Page:Wives and mothers in the olden time.djvu/26

10 There were two cities, in fact the Pagan and the Christian; and Pagan Rome, as yet untouched by bar barian hordes, offered undoubtedly an imposing spectacle. The Capitol was still crowned with the temples and statues of the heathen deities. On the Palatine stood the ancient palace of the Caesars, with its marble porticos.

At the foot of the hill the Forum, in all its grandeur ; further on, separated from the Forum by the Via Sacra and the amphitheatre of Flavian, stood the great Coliseum. At the other end was the Circus and the Aqueducts of Nero ; on the banks of the Tiber, Adrian s mole, and the mausoleum of Augustus on all sides, in fact, the temples, theatres, baths, porticos, and all the other monuments of heathen luxury or superstition, proved by what deep roots Paganism still held its place in the capital of the Empire.

Nevertheless, by more than one token it was as easy to see that all this Pagan grandeur would fall before a something which was more powerful still. If polytheism were still supported by tradition and custom, it was only a thing of the past, which every day was diminishing. The future was with the Church of God. Christianity was by degrees usurping the place of the old Pagan faith. The temples, though still standing, were empty; the sacrifices were despised; silence and solitude reigned in the abode of the heathen deities, while the new faith, emerging gloriously from darkness into the light of day, covered Home with new and splendid Basilicas, filled with an eager crowd of worshippers. At the same time, Rome, deserted by the Emperors from a political necessity, veiling providential designs, seemed to have abdicated its imperial position in favour of the Christian pontiffs; and the Popes, only lately drawn from the Catacombs, and installed by Constantine in the imperial palace of the