150 THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, had recourse to violence. The ancient 1 histo-

IV.

,, tJtrr \ rr rians have expatiated on these abandoned scenesof prostitution, which scorned every restraint ofnature or modesty; but it would not be easy totranslate their too faithful descriptions into thedecency of modern language. The intervals oflust were filled up with the basest amusements.His ignor- The influence of a polite age, and the labour offowsports. an attentive education, had never been able toinfuse into his rude and brutish mind the leasttincture of learning; and he was the first of theRoman emperors totally devoid of taste for thepleasures of the understanding. Nero himselfexcelled, or affected to excel, in the elegant artsof music and poetry; nor should we despise hispursuits, had he not converted the pleasing re-laxation of a leisure hour into the serious busi-ness and ambition of his life. But Commodus ,from his earliest infancy, discovered an aversionto whatever was rational or liberal, and a fondattachment to the amusements of the populace;the sports of the circus and amphitheatre, thecombats of gladiators, and the hunting of wildbeasts. The masters in every branch of learn-ing, whom Marcus provided for his son, wereheard with inattention and disgust; whilst theMoors and Parthians , who taught him to dartthe javelin and to shoot with the bow, found adisciple who delighted in his application, and

f Sororibus suis constupratis. Ipsas concubinas snas sub oculiasuis stuprari jubebat. Nec irruentium in se juvennm carebat infamil,omni parte corporis atquc ore in sexum utrumquc pollutus. Hist.Aug, p. 47.