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scattered in ille Senators' seais in the theatre 'i Withwhich he was dimerently asse dicit. Sometimes he wished, out of stianae, to have ali sinothered and concealed: at Other times he would sight what was se id, and publissiit himself. To this accumulation os scandal and ope usarcasm, there is to be subjoined a letter frona Artabanus hing of the Parthians, in which he uphraids him with his parricides, murders, coWardice and lia Xury, and ad- vises him to satis' the furious rage of his O n people.
time, may ali the Gods and Goddesses pour Upon myhead a more terribie vengeance than that whicli I seel myseis dat ly sint ing under, is I can teli. V Some a re os opinion that he had a fore nowledge of those things,from his stilli in the science of divination, and that he kne long besore What 'misery and infamy would at lasst Comeupon him ; and that for this reason, at the beginning of his reigia, he had absolutely refused the titie of the Fa ther of his Country, ' and the propos at of the Senate tos ear to his adis, leti he should after artis, to his grea tershame, be found unequat to such extraordinary honors.
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LXVIII. He was in his person large and robust; os assature somewhat a bove the common sire; broad in thessa oulders and chest, and in his other paris proportion-
Augustus remarhed in him, and osten erideavored to CX ,
classe to the Senate and people, assui ing them that theywere natural desedis, whicli procee led frona no vicio uianeis of miri l. V He ei oyed a good state of health, and without
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TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR. 299without any interruption, almost during the whole timeos his government; though, frona the thirtieth year of his age, he managed himself in res pedi of his health ac- cor ling to his own discretion, without any medicat assistance.
LXIX. In regard to the Gods, and matters of religion, he disco vered, much indifference ; being greatly addicted to astrology, and fuit os a persuasion that ali thingswere governed by fate. V et he was egiremely afraid oflighining, and in cloudy weather always wore a laurei crown on his head ; because an opinion prevatis among many, that the leas of that tree is never to uched by thelighining. LXX. He applied himself with great diligence to the liberat aris, both Greek and Latin. In his Latin style,
he affected to imitate Messala Corvinus, a respectable oldman, Whose company he had much frequented in hisyouth. But he rendered his style obscure, by eXcessos affectation and nicenesi ; so that he was thought totaik be iter extempore, than in a premeditated discour . He composed likewise a Lyric Ode, under the titie of A Lamentation υpon the Death of L. Caesar,'' as also sonae Greeli poenas in imitation os Euphorion, Rianus, and Parthenius. These poets he greatly admired, and set up their morks and statues in the public libraries,
amongs the eminent authors Os antiqui ty. On this account, most of the learned mea of the time vied witheach other in publiming observations upon them, whichthey addressed to him. What he chie ly attended to was the knowledge of the fabulous his ory ; and this he prosecuted with a Zeal that might justly be deemed ridiculo us. For he used to try the grammarians, a class of peopte
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whicli I have atready observed he much assected, with lach questions as these : Who was Hecuba's mollier λWhat had been Achilles's nanae amongst the yo Ung Women λ What song were the Sirens used to sing λV And thesii st day that he en tered the Senate-house, after the deathos Augiistus, as is he intended to pay a respect both to the memory of his fallier, and the Gods, in imitation os Minos upon the death of his son, he made an offering ois rankincense and wine, but without any music LXXI. Though he was ready and conversant wit . the Greeli longue, yet he did not use it e very where, huichiefly declined it in the Senatessiouse ; insomuch thathaving occasion to use the word monspolium smonopoly , he firsi begged pardon for being obliged to trouble thehouse with a forctgn word. And when in a decree of the Senate, the word emblema semblem) was reail, he advised to have it changed, and that a Latin word shouldbe substituted in iis room ; or, is no proper One could be
LXXII. During the whole time of his recesi at Capreae, he attempted only twice to come to Rome. Onc Che came in a galley as far as the gardens near the Naumachia, but placed guariis along the banks of the Tiber, to keep ois ali who should offer to come to meet hi m. And a second time he advanced along the Appian way, within severi miles of the city ; but taking only a vie of the walis at a distance, he immediat ely returned. Forwhat rea n he Came not to the town, upon his progressiis the Tiber, is uncertain; but in the lalter excursio. ,
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according to his custom, he found it devolared by anis. and was there ore ad vised to beware of the Dry of the Ob. On this account, returning in ali haste to Campania, he seli ill at Astura ; but reco vering a litile, wenton to Circeii. And to obvia te any suspicion of his be-ing in a bad state of health, he was not Only present atthe diversions of the Camp, but encountei ed in person, from an eminence, With javelitas, a wild boar, whichwas let out for the pui posse. Being immedia tely seieted with a pain in the side, and catching cold upon his over-heating himself in the exercisse, he relapsed into a Worse condition than he was at fit st. He held o ut ho everser so me time ; and Biling as far as Misenum, omitted nothing in his usual manner of liis, not even his entertain menis, nor Other pleas res, partly from an ungovernable appetite, and partly to conceat his condition. For Charicles, a physician, having obtained leave to reti re me time fa om Couri, at his rising fro in table, seiged his handio hi si it; upon whicli Tiberius, supposing he did it tofeel his pulse, destred him to flay and talie his place again,
and continued the entertainmerit longer than usual. Atlast, however, according to his usual praelice, he stoodup in ille middie of the room, with an ossicer attending, and took leave os every one in the company by na me. I.XXIII. Meanwhile, sinding upon a perusal of theacts of the Senate, that s me persons under prosecutioni ad been dis charged, without being brought to a hear- in g, V concerning whom he had Mittera but very briefly, mentioning no more than that they had only been na med by an informer ; complaining in a great rage that he
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him by Caius. Others say, that during the intermission
large beautis ut statue of Apollo os Temenis frona Syra cula, mitti the vie of placing it in the library of thene temple, which had been bulli for that God ; butdreami that he appeared to hina, and assured hi in thathis statue could not be erected by him. ' A fe w days
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TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR.being qui te colit, burst out into a fame again in the evening, and continued burning very bright for severat
of mankind, and the infernal Gods, allow no place fortite dea d, but amongs: the wiched.' ' Others threatened hisbody with the hook and the Scalae Gemoniae, their indignation at his former crueity being encreased by a recent instance of the sanae hind. It had been provided by an adt of the Senate, that the punishment of persons Condemned to die flaould always he deferred untii the tenthday after the sentence. Now it happened that the da yon whicli the news of Tiberius's death arrive J, was theti me fixed by law for the execution of some persona thut had been sentenced to die. These poor creatures implorea the protection os ali abolit them ; hut b cause Caius Was
tion could be made in their bellais; the men who were charged with the care of their execution, from a di eados ostending against that law, strangled them, and thre them down the Scalae Gemoniae. This excited in the mines of the peopte a stili greater abhorrerice of the tyrant'S memory, since his crueity subsisted even after his death. As soon as his corpse began to move stom Misenum, many cried out for iis being carried to Atella, and broiled there in the amphitheatre. It was ho e ver brought to Rome, and buriat with the usual ceremony. LXXVI. He had made about two years besore imo draughis
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draughts of his mili, one With his own hand, and theother with that of one of his freedmen ; and both were witnessed by somo persons os very mean rank. He lest his two grandsons, Caius by Germanicus, and Tiberius by
Drusus, coim unci heirs to his estate ; and upon the dea thos one of them, the Other v as to in herit tire whole. Hegave like se many legacies ; amongst which were he- quesis to the Vestat Virgins, to ali the soldiers, to every commoner of Rome, and to the overseers of the severaΙ divisions of the City.
AT the death of Arigus iis, there had elapsed so Ionga period Dom the overthrow of the Republic by Iulius Caesar,
that sew were now living who had heen horn under the ancient constitution of the Romans; and the milii and prosperous administration of Augustus, during forty-sour years, bad by this time reconciled the miniis of the peopte to ades potiC governinent. Tiberius, the adopted sola of thes Ormer fovereign, was of mature age ; and though he hadhitherio liveti, for the most pari, abstracted stom any 'concern with public affairs, yet, having been brougiit upin the family of Augustus, he was acquainted with his
pedi, he would reniter thc modet of his o n. Livia, too, his mollier and the relict of the late emperor, was stillli Ving, a woman venerable by years, who had long bee familiar mitti the counciis of Augustus, and Do in herhigh rank, as weli as uncommon affabili ty, possessed an eZtensive influence amongst ali classes of the people. Such were the circumstatices in favor of Tiberius 'ssuccession, at the demisse of Augustus; but there mereother
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TIBERIUS NERO 'CAESAR. 3Osothers of a tendency dis ad vania geous to his vlews. His temper Was haughty and reserved: Augustus had ostena pologised for the ungractous nesse of his manners : heu as dis obedient to his mother ; and though he had notos enly discovered any propensity to vice, he ei oyed none of those qualities whicli usualty Conciliate populari ty. To these considerations it is to be added, that Postumus
Agrippa, the graiadson of Augustus by Julia, Was living;
and is consanguini ty was to be the rule of succession, his right was indisputably preferable to that os an adopted sola. Augustus had sent this youth into eXile a se years before ; but, to ards the Hose of his lisse, had expressed adcligia os recalling him, with the vie , as Was suppo sed,
os appo inting him his successor. The fa ther of youngAgrippa had been greatly beloved by the Romans ; and
the fate of his mollier Julia, though notorious for herprofligacy, had ever been regat ded by them with peculiarsympathy and tendea ness. Many ther cfore attached tothe son the partiality entertained for his parents ; whichwas enci cased not only by a strong suspicion, but a generat sui misse, that his eider brothers, Caius and Lucius,h ad been violently talion OE, to mahe way for the succession os Tiberius. That an obstruction waS apprehended to Tiberius's succession frona this quarter, is putheyonil ali dolabi, when we find that the dea th of Au gustus was industrio ully hept secret, uiatii young Agrippashould be removed ; who, it is generalty agreed, was dispalched by an order frona Livia and Tiberius conjundily,
or at least froni the former. Thorigh by this adt thes e rema ined no rival to Tiberius, yet the conscio us esse of his
Own Want of pretensions to the Roman throne, seem stoliave
stili rendered hi in distrusi ful of the succession ; and iliat hesbould have quietly obta ined ii, without the voice of tiaepe apte, the real inclination of the Senate, Cr the support
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of the ariny, can be imputed only to the insuence os trismother, and his own dissimulation. Ardently solicitous toattain the object, yet affecting a total indifference ; artiui lyprompting the 'enate to give hi in the charge of the go-
vertament, at the time that he intima ted an invincibie reluctance to accepi it; his absolutely declining it in perpetuity, but fixing no time for an abdication ; his deceit- fui insinuation of bodily infirmities, with hinis lihewiseos approaching old age, that he might allay in the
Senate ali apprehensions of any great duration of his power, and represt in his adopted son, Germanicus, theemotions os ambition to displace him; form altogether ascene of the most insidious poli cy, inconsistency and dissimulation. In this period di ed, in the eighty-s1κth year of her age, Livia Drusilla, mother of the em peror, and the reli et of Augustus whom ille sui vived si fleen years. She was the daughter of L. Drusus Calidianus, and married Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom ste had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus. The conduci of this lady seems to justify the remarii of Caligula, that sie was an Ulys sin a woman's di esse. V Octavius first saw her as ste sed from the danger whicli threaten ed her hustanti, who hadespoused the cause of Antony; and though she was thenpregnant, he resolved to marry her, whether with her o wn inclination or not, is test by Tacitus undetermined. Topave me way for this union, he divorced his wife Scribonia, and with the approbation of the Augurs, Whicli hecould have no dissicut ty to obtain, celebrated his nuptialsu sith Livia. There ensued from this marriage no issue,
though much destred by both parties ; but Livia retained,
without interruption, an unbounded ascendenCy over theem peror, Whose confidence me abused, while the uxorious