IMPERIAL FATE.

——————Let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of Kings:—
How some have been depos’d, some slain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos’d;
Some poison’d by their wives, some sleeping killed;
All murder’d:—For within the hollow crown,
That rounds the mortal temples of a king,
Keeps Death his court—

Richard II.

Does any man envy the situation of monarchs? Let him peruse the following statement, which particularizes the deaths of the forty-seven Roman emperors, from Julius Cæsar to Constantine the Great; only thirteen of whom encountered “the last enemy” in the ordinary course of nature:—

B. C.
42.Julius Cæsar was murdered by Brutus and others in the senate-house.
A. D.
15.Augustus Cæsar died a natural death.
39.Tiberius was smothered with pillows, at the instigation of Macro, the friend of Caligula.
42.Caligula was stabbed by Cherea and other conspirators, when retiring from the celebrationof the Palatine games.
55.Claudius was poisoned by the artifice of his wife Aggrippina.
69.Nero in the midst of a general revolt was condemned to death by the senate. Upon hearing ofwhich he killed himself with a dagger.
69.Sergius Galba conspired against by Otho, by whose partisans he was beheaded.
70.Otho destroyed himself, to avoid further contest with his competitor Vitellius.
70.Vitellius was massacred by the populace, who threw his dead body into the Tiber.
79.Vespasian died a natural death.
81.Titus. It is suspected that his death was hastened by his brother Domitian.
96.Domitian was murdered by Stephanus and other conspirators.
98.Nerva died a natural death.
117.Trajan ditto.
138.Adrian ditto.
161.Titus Antoninus, called Antoninus Pius, ditto.
180.Marcus Aurelius, called Antoninus the Philosopher, ditto.
192.Commodus was strangled by Narcissus and other conspirators.
192.Pertinax was murdered by the soldiers.
195.Didius Julian was beheaded by the soldiers.
211.Septimus Severus died a natural death.
217.Caracalla and Geta, joint emperors. Geta was killed by his brother Caracalla, who wasafterwards killed by Martial.
218.Opillius Macrinus was killed by the partisans of Heliogabalus.
222.Heliogabalus was murdered by the soldiers, who threw his dead body into the Tiber.
235.Alexander was beheaded by the soldiers.
238.Maximin was murdered by his own guards.
238.Maximus and Balbinus, joint emperors, were both murdered by the prætorian guards.
243.Gordian was murdered by order of Philip, whom he had associated with him in the command ofthe empire.
248.Philip was murdered by the soldiers.
251.Decius destroyed himself, after having been defeated by the Goths.
253.Gallus was slain in battle, with his competitor Emilianus.
259.Valerian was taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, who caused him to be cruelly murdered.
268.Galienus was slain by his own soldiers.
270.Claudius died a natural death.
275.Aurelian was murdered by Menesthus and other conspirators.
275.Tacitus died a natural death.
282.Probus was murdered by his soldiers.
284.Carus and his sons, Carinus and Numerian, joint emperors. The father wasstruck dead by lightning, and both his sons were murdered.
304.Dioclesian and Maximian, joint emperors. Dioclesian resigned the empire, and diedeither by poison or madness. Maximian also resigned, but was afterwards condemned to death by Constantine.
306.Constantius and- joint emperors, both died a natural death.
311.Galerius,
343.Constantine the Great died a natural death.

Where did these events occur? Among the savage tribes of interior Africa, or the rude barbarians of northern Europe? No: but in Rome—imperial Rome—in her “high and palmy state,” when she was mistress of the world, and held within her dominion all the science and literature of which the earth could boast. Surely we may with reason doubt, whether the moral improvement of mankind invariably keeps pace with their intellectual advancement.

O. Z.