of virtue. In the
second, that of Virginia, it was the insurrection of Appius Claudius
against the inviolability of love, dual insurrections, probably mythical,
which Rome, with legendary fury, suppressed, and which, whether historic
or imaginary, was typical of the energetic character that made her what
she was, proud, despotic, sovereign of the world.

"The empire that Rome won," St. Augustin, with agreeable ingenuousness,
remarked, "God gave her in order that, though pagan and consequently
unrewardable hereafter, her virtues should not remain unrecognized below."
Nor were they, and that, too, despite the fact that they omitted to
endure, except, as Cicero said, in books; "in old books," he added, "which
no one reads any more." But in the interim three things had occurred.
Greece, wounded to the death, had flooded Rome with the hemorrhages of her
expiring art. Asia had undyked the sea of her corruption. Both had
cascaded their riches. Rome hitherto had been poor, she had been puritan.
Hers had been the peasant's hard plain life. The costume of the matron,
which custom had made stately, the lex Oppia had made severe. This
statute, passed at the time of the Carthagenian invasion, was a measure of
public utility devised to increase the budget of war. Its abrogation
coincided with the fall of Macedon and the return of AEmilius Paulus,
bringing with him the sack of seventy cities, the prodigious booty of
ravaged Greece, the prelude to that of the East. Behind these eruptions
was the contagion of fastidious caprices that demoralized Rome.

Heretofore, innocent of excesses, ignorant of refinements, in antique
simplicity, Rome had sat briefly and upright before her frugal fare.
Thereafter, on cushioned beds were repasts, long and savorous, eaten to
the sound of crotal and of flute. There were after-courses of ballerine
and song, the refreshment of perfume, the luxurious tonic of the bath, the
red feather that enabled one to eat again, the marvels of Asiatic
debauchery, the surprises of Hellenic grace. In the charm of foreign
spells former austerities were forgot. Romans who had not been initiated
in them abroad had the returning victors for tutors at home.

Sylla was particularly instructive. Carthagenian in ferocity, Babylonian
in lubricity, Hamilcar and Belshazzar in one, the ugliest and most
formidable Roman of the lot, his life, which an ulcer ravaged, was a
succession of massacres, orgies, and crimes. Married one after