Rome

With the accession of Vespasian (q.v.) a better era commenced, which. if we except the reign of Domitian, continued uninterrupted for a space of 100 years, comprising the reigns, besides those mentioned, of Titus (q v.), Nerve (q.v.), Trajan (q.v.), Hadrian Antoninus Pius (q.v.), and Marcus Aurelius (q.v.). These were all Men of tine and honorable character—some, as e.g., Trap!), Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius, were really illustrious rulers, worthy of the best days of Borne. Under all of them the provinces were better governed, the fins:Dees better. administered, and public morals wonderfully improved. Nothing, indeed, is more clear than that, after tire time of Vespasian, that restaurator rem publier. as he has been justly called, the worst days of Rome (in a moral point of view) were, over. Never again did she give way to the ble sensuality, gluttony, and profligacy of the 1st century. Bad emperors she had Its well as good, but they did not again succeed mn comipting their age. Blood, indeed, was shed freely enough, hostilities on the frontiers were as frequent as ever, and the violence and selfishness of military ambition were things that paganism did not seek, and had not the power, to quell; but the will abyss of anarchy into which the empire latterly fell is less dreadful than the saturnalia of vice that filled the soul of Juveuni with indig nation iu the days of Domitian. How far the change was due to the influence of the ever-extending Christian religion it is impossible to tell: but that Christianity did send a reinvigorating breath of new life through the old decayMg body of the state is beyond all dispute, and is written on the very face of the history of the first centuries. The chief military events, from the days of Vespasian to those of Marcus Aurelius, are the Mud conquest of Britain by Agricola (q.v.), the final conquest of the Dacian monarchy, the victorious invasion of Parthia and of northern Arabia; and the conquest of the val ley of the Nile as far s. as upper Nubia, by Trajan; the chastisement of the Mareomanni, Quadi, Chatti, etc., by Marcus Aurelius. Hadrian`s long rule of 21 years was peaceful, b;:t is memorable as the most splenilid era of Roman architecture. The reigns of Com modus (q.v.), Pertinax (q.v.), and Didius Julianus (q.v.) were insignificant, except in so far as they show us the wretched confusion into which the administration of affairs inevitably fell when bad, or hated, or feeble rulers were invested with the purple. Able generals, respectable jurists, honorable senators are not wanting, but their influence is personal and local. The reign of Septimius Severus 093-211 A.D.) is memorable as marking the first, real change in the attitude of the emperors toward Christianity. The new religion was beginning to make itself felt in the state; and Severus, who was a Carthaginian, while his wife was a Syrian, may have felt a special interest in a faith that like themselves was of Semitic origin. At all events it was taken under the imperial protection, and began to make rapid way. Caraealla (q.v.) and Elagabalus (q.v.) are perhaps the worst of all the emperors in point of criminality; but the mad bru tality of the one and the monstrous debauchery of the other were purely personal affairs, and were regarded with horror by the citizens of the empire.' The reign of Alexander Severus is marked by the downfall of the Farallon dynasty of Persian kings, and the rise of the native Sassanidte (q.v.), which, as Niebuhr observes, " was one of the unluck iest things that could have happened to the Roman empire," for the latter proved far more formidable enemies than the Parthian rulers. After the assassination of Severus (235 A.D.) followed a period of confusion, bloodshed, and general mismanagement. The names of Maximin (q.v.), Maximus (q.v.), Balbinus (q.v.), Gordianus (q.v.), and Philip (q.v.) recall nothing but wretched quarrels, often ending in assassination. Then fol lowed " the beginning of the end." The whole of Europe beyond the Roman frontier— the mysterious north—began to ferment. The Franks showed themselves on the lower Rhine, the Suabians ,on the Maine; while the Goths burst through Dacia, routed the forces of DMus (q.v.), and slew the emperor himself at mount Humus, crossed the Euxine, and ravaged the whole northern coast of Asia Minor. A little later—during the reigns of 'Valerian (q.v.), Gallienus, and the so-called thirty tyrants—the empire is nothing but a wild distracted chaos, Franks, Alemanni, Goths, and Persians rushing in from their respective quarters, like vultures scenting prey. The Goths swept over the whole of Achaia, pillaging and burning the most famous cities—Athens, Corinth, Argos, etc.; while the Asiatic hordes of Sapor committed even greater havoc in Syria and Asia Minor; and but for the courage and skill of Odenathus, husband of Zenobia (q.v.), who had built up a strong independent kingdom in the Syrian desert, with Palmyra for its capital, might have permanently possessed themselves of the region's which they merely devastated. With Claudius Gothicus (268-270 A.D.), the fortunes of the empire once more begin to brighten. By him, and his successors Aurelian (q.v.), Probus (q.v.), and Carus, the barbarians of the n. and n.w., as well as the Persians in the e. were severely chastised. Nay, when Diocletian obtained the purple (284 A.D.), it seemed as if the worst. were over, and the empire might still be rescued from destruction; but his division of the empire into east and west, with separate 4ugusti and assistant Casa rs though it sprang from a clear perception of the impossibility of one man administering successfully the affairs of so vast a state—led to those labyrinthine confusions and civil wars, in which figure the names of Maximian (Qv.), Constantius (see CONSTANTINE), Galerius (q.v.). Maxentius Maximin (q.v.), Licinius (q.v.), and Constantine, and which were only brought to a close by the surpassing genius of the last-mentioned. Under Constantine (324-337 A.D.), as all the world knows, occurred the greatest revolu tion in Roman history since the birth of Christ—viz., the establithment of Christianity

as the religion of the state.' He also transferred the seat of government from Rome to Byzantium on the Bosporus, where he founded a new city, and named it after himself. But no sooner was the great statesman dead than the mutinous discords that he had kept under by the vigor of his rule, broke loose; the empire underwent a triple division among his sons; and though Constantin% the youngest, ere long became sole ruler, he failed to display the genius of his father, and in his repeated campaigns against the Per sians reaped nothing but disaster and disgrace. But the political fortunes of the empire now possess only a secondary interest; it is the struggles of the Christian sects and the rise of the Catholic church that mainly attract the attention of the historian. There, at least, we behold the signs of new life—a zeal, enthusiasm, and inward strength of soul that no barbarism could destroy. Christianity came too late to save the ancient civiliza tion, but it enabled the Roman world to endure three centuries of utter barbarism, and afterward to recover a portion of the inheritance of culture that it once seemed to have lost forever. Julian's attempt to revive paganism was a lamentable anachronism, but his efforts, when governor of Gaul under his kinsman Constantius, to repel the incessant incursions of the Franks and Alemanni, displayed a tine valor and generalship, and were crowned with success. The judgment of the poet Prudentius on the apostate is that of posterity: Pedidus ;We, Deo, sed non et peditlue orbi. But after the death of Julian, the signs of the approaching dissolution of the empire became more unmistaka ble. Vet the great state was, if we may so speak, loath to die; and again and again in her death agony, she put forth a momentary strength that amazed her foes, and taught them that even the expiring struggles of a giant were to be feared. Valentinian G•atimxn (q.v.), and Theodosius (q.v.) were rulers worthy of better times. The last-men tioned is even known to history as the "great." But they fought against destiny, and their labor was in vain. Already swarms of ferocious Huns (q.v.) from the east had driven the Goths out of Dacia, where they had long teen settled, and forced them to cross the Danube into the Roman territory, where the cruelty and oppression of the impe rial officers goaded the refugees into insurrection ; and in their fury, they devastated the It hole east from the Adriatic to the Euxine. Theodosius indeed subdued and even dis armed them; but be could not prevent them from drawing nearer to the heart of the empire, and already they are found scattered over all Mtesia, Servia, and northern lily ricum. Hardly was Theodosius dead when they rose again, under their chief, Marie (q.v.), against Honorius, emperor of the west. Rome was saved (for the moment) only by the splendid bravery and skill of Stilicho (q.v.), the imperial gen.; but after his assassination, the barb.m•ians returned, sacked the city (410 A.D.), and ravaged the penin sula. Three years earlier, hordes of Suevi, Burgundians, .Alemimi, Vandals, and Akins burst into Gaul (where the native Celts had long been largely Romanized in Ian-lan guageamae and habits), overran the whole, and then penetrated into Spain, where a Vandal empire was rapidly set up, It is utterly impossible (within our limits) to explain the chaotic imbroglio that followed in the west—the struggles between Visigoths and Vandals in Spain, between Romans and both, between usurpers of the purple and loyal generals in Gaul—the fatal rivalries of those otherwise noble and gifted men—Boniface, governor (comes) of Africa, and iEtius, governor of Gaul—which led to the invasion of Africa by Genserie (q.v.), and its devastation from the straits of Gibraltar to Carthage (429 A.D.). While such was the state affairs in the west, things were not a whit better in the east. There the Huns, from mere love of havoc, had reduced vast regions to an utter desert; for nearly 50 years, indeed, the little ferocious demons hael rioted in destruction. At last, a trivial quarrel sent them into Gaul; but somewhere in Cham pagne they were routed with great slaughter (451 A.D.) by a combined force of Visigoths, Burgundinns, Franks, and Roman mercenaries, under iEtins and Theodoric, king of the Goths; and in spite of their successful invasion of hilly in the following year, their strength was permanently broken, and henceforth they play an insignificant part in his tory. 'But tEtius, the only man who could have decently propped up the wretched ruin called the western empire, was assassinated by his contemptible sovereign Valentinian. whose own outrages led to his murder too; his widow, Eudoxia, to be revenged on his murderer and successor, Petronius Maximus, invited Genserie, the "scourge of God," over from Africa, and exposed Rome to the horrors of pillage for 14 days. Rich mer, a Sueve, next figures as a sort of governor of the city, and what relics of empire it still possessed, for Gaid, Britain, Spain, western Africa, and the islands in the Mediter ranean, had all been wrested from it. While Majorian—the last able emperor—lived. Ricimer's position was a subordinate one, but, thenceforth, the western emperor merely was an emperor in name—a rot faineant—while the real sovereignty was exercised by this Suevic maire du pedals, who was succeeded in his functions by time Burgundian king Eunobald, and time latter again by Orestes, in whose time the final catastrophe hap pened, when Odoacer (q.v.), placing himself at-the head of the barbarian mercenaries of the empire, overthrew the last, and the most ridiculous occupant of the throne of the Ctesars (476 A.D.), who, by a curious coincidence, bore the same name as the mythical founder of the city—Romulus. See, besides the ancient histories of Polybius, livy. Sallust, Tacitus, etc., the modern histories of Gibbon, Niebuhr, Arnold, Merivale, Mount: sen, and lime.