86 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



lives for their respective laudations of Paetus Thrasea and Priscus Helvidius; 

 and that the rage of authority was not limited to the writers themselves but was even 

 extended to their writings, and that the triumvirs were instructed to burn the memo- 

 rials of these most illustrious men in the comitium and forum. They dreamed, I 

 suppose, that by this fire the voice of the Roman people, the freedom of the senate, 

 and the approving knowledge of the human race were being extinguished forever, 

 since they had driven out the teachers of philosophy and forced every liberal pursuit 

 into exile, lest anything honorable should anywhere confront them. Verily we have 

 given a great example of long-suffering; just as the days of old saw the extreme of 

 liberty, so our days have seen the extreme of slavery, having been deprived through 

 the espionage of the informers of the very interchange of speech. Yea, memory itself 

 we should have lost with our voice, if to forget had been in our power to the same 

 extent as to be silent. Now at length life is returning. But, although in the very 

 beginning of a most beneficent regime Nerva Caesar has brought together two things 

 aforetime widely separated, the principate and freedom, although Nerva Trajan 

 daily increases the happiness of the times, and public security has taken unto herself 

 not only hope and prayers but the firm confidence of her prayers' fulfillment, yet in 

 the nature of human weakness remedies are slower in operation than evils. Just as 

 our bodies are slow in growth but rapid in destruction, so it is easier to tread out 

 ability and zeal than to revive them. Nay, there actually comes upon a people a 

 certain pleasure in mere inactivity: slothfulness is first hated and finally loved. 

 Through a period of fifteen years, a great stretch of human life, many have fallen 

 from natural accidents, and all our most energetic citizens from the cruelty of the 

 prince; only a few of us are left, survivors, if we may use the expression, not only 

 of others but even of ourselves, inasmuch as from the mid span of our life have been 

 taken so many years, in which by a silent journey those of us who were in our prime 

 have come to old age, and those of us who were old have arrived at life's very 

 limits. 



Turning to a consideration of the direct influence of the respective 

 emperors we are able to trace with sufficient clearness the operation of 

 their characters on the literature of their reigns. Since the work of 

 Vespasian was so essentially preparatory, since the reign of Titus was 

 practically inoperative from its brevity, and since the reigns of Nerva 

 and Trajan are so closely identified, we may content ourselves with 

 speaking of Domitian and Trajan. 



Domitian, prior to his accession, unquestionably manifested a 

 considerable interest in literature. This interest our authors generally 

 consider entirely feigned; but it was probably more or less genuine. 

 The fact of his having developed into a tyrant and stifled freedom of 



