Story of the Greek and the Roman People

THE ROMAN FORUM IN THE TIME OF NERO.

After the fire the city was rebuilt. Money and treasures and statues of the gods were taken from the temples or wherever they could be found, whether in the provinces or in Italy itself, and brought to Rome to beautify the new city. Nero built himself a magnificent house with a portico a mile long. Its vestibule was lofty enough to give room to a statue of the emperor one hundred and twenty feet high. His banqueting room had pipes by which perfumes might be showered over the guests, and the ceiling was so curiously made that at a touch flowers were scattered among them. Everything was crusted with gems and mother-of-pearl. Around the house stretched vine-yards and woods and fields and pools so beautifully laid out and giving such extensive views that the historian Tacitus declared they were more wonderful than the buildings. Nero called his dwelling his Golden House. When it was finished, he boasted that at last he had a home that was fit for a man to live in.

HEAD OF NERO (IN THE CAPITOLINE MUSEUM, ROME)

Nero grew worse and worse—if a man as bad as he could grow any worse. Plots were formed against him, and he put Seneca to death on the charge of having joined in one of them. The armies in the provinces revolted, the praetorian guard refused to protect him, and finally the senate decreed that he should be scourged to death. When he heard of this, he took his own life.

Who should be made emperor? There were no more of the family of Caesar, and any one who had influence enough might hope to win the prize. The troops in Spain declared that Galba, their general, should rule, and the senate thought it wise to agree with them. But in Rome there was one Otho who was a favorite with the praetorian guard. He hoped to be adopted by Galba and to succeed him. Galba adopted some one else; then the guard killed him and proclaimed Otho emperor.

This was satisfactory to the army in the East; but the army in Gaul and Spain declared that their general Vitellius should become emperor. Part of Vitellius's army were on their way back to Italy. They met Otho and defeated him, and he took his own life. Vitellius was then in power; but there was also an army in Syria to be pleased. They claimed the throne for their general, Vespasian, and at length Vitellius was put to death and Vespasian was made emperor.

JERUSALEM TAKEN BY TITUS.

Vespasian was an honest old soldier who meant to do his best for the Romans. He had no easy position, for Rome was in disorder, there was a revolt in the region of the Rhine, and there was war in Judaea. He set to work first to make Rome orderly. He paid sincere respect to the senate, he lived simply and reasonably, and he saw to it that the laws were obeyed. He suppressed the revolt of the Gauls. The war in Judaea he left for his son Titus to carry on. Titus besieged Jerusalem. Though, the Jews fought to the last to defend their temple and the Holy City, the Romans were victorious. The Jewish historian Josephus had fought Vespasian boldly, but had returned to Rome with him and received pardon. He went back to Jerusalem and tried his best to persuade his countrymen to surrender, but they would not. Afterward he wrote an account of the sufferings of the people and the capture of the city which is almost too terrible to read. The wonderful temple, its front covered with plates of gold of amazing weight and of such brilliancy that no one could look at it when the light shone upon it at sunrise, fell into the hands of the Romans. They took what they would, then set to work to destroy the city. Three towers were left to show the strength of the fortifications that the Romans had demolished, then all that remained was so completely overthrown that, as Josephus wrote, no one would have known it had ever been inhabited. It is thought that one million of Jews perished. Those that were left were scattered through many countries.

The soldier emperor had a care also for the things of the mind. The famous Quintilian taught rhetoric and oratory in Rome, and Vespasian was so pleased with bib teaching that he gave him a salary from the imperial treasury. Quintilian had a little son whom he dearly loved, and his best work is a book about oratory which he composed for the boy to read when he should be old enough. The child died, and Quintilian wrote piteously, "What shall I do? I have lost the only comfort of my declining years."

In the tumults before Vespasian was firmly seated upon the throne, the temple on the Capitoline Hill had been destroyed. He rebuilt it, and also a new forum. He began the most prodigious structure of all ancient times, the Flavian amphitheatre, in which hunts of wild beasts and gladiatorial fights were to be shown. This was afterwards called the Colosseum, because of its vast size. Vespasian died before it was completed, leaving the empire to his son Titus.

THE RUINS OF THE COLOSSEUM.

Titus, too, was a builder. One of his most famous structures was a magnificent bathhouse. Among the Romans of this age, bathing was made a luxurious pleasure, and the bathhouses were immense buildings sometimes more than a quarter of a mile in length. They were adorned with statues, often made by the greatest sculptors. There were stately columns, walls faced with precious marbles and adorned with the richest of mosaics. Seneca said of them, "We are dissatisfied if we do not tread on gems in our baths." The bath itself was much like the present "Turkish "bath; and as the house was large enough to admit several thousand, it required a vast number of apartments. But this was only the beginning, for there were libraries, rooms for exercising, for resting, for conversing with one's friends, and halls in which a poet or an orator might find an audience. It was an immense casino, a "gigantic clubhouse," as it has been called. There was often a stadium for games with raised seats for spectators; there were long colonnades and beautiful grounds with fountains and shady walks where the bathers might stroll about as they would. It was during these times that the poet Juvenal wrote of the earlier days of Rome:

"It was not then a Roman's anxious thought

Where largest tortoise-shells were to be bought,

Where pearls might of the greatest price be had,

And shining jewels to adorn his bed,

That he at vast expense might loll his head.

Plain was his couch, and only rich his mind;

Contentedly he slept, as cheaply as he dined."

PAPYRUS MANUSCRIPT FOUND AT HERCULANEUM.