AUDE, a southern department of France, forming part | troller and auditor-general "shall ascertain first whether of the old province of Languedoc, bounded on the E. by the payments which the account department has charged the Mediterranean, N. by the departments of Hérault and to the grant are supported by vouchers or proofs of payTarn, N.W. by Upper Garonne, W. by Ariége, and S. by ments; and second, whether the money expended has been that of Eastern Pyrenees. It lies between lat. 42° 40′ and applied to the purpose or purposes for which such grant 34° 30' N., and is 80 miles in length from E. to W., and 60 was intended to provide." The Treasury may also submit miles in breadth from N. to S. Area, 2341 square miles. certain other accounts to the audit of the comptrollerThe department of Aude is traversed on its western general. All public moneys payable to the Exchequer are boundary from S. to N. by a mountain range of medium to be paid to the "account of Her Majesty's Exchequer" height, which unites the Pyrenees with the Southern at the Bank of England, and daily returns of such payments Cevennes; and its northern frontier is occupied by the must be forwarded to the comptroller. Quarterly accounts Black Mountains, the most western part of the Cevennes of the income and charge of the consolidated fund are to chain. The Corbières, a branch of the Pyrenees, runs in be prepared and transmitted to the comptroller, who, in a S.W. and N.E. direction along the southern district. case of any deficiency in the consolidated fund, may certify The Aude, its principal river, has almost its entire course to the bank to make advances. The accounts of local in the department. Its principal affluents on the left are boards, poor-law unions, &c., must be passed in a similar the Fresquel, Orbiel, Argent-Double, and Cesse; on the manner by an official auditor. It is the duty of the auditor right, the Guette, Salse, and Orbieu. The canal of Lan- to disallow all illegal payments, and surcharge them upon guedoc, which unites the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, the person making or authorizing them; but such disallowtraverses the department from E. to W. The lowness of ances may be removed by certiorari into the Court of the coast causes a series of large lagunes, the chief of which Queen's Bench, or an appeal may be made to the local are those of Bages, Sigean, Narbonne, Palme, and Leucate. Government Board. In municipal corporations two burThe climate is variable, and often sudden in its alterations. gesses must be chosen annually as auditors of the accounts. The wind from the N.W., known as the Cers, blows with AUDOUIN, JEAN VICTOR, a distinguished French engreat violence, and the sea breeze is often laden with pesti- tomologist, was born at Paris, April 27, 1797. He began lential effluvia from the lagunes. Various kinds of wild the study of law, but was diverted from it by his strong animals, as the chamois, bear, wild boar, wolf, fox, and predilection for natural history, which subsequently led badger, inhabit the mountains and forests; game of all him to enter the medical profession. In 1824 he was apkinds is plentiful; and the coast and lagunes abound in pointed assistant to Latreille in the entomological chair at fish. Mines of iron, copper, lead, manganese, cobalt, and the Paris museum of natural history, and succeeded him antimony exist in the department; and, besides the beauti- in 1833. He established in 1824, in conjunction with ful marbles of Cascastel and Caunes, there are quarries of Dumas and Adolphe Brongniart, the Annales des Sciences lithographic stone, gypsum, limestone, and slate. The Naturelles, to which he made numerous valuable contribucoal mines are for the most part abandoned. The moun- tions, generally in co-operation with M. Milne-Edwards. tains contain many mineral springs, both cold and thermal. The greater part of his other papers are contained in the The agriculture of the department is in a very flourishing Transactions of the Entomological Society, of which he was condition. The meadows are extensive and well watered, one of the founders, and for many years president. In and are pastured by numerous flocks and herds. The grain 1838 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. produce, consisting mainly of wheat, oats, rye, and Indian He died in 1841, more from the effects of mental than of corn, considerably exceeds the consumption, and the vine- bodily exhaustion. His principal work, Histoire des Inyards yield an abundant supply of both white and red sectes nuisibles à la Vigne, was continued after his death by wines. Olives and almonds are also extensively cultivated, Milne-Edwards and Blanchard, and published in 1842. and the honey of Aude is much esteemed. Besides import- AUDRAN, the name of a family of French artists and ant manufactures of woollen and cotton cloths, combs, jet engravers, who for several generations were distinguished ornaments, and casks, there are paper-mills, distilleries, in the same line. The first who devoted himself to the art tanneries, and extensive iron and salt works. The chief of engraving was Claude Audran, born in 1592, and the town is Carcassonne, and the department is divided into last was Benoit, Claude's great-grandson, who died in 1712. the four arrondissements of Carcassonne, Limoux, Nar- The two most distinguished members of the family are the bonne, and Castelnaudary. Population in 1872, 285,927. following:AUDEBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a distinguished French AUDRAN, GÉRARD, or GIRARD, the most celebrated naturalist and artist, was born at Rochefort in 1759. He French engraver, was the third son of Claude Audran, and studied painting and drawing at Paris, and gained con- was born at Lyons in 1640. He was taught the first prinsiderable reputation as a miniature painter. In 1787 he ciples of design and engraving by his father; and, followwas employed to make drawings of some objects in a ing the example of his brother, went to Paris to perfect natural history collection, and was also a contributor in himself in his art. He there, in 1666, engraved for Le the preparation of the plates for Olivier's Histoire des Brun Constantine's Battle with Maxentius, his Triumph, and Insectes. He thus acquired a taste for the study of natural the Stoning of Stephen, which gave great satisfaction to the history, and devoted himself with great eagerness to the painter, and placed Audran in the very first rank of ennew pursuit. In 1800 appeared his first original work, gravers at Paris. Next year he set out for Rome, where L'Histoire Naturelle des Singes, des Makis, et des Galéo- he resided three years, and engraved several fine plates, pithèques, illustrated by 62 folio plates, drawn and engraved That great patron of the arts, M. Colbert, was so struck by himself. The coloring in these plates was unusually with the beauty of Audran's works, that he persuaded beautiful, and was laid on by a method devised by the Louis XIV. to recall him to Paris. On his return he ap author himself. Audebert died in 1800, but he had left plied himself assiduously to engraving, and was appointed complete materials for another great work, Histoire des engraver to the king, from whom he received great enColibris, des Oiseaux-Mouches, des Jacamares, et des Pro-couragement. In the year 1681 he was admitted to the merops, which was published in 1802. 200 copies were printed in folio, 100 in large quarto, and 15 were printed with the whole text in letters of gold. Another work, left unfinished, was also published after the author's death, L'Histoire des Grimpereaux, et des Oiseaux de Paradis. The last two works also appeared together in two volumes with the title Oiseaux dorés ou à reflets metalliques, 1802. AUDITOR, a person appointed to examine the accounts kept by the financial officers of the Crown, public corporations, or private persons, and to certify as to their accuracy. The multifarious statutes regulating the audit of public accounts have been superseded by the 29 and 30 Vict. c. 39, which gives power to the Queen to appoint a "comp- AUDRAN, JEAN, nephew of Gérard, was born at Lyons in troller and auditor-general," with the requisite staff to 1667. After having received instructions from his father, examine and verify the accounts prepared by the different he went to Paris to perfect himself in the art of engraving departments of the public service. In examining accounts under his uncle, next to whom he was the most distinof the appropriation of the several supply grants, the comp-guished member of his family. At the age of twenty his

council of the Royal Academy. He died at Paris in 1703.
His engravings of Le Brun's Battles of Alexander are re-
garded as the best of his numerous works.
"He was,"
says the Abbé Fontenai, "the most celebrated engraver
that ever existed in the historical line. We have several
subjects, which he engraved from his own designs, that
manifested as much taste as character and facility. But in
the Battles of Alexander he surpassed even the expectations
of Le Brun himself." Gérard published in 1683 a work
entitled Les proportions du corps humain mesurées sur les
plus belles figures de l'antiquité, which has been translated
into English.

genius began to display itself in a surprising manner; and his subsequent success was such, that in 1707 he obtained the title of engraver to the king, Louis XIV., who allowed him a pension, with apartments in the Gobelins; and the following year he was made a member of the Royal Academy. He was eighty years of age before he quitted the graver, and nearly ninety when he died. The best prints of this artist are those which appear not so pleasing to the eye at first sight. In these the etching constitutes a great part; and he has finished them in a bold, rough style. The Rape of the Sabines, after Poussin, is considered his masterpiece.

AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES, a well-known naturalist, was born in 1781 in Louisiana, where his parents, who were French Protestants, had taken up their residence while it was still a Spanish colony. They afterwards settled in Pennsylvania. From his early years he had a passion for observing the habits and appearances of birds, and attempting delineations of them from nature. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Paris, and remained there about two years, when among other studies he took some lessons in the drawing-school of David. On returning to America his father established him in a plantation in Pennsylvania, and he soon after married. But nothing could damp his ardor for natural history. For fifteen years he annually explored the depths of the primeval forests of America in long and hazardous expeditions, far from his family and his home. In these excursions he acquired the facility of making those spirited drawings of birds that give such value to his magnificent work, The Birds of America. At that period he had not dreamed of any publication of his labors; as he informs us, "it was not the desire of fame that prompted to those long exiles; it was simply the enjoyment of nature." He afterwards removed with his family to the village of Henderson on the banks of the Ohio, where he continued his researches in natural history for several years, and at length set out for Philadelphia with a portfolio containing 200 sheets filled with colored delineations of about 1000 birds. Business obliged him to quit Philadelphia unexpectedly for some weeks, and he deposited his portfolio in the warehouse of a friend; but to his intense dismay and mortification he found, on his return, that these precious fruits of his wanderings and his labors had been totally destroyed by rats. The shock threw him into a fever of several weeks' duration, that well-nigh proved fatal. But his native energy returned with returning health; and he resumed his gun and his game-bag his pencils and his drawing-book, and plunged again into the recesses of the backwoods. In about three years he had again filled his portfolio, and then he rejoined his family, who had in the mean time gone to Louisiana. After a short sojourn there he set out for the Old World, to exhibit to the ornithologists of Europe the riches of America in that department of natural history.

York in the end of the year 1830, the second in 1834, the
third in 1837, and the fourth and last in 1839. The whole
consists of 435 colored plates, containing 1055 figures of
birds the size of life. It is certainly the most magnificent
work of the kind ever given to the world, and is well char-
acterized by Cuvier, "C'est le plus magnifique monument
que l'Art ait encore élevé à la Nature."
During the preparation and publication of his great work
Audubon made several excursions from Great Britain.
In the summer of 1828, he visited Paris, where he made
the acquaintance of Cuvier, Humboldt, and other celebrated
naturalists, and received from them every mark of honor
and esteem. The following winter he passed in London.
In April of 1830 he revisited the United States of America,
and again explored the forests of the central and southern
federal territories. In the following year he returned to
London and Edinburgh, but the August of 1831 found him
again in New York. The succeeding winter and spring
he spent in Florida and South Carolina; and in the sum-
mer of 1832 he set out for the Northern States, with an in-
tention of studying the annual migrations of birds, particu-
larly of the passenger pigeon, of which he has given a
striking description; but his career was arrested at Boston
by a severe attack of cholera, which detained him there
till the middle of August. After that he explored the
coasts, lakes, rivers, and mountains of North America,
from Labrador and Canada to Florida, during a series of
laborious journeys, that occupied him for three years.
From Charleston, accompanied by his wife and family, he
took his third departure for Britain. During his earlier
residence in Edinburgh he had begun to publish his Ameri-
can Ornithological Biography, which at length filled five
large octavo volumes. The first was issued there by Adam
Black in 1831; the last appeared in 1839. This book is
admirable for the vivid pictures it presents of the habits
of the birds, and the adventures of the naturalist. The
descriptions are characteristically accurate and interesting.
In 1839 Audubon bade a final adieu to Europe; and
returning to his native country, he published, in a more
popular form, his Birds of America, in seven octavo vol-
umes, the last of which appeared in 1844. His ardent
love of nature still prompted him to new enterprises, and
he set out on fresh excursions; but in these he was always
accompanied by his two sons, and one or two other natural-
ists. The result of these excursions was the projection of
a new work, The Quadrupeds of America, in atlas folio,
and also a Biography of American Quadrupeds, both of
which were commenced at Philadelphia in 1840. The
latter was completed in 1850, and is, perhaps, even superior
to his Ornithological Biography.

To great intelligence in observing, and accuracy in delineating nature, to a vigorous, handsome frame, and pleasing expressive features, Audubon united very estimable mental qualities, and a deep sense of religion withIn 1826 Audubon arrived at Liverpool, where the merits out a trace of bigotry. His conversation was animated of his spirited delineations of American birds were imme- and instructive, his manner unassuming, and he always diately recognized. An exhibition of them to the public spoke with gratitude to heaven for the very happy life he in the galleries of the Royal Institution of that town was so had been permitted to enjoy. He died, after a short illness, successful that it was repeated at Manchester and at Edin- in his own residence on the banks of the Hudson, at New burgh, where they were no less admired. When he proposed York, on the 27th of January, 1851. See Life and Adven to publish a work on the birds of America, several natural-tures of J. J. Audubon the Naturalist, edited, from materials ists advised him to issue the work in large quarto, as the most useful size for the lovers of natural history, and the most likely to afford him a sufficient number of subscribers to remunerate his labors. At first he yielded to this advice, and acknowledged its soundness; but finally he decided that his work should eclipse every other ornithological publication. Every bird was to be delineated of the size of life, and to each species a whole page was to be devoted; consequently, the largest elephant folio paper was to receive the impressions. This necessarily increased the expense of the work so much as to put it beyond the reach of most scientific naturalists-which accounts for the small number of persons who, for a considerable time, could be reckoned among his supporters in the gigantic undertaking. The exceptionally high character of the work, however, gradually became known; and a sufficient number of subscribers was at length obtained in Great Britain and America, during the ten or twelve years that the work was going through the press, to indemnify him for the great cost of the publication-leaving him, however, a very inadequate compensation for his extraordinary industry and skill. The first volume was published at New

supplied by his widow, by Robert Buchanan, London, 1868. AUGEIAS (Αυγείας, Αιγέας, cf. ἡλίου αυγή), in Greek Legend, a son of Helios, the sun. He was a prince of Elis, and, consistently with his being a descendant of the sun-god, had an immense wealth of herds, including twelve bulls sacred to Helios, and white as swans. He lived beside the stream Menios (M = moon); and his daughter Agamede was, like Medeia and Circe, skilled in witchcraft, and connected with the moon goddess. The task of Hercules was to clear out all his stalls in one day, and without help. This he did by making an opening in the wall and turning the stream through them. Augeias had promised him a tenth of the herd, but refused this, alleging that Hercules had acted only in the service of Eurystheus.

AUGEREAU, PIERRE FRANÇOIS CHARLES, Duke of Castiglione, was the son of obscure parents, and born in 1757. After serving for a short period in the armies of France, he entered the Neapolitan service, and for some time supported himself by teaching fencing at Naples. In 1792 he joined the Republican army that watched the movements of Spain. He rose rapidly to the rank of

A, St. Stephen's Platz.
B, Carolinen Platz.
C, Fruit Market.
D, Metzger Platz.
E, Perlachthurm.
F, Ludwig's Platz.

G, Fish Market.
H, Horse Market.
J, St. Anna Platz.

the augurs as warnings, but usually the Etruscan haruspices
were employed for this. The persons entitled to ask for
an expression of the divine will on a public affair were the
magistrates. To the highest offices, including all persons
of consular and prætorian rank, belonged the right of
taking auspicia maxima; to the inferior offices of ædile and
quæstor, the auspicia minora; the differences between
these, however, must have been small. The subjects for
which auspicia publica were always taken were the elec
tion of magistrates, their entering on office, the holding of
a public assembly to pass decrees, the setting out of an
army for war. They could only be taken in Rome itself
and in case of a commander having to renew his auspicia,
he must either return to Rome or select a spot in the foreign
country to represent the hearth of that city. The time for
observing auspices was, as a rule, between midnight and
dawn of the day for which the transaction was fixed about
which they were desired. But whether it was so ordered
in the ritual, or whether this was to leave the whole day
always possible, as in the case of taking auspices before
crossing a river. The founding of colonies, the beginning
of a battle, before calling together an army, before sittings
of the senate, at decisions of peace or war, were occasions,
not always but frequently, for taking auspices. The place
where the ceremony was performed was not fixed but
varied, so as to have a close relation to the object to which
it referred. A spot being selected, the official charged to
make the observation (spectio) pitched his tent there some
days before. A matter postponed through adverse signs
from the gods could on the following or some future day
be again brought forward for the auspices (repetere
auspicia). If an error (vitium) occurred in the auspices,
the augurs could, of their own accord or at the request of
the senate, inform themselves of the circumstances, and
decree upon it. A consul could refuse to accept their
decree while he remained in office, but on retiring he
could be prosecuted. Auspicia oblativa referred mostly to
the comitia. A magistrate was not bound to take notice
of signs reported merely by a private person, but he could
not overlook such a report from a brother magistrate. For
example, if a quæstor on his entry to office observed light-
ning and announced it to the consul, the latter must delay
the public assembly for the day.
(A. S. M.)

election of new members. The insignia of their office were the lituus, or crook, and the dress called trabea. The natural region to look to for signs of the will of Jupiter was the sky, where lightning and the flight of birds seemed directed by him as counsel to men. The latter, however, was the more difficult of interpretation, and upon it, therefore, mainly hinged the system of divination with which the augurs were occupied, and which is expressed in the terms augurium and auspicium (aves gerere, aves spicere). The presence of augurs was required only in observing signs in the sky, where their first duty was to mark out with the lituus a space or templum in the sky within which the omen must occur. Such observations being properly made only in the city of Rome, augurs are not found elsewhere. Signs of the will of the gods were of two kinds, either in answer to a request (auspicia impetrativa), or incidental (auspicia oblativa). Of such signs there were five classes :(1.) Signs in the sky (cœlestia auspicia), consisting chiefly of thunder and lightning, but not excluding falling stars and other phenomena. Lightning from left to right was favor-free, is not known. In military affairs this course was not able, from right to left unfavorable; and this being a very direct and impressive token of the will of Jupiter, the observation of it was held to apply to all public transactions fixed for the day on which it occurred. Whether favorable or the reverse in its direction, the appearance of lightning was held as a voice of the god against business being done in the public assemblies. But since the person charged to take the auspices (de cœlo servasse) for a certain day was constitutionally subject to no other authority who could test the truth or falsehood of his statement that he had observed lightning, it happened that this became a favorite means of putting off meetings of the public assembly. Restrictions were, however, imposed on it in the later times of the republic. When a new consul, prætor, or quæstor entered on his first day of office and prayed the gods for good omens, it was a matter of custom to report to him that lightning from the left had been seen. (2.) Signs from birds (signa ex avibus), with reference to the direction of their flight, and also to their singing, or uttering other sounds. In matters of ordinary life on which divine counsel was prayed for, it was usual to have recourse to this form of divination. For public affairs it was, by the time of Cicero, superseded by the fictitious observation of lightning. (3.) Feeding of birds (auspicia ex tripudiis), which consisted in observing whether a bird, usually a fowl, on grain being thrown before it, let fall a particle from its mouth (tripudium solistimum). If it did so, the will of the gods was in favor of the enterprise in question. The simplicity of this ceremony recommended it for very general use, particularly in the army when on service. The fowls were kept in cages by a servant, styled pullarius. In imperial times are mentioned the decuriales pullarii. (4.) Signs from animals (pedestria auspicia, or ex quadru pedibus), i.e., observation of the course of, or sounds uttered by, quadrupeds and serpents within a fixed space, corresponding to the observations of the flight of birds, but much less frequently employed. It had gone out of use by the time of Cicero. (5.) Warnings (signa ex diris), consisting of all unusual phenomena, but chiefly such as boded ill. Being accidental in their occurrence, they belonged to the auguria oblativa, and their interpretation was not a matter for the augurs, unless occurring in the course of some public transaction, in which case they formed a divine veto against it. Otherwise, reference was made for an interpretation to the Pontifices in olden times, afterwards frequently to the Sibylline books, or the Etruscan haruspices, when the incident was not already provided for by a rule, as, for example, that it was unlucky for a person leaving his house to meet a raven, that the sudden death of a person from epilepsy at a public meeting was a sign to break up the assembly, not to mention other instances of adverse omens. A Roman, however, did not necessarily regard a warning as binding unless it was clearly apprehended. Not only could an accidental oversight render it useless, but to some extent measures could be taken to prevent any warning being noticed. At sacrifices, for instance, the flute was played ne quid aliud exaudiatur (Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxviii. 2, 11).

Among the other means of discovering the will of the gods were casting lots, oracles of Apollo (in the hands of the college sacris faciundis), but chiefly the examination of the entrails of animals slain for sacrifice. Anything abnormal found there was brought under the notice of

AUGUST, originally Sextilis, as being the sixth month in the pre-Julian Roman year, received its present name from the Emperor Augustus. The preceding month, Quintilis, had been called July after the great Julius Cæsar, and the senate thought to propitiate the emperor by conferring a similar honor upon him. August was selected, not as being the natal month of Augustus, but because in it his greatest good fortune had happened to him. In that month he had been admitted to the consulate, had thrice celebrated a triumph, had received the allegiance of the soldiers stationed on the Janiculum, had concluded the civil wars, and had subdued Egypt. As July contained thirty-one days, and August only thirty, it was thought necessary to add another day to the latter month, in order that Augustus might not be in any respect inferior to Julius.

AUGUSTA, the capital of the State of Maine, and seat of justice, is situated on the Kennebec River (in Kennebec county), 43 miles from its mouth, in lat. 44° 19′ N., long. 69° 50′ W. The city lies mainly on the right bank of the Kennebec River, which is here crossed by a bridge 520 feet long. The business portion of the city was destroyed by fire in 1865, but has since been rebuilt. Its principal public buildings are the State house, State insane asylum, and United States' arsenal. It has several banks, daily and weekly newspapers, and numerous churches. The population of Augusta, by the census of 1870, was 7808.

AUGUSTA, a city of Georgia, in the United States of America, the capital of the county of Richmond. It is situated in a beautiful plain, on the Savannah River, 231 miles from its mouth, and has extensive railway communication. Like other American cities it is spacious and regular in its plan, Greene Street, for example, being 168 feet in width, with a row of trees extending along each side. The principal buildings are the city hall, a masonic hall, an oddfellows' hall, the Richmond academy, the Georgia medical college, the opera-house, and an orphan asylum. Besides these, the city possesses an arsenal, water works, a number of banks, newspaper offices, exten

sive cotton factories and flour mills, several foundries, two | Capitolinus, the latest biographer in order of composition, tobacco factories, &c. Water-power is abundantly supplied by his predecessor Vopiscus, but the passage may be an infrom the river by the Augusta canal, which was con- terpolation, or may refer to some other work. structed in 1845. Augusta was an important place during The importance of the Augustan history as a repertory of the revolutionary war, and continued to flourish amazingly information is very considerable, but its literary pretensions till the opening of the Georgia railway. A temporary are of the humblest order. The writers' standard was condecline then took place, owing to the change in the fessedly low. 'My purpose," says Vopiscus, "has been methods of traffic; but a new current of prosperity to provide materials for more eloquent persons than speedily set in, which still continues. Population in 1870, myself." Considering the perverted taste of the age, it is 15,386. perhaps fortunate that the task fell into the hands of no AUGUSTAN HISTORY is the title bestowed upon a showy declaimer, who measured his success by his skill in collection of the biographies of the Roman emperors, from making surface do duty for substance, but of homely, Hadrian to Carinus, written under Diocletian and Constan- matter-of-fact scribes, whose sole concern was to record tine, and usually regarded as the composition of six what they knew. Their narrative is most unmethodical authors,lius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Elius and inartificial; their style is tame and plebeian; their Lampridius, Vulcatius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio, and conception of biography is that of a collection of anecdotes; Flavius Vopiscus. Upon investigation, however, there they have no notion of arrangement, no measure of proappears good reason for reducing these writers to four. portion, and no criterion of discrimination between the imThe distribution of the respective biographies among them, portant and the trivial; they are equally destitute of critical according to the arrangement of the MSS., is supported by and of historical insight, unable to sift the authorities no extraneous authority, and depends upon no intelligible on which they rely, and unsuspicious of the stupendous principle. Without entering into detail, for which space social revolution comprised within the period which they fails us, it must suffice to state that up to and including undertake to describe. Their value, consequently, depends the biography of Alexander Severus, the authorship of the very much on that of the sources to which they happen to various memoirs is interchanged among Spartianus, Lam- have recourse for any given period of history, and on the pridius, and Capitolinus, in a manner only explicable upon fidelity of their adherence to these when valuable. Marius the hypothesis of a division of labor among these writers, Maximus and Junius Cordus, to whose qualifications they or on that of their having selected their subjects entirely at themselves bear no favorable testimony, were their chief random. The latter is contradicted by their own affirma-authorities for the earlier lives of the series. For the later tions, and no trace of any mutual concert is discoverable, they have been obliged to resort more largely to public neither is there any perceptible difference of style. When, records, and have thus preserved matter of the highest therefore, we find the excerpts in the Palatine MS. assigning importance, rescuing from oblivion many imperial rescripts all the biographies preceding that of Maximin to Spartianus and senatorian decrees, reports of official proceedings and alone, and remark that his prænomen and that of Lam- speeches on public occasions, and a number of interesting pridius are alike given as Ælius, we cannot avoid suspecting and characteristic letters from various emperors. Their inwith Casaubon and Salmasius that the full name was Elius cidental allusions sometimes cast vivid though undesigned Lampridius Spartianus, and that two authors have been light on the circumstances of the age, and they have made manufactured out of one. We further find Spartianus ob- large contributions to our knowledge of imperial jurispruserving, at the commencement of his life of Elius Verus, dence in particular. Even their trivialities have their use; that having written the lives of all the emperors who had their endless anecdotes respecting the personal habits of borne the title of Augustus from Julius Cæsar down to the subjects of their biographies, if valueless to the historian, Hadrian, he purposes from that point to comprise the are most acceptable to the archeologist, and not unimportCæsars also. This excludes the idea of his having written ant to the economist and moralist. Their errors and dewithout a plan, or in concert with any colleague. His ficiencies may in part be ascribed to the contemporary biographies are regularly dedicated to Diocletian down to neglect of history as a branch of instruction. Education that of Pescennius Niger, after which, with one exception, was in the hands of rhetoricians and grammarians; probably due to the corruption of the MSS., they are historians were read for their style, not for their matter, inscribed to Constantine, as would naturally be the case and since the days of Tacitus, none had arisen worth a with a work continued under this prince's reign after having schoolmaster's notice. We thus find Vopiscus acknowledgbeen commenced under his predecessor's. We may also ing that when he began to write the life of Aurelian, he with probability ascribe to Spartianus the life of Avidius was entirely misinformed respecting the latter's competitor Cassius, attributed in the MSS. to Vulcatius Gallicanus, Firmus, and implying that he would not have ventured on but whose author describes his undertaking in terms Aurelian himself if he had not had access to the MS. of the almost identical with those employed by Spartianus. No emperor's own diary in the Ulpian library. The writers' biography subsequent to that of Alexander Severus is historical estimates are superficial and conventional, but attributed to Spartianus by any MS., and the next series, report the verdict of public opinion with substantial comprising the Maximins, the Gordians, and Maximus and accuracy. The only imputation on the integrity of any of Balbinus, is undoubtedly the production of Julius Capi- them lies against Trebellius Pollio, who, addressing his tolinus, who addresses his work to Constantine, and pro- work to a descendant of Claudius, the successor and probfessedly proceeds, in some respects, upon a different plan ably the assassin of Gallienus, has dwelt upon the latter from his predecessor. The work of Spartianus must have versatile sovereign's carelessness and extravagance without remained incomplete, and Capitolinus must have proposed acknowledgment of the elastic though fitful energy he so to fill up the interval between him and Trebellius Pollio, frequently displayed in defence of the empire. The caution who dedicates his life of Claudius Gothicus to Constantius of Vopiscus's references to Diocletian cannot be made a Chlorus, and whom we know, from the testimony of Vo- reproach to him. piscus, to have written the lives of the Philippi and their successors up to Claudius, some years before 303 A.D. In that year (and not 291 A.D., as supposed by Salmasius and Clinton) Vopiscus was solicited by the urban prefect, Junius Tiberianus, to undertake the life of Aurelian; this biography appears from internal evidence to have been published by 307 A.D., and the lives of Aurelian's successors down to Carinus were added before the death of Diocletian in 313. We may therefore reduce the Augustan historians from six to four, and assign their respective shares as follows: To Spartianus, the biographies from Julius Cæsar to Alexander Severus, all anterior to Hadrian being lost; to Capitolinus, those from Maximin to the younger Gordian; to Trebellius Pollio, the lives of Valerian, Gallienus, the "Thirty Tyrants," and Claudius Gothicus, those of the Philippi, the Decii, Gallus, Emilianus, and part of Valerian's being lost; to Vopiscus, the remainder, from Aurelian to Carinus. Some difficulty is created by the mention of

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No biographical particulars are recorded respecting any of these writers. From their acquaintance with Latin and Greek literature they must have been men of letters by profession, and very probably secretaries or librarians to persons of distinction. They appear particularly versed in law. Spartianus's reference to himself as "Diocletian's own" seems to indicate that he was a domestic in the imperial household. They address their patrons with deference, acknowledging their own deficiencies, and seem painfully conscious of the profession of literature having fallen upon evil days.

in 1475, by Bonus Accursius, along with Suetonius. Being The first edition of the Augustan History was printed at Milan based upon the best MSS. it is superior to any of its successors until Casaubon's (1603). Casaubon manifested great critical ability in his notes, but for want of a good MS. left the restoration of the text to Salmasius (1620), whose notes are a most remarkable monument of erudition combined with acuteness in