EMINENT PERSONS.

virtue occasioned much scandal; and when Petronius Arbiter, the consul, a mere man of pleasure and of the world, was seen soon after, under the same circumstances, to protract his sufferings that he might converse longer with his friends, it was observed that Seneca preached, and Petronius proved, what philosophy could do. The extant writings of Seneca form a valuable compendium of heathen morality.

St. Paul (originally Saul) the great, shown a fear of death-one who had so apostle of the Gentiles, was born at often extolled the contempt of it to Tarsus. Brought up a Pharisee, he a degree that constituted suicide a imbibed a violent hatred against the Christians; and when Stephen was stoned, held the raiment of his murderers, and then set out for Damascus, to imprison the disciples. On his way thither, however, a voice from heaven converted him to the true faith. His support of the gospel was now as fervent as his enmity towards it had formerly been. He made converts, wrote persuasive epistles to distant churches, sent out fellow-labourers, and exercised all the apostolic duties. St. Paul rather than St. Peter ought perhaps to be considered as the first bishop of Rome; for there he dwelt in his own hired house two whole years, and there brought thousands into the way of truth, before the arrival of St. Peter. At the end of two years, St. Paul, who had been sent prisoner to Rome, was acquitted and discharged. He, how-spiracy, he was ordered, like Seneca, to ever, returned to Rome, and was beheaded at Aquæ Salvia for converting to Christianity some of Nero's household.

St. Peter, called the chief of the apostles, from our Lord's promised delivery of the keys of heaven to him, was ardent in his attachment to his master, even to the drawing of his sword in his defence; but denied him when he saw him tried as a malefactor. After the ascension, however, he uniformly preached with boldness, and made many converts; and under the persecution of Nero, was crucified at Rome with his head downwards.

Seneca, the moral philosopher, was born in Spain, and coming to Italy, rose to fame as a pleader, and was made quæstor, and preceptor to the young Nero. On a false accusation of having joined Piso's conspiracy, that tyrant ordered his preceptor to destroy himself, which he did by first opening the veins in different parts of his body, and then entering a warm bath, to hasten his dissolution. The fact of so distinguished a philosopher having thus,

Persius, the Roman satiric poet, was of an equestrian family. He was an amiable man, and abhorred the vices which he scourged. His satires are six; and though often obscure, they contain many brilliant passages.

Lucan, the poet, early left Spain for Rome. Foolishly contending in poetry with Nero, the emperor never forgave him; and upon his joining Piso's con

put himself to death. Nothing but his Pharsalia remains, on the wars of Cæsar and Pompey; and though not equal to the epic of Homer or Virgil, it is a fine production.

Aretaus of Cappadocia, a distinguished pathologist, known by the remnants of his lively and elegant works in Ionic Greek, is supposed to have resided in Italy. He is admitted to have surpassed even Hippocrates in his description of diseases; and regarding the experience of the medical practitioner in a higher light than scholastic degrees, he held that the constant observer would, as it were, grow a physician. He alludes to modes of treatment also, which have been considered modern discoveries. Thus in employing emetics, he speaks of the benefit derived to the stomach from the shock which vomiting produces; alludes to the practice of opening a vein at the back of the hand; of cupping; and of the administering scarcely any medicines in acute, and only alterative ones in chronic maladies,

SECTION V.

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE ROMAN EMPIRE BETWEEN GALBA, OTHO, AND VITELLIUS,

Usually called the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Cæsars.

68 TO 69-1 YEAR.

Great was the joy in Rome when it was announced that Nero was no more. The people ran into the streets to congratulate each other, and dressed themselves in the manner of slaves who had been set free. Galba, the favourite of the soldiers, at that moment in Spain, was declared emperor, at seventy-two; but he had scarcely been seated on the throne, when he displayed a corruption of principle which violently irritated the citizens against him. The goods of all parties were seized by his favourites, and sold; the crime of murder was blotted out; and impunity as respected any offence, however vile, was to be purchased by money. The soldiers, when they found that Galba could not pay them the large sums he had promised them, being urged on by Otho, rode into the Forum, where the emperor was on horseback, and cut off his head, 69, seven months after his accession. Otho being hereupon acknowledged sovereign, endeavoured to conciliate the people by acts of clemency and justice; but Vitellius, who was with the army in Germany, induced the soldiers to proclaim him emperor. Otho instantly left Rome to oppose him, sending forward his generals, Suetonius and Celsus, to give him battle; but in the final contest of Bebriacum all his hopes were overthrown. He would not believe the report of a soldier respecting the defeat of his troops; but when he saw the man throw himself upon his sword, he retired to his chamber and stabbed himself, having possessed the throne but four months. Vitellius had been the favourite of Caligula for his skill in driving a chariot, that of Claudius for his gaming propensities, and that of Nero for having persuaded the madman his voice was divine. No sooner had he gained the victory at Bebriacum, than, to attach his chief officers, he made luxurious banqueting the business of his life: four and even five times a day sitting down to a public repast. The deserts of Libya, the shores of Spain, the waters of the Carpathian, even remote Britain itself, were searched to supply his voluptuous table. The commonalty, ever disposed to investigate and find fault with the habits of their betters, soon found cause to quarrel with Vitellius. The army was appealed to as the readiest means of staying a course which, if persisted in, would drain the utmost resources of the empire. Vespasian was proclaimed forthwith; and Vitellius, who had concealed himself under the bed of the porter of his palace, was dragged thence naked into the street, and murdered by the mob.

SECTION VI.

VESPASIAN CÆSAR, EMPEROR OF ROME.

69 TO 79-10 YEARS.

Vespasian, of an obscure family, rose to distinction in the army, and when sent against Palestine as a general, laid siege to Jerusalem. This great work, however, was perfected by Titus, his son, as the death of Vitellius caused his

recal to Rome. He repaired the public buildings of the capitol, made the roads more spacious and convenient, and was a patron of the learned; giving annually a large sum from the public treasury to professors of the various sciences. He was clement, and an enemy to flattery, despised informers, and constantly forgave conspirators against his person. Having made tributary the Alans, a barbarous tribe on the river Tanais, he set about a reform of the colonies of the empire, and took an especial interest in the affairs of Britain. While in Campania, being then seventy, he was seized with a mortal illness, and desired to be moved to Rome. This, however, could not be effected; and when he found his end approaching, he rose from his couch, and calmly observing that it became a ruler to die on his feet,' expired in the arms of his attendants, without a groan.

6

CHIEF EVENT.

The Fall of Jerusalem, predicted, Josephus, but Agrippa II.,' the last by our Lord, took place, 70. The king of the Jews, accompanied Titus Jews had attempted to throw off the in his march against his own city, Roman yoke, when Titus, son of having been before dethroned by ClauVespasian, entered Syria with a large dius, and carried to Rome. Thus, army, and after his father had com- after years of Roman oppression, the menced the siege, took Jerusalem. Jews became what they still remain, No less than 1,400,000 fell in this - a wandering people, without contest; and so great was the distress leader, without country, and without of the besieged, that a mother eat her union; and corrupted as was their faith child to avoid starvation. The temple at the period of their dispersion, it is was demolished, and the city extermi- now still more mingled and debased nated by fire. Not only the historian with absurd practices and traditions.

EMINENT PERSONS.

divinity, he speaks of him favourably.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, sur- | Syriac and Greek; wherein, although rendered to Vespasian during the he does not acknowledge our Lord's Judæan war, after holding out a small fortress against the Romans. He accompanied Titus when he besieged Jerusalem; and going with him to Rome, was made a citizen. There he wrote his history of the wars of the Jews, in

Quintus Curtius, made proconsul of Africa by Vespasian, was author of a history of Alexander the Great, pure and elegant in style, though inaccurate in historical facts, geography, and dates.

SECTION VII.

TITUS CÆSAR, EMPEROR OF ROME.

79 TO 81-2 YEARS.

Titus succeeded his father Vespasian; and on being invested with the purple, divorced his Jewish wife Berenice, sister of Agrippa, the last Jewish king; his attachment to whom had given the Romans great offence. This conduct, added to his justice and generosity, procured him the title of the delight of mankind.' He reformed judicial proceedings, added to the buildings of the city, erected baths of great magnificence, and established public spectacles for the amusement of the common people. To benefit his subjects appeared the chief study of Titus; and it was upon reflecting that he had performed no useful action during one whole day that he exclaimed, Perdidi diem! (I have lost

a day !)—memorable words, which the Christian wayfarer need not blush to remember. He pardoned two senators who had plotted against his life; and when many towns were destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius, his attention to his destitute subjects was that of a tender parent. The Romans, however, did not long enjoy the blessing of so benevolent a prince: he was seized suddenly with a fever, and having been put, by the advice of his brother Domitian, into a snow bath, death ensued.

CHIEF EVENTS.

Destruction of Pompeii. This city, Agricola in Britain. Agricola, the near Naples, was covered by an erup-father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, tion of matter from Vesuvius, 79, at in the year 80, as governor of Britain, the same time that Herculaneum, in completed the work which Cæsar had its neighbourhood, was overwhelmed. begun, and wholly subjugated the The former having suffered rather from country. He first discovered it to be loose ashes than boiling lava, has been an island, and built a line of forts becleared to a great extent in recent tween the rivers Clyde and Forth, to years; and the fact of an ancient Ro- keep out the Picts and Scots, whom man town being brought to light un- the Roman general, Galgacus, had injured, save as regards the roofs of recently defeated on the Grampian buildings, may be registered among hills. Domitian, when he became the remarkable events of the eighteenth emperor, alarmed at the reports he century. Pompeii, as well as Herculaneum, had Hercules for its founder; and received its name from the pompa, or procession of the heads of Geryon, which were annually paraded through

its streets.

received of the equity and success of his lieutenant, ordered him home, and directed him to enter Rome by night, that he might not receive a triumph.

EMINENT PERSON.

Pliny the Elder fell a sacrifice in the tacle which had not been displayed in eruption which covered Pompeii. the memory of man, he approached Being in command of the Roman the mountain too closely, and was fleet at Misenum, he was astonished suffocated by the sulphureous vapours. at perceiving a cloud of dust and His natural history, though inelegant, ashes suddenly darken the atmosphere; is yet, as a storehouse of informaand setting sail, found Vesuvius had tion swept from all sources, a very burst forth. Anxious to view a spec- curious and valuable work.

SECTION VIII.

DOMITIAN CÆSAR, EMPEROR OF ROME.

81 TO 96-15 YEARS.

Domitian, the brother of Titus, affected to be so tender in disposition at the opening of his reign, that he would not permit oxen to be sacrificed to the gods. He presided in the courts of justice to insure impartial decisions, patronized learning, and showed a desire to benefit his people. But the mask was soon laid aside, and, like Nero, he must be regarded henceforth as insane. He grievously persecuted the Christians; commanded himself to be addressed as

a god; passed days together in catching flies; and once assembled the august senate to ask them how a turbot should be dressed. He was assassinated by Stephanus, one of his courtiers, at the age of forty-five.

CHIEF EVENTS.

used to denote the whole city of Rome. Second Christian Persecution began 93; and Domitian was glad to involve several senators, that he might seize their estates. Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, was crucified; St. John the evangelist, boiled in oil; Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens, was beheaded; and Timothy, the favourite of St. Paul, and bishop of Ephesus, while reproving the Greeks for celebrating a heathen feast, was beaten to

The Capitoline Games were instituted by Domitian at Rome, 86, with sacrifices to Jupiter. in commemoration of the saving of the capitol at the time of the Gallic invasion. This celebrated citadel and temple, the bulwark of Rome, whose roofs were of gold, and whose treasures of vessels and shields were immense, was rebuilt by Domitian, after its destruction by fire; and he rendered it still more magnificent than before. The word capitol has often been emphatically death with clubs.

EMINENT PERSONS.

St. John the Evangelist was banished | Providence in all events; and strongly by Domitian to Patmos, one of the opposed the right of man to commit Cyclades, to dig in the mines, after suicide. The chief remains of Epichaving been thrown into a caldron of tetus are to be found in his Enchiriboiling oil without receiving injury. dion and Dissertations, published by He wrote his Revelation in Patmos, Arrian, his disciple. His memory was but his Gospel at Ephesus, 97; the so highly prized, that the few articles latter of which he composed to prove of furniture he possessed were purour Lord's divinity, which the Gnos- chased with avidity; the earthen lamp tics had called in question. John was by which he studied selling for a sum eminently the object of our Lord's re-equal to 90l. sterling.

gard and confidence, and the disciple Quintilian, the rhetorician, left his whom he loved. More Hebrew native Spain for Rome, and was phrases and idioms, arising from his appointed preceptor to the two princes Hebrew extraction, are found in his whom Domitian appointed his sucGreek than in that of the other evange- cessors. His Institutions is the most lists. He died, aged ninety, at Ephesus. perfect system of oratory extant; in Epictetus, the stoic philosopher, was the twelve books of which he plans born in Asia Minor; and going early the education of an orator from the in life to Rome, was slave to Nero's cradle. freedman, Epaphroditus. When Domitian published his edict for the departure of all philosophers from Rome, he retired to Nicopolis, in Epirus, where he died. He made wisdom to consist in continence and patience; and his constant precept was bear and forbear.' His doctrine was divested of many of the stoic extravagances: he maintained the immortality of the soul; taught submission to the will of

Martial, the epigrammatist, was born in Spain, and made tribune by Domitian; but as Trajan took little notice of him, he returned to his native land, and passed the remainder of his life in poverty, which was occasionally alleviated by the bounty of Pliny the younger. His epigrams are a compound of wit, talent, and indelicacy, and have been the foundation of many similar productions.