purity of life. The Roman aristocracy did not recognize the right of
absolute literary freedom which is acknowledged by many modern states,
in which writers and men of letters have acquired a strong political
influence. The theory, held by many countries to-day that any
publication is justifiable, provided it be a work of art, was not
accepted by the Romans in power. On the contrary, they were convinced
that an idea or a sentiment, dangerous in itself, became still more
harmful when artistically expressed. Therefore Rome had always known
the existence of a kind of police supervision of ideas and of literary
forms, exercised through various means by the ruling aristocracy, and
especially in reference to women, who constituted that element of
social life in which virtue and purity of customs are of the greatest
consequence. The Roman ladies of the aristocracy, as we have seen,
received considerable instruction. They read the poets and
philosophers, and precisely for this reason there was always at Rome a
strong aversion to light and immoral literature. If books had
circulated among men only, the poetry of Ovid would perhaps not have
enjoyed the good fortune of a persecution which was to focus upon it
the attention of posterity. The greater liberty conceded to women thus
placed upon society an even greater reserve in the case of its
literature. This Ovid learned to his cost when he was driven into
exile because his books gave too much delight to too many ladies at
Rome. By the order of Augustus these books were removed from the
libraries, which did not hinder their coming down to us entire, while
many a more serious work--like Livy's history, for example--has been
either entirely or in large part lost.

[Illustration: Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius.]