Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

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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 be¬
lieve, 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 Romanus honos, the national
dignity, which his countrymen so proudly contrasted with
the Graia 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
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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, deft 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. (c- m. )
AUGUSTUS II. (also, and more accurately, designated
Frederick Augustus I.), 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