And if this one fact
were all that had survived of the public annals at this period, we might
sufficiently collect the situation of the two other parties in the empire
--the army and the imperator; the weakness and precarious tenure of the
one, and the anarchy of the other. And hence it is that we can explain the
hatred borne to the senate by vigorous emperors, such as Aurelian,
succeeding to a long course of weak and troubled reigns. Such an emperor
presumed in the senate, and not without reason, that same spirit of
domineering interference as ready to manifest itself, upon any opportunity
offered, against himself, which, in his earlier days, he had witnessed so
repeatedly in successful operation upon the fates and prospects of others.
The situation indeed of the world--that is to say, of that great centre of
civilization, which, running round the Mediterranean in one continuous
belt of great breadth, still composed the Roman Empire, was at this time
most profoundly interesting. The crisis had arrived. In the East, a new
dynasty (the Sassanides) had remoulded ancient elements into a new form,
and breathed a new life into an empire, which else was gradually becoming
crazy from age, and which, at any rate, by losing its unity, must have
lost its vigor as an offensive power.
Pages:
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298