of calculation adapted to state purposes, political and utilitarian, but at the same time solemn,
earnest, and energetic. "The Romans had no love of beauty, like the Greeks. They held no
communion with nature, like the Germans. Their one idea was Rome—not ancient, fabulous,
poetical Rome, but Rome warring and conquering; and orbis terrarum domina. S. P. Q. R.is inscribed
on almost every page of their literature."^78
The Romans from the first believed themselves called to govern the world. They looked
upon all foreigners—not as barbarians, like the cultured Greeks, but—as enemies to be conquered
and reduced to servitude. War and triumph were their highest conception of human glory and
happiness. The "Tu, regere imperio populos, Romane, memento!"had been their motto, in fact, long
before Virgil thus gave it form. The very name of the urbs aeterna, and the characteristic legend
of its founding, prophesied its future. In their greatest straits the Romans never for a moment
despaired of the commonwealth. With vast energy, profound policy, unwavering consistency, and
wolf-like rapacity, they pursued their ambitious schemes, and became indeed the lords, but also,
as their greatest historian, Tacitus, says, the insatiable robbers of the world.^79
Having conquered the world by the sword, they organized it by law, before whose majesty
every people had to bow, and beautified it by the arts of peace. Philosophy, eloquence, history, and
poetry enjoyed a golden age under the setting sun of the republic and the rising sun of the empire,
and extended their civilizing influence to the borders of barbarianism. Although not creative in
letters and fine arts, the Roman authors were successful imitators of Greek philosophers, orators,
historians, and poets. Rome was converted by Augustus from a city of brick huts into a city of
marble palaces.^80 The finest paintings and sculptures were imported from Greece, triumphal arches
and columns were erected on public places, and the treasures of all parts of the world were made
tributary to, the pride, beauty, and luxury of the capital. The provinces caught the spirit of
improvement, populous cities sprung up, and the magnificent temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt by
the ambitious extravagance of Herod. The rights of persons and property were well protected. The
conquered nations, though often and justly complaining of the rapacity of provincial governors,
yet, on the whole, enjoyed greater security against domestic feuds and foreign invasion, a larger
share of social comfort, and rose to a higher degree of secular civilization. The ends of the empire
were brought into military, commercial, and literary communication by carefully constructed roads,
the traces of which still exist in Syria, on the Alps, on the banks of the Rhine. The facilities and
security of travel were greater in the reign of the Caesars than in any subsequent period before the
nineteenth century. Five main lines went out from Rome to the extremities of the empire, and were
connected at seaports with maritime routes. "We may travel," says a Roman writer, "at all hours,
and sail from east to west." Merchants brought diamonds from the East, ambers from the shores of
the Baltic, precious metals from Spain, wild animals from Africa, works of art from Greece, and
every article of luxury, to the market on the banks of the Tiber, as they now do to the banks of the
Thames. The Apocalyptic seer, in his prophetic picture of the downfall of the imperial mistress of
the world, gives prominence to her vast commerce: "And the merchants of the earth," he says,
"weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: merchandise of gold,
and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; and all(^78) Hare Guesses at Truth, p. 432 (Lond. ed. 1867).
(^79) Raptores orbis, quos non oriens, non occidens satiaverit."
(^80) So the nephew of the modern Caesar transformed Parisinto a city of straight and broad streets and magnificent palaces.
A.D. 1-100.