thing could be more licentious than their entertain- || perils, and could be more relied upon when won; they, ments." At these they threw off all restraint; and their husbands accommodated themselves to the fashion with most convenient politeness. What if it were pronounced just to take summary vengeance upon the invader of domestic purity? Galba held a very diffe rent opinion: he invited Mecenas to supper and instead of guarding his wife from the compliments of his guest, closed his eyes and seemed to slumber: another, much against his will, came suddenly upon the conviction that he had been disgraced by his; but instead of punishing her accomplice, according to the custom of the age, with the scourge or the sword, was silenced for a stipulated sum. But such a state of society can scarcely create surprise, when it is recollected how little the heart was thought of, at that time, in the arrangements of matrimony. In an age when all other passion was so completely swallowed up in the passion for money, if, in the cases where females were reckless and unbridled their worst inclinations, even the mere ship-broker because capable of paying well, could invariably bear away the palm-it was not to be expected that in the selection of a husband there would be any consideration of mind, nor manners, nor family, nor worth; that there would be any question but whether he were rich. And when the sacredness of marriage was thus universally despised even by those who went through its forms, there can be little cause for wondering that it should have been looked upon so lightly by those who did not; and still less, that the numbers of unmarried men should have got to be so very great and so very unprincipled. As an inevitable result of this condition of things, the facilities and the allurements to irregularity, increased vastly; and Rome offerred three classes of women, upon whom must fasten an awful share of the responsibility for their country's degradation:-the women of quality, the freed-women and the openly depraved. The first of these three classes, still paid to virtue the tribute of aping her exterior; but they nevertheless found adventurous spirits enough in their train, who were rather excited than dismayed by the difficulties and dangers, flung, through stratagem, around the earlier approach.** The second class, the freed-womentt could be wooed without these artificial § Institor navis Dedecorum pretiosus emptor. Hor. Lib. iii. Ode 6. line 30. **Desine matronas sectarier; unde laboris Desist from the pursuit of matrons, whence one is more likely to draw evil, than to gather good fruit. ft Tutior at quanto merx est in classe secunda! Hor. Sat. 2. Lib. i. line 47. But how much cheaper are the goods in the second class. therefore, had no lack of followers. But the grossest beings of the other sex, who did not even pretend to There is but one apology for touching upon topics of this revolting nature. By reviewing such a state of society in connection with its acknowledged effects on the vital interests of an entire nation, as we cannot help doing here in reference to Rome, we ought to be able to gather from it reasons for congratulating ourselves upon our superiority; and so become confirmed in our better courses. But if, on the contrary, we find the minutest point in these pictures which may be matched in our own age, if we discover that in times of greater advantages, we cannot show much greater purity; but are even content to be the mere humble mimics of the vices of the days gone by, and have no claim even to the honor of new inventions in iniquity, it becomes our duty to reflect that what have once been the desolating consequences of such a career, are sure to be so again; the symptoms show the disease and we have only to choose between the cure and death. It can readily be imagined how a mind constituted like that of Octavia, must have been shocked at the necessity of associating with such women; and such were the morals of most of the women of Rome. But though there is scarcely an instance in which society of that description can be known without danger, the young Octavia passed through it unharmed. She married Marcellus, a person of consular rank and exalted character. The two sons she had by him, attached her * Parabilem amo venerem, facilemque. Hor.: Sat. 2. Lib. i. line 119. Villius in Fausta, Sullæ gener, hoc, miser, uno Exclusus fore, quum Longarenus foret intus. Hor.: Sat. 2. Lib. i. line 67. Being shut without while Longarenus was within. still more closely to a husband whom it was impossible || Antony, to whom for the most part they were utterly to esteem too highly. They lived together in all the delights of perfect union, till, for the third time she was about to become a mother; when death broke the cherished ties. Deeply as she felt the bereavement, she imposed silence upon her sorrows, with that superiority of reason, which never forsook her under any trial; in all her afflictions she maintained the same dignity, equally without ostentation and without weakness: the grandeur of her sentiments made her simple in her manners. Had it rested with herself, she never would have renounced the retirement which her situation for some time exacted. But nothing can more distinctly prove the supremacy of the public interest over her mind, than the remarkable fact that, at the moment of her deepest mourning for Marcellus, she resolved to marry Antony. It will be necessary to revert to certain events in order to show the magnanimity of this sacrifice. The alliance of the Triumvirs being broken, and the frivolous Lepidus, stripped of an authority of which he had proved himself so incapable, Augustus and Antony were left to divide the government of the provinces between themselves. But whenever their respective interests or the purposes of the particular ambition of either, happened to clash, they would become embroiled; and at length this got to be the case perpetually; one dispute was no sooner settled than another would spring up. These divisions created civil wars, which disturbed the universal tranquillity and wearied out not only the soldiers but the citizens. Up to that moment, however, Augustus had been reluctant to a reconciliation, because Fulvia, the wife of Antony, appeared to him an insuperable bar to any understanding whatever. When he heard she was dead, he looked upon the idea with less distaste. The restless spirit of this audacious woman, was the source of an infinitude of troubles in the empire; and her character forms too curious a contrast with that of Octavia, not to invite the mention of it here, especially as both of them had the same rank and the same hus- band. But the one employed her power in keeping up war, the other in restoring peace. Those who have pictured Fulvia to us have not proposed to record her praise, when they have said she possessed nothing of her sex but the body: they have intended to mark the disorder and the indecorum of her mind and manners. Her genius was perpetually engrossed in military schemes and political intrigues. During the brief term while Antony was sole master of Rome after the death of Cæsar, she had rendered every thing there venal; and distributed, in her own chamber, kingdoms, provinces and places, to the highest bidder. She was seen bearing the sword, heading the senators and knights of her party, ordering the army, haranguing the troops and holding council with the commandants. During the turmoils of the Triumvirate, she sometimes had the malignant effrontery to inflict the punishment of proscription, upon those who had never been proscribed, merely to glut her own personal animosity; and even to cause the heads of her victims to be carried before * Vir omnium vanissimus. Velleius Paterculus. The emptiest of men. unknown. Every one has heard how she treated Cicero after his murder; and how, having first taken his dead head upon her knees, and spit upon the face, she drew the tongue out of his mouth, and bored it through and through with the golden bodkin of her hair, thus verifying what the orator had once asserted, that 'no animal can be more revengeful than a woman.' The outbreaks of love in such a breast, would necessarily wear the same cast of madness. She was enamored of Antony to distraction; but his passion for Cleopatra drove her desperate, and the dark broodings of her jealousy kindled in her storms of wrath, which led to acts of unprecedented violence. Nor did she look unmoved upon rivals much less illustrious and of much inferior attractions. Having learned that in an expedition of Antony to Cappadocia, the charms of the intriguing Glaphyra detained him there, she tried all her lures upon Augustus, by way of retribution upon her unfaithful husband; and finding Augustus evaded her attempts to render him in this way subservient to her revenge, she went so far as to threaten him with her troops, if he remained inflexible; but Augustus preferred the dangers of her hate to those of her good graces, and so entirely despised her, that in an epigram inserted among those of Martial, after having named the alternative of either love or war with Fulvia, he bids the trumpets sound a charge. This contempt was followed by another; for he put away her daughter with an oath that she was returned as she came. Nevertheless this divorce was not made until after Fulvia, enraged at his first affront, had declared war against him. She alone devised more plots to thwart Augustus, and set more enterprises in motion, than could have been even imagined by all the lieutenants-general of Antony. It was only to force him back to Italy that she was perpetually exciting disturbances there. Brave and proud as he was, she ruled him thoroughly; and had broken him in by so hard an apprenticeship of obedience, that when Cleopatra spread her chains, she found him already trained to her hand and perfectly docile to this sort of governance. After the troops of Augustus had taken the city of Perugia, in which Fulvia had entrenched herself with Lucius, she fled to Brundusium with an escort of three thousand horse, given to her by its prætors. From Brundusium she passed forthwith into Athens, where she was joined by her husband. She accompanied him as far as Sicyon, a city of the Peloponnesus, and it was there that he at length found courage to shake off the yoke of a subjection so disgraceful. He reproached her with her imprudences and her phrensies; taxed her as the cause of all his ill-fortune, and left her overwhelmed with a torrent of the worst that could be uttered of contempt and outrage. She sickened under the bitterness of her chagrin and devoured with spite, she died unregretted, even by her husband and her children, The decease of Fulvia rendered Augustus more accessible to suggestions of peace: hence the generals on either side set in motion every possible expedient for bringing it about. They represented to the two Emperors that the senate and the soldiers were alike weary of the war and that it was equally for the interest of both sides that it should end. At length, after these officers had thoroughly debated every chance to gain their point, they came to the conclusion that there was nothing better calculated to render the ties between the two rivals settled and sincere, than a marriage of Octavia with Antony. The way in which she had passed her time since the death of Marcellus, seemed to indicate very little predisposition for any new engagement; Augustus nevertheless undertook to sound her upon the subject. He counted on her devotedness to his interest and he was not mistaken. She consented to his proposition and to him thus sacrificed all the sweets of her seclusion. No doubt the comparison of the condition she must forsake with that she was about to enter, gave her no less alarm than anguish: for she must have been well aware of the difference between the surpassingly meritorious husband she had lost but six months previous and him who was now offered to her acceptance. Could there have been found a person less fitted to make up for her loss and of a disposition more entirely the opposite to her own? To understand how completely she gave up all consideration of herself in this alliance, we have only to glance a little into the particulars of what sort of man Antony was. He has been defined by several historians. Those who give us the most advantageous description, represent him as of commanding person, ample brow, aqualine nose, profuse beard, and every line of his face marking the force of his temperament. It is said that his general expression was prepossessing; that he was affable, caustic, exceedingly given to wine;* more of a warrior than a politician, familiar with his soldiers, expert in making friends, prodigal of his wealth for his pleasure, but ardent in possessing himself of that of other people; as prompt to reward as to punish, yet more given to be generous than ungentle; as good humored when others rallied him as when he rallied others, and capable of becoming the master of the world, had he not preferred rendering himself the slave of Cleopatra, to commanding the entire universe. Those authors who show him rather too much indulgence, forbear to add that there was a wild magnificence of profusion in his expenditures, an absurd vanity in his conversation, a capriciousness in his ambition, and a brutality in his excesses, which made him the scorn of the sedate. After he had repudiated his second wife, and sometime before his marriage with Fulvia, he was strongly attached to a little actress by the name of Cytheris. Cicero rebukes him for having appeared publicly with her in an open litter, and for having travelled with her in a car drawn by lions. But what must have excited in the heart of Octavia a still stronger objection against him, was his appalling devotedness to the whims of Cleopatra. This superb queen, whose charms had been able to subdue even Cæsar, and who was less dangerous from her beauty than from her adroitness in always making that beauty appear to the best advantage, found little need of effort in rendering a voluptuary like Antony, the idolator of her fantasies and passions. She so well knew the art of dazzling him by her magnificence and her gifts, and of *Plutarch.-Velleius Paterculus. Year of Rome 707. Before Christ, 47. Inter lictores aperta lecticá mimula portabatur. Cicero. 197 effectually enchaining his ferocious valor, that she brought all his military talents under subjection to his love. Octavia foresaw the afflicting results of such an engagement, but her reflections did not arrest her purpose; her friendship for her brother and the interest of her country, were paramount in her bosom, and even induced her to consent not to await the birth* of her last infant, nor even that the ten months of viduity requisite before a second marriage, should be entirely completed. The Senate exempted her from that law, so that in six months after the death of Marcellus, she was the wife of Antony. Augustus and he went to Rome for the solemnization of the nuptials. Their entry was triumphant. On every side they heard aspirations for their good and shouts of gladness. The Romans,† exhausted by so much civil war, placed their every hope on this alliance. They discerned in the mind and read in the eyes of the young Octavia, qualities capable of rivetting any heart, and they did not doubt but Cleopatra must be sacrificed to the endearments of a dawning passion which seemed as if it could not but gather strength. Many days passed in public festivities. Nothing was withheld which could make the people joyous, and cause them to forget the past days of bitterness. Octavia appeared more beautiful than ever amid the sports and spectacles; enchanted to find herself the cause of such gratulations and such delight, and of contributing no less to the felicity of Augustus, than to the repose of the whole empire. Antony more than once declared that the charms of Cleopatra could not compare with those of Octavia, and seemed so sincere in his assurance, that the mediators of the peace already exulted in their happy negociation. This princess, at the expiration of two months, gave birth to a son, the young Marcellus, afterwards so praised in history and of whom such noble things are to be said. The conjugal union still went on and the absence of Cleopatra greatly weakened her power over a man, always alive to present objects and only recently in possession of the loveliest woman in the world. But Meanwhile, the two of the Triumvirs who found themselves masters of all the provinces, made a new partition of them, in which the share of Lepidus was included; Augustus had the west, Antony the east. as they learned that the vessels of the younger Pompey were infesting the coast of Italy, they both departed from Rome, and stationed their army on the sea shore, facing the fleet of their feeble foe, who was sadly unsuited to sustain the glory of his father, so low were his But Antony had propensities, so coarse‡ his manners. been under obligations to him and hence influenced Augustus to an accommodation, into which he entered the less reluctantly because the courses of Pompey had stopped all commerce upon the seas, and cut off all supplies of provisions to the land. They gave him Sicily and Sardinia. The three leaders then feasted one another by turns. At the first banquet given by Pompey on board his gallies, the preliminaries were entered into for a future marriage between his daughter and the newly born Marcellus; but the scheme never came to any thing. At these different festivals, Antory was often rallied about his passion for Cleopatra, and parried the jokes rather awkwardly in the presence of Octavia, who accompanied her brother and him on this expedition, and by whom he already had a daughter. making for war. Nevertheless, his campaign did not begin till so late that when he went, expecting an attack, he found his affairs had been so well managed by his lieutenants, that two victories had been already gained over the Parthians, by the vigilance and skill of Ventidius. As it took very little to embroil Augustus and Antony, Octavia was afraid their remaining long together, might give rise to some new division. To prevent this discomfort, she proposed that her husband should take her to Athens and there pass the winter with her. He consented readily, and having dispatched Ventidius, one of his generals, to keep the Parthian army in check, he took leave of Augustus, with the warmest demonstrations of friendship and confiding to him his private affairs at Rome, bent his course to Greece with Octavia. The Athenians, who could only live for pleasure,*|| hailed with exultation the approach to their city of a court so brilliant as was then the court of Antony. They prepared the most magnificent public fêtes to welcome the greatest of the Roman warriors, who, in all the joyousness of a recent bridegroom, thus complimented them with the visit of the most celebrated beauty of the empire. They had no eyes but for Octavia. Practised to penetrate into character at a glance and to unravel the real qualities, they admired, not the graces of her person merely, but the justness of her mind and the delicacy of her taste. The honors which they rendered to her, bordered on idolatry; and authors have recorded that this was no empty homage, that the citizens only expressed what was passing in every heart. Athens proved most agreeable to her as an abode: she was too familiar with the muses, not to delight in a place whence the laws, the sciences and the arts of her own country had derived their origin; whence philosophy, worth, politeness, had spread themselves far and wide over the neighboring nations; and which still retained enough of its earlier splendor to make it one of the most desirable of residences. But the more remarkable point regarding this visit, was the manner in which Antony conducted himself throughout the winter. It is well known how violent his temper was and how gross he was in his pleasures; nevertheless, the society of Octavia had so subdued his manners and so reformed his mind, that he lived in Athens as though he had never been capable of any thing but the most refined and unostentatious propriety. He appeared in the streets like a common citizen; his garb was that of the people among whom he lived; he did not permit any symbol of authority to be borne before him; he was only attended by two friends and two servants. He frequented the assemblies of the philosophers; took pleasure in their discussions; ate with the Greeks; celebrated their fêtes after their fashion, having always by his side Octavia, || of whom, it seemed as if it were impossible he could ever tire, and upon whose wishes all his were moulded. But a change came upon the face of things as soon as the winter was past: his general officers, with whom he had only communicated by letters, hastily glanced over and briefly answered, now held conferences with him, long and secret; he assumed the bearing of an Emperor; and the Athenians, were surprised to see preparations * Plutarch.-Dion Cassius, lib. xlviii. This left him leisure for more attention than he could otherwise have given, to reports of certain expeditions of Augustus, whose slightest movements he always eyed with suspicion. He, therefore, took the resolution to return to the west; and embarking with Octavia, he put to sea with a force of three hundred sail. Augustus, being informed that he was approaching with indications of hostility, ordered the port of Brundusium to be closed against him; so that he was forced to put into Tarentum. When he saw himself thus repelled, his rage was tremendous. Augustus, on the other hand, complained that when the younger Pompey broke his treaty of peace, Antony had remained neutral, leaving his ally and brother to breast the storm unsuccoured. This new estrangement was a great affliction to Octavia: she implored her husband to allow her to go and see Augustus and to try personally to bring round an accommodation. She was then, for the second time about to make Antony a father; and her departure was not delayed. On her way* she found that Augustus was advancing with his troops. She met them and first sought a private conference with Mecanas and Agrippa, whom the prince had brought with him: she urged them in the most touching manner to persuade Augustus to some arrangement; she showed them how wretched her situation would be, whichever way the result might turn: "For how," added she, "can I fail to be made the most forlorn woman in the world, either as the wife of Antony, or the sister of Augustus. By these titles, which elevate me to the first rank in the Roman empire, if the war should re-commence, my anguish is assured, let fate decide the victory as it may; for if I have not to weep for a brother's overthrow, I must mourn that of a husband.” The two ministers entered fully into the views of Octavia; but assured hert that they would have more weight with Augustus, if known from her directly and without their intervention. So it proved. The prince expatiated, indeed, on the provocations given by Antony; but evident as it was that his policy had predetermined him on war, his affection could not withstand her eloquent pleadings for peace. Octavia departed in great delight with the result of her negociation, bearing her brother's promise that he would presently meet Antony at Tarentum. She lost no time in preparing him for the interview; and the spirit in which it was conducted shows plainly by whom the ceremonial had been planned Augustus continued his march, with all his troops. As soon as Antony discovered him in the distance, quitting his ship, he entered a skiff, and approached the shore, alone, to greet him. Charmed with this mark of confidence, Augustus instantly followed the example. The two armies, stood gazing for a moment with amazement at the unexpected embraces of Appian, lib. v. Civil Wars.-Plutarch. Ibid.-Year of Rome, 717. Before Christ, 37. the rival leaders upon the sea; when all of a sudden one shout of rapture arose from every side, and the air was filled with blessings upon the mediatress, who was instantly recognised as the noble source of this reconciliation. There was a brief contest of politeness between them, concerning where they were to land; each wishing to be the host of the other; but it was at length thought best to give way to Augustus, under the pretext of his desire to see his sister at Tarentum. So gratified was he at being there, that he passed the night under the roof of Antony, without either watchmen or guards; Antony returned the compliment on the mor row. Octavia induced him to give her brother a most magnificent fête, to which, the day following, he responded, by one still more magnificent. She also induced them, to strengthen their alliance by mutual gifts. She caused Antony to receive from Augustus two legions to aid him in the Parthian war; and she impelled Antony to give Augustus, for the support of his expedition against the younger Pompey, one hundred of the armed gallies brought by Antony to Tarentum. After protestations of a friendship never more to be broken, the two Emperors parted: Antony bent his course for Asia,-Augustus went to Sicily: a thousand warriors selected from the troops of Augustus by Antony were assigned to Octavia as her escort back to Rome, where she purposed devoting herself to the education of her children. Here ended the bright days of Octavia. The story of Antony's adventures with Cleopatra will be given in our next number, when our narrative will close, with the record of the afflictions which accompanied Octavia to the grave. These afflictions have cast the glory around her name, which now lifts it far above the happiest of her cotemporaries. Through these she has left the world a surpassing model of patience and of all the virtues and graces of which her sex are so eminently capable and should ever be so proud to imitate. H. P. (End of part the first.) NATURE to every varied beast some arms defensive gave: The timid hare that lightly speeds across the dewy lawn Amid the cane entangled brakes of India's fiery bound And Woman, loveliest work of heaven, ah, what is left for thee, 'Reft of so much to others given what shall thy offering be? Beauty. Yes, Beauty is thy strength, that nature lavished free, More powerful than the spear and shield, triumphant than the sword, H. A. L. It warms that breast with purer fire where thou art sole adored. * Anacreon Ode ii. Woman. |