Part 33 (1/2)

Panic seized the people; for the name of Vandal was p.r.o.nounced with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had once before saved his flock from the fury of an Attila, went forth to intercede in the name of Christ for the Imperial City. Genseric granted to the pious bishop the lives of the citizens, but said that the plunder of the capital belonged to his warriors. For fourteen days and nights the city was given over to the ruthless barbarians. The s.h.i.+ps of the Vandals, which almost hid with their number the waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had been the wagons of the Goths before them, with the rich and weighty spoils of the capital.

Palaces were stripped of their ornaments and furniture, and the walls of the temples denuded of their statues and of the trophies of a hundred Roman victories. From the Capitoline sanctuary were borne off the golden candlestick and other sacred articles that t.i.tus had stolen from the Temple at Jerusalem.

The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Carthage, bearing, besides the plunder of the city, more than 30,000 of the inhabitants as slaves.

[Footnote: The fleet was overtaken by a storm and suffered some damage, but the most precious of the relics it bore escaped harm. ”The golden candlestick reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, and lodged in Constantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superst.i.tious motives, in Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost.”

--Merivale.] Carthage, through her own barbarian conquerors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The mournful presentiment of Scipio had fallen true (see p. 271). The cruel fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged city that the Vandals left behind them.

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST (A.D. 476).--Only the shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. All the provinces--Illyric.u.m, Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Africa--were in the hands of the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Angles and Saxons, and various other intruding tribes. Italy, as well as Rome herself, had become again and again the spoil of the insatiable barbarians. The story of the twenty years following the sack of the capital by Genseric affords only a repet.i.tion of the events we have been narrating. During these years several puppet emperors were set up by the different leaders of the invading tribes. A final seditious movement placed upon the shadow-throne a child of six years, named Romulus Augustus. Chiefly because of the imperial farce he was forced to play, this child-emperor became known as Augustulus, ”the little Augustus.” He had reigned only a year, when Odoacer, the leader of a tribe of German mercenaries, dethroned him, and abolis.h.i.+ng the t.i.tle of emperor, took upon himself the government of Italy.

The Roman Senate now sent an emba.s.sy to Constantinople, with the royal vestments and the insignia of the imperial office, to represent to the Emperor Zeno that the West was willing to give up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request that the German chief, with the t.i.tle of ”Patrician,” might rule Italy as his viceroy. This was granted; and Italy now became in effect a province of the Empire in the East (A.D. 476). The Roman Empire in the West had come to an end, after an existence from the founding of Rome of 1229 years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE APPIAN WAY. (From a photograph).]

ROMAN EMPERORS FROM COMMODUS TO ROMULUS AUGUSTUS.

(A.D. 180-476.) A.D.

Commodus ... ... ... . 180-192 Pertinax ... ... ... . 193 Didius Julia.n.u.s ... ... . 193 Septimius Severus ... ... 193-211 / Caracalla ... ... ... 211-217 Geta ... ... ..... 211-213 Macrinus ... ... ... . 2l7-218 Elagabalus ... ... ... 218-222 Alexander Severus ... ... 222-235 Maximin ... ... ..... 235-238 Gordian III ... ... ... 238-244 Philip ... ... ..... 244-249 Decius ... ... ..... 249-251 Period of the Thirty Tyrants. 251-268 Claudius ... ... ... . 268-270 Aurelian ... ... ... . 270-275 Tacitus ... ... ..... 275-276 Probus ... ... ..... 276-282 Carus ... ... ... ... 282-283 / Carinus ... ... ... . 283-284 Numerian ... ... ... 283-284 / Diocletian ... ..... 284-305 Maximian ... ... ... 286-305 / Constantius I ... ... . 305-306 Galerius ... ... ... 305-311 Constantine the Great ... . 306-337 Reigns as sole ruler .... 323-337 Constantine II ........ 337-340 Constans I ... ... .... 337-350 Constantius II ........ 337-361 Reigns as sole ruler .... 350-361 Julian the Apostate ..... 361-363 Jovian ... ... ..... 363-364 / Valentinian I ... ... . 364-375 Valens (in the East)... . 364-378 Gratian ... ... ..... 375-383 Maximus ... ... ..... 383-388 Valentinian II ........ 375-392 Eugenius ... ........ 392-394 Theodosius the Great . .... 379-395 Reigns as sole emperor... 394-395

FINAL PARt.i.tION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (A.D. 395.)

EMPERORS IN THE EAST.

(From A.D. 395 to Fall of Rome.) A.D.

Arcadius ... ... ... . 395-408 Theodosius II... ..... 408-450 Marcian ... ... ... . 450-457 Leo I ... ... ..... 457-474 Zeno ... ... ... ... 474-491

EMPERORS IN THE WEST.

A.D.

Honorius ... ... ... . 395-423 Valentinian III... ... . 425-455 Maximus ... ... ... . 455 Avitus ... ... ..... 455-456 Count Ricimer creates and deposes emperors ..... 456-472 Romulus Augustus ... ... 475-476

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE ROMANS.

1. ARCHITECTURE.

GREEK ORIGIN OF ROMAN ARCHITECTURE: THE ARCH.--The architecture of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of Greek models. But the Romans were not mere servile imitators. They not only modified the architectural forms they borrowed, but they gave their structures a distinct character by the prominent use of the arch, which the Greek and Oriental builders seldom employed, though they were acquainted with its properties. By means of it the Roman builders vaulted the roofs of the largest buildings, carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest valleys, and spanned the broadest streams with bridges that have resisted all the a.s.saults of time and flood to the present day.

SACRED EDIFICES.--The temples of the Romans were in general so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take time and s.p.a.ce to enter into a particular description of them. Mention, however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as this was a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best representative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon at Rome, which has come down to our own times in a state of wonderful preservation. This structure is about 140 feet in diameter. The great concrete dome which vaults the building, is one of the boldest pieces of masonry executed by the master-builders of the world.

CIRCUSES, THEATRES, AND AMPHITHEATRES.--The circuses of the Romans were what we should call race-courses. There were several at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus, which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins, and afterwards enlarged as the population of the capital increased, until it was capable of holding two or three hundred thousand spectators.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ROMAN FORUM IN 1885]

The Romans borrowed the plan of their theatres from the Greeks; their amphitheatres, however, were original with them. The Flavian Amphitheatre, known as the Colosseum, has already come under our notice (see p. 316).

The edifice was 574 feet in its greatest diameter, and was capable of seating eighty-seven thousand spectators. The ruins of this immense structure stand to-day as ”the embodiment of the power and splendor of the Roman Empire.”

AQUEDUCTS.--The aqueducts of ancient Rome were among the most important of the utilitarian works of the Romans. The water-system of the capital was commenced by Appius Claudius (about 313 B.C.), who secured the building of an aqueduct which led water into the city from the Sabine hills. During the republic four aqueducts in all were completed; under the emperors the number was increased to fourteen. [Footnote: Several of these are still in use.] The longest of these was about fifty-five miles in length. The aqueducts usually ran beneath the surface, but when a depression was to be crossed, they were lifted on arches, which sometimes were over one hundred feet high. These lofty arches running in long broken lines over the plains beyond the walls of Rome, are the most striking feature of the Campagna at the present time.