ne hundred years. At
that time just seven philosophers were teaching in that school, the
shades of the ancient seven sages of Greece--a striking play of history,
like the name of the last West-Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, or, in
contemptuous diminutive, Augustulus, combining the names of the founder
of the city and the founder of the empire.

In the West, heathenism maintained itself until near the middle of the
sixth century, and even later, partly as a private religious conviction
among many cultivated and aristocratic families in Rome, partly even in
the full form of worship in the remote provinces and on the mountains of
Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and partly in heathen customs and popular
usages, like the gladiatorial shows still extant in Rome in 404, and the
wanton Lupercalia, a sort of heathen carnival, the feast of Lupercus,
the god of herds, still celebrated with all its excesses in February,
495. But, in general, it may be said that the Graeco-Roman heathenism, as
a system of worship, was buried under the ruins of the Western empire,
which sank under the storms of the great migration. It is remarkable
that the northern barbarians labored with the same zeal in the
destruction of idolatry as in the destruction of the empire, and really
promoted the victory of the Christian religion. The Gothic king Alaric,
on entering Rome, expressly ordered that the churches of the apostles
Peter and Paul should be spared, as inviolable sanctuaries; and he
showed a humanity, which Augustin justly attributes to the influence of
Christianity (even perverted Arian Christianity) on these barbarous
people. The Christian name, he says, which the heathens blaspheme, has
effected not the destruction, but the salvation of the city. Odoacer,
who put an end to the Western Roman empire in 476, was incited to his
expedition into Italy by St. Severin, and, though himself an Arian,
showed great regard to the catholic bishops. The same is true of his
conqueror and successor, Theodoric the Ostrogoth, who was recognized by
the East-Roman emperor Anastasius as king of Italy (A.D. 500), and was
likewise an Arian. Thus between the barbarians and the Romans, as
between the Romans and the Greeks, and in a measure also the Jews, the
conquered gave laws to the conquerors. Christianity triumphed over both.

This is the end of Graeco-Roman heathenism, with its power, wisdom, and
beauty. It fell a victim to a slow but steady process of incurable