Mihi, quasi per nebulam, ait, in mentem venit, Olim me divertisse, nescio quâ viâ, Ad sacrificuli nescio cujus pratulum: Herba bona, tenera, si benè memini, fuit; Attingere autem non licebat hanc mihi, Nôram: abstinere volui: sed stimulans fames, Et allicientis opportunitas boni, Et genius aliquis me malus, credo, impulit, Vix ea repentè in infelicem bestiam Ab universo cœtu clamor tollitur: Pereat scelestus, causa communis mali, Statim expietur impiæ pecudis nece. Pessundari inopes, ubi potentium interest, Facilè in grave scelus culpa mutatur levis. NO. VI. A LEARNED and ingenious friend, to whom I am indebted for some very just remarks, of which I have availed myself in the preceding Essay, has furnished me with the following acute, and, as I think, satisfactory explanation of a passage in Tacitus, extremely obscure in itself, and concerning the meaning of which the commentators are not agreed. Tacitus meaning to say, "That Domitian, wishing to be "the great, and indeed the only object in the empire, and "that nobody should appear with any sort of lustre in it but himself, was exceedingly jealous of the great reputation " which Agricola had acquired by his skill in war," expresses himself thus: In Vit. Agr. cap. 39. Id sibi maxime formidolosum, privati hominis nomen suprà principis attolli. Frustra studia fori, et civilium artium decus in silentium acta, si militarem gloriam alius occuparet: et cætera utcunque facilius dissimulari, ducis boni imperatoriam virtutem esse. Which Gordon translates thus: "Terrible "above all things it was to him, that the name of a private man should be exalted above that of the Prince. In vain JAMES EDGAR, Esq; Commissioner of the Customs, Edinburgh. Dd "had he driven from the public tribunals all pursuits of popular "eloquence and fame, in vain repressed the renown of every "civil accomplishment, if any other than himself possessed "the glory of excelling in war: Nay, however he might "dissemble every other distaste, yet to the person of Empe" ror properly appertained the virtue and praise of being a " great general." " 'This translation is very good, as far as the words "civil accomplishment," but what follows is not, in my opinion, the meaning of Tacitus's words, which I would translate thus: -"If any other than himself should become a great object "in the empire, as that man must necessarily be who pos" sesses military glory. For however he might conceal a "value for excellence of every other kind, and even affect " a contempt of it, yet he could not but allow, that skill in war, and the talents of a great General, were an ornament "to the Imperial dignity itself." 'Domitian did not pretend to any skill in war; and therefore the word "alius" could never be intended to express a competitor with him in it.' |