some were accustomed to spend the night in wine-shops, some under the awnings of the theatres, which Catulus first introduced in his ædileship in imitation of the luxury of Campania. Even among these some pretended to great names, although they had not shoes to their feet. They spent their whole time in drinking and dicing, in brothels, debauchery, and the public spectacles. The Circus Maximus was to them house and temple and forum, in short, the sum and end of their whole existence and desires. The streets and public places and clubs were filled with eager crowds angrily disputing about the event of the next race. Grey-headed and wrinkled old men, whom one would imagine to be weary of life, would cry out that the state could not go on if their favourite horse did not win. On the day of the games, before the sun was well risen, they hastened to the Circus at a pace that might beat even the chariots themselves, though many had lain awake all night from anxiety about the event. In the theatres the actors were hissed off if they had not conciliated the baser populace with presents of money. By way of making a noise, they would cry out that all foreigners should be expelled the city; yet by the subsidies and contributions of these foreigners they had always been supported. In short, the cries uttered by this degraded populace were altogether brutal and absurd, and very different from those of the ancient plebs, of whom many good sayings are recorded. It will be observed that, in these pictures of Roman manners, Ammianus does not once advert to the gladiatorial combats. They had been formally abolished by an edict of Constantine in the year 325;1 nevertheless they appear not to have gone entirely out of use till near a century later. Such were the manners of that epoch; but the bar 1 'Omnino gladiatores esse prohibemus.'-Cod. Theod. xv. X 12, 1. barian hordes were now advancing to put an end to this splendid degradation, and indeed it was high time. We may gather from the description of the visit of Constantius II. to Rome in 357, by the same historian,1 that, materially, the city retained almost unimpaired its ancient air of splendour. After an absence of thirty-two years, the palace became again for a few weeks the residence of an emperor. The lapse of three centuries had now converted the master of the Roman world into an oriental despot. Constantius had been bred up in all the rules of Persian etiquette. During a long journey he sat in his car immovable as a statue, without turning his head or even his eyes to the right or to the left; he was neither seen to nod, to spit, to blow his nose, or even move his hands; only, though he was a very little man," he bowed his head when he passed under the lofty gates of a city, as if they were not high enough for him. Yet this automaton of an emperor endeavoured to make himself as agreeable as he could to the Romans. After addressing the senate in the Curia and the people from the Rostra, he passed on to the palace amidst the acclamations of the multitude. At the Circensian games which he gave he seemed to enjoy the loquacity of the people; nor did he arbitrarily put an end to the sports, as he was accustomed to do in other places, but left them to be terminated by chance, according to the Roman custom. His admiration of the monuments of Rome was unbounded. The Capitoline temple, the enormous extent of the various baths, the lofty and solid mass of the Flavian amphitheatre, the magnificent vault of the Pantheon, the Temple of Rome, the Forum of Peace, the theatre of Pompey, the Odeum, the Stadium, and other similar structures, by turns excited his wonder. But when he arrived at Trajan's Forum he seemed almost confounded with astonishment. That, Amm. Marcell. xvi. 10. 2 Corpus perhumile.'-Amm. indeed, observes the historian, we take to be a work unparalleled in the whole world; a work that can scarcely be described, much less again imitated by man. Constantius, the master of the world, confined himself to the humble wish of imitating the horse of the equestrian statue of Trajan, which stood in the middle of the atrium. But the Persian prince Hormisda, who accompanied him, observed: First of all, Emperor, you must order a similar stable to be made for him, if that be possible; so that your horse may be lodged as magnificently as the one we behold.' In fact, so great was Constantius' surprise at what he saw, that he complained of the weakness or illnature of rumour, who, though it is her custom to magnify everything, had but feebly described the wonders of Rome. Constantius resolved to present the Romans with some mark of his favour; and as he could not hope to get anything done that might vie with the ancient monuments, he determined to procure a ready-made one. His father, Constantine, had resolved to adorn Constantinople with the largest obelisk at Thebes, which, according to Ammianus, had been spared by Augustus, not because of its vast magnitude and the difficulty of transporting it, as Constantius was told by his flatterers, but from a feeling of religion, because this obelisk was more especially dedicated to the sun-god, and stood within the sacred precincts of the temple. It still remained in Egypt at the death of Constantine, and Constantius caused it to be transported to Rome. It was carried up the Tiber, and landed at a place called Vicus Alexandri, about three miles from the city, whence it was conveyed to Rome by the Via Ostiensis, and with much difficulty erected in the Circus Maximus. It was discovered in 1587 in the pontificate of Sixtus V., lying buried several feet under the ground, and broken into three pieces. Sixtus caused it to be repaired and re-erected in the piazza of the Lateran, where it now stands. A Latin inscription on the pedestal, in twenty-four hexameter verses, published by Gruter,' contained the history of the obelisk. The hieroglyphics on it record its erection by Thothmes III. before the great temple of Thebes.2 It is the tallest obelisk in the world. Its length, as measured when lying on the ground, was 148 Roman palms. The base having been injured by fire, it was necessary to cut off four palms, or nearly three feet; but it still measures 108 Roman feet, which is very little short of the same number in English measure. The sons of Constantine, like their father, seem to have done all they could to favour Christianity, but without venturing completely to abolish paganism. There are indeed several edicts of Constantius for shutting up the temples, and making sacrifice a capital offence. We are told by Libanius that this emperor often made a present of a temple, just as he might give away a dog or a horse, a slave or a gold cup; and Ammianus mentions some courtiers who had been enriched in this manner.5 But, on the whole, paganism was yet too strong to be violently put down. It was found prudent to tolerate, or at all events to connive at, the exercise of pagan rites; and the edicts, if ever published, do not appear to have been executed. Symmachus, alluding to Constantius' visit to Rome, describes him as maintaining the Vestal virgins in their privileges, investing the Roman nobles with sacerdotal 1 clxxxvi. 3. 2 See Amm. Marc. xvii. 4, § 6–23. Ammianus says that Constantine had destined it for Rome; but the inscription shows that he meant it for Constantinople. Dean Milman (note, ap. Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 401, Smith's ed.) raises a very unnecessary difficulty about the inscription. As there were two obelisks in the Circus, viz. that raised by Augustus, and that raised by Constantius, the retus obeliscus referred to by Ammianus must necessarily be the former, now standing in the Piazza del Popolo; to which belongs the Greek interpre- dignities, and granting the customary allowance for the public worship and sacrifices. The title and office of Pontifex Maximus was accepted by seven Christian emperors. Gratian was the first emperor who, in the latter part of his reign, rejected that title; and it was under him that one of the last contests between paganism and Christianity was initiated. Constantius had caused to be removed from the Curia a statue of Victory, a masterpiece of Grecian art which Augustus had brought from Tarentum and adorned with Egyptian spoils.3 Ever since the image had been erected no debate had been opened without a previous sacrifice on the altar which stood before it; and hence it became the signal for contention between the pagan and Christian senators. Julian the Apostate, who in his short reign (361-363) did all that lay in his power to restore paganism, but who never visited Rome, ordered the statue to be replaced; and it appears to have remained in the Curia till the year 382, when a decree of Gratian for its removal gave rise to a remarkable contest. The pagan party in the senate despatched their leader, the pontifex and prefect Symmachus, on several embassies to the court of Milan, the residence of the emperors of the West, to procure the restoration of the statue, and also of the privileges and revenues of the Vestal virgins, of which they had been deprived. The speech of Symmachus on his second embassy in 384, may be regarded as the last protest of expiring paganism. He was answered by Ambrosius, archbishop of Milan, in an Epistle to Valentinian II.,4 whose arguments found favour with the emperor. But, 1 Symmach. Epistt. x. 54. 2 See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. iii. p. 100; with Smith's note. 3 Dion Cass. li. 22. Victory was usually represented by a majestic female, with expanded wings and flowing robes, standing upon a globe and stretching forth a laurel crown. See Montfaucon, Ant. t. i. p. 341. 4 See Relat. Symm. lib. x. ep. 54. Both pieces will be found in Prudentius (t. i. p. 101 sqq. ed. Parm.). Cf. Beugnot, Hist. de la Destruction du Paganisme en Occident, liv. viii. ch. 6. |