They were decimated by famine, sufferings, and in gladiatorial combats; yet they formed about three-fourths of the whole population. Increasing fear was manifested in the murder of Pontius; in the cold-blooded destruction of all prisoners of distinction at the close of every triumph; in the ruin of Carthage; in the proscriptions and massacres of Marius and Sylla, and of the successive triumvirates; and in those of Tiberius, Nero, and their wretched successors. The greatness of Rome was exclusively heathen, until men mightier than the Cæsars trod her soil. The adherents of the old pagan creed might truly say, that when the altars of Victory ceased to smoke on the Capitol, she herself ceased to wait on the imperial eagles; the existence of Rome seemed bound up in the worship of the gods to whom the Tarquins had bowed, and under whose auspices Camillus and Scipio had marched forth to conquest. It is long since Æneas found Evander and Pallas celebrating on the supreme mount those services of religion for which Rome has always been noted, and through which she became so great. But the preparatory work which her sword has performed over dominions so immense, has come to an end; and before she can unfold the infinitely sublimer influence which is destined for her to employ, she has herself to bend before the Cross. All things of earth seemed about to perish. The antique civilization was drawing to a close, and creeds, manners, science, letters, sank to the lowest degradation, and chaos the most dismal was imminent.