he want of taste or generosity. Among a crowd of
these private benefactors, we may select Herodes Atticus, an Athenian
citizen, who lived in the age of the Antonines. Whatever might be the
motive of his conduct, his magnificence would have been worthy of the
greatest kings.

[Footnote 64: Sueton. in August. c. 28. Augustus built in Rome the
temple and forum of Mars the Avenger; the temple of Jupiter Tonans in
the Capitol; that of Apollo Palatine, with public libraries; the portico
and basilica of Caius and Lucius; the porticos of Livia and Octavia; and
the theatre of Marcellus. The example of the sovereign was imitated by
his ministers and generals; and his friend Agrippa left behind him the
immortal monument of the Pantheon.] [See Theatre Of Marcellus: Augustus
built in Rome the theatre of Marcellus.]

[Footnote 65: See Maffei, Veroni Illustrata, l. iv. p. 68.]

[Footnote 66: See the xth book of Pliny's Epistles. He mentions the
following works carried on at the expense of the cities. At Nicomedia, a
new forum, an aqueduct, and a canal, left unfinished by a king; at Nice,
a gymnasium, and a theatre, which had already cost near ninety thousand
pounds; baths at Prusa and Claudiopolis, and an aqueduct of sixteen
miles in length for the use of Sinope.]

The family of Herod, at least after it had been favored by fortune, was
lineally descended from Cimon and Miltiades, Theseus and Cecrops, Aeacus
and Jupiter. But the posterity of so many gods and heroes was fallen
into the most abject state. His grandfather had suffered by the hands
of justice, and Julius Atticus, his father, must have ended his life in
poverty and contempt, had he not discovered an immense treasure buried
under an old house, the last remains of his patrimony. According to the
rigor of the law, the emperor might have asserted his claim, and the
prudent Atticus prevented, by a frank confession, the officiousness of
informers. But the equitable Nerva, who then filled the throne, refused
to accept any part of it, and commanded him to use, without scruple,
the present of fortune. The cautious Athenian still insisted, that the
treasure was too considerable for a subject, and that he knew not how
to use it. Abuse it then, replied the monarch, with a good-natured
peevishness; for it is your own. [67] Many will be of opinion, that
Atticus literally obeyed the emperor's last instructions; since he
expended the greatest part of his fortune, which was much increa