A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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[Illustration: CARACALLA.]

Caracalla's sole political act of real importance was the bestowal of
citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the empire; and this he did,
not to give them a just privilege, but that he might collect from them
certain special taxes which only Roman citizens had to pay. Before the
reign of Caracalla it was only particular classes of subjects, or the
inhabitants of some particular city or province, that, as a mark of
special favor, had, from time to time, been admitted to the rights of
citizenship (see p. 280). By this wholesale act of Caracalla, the entire
population of the empire was made Roman, at least in name and nominal
privilege. "The city had become the world, or, viewed from the other side,
the world had become the city" (Merivale).

REIGN OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS (A.D. 222-235).--Severus restored the virtues
of the Age of the Antonines. His administration was pure and energetic;
but he strove in vain to resist the corrupt and downward tendencies of the
times. He was assassinated, after a reign of fourteen years, by his
seditious soldiers, who were angered by his efforts to reduce them to
discipline. They invested with the imperial purple an obscure officer
named Maximin, a Thracian peasant, whose sole recommendation for this
dignity was his gigantic stature and his great strength of limbs. Rome had
now sunk to the lowest possible degradation. We may pass rapidly over the
next fifty years of the empire.

[Illustration: TRIUMPH OF SAPOR OVER VALERIAN.]

THE THIRTY TYRANTS (A.D. 251-268).--Maximin was followed swiftly by
Gordian, Philip, and Decius, and then came what is called the "Age of the
Thirty Tyrants." The imperial sceptre being held by weak emperors, there
sprang up in every part of the empire, competitors for the throne--several
rivals frequently appearing in the field at the same time. The barbarians
pressed upon all the frontiers, and thrust themselves into all the
provinces. The empire seemed on the point of falling to pieces. [Footnote:
It was during this period that the Emperor Valerian (A.D. 253-260), in a
battle with the Persians before Edessa, in Mesopotamia, was defeated and
taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king. A large rock tablet (see cut
above), still to be seen near the Persian town of Shiraz, is believed to
commemorate the triumph of Sapor over the unfortunate emperor.] But a
fortunate succession of five good emperors--Claudius, Aurelian, Tacitus,
Probus, and Carus (A.D. 268-284)--restored for a time the ancient
boundaries, and again forced together into some sort of union the
fragments of the shattered state.

THE FALL OF PALMYRA.--The most noted of the usurpers of authority in the
provinces during the period of anarchy of which we have spoken, was
Odenatus, Prince of Palmyra, a city occupying an oasis in the midst of the
Syrian Desert, midway between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. In
gratitude for the aid he had rendered the Romans against the Parthians,
the Senate had bestowed upon him titles and honors. When the empire began
to show signs of weakness and approaching dissolution, Odenatus conceived
the ambitious project of erecting upon its ruins in the East a great
Palmyrian kingdom. Upon his death, his wife, Zenobia, succeeded to his
authority and to his ambitions. This famous princess claimed descent from
Cleopatra, and it is certain that in the charms of personal beauty she was
the rival of the Egyptian queen. Boldly assuming the title of "Queen of
the East," she bade defiance to the emperor of Rome. Aurelian marched
against her, defeated her armies, and carried her a captive to Italy (273
A.D.). After having been led in golden chains in the triumphal procession
of Aurelian, the queen was given a beautiful villa in the vicinity of
Tibur, where, surrounded by her children, she passed the remainder of her
checkered life.

The ruins of Palmyra are among the most interesting remains of Graeco-Roman
civilization in the East.

REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN (A.D. 284-305).--The reign of Diocletian marks an
important era in Roman history. Up to this time the imperial government
had been more or less carefully concealed under the forms and names of the
old republic. The government now became an unveiled and absolute monarchy.
Diocletian's reforms, though radical, were salutary, and infused such
fresh vitality into the frame of the dying state as to give it a new lease
of life for another term of nearly two hundred years.

He determined to divide the numerous and increasing cares of the
distracted empire, so that it might be ruled from two centres--one in the
East and the other in the West. In pursuance of this plan, he chose as a
colleague a companion soldier, Maximian, upon whom he conferred the title
of Augustus. After a few years, finding the cares of the co-sovereignty
still too heavy, each sovereign associated with himself an assistant, who
took the title of Caesar, and was considered the son and heir of the
emperor. There were thus two Augusti and two Caesars. Milan, in Italy,
became the capital and residence of Maximian; while Nicomedia, in Asia
Minor, became the seat of the court of Diocletian. The Augusti took charge
of the countries near their respective capitals, while the younger and
more active Caesars were assigned the government of the more distant and
turbulent provinces. The vigorous administration of the government in
every quarter of the empire was thus secured. The authority of each of the
rulers was supreme within the territory allotted him; but all acknowledged
Diocletian as "the father and head of the state."

[Illustration: DIOCLETIAN.]

The most serious drawback to the system of government thus instituted was
the heavy expense incident to the maintenance of four courts with their
trains of officers and dependants. The taxes became unendurable, husbandry
ceased, and large masses of the population were reduced almost to
starvation.

While the changes made in the government have rendered the name of
Diocletian famous in the political history of the Roman state, the cruel
persecutions which he ordered against the Christians have made his name in
an equal degree infamous in ecclesiastical annals; for it was during this
reign that the tenth--the last and severest--of the persecutions of the
Church took place. By an imperial decree the churches of the Christians
were ordered to be torn down, and they themselves were outlawed. For ten
years the fugitives were hunted in forest and cave. The victims were
burned, were cast to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre--were put to
death by every torture and in every mode that ingenious cruelty could
devise. But nothing could shake the constancy of their faith. They courted
the death that secured them, as they firmly believed, immediate entrance
upon an existence of unending happiness. The exhibition of devotion and
constancy shown by the martyrs won multitudes to the persecuted faith.

It was during this and the various other persecutions that vexed the
Church in the second and third centuries that the Christians sought refuge
in the Catacombs, those vast subterranean galleries and chambers under the
city of Rome. Here the Christians lived and buried their dead, and on the
walls of the chambers sketched rude symbols of their hope and faith. It
was in the darkness of these subterranean abodes that Christian art had
its beginnings.

[Illustration: CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. (From the Catacombs.)]

After a prosperous reign of twenty years, becoming weary of the cares of
state, Diocletian abdicated the throne, and forced or induced his
colleague Maximian also to lay down his authority on the same day.
Galerius and Constantius were, by this act, advanced to the purple and
made Augusti; and two new associates were appointed as Caesars. Diocletian,
having enjoyed the extreme satisfaction of seeing the imperial authority
quietly and successfully transmitted by his system, without the dictation
of the insolent praetorians or the interference of the turbulent
legionaries, now retired to his country-seat at Salona, on the eastern
shore of the Adriatic, and there devoted himself to rural pursuits. It is
related that, when Maximian wrote him urging him to endeavor, with him, to
regain the power they had laid aside, he replied: "Were you but to come to
Salona and see the vegetables which I raise in my garden with my own
hands, you would no longer talk to me of empire."

REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (A.D. 306-337); THE EMPIRE BECOMES
CHRISTIAN.--Galerius and Constantius had reigned together only one year,
when the latter died at York, in Britain; and his soldiers, disregarding
the rule of succession as determined by the system of Diocletian,
proclaimed his son Constantine emperor. Six competitors for the throne
arose in different quarters. For eighteen years Constantine fought to gain
supremacy. At the end of that time every rival was crushed, and he was the
sole ruler of the Roman world.

Constantine was the first Christian emperor. He was converted to the new
religion--such is the story--by seeing in the heavens, during one of his
campaigns against his rivals, a luminous cross with this inscription:
"With this sign you will conquer." He made the cross the royal standard;
and the Roman legions now for the first time marched beneath the emblem of
Christianity.

By a decree issued from Milan A.D. 313, Christianity was made in effect
the state religion; but all other forms of worship were tolerated. With
the view of harmonizing the different sects that had sprung up among the
Christians, and to settle the controversy between the Arians and the
Athanasians respecting the nature of Christ,--the former denied his
equality with God the Father,--Constantine called the first OEcumenical,
or General Council of the Church, at Nicaea, a town of Asia Minor, A.D.
325. Arianism was denounced, and a formula of Christian faith adopted,
which is known as the Nicene Creed.

After the recognition of Christianity, the most important act of
Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the Bosporus, as the new
capital of the empire. One reason which led the emperor to choose this
site in preference to Rome was the ungracious conduct towards him of the
inhabitants of the latter city, because he had abandoned the worship of
the old national deities. But there were political reasons for such a
change. Through the Eastern conquests of Rome, the centre of the
population, wealth, and culture of the empire had shifted eastward. The
West--Gaul, Britain, Spain--was rude and barbarous; the East--Egypt,
Syria, Asia Minor--was the abode of ancient civilizations from which Rome
was proud to trace her origin. Constantine was not the first to entertain
the idea of seeking in the East a new centre for the Roman world. The
Italians were inflamed against the first Caesar by the report that he
intended to restore Ilium, the cradle of the Roman race, and make that the
capital of the empire.

Constantine organized at Byzantium a new Senate, while that at Rome sank
to the obscure position of the council of a provincial municipality.
Multitudes eagerly thronged to the new capital, and almost in a night the
little colony grew into an imperial city. In honor of the emperor its name
was changed to Constantinople, the "City of Constantine." Hereafter the
eyes of the world were directed towards the Bosporus instead of the Tiber.

To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine laid out the
empire into four great divisions, called prefectures (see map), which were
subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and these again into one hundred and
sixteen provinces.

The character of Constantine has been greatly eulogized by Christian
writers, while pagan historians very naturally painted it in dark colors.
It is probable that he embraced Christianity, not entirely from
conviction, but partly from political motives. As the historian Hodgkin
puts it, "He was half convinced of the truth of Christianity, and wholly
convinced of the policy of embracing it." In any event, Constantine's
religion was a strange mixture of the old and the new faith: on his medals
the Christian cross is held by the pagan deity, Victory. In his domestic
relations he was tyrannical and cruel. He died in the thirty-first year of
his reign, leaving his kingdom to his three sons, Constans, Constantius,
and Constantine.

REIGN OF JULIAN THE APOSTATE (A.D. 361-363).--The parcelling out of the
empire by Constantine among his sons led to strife and wars, which, at the
end of sixteen years, left Constantius master of the whole. He reigned as
sole emperor for about eight years, engaged in ceaseless warfare with
German tribes in the West and with the Persians [Footnote: The great
Parthian empire, which had been such a formidable antagonist of Rome, was,
after an existence of five centuries, overthrown (A.D. 226) by a revolt of
the Persians, and the New Persian, or Sassanian monarchy established. This
empire lasted till the country was overrun by the Saracens in the seventh
century A.D.] in the East. Constantius was followed by his cousin Julian,
who was killed while in pursuit of the troops of Sapor, king of the
Persians (A.D. 363).

Julian is called the Apostate because he abandoned Christianity and
labored to restore the pagan faith. In his persecution of the Christians,
however, he could not resort to the old means--"the sword, the fire, the
lions;" for, under the softening influences of the very faith he sought to
extirpate, the Roman world had already learned a gentleness and humanity
that rendered impossible the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian
persecutions. Julian's weapons were sophistry and ridicule, in the use of
which he was a master. To degrade the Christians, and place them at a
disadvantage in controversy, he excluded them from the schools of logic
and rhetoric.

Furthermore, to cast discredit upon the predictions of the Scriptures,
Julian determined to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, which the Christians
contended could not be restored because of the prophecies against it. He
actually began excavations, but his workmen were driven in great panic
from the spot by terrific explosions and bursts of flame. The Christians
regarded the occurrence as miraculous; and Julian himself, it is certain,
was so dismayed by it that he desisted from the undertaking. [Footnote:
The explosions which so terrified the workmen of Julian are supposed to
have been caused by accumulations of gases--similar to those that so
frequently occasion accidents in mines--in the subterranean chambers of
the Temple foundations.]

It was in vain that the apostate emperor labored to uproot the new faith;
for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal character of
its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. Equally in vain were his
efforts to restore the worship of the old Grecian and Roman divinities.
Polytheism was a transitional form of religious belief which the world had
now outgrown: Great Pan was dead.

The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians were removed
by his successor Jovian (A.D. 363-4), and the Christian worship was re-
established.

[Illustration: GERMANS CROSSING THE RHINE. (Drawing by Alphonse de
Neuville.)]

VALENTINIAN AND VALENS.--Upon the death of Jovian, Valentinian, the
commander of the imperial guard, was elected emperor by a council of the
generals of the army and the ministers of the court. He appointed his
brother Valens as his associate in office, and assigned to him the Eastern
provinces, while reserving for himself the Western. He set up his own
court at Milan, while his brother established his residence at
Constantinople.

THE MOVEMENTS OF THE BARBARIANS.--The reigns of Valentinian and Valens
were signalized by threatening movements of the barbarian tribes, that
now, almost at the same moment, began to press with redoubled energy
against all the barriers of the empire. The Alemanni (Germans) crossed the
Rhine--sometimes swarming over the river on the winter's ice--and, before
pursuit could be made, escaped with their booty into the depths of the
German forests. The Saxons, pirates of the northern seas, who issued from
the mouth of the Elbe, ravaged the coasts of Gaul and Britain, even
pushing their light skiffs far up the rivers and creeks of those
countries, and carrying spoils from the inland cities. In Britain, the
Picts broke through the Wall of Antoninus, and wrested almost the entire
island from the hands of the Romans. In Africa, the Moorish and other
tribes, issuing from the ravines of the Atlas Mountains and swarming from
the deserts of the south, threatened to obliterate the last trace of Roman
civilization occupying the narrow belt of fertile territory skirting the
sea.

The barbarian tide of invasion seemed thus on the point of overwhelming
the empire in the West; but for twelve years Valentinian defended with
signal ability and energy, not only his own territories, but aided with
arms and counsel his weaker brother Valens in the defence of his. Upon the
death of Valentinian, his son Gratian succeeded to his authority (A.D.
375).

THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE.--The year following the death of Valentinian,
an event of the greatest importance occurred in the East. The Visigoths
(Western Goths) dwelling north of the Lower Danube, who had often in
hostile bands crossed that river to war against the Roman emperors, now
appeared as suppliants in vast multitudes upon its banks. They said that a
terrible race, whom they were powerless to withstand, had invaded their
territories, and spared neither their homes nor their lives. They begged
permission of the Romans to cross the river and settle in Thrace, and
promised, should this request be granted, ever to remain the grateful and
firm allies of the Roman state.

Valens consented to grant their petition on condition that they should
surrender their arms, give up their children as hostages, and all be
baptized in the Christian faith. Their terror and despair led them to
assent to these conditions. So the entire nation, numbering one million
souls,--counting men, women, and children,--were allowed to cross the
river. Several days and nights were consumed in the transport of the vast
multitudes. The writers of the times liken the passage to that of the
Hellespont by the hosts of Xerxes.

The enemy that had so terrified the Goths were the Huns, a monstrous race
of fierce nomadic horsemen, that two centuries and more before the
Christian era were roving the deserts north of the Great Wall of China
(see p. 13). Migrating from that region, they moved slowly to the west,
across the great plains of Central Asia, and, after wandering several
centuries, appeared in Europe. They belonged to a different race (the
Turanian) from all the other European tribes with which we have been so
far concerned. Their features were hideous, their noses being flattened,
and their cheeks gashed, to render their appearance more frightful, as
well as to prevent the growth of a beard. Even the barbarous Goths called
them "barbarians."

Scarcely had the fugitive Visigoths been received within the limits of the
empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths (Eastern
Goths), also driven from their homes by the same terrible Huns, crowded to
the banks of the Danube, and pleaded that they might be allowed, as their
countrymen had been, to place the river between themselves and their
dreaded enemies. But Valens, becoming alarmed at the presence of so many
barbarians within his dominions, refused their request; whereupon they,
dreading the fierce and implacable foe behind more than the wrath of the
Roman emperor in front, crossed the river with arms in their hands. At
this moment the Visigoths, rising in revolt, joined their kinsmen that
were just now forcing the passage of the Danube, and began to ravage the
Danubian provinces. Valens despatched swift messengers to Gratian in the
West, asking for assistance against the foe he had so imprudently admitted
within the limits of the empire.

THEODOSIUS THE GREAT (A.D. 379-395).--Gratian was hurrying to the help of
his colleague Valens, when news of his defeat and death at the hands of
the barbarians was brought to him, and he at once appointed as his
associate Theodosius, known afterwards as the Great, and entrusted him
with the government of the Eastern provinces. Theodosius, by wise and
vigorous measures, quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Vast
multitudes of the Visigoths were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace,
while the Ostrogoths were scattered in various colonies in different
regions of Asia Minor. The Goths became allies of the Emperor of the East,
and more than 40,000 of these warlike barbarians, who were destined to be
the subverters of the empire, were enlisted in the imperial legions.

While Theodosius was thus composing the East, the West, through the
jealous rivalries of different competitors for the control of the
government, had fallen into great disorder. Theodosius twice interposed to
right affairs, and then took the government into his own hands. For four
months he ruled as sole monarch of the empire.

FINAL DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE (A.D. 395).--The Roman world was now united
for the last time under a single master. Just before his death, Theodosius
divided the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, assigning
the former, who was only eighteen years of age, the government of the
East, and giving the latter, a mere child of eleven, the sovereignty of
the West. This was the final partition of the Roman empire--the issue of
that growing tendency, which we have observed in its immoderately extended
dominions, to break apart. The separate histories of the East and the West
now begin.

THE EASTERN EMPIRE.--The story of the fortunes of the Empire in the East
need not detain us long at this point of our history. This monarchy lasted
over a thousand years--from the accession to power of Arcadius, A.D. 395,
to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, A.D. 1453. It will thus be
seen that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period.
Up to the time of the overthrow of the Empire in the West, the sovereigns
of the East were engaged almost incessantly in suppressing uprisings of
their Gothic allies or mercenaries, or in repelling invasions of the Huns
and the Vandals. Frequently during this period, in order to save their own
territories, the Eastern emperors, by dishonorable inducements, persuaded
the barbarians to direct their ravaging expeditions against the provinces
of the West.

LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

FIRST INVASION OF ITALY BY ALARIC.--Only a few years had elapsed after the
death of the great Theodosius, before the barbarians were trooping in vast
hordes through all the regions of the West. First, from Thrace and Moesia
came the Visigoths, led by the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass
of Thermopylae, and devastated almost the entire peninsula of Greece; but,
being driven from that country by Stilicho, the renowned Vandal general of
Honorius, they crossed the Julian Alps, and spread terror throughout all
Italy. Stilicho followed the barbarians cautiously, and, attacking them at
a favorable moment, inflicted a terrible and double defeat upon them at
Pollentia and Verona (A.D. 402-403). The captured camp was found filled
with the spoils of Thebes, Corinth, and Sparta. Gathering the remnants of
his shattered army, Alaric forced his way with difficulty through the
defiles of the Alps, and escaped.

LAST TRIUMPH AT ROME (A.D. 404).--A terrible danger had been averted. All
Italy burst forth in expressions of gratitude and joy. The days of the
Cimbri and Teutones were recalled, and the name of Stilicho was pronounced
with that of Marius. A magnificent triumph at Rome celebrated the victory
and the deliverance. It was the last triumph that Rome ever saw. Three
hundred times--such is asserted to be the number--the Imperial City had
witnessed the triumphal procession of her victorious generals, celebrating
conquests in all quarters of the world.

LAST GLADIATORIAL COMBAT OF THE AMPHITHEATRE.--The same year that marks
the last military triumph at Rome also signalizes the last gladiatorial
combat in the Roman amphitheatre. It is to Christianity that the credit of
the suppression of the inhuman exhibitions of the amphitheatre is
entirely, or almost entirely, due. The pagan philosophers usually regarded
them with indifference, often with favor. Thus Pliny commends a friend for
giving a gladiatorial entertainment at the funeral of his wife. And when
the pagan moralists did condemn the spectacles, it was rather for other
reasons than that they regarded them as inhuman and absolutely contrary to
the rules of ethics. They were defended on the ground that they fostered a
martial spirit among the people and inured the soldier to the sights of
the battlefield. Hence gladiatorial games were actually exhibited to the
legions before they set out on their campaigns. Indeed, all classes appear
to have viewed the matter in much the same light, and with exactly the
same absence of moral disapprobation, that we ourselves regard the
slaughter of animals for food.

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