[101] Sallust did good service in pointing out what historical writing should be, and his example was of such service to Livy that, had it not been for him, it is possible the great master- history would never have been designed. It does not appear that this period was fruitful in historians. Tubero (49-47 B.C.) is the only other whose works are mentioned; the convulsions of the state, the short but sullen repose, broken by Caesar's death (44 B.C.), the bloodthirsty sway of the triumvirs, and the contests which ended in the final overthrow at Actium (31 B.C.), were not favourable to historical enterprise. But private notes were carefully kept, and men's memories were strengthened by silence, so that circumstances naturally inculcated waiting in patience until the time for speaking out should have arrived. [102] APPENDIX. _On the Acta Diurna and Acta Senatus._ It is well known that there was a sort of journal at Rome analogous, perhaps, to our _Gazette_, but its nature and origin are somewhat uncertain. Suetonius (Caes. 20) has this account: "_Inito honore, primus omnium instituit, ut tam Senatus quam populi diurna acta conficerentur et publicarentur_," which seems naturally to imply that the people's _acta_ had been published every day before Caesar's consulship, and that he did the same thing for the _acta_ of the senate. Before investigating these we must distinguish them from certain other _acta_:--(1) _Civilia_, containing a register of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, called _apographai_ by Polybius, and alluded to by Cicero (_ad Fam._ viii. 7) and others. These were at first intrusted to the care of the censors, afterwards to the praefecti aerarii. (2) _Forensia_, comprising lists of laws, plebiscites, elections of aediles, tribunes, &c. like the _daemosia grammata_ at Athens, placed among the archives annexed to various temples, especially that of Saturn. (3) _Iudiciaria_, the legal reports, often called _gesta_, kept in a special _tabularium_, under the charge of military men discharged from active service. (4) _Militaria_, which contained reports of all the men employed in war, their height, age, conduct, accomplishments, &c. These were entrusted to an officer called _librarius legionis_ (Veg. ii. 19), or sometimes _tabularius castrensis_, but so only in the later Latin. Other less strictly formal documents, as lists of cases, precedents, &c. seem to have been also called _acta_, but the above are the regular kinds.