f empire. The ungrateful rumor reached his
ears, and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas in
Campania. He had passed two months in the delightful privacy of Baiae,
when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his
honorable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with his
counsels on this important occasion.

[Footnote 5: The only objection to this genealogy is, that the historian
was named Cornelius, the emperor, Claudius. But under the lower empire,
surnames were extremely various and uncertain.]

[Footnote 6: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 637. The Alexandrian Chronicle, by an
obvious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian.]

[Footnote 7: In the year 273, he was ordinary consul. But he must have
been Suffectus many years before, and most probably under Valerian.]

[Footnote 8: Bis millies octingenties. Vopiscus in Hist. August p. 229.
This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eight hundred
and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each of the value of three
pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus, the coin had lost much of
its weight and purity.]

[Footnote 9: After his accession, he gave orders that ten copies of
the historian should be annually transcribed and placed in the public
libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most
valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single Ms., and discovered
in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. Tacite, and
Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 9.]

He arose to speak, when from every quarter of the house, he was saluted
with the names of Augustus and emperor. "Tacitus Augustus, the gods
preserve thee! we choose thee for our sovereign; to thy care we intrust
the republic and the world. Accept the empire from the authority of the
senate. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners." As soon
as the tumult of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the
dangerous honor, and to express his wonder, that they should elect his
age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigor of Aurelian. "Are these
limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain the weight of armor, or to
practise the exercises of the camp? The variety of climates, and the
hardships of a military life, would soon oppress a feeble constitution,
which subsists only by the most tender management. My exhausted strength
scarcely enables me to discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient
would it prove to the ardu