only two mouths and twenty days. The prince demanded the empire as the right of his family. Probus, saluted emperor after Florian, was of obscure birth; but he possessed heroic valour; he drove from Gaul the many barbarians who had nearly overrun it. He defeated Saturninus in the ast, and Proculus and Bonosus near Cologne, usurpers of the empire, Probus was killed by his own soldiers, after having reigned with glory about six years. Aurelius Carus succeeded Probus; and soon after he had been named Augustus, he created his sons, Carinus and Numerian, Cæsars, with whom he reigned about two years. He defeated the Salmatians, and afterwards the Persians, and was killed by lightning on the banks of the Tigris. Numerian, who was with his father in the east, was assassinated in his litter. Carinus, whom his father had left in the vest, to govern Illyria, Gaul, and Italy, had, by his crimes, become the scourge of the human race. The victorious army of Persia refused to acknowledge him, and saluted Diocletian as emperor.

Diocletian was no sooner elected emperor than he marched against Carinus, and defeated him in a general battle in Mœsia. He bestowed the name of Cæsar on Maximin, surnamed Hercules, and sent him into Gaul, to quell an insurrection of the peasants, which duty he soon effectively performed. Carausius, general of part of the troops of the empire, and whom Maximin had ordered to be killed, took the purple, and possessed himself of Britain. Achilleus took possession of Egypt; and Narses used every effort to render himself master of the east. Diocletian now look for his colleague in office, Maximin Hercules, and named him Augustus; and gave the title of Cæsar to Constance and Galerus. The two emperors accommodated matters with Carausius. They defeated the Persians under Narses, and on their return to Rome, received the honour of a superb triumph. But they presently grew weary of their grandeur, and both emperors relinquishing the purple on the same day, appeared in the habit of common citizens; Diocletian at Nicomede, and Maximin at Milan. The former retired to Salona, in Dalmatia; the latter to Lucania. Diocletian was a philosopher, possessing a commanding genius. Maximin was fierce and cruel, possessing more of the courage of the soldier, than the genuis of a general. Constantius Clorus and Galerus were declared emperors by the senate. These two princes divided the empire between them. Constantius had Gaul, Italy, and Africa; Galerus, Illyria, Asia, and the east. Constantius died after a reign of about two years, with the character of a just prince.

Constantine the Great, son of Constantius, was elected emperor at York. But the soldiers of the prætorian guard, who had revolted at Rome, gave the title of Augustus to Maxentius, son of Maximin Hercules. Maximin, who now felt regret at having resigned the purple, left Lucania, and came to Rome, from whence he wrote in vain to Diocletian to re-assume the imperial throne. Galerus sent Severus to Rome, to oppose Maxentius. Severus besieged Rome, but was betrayed, and defeated; and soon after Maxentius caused him to be strangled between Rome and Capua. Maximin having in vain endeavoured to dispossess his son, Maxentius, retired into Gaul, in search of Constantine, his son-in-law, with a design to kill him. Fausta, daughter of Maximin, and wife of Constantine, being acquainted with the design of her father, informed her husband. Maximin, in order to save himself from the fury of Constantine, endeavoured to embark at Marseilles for Italy, but was killed in that city by the order of Constantine. Galerus honoured Licinius with the purple, and died soon after. The Romans at this time obeyed three emperors; Constantine, Maxentius, and Licinius. Constantine possessed talents both for war and politics; he defeated the army of Maxentius, and afterwards attacked Licinius, who had married his sister, and having defeated him in several actions both by sea and land, the vanquished Licinius surrendered at dis

cretion to the conqueror. Licinius retired to Thessalonia, where he lived in privacy and tranquility, until Constantine, hearing that he was alive, ordered him to be put to death. Constantine, now sole master of the empire, transferred the seat of government to Byzantium, which he named Constantinople. Under him Christianity began to flourish; he received baptism; but, although he was a nominal Christian, many of his qualities were repugnant to the principles of Christianity. He died near Nicomede. Constantine II., Constance, and Constantius, divided the empire between them, agreeable to the will of Constantine their father. Constantine had Spain, Gaul, and the Alps; Constance, Asia, Egypt, and the East; Constantius, Italy, Sicily, and Africa. This division was the ruin of the empire. Constantine was killed by the soldiers of his brother Constantius, who perished by treason a little time after. Constance, sole master of the empire, reigned twenty-four years. Destitute of glory, weak, and inconsistent, he was neither loved nor feared.

Julian, called by the Christians the Apostate, by others the Philosopher, was proclaimed emperor by the troops in the lifetime of Constance. This prince was just, frugal, an enemy to vain-glory and flattery, and affected to hate the name of Christian. He died a hero fighting against the Persians. Jovian, elected by the principal officers of the army, governed with wisdom, and encouraged Christianity. He reigned about eight months. Valentinian succeeded Jovian; he joined in the government his brother Valens. They divided the empire of the East and the empire of the West. Valentinian had the West, and Valens the East. Gratian ascended the imperial throne after the death of his father Valentinian. Valens, defeated by the Goths and other barbarians who were established in Thrace and menaced Constantinople, died leaving few subjects to regret his loss. Gratian appointed Theodosius governor of the East, where, by his zeal for the Christian religion, his abhorrence of its opponents, and by his courage, he rendered himself popular. Gratian being dead, and Valentinian, emperor of the West, being assassinated in the year 393, and Theodosius having vanquished Maximus and Eugenius, who had declared themselves emperors, re-united the whole empire, which he divided between his sons. After the death of Theodosius, all degenerated; and from this epoch may be dated the fall of the Romans. The decline of the Roman empire, in fact, followed the age of the Antonines. The effeminate and luxurious manners of the nobles and people of Rome; the vices of the emperors; the means by which they rose to power; the disposal of sovereignty by the military; the recruiting of the army by natives of Germany and other barbarous countries; and the increasing numbers and audacity of the "barbarians," precipitated Rome from that eminence which she had attained during the consulate and the first years of the empire.

In order to connect the present with the past, and thereby render our sketch of Roman history the more complete, we shall now make some abridged extracts from the observations of a modern tourist, M. Galiffe, of Geneva, in his work entitled "Italy and its inhabitants ;" and conclude with a slight historical notice of Papal Rome, or States of the Church. "If we were to judge of the state of society in Rome under the kingly power, from the tales which so many writers have dignified with the title of Roman history, we should find it very difficult indeed to account for the astonishing magnificence of its earliest monuments. The Cloaca Maxima, built by the elder Tarquin, is, I believe, the most stupendous work known in Europe—a work which even Egyptian kings might have adinired. The Curia Hostilia offers remains of similar architecture; walls and vaults, built with stones of such enormous size, and so closely joined, th»t they are likely enough to endure to the end of the world. From these remains alone it would be easy to show how ridiculous is the sup

position that the common people were of any consideration in the state under the kings of Rome; they were slaves, and could be nothing else It is clear that they had no votes to give, that they were never consulted, that the public resolutions were not even communicated to them, except in so far as it was necessary that they should know what duties were prescribed for their performance; in short, that they were very nearly on the same footing as the Russian peasants in our days—perhaps rather worse than better. On the other hand, I have no doubt that the aristocracy had a much higher degree of power and dignity than they are generally represented and supposed to have possessed. All those lords who were called patricians, were very nearly on a level with their chief, whom they called king. Their more immediate armed followers, very probably formed that part of the nation called populus in the general assemblies. The plebs were considered as far below the populus, which its name indeed implies—a name more expressive than polite; but politeness to that portion of the inhabitants of Rome was then quite out of the question.

"It was not till very long after the expulsion of the kings, that the plebeians began to feel that they were human beings, and that the distance at which they were kept by their lords began to wound their feelings. And it is probable, that they would never have dared to make the least attempt to raise themselves above the condition of their masters' cattle, if their services in war had not, by slow degrees, opened their eyes to their disgraceful situation. In time of peace they had either no leisure to make, or no means to circulate, observations of this nature; but in camps, where the clients of different patrons were necessarily often lodged together, and were led to compare their respective leaders, to talk of their deeds, and discuss their private as well as public conduct, they could not fail, sooner or later, to make serious reflections on the extreme difference which existed between themselves and their masters; a difference not to be sufficiently accounted for by any disparity of natural means; notwithstanding that the habit of command on the one side, and that of blind obedience and low obsequiousness on the other, might have established a perceptible, and even a striking diversity of features as well as of temper between them. That diversity, besides, must have gradually diminished, as every succeeding war augmented the consequence, and at the same time enlarged the feelings and the understandings, of the lower classes.

"When the plebeians had achieved a complete equality of rights with the patricians, the progress of the Roman republic towards universal dominion became, from the mere nature of things, excessively rapid. Though we may not be able to ascertain that the first plebeian who was made consul did anything in particular to prove himself deserving of that distinction, we may be pretty sure that none were raised to the dignity but men capable of illustrating their name by their deeds—at least in the earlier times; afterwards, indeed, it was grown into a custom, and the election of a plebeian consul had ceased to be a party-stroke. On the other hand, the patricians were deeply interested in rivalling and excelling their plebeian colleagues; so that this double motive of action gave prodigious strength to the government, and such an impetus to the who!< nation, that none of the radical defects of its constitution could impede its progress through a long series of conquests. But those defects stuck closely to it, though concealed by the very triumphs which seemed to disprove their existence; and they penetrated into its core, and gnawe its vital parts, while its outward appearance inspired terror even in the na tions among whom it had not yet carried destruction.

"The religion of the first Romans seems to have been more simple and more serious that that of other heathen nations. They were strangers to that immense multitude of gods, which the over-luxuriant imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics had created. Their gods were

tew in number; and as they were believed to be virtuous and severe, they were accordingly respected and feared. Religious fear too frequently produces superstition; the Romans were extremely superstitious. But if the excess of their credulity made them attach a high degree of impor tance to ceremonies, which certainly were infinitely more absurd than even the most extravagant practices of the most superstitious sects of Christians, the perfect sincerity of belief which animated every class, gave them a moral strength which has never been sufficiently appreciated. Let it be remembered, that in those early times their priests were not a stipendiary class; they were the chiefs who led the people to war, and who maintained them in peace; without whose permission and interference nothing material could be done; and who introduced some particular religious rites into every action of life. This mixture of civil and ecelesiastical power in the chief of every noble family, over his children and clients, forined such a bond of union between them, that no external influence could have broken it; and even long after the plebeians had acquired a rank in society, and a considerable degree of influence in the state, they hardly dared to think that those religious rites could be performed by any but an hereditary patrician. As soon as they began to discover that they could perform them with equal efficacy themselves, their deep respect for religion received a wound from which it never recovered. All the divinities of the conquered countries, however immoral and impure, were freely admitted and adopted; and they completely changed the nature as well as the form of public and private worship. The great men began to be as free in their speeches on the subject, as the same class in France affected to be during the last two reigns of the Bourbons. Indifference and incredulity glided down from the higher to the lower classes; and that Rome which conquered Carthage, had long ceased to to exist, when Cæsar made himself master of its corpse. The winding-sheet was indeed more brilliant than any imperial robe, and seemed an object well worthy of his ambition.

"The luxury of the Romans was gradually carried to so extravagant a pitch, that the wise and the thinking even of their own nation were shocked at, and condemned it; but idle declamations can do no good in such cases. Many of those who were accounted the most virtuous and best citizens, were infected with this disorder, and delighted in it hardly less than the worst. But it does not appear that it was a part of their luxury to employ their riches in raising splendid edifices, for the astonishment of posterity. Posterity was nothing to them; present enjoyment was their only care. They levelled mountains, they digged or filled up lakes, they sent to the extremities of the earth for every delicacy of the table for which each country was renowned; they filled a great number of elegant villas with the most costly furniture, they kept an immense number of servants and slaves, and thus they squandered thousands of millions, of which hardly any trace remains except the names of the places from whence they dated elegant, philosophical epistles to their friends! The whole space beyond the Capitol is full of ruins; and those ruins are the more interesting, as the names of but very few of them are known. The form as well as the height of the hills, has been changed by the immense heaps of ruins which were thrown down in the lower parts of the town, and which in many places rose up to the level of those buildings which towered above them before. Houses have been built in places where none existed in ancient times; just because those places happened to be less encumbered with ruins, and because the ground was more solid. Trees have been planted on the top of the rubbish which filled up some streets, more particularly the Forum Romanum. But Rome, as it is, offers abundance to occupy the leisure hours of a man of taste for The Colosseum alone, so vast, so grand (notwithstanding defects

years.

in its architecture) is so uncommonly picturesque in many points of view, that it well deserves to be visited. Nor is it necessary to admire the Romans of former times, and to hate their present governors, in order to take a lively interest in this magnificent fragment of antiquity. There are twelve obelisks in Rome: and five grand pillars, the two finest of which are those called the columns of Trajan and Antonine. The first gives its name to a square, the middle of which has been excavated as low down as the level of the ancient place, which is, if I remember well, about tight or ten feet lower than that of the buildings around. The other stands in the middle of the Piazzo Colonna; there is a staircase within it, as in the London monument. The general appearance of these columns is very agreeable as well as grand, and they are noble decorations to a squire. The Capitol is so very different from what it was in ancient times, that it affords but little satisfaction at first sight; it is, however, far from being so insignificant as some would have it to be, and it grows more interesting on a nearer examination. What people call the Capitol at present, was only the Intermontium of ancient Rome, a sort of midway hill, which joined the Tarpeian rock to the real Capitoline Mount. The ratter is extremely high, as one may easily perceive from the church of Ara Cœli on its top. The Tarpeian rock is lower, but yet muite lofty enough for its known destination. It must be observed that the Romans were far from posssessing any well-founded pretensions to elegance; they imitated the Greeks as closely as they could, without ever attaining to their pitch of excellence. They thought there could never be too much of a good or a fine thing; and they crowded temples, houses, statues, obelisks, and every sort of ornament, in a manner that mast have teemed absurd to a person of taste. The Roman arms conquered the territory of Greece, but the Grecian accomplishments subdued the Romans themselves; and the latter victory was more glorious than the former, which was only the inevitable consequence of a disproportion of mere physical force between the combatants."

PAPAL ROME, OR STATES OF THE CHURCH.

The name of Pope, or Father, was formerly given to all bishops. But since the time of Gregory VII. it has been solely applied to the bishop of Rome. The temporal grandeur of the Roman pontiff commenced in times very remote, Constantine gave to the church of Lateran upwards of one thousand marks in gold, and about thirty thousand marks in silver, besides the assignment of rents. The Popes, charged with sending missionaries to the east and west, and with providing for the poor, obtained for these pious purposes, from the richer Christians without much trouble, considerable sums. The emperors, and the kings of the Lombards, gave to the Holy Father lands in various parts; and many others, by gift, and by will, increased his patrimony. In the seventh century we find the pontiff possessed of great riches in various countries, and exempted from tax or tribute. The Popes formed the design to render themselves independent. Under the reign of Pepin, father of Charlemagne, this revolution commenced; and it was completed under that of his son. Adrian I. caused money to be coined with his name; and the custom f kissing the feet of the Pope began about the close of the eighth century, when they assumed regal rights, and their power and riches increased rapidly. Gregory IV. rebuilt the port of Ostia; and Leo IV. fortified Rome at his own expense.

The election of Pope has been different in the different ages of the church. The people, and the clergy, were the first electors; and the emperor had the power of confirming the election, after the death of Pope Simplicius, in 483. Odoacer, king of the Heruli, and of Italy, made a