impact of barbarous forces, but a process slowly prepared and evolved by internal and economic causes.”  Two of these causes were the dying out of municipal liberty and self-government, and the separation of the upper class from the masses by sharp distributions of wealth and privilege.  It is indeed true that these causes contributed to Rome’s ruin; that the central government was weak; that the civil service was oppressive and corrupt; that the aristocratic class was selfish; and that the small landed proprietors were steadily growing poorer and fewer, while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class was increasing in wealth and power.  But after due emphasis has been accorded to these destructive factors, it yet remains true that the want of public spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may be traced to a decline of faith in those religious ideals that serve to stimulate the moral life and thus preserve the national integrity.

Society was divided into three classes.  It is computed that one-half the population were slaves.  A large majority of the remainder were paupers, living on public charity, and constituting a festering sore that threatened the life of the social organism.  The rich, who were relatively few, squandered princely incomes in a single night, and exhausted their imaginations devising new and expensive forms of sensuous pleasure.  The profligacy of the nobles almost surpasses credibility, so that trustworthy descriptions read like works of fiction.  Farrar says:  “A whole population might be trembling lest they should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian corn ship, while the upper classes were squandering a fortune at a single banquet, drinking out of myrrhine and jeweled vases worth hundreds of pounds, and feasting on the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales.”  The frivolity of the social and political leaders of Rome, the insane thirst for lust and luxury, the absence of seriousness in the face of frightful, impending ruin, almost justify the epigram of Silvianus, “Rome was laughing when she died.”

     “On that hard pagan world disgust
     And secret loathing fell;
     Deep weariness and sated lust
     Made human life a hell. 
     In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,
     The Roman noble lay;
     He drove abroad in furious guise
     Along the Appian Way;
     He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,
     And crowned his hair with flowers
     No easier nor no guicker past
     The impracticable hours.”

Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were powerless to resist this downward tendency.  Although Christianity had become the state religion, it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay that prevailed.  The Empire was, in fact, but nominally Christian.  Thousands of ecclesiastical adherents were half pagan in their spirit and practice.  Harnack declares, “They were too deeply affected by Christianity to abandon it, but too little to be Christians.  Pure religious enthusiasm waned, ideals received a new form, and the dependence and responsibility of individuals became weaker.”  Even ordinary courage had everywhere declined and the pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of Christian society.