mentioned nor alluded to; conspiracy, not adultery, being there laid as the ground of Aulus Cæcina's assassination. Aurelius Victor, for some reason or other, chose to relate the fact as given by Suetonius, but to assign a different motive, and make Berenice lavish of her favours. In this ungallant humour, he calls her the wife of Titus, either negligently, or to enhance her guilt: but when he comes to a passage where Suetonius states her actual condition with respect to the emperor, he gives the fact as it lay ready to his

hand.

There is some little confusion as to the time of the divorce whether under Vespasian, or after Titus had taken possession of the crown. Dion, or his epitomiser Xiphilinus, are supposed to place it in the former reign, contrary to the authorities of Suetonius and Aurelius Victor. But it will be found that Xiphilinus, though no other author does so, mentions Berenice's being twice sent away; once under Vespasian, and again under Titus : and this will, in the main, reconcile his account with the generally received winding-up of the intrigue. He relates the first dismissal immediately after the passage quoted above, and begins the reign of Titus thus: —Ὁ δὲ δὴ Τίτος οὐδὲν οὔτε φονικὸν, οὔτε ἐρωτικὸν μοναρχήσας ἔπραξεν, ἀλλὰ χρησὸς, καίπερ ἐπιβουλευθεὶς, καὶ σώφρων, καίτοι καὶ τῆς Βερονίκης ἐς Ῥώμην αὖθις ἐλθούσης, ἐγενέτο. This statement makes the second attack on Titus's affections ineffectual. The mode of their ultimate parting, as stated by other historians to have taken place when he was emperor, is too generally admitted to make it credible on a single authority, that he ever resisted her allurements when present: the probability is, that he dismissed

her, invitus invitam, during his father's reign, with a promise of recal in his own: that he kept that promise, but that the popular objection was too obstinate to render perseverance safe; for his excesses were always tempered by prudence: and that when he again determined to part with her, by way of softening the disappointment to both, he again threw out a hint of better times, and got rid of her by representing this separation as only temporary. But the biographers of the period, writing many lives with all practicable brevity, had no room to multiply identical incidents; they therefore related the beginning and the end of an adventure, and left the detail to be filled up by the sagacity or the imagination of the reader.

Pliny mentions a town bearing the name of Berenice :-" Berenice, oppidum matris Philadelphi nomine, ad quod iter a Copto diximus."-Nat. Hist. lib. vi. The inference from this passage, that Pliny concluded Ptolemy Philadelphus had built the city, because it bore his mother's name, is utterly unfounded. As there were several women of exalted rank who bore the name of Berenice, so were there several towns so called, probably in memory of the different princesses.

The farewells of Titus and Berenice have furnished the French stage with tragedies from Racine and Corneille, who were each employed by Henrietta of England on so unpromising a subject, unknown to each other. Corneille's piece failed: that of Racine had a run of thirty nights; and has been revived on the appearance of any new actor and actress capable of supporting characters of such great difficulty. So supported, it has always

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been found affecting in representation. That one of these great poets should have failed, and the other have eminently succeeded, is accounted for by the opposite bent of their genius. That of the one is strong and elevated, that of the other gentle, dextrous, and elegant. The pathetic is the forte of the latter, the sublime of the former.

L

ON CESAR'S COMMENTARIES.

CESAR was confessedly the greatest general Rome ever produced; and the people of Rome were so renowned for their knowledge in the art of war, that it is equally interesting and useful to find their military customs traced out, and the individual actions of so accomplished a commander recorded, in Commentaries written by the hero of the story. Nothing in this work is more striking, than the consummate prudence and circumspection of this enterprising man, especially in relation to surprises. He was also particularly attentive to the safety of his convoys, and to the maintenance of a free communication with the countries whence he received his supplies. Nor was he less prudent and expert in turning alliances to account; as, for instance, in the case of that pretended one with the Æduans, which he made one of his principal engines to complete the reduction of Gaul. The suddenness, the rapidity, the disposition of his marches, have only been equalled by the Corsican of modern days in the zenith of his triumphs. From his narrative of his own movements when he besieged Gergovia, we may calculate that on one occasion he marched fifty miles in twenty-four hours. He exhibited great skill in marshalling his army in various forms, according to the information he was sedulous in

procuring, as to the greater or less distance of the enemy. His conduct in this respect was especially curious and judicious, when he marched against the Nervians. During his celebrated campaign in Spain he compelled a veteran army to surrender as prisoners of war, without striking a blow, by a happy choice of posts and consummate address in improving the advantages afforded by the nature of the country. Another object of solicitude was, to contrive his marches in such a manner as to station his camp near some navigable river, and to secure, as has been before mentioned, a country in his rear, whence he could be supplied easily, and at a reasonable rate, with every thing necessary for the subsistence of his army. Intrenched encampments formed an essential part of military discipline among the Romans; and Cæsar gave his sanction to the practice, by constantly following it in his wars with the Gauls. The globus, or circular order, was a disposition of which he speaks in his Commentaries, as highly advantageous in cases of danger and extremity and the Duke of Wellington seems to have made arrangements analogous if not identical, on the field of Waterloo, while waiting for the arrival of the Prussians.

Pompey, in the decisive battle of Pharsalia, by the advice of Triarius, commanded his soldiers to receive Cæsar's assault, and to sustain the shock of his army, without removing from their position. His motive, for this was the opinion, that Cæsar's men would be disordered in their advance; and that his own, by not moving, would retain their ranks undisturbed. On this system Cæsar remarks, that according to his own judgment, the advice was contrary to every principle of reason: for he