Drusus went now without the city,
there to renew the ceremony of the auspices, and presently re-entered in
the triumph of _ovation_. A few days after died Vipsania his mother; of
all the children of Agrippa, the only one who made a pacific end: the rest
manifestly perished, or are believed to have perished, by the sword,
poison, or famine.
The qualifying of the Law Papia Poppaea was afterwards proposed; a law
which, to enforce those of Julius Caesar, Augustus had made when he was
old, for punishing celibacy and enriching the Exchequer. Nor even by this
means had marriages and children multiplied, while a passion to live
single and childless prevailed: but, in the meantime, the numbers
threatened and in danger by it increased daily, while by the glosses and
chicane of the impleaders every family was undone. So that, as before the
city laboured under the weight of crimes, so now under the pest of laws.
From this thought I am led backwards to the first rise of laws, and to
open the steps and causes by which we are arrived to the present number
and excess; a number infinite and perplexed.
The first race of men, free as yet from every depraved passion, lived
without guile and crimes, and therefore without chastisements or
restraints; nor was there occasion for rewards, when of their own accord
they pursued righteousness: and as they courted nothing contrary to
justice, they were debarred from nothing by terrors.
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