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Excerpt from History of Roman Literature, Vol. 3: During the Augustan Age At length, the total subversion of the Commonwealth, by Julius Cæsar, showed how much could be accomplished by the support of a faction in the city, and the power of an army, in a remote government, intrusted for a term of years to an aspiring commander. The authority, however, which Cæsar had usurped, was exerted by him for the reformation of abuses, and the remedy of those disorders to which Rome had so long been subject, and to which, perhaps, he alone was capable of applying a cure. But the measures which he was adopting to confirm his despotic power, and heal the distractions of the state, were quickly arrested by the vengeance of an ill-concerted conspiracy. It is evident that the assassination of Cæsar was an unpopular act at Rome, except among the few remaining heads of the old Senatorian party. The armies and provinces were in the hands of his dependents, and Italy was thronged with his discharged veterans; yet the conspirators seem to have looked no farther than the death of Cæsar, and to have supposed, that when he was destroyed, the senate and people, without farther impediment, would resume their ancient forms and privileges. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.