The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
XXII. He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce with
women, as if it was a sort of exercise, klinopalaen, bed-wrestling; and
it was reported that he plucked the hair from his concubines, and swam
about in company with the lowest prostitutes. His brother’s daughter
[841] was offered him in marriage when she was a virgin; but being at
that time enamoured of Domitia, he obstinately refused her. Yet not long
afterwards, when she was given to another, he was ready enough to debauch
her, and that even while Titus was living. But after she had lost both
her father and her husband, he loved her most passionately, and without
disguise; insomuch that he was the occasion of her death, by obliging her
to procure a miscarriage when she was with child by him.
XXIII. The people shewed little concern at his death, but the soldiers
were roused by it to great indignation, and immediately endeavoured to
have him ranked among the gods. They were also ready to revenge his
loss, if there had been any to take the lead. However, they soon after
effected it, by resolutely demanding the punishment of all those who had
been concerned in his assassination. On the other hand, the senate was
so overjoyed, that they met in all haste, and in a full assembly reviled
his memory in the most bitter terms; ordering ladders to be brought in,
and his shields and images to be pulled down before their eyes, and
dashed in pieces upon the floor of the senate-house passing at the same
time a decree to obliterate his titles every where, and abolish all
memory of him. A few months before he was slain, a raven on the Capitol
uttered these words: “All will be well.” Some person gave the following
interpretation of this prodigy:
(498) Nuper Tarpeio quae sedit culmine cornix.
“Est bene,” non potuit dicere; dixit, “Erit.”
Late croaked a raven from Tarpeia’s height,
“All is not yet, but shall be, right.”
They say likewise that Domitian dreamed that a golden hump grew out of
the back of his neck, which he considered as a certain sign of happy days
for the empire after him. Such an auspicious change indeed shortly
afterwards took place, through the justice and moderation of the
succeeding emperors.
* * * * * *
If we view Domitian in the different lights in which he is represented,
during his lifetime and after his decease, his character and conduct
discover a greater diversity than is commonly observed in the objects of
historical detail. But as posthumous character is always the most just,
its decisive verdict affords the surest criterion by which this
variegated emperor must be estimated by impartial posterity. According
to this rule, it is beyond a doubt that his vices were more predominant
than his virtues: and when we follow him into his closet, for some time
after his accession, when he was thirty years of age, the frivolity of
his daily employment, in the killing of flies, exhibits an instance of
dissipation, which surpasses all that has been recorded of his imperial
predecessors. The encouragement, however, which the first Vespasian had
shown to literature, continued to operate during the present reign; and
we behold the first fruits of its auspicious influence in the valuable
treatise of QUINTILIAN.
Of the life of this celebrated writer, little is known upon any authority
that has a title to much credit. We learn, however, that he was the son
of a lawyer in the service of some of the preceding emperors, and was
born in Rome, though in what consulship, or under what emperor, it is
impossible to determine. He married a woman of a noble family, by whom
he had two sons. The mother died in the flower of her age, and the sons,
at the distance of some time from each other, when their father was
advanced in years. The precise time of Quintilian’s own death is
equally inauthenticated with that of his birth; nor can we rely upon an
author of suspicious veracity, who says that he passed the latter part of
his life in a state of indigence which was alleviated by the liberality
of his pupil, Pliny the Younger. Quintilian opened a school of rhetoric
at Rome, where he not only discharged that labourious employment with
great applause, (499) during more than twenty years, but pleaded at the
bar, and was the first who obtained a salary from the state, for
executing the office of a public teacher. He was also appointed by
Domitian preceptor to the two young princes who were intended to succeed
him on the throne.
After his retirement from the situation of a teacher, Quintilian devoted
his attention to the study of literature, and composed a treatise on the
Causes of the Corruption of Eloquence. At the earnest solicitation of
his friends, he was afterwards induced to undertake his Institutiones
Oratoriae, the most elaborate system of oratory extant in any language.
This work is divided into twelve books, in which the author treats with
great precision of the qualities of a perfect orator; explaining not only
the fundamental principles of eloquence, as connected with the
constitution of the human mind, but pointing out, both by argument and
observation, the most successful method of exercising that admirable art,
for the accomplishment of its purpose. So minutely, and upon so
extensive a plan, has he prosecuted the subject, that he delineates the
education suitable to a perfect orator, from the stage of infancy in the
cradle, to the consummation of rhetorical fame, in the pursuits of the
bar, or those, in general, of any public assembly. It is sufficient to
say, that in the execution of this elaborate work, Quintilian has called
to the assistance of his own acute and comprehensive understanding, the
profound penetration of Aristotle, the exquisite graces of Cicero; all
the stores of observation, experience, and practice; and in a word, the
whole accumulated exertions of ancient genius on the subject of oratory.
It may justly be regarded as an extraordinary circumstance in the
progress of scientific improvement, that the endowments of a perfect
orator were never fully exhibited to the world, until it had become
dangerous to exercise them for the important purposes for which they were
originally cultivated. And it is no less remarkable, that, under all the
violence and caprice of imperial despotism which the Romans had now
experienced, their sensibility to the enjoyment of poetical compositions
remained still unabated; as if it served to console the nation for the
irretrievable loss of public liberty. From this source of entertainment,
they reaped more pleasure during the present reign, than they had done
since the time of Augustus. The poets of this period were Juvenal,
Statius, and Martial.
JUVENAL was born at Aquinum, but in what year is uncertain; though, from
some circumstances, it seems to have been in the reign of Augustus. Some
say that he was the son of a freedman, (500) while others, without
specifying the condition of his father, relate only that he was brought
up by a freedman. He came at an early age to Rome, where he declaimed
for many years, and, pleaded causes in the forum with great applause; but
at last he betook himself to the writing of satires, in which he acquired
great fame. One of the first, and the most constant object of is satire,
was the pantomime Paris, the great favourite of the emperor Nero, and
afterwards of Domitian. During the reign of the former of these
emperors, no resentment was shown towards the poet; but he experienced
not the same impunity after the accession of the latter; when, to remove
him from the capital, he was sent as governor to the frontiers of Egypt,
but in reality, into an honourable exile. According to some authors, he
died of chagrin in that province: but this is not authenticated, and
seems to be a mistake: for in some of Martial’s epigrams, which appear to
have been written after the death of Domitian, Juvenal is spoken of as
residing at Rome. It is said that he lived to upwards of eighty years of
age.
The remaining compositions of this author are sixteen satires, all
written against the dissipation and enormous vices which prevailed at
Rome in his time. The various objects of animadversion are painted in
the strongest colours, and placed in the most conspicuous points of view.
Giving loose reins to just and moral indignation, Juvenal is every where
animated, vehement, petulant, and incessantly acrimonious. Disdaining
the more lenient modes of correction, or despairing of their success, he
neither adopts the raillery of Horace, nor the derision of Persius, but
prosecutes vice and folly with all the severity of sentiment, passion,
and expression. He sometimes exhibits a mixture of humour with his
invectives; but it is a humour which partakes more of virulent rage than
of pleasantry; broad, hostile, but coarse, and rivalling in indelicacy
the profligate manners which it assails. The satires of Juvenal abound
in philosophical apophthegms; and, where they are not sullied by obscene
description, are supported with a uniform air of virtuous elevation.
Amidst all the intemperance of sarcasm, his numbers are harmonious. Had
his zeal permitted him to direct the current of his impetuous genius into
the channel of ridicule, and endeavour to put to shame the vices and
follies of those licentious times, as much as he perhaps exasperated
conviction rather than excited contrition, he would have carried satire
to the highest possible pitch, both of literary excellence and moral
utility. With every abatement of attainable perfection, we hesitate not
to place him at the head of this arduous department of poetry.
Of STATIUS no farther particulars are preserved than that he (501) was
born at Naples; that his father’s name was Statius of Epirus, and his
mother’s Agelina, and that he died about the end of the first century of
the Christian era. Some have conjectured that he maintained himself by
writing for the stage, but of this there is no sufficient evidence; and
if ever he composed dramatic productions, they have perished. The works
of Statius now extant, are two poems, viz. the Thebais and the Achilleis,
besides a collection, named Silvae.
The Thebais consists of twelve books, and the subject of it is the Theban
war, which happened 1236 years before the Christian era, in consequence
of a dispute between Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus and
Jocasta. These brothers had entered into an agreement with each other to
reign alternately for a year at a time; and Eteocles being the elder, got
first possession of the throne. This prince refusing to abdicate at the
expiration of the year, Polynices fled to Argos, where marrying Argia,
the daughter of Adrastus, king of that country, he procured the
assistance of his father-in-law, to enforce the engagement stipulated
with his brother Eteocles. The Argives marched under the command of
seven able generals, who were to attack separately the seven gates of
Thebes. After much blood had been spilt without any effect, it was at
last agreed between the two parties, that the brothers should determine
the dispute by single combat. In the desperate engagement which ensued,
they both fell; and being burnt together upon the funeral pile, it is
said that their ashes separated, as if actuated by the implacable
resentment which they had borne to each other.
If we except the Aeneid, this is the only Latin production extant which
is epic in its form; and it likewise approaches nearest in merit to that
celebrated poem, which Statius appears to have been ambitious of
emulating. In unity and greatness of action, the Thebais corresponds to
the laws of the Epopea; but the fable may be regarded as defective in