account of the crucifixion of a
certain noted pirate. Dramatic intelligence is represented by a
description of the plays acted in honor of the goddess Cybele; and under
the head of 'fashionable intelligence,' the Jenkins of the day
chronicles the funeral of Marcia, a noble Roman matron, and remarks that
the attendance of images was greater than that of mourners. He also adds
an account of the entertainment given to the people by her sons upon the
occasion. By way of police news, we find a record of a disturbance in a
tavern, in which the tavern keeper was severely wounded; and how
Tertinius, the aedile, fined some butchers for selling meat which had not
been inspected by the overseers of the market. A counterpart of this
transaction may be met with every day in the city of London, but the
result of the affair is much the more satisfactory in Rome, for whereas
we do not know for certain what becomes of the money obtained from the
penalty in London, we learn that the aedile directed it to be devoted to
the building of an additional chapel to the temple of the goddess
Tellus. Dr. Johnson also quotes a second series of _Acta Diurna_, with
the date of 691 A. U. C., from the 'Camdenian Lectures' of
Dodwell in 1688 to 1691. Dodwell says that he obtained them from his
friend Hadrian Beoerland, who got them from Isaac Vossius, by whom they
were copied from certain MSS. in the possession of Petavius. Among other
things contained in this second set, we find noted certain trials, with
the number of the votes for and against the defendant, a bargain for the
repairs of a certain temple, an announcement by one of the praetors that
he shall intermit his sittings for five days, in consequence of the
marriage of his daughter, and an account of the pleading of Cicero in
favor of Cornelius Sulla, and of his gaining his cause by a majority of
five judges.

Such are the earliest traces of newspapers to be found, and long
centuries elapse before we again catch a glimpse of anything of the
kind. Although it is the great Anglo-Saxon race alone which can boast of
having developed the usefulness and liberty of the press to its fullest
capabilities, both in England and America, yet it is not to us that the
credit belongs of having been the first to reintroduce newspapers in
Europe. Whether or no the Romans introduced their _Acta Diurna_ into
Britain, and whether or no any imitations of them sprang up then or in
after times, it is impossible to say