admitted into the victor's confidence and favor. Most of them became his zealous friends. General expectation at the time regarded the triumph of Cæsar as the beginning of a new era of peace and order;1 and this opinion was justified by later results.

SEC. 475. Cæsar's Laws.-Cæsar was a great statesman, and one of the greatest of generals. Among the men classed in the first rank for their military genius there are four,-Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, and Napoleon; and among these many critics give the first place to Cæsar. Of the four he was the only one who was a great orator; the only one who was a great historian; and if not the only one who was a great statesman, at least the only one who permanently changed the government of the whole civilized world, who founded a dynasty, and made his personal name the title of the emperor.

His ideas were clearer, sounder, and more comprehensive than those of Sulla, and he acted with greater energy. He saw that neither the nobility nor the multitude in Rome was then competent or could in a generation be made competent to govern the empire. He saw that there was no possibility of success for either democracy or aristocracy with the people to whom it must be intrusted. He established a despotism as the only possible form of orderly government but he did not assume the title or state of a monarch.

The narrow citizenship which the senate and rabble of Rome agreed in guarding with the greatest jealousy, as a gratification of their local vanity, and as an aid in the oppression and plunder of the provinces, did not harmonize with the broad statesmanship of Cæsar. He gave the full franchise to a large class in the Po-basin who did not possess it previously, and also to many cities in

Gaul. He intended, apparently, to consolidate the empire by giving an equality of civil and political rights to all the provinces. He increased the number of senåtors to nine hundred, and among his appointees selected many from various Italian cities, so that under him the senate. ceased to be composed exclusively of residents of the capital. He even took some of his senators from Gaul. He did not have time to indicate the measure of authority that he intended to leave to the senate.

He protected the provincials against extortion. He preferred the collection of taxes by state officials to that by contractors who employed ruffians as their subordinates, and systematically bribed the governors and their dependents to protect the ruffians. He required that one-third of the laborers employed on every large estate should be freemen. He announced his purpose to drain the Pontine marshes. He projected a codification of the civil law, and he founded the first public library in Rome.

He reformed the calendar, by adding ten days and a quarter to the old Roman year, the quarter of a day being arranged for by making every fourth year one day longer than the intervening three. The year 46 b. c., which otherwise would have ended in October, received an addition of sixty-seven days in two intercalary months, so as to make the new year begin with the first full moon after the winter solstice. In fixing the beginning of the year in his calendar Cæsar made a concession to popular superstition which considered the full moon as propitious to new enterprises, though he personally would doubtless have preferred the solstitial day, a week earlier. The old system of an occasional intercalating month by the arbitrary order of the chief pontiff came to an end, and the years began to be of uniform length.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE PAGAN EMPIRE.

SECTION 476. Augustus.—In March, 44 B. C., Cæsar was assassinated by a band of narrow-minded, envious, and rapacious senators. The best of the party was Marcus Brutus, who was an accomplice in the murder of the town councilors of Salamis in Cyprus, one of the most brutal outrages of republican Rome. The conspirators, having made no preparation to profit by their crime, were compelled to flee from Italy, and to recruit a military force in Greece. Lepidus who commanded a small army near Rome, Mark Antony who was one of the consuls, and Augustus, the nephew and heir of Cæsar, became the leaders of the popular party. They followed the conspirators to Macedonia, and in 42 B. C., at Philippi, inflicted a crushing and final defeat on the senatorial party. Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, as a triumvirate, ruled Rome. Six years later Lepidus was deprived of his share in the government; and in 30 B. C., as the result of the battle of Actium, and the subsequent death of Antony, Augustus became sole master of the Roman empire.

When he returned to Rome, he announced that the state was at peace. The temple of Janus was closed for the first time in more than two and for the second time in more than six centuries. So incredibly industrious had been this wolfish breed in the work of human butch

ery. And yet the temple of Janus was closed too soon. The era of peace had not arrived. The Roman soldiers were still fighting with rebels in Spain.

But Augustus loved peace. He had great tact in the management of men, and eminent ability in political administration. He was merciful and economical. He hated the slaughter and devastation of war. He was not a general. He never commanded in a great battle. He had no longing for military glory. He did not wish to enlarge the empire unless in those places where a more secure boundary could be obtained by an extension. He wished to avoid the organization of extensive armies, under commanders who might aspire to the throne.

His subjects generally shared his desire for peace. The news that the temple of Janus had been closed, and that Augustus had made the event the occasion of a celebration, was received with general rejoicing from Egypt to Britain. The people hoped that the time had come when the fearful bloodshed of Roman history was to end. They had confidence in the emperor. For twelve years, as triumvir and duumvir, he had ruled with clemency over the western division of the empire. He had been economical with the money and the blood of his subjects. He had served a long probation in the art of government without exposing any serious defect of character. And yet he was only thirty-three years of age when he became sole master of Rome, and he might rule the state in peace for more than a generation. These happy anticipations were realized. His long reign was relatively the most beneficent in history. Under him war was displaced by peace; terror by confidence; confusion by order; privation by abundance; and extortion in administration by honesty.

Among the characteristics of the reign of Augustus were the rebuilding of the capital and a literary activity previously unknown in Rome. He said that he found Rome brick and left it marble. The revenues of the Romans had greatly decreased when the system of plundering the provinces without mercy came to an end, but peace, confidence, and economy enabled two generations under the empire to do more in beautifying the city than had been done by six previous generations.

SEC. 477. Policy of Augustus. — Augustus carefully avoided the show and titles of despotism. While ruling with autocratic power, he pretended to be governed by the advice of the senate. Laws were enacted by that body with the concurrence of the centuriate assembly. Consuls were elected as under the republic, but they were designated by the master of the state. He himself was elected consul at first for a year, afterwards for five years, and finally for life. He was also censor for life and in that capacity could appoint and remove senators. He accepted, and doubtless ordered his appointment as exclusive tribune for life, and in that capacity could prohibit any official act which displeased him. It was not until II B. C., nineteen years after he became sole ruler of the empire, that he became Pontifex Maximus, or Chief Pontiff, the recognized head of the religion of the state. He had doubtless wished for that office ever since he had compelled Lepidus, its incumbent, to withdraw, in 36 B. C., from the triumvirate; but to obtain it he would not resort to violence or threats, or even a request.

He paid much regard to the feelings of the senators. He took care that their dignity should be respected. He removed disreputable men from their list. To some who were not rich enough to live in the style which he con