The Circle of Knowledge

Rome: Mistress of the World

Importance of Roman History

The greatness of Roman history lies in the fact that it is, in a large sense, the history of the world from the time of Rome’s supremacy. Out of the Roman Empire arose the modern state system of Europe; and the Roman language, law and institutions are still, in changed forms, alive and active in the modern world. The influence of Christianity, and of Greek art and literature, have to a great extent been preserved and transmitted to us through Rome. Rome brought all the civilized peoples of the West, including Western Asia, under one dominion and one bondage; and the culture which was thus gathered up into one vast reservoir was given off in streams that, in due season, fertilized the mental soil of the rude and restless nations which succeeded the fallen empire.

Geographical Center of the Roman Empire

The study of Roman history properly begins with the geography of Italy, because it was in Italy that the Roman people had their origin, and it was here that they began their great career. It was only when the Romans had conquered and organized Italy that they were able to conquer and govern the world.

Favorable Situation of the Italian Peninsula

The position of the Italian peninsula was favorable to the growth of the Roman power. It was situated almost in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, on the shores of which had flourished the great nations of antiquity—Egypt, Phœnicia, Carthage and Greece. By conquering Italy, Rome thus obtained a commanding position among the nations of the ancient world. As the peninsula projects southward into the Mediterranean it bends toward the east, so that its southern coasts afforded an easy access to the civilized peoples of Greece. The eastern shores of the peninsula, washed by the Adriatic Sea, with few bays and harbors, were not favorable to the early progress of the people; while the western coasts, bordering upon the Tyrrhenian Sea, with their numerous indentations afforded greater opportunities for commerce and a civilized life.

The Mountains and Rivers of Italy

There are two important mountain chains which belong to Italy, the Alps and the Apennines. The Alps form a semicircular boundary on the north and afford a formidable barrier against the neighboring countries of Europe. Starting from the sea at its western extremity, this chain stretches toward the north for about one hundred and fifty miles, when it rises in the lofty peak of Mt. Blanc, fifteen thousand feet in height; and then continues its course in an easterly direction for about three hundred and thirty miles, approaching the head of the Adriatic Sea, and disappearing along its coast. It is crossed by several passes, through which foreign peoples have sometimes found their way into the peninsula.

The Apennines, beginning at the western extremity of the Alps, extend through the whole length of the peninsula, forming the backbone of Italy.

Important Divisions of the Peninsula

Central Italy comprised the northern part of the peninsula proper, that is, the territory between the line just drawn from the Macra to the Rubicon, and another line drawn from the Silarus on the west to the Frento on the east. This territory contained six countries, namely, three on the western coast,—Etruria, Latium (la´shi-um), and Campania; and three on the eastern coast and along the Apennines,—Umbria, Picenum, and what we call the Sabellian country, which included many mountain tribes, chief among which were the Sabines and the Samnites.

Southern Italy comprised the rest of the peninsula and contained four countries, namely, two on the western coast, Lucania and Brutium, extending into the toe of Italy; and two on the eastern coast, Apulia and Calabria (or Iapygia), extending into the heel of Italy.

Early Inhabitants of Sicily

Sicily was inhabited in the west by a race of unknown origin called the Sikanians: the Sikels, who gave their name to the island, were closely connected in race with the Latins. Sicily was fought for by the Carthaginians, and, Greek cities having been founded in Sicily, in the end the island became almost wholly Greek in speech and usages.

The Gauls of Northern Italy

If the Greeks in the extreme south were the most civilized people of Italy, the Gauls or Celts, in the extreme north, were the most barbarous. Crossing the Alps from western Europe, they had pushed back the Etruscans and occupied the plains of the Po; hence this region received the name which it long held, Cisalpine Gaul. From this land the Gauls made frequent incursions toward the south, and were for a long time a terror to the other peoples of Italy.

History of the Romans

I. Mythical Period

I. MYTHICAL PERIOD.—The history of Rome extends through a space of more than twelve hundred years, which may be divided into six periods. The first period includes the time from the building of the city, B. C. 752, to the expulsion of Tarquin, B. C. 509. It may be called the period of the kings, or of Regal Power.

The Roman historians have left a particular account of this period, beginning with the very founders of the city, Romulus and Remus, whose descent is traced from Æneas the hero of Virgil. To review them briefly here will be all that is necessary.

Æneas, fleeing from Troy after the fall of that city, came, in the course of his wanderings and after many adventures, to the shores of Italy. Settling here, he married the daughter of the king Latinus, and after a fierce war with Turnus, his rival for the hand of Lavinia, he established himself in Latium. The capital of that country, Alba Longa, was founded by his son, Ascanius, and for three centuries the descendants of Æneas ruled the country.

In the eighth century B. C., Amulius usurped the throne but failed to kill his grand-nephews Romulus and Remus, who, by the fortuitous aid of the gods, were rescued from death. Growing to manhood, they destroyed the usurper and restored their grandfather, Numitor. Romulus then founded the city of Rome in 753 B. C., populated it by means of inviting all the discontented to come unto him, and gave them wives from the Sabine tribes, which incident has passed into history as the Rape of the Sabines. To this same incident in Roman mythology belongs the legend connected with the Tarpeian Rock. Romulus finally was taken to the gods by his father, Mars, and is henceforward worshiped by the Romans as the god Quirinus.

THE GOOD KING
NUMA

The reign of the second king, Numa, is remembered, on account of his influence on the affairs of religion. He instituted many of the religious ceremonies and several classes of priests, and was regarded as the founder of the religious institutions of Rome.

During the reign of the third king, Tullus Hostilius, a war was carried on with Alba Longa. The issue of this war was decided, so the story goes, by a combat between the three Horatii, champions of the Romans, and the three Curiatii, champions of Alba—resulting in the triumph of the Romans and the submission of Alba to the Roman power.

The fourth king, Ancus Marcius, was a Sabine, the grandson of Numa. He too was a man of peace, but was drawn into a war with several of the Latin cities. Having subdued them, he transferred their inhabitants to the Aventine hill.

LEGENDS OF THE
LATER KINGS

The three later kings of Rome are represented as having been Etruscans. The first of these was Tarquinius Priscus, who migrated to Rome from the Etruscan city of Tarquinii. He strengthened his position as king by adopting the royal insignia of the Etruscans—a crown of gold, a scepter, an ivory chair, a purple toga, etc. He carried on war with the Latins and Sabines, drained the city, laid out the forum, and dedicated a temple to Jupiter on the Capitoline hill.

The next of the later kings was Servius Tullius, the son of a slave woman of the king’s household. He united Rome and the Latin cities in a league; reorganized the government, and erected a new wall inclosing the seven hills.

Tarquin the Proud, the last king, was engaged in the siege of an enemy’s city only sixteen miles from Rome, when his son committed the outrage upon the person of Lucretia, which led to the banishment of the family and the overthrow of the regal government.

II. Period of the Republic, 510-264 B. C.

II. PERIOD OF THE REPUBLIC, 510-264 B. C.—The second period extends from the expulsion of the kings to the beginning of the Punic wars. During this period the Plebeians were admitted to the offices of state, about 300 B. C. At the beginning of this period the government was a thorough aristocracy, but at the close of it has become a full democracy. It included about two hundred and fifty years, and may be designated the period of the Plebeian and Patrician contests, and the conquest of Italy.

When, at the close of the sixth century (509 B. C.), Rome ceased to be under kingly rule, it became a republic. Instead of a king, two magistrates called Consuls were elected every year. In other respects the constitution remained as before. The first consuls were Brutus and Collatinus.

As the city increased by immigration, and the admission of allies or incorporation of subjects, two principal classes of the citizens developed—the [387] Patricians and Plebeians. The Patricians were probably those descended from the original citizens of the united Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan town, and the Plebeians the descendants of those afterwards admitted.

The internal history of Rome for several hundred years consists mainly of the account of struggles between these two orders. The Patricians alone were at first admissible to the great governing body, the Senate, and they kept in their hands all the high offices of state, the higher degrees of the priesthood, and the ownership of the public lands. The two orders were not allowed to intermarry, and the Plebeians, though they were free and personally independent (excepting compulsory service in war) had no political rights.

CAUSES OF STRUGGLES BETWEEN
PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS

The struggles between the Patricians and Plebeians began about 500 B. C. The Plebeians fought the battles of Rome, and, in doing so, had to neglect the tillage of the soil by which they lived. Hence came poverty, made worse still by a severe law of debt, and by a high rate of interest extorted by the Patricians, who advanced money. The taxation of the state was paid solely by the Plebeians, as the Patricians had ceased to pay their rent to the treasury for the public lands which they held. At the same time, the Plebeians (which body included many men of birth and wealth) were entirely excluded from public offices. Such a state of things could only end in an outbreak, which occurred in 493 B. C.

FIRST WITHDRAWAL OF PLEBEIANS
TO MONS SACER

The oppression of the debtors (who were imprisoned and flogged on failure to pay) caused a withdrawal of the Plebeians in a body to Mons Sacer (Holy Hill), outside the Roman territory, three miles from Rome. Their purpose was to erect a new town, and dwell apart, with equal rights. The Patricians, left helpless against foreign enemies, as usual in such cases, made concessions when forced to terms. It was agreed that two officials should be appointed (to offset the two consuls, who were Patrician magistrates) for the defense of the commoners against the cruel exercise of the law of debtor and creditor.

TRIBUNI
PLEBIS

These new magistrates were called Tribuni Plebis (Tribunes of the Commons), and the title became very famous. They acted as champions of the subordinate class against all oppression, and pleaded in the law-courts on their behalf. The person of a Tribune was sacred and inviolable, and, in the exercise of his yearly office, he could forbid the execution of the order of any official, or of any decree of the senate; he could pardon offenses, and called to account all enemies of the commons under his charge.

FIRST OF THE AGRARIAN
LAWS

In 486 B. C. Spurius Cassius (afterward tried for treason and put to death by the Patricians) carried the first of the famous Agrarian Laws, for limiting the amount of public land held by the Patricians, compelling them to pay tithe or rent for the land they held, and dividing surplus lands among the Plebeians. The law was not enforced, through the violence and injustice of the Patricians. The Plebeians exercised some check from time to time, by the refusal to serve as soldiers.

THE FAMOUS PUBLILIAN
LAW

In 471 B. C. the Plebeians succeeded in carrying the famous Publilian Law (proposed by the tribune Publilius Volero), that the tribunes should in future be chosen only at the (popular) Comitia Tributa, instead of in the (patrician) Comitia Centuriata. The Comitia Tributa also received the right of deliberating and deciding upon all matters that were open to discussion and settlement in the Comitia Centuriata. The struggle continued, and the commons found it a great disadvantage that there was no written law to control the chief Patrician magistrates (the consuls) in their dealings with the Plebeians.

FIRST GREAT CODE OF
ROMAN LAW

After violent opposition, and the increase of the number of tribunes to ten, the Plebeians carried a law (about 452 B. C.) that ten commissioners (Decemviri) should draw up a code to bind all classes of Romans alike. The ultimate result was the compilation (and engraving on thick sheets of brass) of the first and only code of law in the Roman republic—the Laws of the Twelve Tables. These laws made the Comitia Tributa into a really national legislature, embodying Patricians and Plebeians alike. The Plebeians, however, were still kept out of a share in the lands which they conquered in war, and a time of trouble came in the usurpation and violence of the Decemviri.

SECOND WITHDRAWAL OF PLEBEIANS
TO MONS SACER

In 448 B. C. the Plebs, for the second time, seceded to the Mons Sacer, and the Decemviri were obliged to give way. Tribunes were re-appointed, and the new consuls were Valerius and Horatius. By them, in the Comitia Centuriata the great Valerian and Horatian Laws were passed, the first great charter of Roman freedom, and the power of the Plebeians was much increased. The Comitia Tributa was now on a level with the Comitia Centuriata, so that a Plebis-citum, or decree of the people’s assembly, had henceforth the same force as one passed by the Comitia Centuriata, and became law for the whole nation. The struggle between the two orders, Patricians and Plebeians, continued. In 445 B. C. the Lex Canuleia, proposed by the tribune Canuleius, was passed, sanctioning intermarriage between Patricians and Plebeians.

MILITARY TRIBUNES WITH
CONSULAR POWER

The Patricians, foreseeing that the time would come when the Plebeians must be admitted to the high offices of the state, divided the powers of the consulship, and, in 444 B. C., caused the appointment of Military Tribunes with consular power, officers who might be elected from either order, as commanders of the army, while the civil powers of the consuls were [388] kept by the Patricians in their own hands. In 443 B. C. the office of the Censors was established, with the proviso that they should be appointed only from the Patricians, and only by their assembly, the Comitia Curiata. In this the Patricians undoubtedly gained an accession of power.

FURTHER STRUGGLES BETWEEN
PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS

The power of the Plebeians grew by degrees through the exertion of the prerogatives of the Tribunes, and about 400 B. C. the office of the Military Tribunes became open to the Plebeians, and four out of the six were chosen from that order. After the capture of Rome by the Gauls (390 B. C.), fresh troubles for the Plebeians arose. Their lands near Rome had been laid waste, cattle killed, and implements of agriculture destroyed. Heavy taxes were imposed to make up for the loss of public treasure carried off by the Gauls, and soon the old trouble of debt arose, and consequent oppression by the Patrician creditors.

EQUALITY AND FREEDOM ACHIEVED UNDER
THE TRIBUNES LICINIUS AND SEXTIUS

The distress of the Commons increased until a great remedy was found by two patriotic tribunes of the Plebs, Caius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius, the authors of the great Roman charter of equality and freedom. These able, determined men, after a tremendous struggle, fought with constitutional arms alone,—in which the Romans showed that respect for law and authority which, in their best days, so honorably distinguished them,—carried their point. The victory was won through the use of the power of the tribunes to stop the whole machinery of government. Year after year, for ten successive years, Licinius and Sextius were chosen tribunes, and, while the Patricians gained over the eight other tribunes, and prevented the popular bills being put to the vote in the Comitia Tributa, the two tribunes prevented the election of the Consular Tribunes (save in 371 B. C., for a war with the Latins), and other high officials, and would have no troops levied at all.

TERMS OF THE
LICINIAN LAWS

At last, in 366 B. C., the famous Licinian Laws were carried, to-wit: (1) That the interest already paid by debtors should be deducted from the capital of the debt, and the remainder paid off in three equal annual instalments; (2) That no one should hold above five hundred jugera (about two hundred and eighty acres) of the public land, the surplus to be divided among the poorer Plebeians; (3) That the military tribunate with consular power should be abolished, and the consulship restored; but one Consul, at least, henceforward, should be a Plebeian. Sextius was himself elected, in 366 B. C., as the first Plebeian consul. All the other offices, dictatorship, censorship, prætorship, etc., were soon thrown open to the Commons,—so that at last, after the long struggle, perfect political equality was established.

FINAL ESTABLISHMENT
OF DEMOCRACY

For a century and a half since the expulsion of the kings, Rome had been a republic, but an aristocratic republic; it was now truly a government of the people. From this time begins the golden age of Roman politics. Civil concord, to which a temple was dedicated, brought with it a period of civic virtue and heroic greatness.

THE CONQUEST OF ITALY

During this period, so harassed by internal contests, Rome was also engaged in frequent wars. These wars were with (1) their immediate relatives the Latins; with (2) their more distant relatives, the various other Italian nationalities; with (3) the Greek settlements in Southern Italy aided by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; with (4) the Gauls in Northern Italy.

MEANING OF THESE
WARS

These Roman wars meant a great deal to the future of this remarkable nation. Before Rome could play its grand part in the history of the world’s civilization it was necessary, first of all, that it should become a great Nation. A great nation needs an extensive stage on which to play its part. Now the wars by which the Romans put down the various small and obstructive nationalities of Italy were the clearing of the stage, preliminary to the oncoming of that imperial figure, the “Mistress of the World.”

WARS WITH THE SAMNITES
IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The series of wars against Etruscans, Latins, Samnites, and Gauls, sometimes singly and sometimes in combination, is usually known in Roman history by the general designation of the “Latin wars” and the “Samnite wars.” These wars filled the greater part of the half-century between 343 and 290 B. C.; and the Samnites were the leaders in this onset of the nations on Rome, the issue of which was to determine whether Rome or Samnium should govern Italy. The Romans were completely successful; and extricating themselves by their valor from this confused conflict of nations, the Romans found themselves masters of Central Italy (290 B. C.),—Samnites, Latins, etc., all their subjects.

WAR WITH THE GREEK
KING PYRRHUS

The “Samnite wars” were succeeded by a short but brisk war, designated in Roman history “the war with Pyrrhus and the Greeks in Italy.” Pyrrhus was an able and enterprising Greek prince whom the Greek towns of Southern Italy—fearful of being overwhelmed by what they called the “conquering barbarians of the Tiber”—had invited over from his native country to help them as champion of a Greek city.

Pyrrhus came over with a force of twenty-five thousand troops and twenty elephants. In the first battle (Pandosia, 280 B. C.) the Romans fought stoutly, until what they conceived to be gigantic gray oxen (the elephants) came thundering down upon them; so that the victory remained with Pyrrhus. In the next contest also (Asculum, 279 B. C.) Pyrrhus was successful; but the Romans made him pay so dearly for his triumph that he is said to have exclaimed, “Another such victory and I am undone!” Not having succeeded in his main object, Pyrrhus quitted Italy and went to Sicily; but soon after he returned, renewed the contest with the Romans, and was [389] utterly overthrown at Beneventum, in 275 B.C.

The subjugation of Southern Italy—of all that part called Great Greece—soon followed, and at the close of the year B. C. 266 Rome reigned supreme over the length and breadth of the peninsula of Italy, from the southern boundary of Cisalpine Gaul to the Sicilian Straits, and from the Tyrrhenian, or Tuscan, Sea to the Adriatic.

NATURE OF THE ROMAN STATE UNDER THE REPUBLIC.

The real governing power in Rome was the Roman people,—populus Romanus,—that is to say, the body of free inhabitants of the thirty-three tribes or parishes north and south of the Tiber, which constituted the Roman territory proper, together with a considerable number of persons in other parts of Italy who, either from being colonists of Roman descent or from having had Roman citizenship conferred on them, had the privilege of going to Rome and voting at the Comitia, or Assembly. The possessors of the suffrage thus formed a comparatively small body of men, such as might be assembled with ease in any public square or park, and these by their votes decided on the affairs of the commonwealth, controlling thus the destinies of the whole population of Italy, estimated at this time at above five million.

In addition to the populus Romanus there were two other classes,—the Italians and the Latins. The Italians, or socii, were the inhabitants of the allied and dependent Italian states that had submitted to Rome. These communities were almost all permitted to retain their own laws, judges, municipal arrangements, etc.; but they did not possess the Roman franchise, and hence had no share in the political affairs of the republic. The Latins were those who belonged to cities having the “Latin franchise,” as it was called, from its having first been given to the cities of Latium when conquered. This did not give full Roman citizenship, but made it easier to obtain it.

SUMMARY OF ROMAN
GOVERNMENT

Rome wisely left self-government to all the dependent and allied states, while she secured her sovereignty by three rights which she reserved to herself: (1) She alone made peace or declared war; (2) She alone might receive embassies; (3) She alone might coin money. Altogether it was an admirable system, vastly superior to the loosely related Grecian states. It was a system that made possible for the first time in the world’s history a great, as well as a free, nation.

It is a striking fact that there was not yet even a dawning Roman literature; in art, science, philosophy, Rome had done—absolutely nothing. But, in fact, it was in the art of governing mankind that Roman genius was to appear; and it was this that showed itself in these early years,—it was their valor, their probity, their patriotism, their political tact, and not speculation or literary culture, that distinguished them.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE GREAT
ROMAN ROADS

The famous Roman roads are to be found not only throughout Italy, where they were constructed in various directions from the capital, but in every land once conquered by Rome and stamped by her, as she stamped all her conquests, with ineffaceable marks of her possession and her power. These great roads were first made with the military purpose of providing a way that should be solid at all seasons of the year, for the march of legions and their heavy baggage through districts subdued by Roman arms. They were wonderful pieces of determined practical engineering, and in order to carry them straight to the points aimed at, marshes and hollows were filled up, or spanned with viaducts; mountains were tunneled, streams were bridged; no labor, time, or money was spared.

THE APPIAN WAY AND OTHER
FAMOUS ROADS

The first and greatest of the Italian roads was the famous Appian Way (Via Appia, called Regina Viarum, “Queen of Roads”), which was begun by Appius Claudius, Censor in 312 B. C. The struggle with the Samnites was at its height when this great causeway, built with large, square stones on a raised platform, was made direct from the gates of Rome to Capua, in Campania. The Via Appia was afterwards extended, through Samnium and Apulia, to Brundusium (on the lower Adriatic), the port of embarkment for Greece. Parts of the original stonework are existing at this day. Other great roads of Italy were the Via Aurelia—the great coast-road northward, by Genua (Genoa), into Transalpine Gaul; the Via Flaminia, through Umbria to Ariminum; and the Via Æmilia, from Ariminum, through Cisalpine Gaul to Placentia.

III. Epoch of the Punic Wars, 264-146 B. C.

III. EPOCH OF THE PUNIC WARS, 264-146 B. C.—The third period in Roman history extends from the final triumph of the Plebeians to the capture of Carthage, B. C. 146. Rome had hitherto been distracted with intestine feuds and dissensions, and had extended her dominion over but a small extent of territory. The admission of Plebeians to all the high offices of trust and distinction promoted the consolidation and strength of the republic, and the career of conquest was soon begun.

We now see Rome engage in the greatest conflict of her history,—that with the powerful maritime state, Carthage,—a struggle which, when it was fully developed, became for Rome a fight for national existence, in which her enemy was at the height of her power and resources, with Spain and Africa at her back, and with the first general of the age to command her armies.

RACES OPPOSED IN THE
PUNIC WARS

The interest of the Punic wars (as they are called from the word Punicus, the Latin equivalent of Phœnician, and, in a limited sense, Carthaginian) is great and enduring. These wars were fought out to determine which of the two races, the Indo-Germanic, or Aryan, or the Semitic, should have the dominion of the [390] world. On the one side—the Aryan—was the genius for war, government, and legislation; on the other—the Semitic—the spirit of industry, navigation and commerce. The skill and valor, the determination and resource, displayed on both sides, have caused these wars of Rome and Carthage to remain most vividly impressed upon the memories of men.

CHARACTER OF THE CARTHAGINIAN
STATE AND PEOPLE

Carthage had become, by the political and commercial energy of her citizens, the leading Phœnician state, ruling over Utica, Hippo, Leptis, and other cities of Phœnician origin in northern Africa. The Carthaginians paid also great attention to agriculture, and the whole of their territory was cultivated like a garden, supplying the population with abundance of food. This fact, taken with the wealth derived from her commerce, explains how it was that a city with no large extent of territory was enabled to hold out so long against the utmost efforts of Rome, and at one period to bring her, as it seemed, to the verge of ruin.

The political constitution of Carthage was that of an oligarchical republic, and her aristocracy is famed for the number of able men that came from its ranks. On the other hand, she was weakened by being dependent on mercenary troops in her wars, subject to revolts at home among the native populations whom she oppressed, and hampered by the factious spirit prevalent among her leading men.

She had a great commercial genius, but no gift for assimilating conquered peoples, or for establishing an empire on a solid and enduring basis, and therefore, in the end, she succumbed to Rome, whose aim it was to bring the nations under one wide, enduring sway. The struggle of Carthage against Rome became, in fact, the contest of a man of the greatest abilities—Hannibal—against a nation of the utmost energy and determination, and the nation, in the long run, won the day.

FIRST PUNIC WAR,
264-241 B. C.

The Carthaginians held Corsica, Sardinia, and various colonies in Spain and possessions in Sicily. It was in Sicily that the cause of quarrel between Rome and Carthage was found, and Rome picked the quarrel by interference in a local matter at Messana. Hiero, king of Syracuse, as we have seen, had come over to the Romans, who, after defeating the Carthaginian army and taking Agrigentum (262 B. C.), determined to make themselves masters of Sicily. For this a fleet was needed, and with Roman energy they soon built one. Twice their squadrons were destroyed, but in 260 B. C. the consul Duilius gained a great naval victory at Mylæ, on the northeast coast of Sicily, and, from this time, Rome became more and more nearly a match for Carthage on her element, the sea. The Romans invaded Africa without success (255 B. C.), but were generally victorious in Sicily.

In 247 B. C. the great Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal and Hasdrubal) was appointed to the Carthaginian command in Sicily, and maintained himself there with great patience and skill against all the Roman efforts. But, in 241 B. C., the Roman commander Lutatius Catulus utterly defeated the Carthaginian fleet off the Ægates Islands, on the west coast of Sicily, and the Carthaginians then gave in. All Sicily, except the territory of Rome’s faithful alley, Hiero of Syracuse, thus became (241 B. C.) the first Roman province.

CONQUEST OF SARDINIA, CORSICA,
AND CISALPINE GAUL

The Romans, with gross ill-faith and injustice, took advantage of a revolt against Carthage by her mercenary troops to deprive her of Sardinia and Corsica (238 B. C.), and Sardinia was made into a province. Their next exploit was the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, which was completed 222 B. C., and the Roman hold upon the new territory was confirmed by the establishment of military colonies at Placentia and Cremona.

THE CARTHAGINIANS UNDER
HAMILCAR IN SPAIN

Carthage had resolved upon revenge for past defeats and injuries from Rome, and intrusted her cause to the great Hamilcar Barca. He sought to create for his country a new empire in Spain, which might be used as a base of operations against the foe for whom he had a deadly hate. From 237 to 229 B. C. (when he fell in battle) he was engaged in reducing a large part of Spain to submission.

In 221 B. C. his son, the illustrious Hannibal, took the Spanish command, and he soon brought on a new conflict with Rome by his capture of her ally, the city of Saguntum, on the northeast coast of Spain.

HANNIBAL AND THE SECOND PUNIC
WAR, 218-202 B. C.

The hero of the Second Punic War is Hannibal, one of the purest and noblest characters in history. In 218 B. C. the Carthaginian general crossed the Alps, after a five months’ march from Spain, and descended with a storm of war upon the Romans. With a force of twenty thousand foot and six thousand horse he encountered the consular armies, and defeated them at the rivers Ticinus and Trebia (218 B. C.), in Cisalpine Gaul, the Trasimene Lake in Etruria (217 B. C.), and most decisively, and with immense slaughter, at Cannæ, in Apulia, in 216 B. C. For fifteen years (218 to 202 B. C.) Hannibal maintained his ground in Italy, defeating the Romans again and again, opposed by the cautious Fabius Maximus and the daring Marcellus (the conqueror of Syracuse), but unable to capture Rome, or to subdue Roman steadfastness and courage.

CAUSES OF HANNIBAL’S
DEFEAT

The chief causes of the ultimate failure of Hannibal, besides the doggedness of Rome’s resistance, were the faithfulness of many of Rome’s allies, especially the Latins, in Italy, the success of Roman armies, under Publius Scipio, in Spain (temporarily subdued 205 B. C.), and the want of due support by Carthage to her great leader. The crisis came in 207 B. C., when Hannibal’s brother, Hasdrubal, crossed the Alps into Italy with a powerful army which, joined with Hannibal’s in Southern Italy, would probably have effected the conquest of Rome, now [391] almost exhausted. This was not to be. Hasdrubal was defeated, and slain by the Romans at the decisive battle of the Metaurus (a river in Umbria), one of the great critical contests of history. The junction of the forces thus prevented, Rome was saved, and, in order to be rid of Hannibal, the war was carried now into the enemy’s country.

DEFEAT OF HANNIBAL BY SCIPIO
AFRICANUS AT ZAMA

Publius Scipio, so successful in Spain, crossed from Sicily to Africa in 204 B. C., and did so well for Rome that Hannibal was recalled. The Second Punic War ended with the defeat of Hannibal by Scipio at Zama (five days’ journey from Carthage), in 202 B. C. The conqueror gained the surname of Africanus. Hannibal lost his army, but not his fame. Rome was certain now to rule the world. The terms of peace with Carthage made her for the time a mere dependency of Rome. All her foreign possessions were given up; her fleet was reduced to ten ships; she was to make no war without Rome’s permission; and an enormous war indemnity was exacted.

SUBJUGATION OF MACEDON
BY ROME

In 213 B. C. Rome attacked Philip V., king of Macedon, because he had made a treaty with Carthage, and, after making an alliance with the Ætolians, the Romans gained some successes over Philip in the First Macedonian War, ending in 205. The Second Macedonian War (200-197 B. C.) put an end to Macedon’s supremacy in Greece, by the victory of the ex-consul Flamininus at Cynoscephalæ, in Thessaly, 197 B. C.

ROMAN ARMS ARE CARRIED
INTO ASIA

Antiochus the Great, of Syria, who had irritated Rome by meddling in the affairs of Greece, which he invaded in 192 B. C., was beaten by the Roman armies in Greece and Asia Minor, and in 188 B. C. made peace on terms that left Roman influence supreme in Asia Minor as far as Syria.

THE FINAL FATE OF
HANNIBAL

The great Carthaginian, even after Zama, had not despaired of himself or of his country. He set vigorously to work at internal reforms in Carthage with a view to renewing the contest with Rome; but, being thwarted by jealous and unpatriotic rivals, who also intrigued for his surrender to the Romans, he fled to the court of Antiochus the Great, of Syria, in 194 B. C. In rejecting her greatest man, Carthage had lost her last chance of regaining any real power. Hannibal was driven from his shelter with Antiochus by the Roman demand for his surrender, and took refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia, for some years; but Roman dread of his abilities pursued him, and hopeless of escape, he poisoned himself about 183 B. C., leaving Rome free at last to pursue her victorious career.

ROMAN CONQUEST OF THE
GREEK STATES

A Third Macedonian War, begun in 171 B. C., was waged by the Romans against King Perseus, son of Philip V., and ended with a great Roman victory at Pydna, in 168 B. C., and the extinction of Macedon as a kingdom. After a revolt, called the Fourth Macedonian War, and a war against the forces of the Achæan League, Corinth was taken by Mummius, and Macedonia and Greece became Roman provinces (147 and 146 B. C.)

THIRD PUNIC WAR AND DESTRUCTION
OF CARTHAGE

There was a powerful party in Rome (headed by the stern censor Porcius Cato) who relentlessly insisted on the destruction of Carthage. Her warlike neighbor, Masinissa, king of Numidia, was encouraged by the Romans in harassing attacks, and in 149 B. C. Rome found a pretext for war. Her forces could not be resisted, and Carthage offered a complete submission, seeking the preservation of her commerce and her capital by a surrender of arms, war-ships, and her internal independence.

When Rome insisted on the destruction of the city of Carthage itself, and the removal of the inhabitants to inland abodes, the Carthaginians took counsel of despair, and resolved to stand a siege within their strong fortifications. Scipio Africanus Minor conducted the three years’ siege of the great commercial city and her citadel, and Roman determination, as usual, carried its point. After fearful house-to-house fighting the remnant of seven hundred thousand people surrendered; the place was set on fire, and burned for seventeen days; the ruins were leveled with the ground, and Carthage the proud city, alike with Carthage the commercial state, ceased to exist, in 146 B. C., the year of the final conquest of Greece. Part of the territory was given to Masinissa of Numidia, Rome’s ally; part became the Roman province of Africa.

GRANDEUR OF ROME AFTER HER FOREIGN CONQUESTS

At the beginning of the period of conquest (266-133 B. C.), the Roman dominion was confined to the peninsula of Italy; at its close it extended over the whole of southern Europe from the shores of the Atlantic to the straits of Constantinople, over the chief Mediterranean islands, and over a portion of North Africa, while farther east, in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, its influence was paramount. At the beginning Rome was merely one of the “Great Powers” of the world as it then was,—that is, she ranked with Carthage, Macedonia, and the kingdom of the Seleucidæ; at its close she was clearly the sole Great Power left.

THE ORIGIN OF PROVINCIAL
GOVERNMENT

The addition of the conquered countries resulted in a new feature of Roman rule called Provincial government. Retaining their native habits, religion, laws, etc., the inhabitants of every province were governed by a military president, sent from Rome, with a staff of officials. The provincials were required to pay taxes in money and kind; and these taxes were farmed out by the censors to Roman citizens, who, under the name of Publicans, settled in the various districts of the provinces. Thus, like a network proceeding from a center, the political system of the Romans pervaded the mass of millions of human beings inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean; and a vast population of various races and languages were all bound together by the cohesive power of Roman rule.

SPLENDORS OF A FESTAL DAY IN ANCIENT ROME

The Coliseum (kol-e-see´-um), in the background, was dedicated by Titus, A. D. 80, in a grand festival of 100 days, at which 5,000 beasts were slaughtered in the games. The successive tiers of seats, receding from the arena to the summit, gave room for 90,000 spectators. Gladiatorial contests continued until abolished by Honorius, A. D. 405.

ROME AT THE HEIGHT OF
ITS GRANDEUR

The luster of the Roman power and glory of the Roman name were now at their height. The eyes of all the world were now on Italy, the young republic of the West. Into Rome all talents, all riches, flowed. What a grand thing in those days to be a Roman citizen; so that, wherever one walked,—in Spain, in Africa, even in once proud Athens, he was followed, feasted, flattered! What a career was opened to those who wished for wealth or aspired to fame! But in the very sunburst of Rome’s glory, the germs of decay were ripening.

On the Romans themselves the effect of their foreign conquests were both good and bad; but perhaps the evil outweighed the good.

ERA OF GREAT PUBLIC
WORKS

The wealth poured into Rome by the conquest of Carthage, of Greece, and the East, and the considerable revenue derived from the permanent taxation of the provinces, enabled the Romans to carry out a great system of public works. Throughout Italy splendid military roads which remain to this day were built, the provinces were traversed by imperial highways, and fine stone bridges were thrown across the Tiber. In Rome splendid public buildings were erected, the city was sewered, the streets were paved (174 B. C.), two new aqueducts (the Marcian, built in 144 B. C., at a cost of ten million dollars) were constructed; and it may be noted that the Consul P. Scipio Nasica, in 159 B. C., set up in Rome a public clepsydra, or water clock, the citizens having for six centuries gone on without any accurate means of knowing the time by night as well as day.

INFLUENCE OF GREEK CULTURE
ON ROME

The effect on Rome of the conquest of Greece and the Hellenized East was very marked. Greek rhetoricians, scholars, tragedians, musicians and philosophers in large numbers took up their abode in Rome. The city swarmed with Greek schoolmasters. Greek tutors and philosophers, who, even if they were not slaves, were as a rule accounted as servants, were now permanent inmates in the palaces of Rome; people speculated in them, and there is a statement that the sum of two hundred thousand sesterces (ten thousand dollars) was paid for a Greek literary slave of the first class.

RISE OF NATIVE ROMAN
LITERATURE

The stimulus of Greek literary culture led to native production, and in the second century, B. C., we have the beginning of that Latin literature which we still read. Though the great period of Roman letters did not come till a century after this time (age of Augustus), yet there arose a number of writers of no ordinary power. Among these should be mentioned Ennius, the father of Roman poetry; Plautus, his contemporary, a man of rich poetic genius; the elder Cato, the first prose writer of note; and Terence, the most famous of the comic poets.

While the Romans were in some respects benefited by contact with the superior though decaying culture of Greece, they also learned a great deal that was debasing. They became effeminate, luxurious, and corrupt in morals; marriage was not respected; the old Roman faith waned, and it was said that two augurs could not meet in the street without laughing in each other’s face.

GROWTH OF POLITICAL AND
SOCIAL CORRUPTION

The political system of Rome now began to lead to a dreadful state of public corruption. The Roman government was devised for the rule of a city: all power was in the hands of the civic voters, and when there came to be great prizes, in the way of great offices at home and abroad, the voters began to find that their votes were worth something, and unblushing bribery and corruption became common.

The demands of the large planters and merchants led to a great extension of the slave-trade. All lands and all nations were laid under contribution for slaves, but the places where they were chiefly captured were Syria and the interior of Asia Minor. It is probable that at the period at which we have now arrived (middle of the second century B. C.) there were twelve million slaves against five million free inhabitants in the Italian peninsula,—a most lamentable state of things!

In addition to the slaves, Italy became filled up with a motley parasitic population from Asia and Africa and all the conquered lands,—and the result of this intermixture soon appeared in a marked degeneracy in the Roman race itself.

THE NEW ROMAN CONTRASTED
WITH THE OLD

The decay of old Roman virtue became at the same time apparent in the great increase of luxury. This displayed itself in houses, villas, pleasure gardens, fish ponds, dress, food and drink. Extravagant prices—as much as one hundred thousand sesterces (five thousand dollars)—were paid for an exquisite cook. Costly foreign delicacies and wines were affected, and the Romans in their banquets vied with one another in displaying their hosts of slaves ministering to luxury, their bands of musicians, their dancing girls, their purple hangings, their carpets glittering with gold or pictorially embroidered, and their rich silver plate.

In the midst of the system there were not wanting some noble patterns of the old Roman type, among whom should be named Cato, who kept up a constant protest all his life against the growing luxury of his countrymen, and died declaring that they were a degenerate race. Such men were, however, rare exceptions; and we shall hereafter see that the evil system already operative in the second century went on increasing, till finally, a century afterwards, it resulted in the total subversion of the republic.

The picture just given of the state of Roman society in the last half of the second century B. C. prepares us for the period of civil strife on which we now enter.

IV. Epoch of the Civil Wars, 146-31 B. C.

IV. EPOCH OF THE CIVIL WARS, 146-31 B. C.—The fourth period extends from the capture of Carthage and Corinth to the establishment of the Imperial Government by the battle of Actium, B. C. 31. During this whole time the Roman history is a continued tale of domestic disturbances. From the fall of Carthage to the battle of Actium, it presents but a melancholy picture, a blood-stained record of sedition, conspiracy, and civil war.

A number of causes had resulted in the growth of an aristocracy founded purely on wealth; the old division of society into patricians and plebeians had ceased, and there arose a still worse division into classes,—the rich and the poor.

THE GRACCHI ESPOUSE THE
CAUSE OF THE POOR

The cause of the poor against the rich was taken up by a noble young tribune of the people named Tiberius Gracchus. Tiberius and his afterwards distinguished younger brother Caius (the two being known in history as the Gracchi) were sons of a noble Roman matron, Cornelia, daughter of the great Scipio Africanus.

Tiberius Gracchus proposed a land-law (agrarian law), which would limit the amount of public land that could be held by any one individual and provided for the distribution of the rest in small homesteads. The aristocracy immediately raised a storm, and induced another tribune to veto the measure. Now, according to the Roman code, no proposal could become law unless all the tribunes were unanimous. Gracchus then secured a popular vote expelling his colleague from the tribuneship, and the land-law was passed by the people, 133 B. C. In the meantime, however, Gracchus’s year of office expired, and he came up for re-election. The nobles resolved to prevent this by violence.

MURDER OF THE TRIBUNE,
TIBERIUS GRACCHUS

Gracchus, learning this, bade his friends arm themselves with staves; and when the people began to inquire the cause of this, he put his hand to his head, intimating that his life was in danger. Some of his enemies ran to the senate and reported that Tiberius openly demanded a crown. A body of the aristocrats with their clients and dependents then rushed among the unarmed crowd, and murdered Gracchus with three hundred of his adherents,—133 B. C.

Tiberius Gracchus was dead, but his work remained; that is to say, the measure which he had proposed was law, and the commissioners intrusted with the task of allotting the lands prosecuted their labors for two or three years. The nobles, however, obstructed the work as much as possible, so that between them and the champions of the people there was a continuous struggle.

THE STRUGGLES AND DEATH OF THE
YOUNGER GRACCHUS

This struggle became still more fierce when Caius Gracchus, ten years after the death of his brother, claimed and obtained the tribuneship, and then took up that brother’s work. The agitation for the agrarian law was renewed, an enactment was made for a monthly distribution of corn to the city poor, and various other reforms were proposed by him. After holding the tribuneship for two years, however, he lost the office through the intrigues of his opponents. The nobles were determined to crush Gracchus; accordingly, at one of the public assemblies they attacked the partisans of the popular leader, and there ensued a bloody combat (121 B. C.) in which three thousand of his adherents were slain. Gracchus himself fled into a wood across the Tiber; but, being pursued, he chose to die by the hands of a faithful slave rather than fall into the power of his enemies.

RISE OF MARIUS
AND SULLA

The ill-will between the nobles and the people continued just as bitter after the death of Gracchus; and matters finally shaped themselves in such a way that the nobles, or senatorial party, came to be represented by a leader named Sulla, and the democracy, or Commons, by another, called Marius. These men came to prominence in the course of two or three wars in which Rome was engaged for twenty-five or thirty years after the time of which we have been speaking; and finally they acquired such power as to bring on a civil strife that deluged Italy with blood.

The wars just referred to were: the Jugurthine war (111-106 B. C.), the war against the Cimbri (113-101 B. C.), and the Social war (90-89 B. C.), with the details of which we need not concern ourselves; but the fourth contest was of more moment, and needs notice here. This was the Mithridatic war.

BOLD DESIGN OF MITHRIDATES
AGAINST ROME

Mithridates, king of Pontus, a bold and able soldier, formed the design of uniting the Asiatic states and Greece in a vast confederacy against the Roman dominion. He began by causing about eighty thousand Romans who dwelt in the cities of Asia Minor to be massacred in one day (88 B. C.). He then invaded Greece.

The command in this important war was eagerly sought by both Marius and Sulla. Sulla prevailed; he was elected consul and put in command. Marius, being chagrined at this, succeeded in having the popular party set aside Sulla. But the aristocratic general marched to Rome and compelled Marius to flee into Africa. Sulla then set out for Greece, all of which submitted to him, the army of Mithridates being defeated (86-84 B. C.)

HORRIBLE MASSACRES ATTEND THE STRUGGLE
BETWEEN MARIUS AND SULLA

During the absence of Sulla, Marius returned to Italy. Entering Rome in 86 B. C., he filled the entire city with slaughter, and in particular he caused the murder of the leading senators that had supported his rival. Marius then caused himself to be proclaimed consul without going through an election; but a fortnight later he died.

Notwithstanding the death of Marius, the Marian party still continued in power. Sulla, hearing of their successes, hastily concluded a peace with Mithridates, and hurried to Italy (83 B. C.). After a severe struggle, Sulla utterly overthrew the Marians. The blood of [395] massacre then flowed a second time,—in a yet greater stream. Lists of proscribed persons, embracing all who belonged to the people’s party, were published every day, and the porch of Sulla’s house was full of heads.

Having put down all his enemies, Sulla caused himself to be proclaimed dictator for an unlimited time (81 B. C.). He then proceeded to re-organize the government wholly in the interest of the aristocratic party; but to the great surprise of every one he three years afterward resigned his power and retired to private life. Sulla died in 78 B. C.; he was honored with a magnificent funeral, and a monument with the following epitaph written by himself:

“I am Sulla the Fortunate, who in the course of my life have surpassed both friends and enemies; the former by the good, the latter by the evil, I have done them.”

RISE OF POMPEY
THE GREAT

After the death of Sulla, the most prominent figure among all the men of the aristocratic party was Cneius Pompey, who had distinguished himself as a lieutenant of Sulla, and afterwards won renown by his management of several important matters in which Rome was engaged—especially in the suppression of a formidable revolution in Spain under a very able leader named Sertorius (77-72 B. C.), and in stamping out a fire of revolt kindled by Spartacus, the leader of a band of gladiators, who, joined by a large force of discontented spirits, kept Italy in alarm for two or three years (73-71 B. C.). These exploits made Pompey a popular favorite, and in the year 70 B. C. he was rewarded by being made consul along with a rich senator named Crassus.

HIS MILITARY EXPLOITS
IN THE EAST

At the expiration of his year of office he retired to private life, but was soon called upon to suppress a formidable combination of pirates who infested the Mediterranean Sea and had their headquarters in Cilicia (in Asia Minor). This task he accomplished in three months. These triumphs, aided by his political influence, enabled Pompey to procure the command in the war against Mithridates, who had renewed his scheme of conquering the Eastern Roman provinces. He was given powers such as never had been delegated to any Roman general. This war lasted for two years (66-64 B. C.), and was marked by a series of brilliant triumphs for Pompey. He utterly crushed Mithridates (who died by self-administered poison), as well as his son-in-law Tigranes, subdued Phœnicia, made Syria a Roman province, and took Jerusalem. Thus with the glory of having subjugated and settled the East he returned to Rome (62 B. C.), where a magnificent triumph awaited him.

FAMOUS STRUGGLES OF THE
FOUR FACTIONS

Meanwhile there seem to have grown up, after the death of Sulla, four factions in Rome: the “oligarchical faction,” consisting of the small number of families the chiefs of which directed the senate, and in fact governed the republic; the “aristocratic faction,” comprising the mass of the senators anxious to obtain the power usurped by a few of their colleagues; the “Marian party,” including all those whose families had been prosecuted by Sulla, and who now began to rally, and aspire to power; the “military faction,” embracing a crowd of old officers of Sulla, who, having squandered the fortunes they had gained under him, were eager for some revolution that might give them the opportunity to improve their condition.

THE GREAT LEADERS OF THE FACTIONS—POMPEY,
CICERO, CRASSUS, CAESAR AND CATILINE

At the head of the oligarchical faction was Pompey; but during his absence in Asia its representative was Marcus Tullius Cicero (born 106 B. C.), who had established his reputation as the first orator in Rome. He had risen through various offices to the prætorship, and at the time Pompey left for the East aspired to be consul. He did not himself belong to a noble family, but still he made himself the champion of the oligarchy. Though vain and boastful, he was a virtuous and patriotic man.

The leader of the aristocratic faction was Crassus, formerly the colleague of Pompey in the consulship, now his personal rival. He was a man of no great ability, but his position and his immense wealth made him influential. (After prodigious expenditures, he died worth ten million dollars.)

The leader of the third, or Marian party, was a man six years younger than Pompey or Cicero, who, distinguished in youth for his accomplishments and his extravagance, rose in the year 65 B. C. to the office of edile. This was Caius Julius Cæsar,—a man of pre-eminent ability, one of the greatest that ever lived. He was the nephew of Marius, and now stood forward as the leader of the Marian party. He was of an old patrician family, and took up the cause of the people to serve his own ends.

CONSPIRACY OF
CATILINE

The leader of the military faction was Catiline, who had been one of the ablest and most ferocious of Sulla’s officers. He had a large following of debauched young patricians and ruined military men, who thought they would better their fortunes by making Catiline consul. Cicero was his rival, and, receiving the support of the senators, was elected. Enraged at his defeat, Catiline formed a conspiracy of which the murder of Cicero and the burning of Rome were parts. A woman betrayed the plot to Cicero, who denounced Catiline with such fiery eloquence that he had to flee from Rome. With a band of confederates he attempted to reach Gaul; but he was overtaken in Etruria and slain, 62 B. C.

THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE: CAESAR,
POMPEY AND CRASSUS

Cæsar and Pompey, now finding that they agreed in many of their views, resolved to unite their forces. To cement their union more closely, Cæsar gave his only daughter, Julia, in marriage to Pompey. For various reasons it was found desirable to admit Crassus to their political partnership, and thus was formed (60 B. C.) that famous coalition known in Roman history as the “First Triumvirate.” [396] The object of Cæsar and Pompey was to thwart the senatorial party in every way, and wield all the power themselves.

The formation of the triumvirate was followed by the election of Cæsar to the consulship (59 B. C.); and when his year of office expired he obtained for himself the government of Gaul for five years, and then for another five. This was probably the great object of Cæsar’s desires. No doubt he was already brooding over the design of making himself master of Rome; and for this purpose he would need an army.

During the years 58-50 B. C. Cæsar made eight campaigns in Gaul, forming the remarkable series of operations which he afterwards described with such pointed style in his Commentaries.

The result of his eight years’ campaigning was that, in the spring of 50 B. C., Cæsar was able to take up his residence in Cisalpine Gaul, leaving the three hundred tribes beyond the Alps, which he had conquered by such bloody means, not only pacified, but even attached to himself personally. His army, which included many Gauls and Germans, was so devoted to him that it would have marched to the end of the world in his service.

DOWNFALL OF CRASSUS AND RIVALRY
OF CAESAR AND POMPEY

During Cæsar’s campaigns in Gaul (where his government was prolonged for a second five-year term), Crassus disappeared from the triumvirate. After holding the consulship with Pompey, in 55 B. C., he went as proconsul to the province of Syria, in 54 B. C. His greed of wealth, and desire for the military fame which he envied in Cæsar and Pompey, brought him to ruin, by inducing him to attack the kingdom of Parthia,[5] where he was soon afterward murdered. So that the triumvirate became a duumvirate, or league of two men,—Cæsar and Pompey.

[5] Parthia had the rare distinction of being a country the prowess of whose warriors baffled the efforts of Rome for her subjection. The Parthian kingdom, southeast of the Caspian Sea, came into existence about 250 B. C., by revolt from the Seleucids, the monarchs of Syria, and became a powerful realm after the death of Alexander the Great. It included Parthia proper, Hyrcania, and afterwards (130 B. C.) Bactria, so that at last its dominions stretched from the Euphrates to the Indus, and from the river Oxus to the Indian Ocean. The Parthians adopted the Greek religion, manners, and customs, which had been introduced into that part of Asia by Alexander’s conquests.

The renowned cavalry of Parthia seem to have been all-powerful only on their own soil, for their invasions of the Roman province of Syria in 39 and 38 B.C. were utterly defeated, while the invasion of Parthia by the great Roman general and triumvir, Mark Antony, in 36, was repulsed with loss of a great part of his army. In 20 B. C. the Parthian king Phraates restored, chiefly as a friendly concession, the standards and prisoners taken from Crassus and Antonius, and this is the event commemorated by the Roman poets of the day as equivalent to a submission by Parthia. Under the Roman emperors the Parthians sometimes courted and were sometimes at war with Rome, and were partially conquered for a time under Trajan. The Parthian kings encouraged Christianity. In A. D. 226 a revolt of the Persians put an end to the Parthian kingdom, revived the religion of Zoroaster, stopped the eastward progress of Christianity in Asia, and began modern history in Persia.

Now between these two men there had for some time been a growing coldness. It was said that Cæsar was a man who could brook no equal, and Pompey a man who could suffer no superior. A feeling of rivalry having once arisen, naturally grew till Cæsar and Pompey became the bitterest enemies. Pompey went over to the aristocratic party to which he had originally belonged, and having been made sole consul for the year 52 B. C., he began to exert his great influence against Cæsar. In this he was supported by the nobles, who dreaded Cæsar’s immense power.

FINAL STRUGGLE BETWEEN
CAESAR AND POMPEY

As the period of Cæsar’s command would expire in the year 49 B. C., he had determined to obtain the consulship for the year 48 B. C., since otherwise he would become a private citizen. Accordingly he demanded, though absent, to be permitted to put himself in the lists for the consulate. But it was proposed, through the influence of Pompey, that Cæsar should lay down his command by the thirteenth of November, 50 B. C. This was an unreasonable demand; for his term of government over Gaul had another year to run, and if he had gone to Rome as a private citizen to sue for the consulship, there can be no doubt that his life would have been sacrificed. Cæsar, still anxious to keep the peace, offered, at the beginning of the year 49 B. C., to lay down his command if Pompey would do the same; but this the senate refused to accede to, and a motion was passed that Cæsar should disband his army by a certain day, and that if he did not do so, he should be regarded as an enemy of the state.

THE CROSSING OF THE
RUBICON

Cæsar promptly took his resolve: he would appeal to the arbitrament of arms. He had the enthusiastic devotion of his soldiers, the great mass of whom, being provincials or foreigners, cared very little for the country whose name they bore. Accordingly, in January, 49 B. C., he advanced from his headquarters at Ravenna to the little stream, the Rubicon, which separated his own province and command from Italy. The crossing of this river was in reality a declaration of war against the republic; and it is related that, upon arriving at the Rubicon, Cæsar long hesitated whether he should take this irrevocable step. After pondering many hours he at length exclaimed, “The die is cast!” and plunged into the river.

Pompey concluded not to attempt to defend Italy, but to retire upon the East, where he would gather a great army and then return to overwhelm the “usurper.” Accordingly he retreated to Greece.

CAESAR MASTER OF ITALY AND
DICTATOR OF ROME

In sixty days Cæsar made himself master of all Italy. Then marching to Rome he had himself appointed dictator and consul for the year 48 B. C. He showed masterly statesmanship, and soon brought the general current of opinion completely over to his side.

BATTLE OF PHARSALIA AND
DEATH OF POMPEY

Meantime, Pompey had gathered a powerful army in Thessaly, and thither Cæsar with his legions proceeded against him. The decisive battle between the two mighty rivals was fought at Pharsalia, in 48 B. C. It resulted in the utter defeat of Pompey; and as it left Cæsar the foremost man in the Roman world, it must be regarded as one of the great decisive battles of history.

Pompey, after his defeat, sought refuge in Egypt; but he was assassinated by the orders of Ptolemy, when seeking to land on the coast of that country. Cæsar, who followed in pursuit, did not hear of his death until his arrival in Alexandria, where messengers from Ptolemy brought him Pompey’s head. Cæsar, who was both a generous man and a compassionate foe, turned with horror from the spectacle, and with tears in his eyes gave orders that the head should be consumed with the costliest spices.

CAESAR, CLEOPATRA AND THE
CONQUEST OF THE EAST

At Alexandria Cæsar became enamored of Cleopatra, the young, beautiful, and fascinating queen of Egypt. He even mixed himself up with a quarrel that was going on between her and her younger brother Ptolemy, to whom, according to the custom of the country, she was married, and with whom she shared the throne. This intermeddling led Cæsar, who had but a small force with him, into conflict with the troops of the king. A fierce battle was fought in the city. Cæsar succeeded in firing the Egyptian fleet; but unfortunately the flames extended to the celebrated Library of the city of Alexandria, and the greater part of the magnificent collection of manuscripts was burnt. Cæsar was finally successful: Ptolemy was killed, and Cleopatra was made queen of Egypt. From Alexandria Cæsar marched into Pontus to attack Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, whom he subdued so quickly that he described the campaign in the most laconic dispatch ever penned: Veni, vidi, vici,—“I came, I saw, I conquered.”

CAESAR’S FINAL VICTORY AND
TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO ROME

Pompey’s forces that escaped from Pharsalia had established themselves in the Roman province of Africa. They were commanded by Scipio and Cato. Cæsar having settled matters in the East, now proceeded against this force, which he utterly destroyed at Thapsus, early in the year 46 B. C. Scipio and Cato killed themselves. One more rally the Pompeians made in Spain, but they were defeated by Cæsar in the decisive battle of Munda (March, 45 B. C).

Cæsar returned to Rome after the battle of Thapsus, the master of the Roman dominion. The republic went out when Cato fell upon his sword at Utica; the monarchy came in with the triumphal entry of Cæsar into Rome in the summer of 46 B. C. It is true Cæsar was not king (rex) in name, but he was so in substance. His position as chief of the state was this: he was invested with the dictatorship for ten years,—an arrangement changed soon afterwards to perpetual dictator,—and was hailed with the title of Imperator for life. The latter title, Imperator (meaning commander), was one which belonged under the republic to the victorious general; but it was a temporary title, always laid aside with the surrender of military command. Cæsar was allowed to use it in a special way and permanently, and in his case it had much the meaning of the term Emperor,—a word which is simply Imperator cut short.

FEELINGS OF THE ROMANS
TOWARD CAESAR

There can be no doubt that the Romans were well satisfied to be under the rule of Cæsar. The republic was a mere name, for liberty had expired when the Gracchi were murdered, and subsequent dissensions were merely contests for power between different factions. Hence the Roman people, weary of revolution, were quite content to find peace under the just though absolute rule of one master.

It is important to recognize this as the real state of public feeling, because we shall now have to see that Cæsar fell a victim to assassination, and it might be thought that his overthrow was the people’s revolt from monarchical rule. But it was the act of a small knot of conspirators who, with the cry of “Liberty and the Republic” in their mouths, did away with the Imperator to serve their own ends.

THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST CAESAR
AND HIS ASSASSINATION

The chiefs of the conspiracy were Caius Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus. Both had received great favors from Cæsar; but they thought they had not been honored enough, and they were intensely jealous of the dictator’s greatness. These were joined by other malcontents, and the plotters swelled their ranks by representing that Cæsar designed to assume the diadem and the title of king; so that the conspiracy finally included about sixty senators.

It is not certainly known whether or not Cæsar thought of taking the name of king. It is known, however, that the consul, Mark Antony, entered in the public acts, “that by the command of the people, he, as consul, had offered the name of king to Cæsar, perpetual dictator; and that Cæsar would not accept of it.”

The plot ripened into a determination to assassinate Cæsar, and the conspirators fixed on the Ides (i. e. 15th) of March as the time of putting the design into execution. Rumors of the plot got abroad, and Cæsar was strongly urged not to attend the senate. But he disregarded the warnings which were given him. As soon as Cæsar had taken his place, he was surrounded by the senatorial conspirators, one of whom, pretending to urge some request, seized his toga with both hands and pulled it violently over his arms. Then Casca, who was behind, drew a weapon and grazed his shoulder with an ill-directed stroke. Cæsar disengaged one hand and snatched at the hilt, exclaiming, “Cursed Casca, what means this?” “Help!” cried Casca, and at the same moment the conspirators aimed each his dagger at the victim. Cæsar for an instant defended himself; but when he perceived the steel flashing in the hand of Brutus (Marcus Junius), he exclaimed [398] “What! thou too, Brutus!” (Et tu Brute!) and drawing his robe over his face he made no further resistance. The assassins stabbed him through and through; and, pierced with twenty-three wounds, Cæsar fell dead at the foot of the statue of his great rival, Pompey.

Julius Cæsar was in his fifty-sixth year, when, on the fifteenth of March, B. C. 44, he was stricken down.

EFFECT OF CAESAR’S DEATH AND THE
ORATION OF ANTONY

It is said that “revolutions never go backwards.” Brutus and his fellow-conspirators struck down Cæsar in the name of liberty; but the blow that leveled the master of Rome did not bring back the republic,—it only insured the appearance of new claimants for supreme power, and consequently new civil wars.

On the occasion of Cæsar’s funeral the consul, Mark Antony, delivered an oration over the dictator’s body, and to such a height did the feeling of the Romans against the plotters rise, that Brutus and Cassius were obliged to escape forthwith from the city to avoid destruction.

The condition of affairs left Mark Antony in some respect the representative of Cæsarean principles; but a more direct claimant to the succession appeared in Cæsar’s great-nephew, Caius Octavius, then a youth nineteen years old. The dictator had adopted Octavius as his son; so his name became Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus. Octavius had all the old soldiers on his side, and raised the standard of Cæsar’s vengeance.

TRIUMVIRATE OF ANTONY, OCTAVIUS
AND LEPIDUS

At first Antony and Octavius were at strife; but finally they became reconciled, and associating with them Lepidus, the “master of the horse,” the three formed the Second Triumvirate (43 B. C.), and concerted a plan to divide among themselves the supreme authority. In order to do this it was necessary utterly to crush both their personal enemies and the forces of the republic.

To accomplish the first object, they began a system of proscription more ruthless and bloody than that of Marius and Sulla. It is recorded that three hundred senators, two thousand knights, and many thousands of citizens were sacrificed. The most illustrious of the victims was the famous orator Cicero, whose severe invectives against Antony had procured him the relentless hatred of the triumvir. The aged patriot, while escaping from Rome in a litter, was assassinated.

BATTLE OF PHILIPPI AND DIVISION
OF THE ROMAN WORLD

The second object was the destruction of the republican forces. Now Brutus and Cassius, finding their position in Italy to be desperate, had retired to the East, where in Thrace they gathered an army of about one hundred thousand men. Antony and Octavius pursued them with a still larger force, and the two armies met at Philippi. The republican army was totally defeated (November, 42 B. C.); both Brutus and Cassius killed themselves.

The victors now divided the Roman world among themselves,—Antony taking the East, Octavius the West, and Lepidus the province of Africa. But the Roman world was scarcely theirs before they began to quarrel over it. The feeble Lepidus never possessed much influence, and was soon robbed of his share. After this it was quite certain that a contest between Antony and Octavius could not long be delayed, and each began to intrigue against the other.

ANTONY’S TRAGIC ASSOCIATION
WITH CLEOPATRA

Antony made the headquarters of his half of the Roman dominion at Alexandria. Here he came under the fascinations of Cleopatra, and he lost all regard to his character or his interests in her company. He even went so far as to divorce his wife Octavia, the sister of Octavius, and, having married the voluptuous Egyptian queen, he bestowed Roman provinces on her.

This conduct was treasonable, and furnished Octavius with a decent pretext for declaring war. The young Cæsar had been gaining great popularity in Italy; he had consolidated his power and had his legions in fine training. The fleets and armies of the rivals assembled at the opposite sides of the Gulf of Ambracia. After considerable delay, Antony, instigated by Cleopatra, who was present with her Egyptian fleet, determined to decide the contest by a naval battle. The contest took place off the promontory of Actium (on the west coast of Greece), while the hostile armies, drawn up on the shore, were simple spectators. In the midst of the conflict Cleopatra tacked about, and with the Egyptian squadron of sixty sail drew out of the fight. Antony, regardless of his honor, followed after her, and the pair fled to Alexandria. Both the fleet and the force of Antony surrendered to Octavius, 31 B. C.

Some months afterwards Octavius advanced to besiege Alexandria. Antony attempted to defend it; but he was abandoned by his troops. Cleopatra retired to a monument she had erected, and caused a report to be spread of her death. Upon this news Antony attempted to commit suicide, and inflicted on himself a mortal wound: hearing, however, in the midst of his agonies, that Cleopatra still lived, he caused himself to be carried to her monument, and expired in her presence (30 B. C.).

DEATH OF CLEOPATRA BY SUICIDE
AND FALL OF EGYPT

The end of Cleopatra was even more tragic. The Egyptian queen seems at first to have thought that she would be able to bewitch the young Cæsar; but having in vain essayed her arts on the cold, calculating Octavius, she, sooner than be led in chains to adorn the triumph of the victor, and glut the eyes of the populace of Rome with the sight of the daughter and last of the Ptolemies, preceding the chariot of the adopted son of him who had done homage to her charms, gave herself voluntary death by the bite of an asp, or the scratch of a poisoned needle. Egypt now became a Roman province in 30 B. C., and Rome’s dominion in the Mediterranean basin became formally, as it had long been virtually, complete.

The Roman Empire, replacing the Roman Republic, founded by Julius Cæsar, after the battle of Pharsalia, was consolidated by Octavianus in the following year.

V. Period of the Roman Empire to Constantine, 31 B.C.-306 A.D.

V. PERIOD OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO CONSTANTINE, 31 B.C.-306 A.D.—The fifth period begins with the establishment of the Imperial Government under Augustus Cæsar to the reign of Constantine, A.D. 306. As Christianity was introduced into the world in this period, and was opposed until the end of it by the Roman government, it is often designated as the period of Pagan Emperors.

The reign of Augustus, the name taken by the first Emperor Octavius, has become proverbial for an age flourishing in peace, literature, and the arts. It is distinguished, also, for the birth of Jesus Christ; as the next reign, that of Tiberius, is, for his crucifixion and death.—The four reigns succeeding, viz.: those of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, are chiefly memorable for the tyranny of the Emperors, and the profligacy of their families and favorites.

On the death of Nero, A.D. 69, follows a year of dissension and bloodshed, in which Galba, Otho, and Vitellius successively gained the empire and lost their lives.—The Flavian family, Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, next in order receive the supreme power. Titus is celebrated as the final conqueror of the Jews, whose obstinacy provoked him to destroy the city of Jerusalem. Domitian, the last emperor of the family, provokes his own assassination, A.D. 96.

Passing the reigns of the feeble Nerva, the martial Trajan, and the peaceful Hadrian, we arrive at a brilliant age in the imperial history, the age of Antonines, extending from A.D. 138 to 180, a space of about forty years. Literature and the arts of peace revived under their benign influence.

After the death of Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 180, there follows a whole century of disorder, profligacy, conspiracy and assassination. The army assumes the absolute disposal of the imperial crown, which is even sold at public auction to the highest bidder. Within the last fifty years of the time, nearly fifty emperors are successively proclaimed, and deposed or murdered.—In the year 284, Diocletian began to reign, and attempted a new system of administration.

Ten special persecutions of Christians are recorded and described, the first under Nero, A.D. 64, and the last under Diocletian, commencing A.D. 303, and continuing ten years, unto A.D. 313. But, notwithstanding these repeated efforts to hinder the progress of Christianity, it was spread during this period throughout the whole Roman Empire.

ROME IN THE AUGUSTAN
PERIOD

When Augustus Cæsar at the age of thirty-six became master of the Roman world, there was no open establishment of a monarchical government. On the contrary, most of the old republican forms were kept up; but they were mere forms. The Senate still sat, but it did little more than vote what Augustus wished; the people still met in their assemblies and elected consuls and magistrates, but only such persons were elected as had been proposed or recommended by the Emperor. Augustus, however, assumed nothing of the outward pomp of a monarch: he was satisfied with the substance of supreme rule.

THE THREE CIVILIZATIONS WITHIN
THE EMPIRE

Within the circuit of the Roman dominion there were what we may call three civilizations: the Latin, the Greek, and the Oriental. Latin civilization took in the countries from the Atlantic Ocean to the Adriatic; Greek civilization, from the Adriatic to Mount Taurus; Oriental civilization, the lands beyond to the Euphrates.

The Latin.—The area of Latin civilization embraced the peninsula of Italy (its native seat) and all western Europe, where the Romans appeared not only as a conquering but also as a civilizing people. Thus in the three provinces of Spain (Hispania), in the four provinces of Transalpine Gaul (corresponding nearly with the modern France), as well as in the North African provinces, especially Carthage (which was restored by Cæsar as a Roman colony), the Latin language took firm root, and the manners and customs, and indeed the whole civilization, of those lands became Roman.

The Greek.—Greek civilization was spread over Greece and all those parts of Europe and Asia that had been Hellenized by Grecian colonists or by the Macedonian conquerors. In manners, customs, language, and culture these lands remained Greek, while politically they were Roman.

The Oriental.—Oriental civilization was diffused over the Eastern provinces, especially Egypt and Syria. These countries had, under the rule of Alexander’s successors, become to some degree Hellenized; but this influence was on the whole superficial. The peoples of those Oriental lands had never given up their own languages or religious ideas or ways of thinking. Now these peoples, it should be said, did not become Latinized either,—they did not adopt the language and civilization of Rome.

HOW ROME WAS GOVERNED
UNDER THE EMPIRE

Within the limits of the Roman Empire under Augustus there may have been in all one hundred millions of human beings. Not less than one-half were in a condition of slavery; and of the rest, only that small proportion who, under the envied name of Roman citizen (civis Romanus), inhabited Italy, enjoyed political independence, or had the smallest share in the government. The various lands and peoples were under Roman legates (half of these appointed by Augustus and the other half by the Senate), who held supreme military command. To the provinces were left, however, their independent municipal constitutions and officers. In Rome and Italy the public peace was preserved by the pretorian cohorts,—bodies of soldiers of tried valor, to whom Augustus gave double pay. Throughout the provinces the people were kept in check by the regular troops,—numbering three hundred and fifty thousand men.

THE CAPITAL CITY OF THE
ROMAN EMPIRE

Of this vast empire Rome was the metropolis, now a city of innumerable streets and buildings, and containing, it is calculated, a population of about two millions and a half. It was in this period that Rome became truly a splendid city. Augustus was able to boast that “he found the city brick and left it marble.”

Its Extent and Chief Buildings.—In the days of its greatest prosperity the circumference of Rome enclosed by walls was about twenty miles; but there were also very extensive suburbs. The walls were pierced by thirty gates. The most remarkable objects were the [400] Coliseum, the Capitol with its temples, the Senate-House, and the Forum.

The great circus, or Circus Maximus, a place reserved for public games, races and shows, was one of the most magnificent structures of Rome. It was capable of containing two hundred thousand spectators.

The Flavian Amphitheater, whose massive ruins are known as the Coliseum, could seat from eighty to one hundred thousand persons. In the arena were exhibited the fights of gladiators, in which the Romans took such savage delight, together with races, combats of wild beasts, etc. Theaters, public baths, etc., were erected by the emperors, who seemed anxious to compensate the people for their loss of liberty by the magnificence of their public shows and entertainments.

The Ancient Roman Forum.—In the valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills was the Forum, or place of public assembly, and the great market. It was surrounded with temples, halls for the administration of justice (called basilicæ), and public offices; it was also adorned with statues erected in honor of eminent warriors and statesmen, and with various trophies from conquered nations.

Temple Of Janus.—In the Forum was the celebrated Temple of Janus, built entirely of bronze and dating back to the early kingly period. From some early circumstance the custom was established of closing the gates of this temple during peace; but so incessant were the wars of the Romans, that during eight centuries the gates of the Temple of Janus were closed only three times.

Campus Martius.—The elections of magistrates, reviews of troops, and the census or registration of citizens, were held in the Campus Martius, which was also the favorite exercise-ground of the young nobles. It was surrounded by several splendid edifices; ornamental trees and shrubs were planted in different parts, and porticoes erected under which the citizens might continue their exercise in rainy weather. Nearby was the celebrated Pantheon, or Temple of All the Gods (erected in the reign of Augustus), the most perfect and splendid monument of ancient Rome that has survived the ravages of time.

The Roman Aqueducts.—The Aqueducts were among the most remarkable Roman structures. Pure streams were sought at a great distance, and conveyed in these artificial channels, supported by arches, many of which were more than a hundred feet high. Under the emperors, not fewer than twenty of these stupendous and useful structures were raised; and they brought such an abundant supply of water to the metropolis, that rivers seemed to flow through the streets and sewers.

Compared with Athens.—Rome was inferior to Athens in architectural beauty, but it far surpassed the Grecian city in works of public utility. To enumerate all the notable edifices would be impossible here; but the “Eternal City” in the zenith of its glory contained four hundred and twenty temples, five regular theaters, two amphitheaters, and seven circuses of vast extent. There were sixteen public baths, built of marble, and furnished with every convenience that could be desired. From the aqueducts a prodigious number of fountains was supplied, many of which were remarkable for their architectural beauty. The palaces, public halls, columns, porticoes, and obelisks were without number, and to these must be added the triumphal arches erected by the later emperors.

AS A CENTER OF
LITERATURE

As the peace of the Roman world was maintained by the strong hand of power, it was at this time that many of those arts that grow best during seasons of national order and prosperity made their greatest progress. Thus many of the best-known Latin writers lived at this time.

Augustus himself was a great patron of literary men and artists, and so was his minister, Caius Cilinius Mæcenas. They honored and rewarded eminent writers; and though we must not forget that many of the distinguished men whose writings add luster to the “Augustan Age” had grown up under the republic, still Augustus deserves credit for fostering letters. Nothing will make up for the loss of political freedom; but it is something that in Rome, when liberty was lost, literature at least flourished.

Among the distinguished writers of this age or the times immediately preceding it are the poets Virgil, Horace, Lucretina and Catullus; and the historian, Sallust.

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST AND
THE CHRISTIAN ERA

Under the rule of Augustus the greatest event of the world’s spiritual history occurred in Bethlehem of Judæa—the birth of Jesus Christ. This really took place in the year 4 B.C., but the erroneous calculation has, for the sake of convenience, been allowed to stand, and the chronology passes from B.C. to A.D., when Augustus had held sway, according to the wrong reckoning, for twenty-seven years.

GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THE ROMAN
DEFEAT BY THE GERMANS

The great secular fact of Rome’s history under Augustus Cæsar was the destruction of the Roman general Varus and his legions in Germany by the celebrated Arminius,—the great national hero Herman,—in whose honor a colossal statue has been erected in the northwest of Germany, near the scene of his patriotic and momentous achievement. He was the chief of the Cherusci, a powerful tribe dwelling on both sides of the river Visurgis (Weser), and closely akin to the Angles and Saxons who conquered the island of Britain.

If Arminius had not done what he did against Rome, Germany might have been thoroughly subdued; the Latin language might have extinguished the Teutonic; the Teutonic tribes might have been overwhelmed; the Teutonic influence over modern Europe, and as an element of the English race, might never have been exerted, and Europe and the world would have had a widely different development from that which they have actually undergone.

LEGIONS OF VARUS VANQUISHED BY
ARMINIUS

Arminius, as chief of the Cherusci, headed a confederacy of German tribes to expel from [401] northern Germany the invaders and partial conquerors of the fatherland. The Roman governor, Quintilius Varus, and his officers and troops, had provoked the German outbreak by their licentious behavior, and the vengeance wreaked on the offenders was complete in itself, and effectual for the preservation of German freedom.

The German hero, when his plans were formed, tempted Varus and his three legions, by a revolt of the tribes near the Weser and the Ems, to march into the difficult country now called the Teutoburger Wald, a woody and hilly region near the sources of the Lippe and the Ems. When the Roman force was thoroughly entangled amidst the forests and hills, and had been further imperiled by the rashness of the incompetent tyrant Varus in the order of his march, then Arminius and the Germans fell on the hated foe; the Roman column was broken, and its cavalry fled, but was pursued and utterly destroyed.

Varus slew himself in despair. His infantry was overpowered and slain almost to the last man. All the efforts of Rome thereafter never secured her a permanent foothold on German soil. This great deliverance of Germany, so full of chagrin to Augustus and so momentous in European history, occurred in A.D. 9.

Death of Augustus.—Augustus died in 14 A.D.; so that, counting from his formal accession to title, 27 B.C., he ruled over the Roman dominion for forty-one years.

The following table gives a list of the Roman Emperors, with the dates of their reigns and other facts. Many of them were quite insignificant in personality and in their influence upon history. The greater rulers call for more extended notice in their proper historical place in the Outline of Universal History, as well as in the Dictionary of Biography.

THE EMPERORS OF ROME

Name, Lineage or Basis of Accession and Cause of Death							Period of Rule					Birth					Death
THE CÆSARS
Octavianus Cæsar, “Augustus” (majesty).—A title conferred by the Senate; died August 19							B.C.27-A.D.14					B.C.63					A.D.19
Tiberius (Claudius Nero).—Stepson of Augustus; murdered by a tribune							A.D.14-37					42					37
Caius Caligula.—Youngest son of Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius; poisoned by his wife, Agrippina, to make way for							37		-	41		12					41
Claudius I. (Tiberius Drusus).—Grandson of Tiberius							41		-	54		10					54
Claudius Nero.—Son of Domitius Ahenobarbus; deposed; kills himself							54		-	68		A.D.37					68
Servius Sulpicius Galba.—Proclaimed Emperor; slain by the prætorians							68		-	69		B.C. 3					69
M. Salvius Otho.—Proclaimed Emperor; stabbed himself							69		-			A.D.32					69
Aulus Vitellius.—Proclaimed Emperor; deposed by Vespasian, and put to death							69		-	69		15					69
Titus Flavius Vespasian.—Proclaimed Emperor							70		-	79		9					79
Titus (Vespasian).—Son of Vespasian							79		-	81		41					81
Titus Flavius Domitian.—Brother of Titus, second son of Vespasian; last of the twelve Cæsars							81		-	96		51					96
THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS
Cocceius Nerva.—Proclaimed Emperor							96		-	98		32					98
Trajan (M. Ulpius Crinitus).—Adopted son of Nerva							98		-	117		53					117
Hadrian (Publius Ælius).—Nephew of Trajan							117		-	138		76					138
Antoninus Titus, surnamed Pius.—Adopted son of Hadrian							138		-	161		86					161
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.—Nephew of Antoninus Pius							161		-	180		121					180
THE PERIOD OF MILITARY DESPOTISM
Commodus (L. Aurelius Antoninus).—Son of Marcus Aurelius; poisoned by his favorite mistress, Martia, December 31							180		-	193		161					192
Publius Helvius Pertinax.—Proclaimed Emperor; killed by prætorian band							193		-			126					193
Didius Julianus.—Proclaimed Emperor							193		-					...			193
Lucius Septimus Severus.—Proclaimed Emperor; died at York, in Britain							193		-	212	?	146					211
M. Aurelius Caracalla and Septimius Geta.—Son of Septimius Severus; Caracalla murders Geta, 212; is slain by his successors							212		-	217		188					217
M. Opilius Macrinus, prefect of the guards; beheaded in a mutiny							217		-	218		164					218
Heliogabalus (M. Aurelius Antoninus), a youth (Elagabalus).—First cousin of Caracalla; put to death for enormities							218		-	222		205				?	222
Alexander Severus.—Cousin of Heliogabalus, by whom he was adopted; assassinated by soldiers corrupted by Maximinus							222		-	235		205					235
Caius Julius Verus Maximinus.—Elevated by soldiers; assassinated in his tent							235		-	238		173					238
M. Antonius Gordianus and his son; the latter falling in battle with partisans of Maximinus, the father strangled himself in despair, at Carthage, in his eightieth year.—Appointed by the Senate							238		-	238				...			(238 (238
Gordian II.—Grandson of Gordian I.; assassinated by guards, instigated by Philip the Arabian							238		-	244		224					244
Philip the Arabian.—Murdered Gordian and usurped the throne; assassinated by his soldiers							244		-	249				...			249
[402]Metius Decius.—Proclaimed Emperor by the army; he perished in battle with Goths							249		-	251				...			251
Gallus Hostilius, and his son Volusianus.—Elected Emperor by Senate and soldiers; both slain by soldiers							251		-	254				...			254
Æmilianus.—Elected Emperor by Senate and soldiers; put to death after reign of four months							254		-			208				?	254?
Valerian.—Elected Emperor by Senate and soldiers; taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, and flayed alive							254		-	260				...			260
Gallienus							260		-	268				...			268
Flavius Claudius							268		-	270		214					270
Aurelian.—Designated by Claudius; assassinated by soldiers on march against Persia							270		-	275		212					275
Tacitus.—Elected by Senate and soldiers; died at Tarsus, in Cilicia							275		-	276		200					276
Florian.—Proclaimed Emperor; not recognized by Senate							276		-	276				...				?
M. Aurelius Probus.—Choice of the army; assassinated by troops at Sirmium							277		-	282				...			282
M. Aurelius Carus.—Elevated to throne by soldiers; killed at Ctesiphon by lightning							282		-	283		222					283
Carinus—Elder son of Carus		-	both assassinated				284		-	284		...					285
and
Numerian.—Son of Carus
Diocletian.—Proclaimed Emperor by the army						-	284		-	305		-		245			313
and
Maximian.—Made Cæsar by Diocletian														...			310
Constantius		-	Created Cæsar				305		-	306		-		250			306
and
Galerius														...			311
Constantine the Great.—Eldest son of Augustus Constantius Chlorus							306		-	336		272					337
Constantius II.—Third son of Constantine the Great							336		-	361		317					361
Julian the Apostate.—Son of Julius Constantius; mortally wounded in battle with Persians							361		-	363		331					363
Jovian.—Elevated to the throne by the army							363		-	364		332					364
ROMAN EMPERORS OF THE WEST
Tacitus.—Elected by Senate and soldiers; died at Tarsus, in Cilicia							275		-	276		200					276
Valentinian I.—Proclaimed Emperor by the army							364		-	375		321					375
Gratian.—Son of Valentinian I							375		-	383		359					383
Maximus—Made Emperor by the legions in Britain							383?							?			398
Valentinian II.—Son of Valentinian I							383?		-	388		371					392
Eugenius.—Proclaimed Emperor							388		-	394				...				...
Theodosius the Great.—Son of Theodosius, a Roman general							394		-	395		346					395
Honorius.—Second son of Theodosius							395		-	423		384					423
Valentinian III.—Son of Constantius							423		-	455		419					455
Maximus Petronius.—Proclaimed Emperor							455		-					395		?	455
Avitus.—Assumed the purple							455		-	457				...			457
Majorian or Majorien.—Elected by Ricimer							457		-	461				...				?
Severus.—Raised to imperial dignity by Ricimer							461		-	467				...				465-7	?
Anthemius.—Son-in-law of Emperor Marcian							467		-	472				...				?
Olybrius.—Made Emperor through influence of Ricimer							472		-	473				...				?
Glycerus.—Proclaimed Emperor (or Genseric)							473		-					...				?
Nepos.—Proclaimed Emperor by order of Leo X.							473		-	475				...			480
Romulus Augustulus.—Son of Orestes							475		-	476				...			476
Augustus is deposed and banished by Odoácer, who thus puts an end to the Western Empire of Rome.

(See Chronology of the more important events under Rome in Comparative Outlines of Universal History.)

VI. From Constantine to the Fall of Rome, 306-476 A.D.

VI. FROM CONSTANTINE TO THE FALL OF ROME, 306-476 A.D.—The sixth period includes the remainder of Roman history, extending from the reign of Constantine to the Fall of Rome, when captured by the Heruli, A.D. 476. The reign of Constantine the Great imparts splendor to the commencement of this period. He embraced the Christian faith himself, and patronized it in the Empire, as did also most of his successors; on which account this may be called the period of the Christian Emperors.

One of the most important events of his reign, and one which had a great influence on the subsequent affairs of Rome, was the removal of the Government to a new seat. He selected Byzantium for his capital, and removed there with his court, giving it the name of Constantinople, which it still bears. He left his empire to five princes, three sons and two nephews; the youngest son, Constantius, soon grasps the whole, A.D. 360. By the death of Constantius, his cousin Julian received the purple, which he was already on his march from Gaul to seize by force. The reign of Julian, styled the Apostate, is memorable for his artful and persevering attempts to destroy the Christian religion, and his unsuccessful efforts to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem, with the express purpose of casting discredit on the predictions of the Bible.

From the death of Julian, A.D. 363, to the reign of Theodosius the Great, A.D. 379, the history presents little that is important to be noticed, except the jealousies between the eastern and western portions of the Empire, which grew out of the removal of the court to Constantinople. Theodosius was the last emperor who ruled over both. In 395 he died, leaving to his sons Arcadius and Honorius separately the [403] east and west. From this time the Eastern portion remained distinct, and its history no longer belongs to that of Rome.

The western portion languishes under ten successive emperors, who are scarcely able to defend themselves against the repeated attacks of barbarian invaders. At length, under Augustulus, the eleventh from Theodosius, Rome is taken by Odoácer, leader of the Heruli, and the history of ancient Rome is terminated, A. D. 476.

The whole of the period from Constantine to Augustulus is marked by the continued inroads of barbarous hordes from the north and the east. But the greatest annoyance was suffered in the latter part of the time, from three tribes, under three celebrated leaders; the Goths, under Alaric; the Vandals, under Genseric; and the Huns, under Attila. The two former actually carried their victorious arms to Rome itself (A.D. 410 and 455), and laid prostrate at their feet the haughty mistress of the world; and the latter was persuaded to turn back his forces (A. D. 453) only by ignoble concessions and immense gifts.

By A.D. 300 great changes had passed over the empire. Its population had become largely barbarized; the armies contained great numbers of Goths, Vandals, and Sarmathians (from territory now the west and south of Russia). Germans were spread through the empire more than any other nationality. The former distinction as to Roman citizenship having been lost, the distinction between the “Roman legions” and the “allies” was now effaced, and the last visible record of Rome’s conquest was obliterated.

PERIOD OF CONSTANTINE
THE GREAT

Diocletian’s resignation in A.D. 305 was followed by a period of confusion and civil war, which ended in the establishment of Constantine as sole emperor in A.D. 323. He was son of one of the co-emperors and the Empress Helena. Constantine made an important change in the government by separating the military power from the civil authority. The influence of the Legati (provincial viceroys) was thus reduced, and the fact that the emperor alone held both the civil and military power gave him a great predominance.

CONSTANTINE MAKES BYZANTIUM
THE CAPITAL

In A.D. 324 Christianity was established by Constantine as the religion of the State, and in 330 he made Byzantium the capital of the empire. This city on the Thracian Bosporus, founded by Greek colonists in 658 B.C., had early become a great commercial center. After being held successively by the Athenians, Lacedæmonians, and Macedonians, it came into Roman possession, and the new or reconstructed city Byzantium was afterwards called Constantinópolis (“City of Constantine”) and remained the capital of the Eastern Empire of Rome till A. D. 1453.

CONSTANTINE GIVES A NEW IMPETUS
TO CHRISTIANITY

In religion, Constantine showed marks of his former Paganism even after his conversion to Christianity. He was an able general and statesman, whose real character has been obscured by historical excesses, both of panegyric and of detraction, and around whose name, in connection with Christianity, interesting and picturesque legends are associated, like that of the apparition of the Cross and the words (in Greek), “By this sign, conquer.” He died in 337, leaving the empire to confusion and civil war under his sons.

Apart from its effects upon the morals, the new religion greatly and beneficially stirred the mind of the age. Political speculation and discussion were impossible under a despotism, and active minds turned to theology, and soon showed that the intellectual power of the time was to be found within the ranks of Christianity.

Among these early writers and rules of the church, known as the “Christian Fathers,” the following are the chief, Tertullian, Ambrose, Cyprian, Lactantius, Jerome, and Augustine being Latin Fathers; Origen, Gregory, Basil, Chrysostom, and Athanasius being Greek Fathers.

THE IGNOBLE END OF THE
WESTERN EMPIRE

The last Roman Emperor of the West was a child, called, as if in derision, Romulus Augustulus, the one name being that of the city’s mythical founder, the other (“Augustus the little”) a parody of the style of him who organized the empire. Augustulus became nominal ruler in A.D. 475, and in 476 was overthrown by the invasion of some German tribes, of which the chief were the Heruli. Their leader, Odoácer, took the title of “King of Italy,” and the Western Empire came thus ignobly to an end.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF ROMAN SWAY
TO THE WORLD

The chief benefits derived by the world from Rome’s imperial sway were the spread of the Greek culture, the transmission of the greatest productions of the Greek mind, and the clear course made for the progress of Christianity.