the long line that had to be guarded by the sword, and little strength was gained to the empire.

474. The Extreme Limits, and the First Surrenders. - Trajan, with more provocation than that which had lured Claudius into Britain, added Dacia north of the lower Danube, and Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, in Asia. The two latter were at once abandoned by his successor. Dacia, however, even more than Britain, became Roman in speech, culture, and largely in blood; and though its military protection was aban

doned by Aurelian in the weak period toward the close of the third century (§ 461), still the modern Roumanians there claim to be Roman in race as well as in name. Britain was the next province to be given up, when the frontier began to crumble in earnest in the next great period of decay ($ 591).

475. Frontier Walls. Since the attempt had failed to secure the great mountain barrier of Bohemia for part of the northern frontier, Domitian wisely constructed an artificial rampart to join the upper Danube to the upper Rhine. This great fortification was three hundred and thirty-six miles in length, with frequent forts and castles. Better known, however, is the

similar work constructed shortly after in Britain, called Hadrian's wall. Its purpose was to help shut out the wild Picts of the north. It extended from the Tyne to the Solway, and considerable remains still exist. Under Antoninus, a like structure was made farther north, just at the foot of the abrupt highlands, from the Clyde to the Forth.

FOR FURTHER READING. An excellent map and description of Hadrian's wall is given in Bury's Student's Empire, 502. See also Gardiner's Student's History of England.

On Division II. in general, see, especially, Capes and Bury.

IV. SOCIETY IN THE FIRST TWO CENTURIES.1
A. PEACE AND PROSPERITY.2

476. The Good Roman Peace. - The year 69 A.D. (§ 458) is the only break in the quiet of the first two centuries - for the revolts of Boadicea in Britain (58 A.D.) and of Hermann are really frontier wars. The rebellion of Civilis on the Gallic side of the Rhine was connected with the disorders of the year 69, and the national rebellion of the Jews (§ 459) began at that same time; and both these, to the empire at large, were trivial disturbances. Even in the third century, when the legions were incessantly warring among themselves in behalf of their favorite commanders, vast regions of the empire were uninterested and undisturbed. All in all, an area as large as the United States, with a population of one hundred millions, rested in the good Roman peace for nearly four hundred years. Never, before or since, has so large a part of the world known such unbroken rest from the horrors and waste of war. Few troops were seen within the empire, and "the distant crash of arms upon the Euphrates or the Danube scarcely disturbed the tranquillity of the Mediterranean lands."

1 The society of the third century is treated in Division IV.

2 Besides the specific references in the text below, see Gibbon, ch. ii.; Capes; Freeman's Flavian Emperors, in Second Series of Historical Essays; Watson's Aurelius; Thomas' Roman Life; Pellison's Roman Life.

3 Special report.

477. Good Government, even by Bad Emperors. The Caesars at Rome were often weak or wicked, but their follies or crimes were felt for the most part only by the nobles of the capital. The imperial system became so strong that, save in minor details, the world moved along the same lines whether a mad Caligula or a philanthropic Aurelius sat upon the throne. Indeed, some of the most notable advances in government were made under the worst men— a Tiberius, a Nero, or a Caracalla.

"To the Roman city the Empire was political death; to the provinces it was the beginning of new life. . . . It was not without good reason that the provincials raised their altars to more than one prince for whom the citizens, also not without good reason, sharpened their daggers." FREEMAN, Chief Periods, 69.

...

"It was in no mean spirit of flattery that the provincials raised statues and altars to the Emperors, to some even of the vilest who have ever ruled. . . . The people knew next to nothing of their vices and follies, and thought of them chiefly as the symbol of the ruling Providence which throughout the civilized world, had silenced war and faction and secured the blessings of prosperity and peace, before unknown." - CAPES, Early Empire, 202.

478. Prosperity of the First Two Centuries. The reign of the Antonines (§ 459 b 4 and 5) has been called the "golden age of humanity." Gibbon believed that a man, if allowed his choice, would prefer to have lived then rather than at any other period of the world's history. Mommsen adds his authority:

"In its sphere, which those who belonged to it were not far wrong in regarding as the world, the Empire fostered the peace and prosperity of the many nations united under its sway longer and more completely than any other leading power has ever succeeded in doing. . . . And if an angel of the Lord were to strike a balance whether the domain ruled by Severus Antoninus was governed with the greater intelligence and greater humanity at that time or in the present day, whether civilization and national prosperity generally have since that time advanced or retrograded, it is very doubtful whether the decision would prove in favor of the present."-MOMMSEN, Provinces, 5.

The roads were safe; piracy ceased from the seas, and trade flourished as it was not to flourish again for a thousand years.

The ports were crowded with shipping, and the Mediterranean was spread with happy sails. An immense traffic flowed ceaselessly between Europe and Central Asia along three great arteries: one in the north by the Black Sea and by caravan (along the line of the present Russian trans-Caspian railway); one on the south by Suez and the Red Sea; one by caravan across Arabia, where, amid the sands, arose white-walled Palmyra, Queen of the Desert. From frontier to frontier, communication was safe and rapid. The grand military and post roads ran in great trunk-lines a thousand miles at a stretch — from every frontier toward the central heart of the empire, with a dense network of ramifications in every province. Guide books described routes and distances, and inns abounded. The imperial couriers that hurried along the great highways passed a hundred or a hundred and fifty milestones a day; and private travel, from the Thames to the Euphrates, was swifter, safer, and more comfortable than again until well into the nineteenth century. Everywhere rude stockaded villages changed into stately marts of trade, huts into palaces, footpaths into paved Roman roads. Roman irrigation made part of the African desert the garden of the world; and desolate ruins of that prosperity mock the traveler of to-day from the drifting sands.2 In Gaul, Caesar found no real towns; in the third century that province had one hundred and sixteen flourishing cities, with their baths, temples, amphitheaters, works of art, roads, aqueducts, and schools of eloquence and rhetoric.

479. Forms of Industry. of the throbbing, busy life of the empire. Plainly it was a city life; equally plain it is, that it rested on agriculture as the chief wealth-producing industry. We are to think of a few great cities, like Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, with

- It is difficult to re-create an image

1 On trade routes to China, advanced students may see Bury's Gibbon, IV. Appendix, p. 534 ff.

2 Under French rule North Africa, in the last of the nineteenth century, began to recover its Roman prosperity after a lapse of fifteen hundred years.