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Bernardo Gallegos
Page 06 - Part C
Though the first and second centuries A.D. have often
been called one of the happiest ages in all human history, due to a
succession of good Emperors and peace and quiet throughout the Roman
world, [1] the reign of the last of the good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius
(161-180 A.D.), may be regarded as clearly marking a turning-point in the
history of Roman society. Before his reign Rome was ascendant, prosperous,
powerful; during his reign the Empire was beset by many difficulties--
pestilence, floods, famine, troubles with the Christians, and heavy German
inroads--to which it had not before been accustomed; and after his reign
the Empire was distinctly on the defensive and the decline. Though the
elements contributing to this change in national destiny had their origin
in the changes in the character of the national life at least two
centuries earlier, it was not until now that the Empire began to feel
seriously the effects of these changes in a lowered vitality and a
weakened power of resistance.
The virtues of the citizens of the early days of the Republic, trained
according to the old ideas, had gradually given way in the face of the
vices and corruption which beset and sapped the life of the upper and
ruling classes in the later Empire. The failure of Rome to put its
provincial government on any honest and efficient civil-service basis, the
failure of the State to establish and direct an educational system capable
of serving as a corrective of dangerous national tendencies, the lack of a
guiding national faith, the gradual admission of so many Germans into the
Empire, the great extent and demoralizing influence of slavery [2]--all
contributed to that loss of national strength and resisting power which
was now becoming increasingly evident. Other contributing elements of
importance were the almost complete obliteration of the peasantry by the
creation of great landed estates and cattle ranches worked by slaves, in
place of the small farms of earlier days; the increase of the poor in the
cities, and the declining birth-rate; the introduction of large numbers of
barbarians as farmers and soldiers; and the demoralization of the city
rabble by political leaders in need of votes. Captured slaves performed
almost every service, and a lavish display of wealth on the part of a few
came to be a characteristic feature of city life. [3] The great middle,
commercial, and professional classes were still prosperous and contented,
but luxury, imported vices, slavery, political corruption, and new ideals
[4] had gradually sapped the old national vitality and destroyed the
resisting power of the State in the face of a great national calamity.
Rome now stood, much like the shell of a fine old tree, apparently in good
condition, but in reality ready to fall before the blast because it had
been allowed to become rotten at the heart. Sooner or later the boundaries
of the Empire, which had held against the pressure from without for so
long, were destined to be broken and the barbarian deluge from the north
and east would pour over the Empire.
Source: THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION, by ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
[ Part A ]
[ Part B ]
[ Part C ]
[ Part D ]
[ Part E ]
[ Part F ]
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