Such was his moral, which all critics
have allowed to be more noble than that of Virgil, though not
adapted to the times in which the Roman poet lived. Had Virgil
flourished in the age of Ennius and addressed to Scipio, he had
probably taken the same moral, or some other not unlike it; for then
the Romans were in as much danger from the Carthaginian commonwealth
as the Grecians were from the Assyrian or Median monarchy. But we
are to consider him as writing his poem in a time when the old form
of government was subverted, and a new one just established by
Octavius Caesar--in effect, by force of arms, but seemingly by the
consent of the Roman people. The commonwealth had received a deadly
wound in the former civil wars betwixt Marius and Sylla. The
commons, while the first prevailed, had almost shaken off the yoke
of the nobility; and Marius and Cinna (like the captains of the
mob), under the specious pretence of the public good and of doing
justice on the oppressors of their liberty, revenged themselves
without form of law on their private enemies.
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