Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/494

 456 Readings in European History of my fellow-citizens upon the reigns of the Caesars, — upon that river of blood, that sewer of corruption and filth, which flows perpetually under a monarchy. For a long time, Tacitus tells us, there had been at Rome a law which denned the crimes of state and of leze majesty which were to be punished with death. . . . The emperors had only to add a few articles to this law in order to involve both individual citizens and entire cities in a fatal proscription. Augustus was the first to extend this law of leze majesty in which he included the writings which he called counter-revolutionary. Under his successors the com- prehensiveness of the law soon knew no bounds. When simple remarks had become crimes of state, it was only a step to view as criminal mere glances, sadness, compassion, sighs, — silence itself. Soon it became a crime of leze majesty, or of counter- revolution, for the town of Nursia to raise a monument to those of its people who had fallen at the siege of Modena, fighting under Augustus himself — Augustus was at that time in alliance with Brutus, and so Nursia suffered the fate of Perugia ; a crime of counter-revolution for Libo Drusus to have asked the soothsayers if he would not one day be very rich ; a crime of counter-revolution for the journalist, Cremutius Cordus, to have called Brutus and Cassius the last of the Romans ; a crime of counter-revolution for one of the descendants of Cassius to possess a portrait of his great- grandfather ; a crime of counter-revolution for Mamercus Scaurus to have composed a tragedy in which was a line that might have two meanings ; a crime of counter-revolution for Torquatus Silanus to spend his money ; a crime of coun- ter-revolution to complain of the disasters of the time, for this was to criticise the government. . . . Everything offended the tyrant. Was a citizen popular? He was a rival of the prince, who might stir up civil war. Studia civium in se verteret et si midti ide??i audea?tt, helium esse. Suspect. Did a citizen, on the contrary, avoid popularity and hug his own fireside? This retired life caused you to gain a certain respect. Quanto metu oceultior, tanto famae adeptus.