The Two Good Centuries.
From the time when the new empire settled down into peace under Augustus to the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 A.D. there came a period, when, as has been well said, the Mediterranean basin was probably more prosperous, more happy and better governed than at any time before or since. This is not always understood and accepted. The evil side of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, the turmoil under Galba and his two successors, have been unduly emphasized. Probably there has been too much “muck-raking” even by eminent historians. Under the worst of the rulers named it is to be remembered that tyranny and cruelty were almost totally confined to the capital and its cliques. The provinces were on the whole well administered, especially in comparison with the corruption of later republican times. Within this period, too, fall the Golden and the Silver Ages of Roman literature.