by a subservient
people. The only prerogative which remained to them was the making of
laws, but even this great and supreme power he controlled, by assuming the
initiation of all laws and measures,--that which Louis Napoleon has claimed
in the Corps Legislatif. He had also resorted to edicts, which had the
force of laws, and ultimately composed no small part of the Roman
jurisprudence. Finally, he assumed the name of Caesar, as he had of
Augustus, and consummated the reality of despotism by the imposing title
of imperator, or emperor.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON THE ACCESSION OF AUGUSTUS.

Octavius, now master of the world, is generally called Augustus Caesar--the
name he assumed. He was the first of that great line of potentates whom we
call emperors. Let us, before tracing the history of the empire, take a
brief survey of its extent, resources, population, institutions, state of
society, and that development of Art, science, and literature, which we
call civilization, in the period which immediately preceded the birth of
Christ, when the nations were subdued, submissive to the one central
power, and at peace with each other.

(M1034) The empire was not so large as it subsequently became, nor was it
at that height of power and prosperity which followed a century of peace,
when uninterrupted dominion had reconciled the world to the rule of the
Caesars. But it was the golden age of imperial domination, when arts,
science, and literature flourished, and when the world rested from
incessant wars. It was not an age of highest glory to man, since all
struggles for liberty had ceased; but it was an age of good government,
when its machinery was perfected, and the great mass of mankind felt
secure, and all classes abandoned themselves to pleasure, or gain, or
uninterrupted toils. It was the first time in the history of the world,
when there was only _one_ central authority, and when the experiment was
to be tried, not of liberty and self-government, but of universal empire,
growing up from universal rivalries and wars--wielded by one central and
irresistible will. The spectacle of the civilized world obedient to _one_
master has sublimity, and moral grandeur, and suggests principles of grave
interest. The last of the great monarchies which revelation had foretold,
and the greatest of all--the iron monarchy which Daniel saw in prophetic
vision, reveals lessons of profound sig