"He heard it, but he heeded not; his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away:
He recked not of the life he lost, nor prize; But where his rude hut by the Danube lay- There were his young barbarians all at play,④There was their Dacianmother-he their sire,
Butchered to make a Roman holiday. -
All this rushed with his blood. -Shall he expire,⑤And unavenged? -Arise, ye Goths,and glut your ire!"
Christianity, however, worked its way upwards, and at last was professed by the emperor on his throne. Persecution came to an end, and no more martyrs fed the beasts in the Colis?um. The Christian emperors endeavoured to prevent any more shows where cruelty and death formed the chief interest, and no truly religious person could endure the spectacle; but custom and love of excitement prevailed evenagainst the emperor. They went on for fully a hundred years after Rome had, in name, become a Christian city, and the same customs prevailed wherever there was an amphitheatre or pleasure-loving people.
Meantime the enemies of Rome were coming nearer andnearer. Al"aric, the great chief of the Goths, led his forces into Italy, and threatened the city itself. Hono"rius, the emperor, was a cowardly, almost idiotic boy; but his brave general, Stil"icho, assembled his forces, met the Goths at Pollen"tia (about twenty-five miles from where Turin now stands), and gave them a complete defeat, on Easter-day of the year 403. He pursued them to the mountains, and for that time saved Rome.
In the joy of victor y, the Roman Senate invited the conqueror and his ward Honorius to enter the city in triumph, at the opening of the new year, with the white steeds, purple robes, and vermilion cheeks with which, of old, victorious generals were welcomed at Rome. The churches were visited instead of the Temple of Jupiter, and there was no murder of the captives; but Roman bloodthirstiness was not yet allayed, and, after the procession had been completed, the Colis?um shows commenced, innocently at first, with races on foot, on horseback, and in chariots; then followed a grand hunt of beasts turned loose in the arena; and next a sword-dance. Butafter the sword-dance came the arraying of swordsmen, withno blunted weapons, but with sharp spears and swords-a gladiator combat in full earnest. The people, enchanted, applauded with shouts of ecstasy this gratification of their savage tastes.
Suddenly, however, there was an interruption. A rude, roughly-robed man, bareheaded and barefooted, had sprung into the arena, and, waving back the gladiators, began to call aloud upon the people to cease from the shedding of innocent blood, and not to requite God"s mercy, in turningaway the sword of the enemy, by encouraging murder. Shouts, howls, cries, broke in upon his words; this was no place for preachings-the old customs of Rome should be observed- "Back, old man!"-"On, gladiators!"The gladiators thrust aside the meddler, and rushed to theattack. He still stood between, holding them apart, striving in vain to be heard. "Sedition! sedition!"-"Down with him!"-was the cry; and the prefect in authority himself added his voice. The gladiators, enraged at interference with their vocation, cut him down. Stones, or whatever came to hand, rained upon him from the furious people, and he perished in the midst of the arena! He lay dead; and then the people began to reflect upon what had been done.
