224 History of Nature. [BooK VII. 



Man born a Slave who was valued so high as JDaphnis, the 

 Grammarian, was : for Cn. Pisaurensis sold him for 300,700 

 Sesterces to M. Scaurus, Prince of the City. In this our Age 

 Stage-players have gone beyond this Price, and that not a 

 little ; but they had bought their Freedom. And no Wonder, 

 for it is reported that the Actor Roscius in former Time had 

 yearly earned 500,000 Sesterces. Unless any one may desire 

 in this Place to hear of the Treasurer of the Armenian War, 

 a little while before carried on on account of Tyridates, and 

 who was made free by Nero for 120,000 Sesterces. But, by 

 Hercules, it was the War that cost so much, and not the Man. 

 Like as Sutorius Priscus gave to Sejanus 3500 Sesterces for 

 Pcezon, one of his Eunuchs : but this was more for Lust than 

 for his Beauty. But he executed this infamous Bargain at a 

 Time when the City was in Sorrow, and no Man had any 

 Leisure to utter a Word in reproach. 



CHAPTER XL. 

 The Excellency of Nations. 



IT will be scarcely questioned, that of all Nations in the 

 World, the Romans 1 are the most excellent for every Virtue ; 

 but to determine who was the happiest Man is above the 

 reach of human Understanding, considering that some fix 



1 The Romans were a haughty people; and they had much to be 

 proud of: for we have no records of a nation that ever understood the 

 arts of government or war better than they. But of what is properly 

 denominated science they knew little; and the Chevalier Bunsen re- 

 marks, that they did not reverence or recognise human rights in any 

 nation beside their own. The love of knowledge and truth for their own 

 sakes was altogether unknown among them, and they never conferred 

 benefit except for their own advantage. Their calculating self-love made 

 them, essentially, beneficial rulers ; but they manifested no esteem for their 

 subjects ; and we may add, that the most probable motive which actuated 

 Plutarch in writing his " Lives," and especially for arranging them in 

 parallels, was to shew covertly that men, as great in all respects as any 

 Romans, had lived in Greece. Germanicus is judged to have been an 

 exception to this Roman constitution of mind ; and probably there were 

 others of lower rank ; but they are to be regarded as simply the exceptions 



