THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS

By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

To which are added, HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. 

The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M. D. 

Revised and corrected by T. Forester, Esq. , A. M. 

PREFACE

C. Suetonius Tranquillus was the son of a Roman knight who commanded alegion, on the side of Otho, at the battle which decided the fate of theempire in favour of Vitellius. From incidental notices in the followingHistory, we learn that he was born towards the close of the reign ofVespasian, who died in the year 79 of the Christian era. He lived tillthe time of Hadrian, under whose administration he filled the office ofsecretary; until, with several others, he was dismissed for presuming onfamiliarities with the empress Sabina, of which we have no furtheraccount than that they were unbecoming his position in the imperialcourt. How long he survived this disgrace, which appears to havebefallen him in the year 121, we are not informed; but we find that theleisure afforded him by his retirement, was employed in the compositionof numerous works, of which the only portions now extant are collected inthe present volume. 

Several of the younger Pliny's letters are addressed to Suetonius, withwhom he lived in the closest friendship. They afford some brief, butgenerally pleasant, glimpses of his habits and career; and in a letter, in which Pliny makes application on behalf of his friend to the emperorTrajan, for a mark of favour, he speaks of him as "a most excellent, honourable, and learned man, whom he had the pleasure of entertainingunder his own roof, and with whom the nearer he was brought intocommunion, the more he loved him. " [1]

The plan adopted by Suetonius in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, led himto be more diffuse on their personal conduct and habits than on publicevents. He writes Memoirs rather than History. He neither dwells on thecivil wars which sealed the fall of the Republic, nor on the militaryexpeditions which extended the frontiers of the empire; nor does heattempt to develop the causes of the great political changes which markedthe period of which he treats. 

When we stop to gaze in a museum or gallery on the antique busts of theCaesars, we perhaps endeavour to trace in their sculptured physiognomythe characteristics of those princes, who, for good or evil, were intheir times masters of the destinies of a large portion of the humanrace. The pages of Suetonius will amply gratify this natural curiosity. In them we find a series of individual portraits sketched to the life, with perfect truth and rigorous impartiality. La Harpe remarks ofSuetonius, "He is scrupulously exact, and strictly methodical. He omitsnothing which concerns the person whose life he is writing; he relateseverything, but paints nothing. His work is, in some sense, a collectionof anecdotes, but it is very curious to read and consult. " [2]

Combining as it does amusement and information, Suetonius's "Lives of theCaesars" was held in such estimation, that, so soon after the inventionof printing as the year 1500, no fewer than eighteen editions had beenpublished, and nearly one hundred have since been added to the number. Critics of the highest rank have devoted themselves to the task ofcorrecting and commenting on the text, and the work has been translatedinto most European languages. Of the English translations, that of Dr. Alexander Thomson, published in 1796, has been made the basis of thepresent. He informs us in his Preface, that a version of Suetonius waswith him only a secondary object, his principal design being to form ajust estimate of Roman literature, and to elucidate the state ofgovernment, and the manners of the times; for which the work of Suetoniusseemed a fitting vehicle. Dr. Thomson's remarks appended to eachsuccessive reign, are reprinted nearly verbatim in the present edition. His translation, however, was very diffuse, and retained most of theinaccuracies of that of Clarke, on which it was founded; considerablecare therefore has been bestowed in correcting it, with the view ofproducing, as far as possible, a literal and faithful version. 

To render the works of Suetonius, as far as they are extant, complete, his Lives of eminent Grammarians, Rhetoricians, and Poets, of which atranslation has not before appeared in English, are added. These Livesabound with anecdote and curious information connected with learning andliterary men during the period of which the author treats. T. F. 

CONTENTS

 I. LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS 1. Julius Caesar 2. Augustus 3. Tiberius 4. Caligula 5. Claudius 6. Nero 7. Galba 8. Otho 9. Vitellius 10. Vespasian 11. Titus 12. Domitian II. LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS AND THE HISTORIANS III. LIVES OF THE POETS Terence Juvenal Persius Horace Lucan Pliny FOOTNOTES INDEX

(1)

THE TWELVE CAESARS. 

CAIUS JULIUS CASAR. 

I. Julius Caesar, the Divine [3], lost his father [4] when he was in thesixteenth year of his age [5]; and the year following, being nominated tothe office of high-priest of Jupiter [6], he repudiated Cossutia, who wasvery wealthy, although her family belonged only to the equestrian order, and to whom he had been contracted when he was a mere boy. He thenmarried (2) Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, who was four times consul;and had by her, shortly afterwards, a daughter named Julia. Resistingall the efforts of the dictator Sylla to induce him to divorce Cornelia, he suffered the penalty of being stripped of his sacerdotal office, hiswife's dowry, and his own patrimonial estates; and, being identified withthe adverse faction [7], was compelled to withdraw from Rome. Afterchanging his place of concealment nearly every night [8], although he wassuffering from a quartan ague, and having effected his release by bribingthe officers who had tracked his footsteps, he at length obtained apardon through the intercession of the vestal virgins, and of MamercusAemilius and Aurelius Cotta, his near relatives. We are assured thatwhen Sylla, having withstood for a while the entreaties of his own bestfriends, persons of distinguished rank, at last yielded to theirimportunity, he exclaimed--either by a divine impulse, or from a shrewdconjecture: "Your suit is granted, and you may take him among you; butknow, " he added, "that this man, for whose safety you are so extremelyanxious, will, some day or other, be the ruin of the party of the nobles, in defence of which you are leagued with me; for in this one Caesar, youwill find many a Marius. "

II. His first campaign was served in Asia, on the staff of the praetor, M. Thermus; and being dispatched into Bithynia [9], to bring thence afleet, he loitered so long at the court of Nicomedes, as to give occasionto reports of a criminal intercourse between him and that prince; whichreceived additional credit from his hasty return to Bithynia, under thepretext of recovering a debt due to a freed-man, his client. The rest ofhis service was more favourable to his reputation; and (3) when Mitylene[10] was taken by storm, he was presented by Thermus with the civiccrown. [11]

III. He served also in Cilicia [12], under Servilius Isauricus, but onlyfor a short time; as upon receiving intelligence of Sylla's death, hereturned with all speed to Rome, in expectation of what might follow froma fresh agitation set on foot by Marcus Lepidus. Distrusting, however, the abilities of this leader, and finding the times less favourable forthe execution of this project than he had at first imagined, he abandonedall thoughts of joining Lepidus, although he received the most temptingoffers. 

IV. Soon after this civil discord was composed, he preferred a charge ofextortion against Cornelius Dolabella, a man of consular dignity, who hadobtained the honour of a triumph. On the acquittal of the accused, heresolved to retire to Rhodes [13], with the view not only of avoiding thepublic odium (4) which he had incurred, but of prosecuting his studieswith leisure and tranquillity, under Apollonius, the son of Molon, atthat time the most celebrated master of rhetoric. While on his voyagethither, in the winter season, he was taken by pirates near the island ofPharmacusa [14], and detained by them, burning with indignation, fornearly forty days; his only attendants being a physician and twochamberlains. For he had instantly dispatched his other servants and thefriends who accompanied him, to raise money for his ransom [15]. Fiftytalents having been paid down, he was landed on the coast, when, havingcollected some ships [16], he lost no time in putting to sea in pursuitof the pirates, and having captured them, inflicted upon them thepunishment with which he had often threatened them in jest. At that timeMithridates was ravaging the neighbouring districts, and on Caesar'sarrival at Rhodes, that he might not appear to lie idle while dangerthreatened the allies of Rome, he passed over into Asia, and havingcollected some auxiliary forces, and driven the king's governor out ofthe province, retained in their allegiance the cities which werewavering, and ready to revolt. 

V. Having been elected military tribune, the first honour he receivedfrom the suffrages of the people after his return to Rome, he zealouslyassisted those who took measures for restoring the tribunitian authority, which had been greatly diminished during the usurpation of Sylla. Helikewise, by an act, which Plotius at his suggestion propounded to thepeople, obtained the recall of Lucius Cinna, his wife's brother, andothers with him, who having been the adherents of Lepidus in the civildisturbances, had after that consul's death fled to Sertorius [17]; whichlaw he supported by a speech. 

VI. During his quaestorship he pronounced funeral orations from therostra, according to custom, in praise of his aunt (5) Julia, and hiswife Cornelia. In the panegyric on his aunt, he gives the followingaccount of her own and his father's genealogy, on both sides: "My auntJulia derived her descent, by the mother, from a race of kings, and byher father, from the Immortal Gods. For the Marcii Reges [18], hermother's family, deduce their pedigree from Ancus Marcius, and the Julii, her father's, from Venus; of which stock we are a branch. We thereforeunite in our descent the sacred majesty of kings, the chiefest among men, and the divine majesty of Gods, to whom kings themselves are subject. "To supply the place of Cornelia, he married Pompeia, the daughter ofQuintus Pompeius, and grand-daughter of Lucius Sylla; but he afterwardsdivorced her, upon suspicion of her having been debauched by PubliusClodius. For so current was the report, that Clodius had found access toher disguised as a woman, during the celebration of a religious solemnity[19], that the senate instituted an enquiry respecting the profanation ofthe sacred rites. 

VII. Farther-Spain [20] fell to his lot as quaestor; when there, as hewas going the circuit of the province, by commission from the praetor, for the administration of justice, and had reached Gades, seeing a statueof Alexander the Great in the temple of Hercules, he sighed deeply, as ifweary of his sluggish life, for having performed no memorable actions atan age [21] at which Alexander had already conquered the world. He, therefore, immediately sued for his discharge, with the view of embracingthe first opportunity, which might present itself in The City, ofentering upon a more exalted career. In the stillness of the nightfollowing, he dreamt that he lay with his own mother; but his confusionwas relieved, and his hopes were raised to the highest pitch, by theinterpreters of his dream, who expounded it as an omen that he shouldpossess universal empire; for (6) that the mother who in his sleep he hadfound submissive to his embraces, was no other than the earth, the commonparent of all mankind. 

VIII. Quitting therefore the province before the expiration of the usualterm, he betook himself to the Latin colonies, which were then eagerlyagitating the design of obtaining the freedom of Rome; and he would havestirred them up to some bold attempt, had not the consuls, to prevent anycommotion, detained for some time the legions which had been raised forservice in Cilicia. But this did not deter him from making, soonafterwards, a still greater effort within the precincts of the cityitself. 

IX. For, only a few days before he entered upon the aedileship, heincurred a suspicion of having engaged in a conspiracy with MarcusCrassus, a man of consular rank; to whom were joined Publius Sylla andLucius Autronius, who, after they had been chosen consuls, were convictedof bribery. The plan of the conspirators was to fall upon the senate atthe opening of the new year, and murder as many of them as should bethought necessary; upon which, Crassus was to assume the office ofdictator, and appoint Caesar his master of the horse [22]. When thecommonwealth had been thus ordered according to their pleasure, theconsulship was to have been restored to Sylla and Autronius. Mention ismade of this plot by Tanusius Geminus [23] in his history, by MarcusBibulus in his edicts [24], and by Curio, the father, in his orations[25]. Cicero likewise seems to hint at this in a letter to Axius, wherehe says, that Caesar (7) had in his consulship secured to himself thatarbitrary power [26] to which he had aspired when he was edile. Tanusiusadds, that Crassus, from remorse or fear, did not appear upon the dayappointed for the massacre of the senate; for which reason Caesar omittedto give the signal, which, according to the plan concerted between them, he was to have made. The agreement, Curio says, was that he should shakeoff the toga from his shoulder. We have the authority of the same Curio, and of M. Actorius Naso, for his having been likewise concerned inanother conspiracy with young Cneius Piso; to whom, upon a suspicion ofsome mischief being meditated in the city, the province of Spain wasdecreed out of the regular course [27]. It is said to have been agreedbetween them, that Piso should head a revolt in the provinces, whilst theother should attempt to stir up an insurrection at Rome, using as theirinstruments the Lambrani, and the tribes beyond the Po. But theexecution of this design was frustrated in both quarters by the death ofPiso. 

X. In his aedileship, he not only embellished the Comitium, and the restof the Forum [28], with the adjoining halls [29], but adorned the Capitolalso, with temporary piazzas, constructed for the purpose of displayingsome part of the superabundant collections (8) he had made for theamusement of the people [30]. He entertained them with the hunting ofwild beasts, and with games, both alone and in conjunction with hiscolleague. On this account, he obtained the whole credit of the expenseto which they had jointly contributed; insomuch that his colleague, Marcus Bibulus, could not forbear remarking, that he was served in themanner of Pollux. For as the temple [31] erected in the Forum to the twobrothers, went by the name of Castor alone, so his and Caesar's jointmunificence was imputed to the latter only. To the other publicspectacles exhibited to the people, Caesar added a fight of gladiators, but with fewer pairs of combatants than he had intended. For he hadcollected from all parts so great a company of them, that his enemiesbecame alarmed; and a decree was made, restricting the number ofgladiators which any one was allowed to retain at Rome. 

XI. Having thus conciliated popular favour, he endeavoured, through hisinterest with some of the tribunes, to get Egypt assigned to him as aprovince, by an act of the people. The pretext alleged for the creationof this extraordinary government, was, that the Alexandrians hadviolently expelled their king [32], whom the senate had complimented withthe title of an ally and friend of the Roman people. This was generallyresented; but, notwithstanding, there was so much opposition from thefaction of the nobles, that he could not carry his point. In order, therefore, to diminish their influence by every means in his power, herestored the trophies erected in honour of Caius Marius, on account ofhis victories over Jugurtha, the Cimbri, and the Teutoni, which had beendemolished by Sylla; and when sitting in judgment upon murderers, hetreated those as assassins, who, in the late proscription, had receivedmoney from the treasury, for bringing in the heads of Roman citizens, although they were expressly excepted in the Cornelian laws. 

XII. He likewise suborned some one to prefer an impeachment (9) fortreason against Caius Rabirius, by whose especial assistance the senatehad, a few years before, put down Lucius Saturninus, the seditioustribune; and being drawn by lot a judge on the trial, he condemned himwith so much animosity, that upon his appealing to the people, nocircumstance availed him so much as the extraordinary bitterness of hisjudge. 

XIII. Having renounced all hope of obtaining Egypt for his province, hestood candidate for the office of chief pontiff, to secure which, he hadrecourse to the most profuse bribery. Calculating, on this occasion, theenormous amount of the debts he had contracted, he is reported to havesaid to his mother, when she kissed him at his going out in the morningto the assembly of the people, "I will never return home unless I amelected pontiff. " In effect, he left so far behind him two most powerfulcompetitors, who were much his superiors both in age and rank, that hehad more votes in their own tribes, than they both had in all the tribestogether. 

XIV. After he was chosen praetor, the conspiracy of Catiline wasdiscovered; and while every other member of the senate voted forinflicting capital punishment on the accomplices in that crime [33], healone proposed that the delinquents should be distributed for safecustody among the towns of Italy, their property being confiscated. Heeven struck such terror into those who were advocates for greaterseverity, by representing to them what universal odium would be attachedto their memories by the Roman people, that Decius Silanus, consul elect, did not hesitate to qualify his proposal, it not being very honourable tochange it, by a lenient interpretation; as if it had been understood in aharsher sense than he intended, and Caesar would certainly have carriedhis point, having brought over to his side a great number of thesenators, among whom was Cicero, the consul's brother, had not a speechby Marcus Cato infused new vigour into the resolutions of the senate. Hepersisted, however, in obstructing the measure, until a body of the Romanknights, who stood under arms as a guard, threatened him with instantdeath, if he continued his determined opposition. They even thrust athim with their drawn swords, so that those who sat next him moved away;(10) and a few friends, with no small difficulty, protected him, bythrowing their arms round him, and covering him with their togas. Atlast, deterred by this violence, he not only gave way, but absentedhimself from the senate-house during the remainder of that year. 

XV. Upon the first day of his praetorship, he summoned Quintus Catulusto render an account to the people respecting the repairs of the Capitol[34]; proposing a decree for transferring the office of curator toanother person [35]. But being unable to withstand the strong oppositionmade by the aristocratical party, whom he perceived quitting, in greatnumbers, their attendance upon the new consuls [36], and fully resolvedto resist his proposal, he dropped the design. 

XVI. He afterwards approved himself a most resolute supporter ofCaecilius Metullus, tribune of the people, who, in spite of allopposition from his colleagues, had proposed some laws of a violenttendency [37], until they were both dismissed from office by a vote ofthe senate. He ventured, notwithstanding, to retain his post andcontinue in the administration of justice; but finding that preparationswere made to obstruct him by force of arms, he dismissed the lictors, threw off his gown, and betook himself privately to his own house, withthe resolution of being quiet, in a time so unfavourable to hisinterests. He likewise pacified the mob, which two days afterwardsflocked about him, and in a riotous manner made a voluntary tender oftheir assistance in the vindication of his (11) honour. This happeningcontrary to expectation, the senate, who met in haste, on account of thetumult, gave him their thanks by some of the leading members of thehouse, and sending for him, after high commendation of his conduct, cancelled their former vote, and restored him to his office. 

XVII. But he soon got into fresh trouble, being named amongst theaccomplices of Catiline, both before Novius Niger the quaestor, by LuciusVettius the informer, and in the senate by Quintus Curius; to whom areward had been voted, for having first discovered the designs of theconspirators. Curius affirmed that he had received his information fromCatiline. Vettius even engaged to produce in evidence against him hisown hand-writing, given to Catiline. Caesar, feeling that this treatmentwas not to be borne, appealed to Cicero himself, whether he had notvoluntarily made a discovery to him of some particulars of theconspiracy; and so baulked Curius of his expected reward. He, therefore, obliged Vettius to give pledges for his behaviour, seized his goods, andafter heavily fining him, and seeing him almost torn in pieces before therostra, threw him into prison; to which he likewise sent Novius thequaestor, for having presumed to take an information against a magistrateof superior authority. 

XVIII. At the expiration of his praetorship he obtained by lot theFarther-Spain [38], and pacified his creditors, who were for detaininghim, by finding sureties for his debts [39]. Contrary, however, to bothlaw and custom, he took his departure before the usual equipage andoutfit were prepared. It is uncertain whether this precipitancy arosefrom the apprehension of an impeachment, with which he was threatened onthe expiration of his former office, or from his anxiety to lose no timein relieving the allies, who implored him to come to their aid. He hadno (12) sooner established tranquillity in the province, than, withoutwaiting for the arrival of his successor, he returned to Rome, with equalhaste, to sue for a triumph [40], and the consulship. The day ofelection, however, being already fixed by proclamation, he could notlegally be admitted a candidate, unless he entered the city as a privateperson [41]. On this emergency he solicited a suspension of the laws inhis favour; but such an indulgence being strongly opposed, he foundhimself under the necessity of abandoning all thoughts of a triumph, lesthe should be disappointed of the consulship. 

XIX. Of the two other competitors for the consulship, Lucius Luceius andMarcus Bibulus, he joined with the former, upon condition that Luceius, being a man of less interest but greater affluence, should promise moneyto the electors, in their joint names. Upon which the party of thenobles, dreading how far he might carry matters in that high office, witha colleague disposed to concur in and second his measures, advisedBibulus to promise the voters as much as the other; and most of themcontributed towards the expense, Cato himself admitting that bribery;under such circumstances, was for the public good [42]. He wasaccordingly elected consul jointly with Bibulus. Actuated still by thesame motives, the prevailing party took care to assign provinces of smallimportance to the new consuls, such as the care of the woods and roads. Caesar, incensed at this indignity, endeavoured by the most assiduous andflattering attentions to gain to his side Cneius Pompey, at that timedissatisfied with the senate for the backwardness they shewed to confirmhis acts, after his victories over Mithridates. He likewise broughtabout a reconciliation between Pompey and Marcus Crassus, who had been atvariance from (13) the time of their joint consulship, in which officethey were continually clashing; and he entered into an agreement withboth, that nothing should be transacted in the government, which wasdispleasing to any of the three. 

XX. Having entered upon his office [43], he introduced a new regulation, that the daily acts both of the senate and people should be committed towriting, and published [44]. He also revived an old custom, that anofficer [45] should precede him, and his lictors follow him, on thealternate months when the fasces were not carried before him. Uponpreferring a bill to the people for the division of some public lands, hewas opposed by his colleague, whom he violently drove out of the forum. Next day the insulted consul made a complaint in the senate of thistreatment; but such was the consternation, that no one having the courageto bring the matter forward or move a censure, which had been often doneunder outrages of less importance, he was so much dispirited, that untilthe expiration of his office he never stirred from home, and did nothingbut issue edicts to obstruct his colleague's proceedings. From thattime, therefore, Caesar had the sole management of public affairs;insomuch that some wags, when they signed any instrument as witnesses, did not add "in the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus, " but, "of Juliusand Caesar;" putting the same person down twice, under his name andsurname. The following verses likewise were currently repeated on thisoccasion:

 Non Bibulo quidquam nuper, sed Caesare factum est; Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini. 

 Nothing was done in Bibulus's year: No; Caesar only then was consul here. 

(14) The land of Stellas, consecrated by our ancestors to the gods, withsome other lands in Campania left subject to tribute, for the support ofthe expenses of the government, he divided, but not by lot, among upwardsof twenty thousand freemen, who had each of them three or more children. He eased the publicans, upon their petition, of a third part of the sumwhich they had engaged to pay into the public treasury; and openlyadmonished them not to bid so extravagantly upon the next occasion. Hemade various profuse grants to meet the wishes of others, no one opposinghim; or if any such attempt was made, it was soon suppressed. MarcusCato, who interrupted him in his proceedings, he ordered to be draggedout of the senate-house by a lictor, and carried to prison. LuciusLucullus, likewise, for opposing him with some warmth, he so terrifiedwith the apprehension of being criminated, that, to deprecate theconsul's resentment, he fell on his knees. And upon Cicero's lamentingin some trial the miserable condition of the times, he the very same day, by nine o'clock, transferred his enemy, Publius Clodius, from a patricianto a plebeian family; a change which he had long solicited in vain [46]. At last, effectually to intimidate all those of the opposite party, he bygreat rewards prevailed upon Vettius to declare, that he had beensolicited by certain persons to assassinate Pompey; and when he wasbrought before the rostra to name those who had been concerted betweenthem, after naming one or two to no purpose, not without great suspicionof subornation, Caesar, despairing of success in this rash stratagem, issupposed to have taken off his informer by poison. 

XXI. About the same time he married Calpurnia, the daughter of LuciusPiso, who was to succeed him in the consulship, and gave his own daughterJulia to Cneius Pompey; rejecting Servilius Caepio, to whom she had beencontracted, and by whose means chiefly he had but a little before baffledBibulus. After this new alliance, he began, upon any debates in thesenate, to ask Pompey's opinion first, whereas he used before to givethat distinction to Marcus Crassus; and it was (15) the usual practicefor the consul to observe throughout the year the method of consultingthe senate which he had adopted on the calends (the first) of January. 

XXII. Being, therefore, now supported by the interest of hisfather-in-law and son-in-law, of all the provinces he made choice of Gaul, as most likely to furnish him with matter and occasion for triumphs. Atfirst indeed he received only Cisalpine-Gaul, with the addition ofIllyricum, by a decree proposed by Vatinius to the people; but soonafterwards obtained from the senate Gallia-Comata [47] also, the senatorsbeing apprehensive, that if they should refuse it him, that province, also, would be granted him by the people. Elated now with his success, hecould not refrain from boasting, a few days afterwards, in a fullsenate-house, that he had, in spite of his enemies, and to their greatmortification, obtained all he desired, and that for the future he wouldmake them, to their shame, submissive to his pleasure. One of thesenators observing, sarcastically: "That will not be very easy for a woman[48] to do, " he jocosely replied, "Semiramis formerly reigned in Assyria, and the Amazons possessed great part of Asia. "

XXIII. When the term of his consulship had expired, upon a motion beingmade in the senate by Caius Memmius and Lucius Domitius, the praetors, respecting the transactions of the year past, he offered to refer himselfto the house; but (16) they declining the business, after three daysspent in vain altercation, he set out for his province. Immediately, however, his quaestor was charged with several misdemeanors, for thepurpose of implicating Caesar himself. Indeed, an accusation was soonafter preferred against him by Lucius Antistius, tribune of the people;but by making an appeal to the tribune's colleagues, he succeeded inhaving the prosecution suspended during his absence in the service of thestate. To secure himself, therefore, for the time to come, he wasparticularly careful to secure the good-will of the magistrates at theannual elections, assisting none of the candidates with his interest, norsuffering any persons to be advanced to any office, who would notpositively undertake to defend him in his absence for which purpose hemade no scruple to require of some of them an oath, and even a writtenobligation. 

XXIV. But when Lucius Domitius became a candidate for the consulship, and openly threatened that, upon his being elected consul, he wouldeffect that which he could not accomplish when he was praetor, and divesthim of the command of the armies, he sent for Crassus and Pompey toLucca, a city in his province, and pressed them, for the purpose ofdisappointing Domitius, to sue again for the consulship, and to continuehim in his command for five years longer; with both which requisitionsthey complied. Presumptuous now from his success, he added, at his ownprivate charge, more legions to those which he had received from therepublic; among the former of which was one levied in Transalpine Gaul, and called by a Gallic name, Alauda [49], which he trained and armed inthe Roman fashion, and afterwards conferred on it the freedom of thecity. From this period he declined no occasion of war, however unjustand dangerous; attacking, without any provocation, as well the allies ofRome as the barbarous nations which were its enemies: insomuch, that thesenate passed a decree for sending commissioners to examine into thecondition of Gaul; and some members even proposed that he should bedelivered up to the enemy. But so great had been the success of hisenterprises, that he had the honour of obtaining more days [50] (17) ofsupplication, and those more frequently, than had ever before beendecreed to any commander. 

XXV. During nine years in which he held the government of the province, his achievements were as follows: he reduced all Gaul, bounded by thePyrenean forest, the Alps, mount Gebenna, and the two rivers, the Rhineand the Rhone, and being about three thousand two hundred miles incompass, into the form of a province, excepting only the nations inalliance with the republic, and such as had merited his favour; imposingupon this new acquisition an annual tribute of forty millions ofsesterces. He was the first of the Romans who, crossing the Rhine by abridge, attacked the Germanic tribes inhabiting the country beyond thatriver, whom he defeated in several engagements. He also invaded theBritons, a people formerly unknown, and having vanquished them, exactedfrom them contributions and hostages. Amidst such a series of successes, he experienced thrice only any signal disaster; once in Britain, when hisfleet was nearly wrecked in a storm; in Gaul, at Gergovia, where one ofhis legions was put to the rout; and in the territory of the Germans, hislieutenants Titurius and Aurunculeius were cut off by an ambuscade. 

XXVI. During this period [51] he lost his mother [52], whose death wasfollowed by that of his daughter [53], and, not long afterwards, of hisgranddaughter. Meanwhile, the republic being in consternation at themurder of Publius Clodius, and the senate passing a vote that only oneconsul, namely, Cneius Pompeius, should be chosen for the ensuing year, he prevailed with the tribunes of the people, who intended joining him innomination with Pompey, to propose to the people a bill, enabling him, though absent, to become a candidate for his second consulship, when theterm of his command should be near expiring, that he might not be obligedon that account to quit his province too soon, and before the conclusionof the war. Having attained this object, carrying his views stillhigher, and animated with the hopes of success, he omitted no (18)opportunity of gaining universal favour, by acts of liberality andkindness to individuals, both in public and private. With money raisedfrom the spoils of the war, he began to construct a new forum, theground-plot of which cost him above a hundred millions of sesterces [54]. He promised the people a public entertainment of gladiators, and a feastin memory of his daughter, such as no one before him had ever given. Themore to raise their expectations on this occasion, although he had agreedwith victuallers of all denominations for his feast, he made yet fartherpreparations in private houses. He issued an order, that the mostcelebrated gladiators, if at any time during the combat they incurred thedispleasure of the public, should be immediately carried off by force, and reserved for some future occasion. Young gladiators he trained up, not in the school, and by the masters, of defence, but in the houses ofRoman knights, and even senators, skilled in the use of arms, earnestlyrequesting them, as appears from his letters, to undertake the disciplineof those novitiates, and to give them the word during their exercises. He doubled the pay of the legions in perpetuity; allowing them likewisecorn, when it was in plenty, without any restriction; and sometimesdistributing to every soldier in his army a slave, and a portion of land. 

XXVII. To maintain his alliance and good understanding with Pompey, heoffered him in marriage his sister's grand-daughter Octavia, who had beenmarried to Caius Marcellus; and requested for himself his daughter, lately contracted to Faustus Sylla. Every person about him, and a greatpart likewise of the senate, he secured by loans of money at lowinterest, or none at all; and to all others who came to wait upon him, either by invitation or of their own accord, he made liberal presents;not neglecting even the freed-men and slaves, who were favourites withtheir masters and patrons. He offered also singular and ready aid to allwho were under prosecution, or in debt, and to prodigal youths; excludingfrom (19) his bounty those only who were so deeply plunged in guilt, poverty, or luxury, that it was impossible effectually to relieve them. These, he openly declared, could derive no benefit from any other meansthan a civil war. 

XXVIII. He endeavoured with equal assiduity to engage in his interestprinces and provinces in every part of the world; presenting some withthousands of captives, and sending to others the assistance of troops, atwhatever time and place they desired, without any authority from eitherthe senate or people of Rome. He likewise embellished with magnificentpublic buildings the most powerful cities not only of Italy, Gaul, andSpain, but of Greece and Asia; until all people being now astonished, andspeculating on the obvious tendency of these proceedings, ClaudiusMarcellus, the consul, declaring first by proclamation, that he intendedto propose a measure of the utmost importance to the state, made a motionin the senate that some person should be appointed to succeed Caesar inhis province, before the term of his command was expired; because the warbeing brought to a conclusion, peace was restored, and the victoriousarmy ought to be disbanded. He further moved, that Caesar being absent, his claims to be a candidate at the next election of consuls should notbe admitted, as Pompey himself had afterwards abrogated that privilege bya decree of the people. The fact was, that Pompey, in his law relatingto the choice of chief magistrates, had forgot to except Caesar, in thearticle in which he declared all such as were not present incapable ofbeing candidates for any office; but soon afterwards, when the law wasinscribed on brass, and deposited in the treasury, he corrected hismistake. Marcellus, not content with depriving Caesar of his provinces, and the privilege intended him by Pompey, likewise moved the senate, thatthe freedom of the city should be taken from those colonists whom, by theVatinian law, he had settled at New Como [55]; because it had beenconferred upon them with ambitious views, and by a stretch of the laws. 

(20) XXIX. Roused by these proceedings, and thinking, as he was oftenheard to say, that it would be a more difficult enterprise to reduce him, now that he was the chief man in the state, from the first rank ofcitizens to the second, than from the second to the lowest of all, Caesarmade a vigorous opposition to the measure, partly by means of thetribunes, who interposed in his behalf, and partly through ServiusSulpicius, the other consul. The following year likewise, when CaiusMarcellus, who succeeded his cousin Marcus in the consulship, pursued thesame course, Caesar, by means of an immense bribe, engaged in his defenceAemilius Paulus, the other consul, and Caius Curio, the most violent ofthe tribunes. But finding the opposition obstinately bent against him, and that the consuls-elect were also of that party, he wrote a letter tothe senate, requesting that they would not deprive him of the privilegekindly granted him by the people; or else that the other generals shouldresign the command of their armies as well as himself; fully persuaded, as it is thought, that he could more easily collect his veteran soldiers, whenever he pleased, than Pompey could his new-raised troops. At thesame time, he made his adversaries an offer to disband eight of hislegions and give up Transalpine-Gaul, upon condition that he might retaintwo legions, with the Cisalpine province, or but one legion withIllyricum, until he should be elected consul. 

XXX. But as the senate declined to interpose in the business, and hisenemies declared that they would enter into no compromise where thesafety of the republic was at stake, he advanced into Hither-Gaul [56], and, having gone the circuit for the administration of justice, made ahalt at Ravenna, resolved to have recourse to arms if the senate shouldproceed to extremity against the tribunes of the people who had espousedhis cause. This was indeed his pretext for the civil war; but it issupposed that there were other motives for his conduct. Cneius Pompeyused frequently to say, that he sought to throw every thing intoconfusion, because he was unable, with all his private wealth, tocomplete the works he had begun, and answer, at his return, the vastexpectations which he had excited in the people. Others pretend that hewas apprehensive of being (21) called to account for what he had done inhis first consulship, contrary to the auspices, laws, and the protests ofthe tribunes; Marcus Cato having sometimes declared, and that, too, withan oath, that he would prefer an impeachment against him, as soon as hedisbanded his army. A report likewise prevailed, that if he returned asa private person, he would, like Milo, have to plead his cause before thejudges, surrounded by armed men. This conjecture is rendered highlyprobable by Asinius Pollio, who informs us that Caesar, upon viewing thevanquished and slaughtered enemy in the field of Pharsalia, expressedhimself in these very words: "This was their intention: I, Caius Caesar, after all the great achievements I had performed, must have beencondemned, had I not summoned the army to my aid!" Some think, thathaving contracted from long habit an extraordinary love of power, andhaving weighed his own and his enemies' strength, he embraced thatoccasion of usurping the supreme power; which indeed he had coveted fromthe time of his youth. This seems to have been the opinion entertainedby Cicero, who tells us, in the third book of his Offices, that Caesarused to have frequently in his mouth two verses of Euripides, which hethus translates:

 Nam si violandum est jus, regnandi gratia Violandum est: aliis rebus pietatem colas. 

 Be just, unless a kingdom tempts to break the laws, For sovereign power alone can justify the cause. [57]

XXXI. When intelligence, therefore, was received, that the interpositionof the tribunes in his favour had been utterly rejected, and that theythemselves had fled from the city, he immediately sent forward somecohorts, but privately, to prevent any suspicion of his design; and, tokeep up appearances, attended at a public spectacle, examined the modelof a fencing-school which he proposed to build, and, as usual, sat downto table with a numerous party of his friends. But after sun-set, mulesbeing put to his carriage from a neighbouring mill, he set forward on hisjourney with all possible privacy, and a small retinue. The lights goingout, he lost his way, and (22) wandered about a long time, until atlength, by the help of a guide, whom he found towards day-break, heproceeded on foot through some narrow paths, and again reached the road. Coming up with his troops on the banks of the Rubicon, which was theboundary of his province [58], he halted for a while, and, revolving inhis mind the importance of the step he was on the point of taking, heturned to those about him, and said: "We may still retreat; but if wepass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out inarms. "

XXXII. While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred. Aperson remarkable for his noble mien and graceful aspect, appeared closeat hand, sitting and playing upon a pipe. When, not only the shepherds, but a number of soldiers also flocked from their posts to listen to him, and some trumpeters among them, he snatched a trumpet from one of them, ran to the river with it, and sounding the advance with a piercing blast, crossed to the other side. Upon this, Caesar exclaimed, "Let us gowhither the omens of the Gods and the iniquity of our enemies call us. The die is now cast. "

XXXIII. Accordingly, having marched his army over the river, he shewedthem the tribunes of the people, who, upon their being driven from thecity, had come to meet him; and, in the presence of that assembly, calledupon the troops to pledge him their fidelity, with tears in his eyes, andhis garment rent from his bosom. It has been supposed, that upon thisoccasion he promised to every soldier a knight's estate; but that opinionis founded on a mistake. For when, in his harangue to them, hefrequently held out a finger of his left hand, and declared, that torecompense those who should support him in the defence of his honour, hewould willingly part even with his ring; the soldiers at a distance, whocould more easily see than hear him while he spoke, formed theirconception of what he said, by the eye, not by the ear; and accordinglygave out, that he had promised to each of them the privilege (23) ofwearing the gold ring, and an estate of four hundred thousand sesterces. [60]

XXXIV. Of his subsequent proceedings I shall give a cursory detail, inthe order in which they occurred [61]. He took possession of Picenum, Umbria, and Etruria; and having obliged Lucius Domitius, who had beentumultuously nominated his successor, and held Corsinium with a garrison, to surrender, and dismissed him, he marched along the coast of the UpperSea, to Brundusium, to which place the consuls and Pompey were fled withthe intention of crossing the sea as soon as possible. After vainattempts, by all the obstacles he could oppose, to prevent their leavingthe harbour, he turned his steps towards Rome, where he appealed to thesenate on the present state of public affairs; and then set out forSpain, in which province Pompey had a numerous army, under the command ofthree lieutenants, Marcus Petreius, Lucius Afranius, and Marcus Varro;declaring amongst his friends, before he set forward, "That he was goingagainst an army without a general, and should return thence against ageneral without an army. " Though his progress was retarded both by thesiege of Marseilles, which shut her gates against him, and a very greatscarcity of corn, yet in a short time he bore down all before him. 

XXXV. Thence he returned to Rome, and crossing the sea to Macedonia, blocked up Pompey during almost four months, within a line of ramparts ofprodigious extent; and at last defeated him in the battle of Pharsalia. Pursuing him in his flight to Alexandria, where he was informed of hismurder, he presently found himself also engaged, under all thedisadvantages of time and place, in a very dangerous war, with kingPtolemy, who, he saw, had treacherous designs upon his life. It waswinter, and he, within the walls of a well-provided and subtle enemy, wasdestitute of every thing, and wholly unprepared (24) for such a conflict. He succeeded, however, in his enterprise, and put the kingdom of Egyptinto the hands of Cleopatra and her younger brother; being afraid to makeit a province, lest, under an aspiring prefect, it might become thecentre of revolt. From Alexandria he went into Syria, and thence toPontus, induced by intelligence which he had received respectingPharnaces. This prince, who was son of the great Mithridates, had seizedthe opportunity which the distraction of the times offered for making warupon his neighbours, and his insolence and fierceness had grown with hissuccess. Caesar, however, within five days after entering his country, and four hours after coming in sight of him, overthrew him in onedecisive battle. Upon which, he frequently remarked to those about himthe good fortune of Pompey, who had obtained his military reputation, chiefly, by victory over so feeble an enemy. He afterwards defeatedScipio and Juba, who were rallying the remains of the party in Africa, and Pompey's sons in Spain. 

XXXVI. During the whole course of the civil war, he never once sufferedany defeat, except in the case of his lieutenants; of whom Caius Curiofell in Africa, Caius Antonius was made prisoner in Illyricum, PubliusDolabella lost a fleet in the same Illyricum, and Cneius DomitiusCulvinus, an army in Pontus. In every encounter with the enemy where hehimself commanded, he came off with complete success; nor was the issueever doubtful, except on two occasions: once at Dyrrachium, when, beingobliged to give ground, and Pompey not pursuing his advantage, he saidthat "Pompey knew not how to conquer;" the other instance occurred in hislast battle in Spain, when, despairing of the event, he even had thoughtsof killing himself. 

XXXVII. For the victories obtained in the several wars, he triumphedfive different times; after the defeat of Scipio: four times in onemonth, each triumph succeeding the former by an interval of a few days;and once again after the conquest of Pompey's sons. His first and mostglorious triumph was for the victories he gained in Gaul; the next forthat of Alexandria, the third for the reduction of Pontus, the fourth forhis African victory, and the last for that in Spain; and (25) they alldiffered from each other in their varied pomp and pageantry. On the dayof the Gallic triumph, as he was proceeding along the street calledVelabrum, after narrowly escaping a fall from his chariot by the breakingof the axle-tree, he ascended the Capitol by torch-light, forty elephants[62] carrying torches on his right and left. Amongst the pageantry ofthe Pontic triumph, a tablet with this inscription was carried beforehim: I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED [63]; not signifying, as other mottos onthe like occasion, what was done, so much as the dispatch with which itwas done. 

XXXVIII. To every foot-soldier in his veteran legions, besides the twothousand sesterces paid him in the beginning of the civil war, he gavetwenty thousand more, in the shape of prize-money. He likewise allottedthem lands, but not in contiguity, that the former owners might not beentirely dispossessed. To the people of Rome, besides ten modii of corn, and as many pounds of oil, he gave three hundred sesterces a man, whichhe had formerly promised them, and a hundred more to each for the delayin fulfilling his engagement. He likewise remitted a year's rent due tothe treasury, for such houses in Rome as did not pay above two thousandsesterces a year; and through the rest of Italy, for all such as did notexceed in yearly rent five hundred sesterces. To all this he added apublic entertainment, and a distribution of meat, and, after his Spanishvictory [64], two public dinners. For, considering the first he hadgiven as too sparing, and unsuited to his profuse liberality, he, fivedays afterwards, added another, which was most plentiful. 

XXXIX. The spectacles he exhibited to the people were of various kinds;namely, a combat of gladiators [65], and stage-plays in the several wardsof the city, and in different languages; likewise Circensian games [66], wrestlers, and the representation of a sea-fight. In the conflict ofgladiators presented in the Forum, Furius Leptinus, a man of praetorianfamily, entered the lists as a combatant, as did also Quintus Calpenus, formerly a senator, and a pleader of causes. The Pyrrhic dance wasperformed by some youths, who were sons to persons of the firstdistinction in Asia and Bithynia. In the plays, Decimus Laberius, whohad been a Roman knight, acted in his own piece; and being presented onthe spot with five hundred thousand sesterces, and a gold ring, he wentfrom the stage, through the orchestra, and resumed his place in the seats(27) allotted for the equestrian order. In the Circensisn games; thecircus being enlarged at each end, and a canal sunk round it, several ofthe young nobility drove chariots, drawn, some by four, and others by twohorses, and likewise rode races on single horses. The Trojan game wasacted by two distinct companies of boys, one differing from the other inage and rank. The hunting of wild beasts was presented for five dayssuccessively; and on the last day a battle was fought by five hundredfoot, twenty elephants, and thirty horse on each side. To afford roomfor this engagement, the goals were removed, and in their space two campswere pitched, directly opposite to each other. Wrestlers likewiseperformed for three days successively, in a stadium provided for thepurpose in the Campus Martius. A lake having been dug in the littleCodeta [67], ships of the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets, containing two, three, and four banks of oars, with a number of men on board, afforded ananimated representation of a sea-fight. To these various diversionsthere flocked such crowds of spectators from all parts, that most of thestrangers were obliged to lodge in tents erected in the streets, or alongthe roads near the city. Several in the throng were squeezed to death, amongst whom were two senators. 

XL. Turning afterwards his attention to the regulation of thecommonwealth, he corrected the calendar [68], which had for (28) sometime become extremely confused, through the unwarrantable liberty whichthe pontiffs had taken in the article of intercalation. To such a heighthad this abuse proceeded, that neither the festivals designed for theharvest fell in summer, nor those for the vintage in autumn. Heaccommodated the year to the course of the sun, ordaining that in futureit should consist of three hundred and sixty-five days without anyintercalary month; and that every fourth year an intercalary day shouldbe inserted. That the year might thenceforth commence regularly with thecalends, or first of January, he inserted two months between November andDecember; so that the year in which this regulation was made consisted offifteen months, including the month of intercalation, which, according tothe division of time then in use, happened that year. 

XLI. He filled up the vacancies in the senate, by advancing severalplebeians to the rank of patricians, and also increased the number ofpraetors, aediles, quaestors, and inferior magistrates; restoring, at thesame time, such as had been degraded by the censors, or convicted ofbribery at elections. The choice of magistrates he so divided with thepeople, that, excepting only the candidates for the consulship, theynominated one half of them, and he the other. The method which hepractised in those cases was, to recommend such persons as he had pitchedupon, by bills dispersed through the several tribes to this effect:"Caesar the dictator to such a tribe (naming it). I recommend to you(naming likewise the persons), that by the favour of your votes they mayattain to the honours for which they sue. " He likewise admitted tooffices the sons of those who had been proscribed. The trial of causeshe restricted to two orders of judges, the equestrian and senatorial;excluding the tribunes of the treasury who had before made a third class. The revised census of the people he ordered to be taken neither in theusual manner or place, but street by street, by the principal inhabitantsof the several quarters of the city; and he reduced the number of thosewho received corn at the public cost, from three hundred and twenty, to ahundred and fifty, thousand. To prevent any tumults on account of thecensus, he ordered that the praetor should every year fill up by lot thevacancies occasioned by death, from those who were not enrolled for thereceipt of corn. 

(29) XLII. Eighty thousand citizens having been distributed into foreigncolonies [69], he enacted, in order to stop the drain on the population, that no freeman of the city above twenty, and under forty, years of age, who was not in the military service, should absent himself from Italy formore than three years at a time; that no senator's son should go abroad, unless in the retinue of some high officer; and as to those whose pursuitwas tending flocks and herds, that no less than a third of the number oftheir shepherds free-born should be youths. He likewise made all thosewho practised physic in Rome, and all teachers of the liberal arts, freeof the city, in order to fix them in it, and induce others to settlethere. With respect to debts, he disappointed the expectation which wasgenerally entertained, that they would be totally cancelled; and orderedthat the debtors should satisfy their creditors, according to thevaluation of their estates, at the rate at which they were purchasedbefore the commencement of the civil war; deducting from the debt whathad been paid for interest either in money or by bonds; by virtue ofwhich provision about a fourth part of the debt was lost. He dissolvedall the guilds, except such as were of ancient foundation. Crimes werepunished with greater severity; and the rich being more easily induced tocommit them because they were only liable to banishment, without theforfeiture of their property, he stripped murderers, as Cicero observes, of their whole estates, and other offenders of one half. 

XLIII. He was extremely assiduous and strict in the administration ofjustice. He expelled from the senate such members as were convicted ofbribery; and he dissolved the marriage of a man of pretorian rank, whohad married a lady two days after her divorce from a former husband, although there was no suspicion that they had been guilty of any illicitconnection. He imposed duties on the importation of foreign goods. Theuse of litters for travelling, purple robes, and jewels, he permittedonly to persons of a certain age and station, and on particular days. Heenforced a rigid execution of the sumptuary laws; placing officers aboutthe markets, to seize upon all meats exposed to sale contrary to therules, and bring them to him; sometimes sending his lictors and soldiersto (30) carry away such victuals as had escaped the notice of theofficers, even when they were upon the table. 

XLIV. His thoughts were now fully employed from day to day on a varietyof great projects for the embellishment and improvement of the city, aswell as for guarding and extending the bounds of the empire. In thefirst place, he meditated the construction of a temple to Mars, whichshould exceed in grandeur every thing of that kind in the world. Forthis purpose, he intended to fill up the lake on which he had entertainedthe people with the spectacle of a sea-fight. He also projected a mostspacious theatre adjacent to the Tarpeian mount; and also proposed toreduce the civil law to a reasonable compass, and out of that immense andundigested mass of statutes to extract the best and most necessary partsinto a few books; to make as large a collection as possible of works inthe Greek and Latin languages, for the public use; the province ofproviding and putting them in proper order being assigned to MarcusVarro. He intended likewise to drain the Pomptine marshes, to cut achannel for the discharge of the waters of the lake Fucinus, to form aroad from the Upper Sea through the ridge of the Appenine to the Tiber;to make a cut through the isthmus of Corinth, to reduce the Dacians, whohad over-run Pontus and Thrace, within their proper limits, and then tomake war upon the Parthians, through the Lesser Armenia, but not to riska general engagement with them, until he had made some trial of theirprowess in war. But in the midst of all his undertakings and projects, he was carried off by death; before I speak of which, it may not beimproper to give an account of his person, dress, and manners; togetherwith what relates to his pursuits, both civil and military. 

XLV. It is said that he was tall, of a fair complexion, round limbed, rather full faced, with eyes black and piercing; and that he enjoyedexcellent health, except towards the close of his life, when he wassubject to sudden fainting-fits, and disturbance in his sleep. He waslikewise twice seized with the falling sickness while engaged in activeservice. He was so nice in the care of his person, that he not only keptthe hair of his head closely cut and had his face smoothly shaved, but(31) even caused the hair on other parts of the body to be plucked out bythe roots, a practice for which some persons rallied him. His baldnessgave him much uneasiness, having often found himself upon that accountexposed to the jibes of his enemies. He therefore used to bring forwardthe hair from the crown of his head; and of all the honours conferredupon him by the senate and people, there was none which he eitheraccepted or used with greater pleasure, than the right of wearingconstantly a laurel crown. It is said that he was particular in hisdress. For he used the Latus Clavus [70] with fringes about the wrists, and always had it girded about him, but rather loosely. Thiscircumstance gave origin to the expression of Sylla, who often advisedthe nobles to beware of "the ill-girt boy. "

XLVI. He first inhabited a small house in the Suburra [71], but afterhis advancement to the pontificate, he occupied a palace belonging to thestate in the Via Sacra. Many writers say that he liked his residence tobe elegant, and his entertainments sumptuous; and that he entirely tookdown a villa near the grove of Aricia, which he had built from thefoundation and finished at a vast expense, because it did not exactlysuit his taste, although he had at that time but slender means, and wasin debt; and that he carried about in his expeditions tesselated andmarble slabs for the floor of his tent. 

XLVII. They likewise report that he invaded Britain in hopes of findingpearls [72], the size of which he would compare together, and ascertainthe weight by poising them in his hand; that he would purchase, at anycost, gems, carved works, statues, and pictures, executed by the eminentmasters of antiquity; and that he would give for young and handy slaves aprice so extravagant, that he forbad its being entered in the diary ofhis expenses. 

XLVIII. We are also told, that in the provinces he constantly maintainedtwo tables, one for the officers of the army, and the gentry of thecountry, and the other for Romans of the highest rank, and provincials ofthe first distinction. He was so very exact in the management of hisdomestic affairs, both little and great, that he once threw a baker intoprison, for serving him with a finer sort of bread than his guests; andput to death a freed-man, who was a particular favourite, for debauchingthe lady of a Roman knight, although no complaint had been made to him ofthe affair. 

XLIX. The only stain upon his chastity was his having cohabited withNicomedes; and that indeed stuck to him all the days of his life, andexposed him to much bitter raillery. I will not dwell upon thosewell-known verses of Calvus Licinius:

 Whate'er Bithynia and her lord possess'd, Her lord who Caesar in his lust caress'd. [73]

I pass over the speeches of Dolabella, and Curio, the father, in whichthe former calls him "the queen's rival, and the inner-side of the royalcouch, " and the latter, "the brothel of Nicomedes, and the Bithynianstew. " I would likewise say nothing of the edicts of Bibulus, in whichhe proclaimed his colleague under the name of "the queen of Bithynia;"adding, that "he had formerly been in love with a king, but now coveted akingdom. " At which time, as Marcus Brutus relates, one Octavius, a manof a crazy brain, and therefore the more free in his raillery, after hehad in a crowded assembly saluted Pompey by the title of king, addressedCaesar by that of queen. Caius Memmius likewise upbraided him withserving the king at table, among the rest of his catamites, in thepresence of a large company, in which were some merchants from Rome, thenames of whom he mentions. But Cicero was not content with writing insome of his letters, that he was conducted by the royal attendants intothe king's bed-chamber, lay upon a bed of gold with a covering of purple, and that the youthful bloom of this scion of Venus had been tainted inBithynia--but upon Caesar's pleading the cause of Nysa, the daughter of(32) Nicomedes before the senate, and recounting the king's kindnesses tohim, replied, "Pray tell us no more of that; for it is well known what hegave you, and you gave him. " To conclude, his soldiers in the Gallictriumph, amongst other verses, such as they jocularly sung on thoseoccasions, following the general's chariot, recited these, which sincethat time have become extremely common:

 The Gauls to Caesar yield, Caesar to Nicomede, Lo! Caesar triumphs for his glorious deed, But Caesar's conqueror gains no victor's meed. [74]

L. It is admitted by all that he was much addicted to women, as well asvery expensive in his intrigues with them, and that he debauched manyladies of the highest quality; among whom were Posthumia, the wife ofServius Sulpicius; Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius; Tertulla, the wifeof Marcus Crassus; and Mucia, the wife of Cneius Pompey. For it iscertain that the Curios, both father and son, and many others, made it areproach to Pompey, "That to gratify his ambition, he married thedaughter of a man, upon whose account he had divorced his wife, afterhaving had three children by her; and whom he used, with a deep sigh, tocall Aegisthus. " [75] But the mistress he most loved, was Servilia, themother of Marcus Brutus, for whom he purchased, in his first consulshipafter the commencement of their intrigue, a pearl which cost him sixmillions of sesterces; and in the civil war, besides other presents, assigned to her, for a trifling consideration, some valuable farms whenthey were exposed to public auction. Many persons expressing theirsurprise at the lowness of the price, Cicero wittily remarked, "To letyou know the real value of the purchase, between ourselves, Tertia wasdeducted:" for Servilia was supposed to have prostituted her daughterTertia to Caesar. [76]

(34) LI. That he had intrigues likewise with married women in theprovinces, appears from this distich, which was as much repeated in theGallic Triumph as the former:--

 Watch well your wives, ye cits, we bring a blade, A bald-pate master of the wenching trade. Thy gold was spent on many a Gallic w---e; Exhausted now, thou com'st to borrow more. [77]

LII. In the number of his mistresses were also some queens; such asEunoe, a Moor, the wife of Bogudes, to whom and her husband he made, asNaso reports, many large presents. But his greatest favourite wasCleopatra, with whom he often revelled all night until the dawn of day, and would have gone with her through Egypt in dalliance, as far asAethiopia, in her luxurious yacht, had not the army refused to followhim. He afterwards invited her to Rome, whence he sent her back loadedwith honours and presents, and gave her permission to call by his name ason, who, according to the testimony of some Greek historians, resembledCaesar both in person and gait. Mark Antony declared in the senate, thatCaesar had acknowledged the child as his own; and that Caius Matias, Caius Oppius, and the rest of Caesar's friends knew it to be true. Onwhich occasion, Oppius, as if it had been an imputation which he wascalled upon to refute, published a book to shew, "that the child whichCleopatra fathered upon Caesar, was not his. " Helvius Cinna, tribune ofthe people, admitted to several persons the fact, that he had a billready drawn, which Caesar had ordered him to get enacted in his absence, allowing him, with the hope of leaving issue, to take any wife he chose, and as many of them as he pleased; and to leave no room for doubt of hisinfamous character for unnatural lewdness and adultery, Curio, thefather, says, in one of his speeches, "He was every woman's man, andevery man's woman. "

LIII. It is acknowledged even by his enemies, that in regard to wine, hewas abstemious. A remark is ascribed to Marcus Cato, "that Caesar wasthe only sober man amongst all those who were engaged in the design tosubvert (35) the government. " In the matter of diet, Caius Oppiusinforms us, "that he was so indifferent, that when a person in whosehouse he was entertained, had served him with stale, instead of fresh, oil [78], and the rest of the company would not touch it, he alone atevery heartily of it, that he might not seem to tax the master of thehouse with rusticity or want of attention. "

LIV. But his abstinence did not extend to pecuniary advantages, eitherin his military commands, or civil offices; for we have the testimony ofsome writers, that he took money from the proconsul, who was hispredecessor in Spain, and from the Roman allies in that quarter, for thedischarge of his debts; and plundered at the point of the sword sometowns of the Lusitanians, notwithstanding they attempted no resistance, and opened their gates to him upon his arrival before them. In Gaul, herifled the chapels and temples of the gods, which were filled with richofferings, and demolished cities oftener for the sake of their spoil, than for any ill they had done. By this means gold became so plentifulwith him, that he exchanged it through Italy and the provinces of theempire for three thousand sesterces the pound. In his first consulshiphe purloined from the Capitol three thousand pounds' weight of gold, andsubstituted for it the same quantity of gilt brass. He bartered likewiseto foreign nations and princes, for gold, the titles of allies and kings;and squeezed out of Ptolemy alone near six thousand talents, in the nameof himself and Pompey. He afterwards supported the expense of the civilwars, and of his triumphs and public spectacles, by the most flagrantrapine and sacrilege. 

LV. In eloquence and warlike achievements, he equalled at least, if hedid not surpass, the greatest of men. After his prosecution ofDolabella, he was indisputably reckoned one of the most distinguishedadvocates. Cicero, in recounting to Brutus the famous orators, declares, "that he does not see that Caesar was inferior to any one of them;" andsays, "that he (36) had an elegant, splendid, noble, and magnificent veinof eloquence. " And in a letter to Cornelius Nepos, he writes of him inthe following terms: "What! Of all the orators, who, during the wholecourse of their lives, have done nothing else, which can you prefer tohim? Which of them is more pointed or terse in his periods, or employsmore polished and elegant language?" In his youth, he seems to havechosen Strabo Caesar for his model; from whose oration in behalf of theSardinians he has transcribed some passages literally into hisDivination. In his delivery he is said to have had a shrill voice, andhis action was animated, but not ungraceful. He has left behind him somespeeches, among which are ranked a few that are not genuine, such as thaton behalf of Quintus Metellus. These Augustus supposes, with reason, tobe rather the production of blundering short-hand writers, who were notable to keep pace with him in the delivery, than publications of his own. For I find in some copies that the title is not "For Metellus, " but "Whathe wrote to Metellus;" whereas the speech is delivered in the name ofCaesar, vindicating Metellus and himself from the aspersions cast uponthem by their common defamers. The speech addressed "To his soldiers inSpain, " Augustus considers likewise as spurious. We meet with two underthis title; one made, as is pretended, in the first battle, and the otherin the last; at which time, Asinius Pollio says, he had not leisure toaddress the soldiers, on account of the suddenness of the enemy's attack. 

LVI. He has likewise left Commentaries of his own actions both in thewar in Gaul, and in the civil war with Pompey; for the author of theAlexandrian, African, and Spanish wars is not known with any certainty. Some think they are the production of Oppius, and some of Hirtius; thelatter of whom composed the last book, which is imperfect, of the Gallicwar. Of Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero, in his Brutus, speaks thus: "Hewrote his Commentaries in a manner deserving of great approbation: theyare plain, precise, and elegant, without any affectation of rhetoricalornament. In having thus prepared materials for others who might beinclined to write his history, he may perhaps have encouraged some sillycreatures to enter upon such a work, who will needs be dressing up hisactions in all the extravagance a (37) bombast; but he has discouragedwise men from ever attempting the subject. " Hirtius delivers his opinionof these Commentaries in the following terms: "So great is theapprobation with which they are universally perused, that, instead ofrousing, he seems to have precluded, the efforts of any future historian. Yet, with respect to this work, we have more reason to admire him thanothers; for they only know how well and correctly he has written, but weknow, likewise, how easily and quickly he did it. " Pollio Asinius thinksthat they were not drawn up with much care, or with a due regard totruth; for he insinuates that Caesar was too hasty of belief in regard towhat was performed by others under his orders; and that, he has not givena very faithful account of his own acts, either by design, or throughdefect of memory; expressing at the same time an opinion that Caesarintended a new and more correct edition. He has left behind him likewisetwo books on Analogy, with the same number under the title of Anti-Cato, and a poem entitled The Itinerary. Of these books, he composed the firsttwo in his passage over the Alps, as he was returning to the army aftermaking his circuit in Hither-Gaul; the second work about the time of thebattle of Munda; and the last during the four-and-twenty days he employedin his journey from Rome to Farther-Spain. There are extant some lettersof his to the senate, written in a manner never practised by any beforehim; for they are distinguished into pages in the form of a memorandumbook whereas the consuls and commanders till then, used constantly intheir letters to continue the line quite across the sheet, without anyfolding or distinction of pages. There are extant likewise some lettersfrom him to Cicero, and others to his friends, concerning his domesticaffairs; in which, if there was occasion for secrecy, he wrote incyphers; that is, he used the alphabet in such a manner, that not asingle word could be made out. The way to decipher those epistles was tosubstitute the fourth for the first letter, as d for a, and so for theother letters respectively. Some things likewise pass under his name, said to have been written by him when a boy, or a very young man; as theEncomium of Hercules, a tragedy entitled Oedipus, and a collection ofApophthegms; all which Augustus forbad to be published, in a short andplain letter to Pompeius Macer, who was employed by him in thearrangement of his libraries. 

(38) LVII. He was perfect in the use of arms, an accomplished rider, andable to endure fatigue beyond all belief. On a march, he used to go atthe head of his troops, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, withhis head bare in all kinds of weather. He would travel post in a lightcarriage [79] without baggage, at the rate of a hundred miles a day; andif he was stopped by floods in the rivers, he swam across, or floated onskins inflated with wind, so that he often anticipated intelligence ofhis movements. [80]

LVIII. In his expeditions, it is difficult to say whether his caution orhis daring was most conspicuous. He never marched his army by roadswhich were exposed to ambuscades, without having previously examined thenature of the ground by his scouts. Nor did he cross over to Britain, before he had carefully examined, in person [81], the navigation, theharbours, and the most convenient point of landing in the island. Whenintelligence was brought to him of the siege of his camp in Germany, hemade his way to his troops, through the enemy's stations, in a Gaulishdress. He crossed the sea from Brundisium and Dyrrachium, in the winter, through the midst of the enemy's fleets; and the troops, under orders tojoin him, being slow in their movements, notwithstanding repeatedmessages to hurry them, but to no purpose, he at last went privately, andalone, aboard a small vessel in the night time, with his head muffled up;nor did he make himself known, or suffer the master to put about, although the wind blew strong against them, until they were ready tosink. 

LIX. He was never deterred from any enterprise, nor retarded in theprosecution of it, by superstition [82]. When a victim, which he wasabout to offer in sacrifice, made its (39) escape, he did not thereforedefer his expedition against Scipio and Juba. And happening to fall, upon stepping out of the ship, he gave a lucky turn to the omen, byexclaiming, "I hold thee fast, Africa. " To chide the prophecies whichwere spread abroad, that the name of the Scipios was, by the decrees offate, fortunate and invincible in that province, he retained in the campa profligate wretch, of the family of the Cornelii, who, on account ofhis scandalous life, was surnamed Salutio. 

LX. He not only fought pitched battles, but made sudden attacks when anopportunity offered; often at the end of a march, and sometimes duringthe most violent storms, when nobody could imagine he would stir. Norwas he ever backward in fighting, until towards the end of his life. Hethen was of opinion, that the oftener he had been crowned with success, the less he ought to expose himself to new hazards; and that nothing hecould gain by a victory would compensate for what he might lose by amiscarriage. He never defeated the enemy without driving them from theircamp; and giving them no time to rally their forces. When the issue of abattle was doubtful, he sent away all the horses, and his own first, thathaving no means of flight, they might be under the greater necessity ofstanding their ground. 

LXI. He rode a very remarkable horse, with feet almost like those of aman, the hoofs being divided in such a manner as to have some resemblanceto toes. This horse he had bred himself, and the soothsayers havinginterpreted these circumstances into an omen that its owner would bemaster of the world, he brought him up with particular care, and brokehim in himself, as the horse would suffer no one else to mount him. Astatue of this horse was afterwards erected by Caesar's order before thetemple of Venus Genitrix. 

LXII. He often rallied his troops, when they were giving way, by hispersonal efforts; stopping those who fled, keeping others in their ranks, and seizing them by their throat turned them towards the enemy; althoughnumbers were so terrified, that an eagle-bearer [83], thus stopped, madea thrust at him with (40) the spear-head; and another, upon a similaroccasion, left the standard in his hand. 

LXIII. The following instances of his resolution are equally, and evenmore remarkable. After the battle of Pharsalia, having sent his troopsbefore him into Asia, as he was passing the straits of the Hellespont ina ferry-boat, he met with Lucius Cassius, one of the opposite party, withten ships of war; and so far from endeavouring to escape, he wentalongside his ship, and calling upon him to surrender, Cassius humblygave him his submission. 

LXIV. At Alexandria, in the attack of a bridge, being forced by a suddensally of the enemy into a boat, and several others hurrying in with him, he leaped into the sea, and saved himself by swimming to the next ship, which lay at the distance of two hundred paces; holding up his left handout of the water, for fear of wetting some papers which he held in it;and pulling his general's cloak after him with his teeth, lest it shouldfall into the hands of the enemy. 

LXV. He never valued a soldier for his moral conduct or his means, butfor his courage only; and treated his troops with a mixture of severityand indulgence; for he did not always keep a strict hand over them, butonly when the enemy was near. Then indeed he was so strict adisciplinarian, that he would give no notice of a march or a battle untilthe moment of action, in order that the troops might hold themselves inreadiness for any sudden movement; and he would frequently draw them outof the camp without any necessity for it, especially in rainy weather, and upon holy-days. Sometimes, giving them orders not to lose sight ofhim, he would suddenly depart by day or by night, and lengthen themarches in order to tire them out, as they followed him at a distance. 

LXVI. When at any time his troops were dispirited by reports of thegreat force of the enemy, he rallied their courage; not by denying thetruth of what was said, or by diminishing the facts, but, on thecontrary, by exaggerating every particular. (41) Accordingly, when histroops were in great alarm at the expected arrival of king Juba, hecalled them together, and said, "I have to inform you that in a very fewdays the king will be here, with ten legions, thirty thousand horse, ahundred thousand light-armed foot, and three hundred elephants. Let noneof you, therefore, presume to make further enquiry, or indulge inconjectures, but take my word for what I tell you, which I have fromundoubted intelligence; otherwise I shall put them aboard an old crazyvessel, and leave them exposed to the mercy of the winds, to betransported to some other country. "

LXVII. He neither noticed all their transgressions, nor punished themaccording to strict rule. But for deserters and mutineers he made themost diligent enquiry, and their punishment was most severe: otherdelinquencies he would connive at. Sometimes, after a great battleending in victory, he would grant them a relaxation from all kinds ofduty, and leave them to revel at pleasure; being used to boast, "that hissoldiers fought nothing the worse for being well oiled. " In hisspeeches, he never addressed them by the title of "Soldiers, " but by thekinder phrase of "Fellow-soldiers;" and kept them in such splendid order, that their arms were ornamented with silver and gold, not merely forparade, but to render the soldiers more resolute to save them in battle, and fearful of losing them. He loved his troops to such a degree, thatwhen he heard of the defeat of those under Titurius, he neither cut hishair nor shaved his beard, until he had revenged it upon the enemy; bywhich means he engaged their devoted affection, and raised their valourto the highest pitch. 

LXVIII. Upon his entering on the civil war, the centurions of everylegion offered, each of them, to maintain a horseman at his own expense, and the whole army agreed to serve gratis, without either corn or pay;those amongst them who were rich, charging themselves with themaintenance of the poor. No one of them, during the whole course of thewar, deserted to the enemy; and many of those who were made prisoners, though they were offered their lives, upon condition of bearing armsagainst him, refused to accept the terms. They endured want, and otherhardships, not only (42) when they were besieged themselves, but whenthey besieged others, to such a degree, that Pompey, when blocked up inthe neighbourhood of Dyrrachium, upon seeing a sort of bread made of anherb, which they lived upon, said, "I have to do with wild beasts, " andordered it immediately to be taken away; because, if his troops shouldsee it, their spirit might be broken by perceiving the endurance anddetermined resolution of the enemy. With what bravery they fought, oneinstance affords sufficient proof; which is, that after an unsuccessfulengagement at Dyrrachium, they called for punishment; insomuch that theirgeneral found it more necessary to comfort than to punish them. In otherbattles, in different quarters, they defeated with ease immense armies ofthe enemy, although they were much inferior to them in number. In short, one cohort of the sixth legion held out a fort against four legionsbelonging to Pompey, during several hours; being almost every one of themwounded by the vast number of arrows discharged against them, and ofwhich there were found within the ramparts a hundred and thirty thousand. This is no way surprising, when we consider the conduct of someindividuals amongst them; such as that of Cassius Scaeva, a centurion, orCaius Acilius, a common soldier, not to speak of others. Scaeva, afterhaving an eye struck out, being run through the thigh and the shoulder, and having his shield pierced in an hundred and twenty places, maintainedobstinately the guard of the gate of a fort, with the command of which hewas intrusted. Acilius, in the sea-fight at Marseilles, having seized aship of the enemy's with his right hand, and that being cut off, inimitation of that memorable instance of resolution in Cynaegirus amongstthe Greeks, boarded the enemy's ship, bearing down all before him withthe boss of his shield. 

LXIX. They never once mutinied during all the ten years of the Gallicwar, but were sometimes refractory in the course of the civil war. However, they always returned quickly to their duty, and that not throughthe indulgence, but in submission to the authority, of their general; forhe never yielded to them when they were insubordinate, but constantlyresisted their demands. He disbanded the whole ninth legion withignominy at Placentia, although Pompey was still in arms, and would (43)not receive them again into his service, until they had not only maderepeated and humble entreaties, but until the ringleaders in the mutinywere punished. 

LXX. When the soldiers of the tenth legion at Rome demanded theirdischarge and rewards for their service, with violent threats and nosmall danger to the city, although the war was then raging in Africa, hedid not hesitate, contrary to the advice of his friends, to meet thelegion, and disband it. But addressing them by the title of "Quirites, "instead of "Soldiers, " he by this single word so thoroughly brought themround and changed their determination, that they immediately cried out, they were his "soldiers, " and followed him to Africa, although he hadrefused their service. He nevertheless punished the most mutinous amongthem, with the loss of a third of their share in the plunder, and theland destined for them. 

LXXI. In the service of his clients, while yet a young man, he evincedgreat zeal and fidelity. He defended the cause of a noble youth, Masintha, against king Hiempsal, so strenuously, that in a scuffle whichtook place upon the occasion, he seized by the beard the son of kingJuba; and upon Masintha's being declared tributary to Hiempsal, while thefriends of the adverse party were violently carrying him off, heimmediately rescued him by force, kept him concealed in his house a longtime, and when, at the expiration of his praetorship, he went to Spain, he took him away in his litter, in the midst of his lictors bearing thefasces, and others who had come to attend and take leave of him. 

LXXII. He always treated his friends with such kindness and good-nature, that when Caius Oppius, in travelling with him through a forest, wassuddenly taken ill, he resigned to him the only place there was toshelter them at night, and lay upon the ground in the open air. When hehad placed himself at the head of affairs, he advanced some of hisfaithful adherents, though of mean extraction, to the highest offices;and when he was censured for this partiality, he openly said, "Had I beenassisted by robbers and cut-throats in the defence of my honour, I shouldhave made them the same recompense. "

(44) LXXIII. The resentment he entertained against any one was never soimplacable that he did not very willingly renounce it when opportunityoffered. Although Caius Memmius had published some extremely virulentspeeches against him, and he had answered him with equal acrimony, yet heafterwards assisted him with his vote and interest, when he stoodcandidate for the consulship. When C. Calvus, after publishing somescandalous epigrams upon him, endeavoured to effect a reconciliation bythe intercession of friends, he wrote to him, of his own accord, thefirst letter. And when Valerius Catullus, who had, as he himselfobserved, fixed such a stain upon his character in his verses uponMamurra as never could be obliterated, he begged his pardon, invited himto supper the same day; and continued to take up his lodging with hisfather occasionally, as he had been accustomed to do. 

LXXIV. His temper was also naturally averse to severity in retaliation. After he had captured the pirates, by whom he had been taken, havingsworn that he would crucify them, he did so indeed; but he first orderedtheir throats to be cut [84]. He could never bear the thought of doingany harm to Cornelius Phagitas, who had dogged him in the night when hewas sick and a fugitive, with the design of carrying him to Sylla, andfrom whose hands he had escaped with some difficulty by giving him abribe. Philemon, his amanuensis, who had promised his enemies to poisonhim, he put to death without torture. When he was summoned as a witnessagainst Publicus Clodius, his wife Pompeia's gallant, who was prosecutedfor the profanation of religious ceremonies, he declared he knew nothingof the affair, although his mother Aurelia, and his sister Julia, gavethe court an exact and full account of the circumstances. And beingasked why then he had divorced his wife? "Because, " he said, "my familyshould not only be free from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it. "

LXXV. Both in his administration and his conduct towards the vanquishedparty in the civil war, he showed a wonderful moderation and clemency. For while Pompey declared that he would consider those as enemies who didnot take arms in defence of the republic, he desired it to be understood, that he (45) should regard those who remained neuter as his friends. With regard to all those to whom he had, on Pompey's recommendation, given any command in the army, he left them at perfect liberty to go overto him, if they pleased. When some proposals were made at Ileria [85]for a surrender, which gave rise to a free communication between the twocamps, and Afranius and Petreius, upon a sudden change of resolution, hadput to the sword all Caesar's men who were found in the camp, he scornedto imitate the base treachery which they had practised against himself. On the field of Pharsalia, he called out to the soldiers "to spare theirfellow-citizens, " and afterwards gave permission to every man in his armyto save an enemy. None of them, so far as appears, lost their lives butin battle, excepting only Afranius, Faustus, and young Lucius Caesar; andit is thought that even they were put to death without his consent. Afranius and Faustus had borne arms against him, after obtaining theirpardon; and Lucius Caesar had not only in the most cruel manner destroyedwith fire and sword his freed-men and slaves, but cut to pieces the wildbeasts which he had prepared for the entertainment of the people. Andfinally, a little before his death, he permitted all whom he had notbefore pardoned, to return into Italy, and to bear offices both civil andmilitary. He even replaced the statues of Sylla and Pompey, which hadbeen thrown down by the populace. And after this, whatever was devisedor uttered, he chose rather to check than to punish it. Accordingly, having detected certain conspiracies and nocturnal assemblies, he went nofarther than to intimate by a proclamation that he knew of them; and asto those who indulged themselves in the liberty of reflecting severelyupon him, he only warned them in a public speech not to persist in theiroffence. He bore with great moderation a virulent libel written againsthim by Aulus Caecinna, and the abusive lampoons of Pitholaus, most highlyreflecting on his reputation. 

LXXVI. His other words and actions, however, so far outweigh all hisgood qualities, that it is thought he abused his power, and was justlycut off. For he not only obtained excessive honours, such as theconsulship every year, the dictatorship for life, and the censorship, butalso the title of emperor [86], (46) and the surname of FATHER OF HISCOUNTRY [87], besides having his statue amongst the kings [88], and alofty couch in the theatre. He even suffered some honours to be decreedto him, which were unbefitting the most exalted of mankind; such as agilded chair of state in the senate-house and on his tribunal, aconsecrated chariot, and banners in the Circensian procession, temples, altars, statues among the gods, a bed of state in the temples, a priest, and a college of priests dedicated to himself, like those of Pan; andthat one of the months should be called by his name. There were, indeed, no honours which he did not either assume himself, or grant to others, athis will and pleasure. In his third and fourth consulship, he used onlythe title of the office, being content with the power of dictator, whichwas conferred upon him with the consulship; and in both years hesubstituted other consuls in his room, during the three last months; sothat in the intervals he held no assemblies of the people, for theelection of magistrates, excepting only tribunes and ediles of thepeople; and appointed officers, under the name of praefects, instead ofthe praetors, to administer the affairs of the city during his absence. The office of consul having become vacant, by the sudden death of one ofthe consuls the day before the calends of January [the 1st Jan. ], heconferred it on a person who requested it of him, for a few hours. Assuming the same licence, and regardless of the customs of his country, he appointed magistrates to hold their offices for terms of years. Hegranted the insignia of the consular dignity to ten persons of pretorianrank. He admitted into the senate some men who had been made free of thecity, and even natives of Gaul, who were semi-barbarians. (47) Helikewise appointed to the management of the mint, and the public revenueof the state, some servants of his own household; and entrusted thecommand of three legions, which he left at Alexandria, to an old catamiteof his, the son of his freed-man Rufinus. 

LXXVII. He was guilty of the same extravagance in the language hepublicly used, as Titus Ampius informs us; according to whom he said, "The republic is nothing but a name, without substance or reality. Syllawas an ignorant fellow to abdicate the dictatorship. Men ought toconsider what is becoming when they talk with me, and look upon what Isay as a law. " To such a pitch of arrogance did he proceed, that when asoothsayer announced to him the unfavourable omen, that the entrails of avictim offered for sacrifice were without a heart, he said, "The entrailswill be more favourable when I please; and it ought not to be regarded asa prodigy that a beast should be found wanting a heart. "

LXXVIII. But what brought upon him the greatest odium, and was thoughtan unpardonable insult, was his receiving the whole body of the conscriptfathers sitting, before the temple of Venus Genitrix, when they waitedupon him with a number of decrees, conferring on him the highestdignities. Some say that, on his attempting to rise, he was held down byCornelius Balbus; others, that he did not attempt to rise at all, butfrowned on Caius Trebatius, who suggested to him that he should stand upto receive the senate. This behaviour appeared the more intolerable inhim, because, when one of the tribunes of the people, Pontius Aquila, would not rise up to him, as he passed by the tribunes' seat during histriumph, he was so much offended, that he cried out, "Well then, youtribune, Aquila, oust me from the government. " And for some daysafterwards, he never promised a favour to any person, without thisproviso, "if Pontus Aquila will give me leave. "

LXXIX. To this extraordinary mark of contempt for the senate, he addedanother affront still more outrageous. For when, after the sacred ritesof the Latin festival, he was returning home, amidst the immoderate andunusual acclamations (48) of the people, a man in the crowd put a laurelcrown, encircled with a white fillet [89], on one of his statues; uponwhich, the tribunes of the people, Epidius Marullus, and CaesetiusFlavus, ordered the fillet to be removed from the crown, and the man tobe taken to prison. Caesar, being much concerned either that the idea ofroyalty had been suggested to so little purpose, or, as was said, that hewas thus deprived of the merit of refusing it, reprimanded the tribunesvery severely, and dismissed them from their office. From that dayforward, he was never able to wipe off the scandal of affecting the nameof king, although he replied to the populace, when they saluted him bythat title, "I am Caesar, and no king. " And at the feast of theLupercalia [90], when the consul Antony placed a crown upon his head inthe rostra several times, he as often put it away, and sent it to theCapitol for Jupiter, the Best and the Greatest. A report was verycurrent, that he had a design of withdrawing to Alexandria or Ilium, whither he proposed to transfer the imperial power, to drain Italy by newlevies, and to leave the government of the city to be administered by hisfriends. To this report it was added, that in the next meeting of thesenate, Lucius Cotta, one of the fifteen [91], would make a motion, thatas there was in the Sibylline books a prophecy, that the Parthians wouldnever be subdued but by a king, Caesar should have that title conferredupon him. 

LXXX. For this reason the conspirators precipitated the execution oftheir design [92], that they might not be obliged to give their assent tothe proposal. Instead, therefore, of caballing any longer separately, insmall parties, they now united their counsels; the people themselvesbeing dissatisfied with the present state of affairs, both privately andpublicly (49) condemning the tyranny under which they lived, and callingon patriots to assert their cause against the usurper. Upon theadmission of foreigners into the senate, a hand-bill was posted up inthese words: "A good deed! let no one shew a new senator the way to thehouse. " These verses were likewise currently repeated:

 The Gauls he dragged in triumph through the town, Caesar has brought into the senate-house, And changed their plaids [93] for the patrician gown. 

 Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit: iidem in curiam Galli braccas deposuerunt, latum clavum sumpserunt. 

When Quintus Maximus, who had been his deputy in the consulship for thelast three months, entered the theatre, and the lictor, according tocustom, bid the people take notice who was coming, they all cried out, "He is no consul. " After the removal of Caesetius and Marullus fromtheir office, they were found to have a great many votes at the nextelection of consuls. Some one wrote under the statue of Lucius Brutus, "Would you were now alive!" and under the statue of Caesar himself theselines:

 Because he drove from Rome the royal race, Brutus was first made consul in their place. This man, because he put the consuls down, Has been rewarded with a royal crown. 

 Brutus, quia reges ejecit, consul primus factus est: Hic, quia consules ejecit, rex postremo factus est. 

About sixty persons were engaged in the conspiracy against him, of whomCaius Cassius, and Marcus and Decimus Brutus were the chief. It was atfirst debated amongst them, whether they should attack him in the CampusMartius when he was taking the votes of the tribes, and some of themshould throw him off the bridge, whilst others should be ready to stabhim upon his fall; or else in the Via Sacra, or at the entrance of thetheatre. But after public notice had been given by proclamation for thesenate to assemble upon the ides of March [15th March], in thesenate-house built by Pompey, they approved both of the time and place, as most fitting for their purpose. 

LXXXI. Caesar had warning given him of his fate by indubitable (50)omens. A few months before, when the colonists settled at Capua, byvirtue of the Julian law, were demolishing some old sepulchres, inbuilding country-houses, and were the more eager at the work, becausethey discovered certain vessels of antique workmanship, a tablet of brasswas found in a tomb, in which Capys, the founder of Capua, was said tohave been buried, with an inscription in the Greek language to thiseffect "Whenever the bones of Capys come to be discovered, a descendantof Iulus will be slain by the hands of his kinsmen, and his deathrevenged by fearful disasters throughout Italy. " Lest any person shouldregard this anecdote as a fabulous or silly invention, it was circulatedupon the authority of Caius Balbus, an intimate friend of Caesar's. Afew days likewise before his death, he was informed that the horses, which, upon his crossing the Rubicon, he had consecrated, and turnedloose to graze without a keeper, abstained entirely from eating, and shedfloods of tears. The soothsayer Spurinna, observing certain ominousappearances in a sacrifice which he was offering, advised him to bewareof some danger, which threatened to befall him before the ides of Marchwere past. The day before the ides, birds of various kinds from aneighbouring grove, pursuing a wren which flew into Pompey's senate-house[94], with a sprig of laurel in its beak, tore it in pieces. Also, inthe night on which the day of his murder dawned, he dreamt at one timethat he was soaring above the clouds, and, at another, that he had joinedhands with Jupiter. His wife Calpurnia fancied in her sleep that thepediment of the house was falling down, and her husband stabbed on herbosom; immediately upon which the chamber doors flew open. On account ofthese omens, as well as his infirm health, he was in some doubt whetherhe should not remain at home, and defer to some other opportunity thebusiness which he intended to propose to the senate; but Decimus Brutusadvising him not to disappoint the senators, who were numerouslyassembled, and waited his coming, he was prevailed upon to go, andaccordingly (51) set forward about the fifth hour. In his way, someperson having thrust into his hand a paper, warning him against the plot, he mixed it with some other documents which he held in his left hand, intending to read it at leisure. Victim after victim was slain, withoutany favourable appearances in the entrails; but still, disregarding allomens, he entered the senate-house, laughing at Spurinna as a falseprophet, because the ides of March were come, without any mischief havingbefallen him. To which the soothsayer replied, "They are come, indeed, but not past. "

LXXXII. When he had taken his seat, the conspirators stood round him, under colour of paying their compliments; and immediately Tullius Cimber, who had engaged to commence the assault, advancing nearer than the rest, as if he had some favour to request, Caesar made signs that he shoulddefer his petition to some other time. Tullius immediately seized him bythe toga, on both shoulders; at which Caesar crying out, "Violence ismeant!" one of the Cassii wounded him a little below the throat. Caesarseized him by the arm, and ran it through with his style [95]; andendeavouring to rush forward was stopped by another wound. Findinghimself now attacked on all hands with naked poniards, he wrapped thetoga [96] about his head, and at the same moment drew the skirt round hislegs with his left hand, that he might fall more decently with the lowerpart of his body covered. He was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering a groan only, but no cry, at the first wound; although someauthors relate, that when Marcus Brutus fell upon him, he exclaimed, "What! art thou, too, one of them? Thou, my son!" [97] The wholeassembly instantly (52) dispersing, he lay for some time after heexpired, until three of his slaves laid the body on a litter, and carriedit home, with one arm hanging down over the side. Among so many wounds, there was none that was mortal, in the opinion of the surgeon Antistius, except the second, which he received in the breast. The conspiratorsmeant to drag his body into the Tiber as soon as they had killed him; toconfiscate his estate, and rescind all his enactments; but they weredeterred by fear of Mark Antony, and Lepidus, Caesar's master of thehorse, and abandoned their intentions. 

LXXXIII. At the instance of Lucius Piso, his father-in-law, his will wasopened and read in Mark Antony's house. He had made it on the ides[13th] of the preceding September, at his Lavican villa, and committed itto the custody of the chief of the Vestal Virgins. Quintus Tuberoinforms us, that in all the wills he had signed, from the time of hisfirst consulship to the breaking out of the civil war, Cneius Pompey wasappointed his heir, and that this had been publicly notified to the army. But in his last will, he named three heirs, the grandsons of his sisters;namely, Caius Octavius for three fourths of his estate, and LuciusPinarius and Quintus Pedius for the remaining fourth. Other heirs [inremainder] were named at the close of the will, in which he also adoptedCaius Octavius, who was to assume his name, into his family; andnominated most of those who were concerned in his death among theguardians of his son, if he should have any; as well as Decimus Brutusamongst his heirs of the second order. Be bequeathed to the Roman peoplehis gardens near the Tiber, and three hundred sesterces each man. 

LXXXIV. Notice of his funeral having been solemnly proclaimed, a pilewas erected in the Campus Martius, near the tomb of his daughter Julia;and before the Rostra was placed a gilded tabernacle, on the model of thetemple of Venus Genitrix; within which was an ivory bed, covered withpurple and cloth of gold. At the head was a trophy, with the[bloodstained] robe in which he was slain. It being considered that thewhole day would not suffice for carrying the funeral oblations in solemnprocession before the corpse, directions were given for every one, without regard to order, to carry them from the city into the CampusMartius, by what way they pleased. To raise pity and indignation for hismurder, in the plays acted at the funeral, a passage was sung fromPacuvius's tragedy, entitled, "The Trial for Arms:"

 That ever I, unhappy man, should save Wretches, who thus have brought me to the grave! [98]

And some lines also from Attilius's tragedy of "Electra, " to the sameeffect. Instead of a funeral panegyric, the consul Antony ordered aherald to proclaim to the people the decree of the senate, in which theyhad bestowed upon him all honours, divine and human; with the oath bywhich they had engaged themselves for the defence of his person; and tothese he added only a few words of his own. The magistrates and otherswho had formerly filled the highest offices, carried the bier from theRostra into the Forum. While some proposed that the body should be burntin the sanctuary of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and others inPompey's senate-house; on a sudden, two men, with swords by their sides, and spears in their hands, set fire to the bier with lighted torches. The throng around immediately heaped upon it dry faggots, the tribunalsand benches of the adjoining courts, and whatever else came to hand. Then the musicians and players stripped off the dresses they wore on thepresent occasion, taken from the wardrobe of his triumph at spectacles, rent them, and threw them into the flames. The legionaries, also, of his(54) veteran bands, cast in their armour, which they had put on in honourof his funeral. Most of the ladies did the same by their ornaments, withthe bullae [99], and mantles of their children. In this public mourningthere joined a multitude of foreigners, expressing their sorrow accordingto the fashion of their respective countries; but especially the Jews[100], who for several nights together frequented the spot where the bodywas burnt. 

LXXXV. The populace ran from the funeral, with torches in their hands, to the houses of Brutus and Cassius, and were repelled with difficulty. Going in quest of Cornelius Cinna, who had in a speech, the day before, reflected severely upon Caesar, and mistaking for him Helvius Cinna, whohappened to fall into their hands, they murdered the latter, and carriedhis head about the city on the point of a spear. They afterwards erectedin the Forum a column of Numidian marble, formed of one stone nearlytwenty feet high, and inscribed upon it these words, TO THE FATHER OF HISCOUNTRY. At this column they continued for a long time to offersacrifices, make vows, and decide controversies, in which they swore byCaesar. 

LXXXVI. Some of Caesar's friends entertained a suspicion, that heneither desired nor cared to live any longer, on account of his declininghealth; and for that reason slighted all the omens of religion, and thewarnings of his friends. Others are of opinion, that thinking himselfsecure in the late decree of the senate, and their oaths, he dismissedhis Spanish guards who attended him with drawn swords. Others againsuppose, that he chose rather to face at once the dangers whichthreatened him on all sides, than to be for ever on the watch againstthem. Some tell us that he used to say, the commonwealth was moreinterested in the safety of his person than himself: for that he had forsome time been satiated with power and glory; but that the commonwealth, if any thing should befall him, would have no rest, and, involved inanother civil war, would be in a worse state than before. 

(55) LXXXVII. This, however, was generally admitted, that his death wasin many respects such as he would have chosen. For, upon reading theaccount delivered by Xenophon, how Cyrus in his last illness gaveinstructions respecting his funeral, Caesar deprecated a lingering death, and wished that his own might be sudden and speedy. And the day beforehe died, the conversation at supper, in the house of Marcus Lepidus, turning upon what was the most eligible way of dying, he gave his opinionin favour of a death that is sudden and unexpected. 

LXXXVIII. He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was rankedamongst the Gods, not only by a formal decree, but in the belief of thevulgar. For during the first games which Augustus, his heir, consecratedto his memory, a comet blazed for seven days together, rising alwaysabout eleven o'clock; and it was supposed to be the soul of Caesar, nowreceived into heaven: for which reason, likewise, he is represented onhis statue with a star on his brow. The senate-house in which he wasslain, was ordered to be shut up [101], and a decree made that the idesof March should be called parricidal, and the senate should never moreassemble on that day. 

LXXXIX. Scarcely any of those who were accessary to his murder, survivedhim more than three years, or died a natural death [102]. They were allcondemned by the senate: some were taken off by one accident, some byanother. Part of them perished at sea, others fell in battle; and someslew themselves with the same poniard with which they had stabbed Caesar[103]. 

(56) [104] The termination of the civil war between Caesar and Pompeyforms a new epoch in the Roman History, at which a Republic, which hadsubsisted with unrivalled glory during a period of about four hundred andsixty years, relapsed into a state of despotism, whence it never morecould emerge. So sudden a transition from prosperity to the ruin ofpublic freedom, without the intervention of any foreign enemy, excites areasonable conjecture, that the constitution in which it could takeplace, however vigorous in appearance, must have lost that soundness ofpolitical health which had enabled it to endure through so many ages. Ashort view of its preceding state, and of that in which it was at thetime of the revolution now mentioned, will best ascertain the foundationof such a conjecture. 

Though the Romans, upon the expulsion of Tarquin, made an essentialchange in the political form of the state, they did not carry theirdetestation of regal authority so far as to abolish the religiousinstitutions of Numa Pompilius, the second of their kings, according towhich, the priesthood, with all the influence annexed to that order, wasplaced in the hands of the aristocracy. By this wise policy a restraintwas put upon the fickleness and violence of the people in matters ofgovernment, and a decided superiority given to the Senate both in thedeliberative and executive parts of administration. This advantage wasafterwards indeed diminished by the creation of Tribunes of the people; aset of men whose ambition often embroiled the Republic in civildissensions, and who at last abused their authority to such a degree, that they became instruments of aggrandizement to any leading men in thestate who could purchase their friendship. In general, however, themajority of the Tribunes being actuated by views which comprehended theinterests of the multitude, rather than those of individuals, they didnot so much endanger the liberty, as they interrupted the tranquillity, of the public; and when the occasional commotions subsided, thereremained no permanent ground for the establishment of personalusurpation. 

In every government, an object of the last importance to the peace andwelfare of society is the morals of the people; and in proportion as acommunity is enlarged by propagation, or the accession of a multitude ofnew members, a more strict attention is requisite to guard against thatdissolution of manners to which a crowded and extensive capital has anatural tendency. Of this (57) the Romans became sensible in the growingstate of the Republic. In the year of the City 312, two magistrates werefirst created for taking an account of the number of the people, and thevalue of their estates; and soon after, they were invested with theauthority not only of inspecting the morals of individuals, but ofinflicting public censure for any licentiousness of conduct, or violationof decency. Thus both the civil and religious institutions concurred torestrain the people within the bounds of good order and obedience to thelaws; at the same time that the frugal life of the ancient Romans proveda strong security against those vices which operate most effectuallytowards sapping the foundations of a state. 

But in the time of Julius Caesar the barriers of public liberty werebecome too weak to restrain the audacious efforts of ambitious anddesperate men. The veneration for the constitution, usually a powerfulcheck to treasonable designs, had been lately violated by the usurpationsof Marius and Sylla. The salutary terrors of religion no longerpredominated over the consciences of men. The shame of public censurewas extinguished in general depravity. An eminent historian, who livedat that time, informs us, that venality universally prevailed amongst theRomans; and a writer who flourished soon after, observes, that luxury anddissipation had encumbered almost all so much with debt, that they beheldwith a degree of complacency the prospect of civil war and confusion. 

The extreme degree of profligacy at which the Romans were now arrived isin nothing more evident, than that this age gave birth to the mosthorrible conspiracy which occurs in the annals of humankind, viz. That ofCatiline. This was not the project of a few desperate and abandonedindividuals, but of a number of men of the most illustrious rank in thestate; and it appears beyond doubt, that Julius Caesar was accessary tothe design, which was no less than to extirpate the Senate, divideamongst themselves both the public and private treasures, and set Rome onfire. The causes which prompted to this tremendous project, it isgenerally admitted, were luxury, prodigality, irreligion, a totalcorruption of manners, and above all, as the immediate cause, thepressing necessity in which the conspirators were involved by theirextreme dissipation. 

The enormous debt in which Caesar himself was early involved, countenances an opinion that his anxiety to procure the province of Gaulproceeded chiefly from this cause. But during nine years in which heheld that province, he acquired such riches as must have rendered him, without competition, the most opulent person in the state. If nothingmore, therefore, than a (58) splendid establishment had been the objectof his pursuit, he had attained to the summit of his wishes. But when wefind him persevering in a plan of aggrandizement beyond this period ofhis fortunes, we can ascribe his conduct to no other motive than that ofoutrageous ambition. He projected the building of a new Forum at Rome, for the ground only of which he was to pay 800, 000 pounds; he raisedlegions in Gaul at his own charges: he promised such entertainments tothe people as had never been known at Rome from the foundation of thecity. All these circumstances evince some latent design of procuringsuch a popularity as might give him an uncontrolled influence in themanagement of public affairs. Pompey, we are told, was wont to say, thatCaesar not being able, with all his riches, to fulfil the promises whichhe had made, wished to throw everything into confusion. There may havebeen some foundation for this remark: but the opinion of Cicero is moreprobable, that Caesar's mind was seduced with the temptations ofchimerical glory. It is observable that neither Cicero nor Pompeyintimates any suspicion that Caesar was apprehensive of being impeachedfor his conduct, had he returned to Rome in a private station. Yet, thatthere was reason for such an apprehension, the positive declaration of L. Domitius leaves little room to doubt: especially when we consider thenumber of enemies that Caesar had in the Senate, and the coolness of hisformer friend Pompey ever after the death of Julia. The proposedimpeachment was founded upon a notorious charge of prosecuting measuresdestructive of the interests of the commonwealth, and tending ultimatelyto an object incompatible with public freedom. Indeed, considering theextreme corruption which prevailed amongst the Romans at this time, it ismore than probable that Caesar would have been acquitted of the charge, but at such an expense as must have stripped him of all his riches, andplaced him again in a situation ready to attempt a disturbance of thepublic tranquillity. For it is said, that he purchased the friendship ofCurio, at the commencement of the civil war, with a bribe little short ofhalf a million sterling. 

Whatever Caesar's private motive may have been for taking arms againsthis country, he embarked in an enterprise of a nature the most dangerous:and had Pompey conducted himself in any degree suitable to the reputationwhich he had formerly acquired, the contest would in all probability haveterminated in favour of public freedom. But by dilatory measures in thebeginning, by imprudently withdrawing his army from Italy into a distantprovince, and by not pursuing the advantage he had gained by the vigorousrepulse of Caesar's troops in their attack upon his camp, this commanderlost every opportunity of extinguishing a war which was to determine thefate, and even the existence, of the Republic. It was accordinglydetermined on the plains of Pharsalia, where Caesar obtained a victorywhich was not more decisive than unexpected. He was now no longeramenable either to the tribunal of the Senate or the power of the laws, but triumphed at once over his enemies and the constitution of hiscountry. 

It is to the honour of Caesar, that when he had obtained the supremepower, he exercised it with a degree of moderation beyond what wasgenerally expected by those who had fought on the side of the Republic. Of his private life either before or after this period, little istransmitted in history. Henceforth, however, he seems to have livedchiefly at Rome, near which he had a small villa, upon an eminence, commanding a beautiful prospect. His time was almost entirely occupiedwith public affairs, in the management of which, though he employed manyagents, he appears to have had none in the character of actual minister. He was in general easy of access: but Cicero, in a letter to a friend, complains of having been treated with the indignity of waiting aconsiderable time amongst a crowd in an anti-chamber, before he couldhave an audience. The elevation of Caesar placed him not abovedischarging reciprocally the social duties in the intercourse of life. He returned the visits of those who waited upon him, and would sup attheir houses. At table, and in the use of wine, he was habituallytemperate. Upon the whole, he added nothing to his own happiness by allthe dangers, the fatigues, and the perpetual anxiety which he hadincurred in the pursuit of unlimited power. His health was greatlyimpaired: his former cheerfulness of temper, though not his magnanimity, appears to have forsaken him; and we behold in his fate a memorableexample of illustrious talents rendered, by inordinate ambition, destructive to himself, and irretrievably pernicious to his country. 

From beholding the ruin of the Roman Republic, after intestine divisions, and the distractions of civil war, it will afford some relief to take aview of the progress of literature, which flourished even during thosecalamities. 

The commencement of literature in Rome is to be dated from the reductionof the Grecian States, when the conquerors imported into their owncountry the valuable productions of the Greek language, and the firstessay of Roman genius was in dramatic composition. Livius Andronicus, who flourished about 240 years before the Christian aera, formed theFescennine verses into a kind of regular drama, upon the model of theGreeks. He was followed some time after by Ennius, who, besides dramaticand other compositions, (60) wrote the annals of the Roman Republic inheroic verse. His style, like that of Andronicus, was rough andunpolished, in conformity to the language of those times; but forgrandeur of sentiment and energy of expression, he was admired by thegreatest poets in the subsequent ages. Other writers of distinguishedreputation in the dramatic department were Naevius, Pacuvius, Plautus, Afranius, Caecilius, Terence, Accius, etc. Accius and Pacuvius arementioned by Quintilian as writers of extraordinary merit. Oftwenty-five comedies written by Plautus, the number transmitted toposterity is nineteen; and of a hundred and eight which Terence is said tohave translated from Menander, there now remain only six. Excepting a fewinconsiderable fragments, the writings of all the other authors haveperished. The early period of Roman literature was distinguished for theintroduction of satire by Lucilius, an author celebrated for writing withremarkable ease, but whose compositions, in the opinion of Horace, thoughQuintilian thinks otherwise, were debased with a mixture of feculency. Whatever may have been their merit, they also have perished, with theworks of a number of orators, who adorned the advancing state of lettersin the Roman Republic. It is observable, that during this whole period, of near two centuries and a half, there appeared not one historian ofeminence sufficient to preserve his name from oblivion. 

Julius Caesar himself is one of the most eminent writers of the age inwhich he lived. His commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars arewritten with a purity, precision, and perspicuity, which commandapprobation. They are elegant without affectation, and beautiful withoutornament. Of the two books which he composed on Analogy, and those underthe title of Anti-Cato, scarcely any fragment is preserved; but we may beassured of the justness of the observations on language, which were madeby an author so much distinguished by the excellence of his owncompositions. His poem entitled The Journey, which was probably anentertaining narrative, is likewise totally lost. 

The most illustrious prose writer of this or any other age is M. TulliusCicero; and as his life is copiously related in biographical works, itwill be sufficient to mention his writings. From his earliest years, heapplied himself with unremitting assiduity to the cultivation ofliterature, and, whilst he was yet a boy, wrote a poem, called GlaucusPontius, which was extant in Plutarch's time. Amongst his juvenileproductions was a translation into Latin verse, of Aratus on thePhaenomena of the Heavens; of which many fragments are still extant. Healso published a poem of the heroic kind, in honour of his countryman C. Marius, who was born at Arpinum, the birth-place of Cicero. (61) Thisproduction was greatly admired by Atticus; and old Scaevola was so muchpleased with it, that in an epigram written on the subject, he declaresthat it would live as long as the Roman name and learning subsisted. From a little specimen which remains of it, describing a memorable omengiven to Marina from an oak at Arpinum, there is reason to believe thathis poetical genius was scarcely inferior to his oratorical, had it beencultivated with equal industry. He published another poem called Limon, of which Donatus has preserved four lines in the life of Terence, inpraise of the elegance and purity of that poet's style. He composed inthe Greek language, and in the style and manner of Isocrates, aCommentary or Memoirs of the Transactions of his Consulship. This hesent to Atticus, with a desire, if he approved it, to publish it inAthens and the cities of Greece. He sent a copy of it likewise toPosidonius of Rhodes, and requested of him to undertake the same subjectin a more elegant and masterly manner. But the latter returned foranswer, that, instead of being encouraged to write by the perusal of histract, he was quite deterred from attempting it. 

Upon the plan of those Memoirs, he afterwards composed a Latin poem inthree books, in which he carried down the history to the end of hisexile, but did not publish it for several years, from motives ofdelicacy. The three books were severally inscribed to the three Muses;but of this work there now remain only a few fragments, scattered indifferent parts of his other writings. He published, about the sametime, a collection of the principal speeches which he had made in hisconsulship, under the title of his Consular Orations. They consistedoriginally of twelve; but four are entirely lost, and some of the restare imperfect. He now published also, in Latin verse, a translation ofthe Prognostics of Aratus, of which work no more than two or three smallfragments now remain. A few years after, he put the last hand to hisDialogues upon the Character and Idea of the perfect Orator. Thisadmirable work remains entire; a monument both of the astonishingindustry and transcendent abilities of its author. At his Cuman villa, he next began a Treatise on Politics, or on the best State of a City, andthe Duties of a Citizen. He calls it a great and a laborious work, yetworthy of his pains, if he could succeed in it. This likewise waswritten in the form of a dialogue, in which the speakers were Scipio, Laelius, Philus, Manilius, and other great persons in the former times ofthe Republic. It was comprised in six books, and survived him forseveral ages, though it is now unfortunately lost. From the fragmentswhich remain, it appears to have been a masterly production, in which allthe important questions in politics and morality were discussed withelegance and accuracy. 

(62) Amidst all the anxiety for the interests of the Republic, whichoccupied the thoughts of this celebrated personage, he yet found leisureto write several philosophical tracts, which still subsist, to thegratification of the literary world. He composed a treatise on theNature of the Gods, in three books, containing a comprehensive view ofreligion, faith, oaths, ceremonies, etc. In elucidating this importantsubject, he not only delivers the opinions of all the philosophers whohad written anything concerning it, but weighs and compares attentivelyall the arguments with each other; forming upon the whole such a rationaland perfect system of natural religion, as never before was presented tothe consideration of mankind, and approaching nearly to revelation. Henow likewise composed in two books, a discourse on Divination, in whichhe discusses at large all the arguments that may be advanced for andagainst the actual existence of such a species of knowledge. Like thepreceding works, it is written in the form of dialogue, and in which thechief speaker is Laelius. The same period gave birth to his treatise onOld Age, called Cato Major; and to that on Friendship, written also indialogue, and in which the chief speaker is Laelius. This book, considered merely as an essay, is one of the most entertainingproductions of ancient times; but, beheld as a picture drawn from life, exhibiting the real characters and sentiments of men of the firstdistinction for virtue and wisdom in the Roman Republic, it becomesdoubly interesting to every reader of observation and taste. Cicero nowalso wrote his discourse on Fate, which was the subject of a conversationwith Hirtius, in his villa near Puteoli; and he executed about the sametime a translation of Plato's celebrated Dialogue, called Timaeus, on thenature and origin of the universe. He was employing himself also on ahistory of his own times, or rather of his own conduct; full of free andsevere reflections on those who had abused their power to the oppressionof the Republic. Dion Cassius says, that he delivered this book sealedup to his son, with strict orders not to read or publish it till afterhis death; but from this time he never saw his son, and it is probablethat he left the work unfinished. Afterwards, however, some copies of itwere circulated; from which his commentator, Asconius, has quoted severalparticulars. 

During a voyage which he undertook to Sicily, he wrote his treatise onTopics, or the Art of finding Arguments on any Question. This was anabstract from Aristotle's treatise on the same subject; and though he hadneither Aristotle nor any other book to assist him, he drew it up fromhis memory, and finished it as he sailed along the coast of Calabria. The last (63) work composed by Cicero appears to have been his Offices, written for the use of his son, to whom it is addressed. This treatisecontains a system of moral conduct, founded upon the noblest principlesof human action, and recommended by arguments drawn from the purestsources of philosophy. 

Such are the literary productions of this extraordinary man, whosecomprehensive understanding enabled him to conduct with superior abilitythe most abstruse disquisitions into moral and metaphysical science. Born in an age posterior to Socrates and Plato, he could not anticipatethe principles inculcated by those divine philosophers, but he is justlyentitled to the praise, not only of having prosecuted with unerringjudgment the steps which they trod before him, but of carrying hisresearches to greater extent into the most difficult regions ofphilosophy. This too he had the merit to perform, neither in the stationof a private citizen, nor in the leisure of academic retirement, but inthe bustle of public life, amidst the almost constant exertions of thebar, the employment of the magistrate, the duty of the senator, and theincessant cares of the statesman; through a period likewise chequeredwith domestic afflictions and fatal commotions in the Republic. As aphilosopher, his mind appears to have been clear, capacious, penetrating, and insatiable of knowledge. As a writer, he was endowed with everytalent that could captivate either the judgment or taste. His researcheswere continually employed on subjects of the greatest utility to mankind, and those often such as extended beyond the narrow bounds of temporalexistence. The being of a God, the immortality of the soul, a futurestate of rewards and punishments, and the eternal distinction of good andevil; these were in general the great objects of his philosophicalenquiries, and he has placed them in a more convincing point of view thanthey ever were before exhibited to the pagan world. The variety andforce of the arguments which he advances, the splendour of his diction, and the zeal with which he endeavours to excite the love and admirationof virtue, all conspire to place his character, as a philosophicalwriter, including likewise his incomparable eloquence, on the summit ofhuman celebrity. 

The form of dialogue, so much used by Cicero, he doubtless adopted inimitation of Plato, who probably took the hint of it from the colloquialmethod of instruction practised by Socrates. In the early stage ofphilosophical enquiry, this mode of composition was well adapted, if notto the discovery, at least to the confirmation of moral truth; especiallyas the practice was then not uncommon, for speculative men to conversetogether on important subjects, for mutual information. In treating ofany subject respecting which the different sects of philosophers differed(64) from each other in point of sentiment, no kind of composition couldbe more happily suited than dialogue, as it gave alternately full scopeto the arguments of the various disputants. It required, however, thatthe writer should exert his understanding with equal impartiality andacuteness on the different sides of the question; as otherwise he mightbetray a cause under the appearance of defending it. In all thedialogues of Cicero, he manages the arguments of the several disputantsin a manner not only the most fair and interesting, but also such asleads to the most probable and rational conclusion. 

After enumerating the various tracts composed and published by Cicero, wehave now to mention his Letters, which, though not written forpublication, deserve to be ranked among the most interesting remains ofRoman literature. The number of such as are addressed to differentcorrespondents is considerable, but those to Atticus alone, hisconfidential friend, amount to upwards of four hundred; among which aremany of great length. They are all written in the genuine spirit of themost approved epistolary composition; uniting familiarity with elevation, and ease with elegance. They display in a beautiful light the author'scharacter in the social relations of life; as a warm friend, a zealouspatron, a tender husband, an affectionate brother, an indulgent father, and a kind master. Beholding them in a more extensive view, they exhibitan ardent love of liberty and the constitution of his country: theydiscover a mind strongly actuated with the principles of virtue andreason; and while they abound in sentiments the most judicious andphilosophical, they are occasionally blended with the charms of wit, andagreeable effusions of pleasantry. What is likewise no small addition totheir merit, they contain much interesting description of private life, with a variety of information relative to public transactions andcharacters of that age. It appears from Cicero's correspondence, thatthere was at that time such a number of illustrious Romans, as neverbefore existed in any one period of the Republic. If ever, therefore, the authority of men the most respectable for virtue, rank, andabilities, could have availed to overawe the first attempts at aviolation of public liberty, it must have been at this period; for thedignity of the Roman senate was now in the zenith of its splendour. 

Cicero has been accused of excessive vanity, and of arrogating to himselfan invidious superiority, from his extraordinary talents but whoeverperuses his letters to Atticus, must readily acknowledge, that thisimputation appears to be destitute of truth. In those excellentproductions, though he adduces the strongest arguments for and againstany object of consideration, that the (65) most penetrating understandingcan suggest, weighs them with each other, and draws from them the mostrational conclusions, he yet discovers such a diffidence in his ownopinion, that he resigns himself implicitly to the judgment and directionof his friend; a modesty not very compatible with the disposition of thearrogant, who are commonly tenacious of their own opinion, particularlyin what relates to any decision of the understanding. 

It is difficult to say, whether Cicero appears in his letters more greator amiable: but that he was regarded by his contemporaries in both theselights, and that too in the highest degree, is sufficiently evident. Wemay thence infer, that the great poets in the subsequent age must havedone violence to their own liberality and discernment, when, incompliment to Augustus, whose sensibility would have been wounded by thepraises of Cicero, and even by the mention of his name, they have soindustriously avoided the subject, as not to afford the most distantintimation that this immortal orator and philosopher had ever existed. Livy however, there is reason to think, did some justice to his memory:but it was not until the race of the Caesars had become extinct, that hereceived the free and unanimous applause of impartial posterity. Suchwas the admiration which Quintilian entertained of his writings, that heconsidered the circumstance or being delighted with them, as anindubitable proof of judgment and taste in literature. Ille seprofecisse sciat, cui Cicero valde placebit. [105]

In this period is likewise to be placed M. Terentius Varro, thecelebrated Roman grammarian, and the Nestor of ancient learning. Thefirst mention made of him is, that he was lieutenant to Pompey in hispiratical wars, and obtained in that service a naval crown. In the civilwars he joined the side of the Republic, and was taken by Caesar; by whomhe was likewise proscribed, but obtained a remission of the sentence. Ofall the ancients, he has acquired the greatest fame for his extensiveerudition; and we may add, that he displayed the same industry incommunicating, as he had done in collecting it. His works originallyamounted to no less than five hundred volumes, which have all perished, except a treatise De Lingua Latina, and one De Re Rustica. Of the formerof these, which is addressed to Cicero, three books at the beginning arealso lost. It appears from the introduction of the fourth book, thatthey all related to etymology. The first contained such observations asmight be made against it; the second, such as might be made in itsfavour; and the third, observations upon it. He next proceeds toinvestigate the origin of (66) Latin words. In the fourth book, hetraces those which relate to place; in the fifth, those connected withthe idea of time; and in the sixth, the origin of both these classes, asthey appear in the writings of the poets. The seventh book is employedon declension; in which the author enters upon a minute and extensiveenquiry, comprehending a variety of acute and profound observations onthe formation of Latin nouns, and their respective natural declinationsfrom the nominative case. In the eighth, he examines the nature andlimits of usage and analogy in language; and in the ninth and last bookon the subject, takes a general view of what is the reverse of analogy, viz. Anomaly. The precision and perspicuity which Varro displays in thiswork merit the highest encomiums, and justify the character given him inhis own time, of being the most learned of the Latin grammarians. To theloss of the first three books, are to be added several chasms in theothers; but fortunately they happen in such places as not to affect thecoherency of the author's doctrine, though they interrupt theillustration of it. It is observable that this great grammarian makesuse of quom for quum, heis for his, and generally queis for quibus. Thispractice having become rather obsolete at the time in which he wrote, wemust impute his continuance of it to his opinion of its propriety, uponits established principles of grammar, and not to any prejudice ofeducation, or an affectation of singularity. As Varro makes no mentionof Caesar's treatise on Analogy, and had commenced author long beforehim, it is probable that Caesar's production was of a much later date;and thence we may infer, that those two writers differed from each other, at least with respect to some particulars on that subject. 

This author's treatise De Re Rustica was undertaken at the desire of afriend, who, having purchased some lands, requested of Varro the favourof his instructions relative to farming, and the economy of a countrylife, in its various departments. Though Varro was at this time in hiseightieth year, he writes with all the vivacity, though without thelevity, of youth, and sets out with invoking, not the Muses, like Homerand Ennius, as he observes, but the twelve deities supposed to be chieflyconcerned in the operations of agriculture. It appears from the accountwhich he gives, that upwards of fifty Greek authors had treated of thissubject in prose, besides Hesiod and Menecrates the Ephesian, who bothwrote in verse; exclusive likewise of many Roman writers, and of Mago theCarthaginian, who wrote in the Punic language. Varro's work is dividedinto three books, the first of which treats of agriculture; the second, of rearing of cattle; and the third, of feeding animals for the use ofthe table. (67) In the last of these, we meet with a remarkable instanceof the prevalence of habit and fashion over human sentiment, where theauthor delivers instructions relative to the best method of fatteningrats. 

We find from Quintilian, that Varro likewise composed satires in variouskinds of verse. It is impossible to behold the numerous fragments ofthis venerable author without feeling the strongest regret for the lossof that vast collection of information which he had compiled, and ofjudicious observations which he had made on a variety of subjects, duringa life of eighty-eight years, almost entirely devoted to literature. Theremark of St. Augustine is well founded, That it is astonishing howVarro, who read such a number of books, could find time to compose somany volumes; and how he who composed so many volumes, could be atleisure to peruse such a variety of books, and to gain so much literaryinformation. 

Catullus is said to have been born at Verona, of respectable parents; hisfather and himself being in the habit of intimacy with Julius Caesar. Hewas brought to Rome by Mallius, to whom several of his epigrams areaddressed. The gentleness of his manners, and his application to study, we are told, recommended him to general esteem; and he had the goodfortune to obtain the patronage of Cicero. When he came to be known as apoet, all these circumstances would naturally contribute to increase hisreputation for ingenuity; and accordingly we find his genius applauded byseveral of his contemporaries. It appears that his works are nottransmitted entire to posterity; but there remain sufficient specimens bywhich we may be enabled to appreciate his poetical talents. 

Quintilian, and Diomed the grammarian, have ranked Catullus amongst theiambic writers, while others have placed him amongst the lyric. He hasproperly a claim to each of these stations; but his versification beingchiefly iambic, the former of the arrangements seems to be the mostsuitable. The principal merit of Catullus's Iambics consists in asimplicity of thought and expression. The thoughts, however, are oftenfrivolous, and, what is yet more reprehensible, the author gives way togross obscenity: in vindication of which, he produces the followingcouplet, declaring that a good poet ought to be chaste in his own person, but that his verses need not be so. 

 Nam castum esse decet pium poetam Ipsum: versiculos nihil necesse est. 

This sentiment has been frequently cited by those who were inclined tofollow the example of Catullus; but if such a practice be in any caseadmissible, it is only where the poet personates (68) a profligatecharacter; and the instances in which it is adopted by Catullus are notof that description. It had perhaps been a better apology, to havepleaded the manners of the times; for even Horace, who wrote only a fewyears after, has suffered his compositions to be occasionally debased bythe same kind of blemish. 

Much has been said of this poet's invective against Caesar, whichproduced no other effect than an invitation to sup at the dictator'shouse. It was indeed scarcely entitled to the honour of the smallestresentment. If any could be shewn, it must have been for the freedomused by the author, and not for any novelty in his lampoon. There aretwo poems on this subject, viz. The twenty-ninth and fifty-seventh, ineach of which Caesar is joined with Mamurra, a Roman knight, who hadacquired great riches in the Gallic war. For the honour of Catullus'sgratitude, we should suppose that the latter is the one to whichhistorians allude: but, as poetical compositions, they are equallyunworthy of regard. The fifty seventh is nothing more than a broadrepetition of the raillery, whether well or ill founded, with whichCaesar was attacked on various occasions, and even in the senate, afterhis return from Bithynia. Caesar had been taunted with this subject forupwards of thirty years; and after so long a familiarity with reproach, his sensibility to the scandalous imputation must now have been muchdiminished, if not entirely extinguished. The other poem is partly inthe same strain, but extended to greater length, by a mixture of commonjocular ribaldry of the Roman soldiers, expressed nearly in the sameterms which Caesar's legions, though strongly attached to his person, scrupled not to sport publicly in the streets of Rome, against theirgeneral, during the celebration of his triumph. In a word, it deservesto be regarded as an effusion of Saturnalian licentiousness, rather thanof poetry. With respect to the Iambics of Catullus, we may observe ingeneral, that the sarcasm is indebted for its force, not so much toingenuity of sentiment, as to the indelicate nature of the subject, orcoarseness of expression. 

The descriptive poems of Catullus are superior to the others, anddiscover a lively imagination. Amongst the best of his productions, is atranslation of the celebrated ode of Sappho:

 Ille mi par esse Deo videtur, me, etc. 

This ode is executed both with spirit and elegance; it is, however, imperfect; and the last stanza seems to be spurious. Catullus's epigramsare entitled to little praise, with regard either to sentiment or point;and on the whole, his merit, as a poet, appears to have been magnifiedbeyond its real extent. He is said to have died about the thirtieth yearof his age. 

(69) Lucretius is the author of a celebrated poem, in six books, De RerumNatura; a subject which had been treated many ages before by Empedocles, a philosopher and poet of Agrigentum. Lucretius was a zealous partizanof Democritus, and the sect of Epicurus, whose principles concerning theeternity of matter, the materiality of the soul, and the non-existence ofa future state of rewards and punishments, he affects to maintain with acertainty equal to that of mathematical demonstration. Stronglyprepossessed with the hypothetical doctrines of his master, and ignorantof the physical system of the universe, he endeavours to deduce from thephenomena of the material world conclusions not only unsupported bylegitimate theory, but repugnant to the principles of the highestauthority in metaphysical disquisition. But while we condemn hisspeculative notions as degrading to human nature, and subversive of themost important interests of mankind, we must admit that he has prosecutedhis visionary hypothesis with uncommon ingenuity. Abstracting from itthe rhapsodical nature of this production, and its obscurity in someparts, it has great merit as a poem. The style is elevated, and theversification in general harmonious. By the mixture of obsolete words, it possesses an air of solemnity well adapted to abstruse researches; atthe same time that by the frequent resolution of diphthongs, it instilsinto the Latin the sonorous and melodious powers of the Greek language. 

While Lucretius was engaged in this work, he fell into a state ofinsanity, occasioned, as is supposed, by a philtre, or love-potion, givenhim by his wife Lucilia. The complaint, however, having lucid intervals, he employed them in the execution of his plan, and, soon after it wasfinished, laid violent hands upon himself, in the forty-third year of hisage. This fatal termination of his life, which perhaps proceeded frominsanity, was ascribed by his friends and admirers to his concern for thebanishment of one Memmius, with whom he was intimately connected, and forthe distracted state of the republic. It was, however, a catastrophewhich the principles of Epicurus, equally erroneous and irreconcilable toresignation and fortitude, authorized in particular circumstances. EvenAtticus, the celebrated correspondent of Cicero, a few years after thisperiod, had recourse to the same desperate expedient, by refusing allsustenance, while he laboured under a lingering disease. 

It is said that Cicero revised the poem of Lucretius after the death ofthe author, and this circumstance is urged by the abettors of atheism, asa proof that the principles contained in the work had the sanction of hisauthority. But no inference in favour of Lucretius's doctrine can justlybe drawn from this circumstance. (70) Cicero, though alreadysufficiently acquainted with the principles of the Epicurean sect, mightnot be averse to the perusal of a production, which collected andenforced them in a nervous strain of poetry; especially as the work waslikely to prove interesting to his friend Atticus, and would perhapsafford subject for some letters or conversation between them. It canhave been only with reference to composition that the poem was submittedto Cicero's revisal: for had he been required to exercise his judgmentupon its principles, he must undoubtedly have so much mutilated the work, as to destroy the coherency of the system. He might be gratified withthe shew of elaborate research, and confident declamation, which itexhibited, but he must have utterly disapproved of the conclusions whichthe author endeavoured to establish. According to the best information, Lucretius died in the year from the building of Rome 701, when Pompey wasthe third time consul. Cicero lived several years beyond this period, and in the two last years of his life, he composed those valuable workswhich contain sentiments diametrically repugnant to the visionary systemof Epicurus. The argument, therefore, drawn from Cicero's revisal, sofar from confirming the principle of Lucretius, affords the strongesttacit declaration against their validity; because a period sufficient formature consideration had elapsed, before Cicero published his ownadmirable system of philosophy. The poem of Lucretius, nevertheless, hasbeen regarded as the bulwark of atheism--of atheism, which, while itimpiously arrogates the support of reason, both reason and naturedisclaim. 

Many more writers flourished in this period, but their works have totallyperished. Sallust was now engaged in historical productions; but as theywere not yet completed, they will be noticed in the next division of thereview. 

D. OCTAVIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS. 

(71)

I. That the family of the Octavii was of the first distinction inVelitrae [106], is rendered evident by many circumstances. For in themost frequented part of the town, there was, not long since, a streetnamed the Octavian; and an altar was to be seen, consecrated to oneOctavius, who being chosen general in a war with some neighbouringpeople, the enemy making a sudden attack, while he was sacrificing toMars, he immediately snatched the entrails of the victim from off thefire, and offered them half raw upon the altar; after which, marching outto battle, he returned victorious. This incident gave rise to a law, bywhich it was enacted, that in all future times the entrails should beoffered to Mars in the same manner; and the rest of the victim be carriedto the Octavii. 

II. This family, as well as several in Rome, was admitted into thesenate by Tarquinius Priscus, and soon afterwards placed by ServiusTullius among the patricians; but in process of time it transferreditself to the plebeian order, and, after the lapse of a long interval, was restored by Julius Caesar to the rank of patricians. The firstperson of the family raised by the suffrages of the people to themagistracy, was Caius Rufus. He obtained the quaestorship, and had twosons, Cneius and Caius; from whom are descended the two branches of theOctavian family, which have had very different fortunes. For Cneius, andhis descendants in uninterrupted succession, held all the highest officesof the state; whilst Caius and his posterity, whether from theircircumstances or their choice, remained in the equestrian order until thefather of Augustus. The great-grandfather of Augustus served as amilitary tribune in the second Punic war in Sicily, under the command ofAemilius Pappus. His grandfather contented himself with bearing thepublic offices of his own municipality, and grew old in the tranquilenjoyment of an ample patrimony. Such is the account given (72) bydifferent authors. Augustus himself, however, tells us nothing more thanthat he was descended of an equestrian family, both ancient and rich, ofwhich his father was the first who obtained the rank of senator. MarkAntony upbraidingly tells him that his great-grandfather was a freedmanof the territory of Thurium [107], and a rope-maker, and his grandfathera usurer. This is all the information I have any where met with, respecting the ancestors of Augustus by the father's side. 

III. His father Caius Octavius was, from his earliest years, a personboth of opulence and distinction: for which reason I am surprised atthose who say that he was a money-dealer [108], and was employed inscattering bribes, and canvassing for the candidates at elections, in theCampus Martius. For being bred up in all the affluence of a greatestate, he attained with ease to honourable posts, and discharged theduties of them with much distinction. After his praetorship, he obtainedby lot the province of Macedonia; in his way to which he cut off somebanditti, the relics of the armies of Spartacus and Catiline, who hadpossessed themselves of the territory of Thurium; having received fromthe senate an extraordinary commission for that purpose. In hisgovernment of the province, he conducted himself with equal justice andresolution; for he defeated the Bessians and Thracians in a great battle, and treated the allies of the republic in such a manner, that there areextant letters from M. Tullius Cicero, in which he advises and exhortshis brother Quintus, who then held the proconsulship of Asia with nogreat reputation, to imitate the example of his neighbour Octavius, ingaining the affections of the allies of Rome. 

IV. After quitting Macedonia, before he could declare himself acandidate for the consulship, he died suddenly, leaving behind him adaughter, the elder Octavia, by Ancharia; and another daughter, Octaviathe younger, as well as Augustus, by Atia, who was the daughter of MarcusAtius Balbus, and Julia, sister to Caius Julius Caesar. Balbus was, bythe father's (73) side, of a family who were natives of Aricia [109], andmany of whom had been in the senate. By the mother's side he was nearlyrelated to Pompey the Great; and after he had borne the office ofpraetor, was one of the twenty commissioners appointed by the Julian lawto divide the land in Campania among the people. But Mark Antony, treating with contempt Augustus's descent even by the mother's side, saysthat his great grand-father was of African descent, and at one time kepta perfumer's shop, and at another, a bake-house, in Aricia. And Cassiusof Parma, in a letter, taxes Augustus with being the son not only of abaker, but a usurer. These are his words: "Thou art a lump of thymother's meal, which a money-changer of Nerulum taking from the newestbake-house of Aricia, kneaded into some shape, with his hands alldiscoloured by the fingering of money. "

V. Augustus was born in the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero andCaius Antonius [110], upon the ninth of the calends of October [the 23rdSeptember], a little before sunrise, in the quarter of the Palatine Hill[111], and the street called The Ox-Heads [112], where now stands achapel dedicated to him, and built a little after his death. For, as itis recorded in the proceedings of the senate, when Caius Laetorius, ayoung man of a patrician family, in pleading before the senators for alighter sentence, upon his being convicted of adultery, alleged, besideshis youth and quality, that he was the possessor, and as it were theguardian, of the ground which the Divine Augustus first touched upon hiscoming into the world; and entreated that (74) he might find favour, forthe sake of that deity, who was in a peculiar manner his; an act of thesenate was passed, for the consecration of that part of his house inwhich Augustus was born. 

VI. His nursery is shewn to this day, in a villa belonging to thefamily, in the suburbs of Velitrae; being a very small place, and muchlike a pantry. An opinion prevails in the neighbourhood, that he wasalso born there. Into this place no person presumes to enter, unlessupon necessity, and with great devotion, from a belief, for a long timeprevalent, that such as rashly enter it are seized with great horror andconsternation, which a short while since was confirmed by a remarkableincident. For when a new inhabitant of the house had, either by merechance, or to try the truth of the report, taken up his lodging in thatapartment, in the course of the night, a few hours afterwards, he wasthrown out by some sudden violence, he knew not how, and was found in astate of stupefaction, with the coverlid of his bed, before the door ofthe chamber. 

VII. While he was yet an infant, the surname of Thurinus was given him, in memory of the birth-place of his family, or because, soon after he wasborn, his father Octavius had been successful against the fugitiveslaves, in the country near Thurium. That he was surnamed Thurinus, Ican affirm upon good foundation, for when a boy, I had a small bronzestatue of him, with that name upon it in iron letters, nearly effaced byage, which I presented to the emperor [113], by whom it is now reveredamongst the other tutelary deities in his chamber. He is also oftencalled Thurinus contemptuously, by Mark Antony in his letters; to whichhe makes only this reply: "I am surprised that my former name should bemade a subject of reproach. " He afterwards assumed the name of CaiusCaesar, and then of Augustus; the former in compliance with the will ofhis great-uncle, and the latter upon a motion of Munatius Plancus in thesenate. For when some proposed to confer upon him the name of Romulus, as being, in a manner, a second founder of the city, it was resolved thathe should rather be called Augustus, a surname not only new, but of moredignity, because places devoted to religion, and those in which anything(75) is consecrated by augury, are denominated august, either from theword auctus, signifying augmentation, or ab avium gestu, gustuve, fromthe flight and feeding of birds; as appears from this verse of Ennius:

 When glorious Rome by august augury was built. [114]

VIII. He lost his father when he was only four years of age; and, in histwelfth year, pronounced a funeral oration in praise of his grand-motherJulia. Four years afterwards, having assumed the robe of manhood, he washonoured with several military rewards by Caesar in his African triumph, although he took no part in the war, on account of his youth. Upon hisuncle's expedition to Spain against the sons of Pompey, he was followedby his nephew, although he was scarcely recovered from a dangeroussickness; and after being shipwrecked at sea, and travelling with veryfew attendants through roads that were infested with the enemy, he atlast came up with him. This activity gave great satisfaction to hisuncle, who soon conceived an increasing affection for him, on account ofsuch indications of character. After the subjugation of Spain, whileCaesar was meditating an expedition against the Dacians and Parthians, hewas sent before him to Apollonia, where he applied himself to hisstudies; until receiving intelligence that his uncle was murdered, andthat he was appointed his heir, he hesitated for some time whether heshould call to his aid the legions stationed in the neighbourhood; but heabandoned the design as rash and premature. However, returning to Rome, he took possession of his inheritance, although his mother wasapprehensive that such a measure might be attended with danger, and hisstep-father, Marcius Philippus, a man of consular rank, very earnestlydissuaded him from it. From this time, collecting together a strongmilitary force, he first held the government in conjunction with MarkAntony and Marcus Lepidus, then with Antony only, for nearly twelveyears, and at last in his own hands during a period of four and forty. 

IX. Having thus given a very short summary of his life, I shallprosecute the several parts of it, not in order of time, but arranginghis acts into distinct classes, for the sake of (76) perspicuity. He wasengaged in five civil wars, namely those of Modena, Philippi, Perugia, Sicily, and Actium; the first and last of which were against Antony, andthe second against Brutus and Cassius; the third against Lucius Antonius, the triumvir's brother, and the fourth against Sextus Pompeius, the sonof Cneius Pompeius. 

X. The motive which gave rise to all these wars was the opinion heentertained that both his honour and interest were concerned in revengingthe murder of his uncle, and maintaining the state of affairs he hadestablished. Immediately after his return from Apollonia, he formed thedesign of taking forcible and unexpected measures against Brutus andCassius; but they having foreseen the danger and made their escape, heresolved to proceed against them by an appeal to the laws in theirabsence, and impeach them for the murder. In the mean time, those whoseprovince it was to prepare the sports in honour of Caesar's last victoryin the civil war, not daring to do it, he undertook it himself. And thathe might carry into effect his other designs with greater authority, hedeclared himself a candidate in the room of a tribune of the people whohappened to die at that time, although he was of a patrician family, andhad not yet been in the senate. But the consul, Mark Antony, from whomhe had expected the greatest assistance, opposing him in his suit, andeven refusing to do him so much as common justice, unless gratified witha large bribe, he went over to the party of the nobles, to whom heperceived Sylla to be odious, chiefly for endeavouring to drive DeciusBrutus, whom he besieged in the town of Modena, out of the province, which had been given him by Caesar, and confirmed to him by the senate. At the instigation of persons about him, he engaged some ruffians tomurder his antagonist; but the plot being discovered, and dreading asimilar attempt upon himself, he gained over Caesar's veteran soldiers, by distributing among them all the money he could collect. Being nowcommissioned by the senate to command the troops he had gathered, withthe rank of praetor, and in conjunction with Hirtius and Pansa, who hadaccepted the consulship, to carry assistance to Decius Brutus, he put anend to the war by two battles in three months. Antony writes, that inthe former of these he ran away, and two days afterwards made hisappearance (77) without his general's cloak and his horse. In the lastbattle, however, it is certain that he performed the part not only of ageneral, but a soldier; for, in the heat of the battle; when thestandard-bearer of his legion was severely wounded, he took the eagleupon his shoulders, and carried it a long time. 

XI. In this war [115], Hirtius being slain in battle, and Pansa dying ashort time afterwards of a wound, a report was circulated that they bothwere killed through his means, in order that, when Antony fled, therepublic having lost its consuls, he might have the victorious armiesentirely at his own command. The death of Pansa was so fully believed tohave been caused by undue means, that Glyco, his surgeon, was placed incustody, on a suspicion of having poisoned his wound. And to this, Aquilius Niger adds, that he killed Hirtius, the other consul, in theconfusion of the battle, with his own hands. 

XII. But upon intelligence that Antony, after his defeat, had beenreceived by Marcus Lepidus, and that the rest of the generals and armieshad all declared for the senate, he, without any hesitation, desertedfrom the party of the nobles; alleging as an excuse for his conduct, theactions and sayings of several amongst them; for some said, "he was amere boy, " and others threw out, "that he ought to be promoted tohonours, and cut off, " to avoid the making any suitable acknowledgmenteither to him or the veteran legions. And the more to testify his regretfor having before attached himself to the other faction, he fined theNursini in a large sum of money, which they were unable to pay, and thenexpelled them from the town, for having inscribed upon a monument, erected at the public charge to their countrymen who were slain in thebattle of Modena, "That they fell in the cause of liberty. "

XIII. Having entered into a confederacy with Antony and Lepidus, hebrought the war at Philippi to an end in two battles, although he was atthat time weak, and suffering from sickness [116]. In the first battlehe was driven from his camp, (78) and with some difficulty made hisescape to the wing of the army commanded by Antony. And now, intoxicatedwith success, he sent the head of Brutus [117] to be cast at the foot ofCaesar's statue, and treated the most illustrious of the prisoners notonly with cruelty, but with abusive language; insomuch that he is said tohave answered one of them who humbly intreated that at least he might notremain unburied, "That will be in the power of the birds. " Two others, father and son, who begged for their lives, he ordered to cast lots whichof them should live, or settle it between themselves by the sword; andwas a spectator of both their deaths: for the father offering his life tosave his son, and being accordingly executed, the son likewise killedhimself upon the spot. On this account, the rest of the prisoners, andamongst them Marcus Favonius, Cato's rival, being led up in fetters, after they had saluted Antony, the general, with much respect, reviledOctavius in the foulest language. After this victory, dividing betweenthem the offices of the state, Mark Antony [118] undertook to restoreorder in the east, while Caesar conducted the veteran soldiers back toItaly, and settled them in colonies on the lands belonging to themunicipalities. But he had the misfortune to please neither the soldiersnor the owners of the lands; one party complaining of the injustice donethem, in being violently ejected from their possessions, and the other, that they were not rewarded according to their merit. [119]

XIV. At this time he obliged Lucius Antony, who, presuming upon his ownauthority as consul, and his brother's power, was raising new commotions, to fly to Perugia, and forced him, by famine, to surrender at last, although not without having been exposed to great hazards, both beforethe war and during its continuance. For a common soldier having got intothe seats of the equestrian order in the theatre, at the publicspectacles, Caesar ordered him to be removed by an officer; and a rumourbeing thence spread by his enemies, that he had (79) put the man to deathby torture, the soldiers flocked together so much enraged, that henarrowly escaped with his life. The only thing that saved him, was thesudden appearance of the man, safe and sound, no violence having beenoffered him. And whilst he was sacrificing under the walls of Perugia, he nearly fell into the hands of a body of gladiators, who sallied out ofthe town. 

XV. After the taking of Perugia [120], he sentenced a great number ofthe prisoners to death, making only one reply to all who implored pardon, or endeavoured to excuse themselves, "You must die. " Some authors write, that three hundred of the two orders, selected from the rest, wereslaughtered, like victims, before an altar raised to Julius Caesar, uponthe ides of March [15th April] [121]. Nay, there are some who relate, that he entered upon the war with no other view, than that his secretenemies, and those whom fear more than affection kept quiet, might bedetected, by declaring themselves, now they had an opportunity, withLucius Antony at their head; and that having defeated them, andconfiscated their estates, he might be enabled to fulfil his promises tothe veteran soldiers. 

XVI. He soon commenced the Sicilian war, but it was protracted byvarious delays during a long period [122]; at one time for the purpose ofrepairing his fleets, which he lost twice by storm, even in the summer;at another, while patching up a peace, to which he was forced by theclamours of the people, in consequence of a famine occasioned by Pompey'scutting off the supply of corn by sea. But at last, having built a newfleet, and obtained twenty thousand manumitted slaves [123], who weregiven him for the oar, he formed the Julian harbour at Baiae, by lettingthe sea into the Lucrine and Avernian lakes; and having exercised hisforces there during the whole winter, he defeated Pompey betwixt Mylaeand Naulochus; although (80) just as the engagement commenced, hesuddenly fell into such a profound sleep, that his friends were obligedto wake him to give the signal. This, I suppose, gave occasion forAntony's reproach: "You were not able to take a clear view of the fleet, when drawn up in line of battle, but lay stupidly upon your back, gazingat the sky; nor did you get up and let your men see you, until MarcusAgrippa had forced the enemies' ships to sheer off. " Others imputed tohim both a saying and an action which were indefensible; for, upon theloss of his fleets by storm, he is reported to have said: "I will conquerin spite of Neptune;" and at the next Circensian games, he would notsuffer the statue of that God to be carried in procession as usual. Indeed he scarcely ever ran more or greater risks in any of his wars thanin this. Having transported part of his army to Sicily, and being on hisreturn for the rest, he was unexpectedly attacked by Demochares andApollophanes, Pompey's admirals, from whom he escaped with greatdifficulty, and with one ship only. Likewise, as he was travelling onfoot through the Locrian territory to Rhegium, seeing two of Pompey'svessels passing by that coast, and supposing them to be his own, he wentdown to the shore, and was very nearly taken prisoner. On this occasion, as he was making his escape by some bye-ways, a slave belonging toAemilius Paulus, who accompanied him, owing him a grudge for theproscription of Paulus, the father of Aemilius, and thinking he had nowan opportunity of revenging it, attempted to assassinate him. After thedefeat of Pompey, one of his colleagues [124], Marcus Lepidus, whom hehad summoned to his aid from Africa, affecting great superiority, becausehe was at the head of twenty legions, and claiming for himself theprincipal management of affairs in a threatening manner, he divested himof his command, but, upon his humble submission, granted him his life, but banished him for life to Circeii. 

XVII. The alliance between him and Antony, which had always beenprecarious, often interrupted, and ill cemented by repeatedreconciliations, he at last entirely dissolved. And to make it known tothe world how far Antony had degenerated from patriotic feelings, hecaused a will of his, which had been left at Rome, and in which he hadnominated Cleopatra's children, amongst others, as his heirs, to beopened and read in an assembly of the people. Yet upon his beingdeclared an enemy, he sent to him all his relations and friends, amongwhom were Caius Sosius and Titus Domitius, at that time consuls. Helikewise spoke favourably in public of the people of Bologna, for joiningin the association with the rest of Italy to support his cause, becausethey had, in former times, been under the protection of the family of theAntonii. And not long afterwards he defeated him in a naval engagementnear Actium, which was prolonged to so late an hour, that, after thevictory, he was obliged to sleep on board his ship. From Actium he wentto the isle of Samoa to winter; but being alarmed with the accounts of amutiny amongst the soldiers he had selected from the main body of hisarmy sent to Brundisium after the victory, who insisted on their beingrewarded for their service and discharged, he returned to Italy. In hispassage thither, he encountered two violent storms, the first between thepromontories of Peloponnesus and Aetolia, and the other about theCeraunian mountains; in both which a part of his Liburnian squadron wassunk, the spars and rigging of his own ship carried away, and the rudderbroken in pieces. He remained only twenty-seven days at Brundisium, until the demands of the soldiers were settled, and then went, by way ofAsia and Syria, to Egypt, where laying siege to Alexandria, whitherAntony had fled with Cleopatra, he made himself master of it in a shorttime. He drove Antony to kill himself, after he had used every effort toobtain conditions of peace, and he saw his corpse [126]. Cleopatra heanxiously wished to save for his triumph; and when she was supposed tohave been bit to death by an asp, he sent for the Psylli [127] to (82)endeavour to suck out the poison. He allowed them to be buried togetherin the same grave, and ordered a mausoleum, begun by themselves, to becompleted. The eldest of Antony's two sons by Fulvia he commanded to betaken by force from the statue of Julius Caesar, to which he had fled, after many fruitless supplications for his life, and put him to death. The same fate attended Caesario, Cleopatra's son by Caesar, as hepretended, who had fled for his life, but was retaken. The childrenwhich Antony had by Cleopatra he saved, and brought up and cherished in amanner suitable to their rank, just as if they had been his ownrelations. 

XVIII. At this time he had a desire to see the sarcophagus and body ofAlexander the Great, which, for that purpose, were taken out of the cellin which they rested [128]; and after viewing them for some time, he paidhonours to the memory of that prince, by offering a golden crown, andscattering flowers upon the body [129]. Being asked if he wished to seethe tombs of the Ptolemies also; he replied, "I wish to see a king, notdead men. " [130] He reduced Egypt into the form of a province and torender it more fertile, and more capable of supplying Rome with corn, heemployed his army to scour the canals, into which the Nile, upon itsrise, discharges itself; but which during a long series of years hadbecome nearly choked up with mud. To perpetuate the glory of his victoryat Actium, he built the city of Nicopolis on that part of the coast, andestablished games to be celebrated there every five years; enlarginglikewise an old temple of Apollo, he ornamented with naval trophies [131]the spot on which he had pitched his camp, and consecrated it to Neptuneand Mars. 

(83) XIX. He afterwards [132] quashed several tumults and insurrections, as well as several conspiracies against his life, which were discovered, by the confession of accomplices, before they were ripe for execution;and others subsequently. Such were those of the younger Lepidus, ofVarro Muraena, and Fannius Caepio; then that of Marcus Egnatius, afterwards that of Plautius Rufus, and of Lucius Paulus, hisgrand-daughter's husband; and besides these, another of Lucius Audasius, an old feeble man, who was under prosecution for forgery; as also ofAsinius Epicadus, a Parthinian mongrel [133], and at last that ofTelephus, a lady's prompter [134]; for he was in danger of his life fromthe plots and conspiracies of some of the lowest of the people againsthim. Audasius and Epicadus had formed the design of carrying off to thearmies his daughter Julia, and his grandson Agrippa, from the islands inwhich they were confined. Telephus, wildly dreaming that the governmentwas destined to him by the fates, proposed to fall both upon Octavius andthe senate. Nay, once, a soldier's servant belonging to the army inIllyricum, having passed the porters unobserved, was found in thenight-time standing before his chamber-door, armed with a hunting-dagger. Whether the person was really disordered in the head, or onlycounterfeited madness, is uncertain; for no confession was obtained fromhim by torture. 

XX. He conducted in person only two foreign wars; the Dalmatian, whilsthe was yet but a youth; and, after Antony's final defeat, the Cantabrian. He was wounded in the former of these wars; in one battle he received acontusion in the right knee from a stone--and in another, he was muchhurt in (84) one leg and both arms, by the fall of a fridge [135]. Hisother wars he carried on by his lieutenants; but occasionally visited thearmy, in some of the wars of Pannonia and Germany, or remained at nogreat distance, proceeding from Rome as far as Ravenna, Milan, orAquileia. 

XXI. He conquered, however, partly in person, and partly by hislieutenants, Cantabria [136], Aquitania and Pannonia [137], Dalmatia, with all Illyricum and Rhaetia [138], besides the two Alpine nations, theVindelici and the Salassii [139]. He also checked the incursions of theDacians, by cutting off three of their generals with vast armies, anddrove the Germans beyond the river Elbe; removing two other tribes whosubmitted, the Ubii and Sicambri, into Gaul, and settling them in thecountry bordering on the Rhine. Other nations also, which broke intorevolt, he reduced to submission. But he never made war upon any nationwithout just and necessary cause; and was so far from being ambitiouseither to extend the empire, or advance his own military glory, that heobliged the chiefs of some barbarous tribes to swear in the temple ofMars the Avenger [140], that they would faithfully observe theirengagements, and not violate the peace which they had implored. Of somehe demanded a new description of hostages, their women, having found fromexperience that they cared little for their men when given as hostages;but he always afforded them the means of getting back their hostageswhenever they wished it. Even those who engaged most frequently and withthe greatest perfidy in their rebellion, he never punished more severelythan by selling their captives, on the terms (85) of their not serving inany neighbouring country, nor being released from their slavery beforethe expiration of thirty years. By the character which he thus acquired, for virtue and moderation, he induced even the Indians and Scythians, nations before known to the Romans by report only, to solicit hisfriendship, and that of the Roman people, by ambassadors. The Parthiansreadily allowed his claim to Armenia; restoring at his demand, thestandards which they had taken from Marcus Crassus and Mark Antony, andoffering him hostages besides. Afterwards, when a contest arose betweenseveral pretenders to the crown of that kingdom, they refused toacknowledge any one who was not chosen by him. 

XXII. The temple of Janus Quirinus, which had been shut twice only, fromthe era of the building of the city to his own time, he closed thrice ina much shorter period, having established universal peace both by sea andland. He twice entered the city with the honours of an Ovation [141], namely, after the war of Philippi, and again after that of Sicily. Hehad also three curule triumphs [142] for his several victories in (86)Dalmatia, at Actium, and Alexandria; each of which lasted three days. 

XXIII. In all his wars, he never received any signal or ignominiousdefeat, except twice in Germany, under his lieutenants Lollius and Varus. The former indeed had in it more of dishonour than disaster; but that ofVarus threatened the security of the empire itself; three legions, withthe commander, his lieutenants, and all the auxiliaries, being cut off. Upon receiving intelligence of this disaster, he gave orders for keepinga strict watch over the city, to prevent any public disturbance, andprolonged the appointments of the prefects in the provinces, that theallies might be kept in order by experience of persons to whom they wereused. He made a vow to celebrate the great games in honour of Jupiter, Optimus, Maximus, "if he would be pleased to restore the state to moreprosperous circumstances. " This had formerly been resorted to in theCimbrian and Marsian wars. In short, we are informed that he was in suchconsternation at this event, that he let the hair of his head and beardgrow for several months, and sometimes knocked his head against thedoor-posts, crying out, "O, Quintilius Varus! Give me back my legions!"And (87) ever after, he observed the anniversary of this calamity, as aday of sorrow and mourning. 

XXIV. In military affairs he made many alterations, introducing somepractices entirely new, and reviving others, which had become obsolete. He maintained the strictest discipline among the troops; and would notallow even his lieutenants the liberty to visit their wives, exceptreluctantly, and in the winter season only. A Roman knight having cutoff the thumbs of his two young sons, to render them incapable of servingin the wars, he exposed both him and his estate to public sale. But uponobserving the farmers of the revenue very greedy for the purchase, heassigned him to a freedman of his own, that he might send him into thecountry, and suffer him to retain his freedom. The tenth legion becomingmutinous, he disbanded it with ignominy; and did the same by some otherswhich petulantly demanded their discharge; withholding from them therewards usually bestowed on those who had served their stated time in thewars. The cohorts which yielded their ground in time of action, hedecimated, and fed with barley. Centurions, as well as common sentinels, who deserted their posts when on guard, he punished with death. Forother misdemeanors he inflicted upon them various kinds of disgrace; suchas obliging them to stand all day before the praetorium, sometimes intheir tunics only, and without their belts, sometimes to carry poles tenfeet long, or sods of turf. 

XXV. After the conclusion of the civil wars, he never, in any of hismilitary harangues, or proclamations, addressed them by the title of"Fellow-soldiers, " but as "Soldiers" only. Nor would he suffer them tobe otherwise called by his sons or step-sons, when they were in command;judging the former epithet to convey the idea of a degree ofcondescension inconsistent with military discipline, the maintenance oforder, and his own majesty, and that of his house. Unless at Rome, incase of incendiary fires, or under the apprehension of publicdisturbances during a scarcity of provisions, he never employed in hisarmy slaves who had been made freedmen, except upon two occasions; onone, for the security of the colonies bordering upon Illyricum, and onthe other, to guard (88) the banks of the river Rhine. Although heobliged persons of fortune, both male and female, to give up theirslaves, and they received their manumission at once, yet he kept themtogether under their own standard, unmixed with soldiers who were betterborn, and armed likewise after different fashion. Military rewards, suchas trappings, collars, and other decorations of gold and silver, hedistributed more readily than camp or mural crowns, which were reckonedmore honourable than the former. These he bestowed sparingly, withoutpartiality, and frequently even on common soldiers. He presented M. Agrippa, after the naval engagement in the Sicilian war, with a sea-greenbanner. Those who shared in the honours of a triumph, although they hadattended him in his expeditions, and taken part in his victories, hejudged it improper to distinguish by the usual rewards for service, because they had a right themselves to grant such rewards to whom theypleased. He thought nothing more derogatory to the character of anaccomplished general than precipitancy and rashness; on which account hehad frequently in his mouth those proverbs:

 Speude bradeos, Hasten slowly, And

 'Asphalaes gar est' ameinon, hae erasus strataelataes. The cautious captain's better than the bold. 

And "That is done fast enough, which is done well enough. "

He was wont to say also, that "a battle or a war ought never to beundertaken, unless the prospect of gain overbalanced the fear of loss. For, " said he, "men who pursue small advantages with no small hazard, resemble those who fish with a golden hook, the loss of which, if theline should happen to break, could never be compensated by all the fishthey might take. "

XXVI. He was advanced to public offices before the age at which he waslegally qualified for them; and to some, also, of a new kind, and forlife. He seized the consulship in the twentieth year of his age, quartering his legions in a threatening manner near the city, and sendingdeputies to demand it for him in the name of the army. When the senatedemurred, (89) a centurion, named Cornelius, who was at the head of thechief deputation, throwing back his cloak, and shewing the hilt of hissword, had the presumption to say in the senate-house, "This will makehim consul, if ye will not. " His second consulship he filled nine yearsafterwards; his third, after the interval of only one year, and held thesame office every year successively until the eleventh. From thisperiod, although the consulship was frequently offered him, he alwaysdeclined it, until, after a long interval, not less than seventeen years, he voluntarily stood for the twelfth, and two years after that, for athirteenth; that he might successively introduce into the forum, on theirentering public life, his two sons, Caius and Lucius, while he wasinvested with the highest office in the state. In his five consulshipsfrom the sixth to the eleventh, he continued in office throughout theyear; but in the rest, during only nine, six, four, or three months, andin his second no more than a few hours. For having sat for a short timein the morning, upon the calends of January [1st January], in his curulechair [143], before the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, he abdicated theoffice, and substituted another in his room. Nor did he enter upon themall at Rome, but upon the fourth in Asia, the fifth in the Isle of Samos, and the eighth and ninth at Tarragona. [144]

XXVII. During ten years he acted as one of the triumvirate for settlingthe commonwealth, in which office he for some time opposed his colleaguesin their design of a proscription; but after it was begun, he prosecutedit with more determined rigour than either of them. For whilst they wereoften prevailed upon, by the interest and intercession of friends, toshew mercy, he alone strongly insisted that no one should be spared, andeven proscribed Caius Toranius [145], his guardian; who had (90) beenformerly the colleague of his father Octavius in the aedileship. JuniusSaturnius adds this farther account of him: that when, after theproscription was over, Marcus Lepidus made an apology in the senate fortheir past proceedings, and gave them hopes of a more mild administrationfor the future, because they had now sufficiently crushed their enemies;he, on the other hand, declared that the only limit he had fixed to theproscription was, that he should be free to act as he pleased. Afterwards, however, repenting of his severity, he advanced T. ViniusPhilopoemen to the equestrian rank, for having concealed his patron atthe time he was proscribed. In this same office he incurred great odiumupon many accounts. For as he was one day making an harangue, observingamong the soldiers Pinarius, a Roman knight, admit some private citizens, and engaged in taking notes, he ordered him to be stabbed before hiseyes, as a busy-body and a spy upon him. He so terrified with hismenaces Tedius Afer, the consul elect [146], for having reflected uponsome action of his, that he threw himself from a great height, and diedon the spot. And when Quintus Gallius, the praetor, came to complimenthim with a double tablet under his cloak, suspecting that it was a swordhe had concealed, and yet not venturing to make a search, lest it shouldbe found to be something else, he caused him to be dragged from histribunal by centurions and soldiers, and tortured like a slave: andalthough he made no confession, ordered him to be put to death, after hehad, with his own hands, plucked out his eyes. His own account of thematter, however, is, that Quintus Gallius sought a private conferencewith him, for the purpose of assassinating him; that he therefore put himin prison, but afterwards released him, and banished him the city; whenhe perished either in a storm at sea, or by falling into the hands ofrobbers. 

He accepted of the tribunitian power for life, but more than once chose acolleague in that office for two lustra [147] successively. He also hadthe supervision of morality and observance of the laws, for life, butwithout the title of censor; yet he thrice (91) took a census of thepeople, the first and third time with a colleague, but the second byhimself. 

XXVIII. He twice entertained thoughts of restoring the republic [148];first, immediately after he had crushed Antony, remembering that he hadoften charged him with being the obstacle to its restoration. The secondtime was in consequence of a long illness, when he sent for themagistrates and the senate to his own house, and delivered them aparticular account of the state of the empire. But reflecting at thesame time that it would be both hazardous to himself to return to thecondition of a private person, and might be dangerous to the public tohave the government placed again under the control of the people, heresolved to keep it in his own hands, whether with the better event orintention, is hard to say. His good intentions he often affirmed inprivate discourse, and also published an edict, in which it was declaredin the following terms: "May it be permitted me to have the happiness ofestablishing the commonwealth on a safe and sound basis, and thus enjoythe reward of which I am ambitious, that of being celebrated for mouldingit into the form best adapted to present circumstances; so that, on myleaving the world, I may carry with me the hope that the foundationswhich I have laid for its future government, will stand firm and stable. "

XXIX. The city, which was not built in a manner suitable to the grandeurof the empire, and was liable to inundations of the Tiber [149], as wellas to fires, was so much improved under his administration, that heboasted, not without reason, that he "found it of brick, but left it ofmarble. " [150] He also rendered (92) it secure for the time to comeagainst such disasters, as far as could be effected by human foresight. A great number of public buildings were erected by him, the mostconsiderable of which were a forum [151], containing the temple of Marsthe Avenger, the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill, and the temple ofJupiter Tonans in the Capitol. The reason of his building a new forumwas the vast increase in the population, and the number of causes to betried in the courts, for which, the two already existing not affordingsufficient space, it was thought necessary to have a third. It wastherefore opened for public use before the temple of Mars was completelyfinished; and a law was passed, that causes should be tried, and judgeschosen by lot, in that place. The temple of Mars was built in fulfilmentof a vow made during the war of Philippi, undertaken by him to avenge hisfather's murder. He ordained that the senate should always assemblethere when they met to deliberate respecting wars and triumphs; thatthence should be despatched all those who were sent into the provinces inthe command of armies; and that in it those who returned victorious fromthe wars, should lodge the trophies of their triumphs. He erected thetemple of Apollo [152] in that part of his house on the Palatine hillwhich had been struck with lightning, and which, on that account, thesoothsayers declared the God to have chosen. He added porticos to it, with a library of Latin and Greek authors [153]; and when advanced inyears, (93) used frequently there to hold the senate, and examine therolls of the judges. 

He dedicated the temple to Apollo Tonans [154], in acknowledgment of hisescape from a great danger in his Cantabrian expedition; when, as he wastravelling in the night, his litter was struck by lightning, which killedthe slave who carried a torch before him. He likewise constructed somepublic buildings in the name of others; for instance, his grandsons, hiswife, and sister. Thus he built the portico and basilica of Lucius andCaius, and the porticos of Livia and Octavia [155], and the theatre ofMarcellus [156]. He also often exhorted other persons of rank toembellish the city by new buildings, or repairing and improving the old, according to their means. In consequence of this recommendation, manywere raised; such as the temple of Hercules and the Muses, by MarciusPhilippus; a temple of Diana by Lucius Cornificius; the Court of Freedomby Asinius Pollio; a temple of Saturn by Munatius Plancus; a theatre byCornelius Balbus [157]; an amphitheatre by Statilius Taurus; and severalother noble edifices by Marcus Agrippa. [158]

(94) XXX. He divided the city into regions and districts, ordaining thatthe annual magistrates should take by lot the charge of the former; andthat the latter should be superintended by wardens chosen out of thepeople of each neighbourhood. He appointed a nightly watch to be ontheir guard against accidents from fire; and, to prevent the frequentinundations, he widened and cleansed the bed of the Tiber, which had inthe course of years been almost dammed up with rubbish, and the channelnarrowed by the ruins of houses [159]. To render the approaches to thecity more commodious, he took upon himself the charge of repairing theFlaminian way as far as Ariminum [160], and distributed the repairs ofthe other roads amongst several persons who had obtained the honour of atriumph; to be defrayed out of the money arising from the spoils of war. Temples decayed by time, or destroyed by fire, he either repaired orrebuilt; and enriched them, as well as many others, with splendidofferings. On a single occasion, he deposited in the cell of the templeof Jupiter Capitolinus, sixteen thousand pounds of gold, with jewels andpearls to the amount of fifty millions of sesterces. 

XXXI. The office of Pontifex Maximus, of which he could (95) notdecently deprive Lepidus as long as he lived [161], he assumed as soon ashe was dead. He then caused all prophetical books, both in Latin andGreek, the authors of which were either unknown, or of no greatauthority, to be brought in; and the whole collection, amounting toupwards of two thousand volumes, he committed to the flames, preservingonly the Sibylline oracles; but not even those without a strictexamination, to ascertain which were genuine. This being done, hedeposited them in two gilt coffers, under the pedestal of the statue ofthe Palatine Apollo. He restored the calendar, which had been correctedby Julius Caesar, but through negligence was again fallen into confusion[162], to its former regularity; and upon that occasion, called the monthSextilis [163], by his own name, August, rather than September, in whichhe was born; because in it he had obtained his first consulship, and allhis most considerable victories [164]. He increased the number, dignity, and revenues of the priests, and especially those of the Vestal Virgins. And when, upon the death of one of them, a new one was to be taken [165], and many persons made interest that their daughters' names might beomitted in the lists for election, he replied with an oath, "If either ofmy own grand-daughters were old enough, I would have proposed her. "

He likewise revived some old religious customs, which had becomeobsolete; as the augury of public health [166], the office of (96) highpriest of Jupiter, the religious solemnity of the Lupercalia, with theSecular, and Compitalian games. He prohibited young boys from running inthe Lupercalia; and in respect of the Secular games, issued an order, that no young persons of either sex should appear at any publicdiversions in the night-time, unless in the company of some elderlyrelation. He ordered the household gods to be decked twice a year withspring and summer flowers [167], in the Compitalian festival. 

Next to the immortal gods, he paid the highest honours to the memory ofthose generals who had raised the Roman state from its low origin to thehighest pitch of grandeur. He accordingly repaired or rebuilt the publicedifices erected by them; preserving the former inscriptions, and placingstatues of them all, with triumphal emblems, in both the porticos of hisforum, issuing an edict on the occasion, in which he made the followingdeclaration: "My design in so doing is, that the Roman people may requirefrom me, and all succeeding princes, a conformity to those illustriousexamples. " He likewise removed the statue of Pompey from thesenate-house, in which Caius Caesar had been killed, and placed it undera marble arch, fronting the palace attached to Pompey's theatre. 

XXXII. He corrected many ill practices, which, to the detriment of thepublic, had either survived the licentious habits of the late civil wars, or else originated in the long peace. Bands of robbers showed themselvesopenly, completely armed, under colour of self-defence; and in differentparts of the country, travellers, freemen and slaves without distinction, were forcibly carried off, and kept to work in the houses of correction[168]. Several associations were formed under the specious (97) name ofa new college, which banded together for the perpetration of all kinds ofvillany. The banditti he quelled by establishing posts of soldiers insuitable stations for the purpose; the houses of correction weresubjected to a strict superintendence; all associations, those onlyexcepted which were of ancient standing, and recognised by the laws, weredissolved. He burnt all the notes of those who had been a long time inarrear with the treasury, as being the principal source of vexatioussuits and prosecutions. Places in the city claimed by the public, wherethe right was doubtful, he adjudged to the actual possessors. He struckout of the list of criminals the names of those over whom prosecutionshad been long impending, where nothing further was intended by theinformers than to gratify their own malice, by seeing their enemieshumiliated; laying it down as a rule, that if any one chose to renew aprosecution, he should incur the risk of the punishment which he soughtto inflict. And that crimes might not escape punishment, nor business beneglected by delay, he ordered the courts to sit during the thirty dayswhich were spent in celebrating honorary games. To the three classes ofjudges then existing, he added a fourth, consisting of persons ofinferior order, who were called Ducenarii, and decided all litigationsabout trifling sums. He chose judges from the age of thirty years andupwards; that is five years younger than had been usual before. And agreat many declining the office, he was with much difficulty prevailedupon to allow each class of judges a twelve-month's vacation in turn; andthe courts to be shut during the months of November and December. [169]

XXXIII. He was himself assiduous in his functions as a judge, and wouldsometimes prolong his sittings even into the night [170]: if he wereindisposed, his litter was placed before (98) the tribunal, or headministered justice reclining on his couch at home; displaying alwaysnot only the greatest attention, but extreme lenity. To save a culprit, who evidently appeared guilty of parricide, from the extreme penalty ofbeing sewn up in a sack, because none were punished in that manner butsuch as confessed the fact, he is said to have interrogated him thus:"Surely you did not kill your father, did you?" And when, in a trial ofa cause about a forged will, all those who had signed it were liable tothe penalty of the Cornelian law, he ordered that his colleagues on thetribunal should not only be furnished with the two tablets by which theydecided, "guilty or not guilty, " but with a third likewise, ignoring theoffence of those who should appear to have given their signatures throughany deception or mistake. All appeals in causes between inhabitants ofRome, he assigned every year to the praetor of the city; and whereprovincials were concerned, to men of consular rank, to one of whom thebusiness of each province was referred. 

XXXIV. Some laws he abrogated, and he made some new ones; such as thesumptuary law, that relating to adultery and the violation of chastity, the law against bribery in elections, and likewise that for theencouragement of marriage. Having been more severe in his reform of thislaw than the rest, he found the people utterly averse to submit to it, unless the penalties were abolished or mitigated, besides allowing aninterval of three years after a wife's death, and increasing the premiumson marriage. The equestrian order clamoured loudly, at a spectacle inthe theatre, for its total repeal; whereupon he sent for the children ofGermanicus, and shewed them partly sitting upon his own lap, and partlyon their father's; intimating by his looks and gestures, that they oughtnot to think it a grievance to follow the example of that young man. Butfinding that the force of the law was eluded, by marrying girls under theage of puberty, and by frequent change of wives, he limited the time forconsummation after espousals, and imposed restrictions on divorce. 

XXXV. By two separate scrutinies he reduced to their former number andsplendour the senate, which had been swamped by a disorderly crowd; forthey were now more than a (99) thousand, and some of them very meanpersons, who, after Caesar's death, had been chosen by dint of interestand bribery, so that they had the nickname of Orcini among the people[171]. The first of these scrutinies was left to themselves, eachsenator naming another; but the last was conducted by himself andAgrippa. On this occasion he is believed to have taken his seat as hepresided, with a coat of mail under his tunic, and a sword by his side, and with ten of the stoutest men of senatorial rank, who were hisfriends, standing round his chair. Cordus Cremutius [172] relates thatno senator was suffered to approach him, except singly, and after havinghis bosom searched [for secreted daggers]. Some he obliged to have thegrace of declining the office; these he allowed to retain the privilegesof wearing the distinguishing dress, occupying the seats at the solemnspectacles, and of feasting publicly, reserved to the senatorial order[173]. That those who were chosen and approved of, might perform theirfunctions under more solemn obligations, and with less inconvenience, heordered that every senator, before he took his seat in the house, shouldpay his devotions, with an offering of frankincense and wine, at thealtar of that God in whose temple the senate then assembled [174], andthat their stated meetings should be only twice in the month, namely, onthe calends and ides; and that in the months of September and October[175], a certain number only, chosen by lot, such as the law required togive validity to a decree, should be required to attend. For himself, heresolved to choose every six (100) months a new council, with whom hemight consult previously upon such affairs as he judged proper at anytime to lay before the full senate. He also took the votes of thesenators upon any subject of importance, not according to custom, nor inregular order, but as he pleased; that every one might hold himself readyto give his opinion, rather than a mere vote of assent. 

XXXVI. He also made several other alterations in the management ofpublic affairs, among which were these following: that the acts of thesenate should not be published [176]; that the magistrates should not besent into the provinces immediately after the expiration of their office;that the proconsuls should have a certain sum assigned them out of thetreasury for mules and tents, which used before to be contracted for bythe government with private persons; that the management of the treasuryshould be transferred from the city-quaestors to the praetors, or thosewho had already served in the latter office; and that the decemvirishould call together the court of One hundred, which had been formerlysummoned by those who had filled the office of quaestor. 

XXXVII. To augment the number of persons employed in the administrationof the state, he devised several new offices; such as surveyors of thepublic buildings, of the roads, the aqueducts, and the bed of the Tiber;for the distribution of corn to the people; the praefecture of the city;a triumvirate for the election of the senators; and another forinspecting the several troops of the equestrian order, as often as it wasnecessary. He revived the office of censor [177], which had been longdisused, and increased the number of praetors. He likewise required thatwhenever the consulship was conferred on him, he should have twocolleagues instead of one; but his proposal (101) was rejected, all thesenators declaring by acclamation that he abated his high majesty quiteenough in not filling the office alone, and consenting to share it withanother. 

XXXVIII. He was unsparing in the reward of military merit, havinggranted to above thirty generals the honour of the greater triumph;besides which, he took care to have triamphal decorations voted by thesenate for more than that number. That the sons of senators might becomeearly acquainted with the administration of affairs, he permitted them, at the age when they took the garb of manhood [178], to assume also thedistinction of the senatorian robe, with its broad border, and to bepresent at the debates in the senate-house. When they entered themilitary service, he not only gave them the rank of military tribunes inthe legions, but likewise the command of the auxiliary horse. And thatall might have an opportunity of acquiring military experience, hecommonly joined two sons of senators in command of each troop of horse. He frequently reviewed the troops of the equestrian order, reviving theancient custom of a cavalcade [179], which had been long laid aside. Buthe did not suffer any one to be obliged by an accuser to dismount whilehe passed in review, as had formerly been the practice. As for such aswere infirm with age, or (102) any way deformed, he allowed them to sendtheir horses before them, coming on foot to answer to their names, whenthe muster roll was called over soon afterwards. He permitted those whohad attained the age of thirty-five years, and desired not to keep theirhorse any longer, to have the privilege of giving it up. 

XXXIX. With the assistance of ten senators, he obliged each of the Romanknights to give an account of his life: in regard to those who fell underhis displeasure, some were punished; others had a mark of infamy setagainst their names. The most part he only reprimanded, but not in thesame terms. The mildest mode of reproof was by delivering them tablets[180], the contents of which, confined to themselves, they were to readon the spot. Some he disgraced for borrowing money at low interest, andletting it out again upon usurious profit. 

XL. In the election of tribunes of the people, if there was not asufficient number of senatorian candidates, he nominated others from theequestrian order; granting them the liberty, after the expiration oftheir office, to continue in whichsoever of the two orders they pleased. As most of the knights had been much reduced in their estates by thecivil wars, and therefore durst not sit to see the public games in thetheatre in the seats allotted to their order, for fear of the penaltyprovided by the law in that case, he enacted, that none were liable toit, who had themselves, or whose parents had ever, possessed a knight'sestate. He took the census of the Roman people street by street: andthat the people might not be too often taken from their business toreceive the distribution of corn, it was his intention to deliver ticketsthree times a year for four months respectively; but at their request, hecontinued the former regulation, that they should receive their (103)share monthly. He revived the former law of elections, endeavouring, byvarious penalties, to suppress the practice of bribery. Upon the day ofelection, he distributed to the freemen of the Fabian and Scaptiantribes, in which he himself was enrolled, a thousand sesterces each, thatthey might look for nothing from any of the candidates. Considering itof extreme importance to preserve the Roman people pure, and untaintedwith a mixture of foreign or servile blood, he not only bestowed thefreedom of the city with a sparing hand, but laid some restriction uponthe practice of manumitting slaves. When Tiberius interceded with himfor the freedom of Rome in behalf of a Greek client of his, he wrote tohim for answer, "I shall not grant it, unless he comes himself, andsatisfies me that he has just grounds for the application. " And whenLivia begged the freedom of the city for a tributary Gaul, he refused it, but offered to release him from payment of taxes, saying, "I shall soonersuffer some loss in my exchequer, than that the citizenship of Rome berendered too common. " Not content with interposing many obstacles toeither the partial or complete emancipation of slaves, by quibblesrespecting the number, condition and difference of those who were to bemanumitted; he likewise enacted that none who had been put in chains ortortured, should ever obtain the freedom of the city in any degree. Heendeavoured also to restore the old habit and dress of the Romans; andupon seeing once, in an assembly of the people, a crowd in grey cloaks[181], he exclaimed with indignation, "See there, Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatem. " [182]

 Rome's conquering sons, lords of the wide-spread globe, Stalk proudly in the toga's graceful robe. 

And he gave orders to the ediles not to permit, in future, any Roman tobe present in the forum or circus unless they took off their short coats, and wore the toga. 

(104) XLI. He displayed his munificence to all ranks of the people onvarious occasions. Moreover, upon his bringing the treasure belonging tothe kings of Egypt into the city, in his Alexandrian triumph, he mademoney so plentiful, that interest fell, and the price of land roseconsiderably. And afterwards, as often as large sums of money came intohis possession by means of confiscations, he would lend it free ofinterest, for a fixed term, to such as could give security for the doubleof what was borrowed. The estate necessary to qualify a senator, insteadof eight hundred thousand sesterces, the former standard, he ordered, forthe future, to be twelve hundred thousand; and to those who had not somuch, he made good the deficiency. He often made donations to thepeople, but generally of different sums; sometimes four hundred, sometimes three hundred, or two hundred and fifty sesterces upon whichoccasions, he extended his bounty even to young boys, who before were notused to receive anything, until they arrived at eleven years of age. Ina scarcity of corn, he would frequently let them have it at a very lowprice, or none at all; and doubled the number of the money tickets. 

XLII. But to show that he was a prince who regarded more the good of hispeople than their applause, he reprimanded them very severely, upon theircomplaining of the scarcity and dearness of wine. "My son-in-law, Agrippa, " he said, "has sufficiently provided for quenching your thirst, by the great plenty of water with which he has supplied the town. " Upontheir demanding a gift which he had promised them, he said, "I am a manof my word. " But upon their importuning him for one which he had notpromised, he issued a proclamation upbraiding them for their scandalousimpudence; at the same time telling them, "I shall now give you nothing, whatever I may have intended to do. " With the same strict firmness, when, upon a promise he had made of a donative, he found many slaves hadbeen emancipated and enrolled amongst the citizens, he declared that noone should receive anything who was not included in the promise, and hegave the rest less than he had promised them, in order that the amount hehad set apart might hold out. On one occasion, in a season of greatscarcity, which it was difficult to remedy, he ordered out of the citythe troops of slaves brought for sale, the gladiators (105) belonging tothe masters of defence, and all foreigners, excepting physicians and theteachers of the liberal sciences. Part of the domestic slaves werelikewise ordered to be dismissed. When, at last, plenty was restored, hewrites thus "I was much inclined to abolish for ever the practice ofallowing the people corn at the public expense, because they trust somuch to it, that they are too lazy to till their lands; but I did notpersevere in my design, as I felt sure that the practice would some timeor other be revived by some one ambitious of popular favour. " However, he so managed the affair ever afterwards, that as much account was takenof husbandmen and traders, as of the idle populace. [183]

XLIII. In the number, variety, and magnificence of his publicspectacles, he surpassed all former example. Four-and-twenty times, hesays, he treated the people with games upon his own account, andthree-and-twenty times for such magistrates as were either absent, or notable to afford the expense. The performances took place sometimes in thedifferent streets of the city, and upon several stages, by players in alllanguages. The same he did not only in the forum and amphitheatre, butin the circus likewise, and in the septa [184]: and sometimes heexhibited only the hunting of wild beasts. He entertained the peoplewith wrestlers in the Campus Martius, where wooden seats were erected forthe purpose; and also with a naval fight, for which he excavated theground near the Tiber, where there is now the grove of the Caesars. During these two entertainments he stationed guards in the city, lest, byrobbers taking advantage of the small number of people left at home, itmight be exposed to depredations. In the circus he exhibited chariot andfoot races, and combats with wild beasts, in which the performers wereoften youths of the highest rank. His favourite spectacle was the Trojangame, acted by a select number of boys, in parties differing in age andstation; thinking (106) that it was a practice both excellent in itself, and sanctioned by ancient usage, that the spirit of the young noblesshould be displayed in such exercises. Caius Nonius Asprenas, who waslamed by a fall in this diversion, he presented with a gold collar, andallowed him and his posterity to bear the surname of Torquati. But soonafterwards he gave up the exhibition of this game, in consequence of asevere and bitter speech made in the senate by Asinius Pollio, theorator, in which he complained bitterly of the misfortune of Aeserninus, his grandson, who likewise broke his leg in the same diversion. 

Sometimes he engaged Roman knights to act upon the stage, or to fight asgladiators; but only before the practice was prohibited by a decree ofthe senate. Thenceforth, the only exhibition he made of that kind, wasthat of a young man named Lucius, of a good family, who was not quite twofeet in height, and weighed only seventeen pounds, but had a stentorianvoice. In one of his public spectacles, he brought the hostages of theParthians, the first ever sent to Rome from that nation, through themiddle of the amphitheatre, and placed them in the second tier of seatsabove him. He used likewise, at times when there were no publicentertainments, if any thing was brought to Rome which was uncommon, andmight gratify curiosity, to expose it to public view, in any placewhatever; as he did a rhinoceros in the Septa, a tiger upon a stage, anda snake fifty cubits lung in the Comitium. It happened in the Circensiangames, which he performed in consequence of a vow, that he was taken ill, and obliged to attend the Thensae [185], reclining on a litter. Anothertime, in the games celebrated for the opening of the theatre ofMarcellus, the joints of his curule chair happening to give way, he fellon his back. And in the games exhibited by his (107) grandsons, when thepeople were in such consternation, by an alarm raised that the theatrewas falling, that all his efforts to re-assure them and keep them quiet, failed, he moved from his place, and seated himself in that part of thetheatre which was thought to be exposed to most danger. 

XLIV. He corrected the confusion and disorder with which the spectatorstook their seats at the public games, after an affront which was offeredto a senator at Puteoli, for whom, in a crowded theatre, no one wouldmake room. He therefore procured a decree of the senate, that in allpublic spectacles of any sort, and in any place whatever, the first tierof benches should be left empty for the accommodation of senators. Hewould not even permit the ambassadors of free nations, nor of those whichwere allies of Rome, to sit in the orchestra; having found that somemanumitted slaves had been sent under that character. He separated thesoldiery from the rest of the people, and assigned to married plebeianstheir particular rows of seats. To the boys he assigned their ownbenches, and to their tutors the seats which were nearest it; orderingthat none clothed in black should sit in the centre of the circle [186]. Nor would he allow any women to witness the combats of gladiators, exceptfrom the upper part of the theatre, although they formerly used to taketheir places promiscuously with the rest of the spectators. To thevestal virgins he granted seats in the theatre, reserved for them only, opposite the praetor's bench. He excluded, however, the whole female sexfrom seeing the wrestlers: so that in the games which he exhibited uponhis accession to the office of high-priest, he deferred producing a pairof combatants which the people called for, until the next morning; andintimated by proclamation, "his pleasure that no woman should appear inthe theatre before five o'clock. "

XLV. He generally viewed the Circensian games himself, from the upperrooms of the houses of his friends or freedmen; sometimes from the placeappointed for the statues of the gods, and sitting in company with hiswife and children. He (108) occasionally absented himself from thespectacles for several hours, and sometimes for whole days; but notwithout first making an apology, and appointing substitutes to preside inhis stead. When present, he never attended to anything else either toavoid the reflections which he used to say were commonly made upon hisfather, Caesar, for perusing letters and memorials, and making rescriptsduring the spectacles; or from the real pleasure he took in attendingthose exhibitions; of which he made no secret, he often candidly owningit. This he manifested frequently by presenting honorary crowns andhandsome rewards to the best performers, in the games exhibited byothers; and he never was present at any performance of the Greeks, without rewarding the most deserving, according to their merit. He tookparticular pleasure in witnessing pugilistic contests, especially thoseof the Latins, not only between combatants who had been trainedscientifically, whom he used often to match with the Greek champions; buteven between mobs of the lower classes fighting in streets, and tiltingat random, without any knowledge of the art. In short, he honoured withhis patronage all sorts of people who contributed in any way to thesuccess of the public entertainments. He not only maintained, butenlarged, the privileges of the wrestlers. He prohibited combats ofgladiators where no quarter was given. He deprived the magistrates ofthe power of correcting the stage-players, which by an ancient law wasallowed them at all times, and in all places; restricting theirjurisdiction entirely to the time of performance and misdemeanours in thetheatres. He would, however, admit, of no abatement, and exacted withthe utmost rigour the greatest exertions of the wrestlers and gladiatorsin their several encounters. He went so far in restraining thelicentiousness of stage-players, that upon discovering that Stephanio, aperformer of the highest class, had a married woman with her haircropped, and dressed in boy's clothes, to wait upon him at table, heordered him to be whipped through all the three theatres, and thenbanished him. Hylas, an actor of pantomimes, upon a complaint againsthim by the praetor, he commanded to be scourged in the court of his ownhouse, which, however, was open to the public. And Pylades he not onlybanished from the city, but from Italy also, for pointing with his fingerat a spectator by whom he was hissed, and turning the eyes of theaudience upon him. 

(109) XLVI. Having thus regulated the city and its concerns, heaugmented the population of Italy by planting in it no less thantwenty-eight colonies [187], and greatly improved it by public works, anda beneficial application of the revenues. In rights and privileges, herendered it in a measure equal to the city itself, by inventing a new kindof suffrage, which the principal officers and magistrates of the coloniesmight take at home, and forward under seal to the city, against the timeof the elections. To increase the number of persons of condition, and ofchildren among the lower ranks, he granted the petitions of all those whorequested the honour of doing military service on horseback as knights, provided their demands were seconded by the recommendation of the town inwhich they lived; and when he visited the several districts of Italy, hedistributed a thousand sesterces a head to such of the lower class aspresented him with sons or daughters. 

XLVII. The more important provinces, which could not with ease or safetybe entrusted to the government of annual magistrates, he reserved for hisown administration: the rest he distributed by lot amongst theproconsuls: but sometimes he made exchanges, and frequently visited mostof both kinds in person. Some cities in alliance with Rome, but which bytheir great licentiousness were hastening to ruin, he deprived of theirindependence. Others, which were much in debt, he relieved, and rebuiltsuch as had been destroyed by earthquakes. To those that could produceany instance of their having deserved well of the Roman people, hepresented the freedom of Latium, or even that of the City. There is not, I believe, a province, except Africa and Sardinia, which he did notvisit. After forcing Sextus Pompeius to take refuge in those provinces, he was indeed preparing to cross over from Sicily to them, but wasprevented by continual and violent storms, and afterwards there was nooccasion or call for such a voyage. 

XLVIII. Kingdoms, of which he had made himself master by the right ofconquest, a few only excepted, he either restored to their formerpossessors [188], or conferred upon aliens. Between (110) kings ofalliance with Rome, he encouraged most intimate union; being always readyto promote or favour any proposal of marriage or friendship amongst them;and, indeed, treated them all with the same consideration, as if theywere members and parts of the empire. To such of them as were minors orlunatics he appointed guardians, until they arrived at age, or recoveredtheir senses; and the sons of many of them he brought up and educatedwith his own. 

XLIX. With respect to the army, he distributed the legions and auxiliarytroops throughout the several provinces, he stationed a fleet at Misenum, and another at Ravenna, for the protection of the Upper and Lower Seas[189]. A certain number of the forces were selected, to occupy the postsin the city, and partly for his own body-guard; but he dismissed theSpanish guard, which he retained about him till the fall of Antony; andalso the Germans, whom he had amongst his guards, until the defeat ofVarus. Yet he never permitted a greater force than three cohorts in thecity, and had no (pretorian) camps [190]. The rest he quartered in theneighbourhood of the nearest towns, in winter and summer camps. All thetroops throughout the empire he reduced to one fixed model with regard totheir pay and their pensions; determining these according to their rankin the army, the time they had served, and their private means; so thatafter their discharge, they might not be tempted by age or necessities tojoin the agitators for a revolution. For the purpose of providing a fundalways ready to meet their pay and pensions, he instituted a militaryexchequer, and appropriated new taxes to that object. In order to obtainthe earliest intelligence of what was passing in the provinces, heestablished posts, consisting at first of young men stationed at moderatedistances along the military roads, and afterwards of regular courierswith fast vehicles; which appeared to him the most commodious, becausethe persons who were the bearers of dispatches, written on the spot, might then be questioned about the business, as occasion occurred. 

L. In sealing letters-patent, rescripts, or epistles, he at first usedthe figure of a sphinx, afterwards the head of Alexander (111) the Great, and at last his own, engraved by the hand of Dioscorides; which practicewas retained by the succeeding emperors. He was extremely precise indating his letters, putting down exactly the time of the day or night atwhich they were dispatched. 

LI. Of his clemency and moderation there are abundant and signalinstances. For, not to enumerate how many and what persons of theadverse party he pardoned, received into favour, and suffered to rise tothe highest eminence in the state; he thought it sufficient to punishJunius Novatus and Cassius Patavinus, who were both plebeians, one ofthem with a fine, and the other with an easy banishment; although theformer had published, in the name of young Agrippa, a very scurrilousletter against him, and the other declared openly, at an entertainmentwhere there was a great deal of company, "that he neither wantedinclination nor courage to stab him. " In the trial of Aemilius Aelianus, of Cordova, when, among other charges exhibited against him, it wasparticularly insisted upon, that he used to calumniate Caesar, he turnedround to the accuser, and said, with an air and tone of passion, "I wishyou could make that appear; I shall let Aelianus know that I have atongue too, and shall speak sharper of him than he ever did of me. " Nordid he, either then or afterwards, make any farther inquiry into theaffair. And when Tiberius, in a letter, complained of the affront withgreat earnestness, he returned him an answer in the following terms: "Donot, my dear Tiberius, give way to the ardour of youth in this affair;nor be so indignant that any person should speak ill of me. It isenough, for us, if we can prevent any one from really doing us mischief. "

LII. Although he knew that it had been customary to decree temples inhonour of the proconsuls, yet he would not permit them to be erected inany of the provinces, unless in the joint names of himself and Rome. Within the limits of the city, he positively refused any honour of thatkind. He melted down all the silver statues which had been erected tohim, and converted the whole into tripods, which he consecrated to thePalatine Apollo. And when the people importuned him to accept thedictatorship, he bent down on one knee, with his toga thrown over hisshoulders, and his breast exposed to view, begging to be excused. 

(112) LIII. He always abhorred the title of Lord [191], as ill-omenedand offensive. And when, in a play, performed at the theatre, at whichhe was present, these words were introduced, "O just and gracious lord, "and the whole company, with joyful acclamations, testified theirapprobation of them, as applied to him, he instantly put a stop to theirindecent flattery, by waving his hand, and frowning sternly, and next daypublicly declared his displeasure, in a proclamation. He neverafterwards would suffer himself to be addressed in that manner, even byhis own children or grand-children, either in jest or earnest and forbadthem the use of all such complimentary expressions to one another. Herarely entered any city or town, or departed from it, except in theevening or the night, to avoid giving any person the trouble ofcomplimenting him. During his consulships, he commonly walked thestreets on foot; but at other times, rode in a close carriage. Headmitted to court even plebeians, in common with people of the higherranks; receiving the petitions of those who approached him with so muchaffability, that he once jocosely rebuked a man, by telling him, "Youpresent your memorial with as much hesitation as if you were offeringmoney to an elephant. " On senate days, he used to pay his respects tothe Conscript Fathers only in the house, addressing them each by name asthey sat, without any prompter; and on his departure, he bade each ofthem farewell, while they retained their seats. In the same manner, hemaintained with many of them a constant intercourse of mutual civilities, giving them his company upon occasions of any particular festivity intheir families; until he became advanced in years, and was incommoded bythe crowd at a wedding. Being informed that Gallus Terrinius, a senator, with whom he had only a slight acquaintance, had suddenly lost his sight, and under that privation had resolved to starve himself to death, he paidhim a visit, and by his consolatory admonitions diverted him from hispurpose. 

LIV. On his speaking in the senate, he has been told by (113) one of themembers, "I did not understand you, " and by another, "I would contradictyou, could I do it with safety. " And sometimes, upon his being so muchoffended at the heat with which the debates were conducted in the senate, as to quit the house in anger, some of the members have repeatedlyexclaimed: "Surely, the senators ought to have liberty of speech onmatters of government. " Antistius Labeo, in the election of a newsenate, when each, as he was named, chose another, nominated MarcusLepidus, who had formerly been Augustus's enemy, and was then inbanishment; and being asked by the latter, "Is there no other person moredeserving?" he replied, "Every man has his own opinion. " Nor was any oneever molested for his freedom of speech, although it was carried to theextent of insolence. 

LV. Even when some infamous libels against him were dispersed in thesenate-house, he was neither disturbed, nor did he give himself muchtrouble to refute them. He would not so much as order an enquiry to bemade after the authors; but only proposed, that, for the future, thosewho published libels or lampoons, in a borrowed name, against any person, should be called to account. 

LVI. Being provoked by some petulant jests, which were designed torender him odious, he answered them by a proclamation; and yet heprevented the senate from passing an act, to restrain the liberties whichwere taken with others in people's wills. Whenever he attended at theelection of magistrates, he went round the tribes, with the candidates ofhis nomination, and begged the votes of the people in the usual manner. He likewise gave his own vote in his tribe, as one of the people. Hesuffered himself to be summoned as a witness upon trials, and not only tobe questioned, but to be cross-examined, with the utmost patience. Inbuilding his Forum, he restricted himself in the site, not presuming tocompel the owners of the neighbouring houses to give up their property. He never recommended his sons to the people, without adding these words, "If they deserve it. " And upon the audience rising on their entering thetheatre, while they were yet minors, and giving them applause in astanding position, he made it a matter of serious complaint. 

(114) He was desirous that his friends should be great and powerful inthe state, but have no exclusive privileges, or be exempt from the lawswhich governed others. When Asprenas Nonius, an intimate friend of his, was tried upon a charge of administering poison at the instance ofCassius Severus, he consulted the senate for their opinion what was hisduty under the circumstances: "For, " said he, "I am afraid, lest, if Ishould stand by him in the cause, I may be supposed to screen a guiltyman; and if I do not, to desert and prejudge a friend. " With theunanimous concurrence, therefore, of the senate, he took his seat amongsthis advocates for several hours, but without giving him the benefit ofspeaking to character, as was usual. He likewise appeared for hisclients; as on behalf of Scutarius, an old soldier of his, who brought anaction for slander. He never relieved any one from prosecution but in asingle instance, in the case of a man who had given information of theconspiracy of Muraena; and that he did only by prevailing upon theaccuser, in open court, to drop his prosecution. 

LVII. How much he was beloved for his worthy conduct in all theserespects, it is easy to imagine. I say nothing of the decrees of thesenate in his honour, which may seem to have resulted from compulsion ordeference. The Roman knights voluntarily, and with one accord, alwayscelebrated his birth for two days together; and all ranks of the people, yearly, in performance of a vow they had made, threw a piece of moneyinto the Curtian lake [192], as an offering for his welfare. Theylikewise, on the calends [first] of January, presented for his acceptancenew-year's gifts in the Capitol, though he was not present with whichdonations he purchased some costly images of the Gods, which he erectedin several streets of the city; as that of Apollo Sandaliarius, JupiterTragoedus [193], and others. When his house on the Palatine hill wasaccidentally destroyed by fire, the veteran soldiers, the judges, thetribes, and even the people, individually, contributed, according to theability of each, for rebuilding it; but he would (115) accept only ofsome small portion out of the several sums collected, and refused to takefrom any one person more than a single denarius [194]. Upon his returnhome from any of the provinces, they attended him not only with joyfulacclamations, but with songs. It is also remarked, that as often as heentered the city, the infliction of punishment was suspended for thetime. 

LVIII. The whole body of the people, upon a sudden impulse, and withunanimous consent, offered him the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY. Itwas announced to him first at Antium, by a deputation from the people, and upon his declining the honour, they repeated their offer on hisreturn to Rome, in a full theatre, when they were crowned with laurel. The senate soon afterwards adopted the proposal, not in the way ofacclamation or decree, but by commissioning M. Messala, in an unanimousvote, to compliment him with it in the following terms: "With heartywishes for the happiness and prosperity of yourself and your family, Caesar Augustus, (for we think we thus most effectually pray for thelasting welfare of the state), the senate, in agreement with the Romanpeople, salute you by the title of FATHER OF YOUR COUNTRY. " To thiscompliment Augustus replied, with tears in his eyes, in these words (forI give them exactly as I have done those of Messala): "Having now arrivedat the summit of my wishes, O Conscript Fathers [195], what else have Ito beg of the Immortal (116) Gods, but the continuance of this youraffection for me to the last moments of my life?"

LIX. To the physician Antonius Musa [196], who had cured him of adangerous illness, they erected a statue near that of Aesculapius, by ageneral subscription. Some heads of families ordered in their wills, that their heirs should lead victims to the Capitol, with a tabletcarried before them, and pay their vows, "Because Augustus stillsurvived. " Some Italian cities appointed the day upon which he firstvisited them, to be thenceforth the beginning of their year. And most ofthe provinces, besides erecting temples and altars, instituted games, tobe celebrated to his honour, in most towns, every five years. 

LX. The kings, his friends and allies, built cities in their respectivekingdoms, to which they gave the name of Caesarea; and all with oneconsent resolved to finish, at their common expense, the temple ofJupiter Olympius, at Athens, which had been begun long before, andconsecrate it to his Genius. They frequently also left their kingdoms, laid aside the badges of royalty, and assuming the toga, attended andpaid their respects to him daily, in the manner of clients to theirpatrons; not only at Rome, but when he was travelling through theprovinces. 

LXI. Having thus given an account of the manner in which he filled hispublic offices both civil and military, and his conduct in the governmentof the empire, both in peace and war; I shall now describe his privateand domestic life, his habits at home and among his friends anddependents, and the fortune attending him in those scenes of retirement, from his youth to the day of his death. He lost his mother in his firstconsulship, and his sister Octavia, when he was in the fifty-fourth yearof his age [197]. He behaved towards them both with the utmost kindnesswhilst living, and after their decease paid the highest honours to theirmemory. 

(117) LXII. He was contracted when very young to the daughter of PubliusServilius Isauricus; but upon his reconciliation with Antony after theirfirst rupture [198], the armies on both sides insisting on a familyalliance between them, he married Antony's step-daughter Claudia, thedaughter of Fulvia by Publius Claudius, although at that time she wasscarcely marriageable; and upon a difference arising with hismother-in-law Fulvia, he divorced her untouched, and a pure virgin. Soonafterwards he took to wife Scribonia, who had before been twice marriedto men of consular rank [199], and was a mother by one of them. With herlikewise he parted [200], being quite tired out, as he himself writes, with the perverseness of her temper; and immediately took Livia Drusilla, though then pregnant, from her husband Tiberius Nero; and she had neverany rival in his love and esteem. 

LXIII. By Scribonia he had a daughter named Julia, but no children byLivia, although extremely desirous of issue. She, indeed, conceivedonce, but miscarried. He gave his daughter Julia in the first instanceto Marcellus, his sister's son, who had just completed his minority; and, after his death, to Marcus Agrippa, having prevailed with his sister toyield her son-in-law to his wishes; for at that time Agrippa was marriedto one of the Marcellas, and had children by her. Agrippa dying also, hefor a long time thought of several matches for Julia in even theequestrian order, and at last resolved upon selecting Tiberius for hisstep-son; and he obliged him to part with his wife at that time pregnant, and who had already brought him a child. Mark Antony writes, "That hefirst contracted Julia to his son, and afterwards to Cotiso, king of theGetae [201], demanding at the same time the king's daughter in marriagefor himself. "

(118) LXIV. He had three grandsons by Agrippa and Julia, namely, Caius, Lucius, and Agrippa; and two grand-daughters, Julia and Agrippina. Juliahe married to Lucius Paulus, the censor's son, and Agrippina toGermanicus, his sister's grandson. Caius and Lucius he adopted at home, by the ceremony of purchase [202] from their father, advanced them, whileyet very young, to offices in the state, and when they wereconsuls-elect, sent them to visit the provinces and armies. In bringingup his daughter and grand-daughters, he accustomed them to domesticemployments, and even spinning, and obliged them to speak and act everything openly before the family, that it might be put down in the diary. He so strictly prohibited them from all converse with strangers, that heonce wrote a letter to Lucius Vinicius, a handsome young man of a goodfamily, in which he told him, "You have not behaved very modestly, inmaking a visit to my daughter at Baiae. " He usually instructed hisgrandsons himself in reading, swimming, and other rudiments of knowledge;and he laboured nothing more than to perfect them in the imitation of hishand-writing. He never supped but he had them sitting at the foot of hiscouch; nor ever travelled but with them in a chariot before him, or ridingbeside him. 

LXV. But in the midst of all his joy and hopes in his numerous andwell-regulated family, his fortune failed him. The two Julias, hisdaughter and grand-daughter, abandoned themselves to such courses oflewdness and debauchery, that he banished them both. Caius and Lucius helost within the space of eighteen months; the former dying in Lycia, andthe latter at Marseilles. His third grandson Agrippa, with his step-sonTiberius, he adopted in the forum, by a law passed for the purpose by theSections [203]; but he soon afterwards discarded Agrippa for his coarseand unruly temper, and confined him at Surrentum. He bore the death ofhis relations with more patience than he did their disgrace; for he wasnot overwhelmed by the loss of Caius and Lucius; but in the case of hisdaughter, he stated the facts to the senate in a message read to them by(119) the quaestor, not having the heart to be present himself; indeed, hewas so much ashamed of her infamous conduct, that for some time he avoidedall company, and had thoughts of putting her to death. It is certain thatwhen one Phoebe, a freed-woman and confidant of hers, hanged herself aboutthe same time, he said, "I had rather be the father of Phoebe than ofJulia. " In her banishment he would not allow her the use of wine, nor anyluxury in dress; nor would he suffer her to be waited upon by any maleservant, either freeman or slave, without his permission, and havingreceived an exact account of his age, stature, complexion, and what marksor scars he had about him. At the end of five years he removed her fromthe island [where she was confined] to the continent [204], and treatedher with less severity, but could never be prevailed upon to recall her. When the Roman people interposed on her behalf several times with muchimportunity, all the reply he gave was: "I wish you had all such daughtersand wives as she is. " He likewise forbad a child, of which hisgrand-daughter Julia was delivered after sentence had passed against her, to be either owned as a relation, or brought up. Agrippa, who was equallyintractable, and whose folly increased every day, he transported to anisland [205], and placed a guard of soldiers about him; procuring at thesame time an act of the senate for his confinement there during life. Upon any mention of him and the two Julias, he would say, with a heavysigh, Aith' ophelon agamos t' emenai, agonos t' apoletai. 

 Would I were wifeless, or had childless died! [206]

nor did he usually call them by any other name than that of his "threeimposthumes or cancers. "

LXVI. He was cautious in forming friendships, but clung to them withgreat constancy; not only rewarding the virtues and merits of his friendsaccording to their deserts, but bearing likewise with their faults andvices, provided that they were (120) of a venial kind. For amongst allhis friends, we scarcely find any who fell into disgrace with him, exceptSalvidienus Rufus, whom he raised to the consulship, and CorneliusGallus, whom he made prefect of Egypt; both of them men of the lowestextraction. One of these, being engaged in plotting a rebellion, hedelivered over to the senate, for condemnation; and the other, on accountof his ungrateful and malicious temper, he forbad his house, and hisliving in any of the provinces. When, however, Gallus, being denouncedby his accusers, and sentenced by the senate, was driven to the desperateextremity of laying violent hands upon himself, he commended, indeed, theattachment to his person of those who manifested so much indignation, buthe shed tears, and lamented his unhappy condition, "That I alone, " saidhe, "cannot be allowed to resent the misconduct of my friends in such away only as I would wish. " The rest of his friends of all ordersflourished during their whole lives, both in power and wealth, in thehighest ranks of their several orders, notwithstanding some occasionallapses. For, to say nothing of others, he sometimes complained thatAgrippa was hasty, and Mecaenas a tattler; the former having thrown upall his employments and retired to Mitylene, on suspicion of some slightcoolness, and from jealousy that Marcellus received greater marks offavour; and the latter having confidentially imparted to his wifeTerentia the discovery of Muraena's conspiracy. 

He likewise expected from his friends, at their deaths as well as duringtheir lives, some proofs of their reciprocal attachment. For though hewas far from coveting their property, and indeed would never accept ofany legacy left him by a stranger, yet he pondered in a melancholy moodover their last words; not being able to conceal his chagrin, if in theirwills they made but a slight, or no very honourable mention of him, norhis joy, on the other hand, if they expressed a grateful sense of hisfavours, and a hearty affection for him. And whatever legacies or sharesof their property were left him by such as were parents, he used torestore to their children, either immediately, or if they were under age, upon the day of their assuming the manly dress, or of their marriage;with interest. 

LXVII. As a patron and master, his behaviour in general was mild andconciliating; but when occasion required it, he (121) could be severe. He advanced many of his freedmen to posts of honour and great importance, as Licinus, Enceladus, and others; and when his slave, Cosmus, hadreflected bitterly upon him, he resented the injury no further than byputting him in fetters. When his steward, Diomedes, left him to themercy of a wild boar, which suddenly attacked them while they werewalking together, he considered it rather a cowardice than a breach ofduty; and turned an occurrence of no small hazard into a jest, becausethere was no knavery in his steward's conduct. He put to death Proculus, one of his most favourite freedmen, for maintaining a criminal commercewith other men's wives. He broke the legs of his secretary, Thallus, fortaking a bribe of five hundred denarii to discover the contents of one ofhis letters. And the tutor and other attendants of his son Caius, havingtaken advantage of his sickness and death, to give loose to theirinsolence and rapacity in the province he governed, he caused heavyweights to be tied about their necks, and had them thrown into a river. 

LXVIII. In his early youth various aspersions of an infamous characterwere heaped upon him. Sextus Pompey reproached him with being aneffeminate fellow; and M. Antony, with earning his adoption from hisuncle by prostitution. Lucius Antony, likewise Mark's brother, chargeshim with pollution by Caesar; and that, for a gratification of threehundred thousand sesterces, he had submitted to Aulus Hirtius in the sameway, in Spain; adding, that he used to singe his legs with burntnut-shells, to make the hair become softer [207]. Nay, the wholeconcourse of the people, at some public diversions in the theatre, whenthe following sentence was recited, alluding to the Gallic priest of themother of the gods [208], beating a drum [209], Videsne ut cinaedus orbem digito temperet? See with his orb the wanton's finger play!

applied the passage to him, with great applause. 

(122) LXIX. That he was guilty of various acts of adultery, is notdenied even by his friends; but they allege in excuse for it, that heengaged in those intrigues not from lewdness, but from policy, in orderto discover more easily the designs of his enemies, through their wives. Mark Antony, besides the precipitate marriage of Livia, charges him withtaking the wife of a man of consular rank from table, in the presence ofher husband, into a bed-chamber, and bringing her again to theentertainment, with her ears very red, and her hair in great disorder:that he had divorced Scribonia, for resenting too freely the excessiveinfluence which one of his mistresses had gained over him: that hisfriends were employed to pimp for him, and accordingly obliged bothmatrons and ripe virgins to strip, for a complete examination of theirpersons, in the same manner as if Thoranius, the dealer in slaves, hadthem under sale. And before they came to an open rupture, he writes tohim in a familiar manner, thus: "Why are you changed towards me? BecauseI lie with a queen? She is my wife. Is this a new thing with me, orhave I not done so for these nine years? And do you take freedoms withDrusilla only? May health and happiness so attend you, as when you readthis letter, you are not in dalliance with Tertulla, Terentilla, Rufilla[210], or Salvia Titiscenia, or all of them. What matters it to youwhere, or upon whom, you spend your manly vigour?"

LXX. A private entertainment which he gave, commonly called the Supperof the Twelve Gods [211], and at which the guests (123) were dressed inthe habit of gods and goddesses, while he personated Apollo himself, afforded subject of much conversation, and was imputed to him not only byAntony in his letters, who likewise names all the parties concerned, butin the following well-known anonymous verses:

 Cum primum istorum conduxit mensa choragum, Sexque deos vidit Mallia, sexque deas Impia dum Phoebi Caesar mendacia ludit, Dum nova divorum coenat adulteria: Omnia se a terris tunc numina declinarunt: Fugit et auratos Jupiter ipse thronos. 

 When Mallia late beheld, in mingled train, Twelve mortals ape twelve deities in vain; Caesar assumed what was Apollo's due, And wine and lust inflamed the motley crew. At the foul sight the gods avert their eyes, And from his throne great Jove indignant flies. 

What rendered this supper more obnoxious to public censure, was that ithappened at a time when there was a great scarcity, and almost a famine, in the city. The day after, there was a cry current among the people, "that the gods had eaten up all the corn; and that Caesar was indeedApollo, but Apollo the Tormentor;" under which title that god wasworshipped in some quarter of the city [212]. He was likewise chargedwith being excessively fond of fine furniture, and Corinthian vessels, aswell as with being addicted to gaming. For, during the time of theproscription, the following line was written upon his statue:--

 Pater argentarius, ego Corinthiarius; My father was a silversmith [213], my dealings are in brass;

because it was believed, that he had put some persons upon the list ofthe proscribed, only to obtain the Corinthian vessels in (124) theirpossession. And afterwards, in the Sicilian war, the following epigramwas published:--

 Postquam bis classe victus naves perdidit, Aliquando ut vincat, ludit assidue aleam. 

 Twice having lost a fleet in luckless fight, To win at last, he games both day and night. 

LXXI. With respect to the charge or imputation of loathsome impuritybefore-mentioned, he very easily refuted it by the chastity of his life, at the very time when it was made, as well as ever afterwards. Hisconduct likewise gave the lie to that of luxurious extravagance in hisfurniture, when, upon the taking of Alexandria, he reserved for himselfnothing of the royal treasures but a porcelain cup, and soon afterwardsmelted down all the vessels of gold, even such as were intended forcommon use. But his amorous propensities never left him, and, as he grewolder, as is reported, he was in the habit of debauching young girls, whowere procured for him, from all quarters, even by his own wife. To theobservations on his gaming, he paid not the smallest regard; but playedin public, but purely for his diversion, even when he was advanced inyears; and not only in the month of December [214], but at other times, and upon all days, whether festivals or not. This evidently appears froma letter under his own hand, in which he says, "I supped, my dearTiberius, with the same company. We had, besides, Vinicius, and Silviusthe father. We gamed at supper like old fellows, both yesterday andtoday. And as any one threw upon the tali [215] aces or sixes, he putdown for every talus a denarius; all which was gained by him who threw aVenus. " [216] In another letter, he says: "We had, my dear Tiberius, apleasant time of it during the festival of Minerva: for we played everyday, and kept the gaming-board warm. Your brother uttered manyexclamations at a desperate run of ill-fortune; but recovering bydegrees, and unexpectedly, he in the end lost not much. I lost twentythousand sesterces for my part; but then I was profusely (125) generousin my play, as I commonly am; for had I insisted upon the stakes which Ideclined, or kept what I gave away, I should have won about fiftythousand. But this I like better for it will raise my character forgenerosity to the skies. " In a letter to his daughter, he writes thus:"I have sent you two hundred and fifty denarii, which I gave to every oneof my guests; in case they were inclined at supper to divert themselveswith the Tali, or at the game of Even-or-Odd. "

LXXII. In other matters, it appears that he was moderate in his habits, and free from suspicion of any kind of vice. He lived at first near theRoman Forum, above the Ring-maker's Stairs, in a house which had oncebeen occupied by Calvus the orator. He afterwards moved to the PalatineHill, where he resided in a small house [217] belonging to Hortensius, noway remarkable either for size or ornament; the piazzas being but small, the pillars of Alban stone [218], and the rooms without any thing ofmarble, or fine paving. He continued to use the same bed-chamber, bothwinter and summer, during forty years [219]: for though he was sensiblethat the city did not agree with his health in the winter, henevertheless resided constantly in it during that season. If at any timehe wished to be perfectly retired, and secure from interruption, he shuthimself up in an apartment at the top of his house, which he called hisSyracuse or Technophuon [220], or he went to some villa belonging to hisfreedmen near the city. But when he was indisposed, he commonly took uphis residence in the house of Mecaenas [221]. Of all the places ofretirement from the city, he (126) chiefly frequented those upon thesea-coast, and the islands of Campania [222], or the towns nearest thecity, such as Lanuvium, Praeneste, and Tibur [223], where he often used tosit for the administration of justice, in the porticos of the temple ofHercules. He had a particular aversion to large and sumptuous palaces;and some which had been raised at a vast expense by his grand-daughter, Julia, he levelled to the ground. Those of his own, which were far frombeing spacious, he adorned, not so much with statues and pictures, as withwalks and groves, and things which were curious either for their antiquityor rarity; such as, at Capri, the huge limbs of sea-monsters and wildbeasts, which some affect to call the bones of giants; and also the armsof ancient heroes. 

LXXIII. His frugality in the furniture of his house appears even at thisday, from some beds and tables still remaining, most of which arescarcely elegant enough for a private family. It is reported that henever lay upon a bed, but such as was low, and meanly furnished. Heseldom wore any garment but what was made by the hands of his wife, sister, daughter, and grand-daughters. His togas [224] were neitherscanty nor full; (127) and the clavus was neither remarkably broad ornarrow. His shoes were a little higher than common, to make him appeartaller than he was. He had always clothes and shoes, fit to appear inpublic, ready in his bed-chamber for any sudden occasion. 

LXXIV. At his table, which was always plentiful and elegant, heconstantly entertained company; but was very scrupulous in the choice ofthem, both as to rank and character. Valerius Messala informs us, thathe never admitted any freedman to his table, except Menas, when rewardedwith the privilege of citizenship, for betraying Pompey's fleet. Hewrites, himself, that he invited to his table a person in whose villa helodged, and who had formerly been employed by him as a spy. He oftencame late to table, and withdrew early; so that the company began supperbefore his arrival, and continued at table after his departure. Hisentertainments consisted of three entries, or at most of only six. Butif his fare was moderate, his courtesy was extreme. For those who weresilent, or talked in whispers, he encouraged to join in the generalconversation; and introduced buffoons and stage players, or even lowperformers from the circus, and very often itinerant humourists, toenliven the company. 

LXXV. Festivals and holidays he usually celebrated very expensively, butsometimes only with merriment. In the Saturnalia, or at any other timewhen the fancy took him, he distributed to his company clothes, gold, andsilver; sometimes coins of all sorts, even of the ancient kings of Romeand of foreign nations; sometimes nothing but towels, sponges, rakes, andtweezers, and other things of that kind, with tickets on them, which wereenigmatical, and had a double meaning [225]. He used likewise to sell bylot among his guests articles of very unequal value, and pictures withtheir fronts reversed; and so, by the unknown quality of the lot, disappoint or gratify the expectation of the purchasers. This sort oftraffic (128) went round the whole company, every one being obliged tobuy something, and to run the chance of loss or gain wits the rest. 

LXXVI. He ate sparingly (for I must not omit even this), and commonlyused a plain diet. He was particularly fond of coarse bread, smallfishes, new cheese made of cow's milk [226], and green figs of the sortwhich bear fruit twice a year [227]. He did not wait for supper, buttook food at any time, and in any place, when he had an appetite. Thefollowing passages relative to this subject, I have transcribed from hisletters. "I ate a little bread and some small dates, in my carriage. "Again. "In returning home from the palace in my litter, I ate an ounceof bread, and a few raisins. " Again. "No Jew, my dear Tiberius, everkeeps such strict fast upon the Sabbath [228], as I have to-day; forwhile in the bath, and after the first hour of the night, I only ate twobiscuits, before I began to be rubbed with oil. " From this greatindifference about his diet, he sometimes supped by himself, before hiscompany began, or after they had finished, and would not touch a morselat table with his guests. 

LXXVII. He was by nature extremely sparing in the use of wine. Cornelius Nepos says, that he used to drink only three times at supper inthe camp at Modena; and when he indulged himself the most, he neverexceeded a pint; or if he did, his stomach rejected it. Of all wines, hegave the (129) preference to the Rhaetian [229], but scarcely ever drankany in the day-time. Instead of drinking, he used to take a piece ofbread dipped in cold water, or a slice of cucumber, or some leaves oflettuce, or a green, sharp, juicy apple. 

LXXVIII. After a slight repast at noon, he used to seek repose [230], dressed as he was, and with his shoes on, his feet covered, and his handheld before his eyes. After supper he commonly withdrew to his study, asmall closet, where he sat late, until he had put down in his diary allor most of the remaining transactions of the day, which he had not beforeregistered. He would then go to bed, but never slept above seven hoursat most, and that not without interruption; for he would wake three orfour times during that time. If he could not again fall asleep, assometimes happened, he called for some one to read or tell stories tohim, until he became drowsy, and then his sleep was usually protractedtill after day-break. He never liked to lie awake in the dark, withoutsomebody to sit by him. Very early rising was apt to disagree with him. On which account, if he was obliged to rise betimes, for any civil orreligious functions, in order to guard as much as possible against theinconvenience resulting from it, he used to lodge in some apartment nearthe spot, belonging to any of his attendants. If at any time a fit ofdrowsiness seized him in passing along the streets, his litter was setdown while he snatched a few moments' sleep. 

LXXIX. In person he was handsome and graceful, through every period ofhis life. But he was negligent in his dress; and so careless aboutdressing his hair, that he usually had it done in great haste, by severalbarbers at a time. His beard he sometimes clipped, and sometimes shaved;and either read or wrote during the operation. His countenance, eitherwhen discoursing or silent, was so calm and serene, that a (130) Gaul ofthe first rank declared amongst his friends, that he was so softened byit, as to be restrained from throwing him down a precipice, in hispassage over the Alps, when he had been admitted to approach him, underpretence of conferring with him. His eyes were bright and piercing; andhe was willing it should be thought that there was something of a divinevigour in them. He was likewise not a little pleased to see people, uponhis looking steadfastly at them, lower their countenances, as if the sunshone in their eyes. But in his old age, he saw very imperfectly withhis left eye. His teeth were thin set, small and scaly, his hair alittle curled, and inclining to a yellow colour. His eye-brows met; hisears were small, and he had an aquiline nose. His complexion was betwixtbrown and fair; his stature but low; though Julius Marathus, hisfreedman, says he was five feet and nine inches in height. This, however, was so much concealed by the just proportion of his limbs, thatit was only perceivable upon comparison with some taller person standingby him. 

LXXX. He is said to have been born with many spots upon his breast andbelly, answering to the figure, order, and number of the stars in theconstellation of the Bear. He had besides several callosities resemblingscars, occasioned by an itching in his body, and the constant and violentuse of the strigil [231] in being rubbed. He had a weakness in his lefthip, thigh, and leg, insomuch that he often halted on that side; but hereceived much benefit from the use of sand and reeds. He likewisesometimes found the fore-finger of his right hand so weak, that when itwas benumbed and contracted with cold, to use it in writing, he wasobliged to have recourse to a circular piece of horn. He hadoccasionally a complaint in the bladder; but upon voiding some stones inhis urine, he was relieved from that pain. 

LXXXI. During the whole course of his life, he suffered, at times, dangerous fits of sickness, especially after the conquest of Cantabria;when his liver being injured by a defluxion (131) upon it, he was reducedto such a condition, that he was obliged to undergo a desperate anddoubtful method of cure: for warm applications having no effect, AntoniusMusa [232] directed the use of those which were cold. He was likewisesubject to fits of sickness at stated times every year; for about hisbirth-day [233] he was commonly a little indisposed. In the beginning ofspring, he was attacked with an inflation of the midriff; and when thewind was southerly, with a cold in his head. By all these complaints, his constitution was so shattered, that he could not easily bear eitherheat or cold. 

LXXXII. In winter, he was protected against the inclemency of theweather by a thick toga, four tunics, a shirt, a flannel stomacher, andswathings upon his legs and thighs [234]. In summer, he lay with thedoors of his bedchamber open, and frequently in a piazza, refreshed by abubbling fountain, and a person standing by to fan him. He could notbear even the winter's sun; and at home, never walked in the open airwithout a broad-brimmed hat on his head. He usually travelled in alitter, and by night: and so slow, that he was two days in going toPraeneste or Tibur. And if he could go to any place by sea, he preferredthat mode of travelling. He carefully nourished his health against hismany infirmities, avoiding chiefly the free use of the bath; but he wasoften rubbed with oil, and sweated in a stove; after which he was washedwith tepid water, warmed either by a fire, or by being exposed to theheat of the sun. When, upon account of his nerves, he was obliged tohave recourse to sea-water, or the waters of Albula [235], he wascontented with sitting over a wooden tub, which he called by a Spanishname (132) Dureta, and plunging his hands and feet in the water by turns. 

LXXXIII. As soon as the civil wars were ended, he gave up riding andother military exercises in the Campus Martius, and took to playing atball, or foot-ball; but soon afterwards used no other exercise than thatof going abroad in his litter, or walking. Towards the end of his walk, he would run leaping, wrapped up in a short cloak or cape. For amusementhe would sometimes angle, or play with dice, pebbles, or nuts, withlittle boys, collected from various countries, and particularly Moors andSyrians, for their beauty or amusing talk. But dwarfs, and such as werein any way deformed, he held in abhorrence, as lusus naturae (nature'sabortions), and of evil omen. 

LXXXIV. From early youth he devoted himself with great diligence andapplication to the study of eloquence, and the other liberal arts. Inthe war of Modena, notwithstanding the weighty affairs in which he wasengaged, he is said to have read, written, and declaimed every day. Henever addressed the senate, the people, or the army, but in apremeditated speech, though he did not want the talent of speakingextempore on the spur of the occasion. And lest his memory should failhim, as well as to prevent the loss of time in getting up his speeches, it was his general practice to recite them. In his intercourse withindividuals, and even with his wife Livia, upon subjects of importance hewrote on his tablets all he wished to express, lest, if he spokeextempore, he should say more or less than was proper. He deliveredhimself in a sweet and peculiar tone, in which he was diligentlyinstructed by a master of elocution. But when he had a cold, hesometimes employed a herald to deliver his speeches to the people. 

LXXXV. He composed many tracts in prose on various subjects, some ofwhich he read occasionally in the circle of his friends, as to anauditory. Among these was his "Rescript to Brutus respecting Cato. "Most of the pages he read himself, although he was advanced in years, butbecoming fatigued, he gave the rest to Tiberius to finish. He likewiseread over to (133) his friends his "Exhortations to Philosophy, " and the"History of his own Life, " which he continued in thirteen books, as faras the Cantabrian war, but no farther. He likewise made some attempts atpoetry. There is extant one book written by him in hexameter verse, ofwhich both the subject and title is "Sicily. " There is also a book ofEpigrams, no larger than the last, which he composed almost entirelywhile he was in the bath. These are all his poetical compositions forthough he begun a tragedy with great zest, becoming dissatisfied with thestyle, he obliterated the whole; and his friends saying to him, "What isyour Ajax doing?" he answered, "My Ajax has met with a sponge. " [236]

LXXXVI. He cultivated a style which was neat and chaste, avoidingfrivolous or harsh language, as well as obsolete words, which he callsdisgusting. His chief object was to deliver his thoughts with allpossible perspicuity. To attain this end, and that he might nowhereperplex, or retard the reader or hearer, he made no scruple to addprepositions to his verbs, or to repeat the same conjunction severaltimes; which, when omitted, occasion some little obscurity, but give agrace to the style. Those who used affected language, or adoptedobsolete words, he despised, as equally faulty, though in different ways. He sometimes indulged himself in jesting, particularly with his friendMecaenas, whom he rallied upon all occasions for his fine phrases [237], and bantered by imitating his way of talking. Nor did he spare Tiberius, who was fond of obsolete and far-fetched expressions. He charges MarkAntony with insanity, writing rather to make men stare, than to beunderstood; and by way of sarcasm upon his depraved and fickle taste inthe choice of words, he writes to him thus: "And are you yet in doubt, whether Cimber Annius or Veranius Flaccus be more proper for yourimitation? Whether you will adopt words which Sallustius Crispus hasborrowed from the 'Origines' of Cato? Or do you think that the verboseempty bombast of Asiatic orators is fit to be transfused into (134) ourlanguage?" And in a letter where he commends the talent of hisgrand-daughter, Agrippina, he says, "But you must be particularly careful, both in writing and speaking, to avoid affectation. "

LXXXVII. In ordinary conversation, he made use of several peculiarexpressions, as appears from letters in his own hand-writing; in which, now and then, when he means to intimate that some persons would never paytheir debts, he says, "They will pay at the Greek Calends. " And when headvised patience in the present posture of affairs, he would say, "Let usbe content with our Cato. " To describe anything in haste, he said, "Itwas sooner done than asparagus is cooked. " He constantly puts baceolusfor stultus, pullejaceus for pullus, vacerrosus for cerritus, vapide sehabere for male, and betizare for languere, which is commonly calledlachanizare. Likewise simus for sumus, domos for domus in the genitivesingular [238]. With respect to the last two peculiarities, lest anyperson should imagine that they were only slips of his pen, and notcustomary with him, he never varies. I have likewise remarked thissingularity in his hand-writing; he never divides his words, so as tocarry the letters which cannot be inserted at the end of a line to thenext, but puts them below the other, enclosed by a bracket. 

LXXXVIII. He did not adhere strictly to orthography as laid down by thegrammarians, but seems to have been of the opinion of those who think, that we ought to write as we speak; for as to his changing and omittingnot only letters but whole syllables, it is a vulgar mistake. Nor shouldI have taken notice of it, but that it appears strange to me, that anyperson should have told us, that he sent a successor to a consularlieutenant of a province, as an ignorant, illiterate fellow, upon hisobserving that he had written ixi for ipsi. When he had occasion towrite in cypher, he put b for a, c for b, and so forth; and insteadof z, aa. 

LXXXIX. He was no less fond of the Greek literature, in which he madeconsiderable proficiency; having had Apollodorus (135) of Pergamus, forhis master in rhetoric; whom, though much advanced in years, he took withhim from The City, when he was himself very young, to Apollonia. Afterwards, being instructed in philology by Sephaerus, he received intohis family Areus the philosopher, and his sons Dionysius and Nicanor; buthe never could speak the Greek tongue readily, nor ever ventured tocompose in it. For if there was occasion for him to deliver hissentiments in that language, he always expressed what he had to say inLatin, and gave it another to translate. He was evidently notunacquainted with the poetry of the Greeks, and had a great taste for theancient comedy, which he often brought upon the stage, in his publicspectacles. In reading the Greek and Latin authors, he paid particularattention to precepts and examples which might be useful in public orprivate life. Those he used to extract verbatim, and gave to hisdomestics, or send to the commanders of the armies, the governors of theprovinces, or the magistrates of the city, when any of them seemed tostand in need of admonition. He likewise read whole books to the senate, and frequently made them known to the people by his edicts; such as theorations of Quintus Metellus "for the Encouragement of Marriage, " andthose of Rutilius "On the Style of Building;" [239] to shew the peoplethat he was not the first who had promoted those objects, but that theancients likewise had thought them worthy their attention. He patronisedthe men of genius of that age in every possible way. He would hear themread their works with a great deal of patience and good nature; and notonly poetry [240] and history, but orations and dialogues. He wasdispleased, however, that anything should be written upon himself, exceptin a grave manner, and by men of the most eminent abilities: and heenjoined the praetors not to suffer his name to be made too common in thecontests amongst orators and poets in the theatres. 

XC. We have the following account of him respecting his (136) belief inomens and such like. He had so great a dread of thunder and lightningthat he always carried about him a seal's skin, by way of preservation. And upon any apprehension of a violent storm, he would retire to someplace of concealment in a vault under ground; having formerly beenterrified by a flash of lightning, while travelling in the night, as wehave already mentioned. [241]

XCI. He neither slighted his own dreams nor those of other peoplerelating to himself. At the battle of Philippi, although he had resolvednot to stir out of his tent, on account of his being indisposed, yet, being warned by a dream of one of his friends, he changed his mind; andwell it was that he did so, for in the enemy's attack, his couch waspierced and cut to pieces, on the supposition of his being in it. He hadmany frivolous and frightful dreams during the spring; but in the otherparts of the year, they were less frequent and more significative. Uponhis frequently visiting a temple near the Capitol, which he had dedicatedto Jupiter Tonans, he dreamt that Jupiter Capitolinus complained that hisworshippers were taken from him, and that upon this he replied, he hadonly given him The Thunderer for his porter [242]. He thereforeimmediately suspended little bells round the summit of the temple;because such commonly hung at the gates of great houses. In consequenceof a dream, too, he always, on a certain day of the year, begged alms ofthe people, reaching out his hand to receive the dole which they offeredhim. 

XCII. Some signs and omens he regarded as infallible. If in the morninghis shoe was put on wrong, the left instead of the right, that boded somedisaster. If when he commenced a long journey, by sea or land, therehappened to fall a mizzling rain, he held it to be a good sign of aspeedy and happy return. He was much affected likewise with any thingout of the common course of nature. A palm-tree [243] which (137)chanced to grow up between some stone's in the court of his house, hetransplanted into a court where the images of the Household Gods wereplaced, and took all possible care to make it thrive in the island ofCapri, some decayed branches of an old ilex, which hung drooping to theground, recovered themselves upon his arrival; at which he was sodelighted, that he made an exchange with the Republic [244] of Naples, ofthe island of Oenaria [Ischia], for that of Capri. He likewise observedcertain days; as never to go from home the day after the Nundiae [245], nor to begin any serious business upon the nones [246]; avoiding nothingelse in it, as he writes to Tiberius, than its unlucky name. 

XCIII. With regard to the religious ceremonies of foreign nations, hewas a strict observer of those which had been established by ancientcustom; but others he held in no esteem. For, having been initiated atAthens, and coming afterwards to hear a cause at Rome, relative to theprivileges of the priests of the Attic Ceres, when some of the mysteriesof their sacred rites were to be introduced in the pleadings, hedismissed those who sat upon the bench as judges with him, as well as theby-standers, and beard the argument upon those points himself. But, onthe other hand, he not only declined, in his progress through Egypt, togo out of his way to pay a visit to Apis, but he likewise commended hisgrandson Caius (138) for not paying his devotions at Jerusalem in hispassage through Judaea. [247]

XCIV. Since we are upon this subject, it may not be improper to give anaccount of the omens, before and at his birth, as well as afterwards, which gave hopes of his future greatness, and the good fortune thatconstantly attended him. A part of the wall of Velletri having in formertimes been struck with thunder, the response of the soothsayers was, thata native of that town would some time or other arrive at supreme power;relying on which prediction, the Velletrians both then, and several timesafterwards, made war upon the Roman people, to their own ruin. At lastit appeared by the event, that the omen had portended the elevation ofAugustus. 

Julius Marathus informs us, that a few months before his birth, therehappened at Rome a prodigy, by which was signified that Nature was intravail with a king for the Roman people; and that the senate, in alarm, came to the resolution that no child born that year should be brought up;but that those amongst them, whose wives were pregnant, to secure tothemselves a chance of that dignity, took care that the decree of thesenate should not be registered in the treasury. 

I find in the theological books of Asclepiades the Mendesian [248], thatAtia, upon attending at midnight a religious solemnity in honour ofApollo, when the rest of the matrons retired home, fell asleep on hercouch in the temple, and that a serpent immediately crept to her, andsoon after withdrew. She awaking upon it, purified herself, as usualafter the embraces of her husband; and instantly there appeared upon herbody a mark in the form of a serpent, which she never after could efface, and which obliged her, during the subsequent part of her life, to declinethe use of the public baths. Augustus, it was added, was born in thetenth month after, and for that reason was thought to be the son ofApollo. The (139) same Atia, before her delivery, dreamed that herbowels stretched to the stars, and expanded through the whole circuit ofheaven and earth. His father Octavius, likewise, dreamt that a sun-beamissued from his wife's womb. 

Upon the day he was born, the senate being engaged in a debate onCatiline's conspiracy, and Octavius, in consequence of his wife's beingin childbirth, coming late into the house, it is a well-known fact, thatPublius Nigidius, upon hearing the occasion of his coming so late, andthe hour of his wife's delivery, declared that the world had got amaster. Afterwards, when Octavius, upon marching with his army throughthe deserts of Thrace, consulted the oracle in the grove of fatherBacchus, with barbarous rites, concerning his son, he received from thepriests an answer to the same purpose; because, when they poured wineupon the altar, there burst out so prodigious a flame, that it ascendedabove the roof of the temple, and reached up to the heavens; acircumstance which had never happened to any one but Alexander the Great, upon his sacrificing at the same altars. And next night he dreamt thathe saw his son under a more than human appearance, with thunder and asceptre, and the other insignia of Jupiter, Optimus, Maximus, having onhis head a radiant crown, mounted upon a chariot decked with laurel, anddrawn by six pair of milk-white horses. 

Whilst he was yet an infant, as Caius Drusus relates, being laid in hiscradle by his nurse, and in a low place, the next day he was not to befound, and after he had been sought for a long time, he was at lastdiscovered upon a lofty tower, lying with his face towards the rising sun[249]. When he first began to speak, he ordered the frogs that happenedto make a troublesome noise, upon an estate belonging to the family nearthe town, to be silent; and there goes a report that frogs never croakedthere since that time. As he was dining in a grove at the fourthmile-stone on the Campanian road, an eagle suddenly snatched a piece ofbread out of his hand, and, soaring to a prodigious height, afterhovering, came down most unexpectedly, and returned it to him. 

Quintus Catulus had a dream, for two nights successively after hisdedication of the Capitol. The first night he dreamt (140) that Jupiter, out of several boys of the order of the nobility who were playing abouthis altar, selected one, into whose bosom he put the public seal of thecommonwealth, which he held in his hand; but in his vision the nextnight, he saw in the bosom of Jupiter Capitolinus, the same boy; whom heordered to be removed, but it was forbidden by the God, who declared thatit must be brought up to become the guardian of the state. The next day, meeting Augustus, with whom till that hour he had not the leastacquaintance, and looking at him with admiration, he said he wasextremely like the boy he had seen in his dream. Some give a differentaccount of Catulus's first dream, namely, that Jupiter, upon severalnoble lads requesting of him that they might have a guardian, had pointedto one amongst them, to whom they were to prefer their requests; andputting his fingers to the boy's mouth to kiss, he afterwards appliedthem to his own. 

Marcus Cicero, as he was attending Caius Caesar to the Capitol, happenedto be telling some of his friends a dream which he had the precedingnight, in which he saw a comely youth, let down from heaven by a goldenchain, who stood at the door of the Capitol, and had a whip put into hishands by Jupiter. And immediately upon sight of Augustus, who had beensent for by his uncle Caesar to the sacrifice, and was as yet perfectlyunknown to most of the company, he affirmed that it was the very boy hehad seen in his dream. When he assumed the manly toga, his senatoriantunic becoming loose in the seam on each side, fell at his feet. Somewould have this to forbode, that the order, of which that was the badgeof distinction, would some time or other be subject to him. 

Julius Caesar, in cutting down a wood to make room for his camp nearMunda [250], happened to light upon a palm-tree, and ordered it to bepreserved as an omen of victory. From the root of this tree there putout immediately a sucker, which, in a few days, grew to such a height asnot only to equal, but overshadow it, and afford room for many nests ofwild pigeons which built in it, though that species of bird particularlyavoids a hard and rough leaf. It is likewise reported, that Caesar waschiefly influenced by this prodigy, to prefer his sister's grandsonbefore all others for his successor. 

(141) In his retirement at Apollonia, he went with his friend Agrippa tovisit Theogenes, the astrologer, in his gallery on the roof. Agrippa, who first consulted the fates, having great and almost incrediblefortunes predicted of him, Augustus did not choose to make known hisnativity, and persisted for some time in the refusal, from a mixture ofshame and fear, lest his fortunes should be predicted as inferior tothose of Agrippa. Being persuaded, however, after much importunity, todeclare it, Theogenes started up from his seat, and paid him adoration. Not long afterwards, Augustus was so confident of the greatness of hisdestiny, that he published his horoscope, and struck a silver coin, bearing upon it the sign of Capricorn, under the influence of which hewas born. 

XCV. After the death of Caesar, upon his return from Apollonia, as hewas entering the city, on a sudden, in a clear and bright sky, a circleresembling the rainbow surrounded the body of the sun; and, immediatelyafterwards, the tomb of Julia, Caesar's daughter, was struck bylightning. In his first consulship, whilst he was observing theauguries, twelve vultures presented themselves, as they had done toRomulus. And when he offered sacrifice, the livers of all the victimswere folded inward in the lower part; a circumstance which was regardedby those present, who had skill in things of that nature, as anindubitable prognostic of great and wonderful fortune. 

XCVI. He certainly had a presentiment of the issue of all his wars. When the troops of the Triumviri were collected about Bolognia, an eagle, which sat upon his tent, and was attacked by two crows, beat them both, and struck them to the ground, in the view of the whole army; who thenceinferred that discord would arise between the three colleagues, whichwould be attended with the like event: and it accordingly happened. AtPhilippi, he was assured of success by a Thessalian, upon the authority, as he pretended, of the Divine Caesar himself, who had appeared to himwhile he was travelling in a bye-road. At Perugia, the sacrifice notpresenting any favourable intimations, but the contrary, he ordered freshvictims; the enemy, however, carrying off the sacred things in a suddensally, it was agreed amongst the augurs, that all the (142) dangers andmisfortunes which had threatened the sacrificer, would fall upon theheads of those who had got possession of the entrails. And, accordingly, so it happened. The day before the sea-fight near Sicily, as he waswalking upon the shore, a fish leaped out of the sea, and laid itself athis feet. At Actium, while he was going down to his fleet to engage theenemy, he was met by an ass with a fellow driving it. The name of theman was Eutychus, and that of the animal, Nichon [251]. After thevictory, he erected a brazen statue to each, in a temple built upon thespot where he had encamped. 

XCVII. His death, of which I shall now speak, and his subsequentdeification, were intimated by divers manifest prodigies. As he wasfinishing the census amidst a great crowd of people in the CampusMartius, an eagle hovered round him several times, and then directed itscourse to a neighbouring temple, where it settled upon the name ofAgrippa, and at the first letter. Upon observing this, he ordered hiscolleague Tiberius to put up the vows, which it is usual to make on suchoccasions, for the succeeding Lustrum. For he declared he would notmeddle with what it was probable he should never accomplish, though thetables were ready drawn for it. About the same time, the first letter ofhis name, in an inscription upon one of his statues, was struck out bylightning; which was interpreted as a presage that he would live only ahundred days longer, the letter C denoting that number; and that he wouldbe placed amongst the Gods, as Aesar, which is the remaining part of theword Caesar, signifies, in the Tuscan language, a God [252]. Being, therefore, about dispatching Tiberius to Illyricum, and designing to gowith him as far as Beneventum, but being detained by several persons whoapplied to him respecting causes they had depending, he cried out, (andit was afterwards regarded as an omen of his death), "Not all thebusiness in the world, shall detain me at home one moment longer;" andsetting out upon his journey, he went (143) as far as Astura [253];whence, contrary to his custom, he put to sea in the night-time, as therewas a favourable wind. 

XCVIII. His malady proceeded from diarrhoea; notwithstanding which, hewent round the coast of Campania, and the adjacent islands, and spentfour days in that of Capri; where he gave himself up entirely to reposeand relaxation. Happening to sail by the bay of Puteoli, the passengersand mariners aboard a ship of Alexandria [254], just then arrived, cladall in white, with chaplets upon their heads, and offering incense, loaded him with praises and joyful acclamations, crying out, "By you welive, by you we sail securely, by you enjoy our liberty and ourfortunes. " At which being greatly pleased, he distributed to each ofthose who attended him, forty gold pieces, requiring from them anassurance on oath, not to employ the sum given them in any other way, than the purchase of Alexandrian merchandize. And during several daysafterwards, he distributed Togae [255] and Pallia, among other gifts, oncondition that the Romans should use the Greek, and the Greeks the Romandress and language. He likewise constantly attended to see the boysperform their exercises, according to an ancient custom still continuedat Capri. He gave them likewise an entertainment in his presence, andnot only permitted, but required from them the utmost freedom in jesting, and scrambling for fruit, victuals, and other things which he threwamongst them. In a word, he indulged himself in all the ways ofamusement he could contrive. 

He called an island near Capri, Apragopolis, "The City of theDo-littles, " from the indolent life which several of his party led there. A favourite of his, one Masgabas [256], he used (144) to call Ktistaes. As if he had been the planter of the island. And observing from his rooma great company of people with torches, assembled at the tomb of thisMasgabas, who died the year before, he uttered very distinctly this verse, which he made extempore. 

 Ktistou de tumbo, eisoro pyroumenon. Blazing with lights I see the founder's tomb. 

Then turning to Thrasyllus, a companion of Tiberius, who reclined on theother side of the table, he asked him, who knew nothing about the matter, what poet he thought was the author of that verse; and on his hesitatingto reply, he added another:

 Oras phaessi Masgaban timomenon. Honor'd with torches Masgabas you see;

and put the same question to him concerning that likewise. The latterreplying, that, whoever might be the author, they were excellent verses[257], he set up a great laugh, and fell into an extraordinary vein ofjesting upon it. Soon afterwards, passing over to Naples, although atthat time greatly disordered in his bowels by the frequent returns of hisdisease, he sat out the exhibition of the gymnastic games which wereperformed in his honour every five years, and proceeded with Tiberius tothe place intended. But on his return, his disorder increasing, hestopped at Nola, sent for Tiberius back again, and had a long discoursewith him in private; after which, he gave no further attention tobusiness of any importance. 

XCIX. Upon the day of his death, he now and then enquired, if there wasany disturbance in the town on his account; and calling for a mirror, heordered his hair to be combed, and his shrunk cheeks to be adjusted. Then asking his friends who were admitted into the room, "Do ye thinkthat I have acted my part on the stage of life well?" he immediatelysubjoined, Ei de pan echei kalos, to paignio Dote kroton, kai pantes umeis meta charas ktupaesate. 

 If all be right, with joy your voices raise, In loud applauses to the actor's praise. 

(145) After which, having dismissed them all, whilst he was inquiring ofsome persons who were just arrived from Rome, concerning Drusus'sdaughter, who was in a bad state of health, he expired suddenly, amidstthe kisses of Livia, and with these words: "Livia! live mindful of ourunion; and now, farewell!" dying a very easy death, and such as hehimself had always wished for. For as often as he heard that any personhad died quickly and without pain, he wished for himself and his friendsthe like euthanasian (an easy death), for that was the word he made useof. He betrayed but one symptom, before he breathed his last, of beingdelirious, which was this: he was all on a sudden much frightened, andcomplained that he was carried away by forty men. But this was rather apresage, than any delirium: for precisely that number of soldiersbelonging to the pretorian cohort, carried out his corpse. 

C. He expired in the same room in which his father Octavius had died, when the two Sextus's, Pompey and Apuleius, were consuls, upon thefourteenth of the calends of September [the 19th August], at the ninthhour of the day, being seventy-six years of age, wanting only thirty-fivedays [258]. His remains were carried by the magistrates of the municipal[259] towns and colonies, from Nola to Bovillae [260], and in thenighttime, because of the season of the year. During the intervals, thebody lay in some basilica, or great temple, of each town. At Bovillae itwas met by the Equestrian Order, who carried it to the city, anddeposited it in the vestibule of his own house. The senate proceededwith so much zeal in the arrangement of his funeral, and paying honour tohis memory, that, amongst several other proposals, some were for havingthe funeral procession made through the triumphal gate, preceded by theimage of Victory which is in the senate-house, and the children ofhighest rank and of both sexes singing the funeral (146) dirge. Othersproposed, that on the day of the funeral, they should lay aside theirgold rings, and wear rings of iron; and others, that his bones should becollected by the priests of the principal colleges. One likewiseproposed to transfer the name of August to September, because he was bornin the latter, but died in the former. Another moved, that the wholeperiod of time, from his birth to his death, should be called theAugustan age, and be inserted in the calendar under that title. But atlast it was judged proper to be moderate in the honours paid to hismemory. Two funeral orations were pronounced in his praise, one beforethe temple of Julius, by Tiberius; and the other before the rostra, underthe old shops, by Drusus, Tiberius's son. The body was then carried uponthe shoulders of senators into the Campus Martius, and there burnt. Aman of pretorian rank affirmed upon oath, that he saw his spirit ascendfrom the funeral pile to heaven. The most distinguished persons of theequestrian order, bare-footed, and with their tunics loose, gathered uphis relics [261], and deposited them in the mausoleum, which had beenbuilt in his sixth consulship between the Flaminian Way and the bank ofthe Tiber [262]; at which time likewise he gave the groves and walksabout it for the use of the people. 

CI. He had made a will a year and four months before his death, upon thethird of the nones of April [the 11th of April], in the consulship ofLucius Plancus, and Caius Silius. It consisted of two skins ofparchment, written partly in his own hand, and partly by his freedmenPolybius and Hilarian; and had been committed to the custody of theVestal Virgins, by whom it was now produced, with three codicils underseal, as well as the will: all these were opened and read in the senate. He appointed as his direct heirs, Tiberius for two (147) thirds of hisestate, and Livia for the other third, both of whom he desired to assumehis name. The heirs in remainder were Drusus, Tiberius's son, for onethird, and Germanicus with his three sons for the residue. In the thirdplace, failing them, were his relations, and several of his friends. Heleft in legacies to the Roman people forty millions of sesterces; to thetribes [263] three millions five hundred thousand; to the pretoriantroops a thousand each man; to the city cohorts five hundred; and to thelegions and soldiers three hundred each; which several sums he ordered tobe paid immediately after his death, having taken due care that the moneyshould be ready in his exchequer. For the rest he ordered differenttimes of payment. In some of his bequests he went as far as twentythousand sesterces, for the payment of which he allowed a twelvemonth;alleging for this procrastination the scantiness of his estate; anddeclaring that not more than a hundred and fifty millions of sesterceswould come to his heirs: notwithstanding that during the twenty precedingyears, he had received, in legacies from his friends, the sum of fourteenhundred millions; almost the whole of which, with his two paternalestates [264], and others which had been left him, he had spent in theservice of the state. He left orders that the two Julias, his daughterand grand-daughter, if anything happened to them, should not be buried inhis tomb [265]. With regard to the three codicils before-mentioned, inone of them he gave orders about his funeral; another contained a summaryof his acts, which he intended should be inscribed on brazen plates, andplaced in front of his mausoleum; in the third he had drawn up a conciseaccount of the state of the empire; the number of troops enrolled, whatmoney there was in the treasury, the revenue, and arrears of taxes; towhich were added the names of the freedmen and slaves from whom theseveral accounts might be taken. 

 * * * * * *

(148) OCTAVIUS CAESAR, afterwards Augustus, had now attained to the sameposition in the state which had formerly been occupied by Julius Caesar;and though he entered upon it by violence, he continued to enjoy itthrough life with almost uninterrupted tranquillity. By the longduration of the late civil war, with its concomitant train of publiccalamities, the minds of men were become less averse to the prospect ofan absolute government; at the same time that the new emperor, naturallyprudent and politic, had learned from the fate of Julius the art ofpreserving supreme power, without arrogating to himself any invidiousmark of distinction. He affected to decline public honours, disclaimedevery idea of personal superiority, and in all his behaviour displayed adegree of moderation which prognosticated the most happy effects, inrestoring peace and prosperity to the harassed empire. The tenor of hisfuture conduct was suitable to this auspicious commencement. While heendeavoured to conciliate the affections of the people by lending moneyto those who stood in need of it, at low interest, or without any at all, and by the exhibition of public shows, of which the Romans wereremarkably fond; he was attentive to the preservation of a becomingdignity in the government, and to the correction of morals. The senate, which, in the time of Sylla, had increased to upwards of four hundred, and, during the civil war, to a thousand, members, by the admission ofimproper persons, he reduced to six hundred; and being invested withthe ancient office of censor, which had for some time been disused, heexercised an arbitrary but legal authority over the conduct of every rankin the state; by which he could degrade senators and knights, and inflictupon all citizens an ignominious sentence for any immoral or indecentbehaviour. But nothing contributed more to render the new form ofgovernment acceptable to the people, than the frequent distribution ofcorn, and sometimes largesses, amongst the commonalty: for an occasionalscarcity of provisions had always been the chief cause of discontentsand tumults in the capital. To the interests of the army he likewisepaid particular attention. It was by the assistance of the legions thathe had risen to power; and they were the men who, in the last resort, if such an emergency should ever occur, could alone enable him topreserve it. 

History relates, that after the overthrow of Antony, Augustus held aconsultation with Agrippa and Mecaenas about restoring the republicanform of government; when Agrippa gave his opinion in favour of thatmeasure, and Mecaenas opposed it. (149) The object of this consultation, in respect to its future consequences on society, is perhaps the mostimportant ever agitated in any cabinet, and required, for the maturediscussion of it, the whole collective wisdom of the ablest men in theempire. But this was a resource which could scarcely be adopted, eitherwith security to the public quiet, or with unbiassed judgment in thedetermination of the question. The bare agitation of such a point wouldhave excited immediate and strong anxiety for its final result; while thefriends of a republican government, who were still far more numerous thanthose of the other party, would have strained every nerve to procure adetermination in their own favour; and the pretorian guards, the surestprotection of Augustus, finding their situation rendered precarious bysuch an unexpected occurrence, would have readily listened to the secretpropositions and intrigues of the republicans for securing theiracquiescence to the decision on the popular side. If, when the subjectcame into debate, Augustus should be sincere in the declaration to abideby the resolution of the council, it is beyond all doubt, that therestoration of a republican government would have been voted by a greatmajority of the assembly. If, on the contrary, he should not be sincere, which is the more probable supposition, and should incur the suspicion ofpractising secretly with members for a decision according to his wish, hewould have rendered himself obnoxious to the public odium, and given riseto discontents which might have endangered his future security. 

But to submit this important question to the free and unbiassed decisionof a numerous assembly, it is probable, neither suited the inclination ofAugustus, nor perhaps, in his opinion, consisted with his personalsafety. With a view to the attainment of unconstitutional power, he hadformerly deserted the cause of the republic when its affairs were in aprosperous situation; and now, when his end was accomplished, there couldbe little ground to expect, that he should voluntarily relinquish theprize for which he had spilt the best blood of Rome, and contended for somany years. Ever since the final defeat of Antony in the battle ofActium, he had governed the Roman state with uncontrolled authority; andthough there is in the nature of unlimited power an intoxicating quality, injurious both to public and private virtue, yet all history contradictsthe supposition of its being endued with any which is unpalatable to thegeneral taste of mankind. 

There were two chief motives by which Augustus would naturally beinfluenced in a deliberation on this important subject; namely, the loveof power, and the personal danger which (150) he might incur fromrelinquishing it. Either of these motives might have been a sufficientinducement for retaining his authority; but when they both concurred, asthey seem to have done upon this occasion, their united force wasirresistible. The argument, so far as relates to the love of power, rests upon a ground, concerning the solidity of which, little doubt canbe entertained: but it may be proper to inquire, in a few words, into thefoundation of that personal danger which he dreaded to incur, onreturning to the station of a private citizen. 

Augustus, as has been already observed, had formerly sided with the partywhich had attempted to restore public liberty after the death of JuliusCaesar: but he afterwards abandoned the popular cause, and joined in theambitious plans of Antony and Lepidus to usurp amongst themselves theentire dominion of the state. By this change of conduct, he turned hisarms against the supporters of a form of government which he hadvirtually recognized as the legal constitution of Rome; and it involved adirect implication of treason against the sacred representatives of thatgovernment, the consuls, formally and duly elected. Upon such a chargehe might be amenable to the capital laws of his country. This, however, was a danger which might be fully obviated, by procuring from the senateand people an act of oblivion, previously to his abdication of thesupreme power; and this was a preliminary which doubtless they would haveadmitted and ratified with unanimous approbation. It therefore appearsthat he could be exposed to no inevitable danger on this account: butthere was another quarter where his person was vulnerable, and where eventhe laws might not be sufficient to protect him against the efforts ofprivate resentment. The bloody proscription of the Triumvirate no act ofamnesty could ever erase from the minds of those who had been deprived byit of their nearest and dearest relations; and amidst the numerousconnections of the illustrious men sacrificed on that horrible occasion, there might arise some desperate avenger, whose indelible resentmentnothing less would satisfy than the blood of the surviving delinquent. Though Augustus, therefore, might not, like his great predecessor, bestabbed in the senate-house, he might perish by the sword or the poniardin a less conspicuous situation. After all, there seems to have beenlittle danger from this quarter likewise for Sylla, who in the precedingage had been guilty of equal enormities, was permitted, on relinquishingthe place of perpetual dictator, to end his days in quiet retirement; andthe undisturbed security which Augustus ever afterwards enjoyed, affordssufficient proof, that all apprehension of danger to his person wasmerely chimerical. 

(151) We have hitherto considered this grand consultation as it might beinfluenced by the passions or prejudices of the emperor: we shall nowtake a short view of the subject in the light in which it is connectedwith considerations of a political nature, and with public utility. Thearguments handed down by history respecting this consultation are few, and imperfectly delivered; but they may be extended upon the generalprinciples maintained on each side of the question. 

For the restoration of the republican government, it might be contended, that from the expulsion of the kings to the dictatorship of JuliusCaesar, through a period of upwards of four hundred and sixty years, theRoman state, with the exception only of a short interval, had flourishedand increased with a degree of prosperity unexampled in the annals ofhumankind: that the republican form of government was not only bestadapted to the improvement of national grandeur, but to the security ofgeneral freedom, the great object of all political association: thatpublic virtue, by which alone nations could subsist in vigour, wascherished and protected by no mode of administration so much as by thatwhich connected, in the strongest bonds of union, the private interestsof individuals with those of the community: that the habits andprejudices of the Roman people were unalterably attached to the form ofgovernment established by so long a prescription, and they would neversubmit, for any length of time, to the rule of one person, without makingevery possible effort to recover their liberty: that though despotism, under a mild and wise prince, might in some respects be regarded aspreferable to a constitution which was occasionally exposed to theinconvenience of faction and popular tumults, yet it was a dangerousexperiment to abandon the government of the nation to the contingency ofsuch a variety of characters as usually occurs in the succession ofprinces; and, upon the whole, that the interests of the people were moresafely entrusted in the hands of annual magistrates elected bythemselves, than in those of any individual whose power was permanent, and subject to no legal control. 

In favour of despotic government it might be urged, that though Rome hadsubsisted long and gloriously under a republican form of government, yetshe had often experienced such violent shocks from popular tumults or thefactions of the great, as had threatened her with imminent destruction:that a republican government was only accommodated to a people amongstwhom the division of property gave to no class of citizens such a degreeof pre-eminence as might prove dangerous to public freedom: that therewas required in that form of political constitution, a simplicity (152)of life and strictness of manners which are never observed to accompany ahigh degree of public prosperity: that in respect of all theseconsiderations, such a form of government was utterly incompatible withthe present circumstances of the Romans that by the conquest of so manyforeign nations, by the lucrative governments of provinces, the spoils ofthe enemy in war, and the rapine too often practised in time of peace, sogreat had been the aggrandizement of particular families in the precedingage, that though the form of the ancient constitution should still remaininviolate, the people would no longer live under a free republic, but anaristocratical usurpation, which was always productive of tyranny: thatnothing could preserve the commonwealth from becoming a prey to somedaring confederacy, but the firm and vigorous administration of oneperson, invested with the whole executive power of the state, unlimitedand uncontrolled: in fine, that as Rome had been nursed to maturity bythe government of six princes successively, so it was only by a similarform of political constitution that she could now be saved fromaristocratical tyranny on one hand, or, on the other, from absoluteanarchy. 

On whichever side of the question the force of argument may be thought topreponderate, there is reason to believe that Augustus was guided in hisresolution more by inclination and prejudice than by reason. It isrelated, however, that hesitating between the opposite opinions of histwo counsellors, he had recourse to that of Virgil, who joined withMecaenas in advising him to retain the imperial power, as being the formof government most suitable to the circumstances of the times. 

It is proper in this place to give some account of the two ministersabove-mentioned, Agrippa and Mecaenas, who composed the cabinet ofAugustus at the settlement of his government, and seem to be the onlypersons employed by him in a ministerial capacity during his whole reign. 

M. Vipsanius Agrippa was of obscure extraction, but rendered himselfconspicuous by his military talents. He obtained a victory over SextusPompey; and in the battles of Philippi and Actium, where he displayedgreat valour, he contributed not a little to establish the subsequentpower of Augustus. In his expeditions afterwards into Gaul and Germany, he performed many signal achievements, for which he refused the honoursof a triumph. The expenses which others would have lavished on thatfrivolous spectacle, he applied to the more laudable purpose ofembellishing Rome with magnificent buildings, one of which, the Pantheon, still remains. In consequence of a dispute with Marcellus, the nephew ofAugustus, he retired to Mitylene, (153) whence, after an absence of twoyears, he was recalled by the emperor. He first married Pomponia, thedaughter of the celebrated Atticus, and afterwards one of the Marcellas, the nieces of Augustus. While this lady, by whom he had children, wasstill living, the emperor prevailed upon his sister Octavia to resign tohim her son-in-law, and gave him in marriage his own daughter Julia; sostrong was the desire of Augustus to be united with him in the closestalliance. The high degree of favour in which he stood with the emperorwas soon after evinced by a farther mark of esteem: for during a visit tothe Roman provinces of Greece and Asia, in which Augustus was absent twoyears, he left the government of the empire to the care of Agrippa. While this minister enjoyed, and indeed seems to have merited, all thepartiality of Augustus, he was likewise a favourite with the people. Hedied at Rome, in the sixty-first year of his age, universally lamented;and his remains were deposited in the tomb which Augustus had preparedfor himself. Agrippa left by Julia three sons, Caius, Lucius, andPosthumus Agrippa, with two daughters, Agrippina and Julia. 

C. Cilnius Mecaenas was of Tuscan extraction, and derived his descentfrom the ancient kings of that country. Though in the highest degree offavour with Augustus, he never aspired beyond the rank of the equestrianorder; and though he might have held the government of extensiveprovinces by deputies, he was content with enjoying the praefecture ofthe city and Italy; a situation, however, which must have been attendedwith extensive patronage. He was of a gay and social disposition. Inprinciple he is said to have been of the Epicurean sect, and in his dressand manners to have bordered on effeminacy. With respect to hispolitical talents, we can only speak from conjecture; but from his beingthe confidential minister of a prince of so much discernment as Augustus, during the infancy of a new form of government in an extensive empire, wemay presume that he was endowed with no common abilities for thatimportant station. The liberal patronage which he displayed towards menof genius and talents, will render his name for ever celebrated in theannals of learning. It is to be regretted that history has transmittedno particulars of this extraordinary personage, of whom all we know isderived chiefly from the writings of Virgil and Horace; but from themanner in which they address him, amidst the familiarity of theirintercourse, there is the strongest reason to suppose, that he was notless amiable and respectable in private life, than illustrious in publicsituation. "O my glory!" is the emphatic expression employed by themboth. 

(154) O decus, O famae merito pars maxima nostrae. Vir. Georg. Ii. Light of my life, my glory, and my guide! O et praesidium et dulce decus meum. Hor. Ode I. My glory and my patron thou!

One would be inclined to think, that there was a nicety in the sense andapplication of the word decus, amongst the Romans, with which we areunacquainted, and that, in the passages now adduced, it was understood torefer to the honour of the emperor's patronage, obtained through themeans of Mecaenas; otherwise, such language to the minister might haveexcited the jealousy of Augustus. But whatever foundation there may befor this conjecture, the compliment was compensated by the superioradulation which the poets appropriated to the emperor, whose deificationis more than insinuated, in sublime intimations, by Virgil. 

 Tuque adeo quem mox quae sint habitura deorum Concilia, incertum est; urbisne invisere, Caesar, Terrarumque velis curam; et te maximus orbis Auctorem frugum, tempestatumque potentem Accipiat, cingens materna tempora myrto: An Deus immensi venias maris, ac tua nautae Numina sola colant: tibi serviat ultima Thule; Teque sibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis. Geor. I. 1. 25, vi. 

 Thou Caesar, chief where'er thy voice ordain To fix midst gods thy yet unchosen reign-- Wilt thou o'er cities fix thy guardian sway, While earth and all her realms thy nod obey? The world's vast orb shall own thy genial power, Giver of fruits, fair sun, and favouring shower; Before thy altar grateful nations bow, And with maternal myrtle wreathe thy brow; O'er boundless ocean shall thy power prevail, Thee her sole lord the world of waters hail, Rule where the sea remotest Thule laves, While Tethys dowers thy bride with all her waves. Sotheby. 

Horace has elegantly adopted the same strain of compliment. 

 Te multa prece, te prosequitur mero Defuso pateris; et Laribus tuum Miscet numen, uti Graecia Castoris Et magni memor Herculis. Carm. IV. 5. 

 To thee he chants the sacred song, To thee the rich libation pours; Thee placed his household gods among, With solemn daily prayer adores So Castor and great Hercules of old, Were with her gods by grateful Greece enrolled. 

(155) The panegyric bestowed upon Augustus by the great poets of thattime, appears to have had a farther object than the mere gratification ofvanity. It was the ambition of this emperor to reign in the hearts aswell as over the persons of his subjects; and with this view he wasdesirous of endearing himself to their imagination. Both he and Mecaenashad a delicate sensibility to the beauties of poetical composition; andjudging from their own feelings, they attached a high degree of influenceto the charms of poetry. Impressed with these sentiments, it became anobject of importance, in their opinion, to engage the Muses in theservice of the imperial authority; on which account, we find Mecaenastampering with Propertius, and we may presume, likewise with every otherrising genius in poetry, to undertake an heroic poem, of which Augustusshould be the hero. As the application to Propertius cannot have takenplace until after Augustus had been amply celebrated by the superiorabilities of Virgil and Horace, there seems to be some reason forascribing Mecaenas's request to a political motive. Caius and Lucius, the emperor's grandsons by his daughter Julia, were still living, andboth young. As one of them, doubtless, was intended to succeed to thegovernment of the empire, prudence justified the adoption of everyexpedient that might tend to secure a quiet succession to the heir, uponthe demise of Augustus. As a subsidiary resource, therefore, theexpedient above mentioned was judged highly plausible; and the Romancabinet indulged the idea of endeavouring to confirm imperial authorityby the support of poetical renown. Lampoons against the government werenot uncommon even in the time of Augustus; and elegant panegyric on theemperor served to counteract their influence upon the minds of thepeople. The idea was, perhaps, novel in the time of Augustus; but thehistory of later ages affords examples of its having been adopted, underdifferent forms of government, with success. 

The Roman empire, in the time of Augustus, had attained to a prodigiousmagnitude; and, in his testament, he recommended to his successors neverto exceed the limits which he had prescribed to its extent. On the Eastit stretched to the Euphrates; on the South to the cataracts of the Nile, the deserts of Africa, and Mount Atlas; on the West to the AtlanticOcean; and on the North to the Danube and the Rhine; including the bestpart of the then known world. The Romans, therefore, were not improperlycalled rerum domini [266], and Rome, pulcherrima rerum [267], maximarerum [268]. Even the historians, Livy and Tacitus, (156) actuatedlikewise with admiration, bestow magnificent epithets on the capital oftheir country. The succeeding emperors, in conformity to the advice ofAugustus, made few additions to the empire. Trajan, however, subduedMesopotamia and Armenia, east of the Euphrates, with Dacia, north of theDanube; and after this period the Roman dominion was extended overBritain, as far as the Frith of Forth and the Clyde. 

It would be an object of curiosity to ascertain the amount of the Romanrevenue in the reign of Augustus; but such a problem, even with respectto contemporary nations, cannot be elucidated without access to thepublic registers of their governments; and in regard to an ancientmonarchy, the investigation is impracticable. We can only be assuredthat the revenue must have been immense, which arose from the accumulatedcontribution of such a number of nations, that had supported their owncivil establishments with great splendour, and many of which werecelebrated for their extraordinary riches and commerce. The tribute paidby the Romans themselves, towards the support of the government, was veryconsiderable during the latter ages of the republic, and it received anincrease after the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa. The establishments, both civil and military, in the different provinces, were supported attheir own expense; the emperor required but a small naval force, an armwhich adds much to the public expenditure of maritime nations in moderntimes; and the state was burdened with no diplomatic charges. The vasttreasure accruing from the various taxes centered in Rome, and the wholewas at the disposal of the emperor, without any control. We maytherefore justly conclude that, in the amount of taxes, customs, andevery kind of financial resources, Augustus exceeded all sovereigns whohad hitherto ever swayed the sceptre of imperial dominion; a nobleacquisition, had it been judiciously employed by his successors, inpromoting public happiness, with half the profusion in which it waslavished in disgracing human nature, and violating the rights of mankind. 

The reign of Augustus is distinguished by the most extraordinary eventrecorded in history, either sacred or profane, the nativity of theSaviour of mankind; which has since introduced a new epoch into thechronology of all Christian nations. The commencement of the new aerabeing the most flourishing period of the Roman empire, a general view ofthe state of knowledge and taste at this period, may here not beimproper. 

Civilization was at this time extended farther over the world than it hadever been in any preceding period; but polytheism rather increased thandiminished with the advancement of commercial (157) intercourse betweenthe nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa; and, though philosophy had beencultivated during several ages, at Athens, Cyrene, Rome, and other seatsof learning, yet the morals of mankind were little improved by thediffusion of speculative knowledge. Socrates had laid an admirablefoundation for the improvement of human nature, by the exertion of reasonthrough the whole economy of life; but succeeding inquirers, forsakingthe true path of ethic investigation, deviated into specious discussions, rather ingenious than useful; and some of them, by gratuitously adoptingprinciples, which, so far from being supported by reason, were repugnantto its dictates, endeavoured to erect upon the basis of their respectivedoctrines a system peculiar to themselves. The doctrines of the Stoicsand Epicureans were, in fact, pernicious to society; and those of thedifferent academies, though more intimately connected with reason thanthe two former, were of a nature too abstract to have any immediate oruseful influence on life and manners. General discussions of truth andprobability, with magnificent declamations on the to kalon, and thesummum bonum, constituted the chief objects of attention amongst thosewho cultivated moral science in the shades of academical retirement. Cicero endeavoured to bring back philosophy from speculation to practice, and clearly evinced the social duties to be founded in the unalterabledictates of virtue; but it was easier to demonstrate the truth of theprinciples which he maintained, than to enforce their observance, whilethe morals of mankind were little actuated by the exercise of reasonalone. 

The science chiefly cultivated at this period was rhetoric, which appearsto have differed considerably from what now passes under the same name. The object of it was not so much justness of sentiment and propriety ofexpression, as the art of declaiming, or speaking copiously upon anysubject. It is mentioned by Varro as the reverse of logic; and they aredistinguished from each other by a simile, that the former resembles thepalm of the hand expanded, and the latter, contracted into the fist. Itis observable that logic, though a part of education in modern times, seems not to have been cultivated amongst the Romans. Perhaps they wereapprehensive, lest a science which concentered the force of argument, might obstruct the cultivation of that which was meant to dilate it. Astronomy was long before known in the eastern nations; but there isreason to believe, from a passage in Virgil [269], that it was littlecultivated by the Romans; and it is certain, that in the reformation ofthe calendar, Julius Caesar was chiefly indebted to the scientificknowledge of (158) Sosigenes, a mathematician of Alexandria. The laws ofthe solar system were still but imperfectly known; the popular belief, that the sun moved round the earth, was universally maintained, andcontinued until the sixteenth century, when the contrary was proved byCopernicus. There existed many celebrated tracts on mathematics; andseveral of the mechanical powers, particularly that of the lever, werecultivated with success. The more necessary and useful rules ofarithmetic were generally known. The use of the load-stone not being asyet discovered, navigation was conducted in the day-time by the sun, andin the night, by the observation of certain stars. Geography wascultivated during the present period by Strabo and Mela. In naturalphilosophy little progress was made; but a strong desire of itsimprovement was entertained, particularly by Virgil. Human anatomy beingnot yet introduced, physiology was imperfect. Chemistry, as a science, was utterly unknown. In medicine, the writings of Hippocrates, and otherGreek physicians, were in general the standard of practice; but theMateria Medica contained few remedies of approved quality, and aboundedwith useless substances, as well as with many which stood upon no otherfoundation than the whimsical notions of those who first introduced them. Architecture flourished, through the elegant taste of Vitruvius, and thepatronage of the emperor. Painting, statuary, and music, werecultivated, but not with that degree of perfection which they hadobtained in the Grecian states. The musical instruments of this periodwere the flute and the lyre, to which may be added the sistrum, latelyimported from Egypt. But the chief glory of the period is itsliterature, of which we proceed to give some account. 

At the head of the writers of this age, stands the emperor himself, withhis minister Mecaenas; but the works of both have almost totallyperished. It appears from the historian now translated, that Augustuswas the author of several productions in prose, besides some in verse. He wrote Answers to Brutus in relation to Cato, Exhortations toPhilosophy, and the History of his own Life, which he continued, inthirteen books, down to the war of Cantabria. A book of his, written inhexameter verse, under the title of Sicily, was extant in the time ofSuetonius, as was likewise a book of Epigrams. He began a tragedy on thesubject of Ajax, but, being dissatisfied with the composition, destroyedit. Whatever the merits of Augustus may have been as an author, of whichno judgment can be formed, his attachment to learning and eminent writersaffords a strong presumption that he was not destitute of taste. Mecaenas is said to have written two tragedies, Octavia and Prometheus; aHistory of (159) Animals; a Treatise on Precious Stones; a Journal of theLife of Augustus; and other productions. Curiosity is stronglyinterested to discover the literary talents of a man so muchdistinguished for the esteem and patronage of them in others; but whilewe regret the impossibility of such a development, we scarcely cansuppose the proficiency to have been small, where the love and admirationwere so great. 

History was cultivated amongst the Romans during the present period, withuncommon success. This species of composition is calculated both forinformation and entertainment; but the chief design of it is to recordall transactions relative to the public, for the purpose of enablingmankind to draw from past events a probable conjecture concerning thefuture; and, by knowing the steps which have led either to prosperity ormisfortune, to ascertain the best means of promoting the former, andavoiding the latter of those objects. This useful kind of narrative wasintroduced about five hundred years before by Herodotus, who has thencereceived the appellation of the Father of History. His style, inconformity to the habits of thinking, and the simplicity of language, inan uncultivated age, is plain and unadorned; yet, by the happy modulationof the Ionic dialect, it gratified the ear, and afforded to the states ofGreece a pleasing mixture of entertainment, enriched not only withvarious information, often indeed fabulous or unauthentic, but with therudiments, indirectly interspersed, of political wisdom. This writer, after a long interval, was succeeded by Thucydides and Xenophon, theformer of whom carried historical narrative to the highest degree ofimprovement it ever attained among the States of Greece. The plan ofThucydides seems to have continued to be the model of historicalnarrative to the writers of Rome; but the circumstances of the times, aided perhaps by the splendid exertion of genius in other departments ofliterature, suggested a new resource, which promised not only to animate, but embellish the future productions of the historic Muse. Thisinnovation consisted in an attempt to penetrate the human heart, andexplore in its innermost recesses the sentiments and secret motives whichactuate the conduct of men. By connecting moral effects with theirprobable internal and external causes, it tended to establish asystematic consistency in the concatenation of transactions apparentlyanomalous, accidental, or totally independent of each other. 

The author of this improvement in history was SALLUST, who likewiseintroduced the method of enlivening narrative with the occasional aid ofrhetorical declamation, particularly in his account of the Catilinianconspiracy. The notorious (160) characters and motives of the principalpersons concerned in that horrible plot, afforded the most favourableopportunity for exemplifying the former; while the latter, there isreason to infer from the facts which must have been at that time publiclyknown, were founded upon documents of unquestionable authority. Nay, itis probable that Sallust was present in the senate during the debaterespecting the punishment of the Catilinian conspirators; his detail ofwhich is agreeable to the characters of the several speakers: but indetracting, by invidious silence, or too faint representation, from themerits of Cicero on that important occasion, he exhibits a glaringinstance of the partiality which too often debases the narratives ofthose who record the transactions of their own time. He had marriedTerentia, the divorced wife of Cicero; and there subsisted between thetwo husbands a kind of rivalship from that cause, to which was probablyadded some degree of animosity, on account of their difference inpolitics, during the late dictatorship of Julius Caesar, by whom Sallustwas restored to the senate, whence he had been expelled forlicentiousness, and was appointed governor of Numidia. Excepting theinjustice with which Sallust treats Cicero, he is entitled to highcommendation. In both his remaining works, the Conspiracy of Catiline, and the War of Jugurtha, there is a peculiar air of philosophicalsentiment, which, joined to the elegant conciseness of style, andanimated description of characters, gives to his writings a degree ofinterest, superior to that which is excited in any preceding work of thehistorical kind. In the occasional use of obsolete words, and inlaboured exordiums to both his histories, he is liable to the charge ofaffectation; but it is an affectation of language which supportssolemnity without exciting disgust; and of sentiment which not onlyexalts human nature, but animates to virtuous exertions. It seems to bethe desire of Sallust to atone for the dissipation of his youth by atotal change of conduct; and whoever peruses his exordiums with theattention which they deserve, must feel a strong persuasion of thejustness of his remarks, if not the incentives of a resolution to begoverned by his example. It seems to be certain, that from the firstmoment of his reformation, he incessantly practised the industry which heso warmly recommends. He composed a History of Rome, of which nothingremains but a few fragments. Sallust, during his administration ofNumidia, is said to have exercised great oppression. On his return toRome he built a magnificent house, and bought delightful gardens, thename of which, with his own, is to this day perpetuated on the spot whichthey formerly occupied. Sallust was born at Amiternum, in the country ofthe Sabines, and (161) received his education at Rome. He incurred greatscandal by an amour with Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, and wife of Milo;who detecting the criminal intercourse, is said to have beat him withstripes, and extorted from him a large sum of money. He died, accordingto tradition, in the fifty-first year of his age. 

CORNELIUS NEPOS was born at Hostilia, near the banks of the Po. Of hisparentage we meet with no account; but from his respectable connectionsearly in life, it is probable that he was of good extraction. Among hismost intimate friends were Cicero and Atticus. Some authors relate thathe composed three books of Chronicles, with a biographical account of allthe most celebrated sovereigns, generals, and writers of antiquity. 

The language of Cornelius Nepos is pure, his style perspicuous, and heholds a middle and agreeable course between diffuseness and brevity. Hehas not observed the same rule with respect to the treatment of everysubject; for the account of some of the lives is so short, that we mightsuspect them to be mutilated, did they not contain evident marks of theirbeing completed in miniature. The great extent of his plan induced him, as he informs us, to adopt this expedient. "Sed plura persequi, tummagnitudo voluminis prohibet, tum festinatio, ut ea explicem, quaeexorsus sum. " [270]

Of his numerous biographical works, twenty-two lives only remain, whichare all of Greeks, except two Carthaginians, Hamilcar and Hannibal; andtwo Romans, M. Porcius Cato and T. Pomponius Atticus. Of his ownlife, --of him who had written the lives of so many, no account istransmitted; but from the multiplicity of his productions, we mayconclude that it was devoted to literature. 

TITUS LIVIUS may be ranked among the most celebrated historians the worldhas ever produced. He composed a history of Rome from the foundation ofthe city, to the conclusion of the German war conducted by Drusus in thetime of the emperor Augustus. This great work consisted, originally, ofone hundred and forty books; of which there now remain only thirty-five, viz. , the first decade, and the whole from book twenty-one to bookforty-five, both inclusive. Of the other hundred and five books, nothingmore has survived the ravages of time and barbarians than their generalcontents. In a perspicuous arrangement of his subject, in a full andcircumstantial account of transactions, in the delineation of charactersand other objects of description, to justness and aptitude of sentiment, and in an air of majesty (162) pervading the whole composition, thisauthor may be regarded as one of the best models extant of historicalnarrative. His style is splendid without meretricious ornament, andcopious without being redundant; a fluency to which Quintilian gives theexpressive appellation of "lactea ubertas. " Amongst the beauties whichwe admire in his writings, besides the animated speeches frequentlyinterspersed, are those concise and peculiarly applicable eulogiums, withwhich he characterises every eminent person mentioned, at the close oftheir life. Of his industry in collating, and his judgment in decidingupon the preference due to, dissentient authorities, in matters oftestimony, the work affords numberless proofs. Of the freedom andimpartiality with which he treated even of the recent periods of history, there cannot be more convincing evidence, than that he was rallied byAugustus as a favourer of Pompey; and that, under the same emperor, henot only bestowed upon Cicero the tribute of warm approbation, but daredto ascribe, in an age when their names were obnoxious, even to Brutus andCassius the virtues of consistency and patriotism. If in any thing theconduct of Livy violates our sentiments of historical dignity, it is theapparent complacency and reverence with which he every where mentions thepopular belief in omens and prodigies; but this was the generalsuperstition of the times; and totally to renounce the prejudices ofsuperstitious education, is the last heroic sacrifice to philosophicalscepticism. In general, however, the credulity of Livy appears to berather affected than real; and his account of the exit of Romulus, in thefollowing passage, may be adduced as an instance in confirmation of thisremark. 

"His immortalibus editis operibus, quum ad exercitum recensendumconcionem in campo ad Caprae paludem haberet, subita coorta tempestatecum magno fragore tonitribusque tam denso regem operuit nimbo, utconspectum ejus concioni abstulerit; nec deinde in terris Romulus fuit. Romana pubes, sedato tandem pavore, postquam ex tam turbido die serena, et tranquilla lux rediit, ubi vacuam sedem regiam vidit; etsi satiscredebat Patribus, qui proximi steterant, sublimem raptum procella; tamenveluti orbitatis metu icta, maestum aliquamdiu silentium obtinuit. Deinde a paucis initio facto, Deum, Deo natum, regem parentemque urbisRomanae, salvere universi Romulum jubent; pacem precibus exposcunt, utivolens propitius suam semper sospitet progeniem. Fuisse credo tum quoquealiquos, qui discerptum regem Patrum manibus taciti arguerent; manavitenim haec quoque, et perobscura, fama. Illam alteram admiratio viri, etpavor praesens nobilitavit. Consilio etiam unius hominis addita reidicitur fides; namque Proculus Julius sollicita civitate desiderio (163)regis, et infensa Patribus, gravis, ut traditur, quamvis magnae reiauctor, in concionem prodit. 'Romulus, inquit, Quirites, parens urbishujus, prima hodierna luce coelo repente delapsus, se mihi obvium dedit;quam profusus horrore venerabundusque astitissem, petens precibus, utcontra intueri fas esset; Abi, nuncia, inquit, Romanis, Coelestes itavelle, ut mea Roma caput orbis terrarum sit; proinde rem militaremcolant; sciantque, et ita posteris tradant, nullas opes humanas armisRomanis resistere posse. ' Haec, inquit, locutus, sublimis abiit. Mirum, quantum illi viro nuncianti haec fidei fuerit; quamque desiderium Romuliapud plebem exercitumque, facta fide immortalitatis, lenitum sit. " [271]

Scarcely any incident in ancient history savours more of the (164)marvellous than the account above delivered respecting the first Romanking; and amidst all the solemnity with which it is related, we mayperceive that the historian was not the dupe of credulity. There is moreimplied than the author thought proper to avow, in the sentence, Fuissecredo, etc. In whatever light this anecdote be viewed, it is involved inperplexity. That Romulus affected a despotic power, is not only highlyprobable, from his aspiring disposition, but seems to be confirmed by hisrecent appointment of the Celeres, as a guard to his person. He might, therefore, naturally incur the odium of the patricians, whose importancewas diminished, and their institution rendered abortive, by the increaseof his power. But that they should choose the opportunity of a militaryreview, for the purpose of removing the tyrant by a violent death, seemsnot very consistent with the dictates even of common prudence; and it isthe more incredible, as the circumstance which favoured the execution ofthe plot is represented to have been entirely a fortuitous occurrence. The tempest which is said to have happened, is not easily reconcilablewith our knowledge of that phenomenon. Such a cloud, or mist, as couldhave enveloped Romulus from the eyes of the assembly, is not a naturalconcomitant of a thunder-storm. There is some reason to suspect thatboth the noise and cloud, if they actually existed, were artificial; theformer intended to divert the attention of the spectators, and the latterto conceal the transaction. The word fragor, a noise or crash, appearsto be an unnecessary addition where thunder is expressed, thoughsometimes so used by the poets, and may therefore, perhaps, imply such anoise from some other cause. If Romulus was killed by any pointed orsharp-edged weapon, his blood might have been discovered on the spot; or, if by other means, still the body was equally an object for publicobservation. If the people suspected the patricians to be guilty ofmurder, why did they not endeavour to trace the fact by this evidence?And if the patricians were really innocent, why did they not urge theexamination? But the body, without doubt, was secreted, to favour theimposture. The whole narrative is strongly marked with circumstancescalculated to affect credulity with ideas of national importance; and, tocountenance the design, there is evidently a chasm in the Roman historyimmediately preceding this transaction and intimately connected with it. 

Livy was born at Patavium [272], and has been charged by Asinius Pollioand others with the provincial dialect of his country. The objections tohis Pativinity, as it is called, relate chiefly to the (165) spelling ofsome words; in which, however, there seems to be nothing so peculiar, aseither to occasion any obscurity or merit reprehension. 

Livy and Sallust being the only two existing rivals in Roman history, itmay not be improper to draw a short comparison between them, in respectof their principal qualities, as writers. With regard to language, thereis less apparent affectation in Livy than in Sallust. The narrative ofboth is distinguished by an elevation of style: the elevation of Sallustseems to be often supported by the dignity of assumed virtue; that ofLivy by a majestic air of historical, and sometimes national, importance. In delineating characters, Sallust infuses more expression, and Livy morefulness, into the features. In the speeches ascribed to particularpersons, these writers are equally elegant and animated. 

So great was the fame of Livy in his own life-time, that people came fromthe extremity of Spain and Gaul, for the purpose only of beholding socelebrated a historian, who was regarded, for his abilities, as aprodigy. This affords a strong proof, not only of the literary tastewhich then prevailed over the most extensive of the Roman provinces, butof the extraordinary pains with which so great a work must have beenpropagated, when the art of printing was unknown. In the fifteenthcentury, on the revival of learning in Europe, the name of this greatwriter recovered its ancient veneration; and Alphonso of Arragon, with asuperstition characteristic of that age, requested of the people ofPadua, where Livy was born, and is said to have been buried, to befavoured by them with the hand which had written so admirable a work. --

The celebrity of VIRGIL has proved the means of ascertaining his birthwith more exactness than is common in the biographical memoirs of ancientwriters. He was born at Andes, a village in the neighbourhood of Mantua, on the 15th of October, seventy years before the Christian aera. Hisparents were of moderate condition; but by their industry acquired someterritorial possessions, which descended to their son. The first sevenyears of his life was spent at Cremona, whence he went to Mediolanum, nowMilan, at that time the seat of the liberal arts, denominated, as welearn from Pliny the younger, Novae Athenae. From this place heafterwards moved to Naples, where he applied himself with great assiduityto Greek and Roman literature, particularly to the physical andmathematical sciences; for which he expressed a strong predilection inthe second book of his Georgics. 

 Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae, Quarum sacra fero ingenti perculsus amore, (166) Accipiant; coelique vias et sidera monstrent; Defectus Solis varios, Lunaeque labores: Unde tremor terris: qua vi maria alta tumescant Obicibus ruptis, rursusque in seipsa residant: Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles Hiberni: vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet. Geor. Ii. 1. 591, etc. 

 But most beloved, ye Muses, at whose fane, Led by pure zeal, I consecrate my strain, Me first accept! And to my search unfold, Heaven and her host in beauteous order rolled, The eclipse that dims the golden orb of day, And changeful labour of the lunar ray; Whence rocks the earth, by what vast force the main Now bursts its barriers, now subsides again; Why wintry suns in ocean swiftly fade, Or what delays night's slow-descending shade. Sotheby. 

When, by a proscription of the Triumvirate, the lands of Cremona andMantua were distributed amongst the veteran soldiers, Virgil had the goodfortune to recover his possessions, through the favour of Asinius Pollio, the deputy of Augustus in those parts; to whom, as well as to theemperor, he has testified his gratitude in beautiful eclogues. 

The first production of Virgil was his Bucolics, consisting of teneclogues, written in imitation of the Idyllia or pastoral poems ofTheocritus. It may be questioned whether any language which has itsprovincial dialects, but is brought to perfection, can ever be welladapted, in that state, to the use of pastoral poetry. There is such anapparent incongruity between the simple ideas of the rural swain and thepolished language of the courtier, that it seems impossible to reconcilethem together by the utmost art of composition. The Doric dialect ofTheocritus, therefore, abstractedly from all consideration of simplicityof sentiment, must ever give to the Sicilian bard a pre-eminence in thisspecies of poetry. The greater part of the Bucolics of Virgil may beregarded as poems of a peculiar nature, into which the author has happilytransfused, in elegant versification, the native manners and ideas, without any mixture of the rusticity of pastoral life. With respect tothe fourth eclogue, addressed to Pollio, it is avowedly of a naturesuperior to that of pastoral subjects:

 Sicelides Musae, paullo majora canamus. Sicilian Muse, be ours a loftier strain. 

Virgil engaged in bucolic poetry at the request of Asinius Pollio, whomhe highly esteemed, and for one of whose sons in particular, (167) withCornelius Gallus, a poet likewise, he entertained the warmest affection. He has celebrated them all in these poems, which were begun, we are told, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and completed in three years. Theywere held in so great esteem amongst the Romans, immediately after theirpublication, that it is said they were frequently recited upon the stagefor the entertainment of the audience. Cicero, upon hearing some linesof them, perceived that they were written in no common strain of poetry, and desired that the whole eclogue might be recited: which being done, heexclaimed, "Magnae spes altera Romae. " Another hope of mighty Rome![273]

Virgil's next work was the Georgics, the idea of which is taken from theErga kai Hmerai, the Works and Days of Hesiod, the poet of Ascra. Butbetween the productions of the two poets, there is no other similaritythan that of their common subject. The precepts of Hesiod, in respect ofagriculture, are delivered with all the simplicity of an unletteredcultivator of the fields, intermixed with plain moral reflections, natural and apposite; while those of Virgil, equally precise andimportant, are embellished with all the dignity of sublime versification. The work is addressed to Mecaenas, at whose request it appears to havebeen undertaken. It is divided into four books. The first treats ofploughing; the second, of planting; the third, of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, dogs, and of things which are hurtful to cattle; the fourth isemployed on bees, their proper habitations, food, polity, the diseases towhich they are liable, and the remedies of them, with the method ofmaking honey, and a variety of other considerations connected with thesubject. The Georgics (168) were written at Naples, and employed theauthor during a period of seven years. It is said that Virgil hadconcluded the Georgics with a laboured eulogium on his poetical friendGallus; but the latter incurring about this time the displeasure ofAugustus, he was induced to cancel it, and substitute the charmingepisode of Astaeus and Eurydice. 

These beautiful poems, considered merely as didactic, have the justestclaim to utility. In what relates to agriculture in particular, theprecepts were judiciously adapted to the climate of Italy, and must haveconveyed much valuable information to those who were desirous ofcultivating that important art, which was held in great honour amongstthe Romans. The same remark may be made, with greater latitude ofapplication, in respect of the other subjects. But when we examine theGeorgics as poetical compositions, when we attend to the elevated stylein which they are written, the beauty of the similes, the emphaticsentiments interspersed, the elegance of diction, the animated strain ofthe whole, and the harmony of the versification, our admiration isexcited, at beholding subjects, so common in their nature, embellishedwith the most magnificent decorations of poetry. 

During four days which Augustus passed at Atella, to refresh himself fromfatigue, in his return to Rome, after the battle of Actium, the Georgics, just then finished, were read to him by the author, who was occasionallyrelieved in the task by his friend Mecaenas. We may easily conceive thesatisfaction enjoyed by the emperor, at finding that while he himself hadbeen gathering laurels in the achievements of war, another gloriouswreath was prepared by the Muses to adorn his temples; and that anintimation was given of his being afterwards celebrated in a work morecongenial to the subject of heroic renown. 

It is generally supposed that the Aeneid was written at the particulardesire of Augustus, who was ambitious of having the Julian familyrepresented as lineal descendants of the Trojan Aeneas. In thiscelebrated poem, Virgil has happily united the characteristics of theIliad and Odyssey, and blended them so judiciously together, that theymutually contribute to the general effect of the whole. By the esteemand sympathy excited for the filial piety and misfortunes of Aeneas atthe catastrophe of Troy, the reader is strongly interested in hissubsequent adventures; and every obstacle to the establishment of theTrojans in the promised land of Hesperia produces fresh sensations ofincreased admiration and attachment. The episodes, characters, andincidents, all concur to give beauty or grandeur to the poem. Thepicture of Troy in flames can never be sufficiently (169) admired! Theincomparable portrait of Priam, in Homer, is admirably accommodated to adifferent situation, in the character of Anchises, in the Aeneid. Theprophetic rage of the Cumaean Sibyl displays in the strongest colours theenthusiasm of the poet. For sentiment, passion, and interestingdescription, the episode of Dido is a master-piece in poetry. But Virgilis not more conspicuous for strength of description than propriety ofsentiment; and wherever he takes a hint from the Grecian bard, heprosecutes the idea with a judgment peculiar to himself. It may besufficient to mention one instance. In the sixth book of the Iliad, while the Greeks are making great slaughter amongst the Trojans, Hector, by the advice of Helenus, retires into the city, to desire that hismother would offer up prayers to the goddess Pallas, and vow to her anoble sacrifice, if she would drive Diomede from the walls of Troy. Immediately before his return to the field of battle, he has his lastinterview with Andromache, whom he meets with his infant son Astyanax, carried by a nurse. There occurs, upon this occasion, one of the mostbeautiful scenes in the Iliad, where Hector dandles the boy in his arms, and pours forth a prayer, that he may one day be superior in fame to hisfather. In the same manner, Aeneas, having armed himself for thedecisive combat with Turnus, addresses his son Ascanius in a beautifulspeech, which, while expressive of the strongest paternal affection, contains, instead of a prayer, a noble and emphatic admonition, suitableto a youth who had nearly attained the period of adult age. It is asfollows:

 Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem; Fortunam ex aliis; nunc te mea dextera bello Defensum dabit, et magna inter praemia ducet. Tu facito, mox cum matura adoleverit aetas, Sis memor: et te animo repetentem exempla tuorum, Et pater Aeneas, et avunculus excitet Hector. --Aeneid, xii. 

 My son! from my example learn the war In camps to suffer, and in feuds to dare, But happier chance than mine attend thy care! This day my hand thy tender age shall shield, And crown with honours of the conquered field: Thou when thy riper years shall send thee forth To toils of war, be mindful of my worth; Assert thy birthright, and in arms be known, For Hector's nephew and Aeneas' son. 

Virgil, though born to shine by his own intrinsic powers, certainly owedmuch of his excellence to the wonderful merits of Homer. His susceptibleimagination, vivid and correct, was (170) impregnated by the Odyssey, andwarmed with the fire of the Iliad. Rivalling, or rather on someoccasions surpassing his glorious predecessor in the characters of heroesand of gods, he sustains their dignity with so uniform a lustre, thatthey seem indeed more than mortal. 

Whether the Iliad or the Aeneid be the more perfect composition, is aquestion which has often been agitated, but perhaps will never bedetermined to general satisfaction. In comparing the genius of the twopoets, however, allowance ought to be made for the difference ofcircumstances under which they composed their respective works. Homerwrote in an age when mankind had not as yet made any great progress inthe exertion of either intellect or imagination, and he was thereforeindebted for big resources to the vast capacity of his own mind. To thiswe must add, that he composed both his poems in a situation of lifeextremely unfavourable to the cultivation of poetry. Virgil, on thecontrary, lived at a period when literature had attained to a high stateof improvement. He had likewise not only the advantage of finding amodel in the works of Homer, but of perusing the laws of epic poetry, which had been digested by Aristotle, and the various observations madeon the writings of the Greek bard by critics of acuteness and taste;amongst the chief of whom was his friend Horace, who remarks that

 --------quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. --De Arte Poet. 

 E'en sometimes the good Homer naps. 

Virgil, besides, composed his poem in a state remote from indigence, where he was roused to exertion by the example of several contemporarypoets; and what must have animated him beyond every other consideration, he wrote both at the desire, and under the patronage of the emperor andhis minister Mecaenas. In what time Homer composed either of his poems, we know not; but the Aeneid, we are informed, was the employment ofVirgil during eleven years. For some years, the repeated entreaties ofAugustus could not extort from him the smallest specimen of the work; butat length, when considerably advanced in it, he condescended to recitethree books--the second, the fourth, and the sixth--in the presence ofthe emperor and his sister Octavia, to gratify the latter of whom, inparticular, the recital of the last book now mentioned, was intended. When the poet came to the words, Tu Marcellus eris, alluding to Octavia'sson, a youth of great hopes, who had lately died, the mother fainted. After she had recovered from this fit, by the care of her attendants, sheordered ten sesterces to be given to Virgil for every line relating (171)to that subject; a gratuity which amounted to about two thousand poundssterling. 

In the composition of the Aeneid, Virgil scrupled not to introduce wholelines of Homer, and of the Latin poet Ennius; many of whose sentences headmired. In a few instances he has borrowed from Lucretius. He is saidto have been at extraordinary pains in polishing his numbers; and when hewas doubtful of any passage, he would read it to some of his friends, that he might have their opinion. On such occasions, it was usual withhim to consult in particular his freedman and librarian Erotes, an olddomestic, who, it is related, supplied extempore a deficiency in twolines, and was desired by his master to write them in the manuscript. 

When this immortal work was completed, Virgil resolved on retiring intoGreece and Asia for three years, that he might devote himself entirely topolishing it, and have leisure afterwards to pass the remainder of hislife in the cultivation of philosophy. But meeting at Athens withAugustus, who was on his return from the East, he determined onaccompanying the emperor back to Rome. Upon a visit to Megara, a town inthe neighbourhood of Athens, he was seized with a languor, whichincreased during the ensuing voyage; and he expired a few days afterlanding at Brundisium, on the 22nd of September, in the fifty-second yearof his age. He desired that his body might be carried to Naples, wherehe had passed many happy years; and that the following distich, writtenin his last sickness, should be inscribed upon his tomb:

 Mantua me genuit: Calabri rapuere: tenet nunc Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces. [274]

He was accordingly interred, by the order of Augustus, with great funeralpomp, within two miles of Naples, near the road to Puteoli, where histomb still exists. Of his estate, which was very considerable by theliberality of his friends, he left the greater part to Valerius Proculusand his brother, a fourth to Augustus, a twelfth to Mecaenas, besideslegacies to L. Varius and Plotius Tucca, who, in consequence of his ownrequest, and the command of Augustus, revised and corrected the Aeneidafter his death. Their instructions from the emperor were, to expungewhatever they thought improper, but upon no account to make any addition. This restriction is supposed to be the cause that many lines in theAeneid are imperfect. 

Virgil was of large stature, had a dark complexion, and his (172)features are said to have been such as expressed no uncommon abilities. He was subject to complaints of the stomach and throat, as well as tohead-ache, and had frequent discharges of blood upwards: but from whatpart, we are not informed. He was very temperate both in food and wine. His modesty was so great, that at Naples they commonly gave him the nameof Parthenias, "the modest man. " On the subject of his modesty; thefollowing anecdote is related. 

Having written a distich, in which he compared Augustus to Jupiter, heplaced it in the night-time over the gate of the emperor's palace. Itwas in these words:

 Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane: Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet. 

 All night it rained, with morn the sports appear, Caesar and Jove between them rule the year. 

By order of Augustus, an inquiry was made after the author; and Virgilnot declaring himself, the verses were claimed by Bathyllus, acontemptible poet, but who was liberally rewarded on the occasion. Virgil, provoked at the falsehood of the impostor, again wrote the verseson some conspicuous part of the palace, and under them the followingline:

 Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honorem; I wrote the verse, another filched the praise;

with the beginning of another line in these words:

 Sic vos, non vobis, Not for yourselves, you----

repeated four times. Augustus expressing a desire that the lines shouldbe finished, and Bathyllus proving unequal to the task, Virgil at lastfilled up the blanks in this manner:

 Sic vos, non vobis, nidificatis, aves; Sic vos, non vobis, vellera fertis, oves; Sic vos, non vobis, mellificatis, apes; Sic vos, non vobis, fertis aratra, boves. 

 Not for yourselves, ye birds, your nests ye build; Not for yourselves, ye sheep, your fleece ye yield; Not for yourselves, ye bees, your cells ye fill; Not for yourselves, ye beeves, ye plough and till. 

The expedient immediately evinced him to be the author of the distich, and Bathyllus became the theme of public ridicule. 

When at any time Virgil came to Rome, if the people, as was commonly thecase, crowded to gaze upon him, or pointed at him with the finger inadmiration, he blushed, and stole away (173) from them; frequently takingrefuge in some shop. When he went to the theatre, the audienceuniversally rose up at his entrance, as they did to Augustus, andreceived him with the loudest plaudits; a compliment which, howeverhighly honourable, he would gladly have declined. When such was the justrespect which they paid to the author of the Bucolics and Georgics, howwould they have expressed their esteem, had they beheld him in theeffulgence of epic renown! In the beautiful episode of the Elysianfields, in the Aeneid, where he dexterously introduced a glorious displayof their country, he had touched the most elastic springs of Romanenthusiasm. The passion would have rebounded upon himself, and theywould, in the heat of admiration, have idolized him. 

HORACE was born at Venusia, on the tenth of December, in the consulshipof L. Cotta and L. Torquatus. According to his own acknowledgment, hisfather was a freedman; by some it is said that he was a collector of therevenue, and by others, a fishmonger, or a dealer in salted meat. Whatever he was, he paid particular attention to the education of hisson, for, after receiving instruction from the best masters in Rome, hesent him to Athens to study philosophy. From this place, Horace followedBrutus, in the quality of a military tribune, to the battle of Philippi, where, by his own confession, being seized with timidity, he abandonedthe profession of a soldier, and returning to Rome, applied himself tothe cultivation of poetry. In a short time he acquired the friendship ofVirgil and Valerius, whom he mentions in his Satires, in terms of themost tender affection. 

 Postera lux oritur multo gratissima: namque Plotius et Varius Sinuessae, Virgiliusque, Occurrunt; animae, quales neque candidiores Terra tulit, neque queis me sit devinctior alter. O qui complexus, et gaudia quanta fuerunt! Nil ego contulerim jucundo sanus amico. --Sat. I. 5. 

 Next rising morn with double joy we greet, For Plotius, Varius, Virgil, here we meet: Pure spirits these; the world no purer knows, For none my heart with more affection glows: How oft did we embrace, our joys how great! For sure no blessing in the power of fate Can be compared, in sanity of mind, To friends of such companionable kind. --Francis. 

By the two friends above mentioned, he was recommended to the patronagenot only of Mecaenas, but of Augustus, with whom he, as well as Virgil, lived on a footing of the greatest intimacy. Satisfied with the luxurywhich he enjoyed at the first tables in (174) Rome, he was so unambitiousof any public employment, that when the emperor offered him the place ofhis secretary, he declined it. But as he lived in an elegant manner, having, besides his house in town, a cottage on his Sabine farm, and avilla at Tibur, near the falls of the Anio, he enjoyed, beyond all doubt. A handsome establishment, from the liberality of Augustus. He indulgedhimself in indolence and social pleasure, but was at the same time muchdevoted to reading; and enjoyed a tolerable good state of health, although often incommoded with a fluxion of rheum upon the eyes. 

Horace, in the ardour of youth, and when his bosom beat high with theraptures of fancy, had, in the pursuit of Grecian literature, drunklargely, at the source, of the delicious springs of Castalia; and itseems to have been ever after his chief ambition, to transplant into theplains of Latium the palm of lyric poetry. Nor did he fail of success:

 Exegi monumentum aere perennius. --Carm. Iii. 30. More durable than brass a monument I've raised. 

In Greece, and other countries, the Ode appears to have been the mostancient, as well as the most popular species of literary production. Warm in expression, and short in extent, it concentrates in narrow boundsthe fire of poetical transport: on which account, it has been generallyemployed to celebrate the fervours of piety, the raptures of love, theenthusiasm of praise; and to animate warriors to glorious exertions ofvalour:

 Musa dedit fidibus Divos, puerosque Deorum, Et pugilem victorem, et equum certamine primnm, Et juvenum curas, et libera vina referre. --Hor. De Arte Poet. 

 The Muse to nobler subjects tunes her lyre; Gods, and the sons of Gods, her song inspire; Wrestler and steed, who gained the Olympic prize, Love's pleasing cares, and wine's unbounded joys. --Francis. 

 Misenum Aeoliden, quo non praestantior alter Aere ciere viros, Martemque accendere cnatu. [275] Virgil, Aeneid, vi. . . . . . . . . . . . . 

 Sed tum forte cava dum personat aequora concha Demens, et canto vocat in certamina Divos. --Ibid. 

 Misenus, son of Oeolus, renowned The warrior trumpet in the field to sound; With breathing brass to kindle fierce alarms, And rouse to dare their fate in honourable arms. 

 . . . . . . . . . . . . 

 (175) Swollen with applause, and aiming still at more, He now provokes the sea-gods from the shore. --Dryden

There arose in this department, among the Greeks, nine eminent poets, viz. Alcaeus, Alcman, Anacreon, Bacchylides, Ibicus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Simonides, and Pindar. The greater number of this distinguished classare now known only by name. They seem all to have differed from oneanother, no less in the kind of measure which they chiefly or solelyemployed, than in the strength or softness, the beauty or grandeur, theanimated rapidity or the graceful ease of their various compositions. Ofthe amorous effusions of the lyre, we yet have examples in the odes ofAnacreon, and the incomparable ode of Sappho: the lyric strains whichanimated to battle, have sunk into oblivion; but the victors in thepublic games of Greece have their fame perpetuated in the admirableproductions of Pindar. 

Horace, by adopting, in the multiplicity of his subjects, almost all thevarious measures of the different Greek poets, and frequently combiningdifferent measures in the same composition, has compensated for thedialects of that tongue, so happily suited to poetry, and given to alanguage less distinguished for soft inflexions, all the tender anddelicate modulations of the Eastern song. While he moves in the measuresof the Greeks with an ease and gracefulness which rivals their ownacknowledged excellence, he has enriched the fund of lyric harmony with astanza peculiar to himself. In the artificial construction of the Ode, he may justly be regarded as the first of lyric poets. In beautifulimagery, he is inferior to none: in variety of sentiment and felicity ofexpression, superior to every existing competitor in Greek or Romanpoetry. He is elegant without affectation; and what is more remarkable, in the midst of gaiety he is moral. We seldom meet in his Odes with theabrupt apostrophes of passionate excursion; but his transitions areconducted with ease, and every subject introduced with propriety. 

The Carmen Seculare was written at the express desire of Augustus, forthe celebration of the Secular Games, performed once in a hundred years, and which continued during three days and three nights, whilst all Romeresounded with the mingled effusions of choral addresses to gods andgoddesses, and of festive joy. An occasion which so much interested theambition of the poet, called into exertion the most vigorous efforts ofhis genius. More concise in mythological attributes than the hymnsascribed to Homer, this beautiful production, in variety and grandeur ofinvocation, and in pomp of numbers, surpasses all that Greece, (176)melodious but simple in the service of the altar, ever poured forth fromher vocal groves in solemn adoration. By the force of native genius, theancients elevated their heroes to a pitch of sublimity that excitesadmiration, but to soar beyond which they could derive no aid frommythology; and it was reserved for a bard, inspired with noblersentiments than the Muses could supply, to sing the praises of that Beingwhose ineffable perfections transcend all human imagination. Of thepraises of gods and heroes, there is not now extant a more beautifulcomposition, than the 12th Ode of the first book of Horace:

 Quem virum aut heroa lyra vel acri Tibia sumes celebrare, Clio? Quem Deum? cujus recinet jocosa Nomen imago, Aut in umbrosis Heliconis oris, etc. 

 What man, what hero, on the tuneful lyre, Or sharp-toned flute, will Clio choose to raise, Deathless, to fame? What God? whose hallowed name The sportive image of the voice Shall in the shades of Helicon repeat, etc. 

The Satires of Horace are far from being remarkable for poetical harmony, as he himself acknowledges. Indeed, according to the plan upon whichseveral of them are written, it could scarcely be otherwise. They arefrequently colloquial, sometimes interrogatory, the transitions quick, and the apostrophes abrupt. It was not his object in those compositions, to soothe the ear with the melody of polished numbers, but to rally thefrailties of the heart, to convince the understanding by argument, andthence to put to shame both the vices and follies of mankind. Satire isa species of composition, of which the Greeks furnished no model; and thepreceding Roman writers of this class, though they had much improved itfrom its original rudeness and licentiousness, had still not brought itto that degree of perfection which might answer the purpose of moralreform in a polished state of society. It received the most essentialimprovement from Horace, who has dexterously combined wit and argument, raillery and sarcasm, on the side of morality and virtue, of happinessand truth. 

The Epistles of this author may be reckoned amongst the most valuableproductions of antiquity. Except those of the second book, and one ortwo in the first, they are in general of the familiar kind; abounding inmoral sentiments, and judicious observations on life and manners. 

The poem De Arte Poetica comprises a system of criticism, in justness ofprinciple and extent of application, correspondent to the variousexertions of genius on subjects of invention and taste. (177) That incomposing this excellent production, he availed himself of the mostapproved works of Grecian original, we may conclude from the advice whichhe there recommends:

 ------------Vos exemplaria Graeca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. 

 Make the Greek authors your supreme delight; Read them by day, and study them by night. --Francis. 

In the writings of Horace there appears a fund of good sense, enlivenedwith pleasantry, and refined by philosophical reflection. He hadcultivated his judgment with great application, and his taste was guidedby intuitive perception of moral beauty, aptitude, and propriety. Thefew instances of indelicacy which occur in his compositions, we mayascribe rather to the manners of the times, than to any blameablepropensity in the author. Horace died in the fifty-seventh year of hisage, surviving his beloved Mecaenas only three weeks; a circumstancewhich, added to the declaration in an ode [276] to that personage, supposed to have been written in Mecaenas's last illness, has given riseto a conjecture, that Horace ended his days by a violent death, toaccompany his friend. But it is more natural to conclude that he died ofexcessive grief, as, had he literally adhered to the affirmationcontained in the ode, he would have followed his patron more closely. This seems to be confirmed by a fact immediately preceding his death; forthough he declared Augustus heir to his whole estate, he was not able, onaccount of weakness, to put his signature to the will; a failure which itis probable that he would have taken care to obviate, had his death beenpremeditated. He was interred, at his own desire, near the tomb ofMecaenas. ----

OVID was born of an equestrian family, at Sulmo, a town of the Peligni, on the 21st of March, in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa. His fatherintended him for the bar; and after passing him through the usual courseof instruction at Rome, he was sent to Athens, the emporium of learning, to complete his education. On his return to Rome, in obedience to thedesire of his father, he entered upon the offices of public life in theforum, and declaimed with great applause. But this was the effect ofpaternal authority, not of choice: for, from his earliest years, hediscovered an extreme attachment to poetry; and no sooner was his fatherdead, than, renouncing the bar, he devoted himself entirely to thecultivation of that fascinating art, his propensity to which wasinvincible. His productions, all written either in heroic or pentameterverse, are numerous, and on various subjects. It will be sufficient tomention them briefly. 

(178) The Heroides consist of twenty-one Epistles, all which, exceptthree, are feigned to be written from celebrated women of antiquity, totheir husbands or lovers, such as Penelope to Ulysses, Dido to Aeneas, Sappho to Phaon, etc. These compositions are nervous, animated andelegant: they discover a high degree of poetic enthusiasm, but blendedwith that lascivious turn of thought, which pervades all the amorousproductions of this celebrated author. 

The elegies on subjects of love, particularly the Ars Amandi, or ArsAmatoria, though not all uniform in versification, possess the samegeneral character, of warmth of passion, and luscious description, as theepistles. 

The Fasti were divided into twelve books, of which only the first six nowremain. The design of them was to deliver an account of the Romanfestivals in every month of the year, with a description of the rites andceremonies, as well as the sacrifices on those occasions. It is to beregretted, that, on a subject so interesting, this valuable work shouldnot have been transmitted entire: but in the part which remains, we arefurnished with a beautiful description of the ceremonial transactions inthe Roman calendar, from the first of January to the end of June. Theversification, as in all the compositions of this author, is easy andharmonious. 

The most popular production of this poet is his Metamorphoses, not lessextraordinary for the nature of the subject, than for the admirable artwith which the whole is conducted. The work is founded upon thetraditions and theogony of the ancients, which consisted of variousdetached fables. Those Ovid has not only so happily arranged, that theyform a coherent series of narratives, one rising out of another; but hedescribes the different changes with such an imposing plausibility, as togive a natural appearance to the most incredible fictions. Thisingenious production, however perfect it may appear, we are told byhimself, had not received his last corrections when he was ordered intobanishment. 

In the Ibis, the author imitates a poem of the same name, written byCallimachus. It is an invective against some person who publiclytraduced his character at Rome, after his banishment. A strongsensibility, indignation, and implacable resentment, are conspicuousthrough the whole. 

The Tristia were composed in his exile, in which, though his vivacityforsook him, he still retained a genius prolific in versification. Inthese poems, as well as in many epistles to different persons, he bewailshis unhappy situation, and deprecates in the strongest terms theinexorable displeasure of Augustus. 

Several other productions written by Ovid are now lost, and (179) amongstthem a tragedy called Medea, of which Quintilian expresses a highopinion. Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum vir ille praestarepotuerit, si ingenio suo temperare quam indulgere maluisset [277]. Lib. X. C. 1. 

It is a peculiarity in the productions of this author, that, on whateverhe employs his pen, he exhausts the subject; not with any prolixity thatfatigues the attention, but by a quick succession of new ideas, equallybrilliant and apposite, often expressed in antitheses. Void of obscenityin expression, but lascivious in sentiment, he may be said rather tostimulate immorally the natural passions, than to corrupt theimagination. No poet is more guided in versification by the nature ofhis subject than Ovid. In common narrative, his ideas are expressed withalmost colloquial simplicity; but when his fancy glows with sentiment, oris animated by objects of grandeur, his style is proportionably elevated, and he rises to a pitch of sublimity. 

No point in ancient history has excited more variety of conjectures thanthe banishment of Ovid; but after all the efforts of different writers toelucidate the subject, the cause of this extraordinary transactionremains involved in obscurity. It may therefore not be improper, in thisplace, to examine the foundation of the several conjectures which havebeen formed, and if they appear to be utterly imadmissible, to attempt asolution of the question upon principles more conformable to probability, and countenanced by historical evidence. 

The ostensible reason assigned by Augustus for banishing Ovid, was hiscorrupting the Roman youth by lascivious publications; but it is evident, from various passages in the poet's productions after this period, thatthere was, besides, some secret reason, which would not admit of beingdivulged. He says in his Tristia, Lib. Ii. 1--

 Perdiderent cum me duo crimina, carmen et errors. [278]

It appears from another passage in the same work, that this inviolablearcanum was something which Ovid had seen, and, as he insinuates, throughhis own ignorance and mistake. 

 Cur aliquid vidi? cur conscia lumina feci? Cur imprudenti cognita culpa mihi est?--Ibid. * * * * * * (180) Inscia quod crimen viderunt lumina, plector: Peccatumque oculos est habuisse meum. [279] De Trist. Iii. 5. 

It seems, therefore, to be a fact sufficiently established, that Ovid hadseen something of a very indecent nature, in which Augustus wasconcerned. What this was, is the question. Some authors, conceiving itto have been of a kind extremely atrocious, have gone so far as tosuppose, that it must have been an act of criminality between Augustusand his own daughter Julia, who, notwithstanding the strict attentionpaid to her education by her father, became a woman of the most infamouscharacter; suspected of incontinence during her marriage with Agrippa, and openly profligate after her union with her next husband, Tiberius. This supposition, however, rests entirely upon conjecture, and is notonly discredited by its own improbability, but by a yet more forcibleargument. It is certain that Julia was at this time in banishment forher scandalous life. She was about the same age with Tiberius, who wasnow forty seven, and they had not cohabited for many years. We know notexactly the year in which Augustus sent her into exile, but we mayconclude with confidence, that it happened soon after her separation fromTiberius; whose own interest with the emperor, as well as that of hismother Livia, could not fail of being exerted, if any such applicationwas necessary, towards removing from the capital a woman, who, by thenotoriety of her prostitution, reflected disgrace upon all with whom shewas connected, either by blood or alliance. But no application fromTiberius or his mother could be necessary, when we are assured thatAugustus even presented to the senate a narrative respecting the infamousbehaviour of his daughter, which was read by the quaestor. He was somuch ashamed of her profligacy, that he for a long time declined allcompany, and had thoughts of putting her to death. She was banished toan island on the coast of Campania for five years; at the expiration ofwhich period, she was removed to the continent, and the severity of hertreatment a little mitigated; but though frequent applications were madein her behalf by the people, Augustus never could be prevailed upon topermit her return. 

(181) Other writers have conjectured, that, instead of Julia, thedaughter of Augustus, the person seen with him by Ovid may have beenJulia his grand-daughter, who inherited the vicious disposition of hermother, and was on that account likewise banished by Augustus. The epochof this lady's banishment it is impossible to ascertain; and therefore noargument can be drawn from that source to invalidate the presentconjecture. But Augustus had shown the same solicitude for her beingtrained up in virtuous habits, as he had done in respect of her mother, though in both cases unsuccessfully; and this consideration, joined tothe enormity of the supposed crime, and the great sensibility whichAugustus had discovered with regard to the infamy of his daughter, seemssufficient to exonerate his memory from so odious a charge. Besides, isit possible that he could have sent her into banishment for the infamy ofher prostitution, while (upon the supposition of incest) she was mistressof so important a secret, as that he himself had been more criminal withher than any other man in the empire?

Some writers, giving a wider scope to conjecture, have supposed thetransaction to be of a nature still more detestable, and have evendragged Mecaenas, the minister, into a participation of the crime. Fortunately, however, for the reputation of the illustrious patron ofpolite learning, as well as for that of the emperor, this crudeconjecture may be refuted upon the evidence of chronology. Thecommencement of Ovid's exile happened in the ninth year of the Christianaera, and the death of Mecaenas, eight years before that period. Betweenthis and other calculations, we find a difference of three or four years;but allowing the utmost latitude of variation, there intervened, from thedeath of Mecaenas to the banishment of Ovid, a period of eleven years; anobservation which fully invalidates the conjecture above-mentioned. 

Having now refuted, as it is presumed, the opinions of the differentcommentators on this subject, we shall proceed to offer a new conjecture, which seems to have a greater claim to probability than any that hashitherto been suggested. 

Suetonius informs us, that Augustus, in the latter part of his life, contracted a vicious inclination for the enjoyment of young virgins, whowere procured for him from all parts, not only with the connivance, butby the clandestine management of his consort Livia. It was thereforeprobably with one of those victims that he was discovered by Ovid. Augustus had for many years affected a decency of behaviour, and hewould, therefore, naturally be not a little disconcerted at theunseasonable intrusion of the poet. That Ovid knew not of Augustus'sbeing in the place, is beyond all doubt: and Augustus's consciousness(182) of this circumstance, together with the character of Ovid, wouldsuggest an unfavourable suspicion of the motive which had brought thelatter thither. Abstracted from the immorality of the emperor's ownconduct, the incident might be regarded as ludicrous, and certainly wasmore fit to excite the shame than the indignation of Augustus. But thepurpose of Ovid's visit appears, from his own acknowledgment, to havebeen not entirely free from blame, though of what nature we know not:

 Non equidem totam possum defendere culpam: Sed partem nostri criminis error habet. De Trist. Lib. Iii. Eleg. 5. 

 I know I cannot wholly be defended, Yet plead 'twas chance, no ill was then intended. --Catlin. 

Ovid was at this time turned of fifty, and though by a much younger manhe would not have been regarded as any object of jealousy in love, yet byAugustus, now in his sixty-ninth year, he might be deemed a formidablerival. This passion, therefore, concurring with that which arose fromthe interruption or disappointment of gratification, inflamed theemperor's resentment, and he resolved on banishing to a distant country aman whom he considered as his rival, and whose presence, from what hadhappened, he never more could endure. 

Augustus having determined on the banishment of Ovid, could find littledifficulty in accommodating the ostensible to the secret and real causeof this resolution. 

No argument to establish the date of publication, can be drawn from theorder in which the various productions of Ovid are placed in thecollection of his works: but reasoning from probability, we shouldsuppose that the Ars Amandi was written during the period of his youth;and this seems to be confirmed by the following passage in the secondbook of the Fasti:

 Certe ego vos habui faciles in amore ministros; Cum lusit numeris prima juventa suis. [280]

That many years must have elapsed since its original publication, isevident from the subsequent lines in the second book of the Tristia:

 Nos quoque jam pridem scripto peccavimus uno. Supplicium patitur non nova culpa novum. Carminaque edideram, cum te delicta notantem Praeterii toties jure quietus eques. (183) Ergo, quae juveni mihi non nocitura putavi Scripta parum prudens, nunc nocuere seni? [281]

With what show, then, of justice, it may be asked, could Augustus nowpunish a fault, which, in his solemn capacity of censor, he had so longand repeatedly overlooked? The answer is obvious: in a production sopopular as we may be assured the Ars Amandi was amongst the Roman youth, it must have passed through several editions in the course of some years:and one of those coinciding with the fatal discovery, afforded theemperor a specious pretext for the execution of his purpose. Theseverity exercised on this occasion, however, when the poet was suddenlydriven into exile, unaccompanied even by the partner of his bed, who hadbeen his companion for many years, was an act so inconsistent with theusual moderation of Augustus, that we cannot justly ascribe it to anyother motive than personal resentment; especially as this arbitrarypunishment of the author could answer no end of public utility, while theobnoxious production remained to affect, if it really ever didessentially affect, the morals of society. If the sensibility ofAugustus could not thenceforth admit of any personal intercourse withOvid, or even of his living within the limits of Italy, there would havebeen little danger from the example, in sending into honourable exile, with every indulgence which could alleviate so distressful a necessity, aman of respectable rank in the state, who was charged with no actualoffence against the laws, and whose genius, with all its indiscretion, did immortal honour to his country. It may perhaps be urged, that, considering the predicament in which Augustus stood, he discovered aforbearance greater than might have been expected from an absoluteprince, in sparing the life of Ovid. It will readily be granted, thatOvid, in the same circumstances, under any one of the four subsequentemperors, would have expiated the incident with his blood. Augustus, upon a late occasion, had shown himself equally sanguinary, for he put todeath, by the hand of Varus, a poet of Parma, named Cassius, on accountof his having written some satirical verses against him. By that recentexample, therefore, and the power of pardoning which the emperor stillretained, there was sufficient hold of the poet's secrecy respecting thefatal transaction, which, if divulged (184) to the world, Augustus wouldreprobate as a false and infamous libel, and punish the authoraccordingly. Ovid, on his part, was sensible, that, should he dare toviolate the important but tacit injunction, the imperial vengeance wouldreach him even on the shores of the Euxine. It appears, however, from apassage in the Ibis, which can apply to no other than Augustus, that Ovidwas not sent into banishment destitute of pecuniary provision:

 Di melius! quorum longe mihi maximus ille, Qui nostras inopes noluit esse vias. Huic igitur meritas grates, ubicumque licebit, Pro tam mansueto pectore semper agam. 

 The gods defend! of whom he's far the chief, Who lets me not, though banished, want relief. For this his favour therefore whilst I live, Where'er I am, deserved thanks I'll give. 

What sum the emperor bestowed, for the support of a banishment which hewas resolved should be perpetual, it is impossible to ascertain; but hehad formerly been liberal to Ovid, as well as to other poets. 

If we might hazard a conjecture respecting the scene of the intriguewhich occasioned the banishment of Ovid, we should place it in somerecess in the emperor's gardens. His house, though called Palatium, thepalace, as being built on the Palatine hill, and inhabited by thesovereign, was only a small mansion, which had formerly belonged toHortensius, the orator. Adjoining to this place Augustus had built thetemple of Apollo, which he endowed with a public library, and allottedfor the use of poets, to recite their compositions to each other. Ovidwas particularly intimate with Hyginus, one of Augustus's freedmen, whowas librarian of the temple. He might therefore have been in thelibrary, and spying from the window a young female secreting herself inthe gardens, he had the curiosity to follow her. 

The place of Ovid's banishment was Tomi [282], now said to be Baba, atown of Bulgaria, towards the mouth of the Ister, where is a lake stillcalled by the natives Ouvidouve Jesero, the lake of Ovid. In thisretirement, and the Euxine Pontus, he passed the remainder of his life, amelancholy period of seven years. Notwithstanding the lasciviouswritings of Ovid, it does not appear that he was in his conduct alibertine. He was three times married: his first wife, who was of meanextraction, and (185) whom he had married when he was very young, hedivorced; the second he dismissed on account of her immodest behaviour;and the third appears to have survived him. He had a number ofrespectable friends, and seems to have been much beloved by them. ----

TIBULLUS was descended of an equestrian family, and is said, buterroneously, as will afterwards appear, to have been born on the same daywith Ovid. His amiable accomplishments procured him the friendship ofMessala Corvinus, whom he accompanied in a military expedition to theisland of Corcyra. But an indisposition with which he was seized, and anatural aversion to the toils of war, induced him to return to Rome, where he seems to have resigned himself to a life of indolence andpleasure, amidst which he devoted a part of his time to the compositionof elegies. Elegiac poetry had been cultivated by several Greek writers, particularly Callimachus, Mimnermus, and Philetas; but, so far as we canfind, had, until the present age, been unknown to the Romans in their owntongue. It consisted of a heroic and pentameter line alternately, andwas not, like the elegy of the moderns, usually appropriated to thelamentation of the deceased, but employed chiefly in compositionsrelative to love or friendship, and might, indeed, be used upon almostany subject; though, from the limp in the pentameter line, it is notsuitable to sublime subjects, which require a fulness of expression, andan expansion of sound. To this species of poetry Tibullus restricted hisapplication, by which he cultivated that simplicity and tenderness, andagreeable ease of sentiment, which constitute the characteristicperfections of the elegiac muse. 

In the description of rural scenes, the peaceful occupations of thefield, the charms of domestic happiness, and the joys of reciprocal love, scarcely any poet surpasses Tibullus. His luxuriant imagination collectsthe most beautiful flowers of nature, and he displays them with all thedelicate attraction of soft and harmonious numbers. With a dexteritypeculiar to himself, in whatever subject he engages, he leads his readersimperceptibly through devious paths of pleasure, of which, at the outsetof the poem, they could form no conception. He seems to have oftenwritten without any previous meditation or design. Several of hiselegies may be said to have neither middle nor end: yet the transitionsare so natural, and the gradations so easy, that though we wander throughElysian scenes of fancy, the most heterogeneous in their nature, we aresensible of no defect in the concatenation which has joined themtogether. It is, however, to be regretted that, in some instances, Tibullus betrays that licentiousness of manners which (186) formed toogeneral a characteristic even of this refined age. His elegies addressedto Messala contain a beautiful amplification of sentiments founded infriendship and esteem, in which it is difficult to say, whether thevirtues of the patron or the genius of the poet be more conspicuous. 

Valerius Messala Corvinus, whom he celebrates, was descended of a veryancient family. In the civil wars which followed the death of JuliusCaesar he joined the republican party, and made himself master of thecamp of Octavius at Philippi; but he was afterwards reconciled to hisopponent, and lived to an advanced age in favour and esteem withAugustus. He was distinguished not only by his military talents, but byhis eloquence, integrity, and patriotism. 

From the following passage in the writings of Tibullus, commentators haveconjectured that he was deprived of his lands by the same proscription inwhich those of Virgil had been involved:

 Cui fuerant flavi ditantes ordine sulci Horrea, faecundas ad deficientia messes, Cuique pecus denso pascebant agmine colles, Et domino satis, et nimium furique lupoque: Nunc desiderium superest: nam cura novatur, Cum memor anteactos semper dolor admovet annos. Lib. Iv. El. 1. 

But this seems not very probable, when we consider that Horace, severalyears after that period, represents him as opulent. 

 Dii tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi. Epist. Lib. I. 4. To thee the gods a fair estate In bounty gave, with heart to know How to enjoy what they bestow. --Francis. 

We know not the age of Tibullus at the time of his death; but in an elegywritten by Ovid upon that occasion, he is spoken of as a young man. Wereit true, as is said by biographers, that he was born the same day withOvid, we must indeed assign the event to an early period: for Ovid cannothave written the elegy after the forty-third year of his own life, andhow long before is uncertain. In the tenth elegy of the fourth book, DeTristibus, he observes, that the fates had allowed little time for thecultivation of his friendship with Tibullus. 

 Virgilium vidi tantum: nec avara Tibullo Tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae. Successor fuit hic tibi, Galle; Propertius illi: Quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fui. Utque ego majores, sic me coluere minores. 

 (187) Virgil I only saw, and envious fate Did soon my friend Tibullus hence translate. He followed Gallus, and Propertius him, And I myself was fourth in course of time. --Catlin. 

As both Ovid and Tibullus lived at Rome, were both of the equestrianorder, and of congenial dispositions, it is natural to suppose that theiracquaintance commenced at an early period; and if, after all, it was ofshort duration, there would be no improbability in concluding, thatTibullus died at the age of some years under thirty. It is evident, however, that biographers have committed a mistake with regard to thebirth of this poet; for in the passage above cited of the Tristia, Ovidmentions Tibullus as a writer, who, though his contemporary, was mucholder than himself. From this passage we should be justified in placingthe death of Tibullus between the fortieth and fiftieth year of his age, and rather nearer to the latter period; for, otherwise, Horace wouldscarcely have mentioned him in the manner he does in one of his epistles. 

 Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide judex, Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana? Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat; An tacitum silvas inter reptare salubres, Curantem quicquid dignam sapiente bonoque est?--Epist. I. 4. 

 Albius, in whom my satires find A critic, candid, just, and kind, Do you, while at your country seat, Some rhyming labours meditate, That shall in volumed bulk arise, And e'en from Cassius bear the prize; Or saunter through the silent wood, Musing on what befits the good. --Francis. 

This supposition is in no degree inconsistent with the authority of Ovid, where he mentions him as a young man; for the Romans extended the periodof youth to the fiftieth year. ----

PROPERTIUS was born at Mevania, a town of Umbria, seated at theconfluence of the Tina and Clitumnus. This place was famous for itsherds of white cattle, brought up there for sacrifice, and supposed to beimpregnated with that colour by the waters of the river last mentioned. 

 Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus Victima, saepe tuo perfusi fluorine sacro, Romanos ad templa Deum duxere triumphos. --Georg. Ii. 

 And where thy sacred streams, Clitumnus! flow, White herds, and stateliest bulls that oft have led Triumphant Rome, and on her altars bled. --Sotheby. 

(188) His father is said by some to have been a Roman knight, and theyadd, that he was one of those who, when L. Antony was starved out ofPerasia, were, by the order of Octavius, led to the altar of JuliusCaesar, and there slain. Nothing more is known with certainty, than thatPropertius lost his father at an early age, and being deprived of a greatpart of his patrimony, betook himself to Rome, where his genius soonrecommended him to public notice, and he obtained the patronage ofMecaenas. From his frequent introduction of historical and mythologicalsubjects into his poems, he received the appellation of "the learned. "

Of all the Latin elegiac poets, Propertius has the justest claim topurity of thought and expression. He often draws his imagery fromreading, more than from the imagination, and abounds less in descriptionthan sentiment. For warmth of passion he is not conspicuous, and histenderness is seldom marked with a great degree of sensibility; but, without rapture, he is animated, and, like Horace, in the midst ofgaiety, he is moral. The stores with which learning supplies himdiversify as well as illustrate his subject, while delicacy every wherediscovers a taste refined by the habit of reflection. His versification, in general, is elegant, but not uniformly harmonious. 

Tibullus and Propertius have each written four books of Elegies; and ithas been disputed which of them is superior in this department of poetry. Quintilian has given his suffrage in favour of Tibullus, who, so far aspoetical merit alone is the object of consideration, seems entitled tothe preference. ----

GALLUS was a Roman knight, distinguished not only for poetical, butmilitary talents. Of his poetry we have only six elegies, written, inthe person of an old man, on the subject of old age, but which, there isreason to think, were composed at an earlier part of the author's life. Except the fifth elegy, which is tainted with immodesty, the others, particularly the first, are highly beautiful, and may be placed incompetition with any other productions of the elegiac kind. Gallus was, for some time, in great favour with Augustus, who appointed him governorof Egypt. It is said, however, that he not only oppressed the provinceby extortion, but entered into a conspiracy against his benefactor, forwhich he was banished. Unable to sustain such a reverse of fortune, hefell into despair, and laid violent hands on himself. This is the Gallusin honour of whom Virgil composed his tenth eclogue. 

Such are the celebrated productions of the Augustan age, which have beenhappily preserved, for the delight and admiration of mankind, and willsurvive to the latest posterity. Many (189) more once existed, ofvarious merit, and of different authors, which have left few or nomemorials behind them, but have perished promiscuously amidst theindiscriminate ravages of time, of accidents, and of barbarians. Amongstthe principal authors whose works are lost, are Varius and Valgius; theformer of whom, besides a panegyric upon Augustus, composed sometragedies. According to Quintilian, his Thyestes was equal to anycomposition of the Greek tragic poets. 

The great number of eminent writers, poets in particular, who adornedthis age, has excited general admiration, and the phenomenon is usuallyascribed to a fortuitous occurrence, which baffles all inquiry: but weshall endeavour to develop the various causes which seem to have producedthis effect; and should the explanation appear satisfactory, it mayfavour an opinion, that under similar circumstances, if ever they shouldagain be combined, a period of equal glory might arise in other ages andnations. 

The Romans, whether from the influence of climate, or their mode ofliving, which in general was temperate, were endowed with a livelyimagination, and, as we before observed, a spirit of enterprise. Uponthe final termination of the Punic war, and the conquest of Greece, theirardour, which had hitherto been exercised in military achievements, wasdiverted into the channel of literature; and the civil commotions whichfollowed, having now ceased, a fresh impulse was given to activity in theambitious pursuit of the laurel, which was now only to be obtained byglorious exertions of intellect. The beautiful productions of Greece, operating strongly upon their minds, excited them to imitation;imitation, when roused amongst a number, produced emulation; andemulation cherished an extraordinary thirst of fame, which, in everyexertion of the human mind, is the parent of excellence. This liberalcontention was not a little promoted by the fashion introduced at Rome, for poets to recite their compositions in public; a practice which seemsto have been carried even to a ridiculous excess. --Such was now the ragefor poetical composition in the Roman capital, that Horace describes itin the following terms:

 Mutavit mentem populus levis, et calet uno Scribendi studio: pueri patresque severi Fronde comas vincti coenant, et carmina dictant. --Epist. Ii. 1. * * * * * *

 Now the light people bend to other aims; A lust of scribbling every breast inflames; Our youth, our senators, with bays are crowned, And rhymes eternal as our feasts go round. 

 (190) Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. --Hor. Epeat. Ii. 1. 

 But every desperate blockhead dares to write, Verse is the trade of every living wight. --Francis. 

The thirst of fame above mentioned, was a powerful incentive, and isavowed both by Virgil and Horace. The former, in the third book of hisGeorgics, announces a resolution of rendering himself celebrated, ifpossible. 

 --------tentanda via est qua me quoque possim Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora. 

 I, too, will strive o'er earth my flight to raise, And wing'd by victory, catch the gale of praise. --Sotheby. 

And Horace, in the conclusion of his first Ode, expresses himself interms which indicate a similar purpose. 

 Quad si me lyricis vatibis inseres, Sublimi feriam sidera vertice. 

 But if you rank me with the choir, Who tuned with art the Grecian lyre; Swift to the noblest heights of fame, Shall rise thy poet's deathless name. --Francis. 

Even Sallust, a historian, in his introduction to Catiline's Conspiracy, scruples not to insinuate the same kind of ambition. Quo mihi rectiusvidetur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere; et quoniam vitaipsa, qua fruimur, brevis est, memoriam nostri quam maxume longamefficere. [283]

Another circumstance of great importance, towards the production of suchpoetry as might live through every age, was the extreme attention whichthe great poets of this period displayed, both in the composition, andthe polishing of their works. Virgil, when employed upon the Georgics, usually wrote in the morning, and applied much of the subsequent part ofthe day to correction and improvement. He compared himself to a bear, that licks her cub into form. If this was his regular practice in theGeorgics, we may justly suppose that it was the same in the Aeneid. Yet, after all this labour, he intended to devote three years entirely to itsfarther amendment. Horace has gone so far in recommending carefulcorrection, that he figuratively mentions nine years as an adequateperiod for that purpose. But whatever may be the time, there is noprecept which he urges either oftener or more forcibly, than a dueattention to this important subject. 

 (191) Saepe stylum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint Scripturus. --Sat. I. X. 

 Would you a reader's just esteem engage? Correct with frequent care the blotted page. --Francis. 

 --------Vos, O Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non Multa dies et multa litura coercuit, atque Perfectum decies non castigavit ad uuguem. De. Art. Poet. 

 Sons of Pompilius, with contempt receive, Nor let the hardy poem hope to live, Where time and full correction don't refine The finished work, and polish every line. --Francis. 

To the several causes above enumerated, as concurring to form the greatsuperiority of the Augustan age, as respects the productions ofliterature, one more is to be subjoined, of a nature the most essential:the liberal and unparalleled encouragement given to distinguished talentsby the emperor and his minister. This was a principle of the mostpowerful energy: it fanned the flame of genius, invigorated everyexertion; and the poets who basked in the rays of imperial favour, andthe animating patronage of Mecaenas, experienced a poetic enthusiasmwhich approached to real inspiration. 

Having now finished the proposed explanation, relative to the celebrityof the Augustan age, we shall conclude with recapitulating in a few wordsthe causes of this extraordinary occurrence. 

The models, then, which the Romans derived from Grecian poetry, were thefinest productions of human genius; their incentives to emulation werethe strongest that could actuate the heart. With ardour, therefore, andindustry in composing, and with unwearied patience in polishing theircompositions, they attained to that glorious distinction in literature, which no succeeding age has ever rivalled. 

TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR. 

(192)

I. The patrician family of the Claudii (for there was a plebeian familyof the same name, no way inferior to the other either in power ordignity) came originally from Regilli, a town of the Sabines. Theyremoved thence to Rome soon after the building of the city, with a greatbody of their dependants, under Titus Tatius, who reigned jointly withRomulus in the kingdom; or, perhaps, what is related upon betterauthority, under Atta Claudius, the head of the family, who was admittedby the senate into the patrician order six years after the expulsion ofthe Tarquins. They likewise received from the state, lands beyond theAnio for their followers, and a burying-place for themselves near thecapitol [284]. After this period, in process of time, the family had thehonour of twenty-eight consulships, five dictatorships, sevencensorships, seven triumphs, and two ovations. Their descendants weredistinguished by various praenomina and cognomina [285], but rejected bycommon consent the praenomen of (193) Lucius, when, of the two races whobore it, one individual had been convicted of robbery, and another ofmurder. Amongst other cognomina, they assumed that of Nero, which in theSabine language signifies strong and valiant. 

II. It appears from record, that many of the Claudii have performedsignal services to the state, as well as committed acts of delinquency. To mention the most remarkable only, Appius Caecus dissuaded the senatefrom agreeing to an alliance with Pyrrhus, as prejudicial to the republic[286]. Claudius Candex first passed the straits of Sicily with a fleet, and drove the Carthaginians out of the island [287]. Claudius Nero cutoff Hasdrubal with a vast army upon his arrival in Italy from Spain, before he could form a junction with his brother Hannibal [288]. On theother hand, Claudius Appius Regillanus, one of the Decemvirs, made aviolent attempt to have a free virgin, of whom he was enamoured, adjudgeda slave; which caused the people to secede a second time from the senate[289]. Claudius Drusus erected a statue of himself wearing a crown atAppii Forum [290], and endeavoured, by means of his dependants, to makehimself master of Italy. Claudius Pulcher, when, off the coast of Sicily[291], the pullets used for taking augury would not eat, in contempt ofthe omen threw them overboard, as if they should drink at least, if theywould not eat; and then engaging the enemy, was routed. After hisdefeat, when he (194) was ordered by the senate to name a dictator, making a sort of jest of the public disaster, he named Glycias, hisapparitor. 

The women of this family, likewise, exhibited characters equally opposedto each other. For both the Claudias belonged to it; she, who, when theship freighted with things sacred to the Idaean Mother of the Gods [292], stuck fast in the shallows of the Tiber, got it off, by praying to theGoddess with a loud voice, "Follow me, if I am chaste;" and she also, who, contrary to the usual practice in the case of women, was brought totrial by the people for treason; because, when her litter was stopped bya great crowd in the streets, she openly exclaimed, "I wish my brotherPulcher was alive now, to lose another fleet, that Rome might be lessthronged. " Besides, it is well known, that all the Claudii, exceptPublius Claudius, who, to effect the banishment of Cicero, procuredhimself to be adopted by a plebeian [293], and one younger than himself, were always of the patrician party, as well as great sticklers for thehonour and power of that order; and so violent and obstinate in theiropposition to the plebeians, that not one of them, even in the case of atrial for life by the people, would ever condescend to put on mourning, according to custom, or make any supplication to them for favour; andsome of them in their contests, have even proceeded to lay hands on thetribunes of the people. A Vestal Virgin likewise of the family, when herbrother was resolved to have the honour of a triumph contrary to the willof the people, mounted the chariot with him, and attended him into theCapitol, that it might not be lawful for any of the tribunes to interfereand forbid it. [294]

III. From this family Tiberius Caesar is descended; indeed both by thefather and mother's side; by the former from Tiberius Nero, and by thelatter from Appius Pulcher, who were both sons of Appius Caecus. Helikewise belonged to the family of the Livii, by the adoption of hismother's grandfather into it; which family, although plebeian, made a(195) distinguished figure, having had the honour of eight consulships, two censorships, three triumphs, one dictatorship, and the office ofmaster of the horse; and was famous for eminent men, particularly, Salinator and the Drusi. Salinator, in his censorship [295], branded allthe tribes, for their inconstancy in having made him consul a secondtime, as well as censor, although they had condemned him to a heavy fineafter his first consulship. Drusus procured for himself and hisposterity a new surname, by killing in single combat Drausus, the enemy'schief. He is likewise said to have recovered, when pro-praetor in theprovince of Gaul, the gold which was formerly given to the Senones, atthe siege of the Capitol, and had not, as is reported, been forced fromthem by Camillus. His great-great-grandson, who, for his extraordinaryservices against the Gracchi, was styled the "Patron of the Senate, " lefta son, who, while plotting in a sedition of the same description, wastreacherously murdered by the opposite party. [296]

IV. But the father of Tiberius Caesar, being quaestor to Caius Caesar, and commander of his fleet in the war of Alexandria, contributed greatlyto its success. He was therefore made one of the high-priests in theroom of Publius Scipio [297]; and was sent to settle some colonies inGaul, and amongst the rest, those of Narbonne and Arles [298]. After theassassination of Caesar, however, when the rest of the senators, for fearof public disturbances; were for having the affair buried in oblivion, heproposed a resolution for rewarding those who had killed the tyrant. Having filled the office of praetor [299], and at the end of the year adisturbance breaking out amongst the triumviri, he kept the badges of hisoffice beyond the legal time; and following Lucius Antonius the consul, brother of the triumvir, to Perusia [300], though the rest submitted, yethe himself continued firm to the party, and escaped first to Praeneste, and then to Naples; whence, having in vain invited the slaves to liberty, he fled over to Sicily. But resenting (196) his not being immediatelyadmitted into the presence of Sextus Pompey, and being also prohibitedthe use of the fasces, he went over into Achaia to Mark Antony; withwhom, upon a reconciliation soon after brought about amongst the severalcontending parties, he returned to Rome; and, at the request of Augustus, gave up to him his wife Livia Drusilla, although she was then big withchild, and had before borne him a son. He died not long after; leavingbehind him two sons, Tiberius and Drusus Nero. 

V. Some have imagined that Tiberius was born at Fundi, but there is onlythis trifling foundation for the conjecture, that his mother'sgrandmother was of Fundi, and that the image of Good Fortune was, by adecree of the senate, erected in a public place in that town. Butaccording to the greatest number of writers, and those too of the bestauthority, he was born at Rome, in the Palatine quarter, upon thesixteenth of the calends of December [16th Nov. ], when Marcus AemiliusLepidus was second time consul, with Lucius Munatius Plancus [301], afterthe battle of Philippi; for so it is registered in the calendar, and thepublic acts. According to some, however, he was born the preceding year, in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa; and others say, in the yearfollowing, during the consulship of Servilius Isauricus and Antony. 

VI. His infancy and childhood were spent in the midst of danger andtrouble; for he accompanied his parents everywhere in their flight, andtwice at Naples nearly betrayed them by his crying, when they wereprivately hastening to a ship, as the enemy rushed into the town; once, when he was snatched from his nurse's breast, and again, from hismother's bosom, by some of the company, who on the sudden emergencywished to relieve the women of their burden. Being carried throughSicily and Achaia, and entrusted for some time to the care of theLacedaemonians, who were under the protection of the Claudian family, upon his departure thence when travelling by night, he ran the hazard ofhis life, by a fire which, suddenly bursting out of a wood on all sides, surrounded the whole party so closely, that part of Livia's dress andhair was burnt. The presents which were made him (197) by Pompeia, sister to Sextus Pompey, in Sicily, namely, a cloak, with a clasp, andbullae of gold, are still in existence, and shewn at Baiae to this day. After his return to the city, being adopted by Marcus Gallius, a senator, in his will, he took possession of the estate; but soon afterwardsdeclined the use of his name, because Gallius had been of the partyopposed to Augustus. When only nine years of age, he pronounced afuneral oration in praise of his father upon the rostra; and afterwards, when he had nearly attained the age of manhood, he attended the chariotof Augustus, in his triumph for the victory at Actium, riding on theleft-hand horse, whilst Marcellus, Octavia's son, rode that on the right. He likewise presided at the games celebrated on account of that victory;and in the Trojan games intermixed with the Circensian, he commanded atroop of the biggest boys. 

VII. After assuming the manly habit, he spent his youth, and the rest ofhis life until he succeeded to the government, in the following manner:he gave the people an entertainment of gladiators, in memory of hisfather, and another for his grandfather Drusus, at different times and indifferent places: the first in the forum, the second in the amphitheatre;some gladiators who had been honourably discharged, being induced toengage again, by a reward of a hundred thousand sesterces. He likewiseexhibited public sports, at which he was not present himself. All thesehe performed with great magnificence, at the expense of his mother andfather-in-law. He married Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa, andgrand-daughter of Caecilius Atticus, a Roman knight, the same person towhom Cicero has addressed so many epistles. After having by her his sonDrusus, he was obliged to part with her [302], though she retained hisaffection, and was again pregnant, to make way for marrying Augustus'sdaughter Julia. But this he did with extreme reluctance; for, besideshaving the warmest attachment to Agrippina, he was disgusted with theconduct of Julia, who had made indecent advances to him during thelifetime of her former husband; and that she was a woman of loosecharacter, was the general opinion. At divorcing Agrippina he felt thedeepest regret; and upon meeting her afterwards, (198) he looked afterher with eyes so passionately expressive of affection, that care wastaken she should never again come in his sight. At first, however, helived quietly and happily with Julia; but a rupture soon ensued, whichbecame so violent, that after the loss of their son, the pledge of theirunion, who was born at Aquileia and died in infancy [303], he never wouldsleep with her more. He lost his brother Drusus in Germany, and broughthis body to Rome, travelling all the way on foot before it. 

VIII. When he first applied himself to civil affairs, he defended theseveral causes of king Archelaus, the Trallians, and the Thessalians, before Augustus, who sat as judge at the trials. He addressed the senateon behalf of the Laodiceans, the Thyatireans, and Chians, who hadsuffered greatly by an earthquake, and implored relief from Rome. Heprosecuted Fannius Caepio, who had been engaged in a conspiracy withVarro Muraena against Augustus, and procured sentence of condemnationagainst him. Amidst all this, he had besides to superintend twodepartments of the administration, that of supplying the city with corn, which was then very scarce, and that of clearing the houses of correction[304] throughout Italy, the masters of which had fallen under the odioussuspicion of seizing and keeping confined, not only travellers, but thosewhom the fear of being obliged to serve in the army had driven to seekrefuge in such places. 

IX. He made his first campaign, as a military tribune, in the Cantabrianwar [305]. Afterwards he led an army into the East [306], where herestored the kingdom of Armenia to Tigranes; and seated on a tribunal, put a crown upon his head. He likewise recovered from the Parthians thestandards which they had taken from Crassus. He next governed, fornearly a year, the province of Gallia Comata, which was then in greatdisorder, on account of the incursions of the barbarians, and the feudsof the chiefs. He afterwards commanded in the several wars against theRhaetians, Vindelicians, Pannonians, and Germans. In the Rhaetian andVindelician wars, he subdued the nations in the Alps; and in thePannonian wars the Bruci, and (199) the Dalmatians. In the German war, he transplanted into Gaul forty thousand of the enemy who had submitted, and assigned them lands near the banks of the Rhine. For these actions, he entered the city with an ovation, but riding in a chariot, and is saidby some to have been the first that ever was honoured with thisdistinction. He filled early the principal offices of state; and passedthrough the quaestorship [307], praetorship [308], and consulate [309]almost successively. After some interval, he was chosen consul a secondtime, and held the tribunitian authority during five years. 

X. Surrounded by all this prosperity, in the prime of life and inexcellent health, he suddenly formed the resolution of withdrawing to agreater distance from Rome [310]. It is uncertain whether this was theresult of disgust for his wife, whom he neither durst accuse nor divorce, and the connection with whom became every day more intolerable; or toprevent that indifference towards him, which his constant residence inthe city might produce; or in the hope of supporting and improving byabsence his authority in the state, if the public should have occasionfor his service. Some are of opinion, that as Augustus's sons were nowgrown up to years of maturity, he voluntarily relinquished the possessionhe had long enjoyed of the second place in the government, as Agrippa haddone before him; who, when M. Marcellus was advanced to public offices, retired to Mitylene, that he might not seem to stand in the way of hispromotion, or in any respect lessen him by his presence. The same reasonlikewise Tiberius gave afterwards for his retirement; but his pretext atthis time was, that he was satiated with honours, and desirous of beingrelieved from the fatigue of business; requesting therefore that he mighthave leave to withdraw. And neither the earnest entreaties of hismother, nor the complaint of his father-in-law made even in the senate, that he was deserted by him, could prevail upon him to alter hisresolution. Upon their persisting in the design of detaining him, herefused to take any sustenance for four days together. At last, havingobtained permission, leaving his wife and son at Rome, he proceeded (200)to Ostia [311], without exchanging a word with those who attended him, and having embraced but very few persons at parting. 

XI. From Ostia, journeying along the coast of Campania, he halted awhileon receiving intelligence of Augustus's being taken ill, but this givingrise to a rumour that he stayed with a view to something extraordinary, he sailed with the wind almost full against him, and arrived at Rhodes, having been struck with the pleasantness and healthiness of the island atthe time of his landing therein his return from Armenia. Here contentinghimself with a small house, and a villa not much larger, near the town, he led entirely a private life, taking his walks sometimes about theGymnasia [312], without any lictor or other attendant, and returning thecivilities of the Greeks with almost as much complaisance as if he hadbeen upon a level with them. One morning, in settling the course of hisdaily excursion, he happened to say, that he should visit all the sickpeople in the town. This being not rightly understood by those abouthim, the sick were brought into a public portico, and ranged in order, according to their several distempers. Being extremely embarrassed bythis unexpected occurrence, he was for some time irresolute how he shouldact; but at last he determined to go round them all, and make an apologyfor the mistake even to the meanest amongst them, and such as wereentirely unknown to him. One instance only is mentioned, in which heappeared to exercise his tribunitian authority. Being a constantattendant upon the schools and lecture-rooms of the professors of theliberal arts, on occasion of a quarrel amongst the wrangling (201)sophists, in which he interposed to reconcile them, some person took theliberty to abuse him as an intruder, and partial in the affair. Uponthis, withdrawing privately home, he suddenly returned attended by hisofficers, and summoning his accuser before his tribunal, by a publiccrier, ordered him to be taken to prison. Afterwards he received tidingsthat his wife Julia had been condemned for her lewdness and adultery, andthat a bill of divorce had been sent to her in his name, by the authorityof Augustus. Though he secretly rejoiced at this intelligence, hethought it incumbent upon him, in point of decency, to interpose in herbehalf by frequent letters to Augustus, and to allow her to retain thepresents which he had made her, notwithstanding the little regard shemerited from him. When the period of his tribunitian authority expired[313], declaring at last that he had no other object in his retirementthan to avoid all suspicion of rivalship with Caius and Lucius, hepetitioned that, since he was now secure in that respect, as they werecome to the age of manhood, and would easily maintain themselves inpossession of the second place in the state, he might be permitted tovisit his friends, whom he was very desirous of seeing. But his requestwas denied; and he was advised to lay aside all concern for his friends, whom he had been so eager to greet. 

XII. He therefore continued at Rhodes much against his will, obtaining, with difficulty, through his mother, the title of Augustus's lieutenant, to cover his disgrace. He thenceforth lived, however, not only as aprivate person, but as one suspected and under apprehension, retiringinto the interior of the country, and avoiding the visits of those whosailed that way, which were very frequent; for no one passed to takecommand of an army, or the government of a province, without touching atRhodes. But there were fresh reasons for increased anxiety. Forcrossing over to Samos, on a visit to his step-son Caius, who had beenappointed governor of the East, he found him prepossessed against him, bythe insinuations of Marcus Lollius, his companion and director. Helikewise fell under suspicion of sending by some centurions who had beenpromoted by himself, upon their return to the camp after a furlough, mysterious messages to several persons there, intended, apparently, to(202) tamper with them for a revolt. This jealousy respecting hisdesigns being intimated to him by Augustus, he begged repeatedly thatsome person of any of the three Orders might be placed as a spy upon himin every thing he either said or did. 

XIII. He laid aside likewise his usual exercises of riding and arms; andquitting the Roman habit, made use of the Pallium and Crepida [314]. Inthis condition he continued almost two years, becoming daily an object ofincreasing contempt and odium; insomuch that the people of Nismes pulleddown all the images and statues of him in their town; and upon mentionbeing made of him at table one of the company said to Caius, "I will sailover to Rhodes immediately, if you desire me, and bring you the head ofthe exile;" for that was the appellation now given him. Thus alarmed notonly by apprehensions, but real danger, he renewed his solicitations forleave to return; and, seconded by the most urgent supplications of hismother, he at last obtained his request; to which an accident somewhatcontributed. Augustus had resolved to determine nothing in the affair, but with the consent of his eldest son. The latter was at that time outof humour with Marcus Lollius, and therefore easily disposed to befavourable to his father-in-law. Caius thus acquiescing, he wasrecalled, but upon condition that he should take no concern whatever inthe administration of affairs. 

XIV. He returned to Rome after an absence of nearly eight years [315], with great and confident hopes of his future elevation, which he hadentertained from his youth, in consequence of various prodigies andpredictions. For Livia, when pregnant with him, being anxious todiscover, by different modes of divination, whether her offspring wouldbe a son, amongst others, took an egg from a hen that was sitting, andkept it warm with her own hands, and those of her maids, by turns, untila fine cock-chicken, with a large comb, was hatched. Scribonius, theastrologer, predicted great things of him when he was a mere child. "Hewill come in time, " said the prophet, "to be even a king, but without theusual badge of royal dignity;" the rule of the Caesars being as yetunknown. When he was (203) making his first expedition, and leading hisarmy through Macedonia into Syria, the altars which had been formerlyconsecrated at Philippi by the victorious legions, blazed suddenly withspontaneous fires. Soon after, as he was marching to Illyricum, hestopped to consult the oracle of Geryon, near Padua; and having drawn alot by which he was desired to throw golden tali into the fountain ofAponus [316], for an answer to his inquiries, he did so, and the highestnumbers came up. And those very tali are still to be seen at the bottomof the fountain. A few days before his leaving Rhodes, an eagle, a birdnever before seen in that island, perched on the top of his house. Andthe day before he received intelligence of the permission granted him toreturn, as he was changing his dress, his tunic appeared to be all onfire. He then likewise had a remarkable proof of the skill ofThrasyllus, the astrologer, whom, for his proficiency in philosophicalresearches, he had taken into his family. For, upon sight of the shipwhich brought the intelligence, he said, good news was coming whereasevery thing going wrong before, and quite contrary to his predictions, Tiberius had intended that very moment, when they were walking together, to throw him into the sea, as an impostor, and one to whom he had toohastily entrusted his secrets. 

XV. Upon his return to Rome, having introduced his son Drusus into theforum, he immediately removed from Pompey's house, in the Carinae, to thegardens of Mecaenas, on the Esquiline [317], and resigned himselfentirely to his ease, performing only the common offices of civility inprivate life, without any preferment in the government. But Caius andLucius being both carried off in the space of three years, he was adoptedby Augustus, along with their brother Agrippa; being obliged in the firstplace to adopt Germanicus, his brother's son. After his adoption, henever more acted as master of a (204) family, nor exercised, in thesmallest degree, the rights which he had lost by it. For he neitherdisposed of anything in the way of gift, nor manumitted a slave; nor somuch as received any estate left him by will, nor any legacy, withoutreckoning it as a part of his peculium or property held under his father. From that day forward, nothing was omitted that might contribute to theadvancement of his grandeur, and much more, when, upon Agrippa beingdiscarded and banished, it was evident that the hope of succession restedupon him alone. 

XVI. The tribunitian authority was again conferred upon him for fiveyears [318], and a commission given him to settle the affairs of Germany. The ambassadors of the Parthians, after having had an audience ofAugustus, were ordered to apply to him likewise in his province. But onreceiving intelligence of an insurrection in Illyricum [319], he wentover to superintend the management of that new war, which proved the mostserious of all the foreign wars since the Carthaginian. This heconducted during three years, with fifteen legions and an equal number ofauxiliary forces, under great difficulties, and an extreme scarcity ofcorn. And though he was several times recalled, he neverthelesspersisted; fearing lest an enemy so powerful, and so near, should fallupon the army in their retreat. This resolution was attended with goodsuccess; for he at last reduced to complete subjection all Illyricum, lying between Italy and the kingdom of Noricum, Thrace, Macedonia, theriver Danube, and the Adriatic gulf. 

XVII. The glory he acquired by these successes received an increase fromthe conjuncture in which they happened. For almost about that very time[320] Quintilius Varus was cut off with three legions in Germany; and itwas generally believed that the victorious Germans would have joined thePannonians, had not the war of Illyricum been previously concluded. Atriumph, therefore, besides many other great honours, was decreed him. Some proposed that the surname of "Pannonicus, " others that of"Invincible, " and others, of "O Pius, " should be conferred on him; butAugustus interposed, engaging for him that he would be satisfied withthat to which he would succeed at his death. He postponed his triumph, because (205) the state was at that time under great affliction for thedisaster of Varus and his army. Nevertheless, he entered the city in atriumphal robe, crowned with laurel, and mounting a tribunal in theSepta, sat with Augustus between the two consuls, whilst the senate gavetheir attendance standing; whence, after he had saluted the people, hewas attended by them in procession to the several temples. 

XVIII. Next year he went again to Germany, where finding that the defeatof Varus was occasioned by the rashness and negligence of the commander, he thought proper to be guided in everything by the advice of a councilof war; whereas, at other times, he used to follow the dictates of hisown judgment, and considered himself alone as sufficiently qualified forthe direction of affairs. He likewise used more cautions than usual. Having to pass the Rhine, he restricted the whole convoy within certainlimits, and stationing himself on the bank of the river, would not sufferthe waggons to cross the river, until he had searched them at thewater-side, to see that they carried nothing but what was allowed ornecessary. Beyond the Rhine, such was his way of living, that he took hismeals sitting on the bare ground [321], and often passed the night withouta tent; and his regular orders for the day, as well as those upon suddenemergencies, he gave in writing, with this injunction, that in case of anydoubt as to the meaning of them, they should apply to him forsatisfaction, even at any hour of the night. 

XIX. He maintained the strictest discipline amongst the troops; revivingmany old customs relative to punishing and degrading offenders; setting amark of disgrace even upon the commander of a legion, for sending a fewsoldiers with one of his freedmen across the river for the purpose ofhunting. Though it was his desire to leave as little as possible in thepower of fortune or accident, yet he always engaged the enemy with moreconfidence when, in his night-watches, the lamp failed and went out ofitself; trusting, as he said, in an omen which had never failed him andhis ancestors (206) in all their commands. But, in the midst of victory, he was very near being assassinated by some Bructerian, who mixing withthose about him, and being discovered by his trepidation, was put to thetorture, and confessed his intended crime. 

XX. After two years, he returned from Germany to the city, andcelebrated the triumph which he had deferred, attended by hislieutenants, for whom he had procured the honour of triumphal ornaments[322]. Before he turned to ascend the Capitol, he alighted from hischariot, and knelt before his father, who sat by, to superintend thesolemnity. Bato, the Pannonian chief, he sent to Ravenna, loaded withrich presents, in gratitude for his having suffered him and his army toretire from a position in which he had so enclosed them, that they wereentirely at his mercy. He afterwards gave the people a dinner at athousand tables, besides thirty sesterces to each man. He likewisededicated the temple of Concord [323], and that of Castor and Pollux, which had been erected out of the spoils of the war, in his own and hisbrother's name. 

XXI. A law having been not long after carried by the consuls [324] forhis being appointed a colleague with Augustus in the administration ofthe provinces, and in taking the census, when that was finished he wentinto Illyricum [325]. But being hastily recalled during his journey, hefound Augustus alive indeed, but past all hopes of recovery, and was withhim in private a whole day. I know, it is generally believed, that uponTiberius's quitting the room, after their private conference, those whowere in waiting overheard Augustus say, "Ah! unhappy Roman people, to beground by the jaws of such a slow devourer!" Nor am I ignorant of itsbeing reported by some, that Augustus so openly and undisguisedlycondemned the sourness of his temper, that sometimes, upon his coming in, he would break off any jocular conversation in which he was engaged; andthat he was only prevailed upon by the (207) importunity of his wife toadopt him; or actuated by the ambitious view of recommending his ownmemory from a comparison with such a successor. Yet I must hold to thisopinion, that a prince so extremely circumspect and prudent as he was, did nothing rashly, especially in an affair of so great importance; butthat, upon weighing the vices and virtues of Tiberius with each other, hejudged the latter to preponderate; and this the rather since he sworepublicly, in an assembly of the people, that "he adopted him for thepublic good. " Besides, in several of his letters, he extols him as aconsummate general, and the only security of the Roman people. Of suchdeclarations I subjoin the following instances: "Farewell, my dearTiberius, and may success attend you, whilst you are warring for me andthe Muses [326]. Farewell, my most dear, and (as I hope to prosper) mostgallant man, and accomplished general. " Again. "The disposition of yoursummer quarters? In truth, my dear Tiberius, I do not think, that amidstso many difficulties, and with an army so little disposed for action, anyone could have behaved more prudently than you have done. All thoselikewise who were with you, acknowledge that this verse is applicable toyou:"

 Unus homo nobis _vigilando_ restituit rem. [327] One man by vigilance restored the state. 

"Whenever, " he says, "anything happens that requires more than ordinaryconsideration, or I am out of humour upon any occasion, I still, byHercules! long for my dear Tiberius; and those lines of Homer frequentlyoccur to my thoughts:"

 Toutou d' espomenoio kai ek pyros aithomenoio Ampho nostaesuimen, epei peri oide noaesai. [328]

 Bold from his prudence, I could ev'n aspire To dare with him the burning rage of fire. 

"When I hear and read that you are much impaired by the (208) continuedfatigues you undergo, may the gods confound me if my whole frame does nottremble! So I beg you to spare yourself, lest, if we should hear of yourbeing ill, the news prove fatal both to me and your mother, and the Romanpeople should be in peril for the safety of the empire. It mattersnothing whether I be well or no, if you be not well. I pray heavenpreserve you for us, and bless you with health both now and ever, if thegods have any regard for the Roman people. "

XXII. He did not make the death of Augustus public, until he had takenoff young Agrippa. He was slain by a tribune who commanded his guard, upon reading a written order for that purpose: respecting which order, itwas then a doubt, whether Augustus left it in his last moments, toprevent any occasion of public disturbance after his decease, or Liviaissued it, in the name of Augustus; and whether with the knowledge ofTiberius or not. When the tribune came to inform him that he hadexecuted his command, he replied, "I commanded you no such thing, and youmust answer for it to the senate;" avoiding, as it seems, the odium ofthe act for that time. And the affair was soon buried in silence. 

XXIII. Having summoned the senate to meet by virtue of his tribunitianauthority, and begun a mournful speech, he drew a deep sigh, as if unableto support himself under his affliction; and wishing that not his voiceonly, but his very breath of life, might fail him, gave his speech to hisson Drusus to read. Augustus's will was then brought in, and read by afreedman; none of the witnesses to it being admitted, but such as were ofthe senatorian order, the rest owning their hand-writing without doors. The will began thus: "Since my ill-fortune has deprived me of my twosons, Caius and Lucius, let Tiberius Caesar be heir to two-thirds of myestate. " These words countenanced the suspicion of those who were ofopinion, that Tiberius was appointed successor more out of necessity thanchoice, since Augustus could not refrain from prefacing his will in thatmanner. 

XXIV. Though he made no scruple to assume and exercise immediately theimperial authority, by giving orders that he (209) should be attended bythe guards, who were the security and badge of the supreme power; yet heaffected, by a most impudent piece of acting, to refuse it for a longtime; one while sharply reprehending his friends who entreated him toaccept it, as little knowing what a monster the government was; anotherwhile keeping in suspense the senate, when they implored him and threwthemselves at his feet, by ambiguous answers, and a crafty kind ofdissimulation; insomuch that some were out of patience, and one criedout, during the confusion, "Either let him accept it, or decline it atonce;" and a second told him to his face, "Others are slow to performwhat they promise, but you are slow to promise what you actuallyperform. " At last, as if forced to it, and complaining of the miserableand burdensome service imposed upon him, he accepted the government; not, however, without giving hopes of his resigning it some time or other. The exact words he used were these: "Until the time shall come, when yemay think it reasonable to give some rest to my old age. "

XXV. The cause of his long demur was fear of the dangers whichthreatened him on all hands; insomuch that he said, "I have got a wolfby the ears. " For a slave of Agrippa's, Clemens by name, had drawntogether a considerable force to revenge his master's death; LuciusScribonius Libo, a senator of the first distinction, was secretlyfomenting a rebellion; and the troops both in Illyricum and Germany weremutinous. Both armies insisted upon high demands, particularly thattheir pay should be made equal to that of the pretorian guards. The armyin Germany absolutely refused to acknowledge a prince who was not theirown choice; and urged, with all possible importunity, Germanicus [329], who commanded them, to take the government on himself, though heobstinately refused it. It was Tiberius's apprehension from thisquarter, which made him request the senate to assign him some part onlyin the administration, such as they should judge proper, since no mancould be sufficient for the whole, without one or more to assist him. Hepretended likewise to be in a bad state of health, that Germanicus mightthe more patiently wait in hopes of speedily succeeding him, or at leastof being (210) admitted to be a colleague in the government. When themutinies in the armies were suppressed, he got Clemens into his hands bystratagem. That he might not begin his reign by an act of severity, hedid not call Libo to an account before the senate until his second year, being content, in the mean time, with taking proper precautions for hisown security. For upon Libo's attending a sacrifice amongst thehigh-priests, instead of the usual knife, he ordered one of lead to begiven him; and when he desired a private conference with him, he would notgrant his request, but on condition that his son Drusus should be present;and as they walked together, he held him fast by the right hand, under thepretence of leaning upon him, until the conversation was over. 

XXVI. When he was delivered from his apprehensions, his behaviour atfirst was unassuming, and he did not carry himself much above the levelof a private person; and of the many and great honours offered him, heaccepted but few, and such as were very moderate. His birth-day, whichhappened to fall at the time of the Plebeian Circensian games, he withdifficulty suffered to be honoured with the addition of only a singlechariot, drawn by two horses. He forbad temples, flamens, or priests tobe appointed for him, as likewise the erection of any statues or effigiesfor him, without his permission; and this he granted only on conditionthat they should not be placed amongst the images of the gods, but onlyamongst the ornaments of houses. He also interposed to prevent thesenate from swearing to maintain his acts; and the month of Septemberfrom being called Tiberius, and October being named after Livia. Thepraenomen likewise of EMPEROR, with the cognomen of FATHER OF HISCOUNTRY, and a civic crown in the vestibule of his house, he would notaccept. He never used the name of AUGUSTUS, although he inherited it, inany of his letters, excepting those addressed to kings and princes. Norhad he more than three consulships; one for a few days, another for threemonths, and a third, during his absence from the city, until the ides[fifteenth] of May. 

XXVII. He had such an aversion to flattery, that he would never sufferany senator to approach his litter, as he passed the streets in it, either to pay him a civility, or upon business. (211) And when a man ofconsular rank, in begging his pardon for some offence he had given him, attempted to fall at his feet, he started from him in such haste, that hestumbled and fell. If any compliment was paid him, either inconversation or a set speech, he would not scruple to interrupt andreprimand the party, and alter what he had said. Being once called"lord, " [330] by some person, he desired that he might no more beaffronted in that manner. When another, to excite veneration, called hisoccupations "sacred, " and a third had expressed himself thus: "By yourauthority I have waited upon the senate, " he obliged them to change theirphrases; in one of them adopting persuasion, instead of "authority, " andin the other, laborious, instead of "sacred. "

XXVIII. He remained unmoved at all the aspersions, scandalous reports, and lampoons, which were spread against him or his relations; declaring, "In a free state, both the tongue and the mind ought to be free. " Uponthe senate's desiring that some notice might be taken of those offences, and the persons charged with them, he replied, "We have not so much timeupon our hands, that we ought to involve ourselves in more business. Ifyou once make an opening [331] for such proceedings, you will soon havenothing else to do. All private quarrels will be brought before youunder that pretence. " There is also on record another sentence used byhim in the senate, which is far from assuming: "If he speaks otherwise ofme, I shall take care to behave in such a manner, as to be able to give agood account both of my words and actions; and if he persists, I shallhate him in my turn. "

XXIX. These things were so much the more remarkable in him, because, inthe respect he paid to individuals, or the whole body of the senate, hewent beyond all bounds. Upon his differing with Quintus Haterius in thesenate-house, "Pardon me, sir, " he said, "I beseech you, if I shall, as asenator, speak my mind very freely in opposition to you. " Afterwards, addressing the senate in general, he said: "Conscript Fathers, I haveoften said it both now and at other times, that a good (212) and usefulprince, whom you have invested with so great and absolute power, ought tobe a slave to the senate, to the whole body of the people, and often toindividuals likewise: nor am I sorry that I have said it. I have alwaysfound you good, kind, and indulgent masters, and still find you so. "

XXX. He likewise introduced a certain show of liberty, by preserving tothe senate and magistrates their former majesty and power. All affairs, whether of great or small importance, public or private, were laid beforethe senate. Taxes and monopolies, the erecting or repairing edifices, levying and disbanding soldiers, the disposal of the legions andauxiliary forces in the provinces, the appointment of generals for themanagement of extraordinary wars, and the answers to letters from foreignprinces, were all submitted to the senate. He compelled the commander ofa troop of horse, who was accused of robbery attended with violence, toplead his cause before the senate. He never entered the senate-house butunattended; and being once brought thither in a litter, because he wasindisposed, he dismissed his attendants at the door. 

XXXI. When some decrees were made contrary to his opinion, he did noteven make any complaint. And though he thought that no magistrates aftertheir nomination should be allowed to absent themselves from the city, but reside in it constantly, to receive their honours in person, apraetor-elect obtained liberty to depart under the honorary title of alegate at large. Again, when he proposed to the senate, that theTrebians might have leave granted them to divert some money which hadbeen left them by will for the purpose of building a new theatre, to thatof making a road, he could not prevail to have the will of the testatorset aside. And when, upon a division of the house, he went over to theminority, nobody followed him. All other things of a public nature werelikewise transacted by the magistrates, and in the usual forms; theauthority of the consuls remaining so great, that some ambassadors fromAfrica applied to them, and complained, that they could not have theirbusiness dispatched by Caesar, to whom they had been sent. And nowonder; since it was observed that he used to rise up as the consulsapproached, and give them the way. 

(213) XXXII. He reprimanded some persons of consular rank in command ofarmies, for not writing to the senate an account of their proceedings, and for consulting him about the distribution of military rewards; as ifthey themselves had not a right to bestow them as they judged proper. Hecommended a praetor, who, on entering office, revived an old custom ofcelebrating the memory of his ancestors, in a speech to the people. Heattended the corpses of some persons of distinction to the funeral pile. He displayed the same moderation with regard to persons and things ofinferior consideration. The magistrates of Rhodes, having dispatched tohim a letter on public business, which was not subscribed, he sent forthem, and without giving them so much as one harsh word, desired them tosubscribe it, and so dismissed them. Diogenes, the grammarian, who usedto hold public disquisitions, at Rhodes every sabbath-day, once refusedhim admittance upon his coming to hear him out of course, and sent him amessage by a servant, postponing his admission until the next seventhday. Diogenes afterwards coming to Rome, and waiting at his door to beallowed to pay his respects to him, he sent him word to come again at theend of seven years. To some governors, who advised him to load theprovinces with taxes, he answered, "It is the part of a good shepherd toshear, not flay, his sheep. "

XXXIII. He assumed the sovereignty [332] by slow degrees, and exercisedit for a long time with great variety of conduct, though generally with adue regard to the public good. At first he only interposed to preventill management. Accordingly, he rescinded some decrees of the senate;and when the magistrates sat for the administration of justice, hefrequently offered his service as assessor, either taking his placepromiscuously amongst them, or seating himself in a corner of thetribunal. If a rumour prevailed, that any person under prosecution waslikely to be acquitted by his interest, he would suddenly make hisappearance, and from the floor of the court, (214) or the praetor'sbench, remind the judges of the laws, and of their oaths, and the natureof the charge brought before them, he likewise took upon himself thecorrection of public morals, where they tended to decay, either throughneglect, or evil custom. 

XXXIV. He reduced the expense of the plays and public spectacles, bydiminishing the allowances to actors, and curtailing the number ofgladiators. He made grievous complaints to the senate, that the price ofCorinthian vessels was become enormous, and that three mullets had beensold for thirty thousand sesterces: upon which he proposed that a newsumptuary law should be enacted; that the butchers and other dealers inviands should be subject to an assize, fixed by the senate yearly; andthe aediles commissioned to restrain eating-houses and taverns, so far asnot even to permit the sale of any kind of pastry. And to encouragefrugality in the public by his own example, he would often, at his solemnfeasts, have at his tables victuals which had been served up the daybefore, and were partly eaten, and half a boar, affirming, "It has allthe same good bits that the whole had. " He published an edict againstthe practice of people's kissing each other when they met; and would notallow new-year's gifts [333] to be presented after the calends [thefirst] of January was passed. He had been in the habit of returningthese offerings four-fold, and making them with his own hand; but beingannoyed by the continual interruption to which he was exposed during thewhole month, by those who had not the opportunity of attending him on thefestival, he returned none after that day. 

XXXV. Married women guilty of adultery, though not prosecuted publicly, he authorised the nearest relations to punish by agreement amongthemselves, according to ancient custom. He discharged a Roman knightfrom the obligation of an oath he had taken, never to turn away his wife;and allowed him to divorce her, upon her being caught in criminalintercourse with her son-in-law. Women of ill-fame, divesting themselvesof the rights and dignity of matrons, had now begun a practice ofprofessing themselves prostitutes, to avoid (215) the punishment of thelaws; and the most profligate young men of the senatorian and equestrianorders, to secure themselves against a decree of the senate, whichprohibited their performing on the stage, or in the amphitheatre, voluntarily subjected themselves to an infamous sentence, by which theywere degraded. All those he banished, that none for the future mightevade by such artifices the intention and efficacy of the law. Hestripped a senator of the broad stripes on his robe, upon information ofhis having removed to his gardens before the calends [the first] of July, in order that he might afterwards hire a house cheaper in the city. Helikewise dismissed another from the office of quaestor, for repudiating, the day after he had been lucky in drawing his lot, a wife whom he hadmarried only the day before. 

XXXVI. He suppressed all foreign religions, and the Egyptian [334] andJewish rites, obliging those who practised that kind of superstition, toburn their vestments, and all their sacred utensils. He distributed theJewish youths, under the pretence of military service, among theprovinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from the city allthe rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to thatreligion [335], under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied. Healso expelled the astrologers; but upon their suing for pardon, andpromising to renounce their profession, he revoked his decree. 

XXXVII. But, above all things, he was careful to keep the (216) publicpeace against robbers, burglars, and those who were disaffected to thegovernment. He therefore increased the number of military stationsthroughout Italy; and formed a camp at Rome for the pretorian cohorts, which, till then, had been quartered in the city. He suppressed withgreat severity all tumults of the people on their first breaking out; andtook every precaution to prevent them. Some persons having been killedin a quarrel which happened in the theatre, he banished the leaders ofthe parties, and the players about whom the disturbance had arisen; norcould all the entreaties of the people afterwards prevail upon him torecall them [336]. The people of Pollentia having refused to permit theremoval of the corpse of a centurion of the first rank from the forum, until they had extorted from his heirs a sum of money for a publicexhibition of gladiators, he detached a cohort from the city, and anotherfrom the kingdom of Cottius [337]; who concealing the cause of theirmarch, entered the town by different gates, with their arms suddenlydisplayed, and trumpets sounding; and having seized the greatest part ofthe people, and the magistrates, they were imprisoned for life. Heabolished every where the privileges of all places of refuge. TheCyzicenians having committed an outrage upon some Romans, he deprivedthem of the liberty they had obtained for their good services in theMithridatic war. Disturbances from foreign enemies he quelled by hislieutenants, without ever going against them in person; nor would he evenemploy his lieutenants, but with much reluctance, and when it wasabsolutely necessary. Princes who were ill-affected towards him, he keptin subjection, more by menaces and remonstrances, than by force of arms. Some whom he induced to come to him by fair words and promises, he neverwould permit to return home; as Maraboduus the German, Thrascypolis the(217) Thracian, and Archelaus the Cappadocian, whose kingdom he evenreduced into the form of a province. 

XXXVIII. He never set foot outside the gates of Rome, for two yearstogether, from the time he assumed the supreme power; and after thatperiod, went no farther from the city than to some of the neighbouringtowns; his farthest excursion being to Antium [338], and that but veryseldom, and for a few days; though he often gave out that he would visitthe provinces and armies, and made preparations for it almost every year, by taking up carriages, and ordering provisions for his retinue in themunicipia and colonies. At last he suffered vows to be put up for hisgood journey and safe return, insomuch that he was called jocosely by thename of Callipides, who is famous in a Greek proverb, for being in agreat hurry to go forward, but without ever advancing a cubit. 

XXXIX. But after the loss of his two sons, of whom Germanicus died inSyria, and Drusus at Rome, he withdrew into Campania [339]; at which timeopinion and conversation were almost general, that he never would return, and would die soon. And both nearly turned out to be true. For indeedhe never more came to Rome; and a few days after leaving it, when he wasat a villa of his called the Cave, near Terracina [340], during supper agreat many huge stones fell from above, which killed several of theguests and attendants; but he almost hopelessly escaped. 

XL. After he had gone round Campania, and dedicated the capitol atCapua, and a temple to Augustus at Nola [341], which he made the pretextof his journey, he retired to Capri; being (218) greatly delighted withthe island, because it was accessible only by a narrow beach, being onall sides surrounded with rugged cliffs, of a stupendous height, and by adeep sea. But immediately, the people of Rome being extremely clamorousfor his return, on account of a disaster at Fidenae [342], where upwardsof twenty thousand persons had been killed by the fall of theamphitheatre, during a public spectacle of gladiators, he crossed overagain to the continent, and gave all people free access to him; so muchthe more, because, at his departure from the city, he had caused it to beproclaimed that no one should address him, and had declined admitting anypersons to his presence, on the journey. 

XLI. Returning to the island, he so far abandoned all care of thegovernment, that he never filled up the decuriae of the knights, neverchanged any military tribunes or prefects, or governors of provinces, andkept Spain and Syria for several years without any consular lieutenants. He likewise suffered Armenia to be seized by the Parthians, Moesia by theDacians and Sarmatians, and Gaul to be ravaged by the Germans; to thegreat disgrace, and no less danger, of the empire. 

XLII. But having now the advantage of privacy, and being remote from theobservation of the people of Rome, he abandoned himself to all thevicious propensities which he had long but imperfectly concealed, and ofwhich I shall here give a particular account from the beginning. While ayoung soldier in the camp, he was so remarkable for his excessiveinclination to wine, that, for Tiberius, they called him Biberius; forClaudius, Caldius; and for Nero, Mero. And after he succeeded to theempire, and was invested with the office of reforming the morality of thepeople, he spent a whole night and two days together in feasting anddrinking with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso; to one of whom heimmediately gave the province of Syria, and to the other the prefectureof the city; declaring them, in his letters-patent, to be "very pleasantcompanions, and friends fit for all occasions. " He made an appointmentto sup with Sestius Gallus, a lewd and prodigal old fellow, who had beendisgraced by Augustus, and reprimanded by himself but a few days beforein the senate-house; upon condition that he should not recede in theleast from his usual method of entertainment, and that they should beattended at table by naked girls. He preferred a very obscure candidatefor the quaestorship, before the most noble competitors, only for takingoff, in pledging him at table, an amphora of wine at a draught [343]. Hepresented Asellius Sabinus with two hundred thousand sesterces, forwriting a dialogue, in the way of dispute, betwixt the truffle and thefig-pecker, the oyster and the thrush. He likewise instituted a newoffice to administer to his voluptuousness, to which he appointed TitusCaesonius Priscus, a Roman knight. 

XLIII. In his retreat at Capri [344], he also contrived an apartmentcontaining couches, and adapted to the secret practice of abominablelewdness, where he entertained companies of girls and catamites, andassembled from all quarters inventors of unnatural copulations, whom hecalled Spintriae, who defiled one another in his presence, to inflame bythe exhibition the languid appetite. He had several chambers set roundwith pictures and statues in the most lascivious attitudes, and furnishedwith the books of Elephantis, that none might want a pattern for theexecution of any lewd project that was prescribed him. He likewisecontrived recesses in woods and groves for the gratification of lust, where young persons of both sexes prostituted themselves in caves andhollow rocks, in the disguise of little Pans and Nymphs [345]. So thathe was publicly and commonly called, by an abuse of the name of theisland, Caprineus. [346]

XLIV. But he was still more infamous, if possible, for an (220)abomination not fit to be mentioned or heard, much less credited. [347]------------------When a picture, painted by Parrhasius, in which theartist had represented Atalanta in the act of submitting to Meleager'slust in a most unnatural way, was bequeathed to him, with this proviso, that if the subject was offensive to him, he might receive in lieu of ita million of sesterces, he not only chose the picture, but hung it up inhis bed-chamber. It is also reported that, during a sacrifice, he was socaptivated with the form of a youth who held a censer, that, before thereligious rites were well over, he took him aside and abused him; as alsoa brother of his who had been playing the flute; and soon afterwardsbroke the legs of both of them, for upbraiding one another with theirshame. 

XLV. How much he was guilty of a most foul intercourse with women evenof the first quality [348], appeared very plainly by the death of oneMallonia, who, being brought to his bed, but resolutely refusing tocomply with his lust, he gave her up to the common informers. Even whenshe was upon her trial, he frequently called out to her, and asked her, "Do you repent?" until she, quitting the court, went home, and stabbedherself; openly upbraiding the vile old lecher for his gross obscenity[349]. Hence there was an allusion to him in a farce, which was acted atthe next public sports, and was received with great applause, and becamea common topic of ridicule [350]: that the old goat--------

XLVI. He was so niggardly and covetous, that he never allowed to hisattendants, in his travels and expeditions, any salary, but their dietonly. Once, indeed, he treated them liberally, at the instigation of hisstep-father, when, dividing them into three classes, according to theirrank, he gave the (221) first six, the second four, and the third two, hundred thousand sesterces, which last class he called not friends, butGreeks. 

XLVII. During the whole time of his government, he never erected anynoble edifice; for the only things he did undertake, namely, building thetemple of Augustus, and restoring Pompey's Theatre, he left at last, after many years, unfinished. Nor did he ever entertain the people withpublic spectacles; and he was seldom present at those which were given byothers, lest any thing of that kind should be requested of him;especially after he was obliged to give freedom to the comedian Actius. Having relieved the poverty of a few senators, to avoid further demands, he declared that he should for the future assist none, but those who gavethe senate full satisfaction as to the cause of their necessity. Uponthis, most of the needy senators, from modesty and shame, declinedtroubling him. Amongst these was Hortalus, grandson to the celebratedorator Quintus Hortensius, who [marrying], by the persuasion of Augustus, had brought up four children upon a very small estate. 

XLVIII. He displayed only two instances of public munificence. One wasan offer to lend gratis, for three years, a hundred millions of sestercesto those who wanted to borrow; and the other, when, some large housesbeing burnt down upon Mount Caelius, he indemnified the owners. To theformer of these he was compelled by the clamours of the people, in agreat scarcity of money, when he had ratified a decree of the senateobliging all money-lenders to advance two-thirds of their capital onland, and the debtors to pay off at once the same proportion of theirdebts, and it was found insufficient to remedy the grievance. The otherhe did to alleviate in some degree the pressure of the times. But hisbenefaction to the sufferers by fire, he estimated at so high a rate, that he ordered the Caelian Hill to be called, in future, the Augustan. To the soldiery, after doubling the legacy left them by Augustus, henever gave any thing, except a thousand denarii a man to the pretorianguards, for not joining the party of Sejanus; and some presents to thelegions in Syria, because they alone had not paid reverence to theeffigies of Sejanus among their standards. He seldom gave discharges tothe veteran soldiers, calculating (222) on their deaths from advancedage, and on what would be saved by thus getting rid of them, in the wayof rewards or pensions. Nor did he ever relieve the provinces by any actof generosity, excepting Asia, where some cities had been destroyed by anearthquake. 

XLIX. In the course of a very short time, he turned his mind to sheerrobbery. It is certain that Cneius Lentulus, the augur, a man of vastestate, was so terrified and worried by his threats and importunities, that he was obliged to make him his heir; and that Lepida, a lady of avery noble family, was condemned by him, in order to gratify Quirinus, aman of consular rank, extremely rich, and childless, who had divorced hertwenty years before, and now charged her with an old design to poisonhim. Several persons, likewise, of the first distinction in Gaul, Spain, Syria, and Greece, had their estates confiscated upon such despicablytrifling and shameless pretences, that against some of them no othercharge was preferred, than that they held large sums of ready money aspart of their property. Old immunities, the rights of mining, and oflevying tolls, were taken from several cities and private persons. AndVonones, king of the Parthians, who had been driven out of his dominionsby his own subjects, and fled to Antioch with a vast treasure, claimingthe protection of the Roman people, his allies, was treacherously robbedof all his money, and afterwards murdered. 

L. He first manifested hatred towards his own relations in the case ofhis brother Drusus, betraying him by the production of a letter tohimself, in which Drusus proposed that Augustus should be forced torestore the public liberty. In course of time, he shewed the samedisposition with regard to the rest of his family. So far was he fromperforming any office of kindness or humanity to his wife, when she wasbanished, and, by her father's order, confined to one town, that heforbad her to stir out of the house, or converse with any men. He evenwronged her of the dowry given her by her father, and of her yearlyallowance, by a quibble of law, because Augustus had made no provisionfor them on her behalf in his will. Being harassed by his mother, Livia, who claimed an equal share in the government with him, he frequentlyavoided (223) seeing her, and all long and private conferences with her, lest it should be thought that he was governed by her counsels, which, notwithstanding, he sometimes sought, and was in the habit of adopting. He was much offended at the senate, when they proposed to add to hisother titles that of the Son of Livia, as well as Augustus. He, therefore, would not suffer her to be called "the Mother of her Country, "nor to receive any extraordinary public distinction. Nay, he frequentlyadmonished her "not to meddle with weighty affairs, and such as did notsuit her sex;" especially when he found her present at a fire which brokeout near the Temple of Vesta [351], and encouraging the people andsoldiers to use their utmost exertions, as she had been used to do in thetime of her husband. 

LI. He afterwards proceeded to an open rupture with her, and, as issaid, upon this occasion. She having frequently urged him to place amongthe judges a person who had been made free of the city, he refused herrequest, unless she would allow it to be inscribed on the roll, "That theappointment had been extorted from him by his mother. " Enraged at this, Livia brought forth from her chapel some letters from Augustus to her, complaining of the sourness and insolence of Tiberius's temper, and theseshe read. So much was he offended at these letters having been kept solong, and now produced with so much bitterness against him, that someconsidered this incident as one of the causes of his going intoseclusion, if not the principal reason for his so doing. In the (224)whole years she lived during his retirement, he saw her but once, andthat for a few hours only. When she fell sick shortly afterwards, he wasquite unconcerned about visiting her in her illness; and when she died, after promising to attend her funeral, he deferred his coming for severaldays, so that the corpse was in a state of decay and putrefaction beforethe interment; and he then forbad divine honours being paid to her, pretending that he acted according to her own directions. He likewiseannulled her will, and in a short time ruined all her friends andacquaintance; not even sparing those to whom, on her death-bed, she hadrecommended the care of her funeral, but condemning one of them, a man ofequestrian rank, to the treadmill. [352]

LII. He entertained no paternal affection either for his own son Drusus, or his adopted son Germanicus. Offended at the vices of the former, whowas of a loose disposition and led a dissolute life, he was not muchaffected at his death; but, almost immediately after the funeral, resumedhis attention to business, and prevented the courts from being longerclosed. The ambassadors from the people of Ilium coming rather late tooffer their condolence, he said to them by way of banter, as if theaffair had already faded from his memory, "And I heartily condole withyou on the loss of your renowned countryman, Hector. " He so muchaffected to depreciate Germanicus, that he spoke of his achievements asutterly insignificant, and railed at his most glorious victories asruinous to the state; complaining of him also to the senate for going toAlexandria without his knowledge, upon occasion of a great and suddenfamine at Rome. It was believed that he took care to have him dispatchedby Cneius Piso, his lieutenant in Syria. This person was afterwardstried for the murder, and would, as was supposed, have produced hisorders, had they not been contained in a private and confidentialdispatch. The following words therefore were posted up in many places, and frequently shouted in the night: "Give us back our Germanicus. " Thissuspicion was afterwards confirmed by the barbarous treatment of his wifeand children. 

(225) LIII. His daughter-in-law Agrippina, after the death of herhusband, complaining upon some occasion with more than ordinary freedom, he took her by the hand, and addressed her in a Greek verse to thiseffect: "My dear child, do you think yourself injured, because you arenot empress?" Nor did he ever vouchsafe to speak to her again. Upon herrefusing once at supper to taste some fruit which he presented to her, hedeclined inviting her to his table, pretending that she in effect chargedhim with a design to poison her; whereas the whole was a contrivance ofhis own. He was to offer the fruit, and she to be privately cautionedagainst eating what would infallibly cause her death. At last, havingher accused of intending to flee for refuge to the statue of Augustus, orto the army, he banished her to the island of Pandataria [353]. Upon herreviling him for it, he caused a centurion to beat out one of her eyes;and when she resolved to starve herself to death, he ordered her mouth tobe forced open, and meat to be crammed down her throat. But shepersisting in her resolution, and dying soon afterwards, he persecutedher memory with the basest aspersions, and persuaded the senate to puther birth-day amongst the number of unlucky days in the calendar. Helikewise took credit for not having caused her to be strangled and herbody cast upon the Gemonian Steps, and suffered a decree of the senate topass, thanking him for his clemency, and an offering of gold to be madeto Jupiter Capitolinus on the occasion. 

LIV. He had by Germanicus three grandsons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius; andby his son Drusus one, named Tiberius. Of these, after the loss of hissons, he commended Nero and Drusus, the two eldest sons of Germanicus, tothe senate; and at their being solemnly introduced into the forum, distributed money among the people. But when he found that on enteringupon the new year they were included in the public vows for his ownwelfare, he told the senate, "that such honours ought not to be conferredbut upon those who had been proved, and were of more advanced years. " Bythus betraying his private feelings towards them, he exposed them to allsorts of accusations; and after practising many artifices to provoke(226) them to rail at and abuse him, that he might be furnished with apretence to destroy them, he charged them with it in a letter to thesenate; at the same time accusing them, in the bitterest terms, of themost scandalous vices. Upon their being declared enemies by the senate, he starved them to death; Nero in the island of Ponza, and Drusus in thevaults of the Palatium. It is thought by some, that Nero was driven to avoluntary death by the executioner's shewing him some halters and hooks, as if he had been sent to him by order of the senate. Drusus, it issaid, was so rabid with hunger, that he attempted to eat the chaff withwhich his mattress was stuffed. The relics of both were so scattered, that it was with difficulty they were collected. 

LV. Besides his old friends and intimate acquaintance, he required theassistance of twenty of the most eminent persons in the city, ascounsellors in the administration of public affairs. Out of all thisnumber, scarcely two or three escaped the fury of his savage disposition. All the rest he destroyed upon one pretence or another; and among themAelius Sejanus, whose fall was attended with the ruin of many others. Hehad advanced this minister to the highest pitch of grandeur, not so muchfrom any real regard for him, as that by his base and sinistercontrivances he might ruin the children of Germanicus, and thereby securethe succession to his own grandson by Drusus. 

LVI. He treated with no greater leniency the Greeks in his family, eventhose with whom he was most pleased. Having asked one Zeno, upon hisusing some far-fetched phrases, "What uncouth dialect is that?" hereplied, "The Doric. " For this answer he banished him to Cinara [354], suspecting that he taunted him with his former residence at Rhodes, wherethe Doric dialect is spoken. It being his custom to start questions atsupper, arising out of what he had been reading in the day, and findingthat Seleucus, the grammarian, used to inquire of his attendants whatauthors he was then studying, and so came prepared for his enquiries--hefirst turned him out of his family, and then drove him to the extremityof laying violent hands upon himself. 

(227) LVII. His cruel and sullen temper appeared when he was still aboy; which Theodorus of Gadara [355], his master in rhetoric, firstdiscovered, and expressed by a very apposite simile, calling himsometimes, when he chid him, "Mud mixed with blood. " But his dispositionshewed itself still more clearly on his attaining the imperial power, andeven in the beginning of his administration, when he was endeavouring togain the popular favour, by affecting moderation. Upon a funeral passingby, a wag called out to the dead man, "Tell Augustus, that the legacieshe bequeathed to the people are not yet paid. " The man being broughtbefore him, he ordered that he should receive what was due to him, andthen be led to execution, that he might deliver the message to his fatherhimself. Not long afterwards, when one Pompey, a Roman knight, persistedin his opposition to something he proposed in the senate, he threatenedto put him in prison, and told him, "Of a Pompey I shall make a Pompeianof you;" by a bitter kind of pun playing upon the man's name, and theill-fortune of his party. 

LVIII. About the same time, when the praetor consulted him, whether itwas his pleasure that the tribunals should take cognizance of accusationsof treason, he replied, "The laws ought to be put in execution;" and hedid put them in execution most severely. Some person had taken off thehead of Augustus from one of his statues, and replaced it by another[356]. The matter was brought before the senate, and because the casewas not clear, the witnesses were put to the torture. The party accusedbeing found guilty, and condemned, this kind of proceeding was carried sofar, that it became capital for a man to beat his slave, or change hisclothes, near the statue of Augustus; to carry his head stamped upon thecoin, or cut in the stone of a ring, into a necessary house, or thestews; or to reflect upon anything that had been either said or done byhim. In fine, a person was condemned to death, for suffering somehonours to be decreed to him in the colony where he lived, upon the sameday on which they had formerly been decreed to Augustus. 

(228) LIX. He was besides guilty of many barbarous actions, under thepretence of strictness and reformation of manners, but more to gratifyhis own savage disposition. Some verses were published, which displayedthe present calamities of his reign, and anticipated the future. [357]

 Asper et immitis, breviter vis omnia dicam? Dispeream si te mater amare potest. Non es eques, quare? non sunt tibi millia centum? Omnia si quaeras, et Rhodos exsilium est. Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar: Incolumi nam te, ferrea semper erunt. Fastidit vinum, quia jam sit it iste cruorem: Tam bibit hunc avide, quam bibit ante merum. Adspice felicem sibi, non tibi, Romule, Sullam: Et Marium, si vis, adspice, sed reducem. Nec non Antoni civilia bella moventis Nec semel infectas adspice caeda manus. Et dic, Roma perit: regnabit sanguine multo, Ad regnum quisquis venit ab exsilio. 

 Obdurate wretch! too fierce, too fell to move The least kind yearnings of a mother's love! No knight thou art, as having no estate; Long suffered'st thou in Rhodes an exile's fate, No more the happy Golden Age we see; The Iron's come, and sure to last with thee. Instead of wine he thirsted for before, He wallows now in floods of human gore. Reflect, ye Romans, on the dreadful times, Made such by Marius, and by Sylla's crimes. Reflect how Antony's ambitious rage Twice scar'd with horror a distracted age, And say, Alas! Rome's blood in streams will flow, When banish'd miscreants rule this world below. 

At first he would have it understood, that these satirical verses weredrawn forth by the resentment of those who were impatient under thediscipline of reformation, rather than that they spoke their realsentiments; and he would frequently say, "Let them hate me, so long asthey do but approve my conduct. " [358] At length, however, his behaviourshowed that he was sensible they were too well founded. 

(229) LX. A few days after his arrival at Capri, a fisherman coming upto him unexpectedly, when he was desirous of privacy, and presenting himwith a large mullet, he ordered the man's face to be scrubbed with thefish; being terrified at the thought of his having been able to creepupon him from the back of the island, over such rugged and steep rocks. The man, while undergoing the punishment, expressing his joy that he hadnot likewise offered him a large crab which he had also taken, he orderedhis face to be farther lacerated with its claws. He put to death one ofthe pretorian guards, for having stolen a peacock out of his orchard. Inone of his journeys, his litter being obstructed by some bushes, heordered the officer whose duty it was to ride on and examine the road, acenturion of the first cohorts, to be laid on his face upon the ground, and scourged almost to death. 

LXI. Soon afterwards, he abandoned himself to every species of cruelty, never wanting occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext. He first fell upon the friends and acquaintance of his mother, then thoseof his grandsons, and his daughter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus;after whose death he became cruel in the extreme. From this it appeared, that he had not been so much instigated by Sejanus, as supplied withoccasions of gratifying his savage temper, when he wanted them. Thoughin a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had theeffrontery to write, "I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bentupon the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus, " one of thesehe put to death, when he began to suspect Sejanus; and another, after hewas taken off. It would be tedious to relate all the numerous instancesof his cruelty: suffice it to give a few examples, in their differentkinds. Not a day passed without the punishment of some person or other, not excepting holidays, or those appropriated to the worship of the gods. Some were tried even on New-Year's-Day. Of many who were condemned, their wives and children shared the same fate; and for those who weresentenced to death, the relations were forbid to put on mourning. Considerable rewards were voted for the prosecutors, and sometimes forthe witnesses also. The information of any person, without exception, was taken; and all offences were capital, even speaking (230) a fewwords, though without any ill intention. A poet was charged with abusingAgamemnon; and a historian [359], for calling Brutus and Cassius "thelast of the Romans. " The two authors were immediately called to account, and their writings suppressed; though they had been well received someyears before, and read in the hearing of Augustus. Some, who were throwninto prison, were not only denied the solace of study, but debarred fromall company and conversation. Many persons, when summoned to trial, stabbed themselves at home, to avoid the distress and ignominy of apublic condemnation, which they were certain would ensue. Others tookpoison in the senate house. The wounds were bound up, and all who hadnot expired, were carried, half-dead, and panting for life, to prison. Those who were put to death, were thrown down the Gemonian stairs, andthen dragged into the Tiber. In one day, twenty were treated in thismanner; and amongst them women and boys. Because, according to anancient custom, it was not lawful to strangle virgins, the young girlswere first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled. Those who were desirous to die, were forced to live. For he thoughtdeath so slight a punishment, that upon hearing that Carnulius, one ofthe accused, who was under prosecution, had killed himself, he exclaimed, "Carnulius has escaped me. " In calling over his prisoners, when one ofthem requested the favour of a speedy death, he replied, "You are not yetrestored to favour. " A man of consular rank writes in his annals, thatat table, where he himself was present with a large company, he wassuddenly asked aloud by a dwarf who stood by amongst the buffoons, whyPaconius, who was under a prosecution for treason, lived so long. Tiberius immediately reprimanded him for his pertness; but wrote to thesenate a few days after, to proceed without delay to the punishment ofPaconius. 

LXII. Exasperated by information he received respecting the death of hisson Drusus, he carried his cruelty still farther. He imagined that hehad died of a disease occasioned (231) by his intemperance; but findingthat he had been poisoned by the contrivance of his wife Livilla [360]and Sejanus, he spared no one from torture and death. He was so entirelyoccupied with the examination of this affair, for whole days together, that, upon being informed that the person in whose house he had lodged atRhodes, and whom he had by a friendly letter invited to Rome, wasarrived, he ordered him immediately to be put to the torture, as a partyconcerned in the enquiry. Upon finding his mistake, he commanded him tobe put to death, that he might not publish the injury done him. Theplace of execution is still shown at Capri, where he ordered those whowere condemned to die, after long and exquisite tortures, to be thrown, before his eyes, from a precipice into the sea. There a party ofsoldiers belonging to the fleet waited for them, and broke their boneswith poles and oars, lest they should have any life left in them. Amongvarious kinds of torture invented by him, one was, to induce people todrink a large quantity of wine, and then to tie up their members withharp-strings, thus tormenting them at once by the tightness of theligature, and the stoppage of their urine. Had not death prevented him, and Thrasyllus, designedly, as some say, prevailed with him to defer someof his cruelties, in hopes of longer life, it is believed that he wouldhave destroyed many more: and not have spared even the rest of hisgrandchildren: for he was jealous of Caius, and hated Tiberius as havingbeen conceived in adultery. This conjecture is indeed highly probable;for he used often to say, "Happy Priam, who survived all his children!"[361]

LXIII. Amidst these enormities, in how much fear and apprehension, aswell as odium and detestation, he lived, is evident from manyindications. He forbade the soothsayers to be consulted in private, andwithout some witnesses being present. He attempted to suppress theoracles in the neighbourhood of the city; but being terrified by thedivine authority of the (232) Praenestine Lots [362], he abandoned thedesign. For though they were sealed up in a box, and carried to home, yet they were not to be found in it, until it was returned to the temple. More than one person of consular rank, appointed governors of provinces, he never ventured to dismiss to their respective destinations, but keptthem until several years after, when he nominated their successors, whilethey still remained present with him. In the meantime, they bore thetitle of their office; and he frequently gave them orders, which theytook care to have executed by their deputies and assistants. 

LXIV. He never removed his daughter-in-law, or grandsons [363], aftertheir condemnation, to any place, but in fetters and in a covered litter, with a guard to hinder all who met them on the road, and travellers, fromstopping to gaze at them. 

LXV. After Sejanus had plotted against him, though he saw that hisbirth-day was solemnly kept by the public, and divine honours paid togolden images of him in every quarter, yet it was with difficulty atlast, and more by artifice than his imperial power, that he accomplishedhis death. In the first place, to remove him from about his person, under the pretext of doing him honour, he made him his colleague in hisfifth consulship; which, although then absent from the city, he took uponhim for that purpose, long after his preceding consulship. Then, havingflattered him with the hope of an alliance by marriage with one of hisown kindred, and the prospect of the tribunitian authority, he suddenly, while Sejanus little expected it, charged him with treason, in an abjectand pitiful address to the senate; in which, among other things, hebegged them "to send one of the consuls, to conduct himself, a poorsolitary old man, with a guard of soldiers, into their presence. " Stilldistrustful, however, and apprehensive of an insurrection, he ordered hisgrandson, Drusus, whom he still kept in confinement at Rome, to be set atliberty, and if occasion required, to head the troops. He had likewiseships in readiness to transport him to any of the legions to which hemight consider it expedient to make his escape. Meanwhile, he was uponthe (233) watch, from the summit of a lofty cliff, for the signals whichhe had ordered to be made if any thing occurred, lest the messengersshould be tardy. Even when he had quite foiled the conspiracy ofSejanus, he was still haunted as much as ever with fears andapprehensions, insomuch that he never once stirred out of the Villa Jovisfor nine months after. 

LXVI. To the extreme anxiety of mind which he now experienced, he hadthe mortification to find superadded the most poignant reproaches fromall quarters. Those who were condemned to die, heaped upon him the mostopprobrious language in his presence, or by hand-bills scattered in thesenators' seats in the theatre. These produced different effects:sometimes he wished, out of shame, to have all smothered and concealed;at other times he would disregard what was said, and publish it himself. To this accumulation of scandal and open sarcasm, there is to besubjoined a letter from Artabanus, king of the Parthians, in which heupbraids him with his parricides, murders, cowardice, and lewdness, andadvises him to satisfy the furious rage of his own people, which he hadso justly excited, by putting an end to his life without delay. 

LXVII. At last, being quite weary of himself, he acknowledged hisextreme misery, in a letter to the senate, which begun thus: "What towrite to you, Conscript Fathers, or how to write, or what not to write atthis time, may all the gods and goddesses pour upon my head a moreterrible vengeance than that under which I feel myself daily sinking, ifI can tell. " Some are of opinion that he had a foreknowledge of thosethings, from his skill in the science of divination, and perceived longbefore what misery and infamy would at last come upon him; and that forthis reason, at the beginning of his reign, he had absolutely refused thetitle of the "Father of his Country, " and the proposal of the senate toswear to his acts; lest he should afterwards, to his greater shame, befound unequal to such extraordinary honours. This, indeed, may be justlyinferred from the speeches which he made upon both those occasions; aswhen he says, "I shall ever be the same, and shall never change myconduct, so long as I retain my senses; but to avoid giving a badprecedent to posterity, the senate ought to beware of binding themselvesto the acts of (234) any person whatever, who might by some accident orother be induced to alter them. " And again: "If ye should at any timeentertain a jealousy of my conduct, and my entire affection for you, which heaven prevent by putting a period to my days, rather than I shouldlive to see such an alteration in your opinion of me, the title of Fatherwill add no honour to me, but be a reproach to you, for your rashness inconferring it upon me, or inconstancy in altering your opinion of me. "

LXVIII. In person he was large and robust; of a stature somewhat abovethe common size; broad in the shoulders and chest, and proportionable inthe rest of his frame. He used his left hand more readily and with moreforce than his right; and his joints were so strong, that he could bore afresh, sound apple through with his finger, and wound the head of a boy, or even a young man, with a fillip. He was of a fair complexion, andwore his hair so long behind, that it covered his neck, which wasobserved to be a mark of distinction affected by the family. He had ahandsome face, but it was often full of pimples. His eyes, which werelarge, had a wonderful faculty of seeing in the night-time, and in thedark, for a short time only, and immediately after awaking from sleep;but they soon grew dim again. He walked with his neck stiff and upright:generally with a frowning countenance, being for the most part silent:when he spoke to those about him, it was very slowly, and usuallyaccompanied with a slight gesticulation of his fingers. All which, beingrepulsive habits and signs of arrogance, were remarked by Augustus, whooften endeavoured to excuse them to the senate and people, declaring that"they were natural defects, which proceeded from no viciousness of mind. "He enjoyed a good state of health, without interruption, almost duringthe whole period of his rule; though, from the thirtieth year of his age, he treated it himself according to his own discretion, without anymedical assistance. 

LXIX. In regard to the gods, and matters of religion, he discovered muchindifference; being greatly addicted to astrology, and fully persuadedthat all things were governed by fate. Yet he was extremely afraid oflightning, and when the sky was in a disturbed state, always wore alaurel crown on his head; because it is supposed that the leaf of thattree is never touched by the lightning. 

(235) LXX. He applied himself with great diligence to the liberal arts, both Greek and Latin. In his Latin style, he affected to imitate MessalaCorvinus [364], a venerable man, to whom he had paid much respect in hisown early years. But he rendered his style obscure by excessiveaffectation and abstruseness, so that he was thought to speak betterextempore, than in a premeditated discourse. He composed likewise alyric ode, under the title of "A Lamentation upon the death of LuciusCaesar;" and also some Greek poems, in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius [365]. These poets he greatly admired, and placed theirworks and statues in the public libraries, amongst the eminent authors ofantiquity. On this account, most of the learned men of the time viedwith each other in publishing observations upon them, which theyaddressed to him. His principal study, however, was the history of thefabulous ages, inquiring even into its trifling details in a ridiculousmanner; for he used to try the grammarians, a class of men which, as Ihave already observed, he much affected, with such questions as these:"Who was Hecuba's mother? What name did Achilles assume among thevirgins? What was it that the Sirens used to sing?" And the first daythat he entered the senate-house, after the death of Augustus, as if heintended to pay respect at once to his father's memory and to the gods, he made an offering of frankincense and wine, but without any music, inimitation of Minos, upon the death of his son. 

LXXI. Though he was ready and conversant with the Greek tongue, yet hedid not use it everywhere; but chiefly he avoided it in the senate-house, insomuch that having occasion to employ the word monopolium (monopoly), he first begged pardon for being obliged to adopt a foreign word. Andwhen, in a decree of the senate, the word emblaema (emblem) was read, heproposed to have it changed, and that a Latin word should be substitutedin its room; or, if no proper one could be found, to express the thing bycircumlocution. A soldier (236) who was examined as a witness upon atrial, in Greek [366], he would not allow to reply, except in Latin. 

LXXII. During the whole time of his seclusion at Capri, twice only hemade an effort to visit Rome. Once he came in a galley as far as thegardens near the Naumachia, but placed guards along the banks of theTiber, to keep off all who should offer to come to meet him. The secondtime he travelled on the Appian Way [367], as far as the seventhmile-stone from the city, but he immediately returned, without entering it, having only taken a view of the walls at a distance. For what reason hedid not disembark in his first excursion, is uncertain; but in the last, he was deterred from entering the city by a prodigy. He was in the habitof diverting himself with a snake, and upon going to feed it with his ownhand, according to custom, he found it devoured by ants: from which hewas advised to beware of the fury of the mob. On this account, returningin all haste to Campania, he fell ill at Astura [368]; but recovering alittle, went on to Circeii [369]. And to obviate any suspicion of hisbeing in a bad state of health, he was not only present at the sports inthe camp, but encountered, with javelins, a wild boar, which was letloose in the arena. Being immediately seized with a pain in the side, and catching cold upon his over-heating himself in the exercise, herelapsed into a worse condition than he was before. He held out, however, for some time; and sailing as far as Misenum [370], omittednothing (237) in his usual mode of life, not even in his entertainments, and other gratifications, partly from an ungovernable appetite, andpartly to conceal his condition. For Charicles, a physician, havingobtained leave of absence, on his rising from table, took his hand tokiss it; upon which Tiberius, supposing he did it to feel his pulse, desired him to stay and resume his place, and continued the entertainmentlonger than usual. Nor did he omit his usual custom of taking hisstation in the centre of the apartment, a lictor standing by him, whilehe took leave of each of the party by name. 

LXXIII. Meanwhile, finding, upon looking over the acts of the senate, "that some person under prosecution had been discharged, without beingbrought to a hearing, " for he had only written cursorily that they hadbeen denounced by an informer; he complained in a great rage that he wastreated with contempt, and resolved at all hazards to return to Capri;not daring to attempt any thing until he found himself in a place ofsecurity. But being detained by storms, and the increasing violence ofhis disorder, he died shortly afterwards, at a villa formerly belongingto Lucullus, in the seventy-eighth year of his age [371], and thetwenty-third of his reign, upon the seventeenth of the calends of April(16th March), in the consulship of Cneius Acerronius Proculus and CaiusPontius Niger. Some think that a slow-consuming poison was given him byCaius [372]. Others say that during the interval of the intermittentfever with which he happened to be seized, upon asking for food, it wasdenied him. Others report, that he was stifled by a pillow thrown uponhim [373], when, on his recovering from a swoon, he called for his ring, which had been taken from him in the fit. Seneca writes, "That findinghimself dying, he took his signet ring off his finger, and held it awhile, as if he would deliver it to somebody; but put it again upon hisfinger, and lay for some time, with his left hand clenched, and withoutstirring; when suddenly summoning his attendants, (238) and no oneanswering the call, he rose; but his strength failing him, he fell downat a short distance from his bed. "

LXXIV. Upon his last birth-day, he had brought a full-sized statue ofthe Timenian Apollo from Syracuse, a work of exquisite art, intending toplace it in the library of the new temple [374]; but he dreamt that thegod appeared to him in the night, and assured him "that his statue couldnot be erected by him. " A few days before he died, the Pharos at Capriwas thrown down by an earthquake. And at Misenum, some embers and livecoals, which were brought in to warm his apartment, went out, and afterbeing quite cold, burst out into a flame again towards evening, andcontinued burning very brightly for several hours. 

LXXV. The people were so much elated at his death, that when they firstheard the news, they ran up and down the city, some crying out, "Awaywith Tiberius to the Tiber;" others exclaiming, "May the earth, thecommon mother of mankind, and the infernal gods, allow him no abode indeath, but amongst the wicked. " Others threatened his body with the hookand the Gemonian stairs, their indignation at his former cruelty beingincreased by a recent atrocity. It had been provided by an act of thesenate, that the execution of condemned criminals should always bedeferred until the tenth day after the sentence. Now this fell on thevery day when the news of Tiberius's death arrived, and in consequence ofwhich the unhappy men implored a reprieve, for mercy's sake; but, asCaius had not yet arrived, and there was no one else to whom applicationcould be made on their behalf, their guards, apprehensive of violatingthe law, strangled them, and threw them down the Gemonian stairs. Thisroused the people to a still greater abhorrence of the tyrant's memory, since his cruelty continued in use even after he was dead. As soon ashis corpse was begun to be moved from Misenum, many cried out for itsbeing carried to Atella [375], and being half burnt there (239) in theamphitheatre. It was, however, brought to Rome, and burnt with the usualceremony. 

LXXVI. He had made about two years before, duplicates of his will, onewritten by his own hand, and the other by that of one of his freedmen;and both were witnessed by some persons of very mean rank. He appointedhis two grandsons, Caius by Germanicus, and Tiberius by Drusus, jointheirs to his estate; and upon the death of one of them, the other was toinherit the whole. He gave likewise many legacies; amongst which werebequests to the Vestal Virgins, to all the soldiers, and each one of thepeople of Rome, and to the magistrates of the several quarters of thecity. 

 * * * * * *

At the death of Augustus, there had elapsed so long a period from theoverthrow of the republic by Julius Caesar, that few were now living whohad been born under the ancient constitution of the Romans; and the mildand prosperous administration of Augustus, during forty-four years, hadby this time reconciled the minds of the people to a despotic government. Tiberius, the adopted son of the former sovereign, was of mature age; andthough he had hitherto lived, for the most part, abstracted from anyconcern with public affairs, yet, having been brought up in the family ofAugustus, he was acquainted with his method of government, which, therewas reason to expect, he would render the model of his own. Livia, too, his mother, and the relict of the late emperor, was still living, a womanvenerable by years, who had long been familiar with the councils ofAugustus, and from her high rank, as well as uncommon affability, possessed an extensive influence amongst all classes of the people. 

Such were the circumstances in favour of Tiberius's succession at thedemise of Augustus; but there were others of a tendency disadvantageousto his views. His temper was haughty and reserved: Augustus had oftenapologised for the ungraciousness of his manners. He was disobedient tohis mother; and though he had not openly discovered any propensity tovice, he enjoyed none of those qualities which usually conciliatepopularity. To these considerations it is to be added, that PostumusAgrippa, the grandson of Augustus by Julia, was living; and ifconsanguinity was to be the rule of succession, his right wasindisputably preferable to that of an adopted son. Augustus had sentthis youth into exile a few years before; but, towards the close (240) ofhis life, had expressed a design of recalling him, with the view, as wassupposed, of appointing him his successor. The father of young Agrippahad been greatly beloved by the Romans; and the fate of his mother, Julia, though she was notorious for her profligacy, had ever beenregarded by them with peculiar sympathy and tenderness. Many, therefore, attached to the son the partiality entertained for his parents; which wasincreased not only by a strong suspicion, but a general surmise, that hiselder brothers, Caius and Lucius, had been violently taken off, to makeway for the succession of Tiberius. That an obstruction was apprehendedto Tiberius's succession from this quarter, is put beyond all doubt, whenwe find that the death of Augustus was industriously kept secret, untilyoung Agrippa should be removed; who, it is generally agreed, wasdispatched by an order from Livia and Tiberius conjointly, or at leastfrom the former. Though, by this act, there remained no rival toTiberius, yet the consciousness of his own want of pretensions to theRoman throne, seems to have still rendered him distrustful of thesuccession; and that he should have quietly obtained it, without thevoice of the people, the real inclination of the senate, or the supportof the army, can be imputed only to the influence of his mother, and hisown dissimulation. Ardently solicitous to attain the object, yetaffecting a total indifference; artfully prompting the senate to give himthe charge of the government, at the time that he intimated an invinciblereluctance to accept it; his absolutely declining it in perpetuity, butfixing no time for an abdication; his deceitful insinuation of bodilyinfirmities, with hints likewise of approaching old age, that he mightallay in the senate all apprehensions of any great duration of his power, and repress in his adopted son, Germanicus, the emotions of ambition todisplace him; form altogether a scene of the most insidious policy, inconsistency, and dissimulation. 

In this period died, in the eighty-sixth year of her age, Livia Drusilla, mother of the emperor, and the relict of Augustus, whom she survivedfifteen years. She was the daughter of L. Drusus Calidianus and marriedTiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus. The conduct of this lady seems to justify the remark of Caligula, that"she was an Ulysses in a woman's dress. " Octavius first saw her as shefled from the danger which threatened her husband, who had espoused thecause of Antony; and though she was then pregnant, he resolved to marryher; whether with her own inclination or not, is left by Tacitusundetermined. To pave the way for this union, he divorced his wifeScribonia, and with the approbation of the Augurs, which he could have nodifficulty in obtaining, celebrated (241) his nuptials with Livia. Thereensued from this marriage no issue, though much desired by both parties;but Livia retained, without interruption, an unbounded ascendancy overthe emperor, whose confidence she abused, while the uxorious husbandlittle suspected that he was cherishing in his bosom a viper who was toprove the destruction of his house. She appears to have entertained apredominant ambition of giving an heir to the Roman empire; and since itcould not be done by any fruit of her marriage with Augustus, sheresolved on accomplishing that end in the person of Tiberius, the eldestson by her former husband. The plan which she devised for this purpose, was to exterminate all the male offspring of Augustus by his daughterJulia, who was married to Agrippa; a stratagem which, when executed, would procure for Tiberius, through the means of adoption, the eventualsuccession to the empire. The cool yet sanguinary policy, and thepatient perseverance of resolution, with which she prosecuted her design, have seldom been equalled. While the sons of Julia were yet young, andwhile there was still a possibility that she herself might have issue byAugustus, she suspended her project, in the hope, perhaps, that accidentor disease might operate in its favour; but when the natural term of herconstitution had put a period to her hopes of progeny, and when thegrandsons of the emperor were risen to the years of manhood, and had beenadopted by him, she began to carry into execution what she long hadmeditated. The first object devoted to destruction was C. CaesarAgrippa, the eldest of Augustus's grandsons. This promising youth wassent to Armenia, upon an expedition against the Persians; and Lollius, who had been his governor, either accompanied him thither from Rome, ormet him in the East, where he had obtained some appointment. From thehand of this traitor, perhaps under the pretext of exercising theauthority of a preceptor, but in reality instigated by Livia, the youngprince received a fatal blow, of which he died some time after. 

The manner of Caius's death seems to have been carefully kept from theknowledge of Augustus, who promoted Lollius to the consulship, and madehim governor of a province; but, by his rapacity in this station, heafterwards incurred the emperor's displeasure. The true character ofthis person had escaped the keen discernment of Horace, as well as thesagacity of the emperor; for in two epistles addressed to Lollius, hementions him as great and accomplished in the superlative degree; maximeLolli, liberrime Lolli; so imposing had been the manners and address ofthis deceitful courtier. 

Lucius, the second son of Julia, was banished into Campania, (242) forusing, as it is said, so litious language against his grandfather. Inthe seventh year of his exile Augustus proposed to recall him; but Liviaand Tiberius, dreading the consequences of his being restored to theemperor's favour, put in practice the expedient of having him immediatelyassassinated. Postumus Agrippa, the third son, incurred the displeasureof his grandfather in the same way as Lucius, and was confined atSurrentum, where he remained a prisoner until he was put to death by theorder either of Livia alone, or in conjunction with Tiberius, as wasbefore observed. 

Such was the catastrophe, through the means of Livia, of all thegrandsons of Augustus; and reason justifies the inference, that she whoscruple not to lay violent hands upon those young men, had formerlypractised every artifice that could operate towards rendering themobnoxious to the emperor. We may even ascribe to her dark intrigues thedissolute conduct of Julia for the woman who could secretly act asprocuress to her own husband, would feel little restraint upon her mindagainst corrupting his daughter, when such an effect might contribute toanswer the purpose which she had in view. But in the ingratitude ofTiberius, however undutiful and reprehensible in a son towards a parent, she at last experienced a just retribution for the crimes in which shehad trained him to procure the succession to the empire. To the disgraceof her sex, she introduced amongst the Romans the horrible practice ofdomestic murder, little known before the times when the thirst orintoxication of unlimited power had vitiated the social affections; andshe transmitted to succeeding ages a pernicious example, by whichimmoderate ambition might be gratified, at the expense of every moralobligation, as well as of humanity. 

One of the first victims in the sanguinary reign of the present emperor, was Germanicus, the son of Drusus, Tiberius's own brother, and who hadbeen adopted by his uncle himself. Under any sovereign, of a temperdifferent from that of Tiberius, this amiable and meritorious princewould have been held in the highest esteem. At the death of hisgrandfather Augustus, he was employed in a war in Germany, where hegreatly distinguished himself by his military achievements; and as soonas intelligence of that event arrived, the soldiers, by whom he wasextremely beloved, unanimously saluted him emperor. Refusing, however, to accept this mark of their partiality, he persevered in allegiance tothe government of his uncle, and prosecuted the war with success. Uponthe conclusion of this expedition, he was sent, with the title of emperorin the East, to repress the seditions of the Armenians, in which he wasequally successful. But the (243) fame which he acquired, served only torender him an object of jealousy to Tiberius, by whose order he wassecretly poisoned at Daphne, near Antioch, in the thirty-fourth year ofhis age. The news of Germanicus's death was received at Rome withuniversal lamentation; and all ranks of the people entertained anopinion, that, had he survived Tiberius, he would have restored thefreedom of the republic. The love and gratitude of the Romans decreedmany honours to his memory. It was ordered, that his name should be sungin a solemn procession of the Salii; that crowns of oak, in allusion tohis victories, should be placed upon curule chairs in the hall pertainingto the priests of Augustus; and that an effigy of him in ivory should bedrawn upon a chariot, preceding the ceremonies of the Circensian games. Triumphal arches were erected, one at Rome, another on the banks of theRhine, and a third upon Mount Amanus in Syria, with inscriptions of hisachievements, and that he died for his services to the republic. [376]

His obsequies were celebrated, not with the display of images and funeralpomp, but with the recital of his praises and the virtues which renderedhim illustrious. From a resemblance in his personal accomplishments, hisage, the manner of his death, and the vicinity of Daphne to Babylon, manycompared his fate to that of Alexander the Great. He was celebrated forhumanity and benevolence, as well as military talents, and amidst thetoils of war, found leisure to cultivate the arts of literary genius. Hecomposed two comedies in Greek, some epigrams, and a translation ofAratus into Latin verse. He married Agrippina, the daughter of M. Agrippa, by whom he had nine children. This lady, who had accompaniedher husband into the east, carried his ashes to Italy, and accused hismurderer, Piso; who, unable to bear up against the public odium incurredby that transaction, laid violent hands upon himself. Agrippina was nownearly in the same predicament with regard to Tiberius, that Ovid hadformerly been in respect of Augustus. He was sensible, that when sheaccused Piso, she was not ignorant of the person by whom the perpetratorof the murder had been instigated; and her presence, therefore, seemingcontinually to reproach him with his guilt, he resolved to rid himself ofa person become so obnoxious to his sight, and banished her to the islandof Pandataria, where she died some time afterwards of famine. 

But it was not sufficient to gratify this sanguinary tyrant, that he had, without any cause, cut off both Germanicus and his wife Agrippina: thedistinguished merits and popularity of that prince were yet to berevenged upon his children; and accordingly he (244) set himself toinvent a pretext for their destruction. After endeavouring in vain, byvarious artifices, to provoke the resentment of Nero and Drusus againsthim, he had recourse to false accusation, and not only charged them withseditious designs, to which their tender years were ill adapted, but withvices of a nature the most scandalous. By a sentence of the senate, which manifested the extreme servility of that assembly, he procured themboth to be declared open enemies to their country. Nero he banished tothe island of Pontia, where, like his unfortunate mother, he miserablyperished by famine; and Drusus was doomed to the same fate, in the lowerpart of the Palatium, after suffering for nine days the violence ofhunger, and having, as is related, devoured part of his bed. Theremaining son, Caius, on account of his vicious disposition, he resolvedto appoint his successor on the throne, that, after his own death, acomparison might be made in favour of his memory, when the Romans shouldbe governed by a sovereign yet more vicious and more tyrannical, ifpossible, than himself. 

Sejanus, the minister in the present reign, imitated with success, forsome time, the hypocrisy of his master; and, had his ambitious temper, impatient of attaining its object, allowed him to wear the mask for alonger period, he might have gained the imperial diadem; in the pursuitof which he was overtaken by that fate which he merited still more by hiscruelties than his perfidy to Tiberius. This man was a native ofVolsinium in Tuscany, and the son of a Roman knight. He had firstinsinuated himself into the favour of Caius Caesar, the grandson ofAugustus, after whose death he courted the friendship of Tiberius, andobtained in a short time his entire confidence, which he improved to thebest advantage. The object which he next pursued, was to gain theattachment of the senate, and the officers of the army; besides whom, with a new kind of policy, he endeavoured to secure in his interest everylady of distinguished connections, by giving secretly to each of them apromise of marriage, as soon as he should arrive at the sovereignty. Thechief obstacles in his way were the sons and grandsons of Tiberius; andthese he soon sacrificed to his ambition, under various pretences. Drusus, the eldest of this progeny, having in a fit of passion struck thefavourite, was destined by him to destruction. For this purpose, he hadthe presumption to seduce Livia, the wife of Drusus, to whom she hadborne several children; and she consented to marry her adulterer upon thedeath of her husband, who was soon after poisoned, through the means ofan eunuch named Lygdus, by order of her and Sejanus. 

Drusus was the son of Tiberius by Vipsania, one of Agrippa's (245)daughters. He displayed great intrepidity during the war in theprovinces of Illyricum and Pannonia, but appears to have been dissolutein his morals. Horace is said to have written the Ode in praise ofDrusus at the desire of Augustus; and while the poet celebrates themilitary courage of the prince, he insinuates indirectly a salutaryadmonition to the cultivation of the civil virtues:

 Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam, Rectique cultus pectora roborant: Utcunque defecere mores, Dedecorant bene nata culpae. --Ode iv. 4. 

 Yet sage instructions to refine the soul And raise the genius, wondrous aid impart, Conveying inward, as they purely roll, Strength to the mind and vigour to the heart: When morals fail, the stains of vice disgrace The fairest honours of the noblest race. --Francis. 

Upon the death of Drusus, Sejanus openly avowed a desire of marrying thewidowed princess; but Tiberius opposing this measure, and at the sametime recommending Germanicus to the senate as his successor in theempire, the mind of Sejanus was more than ever inflamed by the united, and now furious, passions of love and ambition. He therefore urged hisdemand with increased importunity; but the emperor still refusing hisconsent, and things being not yet ripe for an immediate revolt, Sejanusthought nothing so favourable for the prosecution of his designs as theabsence of Tiberius from the capital. With this view, under the pretenceof relieving his master from the cares of government, he persuaded him toretire to a distance from Rome. The emperor, indolent and luxurious, approved of the proposal, and retired into Campania, leaving to hisambitious minister the whole direction of the empire. Had Sejanus nowbeen governed by common prudence and moderation, he might have attainedto the accomplishment of all his wishes; but a natural impetuosity oftemper, and the intoxication of power, precipitated him into measureswhich soon effected his destruction. As if entirely emancipated from thecontrol of a master, he publicly declared himself sovereign of the Romanempire, and that Tiberius, who had by this time retired to Capri, wasonly the dependent prince of that tributary island. He even went so farin degrading the emperor, as to have him introduced in a ridiculous lightupon the stage. Advice of Sejanus's proceedings was soon carried to theemperor at Capri; his indignation was immediately excited; and with aconfidence founded upon an authority exercised for several years, he sentorders for accusing Sejanus (246) before the senate. This mandate nosooner arrived, than the audacious minister was deserted by hisadherents; he was in a short time after seized without resistance, andstrangled in prison the same day. 

Human nature recoils with horror at the cruelties of this execrabletyrant, who, having first imbrued his hands in the blood of his ownrelations, proceeded to exercise them upon the public with indiscriminatefury. Neither age nor sex afforded any exemption from his insatiablethirst for blood. Innocent children were condemned to death, andbutchered in the presence of their parents; virgins, without any imputedguilt, were sacrificed to a similar destiny; but there being an ancientcustom of not strangling females in that situation, they were firstdeflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled, as if anatrocious addition to cruelty could sanction the exercise of it. Fatherswere constrained by violence to witness the death of their own children;and even the tears of a mother, at the execution of her child, werepunished as a capital offence. Some extraordinary calamities, occasionedby accident, added to the horrors of the reign. A great number of houseson Mount Caelius were destroyed by fire; and by the fall of a temporarybuilding at Fidenae, erected for the purpose of exhibiting public shows, about twenty thousand persons were either greatly hurt, or crushed todeath in the rains. 

By another fire which afterwards broke out, a part of the Circus wasdestroyed, with the numerous buildings on Mount Aventine. The only actof munificence displayed by Tiberius during his reign, was upon theoccasion of those fires, when, to qualify the severity of his government, he indemnified the most considerable sufferers for the loss they hadsustained. 

Through the whole of his life, Tiberius seems to have conducted himselfwith a uniform repugnance to nature. Affable on a few occasions, but ingeneral averse to society, he indulged, from his earliest years, amoroseness of disposition, which counterfeited the appearance of austerevirtue; and in the decline of life, when it is common to reform fromjuvenile indiscretions, he launched forth into excesses, of a kind themost unnatural and most detestable. Considering the vicious passionswhich had ever brooded in his heart, it may seem surprising that herestrained himself within the bounds of decency during so many yearsafter his accession; but though utterly destitute of reverence oraffection for his mother, he still felt, during her life, a filial aweupon his mind: and after her death, he was actuated by a slavish fear ofSejanus, until at last political necessity absolved him likewise fromthis restraint. These checks being both removed, (247) he rioted withoutany control, either from sentiment or authority. 

Pliny relates, that the art of making glass malleable was actuallydiscovered under the reign of Tiberius, and that the shop and tools ofthe artist were destroyed, lest, by the establishment of this invention, gold and silver should lose their value. Dion adds, that the author ofthe discovery was put to death. 

The gloom which darkened the Roman capital during this melancholy period, shed a baleful influence on the progress of science throughout theempire, and literature languished during the present reign, in the sameproportion as it had flourished in the preceding. It is doubtful whethersuch a change might not have happened in some degree, even had thegovernment of Tiberius been equally mild with that of his predecessor. The prodigious fame of the writers of the Augustan age, by repressingemulation, tended to a general diminution of the efforts of genius forsome time; while the banishment of Ovid, it is probable, and the capitalpunishment of a subsequent poet, for censuring the character ofAgamemnon, operated towards the farther discouragement of poeticalexertions. There now existed no circumstance to counterbalance thesedisadvantages. Genius no longer found a patron either in the emperor orhis minister; and the gates of the palace were shut against all whocultivated the elegant pursuits of the Muses. Panders, catamites, assassins, wretches stained with every crime, were the constantattendants, as the only fit companions, of the tyrant who now occupiedthe throne. We are informed, however, that even this emperor had a tastefor the liberal arts, and that he composed a lyric poem upon the death ofLucius Caesar, with some Greek poems in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius. But none of these has been transmitted to posterity: andif we should form an opinion of them upon the principle of Catullus, thatto be a good poet one ought to be a good man, there is little reason toregret that they have perished. 

We meet with no poetical production in this reign; and of prose writersthe number is inconsiderable, as will appear from the following accountof them. ----

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS was born of an equestrian family in Campania, andserved as a military tribune under Tiberius, in his expeditions in Gauland Germany. He composed an Epitome of the History of Greece and Rome, with that of other nations of remote antiquity: but of this work thereonly remain fragments of the history of Greece and Rome, from theconquest of Perseus to the seventeenth year of the reign of Tiberius. Itis written in two books, addressed to Marcus Vinicius, who had (248) theoffice of consul. Rapid in the narrative, and concise as well as elegantin style, this production exhibits a pleasing epitome of ancienttransactions, enlivened occasionally with anecdotes, and an expressivedescription of characters. In treating of the family of Augustus, Paterculus is justly liable to the imputation of partiality, which heincurs still more in the latter period of his history, by the praisewhich is lavished on Tiberius and his minister Sejanus. He intimates adesign of giving a more full account of the civil war which followed thedeath of Julius Caesar; but this, if he ever accomplished it, has notbeen transmitted to posterity. Candid, but decided in his judgment ofmotives and actions, if we except his invectives against Pompey, he showslittle propensity to censure; but in awarding praise, he is not equallyparsimonious, and, on some occasions, risks the imputation of hyperbole. The grace, however, and the apparent sincerity with which it is bestowed, reconcile us to the compliment. This author concludes his history with aprayer for the prosperity of the Roman empire. ----

VALERIUS MAXIMUS was descended of a Patrician family; but we learnnothing more concerning him, than that for some time he followed amilitary life under Sextus Pompey. He afterwards betook himself towriting, and has left an account, in nine books, of the memorableapophthegms and actions of eminent persons; first of the Romans, andafterwards of foreign nations. The subjects are of various kinds, political, moral, and natural, ranged into distinct classes. Histransitions from one subject to another are often performed withgracefulness; and where he offers any remarks, they generally show theauthor to be a man of judgment and observation. Valerius Maximus ischargeable with no affectation of style, but is sometimes deficient inthat purity of language which might be expected in the age of Tiberius, to whom the work is addressed. What inducement the author had to thisdedication, we know not; but as it is evident from a passage in the ninthbook, that the compliment was paid after the death of Sejanus, andconsequently in the most shameful period of Tiberius's reign, we cannotentertain any high opinion of the independent spirit of Valerius Maximus, who could submit to flatter a tyrant, in the zenith of infamy anddetestation. But we cannot ascribe the cause to any delicate artifice, of conveying to Tiberius, indirectly, an admonition to reform hisconduct. Such an expedient would have only provoked the severestresentment from his jealousy. ----

PHAEDRUS was a native of Thrace, and was brought to Rome as a slave. Hehad the good fortune to come into the service of Augustus, where, improving his talents by reading, he obtained (249) the favour of theemperor, and was made one of his freedmen. In the reign of Tiberius, hetranslated into Iambic verse the Fables of Aesop. They are divided intofive books, and are not less conspicuous for precision and simplicity ofthought, than for purity and elegance of style; conveying moralsentiments with unaffected ease and impressive energy. Phaedrusunderwent, for some time, a persecution from Sejanus, who, conscious ofhis own delinquency, suspected that he was obliquely satirised in thecommendations bestowed on virtue by the poet. The work of Phaedrus isone of the latest which have been brought to light since the revival oflearning. It remained in obscurity until two hundred years ago, when itwas discovered in a library at Rheims. ----

HYGINUS is said to have been a native of Alexandria, or, according toothers, a Spaniard. He was, like Phaedrus, a freedman of Augustus; but, though industrious, he seems not to have improved himself so much as hiscompanion, in the art of composition. He wrote, however, a mythologicalhistory, under the title of Fables, a work called Poeticon Astronomicon, with a treatise on agriculture, commentaries on Virgil, the lives ofeminent men, and some other productions now lost. His remaining worksare much mutilated, and, if genuine, afford an unfavourable specimen ofhis elegance and correctness as a writer. 

CELSUS was a physician in the time of Tiberius, and has written eightbooks, De Medicina, in which he has collected and digested into order allthat is valuable on the subject, in the Greek and Roman authors. Theprofessors of Medicine were at that time divided into three sects, viz. , the Dogmatists, Empirics, and Methodists; the first of whom deviated lessthan the others from the plan of Hippocrates; but they were in generalirreconcilable to each other, in respect both of their opinions andpractice. Celsus, with great judgment, has occasionally adoptedparticular doctrines from each of them; and whatever he admits into hissystem, he not only establishes by the most rational observations, butconfirms by its practical utility. In justness of remark, in force ofargument, in precision and perspicuity, as well as in elegance ofexpression, he deservedly occupies the most distinguished rank amongstthe medical writers of antiquity. It appears that Celsus likewise wroteon agriculture, rhetoric, and military affairs; but of those severaltreatises no fragments now remain. 

To the writers of this reign we must add APICIUS COELIUS, who has left abook De Re Coquinaria [of Cookery]. There were three Romans of the nameof Apicius, all remarkable for their (250) gluttony. The first lived inthe time of the Republic, the last in that of Trajan, and theintermediate Apicius under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius. This man, as Seneca informs us, wasted on luxurious living, sexcenties sestertium, a sum equal to 484, 375 pounds sterling. Upon examining the state of hisaffairs, he found that there remained no more of his estate than centiessestertium, 80, 729l. 3s. 4d. , which seeming to him too small to liveupon, he ended his days by poison. 

CAIUS CAESAR CALIGULA. 

(251)

I. Germanicus, the father of Caius Caesar, and son of Drusus and theyounger Antonia, was, after his adoption by Tiberius, his uncle, preferred to the quaestorship [377] five years before he had attained thelegal age, and immediately upon the expiration of that office, to theconsulship [378]. Having been sent to the army in Germany, he restoredorder among the legions, who, upon the news of Augustus's death, obstinately refused to acknowledge Tiberius as emperor [379], and offeredto place him at the head of the state. In which affair it is difficultto say, whether his regard to filial duty, or the firmness of hisresolution, was most conspicuous. Soon afterwards he defeated the enemy, and obtained the honours of a triumph. Being then made consul for thesecond time [380], before he could enter upon his office he was obligedto set out suddenly for the east, where, after he had conquered the kingof Armenia, and reduced Cappadocia into the form of a province, he diedat Antioch, of a lingering distemper, in the thirty-fourth year of hisage [381], not without the suspicion of being poisoned. For besides thelivid spots which appeared all over his body, and a foaming at the mouth;when his corpse was burnt, the heart was found entire among the bones;its nature being such, as it is supposed, that when tainted by poison, itis indestructible by fire. [382]

II. It was a prevailing opinion, that he was taken off by thecontrivance of Tiberius, and through the means of Cneius Piso. Thisperson, who was about the same time prefect of Syria, and made no secretof his position being such, that (252) he must either offend the fatheror the son, loaded Germanicus, even during his sickness, with the mostunbounded and scurrilous abuse, both by word and deed; for which, uponhis return to Rome, he narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by thepeople, and was condemned to death by the senate. 

III. It is generally agreed, that Germanicus possessed all the noblestendowments of body and mind in a higher degree than had ever beforefallen to the lot of any man; a handsome person, extraordinary courage, great proficiency in eloquence and other branches of learning, both Greekand Roman; besides a singular humanity, and a behaviour so engaging, asto captivate the affections of all about him. The slenderness of hislegs did not correspond with the symmetry and beauty of his person inother respects; but this defect was at length corrected by his habit ofriding after meals. In battle, he often engaged and slew an enemy insingle combat. He pleaded causes, even after he had the honour of atriumph. Among other fruits of his studies, he left behind him someGreek comedies. Both at home and abroad he always conducted himself in amanner the most unassuming. On entering any free and confederate town, he never would be attended by his lictors. Whenever he heard, in histravels, of the tombs of illustrious men, he made offerings over them tothe infernal deities. He gave a common grave, under a mound of earth, tothe scattered relics of the legionaries slain under Varus, and was thefirst to put his hand to the work of collecting and bringing them to theplace of burial. He was so extremely mild and gentle to his enemies, whoever they were, or on what account soever they bore him enmity, that, although Piso rescinded his decrees, and for a long time severelyharassed his dependents, he never showed the smallest resentment, untilhe found himself attacked by magical charms and imprecations; and eventhen the only steps he took was to renounce all friendship with him, according to ancient custom, and to exhort his servants to avenge hisdeath, if any thing untoward should befall him. 

IV. He reaped the fruit of his noble qualities in abundance, being somuch esteemed and beloved by his friends, that Augustus (to say nothingof his other relations) being a long time in doubt, whether he should notappoint him his successor, at last ordered Tiberius to adopt him. He wasso extremely popular, that many authors tell us, the crowds of those whowent to meet him upon his coming to any place, or to attend him at hisdeparture, were so prodigious, that he was sometimes in danger of hislife; and that upon his return from Germany, after he had quelled themutiny in the army there, all the cohorts of the pretorian guards marchedout to meet him, notwithstanding the order that only two should go; andthat all the people of Rome, both men and women, of every age, sex, andrank, flocked as far as the twentieth milestone to attend his entrance. 

V. At the time of his death, however, and afterwards, they displayedstill greater and stronger proofs of their extraordinary attachment tohim. The day on which he died, stones were thrown at the temples, thealtars of the gods demolished, the household gods, in some cases, throwninto the streets, and new-born infants exposed. It is even said thatbarbarous nations, both those engaged in intestine wars, and those inhostilities against us, all agreed to a cessation of arms, as if they hadbeen mourning for some very near and common friend; that some petty kingsshaved their beards and their wives' heads, in token of their extremesorrow; and that the king of kings [383] forbore his exercise of huntingand feasting with his nobles, which, amongst the Parthians, is equivalentto a cessation of all business in a time of public mourning with us. 

VI. At Rome, upon the first news of his sickness, the city was throwninto great consternation and grief, waiting impatiently for fartherintelligence; when suddenly, in the evening, a report, without anycertain author, was spread, that he was recovered; upon which the peopleflocked with torches (254) and victims to the Capitol, and were in suchhaste to pay the vows they had made for his recovery, that they almostbroke open the doors. Tiberius was roused from out of his sleep with thenoise of the people congratulating one another, and singing about thestreets, Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus. Rome is safe, our country safe, for our Germanicus is safe. 

But when certain intelligence of his death arrived, the mourning of thepeople could neither be assuaged by consolation, nor restrained byedicts, and it continued during the holidays in the month of December. The atrocities of the subsequent times contributed much to the glory ofGermanicus, and the endearment of his memory; all people supposing, andwith reason, that the fear and awe of him had laid a restraint upon thecruelty of Tiberius, which broke out soon afterwards. 

VII. Germanicus married Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa andJulia, by whom he had nine children, two of whom died in their infancy, and another a few years after; a sprightly boy, whose effigy, in thecharacter of a Cupid, Livia set up in the temple of Venus in the Capitol. Augustus also placed another statue of him in his bed-chamber, and usedto kiss it as often as he entered the apartment. The rest survived theirfather; three daughters, Agrippina, Drusilla, and Livilla, who were bornin three successive years; and as many sons, Nero, Drusus, and CaiusCaesar. Nero and Drusus, at the accusation of Tiberius, were declaredpublic enemies. 

VIII. Caius Caesar was born on the day before the calends [31st August]of September, at the time his father and Caius Fonteius Capito wereconsuls [384]. But where he was born, is rendered uncertain from thenumber of places which are said to have given him birth. Cneius LentulusGaetulicus [385] says that he was born at Tibur; Pliny the younger, inthe country of the Treviri, at a village called Ambiatinus, aboveConfluentes [386]; and he alleges, as a proof of it, that altars arethere shown with this inscription: "For Agrippina's child-birth. " Someverses which were published in his reign, intimate that he was born inthe winter quarters of the legions, In castris natus, patriis nutritius in armis, Jam designati principis omen erat. 

 Born in the camp, and train'd in every toil Which taught his sire the haughtiest foes to foil; Destin'd he seem'd by fate to raise his name, And rule the empire with Augustan fame. 

I find in the public registers that he was born at Antium. Pliny chargesGaetulicus as guilty of an arrant forgery, merely to soothe the vanity ofa conceited young prince, by giving him the lustre of being born in acity sacred to Hercules; and says that he advanced this false assertionwith the more assurance, because, the year before the birth of Caius, Germanicus had a son of the same name born at Tibur; concerning whoseamiable childhood and premature death I have already spoken [387]. Datesclearly prove that Pliny is mistaken; for the writers of Augustus'shistory all agree, that Germanicus, at the expiration of his consulship, was sent into Gaul, after the birth of Caius. Nor will the inscriptionupon the altar serve to establish Pliny's opinion; because Agrippina wasdelivered of two daughters in that country, and any child-birth, withoutregard to sex, is called puerperium, as the ancients were used to callgirls puerae, and boys puelli. There is also extant a letter written byAugustus, a few months before his death, to his granddaughter Agrippina, about the same Caius (for there was then no other child of hers livingunder that name). He writes as follows: "I gave orders yesterday forTalarius and Asellius to set out on their journey towards you, if thegods permit, with your child Caius, upon the fifteenth of the calends ofJune [18th May]. I also send with him a physician of mine, and I wroteto Germanicus that he may retain him if he pleases. Farewell, my dearAgrippina, and take what care you can to (256) come safe and well to yourGermanicus. " I imagine it is sufficiently evident that Caius could notbe born at a place to which he was carried from The City when almost twoyears old. The same considerations must likewise invalidate the evidenceof the verses, and the rather, because the author is unknown. The onlyauthority, therefore, upon which we can depend in this matter, is that ofthe acts, and the public register; especially as he always preferredAntium to every other place of retirement, and entertained for it allthat fondness which is commonly attached to one's native soil. It issaid, too, that, upon his growing weary of the city, he designed to havetransferred thither the seat of empire. 

IX. It was to the jokes of the soldiers in the camp that he owed thename of Caligula [388], he having been brought up among them in the dressof a common soldier. How much his education amongst them recommended himto their favour and affection, was sufficiently apparent in the mutinyupon the death of Augustus, when the mere sight of him appeased theirfury, though it had risen to a great height. For they persisted in it, until they observed that he was sent away to a neighbouring city [389], to secure him against all danger. Then, at last, they began to relent, and, stopping the chariot in which he was conveyed, earnestly deprecatedthe odium to which such a proceeding would expose them. 

X. He likewise attended his father in his expedition to Syria. Afterhis return, he lived first with his mother, and, when she was banished, with his great-grandmother, Livia Augusta, in praise of whom, after herdecease, though then only a boy, he pronounced a funeral oration in theRostra. He was then transferred to the family of his grandmother, Antonia, and afterwards, in the twentieth year of his age, being calledby Tiberius to Capri, he in one and the same day assumed the manly habit, and shaved his beard, but without receiving any of the honours which hadbeen paid to his brothers on a similar (257) occasion. While he remainedin that island, many insidious artifices were practised, to extort fromhim complaints against Tiberius, but by his circumspection he avoidedfalling into the snare [390]. He affected to take no more notice of theill-treatment of his relations, than if nothing had befallen them. Withregard to his own sufferings, he seemed utterly insensible of them, andbehaved with such obsequiousness to his grandfather [391] and all abouthim, that it was justly said of him, "There never was a better servant, nor a worse master. "

XI. But he could not even then conceal his natural disposition tocruelty and lewdness. He delighted in witnessing the infliction ofpunishments, and frequented taverns and bawdy-houses in the night-time, disguised in a periwig and a long coat; and was passionately addicted tothe theatrical arts of singing and dancing. All these levities Tiberiusreadily connived at, in hopes that they might perhaps correct theroughness of his temper, which the sagacious old man so well understood, that he often said, "That Caius was destined to be the ruin of himselfand all mankind; and that he was rearing a hydra [392] for the people ofRome, and a Phaeton for all the world. " [393]

XII. Not long afterwards, he married Junia Claudilla, the daughter ofMarcus Silanus, a man of the highest rank. Being then chosen augur inthe room of his brother Drusus, before he could be inaugurated he wasadvanced to the pontificate, with no small commendation of his dutifulbehaviour, and great capacity. The situation of the court likewise wasat this time favourable to his fortunes, as it was now left destitute ofsupport, Sejanus being suspected, and soon afterwards taken off; and hewas by degrees flattered with the hope of succeeding Tiberius in theempire. In order more effectually to secure this object, upon Junia'sdying in child-bed, he engaged in a criminal commerce with Ennia Naevia, the wife (258) of Macro, at that time prefect of the pretorian cohorts;promising to marry her if he became emperor, to which he bound himself, not only by an oath, but by a written obligation under his hand. Havingby her means insinuated himself into Macro's favour, some are of opinionthat he attempted to poison Tiberius, and ordered his ring to be takenfrom him, before the breath was out of his body; and that, because heseemed to hold it fast, he caused a pillow to be thrown upon him [394], squeezing him by the throat, at the same time, with his own hand. One ofhis freedmen crying out at this horrid barbarity, he was immediatelycrucified. These circumstances are far from being improbable, as someauthors relate that, afterwards, though he did not acknowledge his havinga hand in the death of Tiberius, yet he frankly declared that he hadformerly entertained such a design; and as a proof of his affection forhis relations, he would frequently boast, "That, to revenge the death ofhis mother and brothers, he had entered the chamber of Tiberius, when hewas asleep, with a poniard, but being seized with a fit of compassion, threw it away, and retired; and that Tiberius, though aware of hisintention, durst not make any inquiries, or attempt revenge. "

XIII. Having thus secured the imperial power, he fulfilled by hiselevation the wish of the Roman people, I may venture to say, of allmankind; for he had long been the object of expectation and desire to thegreater part of the provincials and soldiers, who had known him when achild; and to the whole people of Rome, from their affection for thememory of Germanicus, his father, and compassion for the family almostentirely destroyed. Upon his moving from Misenum, therefore, although hewas in mourning, and following the corpse of Tiberius, he had to walkamidst altars, victims, and lighted torches, with prodigious crowds ofpeople everywhere attending him, in transports of joy, and calling him, besides other auspicious names, by those of "their star, " "their chick, ""their pretty puppet, " and "bantling. "

XIV. Immediately on his entering the city, by the joint acclamations ofthe senate, and people, who broke into the senate-house, Tiberius's willwas set aside, it having left his (259) other grandson [395], then aminor, coheir with him, the whole government and administration ofaffairs was placed in his hands; so much to the joy and satisfaction ofthe public, that, in less than three months after, above a hundred andsixty thousand victims are said to have been offered in sacrifice. Uponhis going, a few days afterwards, to the nearest islands on the coast ofCampania [396], vows were made for his safe return; every personemulously testifying their care and concern for his safety. And when hefell ill, the people hung about the Palatium all night long; some vowed, in public handbills, to risk their lives in the combats of theamphitheatre, and others to lay them down, for his recovery. To thisextraordinary love entertained for him by his countrymen, was added anuncommon regard by foreign nations. Even Artabanus, king of theParthians, who had always manifested hatred and contempt for Tiberius, solicited his friendship; came to hold a conference with his consularlieutenant, and passing the Euphrates, paid the highest honours to theeagles, the Roman standards, and the images of the Caesars. [397]

XV. Caligula himself inflamed this devotion, by practising all the artsof popularity. After he had delivered, with floods of tears, a speech inpraise of Tiberius, and buried him with the utmost pomp, he immediatelyhastened over to Pandataria and the Pontian islands [398], to bringthence the ashes of his mother and brother; and, to testify the greatregard he had for their memory, he performed the voyage in a verytempestuous season. He approached their remains with profoundveneration, and deposited them in the urns with his own hands. Havingbrought them in grand solemnity to Ostia [399], with an ensign flying inthe stern of the galley, and thence up the Tiber to Rome, they were borneby persons of the first distinction in the equestrian order, on twobiers, into the mausoleum [400], (260) at noon-day. He appointed yearlyofferings to be solemnly and publicly celebrated to their memory, besidesCircensian games to that of his mother, and a chariot with her image tobe included in the procession [401]. The month of September he calledGermanicus, in honour of his father. By a single decree of the senate, he heaped upon his grandmother, Antonia, all the honours which had beenever conferred on the empress Livia. His uncle, Claudius, who till thencontinued in the equestrian order, he took for his colleague in theconsulship. He adopted his brother, Tiberius [402], on the day he tookupon him the manly habit, and conferred upon him the title of "Prince ofthe Youths. " As for his sisters, he ordered these words to be added tothe oaths of allegiance to himself: "Nor will I hold myself or my ownchildren more dear than I do Caius and his sisters:" [403] and commandedall resolutions proposed by the consuls in the senate to be prefacedthus: "May what we are going to do, prove fortunate and happy to CaiusCaesar and his sisters. " With the like popularity he restored all thosewho had been condemned and banished, and granted an act of indemnityagainst all impeachments and past offences. To relieve the informers andwitnesses against his mother and brothers from all apprehension, hebrought the records of their trials into the forum, and there burnt them, calling loudly on the gods to witness that he had not read or handledthem. A memorial which was offered him relative to his own security, hewould not receive, declaring, "that he had done nothing to make any onehis enemy:" and said, at the same time, "he had no ears for informers. "

XVI. The Spintriae, those panderers to unnatural lusts [404], hebanished from the city, being prevailed upon not to throw them (261) intothe sea, as he had intended. The writings of Titus Labienus, CordusCremutius, and Cassius Severus, which had been suppressed by an act ofthe senate, he permitted to be drawn from obscurity, and universallyread; observing, "that it would be for his own advantage to have thetransactions of former times delivered to posterity. " He publishedaccounts of the proceedings of the government--a practice which had beenintroduced by Augustus, but discontinued by Tiberius [405]. He grantedthe magistrates a full and free jurisdiction, without any appeal tohimself. He made a very strict and exact review of the Roman knights, but conducted it with moderation; publicly depriving of his horse everyknight who lay under the stigma of any thing base and dishonourable; butpassing over the names of those knights who were only guilty of venialfaults, in calling over the list of the order. To lighten the labours ofthe judges, he added a fifth class to the former four. He attemptedlikewise to restore to the people their ancient right of voting in thechoice of magistrates [406]. He paid very honourably, and without anydispute, the legacies left by Tiberius in his will, though it had beenset aside; as likewise those left by the will of Livia Augusta, whichTiberius had annulled. He remitted the hundredth penny, due to thegovernment in all auctions throughout Italy. He made up to many theirlosses sustained by fire; and when he restored their kingdoms to anyprinces, he likewise allowed them all the arrears of the taxes andrevenues which had accrued in the interval; as in the case of Antiochusof Comagene, where the confiscation would have amounted to a hundredmillions of sesterces. To prove to the world that he was ready toencourage good examples of every kind, he gave to a freed-woman eightythousand sesterces, for not discovering a crime committed by her patron, though she had been put to exquisite torture for that purpose. For allthese acts of beneficence, amongst other honours, a golden shield wasdecreed to him, which the colleges of priests were to carry annually, upon a fixed day, into the Capitol, with the senate attending, and theyouth of the nobility, of both sexes, celebrating the praise of hisvirtues in (262) songs. It was likewise ordained, that the day on whichhe succeeded to the empire should be called Palilia, in token of thecity's being at that time, as it were, new founded. [407]

XVII. He held the consulship four times; the first [408], from thecalends [the first] of July for two months: the second [409], from thecalends of January for thirty days; the third [410], until the ides [the13th] of January; and the fourth [411], until the seventh of the sameides [7th January]. Of these, the two last he held successively. Thethird he assumed by his sole authority at Lyons; not, as some are ofopinion, from arrogance or neglect of rules; but because, at thatdistance, it was impossible for him to know that his colleague had died alittle before the beginning of the new year. He twice distributed to thepeople a bounty of three hundred sesterces a man, and as often gave asplendid feast to the senate and the equestrian order, with their wivesand children. In the latter, he presented to the men forensic garments, and to the women and children purple scarfs. To make a perpetualaddition to the public joy for ever, he added to the Saturnalia [412] oneday, which he called Juvenalis [the juvenile feast]. 

XVIII. He exhibited some combats of gladiators, either in theamphitheatre of Taurus [413], or in the Septa, with which he intermingledtroops of the best pugilists from Campania and Africa. He did not alwayspreside in person upon those occasions, but sometimes gave a commissionto magistrates or friends to supply his place. He frequently entertainedthe people with stage-plays (263) of various kinds, and in several partsof the city, and sometimes by night, when he caused the whole city to belighted. He likewise gave various things to be scrambled for among thepeople, and distributed to every man a basket of bread with othervictuals. Upon this occasion, he sent his own share to a Roman knight, who was seated opposite to him, and was enjoying himself by eatingheartily. To a senator, who was doing the same, he sent an appointmentof praetor-extraordinary. He likewise exhibited a great number ofCircensian games from morning until night; intermixed with the hunting ofwild beasts from Africa, or the Trojan exhibition. Some of these gameswere celebrated with peculiar circumstances; the Circus being overspreadwith vermilion and chrysolite; and none drove in the chariot races whowere not of the senatorian order. For some of these he suddenly gave thesignal, when, upon his viewing from the Gelotiana [414] the preparationsin the Circus, he was asked to do so by a few persons in the neighbouringgalleries. 

XIX. He invented besides a new kind of spectacle, such as had never beenheard of before. For he made a bridge, of about three miles and a halfin length, from Baiae to the mole of Puteoli [415], collecting tradingvessels from all quarters, mooring them in two rows by their anchors, andspreading earth upon them to form a viaduct, after the fashion of theAppian Way [416]. This bridge he crossed and recrossed for two daystogether; the first day mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, wearing onhis head a crown of oak leaves, armed with a battle-axe, a Spanishbuckler and a sword, and in a cloak made of cloth of gold; the dayfollowing, in the habit of a charioteer, standing in a chariot, drawn bytwo high-bred horses, having with him a young boy, Darius by name, one ofthe Parthian hostages, with a cohort of the pretorian guards attendinghim, and a (264) party of his friends in cars of Gaulish make [417]. Most people, I know, are of opinion, that this bridge was designed byCaius, in imitation of Xerxes, who, to the astonishment of the world, laid a bridge over the Hellespont, which is somewhat narrower than thedistance betwixt Baiae and Puteoli. Others, however, thought that he didit to strike terror in Germany and Britain, which he was upon the pointof invading, by the fame of some prodigious work. But for myself, when Iwas a boy, I heard my grandfather say [418], that the reason assigned bysome courtiers who were in habits of the greatest intimacy with him, wasthis; when Tiberius was in some anxiety about the nomination of asuccessor, and rather inclined to pitch upon his grandson, Thrasyllus theastrologer had assured him, "That Caius would no more be emperor, than hewould ride on horseback across the gulf of Baiae. "

XX. He likewise exhibited public diversions in Sicily, Grecian games atSyracuse, and Attic plays at Lyons in Gaul besides a contest forpre-eminence in the Grecian and Roman eloquence; in which we are told thatsuch as were baffled bestowed rewards upon the best performers, and wereobliged to compose speeches in their praise: but that those who performedthe worst, were forced to blot out what they had written with a sponge ortheir tongue, unless they preferred to be beaten with a rod, or plungedover head and ears into the nearest river. 

XXI. He completed the works which were left unfinished by Tiberius, namely, the temple of Augustus, and the theatre (265) of Pompey [419]. He began, likewise, the aqueduct from the neighbourhood of Tibur [420], and an amphitheatre near the Septa [421]; of which works, one wascompleted by his successor Claudius, and the other remained as he leftit. The walls of Syracuse, which had fallen to decay by length of time, he repaired, as he likewise did the temples of the gods. He formed plansfor rebuilding the palace of Polycrates at Samos, finishing the temple ofthe Didymaean Apollo at Miletus, and building a town on a ridge of theAlps; but, above all, for cutting through the isthmus in Achaia [422];and even sent a centurion of the first rank to measure out the work. 

XXII. Thus far we have spoken of him as a prince. What remains to besaid of him, bespeaks him rather a monster than a man. He assumed avariety of titles, such as "Dutiful, " "The (266) Pious, " "The Child ofthe Camp, the Father of the Armies, " and "The Greatest and Best Caesar. "Upon hearing some kings, who came to the city to pay him court, conversing together at supper, about their illustrious descent, heexclaimed, Eis koiranos eto, eis basileus. Let there be but one prince, one king. 

He was strongly inclined to assume the diadem, and change the form ofgovernment, from imperial to regal; but being told that he far exceededthe grandeur of kings and princes, he began to arrogate to himself adivine majesty. He ordered all the images of the gods, which were famouseither for their beauty, or the veneration paid them, among which wasthat of Jupiter Olympius, to be brought from Greece, that he might takethe heads off, and put on his own. Having continued part of the Palatiumas far as the Forum, and the temple of Castor and Pollux being convertedinto a kind of vestibule to his house, he often stationed himself betweenthe twin brothers, and so presented himself to be worshipped by allvotaries; some of whom saluted him by the name of Jupiter Latialis. Healso instituted a temple and priests, with choicest victims, in honour ofhis own divinity. In his temple stood a statue of gold, the exact imageof himself, which was daily dressed in garments corresponding with thosehe wore himself. The most opulent persons in the city offered themselvesas candidates for the honour of being his priests, and purchased itsuccessively at an immense price. The victims were flamingos, peacocks, bustards, guinea-fowls, turkey and pheasant hens, each sacrificed ontheir respective days. On nights when the moon was full, he was in theconstant habit of inviting her to his embraces and his bed. In theday-time he talked in private to Jupiter Capitolinus; one while whisperingto him, and another turning his ear to him: sometimes he spoke aloud, andin railing language. For he was overheard to threaten the god thus:

 Hae em' anaeir', hae ego se; [423] Raise thou me up, or I'll--

(267) until being at last prevailed upon by the entreaties of the god, ashe said, to take up his abode with him, he built a bridge over the templeof the Deified Augustus, by which he joined the Palatium to the Capitol. Afterwards, that he might be still nearer, he laid the foundations of anew palace in the very court of the Capitol. 

XXIII. He was unwilling to be thought or called the grandson of Agrippa, because of the obscurity of his birth; and he was offended if any one, either in prose or verse, ranked him amongst the Caesars. He said thathis mother was the fruit of an incestuous commerce, maintained byAugustus with his daughter Julia. And not content with this vilereflection upon the memory of Augustus, he forbad his victories atActium, and on the coast of Sicily, to be celebrated, as usual; affirmingthat they had been most pernicious and fatal to the Roman people. Hecalled his grandmother Livia Augusta "Ulysses in a woman's dress, " andhad the indecency to reflect upon her in a letter to the senate, as ofmean birth, and descended, by the mother's side, from a grandfather whowas only one of the municipal magistrates of Fondi; whereas it iscertain, from the public records, that Aufidius Lurco held high officesat Rome. His grandmother Antonia desiring a private conference with him, he refused to grant it, unless Macro, the prefect of the pretorianguards, were present. Indignities of this kind, and ill usage, were thecause of her death; but some think he also gave her poison. Nor did hepay the smallest respect to her memory after her death, but witnessed theburning from his private apartment. His brother Tiberius, who had noexpectation of any violence, was suddenly dispatched by a militarytribune sent by his order for that purpose. He forced Silanus, hisfather-in-law, to kill himself, by cutting his throat with a razor. Thepretext he alleged for these murders was, that the latter had notfollowed him upon his putting to sea in stormy weather, but stayed behindwith the view of seizing the city, if he should perish. The other, hesaid, smelt of an antidote, which he had taken to prevent his beingpoisoned by him; whereas Silanus was only afraid of being sea-sick, andthe disagreeableness of a voyage; and Tiberius had merely taken amedicine for an habitual cough, (268) which was continually growingworse. As for his successor Claudius, he only saved him for alaughing-stock. 

XXIV. He lived in the habit of incest with all his sisters; and attable, when much company was present, he placed each of them in turnsbelow him, whilst his wife reclined above him. It is believed, that hedeflowered one of them, Drusilla, before he had assumed the robe ofmanhood; and was even caught in her embraces by his grandmother Antonia, with whom they were educated together. When she was afterwards marriedto Cassius Longinus, a man of consular rank, he took her from him, andkept her constantly as if she were his lawful wife. In a fit ofsickness, he by his will appointed her heiress both of his estate and theempire. After her death, he ordered a public mourning for her; duringwhich it was capital for any person to laugh, use the bath, or sup withhis parents, wife, or children. Being inconsolable under his affliction, he went hastily, and in the night-time, from the City; going throughCampania to Syracuse, and then suddenly returned without shaving hisbeard, or trimming his hair. Nor did he ever afterwards, in matters ofthe greatest importance, not even in the assemblies of the people orbefore the soldiers, swear any otherwise, than "By the divinity ofDrusilla. " The rest of his sisters he did not treat with so muchfondness or regard; but frequently prostituted them to his catamites. Hetherefore the more readily condemned them in the case of AemiliusLepidus, as guilty of adultery, and privy to that conspiracy against him. Nor did he only divulge their own hand-writing relative to the affair, which he procured by base and lewd means, but likewise consecrated toMars the Avenger three swords which had been prepared to stab him, withan inscription, setting forth the occasion of their consecration. 

XXV. Whether in the marriage of his wives, in repudiating them, orretaining them, he acted with greater infamy, it is difficult to say. Being at the wedding of Caius Piso with Livia Orestilla, he ordered thebride to be carried to his own house, but within a few days divorced her, and two years after banished her; because it was thought, that upon herdivorce she returned to the embraces of her former husband. (269) Somesay, that being invited to the wedding-supper, he sent a messenger toPiso, who sat opposite to him, in these words: "Do not be too fond withmy wife, " and that he immediately carried her off. Next day he publisheda proclamation, importing, "That he had got a wife as Romulus andAugustus had done. " [424] Lollia Paulina, who was married to a man ofconsular rank in command of an army, he suddenly called from the provincewhere she was with her husband, upon mention being made that hergrandmother was formerly very beautiful, and married her; but he soonafterwards parted with her, interdicting her from having ever afterwardsany commerce with man. He loved with a most passionate and constantaffection Caesonia, who was neither handsome nor young; and was besidesthe mother of three daughters by another man; but a wanton of unboundedlasciviousness. Her he would frequently exhibit to the soldiers, dressedin a military cloak, with shield and helmet, and riding by his side. Tohis friends he even showed her naked. After she had a child, he honouredher with the title of wife; in one and the same day, declaring himselfher husband, and father of the child of which she was delivered. Henamed it Julia Drusilla, and carrying it round the temples of all thegoddesses, laid it on the lap of Minerva; to whom he recommended the careof bringing up and instructing her. He considered her as his own childfor no better reason than her savage temper, which was such even in herinfancy, that she would attack with her nails the face and eyes of thechildren at play with her. 

XXVI. It would be of little importance, as well as disgusting, to add toall this an account of the manner in which he treated his relations andfriends; as Ptolemy, king Juba's son, his cousin (for he was the grandsonof Mark Antony by his daughter Selene) [425], and especially Macrohimself, and Ennia likewise [426], by whose assistance he had obtainedthe empire; all of whom, for their alliance and eminent services, herewarded with violent deaths. Nor was he more mild or respectful in hisbehaviour towards the senate. Some who had borne the (270) highestoffices in the government, he suffered to run by his litter in theirtogas for several miles together, and to attend him at supper, sometimesat the head of his couch, sometimes at his feet, with napkins. Others ofthem, after he had privately put them to death, he nevertheless continuedto send for, as if they were still alive, and after a few days pretendedthat they had laid violent hands upon themselves. The consuls havingforgotten to give public notice of his birth-day, he displaced them; andthe republic was three days without any one in that high office. Aquaestor who was said to be concerned in a conspiracy against him, hescourged severely, having first stripped off his clothes, and spread themunder the feet of the soldiers employed in the work, that they mightstand the more firm. The other orders likewise he treated with the sameinsolence and violence. Being disturbed by the noise of people takingtheir places at midnight in the circus, as they were to have freeadmission, he drove them all away with clubs. In this tumult, abovetwenty Roman knights were squeezed to death, with as many matrons, with agreat crowd besides. When stage-plays were acted, to occasion disputesbetween the people and the knights, he distributed the money-ticketssooner than usual, that the seats assigned to the knights might be alloccupied by the mob. In the spectacles of gladiators, sometimes, whenthe sun was violently hot, he would order the curtains, which covered theamphitheatre, to be drawn aside [427], and forbad any person to be letout; withdrawing at the same time the usual apparatus for theentertainment, and presenting wild beasts almost pined to death, the mostsorry gladiators, decrepit with age, and fit only to work the machinery, and decent house-keepers, who were remarkable for some bodily infirmity. Sometimes shutting up the public granaries, he would oblige the people tostarve for a while. 

XXVII. He evinced the savage barbarity of his temper chiefly by thefollowing indications. When flesh was only to be had at a high price forfeeding his wild beasts reserved for the spectacles, he ordered thatcriminals should be given them (271) to be devoured; and upon inspectingthem in a row, while he stood in the middle of the portico, withouttroubling himself to examine their cases he ordered them to be draggedaway, from "bald-pate to bald-pate. " [428] Of one person who had made avow for his recovery to combat with a gladiator, he exacted itsperformance; nor would he allow him to desist until he came offconqueror, and after many entreaties. Another, who had vowed to give hislife for the same cause, having shrunk from the sacrifice, he delivered, adorned as a victim, with garlands and fillets, to boys, who were todrive him through the streets, calling on him to fulfil his vow, until hewas thrown headlong from the ramparts. After disfiguring many persons ofhonourable rank, by branding them in the face with hot irons, hecondemned them to the mines, to work in repairing the high-ways, or tofight with wild beasts; or tying them by the neck and heels, in themanner of beasts carried to slaughter, would shut them up in cages, orsaw them asunder. Nor were these severities merely inflicted for crimesof great enormity, but for making remarks on his public games, or for nothaving sworn by the Genius of the emperor. He compelled parents to bepresent at the execution of their sons; and to one who excused himself onaccount of indisposition, he sent his own litter. Another he invited tohis table immediately after he had witnessed the spectacle, and coollychallenged him to jest and be merry. He ordered the overseer of thespectacles and wild beasts to be scourged in fetters, during several dayssuccessively, in his own presence, and did not put him to death until hewas disgusted with the stench of his putrefied brain. He burned alive, in the centre of the arena of the amphitheatre, the writer of a farce, for some witty verse, which had a double meaning. A Roman knight, whohad been exposed to the wild beasts, crying out that he was innocent, hecalled him back, and having had his tongue cut out, remanded him to thearena. 

XXVIII. Asking a certain person, whom he recalled after a long exile, how he used to spend his time, he replied, with flattery, "I was alwayspraying the gods for what has happened, that Tiberius might die, and yoube emperor. " Concluding, therefore, that those he had himself banishedalso (272) prayed for his death, he sent orders round the islands [429]to have them all put to death. Being very desirous to have a senatortorn to pieces, he employed some persons to call him a public enemy, fallupon him as he entered the senate-house, stab him with their styles, anddeliver him to the rest to tear asunder. Nor was he satisfied, until hesaw the limbs and bowels of the man, after they had been dragged throughthe streets, piled up in a heap before him. 

XXIX. He aggravated his barbarous actions by language equallyoutrageous. "There is nothing in my nature, " said he, "that I commend orapprove so much, as my adiatrepsia (inflexible rigour). " Upon hisgrandmother Antonia's giving him some advice, as if it was a small matterto pay no regard to it, he said to her, "Remember that all things arelawful for me. " When about to murder his brother, whom he suspected oftaking antidotes against poison, he said, "See then an antidote againstCaesar!" And when he banished his sisters, he told them in a menacingtone, that he had not only islands at command, but likewise swords. Oneof pretorian rank having sent several times from Anticyra [430], whitherhe had gone for his health, to have his leave of absence prolonged, heordered him to be put to death; adding these words "Bleeding is necessaryfor one that has taken hellebore so long, and found no benefit. " It washis custom every tenth day to sign the lists of prisoners appointed forexecution; and this he called "clearing his accounts. " And havingcondemned several Gauls and Greeks at one time, he exclaimed in triumph, "I have conquered Gallograecia. " [431]

XXX. He generally prolonged the sufferings of his victims by causingthem to be inflicted by slight and frequently repeated strokes; thisbeing his well-known and constant order: (273) "Strike so that he mayfeel himself die. " Having punished one person for another, by mistakinghis name, he said, "he deserved it quite as much. " He had frequently inhis mouth these words of the tragedian, Oderint dum metuant. [432] I scorn their hatred, if they do but fear me. 

He would often inveigh against all the senators without exception, asclients of Sejanus, and informers against his mother and brothers, producing the memorials which he had pretended to burn, and excusing thecruelty of Tiberius as necessary, since it was impossible to question theveracity of such a number of accusers [433]. He continually reproachedthe whole equestrian order, as devoting themselves to nothing but actingon the stage, and fighting as gladiators. Being incensed at the people'sapplauding a party at the Circensian games in opposition to him, heexclaimed, "I wish the Roman people had but one neck. " [434] WhenTetrinius, the highwayman, was denounced, he said his persecutors toowere all Tetrinius's. Five Retiarii [435], in tunics, fighting in acompany, yielded without a struggle to the same number of opponents; andbeing ordered to be slain, one of them taking up his lance again, killedall the conquerors. This he lamented in a proclamation as a most cruelbutchery, and cursed all those who had borne the sight of it. 

XXXI. He used also to complain aloud of the state of the times, becauseit was not rendered remarkable by any public (274) calamities; for, whilethe reign of Augustus had been made memorable to posterity by thedisaster of Varus [436], and that of Tiberius by the fall of the theatreat Fidenae [437], his was likely to pass into oblivion, from anuninterrupted series of prosperity. And, at times, he wished for someterrible slaughter of his troops, a famine, a pestilence, conflagrations, or an earthquake. 

XXXII. Even in the midst of his diversions, while gaming or feasting, this savage ferocity, both in his language and actions, never forsookhim. Persons were often put to the torture in his presence, whilst hewas dining or carousing. A soldier, who was an adept in the art ofbeheading, used at such times to take off the heads of prisoners, whowere brought in for that purpose. At Puteoli, at the dedication of thebridge which he planned, as already mentioned [438], he invited a numberof people to come to him from the shore, and then suddenly, threw themheadlong into the sea; thrusting down with poles and oars those who, tosave themselves, had got hold of the rudders of the ships. At Rome, in apublic feast, a slave having stolen some thin plates of silver with whichthe couches were inlaid, he delivered him immediately to an executioner, with orders to cut off his hands, and lead him round the guests, withthem hanging from his neck before his breast, and a label, signifying thecause of his punishment. A gladiator who was practising with him, andvoluntarily threw himself at his feet, he stabbed with a poniard, andthen ran about with a palm branch in his hand, after the manner of thosewho are victorious in the games. When a victim was to be offered upon analtar, he, clad in the habit of the Popae [439], and holding the axealoft for a while, at last, instead of the animal, slaughtered an officerwho attended to cut up the sacrifice. And at a sumptuous entertainment, he fell suddenly into a violent fit of laughter, and upon the consuls, who reclined next to him, respectfully asking him the occasion, "Nothing, " replied he, "but that, upon a single nod of mine, you mightboth have your throats cut. "

(275) XXXIII. Among many other jests, this was one: As he stood by thestatue of Jupiter, he asked Apelles, the tragedian, which of them hethought was biggest? Upon his demurring about it, he lashed him mostseverely, now and then commending his voice, whilst he entreated formercy, as being well modulated even when he was venting his grief. Asoften as he kissed the neck of his wife or mistress, he would say, "Sobeautiful a throat must be cut whenever I please;" and now and then hewould threaten to put his dear Caesonia to the torture, that he mightdiscover why he loved her so passionately. 

XXXIV. In his behaviour towards men of almost all ages, he discovered adegree of jealousy and malignity equal to that of his cruelty and pride. He so demolished and dispersed the statues of several illustriouspersons, which had been removed by Augustus, for want of room, from thecourt of the Capitol into the Campus Martius, that it was impossible toset them up again with their inscriptions entire. And, for the future, he forbad any statue whatever to be erected without his knowledge andleave. He had thoughts too of suppressing Homer's poems: "For why, " saidhe, "may not I do what Plato has done before me, who excluded him fromhis commonwealth?" [440] He was likewise very near banishing thewritings and the busts of Virgil and Livy from all libraries; censuringone of them as "a man of no genius and very little learning;" and theother as "a verbose and careless historian. " He often talked of thelawyers as if he intended to abolish their profession. "By Hercules!"he would say, "I shall put it out of their power to answer any questionsin law, otherwise than by referring to me!"

XXXV. He took from the noblest persons in the city the ancient marks ofdistinction used by their families; as the collar from Torquatus [441];from Cincinnatus the curl of (276) hair [442]; and from Cneius Pompey, the surname of Great, belonging to that ancient family. Ptolemy, mentioned before, whom he invited from his kingdom, and received withgreat honours, he suddenly put to death, for no other reason, but becausehe observed that upon entering the theatre, at a public exhibition, heattracted the eyes of all the spectators, by the splendour of his purplerobe. As often as he met with handsome men, who had fine heads of hair, he would order the back of their heads to be shaved, to make them appearridiculous. There was one Esius Proculus, the son of a centurion of thefirst rank, who, for his great stature and fine proportions, was calledthe Colossal. Him he ordered to be dragged from his seat in the arena, and matched with a gladiator in light armour, and afterwards with anothercompletely armed; and upon his worsting them both, commanded himforthwith to be bound, to be led clothed in rags up and down the streetsof the city, and, after being exhibited in that plight to the women, tobe then butchered. There was no man of so abject or mean condition, whose excellency in any kind he did not envy. The Rex Nemorensis [443]having many years enjoyed the honour of the priesthood, he procured astill stronger antagonist to oppose him. One Porius, who fought in achariot [444], having been victorious in an exhibition, and in his joygiven freedom to a slave, was applauded so vehemently, that Caligula rosein such haste from his seat, that, treading upon the hem of his toga, hetumbled down the steps, full of indignation, (277) and crying out, "Apeople who are masters of the world, pay greater respect to a gladiatorfor a trifle, than to princes admitted amongst the gods, or to my ownmajesty here present amongst them. "

XXXVI. He never had the least regard either to the chastity of his ownperson, or that of others. He is said to have been inflamed with anunnatural passion for Marcus Lepidus Mnester, an actor in pantomimes, andfor certain hostages; and to have engaged with them in the practice ofmutual pollution. Valerius Catullus, a young man of a consular family, bawled aloud in public that he had been exhausted by him in thatabominable act. Besides his incest with his sisters, and his notoriouspassion for Pyrallis, the prostitute, there was hardly any lady ofdistinction with whom he did not make free. He used commonly to invitethem with their husbands to supper, and as they passed by the couch onwhich he reclined at table, examine them very closely, like those whotraffic in slaves; and if any one from modesty held down her face, heraised it up with his hand. Afterwards, as often as he was in thehumour, he would quit the room, send for her he liked best, and in ashort time return with marks of recent disorder about them. He wouldthen commend or disparage her in the presence of the company, recountingthe charms or defects of her person and behaviour in private. To some hesent a divorce in the name of their absent husbands, and ordered it to beregistered in the public acts. 

XXXVII. In the devices of his profuse expenditure, he surpassed all theprodigals that ever lived; inventing a new kind of bath, with strangedishes and suppers, washing in precious unguents, both warm and cold, drinking pearls of immense value dissolved in vinegar, and serving up forhis guests loaves and other victuals modelled in gold; often saying, "that a man ought either to be a good economist or an emperor. " Besides, he scattered money to a prodigious amount among the people, from the topof the Julian Basilica [445], during several days successively. He builttwo ships with ten banks of oars, after the Liburnian fashion, the poopsof which blazed with jewels, and the sails were of various parti-colours. They were fitted up with ample baths, galleries, and saloons, andsupplied with a great variety of vines and other fruit-trees. In thesehe would sail in the day-time along the coast of Campania, feasting (278)amidst dancing and concerts of music. In building his palaces andvillas, there was nothing he desired to effect so much, in defiance ofall reason, as what was considered impossible. Accordingly, moles wereformed in the deep and adverse sea [446], rocks of the hardest stone cutaway, plains raised to the height of mountains with a vast mass of earth, and the tops of mountains levelled by digging; and all these were to beexecuted with incredible speed, for the least remissness was a capitaloffence. Not to mention particulars, he spent enormous sums, and thewhole treasures which had been amassed by Tiberius Caesar, amounting totwo thousand seven hundred millions of sesterces, within less than ayear. 

XXXVIII. Having therefore quite exhausted these funds, and being in wantof money, he had recourse to plundering the people, by every mode offalse accusation, confiscation, and taxation, that could be invented. Hedeclared that no one had any right to the freedom of Rome, although theirancestors had acquired it for themselves and their posterity, unless theywere sons; for that none beyond that degree ought to be considered asposterity. When the grants of the Divine Julius and Augustus wereproduced to him, he only said, that he was very sorry they were obsoleteand out of date. He also charged all those with making false returns, who, after the taking of the census, had by any means whatever increasedtheir property. He annulled the wills of all who had been centurions ofthe first rank, as testimonies of their base ingratitude, if from thebeginning of Tiberius's reign they had not left either that prince orhimself their heir. He also set aside the wills of all others, if anyperson only pretended to say, that they designed at their death to leaveCaesar their heir. The public becoming terrified at this proceeding, hewas now appointed joint-heir with their friends, and in the case ofparents with their children, by persons unknown to him. Those who livedany considerable time after making such a will, he said, were only makinggame of him; and accordingly he sent many of them poisoned cakes. Heused to try such causes himself; fixing previously the sum he proposed toraise during the sitting, and, after he had secured it, quitting thetribunal. Impatient of the least delay, he condemned by a singlesentence forty (279) persons, against whom there were different charges;boasting to Caesonia when she awoke, "how much business he had dispatchedwhile she was taking her mid-day sleep. " He exposed to sale by auction, the remains of the apparatus used in the public spectacles; and exactedsuch biddings, and raised the prices so high, that some of the purchaserswere ruined, and bled themselves to death. There is a well-known storytold of Aponius Saturninus, who happening to fall asleep as he sat on abench at the sale, Caius called out to the auctioneer, not to overlookthe praetorian personage who nodded to him so often; and accordingly thesalesman went on, pretending to take the nods for tokens of assent, untilthirteen gladiators were knocked down to him at the sum of nine millionsof sesterces [447], he being in total ignorance of what was doing. 

XXXIX. Having also sold in Gaul all the clothes, furniture, slaves, andeven freedmen belonging to his sisters, at prodigious prices, after theircondemnation, he was so much delighted with his gains, that he sent toRome for all the furniture of the old palace [448]; pressing for itsconveyance all the carriages let to hire in the city, with the horses andmules belonging to the bakers, so that they often wanted bread at Rome;and many who had suits at law in progress, lost their causes, becausethey could not make their appearance in due time according to theirrecognizances. In the sale of this furniture, every artifice of fraudand imposition was employed. Sometimes he would rail at the bidders forbeing niggardly, and ask them "if they were not ashamed to be richer thanhe was?" at another, he would affect to be sorry that the property ofprinces should be passing into the hands of private persons. He hadfound out that a rich provincial had given two hundred thousand sestercesto his chamberlains for an underhand invitation to his table, and he wasmuch pleased to find that honour valued at so high a rate. The dayfollowing, as the same person was sitting at the sale, he sent him somebauble, for which he told him he must pay two hundred thousand sesterces, and "that he should sup with Caesar upon his own invitation. "

(280) XL. He levied new taxes, and such as were never before known, atfirst by the publicans, but afterwards, because their profit wasenormous, by centurions and tribunes of the pretorian guards; nodescription of property or persons being exempted from some kind of taxor other. For all eatables brought into the city, a certain excise wasexacted: for all law-suits or trials in whatever court, the fortieth partof the sum in dispute; and such as were convicted of compromisinglitigations, were made liable to a penalty. Out of the daily wages ofthe porters, he received an eighth, and from the gains of commonprostitutes, what they received for one favour granted. There was aclause in the law, that all bawds who kept women for prostitution orsale, should be liable to pay, and that marriage itself should not beexempted. 

XLI. These taxes being imposed, but the act by which they were leviednever submitted to public inspection, great grievances were experiencedfrom the want of sufficient knowledge of the law. At length, on theurgent demands of the Roman people, he published the law, but it waswritten in a very small hand, and posted up in a corner, so that no onecould make a copy of it. To leave no sort of gain untried, he openedbrothels in the Palatium, with a number of cells, furnished suitably tothe dignity of the place; in which married women and free-born youthswere ready for the reception of visitors. He sent likewise hisnomenclators about the forums and courts, to invite people of all ages, the old as well as the young, to his brothel, to come and satisfy theirlusts; and he was ready to lend his customers money upon interest; clerksattending to take down their names in public, as persons who contributedto the emperor's revenue. Another method of raising money, which hethought not below his notice, was gaming; which, by the help of lying andperjury, he turned to considerable account. Leaving once the managementof his play to his partner in the game, he stepped into the court, andobserving two rich Roman knights passing by, he ordered them immediatelyto be seized, and their estates confiscated. Then returning, in greatglee, he boasted that he had never made a better throw in his life. 

XLII. After the birth of his daughter, complaining of his (281) poverty, and the burdens to which he was subjected, not only as an emperor, but afather, he made a general collection for her maintenance and fortune. Helikewise gave public notice, that he would receive new-year's gifts onthe calends of January following; and accordingly stood in the vestibuleof his house, to clutch the presents which people of all ranks threw downbefore him by handfuls and lapfuls. At last, being seized with aninvincible desire of feeling money, taking off his slippers, herepeatedly walked over great heaps of gold coin spread upon the spaciousfloor, and then laying himself down, rolled his whole body in gold overand over again. 

XLIII. Only once in his life did he take an active part in militaryaffairs, and then not from any set purpose, but during his journey toMevania, to see the grove and river of Clitumnus [449]. Beingrecommended to recruit a body of Batavians, who attended him, he resolvedupon an expedition into Germany. Immediately he drew together severallegions, and auxiliary forces from all quarters, and made every where newlevies with the utmost rigour. Collecting supplies of all kinds, such asnever had been assembled upon the like occasion, he set forward on hismarch, and pursued it sometimes with so much haste and precipitation, that the pretorian cohorts were obliged, contrary to custom, to packtheir standards on horses or mules, and so follow him. At other times, he would march so slow and luxuriously, that he was carried in a litterby eight men; ordering the roads to be swept by the people of theneighbouring towns, and sprinkled with water to lay the dust. 

XLIV. On arriving at the camp, in order to show himself an activegeneral, and severe disciplinarian, he cashiered the lieutenants who cameup late with the auxiliary forces from different quarters. In reviewingthe army, he deprived of their companies most of the centurions of thefirst rank, who had now served their legal time in the wars, and somewhose time would have expired in a few days; alleging against them theirage and infirmity; and railing at the covetous disposition (282) of therest of them, he reduced the bounty due to those who had served out theirtime to the sum of six thousand sesterces. Though he only received thesubmission of Adminius, the son of Cunobeline, a British king, who beingdriven from his native country by his father, came over to him with asmall body of troops [450], yet, as if the whole island had beensurrendered to him, he dispatched magnificent letters to Rome, orderingthe bearers to proceed in their carriages directly up to the forum andthe senate-house, and not to deliver the letters but to the consuls inthe temple of Mars, and in the presence of a full assembly of thesenators. 

XLV. Soon after this, there being no hostilities, he ordered a fewGermans of his guard to be carried over and placed in concealment on theother side of the Rhine, and word to be brought him after dinner, that anenemy was advancing with great impetuosity. This being accordingly done, he immediately threw himself, with his friends, and a party of thepretorian knights, into the adjoining wood, where lopping branches fromthe trees, and forming trophies of them, he returned by torch-light, upbraiding those who did not follow him, with timorousness and cowardice;but he presented the companions, and sharers of his victory with crownsof a new form, and under a new name, having the sun, moon, and starsrepresented on them, and which he called Exploratoriae. Again, somehostages were by his order taken from the school, and privately sent off;upon notice of which he immediately rose from table, pursued them withthe cavalry, as if they had run away, and coming up with them, broughtthem back in fetters; proceeding to an extravagant pitch of ostentationlikewise in this military comedy. Upon his again sitting down to table, it being reported to him that the troops were all reassembled, he orderedthem to sit down as they were, in their armour, animating them in thewords of that well-known verse of Virgil:

 (283) Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis. --Aen. 1. Bear up, and save yourselves for better days. 

In the mean time, he reprimanded the senate and people of Rome in a verysevere proclamation, "For revelling and frequenting the diversions of thecircus and theatre, and enjoying themselves at their villas, whilst theiremperor was fighting, and exposing himself to the greatest dangers. "

XLVI. At last, as if resolved to make war in earnest, he drew up hisarmy upon the shore of the ocean, with his balistae and other engines ofwar, and while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a suddencommanded them to gather up the sea shells, and fill their helmets, andthe folds of their dress with them, calling them "the spoils of the oceandue to the Capitol and the Palatium. " As a monument of his success, heraised a lofty tower, upon which, as at Pharos [451], he ordered lightsto be burnt in the night-time, for the direction of ships at sea; andthen promising the soldiers a donative of a hundred denarii [452] a man, as if he had surpassed the most eminent examples of generosity, "Go yourways, " said he, "and be merry: go, ye are rich. "

XLVII. In making preparations for his triumph, besides the prisoners anddeserters from the barbarian armies, he picked out the men of greateststature in all Gaul, such as he said were fittest to grace a triumph, with some of the chiefs, and reserved them to appear in the procession;obliging them not only to dye their hair yellow, and let it grow long, but to learn the German language, and assume the names commonly used inthat country. He ordered likewise the gallies in which he had enteredthe ocean, to be conveyed to Rome a great part of the way by land, andwrote to his comptrollers in the city, "to make proper preparations for atriumph against (284) his arrival, at as small expense as possible; buton a scale such as had never been seen before, since they had full powerover the property of every one. "

XLVIII. Before he left the province, he formed a design of the mosthorrid cruelty--to massacre the legions which had mutinied upon the deathof Augustus, for seizing and detaining by force his father, Germanicus, their commander, and himself, then an infant, in the camp. Though he waswith great difficulty dissuaded from this rash attempt, yet neither themost urgent entreaties nor representations could prevent him frompersisting in the design of decimating these legions. Accordingly, heordered them to assemble unarmed, without so much as their swords; andthen surrounded them with armed horse. But finding that many of them, suspecting that violence was intended, were making off, to arm in theirown defence, he quitted the assembly as fast as he could, and immediatelymarched for Rome; bending now all his fury against the senate, whom hepublicly threatened, to divert the general attention from the clamourexcited by his disgraceful conduct. Amongst other pretexts of offence, he complained that he was defrauded of a triumph, which was justly hisdue, though he had just before forbidden, upon pain of death, any honourto be decreed him. 

XLIX. In his march he was waited upon by deputies from the senatorianorder, entreating him to hasten his return. He replied to them, "I willcome, I will come, and this with me, " striking at the same time the hiltof his sword. He issued likewise this proclamation: "I am coming, butfor those only who wish for me, the equestrian order and the people; forI shall no longer treat the senate as their fellow-citizen or prince. "He forbad any of the senators to come to meet him; and either abandoningor deferring his triumph, he entered the city in ovation on hisbirthday. Within four months from this period he was slain, after he hadperpetrated enormous crimes, and while he was meditating the execution, if possible, of still greater. He had entertained a design of removingto Antium, and afterwards to Alexandria; having first cut off the flowerof the equestrian and senatorian orders. This is placed beyond allquestion, by two books which were found in his cabinet (285) underdifferent titles; one being called the sword, and the other, the dagger. They both contained private marks, and the names of those who weredevoted to death. There was also found a large chest, filled with avariety of poisons which being afterwards thrown into the sea by order ofClaudius, are said to have so infected the waters, that the fish werepoisoned, and cast dead by the tide upon the neighbouring shores. 

L. He was tall, of a pale complexion, ill-shaped, his neck and legs veryslender, his eyes and temples hollow, his brows broad and knit, his hairthin, and the crown of the head bald. The other parts of his body weremuch covered with hair. On this account, it was reckoned a capital crimefor any person to look down from above, as he was passing by, or so muchas to name a goat. His countenance, which was naturally hideous andfrightful, he purposely rendered more so, forming it before a mirror intothe most horrible contortions. He was crazy both in body and mind, beingsubject, when a boy, to the falling sickness. When he arrived at the ageof manhood, he endured fatigue tolerably well; but still, occasionally, he was liable to a faintness, during which he remained incapable of anyeffort. He was not insensible of the disorder of his mind, and sometimeshad thoughts of retiring to clear his brain [453]. It is believed thathis wife Caesonia administered to him a love potion which threw him intoa frenzy. What most of all disordered him, was want of sleep, for heseldom had more than three or four hours' rest in a night; and even thenhis sleep was not sound, but disturbed by strange dreams; fancying, amongother things, that a form representing the ocean spoke to him. Beingtherefore often weary with lying awake so long, sometimes he sat up inhis bed, at others, walked in the longest porticos about the house, andfrom time to time, invoked and looked out for the approach of day. 

LI. To this crazy constitution of his mind may, I think, very justly beascribed two faults which he had, of a nature directly repugnant one tothe other, namely, an excessive confidence and the most abject timidity. For he, who affected so (286) much to despise the gods, was ready to shuthis eyes, and wrap up his head in his cloak at the slightest storm ofthunder and lightning; and if it was violent, he got up and hid himselfunder his bed. In his visit to Sicily, after ridiculing many strangeobjects which that country affords, he ran away suddenly in the nightfrom Messini, terrified by the smoke and rumbling at the summit of MountAetna. And though in words he was very valiant against the barbarians, yet upon passing a narrow defile in Germany in his light car, surroundedby a strong body of his troops, some one happening to say, "There wouldbe no small consternation amongst us, if an enemy were to appear, " heimmediately mounted his horse, and rode towards the bridges in greathaste; but finding them blocked up with camp-followers andbaggage-waggons, he was in such a hurry, that he caused himself to becarried in men's hands over the heads of the crowd. Soon afterwards, uponhearing that the Germans were again in rebellion, he prepared to quitRome, and equipped a fleet; comforting himself with this consideration, that if the enemy should prove victorious, and possess themselves of theheights of the Alps, as the Cimbri [454] had done, or of the city, as theSenones [455] formerly did, he should still have in reserve thetransmarine provinces [456]. Hence it was, I suppose, that it occurred tohis assassins, to invent the story intended to pacify the troops whomutinied at his death, that he had laid violent hands upon himself, in afit of terror occasioned by the news brought him of the defeat of hisarmy. 

LII. In the fashion of his clothes, shoes, and all the rest of hisdress, he did not wear what was either national, or properly civic, orpeculiar to the male sex, or appropriate to mere mortals. He oftenappeared abroad in a short coat of stout cloth, richly embroidered andblazing with jewels, in a tunic with sleeves, and with bracelets upon hisarms; sometimes all in silks and (287) habited like a woman; at othertimes in the crepidae or buskins; sometimes in the sort of shoes used bythe light-armed soldiers, or in the sock used by women, and commonly witha golden beard fixed to his chin, holding in his hand a thunderbolt, atrident, or a caduceus, marks of distinction belonging to the gods only. Sometimes, too, he appeared in the habit of Venus. He wore very commonlythe triumphal ornaments, even before his expedition, and sometimes thebreast-plate of Alexander the Great, taken out of his coffin. [457]

LIII. With regard to the liberal sciences, he was little conversant inphilology, but applied himself with assiduity to the study of eloquence, being indeed in point of enunciation tolerably elegant and ready; and inhis perorations, when he was moved to anger, there was an abundant flowof words and periods. In speaking, his action was vehement, and hisvoice so strong, that he was heard at a great distance. When winding upan harangue, he threatened to draw "the sword of his lucubration, "holding a loose and smooth style in such contempt, that he said Seneca, who was then much admired, "wrote only detached essays, " and that "hislanguage was nothing but sand without lime. " He often wrote answers tothe speeches of successful orators; and employed himself in composingaccusations or vindications of eminent persons, who were impeached beforethe senate; and gave his vote for or against the party accused, accordingto his success in speaking, inviting the equestrian order, byproclamation, to hear him. 

LIV. He also zealously applied himself to the practice of several otherarts of different kinds, such as fencing, charioteering, singing, anddancing. In the first of these, he practised with the weapons used inwar; and drove the chariot in circuses built in several places. He wasso extremely fond of singing and dancing, that he could not refrain inthe theatre from singing with the tragedians, and imitating the gesturesof the actors, either by way of applause or correction. A nightexhibition which he had ordered the day he was slain, was thought to beintended for no other reason, than to take the opportunity afforded bythe licentiousness of the season, to make his first appearance upon thestage. Sometimes, also, (288) he danced in the night. Summoning once tothe Palatium, in the second watch of the night [458], three men ofconsular rank, who feared the words from the message, he placed them onthe proscenium of the stage, and then suddenly came bursting out, with aloud noise of flutes and castanets [459], dressed in a mantle and tunicreaching down to his heels. Having danced out a song, he retired. Yethe who had acquired such dexterity in other exercises, never learnt toswim. 

LV. Those for whom he once conceived a regard, he favoured even tomadness. He used to kiss Mnester, the pantomimic actor, publicly in thetheatre; and if any person made the least noise while he was dancing, hewould order him to be dragged from his seat, and scourged him with hisown hand. A Roman knight once making some bustle, he sent him, by acenturion, an order to depart forthwith for Ostia [460], and carry aletter from him to king Ptolemy in Mauritania. The letter was comprisedin these words: "Do neither good nor harm to the bearer. " He made somegladiators captains of his German guards. He deprived the gladiatorscalled Mirmillones of some of their arms. One Columbus coming off withvictory in a combat, but being slightly wounded, he ordered some poisonto be infused in the wound, which he thence called Columbinum. For thusit was certainly named with his own hand in a list of other poisons. Hewas so extravagantly fond of the party of charioteers whose colours weregreen [461], that he supped and lodged for some time constantly in thestable where their horses were kept. At a certain revel, he made apresent of two millions of sesterces to one Cythicus, a driver of achariot. The day before the Circensian games, he used to send hissoldiers to enjoin silence in the (289) neighbourhood, that the repose ofhis horse Incitatus [462] might not be disturbed. For this favouriteanimal, besides a marble stable, an ivory manger, purple housings, and ajewelled frontlet, he appointed a house, with a retinue of slaves, andfine furniture, for the reception of such as were invited in the horse'sname to sup with him. It is even said that he intended to make himconsul. 

LVI. In this frantic and savage career, numbers had formed designs forcutting him off; but one or two conspiracies being discovered, and otherspostponed for want of opportunity, at last two men concerted a plantogether, and accomplished their purpose; not without the privity of someof the greatest favourites amongst his freedmen, and the prefects of thepretorian guards; because, having been named, though falsely, asconcerned in one conspiracy against him, they perceived that they weresuspected and become objects of his hatred. For he had immediatelyendeavoured to render them obnoxious to the soldiery, drawing his sword, and declaring, "That he would kill himself if they thought him worthy ofdeath;" and ever after he was continually accusing them to one another, and setting them all mutually at variance. The conspirators havingresolved to fall upon him as he returned at noon from the Palatine games, Cassius Chaerea, tribune of the pretorian guards, claimed the part ofmaking the onset. This Chaerea was now an elderly man, and had beenoften reproached by Caius for effeminacy. When he came for thewatchword, the latter would give "Priapus, " or "Venus;" and if on anyoccasion he returned thanks, would offer him his hand to kiss, makingwith his fingers an obscene gesture. 

LVII. His approaching fate was indicated by many prodigies. The statueof Jupiter at Olympia, which he had ordered to be taken down and broughtto Rome, suddenly burst out into such a violent fit of laughter, that, the machines employed in the work giving way, the workmen took to theirheels. When this accident happened, there came up a man named Cassius, who said that he was commanded in a dream to sacrifice a bull to Jupiter. The Capitol at Capua was (290) struck with lightning upon the ides ofMarch [15th March] as was also, at Rome, the apartment of the chiefporter of the Palatium. Some construed the latter into a presage thatthe master of the place was in danger from his own guards; and the otherthey regarded as a sign, that an illustrious person would be cut off, ashad happened before on that day. Sylla, the astrologer, being, consultedby him respecting his nativity, assured him, "That death wouldunavoidably and speedily befall him. " The oracle of Fortune at Antiumlikewise forewarned him of Cassius; on which account he had given ordersfor putting to death Cassius Longinus, at that time proconsul of Asia, not considering that Chaerea bore also that name. The day preceding hisdeath he dreamt that he was standing in heaven near the throne ofJupiter, who giving him a push with the great toe of his right foot, hefell headlong upon the earth. Some things which happened the very day ofhis death, and only a little before it, were likewise considered asominous presages of that event. Whilst he was at sacrifice, he wasbespattered with the blood of a flamingo. And Mnester, the pantomimicactor, performed in a play, which the tragedian Neoptolemus had formerlyacted at the games in which Philip, the king of Macedon, was slain. Andin the piece called Laureolus, in which the principal actor, running outin a hurry, and falling, vomited blood, several of the inferior actorsvying with each other to give the best specimen of their art, made thewhole stage flow with blood. A spectacle had been purposed to beperformed that night, in which the fables of the infernal regions were tobe represented by Egyptians and Ethiopians. 

LVIII. On the ninth of the calends of February [24th January], and aboutthe seventh hour of the day, after hesitating whether he should rise todinner, as his stomach was disordered by what he had eaten the daybefore, at last, by the advice of his friends, he came forth. In thevaulted passage through which he had to pass, were some boys of nobleextraction, who had been brought from Asia to act upon the stage, waitingfor him in a private corridor, and he stopped to see and speak to them;and had not the leader of the party said that he was suffering from cold, he would have gone back, and made them act immediately. Respecting whatfollowed, (291) two different accounts are given. Some say, that, whilsthe was speaking to the boys, Chaerea came behind him, and gave him aheavy blow on the neck with his sword, first crying out, "Take this:"that then a tribune, by name Cornelius Sabinus, another of theconspirators, ran him through the breast. Others say, that the crowdbeing kept at a distance by some centurions who were in the plot, Sabinuscame, according to custom, for the word, and that Caius gave him"Jupiter, " upon which Chaerea cried out, "Be it so!" and then, on hislooking round, clove one of his jaws with a blow. As he lay on theground, crying out that he was still alive [463], the rest dispatched himwith thirty wounds. For the word agreed upon among them all was, "Strikeagain. " Some likewise ran their swords through his privy parts. Uponthe first bustle, the litter bearers came running in with their poles tohis assistance, and, immediately afterwards, his German body guards, whokilled some of the assassins, and also some senators who had no concernin the affair. 

LIX. He lived twenty-nine years, and reigned three years, ten months, and eight days. His body was carried privately into the Lamian Gardens[464], where it was half burnt upon a pile hastily raised, and then hadsome earth carelessly thrown over it. It was afterwards disinterred byhis sisters, on their return from banishment, burnt to ashes, and buried. Before this was done, it is well known that the keepers of the gardenswere greatly disturbed by apparitions; and that not a night passedwithout some terrible alarm or other in the house where he was slain, until it was destroyed by fire. His wife Caesonia was killed with him, being stabbed by a centurion; and his daughter had her brains knocked outagainst a wall. 

LX. Of the miserable condition of those times, any person (292) mayeasily form an estimate from the following circumstances. When his deathwas made public, it was not immediately credited. People entertained asuspicion that a report of his being killed had been contrived and spreadby himself, with the view of discovering how they stood affected towardshim. Nor had the conspirators fixed upon any one to succeed him. Thesenators were so unanimous in their resolution to assert the liberty oftheir country, that the consuls assembled them at first not in the usualplace of meeting, because it was named after Julius Caesar, but in theCapitol. Some proposed to abolish the memory of the Caesars, and leveltheir temples with the ground. It was particularly remarked on thisoccasion, that all the Caesars, who had the praenomen of Caius, died bythe sword, from the Caius Caesar who was slain in the times of Cinna. 

 * * * * * *

Unfortunately, a great chasm in the Annals of Tacitus, at this period, precludes all information from that historian respecting the reign ofCaligula; but from what he mentions towards the close of the precedingchapter, it is evident that Caligula was forward to seize the reins ofgovernment, upon the death of Tiberius, whom, though he rivalled him inhis vices, he was far from imitating in his dissimulation. Amongst thepeople, the remembrance of Germanicus' virtues cherished for his familyan attachment which was probably, increased by its misfortunes; and theywere anxious to see revived in the son the popularity of the father. Considering, however, that Caligula's vicious disposition was alreadyknown, and that it had even been an inducement with Tiberius to procurehis succession, in order that it might prove a foil to his own memory; itis surprising that no effort was made at this juncture to shake off thedespotism which had been so intolerable in the last reign, and restorethe ancient liberty of the republic. Since the commencement of theimperial dominion, there never had been any period so favourable for acounter-revolution as the present crisis. There existed now no Livia, toinfluence the minds of the senate and people in respect of thegovernment; nor was there any other person allied to the family ofGermanicus, whose countenance or intrigues could promote the views ofCaligula. He himself was now only in the twenty-fifth year of his age, was totally inexperienced in the administration of public affairs, hadnever performed even the smallest service to his country, and wasgenerally known to be of a character which (293) disgraced hisillustrious descent. Yet, in spite of all these circumstances, such wasthe destiny of Rome, that his accession afforded joy to the soldiers, whohad known him in his childhood, and to the populace in the capital, aswell as the people in the provinces, who were flattered with the delusiveexpectation of receiving a prince who should adorn the throne with theamiable virtues of Germanicus. 

It is difficult to say, whether weakness of understanding, or corruptionof morals, were more conspicuous in the character of Caligula. He seemsto have discovered from his earliest years an innate depravity of mind, which was undoubtedly much increased by defect of education. He had lostboth his parents at an early period of life; and from Tiberius' owncharacter, as well as his views in training the person who should succeedhim on the throne, there is reason to think, that if any attentionwhatever was paid to the education of Caligula, it was directed tovitiate all his faculties and passions, rather than to correct andimprove them. If such was really the object, it was indeed prosecutedwith success. 

The commencement, however, of his reign was such as by no meansprognosticated its subsequent transition. The sudden change of hisconduct, the astonishing mixture of imbecility and presumption, of moralturpitude and frantic extravagance, which he afterwards evinced; such asrolling himself over heaps of gold, his treatment of his horse Incitatus, and his design of making him consul, seem to justify a suspicion that hisbrain had actually been affected, either by the potion, said to have beengiven him by his wife Caesonia, or otherwise. Philtres, or love-potions, as they were called, were frequent in those times; and the peoplebelieved that they operated upon the mind by a mysterious and sympatheticpower. It is, however, beyond a doubt, that their effects were producedentirely by the action of their physical qualities upon the organs of thebody. They were usually made of the satyrion, which, according to Pliny, was a provocative. They were generally given by women to their husbandsat bed-time; and it was necessary towards their successful operation, that the parties should sleep together. This circumstance explains thewhole mystery. The philtres were nothing more than medicines of astimulating quality, which, after exciting violent, but temporaryeffects, enfeebled the constitution, and occasioned nervous disorders, bywhich the mental faculties, as well as the corporeal, might be injured. That this was really the case with Caligula, seems probable, not onlyfrom the falling sickness, to which he was subject, but from the habitualwakefulness of which he complained. 

(294) The profusion of this emperor, during his short reign of threeyears and ten months, is unexampled in history. In the midst of profoundpeace, without any extraordinary charges either civil or military, heexpended, in less than one year, besides the current revenue of theempire, the sum of 21, 796, 875 pounds sterling, which had been left byTiberius at his death. To supply the extravagance of future years, newand exorbitant taxes were imposed upon the people, and those too on thenecessaries of life. There existed now amongst the Romans every motivethat could excite a general indignation against the government; yet suchwas still the dread of imperial power, though vested in the hands of soweak and despicable a sovereign, that no insurrection was attempted, norany extensive conspiracy formed; but the obnoxious emperor fell at last asacrifice to a few centurions of his own guard. 

This reign was of too short duration to afford any new productions inliterature; but, had it been extended to a much longer period, theeffects would probably have been the same. Polite learning never couldflourish under an emperor who entertained a design of destroying thewritings of Virgil and Livy. It is fortunate that these, and othervaluable productions of antiquity, were too widely diffused over theworld, and too carefully preserved, to be in danger of perishing throughthe frenzy of this capricious barbarian. 

TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR. [465]

(295)

I. Livia, having married Augustus when she was pregnant, was withinthree months afterwards delivered of Drusus, the father of ClaudiusCaesar, who had at first the praenomen of Decimus, but afterwards that ofNero; and it was suspected that he was begotten in adultery by hisfather-in-law. The following verse, however, was immediately in everyone's mouth:

 Tois eutychousi kai primaena paidia. 

 Nine months for common births the fates decree; But, for the great, reduce the term to three. 

This Drusus, during the time of his being quaestor and praetor, commandedin the Rhaetian and German wars, and was the first of all the Romangenerals who navigated the Northern Ocean [466]. He made likewise someprodigious trenches beyond the Rhine [467], which to this day are calledby his name. He overthrew the enemy in several battles, and drove themfar back into the depths of the desert. Nor did he desist from pursuingthem, until an apparition, in the form of a barbarian woman, of more thanhuman size, appeared to him, and, in the Latin tongue, forbad him toproceed any farther. For these achievements he had the honour of anovation, and the triumphal ornaments. After his praetorship, heimmediately entered on the office of consul, and returning again toGermany, died of disease, in the summer encampment, which thence obtainedthe name of "The Unlucky Camp. " His corpse was carried to Rome by theprincipal persons of the several municipalities and colonies upon theroad, being met and received by the recorders of each place, and buriedin the Campus Martius. In honour of his (296) memory, the army erected amonument, round which the soldiers used, annually, upon a certain day, tomarch in solemn procession, and persons deputed from the several citiesof Gaul performed religious rites. The senate likewise, among variousother honours, decreed for him a triumphal arch of marble, with trophies, in the Appian Way, and gave the cognomen of Germanicus to him and hisposterity. In him the civil and military virtues were equally displayed;for, besides his victories, he gained from the enemy the Spolia Opima[468], and frequently marked out the German chiefs in the midst of theirarmy, and encountered them in single combat, at the utmost hazard of hislife. He likewise often declared that he would, some time or other, ifpossible, restore the ancient government. In this account, I suppose, some have ventured to affirm that Augustus was jealous of him, andrecalled him; and because he made no haste to comply with the order, tookhim off by poison. This I mention, that I may not be guilty of anyomission, more than because I think it either true or probable; sinceAugustus loved him so much when living, that he always, in his wills, made him joint-heir with his sons, as he once declared in the senate; andupon his decease, extolled him in a speech to the people, to that degree, that he prayed the gods "to make his Caesars like him, and to granthimself as honourable an exit out of this world as they had given him. "And not satisfied with inscribing upon his tomb an epitaph in versecomposed by himself, he wrote likewise the history of his life in prose. He had by the younger Antonia several children, but left behind him onlythree, namely, Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius. 

II. Claudius was born at Lyons, in the consulship of Julius Antonius, and Fabius Africanus, upon the first of August [469], the very day uponwhich an altar was first dedicated there to Augustus. He was namedTiberius Claudius Drusus, but soon afterwards, (297) upon the adoption ofhis elder brother into the Julian family, he assumed the cognomen ofGermanicus. He was left an infant by his father, and during almost thewhole of his minority, and for some time after he attained the age ofmanhood, was afflicted with a variety of obstinate disorders, insomuchthat his mind and body being greatly impaired, he was, even after hisarrival at years of maturity, never thought sufficiently qualified forany public or private employment. He was, therefore, during a long time, and even after the expiration of his minority, under the direction of apedagogue, who, he complains in a certain memoir, "was a barbarouswretch, and formerly superintendent of the mule-drivers, who was selectedfor his governor, on purpose to correct him severely on every triflingoccasion. " On account of this crazy constitution of body and mind, atthe spectacle of gladiators, which he gave the people, jointly with hisbrother, in honour of his father's memory, he presided, muffled up in apallium--a new fashion. When he assumed the manly habit, he was carriedin a litter, at midnight, to the Capitol, without the usual ceremony. 

III. He applied himself, however, from an early age, with greatassiduity to the study of the liberal sciences, and frequently publishedspecimens of his skill in each of them. But never, with all hisendeavours, could he attain to any public post in the government, orafford any hope of arriving at distinction thereafter. His mother, Antonia, frequently called him "an abortion of a man, that had been onlybegun, but never finished, by nature. " And when she would upbraid anyone with dulness, she said, "He was a greater fool than her son, Claudius. " His grandmother, Augusta, always treated him with the utmostcontempt, very rarely spoke to him, and when she did admonish him uponany occasion, it was in writing, very briefly and severely, or bymessengers. His sister, Livilla, upon hearing that he was about to becreated emperor, openly and loudly expressed her indignation that theRoman people should experience a fate so severe and so much below theirgrandeur. To exhibit the opinion, both favourable and otherwise, entertained concerning him by Augustus, his great-uncle, I have heresubjoined some extracts from the letters of that emperor. 

IV. "I have had some conversation with Tiberius, according (298) to yourdesire, my dear Livia, as to what must be done with your grandson, Tiberius, at the games of Mars. We are both agreed in this, that, oncefor all, we ought to determine what course to take with him. For if hebe really sound and, so to speak, quite right in his intellects [470], why should we hesitate to promote him by the same steps and degrees wedid his brother? But if we find him below par, and deficient both inbody and mind, we must beware of giving occasion for him and ourselves tobe laughed at by the world, which is ready enough to make such things thesubject of mirth and derision. For we never shall be easy, if we arealways to be debating upon every occasion of this kind, without settling, in the first instance, whether he be really capable of public offices ornot. With regard to what you consult me about at the present moment, Iam not against his superintending the feast of the priests, in the gamesof Mars, if he will suffer himself to be governed by his kinsman, Silanus's son, that he may do nothing to make the people stare and laughat him. But I do not approve of his witnessing the Circensian games fromthe Pulvinar. He will be there exposed to view in the very front of thetheatre. Nor do I like that he should go to the Alban Mount [471], or beat Rome during the Latin festivals. For if he be capable of attendinghis brother to the mount, why is he not made prefect of the city? Thus, my dear Livia, you have my thoughts upon the matter. In my opinion, weought to (299) settle this affair once for all, that we may not be alwaysin suspense between hope and fear. You may, if you think proper, giveyour kinsman Antonia this part of my letter to read. " In another letter, he writes as follows: "I shall invite: the youth, Tiberius, every dayduring your absence, to supper, that he may not sup alone with hisfriends Sulpicius and Athenodorus. I wish the poor creature was morecautious and attentive in the choice of some one, whose manners, air, andgait might be proper for his imitation:

 Atuchei panu en tois spoudaiois lian. In things of consequence he sadly fails. 

Where his mind does not run astray, he discovers a noble disposition. "In a third letter, he says, "Let me die, my dear Livia, if I am notastonished, that the declamation of your grandson, Tiberius, shouldplease me; for how he who talks so ill, should be able to declaim soclearly and properly, I cannot imagine. " There is no doubt but Augustus, after this, came to a resolution upon the subject, and, accordingly, lefthim invested with no other honour than that of the Augural priesthood;naming him amongst the heirs of the third degree, who were but distantlyallied to his family, for a sixth part of his estate only, with a legacyof no more than eight hundred thousand sesterces. 

V. Upon his requesting some office in the state, Tiberius granted himthe honorary appendages of the consulship, and when he pressed for alegitimate appointment, the emperor wrote word back, that "he sent himforty gold pieces for his expenses, during the festivals of theSaturnalia and Sigillaria. " Upon this, laying aside all hope ofadvancement, he resigned himself entirely to an indolent life; living ingreat privacy, one while in his gardens, or a villa which he had near thecity; another while in Campania, where he passed his time in the lowestsociety; by which means, besides his former character of a dull, heavyfellow, he acquired that of a drunkard and gamester. 

VI. Notwithstanding this sort of life, much respect was shown him bothin public and private. The equestrian (300) order twice made choice ofhim to intercede on their behalf; once to obtain from the consuls thefavour of bearing on their shoulders the corpse of Augustus to Rome, anda second time to congratulate him upon the death of Sejanus. When heentered the theatre, they used to rise, and put off their cloaks. Thesenate likewise decreed, that he should be added to the number of theAugustal college of priests, who were chosen by lot; and soon afterwards, when his house was burnt down, that it should be rebuilt at the publiccharge; and that he should have the privilege of giving his vote amongstthe men of consular rank. This decree was, however, repealed; Tiberiusinsisting to have him excused on account of his imbecility, and promisingto make good his loss at his own expense. But at his death, he named himin his will, amongst his third heirs, for a third part of his estate;leaving him besides a legacy of two millions of sesterces, and expresslyrecommending him to the armies, the senate and people of Rome, amongsthis other relations. 

VII. At last, Caius [473], his brother's son, upon his advancement tothe empire, endeavouring to gain the affections of the public by all thearts of popularity, Claudius also was admitted to public offices, andheld the consulship jointly with his nephew for two months. As he wasentering the Forum for the first time with the fasces, an eagle which wasflying that way; alighted upon his right shoulder. A second consulshipwas also allotted him, to commence at the expiration of the fourth year. He sometimes presided at the public spectacles, as the representative ofCaius; being always, on those occasions, complimented with theacclamations of the people, wishing him all happiness, sometimes underthe title of the emperor's uncle, and sometimes under that ofGermanicus's brother. 

VIII. Still he was subjected to many slights. If at any time he came inlate to supper, he was obliged to walk round the room some time before hecould get a place at table. When he indulged himself with sleep aftereating, which was a common practice with him, the company used to throwolive-stones and dates at him. And the buffoons who attended would wakehim, as if it were only in jest, with a cane or a whip. Sometimes theywould put slippers upon his hands; as he lay snoring, that he might, uponawaking, rub his face with them. 

IX. He was not only exposed to contempt, but sometimes likewise toconsiderable danger: first, in his consulship; for, having been tooremiss in providing and erecting the statues of Caius's brothers, Neroand Drusus, he was very near being deprived of his office; and afterwardshe was continually harassed with informations against him by one orother, sometimes even by his own domestics. When the conspiracy ofLepidus and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with some otherdeputies into Germany [474], to congratulate the emperor upon theoccasion, he was in danger of his life; Caius being greatly enraged, andloudly complaining, that his uncle was sent to him, as if he was a boywho wanted a governor. Some even say, that he was thrown into a river, in his travelling dress. From this period, he voted in the senate alwaysthe last of the members of consular rank; being called upon after therest, on purpose to disgrace him. A charge for the forgery of a will wasalso allowed to be prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness. At last, being obliged to pay eight millions of sesterces on enteringupon a new office of priesthood, he was reduced to such straits in hisprivate affairs, that in order to discharge his bond to the treasury, hewas under the necessity of exposing to sale his whole estate, by an orderof the prefects. 

X. Having spent the greater part of his life under these and the likecircumstances, he came at last to the empire in the fiftieth year of hisage [475], by a very surprising turn of fortune. Being, as well as therest, prevented from approaching Caius by the conspirators, who dispersedthe crowd, under the pretext of his desiring to be private, he retiredinto an apartment called the Hermaeum [476]; and soon afterwards, terrified by the report of Caius being slain, he crept into an adjoiningbalcony, where he hid himself behind the hangings of (302) the door. Acommon soldier, who happened to pass that way, spying his feet, anddesirous to discover who he was, pulled him out; when immediatelyrecognizing him, he threw himself in a great fright at his feet, andsaluted him by the title of emperor. He then conducted him to hisfellow-soldiers, who were all in a great rage, and irresolute what theyshould do. They put him into a litter, and as the slaves of the palacehad all fled, took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders, andbrought him into the camp, sad and trembling; the people who met himlamenting his situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried toexecution. Being received within the ramparts [477], he continued allnight with the sentries on guard, recovered somewhat from his fright, butin no great hopes of the succession. For the consuls, with the senateand civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol, withthe determination to assert the public liberty; and he being sent forlikewise, by a tribune of the people, to the senate-house, to give hisadvice upon the present juncture of affairs, returned answer, "I am underconstraint, and cannot possibly come. " The day afterwards, the senatebeing dilatory in their proceedings, and worn out by divisions amongstthemselves, while the people who surrounded the senate-house shouted thatthey would have one master, naming Claudius, he suffered the soldiersassembled under arms to swear allegiance to him, promising them fifteenthousand sesterces a man; he being the first of the Caesars who purchasedthe submission of the soldiers with money. [478]

XI. Having thus established himself in power, his first object was toabolish all remembrance of the two preceding days, in which a revolutionin the state had been canvassed. Accordingly, he passed an act ofperpetual oblivion and pardon for every thing said or done during thattime; and this he faithfully observed, with the exception only of puttingto death a few tribunes and centurions concerned in the conspiracyagainst Caius, both as an example, and because he understood that theyhad also planned his own death. He now turned (303) his thoughts towardspaying respect to the memory of his relations. His most solemn and usualoath was, "By Augustus. " He prevailed upon the senate to decree divinehonours to his grandmother Livia, with a chariot in the Circensianprocession drawn by elephants, as had been appointed for Augustus [479];and public offerings to the shades of his parents. Besides which, heinstituted Circensian games for his father, to be celebrated every year, upon his birth-day, and, for his mother, a chariot to be drawn throughthe circus; with the title of Augusta, which had been refused by hisgrandmother [480]. To the memory of his brother [481], to which, uponall occasions, he showed a great regard, he gave a Greek comedy, to beexhibited in the public diversions at Naples [482], and awarded the crownfor it, according to the sentence of the judges in that solemnity. Nordid he omit to make honourable and grateful mention of Mark Antony;declaring by a proclamation, "That he the more earnestly insisted uponthe observation of his father Drusus's birth-day, because it was likewisethat of his grandfather Antony. " He completed the marble arch nearPompey's theatre, which had formerly been decreed by the senate in honourof Tiberius, but which had been neglected [483]. And though he cancelledall the acts of Caius, yet he forbad the day of his assassination, notwithstanding it was that of his own accession to the empire, to bereckoned amongst the festivals. 

XII. But with regard to his own aggrandisement, he was sparing andmodest, declining the title of emperor, and refusing all excessivehonours. He celebrated the marriage of his daughter and the birth-day ofa grandson with great privacy, at home. He recalled none of those whohad been banished, without a decree of the senate: and requested of thempermission for the prefect of the military tribunes and pretorian guardsto attend him in the senate-house [484]; and (304) also that they wouldbe pleased to bestow upon his procurators judicial authority in theprovinces [485]. He asked of the consuls likewise the privilege ofholding fairs upon his private estate. He frequently assisted themagistrates in the trial of causes, as one of their assessors. And whenthey gave public spectacles, he would rise up with the rest of thespectators, and salute them both by words and gestures. When thetribunes of the people came to him while he was on the tribunal, heexcused himself, because, on account of the crowd, he could not hear themunless they stood. In a short time, by this conduct, he wrought himselfso much into the favour and affection of the public, that when, upon hisgoing to Ostia, a report was spread in the city that he had been way-laidand slain, the people never ceased cursing the soldiers for traitors, andthe senate as parricides, until one or two persons, and presently afterseveral others, were brought by the magistrates upon the rostra, whoassured them that he was alive, and not far from the city, on his wayhome. 

XIII. Conspiracies, however, were formed against him, not only byindividuals separately, but by a faction; and at last his government wasdisturbed with a civil war. A low fellow was found with a poniard abouthim, near his chamber, at midnight. Two men of the equestrian order werediscovered waiting for him in the streets, armed with a tuck and ahuntsman's dagger; one of them intending to attack him as he came out ofthe theatre, and the other as he was sacrificing in the temple of Mars. Gallus Asinius and Statilius Corvinus, grandsons of the two orators, Pollio and Messala [486], formed a conspiracy against him, in which theyengaged many of his freedmen and slaves. Furius Camillus Scribonianus, his lieutenant in Dalmatia, broke into rebellion, but was reduced in(305) the space of five days; the legions which he had seduced from theiroath of fidelity relinquishing their purpose, upon an alarm occasioned byill omens. For when orders were given them to march, to meet their newemperor, the eagles could not be decorated, nor the standards pulled outof the ground, whether it was by accident, or a divine interposition. 

XIV. Besides his former consulship, he held the office afterwards fourtimes; the first two successively [487], but the following, after aninterval of four years each [488]; the last for six months, the othersfor two; and the third, upon his being chosen in the room of a consul whodied; which had never been done by any of the emperors before him. Whether he was consul or out of office, he constantly attended the courtsfor the administration of justice, even upon such days as were solemnlyobserved as days of rejoicing in his family, or by his friends; andsometimes upon the public festivals of ancient institution. Nor did healways adhere strictly to the letter of the laws, but overruled therigour or lenity of many of their enactments, according to his sentimentsof justice and equity. For where persons lost their suits by insistingupon more than appeared to be their due, before the judges of privatecauses, he granted them the indulgence of a second trial. And withregard to such as were convicted of any great delinquency, he evenexceeded the punishment appointed by law, and condemned them to beexposed to wild beasts. [489]

XV. But in hearing and determining causes, he exhibited a strangeinconsistency of temper, being at one time circumspect and sagacious, atanother inconsiderate and rash, and sometimes frivolous, and like one outof his mind. In correcting the roll of judges, he struck off the name ofone who, concealing the privilege his children gave him to be excusedfrom serving, had answered to his name, as too eager for the office. Another who was summoned before him in a cause of his own, but allegedthat the affair did not properly come under the (306) emperor'scognizance, but that of the ordinary judges, he ordered to plead thecause himself immediately before him, and show in a case of his own, howequitable a judge he would prove in that of other persons. A womanrefusing to acknowledge her own son, and there being no clear proof oneither side, he obliged her to confess the truth, by ordering her tomarry the young man [490]. He was much inclined to determine causes infavour of the parties who appeared, against those who did not, withoutinquiring whether their absence was occasioned by their own fault, or byreal necessity. On proclamation of a man's being convicted of forgery, and that he ought to have his hand cut off, he insisted that anexecutioner should be immediately sent for, with a Spanish sword and ablock. A person being prosecuted for falsely assuming the freedom ofRome, and a frivolous dispute arising between the advocates in the cause, whether he ought to make his appearance in the Roman or Grecian dress, toshow his impartiality, he commanded him to change his clothes severaltimes according to the character he assumed in the accusation or defence. An anecdote is related of him, and believed to be true, that, in aparticular cause, he delivered his sentence in writing thus: "I am infavour of those who have spoken the truth. " [491] By this he so muchforfeited the good opinion of the world, that he was everywhere andopenly despised. A person making an excuse for the non-appearance of awitness whom he had sent for from the provinces, declared it wasimpossible for him to appear, concealing the reason for some time: atlast, after several interrogatories were put to him on the subject, heanswered, "The man is dead;" to which Claudius replied, "I think that isa sufficient excuse. " Another thanking him for suffering a person whowas prosecuted to make his defence by counsel, added, "And yet it is nomore than what is usual. " I have likewise heard some old men say [492], that the advocates used to abuse his patience so grossly, that they wouldnot only (307) call him back, as he was quitting the tribunal, but wouldseize him by the lap of his coat, and sometimes catch him by the heels, to make him stay. That such behaviour, however strange, is notincredible, will appear from this anecdote. Some obscure Greek, who wasa litigant, had an altercation with him, in which he called out, "You arean old fool. " [493] It is certain that a Roman knight, who wasprosecuted by an impotent device of his enemies on a false charge ofabominable obscenity with women, observing that common strumpets weresummoned against him and allowed to give evidence, upbraided Claudius invery harsh and severe terms with his folly and cruelty, and threw hisstyle, and some books which he had in his hands, in his face, with suchviolence as to wound him severely in the cheek. 

XVI. He likewise assumed the censorship [494], which had beendiscontinued since the time that Paulus and Plancus had jointly held it. But this also he administered very unequally, and with a strange varietyof humour and conduct. In his review of the knights, he passed over, without any mark of disgrace, a profligate young man, only because hisfather spoke of him in the highest terms; "for, " said he, "his father ishis proper censor. " Another, who was infamous for debauching youths andfor adultery, he only admonished "to indulge his youthful inclinationsmore sparingly, or at least more cautiously;" [495] adding, "why must Iknow what mistress you keep?" When, at the request of his friends, hehad taken off a mark of infamy which he had set upon one knight's name, he said, "Let the blot, however, remain. " He not only struck out of thelist of judges, but likewise deprived of the freedom of Rome, anillustrious man of the highest provincial rank in Greece, only because hewas ignorant of the Latin language. Nor in this review did he suffer anyone to give an account of his conduct by an advocate, but obliged eachman to speak for himself in the best way he could. He disgraced many, and some that little expected it, and for a reason entirely new, namely, for going out of Italy without his license; (308) and one likewise, forhaving in his province been the familiar companion of a king; observing, that, in former times, Rabirius Posthumus had been prosecuted fortreason, although he only went after Ptolemy to Alexandria for thepurpose of securing payment of a debt [496]. Having tried to brand withdisgrace several others, he, to his own greater shame, found themgenerally innocent, through the negligence of the persons employed toinquire into their characters; those whom he charged with living incelibacy, with want of children, or estate, proving themselves to behusbands, parents, and in affluent circumstances. One of the knights whowas charged with stabbing himself, laid his bosom bare, to show thatthere was not the least mark of violence upon his body. The followingincidents were remarkable in his censorship. He ordered a car, platedwith silver, and of very sumptuous workmanship, which was exposed forsale in the Sigillaria [497], to be purchased, and broken in piecesbefore his eyes. He published twenty proclamations in one day, in one ofwhich he advised the people, "Since the vintage was very plentiful, tohave their casks well secured at the bung with pitch:" and in another, hetold them, "that nothing would sooner cure the bite of a viper, than thesap of the yew-tree. "

XVII. He undertook only one expedition, and that was of short duration. The triumphal ornaments decreed him by the senate, he considered asbeneath the imperial dignity, and was therefore resolved to have thehonour of a real triumph. For this purpose, he selected Britain, whichhad never been attempted by any one since Julius Caesar [498], and wasthen chafing (309) with rage, because the Romans would not give up somedeserters. Accordingly, he set sail from Ostia, but was twice very nearbeing wrecked by the boisterous wind called Circius [499], upon the coastof Liguria, and near the islands called Stoechades [500]. Having marchedby land from Marseilles to Gessoriacum [501], he thence passed over toBritain, and part of the island submitting to him, within a few daysafter his arrival, without battle or bloodshed, he returned to Rome inless than six months from the time of his departure, and triumphed in themost solemn manner [502]; to witness which, he not only (310) gave leaveto governors of provinces to come to Rome, but even to some of theexiles. Among the spoils taken from the enemy, he fixed upon thepediment of his house in the Palatium, a naval crown, in token of hishaving passed, and, as it were, conquered the Ocean, and had it suspendednear the civic crown which was there before. Messalina, his wife, followed his chariot in a covered litter [503]. Those who had attainedthe honour of triumphal ornaments in the same war, rode behind; the restfollowed on foot, wearing the robe with the broad stripes. Crassus Frugiwas mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned, in a robe embroidered withpalm leaves, because this was the second time of his obtaining thathonour. 

XVIII. He paid particular attention to the care of the city, and to haveit well supplied with provisions. A dreadful fire happening in theAemiliana [504], which lasted some time, he passed two nights in theDiribitorium [505], and the soldiers and gladiators not being insufficient numbers to extinguish it, he caused the magistrates to summonthe people out of all the streets in the city, to their assistance. Placing bags of money before him, he encouraged them to do their utmost, declaring, that he would reward every one on the spot, according to theirexertions. 

XIX. During a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by bad crops forseveral successive years, he was stopped in the middle of the Forum bythe mob, who so abused him, at the same time pelting him with fragmentsof bread, that he had some (311) difficulty in escaping into the palaceby a back door. He therefore used all possible means to bring provisionsto the city, even in the winter. He proposed to the merchants a sureprofit, by indemnifying them against any loss that might befall them bystorms at sea; and granted great privileges to those who built ships forthat traffic. To a citizen of Rome he gave an exemption from the penaltyof the Papia-Poppaean law [506]; to one who had only the privilege ofLatium, the freedom of the city; and to women the rights which by lawbelonged to those who had four children: which enactments are in force tothis day. 

XX. He completed some important public works, which, though notnumerous, were very useful. The principal were an aqueduct, which hadbeen begun by Caius; an emissary for the discharge of the waters of theFucine lake [507], and the harbour of Ostia; although he knew thatAugustus had refused to comply with the repeated application of theMarsians for one of these; and that the other had been several timesintended by Julius Caesar, but as often abandoned on account of thedifficulty of its execution. He brought to the city the cool andplentiful springs of the Claudian water, one of which is calledCaeruleus, and the other Curtius and Albudinus, as likewise the river ofthe New Anio, in a stone canal; and distributed them into manymagnificent reservoirs. The canal from the Fucine lake was undertaken asmuch for the sake of profit, as for the honour of the enterprise; forthere were parties who offered to drain it at their own expense, oncondition of their having a grant of the land laid dry. With greatdifficulty he completed a canal three miles in length, partly by cuttingthrough, and partly by tunnelling, a mountain; thirty thousand men beingconstantly employed in the work for eleven years [508]. He formed theharbour at Ostia, by carrying out circular piers on the right and on theleft, with (312) a mole protecting, in deep water, the entrance of theport [509]. To secure the foundation of this mole, he sunk the vessel inwhich the great obelisk [510] had been brought from Egypt [511]; andbuilt upon piles a very lofty tower, in imitation of the Pharos atAlexandria, on which lights were burnt to direct mariners in the night. 

XXI. He often distributed largesses of corn and money among the people, and entertained them with a great variety of public magnificentspectacles, not only such as were usual, and in the accustomed places, but some of new invention, and others revived from ancient models, andexhibited in places where nothing of the kind had been ever beforeattempted. In the games which he presented at the dedication of Pompey'stheatre [512], which had been burnt down, and was rebuilt by him, hepresided upon a tribunal erected for him in the orchestra; having firstpaid his devotions, in the temple above, and then coming down through thecentre of the circle, while all the people kept their seats in profoundsilence [513]. He likewise (313) exhibited the secular games [514], giving out that Augustus had anticipated the regular period; though hehimself says in his history, "That they had been omitted before the ageof Augustus, who had calculated the years with great exactness, and againbrought them to their regular period. " [515] The crier was thereforeridiculed, when he invited people in the usual form, "to games which noperson had ever before seen, nor ever would again;" when many were stillliving who had already seen them; and some of the performers who hadformerly acted in them, were now again brought upon the stage. Helikewise frequently celebrated the Circensian games in the Vatican [516], sometimes exhibiting a hunt of wild beasts, after every five courses. Heembellished the Circus Maximus with marble barriers, and gilded goals, which before were of common stone [517] and wood, and assigned properplaces for the senators, who were used to sit promiscuously with theother spectators. Besides the chariot-races, he exhibited there theTrojan game, and wild beasts from Africa, which were encountered by atroop of pretorian knights, with their tribunes, and even the prefect atthe head of them; besides Thessalian horse, who drive fierce bulls roundthe circus, leap upon their backs when they have exhausted their fury, and drag them by the horns to the ground. He gave exhibitions ofgladiators in several places, and of various kinds; one yearly on theanniversary of his accession in the pretorian camp [518], but without anyhunting, or the usual apparatus; another in the Septa as usual; and inthe same place, another out of the common way, and of a few days'continuance only, which he called Sportula; because when he was going topresent it, he informed the people by proclamation, "that he invited themto a late supper, got up in haste, and without ceremony. " Nor did helend himself to any kind of public diversion with more freedom andhilarity; insomuch that he would hold out his left hand, and (314) joinedby the common people, count upon his fingers aloud the gold piecespresented to those who came off conquerors. He would earnestly invitethe company to be merry; sometimes calling them his "masters, " with amixture of insipid, far-fetched jests. Thus, when the people called forPalumbus [519], he said, "He would give them one when he could catch it. "The following was well-intended, and well-timed; having, amidst greatapplause, spared a gladiator, on the intercession of his four sons, hesent a billet immediately round the theatre, to remind the people, "howmuch it behoved them to get children, since they had before them anexample how useful they had been in procuring favour and security for agladiator. " He likewise represented in the Campus Martius, the assaultand sacking of a town, and the surrender of the British kings [520], presiding in his general's cloak. Immediately before he drew off thewaters from the Fucine lake, he exhibited upon it a naval fight. But thecombatants on board the fleets crying out, "Health attend you, nobleemperor! We, who are about to peril our lives, salute you;" and hereplying, "Health attend you too, " they all refused to fight, as if bythat response he had meant to excuse them. Upon this, he hesitated for atime, whether he should not destroy them all with fire and sword. Atlast, leaping from his seat, and running along the shore of the lake withtottering steps, the result of his foul excesses, he, partly by fairwords, and partly by threats, persuaded them to engage. This spectaclerepresented an engagement between the fleets of Sicily and Rhodes;consisting each of twelve ships of war, of three banks of oars. Thesignal for the encounter was given by a silver Triton, raised bymachinery from the middle of the lake. 

XXII. With regard to religious ceremonies, the administration of affairsboth civil and military, and the condition of all orders of the people athome and abroad, some practices he corrected, others which had been laidaside he revived; and some regulations he introduced which were entirelynew. In appointing new priests for the several colleges, he made noappointments without being sworn. When an earthquake (315) happened inthe city, he never failed to summon the people together by the praetor, and appoint holidays for sacred rites. And upon the sight of any ominousbird in the City or Capitol, he issued an order for a supplication, thewords of which, by virtue of his office of high priest, after anexhortation from the rostra, he recited in the presence of the people, who repeated them after him; all workmen and slaves being first orderedto withdraw. 

XXIII. The courts of judicature, whose sittings had been formerlydivided between the summer and winter months, he ordered, for thedispatch of business, to sit the whole year round. The jurisdiction inmatters of trust, which used to be granted annually by special commissionto certain magistrates, and in the city only, he made permanent, andextended to the provincial judges likewise. He altered a clause added byTiberius to the Papia-Poppaean law [521], which inferred that men ofsixty years of age were incapable of begetting children. He orderedthat, out of the ordinary course of proceeding, orphans might haveguardians appointed them by the consuls; and that those who were banishedfrom any province by the chief magistrate, should be debarred from cominginto the City, or any part of Italy. He inflicted on certain persons anew sort of banishment, by forbidding them to depart further than threemiles from Rome. When any affair of importance came before the senate, he used to sit between the two consuls upon the seats of the tribunes. He reserved to himself the power of granting license to travel out ofItaly, which before had belonged to the senate. 

XXIV. He likewise granted the consular ornaments to his Ducenarianprocurators. From those who declined the senatorian dignity, he tookaway the equestrian. Although he had in the beginning of his reigndeclared, that he would admit no man into the senate who was not thegreat-grandson of a Roman citizen, yet he gave the "broad hem" to the sonof a freedman, on condition that he should be adopted by a Roman knight. Being afraid, however, of incurring censure by such an act, he informedthe public, that his ancestor Appius Caecus, the censor, had elected thesons of freedmen into (316) the senate; for he was ignorant, it seems, that in the times of Appius, and a long while afterwards, personsmanumitted were not called freedmen, but only their sons who werefree-born. Instead of the expense which the college of quaestors wasobliged to incur in paving the high-ways, he ordered them to give thepeople an exhibition of gladiators; and relieving them of the provinces ofOstia and [Cisalpine] Gaul, he reinstated them in the charge of thetreasury, which, since it was taken from them, had been managed by thepraetors, or those who had formerly filled that office. He gave thetriumphal ornaments to Silanus, who was betrothed to his daughter, thoughhe was under age; and in other cases, he bestowed them on so many, andwith so little reserve, that there is extant a letter unanimouslyaddressed to him by all the legions, begging him "to grant his consularlieutenants the triumphal ornaments at the time of their appointment tocommands, in order to prevent their seeking occasion to engage inunnecessary wars. " He decreed to Aulus Plautius the honour of an ovation[522], going to meet him at his entering the city, and walking with him inthe procession to the Capitol, and back, in which he took the left side, giving him the post of honour. He allowed Gabinius Secundus, upon hisconquest of the Chauci, a German tribe, to assume the cognomen ofChaucius. [523]

XXV. His military organization of the equestrian order was this. Afterhaving the command of a cohort, they were promoted to a wing of auxiliaryhorse, and subsequently received the commission of tribune of a legion. He raised a body of militia, who were called Supernumeraries, who, thoughthey were a sort of soldiers, and kept in reserve, yet received pay. Heprocured an act of the senate to prohibit all soldiers from attendingsenators at their houses, in the way of respect and compliment. Heconfiscated the estates of all freedmen who presumed to take uponthemselves the equestrian rank. Such of them as were ungrateful to theirpatrons, and were complained of by them, he reduced to their formercondition of (317) slavery; and declared to their advocates, that hewould always give judgment against the freedmen, in any suit at law whichthe masters might happen to have with them. Some persons having exposedtheir sick slaves, in a languishing condition, on the island ofAesculapius [524], because of the tediousness of their cure; he declaredall who were so exposed perfectly free, never more to return, if theyshould recover, to their former servitude; and that if any one chose tokill at once, rather than expose, a slave, he should be liable formurder. He published a proclamation, forbidding all travellers to passthrough the towns of Italy any otherwise than on foot, or in a litter orchair [525]. He quartered a cohort of soldiers at Puteoli, and anotherat Ostia, to be in readiness against any accidents from fire. Heprohibited foreigners from adopting Roman names, especially those whichbelonged to families [526]. Those who falsely pretended to the freedomof Rome, he beheaded on the Esquiline. He gave up to the senate theprovinces of Achaia and Macedonia, which Tiberius had transferred to hisown administration. He deprived the Lycians of their liberties, as apunishment for their fatal dissensions; but restored to the Rhodianstheir freedom, upon their repenting of their former misdemeanors. Heexonerated for ever the people of Ilium from the payment of taxes, asbeing the founders of the Roman race; reciting upon the occasion a letterin Greek, (318) from the senate and people of Rome to king Seleucus[527], on which they promised him their friendship and alliance, providedthat he would grant their kinsmen the Iliensians immunity from allburdens. 

He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually makingdisturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus [528]. He allowed theambassadors of the Germans to sit at the public spectacles in the seatsassigned to the senators, being induced to grant them favours by theirfrank and honourable conduct. For, having been seated in the rows ofbenches which were common to the people, on observing the Parthian andArmenian ambassadors sitting among the senators, they took uponthemselves to cross over into the same seats, as being, they said, no wayinferior to the others, in point either, of merit or rank. The religiousrites of the Druids, solemnized with such horrid cruelties, which hadonly been forbidden the citizens of Rome during the reign of Augustus, heutterly abolished among the Gauls [529]. On the other hand, he attempted(319) to transfer the Eleusinian mysteries from Attica to Rome [530]. Helikewise ordered the temple of Venus Erycina in Sicily, which was old andin a ruinous condition, to be repaired at the expense of the Romanpeople. He concluded treaties with foreign princes in the forum, withthe sacrifice of a sow, and the form of words used by the heralds informer times. But in these and other things, and indeed the greater partof his administration, he was directed not so much by his own judgment, as by the influence of his wives and freedmen; for the most part actingin conformity to what their interests or fancies dictated. 

XXVI. He was twice married at a very early age, first to Aemilia Lepida, the grand-daughter of Augustus, and afterwards to Livia Medullina, whohad the cognomen of Camilla, and was descended from the old dictatorCamillus. The former he divorced while still a virgin, because herparents had incurred the displeasure of Augustus; and he lost the latterby sickness on the day fixed for their nuptials. He next married PlautiaUrgulanilla, whose father had enjoyed the honour of a triumph; and soonafterwards, Aelia Paetina, the daughter of a man of consular rank. Buthe divorced them both; Paetina, upon some trifling causes of disgust; andUrgulanilla, for scandalous lewdness, and the suspicion of murder. Afterthem he took in marriage Valeria Messalina, the daughter of BarbatusMessala, his cousin. But finding that, besides her other shamefuldebaucheries, she had even gone so far as to marry in his own absenceCaius Silius, the settlement of her dower being formally signed, in thepresence of the augurs, he put her to death. When summoning hispretorians to his presence, he made to them this declaration: "As I havebeen so unhappy in my unions, I am resolved to continue in futureunmarried; and if I should not, I give you leave to stab me. " He was, however, unable to persist in this resolution; for he began immediatelyto think of another wife; and even of taking back Paetina, whom he hadformerly divorced: he thought also of Lollia Paulina, who had beenmarried to Caius Caesar. But being ensnared by the arts of Agrippina, (320) the daughter of his brother Germanicus, who took advantage of thekisses and endearments which their near relationship admitted, to inflamehis desires, he got some one to propose at the next meeting of thesenate, that they should oblige the emperor to marry Agrippina, as ameasure highly conducive to the public interest; and that in futureliberty should be given for such marriages, which until that time hadbeen considered incestuous. In less than twenty-four hours after this, he married her [531]. No person was found, however, to follow theexample, excepting one freedman, and a centurion of the first rank, atthe solemnization of whose nuptials both he and Agrippina attended. 

XXVII. He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla, Drusus andClaudia; by Paetina, Antonia; and by Messalina, Octavia, and also a son, whom at first he called Germanicus, but afterwards Britannicus. He lostDrusus at Pompeii, when he was very young; he being choked with a pear, which in his play he tossed into the air, and caught in his mouth. Onlya few days before, he had betrothed him to one of Sejanus's daughters[532]; and I am therefore surprised that some authors should say he losthis life by the treachery of Sejanus. Claudia, who was, in truth, thedaughter of Boter his freedman, though she was born five months beforehis divorce, he ordered to be thrown naked at her mother's door. Hemarried Antonia to Cneius Pompey the Great [533], and afterwards toFaustus Sylla [534], both youths of very noble parentage; Octavia to hisstep-son Nero [535], after she had been contracted to Silanus. Britannicus was born upon the twentieth day of his reign, and in hissecond consulship. He often earnestly commended him to the soldiers, holding him in his arms before their ranks; and would likewise show himto the people in the theatre, setting him upon his lap, or holding himout whilst he was still very young; and was sure to receive theiracclamations, and good wishes on his behalf. Of his (321) sons-in-law, he adopted Nero. He not only dismissed from his favour both Pompey andSilanus, but put them to death. 

XXVIII. Amongst his freedmen, the greatest favourite was the eunuchPosides, whom, in his British triumph, he presented with the pointlessspear, classing him among the military men. Next to him, if not equal, in favour was Felix [536], whom he not only preferred to commands both ofcohorts and troops, but to the government of the province of Judaea; andhe became, in consequence of his elevation, the husband of three queens[537]. Another favourite was Harpocras, to whom he granted the privilegeof being carried in a litter within the city, and of holding publicspectacles for the entertainment of the people. In this class waslikewise Polybius, who assisted him in his studies, and had often thehonour of walking between the two consuls. But above all others, Narcissus, his secretary, and Pallas [538], the comptroller of hisaccounts, were in high favour with him. He not only allowed them toreceive, by decree of the senate, immense presents, but also to bedecorated with the quaestorian and praetorian ensigns of honour. So muchdid he indulge them in amassing wealth, and plundering the public, that, upon his complaining, once, of the lowness of his exchequer, some onesaid, with great reason, that "It would be full enough, if those twofreedmen of his would but take him into partnership with them. "

XXIX. Being entirely governed by these freedmen, and, as I have alreadysaid, by his wives, he was a tool to others, rather than a prince. Hedistributed offices, or the command of armies, pardoned or punished, according as it suited their interests, (322) their passions, or theircaprice; and for the most part, without knowing, or being sensible ofwhat he did. Not to enter into minute details relative to the revocationof grants, the reversal of judicial decisions, obtaining his signature tofictitious appointments, or the bare-faced alteration of them aftersigning; he put to death Appius Silanus, the father of his son-in-law, and the two Julias, the daughters of Drusus and Germanicus, without anypositive proof of the crimes with which they were charged, or so much aspermitting them to make any defence. He also cut off Cneius Pompey, thehusband of his eldest daughter; and Lucius Silanus, who was betrothed tothe younger Pompey, was stabbed in the act of unnatural lewdness with afavourite paramour. Silanus was obliged to quit the office of praetorupon the fourth of the calends of January [29th Dec. ], and to killhimself on new year's day [539] following, the very same on whichClaudius and Agrippina were married. He condemned to death five andthirty senators, and above three hundred Roman knights, with so littleattention to what he did, that when a centurion brought him word of theexecution of a man of consular rank, who was one of the number, and toldhim that he had executed his order, he declared, "he had ordered no suchthing, but that he approved of it;" because his freedmen, it seems, hadsaid, that the soldiers did nothing more than their duty, in dispatchingthe emperor's enemies without waiting for a warrant. But it is beyondall belief, that he himself, at the marriage of Messalina with theadulterous Silius, should actually sign the writings relative to herdowry; induced, as it is pretended, by the design of diverting fromhimself and transferring upon another the danger which some omens seemedto threaten him. 

XXX. Either standing or sitting, but especially when he lay asleep, hehad a majestic and graceful appearance; for he was tall, but not slender. His grey looks became him well, and he had a full neck. But his kneeswere feeble, and failed him in walking, so that his gait was ungainly, both when he assumed state, and when he was taking diversion. He wasoutrageous in his laughter, and still more so in his wrath, for then hefoamed at the mouth, and discharged from his nostrils. He also stammeredin his speech, and had a tremulous motion (323) of the head at all times, but particularly when he was engaged in any business, however trifling. 

XXXI. Though his health was very infirm during the former part of hislife, yet, after he became emperor, he enjoyed a good state of health, except only that he was subject to a pain of the stomach. In a fit ofthis complaint, he said he had thoughts of killing himself. 

XXXII. He gave entertainments as frequent as they were splendid, andgenerally when there was such ample room, that very often six hundredguests sat down together. At a feast he gave on the banks of the canalfor draining the Fucine Lake, he narrowly escaped being drowned, thewater at its discharge rushing out with such violence, that it overflowedthe conduit. At supper he had always his own children, with those ofseveral of the nobility, who, according to an ancient custom, sat at thefeet of the couches. One of his guests having been suspected ofpurloining a golden cup, he invited him again the next day, but servedhim with a porcelain jug. It is said, too, that he intended to publishan edict, "allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table toany distension occasioned by flatulence, " upon hearing of a person whosemodesty, when under restraint, had nearly cost him his life. 

XXXIII. He was always ready to eat and drink at any time or in anyplace. One day, as he was hearing causes in the Forum of Augustus, hesmelt the dinner which was preparing for the Salii [540], in the templeof Mars adjoining, whereupon he quitted (324) the tribunal, and went topartake of the feast with the priests. 

He scarcely ever left the table until he had thoroughly crammed himselfand drank to intoxication; and then he would immediately fall asleep, lying upon his back with his mouth open. While in this condition, afeather was put down his throat, to make him throw up the contents of hisstomach. Upon composing himself to rest, his sleep was short, and heusually awoke before midnight; but he would sometimes sleep in thedaytime, and that, even, when he was upon the tribunal; so that theadvocates often found it difficult to wake him, though they raised theirvoices for that purpose. He set no bounds to his libidinous intercoursewith women, but never betrayed any unnatural desires for the other sex. He was fond of gaming, and published a book upon the subject. He evenused to play as he rode in his chariot, having the tables so fitted, thatthe game was not disturbed by the motion of the carriage. 

XXXIV. His cruel and sanguinary disposition was exhibited upon great aswell as trifling occasions. When any person was to be put to thetorture, or criminal punished for parricide, he was impatient for theexecution, and would have it performed in his own presence. When he wasat Tibur, being desirous of seeing an example of the old way of puttingmalefactors to death, some were immediately bound to a stake for thepurpose; but there being no executioner to be had at the place, he sentfor one from Rome, and waited for his coming until night. In anyexhibition of gladiators, presented either by himself or others, if anyof the combatants chanced to fall, he ordered them to be butchered, especially the Retiarii, that he might see their faces in the agonies ofdeath. Two gladiators happening to kill each other, he immediatelyordered some little knives to be made of their swords for his own use. He took great pleasure in seeing men engage with wild beasts, and thecombatants who appeared on the stage at noon. He would therefore come tothe theatre by break of day, and at noon, dismissing the people todinner, continued sitting himself; and besides those who were devoted tothat sanguinary fate, he would match others with the beasts, upon slightor sudden occasions; as, for instance, the carpenters and their (326)assistants, and people of that sort, if a machine, or any piece of workin which they had been employed about the theatre did not answer thepurpose for which it had been intended. To this desperate kind ofencounter he forced one of his nomenclators, even encumbered as he was bywearing the toga. 

XXXV. But the characteristics most predominant in him were fear anddistrust. In the beginning of his reign, though he much affected amodest and humble appearance, as has been already observed, yet he durstnot venture himself at an entertainment without being attended by a guardof spearmen, and made soldiers wait upon him at table instead ofservants. He never visited a sick person, until the chamber had beenfirst searched, and the bed and bedding thoroughly examined. At othertimes, all persons who came to pay their court to him were strictlysearched by officers appointed for that purpose; nor was it until after along time, and with much difficulty, that he was prevailed upon to excusewomen, boys, and girls from such rude handling, or suffer theirattendants or writing-masters to retain their cases for pens and styles. When Camillus formed his plot against him, not doubting but his timiditymight be worked upon without a war, he wrote to him a scurrilous, petulant, and threatening letter, desiring him to resign the government, and betake himself to a life of privacy. Upon receiving thisrequisition, he had some thoughts of complying with it, and summonedtogether the principal men of the city, to consult with them on thesubject. 

XXXVI. Having heard some loose reports of conspiracies formed againsthim, he was so much alarmed, that he thought of immediately abdicatingthe government. And when, as I have before related, a man armed with adagger was discovered near him while he was sacrificing, he instantlyordered the heralds to convoke the senate, and with tears and dismalexclamations, lamented that such was his condition, that he was safe nowhere; and for a long time afterwards he abstained from appearing inpublic. He smothered his ardent love for Messalina, not so much onaccount of her infamous conduct, as from apprehension of danger;believing that she aspired to share with Silius, her partner in adultery, the imperial dignity. (326) Upon this occasion he ran in a great fright, and a very shameful manner, to the camp, asking all the way he went, "ifthe empire were indeed safely his?"

XXXVII. No suspicion was too trifling, no person on whom it rested toocontemptible, to throw him into a panic, and induce him to takeprecautions for his safety, and meditate revenge. A man engaged in alitigation before his tribunal, having saluted him, drew him aside, andtold him he had dreamt that he saw him murdered; and shortly afterwards, when his adversary came to deliver his plea to the emperor, theplaintiff, pretending to have discovered the murderer, pointed to him asthe man he had seen in his dream; whereupon, as if he had been taken inthe act, he was hurried away to execution. We are informed, that AppiusSilanus was got rid of in the same manner, by a contrivance betwixtMessalina and Narcissus, in which they had their several parts assignedthem. Narcissus therefore burst into his lord's chamber before daylight, apparently in great fright, and told him that he had dreamt that AppiusSilanus had murdered him. The empress, upon this, affecting greatsurprise, declared she had the like dream for several nightssuccessively. Presently afterwards, word was brought, as it had beenagreed on, that Appius was come, he having, indeed, received orders thepreceding day to be there at that time; and, as if the truth of the dreamwas sufficiently confirmed by his appearance at that juncture, he wasimmediately ordered to be prosecuted and put to death. The dayfollowing, Claudius related the whole affair to the senate, andacknowledged his great obligation to his freedmen for watching over himeven in his sleep. 

XXXVIII. Sensible of his being subject to passion and resentment, heexcused himself in both instances by a proclamation, assuring the publicthat "the former should be short and harmless, and the latter neverwithout good cause. " After severely reprimanding the people of Ostia fornot sending some boats to meet him upon his entering the mouth of theTiber, in terms which might expose them to the public resentment, hewrote to Rome that he had been treated as a private person; yetimmediately afterwards he pardoned them, and that in a way which had theappearance of making them (327) satisfaction, or begging pardon for someinjury he had done them. Some people who addressed him unseasonably inpublic, he pushed away with his own hand. He likewise banished a personwho had been secretary to a quaestor, and even a senator who had filledthe office of praetor, without a hearing, and although they wereinnocent; the former only because he had treated him with rudeness whilehe was in a private station, and the other, because in his aedileship hehad fined some tenants of his, for selling cooked victuals contrary tolaw, and ordered his steward, who interfered, to be whipped. On thisaccount, likewise, he took from the aediles the jurisdiction they hadover cooks'-shops. He did not scruple to speak of his own absurdities, and declared in some short speeches which he published, that he had onlyfeigned imbecility in the reign of Caius, because otherwise it would havebeen impossible for him to have escaped and arrived at the station he hadthen attained. He could not, however, gain credit for this assertion;for a short time afterwards, a book was published under the title ofMoron anastasis, "The Resurrection of Fools, " the design of which was toshow "that nobody ever counterfeited folly. "

XXXIX. Amongst other things, people admired in him his indifference andunconcern; or, to express it in Greek, his meteoria and ablepsia. Placing himself at table a little after Messalina's death, he enquired, "Why the empress did not come?" Many of those whom he had condemned todeath, he ordered the day after to be invited to his table, and to gamewith him, and sent to reprimand them as sluggish fellows for not makinggreater haste. When he was meditating his incestuous marriage withAgrippina, he was perpetually calling her, "My daughter, my nursling, born and brought up upon my lap. " And when he was going to adopt Nero, as if there was little cause for censure in his adopting a son-in-law, when he had a son of his own arrived at years of maturity; he continuallygave out in public, "that no one had ever been admitted by adoption intothe Claudian family. "

XL. He frequently appeared so careless in what he said, and soinattentive to circumstances, that it was believed he never reflected whohe himself was, or amongst whom, or at (328) what time, or in what place, he spoke. In a debate in the senate relative to the butchers andvintners, he cried out, "I ask you, who can live without a bit of meat?"And mentioned the great plenty of old taverns, from which he himself usedformerly to have his wine. Among other reasons for his supporting acertain person who was candidate for the quaestorship, he gave this: "Hisfather, " said he, "once gave me, very seasonably, a draught of cold waterwhen I was sick. " Upon his bringing a woman as a witness in some causebefore the senate, he said, "This woman was my mother's freedwoman anddresser, but she always considered me as her master; and this I say, because there are some still in my family that do not look upon me assuch. " The people of Ostia addressing him in open court with a petition, he flew into a rage at them, and said, "There is no reason why I shouldoblige you: if any one else is free to act as he pleases, surely I am. "The following expressions he had in his mouth every day, and at all hoursand seasons: "What! do you take me for a Theogonius?" [541] And in Greeklalei kai mae thingane, "Speak, but do not touch me;" besides many otherfamiliar sentences, below the dignity of a private person, much more ofan emperor, who was not deficient either in eloquence or learning, ashaving applied himself very closely to the liberal sciences. 

XLI. By the encouragement of Titus Livius [542], and with the assistanceof Sulpicius Flavus, he attempted at an early age the composition of ahistory; and having called together a numerous auditory, to hear and givetheir judgment upon it, he read it over with much difficulty, andfrequently interrupting himself. For after he had begun, a great laughwas raised amongst the company, by the breaking of several benches fromthe weight of a very fat man; and even when order was restored, he couldnot forbear bursting out into violent fits of laughter, at theremembrance of the accident. After he became emperor, likewise, he wroteseveral things (329) which he was careful to have recited to his friendsby a reader. He commenced his history from the death of the dictatorCaesar; but afterwards he took a later period, and began at theconclusion of the civil wars; because he found he could not speak withfreedom, and a due regard to truth, concerning the former period, havingbeen often taken to task both by his mother and grandmother. Of theearlier history he left only two books, but of the latter, one and forty. He compiled likewise the "History of his Own Life, " in eight books, fullof absurdities, but in no bad style; also, "A Defence of Cicero againstthe Books of Asinius Gallus, " [543] which exhibited a considerable degreeof learning. He besides invented three new letters, and added them tothe former alphabet [544], as highly necessary. He published a book torecommend them while he was yet only a private person; but on hiselevation to imperial power he had little difficulty in introducing theminto common use; and these letters are still extant in a variety ofbooks, registers, and inscriptions upon buildings. 

XLII. He applied himself with no less attention to the study of Grecianliterature, asserting upon all occasions his love of that language, andits surpassing excellency. A stranger once holding a discourse both inGreek and Latin, he addressed him thus; "Since you are skilled in bothour tongues. " And recommending Achaia to the favour of the senate, hesaid, "I have a particular attachment to that province, on account of ourcommon studies. " In the senate he often made long replies to ambassadorsin that language. On the tribunal he frequently quoted the verses ofHomer. When at any time he had taken vengeance on an enemy or aconspirator, he scarcely ever gave to the tribune on guard, who, (330)according to custom, came for the word, any other than this. 

 Andr' epamynastai, ote tis proteros chalepaenae. 'Tis time to strike when wrong demands the blow. 

To conclude, he wrote some histories likewise in Greek, namely, twentybooks on Tuscan affairs, and eight on the Carthaginian; in consequence ofwhich, another museum was founded at Alexandria, in addition to the oldone, and called after his name; and it was ordered, that, upon certaindays in every year, his Tuscan history should be read over in one ofthese, and his Carthaginian in the other, as in a school; each historybeing read through by persons who took it in turn. 

XLIII. Towards the close of his life, he gave some manifest indicationsthat he repented of his marriage with Agrippina, and his adoption ofNero. For some of his freedmen noticing with approbation his havingcondemned, the day before, a woman accused of adultery, he remarked, "Ithas been my misfortune to have wives who have been unfaithful to my bed;but they did not escape punishment. " Often, when he happened to meetBritannicus, he would embrace him tenderly, and express a desire "that hemight grow apace, " and receive from him an account of all his actions:using the Greek phrase, "o trosas kai iasetai, --He who has wounded willalso heal. " And intending to give him the manly habit, while he was yetunder age and a tender youth, because his stature would allow of it, headded, "I do so, that the Roman people may at last have a real Caesar. "[545]

XLIV. Soon afterwards he made his will, and had it signed by all themagistrates as witnesses. But he was prevented from proceeding furtherby Agrippina, accused by her own guilty conscience, as well as byinformers, of a variety of crimes. It is agreed that he was taken off bypoison; but where, and by whom administered, remains in uncertainty. Some authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with thepriests in the Capitol, by the eunuch Halotus, his taster. Others say(331) by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which hewas very fond [546]. The accounts of what followed likewise differ. Some relate that he instantly became speechless, was racked with painthrough the night, and died about day-break; others, that at first hefell into a sound sleep, and afterwards, his food rising, he threw up thewhole; but had another dose given him; whether in water-gruel, underpretence of refreshment after his exhaustion, or in a clyster, as ifdesigned to relieve his bowels, is likewise uncertain. 

XLV. His death was kept secret until everything was settled relative tohis successor. Accordingly, vows were made for his recovery, andcomedians were called to amuse him, as it was pretended, by his owndesire. He died upon the third of the ides of October [13th October], inthe consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in thesixty-fourth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign [547]. Hisfuneral was celebrated with the customary imperial pomp, and he wasranked amongst the gods. This honour was taken from him by Nero, butrestored by Vespasian. 

XLVI. The chief presages of his death were, the appearance of a comet, his father Drusus's monument being struck by lightning, and the death ofmost of the magistrates of all ranks that year. It appears from severalcircumstances, that he was sensible of his approaching dissolution, andmade no secret of it. For when he nominated the consuls, he appointed noone to fill the office beyond the month in which he died. At the lastassembly of the senate in which he made his appearance, he earnestlyexhorted his two sons to unity with each other, and with earnestentreaties commended to the fathers the care of their tender years. Andin the last cause he heard from the tribunal, he repeatedly declared inopen court, "That he was now arrived at the last stage of mortalexistence;" whilst all who heard it shrunk at hearing these ominouswords. 

 * * * * * *

The violent death of Caligula afforded the Romans a fresh opportunity tohave asserted the liberty of their country; but the conspirators hadconcerted no plan, by which they should proceed upon the assassination ofthat tyrant; and the indecision of the senate, in a debate of two days, on so sudden an emergency, gave time to the caprice of the soldiers tointerpose in the settlement of the government. By an accident the mostfortuitous, a man devoid of all pretensions to personal merit, so weak inunderstanding as to be the common sport of the emperor's household, andan object of contempt even to his own kindred; this man, in the hour ofmilitary insolence, was nominated by the soldiers as successor to theRoman throne. Not yet in possession of the public treasury, whichperhaps was exhausted, he could not immediately reward the services ofhis electors with a pecuniary gratification; but he promised them alargess of fifteen thousand sesterces a man, upwards of a hundred andforty pounds sterling; and as we meet with no account of any subsequentdiscontents in the army, we may justly conclude that the promise was soonafter fulfilled. This transaction laid the foundation of that militarydespotism, which, through many succeeding ages, convulsed the Romanempire. 

Besides the interposition of the soldiers upon this occasion, it appearsthat the populace of Rome were extremely clamorous for the government ofa single person, and for that of Claudius in particular. This partialityfor a monarchical government proceeded from two causes. The commonalty, from their obscure situation, were always the least exposed tooppression, under a tyrannical prince. They had likewise ever beenremarkably fond of stage-plays and public shows, with which, as well aswith scrambles, and donations of bread and other victuals, the precedingemperor had frequently gratified them. They had therefore less to fear, and more to hope, from the government of a single person than any otherclass of Roman citizens. With regard to the partiality for Claudius, itmay be accounted for partly from the low habits of life to which he hadbeen addicted, in consequence of which many of them were familiarlyacquainted with him; and this circumstance likewise increased their hopeof deriving some advantage from his accession. Exclusive of all theseconsiderations, it is highly probable that the populace were instigatedin favour of Claudius by the artifices of his freedmen, persons of meanextraction, by whom he was afterwards entirely governed, and who, uponsuch an occasion, would exert their utmost efforts to procure hisappointment to the throne. From the debate in the senate havingcontinued during (333) two days, it was evident that there was still astrong party for restoring the ancient form of government. That theywere in the end overawed by the clamour of the multitude, is notsurprising, when we consider that the senate was totally unprovided withresources of every kind for asserting the independence of the nation byarms; and the commonalty, who interrupted their deliberations, were theonly people by whose assistance they ever could effect the restitution ofpublic freedom. To this may be added, that the senate, by the totalreduction of their political importance, ever since the overthrow of therepublic, had lost both the influence and authority which they formerlyenjoyed. The extreme cruelty, likewise, which had been exercised duringthe last two reigns, afforded a further motive for relinquishing allattempts in favour of liberty, as they might be severely revenged uponthemselves by the subsequent emperor: and it was a degree of moderationin Claudius, which palliates the injustice of his cause, that he beganhis government with an act of amnesty respecting the public transactionswhich ensued upon the death of Caligula. 

Claudius, at the time of his accession, was fifty years of age; andthough he had hitherto lived apparently unambitious of public honours, accompanied with great ostentation, yet he was now seized with a desireto enjoy a triumph. As there existed no war, in which he might performsome military achievement, his vanity could only be gratified by invadinga foreign country, where, contrary to the advice contained in thetestament of Augustus, he might attempt to extend still further thelimits of the empire. Either Britain, therefore, or some nation on thecontinent, at a great distance from the capital, became the object ofsuch an enterprize; and the former was chosen, not only as moreconvenient, from its vicinity to the maritime province of Gaul, but onaccount of a remonstrance lately presented by the Britons to the court ofRome, respecting the protection afforded to some persons of that nation, who had fled thither to elude the laws of their country. Considering thestate of Britain at that time, divided as it was into a number ofprincipalities, amongst which there was no general confederacy for mutualdefence, and where the alarm excited by the invasion of Julius Caesar, upwards of eighty years before, had long since been forgotten; a suddenattempt upon the island could not fail to be attended with success. Accordingly, an army was sent over, under the command of Aulus Plautius, an able general, who defeated the natives in several engagements, andpenetrated a considerable way into the country. Preparations for theemperor's voyage now being made, Claudius set sail from Ostia, at themouth of (334) the Tiber; but meeting with a violent storm in theMediterranean, he landed at Marseilles, and proceeding thence to Boulognein Picardy, passed over into Britain. In what part he debarked, isuncertain, but it seems to have been at some place on the south-eastcoast of the island. He immediately received the submission of severalBritish states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, whoinhabited those parts; and returning to Rome, after an absence of sixmonths, celebrated with great pomp the triumph, for which he hadundertaken the expedition. 

In the interior parts of Britain, the natives, under the command ofCaractacus, maintained an obstinate resistance, and little progress wasmade by the Roman arms, until Ostorius Scapula was sent over to prosecutethe war. He penetrated into the country of the Silures, a warlike tribe, who inhabited the banks of the Severn; and having defeated Caractacus ina great battle, made him prisoner, and sent him to Rome. The fame of theBritish prince had by this time spread over the provinces of Gaul andItaly; and upon his arrival in the Roman capital, the people flocked fromall quarters to behold him. The ceremonial of his entrance was conductedwith great solemnity. On a plain adjoining the Roman camp, the pretoriantroops were drawn up in martial array: the emperor and his court tooktheir station in front of the lines, and behind them was ranged the wholebody of the people. The procession commenced with the different trophieswhich had been taken from the Britons during the progress of the war. Next followed the brothers of the vanquished prince, with his wife anddaughter, in chains, expressing by their supplicating looks and gesturesthe fears with which they were actuated. But not so Caractacus himself. With a manly gait and an undaunted countenance, he marched up to thetribunal, where the emperor was seated, and addressed him in thefollowing terms:

"If to my high birth and distinguished rank, I had added the virtues ofmoderation, Rome had beheld me rather as a friend than a captive; and youwould not have rejected an alliance with a prince, descended fromillustrious ancestors, and governing many nations. The reverse of myfortune to you is glorious, and to me humiliating. I had arms, and men, and horses; I possessed extraordinary riches; and can it be any wonderthat I was unwilling to lose them? Because Rome aspires to universaldominion, must men therefore implicitly resign themselves to subjection?I opposed for a long time the progress of your arms, and had I actedotherwise, would either you have had the glory of conquest, or I of abrave resistance? I am now in your (335) power: if you are determined totake revenge, my fate will soon be forgotten, and you will derive nohonour from the transaction. Preserve my life, and I shall remain to thelatest ages a monument of your clemency. "

Immediately upon this speech, Claudius granted him his liberty, as he didlikewise to the other royal captives. They all returned their thanks ina manner the most grateful to the emperor; and as soon as their chainswere taken off, walking towards Agrippina, who sat upon a bench at alittle distance, they repeated to her the same fervent declarations ofgratitude and esteem. 

History has preserved no account of Caractacus after this period; but itis probable, that he returned in a short time to his own country, wherehis former valour, and the magnanimity, which he had displayed at Rome, would continue to render him illustrious through life, even amidst theirretrievable ruin of his fortunes. 

The most extraordinary character in the present reign was that of ValeriaMessalina, the daughter of Valerius Messala Barbatus. She was married toClaudius, and had by him a son and a daughter. To cruelty in theprosecution of her purposes, she added the most abandoned incontinence. Not confining her licentiousness within the limits of the palace, whereshe committed the most shameful excesses, she prostituted her person inthe common stews, and even in the public streets of the capital. As ifher conduct was already not sufficiently scandalous, she obliged C. Silius, a man of consular rank, to divorce his wife, that she mightprocure his company entirely to herself. Not contented with thisindulgence to her criminal passion, she next persuaded him to marry her;and during an excursion which the emperor made to Ostia, the ceremony ofmarriage was actually performed between them. The occasion wascelebrated with a magnificent supper, to which she invited a largecompany; and lest the whole should be regarded as a frolic, not meant tobe consummated, the adulterous parties ascended the nuptial couch in thepresence of the astonished spectators. Great as was the facility ofClaudius's temper in respect of her former behaviour, he could notoverlook so flagrant a violation both of public decency and the laws ofthe country. Silius was condemned to death for the adultery which he hadperpetrated with reluctance; and Messalina was ordered into the emperor'spresence, to answer for her conduct. Terror now operating upon her mindin conjunction with remorse, she could not summon the resolution tosupport such an interview, but retired into the gardens of Lucullus, there to indulge at last the compunction which she felt for her crimes, and to meditate the entreaties by which she should endeavour to soothethe resentment (336) of her husband. In the extremity of her distress, she attempted to lay violent hands upon herself, but her courage was notequal to the emergency. Her mother, Lepida, who had not spoken with herfor some years before, was present upon the occasion, and urged her tothe act which alone could put a period to her infamy and wretchedness. Again she made an effort, but again her resolution abandoned her; when atribune burst into the gardens, and plunging his sword into her body, sheinstantly expired. Thus perished a woman, the scandal of whose lewdnessresounded throughout the empire, and of whom a great satirist, thenliving, has said, perhaps without a hyperbole, Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit. --Juvenal, Sat. VI. 

It has been already observed, that Claudius was entirely governed by hisfreedmen; a class of retainers which enjoyed a great share of favour andconfidence with their patrons in those times. They had before been theslaves of their masters, and had obtained their freedom as a reward fortheir faithful and attentive services. Of the esteem in which they wereoften held, we meet with an instance in Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, towhom that illustrious Roman addresses several epistles, written in themost familiar and affectionate strain of friendship. As it was commonfor them to be taught the more useful parts of education in the familiesof their masters, they were usually well qualified for the management ofdomestic concerns, and might even be competent to the superiordepartments of the state, especially in those times when negotiations andtreaties with foreign princes seldom or never occurred; and in arbitrarygovernments, where public affairs were directed more by the will of thesovereign or his ministers, than by refined suggestions of policy. 

From the character generally given of Claudius before his elevation tothe throne, we should not readily imagine that he was endowed with anytaste for literary composition; yet he seems to have exclusively enjoyedthis distinction during his own reign, in which learning was at a lowebb. Besides history, Suetonius informs us that he wrote a Defence ofCicero against the Charges of Asinius Gallus. This appears to be theonly tribute of esteem or approbation paid to the character of Cicero, from the time of Livy the historian, to the extinction of the race of theCaesars. Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the orator. Marrying Vipsania after she had been divorced by Tiberius, he incurredthe displeasure of that emperor, and died of famine, either voluntarily, or by order of the tyrant. He wrote a comparison between his father andCicero, in which, with more filial partiality than justice, he gave thepreference to the former. 

NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 

(337)

I. Two celebrated families, the Calvini and Aenobarbi, sprung from therace of the Domitii. The Aenobarbi derive both their extraction andtheir cognomen from one Lucius Domitius, of whom we have this tradition:--As he was returning out of the country to Rome, he was met by two youngmen of a most august appearance, who desired him to announce to thesenate and people a victory, of which no certain intelligence had yetreached the city. To prove that they were more than mortals, theystroked his cheeks, and thus changed his hair, which was black, to abright colour, resembling that of brass; which mark of distinctiondescended to his posterity, for they had generally red beards. Thisfamily had the honour of seven consulships [548], one triumph [549], andtwo censorships [550]; and being admitted into the patrician order, theycontinued the use of the same cognomen, with no other praenomina [551]than those of Cneius and Lucius. These, however, they assumed withsingular irregularity; three persons in succession sometimes adhering toone of them, and then they were changed alternately. For the first, second, and third of the Aenobarbi had the praenomen of Lucius, and againthe three following, successively, that of Cneius, while those who cameafter were called, by turns, one, Lucius, and the other, Cneius. Itappears to me proper to give a short account of several of the family, toshow that Nero so far degenerated from the noble qualities of hisancestors, that he retained only their vices; as if those alone had beentransmitted to him by his descent. 

II. To begin, therefore, at a remote period, his great-grandfather'sgrandfather, Cneius Domitius, when he was tribune of the people, beingoffended with the high priests for electing another than himself in theroom of his father, obtained the (338) transfer of the right of electionfrom the colleges of the priests to the people. In his consulship [552], having conquered the Allobroges and the Arverni [553], he made a progressthrough the province, mounted upon an elephant, with a body of soldiersattending him, in a sort of triumphal pomp. Of this person the oratorLicinius Crassus said, "It was no wonder he had a brazen beard, who had aface of iron, and a heart of lead. " His son, during his praetorship[554], proposed that Cneius Caesar, upon the expiration of hisconsulship, should be called to account before the senate for hisadministration of that office, which was supposed to be contrary both tothe omens and the laws. Afterwards, when he was consul himself [555], hetried to deprive Cneius of the command of the army, and having been, byintrigue and cabal, appointed his successor, he was made prisoner atCorsinium, in the beginning of the civil war. Being set at liberty, hewent to Marseilles, which was then besieged; where having, by hispresence, animated the people to hold out, he suddenly deserted them, andat last was slain in the battle of Pharsalia. He was a man of littleconstancy, and of a sullen temper. In despair of his fortunes, he hadrecourse to poison, but was so terrified at the thoughts of death, that, immediately repenting, he took a vomit to throw it up again, and gavefreedom to his physician for having, with great prudence and wisdom, given him only a gentle dose of the poison. When Cneius Pompey wasconsulting with his friends in what manner he should conduct himselftowards those who were neuter and took no part in the contest, he was theonly one who proposed that they should be treated as enemies. 

III. He left a son, who was, without doubt, the best of the family. Bythe Pedian law, he was condemned, although innocent, amongst others whowere concerned in the death of Caesar [556]. Upon this, he went over toBrutus and Cassius, his near relations; and, after their death, not onlykept together the fleet, the command of which had been given him sometime before, but even increased it. At last, when the party hadeverywhere been defeated, he voluntarily surrendered it to (339) MarkAntony; considering it as a piece of service for which the latter owedhim no small obligations. Of all those who were condemned by the lawabove-mentioned, he was the only man who was restored to his country, andfilled the highest offices. When the civil war again broke out, he wasappointed lieutenant under the same Antony, and offered the chief commandby those who were ashamed of Cleopatra; but not daring, on account of asudden indisposition with which he was seized, either to accept or refuseit, he went over to Augustus [557], and died a few days after, notwithout an aspersion cast upon his memory. For Antony gave out, that hewas induced to change sides by his impatience to be with his mistress, Servilia Nais. [558]

IV. This Cneius had a son, named Domitius, who was afterwards well knownas the nominal purchaser of the family property left by Augustus's will[559]; and no less famous in his youth for his dexterity inchariot-driving, than he was afterwards for the triumphal ornaments whichhe obtained in the German war. But he was a man of great arrogance, prodigality, and cruelty. When he was aedile, he obliged Lucius Plancus, the censor, to give him the way; and in his praetorship, and consulship, he made Roman knights and married women act on the stage. He gave huntsof wild beasts, both in the Circus and in all the wards of the city; asalso a show of gladiators; but with such barbarity, that Augustus, afterprivately reprimanding him, to no purpose, was obliged to restrain him bya public edict. 

V. By the elder Antonia he had Nero's father, a man of execrablecharacter in every part of his life. During his attendance upon CaiusCaesar in the East, he killed a freedman of his own, for refusing todrink as much as he ordered him. Being dismissed for this from Caesar'ssociety, he did not mend his habits; for, in a village upon the Appianroad, he suddenly whipped his horses, and drove his chariot, on purpose, (340) over a poor boy, crushing him to pieces. At Rome, he struck outthe eye of a Roman knight in the Forum, only for some free language in adispute between them. He was likewise so fraudulent, that he not onlycheated some silversmiths [560] of the price of goods he had bought ofthem, but, during his praetorship, defrauded the owners of chariots inthe Circensian games of the prizes due to them for their victory. Hissister, jeering him for the complaints made by the leaders of the severalparties, he agreed to sanction a law, "That, for the future, the prizesshould be immediately paid. " A little before the death of Tiberius, hewas prosecuted for treason, adulteries, and incest with his sisterLepida, but escaped in the timely change of affairs, and died of adropsy, at Pyrgi [561]; leaving behind him his son, Nero, whom he had byAgrippina, the daughter of Germanicus. 

VI. Nero was born at Antium, nine months after the death of Tiberius[562], upon the eighteenth of the calends of January [15th December], just as the sun rose, so that its beams touched him before they couldwell reach the earth. While many fearful conjectures, in respect to hisfuture fortune, were formed by different persons, from the circumstancesof his nativity, a saying of his father, Domitius, was regarded as an illpresage, who told his friends who were congratulating him upon theoccasion, "That nothing but what was detestable, and pernicious to thepublic, could ever be produced of him and Agrippina. " Another manifestprognostic of his future infelicity occurred upon his lustration day[563]. For Caius Caesar being requested by his sister to give the childwhat name he thought proper--looking at his uncle, Claudius, who (341)afterwards, when emperor, adopted Nero, he gave his: and this notseriously, but only in jest; Agrippina treating it with contempt, becauseClaudius at that time was a mere laughing-stock at the palace. He losthis father when he was three years old, being left heir to a third partof his estate; of which he never got possession, the whole being seizedby his co-heir, Caius. His mother being soon after banished, he livedwith his aunt Lepida, in a very necessitous condition, under the care oftwo tutors, a dancing-master and a barber. After Claudius came to theempire, he not only recovered his father's estate, but was enriched withthe additional inheritance of that of his step-father, Crispus Passienus. Upon his mother's recall from banishment, he was advanced to such favour, through Nero's powerful interest with the emperor, that it was reported, assassins were employed by Messalina, Claudius's wife, to strangle him, as Britannicus's rival, whilst he was taking his noon-day repose. Inaddition to the story, it was said that they were frightened by aserpent, which crept from under his cushion, and ran away. The tale wasoccasioned by finding on his couch, near the pillow, the skin of a snake, which, by his mother's order, he wore for some time upon his right arm, inclosed in a bracelet of gold. This amulet, at last, he laid aside, from aversion to her memory; but he sought for it again, in vain, in thetime of his extremity. 

VII. When he was yet a mere boy, before he arrived at the age ofpuberty, during the celebration of the Circensian games [564], heperformed his part in the Trojan play with a degree of firmness whichgained him great applause. In the eleventh year of his age, he wasadopted by Claudius, and placed under the tuition of Annaeus Seneca[565], who had been made a senator. It is said, that Seneca dreamt thenight after, that he was giving a lesson to Caius Caesar [566]. Nerosoon verified his dream, betraying the cruelty of his disposition inevery way he could. For he attempted to persuade his father that hisbrother, Britannicus, was nothing but a changeling, because the latterhad (342) saluted him, notwithstanding his adoption, by the name ofAenobarbus, as usual. When his aunt, Lepida, was brought to trial, heappeared in court as a witness against her, to gratify his mother, whopersecuted the accused. On his introduction into the Forum, at the ageof manhood, he gave a largess to the people and a donative to thesoldiers: for the pretorian cohorts, he appointed a solemn processionunder arms, and marched at the head of them with a shield in his hand;after which he went to return thanks to his father in the senate. BeforeClaudius, likewise, at the time he was consul, he made a speech for theBolognese, in Latin, and for the Rhodians and people of Ilium, in Greek. He had the jurisdiction of praefect of the city, for the first time, during the Latin festival; during which the most celebrated advocatesbrought before him, not short and trifling causes, as is usual in thatcase, but trials of importance, notwithstanding they had instructionsfrom Claudius himself to the contrary. Soon afterwards, he marriedOctavia, and exhibited the Circensian games, and hunting of wild beasts, in honour of Claudius. 

VIII. He was seventeen years of age at the death of that prince [567], and as soon as that event was made public, he went out to the cohort onguard between the hours of six and seven; for the omens were sodisastrous, that no earlier time of the day was judged proper. On thesteps before the palace gate, he was unanimously saluted by the soldiersas their emperor, and then carried in a litter to the camp; thence, aftermaking a short speech to the troops, into the senate-house, where hecontinued until the evening; of all the immense honours which were heapedupon him, refusing none but the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY, onaccount of his youth, IX. He began his reign with an ostentation of dutiful regard to thememory of Claudius, whom he buried with the utmost pomp and magnificence, pronouncing the funeral oration himself, and then had him enrolledamongst the gods. He paid likewise the highest honours to the memory ofhis father Domitius. He left the management of affairs, both public andprivate, to his mother. The word which he gave the first day of hisreign to the tribune on guard, was, "The (343) Best of Mothers, " andafterwards he frequently appeared with her in the streets of Rome in herlitter. He settled a colony at Antium, in which he placed the veteransoldiers belonging to the guards; and obliged several of the richestcenturions of the first rank to transfer their residence to that place;where he likewise made a noble harbour at a prodigious expense. [568]

X. To establish still further his character, he declared, "that hedesigned to govern according to the model of Augustus;" and omitted noopportunity of showing his generosity, clemency, and complaisance. Themore burthensome taxes he either entirely took off, or diminished. Therewards appointed for informers by the Papian law, he reduced to a fourthpart, and distributed to the people four hundred sesterces a man. To thenoblest of the senators who were much reduced in their circumstances, hegranted annual allowances, in some cases as much as five hundred thousandsesterces; and to the pretorian cohorts a monthly allowance of corngratis. When called upon to subscribe the sentence, according to custom, of a criminal condemned to die, "I wish, " said he, "I had never learnt toread and write. " He continually saluted people of the several orders byname, without a prompter. When the senate returned him their thanks forhis good government, he replied to them, "It will be time enough to do sowhen I shall have deserved it. " He admitted the common people to see himperform his exercises in the Campus Martius. He frequently declaimed inpublic, and recited verses of his own composing, not only at home, but inthe theatre; so much to the joy of all the people, that public prayerswere appointed to be put up to the gods upon that account; and the verseswhich had been publicly read, were, after being written in gold letters, consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus. 

(344) XI. He presented the people with a great number and variety ofspectacles, as the Juvenal and Circensian games, stage-plays, and anexhibition of gladiators. In the Juvenal, he even admitted senators andaged matrons to perform parts. In the Circensian games, he assigned theequestrian order seats apart from the rest of the people, and had racesperformed by chariots drawn each by four camels. In the games which heinstituted for the eternal duration of the empire, and therefore orderedto be called Maximi, many of the senatorian and equestrian order, of bothsexes, performed. A distinguished Roman knight descended on the stage bya rope, mounted on an elephant. A Roman play, likewise, composed byAfranius, was brought upon the stage. It was entitled, "The Fire;" andin it the performers were allowed to carry off, and to keep tothemselves, the furniture of the house, which, as the plot of the playrequired, was burnt down in the theatre. Every day during the solemnity, many thousand articles of all descriptions were thrown amongst the peopleto scramble for; such as fowls of different kinds, tickets for corn, clothes, gold, silver, gems, pearls, pictures, slaves, beasts of burden, wild beasts that had been tamed; at last, ships, lots of houses, andlands, were offered as prizes in a lottery. 

XII. These games he beheld from the front of the proscenium. In theshow of gladiators, which he exhibited in a wooden amphitheatre, builtwithin a year in the district of the Campus Martius [569], he orderedthat none should be slain, not even the condemned criminals employed inthe combats. He secured four hundred senators, and six hundred Romanknights, amongst whom were some of unbroken fortunes and unblemishedreputation, to act as gladiators. From the same orders, he engagedpersons to encounter wild beasts, and for various other services in thetheatre. He presented the public with the representation of a navalfight, upon sea-water, with huge fishes swimming in it; as also with thePyrrhic dance, performed by certain youths, to each of whom, after theperformance was over, he granted the freedom of Rome. During thisdiversion, a bull covered Pasiphae, concealed within a wooden statue of acow, as many of the spectators believed. Icarus, upon his first attemptto fly, fell on the stage close to (345) the emperor's pavilion, andbespattered him with blood. For he very seldom presided in the games, but used to view them reclining on a couch, at first through some narrowapertures, but afterwards with the Podium [570] quite open. He was thefirst who instituted [571], in imitation of the Greeks, a trial of skillin the three several exercises of music, wrestling, and horse-racing, tobe performed at Rome every five years, and which he called Neronia. Uponthe dedication of his bath [572] and gymnasium, he furnished the senateand the equestrian order with oil. He appointed as judges of the trialmen of consular rank, chosen by lot, who sat with the praetors. At thistime he went down into the orchestra amongst the senators, and receivedthe crown for the best performance in Latin prose and verse, for whichseveral persons of the greatest merit contended, but they unanimouslyyielded to him. The crown for the best performer on the harp, beinglikewise awarded to him by the judges, he devoutly saluted it, andordered it to be carried to the statue of Augustus. In the gymnasticexercises, which he presented in the Septa, while they were preparing thegreat sacrifice of an ox, he shaved his beard for the first time [573], and putting it up in a casket of gold studded with pearls of great price, consecrated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. He invited the Vestal Virgins tosee the (346) wrestlers perform, because, at Olympia, the priestesses ofCeres are allowed the privilege of witnessing that exhibition. 

XIII. Amongst the spectacles presented by him, the solemn entrance ofTiridates [574] into the city deserves to be mentioned. This personage, who was king of Armenia, he invited to Rome by very liberal promises. But being prevented by unfavourable weather from showing him to thepeople upon the day fixed by proclamation, he took the first opportunitywhich occurred; several cohorts being drawn up under arms, about thetemples in the forum, while he was seated on a curule chair on therostra, in a triumphal dress, amidst the military standards and ensigns. Upon Tiridates advancing towards him, on a stage made shelving for thepurpose, he permitted him to throw himself at his feet, but quicklyraised him with his right hand, and kissed him. The emperor then, at theking's request, took the turban from his head, and replaced it by acrown, whilst a person of pretorian rank proclaimed in Latin the words inwhich the prince addressed the emperor as a suppliant. After thisceremony, the king was conducted to the theatre, where, after renewinghis obeisance, Nero seated him on his right hand. Being then greeted byuniversal acclamation with the title of Emperor, and sending his laurelcrown to the Capitol, Nero shut the temple of the two-faced Janus, asthough there now existed no war throughout the Roman empire. 

XIV. He filled the consulship four times [575]: the first for twomonths, the second and last for six, and the third for four; the twointermediate ones he held successively, but the others after an intervalof some years between them. 

XV. In the administration of justice, he scarcely ever gave his decisionon the pleadings before the next day, and then in writing. His manner ofhearing causes was not to allow any adjournment, but to dispatch them inorder as they stood. When he withdrew to consult his assessors, he didnot debate the matter openly with them; but silently and privatelyreading over their opinions, which they gave separately in writing, (347)he pronounced sentence from the tribunal according to his own view of thecase, as if it was the opinion of the majority. For a long time he wouldnot admit the sons of freedmen into the senate; and those who had beenadmitted by former princes, he excluded from all public offices. Tosupernumerary candidates he gave command in the legions, to comfort themunder the delay of their hopes. The consulship he commonly conferred forsix months; and one of the two consuls dying a little before the first ofJanuary, he substituted no one in his place; disliking what had beenformerly done for Caninius Rebilus on such an occasion, who was consulfor one day only. He allowed the triumphal honours only to those whowere of quaestorian rank, and to some of the equestrian order; andbestowed them without regard to military service. And instead of thequaestors, whose office it properly was, he frequently ordered that theaddresses, which he sent to the senate on certain occasions, should beread by the consuls. 

XVI. He devised a new style of building in the city, ordering piazzas tobe erected before all houses, both in the streets and detached, to givefacilities from their terraces, in case of fire, for preventing it fromspreading; and these he built at his own expense. He likewise designedto extend the city walls as far as Ostia, and bring the sea from thenceby a canal into the old city. Many severe regulations and new orderswere made in his time. A sumptuary law was enacted. Public suppers werelimited to the Sportulae [576]; and victualling-houses restrained fromselling any dressed victuals, except pulse and herbs, whereas before theysold all kinds of meat. He likewise inflicted punishments on theChristians, a sort of people who held a new and impious [577]superstition. 

(348) He forbad the revels of the charioteers, who had long assumed alicence to stroll about, and established for themselves a kind ofprescriptive right to cheat and thieve, making a jest of it. Thepartisans of the rival theatrical performers were banished, as well asthe actors themselves. 

XVII. To prevent forgery, a method was then first invented, of havingwritings bored, run through three times with a thread, and then sealed. It was likewise provided that in wills, the two first pages, with onlythe testator's name upon them, should be presented blank to those whowere to sign them as witnesses; and that no one who wrote a will foranother, should insert any legacy for himself. It was likewise ordainedthat clients should pay their advocates a certain reasonable fee, butnothing for the court, which was to be gratuitous, the charges for itbeing paid out of the public treasury; that causes, the cognizance ofwhich before belonged to the judges of the exchequer, should betransferred to the forum, and the ordinary tribunals; and that allappeals from the judges should be made to the senate. 

XVIII. He never entertained the least ambition or hope of augmenting andextending the frontiers of the empire. On the contrary, he had thoughtsof withdrawing the troops from Britain, and was only restrained from sodoing by the fear of appearing to detract from the glory of his father[578]. All (349) that he did was to reduce the kingdom of Pontus, whichwas ceded to him by Polemon, and also the Alps [579], upon the death ofCottius, into the form of a province. 

XIX. Twice only he undertook any foreign expeditions, one to Alexandria, and the other to Achaia; but he abandoned the prosecution of the formeron the very day fixed for his departure, by being deterred both by illomens, and the hazard of the voyage. For while he was making the circuitof the temples, having seated himself in that of Vesta, when he attemptedto rise, the skirt of his robe stuck fast; and he was instantly seizedwith such a dimness in his eyes, that he could not see a yard before him. In Achaia, he attempted to make a cut through the Isthmus [580]; and, having made a speech encouraging his pretorians to set about the work, ona signal given by sound of trumpet, he first broke ground with a spade, and carried off a basket full of earth upon his shoulders. He madepreparations for an expedition to the Pass of the Caspian mountains[581]; forming a new legion out of his late levies in Italy, of men allsix feet high, which he called the phalanx of Alexander the Great. Thesetransactions, in part unexceptionable, and in part highly commendable, Ihave brought into one view, in order to separate them from the scandalousand criminal part of his conduct, of which I shall now give an account. 

XX. Among the other liberal arts which he was taught in his youth, hewas instructed in music; and immediately after (350) his advancement tothe empire, he sent for Terpnus, a performer upon the harp [582], whoflourished at that time with the highest reputation. Sitting with himfor several days following, as he sang and played after supper, untillate at night, he began by degrees to practise upon the instrumenthimself. Nor did he omit any of those expedients which artists in musicadopt, for the preservation and improvement of their voices. He wouldlie upon his back with a sheet of lead upon his breast, clear his stomachand bowels by vomits and clysters, and forbear the eating of fruits, orfood prejudicial to the voice. Encouraged by his proficiency, though hisvoice was naturally neither loud nor clear, he was desirous of appearingupon the stage, frequently repeating amongst his friends a Greek proverbto this effect: "that no one had any regard for music which they neverheard. " Accordingly, he made his first public appearance at Naples; andalthough the theatre quivered with the sudden shock of an earthquake, hedid not desist, until he had finished the piece of music he had begun. He played and sung in the same place several times, and for several daystogether; taking only now and then a little respite to refresh his voice. Impatient of retirement, it was his custom to go from the bath to thetheatre; and after dining in the orchestra, amidst a crowded assembly ofthe people, he promised them in Greek [583], "that after he had drank alittle, he would give them a tune which would make their ears tingle. "Being highly pleased with the songs that were sung in his praise by someAlexandrians belonging to the fleet just arrived at Naples [584], he sentfor more of the like singers from Alexandria. At the same time, he choseyoung men of the equestrian order, and above five thousand robust youngfellows from the common people, on purpose to learn various kinds ofapplause, called bombi, imbrices, and testae [585], which they were topractise in his favour, whenever he performed. They were (351) dividedinto several parties, and were remarkable for their fine heads of hair, and were extremely well dressed, with rings upon their left hands. Theleaders of these bands had salaries of forty thousand sesterces allowedthem. 

XXI. At Rome also, being extremely proud of his singing, he ordered thegames called Neronia to be celebrated before the time fixed for theirreturn. All now becoming importunate to hear "his heavenly voice, " heinformed them, "that he would gratify those who desired it at thegardens. " But the soldiers then on guard seconding the voice of thepeople, he promised to comply with their request immediately, and withall his heart. He instantly ordered his name to be entered upon the listof musicians who proposed to contend, and having thrown his lot into theurn among the rest, took his turn, and entered, attended by the prefectsof the pretorian cohorts bearing his harp, and followed by the militarytribunes, and several of his intimate friends. After he had taken hisstation, and made the usual prelude, he commanded Cluvius Rufus, a man ofconsular rank, to proclaim in the theatre, that he intended to sing thestory of Niobe. This he accordingly did, and continued it until nearlyten o'clock, but deferred the disposal of the crown, and the remainingpart of the solemnity, until the next year; that he might have morefrequent opportunities of performing. But that being too long, he couldnot refrain from often appearing as a public performer during theinterval. He made no scruple of exhibiting on the stage, even in thespectacles presented to the people by private persons, and was offered byone of the praetors, no less than a million of sesterces for hisservices. He likewise sang tragedies in a mask; the visors of the heroesand gods, as also of the heroines and goddesses, being formed into aresemblance of his own face, and that of any woman he was in love with. Amongst the rest, he sung "Canace in Labour, " [586] "Orestes the Murdererof his Mother, " "Oedipus (352) Blinded, " and "Hercules Mad. " In the lasttragedy, it is said that a young sentinel, posted at the entrance of thestage, seeing him in a prison dress and bound with fetters, as the fableof the play required, ran to his assistance. 

XXII. He had from his childhood an extravagant passion for horses; andhis constant talk was of the Circensian races, notwithstanding it wasprohibited him. Lamenting once, among his fellow-pupils, the case of acharioteer of the green party, who was dragged round the circus at thetail of his chariot, and being reprimanded by his tutor for it, hepretended that he was talking of Hector. In the beginning of his reign, he used to amuse himself daily with chariots drawn by four horses, madeof ivory, upon a table. He attended at all the lesser exhibitions in thecircus, at first privately, but at last openly; so that nobody everdoubted of his presence on any particular day. Nor did he conceal hisdesire to have the number of the prizes doubled; so that the races beingincreased accordingly, the diversion continued until a late hour; theleaders of parties refusing now to bring out their companies for any timeless than the whole day. Upon this, he took a fancy for driving thechariot himself, and that even publicly. Having made his firstexperiment in the gardens, amidst crowds of slaves and other rabble, heat length performed in the view of all the people, in the Circus Maximus, whilst one of his freedmen dropped the napkin in the place where themagistrates used to give the signal. Not satisfied with exhibitingvarious specimens of his skill in those arts at Rome, he went over toAchaia, as has been already said, principally for this purpose. Theseveral cities, in which solemn trials of musical skill used to bepublicly held, had resolved to send him the crowns belonging to those whobore away the prize. These he accepted so graciously, that he not onlygave the deputies who brought them an immediate audience, but eveninvited them to his table. Being requested by some of them to sing atsupper, and prodigiously applauded, he said, "the Greeks were the onlypeople who has an ear for music, and were the only good judges of him andhis attainments. " Without delay he commenced his journey, and on hisarrival at Cassiope [587], (352) exhibited his first musical performancebefore the altar of Jupiter Cassius. 

XXIII. He afterwards appeared at the celebration of all public games inGreece: for such as fell in different years, he brought within thecompass of one, and some he ordered to be celebrated a second time in thesame year. At Olympia, likewise, contrary to custom, he appointed apublic performance in music: and that he might meet with no interruptionin this employment, when he was informed by his freedman Helius, thataffairs at Rome required his presence, he wrote to him in these words:"Though now all your hopes and wishes are for my speedy return, yet youought rather to advise and hope that I may come back with a characterworthy of Nero. " During the time of his musical performance, nobody wasallowed to stir out of the theatre upon any account, however necessary;insomuch, that it is said some women with child were delivered there. Many of the spectators being quite wearied with hearing and applaudinghim, because the town gates were shut, slipped privately over the walls;or counterfeiting themselves dead, were carried out for their funeral. With what extreme anxiety he engaged in these contests, with what keendesire to bear away the prize, and with how much awe of the judges, isscarcely to be believed. As if his adversaries had been on a level withhimself, he would watch them narrowly, defame them privately, andsometimes, upon meeting them, rail at them in very scurrilous language;or bribe them, if they were better performers than himself. He alwaysaddressed the judges with the most profound reverence before he began, telling them, "he had done all things that were necessary, by way ofpreparation, but that the issue of the approaching trial was in the handof fortune; and that they, as wise and skilful men, ought to exclude fromtheir judgment things merely accidental. " Upon their encouraging him tohave a good heart, he went off with more assurance, but not entirely freefrom anxiety; interpreting the silence and modesty of some of them intosourness and ill-nature, and saying that he was suspicious of them. 

XXIV. In these contests, he adhered so strictly to the rules, (354) thathe never durst spit, nor wipe the sweat from his forehead in any otherway than with his sleeve. Having, in the performance of a tragedy, dropped his sceptre, and not quickly recovering it, he was in a greatfright, lest he should be set aside for the miscarriage, and could notregain his assurance, until an actor who stood by swore he was certain ithad not been observed in the midst of the acclamations and exultations ofthe people. When the prize was adjudged to him, he always proclaimed ithimself; and even entered the lists with the heralds. That no memory orthe least monument might remain of any other victor in the sacred Greciangames, he ordered all their statues and pictures to be pulled down, dragged away with hooks, and thrown into the common sewers. He drove thechariot with various numbers of horses, and at the Olympic games with nofewer than ten; though, in a poem of his, he had reflected uponMithridates for that innovation. Being thrown out of his chariot, he wasagain replaced, but could not retain his seat, and was obliged to giveup, before he reached the goal, but was crowned notwithstanding. On hisdeparture, he declared the whole province a free country, and conferredupon the judges in the several games the freedom of Rome, with large sumsof money. All these favours he proclaimed himself with his own voice, from the middle of the Stadium, during the solemnity of the Isthmiangames. 

XXV. On his return from Greece, arriving at Naples, because he hadcommenced his career as a public performer in that city, he made hisentrance in a chariot drawn by white horses through a breach in thecity-wall, according to the practice of those who were victorious in thesacred Grecian games. In the same manner he entered Antium, Alba, andRome. He made his entry into the city riding in the same chariot inwhich Augustus had triumphed, in a purple tunic, and a cloak embroideredwith golden stars, having on his head the crown won at Olympia, and inhis right hand that which was given him at the Parthian games: the restbeing carried in a procession before him, with inscriptions denoting theplaces where they had been won, from whom, and in what plays or musicalperformances; whilst a train followed him with loud acclamations, cryingout, that "they (355) were the emperor's attendants, and the soldiers ofhis triumph. " Having then caused an arch of the Circus Maximus [588] tobe taken down, he passed through the breach, as also through the Velabrum[589] and the forum, to the Palatine hill and the temple of Apollo. Everywhere as he marched along, victims were slain, whilst the streetswere strewed with saffron, and birds, chaplets, and sweetmeats scatteredabroad. He suspended the sacred crowns in his chamber, about his beds, and caused statues of himself to be erected in the attire of a harper, and had his likeness stamped upon the coin in the same dress. After thisperiod, he was so far from abating any thing of his application to music, that, for the preservation of his voice, he never addressed the soldiersbut by messages, or with some person to deliver his speeches for him, when he thought fit to make his appearance amongst them. Nor did he everdo any thing either in jest or earnest, without a voice-master standingby him to caution him against overstraining his vocal organs, and toapply a handkerchief to his mouth when he did. He offered hisfriendship, or avowed (356) open enmity to many, according as they werelavish or sparing in giving him their applause. 

XXVI. Petulancy, lewdness, luxury, avarice, and cruelty, he practised atfirst with reserve and in private, as if prompted to them only by thefolly of youth; but, even then, the world was of opinion that they werethe faults of his nature, and not of his age. After it was dark, he usedto enter the taverns disguised in a cap or a wig, and ramble about thestreets in sport, which was not void of mischief. He used to beat thosehe met coming home from supper; and, if they made any resistance, wouldwound them, and throw them into the common sewer. He broke open androbbed shops; establishing an auction at home for selling his booty. Inthe scuffles which took place on those occasions, he often ran the hazardof losing his eyes, and even his life; being beaten almost to death by asenator, for handling his wife indecently. After this adventure, henever again ventured abroad at that time of night, without some tribunesfollowing him at a little distance. In the day-time he would be carriedto the theatre incognito in a litter, placing himself upon the upper partof the proscenium, where he not only witnessed the quarrels which aroseon account of the performances, but also encouraged them. When they cameto blows, and stones and pieces of broken benches began to fly about, hethrew them plentifully amongst the people, and once even broke apraetor's head. 

XXVII. His vices gaining strength by degrees, he laid aside his jocularamusements, and all disguise; breaking out into enormous crimes, withoutthe least attempt to conceal them. His revels were prolonged frommid-day to midnight, while he was frequently refreshed by warm baths, and, in the summer time, by such as were cooled with snow. He often supped inpublic, in the Naumachia, with the sluices shut, or in the Campus Martius, or the Circus Maximus, being waited upon at table by common prostitutes ofthe town, and Syrian strumpets and glee-girls. As often as he went downthe Tiber to Ostia, or coasted through the gulf of Baiae, booths furnishedas brothels and eating-houses, were erected along the shore and riverbanks; before which stood matrons, who, like bawds and hostesses, alluredhim to land. It was also his custom to invite (357) himself to supperwith his friends; at one of which was expended no less than four millionsof sesterces in chaplets, and at another something more in roses. 

XXVIII. Besides the abuse of free-born lads, and the debauch of marriedwomen, he committed a rape upon Rubria, a Vestal Virgin. He was upon thepoint of marrying Acte [590], his freedwoman, having suborned some men ofconsular rank to swear that she was of royal descent. He gelded the boySporus, and endeavoured to transform him into a woman. He even went sofar as to marry him, with all the usual formalities of a marriagesettlement, the rose-coloured nuptial veil, and a numerous company at thewedding. When the ceremony was over, he had him conducted like a brideto his own house, and treated him as his wife [591]. It was jocularlyobserved by some person, "that it would have been well for mankind, hadsuch a wife fallen to the lot of his father Domitius. " This Sporus hecarried about with him in a litter round the solemn assemblies and fairsof Greece, and afterwards at Rome through the Sigillaria [592], dressedin the rich attire of an empress; kissing him from time to time as theyrode together. That he entertained an incestuous passion for his mother[593], but was deterred by her enemies, for fear that this haughty andoverbearing woman should, by her compliance, get him entirely into herpower, and govern in every thing, was universally believed; especiallyafter he had introduced amongst his concubines a strumpet, who wasreported to have a strong resemblance to Agrippina [594]. --------

XXIX. He prostituted his own chastity to such a degree, that (358) afterhe had defiled every part of his person with some unnatural pollution, heat last invented an extraordinary kind of diversion; which was, to be letout of a den in the arena, covered with the skin of a wild beast, andthen assail with violence the private parts both of men and women, whilethey were bound to stakes. After he had vented his furious passion uponthem, he finished the play in the embraces of his freedman Doryphorus[595], to whom he was married in the same way that Sporus had beenmarried to himself; imitating the cries and shrieks of young virgins, when they are ravished. I have been informed from numerous sources, thathe firmly believed, no man in the world to be chaste, or any part of hisperson undefiled; but that most men concealed that vice, and were cunningenough to keep it secret. To those, therefore, who frankly owned theirunnatural lewdness, he forgave all other crimes. 

XXX. He thought there was no other use of riches and money than tosquander them away profusely; regarding all those as sordid wretches whokept their expenses within due bounds; and extolling those as truly nobleand generous souls, who lavished away and wasted all they possessed. Hepraised and admired his uncle Caius [596], upon no account more, than forsquandering in a short time the vast treasure left him by Tiberius. Accordingly, he was himself extravagant and profuse, beyond all bounds. He spent upon Tiridates eight hundred thousand sesterces a day, a sumalmost incredible; and at his departure, presented him with upwards of amillion [597]. He likewise bestowed upon Menecrates the harper, andSpicillus a gladiator, the estates and houses of men who had received thehonour of a triumph. He enriched the usurer Cercopithecus Panerotes withestates both in town and country; and gave him a funeral, in pomp andmagnificence little inferior to that of princes. He never wore the samegarment twice. He (359) has been known to stake four hundred thousandsesterces on a throw of the dice. It was his custom to fish with agolden net, drawn by silken cords of purple and scarlet. It is said, that he never travelled with less than a thousand baggage-carts; themules being all shod with silver, and the drivers dressed in scarletjackets of the finest Canusian cloth [598], with a numerous train offootmen, and troops of Mazacans [599], with bracelets on their arms, andmounted upon horses in splendid trappings. 

XXXI. In nothing was he more prodigal than in his buildings. Hecompleted his palace by continuing it from the Palatine to the Esquilinehill, calling the building at first only "The Passage, " but, after it wasburnt down and rebuilt, "The Golden House. " [600] Of its dimensions andfurniture, it may be sufficient to say thus much: the porch was so highthat there stood in it a colossal statue of himself a hundred and twentyfeet in height; and the space included in it was so ample, that it hadtriple porticos a mile in length, and a lake like a sea, surrounded withbuildings which had the appearance of a city. Within its area were cornfields, vineyards, pastures, and woods, containing a vast number ofanimals of various kinds, both wild and tame. In other parts it wasentirely over-laid with gold, and adorned with jewels and mother ofpearl. The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments of the ceilings, inlaid with ivory, were made to revolve, and scatter flowers; while theycontained pipes which (360) shed unguents upon the guests. The chiefbanqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually, night and day, inimitation of the motion of the celestial bodies. The baths were suppliedwith water from the sea and the Albula. Upon the dedication of thismagnificent house after it was finished, all he said in approval of itwas, "that he had now a dwelling fit for a man. " He commenced making apond for the reception of all the hot streams from Baiae, which hedesigned to have continued from Misenum to the Avernian lake, in aconduit, enclosed in galleries; and also a canal from Avernum to Ostia, that ships might pass from one to the other, without a sea voyage. Thelength of the proposed canal was one hundred and sixty miles; and it wasintended to be of breadth sufficient to permit ships with five banks ofoars to pass each other. For the execution of these designs, he orderedall prisoners, in every part of the empire, to be brought to Italy; andthat even those who were convicted of the most heinous crimes, in lieu ofany other sentence, should be condemned to work at them. He wasencouraged to all this wild and enormous profusion, not only by the greatrevenue of the empire, but by the sudden hopes given him of an immensehidden treasure, which queen Dido, upon her flight from Tyre, had broughtwith her to Africa. This, a Roman knight pretended to assure him, upongood grounds, was still hid there in some deep caverns, and might with alittle labour be recovered. 

XXXII. But being disappointed in his expectations of this resource, andreduced to such difficulties, for want of money, that he was obliged todefer paying his troops, and the rewards due to the veterans; he resolvedupon supplying his necessities by means of false accusations and plunder. In the first place, he ordered, that if any freedman, without sufficientreason, bore the name of the family to which he belonged; the half, instead of three fourths, of his estate should be brought into theexchequer at his decease: also that the estates of all such persons ashad not in their wills been mindful of their prince, should beconfiscated; and that the lawyers who had drawn or dictated such wills, should be liable to a fine. He ordained likewise, that all words andactions, upon which any informer could ground a prosecution, should bedeemed treason. He demanded an equivalent for the crowns which thecities of (361) Greece had at any time offered him in the solemn games. Having forbad any one to use the colours of amethyst and Tyrian purple, he privately sent a person to sell a few ounces of them upon the day ofthe Nundinae, and then shut up all the merchants' shops, on the pretextthat his edict had been violated. It is said, that, as he was playingand singing in the theatre, observing a married lady dressed in thepurple which he had prohibited, he pointed her out to his procurators;upon which she was immediately dragged out of her seat, and not onlystripped of her clothes, but her property. He never nominated a personto any office without saying to him, "You know what I want; and let ustake care that nobody has any thing he can call his own. " At last herifled many temples of the rich offerings with which they were stored, and melted down all the gold and silver statues, and amongst them thoseof the penates [601], which Galba afterwards restored. 

XXXIII. He began the practice of parricide and murder with Claudiushimself; for although he was not the contriver of his death, he was privyto the plot. Nor did he make any secret of it; but used afterwards tocommend, in a Greek proverb, mushrooms as food fit for the gods, becauseClaudius had been poisoned with them. He traduced his memory both byword and deed in the grossest manner; one while charging him with folly, another while with cruelty. For he used to say by way of jest, that hehad ceased morari [602] amongst men, pronouncing the first syllable long;and treated as null many of his decrees and ordinances, as made by adoting old blockhead. He enclosed the place where his body was burntwith only a low wall of rough masonry. He attempted to poison (362)Britannicus, as much out of envy because he had a sweeter voice, as fromapprehension of what might ensue from the respect which the peopleentertained for his father's memory. He employed for this purpose awoman named Locusta, who had been a witness against some persons guiltyof like practices. But the poison she gave him, working more slowly thanhe expected, and only causing a purge, he sent for the woman, and beather with his own hand, charging her with administering an antidoteinstead of poison; and upon her alleging in excuse, that she had givenBritannicus but a gentle mixture in order to prevent suspicion, "Thinkyou, " said he, "that I am afraid of the Julian law;" and obliged her toprepare, in his own chamber and before his eyes, as quick and strong adose as possible. This he tried upon a kid: but the animal lingering forfive hours before it expired, he ordered her to go to work again; andwhen she had done, he gave the poison to a pig, which dying immediately, he commanded the potion to be brought into the eating-room and given toBritannicus, while he was at supper with him. The prince had no soonertasted it than he sunk on the floor, Nero meanwhile, pretending to theguests, that it was only a fit of the falling sickness, to which, hesaid, he was subject. He buried him the following day, in a mean andhurried way, during violent storms of rain. He gave Locusta a pardon, and rewarded her with a great estate in land, placing some disciples withher, to be instructed in her trade. 

XXXIV. His mother being used to make strict inquiry into what he said ordid, and to reprimand him with the freedom of a parent, he was so muchoffended, that he endeavoured to expose her to public resentment, byfrequently pretending a resolution to quit the government, and retire toRhodes. Soon afterwards, he deprived her of all honour and power, tookfrom her the guard of Roman and German soldiers, banished her from thepalace and from his society, and persecuted her in every way he couldcontrive; employing persons to harass her when at Rome with law-suits, and to disturb her in her retirement from town with the most scurrilousand abusive language, following her about by land and sea. But beingterrified with her menaces and violent spirit, he resolved upon herdestruction, and thrice attempted it by poison. Finding, however, (363)that she had previously secured herself by antidotes, he contrivedmachinery, by which the floor over her bed-chamber might be made to fallupon her while she was asleep in the night. This design miscarryinglikewise, through the little caution used by those who were in thesecret, his next stratagem was to construct a ship which could be easilyshivered, in hopes of destroying her either by drowning, or by the deckabove her cabin crushing her in its fall. Accordingly, under colour of apretended reconciliation, he wrote her an extremely affectionate letter, inviting her to Baiae, to celebrate with him the festival of Minerva. Hehad given private orders to the captains of the galleys which were toattend her, to shatter to pieces the ship in which she had come, byfalling foul of it, but in such manner that it might appear to be doneaccidentally. He prolonged the entertainment, for the more convenientopportunity of executing the plot in the night; and at her return forBauli [603], instead of the old ship which had conveyed her to Baiae, heoffered that which he had contrived for her destruction. He attended herto the vessel in a very cheerful mood, and, at parting with her, kissedher breasts; after which he sat up very late in the night, waiting withgreat anxiety to learn the issue of his project. But receivinginformation that every thing had fallen out contrary to his wish, andthat she had saved herself by swimming, --not knowing what course to take, upon her freedman, Lucius Agerinus bringing word, with great joy, thatshe was safe and well, he privately dropped a poniard by him. He thencommanded the freedman to be seized and put in chains, under pretence ofhis having been employed by his mother to assassinate him; at the sametime ordering her to be put to death, and giving out, that, to avoidpunishment for her intended crime, she had laid violent hands uponherself. Other circumstances, still more horrible, are related on goodauthority; as that he went to view her corpse, and handling her limbs, pointed out some blemishes, and commended other points; and that, growingthirsty during the survey, he called for drink. Yet he was neverafterwards able to bear the stings of his own conscience for thisatrocious act, although encouraged by the congratulatory addresses of thearmy, the senate, and people. He frequently affirmed that he was hauntedby his mother's ghost, and persecuted with the whips (364) and burningtorches of the Furies. Nay, he attempted by magical rites to bring upher ghost from below, and soften her rage against him. When he was inGreece, he durst not attend the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, at the initiation of which, impious and wicked persons are warned by thevoice of the herald from approaching the rites [604]. Besides the murderof his mother, he had been guilty of that of his aunt; for, being obligedto keep her bed in consequence of a complaint in her bowels, he paid hera visit, and she, being then advanced in years, stroking his downy chin, in the tenderness of affection, said to him: "May I but live to see theday when this is shaved for the first time [605], and I shall then diecontented. " He turned, however, to those about him, made a jest of it, saying, that he would have his beard immediately taken off, and orderedthe physicians to give her more violent purgatives. He seized upon herestate before she had expired; suppressing her will, that he might enjoythe whole himself. 

XXXV. He had, besides Octavia, two other wives: Poppaea Sabina, whosefather had borne the office of quaestor, and who had been marriedbefore to a Roman knight: and, after her, Statilia Messalina, great-grand-daughter of Taurus [606] who was twice consul, and receivedthe honour of a triumph. To obtain possession of her, he put to death herhusband, Atticus Vestinus, who was then consul. He soon became disgustedwith Octavia, and ceased from having any intercourse with her; and beingcensured by his friends for it, he replied, "She ought to be satisfiedwith having the rank and appendages of his wife. " Soon afterwards, hemade several attempts, but in vain, to strangle her, and then divorced herfor barrenness. But the people, disapproving of the divorce, and makingsevere comments upon it, he also banished her [607]. At last he (365) puther to death, upon a charge of adultery, so impudent and false, that, whenall those who were put to the torture positively denied their knowledge ofit, he suborned his pedagogue, Anicetus, to affirm, that he had secretlyintrigued with and debauched her. He married Poppaea twelve days afterthe divorce of Octavia [608], and entertained a great affection for her;but, nevertheless, killed her with a kick which he gave her when she wasbig with child, and in bad health, only because she found fault with himfor returning late from driving his chariot. He had by her a daughter, Claudia Augusta, who died an infant. There was no person at all connectedwith him who escaped his deadly and unjust cruelty. Under pretence of herbeing engaged in a plot against him, he put to death Antonia, Claudius'sdaughter, who refused to marry him after the death of Poppaea. In thesame way, he destroyed all who were allied to him either by blood ormarriage; amongst whom was young Aulus Plautinus. He first compelled himto submit to his unnatural lust, and then ordered him to be executed, crying out, "Let my mother bestow her kisses on my successor thusdefiled;" pretending that he had been his mothers paramour, and by herencouraged to aspire to the empire. His step-son, Rufinus Crispinus, Poppaea's son, though a minor, he ordered to be drowned in the sea, whilehe was fishing, by his own slaves, because he was reported to actfrequently amongst his play-fellows the part of a general or an emperor. He banished Tuscus, his nurse's son, for presuming, when he was procuratorof Egypt, to wash in the baths which had been constructed in expectationof his own coming. Seneca, his preceptor, he forced to kill himself[609], though, upon his desiring leave to retire, and offering tosurrender his estate, he solemnly swore, "that there was no foundation forhis suspicions, and that he would perish himself sooner than hurt him. "Having promised Burrhus, the pretorian prefect, a remedy for a swelling inhis throat, he sent him poison. Some old rich freedmen of Claudius, whohad formerly not only promoted (366) his adoption, but were alsoinstrumental to his advancement to the empire, and had been his governors, he took off by poison given them in their meat or drink. 

XXXVI. Nor did he proceed with less cruelty against those who were notof his family. A blazing star, which is vulgarly supposed to portenddestruction to kings and princes, appeared above the horizon severalnights successively [610]. He felt great anxiety on account of thisphenomenon, and being informed by one Babilus, an astrologer, thatprinces were used to expiate such omens by the sacrifice of illustriouspersons, and so avert the danger foreboded to their own persons, bybringing it on the heads of their chief men, he resolved on thedestruction of the principal nobility in Rome. He was the moreencouraged to this, because he had some plausible pretence for carryingit into execution, from the discovery of two conspiracies against him;the former and more dangerous of which was that formed by Piso [611], anddiscovered at Rome; the other was that of Vinicius [612], at Beneventum. The conspirators were brought to their trials loaded with triple fetters. Some ingenuously confessed the charge; others avowed that they thoughtthe design against his life an act of favour for which he was obliged tothem, as it was impossible in any other way than by death to relieve aperson rendered infamous by crimes of the greatest enormity. Thechildren of those who had been condemned, were banished the city, andafterwards either poisoned or starved to death. It is asserted that someof them, with their tutors, and the slaves who carried their satchels, were all poisoned together at one dinner; and others not suffered to seektheir daily bread. 

XXXVII. From this period he butchered, without distinction or quarter, all whom his caprice suggested as objects for his cruelty; and upon themost frivolous pretences. To mention only a few: Salvidienus Orfitus wasaccused of letting (367) out three taverns attached to his house in theForum to some cities for the use of their deputies at Rome. The chargeagainst Cassius Longinus, a lawyer who had lost his sight, was, that hekept amongst the busts of his ancestors that of Caius Cassius, who wasconcerned in the death of Julius Caesar. The only charge objectedagainst Paetus Thrasea was, that he had a melancholy cast of features, and looked like a schoolmaster. He allowed but one hour to those whom heobliged to kill themselves; and, to prevent delay, he sent themphysicians "to cure them immediately, if they lingered beyond that time;"for so he called bleeding them to death. There was at that time anEgyptian of a most voracious appetite, who would digest raw flesh, or anything else that was given him. It was credibly reported, that theemperor was extremely desirous of furnishing him with living men to tearand devour. Being elated with his great success in the perpetration ofcrimes, he declared, "that no prince before himself ever knew the extentof his power. " He threw out strong intimations that he would not evenspare the senators who survived, but would entirely extirpate that order, and put the provinces and armies into the hands of the Roman knights andhis own freedmen. It is certain that he never gave or vouchsafed toallow any one the customary kiss, either on entering or departing, oreven returned a salute. And at the inauguration of a work, the cutthrough the Isthmus [613], he, with a loud voice, amidst the assembledmultitude, uttered a prayer, that "the undertaking might prove fortunatefor himself and the Roman people, " without taking the smallest notice ofthe senate. 

XXXVIII. He spared, moreover, neither the people of Rome, nor thecapital of his country. Somebody in conversation saying--

 Emou thanontos gaia michthaeto pyri When I am dead let fire devour the world--

"Nay, " said he, "let it be while I am living" [emou xontos]. And heacted accordingly: for, pretending to be disgusted with the oldbuildings, and the narrow and winding streets, he set the city on fire soopenly, that many of consular rank caught his own household servants ontheir property with tow, and (368) torches in their hands, but durst notmeddle with them. There being near his Golden House some granaries, thesite of which he exceedingly coveted, they were battered as if withmachines of war, and set on fire, the walls being built of stone. Duringsix days and seven nights this terrible devastation continued, the peoplebeing obliged to fly to the tombs and monuments for lodging and shelter. Meanwhile, a vast number of stately buildings, the houses of generalscelebrated in former times, and even then still decorated with the spoilsof war, were laid in ashes; as well as the temples of the gods, which hadbeen vowed and dedicated by the kings of Rome, and afterwards in thePunic and Gallic wars: in short, everything that was remarkable andworthy to be seen which time had spared [614]. This fire he beheld froma tower in the house of Mecaenas, and "being greatly delighted, " as hesaid, "with the beautiful effects of the conflagration, " he sung a poemon the ruin of Troy, in the tragic dress he used on the stage. To turnthis calamity to his own advantage by plunder and rapine, he promised toremove the bodies of those who had perished in the fire, and clear therubbish at his own expense; suffering no one to meddle with the remainsof their property. But he not only received, but exacted contributionson account of the loss, until he had exhausted the means both of theprovinces and private persons. 

XXXIX. To these terrible and shameful calamities brought upon the peopleby their prince, were added some proceeding from misfortune. Such were apestilence, by which, within the space of one autumn, there died no lessthan thirty thousand persons, as appeared from the registers in thetemple of Libitina; a great disaster in Britain [615], where two of theprincipal towns belonging to the Romans were plundered; and a (369)dreadful havoc made both amongst our troops and allies; a shamefuldiscomfiture of the army of the East; where, in Armenia, the legions wereobliged to pass under the yoke, and it was with great difficulty thatSyria was retained. Amidst all these disasters, it was strange, and, indeed, particularly remarkable, that he bore nothing more patiently thanthe scurrilous language and railing abuse which was in every one's mouth;treating no class of persons with more gentleness, than those whoassailed him with invective and lampoons. Many things of that kind wereposted up about the city, or otherwise published, both in Greek andLatin: such as these, Neron, Orestaes, Alkmaion, maetroktonai. Neonymphon [616] Neron, idian maeter apekteinen. 

 Orestes and Alcaeon--Nero too, The lustful Nero, worst of all the crew, Fresh from his bridal--their own mothers slew. 

 Quis neget Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem? Sustulit hic matrem: sustulit [617] ille patrem. 

 Sprung from Aeneas, pious, wise and great, Who says that Nero is degenerate? Safe through the flames, one bore his sire; the other, To save himself, took off his loving mother. 

 Dum tendit citharam noster, dum cornua Parthus, Noster erit Paean, ille Ekataebeletaes. 

 His lyre to harmony our Nero strings; His arrows o'er the plain the Parthian wings: Ours call the tuneful Paean, --famed in war, The other Phoebus name, the god who shoots afar. [618]

 Roma domus fiet: Vejos migrate, Quirites, Si non et Vejos occupat ista domus. 

 All Rome will be one house: to Veii fly, Should it not stretch to Veii, by and by. [619]

(370) But he neither made any inquiry after the authors, nor wheninformation was laid before the senate against some of them, would heallow a severe sentence to be passed. Isidorus, the Cynic philosopher, said to him aloud, as he was passing along the streets, "You sing themisfortunes of Nauplius well, but behave badly yourself. " And Datus, acomic actor, when repeating these words in the piece, "Farewell, father!Farewell mother!" mimicked the gestures of persons drinking and swimming, significantly alluding to the deaths of Claudius and Agrippina: and onuttering the last clause, Orcus vobis ducit pedes; You stand this moment on the brink of Orcus;

he plainly intimated his application of it to the precarious position ofthe senate. Yet Nero only banished the player and philosopher from thecity and Italy; either because he was insensible to shame, or fromapprehension that if he discovered his vexation, still keener thingsmight be said of him. 

XL. The world, after tolerating such an emperor for little less thanfourteen years, at length forsook him; the Gauls, headed by JuliusVindex, who at that time governed the province as pro-praetor, being thefirst to revolt. Nero had been formerly told by astrologers, that itwould be his fortune to be at last deserted by all the world; and thisoccasioned that celebrated saying of his, "An artist can live in anycountry;" by which he meant to offer as an excuse for his practice ofmusic, that it was not only his amusement as a prince, but might be hissupport when reduced to a private station. Yet some of the astrologerspromised him, in his forlorn state, the rule of the East, and some inexpress words the kingdom of Jerusalem. But the greater part of themflattered him with assurances of his being restored to his formerfortune. And being most inclined to believe the latter prediction, uponlosing Britain and Armenia, he imagined he had run through all themisfortunes which the fates had decreed him. But when, upon consultingthe oracle of Apollo at Delphi, he was advised to beware of theseventy-third year, as if he were not to die till then, never thinking ofGalba's age, he conceived such hopes, not only of living to advancedyears, but of constant and singular good fortune, that having lost somethings of great value by shipwreck, he scrupled not to say amongst hisfriends, that (371) "the fishes would bring them back to him. " At Napleshe heard of the insurrection in Gaul, on the anniversary of the day onwhich he killed his mother, and bore it with so much unconcern, as toexcite a suspicion that he was really glad of it, since he had now a fairopportunity of plundering those wealthy provinces by the right of war. Immediately going to the gymnasium, he witnessed the exercise of thewrestlers with the greatest delight. Being interrupted at supper withletters which brought yet worse news, he expressed no greater resentment, than only to threaten the rebels. For eight days together, he neverattempted to answer any letters, nor give any orders, but buried thewhole affair in profound silence. 

XLI. Being roused at last by numerous proclamations of Vindex, treatinghim with reproaches and contempt, he in a letter to the senate exhortedthem to avenge his wrongs and those of the republic; desiring them toexcuse his not appearing in the senate-house, because he had got cold. But nothing so much galled him, as to find himself railed at as a pitifulharper, and, instead of Nero, styled Aenobarbus: which being his familyname, since he was upbraided with it, he declared that he would resumeit, and lay aside the name he had taken by adoption. Passing by theother accusations as wholly groundless, he earnestly refuted that of hiswant of skill in an art upon which he had bestowed so much pains, and inwhich he had arrived at such perfection; asking frequently those abouthim, "if they knew any one who was a more accomplished musician?" Butbeing alarmed by messengers after messengers of ill news from Gaul, hereturned in great consternation to Rome. On the road, his mind wassomewhat relieved, by observing the frivolous omen of a Gaulish soldierdefeated and dragged by the hair by a Roman knight, which was sculpturedon a monument; so that he leaped for joy, and adored the heavens. Eventhen he made no appeal either to the senate or people, but callingtogether some of the leading men at his own house, he held a hastyconsultation upon the present state of affairs, and then, during theremainder of the day, carried them about with him to view some musicalinstruments, of a new invention, which were played by water [620] (372)exhibiting all the parts, and discoursing upon the principles anddifficulties of the contrivance; which, he told them, he intended toproduce in the theatre, if Vindex would give him leave. 

XLII. Soon afterwards, he received intelligence that Galba and theSpaniards had declared against him; upon which, he fainted, and losinghis reason, lay a long time speechless, apparently dead. As soon asrecovered from this state stupefaction he tore his clothes, and beat hishead, crying out, "It is all over with me!" His nurse endeavouring tocomfort him, and telling him that the like things had happened to otherprinces before him, he replied, "I am beyond all example wretched, for Ihave lost an empire whilst I am still living. " He, nevertheless, abatednothing of his luxury and inattention to business. Nay, on the arrivalof good news from the provinces, he, at a sumptuous entertainment, sungwith an air of merriment, some jovial verses upon the leaders of therevolt, which were made public; and accompanied them with suitablegestures. Being carried privately to the theatre, he sent word to anactor who was applauded by the spectators, "that he had it all his ownway, now that he himself did not appear on the stage. "

XLIII. At the first breaking out of these troubles, it is believed thathe had formed many designs of a monstrous nature, although conformableenough to his natural disposition. These were to send new governors andcommanders to the provinces and the armies, and employ assassins tobutcher all the former governors and commanders, as men unanimouslyengaged in a conspiracy against him; to massacre the exiles in everyquarter, and all the Gaulish population in Rome; the former lest theyshould join the insurrection; the latter as privy to the designs of theircountrymen, and ready to support (373) them; to abandon Gaul itself, tobe wasted and plundered by his armies; to poison the whole senate at afeast; to fire the city, and then let loose the wild beasts upon thepeople, in order to impede their stopping the progress of the flames. But being deterred from the execution of these designs not so much byremorse of conscience, as by despair of being able to effect them, andjudging an expedition into Gaul necessary, he removed the consuls fromtheir office, before the time of its expiration was arrived; and in theirroom assumed the consulship himself without a colleague, as if the fateshad decreed that Gaul should not be conquered, but by a consul. Uponassuming the fasces, after an entertainment at the palace, as he walkedout of the room leaning on the arms of some of his friends, he declared, that as soon as he arrived in the province, he would make his appearanceamongst the troops, unarmed, and do nothing but weep: and that, after hehad brought the mutineers to repentance, he would, the next day, in thepublic rejoicings, sing songs of triumph, which he must now, without lossof time, apply himself to compose. 

XLIV. In preparing for this expedition, his first care was to providecarriages for his musical instruments and machinery to be used upon thestage; to have the hair of the concubines he carried with him dressed inthe fashion of men; and to supply them with battle-axes, and Amazonianbucklers. He summoned the city-tribes to enlist; but no qualifiedpersons appearing, he ordered all masters to send a certain number ofslaves, the best they had, not excepting their stewards and secretaries. He commanded the several orders of the people to bring in a fixedproportion of their estates, as they stood in the censor's books; alltenants of houses and mansions to pay one year's rent forthwith into theexchequer; and, with unheard-of strictness, would receive only new coinof the purest silver and the finest gold; insomuch that most peoplerefused to pay, crying out unanimously that he ought to squeeze theinformers, and oblige them to surrender their gains. 

XLV. The general odium in which he was held received an increase by thegreat scarcity of corn, and an occurrence connected with it. For, as ithappened just at that time, there arrived from Alexandria a ship, whichwas said to be freighted (374) with dust for the wrestlers belonging tothe emperor [621]. This so much inflamed the public rage, that he wastreated with the utmost abuse and scurrility. Upon the top of one of hisstatues was placed the figure of a chariot with a Greek inscription, that"Now indeed he had a race to run; let him be gone. " A little bag wastied about another, with a ticket containing these words; "What could Ido?"--"Truly thou hast merited the sack. " [622] Some person likewisewrote on the pillars in the forum, "that he had even woke the cocks [623]with his singing. " And many, in the night-time, pretending to find faultwith their servants, frequently called for a Vindex. [624]

XLVI. He was also terrified with manifest warnings, both old and new, arising from dreams, auspices, and omens. He had never been used todream before the murder of his mother. After that event, he fancied inhis sleep that he was steering a ship, and that the rudder was forcedfrom him: that he was dragged by his wife Octavia into a prodigiouslydark place; and was at one time covered over with a vast swarm of wingedants, and at another, surrounded by the national images which were set upnear Pompey's theatre, and hindered from advancing farther; that aSpanish jennet he was fond of, had his hinder parts so changed, as toresemble those of an ape; and having his head only left unaltered, neighed very harmoniously. The doors of the mausoleum of Augustus flyingopen of themselves, there issued from it a voice, calling on him by name. The Lares being adorned with fresh garlands on the calends (the first) ofJanuary, fell down during the preparations for sacrificing to them. While he was taking (375) the omens, Sporus presented him with a ring, the stone of which had carved upon it the Rape of Proserpine. When agreat multitude of the several orders was assembled, to attend at thesolemnity of making vows to the gods, it was a long time before the keysof the Capitol could be found. And when, in a speech of his to thesenate against Vindex, these words were read, "that the miscreants shouldbe punished and soon make the end they merited, " they all cried out, "Youwill do it, Augustus. " It was likewise remarked, that the last tragicpiece which he sung, was Oedipus in Exile, and that he fell as he wasrepeating this verse:

 Thanein m' anoge syngamos, maetaer, pataer. Wife, mother, father, force me to my end. 

XLVII. Meanwhile, on the arrival of the news, that the rest of thearmies had declared against him, he tore to pieces the letters which weredelivered to him at dinner, overthrew the table, and dashed with violenceagainst the ground two favourite cups, which he called Homer's, becausesome of that poet's verses were cut upon them. Then taking from Locustaa dose of poison, which he put up in a golden box, he went into theServilian gardens, and thence dispatching a trusty freedman to Ostia, with orders to make ready a fleet, he endeavoured to prevail with sometribunes and centurions of the pretorian guards to attend him in hisflight; but part of them showing no great inclination to comply, othersabsolutely refusing, and one of them crying out aloud, Usque adeone mori miserum est? Say, is it then so sad a thing to die? [625]

he was in great perplexity whether he should submit himself to Galba, orapply to the Parthians for protection, or else appear before the peopledressed in mourning, and, upon the rostra, in the most piteous manner, beg pardon for his past misdemeanors, and, if he could not prevail, request of them to grant him at least the government of Egypt. A speechto this purpose was afterwards found in his writing-case. But it isconjectured that he durst not venture upon this project, for fear ofbeing torn to pieces, before he could get to the Forum. Deferring, therefore, his resolution until the next (376) day, he awoke aboutmidnight, and finding the guards withdrawn, he leaped out of bed, andsent round for his friends. But none of them vouchsafing any message inreply, he went with a few attendants to their houses. The doors beingevery where shut, and no one giving him any answer, he returned to hisbed-chamber; whence those who had the charge of it had all now eloped;some having gone one way, and some another, carrying off with them hisbedding and box of poison. He then endeavoured to find Spicillus, thegladiator, or some one to kill him; but not being able to procure anyone, "What!" said he, "have I then neither friend nor foe?" andimmediately ran out, as if he would throw himself into the Tiber. 

XLVIII. But this furious impulse subsiding, he wished for some place ofprivacy, where he might collect his thoughts; and his freedman Phaonoffering him his country-house, between the Salarian [626] and Nomentan[627] roads, about four miles from the city, he mounted a horse, barefootas he was, and in his tunic, only slipping over it an old soiled cloak;with his head muffled up, and an handkerchief before his face, and fourpersons only to attend him, of whom Sporus was one. He was suddenlystruck with horror by an earthquake, and by a flash of lightning whichdarted full in his face, and heard from the neighbouring camp [628] theshouts of the soldiers, wishing his destruction, and prosperity to Galba. He also heard a traveller they met on the road, say, "They are (377) inpursuit of Nero:" and another ask, "Is there any news in the city aboutNero?" Uncovering his face when his horse was started by the scent of acarcase which lay in the road, he was recognized and saluted by an oldsoldier who had been discharged from the guards. When they came to thelane which turned up to the house, they quitted their horses, and withmuch difficulty he wound among bushes, and briars, and along a trackthrough a bed of rushes, over which they spread their cloaks for him towalk on. Having reached a wall at the back of the villa, Phaon advisedhim to hide himself awhile in a sand-pit; when he replied, "I will not gounder-ground alive. " Staying there some little time, while preparationswere made for bringing him privately into the villa, he took up somewater out of a neighbouring tank in his hand, to drink, saying, "This isNero's distilled water. " [629] Then his cloak having been torn by thebrambles, he pulled out the thorns which stuck in it. At last, beingadmitted, creeping upon his hands and knees, through a hole made for himin the wall, he lay down in the first closet he came to, upon a miserablepallet, with an old coverlet thrown over it; and being both hungry andthirsty, though he refused some coarse bread that was brought him, hedrank a little warm water. 

XLIX. All who surrounded him now pressing him to save himself from theindignities which were ready to befall him, he ordered a pit to be sunkbefore his eyes, of the size of his body, and the bottom to be coveredwith pieces of marble put together, if any could be found about thehouse; and water and wood [630], to be got ready for immediate use abouthis corpse; weeping at every thing that was done, and frequently saying, "What an artist is now about to perish!" Meanwhile, letters beingbrought in by a servant belonging to Phaon, he snatched them out of hishand, and there read, "That he had been declared an enemy by the senate, and that search was making for him, that he might be punished accordingto the ancient custom of the Romans. " He then inquired what kind ofpunishment that was; and being told, that the (378) practice was to stripthe criminal naked, and scourge him to death, while his neck was fastenedwithin a forked stake, he was so terrified that he took up two daggerswhich he had brought with him, and after feeling the points of both, putthem up again, saying, "The fatal hour is not yet come. " One while, hebegged of Sporus to begin to wail and lament; another while, he entreatedthat one of them would set him an example by killing himself; and thenagain, he condemned his own want of resolution in these words: "I yetlive to my shame and disgrace: this is not becoming for Nero: it is notbecoming. Thou oughtest in such circumstances to have a good heart:Come, then: courage, man!" [631] The horsemen who had received orders tobring him away alive, were now approaching the house. As soon as heheard them coming, he uttered with a trembling voice the following verse, Hippon m' okupodon amphi ktupos ouata ballei; [632] The noise of swift-heel'd steeds assails my ears;

he drove a dagger into his throat, being assisted in the act byEpaphroditus, his secretary. A centurion bursting in just as he washalf-dead, and applying his cloak to the wound, pretending that he wascome to his assistance, he made no other reply but this, "'Tis too late;"and "Is this your loyalty?" Immediately after pronouncing these words, he expired, with his eyes fixed and starting out of his head, to theterror of all who beheld him. He had requested of his attendants, as themost essential favour, that they would let no one have his head, but thatby all means his body might be burnt entire. And this, Icelus, Galba'sfreedman, granted. He had but a little before been discharged from theprison into which he had been thrown, when the disturbances first brokeout. 

L. The expenses of his funeral amounted to two hundred thousandsesterces; the bed upon which his body was carried to the pile and burnt, being covered with the white robes, interwoven with gold, which he hadworn upon the calends of January preceding. His nurses, Ecloge andAlexandra, with his concubine Acte, deposited his remains in the tombbelonging (379) to the family of the Domitii, which stands upon the topof the Hill of the Gardens [633], and is to be seen from the CampusMartius. In that monument, a coffin of porphyry, with an altar of marbleof Luna over it, is enclosed by a wall built of stone brought fromThasos. [634]

LI. In stature he was a little below the common height; his skin wasfoul and spotted; his hair inclined to yellow; his features wereagreeable, rather than handsome; his eyes grey and dull, his neck wasthick, his belly prominent, his legs very slender, his constitutionsound. For, though excessively luxurious in his mode of living, he had, in the course of fourteen years, only three fits of sickness; which wereso slight, that he neither forbore the use of wine, nor made anyalteration in his usual diet. In his dress, and the care of his person, he was so careless, that he had his hair cut in rings, one above another;and when in Achaia, he let it grow long behind; and he generally appearedin public in the loose dress which he used at table, with a handkerchiefabout his neck, and without either a girdle or shoes. 

LII. He was instructed, when a boy, in the rudiments of almost all theliberal sciences; but his mother diverted him from the study ofphilosophy, as unsuited to one destined to be an emperor; and hispreceptor, Seneca, discouraged him from reading the ancient orators, thathe might longer secure his devotion to himself. Therefore, having a turnfor poetry, (380) he composed verses both with pleasure and ease; nor didhe, as some think, publish those of other writers as his own. Severallittle pocket-books and loose sheets have cone into my possession, whichcontain some well-known verses in his own hand, and written in such amanner, that it was very evident, from the blotting and interlining, thatthey had not been transcribed from a copy, nor dictated by another, butwere written by the composer of them. 

LIII. He had likewise great taste for drawing and painting, as well asfor moulding statues in plaster. But, above all things, he most eagerlycoveted popularity, being the rival of every man who obtained theapplause of the people for any thing he did. It was the general belief, that, after the crowns he won by his performances on the stage, he wouldthe next lustrum have taken his place among the wrestlers at the Olympicgames. For he was continually practising that art; nor did he witnessthe gymnastic games in any part of Greece otherwise than sitting upon theground in the stadium, as the umpires do. And if a pair of wrestlershappened to break the bounds, he would with his own hands drag them backinto the centre of the circle. Because he was thought to equal Apollo inmusic, and the sun in chariot-driving, he resolved also to imitate theachievements of Hercules. And they say that a lion was got ready for himto kill, either with a club, or with a close hug, in view of the peoplein the amphitheatre; which he was to perform naked. 

LIV. Towards the end of his life, he publicly vowed, that if his powerin the state was securely re-established, he would, in the spectacleswhich he intended to exhibit in honour of his success, include aperformance upon organs [635], as well as upon flutes and bagpipes, and, on the last day of the games, would act in the play, and take the part ofTurnus, as we find it in Virgil. And there are some who say, that he putto death the player Paris as a dangerous rival. 

LV. He had an insatiable desire to immortalize his name, and acquire areputation which should last through all succeeding ages; but it wascapriciously directed. He therefore (381) took from several things andplaces their former appellations, and gave them new names derived fromhis own. He called the month of April, Neroneus, and designed changingthe name of Rome into that of Neropolis. 

LVI. He held all religious rites in contempt, except those of the SyrianGoddess [636]; but at last he paid her so little reverence, that he madewater upon her; being now engaged in another superstition, in which onlyhe obstinately persisted. For having received from some obscure plebeiana little image of a girl, as a preservative against plots, anddiscovering a conspiracy immediately after, he constantly worshipped hisimaginary protectress as the greatest amongst the gods, offering to herthree sacrifices daily. He was also desirous to have it supposed that hehad, by revelations from this deity, a knowledge of future events. A fewmonths before he died, he attended a sacrifice, according to the Etruscanrites, but the omens were not favourable. 

LVII. He died in the thirty-second year of his age [637], upon the sameday on which he had formerly put Octavia to death; and the public joy wasso great upon the occasion, that the common people ran about the citywith caps upon their heads. Some, however, were not wanting, who for along time decked his tomb with spring and summer flowers. Sometimes theyplaced his image upon the rostra, dressed in robes of state; at another, they published proclamations in his name, as if he were still alive, andwould shortly return to Rome, and take vengeance on all his enemies. Vologesus, king of the Parthians, when he sent ambassadors to the senateto renew his alliance with the Roman people, earnestly requested that duehonour should be paid to the memory of Nero; and, to conclude, when, twenty years afterwards, at which time I was a young man [638], someperson of obscure birth gave himself out for Nero, that name secured himso favourable a reception (382) from the Parthians, that he was veryzealously supported, and it was with much difficulty that they wereprevailed upon to give him up. 

 * * * * * * *

Though no law had ever passed for regulating the transmission of theimperial power, yet the design of conveying it by lineal descent wasimplied in the practice of adoption. By the rule of hereditarysuccession, Britannicus, the son of Claudius, was the natural heir to thethrone; but he was supplanted by the artifices of his stepmother, who hadthe address to procure it for her own son, Nero. From the time ofAugustus it had been the custom of each of the new sovereigns to commencehis reign in such a manner as tended to acquire popularity, however muchthey all afterwards degenerated from those specious beginnings. Whetherthis proceeded entirely from policy, or that nature was not yet vitiatedby the intoxication of uncontrolled power, is uncertain; but such werethe excesses into which they afterwards plunged, that we can scarcelyexempt any of them, except, perhaps, Claudius, from the imputation ofgreat original depravity. The vicious temper of Tiberius was known tohis own mother, Livia; that of Caligula had been obvious to those abouthim from his infancy; Claudius seems to have had naturally a strongertendency to weakness than to vice; but the inherent wickedness of Nerowas discovered at an early period by his preceptor, Seneca. Yet eventhis emperor commenced his reign in a manner which procured himapprobation. Of all the Roman emperors who had hitherto reigned, heseems to have been most corrupted by profligate favourites, who flatteredhis follies and vices, to promote their own aggrandisement. In thenumber of these was Tigellinus, who met at last with the fate which hehad so amply merited. 

The several reigns from the death of Augustus present us with uncommonscenes of cruelty and horror; but it was reserved for that of Nero toexhibit to the world the atrocious act of an emperor deliberatelyprocuring the death of his mother. 

Julia Agrippina was the daughter of Germanicus, and married DomitiusAenobarbus, by whom she had Nero. At the death of Messalina she was awidow; and Claudius, her uncle, entertaining a design of entering againinto the married state, she aspired to an incestuous alliance with him, in competition with Lollia Paulina, a woman of beauty and intrigue, whohad been married to C. Caesar. The two rivals were strongly supported bytheir (383) respective parties; but Agrippina, by her superior interestwith the emperor's favourites, and the familiarity to which her nearrelation gave her a claim, obtained the preference; and the portentousnuptials of the emperor and his niece were publicly solemnized in thepalace. Whether she was prompted to this flagrant indecency by personalambition alone, or by the desire of procuring the succession to theempire for her son, is uncertain; but there remains no doubt of herhaving removed Claudius by poison, with a view to the object nowmentioned. Besides Claudius, she projected the death of L. Silanus, andshe accomplished that of his brother, Junius Silanus, by means likewiseof poison. She appears to have been richly endowed with the gifts ofnature, but in her disposition intriguing, violent, imperious, and readyto sacrifice every principle of virtue, in the pursuit of supreme poweror sensual gratification. As she resembled Livia in the ambition of amother, and the means by which she indulged it, so she more than equalledher in the ingratitude of an unnatural son and a parricide. She is saidto have left behind her some memoirs, of which Tacitus availed himself inthe composition of his Annals. 

In this reign, the conquest of the Britons still continued to be theprincipal object of military enterprise, and Suetonius Paulinus wasinvested with the command of the Roman army employed in the reduction ofthat people. The island of Mona, now Anglesey, being the chief seat ofthe Druids, he resolved to commence his operations with attacking a placewhich was the centre of superstition, and to which the vanquished Britonsretreated as the last asylum of liberty. The inhabitants endeavoured, both by force of arms and the terrors of religion, to obstruct hislanding on this sacred island. The women and Druids assembledpromiscuously with the soldiers upon the shore, where running about inwild disorder, with flaming torches in their hands, and pouring forth themost hideous exclamations, they struck the Romans with consternation. But Suetonius animating his troops, they boldly attacked the inhabitants, routed them in the field, and burned the Druids in the same fires whichhad been prepared by those priests for the catastrophe of the invaders, destroying at the same time all the consecrated groves and altars in theisland. Suetonius having thus triumphed over the religion of theBritons, flattered himself with the hopes of soon effecting the reductionof the people. But they, encouraged by his absence, had taken arms, andunder the conduct of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who had been treatedin the most ignominious manner by the Roman tribunes, had already driventhe hateful invaders from their several settlements. Suetonius hastenedto (384) the protection of London, which was by this time a flourishingRoman colony; but he found upon his arrival, that any attempt to preserveit would be attended with the utmost danger to the army. Londontherefore was reduced to ashes; and the Romans, and all strangers, to thenumber of seventy thousand, were put to the sword without distinction, the Britons seeming determined to convince the enemy that they wouldacquiesce in no other terms than a total evacuation of the island. Thismassacre, however, was revenged by Suetonius in a decisive engagement, where eighty thousand of the Britons are said to have been killed; afterwhich, Boadicea, to avoid falling into the hands of the insolentconquerors, put a period to her own life by means of poison. It beingjudged unadvisable that Suetonius should any longer conduct the waragainst a people whom he had exasperated by his severity, he wasrecalled, and Petronius Turpilianus appointed in his room. The commandwas afterwards given successively to Trebellius Maximus and VettiusBolanus; but the plan pursued by these generals was only to retain, by aconciliatory administration, the parts of the island which had alreadysubmitted to the Roman arms. 

During these transactions in Britain, Nero himself was exhibiting, inRome or some of the provinces, such scenes of extravagance as almostexceed credibility. In one place, entering the lists amongst thecompetitors in a chariot race; in another, contending for victory withthe common musicians on the stage; revelling in open day in the companyof the most abandoned prostitutes and the vilest of men; in the night, committing depredations on the peaceful inhabitants of the capital;polluting with detestable lust, or drenching with human blood, thestreets, the palace, and the habitations of private families; and, tocrown his enormities, setting fire to Rome, while he sung with delight inbeholding the dreadful conflagration. In vain would history be ransackedfor a parallel to this emperor, who united the most shameful vices to themost extravagant vanity, the most abject meanness to the strongest butmost preposterous ambition; and the whole of whose life was one continuedscene of lewdness, sensuality, rapine, cruelty, and folly. It isemphatically observed by Tacitus, "that Nero, after the murder of manyillustrious personages, manifested a desire of extirpating virtueitself. "

Among the excesses of Nero's reign, are to be mentioned the horriblecruelties exercised against the Christians in various parts of theempire, in which inhuman transactions the natural barbarity of theemperor was inflamed by the prejudices and interested policy of the paganpriesthood. 

(385) The tyrant scrupled not to charge them with the act of burningRome; and he satiated his fury against them by such outrages as areunexampled in history. They were covered with the skins of wild beasts, and torn by dogs; were crucified, and set on fire, that they might servefor lights in the night-time. Nero offered his gardens for thisspectacle, and exhibited the games of the Circus by this dreadfulillumination. Sometimes they were covered with wax and other combustiblematerials, after which a sharp stake was put under their chin, to makethem stand upright, and they were burnt alive, to give light to thespectators. 

In the person of Nero, it is observed by Suetonius, the race of theCaesars became extinct; a race rendered illustrious by the first andsecond emperors, but which their successors no less disgraced. Thedespotism of Julius Caesar, though haughty and imperious, was liberal andhumane: that of Augustus, if we exclude a few instances of vindictiveseverity towards individuals, was mild and conciliating; but the reignsof Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero (for we except Claudius from part of thecensure), while discriminated from each other by some peculiarcircumstances, exhibited the most flagrant acts of licentiousness andperverted authority. The most abominable lust, the most extravagantluxury, the most shameful rapaciousness, and the most inhuman cruelty, constitute the general characteristics of those capricious and detestabletyrants. Repeated experience now clearly refuted the opinion ofAugustus, that he had introduced amongst the Romans the best form ofgovernment: but while we make this observation, it is proper to remark, that, had he even restored the republic, there is reason to believe thatthe nation would again have been soon distracted with internal divisions, and a perpetual succession of civil wars. The manners of the people werebecome too dissolute to be restrained by the authority of elective andtemporary magistrates; and the Romans were hastening to that fatal periodwhen general and great corruption, with its attendant debility, wouldrender them an easy prey to any foreign invaders. 

But the odious government of the emperors was not the only grievanceunder which the people laboured in those disastrous times: patricianavarice concurred with imperial rapacity to increase the sufferings ofthe nation. The senators, even during the commonwealth, had becomeopenly corrupt in the dispensation of public justice; and under thegovernment of the emperors pernicious abuse was practised to a yetgreater extent. That class being now, equally with other Roman citizens, dependent on the sovereign power, their sentiments of duty and (386)honour were degraded by the loss of their former dignity; and beinglikewise deprived of the lucrative governments of provinces, to whichthey had annually succeeded by an elective rotation in the times of therepublic, they endeavoured to compensate the reduction of theiremoluments by an unbounded venality in the judicial decisions of theforum. Every source of national happiness and prosperity was by thismeans destroyed. The possession of property became precarious; industry, in all its branches, was effectually discouraged, and the amor patriae, which had formerly been the animating principle of the nation, was almostuniversally extinguished. 

It is a circumstance corresponding to the general singularity of thepresent reign, that, of the few writers who flourished in it, and whoseworks have been transmitted to posterity, two ended their days by theorder of the emperor, and the third, from indignation at his conduct. These unfortunate victims were Seneca, Petronius Arbiter, and Lucan. 

SENECA was born about six years before the Christian aera, and gave earlyindication of uncommon talents. His father, who had come from Corduba toRome, was a man of letters, particularly fond of declamation, in which heinstructed his son, and placed him, for the acquisition of philosophy, under the most celebrated stoics of that age. Young Seneca, imbibing theprecepts of the Pythagorean doctrine, religiously abstained from eatingthe flesh of animals, until Tiberius having threatened to punish someJews and Egyptians, who abstained from certain meats, he was persuaded byhis father to renounce the Pythagorean practice. Seneca displayed thetalents of an eloquent speaker; but dreading the jealousy of Caligula, who aspired to the same excellence, he thought proper to abandon thatpursuit, and apply himself towards suing for the honours and offices ofthe state. He accordingly obtained the place of quaestor, in whichoffice incurring the imputation of a scandalous amour with Julia Livia, he removed from Rome, and was banished by the emperor Claudius toCorsica. 

Upon the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, Seneca was recalled fromhis exile, in which he had remained near eight years, and was appointedto superintend the education of Nero, now destined to become thesuccessor to the throne. In the character of preceptor he appears tohave acquitted himself with ability and credit; though he has beencharged by his enemies with having initiated his pupil in thosedetestable vices which disgraced the reign of Nero. Could he have indeedbeen guilty of such immoral conduct, it is probable that he would not soeasily have (387) forfeited the favour of that emperor; and it is morereasonable to suppose, that his disapprobation of Nero's conduct was thereal cause of that odium which soon after proved fatal to him. By theenemies whom distinguished merit and virtue never fail to excite at aprofligate court, Seneca was accused of having maintained a criminalcorrespondence with Agrippina in the life-time of Claudius; but the chiefauthor of this calumny was Suilius, who had been banished from Rome atthe instance of Seneca. He was likewise charged with having amassedexorbitant riches, with having built magnificent houses, and formedbeautiful gardens, during the four years in which he had acted aspreceptor to Nero. This charge he considered as a prelude to hisdestruction; which to avoid, if possible, he requested of the emperor toaccept of the riches and possessions which he had acquired in hissituation at court, and to permit him to withdraw himself into a life ofstudious retirement. Nero, dissembling his secret intentions, refusedthis request; and Seneca, that he might obviate all cause of suspicion oroffence, kept himself at home for some time, under the pretext ofindisposition. 

Upon the breaking out of the conspiracy of Piso, in which some of theprincipal senators were concerned, Natalis, the discoverer of the plot, mentioned Seneca's name, as an accessory. There is, however, nosatisfactory evidence that Seneca had any knowledge of the plot. Piso, according to the declaration of Natalis, had complained that he never sawSeneca; and the latter had observed, in answer, that it was not conduciveto their common interest to see each other often. Seneca likewisepleaded indisposition, and said that his own life depended upon thesafety of Piso's person. Nero, however, glad of such an occasion ofsacrificing the philosopher to his secret jealousy, sent him an order todestroy himself. When the messenger arrived with this mandate, Senecawas sitting at table, with his wife Paulina and two of his friends. Heheard the message not only with philosophical firmness, but even withsymptoms of joy, and observed, that such an honour might long have beenexpected from a man who had assassinated all his friends, and evenmurdered his own mother. The only request which he made, was, that hemight be permitted to dispose of his possessions as he pleased; but thiswas refused him. Immediately turning himself to his friends, who wereweeping at his melancholy fate, he said to them, that, since he could notleave them what he considered as his own property, he should leave atleast his own life for an example; an innocence of conduct which theymight imitate, and by which they might acquire immortal fame. Heremonstrated with composure against their unavailing tears and (388)lamentations, and asked them, whether they had not learnt better tosustain the shocks of fortune, and the violence of tyranny?

The emotions of his wife he endeavoured to allay with philosophicalconsolation; and when she expressed a resolution to die with him, hesaid, that he was glad to find his example imitated with so muchfortitude. The veins of both were opened at the same time; but Nero'scommand extending only to Seneca, the life of Paulina was preserved; and, according to some authors, she was not displeased at being prevented fromcarrying her precipitate resolution into effect. Seneca's veins bleedingbut slowly, an opportunity was offered him of displaying in his lastmoments a philosophical magnanimity similar to that of Socrates; and itappears that his conversation during this solemn period was maintainedwith dignified composure. To accelerate his lingering fate, he drank adose of poison; but this producing no effect, he ordered his attendantsto carry him into a warm bath, for the purpose of rendering thehaemorrhage from his veins more copious. This expedient proving likewiseineffectual, and the soldiers who witnessed the execution of theemperor's order being clamorous for its accomplishment, he was removedinto a stove, and suffocated by the steam. He underwent his fate on the12th of April, in the sixty-fifth year of the Christian aera, and thefifty-third year of his age. His body was burnt, and his ashes depositedin a private manner, according to his will, which had been made duringthe period when he was in the highest degree of favour with Nero. 

The writings of Seneca are numerous, and on various subjects. His firstcomposition, addressed to Novacus, is on Anger, and continued throughthree books. After giving a lively description of this passion, theauthor discusses a variety of questions concerning it: he argues stronglyagainst its utility, in contradiction to the peripatetics, and recommendsits restraint, by many just and excellent considerations. This treatisemay be regarded, in its general outlines, as a philosophicalamplification of the passage in Horace:--

 Ira furor brevis est: animum rege; qui, nisi paret, Imperat: hunc fraenis, hunc tu compesce catena. Epist. I. Ii. 

 Anger's a fitful madness: rein thy mind, Subdue the tyrant, and in fetters bind, Or be thyself the slave. 

The next treatise is on Consolation, addressed to his mother, Helvia, andwas written during his exile. He there informs his mother that he bearshis banishment with fortitude, and advises her to do the same. Heobserves, that, in respect to himself, (389) change of place, poverty, ignominy, and contempt, are not real evils; that there may be two reasonsfor her anxiety on his account; first, that, by his absence, she isdeprived of his protection; and in the next place, of the satisfactionarising from his company; on both which heads he suggests a variety ofpertinent observations. Prefixed to this treatise, are some epigramswritten on the banishment of Seneca, but whether or not by himself, isuncertain. 

Immediately subsequent to the preceding, is another treatise onConsolation, addressed to one of Claudius's freedmen, named Polybius, perhaps after the learned historian. In this tract, which is in severalparts mutilated, the author endeavours to console Polybius for the lossof a brother who had lately died. The sentiments and admonitions arewell suggested for the purpose; but they are intermixed with such fulsomeencomiums on the imperial domestic, as degrade the dignity of the author, and can be ascribed to no other motive than that of endeavouring toprocure a recall from his exile, through the interest of Polybius. 

A fourth treatise on Consolation is addressed to Marcia, a respectableand opulent lady, the daughter of Cremutius Cordus, by whose death shewas deeply affected. The author, besides many consolatory arguments, proposes for her imitation a number of examples, by attending to whichshe may be enabled to overcome a passion that is founded only in toogreat sensibility of mind. The subject is ingeniously prosecuted, notwithout the occasional mixture of some delicate flattery, suitable to thecharacter of the correspondent. 

These consolatory addresses are followed by a treatise on Providence, which evinces the author to have entertained the most just andphilosophical sentiments on that subject. He infers the necessaryexistence of a Providence from the regularity and constancy observed inthe government of the universe but his chief object is to show, why, uponthe principle that a Providence exists, good men should be liable toevils. The enquiry is conducted with a variety of just observations, andgreat force of argument; by which the author vindicates the goodness andwisdom of the Almighty, in a strain of sentiment corresponding to themost approved suggestions of natural religion. 

The next treatise, which is on Tranquillity of Mind, appears to have beenwritten soon after his return from exile. There is a confusion in thearrangement of this tract; but it contains a variety of justobservations, and may be regarded as a valuable production. 

(390) Then follows a discourse on the Constancy of a Wise Man. This hasby some been considered as a part of the preceding treatise; but they areevidently distinct. It is one of the author's best productions, inregard both of sentiment and composition, and contains a fund of moralobservations, suited to fortify the mind under the oppression ofaccidental calamities. 

We next meet with a tract on Clemency, in two books, addressed to Nero. This appears to have been written in the beginning of the reign of Nero, on whom the author bestows some high encomiums, which, at that time, seemnot to have been destitute of foundation. The discourse abounds withjust observation, applicable to all ranks of men; and, if properlyattended to by that infatuated emperor, might have prevented theperpetration of those acts of cruelty, which, with his otherextravagancies, have rendered his name odious to posterity. 

The discourse which succeeds is on the Shortness of Life, addressed toPaulinus. In this excellent treatise the author endeavours to show, thatthe complaint of the shortness of life is not founded in truth: that itis men who make life short, either by passing it in indolence, orotherwise improperly. He inveighs against indolence, luxury, and everyunprofitable avocation; observing, that the best use of time is to applyit to the study of wisdom, by which life may be rendered sufficientlylong. 

Next follows a discourse on a Happy Life, addressed to Gallio. Senecaseems to have intended this as a vindication of himself, against thosewho calumniated him on account of his riches and manner of living. Hemaintained that a life can only be rendered happy by its conformity tothe dictates of virtue, but that such a life is perfectly compatible withthe possession of riches, where they happen to accrue. The author pleadshis own cause with great ability, as well as justness of argument. Hisvindication is in many parts highly beautiful, and accompanied withadmirable sentiments respecting the moral obligations to a virtuous life. The conclusion of this discourse bears no similarity, in point ofcomposition, to the preceding parts, and is evidently spurious. 

The preceding discourse is followed by one upon the Retirement of a WiseMan. The beginning of this tract is wanting; but in the sequel theauthor discusses a question which was much agitated amongst the Stoicsand Epicureans, viz. , whether a wise man ought to concern himself withthe affairs of the public. Both these sects of philosophers maintainedthat a life of retirement was most suitable to a wise man, but theydiffered with respect to the circumstances in which it might be proper todeviate from this conduct; one party considering the deviation (391) asprudent, when there existed a just motive for such conduct, and theother, when there was no forcible reason against it. Seneca regards boththese opinions as founded upon principles inadequate to the advancementboth of public and private happiness, which ought ever to be the ultimateobject of moral speculation. 

The last of the author's discourses, addressed to Aebucius, is onBenefits, and continued through seven books. He begins with lamentingthe frequency of ingratitude amongst mankind, a vice which he severelycensures. After some preliminary considerations respecting the nature ofbenefits, he proceeds to show in what manner, and on whom, they ought tobe conferred. The greater part of these books is employed on thesolution of abstract questions relative to benefits, in the manner ofChrysippus; where the author states explicitly the arguments on bothsides, and from the full consideration of them, deduces rationalconclusions. 

The Epistles of Seneca consist of one hundred and twenty-four, all onmoral subjects. His Natural Questions extend through seven books, inwhich he has collected the hypotheses of Aristotle and other ancientwriters. These are followed by a whimsical effusion on the death ofCaligula. The remainder of his works comprises seven PersuasiveDiscourses, five books of Controversies, and ten books containingExtracts of Declamations. 

From the multiplicity of Seneca's productions, it is evident, that, notwithstanding the luxurious life he is said to have led, he was greatlydevoted to literature, a propensity which, it is probable, was confirmedby his banishment during almost eight years in the island of Corsica, where he was in a great degree secluded from every other resource ofamusement to a cultivated mind. But with whatever splendour Seneca'sdomestic economy may have been supported, it seems highly improbable thathe indulged himself in luxurious enjoyment to any vicious excess. Hissituation at the Roman court, being honourable and important, could notfail of being likewise advantageous, not only from the imperial profusioncommon at that time, but from many contingent emoluments which hisextensive interest and patronage would naturally afford him. He was bornof a respectable rank, lived in habits of familiar intercourse withpersons of the first distinction, and if, in the course of his attendanceupon Nero, he had acquired a large fortune, no blame could justly attachto his conduct in maintaining an elegant hospitality. The imputation ofluxury was thrown upon him from two quarters, viz, by the dissolutecompanions of Nero, to whom the mention of such an example served as anapology for their own extreme dissipation; (392) and by those who enviedhim for the affluence and dignity which he had acquired. The charge, however, is supported only by vague assertion, and is discredited byevery consideration which ought to have weight in determining the realityof human characters. It seems totally inconsistent with his habits ofliterary industry, with the virtuous sentiments which he every wherestrenuously maintains, and the esteem with which he was regarded by anumerous acquaintance, as a philosopher and a moralist. 

The writings of Seneca have been traduced almost equally with his mannerof living, though in both he has a claim to indulgence, from the fashionof the times. He is more studious of minute embellishments in style thanthe writers of the Augustan age; and the didactic strain, in which hemostly prosecutes his subjects, has a tendency to render him sententious;but the expression of his thoughts is neither enfeebled by decoration, nor involved in obscurity by conciseness. He is not more rich inartificial ornament than in moral admonition. Seneca has been chargedwith depreciating former writers, to render himself more conspicuous; acharge which, so far as appears from his writings, is founded rather innegative than positive testimony. He has not endeavoured to establishhis fame by any affectation of singularity in doctrine; and while hepasses over in silence the names of illustrious authors, he availshimself with judgment of the most valuable stores with which they hadenriched philosophy. On the whole, he is an author whose principles maybe adopted not only with safety, but great advantage; and his writingsmerit a degree of consideration, superior to what they have hitherto everenjoyed in the literary world. 

Seneca, besides his prose works, was the author of some tragedies. TheMedea, the Troas, and the Hippolytus, are ascribed to him. His father issaid to have written the Hercules Furens, Thyestes, Agamemnon, andHercules Oetaeus. The three remaining tragedies, the Thebais, Oedipus, and Octavia, usually published in the same collection with the sevenpreceding, are supposed to be the productions of other authors, but ofwhom, is uncertain. These several pieces are written in a neat style;the plots and characters are conducted with an attention to probabilityand nature: but none of them is so forcible, in point of tragicaldistress, as to excite in the reader any great degree of emotion. ----

PETRONIUS was a Roman knight, and apparently of considerable fortune. Inhis youth he seems to have given great application to polite literature, in which he acquired a justness of taste, as well as an elegance ofcomposition. Early initiated in the gaieties (393) of fashionable life, he contracted a habit of voluptuousness which rendered him anaccommodating companion to the dissipated and the luxurious. The courtof Claudius, entirely governed for some time by Messalina, was then theresidence of pleasure; and here Petronius failed not of making aconspicuous appearance. More delicate, however, than sensual, he ratherjoined in the dissipation, than indulged in the vices of the palace. Tointerrupt a course of life too uniform to afford him perpetualsatisfaction, he accepted of the proconsulship of Bithynia, and went tothat province, where he discharged the duties of his office with greatcredit. Upon his return to Rome, Nero, who had succeeded Claudius, madehim consul, in recompense of his services. This new dignity, by givinghim frequent and easy access to the emperor, created an intimacy betweenthem, which was increased to friendship and esteem on the side of Nero, by the elegant entertainments often given him by Petronius. In a shorttime, this gay voluptuary became so much a favourite at court, thatnothing was agreeable but what was approved by Petronius and theauthority which he acquired, by being umpire in whatever related to theeconomy of gay dissipation, procured him the title of Arbiterelegantiarum. Things continued in this state whilst the emperor keptwithin the bounds of moderation; and Petronius acted as intendant of hispleasures, ordering him shows, games, comedies, music, feats, and allthat could contribute to make the hours of relaxation pass agreeably;seasoning, at the same time, the innocent delights which he procured forthe emperor with every possible charm, to prevent him from seeking aftersuch as might prove pernicious both to morals and the republic. Nero, however, giving way to his own disposition, which was naturally vicious, at length changed his conduct, not only in regard to the government ofthe empire, but of himself and listening to other counsels than those ofPetronius, gave the entire reins to his passions, which afterwardsplunged him in ruin. The emperor's new favourite was Tigellinus, a manof the most profligate morals, who omitted nothing that could gratify theinordinate appetites of his prince, at the expense of all decency andvirtue. During this period, Petronius gave vent to his indignation, inthe satire transmitted under his name by the title of Satyricon. But histotal retirement from court did not secure him from the artifices ofTigellinus, who laboured with all his power to destroy the man whom hehad industriously supplanted in the emperor's favour. With this view heinsinuated to Nero, that Petronius was too intimately connected withScevinus not to be engaged in Piso's conspiracy; and, to support hiscalumny, caused the emperor to be present at the examination (394) of oneof Petronius's slaves, whom he had secretly suborned to swear against hismaster. After this transaction, to deprive Petronius of all means ofjustifying himself, they threw into prison the greatest part of hisdomestics. Nero embraced with joy the opportunity of removing a man, towhom he knew the present manners of the court were utterly obnoxious, andhe soon after issued orders for arresting Petronius. As it required, however, some time to deliberate whether they should put a person of hisconsideration to death, without more evident proofs of the chargespreferred against him, such was his disgust at living in the power of sodetestable and capricious a tyrant, that he resolved to die. For thispurpose, making choice of the same expedient which had been adopted bySeneca, he caused his veins to be opened, but he closed them again, for alittle time, that he might enjoy the conversation of his friends, whocame to see him in his last moments. He desired them, it is said, toentertain him, not with discourses on the immortality of the soul, or theconsolation of philosophy, but with agreeable tales and poeticgallantries. Disdaining to imitate the servility of those who, dying bythe orders of Nero, yet made him their heir, and filled their wills withencomiums on the tyrant and his favourites, he broke to pieces a gobletof precious stones, out of which he had commonly drank, that Nero, who heknew would seize upon it after his death, might not have the pleasure ofusing it. As the only present suitable to such a prince, he sent him, under a sealed cover, his Satyricon, written purposely against him; andthen broke his signet, that it might not, after his death, become themeans of accusation against the person in whose custody it should befound. 

The Satyricon of Petronius is one of the most curious productions in theLatin language. Novel in its nature, and without any parallel in theworks of antiquity, some have imagined it to be a spurious composition, fabricated about the time of the revival of learning in Europe. Thisconjecture, however, is not more destitute of support, than repugnant tothe most circumstantial evidence in favour of its authenticity. Others, admitting the work to be a production of the age of Nero, have questionedthe design with which it was written, and have consequently imputed tothe author a most immoral intention. Some of the scenes, incidents, andcharacters, are of so extraordinary a nature, that the description ofthem, without a particular application, must have been regarded asextremely whimsical, and the work, notwithstanding its ingenuity, hasbeen doomed to perpetual oblivion: but history justifies the belief, thatin the court of Nero, the extravagancies mentioned by Petronius wererealized (395) to a degree which authenticates the representation givenof them. The inimitable character of Trimalchio, which exhibits a personsunk in the most debauched effeminacy, was drawn for Nero; and we areassured, that there were formerly medals of that emperor, with thesewords, C. Nero August. Imp. , and on the reverse, Trimalchio. The variouscharacters are well discriminated, and supported with admirablepropriety. Never was such licentiousness of description united to suchdelicacy of colouring. The force of the satire consists not in poignancyof sentiment, but in the ridicule which arises from the whimsical, butcharacteristic and faithful exhibition of the objects introduced. ThatNero was struck with the justness of the representation, is evident fromthe displeasure which he showed, at finding Petronius so well acquaintedwith his infamous excesses. After levelling his suspicion on all whocould possibly have betrayed him, he at last fixed on a senator's wife, named Silia, who bore a part in his revels, and was an intimate friend ofPetronius upon which she was immediately sent into banishment. Amongstthe miscellaneous materials in this work, are some pieces of poetry, written in an elegant taste. A poem on the civil war between Caesar andPompey, is beautiful and animated. 

Though the Muses appear to have been mostly in a quiescent state from thetime of Augustus, we find from Petronius Arbiter, who exhibits themanners of the capital during the reign of Nero, that poetry stillcontinued to be a favourite pursuit amongst the Romans, and one to which, indeed, they seem to have had a national propensity. 

 --------Ecce inter pocula quaerunt Romulidae saturi, quid dia poemata narrent. --Persius, Sat. I. 30. 

 ----Nay, more! Our nobles, gorged, and swilled with wine, Call o'er the banquet for a lay divine!--Gifford. 

It was cultivated as a kind of fashionable exercise, in short anddesultory attempts, in which the chief ambition was to produce versesextempore. They were publicly recited by their authors with greatostentation; and a favourable verdict from an audience, however partial, and frequently obtained either by intrigue or bribery, was construed bythose frivolous pretenders into a real adjudication of poetical fame. 

The custom of publicly reciting poetical compositions, with the view ofobtaining the opinion of the hearers concerning them, and for whichpurpose Augustus had built the Temple of Apollo, was well calculated forthe improvement of taste and judgment, as well as the excitement ofemulation; but, conducted as it now was, it led to a general degradationof poetry. Barbarism in (396) language, and a corruption of taste, werethe natural consequences of this practice, while the judgment of themultitude was either blind or venal, and while public approbationsanctioned the crudities of hasty composition. There arose, however, inthis period, some candidates for the bays, who carried their effortsbeyond the narrow limits which custom and inadequate genius prescribed tothe poetical exertions of their contemporaries. Amongst these were Lucanand Persius. ----

LUCAN was the son of Annaeus Mela, the brother of Seneca, thephilosopher. He was born at Corduba, the original residence of thefamily, but came early to Rome, where his promising talents, and thepatronage of his uncle, recommended him to the favour of Nero; by whom hewas raised to the dignity of an augur and quaestor before he had attainedthe usual age. Prompted by the desire of displaying his politicalabilities, he had the imprudence to engage in a competition with hisimperial patron. The subject chosen by Nero was the tragical fate ofNiobe; and that of Lucan was Orpheus. The ease with which the latterobtained the victory in the contest, excited the jealousy of the emperor, who resolved upon depressing his rising genius. With this view, heexposed him daily to the mortification of fresh insults, until at lastthe poet's resentment was so much provoked, that he entered into theconspiracy of Piso for cutting off the tyrant. The plot beingdiscovered, there remained for the unfortunate Lucan no hope of pardon:and choosing the same mode of death which was employed by his uncle, hehad his veins opened, while he sat in a warm bath, and expired inpronouncing with great emphasis the following lines in his Pharsalia:--

 Scinditur avulsus; nec sicut vulnere sanguis Emicuit lentus: ruptis cadit undique venis; Discursusque animae diversa in membra meantis Interceptus aquis, nullius, vita perempti Est tanta dimissa via. --Lib. Iii. 638. 

 ----Asunder flies the man. No single wound the gaping rupture seems, Where trickling crimson flows in tender streams; But from an opening horrible and wide A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide; At once the winding channel's course was broke, Where wandering life her mazy journey took. --Rowe. 

Some authors have said that he betrayed pusillanimity at the hour ofdeath; and that, to save himself from punishment, he (397) accused hismother of being involved in the conspiracy. This circumstance, however, is not mentioned by other writers, who relate, on the contrary, that hedied with philosophical fortitude. He was then only in the twenty-sixthyear of his age. 

Lucan had scarcely reached the age of puberty when he wrote a poem on thecontest between Hector and Achilles. He also composed in his youth apoem on the burning of Rome; but his only surviving work is thePharsalia, written on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. Thispoem, consisting of ten books, is unfinished, and its character has beenmore depreciated than that of any other production of antiquity. In theplan of the poem, the author prosecutes the different events in the civilwar, beginning his narrative at the passage of the Rubicon by Caesar. Heinvokes not the muses, nor engages any gods in the dispute; butendeavours to support an epic dignity by vigour of sentiment, andsplendour of description. The horrors of civil war, and the importanceof a contest which was to determine the fate of Rome and the empire ofthe world, are displayed with variety of colouring, and great energy ofexpression. In the description of scenes, and the recital of heroicactions, the author discovers a strong and lively imagination; while, inthose parts of the work which are addressed either to the understandingor the passions, he is bold, figurative, and animated. Indulging toomuch in amplification, he is apt to tire with prolixity; but in all hisexcursions he is ardent, elevated, impressive, and often brilliant. Hisversification has not the smoothness which we admire in the compositionsof Virgil, and his language is often involved in the intricacies oftechnical construction: but with all his defects, his beauties arenumerous; and he discovers a greater degree of merit than is commonlyfound in the productions of a poet of twenty-six years of age, at whichtime he died. ----

PERSIUS was born at Volaterrae, of an equestrian family, about thebeginning of the Christian aera. His father dying when he was six yearsold, he was left to the care of his mother, for whom and for his sistershe expresses the warmest affection. At the age of twelve he came toRome, where, after attending a course of grammar and rhetoric under therespective masters of those branches of education, he placed himselfunder the tuition of Annaeus Cornutus, a celebrated stoic philosopher ofthat time. There subsisted between him and this preceptor so great afriendship, that at his death, which happened in the twenty-ninth year ofhis age, he bequeathed to Cornutus a handsome sum of money, and hislibrary. The latter, however, accepting only the books, left the moneyto Persius's sisters. 

Priscian, Quintilian, and other ancient writers, spear of Persius'ssatires as consisting of a book without any division. They have since, however, been generally divided into six different satires, but by someonly into five. The subjects of these compositions are, the vanity ofthe poets in his time; the backwardness of youth to the cultivation ofmoral science; ignorance and temerity in political administration, chiefly in allusion to the government of Nero: the fifth satire isemployed in evincing that the wise man also is free; in discussing whichpoint, the author adopts the observations used by Horace on the samesubject. The last satire of Persius is directed against avarice. In thefifth, we meet with a beautiful address to Cornutus, whom the authorcelebrates for his amiable virtues, and peculiar talents for teaching. The following lines, at the same time that they show how diligently thepreceptor and his pupil were employed through the whole day in thecultivation of moral science, afford a more agreeable picture of domesticcomfort and philosophical conviviality, than might be expected in thefamily of a rigid stoic:

 Tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles, Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes. Unum opus, et requiem pariter disponimus ambo: Atque verecunda laxamus feria mensa. --Sat. V. 

 Can I forget how many a summer's day, Spent in your converse, stole, unmarked, away? Or how, while listening with increased delight, I snatched from feasts the earlier hours of night?--Gifford. 

The satires of Persius are written in a free, expostulatory, andargumentative manner; possessing the same justness of sentiment as thoseof Horace, but exerted in the way of derision, and not with the admirableraillery of that facetious author. They are regarded by many as obscure;but this imputation arises more from unacquaintance with the charactersand manners to which the author alludes, than from any peculiarity eitherin his language or composition. His versification is harmonious; and wehave only to remark, in addition to similar examples in other Latinwriters, that, though Persius is acknowledged to have been both virtuousand modest, there are in the fourth satire a few passages which cannotdecently admit of being translated. Such was the freedom of the Romans, in the use of some expressions, which just refinement has now exploded. --

Another poet, in this period, was FABRICIUS VEIENTO, who wrote a severesatire against the priests of his time; as also one (399) against thesenators, for corruption in their judicial capacity. Nothing remains ofeither of those productions; but, for the latter, the author was banishedby Nero. 

There now likewise flourished a lyric poet, CAESIUS BASSUS, to whomPersius has addressed his sixth satire. He is said to have been, next toHorace, the best lyric poet among the Romans; but of his variouscompositions, only a few inconsiderable fragments are preserved. 

To the two poets now mentioned must be added POMPONIUS SECUNDUS, a man ofdistinguished rank in the army, and who obtained the honour of a triumphfor a victory over a tribe of barbarians in Germany. He wrote severaltragedies, which in the judgment of Quintilian, were beautifulcompositions. 

SERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA. 

(400)

I. The race of the Caesars became extinct in Nero; an eventprognosticated by various signs, two of which were particularlysignificant. Formerly, when Livia, after her marriage with Augustus, wasmaking a visit to her villa at Veii [639], an eagle flying by, let dropupon her lap a hen, with a sprig of laurel in her mouth, just as she hadseized it. Livia gave orders to have the hen taken care of, and thesprig of laurel set; and the hen reared such a numerous brood ofchickens, that the villa, to this day, is called the Villa of the Hens[640]. The laurel groves flourished so much, that the Caesars procuredthence the boughs and crowns they bore at their triumphs. It was alsotheir constant custom to plant others on the same spot, immediately aftera triumph; and it was observed that, a little before the death of eachprince, the tree which had been set by him died away. But in the lastyear of Nero, the whole plantation of laurels perished to the very roots, and the hens all died. About the same time, the temple of the Caesars[641] being struck with lightning, the heads of all the statues in itfell off at once; and Augustus's sceptre was dashed from his hands. 

II. Nero was succeeded by Galba [642], who was not in the remotestdegree allied to the family of the Caesars, but, without doubt, of verynoble extraction, being descended from a great and ancient family; for healways used to put amongst his other titles, upon the bases of hisstatues, his being great-grandson to Q. Catulus Capitolinus. And when hecame to (401) be emperor, he set up the images of his ancestors in thehall [643] of the palace; according to the inscriptions on which, hecarried up his pedigree on the father's side to Jupiter; and by themother's to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos. 

III. To give even a short account of the whole family, would be tedious. I shall, therefore, only slightly notice that branch of it from which hewas descended. Why, or whence, the first of the Sulpicii who had thecognomen of Galba, was so called, is uncertain. Some are of opinion, that it was because he set fire to a city in Spain, after he had a longtime attacked it to no purpose, with torches dipped in the gum calledGalbanum: others said he was so named, because, in a lingering disease, he made use of it as a remedy, wrapped up in wool: others, on account ofhis being prodigiously corpulent, such a one being called, in thelanguage of the Gauls, Galba; or, on the contrary, because he was of aslender habit of body, like those insects which breed in a sort of oak, and are called Galbae. Sergius Galba, a person of consular rank [644], and the most eloquent man of his time, gave a lustre to the family. History relates, that, when he was pro-praetor of Spain, he perfidiouslyput to the sword thirty thousand Lusitanians, and by that means gaveoccasion to the war of Viriatus [645]. His grandson being incensedagainst Julius Caesar, whose lieutenant he had been in Gaul, because hewas through him disappointed of the consulship [646], joined with Cassiusand Brutus in the conspiracy against him, for which he was condemned bythe Pedian law. From him were descended the grandfather and father ofthe emperor Galba. The grandfather was more celebrated for hisapplication to study, than (402) for any figure he made in thegovernment. For he rose no higher than the praetorship, but published alarge and not uninteresting history. His father attained to theconsulship [647]: he was a short man and hump-backed, but a tolerableorator, and an industrious pleader. He was twice married: thefirst of his wives was Mummia Achaica, daughter of Catulus, andgreat-grand-daughter of Lucius Mummius, who sacked Corinth [648]; and theother, Livia Ocellina, a very rich and beautiful woman, by whom it issupposed he was courted for the nobleness of his descent. They say, thatshe was farther encouraged to persevere in her advances, by an incidentwhich evinced the great ingenuousness of his disposition. Upon herpressing her suit, he took an opportunity, when they were alone, ofstripping off his toga, and showing her the deformity of his person, thathe might not be thought to impose upon her. He had by Achaica two sons, Caius and Sergius. The elder of these, Caius [649], having very muchreduced his estate, retired from town, and being prohibited by Tiberiusfrom standing for a pro-consulship in his year, put an end to his ownlife. 

IV. The emperor Sergius Galba was born in the consulship of M. ValeriusMessala, and Cn. Lentulus, upon the ninth of the calends of January [24thDecember] [650], in a villa standing upon a hill, near Terracina, on theleft-hand side of the road to Fundi [651]. Being adopted by hisstep-mother [652], he assumed the name of Livius, with the cognomen ofOcella, and changed his praenomen; for he afterwards used that of Lucius, instead of Sergius, until he arrived at the imperial dignity. It is wellknown, that when he came once, amongst other boys of his own age, to payhis respects to Augustus, the latter, pinching his cheek, said to him, "And thou, child, too, wilt taste our imperial dignity. " Tiberius, likewise, being told that he would come to be emperor, but at an advancedage, exclaimed, "Let him live, then, since that does not concern me!"When his grandfather was offering sacrifice to (403) avert some ill omenfrom lightning, the entrails of the victim were snatched out of his handby an eagle, and carried off into an oak-tree loaded with acorns. Uponthis, the soothsayers said, that the family would come to be masters ofthe empire, but not until many years had elapsed: at which he, smiling, said, "Ay, when a mule comes to bear a foal. " When Galba first declaredagainst Nero, nothing gave him so much confidence of success, as a mule'shappening at that time to have a foal. And whilst all others were shockedat the occurrence, as a most inauspicious prodigy, he alone regarded it asa most fortunate omen, calling to mind the sacrifice and saying of hisgrandfather. When he took upon him the manly habit, he dreamt that thegoddess Fortune said to him, "I stand before your door weary; and unless Iam speedily admitted, I shall fall into the hands of the first who comesto seize me. " On his awaking, when the door of the house was opened, hefound a brazen statue of the goddess, above a cubit long, close to thethreshold, which he carried with slim to Tusculum, where he used to passthe summer season; and having consecrated it in an apartment of his house, he ever after worshipped it with a monthly sacrifice, and an anniversaryvigil. Though but a very young man, he kept up an ancient but obsoletecustom, and now nowhere observed, except in his own family, which was, tohave his freedmen and slaves appear in a body before him twice a day, morning and evening, to offer him their salutations. 

V. Amongst other liberal studies, he applied himself to the law. Hemarried Lepida [653], by whom he had two sons; but the mother andchildren all dying, he continued a widower; nor could he be prevailedupon to marry again, not even Agrippina herself, at that time left awidow by the death of Domitius, who had employed all her blandishments toallure him to her embraces, while he was a married man; insomuch thatLepida's mother, when in company with several married women, rebuked herfor it, and even went so far as to cuff her. Most of all, he courted theempress Livia [654], by whose favour, while she was living, he made aconsiderable figure, and narrowly missed being enriched by the will whichshe left at her death; in which she distinguished him from the rest ofthe (404) legatees, by a legacy of fifty millions of sesterces. Butbecause the sum was expressed in figures, and not in words at length, itwas reduced by her heir, Tiberius, to five hundred thousand: and eventhis he never received. [655]

VI. Filling the great offices before the age required for it by law, during his praetorship, at the celebration of games in honour of thegoddess Flora, he presented the new spectacle of elephants walking uponropes. He was then governor of the province of Aquitania for near ayear, and soon afterwards took the consulship in the usual course, andheld it for six months [656]. It so happened that he succeeded L. Domitius, the father of Nero, and was succeeded by Salvius Otho, fatherto the emperor of that name; so that his holding it between the sons ofthese two men, looked like a presage of his future advancement to theempire. Being appointed by Caius Caesar to supersede Gaetulicus in hiscommand, the day after his joining the legions, he put a stop to theirplaudits in a public spectacle, by issuing an order, "That they shouldkeep their hands under their cloaks. " Immediately upon which, thefollowing verse became very common in the camp:

 Disce, miles, militare: Galba est, non Gaetulicus. 

 Learn, soldier, now in arms to use your hands, 'Tis Galba, not Gaetulicus, commands. 

With equal strictness, he would allow of no petitions for leave ofabsence from the camp. He hardened the soldiers, both old and young, byconstant exercise; and having quickly reduced within their own limits thebarbarians who had made inroads into Gaul, upon Caius's coming intoGermany, he so far recommended himself and his army to that emperor'sapprobation, that, amongst the innumerable troops drawn from all theprovinces of the empire, none met with higher commendation, or greaterrewards from him. He likewise distinguished himself by heading anescort, with a shield in his hand [658], and running at the side of theemperor's chariot twenty miles together. 

VII. Upon the news of Caius's death, though many earnestly pressed himto lay hold of that opportunity of seizing the empire, he chose rather tobe quiet. On this account, he was in great favour with Claudius, andbeing received into the number of his friends, stood so high in his goodopinion, that the expedition to Britain [659] was for some timesuspended, because he was suddenly seized with a slight indisposition. He governed Africa, as pro-consul, for two years; being chosen out of theregular course to restore order in the province, which was in greatdisorder from civil dissensions, and the alarms of the barbarians. Hisadministration was distinguished by great strictness and equity, even inmatters of small importance. A soldier upon some expedition beingcharged with selling, in a great scarcity of corn, a bushel of wheat, which was all he had left, for a hundred denarii, he forbad him to berelieved by any body, when he came to be in want himself; and accordinglyhe died of famine. When sitting in judgment, a cause being broughtbefore him about some beast of burden, the ownership of which was claimedby two persons; the evidence being slight on both sides, and it beingdifficult to come at the truth, he ordered the beast to be led to a pondat which he had used to be watered, with his head muffled up, and thecovering being there removed, that he should be the property of theperson whom he followed of his own accord, after drinking. 

VIII. For his achievements, both at this time in Africa, and formerly inGermany, he received the triumphal ornaments, and three sacerdotalappointments, one among The Fifteen, another in the college of Titius, and a third amongst the Augustals; and from that time to the middle ofNero's reign, he lived for the most part in retirement. He never wentabroad (405) so much as to take the air, without a carriage attendinghim, in which there was a million of sesterces in gold, ready at hand;until at last, at the time he was living in the town of Fundi, theprovince of Hispania Tarraconensis was offered him. After his arrival inthe province, whilst he was sacrificing in a temple, a boy who attendedwith a censer, became all on a sudden grey-headed. This incident wasregarded by some as a token of an approaching revolution in thegovernment, and that an old man would succeed a young one: that is, thathe would succeed Nero. And not long after, a thunderbolt falling into alake in Cantabria [660], twelve axes were found in it; a manifest sign ofthe supreme power. 

IX. He governed the province during eight years, his administrationbeing of an uncertain and capricious character. At first he was active, vigorous, and indeed excessively severe, in the punishment of offenders. For, a money-dealer having committed some fraud in the way of hisbusiness, he cut off his hands, and nailed them to his counter. Another, who had poisoned an orphan, to whom he was guardian, and next heir to theestate, he crucified. On this delinquent imploring the protection of thelaw, and crying out that he was a Roman citizen, he affected to affordhim some alleviation, and to mitigate his punishment, by a mark ofhonour, ordered a cross, higher than usual, and painted white, to beerected for him. But by degrees he gave himself up to a life ofindolence and inactivity, from the fear of giving Nero any occasion ofjealousy, and because, as he used to say, "Nobody was obliged to renderan account of their leisure hours. " He was holding a court of justice onthe circuit at New Carthage [661], when he received intelligence of theinsurrection in Gaul [662]; and while the lieutenant of Aquitania wassoliciting his assistance, letters were brought from Vindex, requestinghim "to assert the rights of mankind, and put himself at their head torelieve them from the tyranny of Nero. " Without any long demur, heaccepted the invitation, from a mixture of fear and hope. For he haddiscovered that private orders had been sent by Nero to his procuratorsin the province to get (407) him dispatched; and he was encouraged to theenterprise, as well by several auspices and omens, as by the prophecy ofa young woman of good, family. The more so, because the priest ofJupiter at Clunia [663], admonished by a dream, had discovered in therecesses of the temple some verses similar to those in which she haddelivered her prophecy. These had also been uttered by a girl underdivine inspiration, about two hundred years before. The import of theverses was, "That in time, Spain should give the world a lord andmaster. "

X. Taking his seat on the tribunal, therefore, as if there was no otherbusiness than the manumitting of slaves, he had the effigies of a numberof persons who had been condemned and put to death by Nero, set up beforehim, whilst a noble youth stood by, who had been banished, and whom hehad purposely sent for from one of the neighbouring Balearic isles; andlamenting the condition of the times, and being thereupon unanimouslysaluted by the title of Emperor, he publicly declared himself "only thelieutenant of the senate and people of Rome. " Then shutting the courts, he levied legions and auxiliary troops among the provincials, besides hisveteran army consisting of one legion, two wings of horse, and threecohorts. Out of the military leaders most distinguished for age andprudence, he formed a kind of senate, with whom to advise upon allmatters of importance, as often as occasion should require. He likewisechose several young men of the equestrian order, who were to be allowedthe privilege of wearing the gold ring, and, being called "The Reserve, "should mount guard before his bed-chamber, instead of the legionarysoldiers. He likewise issued proclamations throughout the provinces ofthe empire, exhorting all to rise in arms unanimously, and aid the commoncause, by all the ways and means in their power. About the same time, infortifying a town, which he had pitched upon for a military post, a ringwas found, of antique workmanship, in the stone of which was engraved thegoddess Victory with a trophy. Presently after, a ship of Alexandriaarrived at Dertosa [664], loaded with arms, without any person to steerit, or so much as a single sailor or passenger (408) on board. From thisincident, nobody entertained the least doubt but the war upon which theywere entering was just and honourable, and favoured likewise by the gods;when all on a sudden the whole design was exposed to failure. One of thetwo wings of horse, repenting of the violation of their oath to Nero, attempted to desert him upon his approach to the camp, and were with somedifficulty kept in their duty. And some slaves who had been presented tohim by a freedman of Nero's, on purpose to murder him, had like to havekilled him as he went through a narrow passage to the bath. Beingoverheard to encourage one another not to lose the opportunity, they werecalled to an account concerning it; and recourse being had to thetorture, a confession was extorted from them. 

XI. These dangers were followed by the death of Vindex, at which beingextremely discouraged, as if fortune had quite forsaken him, he hadthoughts of putting an end to his own life; but receiving advice by hismessengers from Rome that Nero was slain, and that all had taken an oathto him as emperor, he laid aside the title of lieutenant, and took uponhim that of Caesar. Putting himself upon his march in his general'scloak, and a dagger hanging from his neck before his breast, he did notresume the use of the toga, until Nymphidius Sabinus, prefect of thepretorian guards at Rome, with the two lieutenants, Fonteius Capito inGermany, and Claudius Macer in Africa, who opposed his advancement, wereall put down. 

XII. Rumours of his cruelty and avarice had reached the city before hisarrival; such as that he had punished some cities of Spain and Gaul, fornot joining him readily, by the imposition of heavy taxes, and some bylevelling their walls; and had put to death the governors and procuratorswith their wives and children: likewise that a golden crown, of fifteenpounds weight, taken out of the temple of Jupiter, with which he waspresented by the people of Tarracona, he had melted down, and had exactedfrom them three ounces which were wanting in the weight. This report ofhim was confirmed and increased, as soon as he entered the town. Forsome seamen who had been taken from the fleet, and enlisted (409) amongthe troops by Nero, he obliged to return to their former condition; butthey refusing to comply, and obstinately clinging to the more honourableservice under their eagles and standards, he not only dispersed them by abody of horse, but likewise decimated them. He also disbanded a cohortof Germans, which had been formed by the preceding emperors, for theirbody-guard, and upon many occasions found very faithful; and sent themback into their own country, without giving them any gratuity, pretendingthat they were more inclined to favour the advancement of CneiusDolabella, near whose gardens they encamped, than his own. The followingridiculous stories were also related of him; but whether with or withoutfoundation, I know not; such as, that when a more sumptuous entertainmentthan usual was served up, he fetched a deep groan: that when one of thestewards presented him with an account of his expenses, he reached him adish of legumes from his table as a reward for his care and diligence;and when Canus, the piper, had played much to his satisfaction, hepresented him, with his own hand, five denarii taken out of his pocket. 

XIII. His arrival, therefore, in town was not very agreeable to thepeople; and this appeared at the next public spectacle. For when theactors in a farce began a well-known song, Venit, io, Simus [665] a villa: Lo! Clodpate from his village comes;

all the spectators, with one voice, went on with the rest, repeating andacting the first verse several times over. 

XIV. He possessed himself of the imperial power with more favour andauthority than he administered it, although he gave many proofs of hisbeing an excellent prince: but these were not so grateful to the people, as his misconduct was offensive. He was governed by three favourites, who, because they lived in the palace, and were constantly about him, obtained the name of his pedagogues. These were Titus Vinius, who hadbeen his lieutenant in Spain, a man of insatiable (410) avarice;Cornelius Laco, who, from an assessor to the prince, was advanced to beprefect of the pretorian guards, a person of intolerable arrogance, aswell as indolence; and his freedman Icelus, dignified a little beforewith the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and the use of the cognomenMartianus, who became a candidate for the highest honour within the reachof any person of the equestrian order [666]. He resigned himself soimplicitly into the power of those three favourites, who governed inevery thing according to the capricious impulse of their vices andtempers, and his authority was so much abused by them, that the tenor ofhis conduct was not very consistent with itself. At one time, he wasmore rigorous and frugal, at another, more lavish and negligent, thanbecame a prince who had been chosen by the people, and was so faradvanced in years. He condemned some men of the first rank in thesenatorian and equestrian orders, upon a very slight suspicion, andwithout trial. He rarely granted the freedom of the city to any one; andthe privilege belonging to such as had three children, only to one ortwo; and that with great difficulty, and only for a limited time. Whenthe judges petitioned to have a sixth decury added to their number, henot only denied them, but abolished the vacation which had been grantedthem by Claudius for the winter, and the beginning of the year. 

XV. It was thought that he likewise intended to reduce the offices heldby senators and men of the equestrian order, to a term of two years'continuance; and to bestow them only on those who were unwilling toaccept them, and had refused them. All the grants of Nero he recalled, saving only the tenth part of them. For this purpose he gave acommission to fifty Roman knights; with orders, that if players orwrestlers had sold what had been formerly given them, it should beexacted from the purchasers, since the others, having, no doubt, spentthe money, were not in a condition to pay. But on the other hand, hesuffered his attendants and freedmen to sell or give away the revenue ofthe state, or immunities from taxes, and to punish the innocent, orpardon criminals, at pleasure. Nay, when the Roman people were veryclamorous for the punishment of Halotus and Tigellinus, two of the (411)most mischievous amongst all the emissaries of Nero, he protected them, and even bestowed on Halotus one of the best procurations in hisdisposal. And as to Tigellinus, he even reprimanded the people for theircruelty by a proclamation. 

XVI. By this conduct, he incurred the hatred of all orders of thepeople, but especially of the soldiery. For their commanders havingpromised them in his name a donative larger than usual, upon their takingthe oath to him before his arrival at Rome; he refused to make it good, frequently bragging, "that it was his custom to choose his soldiers, notbuy them. " Thus the troops became exasperated against him in allquarters. The pretorian guards he alarmed with apprehensions of dangerand unworthy treatment; disbanding many of them occasionally asdisaffected to his government, and favourers of Nymphidius. But most ofall, the army in Upper Germany was incensed against him, as beingdefrauded of the rewards due to them for the service they had rendered inthe insurrection of the Gauls under Vindex. They were, therefore, thefirst who ventured to break into open mutiny, refusing upon the calends[the 1st] of January, to take any oath of allegiance, except to thesenate; and they immediately dispatched deputies to the pretorian troops, to let them know, "they did not like the emperor who had been set up inSpain, " and to desire that "they would make choice of another, who mightmeet with the approbation of all the armies. "

XVII. Upon receiving intelligence of this, imagining that he wasslighted not so much on account of his age, as for having no children, heimmediately singled out of a company of young persons of rank, who cameto pay their compliments to him, Piso Frugi Licinianus, a youth of nobledescent and great talents, for whom he had before contracted such aregard, that he had appointed him in his will the heir both of his estateand name. Him he now styled his son, and taking him to the camp, adoptedhim in the presence of the assembled troops, but without making anymention of a donative. This circumstance afforded the better opportunityto Marcus Salvius Otho of accomplishing his object, six days after theadoption. 

XVIII. Many remarkable prodigies had happened from the (412) verybeginning of his reign, which forewarned him of his approaching fate. Inevery town through which he passed in his way from Spain to Rome, victimswere slain on the right and left of the roads; and one of these, whichwas a bull, being maddened with the stroke of the axe, broke the ropewith which it was tied, and running straight against his chariot, withhis fore-feet elevated, bespattered him with blood. Likewise, as he wasalighting, one of the guard, being pushed forward by the crowd, had verynearly wounded him with his lance. And upon his entering the city and, afterwards, the palace, he was welcomed with an earthquake, and a noiselike the bellowing of cattle. These signs of ill-fortune were followedby some that were still more apparently such. Out of all his treasureshe had selected a necklace of pearls and jewels, to adorn his statue ofFortune at Tusculum. But it suddenly occurring to him that it deserved amore august place, he consecrated it to the Capitoline Venus; and nextnight, he dreamt that Fortune appeared to him, complaining that she hadbeen defrauded of the present intended her, and threatening to resumewhat she had given him. Terrified at this denunciation, at break of dayhe sent forward some persons to Tusculum, to make preparations for asacrifice which might avert the displeasure of the goddess; and when hehimself arrived at the place, he found nothing but some hot embers uponthe altar, and an old man in black standing by, holding a little incensein a glass, and some wine in an earthern pot. It was remarked, too, thatwhilst he was sacrificing upon the calends of January, the chaplet fellfrom his head, and upon his consulting the pullets for omens, they flewaway. Farther, upon the day of his adopting Piso, when he was toharangue the soldiers, the seat which he used upon those occasions, through the neglect of his attendants, was not placed, according tocustom, upon his tribunal; and in the senate-house, his curule chair wasset with the back forward. 

XIX. The day before he was slain, as he was sacrificing in the morning, the augur warned him from time to time to be upon his guard, for that hewas in danger from assassins, and that they were near at hand. Soonafter, he was informed, that Otho was in possession of the pretoriancamp. And though most of his friends advised him to repair thitherimmediately, (413) in hopes that he might quell the tumult by hisauthority and presence, he resolved to do nothing more than keep closewithin the palace, and secure himself by guards of the legionarysoldiers, who were quartered in different parts about the city. He puton a linen coat of mail, however, remarking at the same time, that itwould avail him little against the points of so many swords. But beingtempted out by false reports, which the conspirators had purposely spreadto induce him to venture abroad--some few of those about him too hastilyassuring him that the tumult had ceased, the mutineers were apprehended, and the rest coming to congratulate him, resolved to continue firm intheir obedience--he went forward to meet them with so much confidence, that upon a soldier's boasting that he had killed Otho, he asked him, "Bywhat authority?" and proceeded as far as the Forum. There the knights, appointed to dispatch him, making their way through the crowd ofcitizens, upon seeing him at a distance, halted a while; after which, galloping up to him, now abandoned by all his attendants, they put him todeath. 

XX. Some authors relate, that upon their first approach he cried out, "What do you mean, fellow-soldiers? I am yours, and you are mine, " andpromised them a donative: but the generality of writers relate, that heoffered his throat to them, saying, "Do your work, and strike, since youare resolved upon it. " It is remarkable, that not one of those who wereat hand, ever made any attempt to assist the emperor; and all who weresent for, disregarded the summons, except a troop of Germans. They, inconsideration of his late kindness in showing them particular attentionduring a sickness which prevailed in the camp, flew to his aid, but cametoo late; for, being not well acquainted with the town, they had taken acircuitous route. He was slain near the Curtian Lake [667], and thereleft, until a common soldier returning from the receipt of his allowanceof corn, throwing down the load which he carried, cut off his head. There being upon it no hair, by which he might hold it, he hid it in thebosom of his dress; but afterwards thrusting his thumb into the mouth, hecarried it in that manner to Otho, who gave it to the drudges and slaveswho attended the soldiers; and they, fixing it upon the (414) point of aspear, carried it in derision round the camp, crying out as they wentalong, "You take your fill of joy in your old age. " They were irritatedto this pitch of rude banter, by a report spread a few days before, that, upon some one's commending his person as still florid and vigorous, hereplied, Eti moi menos empedoi estin. [668] My strength, as yet, has suffered no decay. 

A freedman of Petrobius's, who himself had belonged to Nero's family, purchased the head from them at the price of a hundred gold pieces, andthrew it into the place where, by Galba's order, his patron had been putto death. At last, after some time, his steward Argius buried it, withthe rest of his body, in his own gardens near the Aurelian Way. 

XXI. In person he was of a good size, bald before, with blue eyes, andan aquiline nose; and his hands and feet were so distorted with the gout, that he could neither wear a shoe, nor turn over the leaves of a book, orso much as hold it. He had likewise an excrescence in his right side, which hung down to that degree, that it was with difficulty kept up by abandage. 

XXII. He is reported to have been a great eater, and usually took hisbreakfast in the winter-time before day. At supper, he fed veryheartily, giving the fragments which were left, by handfuls, to bedistributed amongst the attendants. In his lust, he was more inclined tothe male sex, and such of them too as were old. It is said of him, thatin Spain, when Icelus, an old catamite of his, brought him the news ofNero's death, he not only kissed him lovingly before company, but beggedof him to remove all impediments, and then took him aside into a privateapartment. 

XXIII. He perished in the seventy-third year of his age, and the seventhmonth of his reign [669]. The senate, as soon as they could with safety, ordered a statue to be erected for him upon the naval column, in thatpart of the Forum where he (415) was slain. But Vespasian cancelled thedecree, upon a suspicion that he had sent assassins from Spain intoJudaea to murder him. 

 * * * * * *

GALBA was, for a private man, the most wealthy of any who had everaspired to the imperial dignity. He valued himself upon his beingdescended from the family of the Servii, but still more upon his relationto Quintus Catulus Capitolinus, celebrated for integrity and virtue. Hewas likewise distantly related to Livia, the wife of Augustus; by whoseinterest he was preferred from the station which he held in the palace, to the dignity of consul; and who left him a great legacy at her death. His parsimonious way of living, and his aversion to all superfluity orexcess, were construed into avarice as soon as he became emperor; whencePlutarch observes, that the pride which he took in his temperance andeconomy was unseasonable. While he endeavoured to reform the profusionin the public expenditure, which prevailed in the reign of Nero, he raninto the opposite extreme; and it is objected to him by some historians, that he maintained not the imperial dignity in a degree consistent evenwith decency. He was not sufficiently attentive either to his ownsecurity or the tranquillity of the state, when he refused to pay thesoldiers the donative which he had promised them. This breach of faithseems to be the only act in his life that affects his integrity; and itcontributed more to his ruin than even the odium which he incurred by theopen venality and rapaciousness of his favourites, particularly Vinius. 

A. SALVIUS OTHO. 

(416)

I. The ancestors of Otho were originally of the town of Ferentum, of anancient and honourable family, and, indeed, one of the most considerablein Etruria. His grandfather, M. Salvius Otho (whose father was a Romanknight, but his mother of mean extraction, for it is not certain whethershe was free-born), by the favour of Livia Augusta, in whose house he hadhis education, was made a senator, but never rose higher than thepraetorship. His father, Lucius Otho, was by the mother's side noblydescended, allied to several great families, and so dearly beloved byTiberius, and so much resembled him in his features, that most peoplebelieved Tiberius was his father. He behaved with great strictness andseverity, not only in the city offices, but in the pro-consulship ofAfrica, and some extraordinary commands in the army. He had the courageto punish with death some soldiers in Illyricum, who, in the disturbanceattempted by Camillus, upon changing their minds, had put their generalsto the sword, as promoters of that insurrection against Claudius. Heordered the execution to take place in the front of the camp [670], andunder his own eyes; though he knew they had been advanced to higher ranksin the army by Claudius, on that very account. By this action heacquired fame, but lessened his favour at court; which, however, he soonrecovered, by discovering to Claudius a design upon his life, carried onby a Roman knight [671], and which he had learnt from some of his slaves. For the senate ordered a statue of him to be erected in the palace; anhonour which had been conferred but upon very few before him. AndClaudius advanced him to the dignity of a patrician, commending him, atthe same time, in the highest terms, and concluding with these words: "Aman, than whom I don't so (417) much as wish to have children that shouldbe better. " He had two sons by a very noble woman, Albia Terentia, namely; Lucius Titianus, and a younger called Marcus, who had the samecognomen as himself. He had also a daughter, whom he contracted toDrusus, Germanicus's son, before she was of marriageable age. 

II. The emperor Otho was born upon the fourth of the calends of May[28th April], in the consulship of Camillus Aruntius and DomitiusAenobarbus [672]. He was from his earliest youth so riotous and wild, that he was often severely scourged by his father. He was said to runabout in the night-time, and seize upon any one he met, who was eitherdrunk or too feeble to make resistance, and toss him in a blanket [673]. After his father's death, to make his court the more effectually to afreedwoman about the palace, who was in great favour, he pretended to bein love with her, though she was old, and almost decrepit. Having by hermeans got into Nero's good graces, he soon became one of the principalfavourites, by the congeniality of his disposition to that of the emperoror, as some say, by the reciprocal practice of mutual pollution. He hadso great a sway at court, that when a man of consular rank was condemnedfor bribery, having tampered with him for a large sum of money, toprocure his pardon; before he had quite effected it, he scrupled not tointroduce him into the senate, to return his thanks. 

III. Having, by means of this woman, insinuated himself into all theemperor's secrets, he, upon the day designed for the murder of hismother, entertained them both at a very splendid feast, to preventsuspicion. Poppaea Sabina, for whom Nero entertained such a violentpassion that he had taken her from her husband [674] and entrusted her tohim, he received, and went through the form of marrying her. And notsatisfied with obtaining her favours, he loved her so extravagantly, thathe could not with patience bear Nero for his rival. It is certainlybelieved that he not only refused admittance to those who were sent byNero to fetch her, but that, on one (418) occasion, he shut him out, andkept him standing before the door, mixing prayers and menaces in vain, and demanding back again what was entrusted to his keeping. Hispretended marriage, therefore, being dissolved, he was sent lieutenantinto Lusitania. This treatment of him was thought sufficiently severe, because harsher proceedings might have brought the whole farce to light, which, notwithstanding, at last came out, and was published to the worldin the following distich:--

 Cur Otho mentitus sit, quaeritis, exul honore? Uxoris moechus caeperat esse suae. 

 You ask why Otho's banish'd? Know, the cause Comes not within the verge of vulgar laws. Against all rules of fashionable life, The rogue had dared to sleep with his own wife. 

He governed the province in quality of quaestor for ten years, withsingular moderation and justice. 

IV. As soon as an opportunity of revenge offered, he readily joined inGalba's enterprises, and at the same time conceived hopes of obtainingthe imperial dignity for himself. To this he was much encouraged by thestate of the times, but still more by the assurances given him bySeleucus, the astrologer, who, having formerly told him that he wouldcertainly out-live Nero, came to him at that juncture unexpectedly, promising him again that he should succeed to the empire, and that in avery short time. He, therefore, let slip no opportunity of making hiscourt to every one about him by all manner of civilities. As often as heentertained Galba at supper, he distributed to every man of the cohortwhich attended the emperor on guard, a gold piece; endeavouring likewiseto oblige the rest of the soldiers in one way or another. Being chosenan arbitrator by one who had a dispute with his neighbour about a pieceof land, he bought it, and gave it him; so that now almost every bodythought and said, that he was the only man worthy of succeeding to theempire. 

V. He entertained hopes of being adopted by Galba, and expected it everyday. But finding himself disappointed, by Piso's being preferred beforehim, he turned his thoughts to obtaining his purpose by the use ofviolence; and to this he was instigated, as well by the greatness of hisdebts, as by resentment (419) at Galba's conduct towards him. For he didnot conceal his conviction, "that he could not stand his ground unless hebecame emperor, and that it signified nothing whether he fell by thehands of his enemies in the field, or of his creditors in the Forum. " Hehad a few days before squeezed out of one of the emperor's slaves amillion of sesterces for procuring him a stewardship; and this was thewhole fund he had for carrying on so great an enterprise. At first thedesign was entrusted to only five of the guard, but afterwards to tenothers, each of the five naming two. They had every one ten thousandsesterces paid down, and were promised fifty thousand more. By these, others were drawn in, but not many; from a confident assurance, that whenthe matter came to the crisis, they should have enough to join them. 

VI. His first intention was, immediately after the departure of Piso, toseize the camp, and fall upon Galba, whilst he was at supper in thepalace; but he was restrained by a regard for the cohort at that time onduty, lest he should bring too great an odium upon it; because ithappened that the same cohort was on guard before, both when Caius wasslain, and Nero deserted. For some time afterwards, he was restrainedalso by scruples about the omens, and by the advice of Seleucus. Uponthe day fixed at last for the enterprise, having given his accomplicesnotice to wait for him in the Forum near the temple of Saturn, at thegilded mile-stone [675], he went in the morning to pay his respects toGalba; and being received with a kiss as usual, he attended him atsacrifice, and heard the predictions of the augur [676]. A freedman ofhis, then bringing (420) him word that the architects were come, whichwas the signal agreed upon, he withdrew, as if it were with a design toview a house upon sale, and went out by a back-door of the palace to theplace appointed. Some say he pretended to be seized with an ague fit, and ordered those about him to make that excuse for him, if he wasinquired after. Being then quickly concealed in a woman's litter, hemade the best of his way for the camp. But the bearers growing tired, hegot out, and began to run. His shoe becoming loose, he stopped again, but being immediately raised by his attendants upon their shoulders, andunanimously saluted by the title of EMPEROR, he came amidst auspiciousacclamations and drawn swords into the Principia [677] in the camp; allwho met him joining in the cavalcade, as if they had been privy to thedesign. Upon this, sending some soldiers to dispatch Galba and Piso, hesaid nothing else in his address to the soldiery, to secure theiraffections, than these few words: "I shall be content with whatever yethink fit to leave me. "

VII. Towards the close of the day, he entered the senate, and after hehad made a short speech to them, pretending that he had been seized inthe streets, and compelled by violence to assume the imperial authority, which he designed to exercise in conjunction with them, he retired to thepalace. Besides other compliments which he received from those whoflocked about him to congratulate and flatter him, he was called Nero bythe mob, and manifested no intention of declining that cognomen. Nay, some authors relate, that he used it in his official acts, and the firstletters he sent to the (421) governors of provinces. He suffered all hisimages and statues to be replaced, and restored his procurators andfreedmen to their former posts. And the first writing which he signed asemperor, was a promise of fifty millions of sesterces to finish theGolden-house [678]. He is said to have been greatly frightened thatnight in his sleep, and to have groaned heavily; and being found, bythose who came running in to see what the matter was, lying upon thefloor before his bed, he endeavoured by every kind of atonement toappease the ghost of Galba, by which he had found himself violentlytumbled out of bed. The next day, as he was taking the omens, a greatstorm arising, and sustaining a grievous fall, he muttered to himselffrom time to time:

 Ti gar moi kai makrois aulois; [679] What business have I the loud trumpets to sound!

VIII. About the same time, the armies in Germany took an oath toVitellius as emperor. Upon receiving this intelligence, he advised thesenate to send thither deputies, to inform them, that a prince had beenalready chosen; and to persuade them to peace and a good understanding. By letters and messages, however, he offered Vitellius to make him hiscolleague in the empire, and his son-in-law. But a war being nowunavoidable, and the generals and troops sent forward by Vitellius, advancing, he had a proof of the attachment and fidelity of the pretorianguards, which had nearly proved fatal to the senatorian order. It hadbeen judged proper that some arms should be given out of the stores, andconveyed to the fleet by the marine troops. While they were employed infetching these from the camp in the night, some of the guards suspectingtreachery, excited a tumult; and suddenly the whole body, without any oftheir officers at their head, ran to the palace, demanding that theentire senate should be put to the sword; and having repulsed some of the(422) tribunes who endeavoured to stop them, and slain others, theybroke, all bloody as they were, into the banquetting room, inquiring forthe emperor; nor would they quit the place until they had seen him. Henow entered upon his expedition against Vitellius with great alacrity, but too much precipitation, and without any regard to the ominouscircumstances which attended it. For the Ancilia [680] had been takenout of the temple of Mars, for the usual procession, but were not yetreplaced; during which interval it had of old been looked upon as veryunfortunate to engage in any enterprise. He likewise set forward uponthe day when the worshippers of the Mother of the gods [681] begin theirlamentations and wailing. Besides these, other unlucky omens attendedhim. For, in a victim offered to Father Dis [682], he found the signssuch as upon all other occasions are regarded as favourable; whereas, inthat sacrifice, the contrary intimations are judged the most propitious. At his first setting forward, he was stopped by inundations of the Tiber;and at twenty miles' distance from the city, found the road blocked up bythe fall of houses. 

IX. Though it was the general opinion that it would be proper toprotract the war, as the enemy were distressed by (423) famine and thestraitness of their quarters, yet he resolved with equal rashness toforce them to an engagement as soon as possible; whether from impatienceof prolonged anxiety, and in the hope of bringing matters to an issuebefore the arrival of Vitellius, or because he could not resist theardour of the troops, who were all clamorous for battle. He was not, however, present at any of those which ensued, but stayed behind atBrixellum [683]. He had the advantage in three slight engagements, nearthe Alps, about Placentia, and a place called Castor's [684]; but was, bya fraudulent stratagem of the enemy, defeated in the last and greatestbattle, at Bedriacum [685]. For, some hopes of a conference being given, and the soldiers being drawn up to hear the conditions of peace declared, very unexpectedly, and amidst their mutual salutations, they were obligedto stand to their arms. Immediately upon this he determined to put anend to his life, more, as many think, and not without reason, out ofshame, at persisting in a struggle for the empire to the hazard of thepublic interest and so many lives, than from despair, or distrust of histroops. For he had still in reserve, and in full force, those whom hehad kept about him for a second trial of his fortune, and others werecoming up from Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Moesia; nor were the troops latelydefeated so far discouraged as not to be ready, even of themselves, torun all risks in order to wipe off their recent disgrace. 

X. My father, Suetonius Lenis [686], was in this battle, being at (424)that time an angusticlavian tribune in the thirteenth legion. He usedfrequently to say, that Otho, before his advancement to the empire, hadsuch an abhorrence of civil war, that once, upon hearing an account givenat table of the death of Cassius and Brutus, he fell into a trembling, and that he never would have interfered with Galba, but that he wasconfident of succeeding in his enterprise without a war. Moreover, thathe was then encouraged to despise life by the example of a commonsoldier, who bringing news of the defeat of the army, and finding that hemet with no credit, but was railed at for a liar and a coward, as if hehad run away from the field of battle, fell upon his sword at theemperor's feet; upon the sight of which, my father said that Otho criedout, "that he would expose to no farther danger such brave men, who haddeserved so well at his hands. " Advising therefore his brother, hisbrother's son, and the rest of his friends, to provide for their securityin the best manner they could, after he had embraced and kissed them, hesent them away; and then withdrawing into a private room by himself, hewrote a letter of consolation to his sister, containing two sheets. Helikewise sent another to Messalina, Nero's widow, whom he had intended tomarry, committing to her the care of his relics and memory. He thenburnt all the letters which he had by him, to prevent the danger andmischief that might otherwise befall the writers from the conqueror. What ready money he had, he distributed among his domestics. 

XI. And now being prepared, and just upon the point of dispatchinghimself, he was induced to suspend the execution of his purpose by agreat tumult which had broken out in the camp. Finding that some of thesoldiers who were making off had been seized and detained as deserters, "Let us add, " said he, "this night to our life. " These were his verywords. 

He then gave orders that no violence should be offered to any one; andkeeping his chamber-door open until late at night, he allowed all whopleased the liberty to come and see him. At last, after quenching histhirst with a draught of cold water, he took up two poniards, and havingexamined the points of both, put one of them under his pillow, andshutting his chamber-door, slept very soundly, until, awaking about breakof day, he stabbed himself under the left pap. Some persons burstinginto the room upon his first groan, he at one time covered, and atanother exposed his wound to the view of the bystanders, and thus lifesoon ebbed away. His funeral was hastily performed, according to his ownorder, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of hisreign. [687]

XII. The person and appearance of Otho no way corresponded to the greatspirit he displayed on this occasion; for he is said to have been of lowstature, splay-footed, and bandy-legged. He was, however, effeminatelynice in the care of his person: the hair on his body he plucked out bythe roots; and because he was somewhat bald, he wore a kind of peruke, soexactly fitted to his head, that nobody could have known it for such. Heused to shave every day, and rub his face with soaked bread; the use ofwhich he began when the down first appeared upon his chin, to prevent hishaving any beard. It is said likewise that he celebrated publicly thesacred rites of Isis [688], clad in a linen garment, such as is used bythe worshippers of that goddess. These circumstances, I imagine, causedthe world to wonder the more that his death was so little in characterwith his life. Many of the soldiers who were present, kissing andbedewing with their tears his hands and feet as he lay dead, andcelebrating him as "a most gallant man, and an incomparable emperor, "immediately put an end to their own lives upon the spot, not far from hisfuneral pile. 

(426) Many of those likewise who were at a distance, upon hearing thenews of his death, in the anguish of their hearts, began fighting amongstthemselves, until they dispatched one another. To conclude: thegenerality of mankind, though they hated him whilst living, yet highlyextolled him after his death; insomuch that it was the common talk andopinion, "that Galba had been driven to destruction by his rival, not somuch for the sake of reigning himself, as of restoring Rome to itsancient liberty. "

 * * * * * *

It is remarkable, in the fortune of this emperor, that he owed both hiselevation and catastrophe to the inextricable embarrassments in which hewas involved; first, in respect of pecuniary circumstances, and next, ofpolitical. He was not, so far as we can learn, a follower of any of thesects of philosophers which justified, and even recommended suicide, inparticular cases: yet he perpetrated that act with extraordinary coolnessand resolution; and, what is no less remarkable, from the motive, as heavowed, of public expediency only. It was observed of him, for manyyears after his death, that "none ever died like Otho. "

AULUS VITELLIUS. 

(427)

I. Very different accounts are given of the origin of the Vitellianfamily. Some describe it as ancient and noble, others as recent andobscure, nay, extremely mean. I am inclined to think, that these severalrepresentations have been made by the flatterers and detractors ofVitellius, after he became emperor, unless the fortunes of the familyvaried before. There is extant a memoir addressed by Quintus Eulogius toQuintus Vitellius, quaestor to the Divine Augustus, in which it is said, that the Vitellii were descended from Faunus, king of the aborigines, andVitellia [689], who was worshipped in many places as a goddess, and thatthey reigned formerly over the whole of Latium: that all who were left ofthe family removed out of the country of the Sabines to Rome, and wereenrolled among the patricians: that some monuments of the familycontinued a long time; as the Vitellian Way, reaching from the Janiculumto the sea, and likewise a colony of that name, which, at a very remoteperiod of time, they desired leave from the government to defend againstthe Aequicolae [690], with a force raised by their own family only: alsothat, in the time of the war with the Samnites, some of the Vitellii whowent with the troops levied for the security of Apulia, settled atNuceria [691], and their descendants, a long time afterwards, returnedagain to Rome, and were admitted (428) into the patrician order. On theother hand, the generality of writers say that the founder of the familywas a freedman. Cassius Severus [692] and some others relate that he waslikewise a cobbler, whose son having made a considerable fortune byagencies and dealings in confiscated property, begot, by a commonstrumpet, daughter of one Antiochus, a baker, a child, who afterwardsbecame a Roman knight. Of these different accounts the reader is left totake his choice. 

II. It is certain, however, that Publius Vitellius, of Nuceria, whetherof an ancient family, or of low extraction, was a Roman knight, and aprocurator to Augustus. He left behind him four sons, all men of veryhigh station, who had the same cognomen, but the different praenomina ofAulus, Quintus, Publius, and Lucius. Aulus died in the enjoyment of theconsulship [693], which office he bore jointly with Domitius, the fatherof Nero Caesar. He was elegant to excess in his manner of living, andnotorious for the vast expense of his entertainments. Quintus wasdeprived of his rank of senator, when, upon a motion made by Tiberius, aresolution passed to purge the senate of those who were in any respectnot duly qualified for that honour. Publius, an intimate friend andcompanion of Germanicus, prosecuted his enemy and murderer, Cneius Piso, and procured sentence against him. After he had been made proctor, beingarrested among the accomplices of Sejanus, and delivered into the handsof his brother to be confined in his house, he opened a vein with apenknife, intending to bleed himself to death. He suffered, however, thewound to be bound up and cured, not so much from repenting the resolutionhe had formed, as to comply with the importunity of his relations. Hedied afterwards a natural death during his confinement. Lucius, afterhis consulship [694], was made governor of Syria [695], and by hispolitic management not only brought Artabanus, king of the Parthians, togive him an interview, but to worship the standards of the Roman legions. He afterwards filled two ordinary consulships [696], and also thecensorship [697] jointly with the emperor Claudius. Whilst that (429)prince was absent upon his expedition into Britain [698], the care of theempire was committed to him, being a man of great integrity and industry. But he lessened his character not a little, by his passionate fondnessfor an abandoned freedwoman, with whose spittle, mixed with honey, heused to anoint his throat and jaws, by way of remedy for some complaint, not privately nor seldom, but daily and publicly. Being extravagantlyprone to flattery, it was he who gave rise to the worship of Caius Caesaras a god, when, upon his return from Syria, he would not presume toaccost him any otherwise than with his head covered, turning himselfround, and then prostrating himself upon the earth. And to leave noartifice untried to secure the favour of Claudius, who was entirelygoverned by his wives and freedmen, he requested as the greatest favourfrom Messalina, that she would be pleased to let him take off her shoes;which, when he had done, he took her right shoe, and wore it constantlybetwixt his toga and his tunic, and from time to time covered it withkisses. He likewise worshipped golden images of Narcissus and Pallasamong his household gods. It was he, too, who, when Claudius exhibitedthe secular games, in his compliments to him upon that occasion, usedthis expression, "May you often do the same. "

III. He died of palsy, the day after his seizure with it, leaving behindhim two sons, whom he had by a most excellent and respectable wife, Sextilia. He had lived to see them both consuls, the same year andduring the whole year also; the younger succeeding the elder for the lastsix months [699]. The senate honoured him after his decease with afuneral at the public expense, and with a statue in the Rostra, which hadthis inscription upon the base: "One who was steadfast in his loyalty tohis prince. " The emperor Aulus Vitellius, the son of this Lucius, was bornupon the eighth of the calends of October [24th September], or, as somesay, upon the seventh of the ides of September [7th September], in theconsulship of Drusus Caesar and Norbanus Flaccus [700]. His parents wereso (430) terrified with the predictions of astrologers upon thecalculation of his nativity, that his father used his utmost endeavoursto prevent his being sent governor into any of the provinces, whilst hewas alive. His mother, upon his being sent to the legions [701], andalso upon his being proclaimed emperor, immediately lamented him asutterly ruined. He spent his youth amongst the catamites of Tiberius atCapri, was himself constantly stigmatized with the name of Spintria[702], and was supposed to have been the occasion of his father'sadvancement, by consenting to gratify the emperor's unnatural lust. 

IV. In the subsequent part of his life, being still most scandalouslyvicious, he rose to great favour at court; being upon a very intimatefooting with Caius [Caligula], because of his fondness forchariot-driving, and with Claudius for his love of gaming. But he was ina still higher degree acceptable to Nero, as well on the same accounts, asfor a particular service which he rendered him. When Nero presided in thegames instituted by himself, though he was extremely desirous to performamongst the harpers, yet his modesty would not permit him, notwithstandingthe people entreated much for it. Upon his quitting the theatre, Vitellius fetched him back again, pretending to represent the determinedwishes of the people, and so afforded him the opportunity of yielding totheir in treaties. 

V. By the favour of these three princes, he was not only advanced to thegreat offices of state, but to the highest dignities of the sacred order;after which he held the proconsulship of Africa, and had thesuperintendence of the public works, in which appointment his conduct, and, consequently, his reputation, were very different. For he governedthe province with singular integrity during two years, in the latter ofwhich he acted as deputy to his brother, who succeeded him. But in hisoffice in the city, he was said to pillage the temples of their gifts andornaments, and to have exchanged brass and tin for gold and silver. [703]

VI. He took to wife Petronia, the daughter of a man of consular rank, and had by her a son named Petronius, who was blind of an eye. Themother being willing to appoint this youth her heir, upon condition thathe should be released from his father's authority, the latter dischargedhim accordingly; but shortly after, as was believed, murdered him, charging him with a design upon his life, and pretending that he had, from consciousness of his guilt, drank the poison he had prepared for hisfather. Soon afterwards, he married Galeria Fundana, the daughter of aman of pretorian rank, and had by her both sons and daughters. Among theformer was one who had such a stammering in his speech, that he waslittle better than if he had been dumb. 

VII. He was sent by Galba into Lower Germany [704], contrary to hisexpectation. It is supposed that he was assisted in procuring thisappointment by the interest of Titus Junius, a man of great influence atthat time; whose friendship he had long before gained by favouring thesame set of charioteers with him in the Circensian games. But Galbaopenly declared that none were less to be feared than those who onlycared for their bellies, and that even his enormous appetite must besatisfied with the plenty of that province; so that it is evident he wasselected for that government more out of contempt than kindness. It iscertain, that when he was to set out, he had not money for the expensesof his journey; he being at that time so much straitened in hiscircumstances, that he was obliged to put his wife and children, whom heleft at Rome, into a poor lodging which he hired for them, in order thathe might let his own house for the remainder of the year; and he pawned apearl taken from his mother's ear-ring, to defray his expenses on theroad. A crowd of creditors who were waiting to stop him, and amongstthem the people of Sineussa and Formia, whose taxes he had converted tohis own use, he eluded, by alarming them with the apprehension of falseaccusation. He had, however, sued a certain freedman, who was clamorousin demanding a debt of him, under pretence that he had kicked him; whichaction he would not withdraw, until he had wrung from the freedman fiftythousand sesterces. Upon his arrival in the province, the army, (432)which was disaffected to Galba, and ripe for insurrection, received himwith open arms, as if he had been sent them from heaven. It was no smallrecommendation to their favour, that he was the son of a man who had beenthrice consul, was in the prime of life, and of an easy, prodigaldisposition. This opinion, which had been long entertained of him, Vitellius confirmed by some late practices; having kissed all the commonsoldiers whom he met with upon the road, and been excessively complaisantin the inns and stables to the muleteers and travellers; asking them in amorning, if they had got their breakfasts, and letting them see, bybelching, that he had eaten his. 

VIII. After he had reached the camp, he denied no man any thing he askedfor, and pardoned all who lay under sentence for disgraceful conduct ordisorderly habits. Before a month, therefore, had passed, without regardto the day or season, he was hurried by the soldiers out of hisbed-chamber, although it was evening, and he in an undress, andunanimously saluted by the title of EMPEROR [705]. He was then carriedround the most considerable towns in the neighbourhood, with the sword ofthe Divine Julius in his hand; which had been taken by some person out ofthe temple of Mars, and presented to him when he was first saluted. Nordid he return to the pretorium, until his dining-room was in flames fromthe chimney's taking fire. Upon this accident, all being inconsternation, and considering it as an unlucky omen, he cried out, "Courage, boys! it shines brightly upon us. " And this was all he said tothe soldiers. The army of the Upper Province likewise, which had beforedeclared against Galba for the senate, joining in the proceedings, he veryeagerly accepted the cognomen of Germanicus, offered him by the unanimousconsent of both armies, but deferred assuming that of Augustus, andrefused for ever that of Caesar. 

IX. Intelligence of Galba's death arriving soon after, when he hadsettled his affairs in Germany he divided his troops into two bodies, intending to send one of them before him against Otho, and to follow withthe other himself. The army he sent forward had a lucky omen; for, suddenly, an eagle cams flying up to them on the right, and havinghovered (433) round the standards, flew gently before them on their road. But, on the other hand, when he began his own march, all the equestrianstatues, which were erected for him in several places, fell suddenly downwith their legs broken; and the laurel crown, which he had put on asemblematical of auspicious fortune, fell off his head into a river. Soonafterwards, at Vienne [706], as he was upon the tribunal administeringjustice, a cock perched upon his shoulder, and afterwards upon his head. The issue corresponded to these omens; for he was not able to keep theempire which had been secured for him by his lieutenants. 

X. He heard of the victory at Bedriacum [707], and the death of Otho, whilst he was yet in Gaul, and without the least hesitation, by a singleproclamation, disbanded all the pretorian cohorts, as having, by theirrepeated treasons, set a dangerous example to the rest of the army;commanding them to deliver up their arms to his tribunes. A hundred andtwenty of them, under whose hands he had found petitions presented toOtho, for rewards of their service in the murder of Galba, he besidesordered to be sought out and punished. So far his conduct deservedapprobation, and was such as to afford hope of his becoming an excellentprince, had he not managed his other affairs in a way more correspondingwith his own disposition, and his former manner of life, than to theimperial dignity. For, having begun his march, he rode through everycity in his route in a triumphal procession; and sailed down the riversin ships, fitted out with the greatest elegance, and decorated withvarious kinds of crowns, amidst the most extravagant entertainments. Such was the want of discipline, and the licentiousness both in hisfamily and army, that, not satisfied with the provision every where madefor them at the public expense, they committed every kind of robbery andinsult upon the inhabitants, setting slaves at liberty as they pleased;and if any dared to make resistance, they dealt blows and abuse, frequently wounds, and sometimes slaughter amongst them. When he reachedthe plains on which the battles (434) were fought [708], some of thosearound him being offended at the smell of the carcases which lay rottingupon the ground, he had the audacity to encourage them by a mostdetestable remark, "That a dead enemy smelt not amiss, especially if hewere a fellow-citizen. " To qualify, however, the offensiveness of thestench, he quaffed in public a goblet of wine, and with equal vanity andinsolence distributed a large quantity of it among his troops. On hisobserving a stone with an inscription upon it to the memory of Otho, hesaid, "It was a mausoleum good enough for such a prince. " He also sentthe poniard, with which Otho killed himself, to the colony of Agrippina[709], to be dedicated to Mars. Upon the Appenine hills he celebrated aBacchanalian feast. 

XI. At last he entered the City with trumpets sounding, in his general'scloak, and girded with his sword, amidst a display of standards andbanners; his attendants being all in the military habit, and the arms ofthe soldiers unsheathed. Acting more and more in open violation of alllaws, both divine and human, he assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus, upon the day of the defeat at the Allia [710]; ordered the magistrates tobe elected for ten years of office; and made himself consul for life. Toput it out of all doubt what model he intended to follow in hisgovernment of the empire, he made his offerings to the shade of Nero inthe midst of the Campus Martius, and with a full assembly of the publicpriests attending him. And at a solemn entertainment, he desired aharper who pleased the company much, to sing something in praise ofDomitius; and upon his beginning some songs of Nero's, he started up inpresence of the whole assembly, and could not refrain from applaudinghim, by clapping his hands. 

XII. After such a commencement of his career, he conducted (435) hisaffairs, during the greater part of his reign, entirely by the advice anddirection of the vilest amongst the players and charioteers, andespecially his freedman Asiaticus. This fellow had, when young, beenengaged with him in a course of mutual and unnatural pollution, but, being at last quite tired of the occupation, ran away. His master, sometime after, caught him at Puteoli, selling a liquor called Posca [711], and put him in chains, but soon released him, and retained him in hisformer capacity. Growing weary, however, of his rough and stubborntemper, he sold him to a strolling fencing-master; after which, when thefellow was to have been brought up to play his part at the conclusion ofan entertainment of gladiators, he suddenly carried him off, and atlength, upon his being advanced to the government of a province, gave himhis freedom. The first day of his reign, he presented him with the goldrings at supper, though in the morning, when all about him requested thatfavour in his behalf, he expressed the utmost abhorrence of putting sogreat a stain upon the equestrian order. 

XIII. He was chiefly addicted to the vices of luxury and cruelty. Healways made three meals a day, sometimes four: breakfast, dinner, andsupper, and a drunken revel after all. This load of victuals he couldwell enough bear, from a custom to which he had enured himself, offrequently vomiting. For these several meals he would make differentappointments at the houses of his friends on the same day. None everentertained him at less expense than four hundred thousand sesterces[712]. The most famous was a set entertainment given him by his brother, at which, it is said, there were served up no less than two thousandchoice fishes, and seven thousand birds. Yet even this supper he himselfoutdid, at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which hadbeen made for him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called "TheShield of Minerva. " In this dish there were tossed up together thelivers of char-fish, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, with thetongues of flamingos, and the entrails of lampreys, which had beenbrought in ships of war as far as (436) from the Carpathian Sea, and theSpanish Straits. He was not only a man of an insatiable appetite, butwould gratify it likewise at unseasonable times, and with any garbagethat came in his way; so that, at a sacrifice, he would snatch from thefire flesh and cakes, and eat them upon the spot. When he travelled, hedid the same at the inns upon the road, whether the meat was freshdressed and hot, or what had been left the day before, and washalf-eaten. 

XIV. He delighted in the infliction of punishments, and even those whichwere capital, without any distinction of persons or occasions. Severalnoblemen, his school-fellows and companions, invited by him to court, hetreated with such flattering caresses, as seemed to indicate an affectionshort only of admitting them to share the honours of the imperialdignity; yet he put them all to death by some base means or other. Toone he gave poison with his own hand, in a cup of cold water which hecalled for in a fever. He scarcely spared one of all the usurers, notaries, and publicans, who had ever demanded a debt of him at Rome, orany toll or custom upon the road. One of these, while in the very act ofsaluting him, he ordered for execution, but immediately sent for himback; upon which all about him applauding his clemency, he commanded himto be slain in his own presence, saying, "I have a mind to feed my eyes. "Two sons who interceded for their father, he ordered to be executed withhim. A Roman knight, upon his being dragged away for execution, andcrying out to him, "You are my heir, " he desired to produce his will: andfinding that he had made his freedman joint heir with him, he commandedthat both he and the freedman should have their throats cut. He put todeath some of the common people for cursing aloud the blue party in theCircensian games; supposing it to be done in contempt of himself, and theexpectation of a revolution in the government. There were no persons hewas more severe against than jugglers and astrologers; end as soon as anyone of them was informed against, he put him to death without theformality of a trial. He was enraged against them, because, after hisproclamation by which he commanded all astrologers to quit home, andItaly also, before the calends [the first] of October, a bill wasimmediately posted about the city, with the following words:--"TAKENOTICE: [713] The Chaldaeans also decree that Vitellius Germanicus shallbe no more, by the day of the said calends. " He was even suspected ofbeing accessary to his mother's death, by forbidding sustenance to begiven her when she was unwell; a German witch [714], whom he held to beoracular, having told him, "That he would long reign in security if hesurvived his mother. " But others say, that being quite weary of thestate of affairs, and apprehensive of the future, she obtained withoutdifficulty a dose of poison from her son. 

XV. In the eighth month of his reign, the troops both in Moesia andPannonia revolted from him; as did likewise, of the armies beyond sea, those in Judaea and Syria, some of which swore allegiance to Vespasian asemperor in his own presence, and others in his absence. In order, therefore, to secure the favour and affection of the people, Vitelliuslavished on all around whatever he had it in his power to bestow, bothpublicly and privately, in the most extravagant manner. He also leviedsoldiers in the city, and promised all who enlisted as volunteers, notonly their discharge after the victory was gained, but all the rewardsdue to veterans who had served their full time in the wars. The enemynow pressing forward both by sea and land, on one hand he opposed againstthem his brother with a fleet, the new levies, and a body of gladiators, and in another quarter the troops and generals who were engaged atBedriacum. But being beaten or betrayed in every direction, he agreedwith Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, to abdicate, on condition ofhaving his life spared, and a hundred millions of sesterces granted him;and he immediately, upon the palace-steps, publicly declared to a largebody of soldiers there assembled, "that he resigned the government, whichhe had accepted reluctantly;" but they all remonstrating against it, hedeferred the conclusion of the treaty. Next day, early in the morning, he came down to the Forum in a very mean habit, and with many tearsrepeated the (438) declaration from a writing which he held in his hand;but the soldiers and people again interposing, and encouraging him not togive way, but to rely on their zealous support, he recovered his courage, and forced Sabinus, with the rest of the Flavian party, who now thoughtthemselves secure, to retreat into the Capitol, where he destroyed themall by setting fire to the temple of Jupiter, whilst he beheld thecontest and the fire from Tiberius's house [715], where he was feasting. Not long after, repenting of what he had done, and throwing the blame ofit upon others, he called a meeting, and swore "that nothing was dearerto him than the public peace;" which oath he also obliged the rest totake. Then drawing a dagger from his side, he presented it first to theconsul, and, upon his refusing it, to the magistrates, and then to everyone of the senators; but none of them being willing to accept it, he wentaway, as if he meant to lay it up in the temple of Concord; but somecrying out to him, "You are Concord, " he came back again, and said thathe would not only keep his weapon, but for the future use the cognomen ofConcord. 

XVI. He advised the senate to send deputies, accompanied by the VestalVirgins, to desire peace, or, at least, time for consultation. The dayafter, while he was waiting for an answer, he received intelligence by ascout, that the enemy was advancing. Immediately, therefore, throwinghimself into a small litter, borne by hand, with only two attendants, abaker and a cook, he privately withdrew to his father's house, on theAventine hill, intending to escape thence into Campania. But agroundless report being circulated, that the enemy was willing to come toterms, he suffered himself to be carried back to the palace. Finding, however, nobody there, and those who were with him stealing away, hegirded round his waist a belt full of gold pieces, and then ran into theporter's lodge, tying the dog before the door, and piling up against itthe bed and bedding. 

XVII. By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken intothe palace, and meeting with nobody, searched, as was natural, everycorner. Being dragged by them out of his cell, and asked "who he was?"(for they did not recognize him), "and if he knew where Vitellius was?"he deceived them by a falsehood. But at last being discovered, he beggedhard to be detained in custody, even were it in a prison; pretending tohave something to say which concerned Vespasian's security. Nevertheless, he was dragged half-naked into the Forum, with his handstied behind him, a rope about his neck, and his clothes torn, amidst themost contemptuous abuse, both by word and deed, along the Via Sacra; hishead being held back by the hair, in the manner of condemned criminals, and the point of a sword put under his chin, that he might hold up hisface to public view; some of the mob, meanwhile, pelting him with dungand mud, whilst others called him "an incendiary and glutton. " They alsoupbraided him with the defects of his person, for he was monstrouslytall, and had a face usually very red with hard-drinking, a large belly, and one thigh weak, occasioned by a chariot running against him, as hewas attending upon Caius [716], while he was driving. At length, uponthe Scalae Gemoniae, he was tormented and put to death in lingeringtortures, and then dragged by a hook into the Tiber. 

XVIII. He perished with his brother and son [717], in the fifty-seventhyear of his age [718], and verified the prediction of those who, from theomen which happened to him at Vienne, as before related [719], foretoldthat he would be made prisoner by some man of Gaul. For he was seized byAntoninus Primus, a general of the adverse party, who was born atToulouse, and, when a boy, had the cognomen of Becco [720], whichsignifies a cock's beak. 

 * * * * * *

(440) After the extinction of the race of the Caesars, the possession ofthe imperial power became extremely precarious; and great influence inthe army was the means which now invariably led to the throne. Thesoldiers having arrogated to themselves the right of nomination, theyeither unanimously elected one and the same person, or different partiessupporting the interests of their respective favourites, there arosebetween them a contention, which was usually determined by an appeal toarms, and followed by the assassination of the unsuccessful competitor. Vitellius, by being a parasite of all the emperors from Tiberius to Neroinclusively, had risen to a high military rank, by which, with a spiritof enterprise, and large promises to the soldiery, it was not difficultto snatch the reins of government, while they were yet fluctuating in thehands of Otho. His ambition prompted to the attempt, and his boldnesswas crowned with success. In the service of the four preceding emperors, Vitellius had imbibed the principal vices of them all: but what chieflydistinguished him was extreme voraciousness, which, though he usuallypampered it with enormous luxury, could yet be gratified by the vilestand most offensive garbage. The pusillanimity discovered by this emperorat his death, forms a striking contrast to the heroic behaviour of Otho. 

T. FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS AUGUSTUS. 

(441)

I. The empire, which had been long thrown into a disturbed and unsettedstate, by the rebellion and violent death of its three last rulers, wasat length restored to peace and security by the Flavian family, whosedescent was indeed obscure, and which boasted no ancestral honours; butthe public had no cause to regret its elevation; though it isacknowledged that Domitian met with the just reward of his avarice andcruelty. Titus Flavius Petro, a townsman of Reate [721], whether acenturion or an evocatus [722] of Pompey's party in the civil war, isuncertain, fled out of the battle of Pharsalia and went home; where, having at last obtained his pardon and discharge, he became a collectorof the money raised by public sales in the way of auction. His son, surnamed Sabinus, was never engaged in the military service, though somesay he was a centurion of the first order, and others, that whilst heheld that rank, he was discharged on account of his bad state of health:this Sabinus, I say, was a publican, and received the tax of the fortiethpenny in Asia. And there were remaining, at the time of the advancementof the family, several statues, which had been erected to him by thecities of that province, with this inscription: "To the honestTax-farmer. " [723] He afterwards turned usurer amongst the Helvetii, andthere died, leaving behind him his wife, Vespasia Pella, and two sons byher; the elder of whom, Sabinus, came to be prefect of the city, and theyounger, Vespasian, to be emperor. Polla, descended of a good family, atNursia [724], had for her father Vespasius Pollio, thrice appointed (442)military tribune, and at last prefect of the camp; and her brother was asenator of praetorian dignity. There is to this day, about six milesfrom Nursia, on the road to Spoletum, a place on the summit of a hill, called Vespasiae, where are several monuments of the Vespasii, asufficient proof of the splendour and antiquity of the family. I willnot deny that some have pretended to say, that Petro's father was anative of Gallia Transpadana [725], whose employment was to hireworkpeople who used to emigrate every year from the country of the Umbriainto that of the Sabines, to assist them in their husbandry [726]; butwho settled at last in the town of Reate, and there married. But of thisI have not been able to discover the least proof, upon the strictestinquiry. 

II. Vespasian was born in the country of the Sabines, beyond Reate, in alittle country-seat called Phalacrine, upon the fifth of the calends ofDecember [27th November], in the evening, in the consulship of QuintusSulpicius Camerinus and Caius Poppaeus Sabinus, five years before thedeath of Augustus [727]; and was educated under the care of Tertulla, hisgrandmother by the father's side, upon an estate belonging to the family, at Cosa [728]. After his advancement to the empire, he used frequentlyto visit the place where he had spent his infancy; and the villa wascontinued in the same condition, that he might see every thing about himjust as he had been used to do. And he had so great a regard for thememory of his grandmother, that, upon solemn occasions and festival days, he constantly drank out of a silver cup which she had been accustomed touse. After assuming the manly habit, he had a long time a distaste forthe senatorian toga, though his brother had obtained it; nor could he bepersuaded by any one but his mother to sue for that badge of honour. Sheat length drove him to it, more by taunts and reproaches, than by herentreaties (443) and authority, calling him now and then, by way ofreproach, his brother's footman. He served as military tribune inThrace. When made quaestor, the province of Crete and Cyrene fell to himby lot. He was candidate for the aedileship, and soon after for thepraetorship, but met with a repulse in the former case; though at last, with much difficulty, he came in sixth on the poll-books. But the officeof praetor he carried upon his first canvass, standing amongst thehighest at the poll. Being incensed against the senate, and desirous togain, by all possible means, the good graces of Caius [729], he obtainedleave to exhibit extraordinary [730] games for the emperor's victory inGermany, and advised them to increase the punishment of the conspiratorsagainst his life, by exposing their corpses unburied. He likewise gavehim thanks in that august assembly for the honour of being admitted tohis table. 

III. Meanwhile, he married Flavia Domitilla, who had formerly been themistress of Statilius Capella, a Roman knight of Sabrata in Africa, who[Domitilla] enjoyed Latin rights; and was soon after declared fully andfreely a citizen of Rome, on a trial before the court of Recovery, brought by her father Flavius Liberalis, a native of Ferentum, but nomore than secretary to a quaestor. By her he had the following children:Titus, Domitian, and Domitilla. He outlived his wife and daughter, andlost them both before he became emperor. After the death of his wife, herenewed his union [731] with his former concubine Caenis, the freedwomanof Antonia, and also her amanuensis, and treated her, even after he wasemperor, almost as if she had been his lawful wife. [732]

(444) IV. In the reign of Claudius, by the interest of Narcissus, he wassent to Germany, in command of a legion; whence being removed intoBritain, he engaged the enemy in thirty several battles. He reducedunder subjection to the Romans two very powerful tribes, and above twentygreat towns, with the Isle of Wight, which lies close to the coast ofBritain; partly under the command of Aulus Plautius, the consularlieutenant, and partly under Claudius himself [733]. For this success hereceived the triumphal ornaments, and in a short time after twopriesthoods, besides the consulship, which he held during the two lastmonths of the year [734]. The interval between that and hisproconsulship he spent in leisure and retirement, for fear of Agrippina, who still held great sway over her son, and hated all the friends ofNarcissus, who was then dead. Afterwards he got by lot the province ofAfrica, which he governed with great reputation, excepting that once, inan insurrection at Adrumetum, he was pelted with turnips. It is certainthat he returned thence nothing richer; for his credit was so low, thathe was obliged to mortgage his whole property to his brother, and wasreduced to the necessity of dealing in mules, for the support of hisrank; for which reason he was commonly called "the Muleteer. " He is saidlikewise to have been convicted of extorting from a young man of fashiontwo hundred thousand sesterces for procuring him the broad-stripe, contrary to the wishes of his father, and was severely reprimanded forit. While in attendance upon Nero in Achaia, he frequently withdrew fromthe theatre while Nero was singing, and went to sleep if he remained, which gave so much (445) offence, that he was not only excluded from hissociety, but debarred the liberty of saluting him in public. Upon this, he retired to a small out-of-the-way town, where he lay skulking inconstant fear of his life, until a province, with an army, was offeredhim. 

A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East [735], that itwas fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on somewho should go forth from Judaea. This prediction referred to a Romanemperor, as the event shewed; but the Jews, applying it to themselves, broke out into rebellion, and having defeated and slain their governor[736], routed the lieutenant of Syria [737], a man of consular rank, whowas advancing to his assistance, and took an eagle, the standard, of oneof his legions. As the suppression of this revolt appeared to require astronger force and an active general, who might be safely trusted in anaffair of so much importance, Vespasian was chosen in preference to allothers, both for his known activity, and on account of the obscurity ofhis origin and name, being a person of whom (446) there could be not theleast jealousy. Two legions, therefore, eight squadrons of horse, andten cohorts, being added to the former troops in Judaea, and, taking withhim his eldest son as lieutenant, as soon as he arrived in his province, he turned the eyes of the neighbouring provinces upon him, by reformingimmediately the discipline of the camp, and engaging the enemy once ortwice with such resolution, that, in the attack of a castle [738], he hadhis knee hurt by the stroke of a stone, and received several arrows inhis shield. 

V. After the deaths of Nero and Galba, whilst Otho and Vitellius werecontending for the sovereignty, he entertained hopes of obtaining theempire, with the prospect of which he had long before flattered himself, from the following omens. Upon an estate belonging to the Flavianfamily, in the neighbourhood of Rome, there was an old oak, sacred toMars, which, at the three several deliveries of Vespasia, put out eachtime a new branch; evident intimations of the future fortune of eachchild. The first was but a slender one, which quickly withered away; andaccordingly, the girl that was born did not live long. The second becamevigorous, which portended great good fortune; but the third grew like atree. His father, Sabinus, encouraged by these omens, which wereconfirmed by the augurs, told his mother, "that her grandson would beemperor of Rome;" at which she laughed heartily, wondering, she said, "that her son should be in his dotage whilst she continued still in fullpossession of her faculties. "

Afterwards in his aedileship, when Caius Caesar, being enraged at his nottaking care to have the streets kept clean, ordered the soldiers to fillthe bosom of his gown with dirt, some persons at that time construed itinto a sign that the government, being trampled under foot and desertedin some civil commotion, would fall under his protection, and as it wereinto his lap. Once, while he was at dinner, a strange dog, that wanderedabout the streets, brought a man's hand [739], and laid it under thetable. And another time, while he was at supper, a plough-ox throwingthe yoke off his neck, broke into the room, and after he had frightenedaway all the attendants, (447) on a sudden, as if he was tired, fell downat his feet, as he lay still upon his couch, and hung down his neck. Acypress-tree likewise, in a field belonging to the family, was torn up bythe roots, and laid flat upon the ground, when there was no violent wind;but next day it rose again fresher and stronger than before. 

He dreamt in Achaia that the good fortune of himself and his family wouldbegin when Nero had a tooth drawn; and it happened that the day after, asurgeon coming into the hall, showed him a tooth which he had justextracted from Nero. In Judaea, upon his consulting the oracle of thedivinity at Carmel [740], the answer was so encouraging as to assure himof success in anything he projected, however great or important it mightbe. And when Josephus [741], one of the noble prisoners, was put inchains, he confidently affirmed that he should be released in a veryshort time by the same Vespasian, but he would be emperor first [742]. Some omens were likewise mentioned in the news from Rome, and amongothers, that Nero, towards the close of his days, was commanded in adream to carry Jupiter's sacred chariot out of the sanctuary where itstood, to Vespasian's house, and conduct it thence into the circus. Alsonot long afterwards, as Galba was going to the election, in which he wascreated consul for the second time, a statue of the Divine Julius [743]turned towards the east. And in the field of Bedriacum [744], before thebattle began, two eagles engaged in the sight of the army; and one ofthem being beaten, a third came from the east, and drove away theconqueror. 

(448) VI. He made, however, no attempt upon the sovereignty, though hisfriends were very ready to support him, and even pressed him to theenterprise, until he was encouraged to it by the fortuitous aid ofpersons unknown to him and at a distance. Two thousand men, drawn out ofthree legions in the Moesian army, had been sent to the assistance ofOtho. While they were upon their march, news came that he had beendefeated, and had put an end to his life; notwithstanding which theycontinued their march as far as Aquileia, pretending that they gave nocredit to the report. There, tempted by the opportunity which thedisorder of the times afforded them, they ravaged and plundered thecountry at discretion; until at length, fearing to be called to anaccount on their return, and punished for it, they resolved upon choosingand creating an emperor. "For they were no ways inferior, " they said, "to the army which made Galba emperor, nor to the pretorian troops whichhad set up Otho, nor the army in Germany, to whom Vitellius owed hiselevation. " The names of all the consular lieutenants, therefore, beingtaken into consideration, and one objecting to one, and another toanother, for various reasons; at last some of the third legion, which alittle before Nero's death had been removed out of Syria into Moesia, extolled Vespasian in high terms; and all the rest assenting, his namewas immediately inscribed on their standards. The design wasnevertheless quashed for a time, the troops being brought to submit toVitellius a little longer. 

However, the fact becoming known, Tiberius Alexander, governor of Egypt, first obliged the legions under his command to swear obedience toVespasian as their emperor, on the calends [the 1st] of July, which wasobserved ever after as the day of his accession to the empire; and uponthe fifth of the ides of the same month [the 28th July], the army inJudaea, where he then was, also swore allegiance to him. Whatcontributed greatly to forward the affair, was a copy of a letter, whether real or counterfeit, which was circulated, and said to have beenwritten by Otho before his decease to Vespasian, recommending to him inthe most urgent terms to avenge his death, and entreating him to come tothe aid of the commonwealth; as well as a report which was circulated, that Vitellius, after his success against Otho, proposed to change thewinter quarters of the legions, and remove those in Germany to a less(449) hazardous station and a warmer climate. Moreover, amongst thegovernors of provinces, Licinius Mucianus dropping the grudge arisingfrom a jealousy of which he had hitherto made no secret, promised to joinhim with the Syrian army, and, among the allied kings, Volugesus, king ofthe Parthians, offered him a reinforcement of forty thousand archers. 

VII. Having, therefore, entered on a civil war, and sent forward hisgenerals and forces into Italy, he himself, in the meantime, passed overto Alexandria, to obtain possession of the key of Egypt [745]. Herehaving entered alone, without attendants, the temple of Serapis, to takethe auspices respecting the establishment of his power, and having donehis utmost to propitiate the deity, upon turning round, [his freedman]Basilides [746] appeared before him, and seemed to offer him the sacredleaves, chaplets, and cakes, according to the usage of the place, although no one had admitted him, and he had long laboured under amuscular debility, which would hardly have allowed him to walk into thetemple; besides which, it was certain that at the very time he was faraway. Immediately after this, arrived letters with intelligence thatVitellius's troops had been defeated at Cremona, and he himself slain atRome. Vespasian, the new emperor, having been raised unexpectedly from alow estate, wanted something which might clothe him with divine majestyand authority. This, likewise, was now added. A poor man who was blind, and another who was lame, came both together before him, when he wasseated on the tribunal, imploring him to heal them [747], and saying thatthey were admonished (450) in a dream by the god Serapis to seek his aid, who assured them that he would restore sight to the one by anointing hiseyes with his spittle, and give strength to the leg of the other, if hevouchsafed but to touch it with his heel. At first he could scarcelybelieve that the thing would any how succeed, and therefore hesitated toventure on making the experiment. At length, however, by the advice ofhis friends, he made the attempt publicly, in the presence of theassembled multitudes, and it was crowned with success in both cases[748]. About the same time, at Tegea in Arcadia, by the direction (451)of some soothsayers, several vessels of ancient workmanship were dug outof a consecrated place, on which there was an effigy resemblingVespasian. 

VIII. Returning now to Rome, under these auspices, and with a greatreputation, after enjoying a triumph for victories over the Jews, headded eight consulships [749] to his former one. He likewise assumed thecensorship, and made it his principal concern, during the whole of hisgovernment, first to restore order in the state, which had been almostruined, and was in a tottering condition, and then to improve it. Thesoldiers, one part of them emboldened by victory, and the other smartingwith the disgrace of their defeat, had abandoned themselves to everyspecies of licentiousness and insolence. Nay, the provinces, too, andfree cities, and some kingdoms in alliance with Rome, were all in adisturbed state. He, therefore, disbanded many of Vitellius's soldiers, and punished others; and so far was he from granting any extraordinaryfavours to the sharers of his success, that it was late before he paidthe gratuities due to them by law. That he might let slip no opportunityof reforming the discipline of the army, upon a young man's coming muchperfumed to return him thanks (452) for having appointed him to command asquadron of horse, he turned away his head in disgust, and, giving himthis sharp reprimand, "I had rather you had smelt of garlic, " revoked hiscommission. When the men belonging to the fleet, who travelled by turnsfrom Ostia and Puteoli to Rome, petitioned for an addition to their pay, under the name of shoe-money, thinking that it would answer littlepurpose to send them away without a reply, he ordered them for the futureto run barefooted; and so they have done ever since. He deprived oftheir liberties, Achaia, Lycia, Rhodes, Byzantium, and Samos; and reducedthem into the form of provinces; Thrace, also, and Cilicia, as well asComagene, which until that time had been under the government of kings. He stationed some legions in Cappadocia on account of the frequentinroads of the barbarians, and, instead of a Roman knight, appointed asgovernor of it a man of consular rank. The ruins of houses which hadbeen burnt down long before, being a great desight to the city, he gaveleave to any one who would, to take possession of the void ground andbuild upon it, if the proprietors should hesitate to perform the workthemselves. He resolved upon rebuilding the Capitol, and was theforemost to put his hand to clearing the ground of the rubbish, andremoved some of it upon his own shoulder. And he undertook, likewise, torestore the three thousand tables of brass which had been destroyed inthe fire which consumed the Capitol; searching in all quarters for copiesof those curious and ancient records, in which were contained the decreesof the senate, almost from the building of the city, as well as the actsof the people, relative to alliances, treaties, and privileges granted toany person. 

IX. He likewise erected several new public buildings, namely, the templeof Peace [750] near the Forum, that of Claudius on the (453) Coelianmount, which had been begun by Agrippina, but almost entirely demolishedby Nero [751]; and an amphitheatre [752] in the middle of the city, uponfinding that Augustus had projected such a work. He purified thesenatorian and equestrian orders, which had been much reduced by thehavoc made amongst them at several times, and was fallen into disreputeby neglect. Having expelled the most unworthy, he chose in their roomthe most honourable persons in Italy and the provinces. And to let it beknown that those two orders differed not so much in privileges as indignity, he declared publicly, when some altercation passed between asenator and a Roman knight, "that senators ought not to be treated withscurrilous language, unless they were the aggressors, and then it wasfair and lawful to return it. "

X. The business of the courts had prodigiously accumulated, partly fromold law-suits which, on account of the interruption that had been givento the course of justice, still remained undecided, and partly from theaccession of new suits arising out of the disorder of the times. He, therefore, chose commissioners by lot to provide for the restitution ofwhat had been seized by violence during the war, and others withextraordinary jurisdiction to decide causes belonging to the centumviri, and reduce them to as small a number as possible, for the dispatch ofwhich, otherwise, the lives of the litigants could scarcely allowsufficient time. 

XI. Lust and luxury, from the licence which had long prevailed, had alsogrown to an enormous height. He, therefore, obtained a decree of thesenate, that a woman who formed an union with the slave of anotherperson, should be considered (454) a bondwoman herself; and that usurersshould not be allowed to take proceedings at law for the recovery ofmoney lent to young men whilst they lived in their father's family, noteven after their fathers were dead. 

XII. In other affairs, from the beginning to the end of his government, he conducted himself with great moderation and clemency. He was so farfrom dissembling the obscurity of his extraction, that he frequently mademention of it himself. When some affected to trace his pedigree to thefounders of Reate, and a companion of Hercules [753], whose monument isstill to be seen on the Salarian road, he laughed at them for it. And hewas so little fond of external and adventitious ornaments, that, on theday of his triumph [754], being quite tired of the length and tediousnessof the procession, he could not forbear saying, "he was rightly served, for having in his old age been so silly as to desire a triumph; as if itwas either due to his ancestors, or had ever been expected by himself. "Nor would he for a long time accept of the tribunitian authority, or thetitle of Father of his Country. And in regard to the custom of searchingthose who came to salute him, he dropped it even in the time of the civilwar. 

XIII. He bore with great mildness the freedom used by his friends, thesatirical allusions of advocates, and the petulance of philosophers. Licinius Mucianus, who had been guilty of notorious acts of lewdness, but, presuming upon his great services, treated him very rudely, hereproved only in private; and when complaining of his conduct to a commonfriend of theirs, he concluded with these words, "However, I am a man. "Salvius Liberalis, in pleading the cause of a rich man under prosecution, presuming to say, "What is it to Caesar, if Hipparchus possesses ahundred millions of sesterces?" he commended him for it. Demetrius, theCynic philosopher [755], (455) who had been sentenced to banishment, meeting him on the road, and refusing to rise up or salute him, nay, snarling at him in scurrilous language, he only called him a cur. 

XIV. He was little disposed to keep up the memory of affronts orquarrels, nor did he harbour any resentment on account of them. He madea very splendid marriage for the daughter of his enemy Vitellius, andgave her, besides, a suitable fortune and equipage. Being in a greatconsternation after he was forbidden the court in the time of Nero, andasking those about him, what he should do? or, whither he should go? oneof those whose office it was to introduce people to the emperor, thrusting him out, bid him go to Morbonia [756]. But when this sameperson came afterwards to beg his pardon, he only vented his resentmentin nearly the same words. He was so far from being influenced bysuspicion or fear to seek the destruction of any one, that, when hisfriends advised him to beware of Metius Pomposianus, because it wascommonly believed, on his nativity being cast, that he was destined byfate to the empire, he made him consul, promising for him, that he wouldnot forget the benefit conferred. 

XV. It will scarcely be found, that so much as one innocent personsuffered in his reign, unless in his absence, and without his knowledge, or, at least, contrary to his inclination, and when he was imposed upon. Although Helvidius Priscus [757] was the only man who presumed to salutehim on his return from Syria by his private name of Vespasian, and, whenhe came to be praetor, omitted any mark of honour to him, or even anymention of him in his edicts, yet he was not angry, until Helvidiusproceeded to inveigh against him with the most scurrilous language. (456) Though he did indeed banish him, and afterwards ordered him to beput to death, yet he would gladly have saved him notwithstanding, andaccordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back the executioners; and hewould have saved him, had he not been deceived by a false accountbrought, that he had already perished. He never rejoiced at the death ofany man; nay he would shed tears, and sigh, at the just punishment of theguilty. 

XVI. The only thing deservedly blameable in his character was his loveof money. For not satisfied with reviving the imposts which had beenrepealed in the time of Galba, he imposed new and onerous taxes, augmented the tribute of the provinces, and doubled that of some of them. He likewise openly engaged in a traffic, which is discreditable [758]even to a private individual, buying great quantities of goods, for thepurpose of retailing them again to advantage. Nay, he made no scruple ofselling the great offices of the state to candidates, and pardons topersons under prosecution, whether they were innocent or guilty. It isbelieved, that he advanced all the most rapacious amongst the procuratorsto higher offices, with the view of squeezing them after they hadacquired great wealth. He was commonly said, "to have used them assponges, " because it was his practice, as we may say, to wet them whendry, and squeeze them when wet. It is said that he was naturallyextremely covetous, and was upbraided with it by an old herdsman of his, who, upon the emperor's refusing to enfranchise him gratis, which on hisadvancement he humbly petitioned for, cried out, "That the fox changedhis hair, but not his nature. " On the other hand, some are of opinion, that he was urged to his rapacious proceedings by necessity, and theextreme poverty of the treasury and exchequer, of which he took publicnotice in the beginning of his reign; declaring that "no less than fourhundred thousand millions of sesterces were wanting to carry on thegovernment. " This is the more likely to be true, because he applied tothe best purposes what he procured by bad means. 

XVII. His liberality, however, to all ranks of people, was excessive. He made up to several senators the estate required (457) by law toqualify them for that dignity; relieving likewise such men of consularrank as were poor, with a yearly allowance of five hundred thousandsesterces [759]; and rebuilt, in a better manner than before, severalcities in different parts of the empire, which had been damaged byearthquakes or fires. 

XVIII. He was a great encourager of learning and the liberal arts. Hefirst granted to the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearlystipend of a hundred thousand sesterces [760] each out of the exchequer. He also bought the freedom of superior poets and artists [761], and gavea noble gratuity to the restorer of the Coan of Venus [762], and toanother artist who repaired the Colossus [763]. Some one offering toconvey some immense columns into the Capitol at a small expense by amechanical contrivance, he rewarded him very handsomely for hisinvention, but would not accept his service, saying, "Suffer me to findmaintenance for the poor people. " [764]

XIX. In the games celebrated when the stage-scenery of (458) the theatreof Marcellus [765] was repaired, he restored the old musicalentertainments. He gave Apollinaris, the tragedian, four hundredthousand sesterces, and to Terpinus and Diodorus, the harpers, twohundred thousand; to some a hundred thousand; and the least he gave toany of the performers was forty thousand, besides many golden crowns. Heentertained company constantly at his table, and often in great state andvery sumptuously, in order to promote trade. As in the Saturnalia hemade presents to the men which they were to carry away with them, so didhe to the women upon the calends of March [766]; notwithstanding which, he could not wipe off the disrepute of his former stinginess. TheAlexandrians called him constantly Cybiosactes; a name which had beengiven to one of their kings who was sordidly avaricious. Nay, at hisfuneral, Favo, the principal mimic, personating him, and imitating, asactors do, both his manner of speaking and his gestures, asked aloud ofthe procurators, "how much his funeral and the procession would cost?"And being answered "ten millions of sesterces, " he cried out, "give himbut a hundred thousand sesterces, and they might throw his body into theTiber, if they would. "

XX. He was broad-set, strong-limbed, and his features gave the idea of aman in the act of straining himself. In consequence, one of the citywits, upon the emperor's desiring him "to say something droll respectinghimself, " facetiously answered, "I will, when you have done relievingyour bowels. " [767] He enjoyed a good state of health, though he used noother means to preserve it, than repeated friction, as much (459) as hecould bear, on his neck and other parts of his body, in the tennis-courtattached to the baths, besides fasting one day in every month. 

XXI. His method of life was commonly this. After he became emperor, heused to rise very early, often before daybreak. Having read over hisletters, and the briefs of all the departments of the government offices;he admitted his friends; and while they were paying him theircompliments, he would put on his own shoes, and dress himself with hisown hands. Then, after the dispatch of such business as was broughtbefore him, he rode out, and afterwards retired to repose, lying on hiscouch with one of his mistresses, of whom he kept several after the deathof Caenis [768]. Coming out of his private apartments, he passed to thebath, and then entered the supper-room. They say that he was never moregood-humoured and indulgent than at that time: and therefore hisattendants always seized that opportunity, when they had any favour toask. 

XXII. At supper, and, indeed, at other times, he was extremely free andjocose. For he had humour, but of a low kind, and he would sometimes useindecent language, such as is addressed to young girls about to bemarried. Yet there are some things related of him not void of ingeniouspleasantry; amongst which are the following. Being once reminded byMestrius Florus, that plaustra was a more proper expression than plostra, he the next day saluted him by the name of Flaurus [769]. A certain ladypretending to be desperately enamoured of him, he was prevailed upon toadmit her to his bed; and after he had gratified her desires, he gave her[770] four hundred (460) thousand sesterces. When his steward desired toknow how he would have the sum entered in his accounts, he replied, "ForVespasian's being seduced. "

XXIII. He used Greek verses very wittily; speaking of a tall man, whohad enormous parts:

 Makxi bibas, kradon dolichoskion enchos; Still shaking, as he strode, his vast long spear. 

And of Cerylus, a freedman, who being very rich, had begun to passhimself off as free-born, to elude the exchequer at his decease, andassumed the name of Laches, he said:

 ----O Lachaes, Lachaes, Epan apothanaes, authis ex archaes esae Kaerylos. 

 Ah, Laches, Laches! when thou art no more, Thou'lt Cerylus be called, just as before. 

He chiefly affected wit upon his own shameful means of raising money, inorder to wipe off the odium by some joke, and turn it into ridicule. Oneof his ministers, who was much in his favour, requesting of him astewardship for some person, under pretence of his being his brother, hedeferred granting him his petition, and in the meantime sent for thecandidate, and having squeezed out of him as much money as he had agreedto give to his friend at court, he appointed him immediately to theoffice. The minister soon after renewing his application, "You must, "said he, "find another brother; for the one you adopted is in truthmine. "

Suspecting once, during a journey, that his mule-driver had alighted toshoe his mules, only in order to have an opportunity for allowing aperson they met, who was engaged in a law-suit, to speak to him, he askedhim, "how much he got for shoeing his mules?" and insisted on having ashare of the profit. When his son Titus blamed him for even laying a taxupon urine, he applied to his nose a piece of the money he received inthe first instalment, and asked him, "if it stunk?" And he replying no, "And yet, " said he, "it is derived from urine. "

Some deputies having come to acquaint him that a large statue, whichwould cost a vast sum, was ordered to be erected for him at the publicexpense, he told them to pay it down immediately, (461) holding out thehollow of his hand, and saying, "there was a base ready for the statue. "Not even when he was under the immediate apprehension and peril of death, could he forbear jesting. For when, among other prodigies, the mausoleumof the Caesars suddenly flew open, and a blazing star appeared in theheavens; one of the prodigies, he said, concerned Julia Calvina, who wasof the family of Augustus [771]; and the other, the king of theParthians, who wore his hair long. And when his distemper first seizedhim, "I suppose, " said he, "I shall soon be a god. " [772]

XXIV. In his ninth consulship, being seized, while in Campania, with aslight indisposition, and immediately returning to the city, he soonafterwards went thence to Cutiliae [773], and his estates in the countryabout Reate, where he used constantly to spend the summer. Here, thoughhis disorder much increased, and he injured his bowels by too free use ofthe cold waters, he nevertheless attended to the dispatch of business, and even gave audience to ambassadors in bed. At last, being taken illof a diarrhoea, to such a degree that he was ready to faint, he criedout, "An emperor ought to die standing upright. " In endeavouring torise, he died in the hands of those who were helping him up, upon theeighth of the calends of July [24th June] [774], being sixty-nine years, one month, and seven days old. 

XXV. All are agreed that he had such confidence in the calculations onhis own nativity and that of his sons, that, after several conspiraciesagainst him, he told the senate, that either his sons would succeed him, or nobody. It is said likewise, that he once saw in a dream a balance inthe middle of the porch of the Palatine house exactly poised; in one(462) scale of which stood Claudius and Nero, in the other, himself andhis sons. The event corresponded to the symbol; for the reigns of thetwo parties were precisely of the same duration. [775]

 * * * * * *

Neither consanguinity nor adoption, as formerly, but great influence inthe army having now become the road to the imperial throne, no personcould claim a better title to that elevation than Titus FlaviusVespasian. He had not only served with great reputation in the wars bothin Britain and Judaea, but seemed as yet untainted with any vice whichcould pervert his conduct in the civil administration of the empire. Itappears, however, that he was prompted more by the persuasion of friends, than by his own ambition, to prosecute the attainment of the imperialdignity. To render this enterprise more successful, recourse was had toa new and peculiar artifice, which, while well accommodated to thesuperstitious credulity of the Romans, impressed them with an idea, thatVespasian's destiny to the throne was confirmed by supernaturalindications. But, after his elevation, we hear no more of his miraculousachievements. 

The prosecution of the war in Britain, which had been suspended for someyears, was resumed by Vespasian; and he sent thither Petilius Cerealis, who by his bravery extended the limits of the Roman province. UnderJulius Frontinus, successor to that general, the invaders continued tomake farther progress in the reduction of the island: but the commanderwho finally established the dominion of the Romans in Britain, was JuliusAgricola, not less distinguished for his military achievements, than forhis prudent regard to the civil administration of the country. He beganhis operations with the conquest of North Wales, whence passing over intothe island of Anglesey, which had revolted since the time of SuetoniusPaulinus, he again reduced it to subjection. Then proceeding northwardswith his victorious army, he defeated the Britons in every engagement, took possession of all the territories in the southern parts of theisland, and driving before him all who refused to submit to the Romanarms, penetrated even into the forests and mountains of Caledonia. Hedefeated the natives under Galgacus, their leader, in a decisive battle;and fixing a line of garrisons between the friths of Clyde and Forth, hesecured the Roman province from the incursions of the people who occupiedthe parts of the island (463) beyond that boundary. Wherever heestablished the Roman power, he introduced laws and civilization amongstthe inhabitants, and employed every means of conciliating theiraffection, as well as of securing their obedience. 

The war in Judaea, which had been commenced under the former reign, wascontinued in that of Vespasian; but he left the siege of Jerusalem to beconducted by his son Titus, who displayed great valour and militarytalents in the prosecution of the enterprise. After an obstinate defenceby the Jews, that city, so much celebrated in the sacred writings, wasfinally demolished, and the glorious temple itself, the admiration of theworld, reduced to ashes; contrary, however, to the will of Titus, whoexerted his utmost efforts to extinguish the flames. 

The manners of the Romans had now attained to an enormous pitch ofdepravity, through the unbounded licentiousness of the tines; and, to thehonour of Vespasian, he discovered great zeal in his endeavours to effecta national reformation. Vigilant, active, and persevering, he wasindefatigable in the management of public affairs, and rose in the winterbefore day-break, to give audience to his officers of state. But if wegive credit to the whimsical imposition of a tax upon urine, we cannotentertain any high opinion, either of his talents as a financier, or ofthe resources of the Roman empire. By his encouragement of science, hedisplayed a liberality, of which there occurs no example under all thepreceding emperors, since the time of Augustus. Pliny the elder was nowin the height of reputation, as well as in great favour with Vespasian;and it was probably owing not a little to the advice of that minister, that the emperor showed himself so much the patron of literary men. Awriter mentioned frequently by Pliny, and who lived in this reign, wasLicinius Mucianus, a Roman knight: he treated of the history andgeography of the eastern countries. Juvenal, who had begun his Satiresseveral years before, continued to inveigh against the flagrant vices ofthe times; but the only author whose writings we have to notice in thepresent reign, is a poet of a different class. 

C. VALERIUS FLACCUS wrote a poem in eight books, on the Expedition of theArgonauts; a subject which, next to the wars of Thebes and Troy, was inancient times the most celebrated. Of the life of this author, biographers have transmitted no particulars; but we may place his birthin the reign of Tiberius, before all the writers who flourished in theAugustan age were extinct. He enjoyed the rays of the setting sun whichhad illumined that glorious period, and he discovers the efforts of anambition to recall its meridian splendour. As the poem was left (464)incomplete by the death of the author, we can only judge imperfectly ofthe conduct and general consistency of the fable: but the most difficultpart having been executed, without any room for the censure of candidcriticism, we may presume that the sequel would have been finished withan equal claim to indulgence, if not to applause. The traditionalanecdotes relative to the Argonautic expedition are introduced withpropriety, and embellished with the graces of poetical fiction. Indescribing scenes of tenderness, this author is happily pathetic, and inthe heat of combat, proportionably animated. His similes present theimagination with beautiful imagery, and not only illustrate, but giveadditional force to the subject. We find in Flaccus a few expressionsnot countenanced by the authority of the most celebrated Latin writers. His language, however, in general, is pure; but his words are perhaps notalways the best that might have been chosen. The versification iselevated, though not uniformly harmonious; and there pervades the wholepoem an epic dignity, which renders it superior to the productionascribed to Orpheus, or to that of Apollonius, on the same subject. 

TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS AUGUSTUS. 

(465)

I. Titus, who had the same cognomen with his father, was the darling anddelight of mankind; so much did the natural genius, address, or goodfortune he possessed tend to conciliate the favour of all. This was, indeed, extremely difficult, after he became emperor, as before thattime, and even during the reign of his father, he lay under public odiumand censure. He was born upon the third of the calends of January, [30thDec. ] in the year remarkable for the death of Caius [776], near theSeptizonium [777], in a mean house, and a very small and dark room, whichstill exists, and is shown to the curious. 

II. He was educated in the palace with Britannicus, and instructed inthe same branches of learning, and under the same masters. During thistime, they say, that a physiognomist being introduced by Narcissus, thefreedman of Claudius, to examine the features of Britannicus [778], positively affirmed that he would never become emperor, but that Titus, who stood by, would. They were so familiar, that Titus being next him attable, is thought to have tasted of the fatal potion which put an end toBritannicus's life, and to have contracted from it a distemper which hungabout him a long time. In remembrance of all these circumstances, heafterwards erected a golden statue of him in the Palatium, and dedicatedto him an equestrian statue of ivory; attending it in the Circensianprocession, in which it is still carried to this day. 

(466) III. While yet a boy, he was remarkable for his noble endowmentsboth of body and mind; and as he advanced in years, they became stillmore conspicuous. He had a fine person, combining an equal mixture ofmajesty and grace; was very strong, though not tall, and somewhatcorpulent. Gifted with an excellent memory, and a capacity for all thearts of peace and war; he was a perfect master of the use of arms andriding; very ready in the Latin and Greek tongues, both in verse andprose; and such was the facility he possessed in both, that he wouldharangue and versify extempore. Nor was he unacquainted with music, butcould both sing and play upon the harp sweetly and scientifically. Ihave likewise been informed by many persons, that he was remarkably quickin writing short-hand, would in merriment and jest engage with hissecretaries in the imitation of any hand-writing he saw, and often say, "that he was admirably qualified for forgery. "

IV. He filled with distinction the rank of a military tribune both inGermany and Britain, in which he conducted himself with the utmostactivity, and no less modesty and reputation; as appears evident from thegreat number of statues, with honourable inscriptions, erected to him invarious parts of both those provinces. After serving in the wars, hefrequented the courts of law, but with less assiduity than applause. About the same time, he married Arricidia, the daughter of Tertullus, whowas only a knight, but had formerly been prefect of the pretorian guards. After her decease, he married Marcia Furnilla, of a very noble family, but afterwards divorced her, taking from her the daughter he had by her. Upon the expiration of his quaestorship, he was raised to the rank ofcommander of a legion [779], and took the two strong cities of Tarichaeaand Gamala, in Judaea; and having his horse killed under him in a battle, he mounted another, whose rider he had encountered and slain. 

V. Soon afterwards, when Galba came to be emperor, he was sent tocongratulate him, and turned the eyes of all people upon himself, wherever he came; it being the general opinion amongst them, that theemperor had sent for him with a design to adopt him for his son. Butfinding all things again in confusion, he turned back upon the road; andgoing to consult (467) the oracle of Venus at Paphos about his voyage, hereceived assurances of obtaining the empire for himself. These hopeswere speedily strengthened, and being left to finish the reduction ofJudaea, in the final assault of Jerusalem, he slew seven of itsdefenders, with the like number of arrows, and took it upon hisdaughter's birth-day [780]. So great was the joy and attachment of thesoldiers, that, in their congratulations, they unanimously saluted him bythe title of Emperor [781]; and, upon his quitting the province soonafterwards, would needs have detained him, earnestly begging him, andthat not without threats, "either to stay, or take them all with him. "This occurrence gave rise to the suspicion of his being engaged in adesign to rebel against his father, and claim for himself the governmentof the East; and the suspicion increased, when, on his way to Alexandria, he wore a diadem at the consecration of the ox Apis at Memphis; and, though he did it only in compliance with an ancient religious usage ofthe country, yet there was some who put a bad construction upon it. Making, therefore, what haste he could into Italy, he arrived first atRhegium, and sailing thence in a merchant ship to Puteoli, went to Romewith all possible expedition. Presenting himself unexpectedly to hisfather, he said, by way of contradicting the strange reports raisedconcerning him, "I am come, father, I am come. "

VI. From that time he constantly acted as colleague with his father, and, indeed, as regent of the empire. He triumphed [782] (468) with hisfather, bore jointly with him the office of censor [783], and was, besides, his colleague not only in the tribunitian authority [784], butin seven consulships [785]. Taking upon himself the care and inspectionof all offices, he dictated letters, wrote proclamations in his father'sname, and pronounced his speeches in the senate in place of the quaestor. He likewise assumed the command of the pretorian guards, although no onebut a Roman knight had ever before been their prefect. In this heconducted himself with great haughtiness and violence, taking off withoutscruple or delay all those he had most reason to suspect, after he hadsecretly sent his emissaries into the theatres and camp, to demand, as ifby general consent, that the suspected persons should be delivered up topunishment. Among these, he invited to supper A. Caecina, a man ofconsular rank, whom he ordered to be stabbed at his departure, immediately after he had gone out of the room. To this act, indeed, hewas provoked by an imminent danger; for he had discovered a writing underthe hand of Caecina, containing an account of a plot hatched among thesoldiers. By these acts, though he provided for his future security, yetfor the present he so much incurred the hatred of the people, thatscarcely ever any one came to the empire with a more odious character, ormore universally disliked. 

VII. Besides his cruelty, he lay under the suspicion of giving (469) wayto habits of luxury, as he often prolonged his revels till midnight withthe most riotous of his acquaintance. Nor was he unsuspected oflewdness, on account of the swarms of catamites and eunuchs about him, and his well-known attachment to queen Berenice [786], who received fromhim, as it is reported, a promise of marriage. He was supposed, besides, to be of a rapacious disposition; for it is certain, that, in causeswhich came before his father, he used to offer his interest for sale, andtake bribes. In short, people publicly expressed an unfavourable opinionof him, and said he would prove another Nero. This prejudice, however, turned out in the end to his advantage, and enhanced his praises to thehighest pitch when he was found to possess no vicious propensities, but, on the contrary, the noblest virtues. His entertainments were agreeablerather than extravagant; and he surrounded himself with such excellentfriends, that the succeeding princes adopted them as most serviceable tothemselves and the state. He immediately sent away Berenice from thecity, much against both their inclinations. Some of his old eunuchs, though such accomplished dancers, that they bore an uncontrollable swayupon the stage, he was so far from treating with any extraordinarykindness, that he would not so much as witness their performances in thecrowded theatre. He violated no private right; (470) and if ever manrefrained from injustice, he did; nay, he would not accept of theallowable and customary offerings. Yet, in munificence, he was inferiorto none of the princes before him. Having dedicated his amphitheatre[787], and built some warm baths [788] close by it with great expedition, he entertained the people with most magnificent spectacles. He likewiseexhibited a naval fight in the old Naumachia, besides a combat ofgladiators; and in one day brought into the theatre five thousand wildbeasts of all kinds. [789]

(471) VIII. He was by nature extremely benevolent; for whereas all theemperors after Tiberius, according to the example he had set them, wouldnot admit the grants made by former princes to be valid, unless theyreceived their own sanction, he confirmed them all by one general edict, without waiting for any applications respecting them. Of all whopetitioned for any favour, he sent none away without hopes. And when hisministers represented to him that he promised more than he could perform, he replied, "No one ought to go away downcast from an audience with hisprince. " Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for anythat day, he broke out into that memorable and justly-admired saying, "Myfriends, I have lost a day. " [790] More particularly, he treated thepeople on all occasions with so much courtesy, that, on his presentingthem with a show of gladiators, he declared, "He should manage it, notaccording to his own fancy, but that of the spectators, " and didaccordingly. He denied them nothing, and very frankly encouraged them toask what they pleased. Espousing the cause of the Thracian party amongthe gladiators, he frequently joined in the popular demonstrations intheir favour, but without compromising his dignity or doing injustice. To omit no opportunity of acquiring popularity, he sometimes made usehimself of the baths he had erected, without excluding the common people. There happened in his reign some dreadful accidents; an eruption of MountVesuvius [791], in Campania, and a fire in Rome, which continued duringthree days and three nights [792]; besides a plague, such as was scarcelyever known before. Amidst these many great disasters, he not onlymanifested the concern (472) which might be expected from a prince buteven the affection of a father, for his people; one while comforting themby his proclamations, and another while relieving them to the utmost ofhis power. He chose by lot, from amongst the men of consular rank, commissioners for repairing the losses in Campania. The estates of thosewho had perished by the eruption of Vesuvius, and who had left no heirs, he applied to the repair of the ruined cities. With regard to the publicbuildings destroyed by fire in the City, he declared that nobody shouldbe a loser but himself. Accordingly, he applied all the ornaments of hispalaces to the decoration of the temples, and purposes of public utility, and appointed several men of the equestrian order to superintend thework. For the relief of the people during the plague, he employed, inthe way of sacrifice and medicine, all means both human and divine. Amongst the calamities of the times, were informers and their agents; atribe of miscreants who had grown up under the licence of former reigns. These he frequently ordered to be scourged or beaten with sticks in theForum, and then, after he had obliged them to pass through theamphitheatre as a public spectacle, commanded them to be sold for slaves, or else banished them to some rocky islands. And to discourage suchpractices for the future, amongst other things, he prohibited actions tobe successively brought under different laws for the same cause, or thestate of affairs of deceased persons to be inquired into after a certainnumber of years. 

IX. Having declared that he accepted the office of Pontifex Maximus forthe purpose of preserving his hands undefiled, he faithfully adhered tohis promise. For after that time he was neither directly nor indirectlyconcerned in the death of any person, though he sometimes was justlyirritated. He swore "that he would perish himself, rather than prove thedestruction of any man. " Two men of patrician rank being convicted ofaspiring to the empire, he only advised them to desist, saying, "that thesovereign power was disposed of by fate, " and promised them, that ifthere was any thing else they desired of him, he would grant it. He alsoimmediately sent messengers to the mother of one of them, who was at agreat distance, and in deep anxiety about her son, to assure her of hissafety. Nay, he not only invited them to sup with (473) him, but nextday, at a show of gladiators, purposely placed them close by him; andhanded to them the arms of the combatants for his inspection. It is saidlikewise, that having had their nativities cast, he assured them, "that agreat calamity was impending on both of them, but from another hand, andnot from his. " Though his brother was continually plotting against him, almost openly stirring up the armies to rebellion, and contriving to getaway, yet he could not endure to put him to death, or to banish him fromhis presence; nor did he treat him with less respect than before. Butfrom his first accession to the empire, he constantly declared him hispartner in it, and that he should be his successor; begging of himsometimes in private, with tears in his eyes, "to return the affection hehad for him. "

X. Amidst all these favourable circumstances, he was cut off by anuntimely death, more to the loss of mankind than himself. At the closeof the public spectacles, he wept bitterly in the presence of the people, and then retired into the Sabine country [793], rather melancholy, because a victim had made its escape while he was sacrificing, and loudthunder had been heard while the atmosphere was serene. At the firstresting-place on the road, he was seized with a fever, and being carriedforward in a litter, they say that he drew back the curtains, and lookedup to heaven, complaining heavily, "that his life was taken from him, though he had done nothing to deserve it; for there was no action of histhat he had occasion to repent of, but one. " What that was, he neitherdisclosed himself, nor is it easy for us to conjecture. Some imaginethat he alluded to the connection which he had formerly had with hisbrother's wife. But Domitia solemnly denied it on oath; which she wouldnever have done, had there been any truth in the report; nay, she wouldcertainly have gloried in it, as she was forward enough to boast of allher scandalous intrigues. 

XI. He died in the same villa where his father had died (474) beforehim, upon the Ides of September [the 13th of September]; two years, twomonths, and twenty days after he had succeeded his father; and in theone-and-fortieth year of his age [794]. As soon as the news of his deathwas published, all people mourned for him, as for the loss of some nearrelative. The senate assembled in haste, before they could be summonedby proclamation, and locking the doors of their house at first, butafterwards opening them, gave him such thanks, and heaped upon him suchpraises, now he was dead, as they never had done whilst he was alive andpresent amongst them. 

 * * * * * *

TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIAN, the younger, was the first prince who succeededto the empire by hereditary right; and having constantly acted, after hisreturn from Judaea, as colleague with his father in the administration, he seemed to be as well qualified by experience as he was by abilities, for conducting the affairs of the empire. But with respect to hisnatural disposition, and moral behaviour, the expectations entertained bythe public were not equally flattering. He was immoderately addicted toluxury; he had betrayed a strong inclination to cruelty; and he lived inthe habitual practice of lewdness, no less unnatural than intemperate. But, with a degree of virtuous resolution unexampled in history, he hadno sooner taken into his hands the entire reins of government, than herenounced every vicious attachment. Instead of wallowing in luxury, asbefore, he became a model of temperance; instead of cruelty, he displayedthe strongest proofs of humanity and benevolence; and in the room oflewdness, he exhibited a transition to the most unblemished chastity andvirtue. In a word, so sudden and great a change was never known in thecharacter of mortal; and he had the peculiar glory to receive theappellation of "the darling and delight of mankind. "

Under a prince of such a disposition, the government of the empire couldnot but be conducted with the strictest regard to the public welfare. The reform, which was begun in the late reign, he prosecuted with themost ardent application; and, had he lived for a longer time, it isprobable that his authority and example would have produced the mostbeneficial effects upon the manners of the Romans. 

During the reign of this emperor, in the seventy-ninth year of (475) theChristian era, happened the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which hasever since been celebrated for its volcano. Before this time, Vesuviusis spoken of, by ancient writers, as being covered with orchards andvineyards, and of which the middle was dry and barren. The eruption wasaccompanied by an earthquake, which destroyed several cities of Campania, particularly Pompeii and Herculaneum; while the lava, pouring down themountain in torrents, overwhelmed, in various directions, the adjacentplains. The burning ashes were carried not only over the neighbouringcountry, but as far as the shores of Egypt, Libya, and even Syria. Amongst those to whom this dreadful eruption proved fatal, was Pliny, thecelebrated naturalist, whose curiosity to examine the phenomenon led himso far within the verge of danger, that he could not afterwards escape. 

PLINY, surnamed the Elder, was born at Verona, of a noble family. Hedistinguished himself early by his military achievements in the Germanwar, received the dignity of an Augur, at Rome, and was afterwardsappointed governor of Spain. In every public character, he acquittedhimself with great reputation, and enjoyed the esteem of the severalemperors under whom he lived. The assiduity with which he appliedhimself to the collection of information, either curious or useful, surpasses all example. From an early hour in the morning, until late atnight, he was almost constantly employed in discharging the duties of hispublic station, in reading or hearing books read by his amanuensis, andin extracting from them whatever seemed worthy of notice. Even duringhis meals, and while travelling in his carriage upon business, heprosecuted with unremitting zeal and diligence his taste for enquiry andcompilation. No man ever displayed so strong a persuasion of the valueof time, or availed himself so industriously of it. He considered everymoment as lost which was not employed in literary pursuits. The bookswhich he wrote, in consequence of this indefatigable exertion, were, according to the account transmitted by his nephew, Pliny the younger, numerous, and on various subjects. The catalogue of them is as follows:a book on Equestrian Archery, which discovered much skill in the art; theLife of Q. Pomponius Secundus; twenty books of the Wars of Germany; acomplete treatise on the Education of an Orator, in six volumes; eightbooks of Doubtful Discourses, written in the latter part of the reign ofNero, when every kind of moral discussion was attended with danger; witha hundred and sixty volumes of remarks on the writings of the variousauthors which he had perused. For the last-mentioned production only, and before it was brought near to its accomplishment, we are told, thathe (476) was offered by Largius Licinius four hundred thousand sesterces, amounting to upwards of three thousand two hundred pounds sterling; anenormous sum for the copyright of a book before the invention ofprinting! But the only surviving work of this voluminous author is hisNatural History, in thirty-seven books, compiled from the various writerswho had treated of that extensive and interesting subject. 

If we estimate this great work either by the authenticity of theinformation which it contains, or its utility in promoting theadvancement of arts and sciences, we should not consider it as an objectof any extraordinary encomiums; but when we view it as a literarymonument, which displays the whole knowledge of the ancients, relative toNatural History, collected during a period of about seven hundred years, from the time of Thales the Milesian, it has a just claim to theattention of every speculative enquirer. It is not surprising, that theprogress of the human mind, which, in moral science, after the first dawnof enquiry, was rapid both amongst the Greeks and Romans, should be slowin the improvement of such branches of knowledge as depended entirely onobservation and facts, which were peculiarly difficult of attainment. Natural knowledge can only be brought to perfection by the prosecution ofenquiries in different climates, and by a communication of discoveriesamongst those by whom it is cultivated. But neither could enquiries beprosecuted, nor discoveries communicated, with success, while the greaterpart of the world was involved in barbarism, while navigation was slowand limited, and the art of printing unknown. The consideration of thesecircumstances will afford sufficient apology for the imperfect state inwhich natural science existed amongst the ancients. But we proceed togive an abstract of their extent, as they appear in the compilation ofPliny. 

This work is divided into thirty-seven books; the first of which containsthe Preface, addressed to the emperor Vespasian, probably the father, towhom the author pays high compliments. The second book treats of theworld, the elements, and the stars. In respect to the world, or ratherthe universe, the author's opinion is the same with that of severalancient philosophers, that it is a Deity, uncreated, infinite, andeternal. Their notions, however, as might be expected, on a subject soincomprehensible, are vague, confused, and imperfect. In a subsequentchapter of the same book, where the nature of the Deity is moreparticularly considered, the author's conceptions of infinite power areso inadequate, that, by way of consolation for the limited powers of man, he observes that there are many things even beyond the power of theSupreme Being; such, for instance, as the annihilation of his ownexistence; to which the author adds, the power (477) of rendering mortalseternal, and of raising the dead. It deserves to be remarked, that, though a future state of rewards and punishments was maintained by themost eminent among the ancient philosophers, the resurrection of the bodywas a doctrine with which they were wholly unacquainted. 

The author next treats of the planets, and the periods of theirrespective revolutions; of the stars, comets, winds, thunder, lightning, and other natural phenomena, concerning all which he delivers thehypothetical notions maintained by the ancients, and mentions a varietyof extraordinary incidents which had occurred in different parts of theworld. The third book contains a general system of geography, which iscontinued through the fourth, fifth, and sixth books. The seventh treatsof conception, and the generation of the human species, with a number ofmiscellaneous observations, unconnected with the general subject. Theeighth treats of quadrupeds; the ninth, of aquatic animals; the tenth, ofbirds; the eleventh, of insects and reptiles; the twelfth, of trees; thethirteenth, of ointments, and of trees which grow near the sea-coast; thefourteenth, of vines; the fifteenth, of fruit-trees; the sixteenth, offorest-trees; the seventeenth, of the cultivation of trees; theeighteenth, of agriculture; the nineteenth, of the nature of lint, hemp, and similar productions; the twentieth, of the medicinal qualities ofvegetables cultivated in gardens; the twenty-first, of flowers; thetwenty-second, of the properties of herbs; the twenty-third, of themedicines yielded by cultivated trees; the twenty-fourth, of medicinesderived from forest-trees; the twenty-fifth, of the properties of wildherbs, and the origin of their use; the twenty-sixth, of other remediesfor diseases, and of some new diseases; the twenty-seventh, of differentkinds of herbs; the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth, ofmedicines procured from animals; the thirty-first and thirty-second, ofmedicines obtained from aquatic animals, with some extraordinary factsrelative to the subject; the thirty-third, of the nature of metals; thethirty-fourth, of brass, iron, lead, and tin; the thirty-fifth, ofpictures, and observations relative to painting; the thirty-sixth, of thenature of stones and marbles; the thirty-seventh, of the origin of gems. To the contents of each book, the author subjoins a list of the writersfrom whom his observations have been collected. 

Of Pliny's talents as a writer, it might be deemed presumptuous to form adecided opinion from his Natural History, which is avowedly a compilationfrom various authors, and executed with greater regard to the matter ofthe work, than to the elegance of composition. Making allowance, however, for a degree of credulity, common to the human mind in the earlystage of physical (478) researches, he is far from being deficient in theessential qualifications of a writer of Natural History. Hisdescriptions appear to be accurate, his observations precise, hisnarrative is in general perspicuous, and he often illustrates his subjectby a vivacity of thought, as well as by a happy turn of expression. Ithas been equally his endeavour to give novelty to stale disquisitions, and authority to new observations. He has both removed the rust, anddispelled the obscurity, which enveloped the doctrines of many ancientnaturalists; but, with all his care and industry, he has exploded fewererrors, and sanctioned a greater number of doubtful opinions, than wasconsistent with the exercise of unprejudiced and severe investigation. 

Pliny was fifty-six years of age at the time of his death; the manner ofwhich is accurately related by his nephew, the elegant Pliny the Younger, in a letter to Tacitus, who entertained a design of writing the life ofthe naturalist. 

TITUS FLAVIUS DOMITIANUS. 

(479)

I. Domitian was born upon the ninth of the calends of November [24thOctober] [795], when his father was consul elect, (being to enter uponhis office the month following, ) in the sixth region of the city, at thePomegranate [796], in the house which he afterwards converted into atemple of the Flavian family. He is said to have spent the time of hisyouth in so much want and infamy, that he had not one piece of platebelonging to him; and it is well known, that Clodius Pollio, a man ofpretorian rank, against whom there is a poem of Nero's extant, entitledLuscio, kept a note in his hand-writing, which he sometimes produced, inwhich Domitian made an assignation with him for the foulest purposes. Some, likewise, have said, that he prostituted himself to Nerva, whosucceeded him. In the war with Vitellius, he fled into the Capitol withhis uncle Sabinus, and a part of the troops they had in the city [797]. But the enemy breaking in, and the temple being set on fire, he hidhimself all night with the sacristan; and next morning, assuming thedisguise of a worshipper of Isis, and mixing with the priests of thatidle superstition, he got over the Tiber [798], with only one attendant, to the house of a woman who was the mother of one of his school-fellows, and lurked there so close, that, though the enemy, who were at his heels, searched very strictly after him, they could not discover him. At last, after the success of his party, appearing in public, and beingunanimously saluted by the title of Caesar, he assumed the office ofpraetor of the City, with consular authority, but in fact had nothing butthe name; for the jurisdiction he transferred to his next colleague. Heused, however, his absolute (480) power so licentiously, that even thenhe plainly discovered what sort of prince he was likely to prove. Not togo into details, after he had made free with the wives of many men ofdistinction, he took Domitia Longina from her husband, Aelias Lamia, andmarried her; and in one day disposed of above twenty offices in the cityand the provinces; upon which Vespasian said several times, "he wonderedhe did not send him a successor too. "

II. He likewise designed an expedition into Gaul and Germany [799], without the least necessity for it, and contrary to the advice of all hisfather's friends; and this he did only with the view of equalling hisbrother in military achievements and glory. But for this he was severelyreprimanded, and that he might the more effectually be reminded of hisage and position, was made to live with his father, and his litter had tofollow his father's and brother's carriage, as often as they went abroad;but he attended them in their triumph for the conquest of Judaea [800], mounted on a white horse. Of the six consulships which he held, only onewas ordinary; and that he obtained by the cession and interest of hisbrother. He greatly affected a modest behaviour, and, above all, a tastefor poetry; insomuch, that he rehearsed his performances in public, though it was an art he had formerly little cultivated, and which heafterwards despised and abandoned. Devoted, however, as he was at thistime to poetical pursuits, yet when Vologesus, king of the Parthians, desired succours against the Alani, with one of Vespasian's sons tocommand them, he laboured hard to procure for himself that appointment. But the scheme proving abortive, he endeavoured by presents and promisesto engage other kings of the East to make a similar request. After hisfather's death, he was for some time in doubt, whether he should notoffer the soldiers a donative double to that of his brother, and made noscruple of saying frequently, "that he had been left his partner in theempire, but that his father's will had been fraudulently set aside. "From that time forward, he was constantly engaged in plots against hisbrother, both publicly and privately; until, falling dangerously ill, heordered all his attendants to (481) leave him, under pretence of hisbeing dead, before he really was so; and, at his decease, paid him noother honour than that of enrolling him amongst the gods; and he often, both in speeches and edicts, carped at his memory by sneers andinsinuations. 

III. In the beginning of his reign, he used to spend daily an hour byhimself in private, during which time he did nothing else but catchflies, and stick them through the body with a sharp pin. When some onetherefore inquired, "whether any one was with the emperor, " it wassignificantly answered by Vibius Crispus, "Not so much as a fly. " Soonafter his advancement, his wife Domitia, by whom he had a son in hissecond consulship, and whom the year following he complimented with thetitle of Augusta, being desperately in love with Paris, the actor, he puther away; but within a short time afterwards, being unable to bear theseparation, he took her again, under pretence of complying with thepeople's importunity. During some time, there was in his administrationa strange mixture of virtue and vice, until at last his virtuesthemselves degenerated into vices; being, as we may reasonably conjectureconcerning his character, inclined to avarice through want, and tocruelty through fear. 

IV. He frequently entertained the people with most magnificent andcostly shows, not only in the amphitheatre, but the circus; where, besides the usual races with chariots drawn by two or four horsesa-breast, he exhibited the representation of an engagement between bothhorse and foot, and a sea-fight in the amphitheatre. The people werealso entertained with the chase of wild beasts and the combat ofgladiators, even in the night-time, by torch-light. Nor did men onlyfight in these spectacles, but women also. He constantly attended at thegames given by the quaestors, which had been disused for some time, butwere revived by him; and upon those occasions, always gave the people theliberty of demanding two pair of gladiators out of his own school, whoappeared last in court uniforms. Whenever he attended the shows ofgladiators, there stood at his feet a little boy dressed in scarlet, witha prodigiously small head, with whom he used to talk very much, andsometimes seriously. We are assured, that he was (482) overheard askinghim, "if he knew for what reason he had in the late appointment, madeMetius Rufus governor of Egypt?" He presented the people with navalfights, performed by fleets almost as numerous as those usually employedin real engagements; making a vast lake near the Tiber [801], andbuilding seats round it. And he witnessed them himself during a veryheavy rain. He likewise celebrated the Secular games [802], reckoningnot from the year in which they had been exhibited by Claudius, but fromthe time of Augustus's celebration of them. In these, upon the day ofthe Circensian sports, in order to have a hundred races performed, hereduced each course from seven rounds to five. He likewise instituted, in honour of Jupiter Capitolinus, a solemn contest in music to beperformed every five years; besides horse-racing and gymnastic exercises, with more prizes than are at present allowed. There was also a publicperformance in elocution, both Greek and Latin and besides the musicianswho sung to the harp, there were others who played concerted pieces orsolos, without vocal accompaniment. Young girls also ran races in theStadium, at which he presided in his sandals, dressed in a purple robe, made after the Grecian fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crownbearing the effigies of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; with the flamen ofJupiter, and the college of priests sitting by his side in the samedress; excepting only that their crowns had also his own image on them. He celebrated also upon the Alban mount every year the festival ofMinerva, for whom he had appointed a college of priests, out of whichwere chosen by lot persons to preside as governors over the college; whowere obliged to entertain the people with extraordinary chases ofwild-beasts, and stage-plays, besides contests for prizes in oratory andpoetry. He thrice bestowed upon the people a largess of three hundredsesterces each man; and, at a public show of gladiators, a very plentifulfeast. At the festival of the Seven Hills [803], he distributed largehampers of provisions (483) to the senatorian and equestrian orders, andsmall baskets to the common people, and encouraged them to eat by settingthem the example. The day after, he scattered among the people a varietyof cakes and other delicacies to be scrambled for; and on the greaterpart of them falling amidst the seats of the crowd, he ordered fivehundred tickets to be thrown into each range of benches belonging to thesenatorian and equestrian orders. 

V. He rebuilt many noble edifices which had been destroyed by fire, andamongst them the Capitol, which had been burnt down a second time [804];but all the inscriptions were in his own name, without the least mentionof the original founders. He likewise erected a new temple in theCapitol to Jupiter Custos, and a forum, which is now called Nerva's[805], as also the temple of the Flavian family [806], a stadium [807], an odeum [808], and a naumachia [809]; out of the stone dug from which, the sides of the Circus Maximus, which had been burnt down, were rebuilt. 

VI. He undertook several expeditions, some from choice, and some fromnecessity. That against the Catti [810] was unprovoked, but that againstthe Sarmatians was necessary; an entire legion, with its commander, having been cut off by them. He sent two expeditions against theDacians; the first upon the defeat of Oppius Sabinus, a man of consularrank; and (484) the other, upon that of Cornelius Fuscus, prefect of thepretorian cohorts, to whom he had entrusted the conduct of that war. After several battles with the Catti and Daci, he celebrated a doubletriumph. But for his successes against the Sarmatians, he only bore inprocession the laurel crown to Jupiter Capitolinus. The civil war, begunby Lucius Antonius, governor of Upper Germany, he quelled, without beingobliged to be personally present at it, with remarkable good fortune. For, at the very moment of joining battle, the Rhine suddenly thawing, the troops of the barbarians which were ready to join L. Antonius, wereprevented from crossing the river. Of this victory he had notice by somepresages, before the messengers who brought the news of it arrived. Forupon the very day the battle was fought, a splendid eagle spread itswings round his statue at Rome, making most joyful cries. And shortlyafter, a rumour became common, that Antonius was slain; nay, manypositively affirmed, that they saw his head brought to the city. 

VII. He made many innovations in common practices. He abolished theSportula [811], and revived the old practice of regular suppers. To thefour former parties in the Circensian games, he added two new, who weregold and scarlet. He prohibited the players from acting in the theatre, but permitted them the practice of their art in private houses. Heforbad the castration of males; and reduced the price of the eunuchs whowere still left in the hands of the dealers in slaves. On the occasionof a great abundance of wine, accompanied by a scarcity of corn, supposing that the tillage of the ground was neglected for the sake ofattending too much to the cultivation of vineyards, he published aproclamation forbidding the planting of any new vines in Italy, andordering the vines in the provinces to be cut down, nowhere permittingmore than one half of them to remain [812]. But he did not persist inthe execution of this project. Some of the greatest offices he conferredupon his freedmen and soldiers. He forbad two legions to be quartered inthe same camp, and more than a thousand sesterces to be deposited by anysoldier with the standards; because it was thought that Lucius Antoniushad been encouraged in his late project by the large sum deposited in themilitary chest by the two legions which he had in the samewinter-quarters. He made an addition to the soldiers' pay, of threegold pieces a year. 

VIII. In the administration of justice he was diligent and assiduous;and frequently sat in the Forum out of course, to cancel the judgments ofthe court of The One Hundred, which had been procured through favour, orinterest. He occasionally cautioned the judges of the court of recoveryto beware of being too ready to admit claims for freedom brought beforethem. He set a mark of infamy upon judges who were convicted of takingbribes, as well as upon their assessors. He likewise instigated thetribunes of the people to prosecute a corrupt aedile for extortion, andto desire the senate to appoint judges for his trial. He likewise tooksuch effectual care in punishing magistrates of the city, and governorsof provinces, guilty of malversation, that they never were at any timemore moderate or more just. Most of these, since his reign, we have seenprosecuted for crimes of various kinds. Having taken upon himself thereformation of the public manners, he restrained the licence of thepopulace in sitting promiscuously with the knights in the theatre. Scandalous libels, published to defame persons of rank, of either sex, hesuppressed, and inflicted upon their authors a mark of infamy. Heexpelled a man of quaestorian rank from the senate, for practisingmimicry and dancing. He debarred infamous women the use of litters; asalso the right of receiving legacies, or inheriting estates. He struckout of the list of judges a Roman knight for taking again his wife whomhe had divorced and prosecuted for adultery. He condemned several men ofthe senatorian and equestrian orders, upon the Scantinian law [813]. Thelewdness of the Vestal Virgins, which had been overlooked by his fatherand brother, he punished severely, but in different ways; viz. Offencescommitted before his reign, with death, and those since its commencement, according to ancient custom. For to the two sisters called Ocellatae, hegave liberty to choose the mode of death which they preferred, andbanished (486) their paramours. But Cornelia, the president of theVestals, who had formerly been acquitted upon a charge of incontinence, being a long time after again prosecuted and condemned, he ordered to beburied alive; and her gallants to be whipped to death with rods in theComitium; excepting only a man of praetorian rank, to whom, because heconfessed the fact, while the case was dubious, and it was notestablished against him, though the witnesses had been put to thetorture, he granted the favour of banishment. And to preserve pure andundefiled the reverence due to the gods, he ordered the soldiers todemolish a tomb, which one of his freedmen had erected for his son out ofthe stones designed for the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and to sink inthe sea the bones and relics buried in it. 

IX. Upon his first succeeding to power, he felt such an abhorrence forthe shedding of blood, that, before his father's arrival in Rome, callingto mind the verse of Virgil, Impia quam caesis gens est epulata juvencis, [814]

 Ere impious man, restrain'd from blood in vain, Began to feast on flesh of bullocks slain, he designed to have published a proclamation, "to forbid the sacrifice ofoxen. " Before his accession to the imperial authority, and during sometime afterwards, he scarcely ever gave the least grounds for beingsuspected of covetousness or avarice; but, on the contrary, he oftenafforded proofs, not only of his justice, but his liberality. To allabout him he was generous even to profusion, and recommended nothing moreearnestly to them than to avoid doing anything mean. He would not acceptthe property left him by those who had children. He also set aside alegacy bequeathed by the will of Ruscus Caepio, who had ordered "his heirto make a present yearly to each of the senators upon their firstassembling. " He exonerated all those who had been under prosecution fromthe treasury for above five years before; and would not suffer suits tobe renewed, unless it was done within a year, and on condition, that theprosecutor should be banished, if he could not make good his cause. Thesecretaries of the quaestors having engaged in trade, according tocustom, but contrary to (487) the Clodian law [815], he pardoned them forwhat was past. Such portions of land as had been left when it wasdivided amongst the veteran soldiers, he granted to the ancientpossessors, as belonging to then by prescription. He put a stop to falseprosecutions in the exchequer, by severely punishing the prosecutors; andthis saying of his was much taken notice of "that a prince who does notpunish informers, encourages them. "

X. But he did not long persevere in this course of clemency and justice, although he sooner fell into cruelty than into avarice. He put to deatha scholar of Paris, the pantomimic [816], though a minor, and then sick, only because, both in person and the practice of his art, he resembledhis master; as he did likewise Hermogenes of Tarsus for some obliquereflections in his History; crucifying, besides, the scribes who hadcopied the work. One who was master of a band of gladiators, happeningto say, "that a Thrax was a match for a Marmillo [817], but not so forthe exhibitor of the games", he ordered him to be dragged from thebenches into the arena, and exposed to the dogs, with this label uponhim, "A Parmularian [818] guilty of talking impiously. " He put to deathmany senators, and amongst them several men of consular rank. In thisnumber were, Civica Cerealis, when he was proconsul in Africa, Salvidienus Orfitus, and Acilius Glabrio in exile, under the pretence oftheir planning to revolt against him. The rest he punished upon verytrivial occasions; as Aelius Lamia for some jocular expressions, whichwere of old date, and perfectly harmless; because, upon his commendinghis voice after he had taken his wife from him [819], he replied, "Alas!I hold my tongue. " And when Titus advised him to take another wife, heanswered him thus: "What! have you a mind to marry?" Salvius Cocceianuswas condemned to death for keeping the birth-day of his uncle Otho, theemperor: Metius Pomposianus, because he was commonly reported to have animperial nativity [820], and to carry about with (488) him a map of theworld upon vellum, with the speeches of kings and generals extracted outof Titus Livius; and for giving his slaves the names of Mago andHannibal; Sallustius Lucullus, lieutenant in Britain, for suffering somelances of a new invention to be called "Lucullean;" and Junius Rusticus, for publishing a treatise in praise of Paetus Thrasea and HelvidiusPriscus, and calling them both "most upright men. " Upon this occasion, he likewise banished all the philosophers from the city and Italy. Heput to death the younger Helvidius, for writing a farce, in which, underthe character of Paris and Oenone, he reflected upon his having divorcedhis wife; and also Flavius Sabinus, one of his cousins, because, upon hisbeing chosen at the consular election to that office, the public crierhad, by a blunder, proclaimed him to the people not consul, but emperor. Becoming still more savage after his success in the civil war, heemployed the utmost industry to discover those of the adverse party whoabsconded: many of them he racked with a new-invented torture, insertingfire through their private parts; and from some he cut off their hands. It is certain, that only two of any note were pardoned, a tribune whowore the narrow stripe, and a centurion; who, to clear themselves fromthe charge of being concerned in any rebellious project, provedthemselves to have been guilty of prostitution, and consequentlyincapable of exercising any influence either over the general or thesoldiers. 

XI. His cruelties were not only excessive, but subtle and unexpected. The day before he crucified a collector of his rents, he sent for himinto his bed-chamber, made him sit down upon the bed by him, and sent himaway well pleased, and, so far as could be inferred from his treatment, in a state of perfect security; having vouchsafed him the favour of aplate of meat from his own table. When he was on the point of condemningto death Aretinus Clemens, a man of consular rank, and one of his friendsand emissaries, he retained him about his person in the same or greaterfavour than ever; until at last, as they were riding together in the samelitter, upon seeing the man who had informed against him, he said, "Areyou willing that we should hear this base slave tomorrow?"Contemptuously abusing the patience of men, he never pronounced a severesentence without prefacing it (489) with words which gave hopes of mercy;so that, at last, there was not a more certain token of a fatalconclusion, than a mild commencement. He brought before the senate somepersona accused of treason, declaring, "that he should prove that day howdear he was to the senate;" and so influenced them, that they condemnedthe accused to be punished according to the ancient usage [821]. Then, as if alarmed at the extreme severity of their punishment, to lessen theodiousness of the proceeding, he interposed in these words; for it is notforeign to the purpose to give them precisely as they were delivered:"Permit me, Conscript Fathers, so far to prevail upon your affection forme, however extraordinary the request may seem, as to grant the condemnedcriminals the favour of dying in the manner they choose. For by sodoing, ye will spare your own eyes, and the world will understand that Iinterceded with the senate on their behalf. "

XII. Having exhausted the exchequer by the expense of his buildings andpublic spectacles, with the augmentation of pay lately granted to thetroops, he made an attempt at the reduction of the army, in order tolessen the military charges. But reflecting, that he should, by thismeasure, expose himself to the insults of the barbarians, while it wouldnot suffice to extricate him from his embarrassments, he had recourse toplundering his subjects by every mode of exaction. The estates of theliving and the dead were sequestered upon any accusation, by whomsoeverpreferred. The unsupported allegation of any one person, relative to aword or action construed to affect the dignity of the emperor, wassufficient. Inheritances, to which he had not the slightest pretension, were confiscated, if there was found so much as one person to say, he hadheard from the deceased when living, "that he had made the emperor hisheir. " Besides the exactions from others, the poll-tax on the Jews waslevied with extreme rigour, both on those who lived after the manner ofJews in the city, without publicly professing themselves to be such[822], and on those who, by (490) concealing their origin, avoided payingthe tribute imposed upon that people. I remember, when I was a youth, tohave been present [823], when an old man, ninety years of age, had hisperson exposed to view in a very crowded court, in order that, oninspection, the procurator might satisfy himself whether he wascircumcised. [824]

From his earliest years Domitian was any thing but courteous, of aforward, assuming disposition, and extravagant both in his words andactions. When Caenis, his father's concubine, upon her return fromIstria, offered him a kiss, as she had been used to do, he presented herhis hand to kiss. Being indignant, that his brother's son-in-law shouldbe waited on by servants dressed in white [825], he exclaimed, ouk agathon polykoiraniae. [826] Too many princes are not good. 

XIII. After he became emperor, he had the assurance to boast in thesenate, "that he had bestowed the empire on his father and brother, andthey had restored it to him. " And upon taking his wife again, after thedivorce, he declared by proclamation, "that he had recalled her to hispulvinar. " [827] He was not a little pleased too, at hearing theacclamations of the people in the amphitheatre on a day of festival, "Allhappiness to our lord and lady. " But when, during the celebration of theCapitoline trial of skill, the whole concourse of people entreated himwith one voice to restore Palfurius Sura to his place in the senate, fromwhich he had been long before expelled--he having then carried away theprize of eloquence from all the orators who had contended for it, --he didnot vouchsafe to give them any answer, but only commanded silence to beproclaimed by the voice of the crier. With equal arrogance, when hedictated the form of a letter to be used by his procurators, he began itthus: "Our lord and god commands so and so;" whence it became a rule thatno one should (491) style him otherwise either in writing or speaking. He suffered no statues to be erected for him in the Capitol, unless theywere of gold and silver, and of a certain weight. He erected so manymagnificent gates and arches, surmounted by representations of chariotsdrawn by four horses, and other triumphal ornaments, in differentquarters of the city, that a wag inscribed on one of the arches the Greekword Axkei, "It is enough. " [828] He filled the office of consulseventeen times, which no one had ever done before him, and for the sevenmiddle occasions in successive years; but in scarcely any of them had hemore than the title; for he never continued in office beyond the calendsof May [the 1st May], and for the most part only till the ides of January[13th January]. After his two triumphs, when he assumed the cognomen ofGermanicus, he called the months of September and October, Germanicus andDomitian, after his own names, because he commenced his reign in the one, and was born in the other. 

XIV. Becoming by these means universally feared and odious, he was atlast taken off by a conspiracy of his friends and favourite freedmen, inconcert with his wife [829]. He had long entertained a suspicion of theyear and day when he should die, and even of the very hour and manner ofhis death; all which he had learned from the Chaldaeans, when he was avery young man. His father once at supper laughed at him for refusing toeat some mushrooms, saying, that if he knew his fate, he would rather beafraid of the sword. Being, therefore, in perpetual apprehension andanxiety, he was keenly alive to the slightest suspicions, insomuch thathe is thought to have withdrawn the edict ordering the destruction of thevines, chiefly because the copies of it which were dispersed had thefollowing lines written upon them:

 Kaen me phagaes epi rizanomos epi kartophoraeso, Osson epispeisai Kaisari thuomeno. [830]

 Gnaw thou my root, yet shall my juice suffice To pour on Caesar's head in sacrifice. 

(492) It was from the same principle of fear, that he refused a newhonour, devised and offered him by the senate, though he was greedy ofall such compliments. It was this: "that as often as he held theconsulship, Roman knights, chosen by lot, should walk before him, clad inthe Trabea, with lances in their hands, amongst his lictors andapparitors. " As the time of the danger which he apprehended drew near, he became daily more and more disturbed in mind; insomuch that he linedthe walls of the porticos in which he used to walk, with the stone calledPhengites [831], by the reflection of which he could see every objectbehind him. He seldom gave an audience to persons in custody, unless inprivate, being alone, and he himself holding their chains in his hand. To convince his domestics that the life of a master was not to beattempted upon any pretext, however plausible, he condemned to deathEpaphroditus his secretary, because it was believed that he had assistedNero, in his extremity, to kill himself. 

XV. His last victim was Flavius Clemens [832], his cousin-german, a manbelow contempt for his want of energy, whose sons, then of very tenderage, he had avowedly destined for his successors, and, discarding theirformer names, had ordered one to be called Vespasian, and the otherDomitian. Nevertheless, he suddenly put him to death upon some veryslight suspicion [833], almost before he was well out of his consulship. By this violent act he very much hastened his own destruction. Duringeight months together there was so much lightning at Rome, and suchaccounts of the phaenomenon were brought from other parts, that at lasthe cried out, "Let him now strike whom he will. " The Capitol was struckby lightning, as well as the temple of the Flavian family, with thePalatine-house, and his own bed-chamber. The tablet also, inscribed uponthe base of his triumphal statue was carried away by the violence of thestorm, and fell upon a neighbouring (493) monument. The tree which justbefore the advancement of Vespasian had been prostrated, and rose again[834], suddenly fell to the ground. The goddess Fortune of Praeneste, towhom it was his custom on new year's day to commend the empire for theensuing year, and who had always given him a favourable reply, at lastreturned him a melancholy answer, not without mention of blood. Hedreamt that Minerva, whom he worshipped even to a superstitious excess, was withdrawing from her sanctuary, declaring she could protect him nolonger, because she was disarmed by Jupiter. Nothing, however, so muchaffected him as an answer given by Ascletario, the astrologer, and hissubsequent fate. This person had been informed against, and did not denyhis having predicted some future events, of which, from the principles ofhis art, he confessed he had a foreknowledge. Domitian asked him, whatend he thought he should come to himself? To which replying, "I shall ina short time be torn to pieces by dogs, " he ordered him immediately to beslain, and, in order to demonstrate the vanity of his art, to becarefully buried. But during the preparations for executing this order, it happened that the funeral pile was blown down by a sudden storm, andthe body, half-burnt, was torn to pieces by dogs; which being observed byLatinus, the comic actor, as he chanced to pass that way, he told it, amongst the other news of the day, to the emperor at supper. 

XVI. The day before his death, he ordered some dates [835], served up attable, to be kept till the next day, adding, "If I have the luck to usethem. " And turning to those who were nearest him, he said, "To-morrowthe moon in Aquarius will be bloody instead of watery, and an event willhappen, which will be much talked of all the world over. " Aboutmidnight, he was so terrified that he leaped out of bed. That morning hetried and passed sentence on a soothsayer sent from Germany, who beingconsulted about the lightning that had lately (494) happened, predictedfrom it a change of government. The blood running down his face as hescratched an ulcerous tumour on his forehead, he said, "Would this wereall that is to befall me!" Then, upon his asking the time of the day, instead of five o'clock, which was the hour he dreaded, they purposelytold him it was six. Overjoyed at this information; as if all dangerwere now passed, and hastening to the bath, Parthenius, his chamberlain, stopped him, by saying that there was a person come to wait upon himabout a matter of great importance, which would admit of no delay. Uponthis, ordering all persons to withdraw, he retired into his chamber, andwas there slain. 

XVII. Concerning the contrivance and mode of his death, the commonaccount is this. The conspirators being in some doubt when and wherethey should attack him, whether while he was in the bath, or at supper, Stephanus, a steward of Domitilla's [836], then under prosecution fordefrauding his mistress, offered them his advice and assistance; andwrapping up his left arm, as if it was hurt, in wool and bandages forsome days, to prevent suspicion, at the hour appointed, he secreted adagger in them. Pretending then to make a discovery of a conspiracy, andbeing for that reason admitted, he presented to the emperor a memorial, and while he was reading it in great astonishment, stabbed him in thegroin. But Domitian, though wounded, making resistance, Clodianus, oneof his guards, Maximus, a freedman of Parthenius's, Saturius, hisprincipal chamberlain, with some gladiators, fell upon him, and stabbedhim in seven places. A boy who had the charge of the Lares in hisbed-chamber, and was then in attendance as usual, gave these furtherparticulars: that he was ordered by Domitian, upon receiving his firstwound, to reach him a dagger which lay under his pillow, and call in hisdomestics; but that he found nothing at the head of the bed, exceptingthe hilt of a (495) poniard, and that all the doors were fastened: thatthe emperor in the mean time got hold of Stephanus, and throwing him uponthe ground, struggled a long time with him; one while endeavouring towrench the dagger from him, another while, though his fingers weremiserably mangled, to tear out his eyes. He was slain upon thefourteenth of the calends of October [18th Sept. ], in the forty-fifthyear of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign [837]. His corpse wascarried out upon a common bier by the public bearers, and buried by hisnurse Phyllis, at his suburban villa on the Latin Way. But sheafterwards privately conveyed his remains to the temple of the Flavianfamily [838], and mingled them with the ashes of Julia, the daughter ofTitus, whom she had also nursed. 

XVIII. He was tall in stature, his face modest, and very ruddy; he hadlarge eyes, but was dim-sighted; naturally graceful in his person, particularly in his youth, excepting only that his toes were bentsomewhat inward, he was at last disfigured by baldness, corpulence, andthe slenderness of his legs, which were reduced by a long illness. Hewas so sensible how much the modesty of his countenance recommended him, that he once made this boast to the senate, "Thus far you have approvedboth of my disposition and my countenance. " His baldness so much annoyedhim, that he considered it an affront to himself, if any other person wasreproached with it, either in jest or in earnest; though in a small tracthe published, addressed to a friend, "concerning the preservation of thehair, " he uses for their mutual consolation the words following:

 Ouch oraas oios kago kalos te megas te; Seest thou my graceful mien, my stately form?

"and yet the fate of my hair awaits me; however, I bear with fortitudethis loss of my hair while I am still young. Remember that nothing ismore fascinating than beauty, but nothing of shorter duration. "

XIX. He so shrunk from undergoing fatigue, that he scarcely ever walkedthrough the city on foot. In his (496) expeditions and on a march, heseldom rode on horse-back; but was generally carried in a litter. He hadno inclination for the exercise of arms, but was very expert in the useof the bow. Many persons have seen him often kill a hundred wildanimals, of various kinds, at his Alban retreat, and fix his arrows intheir heads with such dexterity, that he could, in two shots, plant them, like a pair of horns, in each. He would sometimes direct his arrowsagainst the hand of a boy standing at a distance, and expanded as a mark, with such precision, that they all passed between the boy's fingers, without hurting him. 

XX. In the beginning of his reign, he gave up the study of the liberalsciences, though he took care to restore, at a vast expense, thelibraries which had been burnt down; collecting manuscripts from allparts, and sending scribes to Alexandria [839], either to copy or correctthem. Yet he never gave himself the trouble of reading history orpoetry, or of employing his pen even for his private purposes. Heperused nothing but the Commentaries and Acts of Tiberius Caesar. Hisletters, speeches, and edicts, were all drawn up for him by others;though he could converse with elegance, and sometimes expressed himselfin memorable sentiments. "I could wish, " said he once, "that I was butas handsome as Metius fancies himself to be. " And of the head of someone whose hair was partly reddish, and partly grey, he said, "that it wassnow sprinkled with mead. "

XXI. "The lot of princes, " he remarked, "was very miserable, for no onebelieved them when they discovered a conspiracy, until they weremurdered. " When he had leisure, he amused himself with dice, even ondays that were not festivals, and in the morning. He went to the bathearly, and made a plentiful dinner, insomuch that he seldom ate more atsupper than a Matian apple [840], to which he added a (497) draught ofwine, out of a small flask. He gave frequent and splendidentertainments, but they were soon over, for he never prolonged themafter sun-set, and indulged in no revel after. For, till bed-time, hedid nothing else but walk by himself in private. 

XXII. He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce withwomen, as if it was a sort of exercise, klinopalaen, bed-wrestling; andit was reported that he plucked the hair from his concubines, and swamabout in company with the lowest prostitutes. His brother's daughter[841] was offered him in marriage when she was a virgin; but being atthat time enamoured of Domitia, he obstinately refused her. Yet not longafterwards, when she was given to another, he was ready enough to debauchher, and that even while Titus was living. But after she had lost bothher father and her husband, he loved her most passionately, and withoutdisguise; insomuch that he was the occasion of her death, by obliging herto procure a miscarriage when she was with child by him. 

XXIII. The people shewed little concern at his death, but the soldierswere roused by it to great indignation, and immediately endeavoured tohave him ranked among the gods. They were also ready to revenge hisloss, if there had been any to take the lead. However, they soon aftereffected it, by resolutely demanding the punishment of all those who hadbeen concerned in his assassination. On the other hand, the senate wasso overjoyed, that they met in all haste, and in a full assembly reviledhis memory in the most bitter terms; ordering ladders to be brought in, and his shields and images to be pulled down before their eyes, anddashed in pieces upon the floor of the senate-house passing at the sametime a decree to obliterate his titles every where, and abolish allmemory of him. A few months before he was slain, a raven on the Capitoluttered these words: "All will be well. " Some person gave the followinginterpretation of this prodigy:

 (498) Nuper Tarpeio quae sedit culmine cornix. "Est bene, " non potuit dicere; dixit, "Erit. "

 Late croaked a raven from Tarpeia's height, "All is not yet, but shall be, right. "

They say likewise that Domitian dreamed that a golden hump grew out ofthe back of his neck, which he considered as a certain sign of happy daysfor the empire after him. Such an auspicious change indeed shortlyafterwards took place, through the justice and moderation of thesucceeding emperors. 

 * * * * * *

If we view Domitian in the different lights in which he is represented, during his lifetime and after his decease, his character and conductdiscover a greater diversity than is commonly observed in the objects ofhistorical detail. But as posthumous character is always the most just, its decisive verdict affords the surest criterion by which thisvariegated emperor must be estimated by impartial posterity. Accordingto this rule, it is beyond a doubt that his vices were more predominantthan his virtues: and when we follow him into his closet, for some timeafter his accession, when he was thirty years of age, the frivolity ofhis daily employment, in the killing of flies, exhibits an instance ofdissipation, which surpasses all that has been recorded of his imperialpredecessors. The encouragement, however, which the first Vespasian hadshown to literature, continued to operate during the present reign; andwe behold the first fruits of its auspicious influence in the valuabletreatise of QUINTILIAN. 

Of the life of this celebrated writer, little is known upon any authoritythat has a title to much credit. We learn, however, that he was the sonof a lawyer in the service of some of the preceding emperors, and wasborn in Rome, though in what consulship, or under what emperor, it isimpossible to determine. He married a woman of a noble family, by whomhe had two sons. The mother died in the flower of her age, and the sons, at the distance of some time from each other, when their father wasadvanced in years. The precise time of Quintilian's own death isequally inauthenticated with that of his birth; nor can we rely upon anauthor of suspicious veracity, who says that he passed the latter part ofhis life in a state of indigence which was alleviated by the liberalityof his pupil, Pliny the Younger. Quintilian opened a school of rhetoricat Rome, where he not only discharged that labourious employment withgreat applause, (499) during more than twenty years, but pleaded at thebar, and was the first who obtained a salary from the state, forexecuting the office of a public teacher. He was also appointed byDomitian preceptor to the two young princes who were intended to succeedhim on the throne. 

After his retirement from the situation of a teacher, Quintilian devotedhis attention to the study of literature, and composed a treatise on theCauses of the Corruption of Eloquence. At the earnest solicitation ofhis friends, he was afterwards induced to undertake his InstitutionesOratoriae, the most elaborate system of oratory extant in any language. This work is divided into twelve books, in which the author treats withgreat precision of the qualities of a perfect orator; explaining not onlythe fundamental principles of eloquence, as connected with theconstitution of the human mind, but pointing out, both by argument andobservation, the most successful method of exercising that admirable art, for the accomplishment of its purpose. So minutely, and upon soextensive a plan, has he prosecuted the subject, that he delineates theeducation suitable to a perfect orator, from the stage of infancy in thecradle, to the consummation of rhetorical fame, in the pursuits of thebar, or those, in general, of any public assembly. It is sufficient tosay, that in the execution of this elaborate work, Quintilian has calledto the assistance of his own acute and comprehensive understanding, theprofound penetration of Aristotle, the exquisite graces of Cicero; allthe stores of observation, experience, and practice; and in a word, thewhole accumulated exertions of ancient genius on the subject of oratory. 

It may justly be regarded as an extraordinary circumstance in theprogress of scientific improvement, that the endowments of a perfectorator were never fully exhibited to the world, until it had becomedangerous to exercise them for the important purposes for which they wereoriginally cultivated. And it is no less remarkable, that, under all theviolence and caprice of imperial despotism which the Romans had nowexperienced, their sensibility to the enjoyment of poetical compositionsremained still unabated; as if it served to console the nation for theirretrievable loss of public liberty. From this source of entertainment, they reaped more pleasure during the present reign, than they had donesince the time of Augustus. The poets of this period were Juvenal, Statius, and Martial. 

JUVENAL was born at Aquinum, but in what year is uncertain; though, fromsome circumstances, it seems to have been in the reign of Augustus. Somesay that he was the son of a freedman, (500) while others, withoutspecifying the condition of his father, relate only that he was broughtup by a freedman. He came at an early age to Rome, where he declaimedfor many years, and, pleaded causes in the forum with great applause; butat last he betook himself to the writing of satires, in which he acquiredgreat fame. One of the first, and the most constant object of is satire, was the pantomime Paris, the great favourite of the emperor Nero, andafterwards of Domitian. During the reign of the former of theseemperors, no resentment was shown towards the poet; but he experiencednot the same impunity after the accession of the latter; when, to removehim from the capital, he was sent as governor to the frontiers of Egypt, but in reality, into an honourable exile. According to some authors, hedied of chagrin in that province: but this is not authenticated, andseems to be a mistake: for in some of Martial's epigrams, which appear tohave been written after the death of Domitian, Juvenal is spoken of asresiding at Rome. It is said that he lived to upwards of eighty years ofage. 

The remaining compositions of this author are sixteen satires, allwritten against the dissipation and enormous vices which prevailed atRome in his time. The various objects of animadversion are painted inthe strongest colours, and placed in the most conspicuous points of view. Giving loose reins to just and moral indignation, Juvenal is every whereanimated, vehement, petulant, and incessantly acrimonious. Disdainingthe more lenient modes of correction, or despairing of their success, heneither adopts the raillery of Horace, nor the derision of Persius, butprosecutes vice and folly with all the severity of sentiment, passion, and expression. He sometimes exhibits a mixture of humour with hisinvectives; but it is a humour which partakes more of virulent rage thanof pleasantry; broad, hostile, but coarse, and rivalling in indelicacythe profligate manners which it assails. The satires of Juvenal aboundin philosophical apophthegms; and, where they are not sullied by obscenedescription, are supported with a uniform air of virtuous elevation. Amidst all the intemperance of sarcasm, his numbers are harmonious. Hadhis zeal permitted him to direct the current of his impetuous genius intothe channel of ridicule, and endeavour to put to shame the vices andfollies of those licentious times, as much as he perhaps exasperatedconviction rather than excited contrition, he would have carried satireto the highest possible pitch, both of literary excellence and moralutility. With every abatement of attainable perfection, we hesitate notto place him at the head of this arduous department of poetry. 

Of STATIUS no farther particulars are preserved than that he (501) wasborn at Naples; that his father's name was Statius of Epirus, and hismother's Agelina, and that he died about the end of the first century ofthe Christian era. Some have conjectured that he maintained himself bywriting for the stage, but of this there is no sufficient evidence; andif ever he composed dramatic productions, they have perished. The worksof Statius now extant, are two poems, viz. The Thebais and the Achilleis, besides a collection, named Silvae. 

The Thebais consists of twelve books, and the subject of it is the Thebanwar, which happened 1236 years before the Christian era, in consequenceof a dispute between Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus andJocasta. These brothers had entered into an agreement with each other toreign alternately for a year at a time; and Eteocles being the elder, gotfirst possession of the throne. This prince refusing to abdicate at theexpiration of the year, Polynices fled to Argos, where marrying Argia, the daughter of Adrastus, king of that country, he procured theassistance of his father-in-law, to enforce the engagement stipulatedwith his brother Eteocles. The Argives marched under the command ofseven able generals, who were to attack separately the seven gates ofThebes. After much blood had been spilt without any effect, it was atlast agreed between the two parties, that the brothers should determinethe dispute by single combat. In the desperate engagement which ensued, they both fell; and being burnt together upon the funeral pile, it issaid that their ashes separated, as if actuated by the implacableresentment which they had borne to each other. 

If we except the Aeneid, this is the only Latin production extant whichis epic in its form; and it likewise approaches nearest in merit to thatcelebrated poem, which Statius appears to have been ambitious ofemulating. In unity and greatness of action, the Thebais corresponds tothe laws of the Epopea; but the fable may be regarded as defective insome particulars, which, however, arise more from the nature of thesubject, than from any fault of the poet. The distinction of the hero isnot sufficiently prominent; and the poem possesses not thosecircumstances which are requisite towards interesting the reader'saffections in the issue of the contest. To this it may be added, thatthe unnatural complexion of the incestuous progeny diffuses a kind ofgloom which obscures the splendour of thought, and restrains thesympathetic indulgence of fancy to some of the boldest excursions of thepoet. For grandeur, however, and animation of sentiment and description, as well as for harmony of numbers, the Thebais is eminently conspicuous, and deserves to be held in a much higher degree of estimation than it has(502) generally obtained. In the contrivance of some of the episodes, and frequently in the modes of expression, Statius keeps an attentive eyeto the style of Virgil. It is said that he was twelve years employed inthe composition of this poem; and we have his own authority foraffirming, that he polished it with all the care and assiduity practisedby the poets in the Augustan age:

 Quippe, te fido monitore, nostra Thebais, multa cruciata lima, Tentat audaci fide Mantuanae Gaudia famae. --Silvae, lib. Iv. 7. 

 For, taught by you, with steadfast care I trim my "Song of Thebes, " and dare With generous rivalry to share The glories of the Mantuan bard. 

The Achilleis relates to the same hero who is celebrated by Homer in theIliad; but it is the previous history of Achilles, not his conduct in theTrojan war, which forms the subject of the poem of Statius. While theyoung hero is under the care of the Centaur Chiron, Thetis makes a visitto the preceptor's sequestered habitation, where, to save her son fromthe fate which, it was predicted, would befall him at Troy, if he shouldgo to the siege of that place, she orders him to be dressed in thedisguise of a girl, and sent to live in the family of Lycomedes, king ofScyros. But as Troy could not be taken without the aid of Achilles, Ulysses, accompanied by Diomede, is deputed by the Greeks to go toScyros, and bring him thence to the Grecian camp. The artifice by whichthe sagacious ambassador detected Achilles amongst his female companions, was by placing before them various articles of merchandise, amongst whichwas some armour. Achilles no sooner perceived the latter, than heeagerly seized a sword and shield, and manifesting the strongest emotionsof heroic enthusiasm, discovered his sex. After an affectionate partingwith Lycomedes' daughter, Deidamia, whom he left pregnant of a son, heset sail with the Grecian chiefs, and, during the voyage, gives them anaccount of the manner of his education with Chiron. 

This poem consists of two books, in heroic measure, and is written withtaste and fancy. Commentators are of opinion, that the Achilleis wasleft incomplete by the death of the author; but this is extremelyimprobable, from various circumstances, and appears to be founded onlyupon the word Hactenus, in the conclusion of the poem:

 (503) Hactenus annorum, comites, elementa meorum Et memini, et meminisse juvat: scit caetera mater. 

 Thus far, companions dear, with mindful joy I've told My youthful deeds; the rest my mother can unfold. 

That any consequential reference was intended by hactenus, seems to meplainly contradicted by the words which immediately follow, scit caeteramater. Statius could not propose the giving any further account ofAchilles's life, because a general narrative of it had been given in thefirst book. The voyage from Scyros to the Trojan coast, conducted withthe celerity which suited the purpose of the poet, admitted of noincidents which required description or recital: and after the voyagershad reached the Grecian camp, it is reasonable to suppose, that theaction of the Iliad immediately commenced. But that Statius had nodesign of extending the plan of the Achilleis beyond this period, isexpressly declared in the exordium of the poem:

 Magnanimum Aeaciden, formidatamque Tonanti Progeniem, et patrio vetitam succedere coelo, Diva, refer; quanquam acta viri multum inclyta cantu Maeonio; sed plura vacant. Nos ire per omnem (Sic amor est) heroa velis, Scyroque latentem Dulichia proferre tuba: nec in Hectore tracto Sistere, sed tota juvenem deducere Troja. 

 Aid me, O goddess! while I sing of him, Who shook the Thunderer's throne, and, for his crime, Was doomed to lose his birthright in the skies; The great Aeacides. Maeonian strains Have made his mighty deeds their glorious theme; Still much remains: be mine the pleasing task To trace the future hero's young career, Not dragging Hector at his chariot wheels, But while disguised in Scyros yet he lurked, Till trumpet-stirred, he sprung to manly arms, And sage Ulysses led him to the Trojan coast. 

The Silvae is a collection of poems almost entirely in heroic verse, divided into five books, and for the most part written extempore. Statius himself affirms, in his Dedication to Stella, that the productionof none of them employed him more than two days; yet many of them consistof between one hundred and two hundred hexameter lines. We meet with oneof two hundred and sixteen lines; one, of two hundred and thirty-four;one, of two hundred and sixty-two; and one of two hundred andseventy-seven; a rapidity of composition approaching to what Horacementions of the poet Lucilius. It is no small encomium to observe, that, considered as extemporaneous productions, (504) the meanest in thecollection is far from meriting censure, either in point of sentiment orexpression; and many of them contain passages which command our applause. 

The poet MARTIAL, surnamed likewise Coquus, was born at Bilbilis, inSpain, of obscure parents. At the age of twenty-one, he came to Rome, where he lived during five-and-thirty years under the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, the two Vespasians, Domitian, Nerva, and the beginningof the reign of Trajan. He was the panegyrist of several of thoseemperors, by whom he was liberally rewarded, raised to the Equestrianorder, and promoted by Domitian to the tribuneship; but being treatedwith coldness and neglect by Trajan, he returned to his native country, and, a few years after, ended his days, at the age of seventy-five. 

He had lived at Rome in great splendour and affluence, as well as in highesteem for his poetical talents; but upon his return to Bilbilis, it issaid that he experienced a great reverse of fortune, and was chieflyindebted for his support to the gratuitous benefactions of Pliny theYounger, whom he had extolled in some epigrams. 

The poems of Martial consist of fourteen books, all written in theepigrammatic form, to which species of composition, introduced by theGreeks, he had a peculiar propensity. Amidst such a multitude of verses, on a variety of subjects, often composed extempore, and many of them, probably, in the moments of fashionable dissipation, it is not surprisingthat we find a large number unworthy the genius of the author. Delicacy, and even decency, is often violated in the productions of Martial. Grasping at every thought which afforded even the shadow of ingenuity, hegave unlimited scope to the exercise of an active and fruitfulimagination. In respect to composition, he is likewise liable tocensure. At one time he wearies, and at another tantalises the reader, with the prolixity or ambiguity of his preambles. His prelusivesentiments are sometimes far-fetched, and converge not with a naturaldeclination into the focus of epigram. In dispensing praise and censure, he often seems to be governed more by prejudice or policy, than byjustice and truth; and he is more constantly attentive to the productionof wit, than to the improvement of morality. 

But while we remark the blemishes and imperfections of this poet, we mustacknowledge his extraordinary merits. In composition he is, in general, elegant and correct; and where the subject is capable of connection withsentiment, his inventive ingenuity never fails to extract from it theessence of delight and surprise. His fancy is prolific of beautifulimages, and his (505) judgment expert in arranging them to the greatestadvantage. He bestows panegyric with inimitable grace, and satiriseswith equal dexterity. In a fund of Attic salt, he surpasses every otherwriter; and though he seems to have at command all the varied stores ofgall, he is not destitute of candour. With almost every kind ofversification he appears to be familiar; and notwithstanding a facilityof temper, too accommodating, perhaps, on many occasions, to thelicentiousness of the times, we may venture from strong indications topronounce, that, as a moralist, his principles were virtuous. It isobserved of this author, by Pliny the Younger, that, though hiscompositions might, perhaps, not obtain immortality, he wrote as if theywould. [Aeterna, quae scripsit, non erunt fortasse: ille tamen scripsittanquam futura. ] The character which Martial gives of his epigrams, isjust and comprehensive:

 Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura, Quae legis: hic aliter non fit, Avite, liber. 

 Some are good, some indifferent, and some again still worse; Such, Avitus, you will find is a common case with verse. 

THE END OF THE TWELVE CAESARS

LIVES OF EMINENT GRAMMARIANS

(506)

I. The science of grammar [842] was in ancient times far from being invogue at Rome; indeed, it was of little use in a rude state of society, when the people were engaged in constant wars, and had not much time tobestow on the cultivation of the liberal arts [843]. At the outset, itspretensions were very slender, for the earliest men of learning, who wereboth poets and orators, may be considered as half-Greek: I speak ofLivius [844] and Ennius [845], who are acknowledged to have taught bothlanguages as well at Rome as in foreign parts [846]. But they (507) onlytranslated from the Greek, and if they composed anything of their own inLatin, it was only from what they had before read. For although thereare those who say that this Ennius published two books, one on "Lettersand Syllables, " and the other on "Metres, " Lucius Cotta hassatisfactorily proved that they are not the works of the poet Ennius, butof another writer of the same name, to whom also the treatise on the"Rules of Augury" is attributed. 

II. Crates of Mallos [847], then, was, in our opinion, the first whointroduced the study of grammar at Rome. He was cotemporary withAristarchus [848], and having been sent by king Attalus as envoy to thesenate in the interval between the second and third Punic wars [849], soon after the death of Ennius [850], he had the misfortune to fall intoan open sewer in the Palatine quarter of the city, and broke his leg. After which, during the whole period of his embassy and convalescence, hegave frequent lectures, taking much pains to instruct his hearers, and hehas left us an example well worthy of imitation. It was so far followed, that poems hitherto little known, the works either of deceased friends orother approved writers, were brought to light, and being read andcommented on, were explained to others. Thus, Caius Octavius Lampadioedited the Punic War of Naevius [851], which having been written in onevolume without any break in the manuscript, he divided into seven books. After that, Quintus Vargonteius undertook the Annals of Ennius, which heread on certain fixed days to crowded audiences. So Laelius Archelaus, and Vectius Philocomus, read and commented on the Satires of their friendLucilius [852], which Lenaeus Pompeius, a freedman, tells us he studiedunder Archelaus; and Valerius Cato, under Philocomus. Two others alsotaught and promoted (508) grammar in various branches, namely, LuciusAelius Lanuvinus, the son-in-law of Quintus Aelius, and Servius Claudius, both of whom were Roman knights, and men who rendered great services bothto learning and the republic. 

III. Lucius Aelius had a double cognomen, for he was called Praeconius, because his father was a herald; Stilo, because he was in the habit ofcomposing orations for most of the speakers of highest rank; indeed, hewas so strong a partisan of the nobles, that he accompanied QuintusMetellus Numidicus [853] in his exile. Servius [854] havingclandestinely obtained his father-in-law's book before it was published, was disowned for the fraud, which he took so much to heart, that, overwhelmed with shame and distress, he retired from Rome; and beingseized with a fit of the gout, in his impatience, he applied a poisonousointment to his feet, which half-killed him, so that his lower limbsmortified while he was still alive. After this, more attention was paidto the science of letters, and it grew in public estimation, insomuch, that men of the highest rank did not hesitate in undertaking to writesomething on the subject; and it is related that sometimes there were noless than twenty celebrated scholars in Rome. So high was the value, andso great were the rewards, of grammarians, that Lutatius Daphnides, jocularly called "Pan's herd" [855] by Lenaeus Melissus, was purchased byQuintus Catullus for two hundred thousand sesterces, and shortlyafterwards made a freedman; and that Lucius Apuleius, who was taken intothe pay of Epicius Calvinus, a wealthy Roman knight, at the annual salaryof ten thousand crowns, had many scholars. Grammar also penetrated intothe provinces, and some of the most eminent amongst the learned taught itin foreign parts, particularly in Gallia Togata. In the number of these, we may reckon Octavius (509) Teucer, Siscennius Jacchus, and Oppius Cares[856], who persisted in teaching to a most advanced period of his life, at a time when he was not only unable to walk, but his sight failed. 

IV. The appellation of grammarian was borrowed from the Greeks; but atfirst, the Latins called such persons literati. Cornelius Nepos, also, in his book, where he draws a distinction between a literate and aphilologist, says that in common phrase, those are properly calledliterati who are skilled in speaking or writing with care or accuracy, and those more especially deserve the name who translated the poets, andwere called grammarians by the Greeks. It appears that they were namedliterators by Messala Corvinus, in one of his letters, when he says, "that it does not refer to Furius Bibaculus, nor even to Sigida, nor toCato, the literator, " [857] meaning, doubtless, that Valerius Cato wasboth a poet and an eminent grammarian. Some there are who draw adistinction between a literati and a literator, as the Greeks do betweena grammarian and a grammatist, applying the former term to men of realerudition, the latter to those whose pretensions to learning aremoderate; and this opinion Orbilius supports by examples. For he saysthat in old times, when a company of slaves was offered for sale by anyperson, it was not customary, without good reason, to describe either ofthem in the catalogue as a literati, but only as a literator, meaningthat he was not a proficient in letters, but had a smattering ofknowledge. 

The early grammarians taught rhetoric also, and we have many of theirtreatises which include both sciences; whence it arose, I think, that inlater times, although the two professions had then become distinct, theold custom was retained, or the grammarians introduced into theirteaching some of the elements required for public speaking, such as theproblem, the periphrasis, the choice of words, description of character, and the like; in order that they might not transfer (510) their pupils tothe rhetoricians no better than ill-taught boys. But I perceive thatthese lessons are now given up in some cases, on account of the want ofapplication, or the tender years, of the scholar, for I do not believethat it arises from any dislike in the master. I recollect that when Iwas a boy it was the custom of one of these, whose name was Princeps, totake alternate days for declaiming and disputing; and sometimes he wouldlecture in the morning, and declaim in the afternoon, when he had hispulpit removed. I heard, also, that even within the memories of our ownfathers, some of the pupils of the grammarians passed directly from theschools to the courts, and at once took a high place in the ranks of themost distinguished advocates. The professors at that time were, indeed, men of great eminence, of some of whom I may be able to give an accountin the following chapters. 

V. SAEVIUS [858] NICANOR first acquired fame and reputation by histeaching: and, besides, he made commentaries, the greater part of which, however, are said to have been borrowed. He also wrote a satire, inwhich he informs us that he was a freedman, and had a double cognomen, inthe following verses;

 Saevius Nicanor Marci libertus negabit, Saevius Posthumius idem, sed Marcus, docebit. 

 What Saevius Nicanor, the freedman of Marcus, will deny, The same Saevius, called also Posthumius Marcus, will assert. 

It is reported, that in consequence of some infamy attached to hischaracter, he retired to Sardinia, and there ended his days. 

VI. AURELIUS OPILIUS [859], the freedman of some Epicurean, first taughtphilosophy, then rhetoric, and last of all, grammar. (511) Having closedhis school, he followed Rutilius Rufus, when he was banished to Asia, andthere the two friends grew old together. He also wrote several volumeson a variety of learned topics, nine books of which he distinguished bythe number and names of the nine Muses; as he says, not without reason, they being the patrons of authors and poets. I observe that its title isgiven in several indexes by a single letter, but he uses two in theheading of a book called Pinax. 

VII. MARCUS ANTONIUS GNIPHO [860], a free-born native of Gaul, wasexposed in his infancy, and afterwards received his freedom from hisfoster-father; and, as some say, was educated at Alexandria, whereDionysius Scytobrachion [861] was his fellow pupil. This, however, I amnot very ready to believe, as the times at which they flourished scarcelyagree. He is said to have been a man of great genius, of singularmemory, well read in Greek as well as Latin, and of a most obliging andagreeable temper, who never haggled about remuneration, but generallyleft it to the liberality of his scholars. He first taught in the houseof Julius Caesar [862], when the latter was yet but a boy, and, afterwards, in his own private house. He gave instruction in rhetoricalso, teaching the rules of eloquence every day, but declaiming only onfestivals. It is said that some very celebrated men frequented hisschool, --and, among others, Marcus Cicero, during the time he held thepraetorship [863]. He wrote a number of works, although he did not livebeyond his fiftieth year; but Atteius, the philologist [864], says, thathe left only two volumes, "De Latino Sermone;" and, that the other worksascribed to him, were composed by his disciples, and were not his, although his name is sometimes to be found in them. 

VIII. M. POMPILIUS ANDRONICUS, a native of Syria, while he professed tobe a grammarian, was considered an idle follower of the Epicurean sect, and little qualified to be a master (512) of a school. Finding, therefore, that, at Rome, not only Antonius Gnipho, but even otherteachers of less note were preferred to him, he retired to Cumae, wherehe lived at his ease; and, though he wrote several books, he was soneedy, and reduced to such straits, as to be compelled to sell thatexcellent little work of his, "The Index to the Annals, " for sixteenthousand sesterces. Orbilius has informed us, that he redeemed this workfrom the oblivion into which it had fallen, and took care to have itpublished with the author's name. 

IX. ORBILIUS PUPILLUS, of Beneventum, being left an orphan, by the deathof his parents, who both fell a sacrifice to the plots of their enemieson the same day, acted, at first, as apparitor to the magistrates. Hethen joined the troops in Macedonia, when he was first decorated with theplumed helmet [865], and, afterwards, promoted to serve on horseback. Having completed his military service, he resumed his studies, which hehad pursued with no small diligence from his youth upwards; and, havingbeen a professor for a long period in his own country, at last, duringthe consulship of Cicero, made his way to Rome, where he taught with morereputation than profit. For in one of his works he says, that "he wasthen very old, and lived in a garret. " He also published a book with thetitle of Perialogos; containing complaints of the injurious treatment towhich professors submitted, without seeking redress at the hands ofparents. His sour temper betrayed itself, not only in his disputes withthe sophists opposed to him, whom he lashed on every occasion, but alsotowards his scholars, as Horace tells us, who calls him "a flogger;"[866] and Domitius Marsus [867], who says of him:

 Si quos Orbilius ferula scuticaque cecidit. If those Orbilius with rod or ferule thrashed. 

(513) And not even men of rank escaped his sarcasms; for, before hebecame noticed, happening to be examined as a witness in a crowded court, Varro, the advocate on the other side, put the question to him, "What hedid and by what profession he gained his livelihood?" He replied, "Thathe lived by removing hunchbacks from the sunshine into the shade, "alluding to Muraena's deformity. He lived till he was near a hundredyears old; but he had long lost his memory, as the verse of Bibaculusinforms us:

 Orbilius ubinam est, literarum oblivio? Where is Orbilius now, that wreck of learning lost?

His statue is shown in the Capitol at Beneventum. It stands on the lefthand, and is sculptured in marble [868], representing him in a sittingposture, wearing the pallium, with two writing-cases in his hand. Heleft a son, named also Orbilius, who, like his father, was a professor ofgrammar. 

X. ATTEIUS, THE PHILOLOGIST, a freedman, was born at Athens. Of him, Capito Atteius [869], the well-known jurisconsult, says that he was arhetorician among the grammarians, and a grammarian among therhetoricians. Asinius Pollio [870], in the book in which he finds faultwith the writings of Sallust for his great affectation of obsolete words, speaks thus: "In this work his chief assistant was a certain Atteius, aman of rank, a splendid Latin grammarian, the aider and preceptor ofthose who studied the practice of declamation; in short, one who claimedfor himself the cognomen of Philologus. " Writing to Lucius Hermas, hesays, "that he had made great proficiency in Greek literature, and somein Latin; that he had been a hearer of Antonius Gnipho, and his Hermas[871], and afterwards began to teach others. Moreover, that he had forpupils many illustrious youths, among whom were the two (514) brothers, Appius and Pulcher Claudius; and that he even accompanied them to theirprovince. " He appears to have assumed the name of Philologus, because, like Eratosthenes [872], who first adopted that cognomen, he was in highrepute for his rich and varied stores of learning; which, indeed, isevident from his commentaries, though but few of them are extant. Another letter, however, to the same Hermas, shews that they were verynumerous: "Remember, " it says, "to recommend generally our Extracts, which we have collected, as you know, of all kinds, into eight hundredbooks. " He afterwards formed an intimate acquaintance with CaiusSallustius, and, on his death, with Asinius Pollio; and when theyundertook to write a history, he supplied the one with short annals ofall Roman affairs, from which he could select at pleasure; and the other, with rules on the art of composition. I am, therefore, surprised thatAsinius Pollio should have supposed that he was in the habit ofcollecting old words and figures of speech for Sallust, when he must haveknown that his own advice was, that none but well known, and common andappropriate expressions should be made use of; and that, above allthings, the obscurity of the style of Sallust, and his bold freedom intranslations, should be avoided. 

XI. VALERIUS CATO was, as some have informed us, the freedman of oneBursenus, a native of Gaul. He himself tells us, in his little workcalled "Indignatio, " that he was born free, and being left an orphan, wasexposed to be easily stripped of his patrimony during the licence ofSylla's administrations. He had a great number of distinguished pupils, and was highly esteemed as a preceptor suited to those who had a poeticalturn, as appears from these short lines:

 Cato grammaticus, Latina Siren, Qui solus legit ac facit poetas. 

 Cato, the Latin Siren, grammar taught and verse, To form the poet skilled, and poetry rehearse. 

Besides his Treatise on Grammar, he composed some poems, (515) of which, his Lydia and Diana are most admired. Ticida mentions his "Lydia. "

 Lydia, doctorum maxima cura liber. "Lydia, " a work to men of learning dear. 

Cinna [873] thus notices the "Diana. "

 Secula permaneat nostri Diana Catonis. Immortal be our Cato's song of Dian. 

He lived to extreme old age, but in the lowest state of penury, andalmost in actual want; having retired to a small cottage when he gave uphis Tusculan villa to his creditors; as Bibaculus tells us:

 Si quis forte mei domum Catonis, Depictas minio assulas, et illos Custodis vidit hortulos Priapi, Miratur, quibus ille disciplinis, Tantam sit sapientiam assecutus, Quam tres cauliculi et selibra farris; Racemi duo, tegula sub una, Ad summam prope nutriant senectam. 

"If, perchance, any one has seen the house of my Cato, with marble slabsof the richest hues, and his gardens worthy of having Priapus [874] fortheir guardian, he may well wonder by what philosophy he has gained somuch wisdom, that a daily allowance of three coleworts, half-a-pound ofmeal, and two bunches of grapes, under a narrow roof, should serve forhis subsistence to extreme old age. "

And he says in another place:

 Catonis modo, Galle, Tusculanum Tota creditor urbe venditahat. Mirati sumus unicum magistrum, Summum grammaticum, optimum poetam, Omnes solvere posse quaestiones, Unum difficile expedire nomen. En cor Zenodoti, en jecur Cratetis!

"We lately saw, my Gallus, Cato's Tusculan villa exposed to public saleby his creditors; and wondered that such an unrivalled master of (516)the schools, most eminent grammarian, and accomplished poet, could solveall propositions and yet found one question too difficult for him tosettle, --how to pay his debts. We find in him the genius of Zenodotus[875], the wisdom of Crates. " [876]

XII. CORNELIUS EPICADIUS, a freedman of Lucius Cornelius Sylla, thedictator, was his apparitor in the Augural priesthood, and much belovedby his son Faustus; so that he was proud to call himself the freedman ofboth. He completed the last book of Sylla's Commentaries, which hispatron had left unfinished. [877]

XIII. LABERIUS HIERA was bought by his master out of a slave-dealer'scage, and obtained his freedom on account of his devotion to learning. It is reported that his disinterestedness was such, that he gavegratuitous instruction to the children of those who were proscribed inthe time of Sylla. 

XIV. CURTIUS NICIA was the intimate friend of Cneius Pompeius and CaiusMemmius; but having carried notes from Memmius to Pompey's wife [878], when she was debauched by Memmius, Pompey was indignant, and forbad himhis house. He was also on familiar terms with Marcus Cicero, who thusspeaks of him in his epistle to Dolabella [879]: "I have more need ofreceiving letters from you, than you have of desiring them from me. Forthere is nothing going on at Rome in which I think you would take anyinterest, except, perhaps, that you may like to know that I am appointedumpire between our friends Nicias and Vidius. The one, it appears, alleges in two short verses that Nicias owes him (517) money; the other, like an Aristarchus, cavils at them. I, like an old critic, am to decidewhether they are Nicias's or spurious. "

Again, in a letter to Atticus [880], he says: "As to what you write aboutNicias, nothing could give me greater pleasure than to have him with me, if I was in a position to enjoy his society; but my province is to me aplace of retirement and solitude. Sicca easily reconciled himself tothis state of things, and, therefore, I would prefer having him. Besides, you are well aware of the feebleness, and the nice and luxurioushabits, of our friend Nicias. Why should I be the means of making himuncomfortable, when he can afford me no pleasure? At the same time, Ivalue his goodwill. "

XV. LENAEUS was a freedman of Pompey the Great, and attended him in mostof his expeditions. On the death of his patron and his sons, hesupported himself by teaching in a school which he opened near the templeof Tellus, in the Carium, in the quarter of the city where the house ofthe Pompeys stood [881]. Such was his regard for his patron's memory, that when Sallust described him as having a brazen face, and a shamelessmind, he lashed the historian in a most bitter satire [882], as "abull's-pizzle, a gormandizer, a braggart, and a tippler, a man whose lifeand writings were equally monstrous;" besides charging him with being "amost unskilful plagiarist, who borrowed the language of Cato and otherold writers. " It is related, that, in his youth, having escaped fromslavery by the contrivance of some of his friends, he took refuge in hisown country; and, that after he had applied himself to the liberal arts, he brought the price of his freedom to his former master, who, however, struck by his talents and learning, gave him manumission gratuitously. 

XVI. QUINTUS CAECILIUS, an Epirot by descent, but born at Tusculum, wasa freedman of Atticus Satrius, a Roman (518) knight, to whom Ciceroaddressed his Epistles [883]. He became the tutor of his patron'sdaughter [884], who was contracted to Marcus Agrippa, but being suspectedof an illicit intercourse with her, and sent away on that account, hebetook himself to Cornelius Gallus, and lived with him on terms of thegreatest intimacy, which, indeed, was imputed to Gallus as one of hisheaviest offences, by Augustus. Then, after the condemnation and deathof Gallus [885], he opened a school, but had few pupils, and those veryyoung, nor any belonging to the higher orders, excepting the children ofthose he could not refuse to admit. He was the first, it is said, whoheld disputations in Latin, and who began to lecture on Virgil and theother modern poets; which the verse of Domitius Marcus [886] points out. 

 Epirota tenellorum nutricula vatum. 

 The Epirot who, With tender care, our unfledged poets nursed. 

XVII. VERRIUS FLACCUS [887], a freedman, distinguished himself by a newmode of teaching; for it was his practice to exercise the wits of hisscholars, by encouraging emulation among them; not only proposing thesubjects on which they were to write, but offering rewards for those whowere successful in the contest. These consisted of some ancient, handsome, or rare book. Being, in consequence, selected by Augustus, aspreceptor to his grandsons, he transferred his entire school to thePalatium, but with the understanding that he should admit no freshscholars. The hall in Catiline's house, (519) which had then been addedto the palace, was assigned him for his school, with a yearly allowanceof one hundred thousand sesterces. He died of old age, in the reign ofTiberius. There is a statue of him at Praeneste, in the semi-circle atthe lower side of the forum, where he had set up calendars arranged byhimself, and inscribed on slabs of marble. 

XVIII. LUCIUS CRASSITIUS, a native of Tarentum, and in rank a freedman, had the cognomen of Pasides, which he afterwards changed for Pansa. Hisfirst employment was connected with the stage, and his business was toassist the writers of farces. After that, he took to giving lessons in agallery attached to a house, until his commentary on "The Smyrna" [888]so brought him into notice, that the following lines were written on him:

 Uni Crassitio se credere Smyrna probavit. Desinite indocti, conjugio hanc petere. Soli Crassitio se dixit nubere velle: Intima cui soli nota sua exstiterint. 

 Crassitius only counts on Smyrna's love, Fruitless the wooings of the unlettered prove; Crassitius she receives with loving arms, For he alone unveiled her hidden charms. 

However, after having taught many scholars, some of whom were of highrank, and amongst others, Julius Antonius, the triumvir's son, so that hemight be even compared with Verrius Flaccus; he suddenly closed hisschool, and joined the sect of Quintus Septimius, the philosopher. 

XIX. SCRIBONIUS APHRODISIUS, the slave and disciple of Orbilius, who wasafterwards redeemed and presented with his freedom by Scribonia [889], the daughter of Libo who had been the wife of Augustus, taught in thetime of Verrius; whose books on Orthography he also revised, not withoutsome severe remarks on his pursuits and conduct. 

XX. C. JULIUS HYGINUS, a freedman of Augustus, was a native of Spain, (although some say he was born at Alexandria, ) (520) and that when thatcity was taken, Caesar brought him, then a boy, to Rome. He closely andcarefully imitated Cornelius Alexander [890], a Greek grammarian, who, for his antiquarian knowledge, was called by many Polyhistor, and by someHistory. He had the charge of the Palatine library, but that did notprevent him from having many scholars; and he was one of the mostintimate friends of the poet Ovid, and of Caius Licinius, the historian, a man of consular rank [891], who has related that Hyginus died verypoor, and was supported by his liberality as long as he lived. JuliusModestus [892], who was a freedman of Hyginus, followed the footsteps ofhis patron in his studies and learning. 

XXI. CAIUS MELISSUS [893], a native of Spoletum, was free-born, buthaving been exposed by his parents in consequence of quarrels betweenthem, he received a good education from his foster-father, by whose careand industry he was brought up, and was made a present of to Mecaenas, asa grammarian. Finding himself valued and treated as a friend, hepreferred to continue in his state of servitude, although he was claimedby his mother, choosing rather his present condition than that which hisreal origin entitled him to. In consequence, his freedom was speedilygiven him, and he even became a favourite with Augustus. By hisappointment he was made curator of the library in the portico of Octavia[894]; and, as he himself informs us, undertook to compose, when he wasa sexagenarian, his books of "Witticisms, " which are now called "The Bookof Jests. " Of these he accomplished one hundred and fifty, to which heafterwards added several more. He (521) also composed a new kind ofstory about those who wore the toga, and called it "Trabeat. " [895]

XXII. MARCUS POMPONIUS MARCELLUS, a very severe critic of the Latintongue, who sometimes pleaded causes, in a certain address on theplaintiff's behalf, persisted in charging his adversary with making asolecism, until Cassius Severus appealed to the judges to grant anadjournment until his client should produce another grammarian, as he wasnot prepared to enter into a controversy respecting a solecism, insteadof defending his client's rights. On another occasion, when he had foundfault with some expression in a speech made by Tiberius, Atteius Capito[896] affirmed, "that if it was not Latin, at least it would be so intime to come;" "Capito is wrong, " cried Marcellus; "it is certainly inyour power, Caesar, to confer the freedom of the city on whom you please, but you cannot make words for us. " Asinius Gallus [897] tells us that hewas formerly a pugilist, in the following epigram. 

 Qui caput ad laevam deicit, glossemata nobis Praecipit; os nullum, vel potius pugilis. 

 Who ducked his head, to shun another's fist, Though he expound old saws, --yet, well I wist, With pummelled nose and face, he's but a pugilist. 

XXIII. REMMIUS PALAEMON [898], of Vicentia [899], the offspring of abond-woman, acquired the rudiments of learning, first as the companion ofa weaver's, and then of his master's, son, at school. Being afterwardsmade free, he taught at Rome, where he stood highest in the rank of thegrammarians; but he was so infamous for every sort of vice, that Tiberiusand his successor Claudius publicly denounced him as an improper personto have the education of boys and young men entrusted to him. Still, hispowers of narrative and agreeable style of speaking made him verypopular; besides which, he had the gift of making extempore verses. Healso wrote a great many in (522) various and uncommon metres. Hisinsolence was such, that he called Marcus Varro "a hog;" and bragged that"letters were born and would perish with him;" and that "his name was notintroduced inadvertently in the Bucolics [900], as Virgil divined that aPalaemon would some day be the judge of all poets and poems. " He alsoboasted, that having once fallen into the hands of robbers, they sparedhim on account of the celebrity his name had acquired. 

He was so luxurious, that he took the bath many times in a day; nor didhis means suffice for his extravagance, although his school brought himin forty thousand sesterces yearly, and he received not much less fromhis private estate, which he managed with great care. He also kept abroker's shop for the sale of old clothes; and it is well known that avine [901], he planted himself, yielded three hundred and fifty bottlesof wine. But the greatest of all his vices was his unbridledlicentiousness in his commerce with women, which he carried to the utmostpitch of foul indecency [902]. They tell a droll story of some one whomet him in a crowd, and upon his offering to kiss him, could not escapethe salute, "Master, " said he, "do you want to mouth every one you meetwith in a hurry?"

XXIV. MARCUS VALERIUS PROBUS, of Berytus [903], after long aspiring tothe rank of centurion, being at last tired of waiting, devoted himself tostudy. He had met with some old authors at a bookseller's shop in theprovinces, where the memory of ancient times still lingers, and is notquite forgotten, as it is at Rome. Being anxious carefully to reperusethese, and afterwards to make acquaintance with other works of the samekind, he found himself an object of contempt, and was laughed (523) atfor his lectures, instead of their gaining him fame or profit. Still, however, he persisted in his purpose, and employed himself in correcting, illustrating, and adding notes to many works which he had collected, hislabours being confined to the province of a grammarian, and nothing more. He had, properly speaking, no scholars, but some few followers. For henever taught in such a way as to maintain the character of a master; butwas in the habit of admitting one or two, perhaps at most three or four, disciples in the afternoon; and while he lay at ease and chatted freelyon ordinary topics, he occasionally read some book to them, but that didnot often happen. He published a few slight treatises on some subtlequestions, besides which, he left a large collection of observations onthe language of the ancients. 

LIVES OF EMINENT RHETORICIANS. 

(524)

I. Rhetoric, also, as well as Grammar, was not introduced amongst ustill a late period, and with still more difficulty, inasmuch as we findthat, at times, the practice of it was even prohibited. In order toleave no doubt of this, I will subjoin an ancient decree of the senate, as well as an edict of the censors:--"In the consulship of Caius FanniusStrabo, and Marcus Palerius Messala [904]: the praetor Marcus Pomponiusmoved the senate, that an act be passed respecting Philosophers andRhetoricians. In this matter, they have decreed as follows: 'It shall belawful for M. Pomponius, the praetor, to take such measures, and makesuch provisions, as the good of the Republic, and the duty of his office, require, that no Philosophers or Rhetoricians be suffered at Rome. '"

After some interval, the censor Cnaeus Domitius Aenobarbus and LuciusLicinius Crassus issued the following edict upon the same subject: "It isreported to us that certain persons have instituted a new kind ofdiscipline; that our youth resort to their schools; that they haveassumed the title of Latin Rhetoricians; and that young men waste theirtime there for whole days together. Our ancestors have ordained whatinstruction it is fitting their children should receive, and what schoolsthey should attend. These novelties, contrary to the customs andinstructions of our ancestors, we neither approve, nor do they appear tous good. Wherefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify ourjudgment both to those who keep such schools, and those who are in thepractice of frequenting them, that they meet our disapprobation. "

However, by slow degrees, rhetoric manifested itself to be a (525) usefuland honourable study, and many persons devoted themselves to it, both asa means of defence and of acquiring reputation. Cicero declaimed inGreek until his praetorship, but afterwards, as he grew older, in Latinalso; and even in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa [905], whom hecalls "his great and noble disciples. " Some historians state that CneiusPompey resumed the practice of declaiming even during the civil war, inorder to be better prepared to argue against Caius Curio, a young man ofgreat talents, to whom the defence of Caesar was entrusted. They say, likewise, that it was not forgotten by Mark Antony, nor by Augustus, evenduring the war of Modena. Nero also declaimed [906] even after he becameemperor, in the first year of his reign, which he had done before inpublic but twice. Many speeches of orators were also published. Inconsequence, public favour was so much attracted to the study ofrhetoric, that a vast number of professors and learned men devotedthemselves to it; and it flourished to such a degree, that some of themraised themselves by it to the rank of senators and the highest offices. 

But the same mode of teaching was not adopted by all, nor, indeed, didindividuals always confine themselves to the same system, but each variedhis plan of teaching according to circumstances. For they wereaccustomed, in stating their argument with the utmost clearness, to usefigures and apologies, to put cases, as circumstances required, and torelate facts, sometimes briefly and succinctly, and, at other times, moreat large and with greater feeling. Nor did they omit, on occasion, toresort to translations from the Greek, and to expatiate in the praise, orto launch their censures on the faults, of illustrious men. They alsodealt with matters connected with every-day life, pointing out such asare useful and necessary, and such as are hurtful and needless. They hadoccasion often to support the authority of fabulous accounts, and todetract from that of historical narratives, which sort the Greeks call"Propositions, " "Refutations" and "Corroboration, " until by a gradualprocess they have exhausted these topics, and arrive at the gist of theargument. 

Among the ancients, subjects of controversy were drawn either fromhistory, as indeed some are even now, or from (526) actual facts, ofrecent occurrence. It was, therefore, the custom to state themprecisely, with details of the names of places. We certainly so findthem collected and published, and it may be well to give one or two ofthem literally, by way of example:

"A company of young men from the city, having made an excursion to Ostiain the summer season, and going down to the beach, fell in with somefishermen who were casting their nets in the sea. Having bargained withthem for the haul, whatever it might turn out to be, for a certain sum, they paid down the money. They waited a long time while the nets werebeing drawn, and when at last they were dragged on shore, there was nofish in them, but some gold sewn up in a basket. The buyers claim thehaul as theirs, the fishermen assert that it belongs to them. "

Again: "Some dealers having to land from a ship at Brundusium a cargo ofslaves, among which there was a handsome boy of great value, they, inorder to deceive the collectors of the customs, smuggled him ashore inthe dress of a freeborn youth, with the bullum [907] hung about his neck. The fraud easily escaped detection. They proceed to Rome; the affairbecomes the subject of judicial inquiry; it is alleged that the boy wasentitled to his freedom, because his master had voluntarily treated himas free. "

Formerly, they called these by a Greek term, syntaxeis, but of late"controversies;" but they may be either fictitious cases, or those whichcome under trial in the courts. Of the eminent professors of thisscience, of whom any memorials are extant, it would not be easy to findmany others than those of whom I shall now proceed to give an account. 

II. LUCIUS PLOTIUS GALLUS. Of him Marcus Tullius Cicero thus writes toMarcus Titinnius [908]: "I remember well that when we were boys, oneLucius Plotius first began to teach Latin; and as great numbers flockedto his school, so that all who were most devoted to study were eager totake lessons from him, it was a great trouble to me that I too was notallowed to do so. I was prevented, however, by the decided opinion (527)of men of the greatest learning, who considered that it was best tocultivate the genius by the study of Greek. " This same Gallus, for helived to a great age, was pointed at by M. Caelius, in a speech which hewas forced to make in his own cause, as having supplied his accuser, Atracinus [909], with materials for his charge. Suppressing his name, hesays that such a rhetorician was like barley bread [910] compared to awheaten loaf, --windy, chaffy, and coarse. 

III. LUCIUS OCTACILIUS PILITUS is said to have been a slave, and, according to the old custom, chained to the door like a watch-dog [911];until, having been presented with his freedom for his genius and devotionto learning, he drew up for his patron the act of accusation in a causehe was prosecuting. After that, becoming a professor of rhetoric, hegave instructions to Cneius Pompey the Great, and composed an account ofhis actions, as well as of those of his father, being the first freedman, according to the opinion of Cornelius Nepos [912], who ventured to writehistory, which before his time had not been done by any one who was notof the highest ranks in society. 

IV. About this time, EPIDIUS [913] having fallen into disgrace forbringing a false accusation, opened a school of instruction, in which hetaught, among others, Mark Antony and Augustus. On one occasion CaiusCanutius jeered them for presuming to belong to the party of the consulIsauricus [914] in his administration of the republic; upon which hereplied, that he would rather be the disciple of Isauricus, than ofEpidius, the false accuser. This Epidius claimed to be descended fromEpidius Nuncio, who, as (528) ancient traditions assert, fell into thefountain of the river Sarnus [915] when the streams were overflown, andnot being afterwards found, was reckoned among the number of the gods. 

V. SEXTUS CLODIUS, a native of Sicily, a professor both of Greek andLatin eloquence, had bad eyes and a facetious tongue. It was a saying ofhis, that he lost a pair of eyes from his intimacy with Mark Antony, thetriumvir [916]. Of his wife, Fulvia, when there was a swelling in one ofher cheeks, he said that "she tempted the point of his style;" [917] nordid Antony think any the worse of him for the joke, but quite enjoyed it;and soon afterwards, when Antony was consul [918], he even made him alarge grant of land, which Cicero charges him with in his Philippics[919]. "You patronize, " he said, "a master of the schools for the sakeof his buffoonery, and make a rhetorician one of your pot-companions;allowing him to cut his jokes on any one he pleased; a witty man, nodoubt, but it was an easy matter to say smart things of such as you andyour companions. But listen, Conscript Fathers, while I tell you whatreward was given to this rhetorician, and let the wounds of the republicbe laid bare to view. You assigned two thousand acres of the Leontineterritory [920] to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, and not content withthat, exonerated the estate from all taxes. Hear this, and learn fromthe extravagance of the grant, how little wisdom is displayed in youracts. "

VI. CAIUS ALBUTIUS SILUS, of Novara [921], while, in the execution (529)of the office of edile in his native place, he was sitting for theadministration of justice, was dragged by the feet from the tribunal bysome persons against whom he was pronouncing a decree. In greatindignation at this usage, he made straight for the gate of the town, andproceeded to Rome. There he was admitted to fellowship, and lodged, withPlancus the orator [922], whose practice it was, before he made a speechin public, to set up some one to take the contrary side in the argument. The office was undertaken by Albutius with such success, that he silencedPlancus, who did not venture to put himself in competition with him. This bringing him into notice, he collected an audience of his own, andit was his custom to open the question proposed for debate, sitting; butas he warmed with the subject, he stood up, and made his peroration inthat posture. His declamations were of different kinds; sometimesbrilliant and polished, at others, that they might not be thought tosavour too much of the schools, he curtailed them of all ornament, andused only familiar phrases. He also pleaded causes, but rarely, beingemployed in such as were of the highest importance, and in every caseundertaking the peroration only. 

In the end, he gave up practising in the forum, partly from shame, partlyfrom fear. For, in a certain trial before the court of the One Hundred[923], having lashed the defendant as a man void of natural affection forhis parents, he called upon him by a bold figure of speech, "to swear bythe ashes of his father and mother which lay unburied;" his adversarytaking him up for the suggestion, and the judges frowning upon it, helost his cause, and was much blamed. At another time, on a trial formurder at Milan, before Lucius Piso, the proconsul, having to defend theculprit, he worked himself up to such a pitch of vehemence, that in acrowded court, who loudly applauded him, notwithstanding all the effortsof the lictor to maintain order, he broke out into a lamentation on themiserable state of Italy [924], then in danger of being again reduced, hesaid, into (530) the form of a province, and turning to the statue ofMarcus Brutus, which stood in the Forum, he invoked him as "the founderand vindicator of the liberties of the people. " For this he narrowlyescaped a prosecution. Suffering, at an advanced period of life, from anulcerated tumour, he returned to Novara, and calling the people togetherin a public assembly, addressed them in a set speech, of considerablelength, explaining the reasons which induced him to put an end toexistence: and this he did by abstaining from food. 

END OF THE LIVES OF GRAMMARIANS AND RHETORICIANS. 

LIVES OF THE POETS. 

(531)

THE LIFE OF TERENCE. 

Publius Terentius Afer, a native of Carthage, was a slave, at Rome, ofthe senator Terentius Lucanus, who, struck by his abilities and handsomeperson, gave him not only a liberal education in his youth, but hisfreedom when he arrived at years of maturity. Some say that he was acaptive taken in war, but this, as Fenestella [925] informs us, could byno means have been the case, since both his birth and death took place inthe interval between the termination of the second Punic war and thecommencement of the third [926]; nor, even supposing that he had beentaken prisoner by the Numidian or Getulian tribes, could he have falleninto the hands of a Roman general, as there was no commercial intercoursebetween the Italians and Africans until after the fall of Carthage [927]. Terence lived in great familiarity with many persons of high station, andespecially with Scipio Africanus, and Caius Delius, whose favour he iseven supposed to have purchased by the foulest means. But Fenestellareverses the charge, contending that Terence was older than either ofthem. Cornelius Nepos, however, (532) informs us that they were all ofnearly equal age; and Porcias intimates a suspicion of this criminalcommerce in the following passage:--

"While Terence plays the wanton with the great, and recommends himself tothem by the meretricious ornaments of his person; while, with greedyears, he drinks in the divine melody of Africanus's voice; while hethinks of being a constant guest at the table of Furius, and the handsomeLaelius; while he thinks that he is fondly loved by them, and ofteninvited to Albanum for his youthful beauty, he finds himself stripped ofhis property, and reduced to the lowest state of indigence. Then, withdrawing from the world, he betook himself to Greece, where he met hisend, dying at Strymphalos, a town in Arcadia. What availed him thefriendship of Scipio, of Laelius, or of Furius, three of the mostaffluent nobles of that age? They did not even minister to hisnecessities so much as to provide him a hired house, to which his slavemight return with the intelligence of his master's death. "

He wrote comedies, the earliest of which, The Andria, having to beperformed at the public spectacles given by the aediles [928], he wascommanded to read it first before Caecilius [929]. Having beenintroduced while Caecilius was at supper, and being meanly dressed, he isreported to have read the beginning of the play seated on a low stoolnear the great man's couch. But after reciting a few verses, he wasinvited to take his place at table, and, having supped with his host, went through the rest to his great delight. This play and five otherswere received by the public with similar applause, although Volcatius, inhis enumeration of them, says that "The Hecyra [930] must not be reckonedamong these. "

The Eunuch was even acted twice the same day [931], and earned more moneythan any comedy, whoever was the writer, had (533) ever done before, namely, eight thousand sesterces [932]; besides which, a certain sumaccrued to the author for the title. But Varro prefers the opening ofThe Adelphi [933] to that of Menander. It is very commonly reported thatTerence was assisted in his works by Laelius and Scipio [934], with whomhe lived in such great intimacy. He gave some currency to this reporthimself, nor did he ever attempt to defend himself against it, except ina light way; as in the prologue to The Adelphi:

 Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nohiles Hunc adjutare, assidueque una scribere; Quod illi maledictun vehemens existimant, Eam laudem hic ducit maximam: cum illis placet, Qui vobis universis et populo placent; Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia. 

 --------For this, Which malice tells that certain noble persons Assist the bard, and write in concert with him, That which they deem a heavy slander, he Esteems his greatest praise: that he can please Those who in war, in peace, as counsellors, Have rendered you the dearest services, And ever borne their faculties so meekly. Colman. 

He appears to have protested against this imputation with lessearnestness, because the notion was far from being disagreeable toLaelius and Scipio. It therefore gained ground, and prevailed inafter-times. 

Quintus Memmius, in his speech in his own defence, says "PubliusAfricanus, who borrowed from Terence a character which he had acted inprivate, brought it on the stage in his name. " Nepos tells us he foundin some book that C. Laelius, when he was on some occasion at Puteoli, onthe calends [the first] of March, [935] being requested by his wife torise early, (534) begged her not to suffer him to be disturbed, as he hadgone to bed late, having been engaged in writing with more than usualsuccess. On her asking him to tell her what he had been writing, herepeated the verses which are found in the Heautontimoroumenos:

 Satis pol proterve me Syri promessa--Heauton. IV. Iv. 1. I'faith! the rogue Syrus's impudent pretences--

Santra [936] is of opinion that if Terence required any assistance in hiscompositions [937], he would not have had recourse to Scipio and Laelius, who were then very young men, but rather to Sulpicius Gallus [938], anaccomplished scholar, who had been the first to introduce his plays atthe games given by the consuls; or to Q. Fabius Labeo, or Marcus Popilius[939], both men of consular rank, as well as poets. It was for thisreason that, in alluding to the assistance he had received, he did notspeak of his coadjutors as very young men, but as persons of whoseservices the people had full experience in peace, in war, and in theadministration of affairs. 

After he had given his comedies to the world, at a time when he had notpassed his thirty-fifth year, in order to avoid suspicion, as he foundothers publishing their works under his name, or else to make himselfacquainted with the modes of life and habits of the Greeks, for thepurpose of exhibiting them in his plays, he withdrew from home, to whichhe never returned. Volcatius gives this account of his death:

 Sed ut Afer sei populo dedit comoedias, Iter hic in Asiam fecit. Navem cum semel Conscendit, visus nunquam est. Sic vita vacat. 

 (535) When Afer had produced six plays for the entertainment of the people, He embarked for Asia; but from the time he went on board ship He was never seen again. Thus he ended his life. 

Q. Consentius reports that he perished at sea on his voyage back fromGreece, and that one hundred and eight plays, of which he had made aversion from Menander [940], were lost with him. Others say that he diedat Stymphalos, in Arcadia, or in Leucadia, during the consulship of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior [941], worn out with asevere illness, and with grief and regret for the loss of his baggage, which he had sent forward in a ship that was wrecked, and contained thelast new plays he had written. 

In person, Terence is reported to have been rather short and slender, with a dark complexion. He had an only daughter, who was afterwardsmarried to a Roman knight; and he left also twenty acres of garden ground[942], on the Appian Way, at the Villa of Mars. I, therefore, wonder themore how Porcius could have written the verses, --------nihil Publius Scipio profuit, nihil et Laelius, nihil Furius, Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime. Eorum ille opera ne domum quidem habuit conductitiam Saltem ut esset, quo referret obitum domini servulus. [943]

Afranius places him at the head of all the comic writers, declaring, inhis Compitalia, Terentio non similem dices quempiam. Terence's equal cannot soon be found. 

On the other hand, Volcatius reckons him inferior not only (536) toNaevius, Plautus, and Caecilius, but also to Licinius. Cicero pays himthis high compliment, in his Limo--

 Tu quoque, qui solus lecto sermone, Terenti, Conversum expressumque Latina voce Menandrum In medio populi sedatis vocibus offers, Quidquid come loquens, ac omnia dulcia dicens. 

"You, only, Terence, translated into Latin, and clothed in choicelanguage the plays of Menander, and brought them before the public, who, in crowded audiences, hung upon hushed applause--

 Grace marked each line, and every period charmed. "

So also Caius Caesar:

 Tu quoque tu in summis, O dimidiate Menander, Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator, Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis Comica, ut aequato virtus polleret honore Cum Graecis, neque in hoc despectus parte jaceres! Unum hoc maceror, et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti. 

"You, too, who divide your honours with Menander, will take your placeamong poets of the highest order, and justly too, such is the purity ofyour style. Would only that to your graceful diction was added morecomic force, that your works might equal in merit the Greek masterpieces, and your inferiority in this particular should not expose you to censure. This is my only regret; in this, Terence, I grieve to say you arewanting. "

THE LIFE OF JUVENAL. 

D. JUNIUS JUVENALIS, who was either the son [944] of a wealthy freedman, or brought up by him, it is not known which, declaimed till the middle oflife [945], more from the bent of his inclination, than from any desireto prepare himself either for the schools or the forum. But havingcomposed a short satire [946], which was clever enough, on Paris [947], the actor of pantomimes, (537) and also on the poet of Claudius Nero, whowas puffed up by having held some inferior military rank for six monthsonly; he afterwards devoted himself with much zeal to that style ofwriting. For a while indeed, he had not the courage to read them even toa small circle of auditors, but it was not long before he recited hissatires to crowded audiences, and with entire success; and this he didtwice or thrice, inserting new lines among those which he had originallycomposed. 

 Quod non dant proceres, dabit histrio, tu Camerinos, Et Bareas, tu nobilium magna atria curas. Praefectos Pelopea facit, Philomela tribunos. 

 Behold an actor's patronage affords A surer means of rising than a lord's! And wilt thou still the Camerino's [948] court, Or to the halls of Bareas resort, When tribunes Pelopea can create And Philomela praefects, who shall rule the state? [949]

At that time the player was in high favour at court, and many of thosewho fawned upon him were daily raised to posts of honour. Juvenaltherefore incurred the suspicion of having covertly satirized occurrenceswhich were then passing, and, although eighty years old at that time[950], he was immediately removed from the city, being sent intohonourable banishment as praefect of a cohort, which was under orders toproceed to a station at the extreme frontier of Egypt [951]. That (538)sort of punishment was selected, as it appeared severe enough for anoffence which was venial, and a mere piece of drollery. However, he diedvery soon afterwards, worn down by grief, and weary of his life. 

THE LIFE OF PERSIUS. 

AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS was born the day before the Nones of December [4thDec. ] [952], in the consulship of Fabius Persicus and L. Vitellius. Hedied on the eighth of the calends of December [24th Nov. ] [953] in theconsulship of Rubrius Marius and Asinius Gallus. Though born atVolterra, in Etruria, he was a Roman knight, allied both by blood andmarriage to persons of the highest rank [954]. He ended his days at anestate he had at the eighth milestone on the Appian Way. His father, Flaccus, who died when he was barely six years old, left him under thecare of guardians, and his mother, Fulvia Silenna, who afterwards marriedFusius, a Roman knight, buried him also in a very few years. PersiusFlaccus pursued his studies at Volterra till he was twelve years old, andthen continued them at Rome, under Remmius Palaemon, the grammarian, andVerginius Flaccus, the rhetorician. Arriving at the age of twenty-one, he formed a friendship with Annaeus Cornutus [955], which lasted throughlife; and from him he learned the rudiments of philosophy. Among hisearliest friends were Caesius Bassus [956], and Calpurnius Statura; thelatter of whom died while Persius himself was yet in his youth. Servilius (539) Numanus [957], he reverenced as a father. ThroughCornutus he was introduced to Annaeus, as well as to Lucan, who was ofhis own age, and also a disciple of Cornutus. At that time Cornutus wasa tragic writer; he belonged to the sect of the Stoics, and left behindhim some philosophical works. Lucan was so delighted with the writingsof Persius Flaccus, that he could scarcely refrain from giving loudtokens of applause while the author was reciting them, and declared thatthey had the true spirit of poetry. It was late before Persius made theacquaintance of Seneca, and then he was not much struck with his naturalendowments. At the house of Cornutus he enjoyed the society of two verylearned and excellent men, who were then zealously devoting themselves tophilosophical enquiries, namely, Claudius Agaternus, a physician fromLacedaemon, and Petronius Aristocrates, of Magnesia, men whom he held inthe highest esteem, and with whom he vied in their studies, as they wereof his own age, being younger than Cornutus. During nearly the last tenyears of his life he was much beloved by Thraseas, so that he sometimestravelled abroad in his company; and his cousin Arria was married to him. 

Persius was remarkable for gentle manners, for a modesty amounting tobashfulness, a handsome form, and an attachment to his mother, sister, and aunt, which was most exemplary. He was frugal and chaste. He lefthis mother and sister twenty thousand sesterces, requesting his mother, in a written codicil, to present to Cornutus, as some say, one hundredsesterces, or as others, twenty pounds of wrought silver [958], besidesabout seven hundred books, which, indeed, included his whole library. Cornutus, however, would only take the books, and gave up the legacy tothe sisters, whom his brother had constituted his heirs. 

He wrote [959] seldom, and not very fast; even the work we possess heleft incomplete. Some verses are wanting at the end of the book [960], but Cornutus thoughtlessly recited it, as if (540) it was finished; andon Caesius Bassus requesting to be allowed to publish it, he delivered itto him for that purpose. , In his younger days, Persius had written aplay, as well as an Itinerary, with several copies of verses on Thraseas'father-in-law, and Arria's [961] mother, who had made away with herselfbefore her husband. But Cornutus used his whole influence with themother of Persius to prevail upon her to destroy these compositions. Assoon as his book of Satires was published, all the world began to admireit, and were eager to buy it up. He died of a disease in the stomach, inthe thirtieth year of his age [962]. But no sooner had he left schooland his masters, than he set to work with great vehemence to composesatires, from having read the tenth book of Lucilius; and made thebeginning of that book his model; presently launching his invectives allaround with so little scruple, that he did not spare cotemporary poetsand orators, and even lashed Nero himself, who was then the reigningprince. The verse ran as follows:

 Auriculas asini Mida rex habet; King Midas has an ass's ears;

but Cornutus altered it thus;

 Auriculas asini quis non hahet? Who has not an ass's ears?

in order that it might not be supposed that it was meant to apply toNero. 

THE LIFE OF HORACE. 

HORATIUS FLACCUS was a native of Venusium [963], his father having been, by his own account [964], a freedman and collector of taxes, but, as itis generally believed, a dealer in salted (541) provisions; for some onewith whom Horace had a quarrel, jeered him, by saying; "How often have Iseen your father wiping his nose with his fist?" In the battle ofPhilippi, he served as a military tribune [965], which post he filled atthe instance of Marcus Brutus [966], the general; and having obtained apardon, on the overthrow of his party, he purchased the office of scribeto a quaestor. Afterwards insinuating himself first, into the goodgraces of Mecaenas, and then of Augustus, he secured no small share inthe regard of both. And first, how much Mecaenas loved him may be seenby the epigram in which he says:

 Ni te visceribus meis, Horati, Plus jam diligo, Titium sodalem, Ginno tu videas strigosiorem. [967]

But it was more strongly exhibited by Augustus, in a short sentenceuttered in his last moments: "Be as mindful of Horatius Flaccus as youare of me!" Augustus offered to appoint him his secretary, signifyinghis wishes to Mecaenas in a letter to the following effect: "Hitherto Ihave been able to write my own epistles to friends; but now I am too muchoccupied, and in an infirm state of health. I wish, therefore, todeprive you of our Horace: let him leave, therefore, your luxurious tableand come to the palace, and he shall assist me in writing my letters. "And upon his refusing to accept the office, he neither exhibited thesmallest displeasure, nor ceased to heap upon him tokens of his regard. Letters of his are extant, from which I will make some short extracts toestablish this: "Use your influence over me with the same freedom as youwould do if we were living together as friends. In so doing you will beperfectly right, and guilty of no impropriety; for I could wish that ourintercourse should be on that footing, if your health admitted of it. "And again: "How I hold you in memory you may learn (542) from our friendSeptimius [968], for I happened to mention you when he was present. Andif you are so proud as to scorn my friendship, that is no reason why Ishould lightly esteem yours, in return. " Besides this, among otherdrolleries, he often called him, "his most immaculate penis, " and "hischarming little man, " and loaded him from time to time with proofs of hismunificence. He admired his works so much, and was so convinced of theirenduring fame, that he directed him to compose the Secular Poem, as wellas that on the victory of his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus over theVindelici [969]; and for this purpose urged him to add, after a longinterval, a fourth book of Odes to the former three. After reading his"Sermones, " in which he found no mention of himself, he complained inthese terms: "You must know that I am very angry with you, because inmost of your works of this description you do not choose to addressyourself to me. Are you afraid that, in times to come, your reputationwill suffer; in case it should appear that you lived on terms of intimatefriendship with me?" And he wrung from him the eulogy which begins with, Cum tot sustineas, et tanta negotia solus: Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes, Legibus emendes: in publica commoda peccem, Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar. --Epist. Ii. I. 

 While you alone sustain the important weight Of Rome's affairs, so various and so great; While you the public weal with arms defend, Adorn with morals, and with laws amend; Shall not the tedious letter prove a crime, That steals one moment of our Caesar's time. --Francis. 

In person, Horace was short and fat, as he is described by himself in hisSatires [970], and by Augustus in the following letter: "Dionysius hasbrought me your small volume, which, little as it is, not to blame youfor that, I shall judge favourably. You seem to me, however, to beafraid lest your volumes should be bigger than yourself. But if you areshort in stature, you are corpulent enough. You may, therefore, (543) ifyou will, write in a quart, when the size of your volume is as largeround as your paunch. "

It is reported that he was immoderately addicted to venery. [For he issaid to have had obscene pictures so disposed in a bedchamber lined withmirrors, that, whichever way he looked, lascivious images might presentthemselves to his view. ] [971] He lived for the most part in theretirement of his farm [972], on the confines of the Sabine and Tiburtineterritories, and his house is shewn in the neighbourhood of a little woodnot far from Tibur. Some Elegies ascribed to him, and a prose Epistleapparently written to commend himself to Mecaenas, have been handed downto us; but I believe that neither of them are genuine works of his; forthe Elegies are commonplace, and the Epistle is wanting in perspicuity, afault which cannot be imputed to his style. He was born on the sixth ofthe ides of December [27th December], in the consulship of Lucius Cotta[973] and Lucius Torquatus; and died on the fifth of the calends ofDecember [27th November], in the consulship of Caius Marcius Censorinusand Caius Asinius Gallus [974]; having completed his fifty-ninth year. He made a nuncupatory will, declaring Augustus his heir, not being able, from the violence of his disorder, to sign one in due form. He wasinterred and lies buried on the skirts of the Esquiline Hill, near thetomb of Mecaenas. [975]

(544) M. ANNAEUS LUCANUS, a native of Corduba [976], first tried thepowers of his genius in an encomium on Nero, at the Quinquennial games. He afterwards recited his poem on the Civil War carried on between Pompeyand Caesar. His vanity was so immense, and he gave such liberty to histongue, that in some preface, comparing his age and his first effortswith those of Virgil, he had the assurance to say: "And what now remainsfor me is to deal with a gnat. " In his early youth, after being longinformed of the sort of life his father led in the country, inconsequence of an unhappy marriage [977], he was recalled from Athens byNero, who admitted him into the circle of his friends, and even gave himthe honour of the quaestorship; but he did not long remain in favour. Smarting at this, and having publicly stated that Nero had withdrawn, allof a sudden, without communicating with the senate, and without any othermotive than his own recreation, after this he did not cease to assail theemperor both with foul words and with acts which are still notorious. Sothat on one occasion, when easing his bowels in the common privy, therebeing a louder explosion than usual, he gave vent to the nemistych ofNero: "One would suppose it was thundering under ground, " in the hearingof those who were sitting there for the same purpose, and who took totheir heels in much consternation [978]. In a poem also, which was inevery one's hands, he severely lashed both the emperor and his mostpowerful adherents. 

At length, he became nearly the most active leader in Piso's conspiracy[979]; and while he dwelt without reserve in many quarters on the gloryof those who dipped their hands in the (545) blood of tyrants, helaunched out into open threats of violence, and carried them so far as toboast that he would cast the emperor's head at the feet of hisneighbours. When, however, the plot was discovered, he did not exhibitany firmness of mind. A confession was wrung from him without muchdifficulty; and, humbling himself to the most abject entreaties, he evennamed his innocent mother as one of the conspirators [980]; hoping thathis want of natural affection would give him favour in the eyes of aparricidal prince. Having obtained permission to choose his mode ofdeath [981], he wrote notes to his father, containing corrections of someof his verses, and, having made a full meal, allowed a physician to openthe veins in his arm [982]. I have also heard it said that his poemswere offered for sale, and commented upon, not only with care anddiligence, but also in a trifling way. [983]

THE LIFE OF PLINY. 

[984]

PLINIUS SECUNDUS, a native of New Como [985], having served in (546)the wars with strict attention to his duties, in the rank of a knight, distinguished himself, also, by the great integrity with which headministered the high functions of procurator for a long period in theseveral provinces intrusted to his charge. But still he devoted so muchattention to literary pursuits, that it would not have been an easymatter for a person who enjoyed entire leisure to have written more thanhe did. He comprised, in twenty volumes, an account of all the variouswars carried on in successive periods with the German tribes. Besidesthis, he wrote a Natural History, which extended to seven books. He fella victim to the calamitous event which occurred in Campania. For, havingthe command of the fleet at Misenum, when Vesuvius was throwing up afiery eruption, he put to sea with his gallies for the purpose ofexploring the causes of the phenomenon close on the spot [986]. Butbeing prevented by contrary winds from sailing back, he was suffocated inthe dense cloud of dust and ashes. Some, however, think that he waskilled by his slave, having implored him to put an end to his sufferings, when he was reduced to the last extremity by the fervent heat. [987]

THE END OF LIVES OF THE POETS. 

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 1: Plin. Epist. I. 18, 24, iii. 8, v. 11, ix. 34, x. 95. ]

[Footnote 2: Lycee, part I. Liv. III. C. I. ]

[Footnote 3: Julius Caesar Divus. Romulus, the founder of Rome, had thehonour of an apotheosis conferred on him by the senate, under the title ofQuirinus, to obviate the people's suspicion of his having been taken offby a conspiracy of the patrician order. Political circumstances againconcurred with popular superstition to revive this posthumous adulation infavour of Julius Caesar, the founder of the empire, who also fell by thehands of conspirators. It is remarkable in the history of a nation sojealous of public liberty, that, in both instances, they bestowed thehighest mark of human homage upon men who owed their fate to theintroduction of arbitrary power. ]

[Footnote 4: Pliny informs us that Caius Julius, the father of JuliusCaesar, a man of pretorian rank, died suddenly at Pisa. ]

[Footnote 5: A. U. C. (in the year from the foundation of Rome) 670; A. C. (before Christ) about 92. ]

[Footnote 6: Flamen Dialis. This was an office of great dignity, butsubjected the holder to many restrictions. He was not allowed to ride onhorseback, nor to absent himself from the city for a single night. Hiswife was also under particular restraints, and could not be divorced. Ifshe died, the flamen resigned his office, because there were certainsacred rites which he could not perform without her assistance. Besidesother marks of distinction, he wore a purple robe called laena, and aconical mitre called apex. ]

[Footnote 7: Two powerful parties were contending at Rome for thesupremacy; Sylla being at the head of the faction of the nobles, whileMarius espoused the cause of the people. Sylla suspected Julius Caesar ofbelonging to the Marian party, because Marius had married his aunt Julia. ]

[Footnote 8: He wandered about for some time in the Sabine territory. ]

[Footnote 9: Bithynia, in Asia Minor, was bounded on the south byPhrygia, on the west by the Bosphorus and Propontis; and on the north bythe Euxine sea. Its boundaries towards the east are not clearlyascertained, Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy differing from each other on thesubject. ]

[Footnote 10: Mitylene was a city in the island of Lesbos, famous for thestudy of philosophy and eloquence. According to Pliny, it remained a freecity and in power one thousand five hundred years. It suffered much inthe Peloponnesian war from the Athenians, and in the Mithridatic from theRomans, by whom it was taken and destroyed. But it soon rose again, having recovered its ancient liberty by the favour of Pomnpey; and wasafterwards much embellished by Trajan, who added to it the splendour ofhis own name. This was the country of Pittacus, one of the seven wise menof Greece, as well as of Alcaeus and Sappho. The natives showed aparticular taste for poetry, and had, as Plutarch informs us, stated timesfor the celebration of poetical contests. ]

[Footnote 11: The civic crown was made of oak-leaves, and given to himwho had saved the life of a citizen. The person thus decorated, wore itat public spectacles, and sat next the senators. When he entered, theaudience rose up, as a mark of respect. ]

[Footnote 12: A very extensive country of Hither Asia; lying betweenPamphylia to the west, Mount Taurus and Amanus to the north, Syria to theeast, and the Mediterranean to the south. It was anciently famous forsaffron; and hair-cloth, called by the Romans ciliciun, was themanufacture of this country. ]

[Footnote 13: A city and an island, near the coast of Caria famous for thehuge statue of the Sun, called the Colossus. The Rhodians were celebratednot only for skill in naval affairs, but for learning, philosophy, andeloquence. During the latter periods of the Roman republic, and undersome of the emperors, numbers resorted there to prosecute their studies;and it also became a place of retreat to discontented Romans. ]

[Footnote 14: Pharmacusa, an island lying off the coast of Asia, nearMiletus. It is now called Parmosa. ]

[Footnote 15: The ransom, too large for Caesar's private means, wasraised by the voluntary contributions of the cities in the Asiaticprovince, who were equally liberal from their public funds in the case ofother Romans who fell into the hands of pirates at that period. ]

[Footnote 16: From Miletus, as we are informed by Plutarch. ]

[Footnote 17: Who commanded in Spain. ]

[Footnote 18: Rex, it will be easily understood, was not a title ofdignity in a Roman family, but the surname of the Marcii. ]

[Footnote 19: The rites of the Bona Dea, called also Fauna, which wereperformed in the night, and by women only. ]

[Footnote 20: Hispania Boetica; the Hither province being called HispaniaTarraconensis. ]

[Footnote 21: Alexander the Great was only thirty-three years at the timeof his death. ]

[Footnote 22: The proper office of the master of the horse was to commandthe knights, and execute the orders of the dictator. He was usuallynominated from amongst persons of consular and praetorian dignity; and hadthe use of a horse, which the dictator had not, without the order of thepeople. ]

[Footnote 23: Seneca compares the annals of Tanusius to the life of afool, which, though it may be long, is worthless; while that of a wiseman, like a good book, is valuable, however short. --Epist. 94. ]

[Footnote 24: Bibulus was Caesar's colleague, both as edile and consul. Cicero calls his edicts "Archilochian, " that is, as full of spite as theverses of Archilochus. --Ad. Attic. B. 7. Ep. 24. ]

[Footnote 25: A. U. C. 689. Cicero holds both the Curio's, father and son, very cheap. --Brut. C. 60. ]

[Footnote 26: Regnum, the kingly power, which the Roman people consideredan insupportable tyranny. ]

[Footnote 27: An honourable banishment. ]

[Footnote 28: The assemblies of the people were at first held in the openForum. Afterwards, a covered building, called the Comitium, was erectedfor that purpose. There are no remains of it, but Lumisden thinks that itprobably stood on the south side of the Forum, on the site of the presentchurch of The Consolation. --Antiq. Of Rome, p. 357. ]

[Footnote 29: Basilicas, from Basileus; a king. They were, indeed, thepalaces of the sovereign people; stately and spacious buildings, withhalls, which served the purpose of exchanges, council chambers, and courtsof justice. Some of the Basilicas were afterwards converted intoChristian churches. "The form was oblong; the middle was an open space towalk in, called Testudo, and which we now call the nave. On each side ofthis were rows of pillars, which formed what we should call theside-aisles, and which the ancients called Porticus. The end of theTestudo was curved, like the apse of some of our churches, and was calledTribunal, from causes being heard there. Hence the term Tribune isapplied to that part of the Roman churches which is behind the highaltar. "--Burton's Antiq. Of Rome, p. 204. ]

[Footnote 30: Such as statues and pictures, the works of Greek artists. ]

[Footnote 31: It appears to have stood at the foot of the Capitolinehill. Piranesi thinks that the two beautiful columns of white marble, which are commonly described as belonging to the portico of the temple ofJupiter Stator, are the remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux. ]

[Footnote 32: Ptolemy Auletes, the son of Cleopatra. ]

[Footnote 33: Lentulus, Cethegus, and others. ]

[Footnote 34: The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was commenced andcompleted by the Tarquins, kings of Rome, but not dedicated till the yearafter their expulsion, when that honour devolved on M. Horatius Fulvillus, the first of the consuls. Having been burnt down during the civil wars, A. U. C. 670, Sylla restored it on the same foundations, but did not live toconsecrate it. ]

[Footnote 35: Meaning Pompey; not so much for the sake of the office, ashaving his name inserted in the inscription recording the repairs of theCapitol, instead of Catulus. The latter, however, secured the honour, andhis name is still seen inscribed in an apartment at the Capitol, as itsrestorer. ]

[Footnote 36: It being the calends of January, the first day of the year, on which the magistrates solemnly entered on their offices, surrounded bytheir friends. ]

[Footnote 37: Among others, one for recalling Pompey from Asia, under thepretext that the commonwealth was in danger. Cato was one of thecolleagues who saw through the design and opposed the decree. ]

[Footnote 38: See before, p. 5. This was in A. U. C. 693. ]

[Footnote 39: Plutarch informs us, that Caesar, before he came intooffice, owed his creditors 1300 talents, somewhat more than 565, 000 poundsof our money. But his debts increased so much after this period, if wemay believe Appian, that upon his departure for Spain, at the expirationof his praetorship, he is reported to have said, Bis millies etquingenties centena minis sibi adesse oportere, ut nihil haberet: i. E. That he was 2, 000, 000 and nearly 20, 000 sesterces worse than penniless. Crassus became his security for 830 talents, about 871, 500 pounds. ]

[Footnote 40: For his victories in Gallicia and Lusitania, having led hisarmy to the shores of the ocean, which had not before been reduced tosubmission. ]

[Footnote 41: Caesar was placed in this dilemma, that if he aspired to atriumph, he must remain outside the walls until it took place, while as acandidate for the consulship, he must be resident in the city. ]

[Footnote 42: Even the severe censor was biassed by political expediencyto sanction a system, under which what little remained of public virtue, and the love of liberty at Rome, were fast decaying. The strict lawsagainst bribery at elections were disregarded, and it was practisedopenly, and accepted without a blush. Sallust says that everything wasvenal, and that Rome itself might be bought, if any one was rich enough topurchase it. Jugurth, viii. 20, 3. ]

[Footnote 43: A. U. C. 695. ]

[Footnote 44: The proceedings of the senate were reported in short notestaken by one of their own order, "strangers" not being admitted at theirsittings. These notes included speeches as well as acts. These and theproceedings of the assemblies of the people, were daily published injournals [Footnote diurna: which contained also accounts of the trials atlaw, with miscellaneous intelligence of births and deaths, marriages anddivorces. The practice of publishing the proceedings of the senate, introduced by Julius Caesar, was discontinued by Augustus. ]

[Footnote 45: Within the city, the lictors walked before only one of theconsuls, and that commonly for a month alternately. A public officer, called Accensus, preceded the other consul, and the lictors followed. This custom had long been disused, but was now restored by Caesar. ]

[Footnote 46: In order that he might be a candidate for the tribuneshipof the people; it was done late in the evening, at an unusual hour forpublic business. ]

[Footnote 47: Gaul was divided into two provinces, Transalpine, or GalliaUlterior, and Cisalpina, or Citerior. The Citerior, having nearly thesame limits as Lombardy in after times, was properly a part of Italy, occupied by colonists from Gaul, and, having the Rubicon, the ancientboundary of Italy, on the south. It was also called Gallia Togata, fromthe use of the Roman toga; the inhabitants being, after the social war, admitted to the right of citizens. The Gallia Transalpina, or Ulterior, was called Comata, from the people wearing their hair long, while theRomans wore it short; and the southern part, afterwards calledNarbonensis, came to have the epithet Braccata, from the use of thebraccae, which were no part of the Roman dress. Some writers suppose thebraccae to have been breeches, but Aldus, in a short disquisition on thesubject, affirms that they were a kind of upper dress. And this opinionseems to be countenanced by the name braccan being applied by the modernCeltic nations, the descendants of the Gallic Celts, to signify theirupper garment, or plaid. ]

[Footnote 48: Alluding, probably, to certain scandals of a grosscharacter which were rife against Caesar. See before, c. Ii. (p. 2) andsee also c. Xlix. ]

[Footnote 49: So called from the feathers on their helmets, resemblingthe crest of a lark; Alauda, Fr. Alouette. ]

[Footnote 50: Days appointed by the senate for public thanksgiving in thetemples in the name of a victorious general, who had in the decrees thetitle of emperor, by which they were saluted by the legions. ]

[Footnote 51: A. U. C. 702. ]

[Footnote 52: Aurelia. ]

[Footnote 53: Julia, the wife of Pompey, who died in childbirth. ]

[Footnote 54: Conquest had so multiplied business at Rome, that the RomanForum became too little for transacting it, and could not be enlargedwithout clearing away the buildings with which it was surrounded. Hencethe enormous sum which its site is said to have cost, amounting, it iscalculated, to 809, 291 pounds of our money. It stood near the old forum, behind the temple of Romulus and Remus, but not a vestige of it remains. ]

[Footnote 55: Comum was a town of the Orobii, of ancient standing, andformerly powerful. Julius Caesar added to it five thousand new colonists;whence it was generally called Novocomum. But in time it recovered itsancient name, Comum; Pliny the younger, who was a native of this place, calling it by no other name. ]

[Footnote 56: A. U. C. 705. ]

[Footnote 57: Eiper gar adikein chrae, tyrannidos peri Kalliston adikeintalla de eusebein chreon. --Eurip. Phoeniss. Act II, where Eteoclesaspires to become the tyrant of Thebes. ]

[Footnote 58: Now the Pisatello; near Rimini. There was a very ancientlaw of the republic, forbidding any general, returning from the wars, tocross the Rubicon with his troops under arms. ]

[Footnote 59: The ring was worn on the finger next to the little fingerof the left hand. ]

[Footnote 60: Suetonius here accounts for the mistake of the soldierswith great probability. The class to which they imagined they were to bepromoted, was that of the equites, or knights, who wore a gold ring, andwere possessed of property to the amount stated in the text. Great as wasthe liberality of Caesar to his legions, the performance of this imaginarypromise was beyond all reasonable expectation. ]

[Footnote 61: A. U. C. 706. ]

[Footnote 62: Elephants were first introduced at Rome by Pompey theGreat, in his African triumph. ]

[Footnote 63: VENI, VIDI, VICI. ]

[Footnote 64: A. U. C. 708. ]

[Footnote 65: Gladiators were first publicly exhibited at Rome by twobrothers called Bruti, at the funeral of their father, A. U. C. 490; and forsome time they were exhibited only on such occasions. But afterwards theywere also employed by the magistrates, to entertain the people, particularly at the Saturnalia, and feasts of Minerva. These cruelspectacles were prohibited by Constantine, but not entirely suppresseduntil the time of Honorius. ]

[Footnote 66: The Circensian games were shews exhibited in the CircusMaximus, and consisted of various kinds: first, chariot and horse-races, of which the Romans were extravagantly fond. The charioteers weredistributed into four parties, distinguished by the colour of their dress. The spectators, without regarding the speed of the horses, or the skill ofthe men, were attracted merely by one or the other of the colours, ascaprice inclined them. In the time of Justinian, no less than thirtythousand men lost their lives at Constantinople, in a tumult raised by acontention amongst the partizans of the several colours. Secondly, contests of agility and strength; of which there were five kinds, hencecalled Pentathlum. These were, running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, andthrowing the discus or quoit. Thirdly, Ludus Trojae, a mock-fight, performed by young noblemen on horseback, revived by Julius Caesar, andfrequently celebrated by the succeeding emperors. We meet with adescription of it in the fifth book of the Aeneid, beginning with thefollowing lines:

Incedunt pueri, pariterque ante ora parentum Fraenatis lucent in equis:quos omnis euntes Trinacriae mirata fremit Trojaeque juventus. 

Fourthly, Venatio, which was the fighting of wild beasts with one another, or with men called Bestiarii, who were either forced to the combat by wayof punishment, as the primitive Christians were, or fought voluntarily, either from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced by hire. Anincredible number of animals of various kinds were brought from allquarters, at a prodigious expense, for the entertainment of the people. Pompey, in his second consulship, exhibited at once five hundred lions, which were all dispatched in five days; also eighteen elephants. Fifthlythe representation of a horse and foot battle, with that of an encampmentor a siege. Sixthly, the representation of a sea-fight (Naumachia), whichwas at first made in the Circus Maximus, but afterwards elsewhere. Thecombatants were usually captives or condemned malefactors, who fought todeath, unless saved by the clemency of the emperor. If any thing unluckyhappened at the games, they were renewed, and often more than once. ]

[Footnote 67: A meadow beyond the Tiber, in which an excavation was made, supplied with water from the river. ]

[Footnote 68: Julius Caesar was assisted by Sosigenes, an Egyptianphilosopher, in correcting the calendar. For this purpose he introducedan additional day every fourth year, making February to consist oftwenty-nine days instead of twenty-eight, and, of course, the whole yearto consist of three hundred and sixty-six days. The fourth year wasdenominated Bissextile, or leap year, because the sixth day before thecalends, or first of March, was reckoned twice. 

The Julian year was introduced throughout the Roman empire, and continuedin general use till the year 1582. But the true correction was not sixhours, but five hours, forty-nine minutes; hence the addition was toogreat by eleven minutes. This small fraction would amount in one hundredyears to three-fourths of a day, and in a thousand years to more thanseven days. It had, in fact, amounted, since the Julian correction, in1582, to more than seven days. Pope Gregory XIII. , therefore, againreformed the calendar, first bringing forward the year ten days, byreckoning the 5th of October the 15th, and then prescribing the rule whichhas gradually been adopted throughout Christendom, except in Russia, andthe Greek church generally. ]

[Footnote 69: Principally Carthage and Corinth. ]

[Footnote 70: The Latus Clavus was a broad stripe of purple, on the frontof the toga. Its width distinguished it from that of the knights, whowore it narrow. ]

[Footnote 71: The Suburra lay between the Celian and Esquiline hills. Itwas one of the most frequented quarters of Rome. ]

[Footnote 72: Bede, quoting Solinus, we believe, says that excellentpearls were found in the British seas, and that they were of all colours, but principally white. Eccl. Hist. B. I. C. 1. ]

[Footnote 73: --------Bithynia quicquid Et predicator Caesaris unquamhabuit. ]

[Footnote 74: Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem; Ecce Caesarnunc triumphat, qui subegit Gallias: Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegitCaesarem. ]

[Footnote 75: Aegisthus, who, like Caesar, was a pontiff, debauchedClytemnestra while Agamemnon was engaged in the Trojan war, as Caesar didMucia, the wife of Pompey, while absent in the war against Mithridates. ]

[Footnote 76: A double entendre; Tertia signifying the third ofthe value of the farm, as well as being the name of the girl, for whosefavours the deduction was made. ]

[Footnote 77: Urbani, servate uxores; moechum calvum adducimus: Aurum inGallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum. ]

[Footnote 78: Plutarch tells us that the oil was used in a dish ofasparagus. Every traveller knows that in those climates oil takes theplace of butter as an ingredient in cookery, and it needs no experience tofancy what it is when rancid. ]

[Footnote 79: Meritoria rheda; a light four-wheeled carriage, apparentlyhired either for the journey or from town to town. They were tolerablycommodious, for Cicero writes to Atticus, (v. 17. ) Hanc epistolam dictavisedens in rheda, cum in castra proficiscerer. ]

[Footnote 80: Plutarch informs us that Caesar travelled with suchexpedition, that he reached the Rhone on the eighth day after he leftRome. ]

[Footnote 81: Caesar tells us himself that he employed C. Volusenus toreconnoitre the coast of Britain, sending him forward in a long ship, withorders to return and make his report before the expedition sailed. ]

[Footnote 82: Religione; that is, the omens being unfavourable. ]

[Footnote 83: The standard of the Roman legions was an eagle fixed on thehead of a spear. It was silver, small in size, with expanded wings, andclutching a golden thunderbolt in its claw. ]

[Footnote 84: To save them from the torture of a lingering death. ]

[Footnote 85: Now Lerida, in Catalonia. ]

[Footnote 86: The title of emperor was not new in Roman history; 1. Itwas sometimes given by the acclamations of the soldiers to those whocommanded them. 2. It was synonymous with conqueror, and the troopshailed him by that title after a victory. In both these cases it wasmerely titular, and not permanent, and was generally written after theproper name, as Cicero imperator, Lentulo imperatore. 3. It assumed apermanent and royal character first in the person of Julius Caesar, andwas then generally prefixed to the emperor's name in inscriptions, as IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. Etc. ]

[Footnote 87: Cicero was the first who received the honour of beingcalled "Pater patriae. "]

[Footnote 88: Statues were placed in the Capitol of each of the sevenkings of Rome, to which an eighth was added in honour of Brutus, whoexpelled the last. The statue of Julius Caesar was afterwards raised nearthem. ]

[Footnote 89: The white fillet was one of the insignia of royalty. Plutarch, on this occasion, uses the expression, diadaemati basiliko, aroyal diadem. ]

[Footnote 90: The Lupercalia was a festival, celebrated in a place calledthe Lupercal, in the month of February, in honour of Pan. During thesolemnity, the Luperci, or priests of that god, ran up and down the citynaked, with only a girdle of goat's skin round their waist, and thongs ofthe same in their hands; with which they struck those they met, particularly married women, who were thence supposed to be renderedprolific. ]

[Footnote 91: Persons appointed to inspect and expound the Sibyllinebooks. ]

[Footnote 92: A. U. C. 709. ]

[Footnote 93: See before, c. Xxii. ]

[Footnote 94: This senate-house stood in that part of the Campus Martiuswhich is now the Campo di Fiore, and was attached by Pompey, "spoliisOrientis Onustus, " to the magnificent theatre, which he built A. U. C. 698, in his second consulship. His statue, at the foot of which Caesar fell, as Plutarch tells us, was placed in it. We shall find that Augustuscaused it to be removed. ]

[Footnote 95: The stylus, or graphium, was an iron pen, broad at one end, with a sharp point at the other, used for writing upon waxen tables, theleaves or bark of trees, plates of brass, or lead, etc. For writing uponpaper or parchment, the Romans employed a reed, sharpened and split in thepoint like our pens, called calamus, arundo, or canna. This they dippedin the black liquor emitted by the cuttle fish, which served for ink. ]

[Footnote 96: It was customary among the ancients, in great extremitiesto shroud the face, in order to conceal any symptoms of horror or alarmwhich the countenance might express. The skirt of the toga was drawnround the lower extremities, that there might be no exposure in falling, as the Romans, at this period, wore no covering for the thighs and legs. ]

[Footnote 97: Caesar's dying apostrophe to Brutus is represented in allthe editions of Suetonius as uttered in Greek, but with some variations. The words, as here translated, are Kai su ei ekeinon; kai su teknon. TheSalmasian manuscript omits the latter clause. Some commentators supposethat the words "my son, " were not merely expressive of the difference ofage, or former familiarity between them, but an avowal that Brutus was thefruit of the connection between Julius and Servilia, mentioned before(see p. 33). But it appears very improbable that Caesar, who hadnever before acknowledged Brutus to be his son, should make so unnecessaryan avowal, at the moment of his death. Exclusively of this objection, theapostrophe seems too verbose, both for the suddenness and urgency of theoccasion. But this is not all. Can we suppose that Caesar, though aperfect master of Greek, would at such a time have expressed himself inthat language, rather than in Latin, his familiar tongue, and in which hespoke with peculiar elegance? Upon the whole, the probability is, thatthe words uttered by Caesar were, Et tu Brute! which, while equallyexpressive of astonishment with the other version, and even of tenderness, are both more natural, and more emphatic. ]

[Footnote 98: Men' me servasse, ut essent qui me perderent?]

[Footnote 99: The Bulla, generally made of gold, was a hollow globe, which boys wore upon their breast, pendant from a string or ribbon putround the neck. The sons of freedmen and poor citizens used globes ofleather. ]

[Footnote 100: Josephus frequently mentions the benefits conferred on hiscountrymen by Julius Caesar. Antiq. Jud. Xiv. 14, 15, 16. ]

[Footnote 101: Appian informs us that it was burnt by the people in theirfury, B. C. Xi. P. 521. ]

[Footnote 102: Suetonius particularly refers to the conspirators, whoperished at the battle of Philippi, or in the three years whichintervened. The survivors were included in the reconciliation ofAugustus, Antony, and Pompey, A. U. C. 715. ]

[Footnote 103: Suetonius alludes to Brutus and Cassius, of whom this isrelated by Plutarch and Dio. ]

[Footnote 104: For observations on Dr. Thomson's Essays appended toSuetonius's History of Julius Caesar, and the succeeding Emperors, see thePreface to this volume. ]

[Footnote 105: He who has a devoted admiration of Cicero, may be surethat he has made no slight proficiency himself. ]

[Footnote 106: A town in the ancient Volscian territory, now calledVeletra. It stands on the verge of the Pontine Marshes, on the road toNaples. ]

[Footnote 107: Thurium was a territory in Magna Graecia, on the coast, near Tarentum. ]

[Footnote 108: Argentarius; a banker, one who dealt in exchanging money, as well as lent his own funds at interest to borrowers. As a class, theypossessed great wealth, and were persons of consideration in Rome at thisperiod. ]

[Footnote 109: Now Laricia, or Riccia, a town of the Campagna di Roma, onthe Appian Way, about ten miles from Rome. ]

[Footnote 110: A. U. C. 691. A. C. (before Christ) 61. ]

[Footnote 111: The Palatine hill was not only the first seat of thecolony of Romulus, but gave its name to the first and principal of thefour regions into which the city was divided, from the time of ServiusTullius, the sixth king of Rome, to that of Augustus; the others being theSuburra, Esquilina, and Collina. ]

[Footnote 112: There were seven streets or quarters in the Palatineregion, one of which was called "Ad Capita Bubula, " either from thebutchers' stalls at which ox-heads are hung up for sale, or from theirbeing sculptured on some edifice. Thus the remains of a fortificationnear the tomb of Cecilia Metella are now called Capo di Bove, from thearms of the Gaetani family over the gate. ]

[Footnote 113: Adrian, to whom Suetonius was secretary. ]

[Footnote 114: Augusto augurio postquam inclyta condita Roma est. ]

[Footnote 115: A. U. C. 711. ]

[Footnote 116: A. U. C. 712. ]

[Footnote 117: After being defeated in the second engagement, Brutusretired to a hill, and slew himself in the night. ]

[Footnote 118: The triumvir. There were three distinguished brothers ofthe name of Antony; Mark, the consul; Caius, who was praetor; and Lucius, a tribune of the people. ]

[Footnote 119: Virgil was one of the fugitives, having narrowly escapedbeing killed by the centurion Ario; and being ejected from his farm. Eclog. I. ]

[Footnote 120: A. U. C. 714. ]

[Footnote 121: The anniversary of Julius Caesar's death. ]

[Footnote 122: A. U. C. 712-718-]

[Footnote 123: The Romans employed slaves in their wars only in cases ofgreat emergency, and with much reluctance. After the great slaughter atthe battle of Cannae, eight thousand were bought and armed by therepublic. Augustus was the first who manumitted them, and employed them asrowers in his gallies. ]

[Footnote 124: In the triumvirate, consisting of Augustus, Mark Antony, and Lepidus. ]

[Footnote 125: A. U. C. 723. ]

[Footnote 126: There is no other authority for Augustus having viewedAntony's corpse. Plutarch informs us, that on hearing his death, Augustusretired into the interior of his tent, and wept over the fate of hiscolleague and friend, his associate in so many former struggles, both inwar and the administration of affairs. ]

[Footnote 127: The poison proved fatal, as every one knows, see Velleius, ii. 27; Florus, iv. 11. The Psylli were a people of Africa, celebratedfor sucking the poison from wounds inflicted by serpents, with which thatcountry anciently abounded. They pretended to be endowed with anantidote, which rendered their bodies insensible to the virulence of thatspecies of poison; and the ignorance of those times gave credit to thephysical immunity which they arrogated. But Celsus, who flourished aboutfifty years after the period we speak of, has exploded the vulgarprejudice which prevailed in their favour. He justly observes, that thevenom of serpents, like some other kinds of poison, proves noxious onlywhen applied to the naked fibre; and that, provided there is no ulcer inthe gums or palate, the poison may be received into the mouth with perfectsafety. ]

[Footnote 128: Strabo informs us that Ptolemy caused it to be depositedin a golden sarcophagus, which was afterwards exchanged for one of glass, in which probably Augustus saw the remains. ]

[Footnote 129: A custom of all ages and of people the most remote fromeach other. ]

[Footnote 130: Meaning the degenerate race of the Ptolomean kings. ]

[Footnote 131: The naval trophies were formed of the prows of ships. ]

[Footnote 132: A. U. C. 721. ]

[Footnote 133: Because his father was a Roman and his mother of the raceof the Parthini, an Illyrian tribe. ]

[Footnote 134: It was usual at Rome, before the elections, for thecandidates to endeavour to gain popularity by the usual arts. They wouldtherefore go to the houses of the citizens, shake hands with those theymet, and address them in a kindly manner. It being of great consequence, upon those occasions, to know the names of persons, they were commonlyattended by a nomenclator, who whispered into their ears that information, wherever it was wanted. Though this kind of officer was generally anattendant on men, we meet with instances of their having been likewiseemployed in the service of ladies; either with the view of servingcandidates to whom they were allied, or of gaining the affections of thepeople. ]

[Footnote 135: Not a bridge over a river, but a military engine used forgaining admittance into a fortress. ]

[Footnote 136: Cantabria, in the north of Spain, now the Basqueprovince. ]

[Footnote 137: The ancient Pannonia includes Hungary and part of Austria, Styria and Carniola. ]

[Footnote 138: The Rhaetian Alps are that part of the chain bordering onthe Tyrol. ]

[Footnote 139: The Vindelici principally occupied the country which isnow the kingdom of Bavaria; and the Salassii, that part of Piedmont whichincludes the valley of Aost. ]

[Footnote 140: The temple of Mars Ultor was erected by Augustus infulfilment of a vow made by him at the battle of Philippi. It stood inthe Forum which he built, mentioned in chap. Xxxix. There are no remainsof either. ]

[Footnote 141: "The Ovatio was an inferior kind of Triumph, granted incases where the victory was not of great importance, or had been obtainedwithout difficulty. The general entered the city on foot or on horseback, crowned with myrtle, not with laurel; and instead of bullocks, thesacrifice was performed with a sheep, whence this procession acquired itsname. "--Thomson. ]

[Footnote 142: "The greater Triumph, in which the victorious general andhis army advanced in solemn procession through the city to the Capitol, was the highest military honour which could be obtained in the Romanstate. Foremost in the procession went musicians of various kinds, singingand playing triumphal songs. Next were led the oxen to be sacrificed, having their horns gilt, and their heads adorned with fillets andgarlands. Then in carriages were brought the spoils taken from the enemy, statues, pictures, plate, armour, gold and silver, and brass; with goldencrowns, and other gifts, sent by the allied and tributary states. Thecaptive princes and generals followed in chains, with their children andattendants. After them came the lictors, having their fasces wreathedwith laurel, followed by a great company of musicians and dancers dressedlike Satyrs, and wearing crowns of gold; in the midst of whom was one in afemale dress, whose business it was, with his looks and gestures, toinsult the vanquished. Next followed a long train of persons carryingperfumes. Then came the victorious general, dressed in purple embroideredwith gold, with a crown of laurel on his head, a branch of laurel in hisright hand, and in his left an ivory sceptre, with an eagle on the top;having his face painted with vermilion, in the same manner as the statueof Jupiter on festival days, and a golden Bulla hanging on his breast, andcontaining some amulet, or magical preservative against envy. He stood ina gilded chariot, adorned with ivory, and drawn by four white horses, sometimes by elephants, attended by his relations, and a great crowd ofcitizens, all in white. His children used to ride in the chariot withhim; and that he might not be too much elated, a slave, carrying a goldencrown sparkling with gems, stood behind him, and frequently whispered inhis ear, 'Remember that thou art a man!' After the general, followed theconsuls and senators on foot, at least according to the appointment ofAugustus; for they formerly used to go before him. His Legati andmilitary Tribunes commonly rode by his side. The victorious army, horseand foot, came last, crowned with laurel, and decorated with the giftswhich they had received for their valour, singing their own and theirgeneral's praises, but sometimes throwing out railleries against him; andoften exclaiming, 'Io Triumphe!' in which they were joined by all thecitizens, as they passed along. The oxen having been sacrificed, thegeneral gave a magnificent entertainment in the Capitol to his friends andthe chief men of the city; after which he was conducted home by thepeople, with music and a great number of lamps and torches. "--Thomson. ]

[Footnote 143: "The Sella Curulis was a chair on which the principalmagistrates sat in the tribunal upon solemn occasions. It had no back, but stood on four crooked feet, fixed to the extremities of cross piecesof wood, joined by a common axis, somewhat in the form of the letter X;was covered with leather, and inlaid with ivory. From its construction, it might be occasionally folded together for the convenience of carriage, and set down where the magistrate chose to use it. "--Thomson. ]

[Footnote 144: Now Saragossa. ]

[Footnote 145: A great and wise man, if he is the same person to whomCicero's letters on the calamities of the times were addressed. Fam. Epist. C. Vi, 20, 21. ]

[Footnote 146: A. U. C. 731. ]

[Footnote 147: The Lustrum was a period of five years, at the end ofwhich the census of the people was taken. It was first made by the Romankings, then by the consuls, but after the year 310 from the building ofthe city, by the censors, who were magistrates created for that purpose. It appears, however, that the census was not always held at statedperiods, and sometimes long intervals intervened. ]

[Footnote 148: Augustus appears to have been in earnest on theseoccasions, at least, in his desire to retire into private life and releasehimself from the cares of government, if we may believe Seneca. De Brev. Vit. C. 5. Of his two intimate advisers, Agrippa gave this counsel, whileMecaenas was for continuing his career of ambition. --Eutrop. 1. 53. ]

[Footnote 149: The Tiber has been always remarkable for the frequency ofits inundations and the ravages they occasioned, as remarked by Pliny, iii. 5. Livy mentions several such occurrences, as well as one extensivefire, which destroyed great part of the city. ]

[Footnote 150: The well-known saying of Augustus, recorded by Suetonius, that he found a city of bricks, but left it of marble, has another versiongiven it by Dio, who applies it to his consolidation of the government, tothe following effect: "That Rome, which I found built of mud, I shallleave you firm as a rock. "--Dio. Lvi. P. 589. ]

[Footnote 151: The same motive which engaged Julius Caesar to build a newforum, induced Augustus to erect another. See his life c. Xx. It stoodbehind the present churches of St. Adrian and St. Luke, and was almostparallel with the public forum, but there are no traces of it remaining. The temple of Mars Ultor, adjoining, has been mentioned before, p. 84. ]

[Footnote 152: The temple of the Palatine Apollo stood, according toBianchini, a little beyond the triumphal arch of Titus. It appears, fromthe reverse of a medal of Augustus, to have been a rotondo, with an openportico, something like the temple of Vesta. The statues of the fiftydaughters of Danae surrounded the portico; and opposite to them were theirhusbands on horseback. In this temple were preserved some of the finestworks of the Greek artists, both in sculpture and painting. Here, in thepresence of Augustus, Horace's Carmen Seculare was sung by twenty-sevennoble youths and as many virgins. And here, as our author informs us, Augustus, towards the end of his reign, often assembled the senate. ]

[Footnote 153: The library adjoined the temple, and was under theprotection of Apollo. Caius Julius Hegenus, a freedman of Augustus, andan eminent grammarian, was the librarian. ]

[Footnote 154: The three fluted Corinthian columns of white marble, whichstand on the declivity of the Capitoline hill, are commonly supposed to bethe remains of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, erected by Augustus. Part ofthe frieze and cornice are attached to them, which with the capitals ofthe columns are finely wrought. Suetonius tells us on what occasion thistemple was erected. Of all the epithets given to Jupiter, none conveyedmore terror to superstitious minds than that of the Thunderer--

 Coelo tonantem credidimus Jovem Regnare. --Hor. 1. Iii. Ode 5. 

We shall find this temple mentioned again in c. Xci. Of the life ofAugustus. ]

[Footnote 155: The Portico of Octavia stood between the Flaminian circusand the theatre of Marcellus, enclosing the temples of Jupiter and Juno, said to have been built in the time of the republic. Several remains ofthem exist, in the Pescheria or fish-market; they were of the Corinthianorder, and have been traced and engraved by Piranesi. ]

[Footnote 156: The magnificent theatre of Marcellus was built on the sitewhere Suetonius has before informed us that Julius Caesar intended toerect one (p. 30). It stood between the portico of Octavia and the hillof the Capitol. Augustus gave it the name of his nephew Marcellus, thoughhe was then dead. Its ruins are still to be seen in the Piazza Montanara, where the Orsini family have a palace erected on the site. ]

[Footnote 157: The theatre of Balbus was the third of the three permanenttheatres of Rome. Those of Pompey and Marcellus have been alreadymentioned. ]

[Footnote 158: Among these were, at least, the noble portico, if not thewhole, of the Pantheon, still the pride of Rome, under the name of theRotondo, on the frieze of which may be seen the inscription, M. AGRIPPA. L. F. COS: TERTIUM. FECIT. 

Agrippa also built the temple of Neptune, and the portico of theArgonauts. ]

[Footnote 159: To whatever extent Augustus may have cleared out the bedof the Tiber, the process of its being encumbered with an alluvium ofruins and mud has been constantly going on. Not many years ago, a schemewas set on foot for clearing it by private enterprise, principally for thesake of the valuable remains of art which it is supposed to contain. ]

[Footnote 160: The Via Flaminia was probably undertaken by the censorCaius Flaminius, and finished by his son of the same name, who was consulA. U. C. 566, and employed his soldiers in forming it after subduing theLigurians. It led from the Flumentan gate, now the Porta del Popolo, through Etruria and Umbria into the Cisalpine Gaul, ending at Ariminum, the frontier town of the territories of the republic, now Rimini, on theAdriatic; and is travelled by every tourist who takes the route, north ofthe Appenines, through the States of the Church, to Rome. Every one knowsthat the great highways, not only in Italy but in the provinces, wereamong the most magnificent and enduring works of the Roman people. ]

[Footnote 161: It had formed a sort of honourable retirement in whichLepidus was shelved, to use a familiar expression, when Augustus got ridof him quietly from the Triumvirate. Augustus assumed it A. U. C. 740, thuscentring the last of all the great offices of the state in his own person;that of Pontifex Maximus, being of high importance, from the sanctityattached to it, and the influence it gave him over the whole system ofreligion. ]

[Footnote 162: In the thirty-six years since the calendar was correctedby Julius Caesar, the priests had erroneously intercalated eleven daysinstead of nine. See JULIUS, c. Xl. ]

[Footnote 163: Sextilis, the sixth month, reckoning from March, in whichthe year of Romulus commenced. ]

[Footnote 164: So Cicero called the day on which he returned from exile, the day of his "nativity" and his "new birth, " paligennesian, a word whichhad afterwards a theological sense, from its use in the New Testament. ]

[Footnote 165: Capi. There is a peculiar force in the word here adoptedby Suetonius; the form used by the Pontifex Maximus, when he took thenovice from the hand of her father, being Te capio amata, "I have you, mydear, " implying the forcible breach of former ties, as in the case of acaptive taken in war. ]

[Footnote 166: At times when the temple of Janus was shut, and then only, certain divinations were made, preparatory to solemn supplication for thepublic health, "as if, " says Dio, "even that could not be implored fromthe gods, unless the signs were propitious. " It would be an inquiry ofsome interest, now that the care of the public health is becoming adepartment of the state, with what sanatory measures these becomingsolemnities were attended. ]

[Footnote 167: Theophrastus mentions the spring and summer flowers mostsuited for these chaplets. Among the former, were hyacinths, roses, andwhite violets; among the latter, lychinis, amaryllis, iris, and somespecies of lilies. ]

[Footnote 168: Ergastulis. These were subterranean strong rooms, withnarrow windows, like dungeons, in the country houses, where incorrigibleslaves were confined in fetters, in the intervals of the severe tasks ingrinding at the hand-mills, quarrying stones, drawing water, and otherhard agricultural labour in which they were employed. ]

[Footnote 169: These months were not only "the Long Vacation" of thelawyers, but during them there was a general cessation of business atRome; the calendar exhibiting a constant succession of festivals. Themonth of December, in particular, was devoted to pleasure and relaxation. ]

[Footnote 170: Causes are mentioned, the hearing of which was soprotracted that lights were required in the court; and sometimes theylasted, we are told, as long as eleven or twelve days. ]

[Footnote 171: Orcini. They were also called Charonites, the point ofthe sarcasm being, that they owed their elevation to a dead man, one whowas gone to Orcus, namely Julius Caesar, after whose death Mark Antonyintroduced into the senate many persons of low rank who were designatedfor that honour in a document left by the deceased emperor. ]

[Footnote 172: Cordus Cremutius wrote a History of the Civil Wars, andthe Times of Augustus, as we are informed by Dio, 6, 52. ]

[Footnote 173: In front of the orchestra. ]

[Footnote 174: The senate usually assembled in one of the temples, andthere was an altar consecrated to some god in the curia, where theyotherwise met, as that to Victory in the Julian Curia. ]

[Footnote 175: To allow of their absence during the vintage, always animportant season in rural affairs in wine-growing countries. In themiddle and south of Italy, it begins in September, and, in the worstaspects, the grapes are generally cleared before the end of October. Inelevated districts they hung on the trees, as we have witnessed, till themonth of November. ]

[Footnote 176: Julius Caesar had introduced the contrary practice. SeeJULIUS, c. Xx. ]

[Footnote 177: A. U. C. 312, two magistrates were created, under the nameof Censors, whose office, at first, was to take an account of the numberof the people, and the value of their estates. Power was afterwardsgranted them to inspect the morals of the people; and from this period theoffice became of great importance. After Sylla, the election of censorswas intermitted for about seventeen years. Under the emperors, the officeof censor was abolished; but the chief functions of it were exercised bythe emperors themselves, and frequently both with caprice and severity. ]

[Footnote 178: Young men until they were seventeen years of age, andyoung women until they were married, wore a white robe bordered withpurple, called Toga Praetexta. The former, when they had completed thisperiod, laid aside the dress of minority, and assumed the Toga Virilis, ormanly habit. The ceremony of changing the Toga was performed with greatsolemnity before the images of the Lares, to whom the Bulla wasconsecrated. On this occasion, they went either to the Capitol, or tosome temple, to pay their devotions to the Gods. ]

[Footnote 179: Transvectio: a procession of the equestrian order, whichthey made with great splendour through the city, every year, on thefifteenth of July. They rode on horseback from the temple of Honour, orof Mars, without the city, to the Capitol, with wreaths of olive on theirheads, dressed in robes of scarlet, and bearing in their hands themilitary ornaments which they had received from their general, as a rewardof their valour. The knights rode up to the censor, seated on his curulechair in front of the Capitol, and dismounting, led their horses in reviewbefore him. If any of the knights was corrupt in his morals, haddiminished his fortune below the legal standard, or even had not takenproper care of his horse, the censor ordered him to sell his horse, bywhich he was considered as degraded from the equestrian order. ]

[Footnote 180: Pugillaria were a kind of pocket book, so called, becausememorandums were written or impinged by the styli, on their waxed surface. They appear to have been of very ancient origin, for we read of them inHomer under the name of pinokes. --II. Z. 169. 

 Graphas en pinaki ptukto thyrophthora polla. Writing dire things upon his tablet's roll. ]

[Footnote 181: Pullatorum; dusky, either from their dark colour, or theirbeing soiled. The toga was white, and was the distinguishing costume ofthe sovereign people of Rome, without which, they were not to appear inpublic; as members of an university are forbidden to do so, without theacademical dress, or officers in garrisons out of their regimentals. ]

[Footnote 182: Aen. I. 186. ]

[Footnote 183: It is hardly necessary to direct the careful reader'sattention to views of political economy so worthy of an enlightenedprince. But it was easier to make the Roman people wear the toga, than toforego the cry of "Panem et Circenses. "]

[Footnote 184: Septa were enclosures made with boards, commonly for thepurpose of distributing the people into distinct classes, and erectedoccasionally like our hustings. ]

[Footnote 185: The Thensa was a splendid carriage with four wheels, andfour horses, adorned with ivory and silver, in which, at the Circensiangames, the images of the gods were drawn in solemn procession from theirshrines, to a place in the circus, called the Pulvinar, where couches wereprepared for their reception. It received its name from thongs (loratensa) stretched before it; and was attended in the procession by personsof the first rank, in their most magnificent apparel. The attendants tookdelight in putting their hands to the traces: and if a boy happened to letgo the thong which he held, it was an indispensable rule that theprocession should be renewed. ]

[Footnote 186: The Cavea was the name of the whole of that part of thetheatre where the spectators sat. The foremost rows were called caveaprima, of cavea; the last, cavea ultima, or summa; and the middle, caveamedia. ]

[Footnote 187: A. U. C. 726. ]

[Footnote 188: As in the case of Herod, Joseph. Antiq. Jud. Xv. 10. ]

[Footnote 189: The Adriatic and the Tuscan. ]

[Footnote 190: It was first established by Tiberius. See c. Xxxvii. ]

[Footnote 191: Tertullian, in his Apology, c. 34, makes the same remark. The word seems to have conveyed then, as it does in its theological sensenow, the idea of Divinity, for it is coupled with Deus, God; nunquum sedominum vel deum appellare voluerit. ]

[Footnote 192: An inclosure in the middle of the Forum, marking the spotwhere Curtius leapt into the lake, which had been long since filled up. ]

[Footnote 193: Sandalarium, Tragoedum; names of streets, in which templesof tame gouts stood, as we now say St. Peter, Cornhill, etc. ]

[Footnote 194: A coin, in value about 8 3/4 d. Of our money. ]

[Footnote 195: The senate, as instituted by Romulus, consisted of onehundred members, who were called Patres, i. E. Fathers, either uponaccount of their age, or their paternal care of the state. The numberreceived some augmentation under Tullus Hostilius; and Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, added a hundred more, who were called Patresminorum gentium; those created by Romulus being distinguished by the nameof Patres majorum gentium. Those who were chosen into the senate byBrutus, after the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, to supply the place ofthose whom that king had slain, were called Conscripti, i. E. Personswritten or enrolled among the old senators, who alone were properly styledPatres. Hence arose the custom of summoning to the senate those who werePatres, and those who were Conscripti; and hence also was applied to thesenators in general the designation of Patres Conscripti, the particle et, and, being understood to connect the two classes of senators. In the timeof Julius Caesar, the number of senators was increased to nine hundred, and after his death to a thousand; many worthless persons having beenadmitted into the senate during the civil wars. Augustus afterwardsreduced the number to six hundred. ]

[Footnote 196: Antonius Musa was a freedman, and had acquired hisknowledge of medicine while a domestic slave; a very common occurrence. ]

[Footnote 197: A. U. C. 711. ]

[Footnote 198: See cc. X. Xi. Xii. And xiii. ]

[Footnote 199: One of them was Scipio, the father of Cornelia, whosedeath is lamented by Propertius, iv. 12. The other is unknown. ]

[Footnote 200: A. U. C. 715. ]

[Footnote 201: He is mentioned by Horace:

 Occidit Daci Cotisonis agimen. Ode 8, b. Iii. ]

Most probably Antony knew the imputation to be unfounded, and made it forthe purpose of excusing his own marriage with Cleopatra. ]

[Footnote 202: This form of adoption consisted in a fictitious sale. SeeCicero, Topic. Iii. ]

[Footnote 203: Curiae. Romulus divided the people of Rome into threetribes; and each tribe into ten Curiae. The number of tribes wasafterwards increased by degrees to thirty-five; but that of the Curiaealways remained the same. ]

[Footnote 204: She was removed to Reggio in Calabria. ]

[Footnote 205: Agrippa was first banished to the little desolate islandof Planasia, now Pianosa. It is one of the group in the Tuscan sea, between Elba and Corsica. ]

[Footnote 206: A quotation from the Iliad, 40, iii. ; where Hector isventing his rage on Paris. The inflexion is slightly changed, the line inthe original commencing, "Aith' opheles, etc. , would thou wert, etc. "]

[Footnote 207: Women called ustriculae, the barbers, were employed inthin delicate operation. It is alluded to by Juvenal, ix. 4, and Martial, v. 61. ]

[Footnote 208: Cybele. --Gallus was either the name of a river in Phrygia, supposed to cause a certain frenzy in those who drank of its waters, orthe proper name of the first priest of Cybele. ]

[Footnote 209: A small drum, beat by the finger or thumb, was used by thepriests of Cybele in their lascivious rites and in other orgies of asimilar description, These drums were made of inflated skin, circular inshape, so that they had some resemblance to the orb which, in the statuesof the emperor, he is represented as holding in his hand. The populace, with the coarse humour which was permitted to vent itself freely at thespectacles, did not hesitate to apply what was said in the play of thelewd priest of Cybele, to Augustus, in reference to the scandals attachedto his private character. The word cinaedus, translated "wanton, " mighthave been rendered by a word in vulgar use, the coarsest in the Englishlanguage, and there is probably still more in the allusion too indelicateto be dwelt upon. ]

[Footnote 210: Mark Antony makes use of fondling diminutives of the namesof Tertia, Terentia, and Rufa, some of Augustus's favourites. ]

[Footnote 211: Dodekatheos; the twelve Dii Majores; they are enumeratedin two verses by Ennius:--

 Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars; Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo. ]

[Footnote 212: Probably in the Suburra, where Martial informs us thattorturing scourges were sold:

 Tonatrix Suburrae faucibus sed et primis, Cruenta pendent qua flagella tortorum. Mart. Xi. 15, 1. ]

[Footnote 213: Like the gold and silver-smiths of the middle ages, theRoman money-lenders united both trades. See afterwards, NERO, c. 5. Itis hardly necessary to remark that vases or vessels of the compound metalwhich went by the name of Corinthian brass, or bronze, were esteemed evenmore valuable than silver plate. ]

[Footnote 214: See c. Xxxii. And note. ]

[Footnote 215: The Romans, at their feasts, during the intervals ofdrinking, often played at dice, of which there were two kinds, thetesserae and tali. The former had six sides, like the modern dice; thelatter, four oblong sides, for the two ends were not regarded. Inplaying, they used three tesserae and four tali, which were all put into abox wider below than above, and being shaken, were thrown out upon thegaming-board or table. ]

[Footnote 216: The highest cast was so called. ]

[Footnote 217: Enlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors. The ruinsof the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine. ]

[Footnote 218: Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the AlbanMount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked. ]

[Footnote 219: It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets ofapartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to thesun. ]

[Footnote 220: This word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts. It wascommon, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartmentcalled the Study, or Museum. Pliny says, beautifully, "O mare! O littus!verum secretumque mouseion, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?" Osea! O shore! Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science doyou not discover to us, how much do you teach us!--Epist. I. 9. ]

[Footnote 221: Mecaenas had a house and gardens on the Esquiline Hill, celebrated for their salubrity--]

Nunc licet Esquiliis habitore salubribus. --Hor. Sat. I. 3, 14. ]

[Footnote 222: Such as Baiae, and the islands of Ischia, Procida, Capri, and others; the resorts of the opulent nobles, where they had magnificentmarine villas. ]

[Footnote 223: Now Tivoli, a delicious spot, where Horace had a villa, inwhich he hoped to spend his declining years. 

 Ver ubi longum, tepidasque praebet Jupiter brumas: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ibi, tu calentem Debita sparges lachryma favillam Vatis amici. Odes, B. Ii. 5. 

Adrian also had a magnificent villa near Tibur. ]

[Footnote 224: The Toga was a loose woollen robe, which covered the wholebody, close at the bottom, but open at the top down to the girdle, andwithout sleeves. The right arm was thus at liberty, and the leftsupported a flap of the toga, which was drawn up, and thrown back over theleft shoulder; forming what is called the Sinus, a fold or cavity upon thebreast, in which things might be carried, and with which the face or headmight be occasionally covered. When a person did any work, he tucked uphis toga, and girt it round him. The toga of the rich and noble was finerand larger than that of others; and a new toga was called Pexa. None butRoman citizens were permitted to wear the toga; and banished persons wereprohibited the use of it. The colour of the toga was white. The clavuswas a purple border, by which the senators, and other orders, with themagistrates, were distinguished; the breadth of the stripe correspondingwith their rank. ]

[Footnote 225: In which the whole humour of the thing consisted either inthe uses to which these articles were applied, or in their names having inLatin a double signification; matters which cannot be explained with anydecency. ]

[Footnote 226: Casum bubulum manu pressum; probably soft cheese, notreduced to solid consistence in the cheese-press. ]

[Footnote 227: A species of fig tree, known in some places as Adam's fig. We have gathered them, in those climates, of the latter crop, as late asthe month of November. ]

[Footnote 228: Sabbatis Jejunium. Augustus might have been betterinformed of the Jewish rites, from his familiarity with Herod and others;for it is certain that their sabbath was not a day of fasting. Justin, however, fell into the same error: he says, that Moses appointed thesabbath-day to be kept for ever by the Jews as a fast, in memory of theirfasting for seven days in the deserts of Arabia, xxxvi. 2. 14. But wefind that there was a weekly fast among the Jews, which is perhaps what ishere meant; the Sabbatis Jejunium being equivalent to the Naesteuo dis tousabbatou, 'I fast twice in the week' of the Pharisee, in St. Luke xviii. 12. ]

[Footnote 229: The Rhaetian wines had a great reputation; Virgil says, ------Ex quo te carmine dicam, Rhaetica. Georg. Ii. 96. ]

The vineyards lay at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps; their produce, we havereason to believe, was not a very generous liquor. ]

[Footnote 230: A custom in all warm countries; the siesta of the Italiansin later times. ]

[Footnote 231: The strigil was used in the baths for scraping the bodywhen in a state of perspiration. It was sometimes made of gold or silver, and not unlike in form the instrument used by grooms about horses whenprofusely sweating or splashed with mud. ]

[Footnote 232: His physician, mentioned c. Lix. ]

[Footnote 233: Sept. 21st, a sickly season at Rome. ]

[Footnote 234: Feminalibus et tibialibus: Neither the ancient Romans orthe Greeks wore breeches, trews, or trowsers, which they despised asbarbarian articles of dress. The coverings here mentioned were swathingsfor the legs and thighs, used mostly in cases of sickness or infirmity, and when otherwise worn, reckoned effeminate. But soon after the Romansbecame acquainted with the German and Celtic nations, the habit ofcovering the lower extremities, barbarous as it had been held, wasgenerally adopted. ]

[Footnote 235: Albula. On the left of the road to Tivoli, near the ruinsof Adrian's villa. The waters are sulphureous, and the deposit from themcauses incrustations on twigs and other matters plunged in the springs. See a curious account of this stream in Gell's Topography, published byBohn, p 40. ]

[Footnote 236: In spongam incubuisse, literally has fallen upon a sponge, as Ajax is said to have perished by falling on his own sword. ]

[Footnote 237: Myrobrecheis. Suetonius often preserves expressive Greekphrases which Augustus was in the habit of using. This compound wordmeant literally, myrrh-scented, perfumed. ]

[Footnote 238: These are variations of language of small importance, which can only be understood in the original language. ]

[Footnote 239: It may create a smile to hear that, to prevent danger tothe public, Augustus decreed that no new buildings erected in a publicthoroughfare should exceed in height seventy feet. Trajan reduced it tosixty. ]

[Footnote 240: Virgil is said to have recited before him the whole of thesecond, fourth, and sixth books of the Aeneid; and Octavia, being present, when the poet came to the passage referring to her son, commencing, "TuMarcellus eris, " was so much affected that she was carried out fainting. ]

[Footnote 241: Chap. Xix. ]

[Footnote 242: Perhaps the point of the reply lay in the temple ofJupiter Tonans being placed at the approach to the Capitol from the Forum?See c. Xxix. And c. Xv. , with the note. ]

[Footnote 243: If these trees flourished at Rome in the time of Augustus, the winters there must have been much milder than they now are. There wasone solitary palm standing in the garden of a convent some years ago, butit was of very stunted growth. ]

[Footnote 244: The Republican forms were preserved in some of the largertowns. ]

[Footnote 245: "The Nundinae occurred every ninth day, when a market washeld at Rome, and the people came to it from the country. The practicewas not then introduced amongst the Romans, of dividing their time intoweeks, as we do, in imitation of the Jews. Dio, who flourished underSeverus, says that it first took place a little before his time, and wasderived from the Egyptians. "--Thomson. A fact, if well founded, of someimportance. ]

[Footnote 246: "The Romans divided their months into calends, nones, andides. The first day of the month was the calends of that month; whencethey reckoned backwards, distinguishing the time by the day before thecalends, the second day before the calends, and so on, to the ides of thepreceding month. In eight months of the year, the nones were the fifthday, and the ides the thirteenth: but in March, May, July, and October, the nones fell on the seventh, and the ides on the fifteenth. From thenones they reckoned backwards to the calends, as they also did from theides to the nones. "--Ib. ]

[Footnote 247: The early Christians shared with the Jews the aversion ofthe Romans to their religion, more than that of others, arising probablyfrom its monotheistic and exclusive character. But we find from Josephusand Philo that Augustus was in other respects favourable to the Jews. ]

[Footnote 248: Strabo tells us that Mendes was a city of Egypt nearLycopolis. Asclepias wrote a book in Greek with the idea oftheologoumenon, in defence of some very strange religious rites, of whichthe example in the text is a specimen. ]

[Footnote 249: Velletri stands on very high ground, commanding extensiveviews of the Pontine marshes and the sea. ]

[Footnote 250: Munda was a city in the Hispania Boetica, where JuliusCaesar fought a battle. See c. Lvi. ]

[Footnote 251: The good omen, in this instance, was founded upon theetymology of the names of the ass and its driver; the former of which, inGreek, signifies fortunate, and the latter, victorious. ]

[Footnote 252: Aesar is a Greek word with an Etruscan termination; aisasignifying fate. ]

[Footnote 253: Astura stood not far from Terracina, on the road toNaples. Augustus embarked there for the islands lying off that coast. ]

[Footnote 254: "Puteoli"--"A ship of Alexandria. " Words which bring toour recollection a passage in the voyage of St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 11-13. Alexandria was at that time the seat of an extensive commerce, and notonly exported to Rome and other cities of Italy, vast quantities of cornand other products of Egypt, but was the mart for spices and othercommodities, the fruits of the traffic with the east. ]

[Footnote 255: The Toga has been already described in a note to c. Lxxiii. The Pallium was a cloak, generally worn by the Greeks, both menand women, freemen and slaves, but particularly by philosophers. ]

[Footnote 256: Masgabas seems, by his name, to have been of Africanorigin. ]

[Footnote 257: A courtly answer from the Professor of Science, in whichcharacter he attended Tiberius. We shall hear more of him in the reign ofthat emperor. ]

[Footnote 258: Augustus was born A. U. C. 691, and died A. U. C. 766. ]

[Footnote 259: Municipia were towns which had obtained the rights ofRoman citizens. Some of them had all which could be enjoyed withoutresiding at Rome. Others had the right of serving in the Roman legions, but not that of voting, nor of holding civil offices. The municipiaretained their own laws and customs; nor were they obliged to receive theRoman laws unless they chose it. ]

[Footnote 260: Bovillae, a small place on the Appian Way, about nineteenmiles from Rome, now called Frattochio. ]

[Footnote 261: Dio tells us that the devoted Livia joined with theknights in this pious office, which occupied them during five days. ]

[Footnote 262: For the Flaminian Way, see before, p. 94, note. Thesuperb monument erected by Augustus over the sepulchre of the imperialfamily was of white marble, rising in stages to a great height, andcrowned by a dome, on which stood a statue of Augustus. Marcellus was thefirst who was buried in the sepulchre beneath. It stood near the presentPorta del Popolo; and the Bustum, where the bodies of the emperor and hisfamily were burnt, is supposed to have stood on the site of the church ofthe Madonna of that name. ]

[Footnote 263: The distinction between the Roman people and the tribes, is also observed by Tacitus, who substitutes the word plebs, meaning, thelowest class of the populace. ]

[Footnote 264: Those of his father Octavius, and his father by adoption, Julius Caesar. ]

[Footnote 265: See before, c. 65. But he bequeathed a legacy to hisdaughter, Livia. ]

[Footnote 266: Virgil. ]

[Footnote 267: Ibid. ]

[Footnote 268: Ibid. ]

[Footnote 269: Geor. Ii. ]

[Footnote 270: I am prevented from entering into greater details, both bythe size of my volume, and my anxiety to complete the undertaking. ]

[Footnote 271: After performing these immortal achievements, while he washolding an assembly of the people for reviewing his army in the plain nearthe lake of Capra, a storm suddenly rose, attended with great thunder andlightning, and enveloped the king in so dense a mist, that it took allsight of him from the assembly. Nor was Romulus after this seen on earth. The consternation being at length over, and fine clear weather succeedingso turbulent a day, when the Roman youth saw the royal seat empty, thoughthey readily believed the Fathers who had stood nearest him, that he wascarried aloft by the storm, yet struck with the dread as it were oforphanage, they preserved a sorrowful silence for a considerable time. Then a commencement having been made by a few, the whole multitude saluteRomulus a god, son of a god, the king and parent of the Roman city; theyimplore his favour with prayers, that he would be pleased alwayspropitiously to preserve his own offspring. I believe that even thenthere were some who silently surmised that the king had been torn inpieces by the hands of the Fathers; for this rumour also spread, but wasnot credited; their admiration of the man and the consternation felt atthe moment, attached importance to the other report. By the contrivancealso of one individual, additional credit is said to have been gained tothe matter. For Proculus Julius, whilst the state was still troubled withregret for the king, and felt incensed against the senators, a person ofweight, as we are told, in any matter, however important, comes forward tothe assembly. "Romans, " he said, "Romulus, the father of this city, suddenly descending from heaven, appeared to me this day at day-break. While I stood covered with awe, and filled with a religious dread, beseeching him to allow me to see him face to face, he said; 'Go tell theRomans, that the gods do will, that my Rome should become the capital ofthe world. Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them knowand hand down to posterity, that no human power shall be able to withstandthe Roman arms. ' Having said this, he ascended up to heaven. " It issurprising what credit was given to the man on his making thisannouncement, and how much the regret of the common people and army forthe loss of Romulus, was assuaged upon the assurance of his immortality. ]

[Footnote 272: Padua. ]

[Footnote 273: Commentators seem to have given an erroneous andunbecoming sense to Cicero's exclamation, when they suppose that theobject understood, as connected with altera, related to himself. Hope isnever applied in this signification, but to a young person, of whomsomething good or great is expected; and accordingly, Virgil, who adoptedthe expression, has very properly applied it to Ascanius:

 Et juxta Ascanius, magmae spes altera Romae. Aeneid, xii. ]

 And by his side Ascanius took his place, The second hope of Rome's immortal race. ]

Cicero, at the time when he could have heard a specimen of Virgil'sEclogues, must have been near his grand climacteric; besides that, hisvirtues and talents had long been conspicuous, and were past the state ofhope. It is probable, therefore, that altera referred to some thirdperson, spoken of immediately before, as one who promised to do honour tohis country. It might refer to Octavius, of whom Cicero at this time, entertained a high opinion; or it may have been spoken in an absolutemanner, without reference to any person. ]

[Footnote 274: I was born at Mantua, died in Calabria, and my tomb is atParthenope: pastures, rural affairs, and heroes are the themes of mypoems. ]

[Footnote 275: The last members of these two lines, from the commas tothe end are said to have been supplied by Erotes, Virgil's librarian. ]

[Footnote 276: Carm. I. 17. ]

[Footnote 277: "The Medea of Ovid proves, in my opinion, how surpassingwould have been his success, if he had allowed his genius free scope, instead of setting bounds to it. "]

[Footnote 278: Two faults have ruined me; my verse, and my mistake. ]

[Footnote 279: These lines are thus rendered in the quaint version ofZachary Catlin. 

 I suffer 'cause I chanced a fault to spy, So that my crime doth in my eyesight lie. 

 Alas! why wait my luckless hap to see A fault at unawares to ruin me?]

[Footnote 280: "I myself employed you as ready agents in love, when myearly youth sported in numbers adapted to it. "--Riley's Ovid. ]

[Footnote 281: "I long since erred by one composition; a fault that isnot recent endures a punishment inflicted thus late. I had alreadypublished my poems, when, according to my privilege, I passed in review somany times unmolested as one of the equestrian order, before you theenquirer into criminal charges. Is it then possible that the writingswhich, in my want of confidence, I supposed would not have injured me whenyoung, have now been my ruin in my old age?"--Riley's Ovid. ]

[Footnote 282: This place, now called Temisvar, or Tomisvar, stands onone of the mouths of the Danube, about sixty-five miles E. N. E. FromSilistria. The neighbouring bay of the Black Sea is still called the Gulfof Baba. ]

[Footnote 283: "It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursueglory by means of the intellect, than of bodily strength; and, since thelife we enjoy is short to make the remembrance of it as lasting aspossible. "]

[Footnote 284: Intramural interments were prohibited at Rome by the lawsof the Twelve Tables, notwithstanding the practice of reducing to ashesthe bodies of the dead. It was only by special privilege that individualswho had deserved well of the state, and certain distinguished familieswere permitted to have tombs within the city. ]

[Footnote 285: Among the Romans, all the descendants from one commonstock were called Gentiles, being of the same race or kindred, howeverremote. The Gens, as they termed this general relation or clanship, wassubdivided into families, in Familias vel Stirpes; and those of the samefamily were called Agnati. Relations by the father's side were alsocalled Agnati, to distinguish them from Cognati, relations only by themother's side. An Agnatus might also be called Cognatus, but not thecontrary. ]

To mark the different gentes and familiae, and to distinguish theindividuals of the same family, the Romans had commonly three names, thePraenomen, Nomen, and Cognomen. The praenomen was put first, and markedthe individual. It was usually written with one letter; as A. For Aulus;C. Caius; D. Decimus: sometimes with two letters; as Ap. For Appius; Cn. Cneius; and sometimes with three; as Mam. For Mamercus. ]

The Nomen was put after the Praenomen, and marked the gens. It commonlyended in ius; as Julius, Tullius, Cornelius. The Cognomen was put last, and marked the familia; as Cicero, Caesar, etc. ]

Some gentes appear to have had no surname, as the Marian; and gens andfamilia seem sometimes to be put one for the other; as the Fabia gens, orFabia familia. ]

Sometimes there was a fourth name, properly called the Agnomen, butsometimes likewise Cognomen, which was added on account of someillustrious action or remarkable event. Thus Scipio was named PubliusCornelius Scipio Africanus, from the conquest of Carthage. In the samemanner, his brother was called Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. Thusalso, Quintus Fabius Maximus received the Agnomen of Cunctator, from hischecking the victorious career of Hannibal by avoiding a battle. ]

[Footnote 286: A. U. C. 474. ]

[Footnote 287: A. U. C. 490. ]

[Footnote 288: A. U. C. 547. ]

[Footnote 289: A. U. C. 304. ]

[Footnote 290: An ancient Latin town on the Via Appia, the present roadto Naples, mentioned by St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 15, and Horace, Sat. I. 5, 3, in giving an account of their travels. ]

[Footnote 291: A. U. C. 505. ]

[Footnote 292: Cybele; first worshipped in Phrygia, about Mount Ida, fromwhence a sacred stone, the symbol of her divinity, probably an aerolite, was transported to Rome, in consequence of the panic occasioned byHannibal's invasion, A. U. C. 508. ]

[Footnote 293: A. U. C. 695. ]

[Footnote 294: A. U. C. 611. ]

[Footnote 295: A. U. C. 550. ]

[Footnote 296: A. U. C. 663. ]

[Footnote 297: A. U. C. 707. ]

[Footnote 298: These, and other towns in the south of France, became, andlong continued, the chief seats of Roman civilization among the Gauls;which is marked by the magnificent remains of ancient art still to beseen. Arles, in particular, is a place of great interest. ]

[Footnote 299: A. U. C. 710. ]

[Footnote 300: A. U. C. 713. ]

[Footnote 301: A. U. C. 712. Before Christ about 39. ]

[Footnote 302: A. U. C. 744. ]

[Footnote 303: A. U. C. 735. ]

[Footnote 304: See before, in the reign of AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxii. ]

[Footnote 305: A. U. C. 728. ]

[Footnote 306: A. U. C. 734. ]

[Footnote 307: A. U. C. 737. ]

[Footnote 308: A. U. C. 741. ]

[Footnote 309: A. U. C. 747. ]

[Footnote 310: A. U. C. 748. ]

[Footnote 311: Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, about thirteen milesfrom the city, was founded by Ancus Martius. Being the port of a citylike Rome, it could not fail to become opulent; and it was a place of muchresort, ornamented with fine edifices, and the environs "never failing ofpasture in the summer time, and in the winter covered with roses and otherflowers. " The port having been filled up with the depositions of theTiber, it became deserted, and is now abandoned to misery and malaria. Thebishopric of Ostia being the oldest in the Roman church, its bishop hasalways retained some peculiar privileges. ]

[Footnote 312: The Gymnasia were places of exercise, and received theirname from the Greek word signifying naked, because the contending partieswore nothing but drawers. ]

[Footnote 313: A. U. C. 752. ]

[Footnote 314: The cloak and slippers, as distinguished from the Romantoga and shoes. ]

[Footnote 315: A. U. C. 755. ]

[Footnote 316: This fountain, in the Euganian hills, near Padua, famousfor its mineral waters, is celebrated by Claudian in one of his elegies. ]

[Footnote 317: The street called Carinae, at Rome, has been mentionedbefore; AUGUSTUS, c. V. ; and also Mecaenas' house on the Esquiline, ib. C. Lxxii. The gardens were formed on ground without the walls, and beforeused as a cemetery for malefactors, and the lower classes. Horace says--

 Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque Aggere in aprico spatiari. --Sat. 1. I. Viii. 13. ]

[Footnote 318: A. U. C. 757. ]

[Footnote 319: A. U. C. 760. ]

[Footnote 320: A. U. C. 762. ]

[Footnote 321: Reviving the simple habits of the times of the republic;"nec fortuitum cernere cespitem, " as Horace describes it. --Ode 15. ]

[Footnote 322: A. U. C. 765. ]

[Footnote 323: The portico of the temple of Concord is still standing onthe side of the Forum nearest the Capitol. It consists of six Ioniccolumns, each of one piece, and of a light-coloured granite, with basesand capitals of white marble, and two columns at the angles. The templeof Castor and Pollux has been mentioned before: JUL. C. X. ]

[Footnote 324: A. U. C. 766. ]

[Footnote 325: A. U. C. 767. ]

[Footnote 326: Augustus interlards this epistle, and that subsequentlyquoted, with Greek sentences and phrases, of which this is one. It is soobscure, that commentators suppose that it is a mis-reading, but are notagreed on its drift. ]

[Footnote 327: A verse in which the word in italics is substituted forcunctando, quoted from Ennius, who applied it to Fabius Maximus. ]

[Footnote 328: Iliad, B. X. Diomede is speaking of Ulysses, where heasks that he may accompany him as a spy into the Trojan camp. ]

[Footnote 329: Tiberius had adopted Germanicus. See before, c. Xv. Seealso CALIGULA, c. I. ]

[Footnote 330: In this he imitated Augustus. See c. Liii. Of his life. ]

[Footnote 331: Si hanc fenestram aperueritis, if you open that window, equivalent to our phrase, "if you open the door. "]

[Footnote 332: Princeps, principatus, are the terms generally used bySuetonius to describe the supreme authority vested in the Caesars, asbefore at the beginning of chap. Xxiv. , distinguished from any terms whichconveyed of kingly power, the forms of the republic, as we have latelyseen, still subsisting. ]

[Footnote 333: Strenas; the French etrennes. ]

[Footnote 334: "Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her imageto be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests. "--Joseph. Ant. Jud. Xviii. 4. ]

[Footnote 335: Similia sectantes. We are strongly inclined to think thatthe words might be rendered "similar sects, " conveying an allusion to thesmall and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period generallyconfounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in somepeculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians andmagistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish. How little eventhe well-informed Suetonius knew of the real facts, we shall find in theonly direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (CLAUDIUS c. Xxv. , NERO, c. Xvi. ); but that little confirms our conjecture. All thecommentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text. Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to theexpulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius. --Ant. Xviii. 5. ]

[Footnote 336: Varro tells us that the Roman people "were more activelyemployed (manus movere) in the theatre and circus, than in the corn-fieldsand vineyards. "--De Re Rustic. Ii. And Juvenal, in his satires, frequently alludes to their passion for public spectacles, particularly inthe well-known lines--

 --------Atque duas tantum res serrius optat, Panem et Circenses. Sat. X. 80. ]

[Footnote 337: The Cottian Alps derived their name from this king. Theyinclude that part of the chain which divides Dauphiny from Piedmont, andare crossed by the pass of the Mont Cenis. ]

[Footnote 338: Antium, mentioned before, (AUG. C. Lviii. ) once aflourishing city of the Volscians, standing on the sea-coast, aboutthirty-eight miles from Rome, was a favourite resort of the emperors andpersons of wealth. The Apollo Belvidere was found among the ruins of itstemples and other edifices. ]

[Footnote 339: A. U. C. 779. ]

[Footnote 340: Terracina, standing at the southern extremity of thePontine Marshes, on the shore of the Mediterranean. It is surrounded byhigh calcareous cliffs, in which there are caverns, affording, as Straboinforms us, cool retreats, attached to the Roman villas built round. ]

[Footnote 341: Augustus died at Nola, a city in Campania. See c. Lviii. Of his life. ]

[Footnote 342: Fidenae stood in a bend of the Tiber, near its junctionwith the Anio. There are few traces of it remaining. ]

[Footnote 343: That any man could drink an amphora of wine at a draught, is beyond all credibility; for the amphora was nearly equal to ninegallons, English measure. The probability is, that the man had emptied alarge vessel, which was shaped like an amphora. ]

[Footnote 344: Capri, the luxurious retreat and scene of the debaucheriesof the Roman emperors, is an island off the southern point of the bay ofNaples, about twelve miles in circumference. ]

[Footnote 345: Pan, the god of the shepherds, and inventor of the flute, was said to be the son of Mercury and Penelope. He was worshipped chieflyin Arcadia, and represented with the horns and feet of a goat. TheNymphs, as well as the Graces, were represented naked. ]

[Footnote 346: The name of the island having a double meaning, andsignifying also a goat. ]

[Footnote 347: "Quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos 'pisciculos'vocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur, acluderent: lingua morsuque sensim appetentes; atque etiam quasi infantesfirmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoveret:pronior sane ad id genus libidinis, et natura et aetate. "]

[Footnote 348: "Foeminarum capitibus solitus illudere. "]

[Footnote 349: "Obscoenitate oris hirsuto atque olido. "]

[Footnote 350: "Hircum vetulum capreis naturam ligurire"]

[Footnote 351: The Temple of Vesta, like that dedicated to the samegoddess at Tivoli, is round. There was probably one on the same site, andin the same circular form, erected by Numa Pompilius; the present edificeis far too elegant for that age, but there is no record of its erection, but it is known to have been repaired by Vespasian or Domitian after beinginjured by Nero's fire. Its situation, near the Tiber, exposed it tofloods, from which we find it suffered, from Horace's lines--

 "Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis, Ire dejectum monumenta Regis, Templaque Vestae. "--Ode, lib. I. 2. 15. 

This beautiful temple is still in good preservation. It is surrounded bytwenty columns of white marble, and the wall of the cell, or interior(which is very small, its diameter being only the length of one of thecolumns), is also built of blocks of the same material, so nicely joined, that it seems to be formed of one solid mass. ]

[Footnote 352: Antlia; a machine for drawing up water in a series ofconnected buckets, which was worked by the feet, nisu pedum. ]

[Footnote 353: The elder Livia was banished to this island by Augustus. See c. Lxv. Of his life. ]

[Footnote 354: An island in the Archipelago. ]

[Footnote 355: This Theodore is noticed by Quintilian, Instit. Iii. 1. Gadara was in Syria. ]

[Footnote 356: It mattered not that the head substituted was Tiberius'sown. ]

[Footnote 357: The verses were probably anonymous. ]

[Footnote 358: Oderint dum probent: Caligula used a similar expression;Oderint dum metuant. ]

[Footnote 359: A. U. C. 778. Tacit. Annal. Iv. The historian's name wasA. Cremutius Cordo. Dio has preserved the passage, xlvii. P. 619. Brutushad already called Cassius "The last of the Romans, " in his lamentationover his dead body. ]

[Footnote 360: She was the sister of Germanicus, and Tacitus calls herLivia; but Suetonius is in the habit of giving a fondling or diminutiveterm to the names of women, as Claudilla, for Claudia, Plautilla, etc. ]

[Footnote 361: Priam is said to have had no less than fifty sons anddaughters; some of the latter, however, survived him, as Hecuba, Helena, Polyxena, and others. ]

[Footnote 362: There were oracles at Antium and Tibur. The "PraenestineLots" are described by Cicero, De Divin. Xi. 41. ]

[Footnote 363: Agrippina, and Nero and Drusus. ]

[Footnote 364: He is mentioned before in the Life of AUGUSTUS, c. Xc. ;and also by Horace, Cicero, and Tacitus. ]

[Footnote 365: Obscure Greek poets, whose writings were either full offabulous stories, or of an amatory kind. ]

[Footnote 366: It is suggested that the text should be amended, so thatthe sentence should read--"A Greek soldier;" for of what use could it havebeen to examine a man in Greek, and not allow him to give his replies inthe same language?]

[Footnote 367: So called from Appius Claudius, the Censor, one ofTiberius's ancestors, who constructed it. It took a direction southwardof Rome, through Campania to Brundusium, starting from what is the presentPorta di San Sebastiano, from which the road to Naples takes itsdeparture. ]

[Footnote 368: A small town on the coast of Latium, not far from Antium, and the present Nettuno. It was here that Cicero was slain by thesatellites of Antony. ]

[Footnote 369: A town on a promontory of the same dreary coast, betweenAntium and Terracina, built on a promontory surrounded by the sea and themarsh, still called Circello. ]

[Footnote 370: Misenum, a promontory to which Aeneas is said to havegiven its name from one of his followers. (Aen. Ii. 234. ) It is nowcalled Capo di Miseno, and shelters the harbour of Mola di Gaieta, belonging to Naples. This was one of the stations of the Roman fleet. ]

[Footnote 371: Tacitus agrees with Suetonius as to the age of Tiberiusat the time of his death. Dio states it more precisely, as beingseventy-seven years, four months, and nine days. ]

[Footnote 372: Caius Caligula, who became his successor. ]

[Footnote 373: Tacitus and Dio add that he was smothered under a heap ofheavy clothes. ]

[Footnote 374: In the temple of the Palatine Apollo. See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxix. ]

[Footnote 375: Atella, a town between Capua and Naples, now called SanArpino, where there was an amphitheatre. The people seemed to have raisedthe shout in derision, referring, perhaps, to the Atellan fables, mentioned in c. Xiv. ; and in their fury they proposed that his body shouldonly be grilled, as those of malefactors were, instead of being reduced toashes. ]

[Footnote 376: Tacit. Annal. Lib. Ii. ]

[Footnote 377: A. U. C. 757. ]

[Footnote 378: A. U. C. 765. ]

[Footnote 379: A. U. C. 770. ]

[Footnote 380: A. U. C. 767. ]

[Footnote 381: A. U. C. 771. ]

[Footnote 382: This opinion, like some others which occur in Suetonius, may justly be considered as a vulgar error; and if the heart was foundentire, it must have been owing to the weakness of the fire, rather thanto any quality communicated to the organ, of resisting the power of thatelement. ]

[Footnote 383: The magnificent title of King of Kings has been assumed, at different times, by various potentates. The person to whom it is hereapplied, is the king of Parthia. Under the kings of Persia, and evenunder the Syro-Macedonian kings, this country was of no consideration, andreckoned a part of Hyrcania. But upon the revolt of the East from theSyro-Macedonians, at the instigation of Arsaces, the Parthians are said tohave conquered eighteen kingdoms. ]

[Footnote 384: A. U. C. 765. ]

[Footnote 385: It does not appear that Gaetulicus wrote any historicalwork, but Martial, Pliny, and others, describe him as a respectable poet. ]

[Footnote 386: Supra Confluentes. The German tribe here mentionedoccupied the country between the Rhine and the Meuse, and gave their nameto Treves (Treviri), its chief town. Coblentz had its ancient name ofConfluentes, from its standing at the junction of the two rivers. Theexact site of the village in which Caligula was born is not known. Cluverius conjectures that it may be Capelle. ]

[Footnote 387: Chap. Vii. ]

[Footnote 388: The name was derived from Caliga, a kind of boot, studdedwith nails, used by the common soldiers in the Roman army. ]

[Footnote 389: According to Tacitus, who gives an interesting account ofthese occurrences, Treves was the place of refuge to which the young Caiuswas conveyed. --Annal. I. ]

[Footnote 390: In c. Liv. Of TIBERIUS, we have seen that his brothersDrusus and Nero fell a sacrifice to these artifices. ]

[Footnote 391: Tiberius, who was the adopted father of Germanicus. ]

[Footnote 392: Natriceus, a water-snake, so called from nato, to swim. The allusion is probably to Caligula's being reared in the island ofCapri. ]

[Footnote 393: As Phaeton is said to have set the world on fire. ]

[Footnote 394: See the Life of TIBERIUS, c. Lxxiii. ]

[Footnote 395: His name also was Tiberius. See before, TIBERIUS, c. Lxxvi. ]

[Footnote 396: Procida, Ischia, Capri, etc. ]

[Footnote 397: The eagle was the standard of the legion, each cohort ofwhich had its own ensign, with different devices; and there were alsolittle images of the emperors, to which divine honours were paid. ]

[Footnote 398: See before, cc. Liii. Liv. ]

[Footnote 399: See TIBERIUS, c. X. ; and note. ]

[Footnote 400: The mausoleum built by Augustus, mentioned before in hisLife, c. C. ]

[Footnote 401: The Carpentum was a carriage, commonly with two wheels, and an arched covering, but sometimes without a covering; used chiefly bymatrons, and named, according to Ovid, from Carmenta, the mother ofEvander. Women were prohibited the use of it in the second Punic war, bythe Oppian law, which, however, was soon after repealed. This chariot wasalso used to convey the images of the illustrious women to whom divinehonours were paid, in solemn processions after their death, as in thepresent instance. It is represented on some of the sestertii. ]

[Footnote 402: See cc. Xiv. And xxiii. Of the present History. ]

[Footnote 403: Ib. Cc. Vii. And xxiv. ]

[Footnote 404: Life of TIBERIUS, c. Xliii. ]

[Footnote 405: See the Life of AUGUSTUS, cc. Xxviii. And ci. ]

[Footnote 406: Julius Caesar had shared it with them (c. Xli. ). Augustushad only kept up the form (c. Xl. ). Tiberius deprived the Roman people ofthe last remains of the freedom of suffrage. ]

[Footnote 407: The city of Rome was founded on the twenty-first day ofApril, which was called Palilia, from Pales, the goddess of shepherds, andever afterwards kept as a festival. ]

[Footnote 408: A. U. C. 790. ]

[Footnote 409: A. U. C. 791. ]

[Footnote 410: A. U. C. 793. ]

[Footnote 411: A. U. C. 794. ]

[Footnote 412: The Saturnalia, held in honour of Saturn, was, amongst theRomans, the most celebrated festival of the whole year, and held in themonth of December. All orders of the people then devoted themselves tomirth and feasting; friends sent presents to one another; and masterstreated their slaves upon a footing of equality. At first it was heldonly for one day, afterwards for three days, and was now prolonged byCaligula's orders. ]

[Footnote 413: See AUGUSTUS, cc. Xxix and xliii. The amphitheatre ofStatilius Taurus is supposed to have stood in the Campus Martius, and theelevation now called the Monte Citorio, to have been formed by its ruins. ]

[Footnote 414: Supposed to be a house, so called, adjoining the Circus, in which some of the emperor's attendants resided. ]

[Footnote 415: Now Puzzuoli, on the shore of the bay of Naples. Everyone knows what wealth was lavished here and at Baiae, on public works andthe marine villas of the luxurious Romans, in the times of the emperors. ]

[Footnote 416: The original terminus of the Appian Way was at Brundusium. This mole formed what we should call a nearer station to Rome, on the sameroad, the ruins of which are still to be seen. St. Paul landed there. ]

[Footnote 417: Essedis: they were light cars, on two wheels, constructedto carry only one person; invented, it is supposed, by the Belgians, andby them introduced into Britain, where they were used in war. The Romans, after their expeditions in Gaul and Britain, adopted this useful vehicleinstead of their more cumbrous RHEDA, not only for journeys where dispatchwas required, but in solemn processions, and for ordinary purposes. Theyseem to have become the fashion, for Ovid tells us that these littlecarriages were driven by young ladies, themselves holding the reins, Amor. Xi. 16. 49. ]

[Footnote 418: Suetonius flourished about seventy years after this, inthe reign of Adrian, and derived many of the anecdotes which give interestto his history from cotemporary persons. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xv. Etc. ]

[Footnote 419: See TIBERIUS, c. Xlvii. And AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxi. ]

[Footnote 420: This aqueduct, commenced by Caligula and completed byClaudian, a truly imperial work, conveyed the waters of two streams toRome, following the valley of the Anio from above Tivoli. The course ofone of these rivulets was forty miles, and it was carried on arches, immediately after quitting its source, for a distance of three miles. Theother, the Anio Novus, also began on arches, which continued for upwardsof twelve miles. After this, both were conveyed under ground; but at thedistance of six miles from the city, they were united, and carried uponarches all the rest of the way. This is the most perfect of all theancient aqueducts; and it has been repaired, so as to convey the AcquaFelice, one of the three streams which now supply Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xx. ]

[Footnote 421: By Septa, Suetonius here means the huts or barracks of thepretorian camp, which was a permanent and fortified station. It stood tothe east of the Viminal and Quirinal hills, between the present Porta Piaand S. Lorenzo, where there is a quadrangular projection in the city wallsmarking the site. The remains of the Amphitheatrum Castrense standbetween the Porta Maggiore and S. Giovanni, formerly without the ancientwalls, but now included in the line. It is all of brick, even theCorinthian pillars, and seems to have been but a rude structure, suited tothe purpose for which it was built, the amusement of the soldiers, andgymnastic exercises. For this purpose they were used to constructtemporary amphitheatres near the stations in the distant provinces, whichwere not built of stone or brick, but hollow circular spots dug in theground, round which the spectators sat on the declivity, on ranges ofseats cut in the sod. Many vestiges of this kind have been traced inBritain. ]

[Footnote 422: The Isthmus of Corinth; an enterprize which had formerlybeen attempted by Demetrius, and which was also projected by JuliusCaesar, c. Xliv. , and Nero, c. Xix. ; but they all failed of accomplishingit. ]

[Footnote 423: On the authority of Dio Cassius and the Salmatianmanuscript, this verse from Homer is substituted for the common reading, which is, Eis gaian Danaon perao se. 

 Into the land of Greece I will transport thee. ]

[Footnote 424: Alluding, in the case of Romulus, to the rape of theSabines; and in that of Augustus to his having taken Livia from herhusband. --AUGUSTUS, c. Lxii. ]

[Footnote 425: Selene was the daughter of Mark Antony by Cleopatra. ]

[Footnote 426: See c. Xii. ]

[Footnote 427: The vast area of the Roman amphitheatres had no roof, butthe audience were protected against the sun and bad weather by temporaryhangings stretched over it. ]

[Footnote 428: A proverbial expression, meaning, without distinction. ]

[Footnote 429: The islands off the coast of Italy, in the Tuscan sea andin the Archipelago, were the usual places of banishment. See before, c. Xv. ; and in TIBERIUS, c. Liv. , etc. ]

[Footnote 430: Anticyra, an island in the Archipelago, was famous for thegrowth of hellebore. This plant being considered a remedy for insanity, the proverb arose--Naviga in Anticyram, as much as to say, "You are mad. "]

[Footnote 431: Meaning the province in Asia, called Galatia, from theGauls who conquered it, and occupied it jointly with the Greek colonists. ]

[Footnote 432: A quotation from the tragedy of Atreus, by L. Attius, mentioned by Cicero. Off. I. 28. ]

[Footnote 433: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. Lxxi. ]

[Footnote 434: These celebrated words are generally attributed to Nero;but Dio and Seneca agree with Suetonius in ascribing them to Caligula. ]

[Footnote 435: Gladiators were distinguished by their armour and mannerof fighting. Some were called Secutores, whose arms were a helmet, ashield, a sword, or a leaden ball. Others, the usual antagonists of theformer, were named Retiarii. A combatant of this class was dressed in ashort tunic, but wore nothing on his head. He carried in his left hand athree-pointed lance, called Tridens or Fuscina, and in his right, a net, with which he attempted to entangle his adversary, by casting it over hishead, and suddenly drawing it together; when with his trident he usuallyslew him. But if he missed his aim, by throwing the net either too shortor too far, he instantly betook himself to flight, and endeavoured toprepare his net for a second cast. His antagonist, in the mean time, pursued, to prevent his design, by dispatching him. ]

[Footnote 436: AUGUSTUS, c. Xxiii. ]

[Footnote 437: TIBERIUS, c. Xl. ]

[Footnote 438: See before, c. Xix. ]

[Footnote 439: Popae were persons who, at public sacrifices, led thevictim to the altar. They had their clothes tucked up, and were naked tothe waist. The victim was led with a slack rope, that it might not seemto be brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen. For the samereason, it was allowed to stand loose before the altar, and it was thoughta very unfavourable sign if it got away. ]

[Footnote 440: Plato de Repub. Xi. ; and Cicero and Tull. Xlviii. ]

[Footnote 441: The collar of gold, taken from the gigantic Gaul who waskilled in single combat by Titus Manlius, called afterwards Torquatus, wasworn by the lineal male descendants of the Manlian family. But thatillustrious race becoming extinct, the badge of honour, as well as thecognomen of Torquatus, was revived by Augustus, in the person of CaiusNonius Asprenas, who perhaps claimed descent by the female line from thefamily of Manlius. ]

[Footnote 442: Cincinnatus signifies one who has curled or crisped hair, from which Livy informs us that Lucius Quintus derived his cognomen. Butof what badge of distinction Caligula deprived the family of theCincinnati, unless the natural feature was hereditary, and he had them allshaved--a practice we find mentioned just below--history does not informus, nor are we able to conjecture. ]

[Footnote 443: The priest of Diana Nemorensis obtained and held hisoffice by his prowess in arms, having to slay his competitors, and offerhuman sacrifices, and was called Rex from his reigning paramount in theadjacent forest. The temple of this goddess of the chase stood among thedeep woods which clothe the declivities of the Alban Mount, at a shortdistance from Rome--nemus signifying a grove. Julius Caesar had aresidence there. See his Life, c. Lxxi. The venerable woods are stillstanding, and among them chestnut-trees, which, from their enormous girthand vast apparent age, we may suppose to have survived from the era of theCaesars. The melancholy and sequestered lake of Nemi, deep set in ahollow of the surrounding woods, with the village on its brink, stillpreserve the name of Nemi. ]

[Footnote 444: An Essedarian was one who fought from an Esseda, the lightcarriage described in a former note, p. 264. ]

[Footnote 445: See before, JULIUS, c. X. , and note. ]

[Footnote 446: Particularly at Baiae, see before, c. Xix. The practiceof encroaching on the sea on this coast, commenced before, --

 Jactis in altum molibus. --Hor. Od. B. Iii. 1. 34. ]

[Footnote 447: Most of the gladiators were slaves. ]

[Footnote 448: The part of the Palatium built or occupied by Augustus andTiberius. ]

[Footnote 449: Mevania, a town of Umbria. Its present name is Bevagna. The Clitumnus is a river in the same country, celebrated for the breed ofwhite cattle, which feed in the neighbouring pastures. ]

[Footnote 450: Caligula appears to have meditated an expedition toBritain at the time of his pompous ovation at Puteoli, mentioned in c. Xiii. ; but if Julius Caesar could gain no permanent footing in thisisland, it was very improbable that a prince of Caligula's character wouldever seriously attempt it, and we shall presently see that the wholeaffair turned out a farce. ]

[Footnote 451: It seems generally agreed, that the point of the coastwhich was signalized by the ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhatredeemed by the erection of a lighthouse, was Itium, afterwards calledGessoriacum, and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribeof the Morini; where Julius Caesar embarked on his expedition, and whichbecame the usual place of departure for the transit to Britain. ]

[Footnote 452: The denarius was worth at this time about seven pence oreight pence of our money. ]

[Footnote 453: Probably to Anticyra. See before, c. Xxix. Note]

[Footnote 454: The Cimbri were German tribes on the Elbe, who invadedItaly A. U. C. 640, and were defeated by Metellus. ]

[Footnote 455: The Senones were a tribe of Cis-Alpine Gauls, settled inUmbria, who sacked and pillaged Rome A. U. C. 363. ]

[Footnote 456: By the transmarine provinces, Asia, Egypt, etc. , aremeant; so that we find Caligula entertaining visions of an eastern empire, and removing the seat of government, which were long afterwards realizedin the time of Constantine. ]

[Footnote 457: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xviii. ]

[Footnote 458: About midnight, the watches being divided into four. ]

[Footnote 459: Scabella: commentators are undecided as to the nature ofthis instrument. Some of them suppose it to have been either a sort ofcymbal or castanet, but Pitiscus in his note gives a figure of an ancientstatue preserved at Florence, in which a dancer is represented withcymbals in his hands, and a kind of wind instrument attached to the toe ofhis left foot, by which it is worked by pressure, something in the way ofan accordion. ]

[Footnote 460: The port of Rome. ]

[Footnote 461: The Romans, in their passionate devotion to the amusementsof the circus and the theatre, were divided into factions, who had theirfavourites among the racers and actors, the former being distinguished bythe colour of the party to which they belonged. See before, c. Xviii. , and TIBERIUS, c. Xxxvii. ]

[Footnote 462: In the slang of the turf, the name of Caligula'scelebrated horse might, perhaps, be translated "Go a-head. "]

[Footnote 463: Josephus, who supplies us with minute details of theassassination of Caligula, says that he made no outcry, either disdainingit, or because an alarm would have been useless; but that he attempted tomake his escape through a corridor which led to some baths behind thepalace. Among the ruins on the Palatine hill, these baths still attractattention, some of the frescos being in good preservation. See theaccount in Josephus, xix. 1, 2. ]

[Footnote 464: The Lamian was an ancient family, the founders of Formiae. They had gardens on the Esquiline mount. ]

[Footnote 465: A. U. C. 714. ]

[Footnote 466: Pliny describes Drusus as having in this voyagecircumnavigated Germany, and reached the Cimbrian Chersonese, and theScythian shores, reeking with constant fogs. ]

[Footnote 467: Tacitus, Annal. Xi. 8, 1, mentions this fosse, and saysthat Drusus sailed up the Meuse and the Waal. Cluverius places it betweenthe village of Iselvort and the town of Doesborg. ]

[Footnote 468: The Spolia Opima were the spoils taken from the enemy'sking, or chief, when slain in single combat by a Roman general. They werealways hung up in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Those spoils had beenobtained only thrice since the foundation of Rome; the first by Romulus, who slew Acron, king of the Caeninenses; the next by A. Cornelius Cossus, who slew Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, A. U. 318; and the third by M. Claudius Marcellus, who slew Viridomarus, king of the Gauls, A. U. 330. ]

[Footnote 469: A. U. C. 744. ]

[Footnote 470: This epistle, as it was the habit of Augustus, isinterspersed with Greek phrases. ]

[Footnote 471: The Alban Mount is the most interesting feature of thescenery of the Campagna about Rome, Monti Cavo, the summit, rising abovean amphitheatre of magnificent woods, to an elevation of 2965 French feet. The view is very extensive: below is the lake of Albano, the finest of thevolcanic lakes in Italy, and the modern town of the same name. Few tracesremain of Alba Longa, the ancient capital of Latium. ]

[Footnote 472: On the summit of the Alban Mount, on the site of thepresent convent, stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the Latintribes assembled annually, and renewed their league, during the FeriaeLatinae, instituted by Tarquinus Superbus. It was here, also, that Romangenerals, who were refused the honours of a full triumph, performed theovation, and sacrificed to Jupiter Latialis. Part of the triumphal way bywhich the mountain was ascended, formed of vast blocks of lava, is stillin good preservation, leading through groves of chestnut trees of vastsize and age. Spanning them with extended arms--none of the shortest--theoperation was repeated five times in compassing their girth. ]

[Footnote 473: CALIGULA. See c. V. Of his life. ]

[Footnote 474: A. U. C. 793. Life of CALIGULA, cc. Xliv. , xlv. , etc. ]

[Footnote 475: A. U. C. 794. ]

[Footnote 476: The chamber of Mercury; the names of deities being givento different apartments, as those "of Isis, " "of the Muses, " etc. ]

[Footnote 477: See the note, p. 265. ]

[Footnote 478: The attentive reader will have marked the gradual growthof the power of the pretorian guard, who now, and on so many futureoccasions, ruled the destinies of the empire. ]

[Footnote 479: See AUGUSTUS, cc. Xliii. , xlv. ]

[Footnote 480: Ib. C. Ci. ]

[Footnote 481: Germanicus. ]

[Footnote 482: Naples and other cities on that coast were Greekcolonies. ]

[Footnote 483: This arch was erected in memory of the standards (theeagles) lost by Varus, in Germany, having been recovered by Germanicusunder the auspices of Tiberius. See his Life, c. Xlvii. ; and Tacit. Annal. Ii. 41. It seems to have stood at the foot of the Capitol, on theside of the Forum, near the temple of Concord; but there are no remains ofit. ]

[Footnote 484: Tacitus informs us that the same application had been madeby Tiberius. Annal. Iii. The prefect of the pretorian guards, high andimportant as his office had now become, was not allowed to enter thesenate-house, unless he belonged to the equestrian order. ]

[Footnote 485: The procurators had the administration of some of the lessimportant provinces, with rank and authority inferior to that of thepro-consuls and prefects. Frequent mention of these officers is made byJosephus; and Pontius Pilate, who sentenced our Lord to crucifixion, heldthat office in Judaea, under Tiberius. ]

[Footnote 486: Pollio and Messala were distinguished orators, whoflourished under the Caesars Julius and Augustus. ]

[Footnote 487: A. U. C. 795, 796. ]

[Footnote 488: A. U. C. 800, 804. ]

[Footnote 489: "Ad bestias" had become a new and frequent sentence formalefactors. It will be recollected, that it was the most usual form ofmartyrdom for the primitive Christians. Polycarp was brought all the wayfrom Smyrna to be exposed to it in the amphitheatre at Rome. ]

[Footnote 490: This reminds us of the decision of Solomon in the case ofthe two mothers, who each claimed a child as their own, 1 Kings iii. 22-27. ]

[Footnote 491: A most absurd judicial conclusion, the business of thejudge or court being to decide, on weighing the evidence, on which sidethe truth preponderated. ]

[Footnote 492: See the note in CALIGULA, c. Xix. , as to Suetonius'ssources of information from persons cotemporary with the occurrences herelates. ]

[Footnote 493: The insult was conveyed in Greek, which seems, fromSuetonius, to have been in very common use at Rome: kai su geron ei, kaimoros. ]

[Footnote 494: A. U. C. 798, or 800. ]

[Footnote 495: There was a proverb to the same effect: "Si non caste, saltem caute. "]

[Footnote 496: Ptolemy appointed him to an office which led him to assumea foreign dress. Rabirius was defended by Cicero in one of his orations, which is extant. ]

[Footnote 497: The Sigillaria was a street in Rome, where a fair was heldafter the Saturnalia, which lasted seven days; and toys, consisting oflittle images and dolls, which gave their name to the street and festival, were sold. It appears from the text, that other articles were exposed forsale in this street. Among these were included elegant vases of silverand bronze. There appears also to have been a bookseller's shop, for anancient writer tells us that a friend of his showed him a copy of theSecond Book of the Aeneid, which he had purchased there. ]

[Footnote 498: Opposed to this statement there is a passage in ServiusGeorgius, iii. 37, asserting that he had heard (accipimus) that Augustus, besides his victories in the east, triumphed over the Britons in the west;and Horace says:--

 Augustus adjectis Britannis Imperio gravibusque Persis. --Ode iii. 5, 1. 

Strabo likewise informs us, that in his time, the petty British kings sentembassies to cultivate the alliance of Augustus, and make offerings in theCapitol: and that nearly the whole island was on terms of amity with theRomans, and, as well as the Gauls, paid a light tribute. --Strabo, B. Iv. P. 138. 

That Augustus contemplated a descent on the island, but was prevented fromattempting it by his being recalled from Gaul by the disturbances inDalmatia, is very probable. Horace offers his vows for its success:

 Serves iturum, Caesarem in ultimos Orbis Britannos. --Ode i. 35. 

But the word iturus shews that the scheme was only projected, and thelines previously quoted are mere poetical flattery. Strabo's statement ofthe communications kept up with the petty kings of Britain, who wereperhaps divided by intestine wars, are, to a certain extent, probablycorrect, as such a policy would be a prelude to the intended expedition. ]

[Footnote 499: Circius. Aulus Gellius, Seneca, and Pliny, mention underthis name the strong southerly gales which prevail in the gulf of Genoaand the neighbouring seas. ]

[Footnote 500: The Stoechades were the islands now called Hieres, offToulon. ]

[Footnote 501: Claudius must have expended more time in his march fromMarseilles to Gessoriacum, as Boulogne was then called, than in hisvaunted conquest of Britain. ]

[Footnote 502: In point of fact, he was only sixteen days in the island, receiving the submission of some tribes in the south-eastern districts. But the way had been prepared for him by his able general, Aulus Plautius, who defeated Cunobeline, and made himself master of his capital, Camulodunum, or Colchester. These successes were followed up by Ostorius, who conquered Caractacus and sent him to Rome. 

It is singular that Suetonius has supplied us with no particulars of theseevents. Some account of them is given in the disquisition appended tothis life of CLAUDIUS. 

The expedition of Plautius took place A. U. C. 796. , A. D. 44. ]

[Footnote 503: Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. Xv. ]

[Footnote 504: The Aemiliana, so called because it contained themonuments of the family of that name, was a suburb of Rome, on the ViaLata, outside the gate. ]

[Footnote 505: The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus, begun by Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers weremustered and their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name. Whenthe Romans went to give their votes at the election of magistrates, theywere conducted by officers named Diribitores. It is possible that one andthe same building may have been used for both purposes. ]

The Flaminian Circus was without the city walls, in the Campus Martius. The Roman college now stands on its site. ]

[Footnote 506: A law brought in by the consuls Papius Mutilus and QuintusPoppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxiv. ]

[Footnote 507: The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano, in theFarther Abruzzi. It is very extensive, but shallow, so that thedifficulty of constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be comparedto that encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the watersin the Alban lake, completed A. U. C. 359. ]

[Footnote 508: Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA, c. Xxi. ]

[Footnote 509: Ostia is referred to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. Xi. ]

[Footnote 510: Suetonius calls this "the great obelisk" in comparisonwith those which Augustus had placed in the Circus Maximus and CampusMartius. The one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in his Circus, afterwards called the Circus of Nero. It stood at Heliopolis, having beendedicated to the sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris, in acknowledgment of his recovery from blindness. It was removed by PopeSixtus V. In 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centreof the area before St. Peter's, in the Vatican, not far from its formerposition. This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, withouthieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182feet high. The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet. ]

[Footnote 511: Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: "Afir tree of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the commandof Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the VaticanCircus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it. Nothingcertainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel;120, 000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of itnearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sentthere by the emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much asfour men could embrace with their arms. "--B. Xvi. C. 76. ]

[Footnote 512: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxi. It appears to have been often aprey to the flames, TIBERIUS, c. Xli. ; CALIGULA, c. Xx. ]

[Footnote 513: Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting theemperor without acclamations. ]

[Footnote 514: A. U. C. 800. ]

[Footnote 515: The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A. U. C. 736. See c. Xxxi. Of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on theoccasion. ]

[Footnote 516: In the circus which he had himself built. ]

[Footnote 517: Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, whichabounds in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, isemployed in all common buildings. ]

[Footnote 518: In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation:see before, c. Xi. ]

[Footnote 519: Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to punupon his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon. ]

[Footnote 520: See before, c. Xvii. Described is c. Xx and note. ]

[Footnote 521: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxiv. ]

[Footnote 522: To reward his able services as commander of the army inBritain. See before, c. Xvii. ]

[Footnote 523: German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chiefseat was at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg. ]

[Footnote 524: This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, issaid to have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on thatconsecrated field, and cut down and thrown by order of the consuls intothe river. The water being low, it lodged in the bed of the stream, andgradual deposits of mud raising it above the level of the water, it was incourse of time covered with buildings. Among these was the temple ofAesculapius, erected A. U. C. 462, to receive the serpent, the emblem ofthat deity which was brought to Rome in the time of a plague. There is acoin of Antoninus Pius recording this event, and Lumisdus has preservedcopies of some curious votive inscriptions in acknowledgment of cureswhich were found in its ruins, Antiquities of Rome, p. 379. 

It was common for the patient after having been exposed some nights in thetemple, without being cured, to depart and put an end to his life. Suetonius here informs us that slaves so exposed, at least obtained theirfreedom. ]

[Footnote 525: Which were carried on the shoulders of slaves. Thisprohibition had for its object either to save the wear and tear in thenarrow streets, or to pay respect to the liberties of the town. ]

[Footnote 526: See the note in c. I. Of this life of CLAUDIUS. ]

[Footnote 527: Seleucus Philopater, son of Antiochus the Great, who beingconquered by the Romans, the succeeding kings of Syria acknowledged thesupremacy of Rome. ]

[Footnote 528: Suetonius has already, in TIBERIUS, c. Xxxvi. , mentionedthe expulsion of the Jews from Rome, and this passage confirms theconjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurelyalluded to in the former notice. The antagonism between Christianity andJudaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led theauthorities to interfere. Thus much we seem to learn from both passages:but the most enlightened men of that age were singularly ill-informed onthe stupendous events which had recently occurred in Judaea, and we findSuetonius, although he lived at the commencement of the first century ofthe Christian aera, when the memory of these occurrences was still fresh, and it might be supposed, by that time, widely diffused, transplantingChrist from Jerusalem to Rome, and placing him in the time of Claudius, although the crucifixion took place during the reign of Tiberius. 

St. Luke, Acts xviii. 2, mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome bythe emperor Claudius: Dio, however, says that he did not expel them, butonly forbad their religious assemblies. 

It was very natural for Suetonius to write Chrestus instead of Christus, as the former was a name in use among the Greeks and Romans. Amongothers, Cicero mentions a person of that name in his Fam. Ep. 11. 8. ]

[Footnote 529: Pliny tells us that Druidism had its origin in Gaul, andwas transplanted into Britain, xxi. 1. Julius Caesar asserts just thecontrary, Bell. Gall. Vi. 13, 11. The edict of Claudius was not carriedinto effect; at least, we find vestiges of Druidism in Gaul, during thereigns of Nero and Alexander Severus. ]

[Footnote 530: The Eleusinian mysteries were never transferred fromAthens to Rome, notwithstanding this attempt of Claudius, and althoughAurelius Victor says that Adrian effected it. ]

[Footnote 531: A. U. C. 801. ]

[Footnote 532: A. U. C. 773. ]

[Footnote 533: It would seem from this passage, that the cognomen of "theGreat, " had now been restored to the descendants of Cneius Pompey, on whomit was first conferred. ]

[Footnote 534: A. U. C. 806. ]

[Footnote 535: A. U. C. 803. ]

[Footnote 536: This is the Felix mentioned in the Acts, cc. Xxiii. Andxxiv. , before whom St. Paul pleaded. He is mentioned by Josephus; andTacitus, who calls him Felix Antonius, gives his character: Annal. V, 9. 6. ]

[Footnote 537: It appears that two of these wives of Felix were namedDrusilla. One, mentioned Acts xxiv. 24, and there called a Jewess, was thesister of king Agrippa, and had married before, Azizus, king of theEmessenes. The other Drusilla, though not a queen, was of royal birth, being the granddaughter of Cleopatra by Mark Antony. Who the third wifeof Felix was, is unknown. ]

[Footnote 538: Tacitus and Josephus mention that Pallas was the brotherof Felix, and the younger Pliny ridicules the pompous inscription on histomb. ]

[Footnote 539: A. U. C. 802. ]

[Footnote 540: The Salii, the priests of Mars, twelve in number, wereinstituted by Numa. Their dress was an embroidered tunic, bound with agirdle ornamented with brass. They wore on their head a conical cap, of aconsiderable height; carried a sword by their side; in their right hand aspear or rod, and in their left, one of the Ancilia, or shields of Mars. On solemn occasions, they used to go to the Capitol, through the Forum andother public parts of the city, dancing and singing sacred songs, said tohave been composed by Numa; which, in the time of Horace, could hardly beunderstood by any one, even the priests themselves. The most solemnprocession of the Salii was on the first of March, in commemoration of thetime when the sacred shield was believed to have fallen from heaven, inthe reign of Numa. After their procession, they had a splendidentertainment, the luxury of which was proverbial. ]

[Footnote 541: Scaliger and Casauhon give Teleggenius as the reading ofthe best manuscripts. Whoever he was, his name seems to have been abye-word for a notorious fool. ]

[Footnote 542: Titus Livius, the prince of Roman historians, died in thefourth year of the reign of Tiberius, A. U. C. 771; at which time Claudiuswas about twenty-seven years old, having been born A. U. C. 744. ]

[Footnote 543: Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the famousorator, and had written a hook comparing his father with Cicero, andgiving the former the preference. ]

[Footnote 544: Quintilian informs us, that one of the three new lettersthe emperor Claudius attempted to introduce, was the Aeolic digamma, whichhad the same force as v consonant. Priscian calls another anti-signs, andsays that the character proposed was two Greek sigmas, back to back, andthat it was substituted for the Greek ps. The other letter is not known, and all three soon fell into disuse. ]

[Footnote 545: Caesar by birth, not by adoption, as the precedingemperors had been, and as Nero would be, if he succeeded. ]

[Footnote 546: Tacitus informs us, that the poison was prepared byLocusta, of whom we shall hear, NERO, c. Xxxiii. Etc. ]

[Footnote 547: A. U. C. 806; A. D. 54. ]

[Footnote 548: A. U. C. 593, 632, 658, 660, 700, 722, 785. ]

[Footnote 549: A. U. C. 632. ]

[Footnote 550: A. U. C. 639, 663. ]

[Footnote 551: For the distinction between the praenomen and cognomen, see note, p. 192. ]

[Footnote 552: A. U. C. 632. ]

[Footnote 553: The Allobroges were a tribe of Gauls, inhabiting Dauphinyand Savoy; the Arverni have left their name in Auvergne. ]

[Footnote 554: A. U. C. 695. ]

[Footnote 555: A. U. C. 700. ]

[Footnote 556: A. U. C. 711. ]

[Footnote 557: A. U. C. 723. ]

[Footnote 558: Nais seems to have been a freedwoman, who had been allowedto adopt the family name of her master. ]

[Footnote 559: By one of those fictions of law, which have abounded inall systems of jurisprudence, a nominal alienation of his property wasmade in the testator's life-time. ]

[Footnote 560: The suggestion offered (note, p. 123), that theArgentarii, like the goldsmiths of the middle ages, combined the businessof bankers, or money-changers, with dealings in gold and silver plate, isconfirmed by this passage. It does not, however, appear that they wereartificers of the precious metals, though they dealt in old and currentcoins, sculptured vessels, gems, and precious stones. ]

[Footnote 561: Pyrgi was a town of the ancient Etruria, near Antium, onthe sea-coast, but it has long been destroyed. ]

[Footnote 562: A. U. C. 791; A. D. 39. ]

[Footnote 563: The purification, and giving the name, took place, amongthe Romans, in the case of boys, on the ninth, and of girls, on the tenthday. The customs of the Judaical law were similar. See Matt. I. 59-63;Luke iii. 21. 22. ]

[Footnote 564: A. U. C. 806. ]

[Footnote 565: Seneca, the celebrated philosophical writer, had beenreleased from exile in Corsica, shortly before the death of Tiberius. Heafterwards fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and cruelty of his formerpupil, Nero. ]

[Footnote 566: Caligula. ]

[Footnote 567: A. U. C. 809--A. D. 57. ]

[Footnote 568: Antium, the birth-place of Nero, an ancient city of theVolscians, stood on a rocky promontory of the coast, now called Capo d'Anzo, about thirty-eight miles from Rome. Though always a place of somenaval importance, it was indebted to Nero for its noble harbour. Theruins of the moles yet remain; and there are vestiges of the temples andvillas of the town, which was the resort of the wealthy Romans, it being amost delightful winter residence. The Apollo Belvidere was discoveredamong these ruins. ]

[Footnote 569: A. U. C. 810. ]

[Footnote 570: The Podium was part of the amphitheatre, near theorchestra, allotted to the senators, and the ambassadors of foreignnations; and where also was the seat of the emperor, of the person whoexhibited the games, and of the Vestal Virgins. It projected over thewall which surrounded the area of the amphitheatre, and was raised betweentwelve and fifteen feet above it; secured with a breast-work or parapetagainst the irruption of wild beasts. ]

[Footnote 571: A. U. C. 813. ]

[Footnote 572: The baths of Nero stood to the west of the Pantheon. Theywere, probably, incorporated with those afterwards constructed byAlexander Severus; but no vestige of them remains. That the former weremagnificent, we may infer from the verses of Martial:

 --------Quid Nerone pejus? Quid thermis melius Neronianis. --B. Vii. Ch. 34. 

 What worse than Nero? What better than his baths?]

[Footnote 573: Among the Romans, the time at which young men first shavedthe beard was marked with particular ceremony. It was usually in theirtwenty-first year, but the period varied. Caligula (c. X. ) first shavedat twenty; Augustus at twenty-five. ]

[Footnote 574: A. U. C. 819. See afterwards, c. Xxx. ]

[Footnote 575: A. U. C. 808, 810, 811, 813. ]

[Footnote 576: The Sportulae were small wicker baskets, in which victualsor money were carried. The word was in consequence applied to the publicentertainments at which food was distributed, or money given in lieu ofit. ]

[Footnote 577: "Superstitionis novae et maleficae, " are the words ofSuetonius; the latter conveying the idea of witchcraft or enchantment. Suidas relates that a certain martyr cried out from his dungeon--"Ye haveloaded me with fetters as a sorcerer and profane person. " Tacitus callsthe Christian religion "a foreign and deadly [Footnote exitiabilis:superstition, " Annal. Xiii. 32; Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, "a depraved, wicked (or prava), and outrageous superstition. " Epist. X. 97. ]

Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the RomanChristians by Nero. He says that they were subjected to the derision ofthe people; dressed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to be torn topieces by dogs in the public games, that they were crucified, or condemnedto be burnt; and at night-fall served in place of lamps to lighten thedarkness, Nero's own gardens being used for the spectacle. Annal. Xv. 44. 

Traditions of the church place the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul atRome, under the reign of Nero. The legends are given by OrdericusVitalis. See vol. I. Of the edition in the Antiq. Lib. Pp. 206, etc. , with the notes and reference to the apocryphal works on which they arefounded. ]

[Footnote 578: Claudius had received the submission of some of theBritish tribes. See c. Xvii. Of his Life. In the reign of Nero, hisgeneral, Suetonius Paulinus, attacked Mona or Anglesey, the chief seat ofthe Druids, and extirpated them with great cruelty. The successes ofBoadicea, queen of the Iceni, who inhabited Derbyshire, were probably thecause of Nero's wishing to withdraw the legions; she having reducedLondon, Colchester, and Verulam, and put to death seventy thousand of theRomans and their British allies. She was, however, at length defeated bySuetonius Paulinus, who was recalled for his severities. See Tacit. Agric. Xv. 1, xvi. 1; and Annal. Xiv. 29. ]

[Footnote 579: The dominions of Cottius embraced the vallies in the chainof the Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romansthe Cottian Alps. See TIBERIUS, c. Xxxvii. ]

[Footnote 580: It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make anavigable canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid thecircumnavigation of the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan, which, even in our days, has its perils. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. Xliv. AndCALIGULA, c. Xxi. ]

[Footnote 581: Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed bythe narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from thecountry washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying betweenthe Caspian and the sea of Azof. It commences a few miles north ofTeflis, and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians andthe Circassian tribes. ]

[Footnote 582: Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with hissinging gave an accompaniment on the harp. ]

[Footnote 583: It has been already observed that Naples was a Greekcolony, and consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernaculartongue. ]

[Footnote 584: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xcviii. ]

[Footnote 585: Of the strange names given to the different modes ofapplauding in the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees;the second from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the thirdfrom the tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together. ]

[Footnote 586: Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whoseincestuous intercourse with her brother having been detected, inconsequence of the cries of the infant of which she was delivered, shekilled herself. It was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nerowas performing in Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. "Heis labouring in child-birth. "]

[Footnote 587: A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of thesame name in Epirus. ]

[Footnote 588: The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, wasso called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and aboutRome. Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged andimproved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors itbecame a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. Xxxix) extended it, andsurrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protectthe spectators against danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius(c. Xxi. ) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae. Thisvast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of whichreligion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny, three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260, 000spectators; so that Juvenal says, "Totam hodie Romam circus capit. "--Sat. Xi. 195. 

This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum. 

 "That on its public shews unpeopled Rome. "--Letter to Lord Halifax. 

The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatineand Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, fromwhich the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from thatheight give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of itremain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, atolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed. For details ofits parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton'sAntiquities, p. 309, etc. ]

[Footnote 589: The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. Xxxvii. ]

[Footnote 590: Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beautyso captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached toher. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St. Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence atRome. The Apostle speaks of the "Saints in Caesar's household. "--Phil. Iv. 22. ]

[Footnote 591: See Tacitus, Annal. Xv. 37. ]

[Footnote 592: A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xvi. ]

[Footnote 593: It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, withflagrant indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal. Xiv. 2, 3. ]

[Footnote 594: Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur, libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant. ]

[Footnote 595: Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably thefreedman's proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhatequivalent to almoner. See Annal. B. Xv. ]

[Footnote 596: The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero'smother, Agrippina. ]

[Footnote 597: See before, c. Xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome orthe neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor'sexpense. ]

[Footnote 598: Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouthof the river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned byPliny, and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages, as we find in Ordericus Vitalis. ]

[Footnote 599: The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in theinterior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, andtheir skill in throwing the dart. ]

[Footnote 600: The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, wasenlarged by Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS, cc. Xxix. , lvii. ). Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligulaextended it to the Forum (CALIGULA, c. Xxxi. ). Tacitus gives a similaraccount with that of our author of the extent and splendour of the worksof Nero. Annal. Xv. C. Xlii. Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquilinehill, it covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum nowstands. We shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c. Xv. Of his life is the present work. ]

[Footnote 601: The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of thehouse, which was called penetralia. There were likewise publici penates, worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the cityand temples. Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same;and they appear to be sometimes confounded. They were, however, different. The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares, ofhuman. Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, whowere not to that of the penates. The latter, as has been already said, were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the formeralso in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea. ]

[Footnote 602: A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, whilethe Latin morari, from moror, means "to dwell, " or "continue. "]

[Footnote 603: A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum. ]

[Footnote 604: From whence the "Procul, O procul este profani!" of thepoet; a warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries. ]

[Footnote 605: See before, c. Xii. ]

[Footnote 606: Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, andbuilt the amphitheatre called after his name. AUGUSTUS, c. Xxiv. He ismentioned by Horace, Epist. I. V. 4. ]

[Footnote 607: Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard ofsoldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances ofthe people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island ofPandataria. ]

[Footnote 608: A. U. C. 813. ]

[Footnote 609: Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy ofCaius Piso. Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of thecircumstances under which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate, which was announced to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa, near Rome. --Tacitus, b. Xiv. Xv. ]

[Footnote 610: This comet, as well as one which appeared the year inwhich Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. C. Xvii. And xix. And by Pliny, II. C. Xxv. ]

[Footnote 611: See Tacitus, Annal. Xv. 49-55. ]

[Footnote 612: The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably havegiven an account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost. It is shortlynoticed by Plutarch. ]

[Footnote 613: See before, c. Xix. ]

[Footnote 614: This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or thebeginning of August, A. U. C. 816, A. D. 64. It was imputed to theChristians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. Xvi. , andthe note. ]

[Footnote 615: The revolt in Britain broke out A. U. C. 813. Xiphilinus(lxii. P. 701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations withwhich the repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by theemperor Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted. Tacitus adds anothercause, the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions andsoldiers. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir. His widow Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmenreduced to slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which theBritons flew to arms. See c. Xviii. , and the note. ]

[Footnote 616: Neonymphon; alluding to Nero's unnatural nuptials withSporus or Pythagoras. See cc. Xxviii. Xxix. It should be neonymphos. ]

[Footnote 617: "Sustulit" has a double meaning, signifying both, to bearaway, and put out of the way. ]

[Footnote 618: The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, wasPaean; as the god of war, Ekataebaletaes. ]

[Footnote 619: Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero wasswallowing up all Rome. Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelvemiles from Rome, was originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysiusinforms us, (lib. Ii. P. 16), equal in extent to Athens. See a veryaccurate survey of the ruins of Veii, in Gell's admirable TOPOGRAPHY OFROME AND ITS VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn's Edition. ]

[Footnote 620: Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem tohave been a musical instrument on the same principle as our presentorgans, only that water was the inflating power. Vitruvius (iv. Ix. )mentions the instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria. It isalso well described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. Xiv. The pneumatic organappears to have been a later improvement. We have before us a contorniatemedallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon whichone or other of these instruments figures. On the obverse is the bust ofthe emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as AURELIUSANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title). On the reverse is theorgan; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on eachside. ]

[Footnote 621: A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, whichwas strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when theirbodies were slippery with oil or perspiration. ]

[Footnote 622: The words on the ticket about the emperor's neck, aresupposed, by a prosopopea, to be spoken by him. The reply is Agrippina's, or the people's. It alludes to the punishment due to him for hisparricide. By the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or anynear relation, after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, witha dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or adeep river. ]

[Footnote 623: Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls. ]

[Footnote 624: Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of thepropraetor who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul. The wordalso signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hencevindicate, vindictive, etc. ]

[Footnote 625: Aen. Xii. 646. ]

[Footnote 626: The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it tofetch salt from the coast. It led from Rome to the northward, near thegardens of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis, Agonalis, and Collina. It was here that Alaric entered. ]

[Footnote 627: The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabinetown of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber. It wasalso called Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, nowcalled Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal approached the wallsof Rome. The country-house of Nero's freedman, where he ended his days, stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where therewas a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia. ]

[Footnote 628: This description is no less exact than vivid. It was easyfor Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquilinequarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it(after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian campso close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of thesoldiers. ]

[Footnote 629: Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the water hedrank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice. ]

[Footnote 630: Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and forthe funeral pile, ]

[Footnote 631: This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest wasspoken in Latin. Both were in familiar use. The mixture, perhaps, betrays the disturbed state of Nero's mind. ]

[Footnote 632: II. X. 535. ]

[Footnote 633: Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the PincianHill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire. In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas ofthe wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated. Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others, that of the "Dying Gladiator. " The situation was airy and healthful, commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood inRome. ]

[Footnote 634: Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre ofthe Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, arepreserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit, carried across the "Collis Hortulorum. " Those ancient remains, decliningfrom the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto. --The Lunan marble wasbrought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longerexists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf ofSpezzia. --Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades. It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute. ]

[Footnote 635: See c. X1i. ]

[Footnote 636: The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramisdeified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian. ]

[Footnote 637: A. U. C. 821--A. D. 69. ]

[Footnote 638: We have here one of the incidental notices which are sovaluable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which hewrites. See also just before, c. Lii. ]

[Footnote 639: Veii; see the note, NERO, c. Xxxix. ]

[Footnote 640: The conventional term for what is most commonly known as, "The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors, And poets sage, "--Spenser's Faerie Queen. 

is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which hadthis distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, theDaphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, andthe East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plantof a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of theLevant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than thebay. ]

[Footnote 641: The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be thatdedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian familypretended to derive their descent. See JULIUS, c. Lxi. ; AUGUSTUS, c. Ci. ]

[Footnote 642: A. U. C. 821. ]

[Footnote 643: The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, theentrance to which was by the principal door. It appears to have been alarge oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries. Threesides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times, weremarble. The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the othertwo sides, Alae. The Tablinum contained books, and the records of whateach member of the family had done in his magistracy. In the Atrium thenuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with hermaid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of theancient Romans, was their principal employment. ]

[Footnote 644: He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A. U. C. 610. ]

[Footnote 645: A. U. C. 604. ]

[Footnote 646: A. U. C. 710. ]

[Footnote 647: A. U. C 775. ]

[Footnote 648: A. U. C. 608. ]

[Footnote 649: Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor's brother, had beenconsul A. U. C. 774. ]

[Footnote 650: A. U. C. 751. ]

[Footnote 651: Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing itsoriginal name, lie on the road to Naples. See TIBERIUS, cc. V. Andxxxix. ]

[Footnote 652: Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before. ]

[Footnote 653: A. U. C. 751. ]

[Footnote 654: The widow of the emperor Augustus. ]

[Footnote 655: Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to hisown testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid byCaligula. "Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et JuliaeAugustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumniarepraesentate persolvit. " CALIG. C. Xvi. ]

[Footnote 656: A. U. C. 786. ]

[Footnote 657: Caius Caesar Caligula. He gave the command of the legionsin Germany to Galba. ]

[Footnote 658: "Scuto moderatus;" another reading in the parallel passageof Tacitus is scuto immodice oneratus, burdened with the heavy weight of ashield. ]

[Footnote 659: It would appear that Galba was to have accompaniedClaudius in his expedition to Britain; which is related before, CLAUDIUS, c. Xvii. ]

[Footnote 660: It has been remarked before, that the Cantabria of theancients is now the province of Biscay. ]

[Footnote 661: Now Carthagena. ]

[Footnote 662: A. U. C. 821. ]

[Footnote 663: Now Corunna. ]

[Footnote 664: Tortosa, on the Ebro. ]

[Footnote 665: "Simus, " literally, fiat-nosed, was a cant word, used fora clown; Galba being jeered for his rusticity, in consequence of his longretirement. See c. Viii. Indeed, they called Spain his farm. ]

[Footnote 666: The command of the pretorian guards. ]

[Footnote 667: In the Forum. See AUGUSTUS, c. Lvii. ]

[Footnote 668: II. V. 254. ]

[Footnote 669: A. U. C. 822. ]

[Footnote 670: On the esplanade, where the standards, objects ofreligious reverence, were planted. See note to c. Vi. Criminals wereusually executed outside the Vallum, and in the presence of a centurion. ]

[Footnote 671: Probably one of the two mentioned in CLAUDIUS, c. Xiii. ]

[Footnote 672: A. U. C. 784 or 785. ]

[Footnote 673: "Distento sago impositum in sublime jactare. "]

[Footnote 674: See NERO, c. Xxxv. ]

[Footnote 675: The Milliare Aureum was a pillar of stone set up at thetop of the Forum, from which all the great military roads throughout Italystarted, the distances to the principal towns being marked upon it. Dio(lib. Liv. ) says that it was erected by the emperor Augustus, when he wascurator of the roads. ]

[Footnote 676: Haruspex, Auspex, or Augur, denoted any person whoforetold futurity, or interpreted omens. There was at Rome a body ofpriests, or college, under this title, whose office it was to foretellfuture events, chiefly from the flight, chirping, or feeding of birds, andfrom other appearances. They were of the greatest authority in the Romanstate; for nothing of importance was done in public affairs, either athome or abroad, in peace or war, without consulting them. The Romansderived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and ancientlytheir youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwardsthey were in the Greek literature. For this purpose, by a decree of thesenate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sentto the twelve states of Etruria for instruction. ]

[Footnote 677: See before, note, c. I. The Principia was a broad openspace, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper, and extended the whole breadth of the camp. In this place was erected thetribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or haranguedthe army. Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishmentswere inflicted. The principal standards of the army, as it has beenalready mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stoodthe altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which thesoldiers swore. ]

[Footnote 678: See NERO, c. Xxxi. The sum estimated as requisite for itscompletion amounted to 2, 187, 500 pounds of our money. ]

[Footnote 679: The two last words, literally translated, mean "longtrumpets;" such as were used at sacrifices. The sense is, therefore, "What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religiousceremonies!"]

[Footnote 680: The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen fromheaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. Itwas kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol ofthe perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen, eleven others were made exactly similar to it. ]

[Footnote 681: This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before, AUGUSTUS, c. Lxviii. , was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, calledalso Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc. She was painted as a matron, crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue ofher, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the secondPunic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli andCorybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums, tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced bygreat indecencies. ]

[Footnote 682: Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, andStygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions. His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as shewas gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily. The victimsoffered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their facesbent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was pouredinto a ditch. ]

[Footnote 683: A town between Mantua and Cremona. ]

[Footnote 684: The temple of Castor. It stood about twelve miles fromCremona. Tacitus gives some details of this action. Hist. Ii. 243. ]

[Footnote 685: Both Greek and Latin authors differ in the mode ofspelling the name of this place, the first syllable being written Beb, Bet, and Bret. It is now a small village called Labino, between Cremonaand Verona. ]

[Footnote 686: Lenis was a name of similar signification with that ofTranquillus, borne by his son, the author of the present work. We findfrom Tacitus, that there was, among Otho's generals, in this battle, another person of the name of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus; withwhom our author's father must not be confounded. Lenis was only a tribuneof the thirteenth legion, the position of which in the battle is mentionedby Tacitus, Hist. Xi. 24, and was angusticlavius, wearing only the narrowstripe, as not being of the senatorial order; while Paulinus was ageneral, commanding a legion, at least, and a consular man; having filledthat Office A. U. C. 818. There seems no doubt that Suetonius Paulinus wasthe same general who distinguished himself by his successes and crueltiesin Britain. NERO, c. Xviii. , and note. ]

Not to extend the present note, we may shortly refer to our author'shaving already mentioned his grandfather (CALIGULA, c. Xix. ); besidesother sources from which he drew his information. He tells us that hehimself was then a boy. We have now arrived at the times in which hisfather bore a part. Such incidental notices, dropped by historicalwriters, have a certain value in enabling us to form a judgment on thegenuineness of their narratives as to contemporaneous, or recent, events. ]

[Footnote 687: A. U. C. 823. ]

[Footnote 688: Jupiter, to prevent the discovery of his amour with Io, the daughter of the river Inachus, transformed her into a heifer, in whichmetamorphosis she was placed by Juno under the watchful inspection ofArgus; but flying into Egypt, and her keeper being killed by Mercury, sherecovered her human shape, and was married to Osiris. Her husbandafterwards became a god of the Egyptians, and she a goddess, under thename of Isis. She was represented with a mural crown on her head, acornucopia in one hand, and a sistrum (a musical instrument) in theother. ]

[Footnote 689: Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned overthe original inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being thefirst. Virgil makes his wife's name Marica--

 Hunc Fauna, et nympha genitum Laurente Marica Accipimus. --Aen. Vii. 47. 

Her name may have been changed after her deification; but we have no otheraccounts than those preserved by Suetonius, of several of the traditionshanded down from the fabulous ages respecting the Vitellian family. ]

[Footnote 690: The Aequicolae were probably a tribe inhabiting theheights in the neighbourhood of Rome. Virgil describes them, Aen. Vii. 746. ]

[Footnote 691: Nuceria, now Nocera, is a town near Mantua; but Livy, intreating of the war with the Samnites, always speaks of Luceria, whichStrabo calls a town in Apulia. ]

[Footnote 692: Cassius Severus is mentioned before, in AUGUSTUS, c. Lvi. ;CALIGULA, c. Xvi. , etc. ]

[Footnote 693: A. U. C. 785. ]

[Footnote 694: A. U. C. 787. ]

[Footnote 695: He is frequently commended by Josephus for his kindness tothe Jews. See, particularly, Antiq. VI. Xviii. ]

[Footnote 696: A. U. C. 796, 800. ]

[Footnote 697: A. U. C. 801. ]

[Footnote 698: A. U. C. 797. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xvii. ]

[Footnote 699: A. U. C. 801. ]

[Footnote 700: A. U. C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperorAugustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years olderthan Otho, both being at an advanced age when they were raised to theimperial dignity. ]

[Footnote 701: He was sent to Germany by Galba. ]

[Footnote 702: See TIBERIUS, c. Xliii. ]

[Footnote 703: Julius Caesar, also, was said to have exchanged brass forgold in the Capitol, Junius, c. Liv. The tin which we here find in use atRome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands. Whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians andCarthaginians from a very early period. ]

[Footnote 704: A. U. C. 821. ]

[Footnote 705: A. U. C. 822. ]

[Footnote 706: Vienne was a very ancient city of the province ofNarbonne, famous in ecclesiastical history as the early seat of abishopric in Gaul. ]

[Footnote 707: See OTHO, c. Ix. ]

[Footnote 708: See OTHO, c. Ix. ]

[Footnote 709: Agrippina, the wife of Nero and mother of Germanicus, founded a colony on the Rhine at the place of her birth. Tacit. Annal. B. Xii. It became a flourishing city, and its origin may be traced in itsmodern name, Cologne. ]

[Footnote 710: A dies non fastus, an unlucky day in the Roman calendar, being the anniversary of their great defeat by the Gauls on the riverAllia, which joins the Tiber about five miles from Rome. This disasterhappened on the 16th of the calends of August (17th July). 

[Footnote 711: Posca was sour wine or vinegar mixed with water, which wasused by the Roman soldiery as their common drink. It has been foundbeneficial in the cure of putrid diseases. ]

[Footnote 712: Upwards of 4000 pounds sterling. See note, p. 487. ]

[Footnote 713: In imitation of the form of the public edicts, which beganwith the words, BONUM FACTUM. ]

[Footnote 714: Catta muliere: The Catti were a German tribe who inhabitedthe present countries of Hesse or Baden. Tacitus, De Mor. Germ. , informsus that the Germans placed great confidence in the propheticalinspirations which they attributed to their women. ]

[Footnote 715: Suetonius does not supply any account of the part added byTiberius to the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, although, as itwill be recollected, he has mentioned or described the works of Augustus, Caligula, and Nero. The banquetting-room here mentioned would easilycommand a view of the Capitol, across the narrow intervening valley. Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, was prefect of the city. ]

[Footnote 716: Caligula. ]

[Footnote 717: Lucius and Germanicus, the brother and son of Vitellius, were slain near Terracina; the former was marching to his brother'srelief. ]

[Footnote 718: A. U. C. 822. ]

[Footnote 719: c. Ix. ]

[Footnote 720: Becco, from whence the French bec, and English beak; with, probably, the family names of Bec or Bek. This distinguished provincial, under his Latin name of Antoninus Primus, commanded the seventh legion inGaul. His character is well drawn by Tacitus, in his usual terse style, Hist. XI. 86. 2. ]

[Footnote 721: Reate, the original seat of the Flavian family, was a cityof the Sabines. Its present name is Rieti. ]

[Footnote 722: It does not very clearly appear what rank in the Romanarmies was held by the evocati. They are mentioned on three occasions bySuetonius, without affording us much assistance. Caesar, like our author, joins them with the centurions. See, in particular, De Bell. Civil. I. Xvii. 4. ]

[Footnote 723: The inscription was in Greek, kalos telothaesanti. ]

[Footnote 724: In the ancient Umbria, afterwards the duchy of Spoleto;its modern name being Norcia. ]

[Footnote 725: Gaul beyond, north of the Po, now Lombardy. ]

[Footnote 726: We find the annual migration of labourers in husbandry avery common practice in ancient as well as in modern times. At present, several thousand industrious labourers cross over every summer from theduchies of Parma and Modena, bordering on the district mentioned bySuetonius, to the island of Corsica; returning to the continent when theharvest is got in. ]

[Footnote 727: A. U. C. 762, A. D. 10. ]

[Footnote 728: Cosa was a place in the Volscian territory; of whichAnagni was probably the chief town. It lies about forty miles to thenorth-east of Rome. ]

[Footnote 729: Caligula. ]

[Footnote 730: These games were extraordinary, as being out of the usualcourse of those given by praetors. ]

[Footnote 731: "Revocavit in contubernium. " From the difference of ourhabits, there is no word in the English language which exactly conveys themeaning of contubernium; a word which, in a military sense, the Romansapplied to the intimate fellowship between comrades in war who messedtogether, and lived in close fellowship in the same tent. Thence theytransferred it to a union with one woman who was in a higher position thana concubine, but, for some reason, could not acquire the legal rights of awife, as in the case of slaves of either sex. A man of rank, also, couldnot marry a slave or a freedwoman, however much he might be attached toher. ]

[Footnote 732: Nearly the same phrases are applied by Suetonius toDrusilla, see CALIGULA, c. Xxiv. , and to Marcella, the concubine ofCommodus, by Herodian, I. Xvi. 9. , where he says that she had all thehonours of an empress, except that the incense was not offered to her. These connections resembled the left-hand marriages of the Germanprinces. ]

[Footnote 733: This expedition to Britain has been mentioned before, CLAUDIUS, c. Xvii. And note; and see ib. Xxiv. ]

Valerius Flaccus, i. 8, and Silius Italicus, iii. 598, celebrate thetriumphs of Vespasian in Britain. In representing him, however, ascarrying his arms among the Caledonian tribes, their flattery transferredto the emperor the glory of the victories gained by his lieutenant, Agricola. Vespasian's own conquests, while he served in Britain, wereprincipally in the territories of the Brigantes, lying north of theHumber, and including the present counties of York and Durham. ]

[Footnote 734: A. U. C. 804. ]

[Footnote 735: Tacitus, Hist. V. Xiii. 3. , mentions this ancientprediction, and its currency through the East, in nearly the same terms asSuetonius. The coming power is in both instances described in the pluralnumber, profecti; "those shall come forth;" and Tacitus applies it toTitus as well as Vespasian. The prophecy is commonly supposed to havereference to a passage in Micah, v. 2, "Out of thee (Bethlehem-Ephrata)shall He come forth, to be ruler in Israel. " Earlier propheticintimations of a similar character, and pointing to a more extendeddominion, have been traced in the sacred records of the Jews; and there isreason to believe that these books were at this time not unknown in theheathen world, particularly at Alexandria, and through the Septuagintversion. These predictions, in their literal sense, point to theestablishment of a universal monarchy, which should take its rise inJudaea. The Jews looked for their accomplishment in the person of one oftheir own nation, the expected Messiah, to which character there were manypretenders in those times. The first disciples of Christ, during thewhole period of his ministry, supposed that they were to be fulfilled inhim. The Romans thought that the conditions were answered by Vespasian, and Titus having been called from Judaea to the seat of empire. Theexpectations entertained by the Jews, and naturally participated in andappropriated by the first converts to Christianity, having provedgroundless, the prophecies were subsequently interpreted in a spiritualsense. ]

[Footnote 736: Gessius Florus was at that time governor of Judaea, withthe title and rank of prepositus, it not being a proconsular province, asthe native princes still held some parts of it, under the protection andwith the alliance of the Romans. Gessius succeeded Florus Albinus, thesuccessor of Felix. ]

[Footnote 737: Cestius Gallus was consular lieutenant in Syria. ]

[Footnote 738: See note to c. Vii. ]

[Footnote 739: A right hand was the sign of sovereign power, and, asevery one knows, borne upon a staff among the standards of the armies. ]

[Footnote 740: Tacitus says, "Carmel is the name both of a god and amountain; but there is neither image nor temple of the god; such are theancient traditions; we find there only an altar and religious awe. "--Hist. Xi. 78, 4. It also appears, from his account, that Vespasian offeredsacrifice on Mount Carmel, where Basilides, mentioned hereafter, c. Vii. , predicted his success from an inspection of the entrails. ]

[Footnote 741: Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who was engagedin these wars, having been taken prisoner, was confined in the dungeon atJotapata, the castle referred to in the preceding chapter, before whichVespasian was wounded. --De Bell. Cxi. 14. ]

[Footnote 742: The prediction of Josephus was founded on the Jewishprophecies mentioned in the note to c. Iv. , which he, like others, appliedto Vespasian. ]

[Footnote 743: Julius Caesar is always called by our author after hisapotheosis, Divus Julius. ]

[Footnote 744: The battle at Bedriacum secured the Empire for Vitellius. See OTHO, c. Ix; VITELLIUS, c. X. ]

[Footnote 745: Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt, which was the granary of Rome. It was of the first importance thatVespasian should secure it at this juncture. ]

[Footnote 746: Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among theEgyptians, and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find himofficiating at Mount Carmel, c. V. This is so incompatible with his beinga Roman freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word"libertus. " although found in all the copies now extant, has crept intothe text by some inadvertence of an early transcriber. Basilides appears, like Philo Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have beenhalf-Greek, half-Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonicschool of Alexandria. ]

[Footnote 747: Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believedBasilides to have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health, but at the distance of several days' journey from Alexandria. But (forhis greater satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whetherBasilides had entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all hemet, whether he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatchedmessengers on horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified, Basilides was more than eighty miles from Alexandria. Then Vespasiancomprehended that the appearance of Basilides, and the answer to hisprayers given through him, were by divine interposition. Tacit. Hist. Iv. 82. 2. ]

[Footnote 748: The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of Vespasianis fuller than that of Suetonius, but does not materially vary in thedetails, except that, in his version of the story, he describes theimpotent man to be lame in the hand, instead of the leg or the knee, andadds an important circumstance in the case of the blind man, that he was"notus tabe occulorum, " notorious for the disease in his eyes. He alsowinds up the narrative with the following statement: "They who werepresent, relate both these cures, even at this time, when there is nothingto be gained by lying. " Both the historians lived within a few years ofthe occurrence, but their works were not published until advanced periodsof their lives. The closing remark of Tacitus seems to indicate that, atleast, he did not entirely discredit the account; and as for Suetonius, his pages are as full of prodigies of all descriptions, related apparentlyin all good faith, as a monkish chronicle of the Middle Ages. 

The story has the more interest, as it is one of the examples ofsuccessful imposture, selected by Hume in his Essay on Miracles; with thereply to which by Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity, most readersare familiar. The commentators on Suetonius agree with Paley inconsidering the whole affair as a juggle between the priests, thepatients, and, probably, the emperor. But what will, perhaps, strike thereader as most remarkable, is the singular coincidence of the story withthe accounts given of several of the miracles of Christ; whence it hasbeen supposed, that the scene was planned in imitation of them. It didnot fall within the scope of Dr. Paley's argument to advert to this; andour own brief illustration must be strictly confined within the limits ofhistorical disquisition. Adhering to this principle, we may point outthat if the idea of plagiarism be accepted, it receives some confirmationfrom the incident related by our author in a preceding paragraph, forming, it may be considered, another scene of the same drama, where we findBasilides appearing to Vespasian in the temple of Serapis, undercircumstances which cannot fail to remind us of Christ's suddenly standingin the midst of his disciples, "when the doors were shut. " This incident, also, has very much the appearance of a parody on the evangelical history. But if the striking similarity of the two narratives be thus accountedfor, it is remarkable that while the priests of Alexandria, or, perhaps, Vespasian himself from his residence in Judaea, were in possession of suchexact details of two of Christ's miracles--if not of a third strikingincident in his history--we should find not the most distant allusion inthe works of such cotemporary writers as Tacitus and Suetonius, to any oneof the still more stupendous occurrences which had recently taken place ina part of the world with which the Romans had now very intimate relations. The character of these authors induces us to hesitate in adopting thenotion, that either contempt or disbelief would have led them to pass oversuch events, as altogether unworthy of notice; and the only otherinference from their silence is, that they had never heard of them. Butas this can scarcely be reconciled with the plagiarism attributed toVespasian or the Egyptian priests, it is safer to conclude that thecoincidence, however singular, was merely fortuitous. It may be addedthat Spartianus, who wrote the lives of Adrian and succeeding emperors, gives an account of a similar miracle performed by that prince in healinga blind man. ]

[Footnote 749: A. U. C. 823-833, excepting 826 and 831. ]

[Footnote 750: The temple of Peace, erected A. D. 71, on the conclusion ofthe wars with the Germans and the Jews, was the largest temple in Rome. Vespasian and Titus deposited in it the sacred vessels and other spoilswhich were carried in their triumph after the conquest of Jerusalem. Theywere consumed, and the temple much damaged, if not destroyed, by fire, towards the end of the reign of Commodus, in the year 191. It stood inthe Forum, where some ruins on a prodigious scale, still remaining, weretraditionally considered to be those of the Temple of Peace, untilPiranesi contended that they are part of Nero's Golden House. Otherssuppose that they are the remains of a Basilica. A beautiful flutedCorinthian column, forty-seven feet high, which was removed from thisspot, and now stands before the church of S. Maria Maggiore, gives a greatidea of the splendour of the original structure. ]

[Footnote 751: This temple, converted into a Christian church by popeSimplicius, who flourished, A. D. 464-483, preserves much of its ancientcharacter. It is now, called San Stefano in Rotondo, from its circularform; the thirty-four pillars, with arches springing from one to the otherand intended to support the cupola, still remaining to prove its formermagnificence. ]

[Footnote 752: This amphitheatre is the famous Colosseum begun by Trajan, and finished by Titus. It is needless to go into details respecting abuilding the gigantic ruins of which are so well known. ]

[Footnote 753: Hercules is said, after conquering Geryon in Spain, tohave come into this part of Italy. One of his companions, the supposedfounder of Reate, may have had the name of Flavus. ]

[Footnote 754: Vespasian and his son Titus had a joint triumph for theconquest of Judaea, which is described at length by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. Vii. 16. The coins of Vespasian exhibiting the captive Judaea(Judaea capta), are probably familiar to the reader. See Harphrey's CoinCollector's Manual, p. 328. ]

[Footnote 755: Demetrius, who was born at Corinth, seems to have been aclose imitator of Diogenes, the founder of the sect. Having come to Rometo study under Apollonius, he was banished to the islands, with otherphilosophers, by Vespasian. ]

[Footnote 756: There being no such place as Morbonia, and the supposedname being derived from morbus, disease, some critics have supposed thatAnticyra, the asylum of the incurables, (see CALIGULA, c. Xxix. ) is meant;but the probability is, that the expression used by the imperialchamberlain was only a courtly version of a phrase not very commonlyadopted in the present day. ]

[Footnote 757: Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as aphilosopher and public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, andArrian. ]

[Footnote 758: Cicero speaks in strong terms of the sordidness of retailtrade--Off. I. 24. ]

[Footnote 759: The sesterce being worth about two-pence half-penny ofEnglish money, the salary of a Roman senator was, in round numbers, fivethousand pounds a year; and that of a professor, as stated in thesucceeding chapter, one thousand pounds. From this scale, similarcalculations may easily be made of the sums occurring in Suetonius'sstatements from time to time. There appears to be some mistake in the sumstated in c. Xvi. Just before, as the amount seems fabulous, whether itrepresented the floating debt, or the annual revenue, of the empire. ]

[Footnote 760: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xliii. The proscenium of the ancienttheatres was a solid erection of an architectural design, not shifted andvaried as our stage-scenes. ]

[Footnote 761: Many eminent writers among the Romans were originallyslaves, such as Terence and Phaedrus; and, still more, artists, physiciansand artificers. Their talents procuring their manumission, they becamethe freedmen of their former masters. Vespasian, it appears fromSuetonius, purchased the freedom of some persons of ability belonging tothese classes. ]

[Footnote 762: The Coan Venus was the chef-d'oeuvre of Apelles, a nativeof the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, who flourished in the time ofAlexander the Great. If it was the original painting which was nowrestored, it must have been well preserved. ]

[Footnote 763: Probably the colossal statue of Nero (see his Life, c. Xxxi. ), afterwards placed in Vespasian's amphitheatre, which derived itsname from it. ]

[Footnote 764: The usual argument in all times against the introductionof machinery. ]

[Footnote 765: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxix. ]

[Footnote 766: At the men's Saturnalia, a feast held in December attendedwith much revelling, the masters waited upon their slaves; and at thewomen's Saturnalia, held on the first of March, the women served theirfemale attendants, by whom also they sent presents to their friends. ]

[Footnote 767: Notwithstanding the splendour, and even, in many respects, the refinement of the imperial court, the language as well as the habitsof the highest classes in Rome seem to have been but too commonly of thegrossest description, and every scholar knows that many of their writersare not very delicate in their allusions. Apropos of the ludicrousaccount given in the text, Martial, on one occasion, uses still plainerlanguage. 

 Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis: Nam faciem durum Phoebe, cacantis habes. --iii. 89. ]

[Footnote 768: See c. Iii. And note. ]

[Footnote 769: Probably the emperor had not entirely worn off, or mighteven affect the rustic dialect of his Sabine countrymen; for among thepeasantry the au was still pronounced o, as in plostrum for plaustrum, awaggon; and in orum for aurum, gold, etc. The emperor's retort was veryhappy, Flaurus being derived from a Greek word, which signifies worthless, while the consular critic's proper name, Florus, was connected with muchmore agreeable associations. ]

[Footnote 770: Some of the German critics think that the passage bearsthe sense of the gratuity having beer given by the lady, and that soparsimonious a prince as Vespasian was not likely to have paid such a sumas is here stated for a lady's proffered favours. ]

[Footnote 771: The Flavian family had their own tomb. See DOMITIAN, c. V. The prodigy, therefore, did not concern Vespasian. As to the tomb ofthe Julian family, see AUGUSTUS, c. Ci. ]

[Footnote 772: Alluding to the apotheosis of the emperors. ]

[Footnote 773: Cutiliae was a small lake, about three-quarters of a milefrom Reate, now called Lago di Contigliano. It was very deep, and beingfed from springs in the neighbouring hills, the water was exceedinglyclear and cold, so that it was frequented by invalids, who requiredinvigorating. Vespasian's paternal estates lay in the neighbourhood ofReate. See chap i. ]

[Footnote 774: A. U. C. 832. ]

[Footnote 775: Each dynasty lasted twenty-eight years. Claudius and Neroboth reigning fourteen; and, of the Flavius family, Vespasian reigned ten, Titus three, and Domitian fifteen. ]

[Footnote 776: Caligula. Titus was born A. U. C. 794; about A. D. 49. ]

[Footnote 777: The Septizonium was a circular building of seven stories. The remains of that of Septimus Severus, which stood on the side of thePalatine Hill, remained till the time of Pope Sixtus V. , who removed it, and employed thirty-eight of its columns in ornamenting the church of St. Peter. It does not appear whether the Septizonium here mentioned asexisting in the time of Titus, stood on the same spot. ]

[Footnote 778: Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina. ]

[Footnote 779: A. U. C. 820. ]

[Footnote 780: Jerusalem was taken, sacked, and burnt, by Titus, after atwo years' siege, on the 8th September, A. U. C. 821, A. D. 69; it being theSabbath. It was in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, when theemperor was sixty years old, and Titus himself, as he informs us, thirty. For particulars of the siege, see Josephus, De Bell. Jud. Vi. And vii. ;Hegesippus, Excid. Hierosol. V. ; Dio, lxvi. ; Tacitus, Hist. V. ; Orosius, vii. 9. ]

[Footnote 781: For the sense in which Titus was saluted with the title ofEmperor by the troops, see JULIUS CAESAR, c. Lxxvi. ]

[Footnote 782: The joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, which wascelebrated A. U. C. 824, is fully described by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. Vii. 24. It is commemorated by the triumphal monument called the Arch ofTitus, erected by the senate and people of Rome after his death, and stillstanding at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on the road leading from theColosseum to the Forum, and is one of the most beautiful as well as themost interesting models of Roman art. It consists of four stories of thethree orders of architecture, the Corinthian being repeated in the twohighest. Some of the bas-reliefs, still in good preservation, representthe table of the shew-bread, the seven-branched golden candlestick, thevessel of incense, and the silver trumpets, which were taken by Titus fromthe Temple at Jerusalem, and, with the book of the law, the veil of thetemple, and other spoils, were carried in the triumph. The fate of thesesacred relics is rather interesting. Josephus says, that the veil andbooks of the law were deposited in the Palatium, and the rest of thespoils in the Temple of Peace. When that was burnt, in the reign ofCommodus, these treasures were saved, and they were afterwards carried offby Genseric to Africa. Belisarius recovered them, and brought them toConstantinople, A. D. 520. Procopius informs us, that a Jew, who saw them, told an acquaintance of the emperor that it would not be advisable tocarry them to the palace at Constantinople, as they could not remainanywhere else but where Solomon had placed them. This, he said, was thereason why Genseric had taken the Palace at Rome, and the Roman army hadin turn taken that of the Vandal kings. Upon this, the emperor was soalarmed, that he sent the whole of them to the Christian churches atJerusalem. ]

[Footnote 783: A. U. C. 825. ]

[Footnote 784: A. U. C. 824. ]

[Footnote 785: A. U. C. 823, 825, 827-830, 832. ]

[Footnote 786: Berenice, whose name is written by our author and othersBeronice, was daughter of Agrippa the Great, who was by Aristobulus, grandson of Herod the Great. Having been contracted to Mark, son ofAlexander Lysimachus, he died before their union, and Agrippa married herto Herod, Mark's brother, for whom he had obtained from the emperorClaudius the kingdom of Chalcis. Herod also dying, Berenice, then awidow, lived with her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected of an incestuousintercourse with him. It was at this time that, on their way to theimperial court at Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Caesarea, and werepresent when St. Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before thetribunal of the governor. Her fascinations were so great, that, to shieldherself from the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king ofCilicia, to submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her. Thatunion also proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem, and having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titusby her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after thetermination of the Jewish war, and had apartments in the palace, where shelived with Titus, "to all appearance, as his wife, " as Xiphilinus informsus; and there seems no doubt that he would have married her, but for thestrong prejudices of the Romans against foreign alliances. Suetonius tellsus with what pain they separated. ]

[Footnote 787: The Colosseum: it had been four years in building. SeeVESPAS. C. Ix. ]

[Footnote 788: The Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part ofthe ground which had been the gardens of Mecaenas. Considerable remainsof them are still found among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vastdimensions, some of which were decorated with arabesque paintings, stillin good preservation. Titus appears to have erected a palace for himselfadjoining; for the Laocoon, which is mentioned by Pliny as standing inthis palace, was found in the neighbouring ruins. ]

[Footnote 789: If the statements were not well attested, we might beincredulous as to the number of wild beasts collected for the spectaclesto which the people of Rome were so passionately devoted. The earliestaccount we have of such an exhibition, was A. U. C. 502, when one hundredand forty-two elephants, taken in Sicily, were produced. Pliny, who givesthis information, states that lions first appeared in any number, A. U. C. 652; but these were probably not turned loose. In 661, Sylla, when he waspraetor, brought forward one hundred. In 696, besides lions, elephants, and bears, one hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time. At the dedication of Pompey's Theatre, there was the greatest exhibitionof beasts ever then known; including seventeen elephants, six hundredlions, which were killed in the course of five days, four hundred and tenpanthers, etc. A rhinoceros also appeared for the first time. This wasA. U. C. 701. The art of taming these beasts was carried to suchperfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked them to his carriage. JuliusCaesar, in his third dictatorship, A. U. C. 708, showed a vast number ofwild beasts, among which were four hundred lions and a cameleopard. Atiger was exhibited for the first time at the dedication of the Theatre ofMarcellus, A. U. C. 743. It was kept in a cage. Claudius afterwardsexhibited four together. The exhibition of Titus, at the dedication ofthe Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been the largestever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that includingwild-boars, cranes, and other animals, no less than nine thousand werekilled. In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given tothese spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, byplanting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and thepeople were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased. In thisinstance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on oneoccasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (mouflionsfrom Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wildboars, and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian. ]

[Footnote 790: "Diem perdidi. " This memorable speech is recorded byseveral other historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles. ]

[Footnote 791: A. U. C. 832, A. D. 79. It is hardly necessary to refer tothe well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving anaccount of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian, perished. And see hereafter, p. 475. ]

[Footnote 792: The great fire at Rome happened in the second year of thereign of Titus. It consumed a large portion of the city, and among thepublic buildings destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that ofNeptune, the baths of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus andPompey, the buildings and library of Augustus on the Palatine, and thetemple of Jupiter in the Capitol. ]

[Footnote 793: See VESPASIAN, cc. I. And xxiv. The love of this emperorand his son Titus for the rural retirement of their paternal acres in theSabine country, forms a striking contrast to the vicious attachment ofsuch tyrants as Tiberius and Caligula for the luxurious scenes of Baiae, or the libidinous orgies of Capri. ]

[Footnote 794: A. U. C. 834, A. D. 82. ]

[Footnote 795: A. U. C. 804. ]

[Footnote 796: A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called, probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which hadmade free growth on the spot. ]

[Footnote 797: VITELLIUS, c. Xv. ]

[Footnote 798: Tacitus (Hist. Iii. ) differs from Suetonius, saying thatDomitian took refuge with a client of his father's near the Velabrum. Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber. ]

[Footnote 799: One of Domitian's coins bears on the reverse a captivefemale and soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA. ]

[Footnote 800: VESPASIAN, c. Xii; TITUS, c. Vi. ]

[Footnote 801: Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus(AUG. Xliii. ), and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in arude way. That was on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia ofDomitian occupies the site of the present Piazza d'Espagna, and was largerand more ornamented. ]

[Footnote 802: A. U. C. 841. See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxi. ]

[Footnote 803: This feast was held in December. Plutarch informs us thatit was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included inthe city bounds. ]

[Footnote 804: The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in thegreat fire mentioned TITUS, c. Viii. The first fire happened in theMarian war, after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reignof Vitellius. ]

[Footnote 805: This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva, adjoined the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. Xxix. Ofhis life. From its communicating with the two others, it was calledTransitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a greatheight, and 144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone, very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straightline, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interferedwith its direction. ]

[Footnote 806: The residence of the Flavian family was converted into atemple. See c. I. Of the present book. ]

[Footnote 807: The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used forraces both of men and horses. ]

[Footnote 808: The Odeum was a building intended for musicalperformances. There were four of them at Rome. ]

[Footnote 809: See before, c. Iv. ]

[Footnote 810: See VESPASIAN, c. Xiv. ]

[Footnote 811: See NERD, c. Xvi. ]

[Footnote 812: This absurd edict was speedily revoked. See afterwards c. Xiv. ]

[Footnote 813: This was an ancient law levelled against adultery andother pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of thepeople. There was a Julian law, with the same object. See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxiv. ]

[Footnote 814: Geor. Xi. 537. ]

[Footnote 815: See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18. ]

[Footnote 816: See VESPASIAN, c. Iii. ]

[Footnote 817: Cant names for gladiators. ]

[Footnote 818: The faction which favoured the "Thrax" party. ]

[Footnote 819: DOMITIAN, c. I. ]

[Footnote 820: See VESPASIAN, c. Xiv. ]

[Footnote 821: This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. Xlix. ]

[Footnote 822: Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or, perhaps, members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them. See the note to TIBERIUS, c. Xxxvi. The tax levied on the Jews was twodrachmas per head. It was general throughout the empire. ]

[Footnote 823: We have had Suetonius's reminiscences, derived through hisgrandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. Xix. ; OTHO, c. X. Wenow come to his own, commencing from an early age. ]

[Footnote 824: This is what Martial calls, "Mentula tributis damnata. "]

[Footnote 825: The imperial liveries were white and gold. ]

[Footnote 826: See CALIGULA, c. Xxi. , where the rest of the line isquoted; eis koiranos esto. ]

[Footnote 827: An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was theconsecrated bed, on which the images of the gods reposed. ]

[Footnote 828: The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for"enough, " and the Latin word for "an arch. "]

[Footnote 829: Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue withParis, the actor, and afterwards taken back. ]

[Footnote 830: The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed fromthe poet Evenus, Anthol. I. Vi. I. , who applies them to a goat, the greatenemy of vineyards. Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:

 Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram, In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit. ]

[Footnote 831: Pliny describes this stone as being brought fromCappadocia, and says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent, cxxiv. C. 22. ]

[Footnote 832: See note to c. Xvii. ]

[Footnote 833: The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish(Christian?) manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112. ]

[Footnote 834: See VESPASIAN, c. V. ]

[Footnote 835: Columella (R. R. Xi. 2. ) enumerates dates among theforeign fruits cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, andalmonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the firstwho introduced the date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latterdays of Augustus. ]

[Footnote 836: Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of FlaviusClemens (c. Xv. ), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their"impiety, " by which it is probably meant that they were suspected offavouring Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece ofFlavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for havingbecome a Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is saidto have been of this family. ]

[Footnote 837: A. U. C. 849. ]

[Footnote 838: See c. V. ]

[Footnote 839: The famous library of Alexandria collected by PtolemyPhiladelphus had been burnt by accident in the wars. But we find fromthis passage in Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collectionshad been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. C. Ix. 7) informs us that fortythousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time thenumber of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand. ]

[Footnote 840: This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny, took its name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, whofirst introduced it. Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first whobrought into vogue the practice of clipping groves. ]

[Footnote 841: Julia, the daughter of Titus. ]

[Footnote 842: It will be understood that the terms Grammar andGrammarian have here a more extended sense than that which they convey inmodern use. See the beginning of c. Iv. ]

[Footnote 843: Suetonius's account of the rude and unlettered state ofsociety in the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we mightinfer, and with the accounts which have come down to us, of a communitycomposed of the most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by theneighbouring tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war. ButCicero discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans longbefore the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to theteaching of Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italyin the reign of Tarquinius Superbus. --Tusc. Quaest. Iv. 1. ]

[Footnote 844: Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates hisextraction, was born of Greek parents. He began to teach at Rome in theconsulship of Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and SemproniusTuditanus, A. U. C. 514. He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, thehistorian, who flourished in the Augustan age. ]

[Footnote 845: Ennius was a native of Calabria. He was born the yearafter the consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see atleast his seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age hewrote the twelfth book of his Annals. ]

[Footnote 846: Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conqueredthat island during his praetorship. He learnt Greek from Ennius there, and brought him to Rome on his return. Ennius taught Greek at Rome for along course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils. ]

[Footnote 847: Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia. Crates was the son ofTimocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had thesurname of Homericus. ]

[Footnote 848: Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign ofPtolemy Philometer, whose son he educated. ]

[Footnote 849: A. U. C. 535-602 or 605. ]

[Footnote 850: Cicero (De Clar. Orat. C. Xx. , De Senect. C. V. 1)places the death of Ennius A. U. C. 584, for which there are otherauthorities; but this differs from the account given in a former note. ]

[Footnote 851: The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentionedby Cicero, De Senect, c. 14. ]

[Footnote 852: Lucilius, the poet, was born about A. U. C. 605. ]

[Footnote 853: Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on histriumph over Jugurtha, A. U. C. 644. Aelius, who was Varro's tutor, accompanied him to Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A. U. C. 653. ]

[Footnote 854: Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended byCicero, Fam. Epist. Ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny, xxv. 4. ]

[Footnote 855: Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to havebeen brought up by Pan. The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius'scognomen is not very clear. Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis; thereforethe herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics, and theinventor of the rude music of the reed. ]

[Footnote 856: Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a bookon Forest Trees. ]

[Footnote 857: Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets inthe same line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. X. 1. Of Sigida we knownothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given. Apuleiusmentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. Xi. , where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato. ]

[Footnote 858: Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he wasthe learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove;observing, that "the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the nuts, rather belongs to the tribe of apples. "]

[Footnote 859: Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius. His cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribuneunder Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it. He was consulA. U. C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people, A. U. C. 659. ]

[Footnote 860: Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. I. 6. We find thatCicero was among his pupils. The date of his praetorship, given below, fixes the time when Gnipho flourished. ]

[Footnote 861: This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derivedfrom a cork arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost. Hewas a poet of Mitylene. ]

[Footnote 862: See before, JULIUS, c. Xlvi. ]

[Footnote 863: A. U. C. 687. ]

[Footnote 864: Suetonius gives his life in c. X. ]

[Footnote 865: A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of whichwe have no very exact idea. ]

[Footnote 866: Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:

 Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo Orbilium tractare. Epist. Xi. I. 70. 

 I remember well when I was young, How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks. ]

[Footnote 867: Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovidand Martial. ]

[Footnote 868: This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius ofstatues erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity. Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, andwith the gown of the Greek philosophers. ]

[Footnote 869: Tacitus (Annal. Cxi. 75) gives the character ofAtteius Capito. He was consul A. U. C. 758. ]

[Footnote 870: Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. Xxx. ]

[Footnote 871: Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does notappear, ]

[Footnote 872: Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished inEgypt, under three of the Ptolemies successively. Strabo often mentionshim. See xvii. P. 576. ]

[Footnote 873: Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of thesame age as Catullus. Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435. ]

[Footnote 874: Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens. ]

[Footnote 875: Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the firstPtolemy at Alexandria, and tutor to his sons. ]

[Footnote 876: For Crates, see before, p. 507. ]

[Footnote 877: We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two daysbefore his death, in completing the twenty-second book of hisCommentaries; and, foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care ofLucullus, who, with the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arrangedthem. Epicadius also wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina. ]

[Footnote 878: Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the looseconduct of Mucia, Pompey's wife, during her husband's absence. ]

[Footnote 879: Fam. Epist. 9. ]

[Footnote 880: Cicero ad Att. Xii. 36. ]

[Footnote 881: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. V. ]

[Footnote 882: Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust. Lactantius, 11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says ofhim, Libertinarum dico; Sallustius in quas Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur. --Sat. I. 2. 48. ]

[Footnote 883: The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Ciceroaddressed his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius wasthe name of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can befound, so that the text is supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius wasan uncle of Atticus, and adopted him. The freedman mentioned in thischapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property ofCaecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of theirpatrons. ]

[Footnote 884: Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. Viii. Her name was Pomponia. ]

[Footnote 885: See AUGUSTUS, c. Lxvi. ]

[Footnote 886: He is mentioned before, c. Ix. ]

[Footnote 887: Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunctionwith Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A. M. C. 2024, which is A. U. C. 759; A. D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius, Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian. ]

[Footnote 888: Cinna wrote a poem, which he called "Smyrna, " and was nineyears in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1. ]

[Footnote 889: See AUGUSTUS, cc. Lxii. Lxix. ]

[Footnote 890: Cornelius Alexander, who had also the name of Polyhistor, was born at Miletus, and being taken prisoner, and bought by Cornelius, was brought to Rome, and becoming his teacher, had his freedom given him, with the name of his patron. He flourished in the time of Sylla, andcomposed a great number of works; amongst which were five books on Rome. Suetonius has already told us (AUGUSTUS, xxix. ) that he had thecare of the Palatine Library. ]

[Footnote 891: No such consul as Caius Licinius appears in the Fasti; andit is supposed to be a mistake for C. Atinius, who was the colleague ofCn. Domitius Calvinus, A. U. C. 713, and wrote a book on the Civil War. ]

[Footnote 892: Julius Modestus, in whom the name of the Julian family wasstill preserved, is mentioned with approbation by Gellius, Martial, Quintilian, and others. ]

[Footnote 893: Melissus is mentioned by Ovid, De Pontif. Iv 16-30. ]

[Footnote 894: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxix. P. 93, and note. ]

[Footnote 895: The trabea was a white robe, with a purple border, of adifferent fashion from the toga. ]

[Footnote 896: See before, c. X. ]

[Footnote 897: See CLAUDIUS, c. X1i. And note. ]

[Footnote 898: Remmius Palaemon appears to have been cotemporary withPliny and Quintilian, who speak highly of him. ]

[Footnote 899: Now Vicenza. ]

[Footnote 900: "Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon. "--Eccl. Iii. 50. ]

[Footnote 901: All the editions have the word vitem; but we mightconjecture, from the large produce, that it is a mistake for vineam, avineyard: in which case the word vasa might be rendered, not bottles, butcasks. The amphora held about nine gallons. Pliny mentions that Remmiusbought a farm near the turning on the Nomentan road, at the tenthmile-stone from Rome. ]

[Footnote 902: "Usque ad infamiam oris. "--See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and thenotes. ]

[Footnote 903: Now Beyrout, on the coast of Syria. It was one of thecolonies founded by Julius Caesar when he transported 80, 000 Romancitizens to foreign parts. --JULIUS, xlii. ]

[Footnote 904: This senatus consultum was made A. U. C. 592. ]

[Footnote 905: Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A. U. C. 710. ]

[Footnote 906: See NERO, c. X. ]

[Footnote 907: As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. Lxxxiv. ]

[Footnote 908: This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of anyepistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius. ]

[Footnote 909: See Cicero's Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus isfrequently mentioned, especially cc. I. And iii. ]

[Footnote 910: "Hordearium rhetorem. "]

[Footnote 911: From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the oldcustom of chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supplythe place of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in histime. ]

[Footnote 912: The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement islost. ]

[Footnote 913: Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote sometreatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period inwhich he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician herenamed by Suetonius. Plin. Xvii. 25. ]

[Footnote 914: Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II. , A. U. C. 705, and again with L. Antony, A. U. C. 712. ]

[Footnote 915: A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno, which discharges itself into the bay of Naples. ]

[Footnote 916: Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to thecorrupt habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony. ]

[Footnote 917: The direct allusion is to the "style" or probe used bysurgeons in opening tumours. ]

[Footnote 918: Mark Antony was consul with Julius Caesar, A. U. C. 709. See before, JULIUS, c. Lxxix. ]

[Footnote 919: Philipp. Xi. 17. ]

[Footnote 920: Leontium, now called Lentini, was a town in Sicily, thefoundation of which is related by Thucydides, vi. P. 412. Polybiusdescribes the Leontine fields as the most fertile part of Sicily. Polyb. Vii. 1. And see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii. 46, 47. ]

[Footnote 921: Novara, a town of the Milanese. ]

[Footnote 922: St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb. Describes Lucius MunatiusPlancus as the disciple of Cicero, and a celebrated orator. He foundedLyons during the time he governed that part of the Roman provinces inGaul. ]

[Footnote 923: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxvi. ]

[Footnote 924: He meant to speak of Cisalpine Gaul, which, thoughgeographically a part of Italy, did not till a late period enjoy theprivileges of the other territories united to Rome, and was administeredby a praetor under the forms of a dependent province. It was admitted toequal rights by the triumvirs, after the death of Julius Caesar. Albutiusintimated that those rights were now in danger. ]

[Footnote 925: Lucius Fenestella, an historical writer, is mentioned byLactantius, Seneca, and Pliny, who says, that he died towards the close ofthe reign of Tiberius. ]

[Footnote 926: The second Punic war ended A. U. C. 552, and the third beganA. U. C. 605. Terence was probably born about 560. ]

[Footnote 927: Carthage was laid in ruins A. U. C. 606 or 607, six hundredand sixty seven years after its foundation. ]

[Footnote 928: These entertainments were given by the aediles M. FulviusNobilior and M. Acilius Glabrio, A. U. C. 587. ]

[Footnote 929: St. Jerom also states that Terence read the "Andria" toCaecilius who was a comic poet at Rome; but it is clearly an anachronism, as he died two years before this period. It is proposed, therefore, toamend the text by substituting Acilius, the aedile; a correctionrecommended by all the circumstances, and approved by Pitiscus andErnesti. ]

[Footnote 930: The "Hecyra, " The Mother-in-law, is one of Terence'splays. ]

[Footnote 931: The "Eunuch" was not brought out till five years after theAndria, A. U. C. 592. ]

[Footnote 932: About 80 pounds sterling; the price paid for the twoperformances. What further right of authorship is meant by the wordsfollowing, is not very clear. ]

[Footnote 933: The "Adelphi" was first acted A. U. C. 593. ]

[Footnote 934: This report is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic, vii. 3), whoapplies it to the younger Laelius. The Scipio here mentioned is ScipioAfricanus, who was at this time about twenty-one years of age. ]

[Footnote 935: The calends of March was the festival of married women. See before, VESPASIAN, c. Xix. ]

[Footnote 936: Santra, who wrote biographies of celebrated characters, ismentioned as "a man of learning, " by St. Jerom, in his preface to the bookon the Ecclesiastical Writers. ]

[Footnote 937: The idea seems to have prevailed that Terence, originallyan African slave, could not have attained that purity of style in Latincomposition which is found in his plays, without some assistance. Thestyle of Phaedrus, however; who was a slave from Thrace, and lived in thereign of Tiberius, is equally pure, although no such suspicion attaches tohis work. ]

[Footnote 938: Cicero (de Clar. Orat. C. 207) gives Sulpicius Gallus ahigh character as a finished orator and elegant scholar. He was consulwhen the Andria was first produced. ]

[Footnote 939: Labeo and Popilius are also spoken of by Cicero in highterms, Ib. Cc. 21 and 24. Q. Fabius Labeo was consul with M. ClaudiusMarcellus, A. U. C. 570 and Popilius with L. Postumius Albinus, A. U. C. 580. ]

[Footnote 940: The story of Terence's having converted into Latin playsthis large number of Menander's Greek comedies, is beyond all probability, considering the age at which he died, and other circumstances. Indeed, Menander never wrote so many as are here stated. ]

[Footnote 941: They were consuls A. U. C. 594. Terence was, therefore, thirty-four years old at the time of his death. ]

[Footnote 942: Hortulorum, in the plural number. This term, often foundin Roman authors, not inaptly describes the vast number of littleinclosures, consisting of vineyards, orchards of fig-trees, peaches, etc. , with patches of tillage, in which maize, legumes, melons, pumpkins, andother vegetables are cultivated for sale, still found on small properties, in the south of Europe, particularly in the neighbourhood of towns. ]

[Footnote 943: Suetonius has quoted these lines in the earlier part ofhis Life of Terence. See before p. 532, where they are translated. ]

[Footnote 944: Juvenal was born at Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, asappears by an ancient MS. , and is intimated by himself. Sat. Iii. 319. ]

[Footnote 945: He must have been therefore nearly forty years old at thistime, as he lived to be eighty. ]

[Footnote 946: The seventh of Juvenal's Satires. ]

[Footnote 947: This Paris does not appear to have been the favourite ofNero, who was put to death by that prince (see NERO, c. Liv. )but another person of the same name, who was patronised by the emperorDomitian. The name of the poet joined with him is not known. Salmatiusthinks it was Statius Pompilius, who sold to Paris, the actor, the play ofAgave;

 Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendat Agaven. --Juv. Sat. Vii. 87. ]

[Footnote 948: Sulpicius Camerinus had been proconsul in Africa; BareasSoranus in Asia. Tacit. Annal. Xiii. 52; xvi. 23. Both of them are saidto have been corrupt in their administration; and the satirist introducestheir names as examples of the rich and noble, whose influence was lessthan that of favourite actors, or whose avarice prevented them frombecoming the patrons of poets. ]

[Footnote 949: The "Pelopea, " was a tragedy founded on the story of thedaughter of Thyestes; the "Philomela, " a tragedy on the fate of Itys, whose remains were served to his father at a banquet by Philomela and hersister Progne. ]

[Footnote 950: This was in the time of Adrian. Juvenal, who wrote firstin the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, composed his last Satire but one inthe third year of Adrian, A. U. C. 872. ]

[Footnote 951: Syene is meant, the frontier station of the imperialtroops in that quarter of the world. ]

[Footnote 952: A. U. C. 786, A. D. 34. ]

[Footnote 953: A. U. C. 814, A. D. 62. ]

[Footnote 954: Persius was one of the few men of rank and affluence amongthe Romans, who acquired distinction as writers; the greater part of themhaving been freedmen, as appears not only from these lives of the poets, but from our author's notices of the grammarians and rhetoricians. ACaius Persius is mentioned with distinction by Livy in the second Punicwar, Hist. Xxvi. 39; and another of the same name by Cicero, de Orat. Ii. 6, and by Pliny; but whether the poet was descended from either of them, we have no means of ascertaining. ]

[Footnote 955: Persius addressed his fifth satire to Annaeus Cornutus. He was a native of Leptis, in Africa, and lived at Rome in the time ofNero, by whom he was banished. ]

[Footnote 956: Caesius Bassus, a lyric poet, flourished during the reignsof Nero and Galba. Persius dedicated his sixth Satire to him. ]

[Footnote 957: "Numanus. " It should be Servilius Nonianus, who ismentioned by Pliny, xxviii. 2, and xxxvii. 6. ]

[Footnote 958: Commentators are not agreed about these sums, the textvarying both in the manuscripts and editions. ]

[Footnote 959: See Dr. Thomson's remarks on Persius, before, p. 398. ]

[Footnote 960: There is no appearance of any want of finish in the sixthSatire of Persius, as it has come down to us; but it has been conjecturedthat it was followed by another, which was left imperfect. ]

[Footnote 961: There were two Arrias, mother and daughter, Tacit. Annal. Xvi. 34. 3. ]

[Footnote 962: Persius died about nine days before he completed histwenty-ninth year. ]

[Footnote 963: Venusium stood on the confines of the Apulian, Lucanian, and Samnite territories. 

 Sequor hunc, Lucanus an Appulus anceps; Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus. Hor Sat. Xi. 1. 34. ] [Footnote 964: Sat. I. 6. 45. ]

[Footnote 965: Horace mentions his being in this battle, and does notscruple to admit that he made rather a precipitate retreat, "relicta nonbene parmula. "--Ode xi. 7-9. ]

[Footnote 966: See Ode xi. 7. 1. ]

[Footnote 967: The editors of Suetonius give different versions of thisepigram. It seems to allude to some passing occurrence, and in its presentform the sense is to this effect: "If I love you not, Horace, to my veryheart's core, may you see the priest of the college of Titus leaner thanhis mule. "]

[Footnote 968: Probably the Septimius to whom Horace addressed the odebeginning

 Septimi, Gades aditure mecum. --Ode xl. B. I. ]

[Footnote 969: See AUGUSTUS, c. Xxi. ; and Horace, Ode iv, 4. ]

[Footnote 970: See Epist. I. Iv. Xv. 

 Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises. ]

[Footnote 971: It is satisfactory to find that the best commentatorsconsider the words between brackets as an interpolation in the work ofSuetonius. Some, including Bentley, reject the preceding sentence also. ]

[Footnote 972: The works of Horace abound with references to his Sabinefarm which must be familiar to many readers. Some remains are stillshewn, consisting of a ruined wall and a tesselated pavement in avineyard, about eight miles from Tivoli, which are supposed, with reason, to mark its site. At least, the features of the neighbouring country, asoften sketched by the poet--and they are very beautiful--cannot bemistaken. ]

[Footnote 973: Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus were consulsA. U. C. 688. The genial Horace, in speaking of his old wine, agrees withSuetonius in fixing the date of his own birth:

 O nata mecum consule Manlio Testa. --Ode iii. 21. 

And again, Tu vina, Torquato, move Consule pressa meo. --Epod. Xiii. 8. ]

[Footnote 974: A. U. C. 745. So that Horace was in his fifty-seventh, nothis fifty-ninth year, at the time of his death. ]

[Footnote 975: It may be concluded that Horace died at Rome, under thehospitable roof of his patron Mecaenas, whose villa and gardens stood onthe Esquiline hill; which had formerly been the burial ground of the lowerclasses; but, as he tells us, Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque Aggere in apricospatiare. --Sat. I. 8. ]

[Footnote 976: Cordova. Lucan was the son of Annaeus Mella, Seneca'sbrother. ]

[Footnote 977: This sentence is very obscure, and Ernesti considers thetext to be imperfect. ]

[Footnote 978: They had good reason to know that, ridiculous as thetyrant made himself, it was not safe to incur even the suspicion of beingparties to a jest upon him. ]

[Footnote 979: See NERO, c. Xxxvi. ]

[Footnote 980: St. Jerom (Chron. Euseb. ) places Lucan's death in thetenth year of Nero's reign, corresponding with A. U. C. 817. Thisopportunity is taken of correcting an error in the press, p. 342, respecting the date of Nero's accession. It should be A. U. C. 807, A. D. 55. ]

[Footnote 981: These circumstances are not mentioned by some otherwriters. See Dr. Thomson's account of Lucan, before, p. 347, where it issaid that he died with philosophical firmness. ]

[Footnote 982: We find it stated ib. P. 396, that Lucan expired whilepronouncing some verses from his own Pharsalia: for which we have theauthority of Tacitus, Annal. Xv. 20. 1. Lucan, it appears, employed hislast hours in revising his poems; on the contrary, Virgil, we are told, when his death was imminent, renewed his directions that the Aeneid shouldbe committed to the flames. ]

[Footnote 983: The text of the concluding sentence of Lucan's life iscorrupt, and neither of the modes proposed for correcting it make thesense intended very clear. ]

[Footnote 984: Although this brief memoir of Pliny is inserted in all theeditions of Suetonius, it was unquestionably not written by him. Theauthor, whoever he was, has confounded the two Plinys, the uncle andnephew, into which error Suetonius could not have fallen, as he lived onintimate terms with the younger Pliny; nor can it be supposed that hewould have composed the memoir of his illustrious friend in so cursory amanner. Scaliger and other learned men consider that the life of Pliny, attributed to Suetonius, was composed more than four centuries after thathistorian's death. ]

[Footnote 985: See JULIUS, c. Xxviii. Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus(the younger Pliny) was born at Como, A. U. C. 814; A. D. 62. His father'sname was Lucius Caecilius, also of Como, who married Plinia, the sister ofCaius Plinius Secundus, supposed to have been a native of Verona, theauthor of the Natural History, and by this marriage the uncle of Pliny theYounger. It was the nephew who enjoyed the confidence of the emperorsNerva and Trajan, and was the author of the celebrated Letters. ]

[Footnote 986: The first eruption of Mount Vesuvius occurred A. U. C. 831, A. D. 79. See TITUS, c. Viii. The younger Pliny was with his uncle atMisenum at the time, and has left an account of his disastrous enterprisein one of his letters, Epist. Vi. Xvi. ]

[Footnote 987: For further accounts of the elder Pliny, see the Epistlesof his nephew, B. Iii. 5; vi. 16. 20; and Dr. Thomson's remarks before, pp. 475-478. ]

 INDEX. 

 Acilius, C. , his heroic conduct in a sea-fight, 42. Acte, a concubine of Nero, 357. Actium, battle of, 81, 82. Agrippa, M. , his naval victory, 80; presented with a banner, 88; his buildings, 93; aqueducts, 104; grandson of Augustus, 118; his character, ib. 119; adopted, 203; banished, 204; murdered, 208. Agrippina, daughter of M. Agrippa and Livia, 254; marries Germanicus, 118; banished by Tiberius, 225; birth of Caligula, 255; daughter of Germanicus, Claudius marries her, 320, 327; suspected of poisoning him, 331; her character, 335. Alban Mount, 276, 298, and note; festival on, 482. Albula, the warm springs at, 131. Albutius, Silus, an orator, 528. Alexander the Great, J. Caesar's model, 5; his sarcophagus opened for Augustus, 82. Alexandria, museum at, 330; library at, 496, note; the key of Egypt, 449; Vespasian's miracles there, 450, and note. Amphitheatres; of Statilius Taurus, 93; description of, 262, note; the Castrensis, 265 and note; the Colosseum, 453 and note. Andronicus, M. P. A scholar, 515. Antony, Mark, at Caesar's funeral, 53; triumvir with Octavius and Lepidus, 75; opposes Octavius, 76; defeated by him, 77; their new alliance, ib. ; dissolved, 80; defeat at Actium, 81; flies to Cleopatra, ib. ; kills himself, ib. Anticyra, island of, 272 and note. Antium, the Apollo Belvidere found there, 217 note; preferred by Caligula, 256; colony settled at, 343 and note. Antonius, Lucius, brother of Mark, war with, 76; forced to surrender, 78. ------, Musa, Augustus's physician, 116. Antonia, grandmother of Caligula, 267, 272. Apollonius of Rhodes, 4. Apple, the Matian, 496. Apomus, fountain of, 203. Apotheosis, J. Caesar, 1, note; and 55. Apicius, his works, 249. Aqueduct of the Anio, 265 and note, 314. Arch of Claudius, 303; of Titus, 467 note. Aricia, grove of, 81; a town near Rome, 73. Arles, a Roman colony, 195. Asinius Pollio, the orator, 304. ------ Gallius, his son, ib. ; 329. Atteius, the philologer, 513. ------ Capito, jurisconsult, 521. Atticus, the friend of Cicero, 517 and note. August, name of the month Sextilis changed to, 95. AUGUSTUS CAESAR, his descent, 71; birth, 73; infancy and youth, 74; civil wars, 76; battle of Philippi, 77; takes Perugia, 79; naval war with Pompey, 80; battle of Actium, 81; forces Antony to kill himself, ib. ; and Cleopatra, ib. ; foreign wars, 83; triumphs, 85; conduct as a general, 86; in civil affairs, 88-90; in improving the city, 90-94; in religious matters, 95; in administering justice, 96, 97; purifies the senate, 98; scrutiny of the knights, 102; his munificence, 104; public spectacles, 105-108; colonies, 109; the provinces, ib. ; distribution of the army, 110; his clemency, 111; moderation, 112, 113; honours paid him, 114-116; his wives and family, 117-119; friendships, 120; aspersions on his character, 121-124; his domestic life, 125-129; person and health, 129-131; literary pursuits, 132-135; regard for religion and omens, 136-142; his last illness and death, 143-145; his funeral and will, 146-147; remarks on his life and times, 148-191. Aulus Plautius commands in Britain, 309 and note, 444; his ovation, 316. 

 Baiae, Julian harbour formed at, 79; frequented by Augustus, 126. Basilicas, the, 7 and note. Basilides, an Egyptian priest, 447 note; appears to Vespasian, 450. Baths of Nero, 345 and note; of Titus, 470 and note. Beccus, a general in Gaul, 439 and note. Bedriacum, battle of, 423, 433, 447. Berenice, queen, attachment of Titus to her, 469 and note. Berytus, now Beyrout, 522. Bibaculus, a poet, 507 note. Bibulus, M. , edile, 6 and note; consul with J. Caesar, 12; lampoon on, 13. Bithynia, J. Caesar sent there, 2. Britain, invaded by Julius Caesar, 17; reconnoitred first, 38; Caligula's intended expedition, 282 and note; that of Claudius, 308, 309; Nero proposes to abandon, 848; revolt there, 368 and note. Britannicus, son of Claudius, 320; his regard for him, 330; educated with Titus, 405; poisoned, ib. ; honours paid him by Titus, ib. Brutus and Cassius conspire against Julius Caesar, 49; they assassinate him, 51; his dying apostrophe to Brutus, 52 and note; their fate, 55 and 78. Bulla, the, worn by youths, 54 and note. 

 Caenis, concubine of Vespasian, 443; Domitian's conduct to, 490. Caesonia, Caligula's mistress and wife, 269; threatened by him, 275; slain, 291. Caesario, son of Cleopatra by Caesar, 82. Caius and Lucius, grandsons of Augustus, 89; their death, 118. Caius Caesar, 74. See CALIGULA. Calendar, the, corrected by Julius Caesar, 27 and note; by Augustus, 95. CALIGULA, his birth, 254; origin of his name, 256; in Germany and Syria, ib. ; with Tiberius at Capri, 257; suspected of murdering him, 258; succeeds him, ib. ; his popularity, 259; honours to Germanicus and his family, 260; his just administration, 261; consulships, 262; public spectacles, 263; public works, 264; affects royalty, 266; and divinity, ib. ; treatment of his female relatives, 267, 268; of his wives and mistresses, 269; of his friends, ib. ; of the magistrates, 270; his cruelties, 271-274; discourages learning, 275; disgraces men of rank, 276; his unnatural lusts, 277; exhausts the treasury, 278; his rapacity, 279; his new taxes, 280; expedition to Germany, 281; bravado against Britain, 283 and note; his triumph, 284; his person and constitution, 285; style of dress, 286; personal accomplishments, 287, 288; his favourite horse, 289; conspiracies against him, ib. ; omens of his fate, 290; he is assassinated, 291. Calpurnia, wife of J. Caesar, 14. Capitol, the, burnt by Vitellius, 438; rebuilt by Vespasian, 452; rebuilt by Domitian, 483. Capri, island of, exchanged for Ischia, 137; Augustus visits it, 143; Tiberius retires there, 217; his debaucheries there, 219-220. Carinae, a street in Rome, 203. Carmel, Mount, Vespasian sacrifices at, 447 and note. Caractacus, 309 note; 334. Cassius. See Brutus. ------ Chaerea, the assassin of Caligula, 289-291. Caspian Mountains, pass through, 349 and note. Catiline's conspiracy, 9, 11. Cato, M. , infuses vigour into the senate, 9; yields to political expediency, 12 and note; dragged to prison from the senate, 14; threatens to impeach J. Caesar, 21. Catullus, remarks on his works, 67-69. Celsus, the physician, his works, 249. Censor, office of, 100 and note. Census taken, how, 102. Chrestus said to make tumults at Rome, 318. Christians, confounded with the Jews, 215 note; accused of sedition, 318 and note; cruelties of Nero to, 347; poll tax on, 489 note. Cicero, M. T. , his opinion of J. Caesar, 7 and 21; appealed to by him, 11; commends Caesar's oratory, 35; remarks on the works of, 60-65; dream of, 140. Cinna, Cornelius Helvius, a poet, 517 and note. Circensian games, description of, 26 and note, 27. Circeii, near Antium, 236. Circus, Flaminian, 310 note; Maximus, 355 and note. Civic crown, description of, 3. Claudii, family of the, 192-194. CLAUDIUS, his birth, 296; childhood and education, 297; Augustus's opinion of him, 298; fills public offices, 300; held in contempt, 301; unexpected elevation, ib. ; elected by the praetorian guard, 302; honours to the family of Augustus, 303; his moderation, ib. ; conspiracies against him, 304; conduct as consul and judge, 305, 306; as censor, 307; expedition to Britain, 309; his triumph, 310; care of the city and people, ib. ; his public works, 311; public spectacles, 312, 313; civil and religious administration, 314, 315; military, 316, 317; banishes the Jews and Christians, 318 and note; his marriages, 319; children, 320; his freedmen and favourites, 321; governed by them and his wives, ib. ; his person, 322; his entertainments, 323; cruelty, 324; fear and distrust, 325, 326; affects literature, 328, 329; death by poison, 330; omens previously, 331. Clemens. See Flavius. Cleopatra has Egypt confirmed to her by J. Caesar, 24; intrigues with him, 34; has a son by him, ib. ; flies with Mark Antony, 81; kills herself, 82; her children by Antony, ib. And 81. Coins of Caligula, 37; of Vespasian, 467. Cologne, founded by Agrippina, 434 and note. Colonies at Como, 19; foreign, 29. Colosseum, the, begun by Vespasian, 453; finished by Titus, 470 and note. Commentaries, Caesar's, 36, 37. Comet before Nero's death, 366. Comitium, the, embellished, 7 and note. Como, colony settled there, 19 and note. Compitalian festival, flowers used at 96, and note. Confluentes, Coblentz, 250. Cordus Cremutius, a historian, 99. Cornelia, Julius Caesar's wife, 2; her death, 5. Corinth. See Isthmus of. Cornelius Nepos, account of, 101. Cotiso, king of the Getae, 117 and note. Cottius, his dominions in the Alps, 216, 349. Crassus, aspires to be dictator, 6; his conspiracies, 6 and 7; becomes security for Julius Caesar, 11 note; reconciled to Pompey, 12. Crates, a grammarian, 504. Cunobeline and his son, 282; defeated by Aulus Plautius, 309 and note. Curtius Nicia, a scholar, 517. Curule chair, 89; description of, note ib. Cybele, rites of, 121 and note, 194. 

 Date-trees, introduction of, 493 and note. Dolabella, P. , loses a fleet, 24; inveighs against J. Caesar, 32; prosecuted by Caesar, 35. Domitia, wife of Domitian, 480; intrigues with Paris, 481; denies intrigue with Titus, 473; plots Domitian's death, 491. DOMITIAN, his birth, 479; his youth infamous, ib. ; escapes from Vitellius, ib. ; assumes power in Rome, 480; governs despotically, ib. ; under Vespasian amused himself with poetry, ib. ; plots against Titus, ib. ; succeeds him, 481; his wife Domitia, 480, 481; gives costly spectacles, ib. 482; his public buildings, 483; expeditions, ib. ; his administration, 484; of justice, 485; his cruelties, 487, 488; extortions, 489; poll-tax on the Jews, ib. ; his arrogance, 490; conspiracy against him, 481; alarms and omens, 492, 493; his assassination, 494; his person and habits, 496; lewd conduct, 497; he is lamented only by the soldiers, 497. Domitii, family of, 337-339. Domitilla, wife of Flavius Clemens, 494 note. Druids, religion of, suppressed by Claudius, 318. Drusilla, sister of Caligula, 268. ------, wife of Felix, 321 and note. Drusus, brother of Tiberius, 196; his death, 198. ------, Tiberius's son, 197, 203; his death, 217, 224, 230; son of Germanicus, starved, 226; father of Claudius, 295; died in Germany, ib. ; his character, 296. Dyracchium, Cn. Pompey blockaded there, 23, 40. 

 Eagles, the standards, of the legions, 39, 259 and note. East, the, prophecy of a Ruler from, 445 and note. Egypt confirmed to Cleopatra, 24; supplies Rome with corn, 82; made a province, ib. Emperor, the title of, 46 note. Ennius, account of, 506, 507. Epicadius completes Sylla's Commentaries, 516. Epidius, C. , teaches rhetoric, 527. Equestrian order, scrutiny of, 98, 102: procession of, 101 and note; review of, 261; purified by Vespasian, 453. Eratosthenes, the philosopher, 514. Esseda, a light British car, 264 and note. 

 Family names and cognomena, 192 note. Felix, governor of Judaea, 321; his wives, ib. Flaccus, C. Valerius, a poet, 463. Flamen Dialis, high-priest of Jupiter, 1 note. Flavian family, account of, 441; temple of, 495. Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, 443. Flavius Clemens, Domitian's cousin, 492; put to death, ib. And note, 494. ------ Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, 437; retreats to the capitol, 438; buried there, ib. Forum, the Roman, 7; of Julius Caesar, 18; of Augustus, 92, 113; of Nerva, 483. Fruits, foreign, introduced at Rome, 493 note. Fucine lake, drainage of, projected by J. Caesar, 30; emissary of, 311, 314. 

 GALBA, not allied to the Caesars, 400; his descent, 401; birth, 402; studies the law, 403; courted by Agrippina, ib. ; a favourite of Livia, ib. ; proctor and consul, 404; commands in Gaul, ib. ; in Africa, 405; in Spain, 406; on Nero's death assumes the title of Caesar, 408; marches to Rome, 409; his severity, 410; becomes hateful to the people, 411; and the troops, ib. ; omens against him, 412; the praetorian revolt, 413; he is slain, ib. ; his person and habits, 414. Callus, Cornelius, prefect of Egypt, 120; friend of Augustus, ib. ; his eclogues, 188; patron of Caecilius, a man of letters, 518. ------, L. Plotius, a rhetorician, 526. Gaul, J. Caesar goes there as proconsul, 15; division of the provinces, ib. Note; he levies troops in, 16; his conquests in, 17. Germanicus marries Agrippina, 118; adopted by Tiberius, 203, 251; his triumph, ib. ; his death, 217, 224, 251; his sons, 225; his character, 252; grief for, 253. German tribes, defeated by J. Caesar, 17; they defeat Varus, 86; Caligula's expedition against, 281, 282. Gessoriacum, Boulogne, 283, 309. Gladiators, combats of, exhibited by Julius, 8, 19, 25; first introduced at Rome, 25 note; shown by Caligula, 262; by Domitian, 481. Gnipho, M. A. , a grammarian, 511-513. Golden House, the, of Nero, 359. Grammar, science of, 506. Grammarians, what, 509. Guards, the Spanish, 100; the German, ib. ; disbanded by Galba, 409. See Praetorian. 

 Helvidius Priscus, a philosopher, 455. Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, 76; defeated and slain, 77. Horace, his life and works, 173-177, 642-545. Horse, Caligula's favourite, 289; proposes to make him consul, ib. Hyginus, Palatine librarian, 520; his works, 249. 

 Illyricum, conquered, 204. Intramural interments at Rome, forbidden, 192 note. Isthmus of Corinth, canal through, 265, 349. 

 Jerusalem taken by Titus, 467 and note. Jews, rites of suppressed by Tiberius, 215; expelled from Rome by Claudius, 318; revolt of, 445; Vespasian's triumph over, 449, 454; fate of their sacred vessels, 449 note; figured on the arch of Titus, 467 note; poll-tax on the, 489. Josephus the historian, taken prisoner by Vespasian, 447; predicts his elevation, ib. Journals of the proceedings of the senate published by J. Caesar, 13; includes speeches, trials, births, deaths, etc. , ib. ; discontinued by Augustus, 261; revived by Caligula, ib. Julia, daughter of Julius Caesar, 2; married to Ca. Pompey, 4; her death, 17. ------, daughter of Augustus, married to Marcellus, 117; to Agrippa, ib. ; to Tiberius, ib. And 197; their children, 118; banished, 119. ------, granddaughter of Augustus, married to Lucius Paulus, 118; banished, ib. JULIUS CAESAR, marries Cornelia, 1; serves in Asia, 2; fills public offices, 4; commands in Spain, 5; joins Sylla and Crassus, 6; his public buildings, 7; chosen consul, 12; marries Calpurnia, 14; alliance with Pompey, ib. 15; has the province of Gaul, 15; invades Britain, 17; affects popularity and is lavish of money, 18; resolves on war, 20; crosses the Rubicon, 22; marches to Rome, 23; defeats Pompey at Pharsalia, ib. ; his triumphs, 24; his public spectacles, 25; corrects the calendar, 27; his civil administration, 28, 29; projected works, 30; person and dress, ib. ; his character, scandals on, 32-34; his extortions, 35; as an orator, ib. ; as a writer, 36, 37; as a general, 38-43; as an advocate and friend, 43-44; his good qualities, 45; his abuse of power, 46, 47; conspiracy against him, 48-50; his assassination, 51; his will, 52; funeral, 53; apotheosis, 55. Juvenal, account of, and works, 499, 500; life of, 536. 

 Laberius Hiera, a grammarian, 516. "Latus Clavus, " what, 31. Laurel grove of the Caesars, 400 and note. Lenaeus, a school master, 507. Lepidus, master of the horse to Julius Caesar, 52; one of the triumviri, 75; the confederacy renewed, 77; banished, 80; his death, 95. Libraries, public, one projected by J. Caesar, 80; the Palatine, formed by Augustus, 92; of Alexandria, 496; of the portico of Octavia, 520. Lictors, attend the consuls, 13 and note. Liveries, colours of the imperial, 490, note. Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus, 117, 295; mother of Tiberius, 202; his treatment of her, 222, 223; her death, 224; divine honours decreed to, 303. ------ Ocellina, mother of Galba, 402. Livius Andronicus, account of, 506. ------ Titus, remarks on his History, 161-165. Lollius, governor of Agrippa, 201, 202. Lucan, remarks on, 396, 397; life of, 544. Lucius Aevius, a grammarian, 508. ------ Crassitius, schoolmaster and philosopher, 519. ------ Vettius, an informer, 11, 14. Lucretius, remarks on his works, 69. Lupercalia, feast of, 48, and note; and 96. 

 Marcellus, M. Pomponius, a critic, 523. Marius, C. , his trophies restored, 8. Martial, account and works of, 503-505. Marmillo, a kind of gladiator, 288, 487. Mausoleum of Augustus, 259. Mecaenas, Augustus complains of, 120; his house and gardens on the Esquiline, 125, 203; his character, 153; patronizes Horace, 173, 541. Melissus, Caius, librarian and friend of Mecaenas, 520. Messalina, wife of Claudius, 319; put to death, ib. ; her character, 335. Misenum, a naval station, 110; Tiberius sails there, 236. Mithridates revolts, 4. Mitylene taken by storm, 3. Money-lenders, lampoon on Augustus for his father's being one, 123; note on ib. ; and 340. Mount Aetna, 286. ----- Vesuvius, eruption of, 471, 548. Muraena, conspiracy of, 83, 114, 120. 

 Naevius, his Punic war, 509. Naples, a Greek colony, 303, note. Narbonne, a Roman-colony, 195. Narcissus, a freedman of Claudius, 321, 326. Naumachia, of Julius, 27; of Augustus, 105; Nero, 344; Titus, 470; of Domitian, 482; erected by him, 483. Nemi, lake of, 276, note. NERE, his descent, 337-339; birth, 340; youth, 341; succeeds Claudius, 342; begins his reign well, 343; gives spectacles and largesses, 344, 345; receives king Tiridates, 346; administration of justice, ib. ; his public buildings, 347; cruelties to the Christians, ib. , and note; undertakes no foreign wars, 348; appears on the stage, as a singer, at Naples, 350; at Rome, 351; as a charioteer, 352; in Greece, 353; triumphal return, 354; his revels and vices, 356; foul debaucheries, 357; prodigality, 358; his Golden House, 359; other works, 360; extortions, ib. , 361; his murders: Britannicus, 362; his mother, 363; his remorse, 364; marries Poppaea Sabina, ib. ; Messalina, ib. ; his butcheries, 365, 366; sets fire to Rome, 367; sings whilst it is burning, ib. ; disasters in Britain, 368; and in the East, 369; lampoons on him, ib. ; revolt of Vindex, in Gaul, 370; appeals to the senate, 371; Galba declares against him in Spain, 372; proposes to march against Vindex, 373; his perplexities, 375; escapes from Rome, 376; kills himself, 378; his person, 379; accomplishments, 380; religious sentiments, 381. Nicomedes, king of Bethynia, Julius Caesar at his court, 2; scandals respecting them, ib. , and 32, 33. Nola, Augustus dies there, 145; him temple there, 217. 

 Obelisks, Egyptian, 312, and note. Octacilius, L. Pilitus, instructs Pompey the Great, 627. Octavii, the family of, 71. Octavius, Caius, father of Augustus, 72. Odeum, erected by Domitian, 483. Oppius Cares writes on forest trees, 509, note. Opilius, Aurelius, a grammarian, 510. Orbilius Pupillus, a schoolmaster, 512. Organ, the Hydraulic, 37, and note. Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, 200, and note; harbour formed, 311. OTHO, his ancestors, 416; his birth, 417; gets into Nero's favour, ib. ; marries Poppaea pro forma, 418; sent into Spain, ib. ; joins Galba, ib. ; practises against him, 419; chosen emperor by the pretorians, 420; and Vitellius, by the German army, 421; he marches against them, 422; his troops defeated at Bedriacum, 423; makes no further resistance, 424; calmly puts an end to his life, 425; his person and habits, ib. ; devotion of his soldiers, 426. Ovation, description of, 85, note. Ovid, on his life and writings, 177-185. Oxheads, a street in Rome, 73. 

 Palatine Hill, 73, and notes; Augustus's house there, 125; enlarged by Caligula, 266, 267; the Golden House added by Nero, 359, 369; Tiberius's house, 438. Pansa. See Hirtius. Pantheon, built by Agrippa, 93. Paris, an actor, intrigues with Domitia, 481. Pearls found in Britain, 31 and note. Persius, remarks on, 397-399; life of, 538. Petronia, wife of Vitellius, 431. Petronius Arbiter, remarks on, 392-395. Phaedrus, account of, 248. Pharmacusa, island of, 4. Pharsalia, battle of, 23; speech of J. Caesar after, 21; his call to the troops at, 45; Lucan's poem on, 396. Philippi, battle of, 77, 78; Augustus's escape at, 136. Philosophers, decrees against at Rome, 524. Pincian hill, 379, and note. Piso, Cneius, conspires with Crassus, 7. ----, prefect of Syria, 251; suspected of poisoning Germanicus, 252; his conspiracy, 366. Plancus, L. Munatius, the orator, 529, and note. Pliny, the elder, remarks on, 475; his works, ib. -478; his life, 545. -----, the younger, 546, note. Polyhistor, Alexander, the historian, 520, and note. Pomegranate, street so called, 479, and note. Pompeius Sextus, wars of Augustus with, 76. Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar, 5. Pompey, Cn. , reconciled with Crassus, 12; marries Julia, 14; supports her father J. Caesar, 15; meets him at Lucca, 16; sole consul, 17; offered Octavia in marriage, 18; his opinion of Julius Caesar, 20; flies to Brundusium, 23; defeated at Pharsalia, ib. ; his statues restored, 45; his senate-house, 49, 50, and note. Pontine Marshes, drainage of, 30. Poppaea, Sabina, Nero's mistress, 360; he kills her, 365; Otho marries her pro forma, 417, 418. Porticos; of Lucius and Caius, 93; of Octavia, ib. , and note; of the Argonauts, 94. Posts established, 110. Pretorian guards of Tiberius, 221, 229; elect Claudius, 302; attend him to the senate, 303; salute Nero, 342; mutiny against Galba, 411; dispatch him, 413; disbanded by Vitellius, 432; commanded by Vitus, 468. Pretorian camp, 265, 302; its position, 376. Probus, M. Valerius, his mode of teaching, 525. Procurators, their office, 304, note. Propertius, on his life and works, 188. Psylli, the, 81, and note. Ptolemy Auletes expelled, 8. Public health, augury of, and note, 95. Publius Clodius debauches Pompeia, 5; is Cicero's enemy, 14; murdered, 17; his trial, 44. Puteoli, Caligula's bridge at, 263; the landing-place from the East, 467. 

 Quintilian, remarks on, 498, 499. Quintus Caecilius, a schoolmaster, 519. ------- Catulus, repairs the Capitol, 10, and note. 

 Rabirius Posthumus prosecuted, 9, 308. Ravenna, J. Caesar halts there, 20; a naval station, 110. Reate, a town of the Sabines, 441; Vespasian born there, 442, 469; his estates near, 461; he dies there, ib. ; as does Titus, 478. Remmius Palaemon, a grammarian, 523. Republic, the, Augustus thinks of restoring, 91; the forms of, preserved, 212; maintained by Caligula, 261; proposal to restore it; 292. Rhetoric forbidden at Rome, 526; its progress, 527. Rhine, the, suddenly thaws, 484. Rhodes, J. Caesar retires there, 3; and Tiberius, 200. Roman people, their love of public spectacles, 216; largesses of corn to, 311, 312. Rome, improvements of Augustus, 91; divided into districts, 94; a fire there, 221; Nero's fire, 367; restored by Vespasian, 452; great fire under Titus, 471, and note. Roads. See Via. Rubicon, the, crossed by Jul. Caesar, 22. Rutifius Rufus, soldier and historian, 510; note, 511. 

 Sallust, remarks on, 159, 160. Santra, a biographical writer, 533, and note. Saturnalia, account of, 262, note. Scaeva, a centurion, his heroic conduct, 42. Scribonia, wife of Augustus, 117. Scribonius, a disciple of Orbilius, 521. Secular games, by Augustus, 96; by Claudius, 313. Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, 264. Sejanus, Tiberius's suspicions of, 229, 257; his conspiracy, 232; account of, 244, 245. Senate, filled up by Julius, 28; affronted by him, 47; scrutiny of, 98; qualification for, 104, 315; constitution of, 115, note; scrutiny of, by Caligula, 260; purified by Vespasian, 453. Seneca, Annaeus, made Nero's tutor, 341; forced to kill himself, 365; remarks on, 386-392. Septa, what, 105, and note. Septizonium, the, description of, 465, note. Sertorius commands in Spain, 4. Servilia, mother of M. Brutus, J. Caesar intrigues with her, 33. Sesterce, the value of, 457, note. Sextus Clodius, professor, and friend of Antony, 528. Sibylline books preserved by Augustus, 95. Silanus betrothed to Claudius's daughter, 316;--the elder, put to death, 322, 326. Silius, a paramour of Messalina, 322, 325. Silversmiths. See Money-lenders. Slaves, workhouses of, 96; writers and artists originally such, 457 note; chained as watch-dogs, 527, and note. Spain, province of, governed by Julius Caesar, 5, 11; Pompey's army in, 23; Galba commands there, 406. Sporus, Nero's freedman, 367, 376, 378. Standards, Roman, 259. Statues of the kings of Rome, 46; of Pompey, 96; of learned men, 513, 519. Statius, his works, 500-503. Suburra, a street in Rome, 31. Suetonius Paulinus, commands in Britain, 423, note. ------, Lenis, the author's father, serves under Otho, ib. Suevius Nicanor, a grammarian, 510. Sumptuary laws of Julius Caesar, 29. Sylla pardons Julius Caesar, 2; conspires with Caesar and Crassus, 6; his statues restored, 45; his Commentaries, 516. 

 Taurus, Statilius, 93, 364. Temples of Castor and Pollux, 8, and note, 266; of Jupiter Capitolinus repaired, 10, and notes, etc. ; of Venus Genetrix, 47; Mars Ultor, 84, 92; Palatine Apollo, ib. And note; Jupiter Tonans, 93, and note; Hercules and Muses, ib. ; the Parthenon, ib. And note; of Concord, 206, and note; of Vesta, 223, and note; of Augustus, 264; Jupiter Latialis, 298, and note; of Peace, 453, and note; of Claudius ib. ; of Jupiter Custos, 483; of the Flavian Family, 483, 495. Terence, life of, 531. Terracina, on the road to Naples, 23; Tiberius's villa there, 217; and note. Tertia, mistress of Julius Caesar, 33. Theatres--of Pompey, 96; rebuilt, 312; of Marcellus, 93, and note; repaired, 458; of Balbus, ib. ; Pompey's restored by Tiberius, 221; by Caligula, 265. Theogenes, an astrologer of Apollonia, 141. Thrax, a kind of gladiator, 487. Thurinus, a surname of Augustus, 74. TIBERIUS, descent of, 192-195; his childhood, 196; youth, 197; in the forum, 198; in the wars, ib. , and 199; withdraws from Rome, ib. ; retirement at Rhodes, 200, 201; returns to Rome, 202; commands in Germany and Illyricum, 204, 205; triumphs, 206; made colleague with Augustus, ib. ; succeeds him, 207; governs with moderation, 210-213; sumptuary laws, 214; represses the Jewish religion, 215; and Christian, ib. , and note; his rigorous justice, 216; retires to Capri, 217; his debaucheries there, 218-220; his parsimony, 221; exactions, 222; treatment of Livia, 223; of Drusus and Germanicus, 224; of Agrippina, 225; his grandsons, ib. ; his harsh temper, 227; various cruelties, 228-231; his remorse, 233; his person, 234; literary pursuits, 235; his last illness, 236; and death, 237; rejoicings at it, 238; his will, 239. Tiber, inundations of the, 91, and note; bed of, cleaned, 94, and note; floods, 223; criminals thrown into, 230; island of Esculapius, in, 317, and note. Tibullus, his life and works, 185-187. Tiridates, king, at Rome, 346. Titinnius, letter of Cicero to, 528, and note. TITUS, his birth and disposition, 465; educated with Britannicus, ib. ; the honours he paid him, ib. ; endowments, personal and mental, 466; serves in Germany and Britain, ib. ; in Judaea, ib. ; takes Jerusalem, 467; returns to Rome, ib. ; is colleague with Vespasian, 468; is harsh and unpopular, ib. ; his attachment to Berenice, 469; his character brightens, ib. ; his moderation and munificence, 470; public buildings and spectacles, ib. , and note; his clemency, 471; relief of great disasters, 472; avoids shedding blood, ib. ; taken suddenly ill, 473; dies on his paternal estate, 474. Toga, Praetexta, 101, 103, and notes. ---- Virilis, 101, and note. Tomb of Domitian, 379, and note. Treviri (Treves), 254, 256, note. Triumphs of Julius Caesar, 24, 25; Augustus, 85; description of a, ib. Note; Tiberius, 206; Germanicus, 251; of Vespasian and Titus, 454, 467; of Domitian, 484. 

 Valerius Cato, a grammarian, 516. -------- Maximus, account of his works, 248. Varro, remarks on his works, 65, 67. Varus' defeat by the Germans, 86, 205. Velabrum, a street in Rome, 25, 355. Velleius Paterculus, his life and Epitome, 247. Velitrae, town of, seat of the Octavian family, 71, 74. Venus of Coos, statue of, by Apelles, 457. VESPASIAN, his descent from the Flavian family, 441; his birth at Reate, 442; fondness for it, ib. ; serves in Thrace, 443; has the province of Crete and Cyrene, ib. ; marries Flavia Domitilla, ib. ; his children, ib. ; serves in Germany and Britain, 444; is proconsul in Africa, ib. ; goes into retirement, ib. ; the Jews, revolt, 445; he is sent to quell it, ib. ; the prophecy of a ruler from the East applied to him. Ib. And note; his campaign, in Judaea, 446; consults the oracle at Carmel, 447; the Moesian army declares him emperor, 448; also the legions in Egypt and Judaea, ib. ; seizes Alexandria, 449; consults Serapis, ib. ; performs miracles, 450, and note; returns to Rome, 451; his Jewish triumph, ib. ; reforms the army, 452; his public buildings, 453; his just administration, 454; and clemency, 455; his love of money, 456; encourages learning and art, 457; his person, 459; mode of life, ib. ; his wit, 460; is taken ill, 461; dies at Reate, ib. Vestal Virgins, the, 52; mode of appointment, 95; and note; their lewdness punished, 485. Via Appia, 236, and note. --- Flaminia, 94, and note, 146. --- Nomentana, 376, note. --- Sacra, a street in Rome, 31. --- Salaria, description of 376 note; tomb there, 454. Vienne, in Narbonne, 433, and note. Vines forbidden to be planted, 484; edict revoked, 491; remarkable produce of a, 524. Vindex, Julius, revolts in Gaul, 370, 406; his death, 408. Vintage, the, 99, note. VITELLIUS, his origin, 427, 428; and birth, 429; his youth vicious, 430; in favour with Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, 430; his marriages, 431; sent to Germany, ib. ; saluted emperor by the troops, 432; marches to Rome, 433; governs despotically, 434; his gluttony, 435; and luxury, ib. ; his cruel executions, 436; the legions declare against him, 437; agrees to abdicate, ib. ; secretes himself, 438; is dragged out and slain, 439. Virgil, account of his life and works, 165-173. Vologesus honours Nero's memory 381; offers reinforcements to Vespasian, 449; demands succours, 480. Vorones, king of the Parthians, 222. Wild beasts shown in the public spectacles by Julius, 8; by Augustus, 105, 106; criminals thrown to, 305, and note; numbers exhibited, 470, note; exhibited by Domitian, 481.