THE VICES AND VIETUES OF ROME 103 



blood. Rome rallied, and there was a great century, 

 during which most of the humanitarian work was 

 done. Then followed a century of disorder and petty 

 civil war. 



In the fourth century Rome was once more orderly 

 and apparently powerful. The system of schools was 

 completed. The general standard of character was 

 good. When Constantine "the Great" tried a few 

 domestic murders in Rome, the Pagans made the 

 place too hot for him, and he went off to found 

 Constantinople — then on the eastern fringe of the 

 Empire. Rome enjoyed the gentility and sobriety of 

 age. How long it might still have lasted, in spite of 

 a thousand years of war, no man can say. Its best 

 men had not the least consciousness of decay. But 

 a force was moving — the early " Yellow Peril " — of 

 which they knew nothing. The Huns from Asia were 

 falling murderously upon the Teutons in Central 

 Europe. The Teutons were flung desperately against 

 the weakened barrier of the Roman Empire, and it 

 collapsed. The Empire had not enough "Roman" 

 soldiers left. For decades it had employed " bar- 

 barians." So in 410 a.d. Rome fell, and the world 

 wept. It was the doom of ancient civilization. 

 Within another hundred years there was desolation 

 from Gaul to Greece, from Cologne to Carthage. 

 Within four more centuries civilization was extinct 

 in Europe. 



I have laid stress on the fact that Rome plundered 

 the world to enrich its patricians and amuse its 

 plebeians. There is a very important fact to be set 

 against this. Rome also civilized the world. It 

 enslaved millions of men and robbed the older 

 cities ; but it set up its own finer institutions in 



