The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c49.323

c49.323

I. The first of these periods may be traced from the age of the Antonines, and the establishment of the absolute power of the Commodus, to the subversion of the Western Empire. The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which should have saved them, and purchased the precarious allegiance of the soldiers by the gifts of donatives and the indulgence of licentiousness.