THE CAESARS.

BY THOMAS DE QUINCEY



THE CAESARS.

The condition of the Roman Emperors has never yet been fully appreciated;
nor has it been sufficiently perceived in what respects it was absolutely
unique. There was but one Rome: no other city, as we are satisfied by the
collation of many facts, either of ancient or modern times, has ever
rivalled this astonishing metropolis in the grandeur of magnitude; and not
many--if we except the cities of Greece, none at all--in the grandeur of
architectural display. Speaking even of London, we ought in all reason to
say--the _Nation of London,_ and not the City of London; but of Rome
in her palmy days, nothing less could be said in the naked severity of
logic. A million and a half of souls--that population, apart from any
other distinctions, is _per se_ for London a justifying ground for
such a classification; _a fortiori_, then, will it belong to a city
which counted from one horn to the other of its mighty suburbs not less
than four millions of inhabitants [Footnote: Concerning this question--
once so fervidly debated, yet so unprofitably for the final adjudication,
and in some respects, we may add, so erroneously--on a future occasion.]
at the very least, as we resolutely maintain after reviewing all that has
been written on that much vexed theme, and very probably half as many
more. Republican Rome had her _prerogative_ tribe; the earth has its
_prerogative_ city; and that city was Rome.

As was the city, such was its prince--mysterious, solitary, unique. Each