e
frontiers of the empire, and from this time seem never to have ceased
their inroads until the final destruction of the Roman power. Aurelius
marched, A.D. 177, to the frontier, defeated the barbarians in various
engagements, and had perhaps proved the savior and second founder of
Rome, when he was seized with a fever at Vindobona (Vienna), A.D. 180,
and died after a few days' illness. He was the last of the Roman
emperors who labored for the welfare of his people. He was, no doubt,
the greatest and wisest of them all, and he united the different talents
of a man of learning, a fine writer, a skillful soldier, and a
benevolent, judicious ruler. His "Meditations," which have made him
known to posterity, are among the most delightful productions of the
human intellect, while his private character seems to have been no less
attractive than his writings.

REIGN OF M. COMMODUS ANTONINUS, A.D. 180-192.

The depraved Commodus succeeded his virtuous father at the age of
twenty. He had been educated with singular care, but was wholly given up
to coarse sensuality. The people, however, still hoped that he might be
worthy of his father, and received him, upon his accession, with loud
expressions of joy. For a short time he concealed his true disposition;
but his sister Lucilla, jealous of her brother's wife Crispina, formed a
conspiracy against him in A.D. 182, and he escaped with difficulty from
the hand of the assassin. From this moment he threw off all disguise,
and indulged his natural vices without restraint. He put to death the
most illustrious men of the time, encouraged informers and false
accusations, and filled Rome with terror. In the midst of these
cruelties he often sang, danced, or played the buffoon in public, fought
as a gladiator in the circus, and ordered the people to worship him as a
second Hercules. His lieutenant Marcellus, in A.D. 184, defeated the
Caledonians, after they had passed the long wall of Hadrian, and had
ravaged the northern part of Britain; and in A.D. 191 an invasion of the
Frisians was repelled. Commodus, however, paid no attention to the
affairs of the empire. In A.D. 189 Italy suffered from a pestilence and
famine, when the people of Rome rose against the emperor's praefect,
Cleander, and tore him to pieces. Commodus still continued his murders,
and was at last assassinated by the directions of his mistress, Marcia,
whose death he had resolved upon. He died December 31st, A.D. 192. The