INDEX

Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,

BREAD STREET HILL, E. C., AND

BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

[1]. The course of this work will show that I have made great use of works published in Germany, especially the fine Roman History of M. Mommsen, so learned and at the same time so living. I do not always share his opinions, but the influence of his ideas will be perceived even in passages where I do not agree with him. He is the master of all who study Rome and her history now.

[2]. Corn. Nepos, Att. 16.

[3]. See Cicero’s Epist. ad fam. ii. 8 and viii. 1. I shall quote Orelli’s edition of Cicero’s works in the course of this work.

[4]. I have attempted to clear up some of the questions to which the publication of Cicero’s letters has given rise in a treatise entitled, Recherches sur la manière dont furent recueillies et publiées les lettres de Cicéron, Paris, Durand, 1863.

[5]. Pro. Rosc. com. 7.

[6]. In Verrem. act. sec. v. 11.

[7]. In Vatin. 2.

[8]. Pro Font. 11.

[9]. Pro Rabir. post. 13.

[10]. In Pison. 20.

[11]. Ad fam. ix. 21.

[12]. Ad Quint. ii. 15, 6.

[13]. Ad fam. xv. 17.

[14]. Ibid. xvi. 16.

[15]. Ad Att. xiii. 18.

[16]. Ad fam. xv. 16.

[17]. Ad Att. ii.

[18]. Ad Att. ii. 15.

[19]. Ibid. ii. 4.

[20]. Ad Quint. iii. 1, 4.

[21]. Ad Att. iv. 15.

[22]. Ibid. iv. 1.

[23]. Ad fam. ix. 24.

[24]. Ad Att. vii. 9.

[25]. Ad Att. vii. 1, 2.

[26]. Forsyth, Life of Cicero. London, Murray, 1864. Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, vols. i., ii.

[27]. Abeken, Cicero in seinen Briefen. Hannover, 1835.

[28]. Drumann, Geschichte Roms, etc., vols. v., vi.

[29]. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. iii.

[30]. Pro Rosc. Amer. 16.

[31]. De leg. ii. 1.

[32]. Ad Att. xii. 52.

[33]. It has been remarked that, in his Republic, Cicero speaks of kingship with much esteem, and even a sort of emotion which may easily surprise us in a republican like him; but he understands by it a kind of primitive and patriarchal government, and he demands so many virtues in the king and his subjects that we see very well that he does not think that this royalty was easy or even possible. We cannot therefore admit, as has been done by some, that Cicero meant to announce beforehand, and to approve of the revolution that Caesar accomplished some years later. On the contrary, he indicates in very clear terms what he will think of Caesar and his government when he attacks those tyrants who, in their greed for rule, wish to govern alone, in contempt of the rights of the people. “The tyrants many be clement,” he adds; “but what does it matter whether we have an indulgent or a barbarous master? One is none the less a slave with either” (De Rep. i. 33).

[34]. In Verr. act. sec. v. 70.

[35]. De Rep. i. 26.

[36]. Ibid. i. 34.

[37]. De Rep. i. 45.

[38]. In that curious letter that he wrote to Pompey after his consulship (ad fam. v. 7), in which he seems to propose a kind of alliance, he attributes to him the part of Scipio and takes for himself that of Laelius.

[39]. Pro. Rosc. Amer. 8.

[40]. Pro. Rosc. Amer. 46.

[41]. Ibid. 29.

[42]. Ibid. 52.

[43]. Ad Herenn. i. 3.

[44]. De Orat. ii. 59.

[45]. Pro Cluent. 50.

[46]. I here employ the phrases of M. Havet, who has set this idea in a clear light in one of the too scanty writings he has published on Cicero. Speaking of this, we maybe permitted to regret that M. Berger and he have not given to the public the excellent series of lectures which they delivered at the Collège de France and at the Sorbonne, of which Cicero was so often the subject. If they had acceded to the wishes of their auditors, and the entreaties of all friends of letters, France would have nothing to envy Germany on this important question.

[47]. Varro, De re rust. ii. 1.

[48]. De brevit. vitæ, 5. Non sine causa, sed sine fine laudatus.

[49]. On the exile of Cicero, and the policy that he followed after his return, see the study on Caesar and Cicero, Part I.

[50]. Ad Att. ix. 1.

[51]. Ibid. x. 7.

[52]. Ad Att. ix. 10.

[53]. De bello civ. i. 22.

[54]. He even seems to say several times that the position of the plebeians in the republic was, on the whole, better than that of the patricians (Pro Cluent. 40. Pro domo sua, 14).

[55]. Pro Sext. 49.

[56]. De bello afric. 45.

[57]. De bello civ. ii, 32.

[58]. See the Histoire de l’esclavage dans l’antiquité of M. Wallon, Vol. II. ch. ix.

[59]. Luc., Phars. ii. 300:

Non ante revellar

Exanimem quam te complectar, Roma, tuumque

Nomen, libertas, et inanem prosequar umbram.

[60]. In the study on Brutus.

[61]. Ad fam. xii. 25.

[62]. Philipp. xiv. 7.

[63]. Ad fam. x. 31.

[64]. Ibid. xii. 13.

[65]. Ibid. xii. 12.

[66]. Ad Brut. 3.

[67]. Philipp. iii. 14.

[68]. Apud Senec., Suas, 6.

[69]. Plut. Cic. 48.

[70]. De offic. ii. 21: Things had not changed when Cicero was consul. We see that his brother, in a letter that he addressed to him then, says that there were few knights in Rome, pauci equites, that is, few men possessing more than £3200.

[71]. Parad. 6. Qui honeste rem quaerunt mercaturis faciendis, operis dandis publicis sumendis, etc.

[72]. Hist. xxxiv. 4.

[73]. In Verrem, act. prim. 14.

[74]. De petit cons. 5 and 9.

[75]. Ad Att. i. 20.

[76]. A. Gell. xii. 12.

[77]. Ad Att. xiii. 45 et seq.

[78]. Pro Mil. 18.

[79]. Ad Att. ii. 20.

[80]. Philipp. ii. 16.

[81]. Ad Att. xvi. 1.

[82]. His villa at Tusculum particularly had cost him very dear. What proves it to have been of great value is that on his return from exile the senate allowed him 500,000 sesterces (£4000) to repair the damage it had suffered in his absence, and that he thought they were far from having given him enough.

[83]. Ad Att. xii. 25.

[84]. Ad fam. v. 6.

[85]. Parad. 6.

[86]. It is not probable that Cicero wronged his creditors like Milo, who only gave them 4 per cent. When he left Rome after the death of Caesar, Cicero wrote to Atticus that the money that was owing him would suffice to pay his debts; but as at that moment money was scarce and debtors held off, he ordered him to sell his goods, if necessary, and added: “Consult only my reputation.” Ad Att. xvi. 2.

[87]. Ad fam. ix. 26: Me nihil istorum ne juvenem quidem movit unquam.

[88]. Pro Caelio, 19.

[89]. Dio Cass. xlvi. 18.

[90]. Ad fam. xiii. 72.

[91]. Ad Att. xiv. 19.

[92]. Ibid. xiii. 21.

[93]. Ad fam. ix. 15: on attici, sed salsiores quam illi Atticorum, romani veteres atque urbani sales.

[94]. Plut. Cic. 8.

[95]. Ad Att. ii. 4.

[96]. Ad fam. xiv. 4: Neque Dii, quos tu castissime coluisti, neque homines, quibus ego semper servivi, etc.

[97]. Ad fam. xiv. 7.

[98]. Ad fam. xiv. 1.

[99]. Ibid. xiv. 3.

[100]. Ibid. xiv. 4.

[101]. Ibid. xiv. 5.

[102]. Ad fam. xiv. 12.

[103]. Ibid. xiv. 17.

[104]. Ibid. xiv. 20.

[105]. Ad Att. iv. 1.

[106]. Pro Caecin. 5.

[107]. Ad Att. vii. 1, 3.

[108]. Ad fam. iv. 14.

[109]. Ad Att. xi. 2.

[110]. Ibid. xi. 24.

[111]. Ibid. xii. 22.

[112]. Ibid. xii. 21.

[113]. Ad Att. xii. 32.

[114]. Ad Quint. i. 3.

[115]. In Verr. act. sect. i. 44.

[116]. Ad Att. vii. 4.

[117]. Ad Att. vii. 3.

[118]. Horace, Sat. II. 3, 239.

[119]. Ad Att. xi. 25.

[120]. Ad fam. iv. 5.

[121]. Ad Att. iv. 6.

[122]. Ad Att. x. 8.

[123]. Plin. Hist. nat. xiv. 22.

[124]. Ad fam. xvi. 21.

[125]. Brut. ad Cic. ii. 3.

[126]. De offic. ii. 7.

[127]. Ad Att. i. 12.

[128]. Ad fam. xiii. 77.

[129]. Ad fam. xvi. 22.

[130]. A. Gell. vii. 3.

[131]. Ad fam. xvi. 10.

[132]. Ibid. xvi. 21.

[133]. Ad fam. xvi. 18.

[134]. Ad fam. xvi. 3, 4.

[135]. A. Gell. xiii. 20.

[136]. Plin. Epist. viii. 16.

[137]. Virgil, however, always faithful to ancient traditions, places, in Tartarus, the patron who had deceived his client beside the son who had struck his father.

[138]. De petit. cons. 9.

[139]. Ad fam. xiii. 19.

[140]. Ad Quint. i. 1.

[141]. Ad fam. xiii. 22.

[142]. Ibid. vii. 31.

[143]. Ad Att. vi. 1.

[144]. I have endeavoured to prove this with more detail in a memoir published by the Revue archéologique, entitled, Atticus, éditeur de Cicéron.

[145]. Ad Att. iv. 4, 8.

[146]. Ad Att. i. 13.

[147]. Ibid. i. 19.

[148]. De Leg. i. 7. He is still faithful to this part of an amateur in philosophy, when he says further on (i. 21), that Antiochus had made him take a few steps in the Academy, deduxit in Academiam perpauculis passibus. He never penetrated further.

[149]. T. Pomp. Att. 13. All the preceding details are taken from the life of Atticus by Cornelius Nepos.

[150]. Ad Att. vi. 1.

[151]. Ad Att. iv. 9.

[152]. Ibid. vi. 1.

[153]. Ad Att. vii. 8: soles conglutinare amicitias.

[154]. It is the saying of Tacitus: pessimum veri affectus venenum sua cuique utilitas.

[155]. Ad Att. xiii. 33.

[156]. It must be remarked, however, that the last letter that we have from Cicero to Atticus (xvi. 16) contains a proof of the very active steps that Cicero took to save a part of the fortune of Atticus which was endangered after the death of Caesar.

[157]. Ad Att. iv. 8.

[158]. Ad Att. ii. 1.

[159]. Ad Att. i. 14.

[160]. Ibid. xvi. 3.

[161]. Ibid. xii. 3.

[162]. Ad Att. xii. 51.

[163]. Ibid. i. 18.

[164]. Ibid. xii. 14.

[165]. Cui potest esse vita vitalis, ut ait Ennius, qui non in amici mutua benevolentia conquiescat? (Cicero, De Amicit. 6.)

[166]. T. Liv. xxi. 63: Quaestus omnibus patribus indecorus visus

[167]. Scipio says so in the Republic (i. 22): Quum mihi sit unum opus hoc a parentibus majoribusque meis relictum, atque administrate rei publicae, etc.

[168]. Corn. Nep. Attic. 7: Usus es aetatis vacatione.

[169]. Nep. Attic. 6.

[170]. Ad Att. xiv. 10.

[171]. Ibid. viii. 2.

[172]. Ibid. x. 15.

[173]. Ad Att. x. 16.

[174]. Ad Att. i. 17. See also de Offic. i. 21, and especially i. 26. This last passage evidently contains an allusion to Atticus.

[175]. Epist. Brut. i. 17.

[176]. De Rep. i. 2.

[177]. Epist. Brut. i. 17.

[178]. Attic. 10.

[179]. De Orat. 34.

[180]. In the time of the Gracchi, the Censor Metellus thus expressed himself in a speech in which he vigorously attacked bachelors: “Citizens, if we could live without wives we should all dispense with that encumbrance (omnes ea molestia careremus); but, as nature has willed it to be as impossible to do without them as it is disagreeable to live with them, let us sacrifice the charms of so short a life to the interests of the republic, which must always endure.” This way of encouraging men to marry seemed apparently very efficacious, since, at the time when men married less than ever, Augustus thought he ought to have the speech of old Metellus read to the people.

[181]. Liv. xxxiv. 3.

[182]. Pro Muraen. 12.

[183]. Schol. Bob. p. Sext. ed. Or. p. 304.

[184]. Schwab. Quaest. Catull. p. 77.

[185]. All these details, and those that follow, are taken from the Pro Caelio of Cicero.

[186]. Macr. Sat. ii. 10.

[187]. Ovid, Trist. ii. 427.

[188]. Apul. de Mag. 10. A learned German, M. Schwab, in a book that he has just published on Catullus (Quaest. Catull. 1862), seems to me to have put the truth of this assertion of Apuleius beyond doubt.

[189]. Catull. Carm. 26.

[190]. Catull. Carm. 86.

[191]. Cat. Carm. 5.

[192]. Cat. Carm. 12.

[193]. Cat. Carm. 70.

[194]. Ibid. 85.

[195]. Probably with some woman that Caelius loved. Cicero, in replying to this letter, tells him that the rumour of his exploits has reached Mount Taurus. Many suppose he means amorous exploits.

[196]. Ad fam. viii. 7.

[197]. Quint. Inst. or, iv. 2.

[198]. De Ira. iii. 8.

[199]. Ad fam. ii. 8.

[200]. Ad fam. viii. 6.

[201]. Ibid. viii. 4.

[202]. Ibid. viii. 5. The sense of this phrase is altered in Orelli.

[203]. Ibid. viii. 14.

[204]. Ad fam. viii. 13.

[205]. Ibid. viii. 14.

[206]. Ad fam. ii. 8.

[207]. See the excellent memoir of M. Th. Mommsen, entitled Die Rechtsfrage zwischen Caesar und dem Senat. Breslau, 1857.

[208]. Ad fam. viii. 14.

[209]. We see at the end of the eighth book De Bello Gallico, that Caesar had eight legions in Gaul, one in Cisalpine Gaul, and two that he gave to Pompey. At the first threat of war he ordered those that were in Gaul to approach the frontier. After the capture of Corfinium he had three of his old legions with him.

[210]. Ad Att. vii. 4.

[211]. Ad Att. vii. 8.

[212]. Ibid. viii. 12.

[213]. Ad fam. viii. 15.

[214]. Ad Att. viii. 11.

[215]. Ibid. ix. 6.

[216]. Ad Att. ix. 12.

[217]. Ad Att. ix. 10.

[218]. Ad fam. ii. 16.

[219]. Ibid. vi. 6.

[220]. Ad fam. viii. 17.

[221]. De amic. 15.

[222]. It would be wrong to pass over the name of Matius in silence. A very fine letter of his on the death of Caesar remains (Ad fam. xi. 28). He was a true friend of Caesar; but it is to be remarked that he was not one of those whom he made praetors and consuls, and whose debts he had often paid. Matius never filled any important political office, and his name would not have come down to us if it had not been for Cicero’s correspondence.

[223]. De bell. civ. iii. 53.

[224]. Ibid. iii. 91.

[225]. De amic. 15.

[226]. Ad Att. ix. 19.

[227]. Ibid. ix. 18.

[228]. Suet. Caes. 54.

[229]. Ad Att. x. 4.

[230]. Ad fam. viii. 15.

[231]. Pro Flacco, 38.

[232]. Ad fam. viii. 17.

[233]. A very curious detail preserved by Quintilian, shows us that Caelius retained his levity of character and bantering humour in the midst of these grave affairs in which he staked his life. After his curule chair had been broken he had another made entirely of leather thongs, and took it to the consul. All the spectators burst out laughing. The story ran that Servilius had had a strapping in his youth.

[234]. Inst. orat. x. 1.

[235]. Pro Marcello, 9.

[236]. In Pis. 22.

[237]. Pro Dom. 28.

[238]. Ad Quint. ii. 1.

[239]. Ibid. ii. 3.

[240]. Pro Sext. 35.

[241]. Ad pop. pro red. 7.

[242]. Ad Att. iv. 3. Ego diaeta curari incipio, chirurgiae taedet.

[243]. Ad Att. iv. 2.

[244]. Ad Att. iv. 5.

[245]. Ad Att. iv. 5.

[246]. Ibid. iv. 6.

[247]. Ad fam. i. 9.

[248]. Ad fam. i. 9.

[249]. In Pis. 32.

[250]. Ad Quint. ii. 12.

[251]. Ibid. ii. 15.

[252]. This at least was the opinion of all the historians of antiquity. We read in a fragment of a letter from Cicero to Q. Axius quoted by Suetonius (Caes. 9): Caesar in consulatu confirmavit regnum de quo aedilis cogitaret.

[253]. Ad Quint. ii. 13.

[254]. Or only forty-two, if we place his birth in 654. See, on this point, an interesting note in the Life of Caesar, by Napoleon III., Bk. II. ch. i.

[255]. Ad fam. vii. 5.

[256]. Ad fam. vii. 5.

[257]. Ad Quint. ii. 15.

[258]. Ad fam. vii. 6: nisi te extrusissemus.

[259]. Ad fam. vii. 17.

[260]. Ibid. vii. 13.

[261]. Ad fam. vii. 18.

[262]. Ibid. vii. 10.

[263]. De orat. ii. 3.

[264]. Ad Quint. i. 2.

[265]. Caes. 47.

[266]. Ad fam. vii. 7.

[267]. Suet. Caes. 67.

[268]. Suet. Caes. 46, 48.

[269]. Ad Quint. iii. 1.

[270]. Ad Quint. iii. 9.

[271]. Ad Quint. ii. 15.

[272]. Ibid. ii. 16.

[273]. Cic. Brut. 72, and Pliny, Hist. nat. vii. 30.

[274]. Caesar wrote to Cicero twice from Britain. The first letter took twenty-six days to reach Rome, and the second twenty-eight. This was quick travelling for that time, and we see that Caesar must have organized his mail-service well. Furthermore, we know his stay in Britain was very short.

[275]. Ad Quint. iii. 1.

[276]. De prov Cons. 13, 14.

[277]. M. Mommsen completely settles this in his Roman History.

[278]. De Arusp. resp. 25.

[279]. Ad Att. vii. 7.

[280]. Ad Att. xi. 20. I read cognitionem instead of notionem, which does not seem to me to have any sense.

[281]. Ad fam. ix. 1.

[282]. Ad Att. xvi. 31.

[283]. Ad fam. ix. 5.

[284]. Ad Att. ix. 20.

[285]. Ad Att. x. 4.

[286]. Bell. Afric. 88.

[287]. Ad Att. ix. 7.

[288]. The general amnesty that Suetonius speaks of did not take place till much later.

[289]. Ad fam. vii. 7.

[290]. It is unnecessary to say that I believe in the authenticity of this speech: it has been disputed for reasons that seem to me futile. Further on I shall reply to those drawn from the character of the speech, by showing that it is less base and servile than has been asserted.

[291]. Pro Marc. 4.

[292]. Ad fam. iv. 4.

[293]. Pro Marc. 7.

[294]. Ibid. 8.

[295]. Philipp. iii. 11.

[296]. Ad fam. xv. 5.

[297]. Pro Muraen. 31.

[298]. Pro Muraen. 35.

[299]. Pro Mur. 36.

[300]. Ad Att. ii. 1.

[301]. Ad Att. xii. 4.

[302]. Ann. iv. 34.

[303]. Ad Att. xiii. 46.

[304]. Caes. Bell. civ. i. 4.

[305]. Philipp. ii. 32.

[306]. It is not easy to say what Caesar’s projects were, as his work was interrupted by his death. Some insist that he only desired a sort of dictatorship for life; the greater number suppose that he thought of permanently establishing monarchical rule. The question is too grave to be entered upon incidentally, and settled in a few words. I will simply say that perhaps he only thought at first of the dictatorship; but in proportion as he became more powerful, the idea of founding a monarchy seemed to take more consistency in his mind. Yet it may be inferred from a passage in Plutarch (Brut. 7), that he was not decided on the question of an hereditary succession when he died.

[307]. Ad fam. xii. 17.

[308]. Brut. 51.

[309]. Pro Rabir. 7.

[310]. Pro Rosc. Am. 12.

[311]. Ad fam. iv. 5.

[312]. Ibid. xiii. 68.

[313]. Ibid. xii. 18.

[314]. Ibid. vi. 9.

[315]. Pro Marc. 10.

[316]. Ad Att. xii. 45.

[317]. Pro Dejot. 12.

[318]. “All the honest men,” said Cicero (Phil. ii. 12), “in so far as they could, have killed Caesar. Some wanted the means, others the resolution, several the opportunity; no one wanted the will.”

[319]. Ann. i. 3.

[320]. The authenticity of these letters has been often called in question since the last century, and has been debated in Germany quite recently with much warmth, and a distinguished critic, F. Hermann of Göttingen, has published some remarkable essays, to which it seems to me difficult to reply, in order to prove that they are really letters of Brutus and Cicero. I have summed up his principal arguments in Recherches sur la manière dont furent recueillies les lettres de Cicéron, ch. v.

[321]. Ad Att. vi. 1.

[322]. Ad fam. iii. 11.

[323]. Ad Att. vi. 1.

[324]. Orat. 10.

[325]. Ad Att. xiv. 1.—A very curious statue of Brutus is to be seen at the Campana Museum. The artist has not tried to idealize his model, and seems to have aimed at nothing but a vulgar exactness; but we can very well recognize in it the real Brutus. We can trace in that low forehead and the heavy bones of the face a narrow mind and an obstinate will. The face has a feverish and sickly look; it is at once young and old, as is the case with those who have never really been young. Above all we perceive in it a strange sadness, that of a man overwhelmed by the weight of a great and fateful destiny. In the fine bust of Brutus preserved in the Museum of the Capitol, the face is fuller and handsomer. The sweetness and sadness remain; the sickly look has disappeared. The features exactly resemble those on the famous medal struck during Brutus’ last years, and which bears on the reverse a Phrygian cap between two daggers, with the threatening legend, Idus Martiae. Michael Angelo commenced a bust of Brutus, of which the admirable rough model may be seen at the Uffizi in Florence. It was not a fancy study, and we see that he had made use of ancient portraits while idealizing them.

[326]. Ad Att. xv. 1, B.

[327]. Ad Att. xii. 21.

[328]. Liv. xlv. 18.

[329]. Cic. Ad Quint. i. 1.

[330]. Ad Att. vi. 1.

[331]. Ad Quint. i. 1.

[332]. Ad Att. vi. 1.

[333]. Ibid. v. 21.

[334]. Ad Att. xi. 4.

[335]. Ad fam. xv. 15.

[336]. Ad fam. iv. 9.

[337]. Cic. Brut. 96.

[338]. Tusc. ii. 2.

[339]. See on this question the very interesting work of M. Martha, Les Moralistes sous l’Empire Romain.

[340]. Ad Att. xv. 2.

[341]. Quint. x. 1.

[342]. Sen. Cons. ad Helv. 9.

[343]. Epist. Brut. i. 16.

[344]. App. De bell. civ. iv. 133.

[345]. Plut. Brut. 12.

[346]. Those who employed these manœuvres well knew that they were taking Brutus on his weak side. His descent from him who expelled the kings was much contested. The more it was regarded as doubtful the more anxious he was to prove it. To say to him: “No, you are not Brutus,” was to put on him the necessity or the temptation of proving his origin by his actions.

[347]. Ad fam. xv. 18.

[348]. De Offic. ii. 7.

[349]. De Divin. ii. 2.

[350]. Brut. 97.

[351]. Epis. Brut. i. 17.

[352]. Ibid. x. 16.

[353]. Ibid. i. 17.

[354]. Quint. ix. 3.

[355]. It must, however, be noticed that there are several of Cassius’ letters in Cicero’s correspondence, and that some of them are witty and very lively. There are even puns in them.—(Ad fam. xv. 19.)

[356]. De Bell. civ. ii. 113. Plutarch relates the same thing, and almost in the same words.

[357]. Ad Att. xv. 4.

[358]. De Bell. civ. ii. 120.

[359]. Ad Att. xiv. 10, and xv. 11.

[360]. De Bell. civ. iii. 42.

[361]. Ad Att. xv. 11.

[362]. Ad fam. xi. 3.

[363]. Philipp. x. 4.

[364]. Ad fam. x. 1.

[365]. Ad fam. xi. 7.

[366]. Ibid. x. 16.

[367]. Ad Brut. ii. 7.

[368]. Ad fam. xi. 23.

[369]. Philipp. xiii. 19.

[370]. Philipp. xi. 8.

[371]. Ad fam. xii. 2.

[372]. Ad Att. xiv. 20.

[373]. Ad Brut. i. 10.

[374]. Epist. Brut. i. 17.

[375]. Ad fam. ix. 16.

[376]. Ad Att. xvi. 11.

[377]. Ibid. xiv. 12.

[378]. Ad fam. xii. 25: Quem ructantem et nauseantem conjeci in Caesaris Octaviani plagas.

[379]. Orelli, Fragm. Cic. p. 465.

[380]. Suet. Aug. 101.

[381]. Exploration archéologique de la Galatie, etc., par MM. Perrot, Guillaume et Delbet. Paris, 1863. Didot. As the Galatians spoke Greek and understood Latin ill, the official text was put in the place of honour, in the temple itself, and the translation was placed outside where every one might read it, in order to bring the narrative of Augustus within their reach. But the exterior of the temple has not been any more respected than the interior. The Turks have fixed their houses against the walls, carelessly driving their beams into the marble, and using the solid masonry as a support for their brick and mud party-walls. All the skill of M. Perrot and his companion M. Guillaume was required to penetrate into these inhospitable houses. When they had entered they met with still greater difficulties. It was necessary to demolish the walls, take away the beams and support the roofs in order to reach the ancient wall. This was but little. The wall was hammered and cracked, blackened by dirt and smoke. How could the inscription that covered it be deciphered? It was necessary to remain for weeks in dark and foul rooms, or on the straw of a loft, working by candlelight, throwing the light in every direction on the surface of the marble, and thus gradually winning each letter by extraordinary efforts of courage and perseverance. This painful labour was rewarded by complete success. Of nineteen columns of Greek text, the English traveller Hamilton had copied five completely and fragments of another; M. Perrot brings back twelve entirely new ones. One only, the ninth, could not be read; it was behind a thick party-wall that it was found impossible to pull down. These twelve columns, although they have suffered much from the ravages of time, fill up in great part the lacunae of the Latin text. They make us acquainted with entire paragraphs of which no traces remain in the original; and even in passages where the Latin was better preserved they rectify at almost every step mistakes that had been made in the interpretation of the text. M. Egger, in his Examen des historiens d’Auguste, p. 412 et seq., has carefully and critically studied the inscription of Ancyra. M. Mommsen, with the help of M. Perrot’s copy, is preparing a learned work on this inscription, after which, no doubt, nothing will remain to be done. (M. Mommsen’s work, that was announced in the first edition of this book, has since appeared under the title: Res gestae divi Augusti ex monumentis Ancurano et Apolloniensi.)

[382]. Dio, lii. 14–40. See what M. Egger says of Dio in his Examen des hist. d’Aug. ch. viii.

[383]. The figure cannot be read either in the Latin or Greek.

[384]. The figure cannot be read. The great number of gladiators who fought, and no doubt perished in these bloody fêtes will be noticed. Seneca, to show how far men can become indifferent to death, relates that, under Tiberius, a gladiator complained of the rarity of these grand massacres; and alluding to the time of Augustus said: “That was a good time! Quam bella aetas periit!”

[385]. There is some probability, according to a passage of Suetonius (Aug. 52), that what the Greek text of the inscription calls absolute authority αὐτεξουσιὸς ἀρχὴ was the dictatorship.

[386]. I have only summed up here a very curious chapter of Dio Cassius (Hist. Rom. liii. 17). We see there clearly how the Roman constitution, in which the separation of powers was a guarantee for liberty, became, by the sole fact of their concentration, a formidable engine of despotism.

[387]. The Ancyra inscription gives most precise information on the subject of this increase. In 725 Augustus took the census for the first time after an interruption of forty-one years: 4,063,000 citizens were counted in this return. Twenty-one years later, in 746, the numbers returned amounted to 4,233,000. In 767, the year of Augustus’ death, there were 4,937,000. If, to the figures that Augustus gives, we add the number of women and children who were not comprised in the Roman census, we shall see that in the last twenty years of his reign the increase had reached an average of very nearly 16 per cent. This is exactly the figure to which the increase of population in France rose, after the Revolution, from 1800 to 1825; that is, like political circumstances produced like results. It might be thought, indeed, that this increase of population under Augustus was due to the introduction of foreigners into the city. But we know, from Suetonius, that Augustus, contrary to the example and principles of Caesar, was very chary of the title of Roman citizen.

[388]. Suet. Aug. 31.

[389]. De Clem. 9; Divus Augustus mitis fuit princeps. It is true that elsewhere he calls his clemency a wearied-out cruelty.

[390]. Suet. Aug. 84.

[391]. See especially Velleius Pat. ii. 66.

[392]. Sen. Suas. 6.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

  1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
  2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
  3. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.