petulancy of Cassius Severus, who had defamed many illustrious
persons of both sexes in his writings." The law to which Tacitus
refers was Lex laesae majestatis; commonly called, for the sake of
brevity, majestas; or, as we say, high-treason. He means not that
this law had not been enacted formerly (for it had been made by the
Decemviri, and was inscribed amongst the rest in the Twelve Tables,
to prevent the aspersion of the Roman majesty, either of the people
themselves, or their religion, or their magistrates; and the
infringement of it was capital--that is, the offender was whipped to
death with the fasces which were borne before their chief officers
of Rome), but Augustus was the first who restored that intermitted
law. By the words "under colour of that law" he insinuates that
Augustus caused it to be executed on pretence of those libels which
were written by Cassius Severus against the nobility, but in truth
to save himself from such defamatory verses. Suetonius likewise
makes mention of it thus:- Sparsos de se in curia famosos libellos,
nec exparit, et magna cura redarguit. Ac ne requisitis quidem
auctoribus, id modo censuit, cognoscendum posthac de iis qui
libellos aut carmina ad infamiam cujuspiam sub alieno nomine edant.
"Augustus was not afraid of libels," says that author, "yet he took
all care imaginable to have them answered, and then decreed that for
the time to come the authors of them should be punished." But
Aurelius makes it yet more clear, according to my sense, that this
emperor for his own sake durst not permit them:- Fecit id Augustus
in speciem, et quasi gratificaretur populo Romano, et primoribus
urbis; sed revera ut sibi consuleret: nam habuit in animo
comprimere nimiam quorundam procacitatem in loquendo, a qua nec ipse
exemptus fuit. Nam suo nomine compescere erat invidiosum, sub
alieno facile et utile. Ergo specie legis tractavit, quasi populi
Romani majestas infamaretur. This, I think, is a sufficient comment