theory of the epic, the didactic, the elegiac and the satirical styles. Horace and Virgil have given much offence by their flattery of Augustus. The former in the epistle to Augustus: Præsenti tibi maturos largimur honores, Their only apology is to be found in the universal incense of extravagant adulation, offered up by all the court poets of the Augustan age. The blasphemous practice of erecting altars to the emperors, took its rise under the tyranny of Julius Cæsar. The senate had enjoined, by an express decree, that the Romans should swear by Cæsar's health and safety, even in his lifetime. Balbus says in a letter to Cicero, "Hæc quam prudenter tibi scribam, nescio: sed illud certe scio, me ab singulari amore ac benevolentia, quæcumque scribo, tibi scribere: quod te (ita, incolumi Cæsare, moriar) tanti facio, ut paucos æque ac te caros habeam."- Ep. ad Att. This passage shows that Cæsar was at this period an every-day oath. He has no more to do than Jove or Pallas with the subject of the sentence into which he is parenthetically introduced; so that this vow of selfdevotion for his sake has not even the merit of what Sheridan calls sentimental swearing. Those who have gone this length will go further. The following passage from Dio completes the farce :Αλλην τε τινὰ εἰκόνα ἐς τὸν τοῦ Κυρίνου ναὸν Θεῷ ἀνικήτω ἐπιγράψαντες, καὶ ἄλλην ἐς τὸν Καπιτώλιον παρὰ τοὺς βασιλεύσαν τας ποτὲ ἐν τῇ Ῥώμη, ἀνέθεσαν. - Lib. xliii. When we see a senate thus enslaving itself, and voting idolatry by Act of Parliament, we cannot wonder that the gay satellites of a court should follow the example of the conscript fathers, the potent, grave, and reverend Seniors, though at a respectful distance from the exaggerations of their flattery.* of * The length and general scope of this article will not admit any present review of Horace as a lyric poet. Lipsius says in a letter to Cruquius, “Horatio, mi Cruqui, in Lyricis merito illud Homericum dabimus, . Quæstionum, lib. ii. εἷς κοίρανος ἔσω.”—Epistolicarum ON THE CHARACTERS OF TITUS AND TACITUS and Josephus are the two authors from whom the character of Titus is principally to be drawn. Tacitus is supposed to have been raised to the office of quæstor, and probably to the rank of senator, by Vespasian. His gradation through the magistracy was progressive under Titus, till he reached the functions either of tribune or ædile. He tells us in his annals, that he was one of the college of fifteen, and invested with the office of prætor, in the time of Domitian. Both these historians painted from the life, and under personal obligation. Tacitus had been promoted by Titus, Josephus had been treated with mildness and generosity by him, and had submitted to him his history of the Jewish war, which the conqueror of Jerusalem not only approved, but subscribed with his own hand, and gave orders for its publication. Tacitus commences the second book of his history, by remarking that fortune was preparing an important scene in another quarter of the world, and laying the foundation of a new imperial family, destined at first to flourish in prosperity, and in the end, after a disastrous reign, to be hurled from its pre-eminence by a dread ful catastrophe. The fate of the people, alternately beneficial and calamitous, was identified with the destinies of its successive sovereigns. Rome prospered under Vespasian and Titus, but suffered severely during the reign of Domitian. The tyrant was stopped in his career, and the Flavian family became extinct. At the beginning of this book, Tacitus describes in an interesting manner, but with his usual brevity, the talents, accomplishments, person, and character of Titus. He was at this time in his twenty-eighth year. By the favour of Narcissus, to whom his father Vespasian paid court, he was educated in the palace with Britannicus, the son of Claudius. The destined heir to the empire was cut off by Nero's villany: but Titus, who then seemed to be stationed far below the seat of imperial ambition, survived to reign in glory, and with the high esteem of the Roman people. On this subject there is a story in Suetonius, that Claudius's favourite freedman, Narcissus, Titus's early patron, consulted a fortune-teller about the destiny of Britannicus. The huckster of futurity obstinately persisted in his prediction, that the young prince would never reign, but that Titus, who was standing by, was born to sovereignty. While Galba was supposed to be still in possession of supreme power, Vespasian sent his son from Judea to congratulate that emperor. At Corinth, Titus received intelligence of Galba's murder. An uncertain, probably a disputed succession, presented but a choice of difficulties. He resolved to proceed no farther than Greece. On setting sail from Corinth, he directed his course "Inde Syriam At Cyprus he towards Rhodes and Cyprus. audentioribus spatiis petebat." visited the temple of the Paphian Venus, and consulted her Oracle. The answer was auspicious, and he returned to his father. Tacitus mentions a prevailing impression, that his connection with Berenice, sister to Agrippa the Second, and wife of Herod, king of Chalcis in Syria, secretly influenced this retrograde movement. This part of Titus's history will be looked into hereafter. * On the death of Vitellius, a decree passed the Senate, appointing Titus his father's colleague in the consulship. When Vespasian began to turn his thoughts towards Italy, he determined to leave his son Titus in the command of the army, and to confer on him the prosecution of the war against the Jews. The speech of Titus to his father at parting, places his character in a most amiable point of view. Its sole object seems to have been, to plead in favour of Domitian. He cautioned Vespasian against being rashly incensed by insinuations of criminality. Towards his own son, it were but just to be unprejudiced and mild. A numerous issue affords more firm support to the imperial dignity than fleets and armies. Friends drop off by death, and abandon us to follow more inviting fortunes: they renounce us in disgust at the disappointment of unreasonable or impossible expectations. But blood forms an indissoluble tie, especially between princes, in whose fate all their kindred must be involved: nor can brothers be * Fuere, qui accensum desiderio Berenices Regina, vertisse iter crederent. Neque abhorrebat a Berenice juvenilis animus: sed gerendis rebus nullum ex eo impedimentum. — Historiarum, |