the ports and million ships of the Mediterranean, to the gate of his noble conquerors, within the capital of the world.
The grinding tyranny of the cruel despots of Pontus, Armenia and Syria, had, one after another, been swept away before the republican hosts of Sylla, Lucullus and Pompey; and the remorseless, stupid selfishness that has always characterized oriental despotism, even to this day, had been followed by the mild and generous exercise of that almost omnipotent sway, which the condition of the people, in most cases, showed to have been administered, in the main, for the good of its subjects.
The case of Verres will perhaps rise to the minds of some of my readers, as opposed
to this favorable view of Roman government; but the whole account of this
and similar tyranny shows that such cases were looked on as most remarkable enormities,
and they are recorded and noticed in such terms of abhorrence, as to justify
us in quoting with peculiar force, the maxim, "Exceptio probat regulam."
Towards the farthest eastern boundary of the empire, the Parthian,
fighting as he fled, held out against the advance of the
western conquerors, in a harassing and harassed independence.
The mountains and forests of central Europe, and of North Britain,
too, were still manfully defended by their savage owners;
yet, when they at last met the iron hosts of Germanicus, Trajan,
and Agricola, they, in their turn, fell under the last triumphs of
the Roman eagle. But the peace and prosperity of the empire,
and even of provinces near the scene, were not moved by these
disturbances. And thus, in a longitudinal line of four thousand
miles, and within a circuit of ten thousand, the energies of Roman
genius had hushed all wars, and stilled the nations into a
long, unbroken peace, which secured the universal good. So
nearly true was the lyric description, given by Milton, of the
universal peace which attended the coming of the Messiah:
"No war or battle sound,
Was heard the world around;
The idle spear and shield were high uphung;
The hooked chariot stood,
Unstained with hostile blood,
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng;
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran lord was by."
The efforts of the conquerors did not cease with the mere military subjugation of a country, but were extended far beyond the extinction of the hostile force. The Roman soldier was not a mere fighter, nor were his labors, out of the conflict, confined to the erection of military works only. The stern discipline, which made his arms triumphant in the day of battle, had also
