CALIGULA.

THE Romans conceived an opinion that Tiberius had placed them above the reach of misfortune. Couzent, so long as any other person reigned, they acknowledged with much satisfaction as emperor, Caligula, the son of Germanicus and of Agrippina, who was born at Antium, in the year 12 or 13 of J. C.

It was said of this prince that he was a good slave and a bad master. The first act of Caligula was to annul the will of his grandfather by adoption, who had associated with him Gamellus his legitimate grandson. The senate, through hatred to Tiberius, conformed with much delight to the wishes of the new emperor, who gave to the Roman people the most magnificent hopes. He recalled the exiles, diminished the taxes, banished the profligate, re-established order, and abolished the crime of high treason which Tiberius had enforced. He was deemed for a time the happiness of Rome; but on recovery from a long and dangerous malady, Caligula suddenly passed from moderation to tyranny. His despotism knew no bounds. We behold him successively building a temple to himself, raising his statues to the rank of those of the gods, and the heroes of his country; corrupting the manners by his example, outraging the laws of nature, by sharing the bed of his three sisters, attempting to create a famine in Rome, by the monopoly of corn, and carrying his atrocity to such a pitch as to wish that the Roman people had only one head that he might cut it off at a single blow.

The folly of Caligula was equal to his cruelty. Not satisfied with having put to death the most respectable personages, with a view of enriching himself by their fortunes, he had the presumption to raise his horse, Incitatus, to the rank of consul.

The reign of Caligula presents few events relative to foreign affairs. The treaty with Artabanes, the Parthian king, and the restitution made to Antiochus of the kingdom of Amaganes, are the most important. The enterprizes of Caligula in Germany, and upon the shores of the ocean, are well known; they only tended to put his cowardice in its full light. After having made great preparation to invade Britain, he contented himself with ordering his soldiers to fill their helmets with shells. With similar trophies he returned to Rome to solicit the honours of a triumph. Terror re-appeared with him; juridical assassinations commenced; when wearied out by so many crimes, some courageous officers, headed by Cherea, an officer of his guard, delivered the world from this monster, on the 24th of January, in the year 41 of J. C..

CHARLEMAGNE.

CHARLES, to whom posterity has given the surname of the Great, was the son of Pepin le Bref and of Bertha. He was born about the year 742, in the castle of Ingelheim, near to Mayence.

After the death of Pepin, the bad policy of the times divided his kingdom between his two sons, Charles and Carloman. Neustria, Burgundy, and Aquitaine, were at first the portion of Charles; but the death of his brother placed him in possession of the estates of Pepin, of which he appeared zealous of extending the limits, and of augmenting the glory and the power. His mind was first attracted towards the Saxons, turbulent and dangerous neighbours, whose audacity he was desirous of repressing. They frequently wearied his patience without ever abating his courage, and it was only at the end of a sanguinary but honourable war, on the part of the monarchy, of three and thirty years, that he was able completely to subjugate them.

Whilst the obstinacy of the Saxons retained the hero on the borders of the Weser, Italy, weak, disjointed, and in want of a ruler, called to her assistance the valour of Charles. He crossed the mountains, possessed himself of Verona, entered Pavia, and placed upon his brow the iron crown of the kings of Lombardy.

Dazzled by his exploits, the people, and even princes, hastened to enrol themselves under the power