The literature of the great jurists has reached its height, and at the same time its end, in Papinian and Ulpian, both of whom, _diversis virtutibus_, are of transcendent greatness: Paullus ought never to be spoken of in the same breath with them. They are both of them excellent likewise with regard to language; for although some small mistakes may be found in it here and there, it is truly Roman. It is remarkable that they had no successors; just as with Demosthenes oratory is at its height, and then dies away; just as after Thucydides, no historian of the same spirit rose up again. A long while afterwards, there followed Hermogenianus and others, who were mere compilers. The scientific arrangement of the law gave rise to the legislation of the imperial secretaries, whose statutes, however, are most detestably drawn up: we may indeed thank our stars, that their verbosity is curtailed in the code.—With regard to the _belles lettres_, I have shown, and I look upon it as an established fact, that Curtius belongs to the time of Severus and Caracalla: he is an author who already writes quite an artificial style, an imitation of Livy. Still later, in the reign of Alexander Severus, perhaps even in that of Gordian, lived the most witty, but most profligate, Petronius Arbiter, in whom Mamæa is distinctly alluded to. The excellent Hadrian Valesius was the first who drew attention to this: the prelate Monsignor Stefano Gradi violently opposed him at first; but he afterwards set an honourable example by giving up his own opinion, and making the proof complete. I have added some further arguments, which both of them had overlooked, such as the passage concerning Mamæa, and likewise an epitaph which is evidently of the time of Severus. Petronius’ language—leaving aside those passages in which he makes people talk, as they really then spoke, in the _lingua rustica_—bears the marks of the age of which it is the true living expression. He is the greatest poetical genius of Rome since the days of Augustus; but one sees how his talent was quite confined to the romance and the poetry of every-day life. In the middle of the third century, Rome was in everything already sinking into a state of barbarism: even the characters on the inscriptions are of a barbarous shape, and the lines are crooked and slanting. INVASION OF THE GOTHS. DEATH OF DECIUS. GALLUS TREBONIANUS ÆMILIAN. VALERIAN. GALLIENUS. THE THIRTY TYRANTS.