Such was his infatuation that he immediately followed her, leaving his fleet, which, after a contest of some hours, yielded to the squadron of Octavius. Antony and Cleopatra perished miserably, while Octavius was now left without a rival, with the government of Rome in his hands. Egypt which had existed a kingdom from immemorial ages, from this time became a province of Rome.

The empire had now become the largest which the world had ever seen; and Octavius, now named Augustus, holding the principal offices of the state, became the absolute master of the lives and fortunes of the Roman people. During a long administration, he almost obliterated the memory of his former cruelties, and seemed to consult only the good of his subjects.

THE CHARACTER OF JULIUS CÆSAR. CESAR was endowed with every great and noble quality, that could exalt human nature, and give a man the ascendant in society: formed to excel in peace, as well as war; provident in council; fearless in action; and executing what he had resolved with an amazing celerity: generous beyond measure to his friends; placable to his enemies; and for learning, and eloquence, scarce inferior to any man. His orations were admired for two qualities, which are seldom found together, strength and elegance. Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that Rome ever bred; and Quinctilian says, that he spoke with the same force with which he fought; and if he had devoted himself to the bar, would have been the only man capable of rivalling Cicero. Nor was he a master only of the politer arts, but conversant also with the most abstruse and critical parts of learning; and, among other works which he published, addressed two books to Cicero, on the analogy of language, or the art of speaking and writing correctly. He was a most liberal patron of wit and learning, wheresoever they were found; and out of his love of those talents, would readily pardon those who had employed them against himself: rightly judging that by making such men his friends, he

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should draw praises from the same fountain from which he had been aspersed. His capital passions were bition, and love of pleasure; which he indulged in their turns to the greatest excess: yet the first was always predominant; to which he could easily sacrifice all the charms of the second, and draw pleasure even from toils and dangers, when they ministered to his glory. For he thought Tyranny, as Cicero says, the greatest of goddesses; and had frequently in his mouth a verse of Euripedes, which expressed the image of his soul, that if right and justice were ever to be violated, they were to be violated for the sake of reigning. This was the chief end and purpose of his life; the scheme that he had formed from his early youth; so that, as Cato truly declared of him, he came with sobriety and meditation to the subversion of the republic. He used to say, that there were two things necessary, to acquire and support soldiers and money; which yet depended mutually upon each other: with money, therefore, he provided soldiers, and with soldiers extorted money; and was, of all men, the most rapacious in plundering both friends and foes; sparing neither prince, nor state, nor temple, nor even private persons, who were known to possess any share of treasure. His great abilities would necessarily have made him one of the first citizens of Rome; but, disdaining the condition of a subject, he could never rest till he made himself a monarch. In acting this last part, his usual prudence seemed to fail him; as if the height to which he was mounted, had turned his head, and made him giddy: for, by a vain ostentation of his power, he destroyed the stability of it: and as men shorten life by living too fast, so by an intemperance of reigning, he brought his reign to a violent end. [Middleton.]

power.

A COMPARISON OF CÆSAR WITH CATO.

As to their extraction, years, and eloquence, they were pretty nigh equal. Both of them had the same greatness of mind, both the same degree of glory, but in different ways: Cæsar was celebrated for his great

bounty and generosity; Cato for his unsullied integrity: the former became renowned by his humanity and compassion; an austere severity heightened the dignity of the latter. Cæsar acquired glory by a liberal, compassionate and forgiving temper; as did Cato, by never bestowing anything. In the one, the miserable found a sanctuary; in the other, the guilty met with a certain destruction. Caesar was admired for an easy yielding temper; Cato for his immovable firmness. Cæsar, in a word, had formed himself for a laborious active life; was intent upon promoting the interest of his friends, to the neglect of his own; and refused to grant nothing that was worth accepting: what he desired for himself, was to have sovereign command, to be at the head of armies, and engaged in new wars, in order to display his military talents. As for Cato, his only study was moderation, regular conduct, and, above all, rigorous severity: he did not vie with the rich in riches, nor in faction with the factious; but, taking a nobler aim, he contended in bravery with the brave, in modesty with the modest, in integrity with the upright; and was more desirous to be virtuous, than appear so: so that the less he courted the same, the more it followed him. lust, by Mr. Rose.]

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THE CHARACTER OF CATO.

If we consider the character of Cato without prejudice, he was certainly a great and worthy man; a friend to truth, virtue, liberty; yet, falsely measuring all duty by the absurd rigor of the stoical rule, he was generally disappointed of the end which he sought by it, the happiness both of his private and públic life. In his private conduct he was severe, morose, inexorable; banishing all the softer affections, as natural enemies to justice, and as suggesting false motives of acting, from favor, clemency, and compassion: in public affairs he was the same; had but one rule of policy, to adhere to what was right, without regard to time or circumstances, or even to a force that could control him; for, instead of managing the power of the great, so

as to mitigate the ill, or extract any good from it, he was urging it always to acts of violence by a perpetual defiance; so that, with the best intentions in the world, he often did great harm to the republic. This was his general behavior; yet from some particular facts, it appears that his strength of mind was not always impregnable, but had its weak places of pride, ambition, and party zeal; which, when managed and flattered to a certain point, would betray him sometimes into measures contrary to his ordinary rule of right and truth. The last act of his life was agreeable to his nature and philosophy: when he could no longer be what he had been; or when the ills of life overbalanced the good, which, by the principles of his sect, was a just cause for dying; he put an end to his life with a spirit and resolution which would make one imagine, that he was glad to have found an occasion of dying in his proper character. On the whole, his life was rather admirable than amiable; fit to be praised, rather than imitated. [Middleton.]

THE EGYPTIANS RISE AGAINST PERSIA, SUPPORTED BY THE ATHENIANS.

ABOUT 3538 A. M., the Egyptians, to free themselves from a foreign yoke which was insupportable to them, revolted from Artaxerxes, and made Inarus, prince of the Libyans, their king. They demanded aid of the Athenians, who having at that time a fleet of two hundred ships at the island of Cyprus, accepted the invitation with pleasure, and immediately set sail for Egypt; judging this a very favorable opportunity to weaken the power of the Persians, by driving them out of so great a kingdom.

Advice being brought Artaxerxes of this revolt, he raised an army of three hundred thousand men, and resolved to march in person against the rebels. But his friends advising him not to venture himself in that expedition, he gave the command of it to Achæmenes, one of his brothers. The latter being arrived in Egypt, encamped his great army on the banks of the Nile. During

this interval, the Athenians having defeated the Persian fleet, and either destroyed or taken fifty of their ships; they went again up that river, landed their forces under the command of Charitimis their general; and having joined Inarus and his Egyptians, they charged Achæmenes, and defeated him in a great battle, in which that Persian general, and an hundred thousand of his soldiers were slain. Those who escaped, fled to Memphis, whither the conquerors pursued them, and immediately made themselves masters of two quarters of the city: but the Persians having fortified themselves in the third, called the white wall, which was the largest and strongest of the three, they were besieged in it nearly three years, during which they made a most vigorous defence, till they were at last delivered by the forces sent to their aid.

Artaxerxes hearing of the defeat of his army, and how much the Athenians had contributed to it; to make a diversion of their forces, and oblige them to turn their arms another way, he sent ambassadors to the Lacedæmonians with a large sum of money, to engage them to proclaim war against the Athenians. But the Lacedæmonians having rejected the offer, their refusal did not abate his ardor, and accordingly he gave Megabysus and Artabazus the command of the forces designed against Egypt. These generals immediately raised an army of three hundred thousand men in Cilicia and Phoenicia. They were obliged to wait till the fleet was equipped, which was not till the next year. Artabazus then took upon him the command of it, and sailed towards the Nile, whilst Megabysus, at the head of the land-army, marched towards Memphis. He raised the siege of that city, and afterwards fought Inarus. All the forces on both sides engaged in this battle, in which Inarus was entirely defeated: but the Egyptians, who had rebelled, suffered most in this slaughter. After this defeat, Inarus, though wounded by Megabysus, retreated with the Athenians, and such Egyptians as were willing to follow him; and reached Biblos, a city in the island of Prosopitis, which is surrounded by two arms of the Nile, and both navigable. The Athenians ran their fleet into one of these arms, where it was secured from the attacks of the ene