III. tory; which is, indeed, little more than the CHAP. register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. In private life, he was an amiable, as well as a good man. The native fimplicity of his virtue was a stranger to vanity or affectation. He enjoyed with moderation the conveniencies of his fortune, and the innocent pleasures of fociety; and the benevolence of his foul displayed itself in a cheerful ferenity of temper. cus. The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Of Marof a feverer and more laborious kind 45. It was the well-earned harveft of many a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years he embraced the rigid fyftem of the Stoics, which taught him to fubmit his body to his mind, his paffions to his reafon; to confider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external, as things indifferent 46. His 44 He was fond of the theatre, and not infenfible to the charms of the fair fex. Marcus Antoninus, i. 16. Hift. Auguft. p. 20, 21. Julian in Cæfar. 45 The enemies of Marcus charged him with hypocrify, and with a want of that fimplicity which distinguished Pius and even Verus (Hift. Auguft. 6. 34.). This fufpicion, unjust as it was, may serve to account for the fuperior applaufe bestowed upon perfonal qualifications, in preference to the focial virtues. Even Marcus Antoninus has been called a hypocrite, but the wildest scepticism never infinuated that Cæfar might poffibly be a coward, or Tully a fool. Wit and valour are qualifications more easily ascertained than humanity or the love of justice. 46 Tacitus has characterised, in a few words, the principles of the portico: Doctores fapientiæ fecutus eft, qui fola bona quæ honesta, mala tantum quæ turpia; potentiam, nobilitatem, cæteraque extra animum, neque bonis neque malis adnumerant. Tacit. Hift. iv. 5. CHA P. meditations, compofed in the tumult of a camp, are ftill extant; and he even condefcended to give leffons of philofophy, in a more public manner than was perhaps confiftent with the modefty of a fage, or the dignity of an emperor 47. But his life was the nobleft commentary on the precepts of Zeno. He was fevere to himfelf, indulgent to the imperfection of others, juft and beneficent to all mankind. He regretted that Avidius Caffius, who excited a rebellion in Syria, had disappointed him, by a voluntary death, of the pleasure of converting an enemy into a friend; and he justified the fincerity of that fentiment, by moderating the zeal of the fenate against the adherents of the traitor 48. War he detefted, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature; but when the neceffity of a juft defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily exposed his perfon to eight winter campaigns on the frozen banks of the Danube, the feverity of which was at last fatal to the weaknefs of his conftitution. His memory was revered by a grateful pofterity, and above a century after his death, many perfons preferved the image of Marcus Antoninus among thofe of their household gods". Happiness of the Romans. If a man were called to fix the period in the hiftory of the world during which the condition of the human race was moft happy and profper 47 Before he went on the fecond expedition against the Germans, he read lectures of philofophy to the Roman people, during three days. He had already done the fame in the cities of Greece and Afia. Hift. Auguft. in Caffio, c. 3. 48 Dion, 1. lxxi. p. 1190. Hift. Auguft. in Avid. Caffio. III. ous, he would without hefitation, name that CHA P. which elapfed from the death of Domitian to the acceffion of Commodus. The vaft extent of the Roman empire was governed by abfolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were reftrained by the firm but gentle hand of four fucceffive emperors, whofe characters and authority commanded involuntary refpect. The forms of the civil adminiftration were carefully preferved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleafed with confidering themselves as the accountable minifters of the laws. Such princes deferved the honour of reftoring the republic, had the Romans of their days been capable of enjoying a rational freedom. ture. The labours of thefe monarchs were overpaid Its preca by the immenfe reward that infeparably waited rious naon their fuccefs; by the honeft pride of virtue, and by the exquifite delight of beholding the general happiness of which they were the authors. A juft, but melancholy reflection embittered, however, the nobleft of human enjoyments. They must often have recollected the instability of a happiness which depended on the character of a fingle man. The fatal moment was perhaps approaching, when fome licentious youth, or fome jealous tyrant, would abufe, to the deftruction, that abfolute power, which they had exerted for the benefit of their people. The ideal restraints of the fenate and the laws might ferve to display the virtues, but could never correct III. CHAP. correct the vices, of the emperor. The military force was a blind and irrefiftible inftrument of oppreffion; and the corruption of Roman manners would always fupply flatterers eager to applaud, and minifters prepared to ferve, the fear or the avarice, the luft or the cruelty, of their mafters. Memory of Tiberius, Domitian. These gloomy apprehenfions had been already juftified by the experience of the Romans. The Nero, and annals of the emperors exhibit a strong and various picture of human nature, which we fhould vainly feek among the mixed and doubtful characters of modern hiftory. In the conduct of thofe monarchs we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue; the most exalted perfection, and the meanest degeneracy of our own species. The golden age of Trajan and the Antonines had been. preceded by an age of iron. It is almoft fuperfluous to enumerate the unworthy fucceffors of Auguftus. Their unparalleled vices, and the fplendid theatre on which they were acted, have faved them from oblivion. The dark unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius 5°, and the timid inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlafting infamy. 50 Vitellius confumed in mere eating, at least fix millions of our money in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with dignity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly calls him a hog, but it is by fubftituting to a coarse word a very fine image. "At Vitellius, umbraculis ❝hortorum abditus, ut ignava animalia, quibus fi cibum fuggeras "jacent torpentque, præterita, inftantia, futura, pari oblivione dimi"ferat. Atque illum nemore Arcino defidem et marcentem," &c. Tacit. Hift. iii. 36. ii. 95. Sueton. in Vitell. c.13. Dion Caffius, 1. lxv. P. 1062. II During III. During fourfcore years (excepting only the CHAP. fhort and doubtful refpite of Vefpafian's reign") Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient families of the republic, and was fatal to almoft every virtue, and every talent, that arofe in that unhappy period. mans un der their tyrants. Under the reign of these monsters, the flavery Peculiar of the Romans was accompanied with two pecu- the Romifery of liar circumstances, the one occafioned by their former liberty, the other by their extenfive conquefts, which rendered their condition more completely wretched than that of the victims of tyranny in any other age or country. From these causes were derived, 1. The exquifite fenfibility of the fufferers; and, 2. The impoffibility of escaping from the hand of the oppreffor. I. When Perfia was governed by the defcend- Infenfibiants of Sefi, a race of princes, whofe wanton Crientals. cruelty often stained their divan, their table, and their bed, with the blood of their favou rites, there is a faying recorded of a young nobleman, That he never departed from the fultan's prefence, without fatisfying himself whether his head was ftill on his fhoulders. The experience of every day might almoft juftify the fcepticism of Ruftan "2. Yet the fatal fword, suspended above him by a fingle thread, feems not to have difturbed the flumbers, or interrupted the tranquillity, of the Perfian. The monarch's frown, he well knew, could SI The execution of Helvidius Prifcus, and of the virtuous Epo nina, difgraced the reign of Vefpafian. 52 Voyage de Chardin en Perfe, vol. iii. p. 293. VOL. I. K level |