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Excerpt from Teuffel's History of Roman Literature 267. The first century embraces the reigns of Tiberius (A. D. 14 - 37), Caligula (37 - 41), Claudius (41 - 54), Nero (54 - 68), Vespasian (69 - 79), Titus (79-81), Domitian (81 - 96), Nerva (96 - 98), and Trajan (98 - 117). It may be subdivided into three separate portions, the age of the Julian (14 - 68) and of the Flavian Dynasty (69 - 96), and the time of Nerva and Trajan (96 - 117). The character of this century was fixed by its commencement. The monarchy which under Augustus had still appeared in a mild form, gradually became under the succeeding emperors of his house mere despotism, wily and brutal, obtuse and mad, but always equally aggressive against independence of any kind, and which tolerated only slaves and tools beside itself, leaving men of higher character their choice between death and hypocrisy. Vespasian and Titus came too late and were too soon followed by the tyrant Domitian to cause any real improvement; the age of Nerva and Trajan could only just develop the consciousness of the losses and forfeits of the fatal past. With regard to literature, it should be specially mentioned that all the emperors of this period did not appreciate or esteem it; all the more suspiciously did they watch all signs of literary life, and some even felt jealous of the literary success of others. Hence literature suffered all the more under the oppression of despotism. The influence exercised by this despotism upon the minds was partly negative, partly positive. 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