Chapter 18

_Albanam arcem_. A favorite retreat of Dom. (situated at the foot of the Alban Mount, about seventeen miles from Rome), where he sometimes convened the Senate, and held his court with its troop of informers, cf. note, 43: cursores. Rit. in loc. suggests, that by the use of _arcem_ instead of _palatium_, T. means to represent Domitian as shutting himself up, like many tyrants, in a fortified castle, and thence sending forth the emissaries of his jealousy and cruelty.

_Sententia. His voice_, his sentiment expressed in council before Dom.-- _Intra Albanam arcem_, i.e. _privately_, not _publicly_, as afterwards at Rome.

_Messalini_. Fuit inter principea adulatores et delatores. Dr. cf. Plin. Epist. 4, 22; Juv. 4, 113, seq.

_Massa Bebius_. Primus inter pares of Domitian's tools. He began his career under Vesp. cf. His. 4, 50. He was afterwards impeached and condemned at the instance of the Province of Baetica, Pliny and Senecio advocates for the impeachment, Plin. Epist 7, 33; 3, 4; 6, 29.--_Jam tum. At that very time_ on trial, not merely _already at that time_. Cf. Hand's Tursel. 3, 113.

_Nostra_, sc. of the Senate, of which T. was a member, though abroad at the time. Helvidius was arrested _in the senate house_, cf. Plin. Ep. 9, 13. This was Helvidius the _son_, who was put to death by Dom. (Suet. 10), as his father was by Vesp. (Suet. 15).

_Visus_. Al. divisus. _Visus_==species, adspectus, Wr.--_Perfudit_. Zeugma. Understand in the first clause _horrore perfudit_ (Dr.) or probro affecit (R.): _the spectacle of Mauricus and Rusticus_ (hurried away, the one to exile, the other to death), _filled us with horror; we were stained by the innocent blood of Senecio_. Of Rusticus and Senecio, see 2, note. Of Mauricus, see Plin. Ep. 4, 22: quo viro nihil firmius, nihil verius. Also Plin. Ep. 3, 11.

_Videre_, sc. Domitianum.--_Aspici_, sc. a Domitiano. For difference in the signification in these words, cf. 40: viso aspectoque, note.

_Suspiria--subscriberentur. When our sighs_ (of sympathy with the condemned) _were registered against us_ (by spies and informers, as a ground of accusation before the Emperor).

_Rubor_. Redness, referring to the complexion of Dom., which was such as to conceal a blush, cf. Suet. Dom. 18: vultu ruboris pleno.

_Opportunitate mortis_. An expression of Cic., in the similar passage above cited (de Orat. 3, 2, 8), touching the death of Crassus.

_Pro virili portione_, lit. for one man's share, referring primarily to pecuniary assessments. Here: _for thy part--so far as thou wast concerned_. A. died with a calmness which would scarcely admit of the supposition, that he felt himself to be a victim of poison and imperial jealousy.

_Filiaque ejus_. The apostrophe is here dropped to be resumed at _optime parentum_. So the MSS. For they read _ejus_ here, and _amissus est_ below. Rhenanus omitted _ejus_, and wrote _es_ for _est_; and he has been followed in the common editions since.

_Conditione_. By the circumstance, or by virtue of our long absence. T. and his wife had parted with A. four years before his death, and had been absent from Rome ever since, where or why does not appear.

_Superfuere_. Cf. _superest_, G. 6, note.

XLVI. _Sapientibus_. Cf. _sapientiae professoribus_, 2, note.--_Te immortalibus laudibus_. I feel constrained to recur to the reading of Lipsius and Ritter, it is so much more spirited than _quam temporalibus_. _Potius_ manifestly should refer back to _lugeri_ and _plangi_. The comparison contained in the more common reading is uncalled for in the connection, and of little significance in itself. The MSS. read _temporalibus laudibus_ without _quam_ and this may be more easily resolved into _te immortalibus_, than _quam_ can be supplied.-- _Similitudine_. Al. aemulatione. For such a use of similitudo, cf. Cic. Tusc. Quaest. 1, 46, 110: quorum (sc. Curii, Fabricii, Scipionum, etc.), _similitudinem_ aliquam qui arripuerit, etc.

_Decoremus_. Ennius (cited by Cic. Tusc. Q. 1, 49, 117, and de Senect. 20, 73), uses the same word in expressing the same sentiment: nemo me lacrumis _decoret_ nec funera fletu faxit. Cf. also G. 28.

_Formam_. This makes the sense so much better (than _famam_), that E. Dr. Wr. R. and most others have adopted it against the authority of the MSS. cf. _forma mentis_, below, and Cic. passim.

_Intercedendum. To be prohibited_. Properly said of a _veto interposed_ by the Tribunes; then of any prohibition.--_Non quia==not that_, is characteristic of late writers. It is followed by the subj. Z. 537, and note H. 1, 15.

_Manet, mansurumque est_. Cf. Vell. Paterc. 2, 66, 5: vivit, vivetque per omnem saeculorum memoriam. The periphrastic form (_mansurum est_) differs however from the future (_manebit_), as our _is to remain_ from _will remain_. See Z. 498.

_Oblivio obruet_, sc. for want of a historian, carent quia _vate sacro_, cf. Hor. Od. 4, 9, 25, seq. By _multos veterum_, T. means many ancients of _real worth_. So _velut_ implies. A. is to be immortalized through his biographer. This is implied in _narratus et traditus_. Ancient authors thought it not improper to express a calm consciousness of merit and a proud confidence of immortality. T. is very modest and delicate in the manner of intimating his expectations. But the sentiment of these last words is substantially the same with the line of Horace: Exegi monumentum aere perennius. The whole peroration of this Biography is one of singular beauty and moral elevation. Pathetic, yet calm, rich in noble sentiments and animated by the purest and loftiest spirit, it is a fit topstone to that monument, in respect to which T. felt so well founded an assurance, which still _manet mansurumque est in animis hominum, in aeternitate temporum, fama rerum_. There is scarcely an educated youth in Christendom who is not as familiar with the name of Agricola, as with that of Aeneas and Ulysses. And the only reason why we know anything of these heroes, is the genius of their respective biographers. There had been other Agricolas before the age of Trajan, as there had been other heroes like Aeneas, and other wandering sages like Ulysses, before the war of Troy. But they found no Tacitus, Virgil, and Homer to record their adventurous and virtuous deeds. It is the prerogative of eminent writers to confer immortality; and though Alexander would prefer to be Achilles rather than Homer, we should have known little of his achievements, had he not encouraged scholars as well as warriors, and rewarded genius no less than valor.

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's Germania and Agricola, by Caius Cornelius Tacitus