*

when young, wallow in the blood of innocents unjustly accused by him, and enrich himself with their *L.56,000. spoils. He received seven millions of sesterces from Nero, for helping him to destroy the family of the Crassi. Art and impudence, and every other means he could think of, were practised by him, to get legacies from all the rich men he knew. Pliny, in one of his letters, gives us the following instances of his tricks of that kind.

Piso Licinianus, brother to Crassus, whose death Regulus was the cause of, and who was himself under sentence of banishment, probably at his suit too; the same Piso, who was adopted by Galba, and killed with him, left a widow called Verania, who lived till Trajan's time. Verania being taken dangerously ill, Regulus, though he knew how odious the sight of him must be, went to see her, sat down by her bedside, and, pretending great concern for her health, began to act the astrologer. He asked her what day and hour she was born. On her telling him, he composed his countenance, looked grave and thoughtful, muttered somewhat between his lips, and counted over his fingers' ends; all to keep the sick lady in suspense, and make her expect something wonderful. At length breaking silence, "You "are," said he to her, in your climacteric year; " but you will get the better of this fit of sickness; "and, to convince you of it, I will consult an aruspice that never yet has failed me." Accordingly he offered up a sacrifice, came back and told Verania that the entrails of the victim agreed exactly with the stars. People are apt to believe what they wish. The sick lady, pleased with the thoughts of recovering her health, ordered her will to be brought, and added a legacy in favour of Regulus. She grew worse, and died soon after, exclaiming bitterly against his deceit.

66

He was not so lucky in an attack he made upon Velleius Blæsus, a rich old man of consular distinc

tion. Regulus had paid his court to him for some time, when Blæsus was taken dangerously ill, and talked of altering his will. The knave, not doubting but he should come in for a good share of his estate, begged and prayed the physicians that attended him to exert their utmost skill to prolong his life. The will was signed and executed, and he immediately changed his note. "How long," said he then to the same doctors, "do you intend to tor"ment a poor dying man? Why will not you let "him die in peace, since you cannot save his life?" Blæsus died, his will was opened, and not a farthing was left to Regulus.

His impudence, as I before said, was equal to his knavery. A lady of distinction, whose name was Aurelia, wanting to have her will signed by seven witnesses, as the Roman law required, desired Regulus to be one. He consented, waited on her at the time appointed, and found her very richly dressed for the ceremony. Regulus begged she would be so kind to leave him the clothes she had on. Aurelia thought he joked, but, in fact, he was quite in earnest, and pressed her so strongly that he made her open her will again to insert his legacy. He looked at her all the time she was writing, and, when she had done, took up the will and read what she had written, that he might be sure there was no mistake in it. By such tricks as these it was that, though born to nothing, he grew so immensely rich, that he told Pliny one day he had been consulting the entrails of victims to know when he should be worth a round sum of sixty millions of sesterces, and that he had found by them he should have twice that money.

* L 480,000.

With all that wealth, Regulus had but one son, and him he lost very young. Pliny thinks he did not grieve much at it, but seems rather of opinion, that love of interest was stronger in him than the ties of nature. What would induce any one to

judge

judge the same, is, that he had that son emanci pated to enable him to dispose of his mother's dower which was settled on him, and was very considerable; and from that time fawned on and flattered him to induce the child to make him his heir. Consequently he was a gainer by his death; and, from his turn of mind, may reasonably be supposed to have comforted himself readily enough, though he put on all the outward show of grief and anguish, and even over-acted his part. His son had several little coaches and saddle-horses, dogs, nightingales, parrots, and blackbirds, all which Regulus ordered to be killed round his funeral-pile. He multiplied, in every shape, the statues and pictures of the deceased, had numbers of them painted, and busts and statues made of bronze, wax, silver, ivory, and marble. He wrote a book, too, of his son's life, though but an infant when he died, and read it publicly to a numerous audience. Not content with that, he had a thousand copies of it transcribed, and sent them to all parts of Italy and the provinces; at the same time writing to the senate of each city to desire they would choose out of their respective bodies such of their members as had the best and most audible voices to read it to the people assembled.

I shall conclude this, perhaps already too long, account of Regulus, with a judicious reflection of Pliny. "What spirit!" says he, "what fire, was " in that man! What good might he not have done "had he taken a right turn! But no," adds Pliny immediately after, "I mistake. Good men are less "active than bad; for, as ignorance is the mother

"of

Hanc ille vim, (seu quo alio nomine vocando est intentio quidquid velis obtinendi,) si ad potiora vertisset, quantum boni efficere potuisset! Quamquam minor vis bonis quàm malis inest: at sicut αμαθία μεν θράσος, λογισμὸς δὲ ἔκνον φέρει, ita recta ingenia debilitat verecundia, perversa confirmat audacia. Plin. Ep.

VI. 7..

"of impudence, and real knowledge is often pro"ductive of bashfulness; so virtuous minds are "checked and withheld by the modesty that is "inseparable from them, whilst men of vicious "principles are spurred on by their brazenness.'

I have observed elsewhere how low and abject a creature Regulus became at the time of Domitian's death. He survived him some years. There is room to infer from Pliny's letters that he died before the year of Rome 853.

After speaking of men that made a figure in the learned world, it would be unfair not to mention that famous child Valerius Pudens, who, at the age of thirteen, carried off the prize for poetry at the capitolian games in 857.

We have lost sight of Trajan for a long time; let us return to him, and relate what we know of his second war with the Dacians.

A child of

thirteen years of age

wins the
for poetry.
Tillem. Traj.

premium

art. 18.

SECT. III.

Trajan's second war against the Dacians. Causes of the rupture. Decebalus, alarmed at Trajan's preparatives, sues for peace. He endeavours to get Trajan assassinated. An officer of distinction, traiterously seized by him, poisons himself. Trajan builds a bridge over the Danube. Decebalus conquered, and, in danger of being taken, kills himself. His hidden treasures discovered. Colonies established by Trajan in Dacia and the neighbouring provinces. Trajan's second triumph. Arabia Petræa subdued by Palma. Trajan's occupations during his abode in Rome. Crassus conspires against him, and is only banished for it. Trajan makes war against the Parthians, and goes into the East. Armenia conquered by Trajan, and made a Roman province. Conquest of Mesopotamia. Arabia Petræa subdued,

and

cond war

Causes of

and made a Roman province. Trajan maintains a proper discipline among his troops, as much by his own example as by his orders. Lusius Quietus, by birth a Mauritanian, one of Trajan's best generals. Barbarous nations to the north of Armenia subdued by Trajan. Trajan's return to Rome, which he leaves again towards the year 865, to renew the war against the Parthians. Violent earthquake at Antioch. Trajan consults the oracle of Heliopolis, and receives an enigmatical answer. Trajan throws a bridge of boats over the Tigris. The Roman method of building a bridge of boats. Trajan conquers Assyria. He returns towards Babylon. Trajan takes the cities of Ctesiphon and Susa. Prosperity seems to have turned his brain. He falls down the Tigris, crosses the Persian gulf, and enters the ocean. He takes a sea-port on the south coast of Arabia Felix. He envies Alexander his great renown. He visits the ruins of Babylon. The countries lately conquered rebel. Trajan subdues them again. He gives the Parthians a king. Trajan undertakes the siege of Atra, but is forced to raise it. Rebellions and disasters of the Jews in Cyræne, Egypt, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia. Trajan falls sick. Loss of his conquests in the East. Adrian's schemes and intrigues to make Trajan adopt him, Trajan had quite different views, and thought not of adopting Adrian. Trajan dies, and Adrian succeeds him by virtue of a forged adoption. Honours done to Trajan's memory. Duration of his life and reign. His virtues and his vices.

.

Trajan's se- TRAJAN's second war against the Dacians beagainst the gan, according to M. de Tillemont, in the year Dacians. of Rome 855. The cause of it is imputed by the rupture. Dion Cassius to Decebalus, who openly infringed every article of the last treaty of peace concluded with the Romans. He sheltered their deserters,

Dio.

fabricated