( 585 ) 

 WIVES OF THE CAESARS. No. II.* 



" Paulatirn delude ad superos Astrsea recessit 

 Hac comite, atq. duae pariter fugere sorores." 



Juv. Sat. 6. 



Scribonia. Livia Drusilla. 



IT had been vainly supposed by the vulgar, and speciously pro- 

 mised by the republican assassins, that the death of Caesar would be 

 followed by the perfect restitution of Roman liberty. On the con- 

 trary, that event appears to have relaxed the bonds by which the 

 passions of subordinate tyrants were restrained, and to have let loose 

 upon the empire generally the vainest yet most sanguinary aspirants 

 to chief authority that had hitherto disturbed the peace and devas- 

 tated the community of Rome. In the fury of the former factions, 

 the partisan might trust the pledged protection of his chief. It was 

 reserved for the second triumvirate to frame an understanding, by 

 which the blood of a distracted country should be shed by the caprice, 

 the vengeance, or suspicion of either of its members ; and to such 

 ferocious extremities did the objects of their convention lead them, 

 that, at the sacrifice of every principle of honour and fidelity, of the 

 common instincts of humanity itself, the life of any partisan or rela- 

 tive demanded by either of these flagitious monsters, could on no con- 

 sideration be refused to his vindictive appetite by either of the others. 

 As the interests of the chiefs of the triumvirate had been distinct and 

 hostile to each other ; as they had been fiercely pursued ; and, as 

 party feeling had been bitterly imbued with private hatred, it neces- 

 sarily followed that the former zeal and exploits of the adherents of 

 either chief would be objects of reciprocal resentment. Accordingly, 

 the terms of the triumvirate amounted to a virtual proscription of the 

 brave and faithful followers, by whom the fortunes of its respective 

 members had been previously maintained. Eminent fidelity and 

 merit were signally distinguished by the pains of an insatiable and 

 retrospective hatred ; and there is, perhaps, for cruelty, ambition, in- 

 gratitude, and perfidy, no parallel to. the iniquity of the triumvirate, 

 in the most flagrant crimes recorded in the annals of mankind. 



It will not be foreign to our purpose, if we inspect the state of 

 parties, immediately after the assassination of the great dictator. 

 Octavius and Mark Antony took arms, professing the revenge of 

 Caesar's death ; though each of them, as was apparent from the sequel, 

 was actuated by individual ambition. Antony held the consulate, 

 which gave him sovereign authority. His relatives possessed the 

 most important offices in Rome : one of his brothers was a tribune of 

 the people ; the other exercised the functions of a praetor. Elated by 

 this extensive influence, Antony boldly asserted his pretensions, and 

 demanded the government of Cisalpine Gaul, which the dictator had 

 conferred on Decius Brutus, one of the conspirators, who had im- 

 bued his hands in the blood of his benefactor. But the objects of 



* Continued from the February Number. 

 M.M. No. 102. 4 F 



