would surrender the city; and Josephus, the future historian of his country, who had been taken prisoner by the Romans, was sent to expostulate with them on the folly of longer resistance; yet they re jected all warnings and counsel with scorn and derision; and although the opposing Jewish factions were embroiled in a civil war, with a strange infatuation both declared their resolution to defend the city to the very last, confident that God would not permit his temple and eity to fall before the heathen. 328. The horrors of the siege surpassed all that the pen can do scribe39 When the public granaries had become empty the people were plundered of their scanty stores, so that the famine devoured by houses and by families.4t length no table was spread, nor regular meal eaten in Jerusalem People bartered all their wealth for a measure of corn, and ate it in secret, uncooked, or snatched half baked from the coals42They were often compelled, by torture, to discover their food, or were still more cruelly treated if they had eaten it. Wives would steal the last morsel from their husbands, children from parents, mothers from children; and there were instances of dead infants being eaten by their parents; so that the ancient prophecy, in which Moses had described the punishments of the unbelieving Jews, was fulfilled.a

4429. At length the dead accumulated so fast that they were left unouried, and were cast off the walls by thousands down into the valleys; and as Titus went his rounds, and saw the putrefying masses, he wept, and, stretching his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his work !45 By slow degrees one wall after another was battered down; but so desperate was the defence of the Jews that it was three months after the lower city was taken before th Romans gained possession of the temple, and, in its destruction, completed the fall of Jerusalem. (A. D. 70.)46Titus would have saved the noble edifice, but was unable to restrain the rage of his soldiery, and the Temple was burnt.

30. Josephus computes the number of his countrymen who perished during the war at more than one million three hundred thousand, with a total of more than a million prisoners. Thousands of the latter were sent to toil in the Egyptian mines; but such were their numbers that they were offered for sale "till no man would buy them," and then they were sent into different provinces as pre

a. Deut. xxviii. 56, 57.

sents, where they were consumed by the sword, or by wild beasts in the amphitheatres.4With the destruction of the holy city and its famous temple Israel ceased to be a nation, and thus was inflicted the doom which the unbelieving Jews invoked when they cried out, His blood be on us and on our children."

3 Britain had been only partially subdued prior to the reign of Vespasian, but during the two years after the fall of Jerusalem its conquest was completed by the Roman governor Julius Agric' ola who was justly celebrated for his great merits as a general and a states man. Carrying his victorious arms northward he defeated the Brittons in every encounter, penetrated the forests of Caledónia,' and established a chain of fortresses between the Friths of Clyde and Forth, which marked the utmost permanent extent of the Roman dominion in Britain. 3 The fastnesses of the Scottish highlands were ever too formidable to be overcome by the Roman arms By an enlightened policy Agric' ola also taught the Britons the arts of peace, introduced laws and government among them, induced them to lay aside their barbarous customs, taught them to value the con veniencies of life, and to adopt the Roman language and manners. The life of Agric' ola has been admirably written by Tac' itus, the historian, to whom the former had given his daughter in marriage.

XIII. TITUs.

325 On the death of Vespasian (A. D. 79) his son Titus succeeded to the throne. Previous to his accession the general opinion of the people was unfavorable to Titus, but afterwards his conduct changed, and he is celebrated as a just and humane ruler; and so numerous were his acts of goodness, that his grateful subjects bestowed upon him the honorable title of "benefac tor of the human race."7During his brief reign of little more than two years, Rome and the provinces were in the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, only disturbed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius,'

1. Ancient Caledónia comprehended that portion of Scotland which lay to the north of the Forth and the Clyde. A frith is a narrow passage of the sea, or the opening of a river intre the sea. Agric' ola penetrated north as far as the river Tay. (See Map No. XVI.)

2. Mount Vesuvius, ten miles south-east from the city of Naples, is the only active volcan. at present existing on the European continent. Its extreme height is three thousand eight Lundred and ninety feet-ubout two-fifths of that of Æt' na. Its first known eruption occurred on the 24th of August, A D. 79, when Herculaneum and Pompéii were buried under shower. of volcanic ashes, sand, stones, and lava, and the elder Pliny lost his life, being suffocated b the sulphurous vapor as he approached to behold the wonderful phenomena. It is related that, Buch was the immense quantity of volcanic ashes thrown out during this eruption, the whole Lountry was involved in pitchy darkness; and that the ashes fell in Egypt, Syria, and various parts of Asia Minor. Since the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompéii there have been Dearly fifty authenticated eruptions of Vesuvius.

which caused the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompéii,' (A. D. 79,) and by a great fire at Rome, which was followed by a pestilence. (A. D. 80.)

XIV. DOMITIAN.

33. Domitian succeeded his brother without opposition, (A. D. 81,) although the perfidy and cruelty of his character were notorious. He began his reign by an affectation of extreme virtue, but was unable long to disguise his vices. There was o law but the will of the tyrant, who caused many of the most eminent senators to be put to death without even the form of trial; and when, by his infamous vices, and the openness of his debaucheries, he had sunk, in the eyes of his subjects, to the lowest stage of degradation, he caused himself to be worshipped as a god, and addressed with the reverence due to Deity. // Both Jews and Christians were persecuted by him, and thousands of them put to death because they would not worship his statues. This is called in ccclesiastical history the second great persecution of the Christians, that under Nero being the first.

34. It was in the early part of this reign that Agric' ola completed the conquest of Britain; but on the whole the reign of Domi tian was productive of little honor to the Roman arms, as in Mœ 'sia,ʼ and Dácia,* in Germany, and Pannónia, the Romans were defeated,

1. Herculaneum was close to the sea, south of Vesuvius, and eight miles south-east from the city of Naples. Little is known of it except its destruction. It was completely buried under a shower of ashes, over which a stream of lava flowed, and afterwards hardened. So changed was the aspect of the whole country, and even the outlines of the coast, that all knowledge of the city, beyond its name, was soon lost, when, in 1713, after a concealment or more than sixteen centuries, accident led to the discovery of its ruins, seventy feet below the surface of the ground.

2. Pompéii was fifteen miles south-east from Naples, and was not buried by lava, but by ashes, sand, and stones only, and at a depth of only twelve or fifteen feet above the buildings. It has been excavated much more extensively than Herculaneum-disclosing the city walls, streets, temples, theatres, the forum, baths, monuments, private dwellings, domestic utensils, &c., the whole conveying the impression of the actual presence of a Roman town in all the circumstantial reality of its existence two thousand years ago. "The discovery of Pompeii has thrown a strong and steady light on many points connected with the private life and economy of the ancients, that were previously involved in the greatest obscurity."-The small number of skeletons discovered in Herculaneum and Pompéii render it quite certain that most of the inhabitants saved themselves by flight.

3. Ma' sia, extending north to the Danube and eastward to the Euxine, corresponded to the present Turkish provinces of Ser' via and Bulgária. (Map No. IX.)

4. Dácia was an extensive frontier province north of the Danube, extending east to the Euxine. It embraced the northern portions of the present Turkey, together with Transylvánia and a part of Hungary. (Map No. IX.)

5. The word Germánia was employed by the Romans to designate all the country east of the Rhine and north of the Danube as far as the German ocean and the Baltic, and eastward as far as Sarinát:a and Dácia. The limits of Germany, as a Roman province, were very indefinite. Map No. IX.)

and whole provinces lost. In Moe' sia, Domitian himself was several times defeated, yet he wrote to the senate boasting of extraordinary victories, and the servile body decreed him the honors of a triumph. In a similar manner other triumphs were decreed him, which caused Pliny the younger to say that the triumphs of Domitian were always evidence of some advantages gained by the enemies of Rome. / 35. At length, after a reign of fifteen years, Domitian was assassi nated at the instigation of his wife, who accidentally discovered that ner own name was on the fatal list of those whom the emperor designed to put to death. The soldiers, whose pay he had increased, and with whom he often shared his plunder, lamented his fate; but the senate ordered his name to be struck from the Roman annals, and obliterated from every public monument.

36.The death of Domitian closes the reign of those usually denominated "the twelve Cæsars," only three of whom, Augustus, Vespasian, and Titus, died natural deaths./Julius Cæsar fell under the daggers of conspirators in the very senate-house of Rome. Ti bérius, at the instigation of Calig' ula, was smothered on a sick bed Caligula was murdered in his own palace while attending a teatrical rehearsal: Claudius was poisoned, at the instigation of his own wife, by his favorite physician: Nero, by the aid of his freedman, committed suicide to avoid a public execution: the aged Galba was slain in the Roman forum, in a mutiny of his guards: Otho, on learning the success of his rival Vitel' lius, committed suicide: Vitel' lius was dragged by the populace through the streets of Rome, put to death with tortures, and his mangled carcass thrown into the Tiber; and Domitian was killed in his bed-chamber by those whom he had marked for execution/The heart sickens not more at the recital of these murders than of the crimes that prompted them; and thus far the history of the Roman emperors is little else than a series of constantly recurring scenes of violence and blood. 22-37. But as we pass from the city of Rome into the surrounding Roman world, we almost forget the revolting scenes of the capital in view of the still-existing power and majesty of the Roman empirean empire the greatest the world has ever seen—and still great in he remembrance of the past, and in the influences which it has be queathed to modern times. While the emperors were steeped in the grossest sensuality, and Rome was a hot-bed of infamy and crime the numerous provincial governments were generally administered with ability and success; and the glory of the Roman arms waS

sustained in repelling the barbarous hordes that pressed upon the frontiers2 But national valor cannot compensate for the want of national virtue: the soul that animated the Republic was dead; the spirit of freedom was gone; and national progress was already be. ginning to give place to national decay.

SECTION II.

ROMAN HISTORY. FROM THE DEATH OF DOMITIAN, A. D. 96, TO THE ESTAB

LISHMENT OF MILITARY DESPOTISM, AFTER THE MURDER OF

ALEXANDER SEVE' rus, a. d. 235 =

139 YEARS

ANALYSIS. 1. NERVA. His character, reign, and death. [Um'bria.]-2. TRAJAN. His character, and character of his reign. Remarkable words attributed to him.-3. His wars and conquests. His death. [Ctes' iphon. Trajan's column.]-4. Persecutions of the Christians during the reign of Trajan. The proverbial goodness of Trajan's character.-5. Accession of ADRIAN. His peaceful policy. General administration of the government. His visit to the provinces.-6. Revolt of the Jews. Results of the Jewish war. Defences in Britain. [Solway Frith. River Tyne.]-7. Doubtful estimate of Adrian's character and reign. His ruling passions.-8. Accession of TITUS ANTONI' NUS.-9. His character, and the character of his reign.-10. MARCUS AURE' LIUS ANTONI' NUS. Vérus associated with him.-11. War with the Parthians. With the Germans. Remarkable deliverance of the Roman army.-12. Character of the five preceding reigns. The evils to which an arbitrary government is liable. Illustrated in the annals of the Roman emperors.-13. Accession of COM' MODUS. Beginning of his gov. ernment.-14. The incident which decided his fluctuating character. His subsequent wickedness.-15. His debaucheries and cruelties. His death.-16. The brief reign of PERTINAX.—17. Disposal of the empire to DID' IUS JULIA' NUS.-18. Dangerous position of the new ruler.-19. His competitors. [Dalmatia.] Successes of SEPTIM' IUS SEVE' RUS, and death of Juliánus. --20. Dissimulation of Sevérus. He defeats Niger at Issus in Asia. His continued duplicity. Overthrow and death of Albinus. [Lyons.]-21. Subsequent reign of Sevérus. His last illness and death. [York.]-22. CARACAL' LA and Géta. Death of the latter. Character, reign, and death of Caracal' la. Brief reign of MACRI' NUS.-23. Accession of ELAGABA' LUS.-24. His character and follies. Circumstances of his death.--25. ALEXANDER SEVE' RUs. His attempts reform abuses. Character of his administration. His death. His successor.

1. Domitian was succeeded by Nerva, who was a native of Um' bria,' but whose family orignally came from Crete. He was the first Roman emperor of foreign extraction, and was chosen I. NERVA. by the senate on account of his virtues. His mild and equitable administration forms a striking contrast to the sanguinary rule of Domitian; but his excessive lenity, which was his greatest fault, encouraged the profligate to persevere in their accustomed

1. Umbria was a country of Italy east of Etruria and north of the Sabine territory The ancient Em' briars were one of the oldest and most numerous nations of Italy. (Map No. VIII.