Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/58

 he came into the Theatre, and paid him the same Respect they us'd to Cæsar himself, as Tacitus assures us. And if Augustus invited Horace to assist him in Writing his Letters, and every body knows that the rescripta Imperatorum were the Laws of the Empire; Virgil might well deserve a place in the Cabinet-Council.

And now Virgil prosecutes his Æneis, which had Anciently the Title of the Imperial Poem, or Roman History, and deservedly; for though he were too Artful a Writer to set down Events in exact Historical order, for which Lucan is justly blam'd; yet are all the most considerable Affairs and Persons of Rome compriz'd in this Poem. He deduces the History of Italy from before Saturn to the Reign of King Latinus; and reckons up the Successors of Æneas, who Reign'd at Alba, for the space of three hundred Years, down to the Birth of Romulus; describes the Persons and principal Exploits of all the Kings, to their Expulsion, and the settling of the Commonwealth. After this, he touches