A lawsuit, in which the Professor was a party, was brought up by appeal to Rome, and the Emperor sat in judgment. As soon as Philiscus came into the hall he gave offence by his gait and carriage, and even by the way in which he wore his clothes. His voice was too falsetto, his style seemed slovenly, and there was a want of definite meaning in his words. The Emperor began to criticise him sharply, and cut him short with interruptions, confusing him with a pitiless cross-examination. The puzzled Sophist ventured to remind his master that he had once done him the honour to set him free from all taxation. Whereupon the Sovereign roared out in a passion, 'I will not have you free, nor any paltry schoolmaster like yourself. I will not rob my cities of the sources of their incomes for such miserable stuff as you can talk.’ interests of suffered whims of Caracalla. Caracalla showed as little favour in dealing The with philosophy. He fancied himself a second Alex- learning ander, and resented the coolness between Aristotle from the and his favourite hero, and accused the philosopher of being privy to his distinguished pupil's death. To avenge him, he disgraced all the Peripatetic doctors whom he knew, talked of burning all their books, suspended their fellowships in the Alexandrian Museum, and in his mad way discountenanced all learning. Still more in the third century from war But the interests of letters had far more to fear than from the wanton freaks of Caracalla. Hard and faction. times set in, and lasted nearly till the end of the third century. Anarchy and foreign war exhausted the resources of the empire. The rulers on the throne had often no breadth of views or cultivation, and the great sovereigns who restored the credit of the Roman arms upon the Northern frontiers were too busy and unlettered to prize the studious arts of peace. The endowments therefore of the Antonines were dropped; the Imperial Chairs at Athens were left vacant, though the city, to whom her University was dear, still managed to reserve some funds for the salaries of Grammarians and Sophists. Philosophy suffered most. Longin. ap. Porphyr. Athens The older schools of Metaphysics suffered most. Longinus, the greatest schooolman of the age (the 'living library,' as Eunapius calls him) speaks of the many Philosophers whom he had known in youthful days at Athens, although he owns that, with the exception of Plotinus and his set, they all did little more than repeat and comment on the same old worn-out doctrines; but now,' he adds in later years, it is impossible to describe how entirely these studies are neglected.' 6 It is no wonder that the University declined. stormed by About this time the tide of war rolled up to Athens, the Goths, who were, however, and swept with furious force over her land and city. The Gothic Heruli, stirred by sudden impulse from routed by Dexippus the regions of the Dniester, made their way across the Euxine, and through the Bosporus and Hellespont. The isles of Greece, the coasts of Asia, were pillaged as they passed along; and, emboldened by success, they pushed on further, and sweeping across Attica they stormed the city walls. The citizens took refuge in the woods of Parnes and Pentelicus, whence they looked with panic fear at the smoke rising from their ravaged homesteads. But one Dexippus, trained as he was in all the learning of the schools, turned his skill in rhetoric to good account by pointing to the Goths as they straggled past in careless triumph, laden with rich booty, and urging his countrymen to take courage and attack them. Emboldened by his fiery words, the fugitives poured down upon the Gothic rear, and swept them away in ignominious flight. Brighter times at length returned with the rule of Constantine and his successors. Once more the schools of Athens filled with students; her Chairs of Rhetoric attracted the most brilliant men of letters, and the fourth century was, at least in outward seeming, the palmiest age of her ancient University. The materials for history, at any rate, are more abundant than before. The lives of the most accomplished schoolmen are written for us in the pages of Euna F The fourth century a brilliant age for the University of Athens, and has materials left more for history. Eunap. Lib. i. 11, ed. Reiske. pius; the popular Libanius studied there in early years, and his writings illustrate at large the character and methods of the professional teaching which was the same at Antioch as at Athens. Himerius, who held a Chair, has left us specimens of his style; the great churchmen, Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, attended lectures there for years together by the side of the Apostate Julian, and their pictures of the scenes of student life are unusually clear and circumstantial. Her name still exercised the same fascination as of old, and the standard of her culture was admitted on all hands to be the highest. Nymphidianus,' says his biographer, had not indeed the experience and the discipline of Athens, yet he was still worthy of the name of Sophist.' The kinsmen of the young Libanius were urgent to keep him still at Antioch; his mother wept at the thought of his departure, and friends offered him rich heiresses in marriage; but he would go, and would have declined the hand even of a goddess to see the smoke of Athens.' Disenchanted as he was with the lectures which he heard, yet he deeply prized his opportunities for study, and the associations of the city; he stayed there four years, and hoped to remain as many more, and says long afterwards of a friend that he was happy in his longer sojourn in the seat of learning; for his own part, he saw it but as in a dream and passed away.' Christians even half forgave the tenacity with which it clung to the old pagan creed, and fathers sent their sons to the stronghold of heathendom, though probably with some misgivings, such as those which pious parents feel in our days when their children go amid what they fear as the temptations of free thought. endowed The Public Chairs were endowed partly by the The central government, and partly from the city funds. Chairs, The former, or what we may call the Regius Professorships, were, as before, subject to the State control; but the Emperors were too busy with nice questions of the Arian controversy, and the guidance of Church councils, to have much time or interest to spare for studies of philology and grammar; there was no Minister of Education then in office, so the Provincial Governor took, to some extent, his place. and in fluence of the Pro vincial Proær. Thus we hear of a conspiracy of jealous rivals to bribe the Proconsul, and induce him to strip Proæresius of his office; at another time, when the peace Governor. of the University had been disturbed by factious Eunapius spirit, we are told that the Governor of Greece Lib. i. 19. drove three Professors from their Chairs, and appointed others in their stead. Nor was the State content with nominating and dismissing in such |