The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-13

potism as well as an absolute despotism
The Emperor at Rome did not even call
himself the father of his people. His will
was absolute law, untempered and unmodl-
fled by any thought either of parental rela-
ton of religious obligation or of fear of the
people. Some one has declared that the
government of Russia is absolute despotism
tempered by the fear of assassination. In
the Roman empire the absolute desDOtism
was not even tempered by fear of assassi-
nation. For the eighty-twO years between
the accession of Tiberus to the throne and
the death of Domitian Rome was ruled over
by. | suppose, the five worst tyrants the
world has ever seen. Gibbon, who, it is
true, cannot be wholly trusted as an histori-
cal authority, but whose graphic pictures.
after ALL are significant, thus characteriZeS
them: The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the
furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius the
profiigate and cruel Nero the beasty Vi
telius and the timid, inhuman DOmitian.'
'Tiberius had made it law that to speak
in derogation of the Emperor was treason,
and one man had been put to death because
in changes in his garden he had removed
the statue of the Emperor from it. Cali
gula was madman AT least, IL one may
ever draw a distinction between madness
and Wickedness, if alIWickedness be not in
sanity, he was insanely wicked. When the
sports, the cruel sports in the arena, drew
toward their close because there were not
victims to satisfy his greed for blood he
beckOned his finger and sent his servitors
around and took out here and there a
woman from the audience and flung them
over into the arena that the cruel sport
might still continue And at his feasts he
was accustomed not infrequently to have
victims tortured that his eating might go
on to the music of their groanS and tears.
If Caligula was mailman, Claudius was an
idiot. He fell under the dominion of per-
haps the most shameful and wicked woman
the world has ever seen; and never does
shamelessness and wickedness go so far or
show itself in vice so odiouS as in woman
fallen and given over TO vice. Messallna
compelled by torture the women of her
court to join with her not only in bacchan-
allan orgies, but in vice too shameless to be
mentioned. Nero was crazy with vanity
q Sensationalist of SenSatlonallStS, giving
himself to dramatic entertainments made
real, "A painstaking stage hero, an operate
Emperor, music mad, trembling before the
pit and making the pit trembie, too So
Renan describes him Sensation mad | call
him. who, if he did not actually set hre to
Rome, came, when 1t was blazing, that he
might enjoy the gorgeous spectacle or Its
ruin then impaled the Christians on stakes
covered them with inf1ammable material
set fire to the material and let them burn
that by their flames his garden might be
illuminated. The anti-Chr1st the early
Christians called him. Beast he Is desig-
mated in the book of Revelation. whether
the story is true or not know not, put the
story runs, derived not from Christian but
from pagan sources, that in one OF these
arenas, when women were lung into the
arena to make cruel sport for wild beasts.
he dressed himself in beasts skin and
amused himself by attacking them.
SLAVERY AND SOCIAL LIFE.
''rhis was the condition of Rome. It's
labor condition was no better One-half
the Roman people were slaves and slavery
was not ameliorated by any suggestion of
Christianity pleading for mercy, nor by any
restraint of law, as in the older Judaism.
The slave was the absolute property of his
master, who might do with him what he
would. One slave owner threw slave into
his pond to feed his fishes. Another sacri-
feed a slave for stealing quail -Four hun
bred slaves Were sacrificed because their
master had been assassinated. These were
the merciful acts of the Roman master.
One must draw veil over the horrors Jhat
thrilled in the heart of q malden slave IN
that age. The other half OF Rome was dl-
vided in unequal portions;fa few rich men,
many poor, living on the very edSe OF star
vation and kept from ii only by great car
goes of corn, given from time 10 time by
the Roman empire or by the Roman mil
lionaires. Labor was disgrace1ul, as II al
WAYS is in a slave state, and even the nigh
er forms of labor were disgraceIul, Tor
slaves were copyists-that Is, printers ana
writers and authors and secretaries. All in
dustry was done by servile toll. the only
profession. Says Mommsen: Nowhere per-
hapS has the essential maxim or the slave
state that the rich man who hVes by the
exertion of his slaves is necessarily re-
spectacle. and the poor man who lives by
the labor of his hands is necessarily vulgar,
been recognized with so terrible precision.
as the undoubted principle underlying all
public and private intercourse.
Government despouc, labor ensiaVed ana
degraded What was the condition of social
life? These few rich men IN Rome never
had read the Mosaic provisions urging men
to beneficence, never had been melted by
the example and the ministry q Christ 70
charity, and never had IL dawned upON
them that wealth was trust for whlclt
they must give an account. So they heaped