Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 199 



ALIAS, then, is originally an adverb of time, and is applied 

 indifferently to the paft, the prefent, and the future. 



UPON authority lefs to be trufled than that of CICERO, we 

 find Alias transferred from time to place. Thus, " Idaeus rubtis 

 " appellatus eft, quoniam in Ida non alias nafcitur *." " Nuf- 

 " quam alias tarn torrens fretum f." 



But TACITUS does more than transfer Alias from time ta 

 place, which two furnifh mutual analogies in language, by ap- 

 plying it to the idea of caufe. Thus, when he talks of the 

 pain which TACFARINAS'S meffage gave TIBERIUS, ' Non 

 ' alias magis fua populique Romani contumelia indoluifTe Gffl- 

 " SAREM ferunt, quam quod defertor et prasdo hoftium more 

 ' ageret^." The circumftance of time, which, xipon CICERO'S 

 authority, is the radical and the proper one, is here deferted, 

 and the character and conduft of TAG FARINAS are held forth 

 as a caufe of which the emperor's diftrefs was the effec~l. We 

 are called to attend, not to the degrees of diftrefs which the 

 mind of TIBERIUS had undergone, at different times, that 

 were paft, but to the comparative efficacy of the catifes of its 

 excitement. The amount of that part of the expreffion, then, 

 in which Alias is concerned, is as if it had been ftated thus : 

 f Non ob aliam magis quam hanc caufam," nempe, " quod de- 

 ' fertor, et prsedo hoftium more ageret." 



THE primary power of the particle An is that of interroga- 

 tion upon the part of fome perfon who wifhes to be informed. 

 Thus, in TERENCE, PYTHIAS afks, " An abiit jam a milite ?" 

 To which CHREMES anfwers, " Jamdudum, aetatem ||." 



AN is fometimes employed, not for the purpofe of gaining 

 information, but for that of expreffmg contempt towards the 

 perfon interrogated. A pretended fubmiflion is made upon the 

 part of the enquirer, in order to bring the perfon interrogated 

 to the neceffity, either of condemning himfelf, or of being 



filent. 



* PL:NY, lib. 24. cap. 14. f JUSTIN, lib. 4. cap. i. 8. 



J; Ann. lib, 3. cap. 73 .. [j EUN. lib. 4. cap. 5. 7. 



