f the senate, and reported
the doubtful and dangerous situation of the empire. He slightly
insinuated, that the precarious loyalty of the soldiers depended on the
chance of every hour, and of every accident; but he represented, with
the most convincing eloquence, the various dangers that might attend any
further delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was
already received, that the Germans had passed the Rhine, and occupied
some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambition of
the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms; Egypt, Africa, and
Illyricum, were exposed to foreign and domestic arms, and the levity of
Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman
laws. The consul, then addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the
senators, required his opinion on the important subject of a proper
candidate for the vacant throne.

If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we shall esteem
the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of kings. He claimed his
descent from the philosophic historian, whose writings will instruct the
last generations of mankind. The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five
years of age. The long period of his innocent life was adorned with
wealth and honors. He had twice been invested with the consular dignity,
and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of between
two and three millions sterling. The experience of so many princes, whom
he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the
useful rigor of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the
duties, the dangers, and the temptations of their sublime station. From
the assiduous study of his immortal ancestor, he derived the knowledge
of the Roman constitution, and of human nature. The voice of the people
had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of 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.

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 re