Suetonius also makes mention of them, and says that Julius
Caesar, in his consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the senate and the
people to be published. Tacitus relates a speech of a courtier to Nero
to induce him to execute Thrasea, and among other things he says:
'Diurna populi Romani per provinciam per exercitus accuratius leguntur
ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.' Seneca and the younger Pliny also
allude to them. Dr. Johnson, in the preface to the tenth volume of the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, published in 1740, enters into a disquisition
upon these _acta diurna_, and gives an account of the discovery of some
of them with the date of 585 A. U. C., and adds some specimens
from them. He quotes them from the 'Annals of Rome,' by Stephen Pighius,
who declares that he obtained them from James Susius, by whom they were
found among the MSS. belonging to Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity
has, as might be expected, been hotly disputed by many learned scholars
at various times, but sufficient grounds have not been adduced for their
rejection. The most suspicious circumstance connected with them is their
resemblance, _mutatis mutandis_, to a newspaper of the present day. Thus
among other things we are told that the consul went in grand procession
to sacrifice at the temple of Apollo, just as now a-days we might read
that Queen Victoria went in state to St. Paul's, or attended divine
service at the chapel royal, St.
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