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The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete
       To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The 
    Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets

Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus Release Date: November 10, 2004 [EBook #6400]

The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.; Revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

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PREFACE


C. Suetonius Tranquillus was the son of a Roman knight who commanded a
legion, on the side of Otho, at the battle which decided the fate of the
empire in favour of Vitellius.  From incidental notices in the following
History, we learn that he was born towards the close of the reign of
Vespasian, who died in the year 79 of the Christian era.  He lived till
the time of Hadrian, under whose administration he filled the office of
secretary; until, with several others, he was dismissed for presuming on
familiarities with the empress Sabina, of which we have no further
account than that they were unbecoming his position in the imperial
court.  How long he survived this disgrace, which appears to have
befallen him in the year 121, we are not informed; but we find that the
leisure afforded him by his retirement, was employed in the composition
of numerous works, of which the only portions now extant are collected in
the present volume.

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

The plan adopted by Suetonius in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, led him
to be more diffuse on their personal conduct and habits than on public
events.  He writes Memoirs rather than History.  He neither dwells on the
civil wars which sealed the fall of the Republic, nor on the military
expeditions which extended the frontiers of the empire; nor does he
attempt to develop the causes of the great political changes which marked
the period of which he treats.

When we stop to gaze in a museum or gallery on the antique busts of the
Caesars, we perhaps endeavour to trace in their sculptured physiognomy
the characteristics of those princes, who, for good or evil, were in
their times masters of the destinies of a large portion of the human
race.  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 of
Suetonius, "He is scrupulously exact, and strictly methodical.  He omits
nothing which concerns the person whose life he is writing; he relates
everything, but paints nothing.  His work is, in some sense, a collection
of anecdotes, but it is very curious to read and consult." [2]

Combining as it does amusement and information, Suetonius's "Lives of the
Caesars" was held in such estimation, that, so soon after the invention
of printing as the year 1500, no fewer than eighteen editions had been
published, and nearly one hundred have since been added to the number.
Critics of the highest rank have devoted themselves to the task of
correcting and commenting on the text, and the work has been translated
into most European languages.  Of the English translations, that of Dr.
Alexander Thomson, published in 1796, has been made the basis of the
present.  He informs us in his Preface, that a version of Suetonius was
with him only a secondary object, his principal design being to form a
just estimate of Roman literature, and to elucidate the state of
government, and the manners of the times; for which the work of Suetonius
seemed a fitting vehicle.  Dr. Thomson's remarks appended to each
successive reign, are reprinted nearly verbatim in the present edition.
His translation, however, was very diffuse, and retained most of the
inaccuracies of that of Clarke, on which it was founded; considerable
care therefore has been bestowed in correcting it, with the view of
producing, 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 a
translation has not before appeared in English, are added.  These Lives
abound with anecdote and curious information connected with learning and
literary men during the period of which the author treats.
                                                            T. F.

BOOK 1: CAIUS JULIUS CAESAR

I.  Julius Caesar, the Divine [3], lost his father [4] when he was in the
sixteenth year of his age [5]; and the year following, being nominated to
the office of high-priest of Jupiter [6], he repudiated Cossutia, who was
very wealthy, although her family belonged only to the equestrian order,
and to whom he had been contracted when he was a mere boy.  He then
married (2) Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, who was four times consul;
and had by her, shortly afterwards, a daughter named Julia.  Resisting
all the efforts of the dictator Sylla to induce him to divorce Cornelia,
he suffered the penalty of being stripped of his sacerdotal office, his
wife's dowry, and his own patrimonial estates; and, being identified with
the adverse faction [7], was compelled to withdraw from Rome.  After
changing his place of concealment nearly every night [8], although he was
suffering from a quartan ague, and having effected his release by bribing
the officers who had tracked his footsteps, he at length obtained a
pardon through the intercession of the vestal virgins, and of Mamercus
Aemilius and Aurelius Cotta, his near relatives.  We are assured that
when Sylla, having withstood for a while the entreaties of his own best
friends, persons of distinguished rank, at last yielded to their
importunity, he exclaimed--either by a divine impulse, or from a shrewd
conjecture: "Your suit is granted, and you may take him among you; but
know," he added, "that this man, for whose safety you are so extremely
anxious, 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, you
will 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 a
fleet, he loitered so long at the court of Nicomedes, as to give occasion
to reports of a criminal intercourse between him and that prince; which
received additional credit from his hasty return to Bithynia, under the
pretext of recovering a debt due to a freed-man, his client.  The rest of
his service was more favourable to his reputation; and (3) when Mitylene
[10] was taken by storm, he was presented by Thermus with the civic
crown. [11]

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

IV.  Soon after this civil discord was composed, he preferred a charge of
extortion against Cornelius Dolabella, a man of consular dignity, who had
obtained the honour of a triumph.  On the acquittal of the accused, he
resolved to retire to Rhodes [13], with the view not only of avoiding the
public odium (4) which he had incurred, but of prosecuting his studies
with leisure and tranquillity, under Apollonius, the son of Molon, at
that time the most celebrated master of rhetoric.  While on his voyage
thither, in the winter season, he was taken by pirates near the island of
Pharmacusa [14], and detained by them, burning with indignation, for
nearly forty days; his only attendants being a physician and two
chamberlains.  For he had instantly dispatched his other servants and the
friends who accompanied him, to raise money for his ransom [15].  Fifty
talents having been paid down, he was landed on the coast, when, having
collected some ships [16], he lost no time in putting to sea in pursuit
of the pirates, and having captured them, inflicted upon them the
punishment with which he had often threatened them in jest.  At that time
Mithridates was ravaging the neighbouring districts, and on Caesar's
arrival at Rhodes, that he might not appear to lie idle while danger
threatened the allies of Rome, he passed over into Asia, and having
collected some auxiliary forces, and driven the king's governor out of
the province, retained in their allegiance the cities which were
wavering, and ready to revolt.

V.  Having been elected military tribune, the first honour he received
from the suffrages of the people after his return to Rome, he zealously
assisted those who took measures for restoring the tribunitian authority,
which had been greatly diminished during the usurpation of Sylla.  He
likewise, by an act, which Plotius at his suggestion propounded to the
people, obtained the recall of Lucius Cinna, his wife's brother, and
others with him, who having been the adherents of Lepidus in the civil
disturbances, had after that consul's death fled to Sertorius [17]; which
law he supported by a speech.

VI.  During his quaestorship he pronounced funeral orations from the
rostra, according to custom, in praise of his aunt (5) Julia, and his
wife Cornelia.  In the panegyric on his aunt, he gives the following
account of her own and his father's genealogy, on both sides: "My aunt
Julia derived her descent, by the mother, from a race of kings, and by
her father, from the Immortal Gods.  For the Marcii Reges [18], her
mother's family, deduce their pedigree from Ancus Marcius, and the Julii,
her father's, from Venus; of which stock we are a branch.  We therefore
unite 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 of
Quintus Pompeius, and grand-daughter of Lucius Sylla; but he afterwards
divorced her, upon suspicion of her having been debauched by Publius
Clodius.  For so current was the report, that Clodius had found access to
her disguised as a woman, during the celebration of a religious solemnity
[19], that the senate instituted an enquiry respecting the profanation of
the sacred rites.

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

VIII.  Quitting therefore the province before the expiration of the usual
term, he betook himself to the Latin colonies, which were then eagerly
agitating the design of obtaining the freedom of Rome; and he would have
stirred them up to some bold attempt, had not the consuls, to prevent any
commotion, detained for some time the legions which had been raised for
service in Cilicia.  But this did not deter him from making, soon
afterwards, a still greater effort within the precincts of the city
itself.

IX.  For, only a few days before he entered upon the aedileship, he
incurred a suspicion of having engaged in a conspiracy with Marcus
Crassus, a man of consular rank; to whom were joined Publius Sylla and
Lucius Autronius, who, after they had been chosen consuls, were convicted
of bribery.  The plan of the conspirators was to fall upon the senate at
the opening of the new year, and murder as many of them as should be
thought necessary; upon which, Crassus was to assume the office of
dictator, and appoint Caesar his master of the horse [22].  When the
commonwealth had been thus ordered according to their pleasure, the
consulship was to have been restored to Sylla and Autronius.  Mention is
made of this plot by Tanusius Geminus [23] in his history, by Marcus
Bibulus 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, where
he says, that Caesar (7) had in his consulship secured to himself that
arbitrary power [26] to which he had aspired when he was edile.  Tanusius
adds, that Crassus, from remorse or fear, did not appear upon the day
appointed for the massacre of the senate; for which reason Caesar omitted
to give the signal, which, according to the plan concerted between them,
he was to have made.  The agreement, Curio says, was that he should shake
off the toga from his shoulder.  We have the authority of the same Curio,
and of M. Actorius Naso, for his having been likewise concerned in
another conspiracy with young Cneius Piso; to whom, upon a suspicion of
some mischief being meditated in the city, the province of Spain was
decreed out of the regular course [27].  It is said to have been agreed
between them, that Piso should head a revolt in the provinces, whilst the
other should attempt to stir up an insurrection at Rome, using as their
instruments the Lambrani, and the tribes beyond the Po.  But the
execution of this design was frustrated in both quarters by the death of
Piso.

X.  In his aedileship, he not only embellished the Comitium, and the rest
of the Forum [28], with the adjoining halls [29], but adorned the Capitol
also, with temporary piazzas, constructed for the purpose of displaying
some part of the superabundant collections (8) he had made for the
amusement of the people [30].  He entertained them with the hunting of
wild beasts, and with games, both alone and in conjunction with his
colleague.  On this account, he obtained the whole credit of the expense
to which they had jointly contributed; insomuch that his colleague,
Marcus Bibulus, could not forbear remarking, that he was served in the
manner of Pollux.  For as the temple [31] erected in the Forum to the two
brothers, went by the name of Castor alone, so his and Caesar's joint
munificence was imputed to the latter only.  To the other public
spectacles exhibited to the people, Caesar added a fight of gladiators,
but with fewer pairs of combatants than he had intended.  For he had
collected from all parts so great a company of them, that his enemies
became alarmed; and a decree was made, restricting the number of
gladiators which any one was allowed to retain at Rome.

XI.  Having thus conciliated popular favour, he endeavoured, through his
interest with some of the tribunes, to get Egypt assigned to him as a
province, by an act of the people.  The pretext alleged for the creation
of this extraordinary government, was, that the Alexandrians had
violently expelled their king [32], whom the senate had complimented with
the title of an ally and friend of the Roman people.  This was generally
resented; but, notwithstanding, there was so much opposition from the
faction of the nobles, that he could not carry his point.  In order,
therefore, to diminish their influence by every means in his power, he
restored the trophies erected in honour of Caius Marius, on account of
his victories over Jugurtha, the Cimbri, and the Teutoni, which had been
demolished by Sylla; and when sitting in judgment upon murderers, he
treated those as assassins, who, in the late proscription, had received
money 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) for
treason against Caius Rabirius, by whose especial assistance the senate
had, a few years before, put down Lucius Saturninus, the seditious
tribune; and being drawn by lot a judge on the trial, he condemned him
with so much animosity, that upon his appealing to the people, no
circumstance availed him so much as the extraordinary bitterness of his
judge.

XIII.  Having renounced all hope of obtaining Egypt for his province, he
stood candidate for the office of chief pontiff, to secure which, he had
recourse to the most profuse bribery.  Calculating, on this occasion, the
enormous amount of the debts he had contracted, he is reported to have
said to his mother, when she kissed him at his going out in the morning
to the assembly of the people, "I will never return home unless I am
elected pontiff."  In effect, he left so far behind him two most powerful
competitors, who were much his superiors both in age and rank, that he
had more votes in their own tribes, than they both had in all the tribes
together.

XIV.  After he was chosen praetor, the conspiracy of Catiline was
discovered; and while every other member of the senate voted for
inflicting capital punishment on the accomplices in that crime [33], he
alone proposed that the delinquents should be distributed for safe
custody among the towns of Italy, their property being confiscated.  He
even struck such terror into those who were advocates for greater
severity, by representing to them what universal odium would be attached
to their memories by the Roman people, that Decius Silanus, consul elect,
did not hesitate to qualify his proposal, it not being very honourable to
change it, by a lenient interpretation; as if it had been understood in a
harsher sense than he intended, and Caesar would certainly have carried
his point, having brought over to his side a great number of the
senators, among whom was Cicero, the consul's brother, had not a speech
by Marcus Cato infused new vigour into the resolutions of the senate.  He
persisted, however, in obstructing the measure, until a body of the Roman
knights, who stood under arms as a guard, threatened him with instant
death, if he continued his determined opposition.  They even thrust at
him with their drawn swords, so that those who sat next him moved away;
(10) and a few friends, with no small difficulty, protected him, by
throwing their arms round him, and covering him with their togas.  At
last, deterred by this violence, he not only gave way, but absented
himself from the senate-house during the remainder of that year.

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

XVI.  He afterwards approved himself a most resolute supporter of
Caecilius Metullus, tribune of the people, who, in spite of all
opposition from his colleagues, had proposed some laws of a violent
tendency [37], until they were both dismissed from office by a vote of
the senate.  He ventured, notwithstanding, to retain his post and
continue in the administration of justice; but finding that preparations
were made to obstruct him by force of arms, he dismissed the lictors,
threw off his gown, and betook himself privately to his own house, with
the resolution of being quiet, in a time so unfavourable to his
interests.  He likewise pacified the mob, which two days afterwards
flocked about him, and in a riotous manner made a voluntary tender of
their assistance in the vindication of his (11) honour.  This happening
contrary to expectation, the senate, who met in haste, on account of the
tumult, gave him their thanks by some of the leading members of the
house, 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 the
accomplices of Catiline, both before Novius Niger the quaestor, by Lucius
Vettius the informer, and in the senate by Quintus Curius; to whom a
reward had been voted, for having first discovered the designs of the
conspirators.  Curius affirmed that he had received his information from
Catiline.  Vettius even engaged to produce in evidence against him his
own hand-writing, given to Catiline.  Caesar, feeling that this treatment
was not to be borne, appealed to Cicero himself, whether he had not
voluntarily made a discovery to him of some particulars of the
conspiracy; and so baulked Curius of his expected reward.  He, therefore,
obliged Vettius to give pledges for his behaviour, seized his goods, and
after heavily fining him, and seeing him almost torn in pieces before the
rostra, threw him into prison; to which he likewise sent Novius the
quaestor, for having presumed to take an information against a magistrate
of superior authority.

XVIII.  At the expiration of his praetorship he obtained by lot the
Farther-Spain [38], and pacified his creditors, who were for detaining
him, by finding sureties for his debts [39].  Contrary, however, to both
law and custom, he took his departure before the usual equipage and
outfit were prepared.  It is uncertain whether this precipitancy arose
from the apprehension of an impeachment, with which he was threatened on
the expiration of his former office, or from his anxiety to lose no time
in relieving the allies, who implored him to come to their aid.  He had
no (12) sooner established tranquillity in the province, than, without
waiting for the arrival of his successor, he returned to Rome, with equal
haste, to sue for a triumph [40], and the consulship.  The day of
election, however, being already fixed by proclamation, he could not
legally be admitted a candidate, unless he entered the city as a private
person [41].  On this emergency he solicited a suspension of the laws in
his favour; but such an indulgence being strongly opposed, he found
himself under the necessity of abandoning all thoughts of a triumph, lest
he should be disappointed of the consulship.

XIX.  Of the two other competitors for the consulship, Lucius Luceius and
Marcus Bibulus, he joined with the former, upon condition that Luceius,
being a man of less interest but greater affluence, should promise money
to the electors, in their joint names.  Upon which the party of the
nobles, dreading how far he might carry matters in that high office, with
a colleague disposed to concur in and second his measures, advised
Bibulus to promise the voters as much as the other; and most of them
contributed towards the expense, Cato himself admitting that bribery;
under such circumstances, was for the public good [42].  He was
accordingly elected consul jointly with Bibulus.  Actuated still by the
same motives, the prevailing party took care to assign provinces of small
importance to the new consuls, such as the care of the woods and roads.
Caesar, incensed at this indignity, endeavoured by the most assiduous and
flattering attentions to gain to his side Cneius Pompey, at that time
dissatisfied with the senate for the backwardness they shewed to confirm
his acts, after his victories over Mithridates.  He likewise brought
about a reconciliation between Pompey and Marcus Crassus, who had been at
variance from (13) the time of their joint consulship, in which office
they were continually clashing; and he entered into an agreement with
both, that nothing should be transacted in the government, which was
displeasing 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 to
writing, and published [44].  He also revived an old custom, that an
officer [45] should precede him, and his lictors follow him, on the
alternate months when the fasces were not carried before him.  Upon
preferring a bill to the people for the division of some public lands, he
was opposed by his colleague, whom he violently drove out of the forum.
Next day the insulted consul made a complaint in the senate of this
treatment; but such was the consternation, that no one having the courage
to bring the matter forward or move a censure, which had been often done
under outrages of less importance, he was so much dispirited, that until
the expiration of his office he never stirred from home, and did nothing
but issue edicts to obstruct his colleague's proceedings.  From that
time, 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 Julius
and Caesar;" putting the same person down twice, under his name and
surname.  The following verses likewise were currently repeated on this
occasion:

    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, with
some other lands in Campania left subject to tribute, for the support of
the expenses of the government, he divided, but not by lot, among upwards
of 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 sum
which they had engaged to pay into the public treasury; and openly
admonished them not to bid so extravagantly upon the next occasion.  He
made various profuse grants to meet the wishes of others, no one opposing
him; or if any such attempt was made, it was soon suppressed.  Marcus
Cato, who interrupted him in his proceedings, he ordered to be dragged
out of the senate-house by a lictor, and carried to prison.  Lucius
Lucullus, likewise, for opposing him with some warmth, he so terrified
with the apprehension of being criminated, that, to deprecate the
consul's resentment, he fell on his knees.  And upon Cicero's lamenting
in some trial the miserable condition of the times, he the very same day,
by nine o'clock, transferred his enemy, Publius Clodius, from a patrician
to 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 by
great rewards prevailed upon Vettius to declare, that he had been
solicited by certain persons to assassinate Pompey; and when he was
brought before the rostra to name those who had been concerted between
them, after naming one or two to no purpose, not without great suspicion
of subornation, Caesar, despairing of success in this rash stratagem, is
supposed to have taken off his informer by poison.

XXI.  About the same time he married Calpurnia, the daughter of Lucius
Piso, who was to succeed him in the consulship, and gave his own daughter
Julia to Cneius Pompey; rejecting Servilius Caepio, to whom she had been
contracted, and by whose means chiefly he had but a little before baffled
Bibulus.  After this new alliance, he began, upon any debates in the
senate, to ask Pompey's opinion first, whereas he used before to give
that distinction to Marcus Crassus; and it was (15) the usual practice
for the consul to observe throughout the year the method of consulting
the senate which he had adopted on the calends (the first) of January.

XXII.  Being, therefore, now supported by the interest of his
father-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.  At
first indeed he received only Cisalpine-Gaul, with the addition of
Illyricum, by a decree proposed by Vatinius to the people; but soon
afterwards obtained from the senate Gallia-Comata [47] also, the senators
being apprehensive, that if they should refuse it him, that province,
also, would be granted him by the people.  Elated now with his success, he
could not refrain from boasting, a few days afterwards, in a full
senate-house, that he had, in spite of his enemies, and to their great
mortification, obtained all he desired, and that for the future he would
make them, to their shame, submissive to his pleasure.  One of the
senators 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 being
made in the senate by Caius Memmius and Lucius Domitius, the praetors,
respecting the transactions of the year past, he offered to refer himself
to the house; but (16) they declining the business, after three days
spent in vain altercation, he set out for his province.  Immediately,
however, his quaestor was charged with several misdemeanors, for the
purpose of implicating Caesar himself.  Indeed, an accusation was soon
after preferred against him by Lucius Antistius, tribune of the people;
but by making an appeal to the tribune's colleagues, he succeeded in
having the prosecution suspended during his absence in the service of the
state.  To secure himself, therefore, for the time to come, he was
particularly careful to secure the good-will of the magistrates at the
annual elections, assisting none of the candidates with his interest, nor
suffering any persons to be advanced to any office, who would not
positively undertake to defend him in his absence for which purpose he
made no scruple to require of some of them an oath, and even a written
obligation.

XXIV.  But when Lucius Domitius became a candidate for the consulship,
and openly threatened that, upon his being elected consul, he would
effect that which he could not accomplish when he was praetor, and divest
him of the command of the armies, he sent for Crassus and Pompey to
Lucca, a city in his province, and pressed them, for the purpose of
disappointing Domitius, to sue again for the consulship, and to continue
him in his command for five years longer; with both which requisitions
they complied.  Presumptuous now from his success, he added, at his own
private charge, more legions to those which he had received from the
republic; among the former of which was one levied in Transalpine Gaul,
and called by a Gallic name, Alauda [49], which he trained and armed in
the Roman fashion, and afterwards conferred on it the freedom of the
city.  From this period he declined no occasion of war, however unjust
and dangerous; attacking, without any provocation, as well the allies of
Rome as the barbarous nations which were its enemies: insomuch, that the
senate passed a decree for sending commissioners to examine into the
condition of Gaul; and some members even proposed that he should be
delivered up to the enemy.  But so great had been the success of his
enterprises, that he had the honour of obtaining more days [50] (17) of
supplication, and those more frequently, than had ever before been
decreed 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 the
Pyrenean forest, the Alps, mount Gebenna, and the two rivers, the Rhine
and the Rhone, and being about three thousand two hundred miles in
compass, into the form of a province, excepting only the nations in
alliance with the republic, and such as had merited his favour; imposing
upon this new acquisition an annual tribute of forty millions of
sesterces.  He was the first of the Romans who, crossing the Rhine by a
bridge, attacked the Germanic tribes inhabiting the country beyond that
river, whom he defeated in several engagements.  He also invaded the
Britons, a people formerly unknown, and having vanquished them, exacted
from them contributions and hostages.  Amidst such a series of successes,
he experienced thrice only any signal disaster; once in Britain, when his
fleet was nearly wrecked in a storm; in Gaul, at Gergovia, where one of
his legions was put to the rout; and in the territory of the Germans, his
lieutenants Titurius and Aurunculeius were cut off by an ambuscade.

XXVI.  During this period [51] he lost his mother [52], whose death was
followed by that of his daughter [53], and, not long afterwards, of his
granddaughter.  Meanwhile, the republic being in consternation at the
murder of Publius Clodius, and the senate passing a vote that only one
consul, namely, Cneius Pompeius, should be chosen for the ensuing year,
he prevailed with the tribunes of the people, who intended joining him in
nomination with Pompey, to propose to the people a bill, enabling him,
though absent, to become a candidate for his second consulship, when the
term of his command should be near expiring, that he might not be obliged
on that account to quit his province too soon, and before the conclusion
of the war.  Having attained this object, carrying his views still
higher, and animated with the hopes of success, he omitted no (18)
opportunity of gaining universal favour, by acts of liberality and
kindness to individuals, both in public and private.  With money raised
from the spoils of the war, he began to construct a new forum, the
ground-plot of which cost him above a hundred millions of sesterces [54].
He promised the people a public entertainment of gladiators, and a feast
in memory of his daughter, such as no one before him had ever given.  The
more to raise their expectations on this occasion, although he had agreed
with victuallers of all denominations for his feast, he made yet farther
preparations in private houses.  He issued an order, that the most
celebrated gladiators, if at any time during the combat they incurred the
displeasure 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 of
Roman knights, and even senators, skilled in the use of arms, earnestly
requesting them, as appears from his letters, to undertake the discipline
of those novitiates, and to give them the word during their exercises.
He doubled the pay of the legions in perpetuity; allowing them likewise
corn, when it was in plenty, without any restriction; and sometimes
distributing to every soldier in his army a slave, and a portion of land.

XXVII.  To maintain his alliance and good understanding with Pompey, he
offered him in marriage his sister's grand-daughter Octavia, who had been
married to Caius Marcellus; and requested for himself his daughter,
lately contracted to Faustus Sylla.  Every person about him, and a great
part likewise of the senate, he secured by loans of money at low
interest, 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 with
their masters and patrons.  He offered also singular and ready aid to all
who were under prosecution, or in debt, and to prodigal youths; excluding
from (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 means
than a civil war.

XXVIII.  He endeavoured with equal assiduity to engage in his interest
princes and provinces in every part of the world; presenting some with
thousands of captives, and sending to others the assistance of troops, at
whatever time and place they desired, without any authority from either
the senate or people of Rome.  He likewise embellished with magnificent
public buildings the most powerful cities not only of Italy, Gaul, and
Spain, but of Greece and Asia; until all people being now astonished, and
speculating on the obvious tendency of these proceedings, Claudius
Marcellus, the consul, declaring first by proclamation, that he intended
to propose a measure of the utmost importance to the state, made a motion
in the senate that some person should be appointed to succeed Caesar in
his province, before the term of his command was expired; because the war
being brought to a conclusion, peace was restored, and the victorious
army ought to be disbanded.  He further moved, that Caesar being absent,
his claims to be a candidate at the next election of consuls should not
be admitted, as Pompey himself had afterwards abrogated that privilege by
a decree of the people.  The fact was, that Pompey, in his law relating
to the choice of chief magistrates, had forgot to except Caesar, in the
article in which he declared all such as were not present incapable of
being candidates for any office; but soon afterwards, when the law was
inscribed on brass, and deposited in the treasury, he corrected his
mistake.  Marcellus, not content with depriving Caesar of his provinces,
and the privilege intended him by Pompey, likewise moved the senate, that
the freedom of the city should be taken from those colonists whom, by the
Vatinian law, he had settled at New Como [55]; because it had been
conferred upon them with ambitious views, and by a stretch of the laws.

(20) XXIX.  Roused by these proceedings, and thinking, as he was often
heard 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 of
citizens to the second, than from the second to the lowest of all, Caesar
made a vigorous opposition to the measure, partly by means of the
tribunes, who interposed in his behalf, and partly through Servius
Sulpicius, the other consul.  The following year likewise, when Caius
Marcellus, who succeeded his cousin Marcus in the consulship, pursued the
same course, Caesar, by means of an immense bribe, engaged in his defence
Aemilius Paulus, the other consul, and Caius Curio, the most violent of
the tribunes.  But finding the opposition obstinately bent against him,
and that the consuls-elect were also of that party, he wrote a letter to
the senate, requesting that they would not deprive him of the privilege
kindly granted him by the people; or else that the other generals should
resign 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 the
same time, he made his adversaries an offer to disband eight of his
legions and give up Transalpine-Gaul, upon condition that he might retain
two legions, with the Cisalpine province, or but one legion with
Illyricum, until he should be elected consul.

XXX.  But as the senate declined to interpose in the business, and his
enemies declared that they would enter into no compromise where the
safety of the republic was at stake, he advanced into Hither-Gaul [56],
and, having gone the circuit for the administration of justice, made a
halt at Ravenna, resolved to have recourse to arms if the senate should
proceed to extremity against the tribunes of the people who had espoused
his cause.  This was indeed his pretext for the civil war; but it is
supposed that there were other motives for his conduct.  Cneius Pompey
used frequently to say, that he sought to throw every thing into
confusion, because he was unable, with all his private wealth, to
complete the works he had begun, and answer, at his return, the vast
expectations which he had excited in the people.  Others pretend that he
was apprehensive of being (21) called to account for what he had done in
his first consulship, contrary to the auspices, laws, and the protests of
the tribunes; Marcus Cato having sometimes declared, and that, too, with
an oath, that he would prefer an impeachment against him, as soon as he
disbanded his army.  A report likewise prevailed, that if he returned as
a private person, he would, like Milo, have to plead his cause before the
judges, surrounded by armed men.  This conjecture is rendered highly
probable by Asinius Pollio, who informs us that Caesar, upon viewing the
vanquished and slaughtered enemy in the field of Pharsalia, expressed
himself in these very words: "This was their intention: I, Caius Caesar,
after all the great achievements I had performed, must have been
condemned, had I not summoned the army to my aid!"  Some think, that
having contracted from long habit an extraordinary love of power, and
having weighed his own and his enemies' strength, he embraced that
occasion of usurping the supreme power; which indeed he had coveted from
the time of his youth.  This seems to have been the opinion entertained
by Cicero, who tells us, in the third book of his Offices, that Caesar
used to have frequently in his mouth two verses of Euripides, which he
thus 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 interposition
of the tribunes in his favour had been utterly rejected, and that they
themselves had fled from the city, he immediately sent forward some
cohorts, but privately, to prevent any suspicion of his design; and, to
keep up appearances, attended at a public spectacle, examined the model
of a fencing-school which he proposed to build, and, as usual, sat down
to table with a numerous party of his friends.  But after sun-set, mules
being put to his carriage from a neighbouring mill, he set forward on his
journey with all possible privacy, and a small retinue.  The lights going
out, he lost his way, and (22) wandered about a long time, until at
length, by the help of a guide, whom he found towards day-break, he
proceeded on foot through some narrow paths, and again reached the road.
Coming up with his troops on the banks of the Rubicon, which was the
boundary of his province [58], he halted for a while, and, revolving in
his mind the importance of the step he was on the point of taking, he
turned to those about him, and said: "We may still retreat; but if we
pass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out in
arms."

XXXII.  While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred.  A
person remarkable for his noble mien and graceful aspect, appeared close
at 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 go
whither 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 shewed
them the tribunes of the people, who, upon their being driven from the
city, had come to meet him; and, in the presence of that assembly, called
upon the troops to pledge him their fidelity, with tears in his eyes, and
his garment rent from his bosom.  It has been supposed, that upon this
occasion he promised to every soldier a knight's estate; but that opinion
is founded on a mistake.  For when, in his harangue to them, he
frequently held out a finger of his left hand, and declared, that to
recompense those who should support him in the defence of his honour, he
would willingly part even with his ring; the soldiers at a distance, who
could more easily see than hear him while he spoke, formed their
conception of what he said, by the eye, not by the ear; and accordingly
gave out, that he had promised to each of them the privilege (23) of
wearing the gold ring, and an estate of four hundred thousand sesterces.
[60]

XXXIV.  Of his subsequent proceedings I shall give a cursory detail, in
the order in which they occurred [61].  He took possession of Picenum,
Umbria, and Etruria; and having obliged Lucius Domitius, who had been
tumultuously nominated his successor, and held Corsinium with a garrison,
to surrender, and dismissed him, he marched along the coast of the Upper
Sea, to Brundusium, to which place the consuls and Pompey were fled with
the intention of crossing the sea as soon as possible.  After vain
attempts, by all the obstacles he could oppose, to prevent their leaving
the harbour, he turned his steps towards Rome, where he appealed to the
senate on the present state of public affairs; and then set out for
Spain, in which province Pompey had a numerous army, under the command of
three lieutenants, Marcus Petreius, Lucius Afranius, and Marcus Varro;
declaring amongst his friends, before he set forward, "That he was going
against an army without a general, and should return thence against a
general without an army."  Though his progress was retarded both by the
siege of Marseilles, which shut her gates against him, and a very great
scarcity 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 of
prodigious extent; and at last defeated him in the battle of Pharsalia.
Pursuing him in his flight to Alexandria, where he was informed of his
murder, he presently found himself also engaged, under all the
disadvantages of time and place, in a very dangerous war, with king
Ptolemy, who, he saw, had treacherous designs upon his life.  It was
winter, and he, within the walls of a well-provided and subtle enemy, was
destitute of every thing, and wholly unprepared (24) for such a conflict.
He succeeded, however, in his enterprise, and put the kingdom of Egypt
into the hands of Cleopatra and her younger brother; being afraid to make
it a province, lest, under an aspiring prefect, it might become the
centre of revolt.  From Alexandria he went into Syria, and thence to
Pontus, induced by intelligence which he had received respecting
Pharnaces.  This prince, who was son of the great Mithridates, had seized
the opportunity which the distraction of the times offered for making war
upon his neighbours, and his insolence and fierceness had grown with his
success.  Caesar, however, within five days after entering his country,
and four hours after coming in sight of him, overthrew him in one
decisive battle.  Upon which, he frequently remarked to those about him
the good fortune of Pompey, who had obtained his military reputation,
chiefly, by victory over so feeble an enemy.  He afterwards defeated
Scipio 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 suffered
any defeat, except in the case of his lieutenants; of whom Caius Curio
fell in Africa, Caius Antonius was made prisoner in Illyricum, Publius
Dolabella lost a fleet in the same Illyricum, and Cneius Domitius
Culvinus, an army in Pontus.  In every encounter with the enemy where he
himself commanded, he came off with complete success; nor was the issue
ever doubtful, except on two occasions: once at Dyrrachium, when, being
obliged to give ground, and Pompey not pursuing his advantage, he said
that "Pompey knew not how to conquer;" the other instance occurred in his
last battle in Spain, when, despairing of the event, he even had thoughts
of killing himself.

XXXVII.  For the victories obtained in the several wars, he triumphed
five different times; after the defeat of Scipio: four times in one
month, 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 most
glorious triumph was for the victories he gained in Gaul; the next for
that of Alexandria, the third for the reduction of Pontus, the fourth for
his African victory, and the last for that in Spain; and (25) they all
differed from each other in their varied pomp and pageantry.  On the day
of the Gallic triumph, as he was proceeding along the street called
Velabrum, after narrowly escaping a fall from his chariot by the breaking
of the axle-tree, he ascended the Capitol by torch-light, forty elephants
[62] carrying torches on his right and left.  Amongst the pageantry of
the Pontic triumph, a tablet with this inscription was carried before
him: I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED [63]; not signifying, as other mottos on
the like occasion, what was done, so much as the dispatch with which it
was done.

XXXVIII.  To every foot-soldier in his veteran legions, besides the two
thousand sesterces paid him in the beginning of the civil war, he gave
twenty thousand more, in the shape of prize-money.  He likewise allotted
them lands, but not in contiguity, that the former owners might not be
entirely dispossessed.  To the people of Rome, besides ten modii of corn,
and as many pounds of oil, he gave three hundred sesterces a man, which
he had formerly promised them, and a hundred more to each for the delay
in fulfilling his engagement.  He likewise remitted a year's rent due to
the treasury, for such houses in Rome as did not pay above two thousand
sesterces a year; and through the rest of Italy, for all such as did not
exceed in yearly rent five hundred sesterces.  To all this he added a
public entertainment, and a distribution of meat, and, after his Spanish
victory [64], two public dinners.  For, considering the first he had
given as too sparing, and unsuited to his profuse liberality, he, five
days 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 wards
of the city, and in different languages; likewise Circensian games [66],
wrestlers, and the representation of a sea-fight.  In the conflict of
gladiators presented in the Forum, Furius Leptinus, a man of praetorian
family, entered the lists as a combatant, as did also Quintus Calpenus,
formerly a senator, and a pleader of causes.  The Pyrrhic dance was
performed by some youths, who were sons to persons of the first
distinction in Asia and Bithynia.  In the plays, Decimus Laberius, who
had been a Roman knight, acted in his own piece; and being presented on
the spot with five hundred thousand sesterces, and a gold ring, he went
from the stage, through the orchestra, and resumed his place in the seats
(27) allotted for the equestrian order.  In the Circensisn games; the
circus being enlarged at each end, and a canal sunk round it, several of
the young nobility drove chariots, drawn, some by four, and others by two
horses, and likewise rode races on single horses.  The Trojan game was
acted by two distinct companies of boys, one differing from the other in
age and rank.  The hunting of wild beasts was presented for five days
successively; and on the last day a battle was fought by five hundred
foot, twenty elephants, and thirty horse on each side.  To afford room
for this engagement, the goals were removed, and in their space two camps
were pitched, directly opposite to each other.  Wrestlers likewise
performed for three days successively, in a stadium provided for the
purpose in the Campus Martius.  A lake having been dug in the little
Codeta [67], ships of the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets, containing two,
three, and four banks of oars, with a number of men on board, afforded an
animated representation of a sea-fight.  To these various diversions
there flocked such crowds of spectators from all parts, that most of the
strangers were obliged to lodge in tents erected in the streets, or along
the 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 the
commonwealth, he corrected the calendar [68], which had for (28) some
time become extremely confused, through the unwarrantable liberty which
the pontiffs had taken in the article of intercalation.  To such a height
had this abuse proceeded, that neither the festivals designed for the
harvest fell in summer, nor those for the vintage in autumn.  He
accommodated the year to the course of the sun, ordaining that in future
it should consist of three hundred and sixty-five days without any
intercalary month; and that every fourth year an intercalary day should
be inserted.  That the year might thenceforth commence regularly with the
calends, or first of January, he inserted two months between November and
December; so that the year in which this regulation was made consisted of
fifteen months, including the month of intercalation, which, according to
the division of time then in use, happened that year.

XLI.  He filled up the vacancies in the senate, by advancing several
plebeians to the rank of patricians, and also increased the number of
praetors, aediles, quaestors, and inferior magistrates; restoring, at the
same time, such as had been degraded by the censors, or convicted of
bribery at elections.  The choice of magistrates he so divided with the
people, that, excepting only the candidates for the consulship, they
nominated one half of them, and he the other.  The method which he
practised in those cases was, to recommend such persons as he had pitched
upon, 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 may
attain to the honours for which they sue."  He likewise admitted to
offices the sons of those who had been proscribed.  The trial of causes
he 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 the
usual manner or place, but street by street, by the principal inhabitants
of the several quarters of the city; and he reduced the number of those
who received corn at the public cost, from three hundred and twenty, to a
hundred and fifty, thousand.  To prevent any tumults on account of the
census, he ordered that the praetor should every year fill up by lot the
vacancies occasioned by death, from those who were not enrolled for the
receipt of corn.

(29) XLII.  Eighty thousand citizens having been distributed into foreign
colonies [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 for
more 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 pursuit
was tending flocks and herds, that no less than a third of the number of
their shepherds free-born should be youths.  He likewise made all those
who practised physic in Rome, and all teachers of the liberal arts, free
of the city, in order to fix them in it, and induce others to settle
there.  With respect to debts, he disappointed the expectation which was
generally entertained, that they would be totally cancelled; and ordered
that the debtors should satisfy their creditors, according to the
valuation of their estates, at the rate at which they were purchased
before the commencement of the civil war; deducting from the debt what
had been paid for interest either in money or by bonds; by virtue of
which provision about a fourth part of the debt was lost.  He dissolved
all the guilds, except such as were of ancient foundation.  Crimes were
punished with greater severity; and the rich being more easily induced to
commit them because they were only liable to banishment, without the
forfeiture 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 of
justice.  He expelled from the senate such members as were convicted of
bribery; and he dissolved the marriage of a man of pretorian rank, who
had married a lady two days after her divorce from a former husband,
although there was no suspicion that they had been guilty of any illicit
connection.  He imposed duties on the importation of foreign goods.  The
use of litters for travelling, purple robes, and jewels, he permitted
only to persons of a certain age and station, and on particular days.  He
enforced a rigid execution of the sumptuary laws; placing officers about
the markets, to seize upon all meats exposed to sale contrary to the
rules, and bring them to him; sometimes sending his lictors and soldiers
to (30) carry away such victuals as had escaped the notice of the
officers, even when they were upon the table.

XLIV.  His thoughts were now fully employed from day to day on a variety
of great projects for the embellishment and improvement of the city, as
well as for guarding and extending the bounds of the empire.  In the
first place, he meditated the construction of a temple to Mars, which
should exceed in grandeur every thing of that kind in the world.  For
this purpose, he intended to fill up the lake on which he had entertained
the people with the spectacle of a sea-fight.  He also projected a most
spacious theatre adjacent to the Tarpeian mount; and also proposed to
reduce the civil law to a reasonable compass, and out of that immense and
undigested mass of statutes to extract the best and most necessary parts
into a few books; to make as large a collection as possible of works in
the Greek and Latin languages, for the public use; the province of
providing and putting them in proper order being assigned to Marcus
Varro.  He intended likewise to drain the Pomptine marshes, to cut a
channel for the discharge of the waters of the lake Fucinus, to form a
road 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, who
had over-run Pontus and Thrace, within their proper limits, and then to
make war upon the Parthians, through the Lesser Armenia, but not to risk
a general engagement with them, until he had made some trial of their
prowess 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 be
improper to give an account of his person, dress, and manners; together
with 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 enjoyed
excellent health, except towards the close of his life, when he was
subject to sudden fainting-fits, and disturbance in his sleep.  He was
likewise twice seized with the falling sickness while engaged in active
service.  He was so nice in the care of his person, that he not only kept
the 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 by
the roots, a practice for which some persons rallied him.  His baldness
gave him much uneasiness, having often found himself upon that account
exposed to the jibes of his enemies.  He therefore used to bring forward
the hair from the crown of his head; and of all the honours conferred
upon him by the senate and people, there was none which he either
accepted or used with greater pleasure, than the right of wearing
constantly a laurel crown.  It is said that he was particular in his
dress.  For he used the Latus Clavus [70] with fringes about the wrists,
and always had it girded about him, but rather loosely.  This
circumstance gave origin to the expression of Sylla, who often advised
the nobles to beware of "the ill-girt boy."

XLVI.  He first inhabited a small house in the Suburra [71], but after
his advancement to the pontificate, he occupied a palace belonging to the
state in the Via Sacra.  Many writers say that he liked his residence to
be elegant, and his entertainments sumptuous; and that he entirely took
down a villa near the grove of Aricia, which he had built from the
foundation and finished at a vast expense, because it did not exactly
suit his taste, although he had at that time but slender means, and was
in debt; and that he carried about in his expeditions tesselated and
marble slabs for the floor of his tent.

XLVII.  They likewise report that he invaded Britain in hopes of finding
pearls [72], the size of which he would compare together, and ascertain
the weight by poising them in his hand; that he would purchase, at any
cost, gems, carved works, statues, and pictures, executed by the eminent
masters of antiquity; and that he would give for young and handy slaves a
price so extravagant, that he forbad its being entered in the diary of
his expenses.

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

XLIX.  The only stain upon his chastity was his having cohabited with
Nicomedes; and that indeed stuck to him all the days of his life, and
exposed him to much bitter raillery.  I will not dwell upon those
well-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 which
the former calls him "the queen's rival, and the inner-side of the royal
couch," and the latter, "the brothel of Nicomedes, and the Bithynian
stew."  I would likewise say nothing of the edicts of Bibulus, in which
he 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 a
kingdom."  At which time, as Marcus Brutus relates, one Octavius, a man
of a crazy brain, and therefore the more free in his raillery, after he
had in a crowded assembly saluted Pompey by the title of king, addressed
Caesar by that of queen.  Caius Memmius likewise upbraided him with
serving the king at table, among the rest of his catamites, in the
presence of a large company, in which were some merchants from Rome, the
names of whom he mentions.  But Cicero was not content with writing in
some of his letters, that he was conducted by the royal attendants into
the 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 in
Bithynia--but upon Caesar's pleading the cause of Nysa, the daughter of
(32) Nicomedes before the senate, and recounting the king's kindnesses to
him, replied, "Pray tell us no more of that; for it is well known what he
gave you, and you gave him."  To conclude, his soldiers in the Gallic
triumph, amongst other verses, such as they jocularly sung on those
occasions, following the general's chariot, recited these, which since
that 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 as
very expensive in his intrigues with them, and that he debauched many
ladies of the highest quality; among whom were Posthumia, the wife of
Servius Sulpicius; Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius; Tertulla, the wife
of Marcus Crassus; and Mucia, the wife of Cneius Pompey.  For it is
certain that the Curios, both father and son, and many others, made it a
reproach to Pompey, "That to gratify his ambition, he married the
daughter of a man, upon whose account he had divorced his wife, after
having had three children by her; and whom he used, with a deep sigh, to
call Aegisthus." [75]  But the mistress he most loved, was Servilia, the
mother of Marcus Brutus, for whom he purchased, in his first consulship
after the commencement of their intrigue, a pearl which cost him six
millions of sesterces; and in the civil war, besides other presents,
assigned to her, for a trifling consideration, some valuable farms when
they were exposed to public auction.  Many persons expressing their
surprise at the lowness of the price, Cicero wittily remarked, "To let
you know the real value of the purchase, between ourselves, Tertia was
deducted:" for Servilia was supposed to have prostituted her daughter
Tertia to Caesar. [76]

(34) LI.  That he had intrigues likewise with married women in the
provinces, appears from this distich, which was as much repeated in the
Gallic 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 as
Eunoe, a Moor, the wife of Bogudes, to whom and her husband he made, as
Naso reports, many large presents.  But his greatest favourite was
Cleopatra, with whom he often revelled all night until the dawn of day,
and would have gone with her through Egypt in dalliance, as far as
Aethiopia, in her luxurious yacht, had not the army refused to follow
him.  He afterwards invited her to Rome, whence he sent her back loaded
with honours and presents, and gave her permission to call by his name a
son, who, according to the testimony of some Greek historians, resembled
Caesar both in person and gait.  Mark Antony declared in the senate, that
Caesar 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.  On
which occasion, Oppius, as if it had been an imputation which he was
called upon to refute, published a book to shew, "that the child which
Cleopatra fathered upon Caesar, was not his."  Helvius Cinna, tribune of
the people, admitted to several persons the fact, that he had a bill
ready 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 his
infamous character for unnatural lewdness and adultery, Curio, the
father, says, in one of his speeches, "He was every woman's man, and
every man's woman."

LIII.  It is acknowledged even by his enemies, that in regard to wine, he
was abstemious.  A remark is ascribed to Marcus Cato, "that Caesar was
the only sober man amongst all those who were engaged in the design to
subvert (35) the government."  In the matter of diet, Caius Oppius
informs us, "that he was so indifferent, that when a person in whose
house 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 ate
very heartily of it, that he might not seem to tax the master of the
house with rusticity or want of attention."

LIV.  But his abstinence did not extend to pecuniary advantages, either
in his military commands, or civil offices; for we have the testimony of
some writers, that he took money from the proconsul, who was his
predecessor in Spain, and from the Roman allies in that quarter, for the
discharge of his debts; and plundered at the point of the sword some
towns of the Lusitanians, notwithstanding they attempted no resistance,
and opened their gates to him upon his arrival before them.  In Gaul, he
rifled the chapels and temples of the gods, which were filled with rich
offerings, and demolished cities oftener for the sake of their spoil,
than for any ill they had done.  By this means gold became so plentiful
with him, that he exchanged it through Italy and the provinces of the
empire for three thousand sesterces the pound.  In his first consulship
he purloined from the Capitol three thousand pounds' weight of gold, and
substituted for it the same quantity of gilt brass.  He bartered likewise
to foreign nations and princes, for gold, the titles of allies and kings;
and squeezed out of Ptolemy alone near six thousand talents, in the name
of himself and Pompey.  He afterwards supported the expense of the civil
wars, and of his triumphs and public spectacles, by the most flagrant
rapine and sacrilege.

LV.  In eloquence and warlike achievements, he equalled at least, if he
did not surpass, the greatest of men.  After his prosecution of
Dolabella, he was indisputably reckoned one of the most distinguished
advocates.  Cicero, in recounting to Brutus the famous orators, declares,
"that he does not see that Caesar was inferior to any one of them;" and
says, "that he (36) had an elegant, splendid, noble, and magnificent vein
of eloquence."  And in a letter to Cornelius Nepos, he writes of him in
the following terms: "What!  Of all the orators, who, during the whole
course of their lives, have done nothing else, which can you prefer to
him?  Which of them is more pointed or terse in his periods, or employs
more polished and elegant language?"  In his youth, he seems to have
chosen Strabo Caesar for his model; from whose oration in behalf of the
Sardinians he has transcribed some passages literally into his
Divination.  In his delivery he is said to have had a shrill voice, and
his action was animated, but not ungraceful.  He has left behind him some
speeches, among which are ranked a few that are not genuine, such as that
on behalf of Quintus Metellus.  These Augustus supposes, with reason, to
be rather the production of blundering short-hand writers, who were not
able 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 "What
he wrote to Metellus;" whereas the speech is delivered in the name of
Caesar, vindicating Metellus and himself from the aspersions cast upon
them by their common defamers.  The speech addressed "To his soldiers in
Spain," Augustus considers likewise as spurious.  We meet with two under
this title; one made, as is pretended, in the first battle, and the other
in the last; at which time, Asinius Pollio says, he had not leisure to
address the soldiers, on account of the suddenness of the enemy's attack.

LVI.  He has likewise left Commentaries of his own actions both in the
war in Gaul, and in the civil war with Pompey; for the author of the
Alexandrian, African, and Spanish wars is not known with any certainty.
Some think they are the production of Oppius, and some of Hirtius; the
latter of whom composed the last book, which is imperfect, of the Gallic
war.  Of Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero, in his Brutus, speaks thus: "He
wrote his Commentaries in a manner deserving of great approbation: they
are plain, precise, and elegant, without any affectation of rhetorical
ornament.  In having thus prepared materials for others who might be
inclined to write his history, he may perhaps have encouraged some silly
creatures to enter upon such a work, who will needs be dressing up his
actions in all the extravagance a (37) bombast; but he has discouraged
wise men from ever attempting the subject."  Hirtius delivers his opinion
of these Commentaries in the following terms: "So great is the
approbation with which they are universally perused, that, instead of
rousing, he seems to have precluded, the efforts of any future historian.
Yet, with respect to this work, we have more reason to admire him than
others; for they only know how well and correctly he has written, but we
know, likewise, how easily and quickly he did it."  Pollio Asinius thinks
that they were not drawn up with much care, or with a due regard to
truth; for he insinuates that Caesar was too hasty of belief in regard to
what was performed by others under his orders; and that, he has not given
a very faithful account of his own acts, either by design, or through
defect of memory; expressing at the same time an opinion that Caesar
intended a new and more correct edition.  He has left behind him likewise
two 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 first
two in his passage over the Alps, as he was returning to the army after
making his circuit in Hither-Gaul; the second work about the time of the
battle of Munda; and the last during the four-and-twenty days he employed
in his journey from Rome to Farther-Spain.  There are extant some letters
of his to the senate, written in a manner never practised by any before
him; for they are distinguished into pages in the form of a memorandum
book whereas the consuls and commanders till then, used constantly in
their letters to continue the line quite across the sheet, without any
folding or distinction of pages.  There are extant likewise some letters
from him to Cicero, and others to his friends, concerning his domestic
affairs; in which, if there was occasion for secrecy, he wrote in
cyphers; that is, he used the alphabet in such a manner, that not a
single word could be made out.  The way to decipher those epistles was to
substitute the fourth for the first letter, as d for a, and so for the
other 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 the
Encomium of Hercules, a tragedy entitled Oedipus, and a collection of
Apophthegms; all which Augustus forbad to be published, in a short and
plain letter to Pompeius Macer, who was employed by him in the
arrangement of his libraries.

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

LVIII.  In his expeditions, it is difficult to say whether his caution or
his daring was most conspicuous.  He never marched his army by roads
which were exposed to ambuscades, without having previously examined the
nature of the ground by his scouts.  Nor did he cross over to Britain,
before he had carefully examined, in person [81], the navigation, the
harbours, and the most convenient point of landing in the island.  When
intelligence was brought to him of the siege of his camp in Germany, he
made his way to his troops, through the enemy's stations, in a Gaulish
dress.  He crossed the sea from Brundisium and Dyrrachium, in the winter,
through the midst of the enemy's fleets; and the troops, under orders to
join him, being slow in their movements, notwithstanding repeated
messages to hurry them, but to no purpose, he at last went privately, and
alone, 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 to
sink.

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

LX.  He not only fought pitched battles, but made sudden attacks when an
opportunity offered; often at the end of a march, and sometimes during
the most violent storms, when nobody could imagine he would stir.  Nor
was he ever backward in fighting, until towards the end of his life.  He
then 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 he
could gain by a victory would compensate for what he might lose by a
miscarriage.  He never defeated the enemy without driving them from their
camp; and giving them no time to rally their forces.  When the issue of a
battle was doubtful, he sent away all the horses, and his own first, that
having no means of flight, they might be under the greater necessity of
standing their ground.

LXI.  He rode a very remarkable horse, with feet almost like those of a
man, the hoofs being divided in such a manner as to have some resemblance
to toes.  This horse he had bred himself, and the soothsayers having
interpreted these circumstances into an omen that its owner would be
master of the world, he brought him up with particular care, and broke
him in himself, as the horse would suffer no one else to mount him.  A
statue of this horse was afterwards erected by Caesar's order before the
temple of Venus Genitrix.

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

LXIII.  The following instances of his resolution are equally, and even
more remarkable.  After the battle of Pharsalia, having sent his troops
before him into Asia, as he was passing the straits of the Hellespont in
a ferry-boat, he met with Lucius Cassius, one of the opposite party, with
ten ships of war; and so far from endeavouring to escape, he went
alongside his ship, and calling upon him to surrender, Cassius humbly
gave him his submission.

LXIV.  At Alexandria, in the attack of a bridge, being forced by a sudden
sally 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 hand
out 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 should
fall into the hands of the enemy.

LXV.  He never valued a soldier for his moral conduct or his means, but
for his courage only; and treated his troops with a mixture of severity
and indulgence; for he did not always keep a strict hand over them, but
only when the enemy was near.  Then indeed he was so strict a
disciplinarian, that he would give no notice of a march or a battle until
the moment of action, in order that the troops might hold themselves in
readiness for any sudden movement; and he would frequently draw them out
of the camp without any necessity for it, especially in rainy weather,
and upon holy-days.  Sometimes, giving them orders not to lose sight of
him, he would suddenly depart by day or by night, and lengthen the
marches 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 the
great force of the enemy, he rallied their courage; not by denying the
truth of what was said, or by diminishing the facts, but, on the
contrary, by exaggerating every particular.  (41) Accordingly, when his
troops were in great alarm at the expected arrival of king Juba, he
called them together, and said, "I have to inform you that in a very few
days the king will be here, with ten legions, thirty thousand horse, a
hundred thousand light-armed foot, and three hundred elephants.  Let none
of you, therefore, presume to make further enquiry, or indulge in
conjectures, but take my word for what I tell you, which I have from
undoubted intelligence; otherwise I shall put them aboard an old crazy
vessel, and leave them exposed to the mercy of the winds, to be
transported to some other country."

LXVII.  He neither noticed all their transgressions, nor punished them
according to strict rule.  But for deserters and mutineers he made the
most diligent enquiry, and their punishment was most severe: other
delinquencies he would connive at.  Sometimes, after a great battle
ending in victory, he would grant them a relaxation from all kinds of
duty, and leave them to revel at pleasure; being used to boast, "that his
soldiers fought nothing the worse for being well oiled."  In his
speeches, he never addressed them by the title of "Soldiers," but by the
kinder phrase of "Fellow-soldiers;" and kept them in such splendid order,
that their arms were ornamented with silver and gold, not merely for
parade, 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, that
when he heard of the defeat of those under Titurius, he neither cut his
hair nor shaved his beard, until he had revenged it upon the enemy; by
which means he engaged their devoted affection, and raised their valour
to the highest pitch.

LXVIII.  Upon his entering on the civil war, the centurions of every
legion 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 the
maintenance of the poor.  No one of them, during the whole course of the
war, deserted to the enemy; and many of those who were made prisoners,
though they were offered their lives, upon condition of bearing arms
against him, refused to accept the terms.  They endured want, and other
hardships, not only (42) when they were besieged themselves, but when
they besieged others, to such a degree, that Pompey, when blocked up in
the neighbourhood of Dyrrachium, upon seeing a sort of bread made of an
herb, which they lived upon, said, "I have to do with wild beasts," and
ordered it immediately to be taken away; because, if his troops should
see it, their spirit might be broken by perceiving the endurance and
determined resolution of the enemy.  With what bravery they fought, one
instance affords sufficient proof; which is, that after an unsuccessful
engagement at Dyrrachium, they called for punishment; insomuch that their
general found it more necessary to comfort than to punish them.  In other
battles, in different quarters, they defeated with ease immense armies of
the enemy, although they were much inferior to them in number.  In short,
one cohort of the sixth legion held out a fort against four legions
belonging to Pompey, during several hours; being almost every one of them
wounded by the vast number of arrows discharged against them, and of
which there were found within the ramparts a hundred and thirty thousand.
This is no way surprising, when we consider the conduct of some
individuals amongst them; such as that of Cassius Scaeva, a centurion, or
Caius Acilius, a common soldier, not to speak of others.  Scaeva, after
having an eye struck out, being run through the thigh and the shoulder,
and having his shield pierced in an hundred and twenty places, maintained
obstinately the guard of the gate of a fort, with the command of which he
was intrusted.  Acilius, in the sea-fight at Marseilles, having seized a
ship of the enemy's with his right hand, and that being cut off, in
imitation of that memorable instance of resolution in Cynaegirus amongst
the Greeks, boarded the enemy's ship, bearing down all before him with
the boss of his shield.

LXIX.  They never once mutinied during all the ten years of the Gallic
war, but were sometimes refractory in the course of the civil war.
However, they always returned quickly to their duty, and that not through
the indulgence, but in submission to the authority, of their general; for
he never yielded to them when they were insubordinate, but constantly
resisted their demands.  He disbanded the whole ninth legion with
ignominy at Placentia, although Pompey was still in arms, and would (43)
not receive them again into his service, until they had not only made
repeated and humble entreaties, but until the ringleaders in the mutiny
were punished.

LXX.  When the soldiers of the tenth legion at Rome demanded their
discharge and rewards for their service, with violent threats and no
small danger to the city, although the war was then raging in Africa, he
did not hesitate, contrary to the advice of his friends, to meet the
legion, and disband it.  But addressing them by the title of "Quirites,"
instead of "Soldiers," he by this single word so thoroughly brought them
round and changed their determination, that they immediately cried out,
they were his "soldiers," and followed him to Africa, although he had
refused their service.  He nevertheless punished the most mutinous among
them, with the loss of a third of their share in the plunder, and the
land destined for them.

LXXI.  In the service of his clients, while yet a young man, he evinced
great zeal and fidelity.  He defended the cause of a noble youth,
Masintha, against king Hiempsal, so strenuously, that in a scuffle which
took place upon the occasion, he seized by the beard the son of king
Juba; and upon Masintha's being declared tributary to Hiempsal, while the
friends of the adverse party were violently carrying him off, he
immediately rescued him by force, kept him concealed in his house a long
time, 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 the
fasces, 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, was
suddenly taken ill, he resigned to him the only place there was to
shelter them at night, and lay upon the ground in the open air.  When he
had placed himself at the head of affairs, he advanced some of his
faithful adherents, though of mean extraction, to the highest offices;
and when he was censured for this partiality, he openly said, "Had I been
assisted by robbers and cut-throats in the defence of my honour, I should
have made them the same recompense."

(44) LXXIII.  The resentment he entertained against any one was never so
implacable that he did not very willingly renounce it when opportunity
offered.  Although Caius Memmius had published some extremely virulent
speeches against him, and he had answered him with equal acrimony, yet he
afterwards assisted him with his vote and interest, when he stood
candidate for the consulship.  When C. Calvus, after publishing some
scandalous epigrams upon him, endeavoured to effect a reconciliation by
the intercession of friends, he wrote to him, of his own accord, the
first letter.  And when Valerius Catullus, who had, as he himself
observed, fixed such a stain upon his character in his verses upon
Mamurra as never could be obliterated, he begged his pardon, invited him
to supper the same day; and continued to take up his lodging with his
father 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, having
sworn that he would crucify them, he did so indeed; but he first ordered
their throats to be cut [84].  He could never bear the thought of doing
any harm to Cornelius Phagitas, who had dogged him in the night when he
was sick and a fugitive, with the design of carrying him to Sylla, and
from whose hands he had escaped with some difficulty by giving him a
bribe.  Philemon, his amanuensis, who had promised his enemies to poison
him, he put to death without torture.  When he was summoned as a witness
against Publicus Clodius, his wife Pompeia's gallant, who was prosecuted
for the profanation of religious ceremonies, he declared he knew nothing
of the affair, although his mother Aurelia, and his sister Julia, gave
the court an exact and full account of the circumstances.  And being
asked why then he had divorced his wife?  "Because," he said, "my family
should not only be free from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it."

LXXV.  Both in his administration and his conduct towards the vanquished
party in the civil war, he showed a wonderful moderation and clemency.
For while Pompey declared that he would consider those as enemies who did
not 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 over
to him, if they pleased.  When some proposals were made at Ileria [85]
for a surrender, which gave rise to a free communication between the two
camps, and Afranius and Petreius, upon a sudden change of resolution, had
put to the sword all Caesar's men who were found in the camp, he scorned
to imitate the base treachery which they had practised against himself.
On the field of Pharsalia, he called out to the soldiers "to spare their
fellow-citizens," and afterwards gave permission to every man in his army
to save an enemy.  None of them, so far as appears, lost their lives but
in battle, excepting only Afranius, Faustus, and young Lucius Caesar; and
it is thought that even they were put to death without his consent.
Afranius and Faustus had borne arms against him, after obtaining their
pardon; and Lucius Caesar had not only in the most cruel manner destroyed
with fire and sword his freed-men and slaves, but cut to pieces the wild
beasts which he had prepared for the entertainment of the people.  And
finally, a little before his death, he permitted all whom he had not
before pardoned, to return into Italy, and to bear offices both civil and
military.  He even replaced the statues of Sylla and Pompey, which had
been thrown down by the populace.  And after this, whatever was devised
or uttered, he chose rather to check than to punish it.  Accordingly,
having detected certain conspiracies and nocturnal assemblies, he went no
farther than to intimate by a proclamation that he knew of them; and as
to those who indulged themselves in the liberty of reflecting severely
upon him, he only warned them in a public speech not to persist in their
offence.  He bore with great moderation a virulent libel written against
him by Aulus Caecinna, and the abusive lampoons of Pitholaus, most highly
reflecting on his reputation.

LXXVI.  His other words and actions, however, so far outweigh all his
good qualities, that it is thought he abused his power, and was justly
cut off.  For he not only obtained excessive honours, such as the
consulship every year, the dictatorship for life, and the censorship, but
also the title of emperor [86], (46) and the surname of FATHER OF HIS
COUNTRY [87], besides having his statue amongst the kings [88], and a
lofty couch in the theatre.  He even suffered some honours to be decreed
to him, which were unbefitting the most exalted of mankind; such as a
gilded chair of state in the senate-house and on his tribunal, a
consecrated 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; and
that 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, at
his will and pleasure.  In his third and fourth consulship, he used only
the title of the office, being content with the power of dictator, which
was conferred upon him with the consulship; and in both years he
substituted other consuls in his room, during the three last months; so
that in the intervals he held no assemblies of the people, for the
election of magistrates, excepting only tribunes and ediles of the
people; and appointed officers, under the name of praefects, instead of
the praetors, to administer the affairs of the city during his absence.
The office of consul having become vacant, by the sudden death of one of
the consuls the day before the calends of January [the 1st Jan.], he
conferred 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.  He
granted the insignia of the consular dignity to ten persons of pretorian
rank.  He admitted into the senate some men who had been made free of the
city, and even natives of Gaul, who were semi-barbarians.  (47) He
likewise appointed to the management of the mint, and the public revenue
of the state, some servants of his own household; and entrusted the
command of three legions, which he left at Alexandria, to an old catamite
of his, the son of his freed-man Rufinus.

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

LXXVIII.  But what brought upon him the greatest odium, and was thought
an unpardonable insult, was his receiving the whole body of the conscript
fathers sitting, before the temple of Venus Genitrix, when they waited
upon him with a number of decrees, conferring on him the highest
dignities.  Some say that, on his attempting to rise, he was held down by
Cornelius Balbus; others, that he did not attempt to rise at all, but
frowned on Caius Trebatius, who suggested to him that he should stand up
to receive the senate.  This behaviour appeared the more intolerable in
him, 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 his
triumph, he was so much offended, that he cried out, "Well then, you
tribune, Aquila, oust me from the government."  And for some days
afterwards, he never promised a favour to any person, without this
proviso, "if Pontus Aquila will give me leave."

LXXIX.  To this extraordinary mark of contempt for the senate, he added
another affront still more outrageous.  For when, after the sacred rites
of the Latin festival, he was returning home, amidst the immoderate and
unusual acclamations (48) of the people, a man in the crowd put a laurel
crown, encircled with a white fillet [89], on one of his statues; upon
which, the tribunes of the people, Epidius Marullus, and Caesetius
Flavus, ordered the fillet to be removed from the crown, and the man to
be taken to prison.  Caesar, being much concerned either that the idea of
royalty had been suggested to so little purpose, or, as was said, that he
was thus deprived of the merit of refusing it, reprimanded the tribunes
very severely, and dismissed them from their office.  From that day
forward, he was never able to wipe off the scandal of affecting the name
of king, although he replied to the populace, when they saluted him by
that title, "I am Caesar, and no king."  And at the feast of the
Lupercalia [90], when the consul Antony placed a crown upon his head in
the rostra several times, he as often put it away, and sent it to the
Capitol for Jupiter, the Best and the Greatest.  A report was very
current, that he had a design of withdrawing to Alexandria or Ilium,
whither he proposed to transfer the imperial power, to drain Italy by new
levies, and to leave the government of the city to be administered by his
friends.  To this report it was added, that in the next meeting of the
senate, Lucius Cotta, one of the fifteen [91], would make a motion, that
as there was in the Sibylline books a prophecy, that the Parthians would
never be subdued but by a king, Caesar should have that title conferred
upon him.

LXXX.  For this reason the conspirators precipitated the execution of
their design [92], that they might not be obliged to give their assent to
the proposal.  Instead, therefore, of caballing any longer separately, in
small parties, they now united their counsels; the people themselves
being dissatisfied with the present state of affairs, both privately and
publicly (49) condemning the tyranny under which they lived, and calling
on patriots to assert their cause against the usurper.  Upon the
admission of foreigners into the senate, a hand-bill was posted up in
these words: "A good deed! let no one shew a new senator the way to the
house."  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 the
last three months, entered the theatre, and the lictor, according to
custom, bid the people take notice who was coming, they all cried out,
"He is no consul."  After the removal of Caesetius and Marullus from
their office, they were found to have a great many votes at the next
election of consuls.  Some one wrote under the statue of Lucius Brutus,
"Would you were now alive!" and under the statue of Caesar himself these
lines:

    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 whom
Caius Cassius, and Marcus and Decimus Brutus were the chief.  It was at
first debated amongst them, whether they should attack him in the Campus
Martius when he was taking the votes of the tribes, and some of them
should throw him off the bridge, whilst others should be ready to stab
him upon his fall; or else in the Via Sacra, or at the entrance of the
theatre.  But after public notice had been given by proclamation for the
senate to assemble upon the ides of March [15th March], in the
senate-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, by
virtue of the Julian law, were demolishing some old sepulchres, in
building country-houses, and were the more eager at the work, because
they discovered certain vessels of antique workmanship, a tablet of brass
was found in a tomb, in which Capys, the founder of Capua, was said to
have been buried, with an inscription in the Greek language to this
effect "Whenever the bones of Capys come to be discovered, a descendant
of Iulus will be slain by the hands of his kinsmen, and his death
revenged by fearful disasters throughout Italy."  Lest any person should
regard this anecdote as a fabulous or silly invention, it was circulated
upon the authority of Caius Balbus, an intimate friend of Caesar's.  A
few days likewise before his death, he was informed that the horses,
which, upon his crossing the Rubicon, he had consecrated, and turned
loose to graze without a keeper, abstained entirely from eating, and shed
floods of tears.  The soothsayer Spurinna, observing certain ominous
appearances in a sacrifice which he was offering, advised him to beware
of some danger, which threatened to befall him before the ides of March
were past.  The day before the ides, birds of various kinds from a
neighbouring 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, in
the night on which the day of his murder dawned, he dreamt at one time
that he was soaring above the clouds, and, at another, that he had joined
hands with Jupiter.  His wife Calpurnia fancied in her sleep that the
pediment of the house was falling down, and her husband stabbed on her
bosom; immediately upon which the chamber doors flew open.  On account of
these omens, as well as his infirm health, he was in some doubt whether
he should not remain at home, and defer to some other opportunity the
business which he intended to propose to the senate; but Decimus Brutus
advising him not to disappoint the senators, who were numerously
assembled, and waited his coming, he was prevailed upon to go, and
accordingly (51) set forward about the fifth hour.  In his way, some
person 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, without
any favourable appearances in the entrails; but still, disregarding all
omens, he entered the senate-house, laughing at Spurinna as a false
prophet, because the ides of March were come, without any mischief having
befallen 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 should
defer his petition to some other time.  Tullius immediately seized him by
the toga, on both shoulders; at which Caesar crying out, "Violence is
meant!" one of the Cassii wounded him a little below the throat.  Caesar
seized him by the arm, and ran it through with his style [95]; and
endeavouring to rush forward was stopped by another wound.  Finding
himself now attacked on all hands with naked poniards, he wrapped the
toga [96] about his head, and at the same moment drew the skirt round his
legs with his left hand, that he might fall more decently with the lower
part of his body covered.  He was stabbed with three and twenty wounds,
uttering a groan only, but no cry, at the first wound; although some
authors relate, that when Marcus Brutus fell upon him, he exclaimed,
"What! art thou, too, one of them?  Thou, my son!" [97]  The whole
assembly instantly (52) dispersing, he lay for some time after he
expired, until three of his slaves laid the body on a litter, and carried
it 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 conspirators
meant to drag his body into the Tiber as soon as they had killed him; to
confiscate his estate, and rescind all his enactments; but they were
deterred by fear of Mark Antony, and Lepidus, Caesar's master of the
horse, and abandoned their intentions.

LXXXIII.  At the instance of Lucius Piso, his father-in-law, his will was
opened 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 it
to the custody of the chief of the Vestal Virgins.  Quintus Tubero
informs us, that in all the wills he had signed, from the time of his
first consulship to the breaking out of the civil war, Cneius Pompey was
appointed 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 Lucius
Pinarius and Quintus Pedius for the remaining fourth.  Other heirs [in
remainder] were named at the close of the will, in which he also adopted
Caius Octavius, who was to assume his name, into his family; and
nominated most of those who were concerned in his death among the
guardians of his son, if he should have any; as well as Decimus Brutus
amongst his heirs of the second order.  Be bequeathed to the Roman people
his gardens near the Tiber, and three hundred sesterces each man.

LXXXIV.  Notice of his funeral having been solemnly proclaimed, a pile
was 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 the
temple of Venus Genitrix; within which was an ivory bed, covered with
purple and cloth of gold.  At the head was a trophy, with the
[bloodstained] robe in which he was slain.  It being considered that the
whole day would not suffice for carrying the funeral oblations in solemn
procession before the corpse, directions were given for every one,
without regard to order, to carry them from the city into the Campus
Martius, by what way they pleased.  To raise pity and indignation for his
murder, in the plays acted at the funeral, a passage was sung from
Pacuvius'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 same
effect.  Instead of a funeral panegyric, the consul Antony ordered a
herald to proclaim to the people the decree of the senate, in which they
had bestowed upon him all honours, divine and human; with the oath by
which they had engaged themselves for the defence of his person; and to
these he added only a few words of his own.  The magistrates and others
who had formerly filled the highest offices, carried the bier from the
Rostra into the Forum.  While some proposed that the body should be burnt
in the sanctuary of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and others in
Pompey'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 tribunals
and benches of the adjoining courts, and whatever else came to hand.
Then the musicians and players stripped off the dresses they wore on the
present 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 honour
of his funeral.  Most of the ladies did the same by their ornaments, with
the bullae [99], and mantles of their children.  In this public mourning
there joined a multitude of foreigners, expressing their sorrow according
to the fashion of their respective countries; but especially the Jews
[100], who for several nights together frequented the spot where the body
was 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, who
happened to fall into their hands, they murdered the latter, and carried
his head about the city on the point of a spear.  They afterwards erected
in the Forum a column of Numidian marble, formed of one stone nearly
twenty feet high, and inscribed upon it these words, TO THE FATHER OF HIS
COUNTRY.  At this column they continued for a long time to offer
sacrifices, make vows, and decide controversies, in which they swore by
Caesar.

LXXXVI.  Some of Caesar's friends entertained a suspicion, that he
neither desired nor cared to live any longer, on account of his declining
health; and for that reason slighted all the omens of religion, and the
warnings of his friends.  Others are of opinion, that thinking himself
secure in the late decree of the senate, and their oaths, he dismissed
his Spanish guards who attended him with drawn swords.  Others again
suppose, that he chose rather to face at once the dangers which
threatened him on all sides, than to be for ever on the watch against
them.  Some tell us that he used to say, the commonwealth was more
interested in the safety of his person than himself: for that he had for
some time been satiated with power and glory; but that the commonwealth,
if any thing should befall him, would have no rest, and, involved in
another civil war, would be in a worse state than before.

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

LXXXVIII.  He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was ranked
amongst the Gods, not only by a formal decree, but in the belief of the
vulgar.  For during the first games which Augustus, his heir, consecrated
to his memory, a comet blazed for seven days together, rising always
about eleven o'clock; and it was supposed to be the soul of Caesar, now
received into heaven: for which reason, likewise, he is represented on
his statue with a star on his brow.  The senate-house in which he was
slain, was ordered to be shut up [101], and a decree made that the ides
of March should be called parricidal, and the senate should never more
assemble on that day.

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

(56) [104] The termination of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey
forms a new epoch in the Roman History, at which a Republic, which had
subsisted with unrivalled glory during a period of about four hundred and
sixty years, relapsed into a state of despotism, whence it never more
could emerge.  So sudden a transition from prosperity to the ruin of
public freedom, without the intervention of any foreign enemy, excites a
reasonable conjecture, that the constitution in which it could take
place, however vigorous in appearance, must have lost that soundness of
political health which had enabled it to endure through so many ages.  A
short view of its preceding state, and of that in which it was at the
time of the revolution now mentioned, will best ascertain the foundation
of such a conjecture.

Though the Romans, upon the expulsion of Tarquin, made an essential
change in the political form of the state, they did not carry their
detestation of regal authority so far as to abolish the religious
institutions of Numa Pompilius, the second of their kings, according to
which, the priesthood, with all the influence annexed to that order, was
placed in the hands of the aristocracy.  By this wise policy a restraint
was put upon the fickleness and violence of the people in matters of
government, and a decided superiority given to the Senate both in the
deliberative and executive parts of administration.  This advantage was
afterwards indeed diminished by the creation of Tribunes of the people; a
set of men whose ambition often embroiled the Republic in civil
dissensions, and who at last abused their authority to such a degree,
that they became instruments of aggrandizement to any leading men in the
state who could purchase their friendship.  In general, however, the
majority of the Tribunes being actuated by views which comprehended the
interests of the multitude, rather than those of individuals, they did
not so much endanger the liberty, as they interrupted the tranquillity,
of the public; and when the occasional commotions subsided, there
remained no permanent ground for the establishment of personal
usurpation.

In every government, an object of the last importance to the peace and
welfare of society is the morals of the people; and in proportion as a
community is enlarged by propagation, or the accession of a multitude of
new members, a more strict attention is requisite to guard against that
dissolution of manners to which a crowded and extensive capital has a
natural tendency.  Of this (57) the Romans became sensible in the growing
state of the Republic.  In the year of the City 312, two magistrates were
first created for taking an account of the number of the people, and the
value of their estates; and soon after, they were invested with the
authority not only of inspecting the morals of individuals, but of
inflicting public censure for any licentiousness of conduct, or violation
of decency.  Thus both the civil and religious institutions concurred to
restrain the people within the bounds of good order and obedience to the
laws; at the same time that the frugal life of the ancient Romans proved
a strong security against those vices which operate most effectually
towards sapping the foundations of a state.

But in the time of Julius Caesar the barriers of public liberty were
become too weak to restrain the audacious efforts of ambitious and
desperate men.  The veneration for the constitution, usually a powerful
check to treasonable designs, had been lately violated by the usurpations
of Marius and Sylla.  The salutary terrors of religion no longer
predominated over the consciences of men.  The shame of public censure
was extinguished in general depravity.  An eminent historian, who lived
at that time, informs us, that venality universally prevailed amongst the
Romans; and a writer who flourished soon after, observes, that luxury and
dissipation had encumbered almost all so much with debt, that they beheld
with a degree of complacency the prospect of civil war and confusion.

The extreme degree of profligacy at which the Romans were now arrived is
in nothing more evident, than that this age gave birth to the most
horrible conspiracy which occurs in the annals of humankind, viz. that of
Catiline.  This was not the project of a few desperate and abandoned
individuals, but of a number of men of the most illustrious rank in the
state; and it appears beyond doubt, that Julius Caesar was accessary to
the design, which was no less than to extirpate the Senate, divide
amongst themselves both the public and private treasures, and set Rome on
fire.  The causes which prompted to this tremendous project, it is
generally admitted, were luxury, prodigality, irreligion, a total
corruption of manners, and above all, as the immediate cause, the
pressing necessity in which the conspirators were involved by their
extreme dissipation.

The enormous debt in which Caesar himself was early involved,
countenances an opinion that his anxiety to procure the province of Gaul
proceeded chiefly from this cause.  But during nine years in which he
held that province, he acquired such riches as must have rendered him,
without competition, the most opulent person in the state.  If nothing
more, therefore, than a (58) splendid establishment had been the object
of his pursuit, he had attained to the summit of his wishes.  But when we
find him persevering in a plan of aggrandizement beyond this period of
his fortunes, we can ascribe his conduct to no other motive than that of
outrageous 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 raised
legions in Gaul at his own charges: he promised such entertainments to
the people as had never been known at Rome from the foundation of the
city.  All these circumstances evince some latent design of procuring
such a popularity as might give him an uncontrolled influence in the
management of public affairs.  Pompey, we are told, was wont to say, that
Caesar not being able, with all his riches, to fulfil the promises which
he had made, wished to throw everything into confusion.  There may have
been some foundation for this remark: but the opinion of Cicero is more
probable, that Caesar's mind was seduced with the temptations of
chimerical glory.  It is observable that neither Cicero nor Pompey
intimates any suspicion that Caesar was apprehensive of being impeached
for his conduct, had he returned to Rome in a private station.  Yet, that
there was reason for such an apprehension, the positive declaration of L.
Domitius leaves little room to doubt: especially when we consider the
number of enemies that Caesar had in the Senate, and the coolness of his
former friend Pompey ever after the death of Julia.  The proposed
impeachment was founded upon a notorious charge of prosecuting measures
destructive of the interests of the commonwealth, and tending ultimately
to an object incompatible with public freedom.  Indeed, considering the
extreme corruption which prevailed amongst the Romans at this time, it is
more 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, and
placed him again in a situation ready to attempt a disturbance of the
public tranquillity.  For it is said, that he purchased the friendship of
Curio, at the commencement of the civil war, with a bribe little short of
half a million sterling.

Whatever Caesar's private motive may have been for taking arms against
his country, he embarked in an enterprise of a nature the most dangerous:
and had Pompey conducted himself in any degree suitable to the reputation
which he had formerly acquired, the contest would in all probability have
terminated in favour of public freedom.  But by dilatory measures in the
beginning, by imprudently withdrawing his army from Italy into a distant
province, and by not pursuing the advantage he had gained by the vigorous
repulse of Caesar's troops in their attack upon his camp, this commander
lost every opportunity of extinguishing a war which was to determine the
fate, and even the existence, of the Republic.  It was accordingly
determined on the plains of Pharsalia, where Caesar obtained a victory
which was not more decisive than unexpected.  He was now no longer
amenable either to the tribunal of the Senate or the power of the laws,
but triumphed at once over his enemies and the constitution of his
country.

It is to the honour of Caesar, that when he had obtained the supreme
power, he exercised it with a degree of moderation beyond what was
generally expected by those who had fought on the side of the Republic.
Of his private life either before or after this period, little is
transmitted in history.  Henceforth, however, he seems to have lived
chiefly at Rome, near which he had a small villa, upon an eminence,
commanding a beautiful prospect.  His time was almost entirely occupied
with public affairs, in the management of which, though he employed many
agents, 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 a
considerable time amongst a crowd in an anti-chamber, before he could
have an audience.  The elevation of Caesar placed him not above
discharging reciprocally the social duties in the intercourse of life.
He returned the visits of those who waited upon him, and would sup at
their houses.  At table, and in the use of wine, he was habitually
temperate.  Upon the whole, he added nothing to his own happiness by all
the dangers, the fatigues, and the perpetual anxiety which he had
incurred in the pursuit of unlimited power.  His health was greatly
impaired: his former cheerfulness of temper, though not his magnanimity,
appears to have forsaken him; and we behold in his fate a memorable
example 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 a
view of the progress of literature, which flourished even during those
calamities.

The commencement of literature in Rome is to be dated from the reduction
of the Grecian States, when the conquerors imported into their own
country the valuable productions of the Greek language, and the first
essay of Roman genius was in dramatic composition.  Livius Andronicus,
who flourished about 240 years before the Christian aera, formed the
Fescennine verses into a kind of regular drama, upon the model of the
Greeks.  He was followed some time after by Ennius, who, besides dramatic
and other compositions, (60) wrote the annals of the Roman Republic in
heroic verse.  His style, like that of Andronicus, was rough and
unpolished, in conformity to the language of those times; but for
grandeur of sentiment and energy of expression, he was admired by the
greatest poets in the subsequent ages.  Other writers of distinguished
reputation in the dramatic department were Naevius, Pacuvius, Plautus,
Afranius, Caecilius, Terence, Accius, etc.  Accius and Pacuvius are
mentioned by Quintilian as writers of extraordinary merit.  Of
twenty-five comedies written by Plautus, the number transmitted to
posterity is nineteen; and of a hundred and eight which Terence is said to
have translated from Menander, there now remain only six.  Excepting a few
inconsiderable fragments, the writings of all the other authors have
perished.  The early period of Roman literature was distinguished for the
introduction of satire by Lucilius, an author celebrated for writing with
remarkable ease, but whose compositions, in the opinion of Horace, though
Quintilian thinks otherwise, were debased with a mixture of feculency.
Whatever may have been their merit, they also have perished, with the
works of a number of orators, who adorned the advancing state of letters
in the Roman Republic.  It is observable, that during this whole period,
of near two centuries and a half, there appeared not one historian of
eminence sufficient to preserve his name from oblivion.

Julius Caesar himself is one of the most eminent writers of the age in
which he lived.  His commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars are
written with a purity, precision, and perspicuity, which command
approbation.  They are elegant without affectation, and beautiful without
ornament.  Of the two books which he composed on Analogy, and those under
the title of Anti-Cato, scarcely any fragment is preserved; but we may be
assured of the justness of the observations on language, which were made
by an author so much distinguished by the excellence of his own
compositions.  His poem entitled The Journey, which was probably an
entertaining narrative, is likewise totally lost.

The most illustrious prose writer of this or any other age is M. Tullius
Cicero; and as his life is copiously related in biographical works, it
will be sufficient to mention his writings.  From his earliest years, he
applied himself with unremitting assiduity to the cultivation of
literature, and, whilst he was yet a boy, wrote a poem, called Glaucus
Pontius, which was extant in Plutarch's time.  Amongst his juvenile
productions was a translation into Latin verse, of Aratus on the
Phaenomena of the Heavens; of which many fragments are still extant.  He
also 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) This
production was greatly admired by Atticus; and old Scaevola was so much
pleased with it, that in an epigram written on the subject, he declares
that it would live as long as the Roman name and learning subsisted.
From a little specimen which remains of it, describing a memorable omen
given to Marina from an oak at Arpinum, there is reason to believe that
his poetical genius was scarcely inferior to his oratorical, had it been
cultivated with equal industry.  He published another poem called Limon,
of which Donatus has preserved four lines in the life of Terence, in
praise of the elegance and purity of that poet's style.  He composed in
the Greek language, and in the style and manner of Isocrates, a
Commentary or Memoirs of the Transactions of his Consulship.  This he
sent to Atticus, with a desire, if he approved it, to publish it in
Athens and the cities of Greece.  He sent a copy of it likewise to
Posidonius of Rhodes, and requested of him to undertake the same subject
in a more elegant and masterly manner.  But the latter returned for
answer, that, instead of being encouraged to write by the perusal of his
tract, he was quite deterred from attempting it.

Upon the plan of those Memoirs, he afterwards composed a Latin poem in
three books, in which he carried down the history to the end of his
exile, but did not publish it for several years, from motives of
delicacy.  The three books were severally inscribed to the three Muses;
but of this work there now remain only a few fragments, scattered in
different parts of his other writings.  He published, about the same
time, a collection of the principal speeches which he had made in his
consulship, under the title of his Consular Orations.  They consisted
originally of twelve; but four are entirely lost, and some of the rest
are imperfect.  He now published also, in Latin verse, a translation of
the Prognostics of Aratus, of which work no more than two or three small
fragments now remain.  A few years after, he put the last hand to his
Dialogues upon the Character and Idea of the perfect Orator.  This
admirable work remains entire; a monument both of the astonishing
industry 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, and
the Duties of a Citizen.  He calls it a great and a laborious work, yet
worthy of his pains, if he could succeed in it.  This likewise was
written in the form of a dialogue, in which the speakers were Scipio,
Laelius, Philus, Manilius, and other great persons in the former times of
the Republic.  It was comprised in six books, and survived him for
several ages, though it is now unfortunately lost.  From the fragments
which remain, it appears to have been a masterly production, in which all
the important questions in politics and morality were discussed with
elegance and accuracy.

(62) Amidst all the anxiety for the interests of the Republic, which
occupied the thoughts of this celebrated personage, he yet found leisure
to write several philosophical tracts, which still subsist, to the
gratification of the literary world.  He composed a treatise on the
Nature of the Gods, in three books, containing a comprehensive view of
religion, faith, oaths, ceremonies, etc.  In elucidating this important
subject, he not only delivers the opinions of all the philosophers who
had written anything concerning it, but weighs and compares attentively
all the arguments with each other; forming upon the whole such a rational
and perfect system of natural religion, as never before was presented to
the consideration of mankind, and approaching nearly to revelation.  He
now likewise composed in two books, a discourse on Divination, in which
he discusses at large all the arguments that may be advanced for and
against the actual existence of such a species of knowledge.  Like the
preceding works, it is written in the form of dialogue, and in which the
chief speaker is Laelius.  The same period gave birth to his treatise on
Old Age, called Cato Major; and to that on Friendship, written also in
dialogue, and in which the chief speaker is Laelius.  This book,
considered merely as an essay, is one of the most entertaining
productions of ancient times; but, beheld as a picture drawn from life,
exhibiting the real characters and sentiments of men of the first
distinction for virtue and wisdom in the Roman Republic, it becomes
doubly interesting to every reader of observation and taste.  Cicero now
also wrote his discourse on Fate, which was the subject of a conversation
with Hirtius, in his villa near Puteoli; and he executed about the same
time a translation of Plato's celebrated Dialogue, called Timaeus, on the
nature and origin of the universe.  He was employing himself also on a
history of his own times, or rather of his own conduct; full of free and
severe reflections on those who had abused their power to the oppression
of the Republic.  Dion Cassius says, that he delivered this book sealed
up to his son, with strict orders not to read or publish it till after
his death; but from this time he never saw his son, and it is probable
that he left the work unfinished.  Afterwards, however, some copies of it
were circulated; from which his commentator, Asconius, has quoted several
particulars.

During a voyage which he undertook to Sicily, he wrote his treatise on
Topics, or the Art of finding Arguments on any Question.  This was an
abstract from Aristotle's treatise on the same subject; and though he had
neither Aristotle nor any other book to assist him, he drew it up from
his 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 treatise
contains a system of moral conduct, founded upon the noblest principles
of human action, and recommended by arguments drawn from the purest
sources of philosophy.

Such are the literary productions of this extraordinary man, whose
comprehensive understanding enabled him to conduct with superior ability
the most abstruse disquisitions into moral and metaphysical science.
Born in an age posterior to Socrates and Plato, he could not anticipate
the principles inculcated by those divine philosophers, but he is justly
entitled to the praise, not only of having prosecuted with unerring
judgment the steps which they trod before him, but of carrying his
researches to greater extent into the most difficult regions of
philosophy.  This too he had the merit to perform, neither in the station
of a private citizen, nor in the leisure of academic retirement, but in
the bustle of public life, amidst the almost constant exertions of the
bar, the employment of the magistrate, the duty of the senator, and the
incessant cares of the statesman; through a period likewise chequered
with domestic afflictions and fatal commotions in the Republic.  As a
philosopher, his mind appears to have been clear, capacious, penetrating,
and insatiable of knowledge.  As a writer, he was endowed with every
talent that could captivate either the judgment or taste.  His researches
were continually employed on subjects of the greatest utility to mankind,
and those often such as extended beyond the narrow bounds of temporal
existence.  The being of a God, the immortality of the soul, a future
state of rewards and punishments, and the eternal distinction of good and
evil; these were in general the great objects of his philosophical
enquiries, and he has placed them in a more convincing point of view than
they ever were before exhibited to the pagan world.  The variety and
force of the arguments which he advances, the splendour of his diction,
and the zeal with which he endeavours to excite the love and admiration
of virtue, all conspire to place his character, as a philosophical
writer, including likewise his incomparable eloquence, on the summit of
human celebrity.

The form of dialogue, so much used by Cicero, he doubtless adopted in
imitation of Plato, who probably took the hint of it from the colloquial
method of instruction practised by Socrates.  In the early stage of
philosophical enquiry, this mode of composition was well adapted, if not
to the discovery, at least to the confirmation of moral truth; especially
as the practice was then not uncommon, for speculative men to converse
together on important subjects, for mutual information.  In treating of
any subject respecting which the different sects of philosophers differed
(64) from each other in point of sentiment, no kind of composition could
be more happily suited than dialogue, as it gave alternately full scope
to the arguments of the various disputants.  It required, however, that
the writer should exert his understanding with equal impartiality and
acuteness on the different sides of the question; as otherwise he might
betray a cause under the appearance of defending it.  In all the
dialogues of Cicero, he manages the arguments of the several disputants
in a manner not only the most fair and interesting, but also such as
leads to the most probable and rational conclusion.

After enumerating the various tracts composed and published by Cicero, we
have now to mention his Letters, which, though not written for
publication, deserve to be ranked among the most interesting remains of
Roman literature.  The number of such as are addressed to different
correspondents is considerable, but those to Atticus alone, his
confidential friend, amount to upwards of four hundred; among which are
many of great length.  They are all written in the genuine spirit of the
most approved epistolary composition; uniting familiarity with elevation,
and ease with elegance.  They display in a beautiful light the author's
character in the social relations of life; as a warm friend, a zealous
patron, a tender husband, an affectionate brother, an indulgent father,
and a kind master.  Beholding them in a more extensive view, they exhibit
an ardent love of liberty and the constitution of his country: they
discover a mind strongly actuated with the principles of virtue and
reason; and while they abound in sentiments the most judicious and
philosophical, they are occasionally blended with the charms of wit, and
agreeable effusions of pleasantry.  What is likewise no small addition to
their merit, they contain much interesting description of private life,
with a variety of information relative to public transactions and
characters of that age.  It appears from Cicero's correspondence, that
there was at that time such a number of illustrious Romans, as never
before existed in any one period of the Republic.  If ever, therefore,
the authority of men the most respectable for virtue, rank, and
abilities, could have availed to overawe the first attempts at a
violation of public liberty, it must have been at this period; for the
dignity of the Roman senate was now in the zenith of its splendour.

Cicero has been accused of excessive vanity, and of arrogating to himself
an invidious superiority, from his extraordinary talents but whoever
peruses his letters to Atticus, must readily acknowledge, that this
imputation appears to be destitute of truth.  In those excellent
productions, though he adduces the strongest arguments for and against
any object of consideration, that the (65) most penetrating understanding
can suggest, weighs them with each other, and draws from them the most
rational conclusions, he yet discovers such a diffidence in his own
opinion, that he resigns himself implicitly to the judgment and direction
of his friend; a modesty not very compatible with the disposition of the
arrogant, who are commonly tenacious of their own opinion, particularly
in what relates to any decision of the understanding.

It is difficult to say, whether Cicero appears in his letters more great
or amiable: but that he was regarded by his contemporaries in both these
lights, and that too in the highest degree, is sufficiently evident.  We
may thence infer, that the great poets in the subsequent age must have
done violence to their own liberality and discernment, when, in
compliment to Augustus, whose sensibility would have been wounded by the
praises of Cicero, and even by the mention of his name, they have so
industriously avoided the subject, as not to afford the most distant
intimation 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 he
received the free and unanimous applause of impartial posterity.  Such
was the admiration which Quintilian entertained of his writings, that he
considered the circumstance or being delighted with them, as an
indubitable proof of judgment and taste in literature.  Ille se
profecisse sciat, cui Cicero valde placebit. [105]

In this period is likewise to be placed M. Terentius Varro, the
celebrated Roman grammarian, and the Nestor of ancient learning.  The
first mention made of him is, that he was lieutenant to Pompey in his
piratical wars, and obtained in that service a naval crown.  In the civil
wars he joined the side of the Republic, and was taken by Caesar; by whom
he was likewise proscribed, but obtained a remission of the sentence.  Of
all the ancients, he has acquired the greatest fame for his extensive
erudition; and we may add, that he displayed the same industry in
communicating, as he had done in collecting it.  His works originally
amounted to no less than five hundred volumes, which have all perished,
except a treatise De Lingua Latina, and one De Re Rustica.  Of the former
of these, which is addressed to Cicero, three books at the beginning are
also lost.  It appears from the introduction of the fourth book, that
they all related to etymology.  The first contained such observations as
might be made against it; the second, such as might be made in its
favour; and the third, observations upon it.  He next proceeds to
investigate the origin of (66) Latin words.  In the fourth book, he
traces those which relate to place; in the fifth, those connected with
the idea of time; and in the sixth, the origin of both these classes, as
they appear in the writings of the poets.  The seventh book is employed
on declension; in which the author enters upon a minute and extensive
enquiry, comprehending a variety of acute and profound observations on
the formation of Latin nouns, and their respective natural declinations
from the nominative case.  In the eighth, he examines the nature and
limits of usage and analogy in language; and in the ninth and last book
on the subject, takes a general view of what is the reverse of analogy,
viz. anomaly.  The precision and perspicuity which Varro displays in this
work merit the highest encomiums, and justify the character given him in
his own time, of being the most learned of the Latin grammarians.  To the
loss of the first three books, are to be added several chasms in the
others; but fortunately they happen in such places as not to affect the
coherency of the author's doctrine, though they interrupt the
illustration of it.  It is observable that this great grammarian makes
use of quom for quum, heis for his, and generally queis for quibus.  This
practice having become rather obsolete at the time in which he wrote, we
must impute his continuance of it to his opinion of its propriety, upon
its established principles of grammar, and not to any prejudice of
education, or an affectation of singularity.  As Varro makes no mention
of Caesar's treatise on Analogy, and had commenced author long before
him, 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 a
friend, who, having purchased some lands, requested of Varro the favour
of his instructions relative to farming, and the economy of a country
life, in its various departments.  Though Varro was at this time in his
eightieth year, he writes with all the vivacity, though without the
levity, of youth, and sets out with invoking, not the Muses, like Homer
and Ennius, as he observes, but the twelve deities supposed to be chiefly
concerned in the operations of agriculture.  It appears from the account
which he gives, that upwards of fifty Greek authors had treated of this
subject in prose, besides Hesiod and Menecrates the Ephesian, who both
wrote in verse; exclusive likewise of many Roman writers, and of Mago the
Carthaginian, who wrote in the Punic language.  Varro's work is divided
into three books, the first of which treats of agriculture; the second,
of rearing of cattle; and the third, of feeding animals for the use of
the table.  (67) In the last of these, we meet with a remarkable instance
of the prevalence of habit and fashion over human sentiment, where the
author delivers instructions relative to the best method of fattening
rats.

We find from Quintilian, that Varro likewise composed satires in various
kinds of verse.  It is impossible to behold the numerous fragments of
this venerable author without feeling the strongest regret for the loss
of that vast collection of information which he had compiled, and of
judicious observations which he had made on a variety of subjects, during
a life of eighty-eight years, almost entirely devoted to literature.  The
remark of St. Augustine is well founded, That it is astonishing how
Varro, who read such a number of books, could find time to compose so
many volumes; and how he who composed so many volumes, could be at
leisure to peruse such a variety of books, and to gain so much literary
information.

Catullus is said to have been born at Verona, of respectable parents; his
father and himself being in the habit of intimacy with Julius Caesar.  He
was brought to Rome by Mallius, to whom several of his epigrams are
addressed.  The gentleness of his manners, and his application to study,
we are told, recommended him to general esteem; and he had the good
fortune to obtain the patronage of Cicero.  When he came to be known as a
poet, all these circumstances would naturally contribute to increase his
reputation for ingenuity; and accordingly we find his genius applauded by
several of his contemporaries.  It appears that his works are not
transmitted entire to posterity; but there remain sufficient specimens by
which we may be enabled to appreciate his poetical talents.

Quintilian, and Diomed the grammarian, have ranked Catullus amongst the
iambic writers, while others have placed him amongst the lyric.  He has
properly a claim to each of these stations; but his versification being
chiefly iambic, the former of the arrangements seems to be the most
suitable.  The principal merit of Catullus's Iambics consists in a
simplicity of thought and expression.  The thoughts, however, are often
frivolous, and, what is yet more reprehensible, the author gives way to
gross obscenity: in vindication of which, he produces the following
couplet, 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 to
follow the example of Catullus; but if such a practice be in any case
admissible, it is only where the poet personates (68) a profligate
character; and the instances in which it is adopted by Catullus are not
of that description.  It had perhaps been a better apology, to have
pleaded the manners of the times; for even Horace, who wrote only a few
years after, has suffered his compositions to be occasionally debased by
the same kind of blemish.

Much has been said of this poet's invective against Caesar, which
produced no other effect than an invitation to sup at the dictator's
house.  It was indeed scarcely entitled to the honour of the smallest
resentment.  If any could be shewn, it must have been for the freedom
used by the author, and not for any novelty in his lampoon.  There are
two poems on this subject, viz. the twenty-ninth and fifty-seventh, in
each of which Caesar is joined with Mamurra, a Roman knight, who had
acquired great riches in the Gallic war.  For the honour of Catullus's
gratitude, we should suppose that the latter is the one to which
historians allude: but, as poetical compositions, they are equally
unworthy of regard.  The fifty seventh is nothing more than a broad
repetition of the raillery, whether well or ill founded, with which
Caesar was attacked on various occasions, and even in the senate, after
his return from Bithynia.  Caesar had been taunted with this subject for
upwards of thirty years; and after so long a familiarity with reproach,
his sensibility to the scandalous imputation must now have been much
diminished, if not entirely extinguished.  The other poem is partly in
the same strain, but extended to greater length, by a mixture of common
jocular ribaldry of the Roman soldiers, expressed nearly in the same
terms which Caesar's legions, though strongly attached to his person,
scrupled not to sport publicly in the streets of Rome, against their
general, during the celebration of his triumph.  In a word, it deserves
to be regarded as an effusion of Saturnalian licentiousness, rather than
of poetry.  With respect to the Iambics of Catullus, we may observe in
general, that the sarcasm is indebted for its force, not so much to
ingenuity of sentiment, as to the indelicate nature of the subject, or
coarseness of expression.

The descriptive poems of Catullus are superior to the others, and
discover a lively imagination.  Amongst the best of his productions, is a
translation 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 epigrams
are entitled to little praise, with regard either to sentiment or point;
and on the whole, his merit, as a poet, appears to have been magnified
beyond its real extent.  He is said to have died about the thirtieth year
of his age.

(69) Lucretius is the author of a celebrated poem, in six books, De Rerum
Natura; a subject which had been treated many ages before by Empedocles,
a philosopher and poet of Agrigentum.  Lucretius was a zealous partizan
of Democritus, and the sect of Epicurus, whose principles concerning the
eternity of matter, the materiality of the soul, and the non-existence of
a future state of rewards and punishments, he affects to maintain with a
certainty equal to that of mathematical demonstration.  Strongly
prepossessed with the hypothetical doctrines of his master, and ignorant
of the physical system of the universe, he endeavours to deduce from the
phenomena of the material world conclusions not only unsupported by
legitimate theory, but repugnant to the principles of the highest
authority in metaphysical disquisition.  But while we condemn his
speculative notions as degrading to human nature, and subversive of the
most important interests of mankind, we must admit that he has prosecuted
his visionary hypothesis with uncommon ingenuity.  Abstracting from it
the rhapsodical nature of this production, and its obscurity in some
parts, it has great merit as a poem.  The style is elevated, and the
versification in general harmonious.  By the mixture of obsolete words,
it possesses an air of solemnity well adapted to abstruse researches; at
the same time that by the frequent resolution of diphthongs, it instils
into the Latin the sonorous and melodious powers of the Greek language.

While Lucretius was engaged in this work, he fell into a state of
insanity, occasioned, as is supposed, by a philtre, or love-potion, given
him by his wife Lucilia.  The complaint, however, having lucid intervals,
he employed them in the execution of his plan, and, soon after it was
finished, laid violent hands upon himself, in the forty-third year of his
age.  This fatal termination of his life, which perhaps proceeded from
insanity, was ascribed by his friends and admirers to his concern for the
banishment of one Memmius, with whom he was intimately connected, and for
the distracted state of the republic.  It was, however, a catastrophe
which the principles of Epicurus, equally erroneous and irreconcilable to
resignation and fortitude, authorized in particular circumstances.  Even
Atticus, the celebrated correspondent of Cicero, a few years after this
period, had recourse to the same desperate expedient, by refusing all
sustenance, while he laboured under a lingering disease.

It is said that Cicero revised the poem of Lucretius after the death of
the author, and this circumstance is urged by the abettors of atheism, as
a proof that the principles contained in the work had the sanction of his
authority.  But no inference in favour of Lucretius's doctrine can justly
be drawn from this circumstance.  (70) Cicero, though already
sufficiently acquainted with the principles of the Epicurean sect, might
not be averse to the perusal of a production, which collected and
enforced them in a nervous strain of poetry; especially as the work was
likely to prove interesting to his friend Atticus, and would perhaps
afford subject for some letters or conversation between them.  It can
have been only with reference to composition that the poem was submitted
to Cicero's revisal: for had he been required to exercise his judgment
upon its principles, he must undoubtedly have so much mutilated the work,
as to destroy the coherency of the system.  He might be gratified with
the shew of elaborate research, and confident declamation, which it
exhibited, but he must have utterly disapproved of the conclusions which
the author endeavoured to establish.  According to the best information,
Lucretius died in the year from the building of Rome 701, when Pompey was
the third time consul.  Cicero lived several years beyond this period,
and in the two last years of his life, he composed those valuable works
which contain sentiments diametrically repugnant to the visionary system
of Epicurus.  The argument, therefore, drawn from Cicero's revisal, so
far from confirming the principle of Lucretius, affords the strongest
tacit declaration against their validity; because a period sufficient for
mature consideration had elapsed, before Cicero published his own
admirable system of philosophy.  The poem of Lucretius, nevertheless, has
been regarded as the bulwark of atheism--of atheism, which, while it
impiously arrogates the support of reason, both reason and nature
disclaim.

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

ENDNOTES

[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 the
honour of an apotheosis conferred on him by the senate, under the title of
Quirinus, to obviate the people's suspicion of his having been taken off
by a conspiracy of the patrician order.  Political circumstances again
concurred with popular superstition to revive this posthumous adulation in
favour of Julius Caesar, the founder of the empire, who also fell by the
hands of conspirators.  It is remarkable in the history of a nation so
jealous of public liberty, that, in both instances, they bestowed the
highest mark of human homage upon men who owed their fate to the
introduction of arbitrary power.]

[Footnote 4:  Pliny informs us that Caius Julius, the father of Julius
Caesar, 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, but
subjected the holder to many restrictions.  He was not allowed to ride on
horseback, nor to absent himself from the city for a single night.  His
wife was also under particular restraints, and could not be divorced.  If
she died, the flamen resigned his office, because there were certain
sacred rites which he could not perform without her assistance.  Besides
other marks of distinction, he wore a purple robe called laena, and a
conical mitre called apex.]

[Footnote 7:  Two powerful parties were contending at Rome for the
supremacy; Sylla being at the head of the faction of the nobles, while
Marius espoused the cause of the people.  Sylla suspected Julius Caesar of
belonging 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 by
Phrygia, on the west by the Bosphorus and Propontis; and on the north by
the Euxine sea. Its boundaries towards the east are not clearly
ascertained, Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy differing from each other on the
subject.]

[Footnote 10:  Mitylene was a city in the island of Lesbos, famous for the
study of philosophy and eloquence.  According to Pliny, it remained a free
city and in power one thousand five hundred years.  It suffered much in
the Peloponnesian war from the Athenians, and in the Mithridatic from the
Romans, by whom it was taken and destroyed.  But it soon rose again,
having recovered its ancient liberty by the favour of Pomnpey; and was
afterwards much embellished by Trajan, who added to it the splendour of
his own name.  This was the country of Pittacus, one of the seven wise men
of Greece, as well as of Alcaeus and Sappho.  The natives showed a
particular taste for poetry, and had, as Plutarch informs us, stated times
for the celebration of poetical contests.]

[Footnote 11:  The civic crown was made of oak-leaves, and given to him
who had saved the life of a citizen.  The person thus decorated, wore it
at public spectacles, and sat next the senators.  When he entered, the
audience rose up, as a mark of respect.]

[Footnote 12:  A very extensive country of Hither Asia; lying between
Pamphylia to the west, Mount Taurus and Amanus to the north, Syria to the
east, and the Mediterranean to the south.  It was anciently famous for
saffron; and hair-cloth, called by the Romans ciliciun, was the
manufacture of this country.]

[Footnote 13: A city and an island, near the coast of Caria famous for the
huge statue of the Sun, called the Colossus.  The Rhodians were celebrated
not only for skill in naval affairs, but for learning, philosophy, and
eloquence.  During the latter periods of the Roman republic, and under
some 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, near
Miletus. It is now called Parmosa.]

[Footnote 15:  The ransom, too large for Caesar's private means, was
raised by the voluntary contributions of the cities in the Asiatic
province, who were equally liberal from their public funds in the case of
other 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 of
dignity in a Roman family, but the surname of the Marcii.]

[Footnote 19:  The rites of the Bona Dea, called also Fauna, which were
performed in the night, and by women only.]

[Footnote 20:  Hispania Boetica; the Hither province being called Hispania
Tarraconensis.]

[Footnote 21:  Alexander the Great was only thirty-three years at the time
of his death.]

[Footnote 22:  The proper office of the master of the horse was to command
the knights, and execute the orders of the dictator.  He was usually
nominated from amongst persons of consular and praetorian dignity; and had
the use of a horse, which the dictator had not, without the order of the
people.]

[Footnote 23:  Seneca compares the annals of Tanusius to the life of a
fool, which, though it may be long, is worthless; while that of a wise
man, 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 the
verses 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 considered
an insupportable tyranny.]

[Footnote 27:  An honourable banishment.]

[Footnote 28:  The assemblies of the people were at first held in the open
Forum. Afterwards, a covered building, called the Comitium, was erected
for that purpose.  There are no remains of it, but Lumisden thinks that it
probably stood on the south side of the Forum, on the site of the present
church of The Consolation.--Antiq. of Rome, p. 357.]

[Footnote 29:  Basilicas, from Basileus; a king.  They were, indeed, the
palaces of the sovereign people; stately and spacious buildings, with
halls, which served the purpose of exchanges, council chambers, and courts
of justice.  Some of the Basilicas were afterwards converted into
Christian churches.  "The form was oblong; the middle was an open space to
walk in, called Testudo, and which we now call the nave.  On each side of
this were rows of pillars, which formed what we should call the
side-aisles, and which the ancients called Porticus.  The end of the
Testudo was curved, like the apse of some of our churches, and was called
Tribunal, from causes being heard there.  Hence the term Tribune is
applied to that part of the Roman churches which is behind the high
altar."--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 Capitoline
hill. Piranesi thinks that the two beautiful columns of white marble,
which are commonly described as belonging to the portico of the temple of
Jupiter 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 and
completed by the Tarquins, kings of Rome, but not dedicated till the year
after 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 to
consecrate it.]

[Footnote 35:  Meaning Pompey; not so much for the sake of the office, as
having his name inserted in the inscription recording the repairs of the
Capitol, instead of Catulus.  The latter, however, secured the honour, and
his name is still seen inscribed in an apartment at the Capitol, as its
restorer.]

[Footnote 36:  It being the calends of January, the first day of the year,
on which the magistrates solemnly entered on their offices, surrounded by
their friends.]

[Footnote 37:  Among others, one for recalling Pompey from Asia, under the
pretext that the commonwealth was in danger.  Cato was one of the
colleagues 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 into
office, owed his creditors 1300 talents, somewhat more than 565,000 pounds
of our money.  But his debts increased so much after this period, if we
may believe Appian, that upon his departure for Spain, at the expiration
of his praetorship, he is reported to have said, Bis millies et
quingenties 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 his
army to the shores of the ocean, which had not before been reduced to
submission.]

[Footnote 41:  Caesar was placed in this dilemma, that if he aspired to a
triumph, he must remain outside the walls until it took place, while as a
candidate for the consulship, he must be resident in the city.]

[Footnote 42:  Even the severe censor was biassed by political expediency
to sanction a system, under which what little remained of public virtue,
and the love of liberty at Rome, were fast decaying.  The strict laws
against bribery at elections were disregarded, and it was practised
openly, and accepted without a blush.  Sallust says that everything was
venal, and that Rome itself might be bought, if any one was rich enough to
purchase it.  Jugurth, viii. 20, 3.]

[Footnote 43:  A.U.C. 695.]

[Footnote 44:  The proceedings of the senate were reported in short notes
taken by one of their own order, "strangers" not being admitted at their
sittings. These notes included speeches as well as acts.  These and the
proceedings of the assemblies of the people, were daily published in
journals [Footnote diurna: which contained also accounts of the trials at
law, with miscellaneous intelligence of births and deaths, marriages and
divorces. 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 the
consuls, 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 tribuneship
of the people; it was done late in the evening, at an unusual hour for
public business.]

[Footnote 47:  Gaul was divided into two provinces, Transalpine, or Gallia
Ulterior, and Cisalpina, or Citerior.  The Citerior, having nearly the
same limits as Lombardy in after times, was properly a part of Italy,
occupied by colonists from Gaul, and, having the Rubicon, the ancient
boundary of Italy, on the south.  It was also called Gallia Togata, from
the 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 the
Romans wore it short; and the southern part, afterwards called
Narbonensis, came to have the epithet Braccata, from the use of the
braccae, which were no part of the Roman dress.  Some writers suppose the
braccae to have been breeches, but Aldus, in a short disquisition on the
subject, affirms that they were a kind of upper dress.  And this opinion
seems to be countenanced by the name braccan being applied by the modern
Celtic nations, the descendants of the Gallic Celts, to signify their
upper garment, or plaid.]

[Footnote 48:  Alluding, probably, to certain scandals of a gross
character which were rife against Caesar.  See before, c. ii. (p. 2) and
see also c. xlix.]

[Footnote 49:  So called from the feathers on their helmets, resembling
the crest of a lark; Alauda, Fr. Alouette.]

[Footnote 50:  Days appointed by the senate for public thanksgiving in the
temples in the name of a victorious general, who had in the decrees the
title 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 Roman
Forum became too little for transacting it, and could not be enlarged
without clearing away the buildings with which it was surrounded.  Hence
the enormous sum which its site is said to have cost, amounting, it is
calculated, 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, and
formerly powerful.  Julius Caesar added to it five thousand new colonists;
whence it was generally called Novocomum.  But in time it recovered its
ancient 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 adikein
talla de eusebein chreon. --Eurip. Phoeniss. Act II, where Eteocles
aspires to become the tyrant of Thebes.]

[Footnote 58:  Now the Pisatello; near Rimini.  There was a very ancient
law of the republic, forbidding any general, returning from the wars, to
cross the Rubicon with his troops under arms.]

[Footnote 59:  The ring was worn on the finger next to the little finger
of the left hand.]

[Footnote 60:  Suetonius here accounts for the mistake of the soldiers
with great probability.  The class to which they imagined they were to be
promoted, was that of the equites, or knights, who wore a gold ring, and
were possessed of property to the amount stated in the text.  Great as was
the liberality of Caesar to his legions, the performance of this imaginary
promise was beyond all reasonable expectation.]

[Footnote 61:  A.U.C. 706.]

[Footnote 62:  Elephants were first introduced at Rome by Pompey the
Great, 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 two
brothers called Bruti, at the funeral of their father, A.U.C. 490; and for
some time they were exhibited only on such occasions.  But afterwards they
were also employed by the magistrates, to entertain the people,
particularly at the Saturnalia, and feasts of Minerva.  These cruel
spectacles were prohibited by Constantine, but not entirely suppressed
until the time of Honorius.]

[Footnote 66:  The Circensian games were shews exhibited in the Circus
Maximus, and consisted of various kinds: first, chariot and horse-races,
of which the Romans were extravagantly fond.  The charioteers were
distributed into four parties, distinguished by the colour of their dress.
The spectators, without regarding the speed of the horses, or the skill of
the men, were attracted merely by one or the other of the colours, as
caprice inclined them.  In the time of Justinian, no less than thirty
thousand men lost their lives at Constantinople, in a tumult raised by a
contention amongst the partizans of the several colours.  Secondly,
contests of agility and strength; of which there were five kinds, hence
called Pentathlum.  These were, running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, and
throwing the discus or quoit.  Thirdly, Ludus Trojae, a mock-fight,
performed by young noblemen on horseback, revived by Julius Caesar, and
frequently celebrated by the succeeding emperors.  We meet with a
description of it in the fifth book of the Aeneid, beginning with the
following 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 way
of punishment, as the primitive Christians were, or fought voluntarily,
either from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced by hire.  An
incredible number of animals of various kinds were brought from all
quarters, 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. Fifthly
the representation of a horse and foot battle, with that of an encampment
or a siege.  Sixthly, the representation of a sea-fight (Naumachia), which
was at first made in the Circus Maximus, but afterwards elsewhere.  The
combatants were usually captives or condemned malefactors, who fought to
death, unless saved by the clemency of the emperor.  If any thing unlucky
happened 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 Egyptian
philosopher, in correcting the calendar.  For this purpose he introduced
an additional day every fourth year, making February to consist of
twenty-nine days instead of twenty-eight, and, of course, the whole year
to consist of three hundred and sixty-six days.  The fourth year was
denominated Bissextile, or leap year, because the sixth day before the
calends, or first of March, was reckoned twice.

The Julian year was introduced throughout the Roman empire, and continued
in general use till the year 1582.  But the true correction was not six
hours, but five hours, forty-nine minutes; hence the addition was too
great by eleven minutes.  This small fraction would amount in one hundred
years to three-fourths of a day, and in a thousand years to more than
seven days.  It had, in fact, amounted, since the Julian correction, in
1582, to more than seven days.  Pope Gregory XIII., therefore, again
reformed the calendar, first bringing forward the year ten days, by
reckoning the 5th of October the 15th, and then prescribing the rule which
has gradually been adopted throughout Christendom, except in Russia, and
the Greek church generally.]

[Footnote 69:  Principally Carthage and Corinth.]

[Footnote 70:  The Latus Clavus was a broad stripe of purple, on the front
of the toga.  Its width distinguished it from that of the knights, who
wore it narrow.]

[Footnote 71:  The Suburra lay between the Celian and Esquiline hills.  It
was one of the most frequented quarters of Rome.]

[Footnote 72:  Bede, quoting Solinus, we believe, says that excellent
pearls 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 unquam
habuit.]

[Footnote 74:  Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem; Ecce Caesar
nunc triumphat, qui subegit Gallias: Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegit
Caesarem.]

[Footnote 75:  Aegisthus, who, like Caesar, was a pontiff, debauched
Clytemnestra while Agamemnon was engaged in the Trojan war, as Caesar did
Mucia, the wife of Pompey, while absent in the war against Mithridates.]

[Footnote 76:  A double entendre; Tertia signifying the third  of
the value of the farm, as well as being the name of the girl, for whose
favours the deduction was made.]

[Footnote 77:  Urbani, servate uxores; moechum calvum adducimus: Aurum in
Gallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum.]

[Footnote 78:  Plutarch tells us that the oil was used in a dish of
asparagus. Every traveller knows that in those climates oil takes the
place of butter as an ingredient in cookery, and it needs no experience to
fancy what it is when rancid.]

[Footnote 79:  Meritoria rheda; a light four-wheeled carriage, apparently
hired either for the journey or from town to town.  They were tolerably
commodious, for Cicero writes to Atticus, (v. 17.) Hanc epistolam dictavi
sedens in rheda, cum in castra proficiscerer.]

[Footnote 80:  Plutarch informs us that Caesar travelled with such
expedition, that he reached the Rhone on the eighth day after he left
Rome.]

[Footnote 81:  Caesar tells us himself that he employed C. Volusenus to
reconnoitre the coast of Britain, sending him forward in a long ship, with
orders 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 the
head of a spear.  It was silver, small in size, with expanded wings, and
clutching 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. It
was sometimes given by the acclamations of the soldiers to those who
commanded them.  2. It was synonymous with conqueror, and the troops
hailed him by that title after a victory.  In both these cases it was
merely titular, and not permanent, and was generally written after the
proper name, as Cicero imperator, Lentulo imperatore.  3. It assumed a
permanent and royal character first in the person of Julius Caesar, and
was 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 being
called "Pater patriae."]

[Footnote 88:  Statues were placed in the Capitol of each of the seven
kings of Rome, to which an eighth was added in honour of Brutus, who
expelled the last.  The statue of Julius Caesar was afterwards raised near
them.]

[Footnote 89:  The white fillet was one of the insignia of royalty.
Plutarch, on this occasion, uses the expression, diadaemati basiliko, a
royal diadem.]

[Footnote 90:  The Lupercalia was a festival, celebrated in a place called
the Lupercal, in the month of February, in honour of Pan.  During the
solemnity, the Luperci, or priests of that god, ran up and down the city
naked, with only a girdle of goat's skin round their waist, and thongs of
the same in their hands; with which they struck those they met,
particularly married women, who were thence supposed to be rendered
prolific.]

[Footnote 91:  Persons appointed to inspect and expound the Sibylline
books.]

[Footnote 92:  A.U.C. 709.]

[Footnote 93:  See before, c. xxii.]

[Footnote 94:  This senate-house stood in that part of the Campus Martius
which is now the Campo di Fiore, and was attached by Pompey, "spoliis
Orientis 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 Augustus
caused 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, the
leaves or bark of trees, plates of brass, or lead, etc.  For writing upon
paper or parchment, the Romans employed a reed, sharpened and split in the
point like our pens, called calamus, arundo, or canna.  This they dipped
in the black liquor emitted by the cuttle fish, which served for ink.]

[Footnote 96:  It was customary among the ancients, in great extremities
to shroud the face, in order to conceal any symptoms of horror or alarm
which the countenance might express.  The skirt of the toga was drawn
round 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 all
the editions of Suetonius as uttered in Greek, but with some variations.
The words, as here translated, are Kai su ei ekeinon; kai su teknon.  The
Salmasian manuscript omits the latter clause.  Some commentators suppose
that the words "my son," were not merely expressive of the difference of
age, or former familiarity between them, but an avowal that Brutus was the
fruit of the connection between Julius and Servilia, mentioned before
(see p. 33).  But it appears very improbable that Caesar, who had
never before acknowledged Brutus to be his son, should make so unnecessary
an avowal, at the moment of his death.  Exclusively of this objection, the
apostrophe seems too verbose, both for the suddenness and urgency of the
occasion.  But this is not all.  Can we suppose that Caesar, though a
perfect master of Greek, would at such a time have expressed himself in
that language, rather than in Latin, his familiar tongue, and in which he
spoke with peculiar elegance?  Upon the whole, the probability is, that
the words uttered by Caesar were, Et tu Brute! which, while equally
expressive 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 put
round the neck.  The sons of freedmen and poor citizens used globes of
leather.]

[Footnote 100:  Josephus frequently mentions the benefits conferred on his
countrymen by Julius Caesar.  Antiq. Jud. xiv. 14, 15, 16.]

[Footnote 101:  Appian informs us that it was burnt by the people in their
fury, B. c. xi. p. 521.]

[Footnote 102:  Suetonius particularly refers to the conspirators, who
perished at the battle of Philippi, or in the three years which
intervened.  The survivors were included in the reconciliation of
Augustus, Antony, and Pompey, A.U.C. 715.]

[Footnote 103:  Suetonius alludes to Brutus and Cassius, of whom this is
related by Plutarch and Dio.]

[Footnote 104:  For observations on Dr. Thomson's Essays appended to
Suetonius's History of Julius Caesar, and the succeeding Emperors, see the
Preface to this volume.]

[Footnote 105:  He who has a devoted admiration of Cicero, may be sure
that he has made no slight proficiency himself.]

HOME

D. OCTAVIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS

(71)

I.  That the family of the Octavii was of the first distinction in
Velitrae [106], is rendered evident by many circumstances.  For in the
most frequented part of the town, there was, not long since, a street
named the Octavian; and an altar was to be seen, consecrated to one
Octavius, who being chosen general in a war with some neighbouring
people, the enemy making a sudden attack, while he was sacrificing to
Mars, he immediately snatched the entrails of the victim from off the
fire, and offered them half raw upon the altar; after which, marching out
to battle, he returned victorious.  This incident gave rise to a law, by
which it was enacted, that in all future times the entrails should be
offered to Mars in the same manner; and the rest of the victim be carried
to the Octavii.

II.  This family, as well as several in Rome, was admitted into the
senate by Tarquinius Priscus, and soon afterwards placed by Servius
Tullius among the patricians; but in process of time it transferred
itself to the plebeian order, and, after the lapse of a long interval,
was restored by Julius Caesar to the rank of patricians.  The first
person of the family raised by the suffrages of the people to the
magistracy, was Caius Rufus.  He obtained the quaestorship, and had two
sons, Cneius and Caius; from whom are descended the two branches of the
Octavian family, which have had very different fortunes.  For Cneius, and
his descendants in uninterrupted succession, held all the highest offices
of the state; whilst Caius and his posterity, whether from their
circumstances or their choice, remained in the equestrian order until the
father of Augustus.  The great-grandfather of Augustus served as a
military tribune in the second Punic war in Sicily, under the command of
Aemilius Pappus.  His grandfather contented himself with bearing the
public offices of his own municipality, and grew old in the tranquil
enjoyment of an ample patrimony.  Such is the account given (72) by
different authors.  Augustus himself, however, tells us nothing more than
that he was descended of an equestrian family, both ancient and rich, of
which his father was the first who obtained the rank of senator.  Mark
Antony upbraidingly tells him that his great-grandfather was a freedman
of the territory of Thurium [107], and a rope-maker, and his grandfather
a 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 person
both of opulence and distinction: for which reason I am surprised at
those who say that he was a money-dealer [108], and was employed in
scattering bribes, and canvassing for the candidates at elections, in the
Campus Martius.  For being bred up in all the affluence of a great
estate, he attained with ease to honourable posts, and discharged the
duties of them with much distinction.  After his praetorship, he obtained
by lot the province of Macedonia; in his way to which he cut off some
banditti, the relics of the armies of Spartacus and Catiline, who had
possessed themselves of the territory of Thurium; having received from
the senate an extraordinary commission for that purpose.  In his
government of the province, he conducted himself with equal justice and
resolution; for he defeated the Bessians and Thracians in a great battle,
and treated the allies of the republic in such a manner, that there are
extant letters from M. Tullius Cicero, in which he advises and exhorts
his brother Quintus, who then held the proconsulship of Asia with no
great reputation, to imitate the example of his neighbour Octavius, in
gaining the affections of the allies of Rome.

IV.  After quitting Macedonia, before he could declare himself a
candidate for the consulship, he died suddenly, leaving behind him a
daughter, the elder Octavia, by Ancharia; and another daughter, Octavia
the younger, as well as Augustus, by Atia, who was the daughter of Marcus
Atius Balbus, and Julia, sister to Caius Julius Caesar.  Balbus was, by
the father's (73) side, of a family who were natives of Aricia [109], and
many of whom had been in the senate.  By the mother's side he was nearly
related to Pompey the Great; and after he had borne the office of
praetor, was one of the twenty commissioners appointed by the Julian law
to divide the land in Campania among the people.  But Mark Antony,
treating with contempt Augustus's descent even by the mother's side, says
that his great grand-father was of African descent, and at one time kept
a perfumer's shop, and at another, a bake-house, in Aricia.  And Cassius
of Parma, in a letter, taxes Augustus with being the son not only of a
baker, but a usurer.  These are his words: "Thou art a lump of thy
mother's meal, which a money-changer of Nerulum taking from the newest
bake-house of Aricia, kneaded into some shape, with his hands all
discoloured by the fingering of money."

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

VI.  His nursery is shewn to this day, in a villa belonging to the
family, in the suburbs of Velitrae; being a very small place, and much
like a pantry.  An opinion prevails in the neighbourhood, that he was
also born there.  Into this place no person presumes to enter, unless
upon necessity, and with great devotion, from a belief, for a long time
prevalent, that such as rashly enter it are seized with great horror and
consternation, which a short while since was confirmed by a remarkable
incident.  For when a new inhabitant of the house had, either by mere
chance, or to try the truth of the report, taken up his lodging in that
apartment, in the course of the night, a few hours afterwards, he was
thrown out by some sudden violence, he knew not how, and was found in a
state of stupefaction, with the coverlid of his bed, before the door of
the 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 was
born, his father Octavius had been successful against the fugitive
slaves, in the country near Thurium.  That he was surnamed Thurinus, I
can affirm upon good foundation, for when a boy, I had a small bronze
statue of him, with that name upon it in iron letters, nearly effaced by
age, which I presented to the emperor [113], by whom it is now revered
amongst the other tutelary deities in his chamber.  He is also often
called Thurinus contemptuously, by Mark Antony in his letters; to which
he makes only this reply: "I am surprised that my former name should be
made a subject of reproach."  He afterwards assumed the name of Caius
Caesar, and then of Augustus; the former in compliance with the will of
his great-uncle, and the latter upon a motion of Munatius Plancus in the
senate.  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 that
he should rather be called Augustus, a surname not only new, but of more
dignity, because places devoted to religion, and those in which anything
(75) is consecrated by augury, are denominated august, either from the
word auctus, signifying augmentation, or ab avium gestu, gustuve, from
the 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 his
twelfth year, pronounced a funeral oration in praise of his grand-mother
Julia.  Four years afterwards, having assumed the robe of manhood, he was
honoured with several military rewards by Caesar in his African triumph,
although he took no part in the war, on account of his youth.  Upon his
uncle's expedition to Spain against the sons of Pompey, he was followed
by his nephew, although he was scarcely recovered from a dangerous
sickness; and after being shipwrecked at sea, and travelling with very
few attendants through roads that were infested with the enemy, he at
last came up with him.  This activity gave great satisfaction to his
uncle, who soon conceived an increasing affection for him, on account of
such indications of character.  After the subjugation of Spain, while
Caesar was meditating an expedition against the Dacians and Parthians, he
was sent before him to Apollonia, where he applied himself to his
studies; until receiving intelligence that his uncle was murdered, and
that he was appointed his heir, he hesitated for some time whether he
should call to his aid the legions stationed in the neighbourhood; but he
abandoned the design as rash and premature.  However, returning to Rome,
he took possession of his inheritance, although his mother was
apprehensive that such a measure might be attended with danger, and his
step-father, Marcius Philippus, a man of consular rank, very earnestly
dissuaded him from it.  From this time, collecting together a strong
military force, he first held the government in conjunction with Mark
Antony and Marcus Lepidus, then with Antony only, for nearly twelve
years, 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 shall
prosecute the several parts of it, not in order of time, but arranging
his acts into distinct classes, for the sake of (76) perspicuity.  He was
engaged in five civil wars, namely those of Modena, Philippi, Perugia,
Sicily, and Actium; the first and last of which were against Antony, and
the second against Brutus and Cassius; the third against Lucius Antonius,
the triumvir's brother, and the fourth against Sextus Pompeius, the son
of Cneius Pompeius.

X.  The motive which gave rise to all these wars was the opinion he
entertained that both his honour and interest were concerned in revenging
the murder of his uncle, and maintaining the state of affairs he had
established.  Immediately after his return from Apollonia, he formed the
design of taking forcible and unexpected measures against Brutus and
Cassius; but they having foreseen the danger and made their escape, he
resolved to proceed against them by an appeal to the laws in their
absence, and impeach them for the murder.  In the mean time, those whose
province it was to prepare the sports in honour of Caesar's last victory
in the civil war, not daring to do it, he undertook it himself.  And that
he might carry into effect his other designs with greater authority, he
declared himself a candidate in the room of a tribune of the people who
happened to die at that time, although he was of a patrician family, and
had not yet been in the senate.  But the consul, Mark Antony, from whom
he had expected the greatest assistance, opposing him in his suit, and
even refusing to do him so much as common justice, unless gratified with
a large bribe, he went over to the party of the nobles, to whom he
perceived Sylla to be odious, chiefly for endeavouring to drive Decius
Brutus, 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 to
murder his antagonist; but the plot being discovered, and dreading a
similar attempt upon himself, he gained over Caesar's veteran soldiers,
by distributing among them all the money he could collect.  Being now
commissioned by the senate to command the troops he had gathered, with
the rank of praetor, and in conjunction with Hirtius and Pansa, who had
accepted the consulship, to carry assistance to Decius Brutus, he put an
end to the war by two battles in three months.  Antony writes, that in
the former of these he ran away, and two days afterwards made his
appearance (77) without his general's cloak and his horse.  In the last
battle, however, it is certain that he performed the part not only of a
general, but a soldier; for, in the heat of the battle; when the
standard-bearer of his legion was severely wounded, he took the eagle
upon his shoulders, and carried it a long time.

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

XII.  But upon intelligence that Antony, after his defeat, had been
received by Marcus Lepidus, and that the rest of the generals and armies
had all declared for the senate, he, without any hesitation, deserted
from the party of the nobles; alleging as an excuse for his conduct, the
actions and sayings of several amongst them; for some said, "he was a
mere boy," and others threw out, "that he ought to be promoted to
honours, and cut off," to avoid the making any suitable acknowledgment
either to him or the veteran legions.  And the more to testify his regret
for having before attached himself to the other faction, he fined the
Nursini in a large sum of money, which they were unable to pay, and then
expelled them from the town, for having inscribed upon a monument,
erected at the public charge to their countrymen who were slain in the
battle of Modena, "That they fell in the cause of liberty."

XIII.  Having entered into a confederacy with Antony and Lepidus, he
brought the war at Philippi to an end in two battles, although he was at
that time weak, and suffering from sickness [116].  In the first battle
he was driven from his camp, (78) and with some difficulty made his
escape to the wing of the army commanded by Antony.  And now, intoxicated
with success, he sent the head of Brutus [117] to be cast at the foot of
Caesar's statue, and treated the most illustrious of the prisoners not
only with cruelty, but with abusive language; insomuch that he is said to
have answered one of them who humbly intreated that at least he might not
remain 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 which
of them should live, or settle it between themselves by the sword; and
was a spectator of both their deaths: for the father offering his life to
save his son, and being accordingly executed, the son likewise killed
himself upon the spot.  On this account, the rest of the prisoners, and
amongst them Marcus Favonius, Cato's rival, being led up in fetters,
after they had saluted Antony, the general, with much respect, reviled
Octavius in the foulest language.  After this victory, dividing between
them the offices of the state, Mark Antony [118] undertook to restore
order in the east, while Caesar conducted the veteran soldiers back to
Italy, and settled them in colonies on the lands belonging to the
municipalities.  But he had the misfortune to please neither the soldiers
nor the owners of the lands; one party complaining of the injustice done
them, 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 own
authority 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 before
the war and during its continuance.  For a common soldier having got into
the seats of the equestrian order in the theatre, at the public
spectacles, Caesar ordered him to be removed by an officer; and a rumour
being thence spread by his enemies, that he had (79) put the man to death
by torture, the soldiers flocked together so much enraged, that he
narrowly escaped with his life.  The only thing that saved him, was the
sudden appearance of the man, safe and sound, no violence having been
offered 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 of
the town.

XV.  After the taking of Perugia [120], he sentenced a great number of
the 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, were
slaughtered, like victims, before an altar raised to Julius Caesar, upon
the 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 secret
enemies, and those whom fear more than affection kept quiet, might be
detected, by declaring themselves, now they had an opportunity, with
Lucius Antony at their head; and that having defeated them, and
confiscated their estates, he might be enabled to fulfil his promises to
the veteran soldiers.

XVI.  He soon commenced the Sicilian war, but it was protracted by
various delays during a long period [122]; at one time for the purpose of
repairing 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 the
clamours of the people, in consequence of a famine occasioned by Pompey's
cutting off the supply of corn by sea.  But at last, having built a new
fleet, and obtained twenty thousand manumitted slaves [123], who were
given him for the oar, he formed the Julian harbour at Baiae, by letting
the sea into the Lucrine and Avernian lakes; and having exercised his
forces there during the whole winter, he defeated Pompey betwixt Mylae
and Naulochus; although (80) just as the engagement commenced, he
suddenly fell into such a profound sleep, that his friends were obliged
to wake him to give the signal.  This, I suppose, gave occasion for
Antony'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, gazing
at the sky; nor did you get up and let your men see you, until Marcus
Agrippa had forced the enemies' ships to sheer off."  Others imputed to
him both a saying and an action which were indefensible; for, upon the
loss of his fleets by storm, he is reported to have said: "I will conquer
in spite of Neptune;" and at the next Circensian games, he would not
suffer 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 than
in this.  Having transported part of his army to Sicily, and being on his
return for the rest, he was unexpectedly attacked by Demochares and
Apollophanes, Pompey's admirals, from whom he escaped with great
difficulty, and with one ship only.  Likewise, as he was travelling on
foot through the Locrian territory to Rhegium, seeing two of Pompey's
vessels passing by that coast, and supposing them to be his own, he went
down 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 to
Aemilius Paulus, who accompanied him, owing him a grudge for the
proscription of Paulus, the father of Aemilius, and thinking he had now
an opportunity of revenging it, attempted to assassinate him.  After the
defeat of Pompey, one of his colleagues [124], Marcus Lepidus, whom he
had summoned to his aid from Africa, affecting great superiority, because
he was at the head of twenty legions, and claiming for himself the
principal management of affairs in a threatening manner, he divested him
of 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 been
precarious, often interrupted, and ill cemented by repeated
reconciliations, he at last entirely dissolved.  And to make it known to
the world how far Antony had degenerated from patriotic feelings, he
caused a will of his, which had been left at Rome, and in which he had
nominated Cleopatra's children, amongst others, as his heirs, to be
opened and read in an assembly of the people.  Yet upon his being
declared an enemy, he sent to him all his relations and friends, among
whom were Caius Sosius and Titus Domitius, at that time consuls.  He
likewise spoke favourably in public of the people of Bologna, for joining
in the association with the rest of Italy to support his cause, because
they had, in former times, been under the protection of the family of the
Antonii.  And not long afterwards he defeated him in a naval engagement
near Actium, which was prolonged to so late an hour, that, after the
victory, he was obliged to sleep on board his ship.  From Actium he went
to the isle of Samoa to winter; but being alarmed with the accounts of a
mutiny amongst the soldiers he had selected from the main body of his
army sent to Brundisium after the victory, who insisted on their being
rewarded for their service and discharged, he returned to Italy.  In his
passage thither, he encountered two violent storms, the first between the
promontories of Peloponnesus and Aetolia, and the other about the
Ceraunian mountains; in both which a part of his Liburnian squadron was
sunk, the spars and rigging of his own ship carried away, and the rudder
broken in pieces.  He remained only twenty-seven days at Brundisium,
until the demands of the soldiers were settled, and then went, by way of
Asia and Syria, to Egypt, where laying siege to Alexandria, whither
Antony had fled with Cleopatra, he made himself master of it in a short
time.  He drove Antony to kill himself, after he had used every effort to
obtain conditions of peace, and he saw his corpse [126].  Cleopatra he
anxiously wished to save for his triumph; and when she was supposed to
have 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 together
in the same grave, and ordered a mausoleum, begun by themselves, to be
completed.  The eldest of Antony's two sons by Fulvia he commanded to be
taken 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 he
pretended, who had fled for his life, but was retaken.  The children
which Antony had by Cleopatra he saved, and brought up and cherished in a
manner suitable to their rank, just as if they had been his own
relations.

XVIII.  At this time he had a desire to see the sarcophagus and body of
Alexander the Great, which, for that purpose, were taken out of the cell
in which they rested [128]; and after viewing them for some time, he paid
honours to the memory of that prince, by offering a golden crown, and
scattering flowers upon the body [129].  Being asked if he wished to see
the tombs of the Ptolemies also; he replied, "I wish to see a king, not
dead men." [130]  He reduced Egypt into the form of a province and to
render it more fertile, and more capable of supplying Rome with corn, he
employed his army to scour the canals, into which the Nile, upon its
rise, discharges itself; but which during a long series of years had
become nearly choked up with mud.  To perpetuate the glory of his victory
at Actium, he built the city of Nicopolis on that part of the coast, and
established games to be celebrated there every five years; enlarging
likewise an old temple of Apollo, he ornamented with naval trophies [131]
the spot on which he had pitched his camp, and consecrated it to Neptune
and 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, of
Varro Muraena, and Fannius Caepio; then that of Marcus Egnatius,
afterwards that of Plautius Rufus, and of Lucius Paulus, his
grand-daughter's husband; and besides these, another of Lucius Audasius,
an old feeble man, who was under prosecution for forgery; as also of
Asinius Epicadus, a Parthinian mongrel [133], and at last that of
Telephus, a lady's prompter [134]; for he was in danger of his life from
the plots and conspiracies of some of the lowest of the people against
him. Audasius and Epicadus had formed the design of carrying off to the
armies his daughter Julia, and his grandson Agrippa, from the islands in
which they were confined.  Telephus, wildly dreaming that the government
was destined to him by the fates, proposed to fall both upon Octavius and
the senate.  Nay, once, a soldier's servant belonging to the army in
Illyricum, having passed the porters unobserved, was found in the
night-time standing before his chamber-door, armed with a hunting-dagger.
Whether the person was really disordered in the head, or only
counterfeited madness, is uncertain; for no confession was obtained from
him by torture.

XX.  He conducted in person only two foreign wars; the Dalmatian, whilst
he 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 a
contusion in the right knee from a stone--and in another, he was much
hurt in (84) one leg and both arms, by the fall of a fridge [135].  His
other wars he carried on by his lieutenants; but occasionally visited the
army, in some of the wars of Pannonia and Germany, or remained at no
great distance, proceeding from Rome as far as Ravenna, Milan, or
Aquileia.

XXI.  He conquered, however, partly in person, and partly by his
lieutenants, Cantabria [136], Aquitania and Pannonia [137], Dalmatia,
with all Illyricum and Rhaetia [138], besides the two Alpine nations, the
Vindelici and the Salassii [139].  He also checked the incursions of the
Dacians, by cutting off three of their generals with vast armies, and
drove the Germans beyond the river Elbe; removing two other tribes who
submitted, the Ubii and Sicambri, into Gaul, and settling them in the
country bordering on the Rhine.  Other nations also, which broke into
revolt, he reduced to submission.  But he never made war upon any nation
without just and necessary cause; and was so far from being ambitious
either to extend the empire, or advance his own military glory, that he
obliged the chiefs of some barbarous tribes to swear in the temple of
Mars the Avenger [140], that they would faithfully observe their
engagements, and not violate the peace which they had implored.  Of some
he demanded a new description of hostages, their women, having found from
experience that they cared little for their men when given as hostages;
but he always afforded them the means of getting back their hostages
whenever they wished it.  Even those who engaged most frequently and with
the greatest perfidy in their rebellion, he never punished more severely
than by selling their captives, on the terms (85) of their not serving in
any neighbouring country, nor being released from their slavery before
the 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 his
friendship, and that of the Roman people, by ambassadors.  The Parthians
readily allowed his claim to Armenia; restoring at his demand, the
standards which they had taken from Marcus Crassus and Mark Antony, and
offering him hostages besides.  Afterwards, when a contest arose between
several pretenders to the crown of that kingdom, they refused to
acknowledge any one who was not chosen by him.

XXII.  The temple of Janus Quirinus, which had been shut twice only, from
the era of the building of the city to his own time, he closed thrice in
a much shorter period, having established universal peace both by sea and
land.  He twice entered the city with the honours of an Ovation [141],
namely, after the war of Philippi, and again after that of Sicily.  He
had 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 ignominious
defeat, except twice in Germany, under his lieutenants Lollius and Varus.
The former indeed had in it more of dishonour than disaster; but that of
Varus threatened the security of the empire itself; three legions, with
the commander, his lieutenants, and all the auxiliaries, being cut off.
Upon receiving intelligence of this disaster, he gave orders for keeping
a strict watch over the city, to prevent any public disturbance, and
prolonged the appointments of the prefects in the provinces, that the
allies might be kept in order by experience of persons to whom they were
used.  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 more
prosperous circumstances."  This had formerly been resorted to in the
Cimbrian and Marsian wars.  In short, we are informed that he was in such
consternation at this event, that he let the hair of his head and beard
grow for several months, and sometimes knocked his head against the
door-posts, crying out, "O, Quintilius Varus!  Give me back my legions!"
And (87) ever after, he observed the anniversary of this calamity, as a
day of sorrow and mourning.

XXIV.  In military affairs he made many alterations, introducing some
practices entirely new, and reviving others, which had become obsolete.
He maintained the strictest discipline among the troops; and would not
allow even his lieutenants the liberty to visit their wives, except
reluctantly, and in the winter season only.  A Roman knight having cut
off the thumbs of his two young sons, to render them incapable of serving
in the wars, he exposed both him and his estate to public sale.  But upon
observing the farmers of the revenue very greedy for the purchase, he
assigned him to a freedman of his own, that he might send him into the
country, and suffer him to retain his freedom.  The tenth legion becoming
mutinous, he disbanded it with ignominy; and did the same by some others
which petulantly demanded their discharge; withholding from them the
rewards usually bestowed on those who had served their stated time in the
wars.  The cohorts which yielded their ground in time of action, he
decimated, and fed with barley.  Centurions, as well as common sentinels,
who deserted their posts when on guard, he punished with death.  For
other misdemeanors he inflicted upon them various kinds of disgrace; such
as obliging them to stand all day before the praetorium, sometimes in
their tunics only, and without their belts, sometimes to carry poles ten
feet long, or sods of turf.

XXV.  After the conclusion of the civil wars, he never, in any of his
military harangues, or proclamations, addressed them by the title of
"Fellow-soldiers," but as "Soldiers" only.  Nor would he suffer them to
be otherwise called by his sons or step-sons, when they were in command;
judging the former epithet to convey the idea of a degree of
condescension inconsistent with military discipline, the maintenance of
order, and his own majesty, and that of his house.  Unless at Rome, in
case of incendiary fires, or under the apprehension of public
disturbances during a scarcity of provisions, he never employed in his
army slaves who had been made freedmen, except upon two occasions; on
one, for the security of the colonies bordering upon Illyricum, and on
the other, to guard (88) the banks of the river Rhine.  Although he
obliged persons of fortune, both male and female, to give up their
slaves, and they received their manumission at once, yet he kept them
together under their own standard, unmixed with soldiers who were better
born, and armed likewise after different fashion.  Military rewards, such
as trappings, collars, and other decorations of gold and silver, he
distributed more readily than camp or mural crowns, which were reckoned
more honourable than the former.  These he bestowed sparingly, without
partiality, and frequently even on common soldiers.  He presented M.
Agrippa, after the naval engagement in the Sicilian war, with a sea-green
banner.  Those who shared in the honours of a triumph, although they had
attended him in his expeditions, and taken part in his victories, he
judged it improper to distinguish by the usual rewards for service,
because they had a right themselves to grant such rewards to whom they
pleased.  He thought nothing more derogatory to the character of an
accomplished general than precipitancy and rashness; on which account he
had 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 be
undertaken, 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 the
line should happen to break, could never be compensated by all the fish
they might take."

XXVI.  He was advanced to public offices before the age at which he was
legally qualified for them; and to some, also, of a new kind, and for
life.  He seized the consulship in the twentieth year of his age,
quartering his legions in a threatening manner near the city, and sending
deputies to demand it for him in the name of the army.  When the senate
demurred, (89) a centurion, named Cornelius, who was at the head of the
chief deputation, throwing back his cloak, and shewing the hilt of his
sword, had the presumption to say in the senate-house, "This will make
him consul, if ye will not."  His second consulship he filled nine years
afterwards; his third, after the interval of only one year, and held the
same office every year successively until the eleventh.  From this
period, although the consulship was frequently offered him, he always
declined it, until, after a long interval, not less than seventeen years,
he voluntarily stood for the twelfth, and two years after that, for a
thirteenth; that he might successively introduce into the forum, on their
entering public life, his two sons, Caius and Lucius, while he was
invested with the highest office in the state.  In his five consulships
from the sixth to the eleventh, he continued in office throughout the
year; but in the rest, during only nine, six, four, or three months, and
in his second no more than a few hours.  For having sat for a short time
in the morning, upon the calends of January [1st January], in his curule
chair [143], before the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, he abdicated the
office, and substituted another in his room.  Nor did he enter upon them
all 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 settling
the commonwealth, in which office he for some time opposed his colleagues
in their design of a proscription; but after it was begun, he prosecuted
it with more determined rigour than either of them.  For whilst they were
often prevailed upon, by the interest and intercession of friends, to
shew mercy, he alone strongly insisted that no one should be spared, and
even proscribed Caius Toranius [145], his guardian; who had (90) been
formerly the colleague of his father Octavius in the aedileship.  Junius
Saturnius adds this farther account of him: that when, after the
proscription was over, Marcus Lepidus made an apology in the senate for
their past proceedings, and gave them hopes of a more mild administration
for the future, because they had now sufficiently crushed their enemies;
he, on the other hand, declared that the only limit he had fixed to the
proscription was, that he should be free to act as he pleased.
Afterwards, however, repenting of his severity, he advanced T. Vinius
Philopoemen to the equestrian rank, for having concealed his patron at
the time he was proscribed.  In this same office he incurred great odium
upon many accounts.  For as he was one day making an harangue, observing
among the soldiers Pinarius, a Roman knight, admit some private citizens,
and engaged in taking notes, he ordered him to be stabbed before his
eyes, as a busy-body and a spy upon him.  He so terrified with his
menaces Tedius Afer, the consul elect [146], for having reflected upon
some action of his, that he threw himself from a great height, and died
on the spot.  And when Quintus Gallius, the praetor, came to compliment
him with a double tablet under his cloak, suspecting that it was a sword
he had concealed, and yet not venturing to make a search, lest it should
be found to be something else, he caused him to be dragged from his
tribunal by centurions and soldiers, and tortured like a slave: and
although he made no confession, ordered him to be put to death, after he
had, with his own hands, plucked out his eyes.  His own account of the
matter, however, is, that Quintus Gallius sought a private conference
with him, for the purpose of assassinating him; that he therefore put him
in prison, but afterwards released him, and banished him the city; when
he perished either in a storm at sea, or by falling into the hands of
robbers.

He accepted of the tribunitian power for life, but more than once chose a
colleague in that office for two lustra [147] successively.  He also had
the supervision of morality and observance of the laws, for life, but
without the title of censor; yet he thrice (91) took a census of the
people, the first and third time with a colleague, but the second by
himself.

XXVIII.  He twice entertained thoughts of restoring the republic [148];
first, immediately after he had crushed Antony, remembering that he had
often charged him with being the obstacle to its restoration.  The second
time was in consequence of a long illness, when he sent for the
magistrates and the senate to his own house, and delivered them a
particular account of the state of the empire.  But reflecting at the
same time that it would be both hazardous to himself to return to the
condition of a private person, and might be dangerous to the public to
have the government placed again under the control of the people, he
resolved to keep it in his own hands, whether with the better event or
intention, is hard to say.  His good intentions he often affirmed in
private discourse, and also published an edict, in which it was declared
in the following terms: "May it be permitted me to have the happiness of
establishing the commonwealth on a safe and sound basis, and thus enjoy
the reward of which I am ambitious, that of being celebrated for moulding
it into the form best adapted to present circumstances; so that, on my
leaving the world, I may carry with me the hope that the foundations
which 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 grandeur
of the empire, and was liable to inundations of the Tiber [149], as well
as to fires, was so much improved under his administration, that he
boasted, not without reason, that he "found it of brick, but left it of
marble." [150]  He also rendered (92) it secure for the time to come
against such disasters, as far as could be effected by human foresight.
A great number of public buildings were erected by him, the most
considerable of which were a forum [151], containing the temple of Mars
the Avenger, the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill, and the temple of
Jupiter Tonans in the Capitol.  The reason of his building a new forum
was the vast increase in the population, and the number of causes to be
tried in the courts, for which, the two already existing not affording
sufficient space, it was thought necessary to have a third.  It was
therefore opened for public use before the temple of Mars was completely
finished; and a law was passed, that causes should be tried, and judges
chosen by lot, in that place.  The temple of Mars was built in fulfilment
of a vow made during the war of Philippi, undertaken by him to avenge his
father's murder.  He ordained that the senate should always assemble
there when they met to deliberate respecting wars and triumphs; that
thence should be despatched all those who were sent into the provinces in
the command of armies; and that in it those who returned victorious from
the wars, should lodge the trophies of their triumphs.  He erected the
temple of Apollo [152] in that part of his house on the Palatine hill
which had been struck with lightning, and which, on that account, the
soothsayers declared the God to have chosen.  He added porticos to it,
with a library of Latin and Greek authors [153]; and when advanced in
years, (93) used frequently there to hold the senate, and examine the
rolls of the judges.

He dedicated the temple to Apollo Tonans [154], in acknowledgment of his
escape from a great danger in his Cantabrian expedition; when, as he was
travelling in the night, his litter was struck by lightning, which killed
the slave who carried a torch before him.  He likewise constructed some
public buildings in the name of others; for instance, his grandsons, his
wife, and sister.  Thus he built the portico and basilica of Lucius and
Caius, and the porticos of Livia and Octavia [155], and the theatre of
Marcellus [156].  He also often exhorted other persons of rank to
embellish the city by new buildings, or repairing and improving the old,
according to their means.  In consequence of this recommendation, many
were raised; such as the temple of Hercules and the Muses, by Marcius
Philippus; a temple of Diana by Lucius Cornificius; the Court of Freedom
by Asinius Pollio; a temple of Saturn by Munatius Plancus; a theatre by
Cornelius Balbus [157]; an amphitheatre by Statilius Taurus; and several
other noble edifices by Marcus Agrippa. [158]

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

XXXI.  The office of Pontifex Maximus, of which he could (95) not
decently deprive Lepidus as long as he lived [161], he assumed as soon as
he was dead.  He then caused all prophetical books, both in Latin and
Greek, the authors of which were either unknown, or of no great
authority, to be brought in; and the whole collection, amounting to
upwards of two thousand volumes, he committed to the flames, preserving
only the Sibylline oracles; but not even those without a strict
examination, to ascertain which were genuine.  This being done, he
deposited them in two gilt coffers, under the pedestal of the statue of
the Palatine Apollo.  He restored the calendar, which had been corrected
by Julius Caesar, but through negligence was again fallen into confusion
[162], to its former regularity; and upon that occasion, called the month
Sextilis [163], by his own name, August, rather than September, in which
he was born; because in it he had obtained his first consulship, and all
his 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 be
omitted in the lists for election, he replied with an oath, "If either of
my own grand-daughters were old enough, I would have proposed her."

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

Next to the immortal gods, he paid the highest honours to the memory of
those generals who had raised the Roman state from its low origin to the
highest pitch of grandeur.  He accordingly repaired or rebuilt the public
edifices erected by them; preserving the former inscriptions, and placing
statues of them all, with triumphal emblems, in both the porticos of his
forum, issuing an edict on the occasion, in which he made the following
declaration: "My design in so doing is, that the Roman people may require
from me, and all succeeding princes, a conformity to those illustrious
examples."  He likewise removed the statue of Pompey from the
senate-house, in which Caius Caesar had been killed, and placed it under
a marble arch, fronting the palace attached to Pompey's theatre.

XXXII.  He corrected many ill practices, which, to the detriment of the
public, had either survived the licentious habits of the late civil wars,
or else originated in the long peace.  Bands of robbers showed themselves
openly, completely armed, under colour of self-defence; and in different
parts 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 of
a new college, which banded together for the perpetration of all kinds of
villany.  The banditti he quelled by establishing posts of soldiers in
suitable stations for the purpose; the houses of correction were
subjected to a strict superintendence; all associations, those only
excepted which were of ancient standing, and recognised by the laws, were
dissolved.  He burnt all the notes of those who had been a long time in
arrear with the treasury, as being the principal source of vexatious
suits and prosecutions.  Places in the city claimed by the public, where
the right was doubtful, he adjudged to the actual possessors.  He struck
out of the list of criminals the names of those over whom prosecutions
had been long impending, where nothing further was intended by the
informers than to gratify their own malice, by seeing their enemies
humiliated; laying it down as a rule, that if any one chose to renew a
prosecution, he should incur the risk of the punishment which he sought
to inflict.  And that crimes might not escape punishment, nor business be
neglected by delay, he ordered the courts to sit during the thirty days
which were spent in celebrating honorary games.  To the three classes of
judges then existing, he added a fourth, consisting of persons of
inferior order, who were called Ducenarii, and decided all litigations
about trifling sums.  He chose judges from the age of thirty years and
upwards; that is five years younger than had been usual before.  And a
great many declining the office, he was with much difficulty prevailed
upon to allow each class of judges a twelve-month's vacation in turn; and
the courts to be shut during the months of November and December. [169]

XXXIII.  He was himself assiduous in his functions as a judge, and would
sometimes prolong his sittings even into the night [170]: if he were
indisposed, his litter was placed before (98) the tribunal, or he
administered justice reclining on his couch at home; displaying always
not only the greatest attention, but extreme lenity.  To save a culprit,
who evidently appeared guilty of parricide, from the extreme penalty of
being sewn up in a sack, because none were punished in that manner but
such 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 of
a cause about a forged will, all those who had signed it were liable to
the penalty of the Cornelian law, he ordered that his colleagues on the
tribunal should not only be furnished with the two tablets by which they
decided, "guilty or not guilty," but with a third likewise, ignoring the
offence of those who should appear to have given their signatures through
any deception or mistake.  All appeals in causes between inhabitants of
Rome, he assigned every year to the praetor of the city; and where
provincials were concerned, to men of consular rank, to one of whom the
business of each province was referred.

XXXIV.  Some laws he abrogated, and he made some new ones; such as the
sumptuary law, that relating to adultery and the violation of chastity,
the law against bribery in elections, and likewise that for the
encouragement of marriage.  Having been more severe in his reform of this
law than the rest, he found the people utterly averse to submit to it,
unless the penalties were abolished or mitigated, besides allowing an
interval of three years after a wife's death, and increasing the premiums
on marriage.  The equestrian order clamoured loudly, at a spectacle in
the theatre, for its total repeal; whereupon he sent for the children of
Germanicus, and shewed them partly sitting upon his own lap, and partly
on their father's; intimating by his looks and gestures, that they ought
not to think it a grievance to follow the example of that young man.  But
finding that the force of the law was eluded, by marrying girls under the
age of puberty, and by frequent change of wives, he limited the time for
consummation after espousals, and imposed restrictions on divorce.

XXXV.  By two separate scrutinies he reduced to their former number and
splendour the senate, which had been swamped by a disorderly crowd; for
they were now more than a (99) thousand, and some of them very mean
persons, who, after Caesar's death, had been chosen by dint of interest
and bribery, so that they had the nickname of Orcini among the people
[171].  The first of these scrutinies was left to themselves, each
senator naming another; but the last was conducted by himself and
Agrippa.  On this occasion he is believed to have taken his seat as he
presided, 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 his
friends, standing round his chair.  Cordus Cremutius [172] relates that
no senator was suffered to approach him, except singly, and after having
his bosom searched [for secreted daggers].  Some he obliged to have the
grace of declining the office; these he allowed to retain the privileges
of wearing the distinguishing dress, occupying the seats at the solemn
spectacles, and of feasting publicly, reserved to the senatorial order
[173].  That those who were chosen and approved of, might perform their
functions under more solemn obligations, and with less inconvenience, he
ordered that every senator, before he took his seat in the house, should
pay his devotions, with an offering of frankincense and wine, at the
altar of that God in whose temple the senate then assembled [174], and
that their stated meetings should be only twice in the month, namely, on
the 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 to
give validity to a decree, should be required to attend.  For himself, he
resolved to choose every six (100) months a new council, with whom he
might consult previously upon such affairs as he judged proper at any
time to lay before the full senate.  He also took the votes of the
senators upon any subject of importance, not according to custom, nor in
regular order, but as he pleased; that every one might hold himself ready
to give his opinion, rather than a mere vote of assent.

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

XXXVII.  To augment the number of persons employed in the administration
of the state, he devised several new offices; such as surveyors of the
public 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 for
inspecting the several troops of the equestrian order, as often as it was
necessary.  He revived the office of censor [177], which had been long
disused, and increased the number of praetors.  He likewise required that
whenever the consulship was conferred on him, he should have two
colleagues instead of one; but his proposal (101) was rejected, all the
senators declaring by acclamation that he abated his high majesty quite
enough in not filling the office alone, and consenting to share it with
another.

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

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

XL.  In the election of tribunes of the people, if there was not a
sufficient number of senatorian candidates, he nominated others from the
equestrian order; granting them the liberty, after the expiration of
their office, to continue in whichsoever of the two orders they pleased.
As most of the knights had been much reduced in their estates by the
civil wars, and therefore durst not sit to see the public games in the
theatre in the seats allotted to their order, for fear of the penalty
provided by the law in that case, he enacted, that none were liable to
it, who had themselves, or whose parents had ever, possessed a knight's
estate.  He took the census of the Roman people street by street: and
that the people might not be too often taken from their business to
receive the distribution of corn, it was his intention to deliver tickets
three times a year for four months respectively; but at their request, he
continued the former regulation, that they should receive their (103)
share monthly.  He revived the former law of elections, endeavouring, by
various penalties, to suppress the practice of bribery.  Upon the day of
election, he distributed to the freemen of the Fabian and Scaptian
tribes, in which he himself was enrolled, a thousand sesterces each, that
they might look for nothing from any of the candidates.  Considering it
of extreme importance to preserve the Roman people pure, and untainted
with a mixture of foreign or servile blood, he not only bestowed the
freedom of the city with a sparing hand, but laid some restriction upon
the practice of manumitting slaves.  When Tiberius interceded with him
for the freedom of Rome in behalf of a Greek client of his, he wrote to
him for answer, "I shall not grant it, unless he comes himself, and
satisfies me that he has just grounds for the application."  And when
Livia 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 sooner
suffer some loss in my exchequer, than that the citizenship of Rome be
rendered too common."  Not content with interposing many obstacles to
either the partial or complete emancipation of slaves, by quibbles
respecting the number, condition and difference of those who were to be
manumitted; he likewise enacted that none who had been put in chains or
tortured, should ever obtain the freedom of the city in any degree.  He
endeavoured also to restore the old habit and dress of the Romans; and
upon 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 to
be 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 on
various occasions.  Moreover, upon his bringing the treasure belonging to
the kings of Egypt into the city, in his Alexandrian triumph, he made
money so plentiful, that interest fell, and the price of land rose
considerably.  And afterwards, as often as large sums of money came into
his possession by means of confiscations, he would lend it free of
interest, for a fixed term, to such as could give security for the double
of what was borrowed.  The estate necessary to qualify a senator, instead
of eight hundred thousand sesterces, the former standard, he ordered, for
the future, to be twelve hundred thousand; and to those who had not so
much, he made good the deficiency.  He often made donations to the
people, but generally of different sums; sometimes four hundred,
sometimes three hundred, or two hundred and fifty sesterces upon which
occasions, he extended his bounty even to young boys, who before were not
used to receive anything, until they arrived at eleven years of age.  In
a scarcity of corn, he would frequently let them have it at a very low
price, 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 his
people than their applause, he reprimanded them very severely, upon their
complaining 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."  Upon
their demanding a gift which he had promised them, he said, "I am a man
of my word."  But upon their importuning him for one which he had not
promised, he issued a proclamation upbraiding them for their scandalous
impudence; 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 had
been emancipated and enrolled amongst the citizens, he declared that no
one should receive anything who was not included in the promise, and he
gave the rest less than he had promised them, in order that the amount he
had set apart might hold out.  On one occasion, in a season of great
scarcity, which it was difficult to remedy, he ordered out of the city
the troops of slaves brought for sale, the gladiators (105) belonging to
the masters of defence, and all foreigners, excepting physicians and the
teachers of the liberal sciences.  Part of the domestic slaves were
likewise ordered to be dismissed.  When, at last, plenty was restored, he
writes thus "I was much inclined to abolish for ever the practice of
allowing the people corn at the public expense, because they trust so
much to it, that they are too lazy to till their lands; but I did not
persevere in my design, as I felt sure that the practice would some time
or other be revived by some one ambitious of popular favour."  However,
he so managed the affair ever afterwards, that as much account was taken
of husbandmen and traders, as of the idle populace. [183]

XLIII.  In the number, variety, and magnificence of his public
spectacles, he surpassed all former example.  Four-and-twenty times, he
says, he treated the people with games upon his own account, and
three-and-twenty times for such magistrates as were either absent, or not
able to afford the expense.  The performances took place sometimes in the
different streets of the city, and upon several stages, by players in all
languages.  The same he did not only in the forum and amphitheatre, but
in the circus likewise, and in the septa [184]: and sometimes he
exhibited only the hunting of wild beasts.  He entertained the people
with wrestlers in the Campus Martius, where wooden seats were erected for
the purpose; and also with a naval fight, for which he excavated the
ground near the Tiber, where there is now the grove of the Caesars.
During these two entertainments he stationed guards in the city, lest, by
robbers taking advantage of the small number of people left at home, it
might be exposed to depredations.  In the circus he exhibited chariot and
foot races, and combats with wild beasts, in which the performers were
often youths of the highest rank.  His favourite spectacle was the Trojan
game, acted by a select number of boys, in parties differing in age and
station; thinking (106) that it was a practice both excellent in itself,
and sanctioned by ancient usage, that the spirit of the young nobles
should be displayed in such exercises.  Caius Nonius Asprenas, who was
lamed by a fall in this diversion, he presented with a gold collar, and
allowed him and his posterity to bear the surname of Torquati.  But soon
afterwards he gave up the exhibition of this game, in consequence of a
severe and bitter speech made in the senate by Asinius Pollio, the
orator, 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 as
gladiators; but only before the practice was prohibited by a decree of
the senate.  Thenceforth, the only exhibition he made of that kind, was
that of a young man named Lucius, of a good family, who was not quite two
feet in height, and weighed only seventeen pounds, but had a stentorian
voice.  In one of his public spectacles, he brought the hostages of the
Parthians, the first ever sent to Rome from that nation, through the
middle of the amphitheatre, and placed them in the second tier of seats
above him.  He used likewise, at times when there were no public
entertainments, if any thing was brought to Rome which was uncommon, and
might gratify curiosity, to expose it to public view, in any place
whatever; as he did a rhinoceros in the Septa, a tiger upon a stage, and
a snake fifty cubits lung in the Comitium.  It happened in the Circensian
games, which he performed in consequence of a vow, that he was taken ill,
and obliged to attend the Thensae [185], reclining on a litter.  Another
time, in the games celebrated for the opening of the theatre of
Marcellus, the joints of his curule chair happening to give way, he fell
on his back.  And in the games exhibited by his (107) grandsons, when the
people were in such consternation, by an alarm raised that the theatre
was 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 the
theatre which was thought to be exposed to most danger.

XLIV.  He corrected the confusion and disorder with which the spectators
took their seats at the public games, after an affront which was offered
to a senator at Puteoli, for whom, in a crowded theatre, no one would
make room.  He therefore procured a decree of the senate, that in all
public spectacles of any sort, and in any place whatever, the first tier
of benches should be left empty for the accommodation of senators.  He
would not even permit the ambassadors of free nations, nor of those which
were allies of Rome, to sit in the orchestra; having found that some
manumitted slaves had been sent under that character.  He separated the
soldiery from the rest of the people, and assigned to married plebeians
their particular rows of seats.  To the boys he assigned their own
benches, and to their tutors the seats which were nearest it; ordering
that 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, except
from the upper part of the theatre, although they formerly used to take
their places promiscuously with the rest of the spectators.  To the
vestal virgins he granted seats in the theatre, reserved for them only,
opposite the praetor's bench.  He excluded, however, the whole female sex
from seeing the wrestlers: so that in the games which he exhibited upon
his accession to the office of high-priest, he deferred producing a pair
of combatants which the people called for, until the next morning; and
intimated by proclamation, "his pleasure that no woman should appear in
the theatre before five o'clock."

XLV.  He generally viewed the Circensian games himself, from the upper
rooms of the houses of his friends or freedmen; sometimes from the place
appointed for the statues of the gods, and sitting in company with his
wife and children.  He (108) occasionally absented himself from the
spectacles for several hours, and sometimes for whole days; but not
without first making an apology, and appointing substitutes to preside in
his stead.  When present, he never attended to anything else either to
avoid the reflections which he used to say were commonly made upon his
father, Caesar, for perusing letters and memorials, and making rescripts
during the spectacles; or from the real pleasure he took in attending
those exhibitions; of which he made no secret, he often candidly owning
it.  This he manifested frequently by presenting honorary crowns and
handsome rewards to the best performers, in the games exhibited by
others; and he never was present at any performance of the Greeks,
without rewarding the most deserving, according to their merit.  He took
particular pleasure in witnessing pugilistic contests, especially those
of the Latins, not only between combatants who had been trained
scientifically, whom he used often to match with the Greek champions; but
even between mobs of the lower classes fighting in streets, and tilting
at random, without any knowledge of the art.  In short, he honoured with
his patronage all sorts of people who contributed in any way to the
success of the public entertainments.  He not only maintained, but
enlarged, the privileges of the wrestlers.  He prohibited combats of
gladiators where no quarter was given.  He deprived the magistrates of
the power of correcting the stage-players, which by an ancient law was
allowed them at all times, and in all places; restricting their
jurisdiction entirely to the time of performance and misdemeanours in the
theatres.  He would, however, admit, of no abatement, and exacted with
the utmost rigour the greatest exertions of the wrestlers and gladiators
in their several encounters.  He went so far in restraining the
licentiousness of stage-players, that upon discovering that Stephanio, a
performer of the highest class, had a married woman with her hair
cropped, and dressed in boy's clothes, to wait upon him at table, he
ordered him to be whipped through all the three theatres, and then
banished him.  Hylas, an actor of pantomimes, upon a complaint against
him by the praetor, he commanded to be scourged in the court of his own
house, which, however, was open to the public.  And Pylades he not only
banished from the city, but from Italy also, for pointing with his finger
at a spectator by whom he was hissed, and turning the eyes of the
audience upon him.

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

XLVII.  The more important provinces, which could not with ease or safety
be entrusted to the government of annual magistrates, he reserved for his
own administration: the rest he distributed by lot amongst the
proconsuls: but sometimes he made exchanges, and frequently visited most
of both kinds in person.  Some cities in alliance with Rome, but which by
their great licentiousness were hastening to ruin, he deprived of their
independence.  Others, which were much in debt, he relieved, and rebuilt
such as had been destroyed by earthquakes.  To those that could produce
any instance of their having deserved well of the Roman people, he
presented the freedom of Latium, or even that of the City.  There is not,
I believe, a province, except Africa and Sardinia, which he did not
visit.  After forcing Sextus Pompeius to take refuge in those provinces,
he was indeed preparing to cross over from Sicily to them, but was
prevented by continual and violent storms, and afterwards there was no
occasion or call for such a voyage.

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

XLIX.  With respect to the army, he distributed the legions and auxiliary
troops 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 posts
in the city, and partly for his own body-guard; but he dismissed the
Spanish guard, which he retained about him till the fall of Antony; and
also the Germans, whom he had amongst his guards, until the defeat of
Varus.  Yet he never permitted a greater force than three cohorts in the
city, and had no (pretorian) camps [190].  The rest he quartered in the
neighbourhood of the nearest towns, in winter and summer camps.  All the
troops throughout the empire he reduced to one fixed model with regard to
their pay and their pensions; determining these according to their rank
in the army, the time they had served, and their private means; so that
after their discharge, they might not be tempted by age or necessities to
join the agitators for a revolution.  For the purpose of providing a fund
always ready to meet their pay and pensions, he instituted a military
exchequer, and appropriated new taxes to that object.  In order to obtain
the earliest intelligence of what was passing in the provinces, he
established posts, consisting at first of young men stationed at moderate
distances along the military roads, and afterwards of regular couriers
with fast vehicles; which appeared to him the most commodious, because
the 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 used
the figure of a sphinx, afterwards the head of Alexander (111) the Great,
and at last his own, engraved by the hand of Dioscorides; which practice
was retained by the succeeding emperors.  He was extremely precise in
dating his letters, putting down exactly the time of the day or night at
which they were dispatched.

LI.  Of his clemency and moderation there are abundant and signal
instances.  For, not to enumerate how many and what persons of the
adverse party he pardoned, received into favour, and suffered to rise to
the highest eminence in the state; he thought it sufficient to punish
Junius Novatus and Cassius Patavinus, who were both plebeians, one of
them with a fine, and the other with an easy banishment; although the
former had published, in the name of young Agrippa, a very scurrilous
letter against him, and the other declared openly, at an entertainment
where there was a great deal of company, "that he neither wanted
inclination nor courage to stab him."  In the trial of Aemilius Aelianus,
of Cordova, when, among other charges exhibited against him, it was
particularly insisted upon, that he used to calumniate Caesar, he turned
round to the accuser, and said, with an air and tone of passion, "I wish
you could make that appear; I shall let Aelianus know that I have a
tongue too, and shall speak sharper of him than he ever did of me."  Nor
did he, either then or afterwards, make any farther inquiry into the
affair.  And when Tiberius, in a letter, complained of the affront with
great earnestness, he returned him an answer in the following terms: "Do
not, 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 is
enough, 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 in
honour of the proconsuls, yet he would not permit them to be erected in
any of the provinces, unless in the joint names of himself and Rome.
Within the limits of the city, he positively refused any honour of that
kind.  He melted down all the silver statues which had been erected to
him, and converted the whole into tripods, which he consecrated to the
Palatine Apollo.  And when the people importuned him to accept the
dictatorship, he bent down on one knee, with his toga thrown over his
shoulders, and his breast exposed to view, begging to be excused.

(112) LIII.  He always abhorred the title of Lord [191], as ill-omened
and offensive.  And when, in a play, performed at the theatre, at which
he was present, these words were introduced, "O just and gracious lord,"
and the whole company, with joyful acclamations, testified their
approbation of them, as applied to him, he instantly put a stop to their
indecent flattery, by waving his hand, and frowning sternly, and next day
publicly declared his displeasure, in a proclamation.  He never
afterwards would suffer himself to be addressed in that manner, even by
his own children or grand-children, either in jest or earnest and forbad
them the use of all such complimentary expressions to one another.  He
rarely entered any city or town, or departed from it, except in the
evening or the night, to avoid giving any person the trouble of
complimenting him.  During his consulships, he commonly walked the
streets on foot; but at other times, rode in a close carriage.  He
admitted to court even plebeians, in common with people of the higher
ranks; receiving the petitions of those who approached him with so much
affability, that he once jocosely rebuked a man, by telling him, "You
present your memorial with as much hesitation as if you were offering
money to an elephant."  On senate days, he used to pay his respects to
the Conscript Fathers only in the house, addressing them each by name as
they sat, without any prompter; and on his departure, he bade each of
them farewell, while they retained their seats.  In the same manner, he
maintained with many of them a constant intercourse of mutual civilities,
giving them his company upon occasions of any particular festivity in
their families; until he became advanced in years, and was incommoded by
the 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 paid
him a visit, and by his consolatory admonitions diverted him from his
purpose.

LIV.  On his speaking in the senate, he has been told by (113) one of the
members, "I did not understand you," and by another, "I would contradict
you, could I do it with safety."  And sometimes, upon his being so much
offended at the heat with which the debates were conducted in the senate,
as to quit the house in anger, some of the members have repeatedly
exclaimed: "Surely, the senators ought to have liberty of speech on
matters of government."  Antistius Labeo, in the election of a new
senate, when each, as he was named, chose another, nominated Marcus
Lepidus, who had formerly been Augustus's enemy, and was then in
banishment; and being asked by the latter, "Is there no other person more
deserving?" he replied, "Every man has his own opinion."  Nor was any one
ever molested for his freedom of speech, although it was carried to the
extent of insolence.

LV.  Even when some infamous libels against him were dispersed in the
senate-house, he was neither disturbed, nor did he give himself much
trouble to refute them.  He would not so much as order an enquiry to be
made after the authors; but only proposed, that, for the future, those
who 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 to
render him odious, he answered them by a proclamation; and yet he
prevented the senate from passing an act, to restrain the liberties which
were taken with others in people's wills.  Whenever he attended at the
election of magistrates, he went round the tribes, with the candidates of
his 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.  He
suffered himself to be summoned as a witness upon trials, and not only to
be questioned, but to be cross-examined, with the utmost patience.  In
building his Forum, he restricted himself in the site, not presuming to
compel 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 the
theatre, while they were yet minors, and giving them applause in a
standing position, he made it a matter of serious complaint.

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

LVII.  How much he was beloved for his worthy conduct in all these
respects, it is easy to imagine.  I say nothing of the decrees of the
senate in his honour, which may seem to have resulted from compulsion or
deference.  The Roman knights voluntarily, and with one accord, always
celebrated 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 money
into the Curtian lake [192], as an offering for his welfare.  They
likewise, on the calends [first] of January, presented for his acceptance
new-year's gifts in the Capitol, though he was not present with which
donations he purchased some costly images of the Gods, which he erected
in several streets of the city; as that of Apollo Sandaliarius, Jupiter
Tragoedus [193], and others.  When his house on the Palatine hill was
accidentally destroyed by fire, the veteran soldiers, the judges, the
tribes, and even the people, individually, contributed, according to the
ability of each, for rebuilding it; but he would (115) accept only of
some small portion out of the several sums collected, and refused to take
from any one person more than a single denarius [194].  Upon his return
home from any of the provinces, they attended him not only with joyful
acclamations, but with songs.  It is also remarked, that as often as he
entered the city, the infliction of punishment was suspended for the
time.

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

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

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

LXI.  Having thus given an account of the manner in which he filled his
public offices both civil and military, and his conduct in the government
of the empire, both in peace and war; I shall now describe his private
and domestic life, his habits at home and among his friends and
dependents, 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 first
consulship, and his sister Octavia, when he was in the fifty-fourth year
of his age [197].  He behaved towards them both with the utmost kindness
whilst living, and after their decease paid the highest honours to their
memory.

(117) LXII.  He was contracted when very young to the daughter of Publius
Servilius Isauricus; but upon his reconciliation with Antony after their
first rupture [198], the armies on both sides insisting on a family
alliance between them, he married Antony's step-daughter Claudia, the
daughter of Fulvia by Publius Claudius, although at that time she was
scarcely marriageable; and upon a difference arising with his
mother-in-law Fulvia, he divorced her untouched, and a pure virgin.  Soon
afterwards he took to wife Scribonia, who had before been twice married
to men of consular rank [199], and was a mother by one of them.  With her
likewise 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 never
any rival in his love and esteem.

LXIII.  By Scribonia he had a daughter named Julia, but no children by
Livia, although extremely desirous of issue.  She, indeed, conceived
once, but miscarried.  He gave his daughter Julia in the first instance
to Marcellus, his sister's son, who had just completed his minority; and,
after his death, to Marcus Agrippa, having prevailed with his sister to
yield her son-in-law to his wishes; for at that time Agrippa was married
to one of the Marcellas, and had children by her.  Agrippa dying also, he
for a long time thought of several matches for Julia in even the
equestrian order, and at last resolved upon selecting Tiberius for his
step-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 he
first contracted Julia to his son, and afterwards to Cotiso, king of the
Getae [201], demanding at the same time the king's daughter in marriage
for himself."

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

LXV.  But in the midst of all his joy and hopes in his numerous and
well-regulated family, his fortune failed him.  The two Julias, his
daughter and grand-daughter, abandoned themselves to such courses of
lewdness and debauchery, that he banished them both.  Caius and Lucius he
lost within the space of eighteen months; the former dying in Lycia, and
the latter at Marseilles.  His third grandson Agrippa, with his step-son
Tiberius, he adopted in the forum, by a law passed for the purpose by the
Sections [203]; but he soon afterwards discarded Agrippa for his coarse
and unruly temper, and confined him at Surrentum.  He bore the death of
his relations with more patience than he did their disgrace; for he was
not overwhelmed by the loss of Caius and Lucius; but in the case of his
daughter, 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, he
was so much ashamed of her infamous conduct, that for some time he avoided
all company, and had thoughts of putting her to death.  It is certain that
when one Phoebe, a freed-woman and confidant of hers, hanged herself about
the same time, he said, "I had rather be the father of Phoebe than of
Julia."  In her banishment he would not allow her the use of wine, nor any
luxury in dress; nor would he suffer her to be waited upon by any male
servant, either freeman or slave, without his permission, and having
received an exact account of his age, stature, complexion, and what marks
or scars he had about him.  At the end of five years he removed her from
the island [where she was confined] to the continent [204], and treated
her with less severity, but could never be prevailed upon to recall her.
When the Roman people interposed on her behalf several times with much
importunity, all the reply he gave was: "I wish you had all such daughters
and wives as she is."  He likewise forbad a child, of which his
grand-daughter Julia was delivered after sentence had passed against her,
to be either owned as a relation, or brought up. Agrippa, who was equally
intractable, and whose folly increased every day, he transported to an
island [205], and placed a guard of soldiers about him; procuring at the
same 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 heavy
sigh,

    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 "three
imposthumes or cancers."

LXVI.  He was cautious in forming friendships, but clung to them with
great constancy; not only rewarding the virtues and merits of his friends
according to their deserts, but bearing likewise with their faults and
vices, provided that they were (120) of a venial kind.  For amongst all
his friends, we scarcely find any who fell into disgrace with him, except
Salvidienus Rufus, whom he raised to the consulship, and Cornelius
Gallus, whom he made prefect of Egypt; both of them men of the lowest
extraction.  One of these, being engaged in plotting a rebellion, he
delivered over to the senate, for condemnation; and the other, on account
of his ungrateful and malicious temper, he forbad his house, and his
living in any of the provinces.  When, however, Gallus, being denounced
by his accusers, and sentenced by the senate, was driven to the desperate
extremity of laying violent hands upon himself, he commended, indeed, the
attachment to his person of those who manifested so much indignation, but
he shed tears, and lamented his unhappy condition, "That I alone," said
he, "cannot be allowed to resent the misconduct of my friends in such a
way only as I would wish."  The rest of his friends of all orders
flourished during their whole lives, both in power and wealth, in the
highest ranks of their several orders, notwithstanding some occasional
lapses.  For, to say nothing of others, he sometimes complained that
Agrippa was hasty, and Mecaenas a tattler; the former having thrown up
all his employments and retired to Mitylene, on suspicion of some slight
coolness, and from jealousy that Marcellus received greater marks of
favour; and the latter having confidentially imparted to his wife
Terentia the discovery of Muraena's conspiracy.

He likewise expected from his friends, at their deaths as well as during
their lives, some proofs of their reciprocal attachment.  For though he
was far from coveting their property, and indeed would never accept of
any legacy left him by a stranger, yet he pondered in a melancholy mood
over their last words; not being able to conceal his chagrin, if in their
wills they made but a slight, or no very honourable mention of him, nor
his joy, on the other hand, if they expressed a grateful sense of his
favours, and a hearty affection for him.  And whatever legacies or shares
of their property were left him by such as were parents, he used to
restore 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 and
conciliating; 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, had
reflected bitterly upon him, he resented the injury no further than by
putting him in fetters.  When his steward, Diomedes, left him to the
mercy of a wild boar, which suddenly attacked them while they were
walking together, he considered it rather a cowardice than a breach of
duty; and turned an occurrence of no small hazard into a jest, because
there was no knavery in his steward's conduct.  He put to death Proculus,
one of his most favourite freedmen, for maintaining a criminal commerce
with other men's wives.  He broke the legs of his secretary, Thallus, for
taking a bribe of five hundred denarii to discover the contents of one of
his letters.  And the tutor and other attendants of his son Caius, having
taken advantage of his sickness and death, to give loose to their
insolence and rapacity in the province he governed, he caused heavy
weights to be tied about their necks, and had them thrown into a river.

LXVIII.  In his early youth various aspersions of an infamous character
were heaped upon him.  Sextus Pompey reproached him with being an
effeminate fellow; and M. Antony, with earning his adoption from his
uncle by prostitution.  Lucius Antony, likewise Mark's brother, charges
him with pollution by Caesar; and that, for a gratification of three
hundred thousand sesterces, he had submitted to Aulus Hirtius in the same
way, in Spain; adding, that he used to singe his legs with burnt
nut-shells, to make the hair become softer [207].  Nay, the whole
concourse of the people, at some public diversions in the theatre, when
the following sentence was recited, alluding to the Gallic priest of the
mother 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 not
denied even by his friends; but they allege in excuse for it, that he
engaged in those intrigues not from lewdness, but from policy, in order
to discover more easily the designs of his enemies, through their wives.
Mark Antony, besides the precipitate marriage of Livia, charges him with
taking the wife of a man of consular rank from table, in the presence of
her husband, into a bed-chamber, and bringing her again to the
entertainment, with her ears very red, and her hair in great disorder:
that he had divorced Scribonia, for resenting too freely the excessive
influence which one of his mistresses had gained over him: that his
friends were employed to pimp for him, and accordingly obliged both
matrons and ripe virgins to strip, for a complete examination of their
persons, in the same manner as if Thoranius, the dealer in slaves, had
them under sale.  And before they came to an open rupture, he writes to
him in a familiar manner, thus: "Why are you changed towards me?  Because
I lie with a queen?  She is my wife.  Is this a new thing with me, or
have I not done so for these nine years?  And do you take freedoms with
Drusilla only?  May health and happiness so attend you, as when you read
this letter, you are not in dalliance with Tertulla, Terentilla, Rufilla
[210], or Salvia Titiscenia, or all of them.  What matters it to you
where, or upon whom, you spend your manly vigour?"

LXX.  A private entertainment which he gave, commonly called the Supper
of the Twelve Gods [211], and at which the guests (123) were dressed in
the habit of gods and goddesses, while he personated Apollo himself,
afforded subject of much conversation, and was imputed to him not only by
Antony in his letters, who likewise names all the parties concerned, but
in 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 it
happened 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 indeed
Apollo, but Apollo the Tormentor;" under which title that god was
worshipped in some quarter of the city [212].  He was likewise charged
with being excessively fond of fine furniture, and Corinthian vessels, as
well as with being addicted to gaming.  For, during the time of the
proscription, 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 of
the proscribed, only to obtain the Corinthian vessels in (124) their
possession.  And afterwards, in the Sicilian war, the following epigram
was 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 impurity
before-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.  His
conduct likewise gave the lie to that of luxurious extravagance in his
furniture, when, upon the taking of Alexandria, he reserved for himself
nothing of the royal treasures but a porcelain cup, and soon afterwards
melted down all the vessels of gold, even such as were intended for
common use.  But his amorous propensities never left him, and, as he grew
older, as is reported, he was in the habit of debauching young girls, who
were procured for him, from all quarters, even by his own wife.  To the
observations on his gaming, he paid not the smallest regard; but played
in public, but purely for his diversion, even when he was advanced in
years; and not only in the month of December [214], but at other times,
and upon all days, whether festivals or not.  This evidently appears from
a letter under his own hand, in which he says, "I supped, my dear
Tiberius, with the same company.  We had, besides, Vinicius, and Silvius
the father.  We gamed at supper like old fellows, both yesterday and
today.  And as any one threw upon the tali [215] aces or sixes, he put
down for every talus a denarius; all which was gained by him who threw a
Venus." [216]  In another letter, he says: "We had, my dear Tiberius, a
pleasant time of it during the festival of Minerva: for we played every
day, and kept the gaming-board warm.  Your brother uttered many
exclamations at a desperate run of ill-fortune; but recovering by
degrees, and unexpectedly, he in the end lost not much.  I lost twenty
thousand sesterces for my part; but then I was profusely (125) generous
in my play, as I commonly am; for had I insisted upon the stakes which I
declined, or kept what I gave away, I should have won about fifty
thousand.  But this I like better for it will raise my character for
generosity 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 one
of my guests; in case they were inclined at supper to divert themselves
with 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 the
Roman Forum, above the Ring-maker's Stairs, in a house which had once
been occupied by Calvus the orator.  He afterwards moved to the Palatine
Hill, where he resided in a small house [217] belonging to Hortensius, no
way remarkable either for size or ornament; the piazzas being but small,
the pillars of Alban stone [218], and the rooms without any thing of
marble, or fine paving.  He continued to use the same bed-chamber, both
winter and summer, during forty years [219]: for though he was sensible
that the city did not agree with his health in the winter, he
nevertheless resided constantly in it during that season.  If at any time
he wished to be perfectly retired, and secure from interruption, he shut
himself up in an apartment at the top of his house, which he called his
Syracuse or Technophuon [220], or he went to some villa belonging to his
freedmen near the city.  But when he was indisposed, he commonly took up
his residence in the house of Mecaenas [221].  Of all the places of
retirement from the city, he (126) chiefly frequented those upon the
sea-coast, and the islands of Campania [222], or the towns nearest the
city, such as Lanuvium, Praeneste, and Tibur [223], where he often used to
sit for the administration of justice, in the porticos of the temple of
Hercules.  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 from
being spacious, he adorned, not so much with statues and pictures, as with
walks and groves, and things which were curious either for their antiquity
or rarity; such as, at Capri, the huge limbs of sea-monsters and wild
beasts, which some affect to call the bones of giants; and also the arms
of ancient heroes.

LXXIII.  His frugality in the furniture of his house appears even at this
day, from some beds and tables still remaining, most of which are
scarcely elegant enough for a private family.  It is reported that he
never lay upon a bed, but such as was low, and meanly furnished.  He
seldom wore any garment but what was made by the hands of his wife,
sister, daughter, and grand-daughters.  His togas [224] were neither
scanty nor full; (127) and the clavus was neither remarkably broad or
narrow.  His shoes were a little higher than common, to make him appear
taller than he was.  He had always clothes and shoes, fit to appear in
public, ready in his bed-chamber for any sudden occasion.

LXXIV.  At his table, which was always plentiful and elegant, he
constantly entertained company; but was very scrupulous in the choice of
them, both as to rank and character.  Valerius Messala informs us, that
he never admitted any freedman to his table, except Menas, when rewarded
with the privilege of citizenship, for betraying Pompey's fleet.  He
writes, himself, that he invited to his table a person in whose villa he
lodged, and who had formerly been employed by him as a spy.  He often
came late to table, and withdrew early; so that the company began supper
before his arrival, and continued at table after his departure.  His
entertainments consisted of three entries, or at most of only six.  But
if his fare was moderate, his courtesy was extreme.  For those who were
silent, or talked in whispers, he encouraged to join in the general
conversation; and introduced buffoons and stage players, or even low
performers from the circus, and very often itinerant humourists, to
enliven the company.

LXXV.  Festivals and holidays he usually celebrated very expensively, but
sometimes only with merriment.  In the Saturnalia, or at any other time
when the fancy took him, he distributed to his company clothes, gold, and
silver; sometimes coins of all sorts, even of the ancient kings of Rome
and of foreign nations; sometimes nothing but towels, sponges, rakes, and
tweezers, and other things of that kind, with tickets on them, which were
enigmatical, and had a double meaning [225].  He used likewise to sell by
lot among his guests articles of very unequal value, and pictures with
their fronts reversed; and so, by the unknown quality of the lot,
disappoint or gratify the expectation of the purchasers.  This sort of
traffic (128) went round the whole company, every one being obliged to
buy 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 commonly
used a plain diet.  He was particularly fond of coarse bread, small
fishes, new cheese made of cow's milk [226], and green figs of the sort
which bear fruit twice a year [227].  He did not wait for supper, but
took food at any time, and in any place, when he had an appetite.  The
following passages relative to this subject, I have transcribed from his
letters.  "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 ounce
of bread, and a few raisins."  Again.  "No Jew, my dear Tiberius, ever
keeps such strict fast upon the Sabbath [228], as I have to-day; for
while in the bath, and after the first hour of the night, I only ate two
biscuits, before I began to be rubbed with oil."  From this great
indifference about his diet, he sometimes supped by himself, before his
company began, or after they had finished, and would not touch a morsel
at 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 in
the camp at Modena; and when he indulged himself the most, he never
exceeded a pint; or if he did, his stomach rejected it.  Of all wines, he
gave the (129) preference to the Rhaetian [229], but scarcely ever drank
any in the day-time.  Instead of drinking, he used to take a piece of
bread dipped in cold water, or a slice of cucumber, or some leaves of
lettuce, 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 hand
held before his eyes.  After supper he commonly withdrew to his study, a
small closet, where he sat late, until he had put down in his diary all
or most of the remaining transactions of the day, which he had not before
registered.  He would then go to bed, but never slept above seven hours
at most, and that not without interruption; for he would wake three or
four times during that time.  If he could not again fall asleep, as
sometimes happened, he called for some one to read or tell stories to
him, until he became drowsy, and then his sleep was usually protracted
till after day-break.  He never liked to lie awake in the dark, without
somebody 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 or
religious functions, in order to guard as much as possible against the
inconvenience resulting from it, he used to lodge in some apartment near
the spot, belonging to any of his attendants.  If at any time a fit of
drowsiness seized him in passing along the streets, his litter was set
down while he snatched a few moments' sleep.

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

LXXX.  He is said to have been born with many spots upon his breast and
belly, answering to the figure, order, and number of the stars in the
constellation of the Bear.  He had besides several callosities resembling
scars, occasioned by an itching in his body, and the constant and violent
use of the strigil [231] in being rubbed.  He had a weakness in his left
hip, thigh, and leg, insomuch that he often halted on that side; but he
received much benefit from the use of sand and reeds.  He likewise
sometimes found the fore-finger of his right hand so weak, that when it
was benumbed and contracted with cold, to use it in writing, he was
obliged to have recourse to a circular piece of horn.  He had
occasionally a complaint in the bladder; but upon voiding some stones in
his 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 reduced
to such a condition, that he was obliged to undergo a desperate and
doubtful method of cure: for warm applications having no effect, Antonius
Musa [232] directed the use of those which were cold.  He was likewise
subject to fits of sickness at stated times every year; for about his
birth-day [233] he was commonly a little indisposed.  In the beginning of
spring, he was attacked with an inflation of the midriff; and when the
wind was southerly, with a cold in his head.  By all these complaints,
his constitution was so shattered, that he could not easily bear either
heat or cold.

LXXXII.  In winter, he was protected against the inclemency of the
weather by a thick toga, four tunics, a shirt, a flannel stomacher, and
swathings upon his legs and thighs [234]. In summer, he lay with the
doors of his bedchamber open, and frequently in a piazza, refreshed by a
bubbling fountain, and a person standing by to fan him.  He could not
bear even the winter's sun; and at home, never walked in the open air
without a broad-brimmed hat on his head.  He usually travelled in a
litter, and by night: and so slow, that he was two days in going to
Praeneste or Tibur.  And if he could go to any place by sea, he preferred
that mode of travelling.  He carefully nourished his health against his
many infirmities, avoiding chiefly the free use of the bath; but he was
often rubbed with oil, and sweated in a stove; after which he was washed
with tepid water, warmed either by a fire, or by being exposed to the
heat of the sun.  When, upon account of his nerves, he was obliged to
have recourse to sea-water, or the waters of Albula [235], he was
contented with sitting over a wooden tub, which he called by a Spanish
name (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 and
other military exercises in the Campus Martius, and took to playing at
ball, or foot-ball; but soon afterwards used no other exercise than that
of 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 amusement
he would sometimes angle, or play with dice, pebbles, or nuts, with
little boys, collected from various countries, and particularly Moors and
Syrians, for their beauty or amusing talk.  But dwarfs, and such as were
in any way deformed, he held in abhorrence, as lusus naturae (nature's
abortions), and of evil omen.

LXXXIV.  From early youth he devoted himself with great diligence and
application to the study of eloquence, and the other liberal arts.  In
the war of Modena, notwithstanding the weighty affairs in which he was
engaged, he is said to have read, written, and declaimed every day.  He
never addressed the senate, the people, or the army, but in a
premeditated speech, though he did not want the talent of speaking
extempore on the spur of the occasion.  And lest his memory should fail
him, 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 with
individuals, and even with his wife Livia, upon subjects of importance he
wrote on his tablets all he wished to express, lest, if he spoke
extempore, he should say more or less than was proper.  He delivered
himself in a sweet and peculiar tone, in which he was diligently
instructed by a master of elocution.  But when he had a cold, he
sometimes employed a herald to deliver his speeches to the people.

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

LXXXVI.  He cultivated a style which was neat and chaste, avoiding
frivolous or harsh language, as well as obsolete words, which he calls
disgusting.  His chief object was to deliver his thoughts with all
possible perspicuity.  To attain this end, and that he might nowhere
perplex, or retard the reader or hearer, he made no scruple to add
prepositions to his verbs, or to repeat the same conjunction several
times; which, when omitted, occasion some little obscurity, but give a
grace to the style.  Those who used affected language, or adopted
obsolete words, he despised, as equally faulty, though in different ways.
He sometimes indulged himself in jesting, particularly with his friend
Mecaenas, 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 Mark
Antony with insanity, writing rather to make men stare, than to be
understood; and by way of sarcasm upon his depraved and fickle taste in
the choice of words, he writes to him thus: "And are you yet in doubt,
whether Cimber Annius or Veranius Flaccus be more proper for your
imitation?  Whether you will adopt words which Sallustius Crispus has
borrowed from the 'Origines' of Cato?  Or do you think that the verbose
empty bombast of Asiatic orators is fit to be transfused into (134) our
language?"  And in a letter where he commends the talent of his
grand-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 peculiar
expressions, as appears from letters in his own hand-writing; in which,
now and then, when he means to intimate that some persons would never pay
their debts, he says, "They will pay at the Greek Calends."  And when he
advised patience in the present posture of affairs, he would say, "Let us
be content with our Cato."  To describe anything in haste, he said, "It
was sooner done than asparagus is cooked."  He constantly puts baceolus
for stultus, pullejaceus for pullus, vacerrosus for cerritus, vapide se
habere for male, and betizare for languere, which is commonly called
lachanizare.  Likewise simus for sumus, domos for domus in the genitive
singular [238].  With respect to the last two peculiarities, lest any
person should imagine that they were only slips of his pen, and not
customary with him, he never varies.  I have likewise remarked this
singularity in his hand-writing; he never divides his words, so as to
carry the letters which cannot be inserted at the end of a line to the
next, but puts them below the other, enclosed by a bracket.

LXXXVIII.  He did not adhere strictly to orthography as laid down by the
grammarians, 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 omitting
not only letters but whole syllables, it is a vulgar mistake.  Nor should
I have taken notice of it, but that it appears strange to me, that any
person should have told us, that he sent a successor to a consular
lieutenant of a province, as an ignorant, illiterate fellow, upon his
observing that he had written ixi for ipsi.  When he had occasion to
write in cypher, he put b for a, c for b, and so forth; and instead
of z, aa.

LXXXIX.  He was no less fond of the Greek literature, in which he made
considerable proficiency; having had Apollodorus (135) of Pergamus, for
his master in rhetoric; whom, though much advanced in years, he took with
him from The City, when he was himself very young, to Apollonia.
Afterwards, being instructed in philology by Sephaerus, he received into
his family Areus the philosopher, and his sons Dionysius and Nicanor; but
he never could speak the Greek tongue readily, nor ever ventured to
compose in it.  For if there was occasion for him to deliver his
sentiments in that language, he always expressed what he had to say in
Latin, and gave it another to translate.  He was evidently not
unacquainted with the poetry of the Greeks, and had a great taste for the
ancient comedy, which he often brought upon the stage, in his public
spectacles.  In reading the Greek and Latin authors, he paid particular
attention to precepts and examples which might be useful in public or
private life.  Those he used to extract verbatim, and gave to his
domestics, or send to the commanders of the armies, the governors of the
provinces, or the magistrates of the city, when any of them seemed to
stand 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 the
orations of Quintus Metellus "for the Encouragement of Marriage," and
those of Rutilius "On the Style of Building;" [239] to shew the people
that he was not the first who had promoted those objects, but that the
ancients likewise had thought them worthy their attention.  He patronised
the men of genius of that age in every possible way.  He would hear them
read their works with a great deal of patience and good nature; and not
only poetry [240] and history, but orations and dialogues.  He was
displeased, however, that anything should be written upon himself, except
in a grave manner, and by men of the most eminent abilities: and he
enjoined the praetors not to suffer his name to be made too common in the
contests amongst orators and poets in the theatres.

XC.  We have the following account of him respecting his (136) belief in
omens and such like.  He had so great a dread of thunder and lightning
that 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 some
place of concealment in a vault under ground; having formerly been
terrified by a flash of lightning, while travelling in the night, as we
have already mentioned. [241]

XCI.  He neither slighted his own dreams nor those of other people
relating to himself.  At the battle of Philippi, although he had resolved
not 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; and
well it was that he did so, for in the enemy's attack, his couch was
pierced and cut to pieces, on the supposition of his being in it.  He had
many frivolous and frightful dreams during the spring; but in the other
parts of the year, they were less frequent and more significative.  Upon
his frequently visiting a temple near the Capitol, which he had dedicated
to Jupiter Tonans, he dreamt that Jupiter Capitolinus complained that his
worshippers were taken from him, and that upon this he replied, he had
only given him The Thunderer for his porter [242].  He therefore
immediately suspended little bells round the summit of the temple;
because such commonly hung at the gates of great houses.  In consequence
of a dream, too, he always, on a certain day of the year, begged alms of
the people, reaching out his hand to receive the dole which they offered
him.

XCII.  Some signs and omens he regarded as infallible.  If in the morning
his shoe was put on wrong, the left instead of the right, that boded some
disaster.  If when he commenced a long journey, by sea or land, there
happened to fall a mizzling rain, he held it to be a good sign of a
speedy and happy return.  He was much affected likewise with any thing
out 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, he
transplanted into a court where the images of the Household Gods were
placed, and took all possible care to make it thrive in the island of
Capri, some decayed branches of an old ilex, which hung drooping to the
ground, recovered themselves upon his arrival; at which he was so
delighted, that he made an exchange with the Republic [244] of Naples, of
the island of Oenaria [Ischia], for that of Capri.  He likewise observed
certain days; as never to go from home the day after the Nundiae [245],
nor to begin any serious business upon the nones [246]; avoiding nothing
else in it, as he writes to Tiberius, than its unlucky name.

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

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

Julius Marathus informs us, that a few months before his birth, there
happened at Rome a prodigy, by which was signified that Nature was in
travail 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 to
themselves a chance of that dignity, took care that the decree of the
senate should not be registered in the treasury.

I find in the theological books of Asclepiades the Mendesian [248], that
Atia, upon attending at midnight a religious solemnity in honour of
Apollo, when the rest of the matrons retired home, fell asleep on her
couch in the temple, and that a serpent immediately crept to her, and
soon after withdrew.  She awaking upon it, purified herself, as usual
after the embraces of her husband; and instantly there appeared upon her
body 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 decline
the use of the public baths.  Augustus, it was added, was born in the
tenth month after, and for that reason was thought to be the son of
Apollo.  The (139) same Atia, before her delivery, dreamed that her
bowels stretched to the stars, and expanded through the whole circuit of
heaven and earth.  His father Octavius, likewise, dreamt that a sun-beam
issued from his wife's womb.

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

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

Quintus Catulus had a dream, for two nights successively after his
dedication of the Capitol.  The first night he dreamt (140) that Jupiter,
out of several boys of the order of the nobility who were playing about
his altar, selected one, into whose bosom he put the public seal of the
commonwealth, which he held in his hand; but in his vision the next
night, he saw in the bosom of Jupiter Capitolinus, the same boy; whom he
ordered to be removed, but it was forbidden by the God, who declared that
it 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 least
acquaintance, and looking at him with admiration, he said he was
extremely like the boy he had seen in his dream.  Some give a different
account of Catulus's first dream, namely, that Jupiter, upon several
noble lads requesting of him that they might have a guardian, had pointed
to one amongst them, to whom they were to prefer their requests; and
putting his fingers to the boy's mouth to kiss, he afterwards applied
them to his own.

Marcus Cicero, as he was attending Caius Caesar to the Capitol, happened
to be telling some of his friends a dream which he had the preceding
night, in which he saw a comely youth, let down from heaven by a golden
chain, who stood at the door of the Capitol, and had a whip put into his
hands by Jupiter.  And immediately upon sight of Augustus, who had been
sent for by his uncle Caesar to the sacrifice, and was as yet perfectly
unknown to most of the company, he affirmed that it was the very boy he
had seen in his dream.  When he assumed the manly toga, his senatorian
tunic becoming loose in the seam on each side, fell at his feet.  Some
would have this to forbode, that the order, of which that was the badge
of distinction, would some time or other be subject to him.

Julius Caesar, in cutting down a wood to make room for his camp near
Munda [250], happened to light upon a palm-tree, and ordered it to be
preserved as an omen of victory.  From the root of this tree there put
out immediately a sucker, which, in a few days, grew to such a height as
not only to equal, but overshadow it, and afford room for many nests of
wild pigeons which built in it, though that species of bird particularly
avoids a hard and rough leaf.  It is likewise reported, that Caesar was
chiefly influenced by this prodigy, to prefer his sister's grandson
before all others for his successor.

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

XCV.  After the death of Caesar, upon his return from Apollonia, as he
was entering the city, on a sudden, in a clear and bright sky, a circle
resembling the rainbow surrounded the body of the sun; and, immediately
afterwards, the tomb of Julia, Caesar's daughter, was struck by
lightning.  In his first consulship, whilst he was observing the
auguries, twelve vultures presented themselves, as they had done to
Romulus.  And when he offered sacrifice, the livers of all the victims
were folded inward in the lower part; a circumstance which was regarded
by those present, who had skill in things of that nature, as an
indubitable 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 thence
inferred that discord would arise between the three colleagues, which
would be attended with the like event: and it accordingly happened.  At
Philippi, he was assured of success by a Thessalian, upon the authority,
as he pretended, of the Divine Caesar himself, who had appeared to him
while he was travelling in a bye-road.  At Perugia, the sacrifice not
presenting any favourable intimations, but the contrary, he ordered fresh
victims; the enemy, however, carrying off the sacred things in a sudden
sally, it was agreed amongst the augurs, that all the (142) dangers and
misfortunes which had threatened the sacrificer, would fall upon the
heads of those who had got possession of the entrails.  And, accordingly,
so it happened.  The day before the sea-fight near Sicily, as he was
walking upon the shore, a fish leaped out of the sea, and laid itself at
his feet.  At Actium, while he was going down to his fleet to engage the
enemy, he was met by an ass with a fellow driving it.  The name of the
man was Eutychus, and that of the animal, Nichon [251].  After the
victory, he erected a brazen statue to each, in a temple built upon the
spot where he had encamped.

XCVII.  His death, of which I shall now speak, and his subsequent
deification, were intimated by divers manifest prodigies.  As he was
finishing the census amidst a great crowd of people in the Campus
Martius, an eagle hovered round him several times, and then directed its
course to a neighbouring temple, where it settled upon the name of
Agrippa, and at the first letter.  Upon observing this, he ordered his
colleague Tiberius to put up the vows, which it is usual to make on such
occasions, for the succeeding Lustrum.  For he declared he would not
meddle with what it was probable he should never accomplish, though the
tables were ready drawn for it.  About the same time, the first letter of
his name, in an inscription upon one of his statues, was struck out by
lightning; which was interpreted as a presage that he would live only a
hundred days longer, the letter C denoting that number; and that he would
be placed amongst the Gods, as Aesar, which is the remaining part of the
word Caesar, signifies, in the Tuscan language, a God [252].  Being,
therefore, about dispatching Tiberius to Illyricum, and designing to go
with him as far as Beneventum, but being detained by several persons who
applied to him respecting causes they had depending, he cried out, (and
it was afterwards regarded as an omen of his death), "Not all the
business in the world, shall detain me at home one moment longer;" and
setting 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 there
was a favourable wind.

XCVIII.  His malady proceeded from diarrhoea; notwithstanding which, he
went round the coast of Campania, and the adjacent islands, and spent
four days in that of Capri; where he gave himself up entirely to repose
and relaxation.  Happening to sail by the bay of Puteoli, the passengers
and mariners aboard a ship of Alexandria [254], just then arrived, clad
all in white, with chaplets upon their heads, and offering incense,
loaded him with praises and joyful acclamations, crying out, "By you we
live, by you we sail securely, by you enjoy our liberty and our
fortunes."  At which being greatly pleased, he distributed to each of
those who attended him, forty gold pieces, requiring from them an
assurance on oath, not to employ the sum given them in any other way,
than the purchase of Alexandrian merchandize.  And during several days
afterwards, he distributed Togae [255] and Pallia, among other gifts, on
condition that the Romans should use the Greek, and the Greeks the Roman
dress and language.  He likewise constantly attended to see the boys
perform their exercises, according to an ancient custom still continued
at Capri.  He gave them likewise an entertainment in his presence, and
not only permitted, but required from them the utmost freedom in jesting,
and scrambling for fruit, victuals, and other things which he threw
amongst them.  In a word, he indulged himself in all the ways of
amusement he could contrive.

He called an island near Capri, Apragopolis, "The City of the
Do-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 room
a great company of people with torches, assembled at the tomb of this
Masgabas, 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 the
other 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 hesitating
to 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 latter
replying, that, whoever might be the author, they were excellent verses
[257], he set up a great laugh, and fell into an extraordinary vein of
jesting upon it.  Soon afterwards, passing over to Naples, although at
that time greatly disordered in his bowels by the frequent returns of his
disease, he sat out the exhibition of the gymnastic games which were
performed in his honour every five years, and proceeded with Tiberius to
the place intended.  But on his return, his disorder increasing, he
stopped at Nola, sent for Tiberius back again, and had a long discourse
with him in private; after which, he gave no further attention to
business of any importance.

XCIX.  Upon the day of his death, he now and then enquired, if there was
any disturbance in the town on his account; and calling for a mirror, he
ordered his hair to be combed, and his shrunk cheeks to be adjusted.
Then asking his friends who were admitted into the room, "Do ye think
that I have acted my part on the stage of life well?"  he immediately
subjoined,

    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 of
some persons who were just arrived from Rome, concerning Drusus's
daughter, who was in a bad state of health, he expired suddenly, amidst
the kisses of Livia, and with these words: "Livia! live mindful of our
union; and now, farewell!" dying a very easy death, and such as he
himself had always wished for.  For as often as he heard that any person
had died quickly and without pain, he wished for himself and his friends
the like euthanasian (an easy death), for that was the word he made use
of.  He betrayed but one symptom, before he breathed his last, of being
delirious, which was this: he was all on a sudden much frightened, and
complained that he was carried away by forty men.  But this was rather a
presage, than any delirium: for precisely that number of soldiers
belonging 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 the
fourteenth of the calends of September [the 19th August], at the ninth
hour of the day, being seventy-six years of age, wanting only thirty-five
days [258].  His remains were carried by the magistrates of the municipal
[259] towns and colonies, from Nola to Bovillae [260], and in the
nighttime, because of the season of the year.  During the intervals, the
body lay in some basilica, or great temple, of each town.  At Bovillae it
was met by the Equestrian Order, who carried it to the city, and
deposited it in the vestibule of his own house.  The senate proceeded
with so much zeal in the arrangement of his funeral, and paying honour to
his memory, that, amongst several other proposals, some were for having
the funeral procession made through the triumphal gate, preceded by the
image of Victory which is in the senate-house, and the children of
highest rank and of both sexes singing the funeral (146) dirge.  Others
proposed, that on the day of the funeral, they should lay aside their
gold rings, and wear rings of iron; and others, that his bones should be
collected by the priests of the principal colleges.  One likewise
proposed to transfer the name of August to September, because he was born
in the latter, but died in the former.  Another moved, that the whole
period of time, from his birth to his death, should be called the
Augustan age, and be inserted in the calendar under that title.  But at
last it was judged proper to be moderate in the honours paid to his
memory.  Two funeral orations were pronounced in his praise, one before
the temple of Julius, by Tiberius; and the other before the rostra, under
the old shops, by Drusus, Tiberius's son.  The body was then carried upon
the shoulders of senators into the Campus Martius, and there burnt.  A
man of pretorian rank affirmed upon oath, that he saw his spirit ascend
from the funeral pile to heaven.  The most distinguished persons of the
equestrian order, bare-footed, and with their tunics loose, gathered up
his relics [261], and deposited them in the mausoleum, which had been
built in his sixth consulship between the Flaminian Way and the bank of
the Tiber [262]; at which time likewise he gave the groves and walks
about it for the use of the people.

CI.  He had made a will a year and four months before his death, upon the
third of the nones of April [the 11th of April], in the consulship of
Lucius Plancus, and Caius Silius.  It consisted of two skins of
parchment, written partly in his own hand, and partly by his freedmen
Polybius and Hilarian; and had been committed to the custody of the
Vestal Virgins, by whom it was now produced, with three codicils under
seal, 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 his
estate, and Livia for the other third, both of whom he desired to assume
his name.  The heirs in remainder were Drusus, Tiberius's son, for one
third, and Germanicus with his three sons for the residue.  In the third
place, failing them, were his relations, and several of his friends.  He
left in legacies to the Roman people forty millions of sesterces; to the
tribes [263] three millions five hundred thousand; to the pretorian
troops a thousand each man; to the city cohorts five hundred; and to the
legions and soldiers three hundred each; which several sums he ordered to
be paid immediately after his death, having taken due care that the money
should be ready in his exchequer.  For the rest he ordered different
times of payment.  In some of his bequests he went as far as twenty
thousand sesterces, for the payment of which he allowed a twelvemonth;
alleging for this procrastination the scantiness of his estate; and
declaring that not more than a hundred and fifty millions of sesterces
would come to his heirs: notwithstanding that during the twenty preceding
years, he had received, in legacies from his friends, the sum of fourteen
hundred millions; almost the whole of which, with his two paternal
estates [264], and others which had been left him, he had spent in the
service of the state.  He left orders that the two Julias, his daughter
and grand-daughter, if anything happened to them, should not be buried in
his tomb [265].  With regard to the three codicils before-mentioned, in
one of them he gave orders about his funeral; another contained a summary
of his acts, which he intended should be inscribed on brazen plates, and
placed in front of his mausoleum; in the third he had drawn up a concise
account of the state of the empire; the number of troops enrolled, what
money there was in the treasury, the revenue, and arrears of taxes; to
which were added the names of the freedmen and slaves from whom the
several accounts might be taken.

     *     *     *     *     *     *

(148) OCTAVIUS CAESAR, afterwards Augustus, had now attained to the same
position in the state which had formerly been occupied by Julius Caesar;
and though he entered upon it by violence, he continued to enjoy it
through life with almost uninterrupted tranquillity.  By the long
duration of the late civil war, with its concomitant train of public
calamities, the minds of men were become less averse to the prospect of
an absolute government; at the same time that the new emperor, naturally
prudent and politic, had learned from the fate of Julius the art of
preserving supreme power, without arrogating to himself any invidious
mark of distinction.  He affected to decline public honours, disclaimed
every idea of personal superiority, and in all his behaviour displayed a
degree of moderation which prognosticated the most happy effects, in
restoring peace and prosperity to the harassed empire.  The tenor of his
future conduct was suitable to this auspicious commencement.  While he
endeavoured to conciliate the affections of the people by lending money
to 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 were
remarkably fond; he was attentive to the preservation of a becoming
dignity 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 of
improper persons, he reduced to six hundred; and being invested with
the ancient office of censor, which had for some time been disused, he
exercised an arbitrary but legal authority over the conduct of every rank
in the state; by which he could degrade senators and knights, and inflict
upon all citizens an ignominious sentence for any immoral or indecent
behaviour.  But nothing contributed more to render the new form of
government acceptable to the people, than the frequent distribution of
corn, and sometimes largesses, amongst the commonalty: for an occasional
scarcity of provisions had always been the chief cause of discontents
and tumults in the capital.  To the interests of the army he likewise
paid particular attention.  It was by the assistance of the legions that
he 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 to
preserve it.

History relates, that after the overthrow of Antony, Augustus held a
consultation with Agrippa and Mecaenas about restoring the republican
form of government; when Agrippa gave his opinion in favour of that
measure, and Mecaenas opposed it.  (149) The object of this consultation,
in respect to its future consequences on society, is perhaps the most
important ever agitated in any cabinet, and required, for the mature
discussion of it, the whole collective wisdom of the ablest men in the
empire.  But this was a resource which could scarcely be adopted, either
with security to the public quiet, or with unbiassed judgment in the
determination of the question.  The bare agitation of such a point would
have excited immediate and strong anxiety for its final result; while the
friends of a republican government, who were still far more numerous than
those of the other party, would have strained every nerve to procure a
determination in their own favour; and the pretorian guards, the surest
protection of Augustus, finding their situation rendered precarious by
such an unexpected occurrence, would have readily listened to the secret
propositions and intrigues of the republicans for securing their
acquiescence to the decision on the popular side.  If, when the subject
came into debate, Augustus should be sincere in the declaration to abide
by the resolution of the council, it is beyond all doubt, that the
restoration of a republican government would have been voted by a great
majority of the assembly.  If, on the contrary, he should not be sincere,
which is the more probable supposition, and should incur the suspicion of
practising secretly with members for a decision according to his wish, he
would have rendered himself obnoxious to the public odium, and given rise
to discontents which might have endangered his future security.

But to submit this important question to the free and unbiassed decision
of a numerous assembly, it is probable, neither suited the inclination of
Augustus, nor perhaps, in his opinion, consisted with his personal
safety.  With a view to the attainment of unconstitutional power, he had
formerly deserted the cause of the republic when its affairs were in a
prosperous situation; and now, when his end was accomplished, there could
be little ground to expect, that he should voluntarily relinquish the
prize for which he had spilt the best blood of Rome, and contended for so
many years.  Ever since the final defeat of Antony in the battle of
Actium, he had governed the Roman state with uncontrolled authority; and
though there is in the nature of unlimited power an intoxicating quality,
injurious both to public and private virtue, yet all history contradicts
the supposition of its being endued with any which is unpalatable to the
general taste of mankind.

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

Augustus, as has been already observed, had formerly sided with the party
which had attempted to restore public liberty after the death of Julius
Caesar: but he afterwards abandoned the popular cause, and joined in the
ambitious plans of Antony and Lepidus to usurp amongst themselves the
entire dominion of the state.  By this change of conduct, he turned his
arms against the supporters of a form of government which he had
virtually recognized as the legal constitution of Rome; and it involved a
direct implication of treason against the sacred representatives of that
government, the consuls, formally and duly elected.  Upon such a charge
he might be amenable to the capital laws of his country.  This, however,
was a danger which might be fully obviated, by procuring from the senate
and people an act of oblivion, previously to his abdication of the
supreme power; and this was a preliminary which doubtless they would have
admitted and ratified with unanimous approbation.  It therefore appears
that he could be exposed to no inevitable danger on this account: but
there was another quarter where his person was vulnerable, and where even
the laws might not be sufficient to protect him against the efforts of
private resentment.  The bloody proscription of the Triumvirate no act of
amnesty could ever erase from the minds of those who had been deprived by
it of their nearest and dearest relations; and amidst the numerous
connections of the illustrious men sacrificed on that horrible occasion,
there might arise some desperate avenger, whose indelible resentment
nothing less would satisfy than the blood of the surviving delinquent.
Though Augustus, therefore, might not, like his great predecessor, be
stabbed in the senate-house, he might perish by the sword or the poniard
in a less conspicuous situation.  After all, there seems to have been
little danger from this quarter likewise for Sylla, who in the preceding
age had been guilty of equal enormities, was permitted, on relinquishing
the place of perpetual dictator, to end his days in quiet retirement; and
the undisturbed security which Augustus ever afterwards enjoyed, affords
sufficient proof, that all apprehension of danger to his person was
merely chimerical.

(151) We have hitherto considered this grand consultation as it might be
influenced by the passions or prejudices of the emperor: we shall now
take a short view of the subject in the light in which it is connected
with considerations of a political nature, and with public utility.  The
arguments handed down by history respecting this consultation are few,
and imperfectly delivered; but they may be extended upon the general
principles 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 Julius
Caesar, through a period of upwards of four hundred and sixty years, the
Roman state, with the exception only of a short interval, had flourished
and increased with a degree of prosperity unexampled in the annals of
humankind: that the republican form of government was not only best
adapted to the improvement of national grandeur, but to the security of
general freedom, the great object of all political association: that
public virtue, by which alone nations could subsist in vigour, was
cherished and protected by no mode of administration so much as by that
which connected, in the strongest bonds of union, the private interests
of individuals with those of the community: that the habits and
prejudices of the Roman people were unalterably attached to the form of
government established by so long a prescription, and they would never
submit, for any length of time, to the rule of one person, without making
every possible effort to recover their liberty: that though despotism,
under a mild and wise prince, might in some respects be regarded as
preferable to a constitution which was occasionally exposed to the
inconvenience of faction and popular tumults, yet it was a dangerous
experiment to abandon the government of the nation to the contingency of
such a variety of characters as usually occurs in the succession of
princes; and, upon the whole, that the interests of the people were more
safely entrusted in the hands of annual magistrates elected by
themselves, 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 had
subsisted long and gloriously under a republican form of government, yet
she had often experienced such violent shocks from popular tumults or the
factions of the great, as had threatened her with imminent destruction:
that a republican government was only accommodated to a people amongst
whom the division of property gave to no class of citizens such a degree
of pre-eminence as might prove dangerous to public freedom: that there
was required in that form of political constitution, a simplicity (152)
of life and strictness of manners which are never observed to accompany a
high degree of public prosperity: that in respect of all these
considerations, such a form of government was utterly incompatible with
the present circumstances of the Romans that by the conquest of so many
foreign nations, by the lucrative governments of provinces, the spoils of
the enemy in war, and the rapine too often practised in time of peace, so
great had been the aggrandizement of particular families in the preceding
age, that though the form of the ancient constitution should still remain
inviolate, the people would no longer live under a free republic, but an
aristocratical usurpation, which was always productive of tyranny: that
nothing could preserve the commonwealth from becoming a prey to some
daring confederacy, but the firm and vigorous administration of one
person, invested with the whole executive power of the state, unlimited
and uncontrolled: in fine, that as Rome had been nursed to maturity by
the government of six princes successively, so it was only by a similar
form of political constitution that she could now be saved from
aristocratical tyranny on one hand, or, on the other, from absolute
anarchy.

On whichever side of the question the force of argument may be thought to
preponderate, there is reason to believe that Augustus was guided in his
resolution more by inclination and prejudice than by reason.  It is
related, however, that hesitating between the opposite opinions of his
two counsellors, he had recourse to that of Virgil, who joined with
Mecaenas in advising him to retain the imperial power, as being the form
of government most suitable to the circumstances of the times.

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

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

C. Cilnius Mecaenas was of Tuscan extraction, and derived his descent
from the ancient kings of that country.  Though in the highest degree of
favour with Augustus, he never aspired beyond the rank of the equestrian
order; and though he might have held the government of extensive
provinces by deputies, he was content with enjoying the praefecture of
the city and Italy; a situation, however, which must have been attended
with extensive patronage.  He was of a gay and social disposition.  In
principle he is said to have been of the Epicurean sect, and in his dress
and manners to have bordered on effeminacy.  With respect to his
political talents, we can only speak from conjecture; but from his being
the confidential minister of a prince of so much discernment as Augustus,
during the infancy of a new form of government in an extensive empire, we
may presume that he was endowed with no common abilities for that
important station.  The liberal patronage which he displayed towards men
of genius and talents, will render his name for ever celebrated in the
annals of learning.  It is to be regretted that history has transmitted
no particulars of this extraordinary personage, of whom all we know is
derived chiefly from the writings of Virgil and Horace; but from the
manner in which they address him, amidst the familiarity of their
intercourse, there is the strongest reason to suppose, that he was not
less amiable and respectable in private life, than illustrious in public
situation.  "O my glory!" is the emphatic expression employed by them
both.

(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 and
application of the word decus, amongst the Romans, with which we are
unacquainted, and that, in the passages now adduced, it was understood to
refer to the honour of the emperor's patronage, obtained through the
means of Mecaenas; otherwise, such language to the minister might have
excited the jealousy of Augustus.  But whatever foundation there may be
for this conjecture, the compliment was compensated by the superior
adulation which the poets appropriated to the emperor, whose deification
is 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 that
time, appears to have had a farther object than the mere gratification of
vanity.  It was the ambition of this emperor to reign in the hearts as
well as over the persons of his subjects; and with this view he was
desirous of endearing himself to their imagination.  Both he and Mecaenas
had a delicate sensibility to the beauties of poetical composition; and
judging from their own feelings, they attached a high degree of influence
to the charms of poetry.  Impressed with these sentiments, it became an
object of importance, in their opinion, to engage the Muses in the
service of the imperial authority; on which account, we find Mecaenas
tampering with Propertius, and we may presume, likewise with every other
rising genius in poetry, to undertake an heroic poem, of which Augustus
should be the hero.  As the application to Propertius cannot have taken
place until after Augustus had been amply celebrated by the superior
abilities of Virgil and Horace, there seems to be some reason for
ascribing Mecaenas's request to a political motive.  Caius and Lucius,
the emperor's grandsons by his daughter Julia, were still living, and
both young.  As one of them, doubtless, was intended to succeed to the
government of the empire, prudence justified the adoption of every
expedient that might tend to secure a quiet succession to the heir, upon
the demise of Augustus.  As a subsidiary resource, therefore, the
expedient above mentioned was judged highly plausible; and the Roman
cabinet indulged the idea of endeavouring to confirm imperial authority
by the support of poetical renown.  Lampoons against the government were
not uncommon even in the time of Augustus; and elegant panegyric on the
emperor served to counteract their influence upon the minds of the
people.  The idea was, perhaps, novel in the time of Augustus; but the
history of later ages affords examples of its having been adopted, under
different forms of government, with success.

The Roman empire, in the time of Augustus, had attained to a prodigious
magnitude; and, in his testament, he recommended to his successors never
to exceed the limits which he had prescribed to its extent.  On the East
it 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 Atlantic
Ocean; and on the North to the Danube and the Rhine; including the best
part of the then known world.  The Romans, therefore, were not improperly
called rerum domini [266], and Rome, pulcherrima rerum [267], maxima
rerum [268].  Even the historians, Livy and Tacitus, (156) actuated
likewise with admiration, bestow magnificent epithets on the capital of
their country.  The succeeding emperors, in conformity to the advice of
Augustus, made few additions to the empire.  Trajan, however, subdued
Mesopotamia and Armenia, east of the Euphrates, with Dacia, north of the
Danube; and after this period the Roman dominion was extended over
Britain, as far as the Frith of Forth and the Clyde.

It would be an object of curiosity to ascertain the amount of the Roman
revenue in the reign of Augustus; but such a problem, even with respect
to contemporary nations, cannot be elucidated without access to the
public registers of their governments; and in regard to an ancient
monarchy, the investigation is impracticable.  We can only be assured
that the revenue must have been immense, which arose from the accumulated
contribution of such a number of nations, that had supported their own
civil establishments with great splendour, and many of which were
celebrated for their extraordinary riches and commerce.  The tribute paid
by the Romans themselves, towards the support of the government, was very
considerable during the latter ages of the republic, and it received an
increase after the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa.  The establishments,
both civil and military, in the different provinces, were supported at
their own expense; the emperor required but a small naval force, an arm
which adds much to the public expenditure of maritime nations in modern
times; and the state was burdened with no diplomatic charges.  The vast
treasure accruing from the various taxes centered in Rome, and the whole
was at the disposal of the emperor, without any control.  We may
therefore justly conclude that, in the amount of taxes, customs, and
every kind of financial resources, Augustus exceeded all sovereigns who
had hitherto ever swayed the sceptre of imperial dominion; a noble
acquisition, had it been judiciously employed by his successors, in
promoting public happiness, with half the profusion in which it was
lavished in disgracing human nature, and violating the rights of mankind.

The reign of Augustus is distinguished by the most extraordinary event
recorded in history, either sacred or profane, the nativity of the
Saviour of mankind; which has since introduced a new epoch into the
chronology of all Christian nations.  The commencement of the new aera
being the most flourishing period of the Roman empire, a general view of
the state of knowledge and taste at this period, may here not be
improper.

Civilization was at this time extended farther over the world than it had
ever been in any preceding period; but polytheism rather increased than
diminished with the advancement of commercial (157) intercourse between
the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa; and, though philosophy had been
cultivated during several ages, at Athens, Cyrene, Rome, and other seats
of learning, yet the morals of mankind were little improved by the
diffusion of speculative knowledge.  Socrates had laid an admirable
foundation for the improvement of human nature, by the exertion of reason
through the whole economy of life; but succeeding inquirers, forsaking
the true path of ethic investigation, deviated into specious discussions,
rather ingenious than useful; and some of them, by gratuitously adopting
principles, which, so far from being supported by reason, were repugnant
to its dictates, endeavoured to erect upon the basis of their respective
doctrines a system peculiar to themselves.  The doctrines of the Stoics
and Epicureans were, in fact, pernicious to society; and those of the
different academies, though more intimately connected with reason than
the two former, were of a nature too abstract to have any immediate or
useful influence on life and manners.  General discussions of truth and
probability, with magnificent declamations on the to kalon, and the
summum bonum, constituted the chief objects of attention amongst those
who 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 unalterable
dictates of virtue; but it was easier to demonstrate the truth of the
principles which he maintained, than to enforce their observance, while
the morals of mankind were little actuated by the exercise of reason
alone.

The science chiefly cultivated at this period was rhetoric, which appears
to have differed considerably from what now passes under the same name.
The object of it was not so much justness of sentiment and propriety of
expression, as the art of declaiming, or speaking copiously upon any
subject.  It is mentioned by Varro as the reverse of logic; and they are
distinguished from each other by a simile, that the former resembles the
palm of the hand expanded, and the latter, contracted into the fist.  It
is observable that logic, though a part of education in modern times,
seems not to have been cultivated amongst the Romans.  Perhaps they were
apprehensive, 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 is
reason to believe, from a passage in Virgil [269], that it was little
cultivated by the Romans; and it is certain, that in the reformation of
the calendar, Julius Caesar was chiefly indebted to the scientific
knowledge of (158) Sosigenes, a mathematician of Alexandria.  The laws of
the solar system were still but imperfectly known; the popular belief,
that the sun moved round the earth, was universally maintained, and
continued until the sixteenth century, when the contrary was proved by
Copernicus.  There existed many celebrated tracts on mathematics; and
several of the mechanical powers, particularly that of the lever, were
cultivated with success.  The more necessary and useful rules of
arithmetic were generally known.  The use of the load-stone not being as
yet discovered, navigation was conducted in the day-time by the sun, and
in the night, by the observation of certain stars.  Geography was
cultivated during the present period by Strabo and Mela.  In natural
philosophy little progress was made; but a strong desire of its
improvement was entertained, particularly by Virgil.  Human anatomy being
not yet introduced, physiology was imperfect.  Chemistry, as a science,
was utterly unknown.  In medicine, the writings of Hippocrates, and other
Greek physicians, were in general the standard of practice; but the
Materia Medica contained few remedies of approved quality, and abounded
with useless substances, as well as with many which stood upon no other
foundation than the whimsical notions of those who first introduced them.
Architecture flourished, through the elegant taste of Vitruvius, and the
patronage of the emperor.  Painting, statuary, and music, were
cultivated, but not with that degree of perfection which they had
obtained in the Grecian states.  The musical instruments of this period
were the flute and the lyre, to which may be added the sistrum, lately
imported from Egypt.  But the chief glory of the period is its
literature, of which we proceed to give some account.

At the head of the writers of this age, stands the emperor himself, with
his minister Mecaenas; but the works of both have almost totally
perished.  It appears from the historian now translated, that Augustus
was the author of several productions in prose, besides some in verse.
He wrote Answers to Brutus in relation to Cato, Exhortations to
Philosophy, and the History of his own Life, which he continued, in
thirteen books, down to the war of Cantabria.  A book of his, written in
hexameter verse, under the title of Sicily, was extant in the time of
Suetonius, as was likewise a book of Epigrams.  He began a tragedy on the
subject of Ajax, but, being dissatisfied with the composition, destroyed
it.  Whatever the merits of Augustus may have been as an author, of which
no judgment can be formed, his attachment to learning and eminent writers
affords a strong presumption that he was not destitute of taste.
Mecaenas is said to have written two tragedies, Octavia and Prometheus; a
History of (159) Animals; a Treatise on Precious Stones; a Journal of the
Life of Augustus; and other productions.  Curiosity is strongly
interested to discover the literary talents of a man so much
distinguished for the esteem and patronage of them in others; but while
we regret the impossibility of such a development, we scarcely can
suppose the proficiency to have been small, where the love and admiration
were so great.

History was cultivated amongst the Romans during the present period, with
uncommon success.  This species of composition is calculated both for
information and entertainment; but the chief design of it is to record
all transactions relative to the public, for the purpose of enabling
mankind to draw from past events a probable conjecture concerning the
future; and, by knowing the steps which have led either to prosperity or
misfortune, to ascertain the best means of promoting the former, and
avoiding the latter of those objects.  This useful kind of narrative was
introduced about five hundred years before by Herodotus, who has thence
received the appellation of the Father of History.  His style, in
conformity to the habits of thinking, and the simplicity of language, in
an uncultivated age, is plain and unadorned; yet, by the happy modulation
of the Ionic dialect, it gratified the ear, and afforded to the states of
Greece a pleasing mixture of entertainment, enriched not only with
various information, often indeed fabulous or unauthentic, but with the
rudiments, indirectly interspersed, of political wisdom.  This writer,
after a long interval, was succeeded by Thucydides and Xenophon, the
former of whom carried historical narrative to the highest degree of
improvement it ever attained among the States of Greece.  The plan of
Thucydides seems to have continued to be the model of historical
narrative to the writers of Rome; but the circumstances of the times,
aided perhaps by the splendid exertion of genius in other departments of
literature, suggested a new resource, which promised not only to animate,
but embellish the future productions of the historic Muse.  This
innovation consisted in an attempt to penetrate the human heart, and
explore in its innermost recesses the sentiments and secret motives which
actuate the conduct of men.  By connecting moral effects with their
probable internal and external causes, it tended to establish a
systematic consistency in the concatenation of transactions apparently
anomalous, accidental, or totally independent of each other.

The author of this improvement in history was SALLUST, who likewise
introduced the method of enlivening narrative with the occasional aid of
rhetorical declamation, particularly in his account of the Catilinian
conspiracy.  The notorious (160) characters and motives of the principal
persons concerned in that horrible plot, afforded the most favourable
opportunity for exemplifying the former; while the latter, there is
reason to infer from the facts which must have been at that time publicly
known, were founded upon documents of unquestionable authority.  Nay, it
is probable that Sallust was present in the senate during the debate
respecting the punishment of the Catilinian conspirators; his detail of
which is agreeable to the characters of the several speakers: but in
detracting, by invidious silence, or too faint representation, from the
merits of Cicero on that important occasion, he exhibits a glaring
instance of the partiality which too often debases the narratives of
those who record the transactions of their own time.  He had married
Terentia, the divorced wife of Cicero; and there subsisted between the
two husbands a kind of rivalship from that cause, to which was probably
added some degree of animosity, on account of their difference in
politics, during the late dictatorship of Julius Caesar, by whom Sallust
was restored to the senate, whence he had been expelled for
licentiousness, and was appointed governor of Numidia.  Excepting the
injustice with which Sallust treats Cicero, he is entitled to high
commendation.  In both his remaining works, the Conspiracy of Catiline,
and the War of Jugurtha, there is a peculiar air of philosophical
sentiment, which, joined to the elegant conciseness of style, and
animated description of characters, gives to his writings a degree of
interest, superior to that which is excited in any preceding work of the
historical kind.  In the occasional use of obsolete words, and in
laboured exordiums to both his histories, he is liable to the charge of
affectation; but it is an affectation of language which supports
solemnity without exciting disgust; and of sentiment which not only
exalts human nature, but animates to virtuous exertions.  It seems to be
the desire of Sallust to atone for the dissipation of his youth by a
total change of conduct; and whoever peruses his exordiums with the
attention which they deserve, must feel a strong persuasion of the
justness of his remarks, if not the incentives of a resolution to be
governed by his example.  It seems to be certain, that from the first
moment of his reformation, he incessantly practised the industry which he
so warmly recommends.  He composed a History of Rome, of which nothing
remains but a few fragments.  Sallust, during his administration of
Numidia, is said to have exercised great oppression.  On his return to
Rome he built a magnificent house, and bought delightful gardens, the
name of which, with his own, is to this day perpetuated on the spot which
they formerly occupied.  Sallust was born at Amiternum, in the country of
the Sabines, and (161) received his education at Rome.  He incurred great
scandal by an amour with Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, and wife of Milo;
who detecting the criminal intercourse, is said to have beat him with
stripes, and extorted from him a large sum of money.  He died, according
to tradition, in the fifty-first year of his age.

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

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

Of his numerous biographical works, twenty-two lives only remain, which
are all of Greeks, except two Carthaginians, Hamilcar and Hannibal; and
two Romans, M. Porcius Cato and T. Pomponius Atticus.  Of his own
life,--of him who had written the lives of so many, no account is
transmitted; but from the multiplicity of his productions, we may
conclude that it was devoted to literature.

TITUS LIVIUS may be ranked among the most celebrated historians the world
has ever produced.  He composed a history of Rome from the foundation of
the city, to the conclusion of the German war conducted by Drusus in the
time of the emperor Augustus.  This great work consisted, originally, of
one hundred and forty books; of which there now remain only thirty-five,
viz., the first decade, and the whole from book twenty-one to book
forty-five, both inclusive.  Of the other hundred and five books, nothing
more has survived the ravages of time and barbarians than their general
contents.  In a perspicuous arrangement of his subject, in a full and
circumstantial account of transactions, in the delineation of characters
and other objects of description, to justness and aptitude of sentiment,
and in an air of majesty (162) pervading the whole composition, this
author may be regarded as one of the best models extant of historical
narrative.  His style is splendid without meretricious ornament, and
copious without being redundant; a fluency to which Quintilian gives the
expressive appellation of "lactea ubertas."  Amongst the beauties which
we admire in his writings, besides the animated speeches frequently
interspersed, are those concise and peculiarly applicable eulogiums, with
which he characterises every eminent person mentioned, at the close of
their life.  Of his industry in collating, and his judgment in deciding
upon the preference due to, dissentient authorities, in matters of
testimony, the work affords numberless proofs.  Of the freedom and
impartiality with which he treated even of the recent periods of history,
there cannot be more convincing evidence, than that he was rallied by
Augustus as a favourer of Pompey; and that, under the same emperor, he
not only bestowed upon Cicero the tribute of warm approbation, but dared
to ascribe, in an age when their names were obnoxious, even to Brutus and
Cassius the virtues of consistency and patriotism.  If in any thing the
conduct of Livy violates our sentiments of historical dignity, it is the
apparent complacency and reverence with which he every where mentions the
popular belief in omens and prodigies; but this was the general
superstition of the times; and totally to renounce the prejudices of
superstitious education, is the last heroic sacrifice to philosophical
scepticism.  In general, however, the credulity of Livy appears to be
rather affected than real; and his account of the exit of Romulus, in the
following passage, may be adduced as an instance in confirmation of this
remark.

"His immortalibus editis operibus, quum ad exercitum recensendum
concionem in campo ad Caprae paludem haberet, subita coorta tempestate
cum magno fragore tonitribusque tam denso regem operuit nimbo, ut
conspectum 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 satis
credebat Patribus, qui proximi steterant, sublimem raptum procella; tamen
veluti orbitatis metu icta, maestum aliquamdiu silentium obtinuit.
Deinde a paucis initio facto, Deum, Deo natum, regem parentemque urbis
Romanae, salvere universi Romulum jubent; pacem precibus exposcunt, uti
volens propitius suam semper sospitet progeniem.  Fuisse credo tum quoque
aliquos, qui discerptum regem Patrum manibus taciti arguerent; manavit
enim haec quoque, et perobscura, fama.  Illam alteram admiratio viri, et
pavor praesens nobilitavit.  Consilio etiam unius hominis addita rei
dicitur fides; namque Proculus Julius sollicita civitate desiderio (163)
regis, et infensa Patribus, gravis, ut traditur, quamvis magnae rei
auctor, in concionem prodit.  'Romulus, inquit, Quirites, parens urbis
hujus, prima hodierna luce coelo repente delapsus, se mihi obvium dedit;
quam profusus horrore venerabundusque astitissem, petens precibus, ut
contra intueri fas esset; Abi, nuncia, inquit, Romanis, Coelestes ita
velle, ut mea Roma caput orbis terrarum sit; proinde rem militarem
colant; sciantque, et ita posteris tradant, nullas opes humanas armis
Romanis resistere posse.'  Haec, inquit, locutus, sublimis abiit.  Mirum,
quantum illi viro nuncianti haec fidei fuerit; quamque desiderium Romuli
apud 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 Roman
king; and amidst all the solemnity with which it is related, we may
perceive that the historian was not the dupe of credulity.  There is more
implied than the author thought proper to avow, in the sentence, Fuisse
credo, etc.  In whatever light this anecdote be viewed, it is involved in
perplexity.  That Romulus affected a despotic power, is not only highly
probable, from his aspiring disposition, but seems to be confirmed by his
recent appointment of the Celeres, as a guard to his person.  He might,
therefore, naturally incur the odium of the patricians, whose importance
was diminished, and their institution rendered abortive, by the increase
of his power.  But that they should choose the opportunity of a military
review, for the purpose of removing the tyrant by a violent death, seems
not very consistent with the dictates even of common prudence; and it is
the more incredible, as the circumstance which favoured the execution of
the plot is represented to have been entirely a fortuitous occurrence.
The tempest which is said to have happened, is not easily reconcilable
with our knowledge of that phenomenon.  Such a cloud, or mist, as could
have enveloped Romulus from the eyes of the assembly, is not a natural
concomitant of a thunder-storm.  There is some reason to suspect that
both the noise and cloud, if they actually existed, were artificial; the
former intended to divert the attention of the spectators, and the latter
to conceal the transaction.  The word fragor, a noise or crash, appears
to be an unnecessary addition where thunder is expressed, though
sometimes so used by the poets, and may therefore, perhaps, imply such a
noise from some other cause.  If Romulus was killed by any pointed or
sharp-edged weapon, his blood might have been discovered on the spot; or,
if by other means, still the body was equally an object for public
observation.  If the people suspected the patricians to be guilty of
murder, why did they not endeavour to trace the fact by this evidence?
And if the patricians were really innocent, why did they not urge the
examination?  But the body, without doubt, was secreted, to favour the
imposture.  The whole narrative is strongly marked with circumstances
calculated to affect credulity with ideas of national importance; and, to
countenance the design, there is evidently a chasm in the Roman history
immediately preceding this transaction and intimately connected with it.

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

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

So great was the fame of Livy in his own life-time, that people came from
the extremity of Spain and Gaul, for the purpose only of beholding so
celebrated a historian, who was regarded, for his abilities, as a
prodigy.  This affords a strong proof, not only of the literary taste
which then prevailed over the most extensive of the Roman provinces, but
of the extraordinary pains with which so great a work must have been
propagated, when the art of printing was unknown.  In the fifteenth
century, on the revival of learning in Europe, the name of this great
writer recovered its ancient veneration; and Alphonso of Arragon, with a
superstition characteristic of that age, requested of the people of
Padua, where Livy was born, and is said to have been buried, to be
favoured by them with the hand which had written so admirable a work.--

The celebrity of VIRGIL has proved the means of ascertaining his birth
with more exactness than is common in the biographical memoirs of ancient
writers.  He was born at Andes, a village in the neighbourhood of Mantua,
on the 15th of October, seventy years before the Christian aera.  His
parents were of moderate condition; but by their industry acquired some
territorial possessions, which descended to their son.  The first seven
years of his life was spent at Cremona, whence he went to Mediolanum, now
Milan, at that time the seat of the liberal arts, denominated, as we
learn from Pliny the younger, Novae Athenae.  From this place he
afterwards moved to Naples, where he applied himself with great assiduity
to Greek and Roman literature, particularly to the physical and
mathematical sciences; for which he expressed a strong predilection in
the 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 and
Mantua were distributed amongst the veteran soldiers, Virgil had the good
fortune to recover his possessions, through the favour of Asinius Pollio,
the deputy of Augustus in those parts; to whom, as well as to the
emperor, he has testified his gratitude in beautiful eclogues.

The first production of Virgil was his Bucolics, consisting of ten
eclogues, written in imitation of the Idyllia or pastoral poems of
Theocritus.  It may be questioned whether any language which has its
provincial dialects, but is brought to perfection, can ever be well
adapted, in that state, to the use of pastoral poetry.  There is such an
apparent incongruity between the simple ideas of the rural swain and the
polished language of the courtier, that it seems impossible to reconcile
them together by the utmost art of composition.  The Doric dialect of
Theocritus, therefore, abstractedly from all consideration of simplicity
of sentiment, must ever give to the Sicilian bard a pre-eminence in this
species of poetry.  The greater part of the Bucolics of Virgil may be
regarded as poems of a peculiar nature, into which the author has happily
transfused, in elegant versification, the native manners and ideas,
without any mixture of the rusticity of pastoral life.  With respect to
the fourth eclogue, addressed to Pollio, it is avowedly of a nature
superior 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, whom
he highly esteemed, and for one of whose sons in particular, (167) with
Cornelius 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.  They
were held in so great esteem amongst the Romans, immediately after their
publication, that it is said they were frequently recited upon the stage
for the entertainment of the audience.  Cicero, upon hearing some lines
of them, perceived that they were written in no common strain of poetry,
and desired that the whole eclogue might be recited: which being done, he
exclaimed, "Magnae spes altera Romae."  Another hope of mighty Rome!
[273]

Virgil's next work was the Georgics, the idea of which is taken from the
Erga kai Hmerai, the Works and Days of Hesiod, the poet of Ascra.  But
between the productions of the two poets, there is no other similarity
than that of their common subject.  The precepts of Hesiod, in respect of
agriculture, are delivered with all the simplicity of an unlettered
cultivator of the fields, intermixed with plain moral reflections,
natural and apposite; while those of Virgil, equally precise and
important, are embellished with all the dignity of sublime versification.
The work is addressed to Mecaenas, at whose request it appears to have
been undertaken.  It is divided into four books.  The first treats of
ploughing; the second, of planting; the third, of cattle, horses, sheep,
goats, dogs, and of things which are hurtful to cattle; the fourth is
employed on bees, their proper habitations, food, polity, the diseases to
which they are liable, and the remedies of them, with the method of
making honey, and a variety of other considerations connected with the
subject.  The Georgics (168) were written at Naples, and employed the
author during a period of seven years.  It is said that Virgil had
concluded the Georgics with a laboured eulogium on his poetical friend
Gallus; but the latter incurring about this time the displeasure of
Augustus, he was induced to cancel it, and substitute the charming
episode of Astaeus and Eurydice.

These beautiful poems, considered merely as didactic, have the justest
claim to utility.  In what relates to agriculture in particular, the
precepts were judiciously adapted to the climate of Italy, and must have
conveyed much valuable information to those who were desirous of
cultivating that important art, which was held in great honour amongst
the Romans.  The same remark may be made, with greater latitude of
application, in respect of the other subjects.  But when we examine the
Georgics as poetical compositions, when we attend to the elevated style
in which they are written, the beauty of the similes, the emphatic
sentiments interspersed, the elegance of diction, the animated strain of
the whole, and the harmony of the versification, our admiration is
excited, at beholding subjects, so common in their nature, embellished
with the most magnificent decorations of poetry.

During four days which Augustus passed at Atella, to refresh himself from
fatigue, in his return to Rome, after the battle of Actium, the Georgics,
just then finished, were read to him by the author, who was occasionally
relieved in the task by his friend Mecaenas.  We may easily conceive the
satisfaction enjoyed by the emperor, at finding that while he himself had
been gathering laurels in the achievements of war, another glorious
wreath was prepared by the Muses to adorn his temples; and that an
intimation was given of his being afterwards celebrated in a work more
congenial to the subject of heroic renown.

It is generally supposed that the Aeneid was written at the particular
desire of Augustus, who was ambitious of having the Julian family
represented as lineal descendants of the Trojan Aeneas.  In this
celebrated poem, Virgil has happily united the characteristics of the
Iliad and Odyssey, and blended them so judiciously together, that they
mutually contribute to the general effect of the whole.  By the esteem
and sympathy excited for the filial piety and misfortunes of Aeneas at
the catastrophe of Troy, the reader is strongly interested in his
subsequent adventures; and every obstacle to the establishment of the
Trojans in the promised land of Hesperia produces fresh sensations of
increased admiration and attachment.  The episodes, characters, and
incidents, all concur to give beauty or grandeur to the poem.  The
picture of Troy in flames can never be sufficiently (169) admired!  The
incomparable portrait of Priam, in Homer, is admirably accommodated to a
different situation, in the character of Anchises, in the Aeneid.  The
prophetic rage of the Cumaean Sibyl displays in the strongest colours the
enthusiasm of the poet.  For sentiment, passion, and interesting
description, the episode of Dido is a master-piece in poetry.  But Virgil
is not more conspicuous for strength of description than propriety of
sentiment; and wherever he takes a hint from the Grecian bard, he
prosecutes the idea with a judgment peculiar to himself.  It may be
sufficient 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 his
mother would offer up prayers to the goddess Pallas, and vow to her a
noble sacrifice, if she would drive Diomede from the walls of Troy.
Immediately before his return to the field of battle, he has his last
interview with Andromache, whom he meets with his infant son Astyanax,
carried by a nurse.  There occurs, upon this occasion, one of the most
beautiful 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 his
father.  In the same manner, Aeneas, having armed himself for the
decisive combat with Turnus, addresses his son Ascanius in a beautiful
speech, which, while expressive of the strongest paternal affection,
contains, instead of a prayer, a noble and emphatic admonition, suitable
to a youth who had nearly attained the period of adult age.  It is as
follows:

    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 owed
much of his excellence to the wonderful merits of Homer.  His susceptible
imagination, vivid and correct, was (170) impregnated by the Odyssey, and
warmed with the fire of the Iliad.  Rivalling, or rather on some
occasions surpassing his glorious predecessor in the characters of heroes
and of gods, he sustains their dignity with so uniform a lustre, that
they seem indeed more than mortal.

Whether the Iliad or the Aeneid be the more perfect composition, is a
question which has often been agitated, but perhaps will never be
determined to general satisfaction.  In comparing the genius of the two
poets, however, allowance ought to be made for the difference of
circumstances under which they composed their respective works.  Homer
wrote in an age when mankind had not as yet made any great progress in
the exertion of either intellect or imagination, and he was therefore
indebted for big resources to the vast capacity of his own mind.  To this
we must add, that he composed both his poems in a situation of life
extremely unfavourable to the cultivation of poetry.  Virgil, on the
contrary, lived at a period when literature had attained to a high state
of improvement.  He had likewise not only the advantage of finding a
model in the works of Homer, but of perusing the laws of epic poetry,
which had been digested by Aristotle, and the various observations made
on 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 contemporary
poets; and what must have animated him beyond every other consideration,
he wrote both at the desire, and under the patronage of the emperor and
his minister Mecaenas.  In what time Homer composed either of his poems,
we know not; but the Aeneid, we are informed, was the employment of
Virgil during eleven years.  For some years, the repeated entreaties of
Augustus could not extort from him the smallest specimen of the work; but
at length, when considerably advanced in it, he condescended to recite
three books--the second, the fourth, and the sixth--in the presence of
the emperor and his sister Octavia, to gratify the latter of whom, in
particular, the recital of the last book now mentioned, was intended.
When the poet came to the words, Tu Marcellus eris, alluding to Octavia's
son, 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, she
ordered ten sesterces to be given to Virgil for every line relating (171)
to that subject; a gratuity which amounted to about two thousand pounds
sterling.

In the composition of the Aeneid, Virgil scrupled not to introduce whole
lines of Homer, and of the Latin poet Ennius; many of whose sentences he
admired.  In a few instances he has borrowed from Lucretius.  He is said
to have been at extraordinary pains in polishing his numbers; and when he
was 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 with
him to consult in particular his freedman and librarian Erotes, an old
domestic, who, it is related, supplied extempore a deficiency in two
lines, and was desired by his master to write them in the manuscript.

When this immortal work was completed, Virgil resolved on retiring into
Greece and Asia for three years, that he might devote himself entirely to
polishing it, and have leisure afterwards to pass the remainder of his
life in the cultivation of philosophy.  But meeting at Athens with
Augustus, who was on his return from the East, he determined on
accompanying the emperor back to Rome.  Upon a visit to Megara, a town in
the neighbourhood of Athens, he was seized with a languor, which
increased during the ensuing voyage; and he expired a few days after
landing at Brundisium, on the 22nd of September, in the fifty-second year
of his age.  He desired that his body might be carried to Naples, where
he had passed many happy years; and that the following distich, written
in 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 funeral
pomp, within two miles of Naples, near the road to Puteoli, where his
tomb still exists.  Of his estate, which was very considerable by the
liberality of his friends, he left the greater part to Valerius Proculus
and his brother, a fourth to Augustus, a twelfth to Mecaenas, besides
legacies to L. Varius and Plotius Tucca, who, in consequence of his own
request, and the command of Augustus, revised and corrected the Aeneid
after his death.  Their instructions from the emperor were, to expunge
whatever they thought improper, but upon no account to make any addition.
This restriction is supposed to be the cause that many lines in the
Aeneid 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 to
head-ache, and had frequent discharges of blood upwards: but from what
part, 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 name
of Parthenias, "the modest man."  On the subject of his modesty; the
following anecdote is related.

Having written a distich, in which he compared Augustus to Jupiter, he
placed it in the night-time over the gate of the emperor's palace.  It
was 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 Virgil
not declaring himself, the verses were claimed by Bathyllus, a
contemptible poet, but who was liberally rewarded on the occasion.
Virgil, provoked at the falsehood of the impostor, again wrote the verses
on some conspicuous part of the palace, and under them the following
line:

    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 should
be finished, and Bathyllus proving unequal to the task, Virgil at last
filled 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 the
case, crowded to gaze upon him, or pointed at him with the finger in
admiration, he blushed, and stole away (173) from them; frequently taking
refuge in some shop.  When he went to the theatre, the audience
universally rose up at his entrance, as they did to Augustus, and
received him with the loudest plaudits; a compliment which, however
highly honourable, he would gladly have declined.  When such was the just
respect which they paid to the author of the Bucolics and Georgics, how
would they have expressed their esteem, had they beheld him in the
effulgence of epic renown!  In the beautiful episode of the Elysian
fields, in the Aeneid, where he dexterously introduced a glorious display
of their country, he had touched the most elastic springs of Roman
enthusiasm.  The passion would have rebounded upon himself, and they
would, in the heat of admiration, have idolized him.

HORACE was born at Venusia, on the tenth of December, in the consulship
of L. Cotta and L. Torquatus.  According to his own acknowledgment, his
father was a freedman; by some it is said that he was a collector of the
revenue, and by others, a fishmonger, or a dealer in salted meat.
Whatever he was, he paid particular attention to the education of his
son, for, after receiving instruction from the best masters in Rome, he
sent him to Athens to study philosophy.  From this place, Horace followed
Brutus, in the quality of a military tribune, to the battle of Philippi,
where, by his own confession, being seized with timidity, he abandoned
the profession of a soldier, and returning to Rome, applied himself to
the cultivation of poetry.  In a short time he acquired the friendship of
Virgil and Valerius, whom he mentions in his Satires, in terms of the
most 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 patronage
not only of Mecaenas, but of Augustus, with whom he, as well as Virgil,
lived on a footing of the greatest intimacy.  Satisfied with the luxury
which he enjoyed at the first tables in (174) Rome, he was so unambitious
of any public employment, that when the emperor offered him the place of
his 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 a
villa at Tibur, near the falls of the Anio, he enjoyed, beyond all doubt.
a handsome establishment, from the liberality of Augustus.  He indulged
himself in indolence and social pleasure, but was at the same time much
devoted 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 the
raptures of fancy, had, in the pursuit of Grecian literature, drunk
largely, at the source, of the delicious springs of Castalia; and it
seems to have been ever after his chief ambition, to transplant into the
plains 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 most
ancient, as well as the most popular species of literary production.
Warm in expression, and short in extent, it concentrates in narrow bounds
the fire of poetical transport: on which account, it has been generally
employed to celebrate the fervours of piety, the raptures of love, the
enthusiasm of praise; and to animate warriors to glorious exertions of
valour:

    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 class
are now known only by name.  They seem all to have differed from one
another, no less in the kind of measure which they chiefly or solely
employed, than in the strength or softness, the beauty or grandeur, the
animated rapidity or the graceful ease of their various compositions.  Of
the amorous effusions of the lyre, we yet have examples in the odes of
Anacreon, and the incomparable ode of Sappho: the lyric strains which
animated to battle, have sunk into oblivion; but the victors in the
public games of Greece have their fame perpetuated in the admirable
productions of Pindar.

Horace, by adopting, in the multiplicity of his subjects, almost all the
various measures of the different Greek poets, and frequently combining
different measures in the same composition, has compensated for the
dialects of that tongue, so happily suited to poetry, and given to a
language less distinguished for soft inflexions, all the tender and
delicate modulations of the Eastern song.  While he moves in the measures
of the Greeks with an ease and gracefulness which rivals their own
acknowledged excellence, he has enriched the fund of lyric harmony with a
stanza peculiar to himself.  In the artificial construction of the Ode,
he may justly be regarded as the first of lyric poets.  In beautiful
imagery, he is inferior to none: in variety of sentiment and felicity of
expression, superior to every existing competitor in Greek or Roman
poetry.  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 the
abrupt apostrophes of passionate excursion; but his transitions are
conducted with ease, and every subject introduced with propriety.

The Carmen Seculare was written at the express desire of Augustus, for
the celebration of the Secular Games, performed once in a hundred years,
and which continued during three days and three nights, whilst all Rome
resounded with the mingled effusions of choral addresses to gods and
goddesses, and of festive joy.  An occasion which so much interested the
ambition of the poet, called into exertion the most vigorous efforts of
his genius.  More concise in mythological attributes than the hymns
ascribed to Homer, this beautiful production, in variety and grandeur of
invocation, and in pomp of numbers, surpasses all that Greece, (176)
melodious but simple in the service of the altar, ever poured forth from
her vocal groves in solemn adoration.  By the force of native genius, the
ancients elevated their heroes to a pitch of sublimity that excites
admiration, but to soar beyond which they could derive no aid from
mythology; and it was reserved for a bard, inspired with nobler
sentiments than the Muses could supply, to sing the praises of that Being
whose ineffable perfections transcend all human imagination.  Of the
praises of gods and heroes, there is not now extant a more beautiful
composition, 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 which
several of them are written, it could scarcely be otherwise.  They are
frequently 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 the
frailties of the heart, to convince the understanding by argument, and
thence to put to shame both the vices and follies of mankind.  Satire is
a species of composition, of which the Greeks furnished no model; and the
preceding Roman writers of this class, though they had much improved it
from its original rudeness and licentiousness, had still not brought it
to that degree of perfection which might answer the purpose of moral
reform in a polished state of society.  It received the most essential
improvement from Horace, who has dexterously combined wit and argument,
raillery and sarcasm, on the side of morality and virtue, of happiness
and truth.

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

The poem De Arte Poetica comprises a system of criticism, in justness of
principle and extent of application, correspondent to the various
exertions of genius on subjects of invention and taste.  (177) That in
composing this excellent production, he availed himself of the most
approved works of Grecian original, we may conclude from the advice which
he 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, enlivened
with pleasantry, and refined by philosophical reflection.  He had
cultivated his judgment with great application, and his taste was guided
by intuitive perception of moral beauty, aptitude, and propriety.  The
few instances of indelicacy which occur in his compositions, we may
ascribe rather to the manners of the times, than to any blameable
propensity in the author.  Horace died in the fifty-seventh year of his
age, surviving his beloved Mecaenas only three weeks; a circumstance
which, added to the declaration in an ode [276] to that personage,
supposed to have been written in Mecaenas's last illness, has given rise
to a conjecture, that Horace ended his days by a violent death, to
accompany his friend.  But it is more natural to conclude that he died of
excessive grief, as, had he literally adhered to the affirmation
contained in the ode, he would have followed his patron more closely.
This seems to be confirmed by a fact immediately preceding his death; for
though he declared Augustus heir to his whole estate, he was not able, on
account of weakness, to put his signature to the will; a failure which it
is probable that he would have taken care to obviate, had his death been
premeditated.  He was interred, at his own desire, near the tomb of
Mecaenas.----

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 father
intended him for the bar; and after passing him through the usual course
of instruction at Rome, he was sent to Athens, the emporium of learning,
to complete his education.  On his return to Rome, in obedience to the
desire of his father, he entered upon the offices of public life in the
forum, and declaimed with great applause.  But this was the effect of
paternal authority, not of choice: for, from his earliest years, he
discovered an extreme attachment to poetry; and no sooner was his father
dead, than, renouncing the bar, he devoted himself entirely to the
cultivation of that fascinating art, his propensity to which was
invincible.  His productions, all written either in heroic or pentameter
verse, are numerous, and on various subjects.  It will be sufficient to
mention them briefly.

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

The elegies on subjects of love, particularly the Ars Amandi, or Ars
Amatoria, though not all uniform in versification, possess the same
general character, of warmth of passion, and luscious description, as the
epistles.

The Fasti were divided into twelve books, of which only the first six now
remain.  The design of them was to deliver an account of the Roman
festivals in every month of the year, with a description of the rites and
ceremonies, as well as the sacrifices on those occasions.  It is to be
regretted, that, on a subject so interesting, this valuable work should
not have been transmitted entire: but in the part which remains, we are
furnished with a beautiful description of the ceremonial transactions in
the Roman calendar, from the first of January to the end of June.  The
versification, as in all the compositions of this author, is easy and
harmonious.

The most popular production of this poet is his Metamorphoses, not less
extraordinary for the nature of the subject, than for the admirable art
with which the whole is conducted.  The work is founded upon the
traditions and theogony of the ancients, which consisted of various
detached fables.  Those Ovid has not only so happily arranged, that they
form a coherent series of narratives, one rising out of another; but he
describes the different changes with such an imposing plausibility, as to
give a natural appearance to the most incredible fictions.  This
ingenious production, however perfect it may appear, we are told by
himself, had not received his last corrections when he was ordered into
banishment.

In the Ibis, the author imitates a poem of the same name, written by
Callimachus.  It is an invective against some person who publicly
traduced his character at Rome, after his banishment.  A strong
sensibility, indignation, and implacable resentment, are conspicuous
through the whole.

The Tristia were composed in his exile, in which, though his vivacity
forsook him, he still retained a genius prolific in versification.  In
these poems, as well as in many epistles to different persons, he bewails
his unhappy situation, and deprecates in the strongest terms the
inexorable displeasure of Augustus.

Several other productions written by Ovid are now lost, and (179) amongst
them a tragedy called Medea, of which Quintilian expresses a high
opinion.  Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum vir ille praestare
potuerit, si ingenio suo temperare quam indulgere maluisset [277].  Lib.
x. c. 1.

It is a peculiarity in the productions of this author, that, on whatever
he employs his pen, he exhausts the subject; not with any prolixity that
fatigues the attention, but by a quick succession of new ideas, equally
brilliant and apposite, often expressed in antitheses.  Void of obscenity
in expression, but lascivious in sentiment, he may be said rather to
stimulate immorally the natural passions, than to corrupt the
imagination.  No poet is more guided in versification by the nature of
his subject than Ovid.  In common narrative, his ideas are expressed with
almost colloquial simplicity; but when his fancy glows with sentiment, or
is 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 than
the banishment of Ovid; but after all the efforts of different writers to
elucidate the subject, the cause of this extraordinary transaction
remains involved in obscurity.  It may therefore not be improper, in this
place, to examine the foundation of the several conjectures which have
been formed, and if they appear to be utterly imadmissible, to attempt a
solution of the question upon principles more conformable to probability,
and countenanced by historical evidence.

The ostensible reason assigned by Augustus for banishing Ovid, was his
corrupting the Roman youth by lascivious publications; but it is evident,
from various passages in the poet's productions after this period, that
there was, besides, some secret reason, which would not admit of being
divulged.  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 inviolable
arcanum was something which Ovid had seen, and, as he insinuates, through
his 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 had
seen something of a very indecent nature, in which Augustus was
concerned.  What this was, is the question.  Some authors, conceiving it
to have been of a kind extremely atrocious, have gone so far as to
suppose, that it must have been an act of criminality between Augustus
and his own daughter Julia, who, notwithstanding the strict attention
paid to her education by her father, became a woman of the most infamous
character; 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 not
only discredited by its own improbability, but by a yet more forcible
argument.  It is certain that Julia was at this time in banishment for
her scandalous life.  She was about the same age with Tiberius, who was
now forty seven, and they had not cohabited for many years.  We know not
exactly the year in which Augustus sent her into exile, but we may
conclude with confidence, that it happened soon after her separation from
Tiberius; whose own interest with the emperor, as well as that of his
mother Livia, could not fail of being exerted, if any such application
was necessary, towards removing from the capital a woman, who, by the
notoriety of her prostitution, reflected disgrace upon all with whom she
was connected, either by blood or alliance.  But no application from
Tiberius or his mother could be necessary, when we are assured that
Augustus even presented to the senate a narrative respecting the infamous
behaviour of his daughter, which was read by the quaestor.  He was so
much ashamed of her profligacy, that he for a long time declined all
company, and had thoughts of putting her to death.  She was banished to
an island on the coast of Campania for five years; at the expiration of
which period, she was removed to the continent, and the severity of her
treatment a little mitigated; but though frequent applications were made
in her behalf by the people, Augustus never could be prevailed upon to
permit her return.

(181) Other writers have conjectured, that, instead of Julia, the
daughter of Augustus, the person seen with him by Ovid may have been
Julia his grand-daughter, who inherited the vicious disposition of her
mother, and was on that account likewise banished by Augustus.  The epoch
of this lady's banishment it is impossible to ascertain; and therefore no
argument can be drawn from that source to invalidate the present
conjecture.  But Augustus had shown the same solicitude for her being
trained up in virtuous habits, as he had done in respect of her mother,
though in both cases unsuccessfully; and this consideration, joined to
the enormity of the supposed crime, and the great sensibility which
Augustus had discovered with regard to the infamy of his daughter, seems
sufficient to exonerate his memory from so odious a charge.  Besides, is
it possible that he could have sent her into banishment for the infamy of
her prostitution, while (upon the supposition of incest) she was mistress
of so important a secret, as that he himself had been more criminal with
her than any other man in the empire?

Some writers, giving a wider scope to conjecture, have supposed the
transaction to be of a nature still more detestable, and have even
dragged Mecaenas, the minister, into a participation of the crime.
Fortunately, however, for the reputation of the illustrious patron of
polite learning, as well as for that of the emperor, this crude
conjecture may be refuted upon the evidence of chronology.  The
commencement of Ovid's exile happened in the ninth year of the Christian
aera, and the death of Mecaenas, eight years before that period.  Between
this and other calculations, we find a difference of three or four years;
but allowing the utmost latitude of variation, there intervened, from the
death of Mecaenas to the banishment of Ovid, a period of eleven years; an
observation which fully invalidates the conjecture above-mentioned.

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

Suetonius informs us, that Augustus, in the latter part of his life,
contracted a vicious inclination for the enjoyment of young virgins, who
were procured for him from all parts, not only with the connivance, but
by the clandestine management of his consort Livia.  It was therefore
probably with one of those victims that he was discovered by Ovid.
Augustus had for many years affected a decency of behaviour, and he
would, therefore, naturally be not a little disconcerted at the
unseasonable intrusion of the poet.  That Ovid knew not of Augustus's
being in the place, is beyond all doubt: and Augustus's consciousness
(182) of this circumstance, together with the character of Ovid, would
suggest an unfavourable suspicion of the motive which had brought the
latter thither.  Abstracted from the immorality of the emperor's own
conduct, the incident might be regarded as ludicrous, and certainly was
more fit to excite the shame than the indignation of Augustus.  But the
purpose of Ovid's visit appears, from his own acknowledgment, to have
been 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 man
he would not have been regarded as any object of jealousy in love, yet by
Augustus, now in his sixty-ninth year, he might be deemed a formidable
rival.  This passion, therefore, concurring with that which arose from
the interruption or disappointment of gratification, inflamed the
emperor's resentment, and he resolved on banishing to a distant country a
man whom he considered as his rival, and whose presence, from what had
happened, he never more could endure.

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

No argument to establish the date of publication, can be drawn from the
order in which the various productions of Ovid are placed in the
collection of his works: but reasoning from probability, we should
suppose that the Ars Amandi was written during the period of his youth;
and this seems to be confirmed by the following passage in the second
book 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, is
evident 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 now
punish a fault, which, in his solemn capacity of censor, he had so long
and repeatedly overlooked?  The answer is obvious: in a production so
popular 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 the
emperor a specious pretext for the execution of his purpose.  The
severity exercised on this occasion, however, when the poet was suddenly
driven into exile, unaccompanied even by the partner of his bed, who had
been his companion for many years, was an act so inconsistent with the
usual moderation of Augustus, that we cannot justly ascribe it to any
other motive than personal resentment; especially as this arbitrary
punishment of the author could answer no end of public utility, while the
obnoxious production remained to affect, if it really ever did
essentially affect, the morals of society.  If the sensibility of
Augustus could not thenceforth admit of any personal intercourse with
Ovid, or even of his living within the limits of Italy, there would have
been little danger from the example, in sending into honourable exile,
with every indulgence which could alleviate so distressful a necessity, a
man of respectable rank in the state, who was charged with no actual
offence 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 a
forbearance greater than might have been expected from an absolute
prince, in sparing the life of Ovid.  It will readily be granted, that
Ovid, in the same circumstances, under any one of the four subsequent
emperors, would have expiated the incident with his blood.  Augustus,
upon a late occasion, had shown himself equally sanguinary, for he put to
death, by the hand of Varus, a poet of Parma, named Cassius, on account
of his having written some satirical verses against him.  By that recent
example, therefore, and the power of pardoning which the emperor still
retained, there was sufficient hold of the poet's secrecy respecting the
fatal transaction, which, if divulged (184) to the world, Augustus would
reprobate as a false and infamous libel, and punish the author
accordingly.  Ovid, on his part, was sensible, that, should he dare to
violate the important but tacit injunction, the imperial vengeance would
reach him even on the shores of the Euxine.  It appears, however, from a
passage in the Ibis, which can apply to no other than Augustus, that Ovid
was 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 he
was resolved should be perpetual, it is impossible to ascertain; but he
had formerly been liberal to Ovid, as well as to other poets.

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

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

TIBULLUS was descended of an equestrian family, and is said, but
erroneously, as will afterwards appear, to have been born on the same day
with Ovid.  His amiable accomplishments procured him the friendship of
Messala Corvinus, whom he accompanied in a military expedition to the
island of Corcyra.  But an indisposition with which he was seized, and a
natural aversion to the toils of war, induced him to return to Rome,
where he seems to have resigned himself to a life of indolence and
pleasure, amidst which he devoted a part of his time to the composition
of elegies.  Elegiac poetry had been cultivated by several Greek writers,
particularly Callimachus, Mimnermus, and Philetas; but, so far as we can
find, had, until the present age, been unknown to the Romans in their own
tongue.  It consisted of a heroic and pentameter line alternately, and
was not, like the elegy of the moderns, usually appropriated to the
lamentation of the deceased, but employed chiefly in compositions
relative to love or friendship, and might, indeed, be used upon almost
any subject; though, from the limp in the pentameter line, it is not
suitable to sublime subjects, which require a fulness of expression, and
an expansion of sound.  To this species of poetry Tibullus restricted his
application, by which he cultivated that simplicity and tenderness, and
agreeable ease of sentiment, which constitute the characteristic
perfections of the elegiac muse.

In the description of rural scenes, the peaceful occupations of the
field, the charms of domestic happiness, and the joys of reciprocal love,
scarcely any poet surpasses Tibullus.  His luxuriant imagination collects
the most beautiful flowers of nature, and he displays them with all the
delicate attraction of soft and harmonious numbers.  With a dexterity
peculiar to himself, in whatever subject he engages, he leads his readers
imperceptibly through devious paths of pleasure, of which, at the outset
of the poem, they could form no conception.  He seems to have often
written without any previous meditation or design.  Several of his
elegies may be said to have neither middle nor end: yet the transitions
are so natural, and the gradations so easy, that though we wander through
Elysian scenes of fancy, the most heterogeneous in their nature, we are
sensible of no defect in the concatenation which has joined them
together.  It is, however, to be regretted that, in some instances,
Tibullus betrays that licentiousness of manners which (186) formed too
general a characteristic even of this refined age.  His elegies addressed
to Messala contain a beautiful amplification of sentiments founded in
friendship and esteem, in which it is difficult to say, whether the
virtues of the patron or the genius of the poet be more conspicuous.

Valerius Messala Corvinus, whom he celebrates, was descended of a very
ancient family.  In the civil wars which followed the death of Julius
Caesar he joined the republican party, and made himself master of the
camp of Octavius at Philippi; but he was afterwards reconciled to his
opponent, and lived to an advanced age in favour and esteem with
Augustus.  He was distinguished not only by his military talents, but by
his eloquence, integrity, and patriotism.

From the following passage in the writings of Tibullus, commentators have
conjectured that he was deprived of his lands by the same proscription in
which 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, several
years 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 elegy
written by Ovid upon that occasion, he is spoken of as a young man.  Were
it true, as is said by biographers, that he was born the same day with
Ovid, we must indeed assign the event to an early period: for Ovid cannot
have written the elegy after the forty-third year of his own life, and
how long before is uncertain.  In the tenth elegy of the fourth book, De
Tristibus, he observes, that the fates had allowed little time for the
cultivation 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 equestrian
order, and of congenial dispositions, it is natural to suppose that their
acquaintance commenced at an early period; and if, after all, it was of
short duration, there would be no improbability in concluding, that
Tibullus died at the age of some years under thirty.  It is evident,
however, that biographers have committed a mistake with regard to the
birth of this poet; for in the passage above cited of the Tristia, Ovid
mentions Tibullus as a writer, who, though his contemporary, was much
older than himself.  From this passage we should be justified in placing
the death of Tibullus between the fortieth and fiftieth year of his age,
and rather nearer to the latter period; for, otherwise, Horace would
scarcely 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 period
of youth to the fiftieth year.----

PROPERTIUS was born at Mevania, a town of Umbria, seated at the
confluence of the Tina and Clitumnus.  This place was famous for its
herds of white cattle, brought up there for sacrifice, and supposed to be
impregnated 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 they
add, that he was one of those who, when L. Antony was starved out of
Perasia, were, by the order of Octavius, led to the altar of Julius
Caesar, and there slain.  Nothing more is known with certainty, than that
Propertius lost his father at an early age, and being deprived of a great
part of his patrimony, betook himself to Rome, where his genius soon
recommended him to public notice, and he obtained the patronage of
Mecaenas.  From his frequent introduction of historical and mythological
subjects into his poems, he received the appellation of "the learned."

Of all the Latin elegiac poets, Propertius has the justest claim to
purity of thought and expression.  He often draws his imagery from
reading, more than from the imagination, and abounds less in description
than sentiment.  For warmth of passion he is not conspicuous, and his
tenderness is seldom marked with a great degree of sensibility; but,
without rapture, he is animated, and, like Horace, in the midst of
gaiety, he is moral.  The stores with which learning supplies him
diversify as well as illustrate his subject, while delicacy every where
discovers 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 it
has been disputed which of them is superior in this department of poetry.
Quintilian has given his suffrage in favour of Tibullus, who, so far as
poetical merit alone is the object of consideration, seems entitled to
the preference.----

GALLUS was a Roman knight, distinguished not only for poetical, but
military talents.  Of his poetry we have only six elegies, written, in
the person of an old man, on the subject of old age, but which, there is
reason 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 in
competition with any other productions of the elegiac kind.  Gallus was,
for some time, in great favour with Augustus, who appointed him governor
of Egypt.  It is said, however, that he not only oppressed the province
by extortion, but entered into a conspiracy against his benefactor, for
which he was banished.  Unable to sustain such a reverse of fortune, he
fell into despair, and laid violent hands on himself.  This is the Gallus
in honour of whom Virgil composed his tenth eclogue.

Such are the celebrated productions of the Augustan age, which have been
happily preserved, for the delight and admiration of mankind, and will
survive to the latest posterity.  Many (189) more once existed, of
various merit, and of different authors, which have left few or no
memorials behind them, but have perished promiscuously amidst the
indiscriminate ravages of time, of accidents, and of barbarians.  Amongst
the principal authors whose works are lost, are Varius and Valgius; the
former of whom, besides a panegyric upon Augustus, composed some
tragedies.  According to Quintilian, his Thyestes was equal to any
composition of the Greek tragic poets.

The great number of eminent writers, poets in particular, who adorned
this age, has excited general admiration, and the phenomenon is usually
ascribed to a fortuitous occurrence, which baffles all inquiry: but we
shall endeavour to develop the various causes which seem to have produced
this effect; and should the explanation appear satisfactory, it may
favour an opinion, that under similar circumstances, if ever they should
again be combined, a period of equal glory might arise in other ages and
nations.

The Romans, whether from the influence of climate, or their mode of
living, which in general was temperate, were endowed with a lively
imagination, and, as we before observed, a spirit of enterprise.  Upon
the final termination of the Punic war, and the conquest of Greece, their
ardour, which had hitherto been exercised in military achievements, was
diverted into the channel of literature; and the civil commotions which
followed, having now ceased, a fresh impulse was given to activity in the
ambitious pursuit of the laurel, which was now only to be obtained by
glorious 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; and
emulation cherished an extraordinary thirst of fame, which, in every
exertion of the human mind, is the parent of excellence.  This liberal
contention was not a little promoted by the fashion introduced at Rome,
for poets to recite their compositions in public; a practice which seems
to have been carried even to a ridiculous excess.--Such was now the rage
for poetical composition in the Roman capital, that Horace describes it
in 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 is
avowed both by Virgil and Horace.  The former, in the third book of his
Georgics, announces a resolution of rendering himself celebrated, if
possible.

        --------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 in
terms 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 rectius
videtur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere; et quoniam vita
ipsa, qua fruimur, brevis est, memoriam nostri quam maxume longam
efficere. [283]

Another circumstance of great importance, towards the production of such
poetry as might live through every age, was the extreme attention which
the great poets of this period displayed, both in the composition, and
the polishing of their works.  Virgil, when employed upon the Georgics,
usually wrote in the morning, and applied much of the subsequent part of
the day to correction and improvement.  He compared himself to a bear,
that licks her cub into form.  If this was his regular practice in the
Georgics, 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 its
farther amendment.  Horace has gone so far in recommending careful
correction, that he figuratively mentions nine years as an adequate
period for that purpose.  But whatever may be the time, there is no
precept which he urges either oftener or more forcibly, than a due
attention 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 great
superiority of the Augustan age, as respects the productions of
literature, one more is to be subjoined, of a nature the most essential:
the liberal and unparalleled encouragement given to distinguished talents
by the emperor and his minister.  This was a principle of the most
powerful energy: it fanned the flame of genius, invigorated every
exertion; and the poets who basked in the rays of imperial favour, and
the animating patronage of Mecaenas, experienced a poetic enthusiasm
which approached to real inspiration.

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

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


ENDNOTES

[Footnote 106:  A town in the ancient Volscian territory, now called
Veletra.  It stands on the verge of the Pontine Marshes, on the road to
Naples.]

[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, they
possessed great wealth, and were persons of consideration in Rome at this
period.]

[Footnote 109:  Now Laricia, or Riccia, a town of the Campagna di Roma, on
the 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 the
colony of Romulus, but gave its name to the first and principal of the
four regions into which the city was divided, from the time of Servius
Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, to that of Augustus; the others being the
Suburra, Esquilina, and Collina.]

[Footnote 112:  There were seven streets or quarters in the Palatine
region, one of which was called "Ad Capita Bubula," either from the
butchers' stalls at which ox-heads are hung up for sale, or from their
being sculptured on some edifice.  Thus the remains of a fortification
near the tomb of Cecilia Metella are now called Capo di Bove, from the
arms 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, Brutus
retired to a hill, and slew himself in the night.]

[Footnote 118:  The triumvir.  There were three distinguished brothers of
the 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 escaped
being 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 of
great emergency, and with much reluctance.  After the great slaughter at
the battle of Cannae, eight thousand were bought and armed by the
republic. Augustus was the first who manumitted them, and employed them as
rowers 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 viewed
Antony's corpse.  Plutarch informs us, that on hearing his death, Augustus
retired into the interior of his tent, and wept over the fate of his
colleague and friend, his associate in so many former struggles, both in
war 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, celebrated
for sucking the poison from wounds inflicted by serpents, with which that
country anciently abounded.  They pretended to be endowed with an
antidote, which rendered their bodies insensible to the virulence of that
species of poison; and the ignorance of those times gave credit to the
physical immunity which they arrogated.  But Celsus, who flourished about
fifty years after the period we speak of, has exploded the vulgar
prejudice which prevailed in their favour.  He justly observes, that the
venom of serpents, like some other kinds of poison, proves noxious only
when applied to the naked fibre; and that, provided there is no ulcer in
the gums or palate, the poison may be received into the mouth with perfect
safety.]

[Footnote 128:  Strabo informs us that Ptolemy caused it to be deposited
in 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 from
each 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 race
of the Parthini, an Illyrian tribe.]

[Footnote 134:  It was usual at Rome, before the elections, for the
candidates to endeavour to gain popularity by the usual arts.  They would
therefore go to the houses of the citizens, shake hands with those they
met, and address them in a kindly manner.  It being of great consequence,
upon those occasions, to know the names of persons, they were commonly
attended by a nomenclator, who whispered into their ears that information,
wherever it was wanted.  Though this kind of officer was generally an
attendant on men, we meet with instances of their having been likewise
employed in the service of ladies; either with the view of serving
candidates to whom they were allied, or of gaining the affections of the
people.]

[Footnote 135:  Not a bridge over a river, but a military engine used for
gaining admittance into a fortress.]

[Footnote 136:  Cantabria, in the north of Spain, now the Basque
province.]

[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 on
the Tyrol.]

[Footnote 139:  The Vindelici principally occupied the country which is
now the kingdom of Bavaria; and the Salassii, that part of Piedmont which
includes the valley of Aost.]

[Footnote 140:  The temple of Mars Ultor was erected by Augustus in
fulfilment of a vow made by him at the battle of Philippi.  It stood in
the Forum which he built, mentioned in chap. xxxix.  There are no remains
of either.]

[Footnote 141:  "The Ovatio was an inferior kind of Triumph, granted in
cases where the victory was not of great importance, or had been obtained
without difficulty.  The general entered the city on foot or on horseback,
crowned with myrtle, not with laurel; and instead of bullocks, the
sacrifice was performed with a sheep, whence this procession acquired its
name."--Thomson.]

[Footnote 142:  "The greater Triumph, in which the victorious general and
his army advanced in solemn procession through the city to the Capitol,
was the highest military honour which could be obtained in the Roman
state. Foremost in the procession went musicians of various kinds, singing
and playing triumphal songs.  Next were led the oxen to be sacrificed,
having their horns gilt, and their heads adorned with fillets and
garlands. Then in carriages were brought the spoils taken from the enemy,
statues, pictures, plate, armour, gold and silver, and brass; with golden
crowns, and other gifts, sent by the allied and tributary states.  The
captive princes and generals followed in chains, with their children and
attendants.  After them came the lictors, having their fasces wreathed
with laurel, followed by a great company of musicians and dancers dressed
like Satyrs, and wearing crowns of gold; in the midst of whom was one in a
female dress, whose business it was, with his looks and gestures, to
insult the vanquished.  Next followed a long train of persons carrying
perfumes.  Then came the victorious general, dressed in purple embroidered
with gold, with a crown of laurel on his head, a branch of laurel in his
right 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 statue
of Jupiter on festival days, and a golden Bulla hanging on his breast, and
containing some amulet, or magical preservative against envy. He stood in
a gilded chariot, adorned with ivory, and drawn by four white horses,
sometimes by elephants, attended by his relations, and a great crowd of
citizens, all in white.  His children used to ride in the chariot with
him; and that he might not be too much elated, a slave, carrying a golden
crown sparkling with gems, stood behind him, and frequently whispered in
his ear, 'Remember that thou art a man!'  After the general, followed the
consuls and senators on foot, at least according to the appointment of
Augustus; for they formerly used to go before him.  His Legati and
military Tribunes commonly rode by his side. The victorious army, horse
and foot, came last, crowned with laurel, and decorated with the gifts
which they had received for their valour, singing their own and their
general's praises, but sometimes throwing out railleries against him; and
often exclaiming, 'Io Triumphe!' in which they were joined by all the
citizens, as they passed along.  The oxen having been sacrificed, the
general gave a magnificent entertainment in the Capitol to his friends and
the chief men of the city; after which he was conducted home by the
people, with music and a great number of lamps and torches."--Thomson.]

[Footnote 143:  "The Sella Curulis was a chair on which the principal
magistrates sat in the tribunal upon solemn occasions.  It had no back,
but stood on four crooked feet, fixed to the extremities of cross pieces
of 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 whom
Cicero'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 of
which the census of the people was taken.  It was first made by the Roman
kings, then by the consuls, but after the year 310 from the building of
the city, by the censors, who were magistrates created for that purpose.
It appears, however, that the census was not always held at stated
periods, and sometimes long intervals intervened.]

[Footnote 148:  Augustus appears to have been in earnest on these
occasions, at least, in his desire to retire into private life and release
himself from the cares of government, if we may believe Seneca.  De Brev.
Vit. c. 5. Of his two intimate advisers, Agrippa gave this counsel, while
Mecaenas was for continuing his career of ambition.--Eutrop. 1. 53.]

[Footnote 149:  The Tiber has been always remarkable for the frequency of
its inundations and the ravages they occasioned, as remarked by Pliny,
iii. 5.  Livy mentions several such occurrences, as well as one extensive
fire, 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 version
given it by Dio, who applies it to his consolidation of the government, to
the following effect: "That Rome, which I found built of mud, I shall
leave you firm as a rock."--Dio. lvi. p. 589.]

[Footnote 151:  The same motive which engaged Julius Caesar to build a new
forum, induced Augustus to erect another.  See his life c. xx.  It stood
behind the present churches of St. Adrian and St. Luke, and was almost
parallel 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 to
Bianchini, a little beyond the triumphal arch of Titus.  It appears, from
the reverse of a medal of Augustus, to have been a rotondo, with an open
portico, something like the temple of Vesta.  The statues of the fifty
daughters of Danae surrounded the portico; and opposite to them were their
husbands on horseback.  In this temple were preserved some of the finest
works of the Greek artists, both in sculpture and painting.  Here, in the
presence of Augustus, Horace's Carmen Seculare was sung by twenty-seven
noble 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 the
protection of Apollo.  Caius Julius Hegenus, a freedman of Augustus, and
an eminent grammarian, was the librarian.]

[Footnote 154:  The three fluted Corinthian columns of white marble, which
stand on the declivity of the Capitoline hill, are commonly supposed to be
the remains of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, erected by Augustus.  Part of
the frieze and cornice are attached to them, which with the capitals of
the columns are finely wrought.  Suetonius tells us on what occasion this
temple was erected.  Of all the epithets given to Jupiter, none conveyed
more 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 of
Augustus.]

[Footnote 155:  The Portico of Octavia stood between the Flaminian circus
and the theatre of Marcellus, enclosing the temples of Jupiter and Juno,
said to have been built in the time of the republic.  Several remains of
them exist, in the Pescheria or fish-market; they were of the Corinthian
order, and have been traced and engraved by Piranesi.]

[Footnote 156:  The magnificent theatre of Marcellus was built on the site
where Suetonius has before informed us that Julius Caesar intended to
erect one (p. 30).  It stood between the portico of Octavia and the hill
of the Capitol.  Augustus gave it the name of his nephew Marcellus, though
he 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 permanent
theatres of Rome.  Those of Pompey and Marcellus have been already
mentioned.]

[Footnote 158:  Among these were, at least, the noble portico, if not the
whole, of the Pantheon, still the pride of Rome, under the name of the
Rotondo, 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 the
Argonauts.]

[Footnote 159:  To whatever extent Augustus may have cleared out the bed
of the Tiber, the process of its being encumbered with an alluvium of
ruins and mud has been constantly going on.  Not many years ago, a scheme
was set on foot for clearing it by private enterprise, principally for the
sake of the valuable remains of art which it is supposed to contain.]

[Footnote 160:  The Via Flaminia was probably undertaken by the censor
Caius Flaminius, and finished by his son of the same name, who was consul
A.U.C. 566, and employed his soldiers in forming it after subduing the
Ligurians.  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 the
Adriatic; and is travelled by every tourist who takes the route, north of
the Appenines, through the States of the Church, to Rome.  Every one knows
that the great highways, not only in Italy but in the provinces, were
among the most magnificent and enduring works of the Roman people.]

[Footnote 161:  It had formed a sort of honourable retirement in which
Lepidus was shelved, to use a familiar expression, when Augustus got rid
of him quietly from the Triumvirate.  Augustus assumed it A.U.C. 740, thus
centring the last of all the great offices of the state in his own person;
that of Pontifex Maximus, being of high importance, from the sanctity
attached to it, and the influence it gave him over the whole system of
religion.]

[Footnote 162:  In the thirty-six years since the calendar was corrected
by Julius Caesar, the priests had erroneously intercalated eleven days
instead of nine.  See JULIUS, c. xl.]

[Footnote 163:  Sextilis, the sixth month, reckoning from March, in which
the 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 which
had afterwards a theological sense, from its use in the New Testament.]

[Footnote 165:  Capi.  There is a peculiar force in the word here adopted
by Suetonius; the form used by the Pontifex Maximus, when he took the
novice from the hand of her father, being Te capio amata, "I have you, my
dear," implying the forcible breach of former ties, as in the case of a
captive 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 the
public health, "as if," says Dio, "even that could not be implored from
the gods, unless the signs were propitious."  It would be an inquiry of
some interest, now that the care of the public health is becoming a
department of the state, with what sanatory measures these becoming
solemnities were attended.]

[Footnote 167:  Theophrastus mentions the spring and summer flowers most
suited for these chaplets.  Among the former, were hyacinths, roses, and
white violets; among the latter, lychinis, amaryllis, iris, and some
species of lilies.]

[Footnote 168:  Ergastulis.  These were subterranean strong rooms, with
narrow windows, like dungeons, in the country houses, where incorrigible
slaves were confined in fetters, in the intervals of the severe tasks in
grinding at the hand-mills, quarrying stones, drawing water, and other
hard agricultural labour in which they were employed.]

[Footnote 169:  These months were not only "the Long Vacation" of the
lawyers, but during them there was a general cessation of business at
Rome; the calendar exhibiting a constant succession of festivals.  The
month of December, in particular, was devoted to pleasure and relaxation.]

[Footnote 170:  Causes are mentioned, the hearing of which was so
protracted that lights were required in the court; and sometimes they
lasted, we are told, as long as eleven or twelve days.]

[Footnote 171:  Orcini.  They were also called Charonites, the point of
the sarcasm being, that they owed their elevation to a dead man, one who
was gone to Orcus, namely Julius Caesar, after whose death Mark Antony
introduced into the senate many persons of low rank who were designated
for that honour in a document left by the deceased emperor.]

[Footnote 172:  Cordus Cremutius wrote a History of the Civil Wars, and
the 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, and
there was an altar consecrated to some god in the curia, where they
otherwise met, as that to Victory in the Julian Curia.]

[Footnote 175:  To allow of their absence during the vintage, always an
important season in rural affairs in wine-growing countries.  In the
middle and south of Italy, it begins in September, and, in the worst
aspects, the grapes are generally cleared before the end of October.  In
elevated districts they hung on the trees, as we have witnessed, till the
month of November.]

[Footnote 176:  Julius Caesar had introduced the contrary practice.  See
JULIUS, c. xx.]

[Footnote 177:  A.U.C. 312, two magistrates were created, under the name
of Censors, whose office, at first, was to take an account of the number
of the people, and the value of their estates.  Power was afterwards
granted them to inspect the morals of the people; and from this period the
office became of great importance.  After Sylla, the election of censors
was intermitted for about seventeen years.  Under the emperors, the office
of censor was abolished; but the chief functions of it were exercised by
the emperors themselves, and frequently both with caprice and severity.]

[Footnote 178:  Young men until they were seventeen years of age, and
young women until they were married, wore a white robe bordered with
purple, called Toga Praetexta.  The former, when they had completed this
period, laid aside the dress of minority, and assumed the Toga Virilis, or
manly habit.  The ceremony of changing the Toga was performed with great
solemnity before the images of the Lares, to whom the Bulla was
consecrated.  On this occasion, they went either to the Capitol, or to
some temple, to pay their devotions to the Gods.]

[Footnote 179:  Transvectio: a procession of the equestrian order, which
they made with great splendour through the city, every year, on the
fifteenth of July.  They rode on horseback from the temple of Honour, or
of Mars, without the city, to the Capitol, with wreaths of olive on their
heads, dressed in robes of scarlet, and bearing in their hands the
military ornaments which they had received from their general, as a reward
of their valour.  The knights rode up to the censor, seated on his curule
chair in front of the Capitol, and dismounting, led their horses in review
before him.  If any of the knights was corrupt in his morals, had
diminished his fortune below the legal standard, or even had not taken
proper care of his horse, the censor ordered him to sell his horse, by
which he was considered as degraded from the equestrian order.]

[Footnote 180:  Pugillaria were a kind of pocket book, so called, because
memorandums 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 in
Homer 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 their
being soiled.  The toga was white, and was the distinguishing costume of
the sovereign people of Rome, without which, they were not to appear in
public; as members of an university are forbidden to do so, without the
academical 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's
attention to views of political economy so worthy of an enlightened
prince.  But it was easier to make the Roman people wear the toga, than to
forego the cry of "Panem et Circenses."]

[Footnote 184:  Septa were enclosures made with boards, commonly for the
purpose of distributing the people into distinct classes, and erected
occasionally like our hustings.]

[Footnote 185:  The Thensa was a splendid carriage with four wheels, and
four horses, adorned with ivory and silver, in which, at the Circensian
games, the images of the gods were drawn in solemn procession from their
shrines, to a place in the circus, called the Pulvinar, where couches were
prepared for their reception.  It received its name from thongs (lora
tensa) stretched before it; and was attended in the procession by persons
of the first rank, in their most magnificent apparel.  The attendants took
delight in putting their hands to the traces: and if a boy happened to let
go the thong which he held, it was an indispensable rule that the
procession should be renewed.]

[Footnote 186:  The Cavea was the name of the whole of that part of the
theatre where the spectators sat.  The foremost rows were called cavea
prima, of cavea; the last, cavea ultima, or summa; and the middle, cavea
media.]

[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 sense
now, the idea of Divinity, for it is coupled with Deus, God; nunquum se
dominum vel deum appellare voluerit.]

[Footnote 192:  An inclosure in the middle of the Forum, marking the spot
where Curtius leapt into the lake, which had been long since filled up.]

[Footnote 193:  Sandalarium, Tragoedum; names of streets, in which temples
of 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 one
hundred members, who were called Patres, i. e. Fathers, either upon
account of their age, or their paternal care of the state.  The number
received some augmentation under Tullus Hostilius; and Tarquinius Priscus,
the fifth king of Rome, added a hundred more, who were called Patres
minorum gentium; those created by Romulus being distinguished by the name
of Patres majorum gentium.  Those who were chosen into the senate by
Brutus, after the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, to supply the place of
those whom that king had slain, were called Conscripti, i. e. persons
written or enrolled among the old senators, who alone were properly styled
Patres.  Hence arose the custom of summoning to the senate those who were
Patres, and those who were Conscripti; and hence also was applied to the
senators in general the designation of Patres Conscripti, the particle et,
and, being understood to connect the two classes of senators.  In the time
of Julius Caesar, the number of senators was increased to nine hundred,
and after his death to a thousand; many worthless persons having been
admitted into the senate during the civil wars.  Augustus afterwards
reduced the number to six hundred.]

[Footnote 196:  Antonius Musa was a freedman, and had acquired his
knowledge 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, whose
death 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 for
the purpose of excusing his own marriage with Cleopatra.]

[Footnote 202:  This form of adoption consisted in a fictitious sale.  See
Cicero, Topic. iii.]

[Footnote 203:  Curiae.  Romulus divided the people of Rome into three
tribes; and each tribe into ten Curiae.  The number of tribes was
afterwards increased by degrees to thirty-five; but that of the Curiae
always remained the same.]

[Footnote 204:  She was removed to Reggio in Calabria.]

[Footnote 205:  Agrippa was first banished to the little desolate island
of 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 is
venting his rage on Paris.  The inflexion is slightly changed, the line in
the original commencing, "Aith' opheles, etc., would thou wert, etc."]

[Footnote 207:  Women called ustriculae, the barbers, were employed in
thin 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, or
the proper name of the first priest of Cybele.]

[Footnote 209:  A small drum, beat by the finger or thumb, was used by the
priests of Cybele in their lascivious rites and in other orgies of a
similar description, These drums were made of inflated skin, circular in
shape, so that they had some resemblance to the orb which, in the statues
of the emperor, he is represented as holding in his hand.  The populace,
with the coarse humour which was permitted to vent itself freely at the
spectacles, did not hesitate to apply what was said in the play of the
lewd priest of Cybele, to Augustus, in reference to the scandals attached
to his private character.  The word cinaedus, translated "wanton," might
have been rendered by a word in vulgar use, the coarsest in the English
language, and there is probably still more in the allusion too indelicate
to be dwelt upon.]

[Footnote 210:  Mark Antony makes use of fondling diminutives of the names
of Tertia, Terentia, and Rufa, some of Augustus's favourites.]

[Footnote 211:  Dodekatheos; the twelve Dii Majores; they are enumerated
in 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 that
torturing 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, the
Roman money-lenders united both trades.  See afterwards, NERO, c. 5.  It
is hardly necessary to remark that vases or vessels of the compound metal
which went by the name of Corinthian brass, or bronze, were esteemed even
more valuable than silver plate.]

[Footnote 214:  See c. xxxii. and note.]

[Footnote 215:  The Romans, at their feasts, during the intervals of
drinking, often played at dice, of which there were two kinds, the
tesserae and tali.  The former had six sides, like the modern dice; the
latter, four oblong sides, for the two ends were not regarded.  In
playing, they used three tesserae and four tali, which were all put into a
box wider below than above, and being shaken, were thrown out upon the
gaming-board or table.]

[Footnote 216:  The highest cast was so called.]

[Footnote 217:  Enlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors.  The ruins
of the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine.]

[Footnote 218:  Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the Alban
Mount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked.]

[Footnote 219:  It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets of
apartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to the
sun.]

[Footnote 220:  This word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts.  It was
common, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartment
called the Study, or Museum.  Pliny says, beautifully, "O mare! O littus!
verum secretumque mouseion, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?"  O
sea! O shore!  Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science do
you 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 magnificent
marine villas.]

[Footnote 223:  Now Tivoli, a delicious spot, where Horace had a villa, in
which 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 whole
body, close at the bottom, but open at the top down to the girdle, and
without sleeves.  The right arm was thus at liberty, and the left
supported a flap of the toga, which was drawn up, and thrown back over the
left shoulder; forming what is called the Sinus, a fold or cavity upon the
breast, in which things might be carried, and with which the face or head
might be occasionally covered.  When a person did any work, he tucked up
his toga, and girt it round him.  The toga of the rich and noble was finer
and larger than that of others; and a new toga was called Pexa. None but
Roman citizens were permitted to wear the toga; and banished persons were
prohibited the use of it.  The colour of the toga was white. The clavus
was a purple border, by which the senators, and other orders, with the
magistrates, were distinguished; the breadth of the stripe corresponding
with their rank.]

[Footnote 225:  In which the whole humour of the thing consisted either in
the uses to which these articles were applied, or in their names having in
Latin a double signification; matters which cannot be explained with any
decency.]

[Footnote 226:  Casum bubulum manu pressum; probably soft cheese, not
reduced 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 as
the month of November.]

[Footnote 228:  Sabbatis Jejunium.  Augustus might have been better
informed 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 the
sabbath-day to be kept for ever by the Jews as a fast, in memory of their
fasting for seven days in the deserts of Arabia, xxxvi. 2. 14.  But we
find that there was a weekly fast among the Jews, which is perhaps what is
here meant; the Sabbatis Jejunium being equivalent to the Naesteuo dis tou
sabbatou, '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 have
reason to believe, was not a very generous liquor.]

[Footnote 230:  A custom in all warm countries; the siesta of the Italians
in later times.]

[Footnote 231:  The strigil was used in the baths for scraping the body
when 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 when
profusely 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 or
the Greeks wore breeches, trews, or trowsers, which they despised as
barbarian articles of dress.  The coverings here mentioned were swathings
for the legs and thighs, used mostly in cases of sickness or infirmity,
and when otherwise worn, reckoned effeminate.  But soon after the Romans
became acquainted with the German and Celtic nations, the habit of
covering the lower extremities, barbarous as it had been held, was
generally adopted.]

[Footnote 235:  Albula.  On the left of the road to Tivoli, near the ruins
of Adrian's villa.  The waters are sulphureous, and the deposit from them
causes incrustations on twigs and other matters plunged in the springs.
See a curious account of this stream in Gell's Topography, published by
Bohn, 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 Greek
phrases which Augustus was in the habit of using.  This compound word
meant 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 to
the public, Augustus decreed that no new buildings erected in a public
thoroughfare should exceed in height seventy feet.  Trajan reduced it to
sixty.]

[Footnote 240:  Virgil is said to have recited before him the whole of the
second, fourth, and sixth books of the Aeneid; and Octavia, being present,
when the poet came to the passage referring to her son, commencing, "Tu
Marcellus 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 of
Jupiter 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 was
one solitary palm standing in the garden of a convent some years ago, but
it was of very stunted growth.]

[Footnote 244:  The Republican forms were preserved in some of the larger
towns.]

[Footnote 245:  "The Nundinae occurred every ninth day, when a market was
held at Rome, and the people came to it from the country.  The practice
was not then introduced amongst the Romans, of dividing their time into
weeks, as we do, in imitation of the Jews.  Dio, who flourished under
Severus, says that it first took place a little before his time, and was
derived from the Egyptians."--Thomson.  A fact, if well founded, of some
importance.]

[Footnote 246:  "The Romans divided their months into calends, nones, and
ides. The first day of the month was the calends of that month; whence
they reckoned backwards, distinguishing the time by the day before the
calends, the second day before the calends, and so on, to the ides of the
preceding month.  In eight months of the year, the nones were the fifth
day, 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 the
nones they reckoned backwards to the calends, as they also did from the
ides to the nones."--Ib.]

[Footnote 247:  The early Christians shared with the Jews the aversion of
the Romans to their religion, more than that of others, arising probably
from its monotheistic and exclusive character.  But we find from Josephus
and Philo that Augustus was in other respects favourable to the Jews.]

[Footnote 248:  Strabo tells us that Mendes was a city of Egypt near
Lycopolis. Asclepias wrote a book in Greek with the idea of
theologoumenon, in defence of some very strange religious rites, of which
the example in the text is a specimen.]

[Footnote 249:  Velletri stands on very high ground, commanding extensive
views of the Pontine marshes and the sea.]

[Footnote 250:  Munda was a city in the Hispania Boetica, where Julius
Caesar fought a battle.  See c. lvi.]

[Footnote 251:  The good omen, in this instance, was founded upon the
etymology of the names of the ass and its driver; the former of which, in
Greek, signifies fortunate, and the latter, victorious.]

[Footnote 252:  Aesar is a Greek word with an Etruscan termination; aisa
signifying fate.]

[Footnote 253:  Astura stood not far from Terracina, on the road to
Naples. Augustus embarked there for the islands lying off that coast.]

[Footnote 254:  "Puteoli"--"A ship of Alexandria."  Words which bring to
our 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 not
only exported to Rome and other cities of Italy, vast quantities of corn
and other products of Egypt, but was the mart for spices and other
commodities, 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 men
and women, freemen and slaves, but particularly by philosophers.]

[Footnote 256:  Masgabas seems, by his name, to have been of African
origin.]

[Footnote 257:  A courtly answer from the Professor of Science, in which
character he attended Tiberius.  We shall hear more of him in the reign of
that 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 of
Roman citizens.  Some of them had all which could be enjoyed without
residing at Rome.  Others had the right of serving in the Roman legions,
but not that of voting, nor of holding civil offices.  The municipia
retained their own laws and customs; nor were they obliged to receive the
Roman laws unless they chose it.]

[Footnote 260:  Bovillae, a small place on the Appian Way, about nineteen
miles from Rome, now called Frattochio.]

[Footnote 261:  Dio tells us that the devoted Livia joined with the
knights in this pious office, which occupied them during five days.]

[Footnote 262:  For the Flaminian Way, see before, p. 94, note.  The
superb monument erected by Augustus over the sepulchre of the imperial
family was of white marble, rising in stages to a great height, and
crowned by a dome, on which stood a statue of Augustus.  Marcellus was the
first who was buried in the sepulchre beneath.  It stood near the present
Porta del Popolo; and the Bustum, where the bodies of the emperor and his
family were burnt, is supposed to have stood on the site of the church of
the 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, the
lowest 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 his
daughter, 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 by
the size of my volume, and my anxiety to complete the undertaking.]

[Footnote 271:  After performing these immortal achievements, while he was
holding an assembly of the people for reviewing his army in the plain near
the lake of Capra, a storm suddenly rose, attended with great thunder and
lightning, and enveloped the king in so dense a mist, that it took all
sight of him from the assembly.  Nor was Romulus after this seen on earth.
The consternation being at length over, and fine clear weather succeeding
so turbulent a day, when the Roman youth saw the royal seat empty, though
they readily believed the Fathers who had stood nearest him, that he was
carried aloft by the storm, yet struck with the dread as it were of
orphanage, they preserved a sorrowful silence for a considerable time.
Then a commencement having been made by a few, the whole multitude salute
Romulus a god, son of a god, the king and parent of the Roman city; they
implore his favour with prayers, that he would be pleased always
propitiously to preserve his own offspring.  I believe that even then
there were some who silently surmised that the king had been torn in
pieces by the hands of the Fathers; for this rumour also spread, but was
not credited; their admiration of the man and the consternation felt at
the moment, attached importance to the other report.  By the contrivance
also of one individual, additional credit is said to have been gained to
the matter.  For Proculus Julius, whilst the state was still troubled with
regret for the king, and felt incensed against the senators, a person of
weight, as we are told, in any matter, however important, comes forward to
the 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 the
Romans, that the gods do will, that my Rome should become the capital of
the world.  Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them know
and hand down to posterity, that no human power shall be able to withstand
the Roman arms.'  Having said this, he ascended up to heaven."  It is
surprising what credit was given to the man on his making this
announcement, and how much the regret of the common people and army for
the loss of Romulus, was assuaged upon the assurance of his immortality.]

[Footnote 272:  Padua.]

[Footnote 273:  Commentators seem to have given an erroneous and
unbecoming sense to Cicero's exclamation, when they suppose that the
object understood, as connected with altera, related to himself.  Hope is
never applied in this signification, but to a young person, of whom
something good or great is expected; and accordingly, Virgil, who adopted
the 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's
Eclogues, must have been near his grand climacteric; besides that, his
virtues and talents had long been conspicuous, and were past the state of
hope.  It is probable, therefore, that altera referred to some third
person, spoken of immediately before, as one who promised to do honour to
his country.  It might refer to Octavius, of whom Cicero at this time,
entertained a high opinion; or it may have been spoken in an absolute
manner, without reference to any person.]

[Footnote 274:  I was born at Mantua, died in Calabria, and my tomb is at
Parthenope: pastures, rural affairs, and heroes are the themes of my
poems.]

[Footnote 275:  The last members of these two lines, from the commas to
the 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 surpassing
would 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 of
Zachary 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 my
early youth sported in numbers adapted to it."--Riley's Ovid.]

[Footnote 281:  "I long since erred by one composition; a fault that is
not recent endures a punishment inflicted thus late.  I had already
published my poems, when, according to my privilege, I passed in review so
many times unmolested as one of the equestrian order, before you the
enquirer into criminal charges.  Is it then possible that the writings
which, in my want of confidence, I supposed would not have injured me when
young, have now been my ruin in my old age?"--Riley's Ovid.]

[Footnote 282:  This place, now called Temisvar, or Tomisvar, stands on
one of the mouths of the Danube, about sixty-five miles E.N.E. from
Silistria.  The neighbouring bay of the Black Sea is still called the Gulf
of Baba.]

[Footnote 283:  "It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursue
glory by means of the intellect, than of bodily strength; and, since the
life we enjoy is short to make the remembrance of it as lasting as
possible."]

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TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR

(192)

I.  The patrician family of the Claudii (for there was a plebeian family
of the same name, no way inferior to the other either in power or
dignity) came originally from Regilli, a town of the Sabines.  They
removed thence to Rome soon after the building of the city, with a great
body of their dependants, under Titus Tatius, who reigned jointly with
Romulus in the kingdom; or, perhaps, what is related upon better
authority, under Atta Claudius, the head of the family, who was admitted
by the senate into the patrician order six years after the expulsion of
the Tarquins.  They likewise received from the state, lands beyond the
Anio for their followers, and a burying-place for themselves near the
capitol [284].  After this period, in process of time, the family had the
honour of twenty-eight consulships, five dictatorships, seven
censorships, seven triumphs, and two ovations.  Their descendants were
distinguished by various praenomina and cognomina [285], but rejected by
common consent the praenomen of (193) Lucius, when, of the two races who
bore it, one individual had been convicted of robbery, and another of
murder.  Amongst other cognomina, they assumed that of Nero, which in the
Sabine language signifies strong and valiant.

II.  It appears from record, that many of the Claudii have performed
signal services to the state, as well as committed acts of delinquency.
To mention the most remarkable only, Appius Caecus dissuaded the senate
from 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 cut
off Hasdrubal with a vast army upon his arrival in Italy from Spain,
before he could form a junction with his brother Hannibal [288].  On the
other hand, Claudius Appius Regillanus, one of the Decemvirs, made a
violent attempt to have a free virgin, of whom he was enamoured, adjudged
a slave; which caused the people to secede a second time from the senate
[289].  Claudius Drusus erected a statue of himself wearing a crown at
Appii Forum [290], and endeavoured, by means of his dependants, to make
himself master of Italy.  Claudius Pulcher, when, off the coast of Sicily
[291], the pullets used for taking augury would not eat, in contempt of
the omen threw them overboard, as if they should drink at least, if they
would not eat; and then engaging the enemy, was routed.  After his
defeat, when he (194) was ordered by the senate to name a dictator,
making a sort of jest of the public disaster, he named Glycias, his
apparitor.

The women of this family, likewise, exhibited characters equally opposed
to each other.  For both the Claudias belonged to it; she, who, when the
ship 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 the
Goddess 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 to
trial by the people for treason; because, when her litter was stopped by
a great crowd in the streets, she openly exclaimed, "I wish my brother
Pulcher was alive now, to lose another fleet, that Rome might be less
thronged."  Besides, it is well known, that all the Claudii, except
Publius Claudius, who, to effect the banishment of Cicero, procured
himself to be adopted by a plebeian [293], and one younger than himself,
were always of the patrician party, as well as great sticklers for the
honour and power of that order; and so violent and obstinate in their
opposition to the plebeians, that not one of them, even in the case of a
trial for life by the people, would ever condescend to put on mourning,
according to custom, or make any supplication to them for favour; and
some of them in their contests, have even proceeded to lay hands on the
tribunes of the people.  A Vestal Virgin likewise of the family, when her
brother was resolved to have the honour of a triumph contrary to the will
of the people, mounted the chariot with him, and attended him into the
Capitol, that it might not be lawful for any of the tribunes to interfere
and forbid it. [294]

III.  From this family Tiberius Caesar is descended; indeed both by the
father and mother's side; by the former from Tiberius Nero, and by the
latter from Appius Pulcher, who were both sons of Appius Caecus.  He
likewise belonged to the family of the Livii, by the adoption of his
mother'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 of
master of the horse; and was famous for eminent men, particularly,
Salinator and the Drusi.  Salinator, in his censorship [295], branded all
the tribes, for their inconstancy in having made him consul a second
time, as well as censor, although they had condemned him to a heavy fine
after his first consulship.  Drusus procured for himself and his
posterity a new surname, by killing in single combat Drausus, the enemy's
chief.  He is likewise said to have recovered, when pro-praetor in the
province of Gaul, the gold which was formerly given to the Senones, at
the siege of the Capitol, and had not, as is reported, been forced from
them by Camillus.  His great-great-grandson, who, for his extraordinary
services against the Gracchi, was styled the "Patron of the Senate," left
a son, who, while plotting in a sedition of the same description, was
treacherously 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 greatly
to its success.  He was therefore made one of the high-priests in the
room of Publius Scipio [297]; and was sent to settle some colonies in
Gaul, and amongst the rest, those of Narbonne and Arles [298].  After the
assassination of Caesar, however, when the rest of the senators, for fear
of public disturbances; were for having the affair buried in oblivion, he
proposed a resolution for rewarding those who had killed the tyrant.
Having filled the office of praetor [299], and at the end of the year a
disturbance breaking out amongst the triumviri, he kept the badges of his
office beyond the legal time; and following Lucius Antonius the consul,
brother of the triumvir, to Perusia [300], though the rest submitted, yet
he 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 immediately
admitted into the presence of Sextus Pompey, and being also prohibited
the use of the fasces, he went over into Achaia to Mark Antony; with
whom, upon a reconciliation soon after brought about amongst the several
contending parties, he returned to Rome; and, at the request of Augustus,
gave up to him his wife Livia Drusilla, although she was then big with
child, and had before borne him a son.  He died not long after; leaving
behind him two sons, Tiberius and Drusus Nero.

V.  Some have imagined that Tiberius was born at Fundi, but there is only
this trifling foundation for the conjecture, that his mother's
grandmother was of Fundi, and that the image of Good Fortune was, by a
decree of the senate, erected in a public place in that town.  But
according to the greatest number of writers, and those too of the best
authority, he was born at Rome, in the Palatine quarter, upon the
sixteenth of the calends of December [16th Nov.], when Marcus Aemilius
Lepidus was second time consul, with Lucius Munatius Plancus [301], after
the battle of Philippi; for so it is registered in the calendar, and the
public acts.  According to some, however, he was born the preceding year,
in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa; and others say, in the year
following, during the consulship of Servilius Isauricus and Antony.

VI.  His infancy and childhood were spent in the midst of danger and
trouble; for he accompanied his parents everywhere in their flight, and
twice at Naples nearly betrayed them by his crying, when they were
privately hastening to a ship, as the enemy rushed into the town; once,
when he was snatched from his nurse's breast, and again, from his
mother's bosom, by some of the company, who on the sudden emergency
wished to relieve the women of their burden.  Being carried through
Sicily and Achaia, and entrusted for some time to the care of the
Lacedaemonians, who were under the protection of the Claudian family,
upon his departure thence when travelling by night, he ran the hazard of
his 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 and
hair was burnt.  The presents which were made him (197) by Pompeia,
sister to Sextus Pompey, in Sicily, namely, a cloak, with a clasp, and
bullae 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 afterwards
declined the use of his name, because Gallius had been of the party
opposed to Augustus.  When only nine years of age, he pronounced a
funeral oration in praise of his father upon the rostra; and afterwards,
when he had nearly attained the age of manhood, he attended the chariot
of Augustus, in his triumph for the victory at Actium, riding on the
left-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 a
troop of the biggest boys.

VII.  After assuming the manly habit, he spent his youth, and the rest of
his life until he succeeded to the government, in the following manner:
he gave the people an entertainment of gladiators, in memory of his
father, and another for his grandfather Drusus, at different times and in
different places: the first in the forum, the second in the amphitheatre;
some gladiators who had been honourably discharged, being induced to
engage again, by a reward of a hundred thousand sesterces.  He likewise
exhibited public sports, at which he was not present himself.  All these
he performed with great magnificence, at the expense of his mother and
father-in-law.  He married Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa, and
grand-daughter of Caecilius Atticus, a Roman knight, the same person to
whom Cicero has addressed so many epistles.  After having by her his son
Drusus, he was obliged to part with her [302], though she retained his
affection, and was again pregnant, to make way for marrying Augustus's
daughter Julia.  But this he did with extreme reluctance; for, besides
having the warmest attachment to Agrippina, he was disgusted with the
conduct of Julia, who had made indecent advances to him during the
lifetime of her former husband; and that she was a woman of loose
character, was the general opinion.  At divorcing Agrippina he felt the
deepest regret; and upon meeting her afterwards, (198) he looked after
her with eyes so passionately expressive of affection, that care was
taken she should never again come in his sight.  At first, however, he
lived quietly and happily with Julia; but a rupture soon ensued, which
became so violent, that after the loss of their son, the pledge of their
union, who was born at Aquileia and died in infancy [303], he never would
sleep with her more.  He lost his brother Drusus in Germany, and brought
his body to Rome, travelling all the way on foot before it.

VIII.  When he first applied himself to civil affairs, he defended the
several causes of king Archelaus, the Trallians, and the Thessalians,
before Augustus, who sat as judge at the trials.  He addressed the senate
on behalf of the Laodiceans, the Thyatireans, and Chians, who had
suffered greatly by an earthquake, and implored relief from Rome.  He
prosecuted Fannius Caepio, who had been engaged in a conspiracy with
Varro Muraena against Augustus, and procured sentence of condemnation
against him.  Amidst all this, he had besides to superintend two
departments 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 odious
suspicion of seizing and keeping confined, not only travellers, but those
whom the fear of being obliged to serve in the army had driven to seek
refuge in such places.

IX.  He made his first campaign, as a military tribune, in the Cantabrian
war [305].  Afterwards he led an army into the East [306], where he
restored the kingdom of Armenia to Tigranes; and seated on a tribunal,
put a crown upon his head.  He likewise recovered from the Parthians the
standards which they had taken from Crassus.  He next governed, for
nearly a year, the province of Gallia Comata, which was then in great
disorder, on account of the incursions of the barbarians, and the feuds
of the chiefs.  He afterwards commanded in the several wars against the
Rhaetians, Vindelicians, Pannonians, and Germans.  In the Rhaetian and
Vindelician wars, he subdued the nations in the Alps; and in the
Pannonian 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 said
by some to have been the first that ever was honoured with this
distinction.  He filled early the principal offices of state; and passed
through the quaestorship [307], praetorship [308], and consulate [309]
almost successively.  After some interval, he was chosen consul a second
time, and held the tribunitian authority during five years.

X.  Surrounded by all this prosperity, in the prime of life and in
excellent health, he suddenly formed the resolution of withdrawing to a
greater distance from Rome [310].  It is uncertain whether this was the
result of disgust for his wife, whom he neither durst accuse nor divorce,
and the connection with whom became every day more intolerable; or to
prevent that indifference towards him, which his constant residence in
the city might produce; or in the hope of supporting and improving by
absence his authority in the state, if the public should have occasion
for his service.  Some are of opinion, that as Augustus's sons were now
grown up to years of maturity, he voluntarily relinquished the possession
he had long enjoyed of the second place in the government, as Agrippa had
done 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 his
promotion, or in any respect lessen him by his presence.  The same reason
likewise Tiberius gave afterwards for his retirement; but his pretext at
this time was, that he was satiated with honours, and desirous of being
relieved from the fatigue of business; requesting therefore that he might
have leave to withdraw.  And neither the earnest entreaties of his
mother, 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 his
resolution.  Upon their persisting in the design of detaining him, he
refused to take any sustenance for four days together.  At last, having
obtained 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 awhile
on receiving intelligence of Augustus's being taken ill, but this giving
rise 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 at
the time of his landing therein his return from Armenia.  Here contenting
himself with a small house, and a villa not much larger, near the town,
he led entirely a private life, taking his walks sometimes about the
Gymnasia [312], without any lictor or other attendant, and returning the
civilities of the Greeks with almost as much complaisance as if he had
been upon a level with them.  One morning, in settling the course of his
daily excursion, he happened to say, that he should visit all the sick
people in the town.  This being not rightly understood by those about
him, the sick were brought into a public portico, and ranged in order,
according to their several distempers.  Being extremely embarrassed by
this unexpected occurrence, he was for some time irresolute how he should
act; but at last he determined to go round them all, and make an apology
for the mistake even to the meanest amongst them, and such as were
entirely unknown to him.  One instance only is mentioned, in which he
appeared to exercise his tribunitian authority.  Being a constant
attendant upon the schools and lecture-rooms of the professors of the
liberal arts, on occasion of a quarrel amongst the wrangling (201)
sophists, in which he interposed to reconcile them, some person took the
liberty to abuse him as an intruder, and partial in the affair.  Upon
this, withdrawing privately home, he suddenly returned attended by his
officers, and summoning his accuser before his tribunal, by a public
crier, ordered him to be taken to prison.  Afterwards he received tidings
that his wife Julia had been condemned for her lewdness and adultery, and
that a bill of divorce had been sent to her in his name, by the authority
of Augustus.  Though he secretly rejoiced at this intelligence, he
thought it incumbent upon him, in point of decency, to interpose in her
behalf by frequent letters to Augustus, and to allow her to retain the
presents which he had made her, notwithstanding the little regard she
merited from him.  When the period of his tribunitian authority expired
[313], declaring at last that he had no other object in his retirement
than to avoid all suspicion of rivalship with Caius and Lucius, he
petitioned that, since he was now secure in that respect, as they were
come to the age of manhood, and would easily maintain themselves in
possession of the second place in the state, he might be permitted to
visit his friends, whom he was very desirous of seeing.  But his request
was 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 a
private person, but as one suspected and under apprehension, retiring
into the interior of the country, and avoiding the visits of those who
sailed that way, which were very frequent; for no one passed to take
command of an army, or the government of a province, without touching at
Rhodes.  But there were fresh reasons for increased anxiety.  For
crossing over to Samos, on a visit to his step-son Caius, who had been
appointed governor of the East, he found him prepossessed against him, by
the insinuations of Marcus Lollius, his companion and director.  He
likewise fell under suspicion of sending by some centurions who had been
promoted 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 his
designs being intimated to him by Augustus, he begged repeatedly that
some person of any of the three Orders might be placed as a spy upon him
in every thing he either said or did.

XIII.  He laid aside likewise his usual exercises of riding and arms; and
quitting the Roman habit, made use of the Pallium and Crepida [314].  In
this condition he continued almost two years, becoming daily an object of
increasing contempt and odium; insomuch that the people of Nismes pulled
down all the images and statues of him in their town; and upon mention
being made of him at table one of the company said to Caius, "I will sail
over to Rhodes immediately, if you desire me, and bring you the head of
the exile;" for that was the appellation now given him.  Thus alarmed not
only by apprehensions, but real danger, he renewed his solicitations for
leave to return; and, seconded by the most urgent supplications of his
mother, he at last obtained his request; to which an accident somewhat
contributed.  Augustus had resolved to determine nothing in the affair,
but with the consent of his eldest son.  The latter was at that time out
of humour with Marcus Lollius, and therefore easily disposed to be
favourable to his father-in-law.  Caius thus acquiescing, he was
recalled, but upon condition that he should take no concern whatever in
the 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 had
entertained from his youth, in consequence of various prodigies and
predictions.  For Livia, when pregnant with him, being anxious to
discover, by different modes of divination, whether her offspring would
be a son, amongst others, took an egg from a hen that was sitting, and
kept it warm with her own hands, and those of her maids, by turns, until
a fine cock-chicken, with a large comb, was hatched.  Scribonius, the
astrologer, predicted great things of him when he was a mere child.  "He
will come in time," said the prophet, "to be even a king, but without the
usual badge of royal dignity;" the rule of the Caesars being as yet
unknown.  When he was (203) making his first expedition, and leading his
army through Macedonia into Syria, the altars which had been formerly
consecrated at Philippi by the victorious legions, blazed suddenly with
spontaneous fires.  Soon after, as he was marching to Illyricum, he
stopped to consult the oracle of Geryon, near Padua; and having drawn a
lot by which he was desired to throw golden tali into the fountain of
Aponus [316], for an answer to his inquiries, he did so, and the highest
numbers came up.  And those very tali are still to be seen at the bottom
of the fountain.  A few days before his leaving Rhodes, an eagle, a bird
never before seen in that island, perched on the top of his house.  And
the day before he received intelligence of the permission granted him to
return, as he was changing his dress, his tunic appeared to be all on
fire.  He then likewise had a remarkable proof of the skill of
Thrasyllus, the astrologer, whom, for his proficiency in philosophical
researches, he had taken into his family.  For, upon sight of the ship
which brought the intelligence, he said, good news was coming whereas
every 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 too
hastily entrusted his secrets.

XV.  Upon his return to Rome, having introduced his son Drusus into the
forum, he immediately removed from Pompey's house, in the Carinae, to the
gardens of Mecaenas, on the Esquiline [317], and resigned himself
entirely to his ease, performing only the common offices of civility in
private life, without any preferment in the government.  But Caius and
Lucius being both carried off in the space of three years, he was adopted
by Augustus, along with their brother Agrippa; being obliged in the first
place to adopt Germanicus, his brother's son.  After his adoption, he
never more acted as master of a (204) family, nor exercised, in the
smallest degree, the rights which he had lost by it.  For he neither
disposed of anything in the way of gift, nor manumitted a slave; nor so
much as received any estate left him by will, nor any legacy, without
reckoning it as a part of his peculium or property held under his father.
From that day forward, nothing was omitted that might contribute to the
advancement of his grandeur, and much more, when, upon Agrippa being
discarded and banished, it was evident that the hope of succession rested
upon him alone.

XVI.  The tribunitian authority was again conferred upon him for five
years [318], and a commission given him to settle the affairs of Germany.
The ambassadors of the Parthians, after having had an audience of
Augustus, were ordered to apply to him likewise in his province.  But on
r