[ 9 ] 



for his pains. The fuppofition is too ludicrous to admit a doubt 

 of its faifehood ; and this being as confidently afferted as any 

 circumftance, muft make us doubt of the truth of all the reft. 

 Let us combine, then, the abfence of the Emperor from the 

 capital when the fire began, his adive orders before he left 

 Antium, his unwillingnefs to leave it, the fituation of the city 

 on his arrival, and his behaviour after the conflagration, and fee 

 where we can find the leaft probable trace of the tale of 

 Suetonius. 



The fpot where the fire broke out affords another very ftrong 

 argument of want of defign; In pradlis TtgeUini JEmilianh froru- 

 perat, fays Tacitus. He obferves, indeed, that plus infamia in- 

 cendium habuit, for that reafon, that is, becaufe it was on the 

 eftate of Tigellinus ; but where were thefe Praedia ? in the diflria 

 called the iEmiliana, Now this diftrid was quite without the 

 city, as any one will find upon confulting the plan of ancient 

 Rome. Eorum adificia qui habitant extra Portam Frumentariam, aut 

 in jEmilianis, fays Varro, lib. iii. De re Rujlica. What could 

 have induced the Emperor, whofe abilities do not feem to 

 have been contemptible, to have adopted fuch an extraordinary 

 method of firing the city, by kindling the flame in its remoteft 

 fuburbs ? " He was accufed," fays Tacitus, « of having been 

 " aduated with a defire of founding a new city, and calling it by 

 " his name." Did he do fo ? And what prevented him? The 

 confequcnce did not follow, and the imputed means were abfurdly 

 difproportionate to the motive. 



Vol. V. 



( B ) That 



