for the empire after him. Such an auspicious change indeed shortly
afterwards took place, through the justice and moderation of the
succeeding emperors.

* * * * * *

If we view Domitian in the different lights in which he is represented,
during his lifetime and after his decease, his character and conduct
discover a greater diversity than is commonly observed in the objects of
historical detail. But as posthumous character is always the most just,
its decisive verdict affords the surest criterion by which this
variegated emperor must be estimated by impartial posterity. According
to this rule, it is beyond a doubt that his vices were more predominant
than his virtues: and when we follow him into his closet, for some time
after his accession, when he was thirty years of age, the frivolity of
his daily employment, in the killing of flies, exhibits an instance of
dissipation, which surpasses all that has been recorded of his imperial
predecessors. The encouragement, however, which the first Vespasian had
shown to literature, continued to operate during the present reign; and
we behold the first fruits of its auspicious influence in the valuable
treatise of QUINTILIAN.

Of the life of this celebrated writer, little is known upon any authority
that has a title to much credit. We learn, however, that he was the son
of a lawyer in the service of some of the preceding emperors, and was
born in Rome, though in what consulship, or under what emperor, it is
impossible to determine. He married a woman of a noble family, by whom
he had two sons. The mother died in the flower of her age, and the sons,
at the distance of some time from each other, when their father was
advanced in years. The precise time of Quintilian's own death is