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I860. ^^^^? ., THE STRICTURES OF LABIENUS. The Historical Critic in the Time of Augustus, ^.*\i .ji^*- BY M. A. ROGEABD. TBANSIiATED FROM THE FRENCH SY DR W. E. GUTHRIE. ^^ lXru/A^>^<:f»^ PHILADELPHIA : T. B. PUGH, Nu, 600 CHESTNUT STREET, 1865. i i H iiBiniiTniirni i Tiiniroi i r i ntnnnf 1 1I rriini' i rn i ' i ' i nfi irii H m " '*- •-» Entered according to Act of CongreBS, In the Year 1865, by r»B. W. E. GUTHRIE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Ckjurt of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 30^^^" ••• \ X 65, by for the Enstern i^i <. ^ J? rh the Em- ed, which ia uring down ril)ution8 — it ! distributed, le even gave iitrary to th«J )no is better a, waB iu tho , gladiatorial niphithcatre, ontioii races, prejudice to •pouts of fifty iple been so iieiTtly passed renew often Stic spectacle ist to omit in ivished upon leasures were [ips too often, sither to Dru- r Salvia Titi- taste, in abso- jed as a god, that he loved eautiful vases es to kill the owner to got tlio vaBC ; and th.p,t ho was as much a gambler tw dice themselves ; and ti)ut ho was always a little inclined to tho vice of his uncle; and that, in his old ago, his taste having bocomo more delicate, ho would no longer admit to the honor of his intimacy any but virgins, and that tho caro of introducing to him the said virgins was entrusted to his wife liivia, who, uovertholeHS, accpiiftod herself with great zeal of this little employment; if it were not for that ond some inconsiderable comnn -ulations which are not worth oveu the trouble of montiouing, Suetorious asserts that his life was well-ordered and screened from all reproach. Therefore, it was a happy epoch, that Julian era; it was a great ago, that Augustan age ; and it was not without rea- son that Virgil, a little dispossessed at first, but afterwards iudemnifiod, exclaims : " It is the roign of Saturn that ia coming again." There was, hero and there, it is true, some shade in tho picture ; there had been a dozen plots, as many seditions, and these mar a reign. It was the Republicans who came back. There had been a3 many of them as could bo killod at Pharsalia,* Thapsua, Munda, Philippi, Actium and Alex- andria, and in Sicily ; for Roman liberty was so tenacious of life, that not less than seven wholesale butcheries were requisite to disable it ; legions seemed to rise from the earth according to Pompey's pray<'r; these over-returning Ku-, publicans had been conscientiously killed — but how many ? Three hundred thousand, perhaps, at tho most; that was well, but it was not enough ; there were still rome of them left. Hence, tho life of this great man was not free from some little vexations. In the Senate he was obliged to wear a cuirass and a sword under his robe, (which is incon- venient, ©specially in hot countries,) and to surround him- self with ten stout fellows whom he called his friends, but who, nevertheless, were irksome companionship to him. There were also those three coliorts which dragged be- hind him their old iron, in that same city in which, sixty years before, they were not permitted to enter with even a little knife ; that was enough to give rise to some doubts upon tho popularity of the father of the country. There •The battle of PUarsaUa. "mmmmmmlm 8 was afterwards j* grippa, who demolished too much : but it was necessary to make a tomb of marble for this great people that wished to die. There was yet the Prefect of Lyons, Lycinius, who ground down his province too much ; he did not know how to shear the beast without making it bleat ; he was an ignorant and rough admiu'strator, who was contented to take money wherever it was, I e., in pockets, proceeding unceiemoniously, but lacking genius in the execution. It was he who conceived the idea of adding two months to the calendar, in order to make his good city pay the monthly tax twice more in the year. However, it must be acknowledged that he shared equitably with his master the product of his administration. The good people of Lyons, not knowing hew to tear off this blood-sucker from the ekin, had the simplicity to ask Ccesar to recall their Prefect, who was sustained. There was also a certain distant expedition, of which there was not great reason to be proud ; the unfortunate Varus had stupidly permitted himself to be crushed with three legions, some where over the Rhine, in the depth of the Hercynian forest. That had a bad effect. War is like all good things— it must not be abused. It has the merit of bei'ig the most absorbing spectacle, the most powerful of diversions, I concede it, but it is a resource which must be used with caution. That insolent and terrible game must not be played too often, as it may turn against him who plays it; and when one is a savior, it does not become him to send the people whom he has saved to the slaughter without due consideration. This might be said, but who then thought of it ? Scarcely twenty thousand mothers— and what is that in a great empire? Glory, it is well known, does not giv^ her favors, and Rome was rich enough in blood and money to pay for them. Augustus, to clear himself, had but to beat his head softly agaiast the doors, and to make a prosopceia which, besides, has become clas- sical. There was finally Lolius, who had lost an eagle, but they copld do without him ; and as for the finances, a new era had just b-^en opened, the gre^t administration had been invented, and the world was going to be administered ; 9 auch : but it r this great 3 Prefect of e too much ; out making strator, who vas, i. e., in king genius the idea of to make his in the year, ed equitably ion. w to tear ofi )licity to ask jd. n, of which unfortijnate crushed with the depth of War is like as the merit ost powerful i which must errible game against him 3 not become the slaughter laid, but who rd mothers — •y, it is well 3 rich enough stus, to clear ist the doors, become clas- igle, but they es, a new era ion had been idministered ; the monster empire, with a hundred million hands and one belly; the unity was founded! 1 will work with your hands, and you will digest with my stomach ; that is clear, and Meneas was right, and I have nothing to do with the advice of the peasant of the Danube. If tliafc system brought some abuses with it, if there was from time to time a famine, it was bat a cloud to the sun- shine of universal joy, a discordant note which was lost in the concert of public gratitude ; and all these little ills, which now and then ruffled the surface of the empire, were in reality but happy contrast? and piquant diversions reserved to a happy people by their good fortune, to give them rest from happiness and time to breathe ; it was as beasoning to the entertainment ; just enough to break the monotony of success to temper hilarity, and avert satiety. People were stifling ith prosperity ; for there are benefits which overpower, and joys which carry death with them. Who then, in that golden age, who then, could com- plain ? Tacitus says that, seven years later, at the death of Augustus, but few citizens remained who had seen the Republic ; there remained fewer still who had served it ; they had been carried off by civil wars or proscriptions, by summary execution, assassination or exile, want or despair . . . time had done the rest; there remained yet some sorrowing spirits, some morose old men ; and as to those who had come into the world since Actium, they were born with an image of the emperor in their eyes, and they could not see clearer ; there was cause for hoping at least that they would be prepared to find the new face of things beautiful, and even the most beautiful of any thing, having never seen any other. Therefore, the vulgar herd of Re- mus was content, and all was at the best in the best of empires. At this time lived Labienus. Do you know Labienus ? He was a strange man, of a singular turn of mind. Just imagine that he persisted in remaining a citizen in a city where there was no longer any thing but subjects. Can that be comprehended ? Givis Bomanus sum, was he re- peating, and it was not possible to bring him ofi' that as- sumed ground. He wanted, like Cicero, to die free in a u ■;: ^ ■•■■■IP'"***" IMj 1 1 [ -' \ 10 free country. Can one imagine such extravagance ? Citi- zen, and free ! Oh ! madness ! Doubtless he was saying this as Polyeuetus said at a later time : " I am a Christian !" without well knowing what he was saying. The truth was, his poor head was diseased, his brain dangerously affected— at least this was the opinion of the doctor of Augustus, the celebrated Antonius, who called this kind of madness, reasoning monomania, and who had prescribed its being treated with imprisonment. Labienus had not followed the prescription, and hence he was not cured, as you will see when I have brought you to a better acquaint- ance with him. Labienus was bearing a name already twice honored by good citizens. The first Labienus, a .lieutenant of C»sar, had quitted him at the time of the passage of the Eubicou, in order not to bo an accomplice of his outrage ; the second preferred to serve the Parthians to the triumviri ; our hero was the.third one. A line from Seneca, the rhetorician, suffices *to give us a glimpse of that grand figure, for we find there this bold word of Labienus : " I know that what I am writing can be read only after my death." An orator and historian of the first rank, and having come up to glory through a thousand obstacles, it was said of him that he had extorted rather than obtained admiration. He was then writing a history of which he sometimes read, with closed doors, a few pages to some trusty friends. It was with reference to tkis history that the condemnation of books to the flames was applied for the first time, upon motion of a senator, who was himself punished, some time after, with the penalty he had invented ; and so Labienus was the first in Rome who had thus the honor, which after- wards became common, of an incendiary setmtatus-con- suUum. It is what Mr. Egger judiciously terms: "The new difficulties to which the imperial regime gives birth for history." The poor executed historian, smelling yet the smoke of the funeral pyre, not being able to survive his burned work, went out and shut himself up in the tomb of his ancestors, never more to go out from it. He believed his work annihilated, but it wa« not. Cassiua knew it by heart, and Cassius, protected by exile, was, as nee? Citi- wiis sayiug ChriBtian !" The truth :langerou8ly e doctor of d this kind i prescribed 1U8 had not ot cured, as ;er acquaint- houored by at of CiBsar, he Rubicon, ; the second ri ; our hero rhetorician, gure, for we >w that what ' An orator come up to 1 of him that on. He was 33 read, with snds. It was lemnation of it time, upon ,d, some time so Labienus ■, which after- senatatus-con- terms: "The e gives birth smelling yet lo to survive slf up in the from it. lie not. Cassius exile, was, as It he himself said, a livini' edition of the book of his friend, an edition they could not burn. No doubt the death of La- bienus was as senseless as his life. A book burned — a fine affair! does one kill himself for that? The senate did not desire the death of the guilty man, it only wished to give him a warning; he ought to have profited by it; but this man took every thing the wrong way, and always heard wrong when he heard at all. He was well worthy to figure in that long defile of stoical suicides which had com- menced, and among all those heroic simpletons, all those systematic and radical, enraged and absurd opponents who made of their death even a last act of opposition, and con- ceived themselves, by opening their veins, to be playing a trick on the empei»r. Some killed themselves solely to enrage the prince, who laughed in his sleeve, and was only the more persuaded of the excellence of his policy, by seeing that his work was being done without his help. Labienus belonged to these ; you see clearly that he was an imbecile; such was the man whose "Propos"* we wish to repeat to you, and you will see that in his con- versation, as in his life and death he was always the same — that is, incorrigible. He was a man of the old party, since the Republic had passed away ; a reactionist, since the Republic was a thing of former times ; a ci-devant of the old system, since the government of the laws was the system of past times : in a word, he was a dolt. He was one of those wicked ones who ought to tremble under a strong government^, that the good may be re- assured, and that society, shaken even to its foundations, may settle down again upon its basis. This is not all, Labienus was ungrateful : in full cfesarism, in full glory, in the midst of that superabundance of public felicity, and that immense feast of the human kind, he failed to recognize the blessings which the second founder of Rome, the pacificator of the world, bestowed with full hands ; he had at the same time blind and hostile passions, which make dangerous men and baleful citizens. But you do not know him yet. His passion, wanting air and space in the suffocation of the principate, being able * strictures. 12 neither to speak nor write, to act or move, he spent whole hours on the 1 iblicius bridge seeing the Tiber lun, motionless and silent, but with fierce aspect, menacing gesture, and breast distofided with the spirit of the ancient days, like a statue of the avenger Mars, like a petrified tribune. " It is sweet to sleep, or to be a stone, as long OS misery or shame continue," said Michael Angelo. Labienus did not sleep, but he was stony, harder than the rock of the Capitol, immobile saxum. Tyranny had no hold upon him, and the empire in its power was unable to reach him ; he was a Roman of the old stamp upon which nothing could make an impression. Alone, upright, liko Codes, between an army and a precipice, he defied both; he defied Augustus and laughed at tleath. In all this there was some good, if you will; but, on, the other hand, what a detestable character, what a deformed mind! Octavius had been fortunate to stamp a superb medal with the three intertwined hands of the triumvirs, and this sublime legend : « The salvation of mankind." That still displeased him ; he protended he had been saved in spite of himself, and he quoted the verse from Horace : " When to be thus saved I have no design, To the devil the savior, who is but an assassin." Old Labienus was one of those who had seen the Republic; he was foolish enough to remember it,, and there was the misfortune. He beheld now a great reign, and he was not satisfied. There are some people who never are ; he was always believing himself to be yet at the day after Pharsalia; forty years of glory were there before his eyes without opening them ; he had the air of a man who has had an evil dream, and the reality to him was but an infernal vision. He expressed artless astonish- ment ; he would not believe that such an era of glory had been. Epiminides, who slept a hundred years, when he awoke was L ds astonished, Sad in the universal joy, gloomy amidst the Roman orgies, like the two philoso- phers of Couture's picture, he was there and seemed to live elsewhere; he was a spectre in a festival ; you might Bay a corpse escaped from the tombs of Philippi, a curious shade which comes to look about. Sometimes a friend jut whole bcr lun, menacing le ancient petrified e, as long Angelo. than the f had no unable to )on which right, liko aed both ; n all this ;hei' hand, 3d mind ! srb medal nvirs, and d." That saved in Lorace : seen the ;r it,, and reat reign, 3ople who be yet at ^ere there he air of a lity to him IS astonish- ' glory had 1, when he versal joy, 70 philoso- seemed to you might i, a curious es a friend 18 pitied him; him! he pitied his friend. More often, all alone, he was muttering in hia corner, looking upon the empire passing away. It was not possible to make such a man listen to reason ; ho was of another age, an exile in the new age; he had nostalgia of the past; he had learned nothing and forgotten nothing ; he understood nothing of the present epoch; he had all the prejudices of Brutus and was tainted with Greek opinions which had not been current in Rome for a long time. His manner was old as the Twelve Tables; he thought still as people thought in the time of Fabricius or the hairy Camillus, and had, moreover, fantastic ideas and inorediblo manias, and especially an odd taste, strange and inexplicable .... he loved liberty ! Evidently, T. Labieuus had no common sense. To love liberty ! Can you understand such a thing ? It was a retrograde opinion, for liberty was old, and the new men liked the new system. He had no per- ception of shades, no notion of time, no apprehension of transitions. The times had marched on, and ideas also ; he alone remained planted there as a term ; he still be- lieved in justice, laws, in science and conscience — evi- dently he was in his dotage. He spoke of h ^nest men like Cicei'o, he spoke of the senate, tribune, comitia ; and did not see that all these had melted away like snow in the immense sewer, and that he was almost alone on the bank. He was still counting years by the consuls, for Augustus had left the name to keep up a belief in the thing, and he hoped to resuscitate the thing in preserving the name. He was preparing discourses to the people, as if there was a people, invoking laws, as if there were laws. The prin- cipate was to him but a parenthesis of history, a disgrace- ful page of Roman annals ; he was eager to turn the page or tear it out ; he was ever saying that it would come to an end, and he believed it ; the people called him a fool, and 80 he was, as you see. After all, a good man; obstinate rather than wicked; incapaple of killing a chicken, or wishing the least evil to any one, if we except Augustus, and yet ! ... He was so mild, that he would only have sent him to the galleys, to turn a grindstone, contrary to a more common opinion of those who wanted Vi 111 m m gumi* y 14 to nail him to the cross. He thought, moreover, with the stoics, that punishment is good for criminals; and he wished Augustus the only good that could happen to him — expiation. One day, as he was walking under the portico of Agrippa, he met Gallio. Gallio was a young sage, while Labienus was an old fool. He was a serious and mild young man well educated and elegant, polite, circumspect and prudent, and a moderate stoic ; Spaniard and Roman, citizen and subject, a man of two epochs and two coutitries ; mixed blood and crossed opinion ; a little of this and a little of that ; sometimes, like Horace, turning his softened eyes on the tomb of liberty ; and bringing them back not less softened on the cradle of the empire; giving a tear to Cato, and a smile to Cpesar ; a benevolent character, loving everybody a little, even Labienus. He was a brother of Seneca, who dared not live, and uncle of Lucan who knew not how to die ; there were no longer but moieties of heroism, and some fragments of greatness, a people in ruins before its temples; here and there yet some half-^ Romans. Gallio wrote some verses for the favorite .of Mecenus, and critics called him the ingenious Gallio. Finally he had intellect, for he was proconsul. It was from him that the indifferent in religious matters were named GalUonists ; he could have been a little patron of the same sort in political matters. It was for that Labienus reproached him. And I believe the gloomy pedestrian was going to pass without caring to recog- nize him, for Labienus was not amiable; he was but little more afiable than those famous senators who, proudly seated in the middle of the forum, one day received so coldly the Gauls. So Gallio would not expose himself to the hazard of caressing his beard ; but the young man was 80 pleased, so excited with emotion, wanted so much to find some one to whom he could tell the great news he had just learned, so curious to see the effect of it on Labienus, that he approached him and said : Good day, Tituer! quid agis, dvldssime rerum^ How dost thou do ? Unwell indeed, if the empire is well. 16 r, with the H ; and he pen to him )f Aj^rippa, 3 LabienuB rouug man id prudent, uitizen and ■ies; mixed d a little of lied eyes on ik not less 5 a tear to ,cter, loving I brother of I who knew moieties of a people in some half- favorite .of 0U8 Gallio. lul. It was latters were e patron of as for that the gloomy ^ to recog- he was but ,'ho, proudly received so s himself to mg man was much to find } he had just ibienus, that rerum, How Well, we know thou art always in bad humor ; but I have some news to tell thee. There is no news for me so long as Augustus reigns* Come, I know thou hast been in a passion for thirty years, and that thou hast not laughed once since the trium- virate ; but here is my news : the Memoirs of Augustus have just appeared. And how long since brigands have been making books ? Since honest men have made emperors. Alas! So, my dear Titus, thou wilt not read these Memoirs ? 1 will read them, Gallio, I will read them, crying with shame. And thou wilt answer them, criticise them, and make an anti-Ciesar, as Ctesar has made an anti-Cato ? No, Gallio, I shall publish nothing on this subject; I do not discuss with him who has thirty logions ; in a coun- try that is not free, one ought to forbid himself to touch upon contemporary history, and criticism, in such a mat- ter is impossible. Thou wilt not, then, enlighten the public? 1 shall not contribute to deceive it ; for in these times, on such subjects, nothing which appears can be good, and nothing which is good can appear. I will con- tinue my secret history, the leaves of which I will send to Severius, in a safe place ; I will save the truth by exiling it. -^ But we are assured that criticism will be free; tyranny would give literature a week's holiday. They can give but a false liberty, a liberty of De- cember, that is, a carnival of liberty, liberias decembris, as Horace says ; I shall not make use of it. I shall not, by writing against the book, find myself placed between the vengeance of Octavius and the clemency of Augustus, without even the choice. I shall not, like Cinna, give the scoundrel tiie occasion of playing the magnanimous, and to be executed by grace. As to praising the book, I can only if it be good, in which case, I would fear to be con- founded with those who praise it from other motives. It is to me, therefore, as impossible to praise as to blame. lU 16 Auii moreover, the book is not good and cunnot bo. WLon a man is guilty enough to make himself king, and fool enough to make himself God, I think he cannot have all the qualities requisite for writing history. Thou art sure before hand that ho has neither good sense nor good faith ; then what remains to him ? lie can neither know truth, nor tell it if ho were knowing it ; then what has that sceptre-bearer to do with the matter ? And why does he take it into his head to write history ? A king-historian ought to commence by abdicating. He has not done so ; bad sign. Then I have read some passages of it. He justifies proscriptions and vindicates usurpation. That had to be Jo. And thou, Gallio, wouldst have me criticise this work of ignorance and lies, approved of by two thousand centurions, and recommended to the reading public by veterans. Criticism! siege thou oughtest to have said. And thou dost not see, my good little Gallio, that that is one of the best tricks the son of the banker ever played upon the sons of the she wolf, who alas ! do not know how to bite, like their grandmother. Ah ! Gallio, we are degenerated, we are Romans of the decadence, fallen from Caesar to Augustus ; from Charybdis to Scylla ; from strength to artifice ; from the uncle to the nephew! Poh ! No, I do not wish to fall into that literary ambush, nor be caught in that trap, nor above all, to cause others to fall in it ; no, I shall not write on the * Memoirs ' of Augustus. The silence of the people is a lesson for kings. Labienus will give this lesson to Augustus. Never fear, moreover, if thou wishest criticism on this little piece of imperial literature, if thou wishest nice ap- preciations, they will be given ; if thou wishest for learned dissertations, it will shower with them. If thou wishest ingenious and piquant observations, sketches full of nov- elty, elegant and courteous discussions sustained in ex- quisite style by persons of the better class, thou wilt have them ; if thou wantest kneeling controversy, and groveling rhetoric, and surprising epigrams whose points tickle ' instead of sting, and bites which are caresses, and bloody reproaches that give pleasure, and adorable gracefulness adroitly gliding under the appearance of a severe judg- MmmmUmmmmfam mis vumm miitm nuim»imm[ ' —\l bo. Wlion ig, and fool ot have all uithor good Q ? He cau ngit; then tter? And listory ? A ig. lie has no passages usurpation. 8t have mo roved of by the reading oughtest to ittle Gallio, the banker 'ho alas ! do Ah ! Qallio, decadence, is to Scylla ; be nephew ! ary ambush, ;au8e others Memoirs ' of >n for kings. ism on this est nice ap- t for learned bou wishest full of nov- ined in ex- )U virilt have id groveling loints tickle and bloody gracefulness levere judg- 17 mont, and pretty little lovely words delicately enveloped in tlio folds of a ferocious and crabbed phrase, and bou- quets flowers of Jatiiiity, and floods of moliiflluoua elo- quence, and arguments presented on cushions and objec- tions on a silver waiter, as a domestic presents a letter; nothing of all this will fail thee, my dear Qallio : we go to see the choir of the Muses of State dance, and it is Mecro- nus who will lead off the ballet. The chaste sisters have quitted Pindus* for mount Palatin, and Apollo has placed himself on the police. Therefore Augustus is sure of having a public, readers, Judges, critics, copiers and com- mentators ; there will be found people for that work. He who has made Virgils can make Aristarchuses ;t he re- quires them, and he will have them ! Already literature is in mirth : Varius weeps with joy ; Flavins stamps with tenderness; Rabirius prepares his tablets; Haterius will give a lecture, and Tarpa a decla- mation ; Pompeius Macer| declares it is a fine day for morals, and orders three copies luxuriously finished for the three public libraries which he has just organized; Fene- 8tellu§ goes to add a volume to his literary history ; Me- tellus, who writes the speech of the prince so well, will number the oratorical beauties of the book, and Verius, the grammarian, the grammatical beauties ; Marathus, the historiographer, will give an analysis in the Court journal, and Athenodorus, the protege of Octavia, will furnish a paraphrase for ladies, and some explanatory references within the compass of the princesses ; there aro ten, I know thousands. All these people defile before the emperor, shouting with all their might, like knights on parade ; ho in the meantime will assume an attitude full of modesty and majesty; his gesture will say: "Enough!" his smile will say: "More!" and the crowd will make itself most beautifully hoarse. As he had the populace of the seven hills to applaud his acts, so he will have the populace of authors to laud his book ; the plaudits are sure, but they can come from but one side; it is then a consequence, suf- • Plndus, mountain consecrated to ApoUo! ~~ t ArlstarchuH, a severe Greek critic. t Pompeius Macer, Latan poet, contemporary of Cicero. JFenestella, Homan hi8lorl»n In the time of Augustus. ~~tMtKlM^^£ Wta ttiM- fioioutly grotesque, of his uuiiiuo literary poaitioii. The imfortr.iuvto man han not perhaps foreseen it, but I do not care; he will suecee.l by order, that is hard, but I cannot help it. Supremo power has some inconveniences tor an author; all arc not roses in the callbigol an imperial writer. The ground is not tenable, and Virgil would have lost his Latin on it. But one must submit to the law ho has him- self made; and when shame is poured out, shame must be drunk. Behold, then, my