e general character which I believe the whole city would
unite in ascribing to this people. Their mildness and pacific temper
are perhaps the very traits by which they are most distinguished, with
which they are indeed continually reproached. Yet individual acts are
often the remote causes of vast universal evil--of bloodshed, war, and
revolution. Macer alone is enough to set on fire a city, a continent, a
world.

I rejoice, I cannot tell you how sincerely, in all your progress. I do
not doubt in the ultimate return of the city to its former populousness
and wealth, at least. Aurelian has done well for you at last. His
disbursements for the Temple of the Sun alone are vast, and must be more
than equal to its perfect restoration. Yet his overthrown column you
will scarce be tempted to rebuild. Forget not to assure Gracchus and
Calpurnius of my affection. Farewell.

LETTER III.

FROM PISO TO FAUSTA.

You are right, Fausta, in your unfavorable judgment of the Roman
populace. The Romans are not a people one would select to whom to
propose a religion like this of Christianity. All causes seem to combine
to injure and corrupt them. They are too rich. The wealth of subject
kingdoms and provinces finds its way to Rome; and not only in the form
of tribute to the treasury of the empire, but in that of the private
fortunes amassed by such as have held offices in them for a few years,
and who then return to the capital to dissipate in extravagance and
luxuries, unknown to other parts of the world, the riches wrung by
violence, injustice, and avarice from the wretched inhabitants whom
fortune had delivered into their power. Yes, the wealth of Rome is
accumulated in such masses, not through the channels of industry or
commerce; it arrives in bales and ship-loads, drained from foreign lands
by the hand of extortion. The palaces are not to be numbered, built and
adorned in a manner surpassing those of the monarchs of other nations,
which are the private residences of those, or of the descendants of
those who for a few years have presided over some distant province, but
in that brief time, Verres-like, have used their opportunities so well
as to return home oppressed with a wealth which life proves not long
enough to spend, notwithstanding the aid of dissolute and spendthrift
sons. Here have we a single source of evil equal to the ruin of any
people. The morals of no community could be protected against such odds.
It is a m