“Nihil credo auguribus qui aures verbis divitant Alienas, suas ut auro locupletent domos.” The argument of Attius’ other drama, founded on a Roman subject, and belonging to the class called _Prætextatæ_, was the patriotic self-devotion of Publius Decius, who, when his army could no longer sustain the onset of the foe, threw himself into the thickest of the combat, and was despatched by the darts of the enemy. There were at least two of the family of Decii, a father and son, who had successively devoted themselves in this manner—the former in a contest with the Latins, the latter in a war with the Gauls, leagued to the Etruscans, in the year of Rome 457. No doubt, however, can exist, that it was the son who was the subject of the tragedy of _Attius_—in the first place, because he twice talks of following the example of his father— “—— Patrio Exemplo dicabo me, atque animam devotabo hostibus.” And again— “Quibus rem summam et patriam nostram quondam adauctavit pater.” And, in the next place, he refers, in two different passages, to the opposing host of the Gauls— —— “Gallei, voce canora ac fremitu, Peragrant minitabiliter —— * * * * * Vim Gallicam obduc contra in acie.” —— Horace, as is well known, bestowed some commendation on those dramatists who had chosen events of domestic history as subjects for their tragedies— “Nec minimum meruere decus, vestigia Græca Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta(351).” Dramas taken from our own annals, excite a public interest, and afford the best, as well as easiest opportunity of attracting the mind, by frequent reference to our manners, prejudices, or customs. It may, at first view, seem strange, that the Romans, who were a national people, and whose epics were generally founded on events in their own history, should, when they did make such frequent attempts at the composition of tragedy, have so seldom selected their arguments from the ancient annals or traditions of their country. These traditions were, perhaps, not very fertile in pathetic or mournful incident, but they afforded subjects rich, beyond all others, in tragic energy and elevation; and even in the range of female character, in which the ancient drama was most defective, Lucretia and Virginia were victims as interesting as Iphigenia or Alcestis. The tragic writers of modern times have borrowed from these very sources many subjects of a highly poetical nature, and admirably calculated for scenic representation. The furious combat of the Horatii and Curiatii, the stern patriotic firmness of Brutus, the internal conflicts of Coriolanus, the tragic fate of Virginia, and the magnanimous self-devotion of Regulus, have been dramatized with success, in the different languages of modern Europe. But those names, which to us sound so lofty, may, to the natives, have been too familiar for the dignity essential to tragedy. In Rome,