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A HISTORY

OF

THE ROMANS

UNDER THE EMPERORS.

BY

DAWSON MASSY, M.A.,

Rector of Killeshin and Author of The Secret History of Romanism,'
'The Faithful Shepherd,' &c.

LONDON:

HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO., 33, PATERNOSTER-ROW;
SEELEYS & CO., 54, FLEET-STREET.

DUBLIN; HERBERT, 117, GRAFTON-STREET.

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DUBLIN:

Printed by George Drought,

6, Bachelor's-walk.

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2

CHAPTER I.

Thou art in Rome! the city that so long
Reigned absolute, the mistress of the world;
The mighty vision that the Prophets saw,
And trembled; that from nothing, from the least,
The lowliest village (what but here and there
A reed-roofed cabin by a river side?)

Grew into everything.'-ROGERS.

AUGUSTUS, THE FIRST EMPEROR.

OUR SAVIOUR's advent dates from about the middle of the reign of Augustus; and fitly did the famous peace which then hushed the civil wars of the Roman world in a repose so calm, passive, and almost deathlike, precede the coming of the Prince of Peace, to make that peace spiritual, universal, and eternal. Founded by a small band of marauders, for security's sake, upon the wild and solitary Palatine Hill, Rome had now swelled from a 'den of the wolves of Italy' into a seven-hilled city, the emporium of the world, furnished with every luxury, and many of her chief necessities from foreign cities, which on every coast and in every clime vied with intense rivalry in ministering to her insatiable appetite. Every summer her glittering sea was alive with vessels; and as each successive fleet neared the harbour of Ostia or Puteoli, the well-known topsails were descried above the horizon by the watchmen of Rome, a deputation of senators went forth

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