lines of defence against the free races of the north. In Africa we find him soothing the disquiet caused of late by the panic fears of Jewish massacres and Roman vengeance. His diplo

macy

and liberal courtesies dispel the clouds of war that gather on the lines of the Euphrates and are serious enough to require his presence on the scene. On the plains of Troy we hear of him gazing around him in the spirit of a pilgrim, and solemnly burying the gigantic relics in which his reverent fancy saw the bones of Ajax. The great towns of western Asia are proud to let their emperor see their wealth, their industry, their teeming populations; they have to thank him for many a public monument of note, and record upon the coinage in many a varying phrase and symbol his justice, liberality and guardian care.

But it was in Athens that he tarried longest, or hither he came most frequently to find repose as in his favorite home. Here in the centre of the old Hellenic art, he put off awhile the soldier and the prince, and soothed himself with the amenities of liberal culture. He tried to fancy himself back in the Greek life of palmier days; he presided at the public games, sat by to witness the feats of literary skill, raised the theatres and temples from their ruins, and asked to be admitted to the venerable mysteries of their national faith. To the Athens

of old days he added a new quarter, to be called henceforth Hadrian's city; he gave it a new code of laws to rival those of Draco and of Solon, and recalled some shadowy memories of its days of sovereign power by making it mistress of the isle of Kephallonia. It had already academic fame, and drew its scholars from all lands; its public professorships had given a recognized status to its studies; fresh endowments were bestowed upon its chairs with a liberal hand, and nothing was spared for the encouragement of learning.

The lecturers on rhetoric and philosophy, the so-called sophists, basked in the sunshine of imperial favor, had immunities and bounties showered upon them, and were raised at times to offices of state and high command. One of them was intrusted with a princely fortune to beautify the city which he honored with his learned presence. Another found his professional income large enough to feed his fellow-citizens

in time of famine. A third, the writer Arrian, was taken from his Stoic musings to fill the place of general and governor of Cappadocia, one of the largest of the provinces of Rome. There in his turn he followed the example set him in high quarters, started from Trapezus (Trebizond) upon a journey of discovery round the coasts of the Black Sea, visited the seats of the old colonial enterprises of Miletus, studied with a careful eye the extent of trade and the facilities for intercourse in prosperous regions not yet ruined by the incursions of barbarian hordes. The explorer's journey ended, he wrote a valuable memoir to his master; which is of interest as gathering up all that geography had learned upon the subject.

There was yet another ancient land which had manifold attractions for the tourist. It was seemingly in later life that Hadrian tarried long in Egypt, to explore the wonders of its art and study the genius of its people. He looked no doubt with curious eye upon the pyramids, the sphinxes, and the giant piles of Carnac, and the rude lines may still be read upon the face of Memnon's vocal statue which tell us of the visit of his wife Sabina. His curious fancy found enough to stir it in the secrets of the mystic lore which had been handed down from bygone ages, in the strange medley of the wisdom and the folly which crossed each other in the national thought, in their strong hold on the belief in an unseen world and the moral government of Providence, in the animal worship which had plunged of late a whole neighborhoood into deadly feud about the conflicting claims of cat and ibis, and made rival towns dispute in arms their right to feed in their midst the sacred bull called Apis for the adoration of the rest. He could not but admire the great Museum of the Ptolemies, the magnificent seat of art and literature and science, the home for centuries of so much academic wit and learning.

In that land of many wonders the people of Alexandria were not the least. In a letter to his brother-in-law which still remains we may see the mocking insight with which the emperor studied the changing moods of the great city, full, as it seemed to him, of soothsayers, astrologers, and quacks, of worshipers of Christ and votaries of Serapis, passing in their fickleness from extreme of loyalty to that of license, so indus

trious by instinct as to tolerate no idle lounger in their midst, and yet withal so turbulent as to be incapable of governing themselves, professing reverence for many a rival deity, yet all alike paying their court to Mammon.

But even as he scoffed at the fanciful extravagance of Egypt, he was unmanned by the spell of her distempered thought. As he traveled on the Nile, we read, he was busy with magic arts which called for a human victim. One of his train, a Bithynian shepherd of rare beauty, was ready to devote himself, and died to give a moment's pleasure to his master. Another story tells us only that he fell into the river, and died an involuntary death. But both agree in this at least, that Hadrian loved him fondly, mourned him deeply, and would not be comforted when he was gone. He could not bring him back to life, but he could honor him as no sovereign had honored man before. The district where he died must bear his name, and a city grew on the spot where he was buried. If the old nomes of Egypt had their tutelary beasts which they worshiped as divine, the Antinoite might claim like rank for the new hero who had given it a name, might build temples to his memory, consult his will in oracles, and task the arts of Greece to lodge him worthily. religion spread beyond those narrow bounds. of the Greek and Eastern world caught the fever of this servile adoration, built altars and temples to Antinous, founded festivals to do him honor, and dressed him up to modern fancy in the attributes and likeness of their ancient gods. The sculptor's art lent itself with little scruple to the spreading flattery of the fashion, reproduced him under countless forms as its favorite type of beauty, while poets laureate sung his praises, and provincial mints put his face and name upon their medals.

Soon the new City after city

We may see the tokens at this time of an influence rather cosmopolitan than Roman. By his visible concern for the well-being of the provinces, by his long-continued wanderings. in every land, by his Hellenic sympathies and tastes, Hadrian lessened certainly the attractive force of the old imperial city, and dealt a blow at her ascendancy over men's minds. Not indeed that he treated her with any marked neglect. The round of shows and largesses went on as usual: the public

granaries were filled, the circus was supplied with costly victims, and the proud paupers of the streets had little cause to grumble. The old religions of home growth were guarded by the state with watchful care, and screened from the dangerous rivalry of the deeper sentiment or more exciting rituals of the East. In her streets he himself wore the toga, the citizen's traditional dress of state, required the senators to do the like, and so revived for a time decaying custom. But the provinces began to feel themselves more nearly on a level with the central city. Every year the doors of citizenship seemed to open wider as one after another of the towns was raised by special grace to the Latin or the Roman status. Each emperor had done his part towards the diffusion of the rights which had been the privilege of the capital in olden time; and Hadrian made them feel that he was ruling in the interests of all without distinction, since he spent his life in wandering through their midst, and met their wants with liberal and impartial hand. They looked therefore less and less to Rome to set the tone and guide the fashions. The great towns of Alexandria and Antioch, the thriving marts of Asia Minor, were separate centres of influence and commerce; and Greece, meanwhile, spectral and decayed as were her ancient cities, resumed her intellectual sway over men's minds, students of all lands flocked to her university of culture, and the tongue which her poets, philosophers, and orators had spoken became henceforth. without a rival the literary language of the world. The speech of Cicero and Virgil gradually lost its purity and power; scholars disdained to pen their thoughts in it: taste and fashion seemed to shun it, and scarcely a great name is added after this to the roll of its writers of renown.-W. W. CAPES.

NYSAVG

IMP CAESARTRAIANUSHAD

N the fourth century Christianity was the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. The old faith had lost in numbers and influence, and received social ostracism. as being only the pagan, that is, the peasant religion. The Christian Church had little to fear from the old enemy of Roman superstition, but much cause of disquietude from hypocrisy and hollow piety on the one hand, and bitter sectarian hostility on the other. The church's history at this critical juncture is adorned with the illustrious name of Ambrosius, Archbishop of Milan.

Ambrose was born in the year 340, in the palace of his father, Ambrosius, pretorian prefect of Gaul. His mother was a devout Christian; his sister, the oldest of the family, received the veil at the hands of Pope Liberius; his brother, Satyrus, became an eloquent lawyer and the governor of a province. Between these brothers and the sister there remained through life a bond of the closest affection. The family counted among its ancestors several men of pretorian and consular rank, and one martyr for the Christian faith who suffered under Diocletian. His father having died when Ambrose was only twelve years of age, his mother left Treves and went to reside at Rome, where she might obtain for her son an education befitting his rank and the expectations formed of him. He was well trained in Greek and Latin literature, and seems to have made a special study of Virgil.

On completing his classical studies Ambrose proceeded to