ment, and willing to abandon both his empire and his mistress for a sight of the Fountains of the Nile. Such did Julius Caesar appear to his cotempor aries and to those of the subsequent ages, who were the most inclined to deplore and execrate his fatal genius. But we must not be so much dazzled with his surpassing glory or with his magnanimous, his amiable qualities, as to forget the decision of his impartial countryman: HE WAS JUSTLY SLAIN. I Sanguine Thessalicae cladis perfusus adulter After feasting with his mistress, he sits up all night to converse with the Aegyptian sages, and tells Achoreus, Spes sit mihi certa videndi Niliacos fontes, bellum civile relinquam. Immediately afterwards, he is fighting again and defending every position. "Sed adest defensor ubique Caesar et hos aditus gladiis, hos ignibus arcet caeca nocte carinis Insiluit Caesar semper feliciter usus Praecipiti cursu bellorum et tempore rapto." "Jure caesus existemetur," says Suetonius after a fair estimation of his character, and making use of a phrase which was a formula in Livy's time. "Melium jure coesum pronuntiavit, etiam si regni crimine insons fuerit:" [lib. iv. cap. 48.] and which was continued in the legal judgments pronounced in justifiable homicides, such as killing housebreakers. See Sueton. in vit, C. J. Caesar, with the commentary of Pitiscus, p. 184. 、 Note 48, page 159, lines 10 and 11. "... omnes pene veteres, qui nihil cognosci, nihil percepi, nihil sciri posse dixerunt; augustos sensus; imbecillos animos, brevia curricula vitae, in profundo veritatem demersam; opinionibus et institutis omnia teneri; nihil veritati relinqui: deinceps omnia tenebris circumfusa esse dixerunt." The eighteen hundred years which have elapsed since Cicero wrote this, have not removed any of the imperfections of humanity: and the complaints of the ancient philosophers may, without injustice or affectation, be transcribed in a poem written yesterday. Note 49, page 142, line 10. There is a stern round tower of other days. Alluding to the tomb of Cecilia Metella, called Capo di Bove, in the Appian Way. See Historical Illustrations of the IVth Canto of Childe Harold.. Note 50, page 144, lines 5 and 6. Prophetic of the doom Heaven give its favourites early death. Ον οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀποθνήσκει νέος Τὸ γάρ θανεῖν οὐκ αἰσχρὸν ἀλλ ̓ αἰσχρῶς θανεῖν. Rich. Franc. Phil. Brunk, Poetae Gnomici, p. 231. edit. 1784. Academ. 1. 13. Note 51, page 146, line 18. Behold the Imperial Mount! 'tis thus the mighty falls. 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.-See-Historical Illustrations, p. 206. ge: Note 52, page 147, lines 1, 2 and 3. There is the moral of all human tales; 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 passa"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 to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of morals: till by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it fall a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and with the loss of liberty, losing every thing that is valuable, sinks gradually again into its original barbarism." I Note 53, page 148, lines 8 and 9. And apostolic statues climb To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime. The column of Trajan is surmounted by St. Peter; Note 54, page 148, line 18. Still we Trajan's name adore. Trajan was proverbially the best of the Roman princes: 2 and it would be easier to find a sovereign uniting exactly the opposite characteristics, than one possessed of all the happy qualities ascribed to this emperor. "When he mounted the throne," says the historian Dion, 3 "he was strong in body, he was vigorous, The History of the Life of Mr. Tullius Cicero, sect. vi. vol. ii. p. 101. The contrast has been reversed in a late extraordinary instance. A gentleman was thrown into prison at Paris; efforts were made for his release. The French minister continued to detain him, under the pretext that he was not an Englishmann, but only a Roman. See "Interesting facts relating to Joachim Murat,” p. 139. 2 Hujus tantùm memoriae delatum est ut, usque ad nostram aetatem non aliter in Senatu principibus acclamatur, nisi, FELICIOR Eutrop. Brev. Hist. Rom. lib. viii. cap. v. 3 Τῷ τε γὰρ σώματι ἔῤῥωτο AVGVSTO MELIOR · TRAJANO. در · καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ in mind; age had impaired none of his faculties; he was altogether free from envy and from detraction; he honoured all the good and he advanced them; and on this account they could not be the objects of his fear, or of his hate; he never listened to informers; he gave not way to his anger; he abstained equally from unfair exactions and unjust punishments; he had rather be loved as a man than honoured as a sovereign; he was affable with his people, respectful to the senate, and universally beloved by both; he inspired none with dread but the enemies of his country.” Note 55, page 15o, line 5. Rienzi, last of Romans. The name and exploits of Rienzi must be familiar to the reader of Gibbon. Some details and inedited manuscripts relative to this unhappy hero, will be seen in the Illustrations of the IVth Canto. ἤκμαζεν, ὡς μήθ ̓ ὑπὸ γήρως ἀμβλύνεσθαι καὶ οὔτ ̓ ἐφθύνει, οὔτε καθήρει τινὰ, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάνυ πάντας τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἐτίμα καὶ ἐμαγάλυνε· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὔτε ἐφοβεῖ τό τινα αὐτῶν, οὔτε ἐμίσει . . διαβολαῖς τε ήκιστα ἐπί στευε καὶ ὀργῇ ἥκιστα ἐδουλοῦτο· τῶν τε χρημάτων τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἴσα καὶ φόνων τῶν ἀδίκων ἀπείχετο φιλούμενός τε οὖν ἐπ ̓ αὐτοῖς μᾶλλον ἢ τιμώμενος ἔχαιρε, καὶ τῷ τε δήμῳ. μετ ̓ ἐπιεικείας συνεγίνετο, καὶ τῇ γηρους σια σεμνοπρεπώς ωμίλει· ἀγαπητὸς μὲν πᾶσι· φοβερὸς δὲ μηδενὶ, πλὴν πολεμίοις, ὢν. Hist. Rom. lib. lxviii. cap. vi. et vii. tom. ii. p. 1123, 1124. edit. Hamb. 1750. |
