History of the Roman Empire: From the Accession of Augustus to the End of the Empire of the West

Front Cover
Whittaker and Company, 1850 - Rome - 444 pages

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Contents

I
xiii
II
17
III
36
V
64
VI
74
VII
87
VIII
113
IX
121
XIII
204
XIV
219
XVI
237
XVII
255
XVIII
283
XIX
295
XX
315
XXII
334

X
142
XI
164
XII
186
XXIII
355
XXIV
383
XXV
405

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Page 185 - If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession- of Commodus.
Page 116 - And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
Page 120 - They affirmed that the whole of their fault, or error, lay in this, that they were wont to meet together on a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ, as a god...
Page 389 - If, in the beginning" of the fifth^ century, Tertullian, or Lactantius, had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint, or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and indignation, on the profane spectacle, which had eucceeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian congregation.
Page 389 - ... and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their way through the prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most part, of strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of the feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and, perhaps, of wine.
Page 120 - God, and bind themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them when called upon to return it.
Page 266 - ... what a man might gather from the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of St. Paul, in which number he reckons Timothy for bishop of Ephesus.
Page 390 - Mesopotamia, and the adjacent countries ; and their example was followed with such rapid success, that in a short time the whole east was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who abandoning all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing and miserable existence amidst the hardships of want and various kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous communication with God and angels.
Page 392 - ... the contagious examples of arrogance, luxury, effeminacy, animosity, and strife, with other vices too numerous to mention ; when the inferior rulers and doctors of the church fell into a slothful and opprobrious negligence of the duties of their respective stations, and employed in vain wranglings and idle disputes, that zeal and attention that were due to the culture of piety and to the instruction of their people, and when, to complete the enormity of this horrid detail...
Page 392 - It is true, that the same rigorous penitence, which had taken place before Constantine the Great, continued now in full force against flagrant transgressors ; but when the reign of corruption becomes universal, the vigour of the laws yields to its sway, and a weak execution defeats the purposes of the most salutary discipline. Such was now unhappily the case ; the age was sinking daily from one period of corruption to another; the great and the powerful sinned with impunity; and the obscure and the...

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