I have said many things in
praise of the ancient authors: it pleases me, as I finish, to offer my
humble tribute to an author who is quite our own; to one, who in all his
writings has bequeathed us perfect models of chaste, of lucid, and of
melodious prose.
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD:
_September_ 15, 1890.
THE FIRST SIX BOOKS OF THE ANNALS OF TACITUS:
BEING AN HISTORY OF THE EMPEROR TIBERIUS
THE ANNALS OF TACITUS
BOOK I
A.D. 14 AND 15.
Kings were the original Magistrates of Rome: Lucius Brutus founded Liberty
and the Consulship: Dictators were chosen occasionally, and used only in
pressing exigencies. Little more than two years prevailed the supreme
power of the Decemvirate, and the consular jurisdiction of the military
Tribunes not very many. The domination of Cinna was but short, that of
Sylla not long. The authority of Pompey and Crassus was quickly swallowed
up in Caesar; that of Lepidus and Anthony in Augustus. The Commonwealth,
then long distressed and exhausted by the rage of her civil dissensions,
fell easily into his hands, and over her he assumed a sovereign dominion;
yet softened with a venerable name, that of Prince or Chief of the Senate.
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