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unbroken peace :-unbroken except by slight hostilities on the frontiers, and the war, confined to a single province, in which the rebellion of the Jews was put down. with fearful slaughter of that unhappy people. After this, however, and towards the conclusion of the period we speak of, wars arose again, and of a more formidable character. But, with the exception of one partial repulse by the Marcomanni, victory after victory still attended the Roman standards under the second Antonine; till the German barbarians, driven into their forests, were reduced to submission: and, in the east also, the Parthian war was ended by the total overthrow of that people, and the capture of their chief cities Artaxata, Seleucia, Ctesiphon. So that the "conquering and to conquer," continued to the end of the period under review. as the magnificent Column of Trajan still remains at And Rome, the just memorial of the triumphs of its commencement, so it has been ordered that there should remain also that of Antoninus Aurelius, the magnificent although inferior monument of those of its close.3

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respect paid them by the barbarians of the frontier. Barbarian kings are represented as receiving a tiara or diadem from them, with the legends, datus," "Rex Quadis datus," &c. See Spanheim, p. 832. Rex Parthis

1 See Gib. i. 381. Schlegel, in his Philosophy of History, ii. 36, thus notices the effectiveness of his triumphs over them: "M. Aurelius, by his successful resistance of the Alemannic invasion, was the means of deterring the barbarians for a long time from similar enterprizes."

2 On the top of this column Trajan's ashes were placed in a golden urn; a triumph having been previously celebrated to his image, in place of himself. A thing unparalleled !

3 The Rev. T. K. Arnold has objected to this my general historic solution of the first Seal's symbol, that the words "went forth conquering and that he should conquer " implies an uninterrupted succession of triumphant wars on the part of the rider of the first horse, without any such long intervals of peace intervening as occurred in the reigns of Adrian and of Antoninus Pius. For a full reply to his objection I must beg to refer to my Answer to his Remarks, pp. 9— 11. Suffice it here to say, 1. that the words themselves quoted imply nothing more than that some remarkable course of conquest was to be the imperial rider's earliest destiny, and that it was also his destiny that conquer he still should whenever and wherever afterwards called into war; just as was in fact the case under Adrian as well as under Antoninus Aurelius:-2. that the horse's colour white, being one indicative of prosperity and happiness, might almost seem to require that there should be long intervals of peace, during the first Seal's period, for the general enjoyment of the rider's primary and subsequent triumphs:-3. that the very language of the second Seal directly implies that a happy peace was to be in fine at least a state of things enjoyed, through the triumphs of the rider on the white horse, under the first Seal, for it says that "It was given to him, (viz. to the rider of the red horse) to take any epηyny, the peace (previously existing)

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Thus far of the triumphs of the empire during the coming æra of its prosperity. But whose the influential agency that would cause them? In other words, who the agents personified by the rider ? Now to ourselves what is related of the reigning emperors throughout this æra, their absolute authority, for as yet the armies were restrained by the firm and gentle hand of these five successive emperors," and the manner in which they used it to cherish the nation's happiness, advance its prosperity, and guide it to its triumphs,must at once have suggested them as the persons symbolized. As Gibbon says, "The delight was theirs of beholding the general happiness of which they were the authors." Nor were the visible symbols wanting in the vision to foreshow the very same to the Evangelist. First the white horse of the rider might suggest it white having been from early times the chosen colour for horses used by Roman generals, and still by Roman Emperors, in their triumphs. So Domitian rode on a white horse, in his father Vespasian's triumph: 3 and Pliny somewhat remarkably notes the custom, in his account of Trajan's return to Rome from his foreign victories. Then the crown given him would seem sufficient absolutely to confirm this impression :

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from the earth." To which implied intimation the glorious peace made by Commodus with the Germans, on their suing for it, immediately after his father Aurelius' death, completing as it did, conjointly with that previously made with the Parthians, the peace of the Roman world, did in fact exactly answer.

In proof of the triumphant character of that peace I beg to refer to Dion Cassius' description of it in detail, B. lxxii. c. 2, 3. Schlegel's judgment should be also noted; given by me p. 128 Note, just previously. ! Gib. i. 127.

2 Ib. So other historians of the period, alike ancient and modern. Thus both Suetonius and Tacitus represent the earlier Emperors of the series, Nerva and Trajan, as introducers of a golden age: and similarly, notwithstanding the dangerous wars, and the plague too, that occurred under the reign of Aurelius, Dion Cassius represents his reign as also of the golden age. Similarly Eutropius, viii. 1, speaking of Nerva's accession and his successors; "Respublica ad prosperrimum statum rediit, bonis principibus ingenti felicitate commissa:" and of Aurelius; "Fortunatam Rempublicam et virtute et mansuetudine reddidit." And so too Victor-Even the Christian writer Lactantius passes his eulogium on its ruling Princes. In his De Mort. Persec. c. 3, ad fin. he says; "Secutis temporibus (sc. post Domitianum) multi boni principes Romani Imperii clavum regimenque tenuerunt." 3 So Suetonius.

4 Panegyr. xxii; "Priores invehi et importari solebant non dico quadrijugo curru et albentibus equis, &c." Compare Servius ad Æn. iii. 537 and also Lactantius, De Mort. Pres. cap. xvi.

the triumph and triumphal crown-wearing having been. from the time of Augustus all but withdrawn, as too great an honour, from subordinate generals; and appropriated, as his own proper distinction, to the reigning Emperor.'

It so happens, indeed, that as regards this very point an objection has been made, and somewhat authoritatively too, to the effect that the diadem, not the separos or crown, would have been the badge represented, if Roman emperors had been symbolized: and that, in fact, instead of the presentation of the crown fixing the meaning to individuals in that high office, the want of the diadem positively precludes the idea of their being the persons meant.2 But the objection has been founded evidently on misapprehension. The respectable writer objecting, (and I believe he is not alone in it,) seems to have confounded either between the kingly and imperial offices, or between the practices of the earlier and later Roman emperors. Let me explain.-By the imperator, or emperor, up to the time of Augustus, was meant, as is well known, simply the victorious Roman general, saluted with that title by his soldiers on the field of battle, and with the triumph and its coveted honours and insignia following. Now though with Augustus and his successors the most absolute monarchial power attached to their emperorship, yet it was their policy to veil it under the old military or imperial badges. Hence their public insignia (of which the mock robing and crowning of Jesus by the Roman soldiery is an affecting remembrancer) 3 were still the laurel crown and purple robe. The assumption of the diadem, or broad white fillet set with pearls, as a badge of oriental despotism, and of the servitude of subject vassals, (so the Romans viewed it,) these emperors carefully shunned. The remembrance long remained with them of the feelings exhibited by the Roman people on its being offered by Antony to their great ancestor Julius Cæsar; insomuch that it was

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1 Gibb. i. 102, Note 10. On the exceptions, see Note p. 131.

* Cuninghame's Apocalypse, p. 5; and Answer to Faber, p. 156, Note. Only in his case it was separos akaveivos: a crown not of laurel, but of thorns. 4 How striking is Cicero's description! "Sedebat in rostris collega tuus,