Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
leave them to make what impression they may.
When I just spoke of the sensation which my adoption of the Christian
system had caused in Rome, I did not mean to convey any idea like this,
that it has been rare for the intelligent and cultivated to attach
themselves to this despised religion. On the contrary, it would be true
were I to say, that they who accept Christianity, are distinguished for
their intelligence; that estimated as a class, they rank far above the
lowest. It is not the dregs of a people who become reformers of
philosophy or religion; who grow dissatisfied with ancient opinions upon
exalted subjects, and search about for better, and adopt them. The
processes involved in this change, in their very nature, require
intelligence, and imply a character of more than common elevation. It is
neither the lowest nor the highest who commence, and at first carry on,
a work like this; but those who fill the intermediate spaces. The lowest
are dead as brute matter to such interests; the highest--the rich, the
fashionable, the noble, from opposite causes just as dead; or if they
are alive at all, it is with the rage of denunciation and opposition.
They are supporters of the decent usages sanctioned by antiquity, and
consecrated by the veneration of a long line of the great and noble.
Whether they themselves believe in the system which they uphold or not,
they are equally tenacious of it. They would preserve and perpetuate it,
because it has satisfied, at any rate bound and overawed, the multitude
for ages: and the experiment of alteration or substitution is too
dangerous to be tried. Most indeed reason not, nor philosophize at all,
in the matter. The instinct that makes them Romans in their worship of
the power and greatness of Rome, and attachment to her civil forms,
makes them Romans in their religion, and will summon them, if need be,
to die for the one and the other.
Religion and philosophy have accordingly nothing to hope from this
quarter. It is those whom we may term the substantial middle classes,
who, being least hindered by prejudices and pride of order, on the one
hand, and incapacitated by ignorance on the other, have ever been the
earliest and best friends of progress in any science. Here you find the
retired scholar, the thoughtful and independent farmer, the skilful
mechanic, the enlightened merchant, the curious traveller, the
inquisitive philosopher--all fitted, beyond those of either extreme, for
exercising a sound judgment upon such questions, and all more interested
in them. It is out of these that Christianity has made its converts.
They are accordingly worthy of universal respect. I have examined with
diligence, and can say that there live not in Rome a purer and more
noble company than the Christians. When I say however that it is out of
these whom I have just specified, that Christianity has made its
converts, I do not mean to say out of them exclusively. Some have joined
them in the present age, as well as in every age past, from the most
elevated in rank and power. If in Nero's palace, and among his chief
ministers, there were Christians, if Domitilla, Domitian's niece, was a
Christian, if the emperor Philip was a Christian, so now a few of the
same rank may be counted, who openly, and more who secretly, profess
this religion. But they are very few. So that you will not wonder that
when the head of the ancient and honorable house of the Pisos, the
friend of Aurelian, and allied to the royal family of Palmyra, declared
himself to be of this persuasion, no little commotion was observable in
Rome--not so much among the Christians as among the patricians, among
the nobility, in the court and palace of Aurelian. The love of many has
grown cold, and the outward tokens of respect are withheld. Brows
darkened by the malignant passions of the bigot are bent upon me as I
pass along the streets, and inquiries, full of scornful irony, are made
after the welfare of my new friends. The Emperor changes not his
carriage toward me, nor, I believe, his feelings. I think he is too
tolerant of opinion, too much a man of the world, to desire to curb and
restrain the liberty of his friends in the quarter of philosophy and
religion. I know indeed on the other hand, that he is religious in his
way, to the extreme of superstition, but I have observed no tokens as
yet of any purpose or wish to interfere with the belief or worship of
others. He seems like one who, if he may indulge his own feelings in his
own way, is not unwilling to concede to others the same freedom.
* * * * *
As I was writing these last sentences, I became conscious of a voice
muttering in low tones, as if discoursing with itself, and upon no very
agreeable theme. I heeded it not at first, but wrote on. At length it
ran thus, and I was compelled to give ear:
Patience, patience--greatest of virtues, yet hardest of practice! To
wait indeed for a kingdom were something, though it were upon a bed of
thorns; to suffer for the honor of truth, were more; more in itself, and
more in its rewards. But patience, when a fly stings, or a fool speaks,
or worse, when time is wasted and lost, is--the virtue in this case
mayhap is greater after all--but it is harder, I say, of practice--that
is what I say--yet, for that very reason, greater! By Hercules! I
believe it is so. So that while I wait here, my virtue of patience is
greater than that of these accursed Jews. Patience then, I say,
patience!'
'What in the name of all antiquity,' I exclaimed, turning round as the
voice ceased, 'is this flood of philosophy for? Wherein have I
offended?'
'Offended!' cried the other; 'Nay, noble master, not offended. According
to my conclusion, I owe thee thanks; for while I have stood waiting to
catch thy eye and ear, my virtue has shot up like a wild vine. The soul
has grown. I ought therefore rather to crave forgiveness of thee, for
breaking up a study which was so profound, and doubtless so agreeable
too.'
'Agreeable you will certainly grant it, when I tell you I was writing to
your ancient friend and pupil, the daughter of Gracchus.'
'Ah, the blessings of all the gods upon her. My dreams are still of her.
I loved her, Piso, as I never loved beside, either form, shadow, or
substance. I used to think that I loved her as a parent loves his
child--a brother his sister; but it was more than that. Aristotle is not
so dear to me as she. Bear witness these tears! I would now, bent as I
am, travel the Syrian deserts to see her; especially if I might hear
from her mouth a chapter of the great philosopher. Never did Greek,
always music, seem so like somewhat more divinely harmonious than
anything of earth, as when it came through her lips. Yet, by Hercules!
she played me many a mad prank! 'Twould have been better for her and for
letters, had I chastised her more, and loved her less. Condescend, noble
Piso, to name me to her, and entreat her not to fall away from her
Greek. That will be a consolation under all losses, and all sorrows.'
'I will not fail to do so. And now in what is my opinion wanted?'
'It is simply in the matter of these volumes, where thou wilt have them
bestowed. The cases here, by their superior adorning, seem designed for
the great master of all, and his disciples; and it is here I would fain
order them. Would it so please thee?'
'No, Solon, not here. That is designed for a very different Master and
his disciples.'
Solon looked at me as if unwilling to credit his ears, hoping that
something would be added more honorable to the affronted philosopher and
myself. But nothing coming, he said:
'I penetrate--I apprehend. This, the very centre and post of honor, thou
reservest for the atheistical Jews. The gods help us! I doubt I should
straight resign my office. Well, well; let us hope that the increase of
years will bring an increase of wisdom. We cannot look for fruit on a
sapling. Youth seeks novelty. But the gods be thanked! Youth lasts not
long, but is a fault daily corrected; else the world were at a bad pass.
Rome is not fallen, nor the fame of the Stagyrite hurt for this. But
'tis grievous to behold!'
So murmuring, as he retreated to the farther part of the library, with
his bundle of rolls under his arm, he again busied himself in the labors
of his office.
I see, Fausta, the delight that sparkles in your eye and breaks over
your countenance, as you learn that Solon, the incomparable Solon, is
one of my household. No one whom I could think of, appeared so well
suited to my wants as librarian, as Solon, and I can by no means convey
to you an idea of the satisfaction with which he hailed my offer; and
abandoning the rod and the brass tablets, betook himself to a labor
which would yield him so much more leisure for the perusal of his
favorite authors, and the pursuit of his favorite studies. He is already
deep in the question, 'whether the walls of Troy were accommodated with
thirty-three or thirty-nine gates,' and also in this, 'what was the
method of construction adopted in the case of the wooden horse, and what
was its capacity?' Of his progress in these matters, I will duly inform
you.
But I weary your patience. Farewell.
* * * * *
Piso, alluding in this letter to the slaughter on the Coelian Hill,
which happened not long before it was written, I will add here that
whatever color it may have pleased Aurelian to give to that affair--as
if it were occasioned by a dishonest debasement of the coin by the
directors of the mint--there is now no doubt, on the part of any who are
familiar with the history of that period, that the difficulty originated
in a much deeper and more formidable cause, well known to Aurelian
himself, but not spoken of by him, in alluding to the event. It is
certain, then, that the civil war which then befel, for such it was, was
in truth the breaking out of a conspiracy on the part of the nobles to
displace Aurelian--'a German peasant,' as they scornfully designated
him--and set one of their own order upon the throne. They had already
bought over the chief manager of the public mint--a slave and favorite
of Aurelian--and had engaged him in creating, to serve the purposes
which they had in view, an immense issue of spurious coin. This they had
used too liberally, in effecting some of the preliminary objects of
their movement. It was suspected, tried, proved to be false, and traced
to its authors. Before they were fully prepared, the conspirators were
obliged to take to their arms, as the only way in which to save
themselves from the executioner. The contest was one of the bloodiest
ever known within the walls of the city. It was Aurelian, with a few
legions of his army, and the people--always of his part--against the
wealth and the power of the nobility, and their paid adherents. In one
day, and in one battle, as it may be termed, fifteen thousand soldiers
and citizens were slain in the streets of the capital. Truly does Piso
say, the streets of the Coelian ran blood. I happily was within the
walls of the queen's palace at Tibur; but well do I remember the horror
of the time--especially the days succeeding the battle, when the
vengeance of the enraged conqueror fell upon the noblest families of
Rome, and the axe of the executioner was blunted and broken with the
savage work which it did.
No one has written of Aurelian and his reign, who has not applauded him
for the defence which he made of his throne and crown, when traitorously
assailed within the very walls of the capital; but all unite also in
condemning that fierce spirit of revenge, which, after the contest was
over and his power secure, by confiscation, banishment, torture and
death, involved in ruin so many whom a different treatment would have