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YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY

ROME

BY
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE,

A.UTHOE OF "The Heir of Eedclyffe,'' "Little Lucy's

Wonderful Globe," " Book of Golden Deeds,"

"Young Folks' History of Germany,"

"Greece," "France," "England,"

&c.

«^^C>:^i{^"X£V^^^^-»

BOSTON:
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY,

FRANKLIN ST., CORNER OF HAWLKY.

EDUa

DEPT.

•••••♦.•.•.• tit" , •', ,•

D. LoTHROP & Company.

1878.

eoUCATION D£PT

Press-work by Rockwell ib ChurchilL

PREFACE

-«♦♦-

T^HIS sketch of the History of Rome covers
the period till the reign of Charles the Great
as head of the new Western Empire. The history
has been given as briefly as could be done consist-
ently with such details as can alone make it inter-
esting to all classes of readers.

CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.

961675

CONTENTS

«HAP. PAG*.

1.— Italy 13

2.— The Wanderings of iEneas 21

3.— The Founding of Kome. B.C. 753—713 ... 31

4.— Nuraa and Tullus. B.C. 713— 618 .... 39

5._The Driving Out of the Tarquins. B.C. 578—309 . 47

6.— The War with Porseiia 55

7. — The Koman Government 66

8.— Menenius Agrippa's Fable. B.C. 494 ... 74

9. — Coriolanus and Cincinnatus. B.C. 458 ... 84

10.— The Decemvirs. B.C. 450 . . . . . 92

11. — Camillus' Banishment ...... 101

12.— The Sack of Rome. B.C. 390 .... 110

13.— The Plebeian Consulate. B.C. 367 .... 119

(Y.)

vi. Contents,

CHAP. FAGK.

14.— The Devotion of Decius. B.C. 357 ... 127

15.— The Samnite Wars 135

16.— The War with Pyrrhus. 280—271 ... 144

17.— The First Punic War. 264—240 . . . .151
18.— Conquest of Cisalpine Gaul. 240—219 . '. 163

19.— The Second Pnnic War. 219 172

20. The First Eastern War. 215—183 ... 181

21. — ^The Conquest of Greece, Corinth, and Carthage.

179—145 ........ 188

22.— The Gracchi. 137—122 . . . c . 195

23.— The Wars of Marius. 106—98 . . . .203

24.— The Adventures of Marius. 93—84 ... 212

25.— Sulla's Proscription. 88—71 220

26.— The Career of Pompeius. 70—63 . , . . 229

27.— Pompeius and Csesar. 01—48 242

28.— Julius Csesar. 48—44 252

29.— The Second Triumvirate. 44—88 . . . .263
30. — Caesar Augustus. B.C. 33 — a,d. 14 . . . 273
31.— Tiberius and Caligula, a.d. 14—41 . . ,285

32.— Claudius and Nero. a.d. 41—68 ... 297
33.— The Flavian Family. 62—90 . . . , . 305
34.— The Age of the Antonines. 96—194 . * . . 317
35.— The Praetorian Influence. 197—284 . . .326

36.— The Division of the Empire. 284—312 . . 337
37.— Constantine the Great. 312—337 ... 345

38.— Constantius. 337—364 355

#19.— Valentinian and his Family. 364—392. . . » 364

Contents, vii.

CHAP. PAGE.

40.— Theodosius the Great. 392—395 . . , . 374

41.— Alaric the Goth. 395—410 . . . . , 383

42.— The Yandals. 403 ...... . 394

43.— Attila the Hun. 435—457 404

44.— .Theodoric the Ostrogoth. 457—561 ... 416

45.— Belisarius. 533—503 ....... 425

40.— Pope Gregory the Great. 563—800 ... 434

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Pope's Doortender. {Frotdispiece.) PAoa

The Tiber ....... 14

Curious Pottery ...... 15

Jupiter ....... 17

The Coast ...... 23

Mount Etna . . . . . , .25

Carthage ....... 28

Roman Soldier . ..... 30

Gladiatorial Shows at a Banquet ... 34

The Forum . . . . . . .37

Janus ....... 41

Actors ........ 45

Sybil's Cave ...... 50

Brutus condemning his sons . . , .57

Roman Ensigns, Standards, Trumpets etc . . 63

Head of Jupiter . . .... 68

Female Costumes . . . . . 70

Female Costumes . . . . , .71

Senatorial Palace . . . , .79

(viii.)

List of Illustrations. ix

PAGE.

View of a Roman Harbor . . . . .81

Roman Camp ...... 87

Ploughing . . . . e . .89

Death of Virginia . ... . . 95

Chariot Races .... . . . 98

Arrow Machine . . . • . . 102

Siege Machine .... . 105

Ruins of tlie Forum at Rome. . . . Ill

Entry of the Forum R,)maiuim by the Via Sacra . 117

Costumes . . . . . . . . 120

Costume ...... . 121

Curtius leaping into the Gulf . . . . . 125

The Apennines . . . . . . . 129

Combat between a Mirmillo and a Samnite . . 137

Combat between a light armed Gladiator and a Samnile 137

Ancient Rome . . . . . . . 141

Pyrrhus . . . . . . 145

Roman Orator ....... 147

Roman Ship . . . . . . 153

Roman Order of Battle . . . . . .159

The wounded Gaul ..... 165

Hannibal's Vow 168

In the Pyrenees . ..... 170

Meeting of Hannibal and Seipio at Zama . . . 173

Archimedes . . . . . . 178

Hannibal ...... .184

Corinth ....... 190

List of Illustrations.

PAGB.

Cornelia and her Sons . , . « , 196

Eoman Centuiion ..... 201

Marius ....... 205

One of the Trophies, called of Marius, at the Capitol at

Rome . . . . . . .207

The Catapult ...... 215

Island on the Coast . . . . . . 217

Palazzo Yecchio, Florence .... 223

Cornelius Sulla ...... 2^5

Coast of^Tyre ...... 231

Mountains of Armenia ..... 235

Cicero ....... 238

Colossal Statue of Pompeius of the Palazzo Spada of

Rome ...... 239

Pompeius ....... 243

Amphitheatre ...... 246

The Arena ....... 247

Julius Cassar ...... 253

Cato ........ 254

Funeral Solemnities in the Columbarium of the House

of Julius Csesar at the Porta Capena in Rome . 255

Marcus Antonius ..... 265

Marcus Brutus .... . . 268

Alexandria. ...... 270

Caius Octavius ...... 272

Statue of Augustus at the Vatican . . . 275

Paintings in the House of Livia . . . . 281

List of Illustrations.

XI,

Ruins of the Palaces of Tiberius

Agrippina . . . . ,

Rome in the time of Augustus Caesar .

Claudius . . . . ,

Nero ' .

Arch of Titus ....

Vesuvius previous to the Eruption of A.D. G3

Persecution of the Christians

Coin of Nero . . . .

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

Marcus Aurelius ....

Septimus Severus . . .

Antioch .....

Alexander Severus ....

Temple of the Sun at Palmyra .

The Catacombs at Rome

Coin of Severus .

Diocletian .....

Diocletian in Retirement

Constantine the Great

Constantinople ....

Council of Nicea ....

Catacombs . - .

Julian .....
Arch of Constantine . . .

Alexandria . _ .

Goths . . . , ,

PAGE.

287

290

293

298

301

J>08

311

314

316

319

325

327

328

329

332

. 333
336

. 338
341

. 343
347

. 349
352

. 357
361

. 365
367

xii. List of Illustrations,

PAGE.

Convent on the Hills . . . . . .372

Julian Alps. . . .... 375

Roman Hall of Justice ..... 377

Colonnades of St. Peter at Eome . . 385

Alaric's Burial . . . , , . 391

Roman Clock ...... 396

Spanish Coast . . . . * . , . 398

Vandals plundering ..... 401

Pyramids and Sphynx, Egypt .... 403

Hunnish Camp ...... 405

St. Mark's, Venice . . . . . .409

The Pope's House ..... 413

Romulus Augustus resigns the Crown . . 419

Illustration ....... 423

Naples ........ 427

Constantinople. ...... 429

Pope Gregory the Great . ... 435

The Pope's Pulpit . ... 437

Battle ^f Tours . , , . . .443

YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF EOME,

CHAPTER I.

ITALY.

I AM going to tell you next about the most
famous nation in the world. Going westward
from Greece another peninsula stretches down into
the Mediterranean. The Apennine Mountains run
like a limb stretching out of the Alps to the south
eastward, and on them seems formed that land,
shaped somewhat like a leg, which is called Italy.
Round the streams that flowed down from these
hills, valleys of fertile soil formed themselves, and
a great many different tribes and people took up
their abode there, before there was any history to

explain their coming. Putting together what can
13

Yoy^ng Folks' History of Rome

be proyed^ ^-boiit ttetp, Jt is,j)lain, however, that
most of them cal^ici of that bid stock from which the
Greeks descended, and to which we belong our-
selves, and they spoke a language which had the
same root as ours and as the Greek. From one of
these nations the best known form of this, as it was

THE TIBER.

polished in later times, was called Latin, from the
tribe who spoke it.

About the middle of the peninsula there runs
down, westward from the Apennines, a river called
the Tiber, flowing rapidly between seven low hills,
which recede as it approaches the sea. One, in
esDecial, called the Palatine Hill, rose separately,

Italy,

with a flat top and steep sides, about four hundred
yards from the river, and girdled in by the other
six. This was the place where the great Roman
power grew up from beginnings, the truth of which
cannot now be discovered.

There were several nations living round these
hills — the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins being
the chief. The homes of these nations seem to
^ve been in the valleys round the spurs of the

CUKIOUS POTTEilV.

Apennines, where they had farms and fed their
flocks ; but above them was always the hill which
they had fortified as strongly as possible, and where
they took refuge if their enemies attacked them.
The Etruscans built very mighty walls, and also
managed the drainage of their cities wonderfully
well. Many of their works remain to this day, and,
in especial, their monuments have been opened,

16 Young Folks' History of Rome,

and the tomb of each chief has been found, adorned
with figures of himself, half lying, half sitting ; also
curious pottery in red and black, from which some-«
thing of their lives and ways is to be made out.
They spoke a different language from what haa
become Latin, and they had a different religion,
believing in one great Soul of the World, and also
thinking much of rewards and punishments after
death. But we know hardly anything about them,
except that their chiefs were called Lucumos, and
that they once had a wide power which they had
lost before the time of history. The Romans called
them Tusci, and Tuscany still keeps its name.

The Latins and the Sabines were more alike, and
also more like the Greeks. There were a great
many settlements of Greeks in the southern parts
of Italy, and they learnt something from them.
They had a great many gods. Every house had
its own guardian. These were called Lares, or
Penates, and were generally represented as little
figures of dogs lying by the hearth, or as brass
bars with dogs' heads. This is the reason that the
bars which close in an open hearth are still called
dogs. Whenever there was a meal in the house
the master began by pouring out wine to the
Lares, and also to his own ancestors, of whom he

Italy.

kept figures ; for these natives thought much of
their families, and all one family had the same
name, like our surname, such as TuUius or Appius,
the daughters only changing it by making it end

in a instead of us^ and the men having separate
names standing first, such as Marcus or Lucius,
though their sisters were only numbered to dis'
tinguish them.

18 Young Folks^ History of Rome.

Each city had a guardian spirit, each stream its
nymph, each wood its faun ; also there were gods
to whom the boundary stones of estates were
dedicated. There was a goddess of fruits called
Pomona, and a god of fruits named Yertumnus.
In their names the fields and the crops were sol-
emnly blest, and all were sacred to Saturn. He,
according to the old legends, had first taught hus-
bandry, and when he reigned in Italy there was a
golden age, when every one had his own field,
lived by his own handiwork, and kept no slaves.
There was a feast in honor of this time every year
called the Saturnalia, when for a few days the
slaves were all allowed to act as if they were free,
and have all kinds of wild sports and merriment.
Afterwards, when Greek learning came in, Saturn
was mixed up with the Greek Kronos, or Time,
who devours his offspring, and the reaping-hook
his figures used to carry for harvest became Time's
scythe. The sky-god, Zeus or Deus Pater (or
father), was shortened into Jupiter ; Juno was his
\\ife, and Mars was god of war, and in Greek
times was supposed to be the same as Ares ; Pallas
Athene was joined with the Latin Minerva ; Hestia,
the goddess of the hearth, was called Vesta ; and,
in truth, we talk of the Greek gods by their Latin

Italy. 19

names. The pld Greek tales were not known to
the Latins in their first times, but only afterwards
learnt from the Greeks. They seem to have
thought of their gods as graver, higher beings,
further off, and less capricious and fanciful than the
legends about the weather had made them seem to
the Greeks. Indeed, these Latins were a harder,
tougher, graver, fiercer, more business-like race al-
together than the Greeks ; not so clever, thought-
ful, or poetical, but with more of what we should
now call sterling stuff in them.

At least so it was with that great nation which
spoke their language, and seems to have been an
offshoot from them. Rome, the name of which is
said to mean the famous, is thought to have been
at first a cluster of little villages, with forts to pro-
tect them on the hills, and temples in the forts.
Jupiter had a temple on the Capitoline Hill, with
cells for his worship, and that of Juno and Minerva ;
and the two-faced Janus, the god of gates, had his
upon the Janicular Hill. Besides these, there were
the Palatine, the Esquiline, the Aventine, the
Caelian, and the Quirinal. The people of these vil-
lages called themselves Quirites, or spearmen,
when they formed themselves into an army and
made war on their neighbors, the Sabines and

20 Young Folks' History of Rome,

Latins, and by-and-by built a wall enclosing all the
seven hills, and with a strip of ground within, free
from houses, where sacrifices were offered and
omens sought for.

The history of these people was not written till
long after they had grown to be a mighty and ter-
rible power, and had also picked up many Greek
notions. Then they seem to have made their his-
tory backwards, and worked up their old stories
and songs to explain the names and customs they
found among them, and the tales they told were
formed into a great history by one Titus Livius.
It is needful to knou' these stories which every
one used to believe to be really history ; so we will
tell them firr.t, beginning, however, with a story
told by the poet Virgil.

CHAPTER II.

THE WANDERINGS OF ^NEAS.

YOU remember in the Greek history the burn-
ing of Troy, and how Priam and all his
family were cut off. Among the Trojans there
was a prince called ^neas, whose father was An-
chises, a cousin of Priam, and his mother was' said
to be the goddess Venus. When he saw that the
city was lost, he rushed back to his house, and
took his old father vAnchises on his back, giving
him his Penates, or little images of household gods,
to take care of, and led by the hand his little son
lulus, or Ascanius, while his wife Creusa followed
close behind, and all the Trojans who could get
their arms together joined him, so that they es-
caped in a body to Mount Ida ; but just as they
were outside the city he missed poor Creusa, and

though he rushed back and searched for her every-
21

22 Young Folks'^ Sistory of Rome,

where, he never could find her. For the sake of
his care for his gods, and for his old father, he is
alwaj^s known as the pious ^neas.

In the forests of Mount Ida he built ships enough
to set forth with all his followers in quest of the
new home which his mother, the goddess Yenus,
gave him hopes of. He had adventures rather
like those of Ulysses as he sailed about the Medi-
terranean. Once in the Strophades, some. clusters
belonging to the Ionian Islands, when he and his
troops had landed to get food, and were eating the
flesh of the numerous goats which they found
climbing about the rocks, down on them came the
harpies, horrible birds with women's faces and
hooked hands, with which they snatched away the
food and spoiled what they could not eat. The
Trojans shot at them, but the arrows glanced off
their feathers and did not hurt them. However,
they all flew off except one, who sat on a high
rock, and croaked out that the Trojans would be
punished for thus molesting the harpies by being
tossed about till they should reach Italy, but there
they should not build their city till they should
have been so hungry as to eat their very trenchers.

They sailed away from this dismal prophetess,
and touched on the coast of Epirus, where jEneas

The Wanderings of u^neas.

found his cousin Helenus, son to old Priam, reign-
ing over a little new Troy, and married to Andro-
mache, Hector's wife, whom he had gained after
Pyrrhus had been killed. Helenus was a prophet,

THK COAST.

and gave ^neas much advice. In especial he i^aid
that when the Trojans should come to Italy, they
tvould find, under the holly-trees by the river side,
A large white old sow lying on the ground, with a
litter of thirty little pigs round her, and this should

24 Young Folks' History of Home.

be a sign to them where they were to build their
city.

By his advice the Trojans coasted round the
south of Sicily, instead of trying to pass the strait
between the dreadful Scylla and Charybdis, and
just below Mount Etna an unfortunate man came
running down to the beach begging to be taken in.
He was a Greek, who had been left behind when
Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus' cave, and had
made his way to the forests, where he had lived
ever since. They had just taken him in when
the}^ saw Cyclops coming down, with a pine tree
for a staff, to wash the burning hollow of his lost
eye in the sea, and they rowed off in great terror.

Poor old Anchises died shortly after, and while
his son was still sorrowing for him, Juno, who
hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible tempest,
which drove the ships to the south, until, just as
the sea began to calm down, they came into a beau-
tiful bay, enclosed by tall cliffs with woods over-
hanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed,
and, lighting a fire, ^neas went in quest of food.
Coming out of the forest, they looked down from
a hill, and beheld a multitude of people building a
city, raising walls, houses, towers, and temples.
Into one of these temples ^neas entered, and tor-

The Wanderings of ^neas. 27

his amazement he found the walls sculptured with
all the story of the siege of Troy, and all his
friends so perfectly represented, that he burst into
tears at the sight.

Just then a beautiful queen, attended by a whol?
troop of nymphs, came into the temple. This lady
was Dido ; her husband, Sichseus, had been king of
Tyre, till he was murdered by his brother Pygma-
lion, who meant to have married her, but she fled
from him with a band of faithful Tyrians and all
her husband's treasure, and had landed on the
north coast of Africa. There she begged of the
chief of the country as much land as could be en-
closed by a bullock's hide. He granted this read-
ily ; and Dido, cutting the hide into the finest pos-
sible strips, managed to measure off with it ground
enough to build the splendid city which she had
named Carthage. She received ^neas most kind-
ly, and took all his men into her city, hoping to
keep them there for ever, and make him her hus-
band. JEneas himself was so happy there, that he
forgot all his plans and the prophecies he had
heard, until Jupiter sent Mercury to rouse him to
fulfil his destiny. He obeyed the call ; and Dido
was so wretched at his departure that she caused a
great funeral pile to be built, laid herself on the

Young Folks' History of Home,

top, and stabbed herself with Eneas' sword ; the
pile was burnt, and the Trojan's saw the flame from
their ships without knowing the cause.

By-and-by -^neas landed at a place in Italy
named Cumse. There dwelt one of the Sybils.

CABTHAGE.

These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had
endowed with deep wisdom; and when ^neas
went to consult the Cumsean Sybil, she told him
that he must visit the under-world of Pluto to
learn his fate. First, however, he had to go into
a forest, and find there and gather a golden bough,
which he was to bear in his hand to keep him safe.

The Wanderings of ^rieas. 29

Long he sought it, until two doves, his mother's
birds, came flying before him to show him the tree
where gold gleamed through the boughs, and he
found the branch growing on the tree as mistletoe
grows on the thorn.

Guarded with this, and guided by the Sybil,
after a great sacrifice, ^neas passed into a gloomy
cave, where he came to the river Styx, round which
flitted all the shades who had never received fu-
neral rites, and whom the ferryman, Charon, would
not carry over. The Sybil, however, made him
take JEneas across, his boat groaning under the
weight of a human body. On the other side stood
Cerberus, but the Sybil threw him a cake of honey
and of some opiate, and he lay asleep, while JEneas
passed on and found in myrtle groves all who had
died for love, among them, to his surprise, poor
forsaken Dido. A little further on he found the
home of the warriors, and held converse with his
old Trojan friends. He passed by the place of
doom for the wicked, Tartarus ; and in the Elysian
fields, full of laurel groves and meads of asphodel,
he found the spirit of his father Anchises, and with
him was allowed to see the souls of all their de-
scendants, as yet unborn, who should raise the
glory of their name. They are described on to the

30 Young FolM History of Rome,

very time when the poet wrote to whom we owe
all the tale of the wanderings of ^Eneas, namel}^
Virgil, who wrote the u^neld, whence all these
stories are taken. He farther tells us that ^neas
landed in Italy just as his old nurse Caieta died, at
the place which is still called Gaeta. After they
had buried her, they found a grove, where they
sat down on the grass to eat, using large round
3akes or biscuits to put their meat on. Presently
they came to eating up the cakes. Little Ascanius
cried out, " We are eating our very tables ; " and
jEneas, remembering the harpy's words, knew that
his wanderings were over.

BOMAK SOLDIER.

CHAPTER III.

THE FOUNDING OF KOME.

B.C. 753—713.

VIRGIL goes on to tell at much length how
the king of the country, Latinus, at first
made friends with iEneas, and promised him his
daughter Lavinia in marriage ; but Turnus, an
Italian chief who had before been a suitor to La-
vinia, stirred up a great war, and was only cap-
tured and killed after much hard fighting. How-
ever, the white sow was found in the right place
with all her little pigs, and on the spot was founded
the city of Alba Longa, where ^neas and Lavinia
reigned until he died, and his descenda-nts, through
his two sons, Ascanius or lulus, and JEneas Silvius,
reigned after him for fifteen generations.

The last of these fifteen was Amulius, who took

the throne from his brother Numitor, wlio had a
31

32 Young Folks'^ History of Rome.

daughter named Rhea Silvia, a Vestal virgin.
In Greece, the sacred fire of th6 goddess Vesta
was tended by good men, but in Italy it was the
charge of maidens, who were treated with great
honor, but were never allowed to marry under pain
of death. So there was great anger when Rhea
Silvia became the mother of twin boj^s, and, more-
over, said that her husband was the god Mars.
But Mars did not save her from being buried alive,
while the two babes were put in a trough on the
waters of the river Tiber, there to perish. The
river had overflowed its banks, and left the chil-
dren on dry ground, where, however, they were
found by a she-wolf, who fondled and fed them
/ike her own offspring, until a shepherd met with
them and took them home to his wife. She called
them Romulus and Remus, and bred them up as
shepherds.

When the twin brothers were growing into man-
hood, there was a fight between the shepherds of
Numitor and Amulius, in which Romulus and
Remus did such brave feats that they were led be-
fore Numitor. He enquired into their birth, and
their foster-father told the story of his finding
them, showing the trough in which they had been
laid ; and thus it became plain that they were the

The Founding of Rome, 33

grandsons of Numitor. On finding this out, they
collected an army, with which they drove away
Amulius, and brought their grandfather back to
Alba Longa."

They then resolved to build a new city for them-
selves on one of the seven low hills beneath which
ran the yellow river Tiber ; but they were not
agreed on which hill to build, Remus wanting to
build on the Aventine Hill, and Romulus on the
Palatine. Their grandfather advised them to
watch for omens from the 'gods, so each stood on
his hill and watched for birds. Remus was the
first to see six vultures flying, but Romulus saw
twelve, and therefore the Palatine Hill was made
the beginning of the city, and Romulus was chosen
king. Remus was affronted, and when the mud
wall was being raised around the space intended
for the city, he leapt over it and laughed, where-
upon Romulus struck him dead, crying out, " So
perish all who leap over the walls of my city."

Romulus traced out the form of the city with
the plough, and made it almost a square. He
called the name of it Rome, and lived in the
midst of it in a mud hovel, covered with thatch, in
the midst of about fifty families of the old Trojan
race, and a great many young men, outlaws and

Young Folks' History of Rome,

runaways from the neighboring states, who had
joined him. The date of the building of Rome
was supposed to be 4.e[. 753 ; and the Romans
counted their years from it, as the Greeks did from
the Olympiads, marking the date A.u.c., an7io urbis
conditce, the year of the city being built. The

GLADIATORIAL SHOWS AT A BANQUET.

youths who joined Romulus could not marry, as no
one of the neighboring nations would give his
daughter to one of these robbers, as they were es-
teemed. The nearest neighbors to Rome were the
Sabines, and the Romans cast their eyes in vain on
the Sabine ladies, till old Nmiiitor advised Romulus

The Founding of Rome, 35

to proclaim a great feast in honor of Neptune,
with games and dances. All the people in the
country round came to it, and when the revelry
was at its height each of the unwedded Romans
seized on a Sabine maiden and carried her away to
his own house. Six hundred and eighty-three girls
were thus seized, and the next day Romulus mar-
ried them all after the fashion ever after observed
in Rome. There was a great sacrifice, then each
damsel was told, " Partake of your husband's fire
and water ; " he gave her a ring, and carried her
over his threshhold, where a sheepskin was spread,
to show that her duty would be to spin avooI for
him, and she became his wife.

Romulus himself won his own wife, Hersilia,
among the Sabines on this occasion ; but the nation
of course took up arms, under their king Tatius, to
recover their daughters. Romulus drew out his
troops into Campus Martius, or field of Mars, just
beneath the Capitol, or great fort on the Saturnian
Hill, and marched against the Sabines ; but while
he was absent, Tarpeia, the daughter of the gover-
nor of the little fort he had left on the Saturnian
Hill, promised to let the Sabines in on condition
they would give her what they wore on their left
arms, meaning their bracelets ; but they hated her

36 Young Folks' History of Rome.

treason even while they took advantage of it, and
no sooner were they within the gate than they
pelted her with their heavy shields, which they
wore on their left arms, and killed her. The cliff
on the top of which she died is still called the Tar-
peian rock, and criminals were executed by being
thrown from the top of it. Romulus tried to regain
the Capitol, but the Sabines rolled down stones on
the Romans, and he was stunned by one that struck
him on the head ; and though he quickly recovered
and rallied his men, the battle was going against
him, when all the Sabine women, who had been
nearly two years Roman wives, came rushing out,
with their little children in their arms and their hair
flying, begging their fathers and husbands not to
kill one another. This led to the making of a
peace, and it was agreed that the Sabines and
Romans should make but one nation, and that
Romulus and Tatius should reign together at Rome.
Romulus lived on the Palatine Hill, Tatius on the
Tarpeian, and the valley between was called the
Forum, and was the market-place, and also the spot
where all public assemblies were held. All the
chief arrangements for war and government were
believed by the Romans to have been laws of
Romulus. However, after five years, Tatius was

The Founding of Rome*

murdered at a place called Lavinium, in the middle
of a sacrifice, and Romulus reigned alone till in the
middle of a great assembly of his soldiers outside
the city, a storm of thunder and lightning came on,
and every one hurried home, but the king was
n^ rhere to be found ; for, as some say, his father

THE fortjm:.

Mars had come down in the tempest and carried
him away to reign with the gods, while others de-
clared that he was murdered by persons, each of
whom carried home a fragment of his body that it
might never be found. It matters less which way
we tell it, since the story of Romulus was quite as

38 Young Folhs' History of Rome,

much a fable as that of JEneas ; only it must be
remembered as the Romans themselves believed it.
They worshipped Romulus under the name of
Quirinus, and called their chief families Quirites,
both words coming from ger (a spear) ; and the
she-wolf and twins were the favorite badge of the
empire. The Capitoline Hill, the Palatine, and the
Forum all still bear the same names.

CHAPTER IV.

NUMA AND TULLUS.

B.C. 713—618.

IT was understood between the Romans and the
Sabines that they should have by turns a king
from each nation, and, on the disappearance of
Romulus, a Sabine was chosen, named Numa Pom-
pilius, who had been married to Tatia, the daughter
of the Sabine king Tatius, but she was dead, and
had left one daughter. Numa had, ever since her
death, been going about from one grove or fountain
sacred to the gods to another offering up sacrifices,
and he was much beloved for his gentleness and
wisdom. There was a grove near Rome, in a val-
ley, where a fountain gushed forth from the rock ;
and here Egeria, the nymph of the stream, in the
shade of the trees, counselled Numa on his govern-

40 Young Folks' History of Rome.

ment, which was so wise that lie lived at peace
with all his neighbors. When the Romans doubted
whether it Avas really a goddess who inspired him,
Egeria convinced them, for the next time he had
any guests in his house, the earthenware plates
with homely fare on them were changed before
their eyes into golden dishes with dainty food.
Moreover, there was brought from heaven a bronze
shield, which was to be carefully kept, since Rome
would never fall while it was safe. Numa had
eleven other sliields like it made and hung in the
temple of Mars, and, yearly, a set of men dedicated
to the office bore them through the city with songs
and dances. Just as all warlike customs were said
to have been invented by Romulus, all peaceful and
religious ones were held to have sprung from
Numa and his Egeria. He was said to have fixed
the calendar and invented the names of the months,
and to have built an altar to Good Faith to teach
the Romans to kee[) their word to one another and
to all nations, and to have dedicated the bounds of
each estate to the Dii Termini, or Landmark Gods,
in whose honor there was a feast yearly. He also
was said to have had such power with Jupiter as to
have persuaded him to be content without receiving
sacrifices of men and women. In short, all the

I^ama and Tullus.

better things in the Roman system were supposed
to be due to the gentle Numa.

At the gate called Janiculum stood a temple to
the watchman god, Janus, whose figure had two
faces, and held the keys, and after whom was
named the month January. His temple was al-
ways open in time of war, and closed in time of
peace. Numa's reign was counted as the first out
of only three times in
Roman history that it
^ was shut.

Numa was said to
have reigned thirty-eight
yeai's, and then he grad-
•ually faded away, and
was buried in a stone
coffin outside the Janic-
uVay gate, all the books
he had written being,
by his desire, buried janus.

with him. Egeria wept till she became a fountain
in her own valley; and so ended what in Roman
faith answered to the golden age of Greece.

The next king was of Roman birth, and was
named Tullus Hostilius. He was a great warrior,
and had a war with the Albans until it was agreed

42 Young Folks' History of Rome.

that the two cities should join together in one, as
the Romans and Sabines had done before ; but
there was a dispute which should be the greater
city in the league, and it was determined to settle
it by a combat. In each city there was a family
where three sons had been born at a birth, and
their mothers were sisters. Both sets were of the
same age — fine young men, skilled in weapons ;
and it was agreed that the six should fight together,
the three whose family name was Horatius on the
Roman side, the three called Curiatius on the Al-
ban side, and whichever set gained the mastery
was to give it to his city.

They fought in the plain between the camps,
and very hard was the strife until two of the
Horatii were killed and all the three Curiatii
were wounded, but the last Horatius was entirely
untouched. ' He began to run, and his cousins pur-
sued him, but at different distances, as one w^as less
hindered by his wound than the others. As soon
as the first came up, Horatius slew him, and so the
second and the third ; as he cut down this last he
cried out, " To the glory of Rome I sacrifice thee."
As the Alban king saw his champion fall, he turned
to TuUus Hostilius and asked what his commands

Numa and Tullus. 43

were. " Only to have the Alban youth ready when
I need them," said Tullus.

A wreath was set on the victor's head, and, loaded
with the spoil of the Curiatii, he was led into the
city in triumph. His sister came hurrying to meet
him ; she Avas betrothed to one of the Curiatii, and
was in agony to know his fate ; and when she saw
the garment she had spun for him hanging blood-
stained over her brother's shoulders, she burst into
loud lamentations. Horatius, still hot with fury,
struck her dead on the spot, crying, " So perish
every Roman who mourns the death of an enemy
of his country." Even her father approved the
cruel deed, and would not bury her in his family
tomb — so stern were Roman feelings, putting the
honor of the country above everything. How-
ever, Horatius was brought before the king for the
murder, and was sentenced to die i but the people
entreated that their chamj3ion might be spared, and
he was only made to pass under what was called
the yoke, namely, spears set up like a doorway.

Tullus Hostilius gained several victories over his
neighbors, but he was harsh and presuming, and
offended the gods, and, when he was using some
spell such as good Numa had used to hold con-
verse with Jupiter, the angry god sent lightning

44 Young Folks^ History of Rome.

and burnt up him and his famiW. The people
then chose Ancus Martius, the son of Numa's
daughter, who is said to have ruled in his grand-
father's spirit, though he could not avoid wars
with the Latins. The first bridge over the Tiber,
named the Sublician, was said to have been built
by him. In his time there came to Rome a family
called Tarquin. Their father was a Corinthian,
who had settled in an Etruscan town named Tar-
quinii, whence came the family name. He was
said to have first taught writing in Italy, and, in-
deed, the Roman letters which we still use are
Greek letters made simpler. His eldest son, find-
ing that because of his foreign blood he could rise
to no honors in Etruria, set off with his wife Tana-
quil, and their little son Lucius Tarquinius, to set-
tle in Rome. Just as they came in sight of Rome,
an eagle swooped down from the sky, snatched off
little Tarquin's cap, and flew up with it, but the
next moment came down again and put it back on
his head. On this Tanaquil foretold that her son
would be a great king, and he became so famous
a warrior when he grew up, that, as the children of
Ancus were too young to reign at their father's
death, he was chosen king. He is said to have
been the first Roman king who wore a purple robe

Numa and Tullus.

and golden crown, and in the valley between the
Palatine and Aventine Hills he made a circus,
where games could be held like those of the
Greeks ; also he placed stone benches and stalls for
shops round the Forum, and built a stone wall in-
stead of a mud one round the city. He is com-
monly called Tarquinus Priscus, or the elder.

There was, a fair slave girl in his house, who was
offering cakes to Lar, the household spirit, when
he appeared to her in bodily form. When she told
the king's mother, Tanaquil, she said it was a
token that he wanted to marry her, and arrayed

46 Young Folks' History of Rome,

her as a bride for him. Of this marriage there
sprang a boy called Servius TuUus. When this
child lay asleep, bright flames played about his
head, and Tanaquil knew he would be great, so
she caused her son Tarquin to give him his daugli-
ter in marriage when he grew up. This greatly
offended the two sons of Ancus Martins, and they
hired two young men to come before him as wood-
cutters, with axes over their shoulders, pretending
to have a quarrel about some goats, and while he
was listening to their cause they cut him down and
mortally wounded him. He had lost his sons, and
had only two baby grandsons, Aruns and Tarquin,
who could not reign as yet ; but while he was
dying, Tanaquil stood at the window and declared
that he was only stunned and would soon be well.
This, as she intended, so frightened tlie sons of
Ancus that they fled from Rome; and Servius
Tullus, coming forth in the royal robes, was at once
hailed as king by all the people of Eome, being
thus made king that he might protect his wife's
two young nephews, the two little Tarquins.

CHAPTER V.

THE DRIVING OUT OF THE TARQUINS.
B.C. 578—1159.

SERVIUS TULLUS was looked on by the
Romans as having begun making their laws,
as Romulus had put their warlike affairs in order,
and Numa had settled their religion. The Romans
were all in great clans or families, all with one
name, and these were classed in tribes. The nobler
ones, who could count up from old Trojan, Latin,
or Sabine families, w^ere called Patricians — from
pater^ a father — because they were fathers of the
people ; and the other families were called Plebeiar*,
from plehs, the people. The patricians formed thw
Senate or Council of Government, and rode on
horseback in war, while the plebeians fought on foot.
They had spears, round shields, and short pointed
r words, which cut on each side of the blade,
47

48 Young Folks' History of Rome,

Tullus is said to have fixed how many men of each
tribe should be called out to war. He also walled
in the city again with a wall five miles round ; and
he made many fixed laws, one being that when a
man was in debt his goods might be seized, but he
himself might not be made a slave. He was the
great friend of the plebeians, and first established
the rule that a new law of the Senate could not be
made without the consent of the Comitia, or Avhole
free people.

The Sabines and Romans were still striving for
the mastery, and a husbandman among the Sabines
had a wonderfully beautiful cow. An oracle de-
clared that the man who sacrificed this cow to
Diana upon the Aventine Hill would secure the
chief power to his nation. The Sabine drove the
cow to Rome, and was going to kill her, when a
crafty Roman priest told him that he must first
wash his hands in the Tiber, and while he was gone
sacrificed the cow himself, and by this trick secured
the rule to Rome. The great horns of the cow
were long after shown in the temple of Diana on
the Aventine, where Romans, Sabines, and Latins
every year joined in a great sacrifice.

The two daughters of Servius were married to
their cousins, the two young Tarquins. In each

The Driving out of the Tar quins, 49

pair there was a fierce and a gentle oiie. The
fierce Tullia was the wife of the gentle Aruns Tar-
quin; the gentle Tulla had married the proud
Lucius Tarquin. Aruns' wife tried to persuade
her husband to seize the throne that had belonged
to his father, and when he would not listen to her,
she agreed with his brother Lucius that, while he
murdered her sister, she should kill his brother,
and then that they should marry. The horrid deed
was carried out, and old Servius, seeing what a
wicked pair were likely to come after him, began
to consider with the Senate whether it would not
be better to have two consuls or magistrates chosen
every year than a king. This made Lucius Tar-
quin the more furious, and going to the Senate,
where the patri(3ians hated the king as the friend
of the plebeians, he stood upon the throne, and was
beginning to tell the patricians that this would be
the ruin of their greatness, when Servius came in
and, standing on the steps of the doorway, ordered
him to come down. Tarquin sprang on the old
man and hurled him backward, so that the fall
killed him, and his body was left in the street.
The wicked Tullia, wanting to know how her hus-
band had sped, came out in her chariot on that
road. The horses gave back before the corpse.

60 Young Folks' History of Rome,

She asked what was in their way ; the slave who
drove her told her it was the king's body. " Drive
on," she said. The horrid deed caused the street
to be known ever after as " Sceleratus," or the
wicked. But it was the plebeians who mourned

SYJilL S CAVE.

for Servius; the patricians in then- anger made
Tarquin king, but found him a very hard and cruel
master, so that he is generally called Tarquinius
Superbus, or Tarquin the proud. In his time the

The Driving out of the Tarquins, 51

Sybil of Cumae, the same wondrous maiden of deep
wisdom who had guided ^Eneas to the realms of
Pluto, came, bringing nine books of prophecies of
the history of Rome, and offered them to him
at a price which he thought too high, and refused.
She went away, destroyed three, and brought back
the other six, asking for them double the price of
the whole. He refused. She burnt three more,
and brought him the last three with the price again
doubled, because the fewer they were, the more
precious. He bought them at last, and placed them
in the Capitol, whence they were now and then
taken to be consulted as oracles.

Rome was at war with the city of Gabii, and as
the city was not to be subdued by force, Tarquin
tried treachery. His eldest son, Sextus Tarquinius,
fled to Gabii, complaining of ill-usage of his father,
and showing marks of a severe scourging. The
Gabians believed him, and he was soon so much
trusted by them as to have the whole command of
the army and manage everything in the city. Then
he sent a messenger to his father to ask what he
was to do next. Tarquin was walking through a
cornfield. He made no answer in words, but with
a switch cut off the heads of all the poppies and
taller stalks of corn, and bade the messenger telJ

52 Young Folks' History of Rome.

Sextus what he had seen. Sextus understood, and
contrived to get all the chief men of Gabii exiled
or put to death, and without them the city fell an
easy prey to the Romans.

Tarquin sent his two younger sons and their
cousin to consult the oracle at Delphi, and with
them went Lucius Junius, who was called Brutus
because he was supposed to be foolish, that being
the meaning of the word ; but his folly was only
put on, because he feared the jealously of his
cousins. After doing their father's errand, the two
Tarquins asked who should rule Rome after their
father. " He," said the priestess, " who shall first
kiss his mother on his return." The two brothers
agreed that they would keep this a secret from their
elder brother Sextus, and, as soon as they reached
home, both of them rushed into the women's rooms,
racing each to be the first to embrace their mother
Tullia ; but at the very entrance of Rome Brutus
pretended to slip, threw himself on the ground and
kissed his Mother Earth, having thus guessed the
right meaning of the answer.

He waited patiently, however, and still was
thought a fool when the army went out to besiege
the city of Ardea; and while the troops were en-
camped round it, some of the young patricians be-

The Driving out of the Tarquins. 53

gan to dispute which had the best wife. They
agreed to put it to the test by galloping late in the
evening to look in at their homes and see what
their wives were about. Some were idling, some
were visiting, some were scolding, some were dress-
ing, some were asleep ; but at Collatia, the farm of
another of the Tarquin family, thence called Col-
latinus, they found his beautiful wife Lucretia
among her maidens spinning the wool of the flocks.
All agreed that she was the best of wives ; but the
wicked Sextus Tarquin only wanted to steal her
from her husband, and going by night to Collatia,
tried to make her desert her lord, and when she
would not listen to him he ill-treated her cruelly,
and told her that he should accuse her to her hus-
band. She was so overwhelmed with grief and
shame that in the morning she sent for her father
and husband, told them all that that happened, and
saying that she could not bear life after being so put
to shame, she drew out a dagger and stabbed her-
self before their eyes — thinking, as all these hea-
then Romans did, that it was better to die by one's
own hand than to live in disgrace.

Lucius Brutus had gone to Collatia with his
cousin, and while CoUatinus and his father-in-law
stood horror-struck, he called to them to revenge

Young Folks' History of Rome.

this crime. Snatchiug the dagger from Lucretia's
breast, he galloped to Rome, called the people to-
gether in the Forum, and, holding up the b'oodj
weapon in his hand, he made them a speech, asking
whether they would any longer endure such a family
of tyrants. They all rose as one man, and choosing
Brutus himself and CoUatinus to be their leaders,
as the consuls whom Servius Tullus had thought of
making, they shut the gates of Rome, and would
not open them when Tarquin and his sons "would
have returned. So ended the kingdom of Kome.

CHAPTER VI.

THE WAR WITH PORSENA.

FROM the time of the flight of the Tarquins,
Rome was governed by two consuls, who
wore all the tokens of royalty except the crown.
Tarquin fled into Etruria, whence his grandfather
had come, and thence tried to obtain admission into
Rome. The two young sons of Brutus and the
nephews of Collatinus were drawn into a plot for
bringing them back again, and on its discovery
were brought before the two consuls. Their guilt
was proved, and their father sternly asked what
they had to say in their defence. They only wept,
and so did Collatinus and many of the senators,
crying out, " Banish them, banish them." Brutus,
however, as if unmoved, bade the executioners do
their office. The whole Senate shrieked to hear a
father thus condemn his own children, but he was
55

66 Young Folks' History of Rome,

resolute, and actually looked on while the young
men were first scourged and then beheaded.

Collatinus put off the further judgment in hopes
to save his nephews, and Brutus told them that he
had put them to death by his own power as a father,
but that he left the rest to the voice of the people,
and they were sent into banishment. Even Col-
latinus was thought to have acted weakly, and was
sent into exile — so determined were the Romans
to have no one among them who would not uphold
their decrees to the utmost. Tarquin advanced to
the walls and cut down all the growing corn around
the Campus Martins and threw it into the Tiber ;
there it formed a heap round which an island was
afterwards formed. Brutus himself and his cousin
Aruns Tarquin soon after killed one another in
single combat in a battle outside the walls, and all
the women of Rome mourned for him as for a
father.

Tarquin found a friend in the Etruscan king
called Lars Porsena, who brought an army to be-
siege Rome and restore him to the throne. He
advanced towards the gate called Janiculum upon
the Tiber, and drove the Romans out of the fort on
the other side the river. The Romans then re-
treated across the bridge, placing three men to

BKUTUS CONDEMNING HIS SONS.

The War with Porsena. 59

guard it until all should be gone over and it could
be broken down.

There stood the brave three — Horatius, Lartius,
and Herminius — guarding the bridge while their
fellow-citizens were fleeing across it, three men
against a whole army. At last the weapons of
Lartius and Herminius were broken down, and
Horatius bade them hasten over the bridge while
it could still bear their weight. He himself fought
on till he was wounded in the thigh, and the last
timbers of the bridge were falling into the stream.
Then spreading out his arms, he called upon Father
Tiber to receive him, leapt into the river and swam
across amid a shower of arrows, one of which put
out his eye, and he was lame for life. A statue of
him "halting on his thigh " was set up in the tem-
ple of Vulcan, and he was rewarded with as much
land as one yoke of oxen could plough in a day,
tind the 300,000 citizens of Rome each gave him a
day's provision of corn.

Porsena then blockaded the city, and when the
Romans were nearly starving he sent them word
that he would give them food if they would receive
their old masters ; but they made answer that
hunger was better than slavery, and still held out.
In the midst of their distress, a young man named

60 You7ig Folks' History of Rome,

Caius Miicius came and begged leave of the con-
suls to cross the Tiber and go to attempt something
to deliver his country. They gave leave, and
creeping through the Etruscan camp he came into
the king's tent just as Porsena was watching his
troops pass by in full order. One of his counsellors'
was sitting beside him so richly dressed that Mucins
did not know which was king, and leaping towards
them, he stabbed the counsellor to the heart. He
was seized at once and dragged before the king,
who fiercely asked who he was, -and what he meant
by such a crime.

The young man answered that his name was Caius
Mucins, and that he was ready to do and dare any-
thing for Rome. In answer to threats of torture,
he quietly stretched out his right hand and thrust
it into the flame that burnt in a brazier close by,
holding it there without a sign of pain, while he
bade Porsena see what a Roman thought of suffering.

Porsena was so struck that he at once gave the
daring man his life, his freedom, and even his dag-
ger ; and Mucins then told him that three hundred
youths like himself had sworn to have his life un-
less he left Rome to her libert}^ This was false,
but both the lie and the murder were for Rome's
sake ; they were both admired by the Romans, who

The War with Porsena. 61

held that the welfare of their city was their very
first dut}^ Mucius could never use his right hand
again, and was always called Scsevola, or the Left-
handed, a name that went on to his family.

Porsena believed the story, and began to make
peace. A truce was agreed on, and ten Roman
youths and as many girls were given up to the
Etruscans as hostages. While the conferences
were going on, one of the Roman girls named
Clelia forgot her duty so mucli as to swim home
across the river with all her companions ; but Val-
eria, the consul's daughter, was received with all
the anger that breach of trust deserved, and her
father mounted his horse at once to take the party
back again. Just as they reached the Etruscan
camp, the Tarquin father and brothers, and a whole
troop of the enemy, fell on them. While the con-
sul was fighting against a terrible force, Valeria
dashed on into the camp and called out Porsena
and his son. They, much grieved that the truce
should have been broken, drove back their own
men, and were so angry with the Tarquins as to
give up their cause. He asked which of the girls
had contrived the escape, and w^hen Clelia confessed
it was herself, he made her a present of a fine horse
and its trappings, which she little deserved.

62 Young Folks'^ History of Rome.

This Valerius was called Publicola, or the peo-
ple's friend. He died a year or two later, after so
many victories that the Romans honored him
among their greatest heroes. Tarquin still contin-
ued to seek support among the different Italian
nations, and again attacked the Romans with the
help of the Latins. The chief battle was fought
close to Lake Regillus ; Aulus Posthumius was the
commander, but Marcus Valerius, brother to Pub-
licola, was general of the horse. He had vowed to
build a temple to Castor and Pollux if the Romans
gained the victory ; and in the beginning of the
fight, two glorious youths of god-like stature ap-
peared on horseback at the head of the Roman
horse and fought for them. It was a very hard-
fought battle. Valerius was killed, but so was
Titus Tarquin, and the Latin force was entirely
broken and routed. That same evening the two
youths rode into the Forum, their horses dripping
with sweat and their weapons bloody. They drew
up and washed themselves at a fountain near the
temple of Vesta, and as the people crowded round
they told of the great victory, and while one man
named Domitius doubted of it, since the Lake
Regillus was too far off for tidings to have come so
fast, one of them laid his hand on the doubter's

' XT"^" b'»n„^" ' -j

ROMAN ENSIGNS, STANDARDS. TRUMPETS. ETC

The War with Porsena. 65

beard and changed it in a moment from black to
copper color, so that he came to be called Domitius
Ahenobarbus, or Brazen-beard. Then they disap-
peared, and the next morning Posthumius' mes-
senger brought the news. The Romans had no
doubt that these were indeed the glorious twins,
and built their temple, as Valerius had vowed.

Tarquin had lost all his sons, and died in wretch-
ed exile at Cumse. And here ends what is looked
on as the legendary history of Rome, for though
most of these stories have dates, and some sound
possible, there is so much that is plainly untrue
mixed up with them, that they can only be looked
on as the old stories which were handed down to
account for the Roman customs and copied by their
historians.

CHAPTER VTL

THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT.

^^O far as true history can guess, the Romans
*^ really did have kings and drove them out,
but there are signs that, though Porsena was a real
king, the war was not so honorable to the Romans
as they said, for he took the city and made them
give up all their weapons to him, leaving them
nothing but their tools for husbandry. But they
liked to forget their misfortunes.

The older Roman families were called patricians,
or fathers, and thought all rights to govern belonged
to them. Settlers who came in later were called
plebeians, or the people, and at first had no rights
at all, for all the land belonged to the patricians,
and the only way for the plebeians to get anything
done for them was to become hangers-on — or, as

The Roman Grovernment. 67

they called it, clients — of some patrician who took
care of their interests. There was a council of pa-
tricians called the Senate, chosen among themselves,
and also containing by right all who had been chief
magistrates. The whole assembly of the patricians
was called the Comitia. They, as has been said
before, fought on horseback, Avhile the plebeians
fought on foot ; but out of the rich plebeians a
body Avas formed called the knights, who also used
horses, and wore gold rings like the patricians.

But the plebeians were always trying not to be
left out of everything. By and by, they said under
Servius Tullius, the city was divided into six quar-
ters, and all the families living in them into six
tribes, each of which had a tribune to watch over it,
bring up the number of its men, and lead them to
battle. Another division of the citizens, both pa-
trician and plebeian, was made every five years.
They were all counted and numbered and divided
off into centuries according to their wealth. Then
these centuries, or hundreds, had votes, by the
persons they chose, when it was a question of peace
or war. Their meeting was called the Comitia;
but as there were more patrician centuries than
plebeian ones, the patricians still had much more
power. Besides, the Senate and all the magistrates

Young Folks' History of Rome.

were in those days ahva3*s patricians. These magis-
trates were chosen every year. There were two
consuls, who were like kings for the time, only that
they wore no crowns ; they had purple robes, and
sat in chairs ornamented with ivory, and they Avere
always attended by lictors, who carried bundles of

HEAD OF JI'ITIEU.

rods .tied round an axe — the first for scourging,
the second for beheading. There were under them
two praetors, or judges, who tried offences ; two
quaestors, who attended to the public buildings;
and two censors, who had to look after the num-
bering and registering of the people in their tribes
and centuries. The consuls in general commanded

The Roman G-overnment. 69

the army, but sometimes, when there was a great
need, one single leader was chosen and was called dic-
tator. Sometimes a dictator was chosen merely to
fulfil an omen, by driYing a, nail into the head of the
great statue of Jupiter in the Capitol. Besides
these, all the priests had to be patricians ; the chief
of all was called Pontifex Maximus. Some say
this was because he was i\\Qfax (maker) of pontes
(bridges), as he blessed them and decided by
omens where they should be ; but others think the
word was Pompifex, and that he was the maker of
pomps or ceremonies. There were many priests as
well as augurs, who had to draw omens from the
flight of birds or the appearance of sacrifices, and
who kept the account of the calendar of lucky and
unlucky days, and of festivals.

The Romans were a grave religious people in
those days, and did not count their lives or their
affections dear in comparison with their duties to
their altars and their hearths, though their notions
of duty do not always agree with ours. Their
dress in the city was a white woollen garment
edged with purple — it must have been more like
in shape to a Scottish plaid than anything else —
and was wrapped round so as to leave one arm free ;
sometimes a fold was drawn over the head. No

Young Folks' History of Rome.

one might wear it but a free-born Roman, and ho
never went out on public business without it, even
when more convenient fashions had been copied
from Greece. Those who were asking votes for a
public office wore it white (candidus')^ and there-
fore were called candidates. The consuls had it

FEMALE COSTUMES.

on great days entirely purple and embroidered, and
all senators and ex-magistrates had broader borders
of purple. The ladies wore a long graceful wrap-
ping-gown ; the boys a short tunic, and round their

The Roman Government.

necks was hung a hollow golden ball called a hulla^
or bubble. When a boy was seventeen, there was
a great family sacrifice to the Lares and the fore-
fathers, his bulla was taken off, the toga was put
on, and he was enrolled by his own pr^nomen,
Caius or Lucius, or whatever it might be, for there

FEMALE COSTUMES.

was only a choice of fifteen. After this he was
liable to be called out to fight. A certain number
of men were chosen from each tribe by the tribune.
It was divided into centuries, each led by a cen-
turion ; and the whole body together was called a

72 Young Folks' History of Rome.

legion, from lego^ to choose. In later times the
proper number for a legion was 6000 men. Each
legion had a standard, a bar across the top of the
spear, with the letters on it S P Q R — Senatus,
Populus Que Romanus — meaning the Roman
Senate and People, a purple flag below and a figure
above, such as an eagle, or the wolf and twins, or
some emblem dear to the Romans. The legions
were on foot, but the troops of patricians and
knights on horseback were attached to them and
had to protect them.

The Romans had in those days very small riches,
they held in general small farms in the country,
which they worked themselves with the help of
their sons and slaves. The plebeians were often
the richest. They too held farms leased to them
by the state, and had often small shops in Rome.
The whole territory was so small that it was easy
to come into Rome to worship, attend the Senate,
or vote, and many had no houses in the city. Each
man was married with a ring and sacrifice, and the
lady was then carried over the threshold, on which
a sheepskin was spread, and made mistress of the
house by being bidden to be Caia to Caius. The
Roman matrons were good and noble women in
those days, and the highest praise of them was held

The Roman Government.

to be Domum mansit, lanam fecit — she stayed at
home and spun wool. Each man was absolute
master in his own house, and had full power over
his grown-up sons, even for life or death, and they
almost always submitted entirely. For what made
the Romans so great was that they were not only
brave, but they were perfectly obedient, and
obeyed as perfectly as they could their fathers,
their officers, their magistrates, and, as they thought,
their gods.

CHAPTER VIII.
MEio:Nnjs agelppa's fable.

B.C. 494.

A GREAT deal of the history of Rome consists
of struggles between the patricians and
plebeians. In those early days the plebeians were
often poor, and when they wanted to improve their
lands they had to borrow money from the patricians,
who not only had larger lands, but, as they were
the officers in war, got a larger share of the spoil.
The Roman law was hard on a man in debt. His
lands might be seized, he might be thrown into
prison or sold into slavery with his wife and chil-
dren, or, if the creditors liked, be cut to pieces so
that each might take his share.

One of these debtors, a man who was famous for
bravery as a centurion, broke out of his prison and
74

Menenius Agrippa's Fable. lb

ran into the Forum, all in rags and with chains still
hanging to his hands and feet, showing them to his
fellow-citizens, and asking if this was just usage of
a man who had done no crime. They were very
angry, and the more because one of the consuls,
A ppius Claudius, Avas known to be very harsh, proud
and cruel, as indeed were all his family. The Vols-
cians, a tribe often at war with them, broke into
their land at the same time, and the Romans were
called to arms, but the plebians refused to march
until their wrongs were redressed. On this the
other consul, Servilius, promised that a law should
be made against keeping citizens in prison for debt
or making slaves of their children ; and thereupon
the army assembled, marched against the enemy,
and defeated them, giving up all the spoil to his
troops. But the senate, when the danger was over,
would not keep its promises, and even appointed a
Dictator to put the plebians down. Thereupon
they assembled outside the walls in a strong force,
and were going to attack the patricians, when the
wise old Menenius Agrippa was sent out to try to
pacify them. He told them a fable, nam^ely, that
once upon a time all the limbs of a man's body be-
came disgusted with the service they had to render
to the belly. The feet and legs carried it about,

76 Young Folks History of Rome.

the hands worked for it and carried food to it.
the mouth ate for it, and so on. They thought
it hard thus all to toil for it, and agreed to do
nothing for it — neither to carry it about, clothe it,
nor feed it. But soon all found themselves grow-
ing weak and starved, and were obliged to own
that all would perish together unless they went on
waiting on this seemingly useless belly. So Agrippa
told them that all ranks and states depended on
one another, and unless all worked together all
must be confusion and go to decay. The fable
seems to have convinced both rich and poor ; the
debtors were set free and the debts forgiven. And
though the laws about debts do not seem to have
been changed, another laAv was made which gave
the plebeians tribunes in peace as well as war.
These tribunes were always to be plebeians, chosen
by their own fellows. No one was allowed to hurt
them during their year of office, on pain of being
declared accursed and losing his property ; and
they had the power of stopping any decision of the
senate by saying solemnly, Veto^ I forbid. Thej
were called tribunes of the people, while the offi-
cers in war were called military tribunes ; and as it
was on the Mons Sacer, or Sacred Mount, that this
was settled, these laws were called the Leges Sacror

Menenius Agrippas's Fable, 77

rioB, An altar to the Thundering Jupiter was
built to consecrate them ; and, in gratitude for his
management, Menenius Agrippa was highly honored
all his life, and at his death had a public funeral.

But the struggles of the plebeians against the
patricians were not by any means over. The Roman
land — Agri (acre), it was called — had at first
been divided in equal shares — at least so it was
said — but as belonging to the state all the time,
and only held by the occupier. As time went on,
some persons of course gathered more into their
own hands, and others of spendthrift or unfortunate
families became destitute. Then there was an out-
cry that, as the lands belonged to the whole state,
it ought to take them all back and divide them
again more equally : but the patricians naturally
regarded themselves as the owners, and would
not hear of this scheme, which we shall hear of
again and again by the name of the Agrarian
Law. One of the patricians, who had thrice
been consul, by name Spurius Cassius, did all
he could to bring it about, but though the law
was passed he could not succeed in getting it car-
ried out. The patricians hated him, and a report
got abroad that he was only gaining favor with the
people in order to get himself made king. This

78 Young Folks' History of Rome,

made even the plebeians turn against him as a
traitor ; he was condemned by the whole assembly
of the people, and beheaded, after being scourged
by the lictors. The people soon mourned for their
friend, and felt that they had been deceived in
giving him up to their enemies. The senate would
not execute his law, and the plebeians would not
enlist in the next war, though the senate threat-
ened to cut down the fruit trees and destroy the
crops of £very man who refused to join the army.
When they were absolutely driven into the ranks,
they even refused to draw their swords in face of
the enemy, and would not gain a victory lest their
consul should have the honor of it.

This consul's name was Kseso Fabius. He be-
longed to a very clever, wary family, whose name
it was said was originally Foveus (ditch), because
they had first devised a plan of snaring wolves in
pits or ditches. They were thought such excellent
defenders of the claims of the patricians that for
seven years following one or other of the Fabii was
chosen consul. But by-and-by they began either to
see that the plebeians had rights, or that they should
do best by siding with them, for they went over to
them ; and when Kseso next was consul he did all
he could to get the laws of Cassius carried out, but

Menenius Agrippas Fable. 81

the senate were furious with him, and he found it
was not safe to stay in Rome when his consulate
was over. So he resolved at any rate to do good
to his country. The Etruscans often came over
the border and ravaged the country; but there
was a watch-tower on the banks of the little river
Cremera, which flows into the Tiber, and Fabius

VIEW OF A ROMAN HARBOR.

offered, with all the men of his name — 306 in
number, and 4000 clients — to keep guard there
against the enemy. For some time they prospered
there, and gained much spoil from the Etruscans ;
but at last the whole Etruscan army came against

82 Young Folks' History of Rome.

them, showing only a small number at first to
tempt them out to fight, then falling on them with
the whole force and killing the whole of them, so
that of the whole name there remained only one
boy of fourteen who had been left behind at Rome.
And what was worse, the consul, Titus Menenius,
was so near the army that he could have saved the
Fabii, but for the hatred the patricians bore them
as deserters from their cause.

However, the tribune Publilius gained for the
plebeians that there should be five tribunes instead
of two, and made a change in the manner of elect-
ing them which prevented the patricians from in-
terfering. Also it was decreed that to interrupt a
tribune in a public speech deserved death. But
whenever an Appius Claudius was consul he took
his revenge, and was cruelly severe, especially in
the camp, where the consul as general had much
more power than in Rome. Again the angry ple-
beians would not fight, but threw down their arms
in sight of the enemy. Claudius scourged and be-
headed; they endured grimly and silently, know-
ing that when he returned to Rome and his con-
sulate was over their tribunes would call him to
account. And so they did, and before all the
tribes of Rome summoned him to answer for his*

Menenius Agrippa's Fable,

savage treatment of free Roman citizens. He made
a violent answer, but he saw how it would go with
him, and put himself to death to avoid the sen-
tence. So were the Romans proving again and
again the truth of Agrippa's parable, that notliing
can go well Avith body or members unless each will
be ready to serve the other.

CHAPTER IX.

COBIOLANUS AND CINCINNATtJS.

B. c. 458.

A LL the time these struggles were going on
•^ ^ between the patricians and the plebeians at
home, there were wars with the neighboring tribes,
the Yolscians, the Veians, the Latins, and the
Etruscans. Every spring the fighting men went
out, attacked their neighbors, drove off their cattle,
and tried to take some town ; then fought a battle,
and went home to reap the harvest, gather the
grapes and olives in the autumn, and attend to
public business and vote for the magistrates in the
winter. They were small wars, but famous men
fought in them. In a war against the Yolscians,
when Cominius was consul, he was besieging a city
called Corioli, when news came that the men of
Antium were marching against him, and in their
84

Coriolanus and Cincinnatus. 85

first attack on the walls the Romans were beaten
off, but a gallant young patrician, descended froiii
the king Ancus Marcius, Caius Marcius by name,
rallied them and led them back with such spirit
that tlie place was taken before the hostile army
came up ; then he fought among the foremost and
gained the victory. When he was brought to the
consul's lent covered with wounds, Cominius did
all he could to show his gratitude — set on the
young man's head the crown of victory, gave him
the surname of Coriolanus in honor of his exploits,
and granted him the tenth part of the spoil of ten
prisoners. Of them, however, Coriolanus only ac-
cepted one, an old friend of the family, whom he
set at liberty at once. Afterwards, when there was
a great famine in Rome, Coriolanus led an expedi-
tion to Antium, and brought away quantities of
corn and cattle, which he distributed freely, keep-
ing none for himself.

But though he was so free of hand, Coriolanus
was a proud, shy man, who would not make friends
with the plebeians, and whom the tribunes hated
as much as he despised them. He was elected con-
sul, and the tribunes refused to permit him to be-
come one ; and when a shipload of wheat arrived
from Sicily, there was a fierce quarrel as to how it

86 Young Folks' History of Rome.

should be distributed. The tribunes impeached
him before the people for withholding it from them,
and by the vote of a large number of citizens he
was banished from Roman lands. His anger was
great, but quiet. He went without a word away
from the Forum to his house, where he took leave
of his mother Veturia, his wife Volumnia, and his
little cliildren, and then went and placed himself
by the hearth of TuUus the Yolscian chief, in
whose army he meant to fight to revenge himself
upon his countrymen.

Together they advanced upon the Roman terri-
tory, and after ravaging the country threatened to
besiege Rome. Men of rank came out and entreat-
ed him to give up this wicked and cruel vengeance,
and to have pity on his friends and native city ;
but he answered that the Volscians were now his
nation, and nothing would move him. At last,
however, all the women of Rome came forth,
headed by his mother Veturia and his wife Volum-
nia, each with a little child, and Veturia entreated
and commanded her son in the most touching man-
ner to change his purpose and cease to ruin his
country, begging him, if he meant to destroy Rome,
to begin by slaying her. She threw herself at his
feet as she spoke, and his hard spirit gave wrv.

Coriolanus and Cincinnatus. 87

"Ah I mother, what is it you do ? " he cried as he
lifted her up. " Thou hast saved Home, but lost
thy son."

And so it proved, for when he had broken up
his camp and returned to the Volscian territory till
the senate should recall him as they proceded,

ROMAN O.MP.

Tullus, angry and disappointed, stirred up a tumult,
and he was killed by the people before he could be
sent for to Rome. A temple to " Women's Good
Speed " was raised on the spot where Yeturia
knelt to him.

Another very proud patrician family was the

88 Young Folks' History of Rome,

Quinctian. The father, Lucius Quinctius, was
called Cinciniiatus, from his long flowing curls
of hair. He was the ablest man among the Romans,
but stern and grave, and his eldest son Kgeso was
charged by the tribunes with a murder and fled the
country. Soon after there was a great inroad of
the jEqui and Volscians, and the Romans found
themselves in great danger. They saw no one
could save them but Cincinnatus, so they met in
haste and chose him Dictator, though he was not
present. Messengers were sent to his little farm
on the Tiber, and there they found him holding the
stilts of the plough. When they told their errand,
he turned to his wife, who was helping him, and
said, " Racilia, fetch me my toga ; " then he washed
his face and hands, and was sa],uted as Dictator.
A boat was ready to take him to Rome, and as he
landed, he was met by the four-and-twenty lictors
belonging to the two consuls and escorted to his
dwelling. In the morning he named as general of
the cavalry Lucius Tarquitius, a brave old patrician
who had become too poor even to keep a horse.
Marching out at the head of all the men who could
bear arms, he thoroughly routed the ^qui, and
then resigned his dictatorship at the end of sixteen
days. Nor would he accept any of the spoil, but

Coriolanus and Cincinnatus. 89

went back to his plough, his only reward being
that his son was forgiven and recalled from ban-
ishment.

These are the grand old stories that came down
from old time, but how much is true no one can
tell, and there is reason to think that, though the
leaders like Cincinnatus and Coriolanus might be
brave, the Romans were really pressed hard by the

PLOUGHING.

Volscians and ^qui, and lost a good deal of ground,
though they were too proud to own it. No won-
der, while the two orders of the sta.te were always
pulling different ways. However, the tribune
Icilius succeeded in the year 454 in getting the
Aventine Hill granted to the plebeians ; and they

90 Young Folks' History of Rome.

had another champion called Lucius Sicinius Den-
tatus, who was so brave that he was called the
Roman Achilles. He had received no less than
forty-five wounds in different fights before he was
fifty-eight years old, and had had fourteen civic
crowns. For the Romans gave an oak-leaf wreath,
which they called a civic crown, to a man who
saved the life of a fellow-citizen, and a mural
crown to him who first scaled the walls of a be-
sieged ciij. And when a consul had gained a great
victory, he had what was called a triumph. He
was di'awn in his chariot into the city, his victorious
troops marching before him with their spears wav-
ing with laurel boughs, a wreath of laurel was on
his head, his little children sat with him in the
chariot, and the spoil of the enemy was carried
along. All the people decked their houses and
came forth rejoicing in holiday array, while he pro-
ceeded to the Capitol to sacrifice an ox to Jupiter
there. His chief prisoners walked behind his car
in chains, and at the moment of his sacrifice they
were taken to a cell below the Capitol and there
put to death, for the Roman was cruel in his joy.
Nothing was more desired than such a triumph ;
but such was often the hatred between the plebeians
and the patricians, that sometimes the plebeian

Coriolanus and Qincinnatus.

army would stop short in the middle of a victorious
campaign to hinder their consul from having a
triumph. Even Sicinius is said once to have acted
thus, and it began to be plain that Rome must fall
if it continued to be thus divided against itself.

Itf^^J^-

CHAPTER X.

THE DECEMVIKS.
B.C. 450.

THE Romans began to see what mischiefs their
quarrels did, and they agreed to send three
of their best and wisest men to Greece to study the
laws of Solon at Athens, and report whether any
of them could be put in force at Rome.

To get the new code of laws which they brought
home put into working order, it was agreed for the
time to have no consuls, praetors, nor tribunes, but
ten governors, perhaps in imitation of the nine
Athenian archons. They were called Decemvirs
(decern^ ten ; vir^ a man), and at their head was
Lucius Appius Claudius, the grandson of him who
had killed himself to avoid being condemned for
his harshness. At first they governed well, and a
92

The Decemvirs. 93

very good set of laws was drawn up, wliicli the
Romans called the Laws of the Ten Tables; but
Appius soon began to give Avay to the pride of his
nature, and made himself hated. There was a war
with the ^qui, in which the Romans were beaten.
Old Sicinius Dentatus said it was owing to bad
management, and, as he had been in one hundred
and twenty battles, everybody believed him. There-
upon A[)pius Claudius sent for him, begged for his
advice, and asked him to join the armj^ that he
might assist the commanders. They received him
warmly, and, when he advised them to move their
camp, asked him to go and choose a place, and sent
a guard with him of one hundred men. But these
were really wretches instructed to kill liim, and as
soon as he was in a narrow rocky pass they set
upon him. The brave old warrior set his back
against a rock and fought so fiercely that he killed
many, and the rest durst not come near him, but
climbed up the rock and crushed him with stones
rolled^ down on his head. Then they went back
with a story that they had been attacked by the
enemy, which was believed, till a party went out
to bury the dead, and found there were only Roman
corpses all Ijang round the crushed body of Sicinius,
and that none were stripped of their armor or

94 Young Folks' History of Rome.

clothes. Then the true history was found out, but
the Decemvirs sheltered the commanders, and would
believe nothing against them.

Appius Claudius soon after did what horrified all
honest men even more than this treachery to the
brave old soldier. The Forum was not only the
place of public assembly for state affairs, but the
regular market-place, where there were stalls and
booths for all the wares that Romans dealt in —
meat stalls, wool shops, stalls Avhere wine was sold
in earthenware jars or leathern bottles, and even
booths where reading and writing was taught to
boys and girls, wlio would learn by tracing letters
in the sand, and then by writing them with an iron
pen on a waxen table in a frame, or with a reed
upon parchment. The children of each family came
escorted by a slave — the girls by their nurse, the
boys by one called a pedagogue.

Appius, when going to his judgment-seat across
the Forum, saw at one of these schools a girl of fif-
teen reading her lesson. She was so lovely that he
asked her nurse who she was, and heard that her
name was Virginia, and that she w^as the daughter
of an honorable plebeian and brave centurion named
Virginius, who was absent with the army fighting
with the JEqui, and that she was to marry a young

Death of Virginia.

The Decemvirs. 97

man named Icilius as soon as the campaign was
over. Appius would gladly have married her him-
self, but there was a patrician law against wedding
plebeians, and he wickedly determined tliat if he
could not have her for his wife he would have her
for his slave.

There was one of his clients named Marcus
Claudius, whom he paid to get up a story that Vir-
ginius' wife Numitoriu, who Avas dead, had never
had any child at all, but had bought a baby of one
of his slaves and had deceived her husband with it,
and thus that poor Virginia was really his slave.
As the maiden was reading at her school, this
wretch and a band of fellows like him seized upon
her, declaring that she was his property, and that
he would carry her off. There was a great uproar,
and she was dragged as far as Appius' judgment-
seat ; but by that time her faithful nurse had called
the poor girl's uncle Numitorius, who could answer"
for it that she was really his sister's child. But
Appius would not listen to him, and all that he
could gain was that judgment should not be given
in the matter until Virginius should have been
fetched from the camp.

Virginius had set out from the camp with Icilius
before the messengers of Appius had reached the

98 Young Folks' History of Rome,

general with orders to stop him, and he came to
the Forum leading his daughter by the hand, weep-
ing, and attended by a great many ladies. Claudius
brought his slave, who made false oath that she
had sold her child to Numitoria; while, on the

CHARIOT RACES.

other hand, all the kindred of Virginias and his
wife gave such proof of the contrary as any honest
judge would have thought sufficient, but Appius
chose to declare that the truth was with his client.
There was a great murmur of all the people, but he
frowned at them, and told them he knew of their
meetings, and that there were soldiers in the Capitol

The Decemvirs. 99

ready to punish them, so they must stand back and
not hinder a master from recovering his slave.

Virginius took his poor daughter in his arms as
if to give her a last embrace, and drew her close to
the stall of a butcher where lay a great knife. He
wiped her tears, kissed her, and saying, " My own
dear little girl, there is no way but this," he snatched
up the knife and plunged it into her heart, then
drawing it out he cried, " By this blood, Appius, I
devote thy blood to the infernal gods."

He could not reach Appius, but the lictors could
not seize him, and he mounted his horse and galloped
back to the army, four hundred men following him,
and he arrived still holding the knife. Every sol-
dier who heard the story resolved no longer to bear
with the Decemvirs, bat to march back to the city
at once and insist on the old government being
restored. The Decemvir generals tried to stop
them, but they only answered, " We are men with
swords in our hands." At the same time there
was such a tumult in the city, that Appius was
forced to hide himself in his own house while Vir-
ginia's corpse was carried on a bier through the
streets, and every one laid garlands, scarfs, and
wreaths of their own hair upon it. When the
troops arrived, they and the people joined in de-

100 Young Folks' History of Rome,

mandiiig that the Decemvirs should be given up to
them to be burnt alive, and that the old magistrates
should be restored. However, two patrici'ans, Lu-
cius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, were able so to
arrange matters that the nine comparatively inno-
cent Decemvirs were allowed to depose themselves,
and Appius only was sent to prison, where he killed
himself rather than face the trial that awaited him.
The new code of laws, however, remained, but con-
suls, prsetors, tribunes, and all the rest of the
magistrates were restored, and in the year 445 a
law was passed which enabled patricians and ple-
beians to intermarry.

CHAPTER XI.

CAMILLUS' BANISHMENT,
B.C. 390.

^nr^HE wars with the Etruscans went on, and
-*- chiefly with the city of Veii, which stood on
a hill twelve miles from Rome, and was altogether
thirty years at war with it. At last the Romans
made dp their minds that, instead of going home
every harvest-time to gather in their crops, they
must watch the city constantly till they could take
it, and thus, as the besiegers were unable to do their
own work, pay was raised for them to enable them
to get it done, and this was the beginning of paying
armies.

The siege of Veil lasted ten years, and during
the last the Alban lake filled to an unusual height,
although the summer was very dry. One of the
101

102

Young Folks' History of Rome.

Veian soldiers cried out to the Romans half in jest,
" Yo^ will Tjey^u Uike Veii till the Alban lake is
dry," . It t'jrried, out that there was an old tradition
that Veil should- lail when the lake was drained.
On this the senate sent orders to have canals dug to
carry the waters to the sea, and these still remain.
Still Veil held out, and to finish the war a dictator
was appointed, Marcus Furius Camillus, who chose

ARROW MACHINE.

for his second in command a man of one of the
most virtuous families in Rome, as their surname
testified, Publius Cornelius, called Scipio, or the
Staff, because either he or one of his forefathers had
been the staff of his father's old age. Camillus

Camillus' Banishment, lOB

took the city by assault, with an immense quantity
of spoil, which was divided among the soldiers.

Camillus in his pride took to himself at his tri-
umph honors that had hitherto only been paid to
the gods. He had his face painted with vermilion
and his car drawn by milk-white horses. This
shocked the people, and he gave greater offence by
declaring that he had vowed a tenth part of the
spoil to Apollo, but had forgotten it in the division
of the plunder, and now must take it again. The
soldiers would not consent, but lest the god should
be angry with them, it was resolved to send a gold
vase to his oracle at Delphi. All the women of
Home brought their jewels, and the senate reward-
ed them by a decree that funeral speeches might
bo made over their graves as over those of men,
and likewise that they might be driven in chariots
to the public games.

Camillus commanded in another war with the
Falisci, also an Etruscan race, and laid siege to
their city. The sons of almost all the chief families
were in charge of a sort of schoolmaster, who
taught them both reading and all kinds of exercises.
One day this man, pretending to take the boys out
walking, led them all into the eneray's camp, to the
tent of Camillus, where he told that he brought them

104 Young Folks' History of Rome.

all, and with them the place, since the Romans had
only to threaten their lives to make their fathers
deliver up the city. Camillus, however, was so
shocked at such perfidy, that he immediately bade
the lictors strip the fellow instantly, and give the
boys rods with which to scourge him back into the
town. Their fathers were so grateful that they
made peace at once, and about the same time the
^Equi were also conquered ; and the commons and
open lands belonging to Veil being divided, so that
each Roman freeman had six acres, the plebeians
were contented for the time.

The truth seems to have been that these Etrus-
can nations were weakened by a great new nation
coming on them from tlie North. They were what
the Romans called Galli or Gauls, one of the great
races of the old stock Avliich has always been find-
ing its way westward into Europe, and they had
their home north of the Alps, but they were al-
ways pressing on and on, and had long since made
settlements in northern Italy. They were in clans,
each obedient to one chief as a father, and joining
together in one brotherhood. They had lands to
which whole families had a common right, and
when their numbers outgrew what the land could
maintain, the bolder ones would set off with their

Oamillus' Banishment. 107

wives, children, and cattle to find new homes.
The Greeks and Romans themselves had begun
first in the same way, and their tribes, and the
claims of all to the common land, were the remains
of the old way ; but they had been settled in cities
so long that this had been forgotten, and they were
very different people from the wild men who spoke
what we call Welsh, and wore checked tartan
trews and plaids, with gold collars round their
necks, round shields, huge broadswords, and their
red or black hair long and shaggy. The Romans
knew little or nothing about what passed beyond
their own A[)ennines, and went on with their own
quarrels. Camillus was accused of having taken
more than his proper share of the spoil of Veii, in
especial a brass door from a temple. His friends
offered to pay any fine that might l)e laid on #lim,
but he was too proud to stand his trial, and chose
rather to leave Rome. As he passed the gates, he
turned round and called upon the gods to bring
Rome to speedy repentance for having driven him
away.

Even then the Gauls were in the midst of a war
with Clusium, the city of Porsena, and the inhabi-
tants sent to beg the help of the Romans, and the
senate sent three young brothers of the Fabian

108 Young Folks' History of Rome.

family to try to arrange matters. They met the
Gaulish Bran or chief, whom Latin authors call
Brennus, and asked him what was his quarrel with
Clusium or his right to any paj-t of Etruria. Bren-
nus answered that his right was his sword, and that
all things belonged to the brave, and that his quar-
rel with the men of Clusium was, that though they
had more land than they could till, they would not
yield him any. As to the Romans, they had robbed
their neighbors already, and had no right to find
fault.

This put the Fabian brothers in a rage, and they
forgot the caution of their family, as well as those
rules of all nations Avhich forbid an ambassador to
fight, and also forbid his person to be touched by
the enemy ; and when the men of Clusium made
an attack on the Gauls they joined in the attack,
and Qaintus, the eldest brother, slew one of the
chiefs. Brennus, wild as he was, knew these laws
of nations, and in great anger broke up his siege
of Clusium, and, marching towards Rome, de-
manded that the Fabii should be given up to him.
Instead of this, the Romans made them all three
military tribunes, and as the Gauls came nearer the
whole army marched out to meet them in such
haste that they did not wait to sacrifice to the gods

Oamillus' Banishment, 109

nor consult the omens. The tribunes were all
young and hot-headed, and they despised the Gauls ;
so out they went to attack them on the banks of
the Allia, only seven and a-half miles from Rome.
A most terrible defeat they had ; many fell in the
field, many were killed in the flight, others were
drowned in trying to swim the Tiber, others scat-
tered to Veil and the other cities, and a few, horror-
stricken and wet through, rushed into Rome with
the sad tidings. There were not men enough left
to defend the walls I The enemy would instantly
be upon them ! The only place strong enough to
keep them out was the Capitol, and that would
only hold a few people within it ! So there was
nothing for it but flight. The braver, stronger
men shut themselves up in the Capitol ; all the
rest, with the women and children, put their most
precious goods into carts and left the city. The
Yestal Virgins carried the sacred fire, and were
plodding along in the heat, when a plebeian named
Albinus saw their state, helped them into his cart,
and took them to the city of Cumse, where they
found shelter in a temple. And so Rome was left
to the enemy.

CHAPTER XIL

THE SACK OF ROME.
B.C. 890.

ROME was left to the enemy, except for the
small garrison in the Capitol and for eight}"
of the senators, men too old to flee, who devoted
themselves to the gods to save the rest, and, array-
ing themselves in their robes — some as former
consuls, some as priests, some as generals — sat
down with their ivory staves in their hands, in
their chairs of state in the Forum, to await the
enemy.

In burst the savage Gauls, roaming all over the
city till they came to the Forum, where they stood
amazed and awe-struck at the sight of the eighty
grand old men motionless in their chairs. At first
they looked at the strange, calm figures as if they

were the gods of the place, until one Gaul, as if desir-
110

The Sack of Romeo

111

ous of knowing whether they were flesh and blood or
not, stroked the beard of the nearest. The senator,
esteeming this an insult, struck the man on the

RUINS OF THE lORUM AT KUMB.

112 Young Folks' History of Rome.

face with his staff, and this was the sign for the
slaughter of them alL

Then the Gauls began to plunder every house,
dragging out and killing the few inhabitants they
found there ; feasting, revelling, and piling up
riches to carry away ; burning and overthrowing
the houses. Day after day the little garrison in
the Capitol saw the sight, and wondered if their
stock of food would hold out till the Gauls should
go away or till their friends should come to their
relief. Yet when the day came round for the sacri-
fice to the ancestor of one of these beleaguered men,
he boldly went forth to the altar of his own ruined
house on the Quirinal Hill, and made his offering
to his forefathers, nor did one Gaul venture to
touch him, seeing that he Avas performing a relig-
ious rite.

The escaped Romans had rested at Ardea, where
they found Camillus, and were by him formed into
an army, but he would not take the generalship
without authority from what was left of the Senate,
and that was shut up in the Capitol in the midst of
the 'Gauls. * A 535'?t5^fe man, however, named Pontius
Corainins, .declare,d that- he could make his way
"thl-bugh' the Ciauis^ by 'night, and climb up the
Capitol and down again by a precipice which they

The Sack of Borne. 113

did not watch because they thought no one could
mount it, and that he would bring back the orders
of the Senate. He swam the Tiber by the help of
corks, landed at night in ruined Rome among the
sleeping enemy, and climbed up the rock, bringing
hope at last to the worn-out and nearly starving
garrison. Quickly they met, recalled the sentence
of banishment against Camillus, and named him
Dictator. Pontius, having rested in the meantime,
slid down the rock and made his way back to Ardea
safely ; but the broken twigs and torii ivy on the
rock showed the Gauls that it had been scaled, and
they resolved that where man had gone man could
go. So Brennus told off the most surefooted
mountaineers he could find, and at night, two and
two, they crept up the crag, so silently that no
alarm was given, till just as they came to the top,
some geese that were kept as sacred to Juno, and
for that reason had been spared in spite of the
scarcity, began to scream and cackle, and thus
brought to the spot a brave officer called Marcus
Manlius, who found two Gauls in the act of setting
foot on the level ground on the top. With a sweep
of his sword he struck off the hand of one, and
with his buckler smote the other on the head,
tumbling them both headlong down, knocking down

114 Young Folks' History of Rome

their fellows in their flight, and the Capitol was
saved.

By way of reward every Roman soldier brought
Manlius a few grains of the corn he received from
the common stock and a few drops of wine, while
the tribune who was on guard that night was
thrown from the rock.

Foiled thus, and with great numbers of his men
dying from the fever that always prevailed in
Rome in summer, Brennus thought of retreating,
and offered to leave Rome if the garrison in the
Capitol would pay him a thousand pounds' weight
of gold. There was treasure enough in the temples
to do this, and as they could not tell what Camillus
was about, nor if Pontius had reached him safely,
and they were on the point of being starved, they
consented. The gold was brought to the place ap-
pointed by the Gauls, and when the weights proved
not to be equal to the amount that the Romans had
with them, Brennus resolved to have all, put his
sword into the other scale, saying, " Vae victis "
— " Woe to the conquered." But at that moment
there was a noise outside — Camillus was come.
The Gauls were cut down and slain among the
ruins, those who fled were killed by the people in
the country as they wandered in the fields, and not

The Sack of Rome. 115

one returned to tell the tale. So the ransom of the
Capitol was rescued, and was laid up by Camillus
in the vaults as a reserve for future danger.

This was the Roman storj/, but their best histo-
rians say that it is made better for Rome than is
quite the truth, for that the Capitol was really con-
quered, and the Gauls helped themselves to what-
ever they chose and went ofP with it, though sick-
ness and weariness made them afterwards disperse,
so that they were mostly cut off by the country
people.

Every old record had been lost and destroyed, so
that, before this, Roman history can only be hear-
say, derived from what the survivors recollected;
and the whole of the buidings, temples, senate-
house, and dwellings lay in ruins. Some of the
citizens wished to change the site of the city to
Veii ; but Camillus, who was Dictator, was re-
solved to hold fast by the hearths of their fathers,
and while the debate was going on in the ruins of
the senate-house a troop of soldiers were marching
in, and the centurion was heard calling out, '' Plant
your ensign here ; this is a good place to stay in."
" A happy omen," cried one of the senators ; " I
adore the gods who gave it." So it was settled to
rebuild the city, and in digging among the ruins

116 Young Folks" History of Home.

there were found the golden rod of Romulus, the
brazen tables on Avhich the Laws of the Twelve
Tables were engraved, and other brasses with rec-
ords of treaties with other nations. Fabius was
accused of having done all the harm by having
broken the law of nations, but he was spared at the
entreaty of his friends. Manlius was surnamed
Capitolinus, and had a house granted him on the
Capitol ; and Camillus when h^ laid down his dic-
tatorship, was saluted as like Romulus — another
founder of Rome.

The new buildings were larger and more orna-
mented than the old ones ; but the lines of the old
underground drains, built in the mighty Etruscan
fashion by the elder Tarquin as it was said, were
not followed, and this tended to render Rome more
unhealthy, so that few of her richer citizens lived
there in summer or autumn, but went out to coun-
try houses on the hills.

CHAPTER XIIL

THE PLEBEIAN CONSULATE.
B.C. 367.

ALL the old enemies of Rome attacked her
again when she was weak and rising out of
her ruins, but Camillus had wisely persuaded the
Romans to add the people of Veii, Capena, and
Falerii to. the number of their citizens, making four
more tribes : and this addition to their numbers
helped them beat off their foes.

But this enlarged the number of the plebeians,
and enabled them to make their claims more heard.
Moreover, the old quarrel between poor and rich,
debtor and creditor, broke out again. Those who
had saved their treasure in the time of the sack had
made loans to those who had lost to enable them to
build their houses and stock their farms again,
119

120 Young Folks' History of Rome,

and after a time they called loudly for payment,
* and when it was not forthcoming had the debtors
seized to be sold as slaves. Camillus liimself was
one of the hardest creditors of all, and the barracks
where slaves were placed to be sold were full of
citizens.

Marcus Manlius Capitolinus was full of pity, and

raised money to redeem four hundred of them, try-
ing with all his might to get the law changed and
to save the rest; but the rich men and the patri-
cians thought he acted only out of jealousy of Ca-
millus, and to get up a party for himself. They

The Plebeian Consulate.

121

said he was raising a sedition, and Pnblius Corne-
lius Cossus was named Dictator to put it down.
Manlius was seized and put into chains, but released
again. At last the rich men bought over two of
the tribunes to accuse him of wanting to make
himself a king, and this hated
title turned all the people
against their friend, so that the
general cry sentenced him to be
cast down from the top of the
Tarpeian rock ; his house on the
Capitol was overthrown, and his
family declared that no son of
their house should ever again
bear the name of Manlius.

Yet the plebeians were making
their way, and at last succeeded
in gaining the plebeian magis-
tracies and equal honors with

COSTUME.

the patricians. A curious story
is told of the cause of the last effort which gained
the day. A patrician named Fabius Ambustus had
two daughters, one of whom he gave in marriage to
Servius Sulpicius, a patrician and military tribune,
the other to Licinius Stolo. One day, when Stolo's
wife was visiting her sister, there was a great noise

122 Young Folks' History of Rome.

and thundering at the gates which frightened her,
until the other Fabii said it was only her husband
coming home from the Forum attended by his
lictors and clients, laughing at her ignorance and
alarm, until a whole troop of the clients came in to
pay their court to the tribune's wife.

Stolo's wife went home angry and vexed, and
reproached her husband and her father for not hav-
ing made her equal with her sister, and so wrought
on them that they put themselves at the head of
the movement in favor of the plebeians ; and Licin-
ius and another young plebeian named Lucius Sex-
tius, being elected year after year tribunes of the
people, went on every time saying Veto to what-
ever was proposed by anybody, and giving out that
they should go on doing so till three measures were
carried — viz., that interest on debt should not be
demanded ; that no citizen should possess more than
three hundred and twenty acres cf the public land,
or feed more than a certain quantity of cattle on
the public pastures; and, lastly, that one of the
two consuls should always be a plebeian.

They went on for eight years, always elected by
the people and always stopping everytliing. At
last there was another inroad of the Gauls expected,
and Camillus, though eighty years old, was for the

The Plebeian Consulate. 123

fifth time chosen Dictator, and gained a great vic-
tory upon the banks of the Anio. The Senate
begged him to continue Dictator till he could set
their affairs to rights, and he vowed to build a tem-
ple to Concord if he could succeed. He saw indeed
that it was time to yield, and persuaded the Senate
to think so ; so that at last, in the year 367, Sextius
was elected consul, together with a patrician, ^mil-
ius. Even then the Senate would not receive
Sextius till he was introduced by Camillus. From
this time the patricians and plebeians were on an
equal footing as far as regarded the magistracies,
but the priesthood could belong only to the patri-
cians. Camillus lived to a great age, and was
honored as having three times saved his country.
He died at last of a terrible pestilence which raged
in Rome in the year 365.

The priests recommended that they should invite
the players from Etruria to perform a drama in
honor of the feats of the gods, and this was the be-
ginning of play-acting in Rome.

Not long after there yawned a terrible chasm in
the Forum, most likely from an earthquake, but
nothing seemed to fill it up, and the priests and
augurs consulted their oracles about it. These
made answer that it would only close on receiving

124 Young Folks' History of Rome.

of what was most precious. Gold and jewels were
thrown in, but it still seemed bottomless, and at
last the augurs declared that it was courage that
was the most precious thing in Rome. Thereupon
a patrician youth named Marcus Curtius decked
himself in his choicest robes, put on his armor, took
his shield, sword, and spear, mounted his horse, and
leapt headlong into the gulf, thus giving it the
most precious of all things, courage and self-devo-
tion. After this one story says it closed of itself,
another that it became easy to fill it up with earth.
The Romans thought that such a sacrifice must
please the gods and bring them success in their
battles ; but in the war with the Hernici that was
now being waged the plebeian consul was killed,
and no doubt there was much difficulty in getting
the patricians to obey a plebeian properly, for in the
course of the next twenty years it was necessary
fourteen times to appoint a Dictator for the defence
of the state, so that it is plain there must have been
many alarms and much difficulty in enforcing dis-
cipline ; but, on the whole, success was with Rome,
and the neighboring tribes grew weaker.

COSTnTS LBAPIMO INTO TMK GVLF. i^i,m a Bju-Reli(f.)

CHAPTER Xiy.

THE DEVOTION OF DECIUS.
B.C. 357.

THER tribes of the Gauls did not fail to

'^^-^ come again and make fresh inroads on the
valleys of the Tiber and Anioo Whenever they
came, instead of choosing men from the tribes to
form an army, as in a war with their neighbors, all
the fighting men of the nation turned out to oppose
them, generally under a Dictator.

In one of these wars the Gauls came within three
miles of Rome, and the two hosts were encamped
on the banks of the Anio, with a bridge between
them. Along this bridge strutted an enormous
Gallic chief, much taller than any of the Romans,
boasting himself, and calling on any one of them to
come out and fight with him. Again it was a

128 Young Folks* History of Rome,

Manlius who distinguished himself. Titus, a young
man of that family, begged the ])ictator's permis-
sion to accept the challenge, and, having gained it,
he changed his round knight's shield for the square
one of the foot soldiers, and with his short sword
came forward on the bridge. The Gaul made a
sweep at him with his broadsword, but, slipping
within the guard, Manlius stabbed the giant in two
places, and as he fell cut off his head, and took the
tore, or broad twisted gold collar that was the
mark- of all Gallic chieftains. Thence the brave
youth was called Titus Manlius Torquatus — a sur-
name to make up for that of Capitolinus, which
had never been used again.

The next time the Gauls came, Marcus Valerius,
a descendant of the old hero Publicola, was consul,
and gained a great victory. It was said that in the
midst of the fight a monstrous raven appeared fly-
ing over his head, resting now and then on his
helmet, but generally pecking at the eyes of the
Gauls and flapping its wings in their faces, so that
they fled discomfited. Thence he was called Cor-
Tus or Corvinus. The Gauls never again came in
such force, but a new enemy came against them,
namely, the Samnites, a people who dwelt to the
south of them. They were of Italian blood, moun-

The Devotion of Decius. 131

taineers of the Southern Apennines, not unlike the
Romans in habits, language, and training, and the
staunchest enemies they had yet encountered. The
war began from an entreaty from the people of
Campania to the Romans to defend them from the
attacks of the Samnites. For the Campanians,
living in the rich plains, whose name is still un-
changed, were an idle, languid people, whom the
stout men of Samnium could easily overcome. The
Romans took their part, and Valerius Corvus
gained a victory at Mount Gaurus ; but the other
consul, Cornelius Cossus, fell into danger, having
marched foolishly into a forest, shut in by moun-
tains, and with only one way out through a deep
valley, which was guarded by the Samnites. In
this almost hopeless danger one of the military
tribunes, Publius Decius Mus, discovered a little
hill above the enemy's camp, and asked leave to
lead a small body of men to seize it, since he would
be likely thus to draw off the Samnites, and while
they were destroying him, as he fully expected, the
Romans could get out of the valley. Hidden by
the wood, he gained the hill, and there the Sam-
nites saw him, to their great amazement; and
while they were considering whether to attack him,
the other Romans were able to march out of the

132 Young Folks' History of Rome,

valley. Finding he was not attacked, Decius set
guards, and, when night came on, marched down
again as quietly as possible to join the army, who
were now on the other side of the Samnite camp.
Through the midst of this he and his little camp
went without alarm, until, about half-way across,
one Roman struck his foot against a shield. The
noise awoke the Samnites, but Decius caused his
men to give a great shout, and this, in the dark-
ness, so confused the enem}^ that they missed the
little body of Romans, who safely gained their own
camp. Decius cut short the thanks and joy of the
consul by advising him to fall at once on the Sam-
nite camp in its dismay, and this was done ; the
Samnites were entirely routed, 30,000 killed, and
their camp taken. Decius received for his reward
a hundred oxen, a white bull with gilded horns,
and three crowns — one of gold for courage, one of
oak for having saved the lives of his fellow-citizens,
and one of grass for having taken the enemy's
camp — while all his men were for life to receive a
double allowance of corn. Decius offered up the
white bull in sacrifice to Mars, and gave the oxen
to the companions of his glory.

Afterwards Valerius routed the Samnites again,
and his troops brought in 120 standards and 40,000

The Devotion of Decius. 138

shields which they had picked up, having been
thrown away by the enemy in their flight.

Peace was made for the time ; but the Latins,
now in alliance with Rome, began to make war on
the Samnites. They complained, and the Romans
feeling bound to take their part, a great Latin war
began. Manlius Torquatus and Decius Mus, the
two greatest heroes of Rome, were consuls. As the
Latins and Romans were alike in dress, arms, and
language, in order to prevent taking friend for foe,
strict orders were given that no one should attack
a Latin without orders, or go out of his rank, on
pain of death. A Latin champion came out boast-
ing, as the two armies lay beneath Mount Vesuvius,
then a fair vine-clad hill showing no flame. Young
Manlius remembering his father's fame, darted out,
fought hand to hand with the Latin, slew him, and
brought home his spoils to his father's feet. He
had forgotten that his father had only fought after
permission was given. The elder Manlius received
him with stern grief. He had broken the law of
discipline, and he must die. His head was struck off
amid the grief and anger of the army. The battle
was bravely foright, but it went against the Romans
at first. Then Decius, recollecting a vision which
had declared that a consul must devote himself for

134 Young Folks' History of Rome*

his country, called on Valerius, the Pontifex Max-
imus, to dedicate him. He took off his armor, put
on his purple toga, covered his head with a veil, and
standing on a spear, repeated the words of consecra-
tion after Valerius, then mounted his horse and rode
in among the Latins. They at first made way, but
presently closed in and overpowered him with a
shower of darts ; and thus he gave for his country
the life he had once offered for it.

The victory was won,. and was so followed up
that the Latins were forced to yield to Rome.
Some of the cities retained their own laws and
magistrates, but others had Romans with their
families settled in them, and were called colonies,
while the Latin people themselves became Roman
citizens in everything but the power of becoming
magistrates or voting for them, being, in fact, very
mach what the earliest plebeians had been before
they acquired any rights. '

CHAPTER XV.

THE SAMNITE WARS.

IN the year 332, just when Alexander the Great
was making his conquests in the East, his uncle
Alexander, king of Epirus, brother to his mother
Olympius, came to Italy, where there were so many
Grecian citizens south of the Samnites that the foot
of Italy was called Magna Grsecia, or Greater
Greece. He attacked the Samnites, and the
Romans were not sorry to see them weakened, and
made an alliance with him. He stayed in Italy
about six years, and was then killed.

To overthrow the Samnites was the great object
of Rome at this time, and for this purpose they
offered their protection and alliance to all the cities
that stood in dread of that people. One of the

cities was founded by men from the isle of Euboea,
\35

136 Young Folks' History of Rome,

who called it Neapolis, or the New City, to distin-
guish it from the old town near at hand, which they
called Palseopolis, or the Old City. The elder city
held out against the Romans, but was easily over-
powered, while the new one submitted to Rome ;
but these southern people were very shallow and
fickle, and little to be depended on, as they often
changed sides between the Romans and Samnites.
In the midst of the siege of Palseopolis, the year of
the consulate came to an end, but the Senate, while
causing two consuls as usual to be elected at home,
would Tiot recall Publilius Philofrom the siege, and
therefore appointed him proconsul there. This was
in 326, and was the beginning of the custom of
sending the ex-consul as proconsul to command the
armies or govern the provinces at a distance from
home.

In 320, the consul falling sick, a dictator was ap-
pointed, Lucius Papirius Cursor, one of the most
stern and severe men in Rome. He was obliged
by some religious ceremony to return to Rome for
a time, and he forbade his lieutenant, Quintus
Fabius Rullianus, to venture a battle in his ab-
sence. But so good an opportunity offered that
Fabius attacked the enemy, beat them, and killed
20,000 men. Then selfishly unwilling to have the

Combat betwben a mirmillu and a samnxtb.
\

Combat between a light-armed gladiator and
a samnite,

The Samnite Wars. 139

spoils he had won carried in the dictator's triumph,
he burnt them all. Papirius arrived in great anger,
and sentenced him to death for his disobedience ;
but while the lictors were stripping him, he con-
trived to escape from their hands among the sol-
diers, who closed on him, so that he was able to get
to Eome, where his father called the Senate to-
gether, and they showed themselves so resolved to
save his life that Papirius was forced to pardon
him, though not without reproaching the Romans
for having fallen from the stern justice of Brutus
and Manlius.

Two years later the two consuls, Titus Veturius
and Spurius Posthumius, were marching into Cam-
pania, when the Samnite commander, Pontius He-
rennius, sent forth people disguised as shepherds to
entice them into a narrow mountain pass near the
city of Candium, shut in by thick woods, leading
into a hollow curved valley, with thick brushwood
on all sides, and only one way out, which the Sam-
nites blocked up with trunks of trees. As soon as
the Romans were within this place the other end
was blocked in the same way, and thus they were
all closed up at the mercy of their enemies.

What was to be done with them ? asked the
Samnites ; and they went to consult old Herennius,

140 Young Folks* History of Rome.

the father of Pontius, the wisest man in the nation.
" Open the way and let them all go free," he said.

" What ! without gaining any advantage ? "

" Then kill them all."

He was asked to explain such extraordinary ad-
vice. He said that to release them generously
would be to make them friends and allies for ever ;
but if the war was to go on, the best thing for
Samnium would be to destroy such a number of
enemies at a blow. But the Samnites could not
resolve upon either plan; so they took a middle
course, the worst of all, since it only made the Ro-
mans furious without weakening them. They were
made to take off all their armor and lay down their
weapons, and thus to pass out under the yoke,
namely, three spears set up like a doorway. The
consuls, after agreeing to a disgraceful peace, had
to go first, wearing only their undermost garment,
then all the rest, two and two, and if any one of
them gave an angry look, he was immediately
knocked down and killed. They went on in si-
lence into Campania, where, when night came on,
they all threw themselves, half-naked, silent, and
hungry upon the grass. The people of Capua came
out to help them, and brought them food and
clothing, trying to do them all honor and comfort

The Samnite Wars.

141

them, but they would neither look up nor speak.
And thus they went on to Rome, where everybody
had put on mourning, and all the ladies went with-
out their jewels, and the shops in the Forum were

ANCIENT ROME.

closed. The unhappy men stole into their houses
at night one by one, and the consuls would not re~
sume their office, but two were appointed to serve
instead for the rest of the year.

142 Young Folks' History of Rome,

Revenge was all that was thought of, but the
difficulty was the peace to which the consuls had
sworn. Posthumius said that if it was disavowed
by the Senate, he, who had been driven to make it,
must be given back to the Samnites. So, with his
hands tied, he was taken back to the Samnite camp
by a herald and delivered over ; but at that mo-
ment Posthumius gave the herald a kick, crying
out, " I am now a Samnite, and have insulted you,
a Roman herald. This is a just cause of war."
Pontius and the Samnites were very angry, and
they said it was an unworthy trick ; but they did
not prevent Posthumius from going safely back to
the Romans, who considered him to have quite re-
trieved his honor.

A battle was fought, in which Pontius and 7000
men were forced to lay down their arms and pass
under the yoke in their turn. The struggle be-
tween these two fierce nations lasted altogether
seventy years, and the Romans had many defeats.
They had other wars at the same time. They
never subdued Etruria, and in the battle of Senti-
num, fought with the Gauls, the consul Decius
Mus, devoted himself exactly as his father had done
at Vesuvius, and b}' his death won the victory.

The Samnite wars may be considered as ending

THie Samnite Wars.

143

in 290, when the chief general of Samnium, Pon-
tius Telesimus, was made prisoner and put to death
at Rome. The lands in the open country were
quite subdued, but many Samnites still lived in the
fastnesses of the Apennines in the south, which
have ever since been the haunt of wild untamed
men.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE WAR WITH PYRRHUS.
B.C. 280—271.

IN the Grecian History you remember that Pyr-
rhus, king of Epirus, the townsman of Alexander
the Great, made an expedition to Italy. This was
the way it came about. The city of Tarentum was
a Spartan colony at the head of the gulf that bears
its name. It was as proud as its parent, but had
lost all the grave sternness of manners, and was as
idle and fickle as the other places in that languid
climate. The Tarentines first maltreated some
Roman ships which put into their gulf, and then in-
sulted the ambassador who was sent to complain.
Then when the terrible Romans were found to be
really coming to revenge their honor, the Taren-
tines took fright, and sent to beg Pyrrhus to come

to their aid.

144

The War with Pyrrhus.

145

He readily accepted the invitation, and coming
to Italy with 28,000 men and twenty elephants,
hoped to conquer the whole country ; but he found
the Tarentines not to be trusted, and soon weary
of entertaining him, while they could not keep their
promises of aid from the other Greeks of Italy.

The Romans marched
against him, and there was
a great battle on the banks
of the river Siris, where the
fighting was very hard, but
when the elephants charged
the Romans broke and fled,
and were only saved by
nightfall from being entire-
ly destroyed. So great,
however, had been Pyrrhus'
loss that he said, "Such
another victory, and I shall
have to go back alone to
Epirus."

He thought he had better
treat with the Romans, and sent his favorite coun-
sellor Kineas to offer to make peace, provided the
Romans would promise safety to his Italian allies,
and presents were sent to the senators and their

PYRRHUS.

146 Young Folks' History of Rome,

wives to induce them to listen favorably. People
in ancient Greece expected such gifts to back a
suit ; but Kineas found that nobody in Rome would
hear of being bribed, though many were not un-
willing to make peace. Blind old Appius Claudius,
who had often been consul, caused himself to be
led into the Senate to oppose it, for it was hard to
his pride to make peace as defeated men. Kineas
was much struck with Rome, where he found a
state of things like the best days of Greece, and,
going back to his master, told him that the senate-
house was like a temple, and those who sat there
like an assembly of kings, and that he feared they
were fighting with the Hydra of Lerna, for as soon
as they had destroyed one Roman army another
had sprung up in its place.

However, the Romans wanted to treat about the
prisoners Pyrrhus had taken, and they sent Caius
Fabricius to the Greek camp for the purpose.
Kineas reported him to be a man of no wealth, but
esteemed as a good soldier and an honest man.
Pyrrhus tried to make him take large presents, but
nothing would Fabricius touch; and then, in the
hope of alarming him, in the middle of a conversa-
tion the hangings of one side of the tent suddenly
fell, and disclosed the biggest of all the elephants,

The War with Pyrrhus, 147

who waved his trunk over Fabricius and trumpeted
frightfully. The Roman quietly turned round and
smiled as he said to the king, "I am no more moved
by your gold than by your great beast."

At supper there was a conversation on Greek
philosophy, of which the Romans as yet knew

ROMAN ORATOB.

nothing. When the doctrine of Epicurus was men-
tioned, that man's life was given to be spent in the
pursuit of joy, Fabricius greatly amused the com-
pany by crying out, " O Hercules ! grant that the

148 Young Folks' History of Rome,

Greeks may be heartily of this mind so long as we
have to fight with them."

Pyrrhus even tried to persuade Fabricius to enter
his service, but the answer was, " Sir, I advise you
not ; for if your people once tasted of my rule, they
would all desire me to govern them instead of you."
Pyrrhus consented to let the prisoners go home,
but, if no peace were made, they were to return
again as soon as the Saturnalia were over ; and
this was faithfully done. Fabricius was consul the
next year, and thus received a letter from Pj^rrhus'
physician, offering for a reward to rid the Komans
of his master by poison. The two consuls sent it
to the king with the following letter : — " Caius
Fabricius and Quintus ^milius, consuls, to Pyr-
rhus, king, greeting. You choose your friends and
foes badly. This letter will show that you make
war with honest men and trust rogues and knaves.
We tell you, not to win your favor, but lest your
ruin might bring on the reproach of ending the war
by treachery instead of force."

Pyrrhus made enquiry, put the physician to
death, and by way of acknowledgment released the
captives, trying again to make peace ; but the
Romans would accept no terms save that he should
give up the Tarentines and go back in the same

The War With Pyrrhus, 149

ships. A battle was fought iu the wood of As-
culum. Decius Mus declared he would devote
himself like his father and grandfather ; but Pyr-
hus heard of this, and sent word that he had given
orders that Decius should not be killed, but taken
alive and scourged ; and this prevented him. The
Romans were again forced back by the might of
the elephants, but not till night fell on them.
Pyrrhus had been wounded, and hosts of Greeks
had fallen, among them many of Pyrrhus' chief
friends.

He then went to Sicily, on an invitation from
the Greeks settled there, to defend them from the
Carthaginians ; but finding them as little satisfac-
tory as the Italian Greeks, he suddenly came back
to Tarentum. This time one of the consuls was
Marcus Curius — called Dentatus, because he had
been born with teeth in his mouth — a stout, plain
old Roman, very stern, for when he levied troops
against Pyrrhus, the first man who refused to serve
was punished by having his property seized and
sold. He then marched southward, and at Bene-
ventum at length entirely defeated Pyrrhus, and
took four of his elephants. Pyrrhus was obliged
to return to Epirus, and the Roman steadiness had
won the day after nine years.

150 Young Folks* History of Rome,

Dentatus had the grandest triumph that had ever
been known at Rome, with the elephants walking
in the procession, the first that the Romans had
ever seen. All the spoil was given up to the com-
monwealth ; and when, some time after, it was
asserted that he had taken some for himself, it
turned out that he had only kept one old wooden
vessel, which he used in sacrificing to the gods.

The Greeks of Southern Italy had behaved very
ill to Pyrrhus and turned against him. The Ro-
mans found them so fickle and troublesome that
they were all reduced in one little war after an-
other. The Tarentines had to surrender and lose
their walls and their fleet, and so had the people of
Sybaris, who have become a proverb for idleness,
for they were so lazy that they were said to have
killed all their crowing-birds for waking them too
early in the morning. All the peninsula of Italy
now belonged to Rome, and great roads were made
of paved stones connecting them with it, many of
which remain to this day, even the first of all,
called the Appian Way, from Rome to Capua,
which was made under the direction of the censor
Appius Claudius, during the Samnite war.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.
264—240.

WE are now come to the time when Rome be-
came mixed up in wars with nations beyond
Italy. There was a great settlement of the Phoe-
nicians, the merchants of the old world, at Car-
thage, on the northern coast of Africa, the same
place at which Yirgil afterwards described ^neas
as spending so much time. Dido, the queen who
was said to have founded Carthage when fleeing
from her wicked brother-in-law at Tyre, is thought
to have been an old goddess, and the religion and
manners of the Carthaginians were thoroughly
Phoenician, or, as the Romans called them, Punic.
They had no king, but a Senate, and therewith
rulers called by the name that is translated as
151

152 Young Folks'^ History of Rome.

judges in the Bible ; and they did not love war,
only trade, and spread out their settlements for this
purpose all over the coast of the Mediterranean,
from Spain to the Black Sea, wherever a country
had mines, wool, dyes, spices, or men to trade with ;
and their sailors were the boldest to be found any-
where, and were the only ones who had passed be-
yond the Pillars of Hercules, namely, the Straits of
Gibraltar, in the Atlantic Ocean. They built
handsome cities, and country houses with farms
and gardens round them, and had all tokens of
wealth, and luxury — ivory, jewels, and spices from
India, pearls from the Persian Gulf, gold from
Spain, silver from the Balearic Isles, tin from the
Scilly Isles, amber from the Baltic ; and they had
forts to protect their settlements. They generally
hired the men of the countries, where they settled,
to fight their battles, sometimes under hired Greek
captains, but often under generals of their own.

The first place where thej^ did not have every-
thing their own way was Sicily. The old inhabi-
tants of the island were called Sicels, a rough peo-
ple ; but besides these there were a great number
of Greek settlements, also of Carthaginian ones,
and these two hated one another. The Cartha-
ginians tried to overthrow the Greeks, and Pyr-

KOMAN SlilP

The First Punic War. 166

rhus, by coming to help his countrymen, only made
them more bitter against one another. When he
went away he exclaimed, " What an arena we
leave for the Romans and Carthaginians to contend
upon ! " so sure was he that these two great nations
must soon fight out the struggle for power.

The beginning of the struggle was, however, 3,
brought on by another cause. Messina, the place
founded lon^- ago by the brave exiles of Messene,
when the Spartans had conquered their state,: had
been seized by a troop of Mamertines, fierce Italians
from Mamertum ; and these, on being threatened
by Xiero, king of Syracuse, sent to offer to become
subjects to the Romans, thus giving them the com-
mand of the port which secured the entrance of the
island. The Senate had great scruples about ac- ^
cepting the offer, and supporting a set of mere rob-
bers ; but the two consuls and all the people could
not withstand the temptation, and it was resolved
to assist the Mamertines. Thus began what was
called the First Punic War. The difficulty was,
however, want of ships. The Romans had none
of their own, and though they collected a few from
their Greek allies in Italy, it was not in time to
prevent some of the Mamertines from suiTendering
the citadel to Xanno, the Carthaginian general,

156 Young Folks* History of Rome,

who thought himself secure, and came down to
treat with the Roman tribune Claudius, haughtily
bidding the Romans no more to try to meddle with
the sea, for they should not be allowed so much as
to wash their hands in it. Claudius, angered at
this, treacherously laid hands on Xanno, and he
agreed to give up the castle on being set free ; but
he had better have remained a prisoner, for the
Carthaginians punished him with crucifixion, and
besieged Messina, but in vain.

The Romans felt that a fleet was necessary, and
set to work to build war galleys on the pattern of a
Carthaginian one which had been wrecked upon
their coast. While a hundred ships were building,
oarsmen were trained to row on dry land, and in
two months the fleet put to sea. Knowing that
there was no chance of being able to fight accord-
ing to the regular rales of running the beaks of
their galleys into the sides of those of their enemies,
they devised new plans of letting heavy weights de-
scend on the ships of the opposite fleet, and then of
letting drawbridges down by which to board them.
The Carthaginians, surprised and dismayed, when
thus attacked off Mylae by the consul Duilius, were
beaten and chased to Sardinia, where their unhappy
commander was nailed to a cross by his own sol-

The First Punic War. 157

f
diers ; while Duilius not only received in Rome a
grand triumph for his first naval victory, but it was
decreed that he should never go out into the city at
night without a procession of torch-bearers.

The Romans now made up their minds to send
an expedition to attack the Carthaginian power not
only in Sicily but in Africa, and this was placed
under the command of a sturdy plebeian consul,
Marcus Attilius Regulus. He fought a great bat-
tle with the Carthaginian fleet on his way, and he
had even more difficulty with his troops, who greatly
dreaded the landing in Africa as a place of unknown
terror. He landed, however, at some distance
from the city, and did not at once advance on it.
When he did, according to the story current at
Rome, he encountered on the banks of the River
Bagrada an enormous serpent, whose poisonous
breath killed all who approached it, and on whose
scales darts had no effect. At last the machines
for throwing huge stones against city walls were used
against it ; its backbone was broken, and it was at
last killed, and its skin sent to Rome.

The Romans met other enemies, whom they de-
feated, and gained much plunder. The Senate,
understanding that the Carthaginians were cooped
up within their walls, recalled half the army. Re-

158 Young Folks* History of Rome,

gulus wished mucli to return, as the slave who
tilled his little farm had run away with his plough,
and his wife was in distress ; but he was so valu-
able that he could not be recalled, and he remained
and soon took Tunis. The Carthaginians tried to
win their gods' favor back by offering horrid human
sacrifices to Moloch and Baal, and then hired a
Spartan general named Xanthippus, who defeated
the Romans, chiefly by means of the elephants, and
made Regulus prisoner. The Romans, who hated
the Carthaginians so much as to believe them capa-
ble of any wickedness, declared that in their jeal-
ousy of Xanthippus' victory, they sent him home to
Greece in a vessel so arranged as to founder at sea.
However, the Romans, after several disasters in
Sicily, gained a great victory near Panormus, cap-
turing one hundred elephants, which were brought
to Rome to be hunted by the people that they might
lose their fear of them. The Carthaginians were
weakened enough to desire peace, and they sent
Regulus to propose it, making him swear to return
if he did not succeed. He came to the outskirts of
the city, but would not enter. He said he was no
Roman pro-consul, but the slave of Carthage.
However, the Senate came out to hear him, and he
gave the message, but added that the Romans

KOMAX OKDEK OF BATTLE.

The First Punic War. 161

ought not to accept these terms, but to stand out
for much better ones, giving such reasons that the
whole people was persuaded. He was entreated to
remain and not meet the angry men of Carthage ;
but nothing would persuade him to break his word,
and he went back. The Romans told dreadful
stories of the treatment he met with— how his
eyelids were cut off and he was put in the sunshine,
and at last he was nailed up in a barrel lined with
spikes and rolled down hill. Some say that this
was mere report, and that Carthaginian prisoners
at Rome were as savagely treated ; but at any rate
the constancy of Regulus has always been a prov-
erb.

The war went on, and one of the j)roud Claudius
family was in command at Trepan um, in Sicily, /
when the enemy's fleet came in sight. Before a
battle the Romans ahvays consulted the sacred
fowls that were carried with the army. Claudius
was told that their augury was against a battle — ■
they would not eat. '' Then let them drink," he
cried, and threw them into the sea. His impiety, as
all felt it, was punished by an utter defeat, and he
killed himself to avoid an enquiry. The war went
on by land and sea all over and around Sicily, till
at the end of twenty-four years peace was made,

162

Young Folks' History of Rome,

just after another great sea-fight, in which Rome
had the victory. She made th3 Carthaginians give
up all they held in Sicily, restore their prisoners,
make a large payment, and altogether humble their
claims ; thus beginning a most bitter hatred towards
the conquerors, who as greatly hated and despised
them. Thus ended the First Punic War.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONQUEST OF CISALPINE GAUL.
240—219.

AFTER the end of the Punic war, Carthage
fell into trouble with her hired soldiers, and
did not interfere with the Romans for a long time,
while they went on to arrange the government of
Sicily into what they called a province, which was
ruled by a propraetor for a year after his magistracy
at home. The Greek kingdom of Syracuse indeed
still remained as an ally of Rome, and Messina and
a few other cities were allowed to choose their own
magistrates and govern themselves.

Soon after, Sardinia and Corsica were given up
to the Romans by the hired armies of the Cartha-
ginians, and as the natives fought hard against
Rome, when they were conquered they were for the
163

164 Young Folks' History of Rome.

most part sold as slaves. These two islands like-
wise had a propraetor.

The Romans now had all the peninsula south of
themselves, and as far north as Ariminim (now
shortened into Rimini ), but all beyond belonged to
the Gauls — the Cisalpine Gauls, or Gauls on this
side the Alps, as the Romans called them ; while
those on the other side were called Transalpine
Gauls, or Gauls across the Alps. These northern
(iaiils Avere gathering again for an inroad on the
south, and in the midst of the rumors of this danger
there was a great thunderstorm at Rome, and the
Capitol was struck by lightning. Tlie Sybilline
books were searched into to see what this might
mean, and a warning was found, " Beware of the
Gauls." Moreover, there was a saying that the
Greeks and Gauls should one day enjoy the Forum ;
but the Romans fancied they could satisfy this
prophecy by burying a man and woman of ea'^^li
nation, slaves, in the middle of the Forum, and then
they prepared to attack the Gauls in their own coun-
try before the inroad could be made. There was
a great deal of hard fighting, lasting for years ; and
in the course of it the consul, Caius Flaminius, be-
gan the great road which has since been called after
him the Flaminian Way, and was the great north-

Conquest of OiHalpiiie Graul, 165

ern road from Rome, as the Appian Way was the
southern.

The great hero of the war was Marcus Claudius
Marcellus, who had already made himself known
for his dauntless courage. As consul, he fought a

THE WOUNDED GAUL.

desperate battle on the banks of the Po with the
Gauls of both sides the Alps, and himself killed
their king or chief, Viridomar. He brought the
spoils to Rome, and hung them in the Temple of
Jupiter. It was only the third time in the history
of Rome that such a thing had been done. Cisal-
pine Gaul was thus subdued, and another road was

166 Young Folks' History of Rome,

made to secure it ; while in the short peace that
followed the gates of the Temple of Janus were
shut, having stood open ever since the reign of
Numa.

The Romans were beginning to make their wor-
ship the same with that of the Greeks. They sent
offerings to Greek temples, said tliat their old gods
were the same as those of the Greeks, only under
different names, and sent an embassy to Epidaurus
to ask for a statue of Esculapius, the god of medi-
cine and son of Phoebus Apollo. The emblem oi
Esculapius was a serpent, and tanie serpents were
kept about his temple at Epidaurus. One of these
glided into the Roman galley that had come for
the statue, and it was treated with gi-eat respect by
all the crew until they sailed up the Tiber, when it
made its way out of the vessel and swam to the
island which had been formed by the settling of the
mud round the heap of corn that had been thrown
into the river when Porsena wasted the country.
This was supposed to mean that the god himself
took possession of the place, and a splendid temple
there rose in his honor.

Another imitation of the Greeks which came
into fashion at this time had a sad effect on the
Romans. The old funerals in Greek poems had

Conquest of Cisalpine Caul. 167

ended by games and struggles between swordsmen.
Two brothers of the Brutus family first showed off
such a game at their father's funeral, and it became
a regular custom, not only at funerals, but when-
ever there was need to entertain the people, to
show off fights of swordsmen. The soldier captives
from conquered nations were used in this way ;
and some persons kept schools of slaves, who were
trained for these fights and called gladiators. The
battle was a real one, with sharp weapons, for life
or death ; and when a man was struck down, he
was allowed to live or sentenced to death according
as the spectators turned down or turned up their
thumbs. The Romans fancied- that the sight trained
them to be brave, and to despise death and wounds ;
but the truth was that it only made them hard-
hearted, and taught them to despise other people's
pain — a very different thing from despising their
own.

Another thing that did great harm was the mak-
ing it lawful for a man to put away a wife who had
no children. This ended by making the Romans
much less careful to have one good wife, and the
Roman ladies became much less noble and excellent
than they had been in the good old days.

In the meantime, the Carthaginians, having lost

168 Young Folks' History of Rome,

the three islands, began to spread their settlements
further in Spain, where their chief colony was New
Carthage, or, as we call it, Carthagena. The moun-
tains were full of gold mines, and the Iberians, the
nation who held them, were brave and warlike, so

HAlTNIBAIi's VOW.

that there was much fighting to train up fresh
armies. Hamilcar, the chief general in command
there, had four sons, whom he said were lion whelps
being bred up against Rome. He took them with
liim to Spain, and at a great sacrifice for the success

Conquest of Cisalpine Graul. 169

of his arms the youngest and most promising, Han-
nibal, a boy of nine years old, was made to lay his
hand on the altar of Baal and take an oath that he
would always be the enemy of the Romans. Ham-
ilcar was killed in battle, but Hannibal grew up to
be all that he had hoped, and at twenty-six was in
command of the army. He threatened the Iberians
of Saguntum, who sent to ask help from Rome.
A message was sent to him to forbid him to disturb
the ally of Rome ; but he had made up his mind
for war, and never even asked the Senate of Car-
thage what \\ as to be done, but went on with the
siege of Saguntum. Rome was busy with a war in
Illyria, and coukl send no help, and the Saguntines
held out with the greatest braver}' and constancy,
month after month, till they were all on the point
of starvation, then kindled a great fire, slew all
their wives and children, and let Hannibal win
nothing but a pile of smoking ruins.

Again the Romans sent to Carthage to complain,
but the Senate there had made up their minds that
war there must be, and that it was a good time
when Rome had a war in Illyria on her hands, and
Cisalpine Gaul hardly subdued ; and they had such
a general as Hannibal, though they did not know
what a wonderful scheme he had in his mind,

170

Young Folks'^ History of Rome,

namely, to make his way by land from Spain to
Italy, gaining the help of the Gauls, and stirring
up all those nations of Italy who had fought so
long against Rome. His march, which marks the
beginning of the Second Punic War, started from

IN THE PYRENEES

the banks of the Ebro in the beginning of the sum-
mer of 219. His army was 20,000 foot and 12,000
horse, partly Carthaginian, partly Gaul and Iberian.
The horsemen were Moorish, and he had thirty-
seven elephants. He left his brother Hasdrubal
with 10,000 men at the foot of the Pyrenees and

Conquest of Cisalpine Gaul. 171

pushed on, but he could not reach the Alps before
the late autumn, and his passage is one of the great-
est wonders of history. Roads there were none,
and he had to force his way up the passes of the
Little St. Bernard through snow and ice, terrible to
the men and animals of Africa, and fighting all the
way, so that men and horses perished in great num-
bers, and only seven of the elephants were left when
he at length descended into the plains of Northern
Italy, where he hoped the Cisalpine Gauls would
welcome him.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.
219.

WHEN the Romans heard that Hannibal had
passed the Pyrenees, they had two armies
on foot, one under Publius Cornelius Scipio, which
was to go to Spain, and the other nnder Tiberius
Sempronius Longus, to attack Africa. They
changed their plan, and kept Sempronius to defend
Italy, while Scipio went by sen to Marsala, a Greek
colony in Gaul, to try to stop Hannibal at the
Rhone ; but he was too late, and therefore, sending
on most of his army to Spain, he came back him-
self with his choicest troops. With these he tried
to stop the enemy from crossing the river Ticinus,
but he was defeated and so badly wounded that his
life was only saved by the bravery of his son, who
led him out of the battle.

172

The Second Punic War. 175

Before he was able to join the army again, Sem-
pronius had fought another battle with Hannibal
on the banks of the Trebia and suffered a terrible
defeat. But winter now came on, and the Cartha-
ginians found it very hard to bear in the marshes
of the Arno. Hannibal himself was so ill that he
only owed his life to the last of his elephants, which
carried him safely through when he was almost
blind, and in the end he lost an eye. In the spring
he went on ravaging the country in hopes to make
the two new consuls, Flaminius and Servilius, fight
with him, but they were too cautious, until at last
Flaminius attacked him in a heavy fog on the
shore of Lake Trasimenus. It is said that an earth-
quake shook the ground, and that the eager war-
riors never perceived it ; but again the Romans
lost, Flaminius was killed, and there was a dread-
ful slaughter, for Hannibal had sworn to give no
quarter to a Roman. The only thing that was
hopeful for Rome was that neither Gauls, Etrus-
cans, nor Italians showed any desire to rise in favor
of Hannibal ; and though he was now very near
Rome, he durst not besiege it without the help of
the people around to bring him supplies, so he only
marched southwards, hoping to gain the support of
the Greek colonies. A dictator was appointed.

176 Young Folks' History of Rome.

Quintus Fabius Maximus, who saw that, by
strengthening all the garrisons in the towns and
cutting off all provisions, he should wear the enemy
out at last. As he always put off a battle, he was
called Cunctator, or the Delayer ; but at last he
had the Carthaginians enclosed as in a trap in the
valley of the river Vulturnus, and hoped to cut
them off, posting men in ambush to fall on them on
their morning's march. Hannibal guessed that this
must be the plan ; and at night he had the cattle
in the camp collected, fastened torches to their
horns, and drove them up the hills. The Romans,
fancying themselves surrounded by the enemy,
came out of their hiding-places to fall back on the
camp, and Hannibal and his army safely escaped.
This mischance made the Romans weary of the
Delayer's policy, and when the year was out, and
two consuls came in, though one of them, Lucius
^Emilius Paulus, would have gone on in the same
cautious plan of starving Hannibal out without a
battle, the other, Caius Terentius Varro, who com-
manded on alternate days with him, was determined
on a battle. Hannibal so contrived that it was
fought on the plain of Cannae, where there was,
plenty of space to use his Moorish horse. It was
Varro's dav of command, and he dashed at the

The Second Punic War. 177

centre of the enemy; Hannibal opened a space
for him, then closed in on both sides with his
terrible horse, and made a regular slaughter of the
Romans. The last time that the consul ^milius
was seen was by a tribune named Lentulus, who
found him sitting on a stone faint and bleeding,
and would have given him his own horse to escape,
but JEmilius answered that he had no mind to have
to accuse his comrade of rashness, and had rather
die. A troop of enemies coming up, Lentulus rode
off, and looking back, saw his consul fall, pierced
with darts. So many Romans had been killed, that
Hannibal sent to Carthage a basket containing
10,000 of the gold rings worn by the knights.

Hannibal was only five days' march beyond
Rome, and his officers wanted him to turn back and
attack it in the first shock of the defeat, but he
could not expect to succeed without more aid from
home, and he wanted to win over the Greek cities
of the south ; so he wintered in Campania, waiting
for the fresh troops he expected from Africa or
from Spain, where his brother Mago was preparing
an army. But the Carthaginians did not care
about Hannibars campaigns in Italy, and sent no
help ; and Publius Cornelius Scipio and his brother,
with a Roman army in Spain, were ^^ atching Mago

178 Young Folks' History of Rome.

and preventing him from marching, until at last he
gave them battle and defeated and killed them
both. But he was not allowed to go to Italy to
his brother, who, in the meantime, found his army
so unstrung and ill-disciplined in the delightful but
languid Campania, that the Romans declared the
luxuries of Capua were their best allies. He
stayed in the south, however, trying to gain the
alliance of the king of Macedon, and stirring up
Syracuse to revolt. Marcellus, who was consul for
the third time, was sent to reduce the city, which
made a famous defence, for it contained Archimedes,
the greatest mathematician of his time, who devised
wonderful machines for crushing the besiegers in
unexpected ways; but at last Marcellus found a
weak part of the walls and
surprised the citizens. He
had given orders that Archi-
medes should be saved, but a
soldier broke into the philoso-
pher's room without knowing
him, and found him so intent
on his study that he had never
ARGHiaiEDEs. hcard the storming of the city.

The man brandished his sword. "Only wait,"
muttered Archimedes, " till I have found out my

The Second Punic War. 179

problem ; " but the man, not understanding him,
killed him.

Hannibal remained in Italy, maintaining himself
there with wonderful skill, though with none of the
hopes with which he had set out. His brother
Hasdrubal did succeed in leaving Spain with an
army to help him, but was met on the river Metaurus
by Tiberius Claudius Nero, beaten, and slain. His
head was cut off by Nero's order, and thrown into
Hannibal's camp to give tidings of his fate.

Young Scipio, meantime, had been sent to Spain,
where he gained great advantages, winning the
friendship of the Iberians, and gaining town after
town till Mago had little left but Gades and the
extreme south. Scipio was one of the noblest of
the Romans, brave, pious, and what was more un-
usual, of such sweet and winning temper, that it
was said of him that wherever he went he might
have been a king.

On returning to Rome, he showed the Senate
that the best way to get Hannibal out of Italy was
to attack Africa. Cautious old Fabius doubted,
but Scipio was sent to Sicily, where he made an al-
liance with Massinissa, the Moorish king in Africa ;
and, obtaining leave to carry out his plan, he was
sent thither, and so alarmed Carthage, that Hanni

180 Young Folks' History of Rome.

bal was recalled to defend his own country, where
he had^ not been smce he was a child. A great
battle took place at Zama between him and Han-
nibal, in which Scipio was the conqueror, and the
loss of Carthage was so terrible that the Romans
were ready to have marched in on her and made
her their subject, but Scipio persuaded them to be
forbearing. Carthage was to pay an immense
tribute, and swear never to make war on any ally
of Rome. And thus ended the Second Punic War,
in the year 201.

CHAPTER XX.

THE FIRST EASTERN WAR.
215—183.

SCIPIO remained in Africa till he had arranged
matters and won such a claim to Massinissa's
gratitude that this king of Numidia was sure to
watch over the interests of Rome. Scipio then
returned home, and entered Rome with a grand
triumph, all the nobler for himself that he did not
lead Hannibal in his chains. He had been too
generous to demand that so brave an enemy should
be delivered up to him. He received the surname
of Africanus, and was one of the most respected
and beloved of Romans. He was the first who be-
gan to take up Greek learning and culture, and to
exchange the old Roman ruggedness for the graces
of philosophy and poetry. Indeed the Romans
181

182 Young Folks' History of Rome.

were beginning to have much to do with the
Greeks, and the war they entered upon now was
the first for the sake of spreading tiieir own power.
Ail the former ones had been in self-defence, and
the new one did in fact spring out of the Punic
war, for the Carthaginians had tried to persuade
Philip, king of Macedon, to follow in the track of
Pjrrhus, and come and help Hannibal in Southern
Italy. The Romans had kept him off by stirring
up the robber ^Etolians against him ; and when he
began to punish these wild neighbors, the Romans
leagued themselves with the old Greek cities which
Macedon oppressed, and a great war took place.

Titus Quinctius Flaminius commanded in Greece
for four years, first as consul and then as proconsul.
His crowning victory was at Cynocephalse, or the
Dogshead Rocks, where he so broke the strength
of Macedon that at the Isthmian games he pro-
claimed the deliverance of Greece, and in their joy
the people crowded round him with crowns and
garlands, and shouted so loud that birds in the air
were said to have dropped down at the sound.

Macedon had cities in Asia Minor, and the king
of -Syria's enemy, Antiochus the Great, hoped to
master them, and even to conquer Greece by the
help of Hannibal, who had found himself unable to

The First Eastern War, 183

live in Carthage after his defeat, and was wander-
ing about to give his services to any one who was
a foe of Rome.

As Rome took the part of Philip, as her subject
and ally, there was soon full scope for his efforts ;
but the Syrians were such wretched troops that
even Hannibal could do nothing with them, and
the king himself would not attend to his advice,
but wasted his time in pleasure in the isle of Eu-
boea. So the consul Acilius first beat them at
Thermopylae, and then, on Lucius Cornelius Scipio
being sent to conduct the war, his great brother
Africanus volunteered to go with him as his lieu-
tenant, and together they followed Antiochus into
Asia Minor, and gained such advantages that the
Syrian was obliged to sue for peace. The Romans
replied by requiring of him to give up all Asia
Minor as far as Mount Tarsus, and in despair he
risked a battle in Magnesia, and met with a total
defeat ; 80,000 Greeks and Syrians being over-
thrown by 50,000 Romans. Neither Africanus nor
Hannibal were present in this battle, since the first
was ill, and the second was besieged in a city in
Pamphylia ; but while terms of peace were being
made, the two are said have met on friendly terms,
and Scipio asked Hannibal whom he thought the

184 Young Folks' History of Rome,

greatest of generals. "Alexander," was the answer.
" Whom the next greatest ? '' " Pyrrhus." "Whom
do you rank as the third ? " " Myself," said Han-
nibal. " But if you had beaten me ? " asked
Scipio. " Then I would have placed myself before
Alexander."

HANNIBAL.

The Romans insisted that Hannibal should be
dismissed by Antiochus, though Scipio declared that
this was ungenerous ; but they dreaded his never-
ceasing enmity ; and when he took refuge with the
king of Bothnia, they still required that lie should
be given up or driven a^ay. On this, Hannibal,

The First Eastern War. 185

worn-out and disappointed, put an end to his own
life by poison, saying he would rid the Romans of
their fear of an old man.

The provinces taken from Antiochus were given
to Eumenes, king of Pergamus, who was to reign
over them as tributarj^ to the Romans. Lucius
Scipio received the surname of Asiaticus, and the
two brothers returned to Rome ; but they had been
too generous and merciful to the conquered to suit
the grasping spirit that had begun to prevail at
Rome, and directly after his triumph Lucius was
accused of having taken to himself an undue share
of the spoil. His brother was too indignant at the
shamefid accusation to think of letting him justify
himself, but tore up his accounts in the face of the
people. The tribune, Naevius, thereu[)on spitefully
called upon him to give an account of the spoil of
Carthage taken twenty years before. The only re-
ply he gave was to exclaim, " This is the day of
the victory of Zama. Let us give thanks to the
gods for it ; " and he led all that was noble and
good in Rome with him to the temple of Jupiter
and offered the anniversary sacrifice. No one
durst say another word against him or his brother ;
but he did not choose to remain among the citizens
who had thus insulted him, but went away to his

186 Young Folks' History of Rome.

estate at Liternum, and when he died, desired to be
buried there, saying that he would not even leave
his bones to his ungrateful country. The Cornelian
family was the only one among the higher Romans
who buried instead of burning their dead. He left
no son, only a daughter, Avho was married to Ti-
berius Sempronius Gracchus, a brave officer who
was among those who were sent to finish reducing
Spain. It was a long, terrible war, fought city by
city, inch by inch ; but Gracchus is said to have
taken no less than three hundred fortresses. But
he was a milder conqueror than some of the Ro-
mans, and tried to tame and civilize the wild races
instead of treating them with the terrible severity
shown by Marcus Porcius Cato, the sternest of all
old Romans. However, by the year 178 Spain
had been reduced to obedience, and the cities and
the coast were in good order, though the mountains
harbored fierce tribes always ready for revolt.

Gracchus died early, and Cornelia, his widow,
devoted herself to the cause of his three children,
refusing to be married again, which was very un-
common in a Roman lad}'. When a lady asked her
to show her her ornaments, she called her two boys,
Tiberius and Caius, and their sister Sempronia, and
said, "These are my jewels;" and when she was

The First Eastern War. 187

complimented on being the daughter of Africanus,
she said that the honor she should care more for
was the being called "the mother of the Gracchi."
It was not, however, one of her sons that was
chosen to carry on their grandfather's name and
the sacrifices of the Cornelian family. Probably
Caius was not born when Scipio died, for his choice
had been the second son of his sister and of Lucius
TRmilins Paulus (son of him who died at Cannse.)
This child being adopted by his uncle, was called
Publius Cornelius Scipio JEmilianus, and when he
grew up was to marry his cousin Sempronia.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE CONQUEST OF GKEECE, CORINTH, AND
CARTHAGE.

179—145.

IT was a great change when Rome, which to the
Greeks of Pyrrhus' time had seemed so rude
and simple, was thought such a school of policy
that Greek and half-Greek kings sent their sons to
be educated there, partly as hostages for their own
peaceableness, and partly to learn the spirit of
Roman rule. The first king who did this was
Philip of Macedon, who sent liis son Demetrius to
be brought up at Rome ; but when he came back,
his father and brother were jealous of him, and he
was soon put to death.

When his brother Perseus came to the throne,
there was hatred between him and the Romans, and

ere long he was accused of making war on their
188

The Conquest of Greece, 189

allies. He offered to make peace, but they replied
that they would hear nothing till he had laid down
his arms, and this he would not do, so that Lucius
^milius Paulus (the brother-in-law of Scipio) was
sent to reduce him. As ^milius came into his
own house after receiving the appointment, he met
his little daughter crying, and when he asked her
what was the matter, she answered, " Oh, father,
Perseus is dead ! ' ' She meant her little dog, but
he kissed her and thanked her for the good omen.
He overran Macedon, and gained the great battle
of Pydna, after which Perseus was obliged to give
liimself up into the hands of the Romans, begging,
liowever, not to be made to walk in ^milius' tri-
innph. The general answered that he might obtain
that favor from himself, meaning that he could die
by his own hand ; but Perseus did not tate the
hint, which seems to us far more shocking than it
did to a Roman ; he did walk in the triumph, and
died a few years after in Italy, ^milius' two sons
were with him throughout this campaign, though
still boys under Polybius, their Achaian tutor.
Macedon was divided into four provinces, and be-
came entirely subject to Rome.

The Greeks of the Achaian League began to have
quarrels among themselves, and when the Romans

190

Young Folks' History of Rome,

interfered a fierce spirit broke out, and they wanted
to have their old freedom, forgetting how entirely
unable they were to stand against the power of the
Romans. Caius Caecilius Metellus, a man of one of
the best and most gracious Roman families, was
patient with them and did his best to pacify them,
being most unwilling to ruin the noble old historical
cities; but these foolish Greeks fancied that his

kindness showed weakness, and forced on the war
sending a troop to guard the pass of Thermopylse,
but they were swept away. Unfortunately, Metel-
lus had to go out of office, and Lucius Mummius, a
fierce, rude, and ignorant soldier, came in his stead
to complete the conquest. Corinth was taken, ut-
terly ruined and plundered throughout, and a huge

Conquest of Corintti and Carthage. 191

amount of treasure was sent to Rome, as well as
pictures and statues famed all over the world.
Mummius was very much laughed at for having
been told they must be carried in his triumph ; and
yet, not understanding their beaut}", he told the
sailors to whose charge they were given, that if they
were lost, new ones must be supplied. However,
he was an honest man, who did not help himself
out of the plunder, as far too many were doing.
After that, Achaia Avas made a Roman province.

At this time the third and last Punic war was
going on. The old Moorish king, Massinissa, had
been continually tormenting Carthage ever since
she had been weak, and declaring that Phoenician
strangers had no business in Africa. The Cartha-
ginians, who had no means of defending themselves,
complained ; but the Romans would not listen,
hoping, perhaps, that they would be goaded at last
into attacking the Moor, and thus giving a -pretext
for a war. Old Marcus Porcius Cato, who was
sent on a message to Carthage, came back declaring
that it was not safe to let so mighty a city of ene-
mies stand so near. He brought back a branch of
figs fresh and good, which he showed the Senate in
proof of how near she was, and ended each sen-
tence with saying, '-'-Belenda est Carthago''' (Car-

192 Young Folks' History of Rome.

thage is to be wiped out). He died that same year
at ninety years old, having spent most of his life in
making a staunch resistance to the easy and lux-
urious fashions that were coming in with wealth
and refinement. One of his sayings always de-
serves to be remembered. When he was opposing
a law giving permission to the ladies to wear gold
and purple, he said they would all be vying with
one another, and that the poor would be ashamed of
not making as good an appearance as the rich.
" And," said he, " she who blushes for doing what
she ought, will soon cease to blush for doing what
she ought not."

One wonders he did not see that to have no
enemy near at hand to guard against was the ver}^
worst thing for the hardy, plain old ways he was
so anxious to keep up. However, Carthage was to
be wiped out, and Scipio ^milianus was sent to do
the terrible work. He defeated Hasdrubal, the
last of the Carthaginian generals, and took the cit-
adel of Byrsa ; but though all hope was over, the
city held out in utter desperation. Weapons were
forged out of household implements, even out of
gold and silver, and the women twisted their long
hair into bow-strings; and when the Avails were
stormed, they fought from street to street and house

Conquest of Corinth and Carthage. 193

to house, so that the Romans gained little but ruins
and dead bodies. Carthage and Corinth fell on the
same day of the year 179.

Part of Spain still had to be subdued, and Scipio
^milianus was sent thither. The city of Numan-
tia, with only 5000 inhabitants, endured one of
those long, hopeless sieges for which Spanish cities
have in all times been remarkable, and was only
taken at last when almost every citizen had per-
ished.

At the same time. Attains, king of Pergamus in
Asia Minor, being the last of his race, beqeathed
his dominions to the Romans, and thus gave them
their first solid footing there.

All this was altering Roman manners much.
Weak as the Greeks were, their old doings of every
kind were still the admiration of every one, and
the Romans, who had always heen rough, straight-
forward doers, began to wish to learn of them to
think. All the wealthier families had Greeks for
tutors for their sons, and expected them to talk and
write the language, and study the philosophy and
poetry till they should be as familiar with it as if
the}^ were Greeks themselves. Unluckily, the
Greeks themselves had fallen from their earnest-
ness and greatness, so that there was not much to

194 Young Folks' History of Rome,

be learnt of them now but vain deceit and bad
taste.

Rich Romans, too, began to get most absurdly
luxurious. They had splendid villas on the Italian
hill-sides, where they went to spend the summer
when Rome was unhealthy, and where they had
beautiful gardens, with courts paved with mosaic,
and fish-ponds for the pet fish for which many had
a passion. One man was laughed at for having
shed tears when his favorite fish died, and he re-
torted by saying that it was more than his accuser
had done for his wife.

Their feasts were as luxurious as they could
make them, in spite of laws to keep them within
bounds. Dishes of nightingales' tongues, of fatted
dormice, and even of snails, were among their food ;
and sometimes a stream was made to flow along
the table, containing the living companion of the
mullet which served as part of the meal.

CHAPTER XXTI.

THE GEACCHI.
137—122.

YOUNG Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the
eldest of Cornelia's jewels, was sent in the
year 137 to join the Roman army in Spain. As he
went through Etruria, which, as every one knew,
had been a thickly peopled, fertile country in old
times, he was shocked to see its dreariness and
desolation. Instead of farms and vineyards, there
were great bare spaces of land, where sheep, kids,
or goats were feeding. These vast tracts belonged
to Romans, who kept slaves i^o attend to the flocks ;
while all the corn that was used in Rome came
from Sicily or Africa, and the poorer Romans lived
in the city itself — idle men, chiefly trusting to

distributions of corn, and unable to work for them-
195

196

Young Folks' History of Rome,

selves because they had no ground to till ; and as
to trades and handicrafts, the rich men had every-
thing they wanted made in their own houses by
their slaves.

No wonder the Romans were losing^ their old

CORNELIA ANT? HER SONS,

character. This was the very thing that the Li-
cinian law had been intended to prevent, by for-
bidding any citizen to have more than a certain
quantity of land, and giving the state the power of
resuming it. The law was still there, but it had

The GracchL 197

been disused and forgotten ; estates had been
gathered into the hands of families and handed
down, till now, though there were 400,000 citizens,
only 2,000 were men of property.

While Tiberius was serving in Spain, he decided
on his plan. As his family was plebeian, he could
be a tribune of the people, and as soon as he came
home he stood and was elected. Then he proposed
reviving the Licinian law, that nobody should have
more than 500 acres, and that the rest should be
divided among those who had nothing, leaving,
however, a larger portion to those who had many
children.

There was, of course, a terrible uproar ; tlie popu-
lace clamoring for their rights, and the rich trying
to stop the measure. They bribed one of the other
tribunes to forbid it ; but there was a fight, in
which Tiberius prevailed, and he and his young
brother Caius, and his father-in-law Appius Clau-
dius, were appointed as triumvers to see the law
carried out. Then the rich men followed their old
plan of spreading reports among the people that
Tiberius wanted to make himself a king, and had
accepted a crown and purple robe from some foreign
envoy. When his year of office was coming to an
end, he sought to be elected tribune again, but the

198 Young Folks' History of Rome.

patricians said it was against the law. There was
a great tumult, in the course of which he put his
hand to his head, either to guard it from a blow or
to beckon his friends. *' He demands the diadem,"
shouted his enemies, and there was a great strug-
gle, in which three hundred people were killed.
Tiberius tried to take refuge in the Temple of
Jupiter, but the doors were closed against him; he
stumbled, was knocked down with a club, and
killed.

However, the Sempronian law had been made,
and the people wanted, of course, to have it carried
out, while the nobles wanted it to be a dead letter.
Scipio ^milianus, the brother-in-law of the Gracchi,
had been in Spain all this time, but he had so much
disapproved of Tiberius' doings that he was said to
have exclaimed, on hearing of his death, " So perish
all who do the like." But when he came home, he
did so much to calm and quiet matters,that there was
a cry to make him Dictator, and let him settle the
whole matter. Young Caius Gracchus, who thought
the cause would thus be lost, tried to prevent the
choice by fixing on him the name of tyrant. To
which Scipio calmly replied, " Rome's enemies may
well wish me dead, for they know that while I live
Rome cannot perish."

The araccU, 199

When he went home, he shut himself into his
room to prepare his discourse for the next clay, but
in the morning he was found dead, without a wound,
though his slaves declared he had been murdered.
Some suspected liis wife Sempronia, others even
her mother Cornelia, but the Senate would not
have the matter enquired into. He left no child,
and the Africanus line of Cornelius ended with
him.

Caius Gracchus was nine years younger than his
brother, and was elected tribune as soon as he was
old enough. He was full of still greater schemes
than his brother. His mother besought him to be
warned by his brother's fate, but he was bent on
Ids objects, and carried some of them out. He had
the Sempronian law reaffirmed, though he could
not act on it ; but in the meantime he began a
regular custom of having corn served out to the
poorer citizens, and found work for them upon
roads and bridges ; also he caused the state to
clothe the soldiers, instead of their doing it at their
own expense. Another scheme which he first pro-
posed was to make the Italians of the countries now
one with Roman territory into citizens, with votes
like the Romans themselves; but this again an-

200 Young Folks' History of Rome.

gered the patricians, who saw they should be
swamped by numbers and lose their power.

He also wanted to found a colony of plebeians
on the ruins of Carthage, and when liis tribuneship
was over he went to Africa to see about it ; but
when he came home the patricians had arranged an
attack on him, and he was insulted by the lictor of
the consul Opimius. The patricians collected on
one side, the poorer sort around Caius on the
Aventine Hill ; but the nobles were the strongest,
the plebeians fled, and Caius withdrew with one
slave into a sacred grove, whence he hoped to reach
the Tiber ; but the wood was surrounded, his re-
treat was cut ofp, and he commanded the slave to
kill him that he might not fall alive into the hands
of his enemies, after which the poor faithful fellow
killed himself, unable to bear the loss of his master.
The weight of Caius' head in gold had been prom-
ised by the Senate, and the man who found the
body was said to have taken out the brains and
filled it up with lead that his reward might be
larger. Three thousand men were killed in this
riot, ten times as many as at Tiberius' death.

Opimius was so proud of having overthrown
Caius, that he had a medal struck with Hercules
slaying the monsters. Cornelia, broken-hearted,

The G-raeehi,

201

retired to a country-house ; but in a few years the
feeling turned, great love was shown to the memory
of the two brothers, statues were set up in their
honor, and when Cornelia herself died, her statue
was inscribed with the title she had coveted, " The.
mother of the Gracchi."

Things were indeed growing worse and worse.

ROMAK CENTURION.

The Romans were as brave as ever in the field, and
were sure in the end to conquer any nation they came
in contact with ; but at home, the city was full of
overgrown rich men, with huge hosts of slaves, and
of turbulent poor men, who only cared for their

202

Young Folks' History of Rome.

citizenship for the sake of the corn they gained by
it, and the games exhibited by those who stood for
a magistracy. Immense sums were spent in hiring
gladiators and bringing wild animals to be baited
for their amusement ; and afterwards, when sent
out to govern the provinces, the expenses were re-
paid by cruel grinding and robbing the people of
the conquered states.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WARS OF MARIUS.

106—98.

AFTER the death of Massinissa, king of Nu-
midia, the ally of the Romans, there were
disputes among his grandsons, and Jugartha, whom
they held to have the least right, obtained the
kingdom. The commander of the army sent
against him was Cains Marius, who had risen from
being a free Roman peasant in the village of Ar-
pinum, but serving under Scipio ^milianus, had
shown such ability, that when some one was won-
dering where they would find the equal of Scipio
when he was gone, that general touched the shoul-
der of his young officer and said, " Possibly here."
Rough soldier as he always was, he married Julia,

of the high family of the Caesars, who were said to
203

204 Young Folks' History of Rome.

be descended from ^neas ; and though' he was
much disliked by the Senate, he always carried the
people with him. When he received the province
of Numidia, instead of, as every one had done be-
fore, forming his arm}^ only of Roman citizens, he
offered to enlist whoever would, and thus filled his
ranks with all sorts of wild and desperate men,
whom he could indeed train to fight, but who had
none of the old feeling for honor or the state, and
this in the end made a great change in Rome.

Jugurtha maintained a wild war in the deserts of
Africa with Marius, but at last he was betraj^ed to
the Romans by his friend Bocchus, another Moorish
king, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Marius' lieuten-
ant, was sent to receive him — a transaction which
Sulla commemorated on a signet ring which he al-
ways wore. Poor Jugurtha was kept two years to
appear at the triumph, where he Avalked in chains,
and then was thrown alive into the dungeon under
the Capitol, where he took six days to die of cold
and hunger.

Marius was elected consul for the second time
even before he had quite come home from Africa,
for it was a time of great danger. Two fierce and
terrible tribes, whom the Romans called Cimbri
and Teutones, and who were but the vanguard of

The War of Marius.

205

the swarms who would overwhelm them six cen-
turies later, had come down through Germany to
tlie settled countries belonging to Rome, especially
the lands round the old Greek settlements in Gaul,
which had fallen of course into the hands of the
Romans, and were full of beautiful rich cities, with

MARIUS.

houses and gardens round them. The Province,
as the Romans called it, would have been grand
plundering grouTid for these savages, and Marius
established himself in a camp on the banks of the
Rhone to protect it, cutting a canal to bring his
provisions from the sea, which still remains. While
he was thus engaged, he was a fourth time elected
consul.

206 Young Folks' History of R

ome.

The eiiemj began to move. The Cimbri meant
to march eastward round the Alps, and pour
through the Tyrol into Italy ; the Teutones to go
by the West, fighting Marius on the way. But he
would not come out of his camp on the Rhone,
though the Teutones, as they passed, shouted to
ask the Roman soldiers Avhat messages they had to
send to their wives in Italy.

When they had all passed, he came out of his
camp and followed them as far as Aquae Sextise,
now called Aix, where one of the most terrible bat-
tles the world ever saw was fought. These people
were a whole tribe — wives, children, and every-
thing they had with them — and to be defeated
was utter and absolute ruin. A great enclosure
was made with tlieir carts. and wagons, whence the
women threw arrows and darts to help the men ;
and when, after three days of hard fighting, all
hope was over, they set fire to the enclosure and
killed their children and themselves. The whole
swarm was destroyed. Marius marched away, and
no one was left to bury the dead, so that the spot
was called the Putrid Fields, and is still known as
Les Pourrieres.

While Marius was offering up the spoil, tidings
came that he was a fifth time chosen consul ; but

ONK OP THE TUOPIIIES, CALLED OF MARIUS, Al

Tin: CAPITOL AT Ro ;r.

The Wars of Marius. . 209

he had to hasten into Italy, for the other consul,
Catulus, could not stand before the Cimbri, and
Marius met him on the Po retreating from them.
The Cimbri demanded lands in Italy for themselves
and their allies the Teutones. " The Teutones
have all the ground they will ever want, on the
other side the Alps," said Marius ; and a terrible
battle followed, in which the Cimbri were as en-
tirely cut off as their allies had been.

Marius was made consul a sixth time. As a re-
ward to the brave soldiers who had fought under
him, he made one thousand of them, who came
from the city of Camcrinum, Roman citizens, and
this the patricians disliked greatly. His excuse was,
" The din of arms drowned the voice of the law ; "
but the new citizens were provided for by lands in
the Province, which the Romans said the Gauls
had lost to the Teutones and they had reconquered.
It was ver}^ hard on the Gauls, but that was the
last thing a Roman cared about.

The Italians, however, were all crying out foi
the rights of Romans, and the more far-sighted
among the Romans would, like Caius Gracchus,
have granted them. Marcus Livius Drusus did his
best for them ; he was a good man, wise and frank-
hearted. When he was having a house built, and
the plan was shown him which would make it im-

210 Young Folks'^ Sistory of Rome.

possible for any one to see into it, he said, " Rather
build one where my fellow-countrymen may see
all I do." He was very much loved, and when lie
was ill, prayers were offered at the temples for his
recovery ; but no sooner did he take up the cause
of the Italians than all the patricians hated him
bitterly. " Rome for the Romans," was their
watchword. Drusus was one day entertaining an
Italian gentleman, when his little nephew, Marcus
Porcius Cato, a descendant of the old censor, and
bred in stern patrician views, was playing about
the room. The Italian merrily asked him to favor
his cause. " No," said the boy. He was offered
toys and cakes if he would change his mind, but he
still refused ; he was threatened, and at last he M^as
held by one leg out of the window — all without
shaking his resolution for a moment ; and this con-
stancy he carried with him through life.

People's minds grew embittered, and Drusus
was murdered in the street, crying as he fell,
" When will Rome find so good a citizen ! " After
this, the Italians took up arms, and what was called
the Social War began. Marius had no high com-
mand, being probably too much connected with
the enemy. Some of the Italian tribes held
with Rome, and these were rewarded with the
citizenship ; and after all, though the consul Lucius

The Wars of Warms. 211

Julius Caesar, brother-in-law to Marius, gained
some victories, the revolt was so widespread, that
the Senate felt it wisest, on the first sign of peace,
to offer citizenship to such Italians as would come
within sixty days to claim it. Citizenship brought
a man under Roman law, freed him from taxation,
and gave him many advantages and openings to a
rise in life. But he could only give his vote at
Rome, and only there receive the distribution of
corn, and he further became liable to be called
out to serve in a legion, so that the benefit was not
so great as at first appeared, and no very large
numbers of Italians came to apply for it.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE ADVENTURES OF MABIUS.

93—84.

THE chief foe of Marius was almost always his
second in command, Publius Cornelius Sulla,
one of the men of highest family in Rome. He
had all the high culture and elegant learning that
the rough soldier Marius despised, spoke and wrote
Greek as easily as Latin, and was as well read in
Greek poetry and philosophy as any Athenian
could be ; but he was given up to all the excesses
of luxury in which the wealthy Romans indulged,
and his way of life had made him frightful to look
at. His face was said to be like a mulberry sprink-
led with salt, with a terrible pair of blue eyes glar-
ing out of it.

In 93 he was sent to command against Mithri-

212

The Adventures of Marius. 213

dates, king of Pontus, one of the little kingdoms in
Asia Minor that had sprung up out of the break-up
of Alexander's empire. Under this king, Mithri-
dates, it had grown very powerful. He was of
Persian birth, had all the learning and science both
of Greece and the far East, and was said in especial
to be wonderfully learned in all plants and their
virtues, so as to have made himself proof against
all kinds of poison, and he could speak twenty-
five languages.

He had great power in Asia Minor, and took
upon himself to appoint a king of Cappadocia, thus
leading to a quarrel with the Romans. In the
midst of the Social War, when he thought they
had their hands full in Italy, Mithridates, caused
all the native inhabitants of Asia Minor to rise upon
the Romans among them in one night and murder
them all, so that 80,000 are said to have perished.
Sulla was ordered to take the command of the
army which was to avenge their death ; but, while
he was raising his forces, Marius, angry that the
patricians had hindered the plebeians and Italians
from gaining more by the Social War, raised up a
great tumult, meaning to overpower the patricians'
resistance. He would have done more wisely had
he waited until Sulla was quite gone, for that gen-

214 Young Folks' History of Rome,

eral came back to the rescue of his friends with
six newly-raised legions, and Marius could only
just contrive to escape from Rome, where he was
proclaimed a traitor and a price set on his head.
He was now seventy years old, but full of spirit.
First he escaped to his own farm, whence he hoped
to reach Ostia, Avhere a ship was waiting for him ;
but a part}^ of horsemen were seen coming, and
he was hidden in a cart full of beans and driven
down the coast, where he embarked, meaning to go
to Africa ; but adverse winds and want of food
forced him to land at Circseum, whence, with a few
friends, he made his way along the coast, through
woods and rocks, keeping up the spirits of liis com-
panions by telling them that, when a little boy, he
robbed an eyrie of seven eaglets, and that a sooth-
sayer had then foretold that he would be seven
times consul. At last a troop of horse was seen
coming towards them, and at the same time two
ships near the coast. The only hope \\ as in swim-
ming out to the nearest ship, and Marius was so
heavy and old that this was done with great diffi-
culty. Even then the ships were so near the shore
that the pursuers could command the crew to
throw Marius out, but this they refused to do,
though they only waited till the soldiers were gone.

The Adventures of Marius.

215

to put him on shore again. Here he was in a
marshy, boggy place, where an old man let him
rest in his cottage, and then hid him in a cave
under a heap of rushes. Again, however, the troops
appeared, and threatened the old man for hiding an
enemy of the Romans. It was in Marius' hearing,

THE CATAPULT.

and fearing to be betrayed, he rushed out into a pool,
where he stood up to his neck in water till a soldier
saw him, and he was dragged out and taken to the
city of Minturnse.

There the council decided on his death, and sent
a soldier to kill him, but the fierce old man stood

216 Young Folks* History of Rome,

glaring at him, and said, " Darest thou kill Caius
Marius ? " The man was so frightened that he ran
away, crying out, " I cannot kill Caius Marius."
The Senate of Minturnse took this as an omen, and
remembered besides that he had been a good friend
to the Italians, so they conducted him through a
sacred grove to the sea, and sent him off to Africa.
On landing, he sent his son to ask shelter from one
of the Numidian princes, and, while waiting for an
answer, he was harassed by a messenger from a
Roman officer of low rank, forbidding his presence
in Africa. He made no reply till the messenger
pressed to know what to say to his master. Then
the old man looked up, and sternly answered, "Say
that you have seen Caius Marius sitting in the
ruins of Carthage " — a grand rebuke for the insult
io fallen greatness. But the Numidian could not
receive him, and he could only find shelter in a lit-
tle island on the coast.

There he soon heard that no sooner had Sulla
embarked for the East than Rome had fallen into
dire confusion. The consuls, Caius Octavius and
Publius Cornelius Cinna, were of opposite parties,
and had a furious fight, in which Cinna was driven
out of Rome, and at the same time the Italians had
begun a new Social War. Marius saw that his

The Adventures of Marius.

217

time was come. He hurried to Etruria, where he
was joined by a party of his friends and five hun-
dred runaway slaves. The discontented Romans
formed another army under Quintus Sertorius, and
the Samnites, who had begun the war, overpowered
the troops sent against them, and marched to Rome,

ISLAND ON THE COAST,

declaring they would have no peace till they had
destroyed the wolf's lair. Cinna and an army
were advancing on another side, and, as he was
really consul, the Senate in their distress admitted
him, hoping that he would stop the rest ; but when
he marched in and seated himself again in the chair
of office, he had by his side old Marius clothed in
rags.

They were bent on revenge, and terrible it was.

218 Young Folks' History of Rome

beginning with the consul, Caius Octavius, who
had disdained to flee, and whose head was severed
from his bod}^ and displayed in the Forum, with
many other senators of the noblest blood in Rome,
who had offended either Marius or Cinna or any of
their fierce followers. Marius walked along in
gloomy silence, answering no one ; but his follow-
ers were bidden to spare only those to whom he
gave his hand to be kissed. The slaves pillaged
the houses, murdered many on their own account,
and everything was in the Avildest uproar, till the two
chiefs called in Sertorius with a legion to restore
order.

Then they named themselves consuls, without
even asking for an election, and thus Marius was
seven times consul. He wanted to go out to the
East and take the command from Sulla, but his
health was too much broken, and before the year of
his consulate was over he died. The last time he
had left the house, he had said to some friends that
no man ought to trust again to such a doubtful for-
tune as his had been ; and then he took to his bed
for seven days without any known illness, and
there was found dead, so that he was thought to
have starved himself to death.

Cinna put in another consul named Valerius

The Adventures of Marius,

219

Flaccus, and invited all the Italians to enroll them-
selves as Roman citizens. Then Flaccus went out
to the East, meaning to take away the command
from Sulla, who was hunting Mithridates out of
Greece, which he had seized and held for a short
time. But Flaccus' own army rose against him
and killed him, and Sulla, after beating Mithridates,
driving him back to Pontus, and making peace
with him, was now to come home.

CHAPTER XXV.
bulla's proscription.

88—71.

THERE was great fear at Rome, among the
friends of Cinna and Marius, at the prospect
of Sulla's return. A fire broke out in the Capitol,
and this added to their terror, for the Books of the
Sybil were burnt, and all her prophecies were lost.
Cinna tried to oppose Sulla's landing, but was
killed by his own soldiers at Brundusium.

Sulla, with his victorious army, could not be
stopped. Sertorius fled to Spain, but Marius' son
tried, with the help of the Samnites, to resist, and
held out Preeneste, but the Samnites were beaten
in a terrible battle outside the walls, and when the
people of the city saw the heads of the leaders car-
ried on spear points, they insisted on giving ^up.
220

Sulla^s Proscription. 221

Young Marius and a Samnite noble hid themselves
in a cave, and as they had no hope, resolved to die ;
so they fought, hoping to kill each other, and when
Marius was left alive, he caused himself to be slain
by a shive.

Sulla marched on towards Rome, furious at the
resistance he met with, and determined on a terri-
ble vengeance. He could not enter the city till he
was ready to dismiss his army and have his triumph,
so the Senate came out to meet him in the temple
of Bellona. As they took their seats, they heard
dreadful shrieks and cries. " No matter," said
Sulla ; " it is only some wretches being punished."
The wretches were the 8,000 Samnite prisoners he
had taken at the battle of Prseneste, and brought
to be killed in the Campus Martins ; and with
these shocking sounds to mark that he was in earn-
est, the purple-faced general told the trembling
Senate that if they submitted to him he would be
good to them, but that he would spare none of his
enemies, great or small.

And his men were already in the city and coun-
try, slaughtering not only the party of Marius, but
every one against whom any one of them had a
spite, or whose property he coveted. Marius'
body, which had been buried and not burnt, was

222 Young Folks' History of Rome.

taken from the grave and thrown into the Tiber ;
and such horrible deeds were done that Sulla w-as
asked in the Senate where the execution was to
stop. He showed a list of eighty more who had
yet to die ; and the next day and the next he
brought other lists of tAVO hundred and thirt}^ each.
These dreadful lists were called proscriptions, and
any one who tried to shelter the victims was treated
in the same manner. The property of all who were
.slain was seized, and their children declared incap-
able of holding any public office.

Among those who were in danger was the nephew
of Marius' wife, Caius Julius Caesar, but, as he was
of a high patrician family, Sulla only required of
him to divorce his wife and marry a stepdaughter
of his own. Csesar refused, and fled to the Sabine
hills, where pursuers were sent after him ; but his
life was begged for by his friends at Rome, espe-
cially by the Vestal Virgins, and Sulla spared his
life, saying, however, " Beware ; in that young
trifler is more than one Marius." Caesar went to
join the army in the East for safety, and thus broke
off the idle life of pleasure he had been leading in
Rome.

The country people were even more cruelly pun-
ished than the citizens ; whole cities were destroyed

Sulla's Proscription,

225

and districts laid waste ; the whole of, Etruria was
ravaged, the old race entirely swept away, and the
towns ruined beyond revival, while the new city of
Florence was built with their remains, and all we
know of them is from the tombs which have of late
years been opened.

Both the consuls liad perished, and Sulla caused

CORNELIUS SULLA.

himself to be named Dictator. He had really a
purpose in all the horrors he had perpetrated,
namely, to clear the Avay for restoring the old gov-
ernment at Kome, which Marius and his Italians
had been overthrowing. He did not see that the
rule which had worked tolerably well while Rome

226 You7ig Folks' History of Rome.

was only a little city with a small country round
it, would not serve when it was the head of numer-
ous distant countries, where the governors, like
himself and Marius, grew rich, and trained armies
under them able to overpower the whole state at
home. So he set to work to put matters as much
as possible in the old order. So many of the Senate
had been killed, that he had to make up the num-
bers by putting in three hundred knights ; and, to
supply the lack of other citizens, after the hosts
who had perished, he allowed the Italians to go on
coming in to be enrolled as citizens ; and ten thou-
sand slaves, who had belonged to his victims, were
not only set free, but made citizens as his own
clients, thus taking the name of Cornelius. He
also much lessened the power of the tribunes of the
people, and made a law that when a man had once
been a tribune he should never be chosen for any
of the higher offices of the state. By these means
he sought to keep up the old patrician power, on
which he believed the greatness of Rome depended ;
though, after all, the grand old patrician families
had mostly died off, and half the Senate were only
knights made noble.

After this Sulla resigned the dictatorship, for he
was growing old, and had worn out liis health by

Sulla's Proscription. 227

his riot and luxury. He spent his time in a villa
near Rome, talking philosophy with his friends, and
dictating the history of his own life in Greek.
When he died, he bade them burn his body, con-
trary to the practice of the Cornelii, no doubt fear-
ing it would be treated like that of Marius.

The most promising of the men of his party who
were growing up and coming forward was Cnyeus
Pompeius, a brave and worthy man, who had while
quite young, gained such a victory over a Numid-
ian prince that Sulla himself gave him the title of
Magnus, or the Great. He was afterwards sent to
Spain, where Sertorius held out for eight years
against the Roman power with the help of the na-
tive chiefs, but at last was put to death by his own
followers. Things were altogether in a bad state.
There were great struggles in Rome at every elec-
tion, for the officers of the state were now chiefly
esteemed for the sake of the three or five years*
government in the provinces to which they led.
No expense was thought too great in shows of
beasts and gladiators by which to win the votes of
the people ; for, after the year of office, the can-
didate meant amply to repay himself by what he
could squeeze out of the unhappy province under

228 Young Folks^ History of Home.

his charge, and nobody cared for cruelty or injiistiQe
to any one but a Roman citizen.

Numbers of gladiators were kept and trained to
fight in these shows ; and while the Spanish war
was going on, a whole school of them — seventy-
eight in number — who were kept at Capua, broke
out, armed themselves with the spits, hooks, and
axes in a butcher's shop, and took refuge in the
crater of Mount Vesuvius, which at that time
showed no signs of being an active volcano. There,
under their leader Spartacus, they gathered together
every gladiator slave or who could run away to them,
and Spartacus wanted them to march northward,
force their way through Italy, climb the Alps, and
reach their homes in Thrace and Gaul ; but the
plunder of Italy tempted them, and they would not
go, till an army was sent against them under Mar-
cus Licinius Crassus — called Dives, or the Rich,
from the spoil he had gained during the proscrip-
tion. Then Spartacus hoped to escape in a fleet of
pirate sli^ips from Cilicia, and to hold out in the
passes of Mount Taurus ; but the Cilician pirates
deceived him, sailed away with his money, and left
him to his fate, and he and his gladiators were all
slain by Crassus and Pompeius, who had been called
home from Spain.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE CABEER OF POMPEIUS.

70—63.

/^N^US POMPEIUS MAGNUS and Lucius
^-^ Licinius Crassus Dives were consuls together
in the year 70 ; but Crassus, though he feasted the
people at 10,000 tables, was envied and disliked,
and would never have been elected but for Pom-
peius, who was a great favorite with the people,
and so much trusted, both by them and the nobles,
that it seems to have filled him with pride, for he
gave himself great airs, and did not treat his fellow-
consul as an equal.

When his term of office was over, the most press-
ing thing to be done was to put down the Cilician
pirates. In the angle formed between Asia Minor

and Syria, with plenty of harbors formed by the
229

230 Young Folks' History of Rome.

spurs of Mount Taurus, there had dwelt for ages
past a horde of sea robbers, whose swift galleys
darted on the merchant ships of Tyre and Alexan-
dria ; and now, after the ruin of the Syrian king-
dom, they had grown so rich that their state galleys
had silken sails, oars inlaid with ivory and silver.
and bronze prows. They robbed the old Greek
temples and the Eastern shrines, and even made
descents on the Italian cities, besides stopping the
ships which brought wheat from Sicily and Alex-
andria to feed the Romans.

To enable Pompeius to crush them, authority
vras given him for three years over all the Medi-
terranean and fifty miles inland all round, which
was nearly the same thing as the whole empire.
He divided the sea into thirteen commands, and
sent a party to fight the pirates in each ; and this
was done so effectually, that in forty days they
were all hunted out of the west end of the gulf,
whither he pursued them with his whole force, beat
them in a sea-fight, and then besieged them ; but,
as he was known to be a just and merciful man,
they came to terms with him, and he scattered
them about in small colonies in distant cities, so
that they might cease to be mischievous.

In the meantime, the w^ar with Mithridates had

The Career of Pompeius. 233

broken out again, and Lucius Lucullus, who had
been consul after Pompeius, was fighting with him
in the East ; but Lucullus did not please the Ro-
mans, though he met with good success, and liad'
pushed Mithridates so hard that there was nothing
left for Pompeius but to complete the conquest,
and he drove the old king beyond Caucasus, and
then marched into Syria, where he overthrew the
last of the Seleucian kings, Antiochus, and gave
him the li'.t'.e kingdom of Commagene to spend the
remainder of his life in, while Syria and Phoiuicia
were made into a great Roman province.

Under the Maccabees, Palestine had struggled
into being independent of Syria, but only by the
help of the Romans, who, as usual, tried to ally
themselves with small states in order to make an
excuse for making war on large ones. There was
' now a great quarrel between two brothers of the
Maccabean family, and one of them, Hyrcanus,
came to ask the aid of Pompeius. The Roman
army marched into the Holy Land, and, after seiz-
ing the whole country, was three months besieging
Jerusalem, which, after all, it only took by an at-
tack when the Jews were resting on the Sabbath
day. Pompeius insisted on forcing his way into
the Holy of Holies, and was very much disappoint-

234 Young Folks'' History of Rome.

ed to find it empty and dark. He did not plunder
the treasury of the Temple, but the Jews remarked
that, from the time of this daring entrance, liis pros-
perity seemed to fail him. Before he left the East,
however, old Mithridates, who had taken refuge in
the Crimea, had been attacked by his own favorite
son, and, finding that his power was gone, had
taken poison ; but, as his constitution was so forti-
fied by antidotes that it took no effect, he caused
one of his slaves to kill him.

The son submitted to the Romans, and was al-
lowed to reign on the Bosphorus ; but Pompeius
had extended the Roman Empire as far as the
Euphrates ; for though a few small kings still re-
mained, it was only by suffrance from the Romans,
who had gained thirty-nine great cities. Egypt,
the Parthian kingdom on the Tigris, and Armenia
in the mountains, alone remained free.

While all this was going on in the East, there
was a very dangerous plot contrived at Rome by
a man named Lucius Sergius Catilina, and seven
other good-for-notliing nobles, for arming the mob,
even the slaves and gladiators, overthrowing the
government, seizing all the offices of state, and
murdering all their opponents, after the example
first set by Marius and Cinna.

The Career of Pompeivs, 237

Happily such secrets are seldom kept ; one of the
plotters told the woman he was in love with, and
she told one of the consuls, Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Cicero was one of the wisest and best men in Rome,
and the one whom we really know the best, for he
left a great number of letters to his friends, which
show us the real mind of the man. He was of the
order of the knights, and had been bred up to be a
lawyer and orator, and his speeches came to be the
great models of Roman eloquence. He was a man
of real conscience, and he most deeply loved Rome
and her honor ; and though he was both vain and
timid, he could put these weaknesses aside for the
public good. Before all the Senate he impeached
Catilina, showing how fully he knew all that he in-
tended. Nothing could be done to him by law till
he had actually committed his crime, and Cicero
wanted to show him that all was known, so as to
cause him to flee and join his friends outside.
Catilina tried to face it out, but all the senators
began to cry out against him, and he dashed away
in terror, and left the city at night. Cicero an-
nounced it the next day in a famous speech, be-
ginning, " He is gone ; he has rushed away ; he
has burst forth." Some of his followers in guilt
were left at Rome, and just then some letters were

238

Young Folks' History of Rome,

brought to Cicero by some of a tribe of Gauls
whom they had invited to help them in the ruin of
the Senate. This was positive proof, and Cicero
caused the nine worst to be seized, and, having
proved their guilt, there was a consultation in the
Senate as to their fate. Julius Csesar wanted to

keep them prisoners for
life, which he said was
worse than death, as that,
he believed, would end
everything ; but all the
rest of the Senate were
for their death, and they
w^ere all strangled, with-
out giving them a chance
of defending themselves
or appealing to the peo-
ple. Cicero beheld the
execution himself, and
then went forth to the crowd, merely saying, " They
have lived."

Catilina, meantime, had collected 20,000 men in
Italy, but they were not half-armed, and the newly-
returned proconsul, Metellus, made head against
him ; while the other consul, Caius Antonius, was
recalled from Macedonia with his army. As he

CICERO.

COLOSSAL STATUE OF POMPEIUS OF THE
PALAZZO SPADA AT ROME.

The Career of Pompeius.

241

was a friend of Catilina, he did not choose to fight
with him, and gave up the command to his lieu-
tenant, by whom the wretch was defeated and slain.
His head was cut off and sent to Rome.

CHAPTER XXVII.

POMPEIUS AND C^SAR.
61-^8.

POMPEIUS was coming home for his triumph,
every one had hopes from him, for things
were in a very bad state. There had been a great
disturbance at Julius Caesar's house. Every year
there was a festival in honor of Cybele, the Bona
Dea, or Good Goddess, to which none but women
were admitted, and where it was sacrilege for a
man to be seen. In the midst of this feast in
Caesar's house, a slave girl told his mother Aurelia
that there was a man among the ladies. Aurelia
shut the doors, took a torch and ran through the
house, looking in every one's face for the offender,
who was found to be Publius Clodius, a worthless
young man, who had been in Catiiina's conspiracy,

Pompeius and Ccesar,

243

but had given evidence against him. He escaped,
but was brought to trial, and then borrowed
money enough of Crassus the rich, to bribe the
judges and avoid the punishment he deserved.

POMPEIUS.

Caesar's wife, the sister of Pompeius was free of
blame in the matter, but he divorced her, saying
that Caesar's wife must be free from all suspicion ;
and this, of course, did not bring her brother
home in a friendly spirit to Caesar.

244 Young Folks'^ History of Rome.

Pompeius' triumpli was the most magnificent
that had ever yet been seen. It lasted two days,
and the banners that were carried in the proces-
sion, bore the names of nine hundred cities and
one thousand fortresses which he had conquered.
All the treasures of Mithridates — statues, jewels,
and splendid ornaments of gold and silver worked
with precious stones — were carried along ; and it
was reckoned that he had brought home 20,000
talents — equal to .£5,000,000 — for the treasury.
He was admired, too, for refusing any surname
taken from his conquests, and only wearing the
laurel wreath of a victor in the Senate.

Pompeius and Csesar were the great rival names
at this time. Pompeius' desire was to keep the
old framework, and play the part of Sulla as its
protector, only without its violence and bloodshed.
Caesar saw that it was impossible that things
should go on as they were, and had made up his
mind to take the lead and mould them afresh ;
but this he could not do while Pomj)eius was
looked up to as the last great conqueror. So
Caesar meant to serve his consulate, take some
government where he could grow famous and form
an army, and then come home and mould every-
thing anew. After a year's service in Spain as

Pompeius arid Ccesar. 245

propraetor, Caesar came back and made friends
with Pompeius and Crassus, giving his daughter
Julia in marriage to Pompeius, and forming what
was called a triumvirate, or union of three men.
Thus he easily obtained the consulship, and showed
himself the friend of the people by bringing in an
Agrarian Law for dividing the public lands in
Campania among the poorer citizens, not forgetting
Pompeius' old soldiers ; also taking other measures
which might make the Senate recollect that Sulla
had foretold that he would be another Marius and
more.

After this, he took Gaul as his province, and
spent seven years in subduing it bit by bit, and in
making two visits to Britain. He might pretty
well trust the rotten state of Rome to be ready for
his interference when he came back. Clodius had
actually dared to bring Cicero to a trial for having
put to death the friends of Catilina without allow-
ing them to plead their own cause. Pompeius
would not help him, and the people banished him
four hundred miles from Rome, when he went to
Sicily, where he was very miserable ; but his exile
only lasted two years, and then better counsels
prevailed, and he was brought home by a general

246

Young Folks' History of Rome.

vote, and welcomed almost as if it had been a
triumph.

Marcus Porcius Cato was as honest and trut* a
man as Cicero, but very rough and stern, so that
he was feared and hated ; and there were often
fierce quarrels in the Senate and Forum, and in one

AMPHITHEATKK.

of these Pompeius' robe was sprinkled with blood.
On his return home, his young wife Julia thought
he had been hurt, and the shock brought on an
illness of which she died ; thus breaking the link
between her husband and father.

Pompeius did all he could to please the Romans

THE ARENA.

Pompeius and Ccesar. 249

when he was consul together with Crassus. He
had been for some time building a most splendid
theatre in the Campus Martins, after the Greek
fashion, open to the sky, and with tiers of galleries
circling round an arena ; but the Greeks had never
used their theatres for the savage sports for which
this was intended. When it was opened, five hun-
dred lions, eighteen elephants, and a multitude of
gladiators were provided to fight in different fash-
ions with one another before thirty thousand spec-
tators, the whole being crowned by a temple to
Conquering Yenus. After his consulate, Pompeius
took Spain as his province, but did not go there,
managing it by deputy ; while Crassus had Syria,
and there went to war with the wild Parthians on
the Eastern border. In the battle of Carrhse, the
army of Crassus was entirely routed by the Parthians;
he was killer], his head was cut off, and his mouth
filled up with molten gold in scorn of his riches. At
Rome, there was such distress that no one thought
much even of such a disaster. Bribes were given to
secure elections, and there was nothing but tumult
and uproar, in which good men like Cicero and
Cato could do nothing. Clodius was killed in one
of these frays, and the mob grew so furious that
the Senate chose Pompeius to be sole consul to put

250 Young Folks' History of Rome.

them down ; and this he did for a short time, but
all fell into confusion again while he was very ill of
a fever at Naples, and even when he recovered
there was a feeling that Caesar was wanted. But
Caesar's friends said he must not be called upon to
give up his army unless Pompeius gave up his
command of the army in Spain, and neither of them
would resign.

Caesar advanced with all his forces as far as Ra-
venna, which was still part of Cisalpine Gaul, and
then the consul, Marcus Marcellus, begged Pom-
peius to protect the commonwealth, and he took
up arms. Two of Caesars great friends, Marcus
Antonius and Caius Cassius, who were tribunes,
forbade this ; and when they Avere not heeded, they
fled to Caesar's camp asking his protection.

So he advanced. It Avas not lawful for an im-
perator, or general in command of an army, to come
within the Roman territory with his troops except
for his triumph, and the little river Rubicon was
the boundary of Cisalpine Gaul. So when Caesar
crossed it, he took the first step in breaking through
old Roman rules, and thus the saying arose that
one has passed the Rubicon when one has gone so
far in a matter that there is no turning back.
Though Caesar's army was but small, his fame was

Pompeius and Ccesar, 251

such that everybody seemed struck with dismay,
even Pompeius himself, and instead of fighting, he
carried off all the senators of his party to the South,
even to the extreme point of Italy at Brundusium.
Caesar marched after them thither, having met
with no resistance, and having, indeed, won all
Italy in sixty days. As he advanced on Brundu-
sium, Pompeius embarked on board a ship in the
harbor and sailed away, meaning, no doubt, to
raise an army in the provinces and return — some
feared like Sulla — to take vengeance.

Caesar was appointed Dictator, and after crush-
ing Pompeius' friends in Spain, he pursued him
into Macedonia, where Pompeius had been collect-
ing all the friends of the old commonwealth. There
was a great battle fought at Pharsalia, a battle
which nearly put an end to the old government of
Rome, for Caesar gained a great victory ; and Pom-
peius fled to the coast, where he found a vessel and
sailed for Egypt. He sent a message to ask shelter
at Alexandria, and the advisers of the young king
pretended to welcome him, but they really intended
to make friends with the victor ; and as Pompeius
stepped ashore he was stabbed in the back, his body
thrown into the surf, and his head cut off.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

JULIUS C^SAR.

48—44.

WITH Pompeiiis fell the hopes of those who
were faithful to the old government, such
as Cicero and Cato. They had only to wait and see
what Caesar would do, and with the memory of
Marius in their minds.

Csesar did not come at once to Rome ; he had
first to reduce the East to obedience. Egypt was
under the last descendants of Alexander's general
Ptolemy, and was an ally of Rome, that is, only re-
maining a kingdom by her permission. The king"
was a wretched weak lad ; his sister Cleopatra,
who was joined with him in the throne, was one of
the most beautiful and winning women who ever

lived. Csesar, who needed money, demanded some
252

Julius Ccesar,

253

that was owing to the state. The young king's
advisers refused, and Caesar, who had but a small
force with him, was shut up in a quarter of Alex-
andria where he could get no fresh water but from
pits Avhich his men dug in the sand. He burnt the
Egyptian fleet that it might not stop the succors
that were coming from
Syria, and he tried to take
the Isle of Pharos, with
the lighthouse on it, but
his ship was sunk, and he
was obliged to save him-
self by swimming, hold-
ing his journals in one
hand above the water.
However, the forces from
Syria were soon brought
to him, and he was able to
fight a battle in which the
young king was drowned ;
iind Egypt was at his (
mercy. Cleopatra was de-
termined to have an interview with him, and had
herself carried into his rooms in a roll of carpet,
and when there, she charmed him so much that he
set her up as queen of Egypt. He remained three

JUUUS CKSAB.

254 Young Folks' History of Rome,

months longer in Egypt collecting money ; and
hearing that Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates,
had attacked the Roman settlements in Asia Minor,
he sailed for Tarsus, marched against Pharnaces,
routed and killed him in battle. The success was
announced to the Senate in the following brief

CAIO

words, " Fern, vidi^ vici " — "I came, I saw, I con-
quered."

He was a second time appointed Dictator, and
came home to arrange affairs ; but there were no
proscriptions, though he took away the estates of
those who opposed him. There was still a party

Funeral Solrmnities in the Columbarium (lit. Pigeon-house) of the House of Julius

C^SAR AT THE PORTA CaPENA IN ROME.

(The rows of niches for the cinerary urns in a Roman sepulchre were called by this
name from their resemblance to a dovecot.)

Julius Coesar. 257

of the senators and their supporters who had fol-
lowed Pompeius in Africa, with Cato and Cngeus
Pompeius, the eldest son of the great leader, and
Csesar had to follow them thither. He gave them a
great defeat at Thapsus, and the remnant took refuge
in the city of Utica, whither Csesar followed them.
The}^ would have stood a siege, but the towns-
people would not consent, and Cato sent off all his
party by sea, and remained alone with his son and
a few of his friends, not to face the conqueror, but
to die by his own sword ere he came, as the Ro-
mans had learned from Stoic philosophy to think
the nobler part.

Such of the Senate as had not joined Pompeius
were ready to fall down and worship Cse.ar when
he came home. So rejoiced was Rome to fear no
proscription, that temples were dedicated to Caesar's
clemency, and his image was to be carried in pro-
cession with those of the gods. He was named
Dictator for ten years, and was received with four
triumphs -^— over the Gauls, over the Egyptians,
over Pharnaces, and over Juba, an African king
who had aided Cato. Foremost of the Gaulish
prisoners was the brave Vercingetorix, and among
the Egyptians, Arsinoe, the sister of Cleopatra.
A banquet was given at his cost to the whole

258 Young Folks' History of Rome.

Roman people, and the shows of gladiators and
beasts surpassed all that had ever been seen. The
Julii were said to be descended from ^Eneas and
to Venus, as his ancestress, Caesar dedicated a
breastplate of pearls from the river mussels of Bri-
tain. Still, however, ho had to go to Spain to re-
duce the sons of Pompeius. They were defeated
in battle, the elder was killed, but Cnseus, the
younger, held out in the mountains and hid himself
among the natives.

After this, Csesar returned to Rome to carry out
his plans. He was dictator for ten years and con-
sul for five, and was also imperator or commander
of an army he was not made to disband, so that he
nearly was as powerful as any king ; and, as he
saw that such an enormous domain as Rome now
possessed could never be governed by two magis-
trates changing every year, he prepared matters
for there being one ruler. The influence of the
Senate, too, he weakened very much by naming a
great many persons to it of no rank or distinction,
till there were nine hundred members, and nobody
thought much of being a senator. He also made
an immense number of new citizens, and he caused
a great survey to be begun by Roman officers in
preparation for properly arranging the provinces,

Julius Ccesar. 459

governments, and tribute ; and he began to have
the laws drawn up in regular order. In fact, he
was one of the greatest men the world has ever
produced, not only as a conqueror, but a statesman
and ruler ; and though his power over Rome was
not according to the laws, and had been gained by
a rebellion, he was using it for her good.

He Avas learned in all philosophy and science, and
his history of his wars in Gaul has come down to
our times. As a high patrician by birth, he was
Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, and thus had to
fix all the festival days in each year. Now the
year had been supposed to be only three hundred
and fifty-five days long, and the Pontifex put in
another month or several days whenever he pleased,
so that there was great confusion, and the feast
days for the harvest and vintage came, according
to the calendar, three months before there was any
corn or grapes.

To set this to rights, since it was now understood
that the length of the year was three hundred and
sixty-five days and six hours, Caesar and the scien-
tific men who assisted him devised the fresh ar-
rangement that we call leap year, adding a day to
the three hundred and sixty-five once in four years.
He also changed the name of one of the summer

260 Young Folks' History of Rome.

months from Sextile to July, in honor of himself.
Another work of his was restoring Corinth and
Carthage, which had both been ruined the same
year, and now were both refounded the same
year.

He was busy about the glory of the state, but
there was much to shock old Roman feelings in his
conduct. Cleopatra had followed him to Rome,
and he was thinking of putting away his wife Cal-
phurnia to marry her. But his keeping the dictator-
ship was the real grievance, and the remains of the
old party in the Senate could not bear that the pa-
trician freedom of Rome should be lost. Every
now and then his flatterers offered him a royal
crown and hailed him as king, though he always
refused it, and this title still stirred up bitter
hatred. He was preparing an army, intending to
march into the further East, avenge Crassus' de-
feat on the Parthians, and march where no one but
Alexander had made his way ; and if he came back
victorious from thence, nothing would be able to
stand against him.

The plotters then resolved to strike before he
set out. Caius Cassius, a tall, lean man, who had
lately been made praetor, was the chief conspirator,

Julius Ccesar, 261

and with him was Marcus Junius Brutus, a de-
scendant of him who overthrew the Tarquins, and
husband to Porcia, Cato's daughter, also another
Brutus named Decimus, hitherto a friend of Ceesar,
and newly appointed to the government of Cisal-
pine Gaul. These and twelve more agreed to mur-
der Caesar on the 15th of March, called in the
Roman calendar the Ides of March, when he went
to the senate-house.

Rumors got abroad and warnings came to him
about that special day. His wife dreamt so terrible
a dream that he had almost yielded to her entreat-
ies to stay at home, when Decimus Brutus came in
and laughed him out of it. As he was carried to the
senate-house in a litter, a man gave him a writing
and begged him to read it instantly ; but he kept
it rolled in his hand without looking. As he went
up the steps he said to the augur Spurius, "The
Ides of March are come." " Yes, Caesar," was the
answer ; " but they are not passed." A few steps
further on, one of the conspirators met him with a
petition, and the others joined in it, clinging to his
robe and his neck, till another caught his toga and
pulled it over his arms, and then the first blow was
struck with a dagger. Caesar struggled at first as
all fifteen tried to strike at him, but, when he saw the

262

Young Folks' History of Rome.

hand uplifted of his treacherous friend Decimus, he
exclaimed, '^Et tu Brute " — " Thou, too, Brutus "
— drew his toga over his head, and fell dead at tne
foot of the statue of Pompeius.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE.

44—30.

THE murderers of Csesar had expected the
Eomans to hail them as deliverers from a
t}'rant, but his great friend Marcus Antonius, who
was, together with him, consul for that year, made a
speech over his body as it lay on a couch of gold
and ivory in the Forum ready for the funeral,
Antonius read aloud Caesar's will, and showed what
bonefits ho had intended for his fellow-citizens, and
how he loved them, so that love for him and wrath
against his enemies filled every hearer. The army,
of course, were furious against the murderers ;• the
Senate was terrified, and granted everything An-
tonius chose to ask, provided he would protect
them, whereupon he begged for a guard for himself
263

264 Young Folks' History of Ro7ne.

that he might be saved from Caesar's fate, and this
they gave him ; while the fifteen murderers fled
secretly, mostly to Cisalpine Gaul, of which Deci-
mus Brutus was governor.

Caesar had no child but the Julia who had been
wife to Pompeius, and his heir was his young
cousin Caius Octavius, who changed his name to
Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, and, coming to
Rome, demanded his inheritance, which Antonius
had seized, declaring that it was public money;
but Octavianus, though only eighteen, showed so
much prudence and fairness that many of the Sen-
ate were drawn towards him rather than Antonius,
who had always been known as a bad, untrust-
worthy man ; but the first thing to be done was to
put down the murderers — Decimus Brutus was in
Gaul, Marcus Brutus and Cassius in Macedonia,
and Sextus Pompeius had also raised an army in
Spain.

Good men in the Senate dreaded no one so
much as Antonius, and put their hope in young
Octavianus. Cicero made a set of speeches
against Antonius, which are called Philij)pics, be-
cause they denounce him as Demosthenes used to
denounce Philip of Macedon, and like them, too,
they were the last flashes of spirit in a sinking

The Second Triumvirate.

265

state ; and Cicero, in those days, was the foremost
and best man who was trying at his own risk to
save the old institutions of his country. But it
was all in vain ; they were too rotten to last, and
there were not enough of honest men to make a
stand against a violent unscrupulous schemer like
Antonius, above all now
that the clever young
Octavianus 'saw it was
for his interest to make
common cause with him,
and with a third friend
of Caesar, rich but dull,
named Marcus ^milius
Lepidus. They called on
Decimus Brutus to sur-
render his forces to them,
and marched against him,
Then his troops deserted
,him, and ,he tried to es-
cape into the Alps, but was delivered up to Anto-
nius and put to death.

Soon after, Antonius, Lepidus, and Octavianus
all met on a little island in the river Rheiius and
agreed to form a triumvirate for five years for set-
ting things to rights once more, all three enjoying

MARCUS ANTONIl'

266 Young Folks'^ History of Rome,

consular power together; and, as they had the
command of all the armies, there was no one to
stop them. Lepidus was to stay and govern
Rome, while the other two hunted down the mur-
derers of Csesar in the East. But first, there was
a deadly vengeance to be taken in the city upon
all who could be supposed to have favored the
murder of Csesar, or who could be enemies to
their schemes. So these three sat down with a
list of the citizens before them to make a proscrip-
tion, each letting a kinsman or friend of his own
be marked for death, provided he might slay one
related to another of the three. The dreadful list
was set up in the Forum, and a price paid for the
heads of the people in it, so that soldiers, ruffians,
and slaves brought them in ; but it does not seem
that — as in the other two proscriptions — there
was random murder, and many bribed their assas-
sins and escaped from Italy. Octavianus hao
marked the fewest and tried to save Cicero, bu^
Antonius insisted on his death. On hearing that
he was in the fatal roll, Cicero had left Rome with
his brother, and slowly travelled towards the coast
from one country house to another till he came to
Antium, whence he meant to sail for Greece ; but
there he was overtaken. His brother was killed at

The Second Triumvirate. 267

once, but he was put into a boat by his slaves, and
went down the coast to Formise, where he landed
again, and, going to a house near, said he would
rather die in his own country which he had so
often saved. However, when the pursuers knocked
at the gate, his slaves placed him in a litter and
hurried him out at another door. He was, how-
ever, again overtaken, and he forbade his slaves to
fight for him, but stretched out his throab for the
sword, with his eyes full upon it. His head was
carried to Antonius, whose wife Fulvia actually
pierced the tongue with her bodkin in revenge
for the speeches it had made against her husband.

After this dreadful work, Antonius and Octavi-
anus went across to Greece, where Marcus Brutus
had collected the remains of the army that had
fought under Pompeius. He had been made much
of at Athens, where his statue had been set up be-
side that of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the slay-
ers of Pisistratus. Cassius had plundered Asia
Minor, and the two met at Sardis. It is said that
the night before they were to pass into Macedonia,
Brutus was sitting alone in his tent, when he saw
the figure of a man before him. "Who art
thou ? " he asked, and the answer was, " I am

268 Young Folks' History of Borne.

thine evil genius, Brutus ; I will meet thee again
at Philippi."

And it was at Philippi that Brutus and Cassius
found themselves faK3e to face with Antonius and
Octavianus. Each army was divided into two,
and Brutus, who fought against Octavianus, put

MARCUS BRUTUS.

his army to flight, but Cassius was driven back by
Antonius; and seeing a troop of horsemen coming
towards him, he thought all was lost, and threw
himself upon a sword. Brutus gathered the
troops together, and after twenty days renewed
the fight, when he was routed, fled, and hid him-

The Second Triumvirate. 269

self, but after some hours put himself to death, as
did his wife Porcia when she heard of his end.

After this, Octavianus went back to Italy, while
Antonius stayed to pacify the East. When he
was at Tarsus, the lovely queen of Egypt came,
resolved to win him over. She sailed up the Cyd-
nus in a beautiful galley, carved, gilded, and in-
laid with ivory, with sails of purple silk and sil-
vered oars, moviug to the sound of flutes, while
she lay on the deck under a star-spangled canopy
arrayed as Venus, with her ladies as nymphs, and
little boys as Cupids fanning her. Antonius was
perfectly fascinated, and she took him back to
Alexandria with her, heeding nothing but her and
the delights with which she entertained him,
though his wife Fulvia and his brother were strug-
gling to keep up his power at Rome. He did
come home, but only to make a fresh agreement
Avith Octavianus, by which Fulvia was given up
and he married Octavia, the widow of Marcellus
and sister of Octavianus. But he could not bear
to stay long away from Cleopatra, and, deserting
Octavia, he returned to Egypt, where the most
wonderful revelries were kept up. Stories are told
of eight wild boars being roasted in one day, each
being begun a little later than the last, that one

270 Young Folks' History of Rome.

might be in perfection when Antonius should call
for his dinner. Cleopatra vowed once that she
would drink the most costly of draughts, and, tak-
ing off an earring of inestimable price, dissolved it
in vinegar and swallowed it.

In the meantime, Octavianus and Lepidus to-
getlier had put down Decimus, and Lepidus had

ALEXANDllIA.

then tried . to overcome Octavianus, but was him-
self conquered and banished ; for Octavianus, was
a kindly man, who never shed blood if he could
help it, and, now that he was alone at Rome, \\ on
every one's heart by his gracious ways, while An-
tonius' riots in Egypt were a scandal to all who
loved virtue and nobleness. So far was the Ro-
man fallen that he even promised Cleopatra to

The Second Triumvirate. 271

conquer Italy and make Alexandria the capital of
the world. Octavia tried to win him back, but
she was a grave, virtuous Roman matron, and
coarse, dissipated Antonius did not care for her
compared w^ith the enticing Egyptian queen. It
was needful at last for Octavianus to destroy this
dangerous power, and he mustered a fleet and
army, while Antonius and Cleopatra sailed out of
Alexandria with their ships and gave battle off the
Cape of Actiam. In the midst, either fright or
treachery made Cleopatra sail away, and all the
Egyptian ships with her, so that Antonius turned
at once and fled with her. They tried to raise the
East in their favor, but all their allies deserted
them, and their soldiers went over to Alexandria,
where Octavianus followed them. Then Cleopatra
betrayed her lover, and put into the hands of Oc-
tavianus the ships in which he might have fled.
He killed himself, and Cleopatra surrendered, hop-
ing to charm j'Oung Octavianus as she had done
Julius and Antonius, but when she saw him grave
and unmoved, and found he meant to exhibit her
in his triumph, she went to the tomb of Antonius
and crowned it with flowers. The next day she
was found on her couch, in her royal robes, dead,
and her two maids dying too. " Is this well ? "

272 Young Folks' Hutory of Borne.

asked the man who found her. " It is well for the
daughter of kings," said her maid with her last
breath. Cleopatra had long made experiments on
easy ways of death, and it was believed that an
asp was brought to her in a basket of figs as the
means of her death.

CAIUS OCTAVIUS.

CHAPTER XXX.

C^SAR AUGUSTUS.

j.c. 33— A. D. 14.

THE death of Antonius ended the fierce strug.
gles which had torn Rome so long. Octavi-
anus was left alone ; all the men who had striven
for the old government were dead, and those who
were left were worn out and only longed for rest.
They had found that he was kind and friendly,
and trusted to him thankfully, nay, were ready to
treat him as a kind of god. The old frame of
constitution went on as usual; there was still a
Senate, still consuls, and all the other magistrates,
but Caesar Octavianus had the power belonging to
each gathered in one. He was prince of the Sen-
ate, which gave him rule in the city; prsetor,
which made him judge, and gave him a special
273

274 Young Folks' Shtory of Rome,

guard of soldiers called the Praetorian Guard to
execute justice ; and tribune of the people, which
made him their voice ; and even after his triumph
he was still imperator, or general of the army.
This word becomes in English, emperor, but it
meant at this time merely commander-in-chief.
He was also Pontifex Maximus, as. Julius Caesar
had been ; and there was a general feeling that he
was something sacred and set apart as the ruler
and peace-maker ; and, as he shared this feeling
himself, he took the name of Augustus, which is
the one by which he is always known.

He did not, however, take to himself any great
show or state. He lived in his family abode, and
dressed and walked about the streets like any
other Roman gentleman of consular rank, and no
special respect was paid to him in speech, for,
warned by the fate of Julius, he was determined
to prevent the Romans from being put in mind of
kings and crowns. He was a wise and deep-think-
ing man, and he tried to carry out the plans of
Julius for the benefit of the nation and of the
whole Roman world. He had the survey finished
of all the countries of the empire, which now
formed a complete border round the Mediterranean
Sea, reaching as far north as the British Channel,

STATUE OF A'^"T^fJ8TU£ AX TP 1 VATICAN.

Cmmr Augustus. 277

:he Alps, and the Black Sea ; as far south as the
African desert, as far west as the Atlantic, and
east as the borders of the Euphrates ; and he also
had a universal census made of the whole of the
inhabitants. It was the first time such a thing
had been possible, for all the world was at last at
peace, so that the Temple of Janus was closed for
the third and last time in Roman history. There
was a feeling all over the world that a great Deliv-
erer and peaceful Prince was to be expected at
this time. One of the Sybils was believed to have
so sung, and the Romans, in their relief at the
good rule of Augustus, thought he was the prom-
ised one ; but they little knew why God had
brought about this great stillness from all wars,
or why He moved the heart of Augustus to make
the decree that all the world should be taxed ■ —
namely, that the true Prince of Peace, the real
Deliverer, might be born in the home of His fore-
fathers, Bethlehem, the city of David.

The purpose of Augustus' taxing was to make a
regular division of the empire into provinces for
the proconsuls to govern, with lesser divisions for
the propraetors, while many cities, especially Greek
ones, were allowed their own magistrates, and
some small tributary kingdoms still remained till

278 Young Folks^ History of Rome.

the old royal family should either die out or offend
the Romans. In these lands the people were gov-
erned by their own laws, unless they were made
Roman citizens ; and this freedom was more and
more granted, and saved them from paying the
tribute all the rest had to pay, and which went to
support the armies and other public institutions at
Rome, and to provide the corn which was regu-
larly distributed to such citizens as claimed it at
Rome. A Roman colony was a settlement, genei
ally of old soldiers who had had lands granted to
them, and kept their citizenship ; and it was like
another little Rome managing its own affairs,
though subject to the mother city. There were
many of these colonies, especially in Gaul on the
north coast, to defend it from the Germans.
Cologne was one, and still keeps its name. The
tribute was carefully fixed, and Augustus did his
best to prevent the governors from preying on the
people.

He tried to bring back better ways to Rome,
which was in a sad state, full of vice and riot, and
with little of the old, noble, hardy ways of the
former times. The educated men had studied
Greek philosophy till they had no faith in their
own gods, and, indeed, had so mixed up their

Ccesar Augustus. 27 9

mythology with the Greek that they really did not
know who their own were, and could not tell who
were the greater gods whom Decius Mus invoked
before he rushed on the enemy ; and yet they kept
up their worship, because their feasts were so con-
nected with the State that everything depended on
them ; but they made them no real judges or help-
ers. The best men of the time were those who
had taken up the Stoic philosophy, which held
that virtue was above all things, whether it was
rewarded or not ; the worst were often the Epicu-
reans, who held that we had better enjoy all we
can in this life, being sure of nothing else.

Learning was much esteemed in the time of
Augustus. He and his two great friends, Caius
Cilnius Maecenas and Vipsanius Agrippa, both had
a great esteem for scholarship and poetry, and in
especial the house of Maecenas was always open to
literary men. The two chief poets of Rome,
Publius Virgilius Maro and Quintus Horatius
Flaccus, were warm friends of his. Virgil wrote
poems on husbandry, and short dialogue poems
called eclogues, in one of which he spoke of the
time of Augustus in words that would almost
serve as a prophec}^ of the kingdom of Him who
was just born at Bethlehem. By desire of Au-

280 Young Folks'^ History of Rome.

gustus, he also wrote the u^neid^ a poem on the
war-doings of ^neas and his settlement in Italy.

Horace wrote odes and letters in verse and
satires, which show the habits and ways of tl link-
ing of his time in a very curious manner ; and
there were many other writers whose works have
not come down to us ; but the Latin of this time
is the model of the language, and an Augustan age
has ever since been a term for one in which litera-
ture flourishes.

All the early part of Augustus' reign was pros-
perous, but he had no son, only a daughter named
Julia. He meant to marry her to Marcellus, the
son of his sister Antonia, but Marcellus died
young, and was lamented in Virgil's JEneid ; so
Julia was given to Agrippa's son. Augustus' sec-
ond wife was Livia, who had been married to
Tiberius Claudius Nero, and had two sons, Tibe-
rius and Drusus, whom Augustus adopted as his
own and intended for his heirs ; and when Julia
lost her husband Agrippa and her two young sons,
he forced Tiberius to divorce the young wife he
really loved to marry her. It was a great grief to
Tiberius, and seems to have quite changed his
character into being grave, silent, and morose.
Julia, though carefully brought up, was one of the

Paintings in the HoubB of livia.

Ccesar Augustus. 283

most wicked and depraved of women, and almost
broke her father's heart. He banished her to an
island near Rhegium, and when she died there,
would allow no funeral honors to be paid to her.

The peace was beginning to be broken by wars
with the Germans; and young Drusus was com-
manding the army against them, and gaining such
honor that he was called Germanicus, when he
fell from his horse and died of his injuries, leaving
one young son. He was buried at Rome, and his
brother Tiberius walked all the way beside the
bier, with his long flaxen hair flowing on his
shoulders. Tiberius then went back to command
the armies on the Rhine. Some half-conquered
country lay beyond, and the Germans in the for-
ests were at this time under a brave leader called
Arminius. They were attacked by the proconsul
Quinctilius Varus, and near the river Ems, in the
Herycimian forest, Arminius turned on him and
routed him completely, cutting off the whole
army, so that only a few fled back to Tiberius to
tell the tale, and he had to fall back and defend
the Rhine.

The news of this disaster was a terrible shock to
the Emperor. He sat grieving over it, and at
times he dashed, his head against the wall, crying.

284 Young Folks' History of Romeo

" Varus, Varus ! give me back my legions." His
friends were dead, he was an old man now, and
sadness was around him. He was soon, however,
grave and composed again ; and, as his health
began to fail, he sent for Tiberius and put his
affairs into his hands. When his dying day came,
he met it calmly. He asked if there was any fear
of a tumult on his death, and AA-as told there was
none ; then he called for a mirror, and saw that
his grey hair and beard were in order, and, asking
his friends whether he had played his part well, he
uttered a verse from a play bidding them applaud
his exit, bade Livia remember him, and so died in
his seventy-seventh year, having ruled fifty-eight
years — ten as a triumvir, forty-eight alone.

CHAPTER XXXI.

TIBERIUS AND CALIGULA.
A.D. 14—41.

NO difficulty was made about giving all the
powers Augustus had held to his stepson,
Tiberius Claudius Nero, who had also a right to
the names of Julius Caesar Augustus, and was in
his own time generally called Caesar. The Senate
had grown too helpless to think for themselves,
and all the choice they ever made of the consuls
was that the Emperor gave out four names, among
which they chose two.

Tiberius had been a grave, morose man ever since
he was deprived of the wife he loved, and had lost
his brother ; and he greatly despised the mean,
cringing ways round him, and kept to himself ; but
his nephew, called Germauicus, after his father, was
285

286 Young Folks' History of Rome.

the person whom every one loved and trusted. He
had married Agrippina, Julia's daughter, who was
also a very good and noble person ; and when he was
sent against the Germans, she went with him, and her
little boys ran about among the soldiers, and were
petted by them. One of them, Caius, was called
by the soldiers Caligula, or the Little Shoe, because
he wore a caliga or shoe like theirs ; and he never
lost the nickname.

Germanicus earned his surname over again by
driving Arminius back ; but he was more enter-
prising than would have been approved by Augus-
tus, who thought it wiser to guard w^hat he had
than to make wider conquests ; and Tiberius was
not only one of the same mind, but was jealous of
the great love that all the army were showing for
his nephew, and this distrust was increased when
the soldiers in the East begged for Germanicus to
lead them against the Parthians. He set out, visit-
ing all the famous places in Greece by the way,
and going to see the wonders of Egypt, but while
in Syria he fell ill of a wasting sickness and died,
so that many suspected the spy, Cnseus Piso,
whom Tiberius had sent with him, of having
poisoned him. When his .wife Agrippina came
home, bringing his corpse to be burnt and his ashes

a vwMuA^uuri^

Ruins of thb palacbs of tibbrius.

Tiberius and Caligula. 289

placed in the burying-place of the Caesars, there
was universal love and pity for her. Piso seized
on all the offices that Germanicus had held, but
was called back to Rome, and was just going to be
put upon his trial when he cut his own throat.

All this tended to make Tiberius more gloomy
and distrustful, and when his mother Livia died he
had no one to keep him in check, but fell under
the influence of a man named Sejanus, who man-
aged all his affairs for him, while he lived in a villa
in the island of Caprese in the Bay of Naples, see-
ing hardly any but a few intimates, given up to all
sorts of evil luxuries and self-indulgences, and
hating and dreading every one. Agrippina was so
much loved and respected that he dreaded and dis-
liked her beyond all others ; and Sejanus contrived
to get up an accusation of plotting against the
state, upon which she and her eldest son were ban-
ished to two small rocky isles in the Mediterranean
Sea. The other two sons, Drusus and Caius, were
kept by Tiberius at Capreae, till Tiberius grew sus-
picious of Drusus and threw him into prison. Se-
janus, who had encouraged all his dislike to his own
kinsmen, and was managing all Rome, then began
to hope to gain the full power ; but his plans were
guessed by Tiberius, and he caused his former

290

Young Folks'* History of Rome.

favorite to be set upon in the senate-house and put
to death.

It is strange to remember that, while such dark
deeds were being done at Rome, came the three
years when the true Light was shining iii the dark-
ness. It was in the time of Tiberius Caesar, when

llllfflli'liill'!

AGKIPriNA.

Pontius Pilatus was propraetor of Palestine, that
our Lord Jesus Christ spent three years in teaching
and working miracles ; then was crucified and slain
by wicked hands, that the sin of mankind might be
redeemed. Then He rose again from the dead and
ascended into Heaven, leaving His Apostles to
make known what he had done in all the world.

Tiberius and Caligula. 291

To the East, where our Lord dwelt, nay, to all
the rest oi the empire, the reign of Tiberius was a
quiet time, with the good government arranged by
Augustus w^orldng on. It was only his own family,
and the senators and people of rank at Rome, who
had much to fear from his strange, harsh, and jeal-
ous temper. The Claudian family had in all times
been shy, proud, and stern, and to have such power
as belonged to Augustus Caesar was more than
their lieads could bear. Tiberius hated and sus-
pected everybody, and yet he did not like putting
people to death, so he let Drusus be starved to
death in his prison, and Agrippina chose the same
way of dying in her island, while some of the chief
senators received such messages that they put
themselves to death. He led a wretched life,
watching for treason and fearing everybody, and
trying to drown the thought of danger in the ban-
quets of Capreae, where the remains of his villa may
still be seen. Once he set out, intending to visit
Rome, but no sooner had he landed in Campania
than the sight of hundreds of country people shout-
ing welcome so disturbed him that he hastened on
board ship again, and thus entered the Tiber ; but
at the very sight of the hills of Rome his terror re-
turned, and he had his galley turned about and

292 Young Folks' History of Rome.

went back to his island, which he never again
quitted.

Only two males of his family were left now — a
great-nephew and a nephew, Caius, that son of the
second Germanicus who had been nicknamed Calig-
ula, a youth of a strange, exciteable, feverish na-
ture, but who from his fright at Tiberius had man-
aged to keep tlie peace with him, and had onl}^ once
been for a short time in disgrace ; and his uncle,
the youngest son of the first Germanicus, com-
monly called Claudius, a very dull, heavy man,
fond of books, but so slow and shy that he was
considered to be wanting in brains, and thus had
never fallen under suspicion.

At length Tiberius fell ill, and when he was
known to be dying, he was smothered with pillows
as he began to recover from a fainting fit, lest he
should take vengeance on those who had for a
moment thought him dead. He died a.d. 37, and
the power went to Caligula, properly called Caius,
who was only twenty-five, and who began in a
kindly, generous spirit, which pleased the people
and gave them hope ; but to have so much power
was too much for his brain, and he can only be
thought of as mad, especially after he had a severe
illness, which made the people so anxious that he

iliilljll

ll:!(!i;j'iJ'IIi' I U'L" * u-i "iliil

il,.::::ll

Tiberius and Caligula. 295

was puffed up with the notion of his own impor-
tance.

He put to death all who offended, him, and,
inheriting some of Tiberius' distrust and hatred, of
tlie people, he cried out, when they did not admire
one of his shows as much as he expected, " WouJd.
that the people of Rome had but one neck, so that
I might behead them all at once." He planned
great public buildings, but had not steadiness to
carry them out ; and he became so greedy of the
fame which, poor wretch, he could not earn, that
he was jealous even of the dead. He burned the
books of Livy and Virgil out of the libraries, and
deprived the statues of the great men of old of the
.marks by which they were known — Cincinnatus
of his curls, and Torquatus of his collar, and he for-
bade the last of the Pompeii to be called Magnus.

He made an expedition into Gaul, and talked of
conquering Britain, but he got no further than the
shore of the channel, where, instead of setting sail,
he bade the soldiers gather up shells, which he
sent home to the Senate to be placed among the
treasures of the Capitol, calling them the spoils of
the conquered ocean. Then he collected the Ger- •
man slaves and the tallest Gauls he could find, com-
manded the latter to dye their hair and beards to a

296 Young Folks' History of Rome.

light color, and brought them home to walk in his
triumph. The Senate, however, were slow to un-
derstand that he could really expect a triumph,
and this affronted him so much that, when they
offered him one, he would not have it, and went on
insulting them. He made his horse a consul,
though only for a day, and showed it with golden
oats before it in a golden manger. Once, when
the two consuls were sitting by him, he burst out
laughing, to think, he said, how with one word he
could make both their heads roll on the floor.

The provinces were not so ill off, but the state of
Rome was unbearable. Everybody was in danger,
and at last a plot was formed for his death ; and as
he was on his way from his house to the circus, and
stopped to look at some singers who were going to
perform, a party of men set upon him and killed
him with many wounds, after he had reigned only
five years, and when he was but thirty years old.

CHAPTER XXXII.

CLAUDIUS AND NERO.
A.D. 41—68.

POOR dull Claudius heard an uproar and hid
himself, thinking he was going to be mur-
dered like his nephew, but still worse was going to
befall him. They were looking for him to make
him Emperor, for he was the last of his family. He
was clumsy in figure, though his face was good, and
he was a kind-hearted man, who made large prom-
ises, and tried to do well ; but he was slow and
timid, and let himself be led by wicked men and
women, so that his rule ended no better than that
of the former Caesars.

He began in a spirited way, by sending troops

who conquered the southern part of Britain, and

making an expedition thither himself. His wife

chose to share his triumph, which was not, as usual,

297

298

Young Folks' History of Rome.

a drive in a chariot, but a sitting in armor on their
thrones, with the eagles and standards over their
heads, and the prisoners led up before them.
Among them came the great British chief Carac-
tacus, who is said to have declared that he could
not think why those who had such palaces as there
were at Rome should want the huts of the Britons.
Claudius was kind to the people in the distant
provinces. He gave the
Jews a king again, Herod
Agrippa, the grandson of
the first Herod, who was
much loved by them, but
died suddenly after a few
years at Caesarea, after
the meeting with the Tyr-
ians, when he let them
greet him as a god. There
were a great many Jews
living at Rome, but those
from Jerusalem quarrelled
with those from Alexandria ; and one year, when
there was a great scarcity of corn, Claudius ban-
ished them all from Rome.

Claudius was very unhappy in his wives. Two
he divorced, and then married a third named Mes-

CLxlUDIUS.

Claudius arid Nero. 299

salina, who was given up to all kinds of wicked-
ness which he never guessed at, while she used all
manner of arts to keep up her beauty and to deceive
him. At last she actually married a young man
while Claudius was absent from Rome ; but when
this came to his knowledge, he had her put to
death. His last wife was, however, the Avorst of
all. She was the daughter of the good Germani-
icus, and bore her mother's name of Agrippina.
She had been previously married to Lucius Domit-
ius ^nobarbus, by whom she had a son, whom
Claudius adopted when he married her, though he
had a child of his own called Britannicus, son to
Messalina. Romans had never married their nieces
before, but the power of the Emperors was leading
them to trample down all law and custom, and it
was for the misfortune of Claudius that he did so in
this case, for Agrippina's purpose was to put every
one out of the way of her own son, who, taking all
the Claudian and Julian names in addition to his
own, is commonly known as Nero. She married
him to Claudius' daughter Octavia, and then, after
much tormenting the Emperor, she poisoned liim
with a dish of mushrooms, and bribed his physician
to take care that he did not recover. He died A.D.
54, and, honest and true-hearted as he had been,

300 Young Folks' History of Rome,

the Rumans were glad to be rid of him, and told
mocking stories of him. Indeed, they were very
bad in all ways themselves, and man}^ of the ladies
were poisoners like Agrippina, so that the city al-
most deserved the tyrant who came after Claudius.
Nero, the son of Agrippina by 'her first marriage,
and Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messa-
lina, were to reign together ; but Nero was the
elder, and as soon as bis poor young cousin came to
manhood, Agrippina had a dose of poison ready for
him.

Nero, however, began well. He had been well
brought up by Seneca, an excellent student of the
Stoic philosophy, who, with Burrhus, the com-
mander of the Praetorian Guard, guided the young
Emperor with good advice through the first five
years of his reign ; and though his wicked mother
called herself Augusta, and had equal honors paid
her with her son, not much harm was done to the
government till Nero fell in love witli a wicked
woman, Poppsea Sabina, who was a proverb for
vanity, and was said to keep five hundred she-asses
that she might bathe in their milk to preserve her
complexion. Nero wanted to marry this lady, and
as his mother befriended his neglected wife Octavia,
he ordered that when she went to her favorite villa

Claudius and Nero.

301

at Baiae her galley should be wrecked, and if she was
not drowned, she should be stabbed. Octavia was
divorced, sent to an island, and put to death there ;
and after Nero married Poppsea, he quickly grew
more violent and savage.

Burrhus died about the same time, and Seneca
alone could not restrain the
Emperor from his foolish
vanity. He would descend
into the arena of the great
amphitheatre and sing to the
lyre his own compositions ;
and he showed off his char-
ioteering in the circus be-
fore the whole assembled
city, letting no one go away
till the performance was nero.

over. It very much shocked the patricians, but the
mob were delighted, and he chiefly cared for their
praises. He was building a huge palace, called the
Golden House because of its splendid decorations;
and, needing money, he caused accusations to be
got up against all the richer men that he might
have their hoards.

A terrible fire broke out in Rome, which raged
for six days, and entirely destroyed fourteen quar-

302 Young Folks' History of Rome.

ters of the city. While it was burning, Nero, full
of excitement, stood watching it, and sang to his
lyre the description of the burning of Troy. A
report therefore arose that he had actually caused
the fire for the amusement of watching it ; and to
put this out of men's minds he accused the Chris-
tians. The Christian faith had begun to be known
in Rome during the last reign, and it was to Nero,
as Csesar, that St. Paul had appealed. He had
spent two years in a hired house of his own at
Rome, and thus had been in the guard-room of the
Prsetoricins, but he was released after being tried
at " Caesar's judgment-seat," and remained at large
until this sudden outburst which caused the first
persecution. Then he was taken at Nicopolis, and
St. Peter at Rome, and they were thrown into the
Mamertine dungeon. Rome counts St. Peter as
her first bishop. On the 29th of June, A.D. ^Q^
both suffered ; St. Paul, as a Roman citizen, being
beheaded with the sword ; St. Peter crucified, with
his head, by his own desire, downwards. Many
others suffered at the same time, some being thrown
to the beasts, while others were wrapped in cloths
covered with pitch, and slowly burnt to light the
games in the Emperor's gardens. At last the peo-
ple were shocked, and cried out for these horrors

Claudius and Nero, 303

to end. And Nero, who cared for the people,
turned his hatred and cruelty against men of higher
class whose fate they heeded less. So common
was it to have a message advising a man to put
himself to death rather than be sentenced, that
every one had studied easy ways of dying. Nero's
old tutor, Seneca, felt his tyranny unbearable, and
had joined in a plot for overthrowing him, but it
was found out, and Senaca had to die by his own
hand. The way he chose, and his wife too for his
sake, was to open their veins, get into a warm bath,
and bleed to death.

Nero made a journey to Greece, and showed ofP
at Olympus and the Isthmus, at the same time
robbing the Greek cities of numbers of their best
statues and reliefs to adorn his Golden House ; for
the Romans had no original art — they could only
imitate the Greeks and employ Greek artists. But
danger was closing in on Nero. Such an Emperor
could be endured no longer, and the generals of
the armies in the provinces began to threaten him,
they not being smitten dumb and helpless as every
one at Rome seemed to be.

The Spanish army, under an officer named Galba,
who was seventy-two years old, but to whom Au-
gustus had said when he was a little boy, " You

304 Young Folks' History of Rome.

too shall share my taste of empire," began to move
homewards to attack the tyrant, and the army from
Gaul advanced to join it. Nero went nearly wild
with fright, sometimes raging, sometimes tearing
his hair and clothes ; and the people began to turn
against him in anger at a dearth of corn, saying he
spent everything on his own pleasures. As Galba
came nearer, the nobles and knights hoped for de-
liverance, and the Praetorian Guard showed that
they meant to join tlieir fellow-soldiers, and would
not fight for him. The wretched Emperor found
himself alone, and vainly called for some one to
kill him, for he liad not nerve to do it himself. He
fled to a villa in the country, and wandered in the
woods till he heard that, if he was caught, he
would be put to death in the " ancient fashion,"
which he was told was being fixed with his neck
in a forked stick and beaten to death. Then, hear-
ing the hoofs of the horses of his pursuers, he set a
sword against his breast and made a slave drive it
home, and avus groaning his last when the horse-
men came up. He was but 30 years old, and was
the last Emperor who could trace any connection,
even by adoption, with Augustus. He perished

A. D. 68.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE FLAVIAN FAMILY.
62—96.

'T^HE ablest of all Nero's officers was Titus
■^ Flavius Vespasian us, a stern, rigid old sol-
dier, who, with his son of the same name, was in
the East, preparing to put down a great rising of
the Jews. He waited to see what was going to
happen, and in a very few weeks old Galba had
offended the soldiers by his saving ways ; there
was a rising against him, and another soldier named
Otho became Emperor ; but the legions from Gaul
marched up under Vitellius to dethrone him, and
he killed himself to prevent other bloodshed.

When the Eastern army heard of these changes,
they declared they would make an Emperor like
the soldiers of the West, and hailed Vespasian as
305

306 Young Folks' History of Borne.

Emperor. He left his son Titus to subdue Judea,
and set out himself for Italy, where Yitellius had
given himself up to riot and feasting. There was
a terrible fight and fire in the streets of Rome
itself, and the Gauls, who chiefly made up Yitellius'
army, did even more mischief than the Gauls of old
under Brennus ; but at last Vespasian triumphed.
Vitellius was taken, and, after being goaded along
with the point of a lance, was put to death. There
had been eighteen months of confusion, and Ves-
pasian began his reign in the year 70.

It was just then that his son Titus, having taken
all the strongholds in Galilee, though they were
desperately defended by the Jews, had advanced
to besiege Jerusalem. All the Christians had
heeded the warning that our blessed Lord had left
them, and were safe at a city in the hills called
Pella ; but the Jews who were left within were
fiercely quarrelling among themselves, and fought
with one another as savagely as, they fought with
the enemy. Titus threw trenches round and block-
aded the city ; and the famine within grew to be
most horrible. Some died in their houses, but the
fierce lawless zealots rushed up and down the
streets, breaking into the houses where they thought
food was to be found. When they smelt roasting

The Flavian Family. 307

in one grand dwelling belonging to a lady, they
rushed in and asked for the meat, but even they
turned aAvay in horror when she uncovered the
remains of her own little child, whom she had been
eating. At last the Roman engines broke down
the walls of the lower city, and with desperate
struggling the Romans entered, and found every
house full of dead women and children. Still they
had the Temple to take, and the Jews had gathered
there, fancying that, at the worst, the Messiah would
appear and save them. Alas ! they had rejected
Him long ago, and this was the time of judgment.
The Romans fought their way in, up the marble
steps, slippery with blood and choked with dead
bodies ; and fire raged round them. Titus would
have saved the Holy Place as a wonder of the
world, but a soldier threw a torch through a golden
latticed window, and the flame spread rapidly.
Titus had just time to look round on all the rich
gilding and marbles before it sank into ruins. He
took a terrible vengeance on the Jews. Great
numbers were crucified, and the rest were either
taken to the amphitheatres all over the empire to
fight with wild beasts, or were sold as slaves, in such
numbers that, cheap as they were, no one would
buy them. And yet this wonderful nation has

308

Young Folks' History of Rome.

lived on in its dispersion ever since. The city was
utterly overthrown and sown with salt, and such
treasures as could be saved from the fire were car-
ried in the triumph of Titus — namely, the shew-
bread table, the seven-branched candlestick, and

ARCH OF TITCrS.

the silver trumpets — and laid up as usual among
the spoils dedicated to Jupiter. Their figures are
to be seen sculptured on the triumphal arch built
in honor of Titus, which still stands at Rome.

These Flavian Caesars were great builders. Much
had to be restored at Rome after the two great

The Flavian Family. 309

fires, and they built a new Capitol and new Forum,
besides pulling down Nero's Golden House, and
setting up on part of the site the magnificent baths
known as the Baths of Titus. Going to the bath,
to be steamed, rubbed, anointed, and perfumed by
the slaves, was the great amusement of an idle
Roman's day, for in the waiting-rooms he met all
his friends and heard the news ; and these rooms
were splendid halls, inlaid with marble, and adorned
with the statues and pictures Nero had brought
from Greece. On part of the gardens was begun
what was then called the Flavian Amphitheatre,
but is now known as the Colosseum, from the
colossal statue that stood at its door — a wonderful
place, with a succession of galleries on stone vaults
round the area, on which every rank and station,
from the Emperor and Vestal Virgins down to the
slaves, had their places, whence to see gladiators
and beasts struggle and perish, on sands mixed
with scarlet grains to hide the stain, and perfumed
showers to overcome the scent of blood, and under
silken embroidered awnings to keep off the sun.

Vespasian was an upright man, and though he
was stern and unrelenting, his reign was a great
relief after the capricious tyranny of t3i6 last
Claudii, He and his eldest son Titus were plMn

310 Young Folks' History of Rome.

and simple in their habits, and tried to put down
the horrid riot and excess that were ruining the
Romans, and thej were feared and loved. They
had great successes too. Britain was subdued and
settled as far as the northern hills, and a great
rising in Eastern Gaul subdued. Vespasian was
accused of being avaricious, but Nero had left the
treasur}' in such a state that he could hardl}^ have
governed without being careful. He died in the
year 79, at seventy years old. When he found
himself almost gone, he desired to be lifted to his
feet, sa3dng that an Emperor should die standing.

He left two sons, Titus and Domitian. Titus
was more of a scholar than his father, and was gen-
tle and kindly in manner, so that he was much be-
loved. He used to say, " I have lost a day," when
one went by without his finding some kind act to do.
He was called the delight of mankind, and his reign
would have been happy but for another great fire
in Rome, which burnt w^hat Nero's fire had left.
In his time, too. Mount Vesuvius suddenly woke
from its rest, and by a dreadful eruption destroyed
the two cities at its foot, Herculaneum and Pom-
peii. The philosopher Plinius, who wrote on
geography and natural history, was stifled by the sul-
phurous air while fleeing from the showers of stones*

iiiiiiiillgiiiiii

The Flavian Family. 313

and ashes cast up by the mountain. His nephew,
called Pliny the younger, has left a full account of
the disaster, and the cloud like a pine tree that
hung over the mountain, the noises, the earthquake,
and the fall at last of the ashes and lava. Drusilla,
the wife of Felix, the governor before whom St.
Paul pleaded, also perished. Herculaneum was
covered with solid lava, so that very little could be
recovered from it ; but Pompeii, being overwhelmed
with dust or ashes, was only choked, and in modern
days has been discovered, showing perfectly what an
old Roman town was like — amphitheatre, shops,
bake-houses, and all. Some skeletons have been
found : a man with his keys in a cellar full of treasure,
a priest crushed by a statue of Isis, a family crowded
into a vault, a sentry at his post ; and in other
cases the ashes [)erfectly moulded the impression of
the figure they stifled, and on pouring plaster into
them the forms of the victims have been recovered,
especially two women, elder and younger, just as
they fell at the gate, the girl with her head hidden
in her mother's robe.

Titus died the next year, and his son-in-law
Tacitus, who w^i-ote the history of those reigns, laid
the blame on his brother Domitian, who was as
cruel and savage a tyrant as Nero. He does

314

Young Folks' History of Rome.

seem to have been shocked at the wickedness of
the Romans. Even the Vestal Virgins had grown
shameless, and there was hardly a girl of the patri-
cian families in Rome well brought up enough to be-
come one. The blame was laid on forsaking the old
religion, and what the Romans called "Judaising,"

PERSKCUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS.

which meant Christianity, was persecuted again.
FJavius Clemens, a cousin of the Emperor, was
thus accused and put to death; and probably it
was this which led to St. John, the last of the
Apostles, being brought to Rome and placed in a

The Flavian Family* 315

cauldron of boiling oil by the Lateran Gate ; but
a miracle was wrought in his behalf, and the oil did
him no hurt, upon which he was banished to the
Isle of Patmos.

The Colosseum was opened in Domitian's time,
and the shows of gladiators, lights with beasts, and
even sea-fights, when the arena was flooded, ex-
ceeded all that had gone before. There were fights
between women and women, dwarfs and cranes.
There is an inscription at Rome which has made
some believe that the architect of the Colosseum
was one Gandentius, who afterwards perished there '
as a Christian.

Domitian affronted the Romans by wearing a
gold crown with little figures of the gods on it.
He did strange things. Once he called together all
his council in the middle of the night on urgent
business, and while they expected to hear of some
foreign enemy on the borders, a monstrous turbot
was' brought in, and they were consulted whether
it was to be cut in pieces or have a dish made on
purpose for it. Another time he invited a number
of guests, and they found themselves in a black
marble hall, with funeral couches, each man's name
graven on a column like a tomb, a feast laid as at a
funeral, and black boys to wait on them 1 This

316 Young Folks' History of Rome.

time it was only a joke ; but Domitian did but so
many people to death that he grew frightened lest
vengeance should fall on him, and he had his halls
lined with polished marble, that he might see as in
a glass if any one approached him from behind.
But this did not save him. His wife found that he
meant to put her to death, and contrived that a
party of servants should murder him, a.d. 96.

COIN OF NEBO.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES.
96—194.

DOMITIAN is called the last of the twelve
Caesars, though all who came after him
called themselves Caesar. He had no son, and a
highly esteemed old senator named Cocceius Nerva
became Emperor. He was an upright man, who
tried to restore the old Roman spirit ; and as he
thought Christianity was only a superstition which
spoiled the ancient temper, he enacted that all
should die who would not offer incense to the gods,
and among these died St. Ignatius, Bishop of An-
tioch, who had been bred up among the Apostles.
He was taken to Rome, saw his friend St. Polycarp,
Bishop of Smyrna, on the way, and wrote him one
of a set of letters which remain to this day. He
was then thrown to the lions in the Colosseum.

It seems strange that the good Emperors were
317

318 Young Folks' History of Rome.

often worse persecutors than the bad ones, but the
fact was that the bad ones let the people do as they
pleased, as long as they did not offend them ; while
the good ones were trying to bring back what they
read of in Livy's history, of plain living and high
thinking, and shut their ears to knowing more of
the Christians than that they were people who did
not worship the gods. Moreover, Julius Trajanus,
whom Nerva adopted, and who began to reign after
him in 98, did not persecute actively, but there
were laws in force against the Christians. When
Pliny the younger was propraetor of the province
of Pontica in Asia Minor, he wrote to ask the Em-
peror what to do about the Christians, telling him
what he had been able to find out about them from
two slave girls who had been tortured; namely,
that they were wont to meet together at night or
early morning, to sing together, and eat what he
called a harmless social meal. Trajan answered
that he need not try to hunt them out, but that, if
they were brought before him, the law must take
its course. In Rome, the chief refuge of the Chris-
tians was in the Catacombs, or quarries of tufa,
from which the city was chiefly built, and which
^ere hollowed out in long galleries. Slaves and
'•^nvicts worked them, and they were thus made

The Age of the Antonines,

819

known to the Christians, who buried their dead in
places hollowed at the sides, used the galleries for
their churches, and often hid there when there was
^.earch made for tliem.

TBUPLE OF AWTON1WU6 xxUli fAUSTU:*.

Trajan was so good a ruler that he bears the title
of Optimus, the Best, as no one else has ever done.
He was a great captain too, and conquered Dacia,
the country between the rivers Danube, Theiss,
and Pruth, and the Carpathian Hills ; and he also

• 320 Young Folks' History of Rome,

defeated the Parthians, and said if he had been a
younger man he would have gone as far as Alex-
ander. As it was, the empire was at its very
largest in his reign, and he was a very great builder
and improver, so that one of his successors called
him a wall-flower, because his name was everywhere
to be seen on wails and bridges and roads — some
of which still remain, as does his tall column at
Rome, with a spiral line of his conquests engraven
round it from top to bottom. He was on his way
back from the East when, in 117, he died at Cilicia,
leaving the empire to another brave warrior, Pub-
',(/l^^J^^„^^^ lius ^tius Hadrianus, who took the command with
great vigor, but found he could not keep Dacia,
and broke down the bridge over the Danube. He
came to Britain, where the Roman settlements
were tormented by the Picts. There he built the
famous Roman wall from sea to sea to keep them
out. He was wonderfully active, and hastened
from one end of the empire to the other wherever his
presence was needed. There Avas a revolt of the
Jews in the far East, under a man who pretended
to be the Messiah, and called himself the Son of a
Star. This was put down most severely, and no
Jew was allowed to come near Jerusalem, over
which a new city was built, and called after the

The Age of the Antoriines. 821

Emperor's second name, iElia Capitolina j and, to
drive the Jews further 'away, a temple to Jupiter
was built where the Temple had been, and one to
Venus on Mount Calvary.

But Hadrian did not persecute, and listened
kindly to an explanation of the faith which was
shown him at Athens by Quadratus, a Christian
philosopher. Hadrian built himself a grand tower-
like monument, surrounded by stages of columns
and arches, which was to be called the Mole of
Hadrian, and still stands, though stripped of its
ornaments. Before his death, in 138, he had
chosen his successor, Titus Aurelius Antoninus, a
good upright man, a philosopher, and 52 years old ;
for it had been found that youths who became Em-
perors had their heads turned by such unbounded
power, w^hile elder men cared for the work and
duty. Antoninus was so earnest for his people's
welfare that thej' called him Pius. He avoided
wars, only defended the empire ; but he was a great
builder, for he raised another rampart in Britain,
much further north, and set up another column at
Rome, and in Gaul built a great amphitheatre at
Nismes, and raised the wonderful aqueduct which
is still standing, and is called the Pont du Gard.

His son-in-law, whom he adopted and who sue-

322 Young Folks' History of Rome.

jLt>uA*^eeded him, is commonly called Marcus Aurelius,
as a choice among his many names. He was a deep
student and Stoic philosopher, with an earnest
longing for truth and virtue, though he knew not
how to seek them where alone they could be found ;
and when earthquake, pestilence and war fell on
his empire, and the people thought the gods were
offended, he let them persecute the Christians,
whose faith he despised, because the hope of Resur-
rection and of Heaven seemed ^yeak and foolish
. to him beside his stern, proud, hopeless Stoicism.
So the aged Poly carp, Bishop of Smyrna, the last
pupil of the Apostles themselves, was sentenced to
be burnt in the theatre of his own city, though, as
the fire curled round him in a curtain of flame
without touching him, he was actoally slain with the
sword. And in Gaul, especiall}^ at Vienne, there
was a fearful persecution which fell on women of
all ranks, and where Blandina the slave, under the
most unspeakable torments, was specially noted for
her. brave patience.

Aurelius was fighting hard with the German
tribes on the Danube, who gave him no rest, and
threatened to break into the empire. While pur-
suing them, he and his army were shut into a strong
place where they could get no water, and were

The Age of the Antonines, 323

perishing with thirst, when a whole legion, all
Christian soldiers, knelt down and prayed. A cloud
came up, a welcome shower of rain descended, and
was the saving of the thirsty host. It was said that
the name of the Thundering Legion was given to
this division in consequence, though on the column
reared by Aurelius it is Jupiter who is shown send-
ing rain on the thirsty host, who are catching it in
their shields. After this there was less persecution,
but every sort of trouble — plague, earthquake,
famine, and war — beset the empire on all sides, and
the Emperor toiled in vain against these troubles,
writing, meantime, meditations that show how sad
and sick at heart he was, and how little comfort
philosophy gave him, while his eyes were blind to
the truth. He died of a fever in his camp, while
still in the prime of life, in the year 180, and with
him ended the period of good Emperors, which the
Romans call the age of the Antonines. Aurelius
was indeed succeeded by his son Commodus, but
he was a foolish good-for-nothing youth, who would
not bear the fatigues and toils of real war, though he
had no shame in showing off in the arena, and is said
to have fought there seven hundred and fifty times,
besides killing wild beasts. He boasted of having
slain one hundred lions with one hundred arrows.

324 Young Folks' History of Rome.

and a whole row of ostriches with half-moon shaped
arrows which cut off their heads, the poor things
being fastened where he could not miss them, and
the Romans applaudmg as if for some noble deed.
They let him reign sixteen years before he was
murdered, and then a good old soldier named Per-
tinax began to reign; but the Praetorian Guard
had in those sixteen years grown disorderly, and
the moment they felt the pressure of a firm hand
they attacked the palace, killed the Emperor, cut
off his head, and ran with it to the senate-house,
asking who would be Emperor. An old senator
was foolish enough to offer them a large sum of
they would choose him, and this put it into their
heads to rush out to the ""ramparts and proclaim
that they would sell the empire to the highest
bidder.

A vain, old, rich senator, named Didius Juljanus,
was at supper with his family when he heard that
the Praetorians were selling the empire by auction,
and out he ran, and actually bought it at the rate
of about <£200 to each man. The Emperor being
really the commander-in-chief, with other offices
attached to the dignity, the soldiers had a sort of
right to the choice ; but the other armies at a dis-
tance, who were really fighting and guarding the

The Age of the Antonines.

325

wmpire, had no notion of letting the matter be
settled by the Praetorians, mere guardsmen, who
stayed at home and tried to rule the rest ; so each
army chose its own general and marched on Rome,
and it was the general on the Danube, Septimius
Severus, who got there first ; whereupon the Prae-
torians killed their foolish Emperor and joined him

.MAKCtS AUitKl^lUS

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE PR^TOBIAN INFLUENCE.

197—284.

SEPTIMUS SEVERUS was an able Emperor,
and reigned a long time. He was stern and
harsh, as was needed by the wickedness of the
time ; and he was very active, seldom at Rome, but
flashing as it were from one end of the empire to
the other, wherever he was needed, and keeping
excellent order. There was no regular persecution
of the Christians in his time ; but at Lyons, where
the townspeople were in great numbers Christians,
the country-folk by some sudden impulse broke in
and made a horrible massacre of them, in which the
bishop, St. Irenseus, was killed. So few country
people were at this time converts, that Paganus, a
peasant, came to be used as a term for a heathen.
Severus was, like Trajan and Hadrian, a great

326

The Prcetorian Influence.

327

builder and road-maker. The whole empire was
connected by a network of paved roads made by
the soldiery, cutting through hills, bridging* valleys,
straight, smooth, and so solid that they remain to
to this day. This made communication so rapid
that government was
possible to an active ^'

man like him. He gave
the Parthians a check ;
and, when an old man,
came to Britain and
marched far north, but
he saw it was impos-
sible to guard An-
tonius' wall between
the Forth and Clyde,
and only strengthened
the rampart of Hadrian from the Tweed to the Sol-
way. He died at York, in 211, on his return, and
his last watchword was " Labor ! " His wife was
named Julia Domna, and he left two sons, usually
called Oaracalla and Geta, who divided the empire ;
but Geta was soon stabbed by his brother's own
hand, and then Caracalla showed himself even
worse than Com modus, till he in his turn was mur-
dered in 21T.

SEPTIMUS SEVEBUS.

828

Voung I^olks^ History of Rome.

His mother, Julia Domna, had a sister called
Julia Ssemias, who lived at Antioch, and had two
daughters, Saemias and Mammsea, who each had a
son, Elagabalus — so called after the idol supposed
to represent the sun, whose priest at Emesa he was — ■
and Alexander Severus. The Praetorian Guard, in

their difficulty whom to chose Emperor, chose
^Elagabalus, a lad of nineteen, who showed himself
a poor, miserable, foolisli wretch, who did the most
absurd things. His feasts were a proverb for excess,
and even his lions were fed on parrots and pheas-
ants. Sometimes he would get together a festival

The Prcetorian Influence, 829

party of all fat men, or all thin, all tall, or short,
all bald, or gouty ; and at others he would keep
the wedding of his namesake god and Pallas,
making matches between the gods and god-
desses all over Italy ; and he carried on his service
to his god with the same barbaric dances in a

A1.EXANDEB SEVERUS.

strange costume as at Emesa, to the great disgust
of the Romans. His grandmother persuaded him
to adopt his cousin Alexander, a youth of much
more promise, who took the name of Severus. The
soldiers were charmed with him ; Elagabalus be-
came jealous, and was going to strip him of his
honors ; but this angered the Praetorians, so that
they put the elder Emperor to death in 222.

J30 Young Folks' History of Borne.

Alexander Sever us was a good and just prince,

whose mother is believed to have been a Christian,
and he had certainly learned enough of the Divine
Law to love virtue, and be firm while he was for-
bearing. He loved virtue, but he did not accept
the faith, and would only look upon our Blessed
Lord as a sort of great philosopher, placing His
statue with that of Abraham, Orpheus, and all
whom he thought great teachers of mankind, in a
private temple of his own, as if they were all on a
level. He never came any nearer to the faith, and
after thirteen years of good and firm government
he was killed in a mutiny of the Praetorians in 235.
These guards had all the power, and set up and
put down Emperors so rapidly that there are hardly
any names worth remembering. In the unsettled
state of the empire no one had time to persecute
the Christians, and their numbers grew and pros-
pered ; in many places they had churches, with
worship going on openly, and their Bishops were
known and respected. The Emperor Philip, called
the Arabian, who was actually a Christian, though
he would not own it openly, when he was at An-
tioch, joined in the service at Easter, and presented
himself to receive the Holy Communion : but
Bishop Babylas refused him, until he should have

The Prcetorian Influence. 331

done open penance for the crimes by which he had
come to the purple, and renounced all remains of
heathenism. He turned away rebuked, but put
off his repentance ; and the next year celebrated
the games called the Seculae, because they took
place ever}^ Seculum or hundredth year, with all
their heathen ceremonies, and with tenfold splen-
dor, in honor of this being Rome's thousandth
birthday.

Soon after, another general named Dccius was
chosen by the army on the German frontier, and
Philip was killed in battle Avith him. Decius wanted
to be an old-fashioned Roman ; he believed in the
gods, and thought the troubles of the empire came of
forsaking them ; and as the Parthians molested the
East, and the Goths and Germans the North, and
the soldiers seemed more ready to kill their Em-
perors than the enemy, he thought to win back
prosperity by causing all to return to the old wor-
ship, and begun the worst persecution the Church
had yet known. Rome, Antioch, Carthage, Alex-
andria, and all the chief cities were searched for
Christians. . If they would not throw a handful of
incense on the idol's altar or disown Christ, they
were given over to all the horrid torments cruel in-
genuity could invent, in the hope of subduing their

332

Young Folks' History of Rome.

constancy. Some fell, but the greater number
were firm, and witnessed a glorious confession be-
fore, in 251, Decius and his son were both slain in
battle in Msesia.

The next Emperor whose name is worth remem-
bering was Valerian, who had to make war against

TEMPLE OF THE SUN AT PALMYItA.

the Persians. The old stock of Persian kings, pro-
fessing to be descended from Cyrus, and, like him,
adoring fire, had overcome the Parthians, and were
spreading the Persian power in the East, under
their king Sapor, who conquered Mesopotamia, and
on the banks of the Euphrates defeated Valerian

JUiu CATACOailid AX KOJMt;.

The Prcetorian Influence. 335

in a terrible battle at Edessa. Valerian was made
prisoner, and kept as a wretched slave, who was
forced to crouch down that Sapor might climb up
by his back when mounting on horseback ; and
when he died, his skin was dyed purple, stufPed,
and hung up in a temple.

The best resistance made to Sapor was by Ode-
natus, a Syrian chief, and his beautiful Arabian
wife Zenobia, who held out the city of Palmyra,
on an oasis in the desert between Palestine and
Assyria, till Sapor retreated. Finding that no
notice was taken of them by Rome, they called
themselves Emperor and Empress. The city was
very beautifully adorned with splendid buildings
in the later Greek style ; and Zenobia, who reigned
with her young sons after her husband's death, was
well read in Greek classics and philosophy, and
was a pupil of the philosopher Longinus. Aurelian,
becoming Emperor of Rome, came against this
strange little kingdom, and was bravely resisted by
Zenobia ; but he defeated her^ made her prisoner,
and caused her to nxarch in his triumph to Rome.
She afterwards lived with her children in Italy.

Aurelian saw perils closing in on all sides of the
empire, and thought it time to fortify the city of
Rome itself, which had long spread beyond the old

336 Young Folks' History of Rome.

walls of Servius TuUus. He traced a new circuit,
and built the wall, the lines of which are the same
that still enclose Rome, though the wall itself has
been several times thrown down and rebuilt. He
also built the city in Gaul which still bears his
name, slightly altered into Orleans. He was one
of those stern, brave Emperors, who vainly tried to
bring back old Roman manners, and fancied it was
Christianity that corrupted them ; and he was just
preparing for a great persecution when he was mur-
dered in his tent, and there were three or four more
Emperors set up and then killed almost as soon as
their reign was well begun. The last thirty of
them are sometimes called the Thirty Tj^rants.
This power of the Praetorian Guard, of setting up
and pulling down their Emperor as being primarily
their general, lasted altogether fully a hundred
years.

COIX OF SEVERUS.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE.

284—312.

A DALMATIAN soldier named Diodes had
been told by a witch that he should become
Emperor by the slaughter of a boar. He became a
great hunter, but no wild boar that he killed seemed
to bring him nearer to the purple, till, when the
army was fighting on the Tigris, the Emperor
Numerianus died, and an officer named Aper offered
himself as his successor. Aper is the Latin for a
boar, and 'Diodes, perceiving the scope of the
prophecy, thi'ust his sword into his rival's breast,
and was hailed Emperor by the legions. He
lengthened his name out to Diocletianus, to sound
more imperial, and began a dominion unlike that of

any who had gone before. They had only been,
337

338

Young Folks' History of Rome,

as it were, overgrown generals, chosen by the Prae-
torians or some part of the army, and at the same
time taking the tribuneship and other offices for
life. Diocletian, though called Emperor, reigned
like the kings of the East. He broke the strength
of the Praetorians, so that they could never again
kill one Emperor and elect
another as before ; and he
never would visit Rome lest he
should be obliged to acknowl-
edge the authority of the Sen-
ate, whose power he contrived
so entirely to take away, that
thenceforward Senator be-
came only a complimentary
title, of which people in the
subdued countries were very
proud.

He divided the empire into two parts, feeling
that it was beyond the management of any one
man, and chose a;i able soldier of low birth but
much courage, named Maximian, to rule the West
from Trier as his capital, while he himself ruled
the East from Nicomedia. Each of the two Em-
perors chose a future successor, who was to rule in
part of his dominions under the title of Caesar, and

DIOCLETIAX.

The Division of the Empire. 339

to reign after him. Diocletian chose his son-in-
law Galerius, and sent him to fight on the Danube ;
and Maximian chose, as Csesar, Constantius Chlorus,
who commanded in Britain, Gaul, and Spain ; and
thus everything was done to secure that a strong
hand should be ready everywhere to keep the
legions from setting up Emperors at their own will.
Diocletian was esteemed the most just and kind
of the Emperors ; Maximian, the fiercest and most
savage. He had a bitter hatred of the Christian
name, which was shared by Galerius ; but, on the
other hand, the wife of Diocletian was believed to
be a Christian, and Helena, the wife of Constantius,
was certainly one. However, Maximian and Gale-
rius were determined to put down the faith. Max-
imian is said to have had a whole legion of Chris-
tians in his army, called the Theban, from the
Egyptian Thebes. These he commanded to sacri-
fice, and on their refusal had them decimated —
that is, every tenth man was slain. They were
called on again to sacrifice, but still were staunch,
and after a last summons were, every man of them,
slain as they stood with their tribune Maurice,
whose name is still held in high honor in the Enga-
dine. Dioclesian was slow to become a persecutor,
until a fire broke out in his palace at Nicomedi.i,

340 Young Folks' History of Rome,

which did much mischief in the city, but spared the
chief Christian church. The enemies of the Chris-
tians accused them of having caused it, and Dio-
clesian required every one in his household to clear
themselves b}^ offering sacrifice to Jupiter. His
wife and daughter yielded, but most of his officers
and slaves held out, and died in cruel torments.
One slave was scourged till the flesh parted from
his bones, and then the wounds were rubbed with
salt and vinegar ; others were racked till their
bones were out of joint, and others hung up by
their hands to hooks, with weights fastened to their
feet. A city in Phrygia was surrounded by sol-
diers and every person in it slaughtered ; and the
Christians were hunted down like wild beasts from
one end of the empire to the other, everywhere
save in Britain, where, under Constantius, only one
martyrdom is reported to have taken place, namely,
that of the soldier at Verulam, St. Alban. It was
the worst of all the persecutions, and lasted the
longest.

The two Emperors were good soldiers, and kept
the enemies back, so that Diocletian celebrated a
triumph at Nicomedia ; but he had an illness just
after, and, as he was fifty-nine years old, he decided
that it would be better to resign the empire while

The l)ivision of the £mpire.

B41

he was still in his full strength, and he persuaded
Maximian to do the same, in 305, making Constan-
tius and Galerius Emperors in their stead. Con-
stantius stopped the persecution in the West, but

DIOCLETIAN IN RETIREMENT,

it raged as much as ever in the East under Galerius
and the Caesar he had appointed, whose name was
Daza, but who called himself Maximin. Constan-
tius fought bravely, both in Britain and Gaul, with
the enemies who tried to break into the empire.

342 Young Folks' History of Rome,

The Franks, one of the Teuton nations, were con-
stantly breaking in on the eastern frontier of Gaul,
and the Caledonians on the northern border of the
settlement of Britain. He opposed them gallantl}^
and was much loved, but he died at York, 305,
and Galerius passed over his son Constantine, and
appointed a favorite of his own named Licinius.
Constantine was so much beloved by the arm}^ and
people of Gaul that they proclaimed him Emperor,
and he held the province of Britain and Gaul se-
curely against all enemies.

Old Maximian, who had only retired on the
command of Diocletian, now came out from his
retreat, and called on his colleague to do the same ;
but Diocletian was far too happy on his little farm
at Salona to leave it, and answered the messenger
who urged him again to take upon him the purple
with — "Come and look at the cabbages I have
planted." However, Maximian was accepted as
the true Emperor by the Senate, and made his son
Maxentius, Caesar, while he allied himself with
Constantine, to whom he gave his daughter Fausta
in marriage. Maxentius turned out a rebel, and
drove the old man away to Marseilles, where Con-
stantine gave him a home on condition of his not
interfering with government; but he could not

The Division of the Empire,

343

rest, and raised the troops in the south against his
son-in-law. Constantine's army marched eagerly
against him and made him prisoner, but even then
he was pardoned ; yet he still plotted, and tried to

CONSTANTINB THE GREAT.

persuade his daughter Fausta to murder her hus-
band. Upon this Constantine was obliged to have
him put to death.

Galerius died soon after of a horrible disease,
during which he was filled with remorse for his
cruelties to the Christians, sent w entreat their

344 Young Folks' History of Rome.

prayers, and stopped the persecution. On his death,
Licinius seized part of his dominions, and there
were four men calling themselves Emperors —
Licinius in Asia, Daza Maximin in Egypt, Maxen-
tius at Rome, and Constantine in Gaul.

There was sure soon to be a terrible struggle. It
began between Maxentius and Constantine. This
last marched out of Gaul and entered Italy. He
had hitherto seemed doubtful between Christianity
and paganism, but a wonder was seen in the heav-
ens before his whole army, namely, a bright cross
of light in the noon-tide sky with the words plainly
to be traced round it. In hoc signo vinces — " In
this sign thou shalt conquer." This sight decided
his mind ; he proclaimed himself a Christian, and
from Milan issued forth an edict promising the
Christians his favor and protection. Great vic-
tories were gained by him at Turin, Verona, and
on the banks of the Tiber, w^here, at the battle of
the Milvian Bridge in 312, Maxentius was defeated,
and was drowned in crossing the river. Constan-
tine entered Rome, and was owned by the Senate
as Emperor of the West.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.
312—337.

CONSTANTINE entered Rome as a Christian,
and from his time forward Christianity pre-
vailed. He reigned only over the West at first,
but Licinius overthrew Daza, treating him and his
family with great barbarity, and then Constantine,
becoming alarmed at his power, marched against
him, beat him in Thrace, and ten years later made
another attack on him. In the battle of Adrian-
ople, Licinius was defeated, and soon after made
prisoner and put to death. Thus, in 323, Constan-
tine became the only Emperor.

He was a Christian in faith, though not as yet
baptized. He did not destroy heathen temples nor

forbid heathen rites, but he did everything to favor
345

346 Young Folks' History of Rome,

the Christians and make Christian laws. Churches
were rebuilt and ornamented ; Sunday was kept as
the day of the Lord, and on it no business might
be transacted except the setting free of a slave ;
soldiers might go to church, and all that had made
it difficult and dangerous to confess the faith was
taken away. Constantine longed to see his whole
empire Christian ; but at Rome, heathen ceremonies
were so bound up with every action of the state or
of a man's life that it Avas very hard for the Em-
peror to avoid them, and he therefere spent as little
time as he could there, but was generally at the
newer cities of Aries and Trier ; and at last he de-
cided on founding a fresh capital, to be a Christian
city from the first.

The place he chose was the shore of the Bos-
phorus, where Asia and Europe are only divided
by that narrow channel, and where the old Greek
city of Byzantium already stood. From hence he
hoped to be able to rule the East and the West.
He enlarged the city with splendid buildings, made
a palace there for himself, and called it after his
own name — Constantinople, or New Rome, neither
of which names lias it ever lost. He carried many
of the ornaments of Old Rome thither, but conse-
crated them as far as possible, and he surrounded

Co7istantine the Great.

347

himself with Bishops and clergy. His mother
Helena made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to visit
the spots where our blessed Lord lived and died,
and to clear them from profanation. The churches
she built over the Holy Sepulchre and the Cave of
the nativity at Bethlehem have been kept np even
to this day.

There was now no danger in being a Christian,

CONSTANTINOPLE.

and thus worldly and even wicked men and women
owned themselves as belonging to the Church. So
much evil prevailed that many good men fled from
the sight of it, thinking to do more good by pray-

348 Young Folks' History of Rome,

ing in lonely places free from temptation than by
living in the midst of it. These were called her-
mits, and the first and most noted of them was St.
Anthony. Tire Thebaid, or hilly country above
Thebes in Egypt, was full of these hermits. When
they banded together in brotherhoods they were
called monks, and the women who did the like were
called nuns.

At this time there arose in Egypt a priest named
Arius, who fell away from the true faith respecting
our blessed Lord, and taught that he was not from
the beginning, and was not equal with God the
Father. The Patriarch of Alexandria tried to
silence him, but he led away an immense number
of followers, who did not like to stretch their souls
to confess that Jesus Christ is God. At. last Con-
stantino resolved to call together a council of the
Bishops and the wisest priests of the whole Church,
to declare what was the truth that had been always
held from the beginning. The place he appointed
for the meeting was Nicea, in Asia Minor, and he
paid for the journeys of all the Bishops, three hun-
dred and eighteen in number, who came from all
parts of the empire, east and west, so as to form
the first CEcumenical or General Council of the
Church. Many of them still bore the marks of the

Constantine the Great. 351

persecutions they had borne in Diocletian's time :
some had been blinded," or had their ears cut oif ;
some had marks worn on their arms by chains, or
were bowed by hard labor in the mines. The Em-
peror, in purple and gold, took a seat in the coun-
cil as the prince, but only as a layman and not yet
baptized ; and the person who used the most power-
ful arguments was a young deacon of Alexandria
named Athanasius. Almost every Bishop declared
that the doctrine of Arius was contrary to what the
Church had held from the first, and the confession of
faith was drawn up which we call the Nicene Creed.
Three hundred Bishops at once set their seals to it,
and of those who at first refused all but two were
won over, and these were banished. It was tlien
that the faith of the Church began to be called
Catholic or universal, and orthodox or straight
teaching ; while those who attacked it were called
heretics, and their doctrine heresy, from a Greek
word meaning to choose.

The troubles were not at an end with the Coun-
cil and Creed of Nicea. Arius had pretended to
submit, but he went on with his false teaching, and
the courtly Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, who
had the ear of the Emperor, protected him. Atha-
nasius had been made Patriarch, or Father-Bishop,

352

Young Folks' History of Rome.

of Alexandria, and with all his might argued
against the false doctrine, and cut off those who fol-
lowed it from the Church. But Eusebius so talked
that Constantine fancied quiet was better than
truth, and sent orders to Athanasius that no one was

- -> ^ . ^-^

CATACOMBS.

to be shut out. This the Patriarch could not obey,
and the Emperor therefore banished him to Gaul.
Arius then went to Constantinople to ask the Em-
peror to insist on his being received back to com-
munion. He declared that he believed that which
he held in his hand, showing the Creed of Nicea,

Oonstantine the Great, 353

but keeping hidden under it a statement of his own
heresy.

" Go," said Constantine ; " if your faith agree
with your oath, 3'ou are blameless ; if not, God be
your judge ; " and he commanded that Arius should
be received to communion the next day, which was
Sunday. But on his wa}^ to church, among a great
number of his friends, Arius was . struck with sud-
den illness, and died in a few minutes. The Em-
peror, as well as the Catholics, took this as a clear
token of the hand of God, and Constantine was
cured of any leaning to the Arians, though he still
believed the men who called Athanasius factious
and troublesome, and therefore would not recall
him from exile.

The great grief of Constantino's life was, that
he put his eldest son Crispus to death on a wicked
accusation of his stepmother Fausta. On learning
the truth, he caused a silver statue to be raised,
bearing the inscription, " My son, whom I unjustly
condemned ; " and when other crimes of Fausta
came to light, he caused her to be suffocated.

Baptism was often in tiiose days put off to the
end of life, that there might be no more sin after it,
and Constantine was not baptized till his last illness
had begun, when he was sixty-four years old, and

354

Young Folks' History of Rome.

he sent for Sylvester, Pope or Bishop of Rome,
where he then was, and received from him baptism,
absolution, and Holy Communion. After this,
Constantine never put on purple robes again, but
wore white till the day of his death in 337-

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

CONSTANTIUS.
337—364.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT left three
sons, who shared the empn-e between them ;
bat two were slain early in life, and only Constan-
tius, the second and worst of the brothers, remained
Emperor. He was an Arian, and under him Atha-
nasius, who had returned to Alexandria, was ban-
ished again, and took refuge with the Pope Libe-
rius at Rome. Pope — papa in Latin — is the name
for father, just as patriarch is ; .and the Pope had
become more important since the removal of the
court from Rome ; but Constantius tried to over-
come Liberius, banished him to Thrace, and placed
an Arian named Felix in his room. The whole
people of Rome rose in indignation, and Constau
855

356 Young Folks' History of Rome.

tius tried, to appease them by declaring that Liberius
and Felix should rule the Church together ; but
the Romans would not submit to such a decree.
" Shall we have the circus factions in the Church? "
they said. "No ! one God, one Christ, one Bishop ! "
In the end Felix was forced to fly, and Liberius
kept his seat. Athanasius found his safest refuge
in the deserts among the hermits of the Thebaid
in Egypt.

Meantime Sapor, king of Persia, wag attacking
Nisibis, the most Eastern city of the Roman empire,
where a brave Catholic named James was Bishop,
and encouraged the people to a most brave resist-
ance, so that they held out for four months ; and
Sapor, thinking the city was under some divine
protection, and finding that his army sickened in
the hot marshes around it, gave up the siege at
last.

Constantiiis was a little, mean-looking man, but
he dressed himself up to do his part as Emperor.
He had swarms of attendants like any Eastern
prince, most of them slaves, who waited on him as
if he was perfectly helpless. He had his face
painted, and was covered Avith gold embroidery
and jewels on all state occasions, and he used to
stand like a statue to be looked at, never winking

Constantius, 357

an eyelid, nor moving his hand, nor doing anything
to remind people that he was a man like them-
selves. He was timid and jealous, and above all
others, he dreaded his young cousin Julian, the
only relation he had. Julian had studied at Athens,
and what he there heard and fancied of the old

.inxiAN.

Greek philosophy seemed to him far grander than
the Christianity that showed itself in the lives of
Constantius and his courtiers. He was full of
spirit and ability, and Constantius thought it best
to keep him at a distance by sending him to fight
the Germans on the borders of Gaul. There he
was so successful, and was such a favorite with the

358 Young Folks' History of Rome.

soldiers, that Constantius sent to recall him. This
only made the army proclaim him Emperor, and he
set out with tliem across the Danubian country
towards Constantinople, but on the way met the tid-
ings that Constantius was dead.

This was in 861, and without going to Rome
Julian hastened on to Constantinople, where he was
received as Emperor. He no longer pretended to
be a Christian, but had all the old heathen temples
opened again, and the sacrifices performed as in
old times, though it was not easy to find any one
who recollected how they were carried on. He
said that all forms of religion should be free to
every one, but he himself tried to live like an an-
cient philosopher, getting rid of all the pomp of
jewels, robes, courtiers, and slaves who had at-
tended Constantius, wearing simply the old purple
garb of a Roman general, sleeping on a lion's skin,
and living on the plainest food. Meantime, he
tried to put down the Christian faith by laughing
at it, and trying to get people to despise it as some-
thing low and mean. When this did not succeed,
he forbade Christians to be schoolmasters or teachers;
and as they declared that the ruin of the Temple
of Jerusalem proved our Lord to have been a true
Prophet, he commanded that it should be rebuilt.

Constantius, 359

As soon as the foundations were dug, there was an
outburst of fiery smoke and balls of flame which
forced the workmen to leave off. Such things
sometimes happen when long-buried ruins are
opened, from the gases that have formed there ;
but it was no doubt the work of God's providence,
and the Christians held it as a miracle.

Julian hated the Catholic Christians worse than
the Arians, because he found them more staunch
against him„ Athanasius had come back to Alex-
andria, but the Arians got up an accusation against
him that he had been guilty of a murder, and
brought forward a hand in a box to prove the
crime ; and though Athanasius showed the man
said to have been murdered alive, and with both
his hands in their places, he was still hunted out
of Alexandria, and had to hide among the hermits
of the Thebaid again. When any search was
threatened of the spot where he was, the horn was
sounded which called the hermits together to
church, and he was taken to another hiding-place.
Sometimes he visited his flock at Alexandria in
secret, and once, when he was returning down the
Nile, he learned that a boat-load of soldiers was
pursuing him. Turning back, his boat met them.
They called out to know if Athanasius had been

360 Young Folks' History of Rome,

seen. " He was going down the Nile a little while
ago," the Bishop answered. His enemies hurried
on, and he was safe.

Julian was angered by finding it impossible to
waken paganism. At one grand temple in Asia,
whither hundreds of oxen used to be brought to
sacrifice, all his encouragement only caused one
goose to be offered, which the priest of the temple
received as a grand gift. Julian expected, too,
that pagans would worship their old gods and yet
live the virtuous lives of Christians ; and he was
disappointed and grieved to find that no works of
goodness or mercy sprang from those who followed
his belief. He was a kind man by nature, but he
began to grow bitter with disappointment, and to
threaten when he found it was of no use to per-
suade ; and the Christians expected that there would
be a great persecution when he should return from
an expedition into the East against the king of
Persia.

He went with a fine army in ships down the
Euphrates, and thence marched into Persia, where
King Sapor was wise enough to avoid a battle, and
only retreat before him. The Romans were half
starved, and obliged to turn back. Then Sapor
attacked their rear, and cut off their stragglers.

Constantius, 363

Julian shared all the sufferings of his troops, and
was always wherever there was danger. At last a
javelin pierced him under the arm. It is said that
he caught some of his blood in his other hand, cast it
up towards heaven, and cried, " Galilean, Thou hast
conquered." He died in a few hours, in 363, and
the Romans could only choose the best leader they
knew to get them out of the sad plight they were
in — almost that of the ten thousand Greeks, ex-
cept that they knew the roads and had friendly
lands much nearer. Their choice fell on a plain,
honest Christian soldier named Jovian, who did his
best by making a treaty with Sapor, giving up all
claim to any lands beyond the Tigris, and surren-
dering the brave city of Nisibis which had held out
so gallantly — a great grief to the Eastern Chris-
tians. The first thing Jovian did was to have
Athanasius recalled, but his reign did not last a
year, and he died on the way to Constantinople.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

VALENTINIAN AND HIS FAMILY.
364—392.

WHEN Jovian died, the army chose another
soldier named Valentinian, a stout, brave,
rough man, with little education, rude and pas-
sionate, but a Catholic Christian. As soon as he
reached Constantinople, he divided the empire with
his brother Valens, whom he left to rule the East,
while he himself went to govern the West, chiefly
from Milan, for the Emperors were not fond of
living at Rome, partly because the remains of the
Senate interfered with their full grandeur, and
partly because there were old customs that were
inconvenient to a Christian Emperor. He was in
general just and honest in his dealings, but when
he was angry he could be cruel, and it is said he
364

Valentinian and his Family,

365

had two bears to whom criminals were thrown.
His brother Valens was a weaker and less able
man, and was an Arian, who banished Athanasius
once more for the fifth time; but the Church
of Alexandria prevailed, and he was allowed to re-
main and die in peace. The Creed that bears his

ALEXAITDBIA.

name is not thought to be of his writing, but to
convey what he taught. There was great talk at
this time all over the cities about the questions be-
tween the Cf tholics and Arians, and good men

366 Young Folks' History of Rome,

were shocked by hearing the holiest mysteries of
the faith gossiped about by the idlers in baths and
market-places.

At this time Damasns, the Pope, desired a very
learned deacon of his church, named Jerome, to
make a good translation of the whole of the Scrip-
tures into Latin, comparing the best versions, and
giving an account of the books. For this purpose
Jerome went to the Holy Land, and lived in a cell
at Bethlehem, happy to be out of the way of the
quarrels at Rome and Constantinople. There, too,
was made the first translation of the Gospels into
one of the Teutonic languages, namely, the Gothic.
The Goths were a great people, of the same Teu-
tonic race as the Germans, Franks, and Saxons —
tall, fair, brave, strong, and handsome — and were
at this time living on the north bank of the Dan-
ube. Many of their young men hired themselves
to fight as soldiers in the Roman army ; and they
were learning Christianity, but only as Arians. It
was for them that their Bishop Ulfilas translated
the Gospels into Gothic, and invented an alphabet
to write them in. A copy of this translation is
still to be seen at Upsal in Sweden, written on pur-
ple vellum in silver letters.

Another great and holy man of this time was

»g^^;,'-'i|r!iti'lil,iillillilitilllir

Valentinian and Ms Family. 06 9

Ambrose, the Archbishop of Milan, who was the
guide and teacher of Gratian, Valentinian's eldest
son, a good and promising youth so far as he went,
but who, after the habit of the time, was waiting to
be baptized till he should be further on in life.
Valentinian's second wife was named Justina ; and
when he died, as it is said, from breaking a blood
vessel in a fit of rage, iu 375, the Western Empire
was shared between her little son Valentinian and
Gratian.

Justina was an Arian, and wanted to have et
church in Milan where she could worship without
ascribing full honor and glory to God the Son ; but
Ambrose felt that the churches were his Master's,
not his own to be given away, and filled the Church
with Christians, who watched there chanting
Psalms day and night, while the soldiers Justina
sent to turn them out joined them, and sang and
prayed with them.

Gratian did not choose to be called Pontifex
Maximus, or chief priest of all the Roman idols, as
all the Emperors had been ; and this offended
many persons. A general named Maximus rose
and reigned as Emperor in Britain, and Gratian
had too much on his hands in the north to put him
down.

370 Young FolW History of Rome,

In the meantime, a terrible wild tribe called
Huns were coming from tlie West and driving the
Goths before them, so that they asked leave from
Valens to come across the Danube and settle them-
;5elves in Thrace. The reply was so ill managed by
Valens^ counsellors that the Goths were offended,
and came over the river as foes when they might
have come as friends; and Yalens was killed in
battle with them at Adrianople in 378.

Gratian felt that he alone could not cope with
the dangers that beset the empire, and his brother
was still a child, so he gave the Eastern Empire to
a brave and noble Spanish general named Theodo-
sius, who was a Catholic Christian and baptized,
and who made peace with the Goths, gave them
settlements, and took their young men into his
armies. In the meantime, Maximus was growing
more powerful in Britain, and Gratian, who chiefly
lived in Gaul, was disliked by the soldiers especially
for making friends with the young Gotliic chief
Alaric, whom he joined in hunting in the forests of
Gaul in a way they thought unworthy of an Em-
peron Finding that he was thus disliked, Maximus
crossed the Ohannel to attack him. His soldiers
would not march against the British legions, and
he was taken and put to death, bitterly lamenting

Valentinian and his Family, 371

that he had so long deferred his baptism till now it
was denied to him.

Young Valentinian went on reigning at Milan,
and Maximus in Gaul. This last had become a
Christian and a Catholio in name, but without lay-
ing aside his fierceness and cruelty, so that, when
some heretics were brought before him, he had
them put to death, entirely against the advice of
the great Saint and Bishop then working in Gaul,
'Martin of Tours, and likewise of St. Ambrose, who
had been sent by Valentinian to make peace with
the Gallic tyrant.

It was a time of great men in the Church. In
Africa a very great man had risen up, St» Augus-
tine, who, after doubting long and living a life of
sin, was drawn to the truth by the prayers of his
good mother Monica, and, when studying ui Italy,
listened to St. Ambrose, and became a hearty be-
liever and maintainer of all that was good. He
became Bishop of Hippo in Africa.

But with the good there was much of evil. All
the old cities, and especially Rome, were fall of a
strange mixture of Christian show and heathen
vice. There was such idleness and luxury in the
towns that hardly any Romans had hardihood
enough to go out to fight their own battles, but

372

Young Folks' History of Rome,

hired Goths, Germans, Gauls, and Moors; and
these learned their ways of warfare, and used them
in their turn against the Romans themselves.
Nothing was so much run after as the games in the
amphitheatres. People rushed there to watch the

$^^

i^^^'^^J^^

CONVENT ON THE HILLa.

chariot races, and went perfectly wild with eager-
ness about the drivers whose colors they wore ; and
even the gladiator games were not done away
with by Christianity, although these sports were
continually preached against by the clergj^ and no
really devout person would go to the theatres.

Valentinian and his Family. 373

Much time was idled away at the baths, which
were the place for talk and gossip, and where there
was a soft steamy air which was enough to take
away all manhood and resolution. The ladies'
dresses were exceedingly expensive and absurd,
and the whole way of living quite as sumptuous
and helpless as in the times of heathenism. Good
people tried to live apart. More than ever became
monks and hermits ; and a number of ladies, who
had been much struck with St. Jerome's teaching,
made up a sort of society at Rome which busied it-
self in good works and devotion. Two of tlie
ladies, a mother and daughter, followed him to the
Holy Land, and dwelt in a convent at Bethlehem.
Maximus after a time advanced into Italy, and
Valentmian fled to ask the help of Theodosius, who
came with an army, defeated and slew Maximus,
and restored Valentinian, but only for a short
time, for the poor youth was soon murdered by a
Frank chief in his own service named Arbogastes,

CHAPTER XL.

THEODOSIUS THE GREAT.
392—395.

THE Frank, Arbogastes, who had killed Valen-
tiniaii did not make himself Emperor, but
set up a heathen philosopher called Eugenius, who
for a little while restored all the heathen pomp and
splendor, and opened the temples again, threatening
even to take away the churches and turn the chief
one at Milan into a stable. They knew that Theo-
dosius would soon come to attack them, so they
prepared for a great resistance in the passes of the
Julian Alps, and the 'mage of the Thundering
Jupiter was placed to guard them.

Theodosius had collected his troops and marched
under the Labarum — that k to say, the Cross of

Constantine, which had been the ensign of the im-
374

Theodosius the Great.

375

perial army ever since the battle of the Milvian
Bridge It was the cross combined with the two
first Greek letters of the name Christ, )p^ and
was carried, as the eagles had been, above a purple

silk banner. The men of Eugenius bore before them
a figure of Hercules, and in the first battle they
gained the advantage, for the more ignorant East-
ern soldiers, though Christians, could not get rid oi

376 Young Folks' History of Rome,

the notion that there was some sort of power in a
heathen god, and thought Jupiter and Hercules
were too strong for them.

But Theodosius rallied them and led them back,
so that they gained a great victory, and a terrible
storm and whirlwind which fell at the same time
upon the host of Eugenius made the Christian army
feel the more sure that God fought on their side.
Eugenius was taken and put to death, and Arbo-
gastes fell on his own sword.

Theodosius thus united the empires of the East
and West once more. He was a brave and gallant
soldier, and a good and conscientious man, and was
much loved and honored ; but he could be stern
and passionate, and he was likewise greatly feared.
At Antioch, the people had been much offended at a
tax which Theodosius had laid on them ; they rose
in rebellion, overthrew his statues and those of , his
family, and dragged them about in the mud. No
sooner was this done than they began to be shocked
and terrified, especially because of the insult to
the statue of the Empress, who was lately dead
after a most kind and charitable life. The citizens
in haste sent off messengers, with the Bishop at
their head, to declare their grief and sorrow, and
entreat tlie Emperor's pardon. All the time they

BOMAN HALL OF JUSTICE

Theodosius the G-reat, 379

were gone the city gave itself up to prayer and
fasting, listening to sermons from the priest, John
— called from his eloquence Chrysostom, or Golden
Mouth — who preached repentance for all the most
frequent sins, such as love of pleasure, irreverence
at church, etc. The Bishop on his way met the Em-
peror's deputies who were charged to enquire into
the crime and punish the people ; and he redoubled
his speed in reaching Constantinople, where he so
pleaded the cause of the people that Theodosius
freely forgave them, and sent him home to keep a
happy Easter with them. This was while he was
still Emperor only of the East.

But when he was in Italy with Valentinian, three
years later, there was another great sedition at
Thessalonica. The people there were as mad as
were most of the citizens of the larger towns upon
the sports of the amphitheatre, and were vehe-
mently fond of the charioteers whom they admired
on either side. Just before some races that were
expected, one of the favorite drivers committed a
crime for which he was imprisoned. The people,
wild with fury, rose and called for his release ; and
when this was denied to them, they fell on the
magistrates with stones, and killed the chief of
them, Botheric, the commander of the forces. The

880 Young Folks* History of Rome,

news was taken to Milan, where the Emperor then
was, and his wrath was so great and terrible that
he commanded that the whole city should suffer.
The soldiers, who were glad both to revenge their
captain and to gain plunder, hastened to put his
command into execution ; the unhappy people were
collected in the circus, and slaughtered so rapidly
and suddenly, that when Theodosius began to re-
cover from his passion, and sent to stay the hands
of the slayers, they found the city burning and the
streets full of corpses.

St. Ambrose felt it his duty to speak forth in the
name of the Church against such fury and cruelty ;
and when Theodosius presented himself at the church
door to come to the Holy Communion, Ambrose
met him there, and turned him back as a blood-
stained sinner unfit to partake of the heavenly
feast, and bidding him not add sacrilege to murder.

Theodosius pleaded that David had sinned even
more deeply, and yet had been forgiven. "If you
have sinned like him, repent like him," said Am-
brose ; and the Emperor went back weeping to his
palace, there to remain as a penitent. Easter was
the usual time for receiving penitents back to the
Church, but at Christmas the Emperor presented
himself again, hoping to win the Bishop's consent

Theodosius the Great, 881

to his return at once ; but Ambrose was firm, and
again met him at the gate, rebuking him for trying
to break the rules of the Church.

" No," said Theodosius ; "I am not come to
break the laws, but to entreat you to imitate the
mercy of God whom we serve, who opens the gates
of mercy to contrite sinners."

On seeing how deep was his repentance, Ambrose
allowed him to enter the Church, though it was
not for some time that he was admitted to the Holy
Communion, and all that time he fasted and never
put on his imperial robes. He also made a law that
no sentence of death should be carried out till
thirty days after it was given, so as to giv^ time to
see whether it were hasty or just.

During this reign another heresy sprang up,
denying the Godhead of God the Holy Ghost, and,
in consequence, Theodosius called together another
Council of the Church, at which was added to the
Nicene Creed those latter sentences which follow
the words, " I believe in the Holy Ghost." In this
reign, too, began to be sung the Te Deum^ wliich is
generally known as the hymn of St. Ambrose. It
was first used at Milan, but whether he wrote it or
not is uncertain, though there is a story that he
had it sung for the first time at the baptism of St.
Augustine.

382

Young Folks' History of Rome.

Theodosius only lived six months after his defeat
of Eugenius, dying at Milan in 395, when only
fifty years old. He was the last who really de-
served the name of a Roman Emperor, though the
title was kept up, and Rome had still much to un-
dergo. He left two young sons named Arcadius
and Honorius, between whom the empire ' wag
divided.

CHAPTER XLL

ALABIC THE QOTH.
. 395—410.

THE sons of the great Theodosius were, like
almost all the children of the Roman Em-
perors, vain and weak, spoiled by growing up as
princes. Arcadius, who Avas eighteen, had the
East, and was under the charge of a Roman officer
called Rufinus ; Honorius who was only eleven,
reigned at Rome under the care of Stilicho, who
was by birth a Vandal, that is to say, of one of
those Teutonic nations who were living all round
the northern bounds of the empire, and whose
sons came to serve in the Roman armies and learn
Roman habits. Stilicho was brave and faithful,
and almost belonged to the imperial family, for his
wife Serena was neice to Theodosius, and his

384 Young Folks' History of Rome.

daughter Maria was betrothed to the young Hono-
rius.

Stilicho was a very active, spirited man, who
found troops to check the enemies of Rome on all
sides of the Western Empire. Rufinus was not so
faithful, and did great harm in the East by quar-
relling Avith Arcadius' other ministers, and then, as
all believed, inviting the Goths to come out of
their settlements on the Danube and invade Greece,
under Alaric, the same Gothic chief who had been
a friend and companion of Gratian, and had fought
under Theodosius.

They passed the Danube, overran Macedon, and
spread all over Greece, Avhere, being Arian Chris-
tians, they destroyed with all their might all the
remaining statues and temples of the old pagans ;
although, as they did not attack Athens, the pagans,
who were numerous there, fancied that the}' were
prevented by a vision of Apollo and Pallas Athene.
Arcadius sent to his brother for aid, and Stilicho
marched through Thrace ; Rufinus was murdered
through his contrivance, and then, marching on
into the Peloponnesus, he defeated Alaric in battle,
and drove him out from thence, but no further
than Epirus, where the Goths took up their station
to wait for another opportunity ; but by this time

Alario the Gfoth. 887

Areadius had grown afraid of Stilicho, sent him
back to Italy with many gifts and promises, and
engaged Alaric to be the guardian of his empire,
not only against the wild tribes, but against his
brother and his minister.

This was a fine chance for Alaric, who had all
the temper of a great conqueror, and to the wild
bravery of a Goth had added the knowledge and
skill of a Roman general. He led his forces
through the Alps into Italy, and showed himself
before the gates of Milan. The poor weak boy
Honorius was carried off for safety to Ravenna,
while Stilicho gathered all the troops from Gaul,
and left Britain unguarded by Roman soldiers, to
protect the heart of the empire. With these he
attacked Alaric, and gained a great victory at Pol-
lentia ; the Goths retreated ; he followed and beat
them again at Verona, driving them out of Italy.

It was the last Roman victory, and it was cele-
brated by the last Roman triumph. There had
been three hundred triumphs of Roman generals,
but it was Honorius who entered Rome in the car
of victory and was taken to the Capitol, and after-
wards there were games in the amphitheatre as
usual, and fights of gladiators. In the midst of
the horrid battle a voice was heard bidding it to

388 Young Folks' History of Rome,

cease in the name of Christ, and between the
swords there was seen standing a monk in his dark
brown dress, holding up his hand and keeping back
the blows. There was a shout of rage, and he Avas
cut down and killed in a moment ; but then in
horror the games were stopped. It was found that
he was an Egyptian monk named Telemachus,
freshly come to Rome. No one knew any more
about him, but this noble death of his put an end
to shows of gladiators. Chariot races and games
went on, though the good and thoughtful disap-
proved of the wild excitement they caused ; but
the horrid sports of death and blood were ended
for ever.

Alaric was driven back for a time, but there were
swarms of Germans who were breaking in where
the line of boundary had been left undefended by
the soldiers being called away to fight the Goths.
A fierce heathen chief named Radegaisus advanced
with at least 200,000 men as far as Florence, but
was there beaten by the brave Stilicho, and was
put to death, while the other prisoners were sold
into slavery. But Stilicho, brave as he was, was
neither loved nor trusted by the Emperor or the
people. Some abused him for not bringing back
the old gods under whom, they said, Rome had pros-

Alaric the G-oth. 389

pered ; others said that he was no honest Christian,
and all believed that he meant to make his son
Emperor. When he married this son to a daughter
of Arcadius, people made sure that this was his
purpose. Honorius listened to the accusation, and
his favorite Olympius persuaded the army to give
up Stilicho. He fled to a church, but was per-
suaded to come out of it, and was then put to
death.

And at that very time Alaric was crossing the
Alps. There was no one to make any resistance.
Honorius was at Ravenna, safe behind walls and
marshes, and cared for nothing but his favorite
poultry. Alaric encamped oiitside the walls of
Rome, but he did not attempt to break in, waiting
till the Romans should be starved out. When they
had come to terrible distress, they offered to ransom
their city. He asked a monstrous sum, which they
refused, telling him what hosts there were of them,
and that he might yet find them dangerous. " The
thicker the hay, the easier to mow," said the Goth.
" What will you leave us then ? " they asked.
'' Your lives," was the answer.

The ransom the wretched Romans agreed to pay
was 5000 pounds' weight of gold and 30,000 of
silver, 4000 silk robes, 8000 pieces of scarlet cloth,

390 Young Folks' HiBtory of Rome.

and 3000 pounds of pepper. They stripped the roof
of the temple in the Capitol, and melted down the
images of the old gods to raise the sum, and Alaric
drew off his men ; but he came again the next year,
blocked up Ostia, and starved them faster. This
time he brought a man named Attains, whom he
ordered them to admit as Emperor, and they did
so ; but as the governor of Africa would send no
corn while this man reigned, the people rose and
drove liim out, and thus for the third time brought
Alaric down on them.^ The gates were opened to
him at night, and he entered Rome on the 24th of
August, 410, exactly eight hundred years after the
sack of Rome by Brennus.

Alaric did not wish to ruin and destroy the grand
old city, nor to massacre the inhabitants ; but his
Goths were thirsty for the spoil he had kept them from
so long, and he gave them leave to plunder for six
days, but not to kill, nor to do au}^ harm to the
churches. A set of wild, furious men could not,
of course, be kept in by these orders, and terrible
misfortunes befell many unhappy families ; but the
mischief done was much less than could have been
expected, and the great churches of St. Peter and
St. Paul were unhurt. One old lady named Mar-
cella, a friend of St. Jeroi^, was beaten to make

ALAklC & BUKIA*

Alaric thp. G-oth. 393

her show where her treasures were ; but when at
last her tormentors camt? to believe that she had
spent her all on charity, they led her to the shelter
of the church with her friends, soon to die of what
she had undergone. After twelve days, however,
Alaric drew off his forces, leaving Rome to shift for
itself. Bishop Innocent was at Ravenna, where he
had gone to ask help from the Emperor ; but
Honorius knew and cared so little that when he
was told Rome was lost, he only thought of his
favorite hen whose name was Rome, and said,
"That cannot be, for I have just fed her."

Alaric marched southward, the Goths plundering
the villas of the Roman nobles on their way. At
Cosenza, in the extreme south, he fell ill of a fever
and died. His warriors turned the stream of the
river Bionzo out of its course, caused his grave to
be dug in the bed of the torrent, and when his
corpse had been laid there, they slew all the slaves
who had done the work, so that none might be
able to tell where lay the great Goth.

CHAPTER XLIL

THE VANDALS.

403.

ONE good thing came of the Gothic conquest —
the pagans were put to silence for ever. The
temples had been razed, the idols broken, and no
one set them up again ; but the whole people ol
Rome were Christian, at least in name, from that
time forth ; and the temples and halls of justice
began to be turned into churches.

Honorius still lived his idle life at Ravenna, and
the Bishop — or, as the Romans called him, Papa,
father, or Pope — came back and helped them to
put matters iiito order again. Al^ric had left no
son, but his wife's brother Atauif became leader of
the Goths. At Rome he had made prisoner Theo-
dosius' daughter Placidia, and he married her ; but
he did not choose to rule at Rome, because, as he said,

his Goths would never bear a quiet life in a citj. So
394

The Vandals, 395

he promised to protect the empire for Honorius, and
led his tribe away from Itah' to Spain, which they
conquered, and began a kingdom there. They
were therefore known as the Visigoths, or Western
Goths.

Arcadius, in the meantime, reigned quietly at
Constantinople, where St. John Chrysostom, the
golden-mouthed preacher of Antioch, was made
Patriarch, or father-bishop. The games and races
in the circus at Constantinople were as madly run
after as they had ever been at Rome or Thessalon-
ica ; there were not indeed shows of gladiators,
but people set themselves with foolish vehemence
to back up one driver against another, Avearing their
colors and calling themselves by their names, and
the two factions of the Greens and the Blues were
ready to tear each other to pieces. The Empress
Eudoxia, Arcadius' wife, was one of the most vehe-
ment of all, and was, besides, a vain, silly woman,
who encouraged all kinds of pomp and expense.
St. Chrysostom preached against all the mischiefs
that thus arose, so that she was offended, and con-
trived to raise up an accusation against him and
have him driven out of the city. The people of
Constantinople still showed so much love for him
that she insisted on his being sent further off to th^

9d6 Young Folks' History of Rome.

bleak shores of the Black Sea, and on the journey
he died, his last words being, " Glory be to God in
all things."

Arcadius died in 408, leaving a yonng son, called

aKiiiiiiiiiiiM '■•

The Vandals, 397

Theodosius II., in the care of his elder sister Pul-
cheria, under whom the Eastern Empire lay at
peace, while the miseries of the Western went on
increasing. New Emperors were set up by the
legions in the distant provinces, but were soon
overthrown, while Honorius only remained at
Ravenna by the support of the kings of the Teuton
tribes; and as he never trusted them or kept faith
with them, he was always offending them and being-
punished by fresh attacks on some part of his em-
pire, for which he did not greatly care so long as
they let him alone.

Ataulf died in Spain, and Placidia came back to
Ravenna, where Honorius gave her in marriage to
a Roman general named Oonstantius, and she had
a son named Valentinian, who, when his uncle died
after thirty-seven years of a wretched reign, became
Emperor in his stead, under his mother^s giiardian-
sliip, in 423.

Two great generals who were really able men
were her chief supporters — Boniface, Count or
Commander of Africa ; and Aetius, who is some-
times called the last of the Romans, though he was
not by birth a Roman at all, but a Scythian. He
gained th-e ear of the Empress Placidia, and per-
suaded her that Boniface wanted to set himself up

898

Young Folks' History of Rome,

in Africa as Emperor, so that she sent to recall him,
and evil friends assured him that she meant to put
him to death as soon as he arrived. He was very
much enraged, and though St. Augustine, now an
old man, who had long been Bishop of Hippo, ad-

SPANISH COAST.

vised him to restrain his a-nger, he called on Gen-
seric, the chief of the Vandals, to come and help
him to defend his province.

The Vandals were another tribe of Teutons —
tall, strong, fair-haired, and much like the Goths,

The Vandals, 399

and, like them, they were Arians. They had
marauded in Italy, and then had followed the
Goths to Spain, where they had established them-
selves in the South, in the country called from them
Vandalusia, or Andalusia. Their chief was only
too glad to obey the summons of Boniface, but be-
fore he came the Roman had found out his mistake ;
Placidia had apologized to him, and all was right
between him. But it was now too late ; Genseric
and his Vandals were on the way, and there was
nothing for it but to fight his best against them.

He could not save Carthage, and, though he
made the bravest defence in his power, he was
driven into Hippo, which was so strongly fortified
that he was able to hold it out a whole year, during
which time St. Augustine died, after a long illness.
He had caused the seven penitential Psalms to be
written out on the walls of his room, and was con-
stantly musing on them. He died, and was buried
in peace before the city was taken. Boniface held
out for five years altogether before Africa was en-
tirely taken by the Vandals, and a miserable time
began for the Church, for Genseric was an Arian,
and set himself to crush out the Catholic Church
by taking away her buildings and grievously per-
secuting her faithful bishops.

400 Young Folks' History of Home,

Valentinian III. made a treaty with him, and even
yielded up to him all right to the old Roman prov-
ince of Africa ; but Genseric had a strong fleet of
ships, and went on attacking and plundering Sicily,
Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and the coasts of Greece.

Britain, at the same time, was being so tormented
by the attacks of the Saxons by sea, and the Cale-
donians from the north, that her chiefs sent a
piteous letter to Aetius in Gaul, beginning with
" The groans of the Britons ; ". but Aetius could
send no help, and Gaul itself Avas being overrun by
the Goths in the south, the Burgundians in the
middle, and the Franks in the north, so that scarcely
more than Italy itself remained to Valentinian.

The Eastern half of the Empire was better oif,
though it was tormented by the Persians in the
East, on the northern border by the Eastern Goths
or Ostrogoths, who had stayed on the banks of the
Danube instead of coming to Italy, and to the south
by the Vandals from Africa. But Pulcheria was
so wise and good that, when her young brother Theo-
dosius II. died without children, the people begged
her to choose a husband who might be an Emperor
for them. She chose a wise old senator named
Marcian, and when he died, she again chose an-
other good and wise man named Zeno ; and thus

*.«..•«

The Vandals,

403

the Eastern Empire stood while the West was fast
crumbling away. The nobles were almost all vain,
weak cowards, who only thought of themselves,
and left strangers to fight their battles ; and every
one was cowed with fear, for a more terrible foe
than any was now coming on them.

TYKA^UDS AJS1> SPHINX IX EGYl'T.

CHAPTER XLIII.

A TTILA THE HUN.
435—457.

THE terrible enemy who was coming against
the unhappy Roman Empire was the nation
of Huns, a wild, savage race, Avho were of the same
stock as the Tartars, and dwelt as they do in the
northern parts of Asia, keeping huge herds of
horses, spending their life on horseback, and using
mares' milk as food. They were an ugly, small,
but active race, and used to cut their children's
faces that the scars might make them look more
terrible to their enemies. Just at this time a great
spirit of conquest had come upon them, and they
had, as said before, driven the Goths over the
Danube fifty years ago, and seized the lands we

still call Hungary. A most mighty and warlike
404

HUNNISH XAkfi% j I ''^ ^

Attila the Hun. 407

chief called Attila had become their head, and
wherever he went his track was marked by blood
and flame, so that he was called " The Scourge of
God." His home Avas on the banks of the Theiss,
in a camp enclosed with trunks of trees, for he did
not care to dwell in cities or establish a kingdom,
though the wild tribes of Huns from the furthest
parts of Asia followed his standard — a sword
fastened to a pole, which was said to be also his
idol.

He threatened to fall upon the two empires, and
an embassy was sent to him at his camp. The
Huns would not dismount, and thus the Romans
were forced to address them on horseback. The
only condition upon which he would abstain from
invading the empire was the paying of an enormous
tribute, beyond what almost any power of theirs
could attempt to raise. However, he did not then
attack Italy, but turned upon Gaul. So much was
he hated and dreaded by the Teutonic nations, that
all Goths, Franks, and Burgundians flocked to join
the Roman forces under Aetius to drive him back.
They came just in time to save the city of Orleans
from being ravaged by him, and defeated him in
the battle of Chalons with a great slaughter • but he

408 Young Folks' History of Rome.

;made good his retreat from Gaul with an immense
number of captives, whom he killed in revenge.

The next year he demanded that Yalentinian's
sister, Honoria, should be given to him, and when
she was refused, he led his host into Italy and de-
stroyed all the beautiful cities of the north. A
great many of the inhabitants fled into the islands
among the salt marshes and pools at the head of
the Adriatic Sea, between the mouths of the rivers
Po and Adige, where no enemy could reach them ;
and there they built houses and made a town,
which in time became the great city of Venice, the
queen of the Adriatic.

Aetius was still in Gaul, the wretched Valen-
tinian at Ravenna was helpless and useless, and
Attila proceeded towards Rome. It was well for
Rome that she had a brave and devoted Pope in
Leo. I., who went out at the head of his clergy to
meet the barbarian in his tent, and threaten him
with the wrath of Heaven if he should let loose his
cruel followers upon the city. Attila was struck
with his calm greatness, and, remembering that
Alaric had died soon after plundering Rome, be-
came afraid. He consented to accept of Honoria's
dowry instead of herself, and to be content with a
great ransom for the city of Rome. He then re-

Attila the Hun, 411

turned to his camp on the Danube with all his
horde, and soon after his arrival he married a young
girl whom he had made prisoner. The next morn-
ing he was found dead on his bed in a pool of his
own blood, and she was gone ; but as there was no
wound about him, it was thought that he had
broken a blood-vessel in the drunken fit in which
he fell asleep, and that she had fled in terror. His
warriors tore their cheeks with their daggers, say-
ing that he ought to be mourned only Avith tears of
blood ; but as they had no chief as able and daring
as he, they gradually fell back again to their north-
eastern settlements, and troubled Europe no more.
Valentinian thought the danger over, and when
Aetius came back to Ravenna, he grew jealous of
his glor}^ and stabbed him with his own hand. Soon
after he offended a senator named Maximus, who
killed him in revenge, became Emperor, and mar-
ried his widow, Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodo-
sius II. of Constantinople, telling her that it was
for love of her that her husband was slain. Eu-
doxia sent a message to invite the dreadful Gen-
seric, king of the Vandals, to come and deliver her
from a rebel who had slain the lawful Emperor.
Genseric's ships were ready, and sailed into the
Tiber ; while the Romans, mad with terror, stoned

412 Young Folks' History of Rome.

Maximus in their streets. Nobody had any courage
or resolution but the Pope Leo, who went forth
again to meet the barbarian and plead for his city ;
but Genseric being an Arian, had not the same awe
of him as the wild Huns, hated the Catholics, and
was eager for the prey. He would accept no ran-
som instead of the plunder, but promised that the
lives of the Romans should be spared. This was
the most dreadful calamity that Rome, once the
queen of cities, had undergone. The pillage lasted
fourteen days, aud the Vandals stripped churches,
houses, and all alike, putting their booty on board
their ships ; but much was lost in a storm between
Italy and Africa. The golden candlestick and
shew-bread table belonging to the Temple at Jeru-
salem were carried off to Carthage with the spoil,
and no less than sixty thousand captives, among
them the Empress Eudoxia, who had been the
means of bringing in Genseric, with her two
daughters. The Empress was given back to her
friends at Constantinople, but one of her daughters
was kept by the Yandals, and was married to the
son of Genseric. After plundering all the south of
Italy, Genseric went back to Africa without trying
to keep Rome or set up a kingdom ; and when he
was gone, the Romans elected as Emperor a senator

TTTK pope's UOrSK.

Attila the Sun. *415

named Avitus, a Gaul by birth, a peaceful and
good man.

His daughter had married a most excellent Gaul-
ish gentleman named Sidonius Apollinaris, who
wrote such good poetry that the Romans placed his
bust crowned with laurel in the Capitol. He
wrote many letters, too, which are preserved to this
time, and show that, in the midst of all this crum-
bling power of Rome, people in Southern Gaul
managed to have many peaceful days of pleasant
country life. But Sidonius' quiet days came to an
end when, layman and lawyer as he was, the peo-
ple of Clermont begged him to be their Bishop.
The Church stood, whatever fell, and people trusted
more to their Bishop than to any one else, and
wanted him to be the ablest man they could find. So
Sidonius took the charge of them, and helped them
to hold out their mountain city of Clermont for a
whole year against the Goths, and gained good
terms for them at last, though he himself had to
suffer imprisonment and exile from these Arian
Goths because of his Catholic faith.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH.
457—561.

A VITUS was a good man, but the Romans
grew weary of him, and in the year 457 they
engaged Ricimer, a chief of the Teutonic tribe called
Suevi, to drive him out, when he went back to
Gaul, where he had a beautiful palace and garden.
After ten months Ricimer chose another Sueve to
be Emperor. He had been a captain under Aetius,
and had the Roman name of Majorian. He showed
himself brave and spirited ; led an army into Spain
and attacked Genseric ; but he was beaten, and
came back disappointed. Ricimer was, however,
jealous of him, forced him to resign, and soon after
poisoned him.

After this, Ricimer really ruled Italy, but he
416

Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 417

seemed to have a sort of awe of the title of Caesar
Augustus, the Emperor, for he forbore to use it
himself, and gave it to one poor weak wretch after
another until his death in 472. His nephew went
on in the same course ; but at last a soldier named
Orestes, of Roman birth, gained the chief power,
and set up as Emperor his own little son, whose
Christian name was Romulus Augustus, making
him wear the purple and the crown, and calling
him by all the titles ; but the Romans made his
name into Augustulus, or Little Augustus. At
the end of a year, a Teutonic chief named Odoacer
crossed the Alps at the head of a great mixture of
different German tribes, and Orestes could make
no stand against him, but was taken and put to
death. His little boy was spared, and was placed
at Sorrento ; but Odoacer sent the crown and robes
of the West to Zeno, the Eastern Emperor, saying
that one Emperor was enough. So fell the Roman
power in 476, exactly twelve centuries after the date
of the founding of Rome. It was thought that this
was meant by the twelve vultures seen by Romulus,
and that the seven which Remus saw denoted the
seven centuries that the Republic stood. It was
curious, too, that it should be with the two names of
Romulus and Augustus that Rome and her empire
felL

418 Young Folks' History of Rome,

Odoacer called himself king, and, indeed, the
Western Empire had been nearly all seized b}^ dif-
ferent kings — the Vandal kings in Africa, the
Gothic kings in Spain and Southern Gaul, the Bur-
gundian kings and Frank kings in Northern Gaul,
the Saxon kings in Britain. The Ostro or Eastern
Goths, who had since the time of Valens dwelt on
the banks of the Danube, had been subdued bj
Attila, but recovered their freedom after his death.
One of their young chiefs, named Theodoric, was
sent as a hostage to Constantinople, and there
learned much. He became king of the Eastern
Goths in 470, and showed himself such a dangerous
neighbor to the Eastern Empire that, to be rid of
him the Emperor Zeno advised him to go and at-
tack Odoacer in Italy. The Ostrogoths marched
seven hundred miles, and came over the Alps into
the plains of Northern Italy, ^Vhere Odoacer fought
with them bravely, but was beaten. They besieged
him even in Ravenna, till after three years he was
obliged to surrender and was put to death.

Rome could make no defence, and fell into
Theodoric's hands with the rest of Italy; but he
was by far the best of the conquerors — he did not-
hurt or misuse them, and only wished his Goths to
learn of them and become peaceful farmers. He

ROMULUS AUGUSTUS RESIGNS THE CROWN.

Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 421

gave them the lands which had lost their owners ;
about thirty or forty thousand families were settled
there by him on the waste lands, and the Romans
who were left took courage and worked too. He
did not live at Rome, though he came thither and
was complimented by the Senate, and he set a sum
by every year for repairing the old buildings ; but
he chiefly lived at Verona, where he reigned over
both the Eastern and Western Goths in Gaul and
Italy.

He was an Arian, but he did not persecute the
Catholics, and to such persons as changed their
profession of faith to please him he showed no more
favor, saying that those who were not faithful to
their God would never be faithful to their earthly
master. He reigned thirty-three years, but did not
end as well as he began, for he grew irritable and
distrustful with age ; and the Romans, on tlie other
hand, forgot that they were not the free, prosperous
nation of old, and displeased him. Two of their
very best men, Boethius and Sj^mmachus, were
by him kept for a long time prisoners at Rome and
then put to death. While Boethius was in prison
at Pavia, he wrote a book called The Consolations
of Philosophy^ so beautiful that the English king

422 Young Folks' History of Rome.

Alfred translated it into Saxon four centuries later.
Theodoric kept up a correspondence with the other
Gothic kings wherever a tribe of his people dwelt,
even as far as Sweden and Denmark ; but as even
he could not write, and only had a seal with the
letters QEO^ with which to make his signature,
the whole was conducted in Latin by Roman slaves
on either side, who interpreted to their masters.
An immense number of letters from Theodoric's
secretary are preserved, and show what an able
man his master was, and how well he deserved liis
name of "The Great." He died in 526, leaving
only two daughters. Their two sons, Amalric and
Athalaric, divided the Eastern and Western Goths
between them again.

Seven Gothic kings reigned over Northern Italy
after Theodoric. They \\ere fierce and restless,
but had nothing like his strength and spirit, and
they chiefly lived in the more northern cities —
Milan, Verona, and Ravenna, leaving Rome to be
a tributary city to them, where there still remained
the old names of Senate and Consuls, but the per-
son who was generally most looked up to and
trusted was the Pope. All this time Rome was
leavening the nations who had conquered her.

Theodoric the Ostrogoth.

423

When they tried to learn civilized ways, it was
from her ; they learned to speak her tongue, never
wrote but in Latin, and worshipped with Latin
prayers and services. Far above all, these conquer-
ors learned Christianity from the Romans. When
everything else was ruined, the Bishop and clergy

remained, and became the chief counsellors and ad-
visers of many of these kings.

It was just at this time that there was living at
Monte Casino, in the South of Italy, St. Benedict,
an Italian hermit, who was there joined by a num-
ber of others who, like him, longed to pray for the
sinful Avorld apart rather than fight and struggle
with bad men. He formed them into a great band

424

Young Folks' Hutory of Rome.

of monks, all wearing a plain dark dress WxCh a
hood, and following a strict rule of plain living,
hard work, and prayers at seven regular hours in
the course of the day and night. His rule was
called the Benedictine, and houses of monks arose
in many places, and were safe shelters in these
fierce times.

CHAPTER XLV.

BELISAEIUS.
533—563.

THE Teutonic nations soon lost their spirit
when they had settled in the luxurious
Roman cities, and as they were as fierce as ever, their
kings tore one another to pieces. A very able Em-
peror, named Justinian, had come to the throne in
the East, and in his armies there had grown up a
Thracian who was one of the greatest and best
generals the world has ever seen. His name was
Belisarius, and strange to say, both he and the Em-
peror had married the daughters of two charioteers
in the circus races. The Empress was named
Theodora, the general's wife Antonina, and their
acquaintance first made Belisarius known to Jus-
tinian, who, by his means, ended by winning back

great part of the Western Empire.
^ 425

426 Young Folks'^ History of Rome,

He began with Africa, where Genseric's grand-
son was reigning over the Vandals, and paying so
little heed to his defences that Belisarius landed
without any warning, and called all the multitudes
of old Roman inhabitants to join him, which the}^
joyfully did. He defeated the Vandals in battle,
entered Carthage, and restored the power of the
empire. He brought away the golden candlestick
and treasures of the Temple, and the cross believed
to be the true one, and carried them to Constanti-
nople, whence the Emperor sent them back to the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

Just as Belisarius had returned to Constantino-
ple, a piteous entreaty came to Justinian from
Amalosontha, the daughter of Theodoric, who had
been made prisoner by Theodotus, the husband she
had chosen. It seemed to be opening a way for
getting back Italy, and Justinian sent off Belisarius ;
but before he had sailed, the poor Gothic queen
had been strangled in her bath. Belisarius, how-
ever, with 4500 horse and 3000 foot soldiers, landed
in Sicily and soon conquered the whole island, all
the people rejoicing in his coming. He. then crossed
to Ehegium, and laid siege to Naples. As usual,
the inhabitants were his friends, and one of them
showed him the way to enter the city through an

Belisarius.

427

old aqueduct which opened into an old woman's
garden.

Theodotus was a coward as well as a murderer,
and fled away, while a brave Avarrior named Vitiges
was proclaimed king by the Goths at Rome. But

with the broken walls and all the Roman citizens
against him, Vitiges thought it best not to try
to hold out against Belisarius, and retreated to
Ravenna, while Rome welcomed the Eastern army
as deliverers. But Vitiges was collecting an army
at Ravenna, and in three months was besieging
Rome again. Never had there been greater bravery
and patience than Vitiges showed outside the walla

428 Young Folks' History of Rome.

of Rome, and Belisarias inside, during the summer
of 536. There was a terrible famine within ; all
kinds of strange food were used in scanty measure,
and the Romans were so impatient of suffering,
that Belisarius was forced to watch them day and
night to prevent them betraying him to the enemy.
Indeed, while the siege lasted a whole year, nearly
all the people of Rome died of hunger and wretch-
edness ; and the Goths, in the unhealthy Campagna
around, died of fevers and agues, until they, too,
had all perished except a small band, which Vitiges
led back to Ravenna, whither Belisarius followed
him, besieged him, made him prisoner, and carried
him to Constantinople. Justinian gave him an
estate where he could live in peace.

The Moors in Africa revolted, and Belisarius
next went to subdue them. While he was there, the
Goths in Italy began to recover from the blow he
had given them, and chose a brave young man
named Totila to be their king. In a very short
time he had won back almost all Italy, for there
really were hardly any men left, and even Justinian
had only two small armies to dispose of, and those
made up of Thracians and Isaurians from the shores
of the Black Sea. One of these was sent with
Belisarius to attack the Goths, but was not strong

Belisarius. 431

enough to do more than just hold TotHa in check,
and Justinian would not even send him all the help
possible, because he dreaded the love the army
bore to him. After four years of fighting with
Totila he was recalled, and a slave named Narces,
who had always lived in the women's apartment in
the palace, was sent to take the command. He
was really able and skilled, and being better sup-
ported, he gained a great victory near Rome, in
which Totila was killed, and another near Naples,
which quite overcame the Ostrogoths, so that they
never became a power again. Italy was restored
to the Empire, and was governed by an officer from
Constantinople, who lived at Ravenna, and was
called the Exarch.

Belisarius, in the meantime, was sent to fight
with the king of Persia, Chosroes, a very warlike
prince, who had overrun Syria and carried off many
prisoners from Antioch. Belisarius gained victory
after victory over him, and had just driven him
back over the rivers, when again came a recall, and
Narses was sent out to finish the war. Theodora,
the Empress, wanted to reign after her husband,
and had heard that, on a report coming to the army
of his death, Belisarius had said that he should give
his vote for Justin, the right heir. So she worked on

432 Young Folks' Eistory of R

ome.

the fears all Emperors had — that their troops
might proclaim a successful general as Emperor,
and again Belisarius was ordered home, while
Narses was sent to finish what he had begun.

There was one more war for this great man when
the wild Bulgarians invaded Thrace, and thougli
his soldiers were little better than timid peasants,
he drove them back and saved the country. But
Justinian grew more and more jealous of him, and,
■^ancying untruly that he was in a plot for placing
Justin on the throne, caused him to be thrown into
prison, and sent him out from thence stripped of
everything, and with his eyes torn out. He found
a little child to lead him to a church door, where
he used to sit with a Avooden dish before him for
alms. When it was known who the blind beggar
was, there was such an uproar among the people
that Justinian was obliged to give him back his
palace and some of his riches ; but he did not live
much longer.

Though Justinian behaved so unjustly and un-
gratefully to this great man and faithful servant,
he is noted for better things, namely, for making
the Church of St. Sophia, or the Holy Wisdom,
which Constantine had built at Constant! noj^lo,
the most splendid of all buildings, and for luivinp

Belisarius. • 433

the whole body of Roman laws thoroughly over-
looked and put into order. Manj^ even of the old
heathen laws were v^ery good ones, but there were
others connected with idolatry that needed to be
done awa}^ with ; and in the course of years so
many laws and alterations had been made, that it
was the study of a lifetime even to know what they
were, or how to act on them. Justinian set his
best lawyers to put them all in order, so that it
might be more easy to work by them. The Roman
citizens in Greece, Italy, and all the lands overrun
by the Teutonic nations were still judged by their
own laws, so that this was a very useful work ; and
it was so well done that the conquerors took them
up in time, and the Roman law Avas the great
model studied everywhere by those who wished to
understand the rules of jurisprudence, that is, of
law and justice. Thus in another way Rome con-
quered her conquerors.

Justinian died in 563, and was succeeded by his
nephew Justin, whose wife Sophia behaved almost
as ill to Narses as Theodora had done to Belisa-
rius, for while he was doing his best to defend
Italy from the savage tribes who were ready at
any moment to come over the Alps, she sent him a
distaff, and ordered him back to his old slavery iu
the palace.

CHAPTER XLVI.

POPE GREGORY THE GREAT.

563—800.

NO sooner was Narses called home than another
terrible nation of Teutones, who had hithero
dwelt in the North, began to come over the Alps.
These were the Longbeards, or Lojnbards, as they
were more commonly called ; fierce and still heathen.
Their king, Albion, had carried off Rosamond, the
daughter of Kunimund, king of the Gepids, another
Teutonic tribe. There was a most terrible war, in
which Kunimund was killed and all his tribe broken
up and joined with the Lombards. With the two
united, Alboin invaded Italy and conquered all the
North. Ravenna, Verona, Milan, and all the large
towns held out bravely against them, but were
taken at last, except Venice, which still owned the

434

Pope Gregory the Great. 435

Emperor at Constantinople. Alboin had kept the
skull of Kunimund as a trophy, and had had it set
in gold for a drinking-cup, as his wild faith made
him believe that the reward of the brave in the

POPE GREGOKY THE GKEAT.

other world would be to drink mead from the skulls
of their fallen enemies. In a drunken fit at Verona,
he sent for Rosamond and made her pledge him in
this horrible cup. She had always hated him, and

436 Young Folks' History of Rome.

this made her revenge her father's death by stab-
bing him to the heart in the year 573. The Lom-
bard power did not, however, fall with him ; his
nephew succeeded him, and ruled over the country
we still call Lombardy. Rome was not taken by
them, but was still in name belonging to the Em-
peror, though he had little power there, and the
Senate governed it in name, with all the old magis-
trates. The Praetor at the time the Lombards
arrived was a man of one of the old noble families,
Anicius Gregorius, or, as we have learned to call
him, Gregory. He had always been a good and
pious man, and while he took great care to fulfil all
the duties of his office, his mind was more and
more drawn away from the world, till at last he
became a monk of St. Benedict, gave all his vast
wealth to bviild and endow monasteries and hospi-
tals, and lived himself in an hospital for beggars,
nursing them, studying the Holy Scriptures, and
living only on pulse, which his mother sent him
every day in a silver dish — the only remnant of
his wealth — till one day, having nothing else to
give a shipwrecked sailor who asked alms, he be-
stowed it on him.

He was made one of the seven deacons who were
called Cardinal Deacons, because they had charge

THE rOi'L S i'LLPlT,

Pope G-regory the G-reat. 439

of the poor of the principal parishes of Rome ; and
it was when going about on some errand of kind-
ness that he saw the English slave children in the
market, and planned the conversion of tlieir coun-
try ; but the people would not let him leave
Rome, and in 590, the Senate, the clergy, and the
people chose him Pope. It was just then that
a terrible pestilence fell on Rome, and he made the
people form seven great processions — of clergy, of
monks, of nuns, of children, of men, of wives, and
of widows — all singing litanies to entreat that the
plague might be turned away. Then it was that
he beheld an angel standing on the tomb of Hadrian,
and the plague ceased. Ever after, the great old
tomb has been called the Castle of St. Angelo.

It was a troublous time, but Gregory was so
much respected that he was able to keep Rome
orderly and safe, and to make peace between the
Emperor Maurice and the Lombards' king, Agilulf,
who had an excellent Avife, Theodolinda. She was
a great friend of the Pope, wrote a letter to him,
and did all she could to support him. The Eastern
Empire was still owned at Rome, but when there
was an attempt to make out that the Patriarch of
Constantinople was superior to the Pope, Gregory
upheld the principle that no Patriarch had any

440 Young Folks'^ History of Rome.

right to be above the rest, nor to be called Univer-
sal Bishop. Gregory was a very great man, and
the justice and wisdom of liis management did
much to make the Romans look to their Pope as
the head of affairs even after his death in 604.

The Greek Empire sent an officer to govern the
extreme South of Italy, which, like Rome and
Venice, still owned the Emperor ; but all the
troops that could be hired were soon Avanted to
fight with the Arabs, whose false prophet Mahom-
med had taught them to spread religion with the
sword. There was ]io one capable of making head
against the Lombards, and the Popes only kept
them off by treaties and good management ; and at
last, in 741, Pope Gregory III. put himself under
the protection of Charles Martel, the great Frank
captain who had beaten the Mahometans at tlie
battle of Tours. Charles Martel was rewarded by
being made a Roman senator, so was his son Pip[)in,
who was also king of the Franks, and his grandson
Charles the Great, who had to come often to Italy
to protect Rome, and at last broke up the Lombard
kingdom, was chosen Roman Emperor as of old, and
crowned by Pope Leo III. in the year 800. From
that time there was again the Western Empire,
commonly called the Holy Roman Empire, the

BATTLE OF TOUKS.

Pope Q-regory the Great. 443

Emperor, or Caesar — Kaisar, as the Germans still
call him — being generally also king of Germany
and king of Lombardy. Rome was all this time
chiefly under the power of the Popes, who grew in
course of years to be more and more of princes,
and at the same time to claim more power over the
Church, calling themselves Universal Bishops con-
trary to the teaching of St. Gregory the Great.
AH this, however, belongs to the history of Europe
in modern times, and will be found in the history
of Germany, since there were many struggles be-
tween the Popes and Emperors. For Rome has
really had ttvo histories, and those who visit Rome
and study the wonderful buildings there may dwell
on the old or the new, the pagan or the Christian,
as their minds lead them, or else on that strange
middle time when idolatry and Christianity were
struggling together.

By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.

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