17 



shame that the property of the public should be devoured by useless 

 vermin : accordingly, he suppressed among other salaries which had 

 been too lightly bestowed, that of Mesodemus, a lyric poet, who had 

 obtained a pension from Adrian, for some elegiac lines on the death 

 of his favourite Antinous. But he was, notwithstanding, a ge- 

 nerous patron of learned men, particularly of those engaged in 

 the education of youth, and gave them, through all the provinces, 

 the most liberal support. The name of M. Aurelius speaks a vo- 

 lume. At the age of twelve he ranked among the philosophers, 

 wore their habit, and practised their austerities. In oratory, phi- 

 losophy, and a knowledge of civil law, he had no equal. The 

 encouragement which he gave to literature degenerated into 

 indiscriminate liberality. For, though many deserving men en- 

 joyed his bounty, others partook of it who had no recommendation 

 but their beards. Celsus, Lucian, Apuleius, Polyaenus, Pausanias, 

 probably Au. Gellius, and the two Sexti, the stoic and the empiric, 

 were among the writers of this period. Even Commodus, the 

 most execrable savage that ever disgraced a throne, was the patron 

 of Julius Pollux, who had been one of his preceptors, and in- 

 scribed to him the work entitled " Onomasticon." Mention has 

 already been made of Severus.* 



From the cursory review which has thus been taken of the 

 literary taste of the Roman emperors, from the time of Augustus 

 to that of Severus, an interval of about two hundred years, of the 

 encouragement which they gave to letters, and the number of emi- 

 nent writers who lived during this period, it will appear, that lite- 

 rature has no great reason to complain of its interests being ne- 

 glected by those whose influence could promote them best ; or 

 that the great efforts of the Augustan age had exhausted the human 



VOL. XIII. D 



• For more on this Bubject see the Universal History, vol*, xiv. xy. 



