Meanwhile archaeology contributes a steady stream of
new material. Boni's excavations in the Forum and on the Palatine have
produced sensational results. The unveiling of Pompeii moves slowly
forward, and that of Ostia, the port of Rome, has begun. The
resurrection of Herculaneum should be witnessed by the next generation
if not by our own.

A more difficult because a more controversial problem than the Roman
Empire is its contemporary, the early Christian Church. In the middle
decades of last century Baur treated the rise of Christianity as an
historical phenomenon, leaving his hearers to determine for themselves
whether it was human or divine; but his influence proved more enduring
than his writings. Weiszaecker, his successor at Tuebingen, in his
_Apostolic Age_, described with consummate scholarship and passionless
serenity the life and organization of the early Christian communities.
The necessity of a careful study of the soil out of which Christianity
has grown is now generally recognized, and great scholars such as
Schuerer and Pfleiderer have re-created the religious atmosphere into
which Christ was born. The constitution of the primitive Church, too
long hotly discussed by the champions of rival sects, has been studied
with welcome impartiality by Lightfoot and Hatch. But no man, alive or
dead, can boast of such achievements as Harnack. His History of Dogma,
his vast survey of Christian Literature till Eusebius, his narrative of
the Expansion of Christianity before the conversion of Constantine, are
inseparable companions of the student who means business. The treasures
of the catacombs have been revealed by De Rossi, to whom we also owe the
publication of the Christian Inscriptions of Rome. The history of the
early Christian communities in the outlying provinces of the Empire has
been enriched by Ramsay's explorations in Asia Minor. While the best
work naturally goes into monographs, comprehensive narratives are
occasionally attempted by scholars of the first class. Renan's sparkling
volumes have enjoyed immense popularity, and some of them may still be
read with profit; but, like his History of the Jews, they belong rather
to literature than to science. If we desire a readable summary of the
scholarship of the last half-century we may turn to the Volumes of the
Catholic Duchesne or, better still, to those of the late Professor
Gwatkin.

Imperial Rome and the Christian Church meet and blend in the Byzantine