15 



cause of either best suited the exhibition of his powers, and his in- 

 stitution of the famous rhetorical competitions at Lyons, though 

 followed by such ludicrous results, shew that the interests of litera- 

 ture were not forgotten. He pleaded causes after he had obtained 

 the honor of a triumph, and composed comedies in Greek which 

 . were extant in the time of Suetonius. His successor Claudian, ac- 

 cording to Seneca, was an encoura^ier of learning as well as a 

 writer. He wrote two histories, one of the Tyrrhenians in twenty 

 books, the other of the Carthaginians in eight ; and added three 

 letters to the Roman alphabet, one of which is only conjectural, the 

 other two, the JSolic digamma and the anti-sigma are well known. 

 Though Nero thought it the acme of glory to be hailed as the best 

 hai-per in the world, he did not disdain the praise of eloquence. 

 While he was yet a youth he pleaded the causes of the Ilians, the 

 Rhodians, and the people of Bononia, with such ability, that he 

 gained their respective suits. His cruelty in putting Seneca and 

 Lucan to death, is no proof of his hostility to philosophy and poetry. 

 He might punish the indiscretion of an artist, without any wish to 

 exterminate the art. Galba was well versed in the sciences, and 

 had made civil law his particular study. Vespasian, the only one 

 of all the emperors whose moral character, as Tacitus observes, 

 was meliorated by the possession of power, promoted both the fine 

 arts and the mechanical, more than any of his predecessors. He 

 invited the most celebrated poets to Rome, and gave annual sala- 

 ries, payable out of the public treasury, to the Greek and Latin 

 professors of rhetoric. His son, the virtuous Titus, was both an 

 orator and a poet, and could speak on any subject with fluency and 

 learning, without premeditation. If Domitian did not feel, he 

 pretended, a love for letters, and is said to have succeeded so well 

 in composition, that he was the admiration both, of Pliny and Quin- 



