BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 231 



cast down by her violence, when a Censor was dragged 

 through the middle of the City (the only way indeed to bring 

 him to his Death) ; dragged to the Capitol itself, to which 

 he had ascended triumphant : but he never so dragged along 

 those Captives, for whose Spoils he triumphed. And this 

 Outrage was the greater in regard of the Felicity which 

 ensued ; considering that this Macedonicus was in danger to 

 have lost so great an Honour as this solemn and stately 

 Sepulture, in which he was carried forth to his Funeral Fire 

 by his triumphant Children, as if he had triumphed again at 

 his very burial. Truly that can be no sound Felicity, which 

 is interrupted by any Indignity of Life, much less by so great 

 a one as this. To conclude, I know not whether there be 

 more cause to glory for the modest carriage of Men, or to 

 grieve at the Indignity, that among so many Metelli so auda- 

 cious a Villany as this of Catinius was never revenged. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

 Of Divus Augustus. 1 



ALSO, in Divus Augustus, whom all the World declareth 

 to be in this rank of fortunate Men, if we diligently consider 

 all things, we perceive great Changes of the Human lot 

 Driven by his Uncle from the Generalship of the Horse, 

 and, notwithstanding his Petition, seeing Lepidus preferred 

 to that place, he laboured under the reproach of the Pro- 

 scription ; and for being one of the Triumvirate, united with 

 the most wicked Citizens ; and this with a less than equal 

 share (of the Roman Empire), for Antony obtained the 

 greatest Portion. He was Sick at the Battle of Philippi ; 

 his flight; and while still Sick, for three Days his lying 

 hidden in a Marsh ; so that (as Agrippa and Meccenas con- 

 fess), he grew into a kind of Dropsy, and his Sides were 

 distended with Water under the Skin ; his Shipwreck in 



1 It is a proof of the imperfect manner in which history has been gene- 

 rally treated, that Suetonius has written the life of Augustus Caesar 

 without the mention of a great part of these particulars, and of none of 

 them in the point of view here given. Wern. Club. 



