Cæsar had now established his own auB. C. 40. thority on the ruins of his country; but there remained a few Roman breasts which still cherished the sacred fire of freedom, which still preserved an abhorrence of tyrants. Brutus, at the head of a number of the principal senators, entered into a conspiracy against the usurper, and he was assassinated in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

B. C. 39.

Tyrannicide has seldom been found to succeed. The death of Cæsar gave activity to the ambition of Marc. Anthony, who espoused his cause, and determined to raise himself by the destruction of Cæsar's enemies. In the funeral oration which he spoke over his murdered friend, he exerted every effort, and tried every art, to kindle a spirit of revenge in the populace. This insidious and inflammatory harangue had the desired effect, and the people from all quarters crowded to his standard. The republican forces under the command of Brutus and Cassius were finally defeated by Anthony and Octavius at the battle of Philippi.. After numberless disturbances, proscriptions, and massacres, Octavius obtained the undisturbed possession of the empire, by his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at the sea fight of Actium. This event completed the destruction of the re27. public; and Octavius, now saluted under the titles of Augustus and emperor, after reducing Spain, Moesia, Pannonia, and a few other countries adjacent to the Roman territories, soon established a profound and universal peace through the extensive dominions of Rome.

B. C.

A. D.

The remainder of this period is remark1. able for the conquest of Britain by Clau

ius and Agricola, and the destruction of Jerualem by Titus. The war with the Jews oriinated from their obstinate claim of Cæsarea, which the Romans had added to the province of Syria. The conduct of this war was first intrusted to Vespasian, to whom many of the cities of Judea surrendered. He even proceeded so far as to lay siege to Jerusalem, but died before he had completed its reduction. This magnificent and renowned city was utterly destroyed by his son Titus, and levelled with the ground; B. C. the Jews were dispersed into all nations, 73. and have never since been able to erect themselves into a distinct community. About ten years after this great event, the southern parts of Britain were entirely subdued by Agricola.

Trajan was elected emperor of Rome amidst the unanimous rejoicings of the people, and with the concurrence of the armies. Under the reign of this virtuous and benevolent prince, all things seemed to promise peace and domestic tranquillity. Trajan was possessed of great courage and military talents, as well as the more amiable, yet less dazzling, qualities of justice and humanity, and the barbarians, who commonly commenced their hostile inroads at the election of a new emperor, continued for the most part quiet and obedient. The Dacians, however, had the boldness to claim from the Roman people a tribute extorted from the cowardice of Domitian. The emperor now suddenly appeared on the frontiers, and so awed them by his presence that they readily entered into a treaty of peace. This was soon after violated by Decebalus, the Dacian king; when Trajan entering the hostile country by throwing a bridge over the rapid stream of G 3

the

the Danube, obtained a complete victory, though with a prodigious slaughter of his troops, and Dacia became a Roman province. The emperor then turned his arms eastward, passing through the submissive kingdom of Armenia; and by the skill and activity of his operations reduced Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria; and took Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian empire, appointing over it a king-from an idea that this was the best method of retaining such a rebellious people in subjection. Still pursuing his conquests in the east, he subdued nations then unknown; and it is reported, that when he had reached the confines of India, he lamented that he had not the vigour and youth of an Alexander, that he might explore new provinces and kingdoms, and add them to the Roman empire. The conquests of Trajan in the east were splendid, and only splendid; they were neither permanent nor useful. As soon as he had signified his intention of returning to Rome, the conquered barbarians appeared again in arms, so that not an acre of territory was added to the Roman empire. Trajan did not reach home, but died of a flux in the town of Selinus (afterA. D. wards called Trajanopolis) in Cilicia; and with his death closes the seventh general period of history.

117.

Agreeably to our plan, it is now necessary to review the progress of the arts, sciences, and learning among the Romans. It was not till a -late period of the republic that the arts appeared at Rome; till the spoils of Carthage and Sicily had corrupted and civilized the semi-barbarian conquerors. No literary relic exists of the early ages of the republic; no popular song nor rude chronicle. Even of those writers who paved the

way

way for our present classical models, the teachers of the Augustan school, little remains. We have only a few fragments of Ennius and Lucilius. Fortunately we possess Lucretius, the most original of the Roman poets. The comedies of Plautus and Terence prove that the comic drama of the ancients was far less perfect than their tragedies. In the succeeding more correct writers less originality appears. The Augustan age was less the age of genius than of taste: poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, were all learnt from Greece; and the Roman imitators rarely or never appear to have improved on their prototypes. Sculpture, perhaps, and architecture, are, by their nature, incapable of improvement. Of ancient music we have little but wild and incredible assertions. Assuredly, modern painting exceeds the ancient; though that had attained the utmost elegance and correctness of outline. The art which perpetuates the genius of the painter is of modern discovery.

If the Roman and Grecian poets be compared, the result will be little favourable to the Romans, though their fame has been assisted by the wreck of Grecian literature. We possess the best of the Latins, Catullus, Virgil, Horace; no names of equal celebrity have perished. In these writers we know so much to be translated, that it is fair and reasonable to believe, they have borrowed - more from writers whose works have been lost. Horace has inherited the fame of Alcæus and Archilochus.

Rome has left us one great example of oratory in Cicero. Her historical models are less perfect. There is a want of antiquarian research in Livy; and the good sense of Sallust and Tacitus is de

faced

faced by an affected mannerism. Cæsar's memoirs are well and plainly written. The more valuable commentaries of Sylla are lost.

Her religion and philosophy also Rome received from Greece. The same wild fables constituted the belief of the people; the same physical dreams and moral systems were the tenets of the rulers. A selfish Epicurean philosophy was held by the majority of the senators, which corrupted them individually, subverted the liberty of the republic, and was one of the most active causes in poisoning, and finally destroying, the empire. The few characters whose virtues have entitled them to the veneration of after-ages, were of the Stoic school. Such were Cato, Brutus, and those good men who were the victims of Tiberius, and Nero, and Domitian; Pætus, Heloidius, and their fellow-sufferers; men who were the martyrs of virtue; but who have obtained no popular applause, because their actions and deaths were connected with no great public calamity.

EIGHTH PERIOD,

From the Death of Trajan to the Division of the Empire under Constantine.

THE dominions of Rome were now stretched

out to their utmost extent; and this vast empire had swallowed up almost all the nations of the earth. It comprehended the greater part of Britain, all Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, part of Germany, Egypt, Barbary, Bildulgerid, Turkey in Europe, Turkey in Asia, and Persia. With regard to the state of India, at this time, history is

silent.