[72] Son of the Regulus who invaded Africa ([§ 91]), and who fell a victim to Carthaginian vengeance.
[73] During the seventeen years of the Second Punic War, the free citizens of Rome were diminished by one-fourth, and in Italy at large 300,000 people perished.
[74] This illustrious lady was a daughter of Scipio Africanus, the greatest general save one, and, perhaps, the greatest character, whom Rome ever produced. Cornelia, after the early death of her husband, devoted herself to the education of her children, and was rewarded for her care by their perfect respect and love. After the death of Caius, she retired to Misenum, where her house became the resort of all the genius and learning of the age. Cornelia not only spoke her own language with the utmost elegance, but was well acquainted with Greek literature, and her letters to her sons are considered the purest specimens of Latin prose. She died in a good old age, and the people erected a statue to her memory, with the simple inscription, “Cornelia, the Mother of the Gracchi.”
[75] I came, I saw, I conquered.
[76] That of Pope Gregory XIII., A. D. 1582.
[77] This guard consisted of 10,000 Italian soldiers, quartered near Rome for the security of the emperor’s person. And so great was its influence, that, in the later days of the empire, it often assumed to dispose of the crown without reference to Senate or people.
[78] Of the Antonines, the first is commonly called Antoninus Pius; the second, Marcus Antoninus.
[79] So says Ammia´nus Marcelli´nus, an honest and usually trustworthy historian, contemporary with Julian, and probably a pagan.
[80] A very numerous sect in Africa, opposed by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and by an edict of Honorius.