SECT. III.
XIV. Nor ought we to conclude, that those few whose will with respect to other men, is the law, and whose libertinism there is no rein to check, navigate the sea of vice without inquietude, for they also experience the waters of that sea to be extremely bitter. I mean sovereign princes. Nero was lord of the earth, that is to say, master of the whole Roman empire. He gave the most latitudinary loose imaginable to all his perverse inclinations, and those inclinations were irrefragable decrees. The weight of government, sat very light on him, and far from supporting the state on his shoulders, which by way of example, had been done by the best princes, he trod it under foot. All the world obeyed the sceptre, and the sceptre was the slave of appetite. He possessed whomsoever he liked, and put to death whomsoever he hated. Love in the Emperor’s hands, held its attainment and completion, and in the hands of his instruments, hatred held the knife. Passion could not carry a man to a more horrible pitch of extravagance, than he manifested, when he set fire to Rome to indulge his cruelty, and also to gratify his base appetites, which were evident by the indignities he offered to his own sex. All this, to the disgrace of human nature, was executed by that monster in iniquity.
XV. Who would believe, that this prince, who held the world in slavery to his arbitrary will, did not lead a joyous life? but according to Tacitus, so far from enjoying this happiness, he was always possessed with terrors: Facinorum recordatione nunquam timore vacuus. And Suetonius adds, that unable to sleep of nights, he used to run about the salons of his palace, tumbling heels over head like a man out of his senses.
XVI. Tiberius was equal to Nero in power, and very little inferior to him in wickedness; but with all his power, he led so uneasy and disturbed a life, that in order a little to relieve his heart from the oppression of its anxieties, he could not avoid bursting forth in groans and words, that were expressive of his grief and uneasiness. So says Tacitus: Tiberium non fortuna, non solitudines protegebant, quin tormenta pectoris, suasque ipse pænas fateretur; and a little before, he relates a mournful exclamation of the Emperor’s, in a letter he wrote to the Senate, where he says, my own crimes have transformed themselves into executioners, in order to torment me; adeo facinora atque flagitia ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant.
XVII. These anxieties of bad princes, are for the most part, occasioned by their seeing themselves universally abhorred, in consequence of which, they live in continual dread of conspiracies. They reflect, that out of so many people who hate them, some will be found, with sufficient resolution to execute, what had been previously concerted; so that amidst all their pleasures, they cannot feel more enjoyment, than is felt by a culprit, at the sound of soft music, while he is waiting to hear the fatal sentence. Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse, in order to undeceive a person who envied his happiness, made use of the following expressive device. He invited the man to a banquet, and seated him immediately under the point of a sword, that hung suspended by a fine thread, very near to, and just ready to pierce his neck, and then informed him, that was precisely the situation, in which his fortune had placed him.
XVIII. Over and above this anguish, which is common to all tyrants, there is no legitimate prince, however happy he may seem, without his serious and weighty inquietudes. Alexander cloathed with glory, afflicts himself, because Homer does not live to celebrate his actions. Augustus, who had always been the favourite of fortune, because she once slighted him in the case of the legions in Germany, passed much of his time, both night and day, in ravings and exclamations, as if he had been mad. Caligula, fancies he shall insure his safety, by spilling great quantities of blood, but is grieved when he reflects, that all the heads in Rome are not placed on one neck, and that he cannot strike them off at a blow. The ambitious prince groans, because he cannot make himself master of the whole world; the covetous one, because he cannot accumulate in his own treasury, the riches of other kingdoms; the vindictive one, because he cannot destroy a neighbouring prince who has offended him; the lascivious one, because his imagination represents to him some foreign object, exempt from the power of his will. Thus bitter afflictions, are annexed to exalted stations.