AN INSCRIPTION,
Said to have been dug out of the Ruins of a Palace at Rome.
Under this monument repose the ashes of Domitian, the last of the Cæsars, the fourth scourge of Rome; a tyrant, no less deliberate than Tiberius, no less capricious than Caligula, and no less outrageous than Nero.
When satiated with issuing edicts to spill human blood, he found an amusement in stabbing flies with a bodkin.
His reign, though undisturbed by war, occasioned no less calamity to his country than would have happened from the loss of twenty battles.
He was magnificent from vanity, affable from avarice, and implacable from cowardice.
He flattered incessantly the soldiery, who governed him, and detested the senate, who caressed him.
He insulted his country by his laws, heaven by his impiety, and nature by his pleasures.
While living, he was deified; and the assassins alone, whom his empress had sent to despatch him, could convince him of his mortality.
This monster governed during fifteen years; yet the administration of Titus, the delight of humankind, was confined to two.
Ye passengers! who read this inscription, blaspheme not the Gods!