CHAP,  vii.]  Roman  Historians.  287

The  Augustan  age,  though  it  produced  a  constellation
of  poets  who  shed  glory  upon  the  throne  before  Proge  com.
which  they  prostrated  themselves  in  abject  horn-  P081'100-
age,  like  the  courtiers  of  Louis  XIV.,  still  was  unfavorable
to  prose  composition,  —  to  history  as  well  as  eloquence.
