No More Learning

The admirers of an almost perfect prose, must be familiar with a
story, which is not the highest effort of that prose: they will remember
a certain man with a double nature, like all of us; but, unlike us,
able to separate his natures, and to personate at will his good or evil
genius. Tiberius was fond of magic, and of the curious arts: it may be,
that he commanded the secrets of which Mr. Stevenson has dreamed!

The readers of "The Annals" have seen enough of blood, of crime, and of
Tiberius; and I would now engage their attention upon a more pleasing
aspect of Imperial affairs: I wish to speak about the Empire itself;
about its origin, its form, its history: and, if my powers were equal to
the task, I would sketch a model Emperor; Marcus Aurelius, or the elder
Antonine. Gibbon has described the limits of the Roman Empire; which
"comprised the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion
of mankind. " Its boundaries were "the Rhine and Danube, on the north;
the Euphrates, on the east; towards the south, the sandy deserts of
Arabia and Africa;" and upon the west, the Atlantic ocean. It was over
this extensive monarchy, that Caesar reigned; by the providence of
Caesar, was the whole defended and administered.

_Quis Parthum paveat? Quis gelidum Scythen
Quis, Germania quos horrida parturit
Fetus, incolumi Caesare? _

The frontiers of the Empire, and its richest provinces, had been
obtained for the most part in the long wars of the Republic. The
conquest of Gaul, and the establishment of the Empire, was achieved
by Julius Caesar; and to him, the civilised world is indebted for that
majestic "Roman Peace," under which it lived and prospered for nearly
nineteen centuries: the Eastern Empire was maintained in Constantinople,
until 1453; and the Empire of the West continued, though in waning
splendour, until the last Caesar abdicated his throne at the order of
Napoleon. The nations of modern Europe were developed out of the ruin
of Caesar's Empire; and from that, the more civilised among them have
obtained the politer share of their laws, their institutions, and their
language: and to Caesar, we are indebted for those inestimable treasures
of antiquity, which the Roman Empire and the Roman Church have preserved
from the barbarians, and have handed on for the delight and the
instruction of modern times. There are those, who can perceive in Caesar
nothing but a demagogue, and a tyrant; and in the regeneration of the
Commonwealth, nothing but a vulgar crime: among these, I am sorry to
inscribe the name of Thomas Gordon. The supporters of this view are
generally misled, by the specious allurements of the term "Republic. "
Tiberius, it may be, was not a perfect ruler, and other sovereigns were
even more ferocious; but the excesses of the most reckless Emperor are
hardly to be compared to the wholesale massacres and spoliations,
which attended the last agonies of the expiring Commonwealth.
After
the Macedonian and Asiatic wars, we find a turbulent and servile crowd,
instead of the old families and tribes of Roman citizens; instead of
allies, oppressed and plundered provinces; instead of the heroes of the
young Republic, a set of worn-out, lewd, and greedy nobles. By these,
the spoils of the world were appropriated, and its government abused:
Caesar gave the helpless peoples a legal sovereign, and preserved them
from the lawless tyranny of a thousand masters. He narrates himself,
that "he found the Romans enslaved by a faction, and he restored their
liberty:" "Caesar interpellat; ut Populum Romanum, paucorum factione
oppressum, in libertatem vindicat. " The march of Caesar into Italy was
a triumphal progress; and there can be no doubt, that the common
people received him gladly. Again he says, "Nihil esse Rempublicam;
appellationem modo, sine corpore et specie;" "The Republic is nothing
but an empty name, a phantom and a shadow. " That Caesar should have seen
this, is the highest evidence of his genius: that Cicero did not see it,
is to himself, and to his country, the great misfortune of his career;
and to his admirers, one of the most melancholy events in Roman history.
The opinions of Tacitus were not far removed from the opinions of
Cicero, but they were modified by what he saw of Nerva and of Trajan:
he tells us, how Agricola looked forward to the blessings of a virtuous
Prince; and his own thoughts and writings would have been other, than
they are, had he witnessed the blameless monarchy of Hadrian and the
Antonines. The victims of a bad Emperor were taken usually from among
the nobles; many of them were little better, than their destroyer; and
his murders were confined, almost invariably, within the walls of Rome:
but the benefits of the Imperial system were extended into all the
provinces; and the judgment-seat of Caesar was the protection of
innumerable citizens. Many were the mistakes, many the misfortunes,
deplorable the mischiefs, of the Imperial administration; I wish neither
to deny, nor to conceal them: but here I must content myself with
speaking broadly, with presenting a superficial view of things; and,
upon the whole, the system of the Emperors was less bad than the decayed
and inadequate government, out of which it was developed. For the
change from the Republic to the Empire was hardly a revolution; and
the venerable names and forms of the old organisation were religiously
preserved. Still, the Consuls were elected, the Senate met and
legislated, Praetors and Legates went forth into the provinces, the
Legions watched upon the frontiers, the lesser Magistrates performed
their office; but above them was Caesar, directing all things,
controlling all things; the _Imperator_ and Universal Tribune, in whose
name all was done; the "Praesens Divus," on whom the whole depended; at
once the master of the Imperial Commonwealth, and the minister of the
Roman People.

"The Annals," and the history of Tiberius, have detained us, for the
most part, within the capital: "The Agricola" brings us into a province
of the Empire; and "The Account of Germany" will take us among the
savages beyond the frontier. I need scarcely mention, that our country
was brought within the Roman influence by Julius Caesar; but that
Caesar's enterprise was not continued by Augustus, nor by Tiberius;
though Caligula celebrated a fictitious triumph over the unconquered
Britons: that a war of about forty years was undertaken by Claudius,
maintained by Nero, and terminated by Domitian; who were respectively
"the most stupid, the most dissolute, and the most timid of all the
Emperors. " It was in the British wars, that Vespasian began his great
career, "monstratus fatis"; but the island was not really added to the
Empire, until Agricola subdued it for Domitian. "The Life of Agricola"
is of general interest, because it preserves the memory of a good and
noble Roman: to us, it is of special interest, because it records the
state of Britain when it was a dependency of the Caesars; "adjectis
Britannis imperio. " Our present fashions in history will not allow us
to think, that we have much in common with those natives, whom Tacitus
describes: but fashions change, in history as in other things; and in
a wiser time we may come to know, and be proud to acknowledge, that
we have derived a part of our origin, and perhaps our fairest
accomplishments, from the Celtic Britons.