the arbitrary conduct of the senate, and confusion reigned for a time; but at length, matters were settled by creating a dictator. He was elected only for six months. The dictator armed the victors with axes, and made many alterations in the customs as well as the laws. At this time, new officers, called tribunes, were created. They were elected by the people, and their persons were sacred. Their duty was to defend the oppressed; to arraign the enemies of the people; to pardon offences; and, at their fiat, to stop all proceedings in every branch of the government,—to put, as it were, their hands upon the heart pulses of the empire, and stop the blood from flowing. This was a dangerous power, for their hatred to the patricians often made them use it most outrageously. The tribunes demanded two other officers, called ediles, who had the care of the public buildings. The buildings were mostly temples of the gods, and their superintendence was nearly connected with religion and morals.

The aristocracy were proud and overbearing, and the lower orders ignorant and vindictive. It was only the intermediate classes that made Rome great, or saved her from destruction, and these found it difficult to restrain the senate, or pacify the rabble. These tribunes were often great men, but could not always do what they would have wished to have done. We must not take Shakspeare's representation for the true one. He, probably, had some design in making them vulgar men: they were not so. In 491, before Christ, the tribunes and the people banished Coriolanus, who deserved his fate for his superciliousness.

In these times of confusion, a patrician, Spurius Cassius Viscillinus, aimed at supreme command. He was

the first who proposed an agrarian law. He soon fell a victim to his ambition.

About this time, the tribunes were increased to ten. Hitherto the Romans had no written laws.

The ordinances of their kings; the decrees of the senate; and their customs and usages, were all the laws they had. They sent a mission to Greece to get the laws of Solon. These laws were engraven upon twelve tables of stone, and hence the laws of the twelve tables. A set of legal forms were soon made, and something like a system grew out of them.

The Romans getting tired of the consular form, changed it to a worse one, by establishing the decemvir, who were invested with all the powers of government. Each presided for a day; and the other nine were engaged at the same time as law judges. But an end was put to the decemvir by the outrageous conduct of Appius Claudius, towards the daughter of Virginius. In this, soldiers,—for Virginius was a soldier of distinction,-senate, people and all, joined to break down this ten headed monster of political birth. The consular and tribunition government were again restored. This was 449 years before Christ. The people made another struggle, which, in fact, succeeded, and that was to repeal the laws prohibiting marriages between the patricians and the lower orders, and preventing these orders from holding any high office, such as consul, &c. The senate struggled hard, but repealed the first law, and then got rid of the other by a compromise; such as making six military tribunes,-three of patricians, and three from the plebeians, instead of consuls.

The people ever restless, because for ever oppressed, soon had the consuls restored. Two new magistrates

were agreed upon, to be called censors, to take the census of the people every five years, and to look after the morals of the community. But this was an aristocratic movement, rather to know where to look for recruits in replenishing their armies, than for any moral purposes. The people stood out against these censors for a while, when the consuls proposed to pay the soldiers for their services; for down to this period, 437 years before Christ, they had not received any pay as soldiers, their reward was a share of their plunder. The people were quieted by this prospect of wages, but the thing was not done without resorting to a dictator for a short period. But the soldiers were no better for being paid, for not long after this period, they were beaten by the Gauls, and Rome was plundered, and burnt to the ground. The Romans showed great energy in building their city again, but the calamity was felt for a long time. The Gauls returned rapacious from a taste of the spoils of Rome; but the people who had labored hard to build the city, now had energy enough to defend it. In 367, before Christ, or about this period, a plebeian was first elected consul, and the office of quæstor was created, who was a sort of military and chancery judge.

Rome had found it for her advantage to be at peace heretofore with Carthage. Their intimacy had been great for two hundred and fifty years; an alliance had been formed which had never been dissolved. In 273, before Christ, the Romans sought cause of war against the Carthagenians,—it was a mere pretence; but sufficient for an ambitious people. The first Punic war was severe, and the Carthagenians sued for peace; but the proud Romans could not bear to see the prosperity of

their rival, and "Delenda est Carthage," was a common cry at Rome. In 218 before Christ, the second Punic war began, and lasted sixteen years, when peace was made between them. In this the Romans had the worst of it in many battles. The third Punic war began 149 before Christ, and ended in three years with the destruction of Carthage.

At this period, Rome conquered Greece, and made that once free country, which had contended against half the world, a Roman province. Within the century then last past, Rome had extended her conquests into Europe, Asia, and Africa. Riches had been amassed, in a measure before unknown in Europe or Asia; and its usual consequences, luxury and dissipation, followed in their train. `The Gracchii made an effort to bring back the people to temperance and industry, but in vain. They fell in the struggle. The manly virtues remained in the breasts of a few only, and the spirit of patriotism was nearly extinct. The senate became as corrupt as the people; and their judgment in favor of Jugurtha, was as indelible a stain on Roman virtue as the conspiracy of Catiline, in a subsequent period.

The civil wars of Marius and Sylla shook Rome to its centre. Marius was a plebeian, and Sylla a patrician, which embittered their rancor towards each other and their adherents. Marius was the greater man, in point of talents, but it would be hard to say which of the two was the greater villain. Marius died the last, but neither lived long to scourge mankind and to depopulate Rome. Next the rivalry of Lepidus and Pompey kept the city in a state of agitation. Catiline's conspiracy happened in the mean time, which threatened Rome with destruction. He was a most consummate traitor;

and the name of Catiline has come down to us a term for all that is great in villany, reckless and daring in action, and deep in plot and stratagem.

Then Cæsar arose, the loftiest name in the history of military chieftains,--learned, eloquent, brave, generous, confiding, and ambitious. He became master of Rome, was made consul, dictator, imperator, and might have had a crown, if he had lived a little longer. He was using his mighty power in clemency and wisdom, devising great things for Rome,-to give to the eternal city all the wisdom and glory that any city ever enjoyed,-when he was struck dead by the daggers of a numerous band of conspirators; who paid, in the end, for their perfidy. His eloquence was inferior to none but Cicero's, and of this I am not satisfied. He reformed the calendar of Rome, and restored the year to its true state by the equinoxes. His commentaries have come down to us as an elegant model for the historian. They are remarkable for neatness, modesty, and discrimination; they are productions of a clear, lofty, noble mind; and should be read by every one who loves greatness of thought, or simplicity of style, united to dignity and elegance. He fell forty-four years before the Christian era.

Lepidus, Anthony, and Augustus Cæsar, then formed a triumvirate, which was soon destroyed, and Augustus was made the first emperor. During the triumvirate, Cicero, the orator, was slain. As an orator, he was considered by his countrymen as having no rival; and by most men of letters since, as having no superior on the list of ancient or modern orators. The productions of his pen are great in number, and many of them of considerable extent. For depth of philosophy,