Where are thy splendors, Dorian Corinth? Where The high-born dames, the myriad multitudes? We, the sad nereids, offspring of the surge, ANTIPATER OF SIDON. Where is thy grandeur, Corinth? Shrunk from sight Achæan Acrocorinth, the bright star Of Hellas, with its narrow Isthmian bound, BYRON. POLYSTRATUS. Tr. Merivale. Ay, Paul denounced, and Mummius wrapped in flame, The cup was full, the bolt of ruin came, BYRON. Three most remarkable triumphs, therefore, were celebrated at Rome at the same time, — that of Scipio for Africa, before whose chariot Hasdrubal was led; that of Metellus for Macedonia, before whose chariot walked Andriscus (also called Pseudo-Philip); and that of Mummius for Corinth, before whom brazen statues, pictures, and other ornaments of that celebrated city were carried. — EuTROPIUS IN the latter part of the century Rome begins the conquest of Transalpine Gaul, and also begins to interfere with the affairs of Asia, and forms of the dominions of Pergamus the province of Asia in 133–129 B. C. Nearly all of Spain becomes after 133 B. C. a Roman province. Rome has risen to the position of the one great power of the world. Rome had its heroic age: the Romans knew that they had such an age, and we may believe them. Polybius saw the end of it; he saw the destruction of Carthage and the savage sack of Corinth, and the beginning of a worse time. But he has recorded his testimony that some honesty still remained. — LONG. From Mummius to Augustus the Roman city stands as the living mistress of a dead world.-FREEMAN. The submission of Macedonia, and the fall of Corinth, Carthage, and Numantia, brought the universe to the feet of Rome. MICHELET. Rome was between two worlds. The Western was bare, poor, and barbarous, full of grass and verdure, a vast confusion of dispersed tribes; the Eastern, brilliant in arts and civilization, but weak and corrupted. The latter, in its proud ignorance, thought alone to occupy the attention and forces of the great nation. MICHELET. That city [Rome] is for sale, and will soon perish if it finds a purchaser. SALLUST. Pro pudore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute, audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant. SALLUST. The state was hastening towards its dissolution. No one thought of the republic being in danger, and the danger was indeed as yet far distant; but the seeds of dissolution were, nevertheless, sown, and its symptoms were already beginning to become visible. We hear it generally said, that, with the victories of the Romans in Asia, luxury in all the vices which accompany avarice and rapacity, began to break in upon them. This is, indeed, true enough, but it was only the symptom of corruption, and not its cause; the latter lay much deeper. After so many years of destructive and cruel wars, during which the Romans had been almost uninterruptedly in arms, the whole nation was in a frightful condition: the poor were utterly impoverished, the middle class had sunk deeper and deeper, and the wealthy had amassed immense riches. The same men who had gloriously fought under Scipio, and then marched into the rich countries of Asia as hungry soldiers, now returned with exorbitant and ill-gotten riches, — the treasures extorted from conquered nations. They had no real wants, and did not know how to use the quickly acquired riches. The Romans had grown rich, but the immediate consequence was a brutal use of their riches. - NIEBUHR. It is evident to every one whose observation is not superficial, that the Roman government during this whole period wished and desired nothing but the sovereignty of Italy; that they were simply desirous not to have too powerful neighbors alongside of them; and that, not out of humanity towards the vanquished, but from the very sound view that they ought not to suffer the kernel of their empire to be crushed by the shell, they earnestly opposed the introduction first of Africa, then of Greece, and lastly of Asia into the pale of the Roman protectorate, till circumstances in each case compelled, or at least suggested with irresistible force, the extension of that pale. MOMMSEN. In the course of this century the cause of the Plebeians as against the aristocracy was taken up by the eminent and popular statesman, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, The who sought to introduce much needed reforms. Gracchi. He was violently opposed by the oligarchy, and, with about three hundred of his supporters, was killed in the year 133 B. C. Ten years later his brother Caius attempted to renew his work, but he was also murdered by the aristocratic faction. Who can omit the Gracchi? VIRGIL. Tr. Dryden. His [Tiberius Gracchus'] immediate object was, not the enrichment or elevation of the Plebeians, but simply the restoration of the needier citizens to a state of honorable independence. · MERIVALE. His [Tiberius Gracchus'] great aim was to enforce the observance of previous laws, to correct the grave abuses of the system under which the public lands were held, and to raise up a new class of small proprietors and cultivators of the soil, who would have constituted an industrious and stable middle class to stand between the haughty nobles and the hungry populace. MAY. There never was a milder law [i. e. the Licinian, which prohibited any man from occupying more than five hundred acres of public land, and which law, with some modifications, Gracchus sought to revive] made against so much injustice and oppression. For they who deserved to have been punished for their infringement on the rights of the community were to have a consideration for giving up their groundless claims. . . . In this just and glorious cause Tiberius exerted an eloquence which might have adorned a worse subject, and which nothing could resist. - PLUTARCH. The aristocracy were foiled by the courage and patriotism of the Gracchi, who acted with that thorough faith in the truth and justice of their cause which affords the surest promise of success. The agrarian laws were carried, though their authors perished in the struggle, and these enactments proved thoroughly too intricate and impracticable to be ever executed. But, imperfectly as they were administered, their effect was still stringent and salutary. Hence the extraordinary energy which the republic displayed during the thirty years that followed. - MERIVALE. The history of Rome from the time of the Gracchi is the history of a state that was hurried to its ruin by the ignorance of the people and the vices of their leaders. We now and then meet with an honest man, but the number is small. LONG. The defeat of the Teutones by the consul, Caius Marius, in a great battle near Aquæ Sextiæ, in Gaul, in the year 102 B. C. is one of the chief events in Roman history. It saved Rome from being overthrown, not by a civilized race, but by a people who were essentially barbarous. Marius is justly entitled to rank among the most illustrious men of Rome. THE MACCABEES. It was during this century that the Jews, under the leadership of a celebrated family surnamed the Maccabees (from the Hebrew Makkab, a hammer), obtained a temporary independence. About the year 165 B. C. Judas Maccabæus won a great victory over the Syrian King Antiochus. This is the heroic period of Jewish history. [Judas Maccabæus] gat his people great honor, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt his warlike harness about him, and he made battles, protecting the host with his sword. In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey. -1 MACCABEES, iii. 3. So did not Maccabæus: he indeed And o'er a mighty king so oft prevailed, That by strong hand his family obtained, Though priests, the crown, and David's throne usurped, I saw athwart the Cross a splendor drawn MILTON. DANTE, Paradiso. Tr. Longfellow. |