It receives great light from the learned notes of his French translator, M.Spanheim.] Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors.

Engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Caesars seldom showed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces; nor were they disposed to suffer, that those triumphs which their indolence neglected, should be usurped by the conduct and valor of their lieutenants.

The military fame of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the Imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman general, to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians.

[5] [Footnote 5: Germanicus, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were checked and recalled in the course of their victories.

Corbulo was put to death.
Military merit, as it is admirably expressed by Tacitus, was, in the strictest sense of the word, imperatoria virtus.] The only accession which the Roman empire received, during the first century of the Christian Aera, was the province of Britain.