G. A. Henty - "A Final Reckoning"

Henry David Thoreau - "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"

John Evelyn - "Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2)"

Mrs. Humphry Ward - "Marriage a la mode"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

A General History for Colleges and High Schools

P >> P. V. N. Myers >> A General History for Colleges and High Schools




It was in the tenth year of his reign that the so-called Great Fire laid
more than half of Rome in ashes. It was rumored that Nero had ordered the
conflagration to be lighted, and that from the roof of his palace he had
enjoyed the spectacle, and amused himself by singing a poem which he had
written, entitled the "Sack of Troy."

Nero did everything in his power to discredit the rumor. To turn attention
from himself, he accused the Christians of having conspired to destroy the
city, in order to help out their prophecies. The doctrine which was taught
by some of the new sect respecting the second coming of Christ, and the
destruction of the world by fire, lent color to the charge. The
persecution that followed was one of the most cruel recorded in the
history of the Church. Many victims were covered with pitch and burned at
night, to serve as torches in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves
the names of the Apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this Neronian
persecution.

As to Rome, the conflagration was a blessing in disguise. The city rose
from its ashes as quickly as Athens from her ruins at the close of the
Persian wars. The new buildings were made fireproof; and the narrow,
crooked streets reappeared as broad and beautiful avenues. A considerable
portion of the burnt region was appropriated by Nero for the buildings and
grounds of an immense palace, called the "Golden House." It covered so
much space that the people "maliciously hinted" that Nero had fired the
old city, in order to make room for it.

The emperor secured money for his enormous expenditures by new extortions,
murders, and confiscations. No one of wealth knew but that his turn might
come next. A conspiracy was formed among the nobles to relieve the state
of the monster. The plot was discovered, and again "the city was filled
with funerals." Lucan the poet, and Seneca, the old preceptor of Nero,
both fell victims to the tyrant's rage.

Nero now made a tour through the East, and there plunged deeper and deeper
into every shame, sensuality, and crime. The tyranny and the disgrace were
no longer endurable. Almost at the same moment the legions in several of
the provinces revolted. The Senate decreed that Nero was a public enemy,
and condemned him to a disgraceful death by scourging, to avoid which he
instructed a slave how to give him a fatal thrust. His last words were,
"What a loss my death will be to art!"

Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian line. The family of the Great
Caesar was now extinct; but the name remained, and was adopted by all the
succeeding emperors.

GALBA, OTHO, AND VITELLIUS (A.D. 68-69).--These three names are usually
grouped together, as their reigns were all short and uneventful. The
succession, upon the death of Nero and the extinction in him of the Julian
line, was in dispute, and the legions in different quarters supported the
claims of their favorite leaders. One after another the three aspirants
named were killed in bloody struggles for the imperial purple. The last,
Vitellius, was hurled from the throne by the soldiers of Flavius
Vespasian, the old and beloved commander of the legions in Palestine,
which were at this time engaged in a war with the Jews.

REIGN OF VESPASIAN (A.D. 69-79).--The accession of Flavius Vespasian marks
the beginning of a period, embracing three reigns, known as the _Flavian
Age_ (A.D. 69-96). Vespasian's reign was signalized both by important
military achievements abroad and by stupendous public works undertaken at
Rome.

[Illustration: COIN OF VESPASIAN.]

After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history, Jerusalem was
taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. The Temple was destroyed, and more than
a million of Jews that were crowded in the city are believed to have
perished. Great multitudes suffered death by crucifixion. The miserable
remnants of the nation were scattered everywhere over the world. Josephus,
the great historian, accompanied the conqueror to Rome. In imitation of
Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the Temple of its sacred utensils, and bore
them away as trophies. Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name
may be seen at the present day the sculptured representation of the golden
candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the war.

In the opposite corner of the empire a dangerous revolt of the Gauls was
suppressed, and in the island of Britain the Roman commander Agricola
subdued or crowded back the native tribes until he had extended the
frontiers of the empire into what is now Scotland. Then, as a protection
against the incursions of the Caledonians, the ancestors of the Scottish
Highlanders, he constructed a line of fortresses from the Frith of Forth
to the Frith of Clyde.

Vespasian rebuilt the Capitoline temple, which had been burned during the
struggle between his soldiers and the adherents of Vitellius; he
constructed a new forum which bore his own name; and also began the
erection of the celebrated Flavian amphitheatre, which was completed by
his successor. After a most prosperous reign of ten years, Vespasian died
A.D. 79, the first emperor after Augustus that did not meet with a violent
death.

[Illustration: TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS: Showing the
Seven-branched Candlestick and other Trophies from the Temple at
Jerusalem.]

At the last moment he requested his attendants to raise him upon his feet
that he might "die standing," as befitted a Roman emperor.

REIGN OF TITUS (A.D. 79-81).--In a short reign of two years Titus won the
title, the "Delight of Mankind." He was unwearied in acts of benevolence
and in bestowal of favors. Having let a day slip by without some act of
kindness performed, he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, "I have
lost a day."

Titus completed and dedicated the great Flavian amphitheatre begun by his
father, Vespasian. This vast structure, which accommodated more than
eighty thousand spectators, is better known as the Colosseum--a name given
it either because of its gigantic proportions, or on account of a colossal
statue of Nero which happened to stand near it.

[Illustration: STREET IN POMPEII. (A Reconstruction.)]

The reign of Titus, though so short, was signalized by two great
disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost as
calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second was the
destruction, by an eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian cities of
Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried beneath showers of
cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. Pliny the elder, the great
naturalist, venturing too near the mountain to investigate the phenomenon,
lost his life. [Footnote: In the year 1713, sixteen centuries after the
destruction of the cities, the ruins were discovered by some persons
engaged in digging a well, and since then extensive excavations have been
made, which have uncovered a large part of Pompeii, and revealed to us the
streets, homes, theatres, baths, shops, temples, and various monuments of
the ancient city--all of which presents to us a very vivid picture of
Roman life during the imperial period, eighteen hundred years ago.]

DOMITIAN--LAST OF THE TWELVE CAESARS (A.D. 81-96).--Domitian, the brother
of Titus, was the last of the line of emperors known as "the Twelve
Caesars." The title, however, was assumed by, and is applied to, all
succeeding emperors; the sole reason that the first twelve princes are
grouped together is because the Roman biographer Suetonius completed the
lives of that number only.

Domitian's reign was an exact contrast to that of his brother Titus. It
was one succession of extravagances, tyrannies, confiscations, and
murders. Under this emperor took place what is known in Church history as
"the second persecution of the Christians." This class, as well as the
Jews, were the special objects of Domitian's hatred, because they refused
to worship the statues of himself which he had set up (see p. 322).

The last of the Twelve Caesars perished in his own palace, and by the hands
of members of his own household. The Senate ordered his infamous name to
be erased from the public monuments, and to be blotted from the records of
the Roman state.

THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS: REIGN OF NERVA (A.D. 96-98).--The five emperors--
Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines--that succeeded Domitian
were elected by the Senate, which during this period assumed something of
its former weight and influence in the affairs of the empire. The wise and
beneficent administration of the government by these rulers secured for
them the enviable distinction of being called "the five good emperors."
Nerva died after a short reign of sixteen months, and the sceptre passed
into the stronger hands of the able commander Trajan, whom Nerva had
previously made his associate in the government.

[Illustration: TRAJAN.]

REIGN OF TRAJAN (A.D. 98-117).--Trajan was a native of Spain, and a
soldier by profession and talent. His ambition to achieve military renown
led him to undertake distant and important conquests. It was the policy of
Augustus--a policy adopted by most of his successors--to make the Danube
in Europe and the Euphrates in Asia the limits of the Roman empire in
those respective quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of
his dominions beyond both these rivers, scorning to permit Nature by these
barriers to mark out the confines of Roman sovereignty.

He crossed the Danube by means of a bridge, the foundations of which may
still be seen, and subjugated the bold and warlike Dacian tribes lying
behind that stream--tribes that had often threatened the peace of the
empire. After celebrating his victories in a magnificent triumph at Rome,
Trajan turned to the East, led his legions across the Euphrates, reduced
Armenia, and wrested from the Parthians most of the territory which
anciently formed the heart of the Assyrian monarchy. To Trajan belongs the
distinction of extending the boundaries of the empire to the most distant
points to which Roman ambition and prowess were ever able to push them.

But Trajan was something besides a soldier. He had a taste for literature:
Juvenal, Plutarch, and the younger Pliny wrote under his patronage; and,
moreover, as is true of almost all great conquerors, he had a perfect
passion for building. Among the great works with which he embellished the
capital was the Trajan Forum. Here he erected the celebrated marble shaft
known as Trajan's column. It is one hundred and forty-seven feet high, and
is wound from base to summit by a spiral band of sculptures, containing
more than twenty-five thousand human figures. The column is nearly as
perfect to-day as when reared eighteen centuries ago. It was intended to
commemorate the Dacian conquests of Trajan; and its pictured sides are the
best, and almost the only, record we now possess of those wars.

[Illustration: BESIEGING A DACIAN CITY. (From Trajan's Column.)]

Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the character of
the early professors of the new faith, and the light in which they were
viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we have very important evidence
in a certain letter written by Pliny the Younger to the emperor in regard
to the Christians of Pontus, in Asia Minor, of which remote province Pliny
was governor. Pliny speaks of the new creed as a "contagious superstition,
that had seized not cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open
country." Yet he could find no fault in the converts to the new doctrines.
Notwithstanding this, however, because the Christians steadily refused to
sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many to be put to death for their
"inflexible obstinacy."

Trajan died A.D. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of the most
prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot of the Roman
people.

REIGN OF HADRIAN (A.D. 117-138).--Hadrian, a kinsman of Trajan, succeeded
him in the imperial office. He possessed great ability, and displayed
admirable moderation and prudence in the administration of the government.
He gave up the territory conquered by Trajan in the East, and made the
Euphrates once more the boundary of the empire in that quarter. He also
broke down the bridge that Trajan had built over the Danube, and made that
stream the real frontier line, notwithstanding the Roman garrisons were
still maintained in Dacia. Hadrian saw plainly that Rome could not safely
extend any more widely the frontiers of the empire. Indeed, so active and
threatening were the enemies of the empire in the East, and so daring and
numerous had now become its barbarian assailants of the North, that there
was reason for the greatest anxiety lest they should break through even
the old and strong lines of the Danube and the Euphrates, and pour their
devastating hordes over the provinces.

More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in making tours
of inspection through all the different provinces of the empire. He
visited Britain, and secured the Roman possessions there against the Picts
and Scots by erecting a continuous wall across the island. Next he
journeyed through Gaul and Spain, and then visited in different tours all
the remaining countries bordering upon the Mediterranean. He ascended the
Nile, and, traveller-like, carved his name upon the vocal Memnon. The
cities which he visited he decorated with temples, theatres, and other
monuments.

In the year 131, the Jews in Palestine, who had in a measure recovered
from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out in desperate revolt,
because of the planting of a Roman colony upon the almost desolate site of
Jerusalem, and the placing of the statue of Jupiter in the Holy Temple.
More than half a million of Jews perished in the useless struggle, and the
survivors were driven into exile--the last dispersion of the race.

The latter years of his reign Hadrian passed at Rome. It was here that
this princely builder erected his most splendid structures. Among these
was the Mole, or Mausoleum, of Hadrian, an immense structure surmounted by
a gilded dome, erected on the banks of the Tiber, and designed as a tomb
for himself.

THE ANTONINES (A.D. 138-180).--Aurelius Antoninus, surnamed Pius, the
adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the Roman empire an
administration singularly pure and parental. Of him it has been said that
"he was the first, and, saving his colleague and successor Aurelius, the
only one of the emperors who devoted himself to the task of government
with a single view to the happiness of his people." Throughout his long
reign of twenty-three years, the empire was in a state of profound peace.
The attention of the historian is attracted by no striking events, which,
as many have not failed to observe, illustrates admirably the oft-repeated
maxim, "Happy is that people whose annals are brief."

Antoninus, early in his reign, united with himself in the government his
adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death of the former (A.D. 161)
the latter succeeded quietly to his place and work. His studious habits
won for him the title of "Philosopher." He belonged to the school of the
Stoics, and was a most thoughtful writer. His _Meditations_ breathe the
tenderest sentiments of devotion and benevolence, and make the nearest
approach to the spirit of Christianity of all the writings of Pagan
antiquity. He established an Institution, or Home, for orphan girls; and,
finding the poorer classes throughout Italy burdened by their taxes and
greatly in arrears in paying them, he caused all the tax-claims to be
heaped in the Forum and burned.

The tastes and sympathies of Aurelius would have led him to choose a life
passed in retirement and study at the capital; but hostile movements of
the Parthians, and especially invasions of the barbarians along the
Rhenish and Danubian frontiers, called him from his books, and forced him
to spend most of the latter years of his reign in the camp. The Parthians,
who had violated their treaty with Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants
of the emperor, and Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority.

This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The returning
soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which swept off vast
numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and districts were
depopulated. In the general distress and panic, the superstitious people
were led to believe that it was the new sect of Christians that had called
down upon the nation the anger of the gods. Aurelius permitted a fearful
persecution to be instituted against them, during which the famous
Christian fathers and bishops, Justin Martyr and Polycarp, suffered death.

It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under the Pagan
emperors, sprung from political rather than religious motives, and that
this is why we find the names of the best emperors, as well as those of
the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was believed that the welfare of
the state was bound up with the careful performance of the rites of the
national worship; and hence, while the Roman rulers were usually very
tolerant, allowing all forms of worship among their subjects, still they
required that men of every faith should at least recognize the Roman gods,
and burn incense before their statues. This the Christians steadily
refused to do. Their neglect of the service of the temple, it was
believed, angered the gods, and endangered the safety of the state,
bringing upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the
main reason of their persecution by the Pagan emperors.

But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the imperative
calls for immediate help that now came from the North. The barbarians were
pushing in the Roman outposts, and pouring impetuously over the frontiers.
To the panic of the plague was added this new terror. Aurelius placed
himself at the head of his legions, and hurried beyond the Alps. For many
years, amidst the snows of winter and the heats of summer, he strove to
beat back the assailants of the empire.

The efforts of the devoted Aurelius checked the inroads of the barbarians;
but he could not subdue them, so weakened was the empire by the ravages of
the pestilence, and so exhausted was the treasury from the heavy and
constant drains upon it. At last his weak body gave way beneath the
hardships of his numerous campaigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona
(now Vienna), in the nineteenth year of his reign (A.D. 180).

The united voice of the Senate and people pronounced him a god, and divine
worship was accorded to his statue. Never was Monarchy so justified of her
children as in the lives and works of the Antonines. As Merivale, in
dwelling upon their virtues, very justly remarks, "the blameless career of
these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse for Caesarism in
all after-ages."


ROMAN EMPERORS FROM AUGUSTUS TO MARCUS AURELIUS.
(From 31 B.C. to A.D. 180.)

Augustus reigns . 31 B.C. to A.D. 14
Tiberius . . . . . . A.D. 14-37
Caligula . . . . . . . . 37-41
Claudius . . . . . . . . 41-54
Nero . . . . . . . . . 54-68
Galba . . . . . . . . 68-69
Otho . . . . . . . . . 69
Vitellius . . . . . . . 69
Vespasian . . . . . . . 69-79
Titus . . . . . . . . 79-81
Domitian . . . . . . . 81-96
Nerva . . . . . . . . 96-98
Trajan . . . . . . . . 98-117
Hadrian . . . . . . . 117-138
Antoninus Pius . . . . . 138-161
Marcus Aurelius . . . . 161-180
Verus associated with Aurelius 161-169

The first eleven, in connection with Julius Caesar, are called the Twelve
Caesars. The last five (excluding Verus) are known as the Five Good
Emperors.




CHAPTER XXX.

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST;
BEGINNING OF THE GREAT GERMAN MIGRATION.
(A.D. 180-476.)


REIGN OF COMMODUS (A.D. 180-192).--Under the wise and able administration
of "the five good emperors"--Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two
Antonines--the Roman empire reached its culmination in power and
prosperity; and now, under the enfeebling influences of vice and
corruption within, and the heavy blows of the barbarians without, it
begins to decline rapidly to its fall.

[Illustration: COMMODUS (as Hercules).]

Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, and the last of the Antonines, was a
most unworthy successor of his illustrious father. For three years,
however, surrounded by the able generals and wise counsellors that the
prudent administration of the preceding emperors had drawn to the head of
affairs, Commodus ruled with fairness and lenity, when an unsuccessful
conspiracy against his life seemed suddenly to kindle all the slumbering
passions of a Nero. He secured the favor of the rabble with the shows of
the amphitheatre, and purchased the support of the praetorians with bribes
and flatteries. Thus he was enabled for ten years to retain the throne,
while perpetrating all manner of cruelties, and staining the imperial
purple with the most detestable debaucheries and crimes.

Commodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats, and attired in a lion's
skin, and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly set upon and slew
antagonists arrayed to represent mythological monsters, and armed with
great sponges for rocks. The Senate, so obsequiously servile had that body
become, conferred upon him the title of the Roman Hercules, and also voted
him the additional surnames of Pius and Felix, and even proposed to change
the name of Rome and call it Colonia Commodiana.

The empire was finally relieved of the insane tyrant by some members of
the royal household, who anticipated his designs against themselves by
putting him to death.

"THE BARRACK EMPERORS."--For nearly a century after the death of Commodus
(from A.D. 192 to 284), the emperors were elected by the army, and hence
the rulers for this period have been called "the Barrack Emperors." The
character of the period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five
emperors who mounted the throne during this time all except four came to
their deaths by violence. "Civil war, pestilence, bankruptcy, were all
brooding over the empire. The soldiers had forgotten how to fight, the
rulers how to govern." On every side the barbarians were breaking into the
empire to rob, to murder, and to burn.

THE PUBLIC SALE OF THE EMPIRE (A.D. 193).--The beginning of these
troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on the part of the
praetorians. Upon the death of Commodus, Pertinax, a distinguished senator,
was placed on the throne; but his efforts to enforce discipline among the
praetorians aroused their anger, and he was slain by them after a short
reign of only three months. These soldiers then gave out notice that they
would sell the empire to the highest bidder. It was, accordingly, set up
for sale at the praetorian camp, and struck off to Didius Julianus, a
wealthy senator, who gave $1000 to each of the 12,000 soldiers at this
time composing the guard. So the price of the empire was about
$12,000,000.

But these turbulent and insolent soldiers at the capital of the empire
were not to have things entirely their own way. As soon as the news of the
disgraceful transaction reached the legions on the frontiers, they rose as
a single man in indignant revolt. Each of the three armies that held the
Euphrates, the Rhine, and the Danube, proclaimed its favorite commander
emperor. The leader of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of
great energy and force of character. He knew that there were other
competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who first
seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was soon at Rome.
The praetorians were no match for the trained legionaries of the frontiers,
and did not even attempt to defend their emperor, who was taken prisoner
and put to death after a reign of sixty-five days. REIGN OF SEPTIMIUS
SEVERUS (A.D. 193-211).--One of the first acts of Severus was to organize
a new body-guard of 50,000 legionaries, to take the place of the unworthy
praetorians, whom, as a punishment for the insult they had offered to the
Roman state, he disbanded, and banished from the capital, and forbade to
approach within a hundred miles of its walls. He next crushed his two
rival competitors, and was then undisputed master of the empire. He put to
death forty senators for having favored his late rivals, and completely
destroyed the power of their body. Committing to the prefect of the new
praetorian guard the management of affairs at the capital, Severus passed
the greater part of his long and prosperous reign upon the frontiers. At
one time he was chastising the Parthians beyond the Euphrates, and at
another, pushing back the Caledonian tribes from the Hadrian wall in the
opposite corner of his dominions. Finally, in Britain, in his camp at
York, death overtook him.

REIGN OF CARACALLA (A.D. 211-217).--Severus conferred the empire upon his
two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla murdered his brother, and then
ordered Papinian, the celebrated jurist, to make a public argument in
vindication of the fratricide. When that great lawyer refused, saying that
"it was easier to commit such a crime than to justify it," he put him to
death. Thousands fell victims to his senseless rage. Driven by remorse and
fear, he fled from the capital, and wandered about the most distant
provinces. At Alexandria, on account of some uncomplimentary remarks by
the citizens upon his appearance, he ordered a general massacre. Finally,
after a reign of six years, the monster was slain in a remote corner of
Syria.

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