XIV. Nor ought we to conclude, that those few whose will with respect
to other men, is the law, and whose libertinism there is no rein
to check, navigate the sea of vice without inquietude, for they
also experience the waters of that sea to be extremely bitter. I
mean sovereign princes. Nero was lord of the earth, that is to say,
master of the whole Roman empire. He gave the most latitudinary loose
imaginable to all his perverse inclinations, and those inclinations
were irrefragable decrees. The weight of government, sat very light
on him, and far from supporting the state on his shoulders, which by
way of example, had been done by the best princes, he trod it under
foot. All the world obeyed the sceptre, and the sceptre was the slave
of appetite. He possessed whomsoever he liked, and put to death
whomsoever he hated. Love in the Emperor’s hands, held its attainment
and completion, and in the hands of his instruments, hatred held the
knife. Passion could not carry a man to a more horrible pitch of
extravagance, than he manifested, when he set fire to Rome to indulge
his cruelty, and also to gratify his base appetites, which were evident
by the indignities he offered to his own sex. All this, to the disgrace
of human nature, was executed by that monster in iniquity.
XV. Who would believe, that this prince, who held the world in slavery
to his arbitrary will, did not lead a joyous life? but according to
Tacitus, so far from enjoying this happiness, he was always possessed
with terrors: _Facinorum recordatione nunquam timore vacuus._ And
Suetonius adds, that unable to sleep of nights, he used to run about
the salons of his palace, tumbling heels over head like a man out of
his senses.
XVI. Tiberius was equal to Nero in power, and very little inferior
to him in wickedness; but with all his power, he led so uneasy and
disturbed a life, that in order a little to relieve his heart from
the oppression of its anxieties, he could not avoid bursting forth in
groans and words, that were expressive of his grief and uneasiness.
So says Tacitus: _Tiberium non fortuna, non solitudines protegebant,
quin tormenta pectoris, suasque ipse pænas fateretur_; and a little
before, he relates a mournful exclamation of the Emperor’s, in a letter
he wrote to the Senate, where he says, my own crimes have transformed
themselves into executioners, in order to torment me; _adeo facinora
atque flagitia ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant_.
XVII. These anxieties of bad princes, are for the most part, occasioned
by their seeing themselves universally abhorred, in consequence of
which, they live in continual dread of conspiracies. They reflect,
that out of so many people who hate them, some will be found, with
sufficient resolution to execute, what had been previously concerted;
so that amidst all their pleasures, they cannot feel more enjoyment,
than is felt by a culprit, at the sound of soft music, while he is
waiting to hear the fatal sentence. Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse,
in order to undeceive a person who envied his happiness, made use of
the following expressive device. He invited the man to a banquet, and
seated him immediately under the point of a sword, that hung suspended
by a fine thread, very near to, and just ready to pierce his neck,
and then informed him, that was precisely the situation, in which his
fortune had placed him.
XVIII. Over and above this anguish, which is common to all tyrants,
there is no legitimate prince, however happy he may seem, without
his serious and weighty inquietudes. Alexander cloathed with glory,
afflicts himself, because Homer does not live to celebrate his actions.
Augustus, who had always been the favourite of fortune, because she
once slighted him in the case of the legions in Germany, passed much
of his time, both night and day, in ravings and exclamations, as if he
had been mad. Caligula, fancies he shall insure his safety, by spilling
great quantities of blood, but is grieved when he reflects, that all
the heads in Rome are not placed on one neck, and that he cannot strike
them off at a blow. The ambitious prince groans, because he cannot make
himself master of the whole world; the covetous one, because he cannot
accumulate in his own treasury, the riches of other kingdoms; the
vindictive one, because he cannot destroy a neighbouring prince who has
offended him; the lascivious one, because his imagination represents to
him some foreign object, exempt from the power of his will. Thus bitter
afflictions, are annexed to exalted stations.