Cardinal WOLSEY*49 apologized for his famous piece of insolence, in saying, EGO ET REX
MEUS, I and my king, by observing, that this expression was conformable to the Latin idiom,
and that a ROMAN always named himself before the person to whom, or of whom he spake. Yet
this seems to have been an instance of want of civility among that people. The ancients made it a
rule, that the person of the greatest dignity should be mentioned first in the discourse; insomuch,
that we find the spring of a quarrel and jealousy between the ROMANS and ÆTOLIANS, to
have been a poet's naming the ÆTOLIANS before the ROMANS, in celebrating a victory gained
by their united arms over the MACEDONIANS.*50 Thus LIVIA disgusted TIBERIUS by
placing her own name before his in an inscription.*51 , k
I.
XIV.36