Part 43 (2/2)

76. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN THE THIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES

THE ”FALL” OF ROME

Rome, it has been said, was not built in a day; the rule of Rome was not destroyed in a day. When we speak of the ”fall” of Rome, we have in mind, not a violent catastrophe which suddenly plunged the civilized world into ruin, but rather the slow and gradual decay of ancient society throughout the basin of the Mediterranean. This decay set in long before the Germans and the Persians became a serious danger to the empire. It would have continued, doubtless, had there been no Germans and Persians to break through the frontiers and destroy. The truth seems to be that, during the third and fourth centuries of our era, cla.s.sical civilization, like an overtrained athlete, had grown ”stale.”

DEPOPULATION DUE TO THE SLAVE SYSTEM

It is not possible to set forth all the forces which century after century had been sapping the strength of the state. The most obvious element of weakness was the want of men to fill the armies and to cultivate the fields. The slave system seems to have been partly responsible for this depopulation. The peasant on his little homestead could not compete with the wealthy n.o.ble whose vast estates were worked by gangs of slaves. The artisan could not support himself and his family on the pittance that kept his slave compet.i.tor alive. Peasants and artisans gradually drifted into the cities, where the public distributions of grain, wine, and oil a.s.sured them of a living with little expense and almost without exertion. In both Italy and the provinces there was a serious decline in the number of free farmers and free workingmen.

”RACE SUICIDE”

But slavery was not the only cause of depopulation. There was a great deal of what has been called ”race suicide” in the old Roman world. Well-to-do people, who could easily support large families, often refused to be burdened with them. Childlessness, however, was not confined to the wealthy, since the poorer cla.s.ses, crowded in the huge lodging houses of the cities, had no real family life. Roman emperors, who saw how difficult it was to get a sufficient number of recruits for the army, and how whole districts were going to waste for lack of people to cultivate them, tried to repopulate the empire by force of law. They imposed penalties for the childlessness and celibacy of the rich, and founded inst.i.tutions for the rearing of children, that the poor might not fear to raise large families.

Such measures were scarcely successful. ”Race suicide” continued during pagan times and even during the Christian age.

LOSS OF REVENUES

The next most obvious element of weakness was the shrinkage of the revenues. The empire suffered from want of money, as well as from want of men. To meet the heavy cost of the luxurious court, to pay the salaries of the swarms of public officials, to support the idle populace in the great cities required a vast annual income. But just when public expenditures were rising by leaps and bounds, it became harder and harder to secure sufficient revenue. Smaller numbers meant fewer taxpayers. Fewer taxpayers meant a heavier burden on those who survived to pay.

ECONOMIC RUIN

These two forces--the decline in population and the decline in wealth-- worked together to produce economic ruin. It is no wonder, therefore, that in province after province large tracts of land went out of cultivation, that the towns decayed, and that commerce and manufactures suffered an appalling decline. ”Hard times” settled on the Roman world.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY

Doubtless still other forces were at work to weaken the state and make it incapable of further resistance to the barbarians. Among such forces we must reckon Christianity itself. By the close of the fourth century Christianity had become the religion of the empire. The new faith, as we shall soon see, helped, not to support, but rather to undermine, pagan society.

77. THE PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY

DECLINE OF PAGANISM

Several centuries before the rise of Christianity many Greek thinkers began to feel a growing dissatisfaction with the crude faith that had come down to them from prehistoric times. They found it more and more difficult to believe in the Olympian deities, who were fas.h.i.+oned like themselves and had all the faults of mortal men. [10] An adulterous Zeus, a bloodthirsty Ares, and a scolding Hera, as Homer represents them, were hardly divinities that a cultured Greek could love and wors.h.i.+p. For educated Romans, also, the rites and ceremonies of the ancient religion came gradually to lose their meaning. The wors.h.i.+p of the Roman G.o.ds had never appealed to the emotions. Now it tended to pa.s.s into the mere mechanical repet.i.tion of prayers and sacrifices. Even the wors.h.i.+p of the Caesars, [11] which did much to hold the empire together, failed to satisfy the spiritual wants of mankind. It made no appeal to the moral nature; it brought no message, either of fear or hope, about a future world and a life beyond the grave.

STOICISM

During these centuries a system of Greek philosophy, called Stoicism, gained many adherents among the Romans. Any one who will read the Stoic writings, such as those of the n.o.ble emperor, Marcus Aurelius, [12] will see how nearly Christian was the Stoic faith. It urged men to forgive injuries--to ”bear and forbear.” It preached the brotherhood of man. It expressed a humble and unfaltering reliance on a divine Providence. To many persons of refinement Stoicism became a real religion. But since Stoic philosophy could reach and influence only the educated cla.s.ses, it could not become a religion for all sorts and conditions of men.

THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

Many Greeks found a partial satisfaction of their religious longings in secret rites called mysteries. Of these the most important grew up at Eleusis, [13] a little Attic town thirteen miles from Athens. They were connected with the wors.h.i.+p of Demeter, G.o.ddess of vegetation and of the life of nature. The celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries came in September and lasted nine days. When the candidates for admission to the secret rites were worked up to a state of religious excitement, they entered a brilliantly lighted hall and witnessed a pa.s.sion play dealing with the legend of Demeter. They seem to have had no direct moral instruction but saw, instead, living pictures and pantomimes which represented the life beyond the grave and held out to them the promise of a blessed lot in another world. As an Athenian orator said, ”Those who have shared this initiation possess sweeter hopes about death and about the whole of life.” [14]

INFLUENCE OF THE MYSTERIES

The Eleusinian mysteries, though unknown in the Homeric Age, were already popular before the epoch of the Persian wars. They became a Panh.e.l.lenic festival open to all Greeks, women as well as men, slaves as well as freemen. The privilege of members.h.i.+p was later extended to Romans. During the first centuries of our era the influence of the mysteries increased, as faith in the Olympian religion declined. They formed one of the last strongholds of paganism and endured till the triumph of Christianity in the Roman world.

ORIENTAL RELIGIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Asiatic conquests of Alexander, followed in later centuries by the extension of Roman rule over the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, brought the cla.s.sical peoples into contact with new religions which had arisen in the Orient. Slaves, soldiers, traders, and travelers carried the eastern faiths to the West, where they speedily won many followers. Even before the downfall of the republic the deities of Asia Minor, Egypt, and Persia had found a home at Rome. Under the empire many men and women were attracted to their wors.h.i.+p.

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