The organisation which had ruled the city-state itself not ill, and raised it to an immense pre-eminence, sufficed also to maintain its powers of conquest, but not its political virtue. Rome’s armies subdued the divided and disorganised realms which more or less recognised the over-lordship of Macedon; they made the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ acknowledge their supremacy; they shattered the new barbarian hordes, which began to pour across the Alpine passes, and the African tribes of Numidia. But the lofty public spirit was gone which had made Rome so great when she was battling for life. Reformers arose, only to prove that there was no power in the constitution strong enough to enforce reform. Victorious generals with their legions behind them began to dictate legislation; Marius and Sulla, democrats or reactionaries, signalised their political successes by slaughtering hecatombs of their opponents.

At last, statesmanship and generalship found their supreme incarnation in one person, Julius Cæsar. For many years one of the two foremost men in the Republic, he finally crushed his rival Pompeius and became acknowledged head of the state. Before he could complete the work of reconstruction, Cæsar fell beneath the daggers of Republican enthusiasts; but ere many years had passed his adopted son Octavian triumphed over all rivals, and established the Principate or Empire, the absolute dominion of one ruler over the whole Roman world—although that dominion was still maintained under the Republican forms.

TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: B.C. 500 to 1

Collision of East and West. The Glory of Greece. Alexander and His Conquests. The Rise of Rome. Overthrow of Carthage and the Establishment of the Roman Empire

B.C.
 500

The East and Africa

Europe

B.C.
 500

GREECE: Revolt of Ionian Greeks from Persia, 499.
Liberation from Persia of Greek States in Asia Minor.
Revolt of Egypt from Persia: re-conquest.

GREECE: Repulse of Persia at Marathon (490), Salamis (480) and Plataea (479) and of Carthage by Syracuse at Himera (480).
ROME: Increase of political power of Plebeians.
Tribunes. First Roman Legal Code (the XII. Tables).

 450

 450

Egypt again independent of Persia.

GREECE: Age of Pericles, the great Athenian dramatists, and Phidias.
Struggle for supremacy between Athens and Sparta.
ROME: Decadence of Etruscan power.
Progress of Plebeians in obtaining administrative power.

 400

 400

Revival of Persian energy under Artaxerxes Ochus.

GREECE: Socrates and Plato.
Spartan and Theban supremacies.
ROME: Invasion by the Gauls.
The land question: the Licinian Laws.
Establishment of new “Senatorial” oligarchy.
Extension of Roman military settlements or colonies.

 350

 350

Overthrow of Persia by Alexander; India invaded.
Partition of Alexander’s Empire. The Ptolemies in Egypt, and the Seleucidæ in Asia.
Friendly relations between Seleucus and Chandragupta of Hindostan.

GREECE: Philip of Macedon. Demosthenes at Athens. Aristotle.
Conquests of Alexander the Great, 334–322.
ROME: Second Roman treaty with Carthage.
Dissolution of Latin League. Supremacy of Rome in Italy. Samnite wars.

 300

 300

Contests between Syria (Seleucidæ) and Egypt (the Ptolemaic dynasty).

ROME: Legislative power of Plebeian Comitia. Tributa established.
Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily.
Treaty between Rome and Egypt.
Senatorial supremacy at Rome.
First Punic War (264–241).
GREECE: Rise of the Achæan League.

 250

 250

Asoka, king of Maghada (Hindostan), Buddhist.
Extension of the Seleucid dominion under Antiochus the Great.
Rise of the Parthian dominion of the Arsacidæ.
Fall of Carthage, 202.

Carthaginian power established in Spain.
ROME: Second Punic War, 218–201. Hannibal in Italy, 218–203. Scipio in Spain, 211–206. Zama, 202.
Extension of Roman dominion over Spain and North Africa.

 200

 200

Wars between Parthia and the Seleucidæ.
Maccabean revolt of Judæa.
Antiochus Epiphanes conquers Egypt, but retires.
Egypt and Syria become Roman protectorates.

Organisation of provinces subject to the Imperial Republic.
History of Europe merges in that of ROME.
Collision of Rome with (1) Macedon; (2) the Syrian kingdom of the Seleucidæ.
Macedon becomes a Roman province.
Rome assumes protectorate of Egypt and Syria.

 150

 150

Nabatæan State in Arabia.
A Tartar kingdom established in east of Parthia.
Jugurthan War in Africa.

Third Punic War, and destruction of Carthage, 146.
Greek States absorbed into province of Macedonia.
Development of political power of (1) demagogues; (2) soldiers.
The Gracchi, 133–121.
Conquest of South Gaul: defeat of Teutones and Cimbri by Marius.

 100

 100

Mithradatic wars, 88–63.
The East, to the Euphrates, brought under Roman dominion.
Judæa: fall of the Maccabees.

Social war. Marius and Sulla. The Proscriptions.
The Sullan Constitution, 81.
Pompey. Rise of Julius Cæsar.
The East brought under Roman dominion.
Cæsar conquers Gaul; lands in Britain.

  50

  50

   1
B.C.

Scythian or Tartar incursion into India, and admixture with Punjab races.
Egypt becomes a Roman province, 30.

Overthrow of Pompey: Cæsar virtual emperor.
Murder of Cæsar, 44.
Rivalry of Antony and Octavian, 43–30.
The Principate, or Empire, established under Augustus (Octavian) in virtue of the Imperium Proconsulare (27) and Tribunicia Potestas (23). The Empire organised.
Cicero, Virgil Livy, Horace.

   1
B.C.

The Birth of Christ

A tremendous event in itself, the reign of Augustus also witnessed one which has had a great influence on the history of the world—the birth of Christ. His ministry, to which perhaps the term event should be applied, was during the reign of the second Emperor, Tiberius. The new faith born on the soil of Judæa was to modify profoundly all the ideals, social and political as well as theological and personal, of the entire Western world; but for many years its adherents remained nothing more than a persecuted yet steadily growing sect; suspected and hated as anarchists rather than as misbelievers, in a world where the rankest and wildest superstitions lived side by side with a general intellectual scepticism.

For four centuries the Imperial city ruled over nearly the whole known world. Beyond the Euphrates on the east, beyond the Rhine and the Danube, she could maintain no permanent footing; within her own borders it seemed as though her sway became a part of the natural order—so much so that when her power had passed away her very conquerors did her homage and took upon themselves titles as her officers.

Rome in her Decline

But the overthrow was yet a long way off. The reconstruction organised by Augustus and his Ministers was developed by able rulers—Tiberius, Trajan, Hadrian, the Antonines—during some two hundred years, in spite of intervals when a murderous tyranny or a feeble incompetence occupied the throne of the Cæsars. From the Pillars of Hercules to the river of Mesopotamia, northward as far as Britain, southward to the deserts of Africa, Roman civilisation, Roman law and justice, Roman military discipline, and Roman roads maintained the Roman peace.