Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/49

 he cou'd either visit Rome, or return to his privacy at Naples, thro' a pleasant Rode adorn'd on each side with pieces of Antiquity, of which he was so great a Lover, and in the intervals of them, seem'd almost one continu'd Street of three days Journey.

Cæsar having now Vanquish'd Sextus Pompeius, a Spring-tide of Prosperities breaking in upon him, before he was ready to receive them as he ought, fell sick of the Imperial Evil, the desire of being thought something more than Man. Ambition is an infinite Folly: When it has attain'd to the utmost pitch of Human Greatness, it soon falls to making pretensions upon Heaven. The crafty Livia would needs be drawn in the Habit of a Priestesse by the Shrine of the new God: And this became a Fashion not to be dispens'd with amongst the Ladies: The Devotion was wondrous great amongst the Romans, for it was their Interest, and, which sometimes avails more, it was the Mode. Virgil, tho' he despis'd the Heathen Superstitions, and