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Famous painting of the head of Jesus Christ (page 23),
By Gabriel Max. [Frontispiece]
Queen Thusnelda, wife of Arminius, taken prisoner
by the soldiers of the Roman general Germanicus, [4]
Painting by H. Koenig.
AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE
TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF
THE GREAT EVENTS
(THE PERIOD OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE)
CHARLES F. HORNE
So vast and wonderful a construction was the Roman world, so different from our own, that we are apt to imagine it as an arrangement far more deliberately planned, far more mechanically complete, than it appeared to its own inhabitants.
From a cursory glance, we may carry away wholly mistaken conceptions of its thought and purpose. Thus, for instance, the Roman Republic never assumed the definite design of conquering the world; its people had only the vaguest conception of whither the world might extend. They merely quarrelled with their neighbors, defeated and then annexed them.