A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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No sooner had Caesar taken his seat than the conspirators crowded about him
as if to present a petition. Upon a signal from one of their number their
daggers were drawn. For a moment Caesar defended himself; but seeing
Brutus, upon whom he had lavished gifts and favors, among the
conspirators, he exclaimed reproachfully, _Et tu, Brute!_--"Thou, too,
Brutus!" drew his mantle over his face, and received unresistingly their
further thrusts. Pierced with twenty-three wounds, he sank dead at the
foot of Pompey's statue.

FUNERAL ORATION by MARK ANTONY.--The conspirators, or "liberators," as
they called themselves, had thought that the Senate would confirm, and the
people applaud, their act. But both people and senators, struck with
consternation, were silent. Men's faces grew pale as they recalled the
proscriptions of Sulla, and saw in the assassination of Caesar the first
act in a similar reign of terror. As the conspirators issued from the
assembly hall, and entered the Forum, holding aloft their bloody daggers,
instead of the expected acclamations they were met by an ominous silence.
The liberators hastened for safety to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,
going thither ostensibly for the purpose of giving thanks for the death of
the tyrant.

Upon the day set for the funeral ceremonies, Mark Antony, the trusted
friend and secretary of Caesar, mounted the rostrum in the Forum to deliver
the usual funeral oration. He recounted the great deeds of Caesar, the
glory he had conferred upon the Roman name, dwelt upon his liberality and
his munificent bequests to the people--even to some who were now his
murderers; and, when he had wrought the feelings of the multitude to the
highest tension, he raised the robe of Caesar, and showed the rents made by
the daggers of the assassins. Caesar had always been beloved by the people
and idolized by his soldiers. They were now driven almost to frenzy with
grief and indignation. Seizing weapons and torches, they rushed through
the streets, vowing vengeance upon the conspirators. The liberators,
however, escaped from the fury of the mob, and fled from Rome, Brutus and
Cassius seeking refuge in Greece.

[Illustration: MARK ANTONY.]

THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE.--Antony had gained possession of the will and
papers of Caesar, and now, under color of carrying out the testament of the
dictator, according to a decree of the Senate, entered upon a course of
high-handed usurpation. He was aided in his designs by Lepidus, one of
Caesar's old lieutenants. Very soon he was exercising all the powers of a
real dictator. "The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, "but the tyranny still
lives." This was a bitter commentary upon the words of Brutus, who, as he
drew his dagger from the body of Caesar, turned to Cicero, and exclaimed,
"Rejoice, O Father of your Country, for Rome is free." Rome could not be
free, the republic could not be reestablished because the old love for
virtue and liberty had died out from among the people--had been
overwhelmed by the rising tide of vice, corruption, sensuality, and
irreligion that had set in upon the capital.

[Illustration: JULIUS CAESAR. (From a Bust in the Museum of the Louvre.)]

To what length Antony would have gone in his career of usurpation it is
difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by Caius Octavius,
the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, and the one whom he had named in his
will as his heir and successor. Upon the Senate declaring in favor of
Octavius, civil war immediately broke out between him and Antony and
Lepidus. After several indecisive battles between the forces of the rival
competitors, Octavius proposed to Antony and Lepidus a reconciliation. The
three met on a small island in the Rhenus, a little stream in Northern
Italy, and there formed a league known as the Second Triumvirate (43
B.C.).

The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided the world
among themselves: Octavius was to have the government of the West; Antony,
that of the East; while to Lepidus fell the control of Africa. A general
proscription, such as had marked the coming to power of Sulla (see p.
283), was then resolved upon. It was agreed that each should give up to
the assassin such friends of his as had incurred the ill will of either of
the other triumvirs. Under this arrangement Octavius gave up his friend
Cicero,--who had incurred the hatred of Antony by opposing his schemes,--
and allowed his name to be put at the head of the list of the proscribed.

The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. "Let me die,"
said he, "in my fatherland, which I have so often saved!" His attendants
were hurrying him, half unwilling, towards the coast, when his pursuers
came up and despatched him in the litter in which he was being carried.
His head was taken to Rome, and set up in front of the rostrum, "from
which he had so often addressed the people with his eloquent appeals for
liberty." It is told that Fulvia, the wife of Antony, ran her gold bodkin
through the tongue, in revenge for the bitter philippics it had uttered
against her husband. The right hand of the victim--the hand that had
penned the eloquent orations--was nailed to the rostrum.

Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the dreadful scenes of
the days of Sulla were re-enacted. Three hundred senators and two thousand
knights were murdered. The estates of the wealthy were confiscated, and
conferred by the triumvirs upon their friends and favorites.

LAST STRUGGLE OF THE REPUBLIC AT PHILIPPI (42 B.C.).--The friends of the
old republic, and the enemies of the triumvirs, were meanwhile rallying in
the East. Brutus and Cassius were the animating spirits. The Asiatic
provinces were plundered to raise money for the soldiers of the
liberators. Octavius and Antony, as soon as they had disposed of their
enemies in Italy, crossed the Adriatic into Greece, to disperse the forces
of the republicans there. The liberators, advancing to meet them, passed
over the Hellespont into Thrace.

Tradition tells how one night a spectre appeared to Brutus and seemed to
say, "I am thy evil genius; we will meet again at Philippi." At Philippi,
in Thrace, the hostile armies met (42 B.C.). In two successive engagements
the new levies of the liberators were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and
Cassius, believing the cause of the republic forever lost, committed
suicide. It was, indeed, the last effort of the republic. The history of
the events that lie between the action at Philippi and the establishment
of the empire is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs for
the possession of the prize of supreme power. After various
redistributions of provinces, Lepidus was at length expelled from the
triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, as in the times of Caesar and
Pompey, was in the hands of two masters--Antony in the East, and Octavius
in the West.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.--After the battle of Philippi, Antony went into Asia
for the purpose of settling the affairs of the provinces and vassal states
there. He summoned Cleopatra, the fair queen of Egypt, to meet him at
Tarsus, in Cilicia, there to give account to him for the aid she had
rendered the liberators. She obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of
her charms to appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus
in a gilded barge, with oars of silver, and sails of purple silk. Beneath
awnings wrought of the richest manufactures of the East, the beautiful
queen, attired to personate Venus, reclined amidst lovely attendants
dressed to represent cupids and nereids. Antony was completely fascinated,
as had been the great Caesar before him, by the dazzling beauty of the
"Serpent of the Nile." Enslaved by her enchantments, and charmed by her
brilliant wit, in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else--ambition
and honor and country.

Once, indeed, Antony did rouse himself and break away from his enslavement
to lead the Roman legions across the Euphrates against the Parthians. But
the storms of approaching winter, and the incessant attacks of the
Parthian cavalry, at length forced him to make a hurried and disastrous
retreat. He hastened back to Egypt, and sought to forget his shame and
disappointment amidst the revels of the Egyptian court.

THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM (31 B.C.).--Affairs could not long continue in their
present course. Antony had put away his faithful wife Octavia for the
beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at Rome, and not without truth, that
he proposed to make Alexandria the capital of the Roman world, and
announce Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as heir of the
empire. All Rome was stirred. It was evident that a conflict was at hand
in which the question for decision would be whether the West should rule
the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively turned to
Octavius as the defender of Italy, and the supporter of the sovereignty of
the Eternal City. Both parties made the most gigantic preparations.
Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra just off the
promontory of Actium, on the Grecian coast. While the issue of the battle
that there took place was yet undecided, Cleopatra turned her galley in
flight. The Egyptian ships, to the number of fifty, followed her example.
Antony, as soon as he perceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all
else, and followed in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the
fleeing queen, the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel, and
became her partner in the disgraceful flight.

The abandoned fleet and army surrendered to Octavius. The conqueror was
now sole master of the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31
B.C.) are usually dated the end of the republic and the beginning of the
empire. Some, however, make the establishment of the empire date from the
year 27 B.C., as it was not until then that Octavius was formally invested
with imperial powers.

DEATHS OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.--Octavius pursued Antony to Egypt, where
the latter, deserted by his army, and informed by a messenger from the
false queen that she was dead, committed suicide. Cleopatra then sought to
enslave Octavius with her charms; but, failing in this, and becoming
convinced that he proposed to take her to Rome that she might there grace
his triumph, she took her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her
age. Tradition says that she effected her purpose by applying an asp to
her arm. But it is really unknown in what way she killed herself.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
(From 31 B.C. to A.D. 180.)

REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CAESAR (31 B.C. to A.D. 14).--The hundred years of strife
which ended with the battle of Actium left the Roman republic, exhausted
and helpless, in the hands of one wise enough and strong enough to remould
its crumbling fragments in such a manner that the state, which seemed
ready to fall to pieces, might prolong its existence for another five
hundred years. It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of
anarchy and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of
perpetuity and strength. "The establishment of the Roman empire," says
Merivale, "was, after all, the greatest political work that any human
being ever wrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Caesar, of
Charlemagne, of Napoleon, are not to be compared with it for a moment."

The government which Octavius established was a monarchy in fact, but a
republic in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, who fell because he
gave the lovers of the republic reason to think that he coveted the title
of king, Octavius carefully veiled his really absolute sovereignty under
the forms of the old republican state. The Senate still existed; but so
completely subjected were its members to the influence of the conqueror
that the only function it really exercised was the conferring of honors
and titles and abject flatteries upon its master. All the republican
officials remained; but Octavius absorbed and exercised their chief powers
and functions. He had the powers of consul, tribune, censor, and Pontifex
Maximus. All the republican magistrates--the consuls, the tribunes, the
praetors--were elected as usual; but they were simply the nominees and
creatures of the emperor. They were the effigies and figure-heads to
delude the people into believing that the republic still existed. Never
did a people seem more content with the shadow after the loss of the
substance.

[Illustration: AUGUSTUS.]

The Senate, acting under the inspiration of Octavius, withheld from him
the title of king, which ever since the expulsion of the Tarquins, five
centuries before this time, had been intolerable to the people; but they
conferred upon him the titles of Imperator and Augustus, the latter having
been hitherto sacred to the gods. The sixth month of the Roman year was
called Augustus (whence our August) in his honor, an act in imitation of
that by which the preceding month had been given the name of Julius in
honor of Julius Caesar.

The domains over which Augustus held sway were imperial in magnitude. They
stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and upon the north were
hemmed by the forests of Germany and the bleak steppes of Scythia, and
were bordered on the south by the sands of the African desert and the
dreary wastes of Arabia, which seemed the boundaries set by nature to
dominion in those directions. Within these limits were crowded more than
100,000,000 people, embracing every conceivable condition and variety in
race and culture, from the rough barbarians of Gaul to the refined
voluptuary of the East.

Octavius was the first to moderate the ambition of the Romans, and to
council them not to attempt to conquer any more of the world, but rather
to devote their energies to the work of consolidating the domains already
acquired. He saw the dangers that would attend any further extension of
the boundaries of the state.

The reign of Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14. It
embraced the most splendid period of the annals of Rome. Under the
patronage of the emperor, and that of his favorite minister Maecenas, poets
and writers flourished and made this the "golden age" of Latin literature.
During this reign Virgil composed his immortal epic of the _AEneid_,
and Horace his famous odes; while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and
Ovid his _Metamorphoses_. Many who lamented the fall of the republic
sought solace in the pursuit of letters; and in this they were encouraged
by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that would
otherwise have been engaged in political intrigues against his government.

Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. He adorned
the capital with many splendid structures. Said he proudly, "I found Rome
a city of brick; I left it a city of marble." The population of the city
at this time was probably about one million.

Although the government of Augustus was disturbed by some troubles upon
the frontiers, still never before, perhaps, did the world enjoy so long a
period of general rest from the preparation and turmoil of war. Three
times during this auspicious reign the gates of the Temple of Janus at
Rome, which were open in time of war and closed in time of peace, were
shut. Only twice before during the entire history of the city had they
been closed, so constantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. It
was in the midst of this happy reign, when profound peace prevailed
throughout the civilized world, that Christ was born in Bethlehem of
Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome; yet it was filled with profound
significance, not only for the Roman empire, but for the world.

The latter years of the life of Augustus were clouded both by domestic
bereavement and national disaster. His beloved nephew Marcellus, and his
two grandsons Caius and Lucius, whom he purposed making his heirs, were
all removed by death; and then, far away in the German forest, his general
Varus, who had attempted to rule the freedom-loving Teutons as he had
governed the abject Asiatics of the Eastern provinces, was surprised by
the barbarians, led by their brave chief Hermanu,--Arminius, as called by
the Romans,--and his army destroyed almost to a man (A.D. 9). Twenty
thousand of the legionaries lay dead and unburied in the tangled woods and
morasses of Germany.

The victory of Arminius over the Roman legions was an event of the
greatest significance in the history of European civilization. Germany was
almost overrun by the Roman army. The Teutonic tribes were on the point of
being completely subjugated and Romanized, as had been the Celts of Gaul
before them. Had this occurred, the entire history of Europe would have
been changed; for the Germanic element is the one that has given shape and
color to the important events of the last fifteen hundred years. Those
barbarians, too, were our ancestors. Had Rome succeeded in exterminating
or enslaving them, Britain, as Creasy says, would never have received the
name of England, and the great English nation would never have had an
existence.

In the year A.D. 14, Augustus died, having reached the seventy-sixth year
of his age. It was believed that his soul ascended visibly amidst the
flames of the funeral pyre. By decree of the Senate divine worship was
accorded to him, and temples were erected in his honor.

One of the most important of the acts of Augustus, in its influence upon
following events, was the formation of the Praetorian Guard, which was
designed for a sort of body-guard to the emperor. In the succeeding reign
this body of soldiers, about ten thousand in number, was given a permanent
camp alongside the city walls. It soon became a formidable power in the
state, and made and unmade emperors at will.

REIGN OF TIBERIUS (A.D. 14-37).--Tiberius succeeded to an unlimited
sovereignty. The Senate conferred upon him all the titles that had been
worn by Augustus. One of the first acts of Tiberius gave the last blow to
the ancient republican institutions. He took away from the popular
assembly the privilege of electing the consuls and praetors, and bestowed
the same upon the Senate, which, however, must elect from candidates
presented by the emperor. As the Senate was the creation of the emperor,
who as censor made up the list of its members, he was now of course the
source and fountain of all patronage. During the first years of his reign,
Tiberius used his practically unrestrained authority with moderation and
justice, but soon yielding to the promptings of a naturally cruel,
suspicious, and jealous nature, he entered upon a course of the most high-
handed tyranny. He enforced oppressively an old law, known as the _law
of majestas_, which made it a capital offence for any one to speak a
careless word, or even to entertain an unfriendly thought, respecting the
emperor. "It was dangerous to speak, and equally dangerous to keep
silent," says Leighton, "for silence even might be construed into
discontent." Rewards were offered to informers, and hence sprang up a
class of persons called "delators," who acted as spies upon society. Often
false charges were made, to gratify personal enmity; and many, especially
of the wealthy class, were accused and put to death that their property
might be confiscated.

Tiberius appointed, as his chief minister and as commander of the
praetorians, one Sejanus, a man of the lowest and most corrupt life. This
officer actually persuaded Tiberius to retire to the little island of
Capreae, in the Bay of Naples, and leave to him the management of affairs
at Rome. The emperor built several villas in different parts of the
beautiful islet, and, having gathered a band of congenial companions,
passed in this pleasant retreat the later years of his reign. Both Tacitus
the historian and Suetonius the biographer tell many stories of the
scandalous profligacy of the emperor's life on the island; but these
tales, it should be added, are discredited by some.

Meanwhile, Sejanus was ruling at Rome very much according to his own will.
No man's life was safe. He even grew so bold as to plan the assassination
of the emperor himself. His designs, however, became known to Tiberius;
and the infamous and disloyal minister was arrested and put to death.

After the execution of his minister, Tiberius ruled more despotically than
ever before. Multitudes sought refuge from his tyranny in suicide. Death
at last relieved the world of the monster. His end was probably hastened
by his attendants, who are believed to have smothered him in his bed, as
he lay dying.

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote province of
the Roman empire, the Saviour was crucified. Animated by an unparalleled
missionary spirit, His followers traversed the length and breadth of the
empire, preaching everywhere the "glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in
the gods of the old mythologies, the softening and liberalizing influence
of Greek culture, the unification of the whole civilized world under a
single government, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible
weariness of the oppressed and servile classes,--all these things had
prepared the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than three
centuries the Pagan empire had become Christian not only in name, but also
very largely in fact. This conversion of Rome is one of the most important
events in all history. A new element is here introduced into civilization,
an element which we shall find giving color and character to very much of
the story of the eighteen centuries that we have yet to study.

REIGN OF CALIGULA (A.D. 37-41).--Caius Caesar, better known as Caligula,
was only twenty-five years of age when the death of Tiberius called him to
the throne. His career was very similar to that of Tiberius. After a few
months spent in arduous application to the affairs of the empire, during
which time his many acts of kindness and piety won for him the affections
of all classes, the mind of the young emperor became unsettled, and he
began to indulge in all sorts of insanities. The cruel sports of the
amphitheatre possessed for him a strange fascination. When animals failed,
he ordered spectators to be seized indiscriminately, and thrown to the
beasts. He entered the lists himself, and fought as a gladiator upon the
arena. In a sanguinary mood, he wished that "the people of Rome had but
one neck." As an insult to his nobles, he gave out that he proposed to
make his favorite horse, Incitatus, consul. He declared himself divine,
and removing the heads of Jupiter's statues, put on his own.

After four years the insane career of Caligula was brought to a close by
some of the officers of the praetorian guard, whom he had wantonly
insulted.

REIGN OF CLAUDIUS (A.D. 4l-54).--The reign of Claudius, Caligula's
successor, was signalized by the conquest of Britain. Nearly a century had
now passed since the invasion of the island by Julius Caesar, who, as has
been seen (see p. 292), simply made a reconnoissance of the island and
then withdrew. Claudius conquered all the southern portion of the island,
and founded many colonies, which in time became important centres of Roman
trade and culture. The leader of the Britons was Caractacus. He was taken
captive and carried to Rome. Gazing in astonishment upon the magnificence
of the imperial city, he exclaimed, "How can a people possessed of such
splendor at home envy Caractacus his humble cottage in Britain?"

Claudius distinguished his reign by the execution of many important works.
At the mouth of the Tiber he constructed a magnificent harbor, called the
Portus Romanus. The Claudian Aqueduct, which he completed, was a
stupendous work, bringing water to the city from a distance of forty-five
miles.

The delight of the people in gladiatorial shows had at this time become
almost an insane frenzy. Claudius determined to give an entertainment that
should render insignificant all similar efforts. Upon a large lake, whose
sloping bank afforded seats for the vast multitudes of spectators, he
exhibited a naval battle, in which two opposing fleets, bearing nineteen
thousand gladiators, fought as though in real battle, till the water was
filled with thousands of bodies, and covered with the fragments of the
broken ships.

Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites and
unworthy wives. For his fourth wife Claudius married the "wicked
Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned
mushrooms, in order to make place for the succession of her son Nero.

REIGN OF NERO (A.D. 54-68).--Nero was fortunate in having for his
preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca; but never was teacher
more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years Nero ruled with moderation
and equity. He then broke away from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and
entered upon a career filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity.
The dagger and poison--the latter a means of murder the use of which at
Rome had become a "fine art," and was in the hands of those who made it a
regular profession--were employed almost unceasingly, to remove persons
that had incurred his hatred, or who possessed wealth that he coveted.

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