Roman legions. In the IIIrd century A. D. they devastated Greece and Macedonia, and occupied considerable portions of Gaul and of the Roman provinces in the basin of the Danube. The Persians, under the Sassanide dynasty, and overran several Roman provinces, including Syria, but were soon expelled, so that in 300 A. D. the Caspian and the Tigris were still portions of the eastern boundary of the empire.

We have reached the end of the political growth of Rome; in later years her political changes were nearly all in the direction of decay. The pagan empire had lasted three centuries and had given to its subjects more peace than the occupants of the same territory had ever enjoyed before or have ever enjoyed since. In the justice, liberality, and intelligence of its rule over numerous heterogeneous nationalities it has had only one equal in history, and that is the British imperial government as improved in the XIXth century. It is the most glorious, or the only glorious, portion of Roman history. It developed a number of sovereigns remarkable for goodness or greatness, or for the combination of both these qualities. No other throne can boast a collection of monarchs so admirable in character as were Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, Titus, Nerva, Hadrian, Trajan, the two Antonines, Sèptimius Severus, Alexander Severus, Aurelian, and Diocletian. It was under the pagan empire that the civil law was first carried to a high development and administered by learned and impartial judges; that wise and just rulers made the welfare of many millions of people the main object of their ambition; and that the most brilliant poets, the ablest historians, and the most distinguished ethical philosophers, of Rome made their appearance.

CHAPTER XXXI.

ROMAN RELIGION.

SECTION 486. Greek Analogies.-The religion of ancient Rome was similar to that of Greece in its general conceptions; in its modes of worship; in its polytheism, its idolatry, and its temples; in its ideas of propitiating the deities by feasting and honoring them; in its multitude of gods and goddesses, many of whom had local and professional jurisdictions; in its distinct ceremonials of devotion to the deity of the nation, to that of the clan, and to that of the household, the last being the most important to the individual worshiper; in its sacerdotal organization, the priesthood of each temple being independent of all other priesthoods; in the subordination of the ecclesiastical to the political influences in the state; and in the lack of a written creed, and of a divine or divinely commissioned founder. The Romans were like the Greeks also in the fact that their leading thinkers had rejected polytheism and had adopted a belief in a single deity governing the universe. This idea is very distinctly expressed in the writings of Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Virgil, in the Æneid says:

"Know first, the heaven, the earth, the main,
The moon's pale orb, the starry train,

Are nourished by a soul,

As in Greece after 450 B. C., so in Rome three centuries and a half later, many of the intelligent paid reverence in public to the popular religion in which they had lost all faith. They valued the ancient superstition as “a powerful instrument for keeping the people in subjection." Merivale tells us that "among the Romans the men of higher light and deeper insight, who impugned the accredited faith of the people, carefully abstained from any attack upon their formulas. Scævola, Varro, and Cicero avowed the principle that the errors of the vulgar and the knowledge of the wise should be permitted to coexist with mutual toleration." Marquardt says that “Scævola distinguished three kinds of religion, one that of the poets, another that of philosophers, and a third that of statesmen; that the last, even if false, was the best for the multitude, who should be kept in ignorance of the other two. To him the old faith seemed necessary for its political influence."" Aurelius Cotta, while chief pontiff, declared that "it is not well to deny the existence of the gods in public; in private, it is a different matter."

The following passage is from Polybius "The exceptional point in favor of the Roman state is its attitude towards the gods; and it seems to me that what others blame in that people really sustains Roman affairs, I mean their superstition; for this point has been so paraded by them and introduced both into private life and public affairs as to leave no possibility of going any further. It may seem wonderful to many, but I think the Romans did so for the sake of the mob. For if it were possible to collect a whole society of wise men, this kind of thing

would perhaps not be necessary, but when every multitude is treacherous and full of lawless desires, irrational impulses, and violent passion, nothing remains but to control it by mysterious fears and scenic effects. Wherefore the ancients appear to me to have introduced their notions of the gods and their views of Hades among the populace, not at random, or in any chance way; nay, rather men nowadays try to expel them at random and without good

Polybius also says, "So far then as tends to preserve the spirit of religion in the masses, we must excuse those historians who tell fables and miracles." Although Cicero observes that it is an "unaccountable thing how one soothsayer can refrain from laughing when he looks at another," yet he also declared that “I do not know, if we cast off piety towards the gods, but that faith and all the associations of human life and that most excellent of all virtues, justice, may perish with it." Mommsen re- ' marks that the official religion of Rome was "quite candidly treated as a hollow framework now serviceable only for political machinists."*

These were the ideas, not of some few individuals, but of a large majority of the nobles in the late republic. The only high official who publicly denied the life of the soul after the death of the body was Julius Cæsar; and his expression of opinion on this subject, in the senate, was considered an evidence of his characteristic courage. Cicero, who in confidential letters to his friends avowed the same opinion, took the other side when he addressed himself to the public.

The points in which the religion of Rome differed most from that of Greece were the relative prominence of omens and the insignificance of oracles; the maintenance

of certain sacerdotal boards as officers of the state, and the extensive jurisdiction of several of these boards in their respective departments; the paucity and poverty of religious myths; and the plain bargaining of the man with the god for protection in payment of adoration.

In the late republic, nearly all the religious observances were reduced to the emptiest formalities without protest from anybody. At a declaration of war, it was necessary that a fecial priest should throw a spear into the territory of the enemy; but when this rule became inconvenient because of the extension of the empire, a remedy was found by inducing a prisoner to Buy a piece of land near the temple of Bellona, and into this tract, called the country of the enemy, the spear was thrown. So a trick was devised to avoid the inconvenience of the ancient rule that after suffering any check, a commander of an army must not make any important move until he had taken favorable auspices in Rome. That rule could not be adhered to literally when Roman armies were separated by weeks of time from their capital, but it must not be repealed or disregarded. It was dodged by giving the name of Rome to a place near to or in the camp. The chief flamen could not take an oath, but when a man holding that sacerdotal office was elected ædile, a friend took the oath of office for him. The augur who was observing the omens for purposes of state could accept them or not at his pleasure; and if they were unfavorable, he could treat them as though he had taken no omen, and either make another observation immediately or at some subsequent time. If a person made a vow to give a certain offering to a god in case of his success in a projected enterprise, he could fulfill his promise in a figurative manner. If he vowed the sacrifice of a deer, he