142 WIVES OF THE C^SARS. 



nevolence or even partially infected with presumption, his affable and 

 gentle manners. The affection and policy of Augustus were equally 

 concerned in the culture of his heart and mind ; the wisdom and fore- 

 sight of that experienced prince were fruitfully expended on a 

 generous nature and an able capacity ; and had the purpose of 

 Augustus been successful, he would have left in the matured and 

 steady habits of Marcellus, a grateful blessing to the Roman people. 

 Octavia, Caesar's sister, was inconsolable for his loss.* Virgil, a con- 

 temporary of Marcellus, employing the invention of a poet, in a 

 strain of prophecy and pathos has eulogized the hopeful prince, and 

 endeavoured, by the least objectionable flattery that was ever proffered 

 to the sorrows of a mother, to soothe her mortal loss by the sublime 

 ascription of an immortal attribute. The virtues of Marcellus justi- 

 fied the panegyric ; the maternal excellence of Octavia well deserved 

 it. The poet, when reciting it to Augustus and his sister, was over- 

 come himself by the affecting theme, and his exquisite enunciation 

 was impeded, for a moment, by a stifled sob : 



" Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra 

 Esse sinent" 



electrically touched Octavia and the emperor ; they anticipated the 

 ensuing subject ; their eyes were fixed on one another, and simulta- 

 neously filled with tears. The mother's sensibility was painfully 

 augmented by each succeeding image, which too pathetically brought 

 to her belief the probablities which fate so prematurely scathed. 

 The hands and lips of Virgil trembled, as he uttered 



" Heu ! miserande puer ! si qua fata aspera rumpas 

 Tu Marcellus eris !" 



and Octavia, in an ecstasy of anguish, fainted at the name. 



* Seneca (Consol. ad Marciam.) propounds by way of contrast,'the grief of 

 Livia and Octavia ; of the latter who resigned herself to an inconsolable sorrow ; 

 of the former who resisted the dominion of affliction, and readily regained her 

 equanimity " Cito animum in sedem suam reposuit. Octavia et Livia, altera 

 soror Augusti, altera uxor, amiserunt filios juvenes, utraque spe futuri principis 

 certa." If the cases are intended to constitute a parallel or an antithesis, the 

 comparison is utterly imperfect and unjust. Octavia had lost her only son 

 Tiberius still remained to Livia. The well-known character of Livia may 

 sanction pur belief that she was easily reclaimed from unavailing grief by the 

 living object of her ambition. On the other hand, our knowledge of Octavia, a 

 pattern of maternal tenderness, and still the mother of the two Marcellse, induces 

 us to doubt the savage features of her grief, which Seneca has given more, per- 

 haps, in the style of rhetoric than in the simple truth of history : " Nullum 

 finem, per omne vitse suse tempus, flendi gemendique fecit ; nee ullas admisit 

 voces salutare aliquid afferentes : ne avocari quidem se passa est. Intenta in 

 unam rem, et toto [animo affixa, talis per omnem vitam fuit qualis in funere. 

 Non dico non ausa consurgere, sed allevari recusans; secundam orbitatem 

 judicans, lacrimas omittere. Nullam habere imaginem filii carissimi voluit, 

 nullam sibi fieri de illo mentionem. Oderat omnes matres, et in Liviam max- 

 ime furebat; quia videbatur ad illius filium transisse sibi promissa felicitas. 

 Tenebris et solitudini familiarissma, ne ad fratrem quidem respiciens, carmina 

 celebrandae Marcelli memoriae composita, aliosque studiorum honores rejecit, 

 et aures suas adversus omne solatium clausit, a solemnibus officiis seducta, et 

 ipsam magnitudinis fraternse nimio circumlucentem fortunam exosa, defodit se, 

 et abdidit. Assidentibus liberis, nepotibus, lugubrem vestem non deposuit ; non 

 sine contumelia omnium suorum, quibus salvis orba sibi videbatur." 



