Select Observations of Roman Emperors, Title page – Dedication
Analecta Caesarum Romanorum. OR, SELECT OBSERVATIONS Of all the ROMAN EMPERORS.
Illustrated with their several Effigies, according to their Coins.
The first Eighteen by EDWARD LEIGH, Esq The others added by his Son HENRY LEIGH,— Masters of Art of both Universities.
Also certain Choice FRENCH PROVERBS Alphabetically disposed and Englished, added by the same Edward Leigh.
The Fourth Edition, Corrected and much Enlarged.
LONDON, Printed by R. D. for Iohn Williams, at the Crown and Globe in S. Paul's Church-yard. M DC LX IV.
TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL and his loving Father HENRY LEIGH Esquire.
Loving Father:
HOW much I am obliged unto you both for my being and well-being, I desire now to testifie unto the world; for though to requite your love and bounty be not within the sphear of my Activity, yet since the Apostle *Quicquid est, quod dat Patri Filius, utique minus est, quia hanc ipsam dandi facultatem Patri debet. Seneca lib. 3. de Beneficiis. Patribus & Diis non possumus retribuere aequalia Arist. 8. Ethic. foreign 1 Tim. 5.4.commandeth Children to learn to requite their Parents, and Nature it self hath taught the unreasonable *The Fowl which teacheth children to requite their Parents is the Stoak from foreign natural affection, and she is called foreign; hence cometh foreign when children study to requite theire ParentsCreatures this lesson; I shall endeavour, (God assisting me with his grace) to pay that three-fold debt, of reverence, obedience, and gratitude, which all children owe to their Parents: As Aeschines therefore, when he saw his fellow-Scholars give great gifts to Socrates (being poor, and have nothing else to bestow) did give himself to Socrates, professing to be wholly devoted unto him: so I shall ever devote my self unto your service, to whom (next under God) I owe my self, and those abilities I have, both natural, and which through Gods blessing upon your liberal education, by a double apprentiship in two Magdalen-Hall in Oxford, and the Middle Temple in London.famous and flourishing Societies I have acquired. To expresse therefore my due observance, and gratefull recognition of your former care, and cost, and withal to give you some account of the fruitful spending of my time, I here present unto you some Choice Observations concerning the twelve first Caesars, Emperors of Rome. A work (as I conceive) both delightful, and useful, and therefore to you (I hope) not unwelcome; as Geographers express the whole world in a little Map, so have I laboured Graphically to describe these great Monarchs of the world in a little model, neither strictly tying my self to any one Historian, nor relating all the passages of their lives, but excerping out of the most principal *Tertul. Euseb Eccles. Hist Iosephus. Plutarch. Taciti Hist. & Annal. Aurel. Vict. Eutropius, Pliny, Solinus, Seneca, Macrob. Saturn. Suetonius, with Casaub. Animadvers. Eras. Apotheg. & Chiliad.Authors, such things of them as were most memorable. Amongst all which Writers (though I confess Tacitus his stile is elegant, & full of wise sententious *Est oratio Taciti mirum in modum arguta, & prudentiae plena. Bodin. l. 4. de Method. Hist.Apophtheg.) I have chiefly followed Suet. 1. because my worthy *Mr. William Pemble.Tutor (whose memory I shall ever honour) made choice especially (of that History) to read to his Pupils. 2 Because his Phrase is pure and polite, and himself a faithful Historian: Of whom it is recorded (as I think) by Erasmus, that he wrote the lives of the Romane Emperors, prorsus ea libertate, qua ipsi vixerunt, with the same freedom that they lived. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. dier. lib. 1. c. 1. calleth him sincerissimum scriptorem, and Ludov. *Suetonius Tranquillus Graecorum & Latinorum scriptorum diligentissimus, at que incorruptissimus, res duodecim Caesarum videtur mihi integerrimè exponere; qui in optimis Principibus nec vitia, nec suspiciones vitiorum tacet: in pessimis vero colores virtutum non dissimulat. Ludov. Vives de tradend. Discipl. lib. 5. Tranquillè & aequaliter fluit, rebusque unicè addictus orationis ornamenta non negligens, sed securus praeterit, & tamen hunc ipsum ornatum velut umbram non id agens trahit. Famian Strada. lib. 2. Prolus. Histor.Vives, incorruptissimum. And I desire to write as freely and unpartially of them, since I may say of them all, as Tacitus doth of some of them, that they were Mihi nec beneficio nec injuria cogniti; only I shall herein fail, that I write not of these Emperors, Stylo Imperatorio, with a high and lofty stile. Iulius Caesar is here placed in the forefront, he being the first Emperor. Ab Imperio dictus Imperator, cui commissa erat belli adminstratio. Vt perpetuum Imperatoris nomen alicui assignaretur, id ab Julio Caesare originem traxit, quem Suetonius tradit praenomen id perpetuum a Senatu accepisse. A Julio Imperatoris appellatio ad successores derivata. Vossii etymologicon linguae latinae. For this title was at the first given unto him, that had fought valiantly for his Country, and slain many enemies; Iulius *Nature meant Caesar for a Conqueror, when she gave him both such courage, and such courtesie, both which put Marius into amaze. They which durst speak to him, (said he) were ignorant of his greatness; and the… which du…st not, were so of his goodn…ss.Caesar (having brought the greatest part of the then known world into the subjection of the Romans) was the first that was saluted by the title of absolute Emperor, and all the Emperors succeeding were called Imperatores & Caesares from him, Mat. 22.21. Yet because he ruled but a few months, and because the monarchical Government was in its vigour under Augustus, others make Augustus the first of the Romane Emperors, and Augustus the last. Dunbar in his fifth Century of Epigrams hath these verses of Iulius Caesars and Pope Gregories reforming the Kalendar.
Caesar Gregoriusque annum dum jure reformant,
Deformant regni res sine jure, sui:
Scilicet antiqui facies a Caesare regni
Versa est, a Papa Pristina religio:
Malo reformari civilem a Caesare flammam,
Maloreformatam Gregorii que fidem.
The Emperors after Iulius Caesar were called Augusti, Imperatores omnes ad Vitellium praecipuè Caesarum genus, adeo literis exculti fuerunt, ut nicunctis vitiis Augusto excepto nimii fuessent, tant aedotes minora flagitiae texissent Aurel. Victor. in Vitellio. Vide Grotii Epist. Principi Condaeo, Martiano Capellae De nuptiis Philologiae & Mercurii praefixam.from Octavius, the second Roman Caesar, who revived the good laws, and reformed the bad. But the Emperors succeeding him, having more care to be great than good, rather raged than reigned, and the decrees of some of them viz. Tiberius and Caligula, are wittily termed furores non judicia. Quatuor Principes ferro interempti, (saith Tacitus in his History) four of these Emperors were slain with the Sword, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Domitian: which three first Plutarch compareth (in regard of their short reign) to Kings in a Tragedy, which last no longer than the time that they are represented on the stage. Iulius Caesar, and Caligula were also slain, Claudius, and Titus were poisoned, Nero slew himself, *Augustus Caesar died in a complement; Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive, & vale. Tiberius in dissimulation; as Tacitus saith of him. Iam Tiberium vires & corpus, non dissimulatio, deserebant. Vespasian in a Jest, sitting upon the stool, Vt puto Deus fio. Galba with a sentence, Feri, si ex re sit Populi Romani; holding forth his Neck. Bacons last Essayes in 4.Augustus dyed in a complement, Tiberius in dissimulation, Galba with a sentence, Vespasian with a jest, yet he died peaceably in his Bed, which no Emperor since Augustus ever did. The *Macrob. lib. 1. in somn. Scipion. Timeo incustoditos aditus, timeo & ipsos custodes.Heathens shadowed the sting of conscience by the Eagle or Vulture that fed upon the heart of Prometheus, and by the three Virgins which they called Furies, following men in a hideous form, with burning torches in their hands, which some of the worst of these Heathen Emperors really felt after their bloody cruelties, and verified that old Maxime;he must needs fear many, whom many fear. *See in the Book of him, and Domitian.Caligula (though he contemned the gods as they called them) yet at the least thundering and lightening would run under his bed, an cover his head. *Dion in Nerone. Our English Chronicles report of King Richard the third, that having imbrued his hands in the Blood of two Orient Princes, he never after had quiet in his mind, his body was privily fenced, his hand ever upon his Dagger, his countenance grim & gastly, his sleep unquiet, for he rather slumbred than slept. The night before the Battel fought in Bosworth-Field, he dreamed a terrible dream. Credo non erat somnium, sed Conscientia scelerum. Polyd. Virgil.Nero that monster of Mankind having killed his Mother Agrippina, could never after endure the worm and sting of conscience for his foul fact, but confessed that he was often haunted with the apparition of his mothers Ghost, and tormented also with scourges, and burning torches of the Furies. We may take notice of many Moral vertues also in the best of these Heathens. Iulius Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, and Titus that mirror of humanity, and see in them the truth of that old Maxime, Magistratus virum indicat a place sheweth the man; and it sheweth some to be better, some to be worse. It was said of Caligula, that there was never better servant and worse Master: Omnium consensu capax Imperii, nisi imperasset, saith Tacitus of Galba: but of Vespasian he saith, Solus Imperatorum Vespasianus mutatus in melius. But lest I shall be upbraded, with the City of Myndus, for making my Porch too big, here will I cast Anchor, ever remaining
Your dutiful Son to command, EDWARD LEIGH.
Caesar was War; Augustus Peace: impure
Tiberius was; Caligula past cure.
Claudius was Dotard; Nero beastly mad:
Galba stale; Otho trim; Vitellius Swad.
Vespatian's shrewd and base; Titus more good
Than bad: Domitian is Pride, Lust, and Blood.
Dr. Holiday's Survey of the World, Lib. 8.