THE history of Rome will remain, to the latest age of the world, the most attractive, the most useful, and the most elevating subject of human contemplation. It must ever form the basis of a liberal and enlightened education; it must ever present the most important object to the contemplation of the statesman; it must ever exhibit the most heart-stirring record to the Modern civiliheart of the soldier. sation, the arts and the arms, the freedom and the institutions of Europe around us are the bequest of the Roman legions. The roads which we travel are, in many places, those which these indomitable pioneers of civilisation first cleared through the wilderness of nature; the language which we speak is more than half derived from Roman words; the laws by which we are protected have found their purest fountains in the treasures of Roman jurisprudence; the ideas in which we glory are to be found traced out in the fire of young conception in the Roman writers. In vain does the superficial acquirement, or shallow variety, of modern liberalism seek to throw off the weight of obligation to the grandeur or virtue of antiquity; in vain are we told that useful knowledge is alone worthy of cultivation, that ancient fables have gone past, and that the study of physical science should supersede that of the Greek or Roman authors. Experience, the great detector of error, is perpetually recalling to our minds the inestimable importance of Roman history. The more that our institutions become liberalised, the more rapid the strides which democracy makes amongst us, the more closely do we cling to the annals of a state which underwent exactly the same changes, and suffered the consequences of the same convulsions; and the more that we experience the insecurity, the selfishness, and the rapacity of democratic ambition, the more highly do we come to appreciate the condensed wisdom with which the great historians of antiquity, by a word or an epithet, stamped its character, or revealed its tendency. There is something solemn, and evidently providential, in the unbroken advance and ultimate boundless dominion of Rome. The history of other nations corresponds nearly to the vicissitudes of prosperity and disaster, of good and evil fortune, which we observe in the nations of the world at this time. The brilliant meteor of Athenian greatness disappeared from the world almost as soon as the bloody phantasmagoria of the French RevoIn half-a-century after they lution. History of Rome. By Thomas Arnold, D.D., Head Master of Rugby School; late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; and Member of the Archæological Society of Rome. London: B. Fellowes. 1838. VOL. XLIV. NO. CCLXXIV. arose nought remained of either but the works of genius they had produced, and the deeds of glory they had done. The wonders of Napoleon's reign faded as rapidly as the triumphs of the Macedonian Conqueror; and the distant lustre of Babylon and Nineveh is faintly recalled by the ephemeral dynasties which have arisen, under the pressure of Arabian, or Mogul conquest, in the regions of the East in modern times. But, in the Roman annals, a different and mightier system developes itself. From the infancy of the republic, from the days even of the kings, and the fabulous reigns of Romulus and Numa, an unbroken progress is exhibited, which never experienced a permanent reverse till the eagles of the Republic had crossed the Euphrates, and all the civilised world, from the wall of Antoninus to the foot of Mount Atlas, was subjected to their arms. Their reverses, equally with their triumphs their defeats, equally with their victories-their infant struggles with the cities of Latium, not less than their later contests with Carthage and Mithridates contributed to develope their strength, and may be regarded as the direct causes of their dominion, It was in the long wars with the Etruscan and Samnite communities that the discipline and tactics were slowly and painfully acquired, which enabled them to face the banded strength of the Carthaginian confederacy,—and in the desperate struggle with Hannibal that the resolution and skill were drawn forth which so soon, on its termination, gave them the em pire of the world. The durability of the fabric was in proportion to the tardiness of its growth, and the solidity of its materials. The twelve vultures which Romulus beheld on the Palatine Hill were emblematic of the twelve centuries which beheld the existence of the empire of the West; and it required a thousand years more of corruption and decline to extinguish in the East this brilliant empire, which, regenerated by the genius of Constantine, found, in the riches and matchless situation of Byzantium, a counterpoise to all the effeminacy of Oriental manners, and all the ferocity of the Scythian tribes. It is remarkable that time has not yet produced a history of this wonderful people commensurate either to their dignity, their importance, or their intimate connexion with modern institutions. The pictured pages and matchless descriptions of Livy, indeed, will, to the end of the world, fascinate the imagination and subdue the hearts of men; but it is a fragment only of his great work which has descended to our times; and even when complete, it came down only to the time of Augustus, and broke off exactly at the period when nations, arrived at the stage of existence to which we have grown, are most interested in its continuance. The condensed wisdom, energetic expressions, and practical experience of Sallust and Tacitus, apply only to detached periods of the later annals; and, though not a page of their immortal works can be read without suggesting reflections on the extraordinary political sagacity which they had acquired from experience, or received from nature, yet we shall look in vain, in the fragments of this work which have survived the wreck of time, for a connected detail even of the later periods of Roman story. The moderns appear to have been deterred, by the exquisite beauty of these fragments of ancient history, from adventuring at all on the same field. Ferguson's is considered by the English, and admitted by the Germans, to be the best connected history of the Republic which exists; but not only does it embrace merely, with adequate fulness, the period from the rise of the Gracchi to the ascent of the throne by Augustus, but it does not contain the views, nor is it dictated by the practical acquaintance with human affairs, which is necessary for a real history of Roman policy. The Scotch professor has, with much ability, illustrated the contests of Sylla and Marius, of Cæsar and Pompey; but he lived in a pacific age, amidst the unbroken seclusion of an academical life, and, consequently, could not possibly attain those clear and decisive views of the tendency and springs of action, in civil contests, which are brought home to the minds of the most illiterate by the storms and crimes of a revolution. Niebuhr is universally allowed to have opened a new era in the early history of the Republic. Before his time historians were content with adopting, without examination, the legends which, in the Roman annals, passed for the narrative of real events, and, despairing of adding any thing to their beauty, simply presented their readers with a translation of Livy and Dionysius. Dissatisfied with such a mode of recording the progress of so celebrated a people, Ferguson rejected the early legends altogether, and passing, in the most cursory manner, over the first five hundred years of Roman story, professed himself unable to discover firm historic ground till he came down to the second Punic War. But neither of these methods of treating the subject suited the searching eye and inquisitive mind of the German historian. Possessed of extraordinary learning, and a matchless faculty of drawing, with intuitive sagacity, important historical and political conclusions from detached and, to ordinary observers, unmeaning details of subordinate historians, he has contrived to rear up from comparatively authentic data, a veracious picture of the early Roman annals. Instead of rejecting in despair the whole history prior to the invasion of the Gauls as a mass of fables, erected by the vanity of Patrician families, and adopted by the credulity of an uninformed people, he has succeeded in supporting a large portion of those annals by unquestionable evidence; and stripping it only, in some parts, of those colours which the eloquence of Livy has rendered immortal, for the improvement and delight of mankind. It is a common reproach against this great antiquary, that he has overthrown the whole early history of Rome; but no reproach was ever more unfounded, In truth, as Dr Arnold has justly observed, it must be evident to every one acquainted with the subject, that he has built up much more than he has destroyed, and fixed on firmer historic grounds a vast deal which the inquisitive eye of modern scepticism was inclined to lay aside as entirely fictitious, No stronger proof of this can be desired than is to be found in the fact, that, while Ferguson began his history as authentic only with the exploits of Hannibal, Niebuhr has deemed it certain that historical truth is to be found not only under the kings, but so early as Eneas Martius. It is inconceivable, indeed, how it ever could have been seriously believed that the annals of the kings were entirely fictitious, when the Cloaca Maxima still exists, a durable monument both of the grandeur of conception and power of execution which at that early period had distinguished the Roman people. Two thousand five hundred years have elapsed since this stupendous work was executed, to drain the waters of the Forum and adjacent hollows to the Tiber; and there it stands at this day, without a stone displaced, still performing its destined service! Do any of the edifices of Paris or London promise an equal duration? From the moment that we beheld that magnificent structure, formed of the actual stone of the eternal city, all doubts as to the authenticity of Roman annals, so far, at least, as they portray a powerful flourishing kingdom anterior to the Republic, vanished from our minds. If nothing else remained to attest the greatness of the kings at this period but the Cloaca Maxima and the treaty with Carthage in the first year of the Republic, it would be suffi cient to demonstrate that the basis of the early history of the kings was to be found in real events. And this Niebuhr, after the most minute and critical examination, has declared to be his conviction. Doubtless, the same historic evidence does not exist for the romantic and captivating part of early Roman history, We cannot assert that we have good evidence that Romulus fought, or that Numa prayed; that Ancus conquered, or that Tarquin oppressed; that the brethren of the Horatii saved their country, or Curtius leaped headlong into the gulf in the Forum, The exquisite story of Lucretia; the heartstirring legend of Corioli; the invasion of Porsenna, the virtue of Cincinnatus, the siege of Veiæ, the deliverance of Camillus, are probably all founded in some degree on real events, but have come down to our times glowing with the genius of the ancient historians, and gilded by the colours which matchless eloquence has communicated to the additions with which the fondness of national or family vanity had clothed the artless narrative of early times. Simplicity is the invariable characteristic of the infancy of the world. Homer and Job are often in the highest degree both pathetic and sublime; but they are so just because they are utterly unconscious of any such merits, and aimed only at the recital of real events. The glowing pages and beautiful episodes of Livy are as evidently subsequent additions as the pomp and majesty of Ossian are to the meagre ballads of Caledonia. But it is of no moment either to the great objects of historical enquiry or the future improvement and elevation of the species, whether the Roman le. gends can or cannot be supported by historical evidence. It is sufficient that they exist, to render them to the end of the world the most delightful subject of study for youth, not the least useful matter for contemplation in maturer years. They may not be strictly historical, but rely upon it they are founded in the main upon a correct picture of the manners and ideas of the time. Amadis of Gaul is not a true story, but it conveys, nevertheless, a faithful though exaggerated picture of the ideas and manners of the chivalrous ages. There is, probably, the same truth in the Roman legends that there is in Achilles and Agamemnon-in Front de Boeuf, Richard Coeur de Lion, and Ivanhoe. We will not find in Roman story a real Lucretia or Virginia, any more than in British history a genuine Rebecca or Jeanie Deans; but the characters are not the less founded in the actual manners and spirit of the times. It is of little moment to us whether Romulus watched the twelve emblematic vultures on the Palatine Hill, or Numa consulted Egeria in the shades of the Campagna, or Veia was stormed through the mine sprung in the Temple of Juno, or the Roman ambassador thrust his hand into the fire before Porsenna, or Lucretia, though guiltless in intent, plunged the dagger in her bosom rather than survive the honour of her house. It is sufficient that a people have existed, to whom the patriotic devotion, the individual heroism, the high resolves, the undaunted resolution portrayed in these immortal episodes, were so familiar, that they had blended with real events, and formed part of their traditional annals. No other people ever possessed early legends of the same noble heartstirring kind as the Romans, because none other were stamped with the character destined to win, and worthy to hold, the empire of the world. To the latest times the history of infant Rome, with all its attendant legends, must, therefore, form the most elevating and useful subject for the instruction of youth, as affording a faithful picture, if not of the actual events of that interesting period, at least of the ideas and feelings then prevalent amongst a nation called to such exalted destinies ; and without being embued with a similar spirit, we may safely assert no other people will ever either emulate their fame, or approach to their achievements. Notwithstanding the high place which we have assigned to Niebuhr in the elucidation and confirmation of early Roman history, nothing can be more apparent than that his work never will take its place as a popular history of the Republic, and never rival in general estimation the fascinating pages of Livy. No one can read it for half an hour without being satisfied of that fact. Invaluable to the scholar, the antiquary, the philologist, it has no charms for the great mass of readers, and conveys no sort of idea to the unlearned student of the consecutive event, among the very people whose history it professes to portray. In this respect it labours under the same fault which is, in a less degree, conspicuous in the philosophic pages of Sir James Mackintosh's Engfish history; that it pre-supposes an intimate acquaintance with the subject in the reader, and is to all, not nearly as well versed in it as himself, either in great part unintelligible, or intolerably dull. Heeren, whose labours have thrown such a flood of light on the Persian, Egyptian, and Carthaginian states, has justly remarked that Niebuhr, with all his acuteness, is to be regarded rather as an essayist on history, than an actual historian. He has elucidated with extraordinary learning and skill seveRoman annals; and on many, esperal of the most obscure subjects in rian law, struck out new lights, which, cially the vital subjects of the Agraif known at all to the later writers of the empire, had been entirely lost durconsequent on the Gothic conquests. ing the change of manners and ideas But his work is in many places so obscure, and so much overloaded with names, and subjects, and disquisitions, of fair classical attainments and exin great part unknown to readers, even tensive general knowledge, that it standard histories of the world. He never can take its place among the is totally destitute of two qualities indispensable to a great historian, and particularly conspicuous in the farfamed annalists of antiquity-powers |