132 WIVES OF THE C.ESAKS. 



and jealous eye. He perished, to the common consternation, in the 

 flower of life ; as some affirmed, by poison or as others said, by 

 the mistake of Musa* the physician, who fatally prescribed for -his 

 complaint the cold baths of Baiae, which had proved so beneficial to 

 his uncle. But the suspicions of the public fell on Livia. It is im- 

 possible to fix on her, by clear and simple proofs, the fact of his assas- 

 sination ; but the concurrent rumours of the day, the pertinent allu- 

 sions of after writers to traditions which they palpably believed, and, 

 more than all, the subsequent iniquities of Livia in cases of the same 

 precise effect on her ambition, will leayj upon the generality of minds 

 an inference of her supposedf atrocity. The premature fate of his 

 intended heir involved Augustus in sincere affliction ; for the suspi- 

 cions entertained, or rather stated, of his having joined with Livia in 

 the crime imputed to her, are in every point of view destroyed by 

 their absurdity. Marcellus was the living source of hope to Caesar ; 

 to Livia's objects he opposed, while living, an insuperable impedi- 

 ment. "Suspecti Marcelli vota" are but slender words on which to 

 found the murderous motives of a relative and benefactor. And 

 Caesar, in the plenitude of power, could hardly have conceived the 

 dark necessity of bloodshed in his family, to guard his popular and 

 steady government from the impressions of a stripling, who, indeed 

 might unadvisedly pronounce opinions of impracticable freedom, 

 but of which the civil wars and subsequent administration of the 

 reigning chief had disabused 311 classes of the people. And scarcely 

 had Augustus paid the honours due to the memory of his beloved 

 Marcellus, when his peace of mind was shaken by dark design so 

 famously defeated by the wisdom or the magnanimity of Livia.:}: 



Pompey's grandson, China, was the chief of a conspiracy revealed 

 by treachery to Caesar. The traitor who betrayed the secret made a 

 full disclosure of all facts respecting time and place. Augustus was 

 to perish at the altar in an act of sacrifice, and the depositions of the 

 base informant were so amplejfcnd precise that Cinna's guilt was 



* Antonius Musa was a freedman of Augustus, and brother of Euphorbus, 

 physician to King Juba. He cured Augustus of a distemper by prescribing 

 the cold bath ; was rewarded with a considerable sum, an exemption, from the 

 public taxes, the freedom of "Rome, and a statue which was placed next to that 

 of jEsculapius. Medical practitioners were now first allowed the immunities of 

 Roman citizens. But the same treatment which had cured Augustus proved, 

 as it was said, fatal to Marcellus ; and the healing art again relapsed into tem- 

 porary ^dishonour See Sanadon's note on Horace Epist. i. 13. 

 f- Propertius would affirm (1. 3. El. 18) that Marcellus was drowned at Baiae 

 " His pressus Stygias vultum demisit in undas, 

 Errat et en vestro spiritus ille lacu." 



But Scaliger rejects the supposition that Propertius was ignorant of the fact, 

 and states the real reason of his affectation " qui, mortem Marcelli deflens, 

 maluit mendax IJviae adulari, quam verum dicendo sibi periculum creare." 

 In Not. Varior. 



I Livia super sexus muliebris conditionem prudentissima era! fsemina. * * * 

 Livia uxor ejus (Csesaris) proba et sapiens fiemina consilium ei dedit, ut ini- 

 micos beneficiis et liberalitate vinceret. Ei paruit Augustus * *. Orationem 

 Liviae quze ponderibus est prsegnantissima. Vide apud Dion, in Aug. p. 17- 

 Theatr. Historic. Christian. Mallhia, Oct. Cces. Any. 



