The worst cannot be told.

Crimes may be spoken of; but things monstrous and inhuman should for ever be concealed.

We can but stand at the cavern's mouth, and cast a single ray of light into its dark depths.

Were we to enter, our lamp would be quenched by the foul things which would cluster round it.
In the age of Augustus began that "long slow agony," that melancholy process of a society gradually going to pieces under the dissolving influence of its own vices which lasted almost without interruption till nothing was left for Rome except the fire and sword of barbaric invasions.

She saw not only her glories but also her virtues "star by star expire." The old heroism, the old beliefs, the old manliness and simplicity, were dead and gone; they had been succeeded by prostration and superstition by luxury and lust.
"There is the moral of all human tales, 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, First freedom, and then glory; when that fails, Wealth, vice, corruption,--barbarism at last: And history, with all her volumes vast, Hath but one page; 'tis better written here Where gorgeous tyranny hath thus amassed All treasures, all delights, that eye or ear, Heart, soul could seek, tongue ask." The mere elements of society at Rome during this period were very unpromising.