove by a princely liberality to win the affections of the common people. On the Field of Mars he erected an immense stone theater with seats for forty thousand spectators. He gave magnificent games and set public tables, and when the interest of the people in the sports of the Circus flagged he entertained them with gladiatorial combats.

In a similar manner Cæsar strengthened himself with the people for the struggle which he plainly foresaw. He increased the pay of his soldiers, conferred the privileges of Roman citizenship upon the inhabitants of different cities, and sent to Rome enormous sums of gold to be expended in the erection of theaters and other public structures, and in the celebration of games and shows that should rival in magnificence those given by Pompey.

The Senate, favoring Pompey, made him sole consul for one year, which was about the same thing as making him dictator, and issued a decree that Cæsar should resign his office and disband his Gallic legions by a stated day. The crisis had now come. Cæsar ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy. Without waiting for their arrival, at the head of a small body of veterans that he had with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubicon, a little stream that marked the boundary of his province. This was a declaration of war. As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed, "The die is cast ! "

Cæsar becomes Master of the West (49-48 B.C.).--As Cæsar marched southward, one city after another threw open its gates to him; legion after legion went over to his standard. Pompey, with a few legions, fled to Greece. Within sixty days Cæsar had made himself master of all Italy. His moderation won all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the terrible scenes of the days of Marius and Sulla reenacted. Cæsar, however, soon gave assurance that life and property should be held sacred.

With order restored in Italy, and with Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain brought under his authority, Cæsar was free to turn his forces against Pompey in the East. The armies of the rivals met. upon the plains of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Pompey's forces were cut to pieces. He himself fled from the field and escaped to Egypt. Just as he was landing he was assassinated.

A Laconic Message; End of the Civil War.--Cæsar, who had followed Pompey to Egypt, was detained there nine months in settling a dispute respecting the throne. The kingdom was finally secured to the celebrated Cleopatra and a younger brother. Intelligence was now brought from Asia Minor that Pharnaces, son of Mithradates the Great, was inciting a revolt among the peoples of that region. Cæsar met the Pontic king at Zela, defeated him, and in five days put an end to the war (47 B.C.). His laconic message to the Senate announcing his victory is famous. It ran thus: "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered).

Cæsar now hurried back to Italy, and thence proceeded to Africa, which the friends of the old Republic had made their last chief rallying place. At the great battle of Thapsus (46 B.C.) they were crushed. Fifty thousands lay dead upon the field. Cato, [This was a grandson of Cato the Censor] who had been the very life and soul of the army, refusing to outlive the Republic, took his own life.

Cæsar as an Uncrowned King.--Cæsar was now virtually lord of the Roman world. [The sons of Pompey--Gnæus and Sextus--had headed a revolt in Spain. Cæsar crushed the movement a little later in the decisive battle of Munda (45 B.C.)] He refrained from taking the title of king, but he assumed the purple robe, the insignia of royalty, and caused his effigy to be stamped, after the manner of sovereigns, on the public coins. His statue was significantly given a place along with those of the seven kings of early Rome. He was invested with all the offices and dignities of the state. The Senate made him perpetual dictator (44 B.C.), and conferred upon him the powers of censor, consul, and tribune, with the titles of Pontifex Maximus and Operator. Thus, though not a king in name, Cæsar's actual position at the head of the state was that of an absolute ruler.

Cæsar as a Statesman.--Cæsar was great as a general, yet greater, if, possible, as a statesman. He had great plans which embraced the whole world that Rome had conquered. A chief aim of his was to establish between the different classes of the empire equality of rights, to place Italy and the provinces on the same footing, to blend the various races and peoples into a real nation,--in a word, to carry to completion that great work of making all the world Roman which had been begun in the earliest times. To this end he established numerous colonies in the provinces and settled in them the poorer citizens of the capital. With a liberality that astonished and offended many, he admitted to the Senate sons of freedmen, and particularly representative men from among the Gauls, and conferred upon individual provincials, and upon entire classes and communities in the provinces, the partial or full rights of the city. His action here marks an epoch in the history of Rome. The immunities and privileges of the city had never hitherto been conferred, save in exceptional cases, upon ally peoples other than those of the Italian race. Cæsar threw the gates of the city wide open to the non-Italian peoples of the provinces. Thus was foreshadowed the day when all freemen throughout the whole empire should be Roman in name and privilege. [One of the most important of all Cæsar's laws was that known as the Lex Julia Municipalis (45 B.C.). All the municipal governments organized after this, whether in towns in Italy or in the provinces, conformed to the principles embodied in this important constitutional measure.]

As Pontifex Maximus Cæsar reformed the calendar so as to bring the festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided against further confusion by making the year consist of 365 days, with an added day for every fourth or leap year. This is what is called the Julian Calendar. [This calendar was in general use in Europe lentil the year 1582, when it was reformed by Pope Gregory XIII, and became what is known as the Gregorian Calendar. This in time came in vogue in all Christian countries save Russia, where the Julian Calendar is still followed (until 1918).]

Besides these achievements, Cæsar projected many other undertakings which the abrupt termination of his life prevented his carrying into execution.

The Death of Cæsar (44 B.C.).--Cæsar had his bitter personal enemies, who never ceased to plot his downfall. There were, too, sincere lovers of the old Republic to whom he was the destroyer of republican liberties. The impression began to prevail that he was aiming to make himself king. A crown was several times offered him in public by the consul Mark Antony; but seeing the manifest displeasure of the people, he each time pushed it aside. Yet there is no doubt that secretly he desired it. It was reported that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy, the fabled cradle of the Roman race, and make that ancient capital the seat of the new Roman Empire. Others professed to believe that the arts and charms of the Egyptian Cleopatra, who had borne him a son at Rome, would entice him to make Alexandria the center of the proposed kingdom. So many, out of love for Rome and the old Republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy against the life of Cæsar with those who sought to rid themselves of the dictator for other and personal reasons.

The Ides (the 15th day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day the Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or eighty conspirators, headed by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, were concerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had some knowledge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned Cæsar to "beware of the Ides of March." No sooner had he entered the hall where the Senate assembled that day, and taken his seat, than the conspirators crowded about him as if to present a petition. Upon a signal from one of their number their daggers were drawn. For a moment Cæsar defended himself; but seeing Brutus, upon whom he had lavished gifts and favors, among the conspirators, he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, "Et tu, Brute!" (Thou, too, Brutus !), then to have drawn his mantle over his face and to have received unresistingly their further thrusts.

The Romans had killed many of their best men and cut short their work; but never had they killed such a man as Cæsar. He was the greatest man their race had yet produced or was destined ever to produce.

Cæsar's work was left all incomplete. What lends to it such great historical importance is the fact that in his reforms and policies Cæsar drew the broad lines which his successors followed, and indicated the principles on which the government of the future must be based.

The Second Triumvirate (43 B.C.); the Death of Cicero.--Antony, the friend and secretary of Cæsar, had gained possession of his will and papers, and now, under color of carrying out the testament of the dictator according to a decree of the Senate; entered upon a course of high-handed usurpation. He was aided in his designs by Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, one of Cæsar's old lieutenants. Very soon he was exercising all the powers of a real dictator. "The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, "but the tyranny still lives."

To what lengths Antony would have gone in his career of usurpation it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by Gaius Octavius, the young grand-nephew of Julius Cæsar, and the one whom he had named in his will as his heir and adopted as his son. Upon the Senate declaring in favor of Octavius, civil war immediately broke out between him and Antony and Lepidus. After several indecisive battles between the forces of the rival competitors, Octavius proposed to Antony and Lepidus a reconciliation. The outcome of a conference was a league known as the Second Triumvirate (43 B.C.).

The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided the world among themselves: Octavius was to have the government of the West; Antony, that of the East; while to Lepidus fell the control of Africa. A general proscription, such as had marked the coming to power of Sulla, was then resolved upon. It was agreed that each should give up to the assassin such friends of his as had incurred the ill-will of either of the other triumvirs. Under this arrangement Octavius gave up his friend Cicero,--who had incurred the hatred of Antony by opposing his schemes,--and allowed his name to be put at the head of the list of the proscribed.

The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. "Let me die," said he, "in my fatherland, which I have so often saved ! "

His attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling, towards the coast, when his pursuers came up and dispatched him in the litter in which he was being carried. His head was taken to Rome and set up in the Forum. T he right hand of the victim--the hand that had penned the eloquent orations--was nailed to the Rostra.

Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the dreadful scenes of the days of Sulla were reenacted. Three hundred senators and two thousand knights were murdered. The estates of the wealthy were confiscated and conferred by the triumvirs upon their friends and favorites.

Last Struggle of the Republic at Philippi (42 B.C.); the Roman World in the Hands of Antony and Octavius.--The friends of the old Republic and the enemies of the triumvirs were meanwhile rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius, who had fled from Rome after the assassination of Cæsar, were the animating spirits. Octavius and Antony, as soon as they had disposed of their enemies in Italy, crossed the Adriatic into Greece to disperse the forces of the republicans there.

At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies met (42 B.C.). The new levies of the liberators were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the cause of the Republic lost, committed suicide. It was, indeed, the last effort of the Republic. The history of the events that lie between the action at Philippi and the establishment of the Empire is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs for the possession of the prize of supreme power. Lepidus was at length expelled from the triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, as in the times of Cæsar and Pompey, was in the hands of two masters,--Antony in the East and Octavius in the West.

Antony and Cleopatra.--After the battle of Philippi Antony went into Asia for the purpose of settling the affairs of the provinces and vassal states there. He summoned Cleopatra, the fair queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus, in Cilicia, there to give account to him for the aid she had rendered the liberators. She obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of her charms to appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus in a gilded barge, with oars of silver and sails of purple silk. Antony was completely fascinated, as had been the great Cæsar before him, by the dazzling beauty of the "Serpent of the Nile." Enslaved by her enchantments and charmed by her brilliant wit, in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else,--ambition and honor and country.

The Battle of Actium (31 B.C.).--Affairs could not long continue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alexandria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Cæsarean, son of Julius Cæsar and Cleopatra, as the heir of the Empire. All Rome was stirred. It was evident that a struggle was at hand in which the question for decision would be whether the West should rule the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy and the supporter of the sovereignty of the Eternal City.

Both parties made the most gigantic preparations for the inevitable conflict. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the western coast of Greece. While the issue of the battle was yet undecided, Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. Antony, as soon as he perceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else and followed in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the fleeing queen, the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel and became her partner in the disgraceful flight. The abandoned fleet and army surrendered to Octavius. The conqueror was now sole master of the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31 B.C.) are usually dated the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire.

Death of Antony and of Cleopatra; Egypt becomes a Roman Province.--Octavius pursued Antony to Egypt, where the latter, deserted by his army and informed by a messenger from the false queen that she was dead, committed suicide.

Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her charms; but failing in this, and becoming convinced that he proposed to take her to Rome to grace his triumph, she took her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. With the death of Cleopatra the noted dynasty of the Ptolemies came to an end. Egypt was henceforth a province of the Roman state.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE AND THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CÆSAR (31 B.C.-A.D. 14) .

The Character of the Imperial Government.--The hundred years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left the Roman Republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one wise enough and strong enough to remold its crumbling fragments in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to pieces, might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of perpetuity and strength. "The establishment of the Roman Empire," says Merivale, "was, after all, the greatest political work that any human being ever wrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Cæsar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon are not to be compared with it for a moment."

The government which Octavius established was a monarchy in fact but a republic in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius Cæsar, Octavius carefully veiled his really absolute power under the forms of the old republican state. He did not take the title of king. He knew how hateful to the people that name had, been since the expulsion of the Tarquins, and was mindful how many of the best men of Rome, including the great Julius, had perished because they gave the people reason to think that they were aiming at the regal power. Nor did he take the title of dictator, a name that since the time of Sulla had been almost as intolerable to the people as that of king. But he adopted the title of Imperator,--whence the name Emperor,--a title which, although it carried with it the absolute authority of the commander of the legions, still had clinging to it no odious memories. He also received from the Senate the honorary surname of Augustus, a title that hitherto had been sacred to the gods, and hence was free from all sinister associations. A monument of this act was erected in the calendar. It was decreed by the Senate that the sixth month of the Roman year should be called Augustus (whence our August) in commemoration of the Imperator, an act in imitation of that by which the preceding month had been given the name Julius (whence our July) in honor of Julius Cæsar.

And as Octavius was careful not to wound the sensibilities of the lovers of the old Republic by assuming any title that in any way suggested regal authority and prerogative, so was he careful not to arouse their opposition by abolishing any of the republican offices or assemblies. He allowed all the old magistracies to exist as heretofore; but he himself absorbed and exercised the most important part of their powers and functions. The consuls and all the other republican magistrates were elected as usual; but they were virtually only the nominees and creatures of the Emperor. They were the effigies and figureheads which deluded the people into believing that the Republic still existed. Never did a people seem more content with the shadow after the loss of the substance.

Likewise all the popular assemblies remained and were convened as usual to hold elections and to vote on measures laid before them. But Octavius had the right to summon them, to place in nomination persons for the various offices, and to initiate legislation. The titular consuls and tribunes also, it is true, had this right, but after the new order of things had become firmly established they dared not exercise it without the concurrence of the new master of the state.

The Senate still existed, but it was shorn of all real independence, since Augustus had been armed with the censorial power for the purpose of revising its lists. This power Octavius exercised by reducing the number of senators, which had been raised to one thousand, to six hundred, and by striking from the rolls the names of unworthy members and of obstinate republicans.

We may summarize all these changes by saying that the monarchy abolished five hundred years before this was now rising again amidst the old forms of the Republic.

The Government of the Provinces.--The revolution that brought in the Empire effected a great improvement in the condition of the provincials. The government of all those provinces that were in an unsettled state and that needed the presence of a large military force Augustus. [From this on we shall refer to Octavius by this his honorary surname.] withdrew from the Senate and took the management of their affairs in his own hands. These were known as the provinces of Cæsar. Instead of these countries being ruled by practically irresponsible proconsuls and proprietors, they were henceforth ruled by legates of the Emperor, who were removable at his will and answerable to him for the faithful and honest discharge of the duties of their offices. Salaries were attached to their positions, and thus the scandalous abuses which had grown up in connection with the earlier system of self-payment through fees, requisitions, and like devices were swept away. These provinces were given, as we should say, a pure and able civil service.

The more tranquil provinces were still-left under the control of the Senate, and were known as public provinces. These also profited by the change, since the Emperor extended his care and watch to them and, as the judge of last appeal, righted wrongs and punished flagrant offenders against right and justice.

The Defeat of Varus by the Germans under Arminius (A.D. 9).--The reign of Augustus was marked by one of the most terrible disasters that ever befell the Roman legions. The general Quintilius Varus had made the mistake of supposing that he could rule the freedom-loving Germans, who had in part been brought under Roman authority, just as he had governed the servile Asiatics of the Eastern provinces, and had thereby stirred them to determined revolt. While the general was leading an army of three legions, numbering altogether about twenty thousand men, through the almost pathless depths of the Teutoburg Wood, he was surprised by the barbarians under their brave chieftain Hermann,-- called Arminius by the Romans,--and his army destroyed.

The disaster caused great consternation at Rome. Augustus, wearied and worn already with the cares of empire and domestic affliction, was inconsolable. He paced his palace in agony, and kept exclaiming, "O Varus, Varus! give me back my legions ! give me back my legions!"

The victory of Arminius over the Romans was an event of great significance in the history of European civilization. The Germans were on the point of being completely subjugated and put in the way of being Romanized, as the Celts of Gaul had already been. Had this occurred, the history of Europe would have been changed; for the Germanic element is the one that has given shape and color to the important events of the last fifteen hundred years. . . . .

Literature and the Arts under Augustus.--The reign of Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14. Although the government of Augustus, as we have learned, was disturbed by some troubles upon the frontiers, still never before, perhaps, had the civilized world enjoyed so long a period of general rest from the turmoil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the gates of the temple of Janus at Rome, which were open in time of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before during the existence of the city had they been closed, so constantly had the Roman people been engaged in war.

This long repose from the strife that had filled all the preceding centuries was favorable to the upspringing of literature and art. Under the patronage of the Emperor and that of his favorite minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the Golden Age of Latin literature. During this reign Vergil composed his immortal epic of the Ænead, and Horace his famous odes, while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and Ovid his fancy-inspiring Metamorphoses. Many who lamented the fall of the Republic sought solace in the pursuit of letters; and in this they were encouraged by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that would otherwise have been engaged in political intrigues against his government.

Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. He adorned the capital with many splendid structures, including temples, theaters, porticoes, baths, and aqueducts. He said proudly, "I found Rome a city of brick; I left it a city of marble."

Social and Religious Life at Rome under Augustus.--A striking feature of life at Rome at this time was the growing infatuation of the people for the bloody spectacles of the amphitheater. Even the prudent Augustus lavished on these shows money without measure or stint. He himself tells us that besides a great naval spectacle he gave eight gladiatorial exhibitions, in which ten thousand men fought on the arena.

For a long time before the fall of the Republic, the decay of religious faith had been going on. Augustus did all in his power to arrest the process. He restored the temples that had fallen into decay, erected new ones not only at Rome but in every part of the Empire, and in every way strove to awaken in the people fresh veneration for the ancestral deities of Rome.

It is preeminently worthy of note that it was in the midst of the happy reign of Augustus, when profound peace prevailed throughout the civilized world,--the doors of the temple of Janus having been closed,--that Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome; yet it was filled with profound significance not only for the Roman Empire but for the world.

The Death and Deification of Augustus.--In the year A.D. 14 Augustus died, having reached the seventy-sixth year of his age. By decree of the Senate divine worship-was accorded to him and temples were erected in his honor. At first blush this worship of the dead Cæsar seems to us strange and impious. But it will not seem so if we put ourselves at the point of view of the old Roman. It was the natural and logical outcome of ancestor worship, which, as we have learned, was a favorite cult among the Romans. The sentiment and belief which prompted the offerings of gifts and prayers to the guardian spirits of the family would naturally lead to similar offerings to the spirit of the departed Cæsar, father of the Roman state.

FROM TIBERIUS TO THE ACCESSION OF DIOCLETIAN (A.D. 14-284)

Reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14-37).--Tiberius, the adopted stepson of Augustus, became his successor. During the first years of his reign he used his practically unrestrained authority with moderation, being seemingly desirous of promoting the best interests of all classes in his vast empire; and even to the last his government of the provinces was just and beneficent.

But unfortunately Tiberius was of a morose, suspicious, and jealous nature, and the opposition which he experienced in the capital caused him, in his contest with his political and personal enemies, soon to institute there a most high-handed tyranny. He enforced oppressively an old law, known as the Law of Majestas, which made it a capital offense for any one to speak a careless word, or even to entertain an unfriendly thought, respecting the Emperor. Rewards were offered to informers, and hence sprang up a class of persons called delators, who acted as spies upon society. Often false charges were made to gratify personal enmity; and many, especially of the wealthy class, were accused and put to death that their property might be confiscated.

Tiberius appointed as his chief minister and as commander of the prætorian guard [This was a corps of select soldiers which had been created by Augustus, and which was designed as a bodyguard to the Emperor. It numbered about 10,000 men, and was given a permanent camp near one of the city gates. It soon became a formidable power in the state and made and unmade emperors at will.] one Sejanus, a person of the lowest and most corrupt life. Then he retired to Capreæ, an islet in the Bay of Naples, and left to this man the management of affairs at the capital. For a time Sejanus ruled at Rome very much according to his own will. No man's life was safe. He even grew so bold as to plan the assassination of the Emperor himself. His designs, however, became known to Tiberius, and the infamous and disloyal minister was arrested and put to death. After the execution of his minister Tiberius ruled more despotically than before. Many sought refuge from his tyranny in suicide.

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote province of the Roman Empire, the Saviour was crucified. Animated by an unparalleled missionary spirit, his followers traversed the length and breadth of the Empire, preaching everywhere the "glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in the gods of the old mythologies, the softening and liberalizing influence of Greek culture, the unification of the whole civilized world under a single government, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weariness of the oppressed and servile classes,--all these things had prepared the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than three centuries the pagan Empire had become Christian not only in name but also very largely in fact.

Reign of Caligula (A.D. 37-41).--Tiberius was followed by Gaius Cæsar, better known as Caligula. After a few months spent in arduous application to the affairs of the Empire, the mind of the young Emperor became unsettled. He soon gave himself up to a life of dissipation. The cruel sports of the amphitheater possessed for him a strange fascination. He even entered the lists himself and fought as a gladiator upon the arena. After four years his insane career was brought to a close by some of the officers of the praetorian guard whom he had wantonly insulted.

Reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54).--Claudius, who succeeded Caligula, made his reign a landmark in the constitutional history of Rome by the admission of the Gallic nobles to the Roman Senate and the magistracies of the city. Tacitus has given us a paraphrase of a speech which the Emperor made before the Senate in answer to the objections which were urged against such a course. The Emperor touched first upon the fact that his own most ancient ancestor, although of Sabine origin, had been received into the city and made a member of the patrician order. This liberal policy of the fathers ought, he thought, to be followed by himself in his conduct of public affairs. Men of special talent, wherever found, should be transferred to Rome. "Nor am I unmindful of the fact," he continued, "that . . . from Etruria and Lucania and all Italy persons have been received into the Roman Senate. Finally, the city was extended to the Alps, so that not single individuals but entire provinces and tribes were given the Roman name. Is it a matter of regret to us that the Balbi came to us from Spain? that men not less distinguished migrated to Rome from Gallia Narbonensis? The descendants of these immigrants remain among us, nor do they yield to us in their devotion to the fatherland. What other cause was there of the downfall of Sparta and of Athens, states once powerful in arms, save this,--that they closed their gates against the conquered as aliens? [Tacitus, Annals, xi. 23. Compare these sentiments of Claudius with those of Titus Manlius] The generous policy here advocated by Claudius was acted upon, at least as to a part of the Gallic nobility, who were given admission to the Roman Senate.

In the field of military enterprise the reign of Claudius was signalized by the conquest of Britain. Nearly a century had passed since the invasion of the island by Julius Cæsar. The southern part of the island was now subjugated and made into a province under the name of Britannia (A.D. 43). Many towns soon sprang up here, which in time became important centers of Roman trade and culture, and some of which were the beginnings of great English towns of to-day.

Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife he married the "wicked Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned mushrooms, in order to make place for the succession of her son Nero, then only sixteen years of age.

Reign of Nero (A.D. 54-68).--Nero was fortunate in having for his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca; but never was teacher more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years Nero, under the influence of Seneca and Burrhus, the latter the commander of the prætorians, ruled with moderation and equity; then he gradually broke away from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and entered upon a career filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity.

It was in the tenth year of his reign (A.D. 64) that the so-called "Great Fire" laid more than half of Rome in ashes. For six days and nights the flames surged like a. sea through the valleys and about the base of the hills covered by the city. It was rumored that Nero had ordered the conflagration to be lighted in order to clear the ground so that he could rebuild the city on a more magnificent plan, and that from the roof of his palace he had enjoyed the spectacle and amused himself by singing a poem of his own composition entitled the Sack of Troy. To turn attention from himself, Nero accused the Christians of having conspired to burn the city in order to help out their prophecies. The doctrine which was taught by some of the new sect respecting the second coming of Christ and the destruction of the world by fire lent color to the charge. The persecution that followed was one of the most cruel recorded in the history of the Church. Many victims were covered with pitch and burned at night to serve as torches in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves the names of the apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this persecution.

The Emperor was extravagant, and consequently always in need of money, which he secured through murders and confiscations. Among his victims was his old preceptor Seneca, who was immensely rich. On the charge of treason, he condemned him to death and confiscated his estate.

At last the Senate, Nero being absent from Rome in the East, declared him a public enemy and condemned him to death by scourging, to avoid which, aided by a servant, he took his own life.

Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian line. The family of the great Cæsar was now extinct; but the name remained, and was adopted by all the succeeding emperors.

Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (A.D. 68-69).--These three names are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all short and uneventful. The succession, upon the death of Nero and the extinction in him of the Julian line, was in dispute, and the legions in different quarters supported the claims of their favorite leaders. One after another the three aspirants named were killed in bloody struggles for the imperial purple. The last, Vitellius, was hurled from the throne by the soldiers of Vespasian, the old and beloved commander of the legions in Palestine, which were at this time engaged in war with the Jews.

Reign of Vespasian (A.D. 69-79).--The accession of Flavius Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing three reigns, known as the Flavian Age (A.D. 69-96). One of the most memorable events of Vespasian's reign was the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history the city was taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. The temple was destroyed, and more than a million Jews who had crowded into the city are believed to have perished. In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the temple of its sacred utensils and bore them away as trophies. Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name may be seen at the present day the sculptured representation of the seven-branched golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the war. After a most prosperous reign of ten years Vespasian died A.D. 79, the first Emperor after Augustus who had not reset with a violent death.

Reign of Titus (A.D. 79-81).--In a short reign of two years Titus won the title of "the Friend and the Delight of Mankind." He was unwearied in acts of benevolence and in bestowal of favors.

The reign of Titus was signalized by two great disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost as calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second was the destruction, by act eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried beneath showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. Pliny the Elder, the great naturalist, venturing too near the mountain to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life. [In the year 17I3, sixteen centuries after the destruction of the cities, the ruins were discovered by some persons engaged in digging a well and since then extensive excavations have been made, which have uncovered a large part of Pompeii and revealed to us the streets, homes, theaters, baths, shops, temples, and various monuments of the ancient city,--all of which presents to us a very vivid picture of Roman life during the imperial period eighteen hundred years ago.]

Reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96).--Titus was followed by his brother Domitian, whose rule, after the first few years, was one succession of murders and confiscations. This cruel severity was the outgrowth of the contest between the Emperor and the Senate, which in this reign was renewed with extreme bitterness.

Under this Emperor took place what is known in Church history as "the second persecution of the Christians." The name of Domitian's niece Domitilla has been preserved as one of the victims of this persecution. This is significant, since it shows that the new faith was thus early finding adherents among the higher classes, even in the royal household itself.

Domitian perished in his own palace and by the hands of members of his own household. The Senate ordered his infamous name to be erased from the public monuments.

The Five Good Emperors; Reign of Nerva (A.D. 96-98).-- The five emperors--Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines--who succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate, which during this period assumed something of its former weight and influence in the affairs of the Empire. The wise and beneficent administration of the government by these rulers secured for them the enviable distinction of being called "the five good emperors."

Nerva, who was an aged senator and an ex-consul, ruled paternally. He died after a short reign of sixteen months, and the scepter passed into the hands of the able commander Trajan, whom Nerva had previously made his associate in the government.

Reign of Trajan (A.D. 98-117).--Trajan was a native of Spain and a soldier by profession and talent. He was the first provincial to sit in the seat of the Caesars. From this time forward provincials were to play a part of ever-increasing importance in the affairs of the Empire.

It was the policy of Augustus--a policy adopted by most of his successors--to make the Danube in Europe and the Euphrates in Asia the limits of the Roman Empire in those respective quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his dominions beyond both these rivers. In the early part of his reign he was busied in wars against the Dacians, a people living north of the Lower Danube. These troublesome enemies were subjugated, and Dacia was made into a province. The modern name Rumania is a monument of this Roman conquest and colonization beyond the Danube. The Rumanians to-day speak a language that in its main elements is largely of Latin origins. [The Romanic-speaking peoples of Rumania and the neighboring regions number about ten millions (ca. 1900).]

In the latter years of his reign Trajan led his legions to the East, crossed the Euphrates, reduced Armenia, and wrested from the Parthians most of the lands which once formed the heart of the Assyrian monarchy. Out of the territories he had conquered Trajan made three new provinces, which bore the ancient names of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria.

To Trajan belongs the distinction of having extended the boundaries of the Empire to the most distant points to which Roman ambition and prowess were ever able to push them.

Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the character of the early professors of the new faith, and the light in which they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we have very important evidence in a certain letter written by Pliny the Younger to the Emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus, in Asia Minor, of which remote province Pliny was governor. Pliny speaks of the new creed as a "contagious superstition that had seized not cities only but the lesser towns also, and the open country." Yet he could find no fault in the converts to the new doctrines. Nevertheless, because the Christians steadily refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many to be put to death for their a inflexible obstinacy."

Trajan died A.D. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of the most prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot of the Roman people.

Reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-1138) .--Hadrian, a kinsman of Trajan, succeeded him in the imperial office. He prudently abandoned the territory that had been acquired by Trajan beyond the Euphrates, and made that stream once more the eastern boundary of the Empire.

More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of the Empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman possessions there against the Picts and Scots by erecting a continuous rampart, known as Hadrian's Wall, across the island from the Tyne to the Solway Firth. Thins wall, in places well preserved, can still be traced over the low hills of the English moorlands almost from sea to sea. There exists nowhere in the lands that once formed the provinces of the empire of Rome any more impressive memorial of her world-wide dominion than these ramparts, along which for three hundred years and more her sentinels kept watch and ward for civilization against the barbarian marauders of Caledonia.

In the year 132 the Jews in Palestine, who had in a measure recovered from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out in desperate revolt, because of the planting of a Roman colony upon the almost desolate site of Jerusalem, and the placing of the statue of Jupiter in the holy temple. More than half a million of Jews are said to have perished in the hopeless struggle, and the most of the survivors were driven into exile,--the last dispersion of the race (A.D. I35).

The Antonines (A.D. 138-180).--Aurelius Antoninus, surnamed Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the Roman Empire an administration singularly pure and parental. Throughout his long reign of twenty-three years the Empire was in a state of profound peace. The attention of the historian is attracted by no striking events, which fact, as many have not failed to observe, illustrates admirably the oft-repeated epigram, 4' Happy is that people whose annals are brief."

Antoninus, early in his reign, had united with himself in the government his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death of the former (A.D. 161) the latter succeeded quietly to his place and work. The studious habits of Aurelius won for him the title of Philosopher. He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was a most thoughtful writer. His Meditations make the nearest approach to the spirit of Christianity of all the writings of pagan antiquity.

Aurelius would have chosen a life passed in quiet and study at the capital; but hostile movements of the Parthians, and especially invasions of the barbarians along the Rhenish and Danubian frontiers, called him from his books and forced him to spend most of the latter years of his reign in the camp. The- Parthians, who had violated their treaty with Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants of the Emperor, and a part of Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority (A.D. 165).

This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The returning soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which swept off vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and districts were depopulated. In the general distress and panic the people were led to believe that it was the new sect of Christians that had called down upon the nation the anger of the gods. Aurelius permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted against them, during which the celebrated Christian fathers, Justin Martyr at Rome and the aged Polycarp at Smyrna, suffered death.

It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under the pagan emperors sprang from political rather than religious motives, and that is why we find the names of the best emperors, as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the careful performance of the rites of the national worship; and hence, while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allowing all forms of worship among their subjects, still they required that men of every faith should at least recognize the Roman gods and burn incense before their statues. This the Christians steadily refused to do., The neglect of the temple services it was believed angered the gods and endangered the safety of the state, bringing upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was a main reason of their persecution by the pagan emperors.

But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the North. The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts and pouring over the frontiers. Aurelius placed himself at the head of his legions and hurried beyond the Alps. He checked the inroads of the barbarians, but could not subdue them. At last his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numerous campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now Vienna) in the nineteenth year of his reign (A.D. 180).

Never was Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives and works of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. As Merivale, in dwelling upon their virtues; very justly remarks, "The blameless career of these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse for Cæsarism in all after ages."

The State of the Provinces.--The close of the auspicious era of the Antonines invites us to cast a glance over the Empire, in order that we may note the condition of the population at large. As we have already observed, the great revolution which brought in the Empire was a revolution which redounded to the interests of the provincials. Even under the worst emperors the administration of affairs in the provinces was as a rule prudent, humane, and just. It is probably true that, embracing in a single view all the countries included in the Roman Empire, the second century of the Christian era marks the happiest period in their history. Without question there is no basis for a comparison, but only for a contrast, between the condition of the countries of the East and of North Africa under the earlier Roman emperors and the condition of the same lands to-day under their Mohammedan rulers.

The cities of the Eastern countries, as well as hundreds of similar communities in Spain, in Gaul, in Britain, and in other lands of the West, were enjoying, under the admirable municipal system developed by the Romans, a measure of local self-government probably equal to that enjoyed to-day by the municipalities of the most advanced of the countries of modern Europe. This wise system had preserved or developed the sentiment of local patriotism and civic pride. The cities vied with one another in the erection of theaters, amphitheaters, baths, temples, and triumphal arches, and in the construction of aqueducts, bridges, and other works of a utilitarian nature. In these undertakings they were aided not only by liberal contributions made by the emperors from the imperial treasury but by the generous gifts and bequests of individual citizens. Private munificence of this character was as remarkable a feature of this age as is the liberality of individuals at the present day in the endowment of educational and charitable institutions. As the representative of this form of ancient liberality, we have Herodes Atticus (about A.D. 104-I80), a native of Athens. He was the Andrew Carnegie of his time. With a truly royal munificence he built at his own expense at Athens a splendid marble stadium large enough to hold the entire population of the city. To the city of Troas in Asia Minor he made a gift equivalent to over a half million dollars to aid the inhabitants in the construction of an aqueduct.

Scores of majestic ruins scattered throughout the lands once forming the provinces of the ancient Empire of Rome bear impressive testimony not only as to the populousness, culture, and enterprise of the urban communities of the Roman dominions but also as to the generally wise, fostering, and beneficent character of the earlier imperial rule.

Reign of Commodus (A.D. 180-192).--Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, was a most unworthy successor of his illustrious father. For three years, however, surrounded by the able generals and wise counselors that the prudent administration of the preceding emperors had drawn to the head of affairs, Commodus ruled with fairness and lenity, when an unsuccessful conspiracy against his life seemed suddenly to kindle all the slumbering passions of a Nero. He secured the favor of the rabble with the shows of the amphitheater and purchased the support of the praetorians with bribes and flatteries. Thus he was enabled for ten years to retain the throne, while perpetrating all manner of cruelties and staining the imperial purple with the most detestable crimes.

Commodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats. Attired in a lion's skin and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly set upon and slew antagonists arrayed to represent mythological monsters and armed with great sponges for rocks. The servile Senate conferred upon him the title of the Roman Hercules. The Empire was finally relieved of the insane tyrant by some members of the royal household, who anticipated his designs against themselves and put him to death.

"The Barrack Emperors."--For nearly a century after the death of Commodus (from A.D. 192 to 284) the emperors were elected by the army, and hence the rulers for this period have been called "the Barrack Emperors." The character of the period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five emperors who mounted the throne during this time all except four came to death by violence. To internal disorders was added the terror of barbarian invasions. On every side savage hordes were breaking into the Empire to rob, to murder, and to burn.

The Public Sale of the Empire (A.D. 193).--The beginning of these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on the part of the praetorians. These soldiers, having slain the successor of Commodus, gave out notice that they would sell the Empire to the highest bidder. It was accordingly set up for sale at their camp and struck off to Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who promised twenty-five thousand sesterces to each of the twelve thousand soldiers at this time composing the guard. So the price of the Empire was three hundred million sesterces ($12,000,000 [ca. 1900]).

As soon as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the legions on the frontiers, they rose in indignant revolt. Each army proclaimed its favorite commander Emperor. The leader of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great energy and force of character. He knew that there were other competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who first seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was soon at Rome. The praetorians were no match for the trained legionaries of the frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend their Emperor, who was taken prisoner and put to death after a reign of sixty-five days. As a punishment for the insult they had offered to the Roman state the unworthy praetorians were disbanded and banished from the capital, and a new bodyguard of fifty thousand legionaries was organized to take their place.

Reign of Caracalla (A.D. 211-217).--Severus, after a prosperous reign, died in Britain, leaving the Empire to his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla murdered his brother and then ordered Papinian, the celebrated jurist, to make a public argument in vindication of the fratricide. When that great lawyer refused, saying that "it was easier to commit such a crime than to justify it," he put him to death. Driven by remorse and fear, he fled from the capital and wandered about the provinces. At Alexandria, on account of some uncomplimentary remarks made by the citizens upon his personal appearance, he ordered a general massacre of the inhabitants. Finally, after a reign of six years, the monster was slain in Syria.

Caracalla's sole political act of real importance was the bestowal of citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the Empire; and this he did, not to give them a just privilege, but that he might collect from them certain special taxes which only Roman citizens had to pay. Before the reign of Caracalla it was only particular classes of the provincials, or the inhabitants of some particular city or province, that, as a mark of special favor, had from time to time been admitted to the rights of citizenship. But by this wholesale act of Caracalla the entire free population of the Empire outside of Italy that did not already possess the rights of the city was made Roman, at least in name and nominal privilege. That vast work of making the whole world Roman, the beginnings of which we saw in the dawn of Roman history, was now completed. [It must not be supposed, however, that the edict of Caracalla did much more than register an already accomplished act. It seems probable that by this the greater part of the freemen of the Empire were already enjoying the Roman franchise.]

The Age of the Thirty Tyrants (A.D. 251-268).--For about a generation after Caracalla the imperial scepter passed rapidly from the hands of one emperor to those of another. Then carne the so-called Age of the Thirty Tyrants. The throne Being held by weak emperors, there sprang up in every part of the Empire competitors for it,--several rivals frequently appearing in the field at the same time. The barbarians pressed upon all the frontiers and thrust themselves into all the provinces. The Empire seemed on the point of falling to pieces. But a fortunate succession of five good emperors--Claudius, Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, and Carus (A.D. 268-284)--restored for a time the ancient boundaries and again forced together into some sort of union the fragments of the shattered state.

The most noted of the usurpers of authority in the provinces during this period of anarchy was Zenobia, the ruler of the celebrated city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Boldly assuming the title of "Queen of the East," she bade defiance to Rome. The Emperor Aurelian led in person an army against her. After a long siege Palmyra was taken and, in punishment for a second uprising, given to the flames. The ruins of the city are among the most interesting remains of Graeco-Roman civilization in the East.

DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT

THE REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN (A.D. 284-305)

General Statement.--The accession of Diocletian marks an important era in the history of the Roman Empire. The two matters of chief importance connected with his reign are the changes he effected in the government and his persecution of the Christians.

Diocletian's governmental reforms, though radical, were salutary, and infused such fresh vitality into the frame of the dying state as to give it a new lease of life for another term of nearly two hundred years.

The Empire becomes an Undisguised Oriental Monarchy.--Up to the time we have now reached the really monarchical character of the government had been more or less carefully concealed under the forms and names of the old Republic. Realizing that republican government among the Romans had passed away forever, and that its forms were now absolutely meaningless, Diocletian cast aside all the masks with which Augustus had concealed his practically unlimited power and which fear or policy had led his successors, with greater or less consistency, to retain, and let the government stand forth naked in its true character as an absolute Asiatic monarchy. In contrasting the policy of Augustus with that of Diocletian, Gibbon truly says, "It was the aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded powers which the emperors possessed over the Roman world."

The change was marked by Diocletian's assumption of the titles of Asiatic royalty and his adoption of the court ceremonials and etiquette of the East. All who approached him were required to prostrate themselves to the ground, a form of Oriental and servile adoration which the free races of the West had hitherto, with manly disdain} refused to render to their magistrates and rulers.

Changes in the Administrative System.--The century of anarchy which preceded the accession of Diocletian, and the death by assassination during this period of ten of the twenty-five wearers of the imperial purple. [This enumeration does not include the so called Thirty Tyrants, of whom many met death by violence.] had made manifest the need of a system which would discourage assassination and provide a regular mode of succession to the throne. Diocletian devised a system the aim of which was to compass both these ends. First, he chose as a colleague a companion ruler, Maximian, who, like himself, bore the title of Augustus. Then each of the co-emperors associated with himself an assistant, who took the title of Cæsar and was considered the son and heir of the Emperor. There were thus two Augusti and two Cæsars. Milan, in Italy, became the capital and residence of Maximian, while Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, became the seat of the court of Diocletian. The Augusti took charge of the countries near their respective capitals, while the younger and more active Cæsars, Galerius and Constantius, were assigned the government of the more distant and turbulent provinces. The vigorous administration of the government in every quarter of the Empire was thus secured.

A most serious drawback to this system was the heavy expense involved in the maintenance of four courts with their endless retinues of officers and dependents. It was complained that the number of those who received the revenues of the state was greater than that of those who contributed to them. The burden of taxation grew unendurable.- The magistrates of the cities and towns were made responsible for the payment of the taxes due the government from their respective communities, and hence office-holding became not an honor to be coveted but a burden to be evaded. It was this vicious system of taxation which more than any other one cause, after slavery, contributed to the depopulation, impoverishment, and final downfall of the Empire.

Persecution of the Christians.--Towards the end of his reign Diocletian inaugurated against the Christians a persecution which continued long after his abdication, and which was the severest, as it was the last, waged against the Church by the pagan emperors. The Christians were cast into dungeons, thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheater, burned over a slow fire, and put to death by every other mode of torture that ingenious cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake their constancy. They courted the death that secured them, as they firmly believed, immediate entrance upon an existence of unending happiness. The exhibition of devotion and steadfastness shown by the martyrs won multitudes to the persecuted faith.

It was during this and the various other persecutions that vexed the Church in the second and third centuries that the Christians sometimes sought refuge in the Catacombs, those vast subterranean galleries and chambers under the city of Rome. Here they buried their dead, and on the walls of the chambers sketched rude symbols of their hope and faith. It was in the darkness of these subterranean abodes that Christian art had its beginnings.

The Abdication of Diocletian (A.D. 304).--After a prosperous reign of twenty years, becoming weary of the cares of state, Diocletian abdicated the throne and forced or induced his colleague Maximian also to lay down his authority on the same day. Galerius and Constantius were, by this act, advanced to the purple and made Augusti; and two new associates were appointed as Cæsars.

Diocletian retired to his country seat at Salona, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. It is related that, when Maximian wrote him urging him to endeavor with him to regain the power they had laid aside, he replied, "Were you but to come to Salona and see the cabbages which I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would no longer talk to me of empire."

REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (A.D. 306-337)

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge (A.D. 312); "In this Sign conquer."--Galerius and Constantius, who became Augusti on the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, had reigned together only one year when the latter died at York, in Britain. His soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined by the system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine Emperor Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters. For eighteen years Constantine fought before he gained the supremacy.

One of the most important of the battles that took place between the contending rivals for the imperial purple was the battle of the Milvian Bridge, about two miles from Rome. Constantine's standard on this celebrated battlefield was the Christian cross. He had been led to adopt this emblem through the appearance, as once he prayed to ,the sun-god, of a cross over the setting sun, with this inscription above it: "In this sign conquer." [In hoc signo vinces; in Greek, en touto nika.] Obedient unto the celestial vision, Constantine had at once made the cross his banner, [ The new standard was called the Labarum (from the Celtic lavar, command).] and it was beneath this new emblem that his soldiers marched to victory at the battle of the Milvian Bridge.

This act of Constantine constitutes a turning point in the history of the Roman Empire, and especially in that of the Christian Church. Christianity had come into the world as a religion of peace and good will. The Master had commanded his disciples to put up the sword, and had forbidden its use by them either in the spread or in the defense of the new faith. For three centuries now his followers had obeyed literally this injunction of the Founder of the Church, so that a Quaker, non-military spirit had up to this time characterized the new sect. By many of the early Christians the profession of arms had been declared to be incompatible with the Christian life.

Now in a moment all this was changed. The most sacred emblem of the new faith was made a battle standard, and into the new religion was infused the military spirit of the imperial government that had made that emblem the ensign of the state. From the day of the battle at the Milvian Bridge a martial spirit has animated the religion of the Prince of Peace. Since then Christian warriors have often made the cross their battle standard. This infusion into the Church of the military spirit of Rome was one of the most important consequences of the espousal of the Christian cause by the Emperor Constantine.

Constantine makes Christianity the Religion of the Court.-- By a decree issued at Milan A.D. 3I3, the year after the battle at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine placed Christianity on an equal footing with the other religions of the Empire. The language of this famous edict of toleration, the Magna Carta, as it has been called, of the Church, was as follows: "We grant to Christians and to all others full liberty of following that religion which each may choose."

But by subsequent edicts Constantine made Christianity in effect the state religion and extended to it a patronage which he withheld from the old pagan worship. By the year A.D. 32I he had granted the Christian societies the right to receive gifts and legacies, and he himself enriched the Church with donations of money and grants of land. This marks the beginning of the great possessions of the Church, and with these the entrance into it of a worldly spirit. From this moment can be traced the decay of its primitive simplicity and a decline from its early high moral standard. It is these deplorable results of the imperial patronage that Dante laments in his well-known lines:

Ah, Constantine! of how much ill was mother,
Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee [Inferno, xix, 115-117.]

Another of Constantine's acts touching the new religion is of special historical interest and importance. He recognized the Christian Sunday, "the day of the sun," as a day of rest, forbidding ordinary work on that day, and ordering that Christian soldiers be then permitted to attend the services of their Church. This recognition by the civil authority of the Christian Sabbath meant much for the slave. Now, for the first time in the history of the Aryan peoples, the slave had one day of rest in each week. It was a good augury of the happier time coming when all the days should be his own.

The Church Council of Nicæa (A.D. 325).--With a view to settling the controversy between the Arians and the Athanasians [The Arians were the followers of Arius, a presbyter of Alexander in Egypt; the Athanasians, of Athanasius, archdeacon and later bishop of the same city, and the champion of the Orthodox or Catholic view of the Trinity.] respecting the nature of Christ,--the former denied his equality with God the Father,--Constantine called the first (Ecumenical or General Council of the Church at Nicæa, a town of Asia Minor, A.D. 325. Arianism was denounced, and a formula of Christian faith adopted, which is known as the Nicene Creed.

Constantine founds Constantinople, the New Rome, on the Bosporus (A.D. 330).--After the recognition of Christianity, the most important act of Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the Bosporus, as the new capital of the Empire. One reason which led the Emperor to select a new seat for his court and government was the ungracious conduct towards him of the inhabitants of Rome, because he had abandoned the worship of the old national deities. But there were also military reasons, the most dangerous enemies of the Empire being now in the East, and also social and political reasons, since through the Eastern conquests of Rome the center of population, wealth, and culture of the Empire had shifted eastward.

The imperial invitation and the attractions of the court induced multitudes to crowd into the new capital, so that almost in a day the old Byzantium grew into a great city. In honor of the Emperor the name was changed to Constantinople, the "City of Constantine." The old Rome on the Tiber, emptied of its leading inhabitants, soon sank to the obscure position of a provincial town.

The Reorganization of the Government.--Another of Constantine's important acts was the reorganization of the government. In this great reform he seems to have followed, in the main, the broad lines drawn by Diocletian, so that his work may be regarded as a continuation of that of his predecessor.

To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine laid out the Empire into four great divisions called prefectures, which were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and these again into one hundred and sixteen provinces. The purpose that Constantine had in view in laying out the Empire in so many and such small provinces was to diminish the power of the provincial governors, and thus make it impossible for them to raise successfully the standard of revolt.

The Pagan Restoration under Julian the Apostate (A.D. 361-363).--A troubled period of nearly a quarter of a century followed the death of Constantine the Great, and then the imperial scepter came into the hands of Julian, called the Apostate because he abandoned Christianity and labored to restore the pagan worship. In his efforts to restore paganism, however, Julian did not resort to the old means of persuasion,--"the sword, the fire, the lions." One reason why he did not was because under the softening influences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the Roman world had already become imbued with a gentleness and humanity that rendered morally impossible the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian persecutions. Julian's chief weapon was the pen, for he was a writer and satirist of no mean talent.

It was in vain that the apostate Emperor labored to uproot the new faith; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. Equally in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old Greek and Roman divinities. Polytheism was a form of religious belief which the world had now outgrown; Great Pan was dead.

The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians were removed by his successor Jovian (A.D. 363-364). In the army the old pagan standards were replaced by the Labarum, and Christianity was again made the religion of the imperial court.