WIVES OF THE CJESAHS. 139 



bias Maximus, a senator, to whom alone of all his friends he had 

 imparted the intention of his journey. They went from Rome by the 

 Praenestine gate, in order that their destination might be unsuspected, 

 should their persons accidentally be recognized on their egress from 

 the city. On the outside of the walls a cisium was in attendance for 

 the emperor and his companion ; and turning to the west the utmost 

 expedition was employed by their conductors to place them in the 

 neighbourhood of Centum-Cellae. There the travellers alighted, and 

 traversing the beautiful and famous verdures on the lower part of the 

 acclivity,* they sought, by the appointed flourish of a cornet, and the 

 appearance of a scout upon a rising ground, an unfrequented nook, in 

 which a pinnace, by the Romans called a celox, was in readiness for 

 their reception. The pilot of the vessel, watching the points and 

 headlands of the coast, pursued his course for the Igilian straits. The 

 weather was serene; the influence of the placid evening absorbed 

 Augustus in a dream ; his looks were rivetted on the Etrurian shore, 

 the land of augury and omens ; but the breeze, which freshened as 

 the pinnace passed between the island and the main, recalled him to 

 a painful sense of his condition. He was the master of the universe, 

 and yet domestic influence had so enchained him, that he was driven 

 secretly to execute the duties of a prince, and to indulge the affection 

 of a near progenitor. The sun was rapidly declining ; he looked with 

 an admiring yet a wistful eye upon its golden orb, and as its descent 

 behind the woody mountains of Igiliumt gradually darkened the 

 glowing beauties of the Tuscan coast, the bitterness of grandeur 

 crossed his sinking spirit. The premature decease of Lucius, Caius, 

 and Marcellus awakened all the tenderness of memory, and filled him 

 with prophetic fears for Posthumus Agrippa. At the moment, a 

 sweet but simple song of shepherds was wafted from the shore; 

 Augustus listened, leaning towards the land, his eyes filled with 

 tears, and he was heard by Maximus to utter, with a tremulous arti- 

 culation, the verses of the lovely pastoral of Maro, 



' ' Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique fuissem 

 Aut custos gregis, aut maturse vinitor uvae !" 



on which he hid his features in his penula, till twilight covered his 

 emotion. The pilot now, relying on the stars, and studious of the 

 winds, and casting the molyhdis warily from time to time, stood 

 straight for the offing of Port Telamon ; and thence, under favour of 

 the cool Etesian breeze, dropped gently down upon Planasia by the 

 break of day. The island lies so lowj that, unexpected as he was, 

 the landing of Augustus was effected without the previous knowledge 



* " Evocatus in consilium k Csesare nostro ad Centum Cellas (hoc loco no- 

 men) longe maximam cepi -voluntatem ; * * villa pulcherrima cingitur viri- 

 dissimis agris ; imminet littori, cujus in sinu quam maximus portus, velut am- 

 phitheatrum." Plin. L. 6. Epist. 31. See also, Ratilius, delaudibus urbis, 

 Etrurice el Italia, 1520, in 4to. 



f " Eminus Igilii silvosa cacumina miror." 



Rutilii, L. 1, v. 325. 



$ " Videtur eadem quse Plinii Planaria (1. 3, c. 6) a specie dicta, eequalis 

 freto, ideoque navigiis failax." Cellar. Geogr. Antiq. 1. 2, c. 10. 



