4. The pauperisation of the Roman proletariat.

5. The destruction of the middle class by the fiscal oppression of the
Curiales.

6. Barbarous finance.

1. _The Foundation of Constantinople._--It is, for obvious reasons,
unnecessary to discuss this cause. It was one of special application to
the circumstances of the time, notably to the threatening attitude
towards Rome assumed by the now decadent State of Persia.

2. _Christianity._--That the foundation of Christianity exercised a
profoundly disintegrating effect on the Roman Empire is unquestionable.
Gibbon, although he possibly confounds the tenets of the new creed with
the defects of its hierarchy, dwells with characteristic emphasis on
this congenial subject.[3] Mr. Hodgkin, speaking of the analogy between
the British present and the Roman past, says:

The Christian religion is with us no explosive force threatening
the disruption of our most cherished institutions. On the contrary,
it has been said, not as a mere figure of speech, that
"Christianity is part of the common law of England." And even the
bitterest enemies of our religion will scarcely deny that, upon the
whole, a nation imbued with the teaching of the New Testament is
more easy to govern than one which derived its notions of divine
morality from the stories of the dwellers on Olympus.

From the special point of view now under consideration, the case for
Christianity admits of being even more strongly stated than this, for no