Page:An Epistle to Curio - Akenside (1744).djvu/7



was a Roman'' Senator of great Spirit, Eloquence and Popularity. By Extract a Plebeian; but ennobled by the Offices his Family had sustain'd. His Education had form'd him to the most active Zeal for the legal Constitution of his Country, which he afterwards publicly exerted with great Applause under the Direction of ', against the Insolence and Usurpations of the first Triumvirate, This Character he maintain'd even after the pernicious Designs of ' began to appear. But at last, unhappily for himself and his Country, the Difficulties into which his ungovernable Passions had plung'd him, gave that artful Man an Opportunity of seducing him to betray the Cause of Liberty at its very Crisis, So that he is justly charg'd by the Roman Historians, as the chief Incendiary of  Ambition, and Author of all the public Ruin that ensued.''

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