former young, artful, self-controlled, and with transcendent abilities
as a statesman; the latter bold, impetuous, luxurious, and the ablest of
all Caesar's lieutenants as a general. Had he not yielded to the
fascinations of Cleopatra, he would probably have been the master of the
world. But the sea-fight of Actium, one of the great decisive battles of
history, gave the empire of the world to Octavian B.C. 31, and two years
after the victor celebrated three magnificent triumphs, after the
example of his uncle, for Dalmatia, Actium, and Egypt. The kingdom of
the Ptolemies passed under the rule of Caesar. The Temple of Janus was
shut, for the first time for more than two hundred years; and the
imperial power was peaceably established over the civilized world.

[Sidenote: Necessity for the empire.]

The friends of liberty may justly mourn over the fall of republican
Rome, and the centralization of all power in the hands of Augustus. But
it was a calamity which could not be averted, and was a revolution which
was in accordance with the necessities of the times. Fifty years' civil
war taught the Romans the hopelessness of the struggle to maintain their
old institutions so long as the people were corrupt, and fortunate
generals would sacrifice the public welfare to their ambition. Order was
better than anarchy, even though a despot reigned supreme. When men are
worse than governments, they must submit to the despotism of tyrants. It
is idle to dream of liberty with a substratum of folly and vice. The
strongest man will rule, but whether he rule wisely or unwisely, there
is no remedy. Providence gave the world to the Romans, after continual
and protracted wars for seven hundred years; and when the people who had
conquered the world by their energy, prudence, and perseverance, were no
longer capable of governing themselves, then the state fell into the
possession of a single man.