XV. Of this variety of defects and virtues in the same blood, we have
a striking example in the Antonian family, who were people of note
and fame in ancient Rome. Marcus Antonius, called the orator, may be
said to be the man who raised this house; for the Antonian family,
which was so well known in the first ages of Rome, became divided
into two branches; the one that was called Patrician became extinct;
and from the other, which was called Plebeian, although it is not
known by what accident they fell from their ancient splendour, sprung
Marcus Antonius. This man, who was of humble extraction, by his rare
and excellent qualities, raised himself to the first charges in the
republic, and exercised them gloriously; but his two sons Marcus
Antonius, called Creticus, and Caius Antonius, degenerated entirely
from the excellencies of their great father, and were men without
virtue, without conduct, and without valour. To Marcus Antonius
Creticus, succeeded Marcus Antonius the triumvir, in whom the vices of
his father were augmented, although he inherited part of the virtues
of his grandfather, for he was a good soldier, and no bad politician,
but a glutton, a drunkard, and lascivious, and this last failing,
caused him to sacrifice his life and his fortune to the beauty of the
dishonest Cleopatra. From so bad a father, descended an admirable
daughter, the wise, beautiful, modest, prudent, and spirited Antonia.
This eminent woman, who was beyond doubt the ornament of Rome in
her day, had two sons and a daughter, which differed as greatly in
their dispositions and manners, as if their blood and education had
been diametrically opposite. Germanicus the eldest, turned out an
able, discreet, mild, generous, and modest prince. Claudius, who was
afterwards emperor, was so stupid, and differed so greatly from his
brother and mother, that she was used to say her son Claudius was a
monster, for that nature had begun to make him a man, but had never
finished the work. Livilla, the sister of these two, was another
species of monster, for she was convicted of adultery, and murdering
her own husband. But the dissimilitude which we have hitherto remarked
among the individuals of this family, may be called trivial, compared
to that which appeared between Germanicus and his son Caligula; the
first, was an harmonious compound of virtues and graces, the last the
tail or fag-end of abominations; in fine, he was so bad, that people
were used to say, nature had made him as he was to shew to what a
degree mankind could be formed perverse. I have exposed to view, the
signal inequality, which in native disposition and manners, there was
between the individuals of the Antonian family, in order to illustrate,
the little dependance that is to be placed on how the children will
turn out, by conjectures, founded on the influence or example of the
parents. If we were to make the same analysis of other families, we
should find the same inequality with but little or no difference.