by colonies of Celts from Gaul, being themselves, like the first settlers, of Cimmerian origin. But not by rude emigrants alone was the island visited, for the Phoenicians, and after them the Carthaginians, frequented its south-western shores in search of tin. Numerous tribes, of which forty-five have been designated, were spread over its surface; and the Belgæ, a people of Gothic origin, occupied the south-eastern coast. They all lived in such a state of primitive simplicity as might be witnessed at present in the woods of North America, or in New Zealand. Their food was milk and flesh, skins their clothing, and to strike terror into their enemies in battle the exposed limbs were stained blue. Their houses were constructed of timber and reeds; their towns were situated in the depths of forests, the access to which was protected by ditches and barriers of trees. Money was little used, and was commonly rings of iron or copper of a certain weight. Their army was chiefly composed of infantry; but, like the heroes of the Trojan war, their chiefs fought from chariots armed with scythes. Their religion was that of the fierce and sanguinary Druids; a system which is said to have originated in Britain, whence it was introduced into Gaul. Its principal doctrines were the immortality and transmigration of souls; its chief maxims-to worship the gods, to do no evil, and to behave heroically. To appease, by cruel rites, their offended deities, huge images of wickerwork were filled with human victims, who were burned alive, and from their quivering limbs the priests predicted future events. The mistletoe, wherever it was found upon the oak, itself a sacred tree, was cut with great ceremony, and used as a charm to cause fecundity or to counteract poison. The Druidical order was divided into three classes: 1. The Druids, who were their dignitaries; 2. The Bards, poets or musicians; and, 3. The Ouates, the lowest rank of sacrificers and diviners. Of their monuments we have no remains, unless we consider as such the remarkable ruins of Stonehenge and Abury. Read: Turner's Anglo-Saxons, book i. chap. iv. 1 SECOND CENTURY. ROME.-96, Nerva.-98, Trajan.-117, Adrian.-138-180, The Antonines.180, Commodus.-193, Didius Julianus. THE CHURCH.-Third and Fourth Persecutions. LITERATURE, &c.-Lucian; Ptolemy; Justin Martyr; Apuleius; Suetonius; ROME. THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS.-NERVA, A. D. 96-98, began his short but happy reign by the diminution of taxes. He was of Cretan extraction, and elected by the senate at the age of sixty-five to support the * The Targum is a Chaldee paraphrase of the five books of Moses by Onkelos: its date is uncertain. The Mischnah is a compilation of traditional Jewish laws by Rabbi Judah; its commentary, the Gemarah, is divided into two parts, viz. 1st, The Talinud of Jerusalem, compiled in the third century; and 2d, The Talmud of Babylon, compiled in the state already inclining to its fall. Alarmed at the insurrections excited by his reforms, he adopted the valiant TRAJAN, then commanding the armies of Lower Germany, a Spaniard by birth, though of Roman descent. The news of his elevation at once quieted all dissensions, and his soldiers, when he returned to Rome as emperor, after the death of Nerva, were never known to give cause for complaint by their insolence or irregularity. Trajan's palace was open to all, and with the studied modesty of Augustus he visited among his former friends like a private citizen. He introduced order and economy into the imperial household, constructed numerous public monuments, and also formed that great road which traversed the empire from Gaul to the Euxine Sea. These and other peaceful cares did not prevent him from watching the barbarous nations already hovering on the Roman frontiers. He attacked the Dacians, and notwithstanding the skilful tactics of their chief Decebalus, drove them by repeated defeats to their capital, the ruins of which may still be seen in Transylvania, and compelled them to purchase peace, A. D. 103. The war was next transferred to the Euphrates, and Trajan penetrated into Armenia, which he mastered, threatened Parthia, and advanced to the Tigris, always marching on foot at the head of his troops. In another expedition he reached the shores of the Indian Ocean, sighing that his age prevented him from imitating the exploits of Alexander. While he was thus engaged in distant expeditions, a horrible revolt broke out at home. In Cyrene, Cyprus, and Egypt, the Jews rose and murdered all the Romans they could discover, inflicting on them the most frightful tortures. Some were sawn asunder; others torn to pieces by heated pincers; and, if we may credit the historians, the murderers even devoured the flesh of their victims. In the midst of these events Trajan died, lamenting that his labours for the public good had proved so ineffectual. He was just and upright in his conduct both public and private, and his warlike reign, by exciting in the barbarous nations a sense of Roman vigour, was eminently useful to the empire. His persecution of the Christians is a great blot on his character. Though his life came to a close in Cilicia, his body was conveyed to Rome, and over his tomb was raised the lofty column which still bears his name. For nearly three centuries after his death it was usual to salute each new emperor with a prayer that he might be more fortunate than Augustus, and more virtuous than Trajan. ADRIAN, A. D. 117-138, was in many respects unequal to his great predecessor. Relinquishing the conquests of Trajan, he wisely reduced the empire to the limits sanctioned by the wisdom of Augustus-to the barriers formed by the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean. He travelled through all his dominions to investigate and remedy more promptly the disorders which prevailed. He settled a colony at Jerusalem, rebuilt the walls of that city, and called it Elia Cupitolina. Many useful reforms were introduced by him; the annual laws of the prætors were replaced by a perpetual edict, so that the principles of the administration of justice no longer varied with each year. The condi fifth century. While speaking of eastern writings we may here observe, that the Sacontala (translated by Sir W. Jones with the title of the Fatal Ring), and various other Indian dramas and poems by Calidas, belong to this century. Of greater but uncertain antiquity are the U-King of the Chinese; the Vedas or sacred books of the Hindoos; the Maha-bharata, the great Hindoo epic; and the Sanscrit Puranas. tion of the slaves was also greatly ameliorated; their masters were no longer allowed to exercise an absolute power of life and death over them, and the private prisons were closed. An insurrection, which broke out under the impostor Barchochebas, who announced that he was the Messiah, was, after two years, extinguished in the blood of many thousand Jews, 135. The latter portion of Adrian's reign was darkened by the murder of persons suspected of conspiring against him, and he died of a lingering disease, repeating Plato's well-known lines on the nature of the soul. ANTONINUS PIUs, a. D. 138–161, the second Numa, the father of his country, was a rare combination of virtue and philosophy. His pacific government of twenty-three years is marked by no striking events, the storms and tempests of nature alone attracting the notice of the historian. By one celebrated edict he declared all the free inhabitants of the empire to be citizens of Rome,-a measure originating as much in political prudence as in a philosophic love of liberty, for they thereby became liable to taxes from which as provincials they were exempted. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, a. D. 161–180, surnamed the Philosopher, was prevented from treading in the tranquil steps of his predecessor by disturbances on the German and Syrian frontiers. The Parthians were driven back with great loss by his colleague Verus, 165; and he himself defeated the Sarmatians, the Quadi, and the Marcomanni, a. D. 174. Famine and the plague desolated several provinces during this reign. The Tiber rose above its banks and swept away all the public granaries situate near it, the loss of which caused the most melancholy sufferings. Britain and Belgium were in confusion; three legions were cut off in the East; the victorious army on its return from the Euphrates brought with it a pestilence which ravaged the whole empire to the shores of the Atlantic, and the city of Rome in particular, so that the dead bodies were carried out promiscuously in wagons. The want of food aggravated the previous miseries; fresh wars broke out simultaneously on all sides, to supply troops for which even the gladiators were enrolled in the legions. The attacks of the barbarians of the north upon the frontier, during this reign, were the first symptom of that great migration of the fierce tribes from the neighbourhood of the Caspian, who ultimately overran the fairest provinces of the empire. COMMODUS, at the death of his father Aurelius, was actively engaged on the banks of the Danube; but growing weary of a military life, he concluded a hasty peace with the barbarians, and returning to Rome, abandoned the reins of government to Perennis, the head of the prætorian guard, that he might better enjoy the luxuries of his station. His life was, however, soon endangered by the jealousy of his sister Lucilla. This plot was followed by another, in which the military chief endeavoured to dethrone his master, but was detected and executed. The freedman Cleander, a person of Thracian origin, being next promoted to the rank of favourite, carried his audacity almost to madness, inscribing newly manumitted slaves on the roll of the senate, and electing twentyfive consuls in a single year. He was put to death by the monarch to quiet a sedition of the populace. The mistrust and cruelty of Commo *Another reason for the historical silence may be the loss of the book of Dion Cassius, which contained the history of his reign. dus gradually reached such an excess that he would put confidence in no one; and his chief delight was to descend armed into the public arena and contend with wild beasts, or with gladiators whose only protection was a sword of lead. The people were so changed, that while the emperor declared by his edicts that his reign was the age of gold, Rome itself assumed the name of Colonia Commodiana, and the senate that of Commodianus. At length he styled himself the son of Jupiter, the Roman Hercules, and on his coins assumed the name and attributes of this demigod. He perished by assassination, a. D. 193. DIDIUS JULIANUS, A. D. 193.-The prætorian bands, in their camp on the Quirinal Hill, now decided the fate of the world. After the death of Pertinax, who had succeeded Commodus in 193, and whose reign lasted scarcely three months, they exposed the empire to public sale, and it was purchased by a wealthy senator, Didius, who promised a gratuity of more than £200 to each soldier. The people were discontented, and the legions, regretting the loss of a commander who had often led them to victory, refused to ratify the ignominious transaction. The three armies of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia, elected respectively Albinus, Niger, and Severus. The last immediately marched into Italy, when the reigning sovereign, being deserted by the prætorians, was condemned and executed by order of the senate, A. D. 193, after a reign of sixty-six days. The misfortunes of Aurelius and the extravagant propensities of Commodus had begun to weaken the empire; still the traces of decay were not strikingly manifest, and in spite of them it maintained a contest with ruin during 200 years. The provinces were not as yet impoverished; the cities flourished, and foreign and internal commerce spread the luxuries of the East over the Roman dominions. But had the nation been possessed of moral virtue also, it never would have submitted to the tyranny of Commodus nor to the yoke of the legions. The military despotism of this period was most dangerous to those who relied upon it. It was only by large donatives that the fidelity of the prætorian guards could be purchased or maintained. Severus well knew their power by the maxim he left to his son-to enrich the soldiers, and hold the rest for nothing. THE CHURCH. Although the spread of the Christian religion was opposed by all the power of the idolatrous government, churches were early founded in Rome, Corinth, Crete, Antioch, Asia Minor, Britain, and Spain, and the number of converts daily increased. It was not to be expected that so remarkable a change should escape the notice of the emperors, who providentially, by their moderation and humanity, averted the arm of persecution. The vigorous mind of Trajan appears to have immediately comprehended the nature of the struggle between the gospel and paganism. THIRD PERSECUTION, A. D. 106. From the younger Pliny, at that time governor of Bithynia, we have an interesting account of this persecution. His letter to Trajan, A. D. 107, shows that death was immediately inflicted upon every one who was convicted of belonging to the Christian sect. Women were tortured to elicit a confession; and their meeting at daybreak on the first day of the week, to praise God and to take the sacrament, was reckoned an evil practice. The new belief had already spread like a contagion in city and country, and the temples began to be deserted. The emperor, in his reply to this epistle, ordered all those who persevered in their faith to be led to execution in obedience to the existing laws, meaning those only who should be brought judicially before the governor. No new edict was published, and informations against believers do not appear to have been countenanced. Adrian prohibited the Christian converts from being proceeded against by clamorous petitions. To the lions with the Christians! had been a popular cry in the time of public shows, till it was thus checked. Among the sufferers in this persecution was Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem. At the advanced age of 120 years, he supported the cruel torment of the cross with unflinching courage. Ignatius of Antioch was questioned by Trajan himself, who condemned him to be exposed to wild beasts in the Roman amphitheatre, a. D. 110. The FOURTH PERSECUTION, A. D. 166, began at Smyrna. The defenders of the Gospel now boldly appealed to the government as well as to the public; and many Apologies were published in its vindication. The most ancient of those which have reached our times is that of Justin Martyr, a philosopher converted at the age of thirty, and who afterwards sealed his testimony with his blood. Under the contemplative Marcus Aurelius, the persecutions were renewed with more rigour. The unshaken faithfulness of the sufferers excited the astonishment of the heathen; and even Epictetus, the moralist, was led to ask what were the motives that could change selfishness into charity, and overcome the natural desire of life. It is a remarkable circumstance in the early history of the Christian faith that the reign of the wisest and most humane of the heathen emperors was the most fatal to it: Marcus "polluted every year of a long reign with innocent blood." But it must be observed that the position of Christianity with regard to Paganism was much altered. It had spread into every quarter of the empire, and an intimate bond of union was maintained between all the churches, while polytheism was becoming more philosophical under the teaching of a superior class of writers. Believers were found in every rank of society, and in all occupations; slaves were admitted freely into the churches, and by that very act became manumitted. While viewing the rapid progress of the new religion, the Roman people dreaded that the fall of the ancient worship would involve that of their power; and the Christians, by their interpretations of the apocalypse, appeared to justify such an opinion. The doctrine of the millennium, implying the visible throne of Christ, was still generally entertained; and in the gloomy aspect of the times, the foreign and civil wars, inundations, earthquakes, famine, and pestilence, the affrighted citizens saw the anger of the avenging gods, to propitiate whom the Christians, their avowed enemies, once more became the victims. The principal of these were: Polycarp of Smyrna, who had been the disciple of St. John, and was burnt alive at the age of 86; Justin Martyr, who was beheaded; and Pothinus of Lyons, who, on the verge of ninety years, died in prison from the ill usage he had received from the populace. One of the most distinguished of these sufferers was Blandina, a female slave, who, after undergoing the cruelest tortures, was transfixed by a spear. From these and other judicial murders the martyrdom of Vienne has become a memorable epoch in the history of the Church. Read: Milman's History of Christianity, book ii. c. 7. |