Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Roman Emperors in Marble - 1. Julius Caesar and Augustus
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1
8
ROMAN DAYS.
take. Nothing was to be discovered that indicated the rich
man and judge of art. Tables, sofas, and whatever else was
to be seen, reminded one of the modest home of a citizen.
A little room in the upper story was the master’s study.
That, he called his " Syracusa." He rather chose to
work, however, surrounded by his family.
In this dwelling lived the lord of the Roman realm,
over forty years. The children who grew up by his
hearth, he himself taught to read. Here he looked with
pleasure upon his kinswomen busied with the distaff and
loom. For every-day use, the emperor never clad him-
self in other stuff than that made ready by wife, sister or
daughter.
Why did he choose that manner of life, when he might
have outshone the old-time great monarch of Persia in
magnificence ? The answer lies near at hand, that he did
so because it was his humor. Another answer too, lies
not far off; he was the highest judge of the behavior
of his fellow-citizens, and deemed himself bound to be an
example to them, in the natural habits of life of their
forefathers.
But no ! Ampere has looked more deeply down.
When Augustus is gladdened at the sight of his proud
Livia or his still blameless Julia, at the distaff, or when
he takes little Lucius Czesar upon his knee, and pa-
tiently teaches him letter after letter, lo ! it is the h}’po-
crite, who with little homelike pictures means to cheat
the Roman people into forgetting the tyrant in the sim-
ple father of the family. The tables and chairs are not
so innocent as they look : he who has seen through their
owner detects in them les ruses de son caractere et IJiy-
pocrisie de sapolitique. The very peperine in the columns
of the house is a bit of trickery : jiisqiie dans le choix de
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