ROME (ANCIENT CITY). 



kept in check the Parthians and Britons. Caracalla 

 Qtill 970) was a tyrant ; his murderer, Macrinus, 

 succeeded, and reigned till 971 ; Heliogabalus, a 

 shameless voluptuary, till 975 ; and Alexander 

 Severus, an excellent prince, till 988. After the 

 latter, his murderer, Maximin the Thracian (till 

 991), exercised a military despotism. While he 

 was carrying on the war in Germany with success, 

 the senate chose the elder Gordian emperor, and, 

 after the death of Gordian, Maximus Pupienus and 

 Clodius Balbinus. The pretorians murdered them, 

 and raised the younger Gordian to the throne ; and 

 he reigned until 997, and Marcus Julius 'Philippus 

 till 1002. Then succeeded Trajanus Decius (slain by 

 the Goths, 1004) ; Trebonianus Gallus (till 1006) ; 

 ^Emilius ^Emilianus (three months) ; Pulius Lici- 

 nins Valerianus (rOll); Publius Licinius Gallianus 

 (until 1021), under whom almost all the governors 

 raised themselves to the rank of emperors, and the 

 Germans and Persians triumphed over the Romans ; 

 M. Auralius Claudius (until 1023), who overthrew 

 the Alemanni and Goths ; Domitius Aurelianus 

 (until 1028), who recovered all the lost countries, 

 took Zenobia prisoner, and voluntarily evacuated 

 Dacia; M. Claudius Tacitus (until 1029) ; Probus 

 (until 1035), a warlike and prudent prince ; M. 

 Aurelius Carus (until 1036) ; and Marcus Aurelius 

 Numerianus (until 1037), an accomplished and 

 gentle prince : Dioclesian succeeded him (until 

 1058) ; he appointed M. Valerius Maximian his col- 

 league, and united Caius Galerius, Maximian asso- 

 ciating Flavius Constantius Chlorus, in the empire, 

 as assistants : they distributed the empire among 

 themselves, without dividing it, and not only re- 

 sisted the barbarians, but extended the empire in 

 the East to the Tigris ; the two emperors retired 

 from the government (1058), and Galerius suc- 

 ceeded in the East, and Constantius in the West. 

 Galerius appointed two assistants (Caesars), Flavius 

 Severus and Maximin. Constantius died in 1059, 

 and left his dominions to his son Constantine, 

 who, in 1076, succeeded to the whole empire, by a 

 series of perfidious artifices. In this period, the 

 constitution remained nominally the same, but a 

 military despotism controlled every thing. The 

 soldiery made and unmade emperors. In the ad- 

 ministration of justice, the emperors decided by 

 their constitutions, so called. The corruption of 

 manners, the weakness of the empire, oppressive 

 taxes, the poverty of the people, the tyranny of 

 the rulers, and the encroachments of the barbarians, 

 continually increased. Literature and taste declined; 

 language and style degenerated. Some individuals 

 studied the ancients, and took them for models. 

 Among the poets, Terentianus Maurus and Neme- 

 sianus are worthy of notice ; among the historians, 

 Dio Cassius and Herodian are of acknowledged 

 merit ; and the Scriptores Histories Augusta, Spar- 

 tianus, Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, Vopiscus, 

 Lampridius, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, must be 

 mentioned. Apuleius wrote romances, and ^Elian 

 compiled anecdotes. Mamertinus, Nagarius, Mag- 

 nus Ausonius, &c., panegyrists of the emperors, and 

 Latinus Drepanius, Eumenius and Pacatus composed 

 rhetorical works. Latinus Solinus the grammarian 

 wrote an abridgment of Pliny's Natural History,- 

 under the title of Polyhistor ; Serenus Samonicus a 

 didactic poem upon medicine; Palladius a work 

 upon agriculture; and Censorinus the grammarian 

 a learned chronological work De Die natali. Pa- 

 piuian, Ulpian, Julius Paulus and Herennius Mo- 

 destinus were eminent jurists. Art was extinct. 



The Christian religion was already widely ex- 

 tended. , 



4. Constantine the Great (reigned until 1099) 

 embraced Christianity, in 1064, from political mo- 

 tives, and it thus became the predominant religion. 

 The imperial residence was removed to Constantino- 

 ple ; the empire was divided anew, and the civil 

 and military power were separated. After the 

 death of Constantine, his three sons, Constantine, 

 Constantius and Constans, divided the empire, un- 

 til Constantius, in 1106, united the whole after a 

 war of twelve years' duration. He reigned first 

 with Caesar Constantius Gallus, and afterwards 

 with the Caesar Julian, until 1 1 14, maintaining con- 

 stant wars with the barbarians. His successor 

 was Julian (until 1116), an able and virtuous prince, 

 called the Apostate, because he relapsed into hea- 

 thenism. After him Jovian reigned until 1117, 

 Valentinian I., in the West, until 1128, Valens, in 

 the East, until 1131, in whose reign the Huns en- 

 tered Europe ; Gratian and Valentinian II. succeeded 

 in the West; the former reigned until 1136, the 

 latter until 1145, and Theodosius until 1147 in the 

 East, and until 1148 over the whole empire. He 

 divided the empire (395 A. D.), which henceforth 

 remained separated, into the Eastern and Western 

 Roman empires. (See the history of the foVmer 

 under the head Byzantine Empire, and of the latter 

 uijder Western Empire.) To this period belong the 

 following authors: Claudian the poet, Ammianus 

 Marrellinus, Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and Zosi- 

 mus, historians. Symmachus was celebrated as a 

 rhetorician, and Themistius as a sophist. Vegetius 

 wrote upon the science of war, and Macrobius was 

 a successful follower of Varro and Gellius. Victor 

 and Sextus Rufus wrote upon the topography of 

 Rome. From this time the Roman language con- 

 tinually degenerated by the intermixture of barbar- 

 ous words, and the corruption of taste, until at 

 length it wholly disappeared in the Romanic lan- 

 guages, and all learning perished. For the earlier 

 periods of Roman history, see Niebuhr's Roman 

 History, Ferguson's History of the Roman Republic, 

 Wacksmuth's Early History of Rome (in German 

 1819X For the history of the empire, see the works 

 of Tillemont, Crevier, Gibbon, and that of Hiibbler 

 (3 vols., Freyburg, 1803). 



Ancient Rome, although visited for a thousand 

 years by various calamities, is still the most ma- 

 jestic of cities. The charm of beauty and dignity 

 still lingers around the ruins of ancient, as well as 

 the splendid structures of modern Rome, and bril- 

 liant recollections of every age are connected with 

 the monuments which meet the passing traveller 

 at every step. The characteristics of ancient and 

 modern times are no where so distinctly contrasted 

 as within the walls of Rome. Ancient Rome was 

 built upon several hills, which are now scarcely 

 discoverable, on account of the vast quantities of 

 rubbish with which the valleys are filled. (See 

 the preceding historical sketch.) The eastern 

 bank of the Tiber was so low as to subject the 

 city to frequent inundations. The extent and 

 population were very different at different times. 

 We speak here of the most flourishing period. 

 Vopiscus, in his life of Aurclian, relates that the 

 circumference of the city, after its last enlarge- 

 ment by that emperor, was 50,000 paces, for whicL 

 we must probably read 15,000, as Pliny estimates 

 the circumference, just before the reign of Aure- 

 lian, at 13,000 paces, and the accounts of modern 

 travellers agree with this statement. The inha- 



