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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete
+by C. Suetonius Tranquillus
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: 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: October 22, 2006 [EBook #6400]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWELVE CAESARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
+
+By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
+
+To which are added,
+
+HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS.
+
+
+
+The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.
+
+Revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+C. Suetonius Tranquillus was the son of a Roman knight who commanded 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.
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+   I.  LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
+       1.  Julius Caesar
+       2.  Augustus
+       3.  Tiberius
+       4.  Caligula
+       5.  Claudius
+       6.  Nero
+       7.  Galba
+       8.  Otho
+       9.  Vitellius
+      10.  Vespasian
+      11.  Titus
+      12.  Domitian
+  II.  LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS AND THE HISTORIANS
+ III.  LIVES OF THE POETS
+       Terence
+       Juvenal
+       Persius
+       Horace
+       Lucan
+       Pliny
+ FOOTNOTES
+ INDEX
+
+
+
+
+(1)
+
+THE TWELVE CAESARS.
+
+
+
+
+CAIUS JULIUS CASAR.
+
+
+I.  Julius Caesar, the Divine [3], lost his father [4] when he was in 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.
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+
+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
+receiving intelligence of an insurrection in Illyricum [319], he went
+over to superintend the management of that new war, which proved the most
+serious of all the foreign wars since the Carthaginian.  This he
+conducted during three years, with fifteen legions and an equal number of
+auxiliary forces, under great difficulties, and an extreme scarcity of
+corn.  And though he was several times recalled, he nevertheless
+persisted; fearing lest an enemy so powerful, and so near, should fall
+upon the army in their retreat.  This resolution was attended with good
+success; for he at last reduced to complete subjection all Illyricum,
+lying between Italy and the kingdom of Noricum, Thrace, Macedonia, the
+river Danube, and the Adriatic gulf.
+
+XVII.  The glory he acquired by these successes received an increase from
+the conjuncture in which they happened.  For almost about that very time
+[320] Quintilius Varus was cut off with three legions in Germany; and it
+was generally believed that the victorious Germans would have joined the
+Pannonians, had not the war of Illyricum been previously concluded.  A
+triumph, therefore, besides many other great honours, was decreed him.
+Some proposed that the surname of "Pannonicus," others that of
+"Invincible," and others, of "O Pius," should be conferred on him; but
+Augustus interposed, engaging for him that he would be satisfied with
+that to which he would succeed at his death.  He postponed his triumph,
+because (205) the state was at that time under great affliction for the
+disaster of Varus and his army.  Nevertheless, he entered the city in a
+triumphal robe, crowned with laurel, and mounting a tribunal in the
+Septa, sat with Augustus between the two consuls, whilst the senate gave
+their attendance standing; whence, after he had saluted the people, he
+was attended by them in procession to the several temples.
+
+XVIII.  Next year he went again to Germany, where finding that the defeat
+of Varus was occasioned by the rashness and negligence of the commander,
+he thought proper to be guided in everything by the advice of a council
+of war; whereas, at other times, he used to follow the dictates of his
+own judgment, and considered himself alone as sufficiently qualified for
+the direction of affairs.  He likewise used more cautions than usual.
+Having to pass the Rhine, he restricted the whole convoy within certain
+limits, and stationing himself on the bank of the river, would not suffer
+the waggons to cross the river, until he had searched them at the
+water-side, to see that they carried nothing but what was allowed or
+necessary. Beyond the Rhine, such was his way of living, that he took his
+meals sitting on the bare ground [321], and often passed the night without
+a tent; and his regular orders for the day, as well as those upon sudden
+emergencies, he gave in writing, with this injunction, that in case of any
+doubt as to the meaning of them, they should apply to him for
+satisfaction, even at any hour of the night.
+
+XIX.  He maintained the strictest discipline amongst the troops; reviving
+many old customs relative to punishing and degrading offenders; setting a
+mark of disgrace even upon the commander of a legion, for sending a few
+soldiers with one of his freedmen across the river for the purpose of
+hunting.  Though it was his desire to leave as little as possible in the
+power of fortune or accident, yet he always engaged the enemy with more
+confidence when, in his night-watches, the lamp failed and went out of
+itself; trusting, as he said, in an omen which had never failed him and
+his ancestors (206) in all their commands.  But, in the midst of victory,
+he was very near being assassinated by some Bructerian, who mixing with
+those about him, and being discovered by his trepidation, was put to the
+torture, and confessed his intended crime.
+
+XX.  After two years, he returned from Germany to the city, and
+celebrated the triumph which he had deferred, attended by his
+lieutenants, for whom he had procured the honour of triumphal ornaments
+[322]. Before he turned to ascend the Capitol, he alighted from his
+chariot, and knelt before his father, who sat by, to superintend the
+solemnity.  Bato, the Pannonian chief, he sent to Ravenna, loaded with
+rich presents, in gratitude for his having suffered him and his army to
+retire from a position in which he had so enclosed them, that they were
+entirely at his mercy.  He afterwards gave the people a dinner at a
+thousand tables, besides thirty sesterces to each man.  He likewise
+dedicated the temple of Concord [323], and that of Castor and Pollux,
+which had been erected out of the spoils of the war, in his own and his
+brother's name.
+
+XXI.  A law having been not long after carried by the consuls [324] for
+his being appointed a colleague with Augustus in the administration of
+the provinces, and in taking the census, when that was finished he went
+into Illyricum [325].  But being hastily recalled during his journey, he
+found Augustus alive indeed, but past all hopes of recovery, and was with
+him in private a whole day.  I know, it is generally believed, that upon
+Tiberius's quitting the room, after their private conference, those who
+were in waiting overheard Augustus say, "Ah! unhappy Roman people, to be
+ground by the jaws of such a slow devourer!"  Nor am I ignorant of its
+being reported by some, that Augustus so openly and undisguisedly
+condemned the sourness of his temper, that sometimes, upon his coming in,
+he would break off any jocular conversation in which he was engaged; and
+that he was only prevailed upon by the (207) importunity of his wife to
+adopt him; or actuated by the ambitious view of recommending his own
+memory from a comparison with such a successor.  Yet I must hold to this
+opinion, that a prince so extremely circumspect and prudent as he was,
+did nothing rashly, especially in an affair of so great importance; but
+that, upon weighing the vices and virtues of Tiberius with each other, he
+judged the latter to preponderate; and this the rather since he swore
+publicly, in an assembly of the people, that "he adopted him for the
+public good."  Besides, in several of his letters, he extols him as a
+consummate general, and the only security of the Roman people.  Of such
+declarations I subjoin the following instances: "Farewell, my dear
+Tiberius, and may success attend you, whilst you are warring for me and
+the Muses [326].  Farewell, my most dear, and (as I hope to prosper) most
+gallant man, and accomplished general."  Again.  "The disposition of your
+summer quarters?  In truth, my dear Tiberius, I do not think, that amidst
+so many difficulties, and with an army so little disposed for action, any
+one could have behaved more prudently than you have done.  All those
+likewise who were with you, acknowledge that this verse is applicable to
+you:"
+
+    Unus homo nobis _vigilando_ restituit rem. [327]
+    One man by vigilance restored the state.
+
+"Whenever," he says, "anything happens that requires more than ordinary
+consideration, or I am out of humour upon any occasion, I still, by
+Hercules! long for my dear Tiberius; and those lines of Homer frequently
+occur to my thoughts:"
+
+    Toutou d' espomenoio kai ek pyros aithomenoio
+    Ampho nostaesuimen, epei peri oide noaesai. [328]
+
+    Bold from his prudence, I could ev'n aspire
+    To dare with him the burning rage of fire.
+
+"When I hear and read that you are much impaired by the (208) continued
+fatigues you undergo, may the gods confound me if my whole frame does not
+tremble!  So I beg you to spare yourself, lest, if we should hear of your
+being ill, the news prove fatal both to me and your mother, and the Roman
+people should be in peril for the safety of the empire.  It matters
+nothing whether I be well or no, if you be not well.  I pray heaven
+preserve you for us, and bless you with health both now and ever, if the
+gods have any regard for the Roman people."
+
+XXII.  He did not make the death of Augustus public, until he had taken
+off young Agrippa.  He was slain by a tribune who commanded his guard,
+upon reading a written order for that purpose: respecting which order, it
+was then a doubt, whether Augustus left it in his last moments, to
+prevent any occasion of public disturbance after his decease, or Livia
+issued it, in the name of Augustus; and whether with the knowledge of
+Tiberius or not.  When the tribune came to inform him that he had
+executed his command, he replied, "I commanded you no such thing, and you
+must answer for it to the senate;" avoiding, as it seems, the odium of
+the act for that time.  And the affair was soon buried in silence.
+
+XXIII.  Having summoned the senate to meet by virtue of his tribunitian
+authority, and begun a mournful speech, he drew a deep sigh, as if unable
+to support himself under his affliction; and wishing that not his voice
+only, but his very breath of life, might fail him, gave his speech to his
+son Drusus to read.  Augustus's will was then brought in, and read by a
+freedman; none of the witnesses to it being admitted, but such as were of
+the senatorian order, the rest owning their hand-writing without doors.
+The will began thus: "Since my ill-fortune has deprived me of my two
+sons, Caius and Lucius, let Tiberius Caesar be heir to two-thirds of my
+estate."  These words countenanced the suspicion of those who were of
+opinion, that Tiberius was appointed successor more out of necessity than
+choice, since Augustus could not refrain from prefacing his will in that
+manner.
+
+XXIV.  Though he made no scruple to assume and exercise immediately the
+imperial authority, by giving orders that he (209) should be attended by
+the guards, who were the security and badge of the supreme power; yet he
+affected, by a most impudent piece of acting, to refuse it for a long
+time; one while sharply reprehending his friends who entreated him to
+accept it, as little knowing what a monster the government was; another
+while keeping in suspense the senate, when they implored him and threw
+themselves at his feet, by ambiguous answers, and a crafty kind of
+dissimulation; insomuch that some were out of patience, and one cried
+out, during the confusion, "Either let him accept it, or decline it at
+once;" and a second told him to his face, "Others are slow to perform
+what they promise, but you are slow to promise what you actually
+perform."  At last, as if forced to it, and complaining of the miserable
+and burdensome service imposed upon him, he accepted the government; not,
+however, without giving hopes of his resigning it some time or other.
+The exact words he used were these: "Until the time shall come, when ye
+may think it reasonable to give some rest to my old age."
+
+XXV.  The cause of his long demur was fear of the dangers which
+threatened him on all hands; insomuch that he said, "I have got a wolf
+by the ears."  For a slave of Agrippa's, Clemens by name, had drawn
+together a considerable force to revenge his master's death; Lucius
+Scribonius Libo, a senator of the first distinction, was secretly
+fomenting a rebellion; and the troops both in Illyricum and Germany were
+mutinous.  Both armies insisted upon high demands, particularly that
+their pay should be made equal to that of the pretorian guards.  The army
+in Germany absolutely refused to acknowledge a prince who was not their
+own choice; and urged, with all possible importunity, Germanicus [329],
+who commanded them, to take the government on himself, though he
+obstinately refused it.  It was Tiberius's apprehension from this
+quarter, which made him request the senate to assign him some part only
+in the administration, such as they should judge proper, since no man
+could be sufficient for the whole, without one or more to assist him.  He
+pretended likewise to be in a bad state of health, that Germanicus might
+the more patiently wait in hopes of speedily succeeding him, or at least
+of being (210) admitted to be a colleague in the government.  When the
+mutinies in the armies were suppressed, he got Clemens into his hands by
+stratagem.  That he might not begin his reign by an act of severity, he
+did not call Libo to an account before the senate until his second year,
+being content, in the mean time, with taking proper precautions for his
+own security.  For upon Libo's attending a sacrifice amongst the
+high-priests, instead of the usual knife, he ordered one of lead to be
+given him; and when he desired a private conference with him, he would not
+grant his request, but on condition that his son Drusus should be present;
+and as they walked together, he held him fast by the right hand, under the
+pretence of leaning upon him, until the conversation was over.
+
+XXVI.  When he was delivered from his apprehensions, his behaviour at
+first was unassuming, and he did not carry himself much above the level
+of a private person; and of the many and great honours offered him, he
+accepted but few, and such as were very moderate.  His birth-day, which
+happened to fall at the time of the Plebeian Circensian games, he with
+difficulty suffered to be honoured with the addition of only a single
+chariot, drawn by two horses.  He forbad temples, flamens, or priests to
+be appointed for him, as likewise the erection of any statues or effigies
+for him, without his permission; and this he granted only on condition
+that they should not be placed amongst the images of the gods, but only
+amongst the ornaments of houses.  He also interposed to prevent the
+senate from swearing to maintain his acts; and the month of September
+from being called Tiberius, and October being named after Livia.  The
+praenomen likewise of EMPEROR, with the cognomen of FATHER OF HIS
+COUNTRY, and a civic crown in the vestibule of his house, he would not
+accept.  He never used the name of AUGUSTUS, although he inherited it, in
+any of his letters, excepting those addressed to kings and princes.  Nor
+had he more than three consulships; one for a few days, another for three
+months, and a third, during his absence from the city, until the ides
+[fifteenth] of May.
+
+XXVII.  He had such an aversion to flattery, that he would never suffer
+any senator to approach his litter, as he passed the streets in it,
+either to pay him a civility, or upon business.  (211) And when a man of
+consular rank, in begging his pardon for some offence he had given him,
+attempted to fall at his feet, he started from him in such haste, that he
+stumbled and fell.  If any compliment was paid him, either in
+conversation or a set speech, he would not scruple to interrupt and
+reprimand the party, and alter what he had said.  Being once called
+"lord," [330] by some person, he desired that he might no more be
+affronted in that manner.  When another, to excite veneration, called his
+occupations "sacred," and a third had expressed himself thus: "By your
+authority I have waited upon the senate," he obliged them to change their
+phrases; in one of them adopting persuasion, instead of "authority," and
+in the other, laborious, instead of "sacred."
+
+XXVIII.  He remained unmoved at all the aspersions, scandalous reports,
+and lampoons, which were spread against him or his relations; declaring,
+"In a free state, both the tongue and the mind ought to be free."  Upon
+the senate's desiring that some notice might be taken of those offences,
+and the persons charged with them, he replied, "We have not so much time
+upon our hands, that we ought to involve ourselves in more business.  If
+you once make an opening [331] for such proceedings, you will soon have
+nothing else to do.  All private quarrels will be brought before you
+under that pretence."  There is also on record another sentence used by
+him in the senate, which is far from assuming: "If he speaks otherwise of
+me, I shall take care to behave in such a manner, as to be able to give a
+good account both of my words and actions; and if he persists, I shall
+hate him in my turn."
+
+XXIX.  These things were so much the more remarkable in him, because, in
+the respect he paid to individuals, or the whole body of the senate, he
+went beyond all bounds.  Upon his differing with Quintus Haterius in the
+senate-house, "Pardon me, sir," he said, "I beseech you, if I shall, as a
+senator, speak my mind very freely in opposition to you."  Afterwards,
+addressing the senate in general, he said: "Conscript Fathers, I have
+often said it both now and at other times, that a good (212) and useful
+prince, whom you have invested with so great and absolute power, ought to
+be a slave to the senate, to the whole body of the people, and often to
+individuals likewise: nor am I sorry that I have said it.  I have always
+found you good, kind, and indulgent masters, and still find you so."
+
+XXX.  He likewise introduced a certain show of liberty, by preserving to
+the senate and magistrates their former majesty and power.  All affairs,
+whether of great or small importance, public or private, were laid before
+the senate.  Taxes and monopolies, the erecting or repairing edifices,
+levying and disbanding soldiers, the disposal of the legions and
+auxiliary forces in the provinces, the appointment of generals for the
+management of extraordinary wars, and the answers to letters from foreign
+princes, were all submitted to the senate.  He compelled the commander of
+a troop of horse, who was accused of robbery attended with violence, to
+plead his cause before the senate.  He never entered the senate-house but
+unattended; and being once brought thither in a litter, because he was
+indisposed, he dismissed his attendants at the door.
+
+XXXI.  When some decrees were made contrary to his opinion, he did not
+even make any complaint.  And though he thought that no magistrates after
+their nomination should be allowed to absent themselves from the city,
+but reside in it constantly, to receive their honours in person, a
+praetor-elect obtained liberty to depart under the honorary title of a
+legate at large.  Again, when he proposed to the senate, that the
+Trebians might have leave granted them to divert some money which had
+been left them by will for the purpose of building a new theatre, to that
+of making a road, he could not prevail to have the will of the testator
+set aside.  And when, upon a division of the house, he went over to the
+minority, nobody followed him.  All other things of a public nature were
+likewise transacted by the magistrates, and in the usual forms; the
+authority of the consuls remaining so great, that some ambassadors from
+Africa applied to them, and complained, that they could not have their
+business dispatched by Caesar, to whom they had been sent.  And no
+wonder; since it was observed that he used to rise up as the consuls
+approached, and give them the way.
+
+(213) XXXII.  He reprimanded some persons of consular rank in command of
+armies, for not writing to the senate an account of their proceedings,
+and for consulting him about the distribution of military rewards; as if
+they themselves had not a right to bestow them as they judged proper.  He
+commended a praetor, who, on entering office, revived an old custom of
+celebrating the memory of his ancestors, in a speech to the people.  He
+attended the corpses of some persons of distinction to the funeral pile.
+He displayed the same moderation with regard to persons and things of
+inferior consideration.  The magistrates of Rhodes, having dispatched to
+him a letter on public business, which was not subscribed, he sent for
+them, and without giving them so much as one harsh word, desired them to
+subscribe it, and so dismissed them.  Diogenes, the grammarian, who used
+to hold public disquisitions, at Rhodes every sabbath-day, once refused
+him admittance upon his coming to hear him out of course, and sent him a
+message by a servant, postponing his admission until the next seventh
+day.  Diogenes afterwards coming to Rome, and waiting at his door to be
+allowed to pay his respects to him, he sent him word to come again at the
+end of seven years.  To some governors, who advised him to load the
+provinces with taxes, he answered, "It is the part of a good shepherd to
+shear, not flay, his sheep."
+
+XXXIII.  He assumed the sovereignty [332] by slow degrees, and exercised
+it for a long time with great variety of conduct, though generally with a
+due regard to the public good.  At first he only interposed to prevent
+ill management.  Accordingly, he rescinded some decrees of the senate;
+and when the magistrates sat for the administration of justice, he
+frequently offered his service as assessor, either taking his place
+promiscuously amongst them, or seating himself in a corner of the
+tribunal.  If a rumour prevailed, that any person under prosecution was
+likely to be acquitted by his interest, he would suddenly make his
+appearance, and from the floor of the court, (214) or the praetor's
+bench, remind the judges of the laws, and of their oaths, and the nature
+of the charge brought before them, he likewise took upon himself the
+correction of public morals, where they tended to decay, either through
+neglect, or evil custom.
+
+XXXIV.  He reduced the expense of the plays and public spectacles, by
+diminishing the allowances to actors, and curtailing the number of
+gladiators.  He made grievous complaints to the senate, that the price of
+Corinthian vessels was become enormous, and that three mullets had been
+sold for thirty thousand sesterces: upon which he proposed that a new
+sumptuary law should be enacted; that the butchers and other dealers in
+viands should be subject to an assize, fixed by the senate yearly; and
+the aediles commissioned to restrain eating-houses and taverns, so far as
+not even to permit the sale of any kind of pastry.  And to encourage
+frugality in the public by his own example, he would often, at his solemn
+feasts, have at his tables victuals which had been served up the day
+before, and were partly eaten, and half a boar, affirming, "It has all
+the same good bits that the whole had."  He published an edict against
+the practice of people's kissing each other when they met; and would not
+allow new-year's gifts [333] to be presented after the calends [the
+first] of January was passed.  He had been in the habit of returning
+these offerings four-fold, and making them with his own hand; but being
+annoyed by the continual interruption to which he was exposed during the
+whole month, by those who had not the opportunity of attending him on the
+festival, he returned none after that day.
+
+XXXV.  Married women guilty of adultery, though not prosecuted publicly,
+he authorised the nearest relations to punish by agreement among
+themselves, according to ancient custom.  He discharged a Roman knight
+from the obligation of an oath he had taken, never to turn away his wife;
+and allowed him to divorce her, upon her being caught in criminal
+intercourse with her son-in-law.  Women of ill-fame, divesting themselves
+of the rights and dignity of matrons, had now begun a practice of
+professing themselves prostitutes, to avoid (215) the punishment of the
+laws; and the most profligate young men of the senatorian and equestrian
+orders, to secure themselves against a decree of the senate, which
+prohibited their performing on the stage, or in the amphitheatre,
+voluntarily subjected themselves to an infamous sentence, by which they
+were degraded.  All those he banished, that none for the future might
+evade by such artifices the intention and efficacy of the law.  He
+stripped a senator of the broad stripes on his robe, upon information of
+his having removed to his gardens before the calends [the first] of July,
+in order that he might afterwards hire a house cheaper in the city.  He
+likewise dismissed another from the office of quaestor, for repudiating,
+the day after he had been lucky in drawing his lot, a wife whom he had
+married only the day before.
+
+XXXVI.  He suppressed all foreign religions, and the Egyptian [334] and
+Jewish rites, obliging those who practised that kind of superstition, to
+burn their vestments, and all their sacred utensils.  He distributed the
+Jewish youths, under the pretence of military service, among the
+provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from the city all
+the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to that
+religion [335], under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied.  He
+also expelled the astrologers; but upon their suing for pardon, and
+promising to renounce their profession, he revoked his decree.
+
+XXXVII.  But, above all things, he was careful to keep the (216) public
+peace against robbers, burglars, and those who were disaffected to the
+government.  He therefore increased the number of military stations
+throughout Italy; and formed a camp at Rome for the pretorian cohorts,
+which, till then, had been quartered in the city.  He suppressed with
+great severity all tumults of the people on their first breaking out; and
+took every precaution to prevent them.  Some persons having been killed
+in a quarrel which happened in the theatre, he banished the leaders of
+the parties, and the players about whom the disturbance had arisen; nor
+could all the entreaties of the people afterwards prevail upon him to
+recall them [336].  The people of Pollentia having refused to permit the
+removal of the corpse of a centurion of the first rank from the forum,
+until they had extorted from his heirs a sum of money for a public
+exhibition of gladiators, he detached a cohort from the city, and another
+from the kingdom of Cottius [337]; who concealing the cause of their
+march, entered the town by different gates, with their arms suddenly
+displayed, and trumpets sounding; and having seized the greatest part of
+the people, and the magistrates, they were imprisoned for life.  He
+abolished every where the privileges of all places of refuge.  The
+Cyzicenians having committed an outrage upon some Romans, he deprived
+them of the liberty they had obtained for their good services in the
+Mithridatic war.  Disturbances from foreign enemies he quelled by his
+lieutenants, without ever going against them in person; nor would he even
+employ his lieutenants, but with much reluctance, and when it was
+absolutely necessary.  Princes who were ill-affected towards him, he kept
+in subjection, more by menaces and remonstrances, than by force of arms.
+Some whom he induced to come to him by fair words and promises, he never
+would permit to return home; as Maraboduus the German, Thrascypolis the
+(217) Thracian, and Archelaus the Cappadocian, whose kingdom he even
+reduced into the form of a province.
+
+XXXVIII.  He never set foot outside the gates of Rome, for two years
+together, from the time he assumed the supreme power; and after that
+period, went no farther from the city than to some of the neighbouring
+towns; his farthest excursion being to Antium [338], and that but very
+seldom, and for a few days; though he often gave out that he would visit
+the provinces and armies, and made preparations for it almost every year,
+by taking up carriages, and ordering provisions for his retinue in the
+municipia and colonies.  At last he suffered vows to be put up for his
+good journey and safe return, insomuch that he was called jocosely by the
+name of Callipides, who is famous in a Greek proverb, for being in a
+great hurry to go forward, but without ever advancing a cubit.
+
+XXXIX.  But after the loss of his two sons, of whom Germanicus died in
+Syria, and Drusus at Rome, he withdrew into Campania [339]; at which time
+opinion and conversation were almost general, that he never would return,
+and would die soon.  And both nearly turned out to be true.  For indeed
+he never more came to Rome; and a few days after leaving it, when he was
+at a villa of his called the Cave, near Terracina [340], during supper a
+great many huge stones fell from above, which killed several of the
+guests and attendants; but he almost hopelessly escaped.
+
+XL.  After he had gone round Campania, and dedicated the capitol at
+Capua, and a temple to Augustus at Nola [341], which he made the pretext
+of his journey, he retired to Capri; being (218) greatly delighted with
+the island, because it was accessible only by a narrow beach, being on
+all sides surrounded with rugged cliffs, of a stupendous height, and by a
+deep sea.  But immediately, the people of Rome being extremely clamorous
+for his return, on account of a disaster at Fidenae [342], where upwards
+of twenty thousand persons had been killed by the fall of the
+amphitheatre, during a public spectacle of gladiators, he crossed over
+again to the continent, and gave all people free access to him; so much
+the more, because, at his departure from the city, he had caused it to be
+proclaimed that no one should address him, and had declined admitting any
+persons to his presence, on the journey.
+
+XLI.  Returning to the island, he so far abandoned all care of the
+government, that he never filled up the decuriae of the knights, never
+changed any military tribunes or prefects, or governors of provinces, and
+kept Spain and Syria for several years without any consular lieutenants.
+He likewise suffered Armenia to be seized by the Parthians, Moesia by the
+Dacians and Sarmatians, and Gaul to be ravaged by the Germans; to the
+great disgrace, and no less danger, of the empire.
+
+XLII.  But having now the advantage of privacy, and being remote from the
+observation of the people of Rome, he abandoned himself to all the
+vicious propensities which he had long but imperfectly concealed, and of
+which I shall here give a particular account from the beginning.  While a
+young soldier in the camp, he was so remarkable for his excessive
+inclination to wine, that, for Tiberius, they called him Biberius; for
+Claudius, Caldius; and for Nero, Mero.  And after he succeeded to the
+empire, and was invested with the office of reforming the morality of the
+people, he spent a whole night and two days together in feasting and
+drinking with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso; to one of whom he
+immediately gave the province of Syria, and to the other the prefecture
+of the city; declaring them, in his letters-patent, to be "very pleasant
+companions, and friends fit for all occasions."  He made an appointment
+to sup with Sestius Gallus, a lewd and prodigal old fellow, who had been
+disgraced by Augustus, and reprimanded by himself but a few days before
+in the senate-house; upon condition that he should not recede in the
+least from his usual method of entertainment, and that they should be
+attended at table by naked girls.  He preferred a very obscure candidate
+for the quaestorship, before the most noble competitors, only for taking
+off, in pledging him at table, an amphora of wine at a draught [343].  He
+presented Asellius Sabinus with two hundred thousand sesterces, for
+writing a dialogue, in the way of dispute, betwixt the truffle and the
+fig-pecker, the oyster and the thrush.  He likewise instituted a new
+office to administer to his voluptuousness, to which he appointed Titus
+Caesonius Priscus, a Roman knight.
+
+XLIII.  In his retreat at Capri [344], he also contrived an apartment
+containing couches, and adapted to the secret practice of abominable
+lewdness, where he entertained companies of girls and catamites, and
+assembled from all quarters inventors of unnatural copulations, whom he
+called Spintriae, who defiled one another in his presence, to inflame by
+the exhibition the languid appetite.  He had several chambers set round
+with pictures and statues in the most lascivious attitudes, and furnished
+with the books of Elephantis, that none might want a pattern for the
+execution of any lewd project that was prescribed him.  He likewise
+contrived recesses in woods and groves for the gratification of lust,
+where young persons of both sexes prostituted themselves in caves and
+hollow rocks, in the disguise of little Pans and Nymphs [345].  So that
+he was publicly and commonly called, by an abuse of the name of the
+island, Caprineus. [346]
+
+XLIV.  But he was still more infamous, if possible, for an (220)
+abomination not fit to be mentioned or heard, much less credited. [347]
+------------------When a picture, painted by Parrhasius, in which the
+artist had represented Atalanta in the act of submitting to Meleager's
+lust in a most unnatural way, was bequeathed to him, with this proviso,
+that if the subject was offensive to him, he might receive in lieu of it
+a million of sesterces, he not only chose the picture, but hung it up in
+his bed-chamber.  It is also reported that, during a sacrifice, he was so
+captivated with the form of a youth who held a censer, that, before the
+religious rites were well over, he took him aside and abused him; as also
+a brother of his who had been playing the flute; and soon afterwards
+broke the legs of both of them, for upbraiding one another with their
+shame.
+
+XLV.  How much he was guilty of a most foul intercourse with women even
+of the first quality [348], appeared very plainly by the death of one
+Mallonia, who, being brought to his bed, but resolutely refusing to
+comply with his lust, he gave her up to the common informers.  Even when
+she was upon her trial, he frequently called out to her, and asked her,
+"Do you repent?" until she, quitting the court, went home, and stabbed
+herself; openly upbraiding the vile old lecher for his gross obscenity
+[349]. Hence there was an allusion to him in a farce, which was acted at
+the next public sports, and was received with great applause, and became
+a common topic of ridicule [350]: that the old goat--------
+
+XLVI.  He was so niggardly and covetous, that he never allowed to his
+attendants, in his travels and expeditions, any salary, but their diet
+only.  Once, indeed, he treated them liberally, at the instigation of his
+step-father, when, dividing them into three classes, according to their
+rank, he gave the (221) first six, the second four, and the third two,
+hundred thousand sesterces, which last class he called not friends, but
+Greeks.
+
+XLVII.  During the whole time of his government, he never erected any
+noble edifice; for the only things he did undertake, namely, building the
+temple of Augustus, and restoring Pompey's Theatre, he left at last,
+after many years, unfinished.  Nor did he ever entertain the people with
+public spectacles; and he was seldom present at those which were given by
+others, lest any thing of that kind should be requested of him;
+especially after he was obliged to give freedom to the comedian Actius.
+Having relieved the poverty of a few senators, to avoid further demands,
+he declared that he should for the future assist none, but those who gave
+the senate full satisfaction as to the cause of their necessity.  Upon
+this, most of the needy senators, from modesty and shame, declined
+troubling him.  Amongst these was Hortalus, grandson to the celebrated
+orator Quintus Hortensius, who [marrying], by the persuasion of Augustus,
+had brought up four children upon a very small estate.
+
+XLVIII.  He displayed only two instances of public munificence.  One was
+an offer to lend gratis, for three years, a hundred millions of sesterces
+to those who wanted to borrow; and the other, when, some large houses
+being burnt down upon Mount Caelius, he indemnified the owners.  To the
+former of these he was compelled by the clamours of the people, in a
+great scarcity of money, when he had ratified a decree of the senate
+obliging all money-lenders to advance two-thirds of their capital on
+land, and the debtors to pay off at once the same proportion of their
+debts, and it was found insufficient to remedy the grievance.  The other
+he did to alleviate in some degree the pressure of the times.  But his
+benefaction to the sufferers by fire, he estimated at so high a rate,
+that he ordered the Caelian Hill to be called, in future, the Augustan.
+To the soldiery, after doubling the legacy left them by Augustus, he
+never gave any thing, except a thousand denarii a man to the pretorian
+guards, for not joining the party of Sejanus; and some presents to the
+legions in Syria, because they alone had not paid reverence to the
+effigies of Sejanus among their standards.  He seldom gave discharges to
+the veteran soldiers, calculating (222) on their deaths from advanced
+age, and on what would be saved by thus getting rid of them, in the way
+of rewards or pensions.  Nor did he ever relieve the provinces by any act
+of generosity, excepting Asia, where some cities had been destroyed by an
+earthquake.
+
+XLIX.  In the course of a very short time, he turned his mind to sheer
+robbery.  It is certain that Cneius Lentulus, the augur, a man of vast
+estate, was so terrified and worried by his threats and importunities,
+that he was obliged to make him his heir; and that Lepida, a lady of a
+very noble family, was condemned by him, in order to gratify Quirinus, a
+man of consular rank, extremely rich, and childless, who had divorced her
+twenty years before, and now charged her with an old design to poison
+him.  Several persons, likewise, of the first distinction in Gaul, Spain,
+Syria, and Greece, had their estates confiscated upon such despicably
+trifling and shameless pretences, that against some of them no other
+charge was preferred, than that they held large sums of ready money as
+part of their property.  Old immunities, the rights of mining, and of
+levying tolls, were taken from several cities and private persons.  And
+Vonones, king of the Parthians, who had been driven out of his dominions
+by his own subjects, and fled to Antioch with a vast treasure, claiming
+the protection of the Roman people, his allies, was treacherously robbed
+of all his money, and afterwards murdered.
+
+L.  He first manifested hatred towards his own relations in the case of
+his brother Drusus, betraying him by the production of a letter to
+himself, in which Drusus proposed that Augustus should be forced to
+restore the public liberty.  In course of time, he shewed the same
+disposition with regard to the rest of his family.  So far was he from
+performing any office of kindness or humanity to his wife, when she was
+banished, and, by her father's order, confined to one town, that he
+forbad her to stir out of the house, or converse with any men.  He even
+wronged her of the dowry given her by her father, and of her yearly
+allowance, by a quibble of law, because Augustus had made no provision
+for them on her behalf in his will.  Being harassed by his mother, Livia,
+who claimed an equal share in the government with him, he frequently
+avoided (223) seeing her, and all long and private conferences with her,
+lest it should be thought that he was governed by her counsels, which,
+notwithstanding, he sometimes sought, and was in the habit of adopting.
+He was much offended at the senate, when they proposed to add to his
+other titles that of the Son of Livia, as well as Augustus.  He,
+therefore, would not suffer her to be called "the Mother of her Country,"
+nor to receive any extraordinary public distinction.  Nay, he frequently
+admonished her "not to meddle with weighty affairs, and such as did not
+suit her sex;" especially when he found her present at a fire which broke
+out near the Temple of Vesta [351], and encouraging the people and
+soldiers to use their utmost exertions, as she had been used to do in the
+time of her husband.
+
+LI.  He afterwards proceeded to an open rupture with her, and, as is
+said, upon this occasion.  She having frequently urged him to place among
+the judges a person who had been made free of the city, he refused her
+request, unless she would allow it to be inscribed on the roll, "That the
+appointment had been extorted from him by his mother."  Enraged at this,
+Livia brought forth from her chapel some letters from Augustus to her,
+complaining of the sourness and insolence of Tiberius's temper, and these
+she read.  So much was he offended at these letters having been kept so
+long, and now produced with so much bitterness against him, that some
+considered this incident as one of the causes of his going into
+seclusion, if not the principal reason for his so doing.  In the (224)
+whole years she lived during his retirement, he saw her but once, and
+that for a few hours only.  When she fell sick shortly afterwards, he was
+quite unconcerned about visiting her in her illness; and when she died,
+after promising to attend her funeral, he deferred his coming for several
+days, so that the corpse was in a state of decay and putrefaction before
+the interment; and he then forbad divine honours being paid to her,
+pretending that he acted according to her own directions.  He likewise
+annulled her will, and in a short time ruined all her friends and
+acquaintance; not even sparing those to whom, on her death-bed, she had
+recommended the care of her funeral, but condemning one of them, a man of
+equestrian rank, to the treadmill. [352]
+
+LII.  He entertained no paternal affection either for his own son Drusus,
+or his adopted son Germanicus.  Offended at the vices of the former, who
+was of a loose disposition and led a dissolute life, he was not much
+affected at his death; but, almost immediately after the funeral, resumed
+his attention to business, and prevented the courts from being longer
+closed.  The ambassadors from the people of Ilium coming rather late to
+offer their condolence, he said to them by way of banter, as if the
+affair had already faded from his memory, "And I heartily condole with
+you on the loss of your renowned countryman, Hector."  He so much
+affected to depreciate Germanicus, that he spoke of his achievements as
+utterly insignificant, and railed at his most glorious victories as
+ruinous to the state; complaining of him also to the senate for going to
+Alexandria without his knowledge, upon occasion of a great and sudden
+famine at Rome.  It was believed that he took care to have him dispatched
+by Cneius Piso, his lieutenant in Syria.  This person was afterwards
+tried for the murder, and would, as was supposed, have produced his
+orders, had they not been contained in a private and confidential
+dispatch.  The following words therefore were posted up in many places,
+and frequently shouted in the night: "Give us back our Germanicus."  This
+suspicion was afterwards confirmed by the barbarous treatment of his wife
+and children.
+
+(225) LIII.  His daughter-in-law Agrippina, after the death of her
+husband, complaining upon some occasion with more than ordinary freedom,
+he took her by the hand, and addressed her in a Greek verse to this
+effect: "My dear child, do you think yourself injured, because you are
+not empress?"  Nor did he ever vouchsafe to speak to her again.  Upon her
+refusing once at supper to taste some fruit which he presented to her, he
+declined inviting her to his table, pretending that she in effect charged
+him with a design to poison her; whereas the whole was a contrivance of
+his own.  He was to offer the fruit, and she to be privately cautioned
+against eating what would infallibly cause her death.  At last, having
+her accused of intending to flee for refuge to the statue of Augustus, or
+to the army, he banished her to the island of Pandataria [353].  Upon her
+reviling him for it, he caused a centurion to beat out one of her eyes;
+and when she resolved to starve herself to death, he ordered her mouth to
+be forced open, and meat to be crammed down her throat.  But she
+persisting in her resolution, and dying soon afterwards, he persecuted
+her memory with the basest aspersions, and persuaded the senate to put
+her birth-day amongst the number of unlucky days in the calendar.  He
+likewise took credit for not having caused her to be strangled and her
+body cast upon the Gemonian Steps, and suffered a decree of the senate to
+pass, thanking him for his clemency, and an offering of gold to be made
+to Jupiter Capitolinus on the occasion.
+
+LIV.  He had by Germanicus three grandsons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius; and
+by his son Drusus one, named Tiberius.  Of these, after the loss of his
+sons, he commended Nero and Drusus, the two eldest sons of Germanicus, to
+the senate; and at their being solemnly introduced into the forum,
+distributed money among the people.  But when he found that on entering
+upon the new year they were included in the public vows for his own
+welfare, he told the senate, "that such honours ought not to be conferred
+but upon those who had been proved, and were of more advanced years."  By
+thus betraying his private feelings towards them, he exposed them to all
+sorts of accusations; and after practising many artifices to provoke
+(226) them to rail at and abuse him, that he might be furnished with a
+pretence to destroy them, he charged them with it in a letter to the
+senate; at the same time accusing them, in the bitterest terms, of the
+most scandalous vices.  Upon their being declared enemies by the senate,
+he starved them to death; Nero in the island of Ponza, and Drusus in the
+vaults of the Palatium.  It is thought by some, that Nero was driven to a
+voluntary death by the executioner's shewing him some halters and hooks,
+as if he had been sent to him by order of the senate.  Drusus, it is
+said, was so rabid with hunger, that he attempted to eat the chaff with
+which his mattress was stuffed.  The relics of both were so scattered,
+that it was with difficulty they were collected.
+
+LV.  Besides his old friends and intimate acquaintance, he required the
+assistance of twenty of the most eminent persons in the city, as
+counsellors in the administration of public affairs.  Out of all this
+number, scarcely two or three escaped the fury of his savage disposition.
+All the rest he destroyed upon one pretence or another; and among them
+Aelius Sejanus, whose fall was attended with the ruin of many others.  He
+had advanced this minister to the highest pitch of grandeur, not so much
+from any real regard for him, as that by his base and sinister
+contrivances he might ruin the children of Germanicus, and thereby secure
+the succession to his own grandson by Drusus.
+
+LVI.  He treated with no greater leniency the Greeks in his family, even
+those with whom he was most pleased.  Having asked one Zeno, upon his
+using some far-fetched phrases, "What uncouth dialect is that?" he
+replied, "The Doric."  For this answer he banished him to Cinara [354],
+suspecting that he taunted him with his former residence at Rhodes, where
+the Doric dialect is spoken.  It being his custom to start questions at
+supper, arising out of what he had been reading in the day, and finding
+that Seleucus, the grammarian, used to inquire of his attendants what
+authors he was then studying, and so came prepared for his enquiries--he
+first turned him out of his family, and then drove him to the extremity
+of laying violent hands upon himself.
+
+(227) LVII.  His cruel and sullen temper appeared when he was still a
+boy; which Theodorus of Gadara [355], his master in rhetoric, first
+discovered, and expressed by a very apposite simile, calling him
+sometimes, when he chid him, "Mud mixed with blood."  But his disposition
+shewed itself still more clearly on his attaining the imperial power, and
+even in the beginning of his administration, when he was endeavouring to
+gain the popular favour, by affecting moderation.  Upon a funeral passing
+by, a wag called out to the dead man, "Tell Augustus, that the legacies
+he bequeathed to the people are not yet paid."  The man being brought
+before him, he ordered that he should receive what was due to him, and
+then be led to execution, that he might deliver the message to his father
+himself.  Not long afterwards, when one Pompey, a Roman knight, persisted
+in his opposition to something he proposed in the senate, he threatened
+to put him in prison, and told him, "Of a Pompey I shall make a Pompeian
+of you;" by a bitter kind of pun playing upon the man's name, and the
+ill-fortune of his party.
+
+LVIII.  About the same time, when the praetor consulted him, whether it
+was his pleasure that the tribunals should take cognizance of accusations
+of treason, he replied, "The laws ought to be put in execution;" and he
+did put them in execution most severely.  Some person had taken off the
+head of Augustus from one of his statues, and replaced it by another
+[356].  The matter was brought before the senate, and because the case
+was not clear, the witnesses were put to the torture.  The party accused
+being found guilty, and condemned, this kind of proceeding was carried so
+far, that it became capital for a man to beat his slave, or change his
+clothes, near the statue of Augustus; to carry his head stamped upon the
+coin, or cut in the stone of a ring, into a necessary house, or the
+stews; or to reflect upon anything that had been either said or done by
+him.  In fine, a person was condemned to death, for suffering some
+honours to be decreed to him in the colony where he lived, upon the same
+day on which they had formerly been decreed to Augustus.
+
+(228) LIX.  He was besides guilty of many barbarous actions, under the
+pretence of strictness and reformation of manners, but more to gratify
+his own savage disposition.  Some verses were published, which displayed
+the present calamities of his reign, and anticipated the future. [357]
+
+    Asper et immitis, breviter vis omnia dicam?
+      Dispeream si te mater amare potest.
+    Non es eques, quare? non sunt tibi millia centum?
+      Omnia si quaeras, et Rhodos exsilium est.
+    Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar:
+      Incolumi nam te, ferrea semper erunt.
+    Fastidit vinum, quia jam sit it iste cruorem:
+      Tam bibit hunc avide, quam bibit ante merum.
+    Adspice felicem sibi, non tibi, Romule, Sullam:
+      Et Marium, si vis, adspice, sed reducem.
+    Nec non Antoni civilia bella moventis
+      Nec semel infectas adspice caeda manus.
+    Et dic, Roma perit: regnabit sanguine multo,
+      Ad regnum quisquis venit ab exsilio.
+
+    Obdurate wretch! too fierce, too fell to move
+    The least kind yearnings of a mother's love!
+    No knight thou art, as having no estate;
+    Long suffered'st thou in Rhodes an exile's fate,
+    No more the happy Golden Age we see;
+    The Iron's come, and sure to last with thee.
+    Instead of wine he thirsted for before,
+    He wallows now in floods of human gore.
+    Reflect, ye Romans, on the dreadful times,
+    Made such by Marius, and by Sylla's crimes.
+    Reflect how Antony's ambitious rage
+    Twice scar'd with horror a distracted age,
+    And say, Alas!  Rome's blood in streams will flow,
+    When banish'd miscreants rule this world below.
+
+At first he would have it understood, that these satirical verses were
+drawn forth by the resentment of those who were impatient under the
+discipline of reformation, rather than that they spoke their real
+sentiments; and he would frequently say, "Let them hate me, so long as
+they do but approve my conduct." [358]  At length, however, his behaviour
+showed that he was sensible they were too well founded.
+
+(229) LX.  A few days after his arrival at Capri, a fisherman coming up
+to him unexpectedly, when he was desirous of privacy, and presenting him
+with a large mullet, he ordered the man's face to be scrubbed with the
+fish; being terrified at the thought of his having been able to creep
+upon him from the back of the island, over such rugged and steep rocks.
+The man, while undergoing the punishment, expressing his joy that he had
+not likewise offered him a large crab which he had also taken, he ordered
+his face to be farther lacerated with its claws.  He put to death one of
+the pretorian guards, for having stolen a peacock out of his orchard.  In
+one of his journeys, his litter being obstructed by some bushes, he
+ordered the officer whose duty it was to ride on and examine the road, a
+centurion of the first cohorts, to be laid on his face upon the ground,
+and scourged almost to death.
+
+LXI.  Soon afterwards, he abandoned himself to every species of cruelty,
+never wanting occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext.
+He first fell upon the friends and acquaintance of his mother, then those
+of his grandsons, and his daughter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus;
+after whose death he became cruel in the extreme.  From this it appeared,
+that he had not been so much instigated by Sejanus, as supplied with
+occasions of gratifying his savage temper, when he wanted them.  Though
+in a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had the
+effrontery to write, "I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bent
+upon the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus," one of these
+he put to death, when he began to suspect Sejanus; and another, after he
+was taken off.  It would be tedious to relate all the numerous instances
+of his cruelty: suffice it to give a few examples, in their different
+kinds.  Not a day passed without the punishment of some person or other,
+not excepting holidays, or those appropriated to the worship of the gods.
+Some were tried even on New-Year's-Day.  Of many who were condemned,
+their wives and children shared the same fate; and for those who were
+sentenced to death, the relations were forbid to put on mourning.
+Considerable rewards were voted for the prosecutors, and sometimes for
+the witnesses also.  The information of any person, without exception,
+was taken; and all offences were capital, even speaking (230) a few
+words, though without any ill intention.  A poet was charged with abusing
+Agamemnon; and a historian [359], for calling Brutus and Cassius "the
+last of the Romans."  The two authors were immediately called to account,
+and their writings suppressed; though they had been well received some
+years before, and read in the hearing of Augustus.  Some, who were thrown
+into prison, were not only denied the solace of study, but debarred from
+all company and conversation.  Many persons, when summoned to trial,
+stabbed themselves at home, to avoid the distress and ignominy of a
+public condemnation, which they were certain would ensue.  Others took
+poison in the senate house.  The wounds were bound up, and all who had
+not expired, were carried, half-dead, and panting for life, to prison.
+Those who were put to death, were thrown down the Gemonian stairs, and
+then dragged into the Tiber.  In one day, twenty were treated in this
+manner; and amongst them women and boys.  Because, according to an
+ancient custom, it was not lawful to strangle virgins, the young girls
+were first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled.
+Those who were desirous to die, were forced to live.  For he thought
+death so slight a punishment, that upon hearing that Carnulius, one of
+the accused, who was under prosecution, had killed himself, he exclaimed,
+"Carnulius has escaped me."  In calling over his prisoners, when one of
+them requested the favour of a speedy death, he replied, "You are not yet
+restored to favour."  A man of consular rank writes in his annals, that
+at table, where he himself was present with a large company, he was
+suddenly asked aloud by a dwarf who stood by amongst the buffoons, why
+Paconius, who was under a prosecution for treason, lived so long.
+Tiberius immediately reprimanded him for his pertness; but wrote to the
+senate a few days after, to proceed without delay to the punishment of
+Paconius.
+
+LXII.  Exasperated by information he received respecting the death of his
+son Drusus, he carried his cruelty still farther.  He imagined that he
+had died of a disease occasioned (231) by his intemperance; but finding
+that he had been poisoned by the contrivance of his wife Livilla [360]
+and Sejanus, he spared no one from torture and death.  He was so entirely
+occupied with the examination of this affair, for whole days together,
+that, upon being informed that the person in whose house he had lodged at
+Rhodes, and whom he had by a friendly letter invited to Rome, was
+arrived, he ordered him immediately to be put to the torture, as a party
+concerned in the enquiry.  Upon finding his mistake, he commanded him to
+be put to death, that he might not publish the injury done him.  The
+place of execution is still shown at Capri, where he ordered those who
+were condemned to die, after long and exquisite tortures, to be thrown,
+before his eyes, from a precipice into the sea.  There a party of
+soldiers belonging to the fleet waited for them, and broke their bones
+with poles and oars, lest they should have any life left in them.  Among
+various kinds of torture invented by him, one was, to induce people to
+drink a large quantity of wine, and then to tie up their members with
+harp-strings, thus tormenting them at once by the tightness of the
+ligature, and the stoppage of their urine.  Had not death prevented him,
+and Thrasyllus, designedly, as some say, prevailed with him to defer some
+of his cruelties, in hopes of longer life, it is believed that he would
+have destroyed many more: and not have spared even the rest of his
+grandchildren: for he was jealous of Caius, and hated Tiberius as having
+been conceived in adultery.  This conjecture is indeed highly probable;
+for he used often to say, "Happy Priam, who survived all his children!"
+[361]
+
+LXIII.  Amidst these enormities, in how much fear and apprehension, as
+well as odium and detestation, he lived, is evident from many
+indications.  He forbade the soothsayers to be consulted in private, and
+without some witnesses being present.  He attempted to suppress the
+oracles in the neighbourhood of the city; but being terrified by the
+divine authority of the (232) Praenestine Lots [362], he abandoned the
+design.  For though they were sealed up in a box, and carried to home,
+yet they were not to be found in it, until it was returned to the temple.
+More than one person of consular rank, appointed governors of provinces,
+he never ventured to dismiss to their respective destinations, but kept
+them until several years after, when he nominated their successors, while
+they still remained present with him.  In the meantime, they bore the
+title of their office; and he frequently gave them orders, which they
+took care to have executed by their deputies and assistants.
+
+LXIV.  He never removed his daughter-in-law, or grandsons [363], after
+their condemnation, to any place, but in fetters and in a covered litter,
+with a guard to hinder all who met them on the road, and travellers, from
+stopping to gaze at them.
+
+LXV.  After Sejanus had plotted against him, though he saw that his
+birth-day was solemnly kept by the public, and divine honours paid to
+golden images of him in every quarter, yet it was with difficulty at
+last, and more by artifice than his imperial power, that he accomplished
+his death.  In the first place, to remove him from about his person,
+under the pretext of doing him honour, he made him his colleague in his
+fifth consulship; which, although then absent from the city, he took upon
+him for that purpose, long after his preceding consulship.  Then, having
+flattered him with the hope of an alliance by marriage with one of his
+own kindred, and the prospect of the tribunitian authority, he suddenly,
+while Sejanus little expected it, charged him with treason, in an abject
+and pitiful address to the senate; in which, among other things, he
+begged them "to send one of the consuls, to conduct himself, a poor
+solitary old man, with a guard of soldiers, into their presence."  Still
+distrustful, however, and apprehensive of an insurrection, he ordered his
+grandson, Drusus, whom he still kept in confinement at Rome, to be set at
+liberty, and if occasion required, to head the troops.  He had likewise
+ships in readiness to transport him to any of the legions to which he
+might consider it expedient to make his escape.  Meanwhile, he was upon
+the (233) watch, from the summit of a lofty cliff, for the signals which
+he had ordered to be made if any thing occurred, lest the messengers
+should be tardy.  Even when he had quite foiled the conspiracy of
+Sejanus, he was still haunted as much as ever with fears and
+apprehensions, insomuch that he never once stirred out of the Villa Jovis
+for nine months after.
+
+LXVI.  To the extreme anxiety of mind which he now experienced, he had
+the mortification to find superadded the most poignant reproaches from
+all quarters.  Those who were condemned to die, heaped upon him the most
+opprobrious language in his presence, or by hand-bills scattered in the
+senators' seats in the theatre.  These produced different effects:
+sometimes he wished, out of shame, to have all smothered and concealed;
+at other times he would disregard what was said, and publish it himself.
+To this accumulation of scandal and open sarcasm, there is to be
+subjoined a letter from Artabanus, king of the Parthians, in which he
+upbraids him with his parricides, murders, cowardice, and lewdness, and
+advises him to satisfy the furious rage of his own people, which he had
+so justly excited, by putting an end to his life without delay.
+
+LXVII.  At last, being quite weary of himself, he acknowledged his
+extreme misery, in a letter to the senate, which begun thus: "What to
+write to you, Conscript Fathers, or how to write, or what not to write at
+this time, may all the gods and goddesses pour upon my head a more
+terrible vengeance than that under which I feel myself daily sinking, if
+I can tell."  Some are of opinion that he had a foreknowledge of those
+things, from his skill in the science of divination, and perceived long
+before what misery and infamy would at last come upon him; and that for
+this reason, at the beginning of his reign, he had absolutely refused the
+title of the "Father of his Country," and the proposal of the senate to
+swear to his acts; lest he should afterwards, to his greater shame, be
+found unequal to such extraordinary honours.  This, indeed, may be justly
+inferred from the speeches which he made upon both those occasions; as
+when he says, "I shall ever be the same, and shall never change my
+conduct, so long as I retain my senses; but to avoid giving a bad
+precedent to posterity, the senate ought to beware of binding themselves
+to the acts of (234) any person whatever, who might by some accident or
+other be induced to alter them."  And again: "If ye should at any time
+entertain a jealousy of my conduct, and my entire affection for you,
+which heaven prevent by putting a period to my days, rather than I should
+live to see such an alteration in your opinion of me, the title of Father
+will add no honour to me, but be a reproach to you, for your rashness in
+conferring it upon me, or inconstancy in altering your opinion of me."
+
+LXVIII.  In person he was large and robust; of a stature somewhat above
+the common size; broad in the shoulders and chest, and proportionable in
+the rest of his frame.  He used his left hand more readily and with more
+force than his right; and his joints were so strong, that he could bore a
+fresh, sound apple through with his finger, and wound the head of a boy,
+or even a young man, with a fillip.  He was of a fair complexion, and
+wore his hair so long behind, that it covered his neck, which was
+observed to be a mark of distinction affected by the family.  He had a
+handsome face, but it was often full of pimples.  His eyes, which were
+large, had a wonderful faculty of seeing in the night-time, and in the
+dark, for a short time only, and immediately after awaking from sleep;
+but they soon grew dim again.  He walked with his neck stiff and upright:
+generally with a frowning countenance, being for the most part silent:
+when he spoke to those about him, it was very slowly, and usually
+accompanied with a slight gesticulation of his fingers.  All which, being
+repulsive habits and signs of arrogance, were remarked by Augustus, who
+often endeavoured to excuse them to the senate and people, declaring that
+"they were natural defects, which proceeded from no viciousness of mind."
+He enjoyed a good state of health, without interruption, almost during
+the whole period of his rule; though, from the thirtieth year of his age,
+he treated it himself according to his own discretion, without any
+medical assistance.
+
+LXIX.  In regard to the gods, and matters of religion, he discovered much
+indifference; being greatly addicted to astrology, and fully persuaded
+that all things were governed by fate.  Yet he was extremely afraid of
+lightning, and when the sky was in a disturbed state, always wore a
+laurel crown on his head; because it is supposed that the leaf of that
+tree is never touched by the lightning.
+
+(235) LXX.  He applied himself with great diligence to the liberal arts,
+both Greek and Latin.  In his Latin style, he affected to imitate Messala
+Corvinus [364], a venerable man, to whom he had paid much respect in his
+own early years.  But he rendered his style obscure by excessive
+affectation and abstruseness, so that he was thought to speak better
+extempore, than in a premeditated discourse.  He composed likewise a
+lyric ode, under the title of "A Lamentation upon the death of Lucius
+Caesar;" and also some Greek poems, in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus,
+and Parthenius [365].  These poets he greatly admired, and placed their
+works and statues in the public libraries, amongst the eminent authors of
+antiquity.  On this account, most of the learned men of the time vied
+with each other in publishing observations upon them, which they
+addressed to him.  His principal study, however, was the history of the
+fabulous ages, inquiring even into its trifling details in a ridiculous
+manner; for he used to try the grammarians, a class of men which, as I
+have already observed, he much affected, with such questions as these:
+"Who was Hecuba's mother?  What name did Achilles assume among the
+virgins?  What was it that the Sirens used to sing?"  And the first day
+that he entered the senate-house, after the death of Augustus, as if he
+intended to pay respect at once to his father's memory and to the gods,
+he made an offering of frankincense and wine, but without any music, in
+imitation of Minos, upon the death of his son.
+
+LXXI.  Though he was ready and conversant with the Greek tongue, yet he
+did not use it everywhere; but chiefly he avoided it in the senate-house,
+insomuch that having occasion to employ the word monopolium (monopoly),
+he first begged pardon for being obliged to adopt a foreign word.  And
+when, in a decree of the senate, the word emblaema (emblem) was read, he
+proposed to have it changed, and that a Latin word should be substituted
+in its room; or, if no proper one could be found, to express the thing by
+circumlocution.  A soldier (236) who was examined as a witness upon a
+trial, in Greek [366], he would not allow to reply, except in Latin.
+
+LXXII.  During the whole time of his seclusion at Capri, twice only he
+made an effort to visit Rome.  Once he came in a galley as far as the
+gardens near the Naumachia, but placed guards along the banks of the
+Tiber, to keep off all who should offer to come to meet him.  The second
+time he travelled on the Appian Way [367], as far as the seventh
+mile-stone from the city, but he immediately returned, without entering it,
+having only taken a view of the walls at a distance.  For what reason he
+did not disembark in his first excursion, is uncertain; but in the last,
+he was deterred from entering the city by a prodigy.  He was in the habit
+of diverting himself with a snake, and upon going to feed it with his own
+hand, according to custom, he found it devoured by ants: from which he
+was advised to beware of the fury of the mob.  On this account, returning
+in all haste to Campania, he fell ill at Astura [368]; but recovering a
+little, went on to Circeii [369].  And to obviate any suspicion of his
+being in a bad state of health, he was not only present at the sports in
+the camp, but encountered, with javelins, a wild boar, which was let
+loose in the arena.  Being immediately seized with a pain in the side,
+and catching cold upon his over-heating himself in the exercise, he
+relapsed into a worse condition than he was before.  He held out,
+however, for some time; and sailing as far as Misenum [370], omitted
+nothing (237) in his usual mode of life, not even in his entertainments,
+and other gratifications, partly from an ungovernable appetite, and
+partly to conceal his condition.  For Charicles, a physician, having
+obtained leave of absence, on his rising from table, took his hand to
+kiss it; upon which Tiberius, supposing he did it to feel his pulse,
+desired him to stay and resume his place, and continued the entertainment
+longer than usual.  Nor did he omit his usual custom of taking his
+station in the centre of the apartment, a lictor standing by him, while
+he took leave of each of the party by name.
+
+LXXIII.  Meanwhile, finding, upon looking over the acts of the senate,
+"that some person under prosecution had been discharged, without being
+brought to a hearing," for he had only written cursorily that they had
+been denounced by an informer; he complained in a great rage that he was
+treated with contempt, and resolved at all hazards to return to Capri;
+not daring to attempt any thing until he found himself in a place of
+security.  But being detained by storms, and the increasing violence of
+his disorder, he died shortly afterwards, at a villa formerly belonging
+to Lucullus, in the seventy-eighth year of his age [371], and the
+twenty-third of his reign, upon the seventeenth of the calends of April
+(16th March), in the consulship of Cneius Acerronius Proculus and Caius
+Pontius Niger.  Some think that a slow-consuming poison was given him by
+Caius [372].  Others say that during the interval of the intermittent
+fever with which he happened to be seized, upon asking for food, it was
+denied him.  Others report, that he was stifled by a pillow thrown upon
+him [373], when, on his recovering from a swoon, he called for his ring,
+which had been taken from him in the fit.  Seneca writes, "That finding
+himself dying, he took his signet ring off his finger, and held it a
+while, as if he would deliver it to somebody; but put it again upon his
+finger, and lay for some time, with his left hand clenched, and without
+stirring; when suddenly summoning his attendants, (238) and no one
+answering the call, he rose; but his strength failing him, he fell down
+at a short distance from his bed."
+
+LXXIV.  Upon his last birth-day, he had brought a full-sized statue of
+the Timenian Apollo from Syracuse, a work of exquisite art, intending to
+place it in the library of the new temple [374]; but he dreamt that the
+god appeared to him in the night, and assured him "that his statue could
+not be erected by him."  A few days before he died, the Pharos at Capri
+was thrown down by an earthquake.  And at Misenum, some embers and live
+coals, which were brought in to warm his apartment, went out, and after
+being quite cold, burst out into a flame again towards evening, and
+continued burning very brightly for several hours.
+
+LXXV.  The people were so much elated at his death, that when they first
+heard the news, they ran up and down the city, some crying out, "Away
+with Tiberius to the Tiber;" others exclaiming, "May the earth, the
+common mother of mankind, and the infernal gods, allow him no abode in
+death, but amongst the wicked."  Others threatened his body with the hook
+and the Gemonian stairs, their indignation at his former cruelty being
+increased by a recent atrocity.  It had been provided by an act of the
+senate, that the execution of condemned criminals should always be
+deferred until the tenth day after the sentence.  Now this fell on the
+very day when the news of Tiberius's death arrived, and in consequence of
+which the unhappy men implored a reprieve, for mercy's sake; but, as
+Caius had not yet arrived, and there was no one else to whom application
+could be made on their behalf, their guards, apprehensive of violating
+the law, strangled them, and threw them down the Gemonian stairs.  This
+roused the people to a still greater abhorrence of the tyrant's memory,
+since his cruelty continued in use even after he was dead.  As soon as
+his corpse was begun to be moved from Misenum, many cried out for its
+being carried to Atella [375], and being half burnt there (239) in the
+amphitheatre.  It was, however, brought to Rome, and burnt with the usual
+ceremony.
+
+LXXVI.  He had made about two years before, duplicates of his will, one
+written by his own hand, and the other by that of one of his freedmen;
+and both were witnessed by some persons of very mean rank.  He appointed
+his two grandsons, Caius by Germanicus, and Tiberius by Drusus, joint
+heirs to his estate; and upon the death of one of them, the other was to
+inherit the whole.  He gave likewise many legacies; amongst which were
+bequests to the Vestal Virgins, to all the soldiers, and each one of the
+people of Rome, and to the magistrates of the several quarters of the
+city.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+At the death of Augustus, there had elapsed so long a period from the
+overthrow of the republic by Julius Caesar, that few were now living who
+had been born under the ancient constitution of the Romans; and the mild
+and prosperous administration of Augustus, during forty-four years, had
+by this time reconciled the minds of the people to a despotic government.
+Tiberius, the adopted son of the former sovereign, was of mature age; and
+though he had hitherto lived, for the most part, abstracted from any
+concern with public affairs, yet, having been brought up in the family of
+Augustus, he was acquainted with his method of government, which, there
+was reason to expect, he would render the model of his own.  Livia, too,
+his mother, and the relict of the late emperor, was still living, a woman
+venerable by years, who had long been familiar with the councils of
+Augustus, and from her high rank, as well as uncommon affability,
+possessed an extensive influence amongst all classes of the people.
+
+Such were the circumstances in favour of Tiberius's succession at the
+demise of Augustus; but there were others of a tendency disadvantageous
+to his views.  His temper was haughty and reserved: Augustus had often
+apologised for the ungraciousness of his manners.  He was disobedient to
+his mother; and though he had not openly discovered any propensity to
+vice, he enjoyed none of those qualities which usually conciliate
+popularity.  To these considerations it is to be added, that Postumus
+Agrippa, the grandson of Augustus by Julia, was living; and if
+consanguinity was to be the rule of succession, his right was
+indisputably preferable to that of an adopted son.  Augustus had sent
+this youth into exile a few years before; but, towards the close (240) of
+his life, had expressed a design of recalling him, with the view, as was
+supposed, of appointing him his successor.  The father of young Agrippa
+had been greatly beloved by the Romans; and the fate of his mother,
+Julia, though she was notorious for her profligacy, had ever been
+regarded by them with peculiar sympathy and tenderness.  Many, therefore,
+attached to the son the partiality entertained for his parents; which was
+increased not only by a strong suspicion, but a general surmise, that his
+elder brothers, Caius and Lucius, had been violently taken off, to make
+way for the succession of Tiberius.  That an obstruction was apprehended
+to Tiberius's succession from this quarter, is put beyond all doubt, when
+we find that the death of Augustus was industriously kept secret, until
+young Agrippa should be removed; who, it is generally agreed, was
+dispatched by an order from Livia and Tiberius conjointly, or at least
+from the former.  Though, by this act, there remained no rival to
+Tiberius, yet the consciousness of his own want of pretensions to the
+Roman throne, seems to have still rendered him distrustful of the
+succession; and that he should have quietly obtained it, without the
+voice of the people, the real inclination of the senate, or the support
+of the army, can be imputed only to the influence of his mother, and his
+own dissimulation.  Ardently solicitous to attain the object, yet
+affecting a total indifference; artfully prompting the senate to give him
+the charge of the government, at the time that he intimated an invincible
+reluctance to accept it; his absolutely declining it in perpetuity, but
+fixing no time for an abdication; his deceitful insinuation of bodily
+infirmities, with hints likewise of approaching old age, that he might
+allay in the senate all apprehensions of any great duration of his power,
+and repress in his adopted son, Germanicus, the emotions of ambition to
+displace him; form altogether a scene of the most insidious policy,
+inconsistency, and dissimulation.
+
+In this period died, in the eighty-sixth year of her age, Livia Drusilla,
+mother of the emperor, and the relict of Augustus, whom she survived
+fifteen years.  She was the daughter of L. Drusus Calidianus and married
+Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus.
+The conduct of this lady seems to justify the remark of Caligula, that
+"she was an Ulysses in a woman's dress."  Octavius first saw her as she
+fled from the danger which threatened her husband, who had espoused the
+cause of Antony; and though she was then pregnant, he resolved to marry
+her; whether with her own inclination or not, is left by Tacitus
+undetermined.  To pave the way for this union, he divorced his wife
+Scribonia, and with the approbation of the Augurs, which he could have no
+difficulty in obtaining, celebrated (241) his nuptials with Livia.  There
+ensued from this marriage no issue, though much desired by both parties;
+but Livia retained, without interruption, an unbounded ascendancy over
+the emperor, whose confidence she abused, while the uxorious husband
+little suspected that he was cherishing in his bosom a viper who was to
+prove the destruction of his house.  She appears to have entertained a
+predominant ambition of giving an heir to the Roman empire; and since it
+could not be done by any fruit of her marriage with Augustus, she
+resolved on accomplishing that end in the person of Tiberius, the eldest
+son by her former husband.  The plan which she devised for this purpose,
+was to exterminate all the male offspring of Augustus by his daughter
+Julia, who was married to Agrippa; a stratagem which, when executed,
+would procure for Tiberius, through the means of adoption, the eventual
+succession to the empire.  The cool yet sanguinary policy, and the
+patient perseverance of resolution, with which she prosecuted her design,
+have seldom been equalled.  While the sons of Julia were yet young, and
+while there was still a possibility that she herself might have issue by
+Augustus, she suspended her project, in the hope, perhaps, that accident
+or disease might operate in its favour; but when the natural term of her
+constitution had put a period to her hopes of progeny, and when the
+grandsons of the emperor were risen to the years of manhood, and had been
+adopted by him, she began to carry into execution what she long had
+meditated.  The first object devoted to destruction was C. Caesar
+Agrippa, the eldest of Augustus's grandsons.  This promising youth was
+sent to Armenia, upon an expedition against the Persians; and Lollius,
+who had been his governor, either accompanied him thither from Rome, or
+met him in the East, where he had obtained some appointment.  From the
+hand of this traitor, perhaps under the pretext of exercising the
+authority of a preceptor, but in reality instigated by Livia, the young
+prince received a fatal blow, of which he died some time after.
+
+The manner of Caius's death seems to have been carefully kept from the
+knowledge of Augustus, who promoted Lollius to the consulship, and made
+him governor of a province; but, by his rapacity in this station, he
+afterwards incurred the emperor's displeasure.  The true character of
+this person had escaped the keen discernment of Horace, as well as the
+sagacity of the emperor; for in two epistles addressed to Lollius, he
+mentions him as great and accomplished in the superlative degree; maxime
+Lolli, liberrime Lolli; so imposing had been the manners and address of
+this deceitful courtier.
+
+Lucius, the second son of Julia, was banished into Campania, (242) for
+using, as it is said, so litious language against his grandfather.  In
+the seventh year of his exile Augustus proposed to recall him; but Livia
+and Tiberius, dreading the consequences of his being restored to the
+emperor's favour, put in practice the expedient of having him immediately
+assassinated.  Postumus Agrippa, the third son, incurred the displeasure
+of his grandfather in the same way as Lucius, and was confined at
+Surrentum, where he remained a prisoner until he was put to death by the
+order either of Livia alone, or in conjunction with Tiberius, as was
+before observed.
+
+Such was the catastrophe, through the means of Livia, of all the
+grandsons of Augustus; and reason justifies the inference, that she who
+scruple not to lay violent hands upon those young men, had formerly
+practised every artifice that could operate towards rendering them
+obnoxious to the emperor.  We may even ascribe to her dark intrigues the
+dissolute conduct of Julia for the woman who could secretly act as
+procuress to her own husband, would feel little restraint upon her mind
+against corrupting his daughter, when such an effect might contribute to
+answer the purpose which she had in view.  But in the ingratitude of
+Tiberius, however undutiful and reprehensible in a son towards a parent,
+she at last experienced a just retribution for the crimes in which she
+had trained him to procure the succession to the empire.  To the disgrace
+of her sex, she introduced amongst the Romans the horrible practice of
+domestic murder, little known before the times when the thirst or
+intoxication of unlimited power had vitiated the social affections; and
+she transmitted to succeeding ages a pernicious example, by which
+immoderate ambition might be gratified, at the expense of every moral
+obligation, as well as of humanity.
+
+One of the first victims in the sanguinary reign of the present emperor,
+was Germanicus, the son of Drusus, Tiberius's own brother, and who had
+been adopted by his uncle himself.  Under any sovereign, of a temper
+different from that of Tiberius, this amiable and meritorious prince
+would have been held in the highest esteem.  At the death of his
+grandfather Augustus, he was employed in a war in Germany, where he
+greatly distinguished himself by his military achievements; and as soon
+as intelligence of that event arrived, the soldiers, by whom he was
+extremely beloved, unanimously saluted him emperor.  Refusing, however,
+to accept this mark of their partiality, he persevered in allegiance to
+the government of his uncle, and prosecuted the war with success.  Upon
+the conclusion of this expedition, he was sent, with the title of emperor
+in the East, to repress the seditions of the Armenians, in which he was
+equally successful.  But the (243) fame which he acquired, served only to
+render him an object of jealousy to Tiberius, by whose order he was
+secretly poisoned at Daphne, near Antioch, in the thirty-fourth year of
+his age.  The news of Germanicus's death was received at Rome with
+universal lamentation; and all ranks of the people entertained an
+opinion, that, had he survived Tiberius, he would have restored the
+freedom of the republic.  The love and gratitude of the Romans decreed
+many honours to his memory.  It was ordered, that his name should be sung
+in a solemn procession of the Salii; that crowns of oak, in allusion to
+his victories, should be placed upon curule chairs in the hall pertaining
+to the priests of Augustus; and that an effigy of him in ivory should be
+drawn upon a chariot, preceding the ceremonies of the Circensian games.
+Triumphal arches were erected, one at Rome, another on the banks of the
+Rhine, and a third upon Mount Amanus in Syria, with inscriptions of his
+achievements, and that he died for his services to the republic. [376]
+
+His obsequies were celebrated, not with the display of images and funeral
+pomp, but with the recital of his praises and the virtues which rendered
+him illustrious.  From a resemblance in his personal accomplishments, his
+age, the manner of his death, and the vicinity of Daphne to Babylon, many
+compared his fate to that of Alexander the Great.  He was celebrated for
+humanity and benevolence, as well as military talents, and amidst the
+toils of war, found leisure to cultivate the arts of literary genius.  He
+composed two comedies in Greek, some epigrams, and a translation of
+Aratus into Latin verse.  He married Agrippina, the daughter of M.
+Agrippa, by whom he had nine children.  This lady, who had accompanied
+her husband into the east, carried his ashes to Italy, and accused his
+murderer, Piso; who, unable to bear up against the public odium incurred
+by that transaction, laid violent hands upon himself.  Agrippina was now
+nearly in the same predicament with regard to Tiberius, that Ovid had
+formerly been in respect of Augustus.  He was sensible, that when she
+accused Piso, she was not ignorant of the person by whom the perpetrator
+of the murder had been instigated; and her presence, therefore, seeming
+continually to reproach him with his guilt, he resolved to rid himself of
+a person become so obnoxious to his sight, and banished her to the island
+of Pandataria, where she died some time afterwards of famine.
+
+But it was not sufficient to gratify this sanguinary tyrant, that he had,
+without any cause, cut off both Germanicus and his wife Agrippina: the
+distinguished merits and popularity of that prince were yet to be
+revenged upon his children; and accordingly he (244) set himself to
+invent a pretext for their destruction.  After endeavouring in vain, by
+various artifices, to provoke the resentment of Nero and Drusus against
+him, he had recourse to false accusation, and not only charged them with
+seditious designs, to which their tender years were ill adapted, but with
+vices of a nature the most scandalous.  By a sentence of the senate,
+which manifested the extreme servility of that assembly, he procured them
+both to be declared open enemies to their country.  Nero he banished to
+the island of Pontia, where, like his unfortunate mother, he miserably
+perished by famine; and Drusus was doomed to the same fate, in the lower
+part of the Palatium, after suffering for nine days the violence of
+hunger, and having, as is related, devoured part of his bed.  The
+remaining son, Caius, on account of his vicious disposition, he resolved
+to appoint his successor on the throne, that, after his own death, a
+comparison might be made in favour of his memory, when the Romans should
+be governed by a sovereign yet more vicious and more tyrannical, if
+possible, than himself.
+
+Sejanus, the minister in the present reign, imitated with success, for
+some time, the hypocrisy of his master; and, had his ambitious temper,
+impatient of attaining its object, allowed him to wear the mask for a
+longer period, he might have gained the imperial diadem; in the pursuit
+of which he was overtaken by that fate which he merited still more by his
+cruelties than his perfidy to Tiberius.  This man was a native of
+Volsinium in Tuscany, and the son of a Roman knight.  He had first
+insinuated himself into the favour of Caius Caesar, the grandson of
+Augustus, after whose death he courted the friendship of Tiberius, and
+obtained in a short time his entire confidence, which he improved to the
+best advantage.  The object which he next pursued, was to gain the
+attachment of the senate, and the officers of the army; besides whom,
+with a new kind of policy, he endeavoured to secure in his interest every
+lady of distinguished connections, by giving secretly to each of them a
+promise of marriage, as soon as he should arrive at the sovereignty.  The
+chief obstacles in his way were the sons and grandsons of Tiberius; and
+these he soon sacrificed to his ambition, under various pretences.
+Drusus, the eldest of this progeny, having in a fit of passion struck the
+favourite, was destined by him to destruction.  For this purpose, he had
+the presumption to seduce Livia, the wife of Drusus, to whom she had
+borne several children; and she consented to marry her adulterer upon the
+death of her husband, who was soon after poisoned, through the means of
+an eunuch named Lygdus, by order of her and Sejanus.
+
+Drusus was the son of Tiberius by Vipsania, one of Agrippa's (245)
+daughters.  He displayed great intrepidity during the war in the
+provinces of Illyricum and Pannonia, but appears to have been dissolute
+in his morals.  Horace is said to have written the Ode in praise of
+Drusus at the desire of Augustus; and while the poet celebrates the
+military courage of the prince, he insinuates indirectly a salutary
+admonition to the cultivation of the civil virtues:
+
+        Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,
+        Rectique cultus pectora roborant:
+          Utcunque defecere mores,
+            Dedecorant bene nata culpae.--Ode iv. 4.
+
+    Yet sage instructions to refine the soul
+      And raise the genius, wondrous aid impart,
+    Conveying inward, as they purely roll,
+      Strength to the mind and vigour to the heart:
+    When morals fail, the stains of vice disgrace
+    The fairest honours of the noblest race.--Francis.
+
+Upon the death of Drusus, Sejanus openly avowed a desire of marrying the
+widowed princess; but Tiberius opposing this measure, and at the same
+time recommending Germanicus to the senate as his successor in the
+empire, the mind of Sejanus was more than ever inflamed by the united,
+and now furious, passions of love and ambition.  He therefore urged his
+demand with increased importunity; but the emperor still refusing his
+consent, and things being not yet ripe for an immediate revolt, Sejanus
+thought nothing so favourable for the prosecution of his designs as the
+absence of Tiberius from the capital.  With this view, under the pretence
+of relieving his master from the cares of government, he persuaded him to
+retire to a distance from Rome.  The emperor, indolent and luxurious,
+approved of the proposal, and retired into Campania, leaving to his
+ambitious minister the whole direction of the empire.  Had Sejanus now
+been governed by common prudence and moderation, he might have attained
+to the accomplishment of all his wishes; but a natural impetuosity of
+temper, and the intoxication of power, precipitated him into measures
+which soon effected his destruction.  As if entirely emancipated from the
+control of a master, he publicly declared himself sovereign of the Roman
+empire, and that Tiberius, who had by this time retired to Capri, was
+only the dependent prince of that tributary island.  He even went so far
+in degrading the emperor, as to have him introduced in a ridiculous light
+upon the stage.  Advice of Sejanus's proceedings was soon carried to the
+emperor at Capri; his indignation was immediately excited; and with a
+confidence founded upon an authority exercised for several years, he sent
+orders for accusing Sejanus (246) before the senate.  This mandate no
+sooner arrived, than the audacious minister was deserted by his
+adherents; he was in a short time after seized without resistance, and
+strangled in prison the same day.
+
+Human nature recoils with horror at the cruelties of this execrable
+tyrant, who, having first imbrued his hands in the blood of his own
+relations, proceeded to exercise them upon the public with indiscriminate
+fury.  Neither age nor sex afforded any exemption from his insatiable
+thirst for blood.  Innocent children were condemned to death, and
+butchered in the presence of their parents; virgins, without any imputed
+guilt, were sacrificed to a similar destiny; but there being an ancient
+custom of not strangling females in that situation, they were first
+deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled, as if an
+atrocious addition to cruelty could sanction the exercise of it.  Fathers
+were constrained by violence to witness the death of their own children;
+and even the tears of a mother, at the execution of her child, were
+punished as a capital offence.  Some extraordinary calamities, occasioned
+by accident, added to the horrors of the reign.  A great number of houses
+on Mount Caelius were destroyed by fire; and by the fall of a temporary
+building at Fidenae, erected for the purpose of exhibiting public shows,
+about twenty thousand persons were either greatly hurt, or crushed to
+death in the rains.
+
+By another fire which afterwards broke out, a part of the Circus was
+destroyed, with the numerous buildings on Mount Aventine.  The only act
+of munificence displayed by Tiberius during his reign, was upon the
+occasion of those fires, when, to qualify the severity of his government,
+he indemnified the most considerable sufferers for the loss they had
+sustained.
+
+Through the whole of his life, Tiberius seems to have conducted himself
+with a uniform repugnance to nature.  Affable on a few occasions, but in
+general averse to society, he indulged, from his earliest years, a
+moroseness of disposition, which counterfeited the appearance of austere
+virtue; and in the decline of life, when it is common to reform from
+juvenile indiscretions, he launched forth into excesses, of a kind the
+most unnatural and most detestable.  Considering the vicious passions
+which had ever brooded in his heart, it may seem surprising that he
+restrained himself within the bounds of decency during so many years
+after his accession; but though utterly destitute of reverence or
+affection for his mother, he still felt, during her life, a filial awe
+upon his mind: and after her death, he was actuated by a slavish fear of
+Sejanus, until at last political necessity absolved him likewise from
+this restraint.  These checks being both removed, (247) he rioted without
+any control, either from sentiment or authority.
+
+Pliny relates, that the art of making glass malleable was actually
+discovered under the reign of Tiberius, and that the shop and tools of
+the artist were destroyed, lest, by the establishment of this invention,
+gold and silver should lose their value.  Dion adds, that the author of
+the discovery was put to death.
+
+The gloom which darkened the Roman capital during this melancholy period,
+shed a baleful influence on the progress of science throughout the
+empire, and literature languished during the present reign, in the same
+proportion as it had flourished in the preceding.  It is doubtful whether
+such a change might not have happened in some degree, even had the
+government of Tiberius been equally mild with that of his predecessor.
+The prodigious fame of the writers of the Augustan age, by repressing
+emulation, tended to a general diminution of the efforts of genius for
+some time; while the banishment of Ovid, it is probable, and the capital
+punishment of a subsequent poet, for censuring the character of
+Agamemnon, operated towards the farther discouragement of poetical
+exertions.  There now existed no circumstance to counterbalance these
+disadvantages.  Genius no longer found a patron either in the emperor or
+his minister; and the gates of the palace were shut against all who
+cultivated the elegant pursuits of the Muses.  Panders, catamites,
+assassins, wretches stained with every crime, were the constant
+attendants, as the only fit companions, of the tyrant who now occupied
+the throne.  We are informed, however, that even this emperor had a taste
+for the liberal arts, and that he composed a lyric poem upon the death of
+Lucius Caesar, with some Greek poems in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus,
+and Parthenius.  But none of these has been transmitted to posterity: and
+if we should form an opinion of them upon the principle of Catullus, that
+to be a good poet one ought to be a good man, there is little reason to
+regret that they have perished.
+
+We meet with no poetical production in this reign; and of prose writers
+the number is inconsiderable, as will appear from the following account
+of them.----
+
+VELLEIUS PATERCULUS was born of an equestrian family in Campania, and
+served as a military tribune under Tiberius, in his expeditions in Gaul
+and Germany.  He composed an Epitome of the History of Greece and Rome,
+with that of other nations of remote antiquity: but of this work there
+only remain fragments of the history of Greece and Rome, from the
+conquest of Perseus to the seventeenth year of the reign of Tiberius.  It
+is written in two books, addressed to Marcus Vinicius, who had (248) the
+office of consul.  Rapid in the narrative, and concise as well as elegant
+in style, this production exhibits a pleasing epitome of ancient
+transactions, enlivened occasionally with anecdotes, and an expressive
+description of characters.  In treating of the family of Augustus,
+Paterculus is justly liable to the imputation of partiality, which he
+incurs still more in the latter period of his history, by the praise
+which is lavished on Tiberius and his minister Sejanus.  He intimates a
+design of giving a more full account of the civil war which followed the
+death of Julius Caesar; but this, if he ever accomplished it, has not
+been transmitted to posterity.  Candid, but decided in his judgment of
+motives and actions, if we except his invectives against Pompey, he shows
+little propensity to censure; but in awarding praise, he is not equally
+parsimonious, and, on some occasions, risks the imputation of hyperbole.
+The grace, however, and the apparent sincerity with which it is bestowed,
+reconcile us to the compliment.  This author concludes his history with a
+prayer for the prosperity of the Roman empire.----
+
+VALERIUS MAXIMUS was descended of a Patrician family; but we learn
+nothing more concerning him, than that for some time he followed a
+military life under Sextus Pompey.  He afterwards betook himself to
+writing, and has left an account, in nine books, of the memorable
+apophthegms and actions of eminent persons; first of the Romans, and
+afterwards of foreign nations.  The subjects are of various kinds,
+political, moral, and natural, ranged into distinct classes.  His
+transitions from one subject to another are often performed with
+gracefulness; and where he offers any remarks, they generally show the
+author to be a man of judgment and observation.  Valerius Maximus is
+chargeable with no affectation of style, but is sometimes deficient in
+that purity of language which might be expected in the age of Tiberius,
+to whom the work is addressed.  What inducement the author had to this
+dedication, we know not; but as it is evident from a passage in the ninth
+book, that the compliment was paid after the death of Sejanus, and
+consequently in the most shameful period of Tiberius's reign, we cannot
+entertain any high opinion of the independent spirit of Valerius Maximus,
+who could submit to flatter a tyrant, in the zenith of infamy and
+detestation.  But we cannot ascribe the cause to any delicate artifice,
+of conveying to Tiberius, indirectly, an admonition to reform his
+conduct.  Such an expedient would have only provoked the severest
+resentment from his jealousy.----
+
+PHAEDRUS was a native of Thrace, and was brought to Rome as a slave.  He
+had the good fortune to come into the service of Augustus, where,
+improving his talents by reading, he obtained (249) the favour of the
+emperor, and was made one of his freedmen.  In the reign of Tiberius, he
+translated into Iambic verse the Fables of Aesop.  They are divided into
+five books, and are not less conspicuous for precision and simplicity of
+thought, than for purity and elegance of style; conveying moral
+sentiments with unaffected ease and impressive energy.  Phaedrus
+underwent, for some time, a persecution from Sejanus, who, conscious of
+his own delinquency, suspected that he was obliquely satirised in the
+commendations bestowed on virtue by the poet.  The work of Phaedrus is
+one of the latest which have been brought to light since the revival of
+learning.  It remained in obscurity until two hundred years ago, when it
+was discovered in a library at Rheims.----
+
+HYGINUS is said to have been a native of Alexandria, or, according to
+others, a Spaniard.  He was, like Phaedrus, a freedman of Augustus; but,
+though industrious, he seems not to have improved himself so much as his
+companion, in the art of composition.  He wrote, however, a mythological
+history, under the title of Fables, a work called Poeticon Astronomicon,
+with a treatise on agriculture, commentaries on Virgil, the lives of
+eminent men, and some other productions now lost.  His remaining works
+are much mutilated, and, if genuine, afford an unfavourable specimen of
+his elegance and correctness as a writer.
+
+CELSUS was a physician in the time of Tiberius, and has written eight
+books, De Medicina, in which he has collected and digested into order all
+that is valuable on the subject, in the Greek and Roman authors.  The
+professors of Medicine were at that time divided into three sects, viz.,
+the Dogmatists, Empirics, and Methodists; the first of whom deviated less
+than the others from the plan of Hippocrates; but they were in general
+irreconcilable to each other, in respect both of their opinions and
+practice.  Celsus, with great judgment, has occasionally adopted
+particular doctrines from each of them; and whatever he admits into his
+system, he not only establishes by the most rational observations, but
+confirms by its practical utility.  In justness of remark, in force of
+argument, in precision and perspicuity, as well as in elegance of
+expression, he deservedly occupies the most distinguished rank amongst
+the medical writers of antiquity.  It appears that Celsus likewise wrote
+on agriculture, rhetoric, and military affairs; but of those several
+treatises no fragments now remain.
+
+To the writers of this reign we must add APICIUS COELIUS, who has left a
+book De Re Coquinaria [of Cookery].  There were three Romans of the name
+of Apicius, all remarkable for their (250) gluttony.  The first lived in
+the time of the Republic, the last in that of Trajan, and the
+intermediate Apicius under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius.  This man,
+as Seneca informs us, wasted on luxurious living, sexcenties sestertium,
+a sum equal to 484,375 pounds sterling.  Upon examining the state of his
+affairs, he found that there remained no more of his estate than centies
+sestertium, 80,729l. 3s. 4d., which seeming to him too small to live
+upon, he ended his days by poison.
+
+
+
+
+
+CAIUS CAESAR CALIGULA.
+
+(251)
+
+I.  Germanicus, the father of Caius Caesar, and son of Drusus and the
+younger Antonia, was, after his adoption by Tiberius, his uncle,
+preferred to the quaestorship [377] five years before he had attained the
+legal age, and immediately upon the expiration of that office, to the
+consulship [378].  Having been sent to the army in Germany, he restored
+order among the legions, who, upon the news of Augustus's death,
+obstinately refused to acknowledge Tiberius as emperor [379], and offered
+to place him at the head of the state.  In which affair it is difficult
+to say, whether his regard to filial duty, or the firmness of his
+resolution, was most conspicuous.  Soon afterwards he defeated the enemy,
+and obtained the honours of a triumph.  Being then made consul for the
+second time [380], before he could enter upon his office he was obliged
+to set out suddenly for the east, where, after he had conquered the king
+of Armenia, and reduced Cappadocia into the form of a province, he died
+at Antioch, of a lingering distemper, in the thirty-fourth year of his
+age [381], not without the suspicion of being poisoned.  For besides the
+livid spots which appeared all over his body, and a foaming at the mouth;
+when his corpse was burnt, the heart was found entire among the bones;
+its nature being such, as it is supposed, that when tainted by poison, it
+is indestructible by fire. [382]
+
+II.  It was a prevailing opinion, that he was taken off by the
+contrivance of Tiberius, and through the means of Cneius Piso.  This
+person, who was about the same time prefect of Syria, and made no secret
+of his position being such, that (252) he must either offend the father
+or the son, loaded Germanicus, even during his sickness, with the most
+unbounded and scurrilous abuse, both by word and deed; for which, upon
+his return to Rome, he narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by the
+people, and was condemned to death by the senate.
+
+III.  It is generally agreed, that Germanicus possessed all the noblest
+endowments of body and mind in a higher degree than had ever before
+fallen to the lot of any man; a handsome person, extraordinary courage,
+great proficiency in eloquence and other branches of learning, both Greek
+and Roman; besides a singular humanity, and a behaviour so engaging, as
+to captivate the affections of all about him.  The slenderness of his
+legs did not correspond with the symmetry and beauty of his person in
+other respects; but this defect was at length corrected by his habit of
+riding after meals.  In battle, he often engaged and slew an enemy in
+single combat.  He pleaded causes, even after he had the honour of a
+triumph.  Among other fruits of his studies, he left behind him some
+Greek comedies.  Both at home and abroad he always conducted himself in a
+manner the most unassuming.  On entering any free and confederate town,
+he never would be attended by his lictors.  Whenever he heard, in his
+travels, of the tombs of illustrious men, he made offerings over them to
+the infernal deities.  He gave a common grave, under a mound of earth, to
+the scattered relics of the legionaries slain under Varus, and was the
+first to put his hand to the work of collecting and bringing them to the
+place of burial.  He was so extremely mild and gentle to his enemies,
+whoever they were, or on what account soever they bore him enmity, that,
+although Piso rescinded his decrees, and for a long time severely
+harassed his dependents, he never showed the smallest resentment, until
+he found himself attacked by magical charms and imprecations; and even
+then the only steps he took was to renounce all friendship with him,
+according to ancient custom, and to exhort his servants to avenge his
+death, if any thing untoward should befall him.
+
+IV.  He reaped the fruit of his noble qualities in abundance, being so
+much esteemed and beloved by his friends, that Augustus (to say nothing
+of his other relations) being a long time in doubt, whether he should not
+appoint him his successor, at last ordered Tiberius to adopt him.  He was
+so extremely popular, that many authors tell us, the crowds of those who
+went to meet him upon his coming to any place, or to attend him at his
+departure, were so prodigious, that he was sometimes in danger of his
+life; and that upon his return from Germany, after he had quelled the
+mutiny in the army there, all the cohorts of the pretorian guards marched
+out to meet him, notwithstanding the order that only two should go; and
+that all the people of Rome, both men and women, of every age, sex, and
+rank, flocked as far as the twentieth milestone to attend his entrance.
+
+V.  At the time of his death, however, and afterwards, they displayed
+still greater and stronger proofs of their extraordinary attachment to
+him.  The day on which he died, stones were thrown at the temples, the
+altars of the gods demolished, the household gods, in some cases, thrown
+into the streets, and new-born infants exposed.  It is even said that
+barbarous nations, both those engaged in intestine wars, and those in
+hostilities against us, all agreed to a cessation of arms, as if they had
+been mourning for some very near and common friend; that some petty kings
+shaved their beards and their wives' heads, in token of their extreme
+sorrow; and that the king of kings [383] forbore his exercise of hunting
+and feasting with his nobles, which, amongst the Parthians, is equivalent
+to a cessation of all business in a time of public mourning with us.
+
+VI.  At Rome, upon the first news of his sickness, the city was thrown
+into great consternation and grief, waiting impatiently for farther
+intelligence; when suddenly, in the evening, a report, without any
+certain author, was spread, that he was recovered; upon which the people
+flocked with torches (254) and victims to the Capitol, and were in such
+haste to pay the vows they had made for his recovery, that they almost
+broke open the doors.  Tiberius was roused from out of his sleep with the
+noise of the people congratulating one another, and singing about the
+streets,
+
+    Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus.
+    Rome is safe, our country safe, for our Germanicus is safe.
+
+But when certain intelligence of his death arrived, the mourning of the
+people could neither be assuaged by consolation, nor restrained by
+edicts, and it continued during the holidays in the month of December.
+The atrocities of the subsequent times contributed much to the glory of
+Germanicus, and the endearment of his memory; all people supposing, and
+with reason, that the fear and awe of him had laid a restraint upon the
+cruelty of Tiberius, which broke out soon afterwards.
+
+VII.  Germanicus married Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa and
+Julia, by whom he had nine children, two of whom died in their infancy,
+and another a few years after; a sprightly boy, whose effigy, in the
+character of a Cupid, Livia set up in the temple of Venus in the Capitol.
+Augustus also placed another statue of him in his bed-chamber, and used
+to kiss it as often as he entered the apartment.  The rest survived their
+father; three daughters, Agrippina, Drusilla, and Livilla, who were born
+in three successive years; and as many sons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius
+Caesar.  Nero and Drusus, at the accusation of Tiberius, were declared
+public enemies.
+
+VIII.  Caius Caesar was born on the day before the calends [31st August]
+of September, at the time his father and Caius Fonteius Capito were
+consuls [384].  But where he was born, is rendered uncertain from the
+number of places which are said to have given him birth.  Cneius Lentulus
+Gaetulicus [385] says that he was born at Tibur; Pliny the younger, in
+the country of the Treviri, at a village called Ambiatinus, above
+Confluentes [386]; and he alleges, as a proof of it, that altars are
+there shown with this inscription: "For Agrippina's child-birth."  Some
+verses which were published in his reign, intimate that he was born in
+the winter quarters of the legions,
+
+    In castris natus, patriis nutritius in armis,
+      Jam designati principis omen erat.
+
+    Born in the camp, and train'd in every toil
+    Which taught his sire the haughtiest foes to foil;
+    Destin'd he seem'd by fate to raise his name,
+    And rule the empire with Augustan fame.
+
+I find in the public registers that he was born at Antium.  Pliny charges
+Gaetulicus as guilty of an arrant forgery, merely to soothe the vanity of
+a conceited young prince, by giving him the lustre of being born in a
+city sacred to Hercules; and says that he advanced this false assertion
+with the more assurance, because, the year before the birth of Caius,
+Germanicus had a son of the same name born at Tibur; concerning whose
+amiable childhood and premature death I have already spoken [387].  Dates
+clearly prove that Pliny is mistaken; for the writers of Augustus's
+history all agree, that Germanicus, at the expiration of his consulship,
+was sent into Gaul, after the birth of Caius.  Nor will the inscription
+upon the altar serve to establish Pliny's opinion; because Agrippina was
+delivered of two daughters in that country, and any child-birth, without
+regard to sex, is called puerperium, as the ancients were used to call
+girls puerae, and boys puelli.  There is also extant a letter written by
+Augustus, a few months before his death, to his granddaughter Agrippina,
+about the same Caius (for there was then no other child of hers living
+under that name).  He writes as follows: "I gave orders yesterday for
+Talarius and Asellius to set out on their journey towards you, if the
+gods permit, with your child Caius, upon the fifteenth of the calends of
+June [18th May].  I also send with him a physician of mine, and I wrote
+to Germanicus that he may retain him if he pleases.  Farewell, my dear
+Agrippina, and take what care you can to (256) come safe and well to your
+Germanicus."  I imagine it is sufficiently evident that Caius could not
+be born at a place to which he was carried from The City when almost two
+years old.  The same considerations must likewise invalidate the evidence
+of the verses, and the rather, because the author is unknown.  The only
+authority, therefore, upon which we can depend in this matter, is that of
+the acts, and the public register; especially as he always preferred
+Antium to every other place of retirement, and entertained for it all
+that fondness which is commonly attached to one's native soil.  It is
+said, too, that, upon his growing weary of the city, he designed to have
+transferred thither the seat of empire.
+
+IX.  It was to the jokes of the soldiers in the camp that he owed the
+name of Caligula [388], he having been brought up among them in the dress
+of a common soldier.  How much his education amongst them recommended him
+to their favour and affection, was sufficiently apparent in the mutiny
+upon the death of Augustus, when the mere sight of him appeased their
+fury, though it had risen to a great height.  For they persisted in it,
+until they observed that he was sent away to a neighbouring city [389],
+to secure him against all danger.  Then, at last, they began to relent,
+and, stopping the chariot in which he was conveyed, earnestly deprecated
+the odium to which such a proceeding would expose them.
+
+X.  He likewise attended his father in his expedition to Syria.  After
+his return, he lived first with his mother, and, when she was banished,
+with his great-grandmother, Livia Augusta, in praise of whom, after her
+decease, though then only a boy, he pronounced a funeral oration in the
+Rostra.  He was then transferred to the family of his grandmother,
+Antonia, and afterwards, in the twentieth year of his age, being called
+by Tiberius to Capri, he in one and the same day assumed the manly habit,
+and shaved his beard, but without receiving any of the honours which had
+been paid to his brothers on a similar (257) occasion.  While he remained
+in that island, many insidious artifices were practised, to extort from
+him complaints against Tiberius, but by his circumspection he avoided
+falling into the snare [390].  He affected to take no more notice of the
+ill-treatment of his relations, than if nothing had befallen them.  With
+regard to his own sufferings, he seemed utterly insensible of them, and
+behaved with such obsequiousness to his grandfather [391] and all about
+him, that it was justly said of him, "There never was a better servant,
+nor a worse master."
+
+XI.  But he could not even then conceal his natural disposition to
+cruelty and lewdness.  He delighted in witnessing the infliction of
+punishments, and frequented taverns and bawdy-houses in the night-time,
+disguised in a periwig and a long coat; and was passionately addicted to
+the theatrical arts of singing and dancing.  All these levities Tiberius
+readily connived at, in hopes that they might perhaps correct the
+roughness of his temper, which the sagacious old man so well understood,
+that he often said, "That Caius was destined to be the ruin of himself
+and all mankind; and that he was rearing a hydra [392] for the people of
+Rome, and a Phaeton for all the world." [393]
+
+XII.  Not long afterwards, he married Junia Claudilla, the daughter of
+Marcus Silanus, a man of the highest rank.  Being then chosen augur in
+the room of his brother Drusus, before he could be inaugurated he was
+advanced to the pontificate, with no small commendation of his dutiful
+behaviour, and great capacity.  The situation of the court likewise was
+at this time favourable to his fortunes, as it was now left destitute of
+support, Sejanus being suspected, and soon afterwards taken off; and he
+was by degrees flattered with the hope of succeeding Tiberius in the
+empire.  In order more effectually to secure this object, upon Junia's
+dying in child-bed, he engaged in a criminal commerce with Ennia Naevia,
+the wife (258) of Macro, at that time prefect of the pretorian cohorts;
+promising to marry her if he became emperor, to which he bound himself,
+not only by an oath, but by a written obligation under his hand.  Having
+by her means insinuated himself into Macro's favour, some are of opinion
+that he attempted to poison Tiberius, and ordered his ring to be taken
+from him, before the breath was out of his body; and that, because he
+seemed to hold it fast, he caused a pillow to be thrown upon him [394],
+squeezing him by the throat, at the same time, with his own hand.  One of
+his freedmen crying out at this horrid barbarity, he was immediately
+crucified.  These circumstances are far from being improbable, as some
+authors relate that, afterwards, though he did not acknowledge his having
+a hand in the death of Tiberius, yet he frankly declared that he had
+formerly entertained such a design; and as a proof of his affection for
+his relations, he would frequently boast, "That, to revenge the death of
+his mother and brothers, he had entered the chamber of Tiberius, when he
+was asleep, with a poniard, but being seized with a fit of compassion,
+threw it away, and retired; and that Tiberius, though aware of his
+intention, durst not make any inquiries, or attempt revenge."
+
+XIII.  Having thus secured the imperial power, he fulfilled by his
+elevation the wish of the Roman people, I may venture to say, of all
+mankind; for he had long been the object of expectation and desire to the
+greater part of the provincials and soldiers, who had known him when a
+child; and to the whole people of Rome, from their affection for the
+memory of Germanicus, his father, and compassion for the family almost
+entirely destroyed.  Upon his moving from Misenum, therefore, although he
+was in mourning, and following the corpse of Tiberius, he had to walk
+amidst altars, victims, and lighted torches, with prodigious crowds of
+people everywhere attending him, in transports of joy, and calling him,
+besides other auspicious names, by those of "their star," "their chick,"
+"their pretty puppet," and "bantling."
+
+XIV.  Immediately on his entering the city, by the joint acclamations of
+the senate, and people, who broke into the senate-house, Tiberius's will
+was set aside, it having left his (259) other grandson [395], then a
+minor, coheir with him, the whole government and administration of
+affairs was placed in his hands; so much to the joy and satisfaction of
+the public, that, in less than three months after, above a hundred and
+sixty thousand victims are said to have been offered in sacrifice.  Upon
+his going, a few days afterwards, to the nearest islands on the coast of
+Campania [396], vows were made for his safe return; every person
+emulously testifying their care and concern for his safety.  And when he
+fell ill, the people hung about the Palatium all night long; some vowed,
+in public handbills, to risk their lives in the combats of the
+amphitheatre, and others to lay them down, for his recovery.  To this
+extraordinary love entertained for him by his countrymen, was added an
+uncommon regard by foreign nations.  Even Artabanus, king of the
+Parthians, who had always manifested hatred and contempt for Tiberius,
+solicited his friendship; came to hold a conference with his consular
+lieutenant, and passing the Euphrates, paid the highest honours to the
+eagles, the Roman standards, and the images of the Caesars. [397]
+
+XV.  Caligula himself inflamed this devotion, by practising all the arts
+of popularity.  After he had delivered, with floods of tears, a speech in
+praise of Tiberius, and buried him with the utmost pomp, he immediately
+hastened over to Pandataria and the Pontian islands [398], to bring
+thence the ashes of his mother and brother; and, to testify the great
+regard he had for their memory, he performed the voyage in a very
+tempestuous season.  He approached their remains with profound
+veneration, and deposited them in the urns with his own hands.  Having
+brought them in grand solemnity to Ostia [399], with an ensign flying in
+the stern of the galley, and thence up the Tiber to Rome, they were borne
+by persons of the first distinction in the equestrian order, on two
+biers, into the mausoleum [400], (260) at noon-day.  He appointed yearly
+offerings to be solemnly and publicly celebrated to their memory, besides
+Circensian games to that of his mother, and a chariot with her image to
+be included in the procession [401].  The month of September he called
+Germanicus, in honour of his father.  By a single decree of the senate,
+he heaped upon his grandmother, Antonia, all the honours which had been
+ever conferred on the empress Livia.  His uncle, Claudius, who till then
+continued in the equestrian order, he took for his colleague in the
+consulship.  He adopted his brother, Tiberius [402], on the day he took
+upon him the manly habit, and conferred upon him the title of "Prince of
+the Youths."  As for his sisters, he ordered these words to be added to
+the oaths of allegiance to himself: "Nor will I hold myself or my own
+children more dear than I do Caius and his sisters:" [403] and commanded
+all resolutions proposed by the consuls in the senate to be prefaced
+thus: "May what we are going to do, prove fortunate and happy to Caius
+Caesar and his sisters."  With the like popularity he restored all those
+who had been condemned and banished, and granted an act of indemnity
+against all impeachments and past offences.  To relieve the informers and
+witnesses against his mother and brothers from all apprehension, he
+brought the records of their trials into the forum, and there burnt them,
+calling loudly on the gods to witness that he had not read or handled
+them.  A memorial which was offered him relative to his own security, he
+would not receive, declaring, "that he had done nothing to make any one
+his enemy:" and said, at the same time, "he had no ears for informers."
+
+XVI.  The Spintriae, those panderers to unnatural lusts [404], he
+banished from the city, being prevailed upon not to throw them (261) into
+the sea, as he had intended.  The writings of Titus Labienus, Cordus
+Cremutius, and Cassius Severus, which had been suppressed by an act of
+the senate, he permitted to be drawn from obscurity, and universally
+read; observing, "that it would be for his own advantage to have the
+transactions of former times delivered to posterity."  He published
+accounts of the proceedings of the government--a practice which had been
+introduced by Augustus, but discontinued by Tiberius [405].  He granted
+the magistrates a full and free jurisdiction, without any appeal to
+himself.  He made a very strict and exact review of the Roman knights,
+but conducted it with moderation; publicly depriving of his horse every
+knight who lay under the stigma of any thing base and dishonourable; but
+passing over the names of those knights who were only guilty of venial
+faults, in calling over the list of the order.  To lighten the labours of
+the judges, he added a fifth class to the former four.  He attempted
+likewise to restore to the people their ancient right of voting in the
+choice of magistrates [406].  He paid very honourably, and without any
+dispute, the legacies left by Tiberius in his will, though it had been
+set aside; as likewise those left by the will of Livia Augusta, which
+Tiberius had annulled.  He remitted the hundredth penny, due to the
+government in all auctions throughout Italy.  He made up to many their
+losses sustained by fire; and when he restored their kingdoms to any
+princes, he likewise allowed them all the arrears of the taxes and
+revenues which had accrued in the interval; as in the case of Antiochus
+of Comagene, where the confiscation would have amounted to a hundred
+millions of sesterces.  To prove to the world that he was ready to
+encourage good examples of every kind, he gave to a freed-woman eighty
+thousand sesterces, for not discovering a crime committed by her patron,
+though she had been put to exquisite torture for that purpose.  For all
+these acts of beneficence, amongst other honours, a golden shield was
+decreed to him, which the colleges of priests were to carry annually,
+upon a fixed day, into the Capitol, with the senate attending, and the
+youth of the nobility, of both sexes, celebrating the praise of his
+virtues in (262) songs.  It was likewise ordained, that the day on which
+he succeeded to the empire should be called Palilia, in token of the
+city's being at that time, as it were, new founded. [407]
+
+XVII.  He held the consulship four times; the first [408], from the
+calends [the first] of July for two months: the second [409], from the
+calends of January for thirty days; the third [410], until the ides [the
+13th] of January; and the fourth [411], until the seventh of the same
+ides [7th January].  Of these, the two last he held successively.  The
+third he assumed by his sole authority at Lyons; not, as some are of
+opinion, from arrogance or neglect of rules; but because, at that
+distance, it was impossible for him to know that his colleague had died a
+little before the beginning of the new year.  He twice distributed to the
+people a bounty of three hundred sesterces a man, and as often gave a
+splendid feast to the senate and the equestrian order, with their wives
+and children.  In the latter, he presented to the men forensic garments,
+and to the women and children purple scarfs.  To make a perpetual
+addition to the public joy for ever, he added to the Saturnalia [412] one
+day, which he called Juvenalis [the juvenile feast].
+
+XVIII.  He exhibited some combats of gladiators, either in the
+amphitheatre of Taurus [413], or in the Septa, with which he intermingled
+troops of the best pugilists from Campania and Africa.  He did not always
+preside in person upon those occasions, but sometimes gave a commission
+to magistrates or friends to supply his place.  He frequently entertained
+the people with stage-plays (263) of various kinds, and in several parts
+of the city, and sometimes by night, when he caused the whole city to be
+lighted.  He likewise gave various things to be scrambled for among the
+people, and distributed to every man a basket of bread with other
+victuals.  Upon this occasion, he sent his own share to a Roman knight,
+who was seated opposite to him, and was enjoying himself by eating
+heartily.  To a senator, who was doing the same, he sent an appointment
+of praetor-extraordinary.  He likewise exhibited a great number of
+Circensian games from morning until night; intermixed with the hunting of
+wild beasts from Africa, or the Trojan exhibition.  Some of these games
+were celebrated with peculiar circumstances; the Circus being overspread
+with vermilion and chrysolite; and none drove in the chariot races who
+were not of the senatorian order.  For some of these he suddenly gave the
+signal, when, upon his viewing from the Gelotiana [414] the preparations
+in the Circus, he was asked to do so by a few persons in the neighbouring
+galleries.
+
+XIX.  He invented besides a new kind of spectacle, such as had never been
+heard of before.  For he made a bridge, of about three miles and a half
+in length, from Baiae to the mole of Puteoli [415], collecting trading
+vessels from all quarters, mooring them in two rows by their anchors, and
+spreading earth upon them to form a viaduct, after the fashion of the
+Appian Way [416].  This bridge he crossed and recrossed for two days
+together; the first day mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, wearing on
+his head a crown of oak leaves, armed with a battle-axe, a Spanish
+buckler and a sword, and in a cloak made of cloth of gold; the day
+following, in the habit of a charioteer, standing in a chariot, drawn by
+two high-bred horses, having with him a young boy, Darius by name, one of
+the Parthian hostages, with a cohort of the pretorian guards attending
+him, and a (264) party of his friends in cars of Gaulish make [417].
+Most people, I know, are of opinion, that this bridge was designed by
+Caius, in imitation of Xerxes, who, to the astonishment of the world,
+laid a bridge over the Hellespont, which is somewhat narrower than the
+distance betwixt Baiae and Puteoli.  Others, however, thought that he did
+it to strike terror in Germany and Britain, which he was upon the point
+of invading, by the fame of some prodigious work.  But for myself, when I
+was a boy, I heard my grandfather say [418], that the reason assigned by
+some courtiers who were in habits of the greatest intimacy with him, was
+this; when Tiberius was in some anxiety about the nomination of a
+successor, and rather inclined to pitch upon his grandson, Thrasyllus the
+astrologer had assured him, "That Caius would no more be emperor, than he
+would ride on horseback across the gulf of Baiae."
+
+XX.  He likewise exhibited public diversions in Sicily, Grecian games at
+Syracuse, and Attic plays at Lyons in Gaul besides a contest for
+pre-eminence in the Grecian and Roman eloquence; in which we are told that
+such as were baffled bestowed rewards upon the best performers, and were
+obliged to compose speeches in their praise: but that those who performed
+the worst, were forced to blot out what they had written with a sponge or
+their tongue, unless they preferred to be beaten with a rod, or plunged
+over head and ears into the nearest river.
+
+XXI.  He completed the works which were left unfinished by Tiberius,
+namely, the temple of Augustus, and the theatre (265) of Pompey [419].
+He began, likewise, the aqueduct from the neighbourhood of Tibur [420],
+and an amphitheatre near the Septa [421]; of which works, one was
+completed by his successor Claudius, and the other remained as he left
+it.  The walls of Syracuse, which had fallen to decay by length of time,
+he repaired, as he likewise did the temples of the gods.  He formed plans
+for rebuilding the palace of Polycrates at Samos, finishing the temple of
+the Didymaean Apollo at Miletus, and building a town on a ridge of the
+Alps; but, above all, for cutting through the isthmus in Achaia [422];
+and even sent a centurion of the first rank to measure out the work.
+
+XXII.  Thus far we have spoken of him as a prince.  What remains to be
+said of him, bespeaks him rather a monster than a man.  He assumed a
+variety of titles, such as "Dutiful," "The (266) Pious," "The Child of
+the Camp, the Father of the Armies," and "The Greatest and Best Caesar."
+Upon hearing some kings, who came to the city to pay him court,
+conversing together at supper, about their illustrious descent, he
+exclaimed,
+
+    Eis koiranos eto, eis basileus.
+    Let there be but one prince, one king.
+
+He was strongly inclined to assume the diadem, and change the form of
+government, from imperial to regal; but being told that he far exceeded
+the grandeur of kings and princes, he began to arrogate to himself a
+divine majesty.  He ordered all the images of the gods, which were famous
+either for their beauty, or the veneration paid them, among which was
+that of Jupiter Olympius, to be brought from Greece, that he might take
+the heads off, and put on his own.  Having continued part of the Palatium
+as far as the Forum, and the temple of Castor and Pollux being converted
+into a kind of vestibule to his house, he often stationed himself between
+the twin brothers, and so presented himself to be worshipped by all
+votaries; some of whom saluted him by the name of Jupiter Latialis.  He
+also instituted a temple and priests, with choicest victims, in honour of
+his own divinity.  In his temple stood a statue of gold, the exact image
+of himself, which was daily dressed in garments corresponding with those
+he wore himself.  The most opulent persons in the city offered themselves
+as candidates for the honour of being his priests, and purchased it
+successively at an immense price.  The victims were flamingos, peacocks,
+bustards, guinea-fowls, turkey and pheasant hens, each sacrificed on
+their respective days.  On nights when the moon was full, he was in the
+constant habit of inviting her to his embraces and his bed.  In the
+day-time he talked in private to Jupiter Capitolinus; one while whispering
+to him, and another turning his ear to him: sometimes he spoke aloud, and
+in railing language.  For he was overheard to threaten the god thus:
+
+    Hae em' anaeir', hae ego se; [423]
+    Raise thou me up, or I'll--
+
+(267) until being at last prevailed upon by the entreaties of the god, as
+he said, to take up his abode with him, he built a bridge over the temple
+of the Deified Augustus, by which he joined the Palatium to the Capitol.
+Afterwards, that he might be still nearer, he laid the foundations of a
+new palace in the very court of the Capitol.
+
+XXIII.  He was unwilling to be thought or called the grandson of Agrippa,
+because of the obscurity of his birth; and he was offended if any one,
+either in prose or verse, ranked him amongst the Caesars.  He said that
+his mother was the fruit of an incestuous commerce, maintained by
+Augustus with his daughter Julia.  And not content with this vile
+reflection upon the memory of Augustus, he forbad his victories at
+Actium, and on the coast of Sicily, to be celebrated, as usual; affirming
+that they had been most pernicious and fatal to the Roman people.  He
+called his grandmother Livia Augusta "Ulysses in a woman's dress," and
+had the indecency to reflect upon her in a letter to the senate, as of
+mean birth, and descended, by the mother's side, from a grandfather who
+was only one of the municipal magistrates of Fondi; whereas it is
+certain, from the public records, that Aufidius Lurco held high offices
+at Rome.  His grandmother Antonia desiring a private conference with him,
+he refused to grant it, unless Macro, the prefect of the pretorian
+guards, were present.  Indignities of this kind, and ill usage, were the
+cause of her death; but some think he also gave her poison.  Nor did he
+pay the smallest respect to her memory after her death, but witnessed the
+burning from his private apartment.  His brother Tiberius, who had no
+expectation of any violence, was suddenly dispatched by a military
+tribune sent by his order for that purpose.  He forced Silanus, his
+father-in-law, to kill himself, by cutting his throat with a razor.  The
+pretext he alleged for these murders was, that the latter had not
+followed him upon his putting to sea in stormy weather, but stayed behind
+with the view of seizing the city, if he should perish.  The other, he
+said, smelt of an antidote, which he had taken to prevent his being
+poisoned by him; whereas Silanus was only afraid of being sea-sick, and
+the disagreeableness of a voyage; and Tiberius had merely taken a
+medicine for an habitual cough, (268) which was continually growing
+worse.  As for his successor Claudius, he only saved him for a
+laughing-stock.
+
+XXIV.  He lived in the habit of incest with all his sisters; and at
+table, when much company was present, he placed each of them in turns
+below him, whilst his wife reclined above him.  It is believed, that he
+deflowered one of them, Drusilla, before he had assumed the robe of
+manhood; and was even caught in her embraces by his grandmother Antonia,
+with whom they were educated together.  When she was afterwards married
+to Cassius Longinus, a man of consular rank, he took her from him, and
+kept her constantly as if she were his lawful wife.  In a fit of
+sickness, he by his will appointed her heiress both of his estate and the
+empire.  After her death, he ordered a public mourning for her; during
+which it was capital for any person to laugh, use the bath, or sup with
+his parents, wife, or children.  Being inconsolable under his affliction,
+he went hastily, and in the night-time, from the City; going through
+Campania to Syracuse, and then suddenly returned without shaving his
+beard, or trimming his hair.  Nor did he ever afterwards, in matters of
+the greatest importance, not even in the assemblies of the people or
+before the soldiers, swear any otherwise, than "By the divinity of
+Drusilla."  The rest of his sisters he did not treat with so much
+fondness or regard; but frequently prostituted them to his catamites.  He
+therefore the more readily condemned them in the case of Aemilius
+Lepidus, as guilty of adultery, and privy to that conspiracy against him.
+Nor did he only divulge their own hand-writing relative to the affair,
+which he procured by base and lewd means, but likewise consecrated to
+Mars the Avenger three swords which had been prepared to stab him, with
+an inscription, setting forth the occasion of their consecration.
+
+XXV.  Whether in the marriage of his wives, in repudiating them, or
+retaining them, he acted with greater infamy, it is difficult to say.
+Being at the wedding of Caius Piso with Livia Orestilla, he ordered the
+bride to be carried to his own house, but within a few days divorced her,
+and two years after banished her; because it was thought, that upon her
+divorce she returned to the embraces of her former husband.  (269) Some
+say, that being invited to the wedding-supper, he sent a messenger to
+Piso, who sat opposite to him, in these words: "Do not be too fond with
+my wife," and that he immediately carried her off.  Next day he published
+a proclamation, importing, "That he had got a wife as Romulus and
+Augustus had done." [424]  Lollia Paulina, who was married to a man of
+consular rank in command of an army, he suddenly called from the province
+where she was with her husband, upon mention being made that her
+grandmother was formerly very beautiful, and married her; but he soon
+afterwards parted with her, interdicting her from having ever afterwards
+any commerce with man.  He loved with a most passionate and constant
+affection Caesonia, who was neither handsome nor young; and was besides
+the mother of three daughters by another man; but a wanton of unbounded
+lasciviousness.  Her he would frequently exhibit to the soldiers, dressed
+in a military cloak, with shield and helmet, and riding by his side.  To
+his friends he even showed her naked.  After she had a child, he honoured
+her with the title of wife; in one and the same day, declaring himself
+her husband, and father of the child of which she was delivered.  He
+named it Julia Drusilla, and carrying it round the temples of all the
+goddesses, laid it on the lap of Minerva; to whom he recommended the care
+of bringing up and instructing her.  He considered her as his own child
+for no better reason than her savage temper, which was such even in her
+infancy, that she would attack with her nails the face and eyes of the
+children at play with her.
+
+XXVI.  It would be of little importance, as well as disgusting, to add to
+all this an account of the manner in which he treated his relations and
+friends; as Ptolemy, king Juba's son, his cousin (for he was the grandson
+of Mark Antony by his daughter Selene) [425], and especially Macro
+himself, and Ennia likewise [426], by whose assistance he had obtained
+the empire; all of whom, for their alliance and eminent services, he
+rewarded with violent deaths.  Nor was he more mild or respectful in his
+behaviour towards the senate.  Some who had borne the (270) highest
+offices in the government, he suffered to run by his litter in their
+togas for several miles together, and to attend him at supper, sometimes
+at the head of his couch, sometimes at his feet, with napkins.  Others of
+them, after he had privately put them to death, he nevertheless continued
+to send for, as if they were still alive, and after a few days pretended
+that they had laid violent hands upon themselves.  The consuls having
+forgotten to give public notice of his birth-day, he displaced them; and
+the republic was three days without any one in that high office.  A
+quaestor who was said to be concerned in a conspiracy against him, he
+scourged severely, having first stripped off his clothes, and spread them
+under the feet of the soldiers employed in the work, that they might
+stand the more firm.  The other orders likewise he treated with the same
+insolence and violence.  Being disturbed by the noise of people taking
+their places at midnight in the circus, as they were to have free
+admission, he drove them all away with clubs.  In this tumult, above
+twenty Roman knights were squeezed to death, with as many matrons, with a
+great crowd besides.  When stage-plays were acted, to occasion disputes
+between the people and the knights, he distributed the money-tickets
+sooner than usual, that the seats assigned to the knights might be all
+occupied by the mob.  In the spectacles of gladiators, sometimes, when
+the sun was violently hot, he would order the curtains, which covered the
+amphitheatre, to be drawn aside [427], and forbad any person to be let
+out; withdrawing at the same time the usual apparatus for the
+entertainment, and presenting wild beasts almost pined to death, the most
+sorry gladiators, decrepit with age, and fit only to work the machinery,
+and decent house-keepers, who were remarkable for some bodily infirmity.
+Sometimes shutting up the public granaries, he would oblige the people to
+starve for a while.
+
+XXVII.  He evinced the savage barbarity of his temper chiefly by the
+following indications.  When flesh was only to be had at a high price for
+feeding his wild beasts reserved for the spectacles, he ordered that
+criminals should be given them (271) to be devoured; and upon inspecting
+them in a row, while he stood in the middle of the portico, without
+troubling himself to examine their cases he ordered them to be dragged
+away, from "bald-pate to bald-pate." [428]  Of one person who had made a
+vow for his recovery to combat with a gladiator, he exacted its
+performance; nor would he allow him to desist until he came off
+conqueror, and after many entreaties.  Another, who had vowed to give his
+life for the same cause, having shrunk from the sacrifice, he delivered,
+adorned as a victim, with garlands and fillets, to boys, who were to
+drive him through the streets, calling on him to fulfil his vow, until he
+was thrown headlong from the ramparts.  After disfiguring many persons of
+honourable rank, by branding them in the face with hot irons, he
+condemned them to the mines, to work in repairing the high-ways, or to
+fight with wild beasts; or tying them by the neck and heels, in the
+manner of beasts carried to slaughter, would shut them up in cages, or
+saw them asunder.  Nor were these severities merely inflicted for crimes
+of great enormity, but for making remarks on his public games, or for not
+having sworn by the Genius of the emperor.  He compelled parents to be
+present at the execution of their sons; and to one who excused himself on
+account of indisposition, he sent his own litter.  Another he invited to
+his table immediately after he had witnessed the spectacle, and coolly
+challenged him to jest and be merry.  He ordered the overseer of the
+spectacles and wild beasts to be scourged in fetters, during several days
+successively, in his own presence, and did not put him to death until he
+was disgusted with the stench of his putrefied brain.  He burned alive,
+in the centre of the arena of the amphitheatre, the writer of a farce,
+for some witty verse, which had a double meaning.  A Roman knight, who
+had been exposed to the wild beasts, crying out that he was innocent, he
+called him back, and having had his tongue cut out, remanded him to the
+arena.
+
+XXVIII.  Asking a certain person, whom he recalled after a long exile,
+how he used to spend his time, he replied, with flattery, "I was always
+praying the gods for what has happened, that Tiberius might die, and you
+be emperor."  Concluding, therefore, that those he had himself banished
+also (272) prayed for his death, he sent orders round the islands [429]
+to have them all put to death.  Being very desirous to have a senator
+torn to pieces, he employed some persons to call him a public enemy, fall
+upon him as he entered the senate-house, stab him with their styles, and
+deliver him to the rest to tear asunder.  Nor was he satisfied, until he
+saw the limbs and bowels of the man, after they had been dragged through
+the streets, piled up in a heap before him.
+
+XXIX.  He aggravated his barbarous actions by language equally
+outrageous.  "There is nothing in my nature," said he, "that I commend or
+approve so much, as my adiatrepsia (inflexible rigour)."  Upon his
+grandmother Antonia's giving him some advice, as if it was a small matter
+to pay no regard to it, he said to her, "Remember that all things are
+lawful for me."  When about to murder his brother, whom he suspected of
+taking antidotes against poison, he said, "See then an antidote against
+Caesar!"  And when he banished his sisters, he told them in a menacing
+tone, that he had not only islands at command, but likewise swords.  One
+of pretorian rank having sent several times from Anticyra [430], whither
+he had gone for his health, to have his leave of absence prolonged, he
+ordered him to be put to death; adding these words "Bleeding is necessary
+for one that has taken hellebore so long, and found no benefit."  It was
+his custom every tenth day to sign the lists of prisoners appointed for
+execution; and this he called "clearing his accounts."  And having
+condemned several Gauls and Greeks at one time, he exclaimed in triumph,
+"I have conquered Gallograecia." [431]
+
+XXX.  He generally prolonged the sufferings of his victims by causing
+them to be inflicted by slight and frequently repeated strokes; this
+being his well-known and constant order: (273) "Strike so that he may
+feel himself die."  Having punished one person for another, by mistaking
+his name, he said, "he deserved it quite as much."  He had frequently in
+his mouth these words of the tragedian,
+
+    Oderint dum metuant. [432]
+    I scorn their hatred, if they do but fear me.
+
+He would often inveigh against all the senators without exception, as
+clients of Sejanus, and informers against his mother and brothers,
+producing the memorials which he had pretended to burn, and excusing the
+cruelty of Tiberius as necessary, since it was impossible to question the
+veracity of such a number of accusers [433].  He continually reproached
+the whole equestrian order, as devoting themselves to nothing but acting
+on the stage, and fighting as gladiators.  Being incensed at the people's
+applauding a party at the Circensian games in opposition to him, he
+exclaimed, "I wish the Roman people had but one neck." [434]  When
+Tetrinius, the highwayman, was denounced, he said his persecutors too
+were all Tetrinius's.  Five Retiarii [435], in tunics, fighting in a
+company, yielded without a struggle to the same number of opponents; and
+being ordered to be slain, one of them taking up his lance again, killed
+all the conquerors.  This he lamented in a proclamation as a most cruel
+butchery, and cursed all those who had borne the sight of it.
+
+XXXI.  He used also to complain aloud of the state of the times, because
+it was not rendered remarkable by any public (274) calamities; for, while
+the reign of Augustus had been made memorable to posterity by the
+disaster of Varus [436], and that of Tiberius by the fall of the theatre
+at Fidenae [437], his was likely to pass into oblivion, from an
+uninterrupted series of prosperity.  And, at times, he wished for some
+terrible slaughter of his troops, a famine, a pestilence, conflagrations,
+or an earthquake.
+
+XXXII.  Even in the midst of his diversions, while gaming or feasting,
+this savage ferocity, both in his language and actions, never forsook
+him.  Persons were often put to the torture in his presence, whilst he
+was dining or carousing.  A soldier, who was an adept in the art of
+beheading, used at such times to take off the heads of prisoners, who
+were brought in for that purpose.  At Puteoli, at the dedication of the
+bridge which he planned, as already mentioned [438], he invited a number
+of people to come to him from the shore, and then suddenly, threw them
+headlong into the sea; thrusting down with poles and oars those who, to
+save themselves, had got hold of the rudders of the ships.  At Rome, in a
+public feast, a slave having stolen some thin plates of silver with which
+the couches were inlaid, he delivered him immediately to an executioner,
+with orders to cut off his hands, and lead him round the guests, with
+them hanging from his neck before his breast, and a label, signifying the
+cause of his punishment.  A gladiator who was practising with him, and
+voluntarily threw himself at his feet, he stabbed with a poniard, and
+then ran about with a palm branch in his hand, after the manner of those
+who are victorious in the games.  When a victim was to be offered upon an
+altar, he, clad in the habit of the Popae [439], and holding the axe
+aloft for a while, at last, instead of the animal, slaughtered an officer
+who attended to cut up the sacrifice.  And at a sumptuous entertainment,
+he fell suddenly into a violent fit of laughter, and upon the consuls,
+who reclined next to him, respectfully asking him the occasion,
+"Nothing," replied he, "but that, upon a single nod of mine, you might
+both have your throats cut."
+
+(275) XXXIII.  Among many other jests, this was one: As he stood by the
+statue of Jupiter, he asked Apelles, the tragedian, which of them he
+thought was biggest?  Upon his demurring about it, he lashed him most
+severely, now and then commending his voice, whilst he entreated for
+mercy, as being well modulated even when he was venting his grief.  As
+often as he kissed the neck of his wife or mistress, he would say, "So
+beautiful a throat must be cut whenever I please;" and now and then he
+would threaten to put his dear Caesonia to the torture, that he might
+discover why he loved her so passionately.
+
+XXXIV.  In his behaviour towards men of almost all ages, he discovered a
+degree of jealousy and malignity equal to that of his cruelty and pride.
+He so demolished and dispersed the statues of several illustrious
+persons, which had been removed by Augustus, for want of room, from the
+court of the Capitol into the Campus Martius, that it was impossible to
+set them up again with their inscriptions entire.  And, for the future,
+he forbad any statue whatever to be erected without his knowledge and
+leave.  He had thoughts too of suppressing Homer's poems: "For why," said
+he, "may not I do what Plato has done before me, who excluded him from
+his commonwealth?" [440]  He was likewise very near banishing the
+writings and the busts of Virgil and Livy from all libraries; censuring
+one of them as "a man of no genius and very little learning;" and the
+other as "a verbose and careless historian."  He often talked of the
+lawyers as if he intended to abolish their profession.  "By Hercules!"
+he would say, "I shall put it out of their power to answer any questions
+in law, otherwise than by referring to me!"
+
+XXXV.  He took from the noblest persons in the city the ancient marks of
+distinction used by their families; as the collar from Torquatus [441];
+from Cincinnatus the curl of (276) hair [442]; and from Cneius Pompey,
+the surname of Great, belonging to that ancient family.  Ptolemy,
+mentioned before, whom he invited from his kingdom, and received with
+great honours, he suddenly put to death, for no other reason, but because
+he observed that upon entering the theatre, at a public exhibition, he
+attracted the eyes of all the spectators, by the splendour of his purple
+robe.  As often as he met with handsome men, who had fine heads of hair,
+he would order the back of their heads to be shaved, to make them appear
+ridiculous.  There was one Esius Proculus, the son of a centurion of the
+first rank, who, for his great stature and fine proportions, was called
+the Colossal.  Him he ordered to be dragged from his seat in the arena,
+and matched with a gladiator in light armour, and afterwards with another
+completely armed; and upon his worsting them both, commanded him
+forthwith to be bound, to be led clothed in rags up and down the streets
+of the city, and, after being exhibited in that plight to the women, to
+be then butchered.  There was no man of so abject or mean condition,
+whose excellency in any kind he did not envy.  The Rex Nemorensis [443]
+having many years enjoyed the honour of the priesthood, he procured a
+still stronger antagonist to oppose him.  One Porius, who fought in a
+chariot [444], having been victorious in an exhibition, and in his joy
+given freedom to a slave, was applauded so vehemently, that Caligula rose
+in such haste from his seat, that, treading upon the hem of his toga, he
+tumbled down the steps, full of indignation, (277) and crying out, "A
+people who are masters of the world, pay greater respect to a gladiator
+for a trifle, than to princes admitted amongst the gods, or to my own
+majesty here present amongst them."
+
+XXXVI.  He never had the least regard either to the chastity of his own
+person, or that of others.  He is said to have been inflamed with an
+unnatural passion for Marcus Lepidus Mnester, an actor in pantomimes, and
+for certain hostages; and to have engaged with them in the practice of
+mutual pollution.  Valerius Catullus, a young man of a consular family,
+bawled aloud in public that he had been exhausted by him in that
+abominable act.  Besides his incest with his sisters, and his notorious
+passion for Pyrallis, the prostitute, there was hardly any lady of
+distinction with whom he did not make free.  He used commonly to invite
+them with their husbands to supper, and as they passed by the couch on
+which he reclined at table, examine them very closely, like those who
+traffic in slaves; and if any one from modesty held down her face, he
+raised it up with his hand.  Afterwards, as often as he was in the
+humour, he would quit the room, send for her he liked best, and in a
+short time return with marks of recent disorder about them.  He would
+then commend or disparage her in the presence of the company, recounting
+the charms or defects of her person and behaviour in private.  To some he
+sent a divorce in the name of their absent husbands, and ordered it to be
+registered in the public acts.
+
+XXXVII.  In the devices of his profuse expenditure, he surpassed all the
+prodigals that ever lived; inventing a new kind of bath, with strange
+dishes and suppers, washing in precious unguents, both warm and cold,
+drinking pearls of immense value dissolved in vinegar, and serving up for
+his guests loaves and other victuals modelled in gold; often saying,
+"that a man ought either to be a good economist or an emperor."  Besides,
+he scattered money to a prodigious amount among the people, from the top
+of the Julian Basilica [445], during several days successively.  He built
+two ships with ten banks of oars, after the Liburnian fashion, the poops
+of which blazed with jewels, and the sails were of various parti-colours.
+They were fitted up with ample baths, galleries, and saloons, and
+supplied with a great variety of vines and other fruit-trees.  In these
+he would sail in the day-time along the coast of Campania, feasting (278)
+amidst dancing and concerts of music.  In building his palaces and
+villas, there was nothing he desired to effect so much, in defiance of
+all reason, as what was considered impossible.  Accordingly, moles were
+formed in the deep and adverse sea [446], rocks of the hardest stone cut
+away, plains raised to the height of mountains with a vast mass of earth,
+and the tops of mountains levelled by digging; and all these were to be
+executed with incredible speed, for the least remissness was a capital
+offence.  Not to mention particulars, he spent enormous sums, and the
+whole treasures which had been amassed by Tiberius Caesar, amounting to
+two thousand seven hundred millions of sesterces, within less than a
+year.
+
+XXXVIII.  Having therefore quite exhausted these funds, and being in want
+of money, he had recourse to plundering the people, by every mode of
+false accusation, confiscation, and taxation, that could be invented.  He
+declared that no one had any right to the freedom of Rome, although their
+ancestors had acquired it for themselves and their posterity, unless they
+were sons; for that none beyond that degree ought to be considered as
+posterity.  When the grants of the Divine Julius and Augustus were
+produced to him, he only said, that he was very sorry they were obsolete
+and out of date.  He also charged all those with making false returns,
+who, after the taking of the census, had by any means whatever increased
+their property.  He annulled the wills of all who had been centurions of
+the first rank, as testimonies of their base ingratitude, if from the
+beginning of Tiberius's reign they had not left either that prince or
+himself their heir.  He also set aside the wills of all others, if any
+person only pretended to say, that they designed at their death to leave
+Caesar their heir.  The public becoming terrified at this proceeding, he
+was now appointed joint-heir with their friends, and in the case of
+parents with their children, by persons unknown to him.  Those who lived
+any considerable time after making such a will, he said, were only making
+game of him; and accordingly he sent many of them poisoned cakes.  He
+used to try such causes himself; fixing previously the sum he proposed to
+raise during the sitting, and, after he had secured it, quitting the
+tribunal.  Impatient of the least delay, he condemned by a single
+sentence forty (279) persons, against whom there were different charges;
+boasting to Caesonia when she awoke, "how much business he had dispatched
+while she was taking her mid-day sleep."  He exposed to sale by auction,
+the remains of the apparatus used in the public spectacles; and exacted
+such biddings, and raised the prices so high, that some of the purchasers
+were ruined, and bled themselves to death.  There is a well-known story
+told of Aponius Saturninus, who happening to fall asleep as he sat on a
+bench at the sale, Caius called out to the auctioneer, not to overlook
+the praetorian personage who nodded to him so often; and accordingly the
+salesman went on, pretending to take the nods for tokens of assent, until
+thirteen gladiators were knocked down to him at the sum of nine millions
+of sesterces [447], he being in total ignorance of what was doing.
+
+XXXIX.  Having also sold in Gaul all the clothes, furniture, slaves, and
+even freedmen belonging to his sisters, at prodigious prices, after their
+condemnation, he was so much delighted with his gains, that he sent to
+Rome for all the furniture of the old palace [448]; pressing for its
+conveyance all the carriages let to hire in the city, with the horses and
+mules belonging to the bakers, so that they often wanted bread at Rome;
+and many who had suits at law in progress, lost their causes, because
+they could not make their appearance in due time according to their
+recognizances.  In the sale of this furniture, every artifice of fraud
+and imposition was employed.  Sometimes he would rail at the bidders for
+being niggardly, and ask them "if they were not ashamed to be richer than
+he was?" at another, he would affect to be sorry that the property of
+princes should be passing into the hands of private persons.  He had
+found out that a rich provincial had given two hundred thousand sesterces
+to his chamberlains for an underhand invitation to his table, and he was
+much pleased to find that honour valued at so high a rate.  The day
+following, as the same person was sitting at the sale, he sent him some
+bauble, for which he told him he must pay two hundred thousand sesterces,
+and "that he should sup with Caesar upon his own invitation."
+
+(280) XL.  He levied new taxes, and such as were never before known, at
+first by the publicans, but afterwards, because their profit was
+enormous, by centurions and tribunes of the pretorian guards; no
+description of property or persons being exempted from some kind of tax
+or other.  For all eatables brought into the city, a certain excise was
+exacted: for all law-suits or trials in whatever court, the fortieth part
+of the sum in dispute; and such as were convicted of compromising
+litigations, were made liable to a penalty.  Out of the daily wages of
+the porters, he received an eighth, and from the gains of common
+prostitutes, what they received for one favour granted.  There was a
+clause in the law, that all bawds who kept women for prostitution or
+sale, should be liable to pay, and that marriage itself should not be
+exempted.
+
+XLI.  These taxes being imposed, but the act by which they were levied
+never submitted to public inspection, great grievances were experienced
+from the want of sufficient knowledge of the law.  At length, on the
+urgent demands of the Roman people, he published the law, but it was
+written in a very small hand, and posted up in a corner, so that no one
+could make a copy of it.  To leave no sort of gain untried, he opened
+brothels in the Palatium, with a number of cells, furnished suitably to
+the dignity of the place; in which married women and free-born youths
+were ready for the reception of visitors.  He sent likewise his
+nomenclators about the forums and courts, to invite people of all ages,
+the old as well as the young, to his brothel, to come and satisfy their
+lusts; and he was ready to lend his customers money upon interest; clerks
+attending to take down their names in public, as persons who contributed
+to the emperor's revenue.  Another method of raising money, which he
+thought not below his notice, was gaming; which, by the help of lying and
+perjury, he turned to considerable account.  Leaving once the management
+of his play to his partner in the game, he stepped into the court, and
+observing two rich Roman knights passing by, he ordered them immediately
+to be seized, and their estates confiscated.  Then returning, in great
+glee, he boasted that he had never made a better throw in his life.
+
+XLII.  After the birth of his daughter, complaining of his (281) poverty,
+and the burdens to which he was subjected, not only as an emperor, but a
+father, he made a general collection for her maintenance and fortune.  He
+likewise gave public notice, that he would receive new-year's gifts on
+the calends of January following; and accordingly stood in the vestibule
+of his house, to clutch the presents which people of all ranks threw down
+before him by handfuls and lapfuls.  At last, being seized with an
+invincible desire of feeling money, taking off his slippers, he
+repeatedly walked over great heaps of gold coin spread upon the spacious
+floor, and then laying himself down, rolled his whole body in gold over
+and over again.
+
+XLIII.  Only once in his life did he take an active part in military
+affairs, and then not from any set purpose, but during his journey to
+Mevania, to see the grove and river of Clitumnus [449].  Being
+recommended to recruit a body of Batavians, who attended him, he resolved
+upon an expedition into Germany.  Immediately he drew together several
+legions, and auxiliary forces from all quarters, and made every where new
+levies with the utmost rigour.  Collecting supplies of all kinds, such as
+never had been assembled upon the like occasion, he set forward on his
+march, and pursued it sometimes with so much haste and precipitation,
+that the pretorian cohorts were obliged, contrary to custom, to pack
+their standards on horses or mules, and so follow him.  At other times,
+he would march so slow and luxuriously, that he was carried in a litter
+by eight men; ordering the roads to be swept by the people of the
+neighbouring towns, and sprinkled with water to lay the dust.
+
+XLIV.  On arriving at the camp, in order to show himself an active
+general, and severe disciplinarian, he cashiered the lieutenants who came
+up late with the auxiliary forces from different quarters.  In reviewing
+the army, he deprived of their companies most of the centurions of the
+first rank, who had now served their legal time in the wars, and some
+whose time would have expired in a few days; alleging against them their
+age and infirmity; and railing at the covetous disposition (282) of the
+rest of them, he reduced the bounty due to those who had served out their
+time to the sum of six thousand sesterces.  Though he only received the
+submission of Adminius, the son of Cunobeline, a British king, who being
+driven from his native country by his father, came over to him with a
+small body of troops [450], yet, as if the whole island had been
+surrendered to him, he dispatched magnificent letters to Rome, ordering
+the bearers to proceed in their carriages directly up to the forum and
+the senate-house, and not to deliver the letters but to the consuls in
+the temple of Mars, and in the presence of a full assembly of the
+senators.
+
+XLV.  Soon after this, there being no hostilities, he ordered a few
+Germans of his guard to be carried over and placed in concealment on the
+other side of the Rhine, and word to be brought him after dinner, that an
+enemy was advancing with great impetuosity.  This being accordingly done,
+he immediately threw himself, with his friends, and a party of the
+pretorian knights, into the adjoining wood, where lopping branches from
+the trees, and forming trophies of them, he returned by torch-light,
+upbraiding those who did not follow him, with timorousness and cowardice;
+but he presented the companions, and sharers of his victory with crowns
+of a new form, and under a new name, having the sun, moon, and stars
+represented on them, and which he called Exploratoriae.  Again, some
+hostages were by his order taken from the school, and privately sent off;
+upon notice of which he immediately rose from table, pursued them with
+the cavalry, as if they had run away, and coming up with them, brought
+them back in fetters; proceeding to an extravagant pitch of ostentation
+likewise in this military comedy.  Upon his again sitting down to table,
+it being reported to him that the troops were all reassembled, he ordered
+them to sit down as they were, in their armour, animating them in the
+words of that well-known verse of Virgil:
+
+    (283) Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.--Aen. 1.
+    Bear up, and save yourselves for better days.
+
+In the mean time, he reprimanded the senate and people of Rome in a very
+severe proclamation, "For revelling and frequenting the diversions of the
+circus and theatre, and enjoying themselves at their villas, whilst their
+emperor was fighting, and exposing himself to the greatest dangers."
+
+XLVI.  At last, as if resolved to make war in earnest, he drew up his
+army upon the shore of the ocean, with his balistae and other engines of
+war, and while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a sudden
+commanded them to gather up the sea shells, and fill their helmets, and
+the folds of their dress with them, calling them "the spoils of the ocean
+due to the Capitol and the Palatium."  As a monument of his success, he
+raised a lofty tower, upon which, as at Pharos [451], he ordered lights
+to be burnt in the night-time, for the direction of ships at sea; and
+then promising the soldiers a donative of a hundred denarii [452] a man,
+as if he had surpassed the most eminent examples of generosity, "Go your
+ways," said he, "and be merry: go, ye are rich."
+
+XLVII.  In making preparations for his triumph, besides the prisoners and
+deserters from the barbarian armies, he picked out the men of greatest
+stature in all Gaul, such as he said were fittest to grace a triumph,
+with some of the chiefs, and reserved them to appear in the procession;
+obliging them not only to dye their hair yellow, and let it grow long,
+but to learn the German language, and assume the names commonly used in
+that country.  He ordered likewise the gallies in which he had entered
+the ocean, to be conveyed to Rome a great part of the way by land, and
+wrote to his comptrollers in the city, "to make proper preparations for a
+triumph against (284) his arrival, at as small expense as possible; but
+on a scale such as had never been seen before, since they had full power
+over the property of every one."
+
+XLVIII.  Before he left the province, he formed a design of the most
+horrid cruelty--to massacre the legions which had mutinied upon the death
+of Augustus, for seizing and detaining by force his father, Germanicus,
+their commander, and himself, then an infant, in the camp.  Though he was
+with great difficulty dissuaded from this rash attempt, yet neither the
+most urgent entreaties nor representations could prevent him from
+persisting in the design of decimating these legions.  Accordingly, he
+ordered them to assemble unarmed, without so much as their swords; and
+then surrounded them with armed horse.  But finding that many of them,
+suspecting that violence was intended, were making off, to arm in their
+own defence, he quitted the assembly as fast as he could, and immediately
+marched for Rome; bending now all his fury against the senate, whom he
+publicly threatened, to divert the general attention from the clamour
+excited by his disgraceful conduct.  Amongst other pretexts of offence,
+he complained that he was defrauded of a triumph, which was justly his
+due, though he had just before forbidden, upon pain of death, any honour
+to be decreed him.
+
+XLIX.  In his march he was waited upon by deputies from the senatorian
+order, entreating him to hasten his return.  He replied to them, "I will
+come, I will come, and this with me," striking at the same time the hilt
+of his sword.  He issued likewise this proclamation: "I am coming, but
+for those only who wish for me, the equestrian order and the people; for
+I shall no longer treat the senate as their fellow-citizen or prince."
+He forbad any of the senators to come to meet him; and either abandoning
+or deferring his triumph, he entered the city in ovation on his
+birthday.  Within four months from this period he was slain, after he had
+perpetrated enormous crimes, and while he was meditating the execution,
+if possible, of still greater.  He had entertained a design of removing
+to Antium, and afterwards to Alexandria; having first cut off the flower
+of the equestrian and senatorian orders.  This is placed beyond all
+question, by two books which were found in his cabinet (285) under
+different titles; one being called the sword, and the other, the dagger.
+They both contained private marks, and the names of those who were
+devoted to death.  There was also found a large chest, filled with a
+variety of poisons which being afterwards thrown into the sea by order of
+Claudius, are said to have so infected the waters, that the fish were
+poisoned, and cast dead by the tide upon the neighbouring shores.
+
+L.  He was tall, of a pale complexion, ill-shaped, his neck and legs very
+slender, his eyes and temples hollow, his brows broad and knit, his hair
+thin, and the crown of the head bald.  The other parts of his body were
+much covered with hair.  On this account, it was reckoned a capital crime
+for any person to look down from above, as he was passing by, or so much
+as to name a goat.  His countenance, which was naturally hideous and
+frightful, he purposely rendered more so, forming it before a mirror into
+the most horrible contortions.  He was crazy both in body and mind, being
+subject, when a boy, to the falling sickness.  When he arrived at the age
+of manhood, he endured fatigue tolerably well; but still, occasionally,
+he was liable to a faintness, during which he remained incapable of any
+effort.  He was not insensible of the disorder of his mind, and sometimes
+had thoughts of retiring to clear his brain [453].  It is believed that
+his wife Caesonia administered to him a love potion which threw him into
+a frenzy.  What most of all disordered him, was want of sleep, for he
+seldom had more than three or four hours' rest in a night; and even then
+his sleep was not sound, but disturbed by strange dreams; fancying, among
+other things, that a form representing the ocean spoke to him.  Being
+therefore often weary with lying awake so long, sometimes he sat up in
+his bed, at others, walked in the longest porticos about the house, and
+from time to time, invoked and looked out for the approach of day.
+
+LI.  To this crazy constitution of his mind may, I think, very justly be
+ascribed two faults which he had, of a nature directly repugnant one to
+the other, namely, an excessive confidence and the most abject timidity.
+For he, who affected so (286) much to despise the gods, was ready to shut
+his eyes, and wrap up his head in his cloak at the slightest storm of
+thunder and lightning; and if it was violent, he got up and hid himself
+under his bed.  In his visit to Sicily, after ridiculing many strange
+objects which that country affords, he ran away suddenly in the night
+from Messini, terrified by the smoke and rumbling at the summit of Mount
+Aetna.  And though in words he was very valiant against the barbarians,
+yet upon passing a narrow defile in Germany in his light car, surrounded
+by a strong body of his troops, some one happening to say, "There would
+be no small consternation amongst us, if an enemy were to appear," he
+immediately mounted his horse, and rode towards the bridges in great
+haste; but finding them blocked up with camp-followers and
+baggage-waggons, he was in such a hurry, that he caused himself to be
+carried in men's hands over the heads of the crowd.  Soon afterwards, upon
+hearing that the Germans were again in rebellion, he prepared to quit
+Rome, and equipped a fleet; comforting himself with this consideration,
+that if the enemy should prove victorious, and possess themselves of the
+heights of the Alps, as the Cimbri [454] had done, or of the city, as the
+Senones [455] formerly did, he should still have in reserve the
+transmarine provinces [456].  Hence it was, I suppose, that it occurred to
+his assassins, to invent the story intended to pacify the troops who
+mutinied at his death, that he had laid violent hands upon himself, in a
+fit of terror occasioned by the news brought him of the defeat of his
+army.
+
+LII.  In the fashion of his clothes, shoes, and all the rest of his
+dress, he did not wear what was either national, or properly civic, or
+peculiar to the male sex, or appropriate to mere mortals.  He often
+appeared abroad in a short coat of stout cloth, richly embroidered and
+blazing with jewels, in a tunic with sleeves, and with bracelets upon his
+arms; sometimes all in silks and (287) habited like a woman; at other
+times in the crepidae or buskins; sometimes in the sort of shoes used by
+the light-armed soldiers, or in the sock used by women, and commonly with
+a golden beard fixed to his chin, holding in his hand a thunderbolt, a
+trident, or a caduceus, marks of distinction belonging to the gods only.
+Sometimes, too, he appeared in the habit of Venus.  He wore very commonly
+the triumphal ornaments, even before his expedition, and sometimes the
+breast-plate of Alexander the Great, taken out of his coffin. [457]
+
+LIII.  With regard to the liberal sciences, he was little conversant in
+philology, but applied himself with assiduity to the study of eloquence,
+being indeed in point of enunciation tolerably elegant and ready; and in
+his perorations, when he was moved to anger, there was an abundant flow
+of words and periods.  In speaking, his action was vehement, and his
+voice so strong, that he was heard at a great distance.  When winding up
+an harangue, he threatened to draw "the sword of his lucubration,"
+holding a loose and smooth style in such contempt, that he said Seneca,
+who was then much admired, "wrote only detached essays," and that "his
+language was nothing but sand without lime."  He often wrote answers to
+the speeches of successful orators; and employed himself in composing
+accusations or vindications of eminent persons, who were impeached before
+the senate; and gave his vote for or against the party accused, according
+to his success in speaking, inviting the equestrian order, by
+proclamation, to hear him.
+
+LIV.  He also zealously applied himself to the practice of several other
+arts of different kinds, such as fencing, charioteering, singing, and
+dancing.  In the first of these, he practised with the weapons used in
+war; and drove the chariot in circuses built in several places.  He was
+so extremely fond of singing and dancing, that he could not refrain in
+the theatre from singing with the tragedians, and imitating the gestures
+of the actors, either by way of applause or correction.  A night
+exhibition which he had ordered the day he was slain, was thought to be
+intended for no other reason, than to take the opportunity afforded by
+the licentiousness of the season, to make his first appearance upon the
+stage.  Sometimes, also, (288) he danced in the night.  Summoning once to
+the Palatium, in the second watch of the night [458], three men of
+consular rank, who feared the words from the message, he placed them on
+the proscenium of the stage, and then suddenly came bursting out, with a
+loud noise of flutes and castanets [459], dressed in a mantle and tunic
+reaching down to his heels.  Having danced out a song, he retired.  Yet
+he who had acquired such dexterity in other exercises, never learnt to
+swim.
+
+LV.  Those for whom he once conceived a regard, he favoured even to
+madness.  He used to kiss Mnester, the pantomimic actor, publicly in the
+theatre; and if any person made the least noise while he was dancing, he
+would order him to be dragged from his seat, and scourged him with his
+own hand.  A Roman knight once making some bustle, he sent him, by a
+centurion, an order to depart forthwith for Ostia [460], and carry a
+letter from him to king Ptolemy in Mauritania.  The letter was comprised
+in these words: "Do neither good nor harm to the bearer."  He made some
+gladiators captains of his German guards.  He deprived the gladiators
+called Mirmillones of some of their arms.  One Columbus coming off with
+victory in a combat, but being slightly wounded, he ordered some poison
+to be infused in the wound, which he thence called Columbinum.  For thus
+it was certainly named with his own hand in a list of other poisons.  He
+was so extravagantly fond of the party of charioteers whose colours were
+green [461], that he supped and lodged for some time constantly in the
+stable where their horses were kept.  At a certain revel, he made a
+present of two millions of sesterces to one Cythicus, a driver of a
+chariot.  The day before the Circensian games, he used to send his
+soldiers to enjoin silence in the (289) neighbourhood, that the repose of
+his horse Incitatus [462] might not be disturbed.  For this favourite
+animal, besides a marble stable, an ivory manger, purple housings, and a
+jewelled frontlet, he appointed a house, with a retinue of slaves, and
+fine furniture, for the reception of such as were invited in the horse's
+name to sup with him.  It is even said that he intended to make him
+consul.
+
+LVI.  In this frantic and savage career, numbers had formed designs for
+cutting him off; but one or two conspiracies being discovered, and others
+postponed for want of opportunity, at last two men concerted a plan
+together, and accomplished their purpose; not without the privity of some
+of the greatest favourites amongst his freedmen, and the prefects of the
+pretorian guards; because, having been named, though falsely, as
+concerned in one conspiracy against him, they perceived that they were
+suspected and become objects of his hatred.  For he had immediately
+endeavoured to render them obnoxious to the soldiery, drawing his sword,
+and declaring, "That he would kill himself if they thought him worthy of
+death;" and ever after he was continually accusing them to one another,
+and setting them all mutually at variance.  The conspirators having
+resolved to fall upon him as he returned at noon from the Palatine games,
+Cassius Chaerea, tribune of the pretorian guards, claimed the part of
+making the onset.  This Chaerea was now an elderly man, and had been
+often reproached by Caius for effeminacy.  When he came for the
+watchword, the latter would give "Priapus," or "Venus;" and if on any
+occasion he returned thanks, would offer him his hand to kiss, making
+with his fingers an obscene gesture.
+
+LVII.  His approaching fate was indicated by many prodigies.  The statue
+of Jupiter at Olympia, which he had ordered to be taken down and brought
+to Rome, suddenly burst out into such a violent fit of laughter, that,
+the machines employed in the work giving way, the workmen took to their
+heels.  When this accident happened, there came up a man named Cassius,
+who said that he was commanded in a dream to sacrifice a bull to Jupiter.
+The Capitol at Capua was (290) struck with lightning upon the ides of
+March [15th March] as was also, at Rome, the apartment of the chief
+porter of the Palatium.  Some construed the latter into a presage that
+the master of the place was in danger from his own guards; and the other
+they regarded as a sign, that an illustrious person would be cut off, as
+had happened before on that day.  Sylla, the astrologer, being, consulted
+by him respecting his nativity, assured him, "That death would
+unavoidably and speedily befall him."  The oracle of Fortune at Antium
+likewise forewarned him of Cassius; on which account he had given orders
+for putting to death Cassius Longinus, at that time proconsul of Asia,
+not considering that Chaerea bore also that name.  The day preceding his
+death he dreamt that he was standing in heaven near the throne of
+Jupiter, who giving him a push with the great toe of his right foot, he
+fell headlong upon the earth.  Some things which happened the very day of
+his death, and only a little before it, were likewise considered as
+ominous presages of that event.  Whilst he was at sacrifice, he was
+bespattered with the blood of a flamingo.  And Mnester, the pantomimic
+actor, performed in a play, which the tragedian Neoptolemus had formerly
+acted at the games in which Philip, the king of Macedon, was slain.  And
+in the piece called Laureolus, in which the principal actor, running out
+in a hurry, and falling, vomited blood, several of the inferior actors
+vying with each other to give the best specimen of their art, made the
+whole stage flow with blood.  A spectacle had been purposed to be
+performed that night, in which the fables of the infernal regions were to
+be represented by Egyptians and Ethiopians.
+
+LVIII.  On the ninth of the calends of February [24th January], and about
+the seventh hour of the day, after hesitating whether he should rise to
+dinner, as his stomach was disordered by what he had eaten the day
+before, at last, by the advice of his friends, he came forth.  In the
+vaulted passage through which he had to pass, were some boys of noble
+extraction, who had been brought from Asia to act upon the stage, waiting
+for him in a private corridor, and he stopped to see and speak to them;
+and had not the leader of the party said that he was suffering from cold,
+he would have gone back, and made them act immediately.  Respecting what
+followed, (291) two different accounts are given.  Some say, that, whilst
+he was speaking to the boys, Chaerea came behind him, and gave him a
+heavy blow on the neck with his sword, first crying out, "Take this:"
+that then a tribune, by name Cornelius Sabinus, another of the
+conspirators, ran him through the breast.  Others say, that the crowd
+being kept at a distance by some centurions who were in the plot, Sabinus
+came, according to custom, for the word, and that Caius gave him
+"Jupiter," upon which Chaerea cried out, "Be it so!" and then, on his
+looking round, clove one of his jaws with a blow.  As he lay on the
+ground, crying out that he was still alive [463], the rest dispatched him
+with thirty wounds.  For the word agreed upon among them all was, "Strike
+again."  Some likewise ran their swords through his privy parts.  Upon
+the first bustle, the litter bearers came running in with their poles to
+his assistance, and, immediately afterwards, his German body guards, who
+killed some of the assassins, and also some senators who had no concern
+in the affair.
+
+LIX.  He lived twenty-nine years, and reigned three years, ten months,
+and eight days.  His body was carried privately into the Lamian Gardens
+[464], where it was half burnt upon a pile hastily raised, and then had
+some earth carelessly thrown over it.  It was afterwards disinterred by
+his sisters, on their return from banishment, burnt to ashes, and buried.
+Before this was done, it is well known that the keepers of the gardens
+were greatly disturbed by apparitions; and that not a night passed
+without some terrible alarm or other in the house where he was slain,
+until it was destroyed by fire.  His wife Caesonia was killed with him,
+being stabbed by a centurion; and his daughter had her brains knocked out
+against a wall.
+
+LX.  Of the miserable condition of those times, any person (292) may
+easily form an estimate from the following circumstances.  When his death
+was made public, it was not immediately credited.  People entertained a
+suspicion that a report of his being killed had been contrived and spread
+by himself, with the view of discovering how they stood affected towards
+him.  Nor had the conspirators fixed upon any one to succeed him.  The
+senators were so unanimous in their resolution to assert the liberty of
+their country, that the consuls assembled them at first not in the usual
+place of meeting, because it was named after Julius Caesar, but in the
+Capitol.  Some proposed to abolish the memory of the Caesars, and level
+their temples with the ground.  It was particularly remarked on this
+occasion, that all the Caesars, who had the praenomen of Caius, died by
+the sword, from the Caius Caesar who was slain in the times of Cinna.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Unfortunately, a great chasm in the Annals of Tacitus, at this period,
+precludes all information from that historian respecting the reign of
+Caligula; but from what he mentions towards the close of the preceding
+chapter, it is evident that Caligula was forward to seize the reins of
+government, upon the death of Tiberius, whom, though he rivalled him in
+his vices, he was far from imitating in his dissimulation.  Amongst the
+people, the remembrance of Germanicus' virtues cherished for his family
+an attachment which was probably, increased by its misfortunes; and they
+were anxious to see revived in the son the popularity of the father.
+Considering, however, that Caligula's vicious disposition was already
+known, and that it had even been an inducement with Tiberius to procure
+his succession, in order that it might prove a foil to his own memory; it
+is surprising that no effort was made at this juncture to shake off the
+despotism which had been so intolerable in the last reign, and restore
+the ancient liberty of the republic.  Since the commencement of the
+imperial dominion, there never had been any period so favourable for a
+counter-revolution as the present crisis.  There existed now no Livia, to
+influence the minds of the senate and people in respect of the
+government; nor was there any other person allied to the family of
+Germanicus, whose countenance or intrigues could promote the views of
+Caligula.  He himself was now only in the twenty-fifth year of his age,
+was totally inexperienced in the administration of public affairs, had
+never performed even the smallest service to his country, and was
+generally known to be of a character which (293) disgraced his
+illustrious descent.  Yet, in spite of all these circumstances, such was
+the destiny of Rome, that his accession afforded joy to the soldiers, who
+had known him in his childhood, and to the populace in the capital, as
+well as the people in the provinces, who were flattered with the delusive
+expectation of receiving a prince who should adorn the throne with the
+amiable virtues of Germanicus.
+
+It is difficult to say, whether weakness of understanding, or corruption
+of morals, were more conspicuous in the character of Caligula.  He seems
+to have discovered from his earliest years an innate depravity of mind,
+which was undoubtedly much increased by defect of education.  He had lost
+both his parents at an early period of life; and from Tiberius' own
+character, as well as his views in training the person who should succeed
+him on the throne, there is reason to think, that if any attention
+whatever was paid to the education of Caligula, it was directed to
+vitiate all his faculties and passions, rather than to correct and
+improve them.  If such was really the object, it was indeed prosecuted
+with success.
+
+The commencement, however, of his reign was such as by no means
+prognosticated its subsequent transition.  The sudden change of his
+conduct, the astonishing mixture of imbecility and presumption, of moral
+turpitude and frantic extravagance, which he afterwards evinced; such as
+rolling himself over heaps of gold, his treatment of his horse Incitatus,
+and his design of making him consul, seem to justify a suspicion that his
+brain had actually been affected, either by the potion, said to have been
+given him by his wife Caesonia, or otherwise.  Philtres, or love-potions,
+as they were called, were frequent in those times; and the people
+believed that they operated upon the mind by a mysterious and sympathetic
+power.  It is, however, beyond a doubt, that their effects were produced
+entirely by the action of their physical qualities upon the organs of the
+body.  They were usually made of the satyrion, which, according to Pliny,
+was a provocative.  They were generally given by women to their husbands
+at bed-time; and it was necessary towards their successful operation,
+that the parties should sleep together.  This circumstance explains the
+whole mystery.  The philtres were nothing more than medicines of a
+stimulating quality, which, after exciting violent, but temporary
+effects, enfeebled the constitution, and occasioned nervous disorders, by
+which the mental faculties, as well as the corporeal, might be injured.
+That this was really the case with Caligula, seems probable, not only
+from the falling sickness, to which he was subject, but from the habitual
+wakefulness of which he complained.
+
+(294) The profusion of this emperor, during his short reign of three
+years and ten months, is unexampled in history.  In the midst of profound
+peace, without any extraordinary charges either civil or military, he
+expended, in less than one year, besides the current revenue of the
+empire, the sum of 21,796,875 pounds sterling, which had been left by
+Tiberius at his death.  To supply the extravagance of future years, new
+and exorbitant taxes were imposed upon the people, and those too on the
+necessaries of life.  There existed now amongst the Romans every motive
+that could excite a general indignation against the government; yet such
+was still the dread of imperial power, though vested in the hands of so
+weak and despicable a sovereign, that no insurrection was attempted, nor
+any extensive conspiracy formed; but the obnoxious emperor fell at last a
+sacrifice to a few centurions of his own guard.
+
+This reign was of too short duration to afford any new productions in
+literature; but, had it been extended to a much longer period, the
+effects would probably have been the same.  Polite learning never could
+flourish under an emperor who entertained a design of destroying the
+writings of Virgil and Livy.  It is fortunate that these, and other
+valuable productions of antiquity, were too widely diffused over the
+world, and too carefully preserved, to be in danger of perishing through
+the frenzy of this capricious barbarian.
+
+
+
+
+
+TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR. [465]
+
+(295)
+
+I.  Livia, having married Augustus when she was pregnant, was within
+three months afterwards delivered of Drusus, the father of Claudius
+Caesar, who had at first the praenomen of Decimus, but afterwards that of
+Nero; and it was suspected that he was begotten in adultery by his
+father-in-law.  The following verse, however, was immediately in every
+one's mouth:
+
+    Tois eutychousi kai primaena paidia.
+
+    Nine months for common births the fates decree;
+    But, for the great, reduce the term to three.
+
+This Drusus, during the time of his being quaestor and praetor, commanded
+in the Rhaetian and German wars, and was the first of all the Roman
+generals who navigated the Northern Ocean [466].  He made likewise some
+prodigious trenches beyond the Rhine [467], which to this day are called
+by his name.  He overthrew the enemy in several battles, and drove them
+far back into the depths of the desert.  Nor did he desist from pursuing
+them, until an apparition, in the form of a barbarian woman, of more than
+human size, appeared to him, and, in the Latin tongue, forbad him to
+proceed any farther.  For these achievements he had the honour of an
+ovation, and the triumphal ornaments.  After his praetorship, he
+immediately entered on the office of consul, and returning again to
+Germany, died of disease, in the summer encampment, which thence obtained
+the name of "The Unlucky Camp."  His corpse was carried to Rome by the
+principal persons of the several municipalities and colonies upon the
+road, being met and received by the recorders of each place, and buried
+in the Campus Martius.  In honour of his (296) memory, the army erected a
+monument, round which the soldiers used, annually, upon a certain day, to
+march in solemn procession, and persons deputed from the several cities
+of Gaul performed religious rites.  The senate likewise, among various
+other honours, decreed for him a triumphal arch of marble, with trophies,
+in the Appian Way, and gave the cognomen of Germanicus to him and his
+posterity.  In him the civil and military virtues were equally displayed;
+for, besides his victories, he gained from the enemy the Spolia Opima
+[468], and frequently marked out the German chiefs in the midst of their
+army, and encountered them in single combat, at the utmost hazard of his
+life.  He likewise often declared that he would, some time or other, if
+possible, restore the ancient government.  In this account, I suppose,
+some have ventured to affirm that Augustus was jealous of him, and
+recalled him; and because he made no haste to comply with the order, took
+him off by poison.  This I mention, that I may not be guilty of any
+omission, more than because I think it either true or probable; since
+Augustus loved him so much when living, that he always, in his wills,
+made him joint-heir with his sons, as he once declared in the senate; and
+upon his decease, extolled him in a speech to the people, to that degree,
+that he prayed the gods "to make his Caesars like him, and to grant
+himself as honourable an exit out of this world as they had given him."
+And not satisfied with inscribing upon his tomb an epitaph in verse
+composed by himself, he wrote likewise the history of his life in prose.
+He had by the younger Antonia several children, but left behind him only
+three, namely, Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius.
+
+II.  Claudius was born at Lyons, in the consulship of Julius Antonius,
+and Fabius Africanus, upon the first of August [469], the very day upon
+which an altar was first dedicated there to Augustus.  He was named
+Tiberius Claudius Drusus, but soon afterwards, (297) upon the adoption of
+his elder brother into the Julian family, he assumed the cognomen of
+Germanicus.  He was left an infant by his father, and during almost the
+whole of his minority, and for some time after he attained the age of
+manhood, was afflicted with a variety of obstinate disorders, insomuch
+that his mind and body being greatly impaired, he was, even after his
+arrival at years of maturity, never thought sufficiently qualified for
+any public or private employment.  He was, therefore, during a long time,
+and even after the expiration of his minority, under the direction of a
+pedagogue, who, he complains in a certain memoir, "was a barbarous
+wretch, and formerly superintendent of the mule-drivers, who was selected
+for his governor, on purpose to correct him severely on every trifling
+occasion."  On account of this crazy constitution of body and mind, at
+the spectacle of gladiators, which he gave the people, jointly with his
+brother, in honour of his father's memory, he presided, muffled up in a
+pallium--a new fashion.  When he assumed the manly habit, he was carried
+in a litter, at midnight, to the Capitol, without the usual ceremony.
+
+III.  He applied himself, however, from an early age, with great
+assiduity to the study of the liberal sciences, and frequently published
+specimens of his skill in each of them.  But never, with all his
+endeavours, could he attain to any public post in the government, or
+afford any hope of arriving at distinction thereafter.  His mother,
+Antonia, frequently called him "an abortion of a man, that had been only
+begun, but never finished, by nature."  And when she would upbraid any
+one with dulness, she said, "He was a greater fool than her son,
+Claudius."  His grandmother, Augusta, always treated him with the utmost
+contempt, very rarely spoke to him, and when she did admonish him upon
+any occasion, it was in writing, very briefly and severely, or by
+messengers.  His sister, Livilla, upon hearing that he was about to be
+created emperor, openly and loudly expressed her indignation that the
+Roman people should experience a fate so severe and so much below their
+grandeur.  To exhibit the opinion, both favourable and otherwise,
+entertained concerning him by Augustus, his great-uncle, I have here
+subjoined some extracts from the letters of that emperor.
+
+IV.  "I have had some conversation with Tiberius, according (298) to your
+desire, my dear Livia, as to what must be done with your grandson,
+Tiberius, at the games of Mars.  We are both agreed in this, that, once
+for all, we ought to determine what course to take with him.  For if he
+be really sound and, so to speak, quite right in his intellects [470],
+why should we hesitate to promote him by the same steps and degrees we
+did his brother?  But if we find him below par, and deficient both in
+body and mind, we must beware of giving occasion for him and ourselves to
+be laughed at by the world, which is ready enough to make such things the
+subject of mirth and derision.  For we never shall be easy, if we are
+always to be debating upon every occasion of this kind, without settling,
+in the first instance, whether he be really capable of public offices or
+not.  With regard to what you consult me about at the present moment, I
+am not against his superintending the feast of the priests, in the games
+of Mars, if he will suffer himself to be governed by his kinsman,
+Silanus's son, that he may do nothing to make the people stare and laugh
+at him.  But I do not approve of his witnessing the Circensian games from
+the Pulvinar.  He will be there exposed to view in the very front of the
+theatre.  Nor do I like that he should go to the Alban Mount [471], or be
+at Rome during the Latin festivals.  For if he be capable of attending
+his brother to the mount, why is he not made prefect of the city?  Thus,
+my dear Livia, you have my thoughts upon the matter.  In my opinion, we
+ought to (299) settle this affair once for all, that we may not be always
+in suspense between hope and fear.  You may, if you think proper, give
+your kinsman Antonia this part of my letter to read."  In another letter,
+he writes as follows: "I shall invite: the youth, Tiberius, every day
+during your absence, to supper, that he may not sup alone with his
+friends Sulpicius and Athenodorus.  I wish the poor creature was more
+cautious and attentive in the choice of some one, whose manners, air, and
+gait might be proper for his imitation:
+
+    Atuchei panu en tois spoudaiois lian.
+    In things of consequence he sadly fails.
+
+Where his mind does not run astray, he discovers a noble disposition."
+In a third letter, he says, "Let me die, my dear Livia, if I am not
+astonished, that the declamation of your grandson, Tiberius, should
+please me; for how he who talks so ill, should be able to declaim so
+clearly and properly, I cannot imagine."  There is no doubt but Augustus,
+after this, came to a resolution upon the subject, and, accordingly, left
+him invested with no other honour than that of the Augural priesthood;
+naming him amongst the heirs of the third degree, who were but distantly
+allied to his family, for a sixth part of his estate only, with a legacy
+of no more than eight hundred thousand sesterces.
+
+V.  Upon his requesting some office in the state, Tiberius granted him
+the honorary appendages of the consulship, and when he pressed for a
+legitimate appointment, the emperor wrote word back, that "he sent him
+forty gold pieces for his expenses, during the festivals of the
+Saturnalia and Sigillaria."  Upon this, laying aside all hope of
+advancement, he resigned himself entirely to an indolent life; living in
+great privacy, one while in his gardens, or a villa which he had near the
+city; another while in Campania, where he passed his time in the lowest
+society; by which means, besides his former character of a dull, heavy
+fellow, he acquired that of a drunkard and gamester.
+
+VI.  Notwithstanding this sort of life, much respect was shown him both
+in public and private.  The equestrian (300) order twice made choice of
+him to intercede on their behalf; once to obtain from the consuls the
+favour of bearing on their shoulders the corpse of Augustus to Rome, and
+a second time to congratulate him upon the death of Sejanus.  When he
+entered the theatre, they used to rise, and put off their cloaks.  The
+senate likewise decreed, that he should be added to the number of the
+Augustal college of priests, who were chosen by lot; and soon afterwards,
+when his house was burnt down, that it should be rebuilt at the public
+charge; and that he should have the privilege of giving his vote amongst
+the men of consular rank.  This decree was, however, repealed; Tiberius
+insisting to have him excused on account of his imbecility, and promising
+to make good his loss at his own expense.  But at his death, he named him
+in his will, amongst his third heirs, for a third part of his estate;
+leaving him besides a legacy of two millions of sesterces, and expressly
+recommending him to the armies, the senate and people of Rome, amongst
+his other relations.
+
+VII.  At last, Caius [473], his brother's son, upon his advancement to
+the empire, endeavouring to gain the affections of the public by all the
+arts of popularity, Claudius also was admitted to public offices, and
+held the consulship jointly with his nephew for two months.  As he was
+entering the Forum for the first time with the fasces, an eagle which was
+flying that way; alighted upon his right shoulder.  A second consulship
+was also allotted him, to commence at the expiration of the fourth year.
+He sometimes presided at the public spectacles, as the representative of
+Caius; being always, on those occasions, complimented with the
+acclamations of the people, wishing him all happiness, sometimes under
+the title of the emperor's uncle, and sometimes under that of
+Germanicus's brother.
+
+VIII.  Still he was subjected to many slights.  If at any time he came in
+late to supper, he was obliged to walk round the room some time before he
+could get a place at table.  When he indulged himself with sleep after
+eating, which was a common practice with him, the company used to throw
+olive-stones and dates at him.  And the buffoons who attended would wake
+him, as if it were only in jest, with a cane or a whip.  Sometimes they
+would put slippers upon his hands; as he lay snoring, that he might, upon
+awaking, rub his face with them.
+
+IX.  He was not only exposed to contempt, but sometimes likewise to
+considerable danger: first, in his consulship; for, having been too
+remiss in providing and erecting the statues of Caius's brothers, Nero
+and Drusus, he was very near being deprived of his office; and afterwards
+he was continually harassed with informations against him by one or
+other, sometimes even by his own domestics.  When the conspiracy of
+Lepidus and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with some other
+deputies into Germany [474], to congratulate the emperor upon the
+occasion, he was in danger of his life; Caius being greatly enraged, and
+loudly complaining, that his uncle was sent to him, as if he was a boy
+who wanted a governor.  Some even say, that he was thrown into a river,
+in his travelling dress.  From this period, he voted in the senate always
+the last of the members of consular rank; being called upon after the
+rest, on purpose to disgrace him.  A charge for the forgery of a will was
+also allowed to be prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness.
+At last, being obliged to pay eight millions of sesterces on entering
+upon a new office of priesthood, he was reduced to such straits in his
+private affairs, that in order to discharge his bond to the treasury, he
+was under the necessity of exposing to sale his whole estate, by an order
+of the prefects.
+
+X.  Having spent the greater part of his life under these and the like
+circumstances, he came at last to the empire in the fiftieth year of his
+age [475], by a very surprising turn of fortune.  Being, as well as the
+rest, prevented from approaching Caius by the conspirators, who dispersed
+the crowd, under the pretext of his desiring to be private, he retired
+into an apartment called the Hermaeum [476]; and soon afterwards,
+terrified by the report of Caius being slain, he crept into an adjoining
+balcony, where he hid himself behind the hangings of (302) the door.  A
+common soldier, who happened to pass that way, spying his feet, and
+desirous to discover who he was, pulled him out; when immediately
+recognizing him, he threw himself in a great fright at his feet, and
+saluted him by the title of emperor.  He then conducted him to his
+fellow-soldiers, who were all in a great rage, and irresolute what they
+should do.  They put him into a litter, and as the slaves of the palace
+had all fled, took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders, and
+brought him into the camp, sad and trembling; the people who met him
+lamenting his situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried to
+execution.  Being received within the ramparts [477], he continued all
+night with the sentries on guard, recovered somewhat from his fright, but
+in no great hopes of the succession.  For the consuls, with the senate
+and civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol, with
+the determination to assert the public liberty; and he being sent for
+likewise, by a tribune of the people, to the senate-house, to give his
+advice upon the present juncture of affairs, returned answer, "I am under
+constraint, and cannot possibly come."  The day afterwards, the senate
+being dilatory in their proceedings, and worn out by divisions amongst
+themselves, while the people who surrounded the senate-house shouted that
+they would have one master, naming Claudius, he suffered the soldiers
+assembled under arms to swear allegiance to him, promising them fifteen
+thousand sesterces a man; he being the first of the Caesars who purchased
+the submission of the soldiers with money. [478]
+
+XI.  Having thus established himself in power, his first object was to
+abolish all remembrance of the two preceding days, in which a revolution
+in the state had been canvassed.  Accordingly, he passed an act of
+perpetual oblivion and pardon for every thing said or done during that
+time; and this he faithfully observed, with the exception only of putting
+to death a few tribunes and centurions concerned in the conspiracy
+against Caius, both as an example, and because he understood that they
+had also planned his own death.  He now turned (303) his thoughts towards
+paying respect to the memory of his relations.  His most solemn and usual
+oath was, "By Augustus."  He prevailed upon the senate to decree divine
+honours to his grandmother Livia, with a chariot in the Circensian
+procession drawn by elephants, as had been appointed for Augustus [479];
+and public offerings to the shades of his parents.  Besides which, he
+instituted Circensian games for his father, to be celebrated every year,
+upon his birth-day, and, for his mother, a chariot to be drawn through
+the circus; with the title of Augusta, which had been refused by his
+grandmother [480].  To the memory of his brother [481], to which, upon
+all occasions, he showed a great regard, he gave a Greek comedy, to be
+exhibited in the public diversions at Naples [482], and awarded the crown
+for it, according to the sentence of the judges in that solemnity.  Nor
+did he omit to make honourable and grateful mention of Mark Antony;
+declaring by a proclamation, "That he the more earnestly insisted upon
+the observation of his father Drusus's birth-day, because it was likewise
+that of his grandfather Antony."  He completed the marble arch near
+Pompey's theatre, which had formerly been decreed by the senate in honour
+of Tiberius, but which had been neglected [483].  And though he cancelled
+all the acts of Caius, yet he forbad the day of his assassination,
+notwithstanding it was that of his own accession to the empire, to be
+reckoned amongst the festivals.
+
+XII.  But with regard to his own aggrandisement, he was sparing and
+modest, declining the title of emperor, and refusing all excessive
+honours.  He celebrated the marriage of his daughter and the birth-day of
+a grandson with great privacy, at home.  He recalled none of those who
+had been banished, without a decree of the senate: and requested of them
+permission for the prefect of the military tribunes and pretorian guards
+to attend him in the senate-house [484]; and (304) also that they would
+be pleased to bestow upon his procurators judicial authority in the
+provinces [485].  He asked of the consuls likewise the privilege of
+holding fairs upon his private estate.  He frequently assisted the
+magistrates in the trial of causes, as one of their assessors.  And when
+they gave public spectacles, he would rise up with the rest of the
+spectators, and salute them both by words and gestures.  When the
+tribunes of the people came to him while he was on the tribunal, he
+excused himself, because, on account of the crowd, he could not hear them
+unless they stood.  In a short time, by this conduct, he wrought himself
+so much into the favour and affection of the public, that when, upon his
+going to Ostia, a report was spread in the city that he had been way-laid
+and slain, the people never ceased cursing the soldiers for traitors, and
+the senate as parricides, until one or two persons, and presently after
+several others, were brought by the magistrates upon the rostra, who
+assured them that he was alive, and not far from the city, on his way
+home.
+
+XIII.  Conspiracies, however, were formed against him, not only by
+individuals separately, but by a faction; and at last his government was
+disturbed with a civil war.  A low fellow was found with a poniard about
+him, near his chamber, at midnight.  Two men of the equestrian order were
+discovered waiting for him in the streets, armed with a tuck and a
+huntsman's dagger; one of them intending to attack him as he came out of
+the theatre, and the other as he was sacrificing in the temple of Mars.
+Gallus Asinius and Statilius Corvinus, grandsons of the two orators,
+Pollio and Messala [486], formed a conspiracy against him, in which they
+engaged many of his freedmen and slaves.  Furius Camillus Scribonianus,
+his lieutenant in Dalmatia, broke into rebellion, but was reduced in
+(305) the space of five days; the legions which he had seduced from their
+oath of fidelity relinquishing their purpose, upon an alarm occasioned by
+ill omens.  For when orders were given them to march, to meet their new
+emperor, the eagles could not be decorated, nor the standards pulled out
+of the ground, whether it was by accident, or a divine interposition.
+
+XIV.  Besides his former consulship, he held the office afterwards four
+times; the first two successively [487], but the following, after an
+interval of four years each [488]; the last for six months, the others
+for two; and the third, upon his being chosen in the room of a consul who
+died; which had never been done by any of the emperors before him.
+Whether he was consul or out of office, he constantly attended the courts
+for the administration of justice, even upon such days as were solemnly
+observed as days of rejoicing in his family, or by his friends; and
+sometimes upon the public festivals of ancient institution.  Nor did he
+always adhere strictly to the letter of the laws, but overruled the
+rigour or lenity of many of their enactments, according to his sentiments
+of justice and equity.  For where persons lost their suits by insisting
+upon more than appeared to be their due, before the judges of private
+causes, he granted them the indulgence of a second trial.  And with
+regard to such as were convicted of any great delinquency, he even
+exceeded the punishment appointed by law, and condemned them to be
+exposed to wild beasts. [489]
+
+XV.  But in hearing and determining causes, he exhibited a strange
+inconsistency of temper, being at one time circumspect and sagacious, at
+another inconsiderate and rash, and sometimes frivolous, and like one out
+of his mind.  In correcting the roll of judges, he struck off the name of
+one who, concealing the privilege his children gave him to be excused
+from serving, had answered to his name, as too eager for the office.
+Another who was summoned before him in a cause of his own, but alleged
+that the affair did not properly come under the (306) emperor's
+cognizance, but that of the ordinary judges, he ordered to plead the
+cause himself immediately before him, and show in a case of his own, how
+equitable a judge he would prove in that of other persons.  A woman
+refusing to acknowledge her own son, and there being no clear proof on
+either side, he obliged her to confess the truth, by ordering her to
+marry the young man [490].  He was much inclined to determine causes in
+favour of the parties who appeared, against those who did not, without
+inquiring whether their absence was occasioned by their own fault, or by
+real necessity.  On proclamation of a man's being convicted of forgery,
+and that he ought to have his hand cut off, he insisted that an
+executioner should be immediately sent for, with a Spanish sword and a
+block.  A person being prosecuted for falsely assuming the freedom of
+Rome, and a frivolous dispute arising between the advocates in the cause,
+whether he ought to make his appearance in the Roman or Grecian dress, to
+show his impartiality, he commanded him to change his clothes several
+times according to the character he assumed in the accusation or defence.
+An anecdote is related of him, and believed to be true, that, in a
+particular cause, he delivered his sentence in writing thus: "I am in
+favour of those who have spoken the truth." [491]  By this he so much
+forfeited the good opinion of the world, that he was everywhere and
+openly despised.  A person making an excuse for the non-appearance of a
+witness whom he had sent for from the provinces, declared it was
+impossible for him to appear, concealing the reason for some time: at
+last, after several interrogatories were put to him on the subject, he
+answered, "The man is dead;" to which Claudius replied, "I think that is
+a sufficient excuse."  Another thanking him for suffering a person who
+was prosecuted to make his defence by counsel, added, "And yet it is no
+more than what is usual."  I have likewise heard some old men say [492],
+that the advocates used to abuse his patience so grossly, that they would
+not only (307) call him back, as he was quitting the tribunal, but would
+seize him by the lap of his coat, and sometimes catch him by the heels,
+to make him stay.  That such behaviour, however strange, is not
+incredible, will appear from this anecdote.  Some obscure Greek, who was
+a litigant, had an altercation with him, in which he called out, "You are
+an old fool." [493]  It is certain that a Roman knight, who was
+prosecuted by an impotent device of his enemies on a false charge of
+abominable obscenity with women, observing that common strumpets were
+summoned against him and allowed to give evidence, upbraided Claudius in
+very harsh and severe terms with his folly and cruelty, and threw his
+style, and some books which he had in his hands, in his face, with such
+violence as to wound him severely in the cheek.
+
+XVI.  He likewise assumed the censorship [494], which had been
+discontinued since the time that Paulus and Plancus had jointly held it.
+But this also he administered very unequally, and with a strange variety
+of humour and conduct.  In his review of the knights, he passed over,
+without any mark of disgrace, a profligate young man, only because his
+father spoke of him in the highest terms; "for," said he, "his father is
+his proper censor."  Another, who was infamous for debauching youths and
+for adultery, he only admonished "to indulge his youthful inclinations
+more sparingly, or at least more cautiously;" [495] adding, "why must I
+know what mistress you keep?"  When, at the request of his friends, he
+had taken off a mark of infamy which he had set upon one knight's name,
+he said, "Let the blot, however, remain."  He not only struck out of the
+list of judges, but likewise deprived of the freedom of Rome, an
+illustrious man of the highest provincial rank in Greece, only because he
+was ignorant of the Latin language.  Nor in this review did he suffer any
+one to give an account of his conduct by an advocate, but obliged each
+man to speak for himself in the best way he could.  He disgraced many,
+and some that little expected it, and for a reason entirely new, namely,
+for going out of Italy without his license; (308) and one likewise, for
+having in his province been the familiar companion of a king; observing,
+that, in former times, Rabirius Posthumus had been prosecuted for
+treason, although he only went after Ptolemy to Alexandria for the
+purpose of securing payment of a debt [496].  Having tried to brand with
+disgrace several others, he, to his own greater shame, found them
+generally innocent, through the negligence of the persons employed to
+inquire into their characters; those whom he charged with living in
+celibacy, with want of children, or estate, proving themselves to be
+husbands, parents, and in affluent circumstances.  One of the knights who
+was charged with stabbing himself, laid his bosom bare, to show that
+there was not the least mark of violence upon his body.  The following
+incidents were remarkable in his censorship.  He ordered a car, plated
+with silver, and of very sumptuous workmanship, which was exposed for
+sale in the Sigillaria [497], to be purchased, and broken in pieces
+before his eyes.  He published twenty proclamations in one day, in one of
+which he advised the people, "Since the vintage was very plentiful, to
+have their casks well secured at the bung with pitch:" and in another, he
+told them, "that nothing would sooner cure the bite of a viper, than the
+sap of the yew-tree."
+
+XVII.  He undertook only one expedition, and that was of short duration.
+The triumphal ornaments decreed him by the senate, he considered as
+beneath the imperial dignity, and was therefore resolved to have the
+honour of a real triumph.  For this purpose, he selected Britain, which
+had never been attempted by any one since Julius Caesar [498], and was
+then chafing (309) with rage, because the Romans would not give up some
+deserters.  Accordingly, he set sail from Ostia, but was twice very near
+being wrecked by the boisterous wind called Circius [499], upon the coast
+of Liguria, and near the islands called Stoechades [500].  Having marched
+by land from Marseilles to Gessoriacum [501], he thence passed over to
+Britain, and part of the island submitting to him, within a few days
+after his arrival, without battle or bloodshed, he returned to Rome in
+less than six months from the time of his departure, and triumphed in the
+most solemn manner [502]; to witness which, he not only (310) gave leave
+to governors of provinces to come to Rome, but even to some of the
+exiles.  Among the spoils taken from the enemy, he fixed upon the
+pediment of his house in the Palatium, a naval crown, in token of his
+having passed, and, as it were, conquered the Ocean, and had it suspended
+near the civic crown which was there before.  Messalina, his wife,
+followed his chariot in a covered litter [503].  Those who had attained
+the honour of triumphal ornaments in the same war, rode behind; the rest
+followed on foot, wearing the robe with the broad stripes.  Crassus Frugi
+was mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned, in a robe embroidered with
+palm leaves, because this was the second time of his obtaining that
+honour.
+
+XVIII.  He paid particular attention to the care of the city, and to have
+it well supplied with provisions.  A dreadful fire happening in the
+Aemiliana [504], which lasted some time, he passed two nights in the
+Diribitorium [505], and the soldiers and gladiators not being in
+sufficient numbers to extinguish it, he caused the magistrates to summon
+the people out of all the streets in the city, to their assistance.
+Placing bags of money before him, he encouraged them to do their utmost,
+declaring, that he would reward every one on the spot, according to their
+exertions.
+
+XIX.  During a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by bad crops for
+several successive years, he was stopped in the middle of the Forum by
+the mob, who so abused him, at the same time pelting him with fragments
+of bread, that he had some (311) difficulty in escaping into the palace
+by a back door.  He therefore used all possible means to bring provisions
+to the city, even in the winter.  He proposed to the merchants a sure
+profit, by indemnifying them against any loss that might befall them by
+storms at sea; and granted great privileges to those who built ships for
+that traffic.  To a citizen of Rome he gave an exemption from the penalty
+of the Papia-Poppaean law [506]; to one who had only the privilege of
+Latium, the freedom of the city; and to women the rights which by law
+belonged to those who had four children: which enactments are in force to
+this day.
+
+XX.  He completed some important public works, which, though not
+numerous, were very useful.  The principal were an aqueduct, which had
+been begun by Caius; an emissary for the discharge of the waters of the
+Fucine lake [507], and the harbour of Ostia; although he knew that
+Augustus had refused to comply with the repeated application of the
+Marsians for one of these; and that the other had been several times
+intended by Julius Caesar, but as often abandoned on account of the
+difficulty of its execution.  He brought to the city the cool and
+plentiful springs of the Claudian water, one of which is called
+Caeruleus, and the other Curtius and Albudinus, as likewise the river of
+the New Anio, in a stone canal; and distributed them into many
+magnificent reservoirs.  The canal from the Fucine lake was undertaken as
+much for the sake of profit, as for the honour of the enterprise; for
+there were parties who offered to drain it at their own expense, on
+condition of their having a grant of the land laid dry.  With great
+difficulty he completed a canal three miles in length, partly by cutting
+through, and partly by tunnelling, a mountain; thirty thousand men being
+constantly employed in the work for eleven years [508].  He formed the
+harbour at Ostia, by carrying out circular piers on the right and on the
+left, with (312) a mole protecting, in deep water, the entrance of the
+port [509].  To secure the foundation of this mole, he sunk the vessel in
+which the great obelisk [510] had been brought from Egypt [511]; and
+built upon piles a very lofty tower, in imitation of the Pharos at
+Alexandria, on which lights were burnt to direct mariners in the night.
+
+XXI.  He often distributed largesses of corn and money among the people,
+and entertained them with a great variety of public magnificent
+spectacles, not only such as were usual, and in the accustomed places,
+but some of new invention, and others revived from ancient models, and
+exhibited in places where nothing of the kind had been ever before
+attempted.  In the games which he presented at the dedication of Pompey's
+theatre [512], which had been burnt down, and was rebuilt by him, he
+presided upon a tribunal erected for him in the orchestra; having first
+paid his devotions, in the temple above, and then coming down through the
+centre of the circle, while all the people kept their seats in profound
+silence [513].  He likewise (313) exhibited the secular games [514],
+giving out that Augustus had anticipated the regular period; though he
+himself says in his history, "That they had been omitted before the age
+of Augustus, who had calculated the years with great exactness, and again
+brought them to their regular period." [515]  The crier was therefore
+ridiculed, when he invited people in the usual form, "to games which no
+person had ever before seen, nor ever would again;" when many were still
+living who had already seen them; and some of the performers who had
+formerly acted in them, were now again brought upon the stage.  He
+likewise frequently celebrated the Circensian games in the Vatican [516],
+sometimes exhibiting a hunt of wild beasts, after every five courses.  He
+embellished the Circus Maximus with marble barriers, and gilded goals,
+which before were of common stone [517] and wood, and assigned proper
+places for the senators, who were used to sit promiscuously with the
+other spectators.  Besides the chariot-races, he exhibited there the
+Trojan game, and wild beasts from Africa, which were encountered by a
+troop of pretorian knights, with their tribunes, and even the prefect at
+the head of them; besides Thessalian horse, who drive fierce bulls round
+the circus, leap upon their backs when they have exhausted their fury,
+and drag them by the horns to the ground.  He gave exhibitions of
+gladiators in several places, and of various kinds; one yearly on the
+anniversary of his accession in the pretorian camp [518], but without any
+hunting, or the usual apparatus; another in the Septa as usual; and in
+the same place, another out of the common way, and of a few days'
+continuance only, which he called Sportula; because when he was going to
+present it, he informed the people by proclamation, "that he invited them
+to a late supper, got up in haste, and without ceremony."  Nor did he
+lend himself to any kind of public diversion with more freedom and
+hilarity; insomuch that he would hold out his left hand, and (314) joined
+by the common people, count upon his fingers aloud the gold pieces
+presented to those who came off conquerors.  He would earnestly invite
+the company to be merry; sometimes calling them his "masters," with a
+mixture of insipid, far-fetched jests.  Thus, when the people called for
+Palumbus [519], he said, "He would give them one when he could catch it."
+The following was well-intended, and well-timed; having, amidst great
+applause, spared a gladiator, on the intercession of his four sons, he
+sent a billet immediately round the theatre, to remind the people, "how
+much it behoved them to get children, since they had before them an
+example how useful they had been in procuring favour and security for a
+gladiator."  He likewise represented in the Campus Martius, the assault
+and sacking of a town, and the surrender of the British kings [520],
+presiding in his general's cloak.  Immediately before he drew off the
+waters from the Fucine lake, he exhibited upon it a naval fight.  But the
+combatants on board the fleets crying out, "Health attend you, noble
+emperor!  We, who are about to peril our lives, salute you;" and he
+replying, "Health attend you too," they all refused to fight, as if by
+that response he had meant to excuse them.  Upon this, he hesitated for a
+time, whether he should not destroy them all with fire and sword.  At
+last, leaping from his seat, and running along the shore of the lake with
+tottering steps, the result of his foul excesses, he, partly by fair
+words, and partly by threats, persuaded them to engage.  This spectacle
+represented an engagement between the fleets of Sicily and Rhodes;
+consisting each of twelve ships of war, of three banks of oars.  The
+signal for the encounter was given by a silver Triton, raised by
+machinery from the middle of the lake.
+
+XXII.  With regard to religious ceremonies, the administration of affairs
+both civil and military, and the condition of all orders of the people at
+home and abroad, some practices he corrected, others which had been laid
+aside he revived; and some regulations he introduced which were entirely
+new.  In appointing new priests for the several colleges, he made no
+appointments without being sworn.  When an earthquake (315) happened in
+the city, he never failed to summon the people together by the praetor,
+and appoint holidays for sacred rites.  And upon the sight of any ominous
+bird in the City or Capitol, he issued an order for a supplication, the
+words of which, by virtue of his office of high priest, after an
+exhortation from the rostra, he recited in the presence of the people,
+who repeated them after him; all workmen and slaves being first ordered
+to withdraw.
+
+XXIII.  The courts of judicature, whose sittings had been formerly
+divided between the summer and winter months, he ordered, for the
+dispatch of business, to sit the whole year round.  The jurisdiction in
+matters of trust, which used to be granted annually by special commission
+to certain magistrates, and in the city only, he made permanent, and
+extended to the provincial judges likewise.  He altered a clause added by
+Tiberius to the Papia-Poppaean law [521], which inferred that men of
+sixty years of age were incapable of begetting children.  He ordered
+that, out of the ordinary course of proceeding, orphans might have
+guardians appointed them by the consuls; and that those who were banished
+from any province by the chief magistrate, should be debarred from coming
+into the City, or any part of Italy.  He inflicted on certain persons a
+new sort of banishment, by forbidding them to depart further than three
+miles from Rome.  When any affair of importance came before the senate,
+he used to sit between the two consuls upon the seats of the tribunes.
+He reserved to himself the power of granting license to travel out of
+Italy, which before had belonged to the senate.
+
+XXIV.  He likewise granted the consular ornaments to his Ducenarian
+procurators.  From those who declined the senatorian dignity, he took
+away the equestrian.  Although he had in the beginning of his reign
+declared, that he would admit no man into the senate who was not the
+great-grandson of a Roman citizen, yet he gave the "broad hem" to the son
+of a freedman, on condition that he should be adopted by a Roman knight.
+Being afraid, however, of incurring censure by such an act, he informed
+the public, that his ancestor Appius Caecus, the censor, had elected the
+sons of freedmen into (316) the senate; for he was ignorant, it seems,
+that in the times of Appius, and a long while afterwards, persons
+manumitted were not called freedmen, but only their sons who were
+free-born.  Instead of the expense which the college of quaestors was
+obliged to incur in paving the high-ways, he ordered them to give the
+people an exhibition of gladiators; and relieving them of the provinces of
+Ostia and [Cisalpine] Gaul, he reinstated them in the charge of the
+treasury, which, since it was taken from them, had been managed by the
+praetors, or those who had formerly filled that office.  He gave the
+triumphal ornaments to Silanus, who was betrothed to his daughter, though
+he was under age; and in other cases, he bestowed them on so many, and
+with so little reserve, that there is extant a letter unanimously
+addressed to him by all the legions, begging him "to grant his consular
+lieutenants the triumphal ornaments at the time of their appointment to
+commands, in order to prevent their seeking occasion to engage in
+unnecessary wars." He decreed to Aulus Plautius the honour of an ovation
+[522], going to meet him at his entering the city, and walking with him in
+the procession to the Capitol, and back, in which he took the left side,
+giving him the post of honour.  He allowed Gabinius Secundus, upon his
+conquest of the Chauci, a German tribe, to assume the cognomen of
+Chaucius. [523]
+
+XXV.  His military organization of the equestrian order was this.  After
+having the command of a cohort, they were promoted to a wing of auxiliary
+horse, and subsequently received the commission of tribune of a legion.
+He raised a body of militia, who were called Supernumeraries, who, though
+they were a sort of soldiers, and kept in reserve, yet received pay.  He
+procured an act of the senate to prohibit all soldiers from attending
+senators at their houses, in the way of respect and compliment.  He
+confiscated the estates of all freedmen who presumed to take upon
+themselves the equestrian rank.  Such of them as were ungrateful to their
+patrons, and were complained of by them, he reduced to their former
+condition of (317) slavery; and declared to their advocates, that he
+would always give judgment against the freedmen, in any suit at law which
+the masters might happen to have with them.  Some persons having exposed
+their sick slaves, in a languishing condition, on the island of
+Aesculapius [524], because of the tediousness of their cure; he declared
+all who were so exposed perfectly free, never more to return, if they
+should recover, to their former servitude; and that if any one chose to
+kill at once, rather than expose, a slave, he should be liable for
+murder.  He published a proclamation, forbidding all travellers to pass
+through the towns of Italy any otherwise than on foot, or in a litter or
+chair [525].  He quartered a cohort of soldiers at Puteoli, and another
+at Ostia, to be in readiness against any accidents from fire.  He
+prohibited foreigners from adopting Roman names, especially those which
+belonged to families [526].  Those who falsely pretended to the freedom
+of Rome, he beheaded on the Esquiline.  He gave up to the senate the
+provinces of Achaia and Macedonia, which Tiberius had transferred to his
+own administration.  He deprived the Lycians of their liberties, as a
+punishment for their fatal dissensions; but restored to the Rhodians
+their freedom, upon their repenting of their former misdemeanors.  He
+exonerated for ever the people of Ilium from the payment of taxes, as
+being the founders of the Roman race; reciting upon the occasion a letter
+in Greek, (318) from the senate and people of Rome to king Seleucus
+[527], on which they promised him their friendship and alliance, provided
+that he would grant their kinsmen the Iliensians immunity from all
+burdens.
+
+He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making
+disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus [528].  He allowed the
+ambassadors of the Germans to sit at the public spectacles in the seats
+assigned to the senators, being induced to grant them favours by their
+frank and honourable conduct.  For, having been seated in the rows of
+benches which were common to the people, on observing the Parthian and
+Armenian ambassadors sitting among the senators, they took upon
+themselves to cross over into the same seats, as being, they said, no way
+inferior to the others, in point either, of merit or rank.  The religious
+rites of the Druids, solemnized with such horrid cruelties, which had
+only been forbidden the citizens of Rome during the reign of Augustus, he
+utterly abolished among the Gauls [529].  On the other hand, he attempted
+(319) to transfer the Eleusinian mysteries from Attica to Rome [530].  He
+likewise ordered the temple of Venus Erycina in Sicily, which was old and
+in a ruinous condition, to be repaired at the expense of the Roman
+people.  He concluded treaties with foreign princes in the forum, with
+the sacrifice of a sow, and the form of words used by the heralds in
+former times.  But in these and other things, and indeed the greater part
+of his administration, he was directed not so much by his own judgment,
+as by the influence of his wives and freedmen; for the most part acting
+in conformity to what their interests or fancies dictated.
+
+XXVI.  He was twice married at a very early age, first to Aemilia Lepida,
+the grand-daughter of Augustus, and afterwards to Livia Medullina, who
+had the cognomen of Camilla, and was descended from the old dictator
+Camillus.  The former he divorced while still a virgin, because her
+parents had incurred the displeasure of Augustus; and he lost the latter
+by sickness on the day fixed for their nuptials.  He next married Plautia
+Urgulanilla, whose father had enjoyed the honour of a triumph; and soon
+afterwards, Aelia Paetina, the daughter of a man of consular rank.  But
+he divorced them both; Paetina, upon some trifling causes of disgust; and
+Urgulanilla, for scandalous lewdness, and the suspicion of murder.  After
+them he took in marriage Valeria Messalina, the daughter of Barbatus
+Messala, his cousin.  But finding that, besides her other shameful
+debaucheries, she had even gone so far as to marry in his own absence
+Caius Silius, the settlement of her dower being formally signed, in the
+presence of the augurs, he put her to death.  When summoning his
+pretorians to his presence, he made to them this declaration: "As I have
+been so unhappy in my unions, I am resolved to continue in future
+unmarried; and if I should not, I give you leave to stab me."  He was,
+however, unable to persist in this resolution; for he began immediately
+to think of another wife; and even of taking back Paetina, whom he had
+formerly divorced: he thought also of Lollia Paulina, who had been
+married to Caius Caesar.  But being ensnared by the arts of Agrippina,
+(320) the daughter of his brother Germanicus, who took advantage of the
+kisses and endearments which their near relationship admitted, to inflame
+his desires, he got some one to propose at the next meeting of the
+senate, that they should oblige the emperor to marry Agrippina, as a
+measure highly conducive to the public interest; and that in future
+liberty should be given for such marriages, which until that time had
+been considered incestuous.  In less than twenty-four hours after this,
+he married her [531].  No person was found, however, to follow the
+example, excepting one freedman, and a centurion of the first rank, at
+the solemnization of whose nuptials both he and Agrippina attended.
+
+XXVII.  He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla, Drusus and
+Claudia; by Paetina, Antonia; and by Messalina, Octavia, and also a son,
+whom at first he called Germanicus, but afterwards Britannicus.  He lost
+Drusus at Pompeii, when he was very young; he being choked with a pear,
+which in his play he tossed into the air, and caught in his mouth.  Only
+a few days before, he had betrothed him to one of Sejanus's daughters
+[532]; and I am therefore surprised that some authors should say he lost
+his life by the treachery of Sejanus.  Claudia, who was, in truth, the
+daughter of Boter his freedman, though she was born five months before
+his divorce, he ordered to be thrown naked at her mother's door.  He
+married Antonia to Cneius Pompey the Great [533], and afterwards to
+Faustus Sylla [534], both youths of very noble parentage; Octavia to his
+step-son Nero [535], after she had been contracted to Silanus.
+Britannicus was born upon the twentieth day of his reign, and in his
+second consulship.  He often earnestly commended him to the soldiers,
+holding him in his arms before their ranks; and would likewise show him
+to the people in the theatre, setting him upon his lap, or holding him
+out whilst he was still very young; and was sure to receive their
+acclamations, and good wishes on his behalf.  Of his (321) sons-in-law,
+he adopted Nero.  He not only dismissed from his favour both Pompey and
+Silanus, but put them to death.
+
+XXVIII.  Amongst his freedmen, the greatest favourite was the eunuch
+Posides, whom, in his British triumph, he presented with the pointless
+spear, classing him among the military men.  Next to him, if not equal,
+in favour was Felix [536], whom he not only preferred to commands both of
+cohorts and troops, but to the government of the province of Judaea; and
+he became, in consequence of his elevation, the husband of three queens
+[537].  Another favourite was Harpocras, to whom he granted the privilege
+of being carried in a litter within the city, and of holding public
+spectacles for the entertainment of the people.  In this class was
+likewise Polybius, who assisted him in his studies, and had often the
+honour of walking between the two consuls.  But above all others,
+Narcissus, his secretary, and Pallas [538], the comptroller of his
+accounts, were in high favour with him.  He not only allowed them to
+receive, by decree of the senate, immense presents, but also to be
+decorated with the quaestorian and praetorian ensigns of honour.  So much
+did he indulge them in amassing wealth, and plundering the public, that,
+upon his complaining, once, of the lowness of his exchequer, some one
+said, with great reason, that "It would be full enough, if those two
+freedmen of his would but take him into partnership with them."
+
+XXIX.  Being entirely governed by these freedmen, and, as I have already
+said, by his wives, he was a tool to others, rather than a prince.  He
+distributed offices, or the command of armies, pardoned or punished,
+according as it suited their interests, (322) their passions, or their
+caprice; and for the most part, without knowing, or being sensible of
+what he did.  Not to enter into minute details relative to the revocation
+of grants, the reversal of judicial decisions, obtaining his signature to
+fictitious appointments, or the bare-faced alteration of them after
+signing; he put to death Appius Silanus, the father of his son-in-law,
+and the two Julias, the daughters of Drusus and Germanicus, without any
+positive proof of the crimes with which they were charged, or so much as
+permitting them to make any defence.  He also cut off Cneius Pompey, the
+husband of his eldest daughter; and Lucius Silanus, who was betrothed to
+the younger Pompey, was stabbed in the act of unnatural lewdness with a
+favourite paramour.  Silanus was obliged to quit the office of praetor
+upon the fourth of the calends of January [29th Dec.], and to kill
+himself on new year's day [539] following, the very same on which
+Claudius and Agrippina were married.  He condemned to death five and
+thirty senators, and above three hundred Roman knights, with so little
+attention to what he did, that when a centurion brought him word of the
+execution of a man of consular rank, who was one of the number, and told
+him that he had executed his order, he declared, "he had ordered no such
+thing, but that he approved of it;" because his freedmen, it seems, had
+said, that the soldiers did nothing more than their duty, in dispatching
+the emperor's enemies without waiting for a warrant.  But it is beyond
+all belief, that he himself, at the marriage of Messalina with the
+adulterous Silius, should actually sign the writings relative to her
+dowry; induced, as it is pretended, by the design of diverting from
+himself and transferring upon another the danger which some omens seemed
+to threaten him.
+
+XXX.  Either standing or sitting, but especially when he lay asleep, he
+had a majestic and graceful appearance; for he was tall, but not slender.
+His grey looks became him well, and he had a full neck.  But his knees
+were feeble, and failed him in walking, so that his gait was ungainly,
+both when he assumed state, and when he was taking diversion.  He was
+outrageous in his laughter, and still more so in his wrath, for then he
+foamed at the mouth, and discharged from his nostrils.  He also stammered
+in his speech, and had a tremulous motion (323) of the head at all times,
+but particularly when he was engaged in any business, however trifling.
+
+XXXI.  Though his health was very infirm during the former part of his
+life, yet, after he became emperor, he enjoyed a good state of health,
+except only that he was subject to a pain of the stomach.  In a fit of
+this complaint, he said he had thoughts of killing himself.
+
+XXXII.  He gave entertainments as frequent as they were splendid, and
+generally when there was such ample room, that very often six hundred
+guests sat down together.  At a feast he gave on the banks of the canal
+for draining the Fucine Lake, he narrowly escaped being drowned, the
+water at its discharge rushing out with such violence, that it overflowed
+the conduit.  At supper he had always his own children, with those of
+several of the nobility, who, according to an ancient custom, sat at the
+feet of the couches.  One of his guests having been suspected of
+purloining a golden cup, he invited him again the next day, but served
+him with a porcelain jug.  It is said, too, that he intended to publish
+an edict, "allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to
+any distension occasioned by flatulence," upon hearing of a person whose
+modesty, when under restraint, had nearly cost him his life.
+
+XXXIII.  He was always ready to eat and drink at any time or in any
+place.  One day, as he was hearing causes in the Forum of Augustus, he
+smelt the dinner which was preparing for the Salii [540], in the temple
+of Mars adjoining, whereupon he quitted (324) the tribunal, and went to
+partake of the feast with the priests.
+
+He scarcely ever left the table until he had thoroughly crammed himself
+and drank to intoxication; and then he would immediately fall asleep,
+lying upon his back with his mouth open.  While in this condition, a
+feather was put down his throat, to make him throw up the contents of his
+stomach.  Upon composing himself to rest, his sleep was short, and he
+usually awoke before midnight; but he would sometimes sleep in the
+daytime, and that, even, when he was upon the tribunal; so that the
+advocates often found it difficult to wake him, though they raised their
+voices for that purpose.  He set no bounds to his libidinous intercourse
+with women, but never betrayed any unnatural desires for the other sex.
+He was fond of gaming, and published a book upon the subject.  He even
+used to play as he rode in his chariot, having the tables so fitted, that
+the game was not disturbed by the motion of the carriage.
+
+XXXIV.  His cruel and sanguinary disposition was exhibited upon great as
+well as trifling occasions.  When any person was to be put to the
+torture, or criminal punished for parricide, he was impatient for the
+execution, and would have it performed in his own presence.  When he was
+at Tibur, being desirous of seeing an example of the old way of putting
+malefactors to death, some were immediately bound to a stake for the
+purpose; but there being no executioner to be had at the place, he sent
+for one from Rome, and waited for his coming until night.  In any
+exhibition of gladiators, presented either by himself or others, if any
+of the combatants chanced to fall, he ordered them to be butchered,
+especially the Retiarii, that he might see their faces in the agonies of
+death.  Two gladiators happening to kill each other, he immediately
+ordered some little knives to be made of their swords for his own use.
+He took great pleasure in seeing men engage with wild beasts, and the
+combatants who appeared on the stage at noon.  He would therefore come to
+the theatre by break of day, and at noon, dismissing the people to
+dinner, continued sitting himself; and besides those who were devoted to
+that sanguinary fate, he would match others with the beasts, upon slight
+or sudden occasions; as, for instance, the carpenters and their (326)
+assistants, and people of that sort, if a machine, or any piece of work
+in which they had been employed about the theatre did not answer the
+purpose for which it had been intended.  To this desperate kind of
+encounter he forced one of his nomenclators, even encumbered as he was by
+wearing the toga.
+
+XXXV.  But the characteristics most predominant in him were fear and
+distrust.  In the beginning of his reign, though he much affected a
+modest and humble appearance, as has been already observed, yet he durst
+not venture himself at an entertainment without being attended by a guard
+of spearmen, and made soldiers wait upon him at table instead of
+servants.  He never visited a sick person, until the chamber had been
+first searched, and the bed and bedding thoroughly examined.  At other
+times, all persons who came to pay their court to him were strictly
+searched by officers appointed for that purpose; nor was it until after a
+long time, and with much difficulty, that he was prevailed upon to excuse
+women, boys, and girls from such rude handling, or suffer their
+attendants or writing-masters to retain their cases for pens and styles.
+When Camillus formed his plot against him, not doubting but his timidity
+might be worked upon without a war, he wrote to him a scurrilous,
+petulant, and threatening letter, desiring him to resign the government,
+and betake himself to a life of privacy.  Upon receiving this
+requisition, he had some thoughts of complying with it, and summoned
+together the principal men of the city, to consult with them on the
+subject.
+
+XXXVI.  Having heard some loose reports of conspiracies formed against
+him, he was so much alarmed, that he thought of immediately abdicating
+the government.  And when, as I have before related, a man armed with a
+dagger was discovered near him while he was sacrificing, he instantly
+ordered the heralds to convoke the senate, and with tears and dismal
+exclamations, lamented that such was his condition, that he was safe no
+where; and for a long time afterwards he abstained from appearing in
+public.  He smothered his ardent love for Messalina, not so much on
+account of her infamous conduct, as from apprehension of danger;
+believing that she aspired to share with Silius, her partner in adultery,
+the imperial dignity.  (326) Upon this occasion he ran in a great fright,
+and a very shameful manner, to the camp, asking all the way he went, "if
+the empire were indeed safely his?"
+
+XXXVII.  No suspicion was too trifling, no person on whom it rested too
+contemptible, to throw him into a panic, and induce him to take
+precautions for his safety, and meditate revenge.  A man engaged in a
+litigation before his tribunal, having saluted him, drew him aside, and
+told him he had dreamt that he saw him murdered; and shortly afterwards,
+when his adversary came to deliver his plea to the emperor, the
+plaintiff, pretending to have discovered the murderer, pointed to him as
+the man he had seen in his dream; whereupon, as if he had been taken in
+the act, he was hurried away to execution.  We are informed, that Appius
+Silanus was got rid of in the same manner, by a contrivance betwixt
+Messalina and Narcissus, in which they had their several parts assigned
+them.  Narcissus therefore burst into his lord's chamber before daylight,
+apparently in great fright, and told him that he had dreamt that Appius
+Silanus had murdered him.  The empress, upon this, affecting great
+surprise, declared she had the like dream for several nights
+successively.  Presently afterwards, word was brought, as it had been
+agreed on, that Appius was come, he having, indeed, received orders the
+preceding day to be there at that time; and, as if the truth of the dream
+was sufficiently confirmed by his appearance at that juncture, he was
+immediately ordered to be prosecuted and put to death.  The day
+following, Claudius related the whole affair to the senate, and
+acknowledged his great obligation to his freedmen for watching over him
+even in his sleep.
+
+XXXVIII.  Sensible of his being subject to passion and resentment, he
+excused himself in both instances by a proclamation, assuring the public
+that "the former should be short and harmless, and the latter never
+without good cause."  After severely reprimanding the people of Ostia for
+not sending some boats to meet him upon his entering the mouth of the
+Tiber, in terms which might expose them to the public resentment, he
+wrote to Rome that he had been treated as a private person; yet
+immediately afterwards he pardoned them, and that in a way which had the
+appearance of making them (327) satisfaction, or begging pardon for some
+injury he had done them.  Some people who addressed him unseasonably in
+public, he pushed away with his own hand.  He likewise banished a person
+who had been secretary to a quaestor, and even a senator who had filled
+the office of praetor, without a hearing, and although they were
+innocent; the former only because he had treated him with rudeness while
+he was in a private station, and the other, because in his aedileship he
+had fined some tenants of his, for selling cooked victuals contrary to
+law, and ordered his steward, who interfered, to be whipped.  On this
+account, likewise, he took from the aediles the jurisdiction they had
+over cooks'-shops.  He did not scruple to speak of his own absurdities,
+and declared in some short speeches which he published, that he had only
+feigned imbecility in the reign of Caius, because otherwise it would have
+been impossible for him to have escaped and arrived at the station he had
+then attained.  He could not, however, gain credit for this assertion;
+for a short time afterwards, a book was published under the title of
+Moron anastasis, "The Resurrection of Fools," the design of which was to
+show "that nobody ever counterfeited folly."
+
+XXXIX.  Amongst other things, people admired in him his indifference and
+unconcern; or, to express it in Greek, his meteoria and ablepsia.
+Placing himself at table a little after Messalina's death, he enquired,
+"Why the empress did not come?"  Many of those whom he had condemned to
+death, he ordered the day after to be invited to his table, and to game
+with him, and sent to reprimand them as sluggish fellows for not making
+greater haste.  When he was meditating his incestuous marriage with
+Agrippina, he was perpetually calling her, "My daughter, my nursling,
+born and brought up upon my lap."  And when he was going to adopt Nero,
+as if there was little cause for censure in his adopting a son-in-law,
+when he had a son of his own arrived at years of maturity; he continually
+gave out in public, "that no one had ever been admitted by adoption into
+the Claudian family."
+
+XL.  He frequently appeared so careless in what he said, and so
+inattentive to circumstances, that it was believed he never reflected who
+he himself was, or amongst whom, or at (328) what time, or in what place,
+he spoke.  In a debate in the senate relative to the butchers and
+vintners, he cried out, "I ask you, who can live without a bit of meat?"
+And mentioned the great plenty of old taverns, from which he himself used
+formerly to have his wine.  Among other reasons for his supporting a
+certain person who was candidate for the quaestorship, he gave this: "His
+father," said he, "once gave me, very seasonably, a draught of cold water
+when I was sick."  Upon his bringing a woman as a witness in some cause
+before the senate, he said, "This woman was my mother's freedwoman and
+dresser, but she always considered me as her master; and this I say,
+because there are some still in my family that do not look upon me as
+such."  The people of Ostia addressing him in open court with a petition,
+he flew into a rage at them, and said, "There is no reason why I should
+oblige you: if any one else is free to act as he pleases, surely I am."
+The following expressions he had in his mouth every day, and at all hours
+and seasons: "What! do you take me for a Theogonius?" [541]  And in Greek
+lalei kai mae thingane, "Speak, but do not touch me;" besides many other
+familiar sentences, below the dignity of a private person, much more of
+an emperor, who was not deficient either in eloquence or learning, as
+having applied himself very closely to the liberal sciences.
+
+XLI.  By the encouragement of Titus Livius [542], and with the assistance
+of Sulpicius Flavus, he attempted at an early age the composition of a
+history; and having called together a numerous auditory, to hear and give
+their judgment upon it, he read it over with much difficulty, and
+frequently interrupting himself.  For after he had begun, a great laugh
+was raised amongst the company, by the breaking of several benches from
+the weight of a very fat man; and even when order was restored, he could
+not forbear bursting out into violent fits of laughter, at the
+remembrance of the accident.  After he became emperor, likewise, he wrote
+several things (329) which he was careful to have recited to his friends
+by a reader.  He commenced his history from the death of the dictator
+Caesar; but afterwards he took a later period, and began at the
+conclusion of the civil wars; because he found he could not speak with
+freedom, and a due regard to truth, concerning the former period, having
+been often taken to task both by his mother and grandmother.  Of the
+earlier history he left only two books, but of the latter, one and forty.
+He compiled likewise the "History of his Own Life," in eight books, full
+of absurdities, but in no bad style; also, "A Defence of Cicero against
+the Books of Asinius Gallus," [543] which exhibited a considerable degree
+of learning.  He besides invented three new letters, and added them to
+the former alphabet [544], as highly necessary.  He published a book to
+recommend them while he was yet only a private person; but on his
+elevation to imperial power he had little difficulty in introducing them
+into common use; and these letters are still extant in a variety of
+books, registers, and inscriptions upon buildings.
+
+XLII.  He applied himself with no less attention to the study of Grecian
+literature, asserting upon all occasions his love of that language, and
+its surpassing excellency.  A stranger once holding a discourse both in
+Greek and Latin, he addressed him thus; "Since you are skilled in both
+our tongues."  And recommending Achaia to the favour of the senate, he
+said, "I have a particular attachment to that province, on account of our
+common studies."  In the senate he often made long replies to ambassadors
+in that language.  On the tribunal he frequently quoted the verses of
+Homer.  When at any time he had taken vengeance on an enemy or a
+conspirator, he scarcely ever gave to the tribune on guard, who, (330)
+according to custom, came for the word, any other than this.
+
+    Andr' epamynastai, ote tis proteros chalepaenae.
+    'Tis time to strike when wrong demands the blow.
+
+To conclude, he wrote some histories likewise in Greek, namely, twenty
+books on Tuscan affairs, and eight on the Carthaginian; in consequence of
+which, another museum was founded at Alexandria, in addition to the old
+one, and called after his name; and it was ordered, that, upon certain
+days in every year, his Tuscan history should be read over in one of
+these, and his Carthaginian in the other, as in a school; each history
+being read through by persons who took it in turn.
+
+XLIII.  Towards the close of his life, he gave some manifest indications
+that he repented of his marriage with Agrippina, and his adoption of
+Nero.  For some of his freedmen noticing with approbation his having
+condemned, the day before, a woman accused of adultery, he remarked, "It
+has been my misfortune to have wives who have been unfaithful to my bed;
+but they did not escape punishment."  Often, when he happened to meet
+Britannicus, he would embrace him tenderly, and express a desire "that he
+might grow apace," and receive from him an account of all his actions:
+using the Greek phrase, "o trosas kai iasetai,--He who has wounded will
+also heal."  And intending to give him the manly habit, while he was yet
+under age and a tender youth, because his stature would allow of it, he
+added, "I do so, that the Roman people may at last have a real Caesar."
+[545]
+
+XLIV.  Soon afterwards he made his will, and had it signed by all the
+magistrates as witnesses.  But he was prevented from proceeding further
+by Agrippina, accused by her own guilty conscience, as well as by
+informers, of a variety of crimes.  It is agreed that he was taken off by
+poison; but where, and by whom administered, remains in uncertainty.
+Some authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with the
+priests in the Capitol, by the eunuch Halotus, his taster.  Others say
+(331) by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which he
+was very fond [546].  The accounts of what followed likewise differ.
+Some relate that he instantly became speechless, was racked with pain
+through the night, and died about day-break; others, that at first he
+fell into a sound sleep, and afterwards, his food rising, he threw up the
+whole; but had another dose given him; whether in water-gruel, under
+pretence of refreshment after his exhaustion, or in a clyster, as if
+designed to relieve his bowels, is likewise uncertain.
+
+XLV.  His death was kept secret until everything was settled relative to
+his successor.  Accordingly, vows were made for his recovery, and
+comedians were called to amuse him, as it was pretended, by his own
+desire.  He died upon the third of the ides of October [13th October], in
+the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the
+sixty-fourth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign [547]. His
+funeral was celebrated with the customary imperial pomp, and he was
+ranked amongst the gods.  This honour was taken from him by Nero, but
+restored by Vespasian.
+
+XLVI.  The chief presages of his death were, the appearance of a comet,
+his father Drusus's monument being struck by lightning, and the death of
+most of the magistrates of all ranks that year.  It appears from several
+circumstances, that he was sensible of his approaching dissolution, and
+made no secret of it.  For when he nominated the consuls, he appointed no
+one to fill the office beyond the month in which he died.  At the last
+assembly of the senate in which he made his appearance, he earnestly
+exhorted his two sons to unity with each other, and with earnest
+entreaties commended to the fathers the care of their tender years.  And
+in the last cause he heard from the tribunal, he repeatedly declared in
+open court, "That he was now arrived at the last stage of mortal
+existence;" whilst all who heard it shrunk at hearing these ominous
+words.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+The violent death of Caligula afforded the Romans a fresh opportunity to
+have asserted the liberty of their country; but the conspirators had
+concerted no plan, by which they should proceed upon the assassination of
+that tyrant; and the indecision of the senate, in a debate of two days,
+on so sudden an emergency, gave time to the caprice of the soldiers to
+interpose in the settlement of the government.  By an accident the most
+fortuitous, a man devoid of all pretensions to personal merit, so weak in
+understanding as to be the common sport of the emperor's household, and
+an object of contempt even to his own kindred; this man, in the hour of
+military insolence, was nominated by the soldiers as successor to the
+Roman throne.  Not yet in possession of the public treasury, which
+perhaps was exhausted, he could not immediately reward the services of
+his electors with a pecuniary gratification; but he promised them a
+largess of fifteen thousand sesterces a man, upwards of a hundred and
+forty pounds sterling; and as we meet with no account of any subsequent
+discontents in the army, we may justly conclude that the promise was soon
+after fulfilled.  This transaction laid the foundation of that military
+despotism, which, through many succeeding ages, convulsed the Roman
+empire.
+
+Besides the interposition of the soldiers upon this occasion, it appears
+that the populace of Rome were extremely clamorous for the government of
+a single person, and for that of Claudius in particular.  This partiality
+for a monarchical government proceeded from two causes.  The commonalty,
+from their obscure situation, were always the least exposed to
+oppression, under a tyrannical prince.  They had likewise ever been
+remarkably fond of stage-plays and public shows, with which, as well as
+with scrambles, and donations of bread and other victuals, the preceding
+emperor had frequently gratified them.  They had therefore less to fear,
+and more to hope, from the government of a single person than any other
+class of Roman citizens.  With regard to the partiality for Claudius, it
+may be accounted for partly from the low habits of life to which he had
+been addicted, in consequence of which many of them were familiarly
+acquainted with him; and this circumstance likewise increased their hope
+of deriving some advantage from his accession.  Exclusive of all these
+considerations, it is highly probable that the populace were instigated
+in favour of Claudius by the artifices of his freedmen, persons of mean
+extraction, by whom he was afterwards entirely governed, and who, upon
+such an occasion, would exert their utmost efforts to procure his
+appointment to the throne.  From the debate in the senate having
+continued during (333) two days, it was evident that there was still a
+strong party for restoring the ancient form of government.  That they
+were in the end overawed by the clamour of the multitude, is not
+surprising, when we consider that the senate was totally unprovided with
+resources of every kind for asserting the independence of the nation by
+arms; and the commonalty, who interrupted their deliberations, were the
+only people by whose assistance they ever could effect the restitution of
+public freedom.  To this may be added, that the senate, by the total
+reduction of their political importance, ever since the overthrow of the
+republic, had lost both the influence and authority which they formerly
+enjoyed.  The extreme cruelty, likewise, which had been exercised during
+the last two reigns, afforded a further motive for relinquishing all
+attempts in favour of liberty, as they might be severely revenged upon
+themselves by the subsequent emperor: and it was a degree of moderation
+in Claudius, which palliates the injustice of his cause, that he began
+his government with an act of amnesty respecting the public transactions
+which ensued upon the death of Caligula.
+
+Claudius, at the time of his accession, was fifty years of age; and
+though he had hitherto lived apparently unambitious of public honours,
+accompanied with great ostentation, yet he was now seized with a desire
+to enjoy a triumph.  As there existed no war, in which he might perform
+some military achievement, his vanity could only be gratified by invading
+a foreign country, where, contrary to the advice contained in the
+testament of Augustus, he might attempt to extend still further the
+limits of the empire.  Either Britain, therefore, or some nation on the
+continent, at a great distance from the capital, became the object of
+such an enterprize; and the former was chosen, not only as more
+convenient, from its vicinity to the maritime province of Gaul, but on
+account of a remonstrance lately presented by the Britons to the court of
+Rome, respecting the protection afforded to some persons of that nation,
+who had fled thither to elude the laws of their country.  Considering the
+state of Britain at that time, divided as it was into a number of
+principalities, amongst which there was no general confederacy for mutual
+defence, and where the alarm excited by the invasion of Julius Caesar,
+upwards of eighty years before, had long since been forgotten; a sudden
+attempt upon the island could not fail to be attended with success.
+Accordingly, an army was sent over, under the command of Aulus Plautius,
+an able general, who defeated the natives in several engagements, and
+penetrated a considerable way into the country.  Preparations for the
+emperor's voyage now being made, Claudius set sail from Ostia, at the
+mouth of (334) the Tiber; but meeting with a violent storm in the
+Mediterranean, he landed at Marseilles, and proceeding thence to Boulogne
+in Picardy, passed over into Britain.  In what part he debarked, is
+uncertain, but it seems to have been at some place on the south-east
+coast of the island.  He immediately received the submission of several
+British states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who
+inhabited those parts; and returning to Rome, after an absence of six
+months, celebrated with great pomp the triumph, for which he had
+undertaken the expedition.
+
+In the interior parts of Britain, the natives, under the command of
+Caractacus, maintained an obstinate resistance, and little progress was
+made by the Roman arms, until Ostorius Scapula was sent over to prosecute
+the war.  He penetrated into the country of the Silures, a warlike tribe,
+who inhabited the banks of the Severn; and having defeated Caractacus in
+a great battle, made him prisoner, and sent him to Rome.  The fame of the
+British prince had by this time spread over the provinces of Gaul and
+Italy; and upon his arrival in the Roman capital, the people flocked from
+all quarters to behold him.  The ceremonial of his entrance was conducted
+with great solemnity.  On a plain adjoining the Roman camp, the pretorian
+troops were drawn up in martial array: the emperor and his court took
+their station in front of the lines, and behind them was ranged the whole
+body of the people.  The procession commenced with the different trophies
+which had been taken from the Britons during the progress of the war.
+Next followed the brothers of the vanquished prince, with his wife and
+daughter, in chains, expressing by their supplicating looks and gestures
+the fears with which they were actuated.  But not so Caractacus himself.
+With a manly gait and an undaunted countenance, he marched up to the
+tribunal, where the emperor was seated, and addressed him in the
+following terms:
+
+"If to my high birth and distinguished rank, I had added the virtues of
+moderation, Rome had beheld me rather as a friend than a captive; and you
+would not have rejected an alliance with a prince, descended from
+illustrious ancestors, and governing many nations.  The reverse of my
+fortune to you is glorious, and to me humiliating.  I had arms, and men,
+and horses; I possessed extraordinary riches; and can it be any wonder
+that I was unwilling to lose them?  Because Rome aspires to universal
+dominion, must men therefore implicitly resign themselves to subjection?
+I opposed for a long time the progress of your arms, and had I acted
+otherwise, would either you have had the glory of conquest, or I of a
+brave resistance?  I am now in your (335) power: if you are determined to
+take revenge, my fate will soon be forgotten, and you will derive no
+honour from the transaction.  Preserve my life, and I shall remain to the
+latest ages a monument of your clemency."
+
+Immediately upon this speech, Claudius granted him his liberty, as he did
+likewise to the other royal captives.  They all returned their thanks in
+a manner the most grateful to the emperor; and as soon as their chains
+were taken off, walking towards Agrippina, who sat upon a bench at a
+little distance, they repeated to her the same fervent declarations of
+gratitude and esteem.
+
+History has preserved no account of Caractacus after this period; but it
+is probable, that he returned in a short time to his own country, where
+his former valour, and the magnanimity, which he had displayed at Rome,
+would continue to render him illustrious through life, even amidst the
+irretrievable ruin of his fortunes.
+
+The most extraordinary character in the present reign was that of Valeria
+Messalina, the daughter of Valerius Messala Barbatus.  She was married to
+Claudius, and had by him a son and a daughter.  To cruelty in the
+prosecution of her purposes, she added the most abandoned incontinence.
+Not confining her licentiousness within the limits of the palace, where
+she committed the most shameful excesses, she prostituted her person in
+the common stews, and even in the public streets of the capital.  As if
+her conduct was already not sufficiently scandalous, she obliged C.
+Silius, a man of consular rank, to divorce his wife, that she might
+procure his company entirely to herself.  Not contented with this
+indulgence to her criminal passion, she next persuaded him to marry her;
+and during an excursion which the emperor made to Ostia, the ceremony of
+marriage was actually performed between them.  The occasion was
+celebrated with a magnificent supper, to which she invited a large
+company; and lest the whole should be regarded as a frolic, not meant to
+be consummated, the adulterous parties ascended the nuptial couch in the
+presence of the astonished spectators.  Great as was the facility of
+Claudius's temper in respect of her former behaviour, he could not
+overlook so flagrant a violation both of public decency and the laws of
+the country.  Silius was condemned to death for the adultery which he had
+perpetrated with reluctance; and Messalina was ordered into the emperor's
+presence, to answer for her conduct.  Terror now operating upon her mind
+in conjunction with remorse, she could not summon the resolution to
+support such an interview, but retired into the gardens of Lucullus,
+there to indulge at last the compunction which she felt for her crimes,
+and to meditate the entreaties by which she should endeavour to soothe
+the resentment (336) of her husband.  In the extremity of her distress,
+she attempted to lay violent hands upon herself, but her courage was not
+equal to the emergency.  Her mother, Lepida, who had not spoken with her
+for some years before, was present upon the occasion, and urged her to
+the act which alone could put a period to her infamy and wretchedness.
+Again she made an effort, but again her resolution abandoned her; when a
+tribune burst into the gardens, and plunging his sword into her body, she
+instantly expired.  Thus perished a woman, the scandal of whose lewdness
+resounded throughout the empire, and of whom a great satirist, then
+living, has said, perhaps without a hyperbole,
+
+    Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.--Juvenal, Sat. VI.
+
+It has been already observed, that Claudius was entirely governed by his
+freedmen; a class of retainers which enjoyed a great share of favour and
+confidence with their patrons in those times.  They had before been the
+slaves of their masters, and had obtained their freedom as a reward for
+their faithful and attentive services.  Of the esteem in which they were
+often held, we meet with an instance in Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, to
+whom that illustrious Roman addresses several epistles, written in the
+most familiar and affectionate strain of friendship.  As it was common
+for them to be taught the more useful parts of education in the families
+of their masters, they were usually well qualified for the management of
+domestic concerns, and might even be competent to the superior
+departments of the state, especially in those times when negotiations and
+treaties with foreign princes seldom or never occurred; and in arbitrary
+governments, where public affairs were directed more by the will of the
+sovereign or his ministers, than by refined suggestions of policy.
+
+From the character generally given of Claudius before his elevation to
+the throne, we should not readily imagine that he was endowed with any
+taste for literary composition; yet he seems to have exclusively enjoyed
+this distinction during his own reign, in which learning was at a low
+ebb.  Besides history, Suetonius informs us that he wrote a Defence of
+Cicero against the Charges of Asinius Gallus.  This appears to be the
+only tribute of esteem or approbation paid to the character of Cicero,
+from the time of Livy the historian, to the extinction of the race of the
+Caesars.  Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the orator.
+Marrying Vipsania after she had been divorced by Tiberius, he incurred
+the displeasure of that emperor, and died of famine, either voluntarily,
+or by order of the tyrant.  He wrote a comparison between his father and
+Cicero, in which, with more filial partiality than justice, he gave the
+preference to the former.
+
+
+
+
+
+NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR.
+
+(337)
+
+I.  Two celebrated families, the Calvini and Aenobarbi, sprung from the
+race of the Domitii.  The Aenobarbi derive both their extraction and
+their cognomen from one Lucius Domitius, of whom we have this tradition:
+--As he was returning out of the country to Rome, he was met by two young
+men of a most august appearance, who desired him to announce to the
+senate and people a victory, of which no certain intelligence had yet
+reached the city.  To prove that they were more than mortals, they
+stroked his cheeks, and thus changed his hair, which was black, to a
+bright colour, resembling that of brass; which mark of distinction
+descended to his posterity, for they had generally red beards.  This
+family had the honour of seven consulships [548], one triumph [549], and
+two censorships [550]; and being admitted into the patrician order, they
+continued the use of the same cognomen, with no other praenomina [551]
+than those of Cneius and Lucius.  These, however, they assumed with
+singular irregularity; three persons in succession sometimes adhering to
+one of them, and then they were changed alternately.  For the first,
+second, and third of the Aenobarbi had the praenomen of Lucius, and again
+the three following, successively, that of Cneius, while those who came
+after were called, by turns, one, Lucius, and the other, Cneius.  It
+appears to me proper to give a short account of several of the family, to
+show that Nero so far degenerated from the noble qualities of his
+ancestors, that he retained only their vices; as if those alone had been
+transmitted to him by his descent.
+
+II.  To begin, therefore, at a remote period, his great-grandfather's
+grandfather, Cneius Domitius, when he was tribune of the people, being
+offended with the high priests for electing another than himself in the
+room of his father, obtained the (338) transfer of the right of election
+from the colleges of the priests to the people.  In his consulship [552],
+having conquered the Allobroges and the Arverni [553], he made a progress
+through the province, mounted upon an elephant, with a body of soldiers
+attending him, in a sort of triumphal pomp.  Of this person the orator
+Licinius Crassus said, "It was no wonder he had a brazen beard, who had a
+face of iron, and a heart of lead."  His son, during his praetorship
+[554], proposed that Cneius Caesar, upon the expiration of his
+consulship, should be called to account before the senate for his
+administration of that office, which was supposed to be contrary both to
+the omens and the laws.  Afterwards, when he was consul himself [555], he
+tried to deprive Cneius of the command of the army, and having been, by
+intrigue and cabal, appointed his successor, he was made prisoner at
+Corsinium, in the beginning of the civil war.  Being set at liberty, he
+went to Marseilles, which was then besieged; where having, by his
+presence, animated the people to hold out, he suddenly deserted them, and
+at last was slain in the battle of Pharsalia.  He was a man of little
+constancy, and of a sullen temper.  In despair of his fortunes, he had
+recourse to poison, but was so terrified at the thoughts of death, that,
+immediately repenting, he took a vomit to throw it up again, and gave
+freedom to his physician for having, with great prudence and wisdom,
+given him only a gentle dose of the poison.  When Cneius Pompey was
+consulting with his friends in what manner he should conduct himself
+towards those who were neuter and took no part in the contest, he was the
+only one who proposed that they should be treated as enemies.
+
+III.  He left a son, who was, without doubt, the best of the family.  By
+the Pedian law, he was condemned, although innocent, amongst others who
+were concerned in the death of Caesar [556].  Upon this, he went over to
+Brutus and Cassius, his near relations; and, after their death, not only
+kept together the fleet, the command of which had been given him some
+time before, but even increased it.  At last, when the party had
+everywhere been defeated, he voluntarily surrendered it to (339) Mark
+Antony; considering it as a piece of service for which the latter owed
+him no small obligations.  Of all those who were condemned by the law
+above-mentioned, he was the only man who was restored to his country, and
+filled the highest offices.  When the civil war again broke out, he was
+appointed lieutenant under the same Antony, and offered the chief command
+by those who were ashamed of Cleopatra; but not daring, on account of a
+sudden indisposition with which he was seized, either to accept or refuse
+it, he went over to Augustus [557], and died a few days after, not
+without an aspersion cast upon his memory.  For Antony gave out, that he
+was induced to change sides by his impatience to be with his mistress,
+Servilia Nais. [558]
+
+IV.  This Cneius had a son, named Domitius, who was afterwards well known
+as the nominal purchaser of the family property left by Augustus's will
+[559]; and no less famous in his youth for his dexterity in
+chariot-driving, than he was afterwards for the triumphal ornaments which
+he obtained in the German war.  But he was a man of great arrogance,
+prodigality, and cruelty.  When he was aedile, he obliged Lucius Plancus,
+the censor, to give him the way; and in his praetorship, and consulship,
+he made Roman knights and married women act on the stage.  He gave hunts
+of wild beasts, both in the Circus and in all the wards of the city; as
+also a show of gladiators; but with such barbarity, that Augustus, after
+privately reprimanding him, to no purpose, was obliged to restrain him by
+a public edict.
+
+V.  By the elder Antonia he had Nero's father, a man of execrable
+character in every part of his life.  During his attendance upon Caius
+Caesar in the East, he killed a freedman of his own, for refusing to
+drink as much as he ordered him.  Being dismissed for this from Caesar's
+society, he did not mend his habits; for, in a village upon the Appian
+road, he suddenly whipped his horses, and drove his chariot, on purpose,
+(340) over a poor boy, crushing him to pieces.  At Rome, he struck out
+the eye of a Roman knight in the Forum, only for some free language in a
+dispute between them.  He was likewise so fraudulent, that he not only
+cheated some silversmiths [560] of the price of goods he had bought of
+them, but, during his praetorship, defrauded the owners of chariots in
+the Circensian games of the prizes due to them for their victory.  His
+sister, jeering him for the complaints made by the leaders of the several
+parties, he agreed to sanction a law, "That, for the future, the prizes
+should be immediately paid."  A little before the death of Tiberius, he
+was prosecuted for treason, adulteries, and incest with his sister
+Lepida, but escaped in the timely change of affairs, and died of a
+dropsy, at Pyrgi [561]; leaving behind him his son, Nero, whom he had by
+Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus.
+
+VI.  Nero was born at Antium, nine months after the death of Tiberius
+[562], upon the eighteenth of the calends of January [15th December],
+just as the sun rose, so that its beams touched him before they could
+well reach the earth.  While many fearful conjectures, in respect to his
+future fortune, were formed by different persons, from the circumstances
+of his nativity, a saying of his father, Domitius, was regarded as an ill
+presage, who told his friends who were congratulating him upon the
+occasion, "That nothing but what was detestable, and pernicious to the
+public, could ever be produced of him and Agrippina."  Another manifest
+prognostic of his future infelicity occurred upon his lustration day
+[563].  For Caius Caesar being requested by his sister to give the child
+what name he thought proper--looking at his uncle, Claudius, who (341)
+afterwards, when emperor, adopted Nero, he gave his: and this not
+seriously, but only in jest; Agrippina treating it with contempt, because
+Claudius at that time was a mere laughing-stock at the palace.  He lost
+his father when he was three years old, being left heir to a third part
+of his estate; of which he never got possession, the whole being seized
+by his co-heir, Caius.  His mother being soon after banished, he lived
+with his aunt Lepida, in a very necessitous condition, under the care of
+two tutors, a dancing-master and a barber.  After Claudius came to the
+empire, he not only recovered his father's estate, but was enriched with
+the additional inheritance of that of his step-father, Crispus Passienus.
+Upon his mother's recall from banishment, he was advanced to such favour,
+through Nero's powerful interest with the emperor, that it was reported,
+assassins were employed by Messalina, Claudius's wife, to strangle him,
+as Britannicus's rival, whilst he was taking his noon-day repose.  In
+addition to the story, it was said that they were frightened by a
+serpent, which crept from under his cushion, and ran away.  The tale was
+occasioned by finding on his couch, near the pillow, the skin of a snake,
+which, by his mother's order, he wore for some time upon his right arm,
+inclosed in a bracelet of gold.  This amulet, at last, he laid aside,
+from aversion to her memory; but he sought for it again, in vain, in the
+time of his extremity.
+
+VII.  When he was yet a mere boy, before he arrived at the age of
+puberty, during the celebration of the Circensian games [564], he
+performed his part in the Trojan play with a degree of firmness which
+gained him great applause.  In the eleventh year of his age, he was
+adopted by Claudius, and placed under the tuition of Annaeus Seneca
+[565], who had been made a senator.  It is said, that Seneca dreamt the
+night after, that he was giving a lesson to Caius Caesar [566].  Nero
+soon verified his dream, betraying the cruelty of his disposition in
+every way he could.  For he attempted to persuade his father that his
+brother, Britannicus, was nothing but a changeling, because the latter
+had (342) saluted him, notwithstanding his adoption, by the name of
+Aenobarbus, as usual.  When his aunt, Lepida, was brought to trial, he
+appeared in court as a witness against her, to gratify his mother, who
+persecuted the accused.  On his introduction into the Forum, at the age
+of manhood, he gave a largess to the people and a donative to the
+soldiers: for the pretorian cohorts, he appointed a solemn procession
+under arms, and marched at the head of them with a shield in his hand;
+after which he went to return thanks to his father in the senate.  Before
+Claudius, likewise, at the time he was consul, he made a speech for the
+Bolognese, in Latin, and for the Rhodians and people of Ilium, in Greek.
+He had the jurisdiction of praefect of the city, for the first time,
+during the Latin festival; during which the most celebrated advocates
+brought before him, not short and trifling causes, as is usual in that
+case, but trials of importance, notwithstanding they had instructions
+from Claudius himself to the contrary.  Soon afterwards, he married
+Octavia, and exhibited the Circensian games, and hunting of wild beasts,
+in honour of Claudius.
+
+VIII.  He was seventeen years of age at the death of that prince [567],
+and as soon as that event was made public, he went out to the cohort on
+guard between the hours of six and seven; for the omens were so
+disastrous, that no earlier time of the day was judged proper.  On the
+steps before the palace gate, he was unanimously saluted by the soldiers
+as their emperor, and then carried in a litter to the camp; thence, after
+making a short speech to the troops, into the senate-house, where he
+continued until the evening; of all the immense honours which were heaped
+upon him, refusing none but the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY, on
+account of his youth,
+
+IX.  He began his reign with an ostentation of dutiful regard to the
+memory of Claudius, whom he buried with the utmost pomp and magnificence,
+pronouncing the funeral oration himself, and then had him enrolled
+amongst the gods.  He paid likewise the highest honours to the memory of
+his father Domitius.  He left the management of affairs, both public and
+private, to his mother.  The word which he gave the first day of his
+reign to the tribune on guard, was, "The (343) Best of Mothers," and
+afterwards he frequently appeared with her in the streets of Rome in her
+litter.  He settled a colony at Antium, in which he placed the veteran
+soldiers belonging to the guards; and obliged several of the richest
+centurions of the first rank to transfer their residence to that place;
+where he likewise made a noble harbour at a prodigious expense. [568]
+
+X.  To establish still further his character, he declared, "that he
+designed to govern according to the model of Augustus;" and omitted no
+opportunity of showing his generosity, clemency, and complaisance.  The
+more burthensome taxes he either entirely took off, or diminished.  The
+rewards appointed for informers by the Papian law, he reduced to a fourth
+part, and distributed to the people four hundred sesterces a man.  To the
+noblest of the senators who were much reduced in their circumstances, he
+granted annual allowances, in some cases as much as five hundred thousand
+sesterces; and to the pretorian cohorts a monthly allowance of corn
+gratis.  When called upon to subscribe the sentence, according to custom,
+of a criminal condemned to die, "I wish," said he, "I had never learnt to
+read and write."  He continually saluted people of the several orders by
+name, without a prompter.  When the senate returned him their thanks for
+his good government, he replied to them, "It will be time enough to do so
+when I shall have deserved it."  He admitted the common people to see him
+perform his exercises in the Campus Martius.  He frequently declaimed in
+public, and recited verses of his own composing, not only at home, but in
+the theatre; so much to the joy of all the people, that public prayers
+were appointed to be put up to the gods upon that account; and the verses
+which had been publicly read, were, after being written in gold letters,
+consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus.
+
+(344) XI.  He presented the people with a great number and variety of
+spectacles, as the Juvenal and Circensian games, stage-plays, and an
+exhibition of gladiators.  In the Juvenal, he even admitted senators and
+aged matrons to perform parts.  In the Circensian games, he assigned the
+equestrian order seats apart from the rest of the people, and had races
+performed by chariots drawn each by four camels.  In the games which he
+instituted for the eternal duration of the empire, and therefore ordered
+to be called Maximi, many of the senatorian and equestrian order, of both
+sexes, performed.  A distinguished Roman knight descended on the stage by
+a rope, mounted on an elephant.  A Roman play, likewise, composed by
+Afranius, was brought upon the stage.  It was entitled, "The Fire;" and
+in it the performers were allowed to carry off, and to keep to
+themselves, the furniture of the house, which, as the plot of the play
+required, was burnt down in the theatre.  Every day during the solemnity,
+many thousand articles of all descriptions were thrown amongst the people
+to scramble for; such as fowls of different kinds, tickets for corn,
+clothes, gold, silver, gems, pearls, pictures, slaves, beasts of burden,
+wild beasts that had been tamed; at last, ships, lots of houses, and
+lands, were offered as prizes in a lottery.
+
+XII.  These games he beheld from the front of the proscenium.  In the
+show of gladiators, which he exhibited in a wooden amphitheatre, built
+within a year in the district of the Campus Martius [569], he ordered
+that none should be slain, not even the condemned criminals employed in
+the combats.  He secured four hundred senators, and six hundred Roman
+knights, amongst whom were some of unbroken fortunes and unblemished
+reputation, to act as gladiators.  From the same orders, he engaged
+persons to encounter wild beasts, and for various other services in the
+theatre.  He presented the public with the representation of a naval
+fight, upon sea-water, with huge fishes swimming in it; as also with the
+Pyrrhic dance, performed by certain youths, to each of whom, after the
+performance was over, he granted the freedom of Rome.  During this
+diversion, a bull covered Pasiphae, concealed within a wooden statue of a
+cow, as many of the spectators believed.  Icarus, upon his first attempt
+to fly, fell on the stage close to (345) the emperor's pavilion, and
+bespattered him with blood.  For he very seldom presided in the games,
+but used to view them reclining on a couch, at first through some narrow
+apertures, but afterwards with the Podium [570] quite open.  He was the
+first who instituted [571], in imitation of the Greeks, a trial of skill
+in the three several exercises of music, wrestling, and horse-racing, to
+be performed at Rome every five years, and which he called Neronia.  Upon
+the dedication of his bath [572] and gymnasium, he furnished the senate
+and the equestrian order with oil.  He appointed as judges of the trial
+men of consular rank, chosen by lot, who sat with the praetors.  At this
+time he went down into the orchestra amongst the senators, and received
+the crown for the best performance in Latin prose and verse, for which
+several persons of the greatest merit contended, but they unanimously
+yielded to him.  The crown for the best performer on the harp, being
+likewise awarded to him by the judges, he devoutly saluted it, and
+ordered it to be carried to the statue of Augustus.  In the gymnastic
+exercises, which he presented in the Septa, while they were preparing the
+great sacrifice of an ox, he shaved his beard for the first time [573],
+and putting it up in a casket of gold studded with pearls of great price,
+consecrated it to Jupiter Capitolinus.  He invited the Vestal Virgins to
+see the (346) wrestlers perform, because, at Olympia, the priestesses of
+Ceres are allowed the privilege of witnessing that exhibition.
+
+XIII.  Amongst the spectacles presented by him, the solemn entrance of
+Tiridates [574] into the city deserves to be mentioned.  This personage,
+who was king of Armenia, he invited to Rome by very liberal promises.
+But being prevented by unfavourable weather from showing him to the
+people upon the day fixed by proclamation, he took the first opportunity
+which occurred; several cohorts being drawn up under arms, about the
+temples in the forum, while he was seated on a curule chair on the
+rostra, in a triumphal dress, amidst the military standards and ensigns.
+Upon Tiridates advancing towards him, on a stage made shelving for the
+purpose, he permitted him to throw himself at his feet, but quickly
+raised him with his right hand, and kissed him.  The emperor then, at the
+king's request, took the turban from his head, and replaced it by a
+crown, whilst a person of pretorian rank proclaimed in Latin the words in
+which the prince addressed the emperor as a suppliant.  After this
+ceremony, the king was conducted to the theatre, where, after renewing
+his obeisance, Nero seated him on his right hand.  Being then greeted by
+universal acclamation with the title of Emperor, and sending his laurel
+crown to the Capitol, Nero shut the temple of the two-faced Janus, as
+though there now existed no war throughout the Roman empire.
+
+XIV.  He filled the consulship four times [575]: the first for two
+months, the second and last for six, and the third for four; the two
+intermediate ones he held successively, but the others after an interval
+of some years between them.
+
+XV.  In the administration of justice, he scarcely ever gave his decision
+on the pleadings before the next day, and then in writing.  His manner of
+hearing causes was not to allow any adjournment, but to dispatch them in
+order as they stood.  When he withdrew to consult his assessors, he did
+not debate the matter openly with them; but silently and privately
+reading over their opinions, which they gave separately in writing, (347)
+he pronounced sentence from the tribunal according to his own view of the
+case, as if it was the opinion of the majority.  For a long time he would
+not admit the sons of freedmen into the senate; and those who had been
+admitted by former princes, he excluded from all public offices.  To
+supernumerary candidates he gave command in the legions, to comfort them
+under the delay of their hopes.  The consulship he commonly conferred for
+six months; and one of the two consuls dying a little before the first of
+January, he substituted no one in his place; disliking what had been
+formerly done for Caninius Rebilus on such an occasion, who was consul
+for one day only.  He allowed the triumphal honours only to those who
+were of quaestorian rank, and to some of the equestrian order; and
+bestowed them without regard to military service.  And instead of the
+quaestors, whose office it properly was, he frequently ordered that the
+addresses, which he sent to the senate on certain occasions, should be
+read by the consuls.
+
+XVI.  He devised a new style of building in the city, ordering piazzas to
+be erected before all houses, both in the streets and detached, to give
+facilities from their terraces, in case of fire, for preventing it from
+spreading; and these he built at his own expense.  He likewise designed
+to extend the city walls as far as Ostia, and bring the sea from thence
+by a canal into the old city.  Many severe regulations and new orders
+were made in his time.  A sumptuary law was enacted.  Public suppers were
+limited to the Sportulae [576]; and victualling-houses restrained from
+selling any dressed victuals, except pulse and herbs, whereas before they
+sold all kinds of meat.  He likewise inflicted punishments on the
+Christians, a sort of people who held a new and impious [577]
+superstition.
+
+(348) He forbad the revels of the charioteers, who had long assumed a
+licence to stroll about, and established for themselves a kind of
+prescriptive right to cheat and thieve, making a jest of it.  The
+partisans of the rival theatrical performers were banished, as well as
+the actors themselves.
+
+XVII.  To prevent forgery, a method was then first invented, of having
+writings bored, run through three times with a thread, and then sealed.
+It was likewise provided that in wills, the two first pages, with only
+the testator's name upon them, should be presented blank to those who
+were to sign them as witnesses; and that no one who wrote a will for
+another, should insert any legacy for himself.  It was likewise ordained
+that clients should pay their advocates a certain reasonable fee, but
+nothing for the court, which was to be gratuitous, the charges for it
+being paid out of the public treasury; that causes, the cognizance of
+which before belonged to the judges of the exchequer, should be
+transferred to the forum, and the ordinary tribunals; and that all
+appeals from the judges should be made to the senate.
+
+XVIII.  He never entertained the least ambition or hope of augmenting and
+extending the frontiers of the empire.  On the contrary, he had thoughts
+of withdrawing the troops from Britain, and was only restrained from so
+doing by the fear of appearing to detract from the glory of his father
+[578].  All (349) that he did was to reduce the kingdom of Pontus, which
+was ceded to him by Polemon, and also the Alps [579], upon the death of
+Cottius, into the form of a province.
+
+XIX.  Twice only he undertook any foreign expeditions, one to Alexandria,
+and the other to Achaia; but he abandoned the prosecution of the former
+on the very day fixed for his departure, by being deterred both by ill
+omens, and the hazard of the voyage.  For while he was making the circuit
+of the temples, having seated himself in that of Vesta, when he attempted
+to rise, the skirt of his robe stuck fast; and he was instantly seized
+with such a dimness in his eyes, that he could not see a yard before him.
+In Achaia, he attempted to make a cut through the Isthmus [580]; and,
+having made a speech encouraging his pretorians to set about the work, on
+a signal given by sound of trumpet, he first broke ground with a spade,
+and carried off a basket full of earth upon his shoulders.  He made
+preparations for an expedition to the Pass of the Caspian mountains
+[581]; forming a new legion out of his late levies in Italy, of men all
+six feet high, which he called the phalanx of Alexander the Great.  These
+transactions, in part unexceptionable, and in part highly commendable, I
+have brought into one view, in order to separate them from the scandalous
+and criminal part of his conduct, of which I shall now give an account.
+
+XX.  Among the other liberal arts which he was taught in his youth, he
+was instructed in music; and immediately after (350) his advancement to
+the empire, he sent for Terpnus, a performer upon the harp [582], who
+flourished at that time with the highest reputation.  Sitting with him
+for several days following, as he sang and played after supper, until
+late at night, he began by degrees to practise upon the instrument
+himself.  Nor did he omit any of those expedients which artists in music
+adopt, for the preservation and improvement of their voices.  He would
+lie upon his back with a sheet of lead upon his breast, clear his stomach
+and bowels by vomits and clysters, and forbear the eating of fruits, or
+food prejudicial to the voice.  Encouraged by his proficiency, though his
+voice was naturally neither loud nor clear, he was desirous of appearing
+upon the stage, frequently repeating amongst his friends a Greek proverb
+to this effect: "that no one had any regard for music which they never
+heard."  Accordingly, he made his first public appearance at Naples; and
+although the theatre quivered with the sudden shock of an earthquake, he
+did not desist, until he had finished the piece of music he had begun.
+He played and sung in the same place several times, and for several days
+together; taking only now and then a little respite to refresh his voice.
+Impatient of retirement, it was his custom to go from the bath to the
+theatre; and after dining in the orchestra, amidst a crowded assembly of
+the people, he promised them in Greek [583], "that after he had drank a
+little, he would give them a tune which would make their ears tingle."
+Being highly pleased with the songs that were sung in his praise by some
+Alexandrians belonging to the fleet just arrived at Naples [584], he sent
+for more of the like singers from Alexandria.  At the same time, he chose
+young men of the equestrian order, and above five thousand robust young
+fellows from the common people, on purpose to learn various kinds of
+applause, called bombi, imbrices, and testae [585], which they were to
+practise in his favour, whenever he performed.  They were (351) divided
+into several parties, and were remarkable for their fine heads of hair,
+and were extremely well dressed, with rings upon their left hands.  The
+leaders of these bands had salaries of forty thousand sesterces allowed
+them.
+
+XXI.  At Rome also, being extremely proud of his singing, he ordered the
+games called Neronia to be celebrated before the time fixed for their
+return.  All now becoming importunate to hear "his heavenly voice," he
+informed them, "that he would gratify those who desired it at the
+gardens."  But the soldiers then on guard seconding the voice of the
+people, he promised to comply with their request immediately, and with
+all his heart.  He instantly ordered his name to be entered upon the list
+of musicians who proposed to contend, and having thrown his lot into the
+urn among the rest, took his turn, and entered, attended by the prefects
+of the pretorian cohorts bearing his harp, and followed by the military
+tribunes, and several of his intimate friends.  After he had taken his
+station, and made the usual prelude, he commanded Cluvius Rufus, a man of
+consular rank, to proclaim in the theatre, that he intended to sing the
+story of Niobe.  This he accordingly did, and continued it until nearly
+ten o'clock, but deferred the disposal of the crown, and the remaining
+part of the solemnity, until the next year; that he might have more
+frequent opportunities of performing.  But that being too long, he could
+not refrain from often appearing as a public performer during the
+interval.  He made no scruple of exhibiting on the stage, even in the
+spectacles presented to the people by private persons, and was offered by
+one of the praetors, no less than a million of sesterces for his
+services.  He likewise sang tragedies in a mask; the visors of the heroes
+and gods, as also of the heroines and goddesses, being formed into a
+resemblance of his own face, and that of any woman he was in love with.
+Amongst the rest, he sung "Canace in Labour," [586] "Orestes the Murderer
+of his Mother," "Oedipus (352) Blinded," and "Hercules Mad."  In the last
+tragedy, it is said that a young sentinel, posted at the entrance of the
+stage, seeing him in a prison dress and bound with fetters, as the fable
+of the play required, ran to his assistance.
+
+XXII.  He had from his childhood an extravagant passion for horses; and
+his constant talk was of the Circensian races, notwithstanding it was
+prohibited him.  Lamenting once, among his fellow-pupils, the case of a
+charioteer of the green party, who was dragged round the circus at the
+tail of his chariot, and being reprimanded by his tutor for it, he
+pretended that he was talking of Hector.  In the beginning of his reign,
+he used to amuse himself daily with chariots drawn by four horses, made
+of ivory, upon a table.  He attended at all the lesser exhibitions in the
+circus, at first privately, but at last openly; so that nobody ever
+doubted of his presence on any particular day.  Nor did he conceal his
+desire to have the number of the prizes doubled; so that the races being
+increased accordingly, the diversion continued until a late hour; the
+leaders of parties refusing now to bring out their companies for any time
+less than the whole day.  Upon this, he took a fancy for driving the
+chariot himself, and that even publicly.  Having made his first
+experiment in the gardens, amidst crowds of slaves and other rabble, he
+at length performed in the view of all the people, in the Circus Maximus,
+whilst one of his freedmen dropped the napkin in the place where the
+magistrates used to give the signal.  Not satisfied with exhibiting
+various specimens of his skill in those arts at Rome, he went over to
+Achaia, as has been already said, principally for this purpose.  The
+several cities, in which solemn trials of musical skill used to be
+publicly held, had resolved to send him the crowns belonging to those who
+bore away the prize.  These he accepted so graciously, that he not only
+gave the deputies who brought them an immediate audience, but even
+invited them to his table.  Being requested by some of them to sing at
+supper, and prodigiously applauded, he said, "the Greeks were the only
+people who has an ear for music, and were the only good judges of him and
+his attainments."  Without delay he commenced his journey, and on his
+arrival at Cassiope [587], (352) exhibited his first musical performance
+before the altar of Jupiter Cassius.
+
+XXIII.  He afterwards appeared at the celebration of all public games in
+Greece: for such as fell in different years, he brought within the
+compass of one, and some he ordered to be celebrated a second time in the
+same year.  At Olympia, likewise, contrary to custom, he appointed a
+public performance in music: and that he might meet with no interruption
+in this employment, when he was informed by his freedman Helius, that
+affairs at Rome required his presence, he wrote to him in these words:
+"Though now all your hopes and wishes are for my speedy return, yet you
+ought rather to advise and hope that I may come back with a character
+worthy of Nero."  During the time of his musical performance, nobody was
+allowed to stir out of the theatre upon any account, however necessary;
+insomuch, that it is said some women with child were delivered there.
+Many of the spectators being quite wearied with hearing and applauding
+him, because the town gates were shut, slipped privately over the walls;
+or counterfeiting themselves dead, were carried out for their funeral.
+With what extreme anxiety he engaged in these contests, with what keen
+desire to bear away the prize, and with how much awe of the judges, is
+scarcely to be believed.  As if his adversaries had been on a level with
+himself, he would watch them narrowly, defame them privately, and
+sometimes, upon meeting them, rail at them in very scurrilous language;
+or bribe them, if they were better performers than himself.  He always
+addressed the judges with the most profound reverence before he began,
+telling them, "he had done all things that were necessary, by way of
+preparation, but that the issue of the approaching trial was in the hand
+of fortune; and that they, as wise and skilful men, ought to exclude from
+their judgment things merely accidental."  Upon their encouraging him to
+have a good heart, he went off with more assurance, but not entirely free
+from anxiety; interpreting the silence and modesty of some of them into
+sourness and ill-nature, and saying that he was suspicious of them.
+
+XXIV.  In these contests, he adhered so strictly to the rules, (354) that
+he never durst spit, nor wipe the sweat from his forehead in any other
+way than with his sleeve.  Having, in the performance of a tragedy,
+dropped his sceptre, and not quickly recovering it, he was in a great
+fright, lest he should be set aside for the miscarriage, and could not
+regain his assurance, until an actor who stood by swore he was certain it
+had not been observed in the midst of the acclamations and exultations of
+the people.  When the prize was adjudged to him, he always proclaimed it
+himself; and even entered the lists with the heralds.  That no memory or
+the least monument might remain of any other victor in the sacred Grecian
+games, he ordered all their statues and pictures to be pulled down,
+dragged away with hooks, and thrown into the common sewers.  He drove the
+chariot with various numbers of horses, and at the Olympic games with no
+fewer than ten; though, in a poem of his, he had reflected upon
+Mithridates for that innovation.  Being thrown out of his chariot, he was
+again replaced, but could not retain his seat, and was obliged to give
+up, before he reached the goal, but was crowned notwithstanding.  On his
+departure, he declared the whole province a free country, and conferred
+upon the judges in the several games the freedom of Rome, with large sums
+of money.  All these favours he proclaimed himself with his own voice,
+from the middle of the Stadium, during the solemnity of the Isthmian
+games.
+
+XXV.  On his return from Greece, arriving at Naples, because he had
+commenced his career as a public performer in that city, he made his
+entrance in a chariot drawn by white horses through a breach in the
+city-wall, according to the practice of those who were victorious in the
+sacred Grecian games.  In the same manner he entered Antium, Alba, and
+Rome.  He made his entry into the city riding in the same chariot in
+which Augustus had triumphed, in a purple tunic, and a cloak embroidered
+with golden stars, having on his head the crown won at Olympia, and in
+his right hand that which was given him at the Parthian games: the rest
+being carried in a procession before him, with inscriptions denoting the
+places where they had been won, from whom, and in what plays or musical
+performances; whilst a train followed him with loud acclamations, crying
+out, that "they (355) were the emperor's attendants, and the soldiers of
+his triumph."  Having then caused an arch of the Circus Maximus [588] to
+be taken down, he passed through the breach, as also through the Velabrum
+[589] and the forum, to the Palatine hill and the temple of Apollo.
+Everywhere as he marched along, victims were slain, whilst the streets
+were strewed with saffron, and birds, chaplets, and sweetmeats scattered
+abroad.  He suspended the sacred crowns in his chamber, about his beds,
+and caused statues of himself to be erected in the attire of a harper,
+and had his likeness stamped upon the coin in the same dress.  After this
+period, he was so far from abating any thing of his application to music,
+that, for the preservation of his voice, he never addressed the soldiers
+but by messages, or with some person to deliver his speeches for him,
+when he thought fit to make his appearance amongst them.  Nor did he ever
+do any thing either in jest or earnest, without a voice-master standing
+by him to caution him against overstraining his vocal organs, and to
+apply a handkerchief to his mouth when he did.  He offered his
+friendship, or avowed (356) open enmity to many, according as they were
+lavish or sparing in giving him their applause.
+
+XXVI.  Petulancy, lewdness, luxury, avarice, and cruelty, he practised at
+first with reserve and in private, as if prompted to them only by the
+folly of youth; but, even then, the world was of opinion that they were
+the faults of his nature, and not of his age.  After it was dark, he used
+to enter the taverns disguised in a cap or a wig, and ramble about the
+streets in sport, which was not void of mischief.  He used to beat those
+he met coming home from supper; and, if they made any resistance, would
+wound them, and throw them into the common sewer.  He broke open and
+robbed shops; establishing an auction at home for selling his booty.  In
+the scuffles which took place on those occasions, he often ran the hazard
+of losing his eyes, and even his life; being beaten almost to death by a
+senator, for handling his wife indecently.  After this adventure, he
+never again ventured abroad at that time of night, without some tribunes
+following him at a little distance.  In the day-time he would be carried
+to the theatre incognito in a litter, placing himself upon the upper part
+of the proscenium, where he not only witnessed the quarrels which arose
+on account of the performances, but also encouraged them.  When they came
+to blows, and stones and pieces of broken benches began to fly about, he
+threw them plentifully amongst the people, and once even broke a
+praetor's head.
+
+XXVII.  His vices gaining strength by degrees, he laid aside his jocular
+amusements, and all disguise; breaking out into enormous crimes, without
+the least attempt to conceal them.  His revels were prolonged from
+mid-day to midnight, while he was frequently refreshed by warm baths, and,
+in the summer time, by such as were cooled with snow.  He often supped in
+public, in the Naumachia, with the sluices shut, or in the Campus Martius,
+or the Circus Maximus, being waited upon at table by common prostitutes of
+the town, and Syrian strumpets and glee-girls.  As often as he went down
+the Tiber to Ostia, or coasted through the gulf of Baiae, booths furnished
+as brothels and eating-houses, were erected along the shore and river
+banks; before which stood matrons, who, like bawds and hostesses, allured
+him to land.  It was also his custom to invite (357) himself to supper
+with his friends; at one of which was expended no less than four millions
+of sesterces in chaplets, and at another something more in roses.
+
+XXVIII.  Besides the abuse of free-born lads, and the debauch of married
+women, he committed a rape upon Rubria, a Vestal Virgin.  He was upon the
+point of marrying Acte [590], his freedwoman, having suborned some men of
+consular rank to swear that she was of royal descent.  He gelded the boy
+Sporus, and endeavoured to transform him into a woman.  He even went so
+far as to marry him, with all the usual formalities of a marriage
+settlement, the rose-coloured nuptial veil, and a numerous company at the
+wedding.  When the ceremony was over, he had him conducted like a bride
+to his own house, and treated him as his wife [591].  It was jocularly
+observed by some person, "that it would have been well for mankind, had
+such a wife fallen to the lot of his father Domitius."  This Sporus he
+carried about with him in a litter round the solemn assemblies and fairs
+of Greece, and afterwards at Rome through the Sigillaria [592], dressed
+in the rich attire of an empress; kissing him from time to time as they
+rode together.  That he entertained an incestuous passion for his mother
+[593], but was deterred by her enemies, for fear that this haughty and
+overbearing woman should, by her compliance, get him entirely into her
+power, and govern in every thing, was universally believed; especially
+after he had introduced amongst his concubines a strumpet, who was
+reported to have a strong resemblance to Agrippina [594].--------
+
+XXIX.  He prostituted his own chastity to such a degree, that (358) after
+he had defiled every part of his person with some unnatural pollution, he
+at last invented an extraordinary kind of diversion; which was, to be let
+out of a den in the arena, covered with the skin of a wild beast, and
+then assail with violence the private parts both of men and women, while
+they were bound to stakes.  After he had vented his furious passion upon
+them, he finished the play in the embraces of his freedman Doryphorus
+[595], to whom he was married in the same way that Sporus had been
+married to himself; imitating the cries and shrieks of young virgins,
+when they are ravished.  I have been informed from numerous sources, that
+he firmly believed, no man in the world to be chaste, or any part of his
+person undefiled; but that most men concealed that vice, and were cunning
+enough to keep it secret.  To those, therefore, who frankly owned their
+unnatural lewdness, he forgave all other crimes.
+
+XXX.  He thought there was no other use of riches and money than to
+squander them away profusely; regarding all those as sordid wretches who
+kept their expenses within due bounds; and extolling those as truly noble
+and generous souls, who lavished away and wasted all they possessed.  He
+praised and admired his uncle Caius [596], upon no account more, than for
+squandering in a short time the vast treasure left him by Tiberius.
+Accordingly, he was himself extravagant and profuse, beyond all bounds.
+He spent upon Tiridates eight hundred thousand sesterces a day, a sum
+almost incredible; and at his departure, presented him with upwards of a
+million [597].  He likewise bestowed upon Menecrates the harper, and
+Spicillus a gladiator, the estates and houses of men who had received the
+honour of a triumph.  He enriched the usurer Cercopithecus Panerotes with
+estates both in town and country; and gave him a funeral, in pomp and
+magnificence little inferior to that of princes.  He never wore the same
+garment twice.  He (359) has been known to stake four hundred thousand
+sesterces on a throw of the dice.  It was his custom to fish with a
+golden net, drawn by silken cords of purple and scarlet.  It is said,
+that he never travelled with less than a thousand baggage-carts; the
+mules being all shod with silver, and the drivers dressed in scarlet
+jackets of the finest Canusian cloth [598], with a numerous train of
+footmen, and troops of Mazacans [599], with bracelets on their arms, and
+mounted upon horses in splendid trappings.
+
+XXXI.  In nothing was he more prodigal than in his buildings.  He
+completed his palace by continuing it from the Palatine to the Esquiline
+hill, calling the building at first only "The Passage," but, after it was
+burnt down and rebuilt, "The Golden House." [600]  Of its dimensions and
+furniture, it may be sufficient to say thus much: the porch was so high
+that there stood in it a colossal statue of himself a hundred and twenty
+feet in height; and the space included in it was so ample, that it had
+triple porticos a mile in length, and a lake like a sea, surrounded with
+buildings which had the appearance of a city.  Within its area were corn
+fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods, containing a vast number of
+animals of various kinds, both wild and tame.  In other parts it was
+entirely over-laid with gold, and adorned with jewels and mother of
+pearl.  The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments of the ceilings,
+inlaid with ivory, were made to revolve, and scatter flowers; while they
+contained pipes which (360) shed unguents upon the guests.  The chief
+banqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually, night and day, in
+imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies.  The baths were supplied
+with water from the sea and the Albula.  Upon the dedication of this
+magnificent house after it was finished, all he said in approval of it
+was, "that he had now a dwelling fit for a man."  He commenced making a
+pond for the reception of all the hot streams from Baiae, which he
+designed to have continued from Misenum to the Avernian lake, in a
+conduit, enclosed in galleries; and also a canal from Avernum to Ostia,
+that ships might pass from one to the other, without a sea voyage.  The
+length of the proposed canal was one hundred and sixty miles; and it was
+intended to be of breadth sufficient to permit ships with five banks of
+oars to pass each other.  For the execution of these designs, he ordered
+all prisoners, in every part of the empire, to be brought to Italy; and
+that even those who were convicted of the most heinous crimes, in lieu of
+any other sentence, should be condemned to work at them.  He was
+encouraged to all this wild and enormous profusion, not only by the great
+revenue of the empire, but by the sudden hopes given him of an immense
+hidden treasure, which queen Dido, upon her flight from Tyre, had brought
+with her to Africa.  This, a Roman knight pretended to assure him, upon
+good grounds, was still hid there in some deep caverns, and might with a
+little labour be recovered.
+
+XXXII.  But being disappointed in his expectations of this resource, and
+reduced to such difficulties, for want of money, that he was obliged to
+defer paying his troops, and the rewards due to the veterans; he resolved
+upon supplying his necessities by means of false accusations and plunder.
+In the first place, he ordered, that if any freedman, without sufficient
+reason, bore the name of the family to which he belonged; the half,
+instead of three fourths, of his estate should be brought into the
+exchequer at his decease: also that the estates of all such persons as
+had not in their wills been mindful of their prince, should be
+confiscated; and that the lawyers who had drawn or dictated such wills,
+should be liable to a fine.  He ordained likewise, that all words and
+actions, upon which any informer could ground a prosecution, should be
+deemed treason.  He demanded an equivalent for the crowns which the
+cities of (361) Greece had at any time offered him in the solemn games.
+Having forbad any one to use the colours of amethyst and Tyrian purple,
+he privately sent a person to sell a few ounces of them upon the day of
+the Nundinae, and then shut up all the merchants' shops, on the pretext
+that his edict had been violated.  It is said, that, as he was playing
+and singing in the theatre, observing a married lady dressed in the
+purple which he had prohibited, he pointed her out to his procurators;
+upon which she was immediately dragged out of her seat, and not only
+stripped of her clothes, but her property.  He never nominated a person
+to any office without saying to him, "You know what I want; and let us
+take care that nobody has any thing he can call his own."  At last he
+rifled many temples of the rich offerings with which they were stored,
+and melted down all the gold and silver statues, and amongst them those
+of the penates [601], which Galba afterwards restored.
+
+XXXIII.  He began the practice of parricide and murder with Claudius
+himself; for although he was not the contriver of his death, he was privy
+to the plot.  Nor did he make any secret of it; but used afterwards to
+commend, in a Greek proverb, mushrooms as food fit for the gods, because
+Claudius had been poisoned with them.  He traduced his memory both by
+word and deed in the grossest manner; one while charging him with folly,
+another while with cruelty.  For he used to say by way of jest, that he
+had ceased morari [602] amongst men, pronouncing the first syllable long;
+and treated as null many of his decrees and ordinances, as made by a
+doting old blockhead.  He enclosed the place where his body was burnt
+with only a low wall of rough masonry.  He attempted to poison (362)
+Britannicus, as much out of envy because he had a sweeter voice, as from
+apprehension of what might ensue from the respect which the people
+entertained for his father's memory.  He employed for this purpose a
+woman named Locusta, who had been a witness against some persons guilty
+of like practices.  But the poison she gave him, working more slowly than
+he expected, and only causing a purge, he sent for the woman, and beat
+her with his own hand, charging her with administering an antidote
+instead of poison; and upon her alleging in excuse, that she had given
+Britannicus but a gentle mixture in order to prevent suspicion, "Think
+you," said he, "that I am afraid of the Julian law;" and obliged her to
+prepare, in his own chamber and before his eyes, as quick and strong a
+dose as possible.  This he tried upon a kid: but the animal lingering for
+five hours before it expired, he ordered her to go to work again; and
+when she had done, he gave the poison to a pig, which dying immediately,
+he commanded the potion to be brought into the eating-room and given to
+Britannicus, while he was at supper with him.  The prince had no sooner
+tasted it than he sunk on the floor, Nero meanwhile, pretending to the
+guests, that it was only a fit of the falling sickness, to which, he
+said, he was subject.  He buried him the following day, in a mean and
+hurried way, during violent storms of rain.  He gave Locusta a pardon,
+and rewarded her with a great estate in land, placing some disciples with
+her, to be instructed in her trade.
+
+XXXIV.  His mother being used to make strict inquiry into what he said or
+did, and to reprimand him with the freedom of a parent, he was so much
+offended, that he endeavoured to expose her to public resentment, by
+frequently pretending a resolution to quit the government, and retire to
+Rhodes.  Soon afterwards, he deprived her of all honour and power, took
+from her the guard of Roman and German soldiers, banished her from the
+palace and from his society, and persecuted her in every way he could
+contrive; employing persons to harass her when at Rome with law-suits,
+and to disturb her in her retirement from town with the most scurrilous
+and abusive language, following her about by land and sea.  But being
+terrified with her menaces and violent spirit, he resolved upon her
+destruction, and thrice attempted it by poison.  Finding, however, (363)
+that she had previously secured herself by antidotes, he contrived
+machinery, by which the floor over her bed-chamber might be made to fall
+upon her while she was asleep in the night.  This design miscarrying
+likewise, through the little caution used by those who were in the
+secret, his next stratagem was to construct a ship which could be easily
+shivered, in hopes of destroying her either by drowning, or by the deck
+above her cabin crushing her in its fall.  Accordingly, under colour of a
+pretended reconciliation, he wrote her an extremely affectionate letter,
+inviting her to Baiae, to celebrate with him the festival of Minerva.  He
+had given private orders to the captains of the galleys which were to
+attend her, to shatter to pieces the ship in which she had come, by
+falling foul of it, but in such manner that it might appear to be done
+accidentally.  He prolonged the entertainment, for the more convenient
+opportunity of executing the plot in the night; and at her return for
+Bauli [603], instead of the old ship which had conveyed her to Baiae, he
+offered that which he had contrived for her destruction.  He attended her
+to the vessel in a very cheerful mood, and, at parting with her, kissed
+her breasts; after which he sat up very late in the night, waiting with
+great anxiety to learn the issue of his project.  But receiving
+information that every thing had fallen out contrary to his wish, and
+that she had saved herself by swimming,--not knowing what course to take,
+upon her freedman, Lucius Agerinus bringing word, with great joy, that
+she was safe and well, he privately dropped a poniard by him.  He then
+commanded the freedman to be seized and put in chains, under pretence of
+his having been employed by his mother to assassinate him; at the same
+time ordering her to be put to death, and giving out, that, to avoid
+punishment for her intended crime, she had laid violent hands upon
+herself.  Other circumstances, still more horrible, are related on good
+authority; as that he went to view her corpse, and handling her limbs,
+pointed out some blemishes, and commended other points; and that, growing
+thirsty during the survey, he called for drink.  Yet he was never
+afterwards able to bear the stings of his own conscience for this
+atrocious act, although encouraged by the congratulatory addresses of the
+army, the senate, and people.  He frequently affirmed that he was haunted
+by his mother's ghost, and persecuted with the whips (364) and burning
+torches of the Furies.  Nay, he attempted by magical rites to bring up
+her ghost from below, and soften her rage against him.  When he was in
+Greece, he durst not attend the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries,
+at the initiation of which, impious and wicked persons are warned by the
+voice of the herald from approaching the rites [604].  Besides the murder
+of his mother, he had been guilty of that of his aunt; for, being obliged
+to keep her bed in consequence of a complaint in her bowels, he paid her
+a visit, and she, being then advanced in years, stroking his downy chin,
+in the tenderness of affection, said to him: "May I but live to see the
+day when this is shaved for the first time [605], and I shall then die
+contented."  He turned, however, to those about him, made a jest of it,
+saying, that he would have his beard immediately taken off, and ordered
+the physicians to give her more violent purgatives.  He seized upon her
+estate before she had expired; suppressing her will, that he might enjoy
+the whole himself.
+
+XXXV.  He had, besides Octavia, two other wives: Poppaea Sabina, whose
+father had borne the office of quaestor, and who had been married
+before to a Roman knight: and, after her, Statilia Messalina,
+great-grand-daughter of Taurus [606] who was twice consul, and received
+the honour of a triumph.  To obtain possession of her, he put to death her
+husband, Atticus Vestinus, who was then consul.  He soon became disgusted
+with Octavia, and ceased from having any intercourse with her; and being
+censured by his friends for it, he replied, "She ought to be satisfied
+with having the rank and appendages of his wife."  Soon afterwards, he
+made several attempts, but in vain, to strangle her, and then divorced her
+for barrenness.  But the people, disapproving of the divorce, and making
+severe comments upon it, he also banished her [607].  At last he (365) put
+her to death, upon a charge of adultery, so impudent and false, that, when
+all those who were put to the torture positively denied their knowledge of
+it, he suborned his pedagogue, Anicetus, to affirm, that he had secretly
+intrigued with and debauched her.  He married Poppaea twelve days after
+the divorce of Octavia [608], and entertained a great affection for her;
+but, nevertheless, killed her with a kick which he gave her when she was
+big with child, and in bad health, only because she found fault with him
+for returning late from driving his chariot.  He had by her a daughter,
+Claudia Augusta, who died an infant.  There was no person at all connected
+with him who escaped his deadly and unjust cruelty.  Under pretence of her
+being engaged in a plot against him, he put to death Antonia, Claudius's
+daughter, who refused to marry him after the death of Poppaea.  In the
+same way, he destroyed all who were allied to him either by blood or
+marriage; amongst whom was young Aulus Plautinus.  He first compelled him
+to submit to his unnatural lust, and then ordered him to be executed,
+crying out, "Let my mother bestow her kisses on my successor thus
+defiled;" pretending that he had been his mothers paramour, and by her
+encouraged to aspire to the empire.  His step-son, Rufinus Crispinus,
+Poppaea's son, though a minor, he ordered to be drowned in the sea, while
+he was fishing, by his own slaves, because he was reported to act
+frequently amongst his play-fellows the part of a general or an emperor.
+He banished Tuscus, his nurse's son, for presuming, when he was procurator
+of Egypt, to wash in the baths which had been constructed in expectation
+of his own coming.  Seneca, his preceptor, he forced to kill himself
+[609], though, upon his desiring leave to retire, and offering to
+surrender his estate, he solemnly swore, "that there was no foundation for
+his suspicions, and that he would perish himself sooner than hurt him."
+Having promised Burrhus, the pretorian prefect, a remedy for a swelling in
+his throat, he sent him poison.  Some old rich freedmen of Claudius, who
+had formerly not only promoted (366) his adoption, but were also
+instrumental to his advancement to the empire, and had been his governors,
+he took off by poison given them in their meat or drink.
+
+XXXVI.  Nor did he proceed with less cruelty against those who were not
+of his family.  A blazing star, which is vulgarly supposed to portend
+destruction to kings and princes, appeared above the horizon several
+nights successively [610].  He felt great anxiety on account of this
+phenomenon, and being informed by one Babilus, an astrologer, that
+princes were used to expiate such omens by the sacrifice of illustrious
+persons, and so avert the danger foreboded to their own persons, by
+bringing it on the heads of their chief men, he resolved on the
+destruction of the principal nobility in Rome.  He was the more
+encouraged to this, because he had some plausible pretence for carrying
+it into execution, from the discovery of two conspiracies against him;
+the former and more dangerous of which was that formed by Piso [611], and
+discovered at Rome; the other was that of Vinicius [612], at Beneventum.
+The conspirators were brought to their trials loaded with triple fetters.
+Some ingenuously confessed the charge; others avowed that they thought
+the design against his life an act of favour for which he was obliged to
+them, as it was impossible in any other way than by death to relieve a
+person rendered infamous by crimes of the greatest enormity.  The
+children of those who had been condemned, were banished the city, and
+afterwards either poisoned or starved to death.  It is asserted that some
+of them, with their tutors, and the slaves who carried their satchels,
+were all poisoned together at one dinner; and others not suffered to seek
+their daily bread.
+
+XXXVII.  From this period he butchered, without distinction or quarter,
+all whom his caprice suggested as objects for his cruelty; and upon the
+most frivolous pretences.  To mention only a few: Salvidienus Orfitus was
+accused of letting (367) out three taverns attached to his house in the
+Forum to some cities for the use of their deputies at Rome.  The charge
+against Cassius Longinus, a lawyer who had lost his sight, was, that he
+kept amongst the busts of his ancestors that of Caius Cassius, who was
+concerned in the death of Julius Caesar.  The only charge objected
+against Paetus Thrasea was, that he had a melancholy cast of features,
+and looked like a schoolmaster.  He allowed but one hour to those whom he
+obliged to kill themselves; and, to prevent delay, he sent them
+physicians "to cure them immediately, if they lingered beyond that time;"
+for so he called bleeding them to death.  There was at that time an
+Egyptian of a most voracious appetite, who would digest raw flesh, or any
+thing else that was given him.  It was credibly reported, that the
+emperor was extremely desirous of furnishing him with living men to tear
+and devour.  Being elated with his great success in the perpetration of
+crimes, he declared, "that no prince before himself ever knew the extent
+of his power."  He threw out strong intimations that he would not even
+spare the senators who survived, but would entirely extirpate that order,
+and put the provinces and armies into the hands of the Roman knights and
+his own freedmen.  It is certain that he never gave or vouchsafed to
+allow any one the customary kiss, either on entering or departing, or
+even returned a salute.  And at the inauguration of a work, the cut
+through the Isthmus [613], he, with a loud voice, amidst the assembled
+multitude, uttered a prayer, that "the undertaking might prove fortunate
+for himself and the Roman people," without taking the smallest notice of
+the senate.
+
+XXXVIII.  He spared, moreover, neither the people of Rome, nor the
+capital of his country.  Somebody in conversation saying--
+
+    Emou thanontos gaia michthaeto pyri
+    When I am dead let fire devour the world--
+
+"Nay," said he, "let it be while I am living" [emou xontos].  And he
+acted accordingly: for, pretending to be disgusted with the old
+buildings, and the narrow and winding streets, he set the city on fire so
+openly, that many of consular rank caught his own household servants on
+their property with tow, and (368) torches in their hands, but durst not
+meddle with them.  There being near his Golden House some granaries, the
+site of which he exceedingly coveted, they were battered as if with
+machines of war, and set on fire, the walls being built of stone.  During
+six days and seven nights this terrible devastation continued, the people
+being obliged to fly to the tombs and monuments for lodging and shelter.
+Meanwhile, a vast number of stately buildings, the houses of generals
+celebrated in former times, and even then still decorated with the spoils
+of war, were laid in ashes; as well as the temples of the gods, which had
+been vowed and dedicated by the kings of Rome, and afterwards in the
+Punic and Gallic wars: in short, everything that was remarkable and
+worthy to be seen which time had spared [614].  This fire he beheld from
+a tower in the house of Mecaenas, and "being greatly delighted," as he
+said, "with the beautiful effects of the conflagration," he sung a poem
+on the ruin of Troy, in the tragic dress he used on the stage.  To turn
+this calamity to his own advantage by plunder and rapine, he promised to
+remove the bodies of those who had perished in the fire, and clear the
+rubbish at his own expense; suffering no one to meddle with the remains
+of their property.  But he not only received, but exacted contributions
+on account of the loss, until he had exhausted the means both of the
+provinces and private persons.
+
+XXXIX.  To these terrible and shameful calamities brought upon the people
+by their prince, were added some proceeding from misfortune.  Such were a
+pestilence, by which, within the space of one autumn, there died no less
+than thirty thousand persons, as appeared from the registers in the
+temple of Libitina; a great disaster in Britain [615], where two of the
+principal towns belonging to the Romans were plundered; and a (369)
+dreadful havoc made both amongst our troops and allies; a shameful
+discomfiture of the army of the East; where, in Armenia, the legions were
+obliged to pass under the yoke, and it was with great difficulty that
+Syria was retained.  Amidst all these disasters, it was strange, and,
+indeed, particularly remarkable, that he bore nothing more patiently than
+the scurrilous language and railing abuse which was in every one's mouth;
+treating no class of persons with more gentleness, than those who
+assailed him with invective and lampoons.  Many things of that kind were
+posted up about the city, or otherwise published, both in Greek and
+Latin: such as these,
+
+    Neron, Orestaes, Alkmaion, maetroktonai.
+    Neonymphon [616] Neron, idian maeter apekteinen.
+
+      Orestes and Alcaeon--Nero too,
+      The lustful Nero, worst of all the crew,
+      Fresh from his bridal--their own mothers slew.
+
+    Quis neget Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem?
+      Sustulit hic matrem: sustulit [617] ille patrem.
+
+      Sprung from Aeneas, pious, wise and great,
+      Who says that Nero is degenerate?
+      Safe through the flames, one bore his sire; the other,
+      To save himself, took off his loving mother.
+
+    Dum tendit citharam noster, dum cornua Parthus,
+      Noster erit Paean, ille Ekataebeletaes.
+
+      His lyre to harmony our Nero strings;
+      His arrows o'er the plain the Parthian wings:
+      Ours call the tuneful Paean,--famed in war,
+      The other Phoebus name, the god who shoots afar. [618]
+
+    Roma domus fiet: Vejos migrate, Quirites,
+      Si non et Vejos occupat ista domus.
+
+      All Rome will be one house: to Veii fly,
+      Should it not stretch to Veii, by and by. [619]
+
+(370) But he neither made any inquiry after the authors, nor when
+information was laid before the senate against some of them, would he
+allow a severe sentence to be passed.  Isidorus, the Cynic philosopher,
+said to him aloud, as he was passing along the streets, "You sing the
+misfortunes of Nauplius well, but behave badly yourself."  And Datus, a
+comic actor, when repeating these words in the piece, "Farewell, father!
+Farewell mother!" mimicked the gestures of persons drinking and swimming,
+significantly alluding to the deaths of Claudius and Agrippina: and on
+uttering the last clause,
+
+    Orcus vobis ducit pedes;
+    You stand this moment on the brink of Orcus;
+
+he plainly intimated his application of it to the precarious position of
+the senate.  Yet Nero only banished the player and philosopher from the
+city and Italy; either because he was insensible to shame, or from
+apprehension that if he discovered his vexation, still keener things
+might be said of him.
+
+XL.  The world, after tolerating such an emperor for little less than
+fourteen years, at length forsook him; the Gauls, headed by Julius
+Vindex, who at that time governed the province as pro-praetor, being the
+first to revolt.  Nero had been formerly told by astrologers, that it
+would be his fortune to be at last deserted by all the world; and this
+occasioned that celebrated saying of his, "An artist can live in any
+country;" by which he meant to offer as an excuse for his practice of
+music, that it was not only his amusement as a prince, but might be his
+support when reduced to a private station.  Yet some of the astrologers
+promised him, in his forlorn state, the rule of the East, and some in
+express words the kingdom of Jerusalem.  But the greater part of them
+flattered him with assurances of his being restored to his former
+fortune.  And being most inclined to believe the latter prediction, upon
+losing Britain and Armenia, he imagined he had run through all the
+misfortunes which the fates had decreed him.  But when, upon consulting
+the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, he was advised to beware of the
+seventy-third year, as if he were not to die till then, never thinking of
+Galba's age, he conceived such hopes, not only of living to advanced
+years, but of constant and singular good fortune, that having lost some
+things of great value by shipwreck, he scrupled not to say amongst his
+friends, that (371) "the fishes would bring them back to him."  At Naples
+he heard of the insurrection in Gaul, on the anniversary of the day on
+which he killed his mother, and bore it with so much unconcern, as to
+excite a suspicion that he was really glad of it, since he had now a fair
+opportunity of plundering those wealthy provinces by the right of war.
+Immediately going to the gymnasium, he witnessed the exercise of the
+wrestlers with the greatest delight.  Being interrupted at supper with
+letters which brought yet worse news, he expressed no greater resentment,
+than only to threaten the rebels.  For eight days together, he never
+attempted to answer any letters, nor give any orders, but buried the
+whole affair in profound silence.
+
+XLI.  Being roused at last by numerous proclamations of Vindex, treating
+him with reproaches and contempt, he in a letter to the senate exhorted
+them to avenge his wrongs and those of the republic; desiring them to
+excuse his not appearing in the senate-house, because he had got cold.
+But nothing so much galled him, as to find himself railed at as a pitiful
+harper, and, instead of Nero, styled Aenobarbus: which being his family
+name, since he was upbraided with it, he declared that he would resume
+it, and lay aside the name he had taken by adoption.  Passing by the
+other accusations as wholly groundless, he earnestly refuted that of his
+want of skill in an art upon which he had bestowed so much pains, and in
+which he had arrived at such perfection; asking frequently those about
+him, "if they knew any one who was a more accomplished musician?"  But
+being alarmed by messengers after messengers of ill news from Gaul, he
+returned in great consternation to Rome.  On the road, his mind was
+somewhat relieved, by observing the frivolous omen of a Gaulish soldier
+defeated and dragged by the hair by a Roman knight, which was sculptured
+on a monument; so that he leaped for joy, and adored the heavens.  Even
+then he made no appeal either to the senate or people, but calling
+together some of the leading men at his own house, he held a hasty
+consultation upon the present state of affairs, and then, during the
+remainder of the day, carried them about with him to view some musical
+instruments, of a new invention, which were played by water [620] (372)
+exhibiting all the parts, and discoursing upon the principles and
+difficulties of the contrivance; which, he told them, he intended to
+produce in the theatre, if Vindex would give him leave.
+
+XLII.  Soon afterwards, he received intelligence that Galba and the
+Spaniards had declared against him; upon which, he fainted, and losing
+his reason, lay a long time speechless, apparently dead.  As soon as
+recovered from this state stupefaction he tore his clothes, and beat his
+head, crying out, "It is all over with me!"  His nurse endeavouring to
+comfort him, and telling him that the like things had happened to other
+princes before him, he replied, "I am beyond all example wretched, for I
+have lost an empire whilst I am still living."  He, nevertheless, abated
+nothing of his luxury and inattention to business.  Nay, on the arrival
+of good news from the provinces, he, at a sumptuous entertainment, sung
+with an air of merriment, some jovial verses upon the leaders of the
+revolt, which were made public; and accompanied them with suitable
+gestures.  Being carried privately to the theatre, he sent word to an
+actor who was applauded by the spectators, "that he had it all his own
+way, now that he himself did not appear on the stage."
+
+XLIII.  At the first breaking out of these troubles, it is believed that
+he had formed many designs of a monstrous nature, although conformable
+enough to his natural disposition.  These were to send new governors and
+commanders to the provinces and the armies, and employ assassins to
+butcher all the former governors and commanders, as men unanimously
+engaged in a conspiracy against him; to massacre the exiles in every
+quarter, and all the Gaulish population in Rome; the former lest they
+should join the insurrection; the latter as privy to the designs of their
+countrymen, and ready to support (373) them; to abandon Gaul itself, to
+be wasted and plundered by his armies; to poison the whole senate at a
+feast; to fire the city, and then let loose the wild beasts upon the
+people, in order to impede their stopping the progress of the flames.
+But being deterred from the execution of these designs not so much by
+remorse of conscience, as by despair of being able to effect them, and
+judging an expedition into Gaul necessary, he removed the consuls from
+their office, before the time of its expiration was arrived; and in their
+room assumed the consulship himself without a colleague, as if the fates
+had decreed that Gaul should not be conquered, but by a consul.  Upon
+assuming the fasces, after an entertainment at the palace, as he walked
+out of the room leaning on the arms of some of his friends, he declared,
+that as soon as he arrived in the province, he would make his appearance
+amongst the troops, unarmed, and do nothing but weep: and that, after he
+had brought the mutineers to repentance, he would, the next day, in the
+public rejoicings, sing songs of triumph, which he must now, without loss
+of time, apply himself to compose.
+
+XLIV.  In preparing for this expedition, his first care was to provide
+carriages for his musical instruments and machinery to be used upon the
+stage; to have the hair of the concubines he carried with him dressed in
+the fashion of men; and to supply them with battle-axes, and Amazonian
+bucklers.  He summoned the city-tribes to enlist; but no qualified
+persons appearing, he ordered all masters to send a certain number of
+slaves, the best they had, not excepting their stewards and secretaries.
+He commanded the several orders of the people to bring in a fixed
+proportion of their estates, as they stood in the censor's books; all
+tenants of houses and mansions to pay one year's rent forthwith into the
+exchequer; and, with unheard-of strictness, would receive only new coin
+of the purest silver and the finest gold; insomuch that most people
+refused to pay, crying out unanimously that he ought to squeeze the
+informers, and oblige them to surrender their gains.
+
+XLV.  The general odium in which he was held received an increase by the
+great scarcity of corn, and an occurrence connected with it.  For, as it
+happened just at that time, there arrived from Alexandria a ship, which
+was said to be freighted (374) with dust for the wrestlers belonging to
+the emperor [621].  This so much inflamed the public rage, that he was
+treated with the utmost abuse and scurrility.  Upon the top of one of his
+statues was placed the figure of a chariot with a Greek inscription, that
+"Now indeed he had a race to run; let him be gone."  A little bag was
+tied about another, with a ticket containing these words; "What could I
+do?"--"Truly thou hast merited the sack." [622]  Some person likewise
+wrote on the pillars in the forum, "that he had even woke the cocks [623]
+with his singing."  And many, in the night-time, pretending to find fault
+with their servants, frequently called for a Vindex. [624]
+
+XLVI.  He was also terrified with manifest warnings, both old and new,
+arising from dreams, auspices, and omens.  He had never been used to
+dream before the murder of his mother.  After that event, he fancied in
+his sleep that he was steering a ship, and that the rudder was forced
+from him: that he was dragged by his wife Octavia into a prodigiously
+dark place; and was at one time covered over with a vast swarm of winged
+ants, and at another, surrounded by the national images which were set up
+near Pompey's theatre, and hindered from advancing farther; that a
+Spanish jennet he was fond of, had his hinder parts so changed, as to
+resemble those of an ape; and having his head only left unaltered,
+neighed very harmoniously.  The doors of the mausoleum of Augustus flying
+open of themselves, there issued from it a voice, calling on him by name.
+The Lares being adorned with fresh garlands on the calends (the first) of
+January, fell down during the preparations for sacrificing to them.
+While he was taking (375) the omens, Sporus presented him with a ring,
+the stone of which had carved upon it the Rape of Proserpine.  When a
+great multitude of the several orders was assembled, to attend at the
+solemnity of making vows to the gods, it was a long time before the keys
+of the Capitol could be found.  And when, in a speech of his to the
+senate against Vindex, these words were read, "that the miscreants should
+be punished and soon make the end they merited," they all cried out, "You
+will do it, Augustus."  It was likewise remarked, that the last tragic
+piece which he sung, was Oedipus in Exile, and that he fell as he was
+repeating this verse:
+
+    Thanein m' anoge syngamos, maetaer, pataer.
+    Wife, mother, father, force me to my end.
+
+XLVII.  Meanwhile, on the arrival of the news, that the rest of the
+armies had declared against him, he tore to pieces the letters which were
+delivered to him at dinner, overthrew the table, and dashed with violence
+against the ground two favourite cups, which he called Homer's, because
+some of that poet's verses were cut upon them.  Then taking from Locusta
+a dose of poison, which he put up in a golden box, he went into the
+Servilian gardens, and thence dispatching a trusty freedman to Ostia,
+with orders to make ready a fleet, he endeavoured to prevail with some
+tribunes and centurions of the pretorian guards to attend him in his
+flight; but part of them showing no great inclination to comply, others
+absolutely refusing, and one of them crying out aloud,
+
+    Usque adeone mori miserum est?
+    Say, is it then so sad a thing to die? [625]
+
+he was in great perplexity whether he should submit himself to Galba, or
+apply to the Parthians for protection, or else appear before the people
+dressed in mourning, and, upon the rostra, in the most piteous manner,
+beg pardon for his past misdemeanors, and, if he could not prevail,
+request of them to grant him at least the government of Egypt.  A speech
+to this purpose was afterwards found in his writing-case.  But it is
+conjectured that he durst not venture upon this project, for fear of
+being torn to pieces, before he could get to the Forum.  Deferring,
+therefore, his resolution until the next (376) day, he awoke about
+midnight, and finding the guards withdrawn, he leaped out of bed, and
+sent round for his friends.  But none of them vouchsafing any message in
+reply, he went with a few attendants to their houses.  The doors being
+every where shut, and no one giving him any answer, he returned to his
+bed-chamber; whence those who had the charge of it had all now eloped;
+some having gone one way, and some another, carrying off with them his
+bedding and box of poison.  He then endeavoured to find Spicillus, the
+gladiator, or some one to kill him; but not being able to procure any
+one, "What!" said he, "have I then neither friend nor foe?" and
+immediately ran out, as if he would throw himself into the Tiber.
+
+XLVIII.  But this furious impulse subsiding, he wished for some place of
+privacy, where he might collect his thoughts; and his freedman Phaon
+offering him his country-house, between the Salarian [626] and Nomentan
+[627] roads, about four miles from the city, he mounted a horse, barefoot
+as he was, and in his tunic, only slipping over it an old soiled cloak;
+with his head muffled up, and an handkerchief before his face, and four
+persons only to attend him, of whom Sporus was one.  He was suddenly
+struck with horror by an earthquake, and by a flash of lightning which
+darted full in his face, and heard from the neighbouring camp [628] the
+shouts of the soldiers, wishing his destruction, and prosperity to Galba.
+He also heard a traveller they met on the road, say, "They are (377) in
+pursuit of Nero:" and another ask, "Is there any news in the city about
+Nero?"  Uncovering his face when his horse was started by the scent of a
+carcase which lay in the road, he was recognized and saluted by an old
+soldier who had been discharged from the guards.  When they came to the
+lane which turned up to the house, they quitted their horses, and with
+much difficulty he wound among bushes, and briars, and along a track
+through a bed of rushes, over which they spread their cloaks for him to
+walk on.  Having reached a wall at the back of the villa, Phaon advised
+him to hide himself awhile in a sand-pit; when he replied, "I will not go
+under-ground alive."  Staying there some little time, while preparations
+were made for bringing him privately into the villa, he took up some
+water out of a neighbouring tank in his hand, to drink, saying, "This is
+Nero's distilled water." [629]  Then his cloak having been torn by the
+brambles, he pulled out the thorns which stuck in it.  At last, being
+admitted, creeping upon his hands and knees, through a hole made for him
+in the wall, he lay down in the first closet he came to, upon a miserable
+pallet, with an old coverlet thrown over it; and being both hungry and
+thirsty, though he refused some coarse bread that was brought him, he
+drank a little warm water.
+
+XLIX.  All who surrounded him now pressing him to save himself from the
+indignities which were ready to befall him, he ordered a pit to be sunk
+before his eyes, of the size of his body, and the bottom to be covered
+with pieces of marble put together, if any could be found about the
+house; and water and wood [630], to be got ready for immediate use about
+his corpse; weeping at every thing that was done, and frequently saying,
+"What an artist is now about to perish!"  Meanwhile, letters being
+brought in by a servant belonging to Phaon, he snatched them out of his
+hand, and there read, "That he had been declared an enemy by the senate,
+and that search was making for him, that he might be punished according
+to the ancient custom of the Romans."  He then inquired what kind of
+punishment that was; and being told, that the (378) practice was to strip
+the criminal naked, and scourge him to death, while his neck was fastened
+within a forked stake, he was so terrified that he took up two daggers
+which he had brought with him, and after feeling the points of both, put
+them up again, saying, "The fatal hour is not yet come."  One while, he
+begged of Sporus to begin to wail and lament; another while, he entreated
+that one of them would set him an example by killing himself; and then
+again, he condemned his own want of resolution in these words: "I yet
+live to my shame and disgrace: this is not becoming for Nero: it is not
+becoming.  Thou oughtest in such circumstances to have a good heart:
+Come, then: courage, man!" [631]  The horsemen who had received orders to
+bring him away alive, were now approaching the house.  As soon as he
+heard them coming, he uttered with a trembling voice the following verse,
+
+    Hippon m' okupodon amphi ktupos ouata ballei; [632]
+    The noise of swift-heel'd steeds assails my ears;
+
+he drove a dagger into his throat, being assisted in the act by
+Epaphroditus, his secretary.  A centurion bursting in just as he was
+half-dead, and applying his cloak to the wound, pretending that he was
+come to his assistance, he made no other reply but this, "'Tis too late;"
+and "Is this your loyalty?"  Immediately after pronouncing these words,
+he expired, with his eyes fixed and starting out of his head, to the
+terror of all who beheld him.  He had requested of his attendants, as the
+most essential favour, that they would let no one have his head, but that
+by all means his body might be burnt entire.  And this, Icelus, Galba's
+freedman, granted.  He had but a little before been discharged from the
+prison into which he had been thrown, when the disturbances first broke
+out.
+
+L.  The expenses of his funeral amounted to two hundred thousand
+sesterces; the bed upon which his body was carried to the pile and burnt,
+being covered with the white robes, interwoven with gold, which he had
+worn upon the calends of January preceding.  His nurses, Ecloge and
+Alexandra, with his concubine Acte, deposited his remains in the tomb
+belonging (379) to the family of the Domitii, which stands upon the top
+of the Hill of the Gardens [633], and is to be seen from the Campus
+Martius.  In that monument, a coffin of porphyry, with an altar of marble
+of Luna over it, is enclosed by a wall built of stone brought from
+Thasos. [634]
+
+LI.  In stature he was a little below the common height; his skin was
+foul and spotted; his hair inclined to yellow; his features were
+agreeable, rather than handsome; his eyes grey and dull, his neck was
+thick, his belly prominent, his legs very slender, his constitution
+sound.  For, though excessively luxurious in his mode of living, he had,
+in the course of fourteen years, only three fits of sickness; which were
+so slight, that he neither forbore the use of wine, nor made any
+alteration in his usual diet.  In his dress, and the care of his person,
+he was so careless, that he had his hair cut in rings, one above another;
+and when in Achaia, he let it grow long behind; and he generally appeared
+in public in the loose dress which he used at table, with a handkerchief
+about his neck, and without either a girdle or shoes.
+
+LII.  He was instructed, when a boy, in the rudiments of almost all the
+liberal sciences; but his mother diverted him from the study of
+philosophy, as unsuited to one destined to be an emperor; and his
+preceptor, Seneca, discouraged him from reading the ancient orators, that
+he might longer secure his devotion to himself.  Therefore, having a turn
+for poetry, (380) he composed verses both with pleasure and ease; nor did
+he, as some think, publish those of other writers as his own.  Several
+little pocket-books and loose sheets have cone into my possession, which
+contain some well-known verses in his own hand, and written in such a
+manner, that it was very evident, from the blotting and interlining, that
+they had not been transcribed from a copy, nor dictated by another, but
+were written by the composer of them.
+
+LIII.  He had likewise great taste for drawing and painting, as well as
+for moulding statues in plaster.  But, above all things, he most eagerly
+coveted popularity, being the rival of every man who obtained the
+applause of the people for any thing he did.  It was the general belief,
+that, after the crowns he won by his performances on the stage, he would
+the next lustrum have taken his place among the wrestlers at the Olympic
+games.  For he was continually practising that art; nor did he witness
+the gymnastic games in any part of Greece otherwise than sitting upon the
+ground in the stadium, as the umpires do.  And if a pair of wrestlers
+happened to break the bounds, he would with his own hands drag them back
+into the centre of the circle.  Because he was thought to equal Apollo in
+music, and the sun in chariot-driving, he resolved also to imitate the
+achievements of Hercules.  And they say that a lion was got ready for him
+to kill, either with a club, or with a close hug, in view of the people
+in the amphitheatre; which he was to perform naked.
+
+LIV.  Towards the end of his life, he publicly vowed, that if his power
+in the state was securely re-established, he would, in the spectacles
+which he intended to exhibit in honour of his success, include a
+performance upon organs [635], as well as upon flutes and bagpipes, and,
+on the last day of the games, would act in the play, and take the part of
+Turnus, as we find it in Virgil.  And there are some who say, that he put
+to death the player Paris as a dangerous rival.
+
+LV.  He had an insatiable desire to immortalize his name, and acquire a
+reputation which should last through all succeeding ages; but it was
+capriciously directed.  He therefore (381) took from several things and
+places their former appellations, and gave them new names derived from
+his own.  He called the month of April, Neroneus, and designed changing
+the name of Rome into that of Neropolis.
+
+LVI.  He held all religious rites in contempt, except those of the Syrian
+Goddess [636]; but at last he paid her so little reverence, that he made
+water upon her; being now engaged in another superstition, in which only
+he obstinately persisted.  For having received from some obscure plebeian
+a little image of a girl, as a preservative against plots, and
+discovering a conspiracy immediately after, he constantly worshipped his
+imaginary protectress as the greatest amongst the gods, offering to her
+three sacrifices daily.  He was also desirous to have it supposed that he
+had, by revelations from this deity, a knowledge of future events.  A few
+months before he died, he attended a sacrifice, according to the Etruscan
+rites, but the omens were not favourable.
+
+LVII.  He died in the thirty-second year of his age [637], upon the same
+day on which he had formerly put Octavia to death; and the public joy was
+so great upon the occasion, that the common people ran about the city
+with caps upon their heads.  Some, however, were not wanting, who for a
+long time decked his tomb with spring and summer flowers.  Sometimes they
+placed his image upon the rostra, dressed in robes of state; at another,
+they published proclamations in his name, as if he were still alive, and
+would shortly return to Rome, and take vengeance on all his enemies.
+Vologesus, king of the Parthians, when he sent ambassadors to the senate
+to renew his alliance with the Roman people, earnestly requested that due
+honour should be paid to the memory of Nero; and, to conclude, when,
+twenty years afterwards, at which time I was a young man [638], some
+person of obscure birth gave himself out for Nero, that name secured him
+so favourable a reception (382) from the Parthians, that he was very
+zealously supported, and it was with much difficulty that they were
+prevailed upon to give him up.
+
+    *     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Though no law had ever passed for regulating the transmission of the
+imperial power, yet the design of conveying it by lineal descent was
+implied in the practice of adoption.  By the rule of hereditary
+succession, Britannicus, the son of Claudius, was the natural heir to the
+throne; but he was supplanted by the artifices of his stepmother, who had
+the address to procure it for her own son, Nero.  From the time of
+Augustus it had been the custom of each of the new sovereigns to commence
+his reign in such a manner as tended to acquire popularity, however much
+they all afterwards degenerated from those specious beginnings.  Whether
+this proceeded entirely from policy, or that nature was not yet vitiated
+by the intoxication of uncontrolled power, is uncertain; but such were
+the excesses into which they afterwards plunged, that we can scarcely
+exempt any of them, except, perhaps, Claudius, from the imputation of
+great original depravity.  The vicious temper of Tiberius was known to
+his own mother, Livia; that of Caligula had been obvious to those about
+him from his infancy; Claudius seems to have had naturally a stronger
+tendency to weakness than to vice; but the inherent wickedness of Nero
+was discovered at an early period by his preceptor, Seneca.  Yet even
+this emperor commenced his reign in a manner which procured him
+approbation.  Of all the Roman emperors who had hitherto reigned, he
+seems to have been most corrupted by profligate favourites, who flattered
+his follies and vices, to promote their own aggrandisement.  In the
+number of these was Tigellinus, who met at last with the fate which he
+had so amply merited.
+
+The several reigns from the death of Augustus present us with uncommon
+scenes of cruelty and horror; but it was reserved for that of Nero to
+exhibit to the world the atrocious act of an emperor deliberately
+procuring the death of his mother.
+
+Julia Agrippina was the daughter of Germanicus, and married Domitius
+Aenobarbus, by whom she had Nero.  At the death of Messalina she was a
+widow; and Claudius, her uncle, entertaining a design of entering again
+into the married state, she aspired to an incestuous alliance with him,
+in competition with Lollia Paulina, a woman of beauty and intrigue, who
+had been married to C. Caesar.  The two rivals were strongly supported by
+their (383) respective parties; but Agrippina, by her superior interest
+with the emperor's favourites, and the familiarity to which her near
+relation gave her a claim, obtained the preference; and the portentous
+nuptials of the emperor and his niece were publicly solemnized in the
+palace.  Whether she was prompted to this flagrant indecency by personal
+ambition alone, or by the desire of procuring the succession to the
+empire for her son, is uncertain; but there remains no doubt of her
+having removed Claudius by poison, with a view to the object now
+mentioned.  Besides Claudius, she projected the death of L. Silanus, and
+she accomplished that of his brother, Junius Silanus, by means likewise
+of poison.  She appears to have been richly endowed with the gifts of
+nature, but in her disposition intriguing, violent, imperious, and ready
+to sacrifice every principle of virtue, in the pursuit of supreme power
+or sensual gratification.  As she resembled Livia in the ambition of a
+mother, and the means by which she indulged it, so she more than equalled
+her in the ingratitude of an unnatural son and a parricide.  She is said
+to have left behind her some memoirs, of which Tacitus availed himself in
+the composition of his Annals.
+
+In this reign, the conquest of the Britons still continued to be the
+principal object of military enterprise, and Suetonius Paulinus was
+invested with the command of the Roman army employed in the reduction of
+that people.  The island of Mona, now Anglesey, being the chief seat of
+the Druids, he resolved to commence his operations with attacking a place
+which was the centre of superstition, and to which the vanquished Britons
+retreated as the last asylum of liberty.  The inhabitants endeavoured,
+both by force of arms and the terrors of religion, to obstruct his
+landing on this sacred island.  The women and Druids assembled
+promiscuously with the soldiers upon the shore, where running about in
+wild disorder, with flaming torches in their hands, and pouring forth the
+most hideous exclamations, they struck the Romans with consternation.
+But Suetonius animating his troops, they boldly attacked the inhabitants,
+routed them in the field, and burned the Druids in the same fires which
+had been prepared by those priests for the catastrophe of the invaders,
+destroying at the same time all the consecrated groves and altars in the
+island.  Suetonius having thus triumphed over the religion of the
+Britons, flattered himself with the hopes of soon effecting the reduction
+of the people.  But they, encouraged by his absence, had taken arms, and
+under the conduct of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who had been treated
+in the most ignominious manner by the Roman tribunes, had already driven
+the hateful invaders from their several settlements.  Suetonius hastened
+to (384) the protection of London, which was by this time a flourishing
+Roman colony; but he found upon his arrival, that any attempt to preserve
+it would be attended with the utmost danger to the army.  London
+therefore was reduced to ashes; and the Romans, and all strangers, to the
+number of seventy thousand, were put to the sword without distinction,
+the Britons seeming determined to convince the enemy that they would
+acquiesce in no other terms than a total evacuation of the island.  This
+massacre, however, was revenged by Suetonius in a decisive engagement,
+where eighty thousand of the Britons are said to have been killed; after
+which, Boadicea, to avoid falling into the hands of the insolent
+conquerors, put a period to her own life by means of poison.  It being
+judged unadvisable that Suetonius should any longer conduct the war
+against a people whom he had exasperated by his severity, he was
+recalled, and Petronius Turpilianus appointed in his room.  The command
+was afterwards given successively to Trebellius Maximus and Vettius
+Bolanus; but the plan pursued by these generals was only to retain, by a
+conciliatory administration, the parts of the island which had already
+submitted to the Roman arms.
+
+During these transactions in Britain, Nero himself was exhibiting, in
+Rome or some of the provinces, such scenes of extravagance as almost
+exceed credibility.  In one place, entering the lists amongst the
+competitors in a chariot race; in another, contending for victory with
+the common musicians on the stage; revelling in open day in the company
+of the most abandoned prostitutes and the vilest of men; in the night,
+committing depredations on the peaceful inhabitants of the capital;
+polluting with detestable lust, or drenching with human blood, the
+streets, the palace, and the habitations of private families; and, to
+crown his enormities, setting fire to Rome, while he sung with delight in
+beholding the dreadful conflagration.  In vain would history be ransacked
+for a parallel to this emperor, who united the most shameful vices to the
+most extravagant vanity, the most abject meanness to the strongest but
+most preposterous ambition; and the whole of whose life was one continued
+scene of lewdness, sensuality, rapine, cruelty, and folly.  It is
+emphatically observed by Tacitus, "that Nero, after the murder of many
+illustrious personages, manifested a desire of extirpating virtue
+itself."
+
+Among the excesses of Nero's reign, are to be mentioned the horrible
+cruelties exercised against the Christians in various parts of the
+empire, in which inhuman transactions the natural barbarity of the
+emperor was inflamed by the prejudices and interested policy of the pagan
+priesthood.
+
+(385) The tyrant scrupled not to charge them with the act of burning
+Rome; and he satiated his fury against them by such outrages as are
+unexampled in history.  They were covered with the skins of wild beasts,
+and torn by dogs; were crucified, and set on fire, that they might serve
+for lights in the night-time.  Nero offered his gardens for this
+spectacle, and exhibited the games of the Circus by this dreadful
+illumination.  Sometimes they were covered with wax and other combustible
+materials, after which a sharp stake was put under their chin, to make
+them stand upright, and they were burnt alive, to give light to the
+spectators.
+
+In the person of Nero, it is observed by Suetonius, the race of the
+Caesars became extinct; a race rendered illustrious by the first and
+second emperors, but which their successors no less disgraced.  The
+despotism of Julius Caesar, though haughty and imperious, was liberal and
+humane: that of Augustus, if we exclude a few instances of vindictive
+severity towards individuals, was mild and conciliating; but the reigns
+of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero (for we except Claudius from part of the
+censure), while discriminated from each other by some peculiar
+circumstances, exhibited the most flagrant acts of licentiousness and
+perverted authority.  The most abominable lust, the most extravagant
+luxury, the most shameful rapaciousness, and the most inhuman cruelty,
+constitute the general characteristics of those capricious and detestable
+tyrants.  Repeated experience now clearly refuted the opinion of
+Augustus, that he had introduced amongst the Romans the best form of
+government: but while we make this observation, it is proper to remark,
+that, had he even restored the republic, there is reason to believe that
+the nation would again have been soon distracted with internal divisions,
+and a perpetual succession of civil wars.  The manners of the people were
+become too dissolute to be restrained by the authority of elective and
+temporary magistrates; and the Romans were hastening to that fatal period
+when general and great corruption, with its attendant debility, would
+render them an easy prey to any foreign invaders.
+
+But the odious government of the emperors was not the only grievance
+under which the people laboured in those disastrous times: patrician
+avarice concurred with imperial rapacity to increase the sufferings of
+the nation.  The senators, even during the commonwealth, had become
+openly corrupt in the dispensation of public justice; and under the
+government of the emperors pernicious abuse was practised to a yet
+greater extent.  That class being now, equally with other Roman citizens,
+dependent on the sovereign power, their sentiments of duty and (386)
+honour were degraded by the loss of their former dignity; and being
+likewise deprived of the lucrative governments of provinces, to which
+they had annually succeeded by an elective rotation in the times of the
+republic, they endeavoured to compensate the reduction of their
+emoluments by an unbounded venality in the judicial decisions of the
+forum.  Every source of national happiness and prosperity was by this
+means destroyed.  The possession of property became precarious; industry,
+in all its branches, was effectually discouraged, and the amor patriae,
+which had formerly been the animating principle of the nation, was almost
+universally extinguished.
+
+It is a circumstance corresponding to the general singularity of the
+present reign, that, of the few writers who flourished in it, and whose
+works have been transmitted to posterity, two ended their days by the
+order of the emperor, and the third, from indignation at his conduct.
+These unfortunate victims were Seneca, Petronius Arbiter, and Lucan.
+
+SENECA was born about six years before the Christian aera, and gave early
+indication of uncommon talents.  His father, who had come from Corduba to
+Rome, was a man of letters, particularly fond of declamation, in which he
+instructed his son, and placed him, for the acquisition of philosophy,
+under the most celebrated stoics of that age.  Young Seneca, imbibing the
+precepts of the Pythagorean doctrine, religiously abstained from eating
+the flesh of animals, until Tiberius having threatened to punish some
+Jews and Egyptians, who abstained from certain meats, he was persuaded by
+his father to renounce the Pythagorean practice.  Seneca displayed the
+talents of an eloquent speaker; but dreading the jealousy of Caligula,
+who aspired to the same excellence, he thought proper to abandon that
+pursuit, and apply himself towards suing for the honours and offices of
+the state.  He accordingly obtained the place of quaestor, in which
+office incurring the imputation of a scandalous amour with Julia Livia,
+he removed from Rome, and was banished by the emperor Claudius to
+Corsica.
+
+Upon the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, Seneca was recalled from
+his exile, in which he had remained near eight years, and was appointed
+to superintend the education of Nero, now destined to become the
+successor to the throne.  In the character of preceptor he appears to
+have acquitted himself with ability and credit; though he has been
+charged by his enemies with having initiated his pupil in those
+detestable vices which disgraced the reign of Nero.  Could he have indeed
+been guilty of such immoral conduct, it is probable that he would not so
+easily have (387) forfeited the favour of that emperor; and it is more
+reasonable to suppose, that his disapprobation of Nero's conduct was the
+real cause of that odium which soon after proved fatal to him.  By the
+enemies whom distinguished merit and virtue never fail to excite at a
+profligate court, Seneca was accused of having maintained a criminal
+correspondence with Agrippina in the life-time of Claudius; but the chief
+author of this calumny was Suilius, who had been banished from Rome at
+the instance of Seneca.  He was likewise charged with having amassed
+exorbitant riches, with having built magnificent houses, and formed
+beautiful gardens, during the four years in which he had acted as
+preceptor to Nero.  This charge he considered as a prelude to his
+destruction; which to avoid, if possible, he requested of the emperor to
+accept of the riches and possessions which he had acquired in his
+situation at court, and to permit him to withdraw himself into a life of
+studious retirement.  Nero, dissembling his secret intentions, refused
+this request; and Seneca, that he might obviate all cause of suspicion or
+offence, kept himself at home for some time, under the pretext of
+indisposition.
+
+Upon the breaking out of the conspiracy of Piso, in which some of the
+principal senators were concerned, Natalis, the discoverer of the plot,
+mentioned Seneca's name, as an accessory.  There is, however, no
+satisfactory evidence that Seneca had any knowledge of the plot.  Piso,
+according to the declaration of Natalis, had complained that he never saw
+Seneca; and the latter had observed, in answer, that it was not conducive
+to their common interest to see each other often.  Seneca likewise
+pleaded indisposition, and said that his own life depended upon the
+safety of Piso's person.  Nero, however, glad of such an occasion of
+sacrificing the philosopher to his secret jealousy, sent him an order to
+destroy himself.  When the messenger arrived with this mandate, Seneca
+was sitting at table, with his wife Paulina and two of his friends.  He
+heard the message not only with philosophical firmness, but even with
+symptoms of joy, and observed, that such an honour might long have been
+expected from a man who had assassinated all his friends, and even
+murdered his own mother.  The only request which he made, was, that he
+might be permitted to dispose of his possessions as he pleased; but this
+was refused him.  Immediately turning himself to his friends, who were
+weeping at his melancholy fate, he said to them, that, since he could not
+leave them what he considered as his own property, he should leave at
+least his own life for an example; an innocence of conduct which they
+might imitate, and by which they might acquire immortal fame.  He
+remonstrated with composure against their unavailing tears and (388)
+lamentations, and asked them, whether they had not learnt better to
+sustain the shocks of fortune, and the violence of tyranny?
+
+The emotions of his wife he endeavoured to allay with philosophical
+consolation; and when she expressed a resolution to die with him, he
+said, that he was glad to find his example imitated with so much
+fortitude.  The veins of both were opened at the same time; but Nero's
+command extending only to Seneca, the life of Paulina was preserved; and,
+according to some authors, she was not displeased at being prevented from
+carrying her precipitate resolution into effect.  Seneca's veins bleeding
+but slowly, an opportunity was offered him of displaying in his last
+moments a philosophical magnanimity similar to that of Socrates; and it
+appears that his conversation during this solemn period was maintained
+with dignified composure.  To accelerate his lingering fate, he drank a
+dose of poison; but this producing no effect, he ordered his attendants
+to carry him into a warm bath, for the purpose of rendering the
+haemorrhage from his veins more copious.  This expedient proving likewise
+ineffectual, and the soldiers who witnessed the execution of the
+emperor's order being clamorous for its accomplishment, he was removed
+into a stove, and suffocated by the steam.  He underwent his fate on the
+12th of April, in the sixty-fifth year of the Christian aera, and the
+fifty-third year of his age.  His body was burnt, and his ashes deposited
+in a private manner, according to his will, which had been made during
+the period when he was in the highest degree of favour with Nero.
+
+The writings of Seneca are numerous, and on various subjects.  His first
+composition, addressed to Novacus, is on Anger, and continued through
+three books.  After giving a lively description of this passion, the
+author discusses a variety of questions concerning it: he argues strongly
+against its utility, in contradiction to the peripatetics, and recommends
+its restraint, by many just and excellent considerations.  This treatise
+may be regarded, in its general outlines, as a philosophical
+amplification of the passage in Horace:--
+
+    Ira furor brevis est: animum rege; qui, nisi paret,
+    Imperat: hunc fraenis, hunc tu compesce catena.
+                                              Epist. I. ii.
+
+    Anger's a fitful madness: rein thy mind,
+    Subdue the tyrant, and in fetters bind,
+    Or be thyself the slave.
+
+The next treatise is on Consolation, addressed to his mother, Helvia, and
+was written during his exile.  He there informs his mother that he bears
+his banishment with fortitude, and advises her to do the same.  He
+observes, that, in respect to himself, (389) change of place, poverty,
+ignominy, and contempt, are not real evils; that there may be two reasons
+for her anxiety on his account; first, that, by his absence, she is
+deprived of his protection; and in the next place, of the satisfaction
+arising from his company; on both which heads he suggests a variety of
+pertinent observations.  Prefixed to this treatise, are some epigrams
+written on the banishment of Seneca, but whether or not by himself, is
+uncertain.
+
+Immediately subsequent to the preceding, is another treatise on
+Consolation, addressed to one of Claudius's freedmen, named Polybius,
+perhaps after the learned historian.  In this tract, which is in several
+parts mutilated, the author endeavours to console Polybius for the loss
+of a brother who had lately died.  The sentiments and admonitions are
+well suggested for the purpose; but they are intermixed with such fulsome
+encomiums on the imperial domestic, as degrade the dignity of the author,
+and can be ascribed to no other motive than that of endeavouring to
+procure a recall from his exile, through the interest of Polybius.
+
+A fourth treatise on Consolation is addressed to Marcia, a respectable
+and opulent lady, the daughter of Cremutius Cordus, by whose death she
+was deeply affected.  The author, besides many consolatory arguments,
+proposes for her imitation a number of examples, by attending to which
+she may be enabled to overcome a passion that is founded only in too
+great sensibility of mind.  The subject is ingeniously prosecuted, not
+without the occasional mixture of some delicate flattery, suitable to the
+character of the correspondent.
+
+These consolatory addresses are followed by a treatise on Providence,
+which evinces the author to have entertained the most just and
+philosophical sentiments on that subject.  He infers the necessary
+existence of a Providence from the regularity and constancy observed in
+the government of the universe but his chief object is to show, why, upon
+the principle that a Providence exists, good men should be liable to
+evils.  The enquiry is conducted with a variety of just observations, and
+great force of argument; by which the author vindicates the goodness and
+wisdom of the Almighty, in a strain of sentiment corresponding to the
+most approved suggestions of natural religion.
+
+The next treatise, which is on Tranquillity of Mind, appears to have been
+written soon after his return from exile.  There is a confusion in the
+arrangement of this tract; but it contains a variety of just
+observations, and may be regarded as a valuable production.
+
+(390) Then follows a discourse on the Constancy of a Wise Man.  This has
+by some been considered as a part of the preceding treatise; but they are
+evidently distinct.  It is one of the author's best productions, in
+regard both of sentiment and composition, and contains a fund of moral
+observations, suited to fortify the mind under the oppression of
+accidental calamities.
+
+We next meet with a tract on Clemency, in two books, addressed to Nero.
+This appears to have been written in the beginning of the reign of Nero,
+on whom the author bestows some high encomiums, which, at that time, seem
+not to have been destitute of foundation.  The discourse abounds with
+just observation, applicable to all ranks of men; and, if properly
+attended to by that infatuated emperor, might have prevented the
+perpetration of those acts of cruelty, which, with his other
+extravagancies, have rendered his name odious to posterity.
+
+The discourse which succeeds is on the Shortness of Life, addressed to
+Paulinus.  In this excellent treatise the author endeavours to show, that
+the complaint of the shortness of life is not founded in truth: that it
+is men who make life short, either by passing it in indolence, or
+otherwise improperly.  He inveighs against indolence, luxury, and every
+unprofitable avocation; observing, that the best use of time is to apply
+it to the study of wisdom, by which life may be rendered sufficiently
+long.
+
+Next follows a discourse on a Happy Life, addressed to Gallio.  Seneca
+seems to have intended this as a vindication of himself, against those
+who calumniated him on account of his riches and manner of living.  He
+maintained that a life can only be rendered happy by its conformity to
+the dictates of virtue, but that such a life is perfectly compatible with
+the possession of riches, where they happen to accrue.  The author pleads
+his own cause with great ability, as well as justness of argument.  His
+vindication is in many parts highly beautiful, and accompanied with
+admirable sentiments respecting the moral obligations to a virtuous life.
+The conclusion of this discourse bears no similarity, in point of
+composition, to the preceding parts, and is evidently spurious.
+
+The preceding discourse is followed by one upon the Retirement of a Wise
+Man.  The beginning of this tract is wanting; but in the sequel the
+author discusses a question which was much agitated amongst the Stoics
+and Epicureans, viz., whether a wise man ought to concern himself with
+the affairs of the public.  Both these sects of philosophers maintained
+that a life of retirement was most suitable to a wise man, but they
+differed with respect to the circumstances in which it might be proper to
+deviate from this conduct; one party considering the deviation (391) as
+prudent, when there existed a just motive for such conduct, and the
+other, when there was no forcible reason against it.  Seneca regards both
+these opinions as founded upon principles inadequate to the advancement
+both of public and private happiness, which ought ever to be the ultimate
+object of moral speculation.
+
+The last of the author's discourses, addressed to Aebucius, is on
+Benefits, and continued through seven books.  He begins with lamenting
+the frequency of ingratitude amongst mankind, a vice which he severely
+censures.  After some preliminary considerations respecting the nature of
+benefits, he proceeds to show in what manner, and on whom, they ought to
+be conferred.  The greater part of these books is employed on the
+solution of abstract questions relative to benefits, in the manner of
+Chrysippus; where the author states explicitly the arguments on both
+sides, and from the full consideration of them, deduces rational
+conclusions.
+
+The Epistles of Seneca consist of one hundred and twenty-four, all on
+moral subjects.  His Natural Questions extend through seven books, in
+which he has collected the hypotheses of Aristotle and other ancient
+writers.  These are followed by a whimsical effusion on the death of
+Caligula.  The remainder of his works comprises seven Persuasive
+Discourses, five books of Controversies, and ten books containing
+Extracts of Declamations.
+
+From the multiplicity of Seneca's productions, it is evident, that,
+notwithstanding the luxurious life he is said to have led, he was greatly
+devoted to literature, a propensity which, it is probable, was confirmed
+by his banishment during almost eight years in the island of Corsica,
+where he was in a great degree secluded from every other resource of
+amusement to a cultivated mind.  But with whatever splendour Seneca's
+domestic economy may have been supported, it seems highly improbable that
+he indulged himself in luxurious enjoyment to any vicious excess.  His
+situation at the Roman court, being honourable and important, could not
+fail of being likewise advantageous, not only from the imperial profusion
+common at that time, but from many contingent emoluments which his
+extensive interest and patronage would naturally afford him.  He was born
+of a respectable rank, lived in habits of familiar intercourse with
+persons of the first distinction, and if, in the course of his attendance
+upon Nero, he had acquired a large fortune, no blame could justly attach
+to his conduct in maintaining an elegant hospitality.  The imputation of
+luxury was thrown upon him from two quarters, viz, by the dissolute
+companions of Nero, to whom the mention of such an example served as an
+apology for their own extreme dissipation; (392) and by those who envied
+him for the affluence and dignity which he had acquired.  The charge,
+however, is supported only by vague assertion, and is discredited by
+every consideration which ought to have weight in determining the reality
+of human characters.  It seems totally inconsistent with his habits of
+literary industry, with the virtuous sentiments which he every where
+strenuously maintains, and the esteem with which he was regarded by a
+numerous acquaintance, as a philosopher and a moralist.
+
+The writings of Seneca have been traduced almost equally with his manner
+of living, though in both he has a claim to indulgence, from the fashion
+of the times.  He is more studious of minute embellishments in style than
+the writers of the Augustan age; and the didactic strain, in which he
+mostly prosecutes his subjects, has a tendency to render him sententious;
+but the expression of his thoughts is neither enfeebled by decoration,
+nor involved in obscurity by conciseness.  He is not more rich in
+artificial ornament than in moral admonition.  Seneca has been charged
+with depreciating former writers, to render himself more conspicuous; a
+charge which, so far as appears from his writings, is founded rather in
+negative than positive testimony.  He has not endeavoured to establish
+his fame by any affectation of singularity in doctrine; and while he
+passes over in silence the names of illustrious authors, he avails
+himself with judgment of the most valuable stores with which they had
+enriched philosophy.  On the whole, he is an author whose principles may
+be adopted not only with safety, but great advantage; and his writings
+merit a degree of consideration, superior to what they have hitherto ever
+enjoyed in the literary world.
+
+Seneca, besides his prose works, was the author of some tragedies.  The
+Medea, the Troas, and the Hippolytus, are ascribed to him.  His father is
+said to have written the Hercules Furens, Thyestes, Agamemnon, and
+Hercules Oetaeus.  The three remaining tragedies, the Thebais, Oedipus,
+and Octavia, usually published in the same collection with the seven
+preceding, are supposed to be the productions of other authors, but of
+whom, is uncertain.  These several pieces are written in a neat style;
+the plots and characters are conducted with an attention to probability
+and nature: but none of them is so forcible, in point of tragical
+distress, as to excite in the reader any great degree of emotion.----
+
+PETRONIUS was a Roman knight, and apparently of considerable fortune.  In
+his youth he seems to have given great application to polite literature,
+in which he acquired a justness of taste, as well as an elegance of
+composition.  Early initiated in the gaieties (393) of fashionable life,
+he contracted a habit of voluptuousness which rendered him an
+accommodating companion to the dissipated and the luxurious.  The court
+of Claudius, entirely governed for some time by Messalina, was then the
+residence of pleasure; and here Petronius failed not of making a
+conspicuous appearance.  More delicate, however, than sensual, he rather
+joined in the dissipation, than indulged in the vices of the palace.  To
+interrupt a course of life too uniform to afford him perpetual
+satisfaction, he accepted of the proconsulship of Bithynia, and went to
+that province, where he discharged the duties of his office with great
+credit.  Upon his return to Rome, Nero, who had succeeded Claudius, made
+him consul, in recompense of his services.  This new dignity, by giving
+him frequent and easy access to the emperor, created an intimacy between
+them, which was increased to friendship and esteem on the side of Nero,
+by the elegant entertainments often given him by Petronius.  In a short
+time, this gay voluptuary became so much a favourite at court, that
+nothing was agreeable but what was approved by Petronius and the
+authority which he acquired, by being umpire in whatever related to the
+economy of gay dissipation, procured him the title of Arbiter
+elegantiarum.  Things continued in this state whilst the emperor kept
+within the bounds of moderation; and Petronius acted as intendant of his
+pleasures, ordering him shows, games, comedies, music, feats, and all
+that could contribute to make the hours of relaxation pass agreeably;
+seasoning, at the same time, the innocent delights which he procured for
+the emperor with every possible charm, to prevent him from seeking after
+such as might prove pernicious both to morals and the republic.  Nero,
+however, giving way to his own disposition, which was naturally vicious,
+at length changed his conduct, not only in regard to the government of
+the empire, but of himself and listening to other counsels than those of
+Petronius, gave the entire reins to his passions, which afterwards
+plunged him in ruin.  The emperor's new favourite was Tigellinus, a man
+of the most profligate morals, who omitted nothing that could gratify the
+inordinate appetites of his prince, at the expense of all decency and
+virtue.  During this period, Petronius gave vent to his indignation, in
+the satire transmitted under his name by the title of Satyricon.  But his
+total retirement from court did not secure him from the artifices of
+Tigellinus, who laboured with all his power to destroy the man whom he
+had industriously supplanted in the emperor's favour.  With this view he
+insinuated to Nero, that Petronius was too intimately connected with
+Scevinus not to be engaged in Piso's conspiracy; and, to support his
+calumny, caused the emperor to be present at the examination (394) of one
+of Petronius's slaves, whom he had secretly suborned to swear against his
+master.  After this transaction, to deprive Petronius of all means of
+justifying himself, they threw into prison the greatest part of his
+domestics.  Nero embraced with joy the opportunity of removing a man, to
+whom he knew the present manners of the court were utterly obnoxious, and
+he soon after issued orders for arresting Petronius.  As it required,
+however, some time to deliberate whether they should put a person of his
+consideration to death, without more evident proofs of the charges
+preferred against him, such was his disgust at living in the power of so
+detestable and capricious a tyrant, that he resolved to die.  For this
+purpose, making choice of the same expedient which had been adopted by
+Seneca, he caused his veins to be opened, but he closed them again, for a
+little time, that he might enjoy the conversation of his friends, who
+came to see him in his last moments.  He desired them, it is said, to
+entertain him, not with discourses on the immortality of the soul, or the
+consolation of philosophy, but with agreeable tales and poetic
+gallantries.  Disdaining to imitate the servility of those who, dying by
+the orders of Nero, yet made him their heir, and filled their wills with
+encomiums on the tyrant and his favourites, he broke to pieces a goblet
+of precious stones, out of which he had commonly drank, that Nero, who he
+knew would seize upon it after his death, might not have the pleasure of
+using it.  As the only present suitable to such a prince, he sent him,
+under a sealed cover, his Satyricon, written purposely against him; and
+then broke his signet, that it might not, after his death, become the
+means of accusation against the person in whose custody it should be
+found.
+
+The Satyricon of Petronius is one of the most curious productions in the
+Latin language.  Novel in its nature, and without any parallel in the
+works of antiquity, some have imagined it to be a spurious composition,
+fabricated about the time of the revival of learning in Europe.  This
+conjecture, however, is not more destitute of support, than repugnant to
+the most circumstantial evidence in favour of its authenticity.  Others,
+admitting the work to be a production of the age of Nero, have questioned
+the design with which it was written, and have consequently imputed to
+the author a most immoral intention.  Some of the scenes, incidents, and
+characters, are of so extraordinary a nature, that the description of
+them, without a particular application, must have been regarded as
+extremely whimsical, and the work, notwithstanding its ingenuity, has
+been doomed to perpetual oblivion: but history justifies the belief, that
+in the court of Nero, the extravagancies mentioned by Petronius were
+realized (395) to a degree which authenticates the representation given
+of them.  The inimitable character of Trimalchio, which exhibits a person
+sunk in the most debauched effeminacy, was drawn for Nero; and we are
+assured, that there were formerly medals of that emperor, with these
+words, C. Nero August. Imp., and on the reverse, Trimalchio.  The various
+characters are well discriminated, and supported with admirable
+propriety.  Never was such licentiousness of description united to such
+delicacy of colouring.  The force of the satire consists not in poignancy
+of sentiment, but in the ridicule which arises from the whimsical, but
+characteristic and faithful exhibition of the objects introduced.  That
+Nero was struck with the justness of the representation, is evident from
+the displeasure which he showed, at finding Petronius so well acquainted
+with his infamous excesses.  After levelling his suspicion on all who
+could possibly have betrayed him, he at last fixed on a senator's wife,
+named Silia, who bore a part in his revels, and was an intimate friend of
+Petronius upon which she was immediately sent into banishment.  Amongst
+the miscellaneous materials in this work, are some pieces of poetry,
+written in an elegant taste.  A poem on the civil war between Caesar and
+Pompey, is beautiful and animated.
+
+Though the Muses appear to have been mostly in a quiescent state from the
+time of Augustus, we find from Petronius Arbiter, who exhibits the
+manners of the capital during the reign of Nero, that poetry still
+continued to be a favourite pursuit amongst the Romans, and one to which,
+indeed, they seem to have had a national propensity.
+
+    --------Ecce inter pocula quaerunt
+    Romulidae saturi, quid dia poemata narrent.--Persius, Sat. i. 30.
+
+    ----Nay, more! Our nobles, gorged, and swilled with wine,
+    Call o'er the banquet for a lay divine!--Gifford.
+
+It was cultivated as a kind of fashionable exercise, in short and
+desultory attempts, in which the chief ambition was to produce verses
+extempore.  They were publicly recited by their authors with great
+ostentation; and a favourable verdict from an audience, however partial,
+and frequently obtained either by intrigue or bribery, was construed by
+those frivolous pretenders into a real adjudication of poetical fame.
+
+The custom of publicly reciting poetical compositions, with the view of
+obtaining the opinion of the hearers concerning them, and for which
+purpose Augustus had built the Temple of Apollo, was well calculated for
+the improvement of taste and judgment, as well as the excitement of
+emulation; but, conducted as it now was, it led to a general degradation
+of poetry.  Barbarism in (396) language, and a corruption of taste, were
+the natural consequences of this practice, while the judgment of the
+multitude was either blind or venal, and while public approbation
+sanctioned the crudities of hasty composition.  There arose, however, in
+this period, some candidates for the bays, who carried their efforts
+beyond the narrow limits which custom and inadequate genius prescribed to
+the poetical exertions of their contemporaries.  Amongst these were Lucan
+and Persius.----
+
+LUCAN was the son of Annaeus Mela, the brother of Seneca, the
+philosopher.  He was born at Corduba, the original residence of the
+family, but came early to Rome, where his promising talents, and the
+patronage of his uncle, recommended him to the favour of Nero; by whom he
+was raised to the dignity of an augur and quaestor before he had attained
+the usual age.  Prompted by the desire of displaying his political
+abilities, he had the imprudence to engage in a competition with his
+imperial patron.  The subject chosen by Nero was the tragical fate of
+Niobe; and that of Lucan was Orpheus.  The ease with which the latter
+obtained the victory in the contest, excited the jealousy of the emperor,
+who resolved upon depressing his rising genius.  With this view, he
+exposed him daily to the mortification of fresh insults, until at last
+the poet's resentment was so much provoked, that he entered into the
+conspiracy of Piso for cutting off the tyrant.  The plot being
+discovered, there remained for the unfortunate Lucan no hope of pardon:
+and choosing the same mode of death which was employed by his uncle, he
+had his veins opened, while he sat in a warm bath, and expired in
+pronouncing with great emphasis the following lines in his Pharsalia:--
+
+    Scinditur avulsus; nec sicut vulnere sanguis
+    Emicuit lentus: ruptis cadit undique venis;
+    Discursusque animae diversa in membra meantis
+    Interceptus aquis, nullius, vita perempti
+    Est tanta dimissa via.--Lib. iii. 638.
+
+                     ----Asunder flies the man.
+    No single wound the gaping rupture seems,
+    Where trickling crimson flows in tender streams;
+    But from an opening horrible and wide
+    A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide;
+    At once the winding channel's course was broke,
+    Where wandering life her mazy journey took.--Rowe.
+
+Some authors have said that he betrayed pusillanimity at the hour of
+death; and that, to save himself from punishment, he (397) accused his
+mother of being involved in the conspiracy.  This circumstance, however,
+is not mentioned by other writers, who relate, on the contrary, that he
+died with philosophical fortitude.  He was then only in the twenty-sixth
+year of his age.
+
+Lucan had scarcely reached the age of puberty when he wrote a poem on the
+contest between Hector and Achilles.  He also composed in his youth a
+poem on the burning of Rome; but his only surviving work is the
+Pharsalia, written on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.  This
+poem, consisting of ten books, is unfinished, and its character has been
+more depreciated than that of any other production of antiquity.  In the
+plan of the poem, the author prosecutes the different events in the civil
+war, beginning his narrative at the passage of the Rubicon by Caesar.  He
+invokes not the muses, nor engages any gods in the dispute; but
+endeavours to support an epic dignity by vigour of sentiment, and
+splendour of description.  The horrors of civil war, and the importance
+of a contest which was to determine the fate of Rome and the empire of
+the world, are displayed with variety of colouring, and great energy of
+expression.  In the description of scenes, and the recital of heroic
+actions, the author discovers a strong and lively imagination; while, in
+those parts of the work which are addressed either to the understanding
+or the passions, he is bold, figurative, and animated.  Indulging too
+much in amplification, he is apt to tire with prolixity; but in all his
+excursions he is ardent, elevated, impressive, and often brilliant.  His
+versification has not the smoothness which we admire in the compositions
+of Virgil, and his language is often involved in the intricacies of
+technical construction: but with all his defects, his beauties are
+numerous; and he discovers a greater degree of merit than is commonly
+found in the productions of a poet of twenty-six years of age, at which
+time he died.----
+
+PERSIUS was born at Volaterrae, of an equestrian family, about the
+beginning of the Christian aera.  His father dying when he was six years
+old, he was left to the care of his mother, for whom and for his sisters
+he expresses the warmest affection.  At the age of twelve he came to
+Rome, where, after attending a course of grammar and rhetoric under the
+respective masters of those branches of education, he placed himself
+under the tuition of Annaeus Cornutus, a celebrated stoic philosopher of
+that time.  There subsisted between him and this preceptor so great a
+friendship, that at his death, which happened in the twenty-ninth year of
+his age, he bequeathed to Cornutus a handsome sum of money, and his
+library.  The latter, however, accepting only the books, left the money
+to Persius's sisters.
+
+Priscian, Quintilian, and other ancient writers, spear of Persius's
+satires as consisting of a book without any division.  They have since,
+however, been generally divided into six different satires, but by some
+only into five.  The subjects of these compositions are, the vanity of
+the poets in his time; the backwardness of youth to the cultivation of
+moral science; ignorance and temerity in political administration,
+chiefly in allusion to the government of Nero: the fifth satire is
+employed in evincing that the wise man also is free; in discussing which
+point, the author adopts the observations used by Horace on the same
+subject.  The last satire of Persius is directed against avarice.  In the
+fifth, we meet with a beautiful address to Cornutus, whom the author
+celebrates for his amiable virtues, and peculiar talents for teaching.
+The following lines, at the same time that they show how diligently the
+preceptor and his pupil were employed through the whole day in the
+cultivation of moral science, afford a more agreeable picture of domestic
+comfort and philosophical conviviality, than might be expected in the
+family of a rigid stoic:
+
+    Tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles,
+    Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes.
+    Unum opus, et requiem pariter disponimus ambo:
+    Atque verecunda laxamus feria mensa.--Sat. v.
+
+    Can I forget how many a summer's day,
+    Spent in your converse, stole, unmarked, away?
+    Or how, while listening with increased delight,
+    I snatched from feasts the earlier hours of night?--Gifford.
+
+The satires of Persius are written in a free, expostulatory, and
+argumentative manner; possessing the same justness of sentiment as those
+of Horace, but exerted in the way of derision, and not with the admirable
+raillery of that facetious author.  They are regarded by many as obscure;
+but this imputation arises more from unacquaintance with the characters
+and manners to which the author alludes, than from any peculiarity either
+in his language or composition.  His versification is harmonious; and we
+have only to remark, in addition to similar examples in other Latin
+writers, that, though Persius is acknowledged to have been both virtuous
+and modest, there are in the fourth satire a few passages which cannot
+decently admit of being translated.  Such was the freedom of the Romans,
+in the use of some expressions, which just refinement has now exploded.--
+
+Another poet, in this period, was FABRICIUS VEIENTO, who wrote a severe
+satire against the priests of his time; as also one (399) against the
+senators, for corruption in their judicial capacity.  Nothing remains of
+either of those productions; but, for the latter, the author was banished
+by Nero.
+
+There now likewise flourished a lyric poet, CAESIUS BASSUS, to whom
+Persius has addressed his sixth satire.  He is said to have been, next to
+Horace, the best lyric poet among the Romans; but of his various
+compositions, only a few inconsiderable fragments are preserved.
+
+To the two poets now mentioned must be added POMPONIUS SECUNDUS, a man of
+distinguished rank in the army, and who obtained the honour of a triumph
+for a victory over a tribe of barbarians in Germany.  He wrote several
+tragedies, which in the judgment of Quintilian, were beautiful
+compositions.
+
+
+
+
+
+SERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA.
+
+(400)
+
+I.  The race of the Caesars became extinct in Nero; an event
+prognosticated by various signs, two of which were particularly
+significant.  Formerly, when Livia, after her marriage with Augustus, was
+making a visit to her villa at Veii [639], an eagle flying by, let drop
+upon her lap a hen, with a sprig of laurel in her mouth, just as she had
+seized it.  Livia gave orders to have the hen taken care of, and the
+sprig of laurel set; and the hen reared such a numerous brood of
+chickens, that the villa, to this day, is called the Villa of the Hens
+[640].  The laurel groves flourished so much, that the Caesars procured
+thence the boughs and crowns they bore at their triumphs.  It was also
+their constant custom to plant others on the same spot, immediately after
+a triumph; and it was observed that, a little before the death of each
+prince, the tree which had been set by him died away.  But in the last
+year of Nero, the whole plantation of laurels perished to the very roots,
+and the hens all died.  About the same time, the temple of the Caesars
+[641] being struck with lightning, the heads of all the statues in it
+fell off at once; and Augustus's sceptre was dashed from his hands.
+
+II.  Nero was succeeded by Galba [642], who was not in the remotest
+degree allied to the family of the Caesars, but, without doubt, of very
+noble extraction, being descended from a great and ancient family; for he
+always used to put amongst his other titles, upon the bases of his
+statues, his being great-grandson to Q. Catulus Capitolinus.  And when he
+came to (401) be emperor, he set up the images of his ancestors in the
+hall [643] of the palace; according to the inscriptions on which, he
+carried up his pedigree on the father's side to Jupiter; and by the
+mother's to Pasiphae, the wife of Minos.
+
+III.  To give even a short account of the whole family, would be tedious.
+I shall, therefore, only slightly notice that branch of it from which he
+was descended.  Why, or whence, the first of the Sulpicii who had the
+cognomen of Galba, was so called, is uncertain.  Some are of opinion,
+that it was because he set fire to a city in Spain, after he had a long
+time attacked it to no purpose, with torches dipped in the gum called
+Galbanum: others said he was so named, because, in a lingering disease,
+he made use of it as a remedy, wrapped up in wool: others, on account of
+his being prodigiously corpulent, such a one being called, in the
+language of the Gauls, Galba; or, on the contrary, because he was of a
+slender habit of body, like those insects which breed in a sort of oak,
+and are called Galbae.  Sergius Galba, a person of consular rank [644],
+and the most eloquent man of his time, gave a lustre to the family.
+History relates, that, when he was pro-praetor of Spain, he perfidiously
+put to the sword thirty thousand Lusitanians, and by that means gave
+occasion to the war of Viriatus [645].  His grandson being incensed
+against Julius Caesar, whose lieutenant he had been in Gaul, because he
+was through him disappointed of the consulship [646], joined with Cassius
+and Brutus in the conspiracy against him, for which he was condemned by
+the Pedian law.  From him were descended the grandfather and father of
+the emperor Galba.  The grandfather was more celebrated for his
+application to study, than (402) for any figure he made in the
+government.  For he rose no higher than the praetorship, but published a
+large and not uninteresting history.  His father attained to the
+consulship [647]: he was a short man and hump-backed, but a tolerable
+orator, and an industrious pleader.  He was twice married: the
+first of his wives was Mummia Achaica, daughter of Catulus, and
+great-grand-daughter of Lucius Mummius, who sacked Corinth [648]; and the
+other, Livia Ocellina, a very rich and beautiful woman, by whom it is
+supposed he was courted for the nobleness of his descent.  They say, that
+she was farther encouraged to persevere in her advances, by an incident
+which evinced the great ingenuousness of his disposition.  Upon her
+pressing her suit, he took an opportunity, when they were alone, of
+stripping off his toga, and showing her the deformity of his person, that
+he might not be thought to impose upon her.  He had by Achaica two sons,
+Caius and Sergius.  The elder of these, Caius [649], having very much
+reduced his estate, retired from town, and being prohibited by Tiberius
+from standing for a pro-consulship in his year, put an end to his own
+life.
+
+IV.  The emperor Sergius Galba was born in the consulship of M. Valerius
+Messala, and Cn. Lentulus, upon the ninth of the calends of January [24th
+December] [650], in a villa standing upon a hill, near Terracina, on the
+left-hand side of the road to Fundi [651].  Being adopted by his
+step-mother [652], he assumed the name of Livius, with the cognomen of
+Ocella, and changed his praenomen; for he afterwards used that of Lucius,
+instead of Sergius, until he arrived at the imperial dignity.  It is well
+known, that when he came once, amongst other boys of his own age, to pay
+his respects to Augustus, the latter, pinching his cheek, said to him,
+"And thou, child, too, wilt taste our imperial dignity."  Tiberius,
+likewise, being told that he would come to be emperor, but at an advanced
+age, exclaimed, "Let him live, then, since that does not concern me!"
+When his grandfather was offering sacrifice to (403) avert some ill omen
+from lightning, the entrails of the victim were snatched out of his hand
+by an eagle, and carried off into an oak-tree loaded with acorns.  Upon
+this, the soothsayers said, that the family would come to be masters of
+the empire, but not until many years had elapsed: at which he, smiling,
+said, "Ay, when a mule comes to bear a foal."  When Galba first declared
+against Nero, nothing gave him so much confidence of success, as a mule's
+happening at that time to have a foal.  And whilst all others were shocked
+at the occurrence, as a most inauspicious prodigy, he alone regarded it as
+a most fortunate omen, calling to mind the sacrifice and saying of his
+grandfather.  When he took upon him the manly habit, he dreamt that the
+goddess Fortune said to him, "I stand before your door weary; and unless I
+am speedily admitted, I shall fall into the hands of the first who comes
+to seize me."  On his awaking, when the door of the house was opened, he
+found a brazen statue of the goddess, above a cubit long, close to the
+threshold, which he carried with slim to Tusculum, where he used to pass
+the summer season; and having consecrated it in an apartment of his house,
+he ever after worshipped it with a monthly sacrifice, and an anniversary
+vigil.  Though but a very young man, he kept up an ancient but obsolete
+custom, and now nowhere observed, except in his own family, which was, to
+have his freedmen and slaves appear in a body before him twice a day,
+morning and evening, to offer him their salutations.
+
+V.  Amongst other liberal studies, he applied himself to the law.  He
+married Lepida [653], by whom he had two sons; but the mother and
+children all dying, he continued a widower; nor could he be prevailed
+upon to marry again, not even Agrippina herself, at that time left a
+widow by the death of Domitius, who had employed all her blandishments to
+allure him to her embraces, while he was a married man; insomuch that
+Lepida's mother, when in company with several married women, rebuked her
+for it, and even went so far as to cuff her.  Most of all, he courted the
+empress Livia [654], by whose favour, while she was living, he made a
+considerable figure, and narrowly missed being enriched by the will which
+she left at her death; in which she distinguished him from the rest of
+the (404) legatees, by a legacy of fifty millions of sesterces.  But
+because the sum was expressed in figures, and not in words at length, it
+was reduced by her heir, Tiberius, to five hundred thousand: and even
+this he never received. [655]
+
+VI.  Filling the great offices before the age required for it by law,
+during his praetorship, at the celebration of games in honour of the
+goddess Flora, he presented the new spectacle of elephants walking upon
+ropes.  He was then governor of the province of Aquitania for near a
+year, and soon afterwards took the consulship in the usual course, and
+held it for six months [656].  It so happened that he succeeded L.
+Domitius, the father of Nero, and was succeeded by Salvius Otho, father
+to the emperor of that name; so that his holding it between the sons of
+these two men, looked like a presage of his future advancement to the
+empire.  Being appointed by Caius Caesar to supersede Gaetulicus in his
+command, the day after his joining the legions, he put a stop to their
+plaudits in a public spectacle, by issuing an order, "That they should
+keep their hands under their cloaks."  Immediately upon which, the
+following verse became very common in the camp:
+
+    Disce, miles, militare: Galba est, non Gaetulicus.
+
+    Learn, soldier, now in arms to use your hands,
+    'Tis Galba, not Gaetulicus, commands.
+
+With equal strictness, he would allow of no petitions for leave of
+absence from the camp.  He hardened the soldiers, both old and young, by
+constant exercise; and having quickly reduced within their own limits the
+barbarians who had made inroads into Gaul, upon Caius's coming into
+Germany, he so far recommended himself and his army to that emperor's
+approbation, that, amongst the innumerable troops drawn from all the
+provinces of the empire, none met with higher commendation, or greater
+rewards from him.  He likewise distinguished himself by heading an
+escort, with a shield in his hand [658], and running at the side of the
+emperor's chariot twenty miles together.
+
+VII.  Upon the news of Caius's death, though many earnestly pressed him
+to lay hold of that opportunity of seizing the empire, he chose rather to
+be quiet.  On this account, he was in great favour with Claudius, and
+being received into the number of his friends, stood so high in his good
+opinion, that the expedition to Britain [659] was for some time
+suspended, because he was suddenly seized with a slight indisposition.
+He governed Africa, as pro-consul, for two years; being chosen out of the
+regular course to restore order in the province, which was in great
+disorder from civil dissensions, and the alarms of the barbarians.  His
+administration was distinguished by great strictness and equity, even in
+matters of small importance.  A soldier upon some expedition being
+charged with selling, in a great scarcity of corn, a bushel of wheat,
+which was all he had left, for a hundred denarii, he forbad him to be
+relieved by any body, when he came to be in want himself; and accordingly
+he died of famine.  When sitting in judgment, a cause being brought
+before him about some beast of burden, the ownership of which was claimed
+by two persons; the evidence being slight on both sides, and it being
+difficult to come at the truth, he ordered the beast to be led to a pond
+at which he had used to be watered, with his head muffled up, and the
+covering being there removed, that he should be the property of the
+person whom he followed of his own accord, after drinking.
+
+VIII.  For his achievements, both at this time in Africa, and formerly in
+Germany, he received the triumphal ornaments, and three sacerdotal
+appointments, one among The Fifteen, another in the college of Titius,
+and a third amongst the Augustals; and from that time to the middle of
+Nero's reign, he lived for the most part in retirement.  He never went
+abroad (405) so much as to take the air, without a carriage attending
+him, in which there was a million of sesterces in gold, ready at hand;
+until at last, at the time he was living in the town of Fundi, the
+province of Hispania Tarraconensis was offered him.  After his arrival in
+the province, whilst he was sacrificing in a temple, a boy who attended
+with a censer, became all on a sudden grey-headed.  This incident was
+regarded by some as a token of an approaching revolution in the
+government, and that an old man would succeed a young one: that is, that
+he would succeed Nero.  And not long after, a thunderbolt falling into a
+lake in Cantabria [660], twelve axes were found in it; a manifest sign of
+the supreme power.
+
+IX.  He governed the province during eight years, his administration
+being of an uncertain and capricious character.  At first he was active,
+vigorous, and indeed excessively severe, in the punishment of offenders.
+For, a money-dealer having committed some fraud in the way of his
+business, he cut off his hands, and nailed them to his counter.  Another,
+who had poisoned an orphan, to whom he was guardian, and next heir to the
+estate, he crucified.  On this delinquent imploring the protection of the
+law, and crying out that he was a Roman citizen, he affected to afford
+him some alleviation, and to mitigate his punishment, by a mark of
+honour, ordered a cross, higher than usual, and painted white, to be
+erected for him.  But by degrees he gave himself up to a life of
+indolence and inactivity, from the fear of giving Nero any occasion of
+jealousy, and because, as he used to say, "Nobody was obliged to render
+an account of their leisure hours."  He was holding a court of justice on
+the circuit at New Carthage [661], when he received intelligence of the
+insurrection in Gaul [662]; and while the lieutenant of Aquitania was
+soliciting his assistance, letters were brought from Vindex, requesting
+him "to assert the rights of mankind, and put himself at their head to
+relieve them from the tyranny of Nero."  Without any long demur, he
+accepted the invitation, from a mixture of fear and hope.  For he had
+discovered that private orders had been sent by Nero to his procurators
+in the province to get (407) him dispatched; and he was encouraged to the
+enterprise, as well by several auspices and omens, as by the prophecy of
+a young woman of good, family.  The more so, because the priest of
+Jupiter at Clunia [663], admonished by a dream, had discovered in the
+recesses of the temple some verses similar to those in which she had
+delivered her prophecy.  These had also been uttered by a girl under
+divine inspiration, about two hundred years before.  The import of the
+verses was, "That in time, Spain should give the world a lord and
+master."
+
+X.  Taking his seat on the tribunal, therefore, as if there was no other
+business than the manumitting of slaves, he had the effigies of a number
+of persons who had been condemned and put to death by Nero, set up before
+him, whilst a noble youth stood by, who had been banished, and whom he
+had purposely sent for from one of the neighbouring Balearic isles; and
+lamenting the condition of the times, and being thereupon unanimously
+saluted by the title of Emperor, he publicly declared himself "only the
+lieutenant of the senate and people of Rome."  Then shutting the courts,
+he levied legions and auxiliary troops among the provincials, besides his
+veteran army consisting of one legion, two wings of horse, and three
+cohorts.  Out of the military leaders most distinguished for age and
+prudence, he formed a kind of senate, with whom to advise upon all
+matters of importance, as often as occasion should require.  He likewise
+chose several young men of the equestrian order, who were to be allowed
+the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and, being called "The Reserve,"
+should mount guard before his bed-chamber, instead of the legionary
+soldiers.  He likewise issued proclamations throughout the provinces of
+the empire, exhorting all to rise in arms unanimously, and aid the common
+cause, by all the ways and means in their power.  About the same time, in
+fortifying a town, which he had pitched upon for a military post, a ring
+was found, of antique workmanship, in the stone of which was engraved the
+goddess Victory with a trophy.  Presently after, a ship of Alexandria
+arrived at Dertosa [664], loaded with arms, without any person to steer
+it, or so much as a single sailor or passenger (408) on board.  From this
+incident, nobody entertained the least doubt but the war upon which they
+were entering was just and honourable, and favoured likewise by the gods;
+when all on a sudden the whole design was exposed to failure.  One of the
+two wings of horse, repenting of the violation of their oath to Nero,
+attempted to desert him upon his approach to the camp, and were with some
+difficulty kept in their duty.  And some slaves who had been presented to
+him by a freedman of Nero's, on purpose to murder him, had like to have
+killed him as he went through a narrow passage to the bath.  Being
+overheard to encourage one another not to lose the opportunity, they were
+called to an account concerning it; and recourse being had to the
+torture, a confession was extorted from them.
+
+XI.  These dangers were followed by the death of Vindex, at which being
+extremely discouraged, as if fortune had quite forsaken him, he had
+thoughts of putting an end to his own life; but receiving advice by his
+messengers from Rome that Nero was slain, and that all had taken an oath
+to him as emperor, he laid aside the title of lieutenant, and took upon
+him that of Caesar.  Putting himself upon his march in his general's
+cloak, and a dagger hanging from his neck before his breast, he did not
+resume the use of the toga, until Nymphidius Sabinus, prefect of the
+pretorian guards at Rome, with the two lieutenants, Fonteius Capito in
+Germany, and Claudius Macer in Africa, who opposed his advancement, were
+all put down.
+
+XII.  Rumours of his cruelty and avarice had reached the city before his
+arrival; such as that he had punished some cities of Spain and Gaul, for
+not joining him readily, by the imposition of heavy taxes, and some by
+levelling their walls; and had put to death the governors and procurators
+with their wives and children: likewise that a golden crown, of fifteen
+pounds weight, taken out of the temple of Jupiter, with which he was
+presented by the people of Tarracona, he had melted down, and had exacted
+from them three ounces which were wanting in the weight.  This report of
+him was confirmed and increased, as soon as he entered the town.  For
+some seamen who had been taken from the fleet, and enlisted (409) among
+the troops by Nero, he obliged to return to their former condition; but
+they refusing to comply, and obstinately clinging to the more honourable
+service under their eagles and standards, he not only dispersed them by a
+body of horse, but likewise decimated them.  He also disbanded a cohort
+of Germans, which had been formed by the preceding emperors, for their
+body-guard, and upon many occasions found very faithful; and sent them
+back into their own country, without giving them any gratuity, pretending
+that they were more inclined to favour the advancement of Cneius
+Dolabella, near whose gardens they encamped, than his own.  The following
+ridiculous stories were also related of him; but whether with or without
+foundation, I know not; such as, that when a more sumptuous entertainment
+than usual was served up, he fetched a deep groan: that when one of the
+stewards presented him with an account of his expenses, he reached him a
+dish of legumes from his table as a reward for his care and diligence;
+and when Canus, the piper, had played much to his satisfaction, he
+presented him, with his own hand, five denarii taken out of his pocket.
+
+XIII.  His arrival, therefore, in town was not very agreeable to the
+people; and this appeared at the next public spectacle.  For when the
+actors in a farce began a well-known song,
+
+      Venit, io, Simus [665] a villa:
+    Lo! Clodpate from his village comes;
+
+all the spectators, with one voice, went on with the rest, repeating and
+acting the first verse several times over.
+
+XIV.  He possessed himself of the imperial power with more favour and
+authority than he administered it, although he gave many proofs of his
+being an excellent prince: but these were not so grateful to the people,
+as his misconduct was offensive.  He was governed by three favourites,
+who, because they lived in the palace, and were constantly about him,
+obtained the name of his pedagogues.  These were Titus Vinius, who had
+been his lieutenant in Spain, a man of insatiable (410) avarice;
+Cornelius Laco, who, from an assessor to the prince, was advanced to be
+prefect of the pretorian guards, a person of intolerable arrogance, as
+well as indolence; and his freedman Icelus, dignified a little before
+with the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and the use of the cognomen
+Martianus, who became a candidate for the highest honour within the reach
+of any person of the equestrian order [666].  He resigned himself so
+implicitly into the power of those three favourites, who governed in
+every thing according to the capricious impulse of their vices and
+tempers, and his authority was so much abused by them, that the tenor of
+his conduct was not very consistent with itself.  At one time, he was
+more rigorous and frugal, at another, more lavish and negligent, than
+became a prince who had been chosen by the people, and was so far
+advanced in years.  He condemned some men of the first rank in the
+senatorian and equestrian orders, upon a very slight suspicion, and
+without trial.  He rarely granted the freedom of the city to any one; and
+the privilege belonging to such as had three children, only to one or
+two; and that with great difficulty, and only for a limited time.  When
+the judges petitioned to have a sixth decury added to their number, he
+not only denied them, but abolished the vacation which had been granted
+them by Claudius for the winter, and the beginning of the year.
+
+XV.  It was thought that he likewise intended to reduce the offices held
+by senators and men of the equestrian order, to a term of two years'
+continuance; and to bestow them only on those who were unwilling to
+accept them, and had refused them.  All the grants of Nero he recalled,
+saving only the tenth part of them.  For this purpose he gave a
+commission to fifty Roman knights; with orders, that if players or
+wrestlers had sold what had been formerly given them, it should be
+exacted from the purchasers, since the others, having, no doubt, spent
+the money, were not in a condition to pay.  But on the other hand, he
+suffered his attendants and freedmen to sell or give away the revenue of
+the state, or immunities from taxes, and to punish the innocent, or
+pardon criminals, at pleasure.  Nay, when the Roman people were very
+clamorous for the punishment of Halotus and Tigellinus, two of the (411)
+most mischievous amongst all the emissaries of Nero, he protected them,
+and even bestowed on Halotus one of the best procurations in his
+disposal.  And as to Tigellinus, he even reprimanded the people for their
+cruelty by a proclamation.
+
+XVI.  By this conduct, he incurred the hatred of all orders of the
+people, but especially of the soldiery.  For their commanders having
+promised them in his name a donative larger than usual, upon their taking
+the oath to him before his arrival at Rome; he refused to make it good,
+frequently bragging, "that it was his custom to choose his soldiers, not
+buy them."  Thus the troops became exasperated against him in all
+quarters.  The pretorian guards he alarmed with apprehensions of danger
+and unworthy treatment; disbanding many of them occasionally as
+disaffected to his government, and favourers of Nymphidius.  But most of
+all, the army in Upper Germany was incensed against him, as being
+defrauded of the rewards due to them for the service they had rendered in
+the insurrection of the Gauls under Vindex.  They were, therefore, the
+first who ventured to break into open mutiny, refusing upon the calends
+[the 1st] of January, to take any oath of allegiance, except to the
+senate; and they immediately dispatched deputies to the pretorian troops,
+to let them know, "they did not like the emperor who had been set up in
+Spain," and to desire that "they would make choice of another, who might
+meet with the approbation of all the armies."
+
+XVII.  Upon receiving intelligence of this, imagining that he was
+slighted not so much on account of his age, as for having no children, he
+immediately singled out of a company of young persons of rank, who came
+to pay their compliments to him, Piso Frugi Licinianus, a youth of noble
+descent and great talents, for whom he had before contracted such a
+regard, that he had appointed him in his will the heir both of his estate
+and name.  Him he now styled his son, and taking him to the camp, adopted
+him in the presence of the assembled troops, but without making any
+mention of a donative.  This circumstance afforded the better opportunity
+to Marcus Salvius Otho of accomplishing his object, six days after the
+adoption.
+
+XVIII.  Many remarkable prodigies had happened from the (412) very
+beginning of his reign, which forewarned him of his approaching fate.  In
+every town through which he passed in his way from Spain to Rome, victims
+were slain on the right and left of the roads; and one of these, which
+was a bull, being maddened with the stroke of the axe, broke the rope
+with which it was tied, and running straight against his chariot, with
+his fore-feet elevated, bespattered him with blood.  Likewise, as he was
+alighting, one of the guard, being pushed forward by the crowd, had very
+nearly wounded him with his lance.  And upon his entering the city and,
+afterwards, the palace, he was welcomed with an earthquake, and a noise
+like the bellowing of cattle.  These signs of ill-fortune were followed
+by some that were still more apparently such.  Out of all his treasures
+he had selected a necklace of pearls and jewels, to adorn his statue of
+Fortune at Tusculum.  But it suddenly occurring to him that it deserved a
+more august place, he consecrated it to the Capitoline Venus; and next
+night, he dreamt that Fortune appeared to him, complaining that she had
+been defrauded of the present intended her, and threatening to resume
+what she had given him.  Terrified at this denunciation, at break of day
+he sent forward some persons to Tusculum, to make preparations for a
+sacrifice which might avert the displeasure of the goddess; and when he
+himself arrived at the place, he found nothing but some hot embers upon
+the altar, and an old man in black standing by, holding a little incense
+in a glass, and some wine in an earthern pot.  It was remarked, too, that
+whilst he was sacrificing upon the calends of January, the chaplet fell
+from his head, and upon his consulting the pullets for omens, they flew
+away.  Farther, upon the day of his adopting Piso, when he was to
+harangue the soldiers, the seat which he used upon those occasions,
+through the neglect of his attendants, was not placed, according to
+custom, upon his tribunal; and in the senate-house, his curule chair was
+set with the back forward.
+
+XIX.  The day before he was slain, as he was sacrificing in the morning,
+the augur warned him from time to time to be upon his guard, for that he
+was in danger from assassins, and that they were near at hand.  Soon
+after, he was informed, that Otho was in possession of the pretorian
+camp.  And though most of his friends advised him to repair thither
+immediately, (413) in hopes that he might quell the tumult by his
+authority and presence, he resolved to do nothing more than keep close
+within the palace, and secure himself by guards of the legionary
+soldiers, who were quartered in different parts about the city.  He put
+on a linen coat of mail, however, remarking at the same time, that it
+would avail him little against the points of so many swords.  But being
+tempted out by false reports, which the conspirators had purposely spread
+to induce him to venture abroad--some few of those about him too hastily
+assuring him that the tumult had ceased, the mutineers were apprehended,
+and the rest coming to congratulate him, resolved to continue firm in
+their obedience--he went forward to meet them with so much confidence,
+that upon a soldier's boasting that he had killed Otho, he asked him, "By
+what authority?" and proceeded as far as the Forum.  There the knights,
+appointed to dispatch him, making their way through the crowd of
+citizens, upon seeing him at a distance, halted a while; after which,
+galloping up to him, now abandoned by all his attendants, they put him to
+death.
+
+XX.  Some authors relate, that upon their first approach he cried out,
+"What do you mean, fellow-soldiers?  I am yours, and you are mine," and
+promised them a donative: but the generality of writers relate, that he
+offered his throat to them, saying, "Do your work, and strike, since you
+are resolved upon it."  It is remarkable, that not one of those who were
+at hand, ever made any attempt to assist the emperor; and all who were
+sent for, disregarded the summons, except a troop of Germans.  They, in
+consideration of his late kindness in showing them particular attention
+during a sickness which prevailed in the camp, flew to his aid, but came
+too late; for, being not well acquainted with the town, they had taken a
+circuitous route.  He was slain near the Curtian Lake [667], and there
+left, until a common soldier returning from the receipt of his allowance
+of corn, throwing down the load which he carried, cut off his head.
+There being upon it no hair, by which he might hold it, he hid it in the
+bosom of his dress; but afterwards thrusting his thumb into the mouth, he
+carried it in that manner to Otho, who gave it to the drudges and slaves
+who attended the soldiers; and they, fixing it upon the (414) point of a
+spear, carried it in derision round the camp, crying out as they went
+along, "You take your fill of joy in your old age."  They were irritated
+to this pitch of rude banter, by a report spread a few days before, that,
+upon some one's commending his person as still florid and vigorous, he
+replied,
+
+      Eti moi menos empedoi estin. [668]
+    My strength, as yet, has suffered no decay.
+
+A freedman of Petrobius's, who himself had belonged to Nero's family,
+purchased the head from them at the price of a hundred gold pieces, and
+threw it into the place where, by Galba's order, his patron had been put
+to death.  At last, after some time, his steward Argius buried it, with
+the rest of his body, in his own gardens near the Aurelian Way.
+
+XXI.  In person he was of a good size, bald before, with blue eyes, and
+an aquiline nose; and his hands and feet were so distorted with the gout,
+that he could neither wear a shoe, nor turn over the leaves of a book, or
+so much as hold it.  He had likewise an excrescence in his right side,
+which hung down to that degree, that it was with difficulty kept up by a
+bandage.
+
+XXII.  He is reported to have been a great eater, and usually took his
+breakfast in the winter-time before day.  At supper, he fed very
+heartily, giving the fragments which were left, by handfuls, to be
+distributed amongst the attendants.  In his lust, he was more inclined to
+the male sex, and such of them too as were old.  It is said of him, that
+in Spain, when Icelus, an old catamite of his, brought him the news of
+Nero's death, he not only kissed him lovingly before company, but begged
+of him to remove all impediments, and then took him aside into a private
+apartment.
+
+XXIII.  He perished in the seventy-third year of his age, and the seventh
+month of his reign [669].  The senate, as soon as they could with safety,
+ordered a statue to be erected for him upon the naval column, in that
+part of the Forum where he (415) was slain.  But Vespasian cancelled the
+decree, upon a suspicion that he had sent assassins from Spain into
+Judaea to murder him.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+GALBA was, for a private man, the most wealthy of any who had ever
+aspired to the imperial dignity.  He valued himself upon his being
+descended from the family of the Servii, but still more upon his relation
+to Quintus Catulus Capitolinus, celebrated for integrity and virtue.  He
+was likewise distantly related to Livia, the wife of Augustus; by whose
+interest he was preferred from the station which he held in the palace,
+to the dignity of consul; and who left him a great legacy at her death.
+His parsimonious way of living, and his aversion to all superfluity or
+excess, were construed into avarice as soon as he became emperor; whence
+Plutarch observes, that the pride which he took in his temperance and
+economy was unseasonable.  While he endeavoured to reform the profusion
+in the public expenditure, which prevailed in the reign of Nero, he ran
+into the opposite extreme; and it is objected to him by some historians,
+that he maintained not the imperial dignity in a degree consistent even
+with decency.  He was not sufficiently attentive either to his own
+security or the tranquillity of the state, when he refused to pay the
+soldiers the donative which he had promised them.  This breach of faith
+seems to be the only act in his life that affects his integrity; and it
+contributed more to his ruin than even the odium which he incurred by the
+open venality and rapaciousness of his favourites, particularly Vinius.
+
+
+
+
+
+A.  SALVIUS OTHO.
+
+(416)
+
+I.  The ancestors of Otho were originally of the town of Ferentum, of an
+ancient and honourable family, and, indeed, one of the most considerable
+in Etruria.  His grandfather, M. Salvius Otho (whose father was a Roman
+knight, but his mother of mean extraction, for it is not certain whether
+she was free-born), by the favour of Livia Augusta, in whose house he had
+his education, was made a senator, but never rose higher than the
+praetorship.  His father, Lucius Otho, was by the mother's side nobly
+descended, allied to several great families, and so dearly beloved by
+Tiberius, and so much resembled him in his features, that most people
+believed Tiberius was his father.  He behaved with great strictness and
+severity, not only in the city offices, but in the pro-consulship of
+Africa, and some extraordinary commands in the army.  He had the courage
+to punish with death some soldiers in Illyricum, who, in the disturbance
+attempted by Camillus, upon changing their minds, had put their generals
+to the sword, as promoters of that insurrection against Claudius.  He
+ordered the execution to take place in the front of the camp [670], and
+under his own eyes; though he knew they had been advanced to higher ranks
+in the army by Claudius, on that very account.  By this action he
+acquired fame, but lessened his favour at court; which, however, he soon
+recovered, by discovering to Claudius a design upon his life, carried on
+by a Roman knight [671], and which he had learnt from some of his slaves.
+For the senate ordered a statue of him to be erected in the palace; an
+honour which had been conferred but upon very few before him.  And
+Claudius advanced him to the dignity of a patrician, commending him, at
+the same time, in the highest terms, and concluding with these words: "A
+man, than whom I don't so (417) much as wish to have children that should
+be better."  He had two sons by a very noble woman, Albia Terentia,
+namely; Lucius Titianus, and a younger called Marcus, who had the same
+cognomen as himself.  He had also a daughter, whom he contracted to
+Drusus, Germanicus's son, before she was of marriageable age.
+
+II.  The emperor Otho was born upon the fourth of the calends of May
+[28th April], in the consulship of Camillus Aruntius and Domitius
+Aenobarbus [672].  He was from his earliest youth so riotous and wild,
+that he was often severely scourged by his father.  He was said to run
+about in the night-time, and seize upon any one he met, who was either
+drunk or too feeble to make resistance, and toss him in a blanket [673].
+After his father's death, to make his court the more effectually to a
+freedwoman about the palace, who was in great favour, he pretended to be
+in love with her, though she was old, and almost decrepit.  Having by her
+means got into Nero's good graces, he soon became one of the principal
+favourites, by the congeniality of his disposition to that of the emperor
+or, as some say, by the reciprocal practice of mutual pollution.  He had
+so great a sway at court, that when a man of consular rank was condemned
+for bribery, having tampered with him for a large sum of money, to
+procure his pardon; before he had quite effected it, he scrupled not to
+introduce him into the senate, to return his thanks.
+
+III.  Having, by means of this woman, insinuated himself into all the
+emperor's secrets, he, upon the day designed for the murder of his
+mother, entertained them both at a very splendid feast, to prevent
+suspicion.  Poppaea Sabina, for whom Nero entertained such a violent
+passion that he had taken her from her husband [674] and entrusted her to
+him, he received, and went through the form of marrying her.  And not
+satisfied with obtaining her favours, he loved her so extravagantly, that
+he could not with patience bear Nero for his rival.  It is certainly
+believed that he not only refused admittance to those who were sent by
+Nero to fetch her, but that, on one (418) occasion, he shut him out, and
+kept him standing before the door, mixing prayers and menaces in vain,
+and demanding back again what was entrusted to his keeping.  His
+pretended marriage, therefore, being dissolved, he was sent lieutenant
+into Lusitania.  This treatment of him was thought sufficiently severe,
+because harsher proceedings might have brought the whole farce to light,
+which, notwithstanding, at last came out, and was published to the world
+in the following distich:--
+
+    Cur Otho mentitus sit, quaeritis, exul honore?
+      Uxoris moechus caeperat esse suae.
+
+    You ask why Otho's banish'd?  Know, the cause
+    Comes not within the verge of vulgar laws.
+    Against all rules of fashionable life,
+    The rogue had dared to sleep with his own wife.
+
+He governed the province in quality of quaestor for ten years, with
+singular moderation and justice.
+
+IV.  As soon as an opportunity of revenge offered, he readily joined in
+Galba's enterprises, and at the same time conceived hopes of obtaining
+the imperial dignity for himself.  To this he was much encouraged by the
+state of the times, but still more by the assurances given him by
+Seleucus, the astrologer, who, having formerly told him that he would
+certainly out-live Nero, came to him at that juncture unexpectedly,
+promising him again that he should succeed to the empire, and that in a
+very short time.  He, therefore, let slip no opportunity of making his
+court to every one about him by all manner of civilities.  As often as he
+entertained Galba at supper, he distributed to every man of the cohort
+which attended the emperor on guard, a gold piece; endeavouring likewise
+to oblige the rest of the soldiers in one way or another.  Being chosen
+an arbitrator by one who had a dispute with his neighbour about a piece
+of land, he bought it, and gave it him; so that now almost every body
+thought and said, that he was the only man worthy of succeeding to the
+empire.
+
+V.  He entertained hopes of being adopted by Galba, and expected it every
+day.  But finding himself disappointed, by Piso's being preferred before
+him, he turned his thoughts to obtaining his purpose by the use of
+violence; and to this he was instigated, as well by the greatness of his
+debts, as by resentment (419) at Galba's conduct towards him.  For he did
+not conceal his conviction, "that he could not stand his ground unless he
+became emperor, and that it signified nothing whether he fell by the
+hands of his enemies in the field, or of his creditors in the Forum."  He
+had a few days before squeezed out of one of the emperor's slaves a
+million of sesterces for procuring him a stewardship; and this was the
+whole fund he had for carrying on so great an enterprise.  At first the
+design was entrusted to only five of the guard, but afterwards to ten
+others, each of the five naming two.  They had every one ten thousand
+sesterces paid down, and were promised fifty thousand more.  By these,
+others were drawn in, but not many; from a confident assurance, that when
+the matter came to the crisis, they should have enough to join them.
+
+VI.  His first intention was, immediately after the departure of Piso, to
+seize the camp, and fall upon Galba, whilst he was at supper in the
+palace; but he was restrained by a regard for the cohort at that time on
+duty, lest he should bring too great an odium upon it; because it
+happened that the same cohort was on guard before, both when Caius was
+slain, and Nero deserted.  For some time afterwards, he was restrained
+also by scruples about the omens, and by the advice of Seleucus.  Upon
+the day fixed at last for the enterprise, having given his accomplices
+notice to wait for him in the Forum near the temple of Saturn, at the
+gilded mile-stone [675], he went in the morning to pay his respects to
+Galba; and being received with a kiss as usual, he attended him at
+sacrifice, and heard the predictions of the augur [676].  A freedman of
+his, then bringing (420) him word that the architects were come, which
+was the signal agreed upon, he withdrew, as if it were with a design to
+view a house upon sale, and went out by a back-door of the palace to the
+place appointed.  Some say he pretended to be seized with an ague fit,
+and ordered those about him to make that excuse for him, if he was
+inquired after.  Being then quickly concealed in a woman's litter, he
+made the best of his way for the camp.  But the bearers growing tired, he
+got out, and began to run.  His shoe becoming loose, he stopped again,
+but being immediately raised by his attendants upon their shoulders, and
+unanimously saluted by the title of EMPEROR, he came amidst auspicious
+acclamations and drawn swords into the Principia [677] in the camp; all
+who met him joining in the cavalcade, as if they had been privy to the
+design.  Upon this, sending some soldiers to dispatch Galba and Piso, he
+said nothing else in his address to the soldiery, to secure their
+affections, than these few words: "I shall be content with whatever ye
+think fit to leave me."
+
+VII.  Towards the close of the day, he entered the senate, and after he
+had made a short speech to them, pretending that he had been seized in
+the streets, and compelled by violence to assume the imperial authority,
+which he designed to exercise in conjunction with them, he retired to the
+palace.  Besides other compliments which he received from those who
+flocked about him to congratulate and flatter him, he was called Nero by
+the mob, and manifested no intention of declining that cognomen.  Nay,
+some authors relate, that he used it in his official acts, and the first
+letters he sent to the (421) governors of provinces.  He suffered all his
+images and statues to be replaced, and restored his procurators and
+freedmen to their former posts.  And the first writing which he signed as
+emperor, was a promise of fifty millions of sesterces to finish the
+Golden-house [678].  He is said to have been greatly frightened that
+night in his sleep, and to have groaned heavily; and being found, by
+those who came running in to see what the matter was, lying upon the
+floor before his bed, he endeavoured by every kind of atonement to
+appease the ghost of Galba, by which he had found himself violently
+tumbled out of bed.  The next day, as he was taking the omens, a great
+storm arising, and sustaining a grievous fall, he muttered to himself
+from time to time:
+
+        Ti gar moi kai makrois aulois; [679]
+    What business have I the loud trumpets to sound!
+
+VIII.  About the same time, the armies in Germany took an oath to
+Vitellius as emperor.  Upon receiving this intelligence, he advised the
+senate to send thither deputies, to inform them, that a prince had been
+already chosen; and to persuade them to peace and a good understanding.
+By letters and messages, however, he offered Vitellius to make him his
+colleague in the empire, and his son-in-law.  But a war being now
+unavoidable, and the generals and troops sent forward by Vitellius,
+advancing, he had a proof of the attachment and fidelity of the pretorian
+guards, which had nearly proved fatal to the senatorian order.  It had
+been judged proper that some arms should be given out of the stores, and
+conveyed to the fleet by the marine troops.  While they were employed in
+fetching these from the camp in the night, some of the guards suspecting
+treachery, excited a tumult; and suddenly the whole body, without any of
+their officers at their head, ran to the palace, demanding that the
+entire senate should be put to the sword; and having repulsed some of the
+(422) tribunes who endeavoured to stop them, and slain others, they
+broke, all bloody as they were, into the banquetting room, inquiring for
+the emperor; nor would they quit the place until they had seen him.  He
+now entered upon his expedition against Vitellius with great alacrity,
+but too much precipitation, and without any regard to the ominous
+circumstances which attended it.  For the Ancilia [680] had been taken
+out of the temple of Mars, for the usual procession, but were not yet
+replaced; during which interval it had of old been looked upon as very
+unfortunate to engage in any enterprise.  He likewise set forward upon
+the day when the worshippers of the Mother of the gods [681] begin their
+lamentations and wailing.  Besides these, other unlucky omens attended
+him.  For, in a victim offered to Father Dis [682], he found the signs
+such as upon all other occasions are regarded as favourable; whereas, in
+that sacrifice, the contrary intimations are judged the most propitious.
+At his first setting forward, he was stopped by inundations of the Tiber;
+and at twenty miles' distance from the city, found the road blocked up by
+the fall of houses.
+
+IX.  Though it was the general opinion that it would be proper to
+protract the war, as the enemy were distressed by (423) famine and the
+straitness of their quarters, yet he resolved with equal rashness to
+force them to an engagement as soon as possible; whether from impatience
+of prolonged anxiety, and in the hope of bringing matters to an issue
+before the arrival of Vitellius, or because he could not resist the
+ardour of the troops, who were all clamorous for battle.  He was not,
+however, present at any of those which ensued, but stayed behind at
+Brixellum [683].  He had the advantage in three slight engagements, near
+the Alps, about Placentia, and a place called Castor's [684]; but was, by
+a fraudulent stratagem of the enemy, defeated in the last and greatest
+battle, at Bedriacum [685].  For, some hopes of a conference being given,
+and the soldiers being drawn up to hear the conditions of peace declared,
+very unexpectedly, and amidst their mutual salutations, they were obliged
+to stand to their arms.  Immediately upon this he determined to put an
+end to his life, more, as many think, and not without reason, out of
+shame, at persisting in a struggle for the empire to the hazard of the
+public interest and so many lives, than from despair, or distrust of his
+troops.  For he had still in reserve, and in full force, those whom he
+had kept about him for a second trial of his fortune, and others were
+coming up from Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Moesia; nor were the troops lately
+defeated so far discouraged as not to be ready, even of themselves, to
+run all risks in order to wipe off their recent disgrace.
+
+X.  My father, Suetonius Lenis [686], was in this battle, being at (424)
+that time an angusticlavian tribune in the thirteenth legion.  He used
+frequently to say, that Otho, before his advancement to the empire, had
+such an abhorrence of civil war, that once, upon hearing an account given
+at table of the death of Cassius and Brutus, he fell into a trembling,
+and that he never would have interfered with Galba, but that he was
+confident of succeeding in his enterprise without a war.  Moreover, that
+he was then encouraged to despise life by the example of a common
+soldier, who bringing news of the defeat of the army, and finding that he
+met with no credit, but was railed at for a liar and a coward, as if he
+had run away from the field of battle, fell upon his sword at the
+emperor's feet; upon the sight of which, my father said that Otho cried
+out, "that he would expose to no farther danger such brave men, who had
+deserved so well at his hands."  Advising therefore his brother, his
+brother's son, and the rest of his friends, to provide for their security
+in the best manner they could, after he had embraced and kissed them, he
+sent them away; and then withdrawing into a private room by himself, he
+wrote a letter of consolation to his sister, containing two sheets.  He
+likewise sent another to Messalina, Nero's widow, whom he had intended to
+marry, committing to her the care of his relics and memory.  He then
+burnt all the letters which he had by him, to prevent the danger and
+mischief that might otherwise befall the writers from the conqueror.
+What ready money he had, he distributed among his domestics.
+
+XI.  And now being prepared, and just upon the point of dispatching
+himself, he was induced to suspend the execution of his purpose by a
+great tumult which had broken out in the camp.  Finding that some of the
+soldiers who were making off had been seized and detained as deserters,
+"Let us add," said he, "this night to our life."  These were his very
+words.
+
+He then gave orders that no violence should be offered to any one; and
+keeping his chamber-door open until late at night, he allowed all who
+pleased the liberty to come and see him.  At last, after quenching his
+thirst with a draught of cold water, he took up two poniards, and having
+examined the points of both, put one of them under his pillow, and
+shutting his chamber-door, slept very soundly, until, awaking about break
+of day, he stabbed himself under the left pap.  Some persons bursting
+into the room upon his first groan, he at one time covered, and at
+another exposed his wound to the view of the bystanders, and thus life
+soon ebbed away.  His funeral was hastily performed, according to his own
+order, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his
+reign. [687]
+
+XII.  The person and appearance of Otho no way corresponded to the great
+spirit he displayed on this occasion; for he is said to have been of low
+stature, splay-footed, and bandy-legged.  He was, however, effeminately
+nice in the care of his person: the hair on his body he plucked out by
+the roots; and because he was somewhat bald, he wore a kind of peruke, so
+exactly fitted to his head, that nobody could have known it for such.  He
+used to shave every day, and rub his face with soaked bread; the use of
+which he began when the down first appeared upon his chin, to prevent his
+having any beard.  It is said likewise that he celebrated publicly the
+sacred rites of Isis [688], clad in a linen garment, such as is used by
+the worshippers of that goddess.  These circumstances, I imagine, caused
+the world to wonder the more that his death was so little in character
+with his life.  Many of the soldiers who were present, kissing and
+bedewing with their tears his hands and feet as he lay dead, and
+celebrating him as "a most gallant man, and an incomparable emperor,"
+immediately put an end to their own lives upon the spot, not far from his
+funeral pile.
+
+(426) Many of those likewise who were at a distance, upon hearing the
+news of his death, in the anguish of their hearts, began fighting amongst
+themselves, until they dispatched one another.  To conclude: the
+generality of mankind, though they hated him whilst living, yet highly
+extolled him after his death; insomuch that it was the common talk and
+opinion, "that Galba had been driven to destruction by his rival, not so
+much for the sake of reigning himself, as of restoring Rome to its
+ancient liberty."
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+It is remarkable, in the fortune of this emperor, that he owed both his
+elevation and catastrophe to the inextricable embarrassments in which he
+was involved; first, in respect of pecuniary circumstances, and next, of
+political.  He was not, so far as we can learn, a follower of any of the
+sects of philosophers which justified, and even recommended suicide, in
+particular cases: yet he perpetrated that act with extraordinary coolness
+and resolution; and, what is no less remarkable, from the motive, as he
+avowed, of public expediency only.  It was observed of him, for many
+years after his death, that "none ever died like Otho."
+
+
+
+
+
+AULUS VITELLIUS.
+
+(427)
+
+I.  Very different accounts are given of the origin of the Vitellian
+family.  Some describe it as ancient and noble, others as recent and
+obscure, nay, extremely mean.  I am inclined to think, that these several
+representations have been made by the flatterers and detractors of
+Vitellius, after he became emperor, unless the fortunes of the family
+varied before.  There is extant a memoir addressed by Quintus Eulogius to
+Quintus Vitellius, quaestor to the Divine Augustus, in which it is said,
+that the Vitellii were descended from Faunus, king of the aborigines, and
+Vitellia [689], who was worshipped in many places as a goddess, and that
+they reigned formerly over the whole of Latium: that all who were left of
+the family removed out of the country of the Sabines to Rome, and were
+enrolled among the patricians: that some monuments of the family
+continued a long time; as the Vitellian Way, reaching from the Janiculum
+to the sea, and likewise a colony of that name, which, at a very remote
+period of time, they desired leave from the government to defend against
+the Aequicolae [690], with a force raised by their own family only: also
+that, in the time of the war with the Samnites, some of the Vitellii who
+went with the troops levied for the security of Apulia, settled at
+Nuceria [691], and their descendants, a long time afterwards, returned
+again to Rome, and were admitted (428) into the patrician order.  On the
+other hand, the generality of writers say that the founder of the family
+was a freedman.  Cassius Severus [692] and some others relate that he was
+likewise a cobbler, whose son having made a considerable fortune by
+agencies and dealings in confiscated property, begot, by a common
+strumpet, daughter of one Antiochus, a baker, a child, who afterwards
+became a Roman knight.  Of these different accounts the reader is left to
+take his choice.
+
+II.  It is certain, however, that Publius Vitellius, of Nuceria, whether
+of an ancient family, or of low extraction, was a Roman knight, and a
+procurator to Augustus.  He left behind him four sons, all men of very
+high station, who had the same cognomen, but the different praenomina of
+Aulus, Quintus, Publius, and Lucius.  Aulus died in the enjoyment of the
+consulship [693], which office he bore jointly with Domitius, the father
+of Nero Caesar.  He was elegant to excess in his manner of living, and
+notorious for the vast expense of his entertainments.  Quintus was
+deprived of his rank of senator, when, upon a motion made by Tiberius, a
+resolution passed to purge the senate of those who were in any respect
+not duly qualified for that honour.  Publius, an intimate friend and
+companion of Germanicus, prosecuted his enemy and murderer, Cneius Piso,
+and procured sentence against him.  After he had been made proctor, being
+arrested among the accomplices of Sejanus, and delivered into the hands
+of his brother to be confined in his house, he opened a vein with a
+penknife, intending to bleed himself to death.  He suffered, however, the
+wound to be bound up and cured, not so much from repenting the resolution
+he had formed, as to comply with the importunity of his relations.  He
+died afterwards a natural death during his confinement.  Lucius, after
+his consulship [694], was made governor of Syria [695], and by his
+politic management not only brought Artabanus, king of the Parthians, to
+give him an interview, but to worship the standards of the Roman legions.
+He afterwards filled two ordinary consulships [696], and also the
+censorship [697] jointly with the emperor Claudius.  Whilst that (429)
+prince was absent upon his expedition into Britain [698], the care of the
+empire was committed to him, being a man of great integrity and industry.
+But he lessened his character not a little, by his passionate fondness
+for an abandoned freedwoman, with whose spittle, mixed with honey, he
+used to anoint his throat and jaws, by way of remedy for some complaint,
+not privately nor seldom, but daily and publicly.  Being extravagantly
+prone to flattery, it was he who gave rise to the worship of Caius Caesar
+as a god, when, upon his return from Syria, he would not presume to
+accost him any otherwise than with his head covered, turning himself
+round, and then prostrating himself upon the earth.  And to leave no
+artifice untried to secure the favour of Claudius, who was entirely
+governed by his wives and freedmen, he requested as the greatest favour
+from Messalina, that she would be pleased to let him take off her shoes;
+which, when he had done, he took her right shoe, and wore it constantly
+betwixt his toga and his tunic, and from time to time covered it with
+kisses.  He likewise worshipped golden images of Narcissus and Pallas
+among his household gods.  It was he, too, who, when Claudius exhibited
+the secular games, in his compliments to him upon that occasion, used
+this expression, "May you often do the same."
+
+III.  He died of palsy, the day after his seizure with it, leaving behind
+him two sons, whom he had by a most excellent and respectable wife,
+Sextilia.  He had lived to see them both consuls, the same year and
+during the whole year also; the younger succeeding the elder for the last
+six months [699].  The senate honoured him after his decease with a
+funeral at the public expense, and with a statue in the Rostra, which had
+this inscription upon the base: "One who was steadfast in his loyalty to
+his prince." The emperor Aulus Vitellius, the son of this Lucius, was born
+upon the eighth of the calends of October [24th September], or, as some
+say, upon the seventh of the ides of September [7th September], in the
+consulship of Drusus Caesar and Norbanus Flaccus [700].  His parents were
+so (430) terrified with the predictions of astrologers upon the
+calculation of his nativity, that his father used his utmost endeavours
+to prevent his being sent governor into any of the provinces, whilst he
+was alive.  His mother, upon his being sent to the legions [701], and
+also upon his being proclaimed emperor, immediately lamented him as
+utterly ruined.  He spent his youth amongst the catamites of Tiberius at
+Capri, was himself constantly stigmatized with the name of Spintria
+[702], and was supposed to have been the occasion of his father's
+advancement, by consenting to gratify the emperor's unnatural lust.
+
+IV.  In the subsequent part of his life, being still most scandalously
+vicious, he rose to great favour at court; being upon a very intimate
+footing with Caius [Caligula], because of his fondness for
+chariot-driving, and with Claudius for his love of gaming.  But he was in
+a still higher degree acceptable to Nero, as well on the same accounts, as
+for a particular service which he rendered him.  When Nero presided in the
+games instituted by himself, though he was extremely desirous to perform
+amongst the harpers, yet his modesty would not permit him, notwithstanding
+the people entreated much for it.  Upon his quitting the theatre,
+Vitellius fetched him back again, pretending to represent the determined
+wishes of the people, and so afforded him the opportunity of yielding to
+their in treaties.
+
+V.  By the favour of these three princes, he was not only advanced to the
+great offices of state, but to the highest dignities of the sacred order;
+after which he held the proconsulship of Africa, and had the
+superintendence of the public works, in which appointment his conduct,
+and, consequently, his reputation, were very different.  For he governed
+the province with singular integrity during two years, in the latter of
+which he acted as deputy to his brother, who succeeded him.  But in his
+office in the city, he was said to pillage the temples of their gifts and
+ornaments, and to have exchanged brass and tin for gold and silver. [703]
+
+VI.  He took to wife Petronia, the daughter of a man of consular rank,
+and had by her a son named Petronius, who was blind of an eye.  The
+mother being willing to appoint this youth her heir, upon condition that
+he should be released from his father's authority, the latter discharged
+him accordingly; but shortly after, as was believed, murdered him,
+charging him with a design upon his life, and pretending that he had,
+from consciousness of his guilt, drank the poison he had prepared for his
+father.  Soon afterwards, he married Galeria Fundana, the daughter of a
+man of pretorian rank, and had by her both sons and daughters.  Among the
+former was one who had such a stammering in his speech, that he was
+little better than if he had been dumb.
+
+VII.  He was sent by Galba into Lower Germany [704], contrary to his
+expectation.  It is supposed that he was assisted in procuring this
+appointment by the interest of Titus Junius, a man of great influence at
+that time; whose friendship he had long before gained by favouring the
+same set of charioteers with him in the Circensian games.  But Galba
+openly declared that none were less to be feared than those who only
+cared for their bellies, and that even his enormous appetite must be
+satisfied with the plenty of that province; so that it is evident he was
+selected for that government more out of contempt than kindness.  It is
+certain, that when he was to set out, he had not money for the expenses
+of his journey; he being at that time so much straitened in his
+circumstances, that he was obliged to put his wife and children, whom he
+left at Rome, into a poor lodging which he hired for them, in order that
+he might let his own house for the remainder of the year; and he pawned a
+pearl taken from his mother's ear-ring, to defray his expenses on the
+road.  A crowd of creditors who were waiting to stop him, and amongst
+them the people of Sineussa and Formia, whose taxes he had converted to
+his own use, he eluded, by alarming them with the apprehension of false
+accusation.  He had, however, sued a certain freedman, who was clamorous
+in demanding a debt of him, under pretence that he had kicked him; which
+action he would not withdraw, until he had wrung from the freedman fifty
+thousand sesterces.  Upon his arrival in the province, the army, (432)
+which was disaffected to Galba, and ripe for insurrection, received him
+with open arms, as if he had been sent them from heaven.  It was no small
+recommendation to their favour, that he was the son of a man who had been
+thrice consul, was in the prime of life, and of an easy, prodigal
+disposition.  This opinion, which had been long entertained of him,
+Vitellius confirmed by some late practices; having kissed all the common
+soldiers whom he met with upon the road, and been excessively complaisant
+in the inns and stables to the muleteers and travellers; asking them in a
+morning, if they had got their breakfasts, and letting them see, by
+belching, that he had eaten his.
+
+VIII.  After he had reached the camp, he denied no man any thing he asked
+for, and pardoned all who lay under sentence for disgraceful conduct or
+disorderly habits.  Before a month, therefore, had passed, without regard
+to the day or season, he was hurried by the soldiers out of his
+bed-chamber, although it was evening, and he in an undress, and
+unanimously saluted by the title of EMPEROR [705].  He was then carried
+round the most considerable towns in the neighbourhood, with the sword of
+the Divine Julius in his hand; which had been taken by some person out of
+the temple of Mars, and presented to him when he was first saluted.  Nor
+did he return to the pretorium, until his dining-room was in flames from
+the chimney's taking fire.  Upon this accident, all being in
+consternation, and considering it as an unlucky omen, he cried out,
+"Courage, boys! it shines brightly upon us."  And this was all he said to
+the soldiers.  The army of the Upper Province likewise, which had before
+declared against Galba for the senate, joining in the proceedings, he very
+eagerly accepted the cognomen of Germanicus, offered him by the unanimous
+consent of both armies, but deferred assuming that of Augustus, and
+refused for ever that of Caesar.
+
+IX.  Intelligence of Galba's death arriving soon after, when he had
+settled his affairs in Germany he divided his troops into two bodies,
+intending to send one of them before him against Otho, and to follow with
+the other himself.  The army he sent forward had a lucky omen; for,
+suddenly, an eagle cams flying up to them on the right, and having
+hovered (433) round the standards, flew gently before them on their road.
+But, on the other hand, when he began his own march, all the equestrian
+statues, which were erected for him in several places, fell suddenly down
+with their legs broken; and the laurel crown, which he had put on as
+emblematical of auspicious fortune, fell off his head into a river.  Soon
+afterwards, at Vienne [706], as he was upon the tribunal administering
+justice, a cock perched upon his shoulder, and afterwards upon his head.
+The issue corresponded to these omens; for he was not able to keep the
+empire which had been secured for him by his lieutenants.
+
+X.  He heard of the victory at Bedriacum [707], and the death of Otho,
+whilst he was yet in Gaul, and without the least hesitation, by a single
+proclamation, disbanded all the pretorian cohorts, as having, by their
+repeated treasons, set a dangerous example to the rest of the army;
+commanding them to deliver up their arms to his tribunes.  A hundred and
+twenty of them, under whose hands he had found petitions presented to
+Otho, for rewards of their service in the murder of Galba, he besides
+ordered to be sought out and punished.  So far his conduct deserved
+approbation, and was such as to afford hope of his becoming an excellent
+prince, had he not managed his other affairs in a way more corresponding
+with his own disposition, and his former manner of life, than to the
+imperial dignity.  For, having begun his march, he rode through every
+city in his route in a triumphal procession; and sailed down the rivers
+in ships, fitted out with the greatest elegance, and decorated with
+various kinds of crowns, amidst the most extravagant entertainments.
+Such was the want of discipline, and the licentiousness both in his
+family and army, that, not satisfied with the provision every where made
+for them at the public expense, they committed every kind of robbery and
+insult upon the inhabitants, setting slaves at liberty as they pleased;
+and if any dared to make resistance, they dealt blows and abuse,
+frequently wounds, and sometimes slaughter amongst them.  When he reached
+the plains on which the battles (434) were fought [708], some of those
+around him being offended at the smell of the carcases which lay rotting
+upon the ground, he had the audacity to encourage them by a most
+detestable remark, "That a dead enemy smelt not amiss, especially if he
+were a fellow-citizen."  To qualify, however, the offensiveness of the
+stench, he quaffed in public a goblet of wine, and with equal vanity and
+insolence distributed a large quantity of it among his troops.  On his
+observing a stone with an inscription upon it to the memory of Otho, he
+said, "It was a mausoleum good enough for such a prince."  He also sent
+the poniard, with which Otho killed himself, to the colony of Agrippina
+[709], to be dedicated to Mars.  Upon the Appenine hills he celebrated a
+Bacchanalian feast.
+
+XI.  At last he entered the City with trumpets sounding, in his general's
+cloak, and girded with his sword, amidst a display of standards and
+banners; his attendants being all in the military habit, and the arms of
+the soldiers unsheathed.  Acting more and more in open violation of all
+laws, both divine and human, he assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus,
+upon the day of the defeat at the Allia [710]; ordered the magistrates to
+be elected for ten years of office; and made himself consul for life.  To
+put it out of all doubt what model he intended to follow in his
+government of the empire, he made his offerings to the shade of Nero in
+the midst of the Campus Martius, and with a full assembly of the public
+priests attending him.  And at a solemn entertainment, he desired a
+harper who pleased the company much, to sing something in praise of
+Domitius; and upon his beginning some songs of Nero's, he started up in
+presence of the whole assembly, and could not refrain from applauding
+him, by clapping his hands.
+
+XII.  After such a commencement of his career, he conducted (435) his
+affairs, during the greater part of his reign, entirely by the advice and
+direction of the vilest amongst the players and charioteers, and
+especially his freedman Asiaticus.  This fellow had, when young, been
+engaged with him in a course of mutual and unnatural pollution, but,
+being at last quite tired of the occupation, ran away.  His master, some
+time after, caught him at Puteoli, selling a liquor called Posca [711],
+and put him in chains, but soon released him, and retained him in his
+former capacity.  Growing weary, however, of his rough and stubborn
+temper, he sold him to a strolling fencing-master; after which, when the
+fellow was to have been brought up to play his part at the conclusion of
+an entertainment of gladiators, he suddenly carried him off, and at
+length, upon his being advanced to the government of a province, gave him
+his freedom.  The first day of his reign, he presented him with the gold
+rings at supper, though in the morning, when all about him requested that
+favour in his behalf, he expressed the utmost abhorrence of putting so
+great a stain upon the equestrian order.
+
+XIII.  He was chiefly addicted to the vices of luxury and cruelty.  He
+always made three meals a day, sometimes four: breakfast, dinner, and
+supper, and a drunken revel after all.  This load of victuals he could
+well enough bear, from a custom to which he had enured himself, of
+frequently vomiting.  For these several meals he would make different
+appointments at the houses of his friends on the same day.  None ever
+entertained him at less expense than four hundred thousand sesterces
+[712].  The most famous was a set entertainment given him by his brother,
+at which, it is said, there were served up no less than two thousand
+choice fishes, and seven thousand birds.  Yet even this supper he himself
+outdid, at a feast which he gave upon the first use of a dish which had
+been made for him, and which, for its extraordinary size, he called "The
+Shield of Minerva."  In this dish there were tossed up together the
+livers of char-fish, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, with the
+tongues of flamingos, and the entrails of lampreys, which had been
+brought in ships of war as far as (436) from the Carpathian Sea, and the
+Spanish Straits.  He was not only a man of an insatiable appetite, but
+would gratify it likewise at unseasonable times, and with any garbage
+that came in his way; so that, at a sacrifice, he would snatch from the
+fire flesh and cakes, and eat them upon the spot.  When he travelled, he
+did the same at the inns upon the road, whether the meat was fresh
+dressed and hot, or what had been left the day before, and was
+half-eaten.
+
+XIV.  He delighted in the infliction of punishments, and even those which
+were capital, without any distinction of persons or occasions.  Several
+noblemen, his school-fellows and companions, invited by him to court, he
+treated with such flattering caresses, as seemed to indicate an affection
+short only of admitting them to share the honours of the imperial
+dignity; yet he put them all to death by some base means or other.  To
+one he gave poison with his own hand, in a cup of cold water which he
+called for in a fever.  He scarcely spared one of all the usurers,
+notaries, and publicans, who had ever demanded a debt of him at Rome, or
+any toll or custom upon the road.  One of these, while in the very act of
+saluting him, he ordered for execution, but immediately sent for him
+back; upon which all about him applauding his clemency, he commanded him
+to be slain in his own presence, saying, "I have a mind to feed my eyes."
+Two sons who interceded for their father, he ordered to be executed with
+him.  A Roman knight, upon his being dragged away for execution, and
+crying out to him, "You are my heir," he desired to produce his will: and
+finding that he had made his freedman joint heir with him, he commanded
+that both he and the freedman should have their throats cut.  He put to
+death some of the common people for cursing aloud the blue party in the
+Circensian games; supposing it to be done in contempt of himself, and the
+expectation of a revolution in the government.  There were no persons he
+was more severe against than jugglers and astrologers; and as soon as any
+one of them was informed against, he put him to death without the
+formality of a trial.  He was enraged against them, because, after his
+proclamation by which he commanded all astrologers to quit home, and
+Italy also, before the calends [the first] of October, a bill was
+immediately posted about the city, with the following words:--"TAKE
+NOTICE: [713] The Chaldaeans also decree that Vitellius Germanicus shall
+be no more, by the day of the said calends."  He was even suspected of
+being accessary to his mother's death, by forbidding sustenance to be
+given her when she was unwell; a German witch [714], whom he held to be
+oracular, having told him, "That he would long reign in security if he
+survived his mother."  But others say, that being quite weary of the
+state of affairs, and apprehensive of the future, she obtained without
+difficulty a dose of poison from her son.
+
+XV.  In the eighth month of his reign, the troops both in Moesia and
+Pannonia revolted from him; as did likewise, of the armies beyond sea,
+those in Judaea and Syria, some of which swore allegiance to Vespasian as
+emperor in his own presence, and others in his absence.  In order,
+therefore, to secure the favour and affection of the people, Vitellius
+lavished on all around whatever he had it in his power to bestow, both
+publicly and privately, in the most extravagant manner.  He also levied
+soldiers in the city, and promised all who enlisted as volunteers, not
+only their discharge after the victory was gained, but all the rewards
+due to veterans who had served their full time in the wars.  The enemy
+now pressing forward both by sea and land, on one hand he opposed against
+them his brother with a fleet, the new levies, and a body of gladiators,
+and in another quarter the troops and generals who were engaged at
+Bedriacum.  But being beaten or betrayed in every direction, he agreed
+with Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, to abdicate, on condition of
+having his life spared, and a hundred millions of sesterces granted him;
+and he immediately, upon the palace-steps, publicly declared to a large
+body of soldiers there assembled, "that he resigned the government, which
+he had accepted reluctantly;" but they all remonstrating against it, he
+deferred the conclusion of the treaty.  Next day, early in the morning,
+he came down to the Forum in a very mean habit, and with many tears
+repeated the (438) declaration from a writing which he held in his hand;
+but the soldiers and people again interposing, and encouraging him not to
+give way, but to rely on their zealous support, he recovered his courage,
+and forced Sabinus, with the rest of the Flavian party, who now thought
+themselves secure, to retreat into the Capitol, where he destroyed them
+all by setting fire to the temple of Jupiter, whilst he beheld the
+contest and the fire from Tiberius's house [715], where he was feasting.
+Not long after, repenting of what he had done, and throwing the blame of
+it upon others, he called a meeting, and swore "that nothing was dearer
+to him than the public peace;" which oath he also obliged the rest to
+take.  Then drawing a dagger from his side, he presented it first to the
+consul, and, upon his refusing it, to the magistrates, and then to every
+one of the senators; but none of them being willing to accept it, he went
+away, as if he meant to lay it up in the temple of Concord; but some
+crying out to him, "You are Concord," he came back again, and said that
+he would not only keep his weapon, but for the future use the cognomen of
+Concord.
+
+XVI.  He advised the senate to send deputies, accompanied by the Vestal
+Virgins, to desire peace, or, at least, time for consultation.  The day
+after, while he was waiting for an answer, he received intelligence by a
+scout, that the enemy was advancing.  Immediately, therefore, throwing
+himself into a small litter, borne by hand, with only two attendants, a
+baker and a cook, he privately withdrew to his father's house, on the
+Aventine hill, intending to escape thence into Campania.  But a
+groundless report being circulated, that the enemy was willing to come to
+terms, he suffered himself to be carried back to the palace.  Finding,
+however, nobody there, and those who were with him stealing away, he
+girded round his waist a belt full of gold pieces, and then ran into the
+porter's lodge, tying the dog before the door, and piling up against it
+the bed and bedding.
+
+XVII.  By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken into
+the palace, and meeting with nobody, searched, as was natural, every
+corner.  Being dragged by them out of his cell, and asked "who he was?"
+(for they did not recognize him), "and if he knew where Vitellius was?"
+he deceived them by a falsehood.  But at last being discovered, he begged
+hard to be detained in custody, even were it in a prison; pretending to
+have something to say which concerned Vespasian's security.
+Nevertheless, he was dragged half-naked into the Forum, with his hands
+tied behind him, a rope about his neck, and his clothes torn, amidst the
+most contemptuous abuse, both by word and deed, along the Via Sacra; his
+head being held back by the hair, in the manner of condemned criminals,
+and the point of a sword put under his chin, that he might hold up his
+face to public view; some of the mob, meanwhile, pelting him with dung
+and mud, whilst others called him "an incendiary and glutton."  They also
+upbraided him with the defects of his person, for he was monstrously
+tall, and had a face usually very red with hard-drinking, a large belly,
+and one thigh weak, occasioned by a chariot running against him, as he
+was attending upon Caius [716], while he was driving.  At length, upon
+the Scalae Gemoniae, he was tormented and put to death in lingering
+tortures, and then dragged by a hook into the Tiber.
+
+XVIII.  He perished with his brother and son [717], in the fifty-seventh
+year of his age [718], and verified the prediction of those who, from the
+omen which happened to him at Vienne, as before related [719], foretold
+that he would be made prisoner by some man of Gaul.  For he was seized by
+Antoninus Primus, a general of the adverse party, who was born at
+Toulouse, and, when a boy, had the cognomen of Becco [720], which
+signifies a cock's beak.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+(440) After the extinction of the race of the Caesars, the possession of
+the imperial power became extremely precarious; and great influence in
+the army was the means which now invariably led to the throne.  The
+soldiers having arrogated to themselves the right of nomination, they
+either unanimously elected one and the same person, or different parties
+supporting the interests of their respective favourites, there arose
+between them a contention, which was usually determined by an appeal to
+arms, and followed by the assassination of the unsuccessful competitor.
+Vitellius, by being a parasite of all the emperors from Tiberius to Nero
+inclusively, had risen to a high military rank, by which, with a spirit
+of enterprise, and large promises to the soldiery, it was not difficult
+to snatch the reins of government, while they were yet fluctuating in the
+hands of Otho.  His ambition prompted to the attempt, and his boldness
+was crowned with success.  In the service of the four preceding emperors,
+Vitellius had imbibed the principal vices of them all: but what chiefly
+distinguished him was extreme voraciousness, which, though he usually
+pampered it with enormous luxury, could yet be gratified by the vilest
+and most offensive garbage.  The pusillanimity discovered by this emperor
+at his death, forms a striking contrast to the heroic behaviour of Otho.
+
+
+
+
+
+T. FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS AUGUSTUS.
+
+(441)
+
+I.  The empire, which had been long thrown into a disturbed and unsetted
+state, by the rebellion and violent death of its three last rulers, was
+at length restored to peace and security by the Flavian family, whose
+descent was indeed obscure, and which boasted no ancestral honours; but
+the public had no cause to regret its elevation; though it is
+acknowledged that Domitian met with the just reward of his avarice and
+cruelty.  Titus Flavius Petro, a townsman of Reate [721], whether a
+centurion or an evocatus [722] of Pompey's party in the civil war, is
+uncertain, fled out of the battle of Pharsalia and went home; where,
+having at last obtained his pardon and discharge, he became a collector
+of the money raised by public sales in the way of auction.  His son,
+surnamed Sabinus, was never engaged in the military service, though some
+say he was a centurion of the first order, and others, that whilst he
+held that rank, he was discharged on account of his bad state of health:
+this Sabinus, I say, was a publican, and received the tax of the fortieth
+penny in Asia.  And there were remaining, at the time of the advancement
+of the family, several statues, which had been erected to him by the
+cities of that province, with this inscription: "To the honest
+Tax-farmer." [723]  He afterwards turned usurer amongst the Helvetii, and
+there died, leaving behind him his wife, Vespasia Pella, and two sons by
+her; the elder of whom, Sabinus, came to be prefect of the city, and the
+younger, Vespasian, to be emperor.  Polla, descended of a good family, at
+Nursia [724], had for her father Vespasius Pollio, thrice appointed (442)
+military tribune, and at last prefect of the camp; and her brother was a
+senator of praetorian dignity.  There is to this day, about six miles
+from Nursia, on the road to Spoletum, a place on the summit of a hill,
+called Vespasiae, where are several monuments of the Vespasii, a
+sufficient proof of the splendour and antiquity of the family.  I will
+not deny that some have pretended to say, that Petro's father was a
+native of Gallia Transpadana [725], whose employment was to hire
+workpeople who used to emigrate every year from the country of the Umbria
+into that of the Sabines, to assist them in their husbandry [726]; but
+who settled at last in the town of Reate, and there married.  But of this
+I have not been able to discover the least proof, upon the strictest
+inquiry.
+
+II.  Vespasian was born in the country of the Sabines, beyond Reate, in a
+little country-seat called Phalacrine, upon the fifth of the calends of
+December [27th November], in the evening, in the consulship of Quintus
+Sulpicius Camerinus and Caius Poppaeus Sabinus, five years before the
+death of Augustus [727]; and was educated under the care of Tertulla, his
+grandmother by the father's side, upon an estate belonging to the family,
+at Cosa [728].  After his advancement to the empire, he used frequently
+to visit the place where he had spent his infancy; and the villa was
+continued in the same condition, that he might see every thing about him
+just as he had been used to do.  And he had so great a regard for the
+memory of his grandmother, that, upon solemn occasions and festival days,
+he constantly drank out of a silver cup which she had been accustomed to
+use.  After assuming the manly habit, he had a long time a distaste for
+the senatorian toga, though his brother had obtained it; nor could he be
+persuaded by any one but his mother to sue for that badge of honour.  She
+at length drove him to it, more by taunts and reproaches, than by her
+entreaties (443) and authority, calling him now and then, by way of
+reproach, his brother's footman.  He served as military tribune in
+Thrace.  When made quaestor, the province of Crete and Cyrene fell to him
+by lot.  He was candidate for the aedileship, and soon after for the
+praetorship, but met with a repulse in the former case; though at last,
+with much difficulty, he came in sixth on the poll-books.  But the office
+of praetor he carried upon his first canvass, standing amongst the
+highest at the poll.  Being incensed against the senate, and desirous to
+gain, by all possible means, the good graces of Caius [729], he obtained
+leave to exhibit extraordinary [730] games for the emperor's victory in
+Germany, and advised them to increase the punishment of the conspirators
+against his life, by exposing their corpses unburied.  He likewise gave
+him thanks in that august assembly for the honour of being admitted to
+his table.
+
+III.  Meanwhile, he married Flavia Domitilla, who had formerly been the
+mistress of Statilius Capella, a Roman knight of Sabrata in Africa, who
+[Domitilla] enjoyed Latin rights; and was soon after declared fully and
+freely a citizen of Rome, on a trial before the court of Recovery,
+brought by her father Flavius Liberalis, a native of Ferentum, but no
+more than secretary to a quaestor.  By her he had the following children:
+Titus, Domitian, and Domitilla.  He outlived his wife and daughter, and
+lost them both before he became emperor.  After the death of his wife, he
+renewed his union [731] with his former concubine Caenis, the freedwoman
+of Antonia, and also her amanuensis, and treated her, even after he was
+emperor, almost as if she had been his lawful wife. [732]
+
+(444) IV.  In the reign of Claudius, by the interest of Narcissus, he was
+sent to Germany, in command of a legion; whence being removed into
+Britain, he engaged the enemy in thirty several battles.  He reduced
+under subjection to the Romans two very powerful tribes, and above twenty
+great towns, with the Isle of Wight, which lies close to the coast of
+Britain; partly under the command of Aulus Plautius, the consular
+lieutenant, and partly under Claudius himself [733].  For this success he
+received the triumphal ornaments, and in a short time after two
+priesthoods, besides the consulship, which he held during the two last
+months of the year [734].  The interval between that and his
+proconsulship he spent in leisure and retirement, for fear of Agrippina,
+who still held great sway over her son, and hated all the friends of
+Narcissus, who was then dead.  Afterwards he got by lot the province of
+Africa, which he governed with great reputation, excepting that once, in
+an insurrection at Adrumetum, he was pelted with turnips.  It is certain
+that he returned thence nothing richer; for his credit was so low, that
+he was obliged to mortgage his whole property to his brother, and was
+reduced to the necessity of dealing in mules, for the support of his
+rank; for which reason he was commonly called "the Muleteer."  He is said
+likewise to have been convicted of extorting from a young man of fashion
+two hundred thousand sesterces for procuring him the broad-stripe,
+contrary to the wishes of his father, and was severely reprimanded for
+it.  While in attendance upon Nero in Achaia, he frequently withdrew from
+the theatre while Nero was singing, and went to sleep if he remained,
+which gave so much (445) offence, that he was not only excluded from his
+society, but debarred the liberty of saluting him in public.  Upon this,
+he retired to a small out-of-the-way town, where he lay skulking in
+constant fear of his life, until a province, with an army, was offered
+him.
+
+A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East [735], that it
+was fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on some
+who should go forth from Judaea.  This prediction referred to a Roman
+emperor, as the event shewed; but the Jews, applying it to themselves,
+broke out into rebellion, and having defeated and slain their governor
+[736], routed the lieutenant of Syria [737], a man of consular rank, who
+was advancing to his assistance, and took an eagle, the standard, of one
+of his legions.  As the suppression of this revolt appeared to require a
+stronger force and an active general, who might be safely trusted in an
+affair of so much importance, Vespasian was chosen in preference to all
+others, both for his known activity, and on account of the obscurity of
+his origin and name, being a person of whom (446) there could be not the
+least jealousy.  Two legions, therefore, eight squadrons of horse, and
+ten cohorts, being added to the former troops in Judaea, and, taking with
+him his eldest son as lieutenant, as soon as he arrived in his province,
+he turned the eyes of the neighbouring provinces upon him, by reforming
+immediately the discipline of the camp, and engaging the enemy once or
+twice with such resolution, that, in the attack of a castle [738], he had
+his knee hurt by the stroke of a stone, and received several arrows in
+his shield.
+
+V.  After the deaths of Nero and Galba, whilst Otho and Vitellius were
+contending for the sovereignty, he entertained hopes of obtaining the
+empire, with the prospect of which he had long before flattered himself,
+from the following omens.  Upon an estate belonging to the Flavian
+family, in the neighbourhood of Rome, there was an old oak, sacred to
+Mars, which, at the three several deliveries of Vespasia, put out each
+time a new branch; evident intimations of the future fortune of each
+child.  The first was but a slender one, which quickly withered away; and
+accordingly, the girl that was born did not live long.  The second became
+vigorous, which portended great good fortune; but the third grew like a
+tree.  His father, Sabinus, encouraged by these omens, which were
+confirmed by the augurs, told his mother, "that her grandson would be
+emperor of Rome;" at which she laughed heartily, wondering, she said,
+"that her son should be in his dotage whilst she continued still in full
+possession of her faculties."
+
+Afterwards in his aedileship, when Caius Caesar, being enraged at his not
+taking care to have the streets kept clean, ordered the soldiers to fill
+the bosom of his gown with dirt, some persons at that time construed it
+into a sign that the government, being trampled under foot and deserted
+in some civil commotion, would fall under his protection, and as it were
+into his lap.  Once, while he was at dinner, a strange dog, that wandered
+about the streets, brought a man's hand [739], and laid it under the
+table.  And another time, while he was at supper, a plough-ox throwing
+the yoke off his neck, broke into the room, and after he had frightened
+away all the attendants, (447) on a sudden, as if he was tired, fell down
+at his feet, as he lay still upon his couch, and hung down his neck.  A
+cypress-tree likewise, in a field belonging to the family, was torn up by
+the roots, and laid flat upon the ground, when there was no violent wind;
+but next day it rose again fresher and stronger than before.
+
+He dreamt in Achaia that the good fortune of himself and his family would
+begin when Nero had a tooth drawn; and it happened that the day after, a
+surgeon coming into the hall, showed him a tooth which he had just
+extracted from Nero.  In Judaea, upon his consulting the oracle of the
+divinity at Carmel [740], the answer was so encouraging as to assure him
+of success in anything he projected, however great or important it might
+be.  And when Josephus [741], one of the noble prisoners, was put in
+chains, he confidently affirmed that he should be released in a very
+short time by the same Vespasian, but he would be emperor first [742].
+Some omens were likewise mentioned in the news from Rome, and among
+others, that Nero, towards the close of his days, was commanded in a
+dream to carry Jupiter's sacred chariot out of the sanctuary where it
+stood, to Vespasian's house, and conduct it thence into the circus.  Also
+not long afterwards, as Galba was going to the election, in which he was
+created consul for the second time, a statue of the Divine Julius [743]
+turned towards the east.  And in the field of Bedriacum [744], before the
+battle began, two eagles engaged in the sight of the army; and one of
+them being beaten, a third came from the east, and drove away the
+conqueror.
+
+(448) VI.  He made, however, no attempt upon the sovereignty, though his
+friends were very ready to support him, and even pressed him to the
+enterprise, until he was encouraged to it by the fortuitous aid of
+persons unknown to him and at a distance.  Two thousand men, drawn out of
+three legions in the Moesian army, had been sent to the assistance of
+Otho.  While they were upon their march, news came that he had been
+defeated, and had put an end to his life; notwithstanding which they
+continued their march as far as Aquileia, pretending that they gave no
+credit to the report.  There, tempted by the opportunity which the
+disorder of the times afforded them, they ravaged and plundered the
+country at discretion; until at length, fearing to be called to an
+account on their return, and punished for it, they resolved upon choosing
+and creating an emperor.  "For they were no ways inferior," they said,
+"to the army which made Galba emperor, nor to the pretorian troops which
+had set up Otho, nor the army in Germany, to whom Vitellius owed his
+elevation."  The names of all the consular lieutenants, therefore, being
+taken into consideration, and one objecting to one, and another to
+another, for various reasons; at last some of the third legion, which a
+little before Nero's death had been removed out of Syria into Moesia,
+extolled Vespasian in high terms; and all the rest assenting, his name
+was immediately inscribed on their standards.  The design was
+nevertheless quashed for a time, the troops being brought to submit to
+Vitellius a little longer.
+
+However, the fact becoming known, Tiberius Alexander, governor of Egypt,
+first obliged the legions under his command to swear obedience to
+Vespasian as their emperor, on the calends [the 1st] of July, which was
+observed ever after as the day of his accession to the empire; and upon
+the fifth of the ides of the same month [the 28th July], the army in
+Judaea, where he then was, also swore allegiance to him.  What
+contributed greatly to forward the affair, was a copy of a letter,
+whether real or counterfeit, which was circulated, and said to have been
+written by Otho before his decease to Vespasian, recommending to him in
+the most urgent terms to avenge his death, and entreating him to come to
+the aid of the commonwealth; as well as a report which was circulated,
+that Vitellius, after his success against Otho, proposed to change the
+winter quarters of the legions, and remove those in Germany to a less
+(449) hazardous station and a warmer climate.  Moreover, amongst the
+governors of provinces, Licinius Mucianus dropping the grudge arising
+from a jealousy of which he had hitherto made no secret, promised to join
+him with the Syrian army, and, among the allied kings, Volugesus, king of
+the Parthians, offered him a reinforcement of forty thousand archers.
+
+VII.  Having, therefore, entered on a civil war, and sent forward his
+generals and forces into Italy, he himself, in the meantime, passed over
+to Alexandria, to obtain possession of the key of Egypt [745].  Here
+having entered alone, without attendants, the temple of Serapis, to take
+the auspices respecting the establishment of his power, and having done
+his utmost to propitiate the deity, upon turning round, [his freedman]
+Basilides [746] appeared before him, and seemed to offer him the sacred
+leaves, chaplets, and cakes, according to the usage of the place,
+although no one had admitted him, and he had long laboured under a
+muscular debility, which would hardly have allowed him to walk into the
+temple; besides which, it was certain that at the very time he was far
+away.  Immediately after this, arrived letters with intelligence that
+Vitellius's troops had been defeated at Cremona, and he himself slain at
+Rome.  Vespasian, the new emperor, having been raised unexpectedly from a
+low estate, wanted something which might clothe him with divine majesty
+and authority.  This, likewise, was now added.  A poor man who was blind,
+and another who was lame, came both together before him, when he was
+seated on the tribunal, imploring him to heal them [747], and saying that
+they were admonished (450) in a dream by the god Serapis to seek his aid,
+who assured them that he would restore sight to the one by anointing his
+eyes with his spittle, and give strength to the leg of the other, if he
+vouchsafed but to touch it with his heel.  At first he could scarcely
+believe that the thing would any how succeed, and therefore hesitated to
+venture on making the experiment.  At length, however, by the advice of
+his friends, he made the attempt publicly, in the presence of the
+assembled multitudes, and it was crowned with success in both cases
+[748].  About the same time, at Tegea in Arcadia, by the direction (451)
+of some soothsayers, several vessels of ancient workmanship were dug out
+of a consecrated place, on which there was an effigy resembling
+Vespasian.
+
+VIII.  Returning now to Rome, under these auspices, and with a great
+reputation, after enjoying a triumph for victories over the Jews, he
+added eight consulships [749] to his former one.  He likewise assumed the
+censorship, and made it his principal concern, during the whole of his
+government, first to restore order in the state, which had been almost
+ruined, and was in a tottering condition, and then to improve it.  The
+soldiers, one part of them emboldened by victory, and the other smarting
+with the disgrace of their defeat, had abandoned themselves to every
+species of licentiousness and insolence.  Nay, the provinces, too, and
+free cities, and some kingdoms in alliance with Rome, were all in a
+disturbed state.  He, therefore, disbanded many of Vitellius's soldiers,
+and punished others; and so far was he from granting any extraordinary
+favours to the sharers of his success, that it was late before he paid
+the gratuities due to them by law.  That he might let slip no opportunity
+of reforming the discipline of the army, upon a young man's coming much
+perfumed to return him thanks (452) for having appointed him to command a
+squadron of horse, he turned away his head in disgust, and, giving him
+this sharp reprimand, "I had rather you had smelt of garlic," revoked his
+commission.  When the men belonging to the fleet, who travelled by turns
+from Ostia and Puteoli to Rome, petitioned for an addition to their pay,
+under the name of shoe-money, thinking that it would answer little
+purpose to send them away without a reply, he ordered them for the future
+to run barefooted; and so they have done ever since.  He deprived of
+their liberties, Achaia, Lycia, Rhodes, Byzantium, and Samos; and reduced
+them into the form of provinces; Thrace, also, and Cilicia, as well as
+Comagene, which until that time had been under the government of kings.
+He stationed some legions in Cappadocia on account of the frequent
+inroads of the barbarians, and, instead of a Roman knight, appointed as
+governor of it a man of consular rank.  The ruins of houses which had
+been burnt down long before, being a great desight to the city, he gave
+leave to any one who would, to take possession of the void ground and
+build upon it, if the proprietors should hesitate to perform the work
+themselves.  He resolved upon rebuilding the Capitol, and was the
+foremost to put his hand to clearing the ground of the rubbish, and
+removed some of it upon his own shoulder.  And he undertook, likewise, to
+restore the three thousand tables of brass which had been destroyed in
+the fire which consumed the Capitol; searching in all quarters for copies
+of those curious and ancient records, in which were contained the decrees
+of the senate, almost from the building of the city, as well as the acts
+of the people, relative to alliances, treaties, and privileges granted to
+any person.
+
+IX.  He likewise erected several new public buildings, namely, the temple
+of Peace [750] near the Forum, that of Claudius on the (453) Coelian
+mount, which had been begun by Agrippina, but almost entirely demolished
+by Nero [751]; and an amphitheatre [752] in the middle of the city, upon
+finding that Augustus had projected such a work.  He purified the
+senatorian and equestrian orders, which had been much reduced by the
+havoc made amongst them at several times, and was fallen into disrepute
+by neglect.  Having expelled the most unworthy, he chose in their room
+the most honourable persons in Italy and the provinces.  And to let it be
+known that those two orders differed not so much in privileges as in
+dignity, he declared publicly, when some altercation passed between a
+senator and a Roman knight, "that senators ought not to be treated with
+scurrilous language, unless they were the aggressors, and then it was
+fair and lawful to return it."
+
+X.  The business of the courts had prodigiously accumulated, partly from
+old law-suits which, on account of the interruption that had been given
+to the course of justice, still remained undecided, and partly from the
+accession of new suits arising out of the disorder of the times.  He,
+therefore, chose commissioners by lot to provide for the restitution of
+what had been seized by violence during the war, and others with
+extraordinary jurisdiction to decide causes belonging to the centumviri,
+and reduce them to as small a number as possible, for the dispatch of
+which, otherwise, the lives of the litigants could scarcely allow
+sufficient time.
+
+XI.  Lust and luxury, from the licence which had long prevailed, had also
+grown to an enormous height.  He, therefore, obtained a decree of the
+senate, that a woman who formed an union with the slave of another
+person, should be considered (454) a bondwoman herself; and that usurers
+should not be allowed to take proceedings at law for the recovery of
+money lent to young men whilst they lived in their father's family, not
+even after their fathers were dead.
+
+XII.  In other affairs, from the beginning to the end of his government,
+he conducted himself with great moderation and clemency.  He was so far
+from dissembling the obscurity of his extraction, that he frequently made
+mention of it himself.  When some affected to trace his pedigree to the
+founders of Reate, and a companion of Hercules [753], whose monument is
+still to be seen on the Salarian road, he laughed at them for it.  And he
+was so little fond of external and adventitious ornaments, that, on the
+day of his triumph [754], being quite tired of the length and tediousness
+of the procession, he could not forbear saying, "he was rightly served,
+for having in his old age been so silly as to desire a triumph; as if it
+was either due to his ancestors, or had ever been expected by himself."
+Nor would he for a long time accept of the tribunitian authority, or the
+title of Father of his Country.  And in regard to the custom of searching
+those who came to salute him, he dropped it even in the time of the civil
+war.
+
+XIII.  He bore with great mildness the freedom used by his friends, the
+satirical allusions of advocates, and the petulance of philosophers.
+Licinius Mucianus, who had been guilty of notorious acts of lewdness,
+but, presuming upon his great services, treated him very rudely, he
+reproved only in private; and when complaining of his conduct to a common
+friend of theirs, he concluded with these words, "However, I am a man."
+Salvius Liberalis, in pleading the cause of a rich man under prosecution,
+presuming to say, "What is it to Caesar, if Hipparchus possesses a
+hundred millions of sesterces?" he commended him for it.  Demetrius, the
+Cynic philosopher [755], (455) who had been sentenced to banishment,
+meeting him on the road, and refusing to rise up or salute him, nay,
+snarling at him in scurrilous language, he only called him a cur.
+
+XIV.  He was little disposed to keep up the memory of affronts or
+quarrels, nor did he harbour any resentment on account of them.  He made
+a very splendid marriage for the daughter of his enemy Vitellius, and
+gave her, besides, a suitable fortune and equipage.  Being in a great
+consternation after he was forbidden the court in the time of Nero, and
+asking those about him, what he should do? or, whither he should go? one
+of those whose office it was to introduce people to the emperor,
+thrusting him out, bid him go to Morbonia [756].  But when this same
+person came afterwards to beg his pardon, he only vented his resentment
+in nearly the same words.  He was so far from being influenced by
+suspicion or fear to seek the destruction of any one, that, when his
+friends advised him to beware of Metius Pomposianus, because it was
+commonly believed, on his nativity being cast, that he was destined by
+fate to the empire, he made him consul, promising for him, that he would
+not forget the benefit conferred.
+
+XV.  It will scarcely be found, that so much as one innocent person
+suffered in his reign, unless in his absence, and without his knowledge,
+or, at least, contrary to his inclination, and when he was imposed upon.
+Although Helvidius Priscus [757] was the only man who presumed to salute
+him on his return from Syria by his private name of Vespasian, and, when
+he came to be praetor, omitted any mark of honour to him, or even any
+mention of him in his edicts, yet he was not angry, until Helvidius
+proceeded to inveigh against him with the most scurrilous language.
+(456) Though he did indeed banish him, and afterwards ordered him to be
+put to death, yet he would gladly have saved him notwithstanding, and
+accordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back the executioners; and he
+would have saved him, had he not been deceived by a false account
+brought, that he had already perished.  He never rejoiced at the death of
+any man; nay he would shed tears, and sigh, at the just punishment of the
+guilty.
+
+XVI.  The only thing deservedly blameable in his character was his love
+of money.  For not satisfied with reviving the imposts which had been
+repealed in the time of Galba, he imposed new and onerous taxes,
+augmented the tribute of the provinces, and doubled that of some of them.
+He likewise openly engaged in a traffic, which is discreditable [758]
+even to a private individual, buying great quantities of goods, for the
+purpose of retailing them again to advantage.  Nay, he made no scruple of
+selling the great offices of the state to candidates, and pardons to
+persons under prosecution, whether they were innocent or guilty.  It is
+believed, that he advanced all the most rapacious amongst the procurators
+to higher offices, with the view of squeezing them after they had
+acquired great wealth.  He was commonly said, "to have used them as
+sponges," because it was his practice, as we may say, to wet them when
+dry, and squeeze them when wet.  It is said that he was naturally
+extremely covetous, and was upbraided with it by an old herdsman of his,
+who, upon the emperor's refusing to enfranchise him gratis, which on his
+advancement he humbly petitioned for, cried out, "That the fox changed
+his hair, but not his nature."  On the other hand, some are of opinion,
+that he was urged to his rapacious proceedings by necessity, and the
+extreme poverty of the treasury and exchequer, of which he took public
+notice in the beginning of his reign; declaring that "no less than four
+hundred thousand millions of sesterces were wanting to carry on the
+government."  This is the more likely to be true, because he applied to
+the best purposes what he procured by bad means.
+
+XVII.  His liberality, however, to all ranks of people, was excessive.
+He made up to several senators the estate required (457) by law to
+qualify them for that dignity; relieving likewise such men of consular
+rank as were poor, with a yearly allowance of five hundred thousand
+sesterces [759]; and rebuilt, in a better manner than before, several
+cities in different parts of the empire, which had been damaged by
+earthquakes or fires.
+
+XVIII.  He was a great encourager of learning and the liberal arts.  He
+first granted to the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearly
+stipend of a hundred thousand sesterces [760] each out of the exchequer.
+He also bought the freedom of superior poets and artists [761], and gave
+a noble gratuity to the restorer of the Coan of Venus [762], and to
+another artist who repaired the Colossus [763].  Some one offering to
+convey some immense columns into the Capitol at a small expense by a
+mechanical contrivance, he rewarded him very handsomely for his
+invention, but would not accept his service, saying, "Suffer me to find
+maintenance for the poor people." [764]
+
+XIX.  In the games celebrated when the stage-scenery of (458) the theatre
+of Marcellus [765] was repaired, he restored the old musical
+entertainments.  He gave Apollinaris, the tragedian, four hundred
+thousand sesterces, and to Terpinus and Diodorus, the harpers, two
+hundred thousand; to some a hundred thousand; and the least he gave to
+any of the performers was forty thousand, besides many golden crowns.  He
+entertained company constantly at his table, and often in great state and
+very sumptuously, in order to promote trade.  As in the Saturnalia he
+made presents to the men which they were to carry away with them, so did
+he to the women upon the calends of March [766]; notwithstanding which,
+he could not wipe off the disrepute of his former stinginess.  The
+Alexandrians called him constantly Cybiosactes; a name which had been
+given to one of their kings who was sordidly avaricious.  Nay, at his
+funeral, Favo, the principal mimic, personating him, and imitating, as
+actors do, both his manner of speaking and his gestures, asked aloud of
+the procurators, "how much his funeral and the procession would cost?"
+And being answered "ten millions of sesterces," he cried out, "give him
+but a hundred thousand sesterces, and they might throw his body into the
+Tiber, if they would."
+
+XX.  He was broad-set, strong-limbed, and his features gave the idea of a
+man in the act of straining himself.  In consequence, one of the city
+wits, upon the emperor's desiring him "to say something droll respecting
+himself," facetiously answered, "I will, when you have done relieving
+your bowels." [767]  He enjoyed a good state of health, though he used no
+other means to preserve it, than repeated friction, as much (459) as he
+could bear, on his neck and other parts of his body, in the tennis-court
+attached to the baths, besides fasting one day in every month.
+
+XXI.  His method of life was commonly this.  After he became emperor, he
+used to rise very early, often before daybreak.  Having read over his
+letters, and the briefs of all the departments of the government offices;
+he admitted his friends; and while they were paying him their
+compliments, he would put on his own shoes, and dress himself with his
+own hands.  Then, after the dispatch of such business as was brought
+before him, he rode out, and afterwards retired to repose, lying on his
+couch with one of his mistresses, of whom he kept several after the death
+of Caenis [768].  Coming out of his private apartments, he passed to the
+bath, and then entered the supper-room.  They say that he was never more
+good-humoured and indulgent than at that time: and therefore his
+attendants always seized that opportunity, when they had any favour to
+ask.
+
+XXII.  At supper, and, indeed, at other times, he was extremely free and
+jocose.  For he had humour, but of a low kind, and he would sometimes use
+indecent language, such as is addressed to young girls about to be
+married.  Yet there are some things related of him not void of ingenious
+pleasantry; amongst which are the following.  Being once reminded by
+Mestrius Florus, that plaustra was a more proper expression than plostra,
+he the next day saluted him by the name of Flaurus [769].  A certain lady
+pretending to be desperately enamoured of him, he was prevailed upon to
+admit her to his bed; and after he had gratified her desires, he gave her
+[770] four hundred (460) thousand sesterces.  When his steward desired to
+know how he would have the sum entered in his accounts, he replied, "For
+Vespasian's being seduced."
+
+XXIII.  He used Greek verses very wittily; speaking of a tall man, who
+had enormous parts:
+
+    Makxi bibas, kradon dolichoskion enchos;
+    Still shaking, as he strode, his vast long spear.
+
+And of Cerylus, a freedman, who being very rich, had begun to pass
+himself off as free-born, to elude the exchequer at his decease, and
+assumed the name of Laches, he said:
+
+               ----O Lachaes, Lachaes,
+    Epan apothanaes, authis ex archaes esae Kaerylos.
+
+    Ah, Laches, Laches! when thou art no more,
+    Thou'lt Cerylus be called, just as before.
+
+He chiefly affected wit upon his own shameful means of raising money, in
+order to wipe off the odium by some joke, and turn it into ridicule.  One
+of his ministers, who was much in his favour, requesting of him a
+stewardship for some person, under pretence of his being his brother, he
+deferred granting him his petition, and in the meantime sent for the
+candidate, and having squeezed out of him as much money as he had agreed
+to give to his friend at court, he appointed him immediately to the
+office.  The minister soon after renewing his application, "You must,"
+said he, "find another brother; for the one you adopted is in truth
+mine."
+
+Suspecting once, during a journey, that his mule-driver had alighted to
+shoe his mules, only in order to have an opportunity for allowing a
+person they met, who was engaged in a law-suit, to speak to him, he asked
+him, "how much he got for shoeing his mules?" and insisted on having a
+share of the profit.  When his son Titus blamed him for even laying a tax
+upon urine, he applied to his nose a piece of the money he received in
+the first instalment, and asked him, "if it stunk?"  And he replying no,
+"And yet," said he, "it is derived from urine."
+
+Some deputies having come to acquaint him that a large statue, which
+would cost a vast sum, was ordered to be erected for him at the public
+expense, he told them to pay it down immediately, (461) holding out the
+hollow of his hand, and saying, "there was a base ready for the statue."
+Not even when he was under the immediate apprehension and peril of death,
+could he forbear jesting.  For when, among other prodigies, the mausoleum
+of the Caesars suddenly flew open, and a blazing star appeared in the
+heavens; one of the prodigies, he said, concerned Julia Calvina, who was
+of the family of Augustus [771]; and the other, the king of the
+Parthians, who wore his hair long.  And when his distemper first seized
+him, "I suppose," said he, "I shall soon be a god." [772]
+
+XXIV.  In his ninth consulship, being seized, while in Campania, with a
+slight indisposition, and immediately returning to the city, he soon
+afterwards went thence to Cutiliae [773], and his estates in the country
+about Reate, where he used constantly to spend the summer.  Here, though
+his disorder much increased, and he injured his bowels by too free use of
+the cold waters, he nevertheless attended to the dispatch of business,
+and even gave audience to ambassadors in bed.  At last, being taken ill
+of a diarrhoea, to such a degree that he was ready to faint, he cried
+out, "An emperor ought to die standing upright."  In endeavouring to
+rise, he died in the hands of those who were helping him up, upon the
+eighth of the calends of July [24th June] [774], being sixty-nine years,
+one month, and seven days old.
+
+XXV.  All are agreed that he had such confidence in the calculations on
+his own nativity and that of his sons, that, after several conspiracies
+against him, he told the senate, that either his sons would succeed him,
+or nobody.  It is said likewise, that he once saw in a dream a balance in
+the middle of the porch of the Palatine house exactly poised; in one
+(462) scale of which stood Claudius and Nero, in the other, himself and
+his sons.  The event corresponded to the symbol; for the reigns of the
+two parties were precisely of the same duration. [775]
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Neither consanguinity nor adoption, as formerly, but great influence in
+the army having now become the road to the imperial throne, no person
+could claim a better title to that elevation than Titus Flavius
+Vespasian.  He had not only served with great reputation in the wars both
+in Britain and Judaea, but seemed as yet untainted with any vice which
+could pervert his conduct in the civil administration of the empire.  It
+appears, however, that he was prompted more by the persuasion of friends,
+than by his own ambition, to prosecute the attainment of the imperial
+dignity.  To render this enterprise more successful, recourse was had to
+a new and peculiar artifice, which, while well accommodated to the
+superstitious credulity of the Romans, impressed them with an idea, that
+Vespasian's destiny to the throne was confirmed by supernatural
+indications.  But, after his elevation, we hear no more of his miraculous
+achievements.
+
+The prosecution of the war in Britain, which had been suspended for some
+years, was resumed by Vespasian; and he sent thither Petilius Cerealis,
+who by his bravery extended the limits of the Roman province.  Under
+Julius Frontinus, successor to that general, the invaders continued to
+make farther progress in the reduction of the island: but the commander
+who finally established the dominion of the Romans in Britain, was Julius
+Agricola, not less distinguished for his military achievements, than for
+his prudent regard to the civil administration of the country.  He began
+his operations with the conquest of North Wales, whence passing over into
+the island of Anglesey, which had revolted since the time of Suetonius
+Paulinus, he again reduced it to subjection.  Then proceeding northwards
+with his victorious army, he defeated the Britons in every engagement,
+took possession of all the territories in the southern parts of the
+island, and driving before him all who refused to submit to the Roman
+arms, penetrated even into the forests and mountains of Caledonia.  He
+defeated the natives under Galgacus, their leader, in a decisive battle;
+and fixing a line of garrisons between the friths of Clyde and Forth, he
+secured the Roman province from the incursions of the people who occupied
+the parts of the island (463) beyond that boundary.  Wherever he
+established the Roman power, he introduced laws and civilization amongst
+the inhabitants, and employed every means of conciliating their
+affection, as well as of securing their obedience.
+
+The war in Judaea, which had been commenced under the former reign, was
+continued in that of Vespasian; but he left the siege of Jerusalem to be
+conducted by his son Titus, who displayed great valour and military
+talents in the prosecution of the enterprise.  After an obstinate defence
+by the Jews, that city, so much celebrated in the sacred writings, was
+finally demolished, and the glorious temple itself, the admiration of the
+world, reduced to ashes; contrary, however, to the will of Titus, who
+exerted his utmost efforts to extinguish the flames.
+
+The manners of the Romans had now attained to an enormous pitch of
+depravity, through the unbounded licentiousness of the tines; and, to the
+honour of Vespasian, he discovered great zeal in his endeavours to effect
+a national reformation.  Vigilant, active, and persevering, he was
+indefatigable in the management of public affairs, and rose in the winter
+before day-break, to give audience to his officers of state.  But if we
+give credit to the whimsical imposition of a tax upon urine, we cannot
+entertain any high opinion, either of his talents as a financier, or of
+the resources of the Roman empire.  By his encouragement of science, he
+displayed a liberality, of which there occurs no example under all the
+preceding emperors, since the time of Augustus.  Pliny the elder was now
+in the height of reputation, as well as in great favour with Vespasian;
+and it was probably owing not a little to the advice of that minister,
+that the emperor showed himself so much the patron of literary men.  A
+writer mentioned frequently by Pliny, and who lived in this reign, was
+Licinius Mucianus, a Roman knight: he treated of the history and
+geography of the eastern countries.  Juvenal, who had begun his Satires
+several years before, continued to inveigh against the flagrant vices of
+the times; but the only author whose writings we have to notice in the
+present reign, is a poet of a different class.
+
+C. VALERIUS FLACCUS wrote a poem in eight books, on the Expedition of the
+Argonauts; a subject which, next to the wars of Thebes and Troy, was in
+ancient times the most celebrated.  Of the life of this author,
+biographers have transmitted no particulars; but we may place his birth
+in the reign of Tiberius, before all the writers who flourished in the
+Augustan age were extinct.  He enjoyed the rays of the setting sun which
+had illumined that glorious period, and he discovers the efforts of an
+ambition to recall its meridian splendour.  As the poem was left (464)
+incomplete by the death of the author, we can only judge imperfectly of
+the conduct and general consistency of the fable: but the most difficult
+part having been executed, without any room for the censure of candid
+criticism, we may presume that the sequel would have been finished with
+an equal claim to indulgence, if not to applause.  The traditional
+anecdotes relative to the Argonautic expedition are introduced with
+propriety, and embellished with the graces of poetical fiction.  In
+describing scenes of tenderness, this author is happily pathetic, and in
+the heat of combat, proportionably animated.  His similes present the
+imagination with beautiful imagery, and not only illustrate, but give
+additional force to the subject.  We find in Flaccus a few expressions
+not countenanced by the authority of the most celebrated Latin writers.
+His language, however, in general, is pure; but his words are perhaps not
+always the best that might have been chosen.  The versification is
+elevated, though not uniformly harmonious; and there pervades the whole
+poem an epic dignity, which renders it superior to the production
+ascribed to Orpheus, or to that of Apollonius, on the same subject.
+
+
+
+
+
+TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS AUGUSTUS.
+
+(465)
+
+I.  Titus, who had the same cognomen with his father, was the darling and
+delight of mankind; so much did the natural genius, address, or good
+fortune he possessed tend to conciliate the favour of all.  This was,
+indeed, extremely difficult, after he became emperor, as before that
+time, and even during the reign of his father, he lay under public odium
+and censure.  He was born upon the third of the calends of January, [30th
+Dec.] in the year remarkable for the death of Caius [776], near the
+Septizonium [777], in a mean house, and a very small and dark room, which
+still exists, and is shown to the curious.
+
+II.  He was educated in the palace with Britannicus, and instructed in
+the same branches of learning, and under the same masters.  During this
+time, they say, that a physiognomist being introduced by Narcissus, the
+freedman of Claudius, to examine the features of Britannicus [778],
+positively affirmed that he would never become emperor, but that Titus,
+who stood by, would.  They were so familiar, that Titus being next him at
+table, is thought to have tasted of the fatal potion which put an end to
+Britannicus's life, and to have contracted from it a distemper which hung
+about him a long time.  In remembrance of all these circumstances, he
+afterwards erected a golden statue of him in the Palatium, and dedicated
+to him an equestrian statue of ivory; attending it in the Circensian
+procession, in which it is still carried to this day.
+
+(466) III.  While yet a boy, he was remarkable for his noble endowments
+both of body and mind; and as he advanced in years, they became still
+more conspicuous.  He had a fine person, combining an equal mixture of
+majesty and grace; was very strong, though not tall, and somewhat
+corpulent.  Gifted with an excellent memory, and a capacity for all the
+arts of peace and war; he was a perfect master of the use of arms and
+riding; very ready in the Latin and Greek tongues, both in verse and
+prose; and such was the facility he possessed in both, that he would
+harangue and versify extempore.  Nor was he unacquainted with music, but
+could both sing and play upon the harp sweetly and scientifically.  I
+have likewise been informed by many persons, that he was remarkably quick
+in writing short-hand, would in merriment and jest engage with his
+secretaries in the imitation of any hand-writing he saw, and often say,
+"that he was admirably qualified for forgery."
+
+IV.  He filled with distinction the rank of a military tribune both in
+Germany and Britain, in which he conducted himself with the utmost
+activity, and no less modesty and reputation; as appears evident from the
+great number of statues, with honourable inscriptions, erected to him in
+various parts of both those provinces.  After serving in the wars, he
+frequented the courts of law, but with less assiduity than applause.
+About the same time, he married Arricidia, the daughter of Tertullus, who
+was only a knight, but had formerly been prefect of the pretorian guards.
+After her decease, he married Marcia Furnilla, of a very noble family,
+but afterwards divorced her, taking from her the daughter he had by her.
+Upon the expiration of his quaestorship, he was raised to the rank of
+commander of a legion [779], and took the two strong cities of Tarichaea
+and Gamala, in Judaea; and having his horse killed under him in a battle,
+he mounted another, whose rider he had encountered and slain.
+
+V.  Soon afterwards, when Galba came to be emperor, he was sent to
+congratulate him, and turned the eyes of all people upon himself,
+wherever he came; it being the general opinion amongst them, that the
+emperor had sent for him with a design to adopt him for his son.  But
+finding all things again in confusion, he turned back upon the road; and
+going to consult (467) the oracle of Venus at Paphos about his voyage, he
+received assurances of obtaining the empire for himself.  These hopes
+were speedily strengthened, and being left to finish the reduction of
+Judaea, in the final assault of Jerusalem, he slew seven of its
+defenders, with the like number of arrows, and took it upon his
+daughter's birth-day [780].  So great was the joy and attachment of the
+soldiers, that, in their congratulations, they unanimously saluted him by
+the title of Emperor [781]; and, upon his quitting the province soon
+afterwards, would needs have detained him, earnestly begging him, and
+that not without threats, "either to stay, or take them all with him."
+This occurrence gave rise to the suspicion of his being engaged in a
+design to rebel against his father, and claim for himself the government
+of the East; and the suspicion increased, when, on his way to Alexandria,
+he wore a diadem at the consecration of the ox Apis at Memphis; and,
+though he did it only in compliance with an ancient religious usage of
+the country, yet there was some who put a bad construction upon it.
+Making, therefore, what haste he could into Italy, he arrived first at
+Rhegium, and sailing thence in a merchant ship to Puteoli, went to Rome
+with all possible expedition.  Presenting himself unexpectedly to his
+father, he said, by way of contradicting the strange reports raised
+concerning him, "I am come, father, I am come."
+
+VI.  From that time he constantly acted as colleague with his father,
+and, indeed, as regent of the empire.  He triumphed [782] (468) with his
+father, bore jointly with him the office of censor [783], and was,
+besides, his colleague not only in the tribunitian authority [784], but
+in seven consulships [785].  Taking upon himself the care and inspection
+of all offices, he dictated letters, wrote proclamations in his father's
+name, and pronounced his speeches in the senate in place of the quaestor.
+He likewise assumed the command of the pretorian guards, although no one
+but a Roman knight had ever before been their prefect.  In this he
+conducted himself with great haughtiness and violence, taking off without
+scruple or delay all those he had most reason to suspect, after he had
+secretly sent his emissaries into the theatres and camp, to demand, as if
+by general consent, that the suspected persons should be delivered up to
+punishment.  Among these, he invited to supper A. Caecina, a man of
+consular rank, whom he ordered to be stabbed at his departure,
+immediately after he had gone out of the room.  To this act, indeed, he
+was provoked by an imminent danger; for he had discovered a writing under
+the hand of Caecina, containing an account of a plot hatched among the
+soldiers.  By these acts, though he provided for his future security, yet
+for the present he so much incurred the hatred of the people, that
+scarcely ever any one came to the empire with a more odious character, or
+more universally disliked.
+
+VII.  Besides his cruelty, he lay under the suspicion of giving (469) way
+to habits of luxury, as he often prolonged his revels till midnight with
+the most riotous of his acquaintance.  Nor was he unsuspected of
+lewdness, on account of the swarms of catamites and eunuchs about him,
+and his well-known attachment to queen Berenice [786], who received from
+him, as it is reported, a promise of marriage.  He was supposed, besides,
+to be of a rapacious disposition; for it is certain, that, in causes
+which came before his father, he used to offer his interest for sale, and
+take bribes.  In short, people publicly expressed an unfavourable opinion
+of him, and said he would prove another Nero.  This prejudice, however,
+turned out in the end to his advantage, and enhanced his praises to the
+highest pitch when he was found to possess no vicious propensities, but,
+on the contrary, the noblest virtues.  His entertainments were agreeable
+rather than extravagant; and he surrounded himself with such excellent
+friends, that the succeeding princes adopted them as most serviceable to
+themselves and the state.  He immediately sent away Berenice from the
+city, much against both their inclinations.  Some of his old eunuchs,
+though such accomplished dancers, that they bore an uncontrollable sway
+upon the stage, he was so far from treating with any extraordinary
+kindness, that he would not so much as witness their performances in the
+crowded theatre.  He violated no private right; (470) and if ever man
+refrained from injustice, he did; nay, he would not accept of the
+allowable and customary offerings.  Yet, in munificence, he was inferior
+to none of the princes before him.  Having dedicated his amphitheatre
+[787], and built some warm baths [788] close by it with great expedition,
+he entertained the people with most magnificent spectacles.  He likewise
+exhibited a naval fight in the old Naumachia, besides a combat of
+gladiators; and in one day brought into the theatre five thousand wild
+beasts of all kinds. [789]
+
+(471) VIII.  He was by nature extremely benevolent; for whereas all the
+emperors after Tiberius, according to the example he had set them, would
+not admit the grants made by former princes to be valid, unless they
+received their own sanction, he confirmed them all by one general edict,
+without waiting for any applications respecting them.  Of all who
+petitioned for any favour, he sent none away without hopes.  And when his
+ministers represented to him that he promised more than he could perform,
+he replied, "No one ought to go away downcast from an audience with his
+prince."  Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any
+that day, he broke out into that memorable and justly-admired saying, "My
+friends, I have lost a day." [790]  More particularly, he treated the
+people on all occasions with so much courtesy, that, on his presenting
+them with a show of gladiators, he declared, "He should manage it, not
+according to his own fancy, but that of the spectators," and did
+accordingly.  He denied them nothing, and very frankly encouraged them to
+ask what they pleased.  Espousing the cause of the Thracian party among
+the gladiators, he frequently joined in the popular demonstrations in
+their favour, but without compromising his dignity or doing injustice.
+To omit no opportunity of acquiring popularity, he sometimes made use
+himself of the baths he had erected, without excluding the common people.
+There happened in his reign some dreadful accidents; an eruption of Mount
+Vesuvius [791], in Campania, and a fire in Rome, which continued during
+three days and three nights [792]; besides a plague, such as was scarcely
+ever known before.  Amidst these many great disasters, he not only
+manifested the concern (472) which might be expected from a prince but
+even the affection of a father, for his people; one while comforting them
+by his proclamations, and another while relieving them to the utmost of
+his power.  He chose by lot, from amongst the men of consular rank,
+commissioners for repairing the losses in Campania.  The estates of those
+who had perished by the eruption of Vesuvius, and who had left no heirs,
+he applied to the repair of the ruined cities.  With regard to the public
+buildings destroyed by fire in the City, he declared that nobody should
+be a loser but himself.  Accordingly, he applied all the ornaments of his
+palaces to the decoration of the temples, and purposes of public utility,
+and appointed several men of the equestrian order to superintend the
+work.  For the relief of the people during the plague, he employed, in
+the way of sacrifice and medicine, all means both human and divine.
+Amongst the calamities of the times, were informers and their agents; a
+tribe of miscreants who had grown up under the licence of former reigns.
+These he frequently ordered to be scourged or beaten with sticks in the
+Forum, and then, after he had obliged them to pass through the
+amphitheatre as a public spectacle, commanded them to be sold for slaves,
+or else banished them to some rocky islands.  And to discourage such
+practices for the future, amongst other things, he prohibited actions to
+be successively brought under different laws for the same cause, or the
+state of affairs of deceased persons to be inquired into after a certain
+number of years.
+
+IX.  Having declared that he accepted the office of Pontifex Maximus for
+the purpose of preserving his hands undefiled, he faithfully adhered to
+his promise.  For after that time he was neither directly nor indirectly
+concerned in the death of any person, though he sometimes was justly
+irritated.  He swore "that he would perish himself, rather than prove the
+destruction of any man."  Two men of patrician rank being convicted of
+aspiring to the empire, he only advised them to desist, saying, "that the
+sovereign power was disposed of by fate," and promised them, that if
+there was any thing else they desired of him, he would grant it.  He also
+immediately sent messengers to the mother of one of them, who was at a
+great distance, and in deep anxiety about her son, to assure her of his
+safety.  Nay, he not only invited them to sup with (473) him, but next
+day, at a show of gladiators, purposely placed them close by him; and
+handed to them the arms of the combatants for his inspection.  It is said
+likewise, that having had their nativities cast, he assured them, "that a
+great calamity was impending on both of them, but from another hand, and
+not from his."  Though his brother was continually plotting against him,
+almost openly stirring up the armies to rebellion, and contriving to get
+away, yet he could not endure to put him to death, or to banish him from
+his presence; nor did he treat him with less respect than before.  But
+from his first accession to the empire, he constantly declared him his
+partner in it, and that he should be his successor; begging of him
+sometimes in private, with tears in his eyes, "to return the affection he
+had for him."
+
+X.  Amidst all these favourable circumstances, he was cut off by an
+untimely death, more to the loss of mankind than himself.  At the close
+of the public spectacles, he wept bitterly in the presence of the people,
+and then retired into the Sabine country [793], rather melancholy,
+because a victim had made its escape while he was sacrificing, and loud
+thunder had been heard while the atmosphere was serene.  At the first
+resting-place on the road, he was seized with a fever, and being carried
+forward in a litter, they say that he drew back the curtains, and looked
+up to heaven, complaining heavily, "that his life was taken from him,
+though he had done nothing to deserve it; for there was no action of his
+that he had occasion to repent of, but one."  What that was, he neither
+disclosed himself, nor is it easy for us to conjecture.  Some imagine
+that he alluded to the connection which he had formerly had with his
+brother's wife.  But Domitia solemnly denied it on oath; which she would
+never have done, had there been any truth in the report; nay, she would
+certainly have gloried in it, as she was forward enough to boast of all
+her scandalous intrigues.
+
+XI.  He died in the same villa where his father had died (474) before
+him, upon the Ides of September [the 13th of September]; two years, two
+months, and twenty days after he had succeeded his father; and in the
+one-and-fortieth year of his age [794].  As soon as the news of his death
+was published, all people mourned for him, as for the loss of some near
+relative.  The senate assembled in haste, before they could be summoned
+by proclamation, and locking the doors of their house at first, but
+afterwards opening them, gave him such thanks, and heaped upon him such
+praises, now he was dead, as they never had done whilst he was alive and
+present amongst them.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIAN, the younger, was the first prince who succeeded
+to the empire by hereditary right; and having constantly acted, after his
+return from Judaea, as colleague with his father in the administration,
+he seemed to be as well qualified by experience as he was by abilities,
+for conducting the affairs of the empire.  But with respect to his
+natural disposition, and moral behaviour, the expectations entertained by
+the public were not equally flattering.  He was immoderately addicted to
+luxury; he had betrayed a strong inclination to cruelty; and he lived in
+the habitual practice of lewdness, no less unnatural than intemperate.
+But, with a degree of virtuous resolution unexampled in history, he had
+no sooner taken into his hands the entire reins of government, than he
+renounced every vicious attachment.  Instead of wallowing in luxury, as
+before, he became a model of temperance; instead of cruelty, he displayed
+the strongest proofs of humanity and benevolence; and in the room of
+lewdness, he exhibited a transition to the most unblemished chastity and
+virtue.  In a word, so sudden and great a change was never known in the
+character of mortal; and he had the peculiar glory to receive the
+appellation of "the darling and delight of mankind."
+
+Under a prince of such a disposition, the government of the empire could
+not but be conducted with the strictest regard to the public welfare.
+The reform, which was begun in the late reign, he prosecuted with the
+most ardent application; and, had he lived for a longer time, it is
+probable that his authority and example would have produced the most
+beneficial effects upon the manners of the Romans.
+
+During the reign of this emperor, in the seventy-ninth year of (475) the
+Christian era, happened the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which has
+ever since been celebrated for its volcano.  Before this time, Vesuvius
+is spoken of, by ancient writers, as being covered with orchards and
+vineyards, and of which the middle was dry and barren.  The eruption was
+accompanied by an earthquake, which destroyed several cities of Campania,
+particularly Pompeii and Herculaneum; while the lava, pouring down the
+mountain in torrents, overwhelmed, in various directions, the adjacent
+plains.  The burning ashes were carried not only over the neighbouring
+country, but as far as the shores of Egypt, Libya, and even Syria.
+Amongst those to whom this dreadful eruption proved fatal, was Pliny, the
+celebrated naturalist, whose curiosity to examine the phenomenon led him
+so far within the verge of danger, that he could not afterwards escape.
+
+PLINY, surnamed the Elder, was born at Verona, of a noble family.  He
+distinguished himself early by his military achievements in the German
+war, received the dignity of an Augur, at Rome, and was afterwards
+appointed governor of Spain.  In every public character, he acquitted
+himself with great reputation, and enjoyed the esteem of the several
+emperors under whom he lived.  The assiduity with which he applied
+himself to the collection of information, either curious or useful,
+surpasses all example.  From an early hour in the morning, until late at
+night, he was almost constantly employed in discharging the duties of his
+public station, in reading or hearing books read by his amanuensis, and
+in extracting from them whatever seemed worthy of notice.  Even during
+his meals, and while travelling in his carriage upon business, he
+prosecuted with unremitting zeal and diligence his taste for enquiry and
+compilation.  No man ever displayed so strong a persuasion of the value
+of time, or availed himself so industriously of it.  He considered every
+moment as lost which was not employed in literary pursuits.  The books
+which he wrote, in consequence of this indefatigable exertion, were,
+according to the account transmitted by his nephew, Pliny the younger,
+numerous, and on various subjects.  The catalogue of them is as follows:
+a book on Equestrian Archery, which discovered much skill in the art; the
+Life of Q. Pomponius Secundus; twenty books of the Wars of Germany; a
+complete treatise on the Education of an Orator, in six volumes; eight
+books of Doubtful Discourses, written in the latter part of the reign of
+Nero, when every kind of moral discussion was attended with danger; with
+a hundred and sixty volumes of remarks on the writings of the various
+authors which he had perused.  For the last-mentioned production only,
+and before it was brought near to its accomplishment, we are told, that
+he (476) was offered by Largius Licinius four hundred thousand sesterces,
+amounting to upwards of three thousand two hundred pounds sterling; an
+enormous sum for the copyright of a book before the invention of
+printing!  But the only surviving work of this voluminous author is his
+Natural History, in thirty-seven books, compiled from the various writers
+who had treated of that extensive and interesting subject.
+
+If we estimate this great work either by the authenticity of the
+information which it contains, or its utility in promoting the
+advancement of arts and sciences, we should not consider it as an object
+of any extraordinary encomiums; but when we view it as a literary
+monument, which displays the whole knowledge of the ancients, relative to
+Natural History, collected during a period of about seven hundred years,
+from the time of Thales the Milesian, it has a just claim to the
+attention of every speculative enquirer.  It is not surprising, that the
+progress of the human mind, which, in moral science, after the first dawn
+of enquiry, was rapid both amongst the Greeks and Romans, should be slow
+in the improvement of such branches of knowledge as depended entirely on
+observation and facts, which were peculiarly difficult of attainment.
+Natural knowledge can only be brought to perfection by the prosecution of
+enquiries in different climates, and by a communication of discoveries
+amongst those by whom it is cultivated.  But neither could enquiries be
+prosecuted, nor discoveries communicated, with success, while the greater
+part of the world was involved in barbarism, while navigation was slow
+and limited, and the art of printing unknown.  The consideration of these
+circumstances will afford sufficient apology for the imperfect state in
+which natural science existed amongst the ancients.  But we proceed to
+give an abstract of their extent, as they appear in the compilation of
+Pliny.
+
+This work is divided into thirty-seven books; the first of which contains
+the Preface, addressed to the emperor Vespasian, probably the father, to
+whom the author pays high compliments.  The second book treats of the
+world, the elements, and the stars.  In respect to the world, or rather
+the universe, the author's opinion is the same with that of several
+ancient philosophers, that it is a Deity, uncreated, infinite, and
+eternal.  Their notions, however, as might be expected, on a subject so
+incomprehensible, are vague, confused, and imperfect.  In a subsequent
+chapter of the same book, where the nature of the Deity is more
+particularly considered, the author's conceptions of infinite power are
+so inadequate, that, by way of consolation for the limited powers of man,
+he observes that there are many things even beyond the power of the
+Supreme Being; such, for instance, as the annihilation of his own
+existence; to which the author adds, the power (477) of rendering mortals
+eternal, and of raising the dead.  It deserves to be remarked, that,
+though a future state of rewards and punishments was maintained by the
+most eminent among the ancient philosophers, the resurrection of the body
+was a doctrine with which they were wholly unacquainted.
+
+The author next treats of the planets, and the periods of their
+respective revolutions; of the stars, comets, winds, thunder, lightning,
+and other natural phenomena, concerning all which he delivers the
+hypothetical notions maintained by the ancients, and mentions a variety
+of extraordinary incidents which had occurred in different parts of the
+world.  The third book contains a general system of geography, which is
+continued through the fourth, fifth, and sixth books.  The seventh treats
+of conception, and the generation of the human species, with a number of
+miscellaneous observations, unconnected with the general subject.  The
+eighth treats of quadrupeds; the ninth, of aquatic animals; the tenth, of
+birds; the eleventh, of insects and reptiles; the twelfth, of trees; the
+thirteenth, of ointments, and of trees which grow near the sea-coast; the
+fourteenth, of vines; the fifteenth, of fruit-trees; the sixteenth, of
+forest-trees; the seventeenth, of the cultivation of trees; the
+eighteenth, of agriculture; the nineteenth, of the nature of lint, hemp,
+and similar productions; the twentieth, of the medicinal qualities of
+vegetables cultivated in gardens; the twenty-first, of flowers; the
+twenty-second, of the properties of herbs; the twenty-third, of the
+medicines yielded by cultivated trees; the twenty-fourth, of medicines
+derived from forest-trees; the twenty-fifth, of the properties of wild
+herbs, and the origin of their use; the twenty-sixth, of other remedies
+for diseases, and of some new diseases; the twenty-seventh, of different
+kinds of herbs; the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth, of
+medicines procured from animals; the thirty-first and thirty-second, of
+medicines obtained from aquatic animals, with some extraordinary facts
+relative to the subject; the thirty-third, of the nature of metals; the
+thirty-fourth, of brass, iron, lead, and tin; the thirty-fifth, of
+pictures, and observations relative to painting; the thirty-sixth, of the
+nature of stones and marbles; the thirty-seventh, of the origin of gems.
+To the contents of each book, the author subjoins a list of the writers
+from whom his observations have been collected.
+
+Of Pliny's talents as a writer, it might be deemed presumptuous to form a
+decided opinion from his Natural History, which is avowedly a compilation
+from various authors, and executed with greater regard to the matter of
+the work, than to the elegance of composition.  Making allowance,
+however, for a degree of credulity, common to the human mind in the early
+stage of physical (478) researches, he is far from being deficient in the
+essential qualifications of a writer of Natural History.  His
+descriptions appear to be accurate, his observations precise, his
+narrative is in general perspicuous, and he often illustrates his subject
+by a vivacity of thought, as well as by a happy turn of expression.  It
+has been equally his endeavour to give novelty to stale disquisitions,
+and authority to new observations.  He has both removed the rust, and
+dispelled the obscurity, which enveloped the doctrines of many ancient
+naturalists; but, with all his care and industry, he has exploded fewer
+errors, and sanctioned a greater number of doubtful opinions, than was
+consistent with the exercise of unprejudiced and severe investigation.
+
+Pliny was fifty-six years of age at the time of his death; the manner of
+which is accurately related by his nephew, the elegant Pliny the Younger,
+in a letter to Tacitus, who entertained a design of writing the life of
+the naturalist.
+
+
+
+
+
+TITUS FLAVIUS DOMITIANUS.
+
+(479)
+
+I.  Domitian was born upon the ninth of the calends of November [24th
+October] [795], when his father was consul elect, (being to enter upon
+his office the month following,) in the sixth region of the city, at the
+Pomegranate [796], in the house which he afterwards converted into a
+temple of the Flavian family.  He is said to have spent the time of his
+youth in so much want and infamy, that he had not one piece of plate
+belonging to him; and it is well known, that Clodius Pollio, a man of
+pretorian rank, against whom there is a poem of Nero's extant, entitled
+Luscio, kept a note in his hand-writing, which he sometimes produced, in
+which Domitian made an assignation with him for the foulest purposes.
+Some, likewise, have said, that he prostituted himself to Nerva, who
+succeeded him.  In the war with Vitellius, he fled into the Capitol with
+his uncle Sabinus, and a part of the troops they had in the city [797].
+But the enemy breaking in, and the temple being set on fire, he hid
+himself all night with the sacristan; and next morning, assuming the
+disguise of a worshipper of Isis, and mixing with the priests of that
+idle superstition, he got over the Tiber [798], with only one attendant,
+to the house of a woman who was the mother of one of his school-fellows,
+and lurked there so close, that, though the enemy, who were at his heels,
+searched very strictly after him, they could not discover him.  At last,
+after the success of his party, appearing in public, and being
+unanimously saluted by the title of Caesar, he assumed the office of
+praetor of the City, with consular authority, but in fact had nothing but
+the name; for the jurisdiction he transferred to his next colleague.  He
+used, however, his absolute (480) power so licentiously, that even then
+he plainly discovered what sort of prince he was likely to prove.  Not to
+go into details, after he had made free with the wives of many men of
+distinction, he took Domitia Longina from her husband, Aelias Lamia, and
+married her; and in one day disposed of above twenty offices in the city
+and the provinces; upon which Vespasian said several times, "he wondered
+he did not send him a successor too."
+
+II.  He likewise designed an expedition into Gaul and Germany [799],
+without the least necessity for it, and contrary to the advice of all his
+father's friends; and this he did only with the view of equalling his
+brother in military achievements and glory.  But for this he was severely
+reprimanded, and that he might the more effectually be reminded of his
+age and position, was made to live with his father, and his litter had to
+follow his father's and brother's carriage, as often as they went abroad;
+but he attended them in their triumph for the conquest of Judaea [800],
+mounted on a white horse.  Of the six consulships which he held, only one
+was ordinary; and that he obtained by the cession and interest of his
+brother.  He greatly affected a modest behaviour, and, above all, a taste
+for poetry; insomuch, that he rehearsed his performances in public,
+though it was an art he had formerly little cultivated, and which he
+afterwards despised and abandoned.  Devoted, however, as he was at this
+time to poetical pursuits, yet when Vologesus, king of the Parthians,
+desired succours against the Alani, with one of Vespasian's sons to
+command them, he laboured hard to procure for himself that appointment.
+But the scheme proving abortive, he endeavoured by presents and promises
+to engage other kings of the East to make a similar request.  After his
+father's death, he was for some time in doubt, whether he should not
+offer the soldiers a donative double to that of his brother, and made no
+scruple of saying frequently, "that he had been left his partner in the
+empire, but that his father's will had been fraudulently set aside."
+From that time forward, he was constantly engaged in plots against his
+brother, both publicly and privately; until, falling dangerously ill, he
+ordered all his attendants to (481) leave him, under pretence of his
+being dead, before he really was so; and, at his decease, paid him no
+other honour than that of enrolling him amongst the gods; and he often,
+both in speeches and edicts, carped at his memory by sneers and
+insinuations.
+
+III.  In the beginning of his reign, he used to spend daily an hour by
+himself in private, during which time he did nothing else but catch
+flies, and stick them through the body with a sharp pin.  When some one
+therefore inquired, "whether any one was with the emperor," it was
+significantly answered by Vibius Crispus, "Not so much as a fly."  Soon
+after his advancement, his wife Domitia, by whom he had a son in his
+second consulship, and whom the year following he complimented with the
+title of Augusta, being desperately in love with Paris, the actor, he put
+her away; but within a short time afterwards, being unable to bear the
+separation, he took her again, under pretence of complying with the
+people's importunity.  During some time, there was in his administration
+a strange mixture of virtue and vice, until at last his virtues
+themselves degenerated into vices; being, as we may reasonably conjecture
+concerning his character, inclined to avarice through want, and to
+cruelty through fear.
+
+IV.  He frequently entertained the people with most magnificent and
+costly shows, not only in the amphitheatre, but the circus; where,
+besides the usual races with chariots drawn by two or four horses
+a-breast, he exhibited the representation of an engagement between both
+horse and foot, and a sea-fight in the amphitheatre.  The people were
+also entertained with the chase of wild beasts and the combat of
+gladiators, even in the night-time, by torch-light.  Nor did men only
+fight in these spectacles, but women also.  He constantly attended at the
+games given by the quaestors, which had been disused for some time, but
+were revived by him; and upon those occasions, always gave the people the
+liberty of demanding two pair of gladiators out of his own school, who
+appeared last in court uniforms.  Whenever he attended the shows of
+gladiators, there stood at his feet a little boy dressed in scarlet, with
+a prodigiously small head, with whom he used to talk very much, and
+sometimes seriously.  We are assured, that he was (482) overheard asking
+him, "if he knew for what reason he had in the late appointment, made
+Metius Rufus governor of Egypt?"  He presented the people with naval
+fights, performed by fleets almost as numerous as those usually employed
+in real engagements; making a vast lake near the Tiber [801], and
+building seats round it.  And he witnessed them himself during a very
+heavy rain.  He likewise celebrated the Secular games [802], reckoning
+not from the year in which they had been exhibited by Claudius, but from
+the time of Augustus's celebration of them.  In these, upon the day of
+the Circensian sports, in order to have a hundred races performed, he
+reduced each course from seven rounds to five.  He likewise instituted,
+in honour of Jupiter Capitolinus, a solemn contest in music to be
+performed every five years; besides horse-racing and gymnastic exercises,
+with more prizes than are at present allowed.  There was also a public
+performance in elocution, both Greek and Latin and besides the musicians
+who sung to the harp, there were others who played concerted pieces or
+solos, without vocal accompaniment.  Young girls also ran races in the
+Stadium, at which he presided in his sandals, dressed in a purple robe,
+made after the Grecian fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crown
+bearing the effigies of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; with the flamen of
+Jupiter, and the college of priests sitting by his side in the same
+dress; excepting only that their crowns had also his own image on them.
+He celebrated also upon the Alban mount every year the festival of
+Minerva, for whom he had appointed a college of priests, out of which
+were chosen by lot persons to preside as governors over the college; who
+were obliged to entertain the people with extraordinary chases of
+wild-beasts, and stage-plays, besides contests for prizes in oratory and
+poetry.  He thrice bestowed upon the people a largess of three hundred
+sesterces each man; and, at a public show of gladiators, a very plentiful
+feast.  At the festival of the Seven Hills [803], he distributed large
+hampers of provisions (483) to the senatorian and equestrian orders, and
+small baskets to the common people, and encouraged them to eat by setting
+them the example.  The day after, he scattered among the people a variety
+of cakes and other delicacies to be scrambled for; and on the greater
+part of them falling amidst the seats of the crowd, he ordered five
+hundred tickets to be thrown into each range of benches belonging to the
+senatorian and equestrian orders.
+
+V.  He rebuilt many noble edifices which had been destroyed by fire, and
+amongst them the Capitol, which had been burnt down a second time [804];
+but all the inscriptions were in his own name, without the least mention
+of the original founders.  He likewise erected a new temple in the
+Capitol to Jupiter Custos, and a forum, which is now called Nerva's
+[805], as also the temple of the Flavian family [806], a stadium [807],
+an odeum [808], and a naumachia [809]; out of the stone dug from which,
+the sides of the Circus Maximus, which had been burnt down, were rebuilt.
+
+VI.  He undertook several expeditions, some from choice, and some from
+necessity.  That against the Catti [810] was unprovoked, but that against
+the Sarmatians was necessary; an entire legion, with its commander,
+having been cut off by them.  He sent two expeditions against the
+Dacians; the first upon the defeat of Oppius Sabinus, a man of consular
+rank; and (484) the other, upon that of Cornelius Fuscus, prefect of the
+pretorian cohorts, to whom he had entrusted the conduct of that war.
+After several battles with the Catti and Daci, he celebrated a double
+triumph.  But for his successes against the Sarmatians, he only bore in
+procession the laurel crown to Jupiter Capitolinus.  The civil war, begun
+by Lucius Antonius, governor of Upper Germany, he quelled, without being
+obliged to be personally present at it, with remarkable good fortune.
+For, at the very moment of joining battle, the Rhine suddenly thawing,
+the troops of the barbarians which were ready to join L. Antonius, were
+prevented from crossing the river.  Of this victory he had notice by some
+presages, before the messengers who brought the news of it arrived.  For
+upon the very day the battle was fought, a splendid eagle spread its
+wings round his statue at Rome, making most joyful cries.  And shortly
+after, a rumour became common, that Antonius was slain; nay, many
+positively affirmed, that they saw his head brought to the city.
+
+VII.  He made many innovations in common practices.  He abolished the
+Sportula [811], and revived the old practice of regular suppers.  To the
+four former parties in the Circensian games, he added two new, who were
+gold and scarlet.  He prohibited the players from acting in the theatre,
+but permitted them the practice of their art in private houses.  He
+forbad the castration of males; and reduced the price of the eunuchs who
+were still left in the hands of the dealers in slaves.  On the occasion
+of a great abundance of wine, accompanied by a scarcity of corn,
+supposing that the tillage of the ground was neglected for the sake of
+attending too much to the cultivation of vineyards, he published a
+proclamation forbidding the planting of any new vines in Italy, and
+ordering the vines in the provinces to be cut down, nowhere permitting
+more than one half of them to remain [812].  But he did not persist in
+the execution of this project.  Some of the greatest offices he conferred
+upon his freedmen and soldiers.  He forbad two legions to be quartered in
+the same camp, and more than a thousand sesterces to be deposited by any
+soldier with the standards; because it was thought that Lucius Antonius
+had been encouraged in his late project by the large sum deposited in the
+military chest by the two legions which he had in the same
+winter-quarters.  He made an addition to the soldiers' pay, of three
+gold pieces a year.
+
+VIII.  In the administration of justice he was diligent and assiduous;
+and frequently sat in the Forum out of course, to cancel the judgments of
+the court of The One Hundred, which had been procured through favour, or
+interest.  He occasionally cautioned the judges of the court of recovery
+to beware of being too ready to admit claims for freedom brought before
+them.  He set a mark of infamy upon judges who were convicted of taking
+bribes, as well as upon their assessors.  He likewise instigated the
+tribunes of the people to prosecute a corrupt aedile for extortion, and
+to desire the senate to appoint judges for his trial.  He likewise took
+such effectual care in punishing magistrates of the city, and governors
+of provinces, guilty of malversation, that they never were at any time
+more moderate or more just.  Most of these, since his reign, we have seen
+prosecuted for crimes of various kinds.  Having taken upon himself the
+reformation of the public manners, he restrained the licence of the
+populace in sitting promiscuously with the knights in the theatre.
+Scandalous libels, published to defame persons of rank, of either sex, he
+suppressed, and inflicted upon their authors a mark of infamy.  He
+expelled a man of quaestorian rank from the senate, for practising
+mimicry and dancing.  He debarred infamous women the use of litters; as
+also the right of receiving legacies, or inheriting estates.  He struck
+out of the list of judges a Roman knight for taking again his wife whom
+he had divorced and prosecuted for adultery.  He condemned several men of
+the senatorian and equestrian orders, upon the Scantinian law [813].  The
+lewdness of the Vestal Virgins, which had been overlooked by his father
+and brother, he punished severely, but in different ways; viz. offences
+committed before his reign, with death, and those since its commencement,
+according to ancient custom.  For to the two sisters called Ocellatae, he
+gave liberty to choose the mode of death which they preferred, and
+banished (486) their paramours.  But Cornelia, the president of the
+Vestals, who had formerly been acquitted upon a charge of incontinence,
+being a long time after again prosecuted and condemned, he ordered to be
+buried alive; and her gallants to be whipped to death with rods in the
+Comitium; excepting only a man of praetorian rank, to whom, because he
+confessed the fact, while the case was dubious, and it was not
+established against him, though the witnesses had been put to the
+torture, he granted the favour of banishment.  And to preserve pure and
+undefiled the reverence due to the gods, he ordered the soldiers to
+demolish a tomb, which one of his freedmen had erected for his son out of
+the stones designed for the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and to sink in
+the sea the bones and relics buried in it.
+
+IX.  Upon his first succeeding to power, he felt such an abhorrence for
+the shedding of blood, that, before his father's arrival in Rome, calling
+to mind the verse of Virgil,
+
+    Impia quam caesis gens est epulata juvencis, [814]
+
+    Ere impious man, restrain'd from blood in vain,
+    Began to feast on flesh of bullocks slain,
+
+he designed to have published a proclamation, "to forbid the sacrifice of
+oxen."  Before his accession to the imperial authority, and during some
+time afterwards, he scarcely ever gave the least grounds for being
+suspected of covetousness or avarice; but, on the contrary, he often
+afforded proofs, not only of his justice, but his liberality.  To all
+about him he was generous even to profusion, and recommended nothing more
+earnestly to them than to avoid doing anything mean.  He would not accept
+the property left him by those who had children.  He also set aside a
+legacy bequeathed by the will of Ruscus Caepio, who had ordered "his heir
+to make a present yearly to each of the senators upon their first
+assembling."  He exonerated all those who had been under prosecution from
+the treasury for above five years before; and would not suffer suits to
+be renewed, unless it was done within a year, and on condition, that the
+prosecutor should be banished, if he could not make good his cause.  The
+secretaries of the quaestors having engaged in trade, according to
+custom, but contrary to (487) the Clodian law [815], he pardoned them for
+what was past.  Such portions of land as had been left when it was
+divided amongst the veteran soldiers, he granted to the ancient
+possessors, as belonging to then by prescription.  He put a stop to false
+prosecutions in the exchequer, by severely punishing the prosecutors; and
+this saying of his was much taken notice of "that a prince who does not
+punish informers, encourages them."
+
+X.  But he did not long persevere in this course of clemency and justice,
+although he sooner fell into cruelty than into avarice.  He put to death
+a scholar of Paris, the pantomimic [816], though a minor, and then sick,
+only because, both in person and the practice of his art, he resembled
+his master; as he did likewise Hermogenes of Tarsus for some oblique
+reflections in his History; crucifying, besides, the scribes who had
+copied the work.  One who was master of a band of gladiators, happening
+to say, "that a Thrax was a match for a Marmillo [817], but not so for
+the exhibitor of the games", he ordered him to be dragged from the
+benches into the arena, and exposed to the dogs, with this label upon
+him, "A Parmularian [818] guilty of talking impiously."  He put to death
+many senators, and amongst them several men of consular rank.  In this
+number were, Civica Cerealis, when he was proconsul in Africa,
+Salvidienus Orfitus, and Acilius Glabrio in exile, under the pretence of
+their planning to revolt against him.  The rest he punished upon very
+trivial occasions; as Aelius Lamia for some jocular expressions, which
+were of old date, and perfectly harmless; because, upon his commending
+his voice after he had taken his wife from him [819], he replied, "Alas!
+I hold my tongue."  And when Titus advised him to take another wife, he
+answered him thus: "What! have you a mind to marry?"  Salvius Cocceianus
+was condemned to death for keeping the birth-day of his uncle Otho, the
+emperor: Metius Pomposianus, because he was commonly reported to have an
+imperial nativity [820], and to carry about with (488) him a map of the
+world upon vellum, with the speeches of kings and generals extracted out
+of Titus Livius; and for giving his slaves the names of Mago and
+Hannibal; Sallustius Lucullus, lieutenant in Britain, for suffering some
+lances of a new invention to be called "Lucullean;" and Junius Rusticus,
+for publishing a treatise in praise of Paetus Thrasea and Helvidius
+Priscus, and calling them both "most upright men."  Upon this occasion,
+he likewise banished all the philosophers from the city and Italy.  He
+put to death the younger Helvidius, for writing a farce, in which, under
+the character of Paris and Oenone, he reflected upon his having divorced
+his wife; and also Flavius Sabinus, one of his cousins, because, upon his
+being chosen at the consular election to that office, the public crier
+had, by a blunder, proclaimed him to the people not consul, but emperor.
+Becoming still more savage after his success in the civil war, he
+employed the utmost industry to discover those of the adverse party who
+absconded: many of them he racked with a new-invented torture, inserting
+fire through their private parts; and from some he cut off their hands.
+It is certain, that only two of any note were pardoned, a tribune who
+wore the narrow stripe, and a centurion; who, to clear themselves from
+the charge of being concerned in any rebellious project, proved
+themselves to have been guilty of prostitution, and consequently
+incapable of exercising any influence either over the general or the
+soldiers.
+
+XI.  His cruelties were not only excessive, but subtle and unexpected.
+The day before he crucified a collector of his rents, he sent for him
+into his bed-chamber, made him sit down upon the bed by him, and sent him
+away well pleased, and, so far as could be inferred from his treatment,
+in a state of perfect security; having vouchsafed him the favour of a
+plate of meat from his own table.  When he was on the point of condemning
+to death Aretinus Clemens, a man of consular rank, and one of his friends
+and emissaries, he retained him about his person in the same or greater
+favour than ever; until at last, as they were riding together in the same
+litter, upon seeing the man who had informed against him, he said, "Are
+you willing that we should hear this base slave tomorrow?"
+Contemptuously abusing the patience of men, he never pronounced a severe
+sentence without prefacing it (489) with words which gave hopes of mercy;
+so that, at last, there was not a more certain token of a fatal
+conclusion, than a mild commencement.  He brought before the senate some
+persona accused of treason, declaring, "that he should prove that day how
+dear he was to the senate;" and so influenced them, that they condemned
+the accused to be punished according to the ancient usage [821].  Then,
+as if alarmed at the extreme severity of their punishment, to lessen the
+odiousness of the proceeding, he interposed in these words; for it is not
+foreign to the purpose to give them precisely as they were delivered:
+"Permit me, Conscript Fathers, so far to prevail upon your affection for
+me, however extraordinary the request may seem, as to grant the condemned
+criminals the favour of dying in the manner they choose.  For by so
+doing, ye will spare your own eyes, and the world will understand that I
+interceded with the senate on their behalf."
+
+XII.  Having exhausted the exchequer by the expense of his buildings and
+public spectacles, with the augmentation of pay lately granted to the
+troops, he made an attempt at the reduction of the army, in order to
+lessen the military charges.  But reflecting, that he should, by this
+measure, expose himself to the insults of the barbarians, while it would
+not suffice to extricate him from his embarrassments, he had recourse to
+plundering his subjects by every mode of exaction.  The estates of the
+living and the dead were sequestered upon any accusation, by whomsoever
+preferred.  The unsupported allegation of any one person, relative to a
+word or action construed to affect the dignity of the emperor, was
+sufficient.  Inheritances, to which he had not the slightest pretension,
+were confiscated, if there was found so much as one person to say, he had
+heard from the deceased when living, "that he had made the emperor his
+heir."  Besides the exactions from others, the poll-tax on the Jews was
+levied with extreme rigour, both on those who lived after the manner of
+Jews in the city, without publicly professing themselves to be such
+[822], and on those who, by (490) concealing their origin, avoided paying
+the tribute imposed upon that people.  I remember, when I was a youth, to
+have been present [823], when an old man, ninety years of age, had his
+person exposed to view in a very crowded court, in order that, on
+inspection, the procurator might satisfy himself whether he was
+circumcised. [824]
+
+From his earliest years Domitian was any thing but courteous, of a
+forward, assuming disposition, and extravagant both in his words and
+actions.  When Caenis, his father's concubine, upon her return from
+Istria, offered him a kiss, as she had been used to do, he presented her
+his hand to kiss.  Being indignant, that his brother's son-in-law should
+be waited on by servants dressed in white [825], he exclaimed,
+
+      ouk agathon polykoiraniae. [826]
+    Too many princes are not good.
+
+XIII.  After he became emperor, he had the assurance to boast in the
+senate, "that he had bestowed the empire on his father and brother, and
+they had restored it to him."  And upon taking his wife again, after the
+divorce, he declared by proclamation, "that he had recalled her to his
+pulvinar." [827]  He was not a little pleased too, at hearing the
+acclamations of the people in the amphitheatre on a day of festival, "All
+happiness to our lord and lady."  But when, during the celebration of the
+Capitoline trial of skill, the whole concourse of people entreated him
+with one voice to restore Palfurius Sura to his place in the senate, from
+which he had been long before expelled--he having then carried away the
+prize of eloquence from all the orators who had contended for it,--he did
+not vouchsafe to give them any answer, but only commanded silence to be
+proclaimed by the voice of the crier.  With equal arrogance, when he
+dictated the form of a letter to be used by his procurators, he began it
+thus: "Our lord and god commands so and so;" whence it became a rule that
+no one should (491) style him otherwise either in writing or speaking.
+He suffered no statues to be erected for him in the Capitol, unless they
+were of gold and silver, and of a certain weight.  He erected so many
+magnificent gates and arches, surmounted by representations of chariots
+drawn by four horses, and other triumphal ornaments, in different
+quarters of the city, that a wag inscribed on one of the arches the Greek
+word Axkei, "It is enough." [828]  He filled the office of consul
+seventeen times, which no one had ever done before him, and for the seven
+middle occasions in successive years; but in scarcely any of them had he
+more than the title; for he never continued in office beyond the calends
+of May [the 1st May], and for the most part only till the ides of January
+[13th January].  After his two triumphs, when he assumed the cognomen of
+Germanicus, he called the months of September and October, Germanicus and
+Domitian, after his own names, because he commenced his reign in the one,
+and was born in the other.
+
+XIV.  Becoming by these means universally feared and odious, he was at
+last taken off by a conspiracy of his friends and favourite freedmen, in
+concert with his wife [829].  He had long entertained a suspicion of the
+year and day when he should die, and even of the very hour and manner of
+his death; all which he had learned from the Chaldaeans, when he was a
+very young man.  His father once at supper laughed at him for refusing to
+eat some mushrooms, saying, that if he knew his fate, he would rather be
+afraid of the sword.  Being, therefore, in perpetual apprehension and
+anxiety, he was keenly alive to the slightest suspicions, insomuch that
+he is thought to have withdrawn the edict ordering the destruction of the
+vines, chiefly because the copies of it which were dispersed had the
+following lines written upon them:
+
+    Kaen me phagaes epi rizanomos epi kartophoraeso,
+        Osson epispeisai Kaisari thuomeno. [830]
+
+    Gnaw thou my root, yet shall my juice suffice
+    To pour on Caesar's head in sacrifice.
+
+(492) It was from the same principle of fear, that he refused a new
+honour, devised and offered him by the senate, though he was greedy of
+all such compliments.  It was this: "that as often as he held the
+consulship, Roman knights, chosen by lot, should walk before him, clad in
+the Trabea, with lances in their hands, amongst his lictors and
+apparitors."  As the time of the danger which he apprehended drew near,
+he became daily more and more disturbed in mind; insomuch that he lined
+the walls of the porticos in which he used to walk, with the stone called
+Phengites [831], by the reflection of which he could see every object
+behind him.  He seldom gave an audience to persons in custody, unless in
+private, being alone, and he himself holding their chains in his hand.
+To convince his domestics that the life of a master was not to be
+attempted upon any pretext, however plausible, he condemned to death
+Epaphroditus his secretary, because it was believed that he had assisted
+Nero, in his extremity, to kill himself.
+
+XV.  His last victim was Flavius Clemens [832], his cousin-german, a man
+below contempt for his want of energy, whose sons, then of very tender
+age, he had avowedly destined for his successors, and, discarding their
+former names, had ordered one to be called Vespasian, and the other
+Domitian.  Nevertheless, he suddenly put him to death upon some very
+slight suspicion [833], almost before he was well out of his consulship.
+By this violent act he very much hastened his own destruction.  During
+eight months together there was so much lightning at Rome, and such
+accounts of the phaenomenon were brought from other parts, that at last
+he cried out, "Let him now strike whom he will."  The Capitol was struck
+by lightning, as well as the temple of the Flavian family, with the
+Palatine-house, and his own bed-chamber.  The tablet also, inscribed upon
+the base of his triumphal statue was carried away by the violence of the
+storm, and fell upon a neighbouring (493) monument.  The tree which just
+before the advancement of Vespasian had been prostrated, and rose again
+[834], suddenly fell to the ground.  The goddess Fortune of Praeneste, to
+whom it was his custom on new year's day to commend the empire for the
+ensuing year, and who had always given him a favourable reply, at last
+returned him a melancholy answer, not without mention of blood.  He
+dreamt that Minerva, whom he worshipped even to a superstitious excess,
+was withdrawing from her sanctuary, declaring she could protect him no
+longer, because she was disarmed by Jupiter.  Nothing, however, so much
+affected him as an answer given by Ascletario, the astrologer, and his
+subsequent fate.  This person had been informed against, and did not deny
+his having predicted some future events, of which, from the principles of
+his art, he confessed he had a foreknowledge.  Domitian asked him, what
+end he thought he should come to himself?  To which replying, "I shall in
+a short time be torn to pieces by dogs," he ordered him immediately to be
+slain, and, in order to demonstrate the vanity of his art, to be
+carefully buried.  But during the preparations for executing this order,
+it happened that the funeral pile was blown down by a sudden storm, and
+the body, half-burnt, was torn to pieces by dogs; which being observed by
+Latinus, the comic actor, as he chanced to pass that way, he told it,
+amongst the other news of the day, to the emperor at supper.
+
+XVI.  The day before his death, he ordered some dates [835], served up at
+table, to be kept till the next day, adding, "If I have the luck to use
+them."  And turning to those who were nearest him, he said, "To-morrow
+the moon in Aquarius will be bloody instead of watery, and an event will
+happen, which will be much talked of all the world over."  About
+midnight, he was so terrified that he leaped out of bed.  That morning he
+tried and passed sentence on a soothsayer sent from Germany, who being
+consulted about the lightning that had lately (494) happened, predicted
+from it a change of government.  The blood running down his face as he
+scratched an ulcerous tumour on his forehead, he said, "Would this were
+all that is to befall me!"  Then, upon his asking the time of the day,
+instead of five o'clock, which was the hour he dreaded, they purposely
+told him it was six.  Overjoyed at this information; as if all danger
+were now passed, and hastening to the bath, Parthenius, his chamberlain,
+stopped him, by saying that there was a person come to wait upon him
+about a matter of great importance, which would admit of no delay.  Upon
+this, ordering all persons to withdraw, he retired into his chamber, and
+was there slain.
+
+XVII.  Concerning the contrivance and mode of his death, the common
+account is this.  The conspirators being in some doubt when and where
+they should attack him, whether while he was in the bath, or at supper,
+Stephanus, a steward of Domitilla's [836], then under prosecution for
+defrauding his mistress, offered them his advice and assistance; and
+wrapping up his left arm, as if it was hurt, in wool and bandages for
+some days, to prevent suspicion, at the hour appointed, he secreted a
+dagger in them.  Pretending then to make a discovery of a conspiracy, and
+being for that reason admitted, he presented to the emperor a memorial,
+and while he was reading it in great astonishment, stabbed him in the
+groin.  But Domitian, though wounded, making resistance, Clodianus, one
+of his guards, Maximus, a freedman of Parthenius's, Saturius, his
+principal chamberlain, with some gladiators, fell upon him, and stabbed
+him in seven places.  A boy who had the charge of the Lares in his
+bed-chamber, and was then in attendance as usual, gave these further
+particulars: that he was ordered by Domitian, upon receiving his first
+wound, to reach him a dagger which lay under his pillow, and call in his
+domestics; but that he found nothing at the head of the bed, excepting
+the hilt of a (495) poniard, and that all the doors were fastened: that
+the emperor in the mean time got hold of Stephanus, and throwing him upon
+the ground, struggled a long time with him; one while endeavouring to
+wrench the dagger from him, another while, though his fingers were
+miserably mangled, to tear out his eyes.  He was slain upon the
+fourteenth of the calends of October [18th Sept.], in the forty-fifth
+year of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign [837].  His corpse was
+carried out upon a common bier by the public bearers, and buried by his
+nurse Phyllis, at his suburban villa on the Latin Way.  But she
+afterwards privately conveyed his remains to the temple of the Flavian
+family [838], and mingled them with the ashes of Julia, the daughter of
+Titus, whom she had also nursed.
+
+XVIII.  He was tall in stature, his face modest, and very ruddy; he had
+large eyes, but was dim-sighted; naturally graceful in his person,
+particularly in his youth, excepting only that his toes were bent
+somewhat inward, he was at last disfigured by baldness, corpulence, and
+the slenderness of his legs, which were reduced by a long illness.  He
+was so sensible how much the modesty of his countenance recommended him,
+that he once made this boast to the senate, "Thus far you have approved
+both of my disposition and my countenance."  His baldness so much annoyed
+him, that he considered it an affront to himself, if any other person was
+reproached with it, either in jest or in earnest; though in a small tract
+he published, addressed to a friend, "concerning the preservation of the
+hair," he uses for their mutual consolation the words following:
+
+    Ouch oraas oios kago kalos te megas te;
+    Seest thou my graceful mien, my stately form?
+
+"and yet the fate of my hair awaits me; however, I bear with fortitude
+this loss of my hair while I am still young.  Remember that nothing is
+more fascinating than beauty, but nothing of shorter duration."
+
+XIX.  He so shrunk from undergoing fatigue, that he scarcely ever walked
+through the city on foot.  In his (496) expeditions and on a march, he
+seldom rode on horse-back; but was generally carried in a litter.  He had
+no inclination for the exercise of arms, but was very expert in the use
+of the bow.  Many persons have seen him often kill a hundred wild
+animals, of various kinds, at his Alban retreat, and fix his arrows in
+their heads with such dexterity, that he could, in two shots, plant them,
+like a pair of horns, in each.  He would sometimes direct his arrows
+against the hand of a boy standing at a distance, and expanded as a mark,
+with such precision, that they all passed between the boy's fingers,
+without hurting him.
+
+XX.  In the beginning of his reign, he gave up the study of the liberal
+sciences, though he took care to restore, at a vast expense, the
+libraries which had been burnt down; collecting manuscripts from all
+parts, and sending scribes to Alexandria [839], either to copy or correct
+them.  Yet he never gave himself the trouble of reading history or
+poetry, or of employing his pen even for his private purposes.  He
+perused nothing but the Commentaries and Acts of Tiberius Caesar.  His
+letters, speeches, and edicts, were all drawn up for him by others;
+though he could converse with elegance, and sometimes expressed himself
+in memorable sentiments.  "I could wish," said he once, "that I was but
+as handsome as Metius fancies himself to be."  And of the head of some
+one whose hair was partly reddish, and partly grey, he said, "that it was
+snow sprinkled with mead."
+
+XXI.  "The lot of princes," he remarked, "was very miserable, for no one
+believed them when they discovered a conspiracy, until they were
+murdered."  When he had leisure, he amused himself with dice, even on
+days that were not festivals, and in the morning.  He went to the bath
+early, and made a plentiful dinner, insomuch that he seldom ate more at
+supper than a Matian apple [840], to which he added a (497) draught of
+wine, out of a small flask.  He gave frequent and splendid
+entertainments, but they were soon over, for he never prolonged them
+after sun-set, and indulged in no revel after.  For, till bed-time, he
+did nothing else but walk by himself in private.
+
+XXII.  He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce with
+women, as if it was a sort of exercise, klinopalaen, bed-wrestling; and
+it was reported that he plucked the hair from his concubines, and swam
+about in company with the lowest prostitutes.  His brother's daughter
+[841] was offered him in marriage when she was a virgin; but being at
+that time enamoured of Domitia, he obstinately refused her.  Yet not long
+afterwards, when she was given to another, he was ready enough to debauch
+her, and that even while Titus was living.  But after she had lost both
+her father and her husband, he loved her most passionately, and without
+disguise; insomuch that he was the occasion of her death, by obliging her
+to procure a miscarriage when she was with child by him.
+
+XXIII.  The people shewed little concern at his death, but the soldiers
+were roused by it to great indignation, and immediately endeavoured to
+have him ranked among the gods.  They were also ready to revenge his
+loss, if there had been any to take the lead.  However, they soon after
+effected it, by resolutely demanding the punishment of all those who had
+been concerned in his assassination.  On the other hand, the senate was
+so overjoyed, that they met in all haste, and in a full assembly reviled
+his memory in the most bitter terms; ordering ladders to be brought in,
+and his shields and images to be pulled down before their eyes, and
+dashed in pieces upon the floor of the senate-house passing at the same
+time a decree to obliterate his titles every where, and abolish all
+memory of him.  A few months before he was slain, a raven on the Capitol
+uttered these words: "All will be well."  Some person gave the following
+interpretation of this prodigy:
+
+    (498) Nuper Tarpeio quae sedit culmine cornix.
+    "Est bene," non potuit dicere; dixit, "Erit."
+
+    Late croaked a raven from Tarpeia's height,
+    "All is not yet, but shall be, right."
+
+They say likewise that Domitian dreamed that a golden hump grew out of
+the back of his neck, which he considered as a certain sign of happy days
+for the empire after him.  Such an auspicious change indeed shortly
+afterwards took place, through the justice and moderation of the
+succeeding emperors.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+If we view Domitian in the different lights in which he is represented,
+during his lifetime and after his decease, his character and conduct
+discover a greater diversity than is commonly observed in the objects of
+historical detail.  But as posthumous character is always the most just,
+its decisive verdict affords the surest criterion by which this
+variegated emperor must be estimated by impartial posterity.  According
+to this rule, it is beyond a doubt that his vices were more predominant
+than his virtues: and when we follow him into his closet, for some time
+after his accession, when he was thirty years of age, the frivolity of
+his daily employment, in the killing of flies, exhibits an instance of
+dissipation, which surpasses all that has been recorded of his imperial
+predecessors.  The encouragement, however, which the first Vespasian had
+shown to literature, continued to operate during the present reign; and
+we behold the first fruits of its auspicious influence in the valuable
+treatise of QUINTILIAN.
+
+Of the life of this celebrated writer, little is known upon any authority
+that has a title to much credit.  We learn, however, that he was the son
+of a lawyer in the service of some of the preceding emperors, and was
+born in Rome, though in what consulship, or under what emperor, it is
+impossible to determine.  He married a woman of a noble family, by whom
+he had two sons.  The mother died in the flower of her age, and the sons,
+at the distance of some time from each other, when their father was
+advanced in years.   The precise time of Quintilian's own death is
+equally inauthenticated with that of his birth; nor can we rely upon an
+author of suspicious veracity, who says that he passed the latter part of
+his life in a state of indigence which was alleviated by the liberality
+of his pupil, Pliny the Younger.  Quintilian opened a school of rhetoric
+at Rome, where he not only discharged that labourious employment with
+great applause, (499) during more than twenty years, but pleaded at the
+bar, and was the first who obtained a salary from the state, for
+executing the office of a public teacher.  He was also appointed by
+Domitian preceptor to the two young princes who were intended to succeed
+him on the throne.
+
+After his retirement from the situation of a teacher, Quintilian devoted
+his attention to the study of literature, and composed a treatise on the
+Causes of the Corruption of Eloquence.  At the earnest solicitation of
+his friends, he was afterwards induced to undertake his Institutiones
+Oratoriae, the most elaborate system of oratory extant in any language.
+This work is divided into twelve books, in which the author treats with
+great precision of the qualities of a perfect orator; explaining not only
+the fundamental principles of eloquence, as connected with the
+constitution of the human mind, but pointing out, both by argument and
+observation, the most successful method of exercising that admirable art,
+for the accomplishment of its purpose.  So minutely, and upon so
+extensive a plan, has he prosecuted the subject, that he delineates the
+education suitable to a perfect orator, from the stage of infancy in the
+cradle, to the consummation of rhetorical fame, in the pursuits of the
+bar, or those, in general, of any public assembly.  It is sufficient to
+say, that in the execution of this elaborate work, Quintilian has called
+to the assistance of his own acute and comprehensive understanding, the
+profound penetration of Aristotle, the exquisite graces of Cicero; all
+the stores of observation, experience, and practice; and in a word, the
+whole accumulated exertions of ancient genius on the subject of oratory.
+
+It may justly be regarded as an extraordinary circumstance in the
+progress of scientific improvement, that the endowments of a perfect
+orator were never fully exhibited to the world, until it had become
+dangerous to exercise them for the important purposes for which they were
+originally cultivated.  And it is no less remarkable, that, under all the
+violence and caprice of imperial despotism which the Romans had now
+experienced, their sensibility to the enjoyment of poetical compositions
+remained still unabated; as if it served to console the nation for the
+irretrievable loss of public liberty.  From this source of entertainment,
+they reaped more pleasure during the present reign, than they had done
+since the time of Augustus.  The poets of this period were Juvenal,
+Statius, and Martial.
+
+JUVENAL was born at Aquinum, but in what year is uncertain; though, from
+some circumstances, it seems to have been in the reign of Augustus.  Some
+say that he was the son of a freedman, (500) while others, without
+specifying the condition of his father, relate only that he was brought
+up by a freedman.  He came at an early age to Rome, where he declaimed
+for many years, and, pleaded causes in the forum with great applause; but
+at last he betook himself to the writing of satires, in which he acquired
+great fame.  One of the first, and the most constant object of is satire,
+was the pantomime Paris, the great favourite of the emperor Nero, and
+afterwards of Domitian.  During the reign of the former of these
+emperors, no resentment was shown towards the poet; but he experienced
+not the same impunity after the accession of the latter; when, to remove
+him from the capital, he was sent as governor to the frontiers of Egypt,
+but in reality, into an honourable exile.  According to some authors, he
+died of chagrin in that province: but this is not authenticated, and
+seems to be a mistake: for in some of Martial's epigrams, which appear to
+have been written after the death of Domitian, Juvenal is spoken of as
+residing at Rome.  It is said that he lived to upwards of eighty years of
+age.
+
+The remaining compositions of this author are sixteen satires, all
+written against the dissipation and enormous vices which prevailed at
+Rome in his time.  The various objects of animadversion are painted in
+the strongest colours, and placed in the most conspicuous points of view.
+Giving loose reins to just and moral indignation, Juvenal is every where
+animated, vehement, petulant, and incessantly acrimonious.  Disdaining
+the more lenient modes of correction, or despairing of their success, he
+neither adopts the raillery of Horace, nor the derision of Persius, but
+prosecutes vice and folly with all the severity of sentiment, passion,
+and expression.  He sometimes exhibits a mixture of humour with his
+invectives; but it is a humour which partakes more of virulent rage than
+of pleasantry; broad, hostile, but coarse, and rivalling in indelicacy
+the profligate manners which it assails.  The satires of Juvenal abound
+in philosophical apophthegms; and, where they are not sullied by obscene
+description, are supported with a uniform air of virtuous elevation.
+Amidst all the intemperance of sarcasm, his numbers are harmonious.  Had
+his zeal permitted him to direct the current of his impetuous genius into
+the channel of ridicule, and endeavour to put to shame the vices and
+follies of those licentious times, as much as he perhaps exasperated
+conviction rather than excited contrition, he would have carried satire
+to the highest possible pitch, both of literary excellence and moral
+utility.  With every abatement of attainable perfection, we hesitate not
+to place him at the head of this arduous department of poetry.
+
+Of STATIUS no farther particulars are preserved than that he (501) was
+born at Naples; that his father's name was Statius of Epirus, and his
+mother's Agelina, and that he died about the end of the first century of
+the Christian era.  Some have conjectured that he maintained himself by
+writing for the stage, but of this there is no sufficient evidence; and
+if ever he composed dramatic productions, they have perished.  The works
+of Statius now extant, are two poems, viz. the Thebais and the Achilleis,
+besides a collection, named Silvae.
+
+The Thebais consists of twelve books, and the subject of it is the Theban
+war, which happened 1236 years before the Christian era, in consequence
+of a dispute between Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus and
+Jocasta.  These brothers had entered into an agreement with each other to
+reign alternately for a year at a time; and Eteocles being the elder, got
+first possession of the throne.  This prince refusing to abdicate at the
+expiration of the year, Polynices fled to Argos, where marrying Argia,
+the daughter of Adrastus, king of that country, he procured the
+assistance of his father-in-law, to enforce the engagement stipulated
+with his brother Eteocles.  The Argives marched under the command of
+seven able generals, who were to attack separately the seven gates of
+Thebes.  After much blood had been spilt without any effect, it was at
+last agreed between the two parties, that the brothers should determine
+the dispute by single combat.  In the desperate engagement which ensued,
+they both fell; and being burnt together upon the funeral pile, it is
+said that their ashes separated, as if actuated by the implacable
+resentment which they had borne to each other.
+
+If we except the Aeneid, this is the only Latin production extant which
+is epic in its form; and it likewise approaches nearest in merit to that
+celebrated poem, which Statius appears to have been ambitious of
+emulating.  In unity and greatness of action, the Thebais corresponds to
+the laws of the Epopea; but the fable may be regarded as defective in
+some particulars, which, however, arise more from the nature of the
+subject, than from any fault of the poet.  The distinction of the hero is
+not sufficiently prominent; and the poem possesses not those
+circumstances which are requisite towards interesting the reader's
+affections in the issue of the contest.  To this it may be added, that
+the unnatural complexion of the incestuous progeny diffuses a kind of
+gloom which obscures the splendour of thought, and restrains the
+sympathetic indulgence of fancy to some of the boldest excursions of the
+poet.  For grandeur, however, and animation of sentiment and description,
+as well as for harmony of numbers, the Thebais is eminently conspicuous,
+and deserves to be held in a much higher degree of estimation than it has
+(502) generally obtained.  In the contrivance of some of the episodes,
+and frequently in the modes of expression, Statius keeps an attentive eye
+to the style of Virgil.  It is said that he was twelve years employed in
+the composition of this poem; and we have his own authority for
+affirming, that he polished it with all the care and assiduity practised
+by the poets in the Augustan age:
+
+    Quippe, te fido monitore, nostra
+    Thebais, multa cruciata lima,
+    Tentat audaci fide Mantuanae
+        Gaudia famae.--Silvae, lib. iv. 7.
+
+    For, taught by you, with steadfast care
+    I trim my "Song of Thebes," and dare
+    With generous rivalry to share
+        The glories of the Mantuan bard.
+
+The Achilleis relates to the same hero who is celebrated by Homer in the
+Iliad; but it is the previous history of Achilles, not his conduct in the
+Trojan war, which forms the subject of the poem of Statius.  While the
+young hero is under the care of the Centaur Chiron, Thetis makes a visit
+to the preceptor's sequestered habitation, where, to save her son from
+the fate which, it was predicted, would befall him at Troy, if he should
+go to the siege of that place, she orders him to be dressed in the
+disguise of a girl, and sent to live in the family of Lycomedes, king of
+Scyros.  But as Troy could not be taken without the aid of Achilles,
+Ulysses, accompanied by Diomede, is deputed by the Greeks to go to
+Scyros, and bring him thence to the Grecian camp.  The artifice by which
+the sagacious ambassador detected Achilles amongst his female companions,
+was by placing before them various articles of merchandise, amongst which
+was some armour.  Achilles no sooner perceived the latter, than he
+eagerly seized a sword and shield, and manifesting the strongest emotions
+of heroic enthusiasm, discovered his sex.  After an affectionate parting
+with Lycomedes' daughter, Deidamia, whom he left pregnant of a son, he
+set sail with the Grecian chiefs, and, during the voyage, gives them an
+account of the manner of his education with Chiron.
+
+This poem consists of two books, in heroic measure, and is written with
+taste and fancy.  Commentators are of opinion, that the Achilleis was
+left incomplete by the death of the author; but this is extremely
+improbable, from various circumstances, and appears to be founded only
+upon the word Hactenus, in the conclusion of the poem:
+
+    (503) Hactenus annorum, comites, elementa meorum
+    Et memini, et meminisse juvat: scit caetera mater.
+
+    Thus far, companions dear, with mindful joy I've told
+    My youthful deeds; the rest my mother can unfold.
+
+That any consequential reference was intended by hactenus, seems to me
+plainly contradicted by the words which immediately follow, scit caetera
+mater.  Statius could not propose the giving any further account of
+Achilles's life, because a general narrative of it had been given in the
+first book.  The voyage from Scyros to the Trojan coast, conducted with
+the celerity which suited the purpose of the poet, admitted of no
+incidents which required description or recital: and after the voyagers
+had reached the Grecian camp, it is reasonable to suppose, that the
+action of the Iliad immediately commenced.  But that Statius had no
+design of extending the plan of the Achilleis beyond this period, is
+expressly declared in the exordium of the poem:
+
+    Magnanimum Aeaciden, formidatamque Tonanti
+    Progeniem, et patrio vetitam succedere coelo,
+    Diva, refer; quanquam acta viri multum inclyta cantu
+    Maeonio; sed plura vacant.  Nos ire per omnem
+    (Sic amor est) heroa velis, Scyroque latentem
+    Dulichia proferre tuba: nec in Hectore tracto
+    Sistere, sed tota juvenem deducere Troja.
+
+    Aid me, O goddess! while I sing of him,
+    Who shook the Thunderer's throne, and, for his crime,
+    Was doomed to lose his birthright in the skies;
+    The great Aeacides.  Maeonian strains
+    Have made his mighty deeds their glorious theme;
+    Still much remains: be mine the pleasing task
+    To trace the future hero's young career,
+    Not dragging Hector at his chariot wheels,
+    But while disguised in Scyros yet he lurked,
+    Till trumpet-stirred, he sprung to manly arms,
+    And sage Ulysses led him to the Trojan coast.
+
+The Silvae is a collection of poems almost entirely in heroic verse,
+divided into five books, and for the most part written extempore.
+Statius himself affirms, in his Dedication to Stella, that the production
+of none of them employed him more than two days; yet many of them consist
+of between one hundred and two hundred hexameter lines.  We meet with one
+of two hundred and sixteen lines; one, of two hundred and thirty-four;
+one, of two hundred and sixty-two; and one of two hundred and
+seventy-seven; a rapidity of composition approaching to what Horace
+mentions of the poet Lucilius.  It is no small encomium to observe, that,
+considered as extemporaneous productions, (504) the meanest in the
+collection is far from meriting censure, either in point of sentiment or
+expression; and many of them contain passages which command our applause.
+
+The poet MARTIAL, surnamed likewise Coquus, was born at Bilbilis, in
+Spain, of obscure parents.  At the age of twenty-one, he came to Rome,
+where he lived during five-and-thirty years under the emperors Galba,
+Otho, Vitellius, the two Vespasians, Domitian, Nerva, and the beginning
+of the reign of Trajan.  He was the panegyrist of several of those
+emperors, by whom he was liberally rewarded, raised to the Equestrian
+order, and promoted by Domitian to the tribuneship; but being treated
+with coldness and neglect by Trajan, he returned to his native country,
+and, a few years after, ended his days, at the age of seventy-five.
+
+He had lived at Rome in great splendour and affluence, as well as in high
+esteem for his poetical talents; but upon his return to Bilbilis, it is
+said that he experienced a great reverse of fortune, and was chiefly
+indebted for his support to the gratuitous benefactions of Pliny the
+Younger, whom he had extolled in some epigrams.
+
+The poems of Martial consist of fourteen books, all written in the
+epigrammatic form, to which species of composition, introduced by the
+Greeks, he had a peculiar propensity.  Amidst such a multitude of verses,
+on a variety of subjects, often composed extempore, and many of them,
+probably, in the moments of fashionable dissipation, it is not surprising
+that we find a large number unworthy the genius of the author.  Delicacy,
+and even decency, is often violated in the productions of Martial.
+Grasping at every thought which afforded even the shadow of ingenuity, he
+gave unlimited scope to the exercise of an active and fruitful
+imagination.  In respect to composition, he is likewise liable to
+censure.  At one time he wearies, and at another tantalises the reader,
+with the prolixity or ambiguity of his preambles.  His prelusive
+sentiments are sometimes far-fetched, and converge not with a natural
+declination into the focus of epigram.  In dispensing praise and censure,
+he often seems to be governed more by prejudice or policy, than by
+justice and truth; and he is more constantly attentive to the production
+of wit, than to the improvement of morality.
+
+But while we remark the blemishes and imperfections of this poet, we must
+acknowledge his extraordinary merits.  In composition he is, in general,
+elegant and correct; and where the subject is capable of connection with
+sentiment, his inventive ingenuity never fails to extract from it the
+essence of delight and surprise.  His fancy is prolific of beautiful
+images, and his (505) judgment expert in arranging them to the greatest
+advantage.  He bestows panegyric with inimitable grace, and satirises
+with equal dexterity.  In a fund of Attic salt, he surpasses every other
+writer; and though he seems to have at command all the varied stores of
+gall, he is not destitute of candour.  With almost every kind of
+versification he appears to be familiar; and notwithstanding a facility
+of temper, too accommodating, perhaps, on many occasions, to the
+licentiousness of the times, we may venture from strong indications to
+pronounce, that, as a moralist, his principles were virtuous.  It is
+observed of this author, by Pliny the Younger, that, though his
+compositions might, perhaps, not obtain immortality, he wrote as if they
+would.  [Aeterna, quae scripsit, non erunt fortasse: ille tamen scripsit
+tanquam futura.]  The character which Martial gives of his epigrams, is
+just and comprehensive:
+
+    Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura,
+    Quae legis: hic aliter non fit, Avite, liber.
+
+    Some are good, some indifferent, and some again still worse;
+    Such, Avitus, you will find is a common case with verse.
+
+THE END OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF EMINENT GRAMMARIANS
+
+(506)
+
+I.  The science of grammar [842] was in ancient times far from being in
+vogue at Rome; indeed, it was of little use in a rude state of society,
+when the people were engaged in constant wars, and had not much time to
+bestow on the cultivation of the liberal arts [843].  At the outset, its
+pretensions were very slender, for the earliest men of learning, who were
+both poets and orators, may be considered as half-Greek: I speak of
+Livius [844] and Ennius [845], who are acknowledged to have taught both
+languages as well at Rome as in foreign parts [846].  But they (507) only
+translated from the Greek, and if they composed anything of their own in
+Latin, it was only from what they had before read.  For although there
+are those who say that this Ennius published two books, one on "Letters
+and Syllables," and the other on "Metres," Lucius Cotta has
+satisfactorily proved that they are not the works of the poet Ennius, but
+of another writer of the same name, to whom also the treatise on the
+"Rules of Augury" is attributed.
+
+II.  Crates of Mallos [847], then, was, in our opinion, the first who
+introduced the study of grammar at Rome.  He was cotemporary with
+Aristarchus [848], and having been sent by king Attalus as envoy to the
+senate in the interval between the second and third Punic wars [849],
+soon after the death of Ennius [850], he had the misfortune to fall into
+an open sewer in the Palatine quarter of the city, and broke his leg.
+After which, during the whole period of his embassy and convalescence, he
+gave frequent lectures, taking much pains to instruct his hearers, and he
+has left us an example well worthy of imitation.  It was so far followed,
+that poems hitherto little known, the works either of deceased friends or
+other approved writers, were brought to light, and being read and
+commented on, were explained to others.  Thus, Caius Octavius Lampadio
+edited the Punic War of Naevius [851], which having been written in one
+volume without any break in the manuscript, he divided into seven books.
+After that, Quintus Vargonteius undertook the Annals of Ennius, which he
+read on certain fixed days to crowded audiences.  So Laelius Archelaus,
+and Vectius Philocomus, read and commented on the Satires of their friend
+Lucilius [852], which Lenaeus Pompeius, a freedman, tells us he studied
+under Archelaus; and Valerius Cato, under Philocomus.  Two others also
+taught and promoted (508) grammar in various branches, namely, Lucius
+Aelius Lanuvinus, the son-in-law of Quintus Aelius, and Servius Claudius,
+both of whom were Roman knights, and men who rendered great services both
+to learning and the republic.
+
+III.  Lucius Aelius had a double cognomen, for he was called Praeconius,
+because his father was a herald; Stilo, because he was in the habit of
+composing orations for most of the speakers of highest rank; indeed, he
+was so strong a partisan of the nobles, that he accompanied Quintus
+Metellus Numidicus [853] in his exile.  Servius [854] having
+clandestinely obtained his father-in-law's book before it was published,
+was disowned for the fraud, which he took so much to heart, that,
+overwhelmed with shame and distress, he retired from Rome; and being
+seized with a fit of the gout, in his impatience, he applied a poisonous
+ointment to his feet, which half-killed him, so that his lower limbs
+mortified while he was still alive.  After this, more attention was paid
+to the science of letters, and it grew in public estimation, insomuch,
+that men of the highest rank did not hesitate in undertaking to write
+something on the subject; and it is related that sometimes there were no
+less than twenty celebrated scholars in Rome.  So high was the value, and
+so great were the rewards, of grammarians, that Lutatius Daphnides,
+jocularly called "Pan's herd" [855] by Lenaeus Melissus, was purchased by
+Quintus Catullus for two hundred thousand sesterces, and shortly
+afterwards made a freedman; and that Lucius Apuleius, who was taken into
+the pay of Epicius Calvinus, a wealthy Roman knight, at the annual salary
+of ten thousand crowns, had many scholars.  Grammar also penetrated into
+the provinces, and some of the most eminent amongst the learned taught it
+in foreign parts, particularly in Gallia Togata.  In the number of these,
+we may reckon Octavius (509) Teucer, Siscennius Jacchus, and Oppius Cares
+[856], who persisted in teaching to a most advanced period of his life,
+at a time when he was not only unable to walk, but his sight failed.
+
+IV.  The appellation of grammarian was borrowed from the Greeks; but at
+first, the Latins called such persons literati.  Cornelius Nepos, also,
+in his book, where he draws a distinction between a literate and a
+philologist, says that in common phrase, those are properly called
+literati who are skilled in speaking or writing with care or accuracy,
+and those more especially deserve the name who translated the poets, and
+were called grammarians by the Greeks.  It appears that they were named
+literators by Messala Corvinus, in one of his letters, when he says,
+"that it does not refer to Furius Bibaculus, nor even to Sigida, nor to
+Cato, the literator," [857] meaning, doubtless, that Valerius Cato was
+both a poet and an eminent grammarian.  Some there are who draw a
+distinction between a literati and a literator, as the Greeks do between
+a grammarian and a grammatist, applying the former term to men of real
+erudition, the latter to those whose pretensions to learning are
+moderate; and this opinion Orbilius supports by examples.  For he says
+that in old times, when a company of slaves was offered for sale by any
+person, it was not customary, without good reason, to describe either of
+them in the catalogue as a literati, but only as a literator, meaning
+that he was not a proficient in letters, but had a smattering of
+knowledge.
+
+The early grammarians taught rhetoric also, and we have many of their
+treatises which include both sciences; whence it arose, I think, that in
+later times, although the two professions had then become distinct, the
+old custom was retained, or the grammarians introduced into their
+teaching some of the elements required for public speaking, such as the
+problem, the periphrasis, the choice of words, description of character,
+and the like; in order that they might not transfer (510) their pupils to
+the rhetoricians no better than ill-taught boys.  But I perceive that
+these lessons are now given up in some cases, on account of the want of
+application, or the tender years, of the scholar, for I do not believe
+that it arises from any dislike in the master.  I recollect that when I
+was a boy it was the custom of one of these, whose name was Princeps, to
+take alternate days for declaiming and disputing; and sometimes he would
+lecture in the morning, and declaim in the afternoon, when he had his
+pulpit removed.  I heard, also, that even within the memories of our own
+fathers, some of the pupils of the grammarians passed directly from the
+schools to the courts, and at once took a high place in the ranks of the
+most distinguished advocates.  The professors at that time were, indeed,
+men of great eminence, of some of whom I may be able to give an account
+in the following chapters.
+
+V.  SAEVIUS [858] NICANOR first acquired fame and reputation by his
+teaching: and, besides, he made commentaries, the greater part of which,
+however, are said to have been borrowed.  He also wrote a satire, in
+which he informs us that he was a freedman, and had a double cognomen, in
+the following verses;
+
+    Saevius Nicanor Marci libertus negabit,
+    Saevius Posthumius idem, sed Marcus, docebit.
+
+    What Saevius Nicanor, the freedman of Marcus, will deny,
+    The same Saevius, called also Posthumius Marcus, will assert.
+
+It is reported, that in consequence of some infamy attached to his
+character, he retired to Sardinia, and there ended his days.
+
+VI.  AURELIUS OPILIUS [859], the freedman of some Epicurean, first taught
+philosophy, then rhetoric, and last of all, grammar.  (511) Having closed
+his school, he followed Rutilius Rufus, when he was banished to Asia, and
+there the two friends grew old together.  He also wrote several volumes
+on a variety of learned topics, nine books of which he distinguished by
+the number and names of the nine Muses; as he says, not without reason,
+they being the patrons of authors and poets.  I observe that its title is
+given in several indexes by a single letter, but he uses two in the
+heading of a book called Pinax.
+
+VII.  MARCUS ANTONIUS GNIPHO [860], a free-born native of Gaul, was
+exposed in his infancy, and afterwards received his freedom from his
+foster-father; and, as some say, was educated at Alexandria, where
+Dionysius Scytobrachion [861] was his fellow pupil.  This, however, I am
+not very ready to believe, as the times at which they flourished scarcely
+agree.  He is said to have been a man of great genius, of singular
+memory, well read in Greek as well as Latin, and of a most obliging and
+agreeable temper, who never haggled about remuneration, but generally
+left it to the liberality of his scholars.  He first taught in the house
+of Julius Caesar [862], when the latter was yet but a boy, and,
+afterwards, in his own private house.  He gave instruction in rhetoric
+also, teaching the rules of eloquence every day, but declaiming only on
+festivals.  It is said that some very celebrated men frequented his
+school,--and, among others, Marcus Cicero, during the time he held the
+praetorship [863].  He wrote a number of works, although he did not live
+beyond his fiftieth year; but Atteius, the philologist [864], says, that
+he left only two volumes, "De Latino Sermone;" and, that the other works
+ascribed to him, were composed by his disciples, and were not his,
+although his name is sometimes to be found in them.
+
+VIII.  M. POMPILIUS ANDRONICUS, a native of Syria, while he professed to
+be a grammarian, was considered an idle follower of the Epicurean sect,
+and little qualified to be a master (512) of a school.  Finding,
+therefore, that, at Rome, not only Antonius Gnipho, but even other
+teachers of less note were preferred to him, he retired to Cumae, where
+he lived at his ease; and, though he wrote several books, he was so
+needy, and reduced to such straits, as to be compelled to sell that
+excellent little work of his, "The Index to the Annals," for sixteen
+thousand sesterces.  Orbilius has informed us, that he redeemed this work
+from the oblivion into which it had fallen, and took care to have it
+published with the author's name.
+
+IX.  ORBILIUS PUPILLUS, of Beneventum, being left an orphan, by the death
+of his parents, who both fell a sacrifice to the plots of their enemies
+on the same day, acted, at first, as apparitor to the magistrates.  He
+then joined the troops in Macedonia, when he was first decorated with the
+plumed helmet [865], and, afterwards, promoted to serve on horseback.
+Having completed his military service, he resumed his studies, which he
+had pursued with no small diligence from his youth upwards; and, having
+been a professor for a long period in his own country, at last, during
+the consulship of Cicero, made his way to Rome, where he taught with more
+reputation than profit.  For in one of his works he says, that "he was
+then very old, and lived in a garret."  He also published a book with the
+title of Perialogos; containing complaints of the injurious treatment to
+which professors submitted, without seeking redress at the hands of
+parents.  His sour temper betrayed itself, not only in his disputes with
+the sophists opposed to him, whom he lashed on every occasion, but also
+towards his scholars, as Horace tells us, who calls him "a flogger;"
+[866] and Domitius Marsus [867], who says of him:
+
+    Si quos Orbilius ferula scuticaque cecidit.
+    If those Orbilius with rod or ferule thrashed.
+
+(513) And not even men of rank escaped his sarcasms; for, before he
+became noticed, happening to be examined as a witness in a crowded court,
+Varro, the advocate on the other side, put the question to him, "What he
+did and by what profession he gained his livelihood?"  He replied, "That
+he lived by removing hunchbacks from the sunshine into the shade,"
+alluding to Muraena's deformity.  He lived till he was near a hundred
+years old; but he had long lost his memory, as the verse of Bibaculus
+informs us:
+
+    Orbilius ubinam est, literarum oblivio?
+    Where is Orbilius now, that wreck of learning lost?
+
+His statue is shown in the Capitol at Beneventum.  It stands on the left
+hand, and is sculptured in marble [868], representing him in a sitting
+posture, wearing the pallium, with two writing-cases in his hand.  He
+left a son, named also Orbilius, who, like his father, was a professor of
+grammar.
+
+X.  ATTEIUS, THE PHILOLOGIST, a freedman, was born at Athens.  Of him,
+Capito Atteius [869], the well-known jurisconsult, says that he was a
+rhetorician among the grammarians, and a grammarian among the
+rhetoricians.  Asinius Pollio [870], in the book in which he finds fault
+with the writings of Sallust for his great affectation of obsolete words,
+speaks thus: "In this work his chief assistant was a certain Atteius, a
+man of rank, a splendid Latin grammarian, the aider and preceptor of
+those who studied the practice of declamation; in short, one who claimed
+for himself the cognomen of Philologus."  Writing to Lucius Hermas, he
+says, "that he had made great proficiency in Greek literature, and some
+in Latin; that he had been a hearer of Antonius Gnipho, and his Hermas
+[871], and afterwards began to teach others.  Moreover, that he had for
+pupils many illustrious youths, among whom were the two (514) brothers,
+Appius and Pulcher Claudius; and that he even accompanied them to their
+province."  He appears to have assumed the name of Philologus, because,
+like Eratosthenes [872], who first adopted that cognomen, he was in high
+repute for his rich and varied stores of learning; which, indeed, is
+evident from his commentaries, though but few of them are extant.
+Another letter, however, to the same Hermas, shews that they were very
+numerous: "Remember," it says, "to recommend generally our Extracts,
+which we have collected, as you know, of all kinds, into eight hundred
+books."  He afterwards formed an intimate acquaintance with Caius
+Sallustius, and, on his death, with Asinius Pollio; and when they
+undertook to write a history, he supplied the one with short annals of
+all Roman affairs, from which he could select at pleasure; and the other,
+with rules on the art of composition.  I am, therefore, surprised that
+Asinius Pollio should have supposed that he was in the habit of
+collecting old words and figures of speech for Sallust, when he must have
+known that his own advice was, that none but well known, and common and
+appropriate expressions should be made use of; and that, above all
+things, the obscurity of the style of Sallust, and his bold freedom in
+translations, should be avoided.
+
+XI.  VALERIUS CATO was, as some have informed us, the freedman of one
+Bursenus, a native of Gaul.  He himself tells us, in his little work
+called "Indignatio," that he was born free, and being left an orphan, was
+exposed to be easily stripped of his patrimony during the licence of
+Sylla's administrations.  He had a great number of distinguished pupils,
+and was highly esteemed as a preceptor suited to those who had a poetical
+turn, as appears from these short lines:
+
+    Cato grammaticus, Latina Siren,
+    Qui solus legit ac facit poetas.
+
+    Cato, the Latin Siren, grammar taught and verse,
+    To form the poet skilled, and poetry rehearse.
+
+Besides his Treatise on Grammar, he composed some poems, (515) of which,
+his Lydia and Diana are most admired.  Ticida mentions his "Lydia."
+
+    Lydia, doctorum maxima cura liber.
+    "Lydia," a work to men of learning dear.
+
+Cinna [873] thus notices the "Diana."
+
+    Secula permaneat nostri Diana Catonis.
+    Immortal be our Cato's song of Dian.
+
+He lived to extreme old age, but in the lowest state of penury, and
+almost in actual want; having retired to a small cottage when he gave up
+his Tusculan villa to his creditors; as Bibaculus tells us:
+
+    Si quis forte mei domum Catonis,
+    Depictas minio assulas, et illos
+    Custodis vidit hortulos Priapi,
+    Miratur, quibus ille disciplinis,
+    Tantam sit sapientiam assecutus,
+    Quam tres cauliculi et selibra farris;
+    Racemi duo, tegula sub una,
+    Ad summam prope nutriant senectam.
+
+"If, perchance, any one has seen the house of my Cato, with marble slabs
+of the richest hues, and his gardens worthy of having Priapus [874] for
+their guardian, he may well wonder by what philosophy he has gained so
+much wisdom, that a daily allowance of three coleworts, half-a-pound of
+meal, and two bunches of grapes, under a narrow roof, should serve for
+his subsistence to extreme old age."
+
+And he says in another place:
+
+    Catonis modo, Galle, Tusculanum
+    Tota creditor urbe venditahat.
+    Mirati sumus unicum magistrum,
+    Summum grammaticum, optimum poetam,
+    Omnes solvere posse quaestiones,
+    Unum difficile expedire nomen.
+    En cor Zenodoti, en jecur Cratetis!
+
+"We lately saw, my Gallus, Cato's Tusculan villa exposed to public sale
+by his creditors; and wondered that such an unrivalled master of (516)
+the schools, most eminent grammarian, and accomplished poet, could solve
+all propositions and yet found one question too difficult for him to
+settle,--how to pay his debts.  We find in him the genius of Zenodotus
+[875], the wisdom of Crates." [876]
+
+XII.  CORNELIUS EPICADIUS, a freedman of Lucius Cornelius Sylla, the
+dictator, was his apparitor in the Augural priesthood, and much beloved
+by his son Faustus; so that he was proud to call himself the freedman of
+both.  He completed the last book of Sylla's Commentaries, which his
+patron had left unfinished. [877]
+
+XIII.  LABERIUS HIERA was bought by his master out of a slave-dealer's
+cage, and obtained his freedom on account of his devotion to learning.
+It is reported that his disinterestedness was such, that he gave
+gratuitous instruction to the children of those who were proscribed in
+the time of Sylla.
+
+XIV.  CURTIUS NICIA was the intimate friend of Cneius Pompeius and Caius
+Memmius; but having carried notes from Memmius to Pompey's wife [878],
+when she was debauched by Memmius, Pompey was indignant, and forbad him
+his house.  He was also on familiar terms with Marcus Cicero, who thus
+speaks of him in his epistle to Dolabella [879]: "I have more need of
+receiving letters from you, than you have of desiring them from me.  For
+there is nothing going on at Rome in which I think you would take any
+interest, except, perhaps, that you may like to know that I am appointed
+umpire between our friends Nicias and Vidius.  The one, it appears,
+alleges in two short verses that Nicias owes him (517) money; the other,
+like an Aristarchus, cavils at them.  I, like an old critic, am to decide
+whether they are Nicias's or spurious."
+
+Again, in a letter to Atticus [880], he says: "As to what you write about
+Nicias, nothing could give me greater pleasure than to have him with me,
+if I was in a position to enjoy his society; but my province is to me a
+place of retirement and solitude.  Sicca easily reconciled himself to
+this state of things, and, therefore, I would prefer having him.
+Besides, you are well aware of the feebleness, and the nice and luxurious
+habits, of our friend Nicias.  Why should I be the means of making him
+uncomfortable, when he can afford me no pleasure?  At the same time, I
+value his goodwill."
+
+XV.  LENAEUS was a freedman of Pompey the Great, and attended him in most
+of his expeditions.  On the death of his patron and his sons, he
+supported himself by teaching in a school which he opened near the temple
+of Tellus, in the Carium, in the quarter of the city where the house of
+the Pompeys stood [881].  Such was his regard for his patron's memory,
+that when Sallust described him as having a brazen face, and a shameless
+mind, he lashed the historian in a most bitter satire [882], as "a
+bull's-pizzle, a gormandizer, a braggart, and a tippler, a man whose life
+and writings were equally monstrous;" besides charging him with being "a
+most unskilful plagiarist, who borrowed the language of Cato and other
+old writers."  It is related, that, in his youth, having escaped from
+slavery by the contrivance of some of his friends, he took refuge in his
+own country; and, that after he had applied himself to the liberal arts,
+he brought the price of his freedom to his former master, who, however,
+struck by his talents and learning, gave him manumission gratuitously.
+
+XVI.  QUINTUS CAECILIUS, an Epirot by descent, but born at Tusculum, was
+a freedman of Atticus Satrius, a Roman (518) knight, to whom Cicero
+addressed his Epistles [883].  He became the tutor of his patron's
+daughter [884], who was contracted to Marcus Agrippa, but being suspected
+of an illicit intercourse with her, and sent away on that account, he
+betook himself to Cornelius Gallus, and lived with him on terms of the
+greatest intimacy, which, indeed, was imputed to Gallus as one of his
+heaviest offences, by Augustus.  Then, after the condemnation and death
+of Gallus [885], he opened a school, but had few pupils, and those very
+young, nor any belonging to the higher orders, excepting the children of
+those he could not refuse to admit.  He was the first, it is said, who
+held disputations in Latin, and who began to lecture on Virgil and the
+other modern poets; which the verse of Domitius Marcus [886] points out.
+
+    Epirota tenellorum nutricula vatum.
+
+                 The Epirot who,
+    With tender care, our unfledged poets nursed.
+
+XVII.  VERRIUS FLACCUS [887], a freedman, distinguished himself by a new
+mode of teaching; for it was his practice to exercise the wits of his
+scholars, by encouraging emulation among them; not only proposing the
+subjects on which they were to write, but offering rewards for those who
+were successful in the contest.  These consisted of some ancient,
+handsome, or rare book.  Being, in consequence, selected by Augustus, as
+preceptor to his grandsons, he transferred his entire school to the
+Palatium, but with the understanding that he should admit no fresh
+scholars.  The hall in Catiline's house, (519) which had then been added
+to the palace, was assigned him for his school, with a yearly allowance
+of one hundred thousand sesterces.  He died of old age, in the reign of
+Tiberius.  There is a statue of him at Praeneste, in the semi-circle at
+the lower side of the forum, where he had set up calendars arranged by
+himself, and inscribed on slabs of marble.
+
+XVIII.  LUCIUS CRASSITIUS, a native of Tarentum, and in rank a freedman,
+had the cognomen of Pasides, which he afterwards changed for Pansa.  His
+first employment was connected with the stage, and his business was to
+assist the writers of farces.  After that, he took to giving lessons in a
+gallery attached to a house, until his commentary on "The Smyrna" [888]
+so brought him into notice, that the following lines were written on him:
+
+    Uni Crassitio se credere Smyrna probavit.
+      Desinite indocti, conjugio hanc petere.
+    Soli Crassitio se dixit nubere velle:
+      Intima cui soli nota sua exstiterint.
+
+    Crassitius only counts on Smyrna's love,
+    Fruitless the wooings of the unlettered prove;
+    Crassitius she receives with loving arms,
+    For he alone unveiled her hidden charms.
+
+However, after having taught many scholars, some of whom were of high
+rank, and amongst others, Julius Antonius, the triumvir's son, so that he
+might be even compared with Verrius Flaccus; he suddenly closed his
+school, and joined the sect of Quintus Septimius, the philosopher.
+
+XIX.  SCRIBONIUS APHRODISIUS, the slave and disciple of Orbilius, who was
+afterwards redeemed and presented with his freedom by Scribonia [889],
+the daughter of Libo who had been the wife of Augustus, taught in the
+time of Verrius; whose books on Orthography he also revised, not without
+some severe remarks on his pursuits and conduct.
+
+XX.  C. JULIUS HYGINUS, a freedman of Augustus, was a native of Spain,
+(although some say he was born at Alexandria,) (520) and that when that
+city was taken, Caesar brought him, then a boy, to Rome.  He closely and
+carefully imitated Cornelius Alexander [890], a Greek grammarian, who,
+for his antiquarian knowledge, was called by many Polyhistor, and by some
+History.  He had the charge of the Palatine library, but that did not
+prevent him from having many scholars; and he was one of the most
+intimate friends of the poet Ovid, and of Caius Licinius, the historian,
+a man of consular rank [891], who has related that Hyginus died very
+poor, and was supported by his liberality as long as he lived.  Julius
+Modestus [892], who was a freedman of Hyginus, followed the footsteps of
+his patron in his studies and learning.
+
+XXI.  CAIUS MELISSUS [893], a native of Spoletum, was free-born, but
+having been exposed by his parents in consequence of quarrels between
+them, he received a good education from his foster-father, by whose care
+and industry he was brought up, and was made a present of to Mecaenas, as
+a grammarian.  Finding himself valued and treated as a friend, he
+preferred to continue in his state of servitude, although he was claimed
+by his mother, choosing rather his present condition than that which his
+real origin entitled him to.  In consequence, his freedom was speedily
+given him, and he even became a favourite with Augustus.  By his
+appointment he was made curator of the library in the portico of Octavia
+[894];  and, as he himself informs us, undertook to compose, when he was
+a sexagenarian, his books of "Witticisms," which are now called "The Book
+of Jests."  Of these he accomplished one hundred and fifty, to which he
+afterwards added several more.  He (521) also composed a new kind of
+story about those who wore the toga, and called it "Trabeat." [895]
+
+XXII.  MARCUS POMPONIUS MARCELLUS, a very severe critic of the Latin
+tongue, who sometimes pleaded causes, in a certain address on the
+plaintiff's behalf, persisted in charging his adversary with making a
+solecism, until Cassius Severus appealed to the judges to grant an
+adjournment until his client should produce another grammarian, as he was
+not prepared to enter into a controversy respecting a solecism, instead
+of defending his client's rights.  On another occasion, when he had found
+fault with some expression in a speech made by Tiberius, Atteius Capito
+[896] affirmed, "that if it was not Latin, at least it would be so in
+time to come;" "Capito is wrong," cried Marcellus; "it is certainly in
+your power, Caesar, to confer the freedom of the city on whom you please,
+but you cannot make words for us."  Asinius Gallus [897] tells us that he
+was formerly a pugilist, in the following epigram.
+
+    Qui caput ad laevam deicit, glossemata nobis
+    Praecipit; os nullum, vel potius pugilis.
+
+    Who ducked his head, to shun another's fist,
+    Though he expound old saws,--yet, well I wist,
+    With pummelled nose and face, he's but a pugilist.
+
+XXIII.  REMMIUS PALAEMON [898], of Vicentia [899], the offspring of a
+bond-woman, acquired the rudiments of learning, first as the companion of
+a weaver's, and then of his master's, son, at school.  Being afterwards
+made free, he taught at Rome, where he stood highest in the rank of the
+grammarians; but he was so infamous for every sort of vice, that Tiberius
+and his successor Claudius publicly denounced him as an improper person
+to have the education of boys and young men entrusted to him.  Still, his
+powers of narrative and agreeable style of speaking made him very
+popular; besides which, he had the gift of making extempore verses.  He
+also wrote a great many in (522) various and uncommon metres.  His
+insolence was such, that he called Marcus Varro "a hog;" and bragged that
+"letters were born and would perish with him;" and that "his name was not
+introduced inadvertently in the Bucolics [900], as Virgil divined that a
+Palaemon would some day be the judge of all poets and poems."  He also
+boasted, that having once fallen into the hands of robbers, they spared
+him on account of the celebrity his name had acquired.
+
+He was so luxurious, that he took the bath many times in a day; nor did
+his means suffice for his extravagance, although his school brought him
+in forty thousand sesterces yearly, and he received not much less from
+his private estate, which he managed with great care.  He also kept a
+broker's shop for the sale of old clothes; and it is well known that a
+vine [901], he planted himself, yielded three hundred and fifty bottles
+of wine.  But the greatest of all his vices was his unbridled
+licentiousness in his commerce with women, which he carried to the utmost
+pitch of foul indecency [902].  They tell a droll story of some one who
+met him in a crowd, and upon his offering to kiss him, could not escape
+the salute, "Master," said he, "do you want to mouth every one you meet
+with in a hurry?"
+
+XXIV.  MARCUS VALERIUS PROBUS, of Berytus [903], after long aspiring to
+the rank of centurion, being at last tired of waiting, devoted himself to
+study.  He had met with some old authors at a bookseller's shop in the
+provinces, where the memory of ancient times still lingers, and is not
+quite forgotten, as it is at Rome.  Being anxious carefully to reperuse
+these, and afterwards to make acquaintance with other works of the same
+kind, he found himself an object of contempt, and was laughed (523) at
+for his lectures, instead of their gaining him fame or profit.  Still,
+however, he persisted in his purpose, and employed himself in correcting,
+illustrating, and adding notes to many works which he had collected, his
+labours being confined to the province of a grammarian, and nothing more.
+He had, properly speaking, no scholars, but some few followers.  For he
+never taught in such a way as to maintain the character of a master; but
+was in the habit of admitting one or two, perhaps at most three or four,
+disciples in the afternoon; and while he lay at ease and chatted freely
+on ordinary topics, he occasionally read some book to them, but that did
+not often happen.  He published a few slight treatises on some subtle
+questions, besides which, he left a large collection of observations on
+the language of the ancients.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF EMINENT RHETORICIANS.
+
+(524)
+
+I.  Rhetoric, also, as well as Grammar, was not introduced amongst us
+till a late period, and with still more difficulty, inasmuch as we find
+that, at times, the practice of it was even prohibited.  In order to
+leave no doubt of this, I will subjoin an ancient decree of the senate,
+as well as an edict of the censors:--"In the consulship of Caius Fannius
+Strabo, and Marcus Palerius Messala [904]: the praetor Marcus Pomponius
+moved the senate, that an act be passed respecting Philosophers and
+Rhetoricians.  In this matter, they have decreed as follows: 'It shall be
+lawful for M. Pomponius, the praetor, to take such measures, and make
+such provisions, as the good of the Republic, and the duty of his office,
+require, that no Philosophers or Rhetoricians be suffered at Rome.'"
+
+After some interval, the censor Cnaeus Domitius Aenobarbus and Lucius
+Licinius Crassus issued the following edict upon the same subject: "It is
+reported to us that certain persons have instituted a new kind of
+discipline; that our youth resort to their schools; that they have
+assumed the title of Latin Rhetoricians; and that young men waste their
+time there for whole days together.  Our ancestors have ordained what
+instruction it is fitting their children should receive, and what schools
+they should attend.  These novelties, contrary to the customs and
+instructions of our ancestors, we neither approve, nor do they appear to
+us good.  Wherefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify our
+judgment both to those who keep such schools, and those who are in the
+practice of frequenting them, that they meet our disapprobation."
+
+However, by slow degrees, rhetoric manifested itself to be a (525) useful
+and honourable study, and many persons devoted themselves to it, both as
+a means of defence and of acquiring reputation.  Cicero declaimed in
+Greek until his praetorship, but afterwards, as he grew older, in Latin
+also; and even in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa [905], whom he
+calls "his great and noble disciples."  Some historians state that Cneius
+Pompey resumed the practice of declaiming even during the civil war, in
+order to be better prepared to argue against Caius Curio, a young man of
+great talents, to whom the defence of Caesar was entrusted.  They say,
+likewise, that it was not forgotten by Mark Antony, nor by Augustus, even
+during the war of Modena.  Nero also declaimed [906] even after he became
+emperor, in the first year of his reign, which he had done before in
+public but twice.  Many speeches of orators were also published.  In
+consequence, public favour was so much attracted to the study of
+rhetoric, that a vast number of professors and learned men devoted
+themselves to it; and it flourished to such a degree, that some of them
+raised themselves by it to the rank of senators and the highest offices.
+
+But the same mode of teaching was not adopted by all, nor, indeed, did
+individuals always confine themselves to the same system, but each varied
+his plan of teaching according to circumstances.  For they were
+accustomed, in stating their argument with the utmost clearness, to use
+figures and apologies, to put cases, as circumstances required, and to
+relate facts, sometimes briefly and succinctly, and, at other times, more
+at large and with greater feeling.  Nor did they omit, on occasion, to
+resort to translations from the Greek, and to expatiate in the praise, or
+to launch their censures on the faults, of illustrious men.  They also
+dealt with matters connected with every-day life, pointing out such as
+are useful and necessary, and such as are hurtful and needless.  They had
+occasion often to support the authority of fabulous accounts, and to
+detract from that of historical narratives, which sort the Greeks call
+"Propositions," "Refutations" and "Corroboration," until by a gradual
+process they have exhausted these topics, and arrive at the gist of the
+argument.
+
+Among the ancients, subjects of controversy were drawn either from
+history, as indeed some are even now, or from (526) actual facts, of
+recent occurrence.  It was, therefore, the custom to state them
+precisely, with details of the names of places.  We certainly so find
+them collected and published, and it may be well to give one or two of
+them literally, by way of example:
+
+"A company of young men from the city, having made an excursion to Ostia
+in the summer season, and going down to the beach, fell in with some
+fishermen who were casting their nets in the sea.  Having bargained with
+them for the haul, whatever it might turn out to be, for a certain sum,
+they paid down the money.  They waited a long time while the nets were
+being drawn, and when at last they were dragged on shore, there was no
+fish in them, but some gold sewn up in a basket.  The buyers claim the
+haul as theirs, the fishermen assert that it belongs to them."
+
+Again: "Some dealers having to land from a ship at Brundusium a cargo of
+slaves, among which there was a handsome boy of great value, they, in
+order to deceive the collectors of the customs, smuggled him ashore in
+the dress of a freeborn youth, with the bullum [907] hung about his neck.
+The fraud easily escaped detection.  They proceed to Rome; the affair
+becomes the subject of judicial inquiry; it is alleged that the boy was
+entitled to his freedom, because his master had voluntarily treated him
+as free."
+
+Formerly, they called these by a Greek term, syntaxeis, but of late
+"controversies;" but they may be either fictitious cases, or those which
+come under trial in the courts.  Of the eminent professors of this
+science, of whom any memorials are extant, it would not be easy to find
+many others than those of whom I shall now proceed to give an account.
+
+II.  LUCIUS PLOTIUS GALLUS.  Of him Marcus Tullius Cicero thus writes to
+Marcus Titinnius [908]: "I remember well that when we were boys, one
+Lucius Plotius first began to teach Latin; and as great numbers flocked
+to his school, so that all who were most devoted to study were eager to
+take lessons from him, it was a great trouble to me that I too was not
+allowed to do so.  I was prevented, however, by the decided opinion (527)
+of men of the greatest learning, who considered that it was best to
+cultivate the genius by the study of Greek."  This same Gallus, for he
+lived to a great age, was pointed at by M. Caelius, in a speech which he
+was forced to make in his own cause, as having supplied his accuser,
+Atracinus [909], with materials for his charge.  Suppressing his name, he
+says that such a rhetorician was like barley bread [910] compared to a
+wheaten loaf,--windy, chaffy, and coarse.
+
+III.  LUCIUS OCTACILIUS PILITUS is said to have been a slave, and,
+according to the old custom, chained to the door like a watch-dog [911];
+until, having been presented with his freedom for his genius and devotion
+to learning, he drew up for his patron the act of accusation in a cause
+he was prosecuting.  After that, becoming a professor of rhetoric, he
+gave instructions to Cneius Pompey the Great, and composed an account of
+his actions, as well as of those of his father, being the first freedman,
+according to the opinion of Cornelius Nepos [912], who ventured to write
+history, which before his time had not been done by any one who was not
+of the highest ranks in society.
+
+IV.  About this time, EPIDIUS [913] having fallen into disgrace for
+bringing a false accusation, opened a school of instruction, in which he
+taught, among others, Mark Antony and Augustus.  On one occasion Caius
+Canutius jeered them for presuming to belong to the party of the consul
+Isauricus [914] in his administration of the republic; upon which he
+replied, that he would rather be the disciple of Isauricus, than of
+Epidius, the false accuser.  This Epidius claimed to be descended from
+Epidius Nuncio, who, as (528) ancient traditions assert, fell into the
+fountain of the river Sarnus [915] when the streams were overflown, and
+not being afterwards found, was reckoned among the number of the gods.
+
+V. SEXTUS CLODIUS, a native of Sicily, a professor both of Greek and
+Latin eloquence, had bad eyes and a facetious tongue.  It was a saying of
+his, that he lost a pair of eyes from his intimacy with Mark Antony, the
+triumvir [916].  Of his wife, Fulvia, when there was a swelling in one of
+her cheeks, he said that "she tempted the point of his style;" [917] nor
+did Antony think any the worse of him for the joke, but quite enjoyed it;
+and soon afterwards, when Antony was consul [918], he even made him a
+large grant of land, which Cicero charges him with in his Philippics
+[919].  "You patronize," he said, "a master of the schools for the sake
+of his buffoonery, and make a rhetorician one of your pot-companions;
+allowing him to cut his jokes on any one he pleased; a witty man, no
+doubt, but it was an easy matter to say smart things of such as you and
+your companions.  But listen, Conscript Fathers, while I tell you what
+reward was given to this rhetorician, and let the wounds of the republic
+be laid bare to view.  You assigned two thousand acres of the Leontine
+territory [920] to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, and not content with
+that, exonerated the estate from all taxes.  Hear this, and learn from
+the extravagance of the grant, how little wisdom is displayed in your
+acts."
+
+VI.  CAIUS ALBUTIUS SILUS, of Novara [921], while, in the execution (529)
+of the office of edile in his native place, he was sitting for the
+administration of justice, was dragged by the feet from the tribunal by
+some persons against whom he was pronouncing a decree.  In great
+indignation at this usage, he made straight for the gate of the town, and
+proceeded to Rome.  There he was admitted to fellowship, and lodged, with
+Plancus the orator [922], whose practice it was, before he made a speech
+in public, to set up some one to take the contrary side in the argument.
+The office was undertaken by Albutius with such success, that he silenced
+Plancus, who did not venture to put himself in competition with him.
+This bringing him into notice, he collected an audience of his own, and
+it was his custom to open the question proposed for debate, sitting; but
+as he warmed with the subject, he stood up, and made his peroration in
+that posture.  His declamations were of different kinds; sometimes
+brilliant and polished, at others, that they might not be thought to
+savour too much of the schools, he curtailed them of all ornament, and
+used only familiar phrases.  He also pleaded causes, but rarely, being
+employed in such as were of the highest importance, and in every case
+undertaking the peroration only.
+
+In the end, he gave up practising in the forum, partly from shame, partly
+from fear.  For, in a certain trial before the court of the One Hundred
+[923], having lashed the defendant as a man void of natural affection for
+his parents, he called upon him by a bold figure of speech, "to swear by
+the ashes of his father and mother which lay unburied;" his adversary
+taking him up for the suggestion, and the judges frowning upon it, he
+lost his cause, and was much blamed.  At another time, on a trial for
+murder at Milan, before Lucius Piso, the proconsul, having to defend the
+culprit, he worked himself up to such a pitch of vehemence, that in a
+crowded court, who loudly applauded him, notwithstanding all the efforts
+of the lictor to maintain order, he broke out into a lamentation on the
+miserable state of Italy [924], then in danger of being again reduced, he
+said, into (530) the form of a province, and turning to the statue of
+Marcus Brutus, which stood in the Forum, he invoked him as "the founder
+and vindicator of the liberties of the people."  For this he narrowly
+escaped a prosecution.  Suffering, at an advanced period of life, from an
+ulcerated tumour, he returned to Novara, and calling the people together
+in a public assembly, addressed them in a set speech, of considerable
+length, explaining the reasons which induced him to put an end to
+existence: and this he did by abstaining from food.
+
+END OF THE LIVES OF GRAMMARIANS AND RHETORICIANS.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF THE POETS.
+
+(531)
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF TERENCE.
+
+
+Publius Terentius Afer, a native of Carthage, was a slave, at Rome, of
+the senator Terentius Lucanus, who, struck by his abilities and handsome
+person, gave him not only a liberal education in his youth, but his
+freedom when he arrived at years of maturity.  Some say that he was a
+captive taken in war, but this, as Fenestella [925] informs us, could by
+no means have been the case, since both his birth and death took place in
+the interval between the termination of the second Punic war and the
+commencement of the third [926]; nor, even supposing that he had been
+taken prisoner by the Numidian or Getulian tribes, could he have fallen
+into the hands of a Roman general, as there was no commercial intercourse
+between the Italians and Africans until after the fall of Carthage [927].
+Terence lived in great familiarity with many persons of high station, and
+especially with Scipio Africanus, and Caius Delius, whose favour he is
+even supposed to have purchased by the foulest means.  But Fenestella
+reverses the charge, contending that Terence was older than either of
+them.  Cornelius Nepos, however, (532) informs us that they were all of
+nearly equal age; and Porcias intimates a suspicion of this criminal
+commerce in the following passage:--
+
+"While Terence plays the wanton with the great, and recommends himself to
+them by the meretricious ornaments of his person; while, with greedy
+ears, he drinks in the divine melody of Africanus's voice; while he
+thinks of being a constant guest at the table of Furius, and the handsome
+Laelius; while he thinks that he is fondly loved by them, and often
+invited to Albanum for his youthful beauty, he finds himself stripped of
+his property, and reduced to the lowest state of indigence.  Then,
+withdrawing from the world, he betook himself to Greece, where he met his
+end, dying at Strymphalos, a town in Arcadia.  What availed him the
+friendship of Scipio, of Laelius, or of Furius, three of the most
+affluent nobles of that age?  They did not even minister to his
+necessities so much as to provide him a hired house, to which his slave
+might return with the intelligence of his master's death."
+
+He wrote comedies, the earliest of which, The Andria, having to be
+performed at the public spectacles given by the aediles [928], he was
+commanded to read it first before Caecilius [929].  Having been
+introduced while Caecilius was at supper, and being meanly dressed, he is
+reported to have read the beginning of the play seated on a low stool
+near the great man's couch.  But after reciting a few verses, he was
+invited to take his place at table, and, having supped with his host,
+went through the rest to his great delight.  This play and five others
+were received by the public with similar applause, although Volcatius, in
+his enumeration of them, says that "The Hecyra [930] must not be reckoned
+among these."
+
+The Eunuch was even acted twice the same day [931], and earned more money
+than any comedy, whoever was the writer, had (533) ever done before,
+namely, eight thousand sesterces [932]; besides which, a certain sum
+accrued to the author for the title.  But Varro prefers the opening of
+The Adelphi [933] to that of Menander.  It is very commonly reported that
+Terence was assisted in his works by Laelius and Scipio [934], with whom
+he lived in such great intimacy.  He gave some currency to this report
+himself, nor did he ever attempt to defend himself against it, except in
+a light way; as in the prologue to The Adelphi:
+
+    Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nohiles
+    Hunc adjutare, assidueque una scribere;
+    Quod illi maledictun vehemens existimant,
+    Eam laudem hic ducit maximam: cum illis placet,
+    Qui vobis universis et populo placent;
+    Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio,
+    Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia.
+
+                                --------For this,
+    Which malice tells that certain noble persons
+    Assist the bard, and write in concert with him,
+    That which they deem a heavy slander, he
+    Esteems his greatest praise: that he can please
+    Those who in war, in peace, as counsellors,
+    Have rendered you the dearest services,
+    And ever borne their faculties so meekly.
+                                          Colman.
+
+He appears to have protested against this imputation with less
+earnestness, because the notion was far from being disagreeable to
+Laelius and Scipio.  It therefore gained ground, and prevailed in
+after-times.
+
+Quintus Memmius, in his speech in his own defence, says "Publius
+Africanus, who borrowed from Terence a character which he had acted in
+private, brought it on the stage in his name."  Nepos tells us he found
+in some book that C. Laelius, when he was on some occasion at Puteoli, on
+the calends [the first] of March, [935] being requested by his wife to
+rise early, (534) begged her not to suffer him to be disturbed, as he had
+gone to bed late, having been engaged in writing with more than usual
+success.  On her asking him to tell her what he had been writing, he
+repeated the verses which are found in the Heautontimoroumenos:
+
+    Satis pol proterve me Syri promessa--Heauton. IV. iv. 1.
+    I'faith! the rogue Syrus's impudent pretences--
+
+Santra [936] is of opinion that if Terence required any assistance in his
+compositions [937], he would not have had recourse to Scipio and Laelius,
+who were then very young men, but rather to Sulpicius Gallus [938], an
+accomplished scholar, who had been the first to introduce his plays at
+the games given by the consuls; or to Q. Fabius Labeo, or Marcus Popilius
+[939], both men of consular rank, as well as poets.  It was for this
+reason that, in alluding to the assistance he had received, he did not
+speak of his coadjutors as very young men, but as persons of whose
+services the people had full experience in peace, in war, and in the
+administration of affairs.
+
+After he had given his comedies to the world, at a time when he had not
+passed his thirty-fifth year, in order to avoid suspicion, as he found
+others publishing their works under his name, or else to make himself
+acquainted with the modes of life and habits of the Greeks, for the
+purpose of exhibiting them in his plays, he withdrew from home, to which
+he never returned.  Volcatius gives this account of his death:
+
+    Sed ut Afer sei populo dedit comoedias,
+    Iter hic in Asiam fecit.  Navem cum semel
+    Conscendit, visus nunquam est.  Sic vita vacat.
+
+    (535) When Afer had produced six plays for the entertainment of the
+        people,
+    He embarked for Asia; but from the time he went on board ship
+    He was never seen again.  Thus he ended his life.
+
+Q. Consentius reports that he perished at sea on his voyage back from
+Greece, and that one hundred and eight plays, of which he had made a
+version from Menander [940], were lost with him.  Others say that he died
+at Stymphalos, in Arcadia, or in Leucadia, during the consulship of Cn.
+Cornelius Dolabella and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior [941], worn out with a
+severe illness, and with grief and regret for the loss of his baggage,
+which he had sent forward in a ship that was wrecked, and contained the
+last new plays he had written.
+
+In person, Terence is reported to have been rather short and slender,
+with a dark complexion.  He had an only daughter, who was afterwards
+married to a Roman knight; and he left also twenty acres of garden ground
+[942], on the Appian Way, at the Villa of Mars.  I, therefore, wonder the
+more how Porcius could have written the verses,
+
+                          --------nihil Publius
+    Scipio profuit, nihil et Laelius, nihil Furius,
+    Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime.
+    Eorum ille opera ne domum quidem habuit conductitiam
+    Saltem ut esset, quo referret obitum domini servulus. [943]
+
+Afranius places him at the head of all the comic writers, declaring, in
+his Compitalia,
+
+    Terentio non similem dices quempiam.
+    Terence's equal cannot soon be found.
+
+On the other hand, Volcatius reckons him inferior not only (536) to
+Naevius, Plautus, and Caecilius, but also to Licinius.  Cicero pays him
+this high compliment, in his Limo--
+
+    Tu quoque, qui solus lecto sermone, Terenti,
+    Conversum expressumque Latina voce Menandrum
+    In medio populi sedatis vocibus offers,
+    Quidquid come loquens, ac omnia dulcia dicens.
+
+"You, only, Terence, translated into Latin, and clothed in choice
+language the plays of Menander, and brought them before the public, who,
+in crowded audiences, hung upon hushed applause--
+
+    Grace marked each line, and every period charmed."
+
+So also Caius Caesar:
+
+    Tu quoque tu in summis, O dimidiate Menander,
+    Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator,
+    Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis
+    Comica, ut aequato virtus polleret honore
+    Cum Graecis, neque in hoc despectus parte jaceres!
+    Unum hoc maceror, et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti.
+
+"You, too, who divide your honours with Menander, will take your place
+among poets of the highest order, and justly too, such is the purity of
+your style.  Would only that to your graceful diction was added more
+comic force, that your works might equal in merit the Greek masterpieces,
+and your inferiority in this particular should not expose you to censure.
+This is my only regret; in this, Terence, I grieve to say you are
+wanting."
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF JUVENAL.
+
+
+D. JUNIUS JUVENALIS, who was either the son [944] of a wealthy freedman,
+or brought up by him, it is not known which, declaimed till the middle of
+life [945], more from the bent of his inclination, than from any desire
+to prepare himself either for the schools or the forum.  But having
+composed a short satire [946], which was clever enough, on Paris [947],
+the actor of pantomimes, (537) and also on the poet of Claudius Nero, who
+was puffed up by having held some inferior military rank for six months
+only; he afterwards devoted himself with much zeal to that style of
+writing.  For a while indeed, he had not the courage to read them even to
+a small circle of auditors, but it was not long before he recited his
+satires to crowded audiences, and with entire success; and this he did
+twice or thrice, inserting new lines among those which he had originally
+composed.
+
+    Quod non dant proceres, dabit histrio, tu Camerinos,
+    Et Bareas, tu nobilium magna atria curas.
+    Praefectos Pelopea facit, Philomela tribunos.
+
+    Behold an actor's patronage affords
+    A surer means of rising than a lord's!
+    And wilt thou still the Camerino's [948] court,
+    Or to the halls of Bareas resort,
+    When tribunes Pelopea can create
+    And Philomela praefects, who shall rule the state? [949]
+
+At that time the player was in high favour at court, and many of those
+who fawned upon him were daily raised to posts of honour.  Juvenal
+therefore incurred the suspicion of having covertly satirized occurrences
+which were then passing, and, although eighty years old at that time
+[950], he was immediately removed from the city, being sent into
+honourable banishment as praefect of a cohort, which was under orders to
+proceed to a station at the extreme frontier of Egypt [951].  That (538)
+sort of punishment was selected, as it appeared severe enough for an
+offence which was venial, and a mere piece of drollery.  However, he died
+very soon afterwards, worn down by grief, and weary of his life.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF PERSIUS.
+
+
+AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS was born the day before the Nones of December [4th
+Dec.] [952], in the consulship of Fabius Persicus and L. Vitellius.  He
+died on the eighth of the calends of December [24th Nov.] [953] in the
+consulship of Rubrius Marius and Asinius Gallus.  Though born at
+Volterra, in Etruria, he was a Roman knight, allied both by blood and
+marriage to persons of the highest rank [954].  He ended his days at an
+estate he had at the eighth milestone on the Appian Way.  His father,
+Flaccus, who died when he was barely six years old, left him under the
+care of guardians, and his mother, Fulvia Silenna, who afterwards married
+Fusius, a Roman knight, buried him also in a very few years.  Persius
+Flaccus pursued his studies at Volterra till he was twelve years old, and
+then continued them at Rome, under Remmius Palaemon, the grammarian, and
+Verginius Flaccus, the rhetorician.  Arriving at the age of twenty-one,
+he formed a friendship with Annaeus Cornutus [955], which lasted through
+life; and from him he learned the rudiments of philosophy.  Among his
+earliest friends were Caesius Bassus [956], and Calpurnius Statura; the
+latter of whom died while Persius himself was yet in his youth.
+Servilius (539) Numanus [957], he reverenced as a father.  Through
+Cornutus he was introduced to Annaeus, as well as to Lucan, who was of
+his own age, and also a disciple of Cornutus.  At that time Cornutus was
+a tragic writer; he belonged to the sect of the Stoics, and left behind
+him some philosophical works.  Lucan was so delighted with the writings
+of Persius Flaccus, that he could scarcely refrain from giving loud
+tokens of applause while the author was reciting them, and declared that
+they had the true spirit of poetry.  It was late before Persius made the
+acquaintance of Seneca, and then he was not much struck with his natural
+endowments.  At the house of Cornutus he enjoyed the society of two very
+learned and excellent men, who were then zealously devoting themselves to
+philosophical enquiries, namely, Claudius Agaternus, a physician from
+Lacedaemon, and Petronius Aristocrates, of Magnesia, men whom he held in
+the highest esteem, and with whom he vied in their studies, as they were
+of his own age, being younger than Cornutus.  During nearly the last ten
+years of his life he was much beloved by Thraseas, so that he sometimes
+travelled abroad in his company; and his cousin Arria was married to him.
+
+Persius was remarkable for gentle manners, for a modesty amounting to
+bashfulness, a handsome form, and an attachment to his mother, sister,
+and aunt, which was most exemplary.  He was frugal and chaste.  He left
+his mother and sister twenty thousand sesterces, requesting his mother,
+in a written codicil, to present to Cornutus, as some say, one hundred
+sesterces, or as others, twenty pounds of wrought silver [958], besides
+about seven hundred books, which, indeed, included his whole library.
+Cornutus, however, would only take the books, and gave up the legacy to
+the sisters, whom his brother had constituted his heirs.
+
+He wrote [959] seldom, and not very fast; even the work we possess he
+left incomplete.  Some verses are wanting at the end of the book [960],
+but Cornutus thoughtlessly recited it, as if (540) it was finished; and
+on Caesius Bassus requesting to be allowed to publish it, he delivered it
+to him for that purpose., In his younger days, Persius had written a
+play, as well as an Itinerary, with several copies of verses on Thraseas'
+father-in-law, and Arria's [961] mother, who had made away with herself
+before her husband.  But Cornutus used his whole influence with the
+mother of Persius to prevail upon her to destroy these compositions.  As
+soon as his book of Satires was published, all the world began to admire
+it, and were eager to buy it up.  He died of a disease in the stomach, in
+the thirtieth year of his age [962].  But no sooner had he left school
+and his masters, than he set to work with great vehemence to compose
+satires, from having read the tenth book of Lucilius; and made the
+beginning of that book his model; presently launching his invectives all
+around with so little scruple, that he did not spare cotemporary poets
+and orators, and even lashed Nero himself, who was then the reigning
+prince.  The verse ran as follows:
+
+    Auriculas asini Mida rex habet;
+    King Midas has an ass's ears;
+
+but Cornutus altered it thus;
+
+    Auriculas asini quis non hahet?
+    Who has not an ass's ears?
+
+in order that it might not be supposed that it was meant to apply to
+Nero.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF HORACE.
+
+
+HORATIUS FLACCUS was a native of Venusium [963], his father having been,
+by his own account [964], a freedman and collector of taxes, but, as it
+is generally believed, a dealer in salted (541) provisions; for some one
+with whom Horace had a quarrel, jeered him, by saying; "How often have I
+seen your father wiping his nose with his fist?"  In the battle of
+Philippi, he served as a military tribune [965], which post he filled at
+the instance of Marcus Brutus [966], the general; and having obtained a
+pardon, on the overthrow of his party, he purchased the office of scribe
+to a quaestor.  Afterwards insinuating himself first, into the good
+graces of Mecaenas, and then of Augustus, he secured no small share in
+the regard of both.  And first, how much Mecaenas loved him may be seen
+by the epigram in which he says:
+
+    Ni te visceribus meis, Horati,
+    Plus jam diligo, Titium sodalem,
+    Ginno tu videas strigosiorem. [967]
+
+But it was more strongly exhibited by Augustus, in a short sentence
+uttered in his last moments: "Be as mindful of Horatius Flaccus as you
+are of me!"  Augustus offered to appoint him his secretary, signifying
+his wishes to Mecaenas in a letter to the following effect: "Hitherto I
+have been able to write my own epistles to friends; but now I am too much
+occupied, and in an infirm state of health.  I wish, therefore, to
+deprive you of our Horace: let him leave, therefore, your luxurious table
+and come to the palace, and he shall assist me in writing my letters."
+And upon his refusing to accept the office, he neither exhibited the
+smallest displeasure, nor ceased to heap upon him tokens of his regard.
+Letters of his are extant, from which I will make some short extracts to
+establish this: "Use your influence over me with the same freedom as you
+would do if we were living together as friends.  In so doing you will be
+perfectly right, and guilty of no impropriety; for I could wish that our
+intercourse should be on that footing, if your health admitted of it."
+And again: "How I hold you in memory you may learn (542) from our friend
+Septimius [968], for I happened to mention you when he was present.  And
+if you are so proud as to scorn my friendship, that is no reason why I
+should lightly esteem yours, in return."  Besides this, among other
+drolleries, he often called him, "his most immaculate penis," and "his
+charming little man," and loaded him from time to time with proofs of his
+munificence.  He admired his works so much, and was so convinced of their
+enduring fame, that he directed him to compose the Secular Poem, as well
+as that on the victory of his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus over the
+Vindelici [969]; and for this purpose urged him to add, after a long
+interval, a fourth book of Odes to the former three.  After reading his
+"Sermones," in which he found no mention of himself, he complained in
+these terms: "You must know that I am very angry with you, because in
+most of your works of this description you do not choose to address
+yourself to me.  Are you afraid that, in times to come, your reputation
+will suffer; in case it should appear that you lived on terms of intimate
+friendship with me?"  And he wrung from him the eulogy which begins with,
+
+    Cum tot sustineas, et tanta negotia solus:
+    Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
+    Legibus emendes: in publica commoda peccem,
+    Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar.--Epist. ii. i.
+
+    While you alone sustain the important weight
+    Of Rome's affairs, so various and so great;
+    While you the public weal with arms defend,
+    Adorn with morals, and with laws amend;
+    Shall not the tedious letter prove a crime,
+    That steals one moment of our Caesar's time.--Francis.
+
+In person, Horace was short and fat, as he is described by himself in his
+Satires [970], and by Augustus in the following letter: "Dionysius has
+brought me your small volume, which, little as it is, not to blame you
+for that, I shall judge favourably.  You seem to me, however, to be
+afraid lest your volumes should be bigger than yourself.  But if you are
+short in stature, you are corpulent enough.  You may, therefore, (543) if
+you will, write in a quart, when the size of your volume is as large
+round as your paunch."
+
+It is reported that he was immoderately addicted to venery.  [For he is
+said to have had obscene pictures so disposed in a bedchamber lined with
+mirrors, that, whichever way he looked, lascivious images might present
+themselves to his view.] [971]  He lived for the most part in the
+retirement of his farm [972], on the confines of the Sabine and Tiburtine
+territories, and his house is shewn in the neighbourhood of a little wood
+not far from Tibur.  Some Elegies ascribed to him, and a prose Epistle
+apparently written to commend himself to Mecaenas, have been handed down
+to us; but I believe that neither of them are genuine works of his; for
+the Elegies are commonplace, and the Epistle is wanting in perspicuity, a
+fault which cannot be imputed to his style.  He was born on the sixth of
+the ides of December [27th December], in the consulship of Lucius Cotta
+[973] and Lucius Torquatus; and died on the fifth of the calends of
+December [27th November], in the consulship of Caius Marcius Censorinus
+and Caius Asinius Gallus [974]; having completed his fifty-ninth year.
+He made a nuncupatory will, declaring Augustus his heir, not being able,
+from the violence of his disorder, to sign one in due form.  He was
+interred and lies buried on the skirts of the Esquiline Hill, near the
+tomb of Mecaenas. [975]
+
+(544) M. ANNAEUS LUCANUS, a native of Corduba [976], first tried the
+powers of his genius in an encomium on Nero, at the Quinquennial games.
+He afterwards recited his poem on the Civil War carried on between Pompey
+and Caesar.  His vanity was so immense, and he gave such liberty to his
+tongue, that in some preface, comparing his age and his first efforts
+with those of Virgil, he had the assurance to say: "And what now remains
+for me is to deal with a gnat."  In his early youth, after being long
+informed of the sort of life his father led in the country, in
+consequence of an unhappy marriage [977], he was recalled from Athens by
+Nero, who admitted him into the circle of his friends, and even gave him
+the honour of the quaestorship; but he did not long remain in favour.
+Smarting at this, and having publicly stated that Nero had withdrawn, all
+of a sudden, without communicating with the senate, and without any other
+motive than his own recreation, after this he did not cease to assail the
+emperor both with foul words and with acts which are still notorious.  So
+that on one occasion, when easing his bowels in the common privy, there
+being a louder explosion than usual, he gave vent to the nemistych of
+Nero: "One would suppose it was thundering under ground," in the hearing
+of those who were sitting there for the same purpose, and who took to
+their heels in much consternation [978].  In a poem also, which was in
+every one's hands, he severely lashed both the emperor and his most
+powerful adherents.
+
+At length, he became nearly the most active leader in Piso's conspiracy
+[979]; and while he dwelt without reserve in many quarters on the glory
+of those who dipped their hands in the (545) blood of tyrants, he
+launched out into open threats of violence, and carried them so far as to
+boast that he would cast the emperor's head at the feet of his
+neighbours.  When, however, the plot was discovered, he did not exhibit
+any firmness of mind.  A confession was wrung from him without much
+difficulty; and, humbling himself to the most abject entreaties, he even
+named his innocent mother as one of the conspirators [980]; hoping that
+his want of natural affection would give him favour in the eyes of a
+parricidal prince.  Having obtained permission to choose his mode of
+death [981], he wrote notes to his father, containing corrections of some
+of his verses, and, having made a full meal, allowed a physician to open
+the veins in his arm [982].  I have also heard it said that his poems
+were offered for sale, and commented upon, not only with care and
+diligence, but also in a trifling way. [983]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF PLINY.
+
+[984]
+
+
+PLINIUS SECUNDUS, a native of New Como [985], having served in (546)
+the wars with strict attention to his duties, in the rank of a knight,
+distinguished himself, also, by the great integrity with which he
+administered the high functions of procurator for a long period in the
+several provinces intrusted to his charge.  But still he devoted so much
+attention to literary pursuits, that it would not have been an easy
+matter for a person who enjoyed entire leisure to have written more than
+he did.  He comprised, in twenty volumes, an account of all the various
+wars carried on in successive periods with the German tribes.  Besides
+this, he wrote a Natural History, which extended to seven books.  He fell
+a victim to the calamitous event which occurred in Campania.  For, having
+the command of the fleet at Misenum, when Vesuvius was throwing up a
+fiery eruption, he put to sea with his gallies for the purpose of
+exploring the causes of the phenomenon close on the spot [986].  But
+being prevented by contrary winds from sailing back, he was suffocated in
+the dense cloud of dust and ashes.  Some, however, think that he was
+killed by his slave, having implored him to put an end to his sufferings,
+when he was reduced to the last extremity by the fervent heat. [987]
+
+THE END OF LIVES OF THE POETS.
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+[Footnote 1:  Plin. Epist.  i. 18, 24, iii. 8, v. 11, ix. 34, x. 95.]
+
+[Footnote 2:  Lycee, part I. liv. III. c. i.]
+
+[Footnote 3:  Julius Caesar Divus.  Romulus, the founder of Rome, had 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.]
+
+[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."]
+
+[Footnote 284:  Intramural interments were prohibited at Rome by the laws
+of the Twelve Tables, notwithstanding the practice of reducing to ashes
+the bodies of the dead.  It was only by special privilege that individuals
+who had deserved well of the state, and certain distinguished families
+were permitted to have tombs within the city.]
+
+[Footnote 285:  Among the Romans, all the descendants from one common
+stock were called Gentiles, being of the same race or kindred, however
+remote.  The Gens, as they termed this general relation or clanship, was
+subdivided into families, in Familias vel Stirpes; and those of the same
+family were called Agnati.  Relations by the father's side were also
+called Agnati, to distinguish them from Cognati, relations only by the
+mother's side. An Agnatus might also be called Cognatus, but not the
+contrary.]
+
+To mark the different gentes and familiae, and to distinguish the
+individuals of the same family, the Romans had commonly three names, the
+Praenomen, Nomen, and Cognomen.  The praenomen was put first, and marked
+the individual.  It was usually written with one letter; as A. for Aulus;
+C. Caius; D. Decimus: sometimes with two letters; as Ap. for Appius; Cn.
+Cneius; and sometimes with three; as Mam. for Mamercus.]
+
+The Nomen was put after the Praenomen, and marked the gens.  It commonly
+ended in ius; as Julius, Tullius, Cornelius.  The Cognomen was put last,
+and marked the familia; as Cicero, Caesar, etc.]
+
+Some gentes appear to have had no surname, as the Marian; and gens and
+familia seem sometimes to be put one for the other; as the Fabia gens, or
+Fabia familia.]
+
+Sometimes there was a fourth name, properly called the Agnomen, but
+sometimes likewise Cognomen, which was added on account of some
+illustrious action or remarkable event.  Thus Scipio was named Publius
+Cornelius Scipio Africanus, from the conquest of Carthage.  In the same
+manner, his brother was called Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus.  Thus
+also, Quintus Fabius Maximus received the Agnomen of Cunctator, from his
+checking the victorious career of Hannibal by avoiding a battle.]
+
+[Footnote 286:  A.U.C. 474.]
+
+[Footnote 287:  A.U.C. 490.]
+
+[Footnote 288:  A.U.C. 547.]
+
+[Footnote 289:  A.U.C. 304.]
+
+[Footnote 290:  An ancient Latin town on the Via Appia, the present road
+to Naples, mentioned by St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 15, and Horace, Sat. i. 5,
+3, in giving an account of their travels.]
+
+[Footnote 291:  A.U.C. 505.]
+
+[Footnote 292:  Cybele; first worshipped in Phrygia, about Mount Ida, from
+whence a sacred stone, the symbol of her divinity, probably an aerolite,
+was transported to Rome, in consequence of the panic occasioned by
+Hannibal's invasion, A.U.C. 508.]
+
+[Footnote 293:  A.U.C. 695.]
+
+[Footnote 294:  A.U.C. 611.]
+
+[Footnote 295:  A.U.C. 550.]
+
+[Footnote 296:  A.U.C. 663.]
+
+[Footnote 297:  A.U.C. 707.]
+
+[Footnote 298:  These, and other towns in the south of France, became, and
+long continued, the chief seats of Roman civilization among the Gauls;
+which is marked by the magnificent remains of ancient art still to be
+seen. Arles, in particular, is a place of great interest.]
+
+[Footnote 299:  A.U.C. 710.]
+
+[Footnote 300:  A.U.C. 713.]
+
+[Footnote 301:  A.U.C. 712.  Before Christ about 39.]
+
+[Footnote 302:  A.U.C. 744.]
+
+[Footnote 303:  A.U.C. 735.]
+
+[Footnote 304:  See before, in the reign of AUGUSTUS, c. xxxii.]
+
+[Footnote 305:  A.U.C. 728.]
+
+[Footnote 306:  A.U.C. 734.]
+
+[Footnote 307:  A.U.C. 737.]
+
+[Footnote 308:  A.U.C. 741.]
+
+[Footnote 309:  A.U.C. 747.]
+
+[Footnote 310:  A.U.C. 748.]
+
+[Footnote 311:  Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, about thirteen miles
+from the city, was founded by Ancus Martius.  Being the port of a city
+like Rome, it could not fail to become opulent; and it was a place of much
+resort, ornamented with fine edifices, and the environs "never failing of
+pasture in the summer time, and in the winter covered with roses and other
+flowers."  The port having been filled up with the depositions of the
+Tiber, it became deserted, and is now abandoned to misery and malaria. The
+bishopric of Ostia being the oldest in the Roman church, its bishop has
+always retained some peculiar privileges.]
+
+[Footnote 312:  The Gymnasia were places of exercise, and received their
+name from the Greek word signifying naked, because the contending parties
+wore nothing but drawers.]
+
+[Footnote 313:  A.U.C. 752.]
+
+[Footnote 314:  The cloak and slippers, as distinguished from the Roman
+toga and shoes.]
+
+[Footnote 315:  A.U.C. 755.]
+
+[Footnote 316:  This fountain, in the Euganian hills, near Padua, famous
+for its mineral waters, is celebrated by Claudian in one of his elegies.]
+
+[Footnote 317:  The street called Carinae, at Rome, has been mentioned
+before; AUGUSTUS, c. v.; and also Mecaenas' house on the Esquiline, ib. c.
+lxxii. The gardens were formed on ground without the walls, and before
+used as a cemetery for malefactors, and the lower classes.  Horace says--
+
+    Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
+    Aggere in aprico spatiari.--Sat. 1. i. viii. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 318:  A.U.C. 757.]
+
+[Footnote 319:  A.U.C. 760.]
+
+[Footnote 320:  A.U.C. 762.]
+
+[Footnote 321:  Reviving the simple habits of the times of the republic;
+"nec fortuitum cernere cespitem," as Horace describes it.--Ode 15.]
+
+[Footnote 322:  A.U.C. 765.]
+
+[Footnote 323:  The portico of the temple of Concord is still standing on
+the side of the Forum nearest the Capitol.  It consists of six Ionic
+columns, each of one piece, and of a light-coloured granite, with bases
+and capitals of white marble, and two columns at the angles.  The temple
+of Castor and Pollux has been mentioned before: JUL. c. x.]
+
+[Footnote 324:  A.U.C. 766.]
+
+[Footnote 325:  A.U.C. 767.]
+
+[Footnote 326:  Augustus interlards this epistle, and that subsequently
+quoted, with Greek sentences and phrases, of which this is one.  It is so
+obscure, that commentators suppose that it is a mis-reading, but are not
+agreed on its drift.]
+
+[Footnote 327:  A verse in which the word in italics is substituted for
+cunctando, quoted from Ennius, who applied it to Fabius Maximus.]
+
+[Footnote 328:  Iliad, B. x.  Diomede is speaking of Ulysses, where he
+asks that he may accompany him as a spy into the Trojan camp.]
+
+[Footnote 329:  Tiberius had adopted Germanicus.  See before, c. xv.  See
+also CALIGULA, c. i.]
+
+[Footnote 330:  In this he imitated Augustus.  See c. liii. of his life.]
+
+[Footnote 331:  Si hanc fenestram aperueritis, if you open that window,
+equivalent to our phrase, "if you open the door."]
+
+[Footnote 332:  Princeps, principatus, are the terms generally used by
+Suetonius to describe the supreme authority vested in the Caesars, as
+before at the beginning of chap. xxiv., distinguished from any terms which
+conveyed of kingly power, the forms of the republic, as we have lately
+seen, still subsisting.]
+
+[Footnote 333:  Strenas; the French etrennes.]
+
+[Footnote 334:  "Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her image
+to be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests."--Joseph. Ant.
+Jud. xviii. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 335:  Similia sectantes.  We are strongly inclined to think that
+the words might be rendered "similar sects," conveying an allusion to the
+small and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period generally
+confounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in some
+peculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians and
+magistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish.  How little even
+the well-informed Suetonius knew of the real facts, we shall find in the
+only direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (CLAUDIUS c.
+xxv., NERO, c. xvi.); but that little confirms our conjecture.  All the
+commentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text.
+Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to the
+expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius.--Ant. xviii. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 336:  Varro tells us that the Roman people "were more actively
+employed (manus movere) in the theatre and circus, than in the corn-fields
+and vineyards."--De Re Rustic. ii.  And Juvenal, in his satires,
+frequently alludes to their passion for public spectacles, particularly in
+the well-known lines--
+
+    --------Atque duas tantum res serrius optat,
+    Panem et Circenses.  Sat. x. 80.]
+
+[Footnote 337:  The Cottian Alps derived their name from this king.  They
+include that part of the chain which divides Dauphiny from Piedmont, and
+are crossed by the pass of the Mont Cenis.]
+
+[Footnote 338:  Antium, mentioned before, (AUG. c. lviii.) once a
+flourishing city of the Volscians, standing on the sea-coast, about
+thirty-eight miles from Rome, was a favourite resort of the emperors and
+persons of wealth. The Apollo Belvidere was found among the ruins of its
+temples and other edifices.]
+
+[Footnote 339:  A.U.C. 779.]
+
+[Footnote 340:  Terracina, standing at the southern extremity of the
+Pontine Marshes, on the shore of the Mediterranean.  It is surrounded by
+high calcareous cliffs, in which there are caverns, affording, as Strabo
+informs us, cool retreats, attached to the Roman villas built round.]
+
+[Footnote 341:  Augustus died at Nola, a city in Campania.  See c. lviii.
+of his life.]
+
+[Footnote 342:  Fidenae stood in a bend of the Tiber, near its junction
+with the Anio.  There are few traces of it remaining.]
+
+[Footnote 343:  That any man could drink an amphora of wine at a draught,
+is beyond all credibility; for the amphora was nearly equal to nine
+gallons, English measure.  The probability is, that the man had emptied a
+large vessel, which was shaped like an amphora.]
+
+[Footnote 344:  Capri, the luxurious retreat and scene of the debaucheries
+of the Roman emperors, is an island off the southern point of the bay of
+Naples, about twelve miles in circumference.]
+
+[Footnote 345:  Pan, the god of the shepherds, and inventor of the flute,
+was said to be the son of Mercury and Penelope.  He was worshipped chiefly
+in Arcadia, and represented with the horns and feet of a goat.  The
+Nymphs, as well as the Graces, were represented naked.]
+
+[Footnote 346:  The name of the island having a double meaning, and
+signifying also a goat.]
+
+[Footnote 347: "Quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos 'pisciculos'
+vocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur, ac
+luderent: lingua morsuque sensim appetentes; atque etiam quasi infantes
+firmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoveret:
+pronior sane ad id genus libidinis, et natura et aetate."]
+
+[Footnote 348:  "Foeminarum capitibus solitus illudere."]
+
+[Footnote 349:  "Obscoenitate oris hirsuto atque olido."]
+
+[Footnote 350:  "Hircum vetulum capreis naturam ligurire"]
+
+[Footnote 351:  The Temple of Vesta, like that dedicated to the same
+goddess at Tivoli, is round.  There was probably one on the same site, and
+in the same circular form, erected by Numa Pompilius; the present edifice
+is far too elegant for that age, but there is no record of its erection,
+but it is known to have been repaired by Vespasian or Domitian after being
+injured by Nero's fire.  Its situation, near the Tiber, exposed it to
+floods, from which we find it suffered, from Horace's lines--
+
+    "Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis
+     Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
+     Ire dejectum monumenta Regis,
+     Templaque Vestae."--Ode, lib. i. 2. 15.
+
+This beautiful temple is still in good preservation.  It is surrounded by
+twenty columns of white marble, and the wall of the cell, or interior
+(which is very small, its diameter being only the length of one of the
+columns), is also built of blocks of the same material, so nicely joined,
+that it seems to be formed of one solid mass.]
+
+[Footnote 352:  Antlia; a machine for drawing up water in a series of
+connected buckets, which was worked by the feet, nisu pedum.]
+
+[Footnote 353:  The elder Livia was banished to this island by Augustus.
+See c. lxv. of his life.]
+
+[Footnote 354:  An island in the Archipelago.]
+
+[Footnote 355:  This Theodore is noticed by Quintilian, Instit. iii. 1.
+Gadara was in Syria.]
+
+[Footnote 356:  It mattered not that the head substituted was Tiberius's
+own.]
+
+[Footnote 357:  The verses were probably anonymous.]
+
+[Footnote 358:  Oderint dum probent: Caligula used a similar expression;
+Oderint dum metuant.]
+
+[Footnote 359:  A.U.C. 778.  Tacit. Annal. iv.  The historian's name was
+A. Cremutius Cordo.  Dio has preserved the passage, xlvii. p. 619.  Brutus
+had already called Cassius "The last of the Romans," in his lamentation
+over his dead body.]
+
+[Footnote 360:  She was the sister of Germanicus, and Tacitus calls her
+Livia; but Suetonius is in the habit of giving a fondling or diminutive
+term to the names of women, as Claudilla, for Claudia, Plautilla, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 361:  Priam is said to have had no less than fifty sons and
+daughters; some of the latter, however, survived him, as Hecuba, Helena,
+Polyxena, and others.]
+
+[Footnote 362:  There were oracles at Antium and Tibur.  The "Praenestine
+Lots" are described by Cicero, De Divin. xi. 41.]
+
+[Footnote 363:  Agrippina, and Nero and Drusus.]
+
+[Footnote 364:  He is mentioned before in the Life of AUGUSTUS, c. xc.;
+and also by Horace, Cicero, and Tacitus.]
+
+[Footnote 365:  Obscure Greek poets, whose writings were either full of
+fabulous stories, or of an amatory kind.]
+
+[Footnote 366:  It is suggested that the text should be amended, so that
+the sentence should read--"A Greek soldier;" for of what use could it have
+been to examine a man in Greek, and not allow him to give his replies in
+the same language?]
+
+[Footnote 367:  So called from Appius Claudius, the Censor, one of
+Tiberius's ancestors, who constructed it.  It took a direction southward
+of Rome, through Campania to Brundusium, starting from what is the present
+Porta di San Sebastiano, from which the road to Naples takes its
+departure.]
+
+[Footnote 368:  A small town on the coast of Latium, not far from Antium,
+and the present Nettuno.  It was here that Cicero was slain by the
+satellites of Antony.]
+
+[Footnote 369:  A town on a promontory of the same dreary coast, between
+Antium and Terracina, built on a promontory surrounded by the sea and the
+marsh, still called Circello.]
+
+[Footnote 370:  Misenum, a promontory to which Aeneas is said to have
+given its name from one of his followers.  (Aen. ii. 234.)  It is now
+called Capo di Miseno, and shelters the harbour of Mola di Gaieta,
+belonging to Naples.  This was one of the stations of the Roman fleet.]
+
+[Footnote 371:  Tacitus agrees with Suetonius as to the age of Tiberius
+at the time of his death.  Dio states it more precisely, as being
+seventy-seven years, four months, and nine days.]
+
+[Footnote 372:  Caius Caligula, who became his successor.]
+
+[Footnote 373:  Tacitus and Dio add that he was smothered under a heap of
+heavy clothes.]
+
+[Footnote 374:  In the temple of the Palatine Apollo.  See AUGUSTUS, c.
+xxix.]
+
+[Footnote 375:  Atella, a town between Capua and Naples, now called San
+Arpino, where there was an amphitheatre.  The people seemed to have raised
+the shout in derision, referring, perhaps, to the Atellan fables,
+mentioned in c. xiv.; and in their fury they proposed that his body should
+only be grilled, as those of malefactors were, instead of being reduced to
+ashes.]
+
+[Footnote 376:  Tacit. Annal. lib. ii.]
+
+[Footnote 377:  A.U.C. 757.]
+
+[Footnote 378:  A.U.C. 765.]
+
+[Footnote 379:  A.U.C. 770.]
+
+[Footnote 380:  A.U.C. 767.]
+
+[Footnote 381:  A.U.C. 771.]
+
+[Footnote 382:  This opinion, like some others which occur in Suetonius,
+may justly be considered as a vulgar error; and if the heart was found
+entire, it must have been owing to the weakness of the fire, rather than
+to any quality communicated to the organ, of resisting the power of that
+element.]
+
+[Footnote 383:  The magnificent title of King of Kings has been assumed,
+at different times, by various potentates.  The person to whom it is here
+applied, is the king of Parthia.  Under the kings of Persia, and even
+under the Syro-Macedonian kings, this country was of no consideration, and
+reckoned a part of Hyrcania.  But upon the revolt of the East from the
+Syro-Macedonians, at the instigation of Arsaces, the Parthians are said to
+have conquered eighteen kingdoms.]
+
+[Footnote 384:  A.U.C. 765.]
+
+[Footnote 385:  It does not appear that Gaetulicus wrote any historical
+work, but Martial, Pliny, and others, describe him as a respectable poet.]
+
+[Footnote 386:  Supra Confluentes.  The German tribe here mentioned
+occupied the country between the Rhine and the Meuse, and gave their name
+to Treves (Treviri), its chief town.  Coblentz had its ancient name of
+Confluentes, from its standing at the junction of the two rivers.  The
+exact site of the village in which Caligula was born is not known.
+Cluverius conjectures that it may be Capelle.]
+
+[Footnote 387:  Chap. vii.]
+
+[Footnote 388:  The name was derived from Caliga, a kind of boot, studded
+with nails, used by the common soldiers in the Roman army.]
+
+[Footnote 389:  According to Tacitus, who gives an interesting account of
+these occurrences, Treves was the place of refuge to which the young Caius
+was conveyed.--Annal. i.]
+
+[Footnote 390:  In c. liv. of TIBERIUS, we have seen that his brothers
+Drusus and Nero fell a sacrifice to these artifices.]
+
+[Footnote 391:  Tiberius, who was the adopted father of Germanicus.]
+
+[Footnote 392:  Natriceus, a water-snake, so called from nato, to swim.
+The allusion is probably to Caligula's being reared in the island of
+Capri.]
+
+[Footnote 393:  As Phaeton is said to have set the world on fire.]
+
+[Footnote 394:  See the Life of TIBERIUS, c. lxxiii.]
+
+[Footnote 395:  His name also was Tiberius.  See before, TIBERIUS, c.
+lxxvi.]
+
+[Footnote 396:  Procida, Ischia, Capri, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 397:  The eagle was the standard of the legion, each cohort of
+which had its own ensign, with different devices; and there were also
+little images of the emperors, to which divine honours were paid.]
+
+[Footnote 398:  See before, cc. liii. liv.]
+
+[Footnote 399:  See TIBERIUS, c. x.; and note.]
+
+[Footnote 400:  The mausoleum built by Augustus, mentioned before in his
+Life, c. C.]
+
+[Footnote 401:  The Carpentum was a carriage, commonly with two wheels,
+and an arched covering, but sometimes without a covering; used chiefly by
+matrons, and named, according to Ovid, from Carmenta, the mother of
+Evander.  Women were prohibited the use of it in the second Punic war, by
+the Oppian law, which, however, was soon after repealed.  This chariot was
+also used to convey the images of the illustrious women to whom divine
+honours were paid, in solemn processions after their death, as in the
+present instance.  It is represented on some of the sestertii.]
+
+[Footnote 402:  See cc. xiv. and xxiii. of the present History.]
+
+[Footnote 403:  Ib. cc. vii. and xxiv.]
+
+[Footnote 404:  Life of TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]
+
+[Footnote 405:  See the Life of AUGUSTUS, cc. xxviii. and ci.]
+
+[Footnote 406:  Julius Caesar had shared it with them (c. xli.).  Augustus
+had only kept up the form (c. xl.).  Tiberius deprived the Roman people of
+the last remains of the freedom of suffrage.]
+
+[Footnote 407:  The city of Rome was founded on the twenty-first day of
+April, which was called Palilia, from Pales, the goddess of shepherds, and
+ever afterwards kept as a festival.]
+
+[Footnote 408:  A.U.C. 790.]
+
+[Footnote 409:  A.U.C. 791.]
+
+[Footnote 410:  A.U.C. 793.]
+
+[Footnote 411:  A.U.C. 794.]
+
+[Footnote 412:  The Saturnalia, held in honour of Saturn, was, amongst the
+Romans, the most celebrated festival of the whole year, and held in the
+month of December.  All orders of the people then devoted themselves to
+mirth and feasting; friends sent presents to one another; and masters
+treated their slaves upon a footing of equality.  At first it was held
+only for one day, afterwards for three days, and was now prolonged by
+Caligula's orders.]
+
+[Footnote 413:  See AUGUSTUS, cc. xxix and xliii.  The amphitheatre of
+Statilius Taurus is supposed to have stood in the Campus Martius, and the
+elevation now called the Monte Citorio, to have been formed by its ruins.]
+
+[Footnote 414:  Supposed to be a house, so called, adjoining the Circus,
+in which some of the emperor's attendants resided.]
+
+[Footnote 415:  Now Puzzuoli, on the shore of the bay of Naples.  Every
+one knows what wealth was lavished here and at Baiae, on public works and
+the marine villas of the luxurious Romans, in the times of the emperors.]
+
+[Footnote 416:  The original terminus of the Appian Way was at Brundusium.
+This mole formed what we should call a nearer station to Rome, on the same
+road, the ruins of which are still to be seen.  St. Paul landed there.]
+
+[Footnote 417:  Essedis: they were light cars, on two wheels, constructed
+to carry only one person; invented, it is supposed, by the Belgians, and
+by them introduced into Britain, where they were used in war.  The Romans,
+after their expeditions in Gaul and Britain, adopted this useful vehicle
+instead of their more cumbrous RHEDA, not only for journeys where dispatch
+was required, but in solemn processions, and for ordinary purposes.  They
+seem to have become the fashion, for Ovid tells us that these little
+carriages were driven by young ladies, themselves holding the reins, Amor.
+xi. 16. 49.]
+
+[Footnote 418:  Suetonius flourished about seventy years after this, in
+the reign of Adrian, and derived many of the anecdotes which give interest
+to his history from cotemporary persons.  See CLAUDIUS, c. xv. etc.]
+
+[Footnote 419:  See TIBERIUS, c. xlvii. and AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]
+
+[Footnote 420:  This aqueduct, commenced by Caligula and completed by
+Claudian, a truly imperial work, conveyed the waters of two streams to
+Rome, following the valley of the Anio from above Tivoli.  The course of
+one of these rivulets was forty miles, and it was carried on arches,
+immediately after quitting its source, for a distance of three miles.  The
+other, the Anio Novus, also began on arches, which continued for upwards
+of twelve miles.  After this, both were conveyed under ground; but at the
+distance of six miles from the city, they were united, and carried upon
+arches all the rest of the way.  This is the most perfect of all the
+ancient aqueducts; and it has been repaired, so as to convey the Acqua
+Felice, one of the three streams which now supply Rome.  See CLAUDIUS, c.
+xx.]
+
+[Footnote 421:  By Septa, Suetonius here means the huts or barracks of the
+pretorian camp, which was a permanent and fortified station.  It stood to
+the east of the Viminal and Quirinal hills, between the present Porta Pia
+and S. Lorenzo, where there is a quadrangular projection in the city walls
+marking the site.  The remains of the Amphitheatrum Castrense stand
+between the Porta Maggiore and S. Giovanni, formerly without the ancient
+walls, but now included in the line.  It is all of brick, even the
+Corinthian pillars, and seems to have been but a rude structure, suited to
+the purpose for which it was built, the amusement of the soldiers, and
+gymnastic exercises.  For this purpose they were used to construct
+temporary amphitheatres near the stations in the distant provinces, which
+were not built of stone or brick, but hollow circular spots dug in the
+ground, round which the spectators sat on the declivity, on ranges of
+seats cut in the sod.  Many vestiges of this kind have been traced in
+Britain.]
+
+[Footnote 422:  The Isthmus of Corinth; an enterprize which had formerly
+been attempted by Demetrius, and which was also projected by Julius
+Caesar, c. xliv., and Nero, c. xix.; but they all failed of accomplishing
+it.]
+
+[Footnote 423:  On the authority of Dio Cassius and the Salmatian
+manuscript, this verse from Homer is substituted for the common reading,
+which is,
+
+           Eis gaian Danaon perao se.
+
+    Into the land of Greece I will transport thee.]
+
+[Footnote 424:  Alluding, in the case of Romulus, to the rape of the
+Sabines; and in that of Augustus to his having taken Livia from her
+husband.--AUGUSTUS, c. lxii.]
+
+[Footnote 425:  Selene was the daughter of Mark Antony by Cleopatra.]
+
+[Footnote 426:  See c. xii.]
+
+[Footnote 427:  The vast area of the Roman amphitheatres had no roof, but
+the audience were protected against the sun and bad weather by temporary
+hangings stretched over it.]
+
+[Footnote 428:  A proverbial expression, meaning, without distinction.]
+
+[Footnote 429:  The islands off the coast of Italy, in the Tuscan sea and
+in the Archipelago, were the usual places of banishment.  See before, c.
+xv.; and in TIBERIUS, c. liv., etc.]
+
+[Footnote 430:  Anticyra, an island in the Archipelago, was famous for the
+growth of hellebore.  This plant being considered a remedy for insanity,
+the proverb arose--Naviga in Anticyram, as much as to say, "You are mad."]
+
+[Footnote 431:  Meaning the province in Asia, called Galatia, from the
+Gauls who conquered it, and occupied it jointly with the Greek colonists.]
+
+[Footnote 432:  A quotation from the tragedy of Atreus, by L. Attius,
+mentioned by Cicero.  Off. i. 28.]
+
+[Footnote 433:  See before, AUGUSTUS, c. lxxi.]
+
+[Footnote 434:  These celebrated words are generally attributed to Nero;
+but Dio and Seneca agree with Suetonius in ascribing them to Caligula.]
+
+[Footnote 435:  Gladiators were distinguished by their armour and manner
+of fighting.  Some were called Secutores, whose arms were a helmet, a
+shield, a sword, or a leaden ball.  Others, the usual antagonists of the
+former, were named Retiarii.  A combatant of this class was dressed in a
+short tunic, but wore nothing on his head.  He carried in his left hand a
+three-pointed lance, called Tridens or Fuscina, and in his right, a net,
+with which he attempted to entangle his adversary, by casting it over his
+head, and suddenly drawing it together; when with his trident he usually
+slew him.  But if he missed his aim, by throwing the net either too short
+or too far, he instantly betook himself to flight, and endeavoured to
+prepare his net for a second cast.  His antagonist, in the mean time,
+pursued, to prevent his design, by dispatching him.]
+
+[Footnote 436:  AUGUSTUS, c. xxiii.]
+
+[Footnote 437:  TIBERIUS, c. xl.]
+
+[Footnote 438:  See before, c. xix.]
+
+[Footnote 439:  Popae were persons who, at public sacrifices, led the
+victim to the altar.  They had their clothes tucked up, and were naked to
+the waist.  The victim was led with a slack rope, that it might not seem
+to be brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen.  For the same
+reason, it was allowed to stand loose before the altar, and it was thought
+a very unfavourable sign if it got away.]
+
+[Footnote 440:  Plato de Repub. xi.; and Cicero and Tull. xlviii.]
+
+[Footnote 441:  The collar of gold, taken from the gigantic Gaul who was
+killed in single combat by Titus Manlius, called afterwards Torquatus, was
+worn by the lineal male descendants of the Manlian family.  But that
+illustrious race becoming extinct, the badge of honour, as well as the
+cognomen of Torquatus, was revived by Augustus, in the person of Caius
+Nonius Asprenas, who perhaps claimed descent by the female line from the
+family of Manlius.]
+
+[Footnote 442:  Cincinnatus signifies one who has curled or crisped hair,
+from which Livy informs us that Lucius Quintus derived his cognomen.  But
+of what badge of distinction Caligula deprived the family of the
+Cincinnati, unless the natural feature was hereditary, and he had them all
+shaved--a practice we find mentioned just below--history does not inform
+us, nor are we able to conjecture.]
+
+[Footnote 443:  The priest of Diana Nemorensis obtained and held his
+office by his prowess in arms, having to slay his competitors, and offer
+human sacrifices, and was called Rex from his reigning paramount in the
+adjacent forest.  The temple of this goddess of the chase stood among the
+deep woods which clothe the declivities of the Alban Mount, at a short
+distance from Rome--nemus signifying a grove.  Julius Caesar had a
+residence there.  See his Life, c. lxxi.  The venerable woods are still
+standing, and among them chestnut-trees, which, from their enormous girth
+and vast apparent age, we may suppose to have survived from the era of the
+Caesars.  The melancholy and sequestered lake of Nemi, deep set in a
+hollow of the surrounding woods, with the village on its brink, still
+preserve the name of Nemi.]
+
+[Footnote 444:  An Essedarian was one who fought from an Esseda, the light
+carriage described in a former note, p. 264.]
+
+[Footnote 445:  See before, JULIUS, c. x., and note.]
+
+[Footnote 446:  Particularly at Baiae, see before, c. xix.  The practice
+of encroaching on the sea on this coast, commenced before,--
+
+    Jactis in altum molibus.--Hor. Od. B. iii. 1. 34.]
+
+[Footnote 447:  Most of the gladiators were slaves.]
+
+[Footnote 448:  The part of the Palatium built or occupied by Augustus and
+Tiberius.]
+
+[Footnote 449:  Mevania, a town of Umbria.  Its present name is Bevagna.
+The Clitumnus is a river in the same country, celebrated for the breed of
+white cattle, which feed in the neighbouring pastures.]
+
+[Footnote 450:  Caligula appears to have meditated an expedition to
+Britain at the time of his pompous ovation at Puteoli, mentioned in c.
+xiii.; but if Julius Caesar could gain no permanent footing in this
+island, it was very improbable that a prince of Caligula's character would
+ever seriously attempt it, and we shall presently see that the whole
+affair turned out a farce.]
+
+[Footnote 451:  It seems generally agreed, that the point of the coast
+which was signalized by the ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat
+redeemed by the erection of a lighthouse, was Itium, afterwards called
+Gessoriacum, and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe
+of the Morini; where Julius Caesar embarked on his expedition, and which
+became the usual place of departure for the transit to Britain.]
+
+[Footnote 452:  The denarius was worth at this time about seven pence or
+eight pence of our money.]
+
+[Footnote 453:  Probably to Anticyra.  See before, c. xxix. note]
+
+[Footnote 454:  The Cimbri were German tribes on the Elbe, who invaded
+Italy A.U.C. 640, and were defeated by Metellus.]
+
+[Footnote 455:  The Senones were a tribe of Cis-Alpine Gauls, settled in
+Umbria, who sacked and pillaged Rome A.U.C. 363.]
+
+[Footnote 456:  By the transmarine provinces, Asia, Egypt, etc., are
+meant; so that we find Caligula entertaining visions of an eastern empire,
+and removing the seat of government, which were long afterwards realized
+in the time of Constantine.]
+
+[Footnote 457:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xviii.]
+
+[Footnote 458:  About midnight, the watches being divided into four.]
+
+[Footnote 459:  Scabella: commentators are undecided as to the nature of
+this instrument.  Some of them suppose it to have been either a sort of
+cymbal or castanet, but Pitiscus in his note gives a figure of an ancient
+statue preserved at Florence, in which a dancer is represented with
+cymbals in his hands, and a kind of wind instrument attached to the toe of
+his left foot, by which it is worked by pressure, something in the way of
+an accordion.]
+
+[Footnote 460:  The port of Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 461:  The Romans, in their passionate devotion to the amusements
+of the circus and the theatre, were divided into factions, who had their
+favourites among the racers and actors, the former being distinguished by
+the colour of the party to which they belonged.  See before, c. xviii.,
+and TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.]
+
+[Footnote 462:  In the slang of the turf, the name of Caligula's
+celebrated horse might, perhaps, be translated "Go a-head."]
+
+[Footnote 463:  Josephus, who supplies us with minute details of the
+assassination of Caligula, says that he made no outcry, either disdaining
+it, or because an alarm would have been useless; but that he attempted to
+make his escape through a corridor which led to some baths behind the
+palace. Among the ruins on the Palatine hill, these baths still attract
+attention, some of the frescos being in good preservation.  See the
+account in Josephus, xix. 1, 2.]
+
+[Footnote 464:  The Lamian was an ancient family, the founders of Formiae.
+They had gardens on the Esquiline mount.]
+
+[Footnote 465:  A.U.C. 714.]
+
+[Footnote 466:  Pliny describes Drusus as having in this voyage
+circumnavigated Germany, and reached the Cimbrian Chersonese, and the
+Scythian shores, reeking with constant fogs.]
+
+[Footnote 467:  Tacitus, Annal. xi. 8, 1, mentions this fosse, and says
+that Drusus sailed up the Meuse and the Waal.  Cluverius places it between
+the village of Iselvort and the town of Doesborg.]
+
+[Footnote 468:  The Spolia Opima were the spoils taken from the enemy's
+king, or chief, when slain in single combat by a Roman general.  They were
+always hung up in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius.  Those spoils had been
+obtained only thrice since the foundation of Rome; the first by Romulus,
+who slew Acron, king of the Caeninenses; the next by A. Cornelius Cossus,
+who slew Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, A.U. 318; and the third by M.
+Claudius Marcellus, who slew Viridomarus, king of the Gauls, A.U. 330.]
+
+[Footnote 469:  A.U.C. 744.]
+
+[Footnote 470:  This epistle, as it was the habit of Augustus, is
+interspersed with Greek phrases.]
+
+[Footnote 471:  The Alban Mount is the most interesting feature of the
+scenery of the Campagna about Rome, Monti Cavo, the summit, rising above
+an amphitheatre of magnificent woods, to an elevation of 2965 French feet.
+The view is very extensive: below is the lake of Albano, the finest of the
+volcanic lakes in Italy, and the modern town of the same name.  Few traces
+remain of Alba Longa, the ancient capital of Latium.]
+
+[Footnote 472:  On the summit of the Alban Mount, on the site of the
+present convent, stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the Latin
+tribes assembled annually, and renewed their league, during the Feriae
+Latinae, instituted by Tarquinus Superbus.  It was here, also, that Roman
+generals, who were refused the honours of a full triumph, performed the
+ovation, and sacrificed to Jupiter Latialis.  Part of the triumphal way by
+which the mountain was ascended, formed of vast blocks of lava, is still
+in good preservation, leading through groves of chestnut trees of vast
+size and age.  Spanning them with extended arms--none of the shortest--the
+operation was repeated five times in compassing their girth.]
+
+[Footnote 473:  CALIGULA.  See c. v. of his life.]
+
+[Footnote 474:  A.U.C. 793.  Life of CALIGULA, cc. xliv., xlv., etc.]
+
+[Footnote 475:  A.U.C. 794.]
+
+[Footnote 476:  The chamber of Mercury; the names of deities being given
+to different apartments, as those "of Isis," "of the Muses," etc.]
+
+[Footnote 477:  See the note, p. 265.]
+
+[Footnote 478:  The attentive reader will have marked the gradual growth
+of the power of the pretorian guard, who now, and on so many future
+occasions, ruled the destinies of the empire.]
+
+[Footnote 479:  See AUGUSTUS, cc. xliii., xlv.]
+
+[Footnote 480:  Ib. c. ci.]
+
+[Footnote 481:  Germanicus.]
+
+[Footnote 482:  Naples and other cities on that coast were Greek
+colonies.]
+
+[Footnote 483:  This arch was erected in memory of the standards (the
+eagles) lost by Varus, in Germany, having been recovered by Germanicus
+under the auspices of Tiberius.  See his Life, c. xlvii.; and Tacit.
+Annal. ii. 41. It seems to have stood at the foot of the Capitol, on the
+side of the Forum, near the temple of Concord; but there are no remains of
+it.]
+
+[Footnote 484:  Tacitus informs us that the same application had been made
+by Tiberius.  Annal. iii.  The prefect of the pretorian guards, high and
+important as his office had now become, was not allowed to enter the
+senate-house, unless he belonged to the equestrian order.]
+
+[Footnote 485:  The procurators had the administration of some of the less
+important provinces, with rank and authority inferior to that of the
+pro-consuls and prefects.  Frequent mention of these officers is made by
+Josephus; and Pontius Pilate, who sentenced our Lord to crucifixion, held
+that office in Judaea, under Tiberius.]
+
+[Footnote 486:  Pollio and Messala were distinguished orators, who
+flourished under the Caesars Julius and Augustus.]
+
+[Footnote 487:  A.U.C. 795, 796.]
+
+[Footnote 488:  A.U.C. 800, 804.]
+
+[Footnote 489:  "Ad bestias" had become a new and frequent sentence for
+malefactors.  It will be recollected, that it was the most usual form of
+martyrdom for the primitive Christians.  Polycarp was brought all the way
+from Smyrna to be exposed to it in the amphitheatre at Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 490:  This reminds us of the decision of Solomon in the case of
+the two mothers, who each claimed a child as their own, 1 Kings iii.
+22-27.]
+
+[Footnote 491:  A most absurd judicial conclusion, the business of the
+judge or court being to decide, on weighing the evidence, on which side
+the truth preponderated.]
+
+[Footnote 492:  See the note in CALIGULA, c. xix., as to Suetonius's
+sources of information from persons cotemporary with the occurrences he
+relates.]
+
+[Footnote 493:  The insult was conveyed in Greek, which seems, from
+Suetonius, to have been in very common use at Rome: kai su geron ei, kai
+moros.]
+
+[Footnote 494:  A.U.C. 798, or 800.]
+
+[Footnote 495:  There was a proverb to the same effect: "Si non caste,
+saltem caute."]
+
+[Footnote 496:  Ptolemy appointed him to an office which led him to assume
+a foreign dress.  Rabirius was defended by Cicero in one of his orations,
+which is extant.]
+
+[Footnote 497:  The Sigillaria was a street in Rome, where a fair was held
+after the Saturnalia, which lasted seven days; and toys, consisting of
+little images and dolls, which gave their name to the street and festival,
+were sold. It appears from the text, that other articles were exposed for
+sale in this street.  Among these were included elegant vases of silver
+and bronze.  There appears also to have been a bookseller's shop, for an
+ancient writer tells us that a friend of his showed him a copy of the
+Second Book of the Aeneid, which he had purchased there.]
+
+[Footnote 498:  Opposed to this statement there is a passage in Servius
+Georgius, iii. 37, asserting that he had heard (accipimus) that Augustus,
+besides his victories in the east, triumphed over the Britons in the west;
+and Horace says:--
+
+    Augustus adjectis Britannis
+    Imperio gravibusque Persis.--Ode iii. 5, 1.
+
+Strabo likewise informs us, that in his time, the petty British kings sent
+embassies to cultivate the alliance of Augustus, and make offerings in the
+Capitol: and that nearly the whole island was on terms of amity with the
+Romans, and, as well as the Gauls, paid a light tribute.--Strabo, B. iv.
+p. 138.
+
+That Augustus contemplated a descent on the island, but was prevented from
+attempting it by his being recalled from Gaul by the disturbances in
+Dalmatia, is very probable.  Horace offers his vows for its success:
+
+    Serves iturum, Caesarem in ultimos Orbis Britannos.--Ode i. 35.
+
+But the word iturus shews that the scheme was only projected, and the
+lines previously quoted are mere poetical flattery.  Strabo's statement of
+the communications kept up with the petty kings of Britain, who were
+perhaps divided by intestine wars, are, to a certain extent, probably
+correct, as such a policy would be a prelude to the intended expedition.]
+
+[Footnote 499:  Circius.  Aulus Gellius, Seneca, and Pliny, mention under
+this name the strong southerly gales which prevail in the gulf of Genoa
+and the neighbouring seas.]
+
+[Footnote 500:  The Stoechades were the islands now called Hieres, off
+Toulon.]
+
+[Footnote 501:  Claudius must have expended more time in his march from
+Marseilles to Gessoriacum, as Boulogne was then called, than in his
+vaunted conquest of Britain.]
+
+[Footnote 502:  In point of fact, he was only sixteen days in the island,
+receiving the submission of some tribes in the south-eastern districts.
+But the way had been prepared for him by his able general, Aulus Plautius,
+who defeated Cunobeline, and made himself master of his capital,
+Camulodunum, or Colchester.  These successes were followed up by Ostorius,
+who conquered Caractacus and sent him to Rome.
+
+It is singular that Suetonius has supplied us with no particulars of these
+events.  Some account of them is given in the disquisition appended to
+this life of CLAUDIUS.
+
+The expedition of Plautius took place A.U.C. 796., A.D. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 503:  Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. xv.]
+
+[Footnote 504:  The Aemiliana, so called because it contained the
+monuments of the family of that name, was a suburb of Rome, on the Via
+Lata, outside the gate.]
+
+[Footnote 505:  The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus,
+begun by Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers were
+mustered and their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name.  When
+the Romans went to give their votes at the election of magistrates, they
+were conducted by officers named Diribitores.  It is possible that one and
+the same building may have been used for both purposes.]
+
+The Flaminian Circus was without the city walls, in the Campus Martius.
+The Roman college now stands on its site.]
+
+[Footnote 506:  A law brought in by the consuls Papius Mutilus and Quintus
+Poppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]
+
+[Footnote 507:  The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano, in the
+Farther Abruzzi.  It is very extensive, but shallow, so that the
+difficulty of constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be compared
+to that encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the waters
+in the Alban lake, completed A.U.C. 359.]
+
+[Footnote 508:  Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA, c. xxi.]
+
+[Footnote 509:  Ostia is referred to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. xi.]
+
+[Footnote 510:  Suetonius calls this "the great obelisk" in comparison
+with those which Augustus had placed in the Circus Maximus and Campus
+Martius.  The one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in his Circus,
+afterwards called the Circus of Nero.  It stood at Heliopolis, having been
+dedicated to the sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris,
+in acknowledgment of his recovery from blindness.  It was removed by Pope
+Sixtus V. in 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centre
+of the area before St. Peter's, in the Vatican, not far from its former
+position.  This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without
+hieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182
+feet high.  The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet.]
+
+[Footnote 511:  Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: "A
+fir tree of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the command
+of Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the Vatican
+Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it.  Nothing
+certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel;
+120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it
+nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sent
+there by the emperor Claudius.  The thickness of the tree was as much as
+four men could embrace with their arms."--B. xvi. c. 76.]
+
+[Footnote 512:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.  It appears to have been often a
+prey to the flames, TIBERIUS, c. xli.; CALIGULA, c. xx.]
+
+[Footnote 513:  Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting the
+emperor without acclamations.]
+
+[Footnote 514:  A.U.C. 800.]
+
+[Footnote 515:  The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A.U.C.
+736. See c. xxxi. of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on the
+occasion.]
+
+[Footnote 516:  In the circus which he had himself built.]
+
+[Footnote 517:  Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, which
+abounds in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, is
+employed in all common buildings.]
+
+[Footnote 518:  In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation:
+see before, c. xi.]
+
+[Footnote 519:  Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to pun
+upon his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon.]
+
+[Footnote 520:  See before, c. xvii.  Described is c. xx and note.]
+
+[Footnote 521:  See before, AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]
+
+[Footnote 522:  To reward his able services as commander of the army in
+Britain. See before, c. xvii.]
+
+[Footnote 523:  German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chief
+seat was at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg.]
+
+[Footnote 524:  This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, is
+said to have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on that
+consecrated field, and cut down and thrown by order of the consuls into
+the river.  The water being low, it lodged in the bed of the stream, and
+gradual deposits of mud raising it above the level of the water, it was in
+course of time covered with buildings.  Among these was the temple of
+Aesculapius, erected A.U.C. 462, to receive the serpent, the emblem of
+that deity which was brought to Rome in the time of a plague.  There is a
+coin of Antoninus Pius recording this event, and Lumisdus has preserved
+copies of some curious votive inscriptions in acknowledgment of cures
+which were found in its ruins, Antiquities of Rome, p. 379.
+
+It was common for the patient after having been exposed some nights in the
+temple, without being cured, to depart and put an end to his life.
+Suetonius here informs us that slaves so exposed, at least obtained their
+freedom.]
+
+[Footnote 525:  Which were carried on the shoulders of slaves.  This
+prohibition had for its object either to save the wear and tear in the
+narrow streets, or to pay respect to the liberties of the town.]
+
+[Footnote 526:  See the note in c. i. of this life of CLAUDIUS.]
+
+[Footnote 527:  Seleucus Philopater, son of Antiochus the Great, who being
+conquered by the Romans, the succeeding kings of Syria acknowledged the
+supremacy of Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 528:  Suetonius has already, in TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi., mentioned
+the expulsion of the Jews from Rome, and this passage confirms the
+conjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurely
+alluded to in the former notice.  The antagonism between Christianity and
+Judaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led the
+authorities to interfere.  Thus much we seem to learn from both passages:
+but the most enlightened men of that age were singularly ill-informed on
+the stupendous events which had recently occurred in Judaea, and we find
+Suetonius, although he lived at the commencement of the first century of
+the Christian aera, when the memory of these occurrences was still fresh,
+and it might be supposed, by that time, widely diffused, transplanting
+Christ from Jerusalem to Rome, and placing him in the time of Claudius,
+although the crucifixion took place during the reign of Tiberius.
+
+St. Luke, Acts xviii. 2, mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by
+the emperor Claudius: Dio, however, says that he did not expel them, but
+only forbad their religious assemblies.
+
+It was very natural for Suetonius to write Chrestus instead of Christus,
+as the former was a name in use among the Greeks and Romans.  Among
+others, Cicero mentions a person of that name in his Fam. Ep. 11. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 529:  Pliny tells us that Druidism had its origin in Gaul, and
+was transplanted into Britain, xxi. 1.  Julius Caesar asserts just the
+contrary, Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 11.  The edict of Claudius was not carried
+into effect; at least, we find vestiges of Druidism in Gaul, during the
+reigns of Nero and Alexander Severus.]
+
+[Footnote 530:  The Eleusinian mysteries were never transferred from
+Athens to Rome, notwithstanding this attempt of Claudius, and although
+Aurelius Victor says that Adrian effected it.]
+
+[Footnote 531:  A.U.C. 801.]
+
+[Footnote 532:  A.U.C. 773.]
+
+[Footnote 533:  It would seem from this passage, that the cognomen of "the
+Great," had now been restored to the descendants of Cneius Pompey, on whom
+it was first conferred.]
+
+[Footnote 534:  A.U.C. 806.]
+
+[Footnote 535:  A.U.C. 803.]
+
+[Footnote 536:  This is the Felix mentioned in the Acts, cc. xxiii. and
+xxiv., before whom St. Paul pleaded.  He is mentioned by Josephus; and
+Tacitus, who calls him Felix Antonius, gives his character: Annal. v, 9.
+6.]
+
+[Footnote 537:  It appears that two of these wives of Felix were named
+Drusilla. One, mentioned Acts xxiv. 24, and there called a Jewess, was the
+sister of king Agrippa, and had married before, Azizus, king of the
+Emessenes. The other Drusilla, though not a queen, was of royal birth,
+being the granddaughter of Cleopatra by Mark Antony.  Who the third wife
+of Felix was, is unknown.]
+
+[Footnote 538:  Tacitus and Josephus mention that Pallas was the brother
+of Felix, and the younger Pliny ridicules the pompous inscription on his
+tomb.]
+
+[Footnote 539:  A.U.C. 802.]
+
+[Footnote 540:  The Salii, the priests of Mars, twelve in number, were
+instituted by Numa.  Their dress was an embroidered tunic, bound with a
+girdle ornamented with brass.  They wore on their head a conical cap, of a
+considerable height; carried a sword by their side; in their right hand a
+spear or rod, and in their left, one of the Ancilia, or shields of Mars.
+On solemn occasions, they used to go to the Capitol, through the Forum and
+other public parts of the city, dancing and singing sacred songs, said to
+have been composed by Numa; which, in the time of Horace, could hardly be
+understood by any one, even the priests themselves.  The most solemn
+procession of the Salii was on the first of March, in commemoration of the
+time when the sacred shield was believed to have fallen from heaven, in
+the reign of Numa.  After their procession, they had a splendid
+entertainment, the luxury of which was proverbial.]
+
+[Footnote 541:  Scaliger and Casauhon give Teleggenius as the reading of
+the best manuscripts.  Whoever he was, his name seems to have been a
+bye-word for a notorious fool.]
+
+[Footnote 542:  Titus Livius, the prince of Roman historians, died in the
+fourth year of the reign of Tiberius, A.U.C. 771; at which time Claudius
+was about twenty-seven years old, having been born A.U.C. 744.]
+
+[Footnote 543:  Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the famous
+orator, and had written a hook comparing his father with Cicero, and
+giving the former the preference.]
+
+[Footnote 544:  Quintilian informs us, that one of the three new letters
+the emperor Claudius attempted to introduce, was the Aeolic digamma, which
+had the same force as v consonant.  Priscian calls another anti-signs, and
+says that the character proposed was two Greek sigmas, back to back, and
+that it was substituted for the Greek ps.  The other letter is not known,
+and all three soon fell into disuse.]
+
+[Footnote 545:  Caesar by birth, not by adoption, as the preceding
+emperors had been, and as Nero would be, if he succeeded.]
+
+[Footnote 546:  Tacitus informs us, that the poison was prepared by
+Locusta, of whom we shall hear, NERO, c. xxxiii. etc.]
+
+[Footnote 547:  A.U.C. 806; A.D. 54.]
+
+[Footnote 548:  A.U.C. 593, 632, 658, 660, 700, 722, 785.]
+
+[Footnote 549:  A.U.C. 632.]
+
+[Footnote 550:  A.U.C. 639, 663.]
+
+[Footnote 551:  For the distinction between the praenomen and cognomen,
+see note, p. 192.]
+
+[Footnote 552:  A.U.C. 632.]
+
+[Footnote 553:  The Allobroges were a tribe of Gauls, inhabiting Dauphiny
+and Savoy; the Arverni have left their name in Auvergne.]
+
+[Footnote 554:  A.U.C. 695.]
+
+[Footnote 555:  A.U.C. 700.]
+
+[Footnote 556:  A.U.C. 711.]
+
+[Footnote 557:  A.U.C. 723.]
+
+[Footnote 558:  Nais seems to have been a freedwoman, who had been allowed
+to adopt the family name of her master.]
+
+[Footnote 559:  By one of those fictions of law, which have abounded in
+all systems of jurisprudence, a nominal alienation of his property was
+made in the testator's life-time.]
+
+[Footnote 560:  The suggestion offered (note, p. 123), that the
+Argentarii, like the goldsmiths of the middle ages, combined the business
+of bankers, or money-changers, with dealings in gold and silver plate, is
+confirmed by this passage.  It does not, however, appear that they were
+artificers of the precious metals, though they dealt in old and current
+coins, sculptured vessels, gems, and precious stones.]
+
+[Footnote 561:  Pyrgi was a town of the ancient Etruria, near Antium, on
+the sea-coast, but it has long been destroyed.]
+
+[Footnote 562:  A.U.C. 791; A.D. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 563:  The purification, and giving the name, took place, among
+the Romans, in the case of boys, on the ninth, and of girls, on the tenth
+day.  The customs of the Judaical law were similar.  See Matt. i. 59-63;
+Luke iii. 21. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 564:  A.U.C. 806.]
+
+[Footnote 565:  Seneca, the celebrated philosophical writer, had been
+released from exile in Corsica, shortly before the death of Tiberius.  He
+afterwards fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and cruelty of his former
+pupil, Nero.]
+
+[Footnote 566:  Caligula.]
+
+[Footnote 567:  A.U.C. 809--A.D. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 568:  Antium, the birth-place of Nero, an ancient city of the
+Volscians, stood on a rocky promontory of the coast, now called Capo d'
+Anzo, about thirty-eight miles from Rome.  Though always a place of some
+naval importance, it was indebted to Nero for its noble harbour.  The
+ruins of the moles yet remain; and there are vestiges of the temples and
+villas of the town, which was the resort of the wealthy Romans, it being a
+most delightful winter residence.  The Apollo Belvidere was discovered
+among these ruins.]
+
+[Footnote 569:  A.U.C. 810.]
+
+[Footnote 570:  The Podium was part of the amphitheatre, near the
+orchestra, allotted to the senators, and the ambassadors of foreign
+nations; and where also was the seat of the emperor, of the person who
+exhibited the games, and of the Vestal Virgins.  It projected over the
+wall which surrounded the area of the amphitheatre, and was raised between
+twelve and fifteen feet above it; secured with a breast-work or parapet
+against the irruption of wild beasts.]
+
+[Footnote 571:  A.U.C. 813.]
+
+[Footnote 572:  The baths of Nero stood to the west of the Pantheon.  They
+were, probably, incorporated with those afterwards constructed by
+Alexander Severus; but no vestige of them remains.  That the former were
+magnificent, we may infer from the verses of Martial:
+
+    --------Quid Nerone pejus?
+    Quid thermis melius Neronianis.--B. vii. ch. 34.
+
+    What worse than Nero?
+    What better than his baths?]
+
+[Footnote 573:  Among the Romans, the time at which young men first shaved
+the beard was marked with particular ceremony.  It was usually in their
+twenty-first year, but the period varied.  Caligula (c. x.) first shaved
+at twenty; Augustus at twenty-five.]
+
+[Footnote 574:  A.U.C. 819.  See afterwards, c. xxx.]
+
+[Footnote 575:  A.U.C. 808, 810, 811, 813.]
+
+[Footnote 576:  The Sportulae were small wicker baskets, in which victuals
+or money were carried.  The word was in consequence applied to the public
+entertainments at which food was distributed, or money given in lieu of
+it.]
+
+[Footnote 577: "Superstitionis novae et maleficae," are the words of
+Suetonius; the latter conveying the idea of witchcraft or enchantment.
+Suidas relates that a certain martyr cried out from his dungeon--"Ye have
+loaded me with fetters as a sorcerer and profane person."  Tacitus calls
+the Christian religion "a foreign and deadly [Footnote exitiabilis:
+superstition," Annal. xiii. 32; Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan,
+"a depraved, wicked (or prava), and outrageous superstition."  Epist. x.
+97.]
+
+Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the Roman
+Christians by Nero.  He says that they were subjected to the derision of
+the people; dressed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to be torn to
+pieces by dogs in the public games, that they were crucified, or condemned
+to be burnt; and at night-fall served in place of lamps to lighten the
+darkness, Nero's own gardens being used for the spectacle. Annal. xv. 44.
+
+Traditions of the church place the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul at
+Rome, under the reign of Nero.  The legends are given by Ordericus
+Vitalis.  See vol. i. of the edition in the Antiq. Lib. pp. 206, etc.,
+with the notes and reference to the apocryphal works on which they are
+founded.]
+
+[Footnote 578:  Claudius had received the submission of some of the
+British tribes.  See c. xvii. of his Life.  In the reign of Nero, his
+general, Suetonius Paulinus, attacked Mona or Anglesey, the chief seat of
+the Druids, and extirpated them with great cruelty.  The successes of
+Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who inhabited Derbyshire, were probably the
+cause of Nero's wishing to withdraw the legions; she having reduced
+London, Colchester, and Verulam, and put to death seventy thousand of the
+Romans and their British allies.  She was, however, at length defeated by
+Suetonius Paulinus, who was recalled for his severities.  See Tacit.
+Agric. xv. 1, xvi. 1; and Annal. xiv. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 579:  The dominions of Cottius embraced the vallies in the chain
+of the Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romans
+the Cottian Alps.  See TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.]
+
+[Footnote 580:  It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make a
+navigable canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid the
+circumnavigation of the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan,
+which, even in our days, has its perils.  See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xliv. and
+CALIGULA, c. xxi.]
+
+[Footnote 581:  Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed by
+the narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from the
+country washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying between
+the Caspian and the sea of Azof.  It commences a few miles north of
+Teflis, and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians and
+the Circassian tribes.]
+
+[Footnote 582:  Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with his
+singing gave an accompaniment on the harp.]
+
+[Footnote 583:  It has been already observed that Naples was a Greek
+colony, and consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernacular
+tongue.]
+
+[Footnote 584:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xcviii.]
+
+[Footnote 585:  Of the strange names given to the different modes of
+applauding in the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees;
+the second from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the third
+from the tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together.]
+
+[Footnote 586:  Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose
+incestuous intercourse with her brother having been detected, in
+consequence of the cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she
+killed herself.  It was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero
+was performing in Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied.  "He
+is labouring in child-birth."]
+
+[Footnote 587:  A town in Corcyra, now Corfu.  There was a sea-port of the
+same name in Epirus.]
+
+[Footnote 588:  The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was
+so called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about
+Rome. Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and
+improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it
+became a most superb building.  Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and
+surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect
+the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius
+(c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae.  This
+vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of which
+religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny,
+three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260,000
+spectators; so that Juvenal says,
+
+   "Totam hodie Romam circus capit."--Sat. xi. 195.
+
+This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.
+
+   "That on its public shews unpeopled Rome."--Letter to Lord Halifax.
+
+The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine
+and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, from
+which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from that
+height give the signals for commencing the races.  Few fragments of it
+remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a
+tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed.  For details of
+its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton's
+Antiquities, p. 309, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 589:  The Velabrum was a street in Rome.  See JULIUS CAESAR, c.
+xxxvii.]
+
+[Footnote 590:  Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty
+so captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to
+her. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St.
+Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at
+Rome.  The Apostle speaks of the "Saints in Caesar's household."--Phil.
+iv. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 591:  See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.]
+
+[Footnote 592:  A much-frequented street in Rome.  See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.]
+
+[Footnote 593:  It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with
+flagrant indecency, to secure her power over him.  See Tacitus, Annal.
+xiv. 2, 3.]
+
+[Footnote 594:  Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur,
+libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.]
+
+[Footnote 595:  Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the
+freedman's proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat
+equivalent to almoner.  See Annal. B. xv.]
+
+[Footnote 596:  The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero's
+mother, Agrippina.]
+
+[Footnote 597:  See before, c. xiii.  Tiridates was nine months in Rome or
+the neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor's
+expense.]
+
+[Footnote 598:  Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth
+of the river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool.  It is mentioned by
+Pliny, and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages,
+as we find in Ordericus Vitalis.]
+
+[Footnote 599:  The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the
+interior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, and
+their skill in throwing the dart.]
+
+[Footnote 600:  The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, was
+enlarged by Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS,
+cc. xxix., lvii.).  Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligula
+extended it to the Forum (CALIGULA, c. xxxi.).  Tacitus gives a similar
+account with that of our author of the extent and splendour of the works
+of Nero. Annal. xv. c. xlii.  Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquiline
+hill, it covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum now
+stands.  We shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c.
+xv. of his life is the present work.]
+
+[Footnote 601:  The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of the
+house, which was called penetralia.  There were likewise publici penates,
+worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the city
+and temples.  Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same;
+and they appear to be sometimes confounded.  They were, however,
+different.  The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares, of
+human.  Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, who
+were not to that of the penates.  The latter, as has been already said,
+were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the former
+also in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea.]
+
+[Footnote 602:  A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, while
+the Latin morari, from moror, means "to dwell," or "continue."]
+
+[Footnote 603:  A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum.]
+
+[Footnote 604:  From whence the "Procul, O procul este profani!" of the
+poet; a warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries.]
+
+[Footnote 605:  See before, c. xii.]
+
+[Footnote 606:  Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, and
+built the amphitheatre called after his name.  AUGUSTUS, c. xxiv.  He is
+mentioned by Horace, Epist. i. v. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 607:  Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard of
+soldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances of
+the people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island of
+Pandataria.]
+
+[Footnote 608:  A.U.C. 813.]
+
+[Footnote 609:  Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy of
+Caius Piso. Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of the
+circumstances under which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate,
+which was announced to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa,
+near Rome.--Tacitus, b. xiv. xv.]
+
+[Footnote 610:  This comet, as well as one which appeared the year in
+which Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. c.
+xvii. and xix. and by Pliny, II. c. xxv.]
+
+[Footnote 611:  See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 49-55.]
+
+[Footnote 612:  The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably have
+given an account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost.  It is shortly
+noticed by Plutarch.]
+
+[Footnote 613:  See before, c. xix.]
+
+[Footnote 614:  This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or the
+beginning of August, A.U.C. 816, A.D. 64.  It was imputed to the
+Christians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. xvi., and
+the note.]
+
+[Footnote 615:  The revolt in Britain broke out A.U.C. 813.  Xiphilinus
+(lxii. p. 701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations with
+which the repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by the
+emperor Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted.  Tacitus adds another
+cause, the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions and
+soldiers. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir.
+His widow Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmen
+reduced to slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which the
+Britons flew to arms.  See c. xviii., and the note.]
+
+[Footnote 616:  Neonymphon; alluding to Nero's unnatural nuptials with
+Sporus or Pythagoras.  See cc. xxviii. xxix.  It should be neonymphos.]
+
+[Footnote 617:  "Sustulit" has a double meaning, signifying both, to bear
+away, and put out of the way.]
+
+[Footnote 618:  The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, was
+Paean; as the god of war, Ekataebaletaes.]
+
+[Footnote 619:  Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero was
+swallowing up all Rome.  Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelve
+miles from Rome, was originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysius
+informs us, (lib. ii. p.  16), equal in extent to Athens.  See a very
+accurate survey of the ruins of Veii, in Gell's admirable TOPOGRAPHY OF
+ROME AND ITS VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn's Edition.]
+
+[Footnote 620:  Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem to
+have been a musical instrument on the same principle as our present
+organs, only that water was the inflating power.  Vitruvius (iv. ix.)
+mentions the instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria.  It is
+also well described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. xiv.  The pneumatic organ
+appears to have been a later improvement.  We have before us a contorniate
+medallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon which
+one or other of these instruments figures.  On the obverse is the bust of
+the emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as AURELIUS
+ANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title).  On the reverse is the
+organ; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on each
+side.]
+
+[Footnote 621:  A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, which
+was strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when their
+bodies were slippery with oil or perspiration.]
+
+[Footnote 622:  The words on the ticket about the emperor's neck, are
+supposed, by a prosopopea, to be spoken by him.  The reply is Agrippina's,
+or the people's.  It alludes to the punishment due to him for his
+parricide.  By the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or any
+near relation, after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, with
+a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or a
+deep river.]
+
+[Footnote 623:  Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls.]
+
+[Footnote 624:  Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of the
+propraetor who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul.  The word
+also signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hence
+vindicate, vindictive, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 625:  Aen. xii. 646.]
+
+[Footnote 626:  The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it to
+fetch salt from the coast.  It led from Rome to the northward, near the
+gardens of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis,
+Agonalis, and Collina.  It was here that Alaric entered.]
+
+[Footnote 627:  The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine
+town of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber.  It was
+also called Ficulnensis.  It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, now
+called Porta Pia.  It was by this road that Hannibal approached the walls
+of Rome.  The country-house of Nero's freedman, where he ended his days,
+stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there
+was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.]
+
+[Footnote 628:  This description is no less exact than vivid.  It was easy
+for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquiline
+quarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it
+(after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp
+so close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the
+soldiers.]
+
+[Footnote 629:  Decocta.  Pliny informs us that Nero had the water he
+drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice.]
+
+[Footnote 630:  Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for
+the funeral pile,]
+
+[Footnote 631:  This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was
+spoken in Latin.  Both were in familiar use.  The mixture, perhaps,
+betrays the disturbed state of Nero's mind.]
+
+[Footnote 632:   II. x. 535.]
+
+[Footnote 633:  Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the Pincian
+Hill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire.
+In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas of
+the wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated.
+Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others,
+that of the "Dying Gladiator."  The situation was airy and healthful,
+commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood in
+Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 634:  Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of
+the Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are
+preserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit,
+carried across the "Collis Hortulorum."  Those ancient remains, declining
+from the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.--The Lunan marble was
+brought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria.  It no longer
+exists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of
+Spezzia.--Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades.
+It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute.]
+
+[Footnote 635:  See c. x1i.]
+
+[Footnote 636:  The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramis
+deified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian.]
+
+[Footnote 637:  A.U.C. 821--A.D. 69.]
+
+[Footnote 638:  We have here one of the incidental notices which are so
+valuable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which he
+writes. See also just before, c. lii.]
+
+[Footnote 639:  Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.]
+
+[Footnote 640:  The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,
+
+    "The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors,
+    And poets sage,"--Spenser's Faerie Queen.
+
+is retained throughout the translation.  But the tree or shrub which had
+this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the
+Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and
+the East, and introduced into England about 1562.  Our laurel is a plant
+of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the
+Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the
+bay.]
+
+[Footnote 641:  The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that
+dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian family
+pretended to derive their descent.  See JULIUS, c. lxi.; AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]
+
+[Footnote 642:  A.U.C. 821.]
+
+[Footnote 643:  The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, the
+entrance to which was by the principal door.  It appears to have been a
+large oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries.  Three
+sides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times, were
+marble.  The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the other
+two sides, Alae.  The Tablinum contained books, and the records of what
+each member of the family had done in his magistracy.  In the Atrium the
+nuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with her
+maid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of the
+ancient Romans, was their principal employment.]
+
+[Footnote 644:  He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A.U.C. 610.]
+
+[Footnote 645:  A.U.C. 604.]
+
+[Footnote 646:  A.U.C. 710.]
+
+[Footnote 647:  A.U.C 775.]
+
+[Footnote 648:  A.U.C. 608.]
+
+[Footnote 649:  Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor's brother, had been
+consul A.U.C. 774.]
+
+[Footnote 650:  A.U.C. 751.]
+
+[Footnote 651:  Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing its
+original name, lie on the road to Naples.  See TIBERIUS, cc. v. and
+xxxix.]
+
+[Footnote 652:  Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before.]
+
+[Footnote 653:  A.U.C. 751.]
+
+[Footnote 654:  The widow of the emperor Augustus.]
+
+[Footnote 655:  Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to his
+own testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid by
+Caligula.  "Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et Juliae
+Augustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumnia
+repraesentate persolvit."  CALIG. c. xvi.]
+
+[Footnote 656:  A.U.C. 786.]
+
+[Footnote 657:  Caius Caesar Caligula.  He gave the command of the legions
+in Germany to Galba.]
+
+[Footnote 658:  "Scuto moderatus;" another reading in the parallel passage
+of Tacitus is scuto immodice oneratus, burdened with the heavy weight of a
+shield.]
+
+[Footnote 659:  It would appear that Galba was to have accompanied
+Claudius in his expedition to Britain; which is related before, CLAUDIUS,
+c. xvii.]
+
+[Footnote 660:  It has been remarked before, that the Cantabria of the
+ancients is now the province of Biscay.]
+
+[Footnote 661:  Now Carthagena.]
+
+[Footnote 662:  A.U.C. 821.]
+
+[Footnote 663:  Now Corunna.]
+
+[Footnote 664:  Tortosa, on the Ebro.]
+
+[Footnote 665:  "Simus," literally, fiat-nosed, was a cant word, used for
+a clown; Galba being jeered for his rusticity, in consequence of his long
+retirement.  See c. viii.  Indeed, they called Spain his farm.]
+
+[Footnote 666:  The command of the pretorian guards.]
+
+[Footnote 667:  In the Forum.  See AUGUSTUS, c. lvii.]
+
+[Footnote 668:  II. v. 254.]
+
+[Footnote 669:  A.U.C. 822.]
+
+[Footnote 670:  On the esplanade, where the standards, objects of
+religious reverence, were planted.  See note to c. vi.  Criminals were
+usually executed outside the Vallum, and in the presence of a centurion.]
+
+[Footnote 671:  Probably one of the two mentioned in CLAUDIUS, c. xiii.]
+
+[Footnote 672:  A.U.C. 784 or 785.]
+
+[Footnote 673:  "Distento sago impositum in sublime jactare."]
+
+[Footnote 674:  See NERO, c. xxxv.]
+
+[Footnote 675:  The Milliare Aureum was a pillar of stone set up at the
+top of the Forum, from which all the great military roads throughout Italy
+started, the distances to the principal towns being marked upon it.  Dio
+(lib. liv.) says that it was erected by the emperor Augustus, when he was
+curator of the roads.]
+
+[Footnote 676:  Haruspex, Auspex, or Augur, denoted any person who
+foretold futurity, or interpreted omens.  There was at Rome a body of
+priests, or college, under this title, whose office it was to foretell
+future events, chiefly from the flight, chirping, or feeding of birds, and
+from other appearances.  They were of the greatest authority in the Roman
+state; for nothing of importance was done in public affairs, either at
+home or abroad, in peace or war, without consulting them.  The Romans
+derived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and anciently
+their youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwards
+they were in the Greek literature.  For this purpose, by a decree of the
+senate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sent
+to the twelve states of Etruria for instruction.]
+
+[Footnote 677:  See before, note, c. i. The Principia was a broad open
+space, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper,
+and extended the whole breadth of the camp.  In this place was erected the
+tribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or harangued
+the army.  Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishments
+were inflicted.  The principal standards of the army, as it has been
+already mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stood
+the altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which the
+soldiers swore.]
+
+[Footnote 678:  See NERO, c. xxxi.  The sum estimated as requisite for its
+completion amounted to 2,187,500 pounds of our money.]
+
+[Footnote 679:  The two last words, literally translated, mean "long
+trumpets;" such as were used at sacrifices.  The sense is, therefore,
+"What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religious
+ceremonies!"]
+
+[Footnote 680:  The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from
+heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars.  It
+was kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol of
+the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen,
+eleven others were made exactly similar to it.]
+
+[Footnote 681:  This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before,
+AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called
+also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc.  She was painted as a matron,
+crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions.  A statue of
+her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second
+Punic war, was much honoured there.  Her priests, called the Galli and
+Corybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums,
+tabors, pipes, and cymbals.  The rites of this goddess were disgraced by
+great indecencies.]
+
+[Footnote 682:  Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and
+Stygnis.  He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions.
+His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as she
+was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily.  The victims
+offered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their faces
+bent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was poured
+into a ditch.]
+
+[Footnote 683:  A town between Mantua and Cremona.]
+
+[Footnote 684:  The temple of Castor.  It stood about twelve miles from
+Cremona. Tacitus gives some details of this action.  Hist. ii. 243.]
+
+[Footnote 685:  Both Greek and Latin authors differ in the mode of
+spelling the name of this place, the first syllable being written Beb,
+Bet, and Bret. It is now a small village called Labino, between Cremona
+and Verona.]
+
+[Footnote 686:  Lenis was a name of similar signification with that of
+Tranquillus, borne by his son, the author of the present work.  We find
+from Tacitus, that there was, among Otho's generals, in this battle,
+another person of the name of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus; with
+whom our author's father must not be confounded.  Lenis was only a tribune
+of the thirteenth legion, the position of which in the battle is mentioned
+by Tacitus, Hist. xi. 24, and was angusticlavius, wearing only the narrow
+stripe, as not being of the senatorial order; while Paulinus was a
+general, commanding a legion, at least, and a consular man; having filled
+that Office A.U.C. 818.  There seems no doubt that Suetonius Paulinus was
+the same general who distinguished himself by his successes and cruelties
+in Britain.  NERO, c. xviii., and note.]
+
+Not to extend the present note, we may shortly refer to our author's
+having already mentioned his grandfather (CALIGULA, c. xix.); besides
+other sources from which he drew his information.  He tells us that he
+himself was then a boy.  We have now arrived at the times in which his
+father bore a part.  Such incidental notices, dropped by historical
+writers, have a certain value in enabling us to form a judgment on the
+genuineness of their narratives as to contemporaneous, or recent, events.]
+
+[Footnote 687:  A.U.C. 823.]
+
+[Footnote 688:  Jupiter, to prevent the discovery of his amour with Io,
+the daughter of the river Inachus, transformed her into a heifer, in which
+metamorphosis she was placed by Juno under the watchful inspection of
+Argus; but flying into Egypt, and her keeper being killed by Mercury, she
+recovered her human shape, and was married to Osiris.  Her husband
+afterwards became a god of the Egyptians, and she a goddess, under the
+name of Isis.  She was represented with a mural crown on her head, a
+cornucopia in one hand, and a sistrum (a musical instrument) in the
+other.]
+
+[Footnote 689:  Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned over
+the original inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being the
+first.  Virgil makes his wife's name Marica--
+
+    Hunc Fauna, et nympha genitum
+    Laurente Marica Accipimus.--Aen. vii. 47.
+
+Her name may have been changed after her deification; but we have no other
+accounts than those preserved by Suetonius, of several of the traditions
+handed down from the fabulous ages respecting the Vitellian family.]
+
+[Footnote 690:  The Aequicolae were probably a tribe inhabiting the
+heights in the neighbourhood of Rome.  Virgil describes them, Aen. vii.
+746.]
+
+[Footnote 691:  Nuceria, now Nocera, is a town near Mantua; but Livy, in
+treating of the war with the Samnites, always speaks of Luceria, which
+Strabo calls a town in Apulia.]
+
+[Footnote 692:  Cassius Severus is mentioned before, in AUGUSTUS, c. lvi.;
+CALIGULA, c. xvi., etc.]
+
+[Footnote 693:  A.U.C. 785.]
+
+[Footnote 694:  A.U.C. 787.]
+
+[Footnote 695:  He is frequently commended by Josephus for his kindness to
+the Jews.  See, particularly, Antiq. VI. xviii.]
+
+[Footnote 696:  A.U.C. 796, 800.]
+
+[Footnote 697:  A.U.C. 801.]
+
+[Footnote 698:  A.U.C. 797.  See CLAUDIUS, c. xvii.]
+
+[Footnote 699:  A.U.C. 801.]
+
+[Footnote 700:  A.U.C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperor
+Augustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years older
+than Otho, both being at an advanced age when they were raised to the
+imperial dignity.]
+
+[Footnote 701:  He was sent to Germany by Galba.]
+
+[Footnote 702:  See TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]
+
+[Footnote 703:  Julius Caesar, also, was said to have exchanged brass for
+gold in the Capitol, Junius, c. liv.  The tin which we here find in use at
+Rome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands.
+whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians and
+Carthaginians from a very early period.]
+
+[Footnote 704:  A.U.C. 821.]
+
+[Footnote 705:  A.U.C. 822.]
+
+[Footnote 706:  Vienne was a very ancient city of the province of
+Narbonne, famous in ecclesiastical history as the early seat of a
+bishopric in Gaul.]
+
+[Footnote 707:  See OTHO, c. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 708:  See OTHO, c. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 709:  Agrippina, the wife of Nero and mother of Germanicus,
+founded a colony on the Rhine at the place of her birth.  Tacit. Annal. b.
+xii.  It became a flourishing city, and its origin may be traced in its
+modern name, Cologne.]
+
+[Footnote 710:  A dies non fastus, an unlucky day in the Roman calendar,
+being the anniversary of their great defeat by the Gauls on the river
+Allia, which joins the Tiber about five miles from Rome.  This disaster
+happened on the 16th of the calends of August (17th July).
+
+[Footnote 711:  Posca was sour wine or vinegar mixed with water, which was
+used by the Roman soldiery as their common drink.  It has been found
+beneficial in the cure of putrid diseases.]
+
+[Footnote 712:  Upwards of 4000 pounds sterling.  See note, p. 487.]
+
+[Footnote 713:  In imitation of the form of the public edicts, which began
+with the words, BONUM FACTUM.]
+
+[Footnote 714:  Catta muliere: The Catti were a German tribe who inhabited
+the present countries of Hesse or Baden.  Tacitus, De Mor. Germ., informs
+us that the Germans placed great confidence in the prophetical
+inspirations which they attributed to their women.]
+
+[Footnote 715:  Suetonius does not supply any account of the part added by
+Tiberius to the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, although, as it
+will be recollected, he has mentioned or described the works of Augustus,
+Caligula, and Nero.  The banquetting-room here mentioned would easily
+command a view of the Capitol, across the narrow intervening valley.
+Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, was prefect of the city.]
+
+[Footnote 716:  Caligula.]
+
+[Footnote 717:  Lucius and Germanicus, the brother and son of Vitellius,
+were slain near Terracina; the former was marching to his brother's
+relief.]
+
+[Footnote 718:  A.U.C. 822.]
+
+[Footnote 719:  c. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 720:  Becco, from whence the French bec, and English beak; with,
+probably, the family names of Bec or Bek.  This distinguished provincial,
+under his Latin name of Antoninus Primus, commanded the seventh legion in
+Gaul.  His character is well drawn by Tacitus, in his usual terse style,
+Hist. XI. 86. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 721:  Reate, the original seat of the Flavian family, was a city
+of the Sabines.  Its present name is Rieti.]
+
+[Footnote 722:  It does not very clearly appear what rank in the Roman
+armies was held by the evocati.  They are mentioned on three occasions by
+Suetonius, without affording us much assistance.  Caesar, like our author,
+joins them with the centurions.  See, in particular, De Bell. Civil. I.
+xvii. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 723:  The inscription was in Greek, kalos telothaesanti.]
+
+[Footnote 724:  In the ancient Umbria, afterwards the duchy of Spoleto;
+its modern name being Norcia.]
+
+[Footnote 725:  Gaul beyond, north of the Po, now Lombardy.]
+
+[Footnote 726:  We find the annual migration of labourers in husbandry a
+very common practice in ancient as well as in modern times.  At present,
+several thousand industrious labourers cross over every summer from the
+duchies of Parma and Modena, bordering on the district mentioned by
+Suetonius, to the island of Corsica; returning to the continent when the
+harvest is got in.]
+
+[Footnote 727:  A.U.C. 762, A.D. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 728:  Cosa was a place in the Volscian territory; of which
+Anagni was probably the chief town.  It lies about forty miles to the
+north-east of Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 729:  Caligula.]
+
+[Footnote 730:  These games were extraordinary, as being out of the usual
+course of those given by praetors.]
+
+[Footnote 731:  "Revocavit in contubernium."  From the difference of our
+habits, there is no word in the English language which exactly conveys the
+meaning of contubernium; a word which, in a military sense, the Romans
+applied to the intimate fellowship between comrades in war who messed
+together, and lived in close fellowship in the same tent.  Thence they
+transferred it to a union with one woman who was in a higher position than
+a concubine, but, for some reason, could not acquire the legal rights of a
+wife, as in the case of slaves of either sex.  A man of rank, also, could
+not marry a slave or a freedwoman, however much he might be attached to
+her.]
+
+[Footnote 732:  Nearly the same phrases are applied by Suetonius to
+Drusilla, see CALIGULA, c. xxiv., and to Marcella, the concubine of
+Commodus, by Herodian, I. xvi. 9., where he says that she had all the
+honours of an empress, except that the incense was not offered to her.
+These connections resembled the left-hand marriages of the German
+princes.]
+
+[Footnote 733:  This expedition to Britain has been mentioned before,
+CLAUDIUS, c. xvii. and note; and see ib. xxiv.]
+
+Valerius Flaccus, i. 8, and Silius Italicus, iii. 598, celebrate the
+triumphs of Vespasian in Britain.  In representing him, however, as
+carrying his arms among the Caledonian tribes, their flattery transferred
+to the emperor the glory of the victories gained by his lieutenant,
+Agricola.  Vespasian's own conquests, while he served in Britain, were
+principally in the territories of the Brigantes, lying north of the
+Humber, and including the present counties of York and Durham.]
+
+[Footnote 734:  A.U.C. 804.]
+
+[Footnote 735:  Tacitus, Hist. V. xiii. 3., mentions this ancient
+prediction, and its currency through the East, in nearly the same terms as
+Suetonius. The coming power is in both instances described in the plural
+number, profecti; "those shall come forth;" and Tacitus applies it to
+Titus as well as Vespasian.  The prophecy is commonly supposed to have
+reference to a passage in Micah, v. 2, "Out of thee (Bethlehem-Ephrata)
+shall He come forth, to be ruler in Israel."  Earlier prophetic
+intimations of a similar character, and pointing to a more extended
+dominion, have been traced in the sacred records of the Jews; and there is
+reason to believe that these books were at this time not unknown in the
+heathen world, particularly at Alexandria, and through the Septuagint
+version.  These predictions, in their literal sense, point to the
+establishment of a universal monarchy, which should take its rise in
+Judaea.  The Jews looked for their accomplishment in the person of one of
+their own nation, the expected Messiah, to which character there were many
+pretenders in those times.  The first disciples of Christ, during the
+whole period of his ministry, supposed that they were to be fulfilled in
+him.  The Romans thought that the conditions were answered by Vespasian,
+and Titus having been called from Judaea to the seat of empire.  The
+expectations entertained by the Jews, and naturally participated in and
+appropriated by the first converts to Christianity, having proved
+groundless, the prophecies were subsequently interpreted in a spiritual
+sense.]
+
+[Footnote 736:  Gessius Florus was at that time governor of Judaea, with
+the title and rank of prepositus, it not being a proconsular province, as
+the native princes still held some parts of it, under the protection and
+with the alliance of the Romans.  Gessius succeeded Florus Albinus, the
+successor of Felix.]
+
+[Footnote 737:  Cestius Gallus was consular lieutenant in Syria.]
+
+[Footnote 738:  See note to c. vii.]
+
+[Footnote 739:  A right hand was the sign of sovereign power, and, as
+every one knows, borne upon a staff among the standards of the armies.]
+
+[Footnote 740:  Tacitus says, "Carmel is the name both of a god and a
+mountain; but there is neither image nor temple of the god; such are the
+ancient traditions; we find there only an altar and religious awe."--Hist.
+xi. 78, 4.  It also appears, from his account, that Vespasian offered
+sacrifice on Mount Carmel, where Basilides, mentioned hereafter, c. vii.,
+predicted his success from an inspection of the entrails.]
+
+[Footnote 741:  Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who was engaged
+in these wars, having been taken prisoner, was confined in the dungeon at
+Jotapata, the castle referred to in the preceding chapter, before which
+Vespasian was wounded.--De Bell. cxi. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 742:  The prediction of Josephus was founded on the Jewish
+prophecies mentioned in the note to c. iv., which he, like others, applied
+to Vespasian.]
+
+[Footnote 743:  Julius Caesar is always called by our author after his
+apotheosis, Divus Julius.]
+
+[Footnote 744:  The battle at Bedriacum secured the Empire for Vitellius.
+See OTHO, c. ix; VITELLIUS, c. x.]
+
+[Footnote 745:  Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt,
+which was the granary of Rome.  It was of the first importance that
+Vespasian should secure it at this juncture.]
+
+[Footnote 746:  Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among the
+Egyptians, and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find him
+officiating at Mount Carmel, c. v.  This is so incompatible with his being
+a Roman freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word
+"libertus." although found in all the copies now extant, has crept into
+the text by some inadvertence of an early transcriber.  Basilides appears,
+like Philo Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have been
+half-Greek, half-Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonic
+school of Alexandria.]
+
+[Footnote 747:  Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believed
+Basilides to have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health,
+but at the distance of several days' journey from Alexandria.  But (for
+his greater satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whether
+Basilides had entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all he
+met, whether he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatched
+messengers on horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified,
+Basilides was more than eighty miles from Alexandria.  Then Vespasian
+comprehended that the appearance of Basilides, and the answer to his
+prayers given through him, were by divine interposition.  Tacit. Hist. iv.
+82. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 748:  The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of Vespasian
+is fuller than that of Suetonius, but does not materially vary in the
+details, except that, in his version of the story, he describes the
+impotent man to be lame in the hand, instead of the leg or the knee, and
+adds an important circumstance in the case of the blind man, that he was
+"notus tabe occulorum," notorious for the disease in his eyes.  He also
+winds up the narrative with the following statement: "They who were
+present, relate both these cures, even at this time, when there is nothing
+to be gained by lying."  Both the historians lived within a few years of
+the occurrence, but their works were not published until advanced periods
+of their lives.  The closing remark of Tacitus seems to indicate that, at
+least, he did not entirely discredit the account; and as for Suetonius,
+his pages are as full of prodigies of all descriptions, related apparently
+in all good faith, as a monkish chronicle of the Middle Ages.
+
+The story has the more interest, as it is one of the examples of
+successful imposture, selected by Hume in his Essay on Miracles; with the
+reply to which by Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity, most readers
+are familiar.  The commentators on Suetonius agree with Paley in
+considering the whole affair as a juggle between the priests, the
+patients, and, probably, the emperor.  But what will, perhaps, strike the
+reader as most remarkable, is the singular coincidence of the story with
+the accounts given of several of the miracles of Christ; whence it has
+been supposed, that the scene was planned in imitation of them.  It did
+not fall within the scope of Dr. Paley's argument to advert to this; and
+our own brief illustration must be strictly confined within the limits of
+historical disquisition.  Adhering to this principle, we may point out
+that if the idea of plagiarism be accepted, it receives some confirmation
+from the incident related by our author in a preceding paragraph, forming,
+it may be considered, another scene of the same drama, where we find
+Basilides appearing to Vespasian in the temple of Serapis, under
+circumstances which cannot fail to remind us of Christ's suddenly standing
+in the midst of his disciples, "when the doors were shut."  This incident,
+also, has very much the appearance of a parody on the evangelical history.
+But if the striking similarity of the two narratives be thus accounted
+for, it is remarkable that while the priests of Alexandria, or, perhaps,
+Vespasian himself from his residence in Judaea, were in possession of such
+exact details of two of Christ's miracles--if not of a third striking
+incident in his history--we should find not the most distant allusion in
+the works of such cotemporary writers as Tacitus and Suetonius, to any one
+of the still more stupendous occurrences which had recently taken place in
+a part of the world with which the Romans had now very intimate relations.
+The character of these authors induces us to hesitate in adopting the
+notion, that either contempt or disbelief would have led them to pass over
+such events, as altogether unworthy of notice; and the only other
+inference from their silence is, that they had never heard of them.  But
+as this can scarcely be reconciled with the plagiarism attributed to
+Vespasian or the Egyptian priests, it is safer to conclude that the
+coincidence, however singular, was merely fortuitous.  It may be added
+that Spartianus, who wrote the lives of Adrian and succeeding emperors,
+gives an account of a similar miracle performed by that prince in healing
+a blind man.]
+
+[Footnote 749:  A.U.C. 823-833, excepting 826 and 831.]
+
+[Footnote 750:  The temple of Peace, erected A.D. 71, on the conclusion of
+the wars with the Germans and the Jews, was the largest temple in Rome.
+Vespasian and Titus deposited in it the sacred vessels and other spoils
+which were carried in their triumph after the conquest of Jerusalem. They
+were consumed, and the temple much damaged, if not destroyed, by fire,
+towards the end of the reign of Commodus, in the year 191.  It stood in
+the Forum, where some ruins on a prodigious scale, still remaining, were
+traditionally considered to be those of the Temple of Peace, until
+Piranesi contended that they are part of Nero's Golden House.  Others
+suppose that they are the remains of a Basilica.  A beautiful fluted
+Corinthian column, forty-seven feet high, which was removed from this
+spot, and now stands before the church of S. Maria Maggiore, gives a great
+idea of the splendour of the original structure.]
+
+[Footnote 751:  This temple, converted into a Christian church by pope
+Simplicius, who flourished, A.D. 464-483, preserves much of its ancient
+character. It is now, called San Stefano in Rotondo, from its circular
+form; the thirty-four pillars, with arches springing from one to the other
+and intended to support the cupola, still remaining to prove its former
+magnificence.]
+
+[Footnote 752:  This amphitheatre is the famous Colosseum begun by Trajan,
+and finished by Titus.  It is needless to go into details respecting a
+building the gigantic ruins of which are so well known.]
+
+[Footnote 753:  Hercules is said, after conquering Geryon in Spain, to
+have come into this part of Italy.  One of his companions, the supposed
+founder of Reate, may have had the name of Flavus.]
+
+[Footnote 754:  Vespasian and his son Titus had a joint triumph for the
+conquest of Judaea, which is described at length by Josephus, De Bell.
+Jud. vii. 16.  The coins of Vespasian exhibiting the captive Judaea
+(Judaea capta), are probably familiar to the reader.  See Harphrey's Coin
+Collector's Manual, p. 328.]
+
+[Footnote 755:  Demetrius, who was born at Corinth, seems to have been a
+close imitator of Diogenes, the founder of the sect.  Having come to Rome
+to study under Apollonius, he was banished to the islands, with other
+philosophers, by Vespasian.]
+
+[Footnote 756:  There being no such place as Morbonia, and the supposed
+name being derived from morbus, disease, some critics have supposed that
+Anticyra, the asylum of the incurables, (see CALIGULA, c. xxix.) is meant;
+but the probability is, that the expression used by the imperial
+chamberlain was only a courtly version of a phrase not very commonly
+adopted in the present day.]
+
+[Footnote 757:  Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as a
+philosopher and public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, and
+Arrian.]
+
+[Footnote 758:  Cicero speaks in strong terms of the sordidness of retail
+trade--Off. i. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 759:  The sesterce being worth about two-pence half-penny of
+English money, the salary of a Roman senator was, in round numbers, five
+thousand pounds a year; and that of a professor, as stated in the
+succeeding chapter, one thousand pounds.  From this scale, similar
+calculations may easily be made of the sums occurring in Suetonius's
+statements from time to time.  There appears to be some mistake in the sum
+stated in c. xvi. just before, as the amount seems fabulous, whether it
+represented the floating debt, or the annual revenue, of the empire.]
+
+[Footnote 760:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xliii.  The proscenium of the ancient
+theatres was a solid erection of an architectural design, not shifted and
+varied as our stage-scenes.]
+
+[Footnote 761:  Many eminent writers among the Romans were originally
+slaves, such as Terence and Phaedrus; and, still more, artists, physicians
+and artificers.  Their talents procuring their manumission, they became
+the freedmen of their former masters.  Vespasian, it appears from
+Suetonius, purchased the freedom of some persons of ability belonging to
+these classes.]
+
+[Footnote 762:  The Coan Venus was the chef-d'oeuvre of Apelles, a native
+of the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, who flourished in the time of
+Alexander the Great.  If it was the original painting which was now
+restored, it must have been well preserved.]
+
+[Footnote 763:  Probably the colossal statue of Nero (see his Life, c.
+xxxi.), afterwards placed in Vespasian's amphitheatre, which derived its
+name from it.]
+
+[Footnote 764:  The usual argument in all times against the introduction
+of machinery.]
+
+[Footnote 765:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.]
+
+[Footnote 766:  At the men's Saturnalia, a feast held in December attended
+with much revelling, the masters waited upon their slaves; and at the
+women's Saturnalia, held on the first of March, the women served their
+female attendants, by whom also they sent presents to their friends.]
+
+[Footnote 767:  Notwithstanding the splendour, and even, in many respects,
+the refinement of the imperial court, the language as well as the habits
+of the highest classes in Rome seem to have been but too commonly of the
+grossest description, and every scholar knows that many of their writers
+are not very delicate in their allusions.  Apropos of the ludicrous
+account given in the text, Martial, on one occasion, uses still plainer
+language.
+
+    Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis:
+    Nam faciem durum Phoebe, cacantis habes.--iii. 89.]
+
+[Footnote 768:  See c. iii. and note.]
+
+[Footnote 769:  Probably the emperor had not entirely worn off, or might
+even affect the rustic dialect of his Sabine countrymen; for among the
+peasantry the au was still pronounced o, as in plostrum for plaustrum, a
+waggon; and in orum for aurum, gold, etc.  The emperor's retort was very
+happy, Flaurus being derived from a Greek word, which signifies worthless,
+while the consular critic's proper name, Florus, was connected with much
+more agreeable associations.]
+
+[Footnote 770:  Some of the German critics think that the passage bears
+the sense of the gratuity having beer given by the lady, and that so
+parsimonious a prince as Vespasian was not likely to have paid such a sum
+as is here stated for a lady's proffered favours.]
+
+[Footnote 771:  The Flavian family had their own tomb.  See DOMITIAN, c.
+v.  The prodigy, therefore, did not concern Vespasian.  As to the tomb of
+the Julian family, see AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]
+
+[Footnote 772:  Alluding to the apotheosis of the emperors.]
+
+[Footnote 773:  Cutiliae was a small lake, about three-quarters of a mile
+from Reate, now called Lago di Contigliano.  It was very deep, and being
+fed from springs in the neighbouring hills, the water was exceedingly
+clear and cold, so that it was frequented by invalids, who required
+invigorating.  Vespasian's paternal estates lay in the neighbourhood of
+Reate.  See chap i.]
+
+[Footnote 774:  A.U.C. 832.]
+
+[Footnote 775:  Each dynasty lasted twenty-eight years.  Claudius and Nero
+both reigning fourteen; and, of the Flavius family, Vespasian reigned ten,
+Titus three, and Domitian fifteen.]
+
+[Footnote 776:  Caligula.  Titus was born A.U.C. 794; about A.D. 49.]
+
+[Footnote 777:  The Septizonium was a circular building of seven stories.
+The remains of that of Septimus Severus, which stood on the side of the
+Palatine Hill, remained till the time of Pope Sixtus V., who removed it,
+and employed thirty-eight of its columns in ornamenting the church of St.
+Peter.  It does not appear whether the Septizonium here mentioned as
+existing in the time of Titus, stood on the same spot.]
+
+[Footnote 778:  Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina.]
+
+[Footnote 779:  A.U.C. 820.]
+
+[Footnote 780:  Jerusalem was taken, sacked, and burnt, by Titus, after a
+two years' siege, on the 8th September, A.U.C. 821, A.D. 69; it being the
+Sabbath.  It was in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, when the
+emperor was sixty years old, and Titus himself, as he informs us, thirty.
+For particulars of the siege, see Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vi. and vii.;
+Hegesippus, Excid. Hierosol. v.; Dio, lxvi.; Tacitus, Hist. v.; Orosius,
+vii. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 781:  For the sense in which Titus was saluted with the title of
+Emperor by the troops, see JULIUS CAESAR, c. lxxvi.]
+
+[Footnote 782:  The joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, which was
+celebrated A.U.C. 824, is fully described by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii.
+24.  It is commemorated by the triumphal monument called the Arch of
+Titus, erected by the senate and people of Rome after his death, and still
+standing at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on the road leading from the
+Colosseum to the Forum, and is one of the most beautiful as well as the
+most interesting models of Roman art.  It consists of four stories of the
+three orders of architecture, the Corinthian being repeated in the two
+highest.  Some of the bas-reliefs, still in good preservation, represent
+the table of the shew-bread, the seven-branched golden candlestick, the
+vessel of incense, and the silver trumpets, which were taken by Titus from
+the Temple at Jerusalem, and, with the book of the law, the veil of the
+temple, and other spoils, were carried in the triumph.  The fate of these
+sacred relics is rather interesting.  Josephus says, that the veil and
+books of the law were deposited in the Palatium, and the rest of the
+spoils in the Temple of Peace.  When that was burnt, in the reign of
+Commodus, these treasures were saved, and they were afterwards carried off
+by Genseric to Africa.  Belisarius recovered them, and brought them to
+Constantinople, A.D. 520.  Procopius informs us, that a Jew, who saw them,
+told an acquaintance of the emperor that it would not be advisable to
+carry them to the palace at Constantinople, as they could not remain
+anywhere else but where Solomon had placed them.  This, he said, was the
+reason why Genseric had taken the Palace at Rome, and the Roman army had
+in turn taken that of the Vandal kings.  Upon this, the emperor was so
+alarmed, that he sent the whole of them to the Christian churches at
+Jerusalem.]
+
+[Footnote 783:  A.U.C. 825.]
+
+[Footnote 784:  A.U.C. 824.]
+
+[Footnote 785:  A.U.C. 823, 825, 827-830, 832.]
+
+[Footnote 786:  Berenice, whose name is written by our author and others
+Beronice, was daughter of Agrippa the Great, who was by Aristobulus,
+grandson of Herod the Great.  Having been contracted to Mark, son of
+Alexander Lysimachus, he died before their union, and Agrippa married her
+to Herod, Mark's brother, for whom he had obtained from the emperor
+Claudius the kingdom of Chalcis.  Herod also dying, Berenice, then a
+widow, lived with her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected of an incestuous
+intercourse with him.  It was at this time that, on their way to the
+imperial court at Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Caesarea, and were
+present when St. Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before the
+tribunal of the governor.  Her fascinations were so great, that, to shield
+herself from the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king of
+Cilicia, to submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her.  That
+union also proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem,
+and having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titus
+by her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after the
+termination of the Jewish war, and had apartments in the palace, where she
+lived with Titus, "to all appearance, as his wife," as Xiphilinus informs
+us; and there seems no doubt that he would have married her, but for the
+strong prejudices of the Romans against foreign alliances. Suetonius tells
+us with what pain they separated.]
+
+[Footnote 787:  The Colosseum: it had been four years in building.  See
+VESPAS. c. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 788:  The Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part of
+the ground which had been the gardens of Mecaenas.  Considerable remains
+of them are still found among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vast
+dimensions, some of which were decorated with arabesque paintings, still
+in good preservation.  Titus appears to have erected a palace for himself
+adjoining; for the Laocoon, which is mentioned by Pliny as standing in
+this palace, was found in the neighbouring ruins.]
+
+[Footnote 789:  If the statements were not well attested, we might be
+incredulous as to the number of wild beasts collected for the spectacles
+to which the people of Rome were so passionately devoted.  The earliest
+account we have of such an exhibition, was A.U.C. 502, when one hundred
+and forty-two elephants, taken in Sicily, were produced.  Pliny, who gives
+this information, states that lions first appeared in any number, A.U.C.
+652; but these were probably not turned loose.  In 661, Sylla, when he was
+praetor, brought forward one hundred.  In 696, besides lions, elephants,
+and bears, one hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time.
+At the dedication of Pompey's Theatre, there was the greatest exhibition
+of beasts ever then known; including seventeen elephants, six hundred
+lions, which were killed in the course of five days, four hundred and ten
+panthers, etc.  A rhinoceros also appeared for the first time.  This was
+A.U.C. 701.  The art of taming these beasts was carried to such
+perfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked them to his carriage.  Julius
+Caesar, in his third dictatorship, A.U.C. 708, showed a vast number of
+wild beasts, among which were four hundred lions and a cameleopard.  A
+tiger was exhibited for the first time at the dedication of the Theatre of
+Marcellus, A.U.C. 743.  It was kept in a cage.  Claudius afterwards
+exhibited four together.  The exhibition of Titus, at the dedication of
+the Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been the largest
+ever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that including
+wild-boars, cranes, and other animals, no less than nine thousand were
+killed.  In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given to
+these spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, by
+planting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and the
+people were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased.  In this
+instance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on one
+occasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (mouflions
+from Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wild
+boars, and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian.]
+
+[Footnote 790:  "Diem perdidi."  This memorable speech is recorded by
+several other historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles.]
+
+[Footnote 791:  A.U.C. 832, A.D. 79.  It is hardly necessary to refer to
+the well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving an
+account of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian,
+perished. And see hereafter, p. 475.]
+
+[Footnote 792:  The great fire at Rome happened in the second year of the
+reign of Titus.  It consumed a large portion of the city, and among the
+public buildings destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that of
+Neptune, the baths of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus and
+Pompey, the buildings and library of Augustus on the Palatine, and the
+temple of Jupiter in the Capitol.]
+
+[Footnote 793:  See VESPASIAN, cc. i. and xxiv.  The love of this emperor
+and his son Titus for the rural retirement of their paternal acres in the
+Sabine country, forms a striking contrast to the vicious attachment of
+such tyrants as Tiberius and Caligula for the luxurious scenes of Baiae,
+or the libidinous orgies of Capri.]
+
+[Footnote 794:  A.U.C. 834, A.D. 82.]
+
+[Footnote 795:  A.U.C. 804.]
+
+[Footnote 796:  A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called,
+probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which had
+made free growth on the spot.]
+
+[Footnote 797:  VITELLIUS, c. xv.]
+
+[Footnote 798:  Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that
+Domitian took refuge with a client of his father's near the Velabrum.
+Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber.]
+
+[Footnote 799:  One of Domitian's coins bears on the reverse a captive
+female and soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA.]
+
+[Footnote 800:  VESPASIAN, c. xii; TITUS, c. vi.]
+
+[Footnote 801:  Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus
+(AUG. xliii.), and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a
+rude way.  That was on the other side of the Tiber.  The Naumachia of
+Domitian occupies the site of the present Piazza d'Espagna, and was larger
+and more ornamented.]
+
+[Footnote 802:  A.U.C. 841.  See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]
+
+[Footnote 803:  This feast was held in December.  Plutarch informs us that
+it was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included in
+the city bounds.]
+
+[Footnote 804:  The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the
+great fire mentioned TITUS, c. viii.  The first fire happened in the
+Marian war, after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign
+of Vitellius.]
+
+[Footnote 805:  This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva,
+adjoined the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix. of
+his life. From its communicating with the two others, it was called
+Transitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great
+height, and 144 paces long.  It is composed of square masses of freestone,
+very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight
+line, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered
+with its direction.]
+
+[Footnote 806:  The residence of the Flavian family was converted into a
+temple. See c. i. of the present book.]
+
+[Footnote 807:  The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used for
+races both of men and horses.]
+
+[Footnote 808:  The Odeum was a building intended for musical
+performances.  There were four of them at Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 809:  See before, c. iv.]
+
+[Footnote 810:  See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]
+
+[Footnote 811:  See NERD, c. xvi.]
+
+[Footnote 812:  This absurd edict was speedily revoked.  See afterwards c.
+xiv.]
+
+[Footnote 813:  This was an ancient law levelled against adultery and
+other pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of the
+people.  There was a Julian law, with the same object.  See AUGUSTUS, c.
+xxxiv.]
+
+[Footnote 814:  Geor. xi. 537.]
+
+[Footnote 815:  See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 816:  See VESPASIAN, c. iii.]
+
+[Footnote 817:  Cant names for gladiators.]
+
+[Footnote 818:  The faction which favoured the "Thrax" party.]
+
+[Footnote 819:   DOMITIAN, c. i.]
+
+[Footnote 820:  See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]
+
+[Footnote 821:  This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. xlix.]
+
+[Footnote 822:  Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or,
+perhaps, members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them.
+See the note to TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi.  The tax levied on the Jews was two
+drachmas per head.  It was general throughout the empire.]
+
+[Footnote 823:  We have had Suetonius's reminiscences, derived through his
+grandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. xix.; OTHO, c. x.  We
+now come to his own, commencing from an early age.]
+
+[Footnote 824:  This is what Martial calls, "Mentula tributis damnata."]
+
+[Footnote 825:  The imperial liveries were white and gold.]
+
+[Footnote 826:  See CALIGULA, c. xxi., where the rest of the line is
+quoted; eis koiranos esto.]
+
+[Footnote 827:  An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was the
+consecrated bed, on which the images of the gods reposed.]
+
+[Footnote 828:  The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for
+"enough," and the Latin word for "an arch."]
+
+[Footnote 829:  Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue with
+Paris, the actor, and afterwards taken back.]
+
+[Footnote 830:  The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed from
+the poet Evenus, Anthol. i. vi. i., who applies them to a goat, the great
+enemy of vineyards.  Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:
+
+    Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram,
+    In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit.]
+
+[Footnote 831:  Pliny describes this stone as being brought from
+Cappadocia, and says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent,
+cxxiv. c. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 832:  See note to c. xvii.]
+
+[Footnote 833:  The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish
+(Christian?) manners.  Dion, lxvii. 1112.]
+
+[Footnote 834:  See VESPASIAN, c. v.]
+
+[Footnote 835:  Columella (R. R. xi. 2.) enumerates dates among the
+foreign fruits cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, and
+almonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the first
+who introduced the date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latter
+days of Augustus.]
+
+[Footnote 836:  Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of Flavius
+Clemens (c. xv.), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their
+"impiety," by which it is probably meant that they were suspected of
+favouring Christianity.  Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece of
+Flavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for having
+become a Christian.  Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is said
+to have been of this family.]
+
+[Footnote 837:  A.U.C. 849.]
+
+[Footnote 838:  See c. v.]
+
+[Footnote 839:  The famous library of Alexandria collected by Ptolemy
+Philadelphus had been burnt by accident in the wars.  But we find from
+this passage in Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collections
+had been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7) informs us that forty
+thousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time the
+number of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand.]
+
+[Footnote 840:  This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny,
+took its name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, who
+first introduced it.  Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first who
+brought into vogue the practice of clipping groves.]
+
+[Footnote 841:  Julia, the daughter of Titus.]
+
+[Footnote 842:  It will be understood that the terms Grammar and
+Grammarian have here a more extended sense than that which they convey in
+modern use. See the beginning of c. iv.]
+
+[Footnote 843:  Suetonius's account of the rude and unlettered state of
+society in the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we might
+infer, and with the accounts which have come down to us, of a community
+composed of the most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by the
+neighbouring tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war.  But
+Cicero discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans long
+before the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to the
+teaching of Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italy
+in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.--Tusc. Quaest. iv. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 844:  Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates his
+extraction, was born of Greek parents.  He began to teach at Rome in the
+consulship of Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and Sempronius
+Tuditanus, A.U.C. 514.  He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, the
+historian, who flourished in the Augustan age.]
+
+[Footnote 845:  Ennius was a native of Calabria.  He was born the year
+after the consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see at
+least his seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age he
+wrote the twelfth book of his Annals.]
+
+[Footnote 846:  Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered
+that island during his praetorship.  He learnt Greek from Ennius there,
+and brought him to Rome on his return.  Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a
+long course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils.]
+
+[Footnote 847:  Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia.  Crates was the son of
+Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had the
+surname of Homericus.]
+
+[Footnote 848:  Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign of
+Ptolemy Philometer, whose son he educated.]
+
+[Footnote 849:  A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.]
+
+[Footnote 850:  Cicero (De Clar. Orat. c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1)
+places the death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for which there are other
+authorities; but this differs from the account given in a former note.]
+
+[Footnote 851:  The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned
+by Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 852:  Lucilius, the poet, was born about A.U.C. 605.]
+
+[Footnote 853:  Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on his
+triumph over Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644.  Aelius, who was Varro's tutor,
+accompanied him to Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A.U.C.
+653.]
+
+[Footnote 854:  Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended by
+Cicero, Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny,
+xxv. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 855:  Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to have
+been brought up by Pan.  The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius's
+cognomen is not very clear.  Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis; therefore
+the herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics, and the
+inventor of the rude music of the reed.]
+
+[Footnote 856:  Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a book
+on Forest Trees.]
+
+[Footnote 857:  Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets in
+the same line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. x. 1.  Of Sigida we know
+nothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given.  Apuleius
+mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. xi.,
+where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato.]
+
+[Footnote 858:  Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he was
+the learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove;
+observing, that "the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the nuts,
+rather belongs to the tribe of apples."]
+
+[Footnote 859:  Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius.
+His cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribune
+under Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it.  He was consul
+A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people,
+A.U.C. 659.]
+
+[Footnote 860:  Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. i. 6.  We find that
+Cicero was among his pupils.  The date of his praetorship, given below,
+fixes the time when Gnipho flourished.]
+
+[Footnote 861:  This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derived
+from a cork arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost.  He
+was a poet of Mitylene.]
+
+[Footnote 862:  See before, JULIUS, c. xlvi.]
+
+[Footnote 863:  A.U.C. 687.]
+
+[Footnote 864:  Suetonius gives his life in c. x.]
+
+[Footnote 865:  A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of which
+we have no very exact idea.]
+
+[Footnote 866:  Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:
+
+    Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
+    Orbilium tractare.  Epist. xi. i. 70.
+
+    I remember well when I was young,
+    How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks.]
+
+[Footnote 867:  Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams.  He is mentioned by Ovid
+and Martial.]
+
+[Footnote 868:  This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius of
+statues erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity.
+Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, and
+with the gown of the Greek philosophers.]
+
+[Footnote 869:  Tacitus (Annal. cxi. 75) gives the character of
+Atteius Capito.  He was consul A.U.C. 758.]
+
+[Footnote 870:  Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. xxx.]
+
+[Footnote 871:  Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does not
+appear,]
+
+[Footnote 872:  Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished in
+Egypt, under three of the Ptolemies successively.  Strabo often mentions
+him.  See xvii. p. 576.]
+
+[Footnote 873:  Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of the
+same age as Catullus.  Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435.]
+
+[Footnote 874:  Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens.]
+
+[Footnote 875:  Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the first
+Ptolemy at Alexandria, and tutor to his sons.]
+
+[Footnote 876:  For Crates, see before, p. 507.]
+
+[Footnote 877:  We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two days
+before his death, in completing the twenty-second book of his
+Commentaries; and, foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care of
+Lucullus, who, with the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arranged
+them.  Epicadius also wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina.]
+
+[Footnote 878:  Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the loose
+conduct of Mucia, Pompey's wife, during her husband's absence.]
+
+[Footnote 879:  Fam. Epist. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 880:  Cicero ad Att. xii. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 881:  See before, AUGUSTUS, c. v.]
+
+[Footnote 882:  Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust.
+Lactantius, 11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says of
+him,
+
+    Libertinarum dico;
+    Sallustius in quas
+    Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur.--Sat. i. 2. 48.]
+
+[Footnote 883:  The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Cicero
+addressed his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus.  Although Satrius was
+the name of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can be
+found, so that the text is supposed to be corrupt.  Quintus Caecilius was
+an uncle of Atticus, and adopted him.  The freedman mentioned in this
+chapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property of
+Caecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of their
+patrons.]
+
+[Footnote 884:  Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. viii.  Her name was Pomponia.]
+
+[Footnote 885:  See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.]
+
+[Footnote 886:  He is mentioned before, c. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 887:  Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction
+with Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C.
+2024, which is A.U.C. 759; A.D. 9.  He is also praised by Gellius,
+Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.]
+
+[Footnote 888:  Cinna wrote a poem, which he called "Smyrna," and was nine
+years in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 889:  See AUGUSTUS, cc. lxii. lxix.]
+
+[Footnote 890:  Cornelius Alexander, who had also the name of Polyhistor,
+was born at Miletus, and being taken prisoner, and bought by Cornelius,
+was brought to Rome, and becoming his teacher, had his freedom given him,
+with the name of his patron.  He flourished in the time of Sylla, and
+composed a great number of works; amongst which were five books on Rome.
+Suetonius has already told us (AUGUSTUS, xxix.) that he had the
+care of the Palatine Library.]
+
+[Footnote 891:  No such consul as Caius Licinius appears in the Fasti; and
+it is supposed to be a mistake for C. Atinius, who was the colleague of
+Cn. Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 713, and wrote a book on the Civil War.]
+
+[Footnote 892:  Julius Modestus, in whom the name of the Julian family was
+still preserved, is mentioned with approbation by Gellius, Martial,
+Quintilian, and others.]
+
+[Footnote 893:  Melissus is mentioned by Ovid, De Pontif. iv 16-30.]
+
+[Footnote 894:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix. p. 93, and note.]
+
+[Footnote 895:  The trabea was a white robe, with a purple border, of a
+different fashion from the toga.]
+
+[Footnote 896:  See before, c. x.]
+
+[Footnote 897:  See CLAUDIUS, c. x1i. and note.]
+
+[Footnote 898:  Remmius Palaemon appears to have been cotemporary with
+Pliny and Quintilian, who speak highly of him.]
+
+[Footnote 899:  Now Vicenza.]
+
+[Footnote 900:  "Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon."--Eccl.
+iii. 50.]
+
+[Footnote 901:  All the editions have the word vitem; but we might
+conjecture, from the large produce, that it is a mistake for vineam, a
+vineyard: in which case the word vasa might be rendered, not bottles, but
+casks.  The amphora held about nine gallons.  Pliny mentions that Remmius
+bought a farm near the turning on the Nomentan road, at the tenth
+mile-stone from Rome.]
+
+[Footnote 902:  "Usque ad infamiam oris."--See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and the
+notes.]
+
+[Footnote 903:  Now Beyrout, on the coast of Syria.  It was one of the
+colonies founded by Julius Caesar when he transported 80,000 Roman
+citizens to foreign parts.--JULIUS, xlii.]
+
+[Footnote 904:  This senatus consultum was made A.U.C. 592.]
+
+[Footnote 905:  Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A.U.C. 710.]
+
+[Footnote 906:  See NERO, c. x.]
+
+[Footnote 907:  As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.]
+
+[Footnote 908:  This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of any
+epistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius.]
+
+[Footnote 909:  See Cicero's Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus is
+frequently mentioned, especially cc. i. and iii.]
+
+[Footnote 910:  "Hordearium rhetorem."]
+
+[Footnote 911:  From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the old
+custom of chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supply
+the place of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in his
+time.]
+
+[Footnote 912:  The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement is
+lost.]
+
+[Footnote 913:  Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some
+treatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period in
+which he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician here
+named by Suetonius.  Plin. xvii. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 914:  Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705,
+and again with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.]
+
+[Footnote 915:  A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno,
+which discharges itself into the bay of Naples.]
+
+[Footnote 916:  Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to the
+corrupt habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony.]
+
+[Footnote 917:  The direct allusion is to the "style" or probe used by
+surgeons in opening tumours.]
+
+[Footnote 918:  Mark Antony was consul with Julius Caesar, A.U.C. 709.
+See before, JULIUS, c. lxxix.]
+
+[Footnote 919:  Philipp. xi. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 920:  Leontium, now called Lentini, was a town in Sicily, the
+foundation of which is related by Thucydides, vi. p. 412.  Polybius
+describes the Leontine fields as the most fertile part of Sicily.  Polyb.
+vii. 1.  And see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii. 46, 47.]
+
+[Footnote 921:  Novara, a town of the Milanese.]
+
+[Footnote 922:  St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb. describes Lucius Munatius
+Plancus as the disciple of Cicero, and a celebrated orator.  He founded
+Lyons during the time he governed that part of the Roman provinces in
+Gaul.]
+
+[Footnote 923:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxvi.]
+
+[Footnote 924:  He meant to speak of Cisalpine Gaul, which, though
+geographically a part of Italy, did not till a late period enjoy the
+privileges of the other territories united to Rome, and was administered
+by a praetor under the forms of a dependent province.  It was admitted to
+equal rights by the triumvirs, after the death of Julius Caesar.  Albutius
+intimated that those rights were now in danger.]
+
+[Footnote 925:  Lucius Fenestella, an historical writer, is mentioned by
+Lactantius, Seneca, and Pliny, who says, that he died towards the close of
+the reign of Tiberius.]
+
+[Footnote 926:  The second Punic war ended A.U.C. 552, and the third began
+A.U.C. 605.  Terence was probably born about 560.]
+
+[Footnote 927:  Carthage was laid in ruins A.U.C. 606 or 607, six hundred
+and sixty seven years after its foundation.]
+
+[Footnote 928:  These entertainments were given by the aediles M. Fulvius
+Nobilior and M. Acilius Glabrio, A.U.C. 587.]
+
+[Footnote 929:  St. Jerom also states that Terence read the "Andria" to
+Caecilius who was a comic poet at Rome; but it is clearly an anachronism,
+as he died two years before this period.  It is proposed, therefore, to
+amend the text by substituting Acilius, the aedile; a correction
+recommended by all the circumstances, and approved by Pitiscus and
+Ernesti.]
+
+[Footnote 930:  The "Hecyra," The Mother-in-law, is one of Terence's
+plays.]
+
+[Footnote 931:  The "Eunuch" was not brought out till five years after the
+Andria, A.U.C. 592.]
+
+[Footnote 932:  About 80 pounds sterling; the price paid for the two
+performances. What further right of authorship is meant by the words
+following, is not very clear.]
+
+[Footnote 933:  The "Adelphi" was first acted A.U.C. 593.]
+
+[Footnote 934:  This report is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic, vii. 3), who
+applies it to the younger Laelius.  The Scipio here mentioned is Scipio
+Africanus, who was at this time about twenty-one years of age.]
+
+[Footnote 935:  The calends of March was the festival of married women.
+See before, VESPASIAN, c. xix.]
+
+[Footnote 936:  Santra, who wrote biographies of celebrated characters, is
+mentioned as "a man of learning," by St. Jerom, in his preface to the book
+on the Ecclesiastical Writers.]
+
+[Footnote 937:  The idea seems to have prevailed that Terence, originally
+an African slave, could not have attained that purity of style in Latin
+composition which is found in his plays, without some assistance.  The
+style of Phaedrus, however; who was a slave from Thrace, and lived in the
+reign of Tiberius, is equally pure, although no such suspicion attaches to
+his work.]
+
+[Footnote 938:  Cicero (de Clar. Orat. c. 207) gives Sulpicius Gallus a
+high character as a finished orator and elegant scholar.  He was consul
+when the Andria was first produced.]
+
+[Footnote 939:  Labeo and Popilius are also spoken of by Cicero in high
+terms, Ib. cc. 21 and 24.  Q. Fabius Labeo was consul with M. Claudius
+Marcellus, A.U.C. 570 and Popilius with L. Postumius Albinus, A.U.C. 580.]
+
+[Footnote 940:  The story of Terence's having converted into Latin plays
+this large number of Menander's Greek comedies, is beyond all probability,
+considering the age at which he died, and other circumstances.  Indeed,
+Menander never wrote so many as are here stated.]
+
+[Footnote 941:  They were consuls A.U.C. 594.  Terence was, therefore,
+thirty-four years old at the time of his death.]
+
+[Footnote 942:  Hortulorum, in the plural number.  This term, often found
+in Roman authors, not inaptly describes the vast number of little
+inclosures, consisting of vineyards, orchards of fig-trees, peaches, etc.,
+with patches of tillage, in which maize, legumes, melons, pumpkins, and
+other vegetables are cultivated for sale, still found on small properties,
+in the south of Europe, particularly in the neighbourhood of towns.]
+
+[Footnote 943:  Suetonius has quoted these lines in the earlier part of
+his Life of Terence.  See before p. 532, where they are translated.]
+
+[Footnote 944:  Juvenal was born at Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, as
+appears by an ancient MS., and is intimated by himself.  Sat. iii. 319.]
+
+[Footnote 945:  He must have been therefore nearly forty years old at this
+time, as he lived to be eighty.]
+
+[Footnote 946:  The seventh of Juvenal's Satires.]
+
+[Footnote 947:  This Paris does not appear to have been the favourite of
+Nero, who was put to death by that prince (see NERO, c. liv.)
+but another person of the same name, who was patronised by the emperor
+Domitian.  The name of the poet joined with him is not known.  Salmatius
+thinks it was Statius Pompilius, who sold to Paris, the actor, the play of
+Agave;
+
+    Esurit, intactam
+    Paridi nisi vendat Agaven.
+    --Juv. Sat. vii. 87.]
+
+[Footnote 948:  Sulpicius Camerinus had been proconsul in Africa; Bareas
+Soranus in Asia.  Tacit. Annal. xiii. 52; xvi. 23.  Both of them are said
+to have been corrupt in their administration; and the satirist introduces
+their names as examples of the rich and noble, whose influence was less
+than that of favourite actors, or whose avarice prevented them from
+becoming the patrons of poets.]
+
+[Footnote 949:  The "Pelopea," was a tragedy founded on the story of the
+daughter of Thyestes; the "Philomela," a tragedy on the fate of Itys,
+whose remains were served to his father at a banquet by Philomela and her
+sister Progne.]
+
+[Footnote 950:  This was in the time of Adrian.  Juvenal, who wrote first
+in the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, composed his last Satire but one in
+the third year of Adrian, A.U.C. 872.]
+
+[Footnote 951:  Syene is meant, the frontier station of the imperial
+troops in that quarter of the world.]
+
+[Footnote 952:  A.U.C. 786, A.D. 34.]
+
+[Footnote 953:  A.U.C. 814, A.D. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 954:  Persius was one of the few men of rank and affluence among
+the Romans, who acquired distinction as writers; the greater part of them
+having been freedmen, as appears not only from these lives of the poets,
+but from our author's notices of the grammarians and rhetoricians.  A
+Caius Persius is mentioned with distinction by Livy in the second Punic
+war, Hist. xxvi. 39; and another of the same name by Cicero, de Orat. ii.
+6, and by Pliny; but whether the poet was descended from either of them,
+we have no means of ascertaining.]
+
+[Footnote 955:  Persius addressed his fifth satire to Annaeus Cornutus.
+He was a native of Leptis, in Africa, and lived at Rome in the time of
+Nero, by whom he was banished.]
+
+[Footnote 956:  Caesius Bassus, a lyric poet, flourished during the reigns
+of Nero and Galba.  Persius dedicated his sixth Satire to him.]
+
+[Footnote 957:  "Numanus."  It should be Servilius Nonianus, who is
+mentioned by Pliny, xxviii. 2, and xxxvii. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 958:  Commentators are not agreed about these sums, the text
+varying both in the manuscripts and editions.]
+
+[Footnote 959:  See Dr. Thomson's remarks on Persius, before, p. 398.]
+
+[Footnote 960: There is no appearance of any want of finish in the sixth
+Satire of Persius, as it has come down to us; but it has been conjectured
+that it was followed by another, which was left imperfect.]
+
+[Footnote 961:  There were two Arrias, mother and daughter, Tacit. Annal.
+xvi. 34. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 962:  Persius died about nine days before he completed his
+twenty-ninth year.]
+
+[Footnote 963:  Venusium stood on the confines of the Apulian, Lucanian,
+and Samnite territories.
+
+    Sequor hunc, Lucanus an Appulus anceps;
+    Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus.
+    Hor Sat. xi. 1. 34.] [Footnote 964:  Sat. i. 6. 45.]
+
+[Footnote 965:  Horace mentions his being in this battle, and does not
+scruple to admit that he made rather a precipitate retreat, "relicta non
+bene parmula."--Ode xi. 7-9.]
+
+[Footnote 966:  See Ode xi. 7. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 967:  The editors of Suetonius give different versions of this
+epigram. It seems to allude to some passing occurrence, and in its present
+form the sense is to this effect: "If I love you not, Horace, to my very
+heart's core, may you see the priest of the college of Titus leaner than
+his mule."]
+
+[Footnote 968:  Probably the Septimius to whom Horace addressed the ode
+beginning
+
+    Septimi, Gades aditure mecum.--Ode xl. b. i.]
+
+[Footnote 969:  See AUGUSTUS, c. xxi.; and Horace, Ode iv, 4.]
+
+[Footnote 970:  See Epist. i. iv. xv.
+
+    Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises.]
+
+[Footnote 971:  It is satisfactory to find that the best commentators
+consider the words between brackets as an interpolation in the work of
+Suetonius. Some, including Bentley, reject the preceding sentence also.]
+
+[Footnote 972:  The works of Horace abound with references to his Sabine
+farm which must be familiar to many readers.  Some remains are still
+shewn, consisting of a ruined wall and a tesselated pavement in a
+vineyard, about eight miles from Tivoli, which are supposed, with reason,
+to mark its site.  At least, the features of the neighbouring country, as
+often sketched by the poet--and they are very beautiful--cannot be
+mistaken.]
+
+[Footnote 973:  Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus were consuls
+A.U.C. 688. The genial Horace, in speaking of his old wine, agrees with
+Suetonius in fixing the date of his own birth:
+
+    O nata mecum consule Manlio Testa.--Ode iii. 21.
+
+And again,
+
+    Tu vina, Torquato, move Consule pressa meo.--Epod. xiii. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 974:  A.U.C. 745.  So that Horace was in his fifty-seventh, not
+his fifty-ninth year, at the time of his death.]
+
+[Footnote 975:  It may be concluded that Horace died at Rome, under the
+hospitable roof of his patron Mecaenas, whose villa and gardens stood on
+the Esquiline hill; which had formerly been the burial ground of the lower
+classes; but, as he tells us,
+
+Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque Aggere in aprico
+spatiare.--Sat. i. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 976:  Cordova.  Lucan was the son of Annaeus Mella, Seneca's
+brother.]
+
+[Footnote 977:  This sentence is very obscure, and Ernesti considers the
+text to be imperfect.]
+
+[Footnote 978:  They had good reason to know that, ridiculous as the
+tyrant made himself, it was not safe to incur even the suspicion of being
+parties to a jest upon him.]
+
+[Footnote 979:  See NERO, c. xxxvi.]
+
+[Footnote 980:  St. Jerom (Chron. Euseb.) places Lucan's death in the
+tenth year of Nero's reign, corresponding with A.U.C. 817.  This
+opportunity is taken of correcting an error in the press, p. 342,
+respecting the date of Nero's accession.  It should be A.U.C. 807, A.D.
+55.]
+
+[Footnote 981:  These circumstances are not mentioned by some other
+writers.  See Dr. Thomson's account of Lucan, before, p. 347, where it is
+said that he died with philosophical firmness.]
+
+[Footnote 982:  We find it stated ib. p. 396, that Lucan expired while
+pronouncing some verses from his own Pharsalia: for which we have the
+authority of Tacitus, Annal. xv. 20. 1.  Lucan, it appears, employed his
+last hours in revising his poems; on the contrary, Virgil, we are told,
+when his death was imminent, renewed his directions that the Aeneid should
+be committed to the flames.]
+
+[Footnote 983:  The text of the concluding sentence of Lucan's life is
+corrupt, and neither of the modes proposed for correcting it make the
+sense intended very clear.]
+
+[Footnote 984:  Although this brief memoir of Pliny is inserted in all the
+editions of Suetonius, it was unquestionably not written by him.  The
+author, whoever he was, has confounded the two Plinys, the uncle and
+nephew, into which error Suetonius could not have fallen, as he lived on
+intimate terms with the younger Pliny; nor can it be supposed that he
+would have composed the memoir of his illustrious friend in so cursory a
+manner.  Scaliger and other learned men consider that the life of Pliny,
+attributed to Suetonius, was composed more than four centuries after that
+historian's death.]
+
+[Footnote 985:  See JULIUS, c. xxviii.  Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
+(the younger Pliny) was born at Como, A.U.C. 814; A.D. 62.  His father's
+name was Lucius Caecilius, also of Como, who married Plinia, the sister of
+Caius Plinius Secundus, supposed to have been a native of Verona, the
+author of the Natural History, and by this marriage the uncle of Pliny the
+Younger.  It was the nephew who enjoyed the confidence of the emperors
+Nerva and Trajan, and was the author of the celebrated Letters.]
+
+[Footnote 986:  The first eruption of Mount Vesuvius occurred A.U.C. 831,
+A.D. 79. See TITUS, c. viii.  The younger Pliny was with his uncle at
+Misenum at the time, and has left an account of his disastrous enterprise
+in one of his letters, Epist. vi. xvi.]
+
+[Footnote 987:  For further accounts of the elder Pliny, see the Epistles
+of his nephew, B. iii. 5; vi. 16. 20; and Dr. Thomson's remarks before,
+pp. 475-478.]
+
+
+
+
+   INDEX.
+
+
+   Acilius, C., his heroic conduct in a sea-fight, 42.
+   Acte, a concubine of Nero, 357.
+   Actium, battle of, 81, 82.
+   Agrippa, M., his naval victory, 80; presented with a banner, 88;
+     his buildings, 93; aqueducts, 104; grandson of Augustus, 118; his
+     character, ib. 119; adopted, 203; banished, 204; murdered, 208.
+   Agrippina, daughter of M. Agrippa and Livia, 254; marries Germanicus,
+     118; banished by Tiberius, 225; birth of Caligula, 255; daughter of
+     Germanicus, Claudius marries her, 320, 327; suspected of poisoning
+     him, 331; her character, 335.
+   Alban Mount, 276, 298, and note; festival on, 482.
+   Albula, the warm springs at, 131.
+   Albutius, Silus, an orator, 528.
+   Alexander the Great, J. Caesar's model, 5; his sarcophagus opened for
+     Augustus, 82.
+   Alexandria, museum at, 330; library at, 496, note; the key of Egypt, 449;
+     Vespasian's miracles there, 450, and note.
+   Amphitheatres; of Statilius Taurus, 93; description of, 262, note; the
+     Castrensis, 265 and note; the Colosseum, 453 and note.
+   Andronicus, M. P. a scholar, 515.
+   Antony, Mark, at Caesar's funeral, 53; triumvir with Octavius and
+     Lepidus, 75; opposes Octavius, 76; defeated by him, 77; their new
+     alliance, ib.; dissolved, 80; defeat at Actium, 81; flies to
+     Cleopatra, ib.; kills himself, ib.
+   Anticyra, island of, 272 and note.
+   Antium, the Apollo Belvidere found there, 217 note; preferred by
+     Caligula, 256; colony settled at, 343 and note.
+   Antonius, Lucius, brother of Mark, war with, 76; forced to
+     surrender, 78.
+   ------, Musa, Augustus's physician, 116.
+   Antonia, grandmother of Caligula, 267, 272.
+   Apollonius of Rhodes, 4.
+   Apple, the Matian, 496.
+   Apomus, fountain of, 203.
+   Apotheosis, J. Caesar, 1, note; and 55.
+   Apicius, his works, 249.
+   Aqueduct of the Anio, 265 and note, 314.
+   Arch of Claudius, 303; of Titus, 467 note.
+   Aricia, grove of, 81; a town near Rome, 73.
+   Arles, a Roman colony, 195.
+   Asinius Pollio, the orator, 304.
+   ------ Gallius, his son, ib.; 329.
+   Atteius, the philologer, 513.
+   ------ Capito, jurisconsult, 521.
+   Atticus, the friend of Cicero, 517 and note.
+   August, name of the month Sextilis changed to, 95.
+   AUGUSTUS CAESAR, his descent, 71; birth, 73; infancy and youth, 74;
+     civil wars, 76; battle of Philippi, 77; takes Perugia, 79; naval war
+     with Pompey, 80; battle of Actium, 81; forces Antony to kill
+     himself, ib.; and Cleopatra, ib.; foreign wars, 83; triumphs, 85;
+     conduct as a general, 86; in civil affairs, 88-90; in improving the
+     city, 90-94; in religious matters, 95; in administering justice, 96,
+     97; purifies the senate, 98; scrutiny of the knights, 102; his
+     munificence, 104; public spectacles, 105-108; colonies, 109; the
+     provinces, ib.; distribution of the army, 110; his clemency, 111;
+     moderation, 112, 113; honours paid him, 114-116; his wives and family,
+     117-119; friendships, 120; aspersions on his character, 121-124; his
+     domestic life, 125-129; person and health, 129-131; literary pursuits,
+     132-135; regard for religion and omens, 136-142; his last illness and
+     death, 143-145; his funeral and will, 146-147; remarks on his life and
+     times, 148-191.
+   Aulus Plautius commands in Britain, 309 and note, 444; his ovation, 316.
+
+   Baiae, Julian harbour formed at, 79; frequented by Augustus, 126.
+   Basilicas, the, 7 and note.
+   Basilides, an Egyptian priest, 447 note; appears to Vespasian, 450.
+   Baths of Nero, 345 and note; of Titus, 470 and note.
+   Beccus, a general in Gaul, 439 and note.
+   Bedriacum, battle of, 423, 433, 447.
+   Berenice, queen, attachment of Titus to her, 469 and note.
+   Berytus, now Beyrout, 522.
+   Bibaculus, a poet, 507 note.
+   Bibulus, M., edile, 6 and note; consul with J. Caesar, 12;
+     lampoon on, 13.
+   Bithynia, J. Caesar sent there, 2.
+   Britain, invaded by Julius Caesar, 17; reconnoitred first, 38;
+     Caligula's intended expedition, 282 and note; that of Claudius,
+     308, 309; Nero proposes to abandon, 848; revolt there, 368 and note.
+   Britannicus, son of Claudius, 320; his regard for him, 330; educated
+     with Titus, 405; poisoned, ib.; honours paid him by Titus, ib.
+   Brutus and Cassius conspire against Julius Caesar, 49; they assassinate
+     him, 51; his dying apostrophe to Brutus, 52 and note; their fate, 55
+     and 78.
+   Bulla, the, worn by youths, 54 and note.
+
+   Caenis, concubine of Vespasian, 443; Domitian's conduct to, 490.
+   Caesonia, Caligula's mistress and wife, 269; threatened by him, 275;
+     slain, 291.
+   Caesario, son of Cleopatra by Caesar, 82.
+   Caius and Lucius, grandsons of Augustus, 89; their death, 118.
+   Caius Caesar, 74.  See CALIGULA.
+   Calendar, the, corrected by Julius Caesar, 27 and note; by Augustus, 95.
+   CALIGULA, his birth, 254; origin of his name, 256; in Germany and Syria,
+     ib.; with Tiberius at Capri, 257; suspected of murdering him, 258;
+     succeeds him, ib.; his popularity, 259; honours to Germanicus and his
+     family, 260; his just administration, 261; consulships, 262; public
+     spectacles, 263; public works, 264; affects royalty, 266; and divinity,
+     ib.; treatment of his female relatives, 267, 268; of his wives and
+     mistresses, 269; of his friends, ib.; of the magistrates, 270; his
+     cruelties, 271-274; discourages learning, 275; disgraces men of rank,
+     276; his unnatural lusts, 277; exhausts the treasury, 278; his
+     rapacity, 279; his new taxes, 280; expedition to Germany, 281; bravado
+     against Britain, 283 and note; his triumph, 284; his person and
+     constitution, 285; style of dress, 286; personal accomplishments, 287,
+     288; his favourite horse, 289; conspiracies against him, ib.; omens of
+     his fate, 290; he is assassinated, 291.
+   Calpurnia, wife of J. Caesar, 14.
+   Capitol, the, burnt by Vitellius, 438; rebuilt by Vespasian, 452;
+     rebuilt by Domitian, 483.
+   Capri, island of, exchanged for Ischia, 137; Augustus visits it, 143;
+     Tiberius retires there, 217; his debaucheries there, 219-220.
+   Carinae, a street in Rome, 203.
+   Carmel, Mount, Vespasian sacrifices at, 447 and note.
+   Caractacus, 309 note; 334.
+   Cassius.  See Brutus.
+   ------ Chaerea, the assassin of Caligula, 289-291.
+   Caspian Mountains, pass through, 349 and note.
+   Catiline's conspiracy, 9, 11.
+   Cato, M., infuses vigour into the senate, 9; yields to political
+     expediency, 12 and note; dragged to prison from the senate, 14;
+     threatens to impeach J. Caesar, 21.
+   Catullus, remarks on his works, 67-69.
+   Celsus, the physician, his works, 249.
+   Censor, office of, 100 and note.
+   Census taken, how, 102.
+   Chrestus said to make tumults at Rome, 318.
+   Christians, confounded with the Jews, 215 note; accused of sedition, 318
+     and note; cruelties of Nero to, 347; poll tax on, 489 note.
+   Cicero, M. T., his opinion of J. Caesar, 7 and 21; appealed to by him,
+     11; commends Caesar's oratory, 35; remarks on the works of, 60-65;
+     dream of, 140.
+   Cinna, Cornelius Helvius, a poet, 517 and note.
+   Circensian games, description of, 26 and note, 27.
+   Circeii, near Antium, 236.
+   Circus, Flaminian, 310 note; Maximus, 355 and note.
+   Civic crown, description of, 3.
+   Claudii, family of the, 192-194.
+   CLAUDIUS, his birth, 296; childhood and education, 297; Augustus's
+     opinion of him, 298; fills public offices, 300; held in contempt, 301;
+     unexpected elevation, ib.; elected by the praetorian guard, 302;
+     honours to the family of Augustus, 303; his moderation, ib.;
+     conspiracies against him, 304; conduct as consul and judge, 305, 306;
+     as censor, 307; expedition to Britain, 309; his triumph, 310; care of
+     the city and people, ib.; his public works, 311; public spectacles,
+     312, 313; civil and religious administration, 314, 315; military, 316,
+     317; banishes the Jews and Christians, 318 and note; his marriages,
+     319; children, 320; his freedmen and favourites, 321; governed by them
+     and his wives, ib.; his person, 322; his entertainments, 323; cruelty,
+     324; fear and distrust, 325, 326; affects literature, 328, 329; death
+     by poison, 330; omens previously, 331.
+   Clemens.  See Flavius.
+   Cleopatra has Egypt confirmed to her by J. Caesar, 24; intrigues with
+     him, 34; has a son by him, ib.; flies with Mark Antony, 81; kills
+     herself, 82; her children by Antony, ib. and 81.
+   Coins of Caligula, 37; of Vespasian, 467.
+   Cologne, founded by Agrippina, 434 and note.
+   Colonies at Como, 19; foreign, 29.
+   Colosseum, the, begun by Vespasian, 453; finished by Titus, 470 and note.
+   Commentaries, Caesar's, 36, 37.
+   Comet before Nero's death, 366.
+   Comitium, the, embellished, 7 and note.
+   Como, colony settled there, 19 and note.
+   Compitalian festival, flowers used at 96, and note.
+   Confluentes, Coblentz, 250.
+   Cordus Cremutius, a historian, 99.
+   Cornelia, Julius Caesar's wife, 2; her death, 5.
+   Corinth.  See Isthmus of.
+   Cornelius Nepos, account of, 101.
+   Cotiso, king of the Getae, 117 and note.
+   Cottius, his dominions in the Alps, 216, 349.
+   Crassus, aspires to be dictator, 6; his conspiracies, 6 and 7; becomes
+     security for Julius Caesar, 11 note; reconciled to Pompey, 12.
+   Crates, a grammarian, 504.
+   Cunobeline and his son, 282; defeated by Aulus Plautius, 309 and note.
+   Curtius Nicia, a scholar, 517.
+   Curule chair, 89; description of, note ib.
+   Cybele, rites of, 121 and note, 194.
+
+   Date-trees, introduction of, 493 and note.
+   Dolabella, P., loses a fleet, 24; inveighs against J. Caesar, 32;
+     prosecuted by Caesar, 35.
+   Domitia, wife of Domitian, 480; intrigues with Paris, 481; denies
+     intrigue with Titus, 473; plots Domitian's death, 491.
+   DOMITIAN, his birth, 479; his youth infamous, ib.; escapes from
+     Vitellius, ib.; assumes power in Rome, 480; governs despotically, ib.;
+     under Vespasian amused himself with poetry, ib.; plots against Titus,
+     ib.; succeeds him, 481; his wife Domitia, 480, 481; gives costly
+     spectacles, ib. 482; his public buildings, 483; expeditions, ib.;
+     his administration, 484; of justice, 485; his cruelties, 487, 488;
+     extortions, 489; poll-tax on the Jews, ib.; his arrogance, 490;
+     conspiracy against him, 481; alarms and omens, 492, 493; his
+     assassination, 494; his person and habits, 496; lewd conduct, 497;
+     he is lamented only by the soldiers, 497.
+   Domitii, family of, 337-339.
+   Domitilla, wife of Flavius Clemens, 494 note.
+   Druids, religion of, suppressed by Claudius, 318.
+   Drusilla, sister of Caligula, 268.
+   ------, wife of Felix, 321 and note.
+   Drusus, brother of Tiberius, 196; his death, 198.
+   ------, Tiberius's son, 197, 203; his death, 217, 224, 230; son of
+     Germanicus, starved, 226; father of Claudius, 295; died in Germany,
+     ib.; his character, 296.
+   Dyracchium, Cn. Pompey blockaded there, 23, 40.
+
+   Eagles, the standards, of the legions, 39, 259 and note.
+   East, the, prophecy of a Ruler from, 445 and note.
+   Egypt confirmed to Cleopatra, 24; supplies Rome with corn, 82; made
+     a province, ib.
+   Emperor, the title of, 46 note.
+   Ennius, account of, 506, 507.
+   Epicadius completes Sylla's Commentaries, 516.
+   Epidius, C., teaches rhetoric, 527.
+   Equestrian order, scrutiny of, 98, 102: procession of, 101 and note;
+     review of, 261; purified by Vespasian, 453.
+   Eratosthenes, the philosopher, 514.
+   Esseda, a light British car, 264 and note.
+
+   Family names and cognomena, 192 note.
+   Felix, governor of Judaea, 321; his wives, ib.
+   Flaccus, C. Valerius, a poet, 463.
+   Flamen Dialis, high-priest of Jupiter, 1 note.
+   Flavian family, account of, 441; temple of, 495.
+   Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, 443.
+   Flavius Clemens, Domitian's cousin, 492; put to death, ib. and note, 494.
+   ------ Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, 437; retreats to the capitol, 438;
+     buried there, ib.
+   Forum, the Roman, 7; of Julius Caesar, 18; of Augustus, 92, 113; of
+     Nerva, 483.
+   Fruits, foreign, introduced at Rome, 493 note.
+   Fucine lake, drainage of, projected by J. Caesar, 30; emissary of,
+     311, 314.
+
+   GALBA, not allied to the Caesars, 400; his descent, 401; birth, 402;
+     studies the law, 403; courted by Agrippina, ib.; a favourite of Livia,
+     ib.; proctor and consul, 404; commands in Gaul, ib.; in Africa, 405;
+     in Spain, 406; on Nero's death assumes the title of Caesar, 408;
+     marches to Rome, 409; his severity, 410; becomes hateful to the people,
+     411; and the troops, ib.; omens against him, 412; the praetorian
+     revolt, 413; he is slain, ib.; his person and habits, 414.
+   Callus, Cornelius, prefect of Egypt, 120; friend of Augustus, ib.; his
+     eclogues, 188; patron of Caecilius, a man of letters, 518.
+   ------, L. Plotius, a rhetorician, 526.
+   Gaul, J. Caesar goes there as proconsul, 15; division of the provinces,
+     ib. note; he levies troops in, 16; his conquests in, 17.
+   Germanicus marries Agrippina, 118; adopted by Tiberius, 203, 251; his
+     triumph, ib.; his death, 217, 224, 251; his sons, 225; his character,
+     252; grief for, 253.
+   German tribes, defeated by J. Caesar, 17; they defeat Varus, 86;
+     Caligula's expedition against, 281, 282.
+   Gessoriacum, Boulogne, 283, 309.
+   Gladiators, combats of, exhibited by Julius, 8, 19, 25; first introduced
+     at Rome, 25 note; shown by Caligula, 262; by Domitian, 481.
+   Gnipho, M. A., a grammarian, 511-513.
+   Golden House, the, of Nero, 359.
+   Grammar, science of, 506.
+   Grammarians, what, 509.
+   Guards, the Spanish, 100; the German, ib.; disbanded by Galba, 409.
+     See Praetorian.
+
+   Helvidius Priscus, a philosopher, 455.
+   Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, 76; defeated and slain, 77.
+   Horace, his life and works, 173-177, 642-545.
+   Horse, Caligula's favourite, 289; proposes to make him consul, ib.
+   Hyginus, Palatine librarian, 520; his works, 249.
+
+   Illyricum, conquered, 204.
+   Intramural interments at Rome, forbidden, 192 note.
+   Isthmus of Corinth, canal through, 265, 349.
+
+   Jerusalem taken by Titus, 467 and note.
+   Jews, rites of suppressed by Tiberius, 215; expelled from Rome by
+     Claudius, 318; revolt of, 445; Vespasian's triumph over, 449, 454;
+     fate of their sacred vessels, 449 note; figured on the arch of Titus,
+     467 note; poll-tax on the, 489.
+   Josephus the historian, taken prisoner by Vespasian, 447; predicts his
+     elevation, ib.
+   Journals of the proceedings of the senate published by J. Caesar, 13;
+     includes speeches, trials, births, deaths, etc., ib.; discontinued
+     by Augustus, 261; revived by Caligula, ib.
+   Julia, daughter of Julius Caesar, 2; married to Ca. Pompey, 4; her
+     death, 17.
+   ------, daughter of Augustus, married to Marcellus, 117; to Agrippa, ib.;
+     to Tiberius, ib. and 197; their children, 118; banished, 119.
+   ------, granddaughter of Augustus, married to Lucius Paulus, 118;
+     banished, ib.
+   JULIUS CAESAR, marries Cornelia, 1; serves in Asia, 2; fills public
+     offices, 4; commands in Spain, 5; joins Sylla and Crassus, 6; his
+     public buildings, 7; chosen consul, 12; marries Calpurnia, 14;
+     alliance with Pompey, ib. 15; has the province of Gaul, 15; invades
+     Britain, 17; affects popularity and is lavish of money, 18; resolves
+     on war, 20; crosses the Rubicon, 22; marches to Rome, 23; defeats
+     Pompey at Pharsalia, ib.; his triumphs, 24; his public spectacles, 25;
+     corrects the calendar, 27; his civil administration, 28, 29; projected
+     works, 30; person and dress, ib.; his character, scandals on, 32-34;
+     his extortions, 35; as an orator, ib.; as a writer, 36, 37; as a
+     general, 38-43; as an advocate and friend, 43-44; his good qualities,
+     45; his abuse of power, 46, 47; conspiracy against him, 48-50; his
+     assassination, 51; his will, 52; funeral, 53; apotheosis, 55.
+   Juvenal, account of, and works, 499, 500; life of, 536.
+
+   Laberius Hiera, a grammarian, 516.
+   "Latus Clavus," what, 31.
+   Laurel grove of the Caesars, 400 and note.
+   Lenaeus, a school master, 507.
+   Lepidus, master of the horse to Julius Caesar, 52; one of the triumviri,
+     75; the confederacy renewed, 77; banished, 80; his death, 95.
+   Libraries, public, one projected by J. Caesar, 80; the Palatine, formed
+     by Augustus, 92; of Alexandria, 496; of the portico of Octavia, 520.
+   Lictors, attend the consuls, 13 and note.
+   Liveries, colours of the imperial, 490, note.
+   Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus, 117, 295; mother of Tiberius, 202; his
+     treatment of her, 222, 223; her death, 224; divine honours decreed
+     to, 303.
+   ------ Ocellina, mother of Galba, 402.
+   Livius Andronicus, account of, 506.
+   ------ Titus, remarks on his History, 161-165.
+   Lollius, governor of Agrippa, 201, 202.
+   Lucan, remarks on, 396, 397; life of, 544.
+   Lucius Aevius, a grammarian, 508.
+   ------ Crassitius, schoolmaster and philosopher, 519.
+   ------ Vettius, an informer, 11, 14.
+   Lucretius, remarks on his works, 69.
+   Lupercalia, feast of, 48, and note; and 96.
+
+   Marcellus, M. Pomponius, a critic, 523.
+   Marius, C., his trophies restored, 8.
+   Martial, account and works of, 503-505.
+   Marmillo, a kind of gladiator, 288, 487.
+   Mausoleum of Augustus, 259.
+   Mecaenas, Augustus complains of, 120; his house and gardens on the
+     Esquiline, 125, 203; his character, 153; patronizes Horace, 173,
+     541.
+   Melissus, Caius, librarian and friend of Mecaenas, 520.
+   Messalina, wife of Claudius, 319; put to death, ib.; her
+     character, 335.
+   Misenum, a naval station, 110; Tiberius sails there, 236.
+   Mithridates revolts, 4.
+   Mitylene taken by storm, 3.
+   Money-lenders, lampoon on Augustus for his father's being one, 123;
+     note on ib.; and 340.
+   Mount Aetna, 286.
+   ----- Vesuvius, eruption of, 471, 548.
+   Muraena, conspiracy of, 83, 114, 120.
+
+   Naevius, his Punic war, 509.
+   Naples, a Greek colony, 303, note.
+   Narbonne, a Roman-colony, 195.
+   Narcissus, a freedman of Claudius, 321, 326.
+   Naumachia, of Julius, 27; of Augustus, 105; Nero, 344; Titus, 470; of
+     Domitian, 482; erected by him, 483.
+   Nemi, lake of, 276, note.
+   NERE, his descent, 337-339; birth, 340; youth, 341; succeeds Claudius,
+     342; begins his reign well, 343; gives spectacles and largesses, 344,
+     345; receives king Tiridates, 346; administration of justice, ib.;
+     his public buildings, 347; cruelties to the Christians, ib., and note;
+     undertakes no foreign wars, 348; appears on the stage, as a singer, at
+     Naples, 350; at Rome, 351; as a charioteer, 352; in Greece, 353;
+     triumphal return, 354; his revels and vices, 356; foul debaucheries,
+     357; prodigality, 358; his Golden House, 359; other works, 360;
+     extortions, ib., 361; his murders: Britannicus, 362; his mother, 363;
+     his remorse, 364; marries Poppaea Sabina, ib.; Messalina, ib.; his
+     butcheries, 365, 366; sets fire to Rome, 367; sings whilst it is
+     burning, ib.; disasters in Britain, 368; and in the East, 369; lampoons
+     on him, ib.; revolt of Vindex, in Gaul, 370; appeals to the senate,
+     371; Galba declares against him in Spain, 372; proposes to march
+     against Vindex, 373; his perplexities, 375; escapes from Rome, 376;
+     kills himself, 378; his person, 379; accomplishments, 380; religious
+     sentiments, 381.
+   Nicomedes, king of Bethynia, Julius Caesar at his court, 2; scandals
+     respecting them, ib., and 32, 33.
+   Nola, Augustus dies there, 145; him temple there, 217.
+
+   Obelisks, Egyptian, 312, and note.
+   Octacilius, L. Pilitus, instructs Pompey the Great, 627.
+   Octavii, the family of, 71.
+   Octavius, Caius, father of Augustus, 72.
+   Odeum, erected by Domitian, 483.
+   Oppius Cares writes on forest trees, 509, note.
+   Opilius, Aurelius, a grammarian, 510.
+   Orbilius Pupillus, a schoolmaster, 512.
+   Organ, the Hydraulic, 37, and note.
+   Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, 200, and note; harbour formed, 311.
+   OTHO, his ancestors, 416; his birth, 417; gets into Nero's favour, ib.;
+     marries Poppaea pro forma, 418; sent into Spain, ib.; joins Galba, ib.;
+     practises against him, 419; chosen emperor by the pretorians, 420; and
+     Vitellius, by the German army, 421; he marches against them, 422; his
+     troops defeated at Bedriacum, 423; makes no further resistance, 424;
+     calmly puts an end to his life, 425; his person and habits, ib.;
+     devotion of his soldiers, 426.
+   Ovation, description of, 85, note.
+   Ovid, on his life and writings, 177-185.
+   Oxheads, a street in Rome, 73.
+
+   Palatine Hill, 73, and notes; Augustus's house there, 125; enlarged
+     by Caligula, 266, 267; the Golden House added by Nero, 359, 369;
+     Tiberius's house, 438.
+   Pansa.  See Hirtius.
+   Pantheon, built by Agrippa, 93.
+   Paris, an actor, intrigues with Domitia, 481.
+   Pearls found in Britain, 31 and note.
+   Persius, remarks on, 397-399; life of, 538.
+   Petronia, wife of Vitellius, 431.
+   Petronius Arbiter, remarks on, 392-395.
+   Phaedrus, account of, 248.
+   Pharmacusa, island of, 4.
+   Pharsalia, battle of, 23; speech of J. Caesar after, 21; his call to
+     the troops at, 45; Lucan's poem on, 396.
+   Philippi, battle of, 77, 78; Augustus's escape at, 136.
+   Philosophers, decrees against at Rome, 524.
+   Pincian hill, 379, and note.
+   Piso, Cneius, conspires with Crassus, 7.
+   ----, prefect of Syria, 251; suspected of poisoning Germanicus, 252;
+     his conspiracy, 366.
+   Plancus, L. Munatius, the orator, 529, and note.
+   Pliny, the elder, remarks on, 475; his works, ib.-478; his life, 545.
+   -----, the younger, 546, note.
+   Polyhistor, Alexander, the historian, 520, and note.
+   Pomegranate, street so called, 479, and note.
+   Pompeius Sextus, wars of Augustus with, 76.
+   Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar, 5.
+   Pompey, Cn., reconciled with Crassus, 12; marries Julia, 14; supports her
+     father J. Caesar, 15; meets him at Lucca, 16; sole consul, 17; offered
+     Octavia in marriage, 18; his opinion of Julius Caesar, 20; flies to
+     Brundusium, 23; defeated at Pharsalia, ib.; his statues restored, 45;
+     his senate-house, 49, 50, and note.
+   Pontine Marshes, drainage of, 30.
+   Poppaea, Sabina, Nero's mistress, 360; he kills her, 365; Otho marries
+     her pro forma, 417, 418.
+   Porticos; of Lucius and Caius, 93; of Octavia, ib., and note; of the
+     Argonauts, 94.
+   Posts established, 110.
+   Pretorian guards of Tiberius, 221, 229; elect Claudius, 302; attend
+     him to the senate, 303; salute Nero, 342; mutiny against Galba,
+     411; dispatch him, 413; disbanded by Vitellius, 432; commanded by
+     Vitus, 468.
+   Pretorian camp, 265, 302; its position, 376.
+   Probus, M. Valerius, his mode of teaching, 525.
+   Procurators, their office, 304, note.
+   Propertius, on his life and works, 188.
+   Psylli, the, 81, and note.
+   Ptolemy Auletes expelled, 8.
+   Public health, augury of, and note, 95.
+   Publius Clodius debauches Pompeia, 5; is Cicero's enemy, 14; murdered,
+     17; his trial, 44.
+   Puteoli, Caligula's bridge at, 263; the landing-place from the
+     East, 467.
+
+   Quintilian, remarks on, 498, 499.
+   Quintus Caecilius, a schoolmaster, 519.
+   ------- Catulus, repairs the Capitol, 10, and note.
+
+   Rabirius Posthumus prosecuted, 9, 308.
+   Ravenna, J. Caesar halts there, 20; a naval station, 110.
+   Reate, a town of the Sabines, 441; Vespasian born there, 442, 469;
+     his estates near, 461; he dies there, ib.; as does Titus, 478.
+   Remmius Palaemon, a grammarian, 523.
+   Republic, the, Augustus thinks of restoring, 91; the forms of,
+     preserved, 212; maintained by Caligula, 261; proposal to restore
+     it; 292.
+   Rhetoric forbidden at Rome, 526; its progress, 527.
+   Rhine, the, suddenly thaws, 484.
+   Rhodes, J. Caesar retires there, 3; and Tiberius, 200.
+   Roman people, their love of public spectacles, 216; largesses of corn
+     to, 311, 312.
+   Rome, improvements of Augustus, 91; divided into districts, 94; a fire
+     there, 221; Nero's fire, 367; restored by Vespasian, 452; great fire
+     under Titus, 471, and note.
+   Roads.  See Via.
+   Rubicon, the, crossed by Jul. Caesar, 22.
+   Rutifius Rufus, soldier and historian, 510; note, 511.
+
+   Sallust, remarks on, 159, 160.
+   Santra, a biographical writer, 533, and note.
+   Saturnalia, account of, 262, note.
+   Scaeva, a centurion, his heroic conduct, 42.
+   Scribonia, wife of Augustus, 117.
+   Scribonius, a disciple of Orbilius, 521.
+   Secular games, by Augustus, 96; by Claudius, 313.
+   Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, 264.
+   Sejanus, Tiberius's suspicions of, 229, 257; his conspiracy, 232;
+     account of, 244, 245.
+   Senate, filled up by Julius, 28; affronted by him, 47; scrutiny of,
+     98; qualification for, 104, 315; constitution of, 115, note;
+     scrutiny of, by Caligula, 260; purified by Vespasian, 453.
+   Seneca, Annaeus, made Nero's tutor, 341; forced to kill himself, 365;
+     remarks on, 386-392.
+   Septa, what, 105, and note.
+   Septizonium, the, description of, 465, note.
+   Sertorius commands in Spain, 4.
+   Servilia, mother of M. Brutus, J. Caesar intrigues with her, 33.
+   Sesterce, the value of, 457, note.
+   Sextus Clodius, professor, and friend of Antony, 528.
+   Sibylline books preserved by Augustus, 95.
+   Silanus betrothed to Claudius's daughter, 316;--the elder, put to
+     death, 322, 326.
+   Silius, a paramour of Messalina, 322, 325.
+   Silversmiths.  See Money-lenders.
+   Slaves, workhouses of, 96; writers and artists originally such,
+     457 note; chained as watch-dogs, 527, and note.
+   Spain, province of, governed by Julius Caesar, 5, 11; Pompey's army
+     in, 23; Galba commands there, 406.
+   Sporus, Nero's freedman, 367, 376, 378.
+   Standards, Roman, 259.
+   Statues of the kings of Rome, 46; of Pompey, 96; of learned men,
+     513, 519.
+   Statius, his works, 500-503.
+   Suburra, a street in Rome, 31.
+   Suetonius Paulinus, commands in Britain, 423, note.
+   ------, Lenis, the author's father, serves under Otho, ib.
+   Suevius Nicanor, a grammarian, 510.
+   Sumptuary laws of Julius Caesar, 29.
+   Sylla pardons Julius Caesar, 2; conspires with Caesar and Crassus, 6;
+     his statues restored, 45; his Commentaries, 516.
+
+   Taurus, Statilius, 93, 364.
+   Temples of Castor and Pollux, 8, and note, 266; of Jupiter Capitolinus
+     repaired, 10, and notes, etc.; of Venus Genetrix, 47; Mars Ultor, 84,
+     92; Palatine Apollo, ib. and note; Jupiter Tonans, 93, and note;
+     Hercules and Muses, ib.; the Parthenon, ib. and note; of Concord, 206,
+     and note; of Vesta, 223, and note; of Augustus, 264; Jupiter Latialis,
+     298, and note; of Peace, 453, and note; of Claudius ib.; of Jupiter
+     Custos, 483; of the Flavian Family, 483, 495.
+   Terence, life of, 531.
+   Terracina, on the road to Naples, 23; Tiberius's villa there, 217;
+     and note.
+   Tertia, mistress of Julius Caesar, 33.
+   Theatres--of Pompey, 96; rebuilt, 312; of Marcellus, 93, and note;
+     repaired, 458; of Balbus, ib.; Pompey's restored by Tiberius, 221;
+     by Caligula, 265.
+   Theogenes, an astrologer of Apollonia, 141.
+   Thrax, a kind of gladiator, 487.
+   Thurinus, a surname of Augustus, 74.
+   TIBERIUS, descent of, 192-195; his childhood, 196; youth, 197; in the
+     forum, 198; in the wars, ib., and 199; withdraws from Rome, ib.;
+     retirement at Rhodes, 200, 201; returns to Rome, 202; commands in
+     Germany and Illyricum, 204, 205; triumphs, 206; made colleague with
+     Augustus, ib.; succeeds him, 207; governs with moderation, 210-213;
+     sumptuary laws, 214; represses the Jewish religion, 215; and Christian,
+     ib., and note; his rigorous justice, 216; retires to Capri, 217; his
+     debaucheries there, 218-220; his parsimony, 221; exactions, 222;
+     treatment of Livia, 223; of Drusus and Germanicus, 224; of Agrippina,
+     225; his grandsons, ib.; his harsh temper, 227; various cruelties,
+     228-231; his remorse, 233; his person, 234; literary pursuits, 235;
+     his last illness, 236; and death, 237; rejoicings at it, 238; his
+     will, 239.
+   Tiber, inundations of the, 91, and note; bed of, cleaned, 94, and note;
+     floods, 223; criminals thrown into, 230; island of Esculapius, in, 317,
+     and note.
+   Tibullus, his life and works, 185-187.
+   Tiridates, king, at Rome, 346.
+   Titinnius, letter of Cicero to, 528, and note.
+   TITUS, his birth and disposition, 465; educated with Britannicus,
+     ib.; the honours he paid him, ib.; endowments, personal and mental,
+     466; serves in Germany and Britain, ib.; in Judaea, ib.; takes
+     Jerusalem, 467; returns to Rome, ib.; is colleague with Vespasian, 468;
+     is harsh and unpopular, ib.; his attachment to Berenice, 469; his
+     character brightens, ib.; his moderation and munificence, 470; public
+     buildings and spectacles, ib., and note; his clemency, 471; relief of
+     great disasters, 472; avoids shedding blood, ib.; taken suddenly ill,
+     473; dies on his paternal estate, 474.
+   Toga, Praetexta, 101, 103, and notes.
+   ---- Virilis, 101, and note.
+   Tomb of Domitian, 379, and note.
+   Treviri (Treves), 254, 256, note.
+   Triumphs of Julius Caesar, 24, 25; Augustus, 85; description of a, ib.
+     note; Tiberius, 206; Germanicus, 251; of Vespasian and Titus, 454, 467;
+     of Domitian, 484.
+
+   Valerius Cato, a grammarian, 516.
+   -------- Maximus, account of his works, 248.
+   Varro, remarks on his works, 65, 67.
+   Varus' defeat by the Germans, 86, 205.
+   Velabrum, a street in Rome, 25, 355.
+   Velleius Paterculus, his life and Epitome, 247.
+   Velitrae, town of, seat of the Octavian family, 71, 74.
+   Venus of Coos, statue of, by Apelles, 457.
+   VESPASIAN, his descent from the Flavian family, 441; his birth at Reate,
+     442; fondness for it, ib.; serves in Thrace, 443; has the province of
+     Crete and Cyrene, ib.; marries Flavia Domitilla, ib.; his children,
+     ib.; serves in Germany and Britain, 444; is proconsul in Africa, ib.;
+     goes into retirement, ib.; the Jews, revolt, 445; he is sent to quell
+     it, ib.; the prophecy of a ruler from the East applied to him. ib.
+     and note; his campaign, in Judaea, 446; consults the oracle at Carmel,
+     447; the Moesian army declares him emperor, 448; also the legions in
+     Egypt and Judaea, ib.; seizes Alexandria, 449; consults Serapis, ib.;
+     performs miracles, 450, and note; returns to Rome, 451; his Jewish
+     triumph, ib.; reforms the army, 452; his public buildings, 453; his
+     just administration, 454; and clemency, 455; his love of money, 456;
+     encourages learning and art, 457; his person, 459; mode of life, ib.;
+     his wit, 460; is taken ill, 461; dies at Reate, ib.
+   Vestal Virgins, the, 52; mode of appointment, 95; and note; their
+     lewdness punished, 485.
+   Via Appia, 236, and note.
+   --- Flaminia, 94, and note, 146.
+   --- Nomentana, 376, note.
+   --- Sacra, a street in Rome, 31.
+   --- Salaria, description of 376 note; tomb there, 454.
+   Vienne, in Narbonne, 433, and note.
+   Vines forbidden to be planted, 484; edict revoked, 491; remarkable
+     produce of a, 524.
+   Vindex, Julius, revolts in Gaul, 370, 406; his death, 408.
+   Vintage, the, 99, note.
+   VITELLIUS, his origin, 427, 428; and birth, 429; his youth vicious,
+     430; in favour with Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, 430; his marriages,
+     431; sent to Germany, ib.; saluted emperor by the troops, 432; marches
+     to Rome, 433; governs despotically, 434; his gluttony, 435; and luxury,
+     ib.; his cruel executions, 436; the legions declare against him, 437;
+     agrees to abdicate, ib.; secretes himself, 438; is dragged out and
+     slain, 439.
+   Virgil, account of his life and works, 165-173.
+   Vologesus honours Nero's memory 381; offers reinforcements to Vespasian,
+     449; demands succours, 480.
+   Vorones, king of the Parthians, 222.
+   Wild beasts shown in the public spectacles by Julius, 8; by Augustus,
+     105, 106; criminals thrown to, 305, and note; numbers exhibited, 470,
+     note; exhibited by Domitian, 481.
+
+
+
+
+
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