rts, and occurrences of that
kind, which nobody dared to talk to him about even when he was residing
in Rome: what he wanted was a description of the course of politics and
but the newspaper of Chrestus. He also refers to these sheets, that is
to say, to accounts of public affairs _in actis_ and _ex actis_, in two
letters to Cassius and one to Brutus, written previously to the
triumvirate. Suetonius also makes mention of them, and says that Julius
Caesar, in his consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the senate and the
people to be published. Tacitus relates a speech of a courtier to Nero
to induce him to execute Thrasea, and among other things he says:
'Diurna populi Romani per provinciam per exercitus accuratius leguntur
ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.' Seneca and the younger Pliny also
allude to them. Dr. Johnson, in the preface to the tenth volume of the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, published in 1740, enters into a disquisition
upon these _acta diurna_, and gives an account of the discovery of some
of them with the date of 585 A. U. C., and adds some specimens
from them. He quotes them from the 'Annals of Rome,' by Stephen Pighius,
who declares that he obtained them from James Susius, by whom they were
found among the MSS. belonging to Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity
has, as might be expected, been hotly disputed by many learned scholars
at various times, but sufficient grounds have not been adduced for their
rejection. The most suspicious circumstance connected with them is their
resemblance, _mutatis mutandis_, to a newspaper of the present day. Thus
among other things we are told that the consul went in grand procession
to sacrifice at the temple of Apollo, just as now a-days we might read
that Queen Victoria went in state to St. Paul's, or attended divine
service at the chapel royal, St. James's. Then we are favored with an
account of the setting forth of Lucius Paulus AEmilius, the consul, for
the war in Macedonia, and a description of the departure of the embassy
of Popilius Lena, Caius Decimus, and Caius Hostilius to Syria and Egypt,
with a great attendance of relations and clients, and of their offering
up a sacrifice and libations at the temple of Castor and Pollux before
commencing their journey. Then we hear how an oak was struck by
lightning on the summit of Mount Palatine, which was called _Summa
Velia_, and have the particulars given us of a fire which took place on
Mount Coelius, together with an