Eugene Lawrence

“ Titus was one of the most accomplished and benevolent of men. Eloquent, warlike, moderate in his desires, he was called Amor et deliciæ humani generis, "The love and the delight of the human race." In early life he had been thought inclined to severity, and his treatment of the Jews, at the fall of their city, does not seem in accordance with his character for humanity. But no sooner had he ascended the throne than he won a general affection. Such was the mildness of his government that no one was punished at Rome for political offenses. ”

“ Gallus proved unfit for public affairs, while Julian won the esteem of all men by his conduct and valor. He drove the Germans out of Gaul, which they had invaded, and even crossed the Rhine, in imitation of Julius Cæsar.
Constantius now became jealous of the rising fame of Julian, who was beloved by the Western legions, and commanded him to send the finest part of his army to the East. Julian prepared to obey, but the soldiers rose in revolt, proclaiming him Julian Augustus. He sent messengers to the emperor demanding the recognition of his election; but war could not long be averted. ”

“ His ashes were carried to Rome, and placed under the magnificent column which recorded his Dacian victories.
During Trajan's reign, the empire, already too extensive, was made more unwieldy by his various conquests. He was evidently ambitious of the fame of a conqueror, and possessed many of the qualities of an able general. He was also a skillful ruler of his immense dominions, leaving no portion unprotected by his vigilance. The only stain upon his fame is his persecution of the Christians, whom he continued to treat with severity even when convinced of their perfect innocence. ”

“ The Consul Octavius was slain while seated in his curule chair. The streets ran with the noblest blood of Rome. Every one whom Marius hated or feared was hunted out and put to death; and no consideration, either of rank, talent, or former friendship, induced him to spare the victims of his vengeance. The great orator M. Antonius fell by the hands of his assassins; and his former colleague, Q. Catulus, who had triumphed with him over the Cimbri, was obliged to put an end to his own life. Cinna was soon tired of the butchery ”

“ Pompey's policy of avoiding a general engagement with Cæsar's veterans till he could place more reliance upon his own troops was undoubtedly a wise one, and had been hitherto crowned with success; but he was prevented from carrying out the prudent plan which he had formed for conducting the campaign. His camp was filled with a multitude of Roman nobles, unacquainted with war, and anxious to return to their estates in Italy and to the luxuries of the capital. His unwillingness to fight was set down to love of power and anxiety to keep the Senate in subjection. ”

“ War was now inevitable. The luxurious Tarentines sent an embassy to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, begging him, in the name of all the Italian Greeks, to cross over into Italy in order to conduct the war against the Romans. They told him that they only wanted a general, and that all the nations of Southern Italy would flock to his standard. Pyrrhus needed no persuasion to engage in an enterprise which realized the earliest dreams of his ambition. ”

“ Still, unless something was done, matters would become worse; the poor would become poorer, and the slaves more numerous, and the state would descend more rapidly into the yawning abyss beneath it. Under these circumstances, two young men, belonging to one of the noblest families in Rome, came forward to save the Republic, but perished in the attempt. Their violent death may be regarded as the beginning of the Civil Wars, which ended in the destruction of freedom, and the establishment of the despotism of the Empire. ”

“ No foreign enemy had appeared before the gates of Rome since the invasion of Hannibal, until Alaric made his successful inroad into Italy. The city still retained all that magnificence with which it had been invested by the emperors. The Colosseum, the baths, the aqueducts, the palaces of the Senators, the public gardens, and the ancient temples, still remained; but its people were lost in luxury and vice. Learning was no longer respected among them, the gamester or the cook being more esteemed than philosophers or poets ”

“ Another measure of Drusus rendered him equally unpopular with the people. He had held out to the Latins and the Italian allies the promise of the Roman franchise. Some of the most eminent men of Rome had long been convinced of the necessity of this reform. It had been meditated by the younger Scipio Africanus, and proposed by C. Gracchus. The Roman people, however, always offered it the most violent opposition. But Drusus still had many partisans. The Italian allies looked up to him as their leader, and loudly demanded the rights which had been promised them. ”

“ After Antony's marriage with Octavia in B.C. 40, he seems for a time to have forgotten, or, at least, conquered the fascinations of the Egyptian queen. For the next three years he resided in Athens with his wife; but after his visit to Italy, and the renewal of the Triumvirate in B.C. 37, he left Octavia behind at Tarentum, and determined to carry out his long-projected campaign against the Parthians. As he approached Syria, "that great evil," as Plutarch calls it, his passion for Cleopatra, burst forth with more vehemence than ever. From this time she appears as his evil genius. ”

“ His Constitution did not last, because the aristocracy were thoroughly selfish and corrupt, and exercised the power which Sulla had intrusted to them only for their own aggrandizement. Their shameless conduct soon disgusted the provinces as well as the capital; the people again regained their power, but the consequence was an anarchy and not a government; and as neither class was fit to rule, they were obliged to submit to the dominion of a single man. Thus the empire became a necessity to the exhausted Roman world. ”

“ He put to death the most illustrious men of the time, encouraged informers and false accusations, and filled Rome with terror. In the midst of these cruelties he often sang, danced, or played the buffoon in public, fought as a gladiator in the circus, and ordered the people to worship him as a second Hercules. ”

“ The allies had a truer view of the interests of Italy than the Roman Senate; from all the towns of Italy volunteers flocked to join the standard of the youthful hero. The Senate could not refuse to allow him to enlist these volunteers; and such was the enthusiasm in his favor that he was able to cross over to Sicily with an army and a fleet, contrary to the expectations and even the wishes of the Senate. While busy with preparations in Sicily, he sent over Lælius to Africa with a small fleet to concert a plan of co-operation with Masinissa. ”

“ The Second Punic War made the Romans undisputed masters of the western shores of the Mediterranean. Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were Roman provinces; Spain owned the Roman supremacy; Carthage was completely humbled, and her powerful neighbor Masinissa was the steadfast ally of Rome. The Roman Republic was now the most powerful state in the ancient world. Her legions had been trained to war by long struggles with Gauls, Spaniards, and Africans, and were superior to all other troops in discipline, experience, and valor. ”

“ Those who had obtained assignments of land seized upon the property of their neighbors, and those who had not were ready to rise in mutiny. The country people, who had been obliged to yield their property to the rude soldiery, filled Italy with their complaints, and flocked to Rome to implore in vain the protection of Octavian. Even if he had the wish, he had not the power to control his soldiers. Fulvia, the wife of Antony, who had remained behind in Italy, resolved to avail herself of those elements of confusion, and crush Octavian. ”

“ Early next morning, when the Tribunes had taken their seats on the rostra, and Africanus was summoned, he proudly reminded the people that this was the anniversary of the day on which he had defeated Hannibal at Zama, and called upon them to neglect all disputes and lawsuits, and follow him to the Capitol, there to return thanks to the immortal gods, and pray that they would grant the Roman state other citizens like himself. Scipio struck a chord which vibrated in every heart ”

“ Cæsar was probably the greatest man of antiquity. He was at one and the same time a general, a statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, a historian, a philologer, a mathematician, and an architect. He was equally fitted to excel in every thing, and has given proofs that he would have surpassed almost all other men in any subject to which he devoted the energies of his extraordinary mind. One fact places his genius for war in a most striking light. ”

“ The Rhodians, who had offered their mediation during the war with Perseus, were deprived of Lycia and Caria. In Greece itself the Senate acted in the same arbitrary manner. It was evident that they meant to bring the whole country under their sway. In these views they were assisted by various despots and traitors in the Grecian cities, and especially by Callicrates, a man of great influence among the Achæans, who for many years had lent himself as the base tool of the Romans. He now denounced more than a thousand Achæans as having favored the cause of Perseus. ”

“ Here he was soon joined by large numbers of slaves, who flocked to him from all quarters. He was soon at the head of a formidable army. The desolation of the Social and Civil Wars had depopulated Italy, while the employment of slave-labor furnished Spartacus with an endless supply of soldiers. In addition to this, the war with Sertorius was not yet finished, and that with Mithridates, of which we shall speak presently, had already commenced. For upward of two years Spartacus was master of Italy, which he laid waste from the foot of the Alps to the southernmost corner of the peninsula. ”

“ Upon such a people the sudden acquisition of wealth produced its natural effects. They employed it in the gratification of their appetites, and in coarse sensual pleasures. Some of the Roman nobles, such as Scipio Africanus, Flamininus (the conqueror of Philip) , and others, acquired a love for Greek literature and art; but the great mass of the nation imitated only the vices of the Greeks. Cooks, who had formerly been the cheapest kind of slaves at Rome, now became the most valuable. A love of luxury and a general depravity gradually spread through all classes of society. ”

“ He abolished the trials for high treason, judicia majestatis, which had made Rome so often a scene of terror, restored freedom of speech to the Senate, revived the Comitia for the election of magistrates, and bound himself by oath to observe the laws. He punished the principal informers, banishing many of them to the barren islands around Italy, while he at once, by severe measures, reduced the turbulent Prætorians to obedience. His wife Plotina, who was a woman of excellent character, with her sister Marcina, revived by their virtues the dignity of the Roman matron. ”