as been but little explored. It was the larger and more
important city of the two, while none of its treasures could have been
recovered by their owners. The art relics found there far exceed in
interest and value those of Pompeii, but the work is so difficult that
as yet very little has been done in the task of restoring this "dead
city of Campania" to the light of the modern day.

_AN IMPERIAL SAVAGE._

We have now reached the period in which began the decline and fall of
the Roman empire. Its story is crowded with events, but lacks those
dramatic and romantic incidents which give such interest to the history
of early Rome. Now good emperors ruled, now bad ones followed, now peace
prevailed, now war raged; the story grows monotonous as we advance. The
reigns of virtuous emperors yield much to commend but little to
describe; those of wicked emperors repel us by their enormities and
disgust us by their follies. We must end our tales with a few selections
from the long and somewhat dreary list.

[Illustration: EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF MARCUS AURELIUS.]

After Vespasian came to the throne, a period of nearly two centuries
elapsed during most of which Rome was governed by men of virtue and
ability, though cursed for a time by the reigns of the cruel Domitian,
the dissolute Commodus, the base Caracalla, and the foolish Elagabalus.
Fortunately, none of the monsters who disgraced the empire reigned long.
Assassination purified the throne. The total length of reign of the
cruel monarchs of Rome covered no long space of time, though they occupy
a great space in history.

We have now to tell how the patrician families of Rome lost their hold
upon the throne, and a barbarian peasant became lord and master of this
vast empire, of which his ancestors of a few generations before had
perhaps scarcely heard. The story is an interesting one, and well worth
repeating.

Just after the year 200 A.D. the emperor Septimius Severus, father of
the notorious Caracalla, while returning from an expedition to the East,
halted in Thrace to celebrate, with military games, the birthday of
Geta, his youngest son. The spectacle was an enticing one, and the
country-people for many miles round gathered in crowds to gaze upon
their sovereign and behold the promised sports.

Among those who came was a young barbarian of such gigantic stature and
great muscular development as to excite the attention of all who saw
him. In a rude dialect, which