It represents that purely human life that flourished generally in such vigour amongst the Romans.

And the consideration of it is said to be all the more instructive, because it flourished in the face of just the same conditions that we think so disheartening now.

There was in those times, as there is in ours, a wide disintegration of the old faiths; and to many, then as now, this fact seemed at once sad and terrifying.

As we read Juvenal, Petronius, Lucian, or Apuleius, we are astounded at the likeness of those times to these.

Even in minute details, they correspond with a marvellous exactness.