第152章 A.D.47, 48(4)

It was the Egyptians who first symbolized ideas, and that by the figures of animals.These records, the most ancient of all human history, are still seen engraved on stone.The Egyptians also claim to have invented the alphabet, which the Phoenicians, they say, by means of their superior seamanship, introduced into Greece, and of which they appropriated the glory, giving out that they had discovered what they had really been taught.Tradition indeed says that Cadmus, visiting Greece in a Phoenician fleet, was the teacher of this art to its yet barbarous tribes.According to one account, it was Cecrops of Athens or Linus of Thebes, or Palamedes of Argos in Trojan times who invented the shapes of sixteen letters, and others, chiefly Simonides, added the rest.In Italy the Etrurians learnt them from Demaratus of Corinth, and the Aborigines from the Arcadian Evander.And so the Latin letters have the same form as the oldest Greek characters.At first too our alphabet was scanty, and additions were afterwards made.Following this precedent Claudius added three letters, which were employed during his reign and subsequently disused.These may still be seen on the tablets of brass set up in the squares and temples, on which new statutes are published.

Claudius then brought before the Senate the subject of the college of "haruspices," that, as he said, "the oldest of Italian sciences might not be lost through negligence.It had often happened in evil days for the State that advisers had been summoned at whose suggestion ceremonies had been restored and observed more duly for the future.

The nobles of Etruria, whether of their own accord or at the instigation of the Roman Senate, had retained this science, making it the inheritance of distinct families.It was now less zealously studied through the general indifference to all sound learning and to the growth of foreign superstitions.At present all is well, but we must show gratitude to the favour of Heaven, by taking care that the rites observed during times of peril may not be forgotten in prosperity." A resolution of the Senate was accordingly passed, charging the pontiffs to see what should be retained or reformed with respect to the "haruspices."It was in this same year that the Cherusci asked Rome for a king.

They had lost all their nobles in their civil wars, and there was left but one scion of the royal house, Italicus by name, who lived at Rome.

On the father's side he was descended from Flavus, the brother of Arminius; his mother was a daughter of Catumerus, chief of the Chatti.

The youth himself was of distinguished beauty, a skilful horseman and swordsman both after our fashion and that of his country.So the emperor made him a present of money, furnished him with an escort, and bade him enter with a good heart on the honours of his house."Never before," he said, "had a native of Rome, no hostage but a citizen, gone to mount a foreign throne." At first his arrival was welcome to the Germans, and they crowded to pay him court, for he was untainted by any spirit of faction, and showed the same hearty goodwill to all, practising sometimes the courtesy and temperance which can never offend, but oftener those excesses of wine and lust in which barbarians delight.He was winning fame among his neighbours and even far beyond them, when some who had found their fortune in party feuds, jealous of his power, fled to the tribes on the border, protesting that Germany was being robbed of her ancient freedom, and that the might of Rome was on the rise."Is there really," they said, "no native of this country to fill the place of king without raising the son of the spy Flavus above all his fellows? It is idle to put forward the name of Arminius.Had even the son of Arminius come to the throne after growing to manhood on a hostile soil, he might well be dreaded, corrupted as he would be by the bread of dependence, by slavery, by luxury, by all foreign habits.But if Italicus had his father's spirit, no man, be it remembered, had ever waged war against his country and his home more savagely than that father." By these and like appeals they collected a large force.No less numerous were the partisans of Italicus."He was no intruder," they said, "on an unwilling people; he had obeyed a call.Superior as he was to all others in noble birth, should they not put his valour to the test, and see whether he showed himself worthy of his uncle Arminius and his grandfather Catumerus? He need not blush because his father had never relinquished the loyalty which, with the consent of the Germans, he had promised to Rome.The name of liberty was a lying pretext in the mouths of men who, base in private, dangerous in public life, had nothing to hope except from civil discord."The people enthusiastically applauded him.After a fierce conflict among the barbarians, the king was victorious.Subsequently, in his good fortune, he fell into a despot's pride, was dethroned, was restored by the help of the Langobardi, and still, in prosperity or adversity, did mischief to the interests of the Cheruscan nation.