Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1874-04-04
ROME

-EUd7geEist.
ROME.
The Ancient City-Its Mighty Men and |
Mighty Beeds-Comnaunism the Cancer |
that Destroyed the Grand Empire-The |
Paradise Of Dead-Beats-Free Laneh-
ing Reduced to a Science-Wonders OF |
the Seven-Hllled City. |
[Joseph Medill in Chicago Tribune.l
But, with all its drawbacks, its bad |
winter climate, its disagreeabilities in |
life, and its expensiveness in death,
there is something wonderfully and ir- |
resistibly attractive and fascinating in |
this capital of the ancient world. One |
is drawn here by influences that cannot |
be resisted, and kept here for months,
in despite of climate and sickness.
One is bewildered by the vastness of
interest before him by an endless laby-
rinth of objects of absorbing interest.
Here is the city that ruled the political
world for a thousand years and, when
that rule perished, it was to commence
another, and domineer the spiritual
world for another thousand years as alb
solutely as it had the political. The
scholar, the philosopher, the statesman,
the jurist, the general, the pietist, the
artist, the antiquarian, the-everybody
finds here an engrossing field of con-
temptation. A large part of the school
boy education of eve y youth relates to
the history of ancient Rome, and a
study of her mighty deeds and mighty
men.
One begins with the marvellous story
of Romulus, Remus, and the female
wolf who nurtured and protected them
and passes for a period of more than
700 years through history of the most
astonishing and captivating character.
At every page he meets new surprise,
q new actor performing an extraordinary
part, a new scene of most dramatic and
thrilling interest until the whole cul-
inmates in the bloody murder of the
mighty Julius Caesar, who gathered his
mantle about him and lay down in
death, covered with wounds, at the foot
of great Pompey's statue, which ran
blood" at witnessing the shocking event.
With this tragic termination of the re-
public the play opens with the empire,
and for another 700 years the student is
conducted through the most wonderful
transformations and, when the curtain
drops and the drama is ended, all
around is darkness, ruins, and desola-
tion. The mighty poity is extinct.
That organization with ribs of steel and
feet of brass is dissolved. The Rome
of the Scipios and the Caesars is dead,
and henceforth only sepulchre. And
yet how much of it livesl How much
is deathless while man exists The
memory of her deeds survives her
works live after her. Her mythology,
her philosophy, her code of law, her
plan of government, her politics, her
literature, her language, her arts and
sciences, are not lost to subsequent
generations and nations; they have not
crumbled into shapeless debris, like her
marble and granite palaces, temples,
and forums; but are fresh and vivid,
and are incorporated into the education
of every man and woman in the civil
lied world.
We hardly realize how much of our
education and thoughts is derived from
the acts and ideas of old Rome. We
feed on them in our youth, digest them
in their contemplation. The Roman
code of law is the basis and foundation
of all civil and criminal Jurisprudence
in the civilized world. The Roman
forms of governments during the re-
public aud empire are followed and
copied, and but little improved on, by
the nations of Europe and America of
the present times. And that which
most distinguishes the modern from the
dark ages is the readoption of the old
Roman forms and systems of law and
political organization. When the great
light of the Seven-Hilled City went out,
it left mankind to grope in darkness for
thousand years. Men endured the
tyranny of feudalism and the gloom of
superstition, and lived in the darkness
of ignorance, among bats, and owls,
and crawling vermin, for long, long
ages. 1t is only since the sixteenth
century that they are beginning to
emerge into the light of day, and en-.
Joy liberty of conscience, political
rights, and such social position as the
merit of each warrant and these very
privileges old Rome not only enjoyed,
but created and taught, enforced and
protected, and at her death transmitted
to posterity.
How Rome, having enjoyed SO long
the blessings of freedom and stable
government, and a highly-developed
civilization, could at last descend sc
low into anarchy and ignorance, an6
then expire, is one of the marvels oi
history. But Childe Harold says:
There is moral of all human tales;
'Tis but the rehearsal of the past
First Freedom, and then glory when that fails
Wealth, Vice, Corruption-Barbarism at last.
Sometimes I fear that our American
republic has passed the first two stages
of " Freedom and Glory" and entered
upon those of "Wealth, Vice, ano
Corruption" If that be so, the end il
inevitable, and the time not far off wher
the last stage of the republic will bt
reached.
Tho ,,,osE ,1o4a,4 oo,.o kl,o1 IL - IL
decay and fall of Rome was communism
This fact has not sufficiently arrested
the attention of writer's and publicists,
Rome, as city or municipal part of the
Empire, exercised an undue and monop.
olizing influence, AS Paris has done In
France, but in far greater degree and
extent. The ambitious demagogues oi
the Roman Empire sought to curry
favor with the populace of the city BY
catering to their caprices at the public
expense. The populace of Rome and
the Pr@torian Guards made and un-
made Emperors, overawed the Senate,
and dictated to the Government. The
Emperors, as fir back as Augustus,
commenced recognizing the demands fol
special privi es and favors, and sue
cumbing OF clamors, of the rabble.
And what was it they demanded? Free
admission to the circuses, theaters and
amphitheaters and next subsistence.
This abuse grew year by year, until il
hardened into an imperative custom.
The gigantic coliseum, begun by
Vespasian and completed by Titus, to.
wards the end of the first century, was
erected for the purpose of furnishing
the Roman Communists bloody, excit.
ing, tragic amusement. It was large
enough to seat and stand 100, 900 spec.
tators, nine-tenths of whom entered
and enjoyed the scenes on free tickets
The Government deadheaded then
at the expense of the taxpayers of the
Empire In this arena, tens of thou
sands of gladiators and wild beasts
fought and destroyed each other, fol