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one of the most eminent players, not only from Rome but even from Italy, for affronting one of the audience who had hiffed him upon the ftage. But these restraints feem to have expired with Auguftus. For we find the pride and infolence of the players carried to so great a height in the reign of his fucceffor Tiberius, as to occafion their total banishment. The fondness of the populace for the entertainments of the theatre, and the folly of the degenerate nobility, were the causes of this alteration. For both Pliny and Seneca affure us, that perfons of the very first rank and fashion were fo fcandaloufly mean, as to pay the most obfequious court to the players, to dangle at their levees, to attend them openly in the streets like their flaves; and treat them like the mafters, inftead of the fervants of the public. Every eminent player had his party, and thefe ridiculous factions interested themselves fo warmly in the cause of their respective favorites, that the theatres became a perpetual scene of riot and diforder. The nobility mingled with the mob in thefe abfurd conflicts; which

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Oftendam nobiliffimos juvenes mancipia pantomimorum. Senec. Epift 47. p. 118.

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Variis dehinc & fæpius irritis prætorum queftibus, poftremò Cæfar de immodeftia hiftrionum retulit; muitá ab iis in publicum feditiofe, foeda per demos tentari eo flagitiorum & virium veniffe, ut auctoritate patrum coercendum fit. Pulfi tum hiftriones Italia. Tacit. Annal. 4. P. 134.

always ended in bloodfhed, and frequently in murder. The remonftrances and authority of the magiftrates had fo little effect, that they were obliged to have recourse to the Emperor, Bad as Tiberius was, yet he was too wife to tolerate fuch fhameful licentioufnefs. He laid the cafe before the Senate, and informed them, that the players were the caufe of thofe fcandalous riots which difturbed the repofe of the public: that they spread lewdness and debauchery through all the chief families; that they were arrived to such a height of profligacy and infolence, through the protection of their factions, that the authority of the Senate itself was requifite to restrain them within proper bounds. Upon this remonftrance they were driven out of Italy as a public nuifance, and Suetonius informs us, that all the frequent and united petitions of the people could never prevail upon Tiberius to recal them.

Auguftus affected an extreme fondness for all kinds of diverfions; he invited the moft celebrated players of every denomination into Italy, and treated the people, at an immenfe expense, with every kind of entertainment, which the theatre or circus could furnish. This is remarked as an instance of that refined policy of which he

Cade in theatro per difcordiam admiffa, capita factionum & hiftriones, propter quos diffidebatur, relegavit : nec ut revocaret unquam ullis populi precibus potuit @vinci. Suet. in Tib. c. 37.

was fo thorough a mafter. For that artful prince. was not yet firmly fettled in his newly ufurped. power. He well knew, that if he gave the people time to cool and reflect, they might poffibly thwart the execution of his ambitious schemes. He therefore judged that the best expedient to prepare them for the yoke of flavery would be, to keep them conftantly intoxicated by one perpetual round of jollity and diverfions. That this was the opinion of thinking people, at that time, is evident from that remarkably pertinent answer of Pylades the player to Auguftus, tranfmitted to us by Dion Caffius. Pylades, as I have already. obferved, had been banished by Augufius for a misdemeanor, but pardoned and recalled to gratify the humor of the people. At his return when Auguftus reproved him with quarrelling with one Bathyllus, a person of the same profession, but protected by his favorite Mæcenas; Pylades is reported to have made this bold and fenfible answer: "It is your true interest, Cæfar, that the peo"ple fhould idle away that time upon us and our "affairs, which they might otherwife employ in prying too narrowly into your government.

I am far from being an enemy to the stage. On the contrary, I think the ftage under properegulations might be rendered highly useful. For of all our public diverfions, the ftage, if purged from the obscenity of farce, and the low

Συμφέρει σοι, Καίσαρ, περὶ ἡμᾶς τὸν δῆμον αποδιατριβεσθαι. Dion. Caff. lib. 54. P. 533.

buffoonery of pantomime, is certainly capable of affording infinitely the moft rational, and the moft manly entertainment. But when I fee the fame disorders in our own theatres, which were fo loudly complained of in the time of Tiberius; when the ridiculous contests between contending players are judged to be of fuch mighty importance, as to split the public into the fame kind of factions; when these factions interest themselves fo warmly in the support of the supposed merit of their respective favorites, as to proceed to riots, blows, and the most extravagant indecencies; I cannot help wishing for the interpofition of the reforming spirit of Auguftus. And when I fee the fame infatiable fondnefs for diverfions, the fame unmeaning taste (fo juftly ridiculed by1 Horace in his countrymen) prevail in our own nation, which mark the most degenerate times of Greece and Rome, I cannot but look upon them as a certain indication of the frivolous and effeminate manners of the present age.

Verùm equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas Omnis, ad incertos oculos, & gaudia vana.

Hor. Epift. 1. lib. 2. lin. 187. Tanto cum ftrepitu ludi fpectantur, & artes, Divitiæque peregrina: quibus oblitus actor Quum ftetit in fcena, occurrit dextera lævæ: Dixit adhuc aliquid? nil fane. Quid placet ergo? Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno.

Ibid. lin. 203.

CHAP. V I.

The real Caufe of the rapid Declenfion of the

ROMAN REPUBLIC.

DIONYSIUS of Halicarnaffus obferves, that Romulus formed his new government in many respects after the model of that of Sparta, which accounts for that great refemblance, wẹ evidently meet with between the Roman and Spartan conflitutions. I may add too, that we cannot help obferving as great a resemblance for fome ages at leaft between the manners of both thofe people. For we find the fame fimplicity in their houses, diet and apparel; the fame contempt for wealth, and quite to the laft period of their liberty, the fame warlike genius. Public spirit and the love of their country was carried in both ftates to the highest pitch of enthusiasm; it was deaf to the voice of nature itself, and that amiable virtue wore a kind of favage afpect at Rome and Sparta. But the alteration of their manners, which alike preceded the lofs both of the Spartan and Roman liberty, will admit of no kind of comparison either as to degree or progrefs. Luxury and corruption ftole in by very flow degrees, and were never carried to any remarkable height amongst the Spartans. But, as Salluft

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Dionyf. Halicarn. lib. 2. p. 65.

Mores majorum non paulatim, ut antea, fed torrentis modo precipitati. Salluft, Fragment. p. 139.