A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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Lucilius (born 148 B.C.) was one of the greatest of Roman satirists. The
later satirists of the corrupt imperial era were his imitators. Besides
Lucilius, there appeared during the later republican era only two other
poets of distinguished merit, Lucretius and Catullus. Lucretius (95-51
B.C.) was an evolutionist, and in his great poem, _On the Nature of
Things_, we find anticipated many of the conclusions of modern scientists.

POETS OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE.--We have in another place (see p. 307) spoken
of the effects of the fall of the republic upon the development of Latin
literature. Many, who if the republican institutions had continued would
have been absorbed in the affairs of state, were led, by the change of
government, to seek solace for their disappointed hopes, and employment
for their enforced leisure, in the graceful labors of elegant composition.
Four names have cast an unfading lustre over the period covered by the
reign of Augustus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy. So distinguished have
these writers rendered the age in which they lived, that any period in a
people's literature marked by unusual literary taste and refinement is
called, in allusion to the Roman era, an _Augustan Age_. Of the three
poets, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, a word has already been said; of Livy we
shall find place to say something a little later, under the head of the
Roman historians.

SATIRE AND SATIRISTS.--Satire thrives best in the reeking soil and tainted
atmosphere of an age of selfishness, immorality, and vice. Such an age was
that which followed the Augustan era at Rome. The throne was held by such
imperial monsters as Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. The profligacy of
fashionable life at the capital and the various watering-places of the
empire, and the degradation of the court gave venom and point to the
shafts of those who were goaded by the spectacle into attacking the
immoralities and vices which were silently yet rapidly sapping the
foundations of both society and state. Hence arose a succession of writers
whose mastery of sharp and stinging satire has caused their productions to
become the models of all subsequent attempts in the same species of
literature. Two names stand out in special prominence--Persius and
Juvenal, who lived and wrote during the last half of the first and the
beginning of the second century of our era.

ORATORY AMONG THE ROMANS.--"Public oratory," as has been truly said, "is
the child of political freedom, and cannot exist without it." We have seen
this illustrated in the history of republican Athens. Equally well is the
same truth exemplified by the records of the Roman state. All the great
orators of Rome arose under the republic.

Roman oratory was senatorial, popular, or judicial. These different styles
of eloquence were represented by the grave and dignified debates of the
Senate, the impassioned and often noisy and inelegant harangues of the
Forum, and the learned pleadings or ingenious appeals of the courts. Among
the orators of ancient Rome, Hortensius, (114-50 B.C.), an eloquent
advocate, and Cicero (106-43 B.C.) are easily first.

HISTORIANS.--Ancient Rome produced four writers of history whose works
have won for them a permanent fame--Caesar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Of
Caesar and his _Commentaries on the Gallic War_, we have learned in a
previous chapter. His _Commentaries_ will always be mentioned with the
_Anabasis_ of Xenophon, as a model of the narrative style of writing.
Sallust (86-34 B.C.) was the contemporary and friend of Caesar. The two
works upon which his fame rests are the _Conspiracy of Catiline_ and the
_Jugurthine War_.

Livy (59 B.C.-A.D. 17) was one of the brightest ornaments of the Augustan
age. Herodotus among the ancient, and Macaulay among the modern, writers
of historical narrative, are the names with which his is most frequently
compared. His greatest work is his _Annals_, a history of Rome from
the earliest times to the year 9 B.C. Unfortunately, all save thirty-five
of the books [Footnote: It should be borne in mind that a book in the
ancient sense was simply a roll of manuscript or parchment, and contained
nothing like the amount of matter held by an ordinary modern volume. Thus
Caesar's _Gallic Wars_, which makes a single volume of moderate size
with us, made eight Roman books.]--the work filled one hundred and forty-
two volumes--perished during the disturbed period that followed the
overthrow of the empire. Many have been the laments over "the lost books
of Livy." As a chronicle of actual events, Livy's history, particularly in
its earlier parts, is very unreliable; however, it is invaluable as an
account of what the Romans themselves believed respecting the origin of
their race, the founding of their city, and the deeds and virtues of their
forefathers.

The most highly prized work of Tacitus is his _Germania_, a treatise
on the manners and customs of the Germans. Tacitus dwells with delight
upon the simple life of the uncivilized Germans, and sets their virtues in
strong contrast with the immoralities of the refined and cultured Romans.

ETHICS, SCIENCE, AND PHILOSOPHY.--Under this head may be grouped the names
of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. Seneca (about
A.D. 1-65), moralist and philosopher, has already come to our notice as
the tutor of Nero (see p. 312). He was a disbeliever in the popular
religion of his countrymen, and entertained conceptions of God and his
moral government not very different from the doctrines of Socrates. Pliny
the Elder (A.D. 23-79) is almost the only Roman who won renown as a
naturalist. The only work of his that has been spared to us is his
_Natural History_, a sort of "Roman Encyclopaedia," embracing thirty-
seven books.

[Illustration: SENECA.]

Marcus Aurelius the emperor and Epictetus the slave hold prominent places
among the ethical teachers of Rome. Of the emperor as a philosopher we
have already spoken (see p. 321).

Epictetus (b. about 60 A.D.) was for many years a slave at the capital;
but, securing in some way his freedom, he became a teacher of philosophy.
Epictetus and Aurelius were the last eminent representatives and
expositors of the philosophy of Zeno. Christianity, giving a larger place
to the affections than did Stoicism, was already fast winning the hearts
of men.

WRITERS OF THE EARLY LATIN CHURCH.--The Christian authors of the first
three centuries, like the writers of the New Testament, employed the
Greek, that being the language of learning and culture. As the Latin
tongue, however, came into more general use throughout the extended
provinces of the Roman empire, the Christian authors naturally began to
use the same in the composition of their works. Hence, almost all the
writings of the Fathers of the Church, produced during the last two
centuries of the empire, were composed in Latin. Among the many names that
adorn the Church literature of this period may be mentioned Saint Jerome
and Saint Augustine,--the former celebrated for his translation of the
Scriptures into Latin, [Footnote: The _Vulgate_, which is the version
still used in the Roman Catholic Church.] and the latter for his "City of
God." This was truly a wonderful work. It was written just when Rome was
becoming the spoil of the barbarians, and was designed to answer the
charge of the pagans that Christianity, turning the hearts of the people
away from the worship of the ancient gods, was the cause of the calamities
that were befalling the Roman state.

ROMAN LAW AND LAW LITERATURE.--Although the Latin writers in all the
departments of literary effort which we have so far reviewed did much
valuable work, yet the Roman intellect in all these directions was under
Greek guidance. Its work was largely imitative. But in another department
it was different. We mean, of course, the field of legal and political
science. Here the Romans ceased to be pupils, and became teachers.
Nations, like men, have their mission. Rome's mission was to give laws to
the world.

In the year 527 A.D. Justinian became emperor of the Roman empire in the
East. He almost immediately appointed a commission, headed by the great
lawyer Tribonian, to collect and arrange in a systematic manner the
immense mass of Roman laws, and the writings of the jurists. The
undertaking was like that of the Decemvirs in connection with the Twelve
Tables (see p. 236), only far greater. The result of the work of the
commission was what is known as the _Corpus Juris Civilis_, or "Body
of the Civil Law." This consisted of three parts: the _Code_, the
_Pandects_ and the _Institutes_, [Footnote: A later work called the
_Novels_ comprised the laws of Justinian subsequent to the completion of
the _Code_.] The Code was a revised and compressed collection of all the
laws, instructions to judicial officers, and opinions on legal subjects,
promulgated by the different emperors since the time of Hadrian; the
Pandects (all-containing) were a digest or abridgment of the writings,
opinions, and decisions of the most eminent of the old Roman jurists and
lawyers. The Institutes were a condensed edition of the Pandects, and were
intended to form an elementary text-book for the use of students in the
great law-schools of the empire.

The Body of the Roman Law thus preserved and transmitted was the great
contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization. It has exerted a
profound influence upon all the law-systems of Europe. Thus does the once
little Palatine city of the Tiber still rule the world. The religion of
Judea, the arts of Greece, and the laws of Rome are three very real and
potent elements in modern civilization.

3. SOCIAL LIFE.

EDUCATION.--Roman children were subject in an extraordinary manner to
their father (_paterfamilias_). They were regarded as his property,
and their life and liberty were in general at his absolute disposal. This
power he exercised by usually drowning at birth the deformed or sickly
child. Even the married son remained legally subject to his father, who
could banish him, sell him as a slave, or even put him to death. It should
be said, however, that the right of putting to death was seldom exercised,
and that in the time of the empire the law put some limitations upon it.

The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the Greek youth in
being more practical. The Laws of the Twelve Tables were committed to
memory; and rhetoric and oratory were given special attention, as a
mastery of the art of public speaking was an almost indispensable
acquirement for the Roman citizen who aspired to take a prominent part in
the affairs of state.

After the conquest of Magna Graecia and of Greece, the Romans were brought
into closer relations than had hitherto existed with Greek culture. The
Roman youth were taught the language of Athens, often to the neglect, it
appears, of their native tongue. Young men belonging to families of means,
not unusually went to Greece, just as the graduates of our schools go to
Europe, to finish their education. Many of the most prominent statesmen of
Rome, as for instance Cicero and Julius Caesar, received the advantages of
this higher training in the schools of Greece.

Somewhere between the age of fourteen and eighteen the boy exchanged his
purple-hemmed toga, or gown, for one of white wool, which was in all
places and at all times the significant badge of Roman citizenship.

SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN.--Until after her marriage, the daughter of the
family was kept in almost Oriental seclusion. Marriage gave her a certain
freedom. She might now be present at the races of the circus and the
various shows of the theatre and the arena, a privilege rarely accorded to
her before marriage. In the early virtuous period of the Roman state,
divorce was unusual, but in later and more degenerate times, it became
very common. The husband had the right to divorce his wife for the
slightest cause, or for no cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity
of the family relation, may doubtless be found one cause of the degeneracy
and failure of the Roman stock.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.--The entertainments of the theatre, the games of the
circus, and the combats of the amphitheatre were the three principal
public amusements of the Romans. These entertainments in general increased
in popularity as liberty declined, the great festive gatherings at the
various places of amusement taking the place of the political assemblies
of the republic. The public exhibitions under the empire were, in a
certain sense, the compensation which the emperors offered the people for
their surrender of the right of participation in public affairs,--and the
people were content to accept the exchange.

Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome: the people saw too much
real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheatre to care much for the
make-believe tragedies of the stage. The entertainments of the theatres
usually took the form of comedies, farces, and pantomimes. The last were
particularly popular, both because the vast size of the theatres made it
quite impossible for the actor to make his voice heard throughout the
structure, and for the reason that the language of signs was the only
language that could be readily understood by an audience made up of so
many different nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage.

More important and more popular than the entertainments of the theatre
were the various games, especially the chariot races, of the circus. But
surpassing in their terrible fascination all other public amusements were
the animal-baitings and the gladiatorial combats of the arena.

The beasts required for the baitings were secured in different parts of
the world, and transported to Rome and the other cities of the empire at
an enormous expense. The wildernesses of Northern Europe furnished bears
and wolves; Africa contributed lions, crocodiles, and leopards; Asia
elephants and tigers. These creatures were pitted against one another in
every conceivable way. Often a promiscuous multitude would be turned loose
in the arena at once. But even the terrific scene that then ensued, became
at last too tame to stir the blood of the Roman populace. Hence a new
species of show was introduced, and grew rapidly into favor with the
spectators of the amphitheatre. This was the gladiatorial combat.

THE GLADIATORIAL COMBATS.--Gladiatorial games seem to have had their
origin in Etruria, whence they were brought to Rome. It was a custom among
the early Etruscans to slay prisoners upon the warrior's grave, it being
thought that the spirit of the dead delighted in the blood of such
victims. In time the condemned prisoners were allowed to fight and kill
one another, this being deemed more humane than their cold-blooded
slaughter. Thus it happened that sentiments of humanity gave rise to an
institution which, afterwards perverted, became the most inhuman of any
that ever existed among a civilized people.

The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by two sons at the
funeral of their father, in the year 264 B.C. This exhibition was arranged
in one of the forums, as there were at that time no amphitheatres in
existence. From this time the public taste for this species of
entertainment grew rapidly, and by the beginning of the imperial period
had mounted into a perfect passion. It was now no longer the manes of the
dead, but the spirits of the living, that they were intended to appease.
At first the combatants were slaves, captives, or condemned criminals; but
at last knights, senators, and even women descended into the arena.
Training-schools were established at Rome, Capua, Ravenna, and other
cities. Free citizens often sold themselves to the keepers of these
seminaries; and to them flocked desperate men of all classes, and ruined
spendthrifts of the noblest patrician houses. Slaves and criminals were
encouraged to become proficient in this art by the promise of freedom if
they survived the combats beyond a certain number of years.

[Illustration: GLADIATORS. (After an old Mosaic.)]

Sometimes the gladiators fought in pairs; again great companies engaged at
once in the deadly fray. They fought in chariots, on horseback, on foot--
in all the ways that soldiers were accustomed to fight in actual battle.
The contestants were armed with lances, swords, daggers, tridents, and
every manner of weapon. Some were provided with nets and lassos, with
which they entangled their adversaries, and then slew them.

The life of a wounded gladiator was in the hands of the audience. If in
response to his appeal for mercy, which was made by outstretching the
forefinger, the spectators reached out their hands with thumbs turned
down, that indicated that his prayer had been heard and that the sword was
to be sheathed; but if they extended their hands with thumbs turned up,
that was the signal for the victor to complete his work upon his wounded
foe. Sometimes the dying were aroused and forced on to the fight by
burning with a hot iron. The dead bodies were dragged from the arena with
hooks, like the carcasses of animals, and the pools of blood soaked up
with dry sand.

These shows increased to such an extent that they entirely overshadowed
the entertainments of the circus and the theatre. Ambitious officials and
commanders arranged such spectacles in order to curry favor with the
masses; magistrates were expected to give them in connection with the
public festivals; the heads of aspiring families exhibited them "in order
to acquire social position"; wealthy citizens prepared them as an
indispensable feature of a fashionable banquet; the children caught the
spirit of their elders and imitated them in their plays. The demand for
gladiators was met by the training-schools; the managers of these hired
out bands of trained men, that travelled through the country like opera
troupes among us, and gave exhibitions in private houses or in the
provincial amphitheatres.

The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years of the
republic tended greatly to increase the number of gladiatorial shows, as
liberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure passport to popular
favor. It was reserved for the emperors, however, to exhibit them on a
truly imperial scale. Titus, upon the dedication of the Flavian
Amphitheatre, provided games, mostly gladiatorial combats, that lasted one
hundred days. Trajan celebrated his victories with shows that continued
still longer, in the progress of which 10,000 gladiators fought upon the
arena, and more than that number of wild beasts were slain. (For the
suppression of the gladiatorial games, see p. 339.)

STATE DISTRIBUTION OF CORN.--The free distribution of corn at Rome has
been characterized as the "leading fact of Roman life." It will be
recalled that this pernicious practice had its beginnings in the
legislation of Caius Gracchus (see p. 276). Just before the establishment
of the empire, over 300,000 Roman citizens were recipients of this state
bounty. In the time of the Antonines the number is asserted to have been
even larger. The corn for this enormous distribution was derived in large
part from a grain tribute exacted of the African and other corn-producing
provinces. The evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can
hardly be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices were
fostered to such a degree that we probably shall not be wrong in
enumerating the practice as one of the most prominent causes of the
demoralization of society at Rome under the emperors.

SLAVERY.--A still more demoralizing element in Roman life than that of the
state largesses of corn, was the institution of slavery. The number of
slaves in the Roman state under the later republic and the earlier empire
was probably as great or even greater than the number of freemen. The love
of ostentation led to the multiplication of offices in the households of
the wealthy, and the employment of a special slave for every different
kind of work. Thus there was the slave called the _sandalio_, whose
sole duty it was to care for his master's sandals; and another, called the
_nomenclator_, whose exclusive business it was to accompany his master
when he went upon the street, and give him the names of such persons as he
ought to recognize. The price of slaves varied from a few dollars to ten
or twenty thousand dollars,--these last figures being of course
exceptional. Greek slaves were the most valuable, as their lively
intelligence rendered them serviceable in positions calling for special
talent.

The slave class was chiefly recruited, as in Greece, by war, and by the
practice of kidnapping. Some of the outlying provinces in Asia and Africa
were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. Delinquent tax payers were
often sold as slaves, and frequently poor persons sold themselves into
servitude.

Slaves were treated better under the empire than under the later republic
(see p. 273), a change to be attributed doubtless to the softening
influence of the Stoical philosophy and of Christianity. The feeling
entertained towards this unfortunate class in the later republican period
is illustrated by Varro's classification of slaves as "vocal agricultural
implements," and again by Cato the Elder's recommendation that old and
worn-out slaves be sold, as a matter of economy. Sick and hopelessly
infirm slaves were taken to an island in the Tiber and left there to die
of starvation and exposure. In many cases, as a measure of precaution, the
slaves were forced to work in chains, and to sleep in subterranean
prisons. Their bitter hatred towards their masters, engendered by harsh
treatment, is witnessed by the well-known proverb, "As many enemies as
slaves," and by the servile revolts and wars of the republican period. But
from the first century of the empire there is observable a growing
sentiment of humanity towards the bondsman. Imperial edicts take away from
the master the right to kill his slave, or to sell him to the trader in
gladiators, or even to treat him with any undue severity. This marks the
beginning of a slow reform which in the course of ten or twelve centuries
resulted in the complete abolition of slavery in Christian Europe.

[Illustration: SARCOPHAGUS OF CORNELIUS SCIPIO BARBATUS (Consul 298
B.C.).]

PART II.

MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY.

INTRODUCTION.

DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.--As we have already noted, the fourteen
centuries since the fall of the Roman empire in the West (A.D. 476) are
usually divided into two periods,--the _Middle Ages_, or the period lying
between the fall of Rome and the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492,
and the _Modern Age_, which extends from the latter event to the present
time. The Middle Ages, again, naturally subdivide into two periods,--the
_Dark Ages_, and the _Age of Revival_; while the Modern Age also falls
into two divisions,--the _Era of the Protestant Reformation_, and the _Era
of the Political Revolution_.

CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR PERIODS.--The so-called _Dark Ages_
embrace the years intervening between the fall of Rome and the opening of
the eleventh century. The period was one of _origins_,--of the beginnings
of peoples and languages and institutions. During this time arose the
Papacy and Feudalism, the two great institutions of the Mediaeval Ages.

The _Age of Revival_ begins with the opening of the eleventh century,
and ends with the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492. During all
this time civilization was making slow but sure advances. The last century
of the period, especially, was marked by a great revival of classical
learning (known as the _Renaissance_, or New Birth), by improvements,
inventions, and discoveries, which greatly stirred men's minds, and
awakened them as from a sleep. The Crusades, or Holy Wars, were the most
remarkable undertakings of the age.

The _Era of the Reformation_ embraces the sixteenth century and the
first half of the seventeenth. The period is characterized by the great
religious movement known as the Reformation, and the tremendous struggle
between Catholicism and Protestantism. Almost all the wars of the period
were religious wars. The last great combat was the Thirty Years' War in
Germany, which was closed by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia, in 1648.
After this date the disputes and wars between parties and nations were
political rather than religious in character.

The _Era of the Political Revolution_ extends from the Peace of Westphalia
to the present time. This age is especially marked by the great conflict
between despotic and liberal principles of government, resulting in the
triumph of democratic ideas. The central event of the period is the French
Revolution.

Having now made a general survey of the ground we are to traverse, we must
return to our starting-point,--the fall of Rome.

RELATION OF THE FALL OF ROME TO WORLD-HISTORY.--The calamity which in the
fifth century befell the Roman empire in the West is sometimes represented
as having destroyed the treasures of the Old World. It was not so. All
that was really valuable in the accumulations of antiquity escaped harm,
and became sooner or later the possession of the succeeding ages. The
catastrophe simply prepared the way for the shifting of the scene of
civilization from the south to the north of Europe, simply transferred at
once political power, and gradually social and intellectual preeminence,
from one branch of the Aryan family to another,--from the Graeco-Italic to
the Teutonic.

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