196 ESSJT upon the PR INC I PL E S 



* 



TACITUS, doubtlefs, feems attached to expreffions more com- 

 monly to be met with in writers of poetry than of profe. Ex- 

 preffions more fimple, at the fame time, might have produced 

 an equal, if not a fuperior effect. By means of thofe Grecifms, 

 in which he abounds, he feldom prefents an idea with more 

 energy than CESAR and LIVY could have done without them. 

 Though high poetical authority often fcreens his ftyle from 

 the imputation of being impure, yet its general character be- 

 comes artificial and too much his own. When the barrennefs 

 of language, befides, does not call for innovations, the writer 

 is blamable who makes them. 



UPON examining the ftyle of TACITUS, we mail find, that 

 he employs fome terms that are either peculiar to himfelf, or 

 fupported by authority not ftrictly claffical. The term dtffugi- 

 um *, though exprefli ve of the idea it prefents, is fupported by no 

 other authority. By being compounded, it heightens the original 

 notion of a rapid departure from an object fuppofed dangerous. 

 The term fuftentaculum f is alfo fingular. It clearly fiiggefts 

 the idea of a neceffary fupport. As a derivative from fujlento, 

 the frequentative from fujlineo, it denotes the conftant preflure 

 of one body upon another immediately under it. AuRito, alfo^ 

 is a verb that is to be found in no other claffic, though, at the 

 fame time, it is highly expremve of the conception which the 

 hiftorian means to prefent by it. " Qui pecunias fcenore 

 " auEiltabant J." As a double frequentative from augeo t it ex- 

 preffes: ftrongly the eager nefs of ufurers to enrich themfelves. 

 The verb reftaurare^ though not peculiar to TACITUS, refts upon 

 authority that is not to be trufted. JUSTIN and ULPIAN ufe 

 it j but the purer writers employ inftaurare in its (lead. 



WE may, befides, difcover in TACITUS fingular ufes of terms 

 that are to be feen in the works of the beft claflics. He takes the 

 adjective avarus y and the abftract noun avaritia, in a fenfe very 



different 



* Hift. lib. i. cap. 39. -fr Ibid; lib. 2. cap. 28. J Ann. lib. 6. cap. 16. 



