characters worthy of notice. Their names were Galba, Otho, and Vitellius.

Vespasian, having supplanted Vitellius, was declared Emperor by the senate, A.D. 70. When the way to the empire opened to him, he was engaged in subduing the Jews who had revolted; and being under the necessity of coming to Rome, he left his son, Titus, to conduct the Jewish war.

Vespasian was not tainted with the vices of the preceding emperors. He was a man of austere manners, and set himself steadily to reform the profligacy of the citizens and the army, and was respected by both. The most remarkable event of his reign was the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and dispersion of the Jews. This event took place A.D. 69. The open country and provincial towns had been subdued by Vespasian, and the Jews made their last stand in the city of Jerusalem. This city was strongly fortified, and defended with the utmost obstinacy. When the besiegers forced their way into it, a scene of unexampled carnage ensued. Titus attempted to save the temple, but in vain. The city and temple were burned to the ground, every wall thrown down, and the ground on which it stocd ploughed up and sowed with salt, as the emblem of perpetual desolation. Thus was the prediction of our Lord fulfilled, that not one stone of the temple should be left on another.

Vespasian and Titus then entered Rome in triumph. A triumphal arch was erected for the occasion, which still stands almost entire. On this arch are sculptured some of the scenes of the Jewish war, and among others, the Roman soldiers bearing in triumph the tables of show bread, the silver trumpets, and the golden candlestick with seven branches. Vespasian also built a prodigious amphitheatre, capable of holding 80,000 spectators seated and 20,000 standing, which still remains almost entire, and is known by the name of the Colliseum. Twelve thousand Jewish captives were employed in its erection. Vespasian reigned ten years, and died, leaving his son Titus to succeed to the empire.

Titus ascended the throne, A.D. 79, and has been held up to all ages as a prince possessing almost every virtue. It is to be observed, however, that he reigned only a short time and that most of the Roman emperors

began their reigns well. In the first year of his reign, eruptions of Mount Vesuvius took place, by which the city of Herculaneum was overwhelmed in a torrent of lava, and Pompeii buried under an immense mass of ashes. After a reign of two years and two months, Titus was seized with a violent fever, of which he died, not without the suspicion of having been poisoned by his brother, Domitian.

Domitian succeeded him, A.D. 81, and at first reigned well, but soon became one of the most degraded and detestable of the Roman emperors. Men were daily put to death for the most trivial causes. In his reign, the second persecution of the Christians took place, when the apostle John was banished to the island of Patmos, and there wrote his Apocalypse, or book of Revelation. At length his wife, Domitia, having discovered that her name was inserted in his tablets to be destroyed, and also the names of several officers about the palace, headed a conspiracy against him, by which he was put to death.

Nerva, an amiable but somewhat imbecile man, was proclaimed by the senate. He recalled all the Christians who had been banished from Rome during the former reign. Finding the soldiery disposed to dictation and tumult, and his own strength decaying, for he was about 65 years of age when called to the throne, he chose Ulpius Trajan to succeed him; and about three months after died, having reigned only one year and four months. Nerva was the first foreigner that ever reigned in Rome.

Trajan accordingly succeeded him, A.D. 98. He was a Spaniard by birth, a man of great vigour both of body and mind, and proved a warlike and energetic prince. He was led away by the prejudices that existed against the Christians, permitted them, about the ninth year of his reign, to be furiously persecuted; and many were put to death by popular tumults, and by judicial proceedings. After some time, however, being satisfied that they were an unoffending people, he put a stop to the persecution.

In the east, Trajan extended the limits of his empire; but, on returning towards Rome, he was seized in the city of Selucia with apoplexy, of which he died, after a reign of 19 years, A.D. 117. A splendid column was erected to his memory, which still continues to be one of the most interesting ornaments of modern Rome.

SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES.-Adrian, the nephew of Trajan, was chosen to succeed him.-The character of his government was totally different from that of Trajan. He was a man of peace, and adopted every method to promote and maintain peace.

He gave orders for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which work was performed with great expedition, by the assistance of the Jews; but that infatuated people being enraged by the privileges which were granted to the Pagan worshippers in their renovated city, fell upon the Romans and Christians that were dispersed through Judea and mercilessly put them to the sword. Adrian then banished all Jews from Judea, and forbade them, on pain of death, to come within view of it.

Adrian spent a considerable part of his time in travelIng through the empire. He visited Britain; and for the better security of the southern parts of this province, built a wall of earth and stone across the island, between the river Eden, in Cumberland, and the Tyne, in Northumberland, some portions of which can still be traced. He died after a reign of nearly 22 years, A.D. 138, and was succeeded by

Antoninus, who, partly from his attachment to the idol worship of the empire, and partly from his tenderness to Adrian while he was dying, has obtained the name of Pius. His character stands high for justice and moderation. He nominated as his successor,

Marcus Aurelius, who also took the name of Antoninus, and accordingly succeeded to the empire; but associated with him Lucius Verus. Marcus Aurelius is frequently called Antoninus Philosophus, and is thus distinguished from his predecessor, Antoninus Pius. He is justly regarded as one of the best of the Roman emperors.

When Antoninus came to the throne, he was urged by the pagan priests and others to persecute the Christians, but he received that proposal with indignation; and on the contrary, interposed his authority for their protection. During his reign, the Roman rampart which ran between the Forth and the Clyde in Scotland, known vulgarly by the name of Graham's Dyke, was built.

During the remainder of this century and the whole of the third, we have a succession of emperors whose names scarcely deserve to be remembered. They were

usually commanders of armies, raised to the empire by the soldiery, and generally removed by assassination or killed in battle with some successful competitor for the crown. Among this line of princes, Didius Julianus is memorable for having purchased the empire for a large sum of money, the Prætorian soldiers having had the insolence to set it up for sale. Caracalla distinguished himself, even in that age, by his atrocious wickedness. Heliogabalus distinguished himself by his effeminacy. The name of Dioclesian will ever be remembered for his merciless and persevering persecutions of the Christians.

SECOND ERA.-Constantine.

At this era, the Roman empire still retained its ascendancy; but its armies had lost much of their energy. They had been pampered and ruined by success, and had taken into their own hands the appointment of the emperors. Constantine having built Constantinople, constituted it the capital of the eastern portion of the empire, and thus rent the empire into two parts. He also became professedly a Christian; and his accession drew multitudes into the church, many of whom, in all probability, knew little of Christianity beyond the name.

FOURTH CENTURY.-Constantine having become sole monarch, adopted measures for establishing Christianity as the religion of the empire, which was effected, as would appear, without much difficulty. The battle had already been fought in the diffusion of the truth; so that a large portion of his subjects were already professing Christians.

Another important change introduced by this emperor was his building Constantinople, and constituting that city the capital of the empire, and removing thither with. his whole court. This measure ultimately caused a division of the empire into the western and eastern: the capital of the one being Rome, and that of the other Constantinople. This result was hastened by his dividing the empire among his three sons. Constantine died, A.D. 337, and was succeeded by his three sons,

Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. The weakness

produced by this division encouraged the enemies of the empire, who had been restrained by the power and vigour of Constantine, to take up arms. Constantine and Constans perished in attempting to obtain the ascendancy in the empire; and having chosen Julian, nephew of Constantine the Great, and his own cousin, to be associated with him in the empire afterwards, Constantius thus became monarch of the whole Roman empire. A civil war was averted by the death of Constantius, when Julian became emperor A.D. 361. He had been educated in Christianity, but had a strong bias towards the Pagan religion and philosophy. While he was a subject, he continued to profess Christianity, or at least not openly to deny it; but when he attained to supreme power, he openly embraced Paganism. From this circumstance he has acquired the name of the apostate. He did not, however, persecute the Christians. He had observed that persecution only increased their numbers. He therefore attacked them by more subtle means,-by fomenting quarrels among them, by discountenancing them, by encouraging and favouring Pagans, and by reviving the Pagan worship, which had fallen into disuse, in all its splendour; also by arguing against Christianity in his writings and conversations. For the purpose of providing such an argument, he attempted to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; but could not succeed. The most respectable writers of his age attribute the defeat of this attempt to a miraculous interposition, which interrupted the workmen, so that they did not dare to proceed with the work. But whether the interposition was miraculous or not, it is agreed on all hands, that the attempt was made by Julian, a monarch of the Roman empire, and that it failed. He was killed in a war with the Persians.

The latter part of this century is remarkable for the bursting in of the Goths, Vandals, and Hunns, into the empire, with irresistible fury. Towards the end of it Alaric, a Gothic king professing Christianity, descended upon Rome itself. He was at first induced to spare the city by a large ransom, but afterwards he assailed it, took and plundered it, massacring many of the inhabitants.

In the eastern empire, nothing worthy of being noticed in this brief narrative is recorded, from the reig Constantine till the end of this century.