CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



came too late to reanimate the national life of 

 the empire. When Augustus died (14 A.D.), the 

 Roman empire was separated in the north from 

 Germany by the Rhine, but it also included both 

 Holland and Friesland ; from about the lake of 

 Constance it ran along the Danube to Lower 

 Moesia, though the imperial authority was far from 

 being firmly established there. In the east, the 

 boundary-line was, in general, the Euphrates ; in 

 the south, Egypt, Libva, and, in fact, the whole of 

 Northern Afnca, as far west as Morocco, and as 

 far inland as Fezzan and the Sahara, acknow- 

 ledged Roman authority. The Roman franchise 

 was extended to transmarine communities, and in 

 the western provinces especially it became quite 

 common. To keep this enormous territory, con- 

 taining so many different races, quiet, an army of 

 47 legions and as many cohorts was maintained, 

 most of whom were levied among the newly 

 admitted burgesses of the western provinces. 

 The reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, 

 Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, present little of any 

 moment in a general survey of the external history 

 of the empire, though the chronicle of their lives 

 those of Galba and Otho, perhaps, excepted has 

 all the horrible and revolting interest that attaches 

 to records of conspiracy, assassinations, poison- 

 ings, massacres, lust, debauchery, and delirious 

 madness. The most notable incident of this 

 period is probably the concentration of the Prae- 

 torian Guards in the vicinity of Rome during the 

 reign of Tiberius, which Niebuhr even pronounces 

 ' the most momentous event in the history of the 

 emperors ;' and not without reason, for, until their 

 dissolution by Diocletian, they were the real 

 sovereigns of the empire. In Nero's time, Armenia 

 wrested from the Parthians, and only restored 

 to them on condition of their holding it as a ' fief 

 of the empire ; the Roman authority in England 

 was likewise extended as far north as the Trent ; 

 and a great rebellion in Gaul (not, however, 

 against Rome, but only against Nero), headed by 

 Julius Vindex, a noble Aquitanian and a Roman 

 senator, was crushed by T. Virginius Rufus, the 

 commander of the Germanic legions. During the 

 profound peace that the empire had enjoyed every- 

 where, except on its frontiers since the usurpa- 

 tion of the imperial authority its material pros- 

 perity had greatly increased. The population was 

 more than doubled ; the towns became filled with 

 inhabitants, and the wastes were peopled, wher- 

 ever, at least, the Publicani, or farmers-general, 

 had not got the land into their rapacious hands ; 

 but the immorality of the rich, especially among 

 the females, became yet worse than before, and 

 virtuous men actually preferred concubinage with 

 a slave, to marriage with a free-born Roman 

 lady. 



With the accession of Vespasian, a better era 

 commenced, which, if we except the reign of 

 Domitian, continued uninterrupted for a space of 

 ico years, comprising the reigns, besides those 

 mentioned, of Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, 

 Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. These 

 were all men of fine and honourable character 

 some, as, e.g. Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus 

 Aurelius, were really illustrious rulers, worthy of 

 the best days of Rome. Under all of them, the 

 provinces were better governed, the finances 

 better administered, and public morals wonder- 

 fully improved. Nothing, indeed, is more clear 

 no 



than that, after the time of Vespasian that 

 restaurator ret publics, as he has been justly 

 called the worst days of Rome (in a moral point 

 of view) were over. Never again did she give 

 way to the horrible sensuality, gluttony, and 

 profligacy of the first century. Bad emperors 

 she had as well as good, but they did not again 

 succeed in corrupting their age. Blood, indeed, 

 was shed freely enough, hostilities on the frontiers 

 were as frequent as ever, and the violence and 

 selfishness of military ambition were things that 

 paganism did not seek, and had not the power, to 

 quell ; but the wild abyss of anarchy into which 

 the empire latterly fell is less dreadful than the 

 saturnalia of vice that filled the soul of Juvenal 

 with indignation in the days of Domitian. How 

 far the change was due to the influence of the 

 ever-extending Christian religion, it is impossible 

 to tell ; but that Christianity did send a rein- 

 vigorating breath of new life through the old 

 decaying body of the state is beyond all dispute, 

 and is written on the very face of the history of 

 the first centuries. The chief military events, 

 from the days of Vespasian to those of Marcus 

 Aurelius, are the final conquest of Britain by 

 Agricola ; the final conquest of the Dacian mon- 

 archy, the victorious invasion of Parthia and of 

 Northern Arabia, and the conquest of the valley 

 of the Nile as far south as Upper Nubia, by 

 Trajan; the chastisement of the Marcomanni, 

 Quadi, Chatti, &c. by Marcus Aurelius. Hadrian's 

 long rule of 21 years was peaceful, but is memor- 

 able as the most splendid era of Roman archi- 

 tecture. The reigns of Commodus, Pertinax, and 

 Didius Julianus were insignificant, except in so 

 far as they shew us the wretched confusion into 

 which the administration of affairs inevitably fell 

 when bad, or hated, or feeble rulers were invested 

 with the purple. Able generals, respectable 

 jurists, honourable senators are not wanting, but 

 their influence is personal and local. The reign 

 of Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.) is memor- 

 able as marking the first real change in the 

 attitude of the emperors towards Christianity. 

 The new religion was beginning to make itself 

 felt in the state ; and Severus, who was a Cartha- 

 ginian, while his wife was a Syrian, may have felt 

 a special interest in a faith that, like themselves, 

 was of Semitic origin. At all events, it was taken 

 under the imperial protection, and began to make 

 rapid way. Caracalla and Elagabalus are per- 

 haps the worst of all the emperors in point of 

 criminality ; but the mad brutality of the one 

 and the monstrous debauchery of the other were 

 purely personal affairs, and were regarded with 

 horror by the citizens of the empire. The reign 

 of Alexander Severus is marked by the downfall 

 of the Parthian dynasty of Persian kings, and the 

 rise of the native Sassanidae, which, as Niebuhr 

 observes, ' was one of the unluckiest things that 

 could have happened to the Roman empire,' for 

 the latter proved far more formidable enemies 

 than the Parthian rulers. After the assassination 

 of Severus (235 A.D.) followed a period of con- 

 fusion, bloodshed, and general mismanagement. 

 The names of Maximin, Maximus, Balbinus, 

 Gordianus, and Philip recall nothing but wretched 

 quarrels, often ending in assassination. Then 

 followed ' the beginning of the end.' The whole 

 of Europe beyond the Roman frontier the mys- 

 terious North began to ferment. The Franks 



