'A god! a god!' The flowery shades and shrines obscene return." DYER, _Ruins of Rome_.] [Footnote 9: The pride of this man was such that he never deigned to speak a word in the presence of his own slaves, but only made known his wishes by signs!--TACITUS.] I.It was an age of the most enormous wealth existing side by side with the most abject poverty.

Around the splendid palaces wandered hundreds of mendicants, who made of their mendicity a horrible trade, and even went so far as to steal or mutilate infants in order to move compassion by their hideous maladies.

This class was increased by the exposure of children, and by that overgrown accumulation of landed property which drove the poor from their native fields.

It was increased also by the ambitious attempt of people whose means were moderate to imitate the enormous display of the numerous millionaires.

The great Roman conquests in the East, the plunder of the ancient kingdoms of Antiochus, of Attalus, of Mithridates, had caused a turbid stream of wealth to flow into the sober current of Roman life.