WIVES OF THE C.ESA11S. 



fancy, to the indifferent and senseless multitude. If, by the consti- 

 tution of society, the mass of human nature could derive from royal, 

 or from less exalted dignity, the proximate result of virtue, the sensi- 

 bility of millions might respond to the calamity of an immediate bene- 

 factor. But the virtues of the great are, generally speaking, so ob- 

 structed and detained before their blessing falls upon the people, 

 that the charm of their immediacy the only one with multitudes 

 is lost upon perceptions of a merely near and instantaneous charac- 

 ter. And even if the vulgar nature of mankind were capable of 

 more remote and patient scrutiny, how few are the instances in his- 

 tory that could pretend to such unanimous and deep regret ? The 

 worth of Drusus as a soldier was attested by the manly sorrow of 

 the army he had last commanded : his social and domestic virtues by 

 the cordial lamentation of Augustus, Livia, Antonia, and his private 

 friends. These, indeed, are credible and glorious testimonies of de- 

 sert ; and the individual who commands the sorrow of a father, 

 mother, wife ; the grief of honourable friendship, and the posthumous 

 applauses of an honest soldiery, may well dispense with flattering in- 

 ventions and the cold hyperboles of rhetoric. Drusus died in Ger- 

 many, whither Tiberiust had been immediately despatched on the 

 communication of his illness. He arrived in time to witness his 

 decease. The funeral pomp was headed by Tiberius on foot, who 

 led the sad procession from the Rhine. The civic functionaries of 

 the different towns through which it passed, attended it throughout 

 their districts. Augustus, in the depth of winter too, accompanied 

 the corpse from Pavia to Rome. The public mourning was exhi- 

 bited with suitable magnificence. Tiberius pronounced the funeral 

 oration of his brother, in the Forum ; while another was delivered 

 by Augustus in the Flaminian Circus. It is almost needless to ob- 

 serve, the senate, more to mark its homage to Livia and Augustus, 

 than its reverence of the memory of Drusus, was prodigal of fulsome 

 praise and complimentary decrees. The corpse was carried to the 

 Campus Martius by Roman knights and sons of senators ; and when 

 consumed, its ashes were collected in an urn and placed in the mau- 

 soleum of the Julian family. The epitaph of Drusus in verse, and 

 the history of his life in prose, were written by Augustus ; unfortu- 

 nately, both of them are lost. 



Livia's energies now were concentrated in favour of Tiberius. 

 Augustus was advanced in years, and she perceived the positive ne- 

 cessity of giving indefeasible effect to her digested plans. She 

 governed Caesar so notoriously, that his authority in Rome was second 

 to her own. Her emissaries were diffused throughout the empire ; 

 and the will of Livia was achieved with equal certainty on the con- 

 fines of the farthest province, or in the heart of the metropolis. She 

 had gradually, with a secret but unerring hand, subdued whatever 

 obstacles arose to the succession of her son. Marcellus perished. 

 The union of Agrippa with his widow, Julia, the daughter of Augus- 

 tus, produced successive offspring ; impediments again, which time 

 as certainly removed. Livia spurned compunction. With the talent 

 to corrupt and animate her creatures by the springs of interest, she 

 united the decisive vigour of a mind that wielded fear with an inex- 



M.M. No. 104. T 



