134 WIVES OF THE C.ESAIIS. 



Cinna became pale and breathless Augustus clasped his hand ; 

 " Cinna I pardon you again !"* 



Caesar's conduct had the happiest effects, not only on its individual 

 object, who was ever after faithful and devoted to his benefactor, 

 whom he made his heir, but in its results upon the public feeling. 

 The story was received in Rome with enthusiastic admiration, and so 

 effectually was every heart possessed by Caesar's generosity, that his 

 reign was ever after free from plots against his person. Charmed 

 with the effect of Li via' s counsel, by which he had acquired security 

 and fame, Augustus gratefully renewed to her the tokens of his con- 

 fidence and love, and submitted both his future councils and his for- 

 tunes to the sovereign dominion of her will. 



Tiberius, whose talents in the field were of the first distinction, had 

 now subdued Illyria and the Germans, whom the recent fate of Varust 

 had inspired with confidence and resolution. The patriotism of the 

 barbarians was still unbroken ; they remembered with pride the ex- 

 ploits of Arminius, and their hopes were stimulated by the presence 

 of the Roman captives in their country, a livin^yaionument of their 

 success. The spell of terror was dissolved, amr the Romans were 

 compelled to act on the defensive, and eventually to vindicate their 

 arrogant authority by an offensive war. Tiberius had conducted it 

 with signal pruclence, valour, and felicity. It was a vital, and in- 

 deed a natural part of Livia's policy, to render the merits of her sons 

 conspicuous to the Roman people. Her influence with the emperor 

 was absolute. Accordingly, no sooner had the laurelled letters^ of 

 Tiberius been communicated to the senate, than the victor, by the 

 express direction of Augustus, was on his way to Rome to receive 

 the solemn honour due to his achievements. A triumph was itself, 

 in Livia's apprehension, conclusive of her son's succession to the 

 throne : for since Agrippa's settlement of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, 

 on which occasion he modestly declined the triumph decreed him by 

 Augustus, that splendid recompence of military exploits was exclu- 

 sively confined to the imperial personage. Livia, enveloped in the 



The story here advanced is after Dion Cassius, between whom and Seneca, 

 who both relate the incident, but lay the scene of it in places widely different, 

 the discrepancy was heretofore observed. Lipsius adverts to it in his commen- 

 tary on the latter author. M. de Voltaire, in speaking of Augustus (Diet. Phi- 

 losophique) with his accustomed quickness has remarked : " Je doute fort de 

 sa pretendue cle'mence envers Cinna. fTacite ni Suetone ne disent rien de 

 cette aventure. Suetone, qui parle de toutes les conspirations faites centre 

 Auguste, n'aurait pas manque' de parler de la plus celebre. La singularity d'un 

 consulat donne a Cinna pour prix de la plus noire perfidie n'aurait pas echappe 

 a tous les historiens contemporains. Dion Cassius n'en parle qu'apres Seneque ; 

 et ce morceau de Se'neque ressemble plus a une declamation qu'a une ve'rite his- 

 torique. De plus, Seneque met la scene eri Gaule, et Dion a Rome. II y a 

 la une contradiction qui acheve d'oter toute vraisemblance d cette aventure." 

 But Lipsius imagines that their disagreement as to place does not affect the 

 substance of the narrative : " Itaque dissensus hie in loco et tempore, non ta- 

 men in re, notetur." Comm. in Clement. 1. 1. 



f- See the exquisite description of the field of slaughter in Tacitus : " In- 

 cedunt mrestos locos, visuque ac memoria deformes," et seq, Ann. 1. 1, cap. Cl. 



% Litterae laureate. 



