Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/403

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 379 taught him to form a just esthnate of the duties, the CHAP, dangers, and the temptations of their sublime station. ^^^' From the assiduous study of his immortal ancestor he derived the knowledge of the Roman constitution and of human nature The voice of the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of em- pire. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears, and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed two months in the de- lightful privacy of Baiae, when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his honourable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with his counsels on this important occasion. He arose to speak, when, from every quarter of the He is elect- house, he was saluted with the names of Augustus and ^ ^"^pe'^or, emperor. " Tacitus Augustus, the gods preserve thee ; we choose thee for our sovereign ; to thy care we in- trust the republic and the world. Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners." As soon as the tu- mult of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the dangerous honour, and to express his wonder, that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigour of Aurelian. " Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain the weight of armour, or to practise the exercises of the camp ? The variety of climates, and the hardships of a mihtary Hfe, would soon oppress a feeble constitu- tion, which subsists only by the most tender manage- ment. My exhausted strength scarcely enables me to discharge the duty of a senator ; how insufficient would it prove to the arduous labours of war and government. Can you hope that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been spent in the shade of peace ' After his accession, he gave orders that ten copies of the historian should be annually transcribed and placed in the public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single manuscript, and discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, art, Tacite, and Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 9.