We find him at the head of them
when he enters into the council-hall--speaking first, but still
demanding their advice, and steering by it, as far as the iniquity
of the times would suffer him. And this is the proper character of
a king by inheritance, who is born a father of his country. AEneas,
though he married the heiress of the crown, yet claimed no title to
it during the life of his father-in-law. Socer arma Latinus hebeto,
&c., are Virgil's words. As for himself, he was contented to take
care of his country gods, who were not those of Latium; wherein our
divine author seems to relate to the after-practice of the Romans,
which was to adopt the gods of those they conquered or received as
members of their commonwealth. Yet, withal, he plainly touches at
the office of the high-priesthood, with which Augustus was invested
and which made his person more sacred and inviolable than even the
tribunitial power. It was not therefore for nothing that the most
judicious of all poets made that office vacant by the death of
Pantheus, in the second book of the "AEneis," for his hero to
succeed in it, and consequently for Augustus to enjoy.
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