as raised and
disgraced by the will of the emperor.

A Roman accused of any capital crime might prevent the sentence of the
law by voluntary exile or death. Till his guilt had been legally proved
his innocence was presumed, and his person was free: till the votes of
the last _century_ had been counted and declared, he might peaceably
secede to any of the allied cities of Italy, or Greece, or Asia.[40] His
fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to his children, by this
civil death; and he might still be happy in every rational and sensual
enjoyment, if a mind accustomed to the ambitious tumult of Rome could
support the uniformity and silence of Rhodes or Athens. A bolder effort
was required to escape from the tyranny of the Caesars; but this effort
was rendered familiar by the maxims of the Stoics, the example of the
bravest Romans, and the legal encouragements of suicide. The bodies of
condemned criminals were exposed to public ignominy, and their children,
a more serious evil, were reduced to poverty by the confiscation of
their fortunes. But if the victims of Tiberius and Nero anticipated the
decree of the prince or senate, their courage and despatch were
recompensed by the applause of the public, the decent honors of burial,
and the validity of their testaments. The exquisite avarice and cruelty
of Domitian appear to have deprived the unfortunate of this last
consolation, and it was still denied even by the clemency of the
Antonines.

A voluntary death which, in the case of a capital offence, intervened
between the accusation and the sentence, was admitted as a confession of
guilt, and the spoils of the deceased were seized by the inhuman claims
of the treasury. Yet the civilians have always respected the natural
right of a citizen to dispose of his life; and the posthumous disgrace
invented by Tarquin,[41] to check the despair of his subjects, was never
revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The powers of this world have
indeed lost their dominion over him who is resolved on death, and his
arm can only be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future
state. Suicides are enumerated by Vergil among the unfortunate rather
than the guilty;[42] and the poetical fables of the infernal shades
could not seriously influence the faith or practice of mankind. But the
precepts of the gospel, or the Church, have at length imposed a pious
servitude on the minds of Christians, and condemn them to expect,
without a