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196 THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.maintain the empire at its full tide of power inhonourable peace, while Antoninus crowned theforty years of equable and generally just government-bestowedon the Roman world by Trajanand Hadrian-with a further happy period of morethan half that length, wherein the glory of the empiremay be said to have culminated. ImperialRome never saw again such a day of power, orsuch a prospect of security, as when Antoninuscelebrated the secular games at the completion ofnine hundred years ; and for ages afterwards hisname carried respect, and men looked back on hisreign as on an ideal period of happiness for thosewhom he ruled.One of the most competent observers of ourtime has marked the last ten years of the reign ofPius as the period at which the independent deve-lopment of Graco-Roman _ heathenism terminated,when it had exhaustedall the forms of its own in-"ward life, since the Neoplatonic philosophy whichis the only striking product of intelligence thatarises afterwards, is manifestly due to the antagonismwith Christianity, and is no pure offspringof the heathen spirit.18 From this time forthChristian influences become unmistakable in theiraction upon heathen thought and society. This,then, affords another reason why we should endeavourto trace the progress and extension which theChurch had reached at this point.18 Dollinger, Heidentkum und Judenthum. Vorwort, iv.