invited to sit in the assemblies of the sages.

"

He had as yet been thrown into little society but that of academics like himself. His mind had been wholly occupied with learned pursuits, with the delight of wandering through the regions of knowledge, and the ambition of adding his name to those of the authors whom he read, and of sharing with them the applauses of posterity. But at length, when he had almost ranged the circle of human science, and it became necessary for him to quit the seminary of Antioch, he began to look abroad upon the world, and to consider whether the path of life which he was now pursuing was the most pleasing that he could choose, and whether those engaged in other occupations might not be happier than himself. For the turbulence of civil affairs he had little inclination, and he was exempt from the necessity of devoting himself to the toils of a profession. "But what is the life,' said he, "of the gay portion of the world?-of those whose business is pleasure? At least it will be but wise to make trial of their course of life, and to learn what enjoyment is to be found at the tables of luxury, and in the society of the other sex, pleasures which so large a part of mankind pursue with such constant avidity, and which poets celebrate with such animated praises. If I should now consign myself to letters and solitude, I shall remain ignorant of all that the gay and the sprightly deem the great end of existence; I shall pass the bloom of youth, the season when pleasure is best enjoyed, in obscurity and torpidity. Why should I not taste the gratifications, as well as the toils of life? I know what charms are to be found in the seats of the muses; I will now make trial of those offered by other deities. A life of what is called pleasure, however decried by gloomy philosophers, must have some attractions in it even for the wise, or such numbers could not be found attached to it. The years appointed to man allow him sufficient time for gaining knowledge and reputation, without depriving himself of the gratification of his senses. I will allot at least some portion of my youth to pleasure; and, after I shall have tried every source of delight, I shall still have opportunity to apply to study

have ranged the round of gaiety, I will retire from its paths, resume the pursuits which I now quit, and devote myself to the composition of works by which my name may be transmitted to posterity. When my passions have been gratified and are grown cool, I shall be better fitted for the steady research, and calm reflection. When I shall have learned more of the world, I shall be better qualified to instruct it, and to gain to myself the reputation of wisdom. I shall die in the midst of friendship and admiration, and shall leave an honourable name to the celebration of future ages."

Having thus fixed his resolution, he immediately departed to Constantinople, and altered his way of life. He threw off the gravity of the academic, and adopted the careless demeanour of the voluptuary. His ample fortune procured him abundant means of gratification; and his fertile genius invented innumerable schemes of pleasure, in which his rank and affability easily procured him sharers. He indulged his companions and himself with every delight that wealth can purchase, or fancy can invent. His table was covered with all the delicacies of luxury; his ears were lulled with the most exquisite strains of harmony; he breathed amidst the most fragrant perfumes, and reposed upon couches of the most costly workmanship. He frequented every assembly of which pleasure was the object; he sought only to be gay, and associated with none but those whose desires were the same as his own.

Such was his mode of life, till, on the approach of his fortieth birthday, he began to think it time to carry into execution his resolution of retirement, a resolution which he had never suffered to fall from his remembrance, and which he had even wished to perform sooner, but had delayed from day to day, because he thought that enough of life was still left for its accomplishment. But when he concluded seriously on retreating, he found it far from easy to do what he desired. He found it difficult to detach himself from a life of luxury, to which he had now become accustomed, and to consign himself to study with that diligence which his scheme demanded. He hesitated and delayed; he formed determinations and aban

doned them; he fixed days, and transgressed them. He thus lingered for five years longer, ashamed of his irresolution, yet unable to shake it off; but at last, on some disgust at the treachery of an associate, he tore himself from his companions, and withdrew to his closet.

His days were now to be spent in intellectual employment. He shut himself, the following morning, in his library, and spread his volumes before him. He contemplated subjects of composition, he examined his papers for schemes which he had formed in his youth, and determined how every day should be improved. But when he tried to exert his powers, he found that they were no longer the same as they were formerly. He felt that he was weakened by dissipation. He could not now labour with the same ardour that had animated him at an earlier period of life. He had lost his vigour of thought, and his habits of perseverance. His endeavours were faint and desultory; he took up a volume and threw it aside; he planned works, commenced, and abandoned them. His days were wasted in idle resolutions of industry, and in futile attempts to accomplish them. He grew dissatisfied and disgusted, unwilling to relinquish his scheme, yet hopeless of being able to execute it.

He resolved to seek temporary relief from disquietude among the companions of his youth, but with these he found but little consolation. He saw the many, on whose abilities he once looked with contempt, had risen, by steady industry, to rank and esteem, and were wholly careless about his friendship. He found that his opinions were far from being received with that regard which had once awaited them, and that those who, when he was known as a student, had listened to him with respect, now ventured to doubt of his competency to decide on subjects on which he had once been deemed infallible, and to suggest whether it were possible for knowledge to be retained, and talents to continue undiminished, in a life of levity and dissipation.

He next sought the company of his old instructors, and of other scholars coeval with them. But he experienced from these no such reception as he had found in his early days. Some regarded him as one whose abilities and

attainments had formerly been exagge rated; others thought that he would quit learning with the same precipitation with which he had recently quitted pleasure, or would waste his life between the one and the other. His own indolence unfitted him for any vigorous attempt to refute such suspicions; he struggled to rouse himself for a time, but at last, finding all endeavours to dispel his lethargy ineffectual, fled for relief from remorse to his old companions in gaiety, consumed the remains of life in languid dissipation, and died unhonoured and unlamented.

Mr. URBAN,

CONSIDERING the great attention which has been paid to classical biography, since the revival of letters in modern times, it is singular that such a man as SEXTUS JULIUS FRONTINUS, one of the greatest ornaments of the Vespasian era, should be comparatively unknown.

I am quite aware of the carelessness of fame evinced by this eminent person, also of the ubi est non potest diu celari of Lord Chesterfield, and also of the edict of the leviathan of his age, Dr. Johnson, against those who neglect their own opportunities of acquiring fame. Not all of these, however, satisfy me that the conqueror and civilizer of South Wales has been treated with attention equal to that which has been accorded to very many of his inferiors, particularly in Britain. For, without immediate reference to the latter point, if we except poesy, what Roman author beside has treated so many subjects of utility and honour to his country? War was in his age the great essential to the commonweal, with short intervals of peace. Of war, therefore, he principally treated in the first instance, and in such a manner that his writings have reached our times with approbation, and are indeed, as well as his other works, essential to History. The reader of taste may also be gratified to find that his first Essay was on the tactics used in the times of Homer. In the pacific intervals mentioned, we find him treating generally of rural concerns (de re agraria), then of boundaries, roads, &c., and from these emerging into the grandeurs of Rome, the aqueducts of the city; ultimately extending his

views, which indeed could hardly be bounded, to the colonies of Italy; among these, if his diffidence did not prevent him, might naturally have been expected some notice of our "northernmost" Britain, of the præfects of which Ausonius subsequently proposed the history; but, as all human hopes delayed, are generally defeated, he lived not to finish this, which must have been, at least to us, the most important of his literary works.

His military services will be better explained in the thread of a few biographical notices.

This truly great man of eighteen centuries since, was born in Sicily, about the close of the eighth century of the Roman æra, and the thirty-second year after the birth of Christ. These facts we gather, according to the usual modes of computation, in uncertainty, the first from the surname of Siculus attached to one of his treatises, the second from the period of his first consulate. On the same ground his birth must have been respectable if not noble, from the offices to which he was deemed competent; while his habits and writings evinced that he had shared all the advantages of the admirable education of his time.

The first mention of Frontinus in history, as far as is known, is when he was approaching his fortieth year, and had already arrived at public dignity. Tacitus says,' that " on the commencement of January A. U. C. 823 (A. D. 70), Julius Frontinus, then Prætor of the city, assembled the Senate for the transaction of public business, and then resigned his office, to which Domitian immediately succeeded," being by this means, perhaps, enabled to "fill the office of Prætor with the consular dignity," in the absence of both Consuls. This may be conceived as a courtesy of Frontinus towards the young prince, impatient to attain the power which he afterwards so weakly abused.

Four years after, Frontinus became

'Hist. lib. iv. c. 32.

Consul Extraordinary, or substitute (Suffectus); 3 perhaps honorarily, as necessary on his promotion to the command of a province which was rarely governed by any below the Consular dignity. No other colleague is named with Domitian, who enjoyed the same honour that year, and Ælian describes him of that rank when he wrote his art of war. Frontinus must now, according to Cicero, have reached the forty-second year of his age.

In the same or following year, he was appointed to succeed Cerealis in the government of Britain. Cerealis had, according to Tacitus, "struck a terror in this country by promptly invading the most populous states, and conquering or wasting the Brigantes," possessing the present northern counties. The most important part of the British force, however, determined not to submit, retired to the country of the Ordovices and Silures, North and South Wales.

Tacitus thus describes this event:

"Cerealis would doubtless have overwhelmed the fame of another successor. Julius Frontinus, that great man, maintained the full glory of Cerealis at every opportunity, and subdued the warlike people of the Silures, in whom he had to surmount not only a determined courage, but also the disadvantages of their country."6

This is the part of his career which excites my wonder that it should have received only an incidental notice from our historians, while the memory of Agricola has been so much the subject of eulogy, from his better fortune in a biographer; although this very writer is obliged thus frequently to mention Frontinus, and to confess that his successor was indebted for his knowledge, in more than one respect, to the experience of others.

The scene of his operations, and their memorials, one of which has perpetuated his name,7 furnish all that can be obtained concerning him in Britain. An intelligent historian of Monmouthshire, seems to have traced the ground inch by inch, and to have

2 Suet. in Vit. Dom. c. 1.

5 De Instruend. Acieb. Præfat.

followed the army of Frontinus with a military eye. He describes the Roman General as making "a feint on the point called Aust (Trajectus Augusta), and drawing the Silures into the forest of Dean, near the conflux of the Wye and the Severn, while his transports moved diagonally, and disembarked near the Charlston Rock, one of the landing places of the present New Passage. Half a mile from this rock remains of a fortress or square camp may be found, of which a considerable part has been washed away by the Severn; and here probably commenced the JULIA STRATA, vestiges of a Roman causeway having been discovered at the neighbouring village of Creek in the road to Caerwent. At the distance of five miles from Chepstow, and three from Sudbrook, in nearly a western direction, the road made on the Via Julia crosses a considerable station or camp longitudinally, and at right angles. The camp holds a little village called Caerwent. The choice of Caerwent as a camp by the Roman General, was judicious either for the attack of Caer-Osc, the capital of Siluria, or to cover it, when in his possession. The camp was formed on an eminence greatly elevated, with a small river at its base, commanding views of great extent, and the principal communications of the country. The foundations of the Roman wall are discernible at this time (1796). To reduce the Silures, the Romans formed two chains of garrisons, one of these drawn through Glamorgan, near the shores of Ptolemy's Estuary of Sabrina, the other on the banks of the Usk, the first link of which was Burrium (Usk), of which there are no remains."

Having greatly subjugated the Silures, Frontinus seems to have immediately set about establishing a frontier against the mountaineer Ordovices, and hence subsequently to have created the seat of a province equal in magnificence to any other Roman station.

Caerwent or Venta (Venta Silurum), is described by Camden as the capital of the Silures, which continued

9 So they still continued in 1813, though the land was ploughed around them, as I was informed by a distinguished antiquary (Mr. Kempe, F.A.S.) then on a tour in the west of England.

10 Britannia, title Silures.

in his time, (1586;) to exhibit its ruined walls and bulwarks, and to disclose tessellated pavements and Roman coins. The sea had also recently despoiled a Roman fortification near Portskewith. It was, says he, inclosed by a triple ditch and three ramparts, as high as an ordinary house, and cast in form of a bow, the string whereof is the sea cliff; it seems to have been the port and landing place for Venta Silurum, from the Severn Abergavenny, the ancient Gobannium, was strongly fortified; and twelve miles distant, at the conflux of the Birthin and the Usk, stood the second station in this direction, mentioned by Antoninus as Burrium, presenting a very strong post called by Giraldus Castrum Osca, the Castle of Usk.

sea.

Frontinus, however, seems to have fixed his head quarters at Isia, on the other side of the river, from which his position took its name as that of Legio Secunda, from a faithful as well as warlike legion of troops called by Claudius out of Germany into Britain, under the command of Vespasian, and which Camden states was here at last placed in garrison by Julius Frontinus;" it is twelve miles from Burrium. The British name is still retained on its site-Caer Leon ar Uske (the City of the Legion on Uske). This distinguished Legion was also dignified by the appellatives Augusta, and Britannia Secunda.

On this nomenclature Williams, already quoted, says, Britannia Secunda had fifteen important stations in Siluria, which soon became considerable towns, of which Caerleon was the capital, with all the Roman attributes belonging to it. Horsley, Harris, and Gough, confirm these accounts; the latter says,

the foundations of the wall are easily traced on every side, and describe a parallelogram of 450 yards by 350, the longest sides pointing east and west; great part of the Saxon walls, especially to the south, have Roman bricks interspersed;" and that the Julia Strata points to Caerleon "not in a straight line, like the Roman roads in England, but following the nature of the soil; not distinguished by a ridge or causeway, but by. the camps on or near it." Camden quotes the following lines of Necham :

"Intrat et auget aquas Sabrini fluminis Osca Præceps, testis erit JULIA STRATA mihi."

Camden also mentions a tablet dug up in 1602, of a veteran who had restored the temple of Diana erected by Haterius; "the statue of the goddess short trussed, bearing a quiver imperfect as well as the altar;" the inscription

T. F. L. POSTHVMIVS VARVS

V. C. LEG. TEMPL. DIANE
RESTITVIT.

Security and utility being obtained, Frontinus seems to have commenced, and to have entirely fulfilled the milder duties of a Roman General, which evidently was quite accordant with his character. Of the remains of the station when perfectly civilized, we have in addition the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis," who described it rom the ruins as a perfect city excellently well built by the Romans with brick walls (cortilibus muris)12. Here may be seen (1186, &c.) many marks of the ancient nobility and dignity which it possessed: mighty palaces with golden pinnacles, resembling the proud stateliness of the Romans; for it had been founded by Roman princes, and beautified with excellent buildings. There you may behold a gigantic tower, exquisite baths, the remains of temples and theatres, whose ornamented walls are partly yet standing. One may find in every place, as well within the wall as without, houses underground, water pipes and vaults within the earth, and, what one will consider most admirable, every where hot houses curiously formed, breathing forth heat very closely at certain narrow tunnels in the sides."13

a

Williams, before quoted, adds Roman bagnio or sudatory was opened

in 1755, on the west bank of the river, below the bridge, and leaden pipes for the conveyance of water from the northern hill were discovered.

On a hill half a mile from the town, also (1796), are some remains of a Roman camp, with double ramparts, probably the summer quarters (æstiva) of the second legion. And just without the south-west wall of Caerleon is

still to be seen a Roman amphitheatre of the castrensian kind, six yards deep, called by a general vulgar error Ar

thur's Round-table.

"Itinerarium Cambriæ.

12 The moderns say lime and grit stone. 13 This is not unworthy of observation.

And that he did not confine himself to this locality, would appear from his being named generally by Camden on the Roman roads in Britain. In all respects it is evident that Frontinus must have exemplified the character so briefly accorded to him by Tacitus, of a great man, " since his successor Agricola found the government in such perfect state as enabled him to proceed at once against the Ordovices, and prosecute also with success his northern expeditions.

It may fairly then, I think, be conceived, that, having so prepared the way for Agricola, and possessing the scientific knowledge which he elsewhere displayed, and Agricola having been acknowledged by his justly favouring biographer to be indebted to the experience of others," the description of Tacitus of the Roman rule in Britain, under his father-in-law, should be applied in a certain degree at least to the influence of Frontinus.

The account of Tacitus is an exemplar, and instructive precept for all governors of provinces or colonies; "Arms avail little," says he, "to set

the newly conquered states, if injuries and wrongs be permitted; he (Agricola) therefore commenced with establishing strict justice about his own person, making no appointments from recommendation, but as they were consistent with justice: he was exact in his inspection into all things, but not always vigorous in his exactions. He divided more equally the tributes, and the charge and burden of the supply of corn, distributing granaries throughout the kingdom, and establishing roads from the principal camps to the distant stations; norin the discipline of his army did he fail to encourage propriety of conduct in the private soldiery, while he repressed loose