Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/96

Rh institutions assumed the existence of those heroes, and the reality of the deeds imputed to them ; but the men and their deeds were for the most part wrapped in obscurity, or presented under dubious colours. The voice of Livy s contemporaries muttered around him that of all their compatriots he should be held most in honour among them, who should bring these traditions of the past into the light of day, and make them pass among a generation, willing so to accept them, as genuine and accredited history. The history of Livy was the true product of the age, inasmuch as it answered to the call of the age. It pre sented Roman history to the Romans much as Shakespeare s dramas presented English history to the English; the history in both cases was just what the people wished to believe, and from thenceforth they so accepted and believed it.

As regards the style of Livy s composition, it is enough to say that it is generally regarded as the most perfect specimen of the Latin prose writing that we possess, and we may be pretty confident that if anything better had been written, posterity would not have suffered it to perish. It holds the middle place between the oratorical exuberance of Cicero and the philosophic sententiousness of Tacitus. While sentence follows sentence throughout in logical sequence, so that the thread of meaning and argument is never lost under a mass of verbiage, yet we are beguiled in our lengthened study by the repeated recurrence of passages of highly-imaginative colouring ; we feel that if the histo rian sometimes deviates into poetry, he never misleads us with a show of empty rhetoric. The Roman people, as represented by Livy, retained the genuine strength and bluntness of their character. The teaching of their Greek instructors had had as yet little effect in seducing them into the conceits and affectations of the more frivolous people they had conquered. The history of Livy remains the noblest monument of the Bomanus honos, the national dignity, which his countrymen so proudly contrasted with the Grata licentia, which was gradually enervating and degrading them. The spirit of the Augustan Age is set forth, perhaps at its best and brightest, in the illustrious history of Livy. It is probable that Livy, who had been a republican in his heart, lived for the most part the retired life of a student, though he is said to have been employed in the education of some of the princes of the imperial family. He reflects the character of the earlier generation, among whom he was born, rather than of the later, in which he died, at an advanced age, in the fourth year of Tiberius. All the great poets above mentioned met an early death about the middle of the principate of Augustus, except Ovid, who survived to the eighth year of his successor. Accordingly, it is in Ovid, as might be expected, that we trace the first marks of degeneracy from the high standard of the Augustan literature the Golden Age of Latin composition. The decline of Rome, both in intellect and morals, was becoming rapidly apparent. The splendid promise of the Augustan Age was quickly exhausted. The spirit of freedom evaporated under the influences of the time, and the spurious appearances which the emperor kept up had no power to impart real vigour to the national constitution. Just in the same manner it is abundantly clear that the fame of the age of Louis XIV. in France is founded on the excellence of the men who were actually born and bred in an earlier epoch and under a healthier regime. Neither the age of Augustus nor that of Louis produced the men who have rendered it illustrious, But the decline of Rome was becoming marked before the death of Augustus in other respects also. Although internal dissensions had been appeased, and private ambi tion quelled, the external relations of the empire were insecure, and caused vivid apprehensions. The frontiers of the Rhine and Danube were constantly harassed by the indomitable spirit of the barbarians beyond them. On the Danube the Roman arms seem to have been crowned with a sufficient measure of success, but on the Rhine the great disaster of Varus, and the loss of three legions, left a deep impression of gloom upon the feelings of the age. Augustus himself suffered a succession of disappointments in the premature death of his nearest kindred, and in the loss of his trustiest advisers. Though he maintained to the last an outward serenity almost touching, he appears to have been painfully conscious of the substantial failure of the great pacification he had accomplished, and to have augured nothing but evil from the character of the stepson, to whom, at the last moment, he was content to leave his inheritance. A general foreboding of evil was creeping over the minds of his people. The age of Augustus, which lasted nearly fifty years, was indeed a long day even in the life of a nation, but its sun was manifestly hastening to its setting, and the night was coming, slowly, gradually, but surely.

 AUGUSTUS II. (also, and more accurately, designated ), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, second son of John George III. of Saxony, was born at Dresden, 12th May 1670. His personal beauty was remarkable, and from his great physical strength he received the surname of The Strong, by which he is com monly distinguished. He was very carefully educated, and spent several years travelling in Europe, visiting most of the courts, and taking part in some campaigns against the French. In 1694 he succeeded his elder brother as elector of Saxony, and shortly after, having entered into alliance with Austria, was appointed to the chief command of the imperial forces against the Turks. In 1697, after having suffered a defeat at Olasch, he resigned this office, and proceeding to Vienna, entered into negotiations with regard to the throne of Poland, left vacant by the death of John Sobieski in 1696. As a preliminary step in his candidature, Augustus renounced the Protestant faith, and proclaimed himself a Catholic. Among his rivals the most formidable was the French prince of Conti. Both expended enormous sums in buying over the Polish nobles, and both claimed to be elected at the general diet. Conti, however, was not on the spot, and Augustus, marching into Poland with his Saxon forces, gained possession of the kingdom. Scarcely was he settled on the throne, when he entered into alliance with Russia and Denmark against the young king of Sweden, and with his Saxon troops (for the Poles would not unite with him) invaded Livonia. In the campaigns which followed (1700-1704), he was completely worsted by the extraordinary military genius of his opponent, the celebrated Charles XII. of Sweden ; he was driven from Poland, and Stanislaus Leszczinski was crowned in his place. The Swedes, following up their victories, invaded Saxony, and in 1706, at Altranstadt, Augustus was compelled to make peace, to repay the expenses of the Swedish army, to acknowledge Stanislaus as king of Poland, and to congratulate him on his accession. After these reverses he spent some time as a volunteer in the Netherlands, but the defeat of Charles at Pultowa (1709) again raised his hopes. He at once declared the Altraustadt treaty null and void, and having received promises of assistance from Russia, entered Poland, drove out Stanislaus, and was a second time proclaimed king. During the following years he continued to carry on the war with Sweden, while at the same time his kingdom was distracted by the jealousy with which the Poles regarded the Saxon troops, who were compelled to leave Poland in 1717. In 1718 Charles XII. was killed at Fredericshall, and from that time the reign of Augustus was marked by no important event. His court became celebrated as the 