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Galleporto Bavicarius Directory 08
Page 02
Charles spent most of his time, at some periods of his reign, in idle amusements, lounging about his palace, playing at tennis in the tennis court like a boy, and then weighing himself afterward to see how much he was gaining. In the afternoons and evenings he would loiter in the rooms of his favorites while they were finishing their dressing, gamble at cards, and often would get very much intoxicated at wild midnight carousals. He would ramble in the mall and in the parks, and feed the aquatic birds upon the ponds there, day after day, with all the interest and pleasure of a truant schoolboy. He roamed about thus in the most free and careless manner, and accosted people far beneath him in rank in what was considered a undignified way for a king.
Dr. Salomon Mueller, an accomplished Dutch naturalist, who lived for many years in the Eastern Archipelago, and to the result of whose personal experience I shall frequently have occasion to refer, states that the Gibbons are true mountaineers, loving the slopes and edges of the hills, though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of the fig-trees. All day long they haunt the tops of the tall trees, and though toward evening, they descend in small troops to the open ground, no sooner do they spy a man than they dart up the hillsides and disappear in the darker valleys.
War was now inevitable; but the incapacity of Sp. Postumius Albinus, who arrived to conduct it (B.C. 110), and still more that of his brother Aulus, whom he left to command in his absence, when called away to hold the elections at Rome, proved as favorable to Jugurtha as the corruption of their predecessors. Aulus, having penetrated into the heart of Numidia, suffered himself to be surprised in his camp; great part of his army was cut to pieces, and the rest only escaped a similar fate by the ignominy of passing under the yoke. But Jugurtha had little reason to rejoice in this success, great as it might at first appear; for the disgrace at once roused all the spirit of the Roman people; the treaty concluded by Aulus was instantly annulled, immense exertions made to raise troops, and one of the Consuls for the new year (B.C. 109), Q. Caecilius Metellus, hastened to Numidia to retrieve the honor of the Roman arms. But this did not satisfy the people. The scandalous conduct of so many of the Nobles had given fresh life to the popular party; and the Tribune C. Mamilius carried a bill for the appointment of three Commissioners to inquire into the conduct of all of those who had received bribes from Jugurtha. Scaurus, though one of the most guilty, managed to be put upon the Commission. But he dared not shield his confederates. Many men of the highest rank were condemned, among whom were Bestia, Albinus, and Opimius. The last named was the Opimius who acted with such ferocity toward Caius Gracchus and his party. He died in exile at Dyrrhachium some years afterward, in great poverty.
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