During this odious reign, JESUS CHRIST accomplished on the cross his divine mission; and then arose from Calvary that new and pure gospel which was destined to regenerate the world. FOREIGN WARS.-Tiberius imitated the policy of Augustus by engaging in no wars unnecessarily. In Gaul, two revolts, the result of excessive taxation, were with difficulty subdued; while, in the East, the imperial ministers found safety in the troubles they excited among the tributary Persian states. Germany, however, in the days of Augustus, had been the scene of important military operations. The wife and infant son of Arminius (Hermann) had fallen into the hands of the Romans, to rescue whom all the neighbouring tribes rose in arms. Germanicus, eager to anticipate the terrible blow impending over his country, assumed the offensive, attacked and defeated several detached bodies of the enemy, and in the end had nearly gained a complete victory. A bloody campaign led to no decisive result; the Germans could make no permanent impression on the well-disciplined legions, and the Romans were compelled to retire by sea, when a fearful tempest destroyed a great part of the fleet and army. Shortly after this, Arminius, who has been praised by Tacitus as the liberator of Germany from the dominion of Rome when in the height of her power, was assassinated at the age of thirty seven, eleven years after his triumph over Varus. 4. Caligula, a. D. 37–41, began to reign with mildness, but a severe malady at the end of the first year disordered his intellect, after which his cruelty knew no bounds. His excesses can only be excused by supposing his mind to have been affected. He fancied himself at one time a male, at another time a female, deity; raised his wife and his horse to the consulate; and fed his wild beasts with the bodies of citizens and captives. A violent death freed Rome from this frantic monster. 5. CLAUDIUS, a. D. 41-54.-The senate, immediately upon the demise of Caligula, began to deliberate on the choice of a successor; but the prætorians, amounting to 10,000 men, instituted as a body-guard by Augustus, and kept in various garrisons throughout Italy, now took advantage of their being collected in Rome, to proclaim the supremacy of the army. They elected Claudius, during whose impotent rule 35 senators and 300 knights fell by the hand of the executioner. He was quite a puppet under the management of his favourites Messalina and Agrippina, Pallas and Narcissus. In this reign, the conquest of South Britain was partly effected, A. d. 43. The first act of Claudius' government was to publish a general amnesty, from which the murderers of his predecessor were alone excepted. He repealed all Caligula's edicts, showing the greatest deference for the senate and magistrates. He himself presided daily at the tribunal of justice, enacted many wise laws, annulled the cruel statutes against high-treason, diminished the taxes, checked usury, and encouraged marriage. It is not one of his smallest claims to the title of benefactor of his people, that he abolished in Gaul the blood-stained religion of the Druids. The principal inhabitants of that province were selected to fill the vacant seats in the senate-house, the censorship was re-established, the circumference of Rome enlarged, and a new port constructed at Ostia, for the reception of the African and Egyptian corn-vessels. But the empire required the firm hand of a master, while Claudius was feeble and uxorious. His death by poison was effected by his second wife and an infamous sorceress Locusta, A. d. 54. 6. Nero, a. d. 54-68, reigned mildly five years, guided by the experience of Burrhus and Seneca, after which he was seized with a hereditary madness. He murdered his mother Agrippina, his brother, his tutor, and the poet Lucan. He set fire to Rome, and, while the city was burning, mounted a lofty tower, where, accompanying the words with the music of the harp, he sung his own poem on the fall of Troy. He appeared as a singer on the public stage, and contended as a herald or crier at Olympia. The people at last grew weary of his cruelty and debauchery; and he perished by the sword of his freedman. But his private vices were less dangerous to the state than his exactions in the provinces whence he drew the means of supporting his extravagance, and of keeping his subjects in a continual state of intoxication.* With him the Julian family became extinct; and in consequence of the disputed succession, four emperors arose in less than two years. 7. Galba, a. d. 68, 69, was elected to the throne during Nero's life, but endeavouring to check the licentiousness of the army and prætorians who had raised him to so dangerous an eminence, he was murdered by the soldiers, after a reign of seven months. 8. OTHO, A. D. 69, who had plotted against the life of his predecessor, did not long enjoy the fruits of his treason. This companion of the early debaucheries of Nero had been sent, during that monarch's life, into the honourable banishment of the Spanish quætorship, in which office he gained over the army, by whom he was invested with the purple. But he was scarcely acknowledged at Rome before the legions of Germany elected a competitor. Supported only by the prætorians and an undisciplined crowd, he was defeated by Vitellius, his rival, and committed suicide, after reigning three months and five days. 9. VITELLIUS, A. D. 69, trod in the steps of his patron Caligula. Although he gave himself up entirely to the pleasures of the table, he was severe toward his enemies. He was put to death while preparing to meet Vespasian, who had been proclaimed emperor by the Syrian army. Thus in the space of a single year, Rome had seen three monarchs elected by the respective armies of Italy, the Rhine, and Spain, and who all met with violent deaths. pro 10. VESPASIAN was declared emperor by the soldiers whom he was leading against the Jews, A. D. 69. This people, excited by false phets and oppressed by the severity of their governors, broke out into open revolt. In other parts of the empire the peace was similarly disturbed; blood was shed in the streets of Rome in civil tumult; the splendid temple of Jupiter on the Capitol was consumed by fire; Gaul was in rebellion; the frontiers were threatened by the Germans on the Rhine, and by the Parthians on the Euphrates. Vespasian restored peace to the world, and during nine years used his extensive power with * It is a remarkable circumstance that Nero's memory was long cherished among the lower classes. During many years his tomb was decorated with flowers. His death was considered a fabrication, and no less than three false Neros appeared in the East. At the close of the third and fourth centuries, it was a popular belief that he would appear at the end of the world as Antichrist. moderation. Under his orders the Jewish war was terminated; and his son Titus, whom he had left at the head of the army, utterly destroyed the people of Jerusalem after an obstinate resistance, and rased the city to the ground. A medal was struck commemorative of the event, bearing on one side a veiled female figure sitting under a palm-tree, with the inscription Judæa Capta. Vespasian died in the midst of many valuable reforms, and left the empire to the conqueror of the Jews. 11. Titus, a. D. 79-81, called The Delight of Mankind, from his amiable and generous disposition, enjoyed a reign of only two years, which was marked by calamities. He was compelled to quit Berenice, a Jewish princess whom he tenderly loved; a great part of Rome was consumed by fire; this was followed by a raging pestilence; and ́an eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiæ beneath showers of ashes, August 24, a. D. 79. 12. DOMITIAN, A. D. 81-96, who succeeded his brother, manifested the disposition of Nero. He embellished the city with magnificent buildings, and engaged in useless and unsuccessful wars; South Britain was however subdued in his reign by Agricola, 85, whose death he is said to have occasioned. He banished literary men from Rome, degraded the senate, and persecuted all who were noble and good. He arrogated divine honours to himself, put to death many men of rank for the most trifling causes, and at last fell by an assassin's dagger, A. D. 96. Thus perished the last of the twelve Cæsars, of whom only four deserve the respect of posterity: Julius, Augustus, Vespasian, and Titus. Gibbon thus characterizes the unworthy successors of Augustus :"Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid, inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy. During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign), Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient families of the republic, and was fatal to almost every virtue and every talent that arose in that unhappy period." JUDEA. ARCHELAUS Succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Herod, 3 B. C., but his administration was so despotic and unpopular, that he was deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul, A. D. 8, when Judæa became a Roman province, dependent on the prefecture of Syria, under the procurator Coponius. On one occasion this cruel monarch caused 3000 citizens to be massacred in the Temple. Pontius Pilate, who was governor from A. D. 26 to 36, was a man of stern and inflexible temper, utterly disregarding the religious feelings of the people. Twice he nearly caused a revolt by introducing into the city the Roman ensigns, on which were the images of the emperor, and by the consecration of the golden bucklers in the palace of Herod. The part which he took in the condemnation of our Lord is too well known to 16qaire comment. He was soon afterwards recalled, and banished to Vienne, where he is said to have perished by his own hand, a. D. 38. Octavia, jun. == 1. C. Marcellus. 2. Pompey. = 3. M. Antony. II. CÆSAR OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS † A. D. 14. 2. Livia, widow of Tiberius Claudius Nero. m. 1. M. Cl. Marcellus. 2. Agrippa. 3. Tiberius. TIBERIUS NERO † A. D. 37. m. 1. Vipsania. 2. Julia. Drusus Cæsar Germanicus † A. D. 19. m. Agrippina. Julia, † 52 = Accius Balbus. Accia † 42 = C. Octavius. C. OCTAVIUS (AUGUSTUS) † 14 a. D. Nero Claudius Drusus † 9. Britannicus † A. L. 34. Octavia HEROD AGRIPPA.-The Jewish kingdom was again reconstructed from its several tetrarchies by Claudius, and bestowed upon Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, a. D. 41. Educated at Rome, he was the friend of the Emperors Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius; and after many years, full of the most striking vicissitudes of fortune, he became one of the greatest princes of the East, and governed the Jews three years in such a manner as to become extremely popular. His death, which was sudden, may be ascribed to the immediate judgment of God for his impiety. On a day of festival, when he appeared in the theatre of Cæsarea, the brilliant light of the sun glancing on nis silver robes. struck the people with admiration. Fawning parasites addressed him as a god: "Be thou merciful unto us, for although we have hitherto received thee only as a man, yet henceforth we shall regard thee as superior to mortal nature." He neither rebuked nor rejected this impious flattery, when he was immediately smitten with violent pains in his bowels. Turning to his attendants, he cried, “Behold your god is now condemned to die!" Five days he lingered in the most excruciating tortures, when he expired, having attained only the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the seventh of his reign as tetrarch of Galilee. Under the frequent change of governors and prefects, the Jews experienced alternate changes of gentleness and severity. False Messiahs appeared on every side, and a ferocious sect arose, which, adopting the opinions of Judas the Gaulonite, put itself in open hostility to the Roman government. Under Claudius Felix, who trembled at the simple truths uttered by St. Paul, the country began to be filled with robbers and murderers. Gessius Florus, A. D. 64, the worst of the Roman governors, was tyrannical, cruel, and insatiably avaricious. He murdered 3000 people in Jerusalem, 20,000 at Cæsarea, 2000 at Ptolemais, and 2500 at Ascalon· but when he carried his insolence so far as to attempt to enter the temple with his soldiers, the whole inhabitants rose in arms against him. The nation was unfortunately divided into two parties, one proposing submission, the other desirous to continue the revolt. The country now became a scene of bloodshed, and the flame of insurrection spread to Syria, Egypt, and the neighbouring states. Cestius Gallus, prefect of Syria, who endeavoured to recover the capital, was defeated with great loss. The Christians, remembering the prophecy of Christ, took advantage of the retreat of the Roman army, and withdrew to Pella, beyond the Jordan, where they lived in peace, free from the horrors of the war raging around the holy city. After DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, A. D. 70.-Ananus, or Annas, the high priest, was raised to the civil command of Jerusalem, and the historian Josephus was at the head of the armies of Galilee and Gamala. Vespasian was sent with 60,000 men to crush the rebellion, A. D. 67. subduing the revolted provinces, he was spreading his toils around the devoted city, when, as already noticed, he was elected emperor, a. D. 69; and departing for Rome, left his son Titus to continue the campaign. The Jews had neglected to profit by this season of delay. The ravages of war without were far less fatal than the murderous rage of the factions within the walls. "The holy city had become the nest of all uncleanness, a horrid den of robbers, and a hateful cave of murderers.' Eleazar, with a band of Zealots (a horde of robbers who had assumed the name without the principles of the sect), possessed the inner court |