138 THE WIVES OF THE C.ESARS. 



of Lucretia,* Clselia, and the vestal Claudia, continued long to ani- 

 mate the generous emulation of the Roman ladies. Fame was a laud- 

 able solicitude ; honourable alike and advantageous to the bold yet 

 simple genius of arising people ; it was, accordingly,, the inspiring love 

 of glory which impressed the early ages of the commonwealth with 

 that distinctive character of lofty pride which we shall seek in vain 

 in the declining periods of the empire. Emulation was the mighty 

 source of Roman grandeur; but, if a laudable ambition was the 

 secret spring and common parent of the pristine virtues of the 

 Roman state, the guilty objects of that passion, in the latter ages of 

 its history, were as infallibly the causes of its fall. The extent of con- 

 quest, and the consequent exuberance of wealth and foreign luxury, 

 destroyed a fabric raised in poverty and warfare. Nor did the in- 

 fection first assail the limits of the Roman domination ; the corruption 

 rankled at the core, and spread to the extremities ; for the greatness 

 of its power was yet discernible in the remotest regions of the em- 

 pire, when the certain principle of ruin was visible at home. The 

 oppressive usurpations of the first triumvirate had raised a multitude 

 of selfish passions, inimical to the common welfare of the empire ; and 

 the open rupture of its chiefsac hieved the consummation of the 



* The indignant spirit of Lucretia disdained a life which Tarquin had forcibly 

 despoiled of its matronal purity. u Vos inquit videritis, quid illi debeatur ; 

 ego me, etsi peccato absolve, supplicio non libero. Nee ulla deinde impudica 

 Lucretise exemplo vivet. Cultrum, quern sub veste abditum pabebat, eum in 

 corde defigit: prolapsa quein vulnus, moribunda cecidit." Liv. 1. 1, c. 58. The 

 noble virgin Clselia, the daughter of Poplicola the consul, was a hostage in the 

 camp of king Porsenna. Fortune favoured her escape; she deceived the watch 

 of the Etrurian army, and at the head of a band of virgins swam the Tiber, 

 amidst the javelins of the pursuing enemy. The king's ambassadors reclaimed 

 the leader of the daring enterprise, and Clselia was accordingly restored ; but 

 Porsenna, admiring her intripid character, permitted her to choose a certain 

 number of the lloman hostages, and generously dismissed them, with Clselia at 

 their head, in freedom to their country. The heroine's election proclaimed the 

 sensibility and prudence of a virgin. "The wise republic, studious to inspire the 

 imitation of such exemplary virtue, commemorated the novelty of her glorious 

 actions by a novelty devoted to their renown. " Productis omnibus, elegisse 

 impubes dicitur ; quod et virginitati decorum, et consensu obsidum ipsorum 

 probabile erat, earn aetatem potissimum liberari ab hoste, quse maxime oppor- 

 tuna injurise esset. Pace redintegrata, Roniani novam in fsemina virtutem 

 novo genere honoris, statua equestri, donavere. In summa Sacra via fuit posita 

 virgo insidens equo." Liv. 1. 2. c. 13. The preceding facts are credible of any 

 age or country where the austerity of virtue was sacred; or where, as Livy 

 tells us, << ergo ita honorata virtute, fseminse quoque ad publica decora exci- 

 tatae" (1. ii. c. 13), the females were affected by incentives of renown. But 

 the fame of Claudia, reposing on a miracle, may challenge our mistrust. " An- 

 nibale Italian! deyastante, ex response librorum Sibyllinorum, mater Deum e 

 Pessinuhte arcessita : cum adverso Tiberi veheretur, repente in alto stetit ; et 

 cum moveri nullis viribus posset, ex libris cognitum, castissimse demum felinse 

 manu moveri posse. Turn Claudia, virgo vestalis, falso incestus suspecta, 

 Beam oravit, ut si pudicam sciret, sequeretur : et zona imposita navem movit." 

 Sez. Aur. Victor de Vir . Illust. 46. The solemnity with which the marvel is 

 recorded is amusing ; yet a miraculous tradition, at once attesting the prophetic 

 verity of the Sibylline books and vindicating virtue by celestial agency, was 

 a pious fable, neither unimportant to the popular system of belief, nor irrational, 

 as it disclosed by means divine the innocence which human slander or suspicion 

 had impeached, and the sacred sanction of a Deity had wondrously confirmed. 



