tude; and yet he spent his life in administration and
the command of armies. His private journal (his "Thoughts") exhibits
the character of the Stoic--virtuous, austere, separated from the
world, and yet mild and good. "The best form of vengeance on the
wicked is not to imitate them; the gods themselves do good to evil
men; it is your privilege to act like the gods."

=Conquests of the Antonines.=--The emperors of the first century had
continued the course of conquest; they had subjected the Britons of
England, the Germans on the left bank of the Rhine, and in the
provinces had reduced several countries which till then had retained
their kings--Mauretania, Thrace, Cappadocia. The Rhine, the Danube,
and the Euphrates were the limits of the empire.

The emperors of the second century were almost all generals; they had
the opportunity of waging numerous wars to repel the hostile peoples
who sought to invade the empire. The enemies were in two quarters
especially:

1. On the Danube were the Dacians, barbarous people, who occupied
the country of mountains and forests now called Transylvania.

2. On the Euphrates was the great military monarchy of the
Parthians which had its capital at Ctesiphon, near the ruins of
Babylon, and which extended over all Persia.

Trajan made several expeditions against the Dacians, crossed the
Danube, won three great battles, and took the capital of the Dacians
(101-102). He offered them peace, but when they reopened the war he
resolved to end matters with them: he had a stone bridge built over
the Danube, invaded Dacia and reduced it to a Roman province (106).
Colonies were transferred thither, cities were built, and Dacia became
a Roman province where Latin was spoken and Roman customs were
assimilated. When the Roman armies withdrew at the end of the third
century, the Latin language remained and continued throughout the
Middle Ages, notwithstanding the invasions of the barbarian Slavs. It
is from Transylvania (ancient Dacia) that the peoples came from the
twelfth to the fourteenth century who now inhabit the plains to the
north of the Danube. It has preserved the name of Rome (Roumania) and
speaks a language derived from the Latin, like the French or Spanish.
Trajan made war on the Parthians also. He crossed the Euphrates, took
Ctesiphon, the capital, and advanced into Persia, even to Susa, whence
he took away the massive gold throne of the kings of Persia. He
constructed a fl