| +--C. Octavius (adopted as son by the will of Julius) became C. JULIUS CaeSAR OCTAVIa.n.u.s AUGUSTUS, _m_.
2, Scribonia; | +--Julia _m_. 2, M. Vipsanius Agrippa.
| +--Agrippina, | _m_. Germanicus.
| | | +--CAIUS (Caligula), | | _m_. Caesonia, | | | | | +--Julia Drusilla.
| | | +--Agrippina, | _m_. Cn. Domitius.
| | | +--L. DOMITIUS NERO, | _m_. Poppaea Sabina.
| | | +--Claudia Augusta.
| +--Julia, _m_. aemilius Paulus.
| +--aemilia Lepida, _m_.
1, CLAUDIUS; 2, Junius Sila.n.u.s.
| +--Junia Calvina, _m_. VITELLIUS.
3, Livia.
| +--TIBERIUS (adopted as son by Augustus).
THE CLAUDIAN IMPERIAL HOUSE.
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO.
_m_. Livia Drusilla (afterwards wife of AUGUSTUS).
| +--TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO.
| +--Drusus Claudius Nero, _m_. Antonia, daughter of the Triumvir and niece of Augustus.
| +--Germanicus, | _m_. Agrippina.
| +--TI. CLAUDIUS DRUSUS, _m_. 5, Valeria Messalina.
| +--Octavia, | _m_. NERO.
| +--Britannicus.
| +--By adoption, NERO.
CHAPTER II. THE EMPERORS OF THE AUGUSTAN HOUSE.
TIBERIUS.--During the long reign of the prudent _Augustus_, there was peace within the borders of the empire. He said of himself, that he "found Rome of brick, and left it of marble." This change may be taken as a symbol of the growth of material prosperity in the Roman dominions. But in his private relations, the emperor was less fortunate. His daughter _Julia_, a woman of brilliant talents, disgraced him by her immorality, and he was obliged to banish her. Her two elder sons died when they were young. The empire devolved on his adopted step-son _Tiberius_ (14-37), who endeavored to continue the same conservative policy. Tiberius was at first alarmed by mutinies among the troops in Pannonia and on the Rhine. The army of the Rhine urged _Germanicus_, the emperor"s adopted son and probable successor, to lead it to Rome, promising to place him on the throne, but _Germanicus_ succeeded in quieting the disturbance. As there were during this reign no great wars, _Tiberius_ was able to devote himself more exclusively to the civil administration. He transferred from the popular a.s.sembly to the Senate the right of choosing the magistrates, emphasizing in this way the dual system that Augustus had created. The rights of the Senate he appeared scrupulously to respect. For the more effective government of the city of Rome he established there a permanent prefecture and brought together in a camp before the Viminal gate the nine praetorian cohorts. Unhappily this Praetorian Guard, which might serve to overawe the city mobs, might also interfere in the affairs of government. Indeed, a little later it had to be counted with in the choice of emperors. The notorious _Seja.n.u.s_ was prefect during a large part of this reign, and acquired so completely the confidence of Tiberius that he began to plot his overthrow. He had already caused _Drusus_, the son of Tiberius, to be poisoned in order to remove one obstacle. Finally the emperor discovered his plots and caused him to be arrested and put to death (31). For several years Tiberius had been living in retirement on the island of _Capreae_. There his enemies represented him as given over to debauchery, while the lives of Roman citizens were never safe from his suspicions or from the accusations of the _delators_, men who presented formal charges of crime, there being no public prosecutors. Earlier in his reign _Tiberius_ had shown a serious purpose to improve the administration of justice, but with the lapse of years he became distrustful and cruel. He had, moreover, changed the law of treason so that to write or speak slightingly of the emperor was interpreted as conspiracy to bring the commonwealth into contempt and was punished with death. Although he was justly hated by the Roman n.o.bles, in the provinces he was respected because he sought to protect them against extortion and to foster their general interests. He died in the year 37 at the age of seventy-eight.
CALIGULA.--There was no law for the regulation of the succession. But the Senate, the praetorians, and the people united in calling to the throne _Caius_, the son of Germanicus (37-41). This ruler, called _Caligula_, at first mild and generous in his doings, soon rushed into such excesses of savage cruelty and monstrous vice that he was thought to be half-deranged. He was fond of seeing with his own eyes the infliction of tortures. His wild extravagance in the matter of public games and in building drained the resources of the empire. After four years, this madman was cut down by two of his guards whom he had grievously insulted.
CLAUDIUS.--_Claudius_, the uncle and successor of _Caligula_, and the son of Drusus and Antonia, was not bad, but weak. He was a student and a recluse in his habits. His favorites and nearest connections were unprincipled. The depravity of his wife, _Messalina_, was such that he did right in sanctioning her death. The immoral and ambitious _Agrippina_, whom he next married, had an influence less malign. But she was unfaithful to her husband; and this fact, together with the fear she felt that _Nero_, her son by her first marriage, would be excluded from the throne, impelled her to the crime of taking the life of _Claudius_ by poison.
NERO.--_Nero_ reigned from 54 to 68. He was the grandson of Germanicus, and had been the pupil of the philosopher _Seneca_, and of _Burrus_, an excellent man, the captain of the Praetorian Guard. The first five years of Nero"s reign were honorably distinguished from the portion of it that followed. When a warrant for the execution of a criminal was brought to him, he regretted that he had ever learned to write. His first great crime was the poisoning of _Britannicus_, the son of _Claudius_. Nero became enamored of a fierce and ambitious woman, _Poppaea Sabina_. On the basis of false charges, he took the life of his wife, _Octavia_, the daughter of Claudius (A.D. 62). His criminal mother, Agrippina, after various previous attempts made by him to destroy her, was dispatched by his command (A.D. 59). His unbridled cruelty and jealousy moved him to order _Seneca_, one of the men to whom he owed most, to commit suicide. He came forward as a musician, and nothing delighted him so much as the applause rendered to his musical performances. He recited his own poems, and was stung with jealousy when he found himself outdone by _Lucan_. His eagerness to figure as a charioteer prompted him, early in his reign, to construct a circus in his own grounds on the _Vatican_, where he could exhibit his skill as a coachman to a throng of delighted spectators. At length he appeared, lyre in hand, on the stage before the populace. Senators of high descent, and matrons of n.o.ble family, were induced by his example and commands to come forward in public as dancers and play-actors. The public treasure he squandered in expensive shows, and in the lavish distribution of presents in connection with them.
THE CHRISTIANS.--_Nero_ has the undesirable distinction of being the first of the emperors to persecute the Christians. In A.D. 64 a great fire broke out at Rome, which laid a third of the city in ashes. He was suspected of having kindled it; and, in order to divert suspicion from himself, he charged the crime upon the Christians, who were obnoxious, _Tacitus_ tells us, on account of their "hatred of the human race." Their withdrawal from customary amus.e.m.e.nts and festivals, which involved immorality or heathen rites, naturally gave rise to this accusation of cynical misanthropy. A great number were put to death, "and in their deaths they were made subjects of sport; for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and, when day declined, were burned to serve for nocturnal lights." At length a feeling of compa.s.sion arose among the people for the victims of this wanton ferocity. Prior to this time, while the Christians were confounded with the Jews as one of their sects, they had been more protected than persecuted by the Roman authorities. Now that they were recognized as a distinct body,--the adherents of a new religion not identified with any particular nation, but seeking to spread itself everywhere,--they fell under the condemnation of Roman law, and were exposed to the hostility of magistrates, as well as to the wrath of the fanatical populace.
Nero was a great builder. The ground which had been burnt over in the fire he laid out in regular streets, leaving open s.p.a.ces, and limiting the height of the houses. But a large area he reserved for his "Golden House," which, with its lakes and shady groves, stretched over the ground on which the Coliseum afterwards stood, and as far as the Esquiline.
THE CITY OF ROME.--Ancient Rome was mostly built on the left bank of the Tiber. It spread from the Palatine, the seat of the original settlement, over six other hills; so that it became the "city of seven hills." All of them appeared higher than they do now. Of these hills the Capitoline was the citadel and the seat of the G.o.ds. In earlier days, from a part of the summit, the Tarpeian Rock, criminals were hurled. In time the hill became covered with public edifices, of which the grandest was the Temple of "Capitoline Jupiter." On the Palatine were eventually constructed the vast palaces of the emperors, the ruins of which have been uncovered in recent times. The walls of _Servius Tullius_ encompa.s.sed the seven hills. The walls constructed by _Aurelian_ (270-275 A.D.), _Probus_, and _Honorius_ (402 A.D.), inclosed an area twelve miles in circ.u.mference. The streets were most of them narrow; and, to economize s.p.a.ce, the houses were built very high. One of the finest, as well as most ancient, thoroughfares was the _Via Sacra_, which ran past the Coliseum, or the Flavian amphitheater, and under the Triumphal Arch of _t.i.tus_, erected after the capture of Jerusalem, along the east of the Forum to the Capitol. There was a particular street in Rome where shoemakers and booksellers were congregated. The central part of the city was thronged, and noisy with cries of teamsters and of venders of all sorts of wares. The _fora_--one of which, the "Roman Forum," between the Capitoline and the Palatine, was the great center of Roman life--were open places paved, and surrounded with n.o.ble buildings,--temples, and _basilicas_, or halls of justice. The _fora_ were either places for the transaction of public business, or they served the purpose of modern market-places. Among the public buildings of note were the vast colonnades, places of resort both for business and for recreation. The sewers, and especially the aqueducts, were structures of a stupendous character. Among the most imposing edifices in ancient Rome were the baths. Those built by _Diocletian_ had room for three thousand bathers at once. In these establishments the beauty of the gardens and fountains without was on a level with the elegance of the interior furnishings, and with the attraction of the libraries, paintings, and sculptures, which added intellectual pleasure to the physical comfort for which, mainly, these gigantic buildings were constructed. Besides the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, there were many other temples, some of which were but little inferior to that majestic edifice.
The triumphal arches--as that of _t.i.tus_, already mentioned, which was built of Pentelic marble--and the commemorative columns--as the Column of _Trajan_, which stood in the forum that bears his name--were among the architectural wonders of the ancient capital of the world. The plain, named of old the _Campus Martius_, on the north-west side of the city, and bordering on the Tiber, contained, among the buildings and pleasure-grounds by which it was covered, the Pantheon, and the magnificent mausoleum of Augustus. On the south-west of the Coelian Hill, the Appian Way turns to the south-east, and pa.s.ses out of the Appian Gate. It is skirted for miles with sepulchral monuments of ancient Romans, of which the circular tomb of _Metella Caecilia_ is one of the most interesting. There are varying estimates of the population of ancient Rome. Probably the number of free inhabitants, in the early centuries of the empire, was not far from a million; and the slaves were probably almost as many.
DEATH OF NERO: GALBA.--Growing jealous of the legates who commanded armies on the frontiers, _Nero_ determined to destroy them. They consequently revolted; and war between the troops of two of them issued in the death of _Vindex_, the general in Gaul. But _Galba_ was deputed to carry on the contest; and Nero, being forsaken even by his creature, _Tigellinus_, and the praetorians, at last gained courage to call on a slave to dispatch him, and died (A.D. 68) at the age of thirty. The princ.i.p.al events out of Italy, during his reign, were the revolt of the Britons under the brave queen _Boadicea_ (A.D. 61), and the suppression of it by _Suetonius Paulinus_; the war with the Parthians and Armenians, extending slightly the frontier of the empire; and the beginning of the Jewish war. Despite the corruption at Rome, her disciplined soldiers still maintained their superiority on the borders.
OTHO: VITELLIUS.--With the death of Nero, the Augustan family came to an end. _Galba_ began the series of military emperors. A Roman of the old type, simple, severe, and parsimonious, he pleased n.o.body. The praetorians killed him, and elevated _Otho_, a profligate n.o.ble, to the throne; but he was obliged to contend with a rival aspirant, _Vitellius_, commander of the German legions, who defeated him, and became emperor A.D. 69. Vitellius was not only vicious, like his predecessor, but was cowardly and inefficient. The Syrian and Egyptian legions refused to obey so worthless a ruler, and proclaimed their commander, _Flavius Vespasian_, as emperor. As Vespasian"s general, _Antonius_, approached Rome, _Vitellius_ renounced the throne, and declared his readiness to retire to private life. His adherents withstood him; and, in the struggle that followed between the two parties in the city, the Capitoline Temple was burned. The Flavian army took Rome, and _Vitellius_ was put to an ignominious death (A.D. 69).
CHAPTER III. THE FLAVIANS AND THE ANTONINES.
VESPASIAN: THE JEWISH WAR.--_Vespasian_, the first in the list of good emperors, restored discipline in the army and among the praetorians, inst.i.tuted a reform in the finances, and erected the immense amphitheater now called the _Coliseum_, for the gladiatorial games. By his general, _Cerealis_, he put down the revolt in Germany and Eastern Gaul, and thus saved several provinces to the empire. _Civilis_, the leader of the rebellion, had aimed to establish an independent German princ.i.p.ality on the west of the Rhine. Vespasian had begun the war with the Jews while _Nero_ reigned (A.D. 66). The Romans had to face a most energetic resistance. Among the captives taken by them in Galilee was the Jewish historian, _Josephus_. At the end of A.D. 67, all Galilee was subdued. The fanatical, or popular, party, the _Zealots_, got the upper hand at _Jerusalem_. The city was torn with the strife of violent factions. In A.D. 70 commenced the memorable siege by _t.i.tus_, the son of Vespasian, the details of which are given by _Josephus_. The fall of the city was attended with the conflagration of the temple. Although the estimate given by _Josephus_ of the number that perished during the siege, which he places at eleven hundred thousand, is exaggerated, it is true that the destruction of life was immense. The inhabitants of the city who were not killed were sold as slaves. In _Britain_ a most competent officer--_Agricola_, the father-in-law of Tacitus--was made governor in A.D. 78. He conquered the country as far north as the _Tyne_ and the _Solway_, and built a line of forts across the isthmus between England and Scotland.
t.i.tUS (A.D. 79-81).--Vespasian"s firm and beneficent reign was followed by the accession of _t.i.tus_, who had been previously a.s.sociated by his father with himself in the imperial office. t.i.tus was mild in temper, but voluptuous in his tastes, and prodigal in expenditures. One of the marked events of his short reign was the destruction of the cities of _Pompeii_ and _Herculaneum_ by a great eruption of Vesuvius (A.D. 79). The uncovering of the streets and buildings of _Pompeii_ in recent times has added much to our knowledge of ancient arts and customs. A terrible fire and destructive pestilence at Rome were regarded as sent by the G.o.ds, not on account of the sins of the emperor, but of the nation.
DOMITIAN (A.D. 81-96).--_Domitian_, the younger brother of _t.i.tus_, succeeded him. By nature autocratic, he refused to share the government with the senate, as Augustus had planned. In order the more completely to control this body he a.s.sumed the censorship for life. In the latter part of his reign _Domitian_, like _Tiberius_, was gloomy and suspicious, and committed many acts of tyranny. He was killed by the freedmen of his own palace (A.D. 96). His war with the _Dacians_ on the Danube had been concluded by the dubious stipulation to pay them an annual tribute as a reward for abstaining from predatory incursions into _Moesia_ (A.D. 90). For the first time, Rome purchased peace of her enemies. _Domitian_ was guilty of persecuting the Christians, among whom, it is now known, was included at least one member of his own family, his niece, _Flavia Domatilla_, who was also allied to him by marriage. The epistle of _Clement_ of Rome, the oldest extant Christian writing after the Apostles, refers to the barbarities inflicted upon Christian disciples by this tyrant.
NERVA (A.D. 96-98).--The Senate now took the initiative, and placed on the throne one of their own number, _Nerva_, an old man of mild and virtuous character. The administration was in every point in contrast with the preceding. But the best thing Nerva did was to provide for the curbing of the praetorians by appointing, with the concurrence of the Senate, a most competent man to be his colleague and successor.
TRAJAN (A.D. 98-117).--_Trajan_ was a native of Spain, and had been brought up in the camp. He belongs among the very best of the Roman emperors. He upheld the ancient laws and inst.i.tutions of the state. He provided for the impartial administration of justice. He restored freedom of speech in the Senate. He founded schools, and establishments for the care of orphans, facilitated commerce by building new roads, bridges, and havens, and adorned Rome with a public library, and with a new and magnificent forum, or market-place, where "Trajan"s Column" was placed by Senate and people as a monument of his victories and services.
He relished the society of literary men like the historian _Tacitus_. He was an intimate friend of _Pliny_ (the younger), whose correspondence while he was governor of _Bithynia_ throws much light upon the emperor"s character and policy. Trajan"s own manner of life was simple, and free from luxury. To the people he furnished lavishly the diversions which they coveted. He made an aggressive war against the _Dacians_ on the Danube, and const.i.tuted a new province of _Dacia_. He carried his arms into the _Parthian_ territory; and three new provinces--_Armenia, Mesopotamia_, and _a.s.syria_--were the fruit of his campaign in the East. In a letter to _Pliny_, he defined the policy to be pursued towards Christians, who had become very numerous in the region where _Pliny_ governed. The effect of the emperor"s rescript was to place Christianity among the religions under the ban of the law. This decision was long in force, and guided the policy of future emperors towards the new faith. HADRIAN (A.D. 117-138).--Trajan was succeeded by _Hadrian_, a lover of peace,--a cultivated man, with extraordinary taste in the fine arts, and their generous patron. He was diligent and full of vigor in the transaction of public business. Although genial and affable, his temper was not so even as that of Trajan; and he was guilty of occasional acts of cruelty. He spent the larger portion of his reign in traveling through his dominions, personally attending to the wants and condition of his subjects. He constructed great works in different portions of the empire: in Rome, his Mausoleum (now the _Castle of St. Angelo_), and his grand temple of Rome and Venus. He began the wall connecting the Scottish friths. A fresh revolt broke out among the _Jews_ (A.D. 131), under a fanatic named _Bar-Cocaba_, which was suppressed in 135. _Jerusalem_ was razed to the ground; and the Jewish rites were forbidden within the new city of _aelia Capitolina_, which the emperor founded on its site. This gave a finishing blow to the Jewish and Judaizing types of Christianity within the limits of the Church.
ANTONINUS PIUS (A.D. 138-161).--_Antoninus Pius_ was the adopted son and successor of Hadrian. He was one of the n.o.blest of princes, a man of almost blameless life. His reign was an era of peace, the golden age in the imperial history. He fostered learning, was generous without being prodigal, was firm yet patient and indulgent, and watched over the interests of his subjects with the care of a father. It is a sign of the happiness of his reign that it does not afford startling occurrences to the narrator.
MARCUS AURELIUS (A.D. 161-180).--Hardly less eminent for his virtues was the next in the succession of sovereigns, _Marcus Aurelius_ (161-180). "A sage upon the throne," he combined a love of learning with the moral vigor and energy of the old Roman character, and with the self-government and serenity of the Stoic school, of the tenets of which he was a n.o.ble exemplar as well as a deeply interesting expounder. A philosopher was now on the throne; and his reign gives some countenance to the doctrine of Plato, that the world could be well governed only when philosophers should be kings, or kings philosophers. He endured with patience the grievous faults of his wife _Faustina_, and of his brother by adoption, and co-regent, _Lucius Verus_. He protected the eastern frontier against _Parthia_. In the war with the _Marcomanni_, he drove the German tribes back over the Danube, and gained a signal victory over the _Quadi_ in their own land. His great object was to strike terror into the barbarian enemies of the empire on the north, and prevent future incursions. Although victorious in many of his battles, he failed to accomplish this result. The danger from barbarian invasion increased with the lapse of time. Before his work was finished, _Marcus Aurelius_ died at _Vindobona_ (Vienna), in March, 180. During his reign, there was persecution of Christians. Especially the churches of _Lyons_ and _Vienne_ have left a record of their sufferings. The virtuous emperors, who were strenuous in their exertions to maintain the old laws and customs, were apt to be more severe in their treatment of Christians, whom they ignorantly regarded as a mischievous sect, than were those emperors who were men of looser principles.
STATE OF MORALS.--The Roman Empire, in the declining days of heathenism, presented the spectacle of a flourishing civilization in contrast with extreme moral degeneracy. Rich and populous cities; stately palaces; beautiful works of art--as vases, statues, carved altars--on every hand; bridges and aqueducts, and n.o.ble highways, binding land to land; inst.i.tutions of education in the provincial cities as well as in Rome; a thriving trade and commerce; a rapid spread of the Roman language, of the Roman legal system, and Roman culture and manners over the subject countries,--these are among the signs and fruits of civilization. But with all this outward prosperity and elegance, there was a growing sensuality, a decay of manly feeling, a disregard of the sanct.i.ty of the marriage tie, an insatiable hunger for wealth and for the pleasures of sense. One of the most corrupting features in the social condition was _slavery_. Every Roman of moderate means aspired to own at least a few slaves. Some owned from ten to twenty thousand, mostly field-hands. Many householders possessed as many as five hundred. _Horace_ gives it as a sign of the simplicity of his life as a bachelor, that he is waited on at table by only three slaves. Slave-holding among the Romans brought in temptations to all sorts of brutality and vice. It brought a poisonous atmosphere into every household. Nothing more clearly ill.u.s.trates the moral degradation of this period than the character of the sports in which people of all ranks delighted. The most attractive theatrical performances came to be comedies, from the Greek and Latin plays of the same order, where scenes were introduced from the licentious stories of the Greek mythology. But the _Pantomime_, which was often of an unchaste and even obscene character, gradually usurped the place of every other exhibition on the stage. The chief amus.e.m.e.nts of the people of all cla.s.ses were the _Circus_ and the _Arena_. In the _Circus_, before hundreds of thousands of spectators, n.o.bles of ancient lineage competed in the chariot race. _Gladiatorial games_, which had first taken place at funerals, and in honor of deceased friends, acquired an almost incredible popularity. At the games inst.i.tuted by _Augustus_, ten thousand men joined in these b.l.o.o.d.y combats. In the festivals under the auspices of _Trajan_, in A.D. 106, eleven thousand tame and wild animals were slain. Not satisfied with seeing pairs of men engage in mortal conflict, the Romans were eager to witness bloodshed on a larger scale. The emperors provided actual battles between hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of men, which were beheld by countless spectators. On an artificial lake in Caesar"s garden, _Augustus_ gave a sea-fight in which three thousand soldiers were engaged. The effect of these brutal spectacles of agony and death was inevitably to harden the heart.
LITERATURE.--If the sanguinary fights in the arena excited little or no condemnation, the prevalence of various other sorts of immorality, at variance with the practice of better days, could not fail to call out different forms of censure.
One of these forms of protest was through the _satirical poets_. Of these caustic writers, _Persius_ (34-62) is obscure and of a moderate degree of merit. _Juvenal_ (about 55-135), on the contrary, is spirited and full of force. _Martial_ (43-101), a Spaniard by birth, was the author of numerous short poems of a pithy and pointed character, called _epigrammata_. All these poets, if we make proper discount for the exaggeration of satire, are very instructive as to the manners and morals of their time. _Lucian_ (120-200), who wrote in Greek, the best known of whose works are his "Dialogues," touched with his broad humor a great many of the superst.i.tions and follies of the day.
The popular teachers in the imperial time were the _rhetoricians_, a.n.a.logous to the Greek _Sophists_,--teachers of rhetoric and eloquence,--one of whom, _Quintilian_ (who was born about 40, and died about 118), was the first to receive from the public treasury a regular salary, and had among his pupils the younger _Pliny_ and the two grand-nephews of _Domitian_. The influence of the mania for rhetoric was more and more to impart an artificial character to literature and art. The epic poems of such writers as _Lucan_ and _Stat.i.tis_ are to a large extent imitations; although Lucan"s princ.i.p.al poem, "Pharsalia," gives evidence of poetic talent. Where there was so little productive genius, it was natural that grammarians and commentators should abound. There was one great writer, the historian _Tacitus_ (about 54-117), who towers above his contemporaries, and in vigor and conciseness has seldom been equaled. The elder _Pliny_ (23-79), whose curiosity to witness the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 cost him his life, was a famous observer and author in natural history. His nephew, the younger _Pliny_, the friend of Trajan, has left to us ten books of "Epistles," which present an agreeable picture of the life and thoughts of a cultivated Roman gentleman. The philosopher _Seneca_, with the exception of _Marcus Aurelius_, the most eminent expositor of the Roman Stoic school, was a voluminous author. No ancient heathen writer has uttered so many thoughts and precepts which bear a resemblance to teachings of the New Testament.
The study that nourished most in this period is _Jurisprudence_. It is the cla.s.sic era of the jurists. Persons versed in the law were preferred by the emperors for high offices. Men who would have been statesmen under the Republic, found a solace and delight in legal studies. Among the most learned jurists of this era, were _Caius Papinian_, and _Ulpian_. Of the Greek writers, one of the most important is _Plutarch_ (about 50-120), whose "Lives," and "Essays" (or _Moralia_), are among the most delightful and instructive of all the works of antiquity. One of the n.o.blest philosophical writers of that or of any other period is the Stoic _Epictetus_ (50-c.120).
The two most popular systems of philosophy in the closing days of the Republic and the early period of the Empire, were the Stoic and the Epicurean. The severity of the Stoic doctrine was somewhat softened by its Roman teachers; but the rigorous self-control, the superiority to misfortune, and the contempt of death, which it recommended, found favor with n.o.ble Romans in dark days. _Cato_ and other champions of the falling Republic were disciples of this school. Later, New Platonism, of a mystical and contemplative type, secured many adherents.
SKEPTICISM.--Long before the fall of the Republic, faith in the old mythology had begun to decline. This change followed upon an intimate contact of the Romans with the Greek religion. It was hastened by the familiarity acquired by the Romans with so great a variety of heathen systems. The decay of morality was attended with a spread of skepticism as regards the supernatural world altogether. In the course of the debate in the Roman Senate on the punishment of the confederates of _Catiline_, _Julius Caesar_ opposed their execution, on the ground that death puts an end to consciousness, and thus to all suffering. It does not appear that in that body, where _Cicero_ and _Cato_ were present, any one disputed this tenet. _Cicero_ in his philosophical essays advocates the doctrine of immortality by arguments, mostly gathered from Greek sources,--arguments some of which are of more and some of less weight. His correspondence, on the contrary, even in times of bereavement, affords no proof that this consoling truth had any practical hold upon his convictions.
SUPERSt.i.tION.--The spread of skepticism was attended, as time went on, with a re-action to the other extreme of superst.i.tion. Magic and sorcery came into vogue. There was an eagerness to become acquainted with Oriental religious rites, and to pay homage to deities worshiped in the East with mysterious ceremonies. Another tendency strongly manifest was towards what is called _syncretism_, or a mingling of different religious systems. It was hoped that the truth might be found by combining beliefs drawn from many different quarters. This eclectic drift was signally manifest in religion as well as in philosophy.
CHAPTER IV. THE EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS: THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY.