The Old Roman World | Page 4

which can never be exhausted.
We ponder on them in youth; we return to them in old age.
And yet the real grandeur of Rome is associated with the emperors.
With their accession there is a change in the policy of the state from
war to peace. There is a greater desire to preserve than extend the limits
of the empire. The passion for war is succeeded by a passion for
government and laws. Labor and toil give place to leisure and
enjoyment. Great works of art appear, and these become historical,--the
Pantheon, the Forum Augusti, the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Column of
Trajan, the Baths of Caracalla, the Aqua Claudia, the golden house of
Nero, the Mausoleum of Hadrian, the Temple of Venus and Rome, the

Arch of Septimus Severus. The city is changed from brick to marble,
and palaces and theatres and temples become colossal. Painting and
sculpture ornament every part of the city. There are more marble busts
than living men. Life becomes more complicated and factitious.
Enormous fortunes are accumulated. A liberal patronage is extended to
artists. Literature declines, but great masterpieces of genius are still
produced. Medicine, law, and science flourish. A beautiful suburban
life is seen on all the hills, while gardens and villas are the object of
perpetual panegyric. From all corners of the earth strangers flock to see
the wonders of the mighty metropolis, more crowded than London,
more magnificent than Paris, more luxurious than New York. Fetes,
shows, processions, gladiatorial combats, chariot races, form the
amusement of the vast populace. A majestic centralized power controls
all kingdoms, and races, and peoples. The highest state of prosperity is
reached that the ancient world knew, and all bow down to Caesar and
behold in him the representative of divine providence, from whose will
there is no appeal, and from whose arm it is impossible to fly.
But _mene, mene, tekel, upharsin_, is written on the walls of the
banqueting chambers of the palace of the Caesars. The dream of
omnipotence is disturbed by the invasion of, Germanic barbarians.
They press toward the old seats of power and riches to improve their
condition. They are warlike, fierce, implacable. They fear not death,
and are urged onward by the lust of rapine and military zeal. The old
legions, which penetrated the Macedonian phalanx and withstood the
Gauls, cannot resist the shock of their undisciplined armies; for martial
glory has fled, and the people prefer their pleasures to the empire. Great
emperors are raised up, but they are unequal to the task of preserving
the crumbling empire. The people, enervated and egotistical, are
scattered like sheep or are made slaves. The proud capitals of the world
fall before the ruthless invaders. Desolation is everywhere. The
barbarians trample beneath their heavy feet the proud trophies of
ancient art and power. The glimmering life-sparks of the old
civilization disappear. The world is abandoned to fear, misery, and
despair, and there is no help, for retributive justice marches on with
impressive solemnity. Imperial despotism, disproportionate fortunes,
unequal divisions of society, the degradation of woman, slavery,
Epicurean pleasures, practical atheism, bring forth their wretched fruits.

The vices and miseries of society cannot be arrested. Glory is
succeeded by shame; all strength is in mechanism, and that wears out;
vitality passes away; the empire is weak from internal decay, and falls
easily into the hands of the new races. "Violence was only a secondary
cause of the ruin; the vices of self-interest were the primary causes. A
world, as fair and glorious as our own, crumbles away." Our admiration
is changed to sadness and awe. The majesty of man is rebuked by the
majesty of God.
Such a history is suggestive. Why was such an empire permitted to rise
over the bleeding surface of the world, and what was its influence on
the general destiny of the race? How far has its civilization perished,
and how far has it entered into new combinations? Was its strength
material, or moral, or intellectual? How far did literature, art, science,
laws, philosophy, prove conservative forces? Why did Christianity fail
to arrest so total an eclipse of the glory of man? Why did a magnificent
civilization prove so feeble a barrier against corruption and decay?
Why was the world to be involved in such universal gloom and
wretchedness as followed the great catastrophe? Could nothing arrest
the stupendous downfall?
And when we pass from the great facts of Roman history to the
questions which it suggests to a contemplative mind in reference to the
state of society among ourselves, on which history ought to shed light,
what enigmas remain to be solved. Does moral worth necessarily keep
pace with aesthetic culture, or intellectual triumphs, or material
strength? Do the boasted triumphs of civilization create those holy
certitudes on