Outlines of Universal History Part 15

COMMODUS.--Rome had enjoyed good government for eighty-four years. This was owing to the fact that her sovereigns had been nominated to their office, instead of inheriting it. None of the emperors during this interval had male children. _Marcus Aurelius_ made the mistake of a.s.sociating with him in power his son _Commodus_, who was eighteen years old when his father died, and reigned alone from 180 to 192. He began his despicable career as sole ruler by buying peace of the _Marcomanni_ and the _Quadi_. He turned out to be a detestable tyrant, who was likewise guilty of the worst personal vices. He was strangled in his bedroom by one of his concubines, _Marcia_, with the a.s.sistance of others, all of whom he was intending to kill. At this time the army, where there had been more energy and virtue than in any other cla.s.s, began to decline in discipline. Society was growing more and more corrupt. It proves the inherent strength of the organization of the Roman Empire, that, amid all the causes of disintegration and decay, it lasted for two centuries longer.

I. EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS.

We now enter upon a period of military license. The emperors are appointed by the soldiers. The rulers, when the soldiers fall out with them, are slain. In the course of ninety-two years, from 192 to 284, twenty-five emperors, with an average reign of less than four years for each, sat on the throne. Only two reigns exceeded ten years. Ten emperors perished by violence at the hands of the soldiers. A real advantage in this way of making emperors, was, that supreme power might thus devolve on able generals; but another, and a fatal result, was the demoralizing of the armies, by whose favor the rulers of the state were set up and pulled down.

TO ALEXANDER SEVERUS (A.D. 222).--The a.s.sa.s.sins of Commodus, with the a.s.sent of the praetorians, made a worthy senator, _Pertinax_, emperor; but his honesty and frugality, and his disposition to maintain discipline among the soldiers, caused them to murder him three months after his accession (193). It is said that they then sold the imperial office at auction to a rich senator, but the leaders of the armies in different regions refused their consent. Of these, _Septimius Severus_ (193-211) made his way to the throne, and put down his rivals. The empire became a military despotism. A garrison of forty thousand troops, the prefect of whom was in power second only to the sovereign, took the place of the old praetorians. _Severus_ was a good general. In a war against the Parthians, he captured Ctesiphon, their capital. _Caracalla_, his son (211-217), was a base tyrant. He was murdered by the praetorian prefect, _Macrinus_, who reigned for a short time (217-218), but perished in consequence of his attempts to reform the discipline of the army. _Heliogabalus_ (218-222) was not more cruel than others had been, but his gross and shameless debauchery was without a precedent.

POWER OF THE PROVINCES: DISCORD.--In the reign of _Caracalla_ is placed the Edict which gave the rights of citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire. The provinces had been steadily rising in power and influence. At Rome, among officials of the highest grade, as well as in the higher professions, there was a throng of provincials. The provinces were disposed to nominate emperors of their own. It was hard for the central authority to keep under control the frontier armies. To add to these sources of division, there was a growing jealousy between the East and West, owing to a difference in language, ideas, and interests. _Persia_ was soon to threaten the empire on the East, and Gothic barbarians to invade its territories.

ALEXANDER SEVERUS: PERSIA.--_Alexander Severus_ (222-235) was a man of pure morals, and sincerely disposed to remedy abuses and to govern well. But the evils were too great for the moderate degree of vigor with which he was endowed. The overthrow of the _Parthian_ kingdom, in 226, created, in the _New Persian Monarchy_, a formidable enemy to Rome. Alexander did little more than check the advance of Persia. In a war against the Germans, he was slain by his own soldiers.

TO DECIUS (A.D. 249).--The fierce and brutal _Maximin_, who had excited the soldiers of _Alexander Severus_ to mutiny, reigned from 235 to 238. The Senate roused itself to resist his advance into Italy; and he, and his son with him, were killed in his tent by his soldiers. _Gordian_ (238-244) at least held the frontier against the attacks of the Persians. _Philip_, an Arabian, probably a Roman colonist, after reigning from 244 to 249, was supplanted by _Decius_, whom his rebellious Moesian and Pannonian soldiers raised to power.

DECIUS TO CLAUDIUS (A.D. 250-268).--The short reign of _Decius_ was marked by the first general persecution of the Christian Church. During his reign, the _Goths_ (A.D. 250) invaded the empire. They traversed _Dacia_, and crossed the Danube. They ravaged _Moesia_, and even made their way into Thrace. _Decius_ was defeated by them in _Moesia_, and slain. The peril of the empire continually increased. The German tribes on the north, the Goths on the Lower Danube and the Euxine, and Persia in the east, arrayed themselves in hostility.

The reigns of _Valerian_ (253-260) and of his a.s.sociate and successor, _Gallienus_ (260-268), were marked by continuous disaster. Numerous independent rulers--"the thirty tyrants"--established themselves, generally for a very short time, in different regions. In the East, one kingdom, the capital of which was _Palmyra_, and which had for a ruler _Zen.o.bia_, the widow of its founder, lasted for ten years (264-273). The _Goths_ occupied _Dacia_, and from the Cimmerian Bosphorus sent out their predatory expeditions in all directions, plundering cities, including _Athens_ and _Corinth_, and carrying off immense booty to their homes south of the Danube. The _Persians_ conquered _Armenia_, took _Valerian_ prisoner, advanced into Syria, and burned Antioch.

TO DIOCLETIAN (A.D. 284).--It would seem as if the Roman empire was on the verge of dissolution. But a series of vigorous emperors--among them _Claudius_ (268-270) and _Aurelian_ (270-275)--quelled rebellion within its borders, and re-established its boundaries; although _Aurelian_ gave up to the Goths _Dacia_, which had been of no benefit to the empire. _Probus_ (276-282) was a prudent as well as valiant ruler. _Carus_ (282-283) invaded Persia, captured _Seleucia_ and _Ctesiphon_, and might, perhaps, have completed the conquest of the country, but for his death. _Numeria.n.u.s_ (283-284) was the last in the succession of rulers during this period of military control, of which the corruption of the army was the worst result.

II. THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY (TO A.D. 375).

DIOCLETIAN.--Once more the gigantic and weakened frame of the Roman Empire was invigorated by a change in the character of the chief rulers and in the method of government. _Diocletian_ (284-305), one of a number of energetic emperors who were of Illyrian birth, first stripped the imperial office of its limitations, and converted it into an absolute monarchy. This new system was carried to its completion by _Constantine_. _Diocletian_ took from the Senate what political jurisdiction was left to it. He abolished the difference between the treasury of the state and the private coffers of the prince. The precedence of Rome was taken away by making other great cities to be seats of government. There were to be two emperors under the t.i.tle of _Augustus_, with two _Caesars_ under them; and thus the empire was divided, for administrative purposes, into four parts. _Maximian_, the second Augustus, was to rule over Italy, Africa, and the islands, with _Milan_ for his residence. _Constantius Chlorus_ had the western provinces, --Spain, Gaul, and Britain. At _Nicomedia_, _Diocletian_, a man of imposing presence and of great talents as a statesman, exercised rule for twenty years with efficiency and success. The new system, if it involved the peril of strife among the regents, led to a more vigilant and efficient government in the different provinces, and provided for a peaceful succession to the throne. But the government came to resemble, in the omnipotence of the emperor, in the obsequious homage paid to him, and in the cringing manners of the court, an Oriental despotism. The old heathen religion was considered by conservative Romans to be an essential part of the imperial system, and indispensable to the unity of the empire. It was this view, in connection with other influences, which moved _Diocletian_, near the close of his reign, in 303, to set on foot a systematic persecution of the Christian Church, by a series of extremely severe and well-contrived measures, through which it was designed to extirpate the new religion. The last great persecution, in the reign of _Decius_, cruel though it had been, did not approach in severity this final effort to exterminate the disciples of the Christian faith, who had now become very numerous. Terrible sufferings were inflicted, but without avail. In 305 Diocletian, partly on account of a serious illness, formally abdicated, and obliged _Maximian_ to do the same. Civil wars followed, until _Constantine_, the son of _Constantius_, gained the supremacy, first as joint ruler with _Licinius_, who governed in the East, and then, after a b.l.o.o.d.y struggle which began in A.D. 314, as sole master of the empire (A.D. 323).

CONSTANTINE (A.D. 306-337).--The career of _Constantine_ was stained by acts of cruelty towards members of his own family. In the closing period of his life, he was less just and humane than in earlier days. The change which had taken place in the imperial system was signally manifest in his removal of the seat of government to CONSTANTINOPLE, which was built up by him, and named in his honor. Placed between Europe and Asia, on a tongue of land where it was protected from a.s.sault, it was admirably suited for a metropolis. But the change of capital involved dangers for the western portions of the empire, exposed as they were to the a.s.saults of the barbarians. The changes in the government begun by Diocletian were completed by Constantine. The empire was divided, for purposes of government, into four _prefectures_, each of which was subdivided into _dioceses_. _Constantine_ established, likewise, different cla.s.ses of n.o.bles, the type of modern systems of n.o.bility. He organized the army afresh, under the _Master of the Horse_ and _Master of the Foot_, each, however, commanding, in action, both infantry and cavalry, and each having under him _dukes_ and _counts_. In short, the system of central and despotic administration, with subordinate rulers, which _Diocletian_ began, was perfected by _Constantine_. Diocletian, in order to fortify the imperial power against the army, had shared his power with "a cabinet of emperors,"

which his genius enabled him to control. To prevent the breaking up of the empire through the system of viceroys thus created to preserve it, Constantine separated the civil authority from the military as regards the subordinate rulers, while both functions were united in himself. He still further exalted his throne by giving it even more of an Oriental character, by creating a mult.i.tude of officials, who were satellites of the sovereign, and by becoming the secular head and guardian of the Christian Church. The arrangements of his court, with its grades of officials, from the chamberlain downwards, were after the Oriental pattern.

THE DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM.

PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.--The failure of the grand attempt of _Diocletian_ to exterminate Christianity was an indication of its coming triumph. Its progress had been gradual yet rapid, and, in its earlier stages especially, obscure. Of the labors of most of the apostles we know little. On the approach of the Jewish war (p. 180), the Apostle _John_, and other Christians with him, had repaired to Asia Minor. There, at _Ephesus_, this apostle lived until the reign of _Trajan_, and from that center exerted a wide influence, the traces of which are marked and various. The cities were the princ.i.p.al scenes of early missionary work. They were the "strategic points." In them it was easier for Christian preachers to gain a hearing, and in them they were exempt from the hindrance created by strange dialects. Wherever Christians went, even for purposes of trade or mechanical industry, they carried the seeds of the new doctrine. Even with regard to the churches of _Alexandria_ and _Carthage_, which became so flourishing, and in the case of the church at _Rome_ itself, we can not say how they were first planted. The exultant terms in which the ecclesiastical writers at the end, and even as early as the middle, of the second century speak of the increasing number of the converts, proves that the Christian cause was fast gaining ground. Its adherents were sometimes of the higher cla.s.s, but mostly from the ranks of the poor.

PERSECUTIONS.--Persecution from the side of the heathen began among the populace. Always when fire, tempest, or plague occurred, they were ascribed to the wrath of the heathen G.o.ds at the desertion of their altars, and the cry was for Christian blood. But Christianity, from the time of _Trajan_, was an illegal religion. Magistrates might at any time require Christians to do homage to the emperor's bust, or to burn incense to the old divinities. To make a proselyte of a Roman citizen, or to meet in private companies for worship, was unlawful. The persecutions by public authority have been said to be ten; but this number is too small if all of them are reckoned, and too large if only those of wide extent are included. The constancy with which even young women and children sometimes endured the torture, excited wonder in the beholders. Among the more noted martyrs are _Ignatius_, bishop of Antioch (116); _Polycarp_, bishop of Smyrna, who had been a pupil of the Apostle John, and was put to death in 155; and _Cyprian_, the aged bishop of Carthage, one of the leading ecclesiastics of the time, who suffered under _Valerian_ in 258.

THE CHURCH UNDER CONSTANTINE.--The accession of Constantine made Christianity the predominant religion in the Roman Empire. His conversion was gradual. More and more he came to rely for support in his conflicts with his rivals upon the G.o.d of the Christians. The sign of the cross, which he said that he beheld in the sky, and which led him to make the cross his standard, may have been an optical illusion occasioned partly by his own mental state at the moment, when, after prayer, he was standing at noon-day in the door of his tent. He remained, like many others in that day, not without relics of the old beliefs, as is seen from inscriptions on his coins, and other evidences. His own baptism he deferred until he was near his end, on account of the prevalent idea that all previous guilt is effaced in the baptismal water. The edict of unrestricted toleration was issued from _Milan_ in 312. _Constantine_ did not proscribe heathenism. He forbade immoral rites, and rites connected with magic and sorcery. But, with this exception, heathen worshipers were not molested. But the emperor gave his zealous personal countenance to the Christian cause, and marks of his favor to its adherents. By the privileges and immunities which he granted to the Church and its ministers, he did more than he would have been likely to effect by the use of severity against its adversaries. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.--The early Christian societies were little republics, at first under the supervision of the apostles. Their organization shaped itself partly after the model of the synagogue, and partly from the pattern of the civil communities and the voluntary a.s.sociations about them. In the apostolic age a body of _elders_ or _bishops_ and a body of _deacons_ in each church guided its affairs, while the members took an active part in the choice of their officers, and in the general direction of ecclesiastical proceedings. In the second century, when we get a distinct view of the churches after the obscure interval that follows the age of the apostles, we find that over the elders is a _bishop_, whose office grows in importance as the churches become larger, as the need of more compact organization is felt, and as the clergy become more and more distinct from the laity. The bishop of the city church acquires jurisdiction over the adjacent country churches. The bishop in the capital of each province comes to exercise a certain superintendence within the province. This is the _metropolitan_ system. More and more the bishops of the great cities, especially _Rome_, _Alexandria_, and _Antioch_, exercise a parallel supervision in larger divisions of the empire. This is the _patriarchal_ system. As early as the closing part of the second century, the catholic or universal church presents itself before us, conceived of as a unity which is made such by the hierarchy of bishops, and by connection with the apostolic sees,--the churches founded by the apostles in person. As the apostles were thought of as having a head in _Peter_, the bishops of Rome, who were looked on as his successors, had accorded to them a precedence over other bishops. The grandeur of Rome, the strength of the church there, its services to other churches in the empire, especially in the West, together with many other considerations additional to its alleged historic relation to Peter and to Paul, gave to the Roman See, as time went on, a growing and acknowledged pre-eminence. The custom of holding synods helped to build up the unity of the Church, and to give power and dignity to its officials.

SECTS: THEOLOGY.--The Church from the beginning had to contend with opposing sects. There was a desire to amalgamate the Christian doctrine with other systems. On the _Jewish_ side, the _Ebionites_ clung to the Old Testament ritual observances, a part of them being bitterly hostile to the Apostle Paul, and another part, the _Nazareans_, not sharing this fanatical feeling, but still adhering to the Jewish ceremonies. On the other hand, the _Gnostics_ introduced a dualism, and ascribed to the _Demiurge_--a second deity, either subordinate to the supreme G.o.d, or antagonistic to him--the origination of this world and of the Old Testament religion. They made a compound of Christianity, Judaism, and heathen religion and speculation, each Gnostic sect giving to one or the other of these ingredients the preponderance in the strange and often fantastic medley. The controversy with heathenism was prosecuted with the pen. Of the numerous defenses of Christianity, now addressed to heathen rulers and now to its opponents in private stations, the most remarkable work in the first three centuries was the writing of _Origen_--who was the most eminent of the teachers of theology at _Alexandria_--in reply to _Celsus_. Origen, after scholarly labors so vast as to earn for him the t.i.tle of the _Adamantine_, died in 254, in consequence of his sufferings in the Diocletian persecution. Two defenses of the Christian faith, composed about the middle of the second century by _Justin Martyr_, are specially instructive as to the state of Christian opinion and the customs of the Church. The first great center of theological activity was _Alexandria_, where philosophy was studied in a liberal spirit. In the East, the questions relative to the divinity of Jesus and the relation of the divine to the human nature, engrossed attention. In the West, it was the practical aspects of theology, the doctrine of sin and of the deliverance of the will by grace, which were chiefly discussed. The _Arian_ controversy grew out of the a.s.sertion by _Arius_, a presbyter of Alexandria, that Jesus was the first-made of all beings, the instrument of the creation of all other beings, but himself a creature. The leader of the orthodox opposition to this opinion was the famous Alexandrian archdeacon, afterwards bishop, _Athanasius_. This debate it was which led to the a.s.sembling, under the auspices of _Constantine_, of the _Council of Nicaea_ (A.D. 325), the first of a series of General Councils, for the adjudication of doctrinal disputes, that were held in this and the following centuries. The Arian doctrine was condemned at Nicaea, and, after a long contest in the period subsequent, was finally determined to be heretical. In the West, the main controversy was that raised by _Pelagius_, respecting the power of the will, the native character of men, and the agency of G.o.d in their conversion. In this debate, _Augustine_ (354-430), the most eminent theologian of the West, bishop of _Hippo_ in North Africa, was the renowned champion of the doctrine of _grace_ against what he considered an exaggerated a.s.sertion of _free-will_. Pelagianism was condemned in the West, and nominally in the East where views intermediate between the Pelagians and Augustinians commonly prevailed. The most eminent scholar contemporary with Augustine was _Jerome_, who died in 420, the author of the Latin version of the Scriptures, called the _Vulgate_. Preceding Augustine in North Africa, early in the third century, was _Tertullian_, a vigorous and fervid writer, who first made Latin the vehicle of theological discussion; and, a little later, _Cyprian_, whose works relate chiefly to church unity and hierarchical government, of which he was a devoted champion. Late in the second century, _Irenaeus_, bishop of Lyons in Gaul, one of the most eminent ecclesiastics of that day, composed an elaborate work against the Gnostic heresies. _Irenaeus_ had known _Polycarp_, a disciple of John the apostle.

CHRISTIAN LIFE.--Pa.s.sing within the sphere of Christian life, there can be no doubt that Christianity exerted a power, of which there had been no experience before, in reforming the character and conduct of those even who had been addicted to crime and vice. The fraternal feeling of Christians for one another impressed the heathen about them as something new and singularly attractive. It expressed itself in unstinted charity for those in poverty, and in helpfulness for all sorts of distress. The church was a home for the weary and friendless. In the strong reaction against the sensuality of a dissolute society, ascetic tendencies appeared, which, in process of time, issued in monasticism. _Anthony_ of Thebes, born about 250, was one of the earliest and most celebrated of the _Anchorites_, who chose a hermit life, and abjured all the luxuries of life and most of the comforts which belong to social existence. To the _Anchorites_ succeeded the _Caen.o.bites_, societies of monks who dwelt in a common habitation under fixed rules; and these were naturally followed by _confederacies_ of such communities under one organization. The monastic vows were _poverty_, or the renunciation of property; _celibacy_, or abstinence from marriage; and _obedience_ to the conventual superior. Sometimes in the early centuries great evils and abuses sprang up in connection with monastic life. For example, monks might become fanatical and violent. But they furnished numerous examples of sincere piety, and of unselfish and intrepid self-sacrifice for the welfare of others.

CHANGES IN WORSHIP.--As the Church grew in numbers and wealth, costly edifices were constructed for worship. The services within them became more elaborate. At length art was called in to adorn the Christian sanctuaries. Sculpture and painting were enlisted in the work of providing aids to devotion. Relics of saints and martyrs were cherished as sacred possessions. Religious observances were multiplied; and the Church, under the Christian emperors, with its array of clergy and of imposing ceremonies, a.s.sumed much of the stateliness and visible splendor that had belonged to the heathen system which it had supplanted.

LAST DAYS OF HEATHENISM.--When Christianity had become powerful, its disciples forgot the precepts of their Master, and sometimes persecuted the heathen. Christian mobs demolished the old temples. The great temple of _Serapis_ in _Alexandria_ was destroyed, and the statue of the G.o.d was broken in pieces. _Theodosius I._ (379-395) made the celebration of heathen rites a capital offense, and confiscated the property by which heathen worship had been supported. Arians, too, he persecuted, but with less harshness. The Eastern emperor, _Justinian_, suppressed the school of New Platonic philosophers at Athens, and banished the teachers (529). Heathenism lingered in remote districts, and was hence called _paganism_, or the religion of rustics. The last adherents of the ancient religion inhabited in the seventh century remote valleys of the Italian islands. The oracles were for ever dumb. The old divinities were never more to be invoked. But it was not by force that heathenism was extirpated. If it had not lost its vitality, it would have survived the penal laws against it. It perished by the expulsive energy of a better faith.

CAUSES OF THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY.--The causes of the spread and triumph of Christianity lie ultimately in the need which men feel of religion, especially in times of dread and distress, and in the intrinsic excellence which was felt to belong to Christianity. In the first and second centuries the dreary feeling engendered by the hollow skepticism that prevailed was favorable to the Christian cause. There was a void to be filled, and the gospel came to fill it. In the third century, when the progress of Christianity was specially rapid, there was a perceptible revival of religious feeling among the heathen; and this, too, operated to the advantage of the gospel. At least it must have done so in numerous instances. In that century the terrible plagues which desolated the empire, with the sufferings that sprung from wild anarchy and misgovernment, made the church a welcome asylum for the afflicted. In the _first_ place, Christianity was a religion. It was neither a merely speculative nor a merely moral system. It took hold of the supernatural. _Secondly_, it presented to a corrupt society a moral ideal of spotless perfection. _Thirdly_, it offered, in the doctrine of the cross, a welcome solace,--consolation in life, with a sense of reconciliation, and the hope of everlasting good. Other causes, such as _Gibbon_ enumerates, were operative. But these are themselves mostly _effects_ or _aspects_ of the gospel; or they were _auxiliary_, not _princ.i.p.al_, causes.

CHRISTIANITY AND LIBERTY.--The founders of Christianity had no thought of becoming the authors of a political revolution. They had a very different purpose in view. To overthrow the existing order of society would have been equally unwise and impracticable. What was needed was a new spirit of justice and of love. The virtues that were called for then were the _pa.s.sive_ virtues,--gentleness, forbearance, the calm endurance of ills of which there was no present remedy. The Christian spirit, therefore, did not evoke in the disciples of the new faith sentiments of liberty akin to those which had belonged to Greek and Roman heroes. Indirectly, however, Christianity brought into human society the germs of liberty. In the _first_ place, while it enjoined absolute submission to rulers, it made an exception whenever their commands should require disobedience to G.o.d's law. This position involved the denial to the state of that absolute supremacy accorded to it by the ancients. The allegiance to the state became a _qualified_ allegiance. _Secondly_, there arose within the state another community, which took into its hands, to a large extent, the regulation of social life. The boundaries of the two authorities might be indistinct, but there was a real division of control between them. It is true that tyranny might arise within the Christian organization itself: still, its very existence planted on the earth a principle of liberty, which was destined ultimately to work out the destruction of all tyranny, whether civil or religious. For the first time the rulers of the Roman world were faced by an opposition, meek yet too inflexible for all their power to overcome. This is the first stage in the history of modern liberty. The "heroic and invincible _Athanasius_" as _Milton_ styles him, boldly confronted _Constantine_ and his successors, and chose to spend twenty years of his life in voluntary or enforced exile rather than bow to their tyrannical decrees. _Ambrose_, the great archbishop of _Milan_, compelled the Emperor _Theodosius_--who, in a fit of anger had ordered a ma.s.sacre at _Thessalonica_--to do penance before he could be admitted to the communion. Such occurrences indicate that the days of imperial omnipotence, even over unarmed subjects, were past.

SUCCESSORS OF CONSTANTINE.--Constantine left his empire to his three unworthy sons. _Constantine_, the eldest, had the Western provinces for his share. He endeavored to wrest Italy from his brother _Constans_, but was slain at _Aquileia_ (340). This event left Constans the master of the entire West. He took up his abode in Gaul, where he was slain by _Magnentius_, the leader of a mutinous body of soldiers (350). _Constantius_ was at _Edessa_, engaged in war against the Persians. He marched westward, and routed Magnentius at _Mursia_, in Pannonia. This rival fled to Gaul, and was there attacked and destroyed. _Gallus_, the cousin of Constantius, was put to death for the murder of one of the emperor's officers (354). _Julian_, the brother of Gallus, was the sole remaining survivor of the family from which the emperor sprung. _Constantius_, under whom the whole empire was now for a few years (357-361) united, made a triumphal visit to Rome. He was the defender of the Arians, but he found it impossible to coerce the Roman Christians into the adoption of his opinion. The orthodox bishop whom he had banished, was restored. _Constantius_ was succeeded by his cousin _Julian_ (361-363), commonly called the _Apostate_. Fascinated by the heathen philosophy, and a secret convert to the old religion, he

THE IMPERIAL HOUSE OF CONSTANTINE.

CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, _m_.

1, Helena; | +--CONSTANTINE I (the Great) _m_.

1, Minervina; 2, Fausta | +--CONSTANTINE II.

| +--CONSTANTIUS II.

| | | +--Constantia, | _m_. GRATIAN.

| +--CONSTANS.

| +--CONSTANTIA, _m_.

| 1, Hannibalia.n.u.s; | 2, GALLUS.

| +--HELENA, _m_. JULIAN.

2, Theodora.

| +--Constantius, _m_.

| 1, Galla; | 2, Basilina.

| | | +--GALLUS | | _m_. Constantia, widow of Hannibalia.n.u.s.

| | | +--JULIAN | _m_. Helena, daughter of Constantine I.

| +--Constantia, _m_. LICINIUS.

proved that its vitality was gone, by his ineffectual exertions to rescue it, and restore its predominance. He was not without merits as a ruler. He looked out for the impartial administration of justice: he revived discipline and a military spirit in the army, and sought to infuse a better spirit into the civil administration. While he avoided cruel persecution, he directed all his personal efforts to the weakening of the Christian cause. Julian led an expedition against the Persians. He sailed down the Euphrates to _Circesium_, and thence proceeded into the interior of Persia. He repulsed the enemy, but was slain while engaged in the pursuit. The soldiers on the field of battle chose one of his officers, _Jovian_ (363-364), who was a Christian, to be his successor. He conducted the retreat of the army. His reign lasted for only seven months. He showed no intolerance either towards Pagans or Arians, but he gave back to Christianity its former position. The army next chose _Valentinian I_. (364-375), the son of a Pannonian warrior, who a.s.sociated with him, as emperor in the East, his brother _Valens_ (364-378). _Valens_ ruled from Constantinople. _Valentinian_ fixed his court at Milan, and sometimes at Treves. He was an unlettered soldier, but strict and energetic in the government of the state, as well as of the army. His time was mostly spent in conflict with the barbarians on the northern frontiers. He carried forward this contest with vigor on the Rhine and on the Danube. He trained up his son _Gratian_ to be his successor. The great event of the reign of Valens was the irruption of the _Huns_ into Europe, and the consequent invasion of the _Goths_, by whom _Valens_ was defeated and slain in 378.

Several emperors followed, until, on the death of _Theodosius I._, (the Great) (395), the Roman Empire was divided. In 476, after successive invasions of barbarians had disorganized the western part of the Empire, the line of phantom emperors at Rome came to an end. The fourth century, in which these invasions--which overthrew the Western Empire, and transferred power to new races--occurred, forms the era of transition from ancient to mediaeval history.

LITERATURE.--The general works on Ancient History (p. 16). _On Roman History as a whole_: MERIVALE'S _General History of Rome_ (from 753 B.C. to A.D. 476: 1 vol.); DURUY, _History of Rome,_ etc. (8 vols., 410); Wagner, _Rom_, etc. (3 vols.); Allen, _A Short Story of the Roman People_; FREEMAN, _Outlines of Roman History_.

_On the Roman Republic_: MOMMSEN, _The History of Rome_ (4 vols.); LIDDELL, _A History of Rome,_ etc. (1 vol.); IHNE, _The History of Rome_ (Eng. trans., 3 vols.); Michelet, _History of the Roman Republic_ (1 vol., 12mo); Schwegler, _Romishce Geschichte_ (4 vols); How and Leigh, _A History of Rome_; Shuckburgh, _A History of Rome_.

_On the Roman Empire:_ MERIVALE, _History of the Romans under the Empire_ (7 vols ); Seeley, _Roman Imperialism_ [three Lectures]; MOMMSEN, _The Provinces_ (5th volume of his History, 1885); Bury, _Students' Roman Empire_; Bury, _Later Roman Empire_ (2 vols.).

_On special periods:_ IHNE, _Early Rome_ (1 vol.); T. Arnold, _History of Rome_ (3 vols; reaches into the second Punic war); Long, _The Decline of the Roman Republic_ (5 vols.); R. B. Smith, _Rome and Carthage_; MERIVALE, _The Roman Triumvirates_; T Arnold, _History of the Later Roman Commonwealth_ (2 vols.); GIBBON, _History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (Smith's edition); FINLAY, _A History of Greece from the Conquest of the Romans to the Present Time_ (7 vols.); Dill, _Roman Society_ (5th century).

Trollope, _Life of Cicero_ (2 vols.); FORSYTH, _Life of Cicero_ (2 vols.); Middleton's _Life of Cicero_; Froude, _Life of Caesar_ (1 vol.); Boissier, _Ciceron et ses Amis_ (1 vol., 12mo).

_Treatises:_ Taylor, _Const, and Polit. History of Rome;_ KUHN, _Verfa.s.sung d. Romischen Stadte_; GUHL AND KoNER, _Life of the Greeks and Romans;_ Marquardt, _Handbuch d. Romischen Alterthumer_ (7 vols.); BECKER, _Gallus_ (an archaeological novel); Abbott, _Roman Political Inst.i.tutions;_ Greenidge, _Roman Public Life;_ Preston and Dodge, _Private Life of the Romans;_ Madvig, _Verfa.s.sung und Verwaltung des Rom Staates_ (2 vols.); Lanciani (_Ancient Rome_, and others); Burn, _Rome and the Campagna;_ ZIEGLER, _Das alte Rom;_ Smith and Wace's _Dictionary of Christian Biography;_ Smith and Cheatham's _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities;_ FRIEDLaNDER, _Sittengeschichte Roms_ (2 vols.); Histories of Roman Literature by Simc.o.x. Cruttwell, SCHMITZ, Teuffel. Mac-Kail, Fowler.

_On Early Christianity:_ The Lives of Jesus, by NEANDER, WEISS, Farrar, Edersheim, Andrews. Neander's _Planting and Training of the Church_. Works on the Life of St. Paul, by CONYBEARE AND HOWSON, by Lewins, by Farrar. Fisher's _The Beginnings of Christianity;_ Pressense, _Early Days of Christianity_. Church Histories of NEANDER, GIESELER, SCHAFF, Robertson, HASE, Kurtz, ALZOG. UHLHORN, _Christian Charity in the Ancient Church;_ Ramsay, _The Church and the Roman Empire, before 170 A.D._

Reber, _History of Ancient Art;_ Wickoff, _Roman Art;_ see Dictionaries, p. 122.

PART II. MEDIaeVAL HISTORY.