was generally believed that he intended to restore the republic, if ever he should possess the requisite power.* It is even said that at one time he wrote to his brother proposing to compel Augustus to reëstablish the popular freedom, but that Tiberius showed the letter to his stepfather.t Some even, in the usual spirit of calumniating Augustus, went so far as to hint that he caused Drusus to be taken off by poison when he neglected to give instant obedience to his mandate of recall, issued in consequence of that information.‡ Death had already (743) deprived Augustus of his sister Octavia, and within two years after the loss of Drusus, he had to lament that of Mæcenas, his early friend, adviser, and minister, who died toward the end of the year 746, leaving him his heir, notwithstanding the affair of Terentia. Mæcenas was a man in whom were united the apparently opposite characters of the refined voluptuary and the able and judicious statesman. When called on to exert himself in public affairs, no man displayed more foresight, vigor, and activity; but the moment he could withdraw from them, he hastened to relax into an ease and luxury almost more than feminine. Satisfied with the abundance of wealth which he derived from the bounty of Augustus, and content with having the power to bestow honors and offices on others, he sought them not for himself, and to the end of his life he remained a simple member of the equestrian order in which he had been born. It does not appear, that, like Agrippa, he devoted his wealth to the improvement or ornament of the city; but he was the patron, and in some cases the benefactor, of men of letters; and while the poetry of Virgil and Horace shall be read, (and when shall it not?) the name of Mæcenas will be pronounced with honor by thousands to whom that of the nobler Agrippa will be comparatively unknown. Such is the power of literature to confer everlasting renown! This was in effect the most splendid period of Rome's literary history. Though we cannot concede that literary genius is the creation of political circumstances, yet we may observe that it usually appears synchronously with great political events. It was during the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, that the everlasting monuments of the Grecian muse † Suet. Tib. 50. *Suet. Claud. 1. Tac. Ann. i. 33. were produced; and it was while the fierce wars excited by religion agitated modern Europe, that the most noble works of poetic genius appeared in Italy, Spain, and England. So also the first band of Roman poets were coëxistent with the Punic wars, and the second and more glorious, though perhaps less vigorous, display of Italian genius rose amid the calamities of the civil wars. The first of these poets in name, as in genius, is P. Virgilius Maro, who was born at Andes, a village near Mantua, in 684, and died at Brundisium, in 735. Residing in the country, and fond of rural life, his first poetic essays were pastorals in the manner of Theocritus. In this attempt, however, his success was not eminent; for though his verse is sweet and harmonious, and his descriptions are lovely, he attains not to the nature and simplicity of his Grecian master. He next wrote his Georgics, a didactic poem on agriculture; and here his success was beyond doubt; for it is the most perfect piece of didactic poetry that the world possesses. He then made the daring attempt of competing with Homer in the fields of epic poetry; and though the Æneïs is inferior in fire and spirit to the Ilias, and possesses not the romance and the domestic charms of the Odyssey, and as an epic must even perhaps yield to the Jerusalem Delivered of modern Italy, it is a poem of a very high order, and one which will never cease to yield delight to the cultivated mind. In thus selecting Roman subjects, Virgil proved his superior judgment; and he assumed the place which had been occupied by Ennius, and became the national poet. Q. Horatius Flaccus, born at Venusium in Apulia, in 689, is distinguished for the graceful ease, mild, philosophic spirit, and knowledge of men and the world,* displayed in his satires and epistles. He had also the merit of transferring the lyric measures of Alcæus, Sappho, and other Grecian poets, to the Latin language. His odes of a gay and lively, or of a bland, philosophic tone, are inimitable; in those of a higher flight he has less success, and the appearance of effort may at times be discerned. Horace died in 746, in the same year with his friend and patron Mæcenas. * Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico Albius Tibullus and Sex. Aurelius Propertius wrote love elegies addressed to their courtesan-mistresses under feigned names, such as Neæra and Cynthia. The former approaches nearer than any of the ancient poets to modern sentimentality; the latter shows extensive mythologic learning, correct taste, and a degree of delicacy and purity hardly to be expected from an amatory poet of that age. Varius, Valgius, Cornelius Gallus, Plotius Tucca, Varro Atacinus, and a number of other poets, wrote at this period. They are praised by their surviving contemporaries, but their works have perished a proof, perhaps, that their merit was not considerable. They were all imitators of the Greeks. P. Ovidius Naso belongs to the second period of the reign of Augustus, whom, he survived. He was born in 711, at Salmo, in the Pelignian country, and died in 771, in exile, at Tomi, on the Euxine. Ovid was a poet of original genius, which he tried on a variety of subjects. He wrote Heroic Epistles in the names and characters of the heroes and heroines of Grecian antiquity; love elegies; a didactic poem called the Art of Love; Metamorphoses; and a poem on the Roman Fasti. He also composed a tragedy, named Medea, which was much praised by the ancient critics. Grace, ease, and gayety, prevail throughout the compositions of this poet; but he was deficient in vigor, and was too prone to trifle on serious subjects; and in his amatory poetry he was very far from imitating the delicacy of Tibullus and Propertius. Yet, with all his defects, he is a delightful poet. The origin of his exile to Tomi in 762 is a mystery which can never be unveiled. He ascribes it himself to two causes, his Art of Love, and his having seen something which he should not see. The epistles written after his exile evince a spirit quite broken, and exhibit little trace of the poet's former powers. The reign of Augustus was also the period of the appearance of the eloquent and picturesque history of the Roman republic by T. Livius. This great historian was born at Padua (Patavium) in 695, and he died in 771, the same year with Ovid. His history (of which the larger and more valuable part is lost) extended from the landing of Æneas to the death of Drusus in 745. CHAPTER II.* AUGUSTUS. (CONTINUED.) A. U. 746-767. B. C. 8-A. D. 14. TIBERIUS.BANISHMENT OF JULIA. GERMAN WARS OF TIBERIUS. -DEFEAT OF VARUS. DEATH AND CHARACTER OF AUGUSTUS. FORM AND CONDITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. TWENTY-ONE years had now elapsed since the return of Augustus, victorious over Antonius, and his assumption of the sole supreme authority in the state. In that period, death had deprived him of his nephew, his nobler stepson, and his two ablest and most attached friends. His hopes now rested on his two grandsons and adopted sons Caius and Lucius, and their posthumous brother, named Agrippa after their father; on Tiberius, and on the children of Drusus. Caius was now (746) in his thirteenth year; his brother was three years younger. As they grew up, the characters which they displayed were such as caused pain to their grandfather. They were in fact porphyrogeniti, (the first that Rome had seen,†) and therefore were spoiled by public and private flattery, and displayed insolence and presumption in their conduct. Though Augustus was fully aware of the defects in the character of Tiberius, he could not avoid assigning him the place in the state for which his age, and his abilities and experience, qualified him. He had, therefore, on the death of Drusus, committed to him the conduct of the war in Germany; and, in 746 and the following year, the Roman legions were led by him over the Rhine, but no resistance was offered by the Germans. The next year, (748,) Augustus conferred on him the tribunitian power for a period of five years, and appointed him to go to regulate Armenia, where affairs were now in some disorder.‡ Tiberius, however, had resolved on retiring for a time from public life. The pretext under which he sought permission from Augustus, was a satiety of honors and a longing for * Authorities same as for the preceding chapter. [That is, the first princes-born; having been born since the assumption of supreme authority by Augustus.-J. T. S.] Zonaras, x. 35. quiet and repose. What he afterwards assigned as the real cause was his wish not to appear to stand in the way of Caius and his brother, who were now growing up to man's estate.* The improper conduct of his wife, Julia, was also given as a reason for his retirement, or his expectation by absence to increase his authority in the state in case his presence should be again required: it was even said that he was banished by Augustus for conspiring against his sons. It was with great difficulty that he obtained permission from his mother and stepfather to put his design into execution. We are told that, to extort it, he menaced to starve himself, and actually abstained from food for four days. When he had thus drawn from them a reluctant consent, he went down privately with a very few attendants to Ostia, and, getting on board a vessel, proceeded along the coast of Campania. Hearing that Augustus was taken ill, he halted; but, finding that his so doing was imputed to a design of aiming at the empire in case of his death, he set sail, though the weather was not very favorable, and proceeded on his voyage to Rhodes. He had selected this island for his retreat, having been pleased with its amenity and salubrity, when he visited it on his return from Armenia, in the year 735. He adopted a private mode of life, dwelling in a moderately-sized house, and living on terms of equality with the respectable inhabitants. He was visited in his retreat by all those who were going out as proconsuls or legates to Asia. When Caius Cæsar was sent out to regulate the affairs of Armenia, (753,) Tiberius passed over to Chios to wait on him. The young man showed him all marks of respect as his stepbrother and elder; but the insinuations of M. Lollius, whom Augustus had given him as a director, soon alienated his mind from Tiberius. The period of his tribunitian power being now expired, Tiberius sought permission to return to Rome, avowing that his motive for quitting it had been the wish to avoid the suspicion of emulation with Caius and Lucius. As they were now grown up, and were able to maintain their station as the second persons in the state, his absence was no longer requisite, and he wished to be permitted to revisit his friends and relatives. He, however, received a positive refusal; and all his mother could obtain was his being named a legate, in order to cover his disgrace. He remained at Rhodes two years longer, when Caius, without whose approbation Augus * Suet. Tib. 10. Vell. Pat. ii. 99, |