rope scarcely deserved the expense and labour of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though on the first attack they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune[1]. On the death of that emperor, his testament was publicly read in the senate. He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries; on the west the Atlantic ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and, towards the south, the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa[2]
Imitated by his successors.Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Cæsars seldom showed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces; nor were they disposed to suffer, that those triumphs which their indolence neglected, should be usurped by the conduct and valour of their lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman general, to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians[3].
- ↑ By the slaughter of Varus and his three legions: see the first book of the Annals of Tacitus; Sueton. in August, c. 23; and Velleius Paterculus, 1. ii. c. 1 17, etc. Augustus did not receive the melancholy news with all the temper and firmness that might have been expected from his character.
- ↑ Tacit. Annal. 1. ii. Dion Cassius, 1. lvi. p. 833. and the speech of Augustus himself, in Julian's Cæsars. It receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M. Spanheim.
- ↑ Germanicus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola, were checked and recalled in the course of their victories. Corbulo was put to death. Military
Mariaba, or Merab, a city of Arabia Felix, well known to the orientals: see Abulfeda and the Nubian geography, p. 52. They were arrived within three days' journey of the spice country, the rich object of their invasion.
