

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 29 



senators likewise as are learned proceed upon more safe and 

 substantial principles than mere men of experience the former 

 view dangers afar off, whilst the latter discover them not till 

 they are at hand, and then trust to their wit to avoid them. This 

 felicity of times under learned princes appears eminent in the 

 age between the death of Domitian and the reign of Commodus, 

 comprehending a succession of six princes, all of them learned, 

 or singular favorers and promoters of learning. And this age, 

 for temporal respects, was the happiest and most flourishing 

 that ever the Roman state enjoyed ; as was revealed to Domi- 

 tian in a dream the night before he was slain,/ when he beheld 

 a neck and head of gold growing upon his shoulders ; a vision 

 which was, in the golden times succeeding this divination, fully 

 accomplished. For his successor Nerva was a learned prince, 

 a familiar friend and acquaintance of Apollonius, who expired 

 reciting that line of Homer " Phcebus, with thy darts revenge 

 our tears, "w Trajan, though not learned himself, was an ad- 

 mirer of learning, a munificent patron of letters, and a founder 

 of libraries. Though the taste of his court was warlike, pro- 

 fessors and preceptors were found there in great credit and ad- 

 miration. Adrian was the greatest inquirer that ever lived, and 

 an insatiable explorer into everything curious and profound. 

 Antoninus, possessing the patient and subtle mind of a scho- 

 lastic, obtained the sobriquet of Cymini Sector, or splitter of 

 cumin-seed.t Of the two brothers who were raised to the rank 

 of gods, Lucius Commodus was versed in a more elegant kind 

 of learning, and Marcus was surnamed the philosopher. These 

 princes excelled the rest in virtue and goodness as much as they 

 surpassed them in learning. Nerva was a mild philosopher, 

 and who, if he had done nothing else than give Trajan to the 

 world, would have sufficiently distinguished himself. Trajan 

 was most famous and renowned above all the emperors for the 

 arts both of peace and war. He enlarged the bounds of em- 

 pire, marked out its limits and its power. He was, in addition, 

 so great a builder, that Constantine used to call him Parietaria, 

 or Wallflower,^ his name being carved upon so many walls. 

 Adrian strove with time for the palm of duration, and repaired 

 its decays and ruins wherever the touch of its scythe had ap- 

 peared. Antoninus was pious in name and nature. His 

 nature and innate goodness gained him the reverence and af- 

 fection of all classes, ages, and conditions ; and his reign, like 



