THIRD CENTURY.

ROME.-193, Septimius Severus.-211, Caracalla.-218, Heliogabalus.- 222, Alexander Severus.—235, Maximin.-The Thirty Tyrants.-273, Aurelian defeats Zenobia.-284, Diocletian.-The Empire invaded by Goths, Franks, and Germans.

PALMYRA.-Odenathus and Zenobia.

PERSIA.-226, The Sassanides.-260, Sapor captures Valerian.

THE CHURCH.-Persecutions.

LITERATURE, &c.-Dion Cassius, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Longinus.

ROME.

SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, À. D. 193–211, who was a native of Africa, had risen steadily to the highest honours. In less than four years he vanquished his two competitors, Albinus and Niger, and defeated numerous armies, each of which was equal to his own. Although addicted to craft and dissimulation, he did not neglect the interests of the people; tut the calm of peace and prosperity was accompanied by an increased relaxation of military discipline. The prætorians were augmented fourfold, and relying upon the support of these devoted soldiers, Severus destroyed many of the senators and their families. Renewing the cruelties of Marius and Sylla, he put to death the wife and children of Albinus,-who had killed himself after an ineffectual struggle in Gaul,

and threw their bodies into the Tiber. He then immolated all who had embraced the party of his antagonist, confiscation of their property following in every case. Forty-one senatorial families, men, women, and children, fell by the hand of the executioner. The news of an irruption of the Caledonians into the British province hurried him again to the field, when a brief, yet not very successful campaign put an end to the war. He died at York, in the 65th year of his age, and the 18th of his reign, A. D. 211.

CARACALLA, A. D. 211-217, had attempted to shorten his father's life, and to excite a mutiny among the troops; but the mercy shown to him by the emperor proved fatal to Rome. He commenced his reign by the murder of his brother and colleague Geta, who was slain in the arms of his mother. The stings of a guilty conscience urged him to acts of greater ferocity, and it is computed that 20,000 persons of both sexes perished because they were friends of that prince. Every province of the empire became the scene of his cruelty; the two Gauls especially were ruined in order to pay his troops and purchase a cessation of hostilities from the barbarians on the frontiers. Many thousands were massacred at Alexandria, by the orders and under the eyes of this "savage beast of Ausonia.' But he continued a favourite with the army, professing to make the great Alexander his model. At length a centurion of the body-guard* named Martialis stabbed him during an expedition against the Parthians, A. D. 217.

*The captain of the prætorian guards became, from the time of Severus, one of the most important officers in the state. To his military command he united the control of the finances and an extensive criminal jurisdiction.

The brief reign of MACRINUS prepared the throne for HELIOGABALUS, A. D. 218–222. This youth, whose character was stained by every kind of vice, had been a priest in the Temple of the Sun at Emesa in Syria. He brought with him to Rome all the luxury and effeminacy of Eastern monarchs; his wife had a place in the senate, and slaves and eunuchs became first ministers. His profligate conduct raised discontents even among a licentious soldiery; hence he perished in a sedition of the guards, and his body was thrown into the Tiber, A. D. 222. The corrupt lives of the emperors had already sunk the scale of morals to a low degree; but luxury and licentiousness reached their height under this Syrian ruler.

ALEXANDER SEVERUS, A. D. 222-235, was raised by the prætorians to the throne at the age of 17; and under his wise and moderate administration the Roman world enjoyed an auspicious calm of thirteen years. Too young himself to rule, he left the public cares to the skill of his mother Mammæa, and of sixteen ancient senators, among whom was the famous lawyer Ulpian, to whose presence in the council we may attribute the greater regularity in the executive, the abolition of many vexatious laws, and the more legal conduct of the government. But this milder sway came too late; the attempt to enforce the laws, for three days filled Rome with civil strife, and devastated the city with fire. Alexander resisted the inroads of the Germans, who had been tempted by the decline of the empire; but was not equally successful against the Persians. His efforts to revive the military discipline of the republic were fatal to his life. The epithet of Severus, added to his name by the army, shows that the soldiers were not masters of the empire, as they had been under the two preceding monarchs. He proved a feeble support to the declining city; but the fierce barbarians of the North and East were more than a match for the Roman legionaries; in Persia his armies met only with partial success, and on the Rhine peace was procured by money rather than by the sword. In the meanwhile, the spread of a new religion was uprooting the foundations of polytheism and the state of society founded upon it.

MAXIMIN, A. d. 235-238, a Thracian peasant, distinguished for his uncommon strength and valour, was elected by the army to the throne, left vacant by the murder of his predecessor. His mind was as uncultivated as his body was gigantic, for he could scarcely pronounce a few unconnected Latin words, while his dark and sanguinary career was not unworthy of his birth. Confiscation, exile, and death, were considered lenient punishments against those who excited his suspicions or his fears. Some were beaten to death with clubs, others were sewed up in the skins of animals and exposed to wild beasts. Magnus, a senator and 4000 of his supposed accomplices, were put to death in one day The province of Africa having revolted, elected the two Gordians, and he choice was approved by the senate, who at the same time declared Maximin and his son to be public enemies. The emperor's lieutenants were successful over his rivals, and the senators were already anticipating the execution of his horrible threat that he would slay them all and distribute their property among his soldiers, when they were relieved of their fears by his murder at the siege of Aquileia. The coalition of the opposing parties procured the elevation of an amiable youth, GOR DIAN III., whose reign lasted six years, 238-244. He ascended the

With Maximin began the race of Barbarians who successively mounted the imperial throne: with Claudius II. commenced what has been called the military despotism. However glorious the reigns of this monarch and his successor Aurelian, they were far from healing the wounds of the state. Though great warriors, and men whom the circumstances of Rome required, they did little more than delay the fall of the empire. In the period between the Antonines and Diocletian, it was divided into two great parts, which were almost distinct worlds, the civil and the military. The people, the immense majority of the population, have no share in the history of these times; they paid their taxes, cultivated the soil, and passed their lives without troubling themselves about the occupations of the legions. So profound was this apathy, that not a single revolt took place among the numerous inhabitants of the capital. But in the army all was changed. The soldier-citizen of the republic was unknown; the ancient discipline was lost; the modern warrior had no home but his camp, and no respect for any authority but that of his officers. As they defended the empire, they claimed the right of nominating its chiefs, and of deposing them at will. Each army insisted upon electing an emperor, whose authority was to be maintained by arms and civil strife. The successful competitor was acknowledged by the senate, and saluted with the usual adulations. With the frequent alterations necessarily resulting from this military despotism, the face of the country varied little; and but for the excessive contributions raised in the provinces to support the troops, the internal condition of the empire would have been very flourishing. This state of affairs continued to the time of Diocletian, who introduced some modifications, and to the days of Constantine, who in his turn effected many great reforms.

DIOCLETIAN, A. d. 284-305, who succeeded the shortlived monarchs, Carus, Carinus, and Numerian, was born in an obscure town of Dalmatia. On his elevation to the purple, a remarkable change took place in the form of government. Finding that the extent of frontier was too great to be defended by one person against the repeated attacks of daring and enterprising enemies, he selected a colleague in the person of Maximian, to whom he committed the charge of the West, while he retained the East. These two bore the title of Augustus, and each appointed a lieutenant with the title of Cæsar. The seat of government was removed from Rome,- Maximian residing at Milan, Diocletian at Nicomedia, an arrangement which contributed greatly to the support of the empire. Carausius, who had made himself independent in Britain, was defeated in 293; Gaul was delivered from the Germans; and the Persians were compelled to cede five provinces beyond the Tigris. After a glorious reign of twenty-one years, Diocletian abdicated the throne, A. D. 305, and Maximian resigned at Milan on the same day.

The abdication of monarchs has always been matter of embarrassment to historians; and the fact of a prince voluntarily divesting himself of supreme power, without any apparent motive, is a phenomenon well worthy of exam nation. Diocletian's relinquishment of the purple has been variously explained; some pretending that it was in fulfilment of an oath made with Maximian at his ascension; others, that he was grieved at his unsuccessful struggle against Christianity; others, that he feared the troubles which he saw impending; and many, that he entertained a supreme contempt for all human grandeur. The last two motives influenced beyond a doubt his resolution; but his fears, and the threats of Galerius his son-in-law, with his inability to resist him, were the principal causes. At the age of sixty years he retired into private life, and lived esteemed and happy at Salona. His latter days were saddened by the exile and persecution of his wife and daughter, and the ingratitude of those whom he had elevated.

PALMYRA.

QUEEN ZENOBIA was a Jewess by birth, the wife of Odenathus, prince of the Saracens of the Euphrates, who had raised himself to the Jominion of the East, and by his victories over the Persian king avenged the injuries of the Romans and become their ally. On his death, having been cut off by domestic treason, his widow filled the vacant throne, and governed Syria with great wisdom. Palmyra (lat. 34° 20′ N., long. 38° 30′ E.), her capital, the Tadmor of Solomon, was situated in an oasis in the midst of a vast desert of sand, on one of the great caravan routes to the Euphrates, and its magnificent ruins still ornament that portion of the wilderness. Zenobia began her reign by throwing off the protection of the senate and conquering Egypt. Aurelian marched against her, took Antioch, and in a terrible battle in its vicinity routed her mail-clad cavalry and skilful archers. After experiencing a second defeat near Emesa, she sought refuge in her capital, which was besieged by the emperor, and reduced after a long resistance, A. D. 273. Two years afterwards, the unfortunate queen was led in triumph through the streets of Rome. Covered with diamonds, she walked alone before her victor's car, a slave holding the chain of gold which had been placed on her neck. The name and fate of the critic Longinus both honour her reign and reproach her weakness, if it be true that she exposed him to the vengeance of Aurelian to save her own life.

PERSIA.

SASSANIDES, A. D. 226.-We have seen that Arsaces founded the Parthian kingdom in the third century B. C., and that with him began the line of Arṣacidan kings. His valour and genius gained the affections of his people; and his successes against the Romans often terrified the imperial city. The history of the several dynasties is obscure during 470 years, till we come to the reign of Artabanus, the last of the family just named, when this formidable power, which had spread from India to Syria, was subverted by ARTAXERXES (Ardeschir Babegan). He founded the family of the Sassanides, so called from his father Sassan, which governed Persia till the Arab invasion in 632. Artaxerxes was a distinguished soldier, driven to rebellion by royal ingratitude: three times he defeated the Parthians, and their monarch perished in the last battle. In the plain of Ormuz he was saluted by the army with the lofty title of King of Kings. He restored the ancient religion of the Magi, or Fire Worshippers, founded by Zoroaster in the seventh century B. C., re-established the royal authority, and began a successful war against the Romans, A. D. 230. His reign of fourteen years forms a memorable era in the history of the East and of Rome. He was succeeded by SAPOR, a man of gigantic form, inured from infancy to war, and who preserved the strictest discipline in his army, while he encouraged agriculture as a nursery for hardy soldiers. Eagerly desirous of founding a powerful monarchy, he attacked the Romans, and devastated both sides of the Euphrates, defeating the emperor Valerian, who had marched against him. He next overran Syria, Cilicia, and Cappadocia, but was compelled to retreat before Odenathus, prince of Palmyra,

A. D. 261.