He celebrates the return of
Justice and prosperity, of order, of mild and equable taxation, of
military discipline and magisterial authority. It is like the Saturnian
Reign, which Virgil sings in the Eclogue "Pollio." The first action of
Tiberius was to canonise his father, and Augustus was translated to the
banquet of the Gods:
_Quos inter Augustus recumbens,
Purpureo bibit ore nectar._
Augustus was his great example; "he not only called him, but considered
him, divine;" "non appelavit eum, sed facit Deum." The Latin of Paterculus
is here so elegant and happy, that, for the pleasure of the learned, I
transcribe it: for others, I have already given something of the sense.
"Revocata in forum fides; submota e foro seditio, ambitio campo, discordia
curia: sepultaeque ac situ obsitae, justitia, aequitas, industria,
civitati, redditae; accessit magistratibus auctoritas, senatui majestas,
judiciis gravitas; compressa theatralis seditio; recte faciendi, omnibus
aut incussa voluntas aut imposita necessitas. Honorantur recta, prava
puniuntur. Suspicit potentem humilis, non timet. Antecedit, non contemnit,
humiliorem potens.
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