Christianity cannot be Stated as a System Relation to the Fourth Gospel; Analogies of Method Sonship's Sacrifice unto Attainment Christ's Teachings; the "Beatitudes' . It must needs be that Offenses Come The Judgment of Omniscient Love Render unto Cæsar; Be Ye Perfect; Resist not Evil; Judge not "This is Life Eternal that They should Know Thee' Sanctify Them in the Truth"; The Way to Christ: Discipleship through Love . Dilemmas of the Flesh and Life Eternal Its Final Revelation to the Disciples: Husbandman, Vine, and The Gospels and the Rest of the New Testament Deflections from the Universality of Christ; James PAGE Resurrection and Eternal Life ; Two Aspects of Christ's Teaching 317 THE ROMAN World and CHRISTIANITY. The New Era; The Broader Humanity Justice; Self-Advantage The Impiousness of Divine Self-Sacrifice The Stumbling-Block of Reason The Gospel, Real, Absolute, Universal, Sure Elements of Pagan Responsiveness: The Appeal to the Pagan Paganism and the East The Universality of a Religion Christianity; Its Inclusiveness of Previous Thought God and Fate; The Sphere of Man's Desires The Final Universality of Christianity: Love The Greek Unison: Conduct; Art; Philosophy The Sundering of Life The Great Shortcoming; The Pale Hope; The Last Failure Conscience The Opposition Roused; Christians Hated by Jews and as Jews. 350 The Nocturnal Meetings; The Christians Atheists Attitude of the Roman Government; Christianity Illegal Modes of Proceeding against It: Pliny's Letter . The Course of Persecution: Its Reasons Christian Misunderstanding of Them. Imperial Jealousy of Corporate Organization 374 ANCIENT IDEALS. CHAPTER XIV. THE EMPIRE : THE PUBLIC HOPE. THE The Situation. HE last century of the Republic had shown what was to become of Rome when she had no one to fear. With Carthage still a menace across the sea, with Macedonia on her northeast border unsubdued, Rome's rich and poor, Rome's noble few and vulgar crowd, had need to keep from civil strife. After the conclusion of the Punic and Macedonian wars, Roman political self-control passed away with portentous rapidity. In the tumults. resulting in the deaths of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, Rome first tasted civil blood. Soon came the Cimbri peril, making a temporary party truce. Then civil broils broke out again, hardly to be stifled by the pressure of the Italian revolt. Rome's Italian subjects were not pacified when Sulla marched on Rome and Marius fled. And after that came bloody civil war. While Sulla was in the East, fighting Mithridates, Marius and the popular party slaughtered their foes at Rome. Then came the Sullan return and Sullan vengeance, with a re-establishment of an effete oligarchy over the prostrate democratic Titan. Meanwhile there was a noble youth at Rome who was to attain to democratic leadership, which, under existing conditions, could be secure only as democratic dicta VOL. 11-1 I torship. He finally in civil war overthrew the senatorial party and changed the Republic to a monarchy. At his death, once more by civil war the Romans proved their incapacity for self-government, and again demonstrated, this time for all the centuries to come, that the only political question henceforth to arise at Rome was what man should rule the Roman world. This was clear before Actium was fought between the two recognized rulers of the halves of that world, to decide who should rule the whole. Rome had had a century of civil strife, half of which had been open civil war; now, for a century there was to be no further civil war or civil strife. The family of the Cæsars ruled, till it was discovered that Roman emperors could be made elsewhere than at Rome. After Actium, as indeed before, men longed only for peace. The violence, the vivida vis, of the Republic had spent itself in blood. Few men of note survived. Pompey and Cæsar had fallen by treachery, and no one of Cæsar's murderers escaped a violent death; they had fallen on their own or others' swords. Before Cæsar's death, Curio was slain in Africa; there Cato ended life. Pharsalia, Thapsus, Munda, cut off many. The proscriptions cleared away the rest. Cicero's head and hands were nailed above the rostra, and at last his murderer, Antony, fell on his sword in Egypt. After Cæsarion was dispatched, Octavius might copy the clemency of Julius, for few malcontents were left worth killing, certainly none to be feared. The Roman world, exhauste by the civil wars, desired only to be ruled in peace. Julius Cæsar never showed greater knowledge of men than in selecting and educating his great-nephew to succeed him. The young Octavius' education Octavius. included the usual curriculum; the Dictator's part consisted in having it conducted largely in camp among the soldiers. Thereby Octavius might become accustomed to managing them, and they might learn to know and care for him as one brought up among them |
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