The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 06

Tiberius came of that ambitious Claudian family which had enjoyed twenty-eight consulates, five dictatorships, seven censorships, and as many triumphs. The marriage of his mothe...

The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of his funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent...

The Vandals were of the Low German stock and closely allied to the Goths. We first hear of them in the time of Pliny and Tacitus as occupying a district nearly corresponding to...

Brought up in a corrupt court, in the midst of his mother’s guilty intrigues, Nero soon saw himself surrounded by flatterers apt at eulogising all his follies and excusing all h...

The fall of Nero and the accession of Galba form an important epoch in the history of the Roman Empire; for to the misfortune of a form of government, on which everything depend...

Until philosophers are kings, and the princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, cities will never cease from...

“Then battles o’er the world shall cease, Harsh times shall mellow into peace: Then Vesta, Faith, Quirinus, joined With brother Remus rule mankind: Grim iron bolt and massy bar...

“Diocletian inaugurated … the period of the Partnership Emperors. Himself borne to power by something not very unlike a mutiny of the troops on the Persian frontier, he neverthe...

In the first century of the empire the political circumstances of the world were in a deplorable condition. Power was entirely concentrated in Rome and the legions, and there th...

When Augustus entered upon secure possession of absolute power, the Roman Empire included the fairest and most famous lands on the face of the globe and all the civilised people...

Now after the great effort of reason in high places, after Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, the reign of evil begins again, and is worse than ever. Farewell t...

“Now begins the inferno of half a century (235-284), in which all philosophy, all civil order, all delicacy founders; with power put up to auction, the soldiery masters of every...

During a long and disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years, Honorius, emperor of the West, was separated from the friendship of his brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who rei...

Three or four hours of the night had not passed away without some secret cabals; and when the election of an emperor was proposed, the spirit of faction began to agitate the ass...

_George Syncellus_, Albas or Monachus, lived in the eighth and ninth centuries, and gained his epithet as being the personal attendant or _syncellus_ of the patriarch Tarsasius,...

The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himse...

Next to the Greeks and Romans, the German people are the most important branch of the Indo-Germanic race; for in mediæval and modern times they exercised the same influence on h...

To whoever knows anything of human intelligence it is evident that a revolution of consciences is outside and above the duties and the power of a government. In their quality of...

Octavian divorced his first two wives, the daughter of Publ. Servilius, to whom he had been married at eighteen, and Clodia, daughter of Antony’s wife Fulvia by her first husban...

in the streets. The people had even begun to measure their esteem for a man according to the number of servants who accompanied him. An advocate was not considered eloquent if h...

The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius, the last of the successors of Augustus and Constantine who appeared in the field at the head of their armies, and whose authority was...

The words “The Age of the Roman Empire is a period better abused than known,” written by Theodor Mommsen half a century ago, no longer contain a truth. To his own illuminative a...

[For convenience of reference, the Byzantine historians are included here, though their work has to do chiefly with the period treated in vol. VII. Further notes on many of the...

Professor Hirschfeld has pointed out that there is a general misconception as to the true meaning of later Roman history and that the time of the Roman Empire is, in reality, by...

Prof. Adolf Erman, University of Berlin. Prof. Joseph Halévy, College of France. Prof. Thomas K. Cheyne, Oxford University. Prof. Andrew C. McLaughlin, University of Michigan. P...

Nerva (M. Cocceius Nerva), 267. Trajan (M. Ulpius Trajanus Crinitus), 268. The first Dacian war, 269. Trajan dictates terms to Decebalus, 271. The second Dacian war, 273. Orient...

Galba (Servius Sulpicius Galba), 225. Otho (M. Salvius Otho), 226. Vitellius (Aulus Vitellius), 228. Vespasian (T. Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus), 231. Vespasian performs miracles...

Maximin (C. Julius Verus Maximinus), 408. Rival emperors and the death of Maximin, 409. Pupienus (M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus), Balbinus (D. Cælius Balbinus), and Gordian (M. An...

Tiberius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Cæsar), 133. Expeditions of Germanicus; victory of Idistavisus, 134. Early years of successful government by Tiberius, 134. Death of Germanicus;...

Diocletian appoints Maximian Co-Regent, 433. The fourfold division of power, 434. Diocletian persecutes the Christians, 436. Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian; the two new C...

Nero (Claudius Cæsar Drusus Germanicus), 184. Corbulo and the East, 186. The Roman province of Britain, 188. The war with Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, 190. Britain again a peac...

War of the Brother Emperors, 469. Constantius and Magnentius, 470. Constantius sole emperor, 472. The fate of Gallus, 476. Constantius and Julian, 477. The Quadian and Sarmatian...

Empire is peace, 78. Comparison between Augustus and Napoleon III, 80. The Roman Empire compared with modern England, 84. The Roman constitution, 86. Augustus named imperator fo...

Commodus, 378. Cruelties and death of Commodus, 379. Pertinax (P. Helvius Pertinax), 382. Julianus (M. Didius Severus Julianus), 383. Severus (L. Septimius Severus), 385. Conque...

The spirit of the times, 329. Manners and customs, 335. Suppers and banquets, 339. The circles, 342. Public readings, 345. Libraries and book-making, 346. The ceremony of a Roma...

Election of Jovian (Flavius Claudius Jovianus), 510. Sapor assails the Romans, 511. The humiliation of the Romans, 512. Valentinian and Valens, 516. Invasion of the Goths in the...

The German War of Independence against Rome, 59. The battle of Teutoburg Forest, 64. The campaigns of Germanicus, 69. Victories of Germanicus, 71. Gruesome relics in Teutoburg F...

Stoicism and the Empire, 308. Christians and the Empire, 313. The Christian and the Jew, 315. Religious assemblies of the Christians, 317. Christianity and the law, 318. The inf...

Alaric invades Italy, 550. Honorius retires to Ravenna; Attalus named Emperor, 556. Attalus deposed; Rome sacked by Alaric, 559. Death of Alaric; succession of Atawulf, 564. Con...