Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
form and every line of nature, sees another form and line of more
perfect grace and beauty, which he chooses instead, and makes it visible
and permanent in stone or brass. You see nothing in me, but merely Piso
as he walks the streets. Periander sees another within, bearing no more
resemblance to me--yet as much--than does this, to Aurelian.'
'That, I simply conceive, to be so much sophistry,' rejoined the poet,
'which no man would be guilty of, except he had been for the very
purpose, as one must think, of degrading his intellect, to the Athenian
schools. Still, as I said and think, the statue is made to commemorate
the man represented, not the artist.'
'It is made for that. But, oftentimes, the very name of the man
commemorated is lost, while that of the artist lives forever. In my
judgment there is as much of Periander in the statue as there is of
Aurelian.'
'I know not what the fame of this great Periander may be ages hence. It
has not till now reached my ear.'
'It is not easy to reach the ear of some who dwell in the via coeli.'
I could not help saying that.
'My rooms, sir, I would inform you,' he rejoined sharply, 'are on the
third floor.'
'Then I do wonder you should not have heard of Periander.'
'Greater than Aurelian! and I must wonder too. A poet may be greater
than a general or an emperor, I grant: he is one of the family of the
gods; but how a worker in brass or marble can be, passes my poor
understanding. It is vain to attempt to raise the mere artist, to the
level of the historian or poet.'
'I think that too. I only said he was greater than Aurelian--'
'Than Aurelian,' replied Spurius, 'who has extended the bounds of the
empire!'
'But narrowed those of human happiness,' I answered. 'Which is of more
consequence, empire or man? But now, man was the great object! I grant
you he is, and for that reason a man who, like an artist of genius, adds
to the innocent sources of human enjoyment, is greater than the soldier
and conqueror, whose business is the annoyance and destruction of life.
Aurelian has slain hundreds of thousands. Periander never injured a
worm. He dwells in a calm and peaceful world of his own, and his works
are designed to infuse the same spirit that fills himself into all who
behold them. You must confess the superior power of art, and of the
artist, in this very figure. Who thinks of conquest, blood, and death,
as he looks upon these flowing outlines, this calm, majestic form--upon
that still face? The artist here is the conqueror of the conqueror, and
makes him subserve his own purposes; purposes, of a higher nature than
the mere soldier ever dreamed of. No one can stand and contemplate this
form, without being made a lover of beauty rather than of blood and
death; and beauty is peace.'
'It must be impossible,' replied the bitter spirit, 'for one who loves
Palmyra better than his native Rome, to see much merit in Aurelian. It
is a common saying, Piso is a Palmyrene. The report is current too that
Piso is about to turn author, and celebrate that great nation in
history.'
'I wish I were worthy to do so,' I answered, 'I might then refute
certain statements in another quarter. Yet events have already refuted
them.'
'If my book,' replied Spurius, 'be copied a thousand times, the
statements shall stand as they are. They are founded upon indisputable
evidence and philosophical inferences.'
'But, Spurius, they are every one contradicted by the late events.'
'No matter for that, if they were ever true they must always be true.
Reasoning is as strong as fact. I found Palmyra a vulgar, upstart,
provincial city; the most distasteful of all spots on earth to a refined
mind; such I left it, and such I have shown it to the world.'
'Yet,' I urged, 'if the Palmyrenes in the defence of their country
showed themselves a brave, daring, and dangerous foe, as they certainly
were magnanimous; if so many facts and events prove this, and all Rome
admits it, it will seem like little else than malice for such pages to
circulate in your book. Besides, as to a thousand other things I can
prove you to have seen amiss.'
'Because I have but one eye, am I incapable of vision? Am I to be
reproached with my misfortunes? One eye is the same as two; who sees two
images except he squint? I can describe that wain, loaded down with wine
casks, drawn by four horses with scarlet trappings, the driver with a
sweeping Juno's favor in his cap, as justly as you can. Who can see
more?'
'I thought not, Spurius, of your misfortune, though I must think two
eyes better for seeing than one, but only of favorable opportunities for
observation. You were in Palmyra from the ides of January to the nones
of February, and lived in a tavern. I have been there more than half a
year, and dwelt among the citizens themselves. I knew them in public and
in private, and saw them under all circumstances most favorable to a
just opinion, and I can affirm that a more discolored picture of a
people was never drawn than yours.'
'All the world,' said the creature, 'knows that Spurius is no flatterer.
I have not only published travels among the Palmyrenes, but I intend to
publish a poem also--yes, a satire--and if it should be entitled
"Woman's pride humbled," or "The downfall of false greatness" or "The
gourd withered in a day," or "Mushrooms not oaks," or "Ants not
elephants," what would there be wonderful in it?--or, if certain Romans
should figure largely in it, eh?'
'Nothing is less wonderful, Spurius, than the obstinacy and
tenaciousness of error?'
'Periander greater than Aurelian!' rejoined he, moving off; 'that is a
good thing for the town.'
As I turned, intending to visit the shop of Demetrius, to see what
progress he was making in his silver Apollo, I was accosted by the
consul, Marcellinus.
'A fair morning to you, Piso,' said he; 'and I see you need the
salutation and the wish, for a black cloud has just drifted from you,
and you must still feel as if under the shadow. Half the length of the
street, as I slowly approached, have I witnessed your earnest discourse
with one whom, I now see, to have been Spurius. But I trust your
Christian principles are not about to make an agrarian of you? Whence
this sudden intimacy with one like Spurius?'
'One need not, I suppose, be set down as a lover of an east wind because
they both sometimes take the same road, and can scarcely separate if
they would? But, to speak the truth, a man is to me a man, and I never
yet have met one of the race from whom I could not gain either
amusement, instruction, or warning. Spurius is better than a lecture
from a philosopher, upon the odiousness of prejudice. To any one
inclined to harbor prejudices would I recommend an hour's interview with
Spurius, sooner far than I would send him to Cleanthes the Stoic, or
Silius the Platonist, or, I had almost said Probus the Christian.'
'May I ask, Piso, if you have in sober earnest joined yourself to the
community of the Christians, or, are you only dallying for awhile with
their doctrines, just as our young men are this year infected by the
opinions of Cleanthes, the next followers of Silius, the third of the
nuisance Crito, and the fourth, adrift from all, and the fifth, good
defenders, if not believers, of the popular superstitions? I presume I
may believe that such is the case with you. I trust so, for the times
are not favorable for the Christians, and I would like to know that you
were not of them.'
'I am however of them, with earnestness. I have been a Christian ever
since I first thoroughly comprehended what it meant.'
'But how can it be possible that, standing as you do at the head as it
were of the nobility and wealth of Rome, you can confound yourself with
this obscure and vulgar tribe? I know that some few of reputation are
with them beside yourself; but how few! Come, come, disabuse yourself of
this error and return to the old, safe, and reputable side.'
'If mere fancy, Marcellinus, had carried me over to the Christians,
fancy or whim might bring me away from them. But if it be, on the other
hand, a question of truth, then it is clear, fashion and respectability,
and even what is safest, or most expedient, are arguments not to be so
much as lisped.'
'No more, no more! I see how it is. You are fairly gone from us.
Nevertheless, though it may be thought needful to check the growth of
this sect, I shall hope that your bark may sail safely along. But this
reported disappearance of Aurelia shows that danger is not far off.'
'Do you then credit the rumor?'
'I can do no otherwise. It is in every part of the town. I shall learn
the truth at the capitol. I go to meet the senate.'
'One moment: Is my judgment of the senate a right one in this, that it
would not second Aurelian in an attack upon the privileges, property, or
lives of the Christians?'
'I think it is. Although, as I know, there are but few Christians in the
body--how many you know surely better than I--yet I am persuaded it
would be averse to acts of intolerance and persecution. Will you not
accompany me to the sitting?'
'Not so early. I am first bound elsewhere.'
'You know, Fausta, that I avoid the senate. Being no longer a senate, a
Roman senate, but a mere gathering of the flatterers of the reigning
Emperor, whoever he may be, neither pleasure nor honor can come of their
company. There is one aspect however, at the present moment, in which
this body is to be contemplated with interest. It is not, in matters of
religion, a superstitious body. Here it stands, between Aurelian with
the populace on his side, and the Christians, or whatever religious body
or sect there should be any design to oppress or exterminate. It
consists of the best and noblest, and richest, of Rome; of those who
have either imbibed their opinions in philosophy and religion from the
ancient philosophers or their living representatives, or are indifferent
and neglectful of the whole subject; which is the more common case. In
either respect they are as a body tolerant of the various forms which
religion or superstition may assume. The only points of interest or
inquiry with them would be, whether any specified faith or ceremonies
tended to the injury of the state? whether they affected to its damage
the existing order of civil affairs? These questions being answered
favorably on the part of the greater number, there would be no
disposition to interfere. Of Christianity, the common judgment in that
body, and among those in the capital who are of the same general rank,
is for the most part favorable. It is commended for its modesty, for the
quiet and unostentatious manner in which its religious affairs are
managed, and for the humble diligence with which it concerns itself with
the common people and the poor, carefully instructing them in the
doctrines of their religion, and relieving liberally their necessities.
I am persuaded, that any decision of the senate concerning the
Christians, would be indulgent and paternal, and that it would, in
opinion and feeling, be opposed to any violence whatever on the part of
Aurelian. But then, alas! it is little that they can do with even the
best purposes. The Emperor is absolute--the only power, in truth, in the
state. The senate exists but in name and form. It has even less
independent power than that of Palmyra had under Zenobia. Yours, indeed,
was dependent through affection and trust, reposing in a higher wisdom
than its own. This, through fear and the spirit of flattery. So many
members too were added, after the murderous thinning of its seats in the
affair of the mint, that, now, scarce a voice would be raised in open
opposition to any course the Emperor might adopt. The new members being
moreover of newer families, nearer the people, are less inclined than