settles down to a marriage of reason. This mood, though contented, is not creative. The great poets
of the Augustan age had been formed in more troubled times; Horace fled at Philippi, and both he
and Vergil lost their farms in confiscations for the benefit of victorious soldiers. Augustus, for the
sake of stability, set to work, somewhat insincerely, to restore ancient piety, and was therefore
necessarily rather hostile to free inquiry. The Roman world began to become stereotyped, and the
process continued under later emperors.
The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards Senators and
towards possible competitors for the purple. To some extent, the misgovernment of this period
extended to the provinces; but in the main the administrative machine created by Augustus
continued to function fairly well.
A better period began with the accession of Trajan in A.D. 98, and continued until the death of
Marcus Aurelius in A.D. 180. During this time, the government of the Empire was as good as any
despotic government can be. The third century, on the contrary, was one of appalling disaster. The
army realized its power, made and unmade emperors in return for cash and the promise of a life
without warfare, and ceased, in consequence, to be an effective fighting force. The barbarians,
from north and east, invaded and plundered Roman territory. The army, preoccupied with private
gain and civil discord, was incompetent in defence. The whole fiscal system broke down, since
there was an immense diminution of resources and, at the same time, a vast increase of
expenditure in unsuccessful war and in bribery of the army. Pestilence, in addition to war, greatly
diminished the population. It seemed as if the Empire was about to fall.
This result was averted by two energetic men, Diocletian ( A.D. 286-305) and Constantine, whose
undisputed reign lasted from A.D. 312 to 337. By then the Empire was divided into an eastern and
a western half, corresponding, approximately, to the division between the Greek and Latin
languages. By Constantine the capital of the eastern half was established at Byzantium, to which
he gave the new name of Constantinople. Diocletian curbed the army, for a while, by altering its
character; from his time onwards, the most effective fighting forces were composed of barbarians,
chiefly German, to whom all the highest commands were open. This was obviously a dangerous
expedient, and early in the fifth century it bore its natural