Chap. II.
TRANSLATION.
23
the rest of the nobility were exalted to riches and honours, in proportion as Augustus found in them an aptitude and difpofition to fervitude."
Cicero, in a letter to the Proconsul Philippus, says, Quod si Romæ te vidissem, coramque gratias egissem, quod tibi L. Egnatius familiarissimus meus absens, L. Oppius præsens curæ fuisset. This passage is thus translated by Mr Melmoth: "If I were in Rome, I should have waited upon you for this purpose in person, and in order likewise to make my acknowledgements to you for your favours to my friends Egnatius and Oppius." Here the sense is not completely rendered, as there is an omission of the meaning of the words absens and præsens.
Where
