ROME. 



dread, whofe infignificant character drew on him the con- 

 tempt of his own friends, and whofe folly, in attempting an 

 invalion of the province of his colleague, was punifhed by 

 his depofition and banishment. Antony had lavilhed the 

 provinces of the empire, in gifts to his paramour and her 

 children. At thele enormities the Roman people were jultly 

 indignant, and the divorce of his wife Octavia, the filler of 

 his colleague, was the fignal of declared hoitilny between 

 them. An immenfe armament, chiefly naval, came to a de- 

 cifive conflict near Actium, on the coait of Epirus. For- 

 tune was favourable to Octavius, and the battie of Actium 

 gave him the empire ot the world. 



Thus have we traced the hittory of Rome from its com- 

 mencement, through all its revolutions, till the final ex- 

 tinction of the republic : before we come to an account of 

 the emperors, we (hall notice fomc particulars relating to 

 the character of the ancient Romans, beginning with the 

 mode of their education, upon which almoit every thing 

 depends, with regard to character, in the largelt extent of 

 the word. 



Roman Education and Literature. — A rigid feverity of 

 manners was the characterise of the Romans under their 

 kings, and in the firlt ages of the republic. The private 

 life of the citizens, which was frugal, temperate, and la- 

 borious, had its influence on their public character. The 

 head of every family had Sovereign authority over all the 

 members that compoled it, and this power, there is every 

 reafon to believe, was feldom, if ever, abufed. The Roman 

 laws did not prefcribe a fyttem and rules for the education 

 of the young, but the manners of the people fupplied this 

 want, and the utmofl attention was bellowed on the early 

 formation of mind and character. The Roman matrons did 

 not abandon their infants to mercenary nurfes. They 

 elleemed thofe duties connected with the nurture of their 

 offspring and the rudiments of their education as the highell 

 points of female merit. A remarkable degree of attention 

 was paid to the language of children, and to the attainment 

 of correctnefs and purity of expreffion ; thus, the Gracchi, 

 the fons of the virtuous and excellent Cornelia, were faid to 

 be educated " nor. tarn in graemio, quam in lermonc matris." 

 This was tht more necelfary, becaufe it was by eloquence 

 more than by the exercife of any other talent that the young 

 Roman could rife to the highell offices and dignities of the 

 date. The exercifes of the body were likewife particularly 

 attended to, and whatever had a tendency to harden the tem- 

 perament, and to confer flrength and agility, was regarded as 

 of prime importance. At Seventeen a youth was conligned 

 to the care of a mailer in rhetoric, whom he attended con- 

 stantly to the forum, or to the courts of juflice, for it was 

 ncccflary to be an orator, to be regarded as an accompliihed 

 gentleman. 



Before the intercourfc with Greece, which took place 

 after the Punic wars, the Roman people were rude and illi- 

 terate, and it was not till five hundred years had elapfed, 

 that the regular drama was introduced at Rome, and the 

 earlieft Roman play were, no doubt, tranflations from the 

 k. Of the earl} Roman drama, Euinus was a great 

 ornament, and from his time the art made a rapid advance- 

 ment. Tlie comedies of PlautUS, the contemporary of 

 Ennius, difplay much knowledge ol human nature, ami 

 are iinl n ad with pleafure. Caecilius improved fo much on 

 the comedies of Plautus, thai h i tioned by Cicero as, 



perhaps, the bell of the Roman comic writers, but none of 

 his compofitious remain. The '• Andria" of Terence, the 

 firll "! ' . i co li , was performed in the year 587 from 

 the building of the city. The comedies of this writ' I 

 chiefly borrowed from the Greek of Menander and 



Vol. XXX. 



dorus, and their merit lies in that nature and limplicity which 

 are obfervable in the ftrufture of the fable ; in the delineation 

 of the characters, and in the delicacy and purity of the 

 fentiments. The Roman comedy was of four different 

 fpecies ; the firjl admitted ferious fcenes and perlonages ; the 

 frond was a reprefentation of ordinary life and manner-- ; 

 the third was where the dialogue was not committed to 

 writing, but the fubjed of the foene was prescribed, and 

 the dialogue was filled up by the talents of the adors : and 

 the Lift included pieces of comedy of the loweft fpe. 

 farces, or entertainments of butfoonery. The R01 

 tragedy kept pi in its advancement with comedy; of tl. 

 bell, namely, of Actius and Pacuvius, there are no re- 

 mains ; thofe under the name of- Seneca are probably the 

 work of different hand,. 



The moll perfect era of Roman literature was the agi 

 Cicero, comprehending all, of the preceding times, whom 

 Cicero might have feen, and all. of the fucceeding, who 

 might have feen him. Thefe will include, among oth 

 Sallult, Cafar, Livy, and Tacitus, as hiftorians. Among 

 the poets were Lucretius, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, 

 Tibullus, and Martial. See the feveral articles in the 

 alphabetical arrangement of the New Cyclopedia. 



State of Philofophy and the Arts among the Romans. — In 

 the earlier periods of the republic, the Romans had little 

 leifure to bellow on the cultivation of the Sciences, and had 

 no conception of philofophical Speculation. It was not till 

 the interval between the war with Perfeus and the third 

 Punic war, that philofophy made its appearance at Rome. 

 Some learned Achaians, banilhed from their country, had 

 fettled in various parts of Italy, and applied themfelves to 

 the cultivation of literature, and the education of youth, 

 diffufing a talle for thofe lludies hitherto unknown to the 

 Romans. Jealous of the introduction of foreign manner? 

 with foreign lludies, the fenate banilhed the Greek philo- 

 fophcrs from Rome. But CarncaeSes and Critolaus came 

 afterwards in the train of an Athenian embaffy, who revived 

 the talle for the Greek philofophy, and left behind them 

 many able difciples who publicly taught their doftrines. 

 As the Roman manners had Hill a tincture of their ancient 

 feverity, the Stoical fyllem prevailed. The philofophy of 

 Ariilotle was little known in Rome till the age of Cicero, 

 and even then the great orator complains that Peripatetic 

 philofophy was but little underilood at Rome, and, on that 

 account, he fent his fon to lludy its doctrines in the fchools 

 of Athens. Lucullus, whofe relidence in Greece gave him 

 an opportunity of being acquainted with all the different 

 fects, dilleminated, on lus return to Rome, a very general 

 tafte for philofophy. The old and new academy had each 

 their partifans j of the former, the molt illuftrious difciples 

 were Marcus Brutus and Tercntius Varro. Cicero, who 

 mull be deemed the moll eminent of all the Roman philo- 

 fophers, is ufually chilled among the fupporters of the new 

 fchooi. 



The cultivation of phyfics, or natural philofophy, feems 

 to have been but little attended to, either by the Greeks or 

 Roma is. T Ihiftoryi F Pliijy is the molt valua 



k ien phyfics, 



econ theartsan Hie Romans had nt> 



natural tafl • arts. On th fl of Greece, 



an immenfe field opei nee to rti , u! they 



tantry furrounded with thi rnafter-piercs of 

 art; but their minds wen v cultivated to ap. 



icies. 



The Ron to have ini nttd or perfected no art, 



but that of war. Hie reft they had from Egypt, Gn 



, and Etmria. In our an i.ing 



