303 



SCAURUS. 



SCAURUS. 



3C4 



the gaieties of the season, which he could not do consistently with 

 his character as a churchman, he and three friends hit on the device 

 of covering themselves with honey, and rolling in feathers. Thus 

 plumed they entered the town ; but the joke was thought too strong 

 even for Carnival licence, and being assaulted and plucked, the 

 unfeathered bipeds were fain to escape by jumping into the Sarthe, 

 and hiding in the rushes. The other three died in consequence of this 

 adventure; and Scarron himself contracted maladies from cold and 

 exposure which rendered him for the rest of his life, to use his own 

 phrase, an abridgment ('raccourci') of human suffering. 



Disease and pain could not however subdue his lively spirit, and the 

 rest of his life was spent in ministering by his writings and conversation 

 to the amusement of the courtly and the gay, to whom his house became 

 a rendezvous ; and not being troubled with an over-scrupulous delicacy, 

 he obtained both from private liberality and court favour the means of 

 leading an easy and expensive life. In 1652 he became acquainted 

 with Mademoiselle d'Aubigne" (afterwards Madame de Maintenon), then 

 in a state of poverty and dependence. His heart, capable, notwith- 

 standing its levity, of noble emotions, was touched by her merit and 

 her distress ; and with a delicate and disinterested generosity he offered 

 to her the choice either of entering a convent at his expense, or of 

 sharing his precarious fortunes as his wife. She chose the latter ; and 

 chastened by her influence, the society of his house, always a favourite 

 resort of the wits, became more select, but still more brilliant. Mean- 

 while his fortune became smaller and smaller; for on his marriage he 

 had lost his canonry, and his other chief dependence, the profit arising 

 from the sale of his works, diminished greatly towards the end of his 

 life. This however, like all other evils, he bore with unflinching gaiety ; 

 and his last days were only troubled by anxiety for the prospects of 

 his wife, whose conduct in a trying situation had been irreproach- 

 able, and for whom he had conceived a high affection and esteem. 

 [MAINTENON.] He died October 14, 1660 ; and his last words were, 

 " I could not have supposed it so easy to make a joke of death." 



One cannot but sympathise with a man who bore great sufferings 

 with such unconquerable cheerfulness; and that there was much to 

 love in Scarron's libertine and thoughtless character is proved by the 

 affection of a large circle of friends, including many of the most dis- 

 tinguished characters of the time. His works bear the impress of his 

 mind : witty, lively, unlaboured, and unrefined, they were despised by 

 the critic Boileau, but favourites on the stage and with the people. 

 The plots of his comedies were mostly borrowed from the Spanish ; 

 they are slight, irregular, and. farcical ; but they made people laugh. 

 His collected works have been published in various editions. The 

 chief of them are ' L'Eneide Travestie,'8 books, continued by Moreau 

 de Brazey ; Comedies ; ' Le Roman Comique,' the most lasting of his 

 works; '.Nouvelles Espagnoles,' translated from the Spanish ; and his 

 Letters. Most of Scarron's works have been translated into English ; 

 some by the facetious (to give him the usual epithet) Tom Brown, and 

 the ' Roman Couiique ' by Oliver Goldsmith. 



SCAURUS is the cognomen of a branch of the patrician gens of the 

 ^Emilii, but it was also borne by other families, such as the Aurelii. 

 The house of the ^Emilii Scauri did not attain high honours until the 

 latter period of the republic, and there are only two members of it 

 who have acquired reputation in the history of Rome, M. ^Emilius 

 Scaurus, the princeps senatus, who was consul in B.C. 115, and his sou, 

 who bore the same name. The first of the family mentioned in history 

 is L. ^Emilius Scaurus, who had the command of a part of the fleet in 

 the war against Antiochus, B.C. 190. (Liv., xxxvii. 31.) 



M. ^EMILIUS SCAURUS, the princeps seuatus, was born in B.C. 163. 

 His father, though a patrician, was poor, and carried on the business 

 of a charcoal merchant (carbonarium negotium), (Aurel. Viet., ' De 

 Vir. 111.,' c. 72) ; and when he died, the son, for want of means, hesi- 

 tated whether he should devote himself to public affairs or engage in 

 some lucrative business. He decided upon the former. He first 

 distinguished himself as a soldier in Spain, and afterwards (B.C. 126) 

 he served unrler L. Aurelius Orestes in Sardinia. A few years after- 

 wards (B.C. 123), when he obtained the office of curule sedile, he was 

 not able to exhibit to the people the games customary on that occasion, 

 but he made up this deficiency by a just and punctual fulfilment of 

 the duties of his office. In the year B.C. 120 he was praetor urbanus, 

 and hia coins, on which the head of Apollo is represented, probably 

 belong to this year, and refer to the Ludi Apollinares, the celebration 

 of which was always conducted by the prsetor urbanus. At the time 

 when Hiempsal sought help at Rome against Jugurtha, Scaurus was 

 among the first who urged the necessity of punishing the usurper, and 

 did not, like many others, accept the bribes that were offered to him. 

 This conduct however is attributed by Sallust ('Jug.,' 15) not to his 

 love of justice, but to his fear of detection ; and this opinion is suffi- 

 ciently confirmed by his subsequent conduct in Africa (Sallust, 'Jug.,' 

 29) and on other occasions. In the year B.C. 116 he offered himself 

 as a candidate for the consulship, but without success. (Cic., ' Pro 

 Muren.,' 17.) In the following year however he not only obtained the 

 consulship, but in the course of the same year he was made princeps 

 aenatus. During his consulship he carried two laws, one a Lex 

 Sumtuaria, and another respecting the suffrage of freedmen ; and he 

 also triumphed over the Ligurians and several Alpine tribes. 



In B.C. 109 Scaur ua was censor with Livius Drusus, and in this 

 capacity he restored the Mulviaa bridge and formed the Via JSmilia, 



which ran past Pisa and Luna to Dertona. When his colleague died, 

 Scaurus, according to custom, should have laid down his office ; but 

 he refused, until the tribunes threatened him with imprisonment. In 

 B.C. 107 Scaurus was made consul a second time. His unsuccessful 

 competitor, P. Rutiliua, brought a charge of bribery and corruption 

 (' ambitus ') against him ; but he was acquitted, and then brought the 

 same charge against his adversary. (Cic., ' Brut.,' 30 ; ' De Orat.,' ii. 

 69.) Some years afterwards one of his eons took part in the unfor- 

 tunate campaign against the Cimbri on the Athesis (Adige), under 

 Quintus Catulus ; and when he with several others escaped to Rome, 

 his father BO severely reproached him for his cowardice that the young 

 man put an end to his life. (Valer. Max., v. 8, 4.) In B.C. 100 Scaurus 

 received the office of praofectus annonae, of which the senate had 

 deprived L. Saturninus, and in the ensuing mutiny Scaurus defended 

 the senatorial party. (Cic., ' Pro Rabir.,' 7.) During the latter years 

 of his life he was much harassed by his personal enemies, though their 

 charges, especially those which referred to his avarice, may not have 

 been unfounded. At the time when he was a member of the college 

 of augurs he refused to admit Cn. Domitius yEuobarbus into the 

 college, and was therefore accused by him of having caused the neglect 

 of the sacra of the Roman people at Lanuvium. Scaurus escaped 

 punishment, though with great difficulty. (Ascon. ' In Scaurian,' p. 21, 

 Orelli.) A short time afterwards Q. Servilius Csepio brought against 

 him the charge of having enriched himself in an unlawful manner 

 during an embassy in Asia, but Scaurus again escaped by bringing 

 another accusation against Ccepio. The latter however, to avenge him- 

 self, in the year B.C. 90 induced the tribune Q. Varius to accuse Scaurus 

 of having instigated the Italian allies to take up arms ; but the bold 

 manner in which Scaurus denied the charge induced Varius to with- 

 draw his accusation. (Aurel. Viet, c. ; Ascon., c., p. 22.) It must have 

 been soon after this event that Scaurus died, for we know that in the 

 year B.C. 88 his widow became the wife of Sulla. 



If we were to judge of Scaurus according to the opinion expressed 

 by Cicero ia several of his works, we must consider him one of the 

 first of the Romans : Cicero at least considered him as the greatest 

 man of his age. This partiality of Cicero for Scaurus arose partly from 

 both of them belonging to the aristocratical party, and partly from the 

 circumstance that Cicero when a youth had been introduced into his 

 house, and the impression which the grave and proud aristocrat then 

 made upon the young man was never effaced. Scaurus possessed some 

 of the stern virtues of an ancient Roman, and, though he was an 

 inflexible aristocrat, he enjoyed the highest esteem of the people as 

 well as of the senate, which is shown from the fact that all the charges 

 brought agaitist him fell to the ground. Although originally poor, 

 he had in the latter years of his life amassed immense wealth. The 

 character which Sallust gives of him is that of a "homo nobilis, impiger, 

 factiosus, avidus potentiaj, honoris, divitiarum, ceterurn vitia sua callide 

 occultans;" and it was undoubtedly by the appearance of sincerity 

 and integrity which he kept up throughout his life in such a masterly 

 manner, that he gained the admiration of so many of his contempo- 

 raries. Scaurus also distinguished himself as an orator (Cic., ' Brut,' 

 29, 30), and wrote a work in three books containing the history of his 

 own life, which however is now lost. 



M. ^EMILICS SCAURUS, son of the former, and afterwards son-in-law 

 of Sulla, inherited only the bad qualities of his father. He increased 

 his wealth during the proscriptions of Sulla ; and during the war against 

 Mithridates, when he served as quaestor in the camp of Pompey, he 

 disgraced his name by accepting bribes for declaring himself in favour 

 of Aristobulus against Hyrcanus in Jerusalem. Pompey however gave 

 him the province of Syria with three legions, and here he remained 

 until B.C. 59. During this time he made a plundering inroad into the 

 peaceful country of Aretas, who could only prevent Scaurus from 

 committing further robberies by the enormous bribe of 300 talents. 

 (Joseph., 'Ant Jud.,' xiv. 5.) After his return to Rome he obtained 

 the curule sedileship, in the year in which P. Clodius was tribune, that 

 is, B.C. 58. (Cic., ' Pro Sext,' 54.) The games which he exhibited on 

 this occasion far surpassed everything which the Romans had seen 

 (Plin., 'Hist. Nat.,' xxxvi. 15), and involved him greatly in debt. 

 (Ascon., ' Argum. ad Scaurian.') Soon after this he obtained the office 

 of praetor, and in B.c. 35, during his administration of Sardinia, he 

 extorted exorbitant sums from the inhabitants, in order to enable him 

 to purchase the votes in the approaching election for the consulship. 

 But when he came forward as a candidate the Sardinians, through the 

 person of the tribune P. Valerius Triarius, brought against him the 

 charge of repetundae, and other crimes were at the same time laid to 

 his charge (B.C. 34). His position was dangerous iu the highest degree. 

 He was defended by six advocates, and among them Hortensius and 

 Cicero. A great part of the speech which the latter made for him is 

 still extant. But the exertions of his friends, his own tears and 

 lamentations, and the remembrance of his father, induced the judices 

 to acquit him. A few days afterwards he was accused of ambitus, and 

 although Cicero defended him again, he was condemned, and went 

 into exile. 



M. uEmiUus Scaurus the Younger is one of the worst specimens of 

 Roman nobles towards the end of the republic, and his whole life is 

 one uninterrupted series of crimes. He was despised by all good men, 

 and gained the admiration of the populace only by his unbounded 

 extravagance, for which he indemnified himself by plundering foreign 



