large armament against the Vandals in Africa. The imperial forces were completely defeated, and when the shattered relics of the armament returned to Constantinople, Rícimer deposed Athémius, put him to death, and elevated Olyb'rius to the throne (A. D. 472). Both Rícimer and Olyb'rius died within a few months and Leo, after some delay, appointed Julius Nepos his colleague. Glycérius, an obscure soldier, trusting to the aid of the Burgundians, attempted to dispute the empire with Nepos; but finding his strength inadequate to the contest, he resigned the sceptre for the crosier, and became bishop of Salona. Nepos himself was soon driven from the throne by Ores'tes, the successor of Rícimer in the command of the barbarian mercenaries. He fled into Dalmátia, where he was assassi nated by his old rival Glycérius. Ores'tes gave the throne to his son Rom'ulus Momillus, whom he dignified with the title of Augus'tus, or, as he is more frequently called, Augus'tulus. Odoácer, the leader of the German tribes in the Roman pay, persuaded his countrymen to take arms against the usurper. Ores'tes was made prisoner, and put to death. Augus'tulus was sent into captivity, but was allowed a pension for his support; and the conqueror, abolishing the name and office of emperor, took the title of king of Italy (A. D. 476). The Ostrogoths finally conquered Italy (A. D. 492), deposed Odoácer, and founded a new empire. During this calamitous period Christianity was sullied by the admixture of various superstitions, borrowed from ancient paganism. The Gnostics attempted to combine the truths of the gospel with the wild dreams of oriental philosophy, and they prepared medals with mystic devices, which were worn as charms or amulets, in the belief that they would protect men from danger and disease. CHAPTER XVIII. INDIA. WHEN India became known to the Greeks by the coquests of Alexander, its inhabitants were found in very nearly the sare state of civilization as the Hindoos of the present day; we may therefore fairly conclude that this civilized state must have been several hundred years in existence, else it could not have been so complete in its parts and so permanent in its influence. As Alexander's invasion took place about the fourth century before the Christian era, we may regard it as pretty certain that the civilization of India reaches back to at least one thousand years before Christ, but how much further it is impossible to determine with certainty. From the institution of caste, it seems probable that the Hindoos are of a mixed origin, for the difference between the castes is so very great that we are almost obliged to admit a corresponding difference of original extraction. "I could at all times, and in every part of India," says Major Bevan, "distinguish a Brahmin by his complexion and peculiar features." All the Hindoo traditions unite in representing the neighborhood of the Ganges as the cradle of their race; their most ancient records intimate that the first kingdoms in this sacred spot were founded by persons who came from the north, and the existing series of temples and monuments, both above and below ground, is a species of chronicle of the progressive extension of an immigrating and highly-civilized race from north to south. This is the very reverse of what we find to have occurred in Egypt, where the social and religious advance was from south to north. The Brahmins in India, like the priests in Egypt, exercised an indirect sovereignty over the other classes of society; the kings, in both countries, were selected from the warrior caste, but the priestly caste restrained the power of the sovereign by religious enactments and institutions which brought both public and private affairs under their cognizance. How this influence was obtained is merely matter of conjecture, but it certainly existed before the appearance of the two great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Maha-bhárata, both of which contain several instances of the awful veneration in which the Brahmins were held by the kings themselves. In the interesting drama, "The Toy Cart," translated by Professor Wilson, we find a notice of a strange revolution effected in the government of Ujayín (Oogein) by Brahminical intrigue. The drama itself was written before the Christian era, but the incidents on which it is founded are of much earlier date; it describes how the Brahmins, offended by their sovereign Palaka's public disregard of them, brought about a change in the government, employing a hermit and a cow-boy as their instruments. Aryaka, the cow herd, is chosen king, and his accession is thus announced to a Brahmin whom Palaka had condemned to death : "And Brahmin, I inform you, that the king, The unjust Pálaka, has fallen a victim, Here in the place of sacrifice, to one Who has avenged his wrongs and thine; to Aryaka, Who ready homage pays to birth and virtue." The conclusion of the drama still more forcibly shows the influence of the Brahmins, for reverence to their caste is invoked as one of the chief blessings of heaven : "Full-uddered be the kine, the soil be fertile; May copious showers descend, and balmy gales Humble their foes and guard the world in peace." It appears that there were two great dynasties in India proper; that is, north of the Krishna river, and excluding the Dec'can; the Solar race was established at Ayad'da, the modern Oude; the Lunar race fixed itself more to the west, in the country round Delhi. The war between the Pan'doos and Koóroos, both descended from the Lunar race, was to the Indians what the Trojan war was to the Greeks, by its influence upon their poetry, literature, and arts. It forms the subject of the great Hindoo epic, the "Máha-bhárata” (great war), which contains one hundred thousand slokas, or distichs. How far the events of this war are to be regarded as historical, would be an inquiry more curious than useful; but it seems probable that, like the Trojan war, it was not less fatal to the victors than the vanquished, for a new dynasty arose at Magad'ha, which gradually acquired the supremacy of India. The kingdom of Magad'ha is identified with the province of Behar, and its capital was Paliboth'ra, which stood in or near the modern city of Patan. After the retreat of Alexander from India, the throne of Paliboth'ra was occupied by a celebrated conqueror, known to the Greeks by the name of Sandracop'tus or Sandracot'tus, who has been completely identified with the Chan'dra-Gup'ta of the Hindoo poets The Greek and Hindoo writers concur in the name, in the private his tory, in the political elevation, and in the nation and capital of an In dian king, nearly if not exactly contemporary with Alexander; such an approximation could not possibly be the work of accident, and we may therefore regard this monarch's reign as historical. Combining and comparing the different accounts given of Chan'draGup'ta it appears that about the time of Alexander the kingdom of Magadha was ruled by a monarch named Mahapad'ma Nan'da. He was a powerful and ambitious prince, but cruel and avaricious, by which defects, as well as by his inferiority of birth, he probably provoked the hostility of the Brahmins. By one wife he had eight sons, who, with their father, were called the nine Nan'das; and by a wife of low extraction he had according to tradition, a son called Chan'dra-Gup'ta. I is, however, by no means certain that Chan'dra-Gup'ta was the son of Nan'da, but from uniform testimony he appears to have been closely related to the royal family by his father's side, though his mother was of a very inferior caste. But whatever may have been the origin of this prince, it is very likely that he was made the instrument of the rebellious spirit of the Brahmins, who, having effected the destruction of Nan'da and his sons, raised Chan'dra-Gup'ta, while yet a youth, to the throne. In the drama Múdra Nahshása, which represents the various artifices employed by the Brahmin Chanak'ya to establish the throne of Chan'dra-Gup'ta, Chanak'ya declares that it was he who overthrew the Nan'das : ""Tis known to an the world I vowed the death of Nanda, and I slew him ... Like the fierce conflagration of a forest, It is thus evident that the elevation of Chan'dra-Gup'ta to the throne was owing to the Brahmins; they were, however, aided by a prince from the north of India, Pawats'wara, to whom they promised an accession of territory as the reward of his alliance. The execution of this treaty was evaded by the assassination of the mountain-prince; his son, Malayakétu, led a mingled host against Magad'ha to avenge his father's death: among his troops we find the Gavanas, the Lakas, or Lace, and the Kambójas, or people of Arachósia, the northeastern province of Persia. The failure of Seleúcus Nicátor, in his attempt to extend his power in India, and his relinquishment of territory, may be connected with the discomfiture and retreat of Malayakétu, as narrated in the drama, although it is improbable that the Syrian monarch and the king of Magad'ha ever came into direct collision. The retreat of Malayakétu was occasioned by jealousies and quarrels among the confederates; he returned, baffled and humbled, to his own country Chan'dra-Gup'ta's power was now so firmly established that Seleúcus Nicátor relinquished to him all the country beyond the Indus, receiving fifty elephants in exchange; he also formed a matrimonial alliance with the Hindoo prince, and sent Megasthenes as an ambassador to his court. Chan'dra-Gup'ta reigned twenty-four years, and left the kingdom to his son. There is a complete blank in Indian history from the death of Chan'dra-Gup'ta to the accession of Vicramadit'ya, who is called the sovereign of all India. He ruled with such extraordinary success that his reign forms an important era in history, commencing B. c. 58, according to one account, and ten years later, according to another. Toward the close of his reign he was conquered by Shapour, the second Persian monarch of the Sassanian dynasty, and the empire of India became subject to that of Persia. The Hindoo accounts of Vicramadit'ya are intermingled with the most extravagant fables, and all that we can learn from them with certainty is, that this prince was a sedulous upholder of the influence of the Brahmins. From this period to the Mohammedan invasion, India appears to have been divided into a number of petty independent states, in which the rajahs were completely under the influence of the Brahmins. As the royal power declined, the rules of caste, on which the influence of the hereditary priesthood depended, were rendered more rigid and severe. The caste of the Brahmins arrogated to itself the exclusive privilege of studying and expounding the Vedas, and as these are the source of all Hindoo learning, whether religious or scientific, the priesthood thus obtained a monopoly of knowledge. Brahmins alone could exercise the medical art, for sickness being considered as the punishment of transgression, it is remedied only by penances and religious ceremonies : they alone had the right to interpret the laws, to offer sacrifices, and to give counsel to the sovereign. The Kshatriya or warrior caste, is generally regarded as extinct; it was naturally viewed with great jealousy by the Brahmins, and the institutions imposed upon it by them, were little calculated to foster a warlike spirit. Hence Hindoostan has so frequently and so easily become the prey of foreign conquerors, for the priestly caste made it the chief object of their policy to humiliate and weaken the caste of warriors. The Vaisy'a caste includes the higher industrial classes, and was perhaps one of the most numerous. The Súdras formed the lowest class, and were slaves to the rest. In process of time, the number of mixed castes was greatly multiplied, and the determination of their relations to each other became a matter of considerable difficulty. At a very early but uncertain period, the religious institutions of the Brahmins were opposed by a reformer named Bud'dha, who rejected the Vedas, bloody sacrifices, and the distinction of castes. His followers, called Buddhists, must have been both numerous and powerful at a very remote age, for a greater number of the oldest rock-temples are dedicated to him. From the Christian writers of the second century it is evident that in their day the religion of Bud'dha was very prevalent in India, and in the drama of the Toy-Cart, Bud'dha observances are described with great accuracy, and the members of the sect represented in a flourishing condition, for they are not only tolerated but publicly recognised. One of the characters in the play is a Bud'dha ascetic, and he describes his creed in the following hymn : "Be virtue, friends, your only store, And restless appetite restrain, Beat meditation's drum, and sore Your watch against each sense maintain; The thief that still in ambush lies, To make devotion's wealth his prize. "Cast the five senses all away That triumph o'er the virtuous will, |