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WIVES OF THE C^SARS. 



Paulatim deinde ad superos Astrsea recessit 



Hac comite, atq. duae pariter fugere sorores. Juv. Sat. 6. 



JULIA, THE WIFE OF TIBERIUS. 



JULIA, the daughter of Augustus and Scribonia, presents a striking 

 instance of the insufficiency of vigilance and care to quell the strength 

 of natural depravity. Her father, who anxiously and fondly beheld 

 in her the only source of an illustrious posterity, betimes anticipated 

 the results of a relaxed and too indulgent education. Studious to 

 accustom Julia to domestic recreation, and, at the same time, to 

 detach by occupation her active disposition from the corrupting 

 pleasures in which her after-life was criminally and notoriously ex- 

 pended, Augustus rigidly apportioned the handiwork and pleasures 

 of her day; and, with a view to the decorum of her conduct, placed 

 her so perpetually within the common observation of his household, 

 that every action of her life was noticed and recorded in the ephemeris 

 of an appointed freedman.* Her intercourse was limited to the in- 

 habitants of the imperial mansion ; and so jealous was Augustus of 

 his daughter's acceptance of the ordinary courtesies of Roman life, 

 that he dispatched a letter to Tucinius, a personable young patrician, 

 reproaching him with the immodesty of a visit purely complimentary. 

 But the precautions of Augustus were unavailing; an auspicious 

 fate awaited him in almost every circumstance of life, but destiny 

 reserved for him the bitterness of a domestic evil, which darkened 

 for a moment the meridian of his happiness, and partially clouded 

 the remainder of his long and prosperous career.f The courtly 

 pertinence of Horace could hardly have supplied a more appropriate 

 commentary on the fortunes or misfortunes of Augustus, had the 

 glory of the prince, the offences of the daughter, and the afflictions of 

 the parent, been the avowed and studied object of his song, than the 

 exquisitely beautiful and philosophic ode to Grosphus,^ which 

 Mons. Sanadon has praised with such peculiar justice and dis- 

 crimination. 



Julia's beauty was of a singular and happy cast, combining, with 

 the strictest regularity of features, the charms of ever-varying ex- 

 pression. Her elegant and winning manners were pervaded by a 

 graceful negligence and joyous ease, which gave vivacity and bril- 



* " Filiam et nepstes ita instituit, ut etiam lanificio assuefaceret ; vetaretque 

 loqui, aut agere quidquam, nisi propulam ; et quod in diurnos commentaries 

 reterretur." Sueton. in August. The commentator (Casaubon) adds, "Diurni 

 isti commentarii sunt privatae domus August! ephemerides, quas servus vel- 

 libertus aliquis curabat, qui & memoria vel a commentariis dicebatur." 



t " Sed laetum eum atque fidenteni et sobole et disciplina domus, Fortuna 

 destituit." Sueton in August. 



4: u Otium divos rogat in patenti 



Prensus JEgaeo, &c." Od. 1. 2. 16. 



