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In the downfall of the glory of the Eoman aristocracy all the in- 

 habitants of the capital were indirectly fellow-sufferers. They could no 

 longer traffic in their votes, they had no longer to be conciliated by 

 largesses and pleasures. Like the aristocracy, they also jassed first 

 through the transition period of Augustus, who was gay, liberal, fond 

 of public rejoicings, processions, theatres, games, and gladiatorial 

 combats. All this gaiety was nearly abruptly put an end to under the 

 retired and econpmical Tiberius. He reluctantly and rarely granted 

 the shows in Avhich the people took their greatest delight. He never 

 attended them in person, unless on rare occasions. His austere 

 character and morose demeanour, his taciturnity and coldness placed 

 him in unfavourable contrast with Augustus, who had freely and gaily 

 mixed with the people in their public holidays. For the first time the 

 people felt, that they were of no account ; they saw the mockery of 

 sovereignty taken from them, they acknowledged their master, they 

 quailed before him, and found their chief consolation and their 

 only revenge in hatred. Thus it was, that the memory of this Em- 

 peror was cursed by his contemporaries and loathed by all succeeding 

 generations, an Emperor who was one of the few men of a wretched 

 period, who deserve our respect, a man, who had no specious qualities, 

 which captivate the vulgar eye, but who was a statesman and a ruler 

 of the first-class ; a man, whom though we cannot love, we are bound 

 to esteem. He was not free from the vices of his race, his age, and 

 his position. As a Eoman he was proud, haughty, imperious, hard- 

 hearted to the verge of cruelty; as a sovereign on an insecure throne 

 he was jealous, suspicious, dissimulating, crafty; as a Claudian he was 

 sarcastic, bitter, and overbearing. The dangers of his early life and 

 the ignominious treatment of his more powerful relatives had made 

 him taciturn, cold, retired, misanthropic; the conduct of the public 

 men of his time and of the populace inspired him with a supreme 

 contempt of men. But on the other hand he was austere, plain, and 

 frugal in his private life ; free from vanity and ostentation, though 

 earnestly striving to secure the respect of all good men and an unsul- 

 lied name in the annals of his country; firm in dangers, economical of 

 the resources of the state, active, indefatigable, conscientious in the 

 administration of public affairs, wise in council, just and generous as a 

 judge, fearless and regardless of obloquy. Such was the man, whom a 

 great historian of England has called a "detestable and detested monster," 

 and the events of whose reign, as it has besn said but lately by an 

 eminent scholar, are " little more than the exhibition of his detestable 

 character." I have ventured to raise my voice for this outcast, and I 

 hope that histoiy will reconsider her verdict, and give him his due. 



