bath. Two years before his demise the monarch divided the empire among his three sons, Constantine II., Constantius, and Constans. His two nephews Dalmatius and Annibalianus, received, the former the rank of Cæsar, the latter a great part of Asia Minor, with the title of king. A short time afterwards, Sapor II., king of Persia, sent to demand of the emperor the provinces which Narses had ceded to Diocletian. The Roman sovereign replied that he would bear his own answer, and was in the midst of his preparations for war when he fell ill at Nicomedia, and died after receiving baptism by the hands of the Arian bishop Eusebius, 337.

Constantine was the founder of a new order of things, which Diocletian had endeavoured, although imperfectly, to establish before him: for the previous military despotism he substituted that of the court and of a numerous hierarchy. Henceforward all ambition found a place around the sovereign; and the generals no longer saw an open path by which any of them might advance to the imperial title. The former state of things, which had given rise to so many revolts, was altered: step by step each of the commanders might rise to the foot of the throne, but the power of an hereditary principle checked his farther progress. Besides the court, there was a sacred body of men everywhere present, guiding and influencing all minds. Since the year 313, Constantine had embraced the true faith; but as the church had long previously possessed its hierarchy, he did little more than consecrate and sanction its organization.

In the regulation of the court the plan of Diocletian was closely followed. The sovereign was no longer visible to his subjects, and access to him was allowed only after a troublesome ceremonial. Below the seven domestics of the court, or rather the great officers of the state, were four classes of nobility, all exempt from the various taxes, except that imposed on land, which was paid by every one, even the emperor. Under the superior generals of the army were the counts and dukes; the legions were reduced from 6000 to 1500 men, and the whole army was classed in three divisions,-household troops, garrisons for the wealthy cities of the empire, and frontier guards, all of whom were more or less exempted from taxation. But these soldiers were now entirely mercenary; a law of Diocletian expressly forbidding the enlistment of any man possessed of twenty-five acres of land.

FINANCES.-The taxes payable by Roman citizens were-a poll-tax, a property-tax or census, customs or duties on merchandise imported or exported, varying from one-eighth to one-fortieth ad-valorem, tithes on the farming of the public lands, a legacy-tax, and one-twentieth on all manumissions. The public revenues of the empire have been calculated at nearly forty millions of our money. This amount varied little till the time of Constantine, or rather Dio. cletian, who substituted a simple and direct tax, called the Indiction, in the stead of all preceding contributions.* All the lands of the state, including the

* This annual tax, if not Introduced, was at least entirely regulated under Constan tine, and assessed according to a register of all the landed estates. As this register was

patrimony of the emperor, were subjected to this impost, and the least prevari cation in the account given in by each proprietor was punishable by death.

The death of the emperor was the signal for internal disturbances, which were settled for a time by the division of his dominions among the three princes. Constantine, the eldest, obtained Gaul, Spain, and Britain; Constantius ruled over Thrace and the East; and Constans was the sovereign of Italy and Africa. CONSTANTIUS, 337, was soon called to the Persian war, where he soon found himself unable to resist the skill and valour of Sapor. It is true he succeeded in restoring Chosroes, son of Tiridates to his paternal throne, but this effeminate prince consented, as the price of peace, to pay a heavy tribute, and restore the excluded province of Atropatene. Scarcely three years had elapsed after the partition of the empire, before Constantine became dissatisfied with his share, and crossed the Alps to attack Constans, by whom he was defeated and killed: his possessions were added to those of his conqueror who himself ten years afterwards met with a violent death at the hands of some of the troops of Magnentius. After the demise of his two brothers, Constantius was involved, by the revolutions of the West, in a civil contest with the usurper just named, in which he was ultimately successful, and became sole emperor, 353. The two nephews of Constantine, Gallus and Julian, who, at the death of their uncle, had escaped from the ruin of their family, were long confined in prison, till the emergencies of the state invested the former with the title of Cæsar, 351. His cruelty and imprudence, together with his mean submission to his blood-thirsty wife Constantina, were the cause of his disgrace and untimely end, 354. Julian now alone survived, and was passing his hours in studious retirement at Athens, when he was unwillingly declared Cæsar, 355, and appointed to the provinces of Gaul. His retired and scholastic education had not disqualified him for more active pursuits. He defeated the Gauls and Franks; made three expeditions beyond the Rhine; and while his victories suspended the inroads of the barbarians, his civil administration alleviated the distresses of the people. Meantime Constantius was feebly making head against the irruptions of Sapor; and to quiet the seditious comparisons between himself and the Cæsar, he ordered into the East four legions of the army of Gaul; but his commands were disobeyed, and the discontented soldiers proclaimed Julian emperor. No time was to be lost, and the new monarch, by a hasty march, with a small army of veteran soldiers, took possession of the capital a month after the death of Constantius, 361.

JULIAN, surnamed the Apostate from having abandoned the Christian religion in which he was educated, had embraced the mythology of paganism, as subtilized by the New Platonic school; but while he wrote against Christianity, and endeavoured to establish a reformed polytheism in place of the gospels, it would be unjust to deny his tolerant principles. In the year 362, desirous of proving the fallacy of the prophecies, he determined to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem; but "horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundations, rendered the place inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen." His chief

reviewed every fifteen years, it gave rise to the Cycle of Indictions, which became the common era, beginning with the first September, a. d. 313.-To find the Indiction, ade 3 to the given year, because Christ was born in the year answering to the fourth of this cycle, and divide the sum by 15; the remainder will be the year of the Indiction.

political cares were the punishment of informers, who had been the scourge of the previous reign, and reforming the abuses of the court, in which were to be seen thousands of the most useless menials. He was thus enabled at once to reduce the taxes by one-fifth, and to indulge in greater magnificence in the state ceremonials. Superstitious to excess, he sacrificed on every occasion, and performed with scrupulous anxiety the functions of sovereign pontiff. He had been scarcely six months at Constantinople before he set out on his Persian expedition, in which he was at first successful; but, allowing himself to be misled by a deserter, he was surrounded by the army of Sapor, and fell mortally wounded, in the thirty-second year of his age, 363.

With the accession of Julian paganism was restored throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire. He had been blinded by the prejudices of a mind too much preoccupied to perceive the luminous point to which the world was verging; he erred, and to be mistaken in such a manner, when the destinies of a kingdom depend upon the decision of its ruler, is the greatest of misfortunes. During a reign of eighteen months, part of which was taken up with his expedition against the Persians, he could not effect all the good or evil that has been attributed to him. He does not appear to have violently opposed Christianity, but, on the contrary, to have allowed its followers full liberty of assembling, and to have permitted entire freedom of conscience. The gravest infraction of religious tolerance that can be attributed to this emperor is the law of 362, forbidding Christians to teach the faculties of rhetoric and belleslettres.*

JOVIAN, A. D. 363, a fervent Christian, succeeded Julian, and by accepting the conditions offered by Sapor, was allowed to withdraw the Roman army. All the conquests of Diocletian were restored, and Armenia was to be entirely abandoned. Eight months after, the new ruler was carried off by disease, and the army then assembled at Nicæa chose, as his successor, VALENTINIAN, who selected VALENS for his colleague, and the empire was divided between them. The latter governed the East, from the Danube to the Persian frontiers; the former reserving to himself the rest of the empire, from the extremity of Greece westward to the ocean.

EASTERN EMPIRE.

VALENS, A. D. 364.-The government of this prince was disturbed by the insurrection of Procopius, 365, though the next year witnessed the defeat and death of the rebel. The emperor now began a violent persecution of the orthodox Christians, and the martyrdom of the venerable Athanasius was one of his first acts. But Valens did not neglect the commercial interests of his subjects, and in the first year of his reign he reduced the taxes one-fourth. The Persian contest still continued; Sapor invaded Armenia, and the city of Artageras was taken after a siege of fourteen months, and a loss of nearly 17,000 lives by famine, 369. The conclusion of the Gothic war allowed the eastern emperor to spend But several years at Antioch, disturbed only by religious dissensions. in 375, Bishop Ulphilas, with other ambassadors from the Goths, solicited his assistance against the Huns,-an oriental people, Calmucks or Mongols, closely allied to the Finnish stock.

* Abridged from the "Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme," by Mr. Arthur Beug not, which contains a luminous criticism of the character of Julian, enhanced by a vigorous style and extensive learning.

BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE, A. D. 378.-The Goths, to the number of nearly a million, were transported across the Danube, and settled on the southern bank of that river. Roman avarice and treachery drove them to revolt; but they were kept in check by the lieutenants of Valens, and their forces wasted by famine. The emperor hastened in person from the East, and on the 9th August 378, attacked the invaders near Adrianople, where he suffered a terrible defeat, losing two-thirds of an army of 300,000 men. He fled wounded from the field, and took refuge in a peasant's hut, to which the victors set fire, not knowing that the monarch lay concealed within. The inexperience of the Goths prevented them from taking advantage of their triumph otherwise than by ravaging Thrace, and carrying their predatory expeditions to the walls of Constantinople.

When Gratian, the Western Emperor, received the news of these events, he called THEODOSIUS from his estate in Spain, to which he had retired on the death of his father, and raised him to the Eastern throne, as being the only man capable of bearing the heavy weight of power, 379. Nor were the general expectations disappointed, for, by his prudence, he delivered the Roman provinces from the Goths, and taking advantage of their dissensions, compelled them to capitulate, 382, so that, until his death, the empire did not lose a single province. His reign was not less devoted to religion than to politics; for, while he crushed the barbarians, he endeavoured also to eradicate the Arian heresy, even at the price of blood. During the civil wars of the West, he made two campaigns in Italy, where his success was equal to the justice of his cause. After the defeat and death of the usurper Eugenius, he became sole emperor of the world, a title which he enjoyed only a few months, as he died at Milan in 395. He was the last who ruled over the whole Roman empire, which, torn and distracted as it was, his two sons divided between them. Arcadias, as emperor of the East, reigned at Constantinople; and Honorius in the West preferred Ravenna to the ancient capital of the empire.

By the moderation which characterized the victories of Theodosius, by the wisdom of his laws, and the success of his arms, he justly merited the title of Great. Friends and enemies, Pagans and Christians, have alike given their testimony to his talents and virtues. He preserved on the throne the simple manners of his early life, and the splendour of the diadem never made him forget that he was a father, husband, and friend. His good qualities were, however, tarnished by his momentary impetuosity and his occasional cruelty when under the influence of excited passion, as in those melancholy instances when the inhabitants of Antioch and of Thessalonica rose in revolt against him.

WESTERN EMPIRE.

VALENTINIAN, A. D. 364, preserved a strict impartiality and toleration during this age of religious contention, his mind being occupied by other subjects. The Alemanni invaded and ravaged Gaul, but the brave Jovinus, after a severe conflict, drove them across the Rhine, 366. In Britain the inroads of the Scots and Picts were repeatedly checked by the vigorous exertions of Theodosius, father of the emperor of that name. The same brave general afterwards recovered Africa, which had joined the rebellious standard of Firmus the Moor, 373. The Goths, despising the two obscure princes who were raised to the throne, passed the

Danube, to the number of 30,000 men; but after a sanguinary war of three years, they were glad to accept peace. The Quadi followed, with still worse success; and it was while receiving their ambassadors that Valentinian broke into a furious passion which caused his death, 375.

GRATIAN ascended the throne on the death of his father. His first exploit in arms was the defeat of the Alemanni who had crossed the Rhine, in 378. Unable to resist alone the tempest of barbarians who threatened to burst over the provinces, he invested Theodosius with the empire of the East, 379. The preference he manifested for his Scythian body-guard naturally excited the discontent of the Roman troops. Maximus, who commanded in Britain, availed himself of these murmurs to assume the purple, and Gratian perished by the hand of an assassin, 383. Not satisfied with possessing the provinces westward of the Alps, the usurper invaded Italy, which was governed by VALENTINIAN II., a brother of the late monarch. Theodosius supported the Italian prince, and Maximus was defeated and killed at Aquileia, 388; but, notwithstanding, Valentinian perished by the hand of the Frank Arbogastes, before he had completed his twentieth year, 392. The rhetorician Eugenius, secretary of the barbarian general, was raised to the vacant throne, and for two years Theodosius durst not attack him, defended as he was by the skill of his master and the numerous Franks he had collected around him. The battle which, in 394, put an end to the reign and life of Eugenius, was fought by foreigners alone: the troops of Theodosius being Goths, under the command of their native chiefs, and their antagonists Franks and Allemanni.

The history of the Western Empire now rapidly approaches its close. The luxury which pervaded the cities, and the relaxation of military discipline prepared its fall. Ministers, soldiers, and generals were chosen from the barbarous tributaries of Rome; and the incorporation of the Goths and other tribes was a fatal injury to the internal government of the state. The court was given up to idle pomp and ceremony; women and eunuchs directed the affairs of the world; corruption, injustice, and oppression, famine and pestilence, completed the gloomy picture.

BARBARIC MIGRATIONS.

The fourth century was marked by an incident of great importance,the appearance of the Huns in Europe; an event which led to the grea migrations that followed, and finally brought on the destruction of the Roman Empire in the West.

The name of German comprehends all those tribes which, from th time of Julius Cæsar, were established between 56° N. latitude and the Danube, and between the Rhine and the Vistula. One of these nations, the Goths, being driven from the mouths of the latter river by others. who dwelt farther to the east, sought refuge on the frontiers of Dacia where Caracalla found them in 213. Aurelian permitted them to settle along the Euxine Sea, when they became divided into Eastern or Ostrogoths-from the Don to the Dniester, and Western or Visigoths-from the Dniester to the Danube. About the year 374 the barbarous horde of the Hiong-nu, or Huns, appeared on the eastern bank of the Don, They were a nomad people who wandered over the mountains and pasture-grounds of Upper Asia, particularly in the countries lying between Siberia and India. The first historical notice of them is found in