tells us that in his youth he had spindle legs, but that by frequent riding this defect had been much remedied. From this, what mortal could suppose that he had an atrophy ?"*

The criticism of Mandeville as against Fuller is perfectly sound, but it is remarkable that this ingenious writer does not notice the singularity in the cure; the riding being "after meals" (post bum), which, if we believe what doctors say, is like all exercise whatever after meals-whether of body or mind-most unhealthy.

are to

Germanicus died under suspicion of being poisoned by Tiberius. Suetonius records some curious appearances about the dead body. There were spots all over it, and froth at his mouth; and when his remains were burned, the heart was found still entire. It was the popular belief that the heart of a person who had died of poison could not be consumed by fire.

If the personal appearance of Germa

*Mandeville, "Treatise on the Hypochondriack and Hysteric Diseases," p. 310. London, 1721.

nicus improved with his years, so it appears did that of his sister Livia (the wife of Drusus), of whom Tacitus tells us that, in early life, she was of indifferent comeliness, but afterwards excelled in beauty.*

I have not discovered where Montaigne learned that Germanicus was unable to endure either the sight or the crowing of a cock.t

*Tacitus, "Annales," lib. IV, c. 3.

Montaigne," Essais," lib. 1, c. 19.

CALIGULA.

CALIGULA, the son of the beautiful Germanicus, was by far the ugliest of the Cæsars. He was tall and large in person, with slender neck and legs, of a pale complexion, with hollow eyes and a broad and stern forehead; and though otherwise a rough, hairy man, the locks on his head were scanty, and the crown was entirely bare.*

This is the substance of the picture by Suetonius. It is, in every respect, borne out by the description of Caligula given by Seneca, who must have been well acquainted with the empe

*Suetonius, "Caligula," c. 50.

ror's person. He describes his paleness as of a horrible kind, and indicative of madness-his crooked eyes lurking under a wrinkled forehead (sub fronte anili); and the expression is strange when we recollect that at his death the emperor was only twenty-nine. Though his head was destitute, his neck was thick set set with hair; his legs were slender, and his feet very large.*

This ill-made man had a particular delight in jeering at the deformities of others, and in the most minute criticisms on their personal appearance.† He would cause any goodlooking person whom he met with to be disfigured, by ordering his hair to be cut in a ludicrous fashion. His own horrid and dismal countenance he studied to make more frightful than it naturally was, by practising the making of terrible faces before a mirror.

The health of Caligula from his boyhood was bad. He was frequently seized with fits. He could not sleep above three hours at a time, *Seneca, "De Constantia," c. XVIII.

+ Seneca, ut supra.

and this short slumber was agitated by horrid spectres. He would then awake, and sit up in bed, or walk about the corridors calling for the daylight.*

Caligula sometimes appeared in the costume of a man and sometimes of a woman, and frequently as one of the gods or goddesses. Sometimes he was Alexander the Great with his breastplate, sometimes Jupiter with his golden beard and thunderbolt, and sometimes Mercury with his caduceus; and sometimes the ugliest man of the age appeared in the character of the goddess of beauty.†

Caligula was addicted to literary pursuits. His criticisms on Homer, Virgil, Livy, and Seneca, are preserved by Suetonius. He paid much attention to the study of eloquence. Besides this, he was a singer and a dancer, a fencer and a chariot-driver.‡

* Suetonius, ut supra.

+ Suetonius, "Caligula," c. 52.

Ibid. c. 53, 54.