Plutarch urges the highest intellectual culture for women; and, says Lecky:

"Intellectual culture was much diffused among them, and we meet with noble instances of large and accomplished minds united with all the

gracefulness of intense

womanhood and all the fidelity of the truest love. . . . The story of Brutus' Portia is preserved by Shakspere, and more fully in Plutarch. The wife of Seneca desired to die with her husband. When Paetus, a noble Roman, was ordered by Nero to put himself to death, his friends knew that his wife Arria, with her love and her heroic fervor, would not survive him. Her son-inlaw tried to dissuade her from suicide by saying: If I am called upon to perish, would you wish your daughter to die with me?' She answered, Yes, if she has then lived with you as long and happily as I with Paetus.' Paetus for a moment hesitated

to strike the fatal blow, but Arria, taking the dagger, plunged it deeply into her breast, and then, dying, handed it to her husband, exclaiming, 'My Paetus, it does not pain!'"'

496. Charity. Public and private charity abounded. Homes for poor children were established. Wealthy men loaned money below the regular rate of interest, and provided free medicine for the poor. Tacitus tells how, after a great acci

dent near Rome, the rich opened their houses and gave their wealth to relieve the sufferers. (See also § 459 b 2.)

Literature for the first time

497. Kindness to Animals. abounds in tender interest in animal life. Cato in the days of the "virtuous Republic" had advised selling old or infirm slaves; Plutarch in the "degenerate Empire" could never bring himself to sell an ox in its old age. We find protests even against hunting; and severe punishments were inflicted for wanton cruelty to animals. There seems little doubt that animals under the pagan Empire were better treated than in Southern Europe to-day. The gladiatorial games continued, it is true. The populace could not be deprived of them, and even the gentle ladies of fashionable society patronized them. They were defended by arguments like those used for bullfights, bear baiting, cockfighting, and the prize ring, in later times; but at last critics began to be heard, as never in republican days, and Marcus Aurelius for his time made the combats harmless by compelling the use of blunted swords. Moreover, strange as the fact is, it is true beyond doubt — so strong is fashion even in the field of morals - that the passion for these inhuman games was not inconsistent with humanity in other respects.

498. Slavery grew milder.- Emancipation became so common that six years is estimated as the average duration of domestic slavery. The horrible story of Pollio, a Roman noble who threw a slave alive to the lampreys in a fish pond. for carelessly breaking a precious vessel, is often given as typical. It belongs in any case to the very beginning of the Empire, while there was yet no check in law upon a master; but even then, Augustus, by a stretch of humane despotism, ordered all the tableware in Pollio's house to be broken and his fish ponds to be filled up. Evidently this means that such a master was socially ostracised. In Nero's time a special judge

1 Read Lecky, II. 165.

was appointed to hear slaves' complaints and to punish cruelties to them, and Seneca tells us that cruel masters were jeered in the streets. Law began to protect the slave directly also by imperial edicts, and his condition steadily improved.1

499. Sympathies Broadened. The philosophers taught the brotherhood of man; and even the rabble in the Roman theater, we are told, were wont to applaud the line of Terence: "I am a man; no calamity that can affect any man is without meaning to me." The age prided itself, justly, upon its enlightened humanity, much as our own does. Trajan instructed a governor not to act upon anonymous accusations, because such conduct "does not belong to our age."

500. The Gentler Spirit of Imperial Law. -The result of this broader humanity not only showed in society at large, but, more important to us, it was crystallized in the Roman law.2 The harsh law of the Republic became humane. Women and children shared its protection. Torture was limited. The rights of the accused were better recognized. From this time. dates the maxim, "Better to let the guilty escape than to punish the innocent." "All men by the law of nature are equal," became a law maxim through the great jurist Ulpian — a phrase that was to work political revolutions in distant ages. At the time it had a practical consequence. Slavery, argued Ulpian, existed only by the lower artificial law. Hence in all unproven cases, the benefit of the doubt was given to the man claimed as a slave.3

-

501. Scepticism and Religion. The masses of the people remained, as always, sincerely devout. The upper classes were sceptical scoffers in the last days of the Republic, and Cicero

1 Lecky, I. 303–308.

2 Read Lecky, I. 294–297, and Curteis, 17. Hadley, Roman Law, Lectures II. and III., and Gibbon, ch. xliv., give longer discussions.

3 It is curious to remember that the presumption was just the other way in nearly all Christian countries through the Middle Ages, and in the United States under the Fugitive Slave Laws from 1793 to the Civil War.

wondered how two augurs could meet without laughing in each other's faces. This tendency continued through the first century A.D., but seems to have given way after that to a revival of religious feeling and to a more devout tone in philosophy.

502. The Change in Moral Standards due in Part to Despotism. "That effeminacy fell upon men which always infects them when they live under the rule of an all-powerful soldiery. But with effeminacy there came in time a development of the feminine virtues. Men ceased to be adventurous, patriotic, just, magnanimous; but in exchange they became chaste, tender-hearted, loyal, religious, capable of infinite endurance in a good cause." "-SEELEY, Roman Imperialism, 33.

G. EXTRACTS TO SHOW THE HIGHER PAGAN MORALITY.

503. From the Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius : —

Aurelius thanks the gods "for a good grandfather, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, and good friends."

"From my mother I learned piety, and abstinence not only from evil deeds but from evil thoughts." From a tutor "... not to credit miracle workers and jugglers, with their incantations and driving away of demons; . . . to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book."

"There are briers in the road? Then turn aside from them, but do not add, Why were such things made?' Thou wilt be ridiculed by a man who is acquainted with nature, as thou wouldst be by a carpenter or shoemaker if thou didst complain that there were shavings and cuttings in his shop."

"All that is from the gods is full of providence."

"On every vexation apply this principle: This is not a misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune."

"The best way to avenge thyself is not to become like the wrongdoer."

"When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those who live with thee."

"Love men; revere the gods." [Does not this come near 'the two commandments'?].

"As emperor I am a Roman, but as a man my city is the world." "Think of thyself as a member of the great human body, — else thou dost not love men from thy heart."

"Suppose that men curse thee, or kill thee . . . if a man stand by a

pure spring and curse it, the spring does not cease to send up wholesome

"To say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and all that belongs to the soul is a dream and a vapor; life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion. What then is there about which we ought seriously to employ ourselves? This one thing-just thoughts and social acts, words that do not lie, and temper which accepts gladly all that happens."

"Why then dost thou not wait in tranquillity for thy end, whether it be extinction or removal to another life? And until that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to practice tolerance and self-restraint." "Everything harmonizes with me which is harmonious to thee, O Universe! Nothing is too early or too late which is in due time for thee! Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature! From thee are all things, in thee are all things; to thee all things return. The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops; and shall not I say, Dear city of Zeus?" "Many grains of frankincense upon the same altar; one falls before, another after; but it makes no difference."

"Pass through this little space of time conformably to Nature, and end thy journey in content-just as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing Nature who produced it and thanking the tree on which it grew."

"What is it to me to live in a universe if devoid of gods. But in truth gods do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put the means in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evil."

"It is sweet to live if there be gods, and sad to die if there be none." 1

504. From Epictetus:

"He is unreasonable who is grieved at things which happen from the necessity of nature."

Nothing is smaller than love of pleasure and love of gain and pride. Nothing is superior to magnanimity and gentleness and love of mankind and beneficence."

"What we ought not to do we should not even think of doing."

"No man is free who is not master of himself."

"Think of God more frequently than you breathe."

66

Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress."

"If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad."

1 Read Watson's Marcus Aurelius, or Matthew Arnold's, in Essays in Criticism, First Series.