PERIOD XV.

FROM SPARTACUS TO CALIGULA.

[B. C. 100.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS AND DISCOVERIES.

88 Rome besieged by the Marian faction.

83 Sylla created perpetual dictator.

69 A census at Rome: 450,000 citizens.

66 Catiline's conspiracy.

55 Julius Cæsar's first expedition into Britain. Crassus defeated and killed by the Parthians.

51 Gaul reduced to a Roman province.

50 A census at Rome: 320,000 citizens.

48 The battle of Pharsalia, between Cæsar and Pompey, in which the latter is defeated. The Alexandrian library, consisting of 400,000 valuable books, burnt by accident.

45 The war of Africa, in which Čato kills himself. The solar year introduced by Cæsar.

44 Cæsar, after having fought fifty pitched battles, and slain [1,192,000 men, killed in the senate house.

42 The republicans defeated at Philippi.

31 The battle of Actium fought, in which Marc Antony and Cleopatra are totally defeated by Octavius.

30 Alexandria taken by Octavins, upon which Antony and Cleopatra kill themselves, and Egypt is reduced to a Roman province.

29 A census at Rome: 4,101,017 citizens.

27 Octavius, by a decree of the senate, obtains the title of Augustus Cæsar, and an absolute exemption from the Laws. The Pantheon

at Rome built.

19 Rome at the height of its glory. The temple of Jerusalem rebuilt by Herod. The magnificent aqueducts at Rome, constructed by Agrippa.

8 A census at Rome: 42,333,000 citizens.

5 The temple of Janus shut by Augustus, as an emblem of universal peace.

DURING this period the kingdom of Judæa fell under the power of Rome. This state owed the loss of its liberty to the same cause that had ruined several others, namely, calling in the Romans to be arbitrators between two contending parties. The two sons of Alexander Jannæus, Hyrcanæus and Aristobulus, contended for the kingdom. Aristobulus, being defeated by the party of Hyrcanæus, applied to the Romans. Pompey the Great, who acted as ultimate judge in this affair, decided against Aristobulus, but at the same time deprived Hyrcaneus of all power as a king, not allowing him even to assume the

GOVERNMENT.

SPARTACUS, one of the scourges of Roman tyranny and cruelty, a native of Thrace, was born of very low parents, entered the army, and afterwards became a deserter, and a robber. Being taken, he was confined as a gladiator in a receptacle at Capua with those unfortunate men whose lives were devoted to the pleasure of the Roman people. He escaped the horrid den, and placing himself at the head of a body of gladiators and fugitive slaves, he took a fortified place in the year B. C. 72, whence he made predatory excursions throughout Campania. His force daily increased, and he defeated several commanders who were sent against him. He marched into Cisalpine Gaul, in order to give the slaves in his army, who were mostly Thracians and Gauls, an opportunity of returning home. Part of them, however, greedy of pillage, separated themselves from their commander, and were cut to pieces. The consul Lentulus, upon this success, which was extremely partial, pursued Spartacus, who turned about and gave him a total defeat; and then, in his turn, becoming the aggressor, he marched against the other consul, Gellius, drove him from the field, and obliged him to take shelter in the walled towns. He retaliated the cruelty of the Romans towards the gladiators, by obliging a number of his captives to fight with each other round the funeral pyre of one of his commanders. He was now at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and with these he ravaged most of the provinces of Italy, and struck such a terror at Rome, that Crassus, at that time one of the greatest commanders in the city, was sent against him. He soon confined Spartacus in Lucania, and cut off some of his detachments, so that he would gladly have crossed over to Sicily, but being prevented, he took a post in a peninsula near Rhegium, where Crassus enclosed him by a rampart drawn from sea to sea. Spartacus, however, found means to break through this barrier, and gain the open country, but he was here deserted by a large body of his followers, who became the victims of Crassus. Spartacus now retreated towards the mountains, and repulsed with loss some of his pursuers. This success was, however, his ruin; for his men insisted upon his return to give battle to Crassus in the open field. Before the commencement of the engagement, Spartacus stabbed his horse, exclaiming, "if I am victorious, I can easily get another; if vanquished, I shall not want any." After a long contest, the Roman discipline prevailed. Spartacus, during extraordinary exertions of valour, was surrounded, and fell, pierced with a multitude of wounds. He was unquestionably a brave man, and something more than a courageous barbarian. "He had," says Plutarch, "not only

strength and elevation of mind, but a discernment and civility much superior to his fortune." It is said that his wife accompanied him into the field, pretended to the gift of prophecy, and probably inspired him with a fanatical confidence in victory. ODIN or ODINUS, a celebrated hero of antiquity, who flourished about the year B. C. 70, in the northern parts of ancient Germany, or the modern kingdom of Denmark. He was at once a priest, a poet, a soldier, a monarch, and a conqueror. He imposed upon the credulity of his superstitious countrymen, and made them believe that he could raise the dead to life, and that he was acquainted with futurity. When he had extended his power, and increased his fame by conquest and by persuasion, he resolved to die in a different manner from other men. He assembled his friends, and with the sharp point of a lance he made on his body nine different wounds in the form of a circle; and as he expired, he declared he was going into Scythia, where he should become one of the immortal gods. He further added, that he would prepare bliss and felicity for such of his countrymen as lived a virtuous life, who fought with intrepidity, and who died like heroes in the field of battle. These injunctions had the desired effect; his countrymen superstitiously believed him, and always recommended themselves to his protection whenever they engaged in a battle, and they entreated him to receive the souls of such as had fallen in war.

ORODES, a prince of Parthia, who murdered his brother Mithridates, and ascended his throne. He defeated Crassus the Roman triumvir, and poured melted gold down the throat of his fallen enemy, to reproach him for his avarice and ambition. He followed the interest of Cassius and Brutus at Philippi. It is said, that when Orodes became old and infirm, his thirty children applied to him, and disputed in his presence their right to the succession. Phraates, the eldest of them, obtained the crown from his father; and, to hasten him out of the world, he attempted to poison him. The poison had no effect; and Phraates, still determined on his father's death, strangled him with his own hands, about the year B. C. 35. Orodes had reigned about fifty years.

SURENA, a powerful officer in the armies of Orodes, king of Parthia. His family had the privilege of crowning the kings of Parthia. He was appointed to conduct the war against the Romans, and to protect the kingdom of Parthia against Crassus, who wished to conquer it. He defeated the Roman triumvir; and after he had drawn him perfidiously to a conference, he ordered his head to be cut off. He afterwards returned to Parthia, mimicking the triumphs of the Romans. Orodes ordered him to be put to death, B. C. 52. Surena has been admired for his valour, his sagacity as a general, and his prudence and firmness in the execution of his plans; but his perfidy, his effe

minate manners, and his lasciviousness, have been deservedly censured.

PHRAATES IV., was nominated king of Parthia by his father Orodes, whom he soon after murdered, as also his own brothers. He made war against M. Antony with great success, and obliged him to retire with much loss. Some time after he was dethroned by the Parthian nobility, but he soon regained his power, and drove away the usurper, called Tiridates. The usurper claimed the protection of Augustus the Roman emperor, and Phraates sent ambassadors to Rome to plead his cause, and gain the favours of his powerful judge. He was successful in his embassy; he made a treaty of peace and alliance with the Roman emperor, restored the ensigns and standards which the Parthians had taken from Crassus and Antony, and gave up his four sons with their wives as hostages, till his engagements were performed. Some suppose that Phraates delivered his children into the hands of Augustus to be confined at Rome, that he might reign with greater security, as he knew his subjects would revolt as soon as they found any one of his family inclined to countenance their rebellion, though at the same time they scorned to support the interest of any usurper who was not of the royal house of the Arsacidæ. He was however at last murdered by one of his concubines, who placed her son, called Phraatices, on the throne.

PACORUS, son of Orodes, king of Parthia, signalized himself by the defeat of Crassus, whose army he nearly cut to pieces, in the year B. C. 53, and whom he made prisoner. He took Syria from the Romans, supported the republican party of Pompey, and that of the murderers of Julius. After ravaging Syria and Judæa, Ventidius defeated him, and Pacorus was slain in battle in the year B. C. 39.

ALEXANDRA, daughter of Hyrcanus II., grand-daughter of Alexander Jannous, and mother of Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great, whom that monster murdered, as well as her brother Aristobulus, and this princess their mother. Her husband and cousin, Alexander, was beheaded by Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompey.

HEROD, improperly styled the GREAT, the execrable tyrant of Judæa, was born at Ascalon, about B. C. 73. His father, Antipater the Idumean, (or Edomite,) appointed him governor of Galilee. Marc Antony made him tetrarch; and he afterwards obtained the kingdom of Judæa, which was confirmed to him by Augustus, a short time before the birth of our Saviour; and thus the prophecy was fulfilled of "the sceptre departing from Judah," he being an alien by birth. At the birth of our Lord, in the vain hope of cutting off the Messiah, he caused all the infants of Bethlehem under two years of age to be massacred. His barbarity was as fatal to his family

as to his subjects; for he murdered his beautiful wife Mariamne, her mother Alexandra, her brother Aristobulus, her grandfather Hyrcanus II., and his own sons Alexander and Aristobulus; which led the emperor Augustus to say, that it was better to be Herod's swine than his sons. He died miserable within three years after the birth of Christ, aged seventy.

MARIAMNE, the daughter of Alexandra, grand-daughter of Hyrcanus II., and the beloved wife of Herod the Great; who, however, murdered her and most of her relations.

BERENICE, the daughter of Costoborus and Salome, sister to Herod the Great, was married first to her cousin Aristobulus, son of Herod and Mariamne. He having a brother who married the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, often upbraided Berenice that he had married below himself in wedding her. Berenice related all those discourses to her mother, and exasperated her so furiously, that Salome, who had much power over Herod's mind, made him suspect Aristobulus, and was the principal cause that urged this cruel father to get rid of him. She married again, and having lost her second husband, went to Rome, and got into the favour of Augustus. But, above all, she insinuated herself into the good graces of Antonia, the wife of Drusus, which in the end proved of great service to Agrippa.

HEROD ANTIPAS, the son of Herod the Great, by his wife Cleopatra, a native of Jerusalem. Herod, in his will, named his son Archelaus his successor, giving Antipas the title of tetrarch of Galilee and Perca. Antipas adorned and fortified the principal places of his dominions. He married the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia; whom he divorced about A. D. 33, to marry his sister-in-law Herodias, wife to his brother Philip, who still living, St. John the Baptist exclaimed against this incest and adultery, was imprisoned in the castle of Machæus, and afterwards beheaded by Herod's order, as recorded in Matt. xiv., Mark vi., and Luke iii. Aretas, to avenge the affront which Herod had offered to his daughter, declared war against him, and overcame him in a very obstinate engagement. Herod being afterwards detected as a party in Sejanus's conspiracy, was banished by the emperor Caligula into Lyons in Gaul, whither Herodias accompanied him. This Antipas is the Herod who, being at Jerusalem at the time of our Saviour's passion, (Luke xxiii. 11,) ridiculed him, by dressing him in a white robe, and sending him back to Pilate, as a mock king, whose ambition gave him no umbrage. The time when he died is not known; but it is certain he died in exile, as well as Herodias. Josephus says he died in Spain. ARCHELAUS, a son of Herod the Great, by Malthace, VOL. I. U u