nity of a race of despots, whilst the pavement- the cities of Italy, which turned the course of ab simply inscribed to the Father of his Country, rapid streams, poured back the sea upon the riconciles us to the name of Medici *). It was vers, and tore down the very mountains, was not ry natural for Corinna to suppose that the felt by one of the combatants." *) Such is the atue raised to the Duke of Urbino in the ca description of Livy. It may be doubted whether lla de depositi was intended for his great modern tactics would admit of such an abstraction. mesake; but the magnificent Lorenzo is only The site of the battle of Thrasimene is not to e sharer of a coffin half hidden in a niche of be mistaken. The traveller from the village e sacristy. The decay of Tuscany dates from under Cortona to Casa di Piano, the next stage e sovereignty of the Medici. Of the sepulchral on the way to Rome, has for the first two or eace, which succeeded to the establishment of three miles, around him, but more particularly e reigning families in Italy, our own Sidney to the right, that flat land which Hannibal laid as given us a glowing, but a faithful picture. waste in order to induce the Consul Flaminius Notwithstanding all the seditions of Florence, to move from Arezzo. On his left, and in front and other cities of Tuscany, the horrid factions of him, is a ridge of hills, bending down towards f Guelphs and Ghibelins, Neri and Bianchi, the lake of Thrasimene, called by Livy "montes obles and Commons, they continued populous, Cortencnses," and now named the Gualandra. trong, and exceeding rich; but in the space of These hills he approaches at Ossaja, a village ess than a hundred and fifty years the peace- which the itineraries pretend to have been so ble reign of the Medices is thought to have denominated from the bones found there but estroyed nine parts in ten of the people of that there have been no bones found there, and the rovince. Amongst other things it is remarkable, battle was fought on the other side of the hill. at when Philip the Second of Spain gave From Ossaja the road begins to rise a little, jeuna to the Duke of Florence, his embassador but does not pass into the roots of the mounen at Rome sent him word, that he had given tains until the sixty-seventh mile-stone from way more than 650,000 subjects; and it is not Florence. The ascent thence is not steep but elieved there are now 20,000 souls inhabiting perpetual, and continues for twenty minutes. at city and territory. Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo, The lake is soon seen below on the right, with ortona, and other towns, that were then good Borghetto, a round tower close upon the water; nd populous, are in the like proportion dimi- and the undulating hills partially covered with ished, and Florence more than any. When wood amongst which the road winds, sink by hat city had been long troubled with seditions, degrees into the marshes near to this tower. amolts, and wars, for the most part unprosper- Lower than the road, down to the right, amidst us, they still retained such strength, that when these woody hillocks, Hannibal placed his Charles VIII. of France, being admitted as a horse, **) in the jaws of or rather above the riend with his whole army, which soon after pass, which was between the lake and the onquered the kingdom of Naples, thought to present road, and most probably close to laster them, the people taking arms, struck Borghetto, just under the lowest of the "tuuch a terror into him, that he was glad to de- muli." ***) On a summit to the left, above art upon such conditions as they thought fit to the road, is an old circular ruin which the peampose. Machiavel reports, that in that time sants call "the Tower of Hannibal the Carthalorence alone, with the Val d'Arno, a small ginian." Arrived at the highest point of the erritory belonging to that city, could, in a few road, the traveller has a partial view of the ours, by the sound of a bell, bring together fatal plain which opens fully upon him as he 35,000 well-armed men; whereas now that city, descends the Gualandra. He soon finds himself with all the others in that province, are brought in a vale inclosed to the left and in front and o such despicable weakness, emptiness, poverty behind him by the Gualandra-hills, bending nd baseness, that they can neither resist the round in a segment larger than a semicircle, ppressions of their own prince, nor defend him and running down at each end to the lake, which r themselves if they were assaulted by a foreign obliques to the right and forms the chord of this nemy. The people are dispersed or destroyed, mountain-arc. The position cannot be guessed nd the best families sent to seek habitations in at from the plains of Cortona, nor appears to be Venice, Genoa, Rome, Naples, and Lucca. This so completely inclosed unless to one who is fairly s not the effect of war or pestilence; they en- within the hills. It then, indeed, appears "a oy a perfect peace, and suffer no other plague place made as it were on purpose for a snare," han the government they are under." **) From locus insidiis natus. Borghetto is then found he usurper Cosmo down to the imbecil Gaston, to stand in a narrow marshy pass close to the ve look in vain for any of those unmixed qua-hill and to the lake, whilst there is no other ities which should raise a patriot to the com- outlet at the opposite turn of the mountains than nand of his fellow-citizens. The Grand-Dukes, through the little town of Pasignano, which is and particularly the third Cosmo, had operated pushed into the water by the foot of a high rocky 30 entire a change in the Tuscan character, acclivity. †) There is a woody eminence hat the candid Florentines in excuse for some branching down from the mountains into the imperfections in the philanthropic system of upper end of the plain nearer to the side of Leopold, are obliged to confess that the sovereign Passignano, and on this stands a white village was the only liberal man in his dominions. Yet called Torre. Polybius seems to allude to this that excellent prince himself had no other no-eminence as the one on which Hannibal encamption of a national assembly, than of a body to represent the wants and wishes, not the will of the people. An earthquake reel'd unheededly away! [p. 44. St. 63. "And such was their mutual animosity, so intent were they upon the battle, that the earthquake, which overthrew in great part many of Cosmus Medices, Decreto Publico, Pater Patria. **) On Government, chap. 11. sect. XXVI. Sidney is, together with Locke and Hoadley, one of Mr. Hume's "despicable" writers. ed and drew out his heavy armed Africans and Spaniards in a conspicuous position. From this spot he dispatched his Balearic and light *) Tantusque fuit ardor animorum, adeo intentus pugna animus, ut eum terræ motum, qui multarum urbium Italiæ magnas partes prostravit, avertitque cursu rapido amnes, mare fluminibus invexit, montes lapsu ingenti proruit, nemo pugnantium senserit." Liv. xxii. 12. **) Equites ad ipsas fauces saltus tumulis apte tegentibus locat. Liv. XXII. 4. ***) Ubi maxime montes Cortonenses Thrasimenus subit. Ibid. †) Inde colles assurgunt. Ibid. show the very spot where il Console Roman armed troops round through the Gualandra- | only ancient name remembered on the banks of heights to the right, so as to arrive unseen and the Perugian lake. Flaminins is unknown; b form an ambush amongst the broken acclivities the postilions on that road have been taught to which the road now passes, and to be ready to act upon the left flank and above the enemy, whilst the horse shut up the pass behind. Flaminius came to the lake near Borghetto at sunset; and, without sending any spies before him, marched through the pass the next morning before the day had quite broken, so that he perceived nothing of the horse and light troops above and about him, and saw only the heavy armed Carthaginians in front on the hill of Torre.) The Consul began to draw out his army in the flat, and in the mean time the horse in ambush occupied the pass behind him at Borghetto. Thus the Romans were completely inclosed, having the lake on the right, the main army on the hill of Torre in front, the Gualandra-hills filled with the light-armed on their left flank, and being prevented from receding by the cavalry, who, the farther they alvanced, stopped up all the outlets in the rear. A fog rising from the lake now spread itself over the army of the Consul, but the high lands were in the sun-shine, and all the different corps in ambush looked towards the hill of Torre for the order of attack. Hannibal gave the signal, and moved down from his post on the height. At the same moment all his troops on the eminences, behind and in the flank of Flaminius, rushed forwards as it were with one accord into the plain. The Romans, who were forming their array in the mist, suddenly heard the shouts of the enemy amongst them, on every side, and before they could fall into their ranks, or draw their swords, or see by whom they were attacked, felt at once that they were surrounded and lost. There are two little rivulets which run from the Gualandra into the lake. The traveller crosses the first of these at about a mile after he comes into the plain, and this divides the Tuscan from the Papal territories. The second, about a quarter of a mile further on, is called "the bloody rivulet," and the peasants point out an open spot to the left between the "Sanguinetto and the hills, which, they say, was the principal scene of slaughter. The other part of the plain is covered with thick set olive-trees in corn-grounds, and is no where quite level except near the edge of the lake. It is, indeed, most probable that the battle was fought near this end of the valley, for the six thousand Romans who, at the beginning of the action, broke through the enemy, escaped to the summit of an eminence which must have been in this quarter, otherwise they would have had to traverse the whole plain and to pierce through the main army of Hannibal. The Romans fought desperately for three hours, but the death of Flaminius was the signal for a general dispersion. The Carthaginian horse then burst in upon the fugitives, and the lake, the marsh about Borghetto, but' chiefly the plain of the Sanguinetto and the passes of the Gualandra, were strewed with dead. Near some old walls on a bleak ridge to the left above the rivulet many human bones have been repeatedly found, and this has confirmed the pretensions and the name of the "stream of blood." Every district of Italy has its hero. In the north some painter is the usual genius of the place, and the foreign Julio Romano more than divides Mantua with her native Virgil. **) To the south we hear of Roman names. Near Thrasimene tradition is still faithful to the fame of an enemy, and Hannibal the Carthaginian is the *) A tergo et super caput decepere insidiæ. Liv. *) About the middle of the XIIth century the coins of Mantua bore on one side the image and figure of Virgil. But thou, Clitumnas! [p. 44. & No book of travels has omitted to expari the temple of the Clitumnus, between Fau and Spoleto; and no site, or scenery, even Italy, is more worthy a description. Charming the eye with dread, a matchlen cataract. [p. 45. 9. 22 I saw the "Cascata del marmore" of Tea twice, at different periods; once from the mit of the precipice, and again from the below. The lower view is far to be prefer if the traveller has time for one only; bra any point of view, either from above or beer, it is worth all the cascades and torrents of erland put together; the Staubbach, Reichenak Pisse - Vache, fall of Arpenaz, are r comparative appearance. Of the fall of Schuf hausen I cannot speak, not yet having seen An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge (p. 45. 87 Of the time, place, and qualities of this b of Iris the reader may see a short accorma a note to Manfred. The fall looks so like "the hell of waters" that Addison th the descent alluded to by the gulph in d Alecto plunged into the internal regions singular enough that two of the finest casca in Europe should be artificial-this of the Ve and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is str recommended to trace the Velino, at leas high as the little lake called Pie di Lup. To Reatine territory was the Italian Temp the ancient naturalist, amongst other bra varieties, remarked the daily rainbows el at lake Velinus. **) The thundering lauwine. -I abhorr'd Too much, to conquer for the poet's sake, These stanzas may probably remind the re *) Reatini me ad sua Tempe duxerunt. Ciessa epist. ad Attic. v. 15. **) "In eodem lacu nullo non die appare arcus." PLIN. Hist. Nat. 11. 42. k, to relish or to reason upon. For the executed upon the image. In a more civilized reason we never can be aware of the ful-age this statue was exposed to an actual operaof some of the finest passages of Shakspeare tion: for the French, who acted the Brutus of be or not to be," for instance), from the Voltaire in the Coliseum, resolved that their t of having them hammered into us at eight Cæsar should fall at the base of that Pompey, old, as an exercise, not of mind but of which was supposed to have been sprinkled with ory: so that when we are old enough to the blood of the original dictator. The nine foot y them, the taste is gone, and the appetite hero was therefore removed to the Arena of the d. In some parts of the Continent young amphitheatre, and to facilitate its transport sufons are taught from more common authors, fered the temporary amputation of its right arm. do not read the best classics till their ma- The republican tragedians had to plead that the ty. I certainly do not speak on this point arm was a restoration: but their accusers do any pique or aversion towards the place not believe that the integrity of the statue would y education. I was not a slow, though an have protected it. The love of finding every boy; and I believe no one could, or can coincidence has discovered the true Cæsarean nore attached to Harrow than I have always ichor in a stain near the right knee; but colder n, and with reason;—a part of the time pass-criticism has rejected not only the blood but there was the happiest of my life; and my the portrait, and assigned the globe of power ceptor (the Rev. Dr. Joseph Drury) was the rather to the first of the emperors than to the t and worthiest friend I ever possessed, whose last of the republican masters of Rome. Winkelnings I have remembered but too well-though mann is loth to allow an heroic statue of a Rolate when I have erred, and whose coun- man citizen, but the Grimani Agrippa, a cotemI have but followed when I have done well porary almost, is heroic; and naked Roman fiwisely. If ever this imperfect record of my gures were only very rare, not absolutely forbidlings towards him should reach his eyes, let den. The face accords much better with the remind him of one who never thinks of him "hominem integrum et castum et gravem," than t with gratitude and veneration-of one who with any of the busts of Augustus, and is too uld more gladly boast of having been his pu- stern for him who was beautiful, says Suetonius, , if, by more closely following his injunctions, at all periods of his life. The pretended likeness could reflect any honour upon his instructor. to Alexander the Great cannot be discerned, but the traits resemble the medal of Pompey. The objectionable globe may not have been an ill applied flattery to him who found Asia Minor the boundary, and left it the centre of the Roman empire. It seems that Winkelmann has made a mistake in thinking that no proof of the identity of this statue, with that which receivà thou, whose chariot roll'd on Fortune's wheel. ed the bloody sacrifice, can be derived from the [p. 46. St. 83. spot where it was discovered. Flaminius Vacca Certainly were it not for these two traits in says sotto una cantina, and this cantina is known e life of Sylla, alluded to in this stanza, we to have been in the Vicolo de' Leutari near the ould regard him as a monster unredeemed by Cancellaria, a position corresponding exactly to y admirable quality. The atonement of his that of the Janus before the basilica of Pomluntary resignation of empire may perhaps pey's theatre, to which Augustus transferred the › accepted by us, as it seems to have satisfied statue after the curia was either burnt or taken e Romans, who if they had not respected must down. Part of the Pompeian shade, *) the porave destroyed him. There could be no mean, tico, existed in the beginning of the XVth ceno division of opinion; they must have all tury, and the atrium was still called Satrum. Tought, like Encrates, that what had appeared So says Blondus. At all events, so imposing is mbition was a love of glory, and that what the stern majesty of the statue, and so memorad been mistaken for pride was a real gran-able is the story, that the play of the imagineur of soul. *) e trebly hundred triumphs ! [p. 46. St. 82. Orosias gives three hundred and twenty for e number of triumphs. He is followed by invinius; aud Panvinius by Gibbon and the odern writers. And laid him with the earth's preceding clay. And thou, dread statue! yet existent in (p. 46. St. 87. The projected division of the Spada Pompey has already been recorded by the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Mr. Gibbon found it in the memorials of Flaminius Vacca, and it may be added to his mention of it that Pope Julius III. gave the contending owners five hundred crowns for the statue; and presented it to Cardinal Capo di Ferro, who had prevented the judgment of Solomon from being *) "Seigneur, vous changez toutes mes idées de la façon dont je vous vois agir. Je croyais que vous aviez de l'ambition, mais aucun amour pour la gloire: je voyais bien que votre ame était haute; mais je ne soupçonnais pas quelle fut grande." MONTESQUIEU, Dial. de Sylla et d'Eucrate. ation leaves no room for the exercise of the judgment, and the fiction, if a fiction it is, operates on the spectator with an effect not less powerful than truth. And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome! [p. 46. St. 88. Ancient Rome, like modern Sienna, abounded most probably with images of the foster-mother of her founder; but there were two she-wolves of whom history makes particular mention. One of these, of brass in ancient work, was seen by Dionysius at the temple of Romulus under the Palatine, and is universally believed to be that mentioned by the Latin historian, as having been made from the money collected by a fine on usurers, and as standing under the Ruminal figtree. *) The other was that which Cicero ***) umbra." *) "Ta modo Pompeia lenta spatiare sub OVID de Arte Amandi. **) Ad ficum Ruminalem simulacra infantium conditorum urbis sub uberibus lupa posuerunt. LIV. x. 69. This was in the year U. C. 455, or 457. ***) "Tum statua Nattæ, tum simulacra Deorum, Romulusque et Remus cum altrice bellua vi fulminis icti conciderunt." De Divinat. 11. 20. "Tactus est ille etiam qui hanc urbem condidit Romulus, quem inauratum in Capitolio parvum atque lactantem, uberibus lupinis inhiantem fuisse meministis." In Catilin. 111. 8. has celebrated both in prose and verse, and alluding, as the Abate has made him, to the which the historian Dion also records as having force of the blow, or the firmness with which it suffered the same accident as is alluded to by had been fixed. The whole strength, therefore, the orator. The question agitated by the anti- of the Abate's argument hangs upon the past quaries is, whether the wolf now in the conser- tense; which, however, may be somewhat diar vator's palace is that of Livy and Dionysius, or nished by remarking that the phrase only shows that of Cicero, or whether it is neither one or that the statue was not then standing in i the other. The earlier writers differ as much former position. Winkelmann has observed, that as the modern: Lucius Faunus *) says, that it the present twins are modern; and it is equally is the one alluded to by both, which is impos- clear that there are marks of gilding on the sible, and also by Virgil, which may be. Ful-wolf, which might therefore be supposed to rate vius Ursinus calls it the wolf of Dionysius, and part of the ancient group. It is known that de Marlianus talks of it as the one mentioned by sacred images of the Capitol were not destrand Cicero. To him Rycquius tremblingly assents. **) when injured by time or accident, but were 195 Nardini is inclined to suppose it may be one of into certain underground depositaries and the many wolves preserved in ancient Rome: favissa. It may be thought possible the me but of the two rather bends to the Ciceronian wolf had been so deposited, and had been *statue. Montfaucon ***) mentions it as a point placed in some conspicuous situation when the without doubt. Of the latter writers the deci- Capitol was rebuilt by Vespasian. Ryequ sive Winkelmann proclaims it as having been without mentioning his authority, tells that found at the church of Saint Theodore, where, was transferred from the Comitium to the la or near where, was the temple of Romulus, and teran, and thence brought to the Capital. I a consequently makes it the wolf of Dionysius. was found near the arch of Severus, it may have His authority is Lucius Faunus, who, however, been one of the images which Orosius says were only says that it was placed, not found, at the thrown down in the Forum by lightning wi-s Ficus Ruminalis by the Comitium, by which he Alaric took the city. That it is of very does not seem to allude to the church of Saint antiquity the workmanship is a decisive pr« Theodore. Rycquius was the first to make the and that circumstance induced Winkelmann u mistake, and Winkelmann followed Rycquius. believe it the wolf of Dionysius. The Capita Flaminius Vacca tells quite a different story, wolf, however, may have been of the same carg and says he had heard the wolf with the twins date as that at the temple of Romulus. Lavan was found near the arch of Septimius Severus. tius *) asserts that in his time the Romans The commentator on Winkelmann is of the same shipped a wolf; and it is known that the Laer opinion with that learned person, and is incens-calia held out to a very late period **) after ed at Nardini for not having remarked that every other observance of the ancient superste Cicero, in speaking of the wolf struck with light-tion had totally expired. This may account for ning in the Capitol, makes use of the past tense. But, with the Abate's leave, Nardini does not positively assert the statue to be that mentioned by Cicero, and, if he had, the assumption would not perhaps have been so exceedingly indiscreet. The Abate himself is obliged to own that there are marks very like the scathing of lightning in the hinder legs of the present wolf; and, to get rid of this, adds, that the wolf seen by Dionysius might have been also struck by lightning, or otherwise injured. Let us examine the subject by a reference to the words of Cicero. The orator in two places seems to particularize the Romulus and the Remus, especially the first, which his audience remembered to have been in the Capitol, as being struck with lightning. In his verses he records that the twins and wolf both fell, and that the latter left behind the marks of her feet. Cicero does not say that the wolf was consumed and Dion only mentions that it fell down, without "Hic silvestris erat Romani nominis altrix Martia, que parvos Mavortis semine natos Uberibus gravidis vitali rore rigabat, Quæ tum cum pueris flammato fulminis ictu Concidit, atque avulsa pedum vestigia liquit." De Consulatu, lib. 11. (lib. 1. de Divinat. c. II.) *) "In eadem porticu ænea lupa, cujus uberibus Romulus ac Remus lactantes inhiant, conspicitur: de hac Cicero et Virgilius semper intellexere. Livius hoc signum ab Edilibus ex pecuniis quibus mulctati essent fœneratores positum innuit. Antea in Comitiis ad Ficum Ruminalem, quo loco pueri fuerant expositi, locatum pro certo est." **) "Non desunt qui hanc ipsam esse putent, quam adpinximus, quæ e comitio in Basilicam Lateranam, cum nonnullis aliis antiquitatum reliquiis, atque hinc in Capitolium postea relata sit, quamvis Marlianus antiquam Capitolinam esse maluit a Tullio descriptam, cui ut in re nimis dubia, trepide adsentimur." ***) "Lupa hodieque in capitolinis prostat ædibus, cum vestigio fulminis quo ictam narrat Cicero." the preservation of the ancient image langer than the other early symbols of Paganism. It may be permitted, however, to remark that the wolf was a Roman symbol, but that the worship of that symbol is an inference draw by the zeal of Lactantius. The early Christian writers are not to be trusted in the charges which they make against the Pagans. Exse? accused the Romans to their faces of warship ping Simon Magus, and raising a statue to him in the island of the Tyber. The Romans had probably never heard of such a person before, who came, however, to play a consideralin though scandalous part in the church – bistery, and has left several tokens of his aerial comm with St. Peter at Rome; notwithstanding th an inscription found in this very island of the Tyber showed the Simon Magus of Eusebius 10 be a certain indigenal god, called Semo Sango or Fidius. Even when the worship of the founder of R had been abandoned, it was thought expedie to humour the habits of the good matrons et ihr city by sending them with their sick infants to the church of St. Theodore, as they had before practice is continued to this day; and the carried them to the temple of Romules. The of the above church seems to be thereby de tified with that of the temple: so that if the d had been really found there, as Winkelman says, there would be no doubt of the present statue being that seen by Dionysius. Dai Fa *) "Romuli nutrix Lupa honoribus est affret divinis, et ferrem si animal ipsum fuisset, di jus figuram gerit." That is to say, he word rather adore a wolf than a prostitute. Ha commentator has observed, that the opi of Livy concerning Laurentia being figured a this wolf was not universal. ") To A. D. 496. Quis credere pest, says Baronius, viguisse adhuc Romæ ad Gelası) tempora, quæ fuere ante exordia urbis alla in Italiam Lupercalia? Gelasius wrote a letter to Andromachus, the senator, and others, ** show that the rites should be given up , In saying that it was at the Ficus Rumiis by the Comitium, is only talking of its anent position as recorded by Pliny; and even he had been remarking where it was found, uld not have alluded to the church of St. eodore, but to a very different place, near ich it was then thought the Ficus Ruminalis d been, and also the Comitium; that is, the ree columns by the church of Santa Maria beratrice, at the corner of the Palatine looking the Forum. It is, in fact, a mere conjecture where the age was actually dug up, and perhaps, on the tole, the marks of the gilding, and of the lightng, are a better argument in favour of its ing the Ciceronian wolf than any that can be duced for the contrary opinion. At any rate, is reasonably selected in the text of the poem one of the most interesting relics of the anent city, and is certainly the figure, if not the ry animal to which Virgil alludes in his beautiI verses. "Geminos huic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros et lambere matrem Impavidos: illam teriti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, et fingere corpora lingua." -For the Roman's mind Was modell'd in a less terrestrial mould. [p. 46. St. 90. It is possible to be a very great man and to ⚫ still very inferior to Julius Cæsar, the most omplete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of 1 antiquity. Nature seems incapable of such traordinary combinations as composed his vertile capacity, which was the wonder even of the omans themselves. The first general-the only iumphant politician - inferior to none in elodence-comparable to any in the attainments of isdom, in an age made up of the greatest comanders, statesmen, orators and philosophers that ver appeared in the world-an author who comosed a perfect specimen of military annals in is travelling-carriage- at one time in a conroversy with Cato, at another writing a treatise a punning, and collecting a set of good sayingsghting ) and making love at the same moment, nd willing to abandon both his empire and his aistress for a sight of the Fountains of the Nile. Such did Julius Cæsar appear to his cotempoaries and to those of the subsequent ages, who were the most inclined to deplore and execrate is fatal genius. But we must not be so much dazzled with his urpassing glory or with his magnanimous, his amiable qualities, as to forget the decision of his impartial countrymen: HE WAS JUSTLY SLAIN. **) 66 What from this barren being do we reap? There is a stern round tower of other days. Prophetic of the doom Behold the Imperial Mount! [p. 48. St. 107. The Palatine is one mass of ruins, particularly on the side towards the Circus Maximus. The very soil is formed of crumbled brick - work. Nothing has been told, nothing can be told, to satisfy the belief of any but a Roman antiquary. There is the moral of all human tales; 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, First Freedom, and then Glory. [p. 48. St. 108. The author of the Life of Cicero, speaking of the opinion entertained of Britain by that orator and his cotemporary Romans, has the following eloquent passage: "From their railleries of this kind, on the barbarity and misery of our island, one cannot help reflecting on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms, how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire and glory, now lies sunk in sloth, ignorance and poverty, enslaved to the most cruel as well as to the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religious imposture: while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and letters; flourishing in all the arts and refinements of civil life; yet running perhaps the same course which Rome itself had run before it, from virtuous industry to wealth; from wealth to luxury; from luxury to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of morals: *) In his tenth book, Lucan shows him sprink-till by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, led with the blood of Pharsalia in the arms of being grown ripe for destruction, it falls a prey Cleopatra: Sanguine Thessalice cladis perfusus adulter Admisit Venerem curis, et miscuit armis. After feasting with his mistress, he sits up all night to converse with the Ægyptian sages, and tells Achoreus, Spes sit mihi certa videndi Sic velut in tuta securi pace trahebant Immediately afterwards, he is fighting again and defending every position. Sed adest defensor ubique Cæsar et hos aditus gladiis, hos ignibus arcet. . . Crca nocte carinis Insiluit Cæsar semper feliciter usns Præcipiti cursu bellorum et tempore rapto. ") Jure casus existimetur, says Suetonins after a fair estimation of his character, and making use of a phrase which was a formula at last to some hardy oppressor, and, with the Still we Trajan's name adore. (p. 49. St. 111. Trajan was proverbially the best of the Roman princes: *) and it would be easier to find a so in Livy's time. "Melium jure cæsum pronan- **) Hujus tantum memoriæ delatum est, ut, usque ad nostram ætatem non aliter in Senat principibus acclamatur, nisi, FELICIOR AUGUSTO MELIOR TRAJANO. Eutr. viii. 5. |