306
CONDITION OK THE EMPIKE.
conscious of it. His reign, forms a great epoch in the history of
the Roman empire. There is much in his plans that may be
censured; but his success is a testimony to his ability, which is
manifest throughout his reign, and in all he did. The period
which begins with his accession is one of great recovery, though
perhaps not of happiness, and lasted for nearly a century, from
A.D. 286 to the battle of Adrianople, A.d. 378. During that
period, the empire recovered greatly from its previous
sufferings, notwithstanding many unfavourable circumstances :
the government became secured to one dynasty, and the
general introduction of Christianity was facilitated. The
recovery was owing in some measure to the circumstance, that
the fearful plague, which had so long ravaged the empire, had
begun to decrease in the time of Probus. It had made its
first appearance in the reign of M-Aurelius and L. Verus; it
did not, however, then devastate all parts of the empire, for
we see from Tertullian, that, in the reign of Septimius Severus,
Africa was free from it. Even up to about the middle of the
third century it had not become very important; but the real
and fearful plague began in the reign of Decius, that is, from
A. D. 249. During the ravages then made by the barbarians,
it spread over all parts of the empire; it now also raged in
Africa and Egypt, and became permanent. Claudius Gothicus
died of the plague at Sirmium, A.D. 270; and under Gallienus
and Valerian it raged so fearfully that 2000 persons are said to
have been carried off at Rome in one day. Gibbonτ quotes an
interesting statement of Dionysius of Alexandria, which is
preserved in Euscbius8, but which Gibbon does not interpret
quite correctly. Dionysius, who was then bishop of Alexandria,
mentions that, after the cessation of the plague, the number of
people at Alexandria, between the ages of fourteen and seventy,
was not greater than the previous number of people between
the ages of forty and seventy. Gibbon infers from this state-
ment that above half of the inhabitants of Alexandria had
perished ; but the real proportion is nearly that of two to one,
so that only one third of the population survived.
7 Hist, of the Decline and Dalti chap. x. in ihι.
fi Histor. Eccles, vii.21.
state of Litekature .
307
LECTURE CXXIX.
After the cessation of the plague the empire was suffering
from general distress, and its condition was very much like
that which succeeded the black death in the middle ages.
When the calamity ceased, says Villani, the contemporary
historian, people expected to have everything in abundance;
but instead of this there prevailed general distress and famine,
it being impossible to cultivate the fields. In addition to
these consequences of the plague, the countries between the
Danube and Gaul were overrun by swarms of barbarians.
Talent and art had become extinct in the same degree as the
world had become desolate. The pagans charged the Christians
with being the cause of the decline of literature; and St.
Cyprian, whose last writings belong to the first part of that
period, makes no answer to the charge, for he knew well that
such an answer would have produced no effect; his remarkable
work against Dcmetrianus openly admits the gradual spread of
barbarism. In the middle of the third century, intellectual
culture still prevailed in the western parts of the empire; and
we meet with a highly talented Roman poet. Jurisprudence
then reached its highest logical development, and juristical
works were written in an excellent style. But during the latter
half of that century, the western world sank into manifest
barbarity, which continued till the time of Constantine. The
barbarous character of art had commenced as early as the time
of Septimius Severus, and the Onlybranch that still maintained
itself in some degree was the art of making busts. The poem
of Ncmesianus on hunting (Cynegetica), and the Eclogae
of Calpurnius, who lived under Macrinus, shew that poetry
was then nothing more than verse-making. Prose did not
exist at all. Arnobius, the author of the work “ Adversus
Gcntes,” is one of the earliest Christian writers in the Latin
language. He is very interesting, and his learning is of con-
siderable value to us; but there is nothing original about him.
Lactantius, who lived in the time of Constantine, adopted
completely the style of Cicero, whom he reproduced in form,
just as Curtius had reproduced Livy. He is a very important
writer, even if wo look at him apart from his character as a
theological author; but he is the only writer of that pιriod
X 2