THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
 Halsted VanderPoel Campanian Collection 
 
1 
 
R O M 
 
 V N D 'R - R ]•> A N 1 S 
 
 J. MAI 
 
 JvlUCCCXLTir. 
 
ROME, 
 
 AS IT WAS 
 
 UNDER PAGANISM, 
 
 AND AS IT r.ECAME 
 
 UNDER THE POPES. 
 
 " Ages and realms are crowded in tliie span." 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. MADDEN AND CO., LEADENHALL STREET. 
 
 MBCCCXLril. 
 
TYLER REED, 
 
 PRINTERS, 
 BOLT-COURT, LONDON. 
 
 THE GETTY RESEARCH 
 INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 On the banks of the Tiber, and in the midst of 
 a vast soUtude strewed with the ruins of aqueducts 
 and tombs, there is a region, of about twelve miles' 
 circuit, encompassed by walls that are obviously done 
 with sieges. 
 
 These walls are lofty ; through their gates the tide 
 of conquest has often poured forth, often rolled back 
 through them again, bearing upon its wave the spoils 
 of triumph : they are fortified with bastions and 
 towers, but evidently they have felt the shocks of 
 twenty centuries ; and, withal, they are garrisoned 
 now, only by recollections. Studded, here and there, 
 with broken inscriptions and divers monumental frag- 
 ments ; garlanded with wild flowers, with grass, para- 
 sitical herbs, and precarious shrubs, they resemble, 
 not so much the bulwarks of a fortress, as the pre- 
 cinct of some holy place, — a fence to guard the ashes 
 of saint and hero from being scattered or confounded 
 with ignoble clay. 
 
 The region thus encompassed is, in part, occupied 
 by a city, singularly beautiful and magnificent, seated, 
 for the most part, upon the Campus Martins, and 
 on the Vatican fields beyond the Tiber ; the rest, — 
 far the greater portion, — is " a marble wilderness," — 
 scattered with — 
 
 " the chief relics of almighty Rome."* 
 
 * Pray glatice at the map prefixed to this volume ; observe the 
 relative situation and extent of the inhabited and deserted regions 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Of this latter district of the enclosure, the stillness 
 
 is seldom interrupted, except by some melancholy 
 
 sound : at night by, 
 
 " from out the Caesars' palace, 
 
 The owl's long cry, " 
 
 the howl of the watch-dog, or, haply, some catches 
 of psalmody from monks, in chanting their nocturnal 
 prayer : the vine-dresser's song, by day, may sound 
 less drearily ; yet is it also a solemn chant, and 
 chimes not inaptly with the tolling of the " Angelus" 
 at noon, and the " Ave Maria " bell at evening. A 
 mean osteria, perhaps, by the way-side, with wild 
 shepherds and herdsmen of the campagna refreshing 
 their animals at a pool or a fountain, or regaling 
 themselves with a flask or a siesta in the cypress 
 shade ; a cassino or a monastery here and there, 
 among the solitudes, with barricadoed doors and case- 
 ments ; a gardener's hut, or a hermit's cell, patched 
 into the sanctuary of a temple, or the alcove of a 
 bath, a theatre, or a banquet hall ; — these, the only 
 symptoms of animation to be met with, do not re- 
 lieve, but rather enhance, by the contrast of so much 
 meanness with so much of fallen grandeur, the in- 
 describable desolation of the scenery. The very ruins 
 of palace, amphitheatre, and triumphal arch, seem to 
 exalt themselves higher in sullen haughtiness, and 
 to regard with unutterable indignation those vile in- 
 truders upon the cemetery of heroism and empire 
 which they guard. 
 
 The writer of the following pages, (whoever he may 
 have been,) seems to have aimed at giving a vivid 
 idea of the revolution, by which the Rome of the 
 Caesars was reduced to this prostrate state, and in 
 which the Rome of the Popes had its beginning. 
 
 With this view, he labours not only, " to till up, as 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 'twere an^w, the gaps of centuries," but, completely 
 to rebuild the imperial city ; to restore the Palatine, 
 the trophies and temples of the Forum, the Capitol, 
 and the Campus Martins ; to re-open the Thermae, 
 the Amphitheatre, and the Circus ; to repair the 
 aqueducts, replenish a thousand glorious fountains 
 with their limpid treasures ; not only to replace the 
 furniture and priceless embellishments of the palaces, 
 and rebuild the altars of the " immortal gods," but 
 to throng the Appian and Flaminian way with the 
 concourse of the nations, and awake, from the sleep 
 of centuries, the Roman people and the senate, with 
 
 The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule 
 Our spirits from their urns. 
 
 In the first and second books, the reader is in 
 Rome, from the second year of Claudius to the close 
 of the first persecution, in the reign of Nero : the 
 plot requires a temporary visit to the Brighton of 
 antiquity — Baiae, and the beauteous shores of Nea- 
 polis. 
 
 The third book opens with the spectacle of this 
 brilliant mirage of existence reduced to irremediable 
 desolation, — ^just as it was beheld by Belisarius, the 
 great captain of Justinian, when he visited the place 
 where Rome had stood, forty days after the departure 
 of Totila, the Goth, who had levelled the walls, con- 
 sumed by fire, or otherwise destroyed, almost every 
 thing that still remained erect after a tremendous suc- 
 cession of disasters, and dragged away into captivity 
 the miserable remnant of the senate and the once 
 kingly people ; — " nothing human," says the historian, 
 " did he suffer to remain behind, but only wild beasts 
 and birds of prey." 
 
 But as the series of events, through which the 
 strong-hold of the outlaw, Romulus, attained to the 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 headship of the world, was made to pass before the 
 reader, by the development of the plot in the first 
 and second books, in the third book, and the follow- 
 ing, to the end of the fifth, he is made to witness the 
 decline, fall, and utter destruction of the seven-hilled 
 city, and of the Roman empire of the West. 
 
 The fourth book opens with the triumph of the 
 Labarum, or standard of the Cross, borne by Constan- 
 tine and his legions through the heart of the pagan 
 city, and planted on the Capitol. Scenes from the 
 persecutions follow ; for this and the following book 
 are the retrospects of Belisarius, who naturally reverts 
 from the scenes of desolation around him, to the 
 causes and the combination of disasters by which they 
 were brought about. In the opening of the fifth 
 book, all Rome is in the Coliseum, and the gladiators 
 are on the arena, when Telemachus, the Greek monk, 
 rushes between the combatants, and is stoned by the 
 spectators to death. Meanwhile, two barbarian kings, 
 Alaric, an Arian, and the heathen Radogast, are both 
 descending upon the city. The world is in suspense 
 as to which of the two it shall fall; and midst the 
 awful pause, the voice of St. Jerome, from his cell 
 at Bethlehem, is made to resound through the golden 
 palaces, warning many to fly from the wrath that is 
 impending. The Gothic sieges, famine, humiliation 
 of the Romans, follow : the surprise of the ancient 
 queen of empire, at dead of night ; — wonderful pro- 
 cession of Goths and Christians bearing sacred vessels 
 of immense price to the temple of St. Peter, amidst 
 the conflagration, pillage, and horrible scenes of out- 
 rage and massacre on every side ; — Attila turned back 
 by Leo the Great; — Rome taken and plundered by 
 the Vandals under Genzeric, by the Herulians under 
 Odoacer, by Theodoric ; — recovered from the Ostro- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 g6ths by Belisarius, and defended during a protracted 
 siege ; — devastation of Italy; — hideous famine; — 
 other sieges of Rome ; — direful sufferings of its un- 
 fortunate inhabitants ; — from their walls they see 
 Belisarius defeated in his attempt to bring them suc- 
 cour ; — city surprised, for the last time, by the Ostro- 
 goths under Totila, at dead of night ; — again left a 
 desert ; — St. Benedict, with a procession of his monks, 
 comes along the Via Sacra, as Belisarius is rising to 
 depart from the ruins of the temple of Fortune, where 
 he had been seated ; and his interview with St. Benedict 
 closes the fifth book. 
 
 The sixth opens with a scene in the pilgrims' hos- 
 pice at Canterbury, and a general view of Christen- 
 dom, as it was in the year of our Lord 800. A letter 
 from Eginard, the secretary of Charlemagne, to Alcuin, 
 the friend and preceptor of both, brings the reader, 
 first, to the banks of the Rhine, when the pope, Leo 
 IIL, set sail from Cologne to Werda, with King 
 Charles, and their united courts, in order to canonize 
 St. Switbert, an Anglo-Saxon missioner of the pre- 
 ceding age ; and, finally, to Rome, once more, to 
 assist at the crowning of Charlemagne on Christmas 
 day, A.D. 800, which was the birthday of modern 
 Europe. The donation of Pepin Le Bref to St. Peter, 
 renewed and augmented on that occasion by Charle- 
 magne, gives rise to an inquiry which involves the 
 origin and progress of " Rome as it became under the 
 Popes." 
 
 The materials of all this have been arranged and 
 cast together under the auspices of imagination ; but 
 they are, nevertheless, selected from genuine and 
 authentic sources. Indeed the general aspect of the 
 work, from being so much made up of fragments, 
 reminds one not a little of the "opus tumultuarium" 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of Belisarius, who seized upon whatever came next to 
 hand, — whether column, statue, entablature, or altar, 
 in his hurry to repair the walls which he had to 
 defend against the impending assault of the barbarians. 
 Gibbon and Tacitus, Sallust and Sismondi, Arringhi, 
 Strabo, and Sir WiUiam Gell, Plato and Paley, Mar- 
 cus TuUius and Dr. Warburton, Seneca and Sewell, 
 MachiaveUi and Polybius, Virgilius Maro and Thomas 
 Moore, Hobhouse and Pistolesi, Annseus Florus and 
 Dr. Lingard, Pliny the Elder and Phny the Younger, 
 are laid under contribution, indiscriminately: Jews 
 and Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, and barbarians, mo- 
 derns as well as ancients, writers on civil not less than 
 on ecclesiastical history, are pressed into this service ; 
 St. Jerome is as httle spared as Procopius ; Guizot, 
 Dunham, Denina, Schlegel, Lebeau, and Giannone, 
 much less than Eusebius, St. Gregory the Great, 
 Muratori, the Acta Sanctorum, or the Cardinals 
 Baronius and Orsi. Each, however, gets credit for 
 the quota he contributes ; there are not only refer- 
 ences, sufficiently copious, even for matters of trivial 
 import, and for details, but generally speaking, the 
 foot notes will be found to contain, iii extenso, the 
 more important authorities. 
 
 These precautions may be open to the reproach of 
 pedantry; but they were not, perhaps, superfluous. 
 In perusing the description of historic scenes and 
 incidents, the like of which, for dramatic interest, 
 have been seldom realized even by poetic fancy, not a 
 few readers might have been tempted, had this pre- 
 caution been neglected, to exclaim : " Very fine, very 
 wonderful, indeed : what a pity it is fabulous while 
 others, of a severer turn, might have even felt indignant 
 at seeing certain topics treated of in these volumes 
 exhibited under the guise of fiction. Besides, within 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 the entire circuit of the walls of Rome, there was not 
 a palm of space unoccupied : not only had every thing 
 connected with the history, the manners, customs, 
 the public and private economy of the Romans, been 
 illustrated, discussed, and set before the world in 
 every imaginable form ; but every paving-stone and 
 brick-bat of the Eternal City had been written and 
 rewritten on, interlined, noted, and scribbled over, 
 worse than the most perplexing of Cardinal Mai's 
 palimpsests. Hence, the Author of Anacharsis the 
 Younger said, that the very stones in Rome were 
 more learned than the wits in other countries. In 
 fine, this plan has the no small, and not-by-any-means- 
 to-be-despised advantage, that it leaves readers greatly 
 at liberty to think, and draw conclusions for them- 
 selves. 
 
 In no instance is any character taken out of his 
 own age, or made to utter sentiments that have not 
 been attributed to his times. The persons of the 
 drama are all historical : the style of grouping is not 
 so. Quite the reverse. Those who are only dimly 
 visible in the pagan writers, or are altogether lost in 
 the shade, are brought into the fore-ground, and get 
 their share of the light in this history of Rome. Not 
 that the old classic worthies are dislodged, or thrust 
 into the back-ground. From Romulus to Augustus, 
 and from him to Romulus Augustulus, they are left in 
 their prescriptive positions ; but characters of a new 
 order are placed in juxtaposition with them ; and ob- 
 scure as they may have been in their lifetime, when 
 the results of their enterprises and their sacrifices are 
 considered, neither the philosophy nor the taste of 
 their descendants in religion will be shocked, at seeing 
 as much importance attached to a tent-maker and a 
 fisherman, as to their contemporaries who wore the 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 purple : to see as large a space assigned to the exploits 
 of the martyrs as of the ancient patriots, and not less 
 stress laid upon a mission for the conversion of a 
 people, than upon brilliant campaigns for their subju- 
 gation. 
 
 As to the plot itself, it is simply that of history, 
 developed amply and accurately in the more impor- 
 tant scenes, with some shght imaginative embellish- 
 ments ; — not calculated, it is hoped, and certainly not 
 intended, in any instance, to lead the intellect astray. 
 " In this period of the world," says Frederic Schle- 
 gel, " in this decisive crisis between ancient and 
 modern times, in this great central point of history, 
 stood two powers opposed to each other : on one 
 hand, we behold the Roman emperors, the earthly 
 gods and absolute masters of the world, in all the 
 pomp and splendour of ancient paganism — standing, 
 as it were, on the very summit and verge of the old 
 world, now tottering to its ruin ; — and, on the other 
 hand, we trace the obscure rise of an almost imper- 
 ceptible point of light, from which the whole modern 
 world was to spring, and whose further progress and 
 full development, through all succeeding ages, con- 
 stitute the true purport of modern history."* It is 
 in the collision of these two principles, in the deadly 
 conflict between paganism and Christianity, of which 
 the seven-hilled city was the principal arena, that 
 the dramatic interest of the plot must be looked for : 
 its denouement, in the overthrow of the one, and the 
 triumph of the other, upon the same scene. 
 
 If it be asked who is the hero, or can there be one, 
 seeing that the action extends over the hfetime not 
 of an individual, but of an empire ? — the story may 
 
 * Philos. of Hist., Robertson's Transl. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xin 
 
 be said to have a hero, in St. Peter. He is as vividly 
 present, speaking still historically, in the last as in 
 the first act ; as influential in the resurrection of the 
 empire of the West, in the baptism of modern Europe, 
 when Charlemagne was proclaimed emperor before 
 his shrine, as he is represented to have been, when 
 he entered the palace of Lateranus, or raised the son 
 of the patrician from the dead ; is as sensibly recog- 
 nised in the interview of Leo and Attila, in the cor- 
 respondence of Pope Stephen and King Pepin, as 
 he is supposed to have been when he crossed the 
 Roman Forum with the senator Pudens, or stood on 
 the Tarpeian tower, admiring the imperial city, and 
 disputing with Seneca, Lucan, Petus Thrasea, and 
 the other leading men of the time, concerning its 
 future destinies. 
 
 Absorbed, as they usually are, in the palpable at- 
 tachments and agonizing interests of the present, to 
 the far greater number, it is to be feared, that a pere- 
 grination back over so many centuries, and into a world 
 so different from that which they are enjoying, may 
 turn out to be anything but inviting ; yet, we read, 
 that, sometimes, migrations very similar to this, are 
 not unusual even amongst the votaries of Epicurus ; 
 and the renovated zest with which they come home 
 to every civilized luxury and refinement, more than 
 requites them, it is said, for their hardships and pri- 
 vations in the wilderness. Perhaps, too, it may gratify 
 curiosity, — even incidentally contribute to improve- 
 ment, — to contrast the order of things in which we 
 live, with another order of existence, highly polished, 
 though very different from our own, and which, withal, 
 has not only left some august vestiges of its transit, 
 along the Tiber and over three quarters of the globe ; 
 but which has made an indelible impression on the 
 
xiv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 institutions, the language, the enthusiasm, and the 
 memory of mankind. 
 
 A den of robbers graduating steadily into the po- 
 litical headship of all the most polished nations of 
 antiquity ; diffusing the arts of civilization over all 
 the barbarous countries it subdued ; and then, by a 
 series of unparalleled calamities, brought down to 
 utter destruction,~this, even in the abstract, cannot 
 be regarded as a subject altogether devoid of interest ; 
 but it becomes of the last historical importance, when 
 considered, as it must be, in connexion with the 
 origin, the rise, and domination of a new Roman em- 
 pire, which still continues, after the lapse of so many 
 ages, not only to attract the notice of the inquisitive, 
 but to keep whole nations and empires in agitation. 
 
 What has been here said, by way of preface, may 
 be concluded by a kind of motto, inscribed in the 
 handwriting of the author, upon a fly-leaf of his 
 manuscript. It is a text from Livy, in which he 
 anticipates no small recompense of his labours in 
 writing his history, that they would abstract his 
 thoughts, even at intervals, from the turmoil and mi- 
 series of the times in which he lived, to a serene and 
 ennobhng intercourse with the past. " Ego contra hoc 
 quoque laboris prsemium petam, ut me conspectu ma- 
 lorum, quae nostra tot per annos vidit setas, tantisper 
 certe dum prisca ilia tota mente repeto, avertam : 
 omnis expers curse, quae scribentis animum, etsi non 
 flectere a vero, solicitum tamen efficere potest."* 
 
 * In Praef. 
 
 June 4, 1843. 
 
BOOK 1. 
 
 « 
 
 ' To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, 
 if endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. What- 
 ever withdraws us from the power of our senses — whatever 
 makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the 
 present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far 
 from me and from my friends be such fiigid philosophy, as may 
 conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has 
 been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is 
 little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon 
 the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer 
 among the ruins of lona." — Dr. Johnson. 
 
Back of 
 Foldout 
 Not Imaged 
 
ROME. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes." 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. iii. 
 " What conflux issuing forth or entering in ! 
 Lo ! embassies from regions far remote, 
 In various habits, on the Appian road." 
 
 Milton. 
 
 On the fifteenth of the calends of February, in the 
 year from the building of the city dccxcvi., Claudius 
 Augustus, for the third, and Lucius Vitellius, for the 
 second time, being consuls, there entered the gates of 
 Rome two lowly wayfarers from Palestine. 
 
 They might have passed for father and son, if one 
 attended solely to their years ; but, from the contour 
 and deportment of the younger of them, in whom the 
 gravity of manhood was still blended with the modest 
 gracefulness of youth, it was easy to discern, that no 
 tie of earthly kindred united him to the venerable 
 man by whose side he walked with the reverential air 
 of a disciple. 
 
 Three score years and upwards seemed to have passed 
 over the old man's head. It was bald, or shorn upon 
 
 * According to Dionysius Hal., Varro, and Plutarch, Rome was 
 founded m the 23rd or 24th year of the 1st Olympiad, which is 
 supposed to coincide with the year of the world 3228, b.c. 776 ; 
 but Cicero, on the authority of the Greeks, fixes the era in the 
 2nd year of the 7th Olympiad. " Nam si, id quod Grsecorum in- 
 vestigatur annalibus, Roma condita est secundo anno Olympiadis 
 Septumae, in id saeculum Romuli cecidit aetas cum jam plena 
 Grsecia poetarum et musicorum esset."— 71/. T. Ciceronis, de Repub. 
 1. 11. torn. i. p. 152, of Cardinal Mai's Palimpsests. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 ROME. 
 
 the crown, and encircled by a fillet, or wreath of 
 hair, like to that of his beard, which was not white or 
 flowing, but crispy, and of a silvery gray. His brow 
 was elevated, as if in lofty thought. His cheeks were 
 furrowed with contrition. His whole aspect was pale, 
 and of an expression that imparted a certain air of 
 dignity to a person rather less than the middle 
 size. His eye — vivid as the lightning of heaven 
 — indicated an impetuous spirit, but its glance was 
 tempered by humility. A reed, terminating in a cross, 
 was his only stafl" ; and even that he seemed to carry 
 rather as an emblem of his mission, than to alleviate 
 his pilgrimage, or sustain the infirmity of his years. 
 About him there was an air of mystery that confounded 
 the conjecture it excited. He looked like an ambassa- 
 dor, the agent of some mighty enterprise, — yet who 
 more destitute of every thing that is wont to distin- 
 guish the representative of a terrestrial potentate ? 
 Unheralded, and unadorned by pomp, — ^jaded and 
 travel-stained, he journeyed on with his meek com- 
 panion — barefooted and in silence. If heeded, it was 
 to be scoffed at, or eyed with contempt, by the proud 
 and gorgeous multitudes thronging to the metropoUs 
 of all nations. 
 
 Embassies vicing with each other in the costliness 
 and singularity of their gifts, and in the splendour of 
 their retinues — envoys, even from the climes of India 
 the most remote,* 
 
 Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed," 
 astrologers from Chaldea, merchants and magicians, 
 priests and sorcerers from Egypt, Asiatic monarchs 
 upon elephants caparisoned with jewellery and gold, 
 Moorish kings and Parthian satraps, with squadrons 
 
 * " Nam et Scythse misere legates, et Sarmatae, amicitiam 
 petentes. Seres etiam, habitantesque sub ipso sole Indi, cum gem- 
 mis, et margaritis, elephantesque inter munera trahentes, nihil 
 magis quam longinquitatera viae imputabant, quam quadriennio 
 impleverant : et tamen ipse hominum color ah alio venire coelo 
 fatebatur. Parthi quoque," &c. — L. Anncei Flori, Rer. Rom. 
 1. iv. 12. 
 
ROME. 
 
 3 
 
 of wild horsemen from beyond the Hysdaspes and 
 Mount Atlas ; 
 
 " Praetors, pro-consuls to their provinces 
 Hastening, or on return in robes of state, 
 Lictors with rods, the ensigns of their power, 
 Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings ;" 
 
 men of all colours, and costumes, and degrees of 
 civihzation, from the Ethiop, the Arab, and the Sar- 
 matian, to the Attic Greek— the pomp, the chivalry, 
 and stately reUgion of the whole Roman world, seem- 
 ed to be grouped together, and interwoven in that 
 concourse, (brilUant and interminable as the march of 
 Xerxes,) as it moved along the Appian way, Hke an 
 august procession, bearing the tributes and the ofFer- 
 mgs of all people to the queen of empire, and the 
 domicile of all the gods.* 
 
 Tombs, and stately mausoleums, adorned with pre- 
 cious marbles, with statuary, and elegiac inscriptions, 
 lined the great thoroughfare, on either side, for many 
 a mile before it passed under the city gate ;t and as if 
 Death had come out to welcome the myriads hasten- 
 ing to his carnival, the brave, the gay, and the 
 ambitious, in pressing forward were encountered by 
 the funeral processions, which issued forth towards 
 the suburbs in all the ostentatious circumstance of 
 mourning. I 
 
 * " 'Emro/x^ rqs deicrtSaifiovlas." — Theophilus. 
 
 -j- " Omnis civitas, omne castellum ante ingressum sepulchra 
 habet, ut contendens intrare in civitatem, quse imperat, et plaret 
 divitns et potentatu, aliisque dignitatibus ; priusquam videt quod 
 secum concipit, videat primura quod sit ante portat: sunt sepul- 
 chra utique ante oculos, est nostra humilitatis schola, et docemur 
 in quod desmamus tandem."—^. Chrys. Serm. de Fid. et Leg. 
 ^ + The sepulchres occupying the sides of the public ways varied 
 m magnificence, according to the taste or spirit and affluence of the 
 patron, by whom they were considered as the last home after this 
 lite ; the only property which did not descend to, and was not liable 
 to be squandered by the extravagant heir. Their beauty and inter- 
 est were mcreased, not more from the taste or want of it displayed 
 m the architectural and the picturesque groups they combined, than 
 trom the inscriptions they presented, which were oftentimes as 
 mstructive as the style and diction were varying. If the traveller 
 obeyed their invitation, " Siste viator," he might pause to smile at 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 ROME. 
 
 To this custom of honouring excellence even after 
 life, the historian Polybius refers, in a great measure, 
 the cause of the higher qualities and superiority of 
 the Romans of his own times over their enemies ; 
 " for," says he, " this pubhc institution excites the 
 emulation of the rising as well as the existing genera- 
 tion. When a man whose life has been worthy of 
 imitation departs this world, his remains are still 
 respected; and amongst the honours rendered, his 
 corpse, borne to the forum, is there placed at the ros- 
 trum, so that it may be conspicuous, when the sur- 
 rounding multitude are addressed by his son or nearest 
 relative, who, ascending the rostrum, panegyrizes his 
 good qualities, and enumerates the various exploits he 
 has done to the advancement of the interests or glory 
 of his country ; the memorable actions of his life are ex- 
 tolled, — events in which, most probably, many present 
 have borne a more or less distinguished share, or taken 
 a particular interest; thus the praise bestowed upon the 
 deceased becomes identified with their own, their finest 
 feeUngs are awakened, and the loss of an individual 
 becomes a source of public sorrow and sympathy. 
 
 " With the accustomed ceremonies consigned to the 
 tomb, he is not forgotten ; his enshrined image, the 
 features and even complexion most accurately ex- 
 pressed, is placed in some conspicuous part of the 
 dwelling he inhabited; on solemn occasions it is 
 adorned and disclosed. When any of his posterity, 
 after rendering themselves eminent, close the last scene 
 of life, these busts are again brought forth ; and, that 
 the representation may be in all respects complete, 
 
 the last lingering of human vanity, or contemplate the scanty notices 
 of those who had successively contributed hy their courage and 
 talents to support in difficulty the state, or enlarge the empire, until 
 its limits were unknown. Indignation might be excited at the 
 sumptuous monument of the barber of Augustus, or freedman of 
 Claudius, while Pompey or Cato had little or no memorial to mark 
 the place where their mortal remains were deposited. 
 
 " Mormoreo Licinius tumulo jacet ab Cato parvo ; 
 Pompeius nullo. Credimus esse Deos ?" — Martial. 
 
 GelVs Pompeiana, vol. i. p. 73. 
 
ROME. 
 
 5 
 
 clothed in the embroidered robes of the several digni- 
 ties they had attained, and preceded by the appropriate 
 insignia of the various offices they had respectively 
 held, are in chariots drawn in solemn procession. 
 Arrived at the forum, the same curule chairs receive 
 them with which when alive they were privileged. 
 The orator, when the exhausted virtues of the recently 
 deceased no longer afford him subject for eulogy, turns 
 to those whose venerable likenesses recall to his ima- 
 gination the celebrated deeds and various exploits they 
 had performed, and which led to the honours by which 
 they had been distinguished ; he shows that, animated 
 by the example of his predecessors, each in succession 
 proved himself not unworthy his ancestors, and thus 
 in the minds of their descendants infuses the hope of 
 obtaining honourable fame, by the performance of 
 every great and worthy action ; for what spectacle can 
 be more imposinig, and who can without emotion be- 
 hold the living, breathing likenesses of those whose 
 prudence and skill, in the ardour of victory, only 
 sought opportunity for magnanimity, and whose cou- 
 rage, undeterred by adverse fortune, in the ignominy of 
 defeat only found new occasions for its display?"* 
 
 First in the sad procession went musicians of va- 
 rious kinds ; pipers, trumpeters, and players upon a 
 long flute that made a grave and dismal sound ; then 
 mourning women, called ^prseficse,' rehearsing the 
 praises of the dead in a wild dirge, or rhapsody, which 
 they chanted like so many priestesses of grief. Next 
 came buffoons aind pantomimes, who danced and sung ; 
 one of them, called the arch- mimic, imitating the 
 gesture and expressions, and in every respect sup- 
 porting the chariacter, of the deceased. Then followed 
 his freedmen, wearing caps in token of their liberty 
 — they, like the rest, bearing lighted torches, called 
 * funales,' from being made of twisted hemp. Im- 
 mediately before the corpse, borne upon a lectica, 
 or couch, decor^ated, were carried in chariots or on 
 couches the im;ages of the deceased and of his an- 
 
 * See Gell's Pompeiana, vol. i. p. 87. 
 
6 
 
 ROME. 
 
 cestors, in the same complexion and garb as when 
 ahve ; so that each one's remains seemed to be con- 
 ducted, by the long line of his progenitors, to the 
 tomb. 
 
 If the deceased had distinguished himself in war, 
 the crowns and rewards which he had received for his 
 valour were displayed, together with the spoils and 
 standards he had won in battle. The * fasces' and the 
 curule chair were borne before the magistrate ; the 
 conqueror was preceded by his war-horse, his triumphal 
 chariot, the representations of the provinces he had 
 subdued, and of the cities he had taken. Behind the 
 bier walked the friends of the deceased, clad in mourn- 
 ing ; his sons with their heads veiled, his daughters 
 with their hair dishevelled, magistrates without their 
 badges, the nobility without their ornaments ; and a 
 long line of clients and domestics usually closed the 
 funeral.* 
 
 * We find an ancient law of the Thebans ordained that no man 
 should build a house, without therein providing a proper burial 
 place for the family ; and a similar custom was observed among the 
 early Romans, whose dead were deposited within their dwellings, 
 (doliis aut vasculis) in cofiins of a triangular prismatic shape, 
 made of three large rectangular tiles, until the law of the twelve 
 tables forbade any corpse being either interred or burnt within the 
 city. 
 
 " Hominem mortuum in urbe ne spelito neve unto."— Cicero. 
 
 " Sylla, the dictator, was the first of his line whose body was 
 burned. He thus ordered it, lest his bones, after his death, should 
 be treated with indignity. The custom of burning the dead fell into 
 disuse about the 4th century."— Vid. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. vii. 55. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Where the bower and tomb 
 
 Stand side by side, and Pleasure learns from Death 
 The instant value of each moment's breath." 
 
 Moore's Alciphron. 
 
 As the pilgrims moved slowly onward through the 
 double range of sepulchres, there was no vicissitude 
 or incident connected with the burial of the dead that 
 was not brought under their observation. 
 
 In one place, the funeral having reached the ' bus- 
 tum,' or burning ground, was just beginning to move 
 round and round the pyre, built of cleft pine, in the form 
 of an altar ; in another, the friends were taking leave of 
 the corpse with tears and kisses ; while others, having 
 re-opened the eyes which they had closed at the 
 moment of death, and placed in the mouth the " obolus" 
 for Charon, descended from the pile, which they forth- 
 with set on fire with torches ; all the while averting 
 their faces, in token of their grief. In another direction, 
 the costly conflagration raged, rising in spiral flames 
 towards heaven, or scattered the perfume of frankin- 
 cense, cassia, and other priceless gums of Araby, 
 being wrapped by the propitious winds, and fed per- 
 petually by the flasks of oil and resinous substances 
 of great price, cast upon the burning mass by the 
 friends, with whatever else they deemed most agree- 
 able to the deceased. Various animals, also, especially 
 such as he had been fond of in life, were sacrificed and 
 cast upon the pile, because the ' manes,' or ghost, was 
 supposed to be delighted with blood. In ancient times, 
 men also, either captives or slaves, used to be slaugh- 
 tered ; but this practice had been given up for 
 fights between gladiators, who were made to slay one 
 
 * " Tomb of Scaurus. This monument is the most singular and 
 
8 
 
 ROME. 
 
 another, in order to appease the dead.^ Thus, also, 
 the friend sometimes attested his affection for his 
 friend, the spouse for her lord, the slave for his mas- 
 ter, the soldier for his general. Here, the pile has 
 sunk into a smouldering heap, where the mourners 
 are piously collecting the white bones from among the 
 embers, which they have damped with delicious wines ; 
 there, they deposit them tenderly in the urn, with 
 lacrymatories, or little glass vials filled with tears. 
 Others, again, having consummated every sad rite and 
 formality, even to the ' verba novissima,' still turned 
 round, for the last time, to reiterate their adieus. One, 
 disconsolate as Andromache, erected a cenotaph ; an- 
 other, after traversing seas and mountains, like the 
 spouse of Germanicus, came with her wayworn train, 
 to deposit the ashes of her lord among the urns and 
 sarcophagi of his sires. 
 
 Children spread the periodical banquet on the 
 parental tomb : 
 
 '* Charms that soothe the dead, 
 
 White milk, and lucid honey fresh distill'd 
 By the wild bee." 
 
 Aged fathers, venerable as Anchises, brought garlands 
 and abundance of flowers in full bloom, to scatter 
 where their own hopes lay withered and reduced to 
 dust.* Death, in fine, assumed a thousand melan- 
 
 curious of all the tombs hitherto discovered at Pompeii, and 
 remarkable in being covered with extremely low relievos, painted, 
 of gladiatorial combats. The gladiators of Ampliatus, (by whom 
 these wretches were hired out at so much ahead,) whose names and 
 fate appear to have been over their likenesses ; lions, bears, pan- 
 thers, bulls, wolves, and rabbits, with dogs, stags, and nondescripts, all 
 seem to have been brought upon the scene for the entertainment of 
 the Pompeians, and satisfaction of Scaurus' ghost." — Pompeiana, 
 vol. i. p. 104. What must have been the immensity and variety 
 of these massacres to the manes of the dead in Rome, when such 
 scenes took place in a petty country town ! Octavius sacrificed 
 multitudes of the finest youths of Italy to the shade of his adoptive 
 father, Julius Caesar. Even Virgil makes a similar act of Eneas 
 towards Pallas, a proof of his piety ! — Vide Sueton. in vit. Augusti, et 
 Mneid, 1. xi. 81. 
 
 * " Atque aliquis senior, veteres veneratus amores. 
 Annua constructo serta dabit tumulo." — TibuUus. 
 
ROME. 
 
 9 
 
 choly shapes along these regions ; grief, like a sybil, 
 raved in many dialects, but in all she prophesied of 
 immortality. 
 
 And still, it was in the very midst of these lugu- 
 brious exhibitions, so calculated to sadden and haunt 
 the mind with gloomy images, that sportive glee, and 
 revelry, and mirth in its most roistering moods, seemed 
 to have discovered their elysium. 
 
 Nature herself was decked in gala dress in the 
 vicinity of the grave. Flowers and trees, green and 
 blossoming in endless variety, bowers of which the 
 leaves lived everlastingly, and bloomed out of season, 
 seemed to laugh at grim winter in his hood of snow, 
 as he stared at the genial landscape from Soracte and 
 the Sabine hills. The poet's dream was realized to 
 the letter : 
 
 " Vere tuo nunquam mulceri desinet annus, 
 Deliciasque tuas victa tuetur hyems." 
 
 Fountains murmured in the groves. The soft lute 
 was audible. Madrigals of passion and echoes of song 
 and laughter reverberated through the pellucid atmo- 
 sphere in ravishing confusion. Sportive games and 
 the wanton dance were busy in the sunny glades and 
 along the velvet sward. Venus was adored, and the 
 son of Semele, with his bacchanals, ran riot in every 
 direction, still urging the pursuit of pleasure with 
 greater zest, the more nearly they beheld the testi- 
 monials of its evanescence. 
 
 "Brief," they cried, "and full of tedium is our 
 span of life, and in the end of mortals there is no 
 remedy ; for who was ever known to have returned frorn 
 the grave ? 
 
 *' Of nothing are we born, and hereafter it shall be 
 with us as if we had never lived ; for the breath in 
 our nostrils is smoke, and speech a mere scintilla to 
 move the heart, which being extinguished, the body 
 shall be ashes, and the spirit poured abroad like 
 liquid air. 
 
 " Like the track of a cloud our lives shall vanish ; 
 they shall be dispersed like a mist that is driven away 
 
10 
 
 ROME. 
 
 before the beams of the sun, and is overpowered by 
 the heat thereof. 
 
 " Yet a Uttle, and our names shall be forgotten ; 
 nor will any one remember our deeds at all ; for our 
 being is like the transit of a shadow, and there is no 
 renewal of it ; for it is fast sealed, and no one returneth 
 from the dead. 
 
 " Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things 
 that are present. Let us hasten to enjoy them, as in 
 youth quickly, lest the flower of the time escape us. 
 
 " Crown us with roses ere they be withered. Let 
 no meadow escape our riot ; let us eat and drink, for 
 to-morrow we shall die. 
 
 " Free the rein to desire, let every passion have its 
 fill, everywhere leave we tokens of how we have en- 
 joyed our fleeting hour ; for this is our portion — it is 
 fater^ 
 
 These outpourings of a delirium to which its own 
 excesses had reduced humanity, although incoherent 
 as the ravings of a maniac to other ears, were full of 
 interest and import to the venerable pilgrim, reveahng 
 to him as they did, those mysteries of sin and sorrow 
 into which nature had fallen from the eminence occu- 
 pied by it at its creation. In each wild caprice of the 
 passions, he studied the symptoms of the malady he 
 had been sent to cure. The evil was evidently des- 
 perate — beyond the reach of every earthly remedy ; 
 but this it was, precisely, that caused his heart to 
 overflow with the anticipated triumphs of that secret, 
 which he carried in his conscious breast. 
 
 From times the most remote, there had been pre- 
 valent among all nations a vivid presentiment and 
 conviction of a future life. *' Tribes there might have 
 been discovered destitute not only of the elegancies, 
 but of the most necessary arts of humanized existence, 
 ignorant of letters and of laws, without magistrates, 
 without ideas of property or of fixed habitations ; but 
 no tribe or people, however barbarous, had ever been 
 
 * Book of Wisdom, cliap. ii. verses 1 — 9. 
 
ROME. 
 
 11 
 
 discovered without religion and no religious sys- 
 tem had ever been met with, that did not turn upon 
 the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. f 
 
 This belief was interwoven with the songs and poems 
 of Musaeus, Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod ; in short, of all 
 the bards who had versified the traditions of elder 
 Greece. It was not less conspicuous in ^schylus, 
 Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, who had 
 embodied in their works the opinions and impressions 
 of more recent ages. Both philosophy and history 
 were indebted to the same tenet for their hveUest 
 charms. From it the poet derived the machinery 
 and moral of his verse ; the lawgiver depended on it 
 for the sanction and stability of his institutions ; the 
 magistrate for the maintenance of order and probity in 
 the state. I 
 
 But the grand depository of this dogma, the chief 
 agency by which it was to be developed, and vividly 
 impressed upon the pubUc mind, consisted in the 
 ' mysteries/ that singular contrivance of Egyptian 
 artifice, which gave such immense control over mind 
 to the dominant casts of antiquity. Without a clear 
 insight into this system, the moral and religious revo- 
 lutions of paganism cannot be adequately compre- 
 hended. 
 
 Besides a pubhc, or open form of worship, there 
 was paid to each of the pagan gods a secret or hidden 
 worship, to which none were admitted who had not 
 passed through a preparatory ordeal, called initiation. 
 This latter mode was called the ' mysteries,' usually 
 confined to the locaUty which was under the tutelage 
 of the deity in question, or where it was held in prin- 
 cipal esteem ; so that when one nation borrowed the 
 
 * Plutarch against Colotes the Epicurean. 
 
 f " Toutes les religions du monde, tant la vraie que les fausses, 
 roulent sur ce grand pivot, qu'il y a un Juge invisible qui punit 
 et qui recompense, apres cette vie, les actions de I'homme tant 
 exterieures qu' interieures. C'est de la que Ton suppose que decoule 
 la principale utilite de la religion."— ^a^/Ze, Diet. Crit. et Hist. art. 
 *' Spinosa." 
 
 X See Dr. Warburton's Div. Legat. vol. i. book ii. sec. 1 . 
 
12 
 
 ROME. 
 
 gods of another, (as happened frequently,) it did not 
 always adopt at the same time their mysteries. Thus, in 
 Rome, the pubhc and open worship of Bacchus was 
 in use long before his mysteries were admitted ; and, 
 on the other hand, again, the foreign god was some- 
 times brought in merely for the sake of the mysteries, 
 as was the case when Isis and Osiris were introduced 
 into Rome. 
 
 It was from the temples of the Nile this system of 
 a double worship was derived, not only by Greece, but 
 by countries the most remote.* They were introduced 
 by Zoroaster into Persia, into Thrace by Orpheus, by 
 Minos into Crete, by Cinyras into Cyprus, by Tro- 
 phonius into Boeotia, by Cadmus and Inachus into 
 Greece in general, and by Erectheus into Athens ; 
 but although the mysteries were borrowed from 
 Egypt, where they were sacred to Isis and Osiris, it 
 was not in honour of these latter deities, but of their 
 own national or local ones, that they were instituted 
 by those who borrowed them. In Asia, they were to 
 Mithras ; in Samothrace, to the mother of the gods, 
 Cybele ; in Boeotia, to Bacclius ; in Cyprus, to Venus ; in 
 Crete, to Jupiter ; in Lemnos, to Vulcan; in Amphissa, 
 to Castor and Pollux ; " and so to others, in other 
 places, to an incredible number."! The mysteries of 
 Ceres, and Proserpine, her daughter, were celebrated at 
 
 * Diodor. Sicul. 1. i. " This Herodotus, Diodorus, and Plutarch, 
 expressly affirm ; and in this all antiquity is unanimous." — Warbur- 
 ton's Div. Legat. book ii. sec. 4. p. 176. 
 
 Strabo, (Geog. 1. iv.) quoting Artemidorus for a ftibulous story, 
 subjoins : " But what he says of Ceres and Proserpine is more credi- 
 ble ; namely, that there is an island near Britain, — ' Ni/o-oj/ irpbs rfi 
 BpiraviK^,' — where they perform the same rites to those two god- 
 desses as are in use in Samothrace." So that these Egyptian mys- 
 teries had made their way even to Ireland. 
 
 f " Postulat quidem magnitudo materise, atque ipsius defensionis 
 officium, ut similiter, cccteras turpitudinum species persequamur ; 
 vel quas produnt antiquitatis historiae, vel mysteria ilia continent 
 sacra, quihus initiis nomen est, et quae non omnibus vulgo, sed pau- 
 corum taciturnitatibus tradi licet. Sed Sacrorum innumeri ritus, 
 atque affixa deformitas singulis, corporaliter prohibet universa nos 
 exequi." — Arnob. adv. Gentes, 1. v. p. 168. 
 
ROME. 
 
 13 
 
 Eleusis, a delightful suburb of Athens, with such un- 
 rivalled artifice and effect, that, in process of time, they 
 in a great measure superseded all the other mysteries, 
 not only of Greece, but of the whole world. Pilgrims 
 from the utmost boundaries of the earth resorted 
 thither for initiation, and Eleusis came at length to be 
 regarded as the common sanctuary of the whole world.* 
 It was assiduously inculcated, that the most enviable 
 advantages, both in this world and in that to come, 
 were attached to initiation. " Upon the initiated the 
 orb of day shone with a more brilliant and benign in- 
 fluence ; and while the souls of the profane on depart- 
 ing from the body were to stick fast in mire, and be 
 involved in darkness, to them was promised a transi- 
 tion, easy and delightful, to a state of singular felicity 
 in the company of the gods." For neglecting to be 
 initiated even Socrates became suspected of impiety ; 
 and Diagoras, the Melian, for dissuading his friends 
 against it, was denounced as an atheist, by the Athe- 
 nians, and had a price set upon his head.f Add to 
 this the charm by which the multitude never fails to 
 be attracted to whatever is involved in mysterious 
 secrecy, and is difficult to be attained, and it will not 
 appear surprising that the sacred groves and avenues 
 of Eleusis were incessantly thronged with multitudes 
 of all sexes, ages, and conditions, pressing eagerly for 
 admission to these desiderated yet dreaded rites. 
 
 * Ubi initiatitur gentes orarum ultimae." — Cicer. de Nat. 
 Dear. 1. i. ; also Aristides, 1. iv., as quoted by Dr. Warburton, ubi 
 sup. 
 
 f Suidas, voce Alayopas, &c. Socrates thought well of the mys- 
 teries, (see Phaedo ;) but neglected to be initiated. 
 
 The words of Cicero to his friend Atticus show in what high 
 veneration and repute they stood even among sceptics : " Nam mihi 
 cum multa eximia divinaque videntur Athense tuse peperisse, atque 
 in vita hominum attulisse, turn nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus 
 ex agresti immanique vita exculti ad humanitatem, et mitigati 
 sumus ; initiaque ut appellantur, ita revera principia vitcs cognovi- 
 mus ; neque solum cum lastitia vivendi rationem accepimus, sed 
 etiam cum spe meliore moriendi." — De Legib. 1. ii. 14. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbrasque silentes ; 
 Chaos, et Phlegethon, loca nocte silentia late, 
 Sit mihi fas audita loqui ; sit numine vestro 
 Pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas." 
 
 Virgil, Mn. vi. 264. 
 
 Ye realms yet unreveal'd to human sight ! 
 Ye gods who rule the regions of the night ! 
 Ye gliding ghosts ! permit me to relate 
 The mystic wonders of your silent state.* 
 
 Dryden's Transl. 
 
 As the aspirants after initiation, crowned with 
 myrtle sacred to Proserpine, began to approach the 
 vestibule through which they were to pass, as if by 
 anticipation, through the gates of death, and to wit- 
 ness with their Hving eyes the various destinies of 
 disembodied spirits, the very earth itself seemed to 
 quake and bellow beneath their feet ; the cypress- 
 crowned precipices on either side of the way leading 
 to the temple, seemed to nod above them, and noises 
 and shrieks of terrific omen issued from the gloom 
 of the forests through which they were advancing. 
 
 Then earth began to bellow, trees to dance. 
 And howling dogs in glimm'ring light advance. 
 
 " At length entering into the mystic dome/' says 
 Themistius,f " they are filled with horror and conster- 
 nation. From the pavement to the roof the temple 
 is moved with earthquakes, which cause the pillars 
 that support the lackered beams to rock and totter on 
 their pedestals. The Furies yell and wave their torches, 
 
 * Even Claudian, though professing to treat of the Eleusinian 
 mysteries, does not enter upon the interdicted secrets without going 
 through the form, like Virgil, of praying for permission : 
 " Dii quibus in numerum," &:c. 
 
 De Rapiu Proserpince, 1. i., sub init. 
 
 f Orat. in patr. 
 
ROME. 
 
 15 
 
 while crested serpents hiss around the shrines ; and, 
 ever and anon, from the deep recesses of the sanc- 
 tuary, voices issuing hke thunder warn the profane 
 intruders to be gone.* But they — buried in darkness 
 rendered more terrible by frequent Hghtnings — are un- 
 able to advance forward or return ; until, at last, when 
 they are ready to sink down overpowered by perplexity 
 and dread, the majestic hierophant is descried with 
 his sateUites — the genii of the sun, of Mercury, and 
 of the moon — all surrounded with a halo of celestial 
 radiance, and clad in robes of resplendent brightness : 
 with snowy hair and beard, and a diadem upon his 
 brow, the chief beckons the aspirants, with his white 
 wand, towards the portals of another world." 
 
 " In the initiation to the great mysteries," says an- 
 other ancient writer,! " the mind is affected in the same 
 manner as in death. The same phrases apply to both ; 
 in both instances the vicissitudes of agony are the 
 same ; in short, to be initiated is to die. The first 
 stage is nothing but errors, and uncertainty, and labo- 
 rious wandering ; a rude and fearful march through 
 night and darkness ; and now arrived on the verge of 
 death and initiation, every thing wears a dreadful aspect 
 — all is horror, trembling, agony, and affright." 
 
 Having crossed the fatal threshold, the " mystics," 
 as the candidates for initiation were called, have first 
 to make their way through darkness visible, — 
 
 " Along the waste dominions of the dead," — 
 
 where shapeless apparitions haunt their steps as in a 
 horrid dream. 
 
 Just in the gate, and in the jaws of hell, 
 
 Revengeful cares and sullen sorrows dwell, 
 
 And pale diseases, and repining age, 
 
 Want, fear, and famine's unresisted rage ; 
 
 Here toils and death, and death's half-brother sleep, 
 
 (Forms terrible to view) their sentry keep ; 
 
 * The " Procul 6 Procul" of Virgil is a literal translation of the 
 formulary used in the mysteries"—" EKA2, EKA2 E2TE BEBHAOI." 
 
 f Quoted in Div. Legat. book ii. sec. 4, from Stobseus, Sermo 
 cxix. 
 
16 
 
 ROME. 
 
 With anxious pleasures of a guilty mind, 
 Deep frauds before, and open force behind. 
 The Furies' iron beds ; and strife that shakes 
 Her hissing tresses and unfolds her snakes. 
 
 This first scene of the mysteries, intended to disgust 
 the neophytes with the vices and infirmities that loiter 
 about the infernal gates, as the idle and deformed are 
 wont to loiter about the gates of cities, coincides ex- 
 actly with what is said concerning initiation in Lucian's 
 dialogue of the Tyrant. As a company made up of 
 every condition of life are voyaging together into the 
 other world, Mycillus breaks out and says : — 
 
 " Bless us ! how dark it is ! Where now is the fair 
 Mygillus ? Who can tell here whether Symmiche or 
 Phyrna be the handsomer ? Every thing is alike and 
 of the same colour ; and no room for comparison be- 
 tween beauties. Nay, my own old cloak, which but 
 awhile ago presented to your eyes so irregular a figure, 
 ,is become as honourable to wear as his Majesty's 
 purple ; for both have vanished, and retired together 
 under the same concealment. 
 
 " But my friend, the Cynic, where are you ? Give 
 me your hand ; cheer up ! You are initiated in the 
 Eleusinian mysteries. Tell me now, do you not think 
 this very like the blind march they make there ?" 
 
 Cynic — " Oh exceedingly. And see, here comes 
 one of the Furies, as I guess by her equipage, with 
 her torch and her terrible tresses." 
 
 " Hence to deep Acheron they take their way. 
 Whose troubled eddies, thick with ooze and clay, 
 Are whirl'd aloft, and in Cocytus lost; 
 Where Charon stands, who rules the dreary coast. 
 ***** 
 
 An airy crowd came rushing where he stood, 
 Which fill'd the margin of the fetal flood ; 
 Husbands and wives, boys and unmarried maids, 
 And mighty heroes, more majestic shades. 
 Thick as the leaves in autumn strew the woods ; 
 Or fowls by winter forced forsake the floods. 
 And wing their hasty flight to happier lands : 
 Such and so thick the shiv'ring army stands. 
 And press for passage with extended hands." 
 
ROME. 
 
 17 
 
 It was at this stage, that the first great effort was 
 made by the contrivers of the mysteries to turn them 
 to the advantage of society. 
 
 In devising plans for the safety and protection of 
 human Ufe, these adepts in the arts of governing be- 
 came convinced that nothing would more contribute 
 to it than the public and solemn interment of the 
 dead ; private murders without this provision being 
 easily and securely perpetrated. On this account the 
 most public and pompous funeral rites were introduced 
 by the Egyptian sages. But to secure their observ- 
 ance by force of religion as well as custom, they 
 taught that the deceased could not retire to a place of 
 rest in the other world until these rites were paid to 
 them in this. No superstition was more widely dif- 
 fused, or had taken firmer hold of the popular mind 
 than this ; so that the three greatest poets of ancient 
 Greece did not hesitate to make the main plot and 
 epic interest of their poems consist in the securing of 
 the rites of sepulture for their respective heroes.^ 
 
 These and other fictions considered of equal utility 
 by rulers, who recognised in religion nothing but an 
 imposture, as admirably adapted, as it was indispen- 
 sable, to the well-being of society, were sedulously 
 inculcated by their agent, the guide, or hierophant of 
 the mysteries, in expounding to his trembling and 
 astonished neophytes the shifting scenes that were 
 made to pass before their bewildered senses, or through 
 which they themselves were actually led. 
 
 Beyond Cocytus, having got past the den of Cer- 
 berus, they enter the regions of temporary expiation, 
 to which certain souls are condemned by Minos for 
 terms proportionate to their imperfections or venial 
 trespasses — venial in the eyes of a political expediency, 
 which estimated sins, not by their intrinsic wickedness, 
 but by their bearings upon civil life. After passing 
 
 * The performance of funeral rites for Patroclus, Ajax, and 
 Polynices is pursued by Homer, in the Iliad ; by Sophocles and 
 Euripides, in the Ajax and the Phoenicians, as the chief object of 
 interest. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 ROME. 
 
 the lugentes campi," or " mournful fields," at last 
 they came in sight of the infernal judges ^acus, 
 Rhadamanthus, and Minos, seated on their terrible 
 tribunals, where the road divides, leading, on the 
 right, to Elysium, on the left to Tartarus, or hell.* 
 
 Here was the climax of terrors for the aspirants 
 after initiation ; here it was that stage effect surpassed 
 itself in exhibiting the dwellings of eternal misery, 
 which the mystagogue did not fail to tenant with such 
 offenders as were most obnoxious to his employers, or 
 most likely to escape the animadversion of the ma- 
 gistrate. 
 
 The curtain dropped at this point, and the crowd 
 was permitted to revisit the upper world, vividly im- 
 pressed with all they had heard and seen, and elated 
 beyond measure at having penetrated all that was 
 most recondite in the mysteries ; whereas, in truth, 
 they had been led through the mere preludes of initia- 
 tion ; for from that privilege all were rigorously ex- 
 cluded, except the ehte of the ruling casts. In Egypt, 
 from whence the whole imposture took its rise, even 
 the kings were not initiated until after their corona- 
 tion. 
 
 Wherefore, the indiscriminate multitude being dis- 
 missed, terrified by the sight of Minos and Rha- 
 damanthus, and with the warnings of the hapless 
 Theseus and Ixion still ringing in their ears, the 
 few selected on account of their high station and in- 
 fluence in society, after bathing and being decked out 
 in aromatic raiment, are introduced, in good earnest, 
 to the " higher mysteries." This was called aii- 
 topsia, or " beholding the divine splendours with one's 
 living eyes ;" the illuminees (eTroVrai) were called 
 eudaimonai, or " blessed." " Being now about to un- 
 
 * As the entire political contrivance of the mysteries was raised 
 upon the primeval tradition as to the immortality of the soul, and the 
 destinies reserved for it in a future world, it becomes evident, that 
 the doctrine of a purgatory was an integral part of that tradition, 
 derived through Adam and the Patriarchs, from revelation. Dr. 
 Warburton is particularly ingenious in expounding the purgatory of 
 the mysteries ; see Div. Legat. b. ii. sec. 4, pp. 212 to 220. 
 
ROME. 
 
 19 
 
 dergo the lustrations," says Sopater,* " the lustrations 
 which immediately precede initiation into the higher 
 mysteries, they called me happy," " A region all 
 over illuminated and radiant with a celestial splendour 
 is now revealed to the wondering and delighted vision. 
 The clouds and thick darkness of the lesser mysteries 
 are dispersed ; and the mind emerges as it were, into 
 a daylight, full of cheerfulness, as all before was full of 
 disconsolate obscurity." 
 
 *' These holy rites perform'd, they take their way, 
 Where long extended plains of pleasure lay. 
 The verdant fields with those of heaven may vie, 
 With ether vested, and a purple sky ; 
 The blissful seats of happy souls below, 
 Stars of their own, and their own suns they know." 
 
 The first stage of the mysteries," says a writer 
 already quoted,! is nothing but errors and uncer- 
 tainties ; a rude and fearful march through night and 
 darkness ; but this scene once past, a miraculous and 
 divine light reveals itself, and shining plains and 
 flowery meadows open on all hands before them. Here 
 they are entertained with hymns and dances, with 
 the sublime doctrines of sacred knowledge, and with 
 reverend and holy visions. And now, become per- 
 fect and initiated, they are free, and no longer under 
 restraint ; but crowned and triumphant, they walk up 
 and down the regions of the blessed, converse with 
 pure and holy men, and celebrate the sacred mysteries 
 at pleasure." 
 
 The great secret revealed in these higher mysteries 
 was, that the entire system of the popular religion, so 
 emphatically inculcated in the lesser mysteries, was an 
 imposture and delusion. The guide, or hierophant, in- 
 formed the illuminee, that Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, 
 Mars, and the- whole rabble of licentious deities — 
 objects of worship to the vulgar — were, in reality, only 
 deceased mortals, subject during life to similar vices 
 
 * In Divis. Qusest. 
 
 -j- From Stobaeus, Serm. cxix. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and passions with himself ; that there was but one 
 supreme Cause of all things — the Creator of the uni- 
 verse — who pervaded all things by his virtue and 
 governed them by his providence.* He was instructed 
 in the doctrine of a sublime and spiritual immortality, 
 and in the doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmi- 
 gration of souls, in which the priests of Egypt had dis- 
 guised the divine dogmas of a middle state, and of the 
 original fall of man. Finally, he was impressed with 
 the importance of upholding and perpetuating, by all 
 possible means, the system of popular delusion, with 
 which he had now been made acquainted. He was 
 told that it was not only expedient, but indispensable 
 to the preservation of order in states, and to the very 
 existence of society ; and there is no principle of 
 government upon which a more perfect unanimity 
 exists amongst the great jurists, statesmen, and moral- 
 ists of antiquity, than on this ; no point on which 
 they insist with greater emphasis. 
 
 " It is impossible to govern women and the common 
 people," says Strabo, " and to keep them in subordina- 
 
 * See Cudworth's Intell. Syst. cap. iv. sec. 18. Also Warbur- 
 ton, Div. Leg. b. ii. sec. 4, quotes from Clem, of Alex. Adm. ad 
 Gentes, Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. iii., the hymn in which the 
 doctrine of the Unity was inculcated by the Mystagogue : — " I will 
 declare a secret to the initiated ; but let doors be shut against the 
 profane. But thou, attend carefully to my song ; for I shall speak 
 of important truths. Suffer not, therefore, the former prejudices of 
 your mind to deprive you of that happy life which the knowledge 
 of these mysterious truths will procure you. Go on in the right 
 way, and see the sole Governor of the universe. He is one, and of 
 himself alone ; and to that One all things owe their being. He 
 operates through all ; was never seen by mortal eyes, but does him- 
 self see every thing." 
 
 What is the subjoined text, relative to the doctrines taught in the 
 mysteries, but a paraphrase of the inspired words of the Psalmist ? 
 " For behold, I have been conceived in iniquities," &c. — Ps. li. 5. 
 
 " Ex quibus humanse vitse erroribus et serumnis fit, ut interdum 
 veteres illi sive vates, sive in sacris initiisque tradendis divinoe mentis 
 interpretes, qui nos oh aliqua scelera suscepta in vita superiore, posna- 
 rum luendarum causa, natos esse dixertmt, aliquid vidisse vide- 
 antur." — Cicero, Fragmen. ex lib. de Philosop. apud Warburt. vol. i. 
 p. 137. 
 
ROME. 
 
 21 
 
 tion to piety and virtue by the precepts of philosophy. 
 This can be done only by the superstitions of Poly- 
 theism, raised and supported by ancient fictions and 
 modern prodigies. Therefore, the fables of the thunder 
 of Jupiter, the aegis of Minerva, the trident of Neptune, 
 the thyrsus of Bacchus, and the snakes and torches of 
 the Furies, with all the other apparatus of ancient 
 mythology, were the engines which the legislator em- 
 ployed as bugbears to strike terror into the childish 
 imagination of the multitude." It is to the mainten- 
 ance of these fictions in their full vigour, that Poly- 
 bius, one of the keenest politicians of antiquity, attri- 
 butes the stability and active force of states, while their 
 decline and fall are rendered inevitable, according to 
 his theories, by suffering these impostures to fall into 
 popular contempt. Socrates, on his trial, proclaimed 
 it to be the solemn duty of every citizen to conform 
 to the established religion of his country, no matter 
 how absurd he might beheve it to be. As a leader of 
 the ohgarchy, Marcus Tullius Cicero is a zealot for 
 the superstitions which he ridicules in his intercourse 
 with his own order ; and Varro, the most learned of 
 the Romans, professed, without disguise, that " there 
 were many religious truths which it was not advanta- 
 geous to the state to be generally known, and many 
 thingsHn religion z&hich, though false, it was expedient 
 the people should believe.'''^ 
 
 It was on this iniquitous political expediency, 
 against which the apostle denounces the wrath of 
 God," that all the grinding tyrannies of pagan anti- 
 quity, whether administered by one, or by an oligarchy, 
 (whether patrician or democratic,) were erected and 
 sustained. The inferior and slave casts were held in 
 profound darkness and degradation by a hardened and 
 selfish ascendency in each state ; who kept within 
 their own narrow circle the monopoly of all know- 
 ledge, and, therefore, of all power; nor will it be 
 found easy to thread the labyrinth of pagan politics, 
 unless with this clue in hand. 
 
 * Apud S. August, de Civ. Dei. 1. iv. 31. 
 
22 
 
 ROME. 
 
 The sense of superiority over the humbler classes 
 derived by the patrician, or initiated cast, from the 
 enjoyment of this great secret, as well as the preserva- 
 tion of those darling interests and privileges which 
 they knew depended on it, might have seemed to 
 guarantee sufficiently that it would not be divulged. 
 However, for greater security, it was made death by 
 the laws to invade or reveal the mysteries. No art 
 was spared to impress the multitude with the impiety 
 of any such attempt. It was for this that Theseus 
 (although so renowned a hero) was exhibited, at the 
 conclusion of the lesser mysteries, in the hottest den 
 of Tartarus, warning all, with dismal cries, to beware 
 how they imitated his impiety. 
 
 " Sedet, asternumque sedebit 
 Infelix Theseus ; Phlegeasque miserrimus omnes 
 Admonet, et magna testatur voce per umbras ; 
 Discite justitiam moniti, et no7i ternnere divos."* 
 
 These devices proved so effective, that, to be detected 
 intruding on the mysteries was certain death. The 
 Athenians brought on a war with PhiUp, by sacrificing 
 two young Acarnanians, his subjects, who happened to 
 enter the temple of Ceres, among a crowd of neo- 
 phytes ; and ^schylus, the tragic poet, once narrowly 
 escaped being torn to pieces on the stage, for some 
 expression that seemed to divulge the awful mystery. 
 He fled to the altar of Bacchus, and the Areopagus, to 
 which he appealed, acquitted him.f 
 
 * ^n. 1. vi. 616. 
 
 f Besides the hierophants and the various mystagogues of the 
 sacred aristocratic branch of the Eumolpidas, there were always at 
 Eleusis, during the celebration of the mysteries, a number of magis- 
 trates, with one of the archons, for the time being, at their head ; 
 who enforced order, and did not hesitate to punish with death any 
 violation of the standing rules. — Cab. Cyclop. No. 70, p. 154. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Proseminatse sunt familise dissentientes, et multum disjunctse et 
 dispares, cum tamen omnes se philosophi Socraticos et dici vel- 
 lent et esse arbitrarentur." — Cicero, de Orator. 1. iii. 
 
 " I did not, in the first instance," said the genius of Philosophy, 
 " address myself to the Greeks, but passed them by, knowing 
 how tractable they would be to my yoke. My first course was 
 to the Barbarians, and especially the Indians, the most numer- 
 ous tribe of men on earth. They descended from their elephants 
 to embrace me : and the Brachmans and Gymnosophists still 
 live in the knowledge and practice of my discipline. I turned 
 next to the Ethiopians, and from them to the Egyptians, whose 
 prophets and priests became my pupils in theological knowledge 
 and the worship of the gods. I then visited Babylon, and gave 
 her Chaldeans and Magi similar instruction. My subsequent 
 progress was through Scythia into Thrace ; from whence, I sent 
 before me into Greece, Eumolpus and Orpheus, the one informed 
 in all tlie rites of religion, (the founder of the mysteries^ at 
 Eleusis,) and the other conversant in the powers of music."— 
 Lucian. Dial, de Fugitiv. 
 
 So long as the imposture lasted, the mysteries served 
 all the purposes of a state religion; enabling the 
 ascendant cast to excite, control, and direct the mul- 
 titude as they pleased; but the principle of free 
 inquiry, first introduced by Socrates, was too con- 
 genial to the Greek intellect not, in the long run, 
 to prove fatal to their authority.* 
 
 The sages, or wise men, of the elder ages of Greece, 
 had been careful to shun the perilous confines of theo- 
 logy and ethics, restricting themselves, for the most 
 part, to silent and 'harmless inquisitions into nature, 
 
 * "The next step the legislator took was to affirm and establish 
 the general doctrine of a Providence, which he had delivered in 
 his laws, by a very particular and popular method of inculcating the 
 belief of a future state of rewards and punishments. This was by 
 the invention of the mysteries, the most sacred part of pagan 
 religion, and framed to strike most forcibly and deep into the 
 minds and imaginations of the people."— Dr. Warhurton, Div. Legal. 
 &c., book ii. sec. 4. 
 
24 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and especially into the elements of the world, and the 
 laws and mechanism of the celestial bodies.^ Indeed, 
 there is extant, in Diogenes Laertius, a remonstrance 
 written by ancient Thales to Pherecydes Cyrus, (the 
 first preceptor of Pythagoras,) to dissuade him from 
 continuing some lectures which he had commenced 
 concerning rehgion and the nature of the gods ; for 
 Thales, like the sages generally, had been initiated at 
 Memphis, and was on that account averse to whatever 
 might endanger the reign of the popular superstitions.! 
 He and his successors in the Ionic school, of which 
 he was the founder, observed the strictest secrecy as 
 to their esoteric, or hidden doctrines, and were on that 
 account so averse to writing, that it is only with So- 
 crates (born in the 4th year of the 77th Olymp.) the 
 written monuments of philosophy begin.} He, " the 
 first to bring philosophy down from the clouds," as 
 Cicero expresses it, " and to introduce her not only into 
 cities but private dwellings, (or, in plain terms, the 
 first teacher of ethics,) so disconcerted and exposed the 
 sophists by his cutting irony, that from being looked up 
 ^ to almost as demi-gods, they became the laughing- 
 stock of Athens. These descendants of Thales were, 
 by all accounts, a set of vain and wordy rhetoricians, 
 really very ignorant, while pretending to know and 
 explain every thing. f But to form adepts— consum- 
 mate in the wiles and chicane of sophistry — was their 
 chief ambition. It was found to be a more lucrative 
 branch even than rhetoric. The most superficial 
 
 * Thucydides, 1. i, " In rebus occultis, et ab ipsa natnra iiivolu- 
 tis." — Cic. Acad. Qucest. 1. i. 4. 
 
 t According to Apollodorus, in Chron. apud Laert. 1. i. c. 37, 
 Thales was born at Miletus, in the 35th Olympiad. He travelled in 
 Asia and Crete — " Certius vero et induhitatum, jam senem in 
 Egyptum profectura fuisse, eo animo, ut cum sacerdotibus astrono- 
 misque ibi versari illi liceret. Institutum ibi fuisse a sacerdotibus 
 Memphiticis totamque philosophiam artesque mathematicos didicisse, 
 Laertius, Plutarchus, et Jamblicus tradunt."— ^rwc/?. Hist. Crit. 
 1. ii. 1. 
 
 X See Themistius, Orat. xxvi., p. 317. 
 
 § Tusc. Quaest. 1. v. 4. Acad. Qusest. 1. i. 4. 
 
 ^ Cic. de Orat. xii. 
 
ROME. 
 
 25 
 
 might be easily initiated in it ; and it promised, if not 
 the glories of the rostrum, the more intelligible tri- 
 mnph of puzzling and perplexing, beyond the chance 
 of extrication, every one who could be inveigled into 
 an exchange of conversation. Aristotle and other 
 writers have preserved the names and natures of some 
 of these fallacies, " quibbles," " snares," " hooks," 
 "labyrinths," "nooses," "nets." — There was the 
 " crocodile," the " nobody," the " electro," the 
 " horns," the "do-nothing," the "bar," the " domi- 
 nant," the "bald-pate," the "heap of sand," the 
 " tumbler." The first person who made his appear- 
 ance was seized on, by the young adept thus appointed, 
 and compelled to answer some simple, self-evident 
 question. One word led to another ; the eye of the 
 querist became quicker and quicker, the smile lurking 
 about his mouth, warned the poor innocent victim 
 that something was going wrong, till the final stroke 
 was ready, and he found himself planted in an absur- 
 dity, amidst a roar of laughter from the bystanders, 
 and shouts of applause to the querist, among which 
 he went ofi" in triumph to surprise and lay prostrate 
 some new antagonist. Stranger or countryman, father 
 or mother, clown or philosopher, guests at a feast, 
 idlers in the Agora, loungers in the baths — man, 
 woman, or child — all were to be subjected to the 
 conquest of this new machinery. Nor could this 
 species of knight-errant ever be at a loss for adven- 
 tures. Beauty and action were the two paramount 
 objects of Athenian admiration. Hence rivalry of what- 
 ever kind was then the favourite amusement. From 
 the rival dramas on the stage, to the pugilists in the 
 arena — from the plaintiff and defendant in a lawsuit, 
 to the struggles of political parties thoughout the 
 whole of Greece — from the propounder of riddles at 
 the supper-table, to the battle of demagogues on the 
 rostrum — from the fighting cocks which they carried 
 about in their bosoms, to the pair of grave philoso- 
 
 * " Contentionis avidiores quam veritatis." — Cic. de Oral. 1. i. 
 
26 
 
 ROME, 
 
 phers sitting on the marble benches in the exercising 
 grounds, surrounded with a gaping crowd with head 
 peering above head, and eager hsteners in the far 
 background stretching themselves out to catch the 
 sounds of disputation ; — every thing was contest. 
 But, for all classes the contest of rival sophists was 
 the most attractive."* 
 
 It was for exposing the frivolity of this sort of edu- 
 cation, and for drawing off the noble youth of Athens 
 from the sophists to more grave and soUd studies, that 
 they drugged the bowl for Socrates with hemlock, f 
 
 Plato, his youngest pupil, having fled with the rest, 
 mostly to Megara, where he studied dialectics with his 
 friend Euchd, set out after his recall to Athens for 
 southern Italy and Sicily, in order to get acquainted 
 with the doctrines and disciphne of Pythagoras. | 
 From thence he went, according to Apuleius, to Gy- 
 rene to study under Theodore the geometer ; thence 
 to Egypt, where after long and severe probation he 
 was initiated by the hierarchs of the Nile.§ He is 
 said to have visited the Jews also, and Magna Grsecia 
 a second time. Like the bee returning to mount 
 Hybla, after these industrious peregrinations through 
 so many lands renowned for wisdom, Plato enriched 
 with all science returned to Athens ; and, in a beau- 
 teous villa called Academos, which the graces and the 
 " tuneful nine" conspired to adorn, continued long to 
 
 * Sewell, Introd. to the Dial, of Plato, p. 131. 
 
 •f Laertius gives the form of impeachment brought against him 
 by a young rhetorician, Melito, at the instigation of Anytus. Mclito 
 was beheaded, Anytus banished, when Athens, roused by the indig- 
 nation of all Greece, became conscious of what she had done to the 
 *' wisest of men," as Socrates was styled by the Delphic oracle. 
 
 I Cic. Tusc. Qusest. 1. v. 29. 
 
 § " Dici non potest, quanta consensione banc opinionem omplexi 
 fuerint veteris ecclesiae doctores." — Vide P. Dan. Huet. Dera. Er. 
 Pr. iv. c. 2, p. 37 ; and And. Dacier. Vet. Plat. p. 68.—" Audisse 
 te credo, Tubero, Platonem, Socrate mortuo, primum in Egyptum 
 discendi causa post in Italiam et in Siciliam contendisse ut Pytha- 
 gorse inventa perdisceret ; eumque et cum Archyta Tarentino, et cum 
 Timeo Locro multum fuisse ; et Philoleo commentaries esse nactum." 
 — Cic, de Be Rep. 1. i. p. 32. Car. Mais Discoveries, torn. i. 
 
ROME. 
 
 27 
 
 enchant by his eloquence, and to be Ustened to as an 
 oracle by, the youthful aristocracy of Greece. Although 
 he did not, like the Pythagoreans, bind his auditors to 
 secrecy by an oath, or oblige them to pass through 
 any form of initiation, he hung up a veil or curtain 
 before the portals of the academy, to indicate that the 
 doctrines there delivered were not to be divulged 
 abroad ; and, in conformity with the Egyptian prac- 
 tice, he invariably observed the system of a double 
 doctrine.* And hence, his works when not studied 
 with this clue appear to be full of riddles and contra- 
 dictions ; for the better to disguise the truth from all 
 but the elect, he adopts a variety of unmeaning names 
 and expressions ; frequently uses the same words to 
 express the most opposite ideas, with a view to be- 
 wilder and confound any of the vulgar into whose 
 hands his works might fall. His whole system, also, 
 was made up not only of different theories, but of 
 such as were, in some instances, destructive of one 
 another, t Thus he attempted to combine the " ipse 
 dixit," or infallible authority, of Pythagoras, with the 
 freethinking principles of Socrates, his beloved master. 
 
 It mattered little, however, that there were incon- 
 sistencies in what he taught, for the enchantment of 
 his presence and of his sublime speculations, revealed 
 in language such as Jupiter might have used, were he 
 to express himself in the Attic dialect, so kept the 
 spirits of his hearers spell-bound, that it was not till 
 Speusippus, his nephew, had succeeded him in the 
 academy, that the judgment was free to exercise 
 itself upon the merits of his system. The first to 
 revive the Socratic principle of the " akatalepsis," or 
 " philosophic doubt" — put in abeyance during the 
 reign of Plato — was Arcesilaus, or Arcesilas, as he is 
 called by Cicero ; and, according to S. Augustin,J he 
 
 * In Timseo, torn. iii. Op. p. 28, and p. 341. 
 
 -f- " Non tan turn diversa inter se, sed plane quoque contraria." — 
 Bruch. Hist. Crit. 1. ii. p. 666. " Platonis autem auctoritate, qui 
 varius, et multiplex, et copiosus fuit, una et consentiens duobus vo- 
 cabulis philosophifE forma instituta est." — Cic. Acad. Qucest. 1. i. 4. 
 
 X Cont. Acad. 1. iii. 17. 
 
28 
 
 ROME. 
 
 was urged to innovate upon the old half-Egyptian, 
 half- Socratic system of Plato, not only by his own 
 tortuosity of genius and disputatious turn, but also that 
 the academy might not be superseded by the porch ; 
 where Zeno had just founded a new school, called of 
 the Stoics, which speedily attained to great celebrity. 
 
 In his aversion for dogmatism, Socrates used to say 
 that he knew but one thing for certain, which was, "That 
 he knew nothing;" but even this was too dogmatical 
 for Arcesilas it was his pride to doubt even of that 
 one thing of which Socrates said he was certain; and, 
 having cast off all restraints and disguises, the founder 
 of the middle academy, as his sect was called, openly 
 " and with insane temerity called every thing into doubt 
 —honour, probity, even the worship of the gods; admit- 
 ting nothing to be certain, or known as fact ; but, on the 
 contrary, endeavouring to subvert every thing, even 
 the most self-evident, by argument. "f Sects multiphed 
 in Hellas. Each city soon beheld not one but several 
 sects, each scholar excogitated a theory for himself ; 
 and some idea of the complete intellectual anarchy 
 in which Greece ultimately became involved, may be 
 formed from the fact, that Pyrrho, who called every 
 thing into doubt — even his own existence — was elected 
 high priest by his fellow citizens of Ehs ; that, on his 
 account, all philosophers were exempted from paying 
 taxes, and that, by public acclamation, he was made 
 free of Athens. | 
 
 It will not be difficult to conjecture how it fared 
 with the mysteries in this break up of all old-fashioned 
 prepossessions. It was long since the most keen-sighted 
 and inquisitive of the democracy had caught some 
 glimpses of things as they were, through the chinks of 
 the imposture, and some echoes of irreligious scepticism 
 from the loud wrangling of the schools ; but when it 
 was proclaimed in the forum, from the rostrum, under 
 
 * " Itaque Arcesilas negabat esse quidquam quod sciri posset, ne 
 illud quidem ipsum, quod Socrates sibi reliquisset,'* &c. — Cic. Acad. 
 Qucest. 1. i. 12. 
 
 t Bruch. ubi sup. p. 759. + Diog. Laert. 
 
ROME. 
 
 29 
 
 the porticos of the very temples, in the theatres, and 
 at the great Isthmian games, that the lesser mysteries 
 were only a melo-dramatic show, and all the stories 
 about Charon, Minos, and Rhadamanthus, mere fictions 
 and mummeries to frighten simpletons and babes, it 
 became plain to the most illiterate that they had been 
 duped. Yet the multitude did not rise up like the 
 drunken guests of Alcibiades to wreak vengeance on 
 the idols of their past infatuation. The festivals of 
 polytheism seemed to have as great a charm as ever ; 
 in the concourse of both sexes and of all orders to 
 seek initiation there was no falling off ; but what had 
 been resorted to before as an awful worship and salu- 
 tary disciphne was now frequented as a pastime, and 
 as a convenient cloak and opportunity for the most 
 profound hcentiousness.* The patriotism and all the 
 energies of Greece were involved in the ruin of the 
 pohtical impostures by which they had been hitherto 
 sustained. This fact is recognised by such men as 
 Polybius, who deplores, that from the time the old 
 established forms of superstition were overthrown, 
 " there was no longer any sanctity in oaths or pro- 
 mises among the Greeks ; no regard for conscience or 
 the sanctions of futurity ; no pubhc principle ; no 
 honour or good faith between man and man."t 
 
 Thus it was, that every thing had conspired to pre- 
 pare the way for Epicurus. Born on the 7th of Ga- 
 melion, in the 3rd year of the 109th Olympiad, at a 
 little town of Attica ; he is said to have been moved 
 by the miserable condition of absurdity and discord to 
 
 * Such is their reputation with the Fathers of the Church. See 
 particularly Clem. Alex. Dis. to the Gentiles, and the Preep. Evang. of 
 Eusebius. Apuleius }>ives no better notion of them. They became 
 the last lurking places of Paganism, in its last and most corrupt 
 state. Even so late as the reign of Valentinian, the mysteries were 
 the " life's life" of the corrupt and degraded Achaians. The cele- 
 brated pagan senator Prsetextatus, in pleading in their favour, tells 
 the emperor that, deprived of them, the Greeks would drag out — 
 alBiorov (Stoj/— an inanimate existence. — Zosimus, 1. iv. Hist. Novcs. 
 
 f Polyb. Histor. 1. vi. 54 and 55 ; also Cab. Cyclop. No. 50, 
 Rome, vol. i. p. 248. 
 
30 
 
 ROME. 
 
 which philosophy had been reduced by the rival sects, 
 to strike out a new system, which, without running 
 after chimeras, as the Academists, the Stoics, the 
 Peripatetics, and Cynics did, might suggest some 
 tangible means of arriving at beatitude.=^ With this 
 view he got rid of the two great primeval doctrines 
 of providence and a future life ; grounding his 
 denial of these dogmas on the mutual contradic- 
 tion and variations of those sects that held them, 
 and mainly on the fact that no 07ie had returned 
 from the dead. Hence it was his constant cry to his 
 disciples, that death was an imaginary evil — the term 
 of consciousness, and the beginning of an eternal, 
 dreamless sleep — and that, therefore, it was the sum- 
 mit of true wisdom, the part of every philosopher 
 deserving the name, not to waste his life and torment 
 his intellect in bootless fears or hopes about an imagi- 
 nary hereafter, but to seize the passing hour, and by 
 every species of pleasure attainable, to try and make a 
 heaven of the earth. f 
 
 As all the public schools were preoccupied — Acade- 
 mos by the Platonists, the Lyceum by the Peripatetics, 
 the Cynosarga by the Cynics, and the Portico by 
 the Stoics — Epicurus purchased, for eighty minse, a 
 piece of ground, which he had laid out and adorned 
 as a delightful garden. — " Walks, leading through 
 wildernesses of shade and fragrance; glades, open- 
 ing, as if to afford a play-ground for the sun-shine ; 
 temples, rising on the very spots where imagina- 
 tion herself would have called them up ; and foun- 
 tains and lakes, in alternate motion and repose, 
 either wantonly courted the verdure, or calmly slept 
 in its embrace." There, in marble halls, and bowers 
 of aromatic shade, 
 
 " Where bliss, in all the countless shapes 
 That fancy's self to bliss hath given, 
 Carae clustering round, like road-side grapes 
 That woo the traveller's lip at even ;"J 
 
 * Bruch. ubi sup. p. 1233. f Diog. Laert. in vit. Epicur. 
 X Alciphron. Letter i. 
 
ROME. 
 
 31 
 
 the high priest of concupiscence lectured and lived 
 with the gay, the brilliant, and the beautiful, not only 
 of Athens and all wide Hellas, but of Egypt and the 
 voluptuous East. He impressed it on his impassioned 
 auditory, that philosophy was not wrinkled, austere 
 and forbidding, as she had been so long represented, 
 especially by Zeno and the Cynics, but a goddess, gay, 
 smiling, and ever propitious to the passions which 
 seek under her auspices for enjoyment. Over the 
 entrance to " the Garden," was an inscription, pro- 
 mising the long and painfully sought " summum 
 bonum," or " supreme good," on terms at once so easy 
 and delightful, that the Lyceum and the Porch, as 
 well as their rivals, were speedily deserted and, what 
 filled all Greece with admiration was, that no schism 
 or rebeUious sect grew out of the philosophy of 
 Epicurus ; but that all, with wondrous concord, per- 
 severed according to the dictates of their great mas- 
 ter, in seeking after happiness in nothing but the 
 indulgence of their desires, f They celebrated as a 
 god that inimitable sage who had emancipated them 
 from all fear of providence and of futurity, tran- 
 quillizing all their qualms of conscience, placing 
 wisdom in its true light, giving them a tangible 
 theory for securing felicity, and exalting them, as 
 it were, above the heaven and all the mythology 
 of the poets, by enabhng them to trample religion 
 under foot.j " Leaving to others the task of dis- 
 puting about the future, the new school centred all 
 its wisdom in the enjoyment of the present. "§ 
 
 * According to Senec. Ep. xxi., " Hospes hie bene manebis ; hie 
 summum bonum voluptas est." 
 
 f Senec. Ep. xxiii. Themist. Orat. 4. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 
 1. xiv. 5. 
 
 + " Deus ille fuit, Deus, inclute Memmi, 
 
 Qui princteps vitse rationem," &c. 
 * * * * 
 
 Quare religio pedibus subjecta vicissim, 
 Obteritur, nos exsequat victoria coelo." 
 
 Lueret. 1. v. in init. et 1. vi. 80. 
 
 § The Epicurean, p. 11. 
 
32 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Some being eager to drown the memory of their 
 crimes, and the fears of future retribution, and others 
 to catch even a few precarious hours from the misery 
 which threatened to absorb them in the common 
 wreck, it happened that many among the Romans, 
 theretofore more inchned to stoicism, were driven,' 
 during the reign of terror, in which the old repubhc 
 was made away with, to take shelter in the " Garden."* 
 But, under the enervating despotism of Augustus and 
 his successors, now protracted beyond half a century, 
 the philosophy of concupiscence was universally em- 
 braced ; and the hymns which so aroused the sympa- 
 thies of the venerable pilgrim, as he journeyed along 
 among the tombs, were but a partial echo of the senti- 
 ments which then prevailed through the entire length 
 and breadth of the Roman empire .f And yet it would 
 seem as if the primeval dogmas of the soul's immor- 
 tality and of an all-ruling Providence had remained 
 firm and in full integrity beneath the ruins of the 
 impostures which had been constructed on them. 
 Humanity still clung to them by its instincts after the 
 shipwreck of its faith. The bare idea that there was no 
 heaven, no bright, bUssful, interminable hereafter, had 
 rendered hope insane ; nor could she be induced, even 
 by the blandishments of Epicurus, or by any brutal 
 satiety of the passions, to relinquish her subhme and 
 immemorial aspirations without regret, j Oh, how sor- 
 did and odious " the sty," in which she was now taught 
 by Philosophy to imbrute herself, compared with that 
 pure and celestial region of immortality to which the 
 inspired longings of her bosom had been so fondly and 
 so long directed ! Even in the dehrium brought on by 
 the excesses into which the panders and hierarchs of 
 
 * Bruch. torn. ii. p, 22. 
 
 t Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall, &c., chap, iii., near 
 the beginning. 
 
 _ X " Praeclarum autem nescio quid adepti sunt (Epieurei,) quod 
 didicerunt, se, cum tempus mortis venisset, totos esse perituros, 
 quod ut ita sit (nihil enim pugno) quid habet ista res aut Ijetabile! 
 aut gloriosum ?"— C'/c. Tusc. Qucest. 1. i. 21. 
 
ROME. 
 
 33 
 
 the passions had beguiled her, her tottering steps still 
 led her to the confines of that eternity from which no 
 seduction or violence could divorce her heart. Hope, 
 in her bereavement, still lingered among the sepul- 
 chres ; and, in tomb and pyramid, built up temples to 
 expectation. Casting down that form, still divinely 
 beautiful in its abandonment, she strove to exhaust the 
 anguish of her spirit by inscribing epitaphs and melan- 
 choly emblems upon marble and plates of brass. She 
 went to the gate of the grave and listened— but no 
 echo of tidings came from the dark shore beyond. Of 
 all the voyagers there returned not one. Hope un- 
 barred the gates, gazed full into the charnel house, 
 and, recoiling with a wild shriek, broke away in frantic 
 paroxysms of despair. And, even still, it was the bur- 
 den of her incoherent canticles, in which she one time 
 exulted, at another poured out her wailings, over her 
 disappointment, that " No one returneth from the 
 dead !" Yet it was in the vehemence of her despera- 
 tion that the venerable pilgrim discerned the over- 
 tures of her cure. It was the object of his own 
 mission to preach to her, and give her the tangible 
 guarantees, which neither Plato nor any of the phi- 
 losophers or sages of Greece had been able to give, 
 that, " One who had passed through the gate of 
 death had returned to his brethren, with tidings the 
 most ineffable and peremptory, that there awaited 
 them beyond the grave, not an elysium such as the 
 poets sung, or the mysteries represented, but such a 
 heaven as neither eye hath seen, ear heard, nor hath 
 it entered into the heart of man to picture." 
 
 D 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " In their dress, tlieir table, their houses, and their furniture, the 
 favourites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, 
 of elegance, and of splendour, whatever could soothe their pride, 
 or gratify their sensuality." — Gibbon's Hist, of the Dec. and Fall 
 of the Roman Empire, ch. ii. p. 64. 
 
 " Quid inter pueros et nos interest ? Nisi quod nos circa tabulas, 
 et statuas insanimus, carius inepti ? illos reperti in littore cal- 
 culi leves, et aliquid habentes varietatis delectant; nos ingen- 
 tium maculse columnarum, sive ex ^gyptiis arenis, sive ex 
 Africse solitudinibus advectse, porticum aliquem, vel capacem 
 populi coenationem ferunt. Miramur parietes tenui marmore 
 indutos, cum sciamus quale sit quod absconditur ; oculis nostris 
 imponimus. Et cum auro tecta perfundimus, quid aliud quam 
 mendacio gaudemus ?" — Seneca, Ep. xcvi. 
 
 Absorbed in thought upon these occurrences, he 
 turned aside from the great Appian thoroughfare, 
 close to the tombs of the Horatii, and crossed the 
 "Via Latina," in order to reach the Asinarian gate, 
 which was comparatively unfrequented. 
 
 Immediately within the walls, to the left, there stood 
 a palace upon that gentle eminence called " Coeli 
 Montana," of extent and aspect so imposing that it 
 might have been mistaken for the abode of Caesar ; 
 yet, it was to this edifice the lowly wayfarer directed 
 his steps, without a moment's hesitation, for it was 
 the first he met. The gates of bronze were flung wide 
 open, and looked as burnished and stately as the portals 
 of Olympus. The pilgrim ascended the marble flight 
 which led to the platform in front of the portico, en- 
 tered the vestibule meekly, but still with the unhesi- 
 tating tread of one who is conscious that his errand 
 deserves a welcome ; nor was he barred of entrance 
 by the " ostiarii," or porters, who lounged about, nor 
 
ROME. 
 
 35 
 
 did he pause himself until he came to the first " atrium" 
 or grand reception hall.^ 
 
 A hundred columns of jasper sustained its roof — 
 a dome covered with lamina, or valves of gold inlaid 
 with diamonds, and enamelled paintings, in the most 
 exquisite manner of the Greeks. The frieze, rivalling 
 that of the Parthenon in beauty, represented a triumph 
 during the Marsic war. The wainscot round the walls 
 — consisting of rare and beauteous marbles, the undu- 
 lated Thasian, or Carystian, the vermiculated Phry- 
 gian, spotted with the blood of Atys — was trimmed 
 with ivory and decorated with beautiful medallions 
 and arabesques. In arcades behind the peristyle, 
 were ranged, in chronological order, and in their 
 official costumes, the images of consuls, ediles, tri- 
 bunes of the people, censors — the long line of states- 
 men, patriots, and great captains, who had shed lustre 
 on a house renowned, even in Rome, for its ancestral 
 laurels. The tablinum was hung with portraits, some 
 of them as old as the times of Fabius Pictor. For the 
 most part, the images were enshrined in costly taber- 
 nacles overshadowed with trophies, and the lamps of 
 purest gold that burned before them were tended as 
 religiously as the fire of Vesta. In the centre of the 
 hall, which was of a circular form, there was an altar 
 to Jupiter Hospitalis, with no canopy above it but the 
 heavens, expanding over the orifice in the dome like 
 an awning of transparent azure ; and from this there 
 descended a flood of splendour that inundated the 
 entire atrium — tinging its furniture and ornaments 
 with the radiance of enchantment, 
 
 * A vestibule, a lofty atrium, with an ample peristyle, or portico 
 and ambulatories ; as well as libraries, pinacothoecas, and basilicas, 
 are among the requisites of a patrician palace specified by Vitruvius. 
 Strangers did not uninvited go into the (cubicula) chambers, triclinia, 
 baths, or other apartments appropriated to the private and particular 
 uses of the master of the house and his family ; but any who had 
 business to transact might enter the vestibulum, cavsedium, or peri- 
 style. — Gell's Pompeiana, vol. i. p. 148. The ostiarius was usually a 
 chained slave with dogs, the latter were sometimes merely represented 
 in gold and silver. Ibid. vol. u. ]). 182. ^ 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 ROME. 
 
 The pilgrims continued to advance through gal- 
 leries, saloons, and suites of stately apartments without 
 end — a labyrinth of ever-increasing splendour, but 
 they paused not to gaze or wonder at the strange 
 magnificence. The entire palace was lighted up and 
 decorated for some grand festivity, as if for the recep- 
 tion of a bride. Yet, there was no one to be seen, 
 save now and then a slave, gliding, like a melancholy 
 vision, over the noiseless pavement, to tend the lamps 
 or scatter perfumes and sweet-scented leaves. The 
 song of one handmaid, as she adjusted a lily in a gar- 
 land, startled the venerable pilgrim as if it had been a 
 parable : 
 
 " Thou, too, for thy bloom art cherish 'd ; 
 But when that bloom hath perish'd, 
 Thou, too, shalt be flung away." 
 
 At last, the voluptuous swell of music came from a 
 distance upon the ear ; and, directed by the sound, 
 the pilgrims came to the interior recesses of the pa- 
 lace, where lay the " trichnium" or hall of feast. 
 
 It was a sumptuous hall, oblong in form, and di- 
 vided, as to style of decoration and arrangement, into 
 two unequal parts. The greater division was occupied 
 by the guests, disposed upon couches, on that side 
 only of the tables next the colonnades, so that the 
 various attendants and ministers of the feast were free 
 to move about on the centre space, extending from 
 the cross table at the head, between the two lateral 
 ones, down to the second or lesser division of the hall, 
 occupied by the orchestra and the stage for jugglers, 
 dancers, and pantomimes, who exhibited during the 
 intervals of the long protracted banquet. Taste the 
 most refined directing the arts, then in the meridian 
 of perfection, and ministered to by unbounded opu- 
 lence, had exhausted every resource upon this sanc- 
 tuary of indulgence. The ceihngs that beamed with 
 the effulgence of a golden firmament, glittering with 
 starlike gems, were so contrived as to vary in aspect 
 with the successive courses, and from them showers, 
 
ROME. 
 
 37 
 
 as it were, of the most exhilarating and aromatic 
 dews were made to distil upon the languishing volup- 
 tuaries. The hangings were of Tyrian purple. Flow- 
 ers, in festoons, were suspended from the arcades 
 and niches, where stood Apollo, the Muses, Venus, 
 Psyche, the Graces, and the quiver-armed god. Endless, 
 in short, was the variety of scenes and emblems that 
 had been conceived by poetic fancy to revel in that 
 temple of delights; and triumphant art, as with a 
 wand, had given them the very air and breath of life. 
 
 The mosaic pavement, figured with the most gro- 
 tesque devices, was scattered over with the soft powder 
 of odorous wood, damped with saffron, vermiUon, and 
 other brilliant dyes. It glittered with filings of gold 
 and the dust of the sparkling stone. The board of 
 the feast, made of citron wood from the furthest con- 
 fines of Mauritania, was supported on feet of ivory, 
 and covered with a leaf or plateau of silver elegantly 
 enchased. The couches, each of which accommo- 
 dated three, were made of bronze overlaid with silver, 
 gold, and tortoiseshell ; the mattresses were of Gallic 
 wool, dyed purple ; the pillows and cushions of the 
 softest down were covered with the priceless em^broi- 
 dery of Babylon.* 
 
 Abandoned to every effeminacy as they lolled upon 
 these beds like so many deities on sun-ht clouds, the 
 lordly voluptuaries were regaled with every dainty of 
 air, earth, and ocean, while nymphhke and obsequious 
 forms were stationed with fans and vases of perfume, 
 or moved round the couches to sounds of soft melody 
 with goblets of racy wine. Others burned incense, or 
 placed fresh viands and flowers on the altars of the 
 
 * Scarcely Exeter Hall, or the Worcester Music Meeting, could 
 produce a band of instruments more various, or with harder names, 
 than occur in the list of a full orchestra given by Atheneeus, (1. xiv. 
 p. 654.) Twenty kinds of flutes, the lyre, the magadis, the barba- 
 ton, the nobla, the pectis, the clepsiombos, the skindapsus, the 
 pariambis, the psaltery, and the euneachordon : they played on all 
 these like firstrate performers — efnreipms exovai kol t^xvi-kcos." 
 
38 
 
 ROME. 
 
 household deities, or fed with fragrant oil the lamps 
 and candelabra that cast a mellow splendour over the 
 entire scene.* 
 
 The strains of enchanting music which had guided 
 the pilgrims from a distance, seemed to faint away and 
 die in swanlike agonies, and all was still and breath- 
 less, as in a dream, when that venerable stranger and 
 his disciple appeared upon the threshold of that hall 
 of pleasure. Their eyes were downcast — and it was 
 well — for ill would they have brooked to look upon 
 mysteries of wantonness and unshadowed sin. The 
 apostle lifted his hand as if in act to bless, saying, 
 " Peace to this house!" — "And to all who dwell 
 within it," responded his disciple. 
 
 Like the summer- sea when the tornado breathes 
 upon it, the lord of the feast sprang up. He shook 
 his hands, he shrieked in transports of fury at the 
 messengers who had come with a great blessing to his 
 house ; and they seized them and they cast them forth. 
 
 " O my divine Master! it is just !" said the 
 venerable man, as he was lifted by his disciple from 
 where they had left him for dead ; "it is meet and 
 congruous, for thou, also, didst come to thy own, 
 and thy own received thee not, but disowned and re- 
 jected thee with ignominious injuries. Why, there- 
 fore, should not thy unworthy vicegerent, on entering 
 his own city, for the first time, be treated like thee 
 with insult ? But suffer not, O Lord, that our first 
 benediction in this predestinated see and metropolis 
 of thy kingdom, shall prove abortive ! Yes, they 
 have rejected thy peace," he continued, after a mo- 
 ment's ecstasy, as he gazed upon the palace of Late- 
 
 * " Collocari jussit homiuem in aureo lecto, strato pulcherime 
 textili stragulo, magnificis operibus picto ; abacosque complures 
 ornavit argento, auroque coelato. Turn ad mensam eximia forma 
 pueros delectos jussit consistere, eosque nutum ejus intuentis dili- 
 genter rainistrare. Aderant unguenta, coronse, incendebantur odores ; 
 mensse conquisitissimis epulis exstruebantur. Fortunatus sibi 
 Damocles videbatur," &c. — Cic. Tusc. Qucest. 1. v. 21. 
 
ROME. 
 
 39 
 
 ranus, (for Platius Lateranus was the lord of the 
 palace and the feast,) " and, therefore, that proud 
 pile shall fall ; but, upon its ruins shall rise the mo- 
 ther and the queen of a regenerated world 
 
 St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, " shook the 
 dust from his feet," and, with his meek disciple and 
 amanuensis, St. Mark, pursued his way rejoicing, f 
 
 * " Proximum necem Plautii Laterani, consulis designati, Nero 
 adjungit, adeo propere, ut non complecti liberos, non illud breve 
 mortis arbitrium permitteret." — C. Tacit. Annul. 1. xv. cap. 60. 
 It was thus the Lateran palace became the property of the emperors. 
 It was given by Constantine the Great to Pope S. Sylvester, with 
 other rich possessions in Rome and Italy, as we shall see here- 
 after. 
 
 •f Even at the risk of anticipating, it may be better to state, at 
 once, a few of the Protestant authorities for the fact of St. Peter's 
 having preached the gospel in Rome, and there fixed his see. 
 
 First, Dr. Pearson, bishop of Chester, in his " Dissertationes de 
 Serie et Successione primor. Romas Episcoporum," institutes the 
 following proposition, (chap, vii.) " That St. Peter was at Rome is 
 proved by Ignatius, (disciple of St. John,) from Papias, (another 
 disciple of the Apostles,) from S. Dionysius of Corinth, (who might 
 have seen St. John,) from St. Irenseus, (disciple of St. Polycarp, dis- 
 ciple of St. John,) from Caius, a Roman priest, who flourished in the 
 first half of the second century, from Clement of Alexandria, 
 (Origen's preceptor,) from Tertullian, (who wrote his Apology before 
 the year 200,) from Origen, Cyprian, Lactantius, Eusebius, Athan- 
 asius, Epiphanius, Julian the Apostate, Augustin, Palladius," &c. 
 '* Wherefore, it is wonderful, — mirum itaque, — that there could be 
 found any to deny that Peter ever was at Rome." He then pro- 
 ceeds with great acumen to discuss the authorities at length, and 
 fortifies the mass of historical evidence by a variety of arguments so 
 cogent as to make it plain, that nothing but the violence of polemics, 
 in the sixteenth century, could have driven persons having any pre- 
 tensions to learning to question this fact. — " Duobus tamen his 
 posterioribus sjecuHs non defuerunt viri docti, qui cum viderent 
 Pontificias potestatis assertores hac successione maxime gloriari, 
 primo de ipsa successione dubitarunt," &c. 
 
 Secondly, Samuel Basnage, in his " Annales Politico Ecclesi- 
 astici," torn. i. p. 728, says, " There never was a tradition sustained 
 by a greater number of witnesses, than that which states St. Peter 
 to have preached at Rome ; so that it is not possible to deny it." — ■ 
 " Neque unquam traditio fuit quae majori testium numero cingatur; 
 ut de Petri in urbem adventu dubitari non possit." Having, then, 
 like Dr. Pearson, adduced the historical proofs, and a number of 
 powerful arguments, he shows how easy it is to answer the objec- 
 tions against the fact, which are all of a negative description. — ■ 
 
40 
 
 ROME. 
 
 " Unum nobis est argumentum ;" he concludes, fama constans, 
 in quo etiara fundamento collocatur quae per animos pervasit, de 
 Petri in urbem et adventu, et morte, immotu explorataque veterum 
 sentejitia." 
 
 Hence, as the circumstances of St. Peter's arrival, labours, and 
 death in Rome will be found further on, the subject may be dis- 
 missed for the present, with the observation of the erudite German 
 evangelical, Neander, — " It is hypercritical to call in question the 
 tradition preserved by the harmonious testimony of ecclesiastical 
 antiquity, that St. Peter was at Rome."— Hist, of the Ch. Rel. and 
 Church, 8fc., vol. i. of Rose's Transl. The statement of Eusebius, 
 as to the date of *S'^. Peter's arrival in the city, is followed, for reasons 
 to be stated hereafter; the description of St. Peter's personal 
 appearance is partly from Eusebius and partly from documents given 
 in the Acta Sanctor. 29° Junii. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Affertur etiam de Sileno fabella quaedam ; qui cum a Mida captus 
 esset, hoc ei muneris pro sua missione didisse scribitur : docuisse 
 regem, — non nasci homini longe optimum esse ; proxiraum 
 autem, quam primum mori." — Cicero. Tusc. Qucest. I. 48. 
 
 " The happiest lot of man is not to be, 
 
 And next in bliss is he who, soon as born. 
 From this vain world and all its sorrows free. 
 
 Shall whence he came with speediest foot return." 
 
 Sophocles, Chorus in CEdipus Colonos. 
 
 Thrasea Petus. — " Whom the gods love die young, 
 ServiUus; for instance, who has not heard of Tro- 
 phonius and Agamedes, who built Apollo's temple at 
 Delphi ? Prostrate before the shrine they besought 
 the god ; not, indeed, for any trifling recompense, nor 
 yet for anything definite, but, in general terms, for the 
 best blessing that could be conferred on mortals. To 
 whom Apollo promised, that the object of their prayer 
 should be granted them, on the morning of the third 
 day from thence — when it dawned, both were found 
 dead."* 
 
 Luc AN. — " Again ; there were the two sons of 
 Argias, — Cleobis and Biton. The story is well known. 
 On a great festival, their father set out in the lofty 
 chariot in which it was his privilege, as a priest, to 
 be drawn when going to sacrifice ; between the town 
 and the temple, while yet a good distance from the 
 latter, the oxen stopped, and refused to go any further. 
 It was then that the two youths, above-mentioned, 
 stripped off their garments, and having anointed their 
 bodies with oil, yoked themselves to the chariot, and 
 
 * The substance of this conversation is taken from the first book 
 of the ** Tusculan Questions." 
 
42 
 
 ROME. 
 
 SO drew Argias, their father, to the temple. When 
 arrived, he is said to have implored the goddess to 
 grant his sons, in requital of their piety, the greatest 
 blessing in her gift. After feasting sumptuously with 
 their mother, they went to sleep, and were found dead 
 in the morning." 
 
 Seneca. — " Besides, Annseus, what signifies the 
 longest Ufe ? What is infancy to-day is youthhood to- 
 morrow, and, in the career of existence, old age, with 
 swift and silent stride, pursues, and has overtaken us 
 before we dream that he is near. From the waters of 
 the Hypanis, which flow from Europe into Pontus, 
 we learn from Aristotle, that little insects are gene- 
 rated which live but a day. Now one of these that 
 perishes, say at the eighth hour, may be said to have 
 died advanced in age ; aud that one sees decrepitude 
 which survives till sunset. Compare with eternity 
 the most protracted life, and does not our span of 
 being seem brief as that of the ephemeral insect ?" 
 
 Caius Cassius. — " O Theramenes, how it delights 
 one to remember thee ! for though tears may be shed 
 over the page where it is recorded, there is nothing in 
 the death of the magnanimous to be deplored. Like 
 a thirsting reaper, he quaffed the hemlock sent him by 
 the ' Thirty Tyrants,' and dashing the dregs upon the 
 floor of his dungeon, so that they sounded; ' there,' 
 said he, ' is to Critias, the beautiful,' alluding, in 
 irony, to the ugliness of that worst tyrant of the 
 Thirty. See, how he made hght of death ! And not 
 long after Socrates, in the self-same dungeon, received 
 his death-potion ; and what was his speech on hearing 
 his sentence ? — ' Great is my good fortune, judges, in 
 being condemned to die, for either of two things is 
 inevitable. Either death is the termination of all 
 consciousness ; or it is, merely, a migration to some 
 other state of being ; if an eternal sleep — albeit with- 
 out even a dreamy consciousness — still, ye gods ! 
 what a blessing is it to die ! or, how many are the 
 days of this conscious state, that are preferable to 
 that obhvious night? But if, on the other hand, 
 
ROME. 
 
 43 
 
 what they say be true, (' Sin vera sunt quae dicuntur,') 
 and death be, indeed, the portal of another world ; 
 how fortunate to carry one's own appeal from an un- 
 just sentence before a tribunal, where those who bear 
 the name of judges do not disgrace it ? To you, 
 sirs, a voyage of discovery such as this may seem but 
 little to be envied. But is it not worth while to make 
 some venture even for the chance of an interview with 
 Orpheus, Musseus, Homer ? It is not once, but many 
 times, if that were possible, I would be content to 
 die, were death to bring me to such society." 
 
 Petus. — " Life ! alas, what is it but a loan held at 
 the caprice of nature ?" 
 
 Cassius. — " It is even worse, Thrasea ! It is a 
 despotism, fawned on by the base, while the magna- 
 nimous ever rejoice, as Cato did, in an honourable 
 pretence to cast it off. But if, at all times, these 
 aphorisms of the schools be true, what must be their 
 tenfold cogency at a crisis, when Rome lies crouching 
 at the feet of Agrippina ? Such accidental circum- 
 stances may attach to life, as to make it tolerable ; 
 or as even to invest it with, at least, the verisimihtude 
 of happiness. Ye gods ! to see the mighty spirits 
 C illustres animas'*) who built up this eternal city 
 and exalted the Roman name above the stars ! But 
 there are no Romans now ! The last of them fell at 
 Philippi. Like their own eagle, they were fond of 
 stormy liberty. It rocked their repose and sustained 
 the flights of their ambition. If caged in sunny calm 
 and servile security, they would burst the chain— or 
 perish ! O Timotheus ! thrice happy, yet lamented 
 boy ; a premature, and, therefore, an enviable death 
 has rescued thee, not only from the ordinary ills of 
 hfe, but from the inexpiable disgrace of acquiescing in 
 the degradation of thy country." 
 
 Such was the tenor of the reflections by which his 
 friends endeavoured to beguile the grief of Servilius 
 Pudens, a venerable senator, from whose embrace a 
 
 * Virgil. Mw. iv. 
 
44 
 
 ROME. 
 
 son and heir — a youth of extraordinary promise — had 
 been torn away by death, the very day he had received 
 the " manly toga." The obsequies celebrated from 
 the first with patrician pomp, and with the prodigality 
 of a distracted fondness, had been resumed with 
 increasing ardour, as night, for the third time, ex- 
 panded her wings above the house of mourning ; and 
 like the sounds of a distant ocean, one time swelhng, 
 another time subsiding, to return anon with a hoarser 
 and louder roar, — the reverberations of the mirth and 
 Saturnahan revelry that reigned in every triclinium, 
 saloon, and atrium of the immense palace — were au- 
 dible at intervals even in the remote apartment where 
 the afflicted Pudens had retired with the most illus- 
 trious of his kindred and acquaintance. 
 
 Among the latter were nearly all the most dis- 
 tinguished characters of the age; for Pudens, hke 
 Pomponius Atticus, had the singular good fortune to 
 be courted and esteemed by the best and greatest of 
 all parties. Of a stoical and majestic bearing — en- 
 hanced perhaps by the solemnity of the occasion — at 
 the first glance, or to the inexperienced, they looked 
 like " the httle senate" collected round Cato at Utica 
 to solemnize the obsequies of freedom. But a steadier 
 and more searching gaze, and almost every trait of 
 resemblance vanished. *' Magis esse quam videri," 
 was the maxim in Cato's day ; but morals had been 
 inverted, and "not to be, but seem," was now the 
 reading. It was not that the stuff", or substance of 
 the men was of a baser quahty. As it was, they were 
 extraordinary men ; they would have been great men, 
 if cast in the mould of other ages ; but it was their 
 destiny to have fallen upon times, when a lurid des- 
 potism had interdicted every field of honourable enter- 
 prise and emulation, and constrained even such as 
 were by nature inchned to nobihty of thought and 
 action to assume the disguise of worthlessness and 
 depravity. 
 
 " I am not unconscious," says the annalist of this 
 dark epoch, 'Uhat most of what I have related al- 
 
ROME. 
 
 45 
 
 ready, and of what yet remains untold, will appear too 
 despicable and obscure to be emblazoned on the his- 
 toric page. But let no one think of contrasting the 
 annals which we compose with those which record 
 the achievements of the Roman people in the days of 
 their independence. Mighty wars, the conquest of 
 cities, kings vanquished and led in triumph, the rival- 
 ries of haughty consuls and of still prouder tribunes, 
 gigantic struggles between the plebs and the patricians 
 for ascendency, — these were the themes afforded to him 
 whose enviable lot it was to expatiate on the foreign 
 conquests and domestic transactions of a free and 
 mighty commonwealth ; but ignominious is the toil to 
 which we are doomed, who have to creep through the 
 foul and contaminating intrigues of courtezans and 
 eunuchs in order to come at the truth — to consult 
 the archives of the lupanar for the affairs of the Roman 
 people, and weave the tissue of our history from the 
 crimes of execrable despots." 
 
 Under auspices of this description, the only road to 
 preferment, or of escape from ruin, was to ape the 
 villanies of Sejanus, to worship the fantastic atroci- 
 ties of Caligula as if they were so many outbursts of 
 that latent divinity to which he laid claim — to seem 
 edified at the incredible infamies of the ruling gods 
 and goddesses of the Palatine. To be suspected of 
 any leaning to virtue was fatal. Integrity was high 
 treason — an audacious insult to the deified genius of 
 Caesar, whose prerogative it was to outrage every 
 ordinance of reason, and to desecrate whatever nature 
 herself has hallowed as most inviolable sacraments. 
 Neutrality would not do — nothing short of hearty 
 plaudits of the most hideous wickedness. To be only 
 lukewarm in adulation, was to be noted with the dis- 
 affected. 
 
 When the panegyric written by Seneca of his pupil, 
 the young emperor Nero, for having caused his own 
 mother to be murdered, was recited in the senate, ac- 
 clamations burst from all sides of the house, and it 
 was voted by the conscript fathers that the natal day 
 
46 
 
 ROME. 
 
 of the unfortunate Agrippina should be held in eter- 
 nal infamy ; that thanksgivings should be made to the 
 immortal gods for having blessed the empire with such 
 a prince as her son, and that beside a golden nnage of 
 Minerva to be placed in the curia, a statue of the ma- 
 tricide should be erected, to indicate that he drew his 
 inspirations, particularly in getting rid of his mother, 
 from the goddess of wisdom herself. 
 
 Upon this, Thrasea Petus, who had usually permit- 
 ted such adulatory proceedings to pass without obser- 
 vation, or with a mere expression of assent, rose up 
 and left the temple ; " thus provoking his own ruin," 
 says Tacitus, " without giving what was expected 
 from him, a word to some who were eager to strike a 
 blow for liberty." 
 
 He knew that his doom impended. While he sat 
 in company with the most illustrious noblemen and 
 ladies of Rome, enjoying the even tide — so delicious 
 in the mellow sunshine of the paviUons where they 
 feasted — it was surmised, from the solemnity of his 
 air, and from certain catches of the conversation in 
 which he was engaged with Demetrius, a Greek philo- 
 sopher, that his thoughts were on the other world. 
 And, true enough, it was not long till the fatal news 
 arrived ; for one of his friends, Domitius Caesihanus, 
 came in great trepidation to apprize him that he was 
 condemned to die. 
 
 Lamentations and tears burst forth on every side ; 
 but Thrasea, unmoved for himself, conjured his friends 
 to retire speedily, lest treasonable sympathies might 
 involve them in his ruin ; and when Arria was pre- 
 paring, after her mother's example, to share the fate 
 of her noble spouse, he commanded her to preserve a 
 life, now more prized by him than ever, as the only 
 safeguard remaining for their child, destined as she 
 was so soon to become an orphan. 
 
 He then proceeded to the portico at the front en- 
 trance of his villa, where the questor found him seem- 
 ingly regardless of his own doom, in the delight with 
 which he learned that his nephew, Helvidius, was to 
 
ROME. 
 
 47 
 
 be only exiled from Italy. After receiving his death- 
 warrant, taking with him Helvidius and Demetrius 
 the Greek, he retired into his own chamber and had 
 the arteries of his arms opened. And, when the blood 
 spouted on the pavement as he held his arms ex- 
 tended, he called to the questor to approach, saying, 
 " Libamus Jovi Liberatori" — " This is to Jove the 
 Liberator." Seeing the officer turn aside, to hide his 
 emotion, he added, — " Nay, look on, good Sir, for 
 thou hast fallen upon days, when it behoveth thee 
 to study how to die with fortitude." 
 
 A fate similar to this was in store for almost every 
 one of the patricians now assembled in the remote 
 triclinium. 
 
 Lucius Anneeus Seneca, then in the meridian of 
 court favour, as tutor to Nero — adopted by the stupid 
 Claudius, to the exclusisn of his own son and rightful 
 heir, Britannicus, through the contrivance of Agrippina 
 — the youthful poet, Lucanus Annaeus, who had the 
 fatal gift of genius ; Herennius, Senecio, Silenus, E,u- 
 bellius Plautus, Subrius Flavinus, with several others 
 then present, fell victims to envy, or suspicion, or 
 wanton barbarity, during the next reign. The only 
 one who escaped a violent end (and it was suspected 
 by many that even he was poisoned)* was Afranias 
 Burrhus, a veteran officer, and a creature of Agrip- 
 pina's, who had prevailed on her idiot uncle and hus- 
 band, the emperor, to appoint him sole prefect of the 
 Prsetorian guards. As to Caius Cassius, the inheritor 
 not only of the name, but of the haughty execration 
 of tyrants, of his celebrated kinsman — impossible that 
 he could escape. His immense property, his fame, or 
 the pristine austerity for which he was remarkable, 
 would alone have sufficed to ruin him. 
 
 The founder of the empire and of the Julian 
 dynasty, had been the foe of the patrician oligarchy 
 even from his youth ; a prime favourite and a friend 
 of the people. The prestige of his genius, even in this 
 
 * C. Tacit. Ann. 1. xiv. 51. 
 
48 
 
 ROME. 
 
 respect, made itself felt by the great grandsons of 
 those whose proud crests he had humbled at Pharsalia. 
 The flower of the nobiHty had been cut down during 
 their long and sanguinary fight, not for freedom, but 
 for their own tyrannous monopoly of power ; and it is 
 remarked by an historian of their order, that after the 
 battle of Actium the giant spirits of the old time 
 appear no more. But dread is ever whispering pre- 
 caution to usurpers. From the Roman people, or rather 
 from the rabble millions, who knew and cared for no 
 country but the Circus — valued no franchise but that 
 of being fed and feasted at the pubhc expense; the 
 crafty Augustus, and his still more crafty successor, 
 knew well that they had nothing to apprehend ; still 
 less from the cringing servility of the middle class, 
 mostly composed of freed men without principle or 
 love of country. Their administration was popular in 
 the provinces ; which, " long oppressed by the minis- 
 ters of the repubUc, had sighed for the government of 
 a single person, who would be the master, not the 
 accomphce, of petty tyrants."* The rich and polite 
 Italians, who had almost universally embraced the 
 philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the charms of 
 ease and tranquiUity, without suffering the pleasing 
 dream to be interrupted by the memory of their old 
 tumultuous freedom. Thus was despotism at leisure 
 to fix its jealous eye upon the senate, the only influence 
 from which it had anything to apprehend, f The great 
 aim of Csesar had been to degrade it ; under the pre- 
 tence of restoring its dignity Augustus contrived to anni- 
 hilate its independence altogether ; and these arts had 
 worked so well, that Tiberius himself was disgusted, 
 or feigned to be so, with the spontaneous servility of 
 the descendants of Cato and the Scipios. Seldom 
 did he dismiss the assembly, not of kings but of syco- 
 phants, without exclaiming, " O homines ad ser- 
 vitutem paratos !" 
 
 * Gibbon's Hist, of Dec. and Fall, ch. iii. p. 71. 
 f Ibid., cb. iii. p. 72. 
 
ROME. 
 
 49 
 
 But it was in vain that the once haughty lords of the 
 Roman world cast themselves down and fawned upon 
 the heel, that, not only trampled on their hearts, but 
 left its hateful track upon the honour of their wives, 
 their daughters, and even of their patrician heirs. 
 Cruel as were the oppressions, and the incessant fears 
 by which they were tormented, while Tiberius abode 
 in the city, or moved from villa to villa in the vicinity, 
 hke a hyena round his lair, they were but trifles 
 compared to their lot, when retiring into volup- 
 tuous soUtudes, the better to indulge his abominable 
 passions, the tyrant abandoned the aristocracy to such 
 minions as Sejanus. So direful was his reign of 
 terror, that all social intercourse, convivial meetings, 
 conversation, and even the interchange of common 
 civilities between the nearest kindred and friends, was 
 interrupted; consternation and reciprocal distrust 
 having so seized on men's souls that the stoutest spoke 
 in whispers, looking round them tremblingly as if the 
 very statues and mosaics could betray them.=^ From 
 wherever the frown of Sejanus fell, all fled, as from a 
 devoted spot ; whomsoever he hinted, or glared at in 
 anger, was shunned and forsaken — as if devoted to the 
 infernal gods. The thoroughfares and the forum 
 were emptied at his approach, and their solitude spoke 
 more emphatically, when from this recess and the 
 other, a few wretches crept back and showed them- 
 selves, through dread of the consequences of having 
 betrayed that they dreaded him—" quidam regredie- 
 bantur, ostendebantque se rursum, id ipsum paventes, 
 quod timuissent."j- No day passed without its bloody 
 tragedy; nor was any moment or place, however 
 sacred, respected by the ministers of blood. The 
 hatchet of the hctor fell upon the brow wreathed to 
 offer sacrifice ; the bow-string interrupted the half- 
 
 * " Congressus, colloquia, notae, ignotseque aures, vitari ; etiam 
 itiuta atque inania, tectum et parietes circumspectabantur." — Tacit. 
 Ann. 1. iv. 69. 
 
 f " V. Q.uem enim diem vacuum pcenei, ubi inter sacra et vota, 
 quo tempore verbis etiam profanis abstineri mos esset, vincla et 
 laqueus inducantur." — Tacit, cap. 70. 
 
 E ' 
 
50 
 
 ROME. 
 
 uttered vows of many a votary ; and thus were the 
 very sanctuaries, where no loud word should be heard, 
 profaned by the cries of both the executioners and 
 those whom they slew or dragged away in chains. 
 
 These sufferings of the aristocracy do not seem to 
 have excited the slightest pity, either on the part of the 
 provincials, with whom they never had cultivated any 
 relations but those of arrogance and rapacity, or on the 
 part of the populace — who inheriting the old grudge 
 and hostility of the plebs against their antagonists in 
 the commonwealth, and rendered pitiless and savage by 
 the cruel sights of the amphitheatre, were ready with 
 clamorous " salves" and acclamations for the blackest 
 criminal, provided he only lavished the pubhc treasures 
 in largesses and shows. There was a rivalry between 
 the greatest cities of the empire, from the borders of 
 Lusitania to Asia Minor, for the privilege of conse- 
 crating temples and rehgious rites to Tiberius, at the 
 time his hands were dripping with patrician blood. 
 Caligula never ceased to be a favourite with the Roman 
 populace ; they continued long after his death to strew 
 flowers on the tomb of Nero. Nor was the bearing of 
 the patricians made less harsh, or their sympathies in 
 any degree awakened towards their dependants and 
 slaves, by their own acquaintance with adversity. 
 
 Even in the best days of the republic, the Romans 
 treated their slaves with excessive arrogance and bar- 
 barity.* Cato the censor, that pink of repubhcans, 
 speculated in droves of war captives — the flower of 
 European bravery — as if they were steers or horses, 
 and never failed to get rid of them when they ceased 
 to be worth foddering. These wretched beings were 
 generally worked in fetters under the incitement of 
 the lash, and at night they were driven into dreary 
 
 * "Servi si prodant, possumus singuli inter plures, tuti inter 
 anxios, postremo, si pereundum sit, non inulti inter nocentes agere. 
 Suspecta majoribus nostris fuere ingenia servorum."— i^rom the 
 Speech of C. Cassius, ap. Tacit. Ann. 1. xiv. 44. 
 
 " We have shown that Cato the Censor treated slaves worse than 
 we are accustomed to treat horses."— Co&. Cyclop. No. 50. Rome, 
 vol. i. p. 239. 
 
ROME. 
 
 51 
 
 caverns, called " ergastula," under ground. There is in 
 the outpourings even of Marcus Tullius Cicero against 
 the slaves, an acerbity and sanctimonious scorn,which 
 no language but his own can adequately express. " We 
 are threatened by the haruspices with the divine 
 anger," he says, " because the pubhc games of circus 
 and arena have been neglected and profaned. At the 
 Megalensian games, so sacred, have you not suffered 
 to be present, among the spectators, slaves ? And if 
 the immortal gods were visibly to descend amongst us 
 to designate and set a mark upon that profanation by 
 which their ire has been enkindled, what could they 
 hght upon more foul and abominable than that the 
 amphitheatre and circus, where the Roman people 
 worship them, should be polluted by the presence of 
 your slaves ? — Quid magis deformatum, inquinatum, 
 perversum, conturbatum dici potest."* 
 
 The Hiiseries of the slaves were multiplied in the 
 same ratio with their numbers. " Our ancestors," 
 said Caius Cassius, one of Pudens' guests, when it was 
 debated in the senate whether all the household slaves 
 of Pedanius Secundus should be put to death, because 
 one out of the four hundred had stabbed his mas- 
 ter, who had denied him the manumission for which 
 he had paid him in hard money, besides violat- 
 ing his betrothed,—" Our ancestors," said Cassius, 
 " never failed to hold in discreet suspicion even 
 such among their slaves as had contracted a sort of 
 kindred and claim to partiahty, by having been born 
 and brought up on the same estates and under the 
 same roofs with themselves. But since we nobles have 
 surrounded ourselves with households, more like 
 nations than famihes, (' nationes in familias habemus,') 
 it has been found impossible, without resorting to 
 terror and coercive severity, to keep down a crew of 
 rascals made up of the most heterogeneous elements, 
 of conflicting habits, languages, and dispositions, either 
 prone to some outlandish superstitions of their own, 
 or without any religion whatsoever. It is objected that, 
 * Oratio de Harusp. Respon. xii. 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 ROME. 
 
 in this indiscriminate execution, females, children, and 
 old men, many who are undoubtedly innocent, will 
 perish. And when a legion is decimated, does not the 
 club fall upon many a hero's head? No, far from 
 being an objection, the fact that with the guilty the 
 innocent are to be involved, only classes this execution 
 in the category of great state expedients, from which 
 some admixture of injustice would seem to be insepar- 
 able."* 
 
 Odious in the extreme must have been the character 
 and temperament of an aristocracy imbued and actu- 
 ated by such feelings, especially when exasperated by 
 pohtical annoyances, and totally estranged from every 
 restraint of conscience. Each young patrician grew 
 up surrounded by the same baseness and provocations 
 to every tyrannous caprice that formed a Caligula 
 and a Nero. Every great house had its Sejanus — his 
 villany the more intense from being exerted in a nar- 
 rower sphere — each had its pimps, its foul intrigues, 
 its sorceries, sanguinary arts of divination, its Caprean 
 mysteries and incestuous revels. Each patrician tyrant 
 dispensed the terror he himself was made to feel 
 abroad, within the precincts of his httle empire ; he 
 had his hctors, not of the axe but the poignard — ever 
 prompt as it was stealthy in execution; and where 
 the stiletto could not reach, he had his functionary to 
 mingle assassination in the enticing cup. No Roman, 
 much less a noble, made a show of himself in the olden 
 time. They left that to slaves or degenerate ahens, 
 and to practise on the stage or the arena was to con- 
 tract the legal stain of infamy ; but, at the time in 
 question, it was fashionable for the young noblesse to 
 superintend the training of their own gladiators, chiefly 
 at Capua and Ravenna, selected on account of their 
 well supplied markets and salubrious air, as the best 
 situation for the " schools." Many of noble lineage 
 
 * Tacit. Ann. 1. iv. 42 and 43. Pliny the elder, Hist. Nat. 
 xxxiii. 10, mentions that one Claudius Isodorus was at his death 
 possessed of 4,116 slaves, notwithstanding that he had lost great 
 numbers in the civil wars. 
 
ROME. 
 
 53 
 
 designedly perpetrated some crime to which the 
 penalty annexed was forfeiture of honour and citizen- 
 ship, in order to be legally qualified to appear as 
 gladiators or pantomimes themselves ; and, dead to 
 the fame of Lucretia and the daughter ofVirginius, the 
 patrician dames resorted to subterfuges and profligacy 
 still more infamous.* 
 
 The effects of these deep-seated disorders had be- 
 come intolerable. It was felt that they were eating 
 into the marrow of society ; and from the second half 
 of the reign of Tiberius nothing was talked of but 
 reform. t All who had any thought or solicitude be- 
 yond the sty of Epicurus, a horse race, or a match 
 of gladiators, beheld with impotent consternation the 
 hourly augmenting ravages of evils that obviously 
 transcended all human remedy, and foreboded ruin 
 not only to the Roman state but to mankind. It was 
 a saying, which Horace had often heard reiterated at 
 the feasts of the ^squilian, that the fall of the re- 
 public and all the consequent calamities that afflicted 
 Italy were to be traced to the decay of religion ; and 
 that the only hope of sustaining the empire was by 
 reviving the institutions of Numa and that religious 
 enthusiasm, which for so many ages had knit the 
 commonwealth into one well-nerved body and made 
 its every effort irresistible, j 
 
 * " Nil erit ulterius, quod nostris moribus addat, 
 Posteritas 
 
 Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit." Juvenal, 
 ■\ So far back as the consulship of C. Sulpicius and D. Haterius, 
 A. u. c. 775, A. D. 22, the jEdiles complained to the senate, the 
 senate to Tiberius, that demoralization and excesses had arisen to 
 such a pitch, that — " Nec mediocribus remediis sisti posse." — Tacit. 
 Ann. 1. iii. 52. 
 
 J " Numatrovando unpopolo ferocissimo e volendolo ridurre nelle 
 obedienze civile con le arte della pace, si volse alia religione, come 
 cosa al tutto necessaria, a voler mantener una civilta, e la ordino in 
 modo che per piii secoli non fu mai tanto timore di Dio quanto in 
 quella republica. II che f'acilito qualunque impresa, che il senato, e 
 quei grandi uomini Romani disegnassero fare." — Discorsi di Machia- 
 velli, sopra la l" deca di Tit. Livio, 1. i. 11. 
 
CHAPTER VIT. 
 
 *' Quam volumus licet, patres conscripti, ipsi nos amemus ; tamen 
 nec numero Hispanos, nec robore Gallos, nee calliditate Poenos, 
 nec artibus Grsecos, nee denique hoc ipso hujus gentis ac terras 
 domestico nativoque sensu, Italos ipsos ac Latinos, sed pietate ac 
 religione, atque hac un^ sapienti^, quod deorum immortalium 
 numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus, omnes gentes nation- 
 esque super avimus." — M. T. Cicer. Oratio de Harusp. Resp. ix. 
 
 '* Considerato adunque tutto, conchiudo che la religione introdotta 
 da Numa fu tra la prime cogione della felicita di quella citta — E 
 come 1 'osservanza del colto divino e cagione della grandezza della 
 republica ; cosi il dispregio di quella e cogione della rovina 
 dessa." — Discorsi di Machiavelli, sopra laV deca di Tit. Livio, 
 1. i. 11. 
 
 The unanimity with which the first place is awarded 
 to reUgion among the causes that contributed to the 
 aggrandizement of Rome will not appear surprising, 
 if it be recollected that the system of Numa and his 
 successors was most admirably devised, — first of all, 
 to foster profound superstition among the people ; se- 
 condly, to make Rome, or a certain "ideal" of coun- 
 try, the grand object of that superstition ; and, finally, 
 if it be recollected, that the main springs of all this 
 blind enthusiasm were confided to the hands, not of 
 any sacerdotal caste, but to such individuals of the 
 aristocracy as happened for the time being to be in- 
 vested with the management of the state. " The 
 which," according to one of the keenest and most 
 profound thinkers upon politics, " facilitated whatever 
 enterprise the senate or the great generals determined 
 to set on foot." 
 
 That every thing in public and private life, domestic 
 and rural economy, the months and seasons of the 
 year, the days of the week, springs, rivers, groves, 
 and mountains, were under the immediate tutelage of 
 peculiar deities, was sedulously impressed upon the 
 
ROME. 
 
 55 
 
 plebeian herd; there were town gods, and country 
 gods, household gods, gods for gardens, for bounda- 
 ries, gods for every place and proceeding, even the 
 most sordid, iniquitous, and absurd in the flight 
 of birds, in the sound of thunder, in hghtning, in 
 dreams, in making a false step, in meeting this body 
 or that ; in short, at every hand's turn and whimsical 
 incident, they were taught to recognise some revela- 
 tion of the divine will. To such a festering state of 
 sensibility was the victim of superstition brought that 
 his spirit never enjoyed repose, and was at all times 
 susceptible of whatever impressions best served the 
 purposes of those who had the management of the 
 auspices. " This supernatural terrorism," says Cicero, 
 " urges and bears down upon us, and to whatever side 
 we turn still pursues us — whether the voice of a sooth- 
 sayer or some sound considered ominous strike the 
 ear ; whether the entrails of a victim palpitate, or a 
 bird directs its flight in this or the other way ; whether 
 a Caldee or an Etruscan meet you ; if it lighten, if 
 it thunder ; if a blight fall on any thing ; if any thing 
 is born or occur in any respect out of the common 
 run. Sleep itself," he says, "which ought to be the 
 solace of care-worn nature, becomes the most teeming 
 source of anxiety and apprehension."! 
 
 It was by imagination temples were built in Greece ; 
 in Rome they were erected by state pohcy. Every 
 thing in Roman polytheism was poHtical. Not only 
 their pubhc worship and every thing directly or indi- 
 rectly connected with it, but the gods themselves were 
 made amenable to the decrees of the senate and the 
 people; the number, relative honours, priesthoods, 
 ceremonies, whether they should or should not be 
 gods, was regulated by legislative enactments. All 
 the institutions of Numa and Coruncanius had for 
 
 * "Magnorum fluviumve (says Seneca,) Capita reveremur ; siibita 
 et ex abdito vasti amnis eruptio aras habet ; coluntur aquarum ca- 
 lentium fontes, et stagna qusedam,vel opac'itas,vel immensa altitude 
 sacravit."— Ep. 41. Vid. Suet, in sub Aug. Also Pliny's Descrip- 
 tion of the Temple of Clitumn, b. viii. sec. 8. 
 
 f De Divinat. 1. ii. 72. 
 
56 
 
 ROME. 
 
 object, first to concentrate the heterogeneous super- 
 stitions that swayed the plebeian mind into an all- 
 absorbing interest, called patriotism, or devotedness 
 to country, of which Rome was the visible imper- 
 sonation ; and, then, to make certain elected members 
 of the patrician order the oracles of the gods, as to 
 how Rome was to be served. " And as a sensual wor- 
 ship of nature," says Schlegel, " eminently character- 
 ised the poetical religion of the Greeks — as the abusive 
 rites of magic were peculiar to the false mysteries of 
 Egypt — so this third and greatest aberration of pagan- 
 ism, — pohtical idolatry in its most frightful shape, — 
 formed the distinguishing character and leading prin- 
 ciple of the Roman state, from the earliest to the latest 
 period of its history."* 
 
 From the earhest ages, Rome was filled with temples 
 and altars ; the common object of them all was to 
 remind the people of the favours and marks of predi- 
 lection manifested for their city by the supernatural 
 powers. The public worship, besides the immolation 
 of victims, was in great part made up of sanguinary 
 shows and of athletic sports and games calculated to 
 foster qualities that were of the last moment in a 
 military state. Fortune, under a variety of designa- 
 tions, had many temples. The yearly round of fes- 
 tivals commemorated and as it were dramatized 
 whatever was most striking in the origin and elder 
 vicissitudes of the country. The Lucaries represented 
 the opening of the asylum by Romulus, the Remures 
 his remorse for the murder of his brother ; his apo- 
 theosis, or transformation into a god, was celebrated 
 by games and slaughter of victims on the Quirinal. 
 The SaUan dances were in honour of the bucklers let 
 fall from heaven by Mars in Numa's time for the de- 
 fence of the Romans. The consular, or great games, 
 kept alive the happy stratagem by which the founder 
 of Rome secured the alliance of the Sabine virgins. 
 Festivals of a merely astronomic import in their 
 
 * Schlegel, Philosophy of History, vol. i. p. 348. Robertson's 
 Transl. 
 
ROME. 
 
 57 
 
 Etruscan origin became vehicles of history, and con- 
 sequently of popular force, in their Roman adaptation. 
 Thus the Car mentals, merely emblematic of the new 
 year in Etruria, to the Roman brought back the ima- 
 gery of that pastoral age, when the shepherd king 
 Evander reigned in his hut upon the Palatine, four 
 centuries before the foundation of the city, seven 
 before the age of liberty, and eight before that of con- 
 quest. The Lupercalia renewed the boyish sports 
 and youthful irregularities of the twin nurslings of 
 the wolf. Twice every year the destruction of regal 
 tyranny was vividly represented ; when on each occa- 
 sion the precipitate flight of the king of the sacrifices 
 called forth such shouts as if Tarquin were again ac- 
 tually chased from the throne. To make the ceremony 
 more impressive this king of the sacrifices was the 
 only one of the priests disqualified from holding a 
 civil or military office. Three holidays were devoted 
 to the worship of Jupiter Latiaris, in memory of the 
 confederation of all the Latin states under the head- 
 ship of Rome ; in other words, to eternize the winning 
 of supremacy over banded Italy, which opened to 
 Rome the conquest of the world. The ancient fes- 
 tival of plenty was transferred to Anna Perenna, the 
 old woman who brought provisions to the Plebs when 
 they retired to the " Mons Sacer." Thus was every 
 thing contrived to make the Roman a creature of 
 enthusiasm, and to foster and inflame in his soul the 
 worship of his country. Every page of Roman his- 
 tory affords a proof of the success with which this 
 policy was crowned. Whether ruin threatened from 
 intestine strife, or a foreign enemy, it is still to the 
 religion, the piety, of the Roman people the appeal is 
 made in every crisis, and never without securing the 
 sacrifice required. 
 
 When the wing commanded by Decius was giving 
 way under the gallant onslaught of the Latins, from 
 the side of Mount Vesuvius, — " Now is the hour for 
 the aid of the gods !" he cried. '* Up, high priest of 
 the Roman people, and dictate the formula in which I 
 
58 
 
 ROME. 
 
 may devote myself to the infernal gods for the legions." 
 Standing upon a falchion, with his head shrouded in 
 his toga and his right hand raised beneath it up to his 
 chin, he pronounced the formula prescibed by the 
 pontifex : — " Janus, Jupiter, Mars our progenitor, 
 Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, Dii Novensiles, gods of our 
 fathers, gods who rule alike over us and over our 
 enemies, gods of the infernal shades, to you I pray ; 
 you I beseech to bless with force and victory the 
 Roman people, to send on their enemies dread, horror, 
 and death. In behalf of the Roman people and Qui- 
 rites, the army, legions, allies of the Roman people 
 and Quirites, thus do I devote the legions and allies 
 of the enemies with myself to the infernal gods and 
 to mother earth !" From that moment, mounted on 
 his horse, he seemed to both armies the spirit of des- 
 truction rushing down upon the Latin ranks. Terror 
 went before him. His troops were seized with the 
 consul's inspiration ; and scarce a remnant of the Latin 
 chivalry escaped their swords.* It was thus in the 
 power of a general to render his legions irresistible ; 
 for, according to Livy, " it was lawful for the consul, 
 the dictator, or the praetor, when he contemplated 
 devoting the hostile force to the deities of destruction , 
 not only to offer up himself to the infernal gods, but 
 also any others whom he chose of the legions ;" and 
 we learn from Cicero that the instances were frequent 
 in which whole armies thus devoted themselves to 
 death, t 
 
 It was not such great acts of devotion alone that 
 called for the interference of religion ; to be legal 
 there was scarcely any public proceeding or private 
 transaction that did not in some way or other require 
 the intervention of the pontiffs. They judged in all 
 causes relating to sacred things, to adoptions, to wills, 
 they had the care of regulating the year and the public 
 calendar, called fasti kalendares, and of designating 
 
 * L. X. 5. See also Cab. Cyclop. No. 50, Rome, vol, i. p. 73. 
 
 t " Quoties non modo ductores nostri, sed universi etium exercitus 
 ad non dubiam mortam concurrerunt ?" — Tusc. Qucest. 1. i. 37. 
 
ROME. 
 
 59 
 
 what days were fasti and what nefasti, by which means 
 they could at pleasure suspend all public business ; in 
 cases where there was no written law, they prescribed 
 what regulations they thought proper. Another im- 
 mense source of influence was derived from the neces- 
 sity of their concurrence for assembling the commitia, 
 or holding popular meetings, and their right to preside 
 over them. Hence the comitia were said to be held, 
 or what was decreed in them to be done " apud ponti- 
 fices," or " pro collegio pontificum," in presence of 
 the pontiffs. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, that 
 they were not subject to any power in the state, nor 
 responsible for their conduct either to the senate or 
 people. Over this supreme college, originally com- 
 posed of four, then of eight, then of fifteen, and, 
 under the empire, of an indefinite number of mem- 
 bers, there presided the Pontifex Maximus, or supreme 
 pontiff, who held uncontrolled jurisdiction, with the 
 power of life and death, over all the other sacerdotal 
 colleges — over the Augurs, the Haruspices, the Sibyl- 
 line Interpreters, called Quindecim viri sacris faci- 
 undis," over the Epulones, over the Fratres arvales, 
 over the Curiones, over the Fecials, over the priests 
 of Tatius, of Romulus, of Hercules, of Pan, of Mars ; 
 over the Corybantes or priests of Cybele, over the 
 Vestals, the Rex Sacrorum, or King of the sacrifices, 
 and even over the Flamen Dialis, or priest of Jupiter. 
 This supreme pontiff was for life ; he regulated every 
 thing in religion without appeal ; he could hinder 
 any priest from leaving the city, although invested 
 with consular authority ; nothing, therefore, can be 
 more evident than that in the Pontifex Maximus and 
 his college resided the supreme power. Now from 
 this dignity and from the sacerdotal colleges generally 
 the Roman people were jealously excluded. Up to 
 the year of the city 454, the priesthood was entirely 
 monopolised by the patricians ; and when this, like 
 the other institutions, was at last forced open, only 
 such of the plebeian order as had been raised to the 
 rank of senators were admitted. 
 
60 
 
 ROME. 
 
 But the main spring by which the patricians con- 
 trived to work the machinery of superstition, so ver- 
 satile and all-powerful, was the auspices.* " Nil 
 inauspicato" was the first principle of the Roman 
 constitution. Nothing of importance, either in peace 
 or war, could be undertaken legally but by the dictate 
 of those who interpreted the omens and the Sibylline 
 books ; no eminence of desert or office could shield 
 the functionary from impeachment, who had the im- 
 piety to act against them. These tokens of futurity 
 were derived chiefly from five sources : from appear- 
 ances in the heavens ; from the singing or flight of 
 birds ; from the eating of chickens ; from the entrails 
 of quadrupeds ; and from uncommon accidents, called 
 dircB ; and on extraordinary occasions from human vic- 
 tims, especially when Etruscans were called in. The 
 birds which gave omens by their cries, were the raven, 
 the crow, the owl, the cock ; by flight, were the eagle, 
 vulture, &c. ; by feeding, chickens, much attended to 
 in war. In the first Punic war, when the priest, 
 who had charge of the chickens, told him that they 
 would not eat, (a bad omen,) P, Claudius, admiral of 
 the fleet, had them flung into the sea, saying, " If they 
 will not eat, let them drink." He engaged, in defiance 
 of the omens, and, as might be anticipated, he was 
 defeated, and lost nearly all his ships. The aristocracy 
 held this institution closed against the people with 
 greater jealousy than even the pontificate. No matter 
 what crime an augur was guilty of, he could not be 
 deprived of his office ; no one was eligible to the col- 
 lege but a bosom-friend of all the members. Plutarch 
 
 * '* Ac Romulus cum hsec egregia duo firmamenta reipublicse 
 peperisset, auspicia et senatum tantum est consecutus, ut deorum 
 in numero conlocatus putaretur." — Cicero de Repub. 1. ii. 10, Card, 
 Mai's Disc. torn. i. 
 
 " La rita della religione gentile era fondata sopra la setta degli 
 Arioli e degli Auruspici, tutti le altre loro ceremonie sacrificii e 
 riti dipendevano di questi. Perche essi facilmente credevano, clie 
 quel dio clie potra predire il tuo futuro bene, e il tuo futuro male, 
 te le potesse ancora concedere." — Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la 1" 
 deca di Tit. Livio. 
 
ROME. 
 
 61 
 
 tells us the reason : — " They were intrusted with the 
 secret or mystery of empire ; the last thread of the 
 grand tissue of imposture was in their hands. They 
 wielded a power devoutly recognised by the Roman 
 population as divine. They set all the functions of 
 the state in motion ; they could moderate, direct, or 
 suspend the action of any one of them, as they saw fit. 
 Even the wildest hurricane of sedition, in forum or 
 camp, they could govern and suppress with facility." 
 Csesar, who had no interest in this imposition, but the 
 reverse, used to say, " He wondered how two augurs 
 could meet without bursting into laughter." 
 
 To reinstate this old supremacy of the state -religion, 
 taken up first by Maecenas, and by Seneca in the pre- 
 sent instance, continued to be the darling object of 
 imperial policy until paganism was supplanted by 
 Christianity, and of the old Roman factions in the 
 empire even long after.* But many circumstances 
 had combined to preclude the possibility of reinstating 
 it. In the first place innumerable rivals had started 
 up ; Rome had become " the common temple of man- 
 kind ;" the deities of all the vanquished nations had 
 been carried thither in the triumphal trains of her 
 generals ; their rites and mysteries were there cele- 
 brated ; and if there were any gods not amongst the 
 conquered, they were sure to be brought in by that 
 principle which kept the devout polytheist ever uneasy, 
 lest he should have missed paying his devoirs to any 
 deity. Hence the Athenians, so remarkable for their 
 piety, had an altar to the " unknown God." 
 
 The keen-sighted statesmen of the ohgarchical ages 
 had foreseen this evil. They spared no precaution to 
 
 * " Delicta majorum immeritus lues, 
 Romane, donee templa refeceris, 
 ^desque labentes deorum, et 
 Fceda nigro simulacra fumo. 
 Dis te minorem quod geris, imperas. 
 Hinc omne principium, hue refer exitum. 
 Di multa neglecti dederunt 
 Hesperiae mala luctuosse," 
 
 Horat, 1. iii. Car, 6. 
 
62 
 
 ROME. 
 
 preserve the unity of religion. The laws of the twelve 
 tables were rigid on this point, interdicting all separate 
 worship and rehgious innovation; and lustrum after 
 lustrum, the ediles were charged to look to the en- 
 forcement of this law, " to dislodge all foreign practi- 
 tioners in fortune-telling, magic arts, and other exotic 
 rites and sacrifices, from their haunts about the chief 
 places of resort, the forum and circus, to drive them 
 from the city ; to search up, and burn all books of 
 vaticination, and to abolish all modes of worship not 
 conformable to that established by law."* But the 
 inherent disorders of polytheism proved too much even 
 for the senate. Conquerors of the world, they were 
 vanquished by a tumultuous invasion of outlandish 
 deities. It was in vain that even ^milius Paulus, in 
 the zenith of his glory, hatchet in hand, wielded his 
 victorious arm to hew down the shrine of Serapis. 
 Repulsed from the city, the invaders rallied beyond the 
 pomerium. Dissent seemed to prosper by the violence 
 used to enforce conformity ; forsaking the estabUshed 
 worship, crowds poured out to the conventicles of Isis 
 and Anubis ; and w^hen their votaries had sufficiently 
 ascertained their own strength, the penal laws were 
 set at defiance, and the proscribed deities triumphantly 
 reinstated. Beside the old-fashioned impostures of 
 Numa, those of Thebes and the City of the Sun took 
 their place. Jove had long removed his court from 
 Olympus to the Capitol. From all regions his vassals 
 trooped after him . Every street and forum was studded 
 with shrines and altars, and thronged with sorcerers, 
 magicians, the hierophants and charlatans of all the 
 impure and atrocious mysteries of oriental countries, 
 and especially of the Nile. " Thus did this city, here- 
 
 * " Separatimnemo habesset deos ; neve novos, neve advenas, nisi 
 publice adscitos, privatim colunto." — Law of the Twelve Tables, 
 quoted by M. T. Cicero, de Legib. 1. ii. 8. 
 
 " Quotieshoc patrum avorumque aetate negotium est magistratibus 
 datum, ut sacra externa fieri vetarent, sacrificulos vatesque foro, 
 circo, urbi prohiberent ; vaticinos libros conquirerent, comburerent- 
 que ; oranem disciplinam sacrificandi, prasterquam more Romano 
 abolerent." — T.Liv. Hist. I. xxxix. Speech of Posthumus. 
 
ROME. 
 
 63 
 
 tofore so rigid in its observances, so reserved in its 
 opinions, and which had in a manner scrupulously 
 reformed the polytheism of Greece, become the theatre 
 of every licentious, bloody, and absurd superstition ; 
 the earth groaned under the multitude of temples. 
 Rome was said to contain more gods than citizens, 
 more idols than adorers ; and as it was not the genius 
 of polytheism to erect one worship on the ruins of 
 another, but to agglomerate them all and practise them 
 simultaneously, the grotesque follies, infamies, clash- 
 ing attributes, incongruities and contradictions, be- 
 came so glaring, that they forced themselves upon the 
 attention even of the besotted herd."* But another 
 influence, still more fatal to the state rehgion, was the 
 diffusion of Greek scepticism; chiefly through the 
 philosophic writings of Cicero. 
 
 * Ben. Constant, du Polyth. Rom. 1. iv. ch. 3. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "Jurarem per Jovem Deosque Penates me et ardere studio veri 
 reperiendi, et ea sentire quae dicerem." — M. T. Cicero, Acad. 
 Qucest. 1. iv. 20. 
 
 " In a word, he (Cicero) laughed at the opinions of the state, when 
 he was amongst the philosophers ; he laughed at the doctrines 
 of the philosophers, when he was cajoling an assembly ; and he 
 laughed heartily at both when withdrawn among his friends in a 
 corner." — Warhurton, Divine Legat. b. iii. sec. 3. 
 
 A MORE enthusiastic admirer of the grand system 
 of imposture, there could not be than Marcus TuUius. 
 How often is his eloquence poured out in praise of the 
 unrivalled piety of the Roman people, and on the wis- 
 dom of their ancestors pre-eminently signaHzed in the 
 matter of religion ?* His devotion to the institutions 
 of Scevola and Coruncanius is implicit. The auguries 
 are not a less egregious blessing than the senate, nor 
 less vital to the commonwealth. He is ready to defend 
 the entire establishment at any risk ; he inculcates the 
 most unhesitating belief in their rehgion on his fellow 
 citizens. In his harangues from the rostrum he con- 
 stantly plays off the various deities, the omens, and 
 responses, as they serve his turn ; and whether he 
 addresses the people through his tract on laws, or 
 thunders " viva voce" against Cataline, or in pleading 
 
 for his house," before the pontiff and his college 
 in the hearing of a crowded court, Cicero is still 
 the enthusiastic adorer of all the "immortal gods," 
 from Jove to ^sculapius ; a zealot for every nicety of 
 the " jus pontificium ;" — the rubric, or canon law of 
 the Capitol. But how different is the Cicero we meet 
 
 * "Ego vero primum habeo auctores ac magistros religionum 
 colendarum majores nostros ; quorum mihi tanta fuisse sapientia 
 videtur, ut satis superque prudentes sint, qui illorum prudentiam, 
 non dicam assequi, sed, quanta fuerit, perspicere possint." — Cic. Orat. 
 de Harusf. Resp. 
 
ROME. 
 
 65 
 
 with in the elegant suburban retreats of the initiated ? 
 The " immortal gods," before whom he fell prostrate 
 in the Capitol, and apostrophised with upraised eyes 
 and hands in the forum, are dethroned, derided, and 
 proved to be but the creations of imposition. What !" 
 he exclaims, in the first of those philosophic lec- 
 tures with which he entertained his friends at Tus- 
 culum, ''has not all heaven been crowded to over- 
 flowing with mortals ? If we enter into old records, 
 and avail ourselves of Greek research, shall we not 
 find this to be the case even with respect to the gods, 
 ' majorum gentium' as they are called ; that is, of 
 Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Neptune, Mars, Venus, &c. 
 Ask how many of their graves can be pointed out in 
 Greece ? Recollect ffor you have heen initiatedj what 
 they divulge in the mysteries ; and you will see to 
 what an extent this apphes."* But it would have mat- 
 tered little to the state how much Cicero descanted in 
 an infidel strain, if he had had the discretion to reserve 
 his scepticism for aristocratic company — for Varro, 
 Atticus, for Cotta, the supreme pontiff", or for Lucullus, 
 one of his colleagues ; because they, in common with 
 the rest of the nobihty, believed as Httle of, and laughed 
 as heartily at, the state rehgion, as did Marcus Tullius 
 himself. But Cicero's overweening vanity instigated 
 him to enter the fists with Plato in philosophy, after 
 having contended for the palm of eloquence with 
 
 * " Quid ? totum prope coelum ne plures perseqnar, nonne humano 
 genere completum est? Si vero scrutari vetera, et ex his ea, quae 
 scriptores Graeciae prodiderunt, eruere coner ; ipsi illi, majorum gen- 
 tium Dii qui habentur, hinc a nobis profecti in ccelum reperientur. 
 Quasre, quorum demonstrantur sepulchra in Grsecia ; reminiscere, 
 quoniam es initiatus, quae tradantur mysteriis ; tum denique quam 
 hoclate pateat, intelliges." — Cic. Tusc. QucBstA. i. 12, 13. 
 
 And in another passage he is still more explicit : — '* Quid ? 
 qui aut fortes, aut claros, aut potentes viros tradunt post mortem ad 
 deos pervenisse, eosque esse ipsos, quos nos colere, precari, venera- 
 rique soleamus. — Ab Euheraero et mortes et sepultures demonstrantur 
 deoruin. Omitto Eleusiniam sanetam illam et augustam. — Praetereo 
 Samothraciam, eaque. 
 
 • quae Lemni 
 
 Nocturne aditu occulta coluntur," &c. 
 F 
 
66 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Demosthenes ; and as it was long since philosophy, 
 in its Grecian costume, had made atheists of the aris- 
 tocracy, what wonder that plebeian faith was not proof 
 against her seductive influence, when appearing in the 
 forum and the cross-ways, decked out in the great 
 orator's latinity ?* 
 
 Scattered throughout his writings generally, are de- 
 tached passages, sarcasms, little pleasantries and anec- 
 dotes of a most caustic turn, which must have in- 
 sensibly infected his readers with contempt for the 
 state worship ; but it is in his great theological treatise 
 
 On the Nature of the Gods," and in its supplement, 
 the work on " Divination," that he completely plays 
 the Titan. 
 
 This extraordinary production purports to be 
 Cicero's report — in three books — of a conference be- 
 tween Velleius, a nobleman, addicted to the views of 
 Epicurus ; Balbus, a Stoic ; and Cotta, like Marcus 
 Tullius himself, a follower of the new Academy. It is 
 supposed to take place, Cicero being merely a listener, 
 while he and the other patricians, above-mentioned, 
 are rusticating at one of his villas with Cotta, who was 
 Pontifex Maximus at the time. 
 
 Velleius, the Epicurean, begins with a review of the 
 long and august procession of the Theists, from " an- 
 cient Thales " down to Chrysippus, the Coryphaeus of 
 the Stoics of that day ; having analyzed the system of 
 each, separately, at first, and pointed out its incon- 
 sistencies in detail, he then contrasts them with one 
 another, to exhibit their innumerable absurdities in a 
 more glaring light, and, designating the whole as a 
 congeries of lunatic rhapsodies, rather than as philo- 
 sophic systems, concludes by lauding Epicurus, and 
 by endeavouring to demonstrate the superior wis- 
 dom of his theories. In this latter portion of his task, 
 he is followed by the Pontifex Maximus, Cotta, who 
 successfully assails the philosophy of the " Garden," 
 strips Epicurus of the disguise he had put on, for fear 
 
 * See Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 177. 
 
ROME. 
 
 67 
 
 of the Areopagus, and exposes the author of the 
 " Treatise on the Sanctity of the Gods," as a thorough- 
 going atheist. The third book is the Supreme Pontiff's 
 refutation of the second, in which Balbus has adduced 
 the arguments, moral, physical, and metaphysical, for 
 the existence of the gods, and discoursed elaborately 
 concerning providence. 
 
 After the dedication to his beloved Brutus, and the 
 general introduction of the subject, Marcus TuUius 
 had said : "To secure myself against every charge or 
 suspicion of partiality, or misstatement, I shall, in the 
 first place, adduce the various opinions of the great 
 sages, touching the nature of the gods, and then, as it 
 were, convene the representatives of the respective 
 systems, to determine which of them all is true ; and 
 let us of the Academy, who look on nothing as certain, 
 be thenceforth and for ever deemed impertinent, if the 
 sects come to an agreement, or if any one of them 
 supply peremptory proof as to where lies the truth." 
 That Cicero redeemed this pledge cannot be question- 
 ed ; he adduces all who maintained the belief of a 
 deity, of immortality and of a providence, states their 
 opinions fairly, tests the arguments pro and contra ; but 
 so monstrous are the incongruities brought to light, 
 that the obvious hopelessness of arriving at any satis- 
 factory conclusion, by philosophical inquiry on that 
 branch of human investigation universally looked upon 
 as of the last importance, affords to Cicero a most 
 triumphant argument in favour of the Academic 
 theory — to wit; "That the groundwork and prin- 
 ciple of philosophy is ignorance ; and that it is the 
 part of a wise man to regard every thing as doubt- 
 ful." 
 
 It soon appeared whether or not the violent anxiety 
 of the elder Cato to have Carneades, the founder of 
 Cicero's academy, and his fellow-ambassadors from 
 Athens, hurried out of Rome as if infected with some 
 fell pestilence. That rough old Tusculan would much 
 rather have seen Hannibal again before the gates, than 
 an impugner of the " immortal gods" within them. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 ROME. 
 
 He knew that the colossus of Roman grandeur had 
 been reared by imposture, that it reposed upon igno- 
 rance ; and that ruin must ensue if hght were once let 
 in upon the plebeian masses. Hence his alarm at every 
 approach of civihzation, his denunciations of whatever 
 could humanize or enlighten, were not the result of a 
 crotchetty bent, or of any inborn dislike to intellec- 
 tuality ; for Cato was unrivalled as a statesman in an 
 age of singularly great men ; he was erudite for his 
 time, and mastered the Greek language when an old 
 man ; but he knew that if freethinking once got footing 
 among the people, there was an end of that enthusiasm 
 and of those restraints without which the car of con- 
 quest could not be propelled, at least, safely, and upon 
 which entirely rested the stability of Roman institutions. 
 No doubt the avowed infidelity of Csesar. and his indus- 
 trious efforts to bring reUgion, like all other aristocra- 
 tic institutions and bulwarks, into contempt, had helped 
 the same object as Cicero's philosophic vanity ; nor 
 were the rapid and turbulent changes in the sacerdotal 
 colleges, during the long continuance of the revolu- 
 tion, without their influence. The state mystery be- 
 came officially known to too great a number — not 
 always of the most staid characters ; but, however it 
 had occurred, certain it is, that, at the time we speak 
 of, the estabhshed rehgion had fallen into hope- 
 less decay ; and impostures grasped with faith by the 
 heroes of the pristine ages, after the same fashion they 
 grasped their falchions, were now so many laughing- 
 stocks to schoolboys and the mob.* Not that the 
 latter, in losing the bUnd and undoubting reliance of 
 the old warrior-burghers on the divinely-constituted 
 authority of the state religion, had been emancipated 
 from error, or brought nearer the truth. Quite the 
 reverse. The master-piece of old Roman statesman- 
 
 * " Et quis tunc hominum contemptor niiminis ? Aut quis 
 Simpluviura ridere Numae, nigrumque catinum, 
 Et Vaticano fragiles de monte patellas 
 Ausus erat? Sed nunc ad quas non Clodius aras ?" 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. vi. 
 
ROME. 
 
 69 
 
 ship consisted in this : that, out of the motley super- 
 stitions and myths of various populations, they had 
 contrived to fabricate a religion, that is, a binding 
 power, or combining influence, as the Roman word 
 " religio" implies by which their state was not only 
 held together, in spite of the most violent shocks and 
 convulsions, but also made most observant of disci- 
 pline, notwithstanding its fiery hostihty to subjection, 
 and enabled to act with irresistible unity and force. 
 Now, all that Cicero and his coadjutors did was to 
 loosen this binding power ; they showed that it was a 
 mere rope of sand — a deception— and presently, the 
 master-piece of state wisdom and industry relapsed 
 into anarchy. But Marcus Tullius did not substi- 
 tute a true binding power — a genuine " religio" — 
 for the false one he had destroyed. He created anar- 
 chy, but he could not reinstate order. He knew of 
 no infallible basis of truth, of no sanctions, not from 
 the Egeria of Pompilius, but from the authenticated 
 " ipse dixit" of the divinity. Hence, as the heart of 
 man cannot do without a god, and as he is never 
 so much at the mercy of superstitious sentiments as 
 when he turns his back on the true divinity, it hap- 
 pened that the Romans were never such abject slaves 
 of superstition as at the very time when they seemed 
 to have turned sceptics. Instead of being subject, 
 like their sires, to one — and that the best ordered and 
 least demoralizing form of polytheism — the degenerate 
 and corrupt slaves of the Caesars, of all orders and 
 degrees, had become the sport by turns of every foul 
 and hateful influence that polytheism had engendered. 
 
 Professing themselves to be wise they became fools, 
 and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into 
 the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of 
 birds, and fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things. 
 For this cause, God gave them up to vile affections, 
 — to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are 
 
 * Cicero de Legib. 
 
70 
 
 ROME. 
 
 not convenient ; — being filled with all iniquity, malice, 
 fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, con- 
 tentions, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful 
 of God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil 
 things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without 
 affection, without fidelity , without mercy J'* 
 
 * St. Paul's character of the Romans of his times, with the darkest 
 shades left out ! 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 *' What from this barren being do we reap ? 
 Our senses narrow, and our reason frail, 
 Life short, and truth a gem which loves the deep." 
 " Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis ? Quid Academise et Ecclesise ? 
 Quid hereticis et Christianis ? Nostra institutio de Porticu Salo- 
 monis est, qui et ipse tradiderat Dominum in simplicitate cor- 
 dis esse quserendum. Viderint qui Stoicum, et Platonicum et 
 Dialecticum Christianismum T^rot\xlevnnt."—TertulL de Prae- 
 scrip. 
 
 — " True it is," pursued Seneca, in urging the re- 
 vival of the established system, " that Marcus Tullius 
 disclaims the idea of subverting the rehgion of the 
 state, while he subverts superstition; and that he 
 speaks of propagating a pure devotion to the one 
 all-perfect and eternal Nature which the beauty of the 
 universe and the order of the heavens proclaim.* But 
 must not his familiarity with the writings of the 
 greatest sages have convinced him, (as indeed the 
 whole tenor of his public conduct proves it did,) that 
 this idea of a pure disembodied religion, little else 
 than a philosophic theory or speculation, is nothing 
 better than a chimera when there is question of the 
 common herd ?" After descanting on the uses of phi- 
 losophy, for well regulated and enlightened minds, 
 Timseus, the Locrian, thus continues : — " But with 
 respect to those of a rude and turbulent disposition, 
 for them punishments must be resorted to ; both those 
 
 * " Nec vero (id enim intelligi volo) superstitione tollenda religio 
 tollitur. Nam et majorum instituta tueri sacris cseremoniisque 
 retinendis, sapientis est ; et esse prasstantem aliquam, £Eternamque 
 naturam, et earn suscipiendam, admirandamque hominum generi, 
 pulchritudo mundi, ordoque rerum coelestium cogit confiteri. Quam- 
 obrem, ut religio propaganda etiam est, quae est juncta cum cogni- 
 tione naturae ; sic superstitionis stirpes omnes ejiciendae. Instat 
 enimj" &c. — De Divinatione, 1. ii. 72, pr. fin. 
 
72 
 
 ROME. 
 
 which civil laws inflict and those which religion de- 
 nounces, as the chastisement of an over-ruling provi- 
 dence, and the torments destined for the wicked in 
 the infernal regions. And for this reason I applaud 
 the Ionic poet, (Hesiod,) who has contributed materi- 
 ally to the amelioration of mankind by recording in 
 his verses the terrors of these realms of purgation and 
 eternal woe, as he collected them from old tradition." 
 
 " The multitude in society," says another, " are 
 allured to virtue by these enticing fables, which the 
 poets tell of ancient heroes ! such as the labours of 
 Hercules or Theseus, and of the rewards conferred 
 upon the well-deserving, by the gods. On the other 
 hand, they are restrained from vice by the punish- 
 ments which the deities are said to inflict upon 
 offenders, and by those terrors and threats impressed 
 upon the soul, not only by denunciations, but by awful 
 exhibitions in the ' mysteries ;' for it is impossible to 
 govern women and common people, and to keep them 
 holy , pious, and virtuous, by the precepts of philosophy .'^ 
 
 And what does one of the greatest statesmen and 
 historians, a man practically versed in all forms of 
 government and modes of administration — a most 
 acute observer of mankind — Polybius, write upon this 
 very subject ? 
 
 " The unrivalled superiority of the policy of the 
 Romans, in my opinion, is most strikingly exhibited 
 in what concerns religion, for what has been the ruin 
 of other nations is the firmest support of their affairs ; 
 I mean piety, or superstition. Many may think this 
 very strange, but to me it appears most admirably 
 calculated to procure the public good. If, indeed, 
 one had to frame a constitution for a community of phi- 
 losophers, it is possible that a system, such as that of 
 which we treat, might not be necessary, but the multi- 
 tude, being ever fickle, capricious, full of disorderly 
 passions, and subject to irrational and violent resent- 
 ments, there is no way left to keep them in order but by 
 the terrors of future punishment, and by the pompous 
 circumstance by which mythology/ is invested. Hence it 
 
ROME. 
 
 73 
 
 appears to me, that the ancients acted with great 
 judgment and wisdom when they incorporated these 
 notions with the popular behef ; and that the present 
 age" (he alludes to Greece) " acts as absurdly and 
 inconsiderately in removing them, and encouraging 
 the multitude to despise them." The historian pro- 
 ceeds to demonstrate his views, by contrasting Greece, 
 then degraded and irreligious^ with Rome, triumphant 
 and irresistible, because devoted at that period to the 
 worship of the gods.* 
 
 "Yes, that philosophy is totally incompetent to 
 discharge the functions of religion towards society is 
 plain," observed Rubellius ; " but does Seneca imagine 
 they can be discharged by an erroneous religion, unless 
 perhaps for a season — just as in time of famine, life is 
 supported by unnatural sustenance, or traffic carried 
 on by a fictitious medium ? The ingenuity of states- 
 men may cloak the imperfection of the instruments 
 they make use of to control, or turn the blind infatua- 
 tion of their subjects to account ; but in spite of 
 chicanery, or of terrorism, sooner or later, the impos- 
 ture must be unmasked, and when this happens its 
 doom is sealed ; the passions may rally round it, and 
 redouble their efforts to sustain its tottering ascen- 
 dency, but down it must come. 
 
 " A true religion, on the other hand, while it is liable 
 through ignorant excitement and prejudice to be 
 rejected and treated with indignity, may, nay, must 
 rally, and ultimately triumph, whenever the reign of 
 enlightenment and candour are restored ; for, as a 
 little knowledge frequently leads men from religion, 
 a great deal in general leads them back again ; but to 
 reinstate a false religion in an enlightened age is an 
 utter impossibility. Free discussion, candour, the 
 revival of good faith, and the extirpation of preju- 
 dice, are fatal to it. While, therefore, I admit that it 
 was by superstition our empire rose, I maintain that, 
 by superstition, it cannot be reformed." 
 
 * Vide Polyb. Hist. 1. vi. 54, 55. 
 
74 
 
 ROME. 
 
 " And therefore," exclaimed Cassius, "was my first 
 assertion just : — 
 
 * Who dies in youth and vigour dies the best. 
 Struck through with wounds, all honest, on the breast ; 
 But when the Fates, in fulness of their rage, 
 Spurn the hoar head of unresisting age ; 
 In dust the reverend lineaments deform. 
 And pour to dogs the life-blood scarcely warm. — 
 This, this is misery ! the last, the worst, 
 That man can feel — man fated to he cursed.^ * 
 
 The entire social system," he continued with 
 increasing vehemence, " is based upon a lie, — 
 interwoven with putid and despicable fables. The 
 traditions of memory are a tissue of impostures ; 
 baseless are the hopes and the apprehensions of futu- 
 rity. Nor is there any redress for this perplexity. 
 We are tantalized by phantoms which allure, as in- 
 fallibly as they elude the grasp ; and when we have 
 toiled and strained, to exhaustion, to attain to cer- 
 tainty, doubt, like the stone of Sisyphus, overpowers 
 and drives us down again into the abyss ; again, to 
 renew our mental torments and efforts with the same 
 result. 
 
 " Marcus Tullius and Plato may trumpet the 
 praises of philosophy. If it be a blessing, why se- 
 crete it ? why not send forth their heaven-descended 
 goddess to scatter light and healing from her wings ? 
 But, why has she failed to bestow security of mind 
 even upon her own most ardent votaries ; or how has 
 it happened that the more they worship her, the more 
 miserable they feel ; — that the farther they pursue 
 her ever-fleeting form, the greater their bewilderment 
 and want of certainty ? Vain ! utterly bootless is it, 
 to inquire what Socrates, or Plato, or Aristotle, or 
 Zeno, or Carneades believed ? Belief, there was none 
 amongst them. Their faith consisted of conjectures ; 
 theirs was a creed of probabilities — never did their 
 intelligences seize upon truth with a fearless, brilliant, 
 reasonable conviction. In their schools and learned 
 
 * Iliad, B. 24. 
 
ROME. 
 
 75 
 
 conferences they speculated gloriously, and argued 
 with power ; but when their splendid professions were 
 brought into cold, close contact with the ghastly pro- 
 blem of our being ; to the dull, fatal tug between 
 immortality and annihilation — alas, for miserable, ill- 
 starred humanity — doomed to be the jest and ludibrium 
 of fate — the ' wisest of men' has no solace from all 
 his philosophy but this : — 
 
 " ' The hour is come when we must depart from this 
 prison-cell — I through the gate of death ; you, my 
 friends, by that of life, still longer to enjoy existence ; 
 but as to which is the better lot, the immortal gods 
 may know : but that no mortal can tell, I am con- 
 vinced.' And Marcus Tullius, after all his sublime 
 declamation in proof of the soul's immortality, nay, 
 of its divinity, comes to this : — ' But in speculating 
 on the soul's destiny,' he says, ' we are affected 
 somewhat similarly to those who, from gazing in- 
 tensely on the setting sun, become so dazzled as 
 hardly to see anything at all ; so does it fare with the 
 mind in contemplating itself — all power of fixing any- 
 thing with precision is lost. Whereupon, bewildered, 
 its unsteady ken is turned in every direction, full of 
 hesitation, and doubt, and terror, as it finds itself 
 drifting away like a bark guideless on the ocean's im- 
 mensity.'* 
 
 " Instead of the visions which philosophy has taught 
 us to deride, she gives us — can give us — nothing, in re- 
 turn, but a forlorn consciousness of ignorance and dis- 
 appointment. Far from being a blessing or an enviable 
 attribute, reason, as we are now circumstanced, is a 
 bitter curse ; and, better far would it have been, had 
 we never been endowed with a faculty, not to be exer- 
 cised but with ruin to our happiness.f As to religion, 
 
 * " Itaque dubitans, circumspectans, haesitans, multa adversa 
 revertens, tanquam in rate, in mare immenso, nostra vehitur oratio." 
 — Tusc. Qucest. 1. i. 30. 
 
 ■\ " Ut satius fuerit nuUam omnino nobis a diis immortalibus 
 
 datam esse rationem, quam tanta cum pernicie datam." — Cicer. de 
 Nat. Deor. 1, iii. 27. 
 
76 
 
 ROME. 
 
 it has only aggravated and multiplied the evils by 
 which we are overwhelmed.* 
 
 " May malediction, therefore, light upon the day of 
 my nativity, and may it be drowned in bitterness. 
 There is no God — no Providence — no hereafter. The 
 only elysium is the ' sty' of Epicurus. Never, never 
 will I believe, that it was by a deity, benign and super- 
 latively wise, that man was brought to this extremity. 
 No, nothing but a ruthless demon could have flung him 
 into this terrestrial Tartarus, — apparently, for no fault 
 of his, — without the possibility of liberation or redress." 
 
 The rising of St. Peter, at this crisis, was hke that 
 of an apparition from the dead. Astonishment held 
 the patricians mute ; and, in spite of his rude garb 
 and diction, their haughty spirits quailed under his 
 words, which fell upon them like thunderbolts of in- 
 spiration. He discoursed upon Jesus of Nazareth ; 
 showed that he was the Christ, the deliverer, the 
 promised, the long-expected, the Saviour, "the way, 
 the truth, and the life ; " the way rendered plain and 
 unmistakable by his own example, and leading with 
 infallible certainty to heaven ; — the truth long searched 
 for, in vain, by philosophy, now revealed audibly by 
 God's own mouth, to be held by faith upon authority, 
 not scrutinized by the bankrupt and non-suited in- 
 tellect ; — the life, not derived, as by a stream, but 
 self-existing as in the fountain-head, from all eternity. 
 The aspect of humanity, heretofore so ghastly and in- 
 explicable, under the new light that broke upon it, 
 presented the spectacle, as it were, of a most com- 
 plicated, diversified, but still harmonious drama, in 
 which the wide-spread disorders, the innumerable 
 crimes and catastrophes that occur, served only to 
 display the wisdom of the injunction placed upon the 
 first actors on the scene. How glorious was the plot 
 that had been marred by disobedience ! and how in- 
 dispensable to the re-estabhshment of order was the 
 interposition of a God ! Little less astounding than 
 to hear the problem solved with facility by a Jewish 
 * " Religio peparit scelera atque impia facta," &c. — Lucretius. 
 
ROME. 
 
 77 
 
 fisherman, which had baffled all the pride of Grecian 
 genius and Roman judgment, was it to discover, 
 by what a flimsy, transparent gauze of fiction, the 
 origin and fall of man, with the rest of primeval truth, 
 had lain concealed ; and how, if any one had but hit 
 upon the correct type of religion, he might have col- 
 lected, almost from Plato alone, the " disjecta membra," 
 fragments of the divine original, scattered and muti- 
 lated, as if by demons, sufficient to reconstruct it. 
 
 Thus, will Plato make his founder of a perfect state, 
 or social system, collect around him the few, the 
 very few, in whom Providence has implanted its 
 choicest gifts, showering them out, as it were, in some 
 special revolution of nature. With them he will pro- 
 ceed to form a society entirely new. He will take his 
 future subjects as children, and rear them up under his 
 own eye and upon his own principles. He will distri- 
 bute the powers of the state into two classes, the 
 hierarchical, and the secular, to be called TTpea-jSvTepoL 
 and veu)T€poL — the one to preserve and promulgate the 
 laws and the knowledge of God ; the other to defend 
 the state from enemies without and within. The great 
 business of the hierarchical rulers will be instruction ; 
 they will watch over the rising character of the young, 
 exercising and testing them with pains and pleasures, 
 and studying to place each in that post fitted to his 
 character. They will bring down all castes, — castes of 
 blood, of wealth, of profession, of fashion ; and leave, 
 in all these harriers thrown up either by nature, or by 
 the vanity of men, passages for goodness and wisdom to 
 rise up to the highest ranks, and for evil and ignorance 
 to sink into the lowest. They will elevate woman to 
 be a companion and help-meet for man. The eye of 
 the rulers will be over all, embracing all with a com- 
 mon love, uniting all as one family, excluding all 
 hatred and dissension, assigning to every one his own 
 peculiar work, and making the good of the whole body 
 tq be the good of every member. This new state will 
 not prohibit the inferior class from agriculture, or 
 from any occupation which may minister to the wants 
 
78 
 
 ROME. 
 
 of the body, without pampering its vices ; but it will 
 dread wealth as the seed of all evil. It will encourage 
 art, especially music, but make all art an imitation, not 
 of mere fancies of man, but of the true, the beautiful, 
 of the same ideas {dbiai,} which are the foundation 
 of the whole polity ; so that buildings, and paintings, 
 and sculpture, and music, and poetry, and oratory, and 
 literature, every thing may be formed upon their model, 
 — in one word, may be impregnated with the doctrines 
 and affections of true religion. It will provide for the 
 young from the first dawn of their reason, tales and 
 hymns which shall teach them, under the charm of 
 music and verse and fancy, the doctrines of a sound 
 theology. It will put a poetry in the hands of the 
 elders — the hierarchy — which shall elevate them to all 
 noble thoughts and deeds, by placing in their mouths the 
 words and sentiments of the noblest of their ancestors. 
 It will secure for the more gifted of the community 
 an education which shall raise their reason, not only 
 to embrace a faith implicitly, but to understand, ar- 
 range, and trace the bearings of the doctrines which 
 they are to maintain and inculcate : but the great 
 problem placed constantly before them shall be " to re- 
 cognise unity in plurality, and plurality in unity, to 
 lift up their minds from earth to heaven, and to allow 
 of no real good but Him, who is the author of all 
 good, the sun of the moral world, from whom they 
 derive their light, and through whom they are able to 
 difiuse it. It will mitigate the horrors of war. It 
 will glory in those who died for this nezv state, or in dis- 
 charge of duty, as in beings of an inspired order, tov 
 Xpv<Tov yivovs, reverencing them as more than human, 
 assembling at their tombs, believing that they are still 
 watching over their country, and canonizing them with 
 such honours as the word of God may allow.^ It will 
 
 * In this, as in the other passages generally, I adopt the ijo- 
 sissima verba of the learned Professor Sewell, as little to be sus- 
 pected of mistaking Plato's meaning, as of wresting it to favour 
 a Roman Catholic sense. See " An Introduction to the Dialogues of 
 Plato," p. 301. London: Rivington, 1841. 
 
ROME. 
 
 79 
 
 possess every virtue, not as if each member were per- 
 fect in all virtues — for the very constitution and unity 
 of a body implies the imperfection of its parts — but 
 each will be perfect in its own work and province, and 
 share in all the goodness of the whole, having a wisdom 
 and courage, and temperance, and righteousness not its 
 own, by its union with that body, in which they each re- 
 side. It will grow up, as it were, info a perfect man ; 
 and what the body is, such will be the individual 
 members of it ; practising virtue not from blind in- 
 stinct, not from expediency, but in obedience to posi- 
 tive laws, enforced by man, as the representative of 
 the will of God ; loving goodness for its own sake, 
 for its own intrinsic conformity to the eternal prin- 
 ciple of conscience, which assigns dominion to good- 
 ness, and subjection to vice ; not merely looking to 
 another world, though in another world the reward is 
 sure and exceeding great, but happy even in this world, 
 though " scourged and tortured in prison, the eyes 
 burnt out, the body torn to shreds, happy in the rec- 
 titude of its own heart, and a blessing to that nation 
 in which it shall be made to dwell."* 
 
 But still true to the political and utilitarian bias, so 
 characteristic of the Roman mind, it was the complete 
 solution, afforded by Christianity, of the great problem 
 they had been discussing, that chiefly struck the 
 guests of Pudens. If, indeed, this new system were 
 really the work of a divine author, and had for sanc- 
 tions, not intimations, such as Numa pretended to have 
 received from the fountain nymph Egeria, or as the 
 Augurs, Haruspices, and Quindecimviri discovered in 
 the Sibylline books, in the entrails of cattle, or the 
 evolutions of the winged tribe, but the " ipse dixit," 
 
 * In the EniNOMiS, or peroration to his twelve boolis on Laws, 
 (near the beginning,) Plato says : — " I think it is impossible for 
 more than a very few to attain happiness or beatitude in the present 
 life ; but there is a good and great hope that each will perfectly 
 obtain in a future world, the recompense of virtuous exertions and 
 aspirations in this ; nor in this do I adduce anything new or un- 
 heard of, but that which is notorious among all the barbarians, and 
 which is beginning to be recognised by some of the Greeks." 
 
80 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and authoritative injunctions of the Supreme Lord and 
 Arbiter of all ; then was there found at last, a means 
 of retrieving the tottering fortunes of Rome, and of 
 re-establishing its universal empire upon a truly 
 eternal basis. In the programme of the fisherman, 
 they discerned all that consummate statesmanship and 
 the experience of centuries had suggested to their 
 ancestors ; — a solemn worship, based upon august and 
 sacrificial rites, calculated to impress the public with 
 awe and veneration for the Divine Majesty ; — impres- 
 sive sanctions, arising from the vivid hopes and fears 
 of future retribution ; — expiations for sin ; — ^benisons 
 and sanctifying ceremonies ; — a cycle of festivals to 
 body forth, and, as it were, dramatize the " memo- 
 rabiha " of the new state ; — to fill the memory with 
 great examples, and to fire the living to emulation of 
 the illustrious departed. Above all, they were not a 
 little flattered in remarking such a singular coin- 
 cidence between the hierarchical constitution of the 
 Messiah's empire and their own ; — various orders and 
 gradations of ministry under the jurisdiction of one 
 Supreme Pontiff", endowed with sovereign authority, 
 to bind and loose, to regulate, define, enforce, and 
 ordain anew, tallying in so many various instances 
 with what had been devised by the political wis- 
 dom of their great ancestors. But all this referred 
 merely to the skeleton ; how determine whether 
 this new religion had any pretensions to truth, to a 
 vivifying, interior spirit, to an authority really from 
 Heaven, to a power to sanctify and liberate from sin, 
 better than their own old system ? The great defect 
 of the religion devised by their forefathers was, that it 
 was an imposture — a grand, admirable scheme, but 
 founded on falsehood. How did they know, how could 
 they be certain, that this system of the fisherman was 
 based on truth ? Was a Jew less likely to be an im- 
 postor than Pompilius ? Where were his vouchers for 
 the divinity of the Nazarene ? — where his own credentials 
 that he had been sent ? 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 " And such also is the instinct of the bees ; for they settle not only 
 on the sweet, but on the bitter flowers, and the sweetness they 
 extract, and the bitterness they eschew; and from qualities 
 most contrary, bitter and sour, and rough and sharp, they pre- 
 pare sweetest honey for man. And these we also imitate. And 
 from those fields of your philosophy, so full of bitterness, we 
 provide the sweet honey for your salvation."— T^zeotZorei. Grcec. 
 Affec. Curat. 1. i. 
 
 " Philosophi, qui vocantur, si qua forte vera, et fidei nostra ac- 
 comoda dixerunt, non solum formidanda non sunt sed ab eis 
 etiam tanquam ab injustis possessoribus in usum nostrum vin- 
 dicanda. —St. August, de Doctrina Christi. 1. ii. 40. 
 
 It was not the hope which emanates from trust in 
 man, it was not the scepticism of affection,— incre- 
 dulous to the silence and the decay by which death 
 proclaims his jurisdiction and sets his seal upon the 
 cherished object,— that was generated in the soul of 
 Fudens, and at length found utterance upon his hps 
 as he interrupted the apostle with a profession of faith 
 in <-hrist's divinity, and in his own power, as vicegerent 
 ol the Redeemer who had taken pity on the widowed 
 mother of Nairn, to restore his son to his embrace. 
 
 Adorned by many virtues, Servihus Pudens was pecu- 
 liarly distinguished for his hospitahties. His domes- 
 tics and the retainers of his palace, had it in command 
 to welcome the stranger, and to dispense his bounty 
 treely to those who came for sustenance to his gates • 
 but It was himself who had discharged these kindly 
 offices for St. Peter. His feehngs, attuned to more 
 exquisite sensibility than usual by domestic sorrow, 
 Had been powerfully affected at beholding the marks of 
 violence and indignity still fresh upon the meek form 
 ot the apostle as he presented himself at his gates; and 
 bow it was he could not imagine, but a glow of in- 
 eftable comfort seemed to play around his heart, when 
 the venerable pilgrim pronounced the benediction of 
 
82 
 
 ROME. 
 
 peace upon his house. He took him by the hand 
 with a cordiahty which told his welcome, had him 
 treated with the tenderest sohcitude, and placed him 
 amongst his own chosen guests, where the apostle, 
 unnoticed and in silence, had listened to the con- 
 ference of the patricians, noting the vicissitudes of 
 hope and despondency as they passed across their 
 souls, like alternations of sunshine and gloom. 
 
 When Caius Cassius bore down like a black tem- 
 pest, it was Pudens alone who strove to make head 
 against him, maintaining that, if the reasons urged 
 against hope were powerful, there were also strong 
 arguments against despair; and sternly refusing to 
 acquiesce in atheism, or to beheve that a universe, so 
 full of order as to fill us with admiration to whatever 
 side we turn, is undirected by a Providence. 
 
 " Who," he cried, " can suggest a single improve- 
 ment in the great fabric of creation ? No mortal shall 
 ever be able to suggest a single one, and should any 
 one madly make the attempt, he shall not mend but 
 make things worse, and prove that his own notions 
 were incongruous, for, — ' Whatever is is best.' * 
 
 " Now, if all parts of the universe be so constituted 
 and governed as that it would not be possible to con- 
 ceive how they could be better adapted both for 
 utihty and effect, how can the conclusion be resisted, 
 that there exists a supremely wise all -provident Intel- 
 ligence ? Art effects nothing without the direction of 
 mind ; how then shall nature do without it ? Bring 
 a machine so constructed as to represent the heavenly 
 bodies with all their various and comphcated motions ; 
 do as Posidonius, the mutual friend of Cicero and 
 Csesar, did, when the latter first invaded Britam, ex- 
 hibit an orrery to a savage people, and will they be of 
 opinion, think you, that the wondrous art which has 
 mimicked the revolutions of the celestial spheres was 
 constructed without the aid of reason ? And shall 
 an ingenuity divine be attributed to Archimedes, on 
 * " Ex eis enim naturis quae erant, quod effici potuit optimum 
 effectum est."— Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. ii. 87. 
 
ROME. 
 
 83 
 
 account of a puerile attempt at imitation, while it is 
 denied that a Deity was required to form the vast 
 original ? 
 
 ** Thus no matter to what side we turn — no matter 
 in what order of things we institute research — every- 
 where we are met by evidences, that all things are 
 admirably administered by divine wisdom, with a view 
 to the general advantage, and for the conservation of all. 
 
 gain," he continued, " we naturally inquire 
 for whom this stupendous universe was fabricated? 
 Was it for the plants, or for the trees, or for the 
 brute creation? — Then, for whom? Evidently for 
 that being, who, by the power of reason, can 
 convert all these things to his own use and plea- 
 sure. But the complete dominion of the earth 
 and of all its resources resides obviously in man, 
 and in man alone. The plains are ours, ours are 
 the mountains; we enjoy the rivers and the lakes; 
 the harvests yield their abundance for us, the trees 
 their mellow fruits ; we, by irrigating streams, impart 
 fecundity to the sterile lands, repulse the invading 
 flood, direct the river, turn aside the torrent ; and, 
 with plastic art, essay, and not in vain, from the rude 
 and old, to form a new and more elaborate nature. As, 
 therefore, we may presume that Athens was built for 
 the Athenians, and Lacedemon for the Spartans, and 
 as all things in these cities are properly said to belong 
 to these respective nations, why not conclude that 
 man is the chartered citizen of the universe ? Stu- 
 pendous creature ! endowed with foresight, sagacity, 
 with such multifarious faculties, of such amazing 
 subtlety, with recollection so imperishable, with pleni- 
 tude of intelligence and of wisdom, what a won- 
 drous being is that living thing denominated Man 
 Evidently he is not of the * adstricti glebce'— a mere 
 tiller of the clod, a predial serf. He looks rather like 
 a spectator standing upon the world, erect, subUme, 
 directing his gaze towards heaven, and capable of com- 
 
 * This is Cicero's definition ; I think it is in the second book " De 
 Legib." 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 ROME. 
 
 prehending the power of God and the glory of his works. 
 The stupendous exhibition of the universe — a spectacle 
 which has no interest for any other creature — was mani- 
 festly prepared for him. His must be therefore some 
 transcendent destiny. Of all living beings, so varied 
 in nature and in kind, he alone participates in the 
 reason and intelUgence of the Divinity. Reason, there- 
 fore, the most excellent of all attributes, being com- 
 mon to man and to the gods, between them there 
 must be society. Now, right reason being a law, it 
 follows that a community of law exists between gods 
 and men. Again, those who are associated in laws 
 have reciprocal and common rights — relations from 
 which what is called fellow-citizenship results. It 
 may be said, that it is furthermore required that they 
 be subjects of the same jurisdiction and authority ; 
 and are they not ? To that incomprehensible Majesty 
 that fills the heavens, to that divine Intelligence, to 
 that supreme God, are they not all equally subject ? 
 So that this wonderful universe is to be considered as 
 the common country of gods and men; and as, in 
 earthly states, the relationship of famihes regulates 
 the distinctions of the various orders and their privi- 
 leges, so in this magnificent commonwealth, a similar 
 bond and standard is not wanting ; for man is united 
 to the gods, as it were, by consanguinity and a com- 
 mon birth. 
 
 " Hence, of all the various species of living creatures 
 upon earth, man alone recognises the Divinity ; and, 
 amongst mankind, there is no tribe so untamed, so 
 savage, as not to be impressed with the conviction, 
 gross and incongruous if you vi^ill, but still with the 
 instinct, that there is a God, a dogma which the soul 
 derives from the recollection of the origin from which 
 it sprung. Again, virtue in man and God is identical ; 
 for virtue is nothing else than nature uncontaminated, 
 unimpaired, and brought to consummate perfection, 
 (' Est igitur homini cum Deo similitude.') — Therefore, 
 man is like unto God, And this being the case, what 
 more proximate and authentic relationship can be 
 
ROME. 
 
 85 
 
 established between two beings ? On this account it 
 is that Nature ministers with such lavish abundance 
 to all our wants and pleasures. Hence it is, that, while 
 the Creator has abandoned other animals, as abject 
 and solely intent to pasture on the vile sod they 
 trample, to man he has given a front sublime, and in- 
 spired him to look to heaven as to the domicile of his 
 extraction. 
 
 "If man exhibited nothing beyond the phenomena 
 of mere vitality, or instinct, we might suppose him to 
 be subject to the same law with the plant that lives, 
 and with the brute that feels ; but besides these, he is 
 gifted with powers the most diversified and astonish- 
 ing; and first of all with memory, infinite in its 
 capacity, which Plato calls the recollection of that 
 primceval state of being, from which the soul is supposed 
 for some trespass or other, to have been degraded. 
 
 " Think you, was his nature a mere concretion of 
 brute matter, who invented a nomenclature for the 
 various objects in creation ? — a thing which Pythagoras 
 always regarded as one of the greatest exploits of wis- 
 dom; or his who tamed and civihzed the prowling 
 savage ? or his, in fine, who by a few little letters de- 
 fined all varieties of articulate sounds, apparently so 
 infinite ? 
 
 " Plato, in Timeus, shows that to construct the world 
 required a god, how then could Archimedes have imi- 
 tated this system of revolving orbs, unless inspired by 
 a principle divine ? Poesy too, methinks, requires a 
 celestial inspiration, or heavenly instinct ; and philo- 
 sophy, the parent of all arts, what else is it but what 
 Plato calls it, the gift of the gods, or rather as Marcus 
 Tullius terms it, their invention ? 
 
 " I envy not the deities of Ida their draughts of 
 nectar, ministered by Ganymede. These are poetic 
 fictions, propensities of mortals bestowed by Homer 
 upon the immortal gods; but to feel instinct with 
 divine intelligence, to see with the mind's vision, to 
 descry new creations dawning at the fiat of imagina- 
 tion ; by memory to be as if from all eternity, these are 
 
86 
 
 ROME. 
 
 attributes unquestionably celestial, and such as con- 
 stitute the soul (according to the bold expression of 
 Euripides) a god.^ 
 
 It is now esteemed no trifling exploit to have seen 
 the sluices of Pontus, and to have visited even the 
 straits of Hercules, 
 
 'Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividitunda.' 
 
 What a spectacle, then, will it be to behold the whole 
 world at once ! to mark its situation, observe its form, 
 measure its circumference, and to survey its boundless 
 regions, cultivated and peopled with myriads, and also 
 its vast solitudes, inhabited only by eternal winter or 
 intolerable heat ! 
 
 " When, therefore, our hour to depart from this life 
 shall come — a thing which seems decreed for all — 
 joyfully, and with thanksgiving, let us obey, convinced 
 that we are liberated from a prison and that our bonds 
 and fetters are struck off ; — that thus emancipated 
 we may either return to- that eternal country, which so 
 many evidences demonstrate to he our native home, or 
 to that annihilation, in which our afflictions with our 
 consciousness may find an end ! And even though this 
 latter alternative should be our destiny, still let us 
 magnanimously hail as auspicious that day, which to 
 others comes gloomed with boding, satisfied that 
 nothing is really evil which the immortal gods have 
 decreed, and which is approved of by nature, our ten- 
 der mother. For it is not from blind chance that we 
 are sprung, nor was it by fortuitous accident we were 
 created ; there is nothing true, or the human race is 
 verily and indeed (' profecto') the master-work of 
 an agency (' vis') omnipotent and all-wise ; nor did 
 such a being generate man, and foster him tenderly, 
 and bring him up with solicitude to a noble degree of 
 perfection, that, when he had gloriously achieved his 
 mighty labours, he might sink into the eternal misery 
 of death.f Nay, let us rather beUeve that he has pro- 
 
 * " Ergo animus ut ego dico, divinus est, ut Euripides audetdicere 
 — Deus."— Cic. Tusc. Qucest.L i. 24, 63. 
 
 •j- " Incideret in mortis malum sempiternum." 
 
ROME. 
 
 87 
 
 vided for us a port and an asylum of rest. Thither, may 
 it be our lot calmly to glide without sail or oar along 
 the smooth majestic current of existence. But even 
 should adversity drive us out to be buffeted by tem- 
 pests upon the faithless deep, it is but to retard us 
 after a little trial, for, sooner or later, thither we all 
 shall come." 
 
 These arguments, taken almost word for word from 
 Cicero, (by whom they had been borrowed from the 
 Greeks, and from Plato in particular, who in his turn 
 derived them from intercourse with the Pythagoreans 
 of Magna Grsecia, and directly from the priests of 
 Egypt, during his sojourn in that realm of " old tra- 
 dition,") had long been familiar to every one who lis- 
 tened to the venerable senator ; yet, never before had 
 they such power to move them to conviction ; for, 
 with such impassioned energy did this afflicted father 
 wield every topic, caught up at random, to ward off 
 from his child a stroke of destiny more dreaded than 
 that which had laid him lifeless at his feet, that the 
 patricians no longer regarded this question as a mere 
 scholastic thesis suited for the display of sophistry 
 and eloquence, but as the death-struggle of a fond 
 parent to rescue his cherished offspring from ghastly 
 ruin, not as to the mortal but as to the immortal part. 
 It was a spectacle sublime as it was heart-rending, to 
 see him, with form august yet broken with adversity as 
 that of Priam, pleading and as if supplicating, not for 
 his child's dead body, but for his immortality. Infected 
 by his enthusiasm as he spoke, their souls, so sceptical 
 before, began to catch glimpses of the Elysium which 
 he depicted ; but too soon, alas ! the brilliant mirage 
 melted from a desert strewed with grim realities, with 
 the trophies of the " universal conqueror," sepulchres 
 and fragments of epitaph and urn — skeletons and scat- 
 tered bones, and, in the foreground, yawning graves, 
 and corses putrefying in every stage of dissolution ! 
 The arguments of the Epicurean overwhelmed him. 
 In despite of every art and power of persuasion, despair 
 sat down like a night-mare upon each breast. Death 
 
«8 
 
 ROME. 
 
 they knew to be a fact. For the termination of life, 
 under one form of being, they had a certainty tangible 
 and overpowering, a conviction from which there was no 
 escape ; whereas, for the assumption that life was to he 
 perpetuated, resumed, under other and more enviable 
 auspices in futurity , they had nothing hut gratuitous con- 
 jectures, instinctive longings, traditions, immemorial and 
 universal, but still surcharged by obvious fables, or but 
 mere theoretical congruities. But guarantees of ma- 
 terials far more sterUng than these were needed to hold 
 hope upon her anchorage ; under the slightest trials 
 these gave way like gossamer. Of knowledge, "scientia," 
 they had abundance ; what they wanted was authority. 
 To calm its fears, and give it a hold upon immortality, 
 tangible as that with which itself was clutched by death, 
 the soul required to hear, to see, and by every sense to test 
 the resurrection of one whom it had beheld departing, 
 through agony and death, to that same realm of mystery 
 from which " no one had yet returned." 
 
 Scarcely had he ceased to speak when this insidious 
 dread glided into the bosom even of the wretched fa- 
 ther, and coiled itself round his throbbing heart. The 
 feeling was insufferable. Hope struggled against the 
 tightening folds of its destroyer, but in vain. The de- 
 lirium of despair was ready to seize his brain, when 
 the apostle rose up, and his words descended upon the 
 spirit of the afflicted father, like the accents of the 
 angel upon Hagar in the wilderness. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 '* Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 
 Languescit moriens ; lassove papavera collo 
 Deinisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur." 
 
 Mneid. 1. ix. 435. 
 " His snowy neck reclines upon his breast 
 Like a fair flower by the keen share oppress'd — 
 Like a white poppy sinking on the plain. 
 Whose heavy head is overcharged with rain." 
 
 Dryden's Transl. 
 
 Followed by the guests, the afflicted Pudens led 
 the apostle to where the nuptials of death were cele- 
 brated. The boisterous revel paused for a moment, 
 as the patrician moved along the brilliant galleries 
 and through the halls of the vast palace, spread with 
 banqueting and crowded with feasting multitudes. 
 But again it rushed on and resounded like a tempest, 
 after the lull of an instant, or like a torrent which 
 becomes more ungovernable by being checked. 
 
 Purchased sympathy, and lamentation without grief 
 were at their orgies in the sanctuary of death itself. 
 The senator waved his hand — the giddy dance stood 
 still — the pantomime looked grave — the timbrel, the 
 madrigal and the flute were hushed — and every eye 
 escorted the broken-hearted father, as he led the 
 apostle towards the dead body of his child. 
 
 The boy was habited as on a holiday, and reclined 
 on a glittering couch, as if reposing after the toils of 
 sport. A stole of flowers fell from his shoulders over 
 his white and beauteous costume ; the lily and the 
 rose were twined with the clustering ringlets of his 
 hair ; but their bloom only served to deepen the 
 shadows that overcast that countenance, so lately 
 beaming with candid joy. Every lineament was now 
 steeped in the noisome mildew of the grave. That 
 
90 
 
 ROME. 
 
 form which used to move in all the martial sports and 
 exercises of Roman boyhood, with agility and grace 
 that enchanted every beholder, was now motionless as 
 a Parian statue. That eye, so full of Roman majesty 
 and ambition, was shrouded in eternal night. The lips 
 of his Son, already livid and conglutinated with the 
 slime of dissolution, were unable to utter even one 
 syllable of comfort to the afflicted father, as he bent 
 over the wreck of all his most cherished hopes. 
 
 Grace chastens and elevates without extirpating the 
 affections. While at a distance, absorbed in lofty spe- 
 culations, and under the excitement of the apostle's 
 inspired words, the patrician had felt a glow of hope 
 around his heart ; but when he gazed upon the figure 
 of his child, lapsing with awful rapidity to decay, he 
 wrung his hands and shook his aged head in token 
 of despair, as he turned his streaming eyes on the 
 apostle. 
 
 By this time the noble spouse of Pudens, Claudia, 
 not less celebrated for her beauty than her birth as 
 the daughter of Caractacus, distracted with woe and 
 followed by the chief kindred and friends of their illus- 
 trious lineage, arrived, with the lovely Pudentina and 
 Praxede, at the scene of grief.*" The heart-broken 
 mother could not endure the sight,, and swooned in 
 the arms of her attendants ; while the fair children 
 commenced a piteous wailing; — they called upon 
 Timotheus to awake ; they took him by the marble 
 hand with fondness, and after again and again conjuring 
 him by name, as if he still lived, they drew the apostle 
 by the garments towards the bier, praying him to 
 
 * '* It is not unlikely that Caractacus contracted a second mar- 
 riage while in Rome with some lady about the court, whom the 
 British historians called Gervissa, and exalt to the honour of being 
 daughter to Claudius himself. What seems certain is, that Carac- 
 tacus' daughter Claudia, who like her father changed her name in 
 honour of the emperor, continued at Rome, and was married to the 
 senator Pudens, where she was celebrated for her beauty and virtue 
 by the poet Martial, and commended by St. Paul amongst the chief 
 saints of the Roman church." (This point to be further noticed 
 hereafter.) — Right Rev. Dr. Milner's Hist, of Winchester, p. 31. 
 
ROME. 
 
 91 
 
 awake their brother, and St. Peter looking on them 
 burst into tears. 
 
 The guests, who had now assembled from all quar- 
 ters and beheld the distressing scene, began to murmur 
 and cast looks of menace at the apostle, whose emo- 
 tion passed for the trepidation of an unveiled impostor. 
 The malediction was brewing upon many a tongue ; 
 many an arm was already nerved to seize the hypocrite 
 who dared to trifle with the sorrows of a noble family, 
 when St. Peter serenely elevated his eyes and hands in 
 prayer to Heaven. 
 
 Whoever in youth has been a pilgrim through the 
 glowing south shall hardly be lonesome in old age. 
 Memory shall have many a verdant spot whereon to 
 retire during the pilgrimage over life's desert in after 
 years — associates from whom neither despotism, nor 
 age, nor death can separate it — reveries celestial and 
 refreshing as the vision which came upon fugitive 
 Israel as he slept. But amongst his reminiscences, 
 none shall be more brilliant, or like the coming of the 
 Deity to judgment, than that of sunrise among the 
 Apennines ; where morning does not steal through the 
 imperceptible degrees of twilight, but, after a moment's 
 hesitation on the mountain-tops, bursts in full splen- 
 dour over the entire landscape, which lives and laughs 
 in the vivifying brightness, suddenly. And thus it was 
 that life, balmy and refulgent, dawned " like the blush- 
 ing morn" over the dead body of the youth. He 
 breathed, he panted with exuberant sensation ; he 
 bounded from the bier, like an angel from his rest ; 
 and his voice, fragrant and musical as nature's matin 
 song, broke out. 
 
 It was long before rapture and astonishment, dis- 
 tracted with ecstasy about the youth, could spare one 
 thought to him who had restored him to animation. 
 The parents embraced their child, and pressed him 
 alternately to their bosoms, as if beside themselves 
 with joy. They bathed his warm cheeks, by turns, 
 with gushing tears and the most passionate caresses, 
 then gazed upon him, as if incredulous with delight, 
 
92 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and again pressed him anew with redoubled emotion 
 to their hearts. His sisters folded their Parian arms 
 round him, and looking up, with tears which reflected 
 the radiant affection of their brother's smile, upbraided 
 him with their sorrow and made him promise not to 
 die again. 
 
 The revellers who had Ungered behind now rushed 
 with tumultuous precipitation to the scene of wonder. 
 The dance fell into anarchy — the lute dropped from the 
 musician's hand, and the goblet from the hp of the 
 voluptuary — the gamester abandoned the dice, the 
 gourmand the banquet — the player who had hastened 
 back to the audience, vociferous for his return, when he 
 made his exit, stood aghast upon the stage, in the pre- 
 sence of the spectral solitude — and the drunkard, whom 
 the din of mirth had lulled to sleep, was startled into 
 consciousness by the abrupt silence that reigned in 
 the banquet-hall. 
 
 Joy, wonder, bewilderment, ecstasy, assumed a 
 thousand attitudes, and the murmur of those who be- 
 held the miracle was varied as the sound of the harp 
 when its chords are swept by the winds of heaven. 
 Even callous scepticism was confounded to see how 
 long the mirage lasted. The timid ghded forward 
 to see, and, when they beheld the delightful certainty, 
 trembled, and with faint shrieks shrunk back as from 
 an apparition. The aged lifted up their withered hands 
 in impotent amaze ; stern manhood seized his beard, 
 and, setting himself firmly on the earth, peered sted- 
 fastly from under knitted brows, as if determined 
 that neither creduhty nor legerdemain should fool his 
 intellect. The bacchanal, with the ivy tangled in his 
 dishevelled hair and reehng from his cups, drew a hand 
 across his unsteady vision — the whirl of intoxication 
 stopt, undulated for an instant, and, looking upon him, 
 living, who had been dead, he grew sober from asto- 
 nishment. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 For when Fortune, winged and fond of wandering as she is, having 
 passed in succession from the Assyrians, the Medes and Persians, 
 and Macedonians, after tarrying with each for a little while, at 
 length alighted on the hanks of the Tiber, she descended from 
 her slippery globe and entered this city, as if resolved to make 
 it her abode for ever." — Plutarch. 
 
 Tempore quo primis auspiciis in mundanum fulgorem surgeret 
 viciura dum erunt homines Roma, ut augeretur sublimibus incre- 
 mentis fcedere pads ceternce, Virtus convenit atque Fortuna," 
 &c. — Am. Marcel. 1. xiv. 6. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Where is the rock of triumph, the high place 
 Where Rome embraced her heroes ? Where the steep 
 Tarpeian ? Fittest goal of treason's race — 
 The promontory whence treason's leap 
 Cured all ambition." 
 
 Next morning about the third hour, the patrician 
 conducted St. Peter to the capitol.*" 
 
 The foundations of this fortress, so renowned as the 
 shrine and citadel of Roman power, were laid by Tar- 
 quinius Prisons in fulfilment of a vow made during 
 the Sabine war — upon a scale of grandeur, however, 
 more commensurate with the auguries he had formed 
 of Rome's future greatness, than with the resources 
 of the infant state. The work was continued by 
 Servius Tullius, at the expense of the Latin allies; 
 and Tarquin the Proud devoted to the same purpose 
 the rich spoils of Suessa Pometia, which he had taken 
 by assault. But the glory of completing it was ap- 
 propriately reserved for the era of liberty. After 
 the expulsion of the kings, its dedication was cele- 
 brated in the second consulate of Horatius Pulvillus ; 
 and on so grand a scale had this undertaking been exe- 
 cuted, that the opulence of after ages was exhausted 
 in merely completing its embellishments.! It was 
 
 * So called because when the foundations of it were laid, a human 
 head is said to have heen found, (caput OlivelToli cujusdam,) with 
 the face entire, — " facie Integra." — Livy, 1. 38, 55. Dionys. iv. 59. 
 Servius, Virg. JEn. viii. 345. 
 
 ■f The very gilding of it is said to have cost 12,000 talents, i.e. 
 £1,976,250. — Plutarch, Popl. The gates were of brass, and the 
 tiles gilt.— Tir^r. yEw. viii. 348. Pliny, xxxiii. 3. Hor. Od. iii. 343. 
 
96 
 
 ROME. 
 
 destroyed by fire when L. Scipio and C. Norbano 
 were consuls, four hundred and twenty -five years after 
 its foundation, and immediately commenced again upon 
 the original sub-structures. Sylla, when he assumed 
 the dictatorship, charged himself to complete it ; but 
 this alone was wanting to his felicity, that he did not 
 live to officiate at its dedication — an honour reserved 
 for Lutatius Catulus, whose name was still emblazoned 
 on a monument transcending the proudest erections 
 of the Csesars, when it was surveyed by the apostle 
 on his way to the Tarpeian tower.* 
 
 This sanctuary of Roman rehgion, which had been 
 preserved from profanation even when the Gauls had 
 reduced all the rest of the city to ashes, became the 
 common temple of the nations as they were sub- 
 dued in succession. Thither had been carried, in 
 the triumphal processions of successive conquerors, 
 the deities of the whole world; so that the capitol 
 came to be regarded as the chief seat of Jupiter 
 and the immortal gods, rather than Ida or Olympus. 
 Besides the shrines allotted to the captive deities, 
 there stood the hut of Romulus thatched with straw, 
 and the temple of Terminus, (who refused to give way 
 even to Jove,) open at the top, " that he might see 
 nothing above him but the stars. "f But the great 
 temple of Rome and of the world was that of Jupiter, 
 with the temple of Minerva on the right, and that of 
 Juno on the left. It was before its altar that the con- 
 querors came to prostrate themselves in thanksgiving, 
 for having slaughtered whole armies, and subdued na- 
 tions, and rased great cities to the ground ; and the 
 golden roofs, the aisles, and colonades were hung and 
 adorned with trophies that seemed infinite in number, 
 and beyond all price. | It was here also the solemn 
 auguries were made — the Sibylline books preserved 
 and consulted — here sacrifices were immolated by the 
 
 * " Arx quod sit locus munitissimus urbis." — Varro. See Tacit. 
 Ann. 1. iii. 72. 
 
 t " Se supra ne quid nisi sidera cernat."— Oij/cZ. Fast. ii. 671. 
 X Virgil, ^n. vii. 174, et seq. 
 
ROME. 
 
 97 
 
 senate and the Roman people, before any great enter- 
 prise was undertaken to arrest disaster, or to crown 
 their rejoicings for success. 
 
 Innumerable were the objects of wonder that had 
 accosted the strangers that morning at almost every 
 step of their progress from the palace of the senator 
 in the street of Patricians, across the fashionable 
 quarter of the Suburra ; but all the rest seemed insig- 
 nificant when they entered the Roman forum.* To 
 Rome what Rome was to the world, all the glories 
 of the illustrious living and of the illustrious dead 
 seemed congregated there. Public buildings of the 
 most superb description enclosed it upon three sides ; 
 on the fourth, the temples of Saturn, (for the treasury,) 
 of Fortune, and of Jove the Thunderer standing on 
 the clivus, or declivity of the capitol, seemed to pre- 
 side over the dehberations of the Roman people, and 
 to hail the conqueror as he approached through a suc- 
 cession of triumphal arches along the " via sacra ; " the 
 temples, towers, brazen portals, and embattled ' walls 
 of the capitol formed the back ground of the picture. 
 
 The mamertine, or state prison — the great pubhc 
 offices for the several departments of imperial admin- 
 istration — the basihcas, or courts of judicature — the 
 halls of audience for embassies — the curiae f where the 
 
 * " Patricius vicus Romae, dictus eo quod ibi Patricii habitave- 
 runt, jubente Servio Tullio, ut si quid molirentur adversus, ex locis 
 superioribus opprimerentur."— i^esiws. This street ran between the 
 Vnninal and ^squiline hills. 
 
 f That the deliberations might be more solemn, the senate house 
 in Rome could only be a temple, or consecrated place. — Gell. xiv. 7. 
 Virgil, {Mneid. vii. 174,) identifies the great temple of Laurentuni 
 with the curia :— " hoc illis curia templum." In the lines following 
 
 will be seen the manner in which such places were decorated : 
 
 " Quin etiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum 
 Antique e cedro, Italusque, paterque Sabinus 
 Viti sator, curvam servans sub imagine falcem ; 
 Saturnusque senex, Janique bifrontis imago, 
 Vestibulo astabant ; aliique ab origine reges, 
 Martia qui ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi. 
 Multaque prseterea sacris in postibus arma, 
 Captivi pendent currus, curvaeque secures, 
 Et cristtecapitum," &c. &c. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ROME. 
 
 senate met — the nymphsea dedicated to Verms— the 
 temples of the heroes, conquerors, and tutelary deities 
 of Rome were all disposed in order round about it ; 
 and over its area were scattered, in august confusion, 
 trophies of victories beyond number — the monuments 
 of the patriotism, the valour, and pristine piety of 
 many renowned generations. 
 
 SHghtly elevated above the plain of the forum, like 
 the dais or tribune of a temple, was to be seen the 
 comitium, or place of meeting of the populus, or great 
 council of the burghers, in the earUest times of the 
 republic ; and at its extremity, facing the curia, or 
 senate-house, stood the rostrum, now a stage or plat- 
 form of marble, but in its origin a mere bank or 
 mound of earth. It took its name from the trophy 
 formed of the rostra or galley-beaks of the Cartha- 
 ginian ships taken by Duilius, the first of the Romans 
 who gained a victory by sea. Within the comitium 
 was the black stone, which marked, according to one 
 tradition, the grave of Faustulus, the foster-father of 
 Romulus ; according to another, that of Romulus him- 
 self. There was the statue of Attius Navius, the 
 famous augur ; and there, too, was the sacred fig-tree 
 under whose shade the wolf had given suck to the two 
 twins, Romulus and Remus — removed by the power of 
 Attius Navius, (so said the story), from its origmal 
 place under the Palatine, that it might stand in the 
 midst of the meetings of the Roman people. Here 
 were the Sibyls, one of the oldest works of Roman 
 art. Here also were the small figures of the Roman 
 ambassadors who had been slain at Fidense by the 
 Veientian king, Tolumnius ; and here, too, at the edge 
 of the comitium, where it joined the forum, were the 
 statues which the Romans, at the command of the 
 Delphian oracle, had erected in honour of the wisest 
 and bravest of the Greeks— the statues of Pythagoras 
 and Alcibiades. 
 
 In the open space of the forum itself might be seen 
 an altar which marked the spot once occupied by the 
 Cursian pool. Hard by grew the three sacred trees 
 
ROME. 
 
 99 
 
 of the eldest known civilization — the fig, the vine, and 
 the olive. Further towards the capitol were the eques- 
 trian statues of C. Msenius and L. Camillus, the con- 
 queror of the Latins.* 
 
 Beside the testimonials of recent victories in Parthia 
 and Britain, stood the rude trophies which attested 
 in obsolete characters, and in a dialect intelligible only 
 to the archaiologist— the earliest successes in Sabinia 
 and over Latin cities, long ago obliterated by suburban 
 gardens— upon those few roods of space, there was to 
 be found some emblem of dominion over every people 
 from the Euphrates to the Western Ocean— from the 
 cataracts of the Nile and the Lybian deserts to the 
 icy fastnesses of the north. 
 
 From the portentous conferences between the pub- 
 licans, or farmers of the taxes, and the great represen- 
 tatives of the monied interest, chiefly of the equestrian 
 order, and from the concourse and bustle on the upper 
 gallery of the colonnade which ran round the forum on 
 three sides, it might be guessed what torrents of wealth 
 were incessantly pouring in from the exhaustless pro- 
 vmces ;t yet, the aspect of despair and intense distress, 
 m many instances characterising the profligate multi- 
 tudes that thronged round the counters of the usurers 
 (argentarii) underneath, too painfully evinced the fact, 
 that destitution liirked among the golden palaces ; 
 that the tribute of a subject world could not satisfy the 
 appetites of that enormous city : and, that vice and 
 dissipation could not escape from the pursuit of dis- 
 grace and misery, even amongst its glittering millions, 
 its baths, its amphitheatres, and never ending fes- 
 tivals. 
 
 Advocates pleaded, and judges sat in the basiUcas 
 
 ^ * Arnold's Rome, vol. ii. ch. xxxvi. " Delle statue, che n'erano 
 e incredibile la quantity, molte delle quali si leggono in Plinio e in 
 altn scrittori ; onde ben poti stupirne Costantio, sicome scrive Am- 
 miano, 1. 16."~Nardini, 1. v. c. ii. p. 220. 
 
 t The colonnades, originally destined to afford a view of the 
 gladiatorial fights and other holiday sports, which used to take 
 place in the forum, were converted to the use above described, after 
 amphitheatres were erected. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 ROME. 
 
 to dispense the laws the stern lictors, some of them 
 lolling ahout the statue of Marsyas,t were in attend- 
 ance to execute the sentence. Among the groups 
 scattered in all directions, might be seen the candidate 
 conspicuous for his snowy robe, and the philosopher 
 with formal beard and pompous air — each eloquent in 
 self-commendation and equally earnest in their can- 
 vass — one for votes, the other for disciples. Some 
 congregated to read the advertisements and proclama- 
 tions, suspended on tablets or placards round the 
 temples and pubUc buildings, or to discuss the daily 
 news; others preferred to listen and applaud round 
 the rostra, while crowds, eager for intelligence from 
 the frontier camps and scenes of foreign conquest, 
 awaited the arrival of the couriers pouring in in hot 
 haste, continually, from quarters as different and chmes 
 as distant as those from which blow the free and fickle 
 winds. Effeminate idlers, some carried by tall Arme- 
 nian slaves in lecticas or palanquins, perused a book, or 
 took notes as they lolled at ease ; others rode in chariots 
 of bronze and ivory, which pursued spontaneously, 
 rather than were drawn by any effort of antelope-like 
 creatures, combining the docility of the stall with the 
 wildness of the desert ; others, seeming to disdain the 
 very earth they trod, lounged about, bedecked in the 
 most briUiant silks painted and embroidered with flow- 
 ers, birds, and beasts after the most grotesque fashions. 
 
 The " gens togata" lay basking in the sun round 
 the porticos, bantering the passers by, or brawling 
 about rival gladiators and charioteers ; while they 
 awaited their rations from the pubhc stores previous 
 to their adjourning to the baths and theatres, but 
 above all to that circus which, with them, absorbed 
 every feeling which their ancestors were wont to con- 
 secrate to country and to home. 
 
 * For a description of these edifices, see Gell's Pompeiana, vol. 
 ii. p. 214. 
 
 \ Near the Rostra stood the statue of Marsyas, set up as a warn- 
 ing to the litigious ; and in the same vicinity, slaves and thieves, or 
 fraudulent debtors, used to be tortured and punished. 
 
ROME. 
 
 101 
 
 Foreigners of every garb and complexion were either 
 gazing around in vacant admiration,* or absorbed in 
 examining, sometimes with sighs and stealthy tears, 
 the arches of triumph and the trophies, with relievi 
 and inscriptions, commemorative, it might be, of the 
 battles and sieges in which their own Hberties and 
 nationality had been cloven down. Regret was min- 
 gled with the admiration even of the degenerate 
 Greek, as he gazed upon the master-pieces of Phidias 
 and Praxiteles, torn away from Corinth and Athens 
 by the rude hand of conquest ; and the Dacian and 
 the Goth could ill suppress their curses and aspira- 
 tions for vengeance, in recognising, on arch and pillar, 
 the costume and hneaments of their own kindred, 
 fettered in marble and dragged along in the triumph, 
 or exposed on the arena to shed each other's blood for 
 the amusement of the conquerors. Embassies from 
 the remotest lands, and even mighty monarchs were 
 humbly awaiting their turn for audience at the portals 
 of the senate,! or anxious for the fate of their peti- 
 tions to be admitted among the freedmen of Rome. 
 Processions leading victims arrayed with flowers and 
 preceded by bands of instrumental music, and singers, 
 
 * Vide C. Tacit. Ann. 1. xiii. 54. Germans at the play in Rome ! 
 
 t Ammianus, 1. xvi., thus describes the city as surveyed by the 
 Emperor Constantius : — " Proinde Romam ingressus, imperii vir- 
 tutumque omnium larem, cum venisset ad rostra, perspectissimum 
 prises potentiae forum, obstupuit ; perque omne latus, quo se oculi 
 contulissent, miraculorum densitate perstrictus, allocutus nobilitatem 
 in curia, populumque pro tribunali, in palatium receptus favore 
 multiplici, Iselitia fruebatur optata. Deinde intra septem montium 
 cuhnina, per acclivitates, planiciemque posita urbis membra collus- 
 trans, et suburbana, quidquid erat primum, id eminere inter alia 
 cuncta sperabat. Jovis Tarpeii delubra quantum terrenis divina 
 prascellunt j lavacra in modura provinciarum extructa : Amphitheatri 
 molera solidatam lapidis Tiburtini compage : Pantheon veluti re- 
 gionem^ teretem, spaciosa celcistudinis fornicatam, elatosque vertice 
 scansilli suggestus consulum, et priorum principum imitamenta 
 portantes, et urbis templum forumque Pacis, et Pompeii theatrum, et 
 odeum, et stadium, aliaque inter haec decora urhis eternce." 
 
 " Verum cum ad Trajani forum venisset, singularem sub coelo 
 structuram, ut opinamur, etiam minimum assensione mirabilem 
 haerebat attonitus per giganteos contextus circumferens mentem, 
 nec relatu effabiles, nec rursus mortalibus appetendos." 
 
102 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and incense, wound up the clivus among the temples, 
 and flamens and haruspices standing at the altars 
 took the auguries — inspecting the palpitating entrails 
 of the victims — as they slew sheep and snow white 
 steers of Clitumnus to the " immortal gods." 
 
 There was not a frown upon the fair sky of Italy ; 
 not even a zephyr was abroad upon the air ; and the 
 towers and burnished domes of the "Eternal City" 
 responded gloriously to the matin salutations of the 
 sun, when the senator and the apostle looked out from 
 the summit of the Tarpeian tower, beethng at an awful 
 elevation above the Tiber.* 
 
 " O city of the new Jerusalem 1" exclaimed St. 
 Peter : " 6 capital of the King of kings, what must be 
 thy glory, since so indescribably magnificent is the 
 capital of this wretched earth !" 
 
 "Yes," observed the senator, exulting in the sur- 
 prise of the apostle, " great indeed have been the 
 deeds performed, the changes effected, upon the won- 
 derful scenes before you since they were first visited by 
 our Trojan ancestor ^neas. That hero is conducted 
 by our great poet on a voyage of discovery from the 
 Tiber's mouth; and the river — now oppressed with 
 the commerce of all countries — was startled by the 
 novel apparition of two painted galUes upon its waves, 
 — unaccustomed, at that time, to any image, save that 
 of the wild hunter, or of the overhanging woods. 
 
 ' Mirantur et undse 
 Miratur nemus insuetum fulgentia longe 
 Scuta virum fluvio pictasque innare carinos.'f 
 
 * The traveller, on being led to a part of the Campidaglio, from 
 which there is a fall of twenty or thirty feet into the back yard of 
 an old house, looking towards the modern city, or Campus Mar- 
 tius, is naturally surprised to learn from the Cicerone, that that 
 is the Tarpeian rock ; but, if he would make his way on to a 
 garden on a cliff over the Tiber, and, having built " a castle in the 
 air," get on the top of it, his notion would be very different of the 
 Traitor's Leap, and more in accord with history. 
 
 -f- " The woods and waters wonder at the gleam 
 
 Of shields and painted ships that stem the stream." 
 
 Drydens Transl. 
 
 " 1 insist, in behalf of my Romans, on the right of taking the 
 
ROME. 
 
 103 
 
 " Upon a meadow, down yonder," continued Pudens, 
 pointing to the narrow level between the Aventine 
 and the river side, " the shepherd -king Evander 
 was feasting and celebrating games in honour of 
 Hercules, when, to the great consternation of the 
 little state, the gallies of the Trojan chief are descried, 
 glittering with shield and helmet as they glided from 
 under the sylvan shade ; but the son of Anchises was 
 speedily recognised as a friend and ally, and welcomed 
 with regal hospitality. During the remainder of the 
 feast, the venerable monarch rehearsed the occurrences 
 which had brought him acquainted with the sire of 
 ^neas in his early manhood ; he dwelt with delight 
 upon each trifling incident, and displayed the che- 
 rished tokens of their mutual friendship.* 
 
 " But, as he returned to his regal hut upon the 
 Palatine where you now behold the palace of Caesar 
 towering to the very skies, the king described the sur- 
 rounding scenery to his guest, and, with the amiable 
 garrulity of old age, narrated many of the wild tradi- 
 tions of the place. This eminence where we stand, 
 now crowned with time-worn towers, and with domes 
 and roofs so justly termed ' aurea' by the poet, was 
 at that period overgrown with thickets ; wolves littered 
 in the caverns of its craggy sides, and a forest of super- 
 stitious gloom, extending from this tower to the 
 temple at the other extremity, added new horrors to 
 the legends which lone herdsmen and shepherds used 
 to tell about its haunted heights. 
 
 ' Some god they knew — wh^t god, they could not tell — ^ 
 Did there amidst the sacred horror dwell : 
 Th' Arcadians thought him Jove ; and said they saw 
 The mighty thund'rer with majestic awe, 
 Who shook his shield, and dealt his bolts around, 
 And scatter'd tempests on the teeming ground.' 
 
 "Look down," pursued the senator, ''upon that 
 scene below, crowded as it now is with the trophies 
 
 poetical features wherever they are to be found, when they have 
 dropt out of the common narrative." — Niebuhr, vol. i. note 561. 
 * Virgil, ^n. vii. 
 
104 
 
 ROME, 
 
 of seven hundred years, exhibiting testimonials of con- 
 quest commensurate with the world, — the centre of 
 civilization, — the great heart which imparts activity 
 and life to the administrative functions of boundless em- 
 pire, — the Roman forum was a pasture field, where the 
 kine ruminated and the heifer with her lowing aroused 
 the echoes of the surrounding woods and marshes, 
 when Evander crossed it with his Trojan guest.* 
 
 " The features of the scenery were unchanged when 
 Romulus laid the foundations of this ' Eternal City.'f 
 they were cemented with the blood of his twin brother 
 Remus, whom he slew for having bounded in derision 
 over the mound of earth with which he had fortified, 
 or rather fenced in, the summit of yonder Palatine. 
 
 " To collect a population — for Rome was as yet a 
 city but in name — he opened an asylum upon the 
 plain between the base of this citadel and the temple 
 of Jove, yonder. Presently, the umbrageous forest 
 which grew where now extends that field of marble, 
 became the rallying point for the malcontent, the out- 
 law, and for fugitives of every kind from the surround- 
 ing states ; and in this motley aggregation, from every 
 sept of Latium and Etruria, descendants of the Phry- 
 gians who came with ^Eneas, Arcadians, followers of 
 Evander, with other Hellenic or Pelasgian adventurers, 
 behold the progenitors of what has been called ' a 
 populace of kings.' 
 
 " Our first essay in war was with the Sabines, whose 
 virgin daughters our sires had seized by violence ; but, 
 
 * *' Passimque armenta videbant 
 
 Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire carinis." 
 " They view'd the ground of Rome's litigious hall, 
 (Once oxen low'd, where now the lawyers bawl.") 
 If called into court, it is to be apprehended Dryden would hardly 
 escape being sent to Newgate for his parenthesis. He libels the 
 poet laureate as well as the learned profession. 
 
 f " Remus prima victima fuit ; munitionemque urbis novae, san- 
 guine auo consecravit." — Florus, 1. i. 1. 
 
 " The festival called Lemuria, (Ovid. Fasti, v. 461 — 480,) was 
 instituted by the remorse of Romulus, to appease the shade of 
 Remus ; he also placed a vacant throne, with the insignia of roy- 
 alty, for his murdered brother." — Serv. in Mn. 
 
ROME. 
 
 10^ 
 
 through the intervention of these females, hostiUties 
 ended in the union of the two people ; and, having 
 organized his infant kingdom — thus augmented — the 
 author of the Roman name and dominion was said to 
 have been assumed, under the title of Quirinus, among 
 the gods.* 
 
 " He was succeeded by Pompilius. The exercise of 
 the sedentary and illiberal arts had been interdicted by 
 Romulus to all except aliens and slaves ; assigning to 
 the Romans agricultural occupations exclusively, and 
 the art of war as the only one worthy of free citizens jf 
 but Numa, on the other hand, devoted all his energies 
 to the introduction of religion, sacrifices, ceremonies, 
 of every thing, in short, appertaining to the worship 
 of the gods. He established the pontiffs, augurs, the 
 salii, and other orders of priesthood. By him the 
 year was divided into twelve months, the auspicious 
 were distinguished from the ill-omened days, and the 
 ancilia, or sacred bucklers, and the palladium, devised 
 as so many talismans of empire. He likewise insti- 
 tuted the two-faced Janus — pledge of peace and war ; 
 and the fire of Vesta, which, like the stars of heaven, 
 was supposed to keep eternal vigil over the destinies 
 of Rome, and to be tended by consecrated virgins. To 
 render these institutions more sacred in the eyes of 
 his rude subjects, he pretended that they had been 
 revealed to him by Egeria, the goddess of a neigh- 
 bouring fountain. No art was spared by him and by 
 the sages who succeeded him, to impress the popular 
 mind with religious awe, with a profound veneration 
 for oaths, omens, and responses ; with the conviction 
 
 * " Julius Proculus fidem fecit, visum a se Romu^ura affirmans, 
 augustiore forma, quam fuisset ; mandare praeterea, ut se pro 
 numine acciperent ; Quirinum in coelo vocari ; placitum diis, ut 
 gentium Roma potiretur." — Flori, Rer. Rom. Li. 1. 
 
 This imposture is of more importance in the history of Rome than 
 the conquest of Asia or Britain. It gives a complexion to the 
 annals of twelve centuries. The last representative of the prostrate 
 and expiring empire, of which the embryo is now before us, assumed 
 the name of Romulus Augustulus. 
 
 f Dion. Halicar. 
 
106 
 
 ROME. 
 
 that religion was paramount to every other influence 
 and interest ; that nothing, no matter how exalted, 
 was exempt from its jurisdiction ; and that nothing, 
 either in peace or war, in private or public transac- 
 tions, could be entered on, or ratified, legitimately, 
 but under its auspices. Every page of Roman history 
 affords a proof of the complete success of this system. 
 Those who have studied the causes of Roman greatness 
 most profoundly, and are admitted to have best com- 
 prehended the subject, are unanimous in assigning the 
 first place to the strong religious reverence and enthu- 
 siasm by which the people were thus combined in one 
 sacred league of patriotism, which nothing could dis- 
 organize, vanquish, or resist ; and by which the Patri- 
 cians, who ever kept this engine in their own hands, 
 were able to wield and direct the resistless force of the 
 democracy. So that Numa, rather than Romulus, 
 deserves to be regarded as the true founder of Roman 
 greatness.* 
 
 " Tullus Hostilius effected for military discipline as 
 much as his predecessor Pompilius had done for polity 
 and religion. Ancus Marcius, nephew and successor 
 of Tullus, girded the city with ramparts, banked out the 
 Tiber, which, till then, used frequently to wander from 
 its bed among the valleys, particularly of the Vellabrum 
 and of the great circus ; and, as if he foresaw that 
 Rome was one day to be the emporium of the nations, 
 he founded a colony at Ostia.f 
 
 " Tarquinius Priscus, of Corinthian extraction, com- 
 bined the erudition and arts of Etruria with Grecian 
 genius. He introduced the fasces, the trabea, rings, 
 
 * " Talche se si haresse a disputare, a quale principe Roma fusse 
 obligate a Romulo o a Numa, credo piutosto Numa atterebbe 11 primo 
 
 grado' Considerato adunque tutto, concbiudo, che la religione 
 
 introdotta da Numa, fu tra la prime cagioue della felicita di quella 
 citta." — Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tit.Liv. &c. 
 
 t " Prsesageiis animo futurum, ut totius mundi opes, et commeatus, 
 illo veluti maritimo urbis hospitio reciperentur." — Flori, Rer. Rom. 
 1. i. 4. 
 
 This testimony of Florus, as to the immense imports of Rome, 
 will help to throw light upon the true cause of its decline and fall. 
 
ROME. 
 
 107 
 
 curule chairs, caparisons for steeds, the various species 
 of toga — the striped or bordered, and the embroider- 
 ed ; the custom of harnessing four white horses to the 
 car of triumph ; and, in fine, the various badges and 
 insignia which are the becoming ornaments, if not 
 the essential appendages of jurisdiction. 
 
 " Servius TuUius governed the state with more equity 
 and wisdom than many who have succeeded to a 
 crown with better title, and is said to have meditated 
 the design of abdicating, in order to substitute a re- 
 publican form instead of monarchy. The first census 
 of the people was made by his order, and he registered 
 and regulated the entire commonwealth with as much 
 exactness as if it were a private family.* But, much 
 as Rome was indebted to him and his predecessors 
 for their virtues, it was far more beholden to the vices 
 of Tarquin the Proud ; because, by them, the Roman 
 people were as if exasperated into a rage for liberty.f 
 
 " ' Incredible,' says Sallust, ' were the strides made 
 by the country when it had gained its freedom. Then, 
 for the first time, the Roman youth began to acquire, 
 on the field of battle and in camps, that discipline and 
 skill in the use of arms, which hitherto they used to 
 learn on the Campus Martins. They rushed with 
 equal alacrity to the laborious duties of the pioneer, 
 and to the perils of the foremost ranks ; and a vehe- 
 ment love for brilliant armour and caparisons seemed 
 to have absorbed the other passions which usually 
 predominate at their age. To men inspired with such 
 
 * " Ab hoc populus Rom. relatus in censum, digestus in classes, 
 curiis atque collegiis distributus ; suramaque regis solertia ita est 
 ordinata respublica, ut omnia patrimonii, dignitatis, setatis, artium, 
 ofRciorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur, ac si maxima civitas 
 minimae domus diligentia contineretur. — Ubi sup. The importance 
 attributed by Florus to the census made by Servius, as one of the 
 moving powers by which the people effected their emancipation, is 
 not overrated. — " Actus a Servio census quid effecit, nisi ut ipsa se 
 nosceret respublica ?" 
 
 ■f " Postremo superbi illius importuna dominatio, nonnihil, immo 
 vel plurimum profecit. Sic enim effectum est ut agitatus injuriis 
 populus, cupiditate liberatis incenderetur." — Florus, uU sup. 
 
108 
 
 ROME. 
 
 heroism toil was but a pastime, forced marches over 
 the most rugged ground a recreation ; they stormed 
 heights seemingly inaccessible ; they never heeded the 
 number of their foes; nothing could resist their 
 valour. But of all their struggles, the fiercest was 
 that in which they contended for glory with one an- 
 other. Each burned to be the first to charge the 
 enemy, to scale the rampart ; and the glory of achieve- 
 ments such as these, they prized beyond all riches and 
 nobility.' 
 
 " Eternally harassed by the enemies who surrounded 
 them and who frequently carried war, simultaneously, 
 from opposite directions up to their very gates, how in- 
 numerable the disasters, how tremendous the resistance, 
 through which, during three centuries of incessant war- 
 fare, they fought their way from the ' pomoerium' to 
 the undisputed command of the fair realms between 
 the Alps and the straits of Sicily. At Cremera, the 
 flower of the nobility — an army of young patricians — 
 was annihilated; and, to the present day, the gate 
 through which they rode proudly forth to battle is 
 designated the accursed.* Our overthrow by the 
 Gauls, on the banks of the AUia, was a still more dire- 
 ful disgrace — the victors advanced to Rome and found 
 her gates without one defender ; yet never did Roman 
 virtue appear more sublime than in that extremity. 
 
 " With more than ordinary solemnity the conscript 
 fathers assembled in the forum, and there, while the 
 pontifex maximus officiated, devoted themselves to 
 the deities who preside over the shades of death. 
 Then each returning to his own house, and seating 
 himself in his senatorial robes upon the curule throne, 
 awaited in silent majesty the coming of the barbarians. f 
 
 * " Scelerato signatur nomine, quae proficientes in praslium porta 
 dimisit." L. i. 12. — This gate must have served as a striking land- 
 mark to tradition. Often as the people passed through it to the 
 elections, reviews, or festivals of the city, or as the burghers 
 went out to their farms or to the wars, the story of Cremera 
 was rehearsed by the old to the young, and by their, to the next 
 generation. 
 
 f Livy thus paints the scene : — " Adeo baud secus quam vene- 
 
ROME. 
 
 109 
 
 In the meantime, the priests and augurs either buried 
 the idols and sacred furniture of the temples, or car- 
 rying them with them, fled. It is recorded of one 
 Lucius Albinus a plebeian, so great was the piety of 
 that age, that he caused his own wife and children to 
 dismount from the vehicle on which he was hurrying 
 them away, in order to take up the vestal virgins ; 
 who, barefooted and unrespected in the panic and 
 confusion of that rout, were endeavouring to make 
 their escape with the sacred fire and regalia of the 
 goddess. With the exception of the capitol, magna- 
 nimously defended by Manlius and a handful of the 
 youth, scarcely a thousand men, the entire city was 
 levelled to the earth.* But we have to thank the gods 
 for a calamity which consumed the huts of our shep- 
 herd sires, and obliterated the poverty of our origin ; 
 while, with such fury did the country rise up from her 
 prostration, that she became more irresistible than 
 ever ; and, led on by Manlius and Camillus, pursued 
 her destroyers with such ruin, that one of them 
 never re-crossed the Alps to boast of having burned 
 Rome, t 
 
 " But of all our antagonists the most desperate and 
 formidable were the Samnites. The gold and silver 
 that glittered on their shields and polished armour 
 attested the opulence of this people ; truce and treaty 
 violated no less than sixty times bore witness to their 
 indomitable courage, which derived fresh obstinacy 
 
 rabundi intuebantur in sedium vestibulis sedentes viros, praeter 
 ornatum habitumque humano augustiorem, magistate etiam quam 
 vultis gravitasque oris prse se ferebat, simillimos diis. Ad eos velut 
 simulacra versi quum starent. M. Papirius unus ex his dicitur 
 Gallo, barbam suam, ut turn omnibus promissa erat permulcenti, 
 Scipione eburneo in caput incusso iram movisse ; atque ab eo 
 initium coedis ortum, ceteros in sedibus suis tucidatos." — L. v. 41. 
 
 * " Totam urbem igne, ferro, manibus, solo exaequant." — Florus, 
 1. i. 13. 
 
 -j- "Agere gratias diis immortalibus, ipso tantae cladis nomine, 
 libet. Pastorum casas ignis ille, at flamma paupertatem Romuli 
 abscondit." — Florus, ibid. 
 
 " Ne quis extarit in e£l gente, qui insensam a se Romanam urbem 
 gloriantur." — Ibid. 
 
no 
 
 ROME. 
 
 from defeat ; as expert at turning the defiles and fast- 
 nesses of their native mountains to account by stra- 
 tagem, as they were prompt and headlong in pouring 
 to the open onslaught ; they had sworn and devoted 
 themselves with direful imprecations, before altars 
 streaming with human gore, to be the destruction of 
 this city. But, notwithstanding, so complete was 
 their overthrow, after fifty years' war, carried on from 
 sire to son with ever increasing fury, that there is not 
 even a vestige of that nation to be found at present 
 except the name.* 
 
 " The Tarentine or Pyrrhic war succeeds, signalized 
 by a series of victories which involved in one common 
 ruin the powers of Campania, Apulia, Lucania and 
 Tarentum — that is of all Italy, one may say, leagued 
 with the most renowned and warlike monarch of 
 Greece. But still more distinguished was it by the 
 unexampled heroism, and incorruptible integrity, 
 displayed by the Roman generals, and by Curius 
 and Fabricius in particular. At the commencement 
 of the war the haughty Tarentines pretended not to 
 know ' who or from whence were the Romans,' and 
 
 * A.U.C. 493, A.C. 291, Q. Fabius returned to Rome, having 
 terminated the Samnite war, and triumphed. 
 
 " While he was borne along in his chariot, according to custom, 
 his old father rode behind him, as one of his lieutenants, delighting 
 himself with the honours of his son. But at the moment when the 
 consul and his father having arrived at the end of the sacred way, 
 turned to the left to ascend the hill of the capitol, C. Pontius, the 
 Samnite general, who, with the other prisoners of rank, had thus far 
 followed the procession, was led aside to the right hand, to the 
 prison beneath the Capitoline hill, and there was thrust down into 
 the underground dungeon of the prison, and beheaded. One year 
 had passed since his last battle, nearly thirty since he had spared 
 the lives and liberty of two Roman armies, and unprovoked by the 
 treachery of his enemies, had afterwards set at liberty the generals, 
 who were given up into his power as a pretended expiation of 
 their country's perfidy. Such a murder committed or sanctioned 
 by such a man as Q,. Fabius, is peculiarly a national crime, and 
 proves but too clearly that in their dealings with foreigners the 
 Romans had neither magnanimity nor justice." — Arnold's Rome, 
 vol. ii. 33. 
 
 " Ut hodie Samnium in ipso Samnio requiratur !" — Florus. 
 
ROME. 
 
 Ill 
 
 insulted our ambassadors.* Yet was their champion 
 Pyrrhus doomed to see himself driven twice, covered 
 with wounds, from his own camp ; and at last as a 
 fugitive from the shores of Italy. The city of that 
 day was too small to contain the spoils, and never, I 
 am certain, did train more glorious ascend this ' hill 
 of triumphs,' than that which, instead of droves of 
 sheep and cattle of the Sabines and Volsci, as in the 
 days of Romulus; instead of the wagons of the 
 Gauls, or the shattered arms of the Samnites, led 
 captive the chivalry of many warlike nations inter- 
 spersed with the treasures and gala of voluptuous Ta- 
 rentum ; — golden vases, candelabra, embroidered robes 
 of purple, escutcheons, statuary, pictures, and various 
 works of Grecian art and elegance. But what most 
 of all filled the people with exultation was the sight 
 of those monsters, the elephants — once so much 
 dreaded, now crest-fallen as if sensible of their cap- 
 tivity, cowering under the scorn of their conquerors 
 rather than under the enormous towers which they 
 carried as they were led in the procession. f 
 
 " This period is usually considered the adolescence of 
 the Roman people, in whose history we easily distin- 
 guish stages of development strikingly analogous to 
 the infancy, boyhood, youth, and mature virihty, which 
 characterise the life of man. And verily ours was a 
 truant youthhood, in which the ferocity of our shep- 
 herd sires, breaking out into revolution in camp and 
 forum, stoned great generals to death, expelled such 
 patriots as Coriolanus and Camillus from the country 
 which they had saved ; and for a while annihilated, I 
 may say, the Roman name and nation, by withdrawing 
 with their arms and household gods to the ' mons 
 
 * "Qui autem, autunde, Romani, nec satis norant." — Flor.l. i, 18. 
 
 When Pyrrhus asked his ambassadors what they thought of Rome, 
 they answered, That the city was like a temple, the senate like an 
 assembly of kings : — " Urbem templum sibi visum, senatum regum 
 esse." — Flor. ibid. 
 
 _ f " Sed nihil libentius populus Romanus aspexit, quamillas, quas 
 timuerat cum turribus suis belluas ; quae non sine sensu captivitatis, 
 summissis cervicibus victores equos sequebantur. "— i^^or. ibid. 
 
112 
 
 ROME. 
 
 sacer.' But even in their seditions, stirred up now 
 by the love of liberty, again by respect for virgin in- 
 tegrity — at other times to obtain the indispensable 
 guarantees of popular rights, and an equitable partici- 
 pation in the honours and advantages of the republic — 
 we easily discern the prognostics of a genius, destined 
 in its maturity to rule all nations. Thus do we be- 
 hold the Romans, after five centuries of incessant and 
 most desperate struggles under kings and consuls, 
 fairly at the head of confederated Italy, nearly untried 
 as yet in foreign warfare, but to the keen observer 
 manifestly a match for the whole world in arms."* 
 
 Perceiving the interest with which the apostle 
 listened to every thing connected with the destinies of 
 their country, (especially the exploits of its iron valour,) 
 the guests of the preceding night, (most of whom had 
 joined the patrician as he crossed the forum,) now col- 
 lected in a group round himself and St. Peter, where 
 they were seated on the summit of the tower ; — and 
 took great pains to instruct the venerable stranger in 
 the most striking details of that world of wonders 
 before them, extending on every side as far as the eye 
 could reach. 
 
 * " Domita subtractaque Italiel, populus Romanus prope quin- 
 gentesimum annum agens — par orbe terrarum esse coepit." — Flor. 
 1. ii. 1. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Divided by a river, on whose banks 
 On each side an imperial city stood, 
 With towers and temples proudly elevate 
 On seven small hills, with palaces adorn'd, 
 Porches, and theatres, baths, aqueducts, 
 Statues, and trophies, and triumphal arcs. 
 Gardens, and groves." — 
 
 Milton. 
 
 *' Terrarum dea gentiumque, Roma, 
 Cui par est nihil et nihil, secundum."* 
 
 Martial. 
 
 At this period the city had attained to a degree of 
 magnificence and vastness of extent almost incredible. 
 
 " AH the surrounding regions outside the walls," 
 says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, are so thickly 
 mhabited that, if one were to attempt from some 
 vantage ground to determine the hmits of the city 
 he would try to no purpose ; for suburbs that seem 
 to know no hmit are so closely identified and so 
 much of a piece with the walled portion of it, that 
 It presents a boundless prospect to the beholder on 
 f7f/*y sjde."f - It would seem," says Aristides, 
 that all nations have congregated in this one city 
 tor the sake of neighbourhood, and it accommodates 
 theni all ; for as one earth sustains, one Rome has 
 lodging for the human race."j The sophist Pale- 
 
 * Goddess of the earth, and of the nations, Rome, 
 '^o whom nothing is equal, nothing second. 
 ( -K- ^J?"^^ ^^^^ '^^^^^ civitatem habitata sine mgenibus esse 
 (.scnbit Dionys.) in qua si quis intuens magnitudinem Romee 
 exquirere velit, frustra eum fore, et haesurum ubi desinat urbs, ubi 
 mcipiat: adeo suburbana ipsi urbi adheerent et innexa sunt, et 
 speciem immense longitudinis exhibent spectanti.' Wjom^? Casal. 
 + * «c Rom. Imp. Splend. ^c. 
 
 + ''^Ut terrae solum fert omnes, sic omnes homines (Roma) 
 capit. ' 
 
114 
 
 ROME, 
 
 mon, quoted by Galen, says Well may it be 
 called the ' city of cities,' since it seems to have 
 collected all the others within itself." And again : 
 
 <^ it is not one day, nor as many days as are in the 
 
 year that would suffice to enumerate all the cities 
 that are brought together in Rome; for there, entire 
 nations dwell crowded into distinct quarters — Cappa- 
 docians, Scythians, those of Pontus, and other na- 
 tions in great number." Similar language is used 
 by the Roman writers. "Consider," says Seneca, 
 writing to his mother, Helvidia, " see this con- 
 course, for which the roofs of a city that is boundless 
 cannot afford a covering— the greater part of this 
 multitude is without a country, having poured mto 
 this great ocean of hfe from the colonies, from the 
 provincial towns, in short, from the whole world." 
 (" Ex toto denique orbe confluxerunt.") " Expand- 
 ing from the pomoerium," says Pliny the elder, " the 
 suburbs have added many cities to the one within the 
 walls." By some, a circumference of fifty miles* is 
 assigned, others assign one much greater to the city ; 
 nor are we entitled to reject this as exaggeration, until 
 we calculate the distance from Otriculum fourteen 
 miles up the Tiber, down to Ostia, another four- 
 teen miles, and then compute the area included 
 between that hne and another taking in the hill 
 country from Tibur, on by Prseneste and Tuscu- 
 lum, to the Mons Latiaris rising above Alba Longa ; 
 and,' from thence down to the sea at Antium, and 
 so along shore back again to the Tiber's mouth ; be- 
 cause there is the fullest proof, that the intermediate 
 space was one continued city ; to say nothing of the 
 regions beyond the Tiber, on the Etruscan side, or of 
 the prolongation of these suburbs which shot out 
 along the highways, like rays from a common centre, f 
 
 * Vopiscus says fifty, Pliny the elder seventy miles. 
 
 f On the words of Pliny quoted before, " expatiantia tecta 
 multas addidisse urbes," Casalius says, " nempe ut tot essent urbes, 
 quot ipsa suburbia, quse Tibur, Otriculum, Ariciam atque alio ex - 
 currebant; et maximfe Ostiam mare versus 15 millia." And of the 
 shores about Ostia, Pliny the younger writes to Gallus, 1. ii. Epist. : 
 — " Littus ornant varietate gravissima, nunc continua, nunc intermissa 
 
ROME. 
 
 115 
 
 Starting from the gilded terminus in the forum these 
 great roads traversed Italy in every direction; and, 
 " conducting through a country naturally enriched by 
 all the varieties of nature, were further embellished 
 with the most beautiful objects of art. Temples, 
 ^diculas, triumphal arches, sepulchres, villas, groves,' 
 gardens, were thrown together in the most picturesque 
 irregularity ; porticoes afforded shade, and inns shelter, 
 refreshment, or repose to the traveller ; who beheld, 
 as he approached, the increasing capital thus stretched 
 out in beautiful and endless suburbs ; for the Romans, 
 in this prosperous age, were very far from entertaining 
 a suspicion that it could ever become necessary to 
 surround the seat of empire with walls."* 
 
 " Come we next," says Phny, in the thirty-sixth book 
 of his Naturah History, fifteenth chapter, " to treat of 
 the architectural wonders of our city, and from them 
 alone make it evident that the whole world has been 
 conquered by Rome, as will appear even so often as 
 each miracle of art and splendour is viewed in its own 
 turn ; but when all are aggregated and piled up toge- 
 ther, to attempt their description is hke attempting a 
 representation of the universe." 
 
 It was the boast of Augustus, that " having found 
 Rome of brick he left it of marble." He built the 
 temple and forum of Mars the Avenger, having stately 
 porticoes on three sides, adorned with statues of his 
 regal ancestry, beginning with Eneas ; the temple of 
 Jupiter Tonans on the brow of the capitol ; that 
 of Apollo on the Palatine, with its hbraries and halls 
 for poetical recitation ; the theatre of Marcellus, the 
 porticoes of Livia and Octavia — among the most 
 splendid ornaments of the city, and sources of great 
 
 tecta villarum, quse praestant multarum nrhium faciem, sive ipso mari 
 sive ipso littore utare." We are told by Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 that the Persian ambassador, Hormisdas, having been asked by 
 Constantius, when they had come only as far as Otriculum, " What 
 he thought of Rome," made answer, that, " he was sure they must 
 have already passed nearly half through the city," though not within 
 fourteen miles of the gates. 
 
 * Gell's Pompeiana, vol. i. p. 72. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 ROME. 
 
 enjoyment, as affording opportunity for exercise and re- 
 creation, either on foot or in carriages, in every incle- 
 mency of the seasons. The senate often met in them 
 during the intense heats of summer, and they were 
 adorned with statuary, altars, paintings, and bazaars, 
 in which the most splendid wares, jewellery, pictures, 
 books, and all objects of virtii were exposed to sale. His 
 ministers and courtiers followed the emperor's example. 
 The Esquiline, formerly the most filthy and abandoned 
 region, became the most elegant and fashionable 
 through the taste and example of Maecenas. Agrippa 
 built the Pantheon ; but his chief object was to adorn 
 Rome with fountains. All who courted favour, at a 
 time when servility was in its first fervour, helped to 
 reahze the project of the prime minister — " so to 
 deck out the queen of nations, as to inspire her 
 subjects with admiration, her enemies with awe." 
 
 Cato the Censor spent upwards of £250,000 (Diony- 
 sius says 1000 talents) in the cleansing of the subter- 
 ranean channels of the town, even of his day ; the 
 principal cloacse, or sewers, first constructed by Tar- 
 quinius Priscus, (and remaining perfect to the present 
 time,) were so high and broad, that a wain loaded with 
 hay might go below, and vessels sail in them.* 
 
 But the palm has been justly given to the aqueducts 
 among the works of Roman grandeur. Some of them 
 brought to Rome the treasures of the most cool and 
 sequestered fountains, from a distance of sixty miles, 
 through rocks and mountain chains, and over rapid 
 rivers and valleys, on an interminable series, as it 
 were, of triumphal arches rising in some places to 
 more than a hundred feet high. " If any one," says 
 Pliny, "will diUgently estimate the abundance of 
 water supplied to the public baths, fountains, fish- 
 ponds, artificial lakes for galley-fights, to pleasure- 
 gardens, and to almost every private house in Rome, 
 and will then consider the difficulties that were to be 
 
 * According to Martianus, who measured them, the width of 
 tlie greatest was sixteen feet. 
 
ROME. 
 
 117 
 
 surmounted, and the distance from which these 
 streams are brought, he will confess that nothing so 
 wonderful as these aqueducts is to be found in the 
 whole world." Strabo says they supphed every house, 
 and that their waste waters swxpt like torrents through 
 the cloacas. Some writers say there were twenty ; 
 but the principal ones named are only fourteen in 
 number. The Virgo, the Martia, and Alsiatina were 
 for ponds, fountains, and artificial lakes; the Julia 
 and Annio novus, the Crebra and Herculanus Rivus 
 were the greatest, the Claudian excepted, which con- 
 veyed, from the heart of the Apennines, a torrent that 
 looked like a mountain cataract, in falling from the 
 highest point of the Aventine into a deep glen.=**= It 
 is not surprising that Frontinus, who was curator, or 
 grand overseer of aqueducts, and has left a learned 
 report of his charge, prefers them to the " idle masses 
 of the pyramids." He enumerates the various causes 
 which rendered it so enormously expensive and diffi- 
 cult to keep them in repair ; although they appeared, 
 even in the times of Cassiodorus, of such sohdity, 
 that they would seem to have been constructed not by 
 mortals but by nature itself. For so many delights 
 and blessings were the Romans indebted to them, — 
 slaking the thirst of summer, coohng and bracing the 
 enervated frame, regaling the ear by their murmurs, 
 the eye by their pellucid clearness and verdant or 
 cerulean hues, — that, epicurean as he is, Pliny the 
 elder, in reflecting on it, cannot suppress an outburst 
 of acknowledgment to the immortal gods. 
 
 They supphed, in the first place, the fountains, of 
 which Agrippa alone constructed seven hundred with 
 lake-like basins, besides one hundred and five that 
 
 * " Vicit antecedentes aquaiiim ductus novissimum impendium 
 operis, inchoati a C. Csesare (Caligula) et perfect! a Claudio ; quippe 
 a quadragesimo lapide ad earn celsitatem, ut in omnes urbis montes 
 levarentur, instruxere Curtius et Caeruleus fontes. Erogatum in id 
 opus H S. ter millies."— P^en. Hist. Nat. 
 
 "Claudiam per tantam fastigii molem sic ad Aventini caput esse 
 perductam, ut cum ibi exalto lapsa ceciderit, cacumen illud excel- 
 sum, quasi imam vallem irregare vidcatur." — Cassiodorus apud Casel. 
 
118 
 
 ROME, 
 
 cast up jets of water in a variety of fashions. Accord- 
 ing to Dio, when the mob once became clamorous for 
 wine, Augustus told them that Agrippa had taken 
 care they should not want for drink." 
 
 The thermee or baths, located in every quarter of the 
 city, were also replenished from the aqueducts. In these 
 temples of health and enjoyment, the lofty apartments 
 were encrusted with the most costly marbles, and em- 
 bellished with statuary, (the Laocoon was found in one 
 of them,) and mosaics that imitate the art of the 
 pencil, in the elegance of design and variety of colours. 
 Into the capacious basins, (where many at once could 
 swim, disport, and enjoy the water,) and which were 
 composed of porphyry overlaid with silver, and set, 
 in many instances, with precious stones, there poured 
 perpetual streams of the hot, tepid, or cool element, 
 through so many wide mouths of bright and massy 
 silver.* Thus the meanest citizen could every day 
 luxuriate amid scenes of magnificence which no oriental 
 monarch could command. Some of these baths had 
 sixteen hundred bathing places— one had two thousand 
 two hundred, like that described above ; and attached 
 to each therma were porticoes, groves, and halls of 
 
 * " Lavacra in modvm provinciarum uxstructa ; ac si non urbes 
 modo, sed provincias aemularentur variis aedificiis." — Ammian. Mar- 
 cel. — " Erant lavacra publica ingentia, sicut Antonianae Thermge 
 factse in usum levantium. — Sellas vel soliahabebant mille sexcentas e 
 pollito marmore factas : Diocletianae autem bis tantum (?) nimirum, 
 bis mille ducentos ut'totidem bomines simul inibi lavare potuerint. 
 Solia autem bujusmodi ita ma^nifice exstructa erant, ut in eis fas 
 asset sedere, natare, stare ; quorum inventio a Dione tribuitur Me- 
 caenati. In iis, prseter earumdem Thermarum corpus, cellae piscinas 
 capaces, etlongse porticus, xysti, nemora, Spbserristeria consistebant. 
 
 — " Feminse laventur, et nisi argentea solia fastidiant, eademque 
 materia et cibis, et probris serviat ; videret bsec Fabricius et stratas 
 argento mulierum balneas." — Pliny, 1. xxxiii. 12. Iterum,— " Sed 
 in ornamentum politarum, et impensae causa eo deliciarum venimus 
 ut nisi gemmas calcare nolumus," — " Tbe baths of Antoninus 
 Caracalla, which were open at stated hours for the indiscriminate 
 service of the senators and the people, contained above sixteen hun- 
 dred seats of marble ; and more than three thousand were reckoned 
 in the baths of Diocletian."— G«66ow's Hist, of the Deal, and FalK 
 ^c, ch. xxxi. vol. iv. p. 108. 
 
ROME. 
 
 119 
 
 recreation, xysti or terraces for gymnastic exercises, 
 libraries, and academies where philosophers held lec- 
 tures or disputations. 
 
 The Campus Martius, which, from being a royal 
 demesne, or farm of the Tarquins, extending from the 
 foot of the capitol to the Tiber, had been converted 
 under the republic into a place of martial exercise for 
 the Roman youth, was adorned with most superb mo- 
 numents, arches of triumph, hippodromes, fountains, 
 temples, theatres, umbrageous walks, sylvan scenery, 
 interspersed with shrines and statuary, and marble 
 bowers ; but its greatest miracle of art was the stupen- 
 dous mausoleum, or tomb of Augustus, where the ashes 
 of so many of the Julian family were deposited in golden 
 urns ; and where the deification, or apotheosis of the 
 emperors usually took place.* Like the other dis- 
 tinguished parts of the city it was embelHshed with 
 Egyptian obelisks ; but the largest of these was the 
 one in the great circus, that glory of the Roman 
 people, from the seats of which, (all of marble mostly 
 covered with soft cushions,) four hundred thousand 
 spectators could enjoy the chariot races and other 
 circensian games. The city was populous with statues 
 erected either by order of the senate, or by private 
 vanity ; but, after all, the edifices dedicated to the 
 immortal gods and heroes formed its characteristic 
 feature ; for, not only did shrines and altars arise in 
 every quarter, and at every turn, to their peculiar 
 honour, but the curiae of the senate, the basilica, the 
 theatre, the forum, the nympheum, the circus, the 
 amphitheatre — every dwelling, and monument, and 
 place of rest, from the most sordid and infamous to 
 the most illustrious — were so many sanctuaries of their 
 worship. The streets themselves and the public forum 
 
 * Strabo says of the Campus Martins, &c. : — "Quae omnia si 
 quis viderit, dicat, censeatque reliquam urbem non nisi addita- 
 mentum campi hujus esse. At idem si in forum vetus deinde pro- 
 gressus alia aliis hserentia et consequentia videat, basilicas, porticus, 
 teinpla, turn capitolium ipsum, et in eo templa, turn palatinum et 
 Liviae ambulacra ; is facile priorum obliviscatur, et omnium quae 
 viderat extra uibem." — L. v. p. 337. 
 
120 
 
 ROME. 
 
 were set with altars, on which garlands, incense, and 
 victims were so perpetually offered up, that the smell 
 of victims saluted the passing stranger at every step, 
 and caused the whole city to appear then, as it did to 
 the envoys of king Pyrrhus, like one vast temple. 
 As to the palaces of the Roman nobility, it is enough 
 to say that they were so many Romes in miniature, 
 with theatres, baths, temples, hippodromes, libraries, 
 athenaeums, basihcas, halls of audience, markets, lakes, 
 fountains, aviaries, hanging gardens ; — and covering 
 more ground than Cincinnatus, twice dictator, had in 
 his farm : — enough to say of their wealth what Seneca 
 said, that, " in his time great rivers flowed through 
 private estates, which had once formed the boundaries 
 between hostile nations ; " and that the torrents of 
 wealth, that poured into the palaces of Rome, enabled 
 her senators to eclipse the splendour and luxurious 
 indulgence of oriental monarch s. These treasures 
 attracted around their possessors the dainties of air, 
 earth, and ocean, f 
 
 "The Mediterranean and the lesser seas," con- 
 tinued Petus, "would seem to have been disposed 
 by the gods for the express purpose of facilitating 
 the conveyance to our granaries and marts of the 
 produce of the vast and teeming countries which 
 extend around their shores, especially of Africa, Sicily, 
 and Egypt; for, whatever is most precious and ex- 
 quisite — the dehcacies of every season — the wonders of 
 
 * " Singula ornamenta circi— singula templa sunt— caeterum et 
 platecs, et forum, et halnecE, et stahula, et ipsce domus nostrce, sine 
 idolis omnino, non sunt. Totum sseculum Satanas et angeli ejus 
 repleverunt." — Tertul. de Spectac. 
 
 -j- " Qujeque magnarum domuura omnia in seipsa habet, qusecunque 
 mediocris urbs possit continere ; nempe circuni, fora, templa, fontes, 
 balneae." To this list of Olympiadorus ap. Photium, Vitruvius adds ; 
 — " bibliothecas, pinothecas, basilicas, non dissimili, modo quam 
 publicarum operum magnificentia comparat," &c. — L. vi. 8. " Nimi- 
 rum sic habitarunt, qui hoc imperium fecere, quorum agri quoque 
 muiorem modum obtinuere quam cellaria istorum."— Tfl^. Max. 
 1. xxxvi. 15. 
 
 " Quid loquar inclusas inter laquerea sylvas, 
 Vernula qua vario carmine ludit avis ? "—Ruiilius. 
 
ROME. 
 
 121 
 
 every art and climate — are destined, by consent of all, 
 as tributes due to our unparalleled felicity. Ingenious 
 strangers have observed, that it is no longer necessary 
 to travel round the world to see whatever is most 
 costly and curious in it ; for that they may be all seen 
 at once in the bazaars and marts of Rome. The 
 Scythian hunter roams the forests of the north, that 
 we may be wrapped in ermine ; it is for us the savage 
 tribes, along the Danube and the Baltic, dive for 
 amber ; the richest carpets and embroidery are destined 
 for our saloons and banquet halls ; the looms and the 
 plastic hands of Asia, skilled in every luxurious craft, 
 seem to labour but for Rome. The spices and the 
 perfumes of Araby are exhausted by our delicacy ; 
 and whole argossies, which sail periodically from the 
 Red Sea for the distant India, can hardly supply the 
 demand for pearls, silks, and diamonds. It is well 
 that you have, with your own eyes, beheld the furni- 
 ture and decorations of our palaces, for how could 
 I describe them ? LucuUus used to feast five and 
 twenty thousand guests at once ; and even at that 
 period, since which the city has increased immensely, 
 Rome numbered twenty thousand rich as he. The 
 sounds of mirth and revelry are never silent within 
 our palaces ; crowned by fortune with every gift which 
 can satiate the desires, we hold it to be our fate and 
 our duty to enjoy them. 
 
 " But to save indulgence from being fatigued, the 
 gods have provided places of refuge from monotony — 
 retreats where the passions may get leisure to revive. 
 On every sunny isle, and smiling shore, and promon- 
 tory of the Roman world, are to be seen the beauteous 
 villas of our nobility — each senator having such a 
 number of them, and so located, as to enable him like 
 migratory birds to enjoy the bloom and the tempera- 
 ture of an everlasting summer. It is a proverb with 
 us, ' that wherever the Roman conquers, he inhabits.' 
 Allured by interest or pleasure, our ancestors never 
 failed to hasten after the advantages of each suc- 
 ceeding victory. Colonies were planted in the most 
 
122 
 
 ROME. 
 
 convenient and fertile situations ; and thus were 
 the poHteness, the elegance, the dialect, and the 
 fashions of the capital, disseminated over the con- 
 quered provinces. It is long since the spirit of im- 
 provement has not only crossed the Alps and the 
 Pyrenees, but made itself manifest along the savage 
 borders of the Rhine and the Tamigi. Education 
 and study have insensibly inspired the most distant, 
 and formerly most savage tribes, with the tastes and 
 sentiments of Romans ; and enabled them to enjoy 
 the literature of two languages, which by the intimate 
 and protracted union of the east and west have be- 
 come natural to mankind. Homer as well as Virgil 
 is transcribed and admired by the descendants of the 
 naked warriors who fought against Csesar in Britain, 
 and beyond the Rhine." 
 
 But the great delight of the patricians was to enter- 
 tain St. Peter by instituting a variety of quaint com- 
 parisons and contrasts between imperial Rome as he 
 then beheld it, and the Rome of the elder ages. 
 This was a national propensity. They dwelt with 
 pleasure on the insignificance of their country's 
 origin, and preserved the memorials of it in all 
 their primitive simplicity, and with religious care. 
 The ruminal fig tree under which the twins were 
 found was planted in the commitia ; the hut of Ro- 
 mulus was preserved in the capitol ; the wooden 
 bridge by which Ancus Martins joined the Janiculum 
 to the city was never suffered to be replaced ; and in 
 the repairs which it required from age to age, it was 
 prohibited to use either iron or copper, nothing but 
 wood ; and the care of this relic was considered so 
 sacred and important, that it was from their being 
 intrusted with it, the chief college of priests derived 
 the name of pontiffs.* 
 
 * " L'on peut remarquer en general, que les Romains trouvaint 
 un grand plaisir a s'entretenir de la petitesse de leur origine. lis 
 conservaient dans toute leur simplicite primitive les monumens 
 construits dans les premier siecles." — Benjam. Const, du Polyth. 
 Rom. torn. i. p. 23. 
 
ROME. 
 
 123 
 
 " There was a time," said one, when the little 
 towns of Sora and Algidum were a terror to almighty 
 Rome ; Satricum and Corniculum, too limited at pre- 
 sent for a modern pleasure-ground, were provinces of 
 importance in those days, when the conquerors of 
 such villages as Veruli and Borillse were decreed the 
 honour of a triumph. The conquest of Corioli, at 
 present a suburban villa, has given a name to history 
 as august as those assigned to the great conquerors of 
 Africa and the Germanic nations. Tibur and Preneste, 
 where we now take refuge from the autumnal heats, 
 were never approached by the Roman armies of old, 
 until the gods had been propitiated with solemn sacri- 
 fices and auguries upon this capitol.* The invasion 
 of Tuscany was once as great an exploit as a Parthian 
 expedition would be now ; the groves of Aricia were 
 as terrible as the Hircanian forests ; to have crossed 
 the little river Liris, the boundary of Latium, excited 
 as much amaze as Caesar's invasion of Britain, shut 
 out as it is from the whole world. The Tiber bed, 
 now too confined for the waste water of our baths 
 and fountains, was for centuries the boundary of an 
 empire, which at the present day extends from the 
 Euphrates to the Atlantic." 
 
 " And yet," observed another, " it has always ap- 
 peared to me that the contrasts between the ancient 
 and the actual condition of our country, no matter 
 how wonderful, are neither so astonishing nor instruc- 
 tive as the series of causes by which a change so 
 unparalleled has been brought about. 
 
 '* Other empires as well as that of Rome have been 
 mighty ; those, for instance, of the Medes, Persians, 
 and Macedonians ; but Rome, alone, has grown from 
 insignificance into unexampled grandeur, as if by a 
 
 * " Sora (quis credat ?) et Algidum terrori fuerunt ; Satricum atque 
 Corniculum provinciae. De Verulis et Bovillis, pudet ! Sed trium- 
 phavimus. Tibur nunc suburbanum, et sestivse Praeneste deliciae 
 nuncupatis in capitolio votis petebantur — Idem nemus Aricinum 
 quod Hercynius saltus — Tiberis quod, Euphrates," &c. — Flor. 1. i.ll. 
 
124 
 
 ROME. 
 
 uniform law of nature. Observe the slow but inces- 
 sant increment of its dominion ; struggling, like the 
 infant Hercules, for existence, under the kings, for 
 liberty, under the earlier consuls, then, for territory, 
 next, to vindicate its faithful allies, finally, for ascen- 
 dancy over the Italian states — Terminus never re- 
 ceding an inch — perpetually, although imperceptibly 
 advancing during five centuries of hard-fought cam- 
 paigns abroad, of faction and civil bloodshed at home ; 
 and you must be satisfied, that the power which now 
 overshadows the earth was contained in the fortified 
 encampment of Romulus, in its entirety, just as the 
 acorn contains the oak. 
 
 It is little to the purpose to fix the springhead 
 of Roman greatness in that age when, flushed with 
 victory and unenervated by indulgence, Rome at the 
 head of the warlike and well-disciplined states of Italy 
 started on the career of foreign conquest. As well 
 might a geographer set down the fountains of the Nile 
 at the point where the inundation first bursts over 
 Egypt. ' Once masters of Italy itself,' says Polybius, 
 ' the Romans in a little time subjugated all other 
 nations not a little aided in that enterprise by the 
 resources then acquired by being exempted from fear 
 of attack and embarrassment at home. Hence, to 
 ascertain the origin of that impetus which propelled 
 the chariot of victory with such irresistible rapidity 
 under Scylla, Pompey, and the Caesars, we must look 
 back five hundred years, and examine the character of 
 the influences which presided over the birth, and con- 
 tributed to form the character of the Romans.* 
 
 " It may sound paradoxical," pursued the senator, 
 but nothing can be more certain, than that to the 
 infamy of their origin they were indebted for their great- 
 ness, and that a consciousness of domestic weakness first 
 urged them forth on the career of conquest. 
 
 " The town of Romulus, from the outset, was held 
 in general execration, as having been founded by a 
 * Polyb. Hist. 1. vi. ver. fin. 
 
ROME, 
 
 125 
 
 fratricide, and peopled with delinquents and fugitives 
 from all the surrounding states. This excited in the 
 outlaws a counter scorn, — a fierce determination to 
 seize by violence what was refused to solicitations ; 
 and the conflicts which ensue form a chain of effects, 
 evidently referable to that primitive outrage as to their 
 prolific cause. From his birth-day as a citizen, the 
 hand of the Roman was against every man, and every 
 man's hand was against him ; so that the military 
 constitution given to the new state by its founder, 
 (the main spring of its aggrandizement,) was not of 
 choice but of necessity ; for the people whom he had 
 gathered together, were regarded not as the population 
 of a peaceful town, but as a standing army, or band 
 of marauders, encamped in a hostile country. Thus 
 exposed eternally to the most dreadful vengeance, 
 constancy and valour, which usually assume the air of 
 singular magnanimity, in the case of a people so cir- 
 cumstanced, could hardly be distinguished from the 
 exertions and sacrifices to which the most cowardly 
 are often prompted by the law of self-preservation.* 
 
 " But even still had Rome, like Veii, for example, 
 been impregnable, or capable of being strongly forti- 
 fied ; the warlike genius, thus created, must have 
 speedily decayed ; but the seven elevations, scarcely 
 deserving the name of hills, upon which the city was 
 seated, extend, as you may perceive, over a space too 
 vast to be defended, except by myriads, while no one of 
 them was over strong by nature, or sufficiently exten- 
 sive to afford room for the erection even of a moderate 
 sized town. These apparent disadvantages of locality 
 became manifest from an early period ; and, especially 
 after the destruction of the city by the Gauls, it re- 
 quired all the eloquence and authority of Camillus, then 
 in the zenith of popularity, to dissuade the houseless and 
 
 * " Toujours exposes aux plus afFreuses vengeances la Constance 
 et la valeur devinrent necessaires ; et les vertues ne purent etre dis- 
 tingues chez eux de I'amour de soi-meme, de sa famille, de sa patrie, 
 et de tout ce qu'il-y-a de plus cher parmi les hommes." — Mon- 
 tesquieu. 
 
126 
 
 ROME. 
 
 disheartened multitude from abandoning the seven 
 hills for ever.* To him, however, and to the senate, 
 it was plain enough that, precisely from this exposed 
 posture of their capital was to proceed the future 
 greatness and progress of the Romans. This would 
 force them out to meet the invader before he reached 
 their frontiers, instead of expecting him behind their 
 walls ; this would make the Roman soldier invincible 
 in the field. Those only may retreat or fly who have 
 a refuge ; the Roman w^ould know that he had none ; 
 and, while the inaccessible fortresses of his opponents, 
 perched like eyries on the surrounding heights and 
 mountains, were constantly tempting them to give 
 way under the shock of battle, the very weight and 
 urgency of the charge would rouse the Roman to fight 
 with desperation, in order to ward off ruin from 
 hearths and altars destitute of every rampart save his 
 breast. These desperate exertions to enlarge its terri- 
 tory, and the stout resistance which met them on every 
 side, served to concentrate, by times, and give greater 
 elasticity to the forces of the rising state. Rome, like 
 her own eagle, rejoiced and grew strong amid these 
 storms. Her conquests were few and insignificant — 
 her victories beyond number. Without being able to 
 advance with much rapidity, she still made her power 
 felt ; and exerted, in a very limited sphere, for cen- 
 turies, an energy destined to be one day fatal to the 
 uni verse, t 
 
 " Nor was all the training and invigorating trials 
 of five centuries too much to prepare the Romans 
 for that struggle, in which their very existence was 
 staked against that of their competitors for the prize 
 of universal empire. The fate, which left Carthage 
 a heap of ruins, must have been that of the city which 
 
 * Livy has composed for the warrior patriot an harangue full of 
 eloquence, force, and picturesque effect. 
 
 ■f " Rome faisant toujours des efforts, et trouvant toujours des 
 obstacles, faisait sentir sa puissance sans pouvoir I'eteindre, et dans 
 une circonference tres petite, elle exercoit a des vertues qui de- 
 voient ^tre fatals ^ I'univers." — Montesquieu. 
 
ROME. 
 
 127 
 
 now excites your wonder, as it does that of the world, 
 if Hannibal had known as well how to make use of 
 victory as to win it. If, instead of loitering in Cam- 
 pania, and wasting his fury to no purpose in ravaging 
 the country along his tardy march, he had advanced, 
 directly upon Rome, he might have mounted this 
 capitol in triumph, five days after the fatal overthrow 
 of Cannae. But he let slip the fatal opportunity, and 
 fortune forsook him for those who knew how to use 
 her better. 
 
 *' The senate — a body which showed itself great, 
 not once, but always, and ever greatest in extremities 
 — rallied the remnant of our almost annihilated ar- 
 mies, and so completely re-established pubhc confi- 
 dence, as to make ridiculous the attempt of the 
 Carthaginian to besiege the city.* While he ap- 
 proached by the Latin way, reinforcements for the 
 garrisons of Spain were seen marching forth from the 
 gates on the Janiculum ; and the very ground on 
 which he pitched his tents, away, yonder, along the 
 Annio, brought the usual price, being set up at 
 auction in the forum. By such admirable devices 
 of the senate, and under the conduct of Fabius,t the 
 state not only retrieved her tremendous losses, but 
 was soon in a condition to carry the war into the 
 heart of Africa. And, after having fixed his talons 
 on prostrate Italy, and, as it were, cruelly lacerated 
 its very vitals for fifteen long years, the most terrible 
 of our foes was obliged to relinquish his hold, and 
 hasten to resist the conquering Scipio, who was thun- 
 dering at the gates of Carthage. 
 
 " ' Never,' says the historian, ' was there a greater 
 day for Rome, than that on which Hannibal and Scipio 
 encountered each other, with numbers equally valiant, 
 
 * There stands, near the fountain of Egeria, a ruin usually called 
 "il tempio di redicolo, or ridiculo;" but whether it has been so 
 called because erected in derision of Hannibal's attempt, or to mark 
 the spot from which he sounded a retreat, the antiquarians cannot 
 well determine. 
 
 f " Qui cunctando restituit rem." 
 
128 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and well disciplined, upon the field of Zama. Before 
 the signal for battle, the generals met, it is said, in 
 sight of the two hostile armies, and stood for a mo- 
 ment in mute admiration of each other ; but, soon 
 they parted from the fruitless conference for peace, 
 presently to meet in the encounter which decided the 
 dominion of the world. From Carthage to Corinth, 
 from Corinth to Numantia, the conflagration spread, 
 raging through all nations, far and near, not in suc- 
 cession, but simultaneously ; as if the tempest of our 
 ambition had scattered the fire of these devoted cities 
 until the whole world was wrapt in flames.' 
 
 " Up to this crisis of our aflairs," continued Lucan, 
 " every thing that is beautiful, egregious, pious, sanc- 
 tified, magnificent, combines to form the Roman cha- 
 racter.* The first hundred years of this era in which 
 Macedonia, Africa, Greece, Sicily, Spain, were van- 
 quished, may well l3e designated ' a golden age.' The 
 ensuing century, although not without its glories, (for 
 to it belong the victories over Jugurtha and the 
 Cimbri, the Mithridatic, Parthian, Gaulic, German, 
 and Britannic conquests,) may still be regarded the 
 first in disasters and infamy, even of the ages of 
 slavery, which since then have passed over Rome ; 
 because it was towards its close that the source of 
 all our glories, the old republican constitution, was 
 overthrown."! 
 
 * In addition to some illustrations already given of the Roman so- 
 called piety, the following may he cited from Cicero, whose writings 
 afford several other passages still more to this purpose : — " Ut enim 
 admodum adolescens, cum fratre, pari pietate et industria praedito, 
 paternas inimicitias magna cum gloria est persecutus." — Acad. 
 Qucest. 1. iv. 1. 
 
 ■f- Florus. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 1st Sen.—" Hence ! To your homes, be ^one." 
 
 XT , (^^ Citizens.) 
 
 CoRioLANus.— " Nay, let them follow ; ^ 
 
 The Voices have much corn ; take these rats thither, 
 i o gnaw their garners :— worshipful mutineers, 
 lour valour puts well forth; pray follow." 
 "From ploughs and harrows sent to seek renown 
 Ihey fight in fields, and storm the shaken town. 
 JMo post of life from toils of war is free. 
 No change in age or difference in degree. 
 We plough and till in arms : our oxen feel, 
 Instead of goads, the spur and pointed steel ; 
 1 h^ inverted lance makes furrows in the plain : 
 ^v n time, that changes all, yet changes us in vain. 
 Uur helms defend the young, disguise the grey : 
 We live by plunder, and delight in prey." 
 
 Dry den's Virgil, b. ix. 818. 
 
 But these were high-flown exaggerations which the 
 Komans of the empire naturally enough indulged in, 
 with respect to the virtues and felicity of the repub- 
 lican era ; they are far from being sustained even by 
 the showing of their own writers. During the fierce 
 struggles for independence, consequent on the expul- 
 sion of the Tarquins, it was natural that the Hellenic, 
 ±itruscan, and Sabine arts and civihzation, brought in 
 by the constant stream of immigration, should fall 
 into neglect rather than make progress. Nor was the 
 lot ot the commonalty much bettered by the chanp-e 
 of the constitution. ° 
 
 'I Scarcely were the Tarquins driven out," says 
 Jsaiiast, when the aristocratic ascendency began to 
 lord It, and to harass the plebeians. The consuls 
 became as despotic and cruel as the kings had ever 
 oeen. Humble industry was expelled from its here- 
 ditary farm by petty tyrants ; and the mass of the 
 people were jealously excluded from the advantages of 
 
130 ROME. 
 
 the state. Exasperated by this maltreatment— ground 
 down to the earth by the heartless laws regardmg 
 property devised by the ruthless avarice of the nobles 
 
 exhausted both of their blood and substance to 
 
 carry on incessant wars which won no advantages for 
 them,— the plebs at last seized their arms, and for- 
 saking ' the city,' took post and deposited their house- 
 hold gods upon the ' mons sacer.' 
 
 Men in years, who had grown grey in the practical 
 details of war and peace, conducted the government ot 
 the state ; distinct regulations excluded before a cer- 
 tain age from the magistracy ; the people were perpe- 
 tually engaged in the disputes of debt, about patrician 
 prerogatives, about meum and tuum ; were called out 
 anew to warfare almost annually, and had only the 
 brief interval between the campaigns for re-estabhshing 
 their private economy, disordered during the absence 
 of the father of the family. In such a state of things, 
 where could be room for scientific efforts? The 
 whole of Roman culture, therefore, had retrograded, 
 especially since the erection of the repubUc ; and we 
 shall see in the next period intellectual cultivation 
 introduced as a foreign luxury, to which the genuine 
 old Romans were inimical, t 
 
 In the exact sciences, even according to Cicero, + 
 who strains all his art and erudition to screen the 
 ignorance of those ages, they soared no higher than 
 land surveying, and some simple methods of keeping 
 and casting up accounts. To make a digest of the 
 materials collected for the twelve tables by Sp. Pos- 
 tumius Albus, A. ManUus, and P. Sulpicius Cama- 
 rinus, sent to Athens on that mission,^ it was necessary 
 to employ a foreigner— a Greek, Hermedorus, of 
 Ephesus.ll In the year 402 of the town, a splendid 
 
 * Ap. S. August, de Civ. Dei. 
 
 f Cab. Cycl. Hist, of Rome, vol. i. b. i. ch. 10. 
 
 + Tusc. Qusest. 1. i. 2, 3. 
 
 § Liv. 1. iii. . . V , 
 
 II Fuit et Hermedori Ephesii legum, quas decemviri scnbebant, 
 interpretis publice dicata, &c." — PUn. 1. xxxiv. 5. 
 
ROME. 
 
 131 
 
 sundial was brought amongst other plunder from 
 Sicily to Rome, and forthwith set up in the forum, 
 without its occurring to any one to adapt its position 
 to the meridian. But to the great surprise of the 
 senate and the people, nothing could be done at Rome 
 with a clock which had gone extremely well at Catana 
 Thinking the first might be bewitched, another was 
 tried by Quinctus Marcius Philippus, with what suc- 
 cess may be conjectured. Up to the conquest of 
 Asia their temples were without statues, their only 
 idols being rude blocks of wood, a spear, and matters 
 oi earthenware.* 
 
 The Roman state, in fact, from its origin, and ac- 
 cording to its first constitution, was nothing else than 
 a well-organized school of war, a permanent establish- 
 nient for conquest,— Rome, not so much a city as a 
 place of arms,— the head-quarters of a people of war- 
 riors, disdaining every art but agriculture, which was 
 pursued as supplementary and indispensable to the 
 success of their campaigns— for which its burly toils 
 were an excellent novitiate. Every thing connected 
 with the culture and management of land was on that 
 account ever held in honour— made a rehgion by 
 them ; while all sedentary trades and arts were con- 
 signed, as servile and sordid, to slaves. Among the 
 Greeks, almost all the celebrated, and in general most 
 of the proper names, were derived from gods and 
 heroes, and had a poetical lustre, and glorious signi- 
 ficancy. But the most renowned among the Roman 
 famihes, such as the Fabii, Lentuh, Pisos, Ciceros, 
 and many others, were taken from agricultural pro- 
 duce ; while others, still more prosaic, were derived 
 from the numbers— such, for instance, as Octavius, 
 feecundus, Septimus, Quintus. Hence the acquisition 
 of land was the first and last thought of the Roman. 
 Between plebeians and patricians there was a perfect 
 
 * " Mirum que mihi videtur cum statuarum origo tarn vetus in 
 Itaha sit, lignea potius aut fictilia Deorum simulacra in delubris 
 dicata, usque ad devictam Asiam ; unde luxuria."— PZm. Hist 
 1. xxxiv. 6. 
 
 k2 
 
132 
 
 ROME. 
 
 agreement, at least on this one point, as there was in 
 the eagerness of both to invade the neighbouring na- 
 tions, in the hope of securing large tracts of the new 
 conquests. But as the patricians were mostly in- 
 vested with all the high offices and dignities in war as 
 well as peace, they knew how to turn all the opportu- 
 nities of conquest to the best advantage. =^ It became 
 a prevailing, and not ineffective feeling, with great 
 leaders, from a very early period, decidedly during the 
 Punic wars, that public services confer a right to look 
 upon and use the state as property. In reliance on 
 their party in the forum, who knew how to prevent 
 inquiry, or, at least, to frustrate its objects, they took 
 possession of the " ager publicus," or public lands, at 
 pleasure, and that in the most fertile as in the most 
 fruitful regions. The nobles formed thereby, even in 
 these early times, the princely estates which swallowed 
 up by degrees the little possessions of the small pro- 
 prietors, forming, in fact, the flower of the Italian 
 race. Sometimes, indeed, as well with regard to si- 
 milar abuses as in reference to this, strong measures 
 were taken. To redress this crying grievance, admit- 
 ted as such by the wisest and best men of the day, 
 the elder Gracchus, shocked by the state of misery 
 and solitude to which its working had reduced the 
 fairest tracts, even of Etruria, first commenced to 
 agitate for an agrarian law. But the patricians made 
 the pride of Cornelia pay dearly for his temerity. 
 Even so early as the middle of the second Punic war, 
 the poorer burghers and middle class were so op- 
 pressed by war taxes, that the great had full oppor- 
 tunity of purchasing many estates for themselves, and 
 incorporating them with their previous possessions. 
 This impoverishment of the lower and middle classes 
 in the interminable wars whereby the great and lead- 
 ing personages became enormously wealthy and all- 
 powerful, as well as the attractions offered to emigrants 
 to Rome, induced even then the burghers of the 
 
 * Vide the Phil, of Hist, by Fred, von Schlegel, Robertson's 
 Transl. vol. i. p. 324. 
 
ROME. 
 
 133 
 
 municipal towns to repair thither, in the hope to 
 creep into the list of citizens, to live on the distri- 
 bution of victuals, exempt from heavy imposts, and 
 entertained with constant shows ; and thus were their 
 fellow-townsmen who remained behind more over- 
 powered than ever by the public burdens. Whole tracts 
 of Italy were desolated, especially in the social war, 
 not only through the direct devastations practised by 
 the hostile parties, but more especially by the mer- 
 ciless proceedings of the senate against all who, during 
 the confusion, had been chargeable with faults of any 
 description. 
 
 But exactly in proportion to the decrease in the 
 number of free citizens, was augmented the number 
 and motley mixture of slaves. 
 
 The senate and the Roman people," says Sallust, 
 " had treated each other with mutual forbearance and 
 respect, in the administration of the commonwealth, 
 up to the fall of Carthage. No contests from in- 
 ordinate ambition had taken place as yet between rival 
 leaders ; because all orders of men were kept in salu- 
 tary restraint, by the apprehension of foreign enemies ; 
 but no sooner was this dread removed than the insolent 
 and headstrong passions, which usually attend pros- 
 perity, began to foment under the auspices of the do- 
 mestic security so long sighed for, worse evils than those 
 which had been dreaded from invasion. The nobles, 
 no longer satisfied with pre-eminence in the state, as- 
 pired to despotism ; while the democracy imagined 
 that they were slaves unless they trampled on the 
 constitution ; — and thus was the ill-fated common- 
 wealth torn to pieces by every species of violence 
 between two rival factions. 
 
 "At first the strength of the aristocracy, concentrated 
 and permanent in its nature, proved too much for the 
 popular power, dispersed through multitudes, and 
 liable on that account to be easily dissolved. The few 
 usurped all the honours and advantages of the re- 
 pubhc, and shifted from themselves on the people the 
 whole burden of the state— burdens which they had 
 
134 
 
 ROME. 
 
 augmented beyond measure, to suit their own selfish 
 interests and ambition ; and heaping outrageous in- 
 gratitude upon injustice, it was not unusual with them 
 to expel from their humble homes and inheritance, 
 in order to clear an estate, or augment a pleasure- 
 ground, the widows and orphans of the very men 
 who had squandered their blood in foreign con- 
 quests, that a heartless oligarchy might gain tri- 
 umphal honours, and have a wider field for oppres- 
 sions and rapacity. 
 
 " ' The beasts of the field,' cried a patriot of these 
 days, ' have their coverts and their dens for shelter ; 
 while those who have fought and bled to secure the 
 empire of the world for Italy, partake indeed of hght 
 and air, but of no other earthly comfort ; wandering 
 from place to place with their wretched wives and 
 little ones, without house or home.— For generals to 
 exhort such soldiers to fight for their " altars and an- 
 cestral tombs " is bitter mockery. What more insulting 
 than to entitle "lords of the earth" a people, few of 
 whom possess a sepulchre or a fire-side.' 
 
 " It was provided by the laws that the conquered 
 lands should be parcelled out among the people ; but 
 the nobles had contrived to monopoUse the entire, cul- 
 tivating the vast tracts they had acquired, not even 
 by free labourers, but by colonies drafted from the 
 depots of war captives and the slave marts ; half- 
 starved and forced by ignominious stripes to work in 
 fettered gangs by day, and at night consigned to cheer- 
 less dungeons, called ' ergastula' most frequently un- 
 der ground. Thus were the brave and independent 
 yeomanry, the pride and bulwark of their country, 
 soon everywhere succeeded by those unfortunate bond- 
 men — an abscess in the vitals of the republic, to which 
 they were eternally formidable on account of their 
 wrongs, their numbers, and their despair. It was by 
 the hght of the misery consequent on this misrule, 
 which he every where beheld, even in the fairest tracts 
 of Etruria, as he was on his way from Rome to Nu- 
 mantia, that Tiberius Gracchus was inspired with the 
 
ROME. 
 
 135 
 
 determination to redress this state of things, or perish, 
 as he did, in the attempt." 
 
 "It maybe," says the same historian, "that the 
 Gracchi were too intemperate and overbearing in their 
 enterprises for reform — ' sed bono vinci satius est 
 quam malo more injuriam vincere' — but the aris- 
 tocracy were as unwise as they were sanguinary in the 
 use of their triumph over them ; and multitudes were 
 exiled or slaughtered with indiscriminate barbarity." 
 This did not augment the power of their order ; but 
 it dreadfully exasperated the people, who, eagerly 
 seizing the long wished-for opportunity for revenge, 
 which arose out of the disgrace brought upon the 
 Roman arms soon after, through the unblushing vena- 
 lity and corrupt practices of the nobles during the 
 Jugurthan war, — elevated to the consulship, their 
 darling champion, Caius Marius of Arpinum — a man 
 of their own caste, gigantic in bodily and mental 
 energies, and animated with scornful hostihty against 
 the oligarchs. 
 
 " ' The nobility are sore wrath against me, Romans,' 
 said Marius from the rostrum, ' because you have 
 commanded me to carry on the war against Jugurtha. 
 Let me beg of you to reconsider my appointment, lest 
 you should repent of not having selected for this 
 momentous commission some one of these noble 
 lords, beyond — some scion of an ancient house, who 
 prides himself upon a magnificent array of ancestral 
 images, and upon the virtues of his forefathers, — 
 having none of his own, — some carpet knight, who, 
 after bringing embarrassment, ruin, and disgrace upon 
 your affairs by his ignorance and presumption, may 
 abandon the conduct of the war to some plebeian 
 lieutenant, like myself, while he retires to study the 
 Greek writers upon strategy in the silken umbrage 
 of his tent. Of trophies w^on by others, Romans, I 
 can make no parade ; but, if required, I can produce 
 the spoils and standards which this right hand has torn 
 from your enemies, — the military guerdons presented 
 me on many a field of battle. In defect of images I 
 
136 
 
 ROME. 
 
 may point to the scars upon my breast and visage, 
 and claim nobility, not by patent or inheritance, but 
 from exploits achieved by a warrior's toils, and at the 
 risk of life. By these effeminate aristocrats, I am 
 accused of meanness and rusticity ; because, forsooth, 
 my frugal board is not signahzed for dainties and the 
 antics of hired buffoons. Quirites, to these weighty 
 charges I plead guilty ; for I had learned from your 
 sturdy sires, and my own, that effeminate trifling is 
 for the sex — labour and hardy enterprise for men. 
 What sheer absurdity in this silken tribe, to think of 
 exchanging *' arts which they love" for your rough 
 service. Oh, let them carouse and waste their hours 
 in dalliance ; and, where their youth has been wasted, 
 there, also, let them spend their age — in feasting, 
 in licentiousness, and in veiling, by vile gauds of 
 drapery, the ravages which profligacy has made upon 
 their shattered frames. After degrading themselves 
 by every vileness, let them not presume to contest 
 the conduct of your armies with one who longs for 
 the fatigues and perils of campaigns more passion- 
 ately than they do for lascivious banquets.' " 
 
 The aristocracy were humbled, and made to feel, at 
 the hands of the ferocious conqueror of the Cimbri, 
 the cruelties which they had so wantonly inflicted ; 
 but they speedily regained their old position under the 
 leadership of C. Cornelius Sylla, whose aim and entire 
 policy was to crush the dem.ocratic power, and reinstate 
 the oligarchs. The massacres and atrocities, on both 
 sides, were awful. The parricidal conflict raged in 
 every region, street, and sanctuary of Rome ; in every 
 city and hamlet of Italy.* But the havoc was far from 
 terminating with the war. Upwards of seventy thou- 
 
 * On this occasion we may cite an observation made not by any 
 father of the church, or any Christian moralist, but by a celebrated 
 German historian, who was in other respects an enthusiastic 
 admirer of the republican heroism of the ancients : — " Rome, the 
 mistress of the world," says he, " drunk with the blood of nations, 
 began now to rage in her entrails." — Schlegel, Phil, of Hist. vol. i. 
 p. 335. 
 
ROME. 
 
 137 
 
 sand of the people were put to the sword by Sylla, 
 the day he entered Rome; four thousand, confined 
 in one of the public buildings, were slaughtered in 
 cold blood, after they had given up their arms, on 
 conditions; but the atrocities perpetrated in detail, 
 during the reign of terror which ensued, under the 
 " proscription," caused the survivors to envy those 
 who had perished in these scenes of indiscriminate 
 slaughter. Lists of the " proscribed" were hung up in 
 the forum, and an immense reward was offered for 
 each head ; it was made a capital offence to harbour 
 or shelter the doomed ; their properties were declared 
 forfeited, and their children and grand-children in- 
 capable of holding office in the state. Immediately, 
 unoffending citizens were fallen on and butchered in 
 the face of day, in the streets, and in the temples 
 their heads cuts off and brought before the tribunal of 
 the magistrates ; wives closed their doors against their 
 husbands, slaves betrayed their masters, brothers mur- 
 dered brothers, and sons might be seen bearing the 
 gory visages of their fathers, to claim the reward 
 secured them by the law. 
 
 These atrocities were not confined to Rome. Mur- 
 der and confiscation spread all through Italy. The 
 citadels and walls of towns which had sided with the 
 democratic party were pulled down, and those of their 
 unfortunate mhabitants that escaped proscription and 
 the sword were fined and taxed excessively. Some 
 places, especially in Etruria, were entirely depopu- 
 lated, and the houses and lands bestowed on the 
 soldiery of the ascendant faction, who thus contrived 
 to provide for three and twenty legions, or upwards 
 of one hundred and thirty thousand men, with their 
 families. In fine, extermination paused only when 
 reminded that, if the vanquished party was entirely 
 rooted out, there would remain no subjects to oppress 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I see before me the gladiator lie : 
 He leans upon his hand, — his manly brow- 
 Consents to death, but conquers agony, 
 And his droop'd head sinks gradually low, 
 And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow 
 From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, 
 Like the first of a thunder shower ; and now 
 The arena swims around him — he is gone ! 
 Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won." 
 " Infesta, mihi credite, signa ab Syracusis illata sunt huic urbi. 
 Jam nimis multos audio Corinthi et Athaenarum ornamenta lau- 
 danteis miranteisque, et antefixa fictilia deorum Roraanorum 
 ridenteis. Ego hos malo propitios deos, et ita spero futures, si 
 in suis manere sedibus patientur." — M. Catonis, Or at. pro 
 Oppia Lege. Apud Liv. Hist. 1. xxxiv. 4. 
 
 " Grsecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes 
 Intulit agresti Latio." — Hor. 1. ii. Epist. ep. 3. 
 
 No wonder that the muses kept aloof from the lair 
 of the she-wolf. The partiality and research of the 
 most learned Varro, of Marcus Tullius, and of Atticus, 
 have been exerted in vain to discover any vestige of 
 literature, any glimmering of intellectual culture, during 
 the first five hundred years of the city ; their labours 
 only served to place it beyond doubt that nothing of 
 the kind ever existed.* Even in the after ages, when 
 the muses shared the general fate, and were doomed 
 to minister round the throne of the empress city, no 
 intellectual progress or development, strictly speak- 
 
 * " Per cinque secoli ' non conoscessero che 1' armi, e la marra,' 
 Cicerone stesso, di cui non vi ebbe mai il piu zelante scrittore nel 
 sostener le gloria della sua patria,nonha potuto rinvenire argomenti, 
 che con qualche probabilita dimostrassero, avere i Romani fino da' 
 primi secoli coltivate le scienze. La tragedia, la commedia, il poema, 
 la storia, la rettorica, la filosofia, anzi la grammatica stessa eran 
 nomi sconnosciuti tra loro." — Tiraboschi Storia della Litterat. 
 torn. i. 1. i. par. 3, passim. 
 
ROME. 
 
 139 
 
 ing, ever arose in Rome. Of the Latin poets, Lucre- 
 tius and TibuUus alone were natives of Rome. The 
 same is true, with a few exceptions, of the prose 
 writers. There is scarcely any exception with regard to 
 those who were distinguished in the fine arts. The 
 muses first got admission in the train of conquest, led 
 in chains, like the other victims of rapacious war ; 
 and it was by stealth, and under the ban of the state, 
 that they exerted their arts to propitiate the favour 
 and pander to the gratifications of the proud and 
 voluptuous nobles ; men who, having enriched them- 
 selves by violence, were impatient for immediate 
 enjoyment. It is after the conquest of Sicily and 
 Magna Grecia that we discover the first symptom of 
 a taste for dramatic poetry. About the year 514 of 
 the city, Livius Andronicus, the freedman of M. 
 Livius Salinator, ventured to write a play. He was 
 probably one of the multitude of Greek captives 
 brought in from Southern Italy, " vagabonds who had 
 learned in the East, and in Greece Proper, the art to 
 make themselves agreeable as ministers of the pas- 
 sions."* Nor could it have happened, that, among a 
 proud aristocracy, in the possession of immense wealth 
 and influence, an avidity for polite accomplishments 
 would not have arisen, when it is recollected that in 
 the time of Flaminius and the elder Scipio, no less 
 than a thousand Greeks of the most distinguished 
 families, who had enjoyed the philosophical and rhe- 
 torical culture of their native cities, were at that 
 period distributed as hostages among the great patri- 
 cian houses. t Such men as Pansetius and Polybius 
 were among the number. But it was as a luxury, an 
 amusement, as a necessity of political life, and not as 
 a natural result of any progressive development, that 
 this new civilization was brought in ; it was provided 
 and served up like other dainties to the haughty con- 
 queror, who regarded with nearly equal disdain those 
 who ministered to his grosser appetites, and those 
 
 * Cab. Cycl. Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 150. 
 f Ibid, p. 260. 
 
140 
 
 ROME. 
 
 who catered for his intellect. " It was only the little 
 circle of educated aristocrats that took up a matter 
 which it regarded as its own cause, but which never 
 became the cause of the nation."* 
 
 The whole pubhc life of the Greeks, as well as 
 their mythology, was interwoven with, and enlivened 
 by all the charms of a poetry, in which the enthusiasm 
 of the most vivid feelings of nature, a blooming, fer- 
 tile, captivating fancy, and an intuitive perception of 
 manners and life, are combined with a delicacy of tact, 
 a purity and harmony of taste, excluding all exaggera- 
 tion, all false ornament. With them, the public spec- 
 tacles, games, and popular festivals were so many 
 theatres for poetry ; nay, the gymnastic exercises, and 
 music, or the art of the muses, including not only 
 melody, but the poetry of song, were the ground-work, 
 and formed almost the whole scope of a high polite 
 education among the Greeks. It was by the stirring 
 odes and other elaborate compositions recited at the 
 Isthmian games that the Hellenic confederacy was 
 knit together, and the sacred flame of patriotism kept 
 bright in Greece ; and when we reflect on the charm 
 and amenity of Homer, the elevation of ^schylus, 
 and the noble beauty of Sophocles, and remember 
 that they wrote for the people, were criticized and 
 crowned by the people, our admiration of the civiliza- 
 tion of the Greeks must approach to wonder. But 
 no tincture of letters, or of taste for elevated or re- 
 fined sentiment, ever penetrated the brutalized and 
 ferocious masses of the Roman people, f Their poetry 
 lay elsewhere than in rhapsodies of old Homer, or in 
 Pindaric odes. It must be sought for in the festive 
 games of the Circus, but above all, in those theatrical 
 combats, where the gladiator, wrestling with death, 
 
 * Cab. Cycl. Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 248. 
 
 -|- " Chez un peuple ou des centaines de lions et d'elephans et des 
 milliers de gladiateurs etaient sacrifi6s a I'amusement des specta- 
 teurs, que le vue de sang pouvoit seule emouvoir toute sensibilite 
 pour las soufFrances, et les douleurs morales de la haute tragedie ne 
 devoit-elle pas etre emoussee ?" — SMegel. 
 
ROME. 
 
 141 
 
 knew how to fall and die with dignity. When Rome 
 would " build up all her glories in one shrine," the 
 Colisseum was erected, where all orders and sexes of 
 the nobility and the people, with the magistracy, the 
 colleges of the priesthood, and the vestal virgins grew 
 drunk, and raged with ecstasy over the horrid car- 
 nage and murderous combats of the arena. " Thus 
 did a thirst for blood, after having been long the pre- 
 dominant passion of the party leaders of this all-ruling 
 people, become an actual craving — a festive entertain- 
 ment for the multitude. And yet the Romans of this 
 period excelled in jurisprudence, in the science of meum 
 and iuum in all the manifold and intricate occurrences 
 of life ; they were accomplished men of business, had 
 carried domestic economy and the management of 
 their properties to perfection ; whether in the tented 
 field, or on the arena of political contests, they display 
 an admirable, we might be tempted to say, a super- 
 human energy ; so that we are often at a loss how to 
 reconcile our admiration of these traits in their cha- 
 racter, with the detestation provoked by their atrocious 
 inhumanity. It was as if the iron-footed god of war, 
 Gradivus, so highly revered from of old by the people 
 of Romulus, actually bestrode the globe, and at every 
 step struck out new torrents of blood ; or as if the dark 
 Pluto had emerged from the abyss of eternal night, 
 escorted by all the vengeful spirits of the lower world, 
 by all the furies of passion and insatiable cupidity, by 
 the blood-thirsty demons of murder, to establish his 
 visible empire, and erect his throne for ever on the 
 earth. There can be no doubt that, if the Roman 
 history were divested of its accustomed rhetoric, of 
 all the patriotic maxims and trite sayings of politi- 
 cians, and were presented with strict and minute 
 accuracy in all its living reality, every humane mind 
 would be deeply shocked at such a picture, and 
 penetrated with profound horror and disgust."^ 
 Up to this period, their music was of a loud or ludi- 
 
 * Schlegel, Phil, of Hist. vol. i. p. 337. 
 
142 
 
 ROME. 
 
 crous kind ; the flute-playing, and the drinking songs 
 which formed their only literature, were never brought 
 to perfection like the music and lyrical productions of 
 the Greeks ; and the solemn sacrificial rites at which 
 music was used, were carried on amidst boisterous 
 screams, springs, and stamping-dances. In the comic 
 history told by Livy of the contests of the censors and 
 flute-players (or pipers,) the latter appear quite as 
 village musicians, and worthy servants of Etruscan 
 entrail inspectors.* 
 
 * Cab. Cycl. Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 149. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Whom mighty kingdoms curtsied to, 
 Like a forlorn and desperate castaway, 
 Did shameful execution on herself." 
 
 Up to the destruction of Carthage, the aim of all 
 the great men had been to make Rome the mistress of 
 all nations. This attained, it became the object of 
 each ambitious leader to subjugate Rome to himself. 
 Almost invariably cloaked under patriotic pretexts, 
 the chief instrument of usurpation was the tribunate, 
 originally the great bulwark of liberty. The Gracchi 
 (the elder at least deserved a better fate) were followed 
 by Apuleius Saturninus, he by Livius Drusus ; and 
 these seditions brought on first — the social war,* which 
 spread wider devastation in Italy than Pyrrhus, or even 
 Hannibal ;t next — the general rising of the slaves ; and 
 when they were crushed, (not without loss, however, 
 and infinite disgrace,) the outbreak of the gladiators, 
 under Spartacus, who routed the generals of the re- 
 public, took their camps, on more than one occasion, 
 and even menaced the city at the head of 130,000 
 desperadoes. 
 
 Under Sylla and Marius, the forum and every street 
 became an arena where the nobility, the knights, the 
 people, all orders and ranks, were confounded in a 
 gladiatorial contest for the privilege to tyrannise over 
 the lacerated and bleeding state. The war of Ser- 
 torius was but a consequence of the proscriptions — 
 that of Marcus Lepidus and Quinctus Catulus, a mere 
 scintillation from the funeral pile of the dictator, was 
 
 * Appian, ii. p. 445. 
 
 •f Marius and Sylla were lieutenants in this war. Cicero served 
 under the latter as quaestor, and mentions a curious occurrence 
 that took place as Sylla was offering sacrifice at an altar in Nola. 
 
144 
 
 ROME. 
 
 almost instantaneously suppressed, to make way for the 
 parricidal and more formidable attempts of Cataline.* 
 
 The decree of fate was already recognised as in- 
 evitable by many, that Rome, having originated in 
 monarchy, was doomed — after completing the circle of 
 vicissitudes, under oligarchy, democracy, dictatorship 
 — to revert again, and for ever, to the despotism of 
 one. It was evident to all that the throes of dissolution 
 had seized on the republic ; but no one could suggest 
 a remedy .f Still to vanquish repubUcan Rome, even 
 in her agony, required a genius and an energy almost 
 more than human. Sylla might have been equal to 
 the task, but as Caesar said, " he did not know his 
 letters ; " — that is, he had not, by extensive learning 
 and philosophical meditation, qualified himself to re- 
 organise and govern, as a statesman, the empire which, 
 as a general, he had subdued. As to the Gracchi, 
 Cataline, and all that class of revolutionists, (the elder 
 Gracchus, it is likely, was a well-meaning patriot,) 
 they were the creatures of circumstances, and the 
 sport of the storms they excited — mere pioneers of 
 anarchy for Juhiis Caesar, who knew how— if ever 
 mortal did — to create his own opportunities. He mar- 
 shalled, with as much facility and precision, the seem- 
 ingly ungovernable confusion of his time, as he would 
 have reviewed his veterans. 
 
 The crossing of the Rubicon was regarded by his 
 opponents as an act of madness — his soldiers were 
 made to regard it as an act of inspiration ; truth was, 
 that step resulted from the forethought and prepara- 
 tion of his entire life. 
 
 When the nobles interceded with Sylla for Csesar, 
 while still a youth, they were warned by the old dic- 
 tator, with that kind of instinct by which the mighty 
 
 * Cicero ad Attic. 
 
 f "Nunc quidem novo quodam morbo civitas moritur; ut, cum 
 omnes ea quae sunt acta improbent, querantur, et jam clare geraant ; 
 tamen medicina nulla alFeratur, neque enim resisti sive internecione 
 posse arbitramur ; nec videmus, qui finis cedendi, praeter exitiura, 
 futurus sit."— Cic. ad Attic. 1. ii. Ep. 20. ver. med. 
 
ROME. 
 
 145 
 
 recognise each other, that in that loose cinctured 
 boy" they were cherishing the destroyer of their 
 order. He was sober at least in coming to seize the 
 commonwealth," as Cato said ; from his earhest years 
 he had not only fixed his eyes upon the diadem, but 
 measured the interval and calmly calculated every 
 obstacle, which intervened between his dissolute and 
 outlawed youthhood and the world's throne. The 
 very causes which seemed to render his project des- 
 perate, he made subservient to its accomplishment ; 
 and, by a dexterous management of the agencies 
 devised for its defence, destroyed the constitution, 
 while hewing down his country, made it appear that 
 he was deserving of sympathy as an injured patriot ; 
 with a species of superhuman prescience provided 
 against calamities which to ordinary mortals would 
 have appeared to be impossibihties, and which must 
 have been fatal to his hopes if not anticipated. He 
 precipitated nothing ; never let slip an opportunity ; 
 genius made him superior even to fate itself, and 
 taught him to construe the omens of misfortune into 
 presages of success.f His transcendent talents in 
 office left his colleagues completely in the shade ; his 
 measures followed each other in luminous order, and 
 seemed to produce the desired effects as infalhbly as 
 if they were so many laws of nature. 
 
 To bring the constitution into contempt, and to 
 famiharise the pubhc mind with ideas of revolution, 
 (his first aim,) he secretly abetted such men as Cataline! 
 His next object— to degrade the senate, and encou- 
 rage democratic violence— he accomplished through 
 the brutahty of Clodius, who forced its pride and 
 
 * Cicero says that Caesar was ever a devoted worshipper of one 
 
 Ad Attic. 1. VU. 11. /V r 
 
 t In landing at Adrumetum in Africa with his army, he happened 
 to lall on his face, which was reckoned a bad omen ; but he, with 
 great presence of mind, taking hold of the ground with his right 
 hand, and kissing it as if he had fallen on purpose, exclaimed. 
 
 leneote, Africa !" (I take possession of thee, O Africa !)—DiQ. 
 1. xlii. m fin. Sueton. in vit. Jul. 59. 
 
146 ROME. 
 
 ornament, M. T. Cicero, into exile. But without the 
 co-operation of Crassus and Porapey, his own rivals, 
 he saw that the influence of the oUgarchy could not 
 be broken ; and, to the consternation of Cato and all 
 the friends of the aristocratic order, he succeeded m 
 forming the first triumvirate. This coalition subverted 
 the repubUc ; Rome from that moment was at the 
 mercy of three ambitious men, and Csesar knew how 
 to set rid of his two accomplices when they had served 
 his turn. A disgraceful defeat and death in Parthia 
 reheved him of Crassus, whom he never dreaded ; and 
 Pompey was every day becoming obsolete ;— rechnmg 
 in listless inactivity upon his ancient laurels, he ex- 
 pected to be courted bv that country which he would 
 not deign to seize ; while the stupendous fabric of his 
 renown was at once lapsing into ruin by an inevitable 
 law, and, at the same time, undermined by an inde- 
 fatigable rival. , n . . 4.1 4. 
 
 But Cffisar had perceived from the beginning, that 
 without an appeal to arms, the imperial crown could 
 not be worn, and that to seize it, he must first vanquish 
 Pompey at the head of the Roman nobles. This was 
 the last and most desperate move of all ; and Csesar 
 was not the man to attempt it, until, by his conquests 
 in Gaul, Germany, and Britain, he had disciplined his 
 legions for Pharsalia, and raised the platform of his 
 military fame, at least to a level with that of a general 
 whom Rome loved, among all her conquering sons, to 
 
 call the Great. 
 
 From the outbreak of the civil war all was discor d, 
 indecision, fiery impulse, perplexity, or fatal blunder- 
 ing amongst the Pompeians, or aristocratic party, from 
 their precipitate evacuation of the capital, where they 
 left the pubhc treasury, (protected, forsooth, by religious 
 reverence from Caesar's grasp !) to the suicide of Cato, 
 who slew himself at the close of the first act. Wrth 
 all the sanctions of law, order, and the constitution, 
 on their side, the cause of freedom, as they called it, m 
 their hands rapidly sunk into contempt ; while auda- 
 cious rebellion seemed to wax constitutional, and pros- 
 
ROME. 147 
 
 pered, from day to day, under the auspices of Ccesar 
 It was the impression of his enemies,* that, hke Marius 
 and Sylla, he would have slaughtered all before him • 
 but Caesar "knew his letters," and instead of that 
 won all hearts along his march, by his forbearance 
 and caused himself to be received in Rome, not as a 
 usurper, but as a liberator of his country. 
 
 By the rapidity and precision of his movements, he 
 took victory by surprise, and seemed to make a jest 
 of enterprises, which, unless by himself, mio-ht well 
 be regarded as impossibihties. " I am going," he said 
 when starting for Spain, '^o beat an army without a 
 general, that I may hasten to beat a general without 
 an army." At one time his fortunes are tossed at the 
 mercy of the winds and billows, in a fragile bark • at 
 another, he is obliged— unhelmed and single-handed 
 —to meet and throw back the brunt of victory ; again 
 to plunge into the waves and swim for his life, amidst 
 showers of destruction— in general the chances of war 
 seem against him in the campaigns in which he anni- 
 hilated five armies, in Spain, in Epirus, in Egypt, in 
 Fontus, in Africa, and in Spain a second time ; yet 
 with such celerity and apparent ease did he achieve 
 these enterprises, that, when upon the capitol he 
 assumed the dictatorship, without a rival or a re- 
 claimant, he might well adopt, as the motto of his 
 triumphs, his own celebrated despatch, " veni, vidi 
 vici." ' 
 
 Anything more chimerical than the project of 
 Brutus and his associates cannot be well imagined. 
 Julius Caesar was, on every account, regarded by the 
 commonalty of Rome with much greater partiality 
 than the party of the men who slew him— partizans 
 as they were of that old patrician oligarchy, who never 
 treated the commons, when they had the power, but 
 with harshness and injustice ; and who, if the patriots, 
 as they called themselves, had succeeded, would have 
 acted the tragedy over again that followed the triumph 
 
 * Cic. ad Attic. 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 ROME. 
 
 of Sylla. But besides all this, the age had long since 
 elapsed since the power of effecting revolutions m 
 Rome had been transferred from the forum to the 
 
 camps. .1 4. f 
 
 The ancient constitution of Rome was that ot a 
 municipahty ; its laws and institutions had reference 
 only to a town population. As this was not peculiar 
 to Rome— for when she started nothing was to be seen, 
 in Italy and the surrounding countries, but cities in- 
 dependent of each other, or merely confederated lor 
 mutual defence —no inconvenience resulted, but the 
 reverse ; the concentration of energies and unity ot 
 action were secured, before which, city after city fell, 
 till all Italy, Sicily, Spain, Sardinia, Macedonia, and 
 Achaia, (as Greece was then called,) became Roman 
 provinces.* But this enormous extension of territory, 
 with incessant wars of conquest, superinduced a change 
 in the military service. In the preceding epoch, every 
 Roman was a soldier, but every one from the consul 
 to the private was dismissed so soon as the enemy 
 was vanquished, and returned, like Cincinnatus, Re- 
 gulus, and Cato the Censor, to look after his husbandry, 
 with the obUgation, again, to present himself when a 
 new expedition was begun. Thus, the populus or 
 constituency of Rome, during this epoch, were iden- 
 tical with the armies in rustic or civihan dress, and, 
 hence, whoever could sway these assembUes ruled the 
 country. But, when protracted service in foreign 
 countries, where every thing conspired to debauch 
 the rustic simplicity of the old Roman character, and 
 to render the soldier averse to the obscurity and 
 tedium of agricultural life, had caused the military 
 service to become a trade, the greater part of the 
 subaltern officers, and all the privates, began to regard 
 the camp as their only country, and the command ot 
 
 * " Rome n'etait pas dans son origine, qu'une municipalite, une 
 commune. Le gouvernement Romain n'a ete que I'ensemble des 
 institutions qui conviennent a une population renfermee dans 1 m- 
 terieur d'une viUe. L'histoire de la conquete du monde par Rome, 
 c'est l'histoire de la conquete et de la fondation dun grand nombre 
 de ches:'—Guizot, Hist, de la Civil p. 42. Bruxelles, 1838. 
 
ROME. 
 
 149 
 
 a favourite general as their only law. Thenceforward 
 they became the moving power in the state. 
 
 Combined with this cause, in itself decisive against 
 the attempt of Brutus, a variety of other circumstances 
 had conspired to fill up the place of the lion-hearted 
 well-disciplined plebs, with a promiscuous populace 
 swept together by a thousand chances, utter strangers 
 to patriotism, consisting, in a great degree, of the idly 
 incUned and profligate of all lands, of manumitted 
 slaves and parasites of the nobles — wretches who had 
 no care beyond the securing their rations of bread, 
 bacon, and wine, at the expense of the plundered 
 provinces, and to gloat over fights of gladiators and 
 chariot races, from the back seats of amphitheatre 
 and circus. 
 
 By the conquered countries, all parties at Rome 
 were alike detested ; because, from all, alike, whether 
 leagued with Sylla or Marius, with the senate or with 
 Caesar, with Brutus or Mark Antony, they had ex- 
 perienced nothing but heartless cruelty and rapacious- 
 ness— " long oppressed by the ministers of the 
 repubhc, (of whom Verres was but an average sample,) 
 the provinces sighed for the government of one who 
 might be the master, not the accomplice of these petty 
 tyrants." And hence, Rome had reached that crisis 
 of her destinies, in which a military despotism was 
 inevitable. 
 
 " So long," said Maecenas, in persuading Octavius 
 to assume the monarchy, " as Rome was a petty state, 
 very little, if at all superior in extent, to her neigh- 
 bour-burghs of Latium, she subdued all Italy; and 
 order and good government reigned at home; but, 
 since our legions have crossed the sea and the Alps, 
 reducing islands, provinces, and kingdoms, under our 
 dominion, we have tasted of nothing but misfortune. 
 Within the walls, factions, conspiracies against the 
 commonwealth, seditions in the camps, and pitched 
 battles between the different armies abroad. Like a 
 ship overburdened, deprived of her pilot, and crowded 
 with frantic mutineers, the state is in distress, labour- 
 
150 
 
 ROME. 
 
 ing as if it would go to pieces, being tossed about in 
 derision, by the tempests. It is not in vain, the gods 
 have sent thee to our rescue. Resist not their will — 
 Caesar preserve us, or we perish The fatal circle had 
 been accomphshed. In aiming their daggers at Caesar's 
 life, Brutus and his accompUces struck at destiny 
 itself. Their act re-plunged the whole Roman world 
 back into a chaos of blood and crime, just as it was 
 beginning to pursue its predestined orbit, under the 
 auspices of the grandest intellect ever vouchsafed to 
 mortal. 
 
 But here again, as if too strong for fate, the good 
 fortune of Rome prevails ; and, out of ruin irretriev- 
 able, we behold her empire arising, perfect in organi- 
 zation, crowned with felicity and the arts of peace, 
 and bearing on its aspect the impress of eternity. 
 
 The indomitable spirits, too haughty to brook 
 subjection, were all cut down, or skilfully got rid of, 
 during the horrid wars and proscriptions following the 
 death of Caesar, and, after the battle of Actium, are 
 scarcely heard of more.f Thus were removed the 
 great obstacles to the establishment of the monarchy, 
 anxiously hailed by every other class. Again, the time 
 was ripe ; because the circuit of conquest had been 
 completed, and there was nothing now wanted to 
 crown and perpetuate the glory of the eternal city, 
 but a second Numa — a lawgiver, endowed with capa- 
 city sufficiently vast to consolidate into one har- 
 monious system, the nations, innumerable, and so 
 diversified in character, language, and institutions, 
 which constituted the Roman world. 
 
 For this office Octavius was better qualified than 
 great Julius himself, whose boundless vision and in- 
 satiable love of glory urged him on, from triumph to 
 triumph, with an impetuosity which recognised no 
 horizon but infinitude. But his adoptive son and 
 heir, Augustus, serene and mindful that he was not 
 immortal, not only observed an order in the measures 
 necessary to attain his ends, but was still more re- 
 
 * Dio, 1. lii. t T'^i^t. Ann. 1. i. 
 
ROME. 
 
 151 
 
 liiarkable for the admirable wisdom with which he 
 turned these ends, themselves, according to the strict 
 order of succession, to practical utility. Thus it was 
 his first aim to get possession of the supreme power ; 
 his next was to convince mankind that he was worthy 
 of that supremacy ; this end attained, he set himself 
 to enjoy felicity, persuaded, as an Epicurean, that this 
 is the ultimate destiny of mortals ; and his last object 
 was to identify himself with all that was grand and 
 enduring upon earth ; with arts, institutions, laws, 
 monuments, his land's language, and through these 
 to transmit the impression of his virtues and magnifi- 
 cence to all future generations. 
 
 "Thus blended," continued Seneca, "into one 
 great people, the vanquished nations have resigned 
 the hope, nay, even the wish of resuming their 
 independence. They acknowledge that the true 
 principles of social fife, laws, agriculture, and sci- 
 ence, first invented by the wisdom of Athens, are 
 now firmly estabhshed by the power of Rome ; 
 under whose auspicious influence, the fiercest barba- 
 rians have been united by an equal government and 
 common language. They affirm, that with the im- 
 provement of arts, the human species is visibly mul- 
 tiplied. They celebrate the increasing splendour of 
 the cities, the beautiful face of the country — cultivated 
 and adorned like a garden — and the long festival 
 of peace, which is enjoyed by so many nations, for- 
 getful of their ancient animosities, and delivered from 
 the apprehension of future danger. Every thing, in 
 fine, portends that the deities, tutelary of our country, 
 have provided that this greatness should be eternal.* 
 
 " All nations now to Rome obedience pay, 
 
 To Rome's great emperor, whose wide domain, 
 In ample territory, wealth, and power, 
 Civility of manners, arts, and arms, 
 And long renown, thou justly may'st prefer 
 Before all other empires." 
 " Non tamen annorum series, non flamma, nec ignis, 
 Sternum poterit hoc abolere decus." 
 
 * Gibbon. 
 
152 
 
 ROME, 
 
 " Fallacious hope !" . said the apostle j "but few 
 centuries shall have elapsed until that scene of splen- 
 dour and voluptuous elegance, the forum, shall be 
 again a pasture field." 
 
 "Impossible," replied the senator; "the perfect 
 organization of the empire, and its means for repelling 
 external violence, forbid the belief that it could be 
 overthrown within any given period, either by invasion 
 or by anarchy. 
 
 " United by language, manners, and the enjoyment 
 of exclusive privileges, into one mighty people pre- 
 eminent in the arts of war and government, the Italian 
 nations form a centre equal to the weight of an empire, 
 vast in extent, but uniform, voluntary, and permanent 
 in its obedience. The authority of the emperors per- 
 vades the wide extent of their dominions, without an 
 effort, and is exercised, with the same facility and 
 effect, on the remotest frontiers, as within the prefecture 
 of this city. This is mainly attributable to the celerity 
 of our communications both by sea and land, and to 
 the admirable distribution of the fleets and armies. 
 
 " The entire force of the empire consists of provin- 
 cial, urban, and naval legions or brigades, to the 
 amount of about four hundred thousand men ; besides 
 the marines of the fleets stationed at Ravenna, Mise- 
 num, Forum Juliense, the forty ships in the Euxine, and 
 the fleets in the seas which separate Britain from Gaul 
 and Germany ; and all — legions, fleets, and provinces 
 — are in perfect mihtary connexion. Thus the forces 
 stationed at Misenum and Ravenna, with their re- 
 spective fleets, are sufficiently near the capital to secure 
 its tranquillity ; while, at the same time, they can be 
 transported to any point, where exigency may require, 
 with the greatest promptitude, and without making 
 a detour. The shores of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Egypt, 
 Sardinia, and Sicily, are open to the Misenum fleet ; 
 the fleet at Ravenna commands Epirus, Macedonia, 
 Achaia, the Propontis, Pontus, Crete, Cyprus, and the 
 East : as to the provincial legions, three suffice for 
 Britain. The principal strength lies upon the Rhine 
 
ROME. 
 
 153 
 
 and Danube, consisting of sixteen legions — two in 
 Lower, three in Upper Germany, one in Rhoetia, one 
 in Noricum, four in Panonia, three in Msesia, and 
 two in Dacia. The Euphrates is guarded by eight 
 legions — two planted in Cappadocia, six in Syria. As 
 Egypt, Africa, and Spain are far removed from any 
 important scenes of warfare, a single legion is sufficient 
 to maintain the domestic tranquillity of each of these 
 great and happy provinces. 
 
 " Seldom, indeed, is the aid of a military force 
 required by the civil magistrate ; and thus the armies 
 have only to guard against a foreign enemy. Instead 
 of being confined within the walls of fortified cities — 
 the refuge of weakness and pusillanimity — the legions 
 are encamped on the banks of great rivers, and along 
 the frontiers of the barbarians. The veterans, as well 
 as the young recruits, are trained both morning and 
 evening; and in winter- quarters under large sheds, 
 lest their labours should receive any interruption. 
 With arms double the weight of those used in action, 
 they are dihgently instructed to march, to run, to 
 leap, to swim, to carry heavy burdens, to handle every 
 species of arms, that is used either for offence or de- 
 fence, either in distant engagement or at close quarters ; 
 to form a variety of evolutions ; to move to the sound 
 of flutes in the Pyrrhic or martial dance. Thus are 
 they familiarised with war, in the midst of peace, 
 since the effusion of blood is the only point of dif- 
 ference between a field of battle and a field of exer- 
 cise.* For an empire thus organised, thus defended, 
 what is there to fear from savage hordes, who tremble 
 at the very sound of the Roman name, and frequently 
 soHcit, without success, to be admitted in the ranks of 
 subjects ?" 
 
 * Josephus. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the 
 timber shall answer it : — Woe to him that buildeth a town with 
 blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity." 
 
 Hah. eh. ii. 11, 12. 
 
 It was with a proud complacency the Romans 
 listened, while St. Peter pointed out to them how 
 accurately the all-conquering force of their country, 
 and its unprecedented grandeur had been revealed to 
 kings and prophets, in the heart of Asia, before its 
 name or existence had been heard of, beyond the 
 neighbouring septs of Latium. So strongly charac- 
 terized were the emblems of the 2nd and 7th chap- 
 ters of Daniel, so graphic the descriptions of the 
 prophetic visions, that, to their minds, they scarcely 
 needed an interpreter. What other than that very 
 empire, whose irresistible might and obstinate per- 
 severance they had been describing to the apostle, 
 could be referred to in that khigdom of iron," repre- 
 sented by the limbs and feet of that apparition which 
 had so terrified King Nebuchadnezzar in his sleep ; 
 for " as iron breaketh and subdueth all things," had 
 not all states and kingdoms been crushed and sub- 
 dued by Rome? Still more to their fancy, if it 
 were possible, was that emblem in the 7th chapter 
 of a wild beast, terrible and wonderful, and ex- 
 ceeding strong, with great iron teeth, eating and 
 breaking in pieces, and treading down the beasts 
 typical of the other three empires, and trampling 
 them with its feet. In this it was impossible not 
 to recognise an energetic epitome of the conquering 
 career of Rome. Their intimate acquaintance with 
 history enabled them, at a glance, to recognise, in the 
 other emblems, the Babylonian empire, (personified 
 in Nebuchadnezzar; see ch. 2, ver. 38; and ch. 7, 
 
ROME. 
 
 155 
 
 ver. 4 ;) the empire of the Medes and Persians, in the 
 two arms and breast of silver, (eh. 2, ver. 32 and 
 39;) and in the bear, (eh. 7, ver. 5,) a striking 
 type of their austerity of life and thirst for blood. 
 While, with respect to Alexander the Great, and his 
 empire, partitioned by Antipater, Seleucus, Ptolemy, 
 and Antigonus, the predictions of Daniel bore to 
 their minds so much the air, not of prophecies, but of 
 histories written posterior to the events, that no sha- 
 dow of doubt remained as to the Divine inspiration of 
 the entire series of visions, when it was ascertained 
 that they had been written several hundred years 
 before Alexander's birth.* 
 
 This point, however, agreed upon, and the un- 
 doubted inspiration of the prophet having been tested 
 by experience, by their beholding the first half of the 
 prediction literally fulfilled before their eyes, St. Peter 
 went on to interpret that portion of the prophecy 
 which still remained to be accomphshed — a perora- 
 
 * That the reader may have an opportunity, even without refer- 
 ing to the Bible, of considering the wonderful precision and de- 
 cisive clearness of these two prophetic visions, they are given with a 
 few explanatory remarks in Appendix B of this volume. 
 
 Even before Rome had been taken by Alaric, while the Queen 
 of the Seven Hills was still in all her pride, there was no hesitation 
 amongst the Christians as to the application of these predic- 
 tions. — " But," says St. Jerome, in commenting on Daniel, chapter 
 ii., " as to the fourth kingdom, which oiwiow.sZ^/—' perspicue'— per- 
 spicuously applies to the Romans, it is said, to be of iron, because 
 it crushes and conquers all ; but its feet and toes are said to be 
 partly of iron and partly of potter's clay, which we behold made 
 most manifest — ' manifestissime' — in our own days and then he 
 shows how the iron power begins to totter, by reason of intestine wars 
 and the barbaric invasions.—" Sicutenim in principio nihil Romano 
 imperio fortius et durius fuit, ita in fine rerum, nihil imbecillius : 
 quando et in bellis civilibus, adversum diversas nationes, aliarum 
 gentium barbararum indigemus auxilis," &c.— aS". Hieron. in Dan. 
 FropL, cap. ii., tom. iii., Op. p. 1081. Parisiis, 1704. He is equally 
 decisive on the vision in chapter vii. of the same prophecy. " The 
 fourth, which now, at the time of this writing, — ' nunc,'— sways 
 the earth, is the Roman empire ; of which it is said in the vision of 
 the statue, 'its thighs and legs were of iron,' " &c. ; and then he 
 proceeds, " how apposite an emblem of the Roman empire was that 
 terrible monster with iron teeth," &c. 
 
156 
 
 ROME. 
 
 tion, the very reverse of flattering to Roman arro- 
 gance. 
 
 " Thou, O king," said Daniel, " sawest, and behold 
 a great image. This great image, whose brightness 
 was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof 
 was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold ;" 
 (the empire of Babylon or of the Chaldees, as the pro- 
 phet himself explains it ;) " its breast and its arms of 
 silver (the empire of the Medes and Persians, who 
 took I3abylon under Cyrus, a Persian by the father's 
 side, by the mother's side a Mede ;) " its body and 
 thighs of brass ;" (the Macedonian, or Greek empire ;*) 
 " its legs of iron" (republican or conquering Rome ;) 
 "its feet" (the declining empire) "part of iron and 
 part of clay." 
 
 Hitherto," pursued St. Peter, " we have been 
 verifying prophecy by our own knowledge and experi- 
 ence of past events ; it remains for us now to take the 
 sequel of this same prophecy as our guide into that 
 future, which, without Divine revelation, is impervious 
 to human foresight. Mark well the destiny that awaits 
 this ' iron empire,' now actually bestriding the world, 
 ' terrible and wonderful, and exceeding strong,' ' greater 
 than all the preceding empires, devouring the whole 
 earth, and trampling it down, and breaking it in pieces.' 
 
 " ' Thus thou sawest, O king,' says the prophet, 
 ' till a stone was cut, without hands, from a moun- 
 tain, and it smote the image upon its feet that were of 
 iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was 
 
 * " This third kingdom," says St. Jerome, " is the empire 
 of Alexander and of his successors, rightly compared to brass, 
 which of all metals is the most sonorous, and rings, when struck, 
 most clearly, the chime reverberating far and wide ; so that it is an 
 emblem not only of the wide spread renown and empire of Alex- 
 ander the Great, but of the unrivalled eloquence of the Grecian 
 tongue." — " Et regnum tertium aliud, quod imperabit universse 
 terras. — Alexandrum significat et regnum Macedonum, successor- 
 umque Alexandri. Quod recte seneum dicitur ; inter omnia enim 
 metalla aes vocalius est, et tinniit clariiis, et sonitus ejus longe latd- 
 que diffunditur, ut non solum famam et potentiam regni ; sed et 
 eeloquentiam Grecae sermonis ostenderet." — S. Bier, ubi sup. 
 
ROME. 
 
 157 
 
 the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold,' 
 (all the power, art, renown, and opulence amassed by 
 successive empires,) ' broken to pieces together, and 
 became like the dust of the summer threshing floor.' 
 Behold how perishable the grandeur which you call 
 ' eternal !' ' Baths, palaces, amphitheatres, arches, 
 pillars, trophies, temples, and all the rest, — and ' the 
 wind carried them away, so that no place was found 
 for them !' that is, the very places where they stood 
 shall become a problem to the antiquarian — the very 
 fact of their existence, a doubt ! 
 
 " Yes, Fortune, as you call her, will turn back upon 
 her steps, upon these scenes which now excite our 
 admiration ; not only undoing, but reversing, as if 
 in capricious mockery, every thing that .had been 
 achieved and erected upon them under her own 
 auspices. The gorgeous tissue which, according to 
 your poets, the three sisters wove, from exploits and 
 triumphs under kings, consuls, emperors — the memo- 
 rabilia of a thousand years — shall be rent to pieces 
 and flung to the deriding winds. 
 
 ' As the earth was before so shall it be.' 
 
 Desolate as when Evander crossed it with Eneas, 
 shall be, again, that theatre of all that is now most 
 renowned, mighty, and magnificent ; the Roman 
 forum shall be, again, a pasture field ; the Palatine 
 a heap of ruins, 
 
 ' Matted and mass'd together ;' 
 
 like the vision of a dream, a mirage of the desert, the 
 empire of the Ccesars shall vanish ; the home of so 
 many nations, shall become their grave ; the seven 
 hills, a ' marble wilderness.' 
 
 " And yet is Rome destined to be an ' eternal city,' 
 imperishable as the earth itself, over which its sceptre 
 shall still be wielded ; for, mark the conclusion of the 
 prophecy : — * And the stone,' (cut without hands, 
 irom. a mountain, the church built on Peter, taken, as 
 it were, from the side of the Redeemer, as Eve was 
 
158 
 
 ROME. 
 
 taken from the side of the^rs^ Adam,) 'the stone 
 that smote the image,' (the Pagan empire of Rome,) 
 ' became a great mountain and filled the entire earth.'* 
 That is, according to the prophet's own interpretation, 
 the kingdom of heaven ; the empire, or Church of 
 Christ, which hath been in progress of erection 
 during the entire cycle of these empires, f and 
 which is to continue advancing to perfection to 
 that cycle's close, shall arise upon the ruins of 
 this pagan empire, ' never to be destroyed.' Not like 
 the human empires that we have beheld, ' passing 
 from nation to nation,' from Chaldees to the Medes 
 and Persians, from them to the Greeks, from the 
 Greeks to yourselves ; ' This kingdom shall not be 
 delivered to another people ;' even ' the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it.' True it is, the powers of 
 darkness shall rouse up all the terrible forces of this 
 * iron' empire of yours, and all the passions of cor- 
 rupt humanity, against it; and formidable as have 
 been the trials and resistance through which you have 
 described the city and empire of Romulus struggling 
 for existence, for territory, for supremacy, they are 
 but trivial compared with the opposition this new 
 Roman empire shall have to encounter. ' But why 
 have the nations raged, and the people devised vain 
 things,' (for its destruction ?) ' The kings of the earth 
 shall rise up, the princes conspire together against the 
 Lord and against his Christ ; but he that dwelleth in 
 heaven shall laugh at them ;' and the rock shall crush 
 to pieces and consume all those hostile kingdoms. ' For 
 
 * When we reflect upon the manifold mysteries often involved in 
 the same expression or sentence of Holy Writ, (as in the interpreta- 
 tion given of Melchisedek, for instance, Hebrews vii.,) it will be 
 readily admitted, that, while the "rock cut, without hands, from the 
 mountain," must mean, either Christ our Lord, (as St. Jerome will 
 have it,) or the Church of Christ, or St. Peter, it may mean, and be 
 emblematical of all three. 
 
 f The " Preparationes Evangelicse," or preparations for the 
 coming of the Messiah, and the establishment of his everlasting 
 kingdom, commenced emphatically with the return of the Jews 
 from the Babylonian captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple. — 
 See Bossuefs Univer. Hist. 
 
ROME. 
 
 159 
 
 judgment shall sit in heaven,' (concludes the prophet — 
 ch. 7, ver. 9 and 28 — interpreting the other vision of the 
 four great empires,) that the last effort to reinstate the 
 tottering sway of paganism may be frustrated, and ' that 
 its empire may be broken in pieces and perish even 
 unto the end; that the kingdom, and power, and 
 the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
 may be given to the saints of the Most High ; whose 
 kingdom' (thus to be estabhshed,) ' is an everlasting 
 kingdom, and' (in it) ' all kings shall serve Him and 
 obey Him.'* 
 
 "Then shall be realized that subUme ideal of per- 
 fection described, I will say prophesied, by your own 
 Marcus Tullius ; ' nor shall there be one law at Rome, 
 another law at Athens, one to-day, a different one to- 
 morrow ; but a law, one, sempiternal, and immutable, 
 shall unite and hold together in communion all na- 
 tions throughout all ages, under one common ruler 
 and emperor of all — that God, by whom was devised, 
 drawn up, enacted, this law, in swerving from which 
 we swerve from our own well-being, and offer violence 
 to human natare.'f Nay, more, it is not by force but 
 by persuasion this new empire shall be extended and 
 
 * It will be made evident in the second volume that this passage 
 refers to the great and final effort made for the restoration of 
 Paganism, by Julian the Apostate. 
 
 f This sublime passage of Cicero, preserved in the writings of 
 Lactantius, cannot fail to win a new perusal, even from those who 
 may have read it often :— " Nee erit alia lex Romae, alia Athenis, 
 alia nunc, alia posthac ; sed et omnes gentes, et omni tempore, 
 una lex, et sempiterna, et immutabilis continebet ; uniusque erit 
 communis quasi magister, et imperator omnium, Deus ; ille legis 
 hujus inventor, disceptator, lator; cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugit, 
 ac naturam hominis aspernatus hoc ipso luet maximus pcenas 
 etiamsi cetera supplicia quoe putantur efFugerit." — But mark the 
 miserable incertitude as to futurity of one who could utter words 
 deserving of the high encomium passed on them by Lactantius, who 
 says, they are the expressions " not so much of a philosopher as 
 of a prophet;" "non pholosophi functus esset officio sed pro- 
 phetse." — Lactant. de Vero Cultu. 1. vi. cap. 8. He quotes from 
 the third book " De Republica," Cicero's greatest work in philo- 
 sophy. It has been, in a great degree, restored to the world, through 
 the erudition and industry of his eminence Cardinal Mai. 
 
160 
 
 ROME. 
 
 established ; it shall be held in subordination by cha- 
 rity and faith, and not by coercion. In it ' the first shall 
 be last 'he that humbleth himself shall be exalted ;' 
 ' servant of servants ' shall be its proudest title ; 
 poverty, in that empire, will be accounted a beatitude, 
 riches dreaded as a calamity. Chastity and peni- 
 tential austerities, and the works of mercy, will be 
 cultivated with greater enthusiasm than is, at present, 
 felt for the ' lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, 
 and the pride of life.' By submitting without a mur- 
 mur to every insult and outrageous cruelty, its people 
 shall triumph, vanquishing even all-conquering Kome, 
 and leading captive the Quirites, the conscript fathers, 
 the knights, the legions, with the cross upon their 
 banners, and upon the diadem of Caesar himself, to 
 pay homage to the Crucified on this capitol." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 —-Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the 
 Lrreeks loolishness. — 1 Cor. i. 23. 
 
 "By embracing the faith of the gospel, the Christians incurred the 
 supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence "— 
 Gibbon, Hist, of Bed. and Fall, ^c. ch. xvi. 
 
 "Never, never, never!" cried Caius Cassius, 
 whose scorn could restrain itself no longer; ''when 
 you talked of the destruction of this empire, I listened 
 with indifference. Why should hallucinations such 
 as these excite more than a smile of pity ? But in 
 these mad antitheses about supplanting pride by hu- 
 mility, libertinism by chastity ; of substituting the 
 love of poverty for the love of riches, the cross for 
 the eagle ; the outrage upon common sense becomes 
 msufferable. Have you any notion, any shadowy 
 conception, even, of what Rome, of what human nature 
 is, or of what you are yourself? " Then launching 
 forth, he showed how paganism was so interwoven and 
 identified with the then existing order of things, that 
 it could not be interfered with without disjointing the 
 whole frame of the empire, overturning all existing 
 ideas and institutions; and that the estabhshment of 
 Christianity demanded, not only a revolution of the 
 Roman government, but a subversion of society, and, 
 what was still more absurd, a complete metamorphosis 
 of human nature. 
 
 As long as Rome had continued in a state of iso- 
 lation — having little or no intercourse with other 
 nations except by warlike embassies, or on the field of 
 battle— strict rehgious conformity was enforced, and 
 no worship was tolerated, under any pretence, either 
 in public or in private, but such as was in accordance 
 with the estabhshed form ; but when all the indepen- 
 
 M 
 
YQ2 ROME. 
 
 dent nations and cities of the earth had been brought 
 under subjection, their multifarious and motley systems 
 became, in a certain degree, established, masmuch as 
 the free exercise of the superstitions pecuhar to each 
 locality was not only granted, but all were adopted 
 by Rome herself, where every species of idolatrous 
 worship— all the almost infinite forms of polytheism- 
 were practised and celebrated with the greatest so- 
 lemnity * Nay more, according to the received prin- 
 ciples of paganism, in conquering all nations, and 
 carrying away their tutelary deities to adorn her 
 triumphs, Rome had become the dwelling-place and 
 sanctuary of all the gods, and as such was looked up 
 to by the idolatrous nations as something too august 
 and divine to be assailed. In fine, the genius of Roman 
 power, whether attributed, as in the times of the 
 republic, to some mysterious abstraction of the city 
 itself, or to the person of the emperor, as from the 
 time of Augustus, was regarded universally as supreme 
 arbitress of gods and men.f Hence, it was self-evident, 
 as Cassius contended, that Christianity, m assailing 
 idolatry, must exasperate and draw down the entire 
 weight of Roman vengeance, which nothing created 
 had been able to resist. That besides all this, what 
 Christianity would extirpate was so interwoven with 
 everv transaction, and thought, and institution, that 
 went to make up the whole complexity of existence, 
 that to remove it was to unravel or rend m pieces the 
 entire tissue, weft and woof, of private, pubhc, of 
 intellectual and of every day life. No transaction ot 
 
 * Law of the Twelve Tables, quoted by M. T. Cicero, De Legibus : 
 "Separatim nemo habessit deos ; neve novos, neve advenas, nisi 
 publice adscitos, privatim colunto," 1. ii. 8. The sense is some- 
 what chanc^ed by a mode of punctuation, different from the above, 
 which is not unusual :— " Separatim nemo habessit deos neve 
 novos ; sed ne advenas, nisi publice adscitos," &c. 
 
 " Quoties hoc patrum avorumque setate negotium est magistra- 
 tibus datum, ut sacra externa fieri vetarent, sacrificulos vatesque 
 faro, circo, urbe prohiberent; vaticinos libros conquirerent combu- 
 rerentque ; omnem disciplinam sacrificandi prajterquam more Ko- 
 mano, abolerent ? "—Livy, 1. xxxix. ^ 
 
 t Schlegel, Philos. of Hist., vol. i. p. 347. Robertson s Trans. 
 
ROME. 
 
 163 
 
 importance, in war or peace, could be undertaken but 
 by the auspices. In the senate, in the courts of law 
 and the camp, every proceeding began and ended in 
 idolatry; it infected every pursuit and handicraft — 
 every rustic office, whether of summer or winter, of 
 seed-time or harvest, or of the vintage ; groves, foun- 
 tains, hills and rivers, the earth, the elements, were 
 under its spell. The feast and the funeral— the hymaal 
 and the death-bed — arts, sciences, music, poetry, hte- 
 rature in all forms (these latter its active handmaids) 
 —were interwoven with its rites, and imbued with its 
 complexion. It was welded firmly into that inflexible 
 jurisprudence, which would not bend or yield if heaven 
 and earth were to come to ruin.* 
 
 " Bound up with the most ennobling recollections, 
 consecrated by patriotism, eulogized by eloquence,' 
 sanctioned by philosophy, embalmed by poetry, and 
 rendered irresistible by all that is most fascinating in 
 the arts ; identified with the games of circus and 
 arena, loved by our people to distraction ; interdicting 
 no vice, but on the contrary sanctifying every sensual 
 indulgence, what insanity," he pursued, " to think that 
 the world, enervated beyond measure, and abandoned 
 to every gratification, will of a sudden dislike to live 
 voluptuously and grow enamoured of austerities ; and 
 that, too, at the dictation of a recent, an incomprehen- 
 sible and ignominious creed, based upon the dogma, 
 that the author of the universe, the Supreme, the only 
 God, was put to death as a malefactor bv a Roman 
 magistrate ! You say that reason itself convicts idol- 
 
 * " ' Fiat justitia, mat coelum,' was the iniquitous axiom of the 
 old jurists ; for their meaning was— no matter who or what is to 
 suffer, or what wrong or injustice ensue, let the law take its course !" 
 — See Schlegel, Philosophy of Hist. vol. i. p. 346. 
 
 " In every Roman camp there was a small chapel near the head 
 quarters, in which the statues of the tutelar deities were preserved 
 and adored ; and we may remark that the eagles, and other military 
 ensigns, were in the first rank of these deities :~an excellent insti- 
 tution," concludes Gibhon, " which confirmed discipline by the sanc- 
 tion of re\\g{oxi:'~History of Bed. and Fall, ch. vi. note y. He 
 quotes Herodian and Lipsius for the fact ; the philosophy is his own. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 ROME. 
 
 atrv of error and impiety— agreed. But persuade the 
 artificer, the augur, the flamen, the state func ionary 
 as much as you please, that ' an idol is nothing, 
 still will the idol be worshipped for its gold. Uiana, 
 Phoebus, Jupiter Optimus Maximus himself, may be 
 the mere creatures of the imagination, but being wedded 
 to the system by the love of mammon and ot place, 
 the more rotten and false it is proved to be, the more 
 furiously will it be defended ; and those who live and 
 multiply, and fatten with their progenies on the im- 
 posture; will be the fierce and merciless persecutors 
 of all who dare to meddle with it. Alas ! old man, betake 
 thyself to physic that may purge away this mama that 
 practises so sadly on thy intellect ; and, what is worse, 
 runs thee in thy decrepitude on scoffs and chastise- 
 
 They collected round the apostle, recapitulated and 
 corroborated by additional arguments all that the 
 patrician had said. One illustrated by instances the 
 profound and universal depravity of the times ; an- 
 other dwelt with emphasis upon the fury with which 
 society, gangrened to the very marrow, would re- 
 sist the iron and the knife, and maintained that even 
 could it be induced to submit, so mortal and deep- 
 seated was the malady, that it must inevitably smk 
 
 * 1 Cor. viii. 4. . . „ 
 
 + The substance of Caius Cassius' argument is, m great measure, 
 from Gibbon's notorious sixteenth chapter. The proceeduig of the 
 silversmiths at Ephesus gives a most vivid picture in illustration ot 
 
 'Tcertain man, named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made 
 silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen 
 whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and 
 said • Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth ; more- 
 over ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost through- 
 out all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people 
 saying that they be no gods which are made with hands; so that 
 not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also that 
 the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her 
 magnXence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world 
 ^orshippeth. And when they heard these sayings they were all 
 full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Lphesians ! 
 ^Acls of the Apostles, xix. 24—29. 
 
ROME. 
 
 165 
 
 under the attempt to cure. Again, they dilated on 
 the blindness of the public mind, its bigoted attach- 
 ment to error, and portrayed, with a bold hand, the 
 apparent absurdity and repulsive features of the 
 system by which he proposed to displace what was 
 so desperately cherished. To exhibit the hopelessness 
 of attempting to reform the reigning superstition, or 
 the reigning scepticism, they enumerated the superior 
 qualifications for such an enterprise of the Greek and 
 Roman sages, who had signally failed in that attempt, 
 and dwelt upon the difficulty of making men hate to 
 be libertines and love to be saints. He was remind- 
 ed that it was an age when the lights of philosophy 
 were universally diffused ; and, therefore, that the 
 juncture was perhaps the most unpropitious that could 
 have been selected, for the appearance of an illite- 
 rate Jewish fisherman, as the enlightener of nations 
 arrived at the highest pitch of intellectual refinement. 
 To think of eluding the vigilance of the magistrate, 
 and of carrying on his operations in darkness, was 
 perfectly insane — detection and chastisement were 
 inevitably linked with the attempt. Roman vigilance 
 darted its glance even into the darkest recesses of 
 private life — Roman vengeance was gifted with omni- 
 potence and ubiquity ; and a spiritual conspiracy, 
 which calculated for its triumph upon the ruin of the 
 empire, would be branded with public odium, and ex- 
 terminated without remorse or commiseration. When 
 they came to describe the tortures which were reserved 
 for those who were doomed to be made examples of 
 by Csesar and the senate, Pudens and his son could 
 restrain themselves no longer, but, bursting into 
 tears, besought the apostle, on bended knees, not to 
 rob them of their greatest benefactor, by rushing 
 blindly, and to no purpose, upon a fate tremendous as 
 it was inevitable. Then St. Peter, lifting up his hands 
 and his voice together, said, " Romans, I am not 
 beside myself ; the arguments by which you would 
 persuade me to despair, I regard as the pledges of my 
 success." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Quid aut quantum dimisit Petrus, qui pene nihil habuit ? Sed 
 hac in re, fratres charissimi, affectum debenius potius pensare, 
 quam censum. Multum reliquit, qui sibi nihil retinuit ; multum 
 reliquit, qui quantumlibet parum, totum deseruit. Certe nos 
 et habita cum amore possidemus, et ea quae minime habenaus, 
 ex desideriis quserimus. Multum ergo Petrus et Andreas dimisit, 
 quando uterque etiam desideria habendi dereliquit." — S. Gregor. 
 Magni, Horn, V. in Evang. 
 
 *' And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
 the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, 
 and things which are despised hath God chosen, and things 
 which are not, to bring to nought things that are." — 1 Cor. 
 i. 27, 28. 
 
 St. Peter's Apology for himself. 
 
 " I AVAS born on the confines of a tranquil lake, em- 
 bosomed in the sequestered hills of Galilee. I grew 
 up upon its halcyon waters. I loved them from my 
 boyhood, made acquaintance with every shadow that 
 slept in the deep bosom of Genezareth, and held 
 converse with every murmur uttered by the waves in 
 rippUng day and night along its shores. Even, for the 
 fair face of heaven which smiled above it, I imbibed an 
 enthusiastic passion, as I gazed upon it from my bark, 
 while tending my nets by night ; and, in its thousand 
 stars, trembling in the fathomless serenity of the deep, 
 I seemed to catch glimpses of angel heralds, advanc- 
 ing from eternity before the 'long expected.' My 
 nets, my Uttle bark, were unto me as friends — I loved 
 my home, and even when I had been called, and that 
 vague, but still vivid anticipation, lit up my uncouth 
 fancy, I did not hesitate to expostulate with him 
 whom I beheved to be the Messiah, saying, ' Behold, 
 we have left all, what, therefore, are we to get in 
 
ROME. 
 
 167 
 
 recompense V The least likely, perhaps, of all men, 
 to become an adventurer, is an humble, contented 
 fisherman, on a midland lake ; as for my part, I clung 
 to the scenes and avocations of my youthhood with 
 tenacity. On every opportunity I returned to my 
 fishing ; and even after all the wonders I had witnessed, 
 all the mysteries in which I had been initiated, after 
 all the bright and exciting prospects held out to me 
 by a Master, whose power to perform what he pro- 
 mised I believed to be omnipotent ; still, did he find 
 me, after his resurrection, where first he had called 
 me — engaged with my bark and my nets upon my 
 native and beloved lake. 
 
 " Neither xby nature nor by education have I been 
 gifted with high conceptions, with quickness of appre- 
 hension or with foresight. O my heavenly Master, 
 how often didst thou rebuke us, how much oftener did 
 we deserve to be reprehended, for being ' dull and 
 stupid, and tardy of belief?' The national bias — our 
 Jewish nature — seemed to have rendered us incapable 
 of spiritual views. The occurrence of events, of which 
 we had been repeatedly apprised, in terms the most 
 explicit and encouraging, stunned us with consterna- 
 tion, and scattered us like a timid flock, when, in the 
 midst of them, the shepherd is struck with lightning. 
 You imagine that I am courageous, daring even to 
 indiscretion. I was a coward. When my most kind 
 and noble Benefactor was seized by ruffian hands, I fled ; 
 when charged with being one of his adherents, even 
 by a poor damsel, I denied my Lord and Master ; 
 and, when urged, I cursed and swore that I had never 
 seen his face." 
 
 Here the apostle hid his troubled countenance in 
 his hands ; but he could not hide the big tears which 
 trickled down his furrowed cheeks and beard. 
 
 *' While my Master was moving through all the 
 land, * doing good,' performing the most stupendous 
 miracles, and was revered as the Messiah by myriads 
 of my compatriots, and that I had been nominated by 
 him the viceroy of his eternal kingdom, it was still with 
 
168 
 
 ROME. 
 
 delight I relapsed into my original obscurity. In the 
 effulgence of his countenance I was blind — stupid while 
 listening to uncreated Wisdom — a recreant, through 
 a slight temptation, to Him whom I knew to be omni- 
 potent to protect me. But after his death — a death 
 of the most opprobrious character — I took my stand 
 in the very heart of Jerusalem, and, while the city 
 was crowded with the multitudes who had assembled 
 for the festival, I rebuked the whole house of Israel 
 with Deicide ! When seized and brought before the 
 Sanhedrim, I refused, at the command and menace 
 of the princes who had put Jesus to death, to desist 
 from proclaiming his Divinity. They scourged me, 
 and I was filled with joy. Prisons, insults, and the 
 bitterest persecution, since then, have been my lot. 
 And not in me alone, but in thousands of every age, 
 and rank, and sex, and temperament, has a similar 
 transformation taken place. We, who were ilhterate, 
 can speak all languages ; we, who were stupid, can 
 comprehend what to the wisest is incomprehensible ; 
 we, whose desires were so grovelling, disdain the 
 greatest gifts of fortune. Twelve poor men, of mean 
 extraction and contracted views, have portioned out 
 the world between them, and the most unworthy of 
 them all, Simon Bar-Jona of Bethsaida, is on the 
 capitol, preparing to bring the empire of Cassar under 
 the yoke of Christ. 
 
 " Had the career of my beloved Master termi- 
 nated with his cruel and disgraceful death, must 
 not our ambition have been inevitably extinguished, 
 instead of having been thus inflamed? for it is not 
 by discomfiture and in the damp airs of the tomb, 
 that fervid enthusiasm and fearless ambition are 
 likely to be enkindled. Therefore have I said that 
 the seeming madness of my enterprise is the proof 
 of my inspiration. The meanness of my origin, the 
 manner of my life, my deficiencies, my ignoble pre- 
 sence, emphatically attest, that it is not by impulse of 
 nature, or project of human wisdom, that I am here ; 
 but purely and exclusively through the behest and 
 
ROME. 
 
 169 
 
 impulse of Heaven. No, had not my ears heard, my 
 eyes beheld, my hands touched and tested the truth 
 and reality of my blessed Master's resurrection, I should, 
 at this hour, have been busied, as of old, with my nets 
 and my bark, and their humble interests, upon my 
 native lake ; effectually and for ever cured of the folly 
 which had seduced me from it for a season, and re- 
 solved within myself to live and be gathered to my 
 fathers, in unpretending obscurity and peace. If the 
 Spirit of truth and power had not descended upon 
 me and the others, we should have remained as stupid, 
 as slow to believe, as timorous as before. 
 
 "Dream not that it is by any furtive expectation 
 of honours, or affluence, or terrestrial aggrandisement, 
 that I am urged upon this enterprise. I know my fate. 
 My Divine Master — who chooseth the ' weak things 
 of this world,' and 'the things that are not,' for his 
 grandest ends, that no mistake may exist as to the 
 virtue by which they are effected — He, as if to save me 
 from being elated with the stupendous dignity to which 
 he had exalted me, distinctly predicted, in the presence 
 of my companions, that I shall terminate my labours 
 in his service, by a violent and ignominious death. 
 For when he had given me charge of the fold, he said, 
 — ' Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast 
 young thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou 
 wouldest ; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt 
 stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, 
 and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' — 'This 
 spake he, signifying bv what death he should glorify 
 God.' 
 
 * John xxi. 18, 19. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " Subrius Flavius tribunus interrogatus a Nerone, qiiibus causis ad 
 oblivionem sacramenti processisset ; ' oderam te,' inquit : ' nec 
 quisquam tibi fidelior militum fuit, dum amari meruisti. Odisse 
 csepi postquam parricida matris et uxoris, et auriga, et 
 HisTRio, ET iNCENDiARius, cxstitisti.' " — C. Tucit. Ann. 1. XV. 
 cap. 67. 
 
 — " Mehercule ! Is it Julius Ahala of the band 
 Augusta once more upon the capitol ? Yes, it is his 
 mailed hand I grasp — but by Mavors, if Numa or 
 king Brennus had met me in my rounds to-night, or 
 yon grim effigy of Caius Marius had bounded from 
 its pedestal with all its Cimbrian trophies, it could not 
 more astound me. Why, Julius, it is half a lustrum 
 since we numbered thee among the dead, and a coeno- 
 taph erected by thy comrades of the ' guard,* excites 
 the horror of many a fat citizen in his evening stroll 
 along the Nomentan way; for the painted marble* 
 exhibits thee as being roasted in some outlandish place, 
 by Druids, at an altar — methinks, they call it Mona 
 in the epitaph." 
 
 Julius. — "Mona is the name, Ventidius. It was 
 there we drove the British cannibals upon the sacri- 
 ficial fires they had hghted up for Roman soldiers. It 
 is an island on the furthest coast of Britain, separated 
 from the mountain country of Caractacusf by a narrow 
 frith; and as it formed a rallying point for all the 
 malcontents and rebels of the border districts, the 
 general resolved upon reducing it ; so where the strait 
 
 * The relievi upon tombs, &c., were frequently coloured like 
 japan work, to give greater efiect to the figures. See Sir W. Gall's 
 Pompeiana, vol. i, p. 104. 
 
 t For a magnificent picture by Tacitus of Caractacus, and his 
 royal court and kindred, paraded before the Roman emperor, legions, 
 and people, on the Campius Martius, with the speech delivered by 
 the Akbar Khan of that day, see Appendix III. 
 
ROME. 
 
 171 
 
 is narrowest, he passed over the infantry on rafts ; as 
 to the horse, they threaded their way across the shal- 
 lows, or swam through the deeper channels. Before 
 us the rugged shores were crowded with a multitude 
 in arms. Every crag was manned, and females, re- 
 sembling furies, rushed, with dishevelled hair and 
 flaming torches, from clan to clan ; while, around the 
 burning piles intended to torture and consume their 
 enemies, the Druids lifted up their hands to draw 
 down curses and confusion on our heads.*' At the 
 preternatural horrors of the scene, the men were thun- 
 derstruck ; and, as if paralysed by some incantation, 
 stood gazing at the spectacle, as if insensible to the 
 darts and stones that showered on them from the 
 cliffs. But roused at length by the cheers and exhort- 
 ations of the officers, and stimulating each other not 
 to be daunted by a mob of inhuman savages, the 
 eagles moved forward — the opposing multitudes are 
 slaughtered, or driven on the immense fires which 
 hemmed in their entire rear."t 
 
 Ventidius. — " Was this before the great rebellion 
 under queen Boadice, when Londinum was aban- 
 doned ? "t 
 
 * " Nam cruore captivo adolere aras et hominum fibris consulere 
 deos, fas habebant." — Tacit. Ann. 1. xiv. 30. 
 
 ^ '* Igitur Monam insulam, incolis validam, et receptaculum per- 
 fugarum, aggredi parat (Suetonius,) navesque fabricatur piano alveo, 
 adversus breve litus et iacertum. — His pedes ; equites vado secuti, 
 aut altiores inter undas, adnantes equis, transmisere." — Id. 1. xiv. 29. 
 
 " Praesidium posthac impositum victis, excisique luci, saevis su- 
 perstitionibus sacri." — Id. Ibid. 
 
 J It will be seen from the following that London was the paradise 
 of cockneys, even when it was only the Sidney of the Roman em- 
 pire : " Cognomento quidem colonice non insigne." 
 
 " At Suetonius mira constantia medios inter hostes Londinum 
 perrexit, cognomento quidem coloniag non insigne, sed copi^ ne- 
 gotiatorum et commeatuum maxime celebre. Ibi ambiguus, an illam 
 sedem bello deligeret, circumspecta infrequentia militis, satisque 
 magnis documentis teraeritatem Petilii coercitam, unius oppidi damno 
 servare universa statuit. Neque fletu et lacrymis auxilium ejus 
 orantium flexus est, quin daret profectionis signum ; et comitantes 
 in partem agminis acceperat. Si quos imbellis sexus, aut fessa setas, 
 vel loci dulcedo attinuerat, ab hoste oppressi sunt." — Id. 1. xiv. 33. 
 
172 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Julius. — " Precisely ; while Suetonius was devas- 
 tating Mona, the provincials, being goaded into madness 
 by the tax-gatherers and the garrisons, rose from one 
 end of the country to the other ; — but before half the 
 horrors that followed could be told, the morning's sun 
 would come upon us."* 
 
 Ventidius. — " But when did you arrive ? There 
 was no talk in the camp, even that your cohorts were 
 ordered home." 
 
 Julius. — "It was gone in the second watch to- 
 night, when, covered with Flaminian dust, we halted 
 on the Tiber's brink, and, lifting of its sacred waters 
 in our casks, poured a libation to this ' hill of triumphs.* 
 Casting their armed bodies on the Campus Martius, 
 down yonder near the mausoleum, the veterans sleep 
 like infants on the mother's lap ; but as for me, it 
 would be impious to grant slumber to these eyes, until 
 they had first beheld, and poured a bitter tribute over, 
 the ruin of those sacred shrines and trophies of by- 
 gone heroism, the sight of which first gives flame to 
 martial ardour in the Roman.f What ! this city burned 
 to the ground ! the monuments of Grecian art and 
 Roman virtue consumed by fire, and that not by 
 nemies ; but — Ay, why dissemble it ? Pretorian, his 
 guilt is manifest — come, lean upon this altar, and tell 
 me all. — The torch, Ventidius, that lighted up that 
 conflagration was snatched, in the frenzy of remorse, 
 from one of the snake-haired furies, that, even in his 
 * golden palace,' haunt the matricide." 
 
 We are told by Tacitus, that Agrippina was assured 
 by the magician she consulted, as to whether her son 
 
 * In one battle the British lost 80,000, the Romans only forty men. 
 The rebellion was succeeded by a famine, and this with the devasta- 
 tions by fire and sword swept away immense multitudes. " Q,uodque 
 nationum ambiguum aut adversum fuerat, igni atque ferro vastatur. 
 Sed nihil seque, quam fames, affligebat serendis frugibus incuriosos, 
 et omni aetate ad helium versa, dum nostros commeatus sibi des- 
 tinant."— Tacit. 1. xiv. 38. 
 
 f " Saep^ audivi Q. Maximum, et P. Scipionem, praeterea civi- 
 tatis nostras praeclaros vires, solitos dicere ; cum majorum imagines 
 intuerentur, vehementissime accendi." — Sallust, Bell. Jugurth. 
 
ROME. 
 
 173 
 
 should obtain the throne, that if ever he did, it would 
 cost her her life ; — " Occidat dum imperet ! " was the 
 reply of Agrippina — " Let him be a matricide, pro- 
 vided I see him first an emperor."* 
 
 To compass this aim, she waded through a dark and 
 shameless career, crowned by the poisoning of Claudius, 
 her own kinsman and husband ; but no sooner was 
 Nero seated in the power thus procured, when, instead 
 of gratitude, he began to show disrespect to his parent, 
 and soon came to regard her with aversion. After 
 dissembling her disappointment for some time, the 
 spirit of Agrippina, stung by daily slights and indig- 
 nities, broke forth at last into tremendous threats and 
 denunciations. Even in the despot's hearing, she 
 vaunted, " that Britannicus was now of an age to vin- 
 dicate his hereditary and sacred right to that empire, 
 which a young upstart knew how to exercise only 
 to insult his parent." The horrid crimes of which 
 the recesses of that palace were conscious, she would 
 not dissemble. She confessed, before the world, that 
 through misplaced affection for a child, she had sought 
 incestuous nuptials, and had helped the sorceress Lo- 
 custa to cull the poison for her imperial husband ;t 
 but thanks to the immortal gods and to her own in- 
 stinctive foresight, in sparing her step-son, Britanni- 
 cus, she had kept an instrument by which she could 
 still chastise the ingratitude of her unnatural offspring. 
 She obtested the infernal deities, and the indignant 
 shades of all in whose blood she had imbrued her 
 hands for love of Nero, that, with the injured heir of 
 her Claudius — now alas ! no more — she would fly to 
 the camp, "from whence," she cried, "the daughter 
 of Germanicus shall be heard with the respect due to 
 thirty legions." 
 
 Nero was alarmed by the menaces of one, with 
 whose desperate determination he had good reason to 
 be familiar ; and his alarm was increased by the near 
 approach of the fourteenth birth-day of the young 
 
 * C, Tacit. Ann. 1. xiv. 9. -f Ibid. 1. xii. 66, et seq. 
 
174 
 
 ROME. 
 
 prince, for whom a rather trivial display of the old 
 Julian spirit had recently acquired a wide-spread sym- 
 pathy. It happened, during the Saturnalia, when all 
 distinctions are levelled, that it fell to Nero, as they 
 were playing forfeits after supper, to award the various 
 modes of ransom. Accordingly, he enjoined to each 
 of the others some pleasantry, but nothing humiliating 
 or calculated to wound their feelings, until it came to 
 the turn of Britannicus. The young prince was rudely 
 ordered to rise from his couch, and to recite some 
 verses standing in the middle of the banquet-hall ; for 
 his persecutor thus hoped to exhibit him as a block- 
 head, to the jeers and derision of the revellers, who, 
 in their progress to intoxication, had just arrived at 
 that stage where the wits are keenest. But, unabashed 
 by his position, the royal youth commenced, in a clear 
 and steady voice, to recite some verses about one 
 who, in his boyhood, had been pushed from his throne, 
 and, from the summit of human grandeur, degraded 
 to a most abject state. The allegory could not be 
 mistaken, or fail to excite strong feelings of com- 
 passion ; and the excitement and security of the noc- 
 turnal revel caused the murmurs in favour of the 
 injured prince to be louder and more intelligible. 
 Thus incited by discovering that his victim could feel 
 indignation and excite sympathy, the tyrant's hatred 
 required nothing beyond the threats held out by 
 Agrippina to send it headlong upon a long preme- 
 ditated design ; but craven-hearted as he was cruel, 
 and not daring publicly to order his adoptive brother 
 to be put to death, he set himself to devise some plan 
 for making away with him by private treachery. 
 Poison is fixed upon, and the preparation of it given 
 in charge to Julius Pollio, tribune of a praetorian 
 cohort, who lost no time in securing the services of a 
 hag called Locusta, already branded for her diabolical 
 practices, and become notorious for a dark catalogue 
 of crimes. The first potion was administered by the 
 very tutors of the unfortunate prince ; for the pre- 
 caution had been long since taken, to remove from 
 
ROME. 
 
 175 
 
 around his. person all who had any respect for fidelity 
 or the sacred laws of conscience. Being either too 
 weak, however, or too slow in its operation, this potion 
 had no effect ; whereupon the tyrant, through impa- 
 tience of delay, burst forth into threats against the 
 officer, and orders the witch to be tortured ; because, 
 forsooth, in their anxiety to prevent exposure, and to 
 leave some loophole to escape from legal consequences, 
 they had dared to put off, for a single instant, the deed 
 which was to rid him of apprehension. Then it was, 
 the trembling wretches promised to mix a draught, 
 swift and infallible as the keenest poniard ; and, in a 
 closet of the imperial bed-chamber, is concocted that 
 drug, whose fatal rapidity in execution Locusta could 
 attest, from a memory teeming with reminiscences of 
 murder. 
 
 From the days of Augustus, it had been the usage 
 of the palace, for the children of the imperial family, 
 with the young nobles selected for their companions, 
 to be served with viands, simple and suited to their 
 tender age, at a separate table, but immediately under 
 the eye of the emperor, in the state triclinium. It 
 was thus the imperial orphan reclined upon that fatal 
 night, under the malignant glance of his destroyer. 
 The cup-bearer, who, according to prescriptive rite, 
 was to taste beforehand whatever beverage he presented, 
 having been apprised of the plot, (that poisoning might 
 not be made palpable by the sudden and simultaneous 
 death of two,) contrived to manage his office so adroitly 
 as to receive no injury ; but Britannicus finding the 
 draught intolerably hot, withdrew it from his lips, and, 
 pouring it into water, drank off the entire with thirsting 
 eagerness ; and, with effect so deadly and instantaneous 
 did the virus do its work, that in one agonizing but 
 abortive effort to cry for help, he gasped, quivered in 
 every limb of his fair frame, and fell stone-dead. 
 
 The courtiers and attendants are thrown into con- 
 sternation ; the novices disperse ; but the old familiars, 
 long initiated in the intrigues of the Palatine, stir not 
 a step, nor so much as change a muscle of the coun- 
 
176 
 
 ROME. 
 
 tenance, but look slily for the solution of this enigma, 
 and the text of their own conduct, to the visage of the 
 emperor. He, without even rising from his recumbent 
 posture, and with an expression of feature altogether 
 inhuman, observed, " that it was only one of the usual 
 epileptic fits to which the young prince was subject, 
 and that he would recover on being removed to the 
 open air." But as for Agrippina, a sudden tremor, 
 and the consternation of an instant, that flashed from 
 under that marble serenity, beneath which she had long 
 learned to entomb her most hideous passions, betrayed 
 that she was as ignorant of this affair as poor Octavia, 
 the prince's sister. If Agrippina staggered, it was 
 because, in Britannicus, the chief prop of her revenge 
 was struck from under her, and because, in the dead 
 body of the hapless prince, she read the omens of her 
 own doom ; but, in another second, she was as com- 
 posed as the lioness of bronze on which she leant. 
 Even from the virgin cheek of young Octavia the hue 
 of candour had been blasted by that atmosphere of 
 dissimulation and enormity, which had rotted every 
 feeling of tenderness and sisterly affection in her dreary 
 heart : so, after a transient pause, the mirth and gaiety 
 of the banquet was resumed, and waxed louder and 
 more jocund than before. 
 
 The fire that consumed the corse of Britannicus 
 glared out upon the dark hour of his murder ; for, 
 while this poor victim was being escorted to the 
 triclinium, and attended at the banquet with imperial 
 pageantry and obsequious ceremonial, they were con- 
 structing his funeral pile, and mustering the satelhtes, 
 who were to transport his injured ashes to the tomb. 
 However, they were permitted to repose among the 
 urns of his mighty ancestors, on the Campus Martins ; 
 and such torrents fell during the hurried and truncated 
 rites, that the populace took it for a sign of Divine 
 indignation.* 
 
 The intrigues and reciprocal provocations, which 
 
 * Another circumstance, mentioned by Tacitus, in aggravation of 
 Nero's guilt in this murder, is intentionally omitted. , 
 
ROME. 
 
 177 
 
 naturally ensued from this beginning of hostilities, 
 precipitated the execution of Nero's resolve to take 
 away his mother's life. " After pondering for a long 
 time," says the historian, " whether the bowl or the 
 brand should be employed for this purpose, he de- 
 termined at length to poison her ; but, then, if any 
 thing were to happen to Aggripina during the banquet, 
 after the affair of Britannicus, it could not be easily 
 passed off as an accident ; besides, it was a critical 
 thing to tamper with the attendants of a woman 
 whose consciousness of the dark plots she harboured 
 against others kept her eternally on the alert against 
 surprise and treachery; and, in fact, the impression 
 was universal among the palatines, that such was the 
 queen-mother's skill in antidotes, that she could baffle 
 the skill even of Locusta. It would be difficult to 
 hide the effects of stabbing or any such violent opera- 
 tion, and moreover it was thought possible that the 
 centurions might refuse to slay the emperor's mother 
 even at his own bidding. 
 
 The genius of Anicetus, commandant of the fleet 
 at Misenum, who had been a slave, and had an old 
 account to settle with his imperial mistress, came to 
 relieve from this perplexity the emperor, who had been 
 under his tuition, previous to Seneca's appointment. 
 " A state-galley," he said, " could be so constructed as 
 to go to pieces at a given signal. The sea," pursued 
 the freedman, " is the native element of accidents, and 
 where is the traitor who shall dare to harbour sus- 
 picion against Caesar, while the winds and waves can 
 be impeached ? Temples and votive altars, with a 
 magnificent apotheosis to the deceased empress, will 
 not only stifle every sinister report, but add to the 
 other imperial titles that of filial piety."t 
 
 * " Ferrum et csedes quonam modo occultaretur, nemo reperiebat ; 
 et, ne quis, illi tanto facinori delectus, jussa sperneret, metuebat." — 
 Tacit. 1. xiv. 3. 
 
 ■f " Nihil tarn capax fortuitorum, qnam mare ; et, si naufragio 
 intercepta sit, quem adeo iniquum, ut sceleri assignet, quod venti et 
 fluetus deliquerint ? Additunim principem defunctce templum et 
 aras, et caetera ostentandae pietatis. Placuit solertia," &c. — Ibid, 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 ROME. 
 
 The ingenious villany caught Nero's fancy — the 
 juncture, too, was propitious, as he was then engaged 
 in celebrating the festivities of the Quinquatruum at 
 Baise. The overtures to the plot were commenced 
 forthwith. It seemed to repent the youthful emperor 
 of his past errors. The forbearance due to a parent — 
 even though subject to sallies of temper — the sa- 
 crifices which a son is bound to make, in order to 
 soothe and soften all untoward irritation; with a 
 thousand other duteous and amiable reflections — were 
 never out of Nero's mouth, until, re-echoed by the 
 courtiers in every direction, the rumour of reconcilia- 
 tion was effectually got up. The decoy succeeded ; 
 and, being aided by that strong passion for sights and 
 pageantry, so natural in the sex, allured Agrippina to 
 her fate. With the well-feigned impatience of filial 
 fondness, Nero expected her arrival on the shore at 
 Cuma, (for she had taken the precaution to come by 
 sea from Antium ;) and when they met, the tenderness 
 of his embrace, and the hearty pressure of his hand 
 in hers, convinced the unhappy mother, that, after all, 
 her Nero loved her.* From Cuma, the joyful party 
 proceeded to the imperial villa, at the other verge of 
 the neck of land, (ad Baulos,) looking out over the 
 bay of Naples ; but it had been preconcerted that the 
 imperial banquet was to take place in the palace at 
 Baise, that the deed might be accomplished under the 
 cloak of darkness, when Agrippina would be returning 
 to her own villa on the Lucrine lake. One stately 
 barge, conspicuous for its gala and brilliant decorations 
 amongst all the gay fleet, that was in readiness to con- 
 vey them from the villa near the Misenian promontory 
 to Baise, seemed to invite the empress, who was fond 
 of being rowed in gallant style, to step on board. But, 
 whether it was that she had a hint from some one, 
 or that the galley looked too obsequious and smiling 
 
 * — " Venientem dehinc, obvius in litora (nam Antio adventabat), 
 excipit manu et complexu, ducitque Baulos. Id villae nomen est, 
 quae, promontorium Misenum inter et Baianum lacum, flexo mari 
 alluitur." — Tacit. 1. xiv. 4. 
 
ROME. 
 
 179 
 
 to be trusted, Agrippina preferred to be carried to 
 Baise by her own people and on terra firma. But the 
 blandishments of the festive board at length dissipated 
 every apprehension. Her reception — the caresses — 
 the testimonies of confidence and of endearing play- 
 fulness she had met with — quite disarmed suspicion.''^ 
 In this turnult of feeling and mutual converse, these 
 hours, sacred to reconciliation, seemed to pass un- 
 heeded, and the feast was protracted till far in the 
 night. The hour of separation came, but Nero is not 
 satisfied with embracing his parent once, he flies after 
 her through the brilliant saloons and corridors, to re- 
 peat his adieus ; he seems to cling to her bosom, and 
 can hardly tear himself away — whether it was, that 
 these were the finishing strokes of a master in the 
 arts of dissimulation, or that the last sight of her who 
 bore him, as she was on her way to death, exercised 
 some mysterious influence even over his savage nature. 
 
 The heavens shone with the placid lustre of the 
 stars that glassed themselves in the fathomless serenity 
 of the deep — all nature was at peace — and it would 
 seem as if the gods had ordered every thing to dis- 
 countenance and expose the plot.f Agrippina was 
 accompanied by only two of her own attendants. 
 Crepereius Gallus stood in waiting near the stern 
 post, and, at the feet of her imperial mistress, reclin- 
 ing under a stately canopy, sat Acerronia, prattling, 
 with all delight imaginable, about the emperor's re- 
 pentance, ascendency at court regained, when, — at 
 the appointed signal, down comes the deck, (overlaid 
 with an immense weight of lead,) and Crepereius is 
 instantly crushed to death. Agrippina and her at- 
 tendant owed their lives to the accident by which 
 
 * " Ibi blandimentum sublevavit metum ; comiter excepta, su- 
 perque ipsum collocata. Nam pluribus sermonibus, modo familiari- 
 tate juvenili Nero, et rursus adductus, quasi seria consociaret, tracto 
 in longum convictu, prosequitur abeuntem, arctius oculis et pectori 
 haerens, sive explenda simulatione, seu periturse matris supremus 
 adspectus quanivis ferum animum retinebat." — Ihid. 
 
 -j- " Noctem sideribus illustrem, et placido mari quietam, quasi 
 convincendum ad scelus, dii praebuere." — Cap. 5. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 ROME. 
 
 the pillars of the canopy had been left of a sufficient 
 strength not to give way under the crash ; nor did the 
 barge, as was intended, go to pieces ; the crew having 
 fallen into such confusion that the efforts of the ac- 
 complices were frustrated by the majority, who were 
 not privy to the design. There seemed nothing for it, 
 then, but to overset the boat, by running all to one 
 side ; but this extempore manoeuvre being ill executed, 
 and some of the galliots running to the opposite side, 
 the empress and her attendant were precipitated with- 
 out violence into the water. The silly lady Acerronia 
 was quickly despatched with oars, cutlases, stones, or 
 whatever came to hand; for, thinking to secure assist- 
 ance, she kept crying, " I'm Agrippina ; help, help the 
 mother of the emperor !" But Agrippina uttered not 
 a syllable, thus evading being recognised. She got 
 one wound upon the shoulder. By swimming, how- 
 ever, and afterwards in a fishing-boat that picked her 
 up, she made her way to the Lucrine lake, and was 
 carried to her own villa. 
 
 When she had leisure to reflect upon the whole 
 tissue of occurrences, the motive of so many flattering 
 invitations to come down to the festival at Baise — of 
 so many caresses and marks of honour heaped upon 
 her, became too obvious. How else account for it ? 
 Shipwrecked ! not by a gale, or by striking on hidden 
 rocks, but in smooth water, hard by the quay, — and 
 that, too, by the deck falling down like a portcullis ! 
 Next she weighed every incident connected with Acer- 
 ronia's death ; then, absorbed in thought, gazed at the 
 Claudian blood trickling from her own wound — " Yes, 
 magician ! thy response was not a lie ; but to circum- 
 vent this traitor, we must dissemble all suspicion of 
 his treachery." Accordingly, the freedman Agerinus 
 is despatched to apprise her Nero how, through the 
 benignity of the gods, and her own good fortune, she 
 had escaped a serious accident, and to beg that his 
 alarm for her safety would not tempt him to venture 
 out at so unseasonable an hour. That, indeed, it was 
 only of quietude she stood in need. Then, with a 
 
ROME. 
 
 181 
 
 well-dissembled air of security, she applied herself to 
 have the wound dressed, and to retrieve, by all possible 
 appliances, her exhausted energies. However, in the 
 prompt orders to have search made for Acerronia's 
 will, and to have seals set upon her effects, there was 
 no dissimulation whatsoever. " Id tantum non per 
 simulationem." 
 
 By this time, the news of the failure reached Nero, 
 and, to mend the matter, that suspicion had begun to 
 settle in the right quarter. He almost fell dead with 
 fear ; and, shaking from head to foot, began to swear 
 that his mother, swift as a tigress to revenge, would 
 be in on them, like lightning. — "She'll arm the 
 slaves, stir up the troops to mutiny ; or, off to Rome, 
 with her tragic tale of shipwreck, her attendants mas- 
 sacred, her own wound, she'll so work upon the senate 
 and the people ! What shall become of me ?" He 
 knew not, for his life, if Burrus and Seneca, (whom he 
 had summoned in haste,) could not advise something. 
 
 It is doubtful whether these ministers had been 
 previously made aware of the plot ; but both were 
 dead silent for a considerable time, either afraid to 
 give an advice which they knew would be of no avail 
 to prevent the horrid deed, or convinced that matters 
 had come to such a pass, the doom of the emperor 
 was sealed, unless the vengeance of his mother was 
 forestalled. At length, Seneca, who used not to be 
 so tardy, begins to look inquiringly at Burrus, asking 
 earnestly and in an under tone, "whether it was 
 an affair for the soldiers ?" That the attachment of 
 the Praetorians to the imperial family regarded each 
 and all its members without exception, and that they 
 could not be induced to perpetrate an atrocity on the 
 daughter of Germanicus, whose memory they adored, 
 was the blunt reply of Burrus. " But it is to be 
 presumed," he added, " that Anicetus will finish what 
 he has planned and promised." Anicetus was ready, 
 but begged to know how much he was to get. At the 
 word, Nero, as if beside himself, protests that, from 
 that hour, he shall look upon himself as indebted to 
 
182 
 
 ROME. 
 
 his faithful, trusty, Anicetus for his empire ; but to 
 hasten, taking care to select men of despatch — men 
 prompt, at a nod, to do their duty. 
 
 Upon this, Agrippina's messenger, Agerinus, being 
 announced, Nero, on the instant, and without a hint 
 from any one, extemporises another act of the tra- 
 gedy ; and dropping a stiletto between the freedman's 
 feet while he is delivering his message, cries out to 
 the guards, ordering the wretch to be manacled as if 
 seized in an attempt upon the prince's life— a villain 
 sent by Agrippina, who no doubt would put an end 
 to herself, on learning the miscarriage of her treason. 
 
 Mean time, the rumour runs, that Agrippina was 
 drowning, her barge having been upset hy accident. 
 Down to the shore with every one that hears it ; some 
 scramble out on the rocks — others throw themselves 
 into the boats lying along the shore — others rush up 
 to the neck in the sea — they stretch out their arms 
 at full length, as if to give help— they raise cries of 
 lanientation, call upon the gods ; and between shouts 
 of inquiry and response, where all was ignorance and 
 confusion, ten thousand echoes were kept busy in 
 their ocean caves. The multitude that collected with 
 torches, lanterns, and lights of all kinds, was im- 
 mense; and, finding that the empress had escaped, 
 nothing will do but to go off in a body to present 
 their congratulations, till the sight of troops advancing 
 with drawn swords, dispersed them. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 *' Cubiculo modicum lumen inerat, et ancillarum una ; magis ac 
 magis anxia Agrippina, quod nemo a filio, et ne Agerinus qui- 
 dem ; aliam fere litore faciem nunc, solitudinem ac repentmos 
 strepitus et extremi mali indicia."— Tacii. 1. xiv. 8. 
 Cleopatra {applying the asp.)—" Peace, peace ! 
 Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, 
 That sucks the nurse asleep ?" 
 
 Agrippina' s Death-bed. 
 
 Anicetus surrounded the villa with a strong guard, 
 and having battered in the gates, seized every domestic 
 he met, lest they should give the alarm. Arrived in the 
 ante-chamber, he found a few officers of the house- 
 hold at their post, all the rest having fled on hearing 
 the tumult in the outer courts. One solitary lamp 
 cast a dim and melancholy gleam around the closet of 
 Agrippina, and one solitary handmaid watched beside 
 her bed. The moments of suspense lagged drearily, 
 and each added to the load of anxiety that pressed 
 heavily on her heart, — no messenger from her son — 
 no sign even of Agerinus. " Child, what mean the 
 lights and clamour along shore?"—" All silent as the 
 grave, again!"— Then heavy strokes, followed by a 
 crash and tumult, confused at first, and presently, in 
 the ante-room, the sound of flying feet, and harsh 
 struggles against her very chamber door. — " And 
 thou, also, slave, dost thou forsake thy empress, like 
 the rest !" But as she turned to rebuke the hand- 
 maid gliding away, her eye rested on Anicetus, stand- 
 ing between Herculeus, captain of a three-benched 
 galley, and a centurion of marines, named Oloarites. 
 — " If to inquire for my health. Sir, say to thy 
 emperor that my wound is doing well; if bent on 
 outrage, presume not to say that you have orders ; I 
 will not beheve my son a matricide." But Herculeus 
 
184 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and Oloarites were already waiting the signal on either 
 side the couch. The galley captain struck first— a 
 grievous stroke, on the head, with a club ; and, while 
 the centurion was brandishing his weapon, she raised 
 her body, crying with her dying breath, " Ventrem 
 feri!" (that vengeance might light upon the womb 
 that had borne such a monster.) 
 
 One of Nero's objects in compassing his mother's 
 death, was to remove an obstacle to his union with 
 Sabina Poppea, a dame," says the historian, " adorn- 
 ed with every charm except virtue." From an illus- 
 trious mother, who surpassed in lovehness all the 
 women of her day, she inherited fame along with 
 beauty ; her fortune was commensurate with the proud 
 nobihty of her hneage ; the exquisite elegance of her 
 conversation was enlivened by a wit not at all con- 
 temptible ; and she had the art to veil her excesses 
 under the most enchanting air of modesty.* But in 
 Octavia, his betrothed and much-injured spouse, there 
 was a barrier still to be got rid of. 
 
 Every infamous and cruel artifice ; bribery, threats, 
 torture, were first resorted to, to blast the reputation 
 of Octavia. But every effort having proved abortive to 
 fix a stain upon her honour, and thereby justify her 
 divorce and death, it was natural for Nero to resort 
 once more to the murderer of his mother ; who, from 
 being a favourite after the bloody night, for awhile, 
 had not only fallen into disgrace, but had become 
 insupportable and detested, as if the sight of him 
 incessantly upbraided the matricide with his guilt. f 
 
 * " Huic mulieri cuncta alia fu§re, preeter honestem animum ; 
 quippe mater ejus, setatis suae feminas pulchritudine supergressa, 
 gloriam pariter et formam dederat : opes claretudine generis sufRcie- 
 bant ; sermo comis, nec absurdum ingenium ; modestiara praeferre, 
 et lascivia uti. Rarus in publicum egressus, idque velatEi parte 
 oris, ne satiaret adspectum, vel quia sic decebat. Famse nunquara 
 pepercit, maritos ac adulteros non distinguens, neque afFectui sue, 
 aut alieno obnoxia ; unde utilitas ostenderetur, illuc libidinem 
 transferebat." — Tacit. 1. xiii. 45. 
 
 f " Quia malorum facinorum ministri, quasi exprobrantes, adspi- 
 ciuntur." — L. xiv. 62. 
 
ROME. 
 
 185 
 
 Anicetus is sent for, accordingly, and reminded of his 
 past performances. The only man to rid his prince of 
 a mother plotting against her son's life, had it now in 
 his power to perform a service not less grateful, that 
 of relieving him of a wife whom he detested. No need 
 of rough work on this occasion, but merely to proclaim 
 himself paramour of the empress. Vast rewards — to 
 be a secret till the affair had blown over — and a de- 
 lightful retirement— the requital of comphance; of 
 refusal— death. With an alacrity springing from his 
 inborn baseness and the recklessness of the hacknied 
 villain, Anicetus outstrips the most ardent longings of 
 his employer, in his infamous declarations before the 
 cabinet council, which the emperor had called together 
 to receive his depositions. 
 
 Having paraded these atrocious slanders against his 
 bride, in an imperial edict, he condemned her to close 
 imprisonment in the island of Pandataria. Never did 
 the sight of exile fill the spectators with deeper com- 
 miseration. Among the myriads who thronged the 
 route by which they led her forth, there were old men, 
 who recollected to have seen the spouse of Germani- 
 cus sent into banishment by Tiberius ; the banishment 
 of Juha by Claudius was still fresh in the pubhc 
 memory, but the full vigour of womanhood enabled 
 them to bear up against misfortune ; a portion, at 
 least, of their existence had been joyful — present 
 gloom was mitigated by the reflection of the gay and 
 sunny past. But poor Octavia's wedding-day had been 
 but the beginning of her obsequies. In crossing the 
 bridal threshold she had entered a house of mourning, 
 to see her imperial father carried off by poison; then 
 her brother ; put aside by her own handmaid, the policy 
 of passing to other nuptials feigned to ruin her ; and, 
 bitterest of all, worse than a thousand deaths, her 
 honour branded. 
 
 Even in the hands of a brutal and Ucentious soldiery, 
 the forlorn Octavia seemed to cling to life ; at least, 
 though terrified to death by the doom which she 
 anticipated, the poor young creature (she was still in 
 
186 
 
 ROME. 
 
 girlhood, scarce twenty,) could not make up her mind 
 to die. After a few days' delay, seeing that she would 
 not put an end to herself, the order came for her 
 execution. Obtesting the gods that though widowed 
 she was still a virgin,* and invoking the shades of her 
 murdered kindred, and even Agrippina's lurid ghost 
 for help, regardless of her shrieks they bind her limbs 
 with fetters and open all her veins at once ; and as 
 terror congealed her blood so that it would not flow, 
 she was suffocated in a vapour bath. This transaction 
 was marked by another trait of cruelty still more re- 
 volting. The severed head was borne, as if in triumph, 
 to the city, and Poppasa contemplated the traces of 
 her rival's agony with complacency. Thanksgivings 
 and oiferings to the temples were decreed by the 
 senate.! " This circumstance," says the historian, " we 
 mention, once for all, that whoever seeks acquaintance 
 with these times, either through our writings, or any 
 other history, may take it for granted, that thanks- 
 givings to the gods are voted by the conscript fathers, 
 with the applause of the Roman people, as often as 
 innocence is proscribed ; or some atrocious murder 
 ordered by the prince, and that for public disasters 
 the same rejoicings take place, as, of old, for great 
 enterprises crowned with success." 
 
 But what occurred on his first appearance in Rome 
 after the murder of his mother, must not be passed 
 unnoticed. For a long time he lingered in Campania, 
 moving about from place to place, but shunning the 
 beauteous shores of Baiee, now become horrible and 
 odious, as upbraiding the matricide with his guilt. 
 How face the senate and the Roman people ? Instead 
 of acclamations, as of old, might he not expect to be 
 
 * "Jam viduam se et tantum sororem testaretur." — Tacit. 1. 
 xiv. 64. 
 
 •f " Dona ob hsec templis decreta. Quod ad eum finem memora- 
 vimus, ut, quicunque casus terhporum illorum, nobis vel aliis 
 auctoribus, noscent, praesnmptum habeant, quoties fugas et csedes 
 jussit princeps, toties grates deis actas ; qugeque rerum secundarura 
 dim, turn publicae cladis insignia fuisse." — Ibid. 
 
ROME. 
 
 187 
 
 saluted with outbursts of opprobrium and execration ? 
 But the minions of his court smiled at such ground- 
 less apprehensions. They knew Rome better, and they 
 could assure his majesty that what had happened, in- 
 stead of impairing would but enhance his popularity. 
 Let him only put on a bold front, and see if the 
 whole city, all orders and degrees, would not be ready 
 to adore him. They only beg permission to go and 
 prepare for his triumphal return. Miscreants, and 
 dead to honour as they were, these panders to a 
 blood-polluted monster had actually underrated the 
 baseness of which Rome was capable.* The plebs, 
 according to their tribes, and proud of the toga, 
 turned out in procession — the senate and patrician 
 order in the full blaze of their magnificence — the 
 Roman matrons, leading their daughters — the patri- 
 cian youthhood, disposed according to their sex and 
 tender age, in companies, with branches and flowers, 
 to shower from the platforms, and from each balcony, 
 and crowded parapet, along his triumphant way. 
 Elated with his victory over the honour of his 
 country, and amidst the peans of an empire's servihty, 
 the matricide ascends the capitol, to return thanks to 
 the immortal gods ; and then, with a frenzy, which 
 proved how much he had been restrained by awe of 
 Agrippina, rushed headlong into every debauchery, 
 and filled not only the palace, but the whole city, 
 with abominable excesses, which have, unfortunately, 
 found a place in history. 
 
 * " Iret intrepidus, et venerationem sui coram experiretur ; 
 simul prsegredi exposcunt ; et promtiora, quam promiserant, in- 
 veniunt ; obvias tribus ; festo cultu senatum ; conjugum ac libero- 
 rum agmina, per sexum et setatem disposita ; extructos, qua 
 incederet, spectaculorum gradus, quo modo triumphi visuntur. 
 Hinc superbus, ac publici servitii victor, capitolium adiit, grates ex- 
 solvit ; seque in omnes libidines efFudit, quas male coercitas qualis- 
 cunque matris reverentia tardaverat." — Tacit. 1. xiv. 13. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 •* In the tenth year of the reign of Nero, the capital of the empire 
 was afflicted by a fire which raged beyond the memory or ex- 
 ample of former ages. The monuments of Grecian art and of 
 Roman virtue— the trophies of the Punic and Gallic wars— the 
 most holy temples, and the most splendid palaces — were involved 
 in one common destruction. Of the fourteen regions, or quarters, 
 into which Rome was divided, four only subsisted entire ; three 
 were levelled with the ground ; and the remaining seven, which 
 had experienced the fury of the flames, displayed a melancholy 
 prospect of ruin and desolation."— G«56ow, Hist, of the Decl. 
 and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch, xvi. 
 
 Nero burns Rome. 
 
 Besides the insane delight which Nero seemed to 
 derive from the perpetration of shameful crimes, and 
 of such as made millions sensible of his tyranny, it 
 has been alleged by his contemporaries, that he was 
 instigated to have the city consumed by fire, in order 
 to clear the ground for his golden palace, (which sur- 
 passed in vastness, elegance, and splendour, every 
 other structure of the kind that had ever been at- 
 tempted,*) and that his name might be immortaUzed 
 by being given to the new city, which speedily arose 
 from its ashes in such guise as to eclipse the city of 
 marble of which Augustus boasted.f 
 
 * " Caeterum Nero usus est patriae minis, extruxitque domum, in 
 qua baud perinde gemmae et aurum miraculo essent, solita pridem et 
 luxu vulgata, quam arva et stagna, et in modum solitudinum bine 
 silvas, inde aperta spatia et prospectus ; magistris et macbinatoribus 
 Severo et Celere.— Videbaturque Nero condendae urbis novee et 
 cognomento suo, appellandae gloriam quadxexe.:'— Tacit. 1. xv. 
 41, 42, 
 
 t But some were of opinion that regulating the width and dis- 
 position of the streets, and height of the houses, by lessening the 
 shade, did not conduce to the health of the inhabitants."— /6/<Z. 
 
ROME. 
 
 189 
 
 The Fire. 
 
 — Prithee, where did it begin, Ventidius ? " 
 
 " In the far end of the Great Circus, contiguous to 
 the Palatine and Cselian mounts.^ The fire broke out 
 with fury that proved indomitable from the first ; for 
 it was pampered into instantaneous violence by the 
 combustible materials of the taverns and stores abound- 
 ing in that quarter. Along the Circus, from goal to 
 goal, it sweeps with the rapidity of the wind ; from 
 the lower ground, the wide-wasting element mounts 
 the heights, and again rushes down over the inter- 
 jacent valleys, with a swiftness not to be retarded by 
 any human efforts. The character of the old town — 
 a labyrinth of tortuous and narrow streets, encum- 
 bered with enormous piles of building that swarmed 
 with inhabitants to the very tiles — contributed to ac- 
 celerate the catastrophe, and augment its horrors.* 
 Add to this, the terror-shrieks of women — the touching 
 spectacle of languid age and feeble childhood, making 
 abortive efforts to escape — some, deaf to the cries of 
 nature and of duty, think only to save themselves ; 
 others freely risking their own lives to save their 
 friends or kindred, or the darling objects of their 
 affections. Midst the ruin of tumbling edifices, that 
 come down upon them like avalanches of fire, the 
 fugitives are crushed, with the sick and helpless they 
 are dragging away on litters, or on their shoulders ; 
 some linger in distraction about their flaming dwell- 
 ings, others take to flight, and all contribute to heighten 
 the confusion and preclude the possibility of escape ; 
 or if a few, more fortunate than the rest, succeed in 
 extricating themselves from the sorrounding flames, 
 they find to their consternation that parts where 
 
 * " Initium in ea porte circi ortum, quae Palatino Cselioque mon- 
 tibus coutigua est."— Tacit. 1. xv. 38. There was a station or guard- 
 house of the praetorians just there, so that the locality was in every 
 respect well selected. 
 
 f " Urbe arctis itineribus hucque et illuc flexis, atque enormibus 
 vicis, qualis vetus Roma fuit." — Ibid. 
 
190 
 
 ROME. 
 
 they expected shelter are involved in the common 
 ruin. At last, bewildered as to where or from whence 
 to fly, they choke up the streets in helpless masses, 
 or cast themselves on the earth in despair; while 
 some, who actually made good their retreat, on con- 
 templating the misery to which they are so suddenly 
 reduced, rush back with the same eagerness upon 
 destruction that others seek to shun it. As to en- 
 deavours to check the conflagration, there were none 
 whatever ; for, desperate gangs, denouncing every 
 such attempt, roamed through the burning town in 
 all directions, and tossed flaming brands to spread the 
 fire, vociferating that they knew upon what authority 
 they acted."* 
 
 The parties, who kad welcomed Nero with un- 
 bounded acclamation, when returning from the murder 
 of his mother, and were ready to deify him for atroci- 
 ties of which others were the victims, fell into different 
 sentiments when the effects of his destructive caprice 
 came home to themselves. The tyrant began to be 
 alarmed at the public indignation. Nothing was left 
 undone to stifle the complaints and discontent of the 
 sufferers — every resource of state jugglery was tried — 
 Nero would fain throw the blame upon the gods — or- 
 dered sacrifices to appease their ire — had the Sybilline 
 books consulted ; and, by their direction, supplications 
 are made to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpine, besides a 
 lectisternium, in which the Roman matrons endea- 
 voured, first upon the Capitol, then on the sea-shore at 
 Ostia, to turn aside the wrath of Juno from the city. 
 But all to no purpose. Neither treasures squandered 
 among the multitude, nor the improvement as to 
 the regularity, superior elegance, and security of the 
 new city — not even the wiles of superstition — could 
 beguile or blind the public resentment, or acquit the 
 matricide of having ordered the firing of the city. 
 
 * " Nec quisquam defendere audebat, crebris multorum minis, 
 reslinguere prohibentium, et quia alii palam faces jaciebant, atque 
 esse sibi auctorem vociferebantur ; sive ut raptus licentius exercerent, 
 seu jussu." — Ubi supra. 
 
ROME. 
 
 191 
 
 To divert the odium, which could not be suppressed, 
 he resolved to supply it with fictitious criminals, upon 
 which it might exhaust its fary."**" 
 
 " With this view," continues the pagan historian, 
 Tacitus, " Nero inflicted the most exquisite tortures 
 upon a herd of wretches, who, under the vulgar 
 appellation of Christians, had already become objects 
 of execration, by reason of their flagitious practices. 
 They derived their name and origin from Christ, who, 
 in the reign of Tiberius, had suffered death, by the 
 sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. Checked 
 for the moment, by this vigorous step, the baleful 
 superstition burst forth again, spreading itself not 
 only over Judea, the cradle of the calamity, but 
 through Rome, also, the common cess-pool into 
 which are discharged the villanies of the whole 
 world, and where every form of superstition, no 
 matter how profligate, can celebrate its mysteries 
 with impunity. The first proceeding, then, in this 
 device, was to seize upon some miscreants, who con- 
 fessed themselves to be accomplices of the Chris- 
 tians.! On their information an immense multitude 
 (multitudo ingens) were convicted ; not indeed of 
 setting fire to the city, but of being the enemies of the 
 human race. They were put to the most cruel deaths; 
 their torments were embittered by derision, and 
 turned into sources of sport and merriment for Nero 
 and the mob. They covered their bodies with the 
 skins of wild beasts, that they might be worried and 
 torn to pieces by dogs ; they nailed them on crosses, 
 made bonfires of their bodies, having smeared them 
 all over with a mixture of lard and pitch, or fastened 
 them in such a manner on pedestals, and in conspi- 
 cuous places, that the flames issuing from them 
 served to light up the imperial gardens, and to shed 
 lustre on the games and pubhc entertainments which 
 
 * " Sed non ope humana, non largitionibus principis, aut deiim pla- 
 camentis, decedebat infamia, quin jussum iricendium crederetur." 
 ■ — Ubi supra. 
 
 f Like Anicetus when Octavia was to be got rid of. 
 
192 
 
 ROME. 
 
 were blended with the persecution of the Christians. 
 Nero had ordered the imperial pleasure-grounds of 
 the Vatican to be thrown open for this exhibition, 
 which was set off with chariot races and other sports 
 of the Circus, on the grandest scale. These games 
 were also due to the munificence of the emperor, 
 who appeared himself, dressed as a charioteer, by 
 turns careering upon the course at furious speed, 
 or mingling with the mob on foot. Loaded though 
 they were with guilt," concludes the pagan slanderer, 
 " and deserving to be made examples of, still this re- 
 volting mixture of levity and ferociousness, added to 
 the reflection that they were victimized through the 
 savage baseness of the despot, and not through solici- 
 tude for the public good, contributed to change abhor- 
 rence of these wretches into commiseration for their 
 cruel fate."* ........ 
 
 — " Like the hydra, this monstrous superstition drew 
 energy from its wounds — there seems to be a strange 
 fecundity in their blood — they are multiplied by being 
 massacred. But, though we are in the calends of 
 July, the ' ides of March' are come for them." 
 
 " Unriddle this, Ventidius. What mean these 
 Christian ' ides of March ?' " 
 
 " Why, Julius, that they are on the eve of being cut 
 off. For when its heads are severed, even the hydra 
 dies." 
 
 " More enigmas ! Pray speak the dialect of camps, 
 good sir. I am no diviner, but, as you are aware, a 
 rough spun legioner. What hydra heads are these ?" 
 
 '*The chief one, a Galilean. He is to be crucified 
 on the old Acropolis, over the Jews' quarter, beyond 
 the Tiber ; the other dies by the sword, for he claims 
 the privileges of a Roman citizen." 
 
 * " Unde, quanquam adversus sontes et novissima exempla 
 meritos," 8cc.— Tacit. 1. xv. ch. 44. 
 
 " Blessed are you when they shall revile you, and persecute you, 
 and, for my sake, speak all that is evil against you — lying.'" — St. 
 Matt. ch. V. ver. 11. 
 
ROME. 
 
 193 
 
 " Of what mien and stature is this latter ?" 
 
 " Pale, in contour aquiUne, and not inelegant. The 
 tracery of thought, with a beard, ample, flowing, but 
 not so snowy as his few remaining hairs, imparts to 
 his appearance a venerable bearing, which the vigour 
 and agility of his glance forbid us to put down en- 
 tirely to the account of years. Little-headed, dimi- 
 nutive in person, he looks, withal, contemptible until he 
 speaks ; but then, he seems as if inspired by a divinity. 
 I have seen more graceful gesture, listened to periods 
 more symphonious, to diction more elaborate than 
 his — not that he appears undisciplined in the arts 
 of oratory, or unimbued with letters — but, when his 
 spirit kindles up, lip, forehead, eye, become refulgent 
 — his words reverberate upon the mind like lightning ; 
 and, as if actuated by omnipotence, ' beat down every 
 altitude, and lead captive every understanding, in obe- 
 dience to his Christ.' " 
 
 " It must be Paul !" 
 
 " Paul is his name. But how came he known to 
 thee ? He is a Jew, if I remember well, of Tarsus." 
 
 "It is even so. Yet, nevertheless, I know him 
 well, Ventidius ; nay, you will marvel more to learn, 
 that I had friendship strict, and long companionship 
 with this same Christian captive ; and sore do I la- 
 ment his present destiny." 
 
 "Mehercule, but 'tis passing strange ! And mar- 
 vellous, no doubt, have been the casualties that made 
 companions of an enthusiast Hebrew and a Praeto- 
 rian officer. Come, Julius, narrate me this pas- 
 sage of your life. It piques my curiosity to learn it ; 
 and I see by the shadow of that tall wizard-stone of 
 Egypt, that one-third of the watch is yet to run." 
 
 0 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Centurion'' s Story. 
 
 It was as he stood — his chain-bound arms upHfted 
 —making his defence before the king Agrippa, that I 
 first saw this man. 
 
 " Shortly after Fortius Festus had taken possession 
 of his government, Herod Agrippa, and Berenice, his 
 queen, came down to visit him at Csesarea ; and the 
 governor received them with great pomp, and enter- 
 tained them magnificently for many days. Among 
 the rest, 'twas told by Festus to the king, who was a 
 celebrated orator himself, how there was a man of 
 amazing eloquence then a captive, whom the Jews 
 had impeached before Felix of many crimes, but who, 
 refusing to go up to Jerusalem to be judged, had, as 
 a Roman citizen, appealed to Caesar. ' Then,' said 
 Agrippa, ' I should like to hear this man myself.' 
 * To-morrow,' said Festus, ' your majesty shall hear 
 him.' So, next day, when the king and queen, con- 
 ducted by the proconsul, with his tribunes and the 
 leading men of the city, had come into the grand 
 audience hall, with an immense concourse of all orders, 
 at the command of Festus, Paul was led forth in chains ; 
 and, when the governor had stated the charges against 
 him to the king, Agrippa said to Paul — ' Thou art 
 permitted to speak for thyself.' 
 
 " His statement was very singular. Born of Jewish 
 parents, in Tarsus of Cilicia, it appears that, in his 
 boyhood, he had been placed under Gamaliel, a chief 
 rabbi in Jerusalem, at whose feet, to use the oriental 
 phrase, he read the law; and, from youth, according to 
 that most rigid sect, had lived a Pharisee. Imbued with 
 the prejudices of his party, young Saul became a zealot, 
 
ROME. 
 
 195 
 
 and, incited by the vehemence of his temperament, 
 did many things against the followers of Jesus of Na- 
 zareth, whose name he deemed it a sacred and merito- 
 rious duty to detest and persecute. When the Naza- 
 renes were condemned, he charged himself to see the 
 sentence executed, and held the clothes of the execu- 
 tioners when they were stoned to death. Not satisfied 
 with this, he pursued them with vengeance even into 
 foreign cities. 
 
 "'Whereupon, when I was going to Damascus 
 with authority and permission of the chief priests, 
 at mid-day, O king,' cried Paul, *I beheld, as 
 we were journeying, a light from heaven, above 
 the brightness of the sun, shining round about 
 me and them that were in company with me ; and 
 when we were all fallen down on the ground, I heard 
 a voice calling to me in the Hebrew tongue, " Saul, 
 Saul, why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to 
 kick against the goad." And I said, " Who art thou, 
 Lord ?" And he answered, " I am Jesus whom thou 
 dost persecute ; but rise up, and stand upon thy feet, 
 for to this end have I appeared to thee, that I might 
 make thee an apostle and a witness of those things 
 which thou hast seen, and of those things wherein I 
 will appear to thee, — delivering thee from the people 
 and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee, to 
 open their eyes, that they may be converted from dark- 
 ness to light, and from the power of Satan to God ; that 
 they may receive forgiveness of sins and a lot among 
 the saints by belief in me." 
 
 " But as he spoke, or rather thundered forth 
 the proofs of the resurrection, his being seemed 
 dilated as if by the presence of a God. He looked, 
 not like a culprit, but an emperor — an emperor 
 of the heart and intellect, wielding an authority by 
 which the haughtiest scorn was abashed, the most 
 stubborn forced to bow. The whole basilica was 
 subdued in this poor captive's presence, and bound 
 as if with a spell ; the king was half converted ; and 
 even Festus, as if irritated by, and dreading the as- 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 ROME, 
 
 saults that shook his iron mind, cried out, 'Paul, 
 thou art beside thyself ; much learning doth make 
 thee mad !' And Paul replied, ' I am not mad, 
 most noble Festus, but I speak the words of truth 
 and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, 
 (the prophecies concerning the Messiah,) to whom 
 on that account I speak with confidence ; for I am 
 persuaded that none of these things are unknown to 
 him ; for neither were any of these things done in a 
 corner. Believest thou the prophets, king Agrippa ? 
 I know that thou dost believe them.' But how shall 
 I repeat his arguments ? Suffice it, that the king 
 exclaimed, in hearing them : ' In a little time thou 
 persuadest me to become a Christian !' 'I would to 
 God,' said Paul, ' that in little and in much, not 
 only thou, but also all that hear me this day, should 
 become such as I also am, except these bonds.' " 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " Then, too, the scenes of pomp and joy, that make 
 One theatre of this vast peopled lake. 
 Where all that love, religion, commerce gives 
 Of life and motion, ever moves and lives." 
 
 Moore's Alciphron. 
 " Mare illud, quod nunc Favonio nascente, purpureum videtur, — 
 modo casruleum videbatur, mane flavum ; quodque nunc, quia 
 a sole collucet, alhescit, et vibrat, dissimileque est proximo ei 
 continenti." — Words of Cicero while looking on the Bay of 
 Naples. Acad. Qucest. 1. iv. 33. 
 And when it was determined that Paul should sail into Italy, he, 
 with the other prisoners, was delivered to a centurion, named 
 Julius, of the band Augusta."— ^c^s of the Apostles, xxvii. 
 
 " The last morning," continued Julius, " had not 
 dawned upon our voyage, when I was already stationed 
 on the prow to catch the first sight of long sighed-for 
 Italy. Like a transparent veil upon a picture, or a 
 fair group of Phidias, there extended a dim mist over 
 shore and ocean ; but, when the jocund god of morn 
 lifted it away, who shall conceive the vision that 
 broke upon our senses ; — who that has not gazed, as 
 we did then, in ecstasies, upon the bay and surrounding 
 scenery of Neapolis ? 
 
 " Argosies of merchant ships from Egypt, and Tyre, 
 and Cyrene, and even from isles remote, and cities of 
 great commerce, beyond the straits of Hercules, were 
 interspersed along the wavy mirror of the deep, with 
 martial galhes, glittering with shield and helmet. 
 Warlike music came along the waters, the mellow^ 
 horn and the timbrel chimed in with songs in many 
 dialects, as the mariners spread their various coloured 
 sails to catch the matin breeze, redolent of the orange 
 groves and gardens of pleasure along the beauteous 
 shores. Oh ! it was a sight entrancing ; and to sit 
 
198 
 
 ROME. 
 
 one down, like a circumspect geographer, to measure 
 distances and note down bearings, while, in their first 
 tumult, the senses could hardly believe the scene's 
 reality, would have been to outrage every franchise of 
 imagination. But when the noon-tide calm left the 
 weary galliots to sleep along their decks, I leant over 
 the ship's side, in the shadow of the lofty rigging; 
 and, while Paul and his disciple recited their alternate 
 prayer, I rehearsed the scenery at leisure, perused it, 
 line by line, and felt my delight increase the more I 
 ruminated on the lore of history, and recalled the 
 fantasies with which inspired genius has embellished 
 its indigenous traditions. Rude, at the best, must 
 be the etchings of a hand inured only to the san- 
 guinary implements of war ; and besides, since then, 
 the impressions of that bland revery have been swept 
 over by some turbulent and deformed years. Never- 
 theless, since it so touches your curiosity to hear a 
 centurion's recollections of these far-famed regions, 
 let Hercules try the distaff. 
 
 ''The bay of Neapolis is, in some sort, of a goblet 
 form ; hence the Greeks called it crater ; but of its 
 rim, the only fragments that remain towards the 
 ocean, are the isles of Caprea, Inarime, and Prochyta. 
 This circular form of the bay — its very name — ^besides a 
 variety of evidences, far less equivocal, upon the bor- 
 der regions, and more than all, perhaps, the aboriginal 
 traditions, leave but little room to doubt, that this 
 huge basin was, in times long past, the basis of an- 
 other Etna. Stained with sulphureous eruptions, 
 thunder scathed, and interspersed with mephitic pools, 
 and sources of boiling streams, the campi phlegrai, or 
 burning fields, are fertile in tokens favourable to this 
 conjecture. The heights above Dicsearchia, or Pute- 
 olum, where we landed, are called ' the assembly 
 rooms of Vulcan, (Hephesti agora ;) and terrible 
 must have been the volcano's fury, wide spread the 
 havoc of its eruptions, since in their effects the 
 terrified imagination has beheld the havoc of the war 
 between the Titans and the gods. Deranged by the 
 
ROME. 
 
 199 
 
 shock of the catastrophe, memory still points to the 
 field of battle, where the giants were overthrown by- 
 thunderbolts. Probably the simple truth is this, the 
 bowels and substance of the burning mountain having 
 been, in the long run, consumed and cast abroad by 
 the intestine war of elements, like a state exhausted 
 of its strength, it sunk into the abyss beneath ; while 
 the adjacent sea, long vexed by its flaming volleys, 
 rushed in through the broker^ frontier, acquiring for 
 Neptune the fairest province ever added to his do- 
 main. Assuming this hypothesis, the captive drew 
 from it a beautiful allegory of the converted sinner ; 
 saying, that the halcyon flood before us, reflecting 
 heaven as it did, could give but a shadowy and inade- 
 quate idea of the soul's serenity, in which grace has 
 quenched the old volcano of iniquity, inundating the 
 heart, where nought but the war and uproar of the 
 passions used to dwell, with that peace of God which 
 surpasseth all comprehension. 
 
 " To one sailing in from the Tyrrhenean Sea, the 
 continent begins on the left, by the high promontory 
 of Misenum, the chief station appointed by Augustus 
 for the fleet. Here Lucullus had a villa. Next you 
 come to the imperial villa, (ad Baulos,) to which you 
 described the monster as leading the unfortunate 
 Agrippina, in the first instance, before they proceeded 
 on to Baiee, not far within the bay. This elysium of 
 Epicurus displays its voluptuous charms along a 
 recess of the shore, sheltered by a back ground of 
 hills, dotted with parian shrines of dalliance, peeping 
 from acacia groves and trellised vines, up to the very 
 ridges, crowned with many a temple and marble 
 pharos. The causeway of Caius stretches from thence 
 across the sea to Dicsearchia, upon innumerable 
 arches ; and all along the bend of the shore which 
 it subtends, the headlands and slopes are scattered 
 with piles of architecture, which prove to the be- 
 holder, that there was grandeur even in the relaxations 
 of the heroes and statesmen who erected them. The 
 summer retreats of Pompey and Caesar, of Hortensius 
 
200 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and Marcus Tullius, are all in the same vicinity, those 
 of Catiilus and Varro, at no great distance towards the 
 Cuman shore. On the httle isle of Nisida, further on 
 towards Neapohs, stands that of Brutus. It was 
 there the patriots, as they called themselves, assem- 
 bled for the last time ; and its marble recesses were 
 conscious of their irresolution and gloomy presenti- 
 ments, before they dispersed, abandoning the field to 
 the profligate but stirring Antony. 
 
 " It is in vogue to say that Cato slew himself at the 
 conclusion of the first act ; and that had he reserved 
 himself, the advantages so dearly purchased by the 
 death of Ccesar would not have been thrown away 
 for want of energy. True it is, the leaders seem to 
 have lost all decision from the moment they struck 
 the first blow ; as if confounded at the magnitude of 
 their own achievement. They slunk away like thieves 
 detected in a petty larceny, instead of rushing, with 
 their reeking daggers, to the Forum, to proclaim the 
 usurper's death; they treated with Antony, when 
 they should have set a price upon his head. It may 
 be, too, that Cato would have striven to save the 
 republic for its own sake, while Cicero would do so 
 that he might boast of it ; but, nevertheless, it was 
 not through any faltering of the conspirators, or 
 through the pusillanimity of Marcus Tulhus, that 
 liberty was not restored. Patriotism and the love of 
 independence had long expired among the people, 
 who had learned, especially since the times of Sylla, 
 to regard the contests of the oligarchy, among them- 
 selves, with the same eye they cast upon a horse race 
 or a fight of gladiators. It mattered nought to them 
 which faction triumphed ; they cared not for the 
 country, because they had long ceased to have any 
 interest in it. It was long, in fact, since the Roman 
 populace had ceased to have a country at all; for, 
 from the time that Roman citizenship ceased to desig- 
 nate a people having the same altars, the same 
 sepulchres, walls, and ancestral recollections — that is, 
 from the time the Latin tribes, and almost all Italy, 
 
ROME. 
 
 201 
 
 had been made Roman citizens, the name became a 
 legal fiction. The licentious millions, feasted and 
 entertained with circus shows, with wild beast baiting, 
 and wholesale murder, at the expense of the pro- 
 vinces, were far from being, like the ancient ' gens,' 
 the moving power in the state. Hence the carefully 
 polished harangue of Brutus was listened to by the 
 throng about the rostrum, as if it were the address of 
 a tragic actor, in which the audience had no concern 
 whatever beyond applauding the sentiment or diction, 
 or to hoot and hiss, according to its caprice. Had they 
 agitated, in the first place, — instructing the people in 
 their rights, and in their wrongs, and rousing them 
 from the fatal listlessness, about the commonweal, 
 engendered by long misgovernment and oppression, — 
 then, might the death of Caesar have been followed by 
 such another outburst of patriotic indignation as swept 
 the Tarquins from the throne. But, circumstanced as 
 Rome was at that juncture, the attempt of Brutus 
 was a mere tragic exhibition, for which not the 
 managers alone, which might be borne with resigna- 
 tion, but the most distant and unoffending nations 
 paid a fearful price of blood and treasure. 
 
 " But in the heyday of the nobles, when Pompey 
 was fortune's favourite, and while the eloquence of 
 Cicero swayed the senate and the assemblies of the 
 people, it was usual for the greatest conquerors and 
 statesmen to pass the vacations from the curia and 
 the c^mp in philosophic intercourse — speculating as 
 to whether a wise man can be unhappy — whether 
 death, or pain, be an evil — whether there exist either 
 gods, or a future world, or a providence — whether 
 any thing be certain — with many other themes treated 
 of by Plato and the other Greeks. Such studies had 
 formed the chief pastime of the greatest spirits of 
 the patrician order, since the time of Laslius and the 
 elder Scipio, who cultivated the friendship of Ennius 
 and the captive Greek Polybius, and were accused 
 of being concerned in certain dramatic compositions, 
 put forth under the name of a Carthaginian slave, 
 
202 
 
 ROME. 
 
 called Terence ; and of even leading about with them 
 poets and philosophers during their campaigns. In 
 the town and in their country houses, the Scipios, 
 Metellus, the Claudii, and others, formed a court 
 around themselves ; and while all the old brutality 
 and ignorance of the plebeians was not only kept 
 up, but fostered with all diligence, especially by the 
 stern Cato and his school, the nobility became highly 
 accomplished ; and, through their manner of life and 
 familiarity with the Greek parasites who were at- 
 tracted round them, their tone and tastes became 
 refined in the same degree as the people retrograded. 
 
 " Most of Cicero's philosophic works are, very pro- 
 bably, what they pretend to be, at least, in a great 
 measure — the great orator's reports or recollections of 
 conferences actually occurring between himself and 
 his contemporaries. One time, the scene lies in Tus- 
 culum, another time at Tibur, or at Arpinum, under 
 the shade of ancestral trees, and beside the cool 
 stream. He boasted that the genius of philosophy 
 did not forsake him even amid the wranglings of the 
 bar ; what wonder, then, to find, that when he visited 
 the shores of Cuma and Parthenope, so propitious 
 to meditation, her serene form was ever at his side ? 
 
 " ' When Atticus was lately staying with me, 
 in the Cuman villa,' says Cicero, 'we received a 
 message from Varro, that he had come down from 
 Rome the evening before, and, but for his fatigue, 
 would have called on us immediately. We thought 
 there was no time to be lost, on hearing this, but 
 that we should, forthwith, proceed to visit one so 
 long associated with us by friendship and by studies, 
 equally cultivated and cherished by all three. Where- 
 fore, we set out at once for his villa, but, at a little 
 distance from it, we see him coming to meet us.' 
 The friends embrace, according to custom, and on 
 entering the villa, they quickly turn, from the news 
 of the day, to the philosophic themes that form the 
 first book of the Academic Questions. The fourth 
 book is also a conversation supposed to take place 
 
ROME. 
 
 203 
 
 at Bauli, (ad Baulos,*) in a xystus or terrace of the 
 villa of Hortensius, as Lucullus and Cicero, who 
 have been on a visit with Catulus in his Cuman villa, 
 are waiting for a sea breeze, Lucullus being to sail 
 to his villa near Neapolis, Cicero to his at Pompeii. 
 The beauteous scenery by which they were surrounded 
 is pressed into the service of the academic theories, 
 by the ingenuity of Cicero. ' And as for this much 
 boasted gift of vision,' he says, ' how exceedingly 
 limited and imperfect is it ? It is true, I can discern, 
 from where we are, the villa and pleasure grounds of 
 Catulus at Cuma, but my own villa at Pompeii, I 
 cannot see ; not that any obstacle intervenes, but 
 the feeble ken is not able to carry that distance. 
 And oh, what a glorious prospect is that before us ! 
 Puteoli is in full view, but our friend Avianus is not 
 visible, though, perhaps, he is at this moment walking 
 in the portico of Neptune. To this deity, then, of 
 yours, of whom you boast, I will say, frankly, that, 
 with such eyes, I am not content. Sharper they 
 may be than those of the fishes disporting, no doubt, 
 in the azure waters there before us, though not seen 
 by us, as we are invisible to them ; for their atmo- 
 sphere is duller even than our own.'f 
 
 * " Quibus de rebus et alias saepe nobis multa quoesita et disputata 
 sunt, et quondam in Hortensii villa, quae est ad Baulos, cum eo 
 Catulus, et Lucullus, nosque ipsi postridie venissemus, quam apud 
 Catulum fuissemus. Quo quidem etiam maturius venimus, quod 
 erat constitutum, si ventus esset, Lucullo in Neapolitanum, mihi in 
 Pompeianum navigare." — Acad. Qucest. 1. iv. 4. 
 
 -f " Ut enim vera videamus quam longe videmus ? Ego Catuli 
 Cumanum ex hoc loco regionem video, — Pompeianum non cerno ; 
 neque quidquam interjectum est, quod obest ; sed intendi longius 
 acies non potest. O praeclarum prospectum ! Puteolos videmus ; 
 at familiarem nos Avianum fortasse in porticu Neptuni ambulantem 
 non videmus. Responderem igitur audacter isti vestro Deo ; me 
 plane his oculis non esse contentum. Dicet me acrius videre, 
 quam ullos pisces fortasse ; qui neque videntur a nobis, et nunc qui- 
 dem sub oculis sunt ; neque ipsi nos aspicere possunt. Ergo ut illis 
 aqua, sic nobis aer crassus olFunditur." — Acad. Qucest. 1. iv. 25. 
 This truly academic quibble carries with it its own refutation. Was 
 not that sight which caused the academic to exclaim, " O preclarum 
 prospectum !" worth thanking heaven for? Experience has taught 
 
204 
 
 ROME. 
 
 " But to Virgil's art, these regions are, if possible, 
 more indebted than even to nature. From imme- 
 morial antiquity, they had been haunted by myths 
 and phantoms the most gloomy and terrible. ' An 
 impervious gloom/ according to Homer, 'unenli- 
 vened by rising or setting sun, spread a thick eternal 
 shade over the beach, where the dark and barren 
 groves of the remorseless Proserpine marked the 
 entrance to the regions of the dead.'^ Here flowed 
 Cocytus, here that dreaded stream from whose further 
 shore no traveller returns — the dark jaws of Aver- 
 nus, the fiery Phlegethon, the den of Cerberus ; and 
 there, too, were the Elysian plains and Lethe, mo- 
 tionless as oblivion. Maro became the Orpheus of 
 these uncouth and savage fictions. But, in reclaim- 
 ing the wilderness, he did not destroy the charm 
 of wildness ; he had the benign ingenuity to civilize 
 Vv^ithout resorting to extermination. The sibyl was 
 not evicted from her grotto ; he even let Cerberus 
 alone — nay, made him useful. Prescription and vested 
 interests were respected — the rill was left to flow, 
 the pool to mantle as before — no ejectment, no clear- 
 ing away of what might be regarded as sordid lumber ; 
 but, seizing every natural advantage of myth and 
 scenery, as they stood, his plastic genius obliged them 
 to subserve the interests of his great epic, with art 
 so exquisite as to shed the charm of reality over the 
 most poetic fictions. Start from the shore of Cuma 
 with the sixth book of the ^neid in your hand ; you 
 can trace the Trojan hero, step by step, to the ' ivory 
 gate' from the sibyl's cave, and are delighted, at every 
 turn, to find, between the landscape and the text, the 
 most astonishing coincidence. 
 
 ' Tunc sylvae, tunc antra loqui, tunc vivere fontes, 
 Tunc sacer horror aquis, adylisque effunditur echo 
 Clarior, et doctse spirant prsesagia rupes.' 
 
 the sceptic, even in this instance, that the eye, as formed by the 
 Creator, can peruse what Cicero's contemporaries believed to be a 
 sealed book ; and can discern not only fishes in the sea, but myriads 
 of living creatures in every drop of water. 
 * Ponipeiana, vol. i. p. 42. 
 
ROME, 
 
 205 
 
 The tomb where they placed his ashes is diminutive, 
 and therefore suitable ; for little, indeed, of Virgil 
 belonged to earth. It stands by the wayside, as you 
 go from Parthenope (where he expired) to Puteoli, in 
 a shady recess, high up on the left, just at the en- 
 trance of that long mystic corridor (the grotto of 
 Pozilippo) which, with its star-like issue and goblin 
 shadows, forms a befitting vestibule to that land of 
 initiation which lies beyond, the fairest province of 
 the poet's empire. 
 
 " From the bustle and uproar of Puteoli, a great 
 emporium, we escape along a bold and rocky shore, 
 and after doubling a bluff jutting of the land, dis- 
 cover the fair Parthenope, vestal-looking as Diana, 
 while the snow-white villas stationed among the sylvan 
 scenery, along the mountain side behind, might be 
 likened to the Dryads keeping watch while their god- 
 dess sleeps beside the blue waters. 
 
 " But if you commence the circuit on the right, as 
 you are sailing into the crater-hdiy, the land begins 
 at Cape Minerva, and is abrupt and hilly, on by 
 Surrentum, until you come to Stabia, where the 
 ridges subside into the smiling valley of the Sarnus ; 
 having, on its right bank, the sport-loving httle town 
 of Pompeii, founded, by a Greek colony* of the 
 Theloboi, or Taphians, a piratical people from the 
 mouth of the Achelous, who extended their dominion 
 over the surrounding shores, after having seized on 
 Caprea, in the first instance. f It was to this deli- 
 cious isle that Tiberius retired to spend the last years 
 
 * An idea has prevailed, that the sea once washed the walls of 
 Pompeii ; but though it is said that rings have been found, to 
 which it has been supposed vessels were anciently moored, close to 
 the ruins, yet there seems great reason to believe, that the trade of 
 Pompeii was carried on, as Strabo intimates, by means of the river 
 Sarnus, which yet runs a clear, deep, and navigable river, approach- 
 ing within a quarter of a mile of the site of the city ; the situation 
 rendering it a convenient emporium of the commerce of the cities of 
 Nola, Nuceria, and the produce of the fertile plain south of Vesu- 
 vius. — Gell's Pompeiana, vol. i. p. 3. 
 
 f Pompeiana, vol. i. p. 22, '23. 
 
206 
 
 ROME. 
 
 of his hateful existence in debauchery the most shock- 
 ing, and in the dark practices of magic to which he 
 ' was addicted.* 
 
 " Three miles from Pompeii, as you go to Neapolis, 
 there is another town of much greater importance, 
 called Herculaneum, from its supposed founder. Com- 
 mercial, populous, given to theatrical amusements 
 and revelry, and highly adorned by Grecian art, it 
 reposes on the water's edge, immediately at the base 
 of Mount Vesuvius, which rises above it, to a great 
 height, exactly in the middle distance. This mountain 
 is clad almost to the summit with pleasure gardens 
 and vineyards, of which the produce is celebrated — 
 a retreat for which the goddess of desire, and Bacchus 
 with his satyrs are said to forsake their most favoured 
 abodes, f 
 
 " The mountain is in form a truncated cone, of an 
 ashy appearance towards the top, which is broken 
 into caverns with rocks, scattered here and there, 
 that seem as if they had been eaten by fire ; and 
 there is a tradition of its having burnt in times long 
 gone by. j It was on its sunny slopes that Decius, 
 
 * "At Caesar, dedicatis per Campaniam templis, quanquam edicto 
 monuisset, nequis quietem ejus irrumperet, concursusque appida- 
 norum, disposito milite, prohiberentur ; perosus tamen munieipia et 
 colonias, omniaque in continenti sita, Capreas se in insulam abdidit, 
 trium millium freto ab extremis Surrentini proraontorii dijunctam. 
 Solitudinem ejus placuisse maxime crediderim, quoniam importuosum 
 circa mare, et vix modicis navigiis pauca subsidia ; neque appulerit 
 quisquam, nisi gnaro custode. Coeli temperies hieme mitis, objectu 
 mentis, quo saeva ventorum arcentur ; sestas in Favonium obversa, 
 et aperto circum pelago peramsena ; prospectabatque pulcherrimum 
 sinum, antequam Vesuvius mons ardescens faciem loci verteret. 
 Graecos ea tenuisse, Capreasque Telebois habitatas, fama tradit. 
 Sed turn Tiberius duodecim villarum nominibus etmolibus insederat ; 
 quanto intentus olim publicas ad curas, itanto occultos in luxus 
 et malum otium resolutus." — Tacitus, 1. iv. 67; vid. etiam,\. vi. 
 1, 20, 21. 
 
 •\ " Hie est pampineis viridis Vesuvius urabris ; 
 Presserat hie madidos nobilis uva locus 
 Haec juga, quam Nysae colles, plus Bacchus amavit, 
 
 Hoc nuper Satyri monte dedere chores. 
 Hac Veneris sede," &c. — Martial. 
 J Kara tovs apxaiovs xP^vovs, — Diodor. Sicul. 
 
ROME. 
 
 207 
 
 having devoted himself with terrific auguries to the 
 infernal gods, rushed with ruin and consternation on 
 the Latin ranks ; winning, by his death, a decisive 
 victory for Rome, and, for himself, a deathless re- 
 nown. Here, also, it was that Spartacus, on escaping 
 with his fellow-captives from the gladiatorial schools 
 at Capua, took refuge, where he was speedily joined 
 by some thousands. They were soon besieged by the 
 troops who blocked up the only pass that led to their 
 wild fortress, which was as if walled round by pre- 
 cipices and overhanging rocks, upon which there 
 grew great store of wild vines. Of these the bond- 
 men cut the strongest tendrils, and made thereof 
 ladders like ship ladders, strong, and of such length 
 that they reached from the top to the bottom of the 
 precipice. Upon these, they got safely down, and 
 also their arms ; then winding round the hill, they 
 fell upon the troops with such fury, that they fled, 
 and their camp was taken.* 
 
 ** In fact, the hill has a ruflianly aspect, somehow 
 or other, even to the present day. It looks like 
 a gay dressed brigand chief, peering out over the 
 wide Elysian landscape ; serene, while terrific pas- 
 sions ferment within, and smiling with hellish com- 
 placency over anticipated devastation. Sorcerers 
 and witches are said to haunt the gorges and 
 mephitic caverns round its summit ; and, during the 
 noon-tide repose, the vine-dresser has often heard 
 wild snatches of their mirth, and imagined that he 
 felt the mountain groan and shake as if from the 
 doings within its bowels. Phantoms, too, have fre- 
 quently appeared running to and fro, with baleful 
 torches. Fictions, perhaps, either feigned or fancied 
 by a mercurial peasantry, and by the fishermen and 
 superstitious mariners, who keep watch by night on 
 the adjacent waters ; but, however this may be, cer- 
 tain it is, the surrounding regions and the borders 
 of this mountain, in particular, display the loveliest 
 
 * Plutarch, in vit. Crass. ; Appian. Bel. Cir. i. ; Florus, iii. 20. 
 
208 
 
 ROME. 
 
 scenery — the garden even of Ausonia, where nature 
 wears perennially a gala dress. The climate is as 
 unrivalled for mildness as the soil is for fertility ; 
 twice a year these happy plains are visited by spring 
 with all her blossoms. Bright summer usurps the 
 rest ; so that winter is as perpetually excluded from 
 this heaven upon earth as Saturn from Olympus. 
 
 ' Hie ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus sestas.' 
 
 " Nevertheless, it is not till day begins to die in 
 paroxisms of beauty, that this bay and its enchanting 
 borders assume their characteristic charm. It is not 
 coast, or lake, or mountain with temples by winding 
 rivers, and castles rising above forest trees, or any 
 combination of all these attributes, that constitutes a 
 landscape beautiful. Ventidius, it is light that beau- 
 tifies ; and, contrasted with the colours which streak 
 and tint the scenery of Neapolis at evening time, even 
 our Roman sunsets are dull and sordid as sackcloth 
 compared with purple. Art, also, exquisite Pelasgic 
 art, has heightened every blandishment of nature ; 
 and, while devising a thousand fresh incentives for 
 the passions, not only palliates^ but makes a religion 
 of their indulgence. Their groves, their gardens, 
 their public and private structures, are graced with 
 the most charming and diversified productions ; but 
 Cupid is the hero of nearly all ; for, as with us, it 
 was state policy erected temples, so it was sensuality 
 that would seem to have erected them in Greece. 
 Conceptions, seldom vouchsafed to the most gifted 
 in other climes, and never perfected but by pains- 
 taking and perseverance, in these favoured regions 
 start forth, without an effort, as Minerva is said to 
 have sprung, full armed, from the head of Jove. 
 The very utensils of most vulgar use, from this plastic 
 genius, derive an epic interest.* Thus encountering 
 
 * Pompeii was but a small town, and in all probability contained 
 no celebrated specimen of any artist of consequence ; yet, in it the 
 hand of the artist is every where visible. The paintings are very 
 frequently of history, but embrace every variety of subject, some 
 of the most exquisite beauty ; while a general acquaintance with 
 
ROME. 
 
 209 
 
 none but forms of bewitching, poetic import. Life, to 
 those sportive and voluptuous tribes, is Uke a hohday 
 — one protracted trance of rapture, upon which no 
 thought of the future, none of the grim reahties of 
 existence, are ever suffered to intrude. 
 
 " Oh ! with what mingled rage and wonder, the 
 roisterers of Pompeii and the other sojourns of dal- 
 liance did look and laugh at Paul — denouncing ana- 
 themas against the passions— calHng upon all who 
 would escape from wrath to come, to ' crucify the 
 deeds of the flesh.' Then, laying bare their depra- 
 vities, which had become not only inbred, but so 
 many tests of piety, he described to them in tones 
 that held their spirits cowering and chained with 
 dread, how God had rained down fire on Sodom and 
 the Pentapolis, for similar excesses — cursing, with 
 barrenness and fetid desolation and death, the sea, 
 the shore, the very atmosphere of regions the most 
 teeming and beautiful of all the land that ' flowed 
 with milk and honey.' Then, pointing to Vesuvius, 
 at the base of which he stood, the captive proclaimed, 
 with the vehemence of inspiration, that, if like Ni- 
 neveh of old, they did not seek for mercy in sea- 
 sonable repentance, the crisis was not distant, when 
 a deluge of fire, and whirlwinds of red-hot ruin, would 
 overwhelm them in their sins. 
 
 " After seven days, in which my captive visited his 
 brethren, who were in these parts, we retraced the 
 steps of Horace, along the Via Appia ; and so came 
 to Rome. His chain hung lightly on the captive 
 while I remained ; and, before I was ordered off to 
 Britain, I knew he would be shortly set at liberty. 
 
 " Why do I dwell upon every trivial incident con- 
 
 the unrivalled taste of more ancient times is manifested in an ele- 
 gance demanding and receiving our admiration.— GeU's Pompeiana, 
 vol. ii. p. 154. Sir William's elegant work was published before 
 the discovery of the magnificent mosaic pavement, supposed to 
 represent the battle of the Cydnus between Alexander and Darius. 
 The house, too, in the triclinium of which it was found, is more 
 beautiful and rich, in marbles especially, than any described in the 
 " Pompeiana." 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 ROME. 
 
 nected with one apparently so contemptible — a Jewish 
 artizan — an enthusiast — an atheistic wretch, as you call 
 him, already doomed ? Because, Ventidius, now that 
 I reflect upon his career and conversation, I am asto- 
 nished why, long ago, I have not been what I am now, 
 and what I shall proclaim myself before the legions and 
 the Roman people, ere the sun, which already streaks 
 the summit of the Alban hills with argent light, shall 
 set. Why, scales of impenetrable stupidity, thicker 
 than those which once fell from his own eyes, or than 
 this cuirass on my breast, must have hung upon my 
 mental vision. How did I miss perceiving till this 
 instant, when it comes upon me like a burst of sun- 
 hght, that his mission must be from God ? 
 
 " It w^as evident, as we led him into Rome, that he 
 came not as a culprit, but a conqueror. For thirty 
 miles, his progress along the great Appian thoroughfare 
 was a triumph. No spolia opima ever looked so proud, 
 or won such admiration as the chains with which 
 Paul was bound for Christ ; and we, the legioners 
 of Rome, were but a guard of honour to conduct this 
 envoy upon the errands of the Crucified ; as if Caesar 
 were a vassal, under penalty to provide for the trans- 
 port and safe conduct, by sea and land, of those 
 who preached his gospel. The very elements in their 
 wildest rage respected him. When iron-hearted ve- 
 terans lay paralysed with dread upon the deck, this 
 feeble, scorned Christian stood forth amongst us, like 
 a deity. ' Be of good cheer,' he cried, ' for there 
 shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but 
 only of the ship. For an angel of God, whose I am, 
 and whom I serve, stood by me to-night, saying. 
 Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar ; 
 and behold, God hath given thee all them that sail 
 with thee.' Every tittle was verified as he predicted. 
 I wave the proof, from his miracles, which we all 
 beheld in Melita, that God is with him. His mere 
 apostleship evinces that he is the accredited ambas- 
 sador of the Divinity. Why should he leave an an- 
 cient and renowned profession, in which he was on 
 
ROME. 
 
 211 
 
 the high road to fortune, for a recent and persecuted 
 sect ; the members of which would regard him with 
 distrust, if not with aversion, on account of his past 
 cruelties ; while, by his former associates and patrons, 
 he was to be branded and pursued as an apostate ? If 
 an impostor, or a dupe, how account for his successes ? 
 of which not only the fame, but the effects have 
 spread through every province of the empire and 
 extended far beyond its frontiers ? ' We see him 
 in the prosecution of his purpose, travelling from 
 country to country, enduring every species of hard- 
 ship, encountering every extremity of danger, as- 
 saulted by the populace, punished by the magistrates, 
 scourged, beat, stoned, left for dead ; expecting wher- 
 ever he came a renewal of the same treatment, and 
 the same dangers ; yet when driven from one city, 
 preaching in the next, spending his whole time in 
 this employment, sacrificing to it his pleasures, his 
 ease, his safety, persisting in his course to old age, 
 unaltered by the experience of perverseness, ingra- 
 titude, prejudice, desertion, unsubdued by anxiety, 
 want, labour, persecution, unwearied by long con- 
 finement, undismayed by the prospect of death. The 
 question is, has imposture been ever found, is it 
 possible to conceive it, sustaining a character like 
 this ? Hypocrites and charlatans there have been, 
 and are, in abundance ; but is an example to be met 
 with, of a man voluntarily undertaking, for no earthly 
 consideration, a life of want and pain, of incessant 
 fatigue, of continual peril ; submitting to the loss of 
 his home and country, to stripes and stoning, to 
 tedious imprisonment, and the constant expectation 
 of a violent death, for the sake of carrying about a 
 story of what was false, and of what, if false, he 
 must have known to be so 
 
 " But why do I tarry here? Already day is on 
 us ; and a strange yearning to kiss the chains, to gaze 
 upon the countenance, to hear the heaven-inspired 
 
 * See Horae Pauliiise, of Paley, near the end. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 ROME. 
 
 voice of Paul, has seized me. Conduct me to him, 
 good pretorian ; and, as to the argument of my con- 
 version, if you would know the sequel of it, mark well 
 the words of him, who, stepping from the ranks to- 
 day, shall, at the ' Salvian waters' lay down his mi- 
 litary belt, and take his portion, no longer with the 
 tools of a sceptred matricide and incendiary of his 
 country, but with the champion of heaven's Emperor. 
 Where have they imprisoned him ?" 
 
 " Where many a vanquished enemy of Rome has 
 got his guerdon* — where Cethegus and Lentulus were 
 strangled — Jugurtha starved to death — where" — 
 
 " Enough ! Lead on, to the TuUianum. But, 
 hark ! with what jubilee their voices, rising, from the 
 lowest dungeon of the Mamertine, like matin fragrance 
 to the skies, salute, with alternate hymns of praise, 
 the day in which they are ' to be dissolved and be 
 with Christ !' " 
 
 * So the well known passage in Cicero, Verres, Act. ii. v. 20, 
 where he describes, and even approves of this atrocious practice : — 
 " Supplicia quae debentur hostibus victis." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " Lovely, and comely in their life, even in death they were not 
 divided." — 2nd Booh of Samuel, i. 23. 
 
 " O felix Roma, quae tantoram principum 
 Es purpurata precioso sanguine, 
 Non laude tua, sed ipsorum meritis, 
 Excellis omnem mundi pulehritudinem." 
 
 Elpis, uxor Boetii, in Hymn, de Apost. 
 
 But when the subsiding tumult evinced that the city, 
 overpowered by surfeiting and drunkenness, had sunk 
 into a deUrious stupor, to be haunted with night-mare 
 visions of the murders and debaucheries in which it 
 had been rioting, there ventured forth under the azure 
 gloom of night, a little band of disciples, who often 
 paused to listen, or drew aside in trepidation under 
 the deep shade of arch and portico, until at last they 
 found themselves beyond the Tiber, on the highest 
 ridge of the Janiculum. There the lifeless body of 
 St. Peter still hung upon the cross, to whiclH:he per- 
 secutors had nailed his venerable hands and feet. Ah ! 
 it was a piteous sight. The beard and the grey hairs 
 of the venerable man were clotted with the gore, 
 trickling down from the wounds by which he hung, 
 and bedewing his limbs, emaciated with age and apos- 
 tolic labours. His features were obliterated with 
 blood and livid tumours, as if they had struck him 
 heavily on the face ; and that frame, whose very sha- 
 dow used to raise up the ulcerous cripple, and the 
 plague-struck from their litters, had now " no sound- 
 ness in it." Oh, how changed since that bright hour 
 on Tabor, when he exclaimed, in ecstasy, " Lord, it is 
 good for us to be here !" Dim, drowned in gore, was 
 that eye which had grown familiar with the Incarnate 
 Word ; the feet that Jesus washed, that had carried 
 
214 
 
 ROME. 
 
 the tidings of salvation round provinces and kingdoms, 
 were torn with ghastly wounds ; transfixed to the hard 
 wood was that hand which raised the paralytic in the 
 portico called the Beautiful," and lifted Tabitha 
 from the bier ; frozen the tongue that upbraided " the 
 whole house of Israel" with deicide ; and launched 
 forth the suggestions of the Paraclete in the midst of 
 Jerusalem, with such potency, as to lay prostrate, in 
 adoration of Jesus, myriads who had shouted, " Not 
 him, but Barabbas !" 
 
 The Christians, Timotheus and his venerable parent 
 being of the number, were heartbroken with grief at 
 beholding him ; the very stars of heaven looked down 
 as if they were afflicted, so pensive was the light they 
 shed upon the martyred body and the group that 
 gazed upon it with streaming eyes, their hands clasped, 
 or lifted, in the excess of their tribulation. But no 
 loud cry or w^aihng escaped even from the virgin ten- 
 derness of Pudentiana and Praxede, who were assiduous 
 in helping their mother Claudia, and the other Christian 
 matrons, to collect every drop of gore in sponges, and 
 to deposit in caskets, the very sand saturated with his 
 blood. No sound broke the dead stillness of the 
 night, but stifled sobs and the almost mute murmuring 
 of psalmody, as they drew out the nails, deposited 
 also with care in another casket ; — receiving into their 
 arms with great reverence the gory burden now 
 loosened from the gibbet, they wrapped it hastily in a 
 shroud ; and, then, with trembling haste, having sent 
 some before to reconnoitre, bore it away through by- 
 paths and thickets, until they came to a lonely region 
 among the sand-mines of the Vatican.* Not far oflf was 
 
 * " Agrum Vaticanum, et ejusdem agri deum prsesidem, appella- 
 tum acceperamus a vaticiniis, quae vi atque instinctu ejus Dei in 
 eo agro fieri solita assent." — Auli Gellii, Noctium Atticarum, \. xvi. 
 cap. 17 ; Gronovii. But we learn more accurately from a fragment 
 of Terentius Varro, that the deity, who gave his name to this 
 memorable locality, was called Vaticanus, because he presided over 
 the first sounds of the human voice, or over the cries uttered by 
 new-born infants : " Sicut Ajus deus appellatus, eique ara statuta 
 est, quae est infima Nova via, quod in eo loco divinitus vox edita 
 
ROME. 
 
 215 
 
 a grove and oracle of Apollo, where a stream fell with 
 a murmuring sound into a little glen, shaded here and 
 there with olives and wild vines. Here, some others 
 issuing from a crypt, with muffled lights, helped to 
 convey the apostle's body down the glen-side ; but at 
 a turn of the rugged descent, they all suddenly dis- 
 appeared as if by some subterraneous passage con- 
 cealed by brushwood ; and, after traversing, by the 
 light of flambeaus, a succession of long, narrow cor- 
 ridors, apparently without end or order — a labyrinth 
 of darkness — they came at last to where they were 
 anxiously expected by nearly all the clergy and laity 
 of Rome, assembled in the heart of the catacombs. 
 
 erat; ita Vaticanus deus nominatus, penes quem essent vocis 
 humanse initia, quoniam pueri simul atque parti sunt earn primam 
 vocem edunt quae prima in Vaticano syllaba, idcirco vagire dicitur, 
 exprimente verbo sonnm vocis recentis." St. August, (de Civ. 
 Dei, 1. viii. et xi.) gives the same derivation : " Vaticano qui infan- 
 tium vagitibus praesidet," &c. The idol was the effigy of a child 
 crying. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " Ipsamet urbs obstupuit cum abditas in suis suburbiis se novit 
 habere civitates Christianorura colonias." — Baron. Ann. cxxx. 
 
 " In the midst of my days, I said : I will go down to the portals 
 of death." — Isa. xxxviii. 10. 
 
 " Hie labor ille domus, et inextricabilis error." 
 
 Virgil. jEn. 1. vi. 27. 
 
 From immemorial antiquity, the catacombs had been 
 the mines from which the sand had been extracted for 
 the erection not only of the enormous piles that cum- 
 bered the seven hills, but of the endless suburbs that 
 spread out over the Campagna ; for the Romans, who 
 set the highest value on land, from first to last, and 
 were too sagacious to destroy a canopy that left their 
 labourers uninterfered with by the most torrid heats, 
 instead of opening wide pits on the surface, sunk 
 shafts or inchned passages to a considerable depth, 
 and then excavating long, narrow, horizontal galleries 
 in every direction, and so planned and formed as not 
 to endanger the stability of the ground above — had 
 the puzzolano, or sand, carried forth by slaves or 
 beasts of burden, following one another, each with 
 a small sack or two slung across the back, in long 
 droves through the dark winding passages. And 
 hence, from very early times, the whole country 
 round the walls became perforated and undermined, 
 particularly in those regions of it bordering the great 
 roads.* These original excavations were greatly 
 extended by the Christians, so far as forming junction 
 
 * Antonio Bosio, associating with himself one De Rossi, spent 
 thirty years of his life in exploring subterranean Rome. Hence 
 he got the title of the lynx of the catacombs, " lynceus vere cseme- 
 teriorum scrutator." He made a map of the catacombs with extra- 
 ordinary accuracy, and got the various pictures of the walls and 
 ceilings, and the relievi of the sarcophagi, &c., copied. The collec- 
 
ROME. 
 
 217 
 
 corridors, by which to escape from one catacomb 
 to another.* They also fashioned recesses called 
 " locuU " in the sides of the galleries, like tiers of 
 shelves, where they deposited the martyred dead: 
 they burrowed down, still forming catacomb below 
 catacomb, like the successive stages or stories of a 
 house, as if driven by persecution into the very 
 bowels of the earth. They also formed shrines and 
 chapels in these subterranean cities, even decoratin"- 
 them with sacred paintings. * 
 " Burrowed out," says Aringhi, " with innumerable 
 angles, nooks, and complicated windings, not only 
 under the hills, but the level parts of all the surround- 
 ing country, these caverns, or, as they are more 
 properly called, crypts, can hardly be said to receive 
 
 tions and manuscripts left by Bosius (a Maltese) were placed in 
 the hands of Giovanni Severano, by Cardinal Barberini, librarian 
 of the Vatican and Carlo Aldobrandini, ambassador of Malta, that 
 he might arrange them for publication. He added many observa- 
 tions of his own, and as they required still more scrupulous research 
 and observation, the work was taken in hand by Paolo Aringhi, who 
 published the entire in his great work in two large folios, under the 
 title of " Subterranean Rome." Many Protestant writers, findino- 
 fault with this work, and endeavouring to throw discredit on its 
 statements, Marcantonio Boldetti, in order to set the controversy at 
 rest, resolved to publish the evidences in support of Aringhi, which 
 he had gleaned from the catacombs daring nine and twenty years 
 of indefatigable research. To the results arrived at by all these 
 laborious antiquarians, a series of learned dissertations on the eccle- 
 siastical rites of the three first ages, and on the paintings and 
 sculpture of the catacombs, was added by Bottari, at the desire of 
 Pope Clement XII. Marangoni, who assisted Boldetti in his 
 thirty years' labours, published some detached pieces of great in- 
 terest, which he contrived to save from the flames by which the 
 greater part of their papers was destroyed. Besides the before- 
 mentioned, several others, Pelliccia, Bonarroti, and D'Agincourt, 
 have devoted a great part of their lives, DAgincourt partieularlv,' 
 in seeking Rome, not only under its own ruins, but under ground 
 — " sub Roma Romam querere." 
 
 * It is evident, from inscriptions given by Bottari, torn. iii. p. 131, 
 tab. 171 ; and by Pistolesi, vol. ii. p. 9, that there was a confra- 
 ternity formed for the purpose of excavating tombs, (loculi.) ora- 
 tones, &c., and of generally extending the catacombs, so as to 
 facilitate escape, and render them less incommodious ; they were 
 styled " fossores," or diggers. 
 
218 
 
 ROME. 
 
 a glimmering light, here and there, by means of the 
 narrow holes or shafts between them and the upper 
 world ; and they branch out into such an infinity of 
 passages, and are so broken up and subdivided by 
 what may be termed streets and lanes, winding about 
 and crossing and re-crossing one another, that a per- 
 fect labyrinth is formed ; and that of such immensity, 
 that those by whom they have been explored com- 
 pare them, not to one, but to many cities." 
 
 " While at Rome, in my boyhood," says St. Jerome, 
 " I used often, of a Sunday, go about with my school- 
 fellows visiting the tombs of the apostles and mar- 
 tyrs, frequently entering crypt after crypt, having the 
 relics of the dead on either side of the long dark 
 galleries, so dismal as to force that saying of the pro- 
 phet on one's memory, ' They shall go down alive 
 into the region of death the few foramens, or holes 
 here and there over-head, only making darkness visi- 
 ble, and reminding you of Virgil's hne : — 
 
 ' Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent.' " 
 
 The haunts, from of old, of the malefactor, the 
 fugitive, and of all evil doers,~the scenes of many 
 a dark treason against life and innocence— damp, 
 fetid, and dismal within, and having their entrances 
 choaked up with every filth, and not unfrequently 
 with the skeletons and rotting .carcasses of slaves, and 
 of such others as no one cared'for ; the fact of then- 
 resorting to these dreary catacombs for interment of 
 their dead, and for the celebration of the holy mys- 
 teries, helped not a little to deepen the general aver- 
 sion and outcry against the Christians.* They were 
 reviled by their slanderers as being " a furtive crew, 
 mute in public, but garrulous in holes and corners, 
 ever seeking concealment, and shunning the hght of 
 
 * For a refutation of Burnet's silly attempt to identify the puii- 
 culi, or pits, into which the bodies of slaves and paupers were cast 
 (principally in the Esquiline region) witb the cemeteries of the 
 martyrs, see Pistolesi, " II Vatican© Illustrato," vol. u. p. 6. 
 
ROME. 
 
 219 
 
 day, because their practices were dark, and their wor- 
 ship made up of inhuman and incestuous orgies." 
 
 " Latebrosa et lucifugax natio !" — " furtive and 
 afraid of light!" Is it Christianity? In its origin, 
 in its enactments, in its objects, what was there that 
 it should fear it? Emanating from the "splendour 
 of the Father," whose word caused effulgence to burst 
 forth from darkness, and who has flung a lustrous 
 beauty over all that he has created, from the savannah 
 and the sea enamelled with rainbow brilliancy to the 
 heavens that tell of his glory in hymns of radiance ; 
 why should this celestial visitant hold in abhorrence 
 or in apprehension that bland and glowing benediction, 
 which it was her own chief errand to bring to those 
 who " sat in darkness ?" What right had the ma- 
 jority, at any rate, in a world surcharged with tribu- 
 lation and tyrannous injustice, to find fault with the 
 code of the beatitudes ? Or how durst that system 
 be attainted of intellectual cowardice, which, alone 
 able to solve all the problems of man's being, waged 
 open war on ignorance and imposture ; or of sordid 
 narrow-mindedness, seeing that its aim was to level 
 every wall of separation, and to reunite not alone 
 Jew and Samaritan, Roman, Barbarian, and Greek 
 together, but slave and citizen, helot and aristocrat, 
 in one common brotherhood and league of fraternal 
 charity ? It warred with nothing that was not a curse 
 to humanity. It never inflicted anguish but to effect 
 a cure. There was nothing bright, honourable, pure, 
 or beneficent with which it would not have coalesced ; 
 or rather, it had affinities to attract and harmonize 
 around itself whatever was capable of being sanctified, 
 or turned to good. Muisc, architecture, painting, 
 sculpture, poetry, all the arts, in short, that help to 
 humanize, to soothe, or elevate the anguished or 
 lethargic spirit. It would have shamed the muses 
 into self-respect, by leading them, from whence they 
 drew only the inebriety of the passions, to purer foun- 
 tains of inspiration. As to man, it would have ele- 
 vated him, from being a serf of Satan, to fill the throne 
 
220 
 
 ROME. 
 
 from which that once bright spirit fell. Even as a 
 citizen, it would have ameliorated his condition, by 
 establishing an imperishable reciprocity of truth, 
 equity, and good offices between man and man, and 
 by hallowing all the social ties ; by inculcating obe- 
 dience for conscience sake upon those who are sub- 
 ject, w^arning those who are high that there is One 
 still higher ; and, in season and out of season, by 
 commending charity to all. Woman it would have 
 exalted to an eminence so august as to render her 
 influence the corrective of the brutality of which, 
 heretofore, she had been the instigation and the slave. 
 By hallowing the connubial state and maintaining its 
 indissolubility, Christianity would have made the do- 
 mestic circle a miniature of the church, a preparatory 
 school for heaven ; it would have taught mankind 
 no longer to regard their own offspring as they did 
 those of dogs or cattle, but to reverence, nay, to 
 regard them with awe, as being clients of the angels. 
 It had a solace for every affliction, an expiation for 
 every trespass, it took even from death its sting ; and 
 had it met from the world the reception it merited, 
 although it would not have led the banished race 
 back again to Eden, for that was not its object ; it 
 would have done better still, by exalting mortals above 
 the power of adversity. It would have " renewed the 
 face of the earth," and prepared the redeemed race 
 for a beatitude of which that of Paradise was but a 
 shadow. But its Author came to his own, and his 
 own received him not. He had annihilated himself 
 to give glory to God, and they impeached and put 
 him to death as a blasphemer ; he went about the 
 land doing good, and they said he had a devil. 
 And it was the same with his church. That im- 
 maculate spouse, purchased with his own blood, was 
 pursued from the first, as the infant Saviour was 
 pursued by Herod. The murderers of man's in- 
 nocence and felicity, the demons, with all the allied 
 passions — pride, lust, selfishness — had an instinctive 
 presentiment that Christianity was destined for their 
 
ROME. 
 
 221 
 
 discomfiture. They were accordingly up in arms 
 against it. They sought to stifle it in its cradle ; 
 and when disappointed, they ceased not to pursue 
 and persecute it with the most rabid and unrelent- 
 ing animosity — saying all manner of evil things 
 against its professors — belying them.^ 
 
 * St. Matt. V. 11. 
 
CHAPTER XVL 
 
 They will lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering 
 you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, dragging you 
 before kings and governors for my name's sake. And it shall 
 happen to you for a testimony." — St. Luke, xxi. 12, 13. 
 " But others were racked, not accepting deliverance, that^ they 
 might find a better resurrection. And others had trial of 
 mockeries and stripes ; moreover, also, of bonds and prisons. 
 Tliey were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they 
 were put to death by the sword."St. Paul, Heb. xi. 35—37. 
 
 No sooner had the apostles commenced to preach 
 the resurrection of their divine Master, than they be- 
 came the objects of that hostiUty which had pursued 
 and followed him to the cross. His disciples were 
 everywhere cast out from the synagogues, put under 
 the ban of anathema, and pursued with torture, im- 
 prisonment, and death ; not only through the land of 
 Palestine, but even " unto foreign cities." The San- 
 hedrim concocted a scheme to render them odious 
 over the whole world. " With this view," says St. 
 Justin Martyr, " their emissaries were sent into all 
 countries with rescripts, or letters, setting forth that 
 the Nazarenes were an execrable sect, who adored as 
 God one who had been put to death as a criminal, 
 pretending that he had arisen on the third day, whereas 
 his dead body had been stolen away by themselves, 
 while the Roman guards were asleep. And that they 
 were wont, in their mysteries, to immolate a new- 
 born infant, sprinkled over with flour, and to feed 
 upon its flesh and blood previous to their indulging 
 in the most unnatural excesses."* 
 
 " We are said to be most execrable wretches," says 
 Tertullian, " making of infanticide a sacrament on 
 
 * See Dial, cum Trypli. n. cviii. p. 213. Ed. Venet. 1747, et 
 Apolog. i. 35, ii. 14.— Minut. Felix, 9, 10. 30, 31. 
 
ROME. 
 
 223 
 
 which we feed." " They slake their thirst with an 
 infant's blood," says their pagan accuser, in Minu- 
 tius Felix, " its limbs they distribute; such are the 
 sacrifices by which they seal and consecrate their 
 union." " Do you believe also of us," says St. 
 Justin Martyr to Tryphon the Jew, " that we devour 
 men, and after having done so extinguish the lights, 
 to imbrute ourselves in every promiscuous and nefa- 
 rious excess ?" " There are three principal heads of 
 accusation against us," says St. Athenagoras in his 
 Apology, " the rumour runs that we are atheists, 
 that we indulge in Thyestean feasts, and incestuous 
 intercourse." Similar enormities were cast in the 
 face of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, by their 
 tormentors. 
 
 Predisposed to persecute the objects of imputa- 
 tions so atrocious, rendered plausible by a variety 
 of circumstances, the pagans needed only a hint 
 from the ruling powers to discharge their pent-up 
 fury upon the devoted race. Hence, no sooner were 
 they proscribed by Nero, than they were every where 
 pursued, and subjected to the most excruciating 
 tortures, as wretches hateful alike to gods and men. 
 They w^ere tormented by slow fires, some on grid- 
 irons, some tied to stakes, some in cauldrons, made 
 redhot ; others were suspended by the feet, that 
 while their bodies were burned with torches ap- 
 plied to the most sensitive parts, they might 
 be at the same time suffocated by the smoke and 
 heat. Tigellinus, one of the most infamous minions 
 of Nero, and his chief adjutor in burning the city, 
 so signalized himself by exploits of cruelty, that 
 even the pagan writers have animadverted on the 
 execrable ingenuity of one species of torture, to 
 which he seems to have given the preference. The 
 process is described thus : the Christian, stripped 
 naked, was forced to put on a garment called the 
 tunica molesta, made of papyrus, smeared on both 
 sides with wax, and was then fastened to a high 
 pole, from the top of which they continued to pour 
 
224 
 
 ROME. 
 
 down burning pitch and lard, a spike fastened under 
 the chin preventing the excruciated victim from 
 turning the head to either side, so as to escape the 
 hquid fire, until the whole body, and every part of 
 it, was literally clad and cased in flame. Such mul- 
 titudes were destroyed by this one mode alone, that 
 the whole area of the Vatican circus, round which 
 they were impaled, was inundated knee-deep with 
 the residuum of their bodies.* 
 
 Some were chopped to atoms ; others fastened on 
 wheels, and torn to pieces by being turned round 
 against serried spikes or hooks of iron. They were 
 stoned to death, beheaded, crucified, whipped with 
 what they called "scorpions," till their bones and 
 entrails were laid bare ; they were fastened to wild 
 horses, who dashed their heads against rocks, and 
 tore their bodies through thickets and rough ways in 
 their flight. Some, besmeared with honey, were tied 
 to stakes, under a broiling sun, that they might be 
 stung and eaten alive by wasps and insects ; — 
 others were flung into holes to be devoured by rats ; 
 others were buried alive ; others, while living, 
 were fastened to putrid carcasses, or crushed be- 
 tween huge blocks of stone, or torn asunder by 
 having their legs fastened to the boughs of two oppo- 
 site trees, which, being brought into proximity by 
 main force, when that force was suspended, flew back 
 to their natural positions with such violence, as to 
 carry with them, each its mangled half of the martyr. 
 Myriads were torn to pieces by lions, tigers, or 
 eaten by wild dogs ; they smeared their bodies with 
 pitch, and set fire to them ; poured boiling lead upon 
 their heads, or cast their bodies into it, or made them 
 sit down naked in chairs of iron at a red heat ; they 
 put them into nets, to be tossed on the horns of wild 
 bulls, or into sacks with dogs and serpents, and cast 
 them into the sea; they tore the flesh from their 
 limbs with iron prongs and cards, plucked out their 
 
 * Calvis, Chronol. ad Ann. Chr. 54. 
 
ROME. 225 
 
 teeth and their hair with pincers, cut off their ears 
 their noses, tore out their tongues, inserted reeds 
 under the nails of their toes and fingers, chopped off 
 their hands and feet, flayed them alive, disemboweled 
 them, or distended their bodies upon racks, until 
 every bone started from its socket.* " The judge 
 gloried in devising new and unheard-of tortures," says 
 Jiiusebius.— " It was deemed a virtue in them to do 
 so. It was their whole study, the summit of their 
 ambition ; and that one triumphed over the others, 
 who had surpassed them in refinement of cruelty, "f 
 It would be vain," says Lactantius, " to attempt the 
 description of the atrocities which the ministers of 
 ^^P^f^^^ vengeance have perpetrated on the disciples 
 of Christ, m every region of the world. Merely to 
 enumerate the various species of torments devised by 
 their cruelty would fill many volumes, for each fol- 
 lowed the pecuhar bent of his own barbarous caprice, 
 having received unhmited powers over his victims. 
 Some, through apprehension of being accused of 
 lenity, surpassed the cruel orders they had received ; 
 some were incited by the hatred they had conceived 
 against us ; others, by a desire to recommend them- 
 selves to the prince's favour and gain promotion ; like 
 that judge in Phrygia, who set fire to the church when 
 the faithful were assembled in it, and burned them all 
 to death."! 
 
 But summary modes of death could not expiate the 
 supposed guilt of the Christians, or satisfy the cruelty 
 of their enemies. " Cupientibus mori," says S. Cy- 
 prian, " non permittebatur occidi ; sed tamdiu fessos 
 tormenta laniarent, quamdiu non fidem, quse invicta 
 est, vincerent, sed carnem, quae infirma est, fatiga- 
 rent. In submitting them to tortures the most 
 excruciating, they were careful not to extinguish fife 
 too soon; they even caused their wounds to be 
 dressed and medicated, that in being reopened the 
 m^artyr might suffer tenfold agony ; in like manner, 
 
 * Vid. de Mort. Persec. ver fin. f Ecc. Hist. b. viii. ch. 12. 
 I Div. Inst. b. V. ch. 11. § Epist. 53. Ed. Baluz. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 ROME. 
 
 those who were reduced to the brink of the grave by 
 every kind of cruel treatment and privation were 
 suddenly removed from their noisome dungeons, and 
 tended with sohcitude, that starvation might not 
 rescue them from the torments that were yet m 
 store. ^ 
 
 Even the poor alleviation of sympathy was denied 
 to the Christians. The Redeemer had repeatedly ad- 
 monished his disciples, that they were to be "hated 
 of all for his name's sake;" and so they were. No 
 matter what calamity befel the empire ; " to the Hons 
 with the Christians !" was the cry. " If the Tiber 
 rises," says Tertullian, "or if the Nile does not; 
 if an earthquake, or drought occur, the Christians 
 are still the guilty cause." The whole circus and 
 amphitheatre rose up to demand the blood— the 
 extermination of the detested race. Such clamours 
 could hardly be resisted ; but the emperors and the 
 Roman magistrates were ever ready to lend them a 
 wilUng ear. The dispensers of justice not only sen- 
 tenced the Christians who were brought before the 
 tribunals, but declared that all were at liberty to treat 
 them " quasi non amplius homines essent," as if they 
 were not human beings. " It would seem," writes 
 an eye-witness of one of those terrific outbreaks, " as 
 if the whole world had conspired for our destruction. 
 While some station themselves round the tribunals to 
 identify and accuse the Christians when captured, 
 others, gathering mobs, armed with spits, clubs, lances, 
 and every precarious weapon, hunt down the fugitives 
 like wild beasts, and drag them forth from every hid- 
 ing-place where they had taken shelter. Multitudes 
 were torn to pieces by the heathens, both in the city 
 and the country parts, without any juridical formality 
 
 * " The 16th chapter" (of Gibbon's Hist, of the Decline and Fall, 
 &c.) "I cannot help considering as a very ingenious and specious, 
 but very disgraceful extenuation of the cruelties against the Chris- 
 tians. It is written in the most contemptible factious spirit lof 
 prejudice against the sufferers ; it is unworthy of a philosopher and 
 a man of humanity." — Mackintosh. 
 
ROME. 
 
 227 
 
 whatsoever. All the endearing ties of kindred gave 
 way to this cruel mania." " It was pitiable," con- 
 tinues the same holy father, " to see the son betray 
 his father ; the sire his son ; the brother demanding 
 his brother's blood, who followed the execrated law of 
 Christ ; the Pagan child perfidiously denouncing its 
 Christian parent ; and parents, instigated by heathen 
 fanaticism, delivering up their own offspring to tor- 
 ture." Thus was hterally verified the prediction of 
 our Lord: "And you shall be betrayed by your 
 parents, and brethren, and kinsmen, and friends ; and 
 some of you they will put to death, and you shall be 
 hated of all for my name's sake."* 
 
 * St. Luke, xxi. 16, 17. 
 
 q2 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 " Hie Petrus, hic Paulus, proceres ; Wc martyres omnes, 
 Quos simul innumeras magnse tenet ambitus urbis, 
 Quosque per innumeras, diffuso limite, gentes, 
 Intra Romuleos veneratur ecclesia fines." 
 
 S. Paulin. 
 
 They wandered about, being in want, distressed, afflicted— of 
 wbom the world was not worthy— wandering in^ deserts, in 
 mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth, —bt. taul, 
 Heh. xi. 38. 
 
 It was under the pressure of trials such as these, 
 and not from predilection, that Christianity resorted 
 to the catacombs. The earliest Christian use made 
 of them was for the interment of the martyrs— an 
 office of the most pious and ardent sohcitude among 
 the disciples of our Lord from the very first. Nor 
 were they more zealous to discharge, than were the 
 persecutors to prevent, it. They frequently cast the 
 bodies of the martyrs into the cloacas of the city, or 
 into the Tiber ; and finding that this could not frus- 
 trate the invincible piety of the survivors, they used 
 to throw them where they might be devoured by dogs 
 and birds of prey, setting guards to watch them from 
 some distant eminence or tower; in fine, the very 
 bones they used to burn, and cast the ashes on the 
 passing river, to destroy, as they thought, their hope 
 of a resurrection. At other times they mixed them 
 up with the bones of brute beasts, that the Chris- 
 tians might not be able to discover them. But vam 
 were the attempts of pagan mahce, in competition 
 with the ingenuity and heroism of Christian charity. 
 Even by timid virgin hands, the precious relics of 
 Christ's champions were rescued as it were from the 
 lion's mouth, every drop of their blood collected, and 
 
ROME. 
 
 229 
 
 religiously enshrined with their bodies, or whatever 
 remained of them. Not unfrequently the instruments 
 of torture, or fac-similes of them, were also deposited 
 in their tombs. Christians beyond number fell vic- 
 tims to their fearless zeal in discharging these hallow- 
 ed rites ; and sometimes the intensity of tribulation 
 in this most trying grievance could not be restrained 
 from breaking forth into complaint ; but still, under 
 the direction of deacons appointed for the purpose, 
 and in the face of every danger, the bodies were sought 
 out — every bone and fragment of the mangled frame, 
 and the very blood-stains were religiously collected. 
 Not only that, but the obsequies were performed with 
 all solemnity ; and the name of the martyr, with some 
 holy emblem, — as a palm-branch, a dove with the 
 olive, the lxOvs, or monogram of Christ, were usually 
 sculptured on the slab closing up the locululum, or 
 recess for the body, albeit with little of artistic skill ; 
 and apparently with a hand unsteady, either from 
 trepidation or from grief. "Assemble in the ceme- 
 teries," says St. Clement, disciple and second or third 
 successor of St. Peter, " there attend to the lectures 
 from the sacred books ; as also to the recital of psalms 
 and hymns for the martyrs, for all the saints departed 
 this world, and for all our brethren who have died in 
 the faith. Let the eucharistic mystery acceptable to 
 God — the anti-type of your royal body, (that is the 
 sacrament by which all the members of the Church 
 are made one in Christ,*) be offered up when you 
 thus assemble in the cemeteries ; and so fail not to 
 follow your departed brethren in the faith with 
 chanting of psalms, "f 
 
 It is plain, from the tenor of this text, that, even 
 in the hfe-time of the Apostles, the catacombs had 
 already become, not only the cemeteries of the 
 Christians, but their only churches ; there they re- 
 ceived instruction, heard the Gospel preached, recited 
 
 * 1 Corinth, x. 16, 17. 
 
 t S. Clem. 1. vii. c. ult. Apostol. Const, apud Aringhi, Rom. 
 iSubt. &c. 
 
230 
 
 ROME. 
 
 or sung the divine offices, according to the appointed 
 hours, and joined in solemn formularies of prayer ; 
 but, above all, in the eucharistic sacrifice for the 
 souls of the departed. Indeed, it is expressly stated 
 by an ancient author, that St. Peter himself was in 
 the habit of discharging the sacred functions of the 
 apostleship in the catacombs. " Pope Liberius dwelt 
 about three miles from the city," says Anastasius, 
 " in the cemetery of Novella, and near to that of 
 Ostrianus, where Peter used to baptize." He used 
 also to preach and baptize in the sand crypts of the 
 Vatican. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of John ; because flesh and blood 
 hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. 
 And I say to thee, that thou art Peter, (a rock,) and upon this 
 rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven," &c. — St. Matt. xvi. 17, 18. 
 
 " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed — 
 which is indeed the least of all seeds, but when it is grown up, 
 it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the 
 birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof." 
 
 St. Matt. xiii. 31, 32. 
 
 It was amidst the sorrows and the sufferings of 
 the catacombs that the foundations of that throne 
 were laid and consohdated, which has seen so many- 
 proud dynasties disappear, and has itself defied so 
 many assaults of time and violence. There the apos- 
 tolical succession was continued in despite of every 
 effort to interrupt it. No sooner was one pontiff 
 dragged from the chair of Peter to martyrdom, or 
 massacred while seated in it, (as happened to St. 
 Stephen,) than a successor was elected, ordained, con- 
 secrated, and enthroned with as much promptitude and 
 solemnity as if the church enjoyed the most halcyon 
 calm. Linus succeeds to Peter, Cletus succeeds to 
 Linus, to Cletus, Clement ; to Clement, Anencletus ; 
 to him, Evaristus ; to Evaristus, Alexander ; to Alex- 
 ander, Sixtus ; then Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, 
 Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherius, then Victor, then Zephy- 
 rinus, Callixtus, Urban, Pontianus, Anterus ; to An- 
 terus, Fabian ; to Fabian, CorneUus.^ Peter was a 
 Galilean, Linus an Etruscan, Cletus and Clement 
 
 * Vid. Act. Sanct. die 1^ April. Also, the Dissertatio Posterior 
 de annis prim. Rom. Ep., &c. of Dr. Pearson, Prot. Bish. of Chester. 
 
232 
 
 ROME. 
 
 were of Rome, Anencletus was of Athens, Evaristus 
 of Antioch, Eleutherius of Nicopolis ; an African, 
 St. Victor, succeeds to a native of Ionia ; the an- 
 choret, St. Telesphorus, of Greece, is succeeded by 
 an Athenian philosopher ; St. Hyginus, the Athenian, 
 by an Itahan, St. Pius, of Aquileia, to be followed by 
 St. Soter and other Romans ; as if every portion of 
 Christianity was to contribute its purest blood to 
 cement the foundations of that throne which was 
 established, not for any one province, but for the 
 entire church ; for, whether from Greece or Africa, 
 from Italy or Asia, the popes of the catacombs were 
 sure of the martyr's crown. 
 
 And as they had borne his sublime office in life, 
 and participated in his martyrdom, neither were they 
 separated in death from the Prince of the apostles. 
 " Obiit martyr," or " Martyrio coronatus, sepultus 
 est juxta corpus Beati Petri, in Vaticano that is, 
 " having been crowned with martyrdom, he was laid 
 near the body of St. Peter, in the Vatican," is gene- 
 rally, during this epoch, the conclusion of each pope's 
 history, as we find it in Anastasius, and in the still 
 more ancient collection made from the archives of the 
 catacombs, by Pope Damasus, at St. Jerome's request. 
 It is true, we read of several being interred in the 
 great catacomb, hard by the Appian way, now called 
 the catacomb of St. Sebastian ; but this is only an- 
 other proof of their anxiety to be laid beside St. 
 Peter's body, which, with that of St. Paul, had been 
 translated for greater security to this cemetery, called 
 of Callixtus, because the holy pontiff of that name had 
 it adorned in honour of the apostles. Even when the 
 popes died in exile, their faithful deacons had their 
 bodies carried to Rome, in despite of every difficulty 
 and danger, that they might repose with their pre- 
 decessors. Thus the body of St. Pontianus, who suf- 
 fered death by the blow of a club, in Sardinia, 
 whither he had been banished with St. Hippolytus, one 
 of the cardinal priests, was secretly conveyed on ship- 
 board, by the blessed Fabianus, who had it conveyed 
 
ROME. 
 
 233 
 
 to Rome, and laid near the body of St. Peter, in the 
 cemetery of CaUixtus. 
 
 But although banished from the hght of day, dwell- 
 ing in these dreary crypts and labyrinths of perpetual 
 night and suffering, their influence extended more 
 widely than that of Csesar. Looked up to by all as 
 the successors of St. Peter, as the rulers of that 
 church, " with which," according to St. Irenseus, " it 
 was indispensable for all churches, that is, for all the 
 faithful of Christ, no matter where dispersed, to be in 
 communion, on account of its superior jurisdiction or 
 supremacy," the trustees of that deposit of doctrine 
 inherited from the two great apostles, established 
 in the chair, or throne, from which sacerdotal unity 
 proceeded, and by which it was to be preserved ; all 
 the obscurity of the sepulchres where they dwelt 
 cannot conceal from us their pre-eminence and their 
 universal jurisdiction in the rising kingdom of the 
 Redeemer. Through them the unity of the church 
 was preserved and found its expression. All the 
 bishops of the world were bound to be in communion 
 with the popes of the catacombs ; for to be in eccle- 
 siastical communion with the see of Peter was to 
 be in communion with the church ; and no one was 
 considered a catholic who was separated from Rome. 
 They were resorted to from all provinces of the Chris- 
 tian world ; from Spain and Egypt, from Africa and 
 Pontus, as having authority to reinstate those who 
 had been deposed or separated from communion by 
 the local bishops ; to watch over the teaching even of 
 the greatest patriarchs ; to prevent innovation and 
 enforce nniformity in discipline, whenever the welfare 
 of the church required it. The authority by which all 
 heresies were confounded, which in every crisis gave 
 forth the watch-word of orthodoxy, (whose great 
 champions it never forsook and always vindicated,) 
 the see of Peter, the apostoUc see by excellence, 
 though the most incessantly and cruelly persecuted of 
 all, never ceased to watch with vigilant and energetic 
 sohcitude over the interests of the universal church. 
 
234 
 
 ROME. 
 
 But, as if the spiritual empire of Rome, now being 
 founded in the catacombs, were, in some sort, to re- 
 semble that empire of force, which, from a beginning 
 so insignificant, had arisen to such unexampled great- 
 ness through a variety of difficulties and perils ; while 
 extending its care and its energies to the most remote 
 frontiers, and in acquiring new conquests, the Roman 
 church was ever careful to keep up the most rigid 
 order and disciphne at home ; nor did its governors, 
 hke the great statesmen of the old republic, ever 
 contemn as trifling, and beneath their notice, any 
 thing that could promote decorum, or by which order 
 might be affected. The following enactments (chiefly 
 respective of the city) are taken from the records 
 transmitted to St. Jerome by Pope Damasus, who no 
 doubt had them copied from the original statutes and 
 registries in the archives.* 
 
 St. Linus, who administered the city even in the 
 lifetime, and during the intervals of absence of St. 
 Peter, ordained by his direction, " that females should 
 come veiled to assist at the holy mysteries and other 
 offices of rehgion a regulation of the last import- 
 ance and necessity, when we recollect what the tone 
 of female conduct was in Rome at a time when Mes- 
 salina led the fashion. 
 
 St. Cletus, who had been appointed joint administra- 
 tor (for the suburban districts,) with St. Linus, having 
 succeeded him in the apostohc chair, divided the city 
 between twenty-five priests. St. Clement appointed 
 " seven regions to the faithful notaries of the church," 
 whose office it was, with dihgence, sohcitude, and 
 
 * Beatissimo Papse Damaso, Hieronymus : — " Gloriam sancti- 
 tatis tuse nostra humilitas deprecatur, ut secundum apostolic?e sedis 
 auctoritatem quam cognovimus per tuam sanctitatem gubernari, 
 actus gestorum a Beati Petri Apostoli principatu usque ad vestra 
 tempora, quae scilicet in sede tua gesta sunt, nobis ordinem paucis 
 narrare digneris," &c.—ExJntiq. Codic. MSS. Ap. Jet. SS.Aprilis, 
 torn. i. p. 4. 
 
 What a pity that St. Jerome was prevented from writing the 
 history of the Church, for which he was preparing materials when 
 lie wrote this letter to St. Damasus ! 
 
ROME. 
 
 235 
 
 circumspection, to make out the acts of the martyrs, 
 each in his own region. St. Anencletus built an oratory 
 over the body of St. Peter, in the Vatican, where the 
 popes might be buried. St. Evaristus divided Rome 
 into titles, or parishes, and ordained that seven dea- 
 cons should attend the bishop in the ministry of 
 preaching, as the statute has it — " propter stylum 
 veritatis." St. Alexander had recitations from the 
 passion of our Lord introduced into the Liturgy or 
 prayers said by the priest in celebrating mass — " pas- 
 sionem Domini miscuit in precationem sacerdotum 
 quando missse celebrantur" — and ordained that salt 
 should be mingled in the blessed water with which the 
 faithful sprinkled their dweUings. St. Sixtus ordained 
 that none but ministers of the sanctuary should touch 
 the sacred vessels ; that when a bishop was summoned 
 to the apostolic see, he should not, unless furnished 
 with letters of salutation from the pontiff, be received 
 in his parish or diocese ; and that as the priest began 
 the canon, or action of the mass — " infra actionem 
 sacerdotis" — the congregation beginning the hymn, 
 (called Triumphal,) should sing — " Sanctus, Sanctus, 
 Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth," &c. St. Teles- 
 phorus ordained that Lent should last seven weeks, 
 that midnight masses should be celebrated on the 
 nativity of our Lord, and that in the beginning of the 
 sacrifice the hymn of the angels — " Gloria in excelsis 
 Deo" — should be chanted. St. Hyginus arranged the 
 privileges, and order of precedency among the clergy. 
 St. Anicetus ordained that they should not wear their 
 hair flowing. St. Pius issued ordinances concerning 
 " the heresy of the Jews," (most probably the precur- 
 sors of the Quartodecimans,) and the celebration of 
 Easter, relative to which his brother Hermas had 
 a revelation confirmatory of the Roman discipline, 
 which was ultimately enforced all over the church. 
 St. Soter ordained that no nun — " nulla monacha" — 
 should touch the consecrated pall, nor minister incense 
 in the church. St. Eleutherius received letters from 
 Lucius, king of Britain, (grandson of Caractacus,) 
 
236 
 
 ROME. 
 
 praying to be received into the church by his mandate 
 — " ut Christianus efficeretur per ejus mandatum" — 
 that is, that the pope would send missioners to in- 
 struct and baptize himself and his people. He con- 
 demned the Gnostic practice of abstaining from certain 
 kinds of food, as if from the evil principle. St. Victor 
 renewed the ordinance of St. Pius with respect to 
 Easter, and caused councils to meet for that purpose 
 in all countries, from Gaul to Asia. He also defined 
 that, in case of necessity, any Gentile making profes- 
 sion of the Christian faith might be baptized in a 
 spring, a fountain, or in the sea. St. Zephyrinus 
 decreed that all ordinations, whether of clerics, levites 
 (deacons,) or priests, should be held in the presence 
 of the people ; also, that all the priests should assist 
 when the bishop celebrated, besides other ordinances 
 relative to the distribution of the blessed eucharist. 
 St. Callixtus instituted the fast of Saturday thrice a 
 year, to procure from heaven abundance of corn, 
 wine, and oil. St. Urban ordained that the sacred 
 vessels should be of silver, and procured twenty-five 
 large silver patens — previously glass ones w^ere in use 
 — " patenas vitrias ante sacerdotes in ecclesia ministri 
 portarent," was a statute of St. Zephyrinus. St. Ante- 
 rus caused a collection of the Acts of the Martyrs to 
 be made — " in integro"— and deposited securely in the 
 archives of the church. St. Fabian divided the re- 
 gions among the deacons, and appointed six sub- 
 deacons over the notaries who wrote down the acts of 
 those who suffered martyrdom. He caused many 
 structures to be erected in the cemeteries. St. Stephen 
 ordained that priests and deacons should wear the 
 sacred vestments only in the church. St. Dionysius 
 made a new arrangement of the churches, making the 
 cemeterie parishes—" presbyteris ecclesias divisit, et 
 csemeteria et parochias dioceses instituit." St. Felix 
 appointed masses to be celebrated on the tombs of the 
 martyrs. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 '* Amen, amen, I say unto you ; except you eat the flesh of the 
 Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in 
 you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 
 life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day." — 
 St. John, vi. 54, 55. 
 
 " We have an altar, whereof they have no povper to eat who serve 
 the tabernacle." — St. Paul, Heb. xiii. 10. 
 
 "Like bees to a hive," says Chrysostom, " the 
 Christians used to flock to the catacombs, on account 
 of the holy mysteries," that being strengthened by 
 partaking of the body and blood of Christ— the food 
 of the strong— they might be inspired with heroism 
 to resist his enemies and win the martyr's crown. 
 " No one can be fit for martyrdom," says St. 
 Cyprian, " whom the church has not armed, and 
 the soul gives way that has not been nerved, and as 
 if set on fire by the blessed eucharist. Wherefore, 
 by suggestion of the Holy Ghost, and by admonition 
 of our Lord, in many and manifest visions, we ordain 
 that the soldiers of Christ be drawn together within 
 the camp, and armed for the fight."—" Idoneus esse 
 non potest ad martyrium, qui ab ecclesia non armatur 
 ad preelium, et mens deficit quam non recepta 
 eucharistia erigit et accendit. Placuit nobis Spiritu 
 Sancto suggerente, et Domino per visiones multas et 
 manifestas admonente, coUigere intra castra milites 
 Christi, immo pugnaturis arma suggerere."* 
 
 Thus we read in the Acts of Pope Stephen's mar- 
 tyrdom :— " The persecution under the emperors 
 Valerian and Gallienus beginning to rage in all its 
 terrors, Stephen having convened his clergy, exhorted 
 
 * Ep. ad PP. Cornel, ii. 
 
238 
 
 ROME. 
 
 all to martyrdom, and continued to hold conference 
 and to celebrate masses assiduously. And when he 
 was brought to the temple of Mars, to force him to 
 sacrifice, there came on an earthquake, so that all 
 who held him fled in terror, and being left alone 
 the pontiff returned to his people, in the cemetery of 
 Lucina; where he commenced, again, to instruct 
 them in the divine precepts, and to admit them to 
 the communion of the sacrament of Christ's body ; 
 nor had he yet consummated the celebration of the 
 solemnities of mass, when the satellites of the em- 
 perors again returning, struck off his head as he was 
 seated on his throne." 
 
 Again, in the Acts of St. Diodorus, we read : — 
 "Wherefore, it having come to pass, that the Al- 
 mighty vouchsafed many benefits to those who visited 
 the tombs of the martyrs in this crypt ; it happened 
 that on their natal day, there assembled an immense 
 multitude — men, and matrons with their babes, and 
 the youth of both sexes, and of every age. This being 
 intimated to Numerian, by the spies, he ordered the 
 entrance of the catacomb to be walled up, and when 
 this was done, a sand hill was thrown in upon them 
 through the foramina, or air-holes, of the cemetery ; 
 so that while they were participating in the holy com- 
 munion, and celebrating the praises of the martyrs, 
 they, also, arrived at the crown of martyrdom. 
 Amongst whom were Diodorus, a priest, the deacon 
 Marianus, and many in minor orders ; but of the 
 mixed multitude of laity, neither the number nor the 
 names have been collected."* 
 
 Thus were the devoted Christians pursued with 
 destruction even at dead of night, and in the caverns 
 of the earth. This last solace of celebrating the 
 divine mysteries, in commemoration of their departed 
 brethren, and partaking the sacrament of immortality, 
 could not be attempted even in those dismal tombs 
 but at the risk of life. By the imperial laws it was 
 
 * Apud Aringhi, Roma Subter. torn. i. 1. i. 31. 
 
ROME. 
 
 239 
 
 death;* and "arese non sint !" " destruction to the 
 catacombs !" was among the fierce denunciations that 
 used to make the circus and amphitheatre ring again. 
 With what truth and pathos might not the Christians 
 of that heroic generation exclaim : " O ill-fated times, 
 when even in the caverns of the earth we cannot find 
 security to offer up our vows and celebrate the sacred 
 mysteries ! What more miserable than life ; in death 
 what so bitter as to have our friends and parents pre- 
 vented from composing our bodies in the grave?" 
 But this is only a faint echo of the original, found 
 inscribed upon a tomb in the cemetery of Callixtus, 
 the greatest and most celebrated of the catacombs. 
 
 O TEMPORA INFAUSTA ! 
 QUIBUS INTER SACRA ET VOTA 
 NE IN CAVERNIS QUIDEM SALVARI POSSUMUS. 
 QUID MISERUS VITA ! 
 SED QUID MISERIUS IN MORTE 
 CUM AB AMICIS ET PARENTIBUS 
 SEPELIRI NEQUEANT.f 
 
 *" Proconsul dixit: justum est ut nulla conciliabula faciant, 
 neque caemeteria ingrediantur, quod qui face re comprehensus fuerit, 
 capite plectatur." — Pont. Act. Proconsul, vid. Aringhi, torn. i. p. 14, 
 et Baron, an. 260. Pope Cornelius, Ep. 82, says, " Publice neque 
 in cryptis notioribus missas agere Christianis licuisse." 
 
 ■f Vid. Aringhi, ubi supra. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour 
 is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remem- 
 bereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the 
 world. So you also now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you 
 again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall 
 take from you." — St. John, xvi. 21, 22. 
 
 When those who had borne the apostle's body 
 from the cross on the Janiculum, and conveyed it in 
 through the dismal labyrinth of the catacombs, at 
 length arrived where they were so anxiously ex- 
 pected, and had silently deposited their hallowed 
 burden upon a bier, or catafalk, in the midst of the 
 assembly, there was, at first, a profound stillness : a 
 syncope, as it were, of the very breathing and pulsa- 
 tions of vitality ; and with looks rendered more pale 
 by the glare of lamps and torches, their eyes were 
 turned from the lifeless corse of St. Peter, upon each 
 other, in emotions that baffled utterance. Their half- 
 stified sobs, the meanings of grief, and a low waihng, 
 rendered more intensely piteous by the efforts made 
 to stifle it, at last burst forth into gusts of tribulation, 
 so loud and universal as to fill the crypts with echoes 
 of woe, through all their most remote galleries and 
 recesses. St. Linus descending from the chair, where 
 the Prince of the apostles, assisted by St. Paul, had 
 installed him, St. Cletus, St. Clement, St. Anencletus, 
 with a crowd of holy bishops, who had come on 
 various errands, and from all lands, to the " apostolic 
 see," to the " mother of churches," and the " chair of 
 unity," came, and kneeling beside the body, or at its 
 feet, kissed its wounds with the tenderest veneration ; 
 next the Roman clergy, that august body of pres- 
 byters and deacons, who had co-operated with St. 
 
ROME. 
 
 241 
 
 Peter and St. Paul in the apostolic see ; and, finally, 
 the laity, in their classes, according to sex and age' 
 gathered round their great patriarch and father in the 
 faith ; nor did they cease to kiss his wounded feet, or 
 to pour out floods of tears until every stain of gore 
 had been washed from his venerable limbs. 
 
 " These tears," said St. Linus, we do not inhibit : 
 to do so would be cruel and unnatural, and subversive 
 of hallowed custom. Our Lord wept over Lazarus. 
 Imitate his example ; and, therefore, let your wailing 
 not be immoderate, but serene, and tempered with the 
 fear of God. If thus you mourn, no oflence is offered to 
 the hope of the resurrection ; your tears will be only a 
 salutary confession of that living charity which causes 
 each member of Christ's mystical body to sympathize 
 with all the others ; and if it be an act of fihal piety 
 for children to weep, and be afflicted when a fond 
 parent leaves them, though it be only to go into some 
 distant province and return, or to make a voyage by 
 sea ; alas, shall it not be meet and just in us, equitable 
 and salutary, to weep and mourn after the departure 
 of the great father of the faithful, though it be to 
 receive his diadem and his throne in the kingdom to 
 which we also hope to come 
 
 And small blame to the Romans for being discon- 
 solate, when they called to mind the extent of St. 
 Peter's claims upon their gratitude, and of the loss 
 the mfant church had sustained in his death. 
 
 " When the twelve apostles," says St. Leo, "hav- 
 mg received, by the descent of the Holy Ghost, the 
 gift of tongues, for the imbuing of the whole world 
 with the Gospel, had each undertaken that portion 
 which fell to his lot, or to which he was appointed, 
 when they divided the earth amongst them, the most 
 blessed Peter, prince of the apostolic order, was des- 
 tined for the capital of the Roman empire ; that the 
 hght of truth, revealed for the salvation of all nations, 
 might more efficaciously diff"use itself from the head 
 
 * From St. Chrysostom's 61st Homily on the Gospel according 
 to bt. John. ® 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 ROME. 
 
 over the whole body of the world. What nation, at that 
 period, without its representatives at Rome, or what 
 corner of the earth could remain ignorant of what 
 Rome had learned ? Here it was that the erroneous 
 theories of philosophy were to be put down, the 
 phantoms of earthly sapience to be dissipated ; here 
 the worship of demons was to be confuted; here, 
 where a most diligent superstition had amassed and 
 brought together whatever had been invented by vain 
 error all over the world, the impiety of all sorts of 
 profanation was to be destroyed. To this city, there- 
 fore, thou, O most blessed apostle Peter didst not 
 hesitate to come. The colleague of thy glory, the 
 apostle Paul, being still occupied in the ordination of 
 other churches, thou, as it were alone, didst venture 
 into this forest of howhng monsters, displaying greater 
 constancy by embarking upon this ocean of turbulent 
 and fathomless iniquity, than when thou didst walk 
 upon the waters. Already, thou hadst instituted in 
 the faith those of the circumcision who believed ; 
 already, thou hadst founded the church of Antioch, 
 where first rose the dignity of the Christian name. 
 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, had 
 been already filled through thy preaching, with sub- 
 jects of the Christian law ; nevertheless, without, for 
 an instant, desponding of the enterprise's success, or 
 considering your advanced age and infirmities, you 
 hastened to plant the trophy of Christ crucified upon 
 the Roman capitol ; knowing well that there, by 
 Divine pre-ordination, there awaited thee the honour 
 of reigning over the Redeemer's kingdom, but at the 
 same time of sharing in his passion." * 
 
 According to the Chronicle of Eusebius, St. Peter 
 entered Rome under the empire of Claudius, in the 
 second year of his reign, and in the second year also 
 
 * Serm. i. de SS. Apost. Petro et Paulo ; and in Sermon 80, he 
 says that St. Peter, who had trembled before a poor handmaid in 
 the court of Caiphas, did not hesitate to proclaim the gospel in a 
 city, not less the slave of the follies and impieties of all nations, than 
 she was the mistress of all people. 
 
ROME. 
 
 243 
 
 of the 205th Olympiad ; that is, about twenty-five 
 years before his martyrdom, the period assigned to 
 his pontificate by the Roman church, at a time (a. d. 
 354,) it would seem, when the Chronicle of Eusebius 
 had not come under her notice. To the present day, 
 the Latin churches celebrate the 18th of January, 
 under the title of the chair of St. Peter at Rome. 
 " We still have the office of the mass," says Tille- 
 mont, " which was celebrated in France on this festi- 
 val before the Roman hturgy was introduced by 
 Charlemagne." * The apostle is said to have per- 
 formed many and extraordinary miracles in Rome ; 
 and wonderful, no doubt, must have been the evi- 
 dences that converted such numbers as to have ren- 
 dered the faith of the Roman church " renowned over 
 the whole world," even before it was visited by St. 
 Paul. From Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, 
 book ii. ch. 14 ; from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. 
 vi. p. 54 ; from St. Ireneeus, against the heresies, 
 b. i. ch. 20 ; Tertullian de Anima, ch. xxxiv. ; Theo- 
 doret Hser. b. i. ch. 1 ; from St. Justin Martyr, Apol. 
 ii. ; besides many others, it seems that St. Peter was 
 induced to hasten his visit to Rome in order to coun- 
 teract the infamous impostures of Simon Magus. 
 
 This patriarch of heresies, especially of the execra- 
 ble Gnostic sects, who brought such calamity and 
 disgrace on the Christian name during the early ages, 
 was a Samaritan of a small town called Gitthis. By 
 his juggling and magic arts, he had succeeded to a 
 great extent in duping his fellow countrymen into the 
 belief that he was an emanation from the Divinity : 
 " to whom," says the Scripture, " they all gave ear, 
 from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is 
 
 * Memoirs pour servir k I'Hist. Eccles. torn. i. p. 171. Paris, 
 1693. The festival of the Chair of Peter is spoken of as of ancient 
 institution, by St. Augustin: " Institutio solemnitatis hodiernee a 
 senioribus nostris cathedrae nomen accepit ideo quod primus apos- 
 tolorum Petrus hodie episcopatus cathedram suscepisse referatur ; 
 recte ergo ecclesiae natatem sedis illius colunt, quam apostolus pro 
 ecclesiarum salute suscepit." — Serm. xvi. de Sand. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 ROME. 
 
 the power of God, who is called the Great." This 
 was an evident attempt to counterfeit the character 
 of the Redeemer ; and throughout the entire career 
 of Simon we trace the same design ; taken up in 
 order to drive a trade upon the enthusiasm excited 
 at that time by the fame of our Lord's divinity and 
 the apostolic miracles, throughout the whole world. 
 With this view, he pretended to become a convert, 
 and had himself baptized by St, Philip, the deacon, 
 expecting to get some right profitable knowledge by 
 this initiation ; and when he beheld the wonderful 
 effects produced in those on whom St. Peter imposed 
 hands, he could restrain himself no longer, but, offer- 
 ing money to St. Peter and St. John, said, " Give me 
 also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my 
 hands, he miay receive the Holy Ghost." But Peter 
 said to him, " Thy money to thyself, to perish with 
 thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God 
 may be bought with money. Thou hast no part, nor 
 lot in this matter," (which Simon would have given a 
 round sum to have,) " for thy heart is not right in the 
 sight of God Do penance, therefore, from this thy 
 wickedness ; and pray to God if perhaps this thought 
 of thy heart may be forgiven thee, for I see thou art 
 in the gall of l3itterness, and in the bonds of in- 
 iquity." * It was on returning to Rome for the last 
 time, in company with St. Paul, to sustain the church 
 under the persecution of Nero, that he totally over- 
 threw and confounded the magician, who had risen 
 into such high favour with the emperor and the 
 Romans, as to be enrolled among their gods ; and 
 this was one of the causes of their being put to 
 death. 
 
 The following description of an encounter that 
 took place between Simon and St. Peter on the 
 apostle's first visit to Rome, is from an eye-wit- 
 ness. 
 
 It happened while Simon was denouncing St. 
 * Acts of the Apostles, ch. viii., from ver. 9 to 25. 
 
ROME. 
 
 245 
 
 Peter as a magician, and endeavouring to stir up the 
 populace against him, that there passed by that 
 same place, with a great concourse of people, and 
 loud lamentations, the funeral of a widow's only son. 
 Then said St. Peter to the multitude who favoured 
 Simon, ' Approach the bier, and let the body they are 
 carrying to the tomb be set down between us, and let 
 the faith of that one of us be followed as true who 
 shall raise the dead man to life.' When the people 
 had done this, Simon cried out, ' Now, if I make him 
 alive, will you kill Peter ?' ' We will burn him 
 alive,' responded the multitude. Then Simon, in- 
 voking all the demons, began by their ministry so to 
 act that the body was moved, which the people 
 seeing, began to laud Simon to the skies, shouting 
 death to Peter. He having, with the greatest diffi- 
 culty, obtained a hearing, said to the people, ' If he 
 be really alive, let him speak, let him walk, let him 
 take food, let him return to his house ; which, if he 
 fail to do, know that you are deceived by Simon.' 
 On this the people cried out, ' If he do not thus, let 
 Simon suffer the penalty he fixed for Peter.' But 
 Simon, pretending to feel insulted at being doubted 
 of by his abettors, was taking himself off, when the 
 crowd laid hold of him, and loading him with all 
 sorts of abuse, would not let him go. Then Peter, 
 expanding his hands to heaven, said, 'Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who has said to us thy disciples, go in my 
 name, and cast out devils, cure the infirm, and raise 
 the dead ; reanimate this youth, that all this multi- 
 tude may know that thou art God, and that there is 
 no other besides thee, who, with the Father and the 
 Holy Ghost, livest and reignest world without end, 
 amen.' But, rising up, the youth who had been 
 dead adored Peter, saying, ' I saw the Lord Jesus 
 Christ commanding the angels, and saying, at the 
 petition of my friend Peter, let the orphan of the 
 widow be restored to his mother.' Then all the 
 people shouted with one voice, * Whom Peter 
 preacheth is the only God. ' They would have 
 
246 
 
 ROME. 
 
 burned Simon alive, but St. Peter saved him, saying, 
 ' Our Master taught us this, to do good for evil.' 
 
 It was not in his first, but probably in some one 
 of the many after visits paid by him to Rome, that 
 St. Peter wrote that letter dated from Babylon, the 
 mystic name by which, according to the interpretation 
 of Eusebius and St. Jerome, he indicated the imperial 
 city. Lactantiusf says Peter predicted many future 
 events shortly before his death, and amongst the rest 
 the approaching destruction ojf Jerusalem ; and that 
 the number of conversions in his last visit was im- 
 mense.! St. Peter had been apprised by our Lord 
 when appointing him supreme pastor that he was to 
 be crucified, it was afterwards revealed to him at what 
 time he was to sufier ; and St. Athanasius tells us 
 that it was revealed beforehand to the two glorious 
 apostles that they were to die in Rome. As St. Peter 
 was departing from the city, at the entreaty of his 
 people, who had found means to set his prison open, 
 as it was opened before by an angel, he is said to 
 have met his divine Master, just outside the Capenian 
 gate, coming along the Via Appia as if bearing his 
 cross. " Whither, Lord, art thou going ?" exclaimed 
 the apostle. " Domine, quo vadis ?" "I am going 
 to Rome," our Lord replied, " to be again crucified." 
 " Vado Romam, iterum crucifigi." Then St. Peter 
 understood that the hour was come, when as supreme 
 vicar, and locum-tenens of the Prince of pastors, he 
 
 * From the letter of Marcellus (son of Marcus, praefect of the 
 city,) who had been a disciple of Simon's, to SS. Nereus and Achil- 
 leus, who had written from their place of exile in the isle of 
 Pontia, for information that might enable them to confute two of 
 the magician's emissaries, who were misleading the islanders. The 
 banishment by Domitian, of Flavia Domitilla, niece of Flavins 
 Clemens, who had been consul, was adverted to by several pagan 
 writers ; and it is probable that the two eunuchs above named were 
 among the " many others, " " alii plurimi," said by the same 
 writers to have been banished with her.— See Euseb. Eccl. Hist, 
 b. iii. ch. 17, and S. Jerome, in Chron. Their acts with the authen- 
 tications of the letter of Marcellus are given in the Acta Sanct. die 
 xii. Maii. tom. iii. pp. 9, 10. 
 
 t Lib. iv. 21. + De Mor. Per. ii. 
 
ROME. 
 
 247 
 
 was to be assimilated to Him whom he represented, 
 even in the manner of his death. We are informed 
 by Eusebius, that St. Peter was crucified with his 
 head towards the earth. He requested this of his 
 executioners, according to St. Ambrose, that his own 
 sufferings might be more intense, and lest he should 
 seem, as it were, to rival his beloved Lord. Many 
 of the holy fathers say he was nailed to the cross. 
 Tertullian says that he was fastened to it with cords. 
 Tillemont thinks both modes were resorted to—" on 
 croit que Ton pent avoir fait I'un et I'autre."* 
 
 While absorbed in sorrow, profound but still tem- 
 pered by resignation and hope, and busied in embalm- 
 ing the venerable body and arraying it in its vestments 
 and insignia, they were suddenly filled with terror 
 by rapid footfalls and the gleam of lights coming 
 along the galleries from towards the entrance of the 
 catacombs ; but just as the bishops and clergy were 
 hfting the body to hurry away with it into recesses 
 still more profound, the salutation of " Peace be to 
 you" from well known voices, reassured them again, 
 and almost forgetting for an instant the immediate 
 object of their sorrow and sohcitude, they hung upon 
 the lips of the new comers while they described the 
 glorious triumph by which St. Paul had terminated 
 his career and borne away his crown. It was at a 
 place called the Salvian waters—" ad aquas Salvias" 
 —about three miles from the Ostian gate, where 
 there are three little springs, that he was beheaded. 
 Nero himself, who had been vehemently incensed 
 against the apostle for having converted some of his 
 paramours to a life of sanctity, was present to satiate 
 his innate cruelty and to entertain Tiridates, the great 
 Scythian satrap and magician, by this sight ; but even 
 under the despot's eye, and unappalled by the array of 
 death that awaited them, three of the praetorians stepped 
 forth from the ranks, accoutred as they were, to lay 
 down their military girdles and proclaim their faith 
 in that Jesus for whom Paul was about to die. 
 
 * Page 190, ubi supra. 
 
248 
 
 ROME. 
 
 The holy offices of the nocturns then commenced • 
 and mmghng the psalms of king David with lessons 
 of Holy Writ and with canticles and hymns, their 
 anguished spirits were soothed by degrees, and as 
 the holy rites of the hturgy proceeded their sorrow 
 was turned into joy. Their strong and lively faith 
 m the communion of saints exalted their thoughts 
 from the dreary crypts to the palace of the eternal 
 King of glory, and it was no longer two emaciated 
 and gory corses they beheld, but two princes bright 
 and sublime, the envy and admiration of applauding 
 heaven, as each is crowned with " a diadem unfading" 
 by the right hand of the Eternal. After the pledge 
 of Christian charity mutually given according to their 
 respective classes as to age and sex, the offertory, 
 and preface, they took up the triumphal hymn with 
 such fervour, as the holy pontiff Linus was entering 
 on the canon or action of the mass, that, "Holy 
 holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth, full are the heavens 
 and the earth of thy glory," resounded through the 
 catacombs ; and having profoundly adored and par- 
 ticipated in the body and blood of the Lord, such 
 grace and fortitude came to them with this food of 
 strength and immortality, that they issued from the 
 catacombs not only ready to suffer for the name of 
 Christ, but despising and esteeming as of no ac- 
 count the momentary trials by which they were to 
 purchase "an eternal weight of glory." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 " What trash is Rome, 
 
 What rubbish, and what ofFal." 
 
 Cassius, in Julius Ccesar, Act i. 
 " Sed compleri interim Urbs funeribus, Capitolium victimis ; alius 
 filio, fratre alius, aut propinquo, aut amico interfectis, agere 
 grates deis, ornare lauru domum, genua ipsius (Neronis) ad- 
 volvi, et dextram osculis fatigare." — Tacit. Ann. 1. xv. 71. 
 
 It was still night, and the dark hour immediately 
 before the dawn favoured the safe return of the 
 Christians to their dwellings. Retracing their steps 
 through all the dark intricacies of the crypts, Pudens 
 and his party emerged, as they had entered, by the 
 issue in the little copse, near the waterfall. They 
 moved along the whole length of the Vatican circus, 
 not without recollecting the martyrs who had suf- 
 fered there ; then on by the memorial of Romulus 
 and the terebinth- tree, regarded as sacred by the 
 pagans, and inlaid with certain cabahstic words, in 
 the Etruscan character ; but before coming to the 
 Tiber they separated. Claudia with Timotheus, fol- 
 lowed at a short interval by the two virgins and their 
 brother, moved up the right bank, to cross the river 
 by the Elian, while the venerable patrician went 
 straight over the triumphal bridge, and crossed the 
 Campus Martins, in the direction of the Capitol. 
 
 The shadow of its temples and towers, standing in 
 dark relief against the eastern sky, came full upon 
 his view as he emerged from the cypress groves, 
 around the Mausoleum of the Caesars, and, with them, 
 retrospects still more gloomy, that saddened him not 
 a little. That conference upon the Tarpeian tower 
 with St. Peter recurred to his memory, and his steps 
 
250 
 
 ROME. 
 
 were almost unconsciously turned towards a scene 
 teeming with recollections that nearly overpowered 
 him with emotion. As he ascended, with slow and 
 thoughtful tread, the marhle flights that led from the 
 field of Mars to the plain of the capitol, and thence to 
 the tower's summit, he counted over in his mind all 
 the friends of that morning, who had fallen victims to 
 Nero's revenge and cruelty after Piso's conspiracy was 
 discovered. 
 
 " This plot," says Cornelius Tacitus, " did not 
 originate in any strong attachment to Piso, a young 
 nobleman of the Calpurnian family, in high favour 
 with the populace, on account of his afFability and 
 the personal attributes of portliness and beauty in 
 which nature had highly gifted him, as he was re- 
 commended to the aristocracy, abandoned to pleasure, 
 and dreading any interference with their vices above 
 any other calamity, by the eflfeminacy and dissolute 
 courses of his life. Nor have I been able," he con- 
 tinues, " to ascertain who was the first to set on foot 
 and concoct a scheme which would seem to have been 
 taken up at one and the same time by several ; but 
 their firmness in the hour of trial would lead to the 
 conclusion, that Subrius Flavins, a tribune of the 
 guards, and the centurion Sulpicius Asper, were fore- 
 most in it. Vivid hatred of Nero induced Lucanus 
 Annaeus and Plautius Lateranus to join. As to 
 Flavins Scevinus and Afranius Quintianus, it was 
 a matter of just surprise that two men of senatorial 
 rank, notorious for the most infamous voluptuousness 
 and effeminacy, had enrolled themselves in an enter- 
 prise of such peril. By hints thrown out, and general 
 reflections during the excitement and close familiarity 
 of convivial entertainments, TuUius Senecio, Cerva- 
 rius Proculus, Vulcatius Araricus, Julius Tigurinus, 
 Munatius Gratus, Antonius Natalis, and Martins Fes- 
 tus, all of the equestrian order, were induced to join — 
 a step particularly daring on the part of Senecio, who 
 was at the time amongst the prime intimates of Nero. 
 Natahs was Piso's bosom friend ; the others were led 
 
ROME. 
 
 251 
 
 on, in the hope of advancing their fortunes by the 
 revolution. Besides the military hands, Subrius and 
 Sulpicius, already mentioned, four others, Granius 
 Silvanus and Statins Proximus, tribunes of the Prae- 
 torian cohorts, and the centurions Maximus Scaurus 
 and Venetus Paulus, were brought in. But the great 
 prop of the enterprise was Fenius Rufus, prefect of 
 the guards, an officer of high repute, and detested on 
 that account as well as through sheer malice, by 
 Tigellinus, who kept eternally whispering in the em- 
 peror's ear against him, as a traitor, bent on avenging 
 the death of Agrippina. Elated by this adhesion of 
 the commander of the Praetorian forces, and his re- 
 iterated assurances of success, nothing was now 
 talked of in their gatherings but the time and place 
 of execution. It is said that Subrius Flavins pro- 
 posed that they should boldly fall on the despicable 
 tyrant while exhibiting his vocal powers on the stage ; 
 or set fire to that palace which he had built from the 
 ruins of his country, and murder him during the 
 confusion, and while unprotected by his guards. 
 Both proposals were received with enthusiasm; but 
 that desire of surviving to share in the triumph, ever 
 fatal to great attempts, proved also fatal to this.* 
 
 Meantime, while the leaders were resolving, adopt- 
 ing and rejecting plans, and hastening or putting off, 
 as hope or apprehension alternately prevailed, a 
 female, named Epicharis, who had been a slave, and 
 never before that occasion very remarkable for ho- 
 nourable pursuits, began to rouse the conspirators, 
 and to upbraid their cowardly hesitation. At last, as 
 if out of patience with their temporizing, and finding 
 herself in the voluptuous regions, round the bay of 
 Naples, on her own affairs, she determined to try and 
 make a beginning herself, by tampering with the 
 commanders of the fleet. Among others she hap- 
 pened to light on the chiliarch Subrius Flavins, who 
 considered himself as very ill-requited for his services 
 
 * " Nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus 
 adversa." — Ann. 1. xv. 50. 
 
252 
 
 ROME. 
 
 in murdering the emperor's mother. Having ascer- 
 tained from the harlot almost every thing, except the 
 names of her accomphces, Subrius hastened with the 
 information to Nero ; but Epicharis, on being appre- 
 hended and confronted with the informer, succeeded 
 in baffling every attempt to come at the truth. How^- 
 ever, she was held in prison. Alarmed at this critical 
 posture of affairs, the majority of the chiefs were for 
 despatching Nero at once, during a grand entertain- 
 ment to be given him by Piso, at a villa of his, in which 
 Nero greatly delighted ; but to this Piso objected, as 
 a sacrilege against the hospitable deities, and because 
 it would throw the game into the hands of his rival, 
 Lucius Silanus, who being in possession of the capi- 
 tol, would reap all the advantages of the assassination, 
 and probably get himself proclaimed emperor at their 
 cost. 
 
 At last, having decided to make the attempt during 
 the Circusian games, in honour of the goddess Ceres, 
 it was arranged that Lateranus, on account of his great 
 physical strength and courage, having embraced the 
 emperor's knees, as if in urging some petition, should 
 overthrow him, and that while thus held down, the 
 officers and the others, according to the best of their 
 abilities, should fall upon and dispatch him. Scevinus 
 implored that he might be placed in the van, as he 
 was in possession of a dagger which he had carried off 
 from a temple in Etruria, or, as others say, from 
 the shrine of Fortuna, at Ferentinum, and which he 
 wore as a weapon, predestined by the Fates for some 
 stupendous exploit. It was by the bravadoing of this 
 sot that the affkir got wind ; and, that a conspiracy 
 of such immense hazard should have remained a 
 secret so long, although known to numbers of all 
 orders, ages, and sexes, rich and poor, is truly won- 
 derful. After conferring at great length with Antonius 
 Natalis, Scevinus came home on the eve of the day 
 that was to be fatal to Nero ; and, with all due for- 
 mality, first of all made his will ; then, unsheathing 
 the aforesaid dagger, began to curse its rusty point, 
 
ROME. 
 
 253 
 
 and handing it to his freedman, Milicho, bade him go 
 whet it on a rock till it was sharp as lightning. 
 Then, having dined more sumptuously than was his 
 wont, he gave their liberty to some of his slaves, to 
 others sums of money, and, with a rueful expression 
 of face and a perturbation of mind, but ill disguised 
 by the levity of his discourse, gave orders for ban- 
 dages and other matters for staunching wounds, to 
 the same Milicho. It is the general belief that it was 
 by calculating on these proceedings, and not from 
 any previous knowledge of the fact, that the slave 
 began to suspect what was brewing ; and having taken 
 counsel with his wife, she not only confirmed his 
 suspicions, but so worked upon his cowardice and 
 cupidity, that the morning had hardly dawned, when 
 his master was apprehended on his information. Soon 
 after him they seized Natalis, who was the first to 
 turn traitor, impeaching both his friend Piso and 
 Annaeus Seneca, against whom he knew that Nero 
 was most greedy of an excuse for gratifying his hatred. 
 On' hearing this, Scevinus out with all the rest, 
 amongst whom Lucan, Quintianus, and Senecio, held 
 out for a long while ; but after, on a promise of par- 
 don, they endeavoured to atone for this delay, Lucan 
 by denouncing his own mother, Atillia ; Quintianus 
 and Senecio by betraying each his bosom friend. 
 
 These occurrences reminded Nero of Epicharis, and, 
 thinking that her dehcate frame would easily yield to 
 torture, he ordered her to be lacerated with torments.* 
 But neither stripes, nor tortures by fire, nor all the 
 exasperated cruelty of the lictors— maddened at being 
 foiled by a feeble woman — could wring the secret from 
 her ; and when they were carrying her out to the 
 place of torture the second day, all her limbs having 
 been dislocated and disabled on the first, she took off 
 a bandage from her breast, and, fastening one end to 
 the top of the Utter, and the other round her neck, 
 threw herself out, and thus contrived to end her life : 
 
 * " Tormentis delacerari jubet." — Ubi supra, cap. 57. 
 
254 
 
 ROME, 
 
 " affording thereby," says Tacitus, " an illustrious 
 example of heroism, at a crisis when high born men, 
 knights and Roman senators, vied with each other in 
 yielding, to torture and death, their nearest friends 
 and kindred." 
 
 The whole city was as in a state of siege ; the walls 
 guarded, and no one allowed, without most rigid 
 scrutiny, to approach either by sea or land; while 
 the forums and streets were scoured in every direc- 
 tion by horse and foot, and by German troopers, in 
 particular, on whom, as being foreigners, the tyrant 
 placed his chief reliance. To have exchanged civili- 
 ties with any of the conspirators even by a passing 
 word, or nod of recognition ; to have been seen with 
 any of them at theatre or banquet was enough ; and 
 more cruel and eager in the bloody work, than either 
 Tigellinus or Nero himself, was the preetorian com- 
 mander Fenius Rufus, evidently bent on getting rid 
 of all who could convict him ; and it was by him 
 Subrius Flavins was restrained from plunging his 
 sword into Nero, while presiding at the torture and 
 execution of his accomplices. It was this Flavins 
 who said, on being questioned by Nero, while he was 
 under torture, why he had forgotten his oath as a 
 soldier: "Never," said he, "was prsetorian more 
 devoted to his emperor than I to you, while you de- 
 served my loyalty ; but I began to execrate you, from 
 the time, that having murdered your mother and 
 your spouse, you turned charioteer, buffoon, and 
 incendiary." 
 
 Piso, Plautius Lateranus, Seneca, Fenius Rufus, 
 Vestinus, who was consul with Nerva, Senecio, Quin- 
 tianus, Scevinus, and Lucanus were all tortured and 
 put to death : most of them after having rendered 
 their memories infamous by the betrayal of the most 
 sacred pledges of friendship and kindred : some of 
 them, hke Seneca, who encouraged his wife to commit 
 suicide, that he might have company in distress, and 
 Lucan, who betrayed his mother, endeavouring to 
 make their exit with a flourish, by a libation to 
 
ROME. 
 
 255 
 
 " Jove the liberator," or by reciting some bombastic 
 verse. 
 
 " Meanwhile," continues Tacitus, " the city was 
 filled with funerals, the Capitol with sacrifices of 
 thanksgiving to the gods, some in gratitude for having 
 their sons, others for having their brothers, their 
 friends, or kindred among the victims of the tyrant's 
 vengeance. The houses his wrath had visited might 
 be known by the laurel leaves and garlands around 
 their portals. Fathers embraced the knees of him 
 who had left them childless, and devoured the hand 
 with fawning caresses that was dripping with their 
 own blood. 
 
 "As to the senate, they voted hecatombs and thanks- 
 givings to the immortal gods, with special honours 
 to the sun, (to which, from of old, there had stood 
 a temple near the spot in the Circus fixed on by the 
 conspirators,) as if the detection of the plot were 
 due, in a marked degree, to that bright deity ; that 
 the games in honour of Ceres should be celebrated 
 with a greater number of horse races than usual; 
 that the month of April should, for the future, be 
 called after Nero ; and that a temple should be built 
 to safety, in the place from which Scevinus had taken 
 the dagger. That weapon itself, Nero had conse- 
 crated with his own hand in the capitoline temple, 
 inscribing it to ' Jove the avenger.' I find in the 
 reports of the senate," concludes the historian, " that 
 Cereales Anicius, consul-elect, proposed that a temple 
 should be erected at the public expense, and with as 
 Uttle delay as possible, to the divine Nero."— " Re- 
 perio in commentariis senatus, Cerealem Anicium, 
 consulum designatum, pro sententia dixisse, ut tem- 
 plum D. Neroni quam maturrime publica pecunia 
 poneretur."f 
 
 * Ubi supra, cap. 64 & 70. f Annalium, 1. xv. 74. 
 
CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 " Time ! the corrector where our judgments err, 
 The test of truth, love, — sole philosopher ; 
 For all besides are sophists, from thy thrift, 
 Which never loses though it doth defer — 
 Time, the avenger ! unto thee I lift 
 My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift." 
 — " Ubique domus, ubique populus, ubique respublica, ubique 
 vita; summum testimonium fraequentiag hujusmodi, onerosi suraus 
 mundo." — Tertul. de Aniind, xxx. 
 
 Never, perhaps, had imperial Rome appeared so 
 magnificent and mighty as when Pudens looked out 
 upon it, a moment before sunrise, from the Tarpeian 
 tower. The contour of each of its ten thousand sta- 
 tues, every architectural member, and line, and orna- 
 ment of its countless temples, baths, palaces, porticoes, 
 theatres, arches of triumph, rostral pillars, trophies, 
 down almost to the details of the relievi and bronze 
 inscriptions, appeared as if in Phidean newness under 
 the pellucid dawn — a medium between moonlight 
 and noon-day brilliancy ; and from the line of argent 
 light defining each peak and undulation along the hills 
 over Tibur, Preneste, and Tusculum, to the Alban 
 mountain, down to where the Tyrrhenean sea glis- 
 tened like a silver mirror between the Ostian shore 
 and the horizon, nothing could the eye behold but 
 one vast scene of marble wonders, villas interspersed 
 with groves and terraced gardens, temple joined to 
 theatre, palace to bath and hippodrome, by composite 
 or Corinthian porticoes ; and city so blended with 
 suburb, as to leave no trace of where the one begun 
 or the other ended. And from all this scene, there 
 rose a din of joyous and proud existence. Myriads 
 came pouring along the highways. The gates were 
 too narrow to admit the throngs. Multitudes decked 
 
ROME. 
 
 257 
 
 out in gala dress, the meanest in snow white togas, 
 crowded not only the streets and the forum, but 
 swarmed on the roofs and clung to every pillar, and 
 pediment, and vantage point on arch and trophy, 
 round the grand scene of interest. 
 
 ■ " Roofs, balustrades, and windows 
 
 Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges horsed 
 With variable complexions ; ail agreeing 
 In eagerness to see." 
 
 The citizens, according to their tribes, robed in 
 white and crowned with laurel, occupied the centre 
 of the forum, the flamens in their laticlaves, the 
 salii with their shields, the corybantes, and all the 
 colleges of augurs, haruspices, pontiffs, and vestal 
 virgins, stood under the porticos of their temples ; 
 the matrons of Rome with their patrician daughters, 
 decked in jewellery and looking like Cyprian goddesses, 
 were ranged along the galleries above the colonnades ; 
 the knights and senators stood round the marble 
 platform or rostrum in robes of state ; and all, as if 
 with one voice, from the precincts of the throne 
 to the distant roofs and towers and pinnacles of the 
 seven-hilled city, burst forth into loud "salves" and 
 acclamations as the summer sun bounded up over 
 the Sabine mountains ; for at that instant, Rome's 
 emperor sat upon his throne embowered in standards 
 and spoils of a thousand triumphs. The helmets and 
 furbished arms of the cohorts glanced in the morning 
 beams, and peals of martial music went echoing to 
 the cloudless sky and along the Tiber. 
 
 It was a proud day even for Rome. Invaded and 
 crushed on their own wild deserts, that never knew a 
 conqueror before, the most dreaded and haughty of 
 her enemies, the fierce hordes of Scythia, were now 
 prostrate before her under the shadow of the Pala- 
 tine. While the revolted Britons were made to feel the 
 weight of Roman vengeance on one verge of the known 
 world, the fame of Sylla and of Pompey was rivalled, 
 if not surpassed, by Corbulo, in a career of conquest 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 ROME. 
 
 beyond the Euphrates, and the passes of the Cau- 
 casus.* And there came Tiridates, of the proud 
 lineage of the Arsacidse, a king, the son, the brother, 
 and the sire of kings, led like a suppUant and a cap- 
 tive, with his queen and the royal offspring of three 
 Scythian monarchs as hostages, to pay abject homage 
 to the world's lord, and to implore a sceptre and 
 dominion at his feet, moving in slow procession, with 
 supphant bearing, — but still surrounded and escorted 
 with all the pageantry of Asiatic royalty. When they 
 had passed along the ranks of the Preetorian guards, 
 and were arrived before the rostrum and the throne 
 where Nero sat, they all fell prostrate on the earth. 
 At this there rose a shout, clangouring with the 
 memory of seven centuries of conquest ; and so 
 hoarse, as if for blood, that the Scythian princes, 
 even the stern Tiridates, turned pale and trembled, 
 till silence was proclaimed again. "Perhaps this," 
 says the historian, was an artifice of the barbarian to 
 flatter Roman arrogance. After proclaiming his descent 
 from the royal stock of the Arsacidae, and that he was 
 brother to Volugesus and Pocorus, who reigned over 
 the Scythians, he professed himself the slave of Nero, 
 whom he venerated, equally with Mithra, as a god ; 
 that, of himself he had nothing, neither kingdom nor 
 authority, but through the Roman emperor— the 
 
 * See Tacit. Ann. 1. xiv. from 31st to 39th chapter, for the his- 
 tory of the British rebellion. In the last battle, the Britons lost 
 80,000 and their queen ; the Romans only forty soldiers. Pestilence 
 and famine carried off those whom the sword had spared. Affghanis- 
 tan is not more desolate now than Kent, and Surrey, and Oxford- 
 shire were then : " quodque nationiim ambiguum aut adversum 
 fuerat, igni atque ferro vastatur." The thirty-two first chapters 
 of the fifteenth book give vivid scenes from the Parthian war. 
 The reader is sometimes inclined to think he is perusing a Latin 
 version of the Indian news. The Romans had their Jelalabad, 
 their Cabool disasters, their Kyber Pass, and their revenge, two 
 thousand years ago. 
 
 — " Se Arsacidarum sanguine ortum professus est, Voiugesi et 
 Pacori regum fratrem, servum Neronis, quem ut deum aeque, ac 
 Mithram, venerabatur."— C/6i supra, cap. xl. Suppl. auct. Gabr. 
 Brotkr^ 
 
ROME. 
 
 259 
 
 supreme arbiter of his destiny and fortune." When 
 these protestations were interpreted, and proclaimed 
 by sound of trumpet to the Roman people, new 
 plaudits and acclamations followed. 
 
 " Know, " replied the emperor, " that to have 
 journeyed hither with all the pomp and dependencies 
 of your rank was but your duty ; that, in person, 
 and not by any embassy, you might venerate my pre- 
 sence. As to realms and kingly privileges, know that 
 they are not thine because bequeathed to you by your 
 sire, or because preserved by Scythian valour, but 
 because it is my will that you shall reign." Again 
 the Scythian was prostrate before the successor of 
 the Caesars, and the seven hills and the Campus Mar- 
 tins resounded with the shout of the patricians, the 
 knights, the legions, and the Roman people, as Nero 
 placed a diadem on his vassal's brow, and said: — 
 " I give thee to Armenia for her king. Be it known 
 to thee and to all mortals, that it is mine to give 
 kingdoms, and to take them away !"* 
 
 * " Quanto demissius haec fuerant dicta (a Tiridate) tanto ferocius 
 respondit Nero. Hac quidem merito venisti, ut prgesens preesente 
 me fruerere. Jura, nec a patre relicta, nec a fratribus, licet dedis- 
 sent, servata, a me accepta habeto. Te regem Armeniae do. Tu 
 vosque omnes, me regna dare et adimere intelligite ! " — Tacit, 
 Annul, lib. xvi. 41. Suppl. auct. Gabr. Brotier. 
 
 s 2 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 ' Vera sententia est : * Omnia orta occidunt, et aucta senescunt.' 
 Q,uis crederet ut totius orbis exstructa victoriis Roma eorrueret ; 
 utipsasuis populis, et mater fieret et sepulchrum ?" — S. Hieron. 
 in Ezech. Proph, Proleg. 1. iii. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 " She saw lier glories star by star expire. 
 And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride, 
 Where the car climb'd the capitol ; far and wide 
 Temple and tower went down, nor left a site." 
 
 Childe Harold, cant. iv. 
 
 " Cur igitur et Camillas doleret, si haec post trecentos et quinqua- 
 ginta annos eventura putaret, et ego doleam, si ad decern millia 
 annorum gentem aliquam urbe nostra potituram patem." — 
 M. T. Cicero, Tusc. Qucest. lib. i. 28. 
 
 ToTiLA, the Goth," says Procopius, (who served in 
 the staff of Behsarius, and was his secretary,) "deter- 
 mined to level Rome with the ground, and make the 
 regions where it stood a place of pasturage for flocks 
 and herds." Preparations were made to overturn the 
 monuments and trophies that still survived so many 
 ravages, and to destroy the palaces and temples by 
 fire. These he spared, at the instance of an embassy 
 sent by Belisarius, from where he lay with the forces 
 of the Greek emperor at Ostia ; but the walls he 
 caused to be in great part demohshed, and carried 
 away as captives the miserable remnant of the senate 
 and the Roman people, with their wives and children. 
 He suffered no one to remain behind, so that the 
 city was a perfect soUtude. The Chronicle of Mar- 
 cellinus adds, that for forty days and upwards Rome 
 had no inhabitants but wild beasts and birds of prey. 
 It was towards the close of this interval, that BeU- 
 sarius felt a desire to visit and survey with his own 
 eyes the ruins of a place that had been the theatre 
 of so much grandeur and renown ; and, with this view, 
 he sallied forth from the sea-port at the head of a 
 strong squadron of his guards. 
 
 A marble wilderness extended on every side, as far 
 as the eye could reach, strewed with the ruins of 
 Vitruvian villas, temples, and aqueducts ; the waste 
 
264 
 
 ROME. 
 
 water of the latter had filled all the valleys and over- 
 flowed the low grounds of the Campagna, converting 
 into marshes and mantling pools, those regions which, 
 ere while, had abounded with all the delights of the 
 Hesperides. The thoroughfares of the nations were 
 silent and lonely as the double line of tombs through 
 which they passed. The towers and inscriptions over 
 the gates had been torn down, and their bronze por- 
 tals carried ofl" in the plunder train of the barbarian. 
 The rock-built walls of Rome lay low ; and the tramp 
 of their war horses was muffled by the grass, as 
 Belisarius and his troops rode under a succession of 
 dismantled arches, down towards the forum, along 
 the " sacred way." 
 
 The fox looked out from the casements of the Pala- 
 tine, and barked sharply at the intruders as they 
 rode on ; wolves prowled through the vacant streets, 
 or littered in the palace halls ; wild dogs hunted, in 
 packs, through the great circus, through the baths, 
 along the Campus Martins, and on to the gardens of 
 Sallust and Maecenas, through the promenades of the 
 Suburra. Outlandish beasts — as if escaped from the 
 menageries and keeps of the amphitheatres — lay sleep- 
 ing and enjoying themselves in the sunshine of the 
 porticos, or tore one another to pieces, as the factions 
 had done of old, around the rostrum, and in the 
 assembly-place of the people ; others growled and 
 snarled, and gloated over the unburied carcasses and 
 whitening skeletons of the dead. Ravens and vultures 
 desisted from feeding their sanguinary nestlings, to 
 hoot the warriors, as they wound slowly among the 
 prostrate columns and entablatures of temples that 
 encumbered the ascent to the capitol, or, starting 
 from their perching-places on trophy and triumphal 
 arch, hovered, and flapped their sable wings above the 
 plumage of their helmets. Once more, the Roman 
 eagle soars above the Tarpeian tower — that eyry from 
 whence, for a thousand years, it had flown forth to 
 carnage ; and the martial bugle makes the field of 
 Mars resound again. But instead of the warlike re- 
 
ROME. 
 
 265 
 
 sponse of legions — clamouring to be led against the 
 Samnite or the Parthian — there broke out a hideous 
 medley of yells and howling, yelp, bark, and roar, out- 
 topped by the shrill cries of ill-omened birds, startled 
 from their roosts in the sanctuary recesses, and from 
 the niches and cornices of the senate-house. The 
 warriors listened for some human sound. In vain 
 they listened, and listened again ! There was the 
 Palatine, the forum, the capitol, the Campus Martins, 
 and the Tiber, flowing under the beauteous summer 
 sky beneath the Tarpeian cliff — but the legions, the 
 emperors, the senate, and the Roman people, where 
 were they ? 
 
 When that savage uproar had at last subsided, save 
 a casual outbreak of a howl or bark reverberating 
 dismally among the ruins, and along the valleys and 
 the river banks, all, within the boundaries of the 
 seven hills, was again as silent as the grave ! 
 
 Never had mortal eye beheld a catastrophe more 
 impressive. Fortune had turned back upon her steps, 
 and made it her sport to reverse every thing, upon that 
 very scene, where, beyond all others, men had become 
 elated with imagining, that she had, at length, de- 
 scended from her slippery globe, for ever, and fixed 
 her perpetual sojourn. But it would seem as if 
 she had lured the Romans to the highest pinnacle of 
 grandeur and felicity, only to render their downfal 
 the more tremendous — had helped them to build up 
 testimonials of boundless empire, and to stamp a cha- 
 racter of eternity upon their works, merely that the 
 vouchers of her own instability might endure for ever. 
 
 After being deified by the prostrate earth, and having 
 temples, and priests^ and altars, consecrated for their 
 worship, the emperors of Rome were led about as har- 
 lequins, to grace the triumph and contribute mirth to 
 the carousals of the Goths. The iron legions, that 
 had trodden down the nations, had been trodden down 
 in their turn. The slave had seen his tyrant lord a 
 suppliant at his feet for life ; at his gate for bread ; to 
 escape from dignities for which the Gracchi, the 
 
266 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Scipios, and the Caesars had contended, men of patri- 
 cian hneage had themselves branded and ranked as 
 slaves. To be a Roman, once a distinction prouder 
 than that of royalty, had become the vilest badge of 
 infamy.* The lords of palaces that resembled cities, 
 and of estates that included kingdoms within their 
 limits, saw themselves without a home or a rood of 
 land. " In this revolution, the sons and daughters of 
 Roman consuls tasted the misery which they had so 
 often spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered gar- 
 ments through the streets of the city, and begged for 
 the most sordid pittance, perhaps without success, 
 before the gates of their hereditary mansions ;"t 
 others expired of famine upon silken couches, amid 
 halls of more than regal splendour, or were led away 
 (a lot still more insupportable) to minister to the rude 
 conquerors, amid devastated villas and gardens that 
 reminded them of many a bright summer time passed 
 in dalliance and enjoyment. To the very weft, the 
 Fates had unravelled their most gorgeous tissue, and, 
 from the ruins of the Palatine and the capitol, had 
 abandoned the fame of kings, consuls, and emperors, 
 to the scoffing winds. 
 
 Even the memorials of her ancient glories served, and 
 that not a little, to multiply and increase the calami- 
 ties of Rome. The sight of them infuriated the bar- 
 barians. They made it a sacred duty to slaughter the 
 craven multitudes they found loitering round, and 
 boasting alliance with monuments, intended to per- 
 petuate the memory of the injuries and insults inflicted 
 by their sires upon humanity ; and it would seem as 
 if so many millions had been gathered into one 
 place, by allurements of largesses, shows, and every 
 
 * " When we would brand an enemy," says Luitprandrus, " with 
 the most disgraceful and contumelious appellation, we call him ' a 
 Roman.' " — " Hoc solo, id est, Romani nomine, quicquid ignobi- 
 litatis, quicquid timiditatis, quicquid avaritiae, quicquid luxurise, 
 quicquid mendacii, immo quicquid vitiorum est comprehendentis." 
 - — Luitprand. Ligitio ap. Muratori Scrip. Itilic. vol. ii. pars i. p. 481. 
 
 -j- Gibbon, from Procopius. 
 
ROME. 
 
 267 
 
 sensual indulgence, that the scythe of the destroyer 
 might mow them down with the greater facility and 
 expedition. The metropolis of the nations had become 
 their sepulchre ; and the soil of their pampered bodies 
 fattened and almost filled up the valleys of the seven 
 hills. 
 
 Nor were the barbarians satisfied with wreaking 
 vengeance on the descendants and heirs of the old 
 race of agressors. They aimed at the annihilation of 
 whatever could perpetuate the memory of their tri- 
 umphs, and of their own disasters and past humilia- 
 tions — of every thing in fine that art or conventional 
 usage had impressed with that execrated Roman name. 
 A variety of circumstances assisted their endeavours, 
 at least, with respect to the architectural wonders of 
 the city. 
 
 In the panegyrics of her last admirers we may trace 
 the gradual progression of decay.* The private pa- 
 laces, which are celebrated by Olympiodorus, have no 
 encomium from the poet who survived the ravage of 
 Genseric, and who still extols the baths of Agrippa, of 
 Nero, and of Diocletian. The care and admiration 
 of Theodoric were directed to those objects whose 
 solidity or whose position protected them from sudden 
 dissolution, but which were still shaken by violence 
 and age. Cassiodorus confesses that his master, a 
 lover of architecture, a restorer of cities, could only 
 prop up, and keep from tumbhng into ruin, the tot- 
 tering remnants of antiquity. He owns, also, the par- 
 tial abandonment, whilst he laments the rapid decay 
 of the ancient habitations. In the interval between 
 the encomiums of Cassiodorus and the notices which 
 Procopius has left of the miracles of Rome, the aque- 
 ducts had been broken, the therms, the amphithea- 
 tres, the theatres, had all been abandoned, and the 
 admiration of the historian is confined to the tomb 
 of Hadrian, to the infinite number of statues, the 
 works of Phidias, Lysippus, and Miron, that adorned 
 
 * See Hobhouse's Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe 
 Harold. 
 
268 
 
 ROME. 
 
 it, and to the solicitude with which the Romans pre- 
 served as much as possible the more stable edifices of 
 their city, and, amongst other objects, the galley in 
 which their Trojan ancestor, -^neas, had first explored 
 the Tiber. But even these few detached ornaments 
 must have been much diminished, especially during 
 the successive Gothic sieges. In defending the Mole 
 of Hadrian against the assaults of Vitiges, the Greek 
 soldiers broke the Phidian statues that stood in close 
 array round its terraces, and hurled them down upon 
 the Goths ; and it may be well imagined that whatever 
 came first to hand, or was most contiguous to the 
 breach to be filled up, was seized and made use of 
 without scruple, when the walls were hastily repaired 
 by Belisarius, at the time that Vitiges was pouring 
 down to beleaguer the almost defenceless city ; as well 
 as when he had, in a great measure, to rebuild them, 
 before Totila came to besiege it a, second time. 
 
 But we have proofs of how ruin and devastation 
 worked upon the queen of cities at a much earlier 
 date. An edict of Majorian specifies as a common 
 offence, that those who built or repaired houses had 
 recourse to the most magnificent erections of their 
 ancestors for materials. 
 
 " The decay of the city," says Gibbon, (speaking of 
 the century previous to the time of which we write,) 
 " had gradually impaired the value of the public 
 works. The circus and theatres might still excite, 
 but they seldom gratified the desires of the people ; 
 the temples were no longer inhabited by gods or men ; 
 the diminished crowds of the Romans were lost in the 
 immense space of their baths and porticos ; and the 
 stately libraries and halls of justice became useless to 
 an indolent generation. The monuments of consular, 
 or imperial greatness, were no longer revered, as the 
 immortal glory of the capitol : they were only es- 
 teemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper 
 and more convenient than the distant quarry. The 
 fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced :br 
 the sake of some paltry or pretended repairs." 
 
ROME. 
 
 269 
 
 Still earlier again than this, the removal of the seat 
 of empire to the shores of the Bosphorus had contri- 
 buted to the work of devastation. " Statues, columns, 
 ornaments in bronze and gold," says Denina,* " were 
 taken from Rome in great quantity, and transported to 
 Constantinople ; and many of the patrician palaces were 
 stripped of their embellishments, and even of their 
 marbles, by their noble owners, attracted to the new 
 capital by the court and the favours of the prince." 
 
 These, however, were but mere external injuries. 
 It was during the century and a half from Alaric to 
 Totila, who put the last hand to the work of destruc- 
 tion, that ruin ate its way into, and dissolved, the 
 very skeleton of the city. An act read in the senate, 
 so early as the year 376, forbids the custom of 
 quarrying up the substructures of " noble edifices," 
 of carrying slabs and columns of marble from the 
 public buildings, and from otherwise despoiling them. 
 Ten years earlier, we find the attention and activity of 
 the prefect Lampridius directed against those who 
 occupied themselves in stripping away the lead from 
 the roofs, and extracting the ornaments and fastenings 
 of brass and iron from the deserted buildings. 
 
 "This rapine," says Hobhouse, "supposes a soli- 
 tude. In the subsequent periods of distress, when every 
 precious object had been removed from above ground, 
 the plunderers searched for subterranean treasures, 
 and tore up the lead of the conduits." The mere 
 necessities of existence became the only care of the 
 wretched descendants of the once lordly people ; and 
 even if they had the means of preserving the monu- 
 ments of by-gone pride and conquest, they could 
 hardly have felt much zeal to do so, seeing that the 
 sight of them only contributed to aggravate and em- 
 bitter their own reverses. They also exasperated 
 their barbarian conquerors, who looked upon them- 
 selves as sent to execute the sentence of Divine re- 
 tribution upon pagan Rome. 
 
 L. iii. cap. 6. 
 
270 
 
 ROME. 
 
 At the second siege of Totila, there was so much 
 cultivated land within the walls, that Diogenes, the 
 Greek governor, thought the corn he had sown would 
 be sufficient to supply the garrison and citizens in 
 a protracted defence. As to the suburban regions, 
 once so beautiful and full of life and gaiety — from the 
 shores of Ostia to the ridges of the Alban and Sabine 
 hills — they were now a solitude, hideous, and sad to 
 look upon, as a battle field of giants ; where myriads 
 of the slain have been left to rot and bleach under 
 the torrid sun. ^ 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 "The Niobe of nations ! there she stands 
 
 Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe." 
 
 Childe Harold, cant. iv. 
 " Quid salvum est si Roma perit ?" 
 
 S. Hieron. Ep. xi. ad Ageruchiam. 
 
 When Rome was in the meridian of her pride, 
 she beheld herself reflected in each of the innumer- 
 able cities that studded the shores of the seas, the 
 river sides, and lay scattered, like marble villas near 
 some great capital, over every province within the 
 frontiers. From Gades to Edessa, and from Camelo- 
 dunum and London to the cities of Mauritania and 
 the Pyramids, the arts, the fashions which she patro- 
 nized, her literature, and all the elegancies of social 
 existence, had spread their influence. In that epoch, 
 as Rome resembled a boundless palace — prepared for 
 the reception and amusement of the aristocracy of 
 the whole world — rather than a city, so did the pro- 
 vinces resemble one vast pleasure ground, where the 
 most polished and voluptuous nations had yielded 
 themselves without restraint to the pursuit and en- 
 joyment of felicity. 
 
 This resemblance and sympathy between the hand- 
 maids and their queen did not terminate with the 
 reign of prosperity. The savage and sanguinary 
 hordes that had been accumulating in irresistible 
 force, and amassing the traditions of revenge against 
 those who had so long invaded and insulted them, 
 had long ago burst forth from the fastnesses of the 
 north, and not only forded the Ister, and the Rhine, 
 and stormed the Alps, but estabUshed themselves, 
 permanently, among the soHtudes they had made over 
 the fairest provinces, and even in the very heart of 
 
272 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Italy. The legions were annihilated ; some fugitives 
 in the mountains and in the islets of the sea, or a 
 few spectral forms, sitting motionless, or ghding, 
 among the ruins of palaces and temples, in search 
 of some herbs to feed upon, were all that had escaped 
 the ravages of the barbarians. The aspect of the 
 empire, like the city itself, was that of a marble 
 wilderness, or presented such a scene as Palmyra 
 presents to-day. The hunters of the north pursued 
 their wild sports, and the nomad tribes of Scythia 
 bivouacked among the solitudes of ruined cities. 
 They pastured their sheep and cattle where the gar- 
 dens, and lawns, and parterres of villas might still 
 be traced. 
 
 " The sudden and short excursions in quest of 
 booty," says Robertson, " which had alarmed and 
 disquieted the empire, ceased. A more dreadful ca- 
 lamity impended. Great bodies of armed men, with 
 their wives, and children, and slaves, and flocks, 
 issued forth like regular colonies in quest of new 
 settlements. People who had no cities, and seldom 
 any fixed habitation, were so little attached to their 
 native soil, that they migrated without reluctance 
 from one place to another. New adventurers fol- 
 lowed them. The lands which they deserted were 
 occupied by more remote tribes of barbarians. These, 
 in their turn, pushed forward into more fertile coun- 
 tries, and, like a torrent continually increasing, rolled 
 on, and swept every thing before them. In less than 
 two centuries from their first irruption, barbarians of 
 various names and lineage plundered and took pos- 
 session of Thrace, Pannonia, Gaul, Spain, Africa, and 
 at last of Italy. The vast fabric of the Roman power, 
 which it had been the work of ages to perfect, was 
 in that short period overturned from the foundation."* 
 
 " CiviUzed nations carry on their hostilities with 
 so little rancour or animosity, that war among them 
 is disarmed of half its terrors. Barbarians rush into 
 
 * Robertson's View of the State of Europe, p. 6, et seq. 
 
ROME. 
 
 273 
 
 war with impetuosity, and prosecute it with violence. 
 Their sole object is to make their enemies feel the 
 weight of their vengeance ; nor does their rage subside 
 until it IS satiated with inflicting on them every pos- 
 sible calamity. 
 
 "They boast," says Ammianus Marcelhnus, a con- 
 temporary author, and one of the best of the late 
 historians ; they boast, with the utmost exultation, 
 of the number of enemies whom they have slain,' 
 and, as the most glorious of all ornaments, they 
 fasten the scalps of those who have fallen by their 
 hands to the trappings of their horses; wherever 
 they marched, their route was marked with blood. 
 They ravaged or destroyed all around them. They 
 spared no age, or sex, or rank; what escaped the 
 fury of the first inundation, perished in those which 
 followed it. The most fertile and populous provinces 
 were converted into deserts, in which were scattered 
 the ruins of villages and cities, that afforded shelter 
 to a few miserable inhabitants whom chance had pre- 
 served, or the sword of the enemy, wearied with des- 
 troying, had spared. The conquerors who first settled 
 in the countries which they had wasted, were expelled 
 or exterminated by new invaders, who coming from 
 regions farther removed from the civilized parts of 
 the world, were still more fierce and rapacious. This 
 brought fresh calamities upon mankind, which did 
 not cease until the north by pouring forth successive 
 swarms was drained of people, and could no longer 
 furnish instruments of destruction. Famine and pes- 
 tilence, which always march in the train of war, raged 
 in every part of Europe, and completed its sufferings." 
 
 GAUL. 
 
 " A multitude of barbarous nations," says St. Je- 
 rome, " have possessed themselves of all Gaul. The 
 Quadi, the Vandals, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the 
 Gepidi, the Heruh, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the 
 Suevi, and the Huns, have laid waste the whole coun- 
 
274 
 
 ROME. 
 
 try between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the 
 ocean and the Rhine."* 
 
 " The greatest part of the GaUic cities were be- 
 sieged and stormed by the Huns, who practised, in 
 the example of Metz, their customary maxims of war. 
 They involved every age, sex, and profession in pro- 
 miscuous massacre ; the flourishing city was delivered 
 to the flames, and a sohtary chapel of St. Stephen 
 marked the place where it formerly stood." f 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 " The situation of Spain, separated on all sides 
 from the enemies of Rome, by the sea, by the moun- 
 tains, and by the intermediate provinces, had secured 
 the long tranquilUty of that remote and sequestered 
 country ; and we may observe, as a sure symptom of 
 domestic happiness, that in a period of four hundred 
 years, Spain furnished very few materials to the history 
 of the Roman empire. The footsteps of the barbarians, 
 who in the reign of Gallienus had penetrated beyond 
 the Pyrenees, were soon obliterated by the return of 
 peace ; and, in the fourth century, the cities of Eme- 
 rita or Merida, of Corduba, Seville, Bracara and 
 Tarragona, were numbered with the most illustrious 
 of the Roman world. The various productions of the 
 animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, were 
 improved and manufactured by the skill of an indus- 
 trious people, and the peculiar advantages of naval 
 stores contributed to support an extensive and profit- 
 able trade. The arts and sciences flourished under 
 the protection of the emperors." But the misfortunes 
 of Spain may be best described in the language of its 
 most eloquent historian. 
 
 " The irruption of the Suevi, Vandals, and Alans 
 was followed," says Mariana,! "by the most dread- 
 ful calamities; as the barbarians exercised their 
 
 * S. Hieron. Epist. xi. ad Ager., and Ep. xxxv. ad Heliodor. 
 -|- See Gibbon, ch. xxxv. 
 
 + Mariana de Reb. Hisp. 1. v. c. i. torn. i. p. 148. a.d. 409. 
 
ROME. 
 
 275 
 
 indiscriminate cruelty on the fortunes of the Romans 
 and the Spaniards, and ravaged with equal fury the 
 cities and the open country. The progress of famine 
 reduced the miserable inhabitants to feed on the flesh 
 of their fellow-creatures ; and even the wild beasts, 
 who multiplied without control, in the desert, were 
 exasperated by the taste of blood and the impatience 
 of hunger, boldly to attack and devour their human 
 prey. Pestilence soon appeared, the inseparable com- 
 panion of famine ; a large portion of the people was 
 swept away, and the groans of the dying excited only 
 the envy of their surviving friends." 
 
 AFRICA, A.D. 429.* 
 
 The long and narrow tract of the African coast 
 was filled with frequent monuments of Roman art and 
 magnificence, and the respective degrees of improve- 
 ment might be accurately measured by the distance 
 from Carthage and the Mediterranean. A simple re- 
 flection will impress every thinking mind with the 
 clearest idea of fertility and cultivation. The country 
 was extremely populous ; the inhabitants reserved a 
 liberal subsistence for their own use, and the annual 
 exportation, particularly of wheat, was so regular and 
 plentiful, that Africa deserved the name of the com- 
 mon granary of Rome and of mankind. On a sudden, 
 the fruitful provinces from Tangier to Tripoli were 
 overwhelmed by the invasion of the Vandals." " They 
 found a province well cultivated," says Victor Viten- 
 sis, a contemporary author,t " a country enjoying 
 plenty, the beauty of the whole earth. They carried 
 their destructive armies into every corner of it ; they 
 dispeopled it by their devastations, exterminating 
 every thing with fire and sword. They did not even 
 spare the vines and fruit trees, that those to whom 
 caves and inaccessible mountains had aflforded a re- 
 
 * Gibbon, vol. iv. c. xxxiii, p. 226. 
 f De Persecut. Afiic. Bib. Pat. v. 8. p. 666. 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 ROME. 
 
 treat, might find no nourishment of any kind. Their 
 hostile rage could not be satiated, and there was no 
 place exempted from the effects of it. They tortured 
 their prisoners with the most exquisite cruelty, that 
 they might force from them a discovery of their hid- 
 den treasures. The more they discovered the more 
 they expected, and the more implacable they became. 
 Neither the infirmities of age nor of sex, neither the 
 dignity of nobility, nor the sanctity of the sacerdotal 
 office, could mitigate their fury ; but the more illus- 
 trious their prisoners the more barbarously they in- 
 sulted them. The public buildings which resisted the 
 violence of the flames they levelled with the ground. 
 They left many cities without an inhabitant. When 
 they approached any fortified place, which their un- 
 disciphned army could not reduce, they gathered 
 together a multitude of prisoners, and putting them 
 to the sv/ord, left their bodies unburied, that the 
 stench of their carcasses might oblige the garrison to 
 abandon it." 
 
 St. Augustine, an African, who survived the con- 
 quest of his country by the Vandals some years, gives 
 a similar description of their cruelties.* 
 
 About a hundred years after the settlement of the 
 Vandals in Africa, Belisarius led an expedition from 
 Constantinople against them, when another war of 
 extermination ensued, from which the teeming pro- 
 vinces of that land have never since recovered. Pro- 
 copius, who took an active part in the scenes which 
 he describes, represents that immense country, three 
 times the extent of France, as reduced to solitude. 
 " Africa," says he, " was so entirely dispeopled, that 
 one might travel several days in it without meeting 
 one man ; and it is no exaggeration to say, that in 
 the course of the war five millions of persons pe- 
 rished, "f 
 
 * Vol. X. p. 372, edit. 1616. 
 
 f Procop. de Bel. Vandal. 1. i. c. 5. ; 1. ii. c. 28. ; et Hist. Arcan. 
 xviii. ap. Byzan. Scrip. 315. 
 
ROME. 
 
 277 
 
 ATTICA. 
 
 " The whole territory of Attica, from the promon- 
 tory of Sunium to the town of Megara, was blasted by 
 the baleful presence of the Goths ; and if we may 
 use the comparison of a contemporary philosopher, 
 ' Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin 
 of a slaughtered victim.'"* 
 
 ILLYRICUM. 
 
 " The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends 
 above five hundred miles from the Euxine to the 
 Adriatic, was at once invaded," says Gibbon, " and 
 occupied and desolated by the myriads of barbarians 
 whom Attila led into the field. "J " For twenty years 
 and more," writes St. Jerome, " from Constantinople 
 to the JuHan Alps, we behold the daily effusion of the 
 Roman blood— every where groans and lamentations ; 
 everywhere death appears in various shapes. The 
 whole Roman empire is tumbling."^ "Thrace, the best 
 cultivated province of that quarter of the empire, was 
 converted into a desert ; and when Priscus accom- 
 panied the ambassadors sent to Attila, there were no 
 inhabitants in some of the cities, but a few miserable 
 people who had taken shelter among the ruins ; and 
 the fields were covered with the bones of those who 
 had fallen by the sword."|| 
 
 THE RHENISH PROVINCES. 
 
 " The banks of the Rhine, like those of the Tiber, 
 were crowned with elegant houses and well cultivated 
 
 * Gibbon's Hist, of Dec. and Fall, c. xxx. vol. iv. p. 33. 
 
 ■f For the desolation of Africa, see also the letter of Capriolus. 
 Bishop of Carthage, to excuse his absence from the Council of 
 Ephesus. Apud Ruinart, p. 429. 
 
 J Chap, xxxiv. vol. iv. p. 248. 
 
 § Ep. ad Heliodor. 
 
 II Priscus, apud Byzan. Scrip, i. 34, quoted by Robertson. State 
 of Europe, &c., p. 242. 
 
278 
 
 ROME. 
 
 farms ; and if a poet descended the river, he might 
 express his doubt on which side was situated the ter- 
 ritory of the Romans. 
 
 ' Geminasque viator 
 
 Cum videat ripas quae sit Romana requirat.' 
 
 This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed 
 into a desert, and the prospect of the smoking ruins 
 could only distinguish the solitude of nature from the 
 desolation of man."* 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 But the most fated victim of barbaric cupidity 
 and rage was Italy. Italy, the seat of elegance and 
 luxury, was cultivated to the highest pitch, and thickly 
 studded with stately villas on every pleasant site, from 
 the margin of the lake of Como to the orangeries of 
 the voluptuous Tarentum ; and from Mantua to the 
 shores of Baiee and Neapohs. But so eiFectually did 
 the devastation of the Barbarians destroy all the ef- 
 fects of Roman industry and cultivation, that in the 
 eighth century a considerable part of Italy appears to 
 have been covered with forests and marshes of great 
 extent. Muratori enters into a minute detail con- 
 cerning the situation and limits of several of these ; 
 and proves, by the most authentic evidence, that 
 great tracts of territory in all the different provinces 
 of Italy, were either overrun with wood, or laid under 
 water. Nor did these occupy parts of the country 
 naturally barren or of Httle value, but were spread 
 over districts which ancient writers represent as ex- 
 tremely fertile, and which at present are highly culti- 
 vated. Lands were granted (as to the first settlers 
 of America) to those who would clear and reclaim 
 
 * Conringius has collected several passages from the ancient his- 
 torians, which prove that the devastations committed by the Vandals 
 and Huns in the countries situated on the banks of the Rhine 
 were no less cruel and fatal to the human race than in Illyricum and 
 Africa. — Robertson, note V. p. 243. 
 
ROME. 
 
 279 
 
 them ; as it is expressly stated in many of the charters 
 granted to monasteries and individuals, that their 
 title to their estates was that they had reclaimed them 
 " ex eremo." Muratori adds, that during these ages, 
 Italy was greatly infested with wolves and other wild 
 beasts ; another mark of its being destitute of inhabi- 
 tants. Thus the pride of the ancient world for its 
 fertility and cultivation, was reduced to the state of 
 a country newly discovered and rendered habitable. 
 
 But the fairest tracts of Italy had been reduced to 
 a wilderness from a much earlier date. A touching 
 and lively picture of the desolate aspect of Bolognia, 
 Reggio, Modena, and Piacenza, with the rich inter- 
 jacent provinces, is given by St. Ambrose even before 
 the year 400. Pope Gelasius speaks of Tuscany, 
 Emilia, and other provinces, in which the human 
 species was almost extinct. 
 
 " The whole extent of country between the Alps 
 and the Danube," says Sismondi, " had been fertihzed 
 by Roman agriculture, and enriched by Roman com- 
 merce, and by the residence of the Roman legions ; 
 it was looked upon as the nursery of the best soldiers 
 of the empire. But it had been so devastated by 
 successive invasions that the race of its Roman inha- 
 bitants was nearly extinct, and was succeeded by 
 barbarians of whose history nothing is known. The 
 Rugians, who possessed it in the time of Odoacer, 
 the first of the Gothic kings in Italy, were conquered 
 by him and brought in great numbers into the latter 
 country to assist in cultivating the deserts by which 
 it was overspread. Deserts they might truly be called. 
 The population had been swept away by every scourge 
 under heaven ; war, plague, famine, public tyranny, 
 and domestic slavery. Throughout the preceding 
 century, the existence of the people had been entirely 
 artificial. They were entirely supported by the con- 
 tributions of corn which the emperors had bound 
 themselves to contribute in Rome, Milan, and other 
 great towns where the court resided. These largesses 
 had ceased with the loss of Africa and the ruin of 
 
280 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Sicily. Meanwhile, most of the landed proprietors 
 had ceased to cultivate their estates ; there was little 
 encouragement to incur great expense in growing 
 corn, which was afterwards given away in the market- 
 place. The rearing of cattle had for a time superseded 
 the cultivation of grain ; but both the herds, and slaves 
 who tended them, had been carried off by continual 
 incursions of the barbarians."* 
 
 " Above four years elapsed from the successful in- 
 vasion of Italy by the arms of Alaric, to the voluntary 
 retreat of the Goths under the conduct of his succes- 
 sor, Adolphus; and during the whole time, they reigned 
 without control over a country, which, in the opinion 
 of the ancients, had united all the various excellences 
 of nature and art. The fruits of a long peace perished 
 under the rude grasp of the barbarians ; and they 
 themselves were incapable of tasting the more elegant 
 refinements of luxury, which had been prepared for 
 the use of the soft and polished Italians. Each sol- 
 dier, however, claimed an ample portion of the sub- 
 stantial plenty, the corn and cattle, oil and wine, that 
 was daily collected and consumed in the Gothic camp, 
 and the principal warriors insulted the villas and gar- 
 dens, once inhabited by Lucullus and Cicero, along 
 the beauteous coasts of Campania. Their trembling 
 captives, the sons and daughters of Roman senators, 
 presented in goblets of gold and gems, large draughts 
 of Falernian wine to the haughty victors : who 
 stretched their huge limbs under the shade of plane 
 trees, artificially disposed to exclude the scorching 
 rays, and to admit the genial warmth of the sun. 
 These delights were enhanced by the memory of past 
 hardships : the comparison of their native soil, the 
 bleak and barren hills of Scythia, and the frozen banks 
 of the Elbe and Danube, added new charms to the 
 felicity of the Italian climate."! 
 
 Devastating and merciless invaders did not cease 
 
 * Fall of the Rom. Emp. vol. 1. p. 172 of Cabinet Cyclo. No. 56. 
 j- Gibbon, c. xxxi. p. 141, 142. 
 
ROME. 
 
 281 
 
 to succeed each other, until Italy, the pride and miracle 
 of ancient civilization, was reduced to a howling wil- 
 derness. Vast forests and thickets usurped the places 
 of her once smiUng and sunny gardens, and the waters 
 of neglected canals and rivers choaked up with weeds, 
 and of ruptured aqueducts, changed her fairest and 
 most aromatic landscapes into marshes and stagnant 
 lakes. A miserable remnant of her people, scattered 
 thinly among the ruins of imperial cities and patrician 
 villas, and in the most sequestered fastnesses of the 
 mountains, lived in perpetual terror of the armies 
 of wolves and other savage animals who roamed the 
 open country — successors of the Barbarians. 
 
 Nought was to be descried but a boundless scene, as 
 it were, of sepulchres, haunted by the ghastly spectres 
 of the pride, and pomp, and pleasures, which had rioted 
 and exulted there, in the day of power, before palaces 
 had been converted into tombs ; before the purple of 
 the patrician had become the corse's shroud, and the 
 couch of dalliance its grave. To Belisarius, who 
 claimed a hero's relation with the mightiest of Rome's 
 children, it was like gazing on the murdered body 
 of one well known and venerated even as a mother. 
 
 Commanding his guards to disperse and explore the 
 ruins in every direction, he dismounted, and casting 
 himself in an attitude expressive of his grief upon a 
 broken pillar of the temple of Fortune, his thoughts 
 reverted from the scene around him, to that which 
 Rome had presented in the zenith of her grandeur, and 
 ran over in reveries, but little marked by order, the 
 dark catalogue of disasters, of which he beheld the 
 consummation. * 
 
 * Vid. Muratori, Antiquitat. Medii ^vi. Dis. xxi. V. 2. p. 149, 
 153, et 163. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " But long before had Freedom's face been veil'd, 
 And anarchy assumed her attributes ; 
 Till every lawless soldier who assail'd 
 Trod on the trembling senate's slavish mutes." 
 
 Childe Harold, cant. iv. 
 " Opus aggredior opimum casibus, atrox praeliis, discors seditioni- 
 bus, ipsel etiam pace saevura." — C. Tacit. Historiar. 1. i. 2. 
 
 No patriot, even of the pristine ages, ever made a 
 greater display of respect for constitutional forms and 
 the mere nomenclature of civil liberty, than Augustus 
 did. He went the length of making a personal canvass 
 for the consulship and other offices ; scrupulously 
 practising all the duties of an ordinary candidate, at a 
 time when his will was the law of the Roman world. 
 But the mask of hypocrisy, which a cool head, an un- 
 feeling heart, and a cowardly disposition, had prompt- 
 ed him to assume at nineteen, he never afterwards 
 laid aside ; and, under the pretence of reforming the 
 republic, he continued, with the aid of Maecenas and 
 Agrippa, to consolidate a military despotism. 
 
 During his own felicitous and protracted reign, no 
 inconvenience arose from this ; for Augustus and his 
 ministers understood how to restrain the armies by an 
 image of civil government, as well as to amuse the 
 people by an image of civil liberty. The prestige of 
 the imperial authority, and of the name of Caesar, 
 under the skilful management of his successor Tibe- 
 rius, was barely able, however, to confine the horrors 
 with which this system was fraught, within the limits 
 of the camps. When the throne was vacant by the 
 murder of Caligula, who had succeeded Tiberius — 
 hastened to his end by violence — the attempt of the 
 senate to realize the prerogatives, of which it had the 
 
ROME. 
 
 283 
 
 name, served only to reveal where in reality the 
 supreme authority resided. The consuls convoked 
 the senate on the Capitol, condemned the memory 
 of the Csesars, gave the watch-word liberty to the few 
 cohorts who faintly adhered to their standard, and 
 during eight-and-forty hours acted as the independent 
 chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they deli- 
 berated, the Praetorian guards had resolved. How- 
 ever, any violent outbreak of military licence was pre- 
 vented on that occasion by the prompt and abject 
 submission of the representatives of civil power, to 
 the choice of the legions.*" 
 
 The death of Nero was like a signal to all the 
 agencies of destruction to break loose at once. In 
 the bloody wars, and tremendous pitched battles that 
 ensued between the legions, to see which should elect 
 the emperor, many smiling tracts even of Italy were 
 devastated, many noble cities ruined ; four pretenders 
 to the empire perished by the sword, and the whole 
 Roman world was shaken by the contending armies. 
 But no attempt, or even inclination, to interfere in 
 the election was manifested by either senate or people. 
 The very reverse ; while two mighty armies contended 
 under their eyes for the possession of Rome itself, the 
 citizens stood by as spectators, dehghted, and exhi- 
 biting signs of applause, and of cold-blooded cruelty, 
 which showed that they cared for the fate of the 
 empire just as little as they would, which of two rival 
 gladiators or charioteers might win a prize, 
 
 " The Roman people," says Tacitus, " were present 
 as spectators, while the whole line of the walls, (from 
 the Flaminian to the Salarian gate,) was stormed by the 
 Flavian legions, and defended by those of Vitellius. 
 Now one side, now the other, was cheered on by their 
 plaudits, regarding the scenes of carnage as a theatrical 
 entertainment. If a wounded soldier withdrew from 
 
 * " It was not without reluctance and remorse, that the Prsetorian 
 guards had been persuaded to abandon the cause of the tyrant Nero. 
 This idea is frequently and strongly inculcated by Tacitus : vid. 
 Hist. 1. V. 16. ii. 76."— Gibbon, ch. iii. p. 89. 
 
284 
 
 ROME. 
 
 the fight, they pursued him to wherever he sought 
 shelter, caused him to be dragged out and butchered. 
 They stripped the slain ; and, while the combatants 
 w^ere too much absorbed in the sanguinary conflict to 
 think of spoil, they made harvest of the plunder. 
 ' Sseva ac deformis urbe tota facies.' The whole city 
 wore a cruel and deformed aspect ; dancing and ca- 
 rousal went on side by side with havoc and groans of 
 death ; harlots and their paramours disported them- 
 selves among the wounded and the slain"; all that is 
 most unbridled in debauchery, and most heart-rending 
 in war, were brought into odious proximity ; so that 
 you would believe the city had gone mad, at one and 
 the same time, with both lust and blood-thirstiness." 
 
 Thus, by the profligacy of the Romans, was the 
 supreme power abandoned, without regret, to a brutal 
 soldiery, who were taught by the rapid downfal of 
 Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, to consider the emperors 
 as the creatures of their will and the instruments of 
 their licence. 
 
 Vespasian, the founder of the Flavian dynasty, was 
 the grandson of a private soldier, and carried with 
 him to the imperial throne the sordid disposition of a 
 tax-gatherer, which he had inherited from his father. 
 The woes predicted by our Lord and his apostles, as 
 impending over the Jews, were inflicted through his 
 instrumentahty, and that of his son Titus, who rased 
 Jerusalem to the ground. They carried with them 
 in their triumphs the sacred emblems of the Temple, 
 as we see by the relievi upon the arch of Titus, re- 
 maining to the present day. 
 
 Tt was during the reign of Titus, which was very 
 brief, that Mount Vesuvius suddenly burst forth, with 
 a desolating fury that overwhelmed the voluptuous 
 cities of Pompeii, Stabise, and Herculaneum, and 
 changed the garden of Italy into a volcanic desert. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Haustse aut obutae urbes, fecundissima Campanise ora." — C. 
 Tacit. Histor. 1. i. 2. 
 
 " Many huge men, surpassing human stature, such 
 as the giants are described to have been, appeared 
 wandering in the air and upon the earth, at one time 
 frequenting the mountain, at another the fields and 
 cities fn its neighbourhood. Afterwards came great 
 droughts and violent earthquakes, so that the whole 
 plain boiled and bubbled, and the hills leapt, and 
 there were noises under ground hke thunder, and 
 above ground like roaring, and the sea made a great 
 noise, and the heavens sounded ; and then suddenly 
 a mighty crash was heard, as if the mountains were 
 coming together, and first great stones were thrown 
 up to the very summits, then mighty fires and im- 
 mense smoke, so that the whole air was overshadowed, 
 and the sun entirely hidden as in an eclipse. 
 
 " Thus day was turned into night, and fight into 
 darkness ; and some thought the giants were rising 
 again, (for many phantoms were seen in the smoke, 
 and a blast as of trumpets, was heard,) while others 
 believed that the earth was to return to chaos, or to 
 be consumed by fire. Therefore men fled, some from 
 the houses out into the ways, others that were with- 
 out into their houses ; some quitted the land for the 
 sea, some the sea for the land, being confounded in 
 mind, and thinking every place at a distance safer 
 than where they were. Meanwhile an inexpressible 
 quantity of dust was blown out, and filled land, sea, 
 and air, which did much more mischief to men, 
 fields, and cattle, and destroyed all the birds and 
 fishes, and besides buried two entire cities — Hercula- 
 
286 
 
 ROME. 
 
 neum and Pompeii — while the population were sitting 
 in the theatre." 
 
 This is the account of the catastrophe, which the 
 historian Dion Cassius* seems to have collected from 
 the popular traditions, deeply tinged with the pagan 
 superstition of the age. The narrative given by the 
 Younger Pliny in two letters to his friend Tacitus, the 
 great Roman annalist, is much more circumstantial and 
 accurate, as might be expected from an eye-witness. 
 
 " Your request," he says, " that I should send you 
 an account of my uncle's death, in order to transmit 
 a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my 
 acknowledgments, for if this accident shall be cele- 
 brated by your pen, the glory of it I am well assured 
 will be rendered for ever illustrious. And notwith- 
 standing he perished by a misfortune, which as it in- 
 volved at the same time a most beautiful country in 
 ruins, and destroyed so many populous cities, seems 
 to promise him an everlasting remembrance ; notwith- 
 standing he has himself composed many and lasting 
 works, will greatly contribute to eternize his name. 
 Happy I esteem those to be, whom Providence has 
 distinguished with the abiUties either of doing such 
 actions as are worthy of being related, or of relating 
 them in a manner worthy of being read ; but doubly 
 happy are they who are blessed with both those un- 
 common talents : in the number of which my uncle, 
 as his own writings and your history will evidently 
 prove, may justly be ranked. It is with extreme will- 
 ingness, therefore, I execute, and should indeed haye 
 claimed the task, if you had not enjoined it. 
 
 " He was at that time with the fleet under his com- 
 mand at Misenum. On the 24th of August, about one 
 in the afternoon, my mother desired him to obser/e 
 a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and 
 shape. He had just returned from taking the beneit 
 of the sun, and after bathing himself in cold water, and 
 taking a shght repast, was retired to his study. He 
 
 * L. Ixvi. 
 
ROMR. 
 
 287 
 
 immediately arose and went out upon an eminence, 
 whence he might more distinctly view this very uncom- 
 mon appearance. It was not at that distance discerni- 
 ble from what mountain this cloud issued, but it was 
 found afterwards to ascend from Mount Vesuvius. I 
 cannot give a more exact description of its figure, than 
 by resembling it to that of a pine tree, for it shot up 
 a great height in form of a trunk, which extended itself 
 at the top into a sort of branches, occasioned, I ima- 
 gine, either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it, 
 the force of which decreased as it advanced upwards, 
 or the cloud itself being pressed back again by its own 
 weight, expanded in this manner ; it appeared some- 
 times bright and sometimes dark and spotted, as it 
 was more or less impregnated with earth and cinders. 
 This extraordinary phenomenon excited my uncle's 
 philosophical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. He 
 ordered a light vessel to be got ready, and gave me the 
 liberty, if I thought proper, to attend him. I rather 
 chose to continue my studies, for, as it happened, he 
 had given me an employment of that kind. As he 
 was coming out of the house, he received a note from 
 Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost 
 alarm at the imminent danger which threatened her ; 
 for her villa being situated at the foot of Mount Ve- 
 suvius, there was no way to escape but by sea ; she 
 earnestly entreated him, therefore, to come to her as- 
 sistance. He accordingly changed his first design, 
 and what he began with a philosophical, he pursued 
 with an heroical turn of mind. He ordered the galleys 
 to put to sea, and went on board himself, with an 
 intention of assisting not only Rectina, but several 
 others, for the villas stand extremely thick upon that 
 beautiful coast. When hastening to the place whence 
 others fled with the utmost terror, he steered his 
 direct course to the point of danger, and with so 
 much calmness and presence of mind, as to be able 
 to make and dictate his observations upon the motion 
 and figure of the dreadful scene. He was now so nigh 
 the mountain, that the cinders which grew thicker and 
 
288 
 
 ROME. 
 
 hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the ships, 
 together with pumice stones and black pieces of burn- 
 ing rock ; they were likewise in danger of being 
 aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from 
 the vast fragments which rolled down from the moun- 
 tain and obstructed all the shore. Here he stopped 
 to consider whether he should return back again ; to 
 which the pilot advising him, — ' Fortune,' said he, 
 * befriends the brave, carry me to Pomponianus.' 
 Pomponianus was then at Stabise, separated by a gulf 
 which the sea, after several insensible windings, forms 
 upon the shore. He had already sent his baggage on 
 board, for though he was not at that time in actual 
 danger, yet being in the view of it, indeed extremely 
 near, if it should in the least increase he was deter- 
 mined to put to sea as soon as the wind should change. 
 It was favourable, however, to carry my uncle to Pom- 
 ponianus, whom he found in the greatest consterna- 
 tion ; he embraced him with tenderness, encouraging 
 and exhorting him to keep up his spirits, and the more 
 to dissipate his fears he ordered with an air of uncon- 
 cern the baths to be got ready ; when, after having 
 bathed, he sat down to supper with great cheerfulness, 
 or at least (what is equally heroic) with all the appear- 
 ance of it. 
 
 " In the meanwhile, the eruption from Mount 
 Vesuvius flamed out in several places with much 
 violence, which the darkness of the night contributed 
 to render still more visible and dreadful. But my 
 uncle in order to soothe the apprehensions of his friend 
 assured him it was only the burning of the villages, 
 which the country people had abandoned to the flames ; 
 after this he retired to rest, and it is most certain he 
 was so httle discomposed as to fall into a deep sleep, 
 for being pretty fat and breathing hard, those who 
 attended without actually heard him snore. The 
 court which led to his apartment being now almost 
 filled with stones and ashes, if he had continued there 
 any time longer it would have been impossible for him 
 to have made his way out, it was thought proper 
 
ROME. 
 
 289 
 
 therefore to awaken him. He got up and went to 
 Pomponiamis, and the rest of his company who were 
 not unconcerned enough to think of going to bed. 
 They consulted together whether it would be most 
 prudent to trust to the houses, or fly to the open fields, 
 where the calcined stones and cinders, though hght 
 indeed, yet fell in large showers, and threatened de- 
 struction. In this distress they resolved for the fields, 
 as the less dangerous situation of the two ; a resolu- 
 tion which, while the rest of the company were hurried 
 into by their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool 
 and deliberate consideration. They went out, then, 
 having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins, 
 and this was their whole defence against the storm of 
 stones that fell around them. It was now day every 
 where else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed than 
 in the most obscure night, which however was in 
 some degree dissipated by torches and other hghts 
 of various kinds. They thought proper to go down 
 further upon the shore, to observe if they might safely 
 put out to sea ; but they found the waves still ran ex- 
 tremely high and boisterous. There my uncle having 
 drunk a draught or two of cold water, threw himself 
 down upon a cloth which was spread for him, when 
 immediately the flames and a strong smell of sulphur 
 which was the forerunner of them, dispersed the rest of 
 the company, and obhged him to rise. He raised him- 
 self up with the assistance of two of his servants, and 
 instantly fell down dead, as I conjecture, by some gross 
 and noxious vapour. 
 
 " During all this time, my mother and I were at Mise- 
 num. My uncle having left us, I pursued the studies 
 which prevented my going with him, till it was time to 
 bathe. After which I went to supper, and thence to 
 bed, where my sleep was greatly broken and disturbed. 
 There had been for many days before some shocks of an 
 earthquake, which the less surprised us as they are ex- 
 tremely frequent in Campania; but they were so parti- 
 cularly violent that night, that they not only shook 
 every thing about us, but seemed indeed to threaten 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 ROME. 
 
 total destruction. My mother flew to my chamber, 
 where she found me rising to awaken her. We went 
 out into a small court belonging to the house which 
 separated the sea from the buildings. As I was at that 
 time but eighteen years of age, I know not whether I 
 should call my behaviour in this dangerous juncture 
 courage or rashness ; but I took up Livy, and amused 
 myself with turning over that author, and eveninaking 
 extracts from him, as if all about me had been in full 
 security. While we were in this posture, a friend of 
 my uncle's, who was just come from Spain to pay 
 him a visit, joined us ; and observing me sitting by 
 my mother with a book in my hand, greatly con- 
 demned her calmness, at the same time that he re- 
 proved me for my careless security ; nevertheless, I 
 still went on with my author. Though it was now 
 morning, the hght was exceedingly faint and languid, 
 the buildings all around us tottered, and though we 
 stood upon open ground, yet as the place was narrow 
 and confined, there was no remaining there without 
 certain and great danger; we therefore resolved to 
 quit the town. The people followed us in the utmost 
 consternation, and, as to a mind distracted with ter- 
 ror every suggestion seems more prudent than its 
 own, pressed in great crowds about us in our way out. 
 Being got at a convenient distance from the houses, 
 we stood still in the midst of a most dangerous and 
 dreadful scene. The chariots which we had ordered 
 to be drawn out were so agitated backwards and for- 
 wards, though upon the most level ground, that we 
 could not keep them steady, even by supporting them 
 with large stones. 
 
 " The sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be 
 driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of the 
 earth ; it is certain, at least, the shore was consider- 
 ably enlarged, and several sea animals were left upon 
 it. On the other side (of the Bay towards Hercula- 
 neum and Vesuvius) a black and dreadful cloud, burst- 
 ing with an igneous serpentine vapour, darted out a 
 long train of fire, resembling flashes of lightning, but 
 
ROME. 
 
 291 
 
 much larger. Upon this our Spanish friend, whom 
 I mentioned above, addressed himself to my mother, 
 and with great warmth and earnestness : * If your bro- 
 ther and uncle,' said he, ' is safe, he certainly wishes 
 you may be so too ; but if he perished, it was his 
 desire, do doubt, that you might both survive him ; 
 why, therefore, do you delay your escape a moment V 
 We could never think of our own safety, we said, while 
 we were uncertain of his. Hereupon our friend left 
 us, and withdrew from the danger with the utmost 
 precipitation. Soon afterwards the cloud seemed to 
 descend and cover the whole ocean, as indeed it en- 
 tirely hid the island of Caprea and the promontory of 
 Misenum. 
 
 " My mother strongly conjured me to make my 
 escape, at any rate, which, as I was young, I might 
 easily do ; as for herself, she said, her age and cor- 
 pulency rendered all attempts of that sort impossible. 
 However, she would wilHngly meet death if she could 
 have the satisfaction of seeing that she was not the 
 occasion of mine. But I absolutely refused to leave 
 her, and taking her by the hand, I led her on. She 
 complied with great reluctance, and not without many 
 reproaches to herself for retarding my flight. The 
 ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no great 
 quantity. I turned my head, and observed behind 
 us a thick smoke, which came rolling after us hke a 
 torrent. I proposed while we had yet any hght to 
 turn out of the high road, lest she should be pressed 
 to death in the dark by the crowd that followed us. 
 We had scarce stepped out of the path, when dark- 
 ness overspread us, not like that of a cloudy night 
 or when there is no moon, but of a room where it is 
 shut up and the hghts extinct. Nothing was then to 
 be heard but the shrieks of women, the screams of 
 children, and the cries of men ; some calling for their 
 children, others for their parents, others for their 
 husbands, and only distinguishing each other by their 
 voices ; one lamenting his own fate, another that of 
 his family ; some wishing to die from the very fear of 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 ROME. 
 
 dying, some lifting their hands to the gods ; but the 
 greater part imagining that the last and eternal night 
 was come which was to destroy the gods and the world 
 together.* Among these were some who augmented 
 the real terrors by imaginary ones, and made the 
 affrighted multitudes falsely beheve that Misenum 
 was actually in flames. 
 
 " At length a gUmmering Ught appeared, which 
 we imagined rather the forerunner of an approaching 
 burst of flames, as in truth it was, than the return 
 of day. However, the fire fell at a distance from us ; 
 then again we were immersed in thick darkness, and 
 a thick shower of ashes rained upon us, which we 
 were obliged every now and then to shake off, other- 
 wise we should have been crushed and buried in the 
 heap. I might boast that during all this scene not 
 a sigh or expression of fear escaped from me, had 
 not my support been founded in that miserable though 
 strong consolation— that all mankind were involved 
 in the same calamity, and that I imagined I was pe- 
 rishing with the world itself ! 
 
 " At last this dreadful darkness was dissipated by 
 degrees, like a cloud of smoke ; and the real day re- 
 turned, and even the sun appeared, though very 
 faintly, and as when an eclipse is coming on. Every 
 object that presented itself to our eyes (which were 
 extremely weakened) seemed changed, being covered 
 over with white ashes as with a deep snow."t 
 
 * The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world was 
 to be destroyed by fire, and all things fall again into original chaos ; 
 not excepting even the national gods themselves from the destruction 
 of the general conflagration. — Melmoth. 
 
 f Dion Cassius, in the place above quoted, says the ashes reacied 
 Africa, Syria, and Egypt, filling the air above Rome, and overcloid- 
 ing the sun and causing much fear for many days, men not knomng 
 what had happened, and imagining that the world was about to lapse 
 in chaos. Subsequently the ashes produced a pestilential disease. 
 The foregoing letters are from Melmoth's Transl. Pliny's Letters, 
 let. 16 and 20. The reader will at once perceive their dramatic con- 
 nexion with the scenes in the Centurion's narrative, which are sup- 
 posed to have taken place when the cities around the bay of Naples 
 were visited by the apostle, whom he was conducting to Rome. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Certe ipse orbis in promptu est cultior de die, et instructior 
 pristine ; omnia jam pervia, omnia nota, omnia negotiosa ; solitudines 
 f'aniosas retro fundi amsenissimi obliteraverunt, sylvas arvadomuerunt; 
 feras pecora fugaverunt ; arense seruntur, saxa pimguntur, paludes 
 eliquantur. Tantas urbes quantae non casse quondam. Jam nec 
 insulae horrent, nec scopulse terrent ; ubique domus, ubique populus, 
 ubique respublica, ubique vita ; summum testimonium frsequentise 
 hujusmodi, onorosi sumus mundo ; vix nobis elementa sufficiunt ; 
 et necessitas arctiores, et quaerelse apud omnes, dum jam nos natura 
 non sustinet." — Tertullian, de Animd, xxx. 
 
 DoMiTiAN, who succeeded Titus, and was not 
 free from suspicion of having had a hand in his bro- 
 ther's death, was himself, after a despotic reign of 
 about fifteen years, got rid of by the poniard ! The 
 period between his death and the accession of Corn- 
 modus, is that in which the Roman world is said to 
 have enjoyed the greatest happiness and prosperity.*" 
 
 " The vast extent of the empire," says Gibbon, 
 "was governed by absolute power under the guidance 
 of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained 
 by the firm but gentle hand of four successive em- 
 perors, whose characters and authority commanded 
 involuntary respect. The forms of civil administration 
 were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, 
 and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of 
 liberty, and were pleased with considering themselves 
 as the accountable ministers of the laws." 
 
 " This was the period," says Sismondi, " at which 
 more especially the provincial cities attained the 
 highest pitch of opulence, and were adorned with 
 the most remarkable edifices. Adrian had a strong 
 taste for the arts, and for all the enjoyments of life. 
 
 * From A.D. 96 to A.D. 180. 
 
294 
 
 ROME. 
 
 (The deification of Antinous, by his order, his medals, 
 statues, temples, city, oracles, and constellations, are but 
 too well known for the honour of humanity.*) Adrian 
 was continually travelhng through the provinces of 
 his vast empire ; he excited emulation among the 
 several large cities and the wealthier citizens ; and 
 he carried to the furthest extremities of the Roman 
 dominions that luxury and taste for decoration which, 
 before his time, was the exclusive distinction of those 
 magnificent cities which were deemed the depositories 
 of the civihzation of the world. This example of the 
 emperors was universally imitated by their subjects. 
 Scarcely had the proud structure of the Cohseum 
 been dedicated at Rome" (it was there St. Ignatius, 
 disciple of St. John the EvangeUst, was devoured by 
 wild beasts,) " before the edifices of a smaller scale 
 indeed, but of the same design and materials, were 
 erected for the use, and at the expense of the cities 
 of Capua and Verona. The inscription of the stupen- 
 dous bridge of Alcantara attests that it was thrown 
 over the Tagus by the contribution of a few Lusitanian 
 (Portuguese) communities. When PUny the younger 
 was intrusted by Trajan with the government of 
 Bithynia and Pontus, provinces by no means the 
 richest or most considerable of the empire, he found 
 the cities within his jurisdiction striving with each 
 other in every useful and ornamental work that de- 
 serves the curiosity of strangers, or the gratitude of 
 their citizens. The opulent senators of Rome and 
 the provinces esteemed it an honour, and almost an 
 obhgation, to adorn the splendour of their age and 
 country ; and the influence of fashion very frequently 
 supplied the want of taste or generosity. Among a 
 crowd of these private benefactors, it is usual with 
 historians to select as a sample, Herodes Atticus, 
 an Athenian citizen, who lived in the age of the 
 Antonines. 
 
 * See Spanheim, Comment sur les Caesars et Julian, note 80 ; 
 also Gibbon, ch. iii. p. 91. 
 
ROME. 295 
 
 The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia had been 
 invited by liberal rewards to direct the education of 
 young Herod. Their pupil soon became a celebrated 
 orator, according to the useless rhetoric of that age, 
 which, confining itself to the schools, disdained to 
 visit either the forum or the senate. He was honoured 
 with the consulship of Rome ; but the greatest part 
 of his life was spent in philosophic retirement at 
 Athens and his adjacent villas, perpetually surrounded 
 by sophists, who acknowledged without reluctance the 
 superiority of a rich and generous rival. The mo- 
 numents of his genius have perished. Some consi- 
 derable ruins still preserve the fame of his taste and 
 munificence. He had received a grant of 3,000,000 
 drachmae (£100,000) for the construction of an aque- 
 duct at Troy ; but to render it more magnificent, he 
 doubled the sum from his own private fortune. At 
 Athens, where he presided over the public games, he 
 built a stadium of white marble 600 feet in length, 
 and of sufficient size to contain the whole body of 
 the people. Shortly afterwards, having lost his wife 
 Regilla, he consecrated to her memory a theatre 
 which was unmatched through the whole extent of 
 the empire. The only timber used was cedar, which 
 was exquisitely carved. The Odeon, built in the time 
 of Pericles, had fallen into ruin. Herodes Atticus 
 rebuilt it, at his own cost, in all its ancient splendour. 
 Greece was likewise indebted to him for the restora- 
 tion of the temple of Neptune, in the isthmus of 
 Corinth, for the construction of a theatre at Corinth, 
 for a stadium at Delphi, a bath at Thermopylae ; and 
 Italy for an aqueduct at Canusium. Many other ci- 
 ties of Epirus, Thessalia, Euboea, Boeotia, and Pelo- 
 ponnesus, were likewise adorned through his liberality. 
 Every province contained some citizen who resembled 
 Herod in magnificence. " We cannot refuse the tribute 
 of praise to Atticus," concludes Sismondi, *'butwe 
 must pity the country where such fortunes can be 
 accumulated ; where one man of enormous wealth and 
 thousands of dependent slaves, must have taken the 
 
296 
 
 ROME. 
 
 place of millions of men, free, happy, and virtu- 
 ous." 
 
 " The vast extent of ground which had been usurped 
 by the selfish luxury of Nero for his golden palace 
 and its adjacent parks, gardens, hippodromes, and 
 artificial lakes, was more nobly filled," says Mr. Gib- 
 bon, " by the Coliseum, (dedicated to murder,) the 
 baths of Titus, the Claudian porticos, the temple 
 dedicated to the goddess of peace, and the temple of 
 the Roman Venus. (This last mentioned temple was 
 a public brothel.) These monuments of architec- 
 ture, the property of the Roman people, were adorned 
 with the most beautiful productions of Grecian paint- 
 ing and sculpture ; and in the temple of Peace a very 
 curious library was opened to the curiosity of the 
 learned. At a small distance from thence was situ- 
 ated the forum of Trajan. It was surrounded with 
 a lofty portico in the form of a quadrangle, into which 
 four triumphal arches opened a noble and spacious 
 entrance ; in the centre, (rather at the west end,) arose 
 a column of marble, whose height, of one hundred 
 and ten feet, denoted the elevation of the hill that 
 had been cut away (by slaves, multitudes of whom 
 were Christians). This column, which still subsists 
 in its ancient beauty, (surmounted by the statue of 
 St. Peter,) exhibited an exact representation of the 
 Dacian victories of the founder, (the Ghengis Khan 
 of his age). The veteran soldier contemplated the 
 story of his own campaigns, and by an easy illusion of 
 national vanity, the peaceful citizen associated him- 
 self to the honours of the triumph, (and to the merit 
 of the havoc and devastation.) All the other quarters 
 of the capital and all the provinces of the empire 
 were embellished by the same liberal spirit of public 
 magnificence, and were filled with amphitheatres, 
 theatres, temples, porticos, triumphal arches, baths, 
 and aqueducts, all variously conducive to the health, 
 the devotion, and the pleasures of the meanest citi- 
 zen. The aqueducts of the capital claim a just pre- 
 eminence ; but the curious traveller, who, without the 
 
ROME. 
 
 297 
 
 light of history, should examine those of Spoleto, of 
 Metz, or of Segovia, would very naturally conclude, 
 that those provincial towns had formerly been the 
 residence of some potent monarch. The solitudes of 
 Asia and Africa were covered, in the age of the Anto- 
 nines, with flourishing cities, whose populousness, and 
 even whose existence was derived from such artificial 
 supplies of a perennial stream of fresh water. 
 
 " Italy alone contained eleven hundred and ninety- 
 seven cities. Many were the cities of Gaul : Mar- 
 seilles, Aries, Nismes, Narbonne, Thoulouse, Bour- 
 deaux, Autun, Vienne, Lyons, Langres, and Treves, 
 whose ancient condition might sustain an equal, and 
 perhaps advantageous comparison with their present 
 state. Spain numbered three hundred and sixty 
 cities. In Africa there were three hundred cities, 
 within the limits of the ancient domain of Carthage, 
 which, like Corinth, had risen with new splendour 
 from the heap of ruins to which Scipio had reduced 
 it, and where Marius had ruminated upon his own 
 reverse of fortune. Proper Asia alone contained five 
 hundred populous cities, enriched with all the gifts of 
 nature and adorned with all the refinements of art. 
 Eleven cities of Asia had once disputed the honour of 
 dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and their respective 
 claims were examined by the senate. Four of them 
 were immediately rejected, as unequal to the burden ; 
 and among these was Laodicea, a place deriving great 
 wealth from its trade in the fine wool of its flocks ; 
 and which had just before the contest received a le- 
 gacy of £400,000 by the testament of one of its 
 citizens. If such was the poverty of Laodicea, what 
 must have been the wealth of those cities, whose claim 
 appeared preferable, and particularly of Pergamus, of 
 Smyrna, and of Ephesus, which so long disputed with 
 each other the primacy of Asia ? The capitals of 
 Syria and Egypt held a superior rank in the empire ; 
 Antioch and Alexandria looked down with disdain 
 on a crowd of dependent cities, and yielded, with 
 
298 
 
 ROME. 
 
 reluctance, to the majesty of Rome itself. The spirit 
 of improvement had passed the Alps, and had been 
 felt even in the woods of Britain, which were gradu- 
 ally cleared away, to open a free space for convenient 
 and elegant habitations. York was the seat of go- 
 vernment, London was already enriched by commerce, 
 and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of 
 its medicinal waters."* 
 
 * Decline and Fall, vol. i. passim. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " The corruption of Rome had begun from the time of the republic, 
 from the time the middle class ceased to impress its own pecu- 
 liar character on the whole nation ; this corruption increased in 
 proportion as the intermediate ranks disappeared ; it was carried 
 to the highest pitch when the whole empire consisted of men of 
 enormous wealth, and populace." — Sismondi, Fall of Rome, 
 chap. vi. 
 
 It is scarcely surprising that the Romans, dazzled 
 as they were by the extensive sway and irresistible 
 strength of the emperors, should have suffered them- 
 selves to despise and sometimes to forget the outlying 
 countries possessed by savage nations without arts or 
 discipline or any written laws, and that looking back 
 to their disgrace and sufferings under the first Caesars, 
 they should have extolled the period of Trajan and 
 the Antonines as a golden age. 
 
 Yet it was during this same period that peace and 
 prosperity fostered the colossal growth of a few for- 
 tunes, of those latifundia, or vast domains, which, 
 according to Pliny the elder, were the destruction 
 of Italy and the empire. A single proprietor gra- 
 dually became possessed of provinces which had fur- 
 nished the republic with the occasion of decreeing 
 more than one triumph to its generals. While he 
 amassed wealth so disproportionable to the wants of 
 a single man, he cleared all the country he got within 
 his grasp of that numerous and respectable class of 
 independent cultivators, hitherto so happy in their 
 mediocrity. Where thousands of free citizens had for- 
 merly been found ready to defend the soil they tilled 
 with their own hands, nothing was to be seen but 
 
300 
 
 ROME, 
 
 slaves.* Even this miserable population rapidly di- 
 minished, because its labour was too expensive ; and 
 the proprietor found it answer better to turn his land 
 into pasture. The fertile fields of Italy ceased to 
 supply food for their inhabitants ; the provisioning 
 of Rome depended on fleets which brought corn from 
 Sicily, from Egypt, and from Africa ; from the capital 
 to the uttermost provinces, depopulation followed in 
 the train of overgrown wealth ; and it was in the midst 
 of this universal prosperity, before a single barbarian 
 had crossed the frontiers of the empire, that the diffi- 
 culty of recruiting the legions began to be felt. In the 
 war against the Quadi and Marcomanni, which was 
 preceded by so long a peace, Marcus Aurelius was 
 reduced to the necessity of enrolling the slaves and 
 robbers of Rome. 
 
 The frontier provinces, those most exposed to the 
 attacks of the barbarians, those which suiFered the 
 most from the presence and the military vexations of 
 the legions, did not suffer so much from the rapid 
 decline of population, and of the warlike virtues, as 
 the more wealthy provinces of the interior. The levies 
 of troops were no longer made in Rome ; they were 
 raised almost exclusively in northern Gaul, and along 
 the right bank of the Danube. This long lUyrian 
 frontier in particular, for more than two centuries, pre- 
 served the reputation of furnishing more soldiers to 
 the empire than all the rest of the provinces com- 
 bined. This border country had offered httle tempta- 
 tion to the cupidity of the Roman senators ; they cared 
 not to have their property in a province constantly 
 harassed by the enemy. The land which the senators 
 would not buy remained in the possession of the old pro- 
 prietors : there consequently a population, numerous, 
 free, robust, and hardy, still maintained itself. It long 
 
 * A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune 
 had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left behind him 3,600 
 yoke of oxen, 250,000 head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost 
 included in the description of cattle, 4,116 slaves.— Plin. Nat. Hist. 
 I. xxxiii. 47 ; Gib. ch. ii. p. 50. 
 
ROME. 
 
 301 
 
 furnislied the army with soldiers ; it soon suppUed it 
 with chiefs.* 
 
 It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contempo- 
 raries should discover in the public felicity the causes 
 of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the 
 uniform government of the Romans, introduced a 
 slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. 
 The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same 
 level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even 
 the military spirit evaporated ; Spain, Gaul, Britain, 
 and lUyricum, supplied the legions with excellent sol- 
 diers, and constituted the real strength of the mo- 
 narchy. Their personal valour remained, but they no 
 longer possessed that public courage which is nou- 
 rished by the love of independence, the sense of 
 national honour, the presence of danger, and the 
 habit of command. They received laws and governors 
 from the will of despotic sovereigns, and trusted for 
 their defence to a mercenary army. 
 
 That army soon ceased to be even officered by men 
 who had received a liberal education, and were in- 
 structed in the advantages of laws and letters. Effe- 
 minacy, and the extinction of every spark of patriotism 
 and independence among the nobles, had made them 
 averse to the military service ; so that their total ex- 
 clusion from it, by Gallienus, would seem to have 
 been acquiesced in by them, with secret satisfaction. 
 The more polished citizens of the internal provinces 
 were alone qualified to act as lawyers and magistrates. 
 The rougher trade of arms was abandoned to the 
 peasants and barbarians of the frontiers, who knew no 
 country but the camp, no science but that of war, no 
 civil laws, and scarcely those of military discipline ; with 
 bloody hands, savage manners, and desperate resolu- 
 tions, they sometimes guarded, but much oftener 
 subverted the throne of the emperors. f 
 
 Commodus, son and successor of Marcus Aurelius, 
 
 * See Sismondi, Fall of Rome, vol. i. p. 34. 
 •f Gibbon, ch. vi. p. 201. 
 
302 
 
 ROME. 
 
 having been murdered in the year 193,* was suc- 
 ceeded by Helvius Pertinax, soon after murdered 
 by the Prsetorian guards, who then set the empire 
 to auction. Didius Juhus, a wealthy senator, was 
 the highest bidder, but expiated his presumption 
 with his life, after a reign, such as it was, of only 
 sixty days. It is not improbable, that Septimius 
 Severus, who succeeded, was murdered by his own 
 son Caracalla, who, in order to rid himself of a 
 partner in the throne, assassinated his brother Geta 
 in the arms of their common mother, where the unfor- 
 tunate young prince had taken refuge. Caracalla fell, 
 in his turn, by the hand of a private soldier, and was 
 succeeded by Opilius Macrinus, soon after slain, to be 
 succeeded by Heliogabalus, who was soon murdered, 
 and flung into the Tiber, with a stone tied about his neck. 
 His successor, Alexander Severus, was murdered in 
 his tent, and succeeded by Maximin, a Goth, who, with 
 his son, was soon after murdered. Pupienus and Cselius 
 Albinus, who succeeded, were slain by the soldiery, 
 who elect the youthful Gordian emperor. He, when 
 hardly eighteen, is also murdered. Philip, an Arab 
 by birth, succeeds with his brother, and both are slain 
 by Decius, who, succeeding, is himself slain, by the 
 Goths, with his only son. The vacant purple is given 
 to Gallus by the army, but, on seeing a rival advanc- 
 ing at the head of a superior force, they murder himself 
 and his son, and pass over to Julius Emilianus, whom 
 they murder on the approach of Valerian. This 
 emperor, having been taken prisoner by Sapor, king 
 of Persia, was flayed alive, after having been used as 
 a footstool by his conqueror, and treated with various 
 other indignities. The reign of his son and colleague 
 Gallienus, is the time of the " Thirty Tyrants." 
 
 The election of these precarious emperors, their 
 power, and their death, were equally destructive to 
 their subjects and adherents. f The price of their 
 
 * See Denina, Delia Rivoluzione d'ltalia, 1. iii. 3, ver. med. 
 Gibbon, ch. iv. to x. 
 
 f Gibbon, vol. i. p. 338. 
 
ROME. 
 
 303 
 
 fatal elevation was instantly discharged to the troops 
 by an immense donative drawn from the bowels of 
 the exhausted people ; whatever their character, or 
 intentions, they found themselves reduced to the hard 
 necessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent 
 acts of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they in- 
 volved armies and provinces in their fall. There is 
 still extant a mandate from Gallienus to one of his 
 ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who had 
 assumed the purple in lUyricum. 
 
 " It is not enough," says that soft and inhuman 
 prince, " that you exterminate such as have appeared 
 in arms ; the chance of battle might have served me as 
 effectually. The male sex of every age must be extir- 
 pated ; provided that in the execution of the children 
 and old men, you can contrive means to save our 
 reputation. Let every one die who has dropped an 
 expression, who has entertained a thought against me 
 ■ — against me, the son of Valerian, the father and bro- 
 ther of so many princes. Remember that Ingenuus 
 was made emperor ; tear, kill, hew him to pieces. I 
 write to you with my own hand, and would inspire 
 you with my own feelings." 
 
 " Thus," says Sismondi, " was the world taught, 
 by ninety-two years of nearly incessant civil war, on 
 what a frail and instable foundation the virtue of the 
 Antonines had reared the felicity of the empire. 
 During that time, thirty-two emperors and twenty- 
 seven pretenders to the empire alternately hurled each 
 other from the throne, either by open violence or assas- 
 sination ; the sovereignty of the world was put up to 
 auction ; the legions of the east and west disputed the 
 fatal honour of decorating with the purple men taken 
 from the lowest ranks of society, without genius, with- 
 out education, raised by the brutal caprice of their com- 
 rades, above all that the world had been accustomed to 
 hold in reverence." When the mihtary order had thus 
 levelled in wild anarchy the laws of the senate and 
 even the disciphne of the camp, the barbarians of the 
 north and of the east, who had hovered on the 
 
304 
 
 ROME. 
 
 frontiers, boldly attacked the provinces of the declin- 
 ing monarchy. The legions, enfeebled and reduced 
 to less than 6,000 men each, had been withdrawn 
 from guarding against their invasions, to massacre 
 each other in almost continual conflicts. Their dis- 
 cipline was utterly destroyed ; their leaders neither 
 merited nor obtained their confidence. After a defeat, 
 it was impossible to recruit the army, on account of 
 causes before alluded to, and of the clearance system 
 in particular. At the moment of an attack, it was 
 with the greatest difficulty they could be induced to 
 march. The barbarians, witnesses of this anarchy, 
 and of these conflicts, no longer beholding on their 
 frontiers those formidable camps of the legions which 
 had so long held them in awe, as if by common con- 
 sent made incursions at all points at once, from the 
 extremities of Caledonia to those of Persia. 
 
 Issuing from the frozen regions beyond the Baltic, 
 the Goths, in the reign of Alexander Severus, broke in 
 upon the provinces of Dacia, ravaged Masia in the reign 
 of Philip, and, although frequently encountered and 
 driven back with slaughter upon the German borders, 
 new swarms succeeded, and, advancing further south 
 in each new invasion, at length, near an obscure town 
 of Masia, called Forum Terebonii, joined battle with 
 the imperial legions, commanded by Decius in person, 
 routed them with tremendous havoc, slaying the 
 emperor and his son upon the field. Following up 
 this victory, we find them successively plundering, 
 and leaving desolate, the rich cities of Trapezus (Tre- 
 bizond,) Chalcedon, Nicaea, Nicomedia, Apameea, 
 Prusa, Cyzicus, and, thence sweeping along the Bos- 
 phorus and Propontis, passing the Hellespont with a 
 fleet of five hundred vessels, and so entering the 
 Piraeus. Athens could offer no resistance. A general 
 conflagration blazed out at the same time in every dis- 
 trict of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and 
 Sparta, which had formerly waged war against each 
 other, were now unable to defend their ruined walls. 
 Both by land and by sea, the rage of war spread from 
 
ROME. 
 
 305 
 
 the eastern point of Sunium to the western coast of 
 Epirus, nor were the invaders checked in the career of 
 devastation until within sight of Italy. 
 
 In another direction, the empire was invaded by 
 the Franks, the name of a confederacy of the Chau- 
 cans, Cherucans, Chattans, and other fierce tribes of 
 warlike Germany, whose valour had for centuries 
 proved formidable to the Romans. The Rhine, though 
 dignified with the title of " safeguard of the pro- 
 vinces," was an imperfect barrier against their daring 
 spirit. They burst upon Gaul. Their rapid devasta- 
 tions stretched from the river to the foot of the Pyre- 
 nees, nor were they stopped by the mountains. Spain, 
 which had never dreaded, was unable to resist the 
 inroads of the Germans, and during twelve years that 
 opulent country was the theatre of unequal and de- 
 structive hostiHties. Wretched cottages, scattered 
 amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, for centuries 
 afterwards recorded the rage of the barbarians. 
 
 When the exhausted country no longer supplied a 
 variety of plunder, the Franks seized on some vessels 
 in the sea ports, and transported themselves into Mau- 
 ritania. The distant province was astonished with the 
 fury of these invaders, who seemed to fall from a new 
 world, as their name, manners, and complexion, were 
 equally unknown on the coast of Africa. 
 
 Jealous as were the Germans of military renown, 
 they all confessed the superior valour of the Suevi, 
 whose wide extended name filled the immense coun- 
 tries between the Oder and the Danube. They were 
 distinguished from the rest of their countrymen by 
 their peculiar mode of dressing their long hair, which 
 they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the 
 head ; and they dehghted in an ornament that showed 
 their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the 
 enemy. At stated periods, the tribes, who gloried in 
 the Suevic blood, resorted, by their ambassadors, to 
 a sacred wood, deemed to be the birth-place of the 
 
 * Gibbon, vol. i. p. 308. 
 X 
 
306 
 
 ROME. 
 
 nation, and there the memory of their common origm 
 was perpetuated by hmnan sacrifices. Such were the 
 warUke people, who, under the title of Alemans, or 
 " Allmen," first lifted the veil that covered the feeble 
 majesty of Italy. Bursting across the Danube, and 
 through the Rh^tian Alps, they spread dismay over 
 the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ravenna, 
 and displayed the victorious banner of barbarians 
 almost in sight of Romc^*^ 
 
 In all their invasions, these barbarians preserved 
 the recollection of the long terrors, and the long re- 
 sentment with which the Romans had inspired them. 
 Their hatred was still too fresh and fervent to allow 
 them to show any pity to their vanquished foes. Till 
 then they had seen nothing of the Romans but their 
 soldiers, but when they suddenly penetrated into the 
 midst of these magnificent and populous cities, at first 
 they feared that they should be crushed by a multi- 
 tude so superior to their own ; but when they saw and 
 understood the cowardice of these enervated masses, 
 their fear was changed into the deepest scorn. Their 
 cruelty was in proportion to these two sentiments, and 
 their object was rather destruction than conquest. 
 The population, which had been thinned by the opera- 
 tion of wealth and luxury, was now further reduced 
 by that of poverty. The human species seemed to 
 vanish before the sword of the barbarians. Some- 
 times they massacred all the inhabitants of a town ; 
 sometimes they sent them into slavery, far from the 
 country of their birth. After such calamities, fresh 
 fears, fresh oppression, fresh miseries effectually 
 checked the growth of the population. Vast deserts 
 formed themselves in the heart of the empire.f 
 
 * It was on this occasion that human beings were immolated on 
 the altars of the Capitol, to secure the repulse of the barbarians. 
 Aurelian paraded his liberality, by offering to supply victims from 
 whatever nation the Etruscans might desire them, and rebuked 
 the senate for acting, as he said, more like men in a church of the 
 Christians, than in a pagan temple. — Gibbon, vol. i. p. 308. 
 
 f Sismondi, v. i. 39. 
 
ROME. 
 
 307 
 
 General famine was the inevitable consequence of 
 rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce 
 of the present, and the hope of future harvests. 
 Famine is almost always followed by epidemical 
 diseases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome food. 
 Other causes must, however, have contributed to the 
 furious plague, which, from the year 250 to the year 
 265, raged without interruption in every province, 
 every city, and almost every family of the Roman 
 empire. During some time five thousand persons died 
 daily in Rome ; and many towns that had escaped the 
 hands of the barbarians were entirely depopulated. 
 Applying this authentic fact to the most correct tables 
 of mortality, it evidently proves that above half the 
 people of Alexandria had perished ; and could we ven- 
 ture to extend the analogy to the other provinces, we 
 might suspect that war, pestilence, and famine, had 
 consumed in a few years the moiety of the human 
 species. 
 
 It is scarcely surprising that the face of nature 
 should have appeared sad and boding to a generation 
 thus overwhelmed with calamities. 
 
 " The showers of spring time fail us," they said, 
 ''for nourishing the seed: the sun's heat in summer 
 for ripenmg the corn. The fields have ceased to put 
 forth their verdure in due season, and the trees of 
 autumn are barren of their accustomed issue. Moun- 
 tains, disemboweled, and ransacked, yield a shortened 
 store of marble layers ; the exhausted mines send up 
 but a scanty wealth of silver and of gold, their impo- 
 verished veins day by day are narrowed and dimi- 
 nished. While the husbandman languishes in the 
 fields, the sailor at sea, the soldier in the camp, 
 honesty sinks in the mart, justice from the tribunal, 
 affection from friendship, skill from the arts, and 
 disciphne from society. Life has scarcely dawned in 
 infancy, when it seems to hasten to decrepitude ; and 
 every thing that comes into existence now, deterio- 
 rates rapidly, as if affected by this senility of the 
 universe itself." 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 ROME. 
 
 In short, from the secular games celebrated by 
 Philip, (u. c. 1000,) to the death (by assassination,) 
 of the emperor Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years 
 of shame and misfortune, during which period every 
 instant of time was marked, every province of the 
 Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders, or 
 military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to 
 approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. 
 Claudius, surnamed the Gothic, who succeeded him, 
 writes thus to the senate on his accession, a. d. 269. 
 
 Conscript fathers 1 know that three hundred and 
 twenty thousand Goths have invaded the Roman 
 territory. If I vanquish them, your gratitude will 
 reward my services. Should I fall, remember that I 
 am the successor of GaUienus. The whole republic 
 is fatigued and exhausted ; and even though success- 
 ful against its foreign foes, we shall have still to 
 subdue the thousand usurpers whom a just contempt 
 for Gallienus provoked into rebellion. We are in 
 want of darts, of spears, and of shields. The strength 
 of the empire, Gaul and Spain, are usurped by Tetri- 
 cus, and we blush to acknowledge that the archers of 
 the east serve under the banners of Zenobia." 
 
 In the midst of the Gothic war, which he had car- 
 ried on for two years with great heroism and ferocity, 
 Claudius died of pestilence at Sirmium, recommend- 
 ing, as the man best qualified to cope with the perils of 
 the state, the son of a Dacian peasant, who by his 
 matchless valour had raised himself from the ranks to 
 the command of the Roman armies. This was Aure- 
 lian. It is true his victories, during a four years' 
 reign, which formed but one continuous campaign, 
 were numerous and brilliant : in his triumph, not only 
 Goths, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, 
 Syrians, Egyptians, but queens and emperors were 
 led in chains ; but the new hue of wall with which he 
 fortified the eternal city, was a signal that the frontiers 
 had given way, and that, in despite of all resistance, 
 the surges of invasions would beat, ere long, over the 
 Capitol itself. 
 
ROME. 
 
 309 
 
 ''The wall of Aurelian," says Gibbon, ''was a 
 great but a melancholy labour," since the defence 
 of the capital betrayed the decline of the monarchy. 
 The Romans of a more prosperous age, who trusted 
 to the arms of the legions the safety of the frontier 
 camps, were very far from entertaining a suspicion 
 that it would ever become necessary to fortify the 
 seat of empire against the inroads of barbarians. In 
 fact, from this reign, interrupted as usual by assassi- 
 nation, up to the triumph of Constantine the Great, 
 the provinces of the Roman world were not only 
 desolated by barbarians, but its government and desti- 
 nies were in their hands. 
 
 Aurelian withdrew the Roman forces from Dacia, 
 and tacitly rehnquished that great province to the 
 Goths and Vandals. Probus even invited the barba- 
 rians to settle within the vast solitudes, which inces- 
 sant wars had left along the entire extent of lUyria. 
 Into Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, 
 he transported a considerable body of Vandals. Great 
 numbers of Gepidse and Franks were settled on the 
 banks of the Danube and the Rhine ; a hundred thou- 
 sand Bastarnse, expelled from their own country, were 
 established in Thrace. Besides all this, vast bodies of 
 the invaders were taken into the Roman service to 
 make head against their own countrymen, whom the 
 effete and demoralized Romans were no longer able 
 to resist. 
 
 " The feeble elegance of Italy," says Gibbon, " and 
 of the internal provinces, could no longer support the 
 weight of arms." The hardy frontier of the Rhine 
 and Danube still produced minds and bodies equal to 
 the labours of the camp ; but a perpetual series of wars 
 had gradually diminished their numbers, and the hber- 
 tinism of manners with the ruin of agriculture resulting 
 from this state of things, not only destroyed the strength 
 of the provinces, but intercepted the hopes of future 
 generations. Rome, no longer able even to defend 
 herself with iron, had recourse to gold, and, thencefor- 
 ward, it was only by contriving to martial the invaders 
 
310 
 
 ROME. 
 
 themselves in her defence, that she endeavoured to 
 ward off impending ruin. Nay, from the accession of 
 Diocletian,* a barbarian and a slave, up to the asto- 
 nishing rise and triumph of Constantine the Great, the 
 whole Roman world was not so much invaded, as 
 ravaged and held in unresisting thraldom, during a 
 period of upwards of thirty years, by emperors devoted 
 to barbarian views and passions, and hostile to the 
 interests and existence of Rome. 
 
 * 17th of September, a. d. 284. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Di tutti questi imperadori, niuno ve n' ebbe, da cui le lettere 
 ricevessero protezione e favore. Uomini per la piu parte o nati 
 di bassa stirpe, o allevati fin da fanciulli frail' armi, appena le 
 conoscevan per nome." — TirahoscM, Stor.della Letter. Ital. torn, 
 ii. 1. ii. cap. i. xv. 
 
 The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the 
 house of Annulinus, a Roman senator it is not im- 
 probable that his father, it is certain that his mother, 
 was of barbarian descent. 
 
 When the son of these captives, of whose bitter 
 wrongs and insults he no doubt had often heard, be- 
 held the Roman world at his feet, it was not unnatural 
 that resentments, which could not fail to be excited in 
 a haughty and revengeful spirit by such family recol- 
 lections, should have given a tinge even to his imperial 
 policy. But no matter what might be their secret 
 spring, his measures were obviously calculated to 
 humble and degrade the Romans ; and, but for the 
 astonishing rise and triumph of Constantine, must 
 have opened for the barbarians of the north an easy 
 access to the capital, a full century at least before the 
 Goths ascended it. One of his darling objects was to 
 rival, if not eclipse, the architectural glories of Rome 
 by those of Nicomedia, to which he had transferred 
 the seat of empire. f Except in the twentieth year of 
 his reign when he celebrated his triumph, it is ex- 
 tremely doubtful, according to Gibbon, whether he 
 ever visited the ancient capital ; and even then the 
 aristocratic deportment of the patricians, and the 
 familiarity of the plebeians, proved so insutferable to 
 the quondam barbarian slave, that he left, after 
 a stay of scarcely two months, and without even 
 
 * Decline and Fall, ch. xiii. vol. ii. p. 1. t Ibid, p. 35. 
 
312 
 
 ROME. 
 
 waiting to assume the consulship, as he had in- 
 tended. 
 
 " This dislike," says Gibbon, "was not the effect 
 of momentary caprice, but the result of the most art- 
 ful policy. That crafty prince had framed a new 
 system of imperial government, and as the image of 
 the old constitution was religiously preserved in the 
 senate, he resolved to deprive that order of its small 
 remains of power and consideration. As the sovereign 
 of Italy, Maximian was intrusted with the execution 
 of this design, and the task was perfectly suited to his 
 cruel temper. 
 
 " The most illustrious members of the senate, whom 
 Diocletian always affected to esteem, were involved 
 by his colleague in the accusation of imaginary plots ; 
 and the possession of an elegant villa, or a well culti- 
 vated estate, was interpreted as a convincing evidence 
 of guilt.* The camp of the Praetorians, which had 
 so long oppressed, began to protect the majesty of 
 Rome ; by the prudent measures of Diocletian, their 
 numbers were insensibly reduced, their privileges 
 abolished, and their place supplied by two faithful 
 legions of Illyricum. They were veteran corps, re- 
 cruited from the barbarians and semi-barbarians of the 
 frontier. Each of them was six thousand strong. 
 
 But the most fatal, though secret wound which the 
 senate received from the hands of Diocletian and 
 Maximian, was inflicted by the inevitable operation of 
 their absence. As long as the emperors resided at 
 Rome, that assembly might be oppressed, but it could 
 scarcely be neglected. The successors of Augustus 
 exercised the power of dictating whatever laws their 
 wisdom or caprice might suggest ; but those laws 
 were ratified by the sanction of the senate. The model 
 of ancient freedom was preserved in its deliberations 
 and decrees, and wise princes, who respected the pre- 
 judices of the Roman people, were in some measure 
 obUged to assume the language and behaviour suitable 
 
 * Lact. de Moit. Persecut. p. 17. 
 
ROME. 
 
 313 
 
 to the general and first magistrate of the republic. 
 But Diocletian and his subalterns, fixing their resi- 
 dence in distant provinces, threw off the dissimulation 
 that had been recommended by Augustus, disdaining 
 even to go through the formality of submitting their 
 measures to effeminate and polished nobles. With 
 no advisers but military adventurers, barbarians like 
 themselves, by origin and dispositions, they governed 
 like ruthless despots. The senate of Rome, losing all 
 connexion with the imperial court and the actual con- 
 stitution, was left a venerable but useless monument of 
 antiquity on the Capitoline hill.* 
 
 In the selection of colleagues, also, by Diocletian, 
 in the first instance, and afterwards by Galerius, we 
 trace the working of the same principle. Indeed the 
 latter, less crafty, by reason of his savage violence, than 
 Diocletian, did not conceal his determination to extir- 
 pate the senate, and to destroy the Roman people by 
 the sword ; then to transport from the seven hills 
 for ever, the seat and regalia of the empire, which 
 was thenceforth to be called the empire of Dacia, 
 in honour of the country from which he and his 
 colleagues derived their birth. It is expressly stated 
 by the best history of this period, that a profession 
 of hatred of the Roman name was required, by 
 Diocletian, of those whom he invested with the 
 purple. t 
 
 The first of these, Maximian Herculius, was a 
 Dacian peasant from the neighbourhood of Sirmium ; 
 the same district which had produced Aurelian, and 
 afterwards Galerius, and his kinsman and adoptive 
 son Daza, or Maximin. 
 
 Ignorant of letters," says Gibbon, "careless of 
 laws, the rusticity of Maximian's appearance and man- 
 
 * Gibbon, ch. xiii. p. 38, et seq. 
 
 •f " Olim quidem ille, ut nomen imperatoris acciperet, hostem se 
 Romani nominis erat professus ; cujus titulum immutari volebet, ut 
 non Romanum imperium sed Dacicum cognominaretur." — Lact. de 
 M. P. xxvii. p. 54. 
 
 \ April 1, A. D. 286. 
 
314 
 
 ROME. 
 
 ners still betrayed in the most elevated fortune the 
 meanness of his extraction. War was the only art 
 which he professed. Insensible to pity, and fearless 
 of consequences, he was the ready instrument of every 
 act of cruelty which the policy of his artful manager, 
 Diocletian, found it expedient at once to suggest and 
 disclaim."* 
 
 "In describing the country, extraction, and man- 
 ners of Herculius, the surname which Maximian 
 assumed, we have already delineated those of Ga- 
 lerius," says the same historian. " In him," ac- 
 cording to one of his contemporaries, " there was 
 an inbred barbarism, and a savage ferocity altoge- 
 ther alien to the Roman blood. A thing not sur- 
 prising, since his mother was from beyond the Danube, 
 whence her clan, or tribe, had been driven across the 
 river into the second Dacia, by an inroad of the 
 Carpi, "t In his earlier days he herded cattle in the 
 forests and the wilderness, and thence took pride in 
 the title of Armentarius, or the herdsman ; nor did 
 his deportment and policy, when emperor, in any 
 respect belie the epithet. He detested letters, of 
 which he had not the slightest tincture ; enormous 
 bears were his favourite companions ; and, whenever 
 he feasted, it was his delight to contemplate the gore 
 and the agonies of the human beings whom they 
 devoured for his gratification, while he was indulging 
 in pleasures of the table to the most gluttonous excess. 
 
 Licinius and Daza, to whom he gave his own sur- 
 name of Maximian, or Maximin, were selected by 
 him for the imperial dignity, because of their congenial 
 origin and dispositions.! Like himself, Daza had 
 tended cattle in his youth ; and when invested with 
 the purple, he was sent as Csesar, or subaltern-em- 
 peror, over the east ; he governed its refined and effemi- 
 nate population like a herdsman, treating his subjects 
 not like Roman citizens, but like cattle. In short, 
 
 * Gibbon, ch. xiii. p. 11. -f Lact. de Mort. Persec. ix. 
 
 J Gibbon, ch. xiv. p. 70. 
 
ROME. 
 
 315 
 
 Constantius Clorus was the only Roman of the seven 
 or eight emperors who ravaged the unfortunate empire 
 in detail during this period, and his promotion to the 
 rank of Csesar was like a mockery, or a plan to get 
 rid of him ; since Britain, the province they assigned 
 him, had been long possessed by a bold adventurer, 
 who had not only defied the united forces of Diocletian 
 and Maximian, but had compelled them to acknow- 
 ledge his title of Augustus.* 
 
 One of the most ruinous consequences of Diocle- 
 tian's system was the enormous increase of the mili- 
 tary force, at the same time that the resources of the 
 empire were, as we have already seen, almost totally ex- 
 hausted. It was the ambition of each of the four, at 
 another time of the six, at another of seven or eight 
 emperors, to have armies more numerous than their 
 colleagues, or even than any of the princes who had 
 reigned over the empire when undivided and in its 
 prime. 
 
 " Thus it came to pass," says a writer of that day, 
 " that those who were quartered on the taxes out- 
 numbered those who were to pay them ; so that the 
 husbandmen and farmers, overpowered and consumed 
 by enormous exactions, forsook their homesteads ; and 
 the fields, which their industry had tilled, reverted to 
 the wilderness. And that no district might escape 
 the general misery, each province was carved out into 
 a vast number of small departments, and to each of 
 these were appointed presidents, commissioners, in- 
 spectors of taxation, besides other officials without 
 end ; whose functions consisted, exclusively, in ex- 
 hausting and harassing the ill-fated population by 
 every species of rapacity, and in embittering rapacity 
 by insult. More like merciless invaders than officers 
 of the commonwealth, they seized upon the standing 
 crops, numbered the cattle, sheep, domestic animals, 
 and even the vines and fruit trees, with the view to the 
 levying a tax upon each of all these things. In town 
 
 * Gibbon, ch. xiii. p. 10 et seq. 
 
316 
 
 ROME. 
 
 and country the inhabitants were mustered ; each 
 family, with all its members and dependents, being 
 obliged to stand in separate droves, till they were 
 counted like so many head of cattle. No infirmity of 
 age, or sickness, could entitle to exemption. The 
 languishing, the disabled, and the bed-ridden, were 
 dragged out, and numbered in the poll-tax roll ; and 
 the proctor, in order to swell the list, added to child- 
 hood, the years which he subtracted from decrepi- 
 tude. Children were put to the torture before the 
 eyes of their parents ; matrons, in the presence of 
 their husbands, to force a confession of property to 
 the full amount. Those who were not married, and 
 had no children, were racked in their proper persons, 
 till they confessed to an amount even beyond the 
 truth, in order to escape from torment. Grief and 
 lamentation filled every place. What the Romans 
 had been accustomed of old to practise on their van- 
 quished enemies, they were now doomed to suffer at 
 the hands of barbarian emperors, who were deter- 
 mined to retaliate upon the Roman race, the self- 
 same cruelties and exactions which their own Daman 
 sires had been made to endure again and again, par- 
 ticularly by Trajan."* 
 
 Each division of tax-gatherers was followed by a 
 train of supervisors, who never failed to increase the 
 amount already rated, no matter how exorbitant that 
 rate might be, lest they might seem wanting in zeal 
 for the service, or to have been commissioned to no 
 purpose. Meantime, the flocks and herds dwindled, 
 and the human race disappeared. A tax was levied on 
 the dead, so that even in the sepulchre there was no 
 possibility of escape. Few but mendicants remained, 
 and that the empire might not be disgraced by the 
 pauperism created by misrule, crowds of miserable 
 wretches were carried out to sea in ships and drowned 
 
 * Quae veteres adversus victas, jure belli, fecerant, et ille (Galie- 
 nus) adversus Romanos, Romanisque subjectos, facere ausus est ; 
 quia parentes ejus censui subjectifuerant quern Trajanus Dacis, assidue 
 rebellantibus, poense gratia, victor imposuit." — Lad de M. P. xxiii. 
 
ROME. 
 
 317 
 
 under the pretence of punishing them for feigning 
 poverty, in order to escape the tax.* 
 
 The indignities and insults with which females of 
 the Roman race, especially those of the highest ranks, 
 were treated by these barbarian despots, were such as 
 not to admit of description, further than to state, that 
 they were deficient in nothing that could be imagined 
 by hacknied panders, and perpetrated by brutaUty ; 
 and, that the same licence which was practised by the 
 emperors, they permitted, indiscriminately, to their 
 followers and soldiery. They even cheered on their 
 barbarians, whom they were ever loading with riches 
 and titles, to every species of rapacity and outrage ;t 
 and if the vilest of these military ruffians demanded 
 the proudest heiress, the consequence of a refusal 
 was sure to be an imperial mandate to her parents, 
 to choose between instant execution and a Dacian 
 son-in-law : for these courtiers and body guards were 
 for the most part composed of vagabond Goths, who, 
 havmg been expelled, or escaping from among their 
 own countrymen, had been received into the pay of 
 the empire : " That after having disqualified them- 
 selves," concludes Lactantius, "to be even slaves to 
 barbarians, they might become masters and tyrants of 
 Romans."! 
 
 But the darkest of all the horrors that brooded 
 oyer the Roman world, and that one which gave the 
 air of so many just judgments to all the rest, were 
 the persecutions— barbarous and unrelenting— with 
 which the emperors, the magistrates, and every order 
 of the population, had continued to pursue for so 
 many centuries, and to torment with tenfold fury, 
 at this juncture, the beneficent and unoffending disci- 
 ples of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Impossible that an empire could long exist in which 
 one moiety of the people, demented by fanaticism, was 
 
 * Lact. de Mort. Persec. xxiii. 
 
 t "Barbaros omni generi largitionis honoret."— Ibid, xxxviii, 
 P* ' i • 
 
 t Id. xxxviii. p. 72, 73 ; see also cap. viii. 
 
318 
 
 ROME. 
 
 let loose against the other half, and hallooed on to 
 every species of outrage against property and life, hy 
 those who, as guardians of the commonwealth, were 
 bound, not only by justice, but by policy, to repress 
 instead of fomenting anarchy. Hence we learn from 
 Eusebius, that during the whole ten years' persecution, 
 the empire was torn asunder, and subjected to all the 
 worst grievances of civil war. 
 
 "The sea," he says, "was impassible to those who 
 made voyages over it ; neither could any persons arrive 
 at any port, whatsoever, but they must endure all sorts 
 of scourges, be tormented, have their sides torn with 
 nails, and be interrogated by their undergoing all sorts 
 of tortures, whether they came from the enemy's coun- 
 try, and at last they underwent the punishment of cru- 
 cifixion, or were burnt to death."* 
 
 Famine, pestilence, and the incessant fear of inva- 
 sion were superadded to these miseries. While all the 
 social bonds and the very instincts of humanity were 
 thus destroyed, the pubhc resources wasted, the most 
 virtuous and benevolent members of the community, 
 with its bravest defenders even in the legions, cut down 
 and massacred in thousands, not by a foreign enemy, 
 but by the sword of antichristian ferocity, it was but 
 too manifest that the organization of the mighty Colos- 
 sus was dissolved already, and that it was about to 
 become an easy prey to the barbarians hovering round 
 it on all sides.f 
 
 * Euseb. Eccl. Hist. b. viii. cb. 15. 
 
 -}• " Neitber could tbe dissensions and tumults of the Romans 
 among themselves be made up and appeased before the Christians 
 throughout the whole Roman empire had a peace ratified and con- 
 firmed to them. But as soon as that peace (like morning after a 
 cloudy and most darksome night) darted forth its rays on all, 
 public affairs were again restored to quietude, stability, harmony, 
 and tranquillity : all persons recovering that mutual friendliness 
 which had been derived down to them from their ancestors." — 
 Eusebius^ Book concerning the Martyrs of Palestine, ch. iii. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Y 2 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Portrait of St. Peter; his journey to Rome; how he employed 
 himself on the banishment of the Jews from thence in the 
 ninth year of Claudius ; partition of the nations amongst 
 the Apostles, 
 
 " Erat Petrus corpore baud indecoro, nec tamen exiguo, erecta 
 cervice, ore subpallido et albicanti, atris ac vivacibus oculis, san- 
 guineam tamen redolentibus aciem, evulsis superciliis, praelongo 
 naso et simo pressaeque ad extrema, denso crispoque capillo, animo 
 baud versuto, et ante datam terrarum orbi legem, nondum immensd 
 illd Dei magnitudine virgineo restrict^ utero, Mosaicae legis non 
 contemptor. Discendi avidus, et ingenio pugnaci, ex Galilaeorum 
 natura ac moribus, semper arma poscentium ; et justi tenax." — 
 Ex. Act, SS. torn. vi. Junii die 29°, p. 2. 
 
 On his way to Rome, he is said to have evangelized through 
 Greece, converting St. Clement, son of Faustius, at Athens ; landed 
 at Naples, of which he appointed Asprenas bishop ; thence to Rome, 
 in the second year of Claudius, &c. He appointed Linus and 
 Cletus bishops,— "ut unus in urbe, alter extra urbem, in adminis- 
 tranda repub. chr. ipsum adjuvavent." He himself is said to have 
 preached all through Italy, and to have even penetrated as far as 
 Britain after the expulsion of Jews from Rome in the ninth year of 
 Claudius. 
 
 " Jamque apostoli sortiti inter se provincias erant ; Petro Gallo- 
 Graecia, Pontusque, Bithynia, Cappadoci^, cum Catanoum genti- 
 bus ; Andreas, Scythia Europea ; Asiatica Philippo ; Palestina 
 Jacobo ; Asia Joanni; Hispania alteri Jacobo ; Thomse Parthia, 
 Arriana, Persis, Margiana, Susiana quoque introrsus ad Bactra 
 ortumque Gangis ; Matheo regia solis et ultima iEthiopum ; Bar- 
 tholomaeo, India ad Sapolum usque urbem radicesque Imari ; 
 Simoni Chananseo ^gyptus, Thebes, et quae illi proxima ; Thadaeo, 
 Mesipotamia, Pontusque ; Mathias gentes Macedonum, Dardano- 
 rum, Triballorum, Bastarnarum," &cc.—Ibid. 
 
322 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Caractacus betrayed ; his renoivn even in Italy and Rome ; 
 exhibited on the Campus Martins before the Prcetorian 
 guards, the senate, and the Roman people ; his noble address 
 to Claudius, ^c. 
 
 " Ipse (ut ferme intuta sunt adversa) cum fidem Cartismanduae, 
 reginse Brigantum, petivisset, vinctus ad victoribus traditus est, 
 nono post anno, quam bellum in Britannia coeptum. Unde fama 
 ejus evecta insulas et proximas provincias pervagata, per Italiam 
 quoque celebrabatur ; avebantque visere, quis ille tot per annos 
 opes nostras sprevisset. Ne Romae quidem ignobile Caractaci no- 
 nien erat; et Caesar, dum suum decus extollit, addidit gloriam 
 victo. Vocatus quippe, ut ad insigne spectaculum, populus. Ste- 
 tere in armis prsetoriae cohortes, campo, qui castra prasjacet. Turn, 
 incedentibus regies clientelis, phaleras torquesque ; quseque extemis 
 bellis qusesierat, transducta ; mox fratres, et conjux, et felia ; 
 postrerao ipse ostentatus. Caeterorum preces degeneres fufere, ex 
 metu ; at non Caractacus, aut vultu demisso, aut verbis, misericor- 
 diam requirens. Ubi tribunali adstitit, in hunc modum locutus 
 est." — Tacit, ann. 1. xii. cap. xxxvi. 
 
 " Si, quanta nobilitas et fortuna mihi fuit, tanta rerum prospera- 
 rum moderatio fuisset, amicus potius in banc urbem, quarn captus, 
 venissem : neque dedignatus esses claris majoribus ortum, pluribus 
 gentibus imperitantem, faedere pacis accipere. Prsesens sors mea, 
 ut mihi informis, sic tibi magnifica est. Habui equos, viros, arma, 
 opes : quid mirum, si hsec invitus amisi ? Non, si vos omnibus 
 imperitare vultis, sequitur, ut omnes servitutem accipiant. Si sta- 
 tim deditus traderer ; neque mea fortuna, neque tua gloria incla- 
 ruisset ; et supplicium mei oblivio sequeretur ; at, si incolumem 
 servaveris, aeternum exemplar elementiis ero." Ad ea Caesar veniam 
 ipsique et conjugi et fratribus tribuit. Atque illi, vinclis exsoluti, 
 Agrippinam quoque, baud procul alio suggestu conspicuam, iisdem, 
 quibus principem laudibus gratibusque venerati sunt. Novum 
 sane et moribus veterum insolitum, feminam signis Romanis prsesi- 
 dere : ipsa semet parti a majoribus suis imperii sociam ferebat." 
 — Cap. xxxvii. The patriotism of Caractacus seems to have 
 withered speedily in the atmosphere of the capital. When we 
 next meet him he is in the livery of a king, engaged, under the in- 
 spection of his Roman employers, in riveting the fetters of his 
 country : — ** Quaedam civitates Coyidmo regi donatse (is ad nos- 
 tram usque memoriam fidissimus mansit) vetere ac jampridem re- 
 ceptEi populi Romani consuetudine, ut haberet instrumenta servi- 
 tutis et reges." — Tacit, in Vit. Agric. xiv. Britain became a civi- 
 lized province, and fell an easy prey to the first invader. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 323 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 To shotv how wonderfully/ the great drama of human history 
 has been shadowed out and sketched with graphic precision, 
 in a series of prophecies. 
 
 I. In the year of the world 3 141, the empire of the Assyrians was 
 founded by Ninus. It embraced all Asia to the borders of India, 
 besides Egypt and Africa as far as the Lybian desert. Its emperors 
 reigned in Babylon the Great for one thousand two hundred and 
 sixty years. 
 
 II. Cyrus, whose father was a Persian, whose mother was only 
 daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes, was, in his infancy, 
 exposed in a forest, suckled by a wild beast, and having been 
 afterwards nursed by a shepherd's wife, grew up amid many trials 
 and the most austere discipline. He at length succeeded in uniting 
 the two powerful races of the Medes and Persians under his sway, 
 and, at their head, pursued a sanguinary career of conquest, till 
 defeated and slain by the Scythians. Their queen, Tamiris, had 
 his head cut off and cast into a sack made of skin filled with hu- 
 man blood, while she said : — " Satiate thyself with that gore for 
 which you had such a thirst, and with which you never could be 
 sufficiently satiated." " Caput Cyri amputatum, in utrem humano 
 sanguine repletum conjici regina jubet, cum hac exprobatione cru- 
 delitatis, — ' Satia te,' inquit, * sanguine quern sitisti, cujusque in- 
 satiabilis semper fuisti.' " * 
 
 III. The empire of the Medes and Persians was overthrown, 
 after a period of only two hundred and thirty-two years, by Alex- 
 ander the Great, who with winged speed subdued all Asia and 
 Egypt. His army was composed of the quotas from all the petty 
 states of Greece. He had four great marshals ; his half insane 
 mind made him liable to inconstancy and the most violent transi- 
 tions of feeling. After his death horrid wars arose about the suc- 
 cession, and his empire was torn into several principalities. Egypt 
 fell to Ptolemy, Macedonia to Philip, otherwise called Aridseus, 
 Syria and Babylonia to Nicanor, Asia Proper to Antigonus ; Syria, 
 Babylonia, and Asia Proper, were afterwards united under Anti- 
 ochus Eupator. 
 
 IV. Previous to the birth of Christ, not only all these princi- 
 palities and empires, but the entire of the then known world had 
 been crushed and vanquished by the Romans, whose iron legions 
 bore down and trampled upon all nations. 
 
 While in its pride, but yet with the elements of dissolution at 
 work within its frame, this empire is invaded by a fisherman of 
 Bethsaida at the head of twelve companions. He was called Peter, 
 which is interpreted a rock. After four centuries the Roman em- 
 
 * Justini Hist. 1. i. c. viii. The sketch is from Justin, the periods from the 
 Chronology of Eusebius. 
 
324 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 pire is overthrown and shattered to pieces ; the empire of the 
 fishermen extended at that crisis over all nations : after the shocks 
 and revolutions of nearly two thousand years, it has its subjects 
 in every tribe and tongue of the human race. 
 
 The foregoing epitome of the succession of empires will assist 
 the reader to appreciate as they deserve the following predictions. 
 Let him observe with what exactness the prophet defines the order 
 in which the empires succeed each other ; how he continued to 
 add characteristic to characteristic, until the likeness of the type 
 to the reality cannot be mistaken. Finally, let him note well how 
 the revelations made at such distant periods to Daniel and to St. 
 John are combined and dovetailed with each other, so as to form 
 but one series. 
 
 Prophecies of Daniel concerning the rise and fall of the Baby- 
 lonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires ; the empire 
 of Christ to be erected upon their ruins, and to last for 
 ever. 
 
 (chapter II.) 
 
 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchodonosor,* Nabucho- 
 donosor had a dream, and his spirit was terrified, and his dream 
 went out of his mind. Then the king commanded to call together 
 the diviners and the wise men, and the magicians, and the Chaldeans, 
 to declare to the king his dreams : so they came and stood before 
 the king. And the king said to them : — " I saw a dream, and 
 being troubled in mind, I know not what I saw." And the Chal- 
 deans answered the king in Syriac : — " O king, live for ever : tell to 
 thy servants thy dream, and we will declare the interpretation there- 
 of." And the king answering, said to the Chaldeans : — " The thing 
 is gone out of my mind ; unless you tell me the dream, and the 
 meaning thereof, you shall be put to death, and your houses shall 
 be confiscated. But if you tell the dream, and the meaning of it, 
 you shall receive of me rewards, and gifts and great honour ; there- 
 fore, tell me the dream, and the interpretation thereof." They 
 answered again and said, — "Let the king tell his servants his 
 dream, and we will declare the interpretation of it." The king 
 answered and said, — I know for certain that you seek to gain 
 time, since you know that the thing is gone from me. If, there- 
 fore, you tell not the dream, there is one sentence concerning you, 
 that you have also framed a lying interpretation, and full of deceit, 
 to speak before me till the time pass away. Tell me therefore the 
 dream, that I may know that you also give a true interpretation 
 thereof." Then the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, 
 — " There is no man upon earth that can accomplish thy word, O 
 king, neither doth any king, though great and mighty, ask such a 
 thing of any diviner, or wise man, or Chaldean. For the thing thou 
 askest, O king, is difficult ; nor can any one be found that can 
 
 * A.M. 3401, A.C. 603. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 325 
 
 show it before the king, except the gods, whose conversation is not 
 with men." 
 
 Upon hearing this, the king in fury and great wrath commanded 
 that all the wise men of Babylon should be put to death. And the 
 decree being gone forth, the wise men were slain ; and Daniel and 
 his companions were sought for, to be put to death. Then Daniel 
 inquired concerning the law and the sentence of Arioch, the gene- 
 ral of the king's army, who was gone forth to kill the wise men of 
 Babylon. And he asked him that had received the orders of the 
 king, why so cruel a sentence was gone forth from the face of the 
 king. And when Arioch had told the matter to Daniel, Daniel 
 went in and desired of the king, that he would give him time to 
 resolve the question, and declare it to the king. And he went into 
 his house, and told the matter to Ananias, and Misall and Azarius 
 his companions ; to the end that they should ask mercy at the face 
 of the God of heaven concerning this secret, and that Daniel and 
 his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of 
 Babylon. 
 
 Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel by a vision in the 
 night : and Daniel blessed the God of Heaven. And speaking, he 
 said : Blessed be the name of the Lord from eternity and for ever- 
 more : for wisdom and fortitude are his. And he changeth times 
 and ages : taketh away kingdoms and establisheth them, giveth 
 wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that have understand- 
 ing. He revealeth deep and hidden things, and knoweth what is 
 in darkness : and light is with him.* To thee, O God of our fa- 
 thers, I give thanks, and I praise thee : because thou hast given me 
 wisdom and strength : and now thou hast shewn me what we desired 
 of thee, for thou hast made known to us the king's discourse. After 
 this, Daniel went in to Arioch, to whom the king had given orders 
 to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and he spoke thus to him : 
 Destroy not the wise men of Babylon : bring me in before the king, 
 and I will tell the solution to the king. 
 
 Then Arioch in haste brought in Daniel to the king, and said to 
 him, I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Juda, 
 that will resolve the question to the king. The king answered, and 
 said to Daniel, whose name was Baltasser : Thinkest thou indeed 
 that thou canst tell me the dream that I saw, and the interpretation 
 thereof? And Daniel made answer befor the king, and said, The 
 secret that the king desireth to know, none of the wise men, or the 
 philosophers, or the diviners, or the soothsayers can declare to the 
 king. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth mysteries, who 
 hath shewn to thee, O King Nabuchodonosor, what is to come to 
 pass in the latter times. -j" Thy dream, and the visions of thy head 
 upon thy bed, are these : — 
 
 Thou, O king, didst begin to think in thy bed, what should come 
 to pass hereafter : and he that revealeth mysteries shewed thee what 
 
 * 1 Cor. iv. 5. 1 John i. 6 ; John i. 9, and viii. 12, 
 
 f i. e. in the Christian era. The terms are synonymous in Scripture. 
 
326 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 shall come to pass. To me also this secret is revealed, not by any 
 wisdom that I have more than all men alive : but that the interpre- 
 tation might be made manifest to the king, and thou mightest know 
 the thoughts of thy mind. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold there 
 was as it were a great statue, which was great and high, tall of 
 stature, stood before thee, and the look thereof was terrible. The 
 head of this statue was of fine gold, but the breast and the arms* of 
 silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass :f and the legs of ironX 
 the feet part of iron and part of clay.\ Thus thou sawest, till a stone 
 was cut out of a mountain without hands : and it struck the statue upon 
 the feet that were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces.\\ 
 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold 
 broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer's 
 thrashing-floor, and they were carried away by the wind : and there 
 was no place found for them : but the stone that struck the statue 
 became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.^ 
 
 This is the dream : we will also tell the interpretation thereof before 
 thee, O king. Thou art a king of kings ; and the God of heaven 
 hath given thee a kingdom, and strength, and power, and glory : 
 and all places wherein the children of men, and the beasts of the 
 field do dwell; he hath also given the birds of the air into thy 
 hand, and hath put all things under thy power : thou, therefore, art 
 the head of gold.** And after thee shall rise up another kingdom, 
 inferior to thee, of silver ;f f and another third kingdom of brass, 
 which shall rule over all the world-XX And the fourth kingdom shall 
 be as irow.§§ As iron breaketh into pieces, and subdueth all things, 
 so shall that break and destroy all these. And whereas thou sawest 
 the feet, and the toes part of potter's clay, and part of iron : the 
 kingdom shall be divided,]] \\ but yet it shall take its origin from the 
 iron, according as thou sawest the iron mixed with the miry clay. 
 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, the 
 kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.^^ And whereas 
 
 * The two arms, the Modes and Persians, forming one empire, 
 t Emblematical of the far sounding fame of Alexander the Great, and of Greek 
 eloquence. — S. Hier, 
 + Republican Rome. 
 
 § Rome under the emperors, or as it was when the kingdom or church built on the 
 rock began to assault it. 
 
 II " Simon, son of John, thou shalt be called a Rock : and on this rook," &c. Words 
 of Christ to St. Peter. 
 
 H On the empire of Peter the sun of heaven never sets. 
 
 ** The first empire, "the head of gold," founded by Ninus, A.M. 3141, extended 
 over all Asia, except India, and according to Eusebius, lasted for 1240, according to 
 another reading, 1260 years. 
 
 tt The Medes and Persians were far more limited in territory, and reigned only 232 
 years, 
 
 ++ Who has not heard how Alexander wept for other worlds to conquer.' 
 
 §§ Mark the type of the Roman legions, " the men of iron." — Byron. 
 
 II II To the partition of the empire, first by Dioclesian, tlien by Constantine, &c., his- 
 torians are unanimous in assigning the chief agency in the enfeebling and downfall of 
 the Roman empire. — See Gibbon in particular. 
 
 While the west fell, tlie cast sustained itself much longer, through the policy of 
 Constantine : " but," &c. The Turks. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 327 
 
 thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall be mingled 
 indeed together with the seed of man, hut they shall not stick fast one 
 to another, as iron cannot be mixed with clay. But in the days of 
 those kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall 
 never he destroyed,* and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to 
 another people, and it shall break in pieces, and shall consume all 
 these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever.-f According as thou 
 sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, 
 and broke in pieces the clay and the iron, and the brass, and the 
 silver, and the gold, the great God hath shewn the king what shall 
 come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation 
 thereof is faithful. 
 
 Then the king Nahuchodonosor fell on his faee,% and worshipped 
 Daniel, and commanded that they should offer in sacrifice to him 
 victims and incense. And the king spoke to Daniel, and said : — 
 " Verily your God is the God of gods, and Lord of kings, and a 
 revealer of hidden things ; seeing thou couldst discover this secret." 
 
 But, in order to leave no room for doubt, concerning the relation 
 in which the kingdom of Christ was to stand to the succession of 
 pagan empires, the Almighty vouchsafed to exhibit the same grand 
 series and drama of human history to his prophet in a vision, if 
 possible, still more sublime and accurately definite. — Cap. ii. 
 
 The same subject, sketched under other images, and mm e fully 
 developed in its characteristic features. 
 
 In the first year of Baltasser, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a 
 dream : and the vision of his head was upon his bed : and writing 
 the dream, he comprehended it in few words : and relating the sum 
 of it in short, he said : — 
 
 " I saw in my vision by night, and behold the four winds of 
 the heaven strove upon the great sea.§ And four great beasts, 
 different one from another, came up out of the sea. The first was 
 like a lioness, and had the wings of an eagle : Iheheld till her wings 
 were plucked off, and she was lifted up from the earth, and stood upon 
 
 * The immediate preparations for the coming of the Messiah, and for the founding of 
 his kingdom, commenced under Cyrus, who restored the Jews, and forwarded the re- 
 building of the temple : they proceeded still more briskly under the Greek empire 
 wlien the Septuagint version of the ancient Scripure began to prepare the nations for 
 the gospel. — See Euseb. Prsef Evang. ; and Bossuet, Hist. Univer., &c. 
 
 t " The gates of hell shall not prevail against it : and, behold, I am with you all 
 days, even to the consummation of the world." Words of our Lord concerning the 
 church built on Peter. 
 
 % Because he at once recognised the dream, which in his terror he had forgotten: 
 and tlie inspired interpretation of the prophet flashed conviction on his mind. 
 
 § Empires of Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. 
 
328 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 her feet as a man, and the heart of a man was given to her.* And 
 behold another beast, like a bear,\ stood up on one side : and there 
 were three rows in the mouth thereof, and in the teeth thereof, and 
 thus they said to it : Arise, devour much flesh.^ After this I 
 beheld, and lo, another like a leopard, and it had upon it four wings as 
 of a fowl, and the beast had four heads, and power was given to it.§ 
 After this I beheld in the vision of the night, and lo, a fourth 
 beast, 1 1 terrible and wonderful, and exceeding strong, it had great 
 iron teeth, eating and breaking in pieces, and treading down the 
 rest with its feet : and it was unlike to the other beasts w^hich I had 
 seen before it, and had ten horns. ^\ I considered the horns, and 
 behold another little horn** sprung out of the midst of them : and 
 three of the first horns were plucked up at the presence thereof : 
 and behold eyes like the eyes of a man were in this horn, and a 
 mouth speaking great things.-ff 
 
 I beheld till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days sat ; 
 his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like 
 clean wool : his throne like flames of fire : the wheels of it like 
 a burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before 
 him : thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand 
 times a hundred thousand stood before him : the judgment sat 
 and the books were opened. I beheld because of the voice of 
 the great words which that horn spoke : and I saw that the beast 
 was slain,^:+ and the body thereof was destroyed, and given to the 
 fire to be burnt : and that the power of the other beasts was 
 taken away : and that times of life were appointed them for a time 
 and a time. I beheld therefore in the vision of the night, and lo, 
 one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he 
 came even to the Ancient of Days : and they presented him before 
 him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom : and all 
 peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him : his power is an ever- 
 lasting power that shall not be taken away : and his kingdom shall 
 not be destroyed. My spirit trembled, I Daniel was affrighted at 
 these things, and the visions of my head troubled me. I went near 
 to one of them that stood by, and asked the truth of him concerning 
 all these things, and he told me the interpretation of the words° 
 and instructed me. These four great beasts are four kingdoms, which 
 
 * Babylon, represented by Nebuchadnezzar, who underwent a transformation just 
 similar to that described in the text. See Daniel, ch. iv. 33, &c. 
 
 t Persia, in allusion to the savage infancy of Cyrus and the Persian austerity of 
 manners. 
 
 t See the apostrophe of Queen Tamiris to the head of Cyrus, 
 
 § The Greeks, the many spotted animal, emblematic of the many petty states, and 
 of the versatility of Alexander, &c. &c. 
 II Rome. 
 
 ^ For the history of the "ten horns," see Apocal. ch. xvii. 12, explained in the 
 body of this work. 
 ** Julian. 
 
 tt St. John seems to take up the prophecy at this point, and to describe the destinies 
 of the church to the end. See Apocal, c. 4, ct scq. 
 Xt Destruction of pagan Rome. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 329 
 
 shall arise out of the earth, [whereas, the empire of the Messiah, 
 the church, is from heaven.] But the saints of the most high God 
 shall take the kingdom :* and they shall possess the kingdom for 
 ever and ever. After this I would diligently learn concerning the 
 fourth beast, f which was very different from all, and exceeding 
 terrible : his teeth and claws were of iron : he devoured and broke 
 in pieces, and the rest he stamped upon with his feet. And con- 
 cerning the ten horns that he had on his head : and concerning the 
 other that came up, before which three horns fell : and of the horn 
 that had eyes, and a mouth speajcing great things, and was greater 
 than the rest. I beheld, and lo, that horn made war against the 
 saints, and prevailed over them — (as Julian appeared to do. The 
 holy fathers agree that his persecution was the most formidable of 
 all, and immense numbers apostatized) ; — till the Ancient of Days 
 came and gave judgment to the saints of the Most High, and the 
 time came, and the saints obtained the kingdom. And thus he said : 
 the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which 
 shall be greater than all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole 
 earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten 
 horns of the same kingdom, shall be ten kings :^ and another shall 
 rise up after them,|| and he shall be mightier than the former, and 
 he shall bring down three kings. And he shall speak words against 
 the High One, (Christ,) and shall crush the saints of the Most High : 
 and he shall think himself able to change times and laws, and they 
 shall be delivered into his hand until a time, and times, and half a 
 time. And judgment shall sit, that his power may be taken away 
 and be broken in pieces, and perish even to the end.^ And that the 
 kingdoms, and power, and greatness of the kingdoms, under the whole 
 heaven, may be given to the people of the saints of the Most High : 
 whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve 
 him, and shall obey him. Hitherto is the end of the world.** I 
 Daniel was much troubled with my thoughts, and my countenance 
 was changed in me : but I kept the word in my heart."f f — Cap. vii. 
 
 * The church of Christ. 
 
 Rome. 
 + Rome. 
 
 § From Nero to Diocletian ten persecutors. It may also mean Diocletian and his 
 colleagues. Julian, more mighty because sole emperor of the Roman >vorlcl, flourishing 
 till he brought ruin on it. 
 
 II Julian the apostate, who succeeded the three sons of Constantino the Great. He 
 reigned only three years and a half. He was never done blaspheming the Saviour of 
 the world, for whom he had no name but " the Galilean." He died blaspheming. He 
 also boasted that he would prove Clirist to be a false prophet, by causing the Jewish 
 temple to be rebuilt. 
 
 *|[ Paganism had its last triumph under Julian. It struggled to the last, but the 
 arrow that wounded Julian pierced its heart. 
 
 ** Behold I am with you to the consummation of the world, &c. 
 
 •f~f Nothing can be more striking than the exact coincidence between what is here 
 foretold of Julian, by the prophet Daniel, and what is predicted of him by St. John in 
 the 13th ch. of the Apocalypse. After describing Diocletian and his six persecuting 
 colleagues, ver. 1, 2, and having stated in ver. 3, that paganism seemed to have received 
 its death blow, on the triumph of the cross under Constantine, St. John beheld the 
 
330 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Portrait of St. Paul ; Battle between a Roman legion and 
 the Britons under Queen Boadice. 
 
 " Erat Paulus corpore mediocri : naso ad votum Pesarum, quod 
 augustum in regibus credunt, adunco et longiori, albo colore, hilari 
 oculo, supercilio humi demisso, raro capillo, barba densiore et pro- 
 misssl, pulchra et decor§, facie ; et in se unumquemque trahente ; 
 ad haec acri vehementique ingenio, prasclaro animo et in ardua 
 prono." — Vid. Act. Sanct. torn. vi. ; Junii, die 29tb, p. 17. 
 
 " Jam Suetonio quartadecima legio cum vexillariis vicesimanis, et 
 e proximis auxiliares, decern ferme millia armatorum erant ; cum 
 omittere cunctationem et congredi acie parat ; deligitque locum 
 arctis faucibus et a tergo silva clausum ; satis cognito, nihil hostium, 
 nisi in fronte, et apertam planitiem esse, sine metu insidiarum. 
 Igitur legionarius frequens ordinibus, levis circum armatura, con- 
 globatus pro cornibus eques adstilit. At Brittanorum copise passim 
 per catervas et turmas exsultabant, quanta non alias multitude, et 
 animo adeo fero, ut conjuges quoque testes victoriae secum trahe- 
 rent, plaustrisque imponerent, quae super extremum ambitum campi 
 posuerant. 
 
 " Boadicea, curru filiasprae se vehens, ut quamque nationem acces- 
 serat, solitum quidem Britannis feminarum ductu bellare, testabatur : 
 
 prostrate monster revived in greater force and pride than ever (ver. 3, 4.) Such was the 
 case with paganism under Julian. He then says, ver. 5 — " And there was given to 
 him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies" — the very words used by Daniel. 
 Again, Daniel gives only " a time and times and half a time," i. e. a brief span. St. 
 John gives only " forty and two months," exactly three years and a half, a time, and 
 times, and half a time. In ver. 7, St. John repeats what Daniel had said, " that he 
 should prevail over the saints," or the followers of the Lamb, the Apocalyptic title of 
 Christ our Lord. Daniel represents the Eternal instituting judgment, that the power 
 of Julian " may be taken away, and that the kingdom may be given to the people of 
 the saints." The same is said by St. John, xiv. 1. But St. John adds several lumi- 
 nous strokes to the sketch of the apostate as Daniel left it. In ver. 10, he apprises the 
 Christians of the mode of his death : he then adumbrates his attempt, by the aid of 
 Platinus and Porphyry, leaders of the Neo-Platonicians, to plagiarize Christianity. " I 
 beheld," he says, " another beast," a new edition of paganism improved and corrected 
 by the borrowed, or rather plundered lights of the gospel, 'coming up out of the 
 earth,' (the philosophy of the pagans as opposed to faith ' being of the earth earthly,') 
 and this other (new fashioned) beast had two horns like a lamb, and he spake like a 
 dragon." Platinus and Porphyry, and their school, the new Platonics, put on the 
 guise of Christianity — the religion of the Lamb of God ; and under this disguise blas- 
 phemed the Lamb, they spoke a dragon — as Satan inspired them. The succeeding verses 
 are a graphic description of the mode of proceeding in the persecution under Julian. 
 This is but one of many evidences which might be adduced to establish the connec- 
 tion between the prophecy of Daniel and that of St. John. In the two united we 
 possess a grand and consecutive representation, as if in a series of dramatic scenes, of 
 the destinies of the church. 
 
 Daniel is commanded, ch. viii. 26, " to seal the prophecy, because it was not to happen 
 for a long time." St. John beholds the breaking of these seals and the reopening of 
 the great volume of prophecy to be completed by himself; and Jie is desired not to 
 seal the book, the time of its fulfilment being at hand. — Apoc. xxii. 10. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 331 
 
 sed tunc non, ut tantis majoribus ortam, regnum et opes, verum ut 
 unam e vulgo libertatem amissam, confechim verberibus corpus, 
 contrectatam filiarum pudicitiam ulcisci : eo provectas Romanorum 
 cupidines, ut non corpora, ne senectam quidem, aut virginitatem 
 impollutam relinquant. Adesse tamen deos justae vindictae : ceci- 
 disse legionem, quae praelium ansa sit : caeteros castris occultari, aut 
 fugam circumspicere. Ne strepitum quidem et clainorem tot mil- 
 lium, nedum impetus et manus perlaturos. Si copias armatorum, 
 si causas belli secum expenderent, vincendum ill^ acie, vel caden- 
 dum esse. Id mulieri destinatum : viverent viri, et servirent. 
 
 " Ne Suetonius quidem in tan to discrimine silebat : qui, quamquam 
 confideret virtuti, tamen exhortationes et preces miscebat, ut sper- 
 nerent sonores barbarorum, et inanes minas ; plus illic feminarum, 
 quam juyentutis adspici : imbelles, inermes cessuros statim, ubl 
 ferrum virtutenique vincentium toties fusi agnovissent : etiam in 
 multis legionibus paucos esse, qui praelia profligarent : gloriaeque 
 eorum accessurum, quod modica manus universe exercitus famam 
 adispiscerentur. Conferti tantum, et pilis emissis, post umbonibus 
 et gladiis, stragem caedemque continuarent, praedae immemores : 
 parta victoria, cuncta ipsis cessura. Is ardor verba ducis seque- 
 batur, ita se ad intorquenda pila expedieret vetus miles et multa 
 prseliorum experientia, ut, certus eventus, Suetonius daret pugnae 
 signum. 
 
 "Ac primum legio gradu immota, et augustias loci pro muni- 
 mento retinens, postquam propius suggressus hostis certo jactu 
 tela exhauserat, velut cuneo erupit, idem auxiliarium impetus : et 
 eques,^ protentis hastis, perfringit, quod obvium et validum erat. 
 Caeteri terga prasbu^re, difficili efFugio, quia circumjecta vehicula 
 sepserant abitus. Et miles ne mulierum quidem neci temperabat ; 
 confixaque telis etiam jumenta corporum cumulum auxerant. Clara 
 et antiquis victoriis par ed die laus parta: quippe sunt, qui paulo 
 minus quam octoginta millia Brittanorum cecidisse tradant, militum 
 quadringentis ferme intefectis, nec multo amplius vulneratis. Boa- 
 dicea vitam veneno finivit, et Psenius Postumus, praefectus castorum 
 secundag legionis, cognitis quartadecimanorum vicesimanorumque 
 prosperis rebus, quia pari gloria legionem suam fraudaverat, abnu- 
 eratque, contra ritum militise, jussa ducis, se ipsum gladio tran- 
 segit." — Tacit. Annalium, lib. xiv. c. 34—37. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 A sketch from original sources, of the manners and customs 
 of the primitive Christians. 
 
 From its earliest promulgation, Christ's kingdom had numbered 
 amongst its subjects, individuals of all ranks and pursuits in life. 
 
332 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 They were found in the court, in the camp, in the liberal profes- 
 sions ; but the lowliest and most forgotten of society, slaves, arti- 
 zans, the weaker sex, and those on whom devolved the weight of 
 drudgery in town and country, formed such an overwhelming majo- 
 rity in the church, that the few exceptions were overlooked ; and 
 the Christians were stigmatized with epithets significant of mean 
 and contemptible occupations, and reviled continually, at least for 
 the first two centuries, as being an aggregate of the lowest dregs, 
 ignorant, imbecile, lost to fame and patriotism, and in every respect 
 despicable, and deserving of execration. They laboured in all the 
 mechanic trades intermingled with the heathens ; exposed their 
 wares and productions with theirs in the common markets ; but, 
 although there were painters, sculptors, engravers, and workers in 
 the precious metals, at all times among the Christians, still for the 
 first two centuries they were rather averse than otherwise to the 
 cultivation of the fine arts, on account of their remote or immediate 
 connection with paganism. 
 
 To sign his forehead with the cross was the Christian's first act 
 on awakening before the dawn : he repeated this royal sign (as it 
 was called in those ages) before commencing to dress. His costume 
 differed in nothing from that usually worn by persons of the same 
 rank with himself, except that it was always in keeping with 
 that modesty and freedom from ostentation which characterised his 
 entire bearing and conduct wherever he appeared. The pallium 
 was generally preferred to the toga, it being the garb of philosophers, 
 and those of a grave and ascetic turn. As to the females, they were 
 equally free from vanity and display ; at the same time that they 
 conformed in their style of dress to the fashion of the circle and time 
 in which they lived, and a moderate degree of ornament was not re- 
 jected either by matrons or the unmarried. 
 
 Having dressed and carefully washed both face and hands, not 
 through superstition, but for sake of a bodily cleanliness which he 
 was taught to regard as an emblem of that mental purity which he 
 was ever bound to cherish, the Christian, again signing himself with 
 the cross, commenced his morning prayer — adoring the Divine 
 Majesty, and giving thanks for having been preserved during sleep, 
 and brought, invigorated by repose, to the beginning of a new day. 
 If there were many of the faithful in the same house, they assembled 
 together for this prayer, which was recited by the father of the 
 family, unless some one of the clerical condition happened to be pre- 
 sent. This was called the matin frayer, but it was afterwards called 
 " lauds," because it consisted for the most part of psalms and 
 hymns oi praise. The Christian's posture was indicative of reve- 
 rential feeling and fervour while he prayed. On Sundays, and 
 during paschal time, or from Easter day to Pentecost, he prayed 
 standing erect, (to remind him of the resurrection,) with eyes ele- 
 vated towards heaven, and arms extended, like those of his Saviour 
 on the cross, and always looking towards the East ; for, as the 
 orient splendours disperse the shades of night, and illuminate the 
 world ; so did the appearance of his Divine Master " the orient 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 from on high," dispel the darkness of sin, and enlighten those who 
 sat in the shadow of death. 
 
 His matin-prayer concluded with outpourings of glory to God on 
 high ; the Christian again made the sign of the cross ; and, issuing 
 from his abode, with meek countenance and recollected step, pro- 
 ceeded to the church, or in seasons of persecution, to some crypt or 
 catacomb, to assist at the Divine mysteries. He did not enter the 
 holy place till he had first performed another lustration at a foun- 
 tain of holy water in the atrium. This was done not for bodily 
 neatness, for the Christian never came to church with soiled hands 
 or face, but as a sign of the spotless purity he should bring into the 
 Divine presence ; and having once entered the church or oratory, he 
 took care not to depart until the class of the congregation to which 
 he belonged had been formally dismissed. 
 
 After the appointed prayers and hymns, portions of the Old and 
 New Testament were recited, and the bishop, or a priest appointed 
 by him, delivered a homily or familiar discourse, in which he ex- 
 pounded what had been read, and enforced its edifying examples 
 and lessons of virtue by fervent exhortations ; then followed the 
 prayers for the catechumens, and the classes of penitents permitted 
 to come beyond the atrium, and into the first division of the nave. 
 This portion of the service, called the mass of catechumens, was ter- 
 minated by the "ite missa est," or a proclamation, by a deacon, to 
 the unbaptized and penitents to withdraw. 
 
 When they had done so, under the inspection of the subdeacons 
 and ostiarii, or those who had charge of the doors, the faithful ap- 
 proached the altar with their offerings of bread and wine. The 
 oblation ended, the bishop, or priest, appointed to celebrate, having 
 washed his hands while reciting a prayer, and then kissed the 
 altar, made the offertory, or act of presenting to the heavenly 
 Father, with appropriate prayer, that portion of the bread and wine 
 prepared from the offerings, by the deacon, for the purposes of sacri- 
 fice. The latter was careful to pour some drops of water into the 
 chalice, in conformity with the example of our Lord and his apos- 
 tles, before he presented it to the celebrant. Some other prayers 
 having been recited, the bishop said, elevating his hands, " Let us 
 give thanks to the Lord our God." And the people having re- 
 sponded that it w^as just and right so to do ; he commenced the 
 preface, or, as the Greeks called it, the triumphal hymn, somewhat 
 to the following effect : — 
 
 " Verily it is meet, just, equitable, and salutary, that always, 
 and everywhere, we give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, Father Om- 
 nipotent, Eternal God, through Christ our Lord, — through whom 
 the angels praise thy Majesty, the dominations adore, the powers 
 celestial tremble, and the entire heavens, with their mighty spirits and 
 the blessed seraphim, exult, and with one voice entone and celebrate 
 their canticles of adoration. With whom we implore that our voices 
 also may be commanded to unite in accents of supplication." 
 
 z 
 
334 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 At these words tlie choir, joined by the whole congregation, took 
 up the angelic hymn : — 
 
 " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, full are the heavens 
 and the earth of thy glory, Hosanna in the highest ! Blessed is he 
 ■who Cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest !" 
 that is, " We hail Thee, — Thee we supplicate, who art in the high- 
 est heavens." 
 
 Then commenced the canon, or, as it was sometimes called, the 
 action of the sacrifice, during which the celebrant frequently made 
 the sign of the cross over the bread and wine about to be changed, 
 by the word of our Lord, into his own most adorable body and 
 blood. After imploring peace, union, and the aid of Heaven upon 
 the church, and recommending to the Divine favour the various 
 ranks of the hierarchy, of the faithful, and of all not yet aggre- 
 gated to the fold ; and having commemorated the holy apostles and 
 saints, the awful words of consecration (as they are set down by 
 St. Paul) were pronounced first over the bread, and then over the 
 chalice, according to the Divine institution. Then, after other 
 prayers, commemorative of the passion, death, and resurrection, and 
 ascension of our Lord, and the memento for the dead, or prayer for 
 the souls of the faithful departed, the priest recited aloud the " pater 
 noster," or Lord's prayer. The pax, or kiss of peace, followed, 
 when the male portion of the congregation, placed in the aisle to 
 the right of the entrance, embraced each other in token of mutual 
 forgiveness, and fraternal charity ; and the females did the same, in 
 their own portion of the church, which was in the left aisle, and 
 separated from that of the men by the nave,— allotted to catechumens 
 and penitents, and by the chancel, or choir, immediately before the 
 altar ; while the clergy performed this holy ceremony as they stood, 
 according to their rank, on either side of the bishop's throne placed 
 in the absis, and immediately in front of the altar steps. 
 
 After the communion of the celebrant, the deacons sung: "Come 
 taste and see how sweet the Lord is." This being an invitation to 
 all (for in those days no Christian came to the Divine mysteries, but 
 with a pure conscience,) to partake of the blessed eucharist. Hav- 
 ing adored and received the blessed sacrament, repeating " Amen," 
 when the priest or deacon said, " Behold the body of Christ," the 
 Christian devoutly abided the rest of the Liturgic prayers, and, 
 having made his thanksgiving, returned in deep recollection to his 
 dwelling. And so early did the Christians rise, and such was the 
 admirable punctuality and order of the Divine offices (called ante- 
 lucance, from being celebrated before the dawn,) that the Christian 
 was ever among the first at his peculiar trade or avocation, to which 
 he applied, having as usual signed himself with the cross. But if 
 a father, or one having guardianship of others, he took care first to 
 instruct his children and dependants in the points of the sermon or 
 discourse he had heard, and in the Christian doctrine generally. 
 
 A little before noon the labourer or the artizan suspended his task, 
 and the housewife and the handmaid their domestic employments, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 335 
 
 and the short interval before the midday repast was given to a 
 rayer, a hymn, and a lecture, (called sext, because said at tlie sixtli 
 hour,) that the soul as well as the body might have its proper ali- 
 ment, and that fervour, so liable to fall away, might be invigorated. 
 All were taught to meditate during their occupations, or to relax 
 the mind, and beguile time with pious songs, but no disedifying 
 expression, or one that did not savour of truth and virtue, ever 
 escaped their lips. 
 
 Before reclining at table, some one, the father of the family, 
 unless in presence of a priest or cleric, used to make the sign of the 
 cross over the viands, the water and wine, repeating a brief prayer. 
 Instead of voluptuous music and indecencies, in which the pagans 
 delighted, a chorus of young voices shed an angelic charm over the 
 Christian's refection ; and when they pledged each other, the cup 
 was signed with the cross, and the name of Christ invoked. After 
 the thanksgiving, they entertained one another for a while with 
 hymns, or in listening while one read from the sacred volume. 
 Then instead of indulging in sloth, or giving a loose rein to the 
 passions, they either resumed their occupations as before, or betook 
 them, during the quiet time when the pagans lay buried in de- 
 bauchery or sleep, to visit and console the captive and confessors in 
 prison, to welcome pilgrims and wash their feet, supplying them 
 with every entertainment, or in carrying alms to widows and 
 orphans in their distress. 
 
 Nones, a form of prayer like those appointed for 'the first, third, 
 and sixth, was recited at three o'clock, the ninth hour of the day. 
 If a field labourer, or one whose craft called him from his own 
 house, the Christian on returning at even-tide to his family, was 
 surrounded by his children, to whom he dispensed instruction min- 
 gled with the fervour of his own glowing heart ; and after a frugal 
 supper sanctified and cheered by rites and canticles, and inspired 
 lessons similar to those of dinner-time, serene in mind, at peace 
 with himself, with his neighbour and with Heaven, he made the 
 royal sign over his lowly bed, and sought repose under the same 
 auspices he had invoked in the beginning of the day. 
 
 Nor was his Saviour left without his tribute even from the long 
 hours of darkness ; the Christian rose at midnight, and gave some 
 time to holy vigils and a prayer called the nocturns (ad nocturnas). 
 In short, regarding himself as a soldier of Christ,— called to con- 
 tend against the world, the flesh, and the devil,— he deemed it his 
 duty to be on the alert continually. It was held presumptuous for 
 one so fragile not to recommend himself by frequent prayer to the 
 Divine protection ; not to stand upon his guard against the strata- 
 gems and hostilities that beset him on all sides. Moreover, " every 
 day," says Clement of Alexandria, " being, for us, a festival, and . 
 persuaded as we are that God is everywhere, praising we adore Him, 
 whether voyaging by sea or land ; whether engaged in handicraft 
 or professional pursuits ; we dedicate the honourable use of all 
 things to the Giver of all good, and return him thanks for his infi- 
 nite bounty, convinced that we are under the eye, and present to 
 
 z 2 
 
336 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the mind of his divinity at every instant." Hence vv^herever he was 
 found, in the senate, in the public baths, in the forum, or on the 
 tented field, (he kept aloof from the circus and theatres as from so 
 many temi)les of heathenism,) at the loom, the anvil, the quern, or 
 in whatsoever station he had been fixed by Providence, the Christian 
 became conspicuous for the integrity of his morals, and wrung even 
 from his persecutors the confession, that his life corresponded with 
 the arduous code which he professed. 
 
 Like an army halting upon the march to be reviewed, every Wed- 
 nesday and Friday the soldiers of Christ made station, that is, there 
 was a muster of the congregation at some appointed church or ora- 
 tory, where a longer time than ordinary was spent in self-examina- 
 tion, in prayer, penitential tears, and the confession of sins, joined 
 with fasting and other austerities. The day following the Jewish 
 sabbath — dedicated by heathens to the worship of the sun — was a day 
 of rest and great solemnity with the Christians ; because on it their 
 Saviour had arisen from the dead — opening for his disciples the gate 
 of immortality — and hence it was called dominica or the Lord's day. 
 Its vigil, or eve, Saturday, was observed by the Roman Christians 
 as a day of abstinence, or as they called it then — a half fast. 
 
 But Easter day was the greatest festival of the Christian year. 
 For a long time the Christians of the East used to celebrate it on 
 the Jewish passover, no matter on what day of the week it fell ; 
 but, \iltimately, the universal church conformed to the Roman usage 
 instituted by St. Peter ; to keep the anniversary of our Lord's resur- 
 rection on the Sunday following the fifteenth of the moon of March. 
 They prepared themselves for its celebration by a rigorous fast of 
 forty days. The week immediately preceding it was called the great 
 week, because the greatest blessings had been conceded to mortals 
 during those days in which the world's redemption was achieved. 
 It was entirely given to penitential austerities, meditation, prayer, 
 and rigid fasts, and, as if to indicate the effulgence the rising Saviour 
 had shed upon the world, the night preceding the great festival was 
 illuminated with torches, so as almost to rival the brilliancy of the 
 noon day. 
 
 With nearly equal devotion and signs of holy jubilee, the feasts 
 of the Nativity, of Pentecost, and Epiphany— called the day of 
 sacred illumination by the Greeks — were celebrated ; as also the 
 anniversaries of the martyrs and saints ; and whenever the festivals 
 of two saints fell on the same day, after assisting at the divine offices 
 of the liturgy in one church or oratory, the faithful hastened to the 
 shrine of the other servant of God, to offer up their vows, and assist 
 at the holy sacrifice. 
 
 In seasons of persecution these solemnities were held in the cata- 
 combs, or in crypts under ground ; and hence the Christians were 
 stigmatized by their heathen persecutors as " a crew of conspirators, 
 fond of darkness, lurking in dens, and afraid of the light." 
 
 An anecdote told by that scoffer Lucian shows what a tender cha- 
 rity reigned among the Christians. Speaking of an infamous im- 
 postor who pretended to be a Christian, he thus goes on in the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 337 
 
 dialogue of the pilgrim : — '* This villain being cast into prison, it 
 was regarded by the whole Christian community as a calamity in 
 which each of them was concerned, and they spared no effort or 
 sacrifice to procure his liberation, in order to bring him to their own 
 houses. But seeing that all was to no effect, they determined to 
 minister to him in his dungeon every rite of hospitality, with more 
 than ordinary assiduity and diligence. Whereupon, you might have 
 seen old crones, widows, and orphan children, resorting to the pri- 
 son, from earliest morn to dewy eve ; and not only these, but those 
 also among the followers of Jesus Christ, who were of a better con- 
 dition, (priests to offer the holy sacrifice,) who contrived by bribing 
 the gaolers to get in and minister consolation to the impostor, passing 
 whole nights with him in his captivity, without ever suspecting what 
 a precious saint he was. They prepared supper for him, and read 
 to him from these books M-hich they called sacred. Nay, more, they 
 brought large supplies of money to the imprisoned pilgrim, who 
 thus drove a fine trade upon the simplicity of these fools, who be- 
 lieve themselves immortal, and on that account contemn not only 
 all earthly substance, but death itself." They deemed it a sacred 
 duty of religion to visit those who were prisoners especially for the 
 faith, and to kiss the fetters with which their limbs were burdened 
 for Christ's sake ; priests found means to penetrate into the dun- 
 geons of the captive, that, even amidst his guards, he might enjoy 
 the ineffable delight of assisting at the holy sacrifice, and of being 
 consoled and strengthened by the sacraments. In short, they were 
 upbraided with the folly of receiving with open arms the stranger 
 whom they had never seen before, merely because he was a disciple 
 of Christ ; and the Gentiles were constantly forced to exclaim, 
 " See these Christians, how they love one another !" 
 
 But it was in seasons of public calamity, as when cities were 
 struck with pestilence, that the magnanimity and lustre of the 
 Christian shone forth in all its lustre. 
 
 " Many and bitter were the calamities which we had to suffer," 
 says St. Dionysius of Alexandria, "before this terrible plague fell on 
 Egypt, which it has filled with lamentations like those that re- 
 sounded through the land, when all the first-born were slain in one 
 night. In the first place, we were hunted from the cities ; but al- 
 though harassed, persecuted, and oppressed by all, nevertheless we 
 celebrated the sacred festivals. In whatever place we happened to 
 be, beset as we were, on all sides, with innumerable and distressing 
 trials, whether in the fields or in the wilderness, cooped up in mise- 
 rable barks upon the waters, in stables, or in prison, still every 
 place was to us a temple, where we solemnized the Divine mysteries 
 with every accustomed rite. But oh, how incomparably more res- 
 plendent the festivals celebrated in heaven by our brethren, when 
 its gates had been opened to them by martyrdom ? 
 
 "These events were followed by a famine which afflicted the entire 
 province, and by a war, of which the calamities were common to us 
 and to the Gentiles ; but it pleased Christ Jesus our Saviour that 
 the peace which succeeded should be conceded to us alone. Scarcely 
 
338 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 had we and our persecutors commeuced to breathe a little from the 
 late terrors and disasters, when a plague broke out, which proved 
 terrible and destructive beyond all description to our enemies. To 
 our people it caused little loss and less apprehension, serving rather 
 as an incentive to fervour and an opportunity by which the 
 virtue of each party was to be put to the test. Many were the 
 Christians who found themselves inspired by their singular and 
 ardent charity to form themselves into companies in order to visit 
 and succour the victims of the plague : and while, heedless of their 
 own safety, they procured every aid, and did all that was possible to 
 solace their patients, not a few of them caught the contagion and 
 gloriously expired, joyful to partake in miseries they could not 
 remedy, and to teach the Gentiles how to suffer patiently by their 
 example. Several who had saved others from death, sunk under 
 the exhaustion brought on by toil and assiduity, and thus passed to 
 their reward from this vale of tears and misery. Thus did many of 
 our most holy brethren cease to live, amongst whom were a number 
 of lay persons full of devout zeal, besides the priests and deacons ; 
 and their death, occasioned by their piety and charity, would seem 
 deserving to be compared to martyrdom. On perceiving any one 
 about to expire, during their attendance on the plague- struck mul- 
 titude, they hastened with every manifestation of affection and 
 sympathy to where lay the sufferer, and stooping down, consoled 
 him in his agony, mingling fervent exhortations to induce the de- 
 parting soul to seek help and forgiveness from the Lord of mercies. 
 When the spirit had winged its flight, with touching piety they closed 
 the eyes and mouth, and lifting the dead body on their shoulders 
 carried it to a convenient place, where they washed it ; and this ce- 
 remony ended, they enveloped it in its shroud, embraced it ten- 
 derly, and finally carried it to the grave. 
 
 *• Entirely different was the conduct of the Gentiles, for as soon as 
 any were perceived to be struck with the plague, no matter how 
 near and dear the objects by ties of kindred or affection, they cast 
 the wretched being forth from their houses, and then left them to 
 perish in the streets, regardless of their cries and agonies ; and when 
 they beheld their bodies lying dead, they durst not give them the 
 rites of burial, fearful of catching the contagion, and thus expose 
 themselves to death ; which, however, with all their precautions 
 they were unable to escape." But, to complete the picture, the 
 details omitted by St. Dionysius must be supplied from St. Cyprian ; 
 reproaching the pagans of Carthage, for their conduct during a pes- 
 tilence similar to that with which Alexandria was visited. " Cow- 
 ards," he says, "in discharging the duties of piety, yet audacious 
 in securing an impious plunder : shrinking from scenes of mortality, 
 yet panting for the spoils of the dead, it would seem that they desert 
 the poor sufferers in their decay, that no chance may be left of their 
 recovery and restoration. He who invades the wealth of the dying, 
 can have no wish for his return to health. This dreadful and mul- 
 tiplied havoc has not been able to unteach men their wickedness, 
 and amid the heaps swept down on every side by death, no one 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 339 
 
 seems to dream that he is himself mortal. Pillage, rapine, taking 
 possession of the property of the dead and dying, in every quarter the 
 spoiler hides nothing, hesitates never ; hut as if he might, as if he 
 ought, as if no^ to rob were doing damage and injustice to himself, each 
 hurries to the spoil. In general, robbers have some sense of their ill- 
 deeds ; they haunt inaccessible passes and desert wastes, and seek 
 to perpetrate their misdeeds under the shades of night ; but during 
 the raging pestilence, rapacity prowls in open day, and, without 
 check or fear of justice, exercises its licence through the forums and 
 streets of Carthage." 
 
 While, among the pagans, the most sacred ties of humanity were 
 thus cruelly rent asunder for lucre's sake, the goods of this world 
 formed a bond of brotherhood between the Christians, who freely 
 participated with their needy brethren all over the world, not only 
 what they possessed by inheritance, but all that they could earn by 
 hard labour. " Each of us," says Tertullian, " contributes so much 
 a month. A voluntary offering according to his means. For no 
 one gives by compulsion, but every one of his own accord. These 
 contributions are so many deposits made by piety, they are confided 
 to the administration of the bishop, or chief presbyter of the con- 
 gregation. Nor is it in banqueting or revelry these funds are spent, 
 but to feed the poor, the orphan, young creatures exposed to infamy 
 by their own parents, the aged, the shipwrecked mariner, those 
 condemned to the mines, those who pine in prison, in exile : in a 
 word, for all who suffer for the Christian faith, and also for the 
 pious interment of the dead." 
 
 " In our brethren taken captive and reduced to slavery," says 
 St. Cyprian, " we all feel bound to recognise that Saviour, our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who resides in his servants, and to contribute by 
 large sums of this world's dross to liberate from barbarian hands 
 him, who squandered his own most precious blood upon the cross to 
 liberate our souls from death and the jaws of perdition. And oh, 
 how intense ought the common anguish to be — how lively our ap- 
 prehensions for those pure and spotless daughters of the church, who 
 have fallen into the power of rude and lawless hordes, lest it be our 
 doom to mourn the loss not only of their freedom, but of their 
 virginity? On this account, our brethren here, having taken into 
 consideration and examined the contents of your letter, promptly, 
 and with cheerfulness, contributed a much larger amount than could 
 have been expected ; for, inflamed by the sight of so pitiable a 
 disaster, their charity added redoubled force to that disposition to 
 every good work which springs from their firm and lively faith. 
 Our collection amounted to one hundred thousand sesterces, which 
 I now send you, that, with your wonted diligence, they may be 
 disposed of for the advantage of our poor brethren, the slaves." 
 
340 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 Concerning the primitive heresies, Simoniacal, Jewish, and 
 Gnostic. Their numbers, classes, distinctive theories, rela- 
 tions to the church, to the apostolic writings, Sfc. 
 
 The convictions and the fervour, excited by the first announce- 
 ment of the Gospel, seemed to run through the world like a stroke 
 of electricity. It became evident, that many causes had been long 
 in elfectual, though unheeded, operation, to prepare the world for its 
 reception. Vast numbers seemed to awaken suddenly, as if from 
 some fatal trance, at the first sounds of the apostolic voice ; and the 
 wonders they announced seemed to flash a sudden and irresistible 
 conviction. Society, especially in Syria and the surrounding coun- 
 tries, became agitated to its very depths, by this heavenly Spirit 
 which swept over its long stagnant surface. The divine fire scat- 
 tered by the apostles enkindled a flame that spread like lightning. 
 Scarcely have they commenced their career, when already an im- 
 mense number of churches, or societies of Christians, are seen rising 
 in every direction. Tn Jerusalem, throughout all Judeaand Samaria, 
 at Antioch, in Ephesus, through the Asiatic and Greek cities, the 
 messengers of this new revelation had their triumphs ; multitudes 
 were carried away by them from the synagogue and the idol altars, 
 to devote themselves with enthusiasm to the new faith ; they were 
 recognised and venerated as the accredited envoys of the Divinity ; 
 their disciples, in their fervour, did not hesitate even to sell all they 
 had, and cast the price thereof at their feet for the common interests 
 and advancement of Christianity. What wonder that, at a time 
 when impostors, magicians, and charlatans of all descriptions, 
 abounded more, and were more sought after by all orders, than 
 ever they were before or since,— that many of this tribe should have 
 eagerly seized upon the general excitement as affording a golden 
 opportunity to advance their sordid interests. The renown of the 
 apostles, of their preaching, and of their miracles, had already filled 
 the world ; wherever the preachers of this " new sect, so much 
 contradicted everywhere" — everywhere the theme of so much dis- 
 cussion and intense interest, — wherever they made their appearance 
 they attracted multitudes. Hence in the track of the true, there 
 came a tribe of "lying teachers, bringing in sects of perdition, 
 through covetousness," sordid and sacrilegious impostors, who la- 
 boured, and exhausted their ingenuity, " to make merchandise of 
 the faithful." 
 
 Wherever the apostles turn their eyes, towards the close of their 
 career, they behold, with alarm and indignation, the disseminators 
 of wicked inopostures busily engaged all over the wide field of their 
 labours, but more particularly in the East and in Greece. " Beware 
 of dogs !" cries out St. Paul to the Christians of Philippi, *' beware of 
 evil-workers, beware of the concision ; for many walk of whom 1 told 
 you often, and now tell you weeping," (on account of the ruin they 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 341 
 
 were spreading,) " that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" 
 (however loudly they may profess the contrary) ; " whose end is de- 
 struction, whose god is their belly ; whose glory is in their shame ; 
 who mind earthly things." The Colossians he admonishes against an- 
 other class of seducers who strove " to cheat by philosophy and vain 
 deceit," — deducing religion not from the dogmas delivered by Christ 
 to his apostles, but from the traditions of the schools of Plato and 
 Pythagoras, and from " the elements of the world," working out by 
 a system of physical analysis a species of pantheism to which they 
 gave the name of Christianity. They became puffed up with the 
 imaginary combination they had effected between the revelation of 
 Christ and the reveries of oriental dreamers, and introduced their 
 theories concerning successive generations of angels, or eons, all in 
 order to get rid of the mystery of the incarnation, which they held 
 to be an absurdity, if taken in the literal sense : holding that the 
 strong expressions of Scripture were only a mere veil for the true 
 Gnostic, or esoteric, sense. 
 
 After describing the odious features of these heretics, who were 
 to spread themselves, ere long, like scorpion-swarms over the vine- 
 yard of the Lord, the apostle says to the bishop of Ephesus, his 
 beloved disciple Timothys, " Now these avoid ! for of this sort are 
 they who" (at the present time) " creep into houses, and lead captive 
 silly women, laden with sins, who are led away with divers desires, — 
 ever learning, and 7iever attaining to the knowledge of the truth." In 
 that epistle, which he directed from Rome to the universal church, 
 shortly before his martyrdom, the prince of the apostles denounces 
 these pests, and warns the faithful against them. "These," he 
 says, " are fountains witliout water and clouds tossed with whirl- 
 winds, for whom the mist of darkness is reserved. Speaking proud 
 words of vainglory, they allure by the desire of fleshly riotousness. 
 Promising liberty (from the salutary restraints of Christ's com- 
 mandments), they make their dupes the bond slaves of every pas- 
 sion." " Better for tliem," concludes St. Peter, " not to have known 
 the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from 
 that holy commandment -which was delivered to them. For that of 
 the true proverb has happened in them : The dog is returned to 
 his vomit ; and, the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the 
 mire." 
 
 " Dearly beloved," says St. Jude, *' taking all care to write unto 
 you of your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto 
 you, to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered 
 to the saints ; for certain men are secretly entered in, (who were 
 written of long ago unto this judgment,) ungodly men, turning the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into riotousness, and denying the 
 only sovereign ruler and our Lord Jesus Christ." — (Prone to abo- 
 minable licentiousness,) " they despise dominion and blaspheme 
 majesty." — (Whatsoever is beyond their carnal comprehension they 
 blaspheme,) *' and what things soever they naturally know, like 
 dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted. Wo unto them, for they 
 have gone in to the way of Cain, and after the error of Balaam. 
 
342 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 These are spots in their banqueting, revelling without fear, feeding 
 themselves ; clouds without water, which are carried about by the 
 winds ; trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by 
 the roots ; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion ; 
 wandering stars, to whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever. 
 These are they who separate themselves,''^ break off from the commu- 
 nion of the church to set up their own opinions and interests. 
 *' Sensual men, having not the Spirit" who dwells in peace, and 
 loves order and subordination. 
 
 " Little children," says St. John, the apostle of mildness and 
 charity, " there are many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the 
 last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if 
 they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us ; 
 but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us. Many 
 seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus 
 Christ is come in the flesh ;" (but, only, as a mere phantom, as all 
 the Gnostics taught.) " This (whoever teacheth this) is a seducer 
 and an antichrist — whoever revolteth and continueth not in the doc- 
 trine of Christ," (delivered through the church,) " hath not God. He 
 that continueth in the doctrine," (delivered through the church,) " the 
 same hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you, 
 and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house, nor say 
 to him, ' God speed you.' For he that sayeth unto him, ' God 
 speed you,' communicateth with his wicked works." 
 
 The same holy evangelist receives new and stringent warnings 
 for the churches, on this head, in the revelations made to him by 
 our blessed Lord, in Patmos. " And to the angel of the church of 
 Pergamus, write: these things saith he who hath the sharp two- 
 edged sword. I know where thou dwellest, where the seat (ca- 
 thedral) of Satan is ; and thou boldest fast my name," (notwith- 
 standing the difficulties of the post you occupy,) " and hast not 
 denied my faith, even in those days when Antipas, my faithful 
 witness (martyr), was slain among you in that abode of Satan. But 
 I have against thee a few things, because thou hast there them that 
 hold the doctrine of Balaam ; so also hast thou them that hold the 
 doctrine of the Nicolaites." — In fine, it was to check the progress 
 of these sects, especially the Ebionites and followers of Cerinthus, 
 and to fortify the faithful against their seductions, that the vene- 
 rable St. John, who had long survived all the other apostles, wrote 
 his Gospel, in which he says, that the Divine Word, (the second 
 person of the Blessed Trinity,) '* was made flesh," really, and truly, 
 assumed human nature. 
 
 St. Epiphanius, bishop of Salamina, in Cyprus, was induced by 
 Acacius and Paulus, two abbots or archimandrites of Coele-Syria, 
 to write a history of these sects ; a task for which he was highly 
 qualified. He had resided for a long time in the countries where they 
 flourished most ; he was perfect master of Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, 
 and Egyptian ; pretty well acquainted with Latin ; and, withal, a 
 man of immense and varied erudition. (Hier. de Scr. Eccl. et 
 adv. Ruf ) 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 343 
 
 According to him, there were cut off from the church the follow- 
 ing heresies, which usurped the name, without professing the genuine 
 faith of Christians : — 
 
 1. Simoniani, (the sect of Si- 
 mon Magus, the patriarch of an- 
 tichristian heresies.) 
 
 2. Menandrini. 
 
 3. Saturniani. 
 
 4. Basilidiani. 
 
 5. Nicolaitae. 
 
 6. Gnostici, variously desig- 
 nated, being by some called 
 Stratiotici, by others Phibio- 
 nitas, by others Secundiani, So- 
 cratitae, Zacchei, Coddiani, Bor- 
 boriani, Barbelitge, &c. 
 
 7. Carpocratse. 
 
 8. Cerinthiani, or Mernithi- 
 ani. 
 
 9. Nazarei. 
 
 10. Ebionitse. 
 
 11. Valentini. 
 
 12. Secundiani, from whom 
 Epiphanes and Isidorus branched 
 off. 
 
 13. Ptolemasi. 
 
 14. Marcosii. 
 
 15. Calorbasii. 
 
 16. Heracleonitae. 
 
 17. Ophitae. 
 
 18. Caiani. 
 
 19. Sethiani. 
 
 20. Arcobutici. 
 
 21. Cerdoniani. 
 
 22. Marcionitae. 
 
 23. Lucianistae. 
 
 24. Appelleiani. 
 
 25. Seneriani. 
 
 26. Tatiani. 
 
 27. Encratitae. 
 
 28. Cataphryges, called also 
 Montanistae and Tascodrugitae, 
 who w^ere again subdivided 
 among themselves. 
 
 29. Peputiani, called also 
 Priscilliani, to whom are to be 
 added the Artotyritae. 
 
 30. Tessarescaedecatitae, who 
 celebrated Easter on a fixed day. 
 
 31. Alogoi, who reject the 
 gospel and prophecy of St. John. 
 
 32. Adamiani. 
 
 33. Sampsasi, called also Hel- 
 cesasi. 
 
 34. Theodotiani. 
 
 35. Melchisedechiani. 
 
 36. Bordesianistae. 
 
 37. Noetiani. 
 
 38. Valesii. 
 
 39. Cathari, or Novatiani. 
 
 40. Angelici. 
 
 41. Apostolici. 
 
 42. Sabelliani. 
 
 43. Origenistas. (According 
 to St. Jerome, contr. Rufin. Ap. 
 Secund., St. Epiphanius had read 
 the six thousand booJcs which Ori- 
 gen was said to have written!) 
 
 44. Adamantius. 
 
 45. Followers of Paul of Sa- 
 mosata. 
 
 40. Manicheans. 
 
 47. Hieracitse. 
 
 48. Meletiani, Egyptian schis- 
 matics. 
 
 49. Ariani, or Ariomanitas. 
 
 50. Audiani. 
 
 51. Photiniani. 
 
 52. Marcelliani. 
 
 53. Semeriani. 
 
 54. Pneumatonici, or Mace- 
 doniani, disciples of Eleugius, 
 who blasphemed the Holy Ghost. 
 
 55. Aeriani. 
 
 56. Aetiani, or Anomaei, to 
 whom is joined Eunomius. 
 
 57. Dimaeritae, or Apollina- 
 ristae. 
 
 58. Antidico-Marianitae, or 
 those who reviled the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary. 
 
 59. Collyridiani. 
 
 60. Massaliani, with whom 
 the Martyriani, the Euphemitae, 
 and Satanici, are united, &c. 
 
344 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 He says they swarmed like a progeny of asps from the egg of the 
 infernal serpent. Hor. 26. And in speaking of Nicolaus alone, he 
 says that myriads of heresies were broached by his disciples : — 
 fKacrros yap tovtcov tt]V eavrov alprja-iu tovs nadecriv avTOV em. oirop.r]vos, 
 fxvpias oSots enevorja-e KUKtas. He attribiites to them the systematic 
 practice of the most horrible immoralities. The doctrine of the 
 incarnation, that is, that God became man, and took a real body 
 from the womb of Mary, was what they one and all denied. They 
 all protested against taking the Scriptures, on that subject, in the 
 obvious literal sense ; they gave them a figurative interpretation, 
 and said, that the Son of God had not a real body, but only the 
 appearance of a body. In general they held a doctrine like that of 
 the Manicheans, of a good and an evil principle : in every thing else 
 they disagreed, and were liable to everlasting variations. 
 
 St. Epiphanius has not given any general classification of these 
 heresies ; but, from what he has recorded of their origin, tenets, and 
 practices, it is not difficult to perceive that they were divided into 
 two great families. 
 
 I. The judaizing heresies, of which the Nazarenes, and Ebionites, 
 and Elxaites were the chief. It was their aim to cast the revelation 
 announced by the apostles in the mould of their own prejudices : 
 they wished to adopt Christianity, but they were at the same time 
 unwilling to give up the ceremonial law ; they therefore endeavoured 
 to effect an amalgamation between the religion of the Messiah and 
 their own sectarian systems. It is evident from the writings of St. 
 Paul, that these principles were in great activity wherever the Jews 
 were dispersed, even in the lifetime of the apostles ; but it is pro- 
 bable that the grosser errors of the Ebionites, as to the two adverse 
 deities of the Orientals, &c., were of a later date ; for it is the inva- 
 riable characteristic of heresy to plunge from abyss to abyss in its 
 departure from authority. According to these sects, it was not till 
 he was baptized in the Jordan, that the heavenly Messiah descended 
 upon the Son of Mary and Joseph. This Messiah, the most noble 
 of all eons or angels emanating from the Supreme Deity, forsook 
 him at the time of the crucifixion ; and, thus, they got rid of the 
 mysteries of the incarnation and death of the Incarnate Word, to their 
 pride and egotism a rock of scandal. They mutilated and corrupted 
 the gospels, to suit them to their own notions. 
 
 II. While the Jewish sects would force the new revelation into 
 conformity with the corrupt interpretations they had put upon the 
 Mosaic law, not a few of the Gentiles, who were imbued with the 
 Oriental and Grecian systems of philosophy, were carried away by 
 an enthusiasm to mingle the new religion with the old theories, to il- 
 lustrate the one by the other, and thereby to elicit a higher religious 
 knowledge, — an esoteric Christianity, — bearing to the vulgar doc- 
 trines of the church the same analogy that the doctrines of the 
 higher bore to those of the lower Eleusinian mysteries. They 
 aimed at this result, in order to dispense with the submission of the 
 intellect required by the mysteries of faith, and to retain their dar- 
 ling scholastic theories, while they turned the sublime and luminous 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 345 
 
 principles of the new revelation to account. This form of error, 
 the most dangerous that could assail the church, assumed an infini- 
 tude of forms : no sooner is it defeated in one guise, than it reap- 
 pears in another, thus prolonging the trials of the elect from age to 
 age. Nor has the Almighty failed to draw forth advantages from 
 this fountain of evil also : the progressive development of religion 
 has in a great degree arisen from its everlasting struggles against 
 the Gnostic principle. 
 
 Asiatic Gnostics. 
 
 Saturninus, of Antioch, is one of the first Gnostic chiefs. He 
 held the old Oriental doctrine of two principles — the one spirit, a 
 wise and benevolent Deity — the other, matter, a principle essentially 
 evil. " The world and its first inhabitants," according to Satur- 
 ninus, " were created by seven angels who presided over the seven 
 planets. This they did without the knowledge of the benevolent 
 deity, and in opposition to the will of the material principle. Their 
 work, however, was looked upon by the former with approbation, 
 and honoured with several marks of beneficence. He endowed 
 with rational souls the beings who inhabited this new system, to 
 ■whom their creators had merely imparted animal life ; and having 
 partitioned the world into seven regions, he assigned one to each of 
 the seven angelic architects, of whom the God of the Jews, Jehovah, 
 was one; reserving to himself the supreme empire over all. To 
 these creatures, whom the benevolent deity had endowed with pro- 
 pensities to goodness and virtue, the evil being, to preserve a 
 balance of power, added a malignant race inclined to wickedness ; 
 and hence the mixture of good and evil among men. But the 
 creating spirits fell from their allegiance to the good deity, who 
 sent into the world a restorer of order, whose name was Christ, 
 This divine conqueror came clothed with a corporeal appearance, 
 but not with a real body ; he came to destroy the empire of the 
 material principle, and to point out to virtuous souls the way by 
 which they must return to God. This way is beset with difficulties 
 and sufferings ; since those souls who propose returning to the Su- 
 preme Being, after the dissolution of this mortal body, must abstain 
 from wine, flesh, and wedlock, and, in short, from every thing tend- 
 ing to gratify the senses, or conduce to human refinement." 
 
 Saturninus dogmatized all through Syria, but principally at An- 
 tioch, and drew after him many disciples by the pompous appearance 
 of an extraordinary virtue.* 
 
 Bardesanians. 
 
 Bardesanes, a native of Edessa, was a man of very acute genius, 
 and acquired a shining reputation by his writings, which were in 
 great number, and valuable for the profound erudition they con- 
 
 * IrensDus, lib. i. cap. xxiv. Euseb. Hist. Eccl., lib. iv. cap. vii. Theodoret. 
 Fabul. Ileeret., lib. i. cap. ii. Epiphan. Hseres. xxiii. 
 
346 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 tained. Seduced by the fantastic charms of the Oriental philosophy, 
 he adopted it with zeal, hut, at the same time, with certain modifi- 
 cations, that rendered his system less extravagant than that of the 
 Marcionites, against whom he wrote a very learned treatise. The 
 sum of his doctrine is as follows : — " There is a Supreme God, pure 
 and benevolent, absolutely free from all evil and imperfection : and 
 there is also a prince of darkness, the fountain of all evil, disorder, and 
 misery. The Supreme God created the world without any mixture 
 of evil in its composition ; he also gave existence to its inhabitants, 
 who came out of his forming hand pure and incorrupt, endued with 
 subtile, ethereal bodies, and spirits of a celestial nature. But when, 
 in process of time, the prince of darkness had enticed men to sin, 
 then the Supreme God permitted them to fall into sluggish and 
 gross bodies formed of corrupt matter by the evil principle : he per- 
 mitted also the depravation and disorder which this malignant being 
 introduced both in the natural and in the moral world, designing, by 
 this permission, to punish the degeneracy and rebellion of an apos- 
 tate race ; and hence proceeds the perpetual conflict between reason 
 and passion in the mind of man. It was on this account that Jesus 
 descended from the upper regions, clothed not with a real, but a 
 celestial and aerial body, and taught mankind to subdue that body 
 of corruption which they carry about with them in this mortal life." 
 This sect subsisted a long time in Syria.* 
 
 Tatianists. 
 
 Tatian, by birth an Assyrian, and a disciple of Justin Martyr, is 
 more distinguished by the ancient writers on account of his genius 
 and learning, and the excessive and incredible austerities of his life 
 and manners, than by any errors or opinions peculiar to himself, 
 which he taught as follows : — He regarded matter as the fountain of 
 all evil, evil in itself, and on that account he practised and preached 
 the mortification of the body. He distinguished between the Creator 
 of the world and the Supreme Being ; denied the reality of Christ's 
 body; and corrupted Christianity with several other tenets of orien- 
 talism. His moral code resembled that of the Marcionites, &c., 
 and so rigidly prohibited wine, that his followers used nothing but 
 water even in the celebration of the Eucharist. They were called 
 Encratites, or temperate Apolactites, or renouncers, Hydroparastates 
 or water-drinkers. This sect was very numerous.'}" 
 
 The Ebionites. 
 
 Among the foregoing, who were all Asiatic Gnostics, may be 
 classed the Ebionites, who, although a Jewish sect, coincide in most 
 of the gross errors of the others. Though professing to believe the 
 celestial mission of Christ, and his participation of a divine nature, 
 
 * See, besides, the writers who give accounts of the ancient heresies, Euseb. Hist. 
 Eccl., lib. iv. cap. xxx. ; Beausobre, Hist, du Manich., vol. ii. p. 128, 
 t Vid. Cleui. Alexan. Stromal., 1. iii. p. 460. Epiphan. Haeres., xlvi. 1. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 347 
 
 yet they regarded him as a pure mortal, born of Joseph and Mary. 
 They maintained that the ceremonial law was binding on all ; and 
 the observance of it essential to salvation. They went still farther, 
 regarding the rabbinical fables' and corrupt glosses of the Pharisees 
 in the same light.* 
 
 The Egyptian Gnostics. 
 
 The Egyptian were distinguished from the Asiatic Gnostics by 
 the following differences in their religious system : — ■ 
 
 1. Although, besides the existence of a Deity, they maintained 
 that also of an eternal matter, endued with life and motion, yet 
 they did not acknowledge an eternal principle of darkness, or the 
 evil principle of the Persians. 
 
 2. They supposed our blessed Saviour to be a compound of two 
 persons, of the man Jesus, and of Christ the Son of God ; that the 
 divine person entered into the man Jesus when he was baptized by 
 John in the River Jordan, and departed from him when he was seized 
 by the ^ Jews. Still, to avoid the incomprehensible dogma of the in- 
 carnation, 
 
 3. They were not agreed as to whether Christ had a real body or 
 not. 
 
 4. As to their moral code ; it was licentious in the highest de- 
 gree. Carpocrates not only allowed his disciples a full liberty to 
 sin, but recommended to them a vicious course of life as a matter 
 both of obligation and necessity ; asserting that eternal salvation 
 was attainable by those who had committed all sorts of crimes, and 
 had daringly filled up the measure of iniquity. Similar views were 
 propagated by Basilides. 
 
 The Valentinians. 
 
 Valentinian was likewise an Egyptian by birth. His sect grew 
 into a state of consistence in the isle of Cyprus, and from thence 
 diffused itself through Asia, Africa, and Europe with astonishing 
 rapidity. His principles, generally speaking, resembled those of 
 the other Gnostics ; but like each of the other founders of sects, he 
 had many blasphemous errors of his own peculiar invention. " The 
 Creator of the world," according to Valentinian, " arrived by degrees 
 to that pitch of arrogance, that he either imagined himself to be 
 God alone, or, at least, was desirous that mankind should consider 
 hini as such. For this purpose he sent forth prophets to the Jewish 
 nation to declare his claim to the honour that is due to the Supreme 
 Being; and in this also the other angels that preside over the different 
 parts of the universe, immediately set themselves to imitate his am- 
 bition. To chastise this lawless arrogance of Demiurge, and to 
 illuminate the minds of rational beings with the knowledge of the 
 Supreme Deity, Christ appeared upon earth, composed of an animal 
 
 * Vid. Ireuaeus, 1. i. conf. Haeres. cap. xxvi. Epiphan. Hseres. xxx. 
 
348 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and spiritual substance, and clothed moreover with an aerial body. 
 Jesus, one of the supreme ceons, was substantially united to bim, 
 when he was baptized by John in the waters of Jordan. The Crea- 
 tor of this world when he found that the foundations of his empire 
 were shaken by this Divine man, caused him to be apprehended and 
 nailed to the cross. But before Christ submitted to this punish- 
 ment, not only Jesus, the Son of God, but also the rational soul of 
 Christ, ascended up on high, so that only the animal soul and the 
 ethereal body suffered crucifixion." 
 
 This wild dreamer and impious heretic became renowned, drew 
 multitudes after him, and, as usual, his brood gave birth to numer- 
 ous sects still more odious than their parent. The Ptolemaites 
 (from their chief, Ptolemy) differed with Valentinian as to the num- 
 ber of the ceons. The Secundians (from Secundus, their chief) main- 
 tained, in contradiction to his master, the two eternal principles of 
 the Persians. From the same source arose the sect of Heracleon ; 
 also that of the Marcosians, whose leaders Mark and Calobarsus, 
 added many new absurdities to the fictions of Valentinian ;* besides 
 a multitude of other obscure sects— such as the Adamites, who pro- 
 fessed to imitate the state of primitive innocence ; the Cainites, who 
 worshipped as saints, Cain, Cora, Dathan, the inhabitants of Sodom, 
 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed his Divine Master. Equally im- 
 pious and insane were the doctrines of the Abelites, the Sethites, 
 the Flarinians, and the Blasts— so called from their head, Blastus. 
 
 Grecian Gnostics. 
 
 The Christian doctrine concerning the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, and the two natures united in our blessed Saviour, were not 
 to be reconciled with the philosophic theories of Greece. When, 
 therefore, its sages began to feel like the whole world, the irresist- 
 ible progress of Christianity, they set about explaining away its 
 mysteries, in order to render them less repugnant to their own no- 
 tions. Praxeas, one of the first to dogmatize in this style, denied 
 the distinction of the divine persons ; hence, his followers were 
 called Monarchians : they were called Patropassians, because, ac- 
 cording to Tertullian's account, they believed that the Father was 
 so identified with the man Christ, his Son, that he suffered with him 
 the anguish of an afflicted life, and the torments of an ignominious 
 death. Artemon and Theodotus differed from Praxeas on this point, 
 teaching, " that, at the birth of the man Christ, a certain divine 
 energy, or portion of the divine nature (and not the person of the 
 Father, as Praxeas imagined,) united itself to him." Their dis- 
 ciples applied the dictates of philosophy, and even the science of 
 geometry, to explain the Christian religion. A like attachment 
 to the dictates of a presumptuous philosophy, induced Hermogenes, 
 a painter by profession, to abandon the doctrine of the church con- 
 cerning the origin of the world and the nature of the soul. Re- 
 * Vid. Irsen. contr. Ilseres., 1. i. cap. xiv. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 349 
 
 garding matter as the fountain of all evil, he could not persuade him- 
 self that God had created it from nothing by an almighty act of his 
 will ; and therefore he maintained, that the world, with whatever it 
 contains, as also the souls of men and other spirits, were formed by 
 the Deity from an uncreated and eternal mass of corrupt matter. 
 The work of Tertullian in refutation of the errors of this heretic 
 concerning the soul, has perished ; that written against his errors 
 concerning matter and the origin of the world, is still extant. 
 
 The Mvntanists. 
 
 These sects, which we have been passing in review, were 
 Gnostics, or the offspring of philosophical presumption. Mon- 
 tanus, a native of Pepuza in Phrygia, was an ignorant fanatic or 
 impostor, who pretended to the world that he was himself the Pa- 
 raclete whom the Divine Saviour had promised to send in order to 
 comfort and teach his disciples all truth. Notwithstanding the im- 
 pious absurdity of these pretensions, Montanus had many followers, 
 and these not of the lowest order, either as to rank or intellect, as 
 may be judged from the fact, that Priscilla and Maximilla, two re- 
 nowned prophetesses of the sect, were far more remarkable for their 
 opulence than their virtue; and that the great Tertullian, so formida- 
 ble to heresy, so long as he remained obedient to the church, became 
 the champion of this insane fanaticism, which spread through many 
 countries of Europe, Africa, and Asia,* 
 
 Each of these sects pretended to find its own peculiar system in 
 the Scriptures. They quoted them flippantly ; put that construction 
 on the text that suited their own fancy ; they adulterated the Scrip- 
 tures ; rejected whatever parts they could by no ingenuity reconcile 
 with their theories ; and dealt in forgery to such a degree, that there 
 were upwards of fifty spurious gospels in circulation when St. Je- 
 rome wrote.f The apostolic writings cannot possibly be understood 
 without an acquaintance with these primitive forms of heresy. To 
 them, incessant allusion is made, particularly by St. Paul ; against 
 them, the apostolic denunciations are aimed ; for they would substi- 
 tute " the deceits of vain philosophy," for " the faith once delivered 
 to the saints;" they vioxxldi introduce "the religion of angels," or 
 eons, emanations of Divinity, without end— an invariable portion of 
 the Gnostic systems; they^ "prohibited to marry;" they made 
 " distinction of meats," as if all had not been created by the good 
 God, but were the productions of the author of evil ; the grand 
 dogma to be enforced against them was the reality and all- sufficiency 
 of Jesus, whom they regarded as having not a real, but only a 
 figurative body. The Catholic church refuted them all by clinging 
 to apostolical tradition, as has been shown in the text. 
 
 * Vid. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. v. c. 16 ; and Mosheim, Hist. Eccl, who have been 
 generally followed in the sketches of the heresiarchs. 
 t Proojm. in S. Matt. 
 
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