%a3AINI .^u\r- .AF-fAH ^<5fOf ^VWSAN{ / O u_ >ta^ O ,VlOSAN( jmOl^ %a3AIN: •^r-.,, ,'\\^t t^lOSANCFlfj*^ \ LSl^K G ^ r ft Q i ^^'E-UBRARY^?/^ ^imu ^jiTVJjo^ '^.yojiiv: ^OFCAIIFO% ^.OFCAll ir«c >&A«VaHIH^ ^TilJDNVSOl^ %a]MNn3VN &Aav{jan# >&AaviiaiH'^ pbers, his education, the rationality of his principles, and the modesty ai * Hist. Nat. lib. vii. cao. ia. LIFE OK PLUTARCH. IX his doctrines, would incline us to place him with the latter academy. At least, when lie left his master, Animonius, and came into society, it is morp than probable that he ranked particularly with that sect. His writings, however, furnish us with many reasons for thinking, that he afterwards became a citizen of the philosophical world. He appears to have examined every sect with a calm and unprejudiced attention ; to have selected what he found of use for the purposes of virtue and happi- ness ; and to have left the rest for the portion of those whose narrownes! of mind could think either science or felicity confined to any denomiuatioa of men. From the Academicians he took their modesty of opinion, and left them their origina.1 skepticism : he borrowed their rational theology, zml gave up to them, in a great measure, their metaphysical refinements, to- gether with their vain, though seductive, enthusiasm. With the Peripatetics, he walked in search of natural science and of logic, but, satisfied with whatever practical knowledge might be acquired, he left them to dream over the hypothetical part of the former, and to chase the shadows of reason through the mazes of the latter. To the Stoics, he was indebted to the belief of a particular Providence but he could not enter into their idea of future rewards and punishments. He knew not how to reconcile the present agency of the Supreme Being with his judicial character hereafter ; though Theodoret tells us, he had heard of the Christian religion, and inserted several of its mysteries in his works.* From the Stoics, too, he borrowed the doctrine of fortitude ; but he rejected the unnatural foundation on which they erected that virtue. He went back to Socrates for principles whereon to rest it. With the Epicureans he does not seem to have had much intercourse, though the accommodating philosophy of Aristippus entered frequently into his politics, and sometimes into the general economy of his life. In the little states of Greece that philosophy had not much to do ; but had it been adopted in the more violent measuies of the Roman Administration, our celebrated biographer would not have had such scenes of blood and ruin to describe ; for emulation, prejudice, and opposition, upon whatever principles they might plead their apology, first struck out the fire that laid the commonwealth in ashes. If Plutarch borrowed any thing more from Epicurus, it was his rational idea of enjoyment. That such was his idea, it is more than probable ; for it is impossible to believe the tales that the Heathen bigots have told of him, or to suppose that the cultivated mind of a philosopher should pursue its happiness out of the temperate order of nature. His irreligious opinions he left to him, as he had left to the other sects their vanities and absurdities. But when we bring him to the school of Pythagoras, what idea shall we entertain of him .' Shall we consider him any longer as a a Academi- liaii, or as a citizen of the philosophical world ? Naturally benevolent nod humane, he finds a system of divinity and philosophy perfectly adapted to his natural sentiments. The whole animal creation he had or-ginally looked upon with an instructive tenderness; but when the amiable Pytha- goias, the priest of Nature, in defence of the common privileges of her creatures, had called religion into their cause; — when he sought to soften the cruelty that man had exercised against them, by the honest art of insiimating the doc.Tine of transmigration, how could the humane and benevolent Plutarch refuse to serve under this priest of Nature. It was * Nothing of Pkitarcirs is now extant, from *hicli we can infer that he vas acquainb*.^ with the Chrislidu reli^^ion. X LIFE OF PLUTARCH, impossible. He adopted the doctrine of the Metempsychosis. He entered into the merciful scheme uf Pythagoras, and, like him, diverted the ciuelt^ of the human species, by appealing to the selfish qualities of their nature by subduing their pride, and exciting their sympathy, while he showed them that their future existence might be the condition of a rept-.e. This spirit and disposition break strongly from him in his observations on the elder Cato. And as nothing can exhibit a more lively picture of hJoi than these paintings of his own, we shall not scruple to introduce them here : " For my part, I cannot but charge his using his servants like BO many beasts of burden, and turning them off, or selling them when they gr jw old, to the account of a mean and ungenerous spirit, which thinia that the sole tie between man and man is interest or necessity. But goodness moves in a larger sphere than justice. The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind, but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species ; and these still flow from the breast of a well-natured man, as streams that issue from the living fountain. A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service. Thus the people at Athens, when they had finished the Temple called Hecatompedon, set at liberty the beasts of burden that had been chiefly employed in the work, suffering them to pasture at large, free from any other service. It is said, that one of these afterwards came of its own accord to work, and putting itself at the head of the laboring catde, marched before them to the citadel. This pleased the people, and they made a decree, that it should be kept at the public charge so long as it lived. The graves of Cimon's mares, with which he thrice conquered at the Olympic games, are still to be seen near his own tomb. Many have shown particular marks of regard, in burying the dogs which they cherished and been fond of ; and amongst the rest, Xantippus of old, whose dog swam by the side of his galley to Salamis, when the Athenians were forced to abandon their city, and was afterwards buried by him upon a promontory, which to this day is called the Dog's Grave. We certainly ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household goods, which, when worn out with use, we throw away ; and were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures. For my own part, I would not sell even an old ox that had labored for me ; much less would I remove for the sake of a little money, a man grown old in my service, from his usual lodgings and diet ; for t ) him, poor man ! it would be as bad as banishment, since he could be of no more use to the buyer than he was to the seller. But Cato, as if he took a pride in these things, tells us, that when couslI, he left his war-horse in Spain, to save the public the charge of his conveyance. Whether such things as these are instances of greatness or littleness of soul, let the reader judge for himself." What an amiable idea of our benevolent philosopher I How worthy ihe instructions of the priest of Nature ! How honorable to that great Diaster of truth and universal science, whose sentiments are decisive in svery doubtful matter, and whose maxims were received with silent con- viction !* Wherefore should we wonder to find Plutarch more particularly at- tached to the opinions of this great maii ? Whether we consider the im- mensity of his erudition, or the benevolence of his system, the motives foi that attachment were equally powerful. Pythagoras had collected all the stores of human learning, and had reduced them into one rational and useful body of science. Like our glorious Bacon, he led Philosophy •• Val Max. lib. viii. cap. n LIFE OF PLUTARCH. fl lorth from the jargon of schools, and the fopperies of sects, lie made her wliat she was originally designed to be, the handniaid of Nature I friendly to her creatures, and faithful to her laws. Whatever knowledge could be gained by human industry, by the most extensi%'e inquiry and observation, he had every means and opportunity to obtain. The priests of Egypt unfolded to him their mysteries and their learning ; they led him through the records of the remotest antiquity, and opened all those stores of science that had been amassing through a multitude of ages. The Magi of Persia co-operated with the priests of Egypt in the instruction of this wonderful philosopher. They taught him those higher parts ol Science, by which they were themselves so much distinguished, astionnmy and the system of the universe. The laws of moral life, and the in.slitu- tions of civil societies, with their several excellencies and defects, he learned from the various states and establishments of Greece. Thus ac- complished, when he came to dispute in the Olympic contests, he was considered as a prodigy of wisdom and learning ; but when the choice of his title was left to him, he modestly declined the appellation of a wise man, and was contented only to be called a l life of Demosthenes, he tells us, that he had no leisure in his journey to Italy to learn the Latin language, on the account of public business. As the jjassage here referred to affords us further matter of speculation foj the life of Plutarch, we shall give it as we find it. "An author who would write a history of events which happened in a foreign country, and cannot be come at in his own, as he has his materials to collect from a va- riety of books, dispersed in different libraries, his first care should be to take up his residence in some populous town which has an ambition foi literature. There he will meet with many curious and v.xluable books • LIFE OF PLUTARCH. XUI and the pat ticiilars that are wanting in writers he nay, upon incjuiry, be supplied with, by those who have laid them up in the faithful repositiry of memory. This will prevent his work from being defective in any ma- terial point. As to myself, I live in a little town ; and I choose to livo there, lest it should become still less. When I was in Rome, and nthei parts of Italy, I had not leisure to study the Latin tongue, on account of the public commission with which I was charged, and the number of peo- ple who came to be instructed by me in philosopliy. It was not, there- tore, till a late period in life, that I began to read the Roman authors.'' From this short account we may collect, with tolerable certainty, the ?o!lowing circumstances: — In the first place, Plutarch tells us, that while he was resident in Rome, public business and lectures in philosophy left him no time for learning the Latin language ; and yet, a little before, he had observed, that those who write a history of foreign characters and events, ought to be conversant with the historians of that country where the character existed, and the scene is laid ; but he acknowledges, that he did not learn the Latin language till he was late in life, because, when at Rome, he had not time for that purpose. We may, therefore, conclude, that he wrote his Morals at Rome, and his Lives at Chaeronea. For the composition of the former, the knowledge of the Roman language was not necessary : the Greek tongue was then generally understood in Rome ; and he had no necessity of making use of any other, when he delivered his lectures of philosophy to the peo]Dle. Those lectures, it is more than probable, made up that collection of Mor- als which is come down to us. Though he could not avail himself of the Roman historians, in the great purpose of writing his Lives, for want of a competent acquaintance with the language in which they wrote, yet, by conversing with the princi- pal citizens in the Greek tongue, he must have collected many essential circumstances, and anecdotes of characters and events, that promoted his design, and enriched the plan of his work. The treasures he acquires of this kind he secured by means of a commonplace-book, which he con- stantly carried about with him : and as it appears that he was at Rome, and in other parts of Italy, from the beginning of Vespasian's reign to the end of Trajan's, he must have had sufficient time and opportunity to procure materials of every kind ; for this was a period of almost forty years. We shall more readily enter in the belief that Plutarch collected his materials chiefly from convetsation, when we consider in what manner, and on what subjects, the ancients used to converse. The discourse of people of education and distinction in those days was somewhat different from ours. It was not on the powers or pedigree of a horse — it was not a match >f travelling between geese and turkeys — it was not on a race of maggots, Started against each other on the table, when they first came to day-light rom the shell of a filbert — it was not by what part you may suspend a spaniel the longest without making him whine — it was not on the exqai- »ite finesse, and the highest manoeuvres of man. The old Romans had no ambition for attainments of this nature. They had no such masters in science as Heber and Hoyle. The taste of their day did not run so high. The powers of poetry and philosophy — the economy of human life and manners — the cultivation of the intellectual faculties — the enlargement of the mind — historical and political discussions on the events of their coun- try : these, and such subjects as these, made the principal part of their con- versation. Of this Plutarch has given us at once a procf «nd a specimen in wiiat he calls his Symposiacs ; or, as our Selden calls it, his Table-talk XIV LIFE OF PLUTARCH. From such conversations as these, then, we cannot wonder that h.^ waj able to collect such treasures as were necessary for the maintenance ol his biographical undertaking. In the sequel of the last quoted passage, we find another argument which canfirms us in the opinion that Plutarch's knowledge of the Roman history was chiefly of colloquial acquisition. " My method of learning the Roman language," says he, " may seem strange; and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the knowledge I had of things." This plainly implies, that h* T\'xs previously acquainted with the events described in the lancuago b< was learning. It must be owned that the Roman history had been already written in Greek by Polybius ; and that, indeed, somewhat invalidates the last-men tJoned argument. Nevertheless, it has still sufficient evidence for its sup port. There are a thousand circumstances in Plutarch's Lives, which could not be collected from Polybius ; and it is clear to us, that he did not make much use of his Latin reading. He acknowledges that he did not apply himself to the acquisition ot that language till he was far advanced in life ; possibly it might be about the latter part of the reign of Trajan, whose kind disposition towards his country, rendered the weight of public and political business easy to him. But whenever he might begin to learn the language of Rome, it is cer- tain that he made no great progress in it. This appears as well from the little comments he has occasionally given us on certain Latin words, as from some passages in his Lives, where he has professedly followed the Latin historians, and yet followed them in an uncertain and erroneous manner. That he wrote the lives of Demosthenes and Cicero at Charonea, it is clear from his own account ; and it is more than probable, too, that the rest of his Lives were written in that retirement ; for if, while he was at Rome, he could scarcely find time to learn the language, it is hardly to be supposed that he could do more than lay up materials for composi- tion. A circumstance arises here, which confirms to us an opinion we have long entertained, that the Book of Apophthegms, which is said to have been written by Plutarch, is really not his work. This book is df dicated to Trajan; and the dedicator, assuming the name and charactrr of Plu- tarch, says he had, before this, written the Lives of illustrious men : but Plutarch wrote those Lives at Chasronea; and he did not retire to Chae- £onea till after the death of Trajan. There are other proofs, if others were necessary, to show that this work was suppositious ; for, in this dedication to Trajan, not the least mention is made of Plutarch's having been his preceptor, of his beir\g raised by him to the consular dignity, or of his being appointed go'" ernor of Illyria. Uacier, observing this, has drawn a wrong conclusion fjom it and, coLitrary to the assertion of Suidas, will have it, that Plu*ai .h was neither preceptor to Trajan, nor honored with any appointmerti under him. Had it occurred to him that the Book of Apophthegms c'Jild not be Plutarch's book, bu'. that it was merely an extract made from his real works, by some industrious grammarian, he would not have been andei the necessity of hazarding so much against the received ot anion of his connections with Trajan ; nor would he have found it neces: iry to allow him so little credit to his letter addressed to that emperor, w'lich we havr upon record. The letter is as follows : — LIFE OV PLUTARCH. PLUTARCH TO TRAJAN. " T am sensible that you sought not the empire. Your natural mod ssty would not suffer you to a^iply for a distinction to which you were always entitled by the excellency of your manners. That modesty, how- ever, makes 3'ou still more worthy of those honors you had no ambition to solicit. Should your future government prove in any degree answer a^le to your former merit, I shall have reason to congratulace both your v;rtue and my own good fortune on this great event ; but if otherwise, fou have exposed yourself to danger, and me to obloquy; for Rome will never endure an emperor unworthy of her ; and the faults of the scholar will be imputed to the master. Seneca is rejjroached, and his fame still suffers, for the vices of Nero : the reputation of Quintilian is hurt by the ill conduct of his scholars ; and even Socrates is accused of negligence in the education of Alcibiades. Of you, however, I have better hopes, and flatter myself that your administration will do honor to your virtues. Only continue to be what you are. Let your government commence in your breast ; and lay the foundation of it in the connnands of your pas- sions. If you make virtue the rule of your conduct, and the end of your actions, every thing will proceed in harmony and order. I have ex- plained to you the spirit of those laws and constitutions that were estab- lished by your predecessors; and you have nothing to do but to carry them into executior.. If this should be the case, I shall have the glory of having formed an emperor to virtue ; but if otherwise, let this letter remain a testimony with succeeding ages, that you did not ruin the Ro- man empire under pretence of the counsels or the authorit}' of Plutarch." Why Dacier should think that this letter is neither worthy of the pen, nor written in the manner of Plutarch, it is not easy to conceive, for it has all the spirit, the manly freedom, and the sentimental turn of that philosopher. We shall find it no very difficult matter to account for his connections with Trajan, if we attend to the manner in which he lived, and to the re- ception he met with in Rome. During his residence in that city, his house was the resort of the principal citizens. All that were distin- guished by their rank, taste, learning, or politeness sought his conversa- tion, and attended his lectures. The study of the Greek language and philosophy were, at that time, the greatest pursuits of the Roman nobil- ity, and even the emperors honored the most celebrated professors with their presence and support. Plutarch, in his Treatise on Curiosity, has introduced a circumstance which places the attention that was paid to his 'eclures in a very strong light. " It once happened," says he, " that yhen I was speaking in public at Rome, Arulenus Rusticus, the same ahom Domitian, through envy of his growing reputation, afterwards put 'o lealh, was one of my hearers. When I was in the middle of my di»' ^ouf se, a soldier came in, and brought him a letter from the emperor. Upon this there was a general silence through the audience, and I itopped to give him time to peruse this letter ; but he would not suifei it ; noi did he open the letter till I had finished my lecture, and the au- dience was dispersed." To understand the importance of this compliment, it will be necessary to couoider the quality and character of the person who paid it Arule- nus was one of the greatest men in Rome ; distinguished as well by the lustre of his family, as by an honorable ambition and thirst of glory. He was tribune of the people when Nero caused Paetus and Soranus to t)« capilally condemned by a decree of the senate. When Soranus \t-.vs ds XVI LIFE OF PLUTARCH. liberating with his friends, whether he should attempt, or givt up hia ui^- tence, Arulenu« bad the spirit to propose an opposition to the decree ol the senate, in nis capacity of tribune ; and he would have carried it into execution, had he not been overruled by Paetus, who remonstrated, that by such a measure he would destroy himself, without the satisfaction oi serving his friend. He was afterwards praetor after Vitellius, whose in- terests he followed with the greatest fidelity. But his spirit and magnan- imity do him the greatest honor, in that eulogy which he wrote on Paetua and Helvidius Priscus. His whole conduct was regulated by the pre cepts of philosophy; and the respect he showed to Plutarch on this oc- casion was a proof of his attachment to it. Such was the nran wiio post- poned the letter of a prince to the lecture of a philosopher. But Plutarch was not only treated with general marks of disdnction by the superior people 'in Rome ; he had particular and very respectable friendships. Sossius Senecio, who was four times consul, once under Nerva, and thrice under Trajan, was his most intimate friend. To him he addresses his Lives, except that of Aratus, which is inscribed to Poly- crates of Sicyon, the grandson of Aratus. With Senecio he not only lived in the strictest friendship whilst he was in Rome, but corresponded with him after he retired to Greece. And is it not easy to believe, that through the interest of this zealous and powerful friend, Plutarch might not only be appointed tutor to Trajan, but be advanced likewise to the consular dignity ? When we consider Plutarch's eminence in Rome as a teacher of philosophy, nothing can be more probable than the former : when we remember the consular interest of Senecio under Trajan, and his distinguished regard for Plutarch, nothing can be more likely than the latter. The honor of being preceptor to such a virtuous prince as Trajan, is so important a point in the life of Plutarch, that it must not hastily be given up. Suidas has asserted it. The letter above quoted, if it be, as we have no doubt of its being, the genuine composition of Plutarch, has confirmed it. Petrarch has maintained it. Dacier only has doubted, or rather denied it. But upon what evidence has he grounded his opinion .' Plutarch, he says, was but three or four years older than Trajan, and therefore was unfit to be his jjreccptor in philosophy. Now let us in- quire into the force of this argument. Trajan spent the early part of his life in arms : Plutarch in the study of the sciences. When that prince applied himself to literary pursuits, he was somewhat advanced in lifv=^ : Plutarch must have been more so. And why a man of science should be an unfit preceptor in philosophy to a military man, though no more thau four years older, the reason, we apprehend, will be somewhat difficult to discover. Dacier, moreover, is reduced to a petitio principii, when he says that Plutarch was only four years older than Trajan ; for we have seen that il £b impossible to ascertain the time of Plutarch's birth, and the date whir.h Dacier assigns it is purely conjectural ; we will therefore conclude, with those learned men who have formerly allowed Plutarch the honor of be- ing preceptor to Trajan, that he certainly was so. There is little doubt that they grounded their assertions upon proper authority ; and, indeed, the internal evidence arising from the nature and effects of that educa- tion, which did honor to the scholar and to the master, comes iu aid o( the argument. Some chronologers have taken upon them to ascertain the time when Plutarch's reputation was established in Rome. Peter of Alexandria fixes it in the thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, in the consulate o( LIFE OF PLUTARCH. XVII Capit ) and Rufus : " L ac-in," sa)s he, " was, at this time, in great lepa- tation amongst the Romans ; and Musouius and Plutarch were well known." Eusebius brings it one year lower, and tells us, that, in the fourteenth year of Nero's reign, Musonius and Plutarch were in great reputation. Both these writers are palpably mistaken. We have seen, that in the tivelfth year of Nero, Plutarch was yet at school under Am- moiiius ; and it is not very probable that a school-boy should be cele- brated as a philosopher in Rome within a year or two after. Indeed EuFcbius contradicts himself ; for, on another occasion, he places him ir tlxc leign of Adrian, the third year of the Olympiad 224, of the Christiia iera 120. "In this year," says he, "the philosophers Plutarch of Chae- ronea, Sextus, and Agathobulus, flourished." Thus he carries him as much too low, as he had before placed him too high. It is certain that he first grew into reputation under the reign of Vespasian, aad that his philosophical fame was established in the time of Trajan. It seems that the Greek and Latin writers of those times were either .'ittle acquainted with each other's works, or that there were some literary jealousies and animosities between them. When Plutarch flourished, there were several contemporary writers of distinguished abilities : Per- seus, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Valerius Flaccus, the younger Pliny, Solinus, Martial, Quintilian, and many more. Yet none of those have made the least mention of him. Was this envy ? or was it Roman pride ? Pos- sibly they could not bear that a Greek sophist, a native of such a con- temptible town as Chaeronea, should enjoy the palm of literary praise in Rome, It must be observed, at the same time, that the principal Roman writers had conceived a jealousy of the Greek philosophers, which was very prevailing in that age. Of this we find a strong testimony in the elder Pliny, where, speaking of Cato the Censor's disapproving and dis- missing the Grecian orators, and of the younger Cato's bringing in triumph a sophist from Greece, he exclaims in terms that signified con- tempt, qiia}ita 7noriim commutatio ! However, to be undistinguished by the encomiums of contemporary writers, was by no means a thing peculiar to Plutarch. It has been, and still is, the fate of superior genius, to be beheld either with silent or abusive envy. It makes its way like the sun, which we look upon with pain, unless something passes over him that obscures his glory. We then view with eagerness the shadow, the cloud, or the spot, and are pleased with what eclipses the brightness we otherwise carnot bear. Yet, if Plutarch, like other great men, found " Envy never conquered but by death,'' his manes have been appeased b)' the amplest atone- rients. Amongst the many that have done honor to his memcry, the toliowing eulogiums deserve to be recorded : — AuLUS Gellius compliments him with the highest distinction in laence.* Taurus, quoted by Gellius, calls him a man of the most consummate 'earning and wisdom.t Eusebius places him at the head of the Greek philosophers.J Sardianus, in his preface to the Lives of the Philosophers, calls hira tl.e x^.Ot?^. divine Plutarch, the beauty and harmony of philosophy. Petrarch, in his moral writings, frequently distinguishes him by the title of ihe great Plutarch. Honor has been done to him likewise by Origen, Himerius the Sophist, Cyrillus, Theodoret, Suidas, Photius, Xiphilinus, Joannes, Sa]is< • A. G«llius, lib. iv. cap. 7. t Gell. lib. i. cap. 26. % Euseb Praep. lib. iii. inil. JTVUl LIFE OF PLUTARCH. beriensis, Victorius, Lipsius, and Agathias, in the epigram which is thai translated by Dryden : — Chasronean PI jtarch, to thy deathless praise Does martial Rome this grateful statue raise ; Because both Greece and she thy fame have shared ; Their heroes written, and their lives compared. But thou thyself couldst never write thy own ; Their lives have parallels, but thine has none. But this is perfectly extravagant. We are much better pleased with tin Greek verses of the honest metropolitan under Constantine Monomachust Thiy deserve to be translated. Lord of that light, that living power, to save Which her lost sons no Heathen Scibncb gave ; If aught of these thy mercy means to spare, Yield Plato, Lord, — yield Plutarch to my prayer. Led by no grace, no new conversion wrought. They lelt thy own divinity of thought. That grace exerted, spare the partial rod : The last, best vyritness, that thou art their God 1 Theodore Gaza, who was a man of considerable learning, and a greal reviver of letters, had a particular attachment to our biographer. When he was asked, in case of a general destruction of books, what author he should wish to save from the ruin, he answered, Plutarch. He consid- ered his historical and philosophical writings as the most beneficial to society, and, of course, the best substitute for all otlier books. Were it necessary to produce further suffrages for the merit of Plu- tarch, it would be sufficient to say that he has been praised by Mon- taigne, St. Evremont and Montesquieu, the best critics and the ablest writers of their time. After receiving the most distinguished honors that a philosopher could enjoy ; after the godlike office of teaching wisdom and goodness to the metropolis of the world ; after having formed an emperor to virtue; and after beholding the effects of his precepts in the happiness of human- kind, Plutarch retired to his n.'itive country. The death of his iliiistrious prince and pupil, to a man of his sensibility, must have rendered Rome even painful ; for whatever influence philosophy may have on the cultiva- tion of the mind, we find that it has very little power over the interests of the heart. It must have been in the decline of life that Plutarch retired to Chae- ronea. But though he withdrew from the busier scenes of the world, he fled not to an unprofitable or inactive solitude. In that retirement he formed the great work for which he had so long been [)reparing mate- rials, his Lives of Illustrious Men ; a work which, as Scaliger says, non '.oluvt fuit in tnanibus kojnmiim, at eti.un hutnani generis memoriam occufO' \ii. To recommend by encomiums what has been received with universal ajiprobation, would be superfluous. But to observe where the biographer has excelled, and in what he has failed ; to make a due estimate as well of the defects as of the merits of his work, may have its use. Lipsius has observed that he does not write history, but scraps of history ; }to>i historiatn, sed partiadas historice. This is said of his Lives, and, in one sense, it is true. No single life that he has written will af- ford a sufficient history of its proper period ; neither was it povssible that it should do so. As his plan comprised a number of cotemporary lives, mo6t of which were in public characters, the business of their period wa<» LIFE OF PLUTARCH. XU ro be divided amongst t'.iem. The general liistory of the time was to b« thrown into separate portions ; and those portions were to be allotted to such characters as had the principal ifiterest in the several events. This was, in some measure, done by Plutarch ; but it was not done with great art or accuracy. At the san\e time, as we have already nb- scrvd, it was not to be wondered if there were some repetitions, when the part which the several characters bore in the principal events was necessary to be pointed out. Yet these scraps of history, thus divided and dispersed, when seen in a collective form, make no very imperfect narrative of the times witliin their view. Their biographer's attention to the minuter circumstai ces of character, his disquisitions of principles and manners, and his political and philosophical discussions, lead us in an easy and intelligent mar.nei to the events he describes. It is not to be denied that his narratives are sometimes disorderly, and too often encumbered with impertinent digressions. By pursuing with too much indulgence the train of ideas, he has frequently destroyed the order of facts, brought together events that lay at a distance from each other, called forward those circumstances to which he should have made a regular progress, and made no other apology for these idle ex- cursions, but by telling us that he is out of the order of time. Notes, in the time of Plutarch, were not in use. Had he known the convenience of marginal writing, he would certainly have thrown the greatest part of his digressions into that form. They are, undoubtedly, tedious and disgustful ; and all we can do to reconcile ourselves to them is to remember that, in the first place, marginal writing was a thing un- known ; and that the benevolent desire of conveying instruction was the greatest motive with the biographer in introducing them. This appears, at least, from the nature of them ; for they are chiefly disquisitions in natural history and philosophy. In painting the manners of men, Plutarch is truly excellent. Nothing can be more clear than his moral distinctions ; nothing finer than the de- lineations of the mind. The spirit of philosophical observation and inquiry, which, when properly directed, is the great ornament and excellence of historical ccm- position, Plutarch possessed in an eminent degree. His biographical writings teach philosophy at once by precept and by example. His mor- als and his characters mutually explain and give force to each other. His sentiments of the duty of a historian were peculiarly just and delicate. This will aj)pcar from his strictures on those historian*; who wrote of Philistus. "It is plain," says he, " that Timaeus takes cveiy oc- casion, from Philistus's known adherence to arbitrary power, to load him with the heaviest reproaches. Those whom he injured are in some de- jrce excusable, if, in their resentment, they treated him with indignities after death. But wherefore should his biographers, whom he never in^ juied, and who 'have had the benefit of his works ; wherefore should they e,^h bit him with all the exaggerations of scurrility, in those scenes of distress to which fortune sometimes reduces the best of men ? On the other hand, Ephorus is no less extravagant in his encomiums on PhBis- tus. lie knows well how to throw into shades the foibles of the human charactei, and to give an air of plausibility to the most indefensible con- duct ; but with all his elegance, with all his art, he cannot rescue Philis- tus from the imputation of being the most strenuous supporter of arbl trary power, of being the fondest follower and admirer of the luxury, the niagnifirence. the alliance of tyrants Upon the whole, he who ncitbe* XX LIFE OF PLUTARCH. d*ifenda the principles of Philistus, nor insults over his misfortunes, will best discharge, the duties of the historian." There is such a thing as constilutional religion. There is a certain temper and frame of mind naturally productive of devotion. There are men who are born with the original principles of piety anjl in this class we need not hesitate to place Plutarch. If this disposition has sometimes made him too indulgent to supersti- tion, and too attentive to the less rational circumstances of the heathen theology, it is not to be wondered. But, ujjon the whole, he had consis- tent and honorable notions of the Supreme Being. That he believed the unity of the Divine Nature, we have already seen ai his observations on the word ei, engraved on Apollo's temple. The jame opinion too is found in his "Treatise on the Cessation of Or^ci^es;" jvhere m the character of a Platonist, he argued against the Stoics who denieil the plurality of worlds. "If there are many worlds, said the Stoics, why then is there only one Fate, and one Providence to guide them? for the Platonists allow that there is but one. Why should not many Jupiters, or Gods, be necessary for the government of many worlds?" To this Plutarch answers, " Where is the necessity of sup- posing many Jupiters for this plurality of worlds ? Is not one Excellent Being, endued with reason and intelligence, such as He is whom we ac- knowledge to be the Father and Lord of all things, sufficient to direct and lule these worlds? If there were more supreme agents, their decrees would be vain, and contradictory to each other." But though Plutarch acknowledged the individuality of the Supreme Being, he believed, nevertheless, in the existence of intermediate beings of an inferior order, between the divine and the human nature. These beings he calls genii, or daemons. It is impossible, he thinks, from the general order and principles of creation, that there should be no mean betwixt the two extremes of a mortal and immortal being ; that there can- not be in nature so great a vacuum, williout some intermediate species of life, which might in some measure partake of both. And as we find the connection between soul and body to be made by means of the animal spirits, so these daemons are intelligences between divinity and humanity Their natnre, however, is believed to be progressive. At first they are supposed to have been virtuous men, whose souls, being refined from the gross parts of their former existence, are admitted into the higher order of genii, and are from thence eitlier raised to a more e-xalted mode of ethereal being, or degraded to mortal forms, according to their merit or their degeneracy. One order of these genii, he supposes, presided ovei oracles ; others administered, under the Supreme Being, the affairs and the fortunes of men, supporting the virtuous, punishing the bad, and eomstimes even communicating with the best and purest natures. Thus the genius of Socrates still warned him of approaching danger, and taught ,\;iii to avoid it It is this order of beings which the late IMr. Thomson, who in en- ihusi.asm was a Platonist, and in benevolence a Pythagorean, has so beau'. ifully described, in his Seasons: and as if tlie good bard had be- lieved the doctrine, he pathetically invokes a favorite spirit which had lately forsaken its former mansion : — And art tliou, Stanley, of tliat sicied band ? Alas ! for us too soon ! Such were Plutarch's religious principles ; and as a proof that he thought them cf consequence, he entered, after his retirement, inli* a sai red character, and was consecrated priest of Apollo. LIFE OF PLUTARCH. XX» This was not his sole appointment, when he returned to ChaTonea. He united the sacerdotal with the magistratial character, and devoted himself at once to the service of the gods, and to the duties of society. He did not think that philosophy, or the pursuit of letters, ought to ex- empt any man from personal service in the community to which he V»e- longed : and though his literary labors were of the greatest importance f^ the woild, he sought no excuse in those from discharging offices of p-ah- lic trust in his little city of Chasronea. It appears that he passed through several of these ofSces, and th:.t b« was, at last, appointed archon, or chief magistrate of the city. Whethcf he retained his superintendency of Illyria after the death uf Trajan, we do not certainly know ; but, in this humble sphere, it will be worth ouf wbile to inquire in what maimer a philosopher would administer justice. With regard to the inferior offices that he bore, he looked ujion them in the same light as the great Epaminondas had done, who, when he was appointed to a commisbion beneath his rank, observed " that no otficft could give dignity to him that held it ; but that he who held it might give dignity to any office." It is not unentertaining to hear our philos- opher apologize for his employment when he discharges the office of commisr,ioners of sewers and public buildings. " I make no doubt,'' says ne, " that the citizens of Chreronea often smile, when they see me em- ployed in such offices as these. On such occasions, I generally call to mind what is said of Antisthenes : when he was bringing home, in his own hands, a dirty fish from the market, some, who observed it, ex- pressed their surprise ; ' It is for myself,' said Antisthenes, ' that I carry this fish.' On the contrary, for my own part, when I am rallied for measuring tiles, or for calculating a quantity of stones or mortar, I an- swer, that it is not for myself I do these things, but for my country. For, in all things of this nature, the public utility takes off the disgrace; and the meaner the office you sustain may be, the greater is the compliment that you pay to the public." Plutarch, in the capacity of a public magistrate, was indefi^tigaon" in recommending unanimity to the citizens. To carry this point OTiOre ef- fectually, he lays it down as a first principle, that a magistrate should be affable and easy of access ; that his house should always be open as a place of refuge for those who sought for justice ; and that he should not satisfy himself merely with allotting certain hours of the day to sit for the despatch of business, but that he should employ a part of his time in private negotiations, in making up domestic quarrels, and reconciliag divided friends. This employment he regarded as one of the principa' parts of his office ; and, indeed, he might properly consider it in a polit- ical lignt ; for it too frequently happens, that the most dangerous public factions are at first kindled by private misunderstandings. Thus, in one part of his works, he falls into the same sentiment: "As public confla- grations," says he, '' do not always begin in public edifices, but are caused Eiore freqiier.tly by some lamp neglected in a private house ; so in the Administration of states, it does not always happen that the f^ame of sedi tion arises from political differences, but from private dissentions, which, running through a long chain of connections, at length affect the whole body of the people For thisreason, it is one of the principal duties ol a minister of state or magistrate, to heal these private animosities, and to prevent them from growing into public divisions." After these observa- tions, he mentions sereral states and cities which had owed their ruin to the same little causes ; and then adds, that we ought not by any means to W inattentive to the misunderstandirgs of private men, but apply to them aJcJi LIFE OF PLUTARCH. the mos,t timely remedies; for, by proper care, as Cato observes, what it great becomes little ; and what is little is reduced to nothing. Of th* truth of these observations, the annals of our own country we wish we had no reason to say our own times, have presented us with many melancholy instances. As Plutarch observed that it was a fashionable fault amongst men of fortune to refuse a proper respect to magistrates of inferior rank, he en- deavored to remove this impolitic evil as well by precept as by exan, ie "To learn obedience and deference to the magistrate," says he, "is c*na of the first and best principles of discipline; nor ought these by any means to be dispensed with, though that magistrate should be inferior to us in figure or in fortune. For how absurd is it, if, in theatrical exhibi- liois, the meanest actor, that wears a momentarj- diadem, shall receive bis due respect from superior players ; and yet, in civil life, men of greater power or wealth shall withhold the deference that is due to the iragistrate ! In this case, however, they should remember, that while chey consult their own importance, they detract from the honor of the state. Private dignity ought always to give place to public authority; as in Sparta, it was usual for the kings to rise in compliment to the ephori." With regard to Plutarch's political principles, it is clear that he was, even whilst at Rome, a republican in heart, and a friend to liberty: but this does him no peculiar honor. Such privileges are the birthright of mankind; and they are never parted with but through fear or favor. At Rome, he acted like a philosopher of the world. Quando noi siavio in Roma, 7101 faciamo conie Engl iiio f anno in J\cma. He found a constitution which he had not power to alter ; yet, though he could not make man- kind free, he made them comparatively happy, by teaching clemency to their tempora-ry ruler." At Chajronea we find him more openly avowing the principles of liberty. During his residence at Rome, he had remarked an essential error in the police. In all complaints and processes, however trifling, the people had recourse to the first oflicers of state. By this means they supposed that their interest would be promoted ; but it had a certain teniiency to enslave them still more, and to render them the tools and dependents of court power. Of these measures the archon of Ch.xronea thus expresses his disapprobation : "At the same time," says he, " thai we endeavor to render a city obedient to its magistrates, we must beware of reducing it to a servile or too humiliating a condition. Those who carrj* every tritle to the cognizance of the supreme magistrate, are contributing all they can to the servitude of their country." And it is undoubted'y true that the habitual and universal e.xertion of authority has a natuial tendency to arbitrary dtjuiinion. We have now considered Plutarch in the light .if a philosopher, a biog- laplier, and a magistrate; we have entered into his moral, religious, and political haracter, as well as the informations we could obtain would enable us. It only remains that we view him in the domestic sphere of [fe — that little, but trying sphere, where we act wholly from ourselves, and assume no character but that which nature and education has given us. Dac'e , on falling into this part of Plutarch's history, has made a whimsica. observation. " There are two cardinal points," says he, " in a man's life, which d'^termine his happiness or his misery. These are his birth and his marriage." It is in vain for a m.in to be born fortunate, i( he be unfortunate in his marriage. IIow Dacier could reconcile the as 'rologers to this new doctrine, it is noi easy to say: for, upon this prin LIFE OF PLUTARCH. XXI 11 •iple, a man must at least have two good stars, one for his b'rth-day, the other for liis wedding-day ; as it seems that the iniliience of the luital stai could not extend beyond the bridal morn, but that a man then falls un- der a different dominion. At what time Plutarch entered into this state, we are not quite cer- tain ; but as it is not probable that a man of his wisdom would marry a/ an advanced time of life, and as his wife was a native of Chaeronca, wr may conclude that he married before he went to Rome. However that Blight be, it appears that he was fortunate in his choi'~(^; for his wife was not only well-born and well-bred, but a woman of distinguished sense and virtue. Her name was Timo.x'ena. Plutarch aj^pears to have had at least five children by her, four sons, and a daughter, whom, out of regard for her mother, he called Timoxena. He had given us a proof that he had all the tenderness of an affectionate father for these children, by recording a little instance of his daughter'"* natural benevolence. " When she was very young," says he, "she would frequently beg of her nurse to give the breast not only to the other chil- dren, but to her babies and dolls, which she considered as her depend- ents, and under her protection." Who does not see, in this simple cir- cumstance, at once the fondness of the parent, and the benevolent dis- position of the man ? But the philosopher soon lost his little blossom of humanity. His Timoxena died in her infancy; and if we may judge from the consolatory .etter he wrote to her mother on the occasion, he bore the loss as became a philosopher. "Consider," said he, "that death has deprived your Timoxena only of small enjoyments. The things she knew were but of little consequence, and she could be delighted only with trifles." In this letter we find a portrait of his wife, which does her the greatest honor. From the testimony given liy her husband, it appears that she was far above the general weakness and affectation of her sex. She had no pas- sion for the expensiveness of dress, or the parade of public appearances. She thought every kind of extravagance blamable ; and her ambition went not beyond the decencies and proprieties of life. Plutarch had before this buried two of his sons, his eldest son, and a younger named Charon; and it appears from the above-mentioned letter, that the conduct of Timoxena, on these events, was worthy the wife of a philosopher. She did not disfigure herself by change of apparel, or give way to the extravagance of grief, as women in general do on such oc- casions, but supported the dispensations of Providence with a solemn and rational submission, even when they seemed to be most severe. She had taken Luweaiied pains, and undergone the greatest sufferings, to nurse her "on Charon at her own breast, at a time when an abscess formed near the j/Uit had obliged her to undergo an incision. Yet, when the chil-d, jeared with so much tender pain and difficulty, died, those wiio went iTi {. my friends ; to connive at the noisy follies of the ignorant and impertinent} and to comply with the understandings and the humors of men." One of the rewards of philosophy is long life ; and it is clear thai Plntaich enjoyed this; but of the time, or the circumstances of his de*th »t hmve no satisfactory account. J. AND W. LANGHORNE PLUTARCH'S LIVES VOLUME I. THESEUS. As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect, that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, unapproachable bogs, Scyth- ian ice, or a frozen sea, so, in this work of mine, in which I have compared the lives of the greatest men with one another, after passing through those periods which probable reasoning can reach to and real history find a footing in, I might very well say of those that are farther off. Beyond this there is nothing but prodigies and fictions, the only inhabitants are the poets and inventors of fables ; there is no credit, or certainty any farther. Yet, after publishing an account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I thought I might, not without reason, ascend as high as to Romulus, being brought by my history so near to his time. Considering therefore with my- self— Whom shall I set so great a man to face ? Or whom oppose ? Who's equal to the plaje ? (as -^schylus expresses it), I found none so fit as him that peopled the beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be sei in opposition with the father of the invincible and renowned lity of Rome. Let us hope that Fable may, in what shall fol- low, so submit to the purifying processes of Reason as lo take the character of exact history. In any case, however, where it shall be found contumaciously slighting credibility, anc re- fusing to be reduced to any thing like probable fact, we Skiall beg that we may meet with candid readers, and such as will receive with indulgence the stories of antiquity. 8 THESEUS. Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many par- ticulars. Both of them, born out of wedlock and of uncertain parentage, had the repute of being sprung from the gods. Both warriors ; that by all the world's allowed. Both of them united with strength of body an equal vigor A mind ; and of the two most famous cities of the world, the one built Rome, and the other made Athens be inhabited. Both Stand charged with the rape of women ; neither of them could avoid domestic misfortunes nor jealousy at home ; but towards the close of their lives are both of them said to have incurred great odium with their countrymen, if, that is, we may take the stories least like poetry as our guide to the truth. The lineage of Theseus, by his father's side, ascends as high as to Erechtheus and the first inhabitants of Attica. By his mother's side he was descended of Pelops. For Pelopa was the most powerful of all the kings of Peloponnesus, not so much by the greatness of his riches as the multitude of his children, having married many daughters to chief men, and put many sons in places of command in the towns roundabout him. One of v.'hom, named Pittheus, grandfather to Theseus, was governor of the small city of the Troezenians, and had the repute of a man of the greatest knowledge and wisdom of hia time ; which then, it seems, consisted chiefly in grave maxims, such as the poet Hesiod got his great fame by, in his book of Works and Days. And, indeed, among these is one that thej ascribe to Pittheus, — Unto a friend suffice A stipulated price ; which, also, Aristotle mentions. And Euripides, by calling Hippolytus "scholar of the holy Pittheus," shows the opinion that the world had of him. .■^tgeus, being desirous of children, and consulting the oracle of Delphi, received the celebrated answer which forbade him the company of any woman before his return to Athens. But the oracle being so obscure as not to satisfy him that he was clearly forbid this, he went to Trcezen, and coriimunicated to Pittheus the voice of the god, which was in this manner,— Loose not the wine-skin foot, thou chief of men, Until to Athens thou art come again. Pittheus, therefore, taking advantage from the obscurity of the oracle, prevailed upon him, it is uncertain whether b) per THESEUS. 9 suasion or deceit, to lie with his daughter -^thia. ^geus afterwards, knowing her whom he had lain with to be Pittheus's daughter, and suspecting her to be with child by him, left a sword and a pair of shoes, hiding them under a great stone that had a hollow in it exactly fitting them ; and went away making her only privy to it, and commanding her, if she brought forth a son who, when he came to man's estate, slioul 1 be a))le to lift up the stone and take away what he had left there, she should send him away to him with those things with all seciesy, and with injunctions to him as much as possible to conceal his journey from every one ; for he greatly feared the Pallan- tidae, who were continually mutinying against him, and de- spised him for his want of children, they themselves being fifty brothers, all sons of Pallas. When /Ethra was delivered of a son, some say that he was immediately named Theseus, from the tokens which his father had/«/ under the stone ; others that he had received his name afterwards at Athens, when yEgeus acknowledged him for his ibOu. He was brought up under his grandfather Pittheus, and had a tutor and attendant set over him named Connidas, to Vv'hom the Athenians even to this time, the day before the feast that is dedicated to Theseus, sacrifice a ram, giving this honor to his memory upon much juster grounds than to Silanio and Parrhasius for making pictures and statues of Theseus. There being then a custom for the Grecian youth, upon their first coming to man's estate, to go to Delphi and offer first-fruits of their hair to the god, Theseus, also went thither, and a place there to this day is yet named Thesea, as it is said, from him. He clipped only the fore part of his head, as Homer says the Abantes did. And this sort of tonsure was from hiia named Theseus. The Abantes first used it, not in imitation of the Arabians, as some imagine, nor of the Mysians, but because they weic a warlike people, and used to close fighting, and ab^ve all other nations accustomed to engage hand to hand j as Archilochus testifies in these verses : — Slings shall not whirl, nor many arrows fly, When on the plain the l-)a(tle joins; but swords, Man against man, the deadly conflict try As is the practice of Euboea's lords Skilled with the spear. Therefore that they might not give their enemies a hold by ihe'r hair, they cut it in this manner. They write also that thiw was the reason why Alexander gave command to his cap 10 THESEUS. tains that all the beards of the Macedonians should be shaved, as being the readiest hold for an enemy. -^thra for some time concealed the true parentage ol Theseus, and a report was given out by Pittheus that he wa? begotten by Neptune ; for the Troezenians pay Neptune the highest veneration. He is their tutelar god ; to him they offer all their first-fruits, and in his honor stamp their money with a trident. Theseus displaying not only great strength of body, but equal bravery, and a quickness alike and force of undersland- ing, his mother yEthra, conducting him to the stone, and in- forming him who was his true father, commanded him "o take from thence the tokens that ^'2geus had left, and sail to Athens. He without any difficulty set himself to the stone and lifted it up ; but refused to take his journey by sea, though it was much the safer way, and though his mother and grand- father begged him to do so. For it was at that time very dan- gerous to go by land on the road to Athens, no part of it being free from robbers and murderers. That age produced a sort of men, in force of hand, and swiftness of foot, and strength of body, excelling the ordinary rate and wholly incapable of fatigue ; making use, however, of these gifts of nature to no good or profitable purpose for mankind, but rejoicing and priding themselves in insolence, and taking the benefit of their superior strength in the exercise of inhumanity and cruelty, and in seizing, forcing, and committing all manner of outrages upon every thing that fell into their hands ; all respect for others, all justice, they thought, all equity and humanity, though naturally lauded by common people, either out of want of courage to commit injuries or fear to receive them, yet no way concerned those who were strong enough to win for them- selves. Some of these, Hercules destroyed and cut off in his passage through these countries; but some, escaping his notice while he was passing by, fled and hid themselves, or else were spared by him in contempt of their abject submis- gion : and after that Hercules fell into misfortune, and, having slain Iphitus, retired to Lydia, and for a long time was there slave to Omphale, a punishment which he had imposed upon himself for the murder : then, indeed, Lydia enjoyed high peace and security, but in Greece and the countries about it the like villanies again revived and broke out, there being none to repress or chastise them. It was therefore a very hazardous journey to travel by land from Athens to Pelopon- nesus ; and Pittheus, giving him an exact account of eact THESEUS. 1 1 these robbers and villains, their strength, and the cruelty they used to all strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to go by sea. But he, it seems, had long since been secretly fired by the glory of Hercules, held him in the highest estimation, and was never more satisfied than in listening to any that gave an account of him ; especially those that had seen him, or had been present at any action or saying of his. So that he was altogether in the same state of feeling as, in after ages, Thcv mistocles was, when he said that he could not sieep foi the trophy of Miltiades ; entertaining such admiration for the virtue of Hercules, that in the night his dreams were all of that hero's actions, and in the day a continual emulation stirred h' n up to perform the like. Besides, they were related, being born of cousins-german. For ^thra was daughter of Pittheus, and Alcmena of Lysidice ; and Lysidice and Pittheus were brother and sister, children of Hippodamia and Pelops. He thought it therefore a dishonorable thing, and not to be en- dured, that Hercules should go out everywhere, and purge both land and sea from wicked men, and he himself should fly from the like adventures that actually came in his way ; disgracing his reputed father by a mean flight by sea, and not showing his true one as good evidence of the greatness of his birth by noble and worthy actions, as by the token that he brought with him, the shoes and the sword. With this mind and these thoughts, he set forward with a design to do injury to nobody, but to repel and revenge him- self of all those that should offer any. And first of all, in a set combat, he slew Periphetes, in the neighborhood of Epi- daurus, who used a club for his arms, and from thence had the name of Corynetes, or the club-bearer ; who seized upon him, and forbade him to go forward in his journey. Being pleased with the club, he took it, and made it his weapon, continuing to use it as Hercules did the lion's skin, on whose shoulders that served to prove how huge a beast he had killed ; and to the same end Theseus carried about him this club ; overcome indeed by him, but, now, in his hands, in- vincible. Passing on further towards the Isthmus of Peloponnesus, he slew Sinnis, often surnamed the Bender of Pines, after the same manner in which he himself had destroyed many others before. And this he did without having either practised or evet learnt the art of bending these trees, to show that natural strength is above all art. This Sinnis had a daughter of remarkable beauty and stature, called Perigune, who, when 12 THESEUS. hei faiher was killed, fled, and was sought after eveiywhere by Theseus ; and coming into a place overgrown with brush- wood, shrubs, and asparagus-thorn, there, in a childlike, innocent manner, prayed and begged them, as if they under- stood her, to give her shelter, with vows that if she escaped she would never cut them down nor burn them. Eut Theseus calling upon her, and giving her his promise that he would use her with respect, and offer Iier no injury, she came forth, and in due time bore him a son, named Melanippus ; but afterwards was married to Deioneus, the son of Eurytus, the Qichalian, Theseus himself giving her to him. loxus, the son of this Melanippus, who was borne to Theseus, accom- panied Ornytus in the colony that he carried with him into Caria, whence it is a family usage amongst the people called loxids, both male and female, never to burn either shrubs oi aspaiagus-thorn, but to respect and honor them. The Crynnuyonian sow, which they called Phsea, was a savage and formidable wild beast, by no means an enemy to be despised. Theseus killed her, going out of his way on purpose to meet and engage her, so that he might not seem to perform all his great exploits out of mere necessity ; being also of opinion that it was the part of a brave man to chas- tise villanous and wicked men when attacked by them, but to seek out and overcome the more noble wild beasts. Others relate that Phaea was a woman, a robber full of cruelty and lust, that lived in Crommyon, and had the name of Sow given her from the foulness of her life and manners, and afterwards was killed by Theseus. He slew also Sciron, upon the bor- ders of Megara, casting him down from the rocks, being, as most report, a notorious robber of all passengers, and as others add, accustomed, out of insolence and wantonness, to stietch forth his feet to strangers commanding them to wash them, and then while they did it, with a kick to send them down the rock into the sea. The writers of Megara, how- ever, in contradiction to the received report, and, as Simonides e:fpre3scs it, "fighting with all antiquity," contend that Sciron was neither a robber nor doer of violence, but a punisher of all such, and the relative and friend of good and just men ; for ^acus, they say, vvas ever esteemed a man of the greatest sanctity of all the Greeks ; and Cychreus, the Salaminian, was honored at Athens with divine worship; and the virtues of Peleus and Telamon were not unknown to any one. Now Sciron was son-in-law to Cychreus, father-in-law to ^acus, and grandfather to Peleus and Telamon, who were both ol THESEUS. 13 them sons of Endeis, the daughter of Sciron and Chaiiclo : it was not probable, therefore, that the best of men should make these alliances with one who was worst, giving and re- ceiving mutually what was of greatest value and most dear to them. Theseus, by their account, did not slay Sciron ic his first journey to Athens, but afterwards, when he took Eleusis, a city of the Megarians, having circumvented Diodes, the governor. Such are the contradictions in this sto.y. In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match. And going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes, otherwise called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size oi his owF bed, as he himself was used to do with all strangers : this he did in imitation of Hercules, who always returned upon his assailants the same sort of violence that they offered to him ; sacrificed Busiris, killed Antaeus in wrestling, and Cycnus in single combat, and Termerus by breaking his skull in pieces (whence, they say, comes the proverb of "a Ter- merian mischief"), for it seems Termerus killed passengers that he met by running with his head against them. And so also Theseus proceeded in the punishment of evil rnen, who underwent the same violence from him which they had in- flicted upon others, justly suffering after the manner of their own injustice. As he went forward on his journey, and was come as far as the river Cephisus, some of the race of the Phytalidae met him and saluted him, and, upon his desire to use the purifications, then in custom, they performed them with all the usual ceremonies, and, having offered propitiatory sacri- fices to the gods, invited him and entertained him at theii house, a kindness which, in all his journey hitherto, he had not met. On the eighth day of Cronius, now called Hecatombaeon, he arrived at Athens, where he found the public affa'rs full of all confusion, and divided into parties and factions, /Egeus also, and his whole private family, laboring under the same distemper ; for Medea, having fled from Corinth, and prom- sed .-Egeus to make him, by her art, capable of having children, was living with him. She first was aware of Theseus, whom as yet ^geus did not know, and he being in years, full of jealousies and suspicions, and fearing every thing by reason of the faction that was then in the city, she easily persuaded him to kill him by poison at a banquet, to which he was to be invited as a stranger. He, coming to the entertainment, thought it not fit to discover himself at once, but willing to r4 THESEUS. give his father the occasion of first finding him out, tho meat being on the table, he drew his sword as if he designed to cut with it ; ^geus, at once recognizing the token, threw down the cup of poison, and, questioning his son, embraced him, and having gathered together all his citizens, owned hiin publicly before them, who, on their part, received him gladly for the fame of his greatness and bravery ; and it is said, thaJ when the cup fell, the poison was spilt there where now is the enclosed space in the Delphinium ; for in that place stood ^geus's house, and the figure of Mercury on the east side of the temple is called the Mercury of ^geus's gate. The sons of Pallas, who before were quiet, upon expec- tat on of recovering the kingdom after ^geus's death, who was without issue, as soon as Theseus appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly resenting that JEgeui first, an adopted son only of Pandion, and not at all related to the family of Erechtheus, should be holding the kingdom, and that after him, Theseus, a visitor and stranger, should be destined to succeed to it, broke out into open war. And dividing themselves into two companies, one part of them marched openly from Sphettus, with their father, against the city, the other, hiding themselves in the village of Gargettus, lay in ambush, with a design to set upon the enemy on both sides. They had with them a crier of the township of Agnus, named Leos, who discovered to Theseus all the designs of the Pallantidae. He immediately fell upon those that lay in ambuscade, and cut them all off; upon tidings of which Pallas and his company fled and were dispersed. From hence they say is derived the custom among the people of the township of Pallene to have no marriages or any alliance with the people of Agnus, nor to suffer the criers to pronounce in their proclamations the words used in all other parts of the country, Acouete Leoi (Hear ye people), hating the very sound of Leo, because of the treason of Leos. Theseus, longing to be in action, and desirous also to mike himself popular, left Athens to fight with the bull of Marathon, which did no small mischief to the inhabitants of Tetrapolis. And having overcome it, he brought it alive in triumph through the city, and afterwards sacrificed it to the Delphinian Apollo. The story of Hecale, also, of her re- ceiving and entertaining Theseus in this expedition, seems to be not altogether void of truth; for the townsh'ps roimd about, meeting upon a certain day, used to offei a. sacrifice, THESEUS. 15 which they called Hecalesia, to Jupiter Hecaleius, and to pay honor to Hecale, whom, by a diminutive name, they called Hecalene. because she, while entertaining Theseus, who was quite a youth, addressed him, as old people do, with similar endearing diminutives ; and having made a vow to Jupiter for him as he was going to the fight, that, if he returned in safety, she would offer sacrifices in thanks of it, and dying before he came back, she had these honors given her by way Df return for her hospitality, by the command of Theseus, a"! Philochorous tells us. Not long after arrived the third time from Crete the col- lectors of the tribute which the Athenians paid them upon the following occasion. Androgens having been treacherously murdered in the confines of Attica, not only Minos, his father, put the Athenians to extreme distress by a perpetual war, but the gods also laid waste their country ; both famine and pestilence lay heavy upon them, and even their rivers were dried up. Being told by the oracle that, if they appeased and reconciled Minos, the anger of the gods would cease and they should enjoy rest from the miseries they labored under, they sent heralds, and with much supplication were at last reconciled, entering into an agreement to send to Crete every nine years a tribute of seven young men and as many virgins, as most writers agree in stating; and the most poetical story adds, that the Minotaur destroyed them, or that, wandering in the labyrmth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they miserably ended their lives there ; and that this Minotaur .was (as Euripides hath it) A mingled form where two strange shapes combined, And different natures, bull and man, were joined. But Philochorus says that the Cretans will by no means allow the truth of this, but say that the labyrinth was only an ordinary prison, having no other bad quality but that it secured the prisoners from escaping, and that Minos, having instituted games in honor of Androgens, gave, as a reward to the victors, these youths, who in the mean time were kent in the labyrinth ; and that the first that overcame in those games was one of the greatest power and command among them, named Taurus, a man of no merciful or gentle disposition, who treated the Athenians that were made his prize in a proud and cruel manner. Also Aristotle himself, in the account that he gives of the form of government of the BottiiEans, is manifesdy of opinion that the ycuths wnre not l6 THESEUS. slain by Minos, but spent the remainder of their days in slavery in Crete ; that the Cretans, in former times, to acquit themselves of an ancient vow which they had made, were used to send an offering of the first-fruits of their men to Delphi, and that some descendants of these Athenian slavea were mingled with them and sent amongst them, and, unable to get their living there, removed from thence, first into Italy, and settled about Japygia ; from thence again, that they removed to Thrace, and were named Bottiasans ; and that this is tlie reason why, in a certain sacrifice, the Bottisean girls sing a hymn beginning Let us go to Athens. This may show us how dangerous it is to incur the hostility of a city that is mistress of eloquence and song. For Minos was always ill spoken of, and represented ever as a very wicked man, in the Athenian theatres ; neither did Hesiod avail him by calling him "the most royal Minos," nor Homer, who styles him " Jupiter's familiar fricfid ; the tragedians got the better, and from the vantage ground of the stage showered down obloquy upon him, as a man of cruelty and violence \ whereas, in fact, he appears to have been a king and a law- giver, and Rhadamanthus, a judge under him, administering the statutes that he ordained. Now, when the time of the third tribute was come, and the fathers who had any young men for their sons were to proceed by lot to the choice of those that were to be sent, there arose fresh discontents and accusations against ^geus among the people, who were full of grief and indignation that he who was the cause of all their miseries was the only person exempt from the punishment ; adopting and settling his kingdom upon a bastard and foreign son, he took no thought, they said, of their destitution and loss, not of bastards, but lawful children. These things sensibly affected Theseus, who, thinking it but just not to disregard, but rathei partake of, the suft'erings of his fellow-citizens, offered him- self for one without any lot. All else were struck with admiration for the nobleness and with love for the goodness of the act ; and /Egeus, after prayers and entreaties, finding him inflexible and not to be persuaded, proceeded to the choosing of the rest by lot. ir.cllanicus, however, tells us that the Athenians did not send the young men and virgins by lot, but that Minos himself used to come and make h!s own choice, and pitched upon Theseus before all others ; according to the conditions agreed upon between them, namely, that the Athenians should furnish tlcm with a ship, THESEUS. 17 and that the young men that were to sail witli h:,ii should carry no weapons of war ; but that if the Minotaur was destroyed, the tribute should cease. On the two former occasions of the payment of the tribute, entertaining no hopes of safety or return, they sent out the ship with a black sail, as to unavoidable destruction ; but now, Theseus encouraging his father, and speaking greatly of himself, as confident that he should kill the Minotaur, he gave the ])ilot another sail, which was white, commanding hina, IS l;e returned, if Theseus were safe, to make use of that; but if rot, to sail with the black one, and to hang out that sign c^ his misfortune. Simonides sa3's that the sail which /Egeus Leliveied to the pilot was not white, but Scarlet, in the juicy bloom Of the living oak-tree steeped, and thct ^his was to be the sign of their escape. Phereclus, son of Am?./syas, according to Simonides, was pilot of the ship. But .^hilochorus says Th.eseus had sent him by Scirus, from Salamis, NausithoUs to be his steersman, and Phaeax his look-out-man in the prow, the Athenians having as yet not applied themselves to navigation ; and that Scirus did this because one of the young men, Menesthes, was his daughter's son ; and this the chapels of Nausithoiis and Phaeax, bui't by Theseus near the temple of Scirus, confirm. He adds, also, that the feast named Cybernesia was in honor of ihem. The lot being cast, and Theseus having received out of the Prytaneiim those upon whom it fell, he went to the Delphinium, and made an offering for them to Apollo of liis suppliant's badge, which was a bough of a con- ■ieciated olive tree, with white wool tied about it. Having thus performed his devotion, he went to sea, the sixth day of Munychion, on which day even to this time the ,\the]iianf. send their virgins to the same temple to make supplication to the gods. It is farther reported that he was commanded by the oracle of Delphi to make Venus his guide, and to ini'oke her as the companion and conductress of his voyage, and that, as he was sacrificing a she goat to her by the sea-side, it was suddenly changed into a he, and for this cause that goddess 1 ad the name of Epitragia. When he arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient histori- ans as well as poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, and being l8 THESEUS. instructed by her how to use it so as to conduct him llirough the windings of the labyrinth, he escaped out of it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed back, taking along with him Ariadi.e and the young Athenian captives. Pherecydes adds that he bored holes in the bottom of the Cretan ships to hinder their pursuit. Demon writes that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was jiain by Theseus at the mouth of the port, in a naval combat as he was sailing out for Athens. But Philochorus gives us the story thus : That at the setting forth of the yearly games by King Minos, Taurus was expected to carry away the prize, as he had done before ; and was much grudged the honor. His character and manners made his power hateful, and he was accused moreover of too near familiarity with PasiphaC; for which reason, when Theseus desired the combat, Minog readily complied. And as it was a custom in Crete that the women also should be admitted to the sight of these games, Ariadne, being present, was struck with admiration of the manly beauty of Theseus, and the vigor and address which he showed in the combat, overcoming all that encountered with him. Minos, too, being extremely pleased with him, especially because he had overthrown and disgraced Taurus, voluntarily gave up the young captives to Theseus, and remitted the tribute to the Athenians. Clidemus gives an account peculiar to himself, very ambitiously, and beginning a great way back ; That it was a decree consented to by all Greece, that no vessel from any place, containing above five persons, should be permitted to sail, Jason only excepted, who was made captain of the great ship Argo, to sail about and scour the sea of pirates. But Djedalus having escaped from Crete, and flying by sea to Athens, Minos, contrary to this decree, pursued him with his ships of war, was forced by a storm upon Sicily, and there ended his life. After his decease, Deucalion, his son, desiring a quarrel with the Athe- nians, sent to them, demanding that they should deliver up Daedalus to him, threatening upon their refusal, to put to death all the young Athenians whom his father had received as hostages from the city. To this angry message Theseus iciurned a very gentle answer, excusing himself that he could not deliver up Dsdalus, who was nearly related to him, being his cousin-german, his mother being Merope, the daughter of Ercchtheus. In the mean while he secretly prepared a navy, part of it at home near the village of the Thym(Etadae, a place of no resort, and far from ar.y common roads, the other part by hir. grandfather Pittheus's means at Trcezen. 'Jiat sc THESEUS. 19 his design might be carried on with the greatest secresy. As soon as ever his fleet was in readiness, he set sail, having with him D;iedalus and other exiles from Crete for his guides ; and njne of the Cretans having any knowledge of his com- ing, but imagining when they saw his fleet that they were friends and vessels of their own, he soon made himself master of the port, and immediately making a descent, reached Gnossiis before any notice of his coming, and, in a battle before the gates of the labyrinth, put Deucalion and all his guards to the sword. The government by this means falling to Ariadne, he made a league with her, and received the cap- tives of her, and ratified a perpetual friendship between the Athenians and the Cretans, whom he engaged under an oath never again to commence any war with Athens. There are yet many other traditions about these things, and as many concerning Ariadne, all inconsistent with each other. Some relate that she hung herself, being deserted by Theseus. Others that she was carried away by his sailors to the isle of Naxos, and married to QEnarus, priest of Bacchus ; and that Theseus left her because he fell in love with an- other, For Ogle's love was burning in his breast ; a verse which Hereas, the Megarian, says was formerly in the poet Hesiod's works, but put out by Pisistratus, in like man- ner as he added in Homer's Raising of the Dead, to gratify the Athenians, the line Theseus, Pirithous, mighty son of gods. Others say Ariadne had sons also by Theseus, CEnopion and Staphylus ; and among these is the poet Ion of Chios, who writes of his own native city Which once CEnopion, son of Theseus built. But the more famous of the legendary stories everybody (a? I nay say) has in his mouth. In Preon, however, the Ania- ihusian, there is a story given, differing from the rest. For he writes that Theseus, being driven by a storm upon the isle of Cyprus, and having aboard with him Ariadne, big with child, and extremely discomposed with the rolling of the sea, set her on shore, and left her there alone, to return himself and help the ship, when, on a sudden, a violent wind carried him again out to sea. That the women of the island received Ari- adne very kindly, and did all they could to console and alleviate her distress at being left behind. That they counterfeited kind 20 THESEUS. letters, and delivered tliem to her, as sent from Theseus, and, when she fell in labor, were diligent in performing to hei every needful service ; but that she died before she could be delivered, and was honorably interred. That soon after Theseus returned, and was greatly afflicted for her loss, and at his departure left a sum of money among the people of the island, ordering them to do sacrifice to Ariadne ; and caused two little images to be made and dedicated to her, one oi silver and the other of brass. Moreover, that on the second day of Gorpiseus, which is sacred to Ariadne, they have this ceremony among their sacrifices, to have a youth lie down and with his voice and gesture represent the pains of a woman in travail ; and that the Amathusians call the grove in which they show her tomb, the grove of Venus Ariadne. Differing yet from this account, some of the Naxians write that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Bacchus, in the isle of Naxos, and bore the children Staphylus and his brother ; but that the other, of a later age, was carried off by Theseus, and, being afterwards deserted by him, retired to Naxos, with her nurse Corcyna, whose grave they yet show. That this Ariadne also died there, and was worshipped by the island, but in a differ- ent manner from the former ; for her day is celebrated with general joy and revelling, but all the sacrifices performed to the latter are attended with mourning and gloom. Now Theseus, in his return from Crete, put in at Delos, and having sacrificed to the god of the island, dedicated to the temple the image of Venus which Ariadne had given him, and danced with the young Athenians a dance that, in memory of him, they say is still preserved among the inhabitants o£ Delos, consisting in certain measured turnings and returnings, imitative of the windings and twistings of the labyrinth. And this dance, as Diceearchus writes, is called among the Delians, the Crane. This he danced around the Ceratonian Altar, so ca'i.ed from its consisting of horns taken from the left side oi the head. They say also that he instituted games in Delos, where he was the first that began the custom of giving a palm to the victors. When they were come near the coast of Attica, so great was the joy for the happy success of their voyage, that neither Theseus himself nor the pilot remembered tc hang out the sail which should have been the token of their safety to yEgeus, who, in despair at the sight, threw himself head- long ^'om a rock, and perished in the sea. But Theseus. THESEUS. 21 being arrived at the port of Phalerum, paid there tlie sacn fices which he had vowed to the gods at his setting out to sea, and sent a herald to the city to carry the news of his safe re- turn. At his entrance, the herald found the people for the most part full of grief for the loss of their king ; others^ as may well be believed, as full of joy for the tidings that he brought, and eager to welcome him and crown him with gar- lands for his good news, which he indeed accepted of, but hung them upon his herald's staff; and thus returning to the se-.side before Theseus had finished h?s libation to the gods, he stayed apart for fear of disturbing the holy rites ; but, as soon as the libation was ended, went up and related the king's death, upon the hearing of which, with great lamentations and a confused tumult of grief, they ran with all haste to the city. And from hence, they say, it comes that at this day, in the feasf: of Oschophoria, the herald is not crowned, but his staff, and all who are present at the libation cry out eleleu, iou, ton, the fiist of which confused sounds is commonly used by men in haste, or at a triumph, the other is proper to people in consternation or disorder of mind. Theseus, af:er the funeral of his father, paid his vows to Apollo the seventh day of Pyanepsion ; for on that day the youth that returned with him safe from Crete made their entry into the city. They say, also, that the custom of boil- ing pulse at this feast is derived from hence ; because the young men that escaped put all that was left of their provision together, and, boiling it in one common pot, feasted themselves with it, and ate it all up together. Hence, also, they carry in procession an olive branch bound about with v.ool (such as they then made use of in their supplications), which they call Eiresione, crowned with all sorts of fruits, to signify that scarcity and barrenness was ceased, singing in their pioces- sion this song ; — Eiresione bring figs, and Eiresione bring loaves ; Bring us honey in pints, and oil to rub on our bodies, And a strong flagon of wine, for all to go mellow to bed .a Although some hold opinion that this ceremony is retained in memory of the Heraclidoe, who were thus entertained and brought up by the Athenians. But most are of the opinion which we have given above. The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to ihc time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took 22 THESEUS. away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow ; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not tlie same. The feast called Oschophoria, or the feast of boughs, which to this day the Athenians celebrate, was then first instituted by Theseus. For he took not with him the full number of virgins which by lot were to be carried away, but selected two 3 iiuths >f his acquaintance, of fair and womanish faces, but of a oiiinly and forward spirit, and having, by frequent baths, and '^r/oiding the heat and scorching of the sun, with a constant 080 of all the ointments and washes and dresses that serve to tfefc adorning of the head or smoothing the skin or improving the Ofimplexion, in a manner changed them from what they '7*fiPcJ before, and having taught them farther to counterfeit the rCry voice and carriage and gait of virgins so that there could not be the least difference perceived, he, undiscovered by any, put them into the number of the Athenian maids designed for Crete. At his return, he and these two youths led up a solemn procession, in the same habit that is now worn by those who carry the vine-branches. These branches they carry in honor of Bacchus and Ariadne, for the sake of their story before related ; or rather because they happened to re- turn in autumn, the time of gathering the grapes. The women, whom they call Deipnopherae, or supper-carriers, are taken into these ceremonies, and assist at the sacrifice, in remembrance and imitation of the mothers of the young men and virgins upon whom the lot fell, for thus they ran about bringing bread and meat to their children ; and because the women then told their sons and daughters many tales and stories, to comfort and encourage them under the danger they were going upon, it has still continued a custom that at this feast old fables and tales should be told. For those particular! tieg fi^e are indebted to the history of Demon. There was then a place chosen out, and a temple erected in it to Theseus, and those families out of whom the tribute of the youth was gathered were appointed to pay a tax to the temple for sacri- 6ces to him. And the house of the Phytalidng had the overseeing of these sacrifices, Theseus doing them that honor in recompense of their former hospitality. Now, after the death of his father ^Egeus. forming in nis mind a great and wonderful design, he gathered together all o^m 4%v ^ ^/>JaU\ > THESEUS. 23 the inhabitants of Attica into one town, and made them Dne people of one city, whereas before they lived dispersed, and were not easy to assemble upon any affair for the common in- terest. Nay, differences and even wars often occurred between them, which he by his persuasions appeased, going from township to township, and from tribe to tribe. And those of a more private and mean condition readily embracing such good advice, to those of greater power he promised a commonwealth without monarchy, a democracy, or people's government, in which he should only be continued as their commander in war and the protector of their laws, all things else being equally distributed among them ; — and by this means brought a part of them over to his proposal. The rest, fearing his power, which was already grown very formidable, and knowing his courage and resolution, chose rather to be persuaded than forced into a compliance. He then dissolved ail the distinct state-houses, council halls, and magistracies, and built one common state-house and council hall on the site of the present upper town, and gave the name of Athens to the whole state, ordaining a common feast and sacrifice, which he called Panathenoea, or the sacrifice of all the united Athenians. He instituted also another sacrifice called Me- tcecia, or Feast of Migration, which is yet celebrated on the sixteenth day of Hecatombaeon. Then, as he had promised, he laid down his regal power and proceeded to order a com- monwealth, entering upon this great work not without advice from the gods. For having sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning the fortune of his new government and city, he received this answer : — Son of the Pitthean maid, To your town the terms and fates, My father gives of many states. lie not anxious nor afraid ; The bladder will not fail to swim On the waves that compass him. Which oiacle, they say, one of the sybils long after did in a manner lepeat to the Athenians, in this verse : — The bladder may be dipt, but not be drowned. Farther yet designing to enlarge his city, he invited all strangers to come and enjoy equal privileges with the natives, and it is said that the common form, Come hither^ all yt people, was the words that Theseus proclaimed when he thus set up a commonwealth, in a manner, for all nations. Yet he 24 THESEUS. did not suffer his state, by the promiscuous multitude that flowed in, to be turned into confusion and be left without any order or degree, but was the first that divided the Com 1 monwealth into three distinct ranks, the noblemen, the hus- bandmen, and artificers. To the nobility he committed the care of religion, the choice of magistrates, the teaching and dispensing of the laws, and interpretation and direction in all sacred matters ; the whole city being, as it were, reduced to an exact equality, the nobles excelling the rest in honor, the husbandmen in profit, and the artificers in number. And that Theseus was the first, who, as Aristotle says, out of an inclination to popular government, parted with the regal power, Homer also seems to testify, in his catalogue of the ships, where he gives the name of People to the Athenian.s only. He also coined money, and stamped it with the image of an ox, either in memory of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, whom he vanquished, or else to put his people in mind to follow husbandry ; and from this coin came the expression so frequent among the Greeks, of a thing being worth ten or a hundred oxen. After this he joined Megara to Attica, and erected that famous pillar on the Isthmus, which bears an inscription of two lines, showing the bounds of the two countries that meet there. On the east side the inscription is, — Peloponnesus there, Ionia here, and on the west side, — Peloponnesus here, Ionia tiieic. He also instituted the games, in emulation of Hercules, being ambitious that as the Greeks, by that hero's appointment, celebrated the Olympian games to the honor of Jupiter, so by his institution, they should celebrate the Isthmian to the honoT of Neptune. For those that were there before observed, dedi- cated to Melicerta, were performed privately in the night, and had the form rather of a religious rite than of an open spectacle or public feast. There are some who say that the Isthmian games were first instituted in memor}' of Sciron, Theseus thus making expiation for his death, upon account of the nearness of kindred between them, Sciron being the son of Canethus and Heniocha, the daughter of Pittheus ; though others write that Sinnis, not Sciron, was their son, and that to his honor, and not to the other's, tliese games were ordained by Theseus THESEUS. 20 At the same ime he mode an agreement with the Coruihiana, that they should allow those that came from Athens to the celebration of the Isthmian games as much space of hoiiot before the rest to behold the spectacle in, as the sail of the ship that brought them thither, stretched to its full extent, could cover; so Hellanicus and Andro of Halicarnassus have established. Concerning his voyage into the Euxine Sea, Philochonis and some others write that he made it with Hercules, offering him his service in the war against the Amazons, and had Antiope given him for the reward of his valor ; but the greater number, of whom are Pherecydes, Hellanicus, and Herodorus. writes that he made this voyage many years after Hercules, with a navy under his own command, and took the Amazon prisoner — the more probable story, for we do not read that any other, of all those that accompanied him in this action, took any Amazon prisoner. Bion adds, that, to take her, he had to use deceit and fly away ; for the Amazons, he says, being naturally lovers of men, were so far from avoiding Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, that they sent him presents to his ship ; but he, having invited Antiope, who brought them, to come aboard, immediately set sail and car- ried her away. An author named Menecrates, that wrote the History of Nicse in Bithynia, adds, that Theseus, having An- tiope aboard his vessel, cruised for some time about those coasts, and that there were in the same ship three young men of Athens, that accompanied him in this voyage, all brothers, whose names were Euneos, Thoas, and Soloon. The last of these fell desperately in love with Antiope, and, escaping the notice of the rest, revealed the secret only to one of his most intimate acquaintances, and employed him to disclose his passion to Antiope, she rejected his pretences with a very positive denial, yet treated the matter with much gentleness and discretion, and made no complaint to Theseus of any thing (hat had happened ; but Soloon, the thing being desperate, leaped into a river near the seaside and drowned himself. As soon as Theseus was acquainted with his death, and his un- happy love thiit was the cause of it, he was extremely dis- tressed, and, in the height of his grief, an oracle which he had formerly received at Delphi came into his mind ; for he had been commanded by the priestess of Apollo Pythius, that wherever in a strange land he was most sorrowful and under the greatest affliction, he should build a city there, and leave some of his followers to be governors of the place. For this 36 THESEUS. cause he there founded a city, which he called, fiom the namt of Apollo, Pythopolis, and, in honor of the unfortunate youth, he named the river that runs by it Soloon, and left the two surviving brothers intrusted with the care of the government and laws, joining with them Hermus, one of the nobility of Athens, from whom a place in the city is called the House of Hermus ; though by an error in the accent it has been taken for the House of Hermes, or Mercury, and the honor thai was designed to the hero, transferred to the god. This was the origin and cause of the Amazonian invasion of Attica, which would seem to have been no slight or woman- ish enterprise. For it is impossible that they should have placed their camp in the very city, and joined battle close by the Pnyx and the hill called Museum, unless, having first conquered the country round about, they had thus with impu- nity advanced to the city. That they made so long a journey by land, and passed the Cimmerian Bosphorus, when frozen, as Hellanicus writes, is difficult to be believed. That they encamped all but in the city is certain, and may be sufficiently confirmed by the names that the places hereabout yet retain, and the graves and monuments of those that fell in the battle. Both armies being in sight, there was a long pause and doubt on each side which should give the first onset ; at last Theseus, having sacrificed to Fear, in obedience to the command of an oracle he had received, gave them battle ; and this happen- ed in the month of Boedromion, in which to this very day tiie Athenians celebrate the Feast Boedromia. Clidemus, desirous to be very circumstantial, writes that the left wing of the Ama- zons moved towards the place which is yet called Amazonium and the right towards the Pnyx, near Chrysa, that with this wing the Athenians, issuing from behind the Museum, en- gaged, and that the graves of those that were slain are to be seen in the street that leads to the gate called the Piraic, by the chapel of the hero Chalcodon ; and that here the Athenians were routed, and gave way before the women, as far as to the temple of the Furies, but, fresh supplies coming in from the Palladium, Ardettus, and the Lyceum, they charged their right wing, and beat them back into their tents, in which action a great number of the Amazons were slain. At length, after four months, a peace was concluded between them by the mediation of Hippolyta (for so this historian calls the Amazon whom Theseus married, and not Antiope), though others write that she was slain with a dart by Molpadia, while fight- ing by Theseus's side, ind that the pillar which stands b}' the THESEUS. «J temple of Olympian Eartli was erected to her honor. Nor is it to be wondered at, that in events of such antiquity, history sliould be in disorder. For indeed we are also told that those of the Amazons that were wounded were privately sent away by Antiope to Chalcis, where many ky her care recov- ered, but some that died were buried there in the place that is to this time called Amazoniuin. That this war, however, was ended by a treaty is evident, both from the name of the place adjoining to the temple of Theseus, called, from tiie solemn oath there taken. Horcomosium ; .ind also from the ancient sacrifice which used to be celebrated to the Amazons the day before the Feast of Theseus. 'J'he Megarians also show a spot in their city wliere some Amazons were buried, on the way from the market to a place called Rhus, where the building in the shape of a lozenge stands. It is said, likewise, that others of them were slain near Chceronea, and buried near the little ri\ulet formerly called Thermodon, but now Hjemon, of which an account is given in the life of Demosthenes. It appears further that the passage of the Amazons through Thessaly was not without opposition, for there are yet shown many tombs of them near Scolussa and Cynoscephalae. This is as much as is worth telling concerning the Amazons. For the account which the author of the poem called the Theseid gives of this rising of the Amazoiis, how Antioj^e, to revenge herself upon Theseus for refusing her and marrying Phaedra, came down upon the city with her train of Amazons, whom Hercules slew, is manifestly nothing else but fable and invention. It is true, indeed, that Theseus married J'haidra, but that was after the death of Antiope, by whom he had a son called Hippolytus, or, as Pindra writes, Demophon. The calamities which befel Phaedra and this son, since none of the historians have contradicted the tragic poets that have written of them, we must suppose happened as represented uniformly by them. There are also other traditions of the marriages of TheseuSj neither honorable in their occasions nor fortunate in their events, which yet were never represented in the Greek jjlays For he is said to have carried off Anaxo, a Troezenian, and having slain Sinnis and Cercyon, to have ravished theii daughters ; to have married Periboea, the mother of Ajax, and then Phereboea, and then lope, the daughter of Iphicles. And further, he is accused of deserting Ariadne (as is before related), being in love with ^gle, the daughter of Panopeus^ / «8 THESEUS. neither justly nor honorably ; and lastly, of the rape of Helen, which filled all Attica with v/ar and blood, and was in the end the occasion of his banishment and death, as will presently be related. Herodorus is of op;nion, that though there were many famous expeditions undertaken by the bravest men of his time, yet Theseus never joined in any of them, once onl) ex- cepted, with the Lapithae, in their war against the Centaurs ; but others say that he accompanied Jason to Colchis ami Meleager to the slaying of the Calydonian boar, and that hence it came to be a proverb, N'ot without Theseus ; that he himself, however, vv'ithout aid of any one, performed many glorious exploits, and that from him began the saying, He is a second Hercules. He also joined Adrastus in recovering the bodies of those that were slain before Thebes, but not as Euripides in his tragedy says, by force of arms, but by per- suasion and mutual agreement and composition, for so the greater part of the historians write ; Philochorus adds further that this was the first treaty that ever was made for the re- covering the bodies of the dead, but in the history of Hercules, it is shown that it was he who first gave leave to his enemies to carry off their slain. The burying-places of the most part are yet to be seen in the village called Eleutherae ; those of the commanders, at Eleusis, where Theseus allotted them a place, to oblige Adrastus. The story of Euripides in his Suppliants is disproved by ^schylus in his Eleusinians, where Theseus himself relates the facts as here told. The celebrated friendship between Theseus and Pirithoiis is said to have been thus begun : the fame of the strength and valor of Theseus being spread through Greece, Pirithoiis v/as desirous to make a trial and proof of it himself, and to this end seized a herd of oxen which belonged to Theseus, and was driving them away from Marathon, and, when the news was brought that Theseus pursued him in arms, he did not fly, but turned back and went to meet him. But as soon they had viewed one another, each so admired the gracefulness and beauty, and was seized with such respect for the courage of the other, that they forgot all thoughts of fighting ; and Pirithoiis, first stretching out his hand to Theseus, bade him be judge in this case himself, and promised to submit willingly to any penalty he should impose. But Theseus not only for- gave him all, but entreated him to be his friend and brother in arms ; and they ratified their friendship by oaths. Aftei mis Pirithoiis married Deidamia, and invited Theseus to thu THESEUS. 39 wedding, entreating him to come and see his country, and make acquaintance with the Lapithae; he had at the same time mvited the Centaurs to the feast, who growing hot witii wine and beginning to be insolent and wild, and offering violence to the women, the Lapithc'e took immediate revenge upon them, slaying many of them upon the place, and afterwards, having overcome them in battle, drove the whole race of them out of their country, Theseus all along taking their part and fighting on their side. But Herodorus gives a different relation of these things; that Theseus came not to the assistance of the Lapithae till the war was already begun ; and that it was in this journey that he had the first sight of Hercules, having made it his business to find him out at Trachis, where he had chosen to rest himself after all his wanderings and his labors ; and that this interview was honorably performed on each part, with extreme respect, and good-will, and admiration of each other. Yet it is more credible, as others write, that there were, before, frequent interviews between them, and that it was by the means of Theseus that Hercules was initiated at Eleusis, and purified before initiation, upon ac- count of several rash actions of his former life. Theseus was now fifty years old, as Hellanicus states, when he carried off Helen, who was yet too young to be married. Some writers, to take away this accusation of one of the greatest crimes, laid to his charge, say, that he did not steal away Helen himself, but that Idas and Lynceus were the ravishcrs, who brought her to him, and committed her to his charge, and that, therefore, he refused to restore her at the demand of Castor and Pollux; or, indeed, they say her own father, Tyndarus, had sent her to be kept by him, for fear of Enarophorus, the son of liippocoon, who would have carried her away by force when she was yet a child. But the most prob- able account, and that which has most witnesses on its side, is this; Theseus and Pirithoiis went both together to Sparta, and, having seized the young lady as she was dancing in the temple Diana Orthia, iied away with her. There were presently men sent in arms to pursue, but they followed no further than to Tegea; and Theseus and Pirithoiis, being now out o£ danger, having passed through Peloponnesus, made an agree- ment between themselves, that he to whom the lot should fall should have Helen to his wife, but should be obliged to assist in procuring another for his friend. The lot fell upon The seus. who conveyed her to Aphidnae, not being yet marriage^ able, and delivered her to one of his allies, called Aphidnus, JO THESEUS. and, having sent bis mother, -.'?2thra after to take care of her desired him to keep them so secretly, that none might know where they were ; which done, to return the same service to his friend Pirithoiis he accompanied him in his journey to Epirus, in order to steal away the king of the Molossians' daughter. The king, his own name being Aidoneus, or Pluto, called his wife Proserpina, and his daughther Cora, and a great dog, which he kept, Cerberus, with whom he ordered all that came as suitors to his daughter to fight, and promised her to him that should overcome the beast. But having been informed that the design of Pirithoiis and his companion was not to court his daughter, but to force her away, he caused tlicm both to be seized, and threw Pirithoiis to be torn in pieces by his dog, and put Theseus into prison, and kept him. About this time, Menestheus, the son of Peteus, grand- son of Orneus, and great-grandson to Erechtheus, the first man that is recorded to have affected popularity and ingrati- ated himself with the multitude, stirred up and exasperated tlie most eminent men of the city, who had long borne a secret grudge to Theseus, conceiving that he had robbed them of their several little kingdoms and lordships, and having pent them all up in one city, was using them as his subjects and slaves. Pie put also the meaner people into commotion, telling them, that, deluded with a mere dream of liberty, though indeed they were deprived of both of that and of their proper homes and religious usages, instead of many good and gracious kings of their own, they had given them- selves up to be lorded over by a new-comer and a stranger. Whilst he was thus busied in infecting the minds of the citizens, the war that Castor and Pollux brought against Athens came very opportunely to further the sedition he had been promoting, and some say that by his persuasions was 'WJioUy the cause of their invading the city. At theii first approach, they committed no acts of hostility, but peaceably demanded their sister Helen ; but the Athenians returning answer that they neither had her there nor knew where she was disposed of, they prepared to assault the city, when Academus, having by whatever means, found it out, disclosed to them that she was secretly kept at Aphidnae. For which reason he was both highly honored during his life by Castor and Pollux, and the Lacednemonians, when often in aftertimes they made incursions into Attica, and destroyed all the coun- try round about, spared the Academy for the sake of Acade THESEUS. 31 mus. But Dicriearchus writes that there were two Arcadians in the army of Castor and Pollux, the one called Echedemus, and the other Marathus ; from the first that which is now called Academia was then named Echedemia, and the village Marathon had its name from the other, who, to fulfil some oracle, voluntarily offered himself to be made a sacrifice be- fore battle. As soon as they were arrived at Aphidnae, they overcame their enemies in a set battle, and then assaulted and look 'he town. And here, they say, Alycus, the son of Sciron, was 5>iain, of the party of the Dioscuri (Castor and PolluxX from whom a place in Megara, where he was buried, is called Alycus to this day. And Hereas writes that it was Theseus himself that killed him, in witness of which he cites these verses concerning Alycus, And Alycus upon Aphidnae's plain, By Theseus in the cause of Helen slain. Though it is not at all probable that Theseus himself was there when both the city and his mother were taken. Aphidnae being won by Castor and Pollux, and the city of Athens being in consternation, Menestheus persuaded the people to open their gates, and receive them with all manner of friendship, for they were, he told them, at enmity with none but Theseus, who had first injured them, and were benefac- tors and saviors to all mankind beside. And their behavior gave credit to those promises ; for, having made themselves absolute masters of the place, they demanded no more than to be initiated, since they were as nearly related to the city as Hercules was, who had received, the same honor. This their desire they easily obtained, and were adopted by Aphidnus, as Hercules had been by Pylius. They were honored also like gods, and were called by a new name, Anaces, either from the cessation of the war, or from the care they took that none should suffer any injury, though there was so great an army «-'thin the walls ; for the phrase anakos ekhein is used oi thDS3 who look to or care for any thing ; kings for this reason, perhaps, are called anactes. Others say, that from tne ap- pearance of their star in the heavens, they were thus called, for in the Attic dialect this name comes very near the words that signify above. Some say that /Ethra, Theseus's mother, was here taken prisoner, and carried to Lacedaemon, and from thence went away with Helen to Troy, alleging this verse of Homer, to prove that she waited upon Helen, 32 THESEUS. y*;thra of Pittheus born, and large-eyed Clymene. Others reject this verse as none of Homer's, as they do like- wise the whole fable of Munychus, who, the story says, was the son of Demophon and Laodice, born secretly, and brought up by yEthra at Tro3\ But Ister, in the thirteenth book of his A.ttic History, gives us an account of ^thra, different yet fron- all (he rest : that Achilles and Patroclus overcame Paris in Thessaly, near the river Sperchius, but that Hector took and plundered the city of the Troezenians, and made ^thra prisoner there. But this seems a groundless tale. Now Hercules, passing by the Molossians, was entertained in his way by Aidoneus the king, who, in conversation, acci- dentally spoke of the journey of Theseus and Pirithous into his country, of what they had designed to do, and what they were forced to suffer. Hercules was much grieved for the inglori- ous death of the one and the miserable condition of the other. As for Pirithous, he thought it useless to complain ; but begged to have Theseus released for his sake, and obtained that favor from the king. Theseus, being thus set at liberty, returned to Athens, where his friends were not yet wholly suppressed, and dedicated to Hercules all the sacred places which the city had set apart for himself, changing their names from Thesea to Heraclea, four only excepted, as Philocho- rus writes. And wishing immediately to resume the first place in the commonwealth, and manage the state as before, he soon found himself involved in factions and troubles ; those who long had hated him had now added to their hatred contempt ; and the minds of the people were so gener- ally corrupted, that, instead of obeying commands with silence, they expected to be flattered into their duty. He had some thoughts to have reduced them by force, but was overpowered by demagogues and factions. And at last, de- spairing of any good success of his affairs in Athens, he sent away his children privately to Eubcea, commending them to the care of Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon ; and he himself having solemnly cursed the people of Athens in the village of Gargettus, in which there yet remains the place called Ara- teiion, or the place of cursing, sailed to Scyros, where he had lands left him by his father, and friendship, as he thought, with those of the island. Lycomedes was then king of Scyros. The- seus, therefore, addressed himself to him and desired to have his lands put into his possession, as designing to settle and to dwell there, though others say that he came to beg his assist THESEUS. 33 ance against the Athenians. But Lycomedos, either jealous of the glory of so great a man, or to gratify Menestheus, having led him up to the highest cliff of the island, on pre- tence of showing him from thence the lands that he desired, threw him headlong down from the rock, and killeii h[m. Others say he fell down of himself by a slip of his foot, as he was walking there, according to his custom, after supper. At that time there was no notice taken, nor were any concerned for liis death, but Menestheus quietly possessed the kingdom of Athens. His sons were brought up in a private condition, and accompanied Elephenor to the Trojan war, but, after the decease of Menestheus in that expedition, returned to Athens, and recovered the government. But in succeeding ages, besides several other circumstances that moved the Athenians to honor Theseus as a demigod, in the battle which was fought at Marathon against the Medes, many of the soldiers believed they saw an apparition of Theseus in arms, rushing on at the head of them against the barbarians. And after the Median war, Phaedo being archon of Athens, the Athe- nians, consulting the oracle at Delphi, were commanded to gather together the bones of Theseus, and, laying them in some honorable place, keep them as sacred in the city. But it was very difficult to recover these relics, or so much as to Ind out the place where they lay, on account of the inhospit- able and savage temper of the barbarous people that inhabit- ed the island. Nevertheless, afterwards, when Cimon took the island (as is related in his life), and had a great ambition to find out the place where Theseus was buried, he, by chance, spied an eagle upon a rising ground pecking with her beak and tearing up the earth with her talons, when on the sudden it came into his mind, as it were by some divine inspiration, to dig there, and search for the bones of Theseus. There were found in that place a coffin of a man of more than ordi- nary size, and a brazen spear-head, and a sword lying by it, all which he took aboard his galley and brought with him to Athens. Upon which the Athenians, greatly delighted, went out to meet and receive the relics with splendid processions and sacrifices, as if it were Theseus himself returning alive to the city. He lies interred in the middle of the city, near the present gymnasium. His tomb is a sarctuary and refuge for slaves, and all those of mean condition that fly from the per- secution of men in power, in memory that Theseus while he lived was an assister and protector of the distressed, and never refused the petitions of the afflicted that fled to hinv 3 34 ROMULUS. The chief and most solemn sacrifice which they celebrate to him is kept on the eighth day of Pyanepsion, on which l;e re- turned with the Athenian young men from Crete. Bes'.des which they sacrifice to him on the eightli day of every month, either because he returned from Trcezen the eighth day of Hecatombaeon, as Diodorus tiie geographer writes, or else thinking that number to be proper to him, because he was re puted to be born of Neptune, because they sacrifice to Nep tune on the eighth day of every month. The number eigh", being the first cube of an even number, and the double of the first square, seemed to be an emblem of the steadfast and im movable power of this god, who from thence has the names «)f Asphalius and Gaeiochus, that is, the establisher and stayei of the earth. ROMULUS. From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great in glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called, authors do not agree. Some are of opinion that the Pelasgians, wanderi n.g over the greater part of the habitable world, and subduing numerous nations, fixed them- selves here, and, from their own great strength in war, called the city Rome. Others, that at the taking of Troy, some few that escaped and met with shipping, put to sea, and, driven by winds, were carried upon the coasts of Tuscany, and came to anchor off the mouth of the river Tiber, where their womei), out of heart and weary with the sea, on its being proposed by one of the highest birth and best vmderstanding amongsf them, whose name was Roma, burnt the ships. With which act the men at first were angry, but afterwards, of necessity, seating themselves near Palatium, where things in a short while succeeded far better than they could hope, in that they found the country very good, and the people courteous, they not only did the lady Roma other honors, but added also this, of calling after her name the city which she had been the occasion of their founding. From this, they say, has come down that custom at Rome for women to salute their kinsmen and husbands with kisses ; because these women, after they had burnt the ships, made use of such endearments when en treating and pacifying their husbands. ROMULUS. 35 Some again say that Roma, from whom this city was sc called, was daughter of Italus and Leucaria ; or, by another account, of Telaphus, Hercules's son, and that she was mar- ried to yEneas, or, according to others again, to Ascnnius, .^neas's son. Some tell us that Romanus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, built it ; some, Romus, the son of Emathion, Diomede, having sent him from Troy ; and others, Romus, king of the Latins, after driving out the Tyrrhenians, wlio had come from Thessaly into Lydia, and from thence into Italy. Those verj'' authors, too, who, in accordance with the safest account, make Romulus give the name of the city, yet differ concerning his birth and family. For some say, he was son to yEneas and Dexithea, daughter of PJiorbas, and was, with his brother Remus, in their infancy, carried into Italy, and being on the river when the waters came down in a flood, all the vessels were cast away except only that where the young children were, which being gently landed on a level bank of the river, they were both unexpectedly saved, and from them the place was called Rome. Some say, Roma, daughter of the Trojan lady above mentioned, was married to Latinus, Telemachus's son, and became mother to Romulus ; others, that ^Emilia, daughter of yEneas and Lavinia, had him by the god Mars ; and others give you mere fables of his origin. For to Tarchetius, they sa}^, king of Alba, who was a most wicked and cruel man, there appeared in his own house a strange vision, a male figure that rose out of a hearth, and stayed there for many days. There was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany which Tarchetius consulted, and received an an- swer that a virgin should give herself to the apparition, and that a son should be born of her, highly renowned, eminent for valor, good fortune, and strength of body. Tarchetius told the prophecy to one of his own daughters, and command- ed her to do this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity, sent her handmaid. Tarchetius, hearing this, in great angei imprisoned them both, purposing to put them to death • but being deterred from murder by the goddess Vesta in a dream, enjoined them for their punishment the working a web of cloth. in their chains as they were, which when they finished, they should be suffered to marry ; but whatever they worked by day, Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night. In the mean time, the waiting-woman was delivered of two boys, whom Tarchetius gave into the hands of one Teratius, with command to destroy them ; he, however, carried and laid them by the river side, where a wolf camft and contiaued 36 ROMULUS to suckle th'-ti, while birds of various sorts brought little morsels of lood, wliich they put into their mouths ; till a cow- herd, spying them, was first strangely surprised, but, venturing to draw nearer, took the children up in his arms. Thus the ,,; were saved, and when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and overcaine him. This one Promaihion says, who compiled a history of Italy. But the story which is most believed and has the greatest number of vouchers was first published, in hi chief particu- lars, amongst the Greeks by Diodes of Peparethus, whom Fabius Pictor also follows in most points. Here again there are variations, but in general outline it runs thus: the kings of Alba reigned in lineal descent from yEneas, and the suc- cession devolved at length upon two brothers, Numitor and Amulius. Amulius proposed to divide things into two equal shares, and set as equivalent to the kingdom the treasure and gold that were brought from Troy. Numitor chose the king- dom ; but Amulius, having the money, and being able to do more with that than Numitor, took his kingdom from him with great ease, and, fearing lest his daughter might have children, made her a Vestal, bound in that condition forever to live a single and maiden life. This lady some call Ilia, others Rhea, and others Silvia ; however, not long after, she was, contrary to the established laws of the Vestals, discover- ed to be with child, and should have suffered the most cruel punishment, had not Antho, the king's daughter, mediated with her father for her ; nevertheless, she was confined, and debarred all company, that she might not be delivered with- out the king's knowledge. In time she brought forth two boys, of more than human size and beauty, whom Amulius, becoming yet more alarmed, commanded a servant to take and cast away ; this man some call Faustulus, others say Fau- stulus was the man who brought them up. He put the chil- dren, however, in a small trough, and went towards the river with a design to cast them in ; but, seeing the waters much swollen and coming violently down, was afraid to go nearer, and dropping the children near the bank, went away. The river overflowing, the flood at last bore up the trough, anrl, gently wafting it, landed them on a smooth piece of ground, which they now called Cermanus, formerly Germanus, per- haps from Germani, which signifies brothers. Near this place grew a wild fig-tree, which they called Ruminalis, either from Romulus (as it is vulgarly thought), or from ruminating, because cattle did usually in the heat o^ ROMULUS. 3) the day seek cover under it, and ihere chew the cud ; or, better, from the suckling of these children there, for the an cients called the dug or teat of any cxe^twre. rufiia ; and there is a tutelar goddess of the rearing of children whom the3'still cal' Rumilia, in sacrificing to whom they use no wine, but make libations of milk. While the infants lay here, history tells us, a she-wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker constant- ly fed and watched them ; these creatures are esteemed holy to the god Mars : the wood|:iccker the Latins still especially worship and honor. Which things, as much as any, gave credit to what the mother of the children said, that their father was the god Mars ; though some say that it was a mis- take put upon her by Amulius, who himself had come to her dressed up in armor. Others think that the first rise of this fable came from the children's nurse, through the ambiguity of her name ; for the Latins not only called wolves liipce, but also women of loose life ; and such an one was the wife of Faustulus, who nurtured these children, Acca Larentia by name. To her the Romans offer sacrifices, and in the month of April the priest of Mars makes libations there ; it is called the Larentian Feast. They honor also another Larentia, for the following reason: the keeper of Hercules's temple having, it seems, little else to do, proposed to his deity a game at dice, laying down that, if he himself won, he would have something valuable of the god ; but if he were beaten, he would spread him a noble table, and procure him a fair lady's company. Upon these terms., throwing first for the god and then for himself, he found him- self beaten. Wishing to pay his stakes honorably, and hold- ing himself bound by what he had said, he both provided the deity a good supper, and giving money to Larentia, then in her beauty, though not publicly known, gave her a feast ia the temple, where he had also laid a bed, and after supper locked her in, as if the god were really to come to her. And indeed, it is said, the deity did truly visit her, and comrjand- ed her in the morning to walk to the market-place, and, what- ever man she met first, to salute him, and make him hei iriend. She met one named Tarrutius, who was a man ad- vanced in years, fairly rich, without children, and had always lived a single life. He received Larentia, and loved he! well, and at his death left her sole heir of all his large and fair possessions, most of which she, in her last will and tes- tament, bequeathed to the people. It was reported of her, being now celebrated and esteemed the mistress of a god, 38 ROMULUS. that she suddenly disappeared near the place where the firsi Larentia lay buried ; the spot is at this day called Velabrum, because, the river frequently overflowing, they went over in ferry-boats somewhere hereabouts to the forum, the Latin word for ferrying being velatura. Others derive the name from velum, a sail ; because the exhibitors of public shows used to hang the road that leads from the forum to the Circus Maxi- mus with sails, beginning at this spot. Upon these accounts the second Larentia is honored at i<.ome. Meantime Faustulus, Amulius's swineherd, brought up the children without any man's knowledge ; or, as those say who wish to keep closer to probabilities, with the knowledge and secret assistance of Numitor ; for it is said, they went to school at Gabii, and were well instructed in letters, and other accomplishments befitting their birth. And they were called Romulus and Remus, (from rufna, the dug,) as we had before, because they were found sucking the wolf. In their very in- fancy, the size and beauty of their bodies intimated their nat- ural superiority ; and when they grew up, they both proved brave and manly, attempting all enterprises that seemed haz- ardous, and showing in them a courage altogether undaunted. But Romulus seemed rather to act by counsel, and to show the sagacity of a statesmen, and in all his dealings with their neighbors, whether relating to feeding of flocks or to hunting, gave the idea of being born rather to rule than to obey. To their comrades and inferiors they were therefore dear ; but tlie king's servants, his bailiffs and overseers, as being in nothing better men than themselves, they despised and slighted, nor were the least concerned at their commands and menaces. They used honest pastimes and liberal studies, not esteeming sloth and idleness honest and liberal, but rather such exercises as hunting and running, repelling robbers, taking of thieves, and delivering the wronged and oppressed from injury. For doing such things they became famous. A quarrel occurring betwixt Numitor's and Amulius's cow- herds, the latter, not enduring the driving away of theii cattle by the others, fell upon them and put them to flight, and res- cued the greatest part of the prey. At which Numitor being highly incensed, they little regarded it, but collected and took into their company a number of needy men and runaway slaves, — acts which looked like the first stages of rebellion. It so happened, that when Romulus was attending a sacrifice, being fond of sacred rites and divination, Numitor's Jierds- men, meeting with Rernus on a journey wjfh few companions^ ROMULUS. 39 fer. upon him, and after some '^ghting, took him prisoner, caified him before Numitor, and there accused him. Numi- tor would not punish him liimself, fearing his brother's anger, but went to Amulius, and desired justice, as he was Amulius's brother and was affronted by Amulius's servants. The men of Alba likewise resenting the thing, and ihlnking he )iad been dishonorab'y used, Amulius was induced to deliver Remus up into Numitor's hands, to use him as he thought fit He therefore took and carried him home, and, being struck with admiration of the youth's person, in statui e and strength of body exceeding all men, and perceiving in his ver)' coun- tenance the courage and force of his mind, which stood un- subdued and unmoved by his present circumstances, and hearing furtlier that all the enterprises and actions of his life were answerable to what he saw of him, but chiefly, as it seemed, a divine influence aiding and directing the first steps that were to lead to great results, out of the mere thought of his mind, and casually, as it were, he put his hand upon the fact, and, in gentle terms and with a kind aspect, to inspire him with confidence and liope, asked him who he was, and whence he was derived. He, taking heart, spoke thus : " I will hide nothing from you, for you seem to be of a more princely temper than Amulius, in that you give a hearing and examine before you punish, while he condemns before the cause is heard. Formerl)'^, then, we (for we are twins) thought ourselves the sons of Faustulus and Larentia, the king's ser- vants ; but since we have been accused and aspersed with calumnies, and brought in peril of our lives here before you, we hear great things of ourselves, the truth of which my pres- ent danger is likely to bring to the test. Our birth is said to have been secret, our fostering and nurture in our infancy still more strange ; by birds and beasts, to whom we were cast out, we were fed, by the milk of a wolf, and the morsels of a woodpecker, as we lay in a little trough by the side of the river. The trough is still in being, and is preserved, with brass plates round it, and an inscription in letters almost ef faced, which may prove hereafter unavailing tokens to out parents when we are dead and gone." Numitor, upon these words, and computing the dates by the 3'oung man's look.s, Blighted not the hope that flattered him, but considered how to come at his daughter privately (for she was still kept under restraint), to talk with her concerning these matters. Faustulus, hearing Remus was taken and delivered up, called on Romulus to assist in his rescue, informing him then i\0 ROMULUS. plainly of the particulars of his birth, not but he liad before given hints of it, and told as much as an attentive man might make no small conclusions from ; he himself, full of concert, and fear of not coming in time, took the trough, and ran in- stantly to Numitor ; but giving a suspicion to some of the king's sentry at his gate, and being gazed upon by them and perplexed with their questions, he let it be seen that he was hiding the trough under his cloak. By chance there was one among them who was at the exposing of the chlldrcp., and was one employed in the office ; he, seeing the trough and knowing it by its make and inscription, guessed it the busi- ness, and, without further delay, telling the king of it, bi ought in the man to be examined. Faustulus, hard beset, did not show himself altogether proof against terror ; nor yet was he wholly forced out of all ; confessed indeed the children were alive, but lived, he said, as shepherds, a great way from Alba ; he himself was going to carry the trough to Ilia, who had often greatly desired to see and handle it, for a confirmatior of her hopes of her children. As men generally do who are troubled in mind and act either in fear or passion, it so fell out Amulius now did ; for he sent in haste as a messenger, a man, otherwise honest, and friendly to Numitor, with com- mands to learn from Numitor whether any tidings were come to him of the children's being alive. He, coming and seeing how little Remus wanted of being received into the arms i.nd embraces of Numitor, both gave him surer confidence in his hope, and advised them, with all expedition, to proceed to action ; himself too joining and assisting them, and indeed, had they wished it, the time would not have let them demur. For Romulus was now come very near, and many of the citi- zens, out of fear and hatred of Amulius, were running out to join him ; besides, he brought great forces with him, divided into companies each of an hundred men, every captain carrying a small bundle of grass and shrubs tied to a pole. The Latins call such bundles ma7upiili, and from hence it ii that in their armies still they call their captains manipulares. Remus rousing the citizens within to revolt, and Romulus making attacks from without, the tyrant, not knowing either what to do, or what expedient to think of for his security, in this perplexity and confusion was taken and put to death. This narrative for the most part given by Fabius and Dioclea of Peparethus, who seem to be the earliest historians of the foundation of Rome, is suspected by some, because of it3 dramatic and fictitious appearance ; bu'. 't would not whcllv ROMULUS. 4T DC disbelieved, if men would remember what a poet fortune sometimes shows herself, and consider tha: the Roman power would hardly have reached so high a pitch without a divinely ordered origin, attended with great and extraordinary circumstances. Amulius now being dead and matters quietly disposed, tie two brothers would neither dwell in Alba without governing ihere, nor take the government into their own hands during the life of their grandfather. Having therefore delivered the dominion up into his hands, and paid their mother befitting honor, they resolved to live by themselves, and build a city in the same place where they were in their infancy brought up. This seems the most honorable reason for their depart- ure ; though perhaps it was necessary, having such a body of slaves and fugitives collected about them, either to come to nothing by dispersing them, or if not so, then to live with them elsewhere. For that the inhabitants of Alba did not think fugitives worthy of being received and incorporated as citizens among them plainly appears from the matter of the women, an attempt made not wantonly but of necessity, be- cause they could not get wives by good-will. For they cer- tainly paid unusual respect and honor to those whom they thus forcibly seized. Not long after the first foundation of the city, they opened a sanctuary of refuge for all fugitives, which they called the temple of the god Asylceus, where they received and protected all, delivering none back, neither the servant to his master, the debtor to his creditor, nor the murderer into the hands of the magistrate, saying it was a privileged place, and they could so maintain it by an order of the holy oracle ; insomuch that the city grew presently very populous, for they say, it con- sisted at first of no more than a thousand houses. But of that hereafter. Their minds being full bent upon building, there arose presently a difference about the place where. Romulus chose what was called Roma Quadrata, or the Square Rome, and siould have the city there. Remus laid out a piece of ground on the Aventine Mount, well fortified by nature, which was fi om him called Remonium, but now Rignarium. Concluding at last to decide the contest by a divination from a flight of birds, and placing themselves apart at some distance. Remus, they say, saw six vultures, and Romulus double that number j others say, Remus did truly see his number, and that Romulus feigned his, but v/hen Remus came to him, that then he did, 42 ROMULUS. inilfced, see twelve. Hence it is that the Romans, in theii divinations from birds, chiefly re<2:ard the vulture, though Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules was always very joyful when a vulture appeared to him upon any action. For it is n creature the least hurtful of any, pernicious neither to corn, fruit-tree, nor cattle ; it preys only upon carrion, and never kills or hurts any living; thing ; and as for birds, it touches not ihem, though they are dead, as being of its own species, whereas eagles, owls, and hawks mangle and kill their own fcllovv-creatures ; yet, as yEschylus says, — What bird is clean that preys on fellow bird ? Besides, all other birds are, so to say, never out of our eyes ; they let themselves be seen of us continually ; but a vultuie is a very rare sight, and you can seldom meet with a man that has seen their young ; their rarity and infrequency has raised a strange opinion in some, that they come to us from some other world ; as soothsayers ascribe a divine origination to all things not produced either of nature or of themselves. When Remus knew the cheat, he was much displeased ; and as Romulus was casting up a ditch, where he designed the foundation of the city-wall, he turned some p?eces of the work to ridicule, and obstructed others ; at last, as he was in con- tempt leaping over it, some say Romulus himself struck him, others Celer, one of his companions ; he fell, however, and in the scuffle Faustulus also was slain, and Plistinus, who, being Faustulus'? brother, story tells us, helped to bring up Romulus. Celer upon this fled instantly into Tuscany, and from him the Romans call all men that are swift of feet Celeres ; and because Quintus Metellus, at his father's funeral, in a few days' time gave the people a show of gladiators, admiring his expe- dition in getting it ready, they gave him the name of Celer, Romulus, having buried his brother Rernus, together with his two foster-fathers, on the mount Remonia, set to building his city ; and sent for men out of Tuscany, who directed him by sacred usages and written rules in all the ceremonies to be observed, as in a religious rite. First, they dug a round trench about that which is now the Comitium, or Court of Assembly, and into it solemnly threw the first-fruits of all things either good by custom or necessary by nature; lastly, every man taking a small piece of earth of the country from whence he came, they all threw in promiscuously together. This trench they call, as they do the heavens, Mundus ; male ing which their centre, they described the city in a ciicle rounu ROMULUS. 43 it Then the founder fitted to a plough a brazen ploughshare, a d, yoking together a bull and a cow, drove himself a deep line or furrow round the bounds ; while the business of those that followed after was to see that whatever earth was thrown up should be turned all inwards towards the city ; and not to l<;t any clod lie outside. With this line they described the Rail, and called it, by a contraction, Pomoerium, that is, post •nuruni, after or beside the wall ; and where they designed to inak? a gate, there they took out the share, carried the plough over, and left a space ; for which reason they consider the whole wall as holy, except where the gates are ; for had they adjudged them also sacred, they could not, without offence to religion, have given free ingress and egress for the necessaries of human life, some of which are in themselves unclean. As for the clay they began to build the city, it is universally agreed to have been the twenty-first of April, and that day the Romans annually keep holy, calling it their country's birth- day. At first, they say, they sacrificed no living creature on this day, thinking it fit to preserve the least of their country's birth-day pure and without stain of blood. Yet before ever the city was built, there was a feast of herdsmen and shep- herds kept on this day, which went by the name of Palilia. The Roman and Greek months have now little or no agree- ment ; they say, however, the day on which Romulus began to build was quite certainly the thirtieth of the month, at which time there was an eclipse of the sun which they conceived to be that seen by Antimachus, the Teian poet, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad. In the times of Varro the philosopher, a man deeply read in Roman history, lived one Tarrutius, his familiar acquaintance, a good philosopher and mathematician, and one, too, that out of curiosity had studied the way of drawing schemes and tables, and was thought to be a proficient in the art ; to him Varro propounded to cast Romulus's na- \\\ ty, even to the first day and hour, making his deductions from the several events of the man's life which he should be i))(ormed of, exactly as in working back a geometrical prob- !en) ; for it belonged, he said, to the same science both to foretell a man's life by knowing the time of his birth, and also to find out his birth by the knowledge of his life. This task Tarrutius undertook, and first looking into the actions and casualties of the man, together with the time of his life and manner of his death, and then comparing all these remarks together, he very confidently and positively pronounced that Romulus was conceived in his mother's womb the first year 44 ROMULUS. of the second Olympiad, the twenty-third day of the month the ^Egyptians call Choeac, and the third hour after sunset, at which time there was a total eclipse of the sun ; that 'e was born the twenty-first day of the month Tholh, about sun- rising ; and that the first stone of Rome was laid by him the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, between the second and third hour. For the fortunes of cities as well as of men, Ihey think, have their certain periods of time prefixed, which may be collected and foreknown from the position of the stars at their first foundation. But these and the like relations may perhaps not so much take and delight the reader with their novelty and curiosity, as offend him by their extravagance. The city now being built, Romulus enlisted all that were of age to bear arms into military companies, each company consisting of three thousand footmen and three hundred horse. These companies were called legions, because they were the choicest and most select of the people for fighting men. The rest of the multitude he called the people ; an hundred of the most eminent he chose for counsellors ; these he styled patri- cians, and their assembly the senate, which signifies a council of elders. The patricians, some say, were so called because they were the fathers of lawful children ; others, because they could give a good account who their own fathers were, which not every one of the rabble that poured into the city at first could do ; others, from patronage, their word for protection of inferiors, the origin of which they attribute to Patron, one o^ those that came over with Evander, who was a great protector and defender of the weak and needy. But perhaps the most probable judgment might be, that Romulus, esteeming it the duty of the chiefest and wealthiest men, with a fatherly care and concern to look after the meaner, and also encouraging the commonalty not to dread or be aggrieved at the honors of their superiors, but to love and respect them, and to think and call them their fathers, might from hence give them the name of patricians. For at this very time all foreigners give sena- tors the style of lords ; but the Romans, making use of a mere honorable and less invidious name, call them Patres Con- scripti ; at first indeed, simply Patres, but afterwards, more being added, Patres Conscripti. By this more imposing title he distinguished the senate from the populace ; and in other ways also separated the nobles and the commons, — calling them patrons, and these their clients, — by which means he created wonderful love and amity betwixt them, productive ol great justice in their dealings. For they were always their ROMULUS. 45 client's counsellors in law cases, their advocates in com ts of justice, in fine their advisers and supporters in all affairs what- ever. These again faithfully served their patrons, not only paying them all respect and deference, but also, in case of poverty, helping them to portion their daughters and pay off their debts ; and for a patron to witness against his client, or ^ client against his patron, was what no law nor magistrate could enforce. In after-times, all other duties subsisting stiJl between them, it was thought mean and dishonorable for the betler sort to take money from their inferiors. And so much of these matters. In the fourth month, after the city was built, as Fabius writes, the adventure of stealing the women was attempted ; and some say Romulus himself, being naturally a martial man, and predisposed too, perhaps by certain oracles, to believe the fates had ordained the future growth and greatness of Rome should depend upon the benefit of war, upon these ac- counts first offered violence to the Sabines, since he took away only thirty virgins, more to give an occasion of war than out of any want of women. But this is not very prob- able ; it would seem rather that, observing his city to be filled by a confluence of foreigners, few of whom had wives, and that the multitude in general, consisting of a mixture of mean and obscure men, fell under contempt, and seemed to be of no long continuance together, and hoping farther, after the women were appeased, to make this injury in some measure an occasion of confederacy and mutual commerce with the Sabines, he took in hand this exploit after this manner. First, he gave it out as if he had found an altar of a certain god hid under ground ; the god they called Consus, eithei the god of counsel (for they still call a consultation consi/ium, and their chief magistrates eonsules, namely, counsellors), or else the equestrian Neptune, for the altar is kept covered in the circus maximus at all other times, and only at horse-races is exposed to public view ; others merely say that this god had his altar hid under ground because counsel ought to be secret and concealed. Upon discovery of this altar, Rom ulus, by proclamation, appointed a day for a splendid sacrifice, and for public games and shows, to entertain all sorts of people : many flocked thither, and he himself sate in front, amidst his nobles, clad in purple. Now the signal for theit falling on was to be whenever he rose and gathered up his robe and threw it over his body ; his men stood all ready aimed, with their eyes intent upon him. and when the sign 46 ROMULUS. was given, drawing their swords and falling on with a great shout, they ravished away the daughters of the Sabines, they themselves flying without any let or hindrance. They say there were but thirty taken, and from them the Curite or Fraternities were named ; but Valerius Antias says five hun- dred and twenty-seven, juba, six hundred and eight}^-thr('e virgins : which was indeed the greatest excuse Romulus coul-j allege, namely, that they had taken no married woman, save one only, Hersilia by name, and her too unknowingly ; which showed that they did not commit this rape wantonly, but with a design purely of forming alliance with their neighbors by the greatest and surest bonds. This Hersilia some say Hostilius married, a most eminent man among the Romans : others, Romulus himself, and that she bore two children to him a daughter, by reason of primogeniture called Prima, and one only son, whom, from the great concourse of citizens to him at that time, he called Aollius, but after ages Abillius. But Zenodotus the Troezenian, in giving this account, is con- tradicted by many. Among those who committed this rape upon the virgins, there were, they say, as it so then happened, some of the meaner sort of men, who were carrying off a damsel, excelling all in beauty and comeliness and stature, whom when some of superior rank that met them attempted to take away, they cried out they were carrying her to Talasius, a. young man, indeed, but brave and worthy ; hearing that, they connnended and applauded them loudl)', and also some, turning back, accompanied them with good-will and pleasure, shouting out the name of Talasius. Hence the Romans to this very time, at their weddings, sing Talasius for their nuptial word, as the Greeks do Hymenaeus, because they say Talasius was very happy in his marriage. But Sextius Sylla the Carthaginian, a man wanting neither learning nor ingenuity, told me Rom- ulus gave this word as a sign when to begin the onset ; every- body, therefore, who made prize of a maiden, cried out, 'J'alasius ; and for that reason the custom continues so now a; marriages. But most are of opinion (of whom Juba par- ticularly is one) that this word was used to new-married women by way of incitement to good housewifery and talasia (spinning), as we say in Greek, Greek words at that time not being as yet overpowered by Italian. But if tliis be the case. and if the Romans did at time use the word talasia as we do, a man might fancy a more probable reason of the custom. For when the Sabines, after the war against the Romany ROMULUS 47 were reconciled, conditions were made concerning theii women, that they should be obliged to do no other servile offices to their husbands but what concerned spinning j it was customary, therefore, ever after, at weddings, for those that gave the bride or escorted her or otherwise were present, sportingly to say Talasius, intimating that she was henceforth to serve in spinning and no more. It continues also a custom at this very day for the bride not of herself to pass her hus- Sand's threshold, but to be lifted over, in memory that the Sabine virgins were carried in by violence, and did not go in of their own will. Some say, too, the custom of parting the bride's hair with the head of a spear was in token their mar- riages began at first by w-ar and acts of hostility, of which I fiave spoken more fully in my book of Questions. This rape was committed on the eighteenth day of the month Sextilis, now called August, on which the solemnities of the Consualia are kept. The Sabines were a numerous and martial people, but lived in small, unfortified villages, as it befitted, they thought, a colony of the Lacedaemonians to be bold and fearless ; nevertheless, seeing themselves bound by such hostages to their good behavior, and being solicitous for their daughters, they sent ambassadors to Romulus with fair and equitable requests, that he would return their young women and recall that act of violence, and afterwards, by persuasion and law- ful means, seek friendly correspondence between both nations. Romulus would not part with the young women, yet proposed to the Sabines to enter into an alliance with them ; upon which point some consulted and demurred long, but Acron, king of the Ceninenses, a man of high spirit and a good warrior, who had all along a jealousy of Romulus's bold attempts, and considering particularly from this exploit upon the women, that he was growing formidable to all people, and indeed in- sufferable, were he not chastised, first rose up in arms, and with a powerful army advanced against him. Romulus like- wise prepared to receive him ; but when they came v/ithin sight and viewed each other, they made a challenge to fight a single duel, the armies standing by under arms, without par- ticipation. Ard Romulus, making a vow to Jupiter, if he should conquer, to carry, himself, and dedicate his adversary's armor to his honor, overcame him in combat, and a battle ensuing, routed his army also, and then took his city ; but did those he found in it no injury, only commanded them to de- molish the place and attend him to Rome, tiiere fo be admitted 4? RO!.Ii;LUS. to all the privileges of citizens. And indeed there was no thing did more advance the greatness of Rome, than that she did always unite and incorporate those whom she conquered into herself. Romulus, that he might perform his vow in tht most acceptable manner to Jupiter, and withal make the pomp of it delightful to the eye of the city, cut down a tall oak which he saw growing in the camp, which he trimmed to the shape of a trophy, and fastened on it Acron's whole suit of Armor disposed in proper form ; then he himself, girding his Clothes about him, and crowning his head with a laurel gar- land, his hair gracefully flowing, carried the trophy resting erect upon his right shoulder, and so marched on, singing songs of triumph, and his whole army following after, the citizens all receiving him with acclamations of joy and wonder. The procession of this day was the origin and model of all after triumphs. This trophy was styled an offering to Jupiter Feretrius, from ferire, which in Latin is to smite ; for Rom- ulus prayed he might smite and overthrow his enemy; and the spoils were called opima, or royal spoils, says Varro, from their richness, which the word opes signifies ; though one would more probably conjecture from opus, an act ; for it is only to the general of an army who with his own hand kills his enemies' general that this honor is granted of offering the opima spolia. And three only of the Roman captains have had it conferred on them : first, Romulus, upon killing Acron the Ceninensian ; next, Cornelius Cossus, for slaying To- lumnius the Tuscan ; and lastly, Claudius Marcellus, upon his conquering Viridomarus, king of the Gauls. The two latter, Cossus and Marcellus, made their entries in triumphant chariots, bearing their trophies themselves ; but that Rom- ulus made use of a chariot, Dionysius is wrong in asserting. History says, Tarquinius, Damaratus's son, was the first that brought triumphs to this great pomp and grandeur ; others, that Publicola was the first that rode in triumph. The statues of Romulus in triumph are, as may be seen in Rome, all on foot. After the overthrow of the Ceninensians, the other Sa- bines still protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae, Crustumerium, and Antemna, joined their forcea against the RomarLS ; they in like manner were defeatefl -'n battle, and surrendered up to Romulus their cities to ^e seized, their lands and territories to be divided, and them- selves to be transplanted to Rome, All the lands which Romulus acquired, he d'stributed among the citizens, except only what the parents of the stolen virgins had ; thej-e he suf ROMULUS. 49 fered to possess their own. The rest of the Sabines, enraged hereat, choosing Tatius their captain, inarclied straight against Rome. The city was ahnost inaccessible, having for its fort- ress that which is now the Capitol, where a strong guard was placed, and Tarpeius their cnptain ; not Tarpeia the virgin, as some say who would make Romulus a fool. But Tarpeia, daughter to the captain, coveting the golden bracelets shs saw tliem wear, betrayed the fort into the Sabines' hands, and asked, in reward of her treacheiy, the things they wore on their left arms. Tatius conditioning thus with her, in the night she opened one of the gates, and received the Sabine.s in. And truly Antigonus, it would seem, was not solitary in saying, he loved betrayers, but hated those who had betrayed ; nor Caesar, who told Rhymitalces the Thracian, that he loved the treason, but hated the traitor ; but it is the general feel- ing of all who have occasion for wicked men's service, as people have for the poison of venomous beasts ; they are glad of them while they are of use, and abhor their baseness when it is over. And so then did Tatius behave towards Tarpeia, for he commanded the Sabines, in regard to their contract, not to refuse her the least part of what they wore on their left arms ; and he himself first took his bracelet off his arm, and threw that, together with his buckler, at her ; and all the rest following, she, being borne down and quite buried with the multitude of gold and their shields, died under the weight and pressure of them ; Tarpeius also himself, being prose- cuted by Romulus, was found guilty of treason, as Juba says Sulpicius Galba relates. Those who write otherwise con- cerning Tarpeia, as that she was the daughter of Tatius, the Sabine captain, and being forcibly detained by Romulus, acted and suffered thus by her father's contrivance, speak very absurdly, of whom Antigonus is one. And Simylus, the poet, who thinks Tarpeia betrayed the Capitol, not to the Sabines, but the Gauls, having fallen in love with their king, talks mere folly, saying thus : — Tarpeia 'twas, who, dwelling dose thereby, Laid open Rome unto the enemy, She, for the love of the besieging Gaul, Betrayed the city's strength, the Capitol. \nd a little after, speaking of her death :- The numerous nations of the Celtic foe Bore her not living to the banks of Po ; Their heavy shields upon the maid they threw, And with their splendid gifts entombed at once and slew J50 ROMULUS, Tarpeia afterwards was buried there, and the hi! from hei was called Tarpeius, until the reign of king 1 arquin, who dedicated the place to Jupiter, at which time her bones were removed, and so it lost her name, except only that part oi the Capitol which they still called the Tarpeian Rock, from which they used to cast down malefactors. The Sabines being possessed of the hill, Romulus, in great fury, bade them battle, and Tatius was confident to accept ilj perceiving, if they were overpowered, that they had behind them a secure retreat. The level in the middle, where they were to join battle, being surrounded with many little hilU, seemed to enforce both parties to a sharp and desperate con- flict, by reason of the difficulties of the place, which had but a few outlets, inconvenient either for refuge or pursuit. It happened, too, the river having overflowed not many days before, there was left behind in the plain, where now the forum stands, a deep blind mud and slime, which, though ii did not appear much to the eye, and was not easily avoided, at bottom was deceitful and dangerous ; upon which the Sabines being unwarily abottt to enter, met with a piece of good fortune ; for Curtius, a gallant man, eager of honor, and of aspiring thoughts, being mounted on horseback, was gal- loping on before the rest, and mired his horse here, awd, endeavoring for a while, by whip and spur and voice to dis- entangle liim, but finding it impossible, quitted hifti and saved himself ; the place from him to this very time iS called the Curtian Lake. The Sabines, having avoided this danger, began the fight very smartly, the fortune of the day being very dubious, though many were slain ; amongst whom was Hos- tilius, who, they say, was husband to He<-silia, and grand- father to that Hostilius who reigned after Numa, There were many other brief conflicts, we may suppose, but the most memorable was the last, in which Romulus having received a wound on his head by a stone, and being almost felled to tiie ground by it, and disabled, the Romans gave way, and, being driven out of the level ground, tied towards the Pala- tium. Romulus, by this time recoveiing from his wound a little, turned about to renew the battle, and, facing the fliers, with a loud voice encouraged them to stand and fight. But being overborne with numbers, ar^d nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, he prayed to Jupi- ter to stop the army, and not to neglect, but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for ^heir king checVed ROMULUS. 51 many ; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into confi dence. The place they fi< jt stood at was where now is the temple of Jupiter Stator (which maybe translated the Stayer); there they rallied again into ranks and repulsed the Sabines to the place called now Regia, and to the temple of Vesta ; where both parties, preparing to begin a second battle, were prevented by a spectacle, strange to behold, and defyirg description. For the daughters of the Sabines, who had been carried off, came running, in great confusion, some on this side, some on that, with miserable cries and lamentations, like creatures possessed, in the midst of the army and among the dead bodies, to come at their husbands and their fathers, some with their young babes in their arms, others their hair loose about their ears, but all calling, now upon the Sabines, now upon the Romans, in the most tender and endearing words. Hereupon both melted into compassion, and fell back, to make room for them betwixt the armies. The sight of the women carried sorrow and commiseration upon both sides into the hearts of all, but still more their words, which began with expostulation and upbraiding, and ended with entreaty and supplication. " Wherein," say they, " have we injured or offended you, as to deserve such sufferings past and present .'' We were ravished away unjustly and violently by those whose now we are ; that being done, we were so long neglected by our fathers, our brothers and countrymen, that time, having now by the strictest bonds united us to those we once mortally hated, has made it impossible for us not to tremble at the danger and weep at the death of the very men who once used violence to us. You did not come to vindicate our honor, while we were virgins, against our assailants ; but do come now to force away wives from their husbands and mothers from their children, a succor more grievous to its wretched objects than the former betrayal and neglect of them. Which shall we call the worst, their love-making or your com-> passion ? If you were making war upon any other occasionj. for our sakes you ought to withhold your hands from those to whom we have made you fathers-in-law and grandsires. If it be for our own cause, then take us, and with us your sons-in- law and grandchildren. Restore to us our parents an his arms, said to those about him, " Men of Sparta, here is s king born unto us;" this said, he laid him down in the king's place, and named him Charilaus, that is, the joy of the peo- ple ; because that all were transported with joy and with wonder at his noble and just spirit. His reign had lasted only eight months, but he was honored on other accounts by the citizens, and there were more who obeyed him because cf his eminent virtues, than because he was regent to the king and had the royal power in his hands. Some, however, envied and sought to impede his growing influence while he was still young ; chiefly the kindred and friends of the queen-mother, who pretended to have been dealt with injuriously. Her brother Leonidas, in a warm debate which fell out betwixt iiim and Lycurgus, went so far as to tell him to his face that lie was well assured that ere long he should see him king ; suggesting suspicions and preparing the way for an accusation of him, as though he had made away with his nephew, it the child should chance to fail, though by a natural death. Words of the like import were designedly cast abroad by the queen- mother and her adherents. lYoubled at this, and not knowing what it might come to LVCURGUS. 6<) he thought it his wises*, course to avoid their envy by a volun- tary exile, and to tra\cl from place to place until his nephew came to marriageable years, and, by having a son, had se- cured the succession ; setting sail, therefore, with this resolu- tion, he first arrived at Crete, where, having considered their several forms of government, and got an acquaintance with the ])rincipal men amongst them, some of their laws he very much approved of, and resolved to make use of them in laa own country ; a good part he rejected as useless. Amongst the persons there the most renowned for their learning and their wisdom in state matters was one Thales, whom Ly;ur- g^s, by importunities and assurances of friendship, persuaded to go over to Lacedsemon ; where, though by his outward ap- pearance and his own profession he seemed to be no other than a lyric poet, in reality he performed the part of one of the ablest law-givers in the world. The very songs which he ( omposed were exhortations to obedience and concord, and the very measure and cadence of the verse, conveying im- pressions of order and tranquillity, had so great an influence on the minds of the listeners, that they were insensibly soft- ened and civilized, insomuch that they renounced their pri- vate feuds and animosities, and were reunited in a common admiration of virtue. So that it may truly be said that Thales prepared the way for the discipline introduced by Lycurgus. From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine the difference betwixt the manners and rules of life of the Cretans, which were very sober and temperate, and those of the lonians, a people of sumptuous and delicate habits, and so to form a judgment ; just as physicians do by comparing healthy and diseased bodies. Here he had the first sight of Homer's works, in the hands, we may suppose, of the posterity of Creoj)hylus ; and, having observed that the few loose expressions and actions of ill example which *re to be found in his poeins were much outweighed by serious lessuiis of state and rules of morality, he set himself eagerly yo transcribe and digest them into order, as thinking they would be of good use in his own country. They had, indeed, already obtained some slight repute amongst the Greeks, and scattered portions, as chance conveyed them, were in the hands of individuals • but Lycurgus first made them reilly known. The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that, being much taken with their way of separating the sol diery from the rest of the nation, he tiansferrcd it from them 70 LVCURGTrs:. to Sparta, a removal from contact with those employed in low and mechanical occupations giving high refinement and beauty to the state. Some Greek writers also record this. But as for his voyages into Spain, Africa, and the Indies, and hiS conferences there with the Gymnosophists, the whole re- lation, as far as I can find, rests on the single credit of the Spartan Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus. Lycurgus was much missed at Sparta, and often sent for^ " for kings indeed we have," they said, " who wear the marks and assume the titles of royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, they have nothing by which they are to be dis- tinguished from their subjects ; " adding, that in him alone was the true foundation of sovereignty to be seen, a nature made to rule, and a genius to gain obedience. Nor were the kings themselves averse to see him back, for they looked upon his presence as a bulwark against the insolence of the people. Things being in this posture at his return, he applied him- self, without loss of time, to a thorough reformation, and re- solved to change the whole face of the commonwealth ; for what could a few particular laws and a partial alteration avail ? He must act as wise physicians do, in the case of one who labors under a complication of diseases, by force of medicines reduce and exhaust him, change his whole temper- ament, and then set him upon a totally new regimen of diet. Having thus projected things, away he goes to Delphi to con- sult Apollo there ; which having done, and offered his sacri- fice, he returned with that renowned oracle, in which he is called beloved of God, and rather God than man ; that his prayers were heard, that his laws should be the best, and the commonwealth which observed them the most famous in the world. Encouraged by these things he set himself to bring over to his side the leading men of Sparta, exhorting them to give him a helping hand in his great undertaking ; he broke Tt first to his particular friends, and then by degrees gained others, and animated them all to put his design in execution. When things were ripe for action, he gave order to thirly of the principal men of Spaiiyta to be ready armed at the market- p!a(-e by break of day, to 'the end that he might strike a terror into the opposite party. Hermippus hath set down the names of twenty of the most eminent of them ; but the name of him whom Lycurgus most confided in, and who was of most use to him, both in making his laws and putting them in execu- tion was Arthmiadas. Things growing to a tumult, k'ln^ CJharilaus, apprehending that it was a conspiracy r;gainst liis LYCURGUS. 7 1 persc/n, took sanctuary in the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House ; but, being soon after undeceived, and having taken an oath of them that they had no designs against him, he quilted his refuge, and himself also entered into the confeder- acy with them ; of so gentle and flexible a disposition he WIS, to which Archelaus, his brother-king, alluded, when, hearing him extolled for his goodness, he said, " Who can say he is any thing but good ? he is so even to the bad." Amongst the many changes and alterations whic^ Lycur- gus made, the first and of greatest importance was the es- tablishment of the senate, which having a power equal to the kings' in matters of great consequence, and, as Plato express- es it, allaying and qualifying the fiery genius of the royal office, gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth. For the state, which before had no firm basis to stand upon, but leaned one while towards an absolute monarchy, when the kings had the upper hand, and another while towards a pure democracy, when the people had the better, found in this es- tablishment of the senate a central weight, like ballast in a ship, which always kept things in a just equilibrium ; the twenty-eight always adhering to the kings so far as to resist democrac}', and on the other hand, supporting the people against the establishment of absolute monarchy. As for the determinate number of twenty-eight, Aristotle states, that it so fell out because two of the original associates, for want of courage, fell off from the enterprise ; but Sphaerus assures us that there were but twenty-eight of the confederates at first ; perhaps there is some mystery in the number, which con-ists of seven multiplied by four, and is the first of perfect numbers after six, being, as that is, equal to all its parts. For my part, I believe Lycurgus fixed upon the num- ber of twenty-eight, that, the two kings being reckoned amongst them, they might be thirty in all. So eagerly set was he upon this establishment, that he took the trouble to obtain an oracle about it from Delphi, the Rhetra, which runs thus: " After that you have built a temple to Jupiter Plella nius, and to Minerva Hellania, and after that you have Mj'/(?*(/ the people into p/iy/es, and ol>e'd them into oi>es, you shall establish a council of thirty elders, the leaders included, and shall, from time to time, apellazein the people betwixt Babyca and Cnacion, there propound and put to the vote. The commons have the final voice and decision." By phyla and obes are meant the divisions of the people ; by th^ leaders^ the two kings ; apdlazcin. referring to the Pythian Apollo, 72 IVCURGUS. signifies to assemble ; Babyca and Cnacion they now cad CEnus ; Aristotle says Cnacion is a river, and Ibbyca a bridge. Betwixt this Babyca and Cnacion, their assemblies were held, for they had no council-house or building to meet in. Lycurgus was of opinion that ornaments were so far from advantaging them in their counsels, that they were rather an hinderance, by diverting their attention from the business before them to statutes and pictures, and roofs curiously fretted, the usual embellishments of such places amongst thd other Greeks. The people then being thus assembled in the open air, it was not allowed to any one of their order to give his advice, but only either to ratify or reject what should be propounded to them by the king or senate. But because it fell out afterwards that the people, by adding or omitting words, distorted and perverted the sense of propositions, kings Polydorus and Theopompus inserted into the Rhetra, or grand covenant, the following clause : "That if the people decide crookedly it should be lawful for the elders and leaders to dissolve ; " that is to say, refuse ratification, and dismiss the people as depravers and perverters of their coun- sel. It passed among the people, by their management, as being equally authentic with the rest of the Rhetra, as appears by these verses of 'J yrtaeus, — These oracles they from Apollo heard, And brought from Pytho home the perfect word : The heaven-appointed kings, who love the land, Shall foremost in the nation's council stand ; The elders next to them ; the commons last ; Let a straight Rhdra among all be passed. Although Lycurgus had, in this manner, used all the qualifications possible in the constitution of his common- wealth, yet those who succeeded him found the oligarchical element still too strong and dominant, and to check its high tenper and its violence, put, as Plato says, a bit in its snouth, which was the power of the ephori, established an hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus. Elatus and his colleagues were the first who had this dignity con- ferred upon them in the reign of king Theopompus, who, when his queen upbraided him one day that he would leave the regal power to his children less than he had received it from his ancestors, said in answer, "No, greater ; for it will last longer." For, indeed, their prerogative being thus reduced within reasonable bounds, the Spartan kings were at once freed from all further jealousies and consequent danger, and LYCURGUS. 73 never experienced the calamities of their neighbors at Mes- sene and Argos, who, by maintaining their prerogative too strictly, for \v«nt of yielding a little to the populace, lost it all Indeed, whosoever shall look at the sedition and misgov- ernmen' which befell these bordering nations to whom thty were a.' near related in blood as situation, will find in them the best reason to admire the wisdom and foresight ri lyycurgus. For these three states, in their first rise, weie equal, or, if there were any odds, they lay on the side of the Messenians and Argives, who, in the first allotment, were thought to have been luckier than the Spartans ; yet was their happiness of but small continuance, partly the tyran- nical temper of their kings and partly the ungovernableness of the people quickly bringing upon them such disorders, and so complete an overthrow of all existing institutions, as clearly to show how truly divine a blessing the Spartans had had in that wise lawgiver who gave their government its happy balance and temper. But of this I shall say more in its due place. After the creation of the thirty senators, his next task, and, indeed, the most hazardous he ever undertook, was the making a new division of their lands. For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was over- loaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centred upon a very few. To the end, therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate dis- eases of want and superfluity, he obtained of them to renounce their properties, and to consent to a new division of the land, and that they should live all together on an equal footing ; merit to be their only road to eminence, and the disgrace of evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure of difference between man and man. Upon their consent to these proposals, proceeding at once to put them into execution, he divided the country of Laconic in general into thirty thousand equal shares, and the part attached to the cit}' of Sparta into nine thousand ; these he distributed among the Spartans, as he did the others to the country citizens. Some authors say that he made but six thousand lots for the citizens of Sparta, and that king Poly- dorus added three thousand more. Others say that Polydo- rus doubled the number Lj^curgus had made, which, ao cording to them, was but four thousand five hundred. A lot was so much as to yield, one year with another, abouJ 7 4 LYCirROUS. seventy bushels of orrain for the master of the family, and twelve for his wife, with a suitable proporrion of oil and wine, And this he thought sufficient to keep their bodies in good health and strength ; superfluities they were better without. It is reported, that, as he returned from a journey shortly after the division of the lands, in harvest time, the ground being newly reaped, seeing the stacks all standing eqtia' and alike, he smiled, and said to those about him, "Methinka all Laconia looks like 3ne family estate just divided among % number of brothers." Not contented with this, he resolved to make a division of their movables too, that there might be no odious distinc- tion or inequality left amongst them ; but finding that it would be very dangerous to go about it openly, he took an- other course, and defeated their avarice by the following stratagem : he commanded that all gold and silver coin should be called in, and that only a sort of money made of iron should be current, a great weight and quantity of which was very little worth ; so that to lay up twenty or thirty pounds there was required a pretty large closet, and, to re- move it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen. With the dififu- sion of this money, at once a number of vices were banished from Lacedasmon ; for who would rob another of such a coin ? Who would unjusdy detain or take by force, or accept as a bribe, a thing which it was not easy to hide, nor a credit to have, nor indeed of any use to cut in pieces ? For when it was just red hot, they quenched it in vinegar, and by that means spoilt it, and made it almost incapable of being worked. In the next place, he declared an outlawry of all needless and superfluous arts ; but here he might almost have spared his proclamation ; for they of themselves would have gone after the gold and silver, the money which remained being not so proper payment for curious work ; for, being of iron, it was scarcely portable, neither, if they should take the means to export it, would it pass amongst the other Greeks, who ridiculed it. So there was now no more means of pur- chasing foreign goods and small wares ; merchants sent no shiploads into Laconian ports ; no rhetoric-master, no itiner- ant fortune-teller, no harlot-monger, or gold or silversmfth, engraver, or jeweller, set foot in a country which had no money ; so that luxury, deprived little by little of that which fed and fomented it, wasted to nothing and died away of itself. For the rich had no advantage here over the poor, as their wealth and abundance had no road to come abroad by LYCURGUS, 75 but were shut up at home doing nothing And in this way they became excellent artists in common, necessary thiny:s ; bedsteads, chairs, and tables, and such like staple utensils in a family, were admirably well made there ; their cup, particularly, was very much in fashion, and eagerly bought up by soldiers as Cntias reports ; for its color was such as to prevent water, drunk upon necessity and disagreeable to look at, from being noticed; and the shape of it was such that the mud stuck to the sides, so that only the purer part came to the drinker's mouth. For this, also, they had to thank their lawgiver, wlio, by relieving the artisans of the trouble of making useless things, set them to show their skill in giving beauty to those of dail)'' and indispensable use. The third and most masterly stroke of this great lawgiver, by which he struck a yet more effectual blow against luxury and the desire of riches, was the ordinance he made, that they should all eat in common, of the same bread and same meat, and of kinds that were specified, and should not spend their lives at home, laid on costly couches at splendid tables, delivering themselves up into the hands of their trades- men and cooks, to fatten them in corners, like greedy brutes, and to ruin not their minds only but their very bodies, which, enfeebled by indulgence and excess, would stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom from work, and, in a word, of as much care and attendance as if they were continually sick. It was certainly an extraordinary thing to have brought about such a result as this, but a greater yet to have taken away from wealth, as Theophrastus observes, not merely the property of being coveted, but its very nature of being wealth. For the rich, being obliged to go to the same table with the poor, could not make use of or enjoy their abundance, nor so much as please their vanity by looking at or displaying it. So that the common proverb, that Plutus, the god of riches, is blind, was nowhere in all the world literally verified but in Sparta. There, indeed, he was not only blind, but like a pic- ture, without either life or motion, ^^'or were they allowed to take food at home first, and then attend the public tables, for every one had an eye upon those who did not eat and drink like the rest, and reproached them with being dainty and effeminate. This last ordinance in particular exasperated the wealthier men. They collected in a body against Lycurgus, and from ill words came to throv/mg stones, so that at length he was forced to run out of the market-place, and make to sanctuary ^6 LYCURGUS, to save his life ; by good-hap he outran all, excepting one Al- cander. a young man otherwise not ill accomplished, but hasty and violent, who came up so close to him, that when he turned to see who was so near him, he struck him upon the face with his slick, and put out one of his eyes. Lycurgus, so far from being daunted and discouraged by this accident, stopped slicii and showed his disfigured face and eye beat out to his country- men ; they, dismayed and ashamed at the sight, delivered Al- cander into his hands to be punished, and escorted him home, with expressions of great concern for his ill usage. Lycurgus, having thanked them for their care of his person, dismissed them all, excepting only Alcander ; and, taking him with him into his house, neither did nor said any thing severely to him, but, dismissing those whose place it was, bade Alcander to wait upon him at table. The young man, who was of an in- genuous temper, without murmuring did as he v/as command- ed ; and being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and calm- ness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable industry, and so, from an enemy, became one of his most zeal- ous admirers, and told his friends and relations that Lycurgus was not that morose and ill-natured man they had formerly taken him for, but the one mild and gentle character of the world. And thus did Lycurgus, for chastisement of his fault, make of a wild and passionate 3'oung man one of the dis- creetest citizens of Sparta. In memory of this accident, Lycurgus built a temple to Minerva, surnamed Optiletis ; o^fi/us being the Doric of these parts for ophthalmus, the eye. Some authors, however, of whom Dioscorides is one (who wrote a treatise on the com- monwealth of Sparta), say that he was wounded, indeed, but did not lose his eye with the blow ; and that he built the tem- ple ir gratitude for the cure. Be this as it will, certain it is, that, after this misadventure, the Lacednemonians made it a rule never to carry so much as a staff into their public assem- blies. But to return to their public repasts ; — these had several names in Greek ; the Cretans called them andrla, because the men only came to them. The Lacednsmonians called them pJiiditia, that is, by changing / into d, the same ^s phiiitia, love feasts, because that, by eating and drinking together, they had opportunity of making friends. Or perhaps from phido, pa"" simony, because they were so many schools of sobriety ; or perhaps the first letter is an addition, and the word at first LYCURGUS. 77 was cditia^ from edode, eating. They met by companies ol fifteen, more or less, and each of them stood bound lo bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and some very small sum of money to buy flesh or fish with. Besides this, when any of them made sacrifice to the gods, they always sent a dole to the common hall; and, likewise, when any of them had been a hunting, he sent thither a part of the venison he nnd killed : for these two occasions were the only excuses al- lowed tor supping at home. The custom of eating together was objcrved strictly for a great while afterwards : insomuch Liai king Agis himself, after having vanquished the Atheni- ans, sending for his commons at his return home, because he desi.ed to eat privately with his queen, was refused them by the polemarchs ; which refusal when he resented so much as to omit next day the sacrifice due for a war happily ended, they made him pay a fine. They used to send their children to these tables as to schools of temperance ; here they were instructed in state affairs by listening to experienced statesmen ; here they learn*" to converse with pleasantry, to make jests without scurrility and take them without ill humor. In this point of good breeding, the Lacedicmonians excelled particularly, but if any man were uneasy under it, upon the least hint given, there was no more to be said to him. It was customary also for the eldest man in the company to say to each of them, as they came in, " Through this " (pointing to the door), " no words go out." When any one had a desire to be admitted into any of these little societies, he was to go through the following probation : each man in the company took a little ball of soft bread, which they were to throw into a deep basin, which a waiter carried round upon his head ; those that liked the per- son to be chosen dropped their ball into the basin without al'.ering its figure, and those who disliked him pressed it be tv.'ixt their fingers, and made it flat ; and this signified as much as a negative voice. And if there were but one of these flat te led pieces in the basin, the suitor was rejected, so desiroua wfire ihey that all the members of the company should be agreeable to each other. The basin was called caddichus, and the rejected candidate had a name thence derived. Their most famous dish was the black broth, which was so much valued that the elderly men fed only upon that, leaving what flesh there was to the younger. They say that a certain king of Pontus, having heard much 7S LYCURGUS. of this black broth of theirs, sent for a Lacedcemonian cook on pui"pose to make him some, but had no sooner tasted it than he found it extremely bad, which the cook observing, told him, " Sir, to make this broth relish, you should have bathed your- self first in the river Eurotas." After drinking moderately, every man went to his home without lights, for the use of them was, on all occasions, for bid, to the end that they might accustom themselves to march boldly in the dark. Such was the common fashion of their meals. Lycurgus would never reduce his laws into writing ; nay there is a Rhetra expressly to forbid it. For he thought that the most material points, and such as most directly tended to the public welfare, being imprinted on the hearts of their youth by a good discipline, would be sure to remain, and would find a stronger security, than any compulsion would be, in the principles of action formed in them by their best lawgiver, education. And as for things of lesser importance, as pecu- niary contracts, and such like, the forms of which have to be changed as occasion requires, he thought it the best way to prescribe no positive rule or inviolable usage in such cases, willing that their manner and form should be altered accord- ing to the circumstances of time, and determinations of men of sound judgment. Every end and object of law and enactment it was his design education should effect. One, then, of the Rhetras was, that their laws should not be written ; another is particularly levelled against luxury and expensiveness, for by it it was ordained that the ceilings of their houses should only be wrought by the axe, and their gates and doors smoothed only by the saw. Epaminondas's famous dictum about his own table, that "Treason and a dinner like this do not keep company together," may be said to have been anticipated by Lycurgus. Luxury and a house of this kind could not well be companions. For a man must Mv'i a less than ordinary share of sense that would furnish Bucn plain and common rooms with silver -footed couches and purple coverlets and gold and silver plate. Doubtless he had good reason to think that they would proportion their beds to their houses, and their coverlets to their beds, and the rest of their goods and furniture to these. It is reported that king Leotychides, the first of that name, was so little used to the sight of any other kind of work, that, being enter- tained at Corinth in a stately room, he was much surprised to see the timber and ceiling so finely carved and panelled and asked his host whether the trees grew so in his country. LYCURGUS. 79 A third ordina/ice or Rhetra was, that they should not make war often, or long, with the same enemy, lest that they should train and instruct them in war, by habituating them to defend themselves. And this is what Agesilaus was much blamed for, a long time after ; it being thought, that, by his continual incursions into Bceotia, he made the Thebans a match for the Lacedaemonians ; and therefore Antalcida?. joeing him wounded one day, said to him, that he was vrty well paid for taking such pains to make the Theban? good soldiers, whether they would or no. These laws were called the Rhetras, to intimate that they were divine sanctions and revelations. In order to the good education of their youth (which, as I Said before, he thought the most important and noblest work of a lawgiver), he went so far back as to take into con- sideration their very conception and birth, by regulating their marriages. For Aristotle is wrong in saying, that, after he had tried all ways to reduce the women to more modesty and jobriety, he was at last forced to leav^e them as they were, because that in the absence of their husbands, who spent the best part of their lives in the wars, their wives, whom they were obliged to leave absolute mistresses at home, took great liberties and assumed the superiority ; and were treated with overmuch respect and called by the title of lady or queen. The truth is, he took in their case, also, all the care that was possible ; he ordered the maidens to exercise themselves with wrestling, running, throwing the quoit, and casting the dart, to the end that the fruit they conceived might, in strong and healthy bodies, take firmer root and find better growth, and withal that they, with this greater vigor, might be the more able to undergo the pains of child-hearing. And to the end he might take away their over-great tenderness and fear of exposure to the air, and all acquired womanishness, he or- dered that the young women should go naked in the proces- sions, as well as the young men, and dance, too, in that con- dition, at certain solemn feasts, singing certain songs, whilst the young men stood around, seeing and hearing them. On these occasions, they now and then made, by jests, a befitting reflection upon those who had misbehaved themselves in the wars ; and again sang encomiums upon those who had done any gallant action, and by these means inspired the younger sort with an emulation of their glory. Those that were thus commended went away proud, elated, and gratified with their honor among the maidens ; and those who were rallie.d were 8o LYCUROUS. as sensibly touched with it as if they had been formally repi? inanded ; and so much the more, because the kings and the elders, as well as the rest of the city, saw and heard all that passed. Nor was there any thing shameful in this nakedness of the young women ; modesty attended them, and all wan- tonness was excluded. It taught them simplicity and a car 3 for good health, and gave them some taste of higher feelings, admitted as they thus were to the field of noble action and glory. Hence it was natural for them to think and speak as Gorgo, for example, the wife Leonidas, is said to have done, when some foreign lady, as it would seem, told her that the women of Lacedremon were the only women in the world who could rule men ; " With good reason," she said, " for we are the only women who bring forth men." These public processions of the maidens, and their ap- pearing naked in their exercises and dancings, were incite- ments to marriage, operating upon the young with the rigor and certainty, as Plato says, of love, if not of mathematics. But besides all this, to promote it yet more effectually, those who continued bachelors were in a degree disfranchised by law ; for they were excluded from the sight of those public processions in which the young men and maidens danced naked, and, in winter-time, the officers compelled them to march naked themselves round the market-place, singing as they went a certain song to their own disgrace, that they justly suffered this punishment for disobeying the laws. Moreover, they were denied that respect and observance which the younger men paid their elders ; and no man, for example, found fault with what was said to Dercyllidas, though so emi- nent a commander ; upon whose approach one day, a young man, instead of rising, retained his seat, remarking, " No child of yours will make room for me." In their marriages, the husband carried off his bride by a sort of force ; nor were their brides ever small and of tender years, but in their full bloom and ripeness. After this, she who superintended the wedding conies and clips the hair of the bride close round her head, dresses her up in man's clothes, and leaves her upon a mattress in the dark ; after- wards comes the bridegroom, in his cvery-day clothes, sober and composed, as having supped at the common table, and, entering privately into the room where the bride lies, unties her virgin zone, and takes her to himself ; and, after staying some time together, he returns composedly to his own apart- ment, to sleep as usual with the other young men. And so LYCURCUS. 8 1 he continues to do, spending his days, and, indeed, his nights with them, visiting his bride in fear and shame, and with circumspection, when he thought he should not be o])served ; she, also, on iier part, using her wit to help and find favorable opportunities for their meeting, when company was out of tlie way. In this manner they Hved a long time, insomuch that they sometimes had children by their wives before ever they saw their faces by daylight. Their interviews, being ihus difficult and rare, served not only for continual exercise of their self-control, but brought them together with their bodies healthy and vigorous, and their affections fresh and lively, unsated and undulled by easy access and long con- tinuance with each other; while their partings were always early enough to leave behind unextinguished in each of them s')me remainder fire of longing and mutual delight. After guarding marriage with this modesty and reserve, he was equally careful to banish empty and womanisn jealousy. For diis object, excluding all licentious disorders, he made it, nevertheless, honorable for men to give the use of their wives to those whom they should think fit, that so they might have children by them ; ridiculing those in whose opinion such fa- vors are so unfit for participation as to fight and shed blood and go to war about it. Lycurgus allowed a man who was advanced in years and had a young wife to recommend some virtuous and approved young man, that she might have a child by him, who might inherit the good qualities of the father, and be a son to himself. On the other side, an honest man who had love for a married woman upon account of her modesty and the well-favoredness of her children, might, without formality, beg her company of her husband, that he might raise, as it were, from this plot of good ground, worthy and well-allied children for himself. And indeed, Lycurgus was of a persuasion that children were not so much the prop- erty of their parents as of the whole commonwealth, and, therefore, would not have his citizens begot by the first- comers, but by the best men that could be found ; the laws of other nations seemed to him very absurd and inconsistent, where people would be so solicitous for their dogs and horses as to exert interest and to pay money to procure fine breed- ing, and yet kept their wives shut up, to be made mothers only by themselves, who might be foolish, infirm, or diseased ; as if it were not apparent that children of a bad breed would prove their bad qualities first upon those who kept and wer" rearing them, and well-born children, in like manner, lh«^ 62 LYGURGUS. good qualities. These regulations, founded on natural and social grounds, were certainly so far from that scandalous liberty which was afterwards charged upon their women, that they knew not what adultery meant. It is told, for in- stance, of Geradas, a very ancient Spartan, that, being asked by a stranger what punishment their law had appointed for adulterers, he answered, "There are no adulterers in our country." "But," replied the stranger, "suppose there A'ere ? " " Then," answered he, " the offender would have to give the plaintiff a bull with a neck so long as that he might drink from the top of Taygetus of the Eurotas river below it." The man, surprised at this, said, " ^'^'hy, 'tis im- possible to find such a bull." Geradas smilingly replied, " 'Tis as possible as to find an adulterer in Sparta." So much I had to say of their marriages. Nor was it in the power of the father to dispose of the child as he thought fit ; he was obliged to carry it before cer- tain triers at a place called Lesche ; these were some of the elders of the tribe to which the child belonged ; their busi- ness it was carefully to view the infant, and, if they found it stout and well made, they gave order for its rearing, and al- lotted to it one of the nine thousand shares of land above mentioned for its maintenance, but, if they found it puny and ill-shaped, ordered it to be taken to what was called the Apothetae, a sort of chasm under Taygetus ; as thinking it neither for the good of the child itself, nor for the public in- terest, that it should be brought up, if it did not, from the very outset, appear made to be healthy and vigorous. Upon the same account, the women did not bathe the new-born children with water, as is the custom in all other countries, but with wine, to prove the temper and complexion of their bodies ; from a notion they had that epileptic and weakly children faint and waste away upon their being thus bathed, while, on the contrary, those of a strong and vigorous habit acquire firmness and get a temper by it, like steel. There was much care and art, too, used by the nurses ; they had no swaddling bands ; the children grew up free and unco7i- strained in limb and form, and not dainty and fanciful about their food ; not afraid in the dark, or of being left alone ; and without peevishness, or ill-humor or crying.' Upon this account, Spartan nurses were often bought up, or hired by people of other countries ; and it is recorded that she who suckled Alcibiades was a Spartan ; who, however, if fortunate in his nurse, was not so in his preceptor; his guardian, Peri- LYCURGUS. 83 cles, as Plato tel s us, chose a servant for that office called Zopyrus, no better than any common slave. Lycurgus was of another mind ; he would not have mas fers bought out of the market for his young Spartans, noi such as should sell their pains ; nor was it lawful, indeed, for the father himself to breed up the children after his own fancy ; but as soon as they were seven years old they were to be enrolled in certain companies and classes, where they nV. lived under the same order and discipline, doing their exer- cises and taking their play together. Of these, he who showed the most conduct and courage was made captain , tliey had their eyes always upon him, obeyed his orders, and underwent patiently whatsoever punishment he inflicted ; so that the whole course of their education was one continued exercise of a ready and perfect obedience. The old men, too, were spectators of their performances, and often raised quarrels and disputes among them, to have a good opportu- nity of finding out their different characters, and of seeing which would be valiant, which a coward, when they should come to more dangerous encounters. Reading and writing they gave them, just enough to serve their turn ; their chief care was to make them good subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle. To this end, as they grew in years, their discipline was proportionately increased ; their heads were close-clipped, they were accustomed to go barefoot, and for the most part to play naked. After they were twelve years old, they were no longer al lov.'ed to wear any undergarment ; they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents ; these human indul- gences they were allowed only on some few particular days in the year. They lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the rushes which grew by the banks of the river Eutotas, which they were to break off with their hands with- out a knife ; if it were winter, they mingled some thistle- dow\i with their rushes, which it was thought had the prop- erly of giving warmth. By the time they were come to this i[ic: there was not any of the more hopeful boys who had not a lover to bear him company. The old men, too, had an eye upon them coming often to the grounds to hear and see them contend either in wit or strengtli with one another, and this as seriously and with as much concern as if they were tlieir fathers, their tutors, or their magistrates ; so that there scarcely was any time or place without some one present tf the boys, again, were Mell-Irens, as much 45 to say, who would shortly be men. This young man, therefore, was their captain when they fought and their mas- ter at home, using them for the offices of his house ; sending the eldest of them to fetch wood, and the weaker and less able, to gather salads and herbs, and these they must either go without or steal ; which they did by creeping into the gardens, or conveying themselves cunningly and closely into the eating-houses ; if they were taken in the fact, they were whipped without mercy, for thieving so ill and awkwardly They stole, too, all other meat they could lay their hands on, looking out and watching all opportunities, when people were asleep or more careless than usual. If they were caught, they were not only punished with whippings but hunger, too, Deing reduced to their ordinary allowance, which was but very slender, and so contrived on purpose, that they might set about to help themselves, and be forced to exercisr- their energy and address. This was the principal design of their hard fare ; there was another not inconsiderable, that they might grow taller ; for the vital spirits, not being overbur- dened and oppressed by too great a quantity of nourish- ment, which necessarily discliarges itself into thickness and breadth, do, by their natural lightness, rise; and the body, giving and yielding because it is plaint, grows in height. The same thing seems, also, to conduce to beauty of shape ; a dry and lean habit is a better subject for nature's configuia- tion, which the gross and over-fed are too heavy to submit to properly. Just as we find that women who take physic whilst they are with child, bear leaner and smaller but bettei- shaped and prettier children ; the material they come oi having been more pliable and easily moulded. The reason, however, I leave others to determine. To return from whence we have digressed. So seriously did the Lacedaemonian children go about their stealing, that a youth, having stolen a young fox and hid it under his coat, suffered it to tear out his very bowels with its teeth and clawsi LYCURGUS. 85 and died upon the place, rather than let it be seen. What is practised to this very day in Lacedcemon is enough to gain credit to this story, for I myself have seen several of the youths endure whipping to death at the foot of the altar of Diana surnamed Orthia. The Iren, or under-master, used to stay a little with then? afler supper, and one of them he bade to sing a song, to another he put a question which required an advised and de- liberate answer ; for example. Who was the best man in the city? What he thought of such an action of such a man? They used them thus early to pass a right judgment upon persons and things, and to inform themselves of the abilities or defects of their countrymen. If they had not an answer ready to the question, Who was a good or who an ill-reputed citizen, they were looked upon as of a dull and careless dis- position, and to have little or no sense of virtue and honor ; besides this, they were to give a good reason for what they said, and in as few words and as comprehensive as might be ; he that failed of this, or answered not to the purpose, had his thumb bit by the master. Sometimes the Iren did this in the presence of the old men and magistrates, that they might see whether he punished them justly and in due measure or not-, and when he did amiss, they would not reprove him be- tore the boys, but, when they were gone, he was called to an account and underwent correction, if he had run far into either of the extremes of indulgence or severity. Their lovers and favorers, too, had a share in the young boy's honor or disgrace ; and there goes a story that one of them was fined by the magistrate, because the lad whom he loved cried out effeminately as he was fighting. And though this sort of love was so approved among them, that the most virtuous matrons would make professions of it to young girls, yet rivalry did not exist, and if several men's fancies met in one person, it was rather the beginning of an intimate friend- ship, whilst they all jointly conspired to render the object ol their affection as accomplished as possible. They taught them, also, to speak with a natural and graceful raillery, and to comprehend much matter of thought in few words. For Lycurgus, who ordered, a« Vvo saw, that a great piece of money should be but of an inconsiderable value, on the contrary would allow no discourse to be current which did not contain in few words a great deal of useful and curi )us sense ; children in Sparta, by a habit of long silence, came to give just and sententious answers ; for, indeed, as 86 LYCURGUS. loose and incontinent livers are seldom fathers of many chil- dren, so loose and incontinent talkers seldom originate many sensible words. King Agis, when some Athenian langhed at their short swords, and said that the jugglers on the stage swallowed them with ease, answered him. " We find them long enough to reach our enemies with ; " and as their swords were short and sharp, so, it seems to me, were their sayings, They reach the point and arrest the attention of the hearers better than any. Lycurgus himself seems to have been shoit and sententious, if we may trust the anecdotes of him ; as appears by his answer to one who by all means would set up a democracy in Lacedaemon. " Begin, friend," said he, "and set it up in your family." Another asked him why he allowed of such mean and trivial sacrifices to the gods. He replied, " That we may always have something to offer to them." Being asked what sort of martial exercises or combats he ap- proved of, he answered, " All sorts, except that in which you stretch out your hands." Similar answers, addressed to his countrymen by letter, are ascribed to him ; as, being con- sulted how they might best oppose an invasion of their ene- mies, he returned this answer, " By continuing poor, and not coveting each man to be greater than his fellow." Being consulted again whether it were requisite to enclose the city with a wall, he sent them word, " The city is well fortified which hath a wall of men instead of brick." But whether these letters are counterfeit or not is not easy to determine. Of their dislike to talkativeness, the following apophthegms are evidence. King Leonidas said to one who held him in discourse upon some useful matter, but not in due time and place, " Much to the purpose, Sir, elsewhere." King Chari- laus. the nephew of Lycurgus, being asked why his uncle had made so few laws, answered, " Men of few words require but few laws." When on'= :.amed Hecataeus the sophist, because that, being invited to tne public table, he had not spoken one word all supper-time, Archidamidas answered in his vindica' lion, " He who knows how to speak, knows also when" The sharp and yet not ungraceful retorts which I men rioned may be instanced as follows. Demaratus, being asked in a troublesome manner by an importunate fellow, Who was the best man in Lacedaemon ? answered at last, " He, Sir, that is the least like you." Some, in company where Agis was, much extollGd the P^leans for their just and honorable management of the Olympic games ; " Indeed," said Agis, " they are highly to be commended if they can do justice ou« LYCURGUS. 87 day in five years." Theopompus answered a stranger wna talked much of his affection to the Laccdeemonians, and said that his countrymen called him Philolacon (a lover of th'i Lacedaemonians), that it had been more for his honor if they had called him Philopolites (a lover of his own countiymeu). And Plistoanax, the son of Pausanias, when an orator ol j\tlions said the Lacedemonians had no learning, told hlin, " You say true. Sir ; we alone of all the Greeks have learned a one of your bad qualities." One asked Archidamidas what number there might be of the Spartans, he answered : " Enough, Sir, to keep out wicked men." We may see their character, too, in their very jests, lor they did not throw them out at random, but the very »vit of them was grounded upon something or other worth thinking about. For instance, one, being asked to go hear a man who exactly counterfeited the voice of a nightingale, answered, " Sir, I have heard the nightingale itself." Another, having read the following inscription upon a tomb, Seeking to quench a cruel tyranny, They, at Selinus, did in battle die, said, it served them right ; for instead of trying to quench the tyranny, they should have let it burn out. A lad, being offered some game-cocks that would die upon the spot, said that he cared not for cocks that would die, but for such tliat would live and kill others. Another, seeing people easing themselves on seats, said, " God forbid I should sit where I could not get up to salute my elders." In short, their an- swers were so sententious and pertinent, that one said well that intellectual much more truly than athletic exercise was Uie Spartan characteristic. Nor was their instruction in music and verse less carefully 3 '.tended to than their habits of grace and good-breeding in I onversation. And their very songs had a life and spirit iu them that inflamed and possessed men's minds with an enthu- siasm and ardor for action ; the style of them was plain an.i without affectation ; the subject always serious and mora! ; most usuall}', it was in praise of such men as had died in de fence of their c Duntry, or in derision of those that had been cowards ; the former they declared happy and glorified ; the life of the latter they described as most miserable and aoject. There were also vaunts of what they would do, and boasts of what they had done, varying with, the various ages, as, foi example, they had three choirs in their solemn festivals, the S8 LYCURGUS. first of the old men, the second of the young men, and the last of the children ; the old men began thus : We once were young, and brave, and strong • the young men answered them, singing • And we're so now, come on and try ; the children came last and said, But we'll be strongest by and by. Indeed, if we will take the pains to consider their com- positions, some of which were still extant in our days, and the airs on the flute to which they marched when going to battle, we shall find that Terpander and Pindar had reason to say that musing and valor were allied. The first says of Lacedaemon — The spear and song in her do meet, And Justice walks about her street ; And Pindar — Councils of wise elders here. And the young men's conquering spear, And dance, and song, and joy appear ; both describing the Spartans as no less musical than war- like I in the words of one of their own poets — With the iron stern and sharp. Comes the playing on the harp. For, indeed, before they engaged in battle, the king first did sacrifice to the Muses, in all likelihood to put them in mind of the manner of their education, and of the judgment that would be passed upon their actions, and thereby to ani- mate them to the performance of exploits that should deserve a record. At such times, too, the Lacedaemonians abated a little the severity of their manners in favor of .heir young men, suffeiing them to curl and adorn their hair, and to ha\e costly arms, and fine clothes ; and were well pleased to see them, like proud horses, neighing and pressing to the couise. And, therefore, as soon as they came to be well-grown, they took a gteat deal of care of their hair, to have it parted and trimmed, especially against a day of battle, pursuant to a saying recorded of their lawgiver, that a large head of hair added beauty to a good face, and terror to an ugly one. When they were in the field, their exercises were generally more moderate, their fare not so hard, nor so strict a hani LYCURGUS. 8g held over them by their officers, so that they were the only people in the world to whom war gave repose. When their army ivas drawn up in battle array, and the enemy near, the king sacrificed a goat, commanded the soldiers to set theii garlands upon their heads, and the pipers to play the tune of the hyrjin to Castor, and himself began the paean of advance. It was at once a magnificent and a terrible sight to see them march on to the tune of their flutes, without any disorder in their ranks, any discomposure in their minds, or change in their countenances, calmly and cheerfully moving with tne music to tlie deadly fight. Men, in this temper, were not likely to be possessed with fear or any transport of fury, but with the deliberate valor of hope and assurance, as if some divinity were attending and conducting them. The king had always about his person some one who had been crowned in the Olympic games ; and upon this account a Lace- daemonian is said to have refused a considerable present, which was offered to him upon condition that he would not come into the lists j and when he had with much to-do thrown his antagonist, some of the spectators saying to him, "And now, Sir Lacedaemonian, what are you the better for your victory.?" he answered, smiling, "I shall fight next the king." After they had routed an enemy, they pursued him till they were well assured of the victory, and then they sounded a re- treat, thinking it base and unworthy of a Grecian people to cut men in pieces, who had given up and abandoned all re- sistance. This manner of dealing with their enemies did not only show magnanimity, but was politic too ; for, knowing that they killed only those who made resistance, and gave quarter to the rest, men generally thought it their best way to consult their safety by flight. Hippius the sophist says that Lycurgus himself was a great soldier and an experienced commander. Philostephanus at- tributes to him the first division of the cavalry into trortps of fifties in a square body ; but Demetrius the Phalerian say5 quite the contrary, and that he made all his laws in a con- tinned peace. And, indeed, the Olympic holy truce, or cev sation of arms, that was procured by his means and manage- ment, inclines me to think him a kind-natured man, and one that loved quietness and peace. Notwithstanding all this, Hermippus tells us that he had no hand in the ordinance , that Ipiiitus made it, and T.ycurgus came only as a soectator, and that by mere accident too. Being there, he heard as '\t were a man's voice behind him, blaming and wondering a/ 90 LYCURGUS. him that he did not encourage his countrymen to resort to the assembly, and, turning about and seeing no man, concluded that it was a voice from heaven, and upon this immediately went to Iphitus and assisted him in ordering the ceremonies of that feast, which, by his means, were better established, and with more repute than before. To return to the Lacedaemonians. Their discipline con tinned still after they were full-grown men. No one was al- lowed to live after his own fancy ; but the city was a sort of camp, in which every man had his share of provisions and business set out, and looked upon himself not so much born to serve his own ends as the interest of his country. There- fore if they were commanded nothing else, they went to se * the boys perform their exercises, to teach them something use- ful or to learn it themselves of those who knew better. And Indeed one of the greatest and highest blessings Lycurgus pro- cured his people was the abundance of leisure which pro- ceeded from his forbidding to them the exercise of any mean tnd mechanical trade. Of the money-making that depends ,in troublesome going about and seeing people and doing "i^usiness, they had no need at all in a state where wealth ob- tained no honor or respect. The Helots tilled their ground for them, and paid them yearly in kind the appointed quantity, A^ithout any trouble of theirs. To this purpose there goes a story of a Lacedaemonian who, happening to be at Athens when the courts were sitting, was told of a citizen that had been fined for living an idle life, and was being escorted home in much distress of mind by his condoling friends ; the Lacedaemonian was much surprised at ii. and desired his friend to show him the man who was condemned for living like a freeman. So much beneath them did they esteem the frivolous devotion of time and attention to the mechanical arts and to money-making'. It need not be Sc:id_ that upon the prohibition of gold and silver, all lawsuits immediately ceased, for there was now neither avarice nor poverty amongst them, but equality, where every one's wants were supplied, and independence, because those wants were so small. All their time, except when they were in the field, was taken up by the choral dances and th* festivals, in hunting, and in aKendance on the exercise- grounds and the places of public conversation. Those who were under thirty years of age were lot allowed to go into the marketplace, but had the necessari';s of their family supplied bn the care of their relations and lovers j r.or was it for thf LVCUROUS. 91 credit of elderly men to bo seen too often in the market-place ; it was esteemed more suitable for them to frequent the exer- cisegrounds and places of conversation, where they spent their leisure rationally in conversation, not on mone3'-making an:: /tiarket-piices, but for the most part in passing judgment on some action worth considering ; extolling the good, and censuring those who were otherwise, and that in a light and sportive manner, conveying, without too much gravity, lissons of advice and improvement. Nor was Lycurgus himse'f un- duly austere ; it was he who dedicated, says Sosibius, the little statue of Laughter. Mirth, introduced seasonably at their suppers and places of common entertainment, was to serve as a sort of sweetmeat to accompany their strict and hard life. To conclude, he bred up his citizens in such a way that they neither would or could live by themselves ; they were to make themselves one with the public good, and, clustering like bees around their commander, be by their zeal and public spirit carried all but out of themselves, and dev'oted wholly to their country. What their sentiments were will better appear by a few of rheir sayings. Pagdaretus, not being admitted into the list of the three hundred, returned home with a jo}i^ul face, well pleased to find that there were in Sparta three hun- dred better men than himself. And Polycratidas, being sent with some others ambassador to the lieutenants of the king of Persia, being asked by them whether they came in a private or in a public character, answered, "In a pub^'c, if we succeed ; if not, in a private character." Argileonis, asking some who came from Amphipolis if her son Brasidas died courageously and as became a Spartan, on their beginning to praise him to a high degree, and saying there was not such another left in Sparta, answered, " Do not say so ; Brasidas was a good and brave man, but there are in Sparta many bet- ter than he." The senate, as I said before, consisted of those who were Lycurgus's chief aiders and assistants in his plans. The vacancies he ordered to be supplied out of the best and most deserving men past sixty years old, and we need not wonder if there was much striving for it ; for what more glorious com- petition could there be amongst men, than one in which it was not contested who was swiftest among the swift or strongest of the strong, but who of many wise and good was wisest and best, and fittest to be intrusted for ever after, as d^.e reward of his merits, with the supreme authority of the common- wealth, and with power over the lives, franchises, and liighes' 92 LYCURGUS. interests of all his countrymen? The manner of their eleo tion was as follows : the people being called together, some selected persons were locked up in a room near the place oi election, so contrived that they could neither see nor be seen, bu; fould only hear the noise of the assembly without ; for they decided this, as most other affairs of moment, by the shouts of the people. This done, the competitors were not brought in and presented all together, but one after anothei by lot, and passed in order through the assembly without speaking a word. Those who were locked up had writir.g tables with them, in which they recorded and marked each shout by its loudness, without knowing in favor of which can didate each of them was made, but merely that they came first, second, third, and so forth. He who was found to have the most and loudest acclamations was declared senator duly elected. Upon this he had a garland set upon his head, and went in procession to all the temples to give thanks to the gods ; a great number of young men followed him with a{> plauses, and women, also, singing verses in his honor, and extolling the virtue and happiness of his life. As he went round the city in this manner, each of his relations and friends set a table before him, saying, "The city honors you with this banquet;" but he, instead of accepting, passed round to the common table where he formerly used to eat, and was served as before, excepting that now he had a sec- ond allowance, which he took and put by. By the time sup- per was ended, the women who were of kin to him had come about the door; and he, beckoning to her whom he most es- teemed, presented to her the portion he had saved, saying, that it had been a mark of esteem to him, and was so now to her ; jpon which she was triumphantly waited upon home by the women. Touching burials, Lycurgus made very wise regulations ; for, first of all, to cut off all superstition, he allowed them to bury .heir dead within the city, and even round about their temples, to the end that their youth might be accustomed to such spectacles, and not be afraid to see a dead body, or im- agine that to touch a corpse or to tread upon a grave would defile a man. In the next place, he commanded them to put nothing into the ground with them, except if they pleased, a few olive leaves, and the scarlet cloth that they were wrapped in. ' He would not suffer the names to be inscribed, except only of men who fell in the wars, or women who died in a sacred office. The time, too, appointed for mourning, was LTCURGUS. 93 very short, eleven days ; on the twelfth, they were to do sacri- fice to Ceres, and leave it off ; so that we may see, that as he cut off all superfluit}'-, so in things necessary there was nothing so small and trivial which did not express some hom- age of virtue or scorn of vice. He filled Lacedaemon all through with proofs and examples of good conduct ; with the constant sight of which from their youth up, the people would hardly fail to be gradually formed and advanced in virtue. And this was the reason why he forbade them to travel Abroad, and go about acquainting themselves with foreign rulers of morality, the habits of ill-educated people, and dif- ferent views of government. Withal he banished from Lace- daemon all strangers who would not give a very good reason for their coming thither ; not because he was afraid lest they should inform themselves of and imitate his manner of gov- ernment (as Thucydides says), or learn any thing to their good ; but rather lest they should introduce something con- trar}' to good manners. With strange people, strange words must be admitted ; these novelties produce novelties in thought ; and on these follow views and feelings whose dis- cordant character destroys the harmony of the state. He was as careful to save his city from the infection of foreign bad habits, as men usually are to prevent the introduction of a pestilence. Hitherto I, for my part, see no sign of injustice or want of equity in the laws of Lycurgus, though some who admit them to be well contrived to make good soldiers, pronounce them defective in point of justice. The Cryptia, perhaps (if it were one of Lycurgus's ordinances, as Aristotle says it was), gave both him and Plato, too, this opinion alike of the lawgiver and his government. By this ordinance, the magistrates de- spatched privately some of the ablest of the young men into the country, from time to time, armed only with their daggers, and taking a little necessary provision with them ; in the daytime, they hid themselves in out-of-the-way places, and tliere lay close, but, in the night issued out into the highwa) s, and killed all the Helots they could light upon ; sometimes they set upon them by day, as they were at work in the fields, and murdered them. As, also, Thucydides, in his history of the Peloponnesian war, tells us, that a good number of them, after be'.ng singled out for their bravery by the Spartans, gar- landed, as enfranchised persons, and led about to all the temples in token of honors, shortly after disappeared all of a sudden, being about the number of two thousand ; aud n( 94 LYCURGUS. man either then or since could give an account how the| came by their deaths. And Aristotle, in particular, idds, that the ephori, so soon as they were entered into their office, used to declare war against them, that they might be massa- cred without a breach of religion. It is confessed, on all hands, that the Spartans dealt with them very haidly ; for i( was a common thing to force them to drink to excess, and to lead them in that condition into their public halls, that the children might see what a sight a drunken man is ; they made them to dance low dances, and sing ridiculous songs, forbid ding them expressly to meddle with any of a better kind And accordingly, when the Thebans made their invasion into Laconia, and took a great number of the Helots, they could by no means persuade them to sing the verses of Terpander, Alcman, or Spendon, " For," said they, " the masters do not like it." So that it was truly observed by one, that in Sparta he who was free was most so, and he that was a slave there, the greatest slave in the world. For my part, I am of opin- ion that these outrages and cruelties began to be exercised ia Sparta at a later time, especially after the great earthquake, when the Helots made a general insurrection, and, joining with the Messenians, laid the country waste, and brought the greatest danger upon the city. For 1 cannot persuade myself to ascribe to Lycurgus so wicked and barbarous a course, judging of him from the gentleness of his disposition and jus- tice upon all other occasions ; to which the oracle also testi- fied. When he perceived that his more important institutions had taken root in the minds of his countrymen, that custom had rendered them familiar and easy, that his commonwealth was now grown up and able to go alone, then, as Plato some- where tells us, the Maker of the world, when first he saw it existing and beginning its motion, felt joy, even so Lycurgus, viewing wiih joy and satisfaction the greatness and beauty of his political structure, now fairly at work and in motion, con- ceived the thought to make it immortal too, and, as far as human forecast could reach, to deliver it down unchangeable to posterity. He called an extraordinary assembly of all the people, and told them that he now thought every thing reason- ably well established, both for the happiness and the virtue of the state ; but that there was one thing still behind, of the greatest importance, which he thought not fit to impart unti?. he had consulted the oracle; in the mean time, his desire was that they would observe the laws without any the least LYCUBGUS 95 alteration until his return, and then he would do as the g^od should direct him. They all consented readily, and bade him hasten his journey; but, before he departed, he administered an oath to the two kings, the senate, and the whole commons, to abide by and maintain the established form of polity untij Lycurgus should be come back. This done, he set out foi Delphi, and having sacrificed to Apollo, asked him whether Uie laws he had established were good, and sufficient for a neople's happiness and virtue. The oracle answered that the [aws were excellent, and that the people, while it obser\'ed diem, should live in the height of renown. Lycurgus took the oracle in writing, and sent it over to Sparta ; and, having sacrificed the second time to Apollo, and taken leave of his friends and his son, he resolved that the Spartans should not be released from the oath they had taken, and that he would, of his own act, close his life where he was- He was now about that age in which life was still tolerable, and yet might be quitted without regret. Every thing, moreover, about him was in a sufficiently prosperous condition. He therefore made an end of himself by a total abstinence from food, thinking it a statesman's duty to make his very death, if pos- sible, an act of service to the state, and even in the end of his life to give some example of virtue and effect some useful purpose. He would, on the one hand, crown and consummate his own happiness by a death suitable to so honorable a life, and, on the other hand, would secure to his countrymen the enjoyment of the advantages he had spent i.is life in obtain- ing for them, since they had solemnly sworn the maintenance of his institutions until his return. Nor was he deceived in his expectations, for the city of Lacedsemon continued the chief city of all Greece for the space of five hundred years, in strict observance of Lycurgus's laws ; in all which time there was no manner of alteration made, during the reign of four- tt^en kings down to the time of Agis, the son of Aichidamus. I'or tlie new creation of the ephori, though thought to be in favor of the people, was so far from diminishing, that it very much heightened, the aristocratical character of the govern- ment. In the time of Agis, gold and silver first flowed into Sparta, and with them all those mischiefs which attend the immoder- ate desire of riches. Lysander promoted this disorder ; for by bringing in rich spoils from the wars, although himself in- corrapt, he yet by Lhis means filled his country with avarice and luxury, and subverted the laws and ordinances of Lycur 96 LYCURGUS. gus ; so long as which were in force, the aspect presented by Sparta was rather that of a rule of life followed by one wise and temperate man, than of the political government of a nation. And as the poets feign of Hercules, that, with his lion's skin and his club, he went over the world, punishing lawless and cruel tyrants, so may it be said of the Lacedaj- monians, that, with a common staff and a coarse coat, they gained the willing and joyful obedience of Greece, through whose whole extent they suppressed unjust usurpations and despotisms, arbitrated in war, and composed civil dissen- sions ; and this often without so much as taking down one buckler, but barely by sending some one single deputy to whose direction all at once submitted, like bees swarming and taking their places around their prince. Such a fund of order and equity, enough and to spare for others, existed in their state. And therefore I cannot but wonder at those wh# say thai the Spartans were good subjects, but bad governors, and for proof of it allege a saying of king Theopompus, who, when one said that Sparta held up so long because their kingg could command so well, replied, " Nay, rather because the people know so well how to obey." For people do not obey, unless rulers know how to command ; obedience is a lesson taught by commanders. A true leader himself creates the obedience of his own followers ; as it is the last attainment in the art of riding to make a horse gentle and tractable, so is it of the science of government, to inspire men with a wil- lingness to obey. The Lacedaemonians inspired men not with a mere willingness, but with an absolute desixe to be their subjects. For they did not send petitions to them for ships or money, or a supply of armed men, but only for a Spartan commander ; and, having obtained one, used him with honor and reverence ; so the Sicilians behaved to Gylippus, the Chalcidians to Brasidas, and all the Greeks in Asia to Ly- sander, Callicratidas, and Agesilaus ; they styled tiiem the composers and chasteners of each people or prince they were sent to, and had their eyes always fixed upon the city of Sparta itself, as the perfect model of good manners and wise government. The rest seemed as scholars, they the masters of Greece ; and to this Stratonicus pleasantly alluded, when in jest he pretended to make a law that the Athenians should conduct religious processions and the mysteries, the Eleans should preside at the Olympic games, and, if either did amiss, the Lacedaemonians be beaten. Antisthenes, too, one of the LYCURGUS. 97 scholars of Socrates, said, in earnest, of the Thebans, when they were elated by their victory at Leuctra, that they looked like schoolboys who had beaten their master. However, it was not the design of Lycurgus that his city should govern a great many others ; he thought rather that the happiness of a state, as a private man, consisted chiefly in the exercise of virtue, and in the concord of the inhab> tants ; his aim, therefore, in all his arrangements, was to make and keep them free-minded, self-dependent, and temperate. And therefore all those who have written well on politics, as Plato, Diogenes, and Zeno, have taken Lycurgus for their ni(xlel, leaving behind them, however, mere projects and words ; whereas Lycurgus was the author, not in writing but in reality, of a government which none else could so much as copy ; and while men in general have treated the individual philosophic character as unattainable, he, by the example of a complete philosophic state, raised himself high above all other lawgivers of Greece. And so Aristotle says they did him less honor at Lacedaemon after his death than he deserved, although he has a temple there, and they offer sacrifices yearly to him as to a god. It is reported that when his bones were brought home to Sparta his tomb was struck with lightning, an accident which befell no eminent person but himself and Euripides, who was buried at Arethusa in Macedonia ; and it may serve that poet's admirers as a testimony in his favor, that he had in this the same fate with that holy man and favorite of the gods. Some say Lycurgus died in Cirrha ; Apollothemis says, after he had come to Elis ; Timaeus and Aristoxenus, that he end- ed his life in Crete ; Aristoxenus adds that his tomb is shown by the Cretans in the district of Pergamus, near the strangers' road. lie left an only son, Antiorus, on whose death without issue his family became extinct. But his relations and friends kept up an annual commemoration of him down to a long time after ; and the days of the meeting were called Lycur- gides. Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus, says that he died in Crete, and that his Cretan friends, in accordance with his own request, when they had burned his body, scattered the ashes into the sea ; for fear lest, if his relics should be trans- ported to Lacedaemon, the people might pretend to be re- leased from their oaths, and make innovations in the govern- ment. Thus much may suffice for the life and actions of Lyc\irgus. 7 1)8 NUMA POWPILIUS. NUMA POMPILIUS. Though the pedigrees of noble families of Rome go back in exact form as far as Numa Pompilius, yel there is greaL diversity amongst historians concerning the time in which he reigned ; a certain writer called Clodius, in a bc with joyful acclamations, and sacrifices were offered for him in all the temples, and so universal was the joy, that they seemed to be receiving, not a new king, but a new kingdom. In this manner he descended into the forum, where Spurius Vettius, whose turn it was to be interrex at that hour, put it to the vote ; and all declared him king. Then the regalities and robes of authority were brought to him ; but he refused to be invested with them until he had first consulted and been confirmed by the gods ; so being accompanied by the priests and augurs, he ascended the Capitol, which at that time the Romans called the Tarpeian Hill. Then the chief of the augurs covered Numa's head, and turned his face towards the south, and, standing behind him, laid his right hand on his head, and prayed, turning his eyes every way, in expecta- tion of some auspicious signal from the gods. It was won- derful, meantime, with what silence and devotion the multi- tude stood assembled in the forum, in similar expectation and suspense, till auspicious birds appeared and passed on the right. Then Numa, apparelling himself in his royal robes, descended from the hill to the people, by whom he was re- ceived and congratulated with shouts and acclamations of welcome, as a holy king, and beloved of all the gods. The first thing he did at his entrance into government was to dismiss the band of three hundred men which had been Romulus's life-guard, called by him Celeres, saying that he would not distrust those who put confidence in him ; nor rule over a people that distrusted him. The next NUMA rOMPILIUS. IO5 thitig he did was to add to the two priests of Jupiter and Mars a third, in honor of Romulus, whom he called the Flamen Quirinalis, The Romans anciently called their priests Flamines, by corruption of the word Pilamines, from a certain cap which they wore, called Pileus. In those times Greek words were more mixed with the Latin than at present ; thus also the royal robe, which is called Laena, Juba says, is the same as the Greek Chlaena ; and that the name of Caniii- lus, given to the boy with both his parents living, who serves in the temple of Jupiter, was taken from the name given by some Greeks to Mercury, denoting his office of attendance on the gods. When Numa had, by such measures, won the favor and affection of the people, he set himself without delay, to the task of bringing the hard and iron Roman temper to some- what more of gentleness and equity. Plato's expression of a city in high fever was never more applicable than to Rome at that time ; in its origin formed by daring and warlike spirits, whom bold and desperate adventure brought thither from every quarter, it had found in perpetual wars and incur- sions on its neighbors its after sustenance and means of growth, and in conflict with danger the source of new strength ; like piles, which the blows of the hammer serve to fix into the ground. Wherefore Numa, judging it no slight undertak- ing to mollify and bend to peace the presumptuous and stub- born spirits of this people, began to operate upon them with the sanctions of religion. He sacrificed often and used processions and religious dances, in which most commonly he officiated in person ; by such combinations of solemnity with refined and humanizing pleasures, seeking to win over and mitigate their fiery and warlike tempers. At times, also, he filled their imaginations with religious terrors, professing that strange apparitions had been seen, and dreadful voices heard j hus subduing and humbling their minds by a sense of supei- iatural fears. This method which Numa used made it believed that he had been much conversant with Pythagoras ; for in the philosopny of the one, as in the policy of the other, man's re- lations to the deity occupy a great place. It is said, also, that the solemnity of his exterior garb and gestures was adopted by him from the same feeling with Pythagoras. For it is said of Pythagoras, that he had taught an eagle to come at his call, and stoop down to him in its flight ; and that, as he passed among the people as.sembled at the Olympic games, io6 NUMA POMPILIUS. he showed them his golden thigh ; besides man}' other strange and miraculous seeming practices, on which Timon the Philasian wrote the distich, — Who, of the glory of a juggler proud, With solemn talk imposed upon the crowd. Tn like manner Numa spoke of a certain goddess or mountain nymph that was in love with him, and met him in secret, as before related ; and professed that he entertained familiar conversation with the Muses, to whose teaching he ascribed the greatest part of his revelations ; and amongst them, above all, he recommended to the veneration of the Romans one in particular, whom he named Tacita, the silent; which he did perhaps in imitation and honor of the Pythagorean silence. His opinion, also, of images is very agreeable to the doctrine of Pythagoras ; who conceived of the first principle of being as transcending sense and passion, invisible and in- corrupt, and only to be apprehended by abstract intelligence. So Numa forbade the Romans to represent God in the form of man or beast, nor was there any painted or graven image of a deity admitted amongst them for the space of the first hundred and seventy years, all which time their temples and chapels were kept free and pure from images ; to such baser objects they deemed it impious to liken the highest, and all access to God impossible, except by the pure act of the intel- lect. His sacrifices, also, had great similitude to the cere- monial of Pythagoras, for they were not celebrated with ef- fusion of blood, but consisted of flour, wine, and the least costly offerings. Other external proofs, too, are urged to show the connection Numa had with Pythagoras. The comic writer Epicharmus, an ancient author, and of the school of Pythagoras, in a book of his dedicated to Antenor, records that Pythagoras was made a freeman of Rome. Again, Numa gave to one of his four sons the name of Mamercus, which was the name of one of the sons of Pythagoras ; from whence, as they say, sprang that ancient patrician family of the ^miliij fci that the king gave him in sport the surname of ^milius, for ills engaging and graceful manner in speaking. I remember, too, that when I was at Rome, I heard many say, that, when the oracle directed two statues to be raised, one to the wisest, and another to the most valiant man in Greece, they erected two of brass, one representing Alcibiades, and the other Pythagoras. But to pass by these matters, which are full of uncertainty NUMA POMPILIUS. tO^ snd not so important as to be worth our time to insist on them, the original constitution of t!ie priests, called Pontifices, is ascribed unto Nunia, and he himself was, it is said, the first of them ; and that they have the name of Pontifices from foh'/is, powerful, because they attend the service of the gods, who have power and commarxi over all. Others make the v\ord refer to exceptions of impossible cases ; the priests weie U' perform all the duties possible to them ; if any thing lay beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled at. I'he most conmion opinion is the most absurd, which derives this word from pons, and assigns the priests the title of bridge-makers. The sacrifices performed on the bridge were amongst the most sacred and ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other public sacred office, to the priesthood. It was accounted not simply un- lawful, but a positive sacrilege, to pull down the wooden bridge ; which moreover is said, in obedience to an oracle, to have been built entirely of timber and fastened with wooden pins, without nails or cramps of iron. The stone bridge was built a very long time after, when ^milius was qungstor, and they do, indeed, say also that the wooden bridge was not so old as Numa's time, but was finished by Ancus Marcius, when he was king, who was the grandson of Numa by his daughter. The office of Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, was to declare and interpret the divine law, or, rather, to preside over sacred rites ; he not only prescribed rules for public ceremony, but regulated the sacrifices of private persons, not sufTering them to vary from established custom, and giving information to every one of what was requisite for purposes of worship or supplication. He was also guardian of the vestal virgins, the institution of whom, and of their perpetual fire, was attributed to Numa, who, perhaps, fancied the charge f>f pure and uncorrupted flames would be fitly intrusted to chaste and unpolluted persons, or that fire, which consumes, but produces nothing, bears an analogy to the virgin estate. in Greece, wherever a perpetual holy fire is kept, as at Del- phi and Athens, the charge of it is committed, not to virgins, but widows past the time of marriage. And in case by any accident it should happen that this fire became extinct, as the holy lamp was at Athens under the tyranny of Aristion, and at Delphi, when that temple was burnt by the Medes, as also in the time of the Mithridatic and Roman civil war, when not only the fire was extinguished, but the iltar demolished loy NUMA POMPILIUS. then, afterwards, in kindling this fire again, it was esteemed an impiety to light it from common sparks or fiame, or from any thing but the pure and unpolluted rays of the sun, which they usually effect by concave mirrors, of a figure formed by the revolution of an isosceles rectangular triangle, all the lines from the circumference of which meeting in a centre, by holding it in the light of the sun they can collect and coiv centrate all its rays at this one point of convergence ; where die air will now become rarefied, and any light, dry, combus tible matter will kindle as soon as applied, under the effect of the rays, which here acquired the substance and active force of fire. Some are of opinion that these vestals had no other business than the preservation of this fire ; but others conceive that they were keepers of other divine secrets concealed from all but themselves, of which we have told all that may lawfully be asked or told, in the life of Camil- lus. Gegania and Verenia, it is recorded, were the names of the first two virgins consecrated and ordained by Numa ^ Canuleia and Tarpeia succeeded ; Servius afterwards added two, and the number of four has continued to the present time. The statutes prescribed by Numa for the vestals were these : that they should take a vow of virginity for the space of thirty years, the first ten of which they were to spend in learning their duties, the second ten in performing them, and the remaining ten in teaching and instructing others. Thus the whole term being completed, it was lawful for them to marry, and, leaving the sacred order, to choose any condition of life that pleased them ; but this permission few, as they say, made use of ; and in cases where they did so, it was ob- served that their change was not a happy one, but accom- panied ever after with regret and melancholy ; so that the greater number, from religious fears and scruples, foibore, and continued to old age and death in the strict observance of a single life. For this condition he compensated by great privileges and prerogatives ; as that they had power to make a will in the lifetime of their father ; that they had a free administration of their own affairs without guardian or tutoi', which was the privilege of women who were the mothers of three children ; when they go abroad, they have the fasces carried before them ; and if in their walks they chance to meet a criminal on his way to execution, it saves his life, upon oath made that the meeting was an accidental one, and not concerted or of set purpose. Any one who pnjsses upon the chair or XUMA rOMI'ILIUS. log wliich they arc carried, is put to death. If these vestals com- mit any minor fault, they are punishable by the high-prie-^t only, who scourges the offender, sometimes with her clothes off, in a dark place, with a curtain drawn between ; but she that has broken her vow is buried alive near the gate called Oollina, where a little mound of earth stands, inside the city, reaching some little distance, called in Latin agger ; under it a narrow room .s constructed, to which a descent is made by stairs; here they prepare a bed, and light a lamp, and leave a small quantity of victuals, such as bread, water, a pail of milk, and some oil ; that so that body which had been conse- crated and devoted to the most sacred service of religion might not be said to perish by such a death as famine. The culprit herself is put in a litter, which they cover over, and tie her down with cords on it, so that nothing she utters may be heard. They then take her to the forum ; all people silently go out of the way as she passes, and such as follow accompany the bier with solemn and speechless sorrow ; and, indeed, there is not any spectacle more appalling, nor any day observed by the city with greater appearance of gloom and sadness. When they come to the place of execution, the officers loose the cords, and then the high-priest, lifting his hands to heaven, pronounces certain prayers to himself before the act ; then he brings out the prisoner, being still covered, and placing her upon the steps that lead down to the cell, turns away his face with the rest of the priests ; the stairs are drawn up after she has gone down, and a quantity of earth is heaped up over the entrance to the cell, so as to prevent it from being distinguished from the rest of the mound. This is the punishment of those who break their vov/ of virginity. It is said, also, that Numa built the temple of Vesta, which was intended for a repository of the holy fire, of a cir- cular form, no-t to represent the figure of the earth, as if that were the same as Vesta, but that of the general universe, in the centre of which the Pythagoreans place the element o( fire, and give it the name of Vesta and the unit; and do not hold that the earth is immovable, or that it is situated in the centre of the globe, but that it keeps a circular motion about the seat of fire, and is not in the number of the pri- mary elements . in this agreeing with the opinion of Plato, who, they say, in his later life, conceived that the earth held a lateral position, and that the central and sovereign space was reserved for some nobler body. no NUMA POMPILmS. There was yet a farther use of the priests, and that was to give people directions in the national usages at funeral rites. Numa taught them to regard these offices, not as a pollution, but as a duty paid to the gods below, into whose hands the better part of us is transmitted ; especially tliey were to worship the goddess Libitira, who presided over aU the ceremonies performed at burials; whether they mean' hereby Proserpina, or, as the most learned of the Romans conceive, Venus, not inaptly attributing the beginninjj and end of man's life to the agency of one and the same deity Nmna also prescribed rules for regulating the days of mourn- ing, according to certain times and ages. As, for example, a child of three years was not to be mourned for at all ; one older, up to ten years, for as many months as it was years old; and the longest time of mourning for any person what- soever was not to exceed the term of ten months ; which was the time appointed for women that lost their husbands to continue in widowhood. If any married again before that time, by the laws of Numa she was to sacrifice a cow big with calf. Numa, also, was founder of several other orders of priests, two of wh-ich I shall mention, the Salii and the Feciales, which are among the clearest proofs of the devoutness and sanctity of his character. These Fecials, or guardians of peace, seem to have had their name from their office, which was to put a stop to disputes by conference and speech : for it was not allowable to take up arms until they had declared all hopes of accommodation to be at an end. for in Greek, too, we call it peace when disputes are settled by words, and not by force. The Romans commonly de- spatched the Fecials, or heralds, to those who had offered them injury, requesting satisfaction ; and, in case they re- fused, they then called the gods to witness, and, with impre- i:a*.ions upon themselves and their country should they be act'ng unjustly, so declared war; against their will, or with- out their consent, it was lawful neither for soldier nor king to take up arms ; the war was begun with them, and when they had first handed it over to the commander as a just quail el, then his business was to deliberate of the manner and ways to carry it on. It is believed that the slaughter and destruction which the Gauls made of the Romans was a judgment on the city for neglect of this religious proceeding ; for that when these barbarians besieged the Clusinians, f abius Ambustus was despatched to their camp to negotiate (NOMA POMPILIUS. Ill peace for the besieged ; and, on their returning a rude refusal, FabiLis imagined that his office of ambassador was at an end, and, rashly engaging on the side of the Clusinians, challenged the bravest of the enemy to a single combat. It was the fortune of Fabius to kill his adversary, and to take his spoils ; bvt when the Gauls discovered it, they sent a herald to Rome to complain against him ; since, before war was declared, he had, against the law of nations, made a breach of the peace. The matter being debated in the senate, the Fecials were of opinion that Fabius ought to be consigned into the hands of the Gauls ; but he, being forewarned of their judgment, f^ed to the people, by whose protection and favor he escaped the sentence. On this, the Gauls marched with their army to Rome, where having taken the capitol, they sacked the city. The particulars of all which are fully given in the history of Camillus. The origin of the Salii is this. In the eighth year of th.e reign of Numa, a terrible pestilence, which traversed all Italy ravaged Hkewise the city of Rome ; and the citizens being in distress and despondent, a brazen target, they say, fell from heaven into hands of Numa, who gave them this marvellous account of it : that Egeria and the Muses had assured him it was sent from heaven for the cure and safety of the city, and that, to keep it secure, he was ordered by them to make eleven others, so like in dimensions and form to the original that no thief should be able to distinguish the true from the counterfeit. He farther declared, that he was commanded to consecrate to the Muses the place, and the fields about it, where they had been chiefly wont to meet with him, and that the spring which watered the fields should be hallowed for the use of the vestal virgins, who were to wash and cleanse the penetralia of their sanctuary with those holy waters. The truth of all which was speedily verified by the cessation of the pestilence. Numa displayed the target to the artificers. and bade them show their skill in making others like it; al! despaired, until at length one Mamurius Veturius, an excel- ieiit workman, happily hit upon it, and made all so exactly the same that Numa himself was at a loss, and could not distin- guish. The keeping of these targets was committed to the charge of certain priests, called Salii, who did not receive their name, as some tell the stor}', from Salius, a dancing- master, born in Samothrace, or at Mantinea, who taught the way of dancing in arms ; but more truly from that jumping dance which the Salii themselves use, when in the month of 112 NUMA POMPILIUS. March they carry the sacred targets through the city ; at which procession they are habited in short frocks of pur- ple, girt with a broad belt studded with brass ; on their hej^ds they wear s brass helmet, and carry in their bands short dag- gers, which they clash every now and then against the targets. But the chief thing is the dance itself. They move with much grace, performing, in quick time and close order, various in- tricate figures, with a great display of strength and agility, 'J'he targets were called Ancilia from their form ; for they are not made round, nor like proper targets, of a complete cir- cumference, but are cut out into a wavy line, the ends of which are rounded off and turned in at the thickest part to- wards each other ; so that their shape is curvilinear, or in Greek, ancylon ; or the name may come from ancon, the elbow, on which they are carried. Thus Juba writes, who is eager to make it Greek. But it might be for that matter, from its having come down atiecathen, from above ; or from its akesis, or cure of diseases ; or auchmofi lysis, because it put an end to a drought ; or from its anaschcsis, or relief from calamities, which is the origin of the Athenian name Anaces, given to Castor and Pollux ; if we must, that is, reduce it to Greek. The reward which Mamurius received for his art was to be mentioned and commemorated in the verses which the Salii sang, as they danced in their arms through the city ; though some will have it that they do not say Veturium Mamurium, but Veterem Memoriam, ancient remembrance. After Numa had in this manner instituted these several orders of priests, be erected, near the temple of Vesta, what is called to this day Regia, or king's house, where he spent the most part of his time, perfortning divine service, instruct- ing the priests, or conversing with them on sacred subjects. He had another house upon the Mount Quirinalis, the s^ite of which they show to this day. In all public processions and solemn prayers, criers were sent before to give notice to the people that they should forbear their work, and rest. They say that the Pythagoreans did not allow people to worship and pray to their gods by the way, but would have them go out from their houses direct, with their minds set upon the duty, and so Numa, in like manner, wished that his citizens should neither see nor hear any religious service in a per- functory and inattentive manner, but, laying aside all other occupations, should apply their minds to religion as to a most serious business ; and that the streets should be free from ali noises and cries that accompany manual labor, and clear foi NUMA POMPILIUS. I 13 the sacred solemnity. Some traces of this custom remain at Rome to this day, for, when the consul begins to take auspi- ces or do sacrifice, they call out to the people, Hoc age, At- tend to this, whereby the auditors then present are admonish- ed to compose and recollect themselves. Many other ot his pre cepts resemble those of the Pythagoreans. The Pythagoreans said, for example, " Thou shalt not make a peck-measure th} seat to sit on. Thou shalt not stir the fire with a sword. When thou goest out upon a journey, look not behind thee. When thou sacrificest to the celestial gods, let it be with an odd number, and when to the terrestrial, with even." The significance of each of which precepts they would not commonly disclose. So some of Numa's traditions have no obvious meaning, " Thou shalt not make libation to the gods of wine from an unpruned vine. No sacrifices shall be performed without meal. Turn round to pay adoration to the gods ; sit after you have worshipped." The first two directions seem to de- note the cultivation and subduing of the earth as a part of religion ; and as to the turning which the worshippers are to use in divine adoration, it is said to represent the rota- tory motion of the world. But, in my opinion, the meaning rather is, that the worshipper, since the temples front the east, enters with his back to the rising sun ; there, faces round to the east, and so turns back to the god of the temple, by this circular movement referring the fulfilment of his pray- ers to both divinities. Unless, indeed, this change of posture may have a mystical meaning, like the Egyptian \\«iieels, and signify to us the instability of human fortune, and that, in whatever way God changes and turns our lot and condition, we should rest contented, and accept it as right and fitting. They say, also, that the sitting after worship was to be by way of omen of their petitions being granted, and the bless- ing they asked assured to them. Again, as different courses of actions are divided by intervals of rest, they might seat themselves after the completion of what they had dcr.e. to seek favor of the gods for beginning something else. And tliis would very well suit with what we had before ; the law- giver wants to habituate us to make our petitions to the deity not by the way, and as it were, in a hurry, when we have other things to do, but with time and leisure to attend to it By such discipline and schooling in religion, the city passed insensibly into such a submissiveness of temper, and stood in such awe and reverence of the virtue of Numa, that they re- ceived, with an undoubted assurance, whatever he dclivr-'d. il4 NUMA POMPILIUS. though never so fabulous, and thought nothlr.g incredible oi impossible from him. There goes a story that he once invited a great number of ritizens to an entertainment, at which the dishes in which ihe meat was served were very homely and plain, and the re- l)ast itself poor and ordinary fare ; the guests seated, he be- g;an to tell them that the goddess that consulted with him was (.hen at that time come to him ; when on a sudden the room was furnished with all sorts of costly drinking-vessels, and the tables loaded with rich meats, and a most sumptuous en- tertainment. But the dialogue which is reported to have passed between him and Jupiter surpasses all the fabulous legends that were ever invented. They say that before Mount Aventine was inhabited or enclosed within the walls of the city, two demigods, Picus and Faunus, frequented the springs and thick shades of that place ; which might be two satyrs, or Pans, except that they went about Italy playing the same sorts of tricks, by skill in drugs and magic, as are ascribed by the Greeks to the Dactyli of Mount Ida. Numa contrived one day to surprise these demi-gods, by mixing wine and honey in the waters of the spring of which they usually drank. On finding themselves ensnared, they changed themselves into various shapes, dropping their own form and assuming every kind of unusual and hideous appearance ; but when they saw they were safely entrapped, and in no possibility of getting free, they revealed to him many secrets and future events ; and particularly a charm for thunder and lightning, still in use, performed with onions and hair and pilchards. Some say they did not tell him the charm, but by their magic brought down Jupiter out of heaven ; and that he then, in an angry manner answering the inquiries, told Numa, that, if he would charm the thunder and lightning, he must do it with heads. "How," said Numa, " with the heads of onions,!*'* ''No," replied Jupiter, "of men." But Numa, willing to elude the cruelty of this receipt, turned it another way, say- ing, " Your meaning is, the hairs of men's heads." " No," replied Jupiter, " with living" " pilchards," said Numa, i.nterrupting him. These answers he had learnt from Egeria. Jupiter returned again to heaven, pacified an ileos, or pro- pitious. The place was, in remembrance of him, called Ilici" um, from this Greek word ; and the spell in this manner elfected. These stories, laughable as they are, show us the feelings which people then, by force of habit, entertained towards the NUMA POMPILIUS. IIS deity. And Numa's own thoughts are sa'd to have been fixed to that degree on divine objects, that he once, when a message was brought to him that " Enemies are approach- ing," answered with a smile, "And I am sacrificing." It was he, also, that built the temples of Faith and Terminus, and taught the Romans that the name of Faith was the most solerim oath that they could swear. They still use it ; and to the god Terminus, or Boundary, they offer to this day both pu>)- lic and private sacrifices, upon the borders and stone-marks ot their land ; living victims now, though anciently those sacrifices were solemnized without blood ; for Numa reasoned that the god of boundaries, who watched over peace, and testified to fair dealing, should have no concern with blood. It is very clear that it was this king who first prescribed bounds to the territory of Rome ; for Romulus would but have openly be- trayed how much he had encroached on his neighbors' lands, had he ever set limits to his own ; for boundaries are, indeed, a defence to those who choose to observe them, but are only a testimony against the dishonesty of those who break through them. The truth is, the portion of lands which the Romans possessed at the beginning was very narrow, until Romulus enlarged them by war ; all those acquisitions Numa now divided amongst the indigent commonalty, wishing to do away with that extreme want which is a compulsion to dis- honesty, and, by turning the people to husbandry, to bring them, as well as their lands, into better order. For there is no employment that gives so keen and quick a relish for peace as husbandry and a country life, which leave in men all that kind of courage that makes them ready to fight in defence of their own, while it destroys the license that breaks out into acts of injustice and rapacity. Numa, therefore, hoping agri- culture would be a sort of charm to captivate the affections of his people to peace, and viewing it rather as a means to moral than to economical profit, divided all the lands into sev- eral parcels, to which he gave the name of pagiis, or parish, and over every one of them he ordained chief overseers \ •md, taking a delight sometimes to inspect his colonies in person, he formed his judgment of every man's habits by the results; of which being witness himself, he preferred those to honors and employments who had done well, and by re- bukes and reproaches incited the indolent and careless to im- pro/ement. But of all his measures the most commended wa his distribution of the people by their trades into com pa eUer to consist in riches, luxury, and dominion, rather than in security, gentleness, and that independence which is accompanied by justice. ]rIow« ever, it makes much for Lycurgus, that, after the Romans had deserted the doctrine and discipline of Numa, their empire grew and their power increased so much ; whereas so soon as the Lacedemonians fell from the institutions of Lycurgus, they sank from the highest to the lowest state, and, after forfeiting their supremacy over the rest of Greece, were themselves in danger of absolute extirpation. Thus much, meantime, was peculiarly signal and almost divine in the circumstances of SOLON. 127 Numa, that he was an alien, and yet courted to con^e and ac- cept a kingdom, the frame of which though he entirely altered, yet he performed it by mere persuasion, and ruled a (ity that as yet had scarce become one city, without recurring to arms or any violence (such as Lycurgus used, supporting himself by the aid of the nobler citizens against the commonalty), but by mere force of wisdom and justice, established union and harmony amongst all. SOLON, n t>' ■''^^'"' DiDYMUS, the grammarian, in his answer to Asclepiades concerning Solon's Tables of Law, mentions a passage of one Philocles, who states that Solon's father's name was Eupho- rion, contrary to the opinion of all others who have written concerning him ; for they generally agree that he was the son of Execestides, a man of moderate wealth and power in the city, but of a most noble stock, being descended from Codrus ; his mother, as Heraclides Ponticus affirms, was cousin to Pisistratus's mother, and the two at first were great friends, partly because they were akin, and partly because of Pisis- tratus's noble qualities and beauty. And they say Solon loved him ; and that is the reason, I suppose, that when afterwards they differed about the government, their enmity never produced any hot and violent passion, they remembered their old kindnesses, and retained — Still in its embers living the strong fire of their love and dear affection. For that Solon was not pioof against beauty, nor of courage to stand up to passion and meet it. Hand to hand as in the ring — A'e may conjecture by his poems, and one of his laws, in which the-c are practices forbidden to slaves, which he would appear, therefore, to recommend to freemen. Pisistratus, it is stated, was similarly attached to one Charmus ; he it was who dedicated the figure of Love in the Academy, where the runners in the sacred torch race light their torches, Solon, as Hermippus writes, when his father had ruined his estate in doing benefits and kindnesses to other men, though he haa i28 SOLON. friends enough that were willing to contribute to his relief, yet was ashamed to be beholden to others, since he was de scended from a family who were accustomed to do kindnesses rather than receive them ; and therefore applied himself to merchandise in his youth ; though others assure us that he travelled rather to get learning and experience than to make money. It is certain that he was a lover of knowledge, for when he was old he would say, that he Each day grew older, and learnt something new ; aiid yet no admirer of riches, esteeming as equally wealthy tho man, — Who hath both gold and silver in his hand, Horses and mules, and acres of wheat -land, And him whose all is decent food to eat. Clothes to his back and shoes upon his feet. And a young wife and child, since so 'twill be. And no more years than will with that agree ; and in another place, — Wealth I would have, but wealth by wrong procure I would not ; justice, e'en if slow, is sure. And it is perfectly possible for a good man and a statesman, without being solicitous for superfluities, to show some con- cern for competent necessaries. In his time, as Hesiod says, — " Work was a shame to none," nor was any distinction made with respect to trade, but merchandise was a noble calling, which brought home the good things which the bar- barous nations enjoyed, was the occasion of friendship with their kings, and a great source of experience. Some mer- chants have built great cities, as Protis,the founder of Massilia, to whom the Gauls, near the Rhone, were much attached. Some report, also, that Thales and Hippocrates the mathema- tician traded ; and that Plato defrayed the charges of Lis travels by selling oil in Egypt. Solon's softness and profuse- ness, his popular rather than philosophical tone about pleasure in his poems, have been ascribed to his trading life ; for, having suffered a thousand dangers, it was natural they should be recompensed with some gratifications and enjoyrrents ; but that he accounted himself rather poor than rich is e/ideai from the lines. Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor. We will not change our virtue for their store ; Virtue's a thing that none can take away ; But money changes owners all the day. SOLON. I2g At first he used his poetry only in trifles, not for any seri- ous purpose, but simply to pass away his .die hcurs ; but afterwards he introduced moral sentences and state matters, dy of his debtor for security. Though some, as Androtion, affirm that the debts were not cancelled, but the interest only lesser-.ed, which sufficiently pleased the people ; so that they named this benefit the Seisacthea, together with the enlarging their measures, and raising the value of their money ; for he made a pound, which bt;fore passed for seventy-three drach- mas, go for a hundred ; so that, though the number of pieces in the payment was equal, the value was less; which proved a considerable benefit to those that were to dischsrge great 138 SOLON. debts, and no loss to the creditors. But most agree that it was the taking off the debts that was called Seisacthea, which is confirmed by some places in his poem, where he takes honor to himself, that The mortgage-stones that covered her, by me Removed, — the land that was a slave is free : that some who had been seized for their debts he had brought back from other countries, where — sc far their lot to roam. They had forgot the language of their home ; and some he had set at liberty, — Who here in shameful servitude were held. While he was designing this, a most vexatious thing hap- pened ; for when he had resolved to take off the debts, and was considering the proper form and fit beginning for it, he told some of his friends, Conon, Clinias, and Hipponicus, in whom he had a great deal of confidence, that he would not meddle with the lands, but only free the people from their debts ; upon which, they, using their advantage, made haste and borrowed some considerable sums of money, and pur- chased some large farms ; and when the law was enacted, they kept the possessions, and would not return the money ; which brought Solon into great suspicion and dislike, as if he himself had not been abused, but was concerned in the con- trivance. But he presently stopped this suspicion, by releas- ing his debtors of five talents (for he had lent so much), ac- cording to the law ; others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, say fifteen ; his friends, however, were ever afterward called Chreocopidag, repudiators. In this he pleased neither party, for the rich were angry for their money, and the poor that the land was not divided, and, as Lycurgus ordered in his commonwealth, all men re- duced to equality. He, it is true, being the eleventh from Hercules, and having reigned many years in Lacedaemon, had got a great reputation and friends and power, which he could use in modelling his state ; and applying force more than per- suasion, insomuch that he lost his eye in the scuf^e, was ab.'e. to employ the most effectual means for the safety and harmony of a state, by not permitting any to be poor or rich in his commonwealth. Solon could not rise to that in his polity, be- ing but a citizen of the middle classes ; yet he acted fully up to the height of his power, having nothing but the good-will SOLON. 139 and good opinion of his citizens to rely on ; and that he offended the most part, who looked for another result, he declares in the words, Formerly they boasted of me vainly ; with averted eyes Now they look askance upon me : friends no more, but enemies. And yet had any other man, he says, received the same power, lie would not have forborne, nor let alone, But made the fattest of the milk his own. Soon, however, becoming sensible of the good that was done, they laid by their grudges, made a public sacrifice, calling it Seisacthea, and chose Solon to new-model and makes laws for the commonwealth, giving him the entire power over every thing, their magistracies, their assemblies, courts, and councils ; that he should appoint the number, times of meet- ing, and what estate they must have that could be capable of these, and dissolve or continue any of the present constitu- tions, according to his pleasure. First, then, he repealed all Draco's laws, except those concerning homicide, because they were too severe, and the punishments too great; for death was appointed for almost all offences, insomuch that those that were convicted of idleness were to die, and those that stole a cabbage or an apple to suffer even as villains that committed sacrilege or murder. So that Demades, in after time, was thought to have said very happily, that Draco's laws were written not with ink but blood ; and he himself, being once asked why he made death the punishment of most offences, replied, " Small ones deserve that, and I have no higher for the greater crimes." Next, Solon, being willing to continue the magistracies in the hands of the rich men, and yet receive the people into the other part of the government, took an account of the citizen's estates, and those that were worth five hundred measures of fruit, dry and liquid, he placed in the first rank, calling them Pentacosiomedimni ; those that could keep an horse, or were worth three hundred measures, were named Hippada Teluntes, and made the second class; the Z-^ugitas, that had two hundred measures, were in the third ; :.nd all the others were called Thetes, who were not admitted to any office, but could come to the assembly, and act as jurors ; which at first seemed nothing, but afterwards was found an enormous privilege, as almost every matter of dispute came before them in this latter capacity. Even in the cases which r40 SOLON he assigned to the archon's cognizance, he allowed an appeal to the courts. Besides, it is said that he was obscure and ambiguous in the wording of his laws, on purpose to increase the honor of his courts ; for since their diffe-rences could not be adjusted by the letter, they would have to bring all their causes to the judges, who thus were in a manner masters ct* the laws. Of this equalization he himself makes mention j this manner : Such power I gave the people as might do, Abridged not what they had, now lavished new. Those that were great in wealth and high in place, My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace. Before them both I held my shield of might, And let not either touch the other's right. And for the greater security of the weak commons, he gave general liberty of indicting for an act of injury; if anyone was beaten, maimed, or suffered any violence, any man that would and was able, might prosecute the wrongdoer ; intend- ing by this to accustom the citizens, like members of the same body, to resent and be sensible of one another's injuries. And there is a saying of his agreeable to his law, for, being asked what city was best modell'ea, " That," said he, " where those that are not injured try and punish the unjust as much as those that are." When he had constituted the Areopagus of those who had been yearly archons of which he himself was a member therefore, observing that the people, now free from their debts, were unsettled and imperious, he formed another coun- cil of four hundred, a hundred out of each of the four tribes, which was to inspect all matters before they were propounded to the people, and to take care that nothing but what had been first examined should be brought before the general assembly. The upper council, or Areopagus, he made in- 'ipectors and keepers of the laws, conceiving that the com monwealth, held by these two councils, like anchors, would be less liable to be tossed by tumults, and the people be more quiet. Such is the general statement, that Solon insti- tuted the Areopagus ; which seems to be confirmed, because Draco makes no mention of the Areopagites, but in all causes of blood refers to the Ephetae ; yet Solon's thirteenth table contains the eighth law set down in these very words : " Wno- ever before Solon's archonship were disfranchised, let them be restored, except those that, being condemned by the Are- opagus. Ephetae, or in the Prytaneum by the kings, fur homi SOLON. 141 cide, murder, or designs against the government, were in banishment when this law was made ; " and these words seem to show that the Areopagus existed before Solon's law>, for who could be condemned by that council before his time, if he was the first that instituted the court? unless, which is probable, there is some ellipsis, or want of precision in the language, and it should run thus : — " Those that are corj- victed of such offences as belong to the cognizance of the Areopagites, Ephetae, or the Prytanes, when this law was made, ' shall remain still in disgrace, whilst others are re- stored; of this the reader must judge. Amongst his others laws, one is very peculiar and sur- prising, which disfranchises all who stand neuter in a sedi-'v.*^^^ tion ; for it seems he would not have any one remain insen- "^ sible and regardless of the public good, and securing his private affairs, glory that he has no feeling of the distempers of his country ; but at once join with the good party and those that have the right upon their side, assist and venture with them, rather than keep out of harm's way and watch who would get the better. It seems an absurd and foolish law which permits an heiress, if her lawful husband fail her, to take his nearest kinsman ; yet some say this law was well contrived against those who, conscious of their own unfitness, yet, for the sake of the portion, would match with heiresses, and make use of law to put a violence upon nature ; for now, since she can quit him for whom she pleases, they would either abstain from such marriages, or continue them with disgrace, and suffer for their covetousness and designed affront ; it is well done, moreover, to confine her to her hus- band's nearest kinsman, that the children may be of the same family. Agreeable to this is the law that the bride and bridegroom shall be shut into a chamber, and eat a quince together ; and that the husband of an heiress shall consort with her thrice a month ; for though there be no children, yet it is an honor and due affection which an husband ought :o pay to a virtuous, chaste wife ; it takes off all petty differ- ences, and will not permit their little quarrels to proceed to a rr.pture. In all other marriages he forbade dowries to be given j the wife was to have three suits of clothes, a little inconsider- able household stuff, and that was all ; for he would not have marriages contracted for gain or an estate, but for pure love, kind affection, and birrh of children. When the mother of Dionysius desired him to marry her to one of his citizens 142 SOLON. "Indeed," said he, "by my tyranny I have broken my coun tr5''s laws, but cannot put a violence upon those of nature by an unseasonable marriage." Such disorder is never to be suf fered in a commonwealth, nor such unseasonable and unlov- ing and unperforming marriages, which attain no due end or fruit ; any provident governor or lawgiver might say to an old man that takes a young wife what is said to Philoctetes in the tragedy,— Truly, in a fit state thou to marry 1 and if he finds a young man, with a rich and elderly wife, growing fat in his place, like the partridges, remove him to a young woman of proper age. And of this enough. Another commendable law of Solon's is that which forbids men to speak evil of the dead ; for it is pious to think the de- ceased sacred, and just, not to meddle with those that are gone, and politic, to prevent the perpetuity of discord. He likewise forbade them to speak evil of the living in the tem- ples, the courts of justice, the public offices, or at the games, or else to pay three drachmas to the person, and two to the public. For never to be able to control passion shows a weak nature and ill-breeding ; and always to moderate it is very hard, and to some impossible. And laws must look to possibilities, if the maker designs to punish few in order to their amendment, and not many to no purpose. He is likewise much commended for his law concerning wills ; for before him none could be made, but all the wealth and estate of the deceased belonged to his family ; but he by per- mitting them, if they had no children, to bestow it on whom they pleased, showed that he esteemed friendship a stronger tie than kindred, and afifection than necessity ; and made every man's estate truly his own. Yet he allowed not all sorts of legacies, but those only which were not extorted by the frenzy of a disease, charms, imprisonment, force, or the persuasions of a wife ; with good reason thinking that being seduced into wrong was as bad as being forced, and that be- tween deceit and necessity, flattery and compulsion, thert was little difference, since both may equally suspend the ex- ercise of reason. He regulated the walks, feasts, and mourning of the women, and took away every thing that was either unbecom- ing or immodest ; when they walked abroad, no more than three articles of dress were allowed them ; an obol's worth of meat and drink ; and no basket above a cubit high ; and at SOLON. 143 night they were not to go about unless in a chariot with a torch before them. Mourners tearing themselves to raise pity, and set wailings, and at one man's funeral to lament for another, he forbade. To offer an ox at the grave was not permitted, nor to bury above three pieces of dress with the body, or visit the tombs of any besides their own family, un* less at the very funeral ; most of which are likewise forbidden by our laws, but this is further added in ours, that those thai are convicted of extravagance in their mournings, are to be punished as soft and effeminate by the censors of women. Observing the city to be filled with persons that flocked from all parts into Attica for security of living, and that most of the country was barren and unfruitful, and that traders at sea import nothing to those that could give them nothing in exchange, he turned his citizens to trade, and made a law that no son be obliged to relieve a father who had not bred him up to any calling. It is true, Lycurgus, having a city free from all strangers, and land, according to Euripides, Large for large hosts, for twice their number much, and, above all, an abundance of laborers about Sparta, who sliould not be left idle, but be kept down with continual toil and work, did well to take off his citizens from laborious and mechanical occupations, and keep them to their arms, and teach them only the art of war. But Solon, fitting his laws to the state of things, and not making things to suit his laws, and finding the ground scarce rich enough to maintain the husbandmen, and altogether incapable of feeding an unoc- cupied and leisured multitude, brought trades into credit, and ordered the Areopagites to examine how every man got his living, and chastise the idle. But that law was yet more rigid which, as Heraclides Ponticus delivers, declared the sons of unmarried mothers not obliged to relieve their fathers ; for he :hat avoids the honorable form of union shows that he does not take a woman for children, but for pleasure, and thus geit his just reward, and has Laken away from himself every title to upbraid his children, to whom he has made their very birth a scandal and reproach, Solon's laws in general about women are his strangest ; foi he permitted any one to kill an adulterer that found him in the act ; but if any one forced a free woman, a hundred drachmas was the fine; if he enticed her, twenty; except those that sell themselves openly, that is, harlots, who go openly to those that hue them. He made it unlawful to sell f \4 SOLON, a daughter or a sister, unless, being yet unmnrried, she wns found wanton. Now it is irrational to punish the same crime sometimes very severely and without remorse, and sometimes very lightly, and as it were in sport, with a trivial fine ; unless there being little money then in Athens, scarcity made those mulcts the more grievous punishment. In the valuation for sacrifices, a sheep and a bushel were both estimated at a drachma; the victor in the Isthmian games, was to have foi reward an hundred drachmas ; the conqueror in the Olympian, five hundred ; he that brought a wolf, five drachmas ; for a whelp, one ; the former sum, as Demetrius the Phalerian as- serts, was the value of an ox, the latter, of a sheep. The prices which Solon, in his sixteenth table, sets on choice vic- tims, were naturally far greater ; yet they, too, are very lew in comparison of the present. The Athenians were, from the beginning, great enemies to wolves, their fields being better for pasture than corn. Some affirm their tribes did not take their names from the sons of Ion, but from the dif- ferent sorts of occupation that they followed ; the soldiers were called Hoplitae, the craftsmen Ergades, and, of the re- maining two, the farmers Gedeontes, and the shepherds and graziers yEgicores. Since the country has but few rivers, lakes, or large springs, and many used wells which they had dug, there was a law made, that, where there was a public well within a hippi- fon, that is, four furlongs, all should draw at that ; but when it was farther oflf, they should try and procure a well of their own ; and if they had dug ten fatnom deep and could find no water, they had liberty to fetch a pitcherful of four gallons and a half in a day from their neighbors' ; for he thought it prudent to make provision against want, but not to supply laziness. He showed skill in his orders about planting, for any one that would plant another tree was not to set it within five feet of his neighbor's field ; but if a fig or an olive, not within nine ; for their roots spread farther, nor can they be planted near all sorts of trees without damage, for they draw away the nourishment, and in some cases are noxious by their effluvia. He that would dig a pit or a ditch was to dig it at the distance of its own depth from his neighbor's ground and he that would raise stocks of bees was not to place thern within three hundred feet of those which another had already raised. He permitted only oil to be exported, and those that ex« ported any other fruit, the archon was' soleiunly to curse, or «lse pay an hundred drachmas himself ; and this law was ivritten in his first table, and, therefore, let none think, it in- credible, as some affirm, that the exportation of figs was once unlawful, and the informer against the delinquents called a sycophant. He made a law, also, concerning hurts and inju- ries from beasts, in which he commands the master of any dug that bit a man to deliver him up with a log about his neck, four and a half feet long ; a happy device for men's security. The law concerning naturalizing strangers is of doubtful character; he permitted only those to be made free of Athens who were in perpetual exile from their own country, or came with their whole family to trade there ; this he did, not to discourage strangers, but rather to invite them to a permanent participa- tion in the privileges of the government ; and, besides, he thought those would prove the more faithful citizens who had been forced from their own country, or voluntarily forsook it. The law of public entertainment {parasifcin is his name for it) is also peculiarly Solon's ; for if any man came often, or if he that was invited refused, they were punished, for he con- cluded that one was greedy, the other a contemner of the state. All his laws he established for an hundred years, and wrote them on wooden tables or rollers, named axones, which might be turned round in oblong cases ; some of their relics were in my time still to be seen in the Prytaneum, or common hall, at Athens. These, as Aristotle states, were called cyr- bes, and there is a passage of Cratinus the comedian, By Solon, and by Draco, if you please, Whose Cyrbes make the fires that parch our peas. But some say those are properly cyrbes, which contain laws concerning sacrifices and the rites of religion, and all the others axones. The council all jointly svrore to confirm the laws, and every one of the Thesmotheta vov/ed for himself at the stone in the marketplace, that if he broke any of the statutes, he would dedicate a golden statue, as big as himself, at Delphi Observing the irregularity of the months, and that th?. moon does not always rise and set with the sun, but often in the same day overtakes and gets before him, he ordered the day should be named the Old and New, attributing that part of it which was before the coniunction to the old moon, and the rest to the new, he being the first, it seems, that under- Stood that verse of Homer, The end and the beginning of the month. 146 SCLON. and the following dfiy he called the new moon. After tha twentieth he did not count by addition, but, like the moon itself in its wane, by subtraction ; thus up to the thirtieth. Now when these laws were enacted, and some came to So Ion every day, to commend or dispraise them, and to advisCj if possible, to leave out, or put in something, and many criti- cised, and desire him to explain, and tell the meaning of such and such a passage, he, knowing that to do it was useless, and uot to do it would get him ill-will, and desirous to bring him- self out of all straits, and to escape all displeasure and ex- ceptions, it being a hard thing, as he himself says, In great affairs to satisfy all sides, as an excuse for travelling, bought a trading vessel, and, having leave for ten years' absence, departed, hoping that by that time his laws would have become familiar. His first voyage was for Egypt, and he lived, as he himself says, Near Nilus' mouth, by fair Canopus' shore, and spent some time in study with Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis the Saite, the most learned of all the priests ; from whom, as Plato says, getting knowledge of the Atlantic story, he put it into a poem, and proposed to bring it to the knowledge of the Greeks. From thence he sailed to Cyprus, where he was made much of by Philocyprus, one of the kings there, who had a small city built by Demophon, Theseus's son, near the river Clarius, in a strong situation, but incom- modius and uneasy of access. Solon persuaded him, since there lay a fair plain below, to remove, and build there a pleasanter and more spacious city. And he stayed himself, and assisted in gathering inhabitants, and in fitting it both for defence and convenience of living ; insomuch that many flocked to Philocyprus, and the other kings imitated the design ; and, therefore, to honor Solon, he called the city Soli, which was formerly named ^pea. And Solon him.self, in his Elegies, addressing Philocyprus, mentions this founda- tion in these words — Long may you live, and fill the Solian throne, Succeeded still by children of your own ; And from your hajjpy island while I sail, Let Cyprus send for me a favoring gale; May she advance, and bless your new command, Prosper your town, and send me safe to land. That Solon should discourse with Croesus, some think no? SOLON. 147 Egreeable with chronology ; but I cannot reject so famous and well-attested a narrative, and, what is more, so agreeable to Solon's temper, and so worthy his wisdom and greatness of mind, because, forsooth, it does not agree with some chronological canons, which thousands have endeavored to regulate, and yet, to this day, could never bring their diftvir- ing opinions to any agreement. They say, therefore, that SoloR coming to Croesus at his request, was in the same condition as an inland man when first he goes to see the sea ; for as he fancies every river he meets with to be the ocean, so Solon, as he passed through the court, and saw a great many nobles richly dressed, and proudly attended with a multitude of guards and footboys, thought every one had been the king, till he was brought to Crcesus, who was decked with every possible rarity and curiosity, in ornaments of jewels, purple, and gold, that could make a grand and gorgeous spectacle of him. Now when Solon came before him, and seemed not at all surprised, nor gave Croesus those compliments he expect- ed, but showed himself to all discerning eyes to be a man that despised the gaudiness and petty ostentation of it, he commanded them to open all his treasure houses, and carry him to see his aumptuous furniture and luxuries, though he did not wish it / Solon could judge of him well enough by the first sight of him ; and, when he returned from viewing all, Crcesus asked him if ever he had known a happier man than r^ he. And when Solon answered that he had known one Tellus, a fellow-citizen of his own, and told him that this Tellus had been an honest man, had had good children, a competent estate, and died bravely in battle for his country, Croesus took him for an ill-bred fellow and a fool, for not measuring happiness by the abundance of gold and silver, and preferring the life and death of a private and mean man before so much power and empire. He asked him, however, again, if, besides Tellus, he knew any other man more happy. And Solon replying. Yes, Cleobis and Biton, who were loving brothers, and extremely dutiful sons to their mother, and, when the oxen delayed her, harnessed themselves to the wagon, and drew her to Juno's temple, her neighbors all calling her happy, and she herself rejoicing ; then, after sacrificing and feasting, they went to rest, and never rose again, but died in the midst of their honor a painless and tranquil death, " What," said Crcesus, angrily, " and dost not thou reckon us amongst the happy men at all .'' " Solon, unwilling either tc flatter or exasperate him more, replied, " The gods, O king, 1 48 SOLON. have given the Greeks all other gifts in moderate degree ; and so our wisdom, too, is a cheerful and a homely, not a noble and kingly wisdom ; and this, observing the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions, forbids us to grow in- solent upon our present e ijoyments, or to admire any man's happiness that may yet, in course of time, suffer change. For the uncertain future has yet to come, with every possible variety of fortune ; and him only to whom the divinity has continued happiness unto the end, we call happy; to salute as happy one that is still in the midst of life a.id hazard, we think as little safe and conclusive as to crown and proclaim as victorious the wrestler that is yet in the ring." After this, he was dismissed, having given Croesus some pain, but no instruction. ^sop, who wrote the fables, being then at Sard is upon Croesus's invitation, and very much esteemed, was concerned that Solon was so ill received, and gave him this advice : " Solon, let your converse with kings be either short or sea- sonable." " Nay, rather," replied Solon, " either short or rea- sonable." So at this time Croesus despised Solon ; but when he was overcome by Cyrus, had lost his city, was taken alive, condemned to be burnt, and laid bound upon the pile before all the Persians and Cyrus himself, he cried out as loud as possibly he could three times, " O Solon ! " and Cyrus being surprised, and sending some to inquire what man or god this Solon was, who alone he invoked in this extermity, Croesus told him the whole story, saying, " He was one of the wise men of Greece, whom I sent for, not to be instructed, or to learn any thing that I wanted, but that he should see and be a witness of my happiness ; the loss of which was, it seems, to be a greater evil than the enjoyment was a good ; for when I had them they were goods only in opinion, but now the loss of them has brought upon me intolerable and real evils. And he, conjecturing from what then was, this that now is, bade Look to the end of my life, and not rely and grow i)roud upon uncertainties." When this was told Cyrus, who was a wisei man then Croesus, and saw in the present example Solon's maxim confirmed, he not only freed Croesus from punishment, but honored him as long as he lived ; and Solon had the glory, by the same saying, to save one king and instruct an- other. When Solon was gone, the citizens began to quarrel ; Lycurgus headed the Plain ; Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, those to the Sea-side ; and Pisistratus the Hill-party, in which SOLON. 1 49 ^ere (he poorest people, the Thetes, and greatest enemies to the rich ; insomuch that, though the city still used the new laws, yet all looked for and desired a change of government, hoping severally that the change would be better for them, and put them above the contrary faction. Affairs standing th\is, Solon returned, and was reverenced by all, and honored ; but his old age would not permit him to be as active, and to speak in public, as formerly ; yet, by privately conferring with the heads of the factions, he endeavored to compose the dif- fcnnces, Pisistratus appearing the most tractable ; for he was extremely smooth and engaging in his language, a great friend to the poor, and moderate in his resentments ; and what nature had not given him, he had the skill to imitate ; so that he was trusted more than the others, being accounted a pru- dent and orderly man, one that loved equality, and would be an enemy to any that moved against the present settlement. Thus he deceived the majority of people ; but Solon quickly discovered bis character, and found out his design before any one else ; yet did not hate him upon this, but endeavored to humble him, and bring him ofif from his ambition, and often told him and others, that if any one could banish the passion for preeminence from his mind, and cure him of his desire of absolute power, none would make a more virtuous man or a more excellent citizen. Thespis, at this time, beginning to act tragedies, and the thing, because it was new, taking very much with the multitude, though it was not yet made a matter of competition, Solon, being by nature fond of hearing and learning something new, and now, in his old age, living idly, and enjoying himself, indeed, with music and with wine, went to see Thespis himself, as the ancient custom was, act : and after the play was done, he addressed him, and asked him if he was not ashamed to tell so many lies before such a number of people ; and Thespis replying that it was no harm to say or do so in play, Solon vehemently struck his staff against the ground : " Ah," said he, " if we honor and commend such play as this, we shall find it some day in our business." Now when Pisistratus, having wounded himself, was brought into the market-place in a chariot, and stirred up the people, as if he had been thus treated by his opponents be- cause of his political conduct, and a great many were enraged and cried out, Solon, coming close to him, said, " This, O son of Hippocrates, is a bad copy of Homer's Ulysses ; you do, to trick 5 our countr}'men, what he did to deceive his enemies." After this, the people were eager to protect Pisistratus, and 150 SOLON, met in an assembly, where one Ariston nviking a motion that they should allow Pisistratus fifty clubmen for a guard to his person, Solon opposed it, and said much to the same purport as what he has left us in his poems. You doat upon his words and taking nhrase : and aga.n, — True, you are singly each a crafty soul, But al! together make one empty fool. ha' observing the poor men bent to gratify Pisistratus, ard tumultuous, and the rich fearful and getting out of harm s way, he departed, saying he was wiser than some and stouter than others ; wiser than those that did not understand the design, stouter than those that, though they understood it, were afraid to oppose the tyranny. Now, the people, having I^assed the law, were not nice with Pisistratus about the number of his clubmen, but took no notice of it, though he enlisted and kept as many as he would, until he seized the Acropolis. When that was done, and the city in an uproar, Megacles, with all his family, at once fled ; but Solon, though he was now very old, and had none to back him, yet came into the market place and made a speech to the citizens, partly blaming tlieir inadvertency and meanness of spirit, and in part urging and exhorting them not thus tamely to lose their liberty ; and likewise then spoke that memorable say- ing, that, before, it was an easier task to stop the rising tyran- ny, but now the greater and more glorious action to destroy it, when it was begun already, and had gathered strength. But all being afraid to side with him, he returned home, and, taking his arms, he brought them out and laid them in the porch before his door, with these words : " I have done my part to maintain my country and my laws," and ther he busied himself no more. His friends advising him to fly, he lefused, but wrote poems, and thus reproached the Athenians in them, — If now you suffer, do not blame the Powers, For they are good, and all the fault was ours. All the strongholds you put into his hands. And now his slaves must do what he commands. And many telling him that the tyrant would take his life loi this, and asking what he trusted to, that he ventured to speak so boldly, he replied, " To my old age." But Pisistratus, having got the command, so extremely courted Solon, so hon- oicd him, obliged him, and sent to see him, that Solon gav< SOLON. 1 5 1 him his advice, and approved man}' of his actions : for lie retained most of Solon's laws, observed them himself, and compelled his friends to obey. And he himself, though already absolute ruler, being accused of murder before the Areopagus, came quietly to clear himself; but his accuser did not appear. And he added other laws, one of which is that the maimed in the wars should be maintained at the public charge ; this Heraclides Ponticus records, and that Pisistratus followed Solon's example in this, who had decreed it in the case of one Thersippus, that was maimed ; and The- ophrastus asserts that it was Pisistratus, not Solon, that made that law against laziness, which was the reason that the country was more productive, and the city tranquiller. Now Solon, having begun the great work in verse, the history or fable of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men in Sais, and thought convenient for the Athenians to know, abandoned it ; not as Plato says, by reason of want of time, but because of his age, and being dis- couraged at the greatness of the task ; for that he had leisure enough, such verses testify, as Each day grow older, and learn something new ; and again, — But now the Powers, of Beauty, Song, and Wine, Which are most men's delights, are also mine. Plato, willing to improve the story of the Atlantic Isla-nd, as if it were a fair estate that wanted an heir and came with some title to him, formed, indeed, stately entrances, noble enclosures, large courts, such as never yet introduced any story, fable, or poetic fiction ; but, beginning it late, ended his life before his work; and the reader's regret, for the un- finished part is the greater, as the satisfaction he takes in that which is complete is extraordinary. For as the city of Athens left only the temple of Jupiter Olympius unfinished, so Plato, amongst all his excellent works, left this only piece about the Atlantic Island imperiect. Solon lived after Pisis- tratus seized the government, as Heraclides Ponticus asserts, A long time ; but Phanias the Eresiansays not two full years; for Pisistratus began his tyranny when Comias was archon, and Phanias says Solon died under Hegestratus, who suc- ceeded Comias. The story that his ashes were scattered about the island Salamis is too strange to be easily believed, or be thought any thing but a mere fable ; and yet it is given, amongst other good authors, by Aristotle, the philosopher. 152 POPLICOLA. POPLICOLA. SucE was Solon. To him we compare Poplicola, who ri. ceived this later title from the Roman people £or his meritj aa a noble accession to his former name, Publius Valerius, lie descended from Valerius, a man amongst the early citizens, reputed the principal reconciler of the differences betwixt the Romans and Sabines, and one that was most instru- mental in persuading their kings to assent to peace and union. Thus descended, Publius Valerius, as it is said, whilst Rome remained under its kingly government, obtained as great a name from his eloquence as from his riches, chari- tably employing the one in liberal aid to the poor, the other with integrity and freedom in the service of justice ; thereby giving assurance, that, should the government fall into a re- public, he would become a chief man in the community. The illegal and wicked accession of Tarquinius Superbus to the crown, with his making it, instead of kingly rule, the in- strument of insolence and tyranny, having inspired the people with a hatred to his reign, upon the death of Lucretia (she killing herself after violence had been done to her), they took an occasion of revolt ; and Lucius Brutus, engaging in the change, came to Valerius before all others, and, with his zealous assistance, deposed the kings. And whilst the peo- ple inclined towards the electing one leader instead of their king, Valerius acquiesced, that to rule was rather Brutus's due, as the author of the democracy. But when the name of monarchy was odious to the people, and a divided power appeared more grateful in the prospect, and two were chosen to hold it, Valerius, entertaining hopes that he might be elected consul with Brutus, was disappointed ; for, instead of Valerius, notwithstanding the endeavors of Brutus, Tarquin- ius Collatinus was chosen, the husband of Lucretia, a man noways his superior in merit. But the nobles, dreading the return of their kings, who still used all endeavors abroad and solicitations at home, were resolved upon a chieftain of an intense hatred to them, and noways likely to yield. Now Valerius was troubled, that his desire to serve his country should be doubted, because he had sustained no private injury from the insolence of the tyrants. He with- drew from the senate and practice of the bar, quitting al' POPLICOLA. 153 public concerns; which gave zv occasion of discourse, and fear, too, lest his anger should reconcile him to the king's side, and he should prove the ruin of the state, tottering az yet under the uncertainties of a change. But Brutus bein^ doubtful of some others, and determined to give the test to the senate upon the altars, upon the day appointed Valerius came with cheerfulness into the forum, and was the first man that took the oath, in no way to submit or yield to Tarquit}'s propositions, but rigorously to maintain liberty ; which gave great satisfaction to the senate and assurance to the consuls, his actions soon after showing the sincerity of his oath, For ambassadors came from Tarquin, with popular and spe- cious proposals, whereby they thought to seduce the people, as though the king had cast off all insolence, and made mod- eration the only measure of his desires. To this embassy the consuls thought fit to give public audience, but Valerius opposed it, and would not permit that the poorer people, who entertained more fear of war than of tyranny, should have any occasion ofiEered them, or any temptations to new designs. Afterwards other ambassadors arrived, who declared their king would recede from his crown, and lay down his arms, only capitulating for a restitution to himself, his friends, and allies, of their moneys and estates to support them in their banish- ment. Now, several inclining to the request, and Collatinus in particular favoring it, Brutus, a man of vehement and un- bending nature, rushed into the forum, there proclaiming his fellow-consul to be a traitor, in granting subsidies to tyranny, and supplies for a war to those to whom it was monstrous to allow so much as subsistence in exile. This caused an as- sembly of the citizens, amongst whom the first that spake was Caius Minucius, a private man, who advised Brutus, and urged the Romans to keep the property, and employ it against the tyrants, rather than to remit it to the tyrants, to be used against themselves. The Romans, however, decided that whilst they had enjoyed the liberty they had fought for, they should not sacrifice peace for the sake of money, but send out the tyrants' property after them. This ques- tion, however, of his property, was the least part of Tar- quin's design; the demand sounded the feelings of the people, and was preparatory to a conspiracy which the am- bassadors endeavored to excite, delaying their return, under pretence of selling some of the goods and reserving others to be sent away, till, in fine, they corrupted two of the most em- inent lamilies in Rome, the Aquillian, which had three, and 154 POPLICOLA. the Vitellian, which had two senators. These all were, by the mother's side, nephews to Collatinus ; besides which Brutus had a special alliance to the Vitellii from his marriage with their sister, by whom he had several children ; two of whom, of their own age, their near relations and daily com- panions, the Vitellii seduced to join in the plot, to ally them selves to the great house and royal hopes of the Tarquins, and gain emancipation from the violence and imbecility united of their father, whose austerity to offenders tiiey termed vio- lence, while the imbecility which he had long feigned, to protect himself from the tyrants, still, it appears, was, in name at least, ascribed to him. When upon these inducements the youths came to confer with the Aquillii, all thought it conve- nient to bind themselves in a solemn and dreadful oath, by tasting the blood of a murdered man, and touching his en- trails. For which design they met at the house of the Aquillii. The building chosen for the transaction was, as was natural, dark and unfrequented, and a slave named Vindicius had, as it chanced, concealed himself there, not out of design or any intelligence of the affair, but, accidentally being with- in, seeing with how much haste and concern they came in, he was afraid to be discovered, and placed himself behind a chest, where he was able to observe their actions and over- hear their debates. Their resolutions were to kill the consulS; and they wrote letters to Tarquin to this effect, and gave them to the ambassadors, who were lodging upon the spot with the Aquillii, and were present at the consultation. Upon their departure, Vindicius secretly quitted the house, but was at a loss what to do in the matter, for to arraign the sons before the fathei Brutus, or the nephews before the uncle Collatinus, seemed equally (as indeed it was) shock- ing ; yet he knew no private Roman to whom he could in- trust secrets of such importance. Unable, however, to keep silence, and burdened with his knowledge, he went and ad dressed himself to Valerius, whose known freedom and kind- ness of temper were an inducement ; as he was a person to whom the needy had easy access, and who never shut his gates against the petitions or indigences of humble people. But when Vindicius came and made a complete discovery to him, his brother Marcus and his own wife being present, Valerius was struck with amazement, and by no means would dismiss the discoverer, but confined him to the room, and placed His wife as a guard to the door, sending his brother in the interim to beset tiie king's palace, and seize, if possible, t\e writing? POPLICOLA, 155 there, and secure the domestics, whilst he, with his constant attendance of clients and friends, and a great retinue of at- tendants, repaired to the house of the Aciuillii, who were, as it chanced, absent from home ; and so, forcing an entrance through the gates, they lit upon the letters then lying in the lodgings of the ambassadors. Meantime the Aquillii returned in all haste, and, coming to blows about the gate, endeavored a. recovery of the letters. The other party made a resistance, and throwing their gowns around their opponents' necks, at ftst, after much struggling on both sides, made their way with their prisoners through the streets into the forum. The like engagement happened about the king's palace, where Marcus seized some other letters which it was designed should be convej'ed away in the goods, and, laying hands on such of the king's people as he could find, dragged them also into the forum. When the consuls had quieted the tumult, Vin- dicius was brought out by the orders of Valerius, and the accusation stated, and the letters were opened, to which the traitors could make no plea. Most of the people standing mute and sorrowful, some only, out of kindness to Brutus, mentioning banishment, the tears of CoUatinus, attended with Valerius's silence, gave some hopes of mercy. But Brutus, calling his two sons by their names, '* Canst not thou," said he, " O Titus, or thou, Tiberius, make any defence against the indictment?" The question being thrice pro- posed, and no reply made, he turned himself to the lictors and cried, " What remains is your duty." They immediately seized the youths, and, stripping them of their clothes, bound their hands behind them and scourged their bodies with their rods ; too tragical a scene for others too look at ; Brutus, however, is said not to have turned aside his face, nor allow- ed the least glance of pity to soften and smoothe his aspect of rigor and austerity ; but sternly watched his children suf- fer, even till the lictors, extending them on the ground, cut ofi their heads with an axe ; then departed, committing the rest to the judgment of his colleague. An action truly open alike to the highest commendation and the strongest censure ; for either the greatness of his virtue raised him above the impressions of sorrow, or the extravagance of his misery took away all sense of it ; but neither seemed com- mon, or the result of humanity, but either divine or brutish. Yet it is more reasonable that our judgment should yield to his reputation, than that his merit should suffer detraction by the weakness of our judgment j in the Roman's opinion, ic6 POPLICOLA. Brutus did a greater work in the establishment of the go vera ment than Romulus in the foundation of the city. Upon Brutus's departure out of the forum, consternatio. horror, aiid silence for some time possessed all that refiecte*. on what was done ; the easiness and tardiness, however, of Collatinus, gave confidence to the Aquillii to request some time to answer their charge, and that Vindicius, their servant, should be remitted into their hands, and no longer harbored amongst their aecusers. The consul seemed inclined to their proposal, and was proceeding to dissolve the assembly ; but Valerius would not suffer Vindicius, who was surrounded by his people, to be surrendered, nor the meeting to withdraw without punishing the traitors ; and at length laid violent hands upon the Aquillii, and, calling Brutus to his assistance, exclaimed against the unreasonable course of Collatinus, to impose upon his colleague the necessity of taking away the lives of his own sons, and yet have thoughts of gratifying some women with the lives of traitors and public enemies. Collatinus, displeased at this, and commanding Vindicius to be taken away, the lictors made their way through the crowd and seized their man, and struck all who endeavored a res- cue. Valerius's friends headed the resistance, and the peo- ple cried out for Brutus, who, returning, on silence being made, told them he had been competent to pass sentence by himself upon his own sons, but left the rest to the suffrages of the free citizens: "Let every man speak that wishes, and persuade whom he can." But there was no need of oratory, for, it being referred to the vote, they were returned condemned by all the suffrages, and were accordingly beheaded. Collatinus's relationship to the kings had, iudeed, already rendered him suspicious, and his second name, too, liad made him obnoxious to the people, who were loth to hear the very sound of Tarquin ; but after this had happened, perceiving .limself an offence to every one, he relinquished his chaige and departed from the city. At the new elections in his room, Valerius obtained, with high honor, the consulship, as a just reward of his zeal ; of which he thought Vindicius de served a share, whom he made, first of all freedmen, a citizen of Rome, and gave him the privilege of voting in what tribe soever he was pleased to be enrolled ; other freedmen re ceived tlie right of suffrage a long time after from Appius who thus courted popularity ; and from this Vindicius, a per- fect manumission is called to this day vindicta. This done, the goods of the kings were exposed to plunder, and the pa.' ace to ruin. POPLICOI.A. 157 The pleasantest part of the field jf Mais, which Tarqiiin had owned, was devoted to the service of that god ; but, it happening to be harvest season, and the sheaves yet being on the ground, they thought it not proper to commit them to the flail, or unsanctify them with any use ; and, therefore, carrying them to the riverside, and trees withal that were cut down, they cast all into the water, dedicating the soil, free from all occupation, to the deity. Now, these thrown in, one upon another, and closing together, the stream did not bear Ihem far, but where the first were carried down and came to a bottom, the remainder, finding no farther conveyance, were stopped and interwoven one with another; the stream work- ing the mass into a firmness, and washing dowr. fresh mud. This, settling there, became an accession of matter, as well as cement, to the rubbish, insomuch that the violence of the waters could not remove it, but forced and compressed it all together. Thus its bulk and solidity gained it new subsidies, which gave it extension enough to stop on its way most of what the stream brought down. This is now a sacred island, lying by the city, adorned with the temples of the gods, and walks, and is called in the Latin tongue inter duos ponies. Though some say this did not happen at the dedication of Tarquin's field, but in aftertimes, when Tarquinia, a vestal priestess, gave an adjacent field to the public, and obtained great honors in consequence, as, amongst the rest, that of all women her testimony alone should be received ; she had also the liberty to marry, but refused it ; thus some tell the ytory. Tarquin, despairing of a return to his kingdom by (he conspiracy, found a kind reception amongst the Tuscans, who, with a great army, proceeded to restore him. The consuls headed the Romans against them, and made their rendezvous in certain holy places, the one called the Arsian grove, the other the --Esuvian meadow. When they came into action, Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, not acci- dentally encountering each other, but out of hatred and rage, the one to avenge tyranny and enmity to his country, the ether his banishment, set spurs to their horses, and, engaging With more fury than forethought, disregarding their own se- curity, fell together in the combat. This dreadful onset hardly was followed by a more favorable end ; both armies, doing and receiving equal damage, were separated by a storm. Valerius was much concerned, not knowing what the result Df the day was, and seeing his men as well dismayed a' i^8 POPLICOLA. the sight of their own dead, as rejoiced at the loss of the enemy ; so apparently equal in the number was the slaughter on e'ther side. Each party, however, felt surer of defeat from the actual sight of their own dead, than they could feel of victory from conjecture about those of their adversaries. The night being come (and such as one may presume must follow such a battle), and the armies laid to rest, they say that the grove shook, and uttered a voice, saying that .he Tuscans had lost one man more than the Romans ; clearly a divine announcement ; and the Romans at once received it v/ith shouts and expressions of joy ; whilst the Tuscans, through fear and amazement, deserted their tents, and were for the most part dispersed. The Romans, falling upon the remainder, amounting to nearly five thousand, took them pris- oners, and plundered the camp ; when they numbered the dead, they found on the Tuscans' side eleven thousand and three hundred, exceeding their own loss but by one man. This fight happened upon the last day of February, and Va- lerius triumphed in honor of it, being the first consul that drove in with a four-horse chariot ; which sight both appear- ed magnificent, and was received with an admiration free from envy or ofi^ence (as some suggest) on the part of the spectators ; it would not otherwise liave been continued with so much eagerness and emulation through all the after ages. The people applauded likewise the honors he did to his col- league, in adding to his obsequies a funeral oration : which was so much liked by the Romans, and found so good a re- ception, that it became customary for the best men to cele- brate the funerals of great citizens with speeches in their commendation ; and their antiquity in Rome is affirmed to be greater than in Greece, unless, with the orator Anaximenes, we make Solon the first author. Yet some part of Valerius's behavior did give offence ind disgust to the jjeople, because Brutus, wliom they esteemed the father of their liberty, had not presumed to rule without a colleague, but united one and then another to him in his commission ; while Valerius, they said, centreing all authority in himself, seemed not in any sense a successor to Brutus in the consulship, but to Tarquin in the tyranny ; he might make verbal harangues to Brutus's memory, yet, when he was attended with all the rods and axes, proceeding down from a house than which the king's house that he had demol- ished had not been statelier, those actions showed him an imitator of Tarquin. For, indeed, his dwelling-house on the POPLICOLA. 159 Velia was somewhat imposing in appearance, hanging over the forum, and overlooking all transactions there ; the access to it was hard, and to see him far off coming down, a stately and royal spectacle. But Valerius showed how well it were for men in power and giveat offices to have ears that give admittance to truth before tiattery ; for upon his friends tell- ing him that he displeased the people, he contended not, neither resented it, but while it was still night, sending for a number of work-people, pulled down his house and levelled ti with the ground ; so that in the morning the people, seeing and flocking together, expressed their wonder and their re- spect for his magnanimity, and their sorrow, as though it had been a human being, for the large and beautiful house which was thus lost to them by an unfounded jealousy, while its owner, their consul, without a roof of his own, had to beg a lodging with his friends. For his friends received him, till a place the people gave him was furnished with a house, though less stately than his own, where now stands the temple, as it is called, of Vica Pota. He resolved to render the government, as well as himself, instead of terrible, familiar and pleasant to the people, and parted the axes from the rods, and always, upon his entrance into the assembly, lowered these also to the people, to show, in the strongest way, the republican foundation of the gov- ernment ; and this the consuls observe to this day. But the humility of the man was but a means, not, as they thought, of lessening himself, but merely to abate their envy by this moderation ; for whatever he detracted from his authority he added to his real power, the people still submitting with sat- isfaction, which they expressed by calling him Poplicola, or people-lover, which name had the preeminence of the rest, and, therefore, in the sequel of his narrative we shall use no other. He gave free leave to any to sue for the counsulship ; but before the admittance of a colleague, mistrusting the chances, lest emulation or ignorance should cross his designs, l)v his sole authority enacted his best and most imjK>rtanl tn^asures. First, he supplied the vacancies of the senators, whom either Tarquin long before had put to death, or the wai lately cut off ; those that he enrolled, they write, amounted to a hundred and sixty-four ; afterwards he made several laws which added much to the people's liberty, in particular one granting offenders the liberty of appealing to the people from the judgment of the consuls ; a second, that made it death to I to POPLICOLA. usurp any magistracy without the people's consent ; a third, for the relief of poor citizens, which, taking off their taxes, encouraged their labors j another, against disobedience to tiie consuls, which was no less popular than the rest, and rather to the benefit of the commonalty than to the advantage of the nobles, for it imposed upon disobedience the penalty of ten oxen and two sheep ; the price of a sheep being ten obols.; of an ox, an hundred. For the use of money was then infrequent amongst the Romans, but their wealth in cattle great ; even now pieces of property are called peculia, from pecus, cattle ; and they had stamped upon their most ancient money an ox, a sheep, or a hog ; and surnamed their sons Suillii, Bubulci, Caprarii, and Porcii, from caprce, goats, and porci^ hogs. Amidst this mildness and moderation, for one excessive fault he instituted one excessive punishment ; for he made it lawful without trial to take away any man's life that aspired to a tyranny, and acquitted the slayer, if he produced evi- dence of the crime ; for though it was not probable for a man, whose designs were so great, to escape all notice ; yet be- cause it was possible he might, although observed, by force anticipate judgment, which the usurpation itself would then preclude, he gave a license to any to anticipate the usurper. He was honored likewise for the law touching the treasury ; for because it was necessary for the citizens to contribute out of their estates to the maintenance of wars, and he was unwil- ling himself to be concerned in the care of it, or to permit his friends, or indeed to let the public money pass into any private house, he allotted the temple of Saturn for the treas- ury, in which to this day they deposit the tribute-money, and granted the people the liberty of choosing two young men as quaestors, or treasurers. The first were Publius Veturius and Marcus Minucius ; and a large sum was collected, for they assessed one hundred and thirty thousand, excusing orphaus and widows from the payment. After these dispositions, he admitted Lucretius, the father of Lucretia, as his colleague, and gave him the precedence in the government, by resigning the fasces to him, as due to his years, which privilege of seniority continued to our time. But within a few days Lucretius died, and in a new election Marcus Horatius suc- ceeded in that honor, and continued consul for the remainder of the year. Now, whilst Tarquin was making preparations in Tuscany for a second war against the Romans, it is said a greaf POPLrCOLA. i6» portent occurred. When Tarquin was king, and had all but completed the buildings of the Capitol, designing, whether from oracular advice or his own pleasure, to erect an earthen chariot upon the top, he intrusted the workmanship to Tus- cans of the city Veii, but soon after lost his kingdom. The work thus modelled, the Tuscans set in a furnace, but the clay showed not those passive qualities which usually attend ii;; nature, to subside and be condensed upon the evaporation of the moisture, but rose and swelled out to that bulk, that, when solid and firm, notwithstanding the removal of the roof and opening the walls of the furnace, it could not be taken out without much difficulty. The soothsayers looked upon this as a divine prognostic of success and power to those that should possess it ; and the Tuscans resolved not to deliver it to the Romans, who demanded it, but answered that it rather belonged to Tarquin than to those who had sent him into exile, A few days after, they had a horse-race there, with the usual shows and solemnities, and as the charioteer with his garland on his head, was quietly driving the victorious chariot out of the ring, the horses, upon no apparent occasion, taking fright, either by divine instigation or by accident, hurried away^ their driver at full speed to Rome ; neither did his holding them in prevail, nor his voice, but he was forced along with violence till, coming to the Capitol, he was thrown out by the gate called Ratumena. This occurrence raised wonder and fear in the Veientines, who now permitted the deliver}^ of the chariot. The building of the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter had been vowed by Tarquin, the son of Demaratus, when warring with the Sabines ; Tarquinius Superbus, his son or grandson, built, but could not dedicate it, because he lost his kingdom before it was quite finished. And now that it was completed with all its ornaments, Poplicola was ambitious to dedicate it ; but the nobility envied him that honor, as, indeed, also, in some degree, those his prudence in making laws and conduct in wars entitled him to. Grudging him, at any rate, the addition of this, they urged Horatius to sue for the ded- ication, and, whilst Poplicola was engaged in some military expedition, voted it to Horatius, and conducted him to the Capitol, as though, were Poplicola present, they could not have carried it. Yet, some write, Poplicola was by lot des- tined against his will to the expedition, the other to the ded- ication ; and what happened in the performance seems to Intimate some ground for this conjecture ; for, upon the Ides iGi poplicola. of September, which happens about the full moon of the month Metagitnion, the people having assembled at the Capitol and silence being enjoined, Horatius, after the per forniance of other ceremonies, holding the doors, according to custom, was proceeding to pronounce the words of ded- ication, when Marcus, tiie brother of Poplicola, who had got a place on purpose beforehand near the door, observing his opportunity, cried, " O consul, thy son lies dead in the eamp ;" which made a great impression upon all otheis who heard it, yet in nowise discomposed Horatius, who if turned merely the reply, " Cast the dead out whither you please , I am not a mourner ; " and so completed the dedication. TTie news was not true, but Marcus thought the lie might avert him from his performance ; but it argues him a man of wonderful self-possession, whether he at once saw through the cheat, or, believing it as true, showed no discomposure. The same fortune attended the dedication of the second temple ; the first, as has been said, was built by Tarquin, and dedicated by Horatius ; it was burnt down in the civil wars. The second, Sylla built, and, dying before the dedication, left that honor to Catulus ; and when this was demolished in the Vitellian sedition, Vespasian, with the same success that attended him in other things, began a third and lived to see it finished, but did not live to see it again destroyed, as it presently was ; but was as fortunate in dying before its de- struction, as Sylla was the reverse in dying before the ded- ication of his. For immediately after Vespasian's death it was consumed by fire. The fourth, which now exists, was both built and dedicated by Domitian. It is said Tarquin expended forty thousand pounds of silver in the very founda- tions ; but the whole wealth of the richest private man in Rome would not discharge the cost of the gilding of this temple in our days, it amounting to above twelve thousand talents ; the pillars were cut out of Pentelican marble, of a ;ength most happily proportioned to their thickness ; these we saw at Athens ; but when they were cut anew at Rome and polished, they did not gain so much in embellisl.nient, as they lost in symmetry, being rendered too taper and slender. Should any one who wonders at the costliness of the Capitol visit any one gallery in Domitian's palace, or hall, or bath, oi the apartments of his concubines. Epicharmus's remark upon the prodigal, that 'Tis not beneficence, but, truth to say, A mere disease of giving things away, POl'LICOLA. 163 would be in his mouth in application to Domitian. It is neither piety, he would say, nor magnificence, but, indeed, a mere disease of building, and a desire, like Midas, of convert- ing every thing into gold or stone. And thus much for this matter. Tarquin, after the great battle wherein he lost his son in combat with Brutus, fled to Clusium, and sought aid froir Lars Porsenna, then one of those most powerful princes ol Italy, and a man of worth and generosity ; who assured him of assistance, immediately sending his commands to Rome that they should receive Tarquin as their king, and, upon the Romans' refusal, proclaimed war, and, having signified the time and place where he intended his attack, approached with a great army. Poplicola was, in his absence, chosen consul a second time, and Titus Lucretius his colleague, and, re- turning to Rome, to show a spirit yet loftier than Por- senna's, built the city Sigliura when Porsenna was already in the neighborhood ; and walling it at great expense, there placed a colony of seven hundred men, as being little con- cerned at the war. Nevertheless, Porsenna, making a sharp assault, obliged the defendants to retire to Rome, who had almost in their entrance admitted the enemy into the city with them ; only Poplicola by sallying out at the gate prevented them, and, joining battle by Tiber side, opposed the enemy, that pressed on with their multitude, but at last, sinking under desperate wounds, was carried out of the fight. The same fortune fell upon Lucretius, so that the Romans, being dis- mayed, retreated into the city for their security, and Rome was in great hazard of being taken, the enemy forcing their way on to the wooden bridge, where Horatius Codes, seconded by two of the first men in Rome, Herminius and Lartius, made head against them. Horatius obtained this name from the loss of one of his eyes in the wars, or, as others write, from the depressure of his nose, which, leaving nothing in the middle to separate them, made both eyes appear but as one , and hence, intending to say Cyclops, by a mispronunci- ation they called him Codes. This Codes kept the bridge, arid held back the enemy, till his own party broke it down behind, and then with his armor dropped into the river, and swam to the hither side, with a wound in his hip from a Tus- can spear. Poplicola, admiring his courage, proposed at once that the Romans should every one make him a present of a day's provisions, and afterwards give him as much land as he could plow round in one day, and besides erected a brazep 164 POPLICOLA. Statute to his honor in the temple of Vulcan, as a requital fo! the lameness caused by his wound. But Porsenna laying close siege to the city, and a famine raging amongst the Romans, also a new army ot the Tuscans making incursions into the country, Poplicola, a third time chosen consul, designed to make, without sallying out, his de- fence against Porsenna, but, privately stealing forth against the new army of the Tuscans, put them to flight and slew five Lhousand. The story of Mucius is variously given ; we, like others, must follow the commonly received statement. He was a man endowed with every virtue, but most eminent in war ; and, resolving to kill Porsenna, attired himself in the Tuscan habit, and using the Tuscan language, came to the camp, and approaching the seat where the king sat amongst his nobles, but not certainly knowing the king, and fearful to inquire, drew out his sword, and stabbed one who he thought had most the appearance of king. Mucius was taken in the act, and whilst he was under examination, a pan of fire was brought to the king, who intended to sacrifice; Mucius thrust his right hand into the flame, and whilst it burnt stood look- ing at Porsenna with a steadfast and undaunted countenance ; Porsenna at last in admiration dismissed him, and returned his sword, reaching it from his seat ; Mucius received it in his left hand, which occasioned the name of Scaevola, left-handed, and said, " I have overcome the terrors of Porsenna, yet am vanquished by his generosity, and gratitude obliges me to disclose what no punishment could extort ;" and assured him then, that three hundred Romans, all of the same resolution, lurked about his camp, only waiting for an opportunity ; he, b^ lot appointed to the enterprise, was not sorry that he had miscarried in it, because so brave and good a man deserved rather to be a friend to the Romans than an enemy. To this Porsenna gave credit, and thereupon expressed an inclination to a truce, not, I presume, so much out of fear of the three hundred Romans, as in admiration of the Roman courage. W\ other writers call this man Mucius Scasvola, yet Athen- .lorus, son of Sandon, in a book addressed to Octavia, Caesar's sister, avers he was also called Postumus. Poplicola, not so much esteeming Porsenna's enmity dan- gerous to Roman as his friendship and alliance serviceable, was induced to refer the controversy with Tarquin to his arbi- tration, and several times undertook to prove Tarquin the worst of men, and justly deprived of his kingdom. But Tar- quin proudly replied he would admit no judge, much less POPLICOI-A. 165 Porsenna, that had f illcn away from his engagements ; and Porsenna, resenting this answer, and mistrusting the equity of his cause, moved also by the solicitations of his son Aiuns, who was earnest for the Roman interest, made a peace on these conditions, that they should resign tlie land they had taken from the Tuscans, and restore all prisoners and receive bark their deserters. To confirm the peace, the Romai.s gave as hostages ten sons of patrician parents, and as many daughters, amongst whom was Valeria, the daughter of l*op- licola Upon these assurances, Porsenna ceased from all acts of hostilit}^, and the young girls went down to the river to bathe, at that part where the winding of the bank formed a bay and made the waters stiller and quieter ; and, seeing no guard, nor any one coming or going over, they were encouraged to swim over, notwithstanding tbe depth and violence of the stream. Some affirm that one of them, by name Cloelia, passing over on horseback, persuaded the rest to swim after ; but, upon their safe arrival, presenting themselves to Poplicola, he neither praised nor approved their return, but was concerned lest he should appear less faithful than Porsenna, and this boldness in the maidens should argue treachery in the Romans ; so that, apprehending them, he sent them back to Porsenna. But Tarquin's men, having intelligence of this, laid a strong ambuscade on the other side for those that conducted them ; and while these were skirmishing together, Valeria, the daughter of Poplicola, rushed through the enemy, and fled, and with the assistance of three of her attendants made good her escape, whilst the rest were dangerously hedged in by tb^ soldiers ; but Aruns, Porsenna's son, upon tidings of it, hastened to their rescue, and, putting the enemy to flight, delivered the Romans, When Porsenna saw the maidens returned, demanding who was the author and adviser of the act, and understanding Cloelia to be the person, he looked on her with a cheerful and benignant countenance, and, com- manding one of his horses to be brought, sumptuously Jwdorned, made her a present of it. This is produced as evi- dence by those who affirm that only Cloelia passed the river on horseback ; those who deny it call it only the honoi the Tuscan did to her courage ; a figure, however, on horseback, stands in the Via Sacra, as you go to the Palatium, which some say is the statue of Cloelia, others of Valeria. F'orsenna, thus reconciled to the Romans, gave them a fresh instance of his generosity, and commanded his soldiers to i66 ropi.icoT.A. quit the camp merely with their arms, leaving their tents, full of corn and other stores, as a gift to the Romans. Hence, even down to our time, when there is a public sale of goods, they cry Porsenna's first, by way of perpetual commemoration of his kindness. There stood, also, by the senate-house, a brazen statue of him, of plain and antique workmanship. Afterwards, the Sabines, making incursions upon the Ro mans, Marcus Valerius, brother to Poplicola, was made consul, and with him Postumius Tubertus. Marcus, through the management of affairs by the conduct and direct assistance of Poplicola, obtained two great victories, in the latter of which he slew thirteen thousand Sabines without the loss of one Roman, and was honored, as an accession to his triumph, with an house bujjt in the Palatfum at the public charge ; and whereas the doors of other houses opened inward into the house, they made this to open outward into the street, to in- timate their perpetual public recognition of his merit by thus continually making way for him. The same fashion in their doors the Greeks, they say, had of old universally, which ap- pears from their comedies, where those that are going out make a noise at the door within, to give notice to those that pass by or stand near the door, that the opening the door into the street might occasion no surprisal. The year after, Poplicola was made consul the fourth time, when a confederacy of the Sabines and Latins threat- ened a war ; a superstitious fear also overran the city on the occasion of general miscarriages of their women, no single birth coming to its due time. Poplicola, upon consultation of the Sibylline books, sacrificing to Pluto, and renewing cer- tain games commanded by Apollo, restored the cit)' to more cheerful assurance in the gods, and then prepared against the menaces of men. There were appearances of great prepara- tion, and of a formidable confederacy. Amongst the Sabines there was one Appius Clausus, a man of a great wealth and strength of body, but most eminent for his high character and for his eloquence ; yet, as is usually the fate of great men, he could not escape the envy of others, which was much occasioned by his dissuading the war, and seeming to pro- mote the Roman interest, with a view, it is thought, to obtain- ing absolute power in his own country for himself. Knowing how welcome these reports would be to the multitude, and how offensive to the army and the abettors of the war, he was afraid to stand a trial, but, having a considerable body of friends and allies o assist him. raised a t'jinult amongst the POPLICOLA. 167 •Sabines, which delayed the war. Neither was Poplicola vvannng, not only to understand the grounds of the sedition, but to promote and increase it, and he despatched emissaries with instructions to Clausus, that Poplicola was assured of his goodness and justice, and thought it indeed unworthy in any man, ihowever injured, to seek revenge upon his fellow- citizens ; yet if he pleased, for his own security, to leave hi« enemies ana come to Rome, he should be received, both in public and private, with the honor his merit deserved, anu their own glory tequired. Appius seriously weighing the mat- ter, came to the conclusion that it was the best resource which necessity left him, and advising with his friends, and they in- viting again others in the same manner, he came to Rome, bringing five thousand families, with their wives and children , people of the quieretest and steadiest temper of all the Sabines. Poplicola, informed of their approach, received them with all the kind offices ot a friend, and admitted them at once to the franchise, allotting to every one two acres of land by the river Anio, but to Clausus twenty-five acres, and gave him a place in the senate ; a commencement of political power which he used so wisely, tnat he rose to the highest reputation, was very influential, and left the Claudian house behind him, inferior to none in Rome. The departure of these men rendered things quiet amongst the Sabines ; yet the chief of the community would not suffer them to settle into peace, but resented that Clausus now, by turning deserter, should disappoint that revenge upon the Ro- mans, which, while at home, he had unsuccessfully opposed. Coming with a great army, they sat down before Fidense, and placed an ambuscade of two thousand men near Rome, in wooded and hollow spots, with a design that some few horsemen, as soon as it was day, should go out and ravage the country, commanding them upon their approach to the town so to retreat as to draw the enemy into the ambush. Poplicola, however, soon advertised of these designs by de- serters, disposed his forces to their respective charges. Pos> Itiinius Balbus, his son-in-law, going out with three thousand men in the evening, was ordered to take the hills, under which the ambush lay, there to observe their motions ; his colleague, Lucretius, attended with a body of the lightest and boldest men, was appointed to meet the Sabine horse ; whilst he. with the rest of the army, encompassed the enemy. And a thick mist rising accidentally, Postumius, early in the morn- ing, with shouts from the hills, assailed the ambuscade, l68 COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON. Lucretius charged the light-horse, and Poplicola besieged the camp; so that on all sides defeat and ruin came upon the Sabines, and without any resistance the Romans killed them in their flight, their very hopes leading them to their death, for each division, presuming that the other was safe, gave up all thought of fighting or keeping their ground; and these quitting the camp to retire to the ambuscade, and the ambus- cade flying to the camp, fugitives thus met fugitives, and found those from whom tiiey expected succor as much iixneed of succor from themselves. The nearness, however, of the city Fidenae was the preservation of the Sabines, especially those that fled from the camp ; those that could not gain tiie city either perished in the field, or were taken prisoners. This victory, the Romans, though usually ascribing such suc- cess to some god, attributed to the conduct of one captain; and it was observed to be heard amongst the soldiers, that Poplicola had delivered their enemies lame and blind, and only not in chains, to be despatched by their swords. From the spoil and prisoners great wealth accrued to the people. Poplicola, having completed his triumph, and bequeathed the city to the care of the succeeding consuls, died; thus closing a life which, so far as human life may be, had been full of all that is good and honorable. The people, as though they had not duly rewarded his deserts when alive, but still were in his debt, decreed him a public interment, every one contributin-^ his quadrans towards the charge ; the women, besides, by private consent, mourned a whole year, a signal mark of honor to his memory. He was buried, by the peo- ple's desire, within the city, in the part called Velia, where his posterity had likewise privilege of burial ; now, however, none of the family are interred there, but the body is carried thither and set down, and some one places a burning torch under it and immediately takes it away, as an attestation o( the deceased's privilege, and his receding from his honor j ifter which the body is removed. COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON. There is something singular in the present parallel which has not occurred in any other of the lives ; that the one should be the imitator of the other, and the other his bes< COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON. 1 69 evidence. Upon the survey of Solon's sentence to Crcesus in favor of Tellus's happiness, it seems more applicable to Pop- licola ; for Tellus, whose virtuous life and dying well had gained him the name of the happiest man, yet was never cele- brated in Solon's poems for a good man, nor have his children or any magistracy of his deserved a memorial ; but Poplicola 3 life was the most er/iinent amongst the Romans, as well foi the greatness of his virtue as his power, and also since his death many amongst the distinguished families, even in our days, the Poplicolae, Messalne, and Valerii, after a lapse of six hun- dred years, acknowledge him as the fountain of their honor. Besides, Tellus, though keeping his post and fighting like a valiant soldier, was yet slain by his enemies ; but Poplicola, the better fortune, slew his, and saw his country victorious under his command. And his honors and triumphs brought him, which was Solon's ambition, to a happy end ; the ejaculation which, in his verses against Mimnermus about the continuance of man's life, he himself made, Mourned let me die ; and may I, when life ends, Occasion sighs and sorrows to my friends, is evidence to Poplicola's happiness ; his death did not only draw tears from his friends and acquaintance, but was the object of universal regret and sorrow through the whole city, the women deplored his loss as that of a son, brother, or common father. " Wealth I would have," said Solon, " but wealth by wrong procure would not," because punishment would follow. ButPoplicola's riches were not only justly his, but he spent them nobly in doing good to the distressed. So that if Solon was reputed the wisest man, we must allow Poplicola to be the happi- est ; for what Solon wished for as the greatest and most perfect good, this Poplicola had, and used and enjoyed to his death. And as Solon may thus be said to have contributed to Poplicola's glory, so did also Poplicola to his, by his choice of him as his model in the formation of republican institu tions ; in reducing, for example, the excessive powers and as- sumption of the consulship. Several of his laws, indeed, he actually transferred to Rome, as his empowering the people to elect their officers, and allowing offenders the liberty of appealing to the people, as Solon did to the jurors. He did not, indeed, create a new senate, as Solon did, but augment- ed the old to almost double its number. The appointment of treasurers again, the quaestors, has a like origin ; with the intent that the chief magistrate should not, if of good char ao 170 COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON. ter, be withdrawn from greater matters ; or, if bad, have the greater temptation to injustice, by holding both the govern- ment and treasury in his hands. The aversion to tyranny was stronger in Poplicola ; any one who attempted usurpation could, by Solon's law, only be punished upon conviction ; but Poplicola made it death before a trial. And though Solor. justly gloried, that, when arbitrary power was absolutely of fared to him by circumstances, and when his countrymcu would have willingly seen him accept it, he yet declined it; still Poplicola merited no less, who, receiving a despotic com- mand, converted it to a popular office, and did not employ the whole legal power which he held. We must allow, in- deed, that Solon was before Poplicola in observing that A people always minds its rulers best When it is neither humored nor oppressed. The remission of debts was peculiar to Solon ; it was his great means for confirming the citizens' liberty ; for a mere law to give all men equal rights is but useless, if the pooi must sacrifice those rights to their debts, and, in the very seats and sanctuaries of equality, the courts of justice, the offices of state, and the public discussions, be more than any- where at the beck and bidding of the rich. A yet more ex- traordinary success was, that, although usually civil violence is caused by any remission of debts, upon this one occasion this dangerous but powerful remedy actually put an end to civil violence already existing, Solon's own private worth and reputation overbalancing all the ordinary ill-repute and dis- credit of the change. The beginning of his government was more glorious, for he was entirely original, and followed no man's example, and, without the aid of any ally, achieved his most important measures by his own conduct ; yet the close of Poplicola's life was more happy and desirable, for Solon saw the dissolution of his own commonwealth, Poplicola's maintained the state in good order down to the civil wars. Solon, leaving his laws, as soon as he had made them, en- graven in wood, but destitute of a defender, departed from Athens; whilst Poplicola, remaining, both in and out of office, labored to establish the government. Solon, though he actually knew of Pisistratus's ambition, yet was not able to suppress it, but had to yield to usurpation in its infancy ; whereas Poplicola utterly subverted and dissolved a potent monarchy, strongly settled by long continuance ; uniting thus to virtues equal to those, and purposes identical with those of THEMISTOCLES. 17 I Solon, the good fortune and the power that alone could make them effective. In military exploits, Daimachus of Plataea will not even allow Solon the conduct of the war against the Megarians, as was before intimated ; but Poplicola was victorious in the most important conflicts, both as a private soldier and com- mander. In domestic politics, also, Solon, in play, as it were, and by counterfeiting madness, induced the enterprise against Salamisj whereas Poplicola, in the very beginning, exposed himself to the greatest risk, took arms against Tarquin, de- tected the conspiracy, and, being principally concerned both in preventing the escape of and afterwards punishing the trai- tors, not only expelled the tyrants from tlie city, but extirpated their very hopes. And as, in cases calling for contest and resistance and manful opposition, he behaved with courage and resolution, so, in instances where peaceable language, persuasion, and concession were requisite, he was yet more to be commended ; and succeeded in gaining happily to rec- onciliation and friendship, Porsenna, a terrible and invincible enemy. Some may, perhaps, object, that Solon recovered Salamis, which they had lost, for the Athenians; whereas Poplicola receded from part of what the Romans were at that time possessed of ; but judgment is to be made of actions ac- cording to the times in which they were performed. The conduct of a wise politician is ever suited to the present pos- ture of affairs ; often by foregoing a part he saves the whole, and by yielding in a small matter secures a greater ; and so Poplicola, by restoring what the Romans had lately usurped, saved their undoubted patrimony, and procured, moreover, the stores of the enemy for those who were only too thankful to secure their city. Permitting the decision of the contro- versy to his adversary, he not only got the victory, but like- wise what he himself would willingly have given to purchase the victory, Porsenna putting an end to the war, and leaving them all the provision of his camp, from the sense of the vir- tue and gallant disposition of the Romans which their consul had impressed upon him. THEMISTOCLES. The birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him honor. His father, Neocles, was not of the distio 172 THEMISTOCLES. guished people of Athens, but of the township of Phrearrhi, and of the tribe Leontis ; and by his mother's side, as it is re ported, he was base-born. I am not of the noble Grecian race, I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thraoe • Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please, I was the mother of Themistocles. Yel Phar.ias writes that the mother of Themistocles was not of Thrace, but of Caria, and that her name was not Aba)tO' non, but Euterpe ; and Neanthes adds farther that she was of Halicarnassus in Caria. And, as illegitimate children, includ- ing those that were of the half-blood or had but one parent an Athenian, had to attend at the Cynosarges (a wrestling- place outside the gates, dedicated to Hercules, who was also of half-blood amongst the gods, having had a mortal woman for his mother), Themistocles persuaded several of the young men of high birth to accompany him to anoint and exercise themselves together at Cynosa'-ges ; an ingenious device for destroying the distinction between the noble and the base- born, and between those of the whole and those of the half- blood of Athens. However, it is certain that he was related to the house of the Lycomeda ; for Simonides records, that he rebuilt the chapel of Phlya, belonging to that family, and beautified it with pictures and other ornaments, after it had been burnt by the Persians. It i > confessed by all that from his youth he was of a vehe- ment and impetuous nature, of a quick apprehension, and a strong and aspiring bent for action and great affairs. The holidays and intervals in his studies he did not spend in play or idleness, as other children, but would be always inventing or arranging some oration or declamation to himself, the sub- ject of which was generally the excusing or accusing his com- panions, so that his master would often say to him, " You, my boy, will be nothing small, but great one way or other, for good or else for bad.^^V He received reluctantly and carelessly in- structions given him to improve his manners and behavior, oi to teach him any pleasing or graceful accomplishment, but whatever was said to improve him in sagacity, or in manajre- ment of affairs, he would give attention to, beyond one of his years, from confidence in his natural capacities for such things. And thus afterwards, when in company where people engaged themselves in what are commonly thought the liberal and elegant amusements, he was obliged to defend himself against the observations of those who considered themselves THEMISTOCLES. 173 highly accomplished, by the somewhat aiiogant letort, that he certainly could not make use of any stringed instnmient, could only, were a small and obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious. Notwithstanding this, Stesim- brotus says that Themistocles was a hearer of Anaxagoras, and that he studied natural philosophy under Melissu-i, con trary to chronolog)' ; Melissus commanded the Samians in the siege by Pericles, who was much Themistocles's junior ; and with Pericles, also, Anaxagoras was intimate. They, therefore, might rather be credited, who report, that Themis- tocles was an admirer of Mnesiphilus the Phrearrhian, who was neither rhetorician nor natural philosopher, but a pro- fessor of that which was then called wisdom, consisting in a sort of political shrewdness and practical sagacity, which had begun and continued, almost like a sect of philosophy, from Solon : but those who came afterwards, and mixed it with pleadings and legal artifices, and transformed the practical part of it into a mere art of speaking and an exercise of words, were generally called sophists. Themistocles resorted to Mnesiphilus when he had already embarked in politics. V In the first essays of his youth he was not regular nor happily ballanced ; he allowed himself to follow mere natural character, which, without the control of reason and instruc- tion, is apt to hurry, upon either side, into sudden and violent courses, and very often to break away and determine upon the worst ; as he afterwards owned himself, saying, that the wildest colts make the best horses, if they only get properly trained and broken in^f-But those who upon this fasten stories of their own invention, as of his being disowned by his father, and that his mother died for grief of her son's ill fame, cer- tainly calumniate him ; and there are others who relate, on the contrary, how that to deter him from public business, and to let him see how the vulgar behave themselves towards their leaders when they have at last no farther use of them, his father showed him the old galleys as they lay forsaken and cast about upon the sea-shore. Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with the keenest interest in public affairs, and the most passionate am- bition for distinction. Eager from the first to obtain the highest place, he unhesitatingly accepted the hatred of the most powerful and influential leaders in the city, but more especially of Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, who always opposed him. And yet all this great enmity between them arose, it appears, from a very boyish occasion, both being 174 THEMISTOCLES, attached to the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, as Aiiston the ph.i- losopher tells us ; ever after which they took opposite sides, and were rivals in politics. Not but that the incompatibility of their lives and manners may seem to have increased the difference, for Aristides was of a mild nature, and of a nobler sort of character, and, in public matters, acting always with a view, not to glory or popularity, but to the best interest of the state consistently with safety and honesty, he was often forced to oppose Themistocles, and interfere against the in- crease of his influence, seeing him stirring up the people to all kinds of enterprises, and introducing various innovations. For it is said that Themistocles was so transported with the thoughts of glory, and so infiamci with the passion for great actions, that, though he was still young when the baUle of Marathon was fought against the Persians, upon the skilful conduct of the general, Miltiades, being everywhere talked about, he was observed to be thoughtful, and reserved, alone by himself ; he passed the nights without sleep, and avoided all his usual places of recreation, and to those who wondered at the change, and inquired the reason of it, he gave the an- swer, that " the trophy of Miltiades would not let him sleep." And when others were of opinion that the battle of Marathon would be an end to the war, Themistocles thought that it was but the beginning of far greater conflicts, and for these, to the benefit of all Greece, he kept himself in continual readiness, and his city also in proper training, foreseeing from far before what would happen. And, first of all, the Athenians being accustomed to divide amongst themselves the revenue proceeding from the silver mines at Laurium, he was the only man that durst propose to the people that this distribution should cease, and that with the money ships should be built to make war against the yEginetans, who were the most flourishing people in all Greece, and by the number of their ships held the sovereignty of the sea ; and Themistocles thus was more easily able to persunde them, avoiding a'd mention of danger from Darius or the Per- sians, who were at a great distance, and their coming very un- ceitain, and at that time not much to be feared ; but, by a seasonable employment of the emulation and anger felt b> the Athenians against the .^ginetans, he inr'uced them to preparation. So that with this money an hundred ships were built, with which they afterwards fought against Xerxes. And, henceforward, little by little, turning and drawing the city down towards the sea, in the belief that, whereas by land they THEMISTOCLES. 175 were not a fit match for their next neighbors, with their ships they might be able to repel the Persians and command Greece, thus, as Plato says, from steady soldiers he turned them into mariners and seamen tossed about the sea, and gave occasion for the reproach against him, that he took away from the Athenians the spear and the shield, and bound them to the bench and the oar. These measures he carried in the assem- bly, against the opposition, as Stesimbrotus relates, of Miltia- des ; and whether or no he hereby injured the purity and tnie balance of government, may be a question for philosophers, but that the deliverance of Greece came at that time from the sea, and that these galleys restored Athens again after it was destroyed, were others wanting, Xerxes aimself would be suffi- cient evidence, who, though his land-forces were still entire, after hk-> defeat at sea, fled away, and thought himself no longer able to encounter the Greeks ; and, as it seems to me, left Mardonius behind him, not out of any hopes he could have to bring them into subjection, but to hinder them from pursuing him, / Themistocles is said to have been eager in the acquisition of riches, according to some, that he might be the more liberal ; for loving to sacrifice often, and to be splendid in his entertainment of strangers, he required a plentiful revenue ; yet he is accused by others of having been parsimonious and sordid to that degree that he would sell provisions which were sent to him as a present.' i.He desired Diphilides, who was a breeder of horses, to give him a colt, and when he re- fused it, threatened that in a short time he would turn his house into a wooden horse, intimating that he would stir up dispute and litigation between him and some of his relations?^ He went beyond all men in the passion for distinction.' When he was still young and unknown in the world, he en- treated Episcles of Hermione, who had a good hand at the lute and was much sought after by the Athenians, to come and practise at home with him, being ambitious of having people inquire after his house and frequent his company.V When he came to the Olympic games, and was so splendid in ^ his equipage and entertainments, in his rich tents, and furni- ture, that he strove to outdo Cimon, he displeased the Greeks, who thought that such magnificence might be allowed in one who was a young man and of a great family but was a great piece of insolence in one as yet undistinguished, and without title or means for making any such display^>ljji a dramatic contest, the play he paid for won the prize, Which was then a 176 TTiRMi.-Tr<-i rs. matter that excited much emulation ; he put up a tablet in rec- ord of it, with the inscription. "Themistocles of Plirearrhi was at the charge of it ; Phrynichus made it ; Adimantus was archon." He was well liked by the common people, would salute every particular citizen by his own name, and always show himself a just judge in questions of business between private meny he said to Simonides, the poet of Cecis, who desired something of him, when he was commander of the army, that was not reasonable, " Simonides, you would be no good poet if you wrote false measure, nor should I be a good insgistrate if for favor I made false law,"l"And at another time, laughing at Simonides, he said, that he was a man of little judgment to speak against the Corinthians, who were inhabi- tants of a great city, and to have hjs own picture drawn so often, having so ill-looking a face. ' Gradually growing to be great, and winning the favor of the people, he at last gained the day with his faction over that of Aristides, and procured his banishment by ostracism. When the king of Persia was now advancing against Greece, and the Athenians were in consultation who should be gen- eral, and many withdrew themselves of their own accord, being terrified with the greatness of the danger, there was one Epicydes, a popular speaker, son to Eupliemides, a man of an eloquent tongue, but of a faint heart, and a slave to riches, who was desirous of the command, and was looked upon to be in a fair way to carry it by the number of votes ; but Themistocles, fearing that, if the command should fall into such hands, all would be lost, bought off Epicydes and his pretensions, it is said, for a sum of money. When the king of Persia sent messengers into Greece, with an interpreter, to demand earth and water, as an ac- knowledgment of subjection, Themistocles, by the consent of the people, seized upon the interpreter, and put him to death, for presuming to publish the barbarian orders and decrees in the Greek language ; this is one of the actions he is com- mended for, as also for what he did to Arthmius of Zelea, who brought gold from the king of Persia to corrupt tho Greeks, and was, by an order from Themistocles, degraded and disfranchised, he and his children and his posterity ; but that which niost of all redounded to his credit was, that he put an end to all the civil wars of Greece, composed their differences, and persuaded them to lay aside all enmity dur- in(^ the war with the Persians ; and in this great work, Chileus U"} Arcadian was, it is .said, of great assistance to him. THEMISTOCLES. 1 77 Having taken upon himself the commani of the Athenian forces, he immediately endeavored to persuade the citizens to leave the city, and to embark upon their galleys, and meet with the Persians at a great distance from Greece ; but many being against this, he led a large force, together with the Lacedaemonians, into Tempe, that in this pass they might maintain the safety of Thessaly, which had not as yet declared for the king ; but when they returned without performing auy thing, and it was known that not only the Thessalians, but all as tar as Boeotia, was going over to Xerxes, then the Athenians more willingly hearkened to the advice of Themistocles to fight by sea, and sent him with a fleet to guaid the straits ot Artemisium. When the contingents met here, the Greeks would have the Lacedaemonians to command, and Eurybiades to be their admiral ; but the Athenians, who surpassed all the rest together in number of vessels, would not submit to come after any other, till Themistocles, perceiving the danger of this contest, yielded his own command to Eurybiades, and got the Athenians to submit, extenuating the loss by persuad- ing them, that if in this war they behaved themselves like men, he would answer for it after that, that the Greeks, of their own will, would submit to their command. And by this modera- tion of his, it is evident that he was the chief means of the deliverance of Greece, and gained the Athenians the glory of alike surpassing their enemies in valor, and their confederates in wisdom. As soon as the Persian armada arrived at Aphets, Eury- biades was astonished to see such a vast number of vessels before him, and being informed that two hundred more were sailing round behind the island of Sciathus, he immediately determined to retire farther into Greece, and to sail back into some part of Peloponnesus, where their land army and theiv fleet might join, for he looked upon the Persian forces to be altogether unassailable by sea. But the Eubceans, fearing that the Greeks would forsake them, and leave them to the mercy of the enem}'^, sent Pelagon to confer privately with Themistocles, taking with him a good sum of money, which, as Herodotus reports, he accepted and gave to Eurybiades. In this atfair none of his own countrymen opposed him so much as Architeles, captain of the sacred galley, who, having no money to supply his seamen, was eager to go home ; but Themistocles so incensed the Athenians against him, that they set upon him and left him not so much as his supper, at which Architeles 12 1^8 THEMISTOCLES. was much surprised, and took it very ill ; butThemistocles im- mediately sent him in a chest a service of provisions, and at the bottom of it a talent of silver, desiring him to sup to-night, and to-morrow provided for his seamen ; if not, he would report it among the Athenians that he had received money from the enemy. So Phanias the Lesbian tells the story. Though the fights between the Greeks and Persians in the straits of P'uboea were not so important as to make any final decision of the war, yet the experience which the Greeks obtained in them was of great advantage ; for thus, by actual trial and in real danger, they found out that neither number of ships, nor riches and ornaments, nor boasting shouts, nor baibarous songs of victory, were any way terrible to men that knew how to fight, and were resolved to come hand to hand with their enemies ; these things they were to despise, and to come up close and grapple with their foes. This, Pindar appears to have seen, and says justly enough of the fight at Artemisium, that There the sons of Athens set The stone that freedom stands on yet. For the first step towards victory undoubtedly is to gain courage. Artemisium is in Euboea, beyond the city of Histiaea, a sea-beach open to the north ; most nearly opposite to it stands Olizon, in the country which formerly was under Philoctetes ; there is a small temple there, dedicated to Diana, surnamed of the Dawn, and trees about it, around which again stand pillars of white marble ; and if you rub them with your hand, they send forth both the smell and color of saffron. On one of these pillars these verses are engraved, — With numerous tribes from Asi.i's region brought The sons of Athens on these waters fought ; Erecting, after they had quelled the Mede, To Artemis this record of the deed. There is a place still to be seen upon this shore, where, ^n the middle of a great heap of sand, they take out from the bot- tom a dark powder like ashes, or something that has passecj the fire ; and here, it is supposed, the shipwrecks and bodies of the dead were burnt. But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisiunr. informing them that king Leonidas was slain, and that Xerxes had made himself master of all the passages by land, they returned back to the interior of Greece, the Athenians having THEMISTOCLES, 1 79 the command of the rear, the place of honor and danger, and much elated by what had been done. As Themistocles sailed along the coasts, he took notice of the harbors and fit places for the enemy's ships to come to land at, and engraved large letters in such stones as he found there by chance, as also in others which he set up on purpose near to the landing-places, or where they were to water ; in which inscriptions he called upon the lonians to forsake the Medes, if it were possible, and come over to the Greeks, who were theii proper founders and fathers, and were nowhazai.l- mg all for their liberties ; but, if this could not be done, at any rate to impede and disturb the Persians in all engage- ments.' He hoped that these writings would prevail with the lonians to revolt, or raise some trouble by making their fidel- ity doubtful to the Persians. Now, though Xerxes had already passed through Doris and invaded the country of Phocis, and was burning and de- stroying the cities of the Phocians, yet the Greeks sent them no relief ; and, though the Athenians earnestly desired them to meet the Persians in Boeotia, before they could come into Attica, as they themselves had come forward by sea at Ar- temisium, they gave no ear to their request, being wholly in- tent upon Peloponnesus, and resolved to gather all their forces together within the Isthmus, and to build a wall from sea to sea in that narrow neck of land ; so that the Athe- nians were enraged to see themselves betrayed, and at the same time afflicted and dejected at their own destitution. For to fight alone against such a numerous army was to no pur- pose, and the only expedient now left them was to leave their city and cling to their ships ; which the people were very un- willing to submit to, imagining that it would signify little now to gain a victory, and not understanding how there could be deliverance any longer after they had once forsaken the tem- ples of their gods and exposed the tombs and monuments of their ancestors *^d the fury of their enemies. Themistocles, being at a loss, and not able to draw the people over to his opinion by any human reason, set his machines to work, as in a theatre, and employed prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Minerva, kept in the inner part of her temple, disappeared ; the priests gave it out to the people that the offerings which were set for it were found un- touched, and declared, by the suggestion of Themistocles, that the goddess had left the city, and taken her flight before them towards the sea. And he often urged them with the l8o THEMISTOCLES. oracle which bade them trust to walls of wood, showing them that walls of wood could signify nothing else but ships ; and that the island of Salamis was termed in it, not miserable or unhappy, but had the epithet of divine, for that it should one day be associated with a great good fortune of the Greeks. At length his opinion prevailed, and he obtained a dejcree that the city should be committed to the protection of Mi- nerva, "queen of Athens;" that they who were of age tc bear arms should embark, and that each should see to send- ing away his children, women, and slaves where he could. This decree being confirmed, most of the Athenians removed their parents, wives, and children to Troezen, where they were received with eager good-will by the Troezenians, who passed a vote that they should be maintained at the public charge, by a daily payment of two obols to every one, and leave be given to the children to gather fruit where they pleased, and schoolmasters paid to instruct them. This vote was pro- posed by Nicagoras. There was no public treasure at that time in Athens ; but the council of Areopagus, as Aristotle says, distributed to every one that served, eight drachmas, which was a great help to the manning of the fleet ; but Clidemus ascribes this also to the art of Themistocles. When the Athenians were on their way down to the haven of Pirsus, the shield with the head of Medusa was missing ; and he, under the pretext of searching for it, ransacked all places, and found among their goods considerable sums of money concealed, which he ap- plied to the public use ; and with this the soldiers and sea- men were well provided for their voyage. When the whole city of Athens were going on board, it afforded a spectacle worthy of pity alike and admiration, to see them thus send away their fathers and children before them, and, unmoved with their cries and tears, passed over into the island. But that which stirred compassion most of all was, that many old men, by reason of their great age, were left behind ; and even the tame domestic animals could not be seen without some pity, running about the town and howl- ing, as desirous to be carried along with their masters that had kept them ; among which it is reported that Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, had a dog that would not endure to stay behind, but leaped into the sea, and swam along by the galley's side till he came to the island of Salamis, where he fainted away and died, and that spot in the island, which it still called the Dog's Grave, is said to be his. TIIF.MISTOCLES. l8l Among ihe great actions of Themistocles at this crisis, the recall of Aristides was not the least, for, before the war, he had been ostracized by the party which Themistocles headed, and was in banishment ; but now, perceiving that the people regretted his absence, and were fearful that he might go over to the Persians to revenge himself, and thereby ruin the affairs of Greece, Tliemistocles proposed a decree that those v/ho were banished for a time might return again, to give assistance by word and deed to the cause of Greece with the rest of their fellow-citizens. Eurybiades, by reason of the greatness of Sparta, was ad- miral of the Greek fleet, but yet was faint-hearted in time of danger, and willing to weigh anchor and set sail for the isth- mus of Corinth, near which the land army lay encamped ; which Themistocles resisted ; and this was the occasion of the well-known words, when Eurybiades, to check his impa- tience, told him that at the Olympic games they that start up before the rest are lashed ; " And they," replied Themisto- cles, " that are left behind are not crowned." Again, Eury- biades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike Themistocles said, " Strike if you will, but hear ;" Eurybiades, wondering much at his moderation, desired him to speak, and Themistocles now brought him to a better understanding. And when one who stood by him told him that it did not be- come those who had neither city nor house to lose, to per- suade others to relinquish their habitations and forsake (heir countries, Themistocles gave this reply: "We have indeed left our houses and our walls, base fellow, not thinking it fit to become slaves for the sake of things that have no life nor soul ; and yet our city is the greatest of all Greece, consist- ing of two hundred galleys, which are here to defend you, if you please ; but if you run away and betray us, as you did once before, the Greeks shall soon hear news of the Athe- nians possessing as fair a country, and as large and free a city, as that they have lost. These expressions of Themisto- cles made Eurybiades suspect that if he retreated the Athe- nians would fall off from liim. When one of Eretria began to oppcse him, he said, " Have you any thing to say of war, that are like an ink-fish ? you have a sword, but no heart." Some say that while Themistocles was thus speaking things upon the deck, an owl was seen flying to the right hand of the fleet, which came and sate upon the top of the mast ; and this hap- py omen so far disposed the Greeks to follow his advice, that they presently prepared to fight. Yet, when the enemy's fleet 102 THEMISTOCLES. was arrived at the haven of Phalerum, upor the coast of Attica and with the number of their ships concealed all the shore, and when they saw the king himself in person come down with his land army to the sea-side, with all his forces united, then the good counsel of Themistocles was soon forgotten, and the Peloponnesians cast their eyes again towards the isthmus, and took it very ill if any one spoke against the.r returning home ; and, resolving to depart that night, llic pilots had order what course to steer. Themistocles, in great distress that the Greeks should re- tire, and lose the advantage of the narrow seas and strait pas- sage, and slip home everj'one to his own city, considered with himself, and contrived that stratagem that was carried out by Sicinnus. This Sicinnus w^as a Persian captive, but a great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his children. Upon this occasion, he sent him privately to Xerxes, com- manding him to tell the king, that Themistocles, the admiral of the Athenians, having espoused his interest, wished to be the first to inform him that the Greeks were ready to make their escape, and that he counselled him to hinder their liight, to set upon them while they were in this confusion and at a distance from their land army, and hereby destroy all their forces by sea. Xerxes was very joyful at this message, and received it as from one who wished him all that was good, and immediately issued instructions to the commanders of his ships, that they should instantly set out with two hun- dred galleys to encompass all the islands, and enclose all the straits and passages, that none of the Greeks might escape, and that they should afterwards follow with the rest of their fleet at leisure. This being done, Aristides, the son of Lysi- machus, was the first man that perceived it, and went to the tent of Themistocles, not out of any friendship, for he had been formerly banished by his means, as has been related, but to inform him how they were encompassed by their en& mies. Themistocles, knowing the generosity of Aris^;des, and much struck by his visit at that time, imparted to him all that he had transacted by Sicinnus, and entreated him that, as he would be more readily believed among theGraeks, he would make use of his credit to help to induce them to stay and fight their enemies in the narrow seas. Aristides applauded Themistocles, and went to the other commanders and captains of the galleys, and encouraged them to engage , yet they did not peifectly assent to him, till a galley of Teno3, which deserted from the Persiars, of which Pana^tius was THEMISTOCLES. 1 83 commander, came in, while they were still doubtiug, and cor>- firmed the news that all the straits and passages were beset j and then their rage and fury, as well as their necessity, pro- voked them all to fight. As soon as it was day, Xerxes placed himself high up, to view his fleet, and how it was set in order. Phanodemus says, he sat upon a promontory above the temple of Her- cules, where the coast of Attica is separated from the island by a narrow channel ; but Acestodorus writes, that it was in the confines of Megara, upon those hills which are called the Horns, where he sat in a chair of gold, with many secretaries about him to write down all that was done in the fight. When Themistocles was about to sacrifice, close to the admiral's galley, there were three prisoners brought to him, fine looking men, and richly dressed in ornamented clothing and gold, said to be the children of Artayctes and Sandauce, sister to Xerxes. As soon as the prophet Euphrantides saw them, and observed that at the same time the fire blazed out from the offerings with a more than ordinary flame, and a man sneezed on the right, which was an intimation of a fortu- nate event, he took Themistocles by the hand, and bade him consecrate the three young men for sacrifice, and offer them up with prayers for victory to Bacchus the Devourer ; so should the Greeks not only save themselves, but also obtain victory. Themistocles was much disturbed at this strange and terrible prophecy, but the common people, who, in any difficult crisis and great exigency, ever look for relief rather to strange and extravagant than to reasonable means, calling upon Bacchus with one voice, led the captives to the altar, and compelled the execution of the sacrifice as the prophet had commanded. This is reported by Phanias the Lesbian, a philosopher well read in history. The number of the enemy's ships the poet -^schylus give« in his tragedy called the Persians, as on his certain knowl- ed5,e, in the following words — Xerxes, I know, did into battle lead One thousand ships ; of more than usual speed Seven and two hundred. So it is agreed. The Athenians had a hundred and eighty ; in every ship eighteen men fought upon the deck, four of whom were archers and the rest men at arms. As Themistocles had fixed upon the most advantageous place, so, with no less sagacity, he chose the best time of fighting ; for he would not run the prows of his galleys 184 THEMISTOCLES. against the Persians, nor begin the fight till the time of day was come, when there regularly blows m a fresli breeze from the open sea, and brings in with it a strc^ng swell into llie channel ; which was no inconvenience to the Greek ships, which were low-built, and little above the water, but did much hurt to the Persians, which had high sterns and lofty decks, and were heavy and cumbrous in their movements, as it presented them broadside to the quick charges of the Greeks, who kept their eyes upon the motions of Themistocles, as their best example, and more particularly because, opposed to his ship, Ariamenes, admiral to Xerxes, a brave man, and bj far the best and worthiest of the king's brothers, was seen throwing darts and shooting arrows from his huge galley, as from the walls of a castle. Aminias the Decelean and Sos- icles the Pedian, who sailed in the same vessel, upon the ships meeting stem to stem, and transfixing each the other with their brazen prows, so that they were fastened together, when Ariamenes attempted to board theirs, ran at him with their pikes, and thrust him into the sea ; his body, as it floated amongst other shipwrecks, was known to Artemisia, and car- ried to Xerxes. It is reported that, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose into the air above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were heard through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number of men accompanying and escorting the mystic lacchus, and that a mist seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds came, and, passing forward, fell upon the galleys. Others believed that they saw apparitions, in the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands from the island of yEgina before the Grecian galleys ; and supposed they were the ^acidae, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle. The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of a galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo the Laurel-crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow arm of the sea, and could bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another, the Greeks thus equalled them in strength, and fought with them till the evening forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greeks nor barbarians was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas ; by the joint valor, indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but by the wisdom and sagacity of Themistocles. After this sea-fight, Xerxes, enraged at his ill-fortun^ themtstoci.es. I 8s attempted, by casting great heaps of earth and stones into the sea, to stop up the channel and to make a dam, upon which he might lead his land-forces over into the island i>f Salamis. Themistocles, being desirous to try the opinion of Aris- tides, told him that he proposed to set sail for the Hellespont, to break the bridge of ships, so as to shut up, he said, Asia a prisoner within Europe ; but Aristides, disliking the design, said, " We have hitherto fought with an enemy who has re- garded little else but his pleasure and luxury ; but if we shut him up within Greece, and drive him to necessity, he tliat is master of such great forces will no longer sit quietly with an umbrella of gold over his head, looking upon the fight for his pleasure ; but in such a strait will attempt all things ; he will be resolute, and appear himself in person upon all oc- casions, he will soon correct his errors, and supply what he has formerly omitted through remissness, and will be better advised in all things. Therefore, it is noways our interest, Themistocles," he said, " to take away the bridge that is already made, but rather to build another, if it were possible that he might make his retreat with the more expedition." To which Themistocles answered, " If this be requisite, we must immediately use all diligence, art, and industry, to rid ourselves of him as soon as may be ; " and to this purpose he found out among the captives one of the king of Persia's eunuchs, named Arnaces, whom he sent to the king, to in- form him that the Greeks, being now victorious by sea, had decreed to sail to the Hellespont, where the boats were fastened together, and destroy the bridge ; but that The- mistocles, being concerned for the king, revealed this to him, that he might hasten towards the Asiatic seas, and pass over into his own dominions ; and in the mean time would cause delays and hinder the confederates from pursuing him.. Xerxes no sooner heard this, but, being very much terrified^ he proceeded to retreat out of Greece with all speed. The prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in this was afterwards more f ally understood at the battle of Plataea, where Mar^ dorimus, with a very small fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger of losing all. Herodotus writes, that of all the cities of Greece, /Egina was held to have performed the best service in the war ; while all single men yielded to Themistocles, though, out of envy, unwillingly ; and when they returned to the entrance of Peloponnesus, where the several commanders delivered their sufLrages at the altar, to determine who was most worthy l86 THEMISTOCLES, every one gave the first vote for himself and the second foi Themistocles. The Lacedaemonians carried him with them to Sparta, where, giving the rewards of valor to Eurybiades, and of wisdom and conduct to Themistocles, they crowned him with olive, presented him with the best chariot in the city and sent three hundred young men to accompany him to the confines of their country. And at the next Olympic games, when Themistocles entered the course, the spectators took no farther notice of those who were contesting the prizes, bu'; spent the whole day in looking upon him, showing him to tlie strangers, admiring him, and applauding him by clapping their hands, and other expressions of joy, so that he himself, much gratified, confessed to his friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his labors for the Greeks. He was, indeed by nature, a great lover of honor, as is evident from the anecdotes recorded of him. When chosen admiral by the Athenians, he would not quite conclude any single matter of business, either public or private, but deferred all till the day they were to set sail, that, by despatching a great quantity of business, all at once, and having to meet a great variety of people, he might make an appearance of greatness and power. Viewing the dead bodies cast up by the sea, he perceived bracelets and necklaces of gold about them, yet passed on, only showing them to a friend that followed him, saying, " Take you these things, for you are not Themistocles." He said to Antiphates, a handsome young man, who had formerly avoided, but now in his glory courted him, " Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson." He said that the Athenians did not honor him or admire him, but made, as it were, a sort of plane-tree of him ; sheltered themselves under him in bad weather, and as soon as it was fine, plucked his leaves and cut his branches. When the Seriphian told him that he had not obtained this honor by himself, but by the greatness of the city, he replied, " You speak truth ; I should never have been famous if 1 had been of Seriphus; nor you, hnd you been of Athens." When another of the generals, who thought he had performed con* siderable service for the Athenians, boastingly compared his actions with those of Themistocles, he told him that once upon a time the Day after the Festival found fault with the Festival : " On you there is nothing but hurry and trouble and preparation, but, when I come, everybody sits down quietly and enjoys himself;" which the Festival admitted was true, but " if I had not come first, you would not have THEMISTOCLES. 187 come at all." " Even so," he said, " il Themistocles had not come before, where had you been now? "7., Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and, by his mother's means, his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece : " For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands mC; and you command your mother. "i. Loving to be singular in all things, when he had land to sell, he ordered the crier to give notice that there were good neighbors near it. Of two who made love to his daughter, he preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, saying he desired a man without riches, rather than riches without a man. Such was the character of his sayings. 4 After these things, he began to rebuild and fortify the city of Athens, bribing, as Theopompus reports, the Lacednemonian ephors not to be against it, but as most relate it, overreaching and deceiving them. t. For, under the pretext of an embassy, he went to Sparta, where upon the Lacedaemonians charging him with rebuilding the walls, and Poliarchus coming on pur- pose from .^gina to denounce it, he denied the fact, bidding them to send people to Athens to see whether it were so or no ; by which delay he got time for the building of the wall, and also placed these ambassadors in the hands of his coun- trymen as hostages for him ; and so, when the Lacedemonians knew the truth, they did him no hurt, but, suppressing all display of their anger for the present, sent him away. ,1^ Next he proceeded to establish the harbor of Piraeus, observing the great natural advantages of the locality, and desirous to unite the whole city with the sea, and to reverse, in a manner, the policy of ancient Athenian kings, who, en- deavoring to withdraw their subjects from the sea, and to accustom them to live, not by sailing about, but by planting and tilling the earth, spread the story of the dispute between Minerva and Neptune for the sovereignty of Athens, in which Minerva, by producing to the judges an olive-tree, was de- clared to have won ; whereas Themistocles did not only knead up, as Aristophanes says, the port and the city into one, but made the city absolutely the dependant and the adjunct of the port, and the land of the sea, which increased the power and confidf.nce of the people against the nobility ; the authority coming into the hands of sailors and boatswains and pilots. :^ Thus it was one of the orders of the thirty tyrants, that the hustings in the assembly, which had faced towards the sea, should be turned round towards the Und ; implying 1 88 THEMISTOCLES. their opinion that the empire b}'' sea had been the oiigin ol die democracy, and that the farming population were not so much opposed to oligarchy. Themistocles, however, formed yet higher designs with a view to naval supremacy. For, after the departure of Xerxes, when the Grecian fleet was arrived at Pagasre, where they wintered, Themistocles, in a public oration to the people of Athens, told them that he had a design to perform something that would tend greatly to their interests and safety, but waa of such a nature, that it could not be made generally public. The Athenians ordered him ,o impart it to Aristides only j and, if he approved of it, to put it in practice. And when The- mistocles liad discovered to him that his design was to burn the Grecian fieet in the haven of Pagasae, Aristides, coming out to the people, gave this report of the stratagem contrived by 'Phemistocles, that no proposal could be more politic, or more dishonorable ; on which the Athenians commanded Themistocles, to think no farther of it. When the Lacedaemonians proposed, at the general coun cil of the Amphictyonians, that the representatives of those cities which were not in the league, nor had fought against die Persians, should be excluded, Themistocles, fearing that the Thessalians, with those of Thebes, Argos, and others, be- ing thrown out of the council, the Lacedaemonians would be- come wholly masters of the votes, and do what they pleased, supported the deputies of the cities, and prevailed with the members then sitting to alter their opinion in this point, showing them that there were but one and thirty cities which had partaken in the war, and that most of these, also, were very small ; how intolerable would it be, if the rest of Greece should be exckided, and the general council should come to be ruled by tv.'o or three great cities. By this, chiefiy, he incurred the displeasure of the Lacedaemonians, whose honors and favors were now shown to Cimon, with a view to making him the opponent of the state policy of Themistocles. He was also burdensome to the confederates, sailing about the islands and collecting money from them. Herodotus says, that, requiring money of those of the island of Andros, he told them that he had brought with him two goddesses, Persuasion and Force; and they answered him that they had also two great goddesses, which prohibited them from giving him any money. Poverty and Impossibility. Timocreon, the Rhodian poet, reprehends him somewhat bitterly for being wrought upon by money to let some who were banished re THEMISTOCLES. 189 turn, while abandoning himself, who was his guest and friend The verses are these : — Pansaiifas "ou may praise, and Xanthippus he be for, For Leulychidas, a third ; Aristides, I proclaim, From ihc sacred Athens came, The one true man of all ; for Themistocles Latona doth abhor, The liar, traitor, cheat, who, to gain his filthy pay, I'imocreon, his friend, neglected tc restore To his native Rhodian sliore ; Three silver talents took, and departed (curses with him) on h's way, Xesloring people here, expelling there, and killing here. Filling evermore his purse : and at the Isthmus gave a treat, To be laughed at, of cold msat, Which they ate, and prayed the gods some one else might give the feast another year. But after the sentence and banishment of Themistocles, Ti- mocreon reviles him yet more immoderately and wildly in a poem which begins thus : — Unto all the Greeks repair O Muse, and tell these verses there, As is fitting and is fair. ::ShThe scory is, that it was put to the question whether Timocre- on should be banished for siding with the Persians, and The- niistoclcs gave his vote against him. So when Themistocles was accused of intriguing with the Medes, Timocreon made these lines upon him : — So now Timocreon, indeed, is not the sole friend of the Mede, There are some knaves besitles ; nor is it only mine that fails But other foxes have lost tails. — ^hen the citizens of Athens began to listen willingly to those who traduced and reproached him, he was forced, with some- what obnoxious frequency, to put them in mind of the great services he had performed, and ask those who were offended with him whether they were weary with receiving benefits often from the same jjerson, so rendering himself more odious And he yet more provoked the people by building a temple to Diana with the epithet of Aristobule, or Diana of Best Counsel ; intimating thereby, that he had given the best counsel, not only to the Athenians, but to all Greece. He built this temple near his own house, in the d'strict called Melite, where now the public officers carry out the bodies of such as are executed, and throw the halters and clothes of those that are strangled or otherwise put to death, ^t There i* to this day a small figure of Themistocles in the temple oJ Diana of Best Counsel, which represents him to be a person rQO THEMISTOCLES. not only of a noble mind, but also of a most heroic aspect At length the Athenians banished him, making use of thrt ostracism to humble his eminence and authority, as they ordinarily did with all whom they thought too powerful, or, by their greatness, disproportionable to the equality thought requisite in a popular government. For the ostracism was instituted, not so much to punish the offender, as to mitigate and pacify th? violence of the envious, who delighted to nuna ble eminent men, and who, by fixing this disgrace upon them, might vent some part of their rancor, ^f Themistocles being banished from Athens, while he stayed at Argos the detection of Pausanias happened, which gave such advantage to his enemies, that Leobotes of Agraule, son of Alcmaeon, indicted him of treason, the Spartans supporting him in the accusation. When Pausanias went about this treasonable design, he concealed it at first from Tliemistocles, though he were his intimate friend ; but when he saw him expelled out of the commonwealth, and how impatiently he took his banishment, he ventured to communicate it to him, and desired his as- sistance, showing him the king of Persia's letters, and exas- perating him against the Greeks, as a villanous, ungrateful people. However, Themistocles immediately rejected the proposals of Pausanias, and wholly refused to be a party in tlie enterprise, though he never revealed his communications, nor disclosed the conspiracy to any man, either hoping that Pausanias would desist from his intentions, or expecting that so inconsiderate an attempt after such chimerical objects would be discovered by other means. -> After that Pausanias was put to death, letters and writings being found concerning this matter, which rendered Themis- tocles suspected, the Lacedaemonians were clamorous against him, and his enemies among the Athenians accused him ; when, being absent from Athens, he made his defence by letters, especially against the points that had been previously alleged against him. In answer to the malicious detractions of his enemies, he merely wrote to the citizens, urging that he who was always ambitious to govern, and not of a character or a disposition to serve, would never sell himself and his country into slavery to a barbarous and hostile nation. -'^ Notwithstanding this, the people, being persuaded by his accusers, sent officers to take him and bring him away to be tried before a council of the Greeks, but, liaving timely notice of it, he passed over into the island of Corcyra, where the •I'llEMISTOCLES. 191 State was under obligations to him ; for, being chosen as arbitrator in a difference between them and the Corinthians, he decided the controversy by ordering the Corintliians to pay down twenty talents, and declaring the town and island of Leucas a joint colony from both cities. From thence he (led into Epirus, and, the Athenians and Lacednemonians still pursuing him, he threw himself upon chances of safely that seemed all but desperate. For he fled for refuge to AdmetuSj king of the Molossians, who had formerly made some request to the Athenians, when Themistocles was in the height of his authority, and had been disdainfully used and insulted by him, and had let it appear plain enough, that, could he lay hold of him, he would take his revenge. Yet in this misfortune, 'i'hemistocles, fearing the recent hatred of his neighbors and fellow-citizens more than the old displeasure of the king, put iiimself at his mercy, and became an humble suppliant to Admetus, after a peculiar manner, different from the custom of other countries. For taking the king's son, who was then a child, in his arms, he laid himself down at his hearth, this being the most sacred and only manner of supplication among the Molossians, which was not to be refused. And some say that his wife, Phthia, intimated to Themistocles this way of petitioning, and placed her young son with him before the hearth ; others, that king Admetus, that he might be under a religious obligation not to deliver him up to his pur- suers, prepared and enacted with him a sort of stage-play to this effect. At this time, Epicrates of Acharnae privately conveyed his wife and children out of Athens, and sent them hither, for which afterwards Cimon condemned him and put him to death ; as Stesimbrotus reports, and yet somehow, either forgetting this himself, or making Themistocles to be little mindful of it, says presently that he sailed into Sicily, and desired in marriage the daughter of Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, promising to bring the Greeks under his power ; and, on Hiero refusing him, departed thence into Asia ; but this is not probable. For Theophrastus writes, in his work on Monarchy, ^hat when Hiero sent race-horses to the Olympian games, and erected a pavilion sumptuous'y furnished, Themistocles made an oration to the Greeks, inciting them to pull down the tyrant's tent, and not to suffer his horses to run. Thucydides says, that, passing over land to the JEgX3.n Sea, he took ship at Pydna in the bay Therme, not being known to any one in the ship, till, being terrified to see the vessel driven by the 192 THEMISTOCLES. winds near to Naxus, which was then besieged by the Athe nians, he made himself known to the master and pilot, and partly entreating them, partly threatening that if they went on shore he would accuse them, and make the Athenians to be- lieve that they did not take him in out of ignorance, but that he had corrupted them with money from the beginning, he compelled them to bear off and stand out to sea, and sail for- ward towards the coast of Asia. A great part of his estate was privately conveyed away b) his friends, and sent after him by sea into Asia ; besides which, there was discovered and confiscated to the value of fourscore talents, as Theophrastus writes ; Theopompus says an hundred ; though Themistocles was never worth three talents before he was concerned in public afTairs. When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all along the coast there were many laid wait for him, and particularly Ergoteles and Pythodorus (for the game was worth the hunt- ing for such as were thankful to make money by any means, the king of Persia having offered by public proclamation two hundred talents to him that should take him), he fled to ^gae, a small city of the Cohans, where no one knew him but only his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in ^Eolia, and well known to the great men of Inner Asia. While Themistocles lay hid for some days in his house, one night, after a sacrifice and supper ensuing, Olbius, the attendant upon Nicogenes's children, fell into a sort of frenzy and fit of inspiration, and cried out in verse, — Night shall speak, and night instruct thee, By the voice of night conduct thee. After this, Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed that he saw a snake coil itself up upon his belly, and so creep to his neck ; then, as soon as it touched his face, it turned into an eagle, which spread its wings over him, and took him up and flew xway with him a great distance ; then there appeared a her- aid's golden wand, and upon this at last it set him down se- curely, after infinite terror and disturbance. His departure was effected by Nicogenes by the following artifice ; the barbarous nations, and amongst them the Persians especially, are extremely jealous, severe, and suspicious about their women, not only their wives, but also their bought slaves and concubines, whom they keep so strictly that no one ever sees them abroad ; they spend their lives shut up witlrln doors, and, when they take a journey, are carried iu close tents, cup THEMtSTOCLES. 193 tained in on all sides, and set upon a wagon. Such a travel- ling carriage being prepared for Themistocles, they hid him in it, and carried him on his journey, and told those whom they met or spoke with upon the road that they were convey- ing a young Greek woman out of Ionia to a nobleman at court. Thucydides and Charon of Lampsacus say that Xerxes was dead, and that Themistocles had an interview with his son ; but Ephorus, Dinon, Clitarchus, Hcraclides, and many others, write that he came to Xerxes. The chronological tables better agree with the account of Thucydides, and ye? neither can their statements be said to be quite set at rest. When Themistocles was come to the critical point, he ap plied himself first to Artabanus, commander of a thousand men, telling him that he was a Greek, and desired to speak with the king about important .affairs concerning which the king was extremely solicitous. Artabanus answered him, " O stranger, the laws of men are different, and one thing is hon- orable to one man, and to others another ; but it is honorable for all to honor and observe their own laws. It is the habit of the Greeks, we are told, to honor, above all things, liberty and equality; but amongst our many excellent laws, we ac- count this the most excellent, to honor the king, and to wor- ship him, as the image of the great preserver of the universe ; if, then, you shall consent to our laws, and fall down before the king and worship him, you may both see him and speak to him ; but if your mind be otherwise, you must make use of others to intercede for you, for it is not the national custom here for the king to give audience to any one that doth not fall down before him." ifThemistocles, hearing this, replied, " Artabanus, I that come hither to increase the power and glory of the king, will not only submit myself to his laws, since *o it hath pleased the god who exalteth the Persian empire to this greatness, but will also cause many more to be wor- shippers and adorers of the king. ^^Let not this, therefore, be an impediment why I should not communicate to the king what I have to impart." Artabanus asking him, " Who must we tell him that you are ? for your words signify you to be no ordinary person," Themistocles answered, "No man, Aira- banus, must be informed of this before the king liimself." Thus Phanias relates ; to which Eratosthenes, in his treatise on Riches, adds, that it was by the means of a woman of Eretria, who was kept by Artabanus, that ne obtained this audience and interview with him. K3 194 THEMISTOCLES. When he was introduced to the king, and had paid hi< reverence to him, he stood silent, till the king commanding the interpreter to ask him who he was, he replied, 4' O king, I am Themistocles the Athenian, driven into banisliment by the Greeks. The evils that I have done to the Persians are nu- merous ; but my benefits to them yet greater, in withholding the Greeks from pursuit, so soon as the deliverance of my own countr) allowed me to show kindness also to you. I come vvith a mind suited to my present calamities ; prepared alike for favors and for anger; to welcome your gracious reconciliation, and to deprecate your wrath. Take my own countrymen foi witnesses of the services I have done for Persia, and make use of this occasion to show the world your virtue, rather tlian to satisfy your indignation. If you save me, you will save your suppliant ; if otherwise, will destroy an enemy of the Greeks. "'i He talked also of ^divine admonitions, such as the vision which he saw at Nicogenes's house, and the direction given him by the oracle of Dodona, where Jupiter commanded him to go to him that had a name like his, by which he under- stood that he was sent from Jupiter to him, seeing that they both were great, and had the name of kings. The king heard him attentively, and, though he admired his temper and courage, gave him no answer at that time j but, when he was with his intimate friends, rejoiced in his great good fortune, and esteemed himself very happy in this, and prayed to his god Arimanius, that all his enemies might be ever of the same mind with the Greeks, to abuse and expel the bravest men amongst them. Then he sacrificed to the gods, and presently fell to drinking, and was so well pleased, that in the night, in the middle of his sleep, he cried out for joy three times, " I have Themistocles the Athenian." In the morning, calling together tlie chief of his court, he had 'J'hemistocles brought before him, who expected no good of it, when he saw, for example, the guards fiercely set against him as soon as they learnt his name, and giving him ill Ian ^age. As he came forward towards the king, who was seated, the rest keeping silence, passing by Roxanes, a commandei of a thousand men, he heard him, with a slight groan, s.iy, without stirring out of his place, " You subtle Greek serpent, the king's good genius hath brought thee hither." -i^.Yet, when he came into the presence, and again fell down, the king saluted him, and spake to him kindly, telling him he was now indebted to him two hundred talents ; for it was just and reasonable thai he should receive the reward which was proposed to whoso THEMISTOCLES. 195 ever should bring Themistocles ; and promising much more, and encouraging him, he commanded him to speak freely what he would concerning the affairs of Greece^' Themis- tocles replied, that a man's discourse was like to a rich Per- sian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out ; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscure and lost ; aii J, therefore, he desired time. The king being pleased with the comparison, and bidding him take what time he would, he desired a year ; in which time, having learnt the Persian lan- guage sufficiently, he spoke with the king by himself without the help of an interpreter, it being supposed that he dis- coursed only about the affairs of Greece ; but there hap- pening, at the same time, great alterations at court, and re- movals of the king's favorites, he drew upon himself the envy of the great people, who imagined that he had taken the boldness to speak concerning them. For the favors shown to other strangers were nothing in comparison with tlie honors conferred on him ; the king invited him to partake of his own pastimes and recreations both at home and abroad, car- rying Iiim with him a-hunting, and made him his intimate so far that he permitted him to see the queen-mother, and con- verse frequently with her. By the king's command, he also was made acquainted with the Magian learning. When Demaratus the Lacedaemonian, being ordered by the king to ask whatsoever he pleased, that it should imme- diately be granted him, desired that he might make his public entrance, and be carried in state through the city of Sardis, with the tiara set in the royal manner upon his head, Milhro- paustes, cousin to the king, touched him on the head, and told him that he had no brains for the royal tiara to cover, and if Jupiter should give him his lightning and thunder, he would not any the more be Jupiter for that ; the king also repulsed him with anger, resolving never to be reconciled to him, but to be inexorable to all supplications on his behalL Yet Themistocles pacified him, and prevailed with him to forgive him. And it is reported, that the succeeding kings, in whose reigns there was a greater communication between the Greeks and Persians, when they invited any considerable Greek into their service, to encourage him, would write, and promise him that he should be as great with them as Themis tocles had been. 'VPhey relate, also, how Themistocles, when he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing him- self splendidly .served at his table, tu'ned to his children and ig6 THEMISTOCLES. said. " Children, we had been undone if we had not beer, undone." Most writers say that he had three cities giver him, Magnesia, Myus, and Lampsacus, to maintain him in bread, maat, and wine. Neanthes of Cyzicus, and Phaiiias. add two more, the city of Palcescepsis, to provide him with clothes, and Percote, with bedding and furniture for his house. As he was going down towards the sea-coast :o t.^ke measures against Greece, a Persian whose name was Epix3-es, governor of the upper Phrygia, laid wait to kill him, having for that purpose provided a long time before a number of Pisidians, who were to set upon iiim when he should stop to rest at a city that is called Lion's-head. But Themistocles, sleeping in the middle of the day, saw the Mother of the gods appear to him in a dream and say unto him, " Themisto- cles, keep back from the Lion's-head, for fear you fall into the lion's jaws ; for this advice I expect that your daughter Mnesiptolema should be my servant." Themistocles was much astonished, and when he had made his vows to the goddess, left the broad road, and, making a circuit, went another way, changing his intended station to avoid that place, and at night took up his rest in the fields. But one of the sumpter-horses, which carried the furniture for his tent, having fallen that day into the river, his servants spread out the tapestry, which was wet, and hung it up to dry ; in the mean time the Pisidians made towards them with their swords drawn, and, not discerning exactly by the moon what it was that was stretched out, thought it to be the tent of Themisto- cles, and that they should find him resting himself within it; but when they came near, and lifted up the hangings, those who watched there fell upon them and took them. Themistocles, having escaped this great danger, in admiration of the good- ness of the goddess that appeared to him, built, in memoiy of it, a temple in the city of Magnesia, which he dedicated to Dindymene, Mother of the gods, in which he consecrated and devoted his daughter Mnesiptolema to her service. .jfWhen he came to Sardis, he visited the temples of the gods, and observing, at his leisure, their buildings, ornaments, and the immber of their offerings, he saw in the temple of the Mother of the gods, the statue of a virgin in brass, two cubits high, called the water-bringer. -^^Themistocles had caused this to be made and set up when he was surveyor of the waters at Athens, out of the fines of those whom he detected in draw- ing off and diverting the public water by pipes for their pri- THEMFSTOCLES. 1 97 v.ite use ; and whether he had some regret (o see this image in captivity, or was desirous to let the Athenians see in what great credit and authority he was with the king, he entered into a treaty with the governor of Lydia to persuade him to send this statue back to Athens, which so enraged the Per- siar offcer, that he told him he would write the king word of it. Themistocles, being affrighted hereat, got access to his wives and concubines, by presents of money to whom, he ap- peased the fury of the governor ; and afterwards behaved with more reserve and circumspection, fearing the envy of the Persians, and did not, as Theopompus writes, continue to travel about Asia, but lived quietly in his own house in Magnesia, where for a long time he passed his days in great security, being courted by all, and enjoying rich presents, and honored equally with the greatest persons in the Persian empire ; the king, at that time, not minding his concerns with Greece, being taken up with the affairs of inner Asia. ;^But when Egypt revolted, being assisted by the Athenians, and the Greek galleys roved about as far as Cyprus and Cilicia, and Cimon had made himself master of the seas, the king turned his thoughts thither, and, bending his mind chiefly to resist the Greeks, and to check the growth of their power against him, began to raise forces, and send out commanders, and to dispatch messengers to Themistocles at Magnesia, to put him in mind of his promise, and to summon him to act against the Greeks, f Yet this did not increase his hatred nor exasperate him against the Athenians, neither was he in any way elevated with the thoughts of the honor and powerful command he was to have in this war ; but judging, perhaps, that the object would not be attained, the Greeks having at that time, beside other great commanders, Cimon, in particu- lar, who was gaining wonderful military successes ; but chiefly, being ashamed to sully the glory of his former great actions, and of his many victories and trophies, he determined to put a conclusion to his life, agreeable to its previous course. ^^-He sacrificed to the gods, and invited his friends ; and, having entertained them and shaken hands with them, drank bull's blood, as is the usual story ; as others state, a poison pro- ducing instant death ; and ended his days in the city of Mag- nesia, having lived sixty-five years, most of which he had spent in politics and in the wars, in government and com- mand. The king, being informed of the cause and manner of his death, admired him more than ever, and continued tr show kindness to his friends and relations. ■)>^ igS THEMISTOCLES. Themistocles left three sons by Archippe, daughter Ic Lysander of Alopece, — Archeptolis, Polyeuctus, and Cleo- phantus. Plato, the philosopher, mentions the last as a most excellent horseman, but otherwise insignificant person ; of two sons yet older than these, Neocles and Disocles, Neocles died when he was young by the bite of a horse, and Diodes was adopted by his grandfather, Lysander. He had many daughters, of whom Mnesiptolema, whom he had by a second marriage, was wife to Archeptolis, her brother by another mother ; Italia was married to Panthoides, of the island of Chios ; Sybaris to Nicomedes the Athenian. After the death of Themistocles, his nephew, Phrasicles, went to Mag- nesia, and married, with her brothers' consent, another daughter, Nicomache, and took charge of her sister Asia, the youngest of all the children. The Magnesians possess a splendid sepulchre of Themis- tocles, placed in the middle of their market-place. It is not worth while taking notice of what Andocides states in his ad- dress to his Friends concerning his remains, how the Athe- nians robbed his tomb, and threw his ashes into the air ; for he feigns this, to exasperate the oligarchical faction against the people ; and there is no man living but knows that Phy- larchus simply invents in his history, where he all but uses an actual stage machine, and brings in Neocles and Demopolis as the sons of Themistocles, to incite or move compassion, as if he were writing a tragedy. Diodorus the cosmographer says, in his work on Tombs, but by conjecture rather than of cer- tain knowledge, that near to the haven of Piraeus where the land runs out like an elbow from the promontory of Alcimus, when you have doubled the cape and passed inward where the sea is always calm, there is a large piece of masonry, and upon this the Tomb of Themistocles, in the shape of an altar j and Plato the comedian confirms this, he believes, in these verses, — Thy tomb is fairly placed upon the strand, "Where merchants still shall greet it with the land ; Still in and out't will see them come and go, And watch the galleys as they race below. Various honors also and privileges were granted to the kindred of Themistocles at Magnesia, which were observed down to our times, and were enjoyed by another Themistocles of Athens, with whom I had an intimate acquaintance and friendship in the house of Ammonius the philosopher. CAMILLUS. 199 C A M I L L U S. Among the many remarkable things that are related of Fuiius Camillus, it seems singular and strange above all, tl.al he, who continually was in the highest commands, and ob tained the greatest successes, was five times chosen dichvior. triumphed four times, and was styled a second founder ot Rome, yet never was so much as once consul. The reason of which was the state and temper of the commonwealth at that time ; for the people, being at dissension with the senate, refused to return consuls, but in their stead elected other magistrates, called military tribunes, who acted, indeed, with full consular power, but were thought to exercise a less ob- noxious amount of authority, because it was divided among a larger number ; for to have the management of affairs in- trusted in the hands of six persons rather than two, was some satisfaction to the opponents of oligarchy. This was the con- dition of the times when Camillus was in the height of his actions and glory, and, although the government in the mean time had often proceeded to consular elections, yet he could never persuade himself to be consul against the inclination of the people. In all his other administrations, which were many and various, he so behaved himself, that, when alone in authority, he exercised his power as in common, but the honor of all actions redounded entirely to himself, even when in joint commission with others ; the reason of the for- mer was his moderation in command ; of the latter, his great judgment and wisdom, which gave him without controversy the first place. The house of the Furii was not, at that time, of any con- siderable distinction ; he, by his own acts, first raised him- self to honor, serving under Postumius Tubertis, dictator, in the great battle against the ^quians and Volscians. Foi riding out from the rest of the army, and in the charge leceiv- ing a wound in his thigh, he for all that did not quit the right, but, letting the dart drag in the wound, and engaging with the bravest of the enemy, put them to flight ; for which ac- tion, among other rewards bestowed on him, he was created censor, an office in those days of great repute and authority. During his censorship one very good act of his is recorded, that, svhereas the wars had made many widows, he obliged such as '200 CAMILLUS. had no wives, some by fair persuasion, others by threatening to set fines on their heads, to take them in marriage ; another necessary one, in causing orphans to be rated, who before were exempted from taxes, the frequent wars requiring more than ordinary expenses to maintain them. What, however, pressed them most was the siege of Veii. Some call this people Veientani. This was the head city of Tuscany, not inferior to Rome, either in number of arms or multitude oi soidiers, insomuch that, presuming on her vveahli and luxury, and priding herself upon her refinement and sumptuousness, she engaged in many honorable contests with the Romans for glory and empire. But now they had abandoned their former ambitious hopes, having been weakened by great de- feats, so that, having fortified themselves with high and strong walls, and furnished the city with all sorts of weapons offen- sive and defensive, as likewise with corn and all manner of provisions, they cheerfully endured a siege, which, though tedious to them, was no less troublesome and distressing to the besiegers. For the Romans, having never been ac- customed to stay away from home except in summer and for no great length of time, and constantly to winter at home, were then first compelled by the tribunes to build forts in the enemy's country, and raising strong works about their camp, to join winter and summer together. And now, the seventh year of the war drawing to an end, the com- manders began to be suspected as too slow and remiss in driving on the siege, insomuch that they were discharged and others chosen for the war, among whom was Camillus, then second time tribune. But at present he had no hand in the siege, the duties that fell by lot to him being to make war upon the Faliscans and Capenates, who, taking advantage of the Romans being occupied on all hands, had carried rava- ges into their country^ and, through all the Tuscan war, given them much annoyance, but were now reduced by Camillus, and with great loss shut up within their walls. And now, in the very heat of the war, a strange j)hcnome- non in the Alban lake, which, in the absence of any known cause and explanation by natural reasons, seemed as great a prodigy as the most incredible that are reported, occasioned great alarm. It was the beginning of autumn, and the sum- mer now ending had, to all observation, been neither rainy or much troubled with southern winils ; and many of the lakes, brooks, and springs of all sorts with which Italy abounds, some were wholly diicd up, others drew very little water with CAMILLUS. 201 them ; all the rivers, as is usual in su:r.:ncr, ran in a very lo\i and hollow channel. But the Alban lake, that is fed by no other waters but its own, and is on all sides encircled with fruitful mountains, without any cause, unless it were divine, began visibly to rise and swell, increasing to the feet of the mountains, and by degrees reaching the level of the very tops of them, and all this without any waves or agitation. At first it was the wonder of shepherds and herdsmen ; but when the earth, which, like a great dam, held up the lake from falling into the lower grounds, through the quantity and weight of water was broken down, and in a violent stream it ran through the ploughed fields and plantations to discharge itself in the sea, it not only struck terror into the Romans, but was thought by all the inhabitants of Italy to portend some ex- traordinary event. But the greatest talk of it was in the camp that besieged Veil, so that in the town itself, also, the occurrence became known. As in long sieges it commonly happens that parties on both sides meet often and converse with one another, so it chanced that a Roman had gained much confidence and fa- miliarity with one of the besieged, a man versed in ancient pro])hecies, and of repute for more than ordinary skill in divination. The Roman, observing him to be overjoyed at the story of the lake, and to mock at the siege, told him that this was not the only prodigy that of late had happened to the Romans ; others more wonderful yet than this had be- fallen them, which he was willing to communicate to him, that he might the better provide for his private interests in these public distempers. The man greedily embraced the proposal, expecting to hear some wonderful secrets ; but when, by little and little, he had led him on in conversation and insensibly drawn him a good way from the gates of the city, he snatched him up by the middle, being stronger than he, and, by the assistance of others that came running from the camp, seized and delivered him to the commanders. The man, reduced to this necessity, and sensible now that destiny was not to be avoided, discovered to them the secret oracles of Veii ; that it was not possible the city should be taken, until the Alban lake, which now broke forth and had found out new passages, was drawn back from that course, and so diverted that it could not mingle with the sea. The senate, having heard and satisfied themselves about the matter, de- treed to send to Delphi, to ask counsel of the god. The messengers were persons of the highest repute, Licinius 20a CAMSLLUS. Cossus, Valerius Potitus, and Fabius Ambustus ; who, having made their voyage by sea and consulted the god, returned with other answers, particularly that there had been a neglect of some of their national rites relating to the Latin feasts ; but the Alban water the oracle commanded, if it were possi- ble, they should keep from the sea, and shut it up in its an- cient bounds; but if that was not to be done, then they should .•^arry it off by ditches and trenches into the lower grounds and so dry it up ; which message being delivered, the priests performed what related to the sacrifices, and the people went to work and turned the water. And now the senate, in the tenth year of the war, taking away all other commands, created Camillus dictator, who chose Cornelius Scipio for his general of horse. And in the first place he made vows unto the gods, that, if they would grant a happy conclusion of the war, he would celebrate to their honor the great games, and dedicate a temple to the goddess whom the Romans call Matuta, the Mother, though, from the ceremonies which are used, one would think she was Leucothea. For they take a servant-maid into the secret part of the temple, and there cuff her, and drive her out again, and they embrace their brothers' children in place of their own ; and, in general, the ceremonies of the sacrifice remind one of the nursing of Bacchus by Ino, and the calamities occasioned by her husband's concubine. Camillus, having made these vows, marched into the country of the Faliscans, and in a great battle overthrew them and the Capenates, their confederates ; afterwards he turned to the siege of Veil, and, finding that to take it by assault would prove a difficult and hazardous attempt, proceeded to cut mines under ground, the earth about the city being easy to break up, and allowing such depth for the works as would prevent their being dis- covered by the enemy. This design going on in a hopeful way, he openly gave assaults to the enemy, to keep them to the walls, whilst they that worked underground in the mines ivere, without being perceived, arrived within the citadel, close to tiie temple of Juno, which was the greatest and most hon- ored in all the city. It is said that the prince of the Tuscans was at that very time at sacrifice, and that the priest, after he had looked into the entrails of the beast, cried out with a loud voice that the gods would give the victoiy to those that should complete those offerings ; and that the Romans who were Id the mines hearing the words, immediately pulled down the floor, and, ascending with noise and clashing of weapons CAMILLUS. 203 friglited away ihe enemy, and, snat-:hing up the entrails, car- ried them to Camillus. But this may look like a fable The city, however, being taking by storm, and the soldieis, busied in pillaging and gathering an infinite quantity of riches and si)oil, Camillus, from the high tower, viewing what was done, at first wept for pity ; and when they that were by congratu lated his success, he lifted up his hands to heaven, and broke out inco this jjrayer: " O most mighty Jupiter, and ye gods that are judges of good and evil actions, ye know that not without just cause, but constrained by necessity, we have been forced to revenge ourselves on the city of our unrighteous and wicked enemies. Rut if, in the vicissitude of things, there may be any calamity due, to counterbalance this great felicity, I beg that it may be diverted from the city and army of the Romans, and fall, with as little hurt as may be, upon my own head." Having said these words, and just turning about (as the custom of the Romans is to turn to the right after adoration or prayer), he stumbled and fell, to the aston- ishm^Mit of all that were present. But, recovering himself presently from the fall, he told them that he had received what he had prayed for, a small mischance, in compensation for the greatest good fortune. Having sacked the city, he resolved, according as he had vowed, to carry Juno's image to Rome ; and, the workmen being ready for that purpose, he sacrificed to the goddess, and made his supplications that she would be pleased to accept of their devotion toward her, and graciously vouchsafe to ao cept of a place among the gods that presided at Rome ; and the statue, they say, answered in a low voice that she was ready and willing to go, Livy writes, that, in praying, Camil- lus touched the goddess, and invited her, and that some of the standers-by cried out that she was willing and would come. They who stand up for the miracle and endeavor to maintain it, have one great advocate on their side in the wonderful for- tune of the city, which, from a small and contemptible begin- ning, could never have attained to that greatness and power without many signal manifestations of the divine presence and cooperation. Other wonders of the like nature, drops of sweat seen to stand on statues, groans heard from them, the figures seen to turn round and to close their eyes, are recorded by many ancient historians ; and we ourselves could relate divers wonderful things, which we li.we been told by men ol our own time, that are not lightly to be rejected ; but to give too easy credit to such things, or wholly to disbelieve them, 204 CAMILLUS. is equally dangerous, so incapable is human infirmity of keep)- ing any bounds, or exercising command over itself, running off sometimes to superstition and dotage, at other times to the contempt and neglect of all that is supernatural. But nv: deration is best, and to avoid all extremes. Camillus, however, whether puffed up with the greati ess of his achievement in conquering a city that was the rival of Rome, and had held out a ten years' siege, or exalted with the felicitations of those that were about him, assumed to himself more than became a civil and legal magistrate; among other things, in the pride and haughtiness of his triumph, driving through Rome in a chariot drawn with four white horses, which no general either before or since ever did ; for the Romans consider such a mode of conveyance to be sacred, and specially set apart to the king and father of the gods. This alienated the hearts of his fellow-citizens, who were not accustomed to such pomp and display. The second pique they had against him was his opposing the law by which the city was to be divided ; for the tribunes of the people brought forward a motion that the people and senate should be divided into two parts, one of which should remain at home, the other, as the lot should decide, remove to the new-taken city. By which means they should not only have much more room, but, by the advantage of two great and magnificent cities, be better able to maintain their terri- tories and their fortunes in general. The people, therefore, vi'ho were numerous and indigent, greedily embraced it, and crowded continually to the forum, with tumultuous demands to have it put to the vote. But the senate and the noblest citizens, judging the proceedings of the tribunes to tend rather to a destruction than a division of Rome, greatly averse to it, went to Camillus for assistance, who, fearing the result if it came to a direct contest, contrived to occupy the people with other business, and so staved it off. He thus became unpopular. But the greatest and most apparent cause of their dislike against him arose from the tenths of the spoil ; the multitude having here, if not a just, yet a plausible case against him. For it seems, as he went to the siege of Veil, he had vowed to Apollo that if he took the city he would dedicate to him the tenth of the spoil. The city being taken and sacked, whether he was loath to trouble the soldiers at that time, or that through the multitude of business he had forgotten his vow, he suffered them to enjoy that part of the spoils also. Some tmie afterwards, when his authority was CAMILLUS. 205 laid down, he brought the matter before the senate, and the priests, at the same time, reported, out of the sacrifices, that there were intimations of divine angei, requiring propitiations and offerings. The senate decreed the obligation to be in force. But seeing it was difficult for every one to produce the very same things they had taken, to be divided anew, they ordained that every one upon oath should bring into the pub- lic the tenth part of his gains. This occasioned many annoy- ances and hardships to the soldiers, who were poor men, ami had endured much in the war, and now were forced, out of what they had gained and spent, to bring in so great a propor- tion. Camillus, being assaulted by their clamor and tumuhs, for want of a better excuse, betook himself to the poorest of defences, confessing he had forgotten his vow ; they in turn complained that he had vowed the tenth of the enemy's goods, and now levied it out of tlie tenth of the citizens. Neverthe- less, every one having brought in his due proportion, it was de- creed that out of it a bowl of massy gold should be made, and sent to Delphi. And when there was great scarcity of gold in the city, and the magistrates were considering where to get it, the Roman ladies, meeting together and consulting among them- selves, out of the golden ornaments they wore contributed as much as went to the making the offering, which in weight came to eight talents of gold. The senate, to give them the honor they had deserved, ordained that funeral "orations should be used at the obsequies of women as well as men, it having never before been a custom that any woman after death should receive any public eulogy. Choosing out, there- fore, three of the noblest citizens as a deputation, they sent them in a vessel of war, well manned and sumptuously adorn- ed. Storm and calm at sea may both, they say, alike be dan- gerous ; as they at this time experienced, being brought al- most to the very brink of destruction, and, beyond all expecta* tion, escaping. For near the isles of ^olus the wind slacking, galleys of the Lipareans came upon them, taking them for pirates ; and, when they held up their hands as suppliants, forbore indeed from violence, but took their ship in tow, and carried her into the harbor, where they exposed to sale their goods and persons as lawful prize, they being pirates ; and scarcely, at last, by the virtue and interest of one man, Tim- asitheus by name, who was in office as general, and used his utmost persuasion, they were, with much ado, dismissed. He, however, himself sent out some of his own vessels with them, B06 CAMII.LUS. to accompany them in their voyage and assist them at the dedication ; for which he received honors at Rome, as he had deseived. And now the tribunes of the people again resuming their motion for the division of the city, the war against the Falis- cans luckily broke out, giving liberty to the chief citizens to choose what magistrates they pleased, and to appoint Camil- las military tribune, with five colleagues ; affairs then requii- ing a commander of authority and reputation, as well as a'.- perience. And when the people had ratified the election, he marched with his forces into the territories of the Faliscans, and laid siege to Falerii, a well-fortified city, and plentifully stored with all necessaries of war. And although he perceived it would be no small work to take it, and no little time would be required for it, yet he was willing to exercise the citizens and keep them abroad, that they might have no leisure, idling at home, to follow the tribunes in factions and seditions ; a ver}'' common remedy, indeed, with the Romans, who thus carried off, like good physicians, the ill humors of their com- monwealth. The Falerians, trusting in the strength of their city, which was well fortified on all sides, made so little ac- count of the siege, that all, with the exception of those that guarded the walls, as in times of peace, walked about the streets in their common dress ; the boys went to school, and were led by their master to play and exercise about the town walls ; for the Falerians, like the Greeks, used to have a single teacher for many pupils, wishing their children to live and be brought up from the beginning in each other's com- pany. This schoolmaster, designing to betray the Falerians by their children, led them out every day under the town wall, at first but a little way, and, when they had exercised, brought ihem home again. Afterwards by degrees he drew them far- ther and farther, till by practice he had made them bold and fearless, as if no danger was about them ; and at last, having got them all together, he brought them to the outposts of the Romans, and delivered them up, demanding to be led to Camillus. Where being come, and standing in the middle, he said that he was the master and teacher of these children, but preferring his favor before all other obligations, he was come to deliver up his charge to him, and, in tiiat, the whole city. When Camillus had heard him out, he was astounded at the treachery of the act, and, turning to the standers-by, observed, that " war, indeed, is of necessity attended with much injustice and violence 1 Certain laws, however, all good CAMTLLDS. aO) men obsen-e even in war itself, nor is victory so great an ob- ject as to induce us to incur for its sake obligations for base and impious acts. A great general should rely on his own virtue, and not on other men's vices.'' Which said, he com- manded the officers to tear off the man's clothes, and bind his hands behind him, and give the boys rods and scourges, to punish the traitor and drive him back to the cit^y. By this lime Ihe Falerians had discovered the treacheiy of the school- master, and the city, as was likely, was full of lamentations and cries for their calamity, men and women of uorth running in distraction about the walls and gates ; when, behold, the boys came whipping their master on, naked and bound, call- ing Camillus their preserver and god and father. Insomuch that it struck not only into the parents, but the rest of the citizens that saw what was done, such admiration and love of Camillus's justice, that, immediately meeting in assembly, they sent ambassadors to him, to resign whatever they had to his disposal. Camillus sent them to Rome, where, being brought into the senate, they spoke to this purpose : that the Romans, preferring justice before victory, had taught them rather to embrace submission than liberty ; they did not so much con- fess themselves to be inferior in strength, as they must ac- knowledge them to be superior in virtue. The senate remit- ted the whole matter to Camillus, to judge and order as he thought fit ; who, taking a sum of money of the Falerians, and, making a peace with the whole nation of the Faliscans, returned home. But the soldiers, who had expected to have the pillage of the city, when they came to Rome empty-handed, railed against Camillus among their fellow-citizens, as a hater of the people, and one that grudged all advantage to the poor. Af- terwards, when the tribunes of the people again brought their motion for dividing the city to the vote, Camillus appeared openly against it, shrinking from no unpopularity, and inveigh- ing boldly against the promoters of it, and so urging and con- straining the multitude, that, contrary to their inclinations, Ihey rejected the proposal ; but yet hated Camillus. Insomuch that though a great misfortune befell him in his family (one (if h.s two sons dying of a disease), commiseration for this could not in the least make them abate of their malice. And, indeed, he took this loss with immoderate sorrow, being a man naturally of a mild and tender disposition, and, when the accusation was preferred against him, kept hf-S house, and mourned amongst the women of his family. 2o8 CAMILLUS. His accuser was Lucius Apuleius ; the charge, appropria- tion of the Tuscan spoils ; certain brass gates, part of those spoils, were said to be in his possession. The people were exasperated against him, and it was plain they would take hold of any occasion to condemn him. Gathering, therefore, together his friends and fellow-soldiers, and such as had borne command with him, a considerable number in all, he besought them that they would not suffer him to be unjustly overborne by shameful accusations, and left the mock and scorn of his enemies. His friends, having advised and consulted among themselves, made answer, that, as to the sentence, they did not see how they could help him, but that they would contrib- ute to whatsoever fine should be set upon him. Not able to endure so great an indignity, he resolved, in his anger, to leave the city and go into exile ; and so, having taken leave of his wife and his son, he went silently to the gate of the city, and, there stopping and turning round, stretched out his hands to the Capitol, and prayed to the gods, that if, without any fault of his own, but merely through the malice and vio- lence of the people, he was driven out into banishment, the Romans might quickly repent of it ; and that all mankind might witness their need for the assistance, and desire for the return of Camillus. Thus, like Achilles, having left his imprecations on the citizens, he went into banishment ; so that, neither appearing nor making defence, he was condemned in the sum of fifteen thousand asses, which, reduced to silver, makes one thousand five hundred drachmas ; for the as was the money of the time, ten of such copper pieces making the denarius, or piece of ten. And there is not a Roman but believes that immediate- ly upon the prayers of Camillus, a sudden judgment followed, and that he received a revenge for the injustice done unto him ; which though we cannot think was pleasant, but raiher {rrievous and bitter to him, yet was very remarkable, and noised over the whole world ; such a punishment visited the city of Rome, an era of such loss and danger and disgrace so quickly succeeded ; whether it thus fell out by fortune, or it be the ofhce of some god not to see injured virtue go un- avenged. The first token that seemed to threaten some mischief to ensue was the death of the censor Julius ; for the Romans have a religious reverence for the office of a censor, and es- teem it sacred. The second was, that, just before Camillus went into exile, Marcus Casdicius, a person of no great di& CAMILLUS, 205 tinction, nor of the rank of senator, but esteemed a good and respectable man, reported to the military tribunes a thing worthy their consideration : that, going along the night before in the street called the New Way, and being called by some body in a loud voice, he turned about, but could see no one, but heard a voice greater than human, which said these words, "Go, Marcus Caedicius, and early in the morning tell the rnili* taiy tribunes that they are shortly to expect the Gauls." But the tribunes made a mock and sport with the story, and a li'^.tle after came Camillus's banishment. The Gauls are of the Celtic race, and are reported (o have been compelled by their numbers to leave their country, which was insufficient to sustain them all, and to have gone in search of other homes. And being, many thousands of them, young men and able to bear arms, and carrying with them a still greater number of women and young children, some of them, passing the Riphaaan mountains, fell upon the Northern Ocean, and possessed themselves of the farthest parts of Eu- rope ; others, seating themselves between the Pyrenean moun- tains and the Alps, lived there a considerable time, near to the Senones and Celtorii ; but, afterwards tasting wine which was then first brought them out of Italy, they were all so much taken with the liquor, and transported with the hitherto un- known delight, that, snatching up their arms and taking their families along with them, they marched directly to the Alps, to find out the country which yielded such fruit, pronouncing all others barren and useless. He that first brought wine among them and was the chief instigator of their coming into Italy is said to have been one Aruns, a Tuscan, a man of no- ble extraction, and not of bad natural character, but involved in the following misfortune. He was guardian to an orphan, one of the richest of the country, and much admired for his beauty, whose name was Lucumo. From his childhood he had been bred up with Aruns in his family, and when now grown up did not leave his house, professing to wish for the enjoyment of his society. And thus for a great while he se- cretly enjoyed Aruns's v/ife, corrupting her, and himself cor- rupted by her. But when they were both so far gone in their passion that they could neither refrain their lust nor conceal it, the young man seized the woman and openly sought to carry her away. The husband, going to law, and finding him- self overpowered by the interest and money of his opponent, left his country, and, hearing of the state of the Gauls, went to them, and was the conductor of their expedition into Italy JIO CAMILLUS. At their first coming they at once possessed themselves ol all that country which anciently the Tuscans inhabited, reach- ing from the Alps to both the seas, as the names themselves testify ; for the North or Adriatic Sea is named from the Tus- can city Adria, and that to the south the Tuscan Sea simply The whole country is rich in fruit-trees, has excellent pasture, and is well watered with rivers. It had eighteen large ana beautiful cities, well provided with all the means for industry and wealth, and all the enjoyments and pleasures of life. The Gauls cast out the Tuscans, and seated themselves in them. But this was long before. The Gauls at this time v/ere besieging Clusium, a Tuscan city. The Clusinians sent to the Romans for succor, desiring them to interpose with the barbarians by letters and ambas- sadors. There were sent three of the family of the Fabii, persons of high rank and distinction in the city. The Gauls received them courteously, from respect to the name of Rome, and, giving over the assault which was then making upon the walls, came to conference with them ; when the ambassadors asking what injury they had received of the Clusinians that they thus invaded their city, Brennus, king of the Gauls, laughed and made answer, " The Clusinians do us injury, in that, being able only to till a small parcel of ground, they must needs possess a great territory, and will not yield any part to us who are strangers, many in number, and poor. In the same nature, O Romans, formerly the Albans, Fidenates, and Ardeates, and now lately the Veientines and Capenates, and many of the Faliscans and Volscians, did you injury : upon whom ye make war if they do not yield you part of what they possess, make slaves of them, waste and spoil Iheii couniry, and ruin their cities; neither in so doing are cruel or unjust, but follow that most ancient of all laws, which gives the possessions of the feeble to the strong ; which begins with God and endsin the beasts ; since all these, by nature, seek the stronger to have advantage over the weaker. Cease, theroforcj to pity the Clusinians whom we besiege, lest ye teach the Gauls to be kind and compassionate to those that are oppressed by you." By this answer the Romans, perceiving that Brennus was not to be treated with, went into Clusium, and encouraged and stirred up the inhabitants to make a sally with them upon the barbarians, which they did either to try their strength or to show their own. The sally being mado, and the fight grow- ing hot about the walls, one of the Fabii, Quintus Ambustus being well mounted, and setting spurs to his horse, made full CAMILLUS. 2 1 1 against a Gaul, a man of huge bulk and stature, whom he saw riding out at a distance from the rest. At the first he was not recognized, through the quickness of the conflict and the glittering of his armor, that precluded any view of him j but when he had overthrown the Gaul, and was going to gather the spoils, Brennus knew him ; and, invoking the gods to be witnesses, that, contrary to the known and common law of nations, which is holily observed by all mankind, he who had come as an ambassador had now engaged in hostility against him, he drew off his men, and bidding Clusium fare- well, led his army directly to Rome. But not wishing that it should look as if they took advantage of that injury, and were ready to embrace any occasion of quarrel, he sent a herald to demand the man in punishment, and in the mean time marched leisurely on. The senate being met at Rome, among many others that spoke against the Fabii, the priests called fecials were the most decided, who, on the religious ground, urged the senate that they should lay the whole guilt and penalty of the fact upon him that committed it, and so exonerate the rest. These fecials Numa Pompilius, the mildest and justest of kings, constituted guardians of peace, and the judges and deter- miners of all causes by which war may justifiably be made. The senate referring the whole matter to the people, and the priests there, as well as in the senate, pleading against Fabius, the multitude, however, so little regarded their authority, that in scorn and contempt of it they chose Fabius and the rest of his brothers military tribunes. The Gauls, on hearing this, in great rage threw aside every delay, and hastened on with all the speed they could make. The places through which they marched, terrified with their numbers and the splendor of their preparations for war, and in alarm at their violence and fierceness, began to give up their territories as already lost, with little doubt but their cities would quickly follow ; contrary, however, to expectation, they did no injury as they passed, nor took any thing from the fields ; and, as they went by any city, cried out that they were going to Rome ; that the Romans only were their enemies, and that they took ail ochers for their friends. Whilst the barbarians were thus hastening with all speed, the military tribunes brought the Romans into the field to be ready to engage them, being not inferior to the Gauls in num- ber (for they were no less than forty thousand foot), but most of them raw soldiers, and such as had never handled a a 12 CAMILLUS. weapon before. Besides, they had wholly neglected all re- ligious usages, had not obtained favorable sacrifices, nor made inquiries of the prophets, natural in danger and before battle. No less did the multitude of commanders distract and con- found their proceedings; frequently before, upon less occa- sions, they had chosen a single leader, with the title oi dicta- tor, being sensible of what great importance it is in critical times to have the soldiers united under one general with the entire an absolute control placed in his hands. Add to all, the remembrance of Camillus's treatment, which made it now se<.;m a dangerous thing for officers to command without hu- moring their soldiers. In this condition they left the city, and encamped by the river Allia, about ten miles from Rome; and not far from the place where it falls into the Tiber ; and here the Gauls came upon them, and, after a disgraceful re- sistance, devoid of order and discipline, they were miserably defeated. The left wing was immediately driven into the river, and there destroyed ; the right had less damage by declining the shock, and from the low grounds getting to the tops of the hills, from whence most of them afterwards dropped into the city ; the rest, as many as escaped, the enemy being weary of the slaughter, stole by night to Veil, giving up Rome and all that was in it for lost. This battle was fought about the summer solstice, the moon being at full, the very same day in which the sad disas- ter of the Fabii had happened, when three hundred of that name were at one time cut off by the Tuscans. But from this second loss and defeat the day got the name of Alliensis from the river Allia, and still retains it. The question of unlucky days, whether we should consider any to be so, and whether Heraclitus did well in upbraiding Hesiod for distin- guishing them into fortunate and unfortunate, as ignorant that the nature of every day is the same, I have examined in another place ; but upon occasion of the present subject, I think it will not be amiss to annex a few examples relating to this matter. On the fifth of their month Hippodromius, which corresponds to the Athenian Hecatombaion, the Boeo- tians gained two signal victories, the one at Leuctra, the other at Ceressus, about three hundred years before, when they overcame Lattainyas and the Thessalians, both which asserted the liberty of Greece. Again, on the Sixth of Boedromion, the Persians were worsted by the Greeks at Marathon ; on the third, at Platasa, as also at Mycale ; on the twenty-fifth, at Arbela. The Athenians, about the full moon in Boedro- CAMILLUS. a 13 mion, gained their sea-victory at Naxos under the conduct of Chabfias ; on the twentieth, at Salaniis, as we have shown in our treatise on Days. Thargelion was a very unfortunate month to the barbarians, for in it Alexander overcame Da- rius's generals on the Granicus ; and the Carthaginians, on the twenty-fourth, were beaten by Timoleon in Sicily, on which same day and month Troy seems to have bein taken, as Ephorus, Callisthenes, Damastes, and Phylarchus state. On the other hand, the month Metagitnion, which in Bceotia is called Panemus, was not very lucky to the Greeks ; for on its seventh day they were defeated by Antipater, at the battle in Cranon, and utterly ruined ; and before, at Chceronea, were defeated by Philip ; and on the very same day, same month, and same year, those that went with Archidamus into Italy were there cut off by the barbarians. The Carthaginians also observe the twenty-first of the same month, as bringing with it the largest number and the severest of their losses. I am not ignorant, that, about the Feast of Mysteries, Thebes was destroyed the second time by Alexander ; and after that, upon the very twentieth of Boedromion, on which day they lead forth the mystic lacchus, the Athenians received a gar- rison of the Macedonians. On the selfsame day the Romans lost their army under Cagpio by the Cimbrians, and in a sub- sequent year, under the conduct of Lucullus, overcame the Armenians and Tigranes. King Attalus and Pompey died both on their birthdays. One could reckon up several that have had variety of fortune on the same day. This day, meantime, is one of the unfortunate ones to the Romans, and for its sake two others in every month ; fear and superstition as the custom of it is, more and more prevailing. But I have discussed this more accurately in my Roman Questions. And now, after the batde, had the Gauls immediately pursued those that fled, there had been no remedy but Rome must have wholly been ruined, and those who remained in it utterly destroyed ; such was the terror that those who escaped the battle brought with them into the city, and with such dis- traction and confusion were themselves in turn infected. But the Gauls, not imagining their victory to be so considerable, and overtaken with the present joy, fell to feasting and divid- ing the spoil, by which means they gave leisure to those who were for leaving the city to make their escape, and to those that remained, to anticipate and prepare for their coming. For they who resolved to stay at Rome, abandoning the rest of the city, betook themselves, to the Capitol, which they fortified 214 CAMILLUS. with the help of missiles and new woiks. One of their prin cipal cares was of their holy things, most of which they con- veyed into the Capitol. But the consecrated fire the vestal virgins took, and fled with it, as likewise their other sacred things. Some write that they have nothing in their charge but the ever-living fire which Numa had ordained to be wor- shipped as the principle of all things ; for fire is the most active thing in nature, and all production is either motion, or attended with motion ; all the other parts of matter, so long as they are without warmth, lie sluggish and dead, and re- quire the accession of a sort of soul or vitality in the princi* pie of heat ; and upon that accession, in whatever way, im- mediately receive a capacity either of acting or being acted upon. And thus Numa, a man curious in such things, and whose wisdom made it thought that he conversed with the Muses, consecrated fire, and ordained it to be kept ever burning, as an image of that eternal power which orders and actuates all things. Others say that this fire was kept burn- ing in front of the holy things, as in Greece, for purification, and that there were other things hid in the most secret part of the temple, which were kept from the view of all, except those virgins whom they call vestals. The most common opinion was, that the image of Pallas, brought into Italy by -^neas, was laid up there ; others say that the Samothracian images lay there, telling a story how that Dardanus carried them to Troy, and, when he had built the city, celebrated those rites, and dedicated those images there ; that after Troy was taken, ^neas stole them away, and kept them till his coming into Italy. But they who profess to know more of the matter affirm that there are two barrels, not of any great size, one of which stands open and has nothing in it, the other full and sealed up ; but that neither of them may be seen but by the most holy virgins. Others think that they whc say this are misled by the fact that the virgins put most of their holy things into two barrels at this time of the Gaulish invasion, and hid them underground in the temple of Quirinus ; and that from hence that place to this day beari the name of Barrels. However it be, taking the most precious and important things they had, they fled away with them, shaping their course along the river side, where Lucius Albinius, a simple citizen of Rome, who among others was making his escape, overtook them, having his wife, children, and goods in a cart ; and, seeing the virgins dragging along in their arms CAMILLUS. 215 the holy things of the gods, in a helpless and weary condi- tion, he caused his wife and children to get down, and, taking out his goods, put the virgins in the cart, that they might make their escape to some of the Greek cities. This devout act of Albinius, and the respect he showed thus signally to the gods at a time of such extremity, deserved not to be passed over in silence. But the priests that belonged to other gods, and the most elderly of the senators, men who had been consuls and had enjoyed triumphs, could not en« dure to leave the city; but, putting on their sacred and splen- did robes, Fabius the high-priest performing the office, they made their prayers to the gods, and, devoting themselves, as it were, for their country, sate themselves down in their ivory chairs in the forum, and in that posture expected the event. On the third day after the battle, Brennus appeared with his army at the city, and, finding the gates wide open and no guards upon the walls, first began to suspect it was some de- sign or stratagem, never dreaming that the Romans were in so desperate a condition. But when he found it to be so indeed, he entered at the Colline gate, and took Rome, in the three hundred and sixtieth year, or a little more, after it was built ; if, indeed, it can be supposed probable that an exact chronological statement has been preserved of events which were themselves the cause of chronological difficulties about things of later date; of the calamity itself, however, and of the fact of the capture, some faint rumors seem to have passed at the time into Greece. Heraclides Ponticus, who lived not long after these times, in his book upon the Soul, relates that a certain report came from the west, that an army, pro- ceeding from the Hyperboreans, had taken a Greek city called Rome, seated somewhere upon the great sea. But I do not wonder that so fabulous and high-flown an author as Heraclides should embellish the truth of the story with ex- pressions about Hyperboreans and the great sea. Aristotle the philosopher appears to have heard a correct statement of the taking of the city by the Gauls, but he calls its deliv- er 2r Lucius ; whereas Camillus's surname was not Lucius, but Marcus. But this is a matter of conjecture. Brennus, ha\ ing taken possession of Rome, set a strong guard about the Capitol, and, going himself down into the forum, was there struck with amazement at the sight of so many men sitting in that order and silence, observing that they neither rose at his coming, nor so much as changed color or countenance, but remained without fear or concern ai6 CAMTLLUS. leaning upon their staves, and sitting quietly, looking at each other. The Gauls, for a great while, stood wondering at the strangeness of the sight, not daring to approach or touch therH, taking them for an assembly of superior beings. But when one, bolder than the rest, drew near to Marcus Pa- pirius, and putting forth his hand, gently touched his chin and stroked his long beard, Papirius with his staff struck him a severe blow on the head; upon which the barbarian drew his sword and slew him. This was the introduction to the slaughter ; for the rest, following his example, set upon them all and killed them, and dispatched all others that came in their way ; and so went on to the sacking and pillaging the houses, which they continued for many days ensuing. After- wards, they burnt them down to the ground and demolished them, being incensed at those who kept the Capitol, because they would not yield to summons ; but, on the contrary, when assailed, had repelled them, with some loss, from their de- fences. This provoked them to ruin the whole city, and to put to the sword all that came to their hands, young and old, men, women, and children. And now, the siege of the Capitol having lasted a good while, the Gauls began to be in want of provision ; and divid- ing their forces, part of them stayed with their king at the siege, the rest went to forage the country, ravaging the towns and villages where they came, but not all together in a body, but in different squadrons and parties ; and to such a confi- dence had success raised them, that they carelessly rambled about without the least fear or apprehension of danger. But the greatest and best ordered body of their forces went to the city of Ardea, where Camillus then sojourned, having, ever since his leaving Rome, sequestered himself from all business, and taken to a private life ; but now he began to rouse up himself, and consider not how to avoid or escape the enemy, but to find out an opportunity to be revenged upon them. And perceiving that the Ardeatians wanted not men, but rather enterprise, through the inexperience and timidity of their officers, he began to speak with the young men, first to the effect that they ought not to ascribe the misfortune of the Romans to the courage of their enemy, nor attribute the losses they sustained by rash counsel to the conduct of men who had no title to victory ; the event had been only an evidence of the power of fortune ; that it was a brave thing even with danger to repel a foreign and barbarous invader whose end in conquering was, like fire, to lay waste and destroy, hut i/ CAMILLUS. 217 they would be courageous and resolute, he was ready to put an opportunity into their hands to gam a victory, without hazard at all. When he found the young men embraced the thing, he went to the magistrates and council of the city, and, having persuaded them also, he mustered all that could bear arms, and drew them up within the walls, that they might not be perceived by the enemy, who was near ; who, having scoured the country, and now returned heavy-laden with booty, lay encamped in the plains in a careless and negligent posture, so that, with the night ensuing upon debauch and drunken- ness, silence prevailed through all the camp. When Camil- lus learned this from his scouts, he drew out the Ardeatians, and in the dead of the night, passing in silence over the ground that lay between, came up to their works, and, com- manding his trumpets to sound and his men to shout and halloo, he struck terror into them from all quarters ; while drunkenness impeded, and sleep retarded their movements. A few, whom fear had sobered, getting into some order, for a while resisted ; and so died with their weapons in their hands. But the greatest part of them, buried in wine and sleep, were surprised without their arms, and despatched ; and as many of them as by the advantage of the night got out of the camp were the next day found scattered abroad and wandering in the fields, and were picked up by the horse that pursued them. The fame of this action soon flew through the neighbor- ing cities, and stirred up the young men from various quarters to come and join themselves with him. But none were so much concerned as those Romans who escaped in the battle of Allia, and were now at Veil, thus lamenting with them- selves, " O heavens, what a commander has Providence be- reaved Rome of, to honor Ardea with his actions ! And that city, which brought forth and nursed so great a man, is lost and gone, and we, destitute of a leader and shut up within strange walls, sit idle, and see Italy ruined before our eyes. Come, let us send to the Ardeatians to have back our general, or else, with weapons in our hands, let us go thither to him ; for he is no longer a banished man, nor we citizens, having no country but what is in the possession of the en- emy." To this they all agreed, and sent to Camillus to de- siie him to take the command ; but he answered, that he would not, until they that were in the Capitol should legally appoint him ; for he esteemed them, as long as they were in being, to be his country ; that if they should command hinv 2l8 CAMILLUS. he would readily obey ; but against their consent he would intermeddle with nothing. When this answer was returned, they admired the modesty and temper of Camillus ; but they could not tell how to find a messenger to carry the intelli- gence to the Capitol, or rather, indeed, it seemed altogethei impossible for any one to get to the citadel whilst the enemy was in full possession of the city. But among the young men there was one Pontius Cominius, of ordinary birth, but ambi- tious of honor, who proffered himself to run the hazard, and took no letters with him to those in the Capitol, lest, if he were intercepted, the enemy might learn the intentions of Camillus ; but, putting on a poor dress and carrying corks under it, he boldly travelled the greatest part of the way by day, and came to the city when it was dark ; the bridge he could not pass, as it was guarded by the barbarians ; so that taking his clothes, which were neither many nor heavy, and binding them about his head, he laid his body upon the corks, and swimming with them, got over to the city. And avoiding those quarters where he perceived the enemy was awake, which he guessed at by the lights and noise, he went to the Carmental gate, where there was greatest silence, and where the hill of the Capitol is steepest, and rises with craggy and broken rock. By this way he got up, though with much dif- ficulty, by the hollow of the cliff, and presented himself to the guards, saluting them, and telling them his name ; he was taken in, and carried to the commanders. And a sen- ate being immediately called, he related to them in order the victor}- of Camillus, which they had not heard of before, and the proceedings of the soldiers, urging them to confirm Ca- millus in the command, as on him alone all their fellow- countrymen outside the city would rely. Having heard and consulted of the matter, the senate declared Cam.illus dictator, and sent back Pontius the same way that he came, who, with the same success as before, got through the enemy without being discovered, and delivered to the Romans outside the decision of the senate, who joyfully received it. Camillus, on his arrival, found twenty thousand of them ready in arms," with which forces, and those confederates he brought along with him, he prepared to set upon the enemy. But at Rome some of the barbarians, passing by chance near the place at which Pontius by night had got into the Capitol, spied in several places marks of feet and hands, where he had laid hold and clambered, and places where the plarts that grew to the rock had been rubbed off, and Lha CAMILLUS. a 19 earth had slipped, and went accordingly and reported it to the king, who, coming in person, and viewing it, for the present said nothing, but in the evening, picking out such of the Gauls as were nimblest of body, and by living in the mountains were accustomed to climb, he said to them, " The enemy themselves have shown us a way how to come at them, which we knew not of before, and have taught us that it is not so difficult and impossible but that men may over- come it. It would be a great shame, having begun well, to fail in the end, and to give up a place as impregnable, when the enemy himself lets us see the way by which it may be taken ; for where it was easy for one man to get up, it will not be hard for many, one after another ; nay, when many shall undertake it, they will be aid and strength to each other. Rewards and honors shall be bestowed on every man as he shall acquit himself." When the king had thus spoken, the Gauls cheerfully undertook to perform it, and in the dead of night a good party of them together, with great silence, began to climb the rock, clinging to the precipitous and difficult ascent, which yet upon trial offered a way to them, and proved less difficult than they had expected. So that the foremost of them having gained the top of all, and put themselves into order, they all but surprised the outworks, and mastered the watch, who were fast asleep ; for neither man nor dog perceived their coming. But there were sacred geese kept near the temple of Juno, which at other times were plentifully fed, but now, by reason that corn and other provisions were grown scarce for all, were but in a poor condition. The creature is by nature of quick sense, and apprehensive of the least noise, so that these, being moreover watchful through hunger, and restless, immediately discovered the coming of the Gauls, and, running up and down with their noise and cackling, they raised the whole cam.p, while the barbarians on the other side, per- ceiving themselves discovered, no longer endeavored to con- ceal their attempt, but with shouting and violence advanced to the assault. The Romans, every one in haste snatching up the next weapon that came to hand, did what they could on the sudden occasion. Manlius, a man of consular dignity, of strong body and great spirit, was the first that made head against them, and, engaging with two of the enemy at once, with his sword cut off the right arm of one just as he was lifting up his blade to strike, and, running his target full in the face of the other, tumbled him headlong down the steep 2 30 CAA.ILLUS. rock ; then mounting the rampart, and there stand .ng with others that came running to his assistance, drove down the rest of them, who, indeed, to begin, had not been many, and did nothing worthy of so bold an attempt. The Romans, ha\'ng thus escaped this danger, early in the morning took the captain of the watch and flung him down the rock upon the heads of their enemies, and to Manlius for his victory voted a reward, intended more for honor than advantage, bringing him, each man of them as much as he received for his daily allowance, which was half a pound of bread and one eighth of a pint of wine. Henceforward, the affairs of the Gauls were daily in a worse and worse condition ; they wanted provisions, being withheld from foraging through fear of Camillus, and sick- ness also was amongst them, occasioned by the number of carcasses that lay in heaps unburied. Being lodged among the ruins, the ashes, which were very deep, blown about by the winds and combining with the sultry heats, breathed up, so to say, a dry and searching air, the inhalation of which was destructive to their health. But the chief cause was the change from their natural climate, coming as they did out of shady and hilly countries, abounding in means of shelter from the heat, to lodge in low, and, in the autumn season, very un- healthy ground ; added to which was the length and tedious- ness of the siege, as they had now sate seven months before the Capitol. There was, therefore, a great destruction among them, and the number of the dead grew so great, that the living gave up burying them. Neither, indeed, were things on that account any better with the besieged, for famine in- creased upon them, and despondency with not hearing any thing of Camillus, it being impossible to send any one to him, the city was so guarded by the barbarians. Things being in this sad condition on both sides, a motion of treaty was made nt first by some of the outposts, as they happened to speak with one another ; which being embraced by the leading men, Sulpicius, tribune of the Romans, came to a parley with Bren- nus, in which it was agreed, that the Romans laying down a thousand weight of gold, the Gauls upon the receipt of it should immediately quit the city and territories. The agreement being confirmed by oath on both sides, and the gold brought forth, the Gauls used false dealing in the weights, secretly at first, but afterwards openly pulled back and disturbed the balance ; at which the Romans indignantly complaining, Brennus, in a scoffing and insulting manner, pulled off hii CAMILLUS. 221 sword and belt, and threw tliem both into the s.cales ; and when Sulpicius asked what that meant, "What should it mean," says he, " but woe to the conquered ? " which after- wards became a proverbial saying. As for the Romans, some were so incensed that they were for taking their gold back again and returning to endure the siege. Others were for passing by and dissembling a petty injury, and not to account tliat the indignity of the thing lay in paying more than was due, since the paying any thing at all itself a dishonor only submitted to as a necessity of the times. Whilst this difference remained still unsettled, both amongst themselves and with the Gauls, Camillus was at the gates with his army ; and having learned what was going on, commanded the main body of his forces to follow slowly after him in good order, and himself with the choicest of his men hastening on, went at once to the Romans ; where all giving way to him. and receiving him as their sole magistrate, with profound silence and order, he took the gold out of the scales, and delivered it to his officers, and commanded the Gauls to take their weights and scales and depart ; saying that it was customary with the Romans to deliver their country with iron, not with gold. And when Brennus began to rage, and say that he was unjustly dealt with in such a breach of contract, Camillus answered that it was never legally made, and the agreement of no force or obligation ; for that himself being declared dictator, and there being no other magistrate by law, the engagement had been made with men who had no power to enter into it ; but now they might say any thing they had to urge, for he was come with full power by law to grant pardon to such as should ask it, or inflict punish- ment on the guilt}', if they did not repent. At this, Brennus broke into violent anger, and an immediate quarrel ensued ; both sides drew their swords and attacked, but in con- fusion, as could not be otherwise amongst houses, and in narrow lanes and places where it was impossible to form in any order. But Brennus, presently recollecting himself, called off his men, and, with the loss of a few only, brought them to their camp ; and rising in the night with all his forces, left the city, and, advancing about eight miles, encamped upon the way to Gabii. As soon as day apj^eared, Camil- lus came up with him, splendidly armed himself, and hia soldiers full of courage and confidence ; and there engaging with him in a sharp conflict, which lasted a long while, over- threw his army with great slaughter, and took their camp tM CAMILLUS. Of those that fled, some were presently cut ufl by the pursuers; others, and these was the greatest number, dispersed hither and thither, and were despatched by the people that came sallying out from the neighboring towns and villages. Thus Rome was strangely taken, aud more strangely re- covered, having been seven whole months in the possession of the barbarians, who entered her a little wfter the Ides of July, and were driven out about the Ides of February following. Camillus triumphed, as he deserved, having saved his country that was lost, and brought the city, so to say, back again to itself. For those that had fled abroad, together with their wives and children, accompanied him as he rode in ; and those who had been shut up in the Capital, and were reduced almost to the point of perishing with hunger, went out tc meet him, embracing each other as they met, and weeping for joy, and, through the excess of the present pleasure, scarce believing in its truth. And when the priests and min- isters of the gods appeared bearing the sacred things, which in their flight they had either hid on the spot, or conveyed away with them, and now openly showed in safety, the citizens who saw the blessed sight felt as if with these the gods themselves were again returned unto Rome. After Camillus had sacrificed to the gods, and purified the city ac- cording to the directions of those properly instructed, he re- stored the existing temples, and erected a new one to Rumour or Voice, informing himself of the spot in which that voice from heaven came by night to Marcus Caedicius, foretelling the coming of the barbarian army. It was a matter of difficulty, and a hard task, amidst so much rubbish, to discover and re-determine the consecrated places ; but by the zeal of Camillus, and the incessant labor of the priests, it was at last accomplished. But when it came also to rebuilding the city, which was wholly demolished, despondency seized the multitude, and a backwardness to but their clothes, met Camillus on the way, leadii\g Iheir wives and children, and bewailing their misfortune, Camillus himself was struck with compassion, and preceiving the sol- diers weeping, and commiserating their case, while the Su- trians hung about and clung to ihem, resolved not to defei revenge, but that very day to lead his army to Sutrium ; con jecturing that the enemy, having just taken a rich and plenti ful city, without an enemy left within it, nor any from without lo be expected, would be found abandoned to enjo3'ment and unguarded. Neither did his opinion fail him ; he not only passed through their country without discovery, but came up to their very gates and possessed himself of the walls, not a man being left to guard them, but their whole army scattered about in the houses, drinking and making merry. Nay, when at last they did perceive that the enemy had seized the city, they were so overloaded with meat and wine, that few were able so much as to endeavor to escape, but either waited shamefully for their death within doors, or surrendered them- selves to the conqueror. Thus the city of the Sutrians was twice taken in one day ; and they who were in possession lost it, and they who had lost regained it, alike by the means of Camillus, For all which actions he received a triumph, which brought him no less honor and reputation than the two former ones ; for those citizens who before most regarded him with an evil eye, and ascribed his successes to a certain luck rather than real merit, were compelled by these last acts of his to allow the whole honor to his great abilities and energy. Of all the adversaries and enviers of his glory, Marcus Manlius was the most distinguished, he who first drove back the Gauls when they made their night attack upon the Capitol, and who for that reason had been named Capitolinus. This man, affecting the first place in the commonwealth, and not able by noble ways to outdo Cainillus's reputation, took that ordinary course towards usurpation of absolute power, namely, to gain the multitude, those of them especially that were in debt ; defending some by pleading their causes against theii creditor'=i rescuing others by force, and not suffering the law to proceed against them ; insomuch that in a short time he got great numbers of indigent people about him, whose tumults and uproars in the forum struck terror into the prin- cipal citizens. After that Quintius Capitolinus, who was made dictator to suppress these disorders, had committed Manlius to prison, the people immediately changed thei/ 228 CAMILLUS. apparel, a thing never done but in great and public calamities^ and the senate, fearing some tumult, ordered him to be re- leased. He, however, when set at liberty, changed not his course, but was rather the more insolent in his proceedings, filling the whole city with faction and sedition. They chose, therefore, Camillus again military tribune; and a day being appointed for Manlius to answer to his charge, the prospect from the place where his trial was held proved a great impedi- ment to his accusers, for the very spot where Manlius by night fought with the Gauls overlooked the forum from the Capitol, so that, stretching forth his hands that way, and weeping, he called to their remembrance his past actions, raising compassion in all that beheld him. Insomuch that the judges were at a loss what to do, and several times ad- journed the trial, unwilling to acquit him of the crime, which was sufficiently proved, and yet unable to execute the law while his noble action remained, as it were, before their eyes. Camillus, considering this, transferred the court outside the gates to the Peteline Grove, from whence there is no prospect of the Capitol. Here his accuser went on with his charge, and his judges were capable of remembering and duly resent- ing his gtiilty deeds. He was convicted, carried to the Capitol, and flung headlong from the rock ; so that one and the same spot was thus the witness of his greatest glory, and monument of his most unfortunate end. The Romans, be- sides, razed his house, and built there a temple to the goddess they call Moneta, ordaining for the future that none of the patrician order should ever dwell on the Capitoline. And now Camillus, being called to his sixth tribune-ship, desired to be excused, as being aged, and perhaps not un- fearful of the malice of fortune, and those reverses which seem to ensue upon great prosperity. But the most apparent pretence was the weakness of his body, for he happened at that time to be sick ; the people, however, would admit of no excuses, but, crying that they wanted not his strength for horse or for foot service, but only his counsel and con- duct, constrained him to undertake the command, and with one of his fellow-tribunes to lead the army immediately against the enemy. These were the PrjEnestines and Vol scians, who, with large forces, were laying waste the territory of the Roman confederates. Having marched out with his army, he sat down and encamped near the enemy, meaning himself to protract the war, or if there should come any ne- cessity or occasion of fighting, in the mean time to regain his CAM ILL us, 229 Strength, But Lucius Furius, his colleague, carried away with the desire of glory, was not to be held in, but, impatient to give battle, inflamed the inferior officers of the army with the same eagerness ; so that Camillas, fearing he might seem out of envy to be wishing to rob the young men of the glory of a noble exploit, consented, though unwillingly, that he should draw out the forces, whilst himself, by reason of weak- ness, stayed behind with a few in the camp. Lucius, engag- ing rashly, was discomfited, when Camillus, perceiving the Romans to give ground and fly, could not contain himself, but, leaping from his bed, with those he had about him ran to meet them at the gates of the camp, making his way through the flyers to oppose the pursuers ; so that those who had got within the camp turned back at once and followed him, and those that came flying from without made head again and gathered about him, exhorting one another not to forsake their general. Thus the enemy, for that time, was stopped in his pursuit. The next day Camillus, drawing out his forces and joining battle with them, overthrew them by main force, and, following close upon them, entered pell-mell with them into their camp, and took it, slaying the greatest part of them. Afterwards, having heard that the city Satricum was taken by the Tuscans, and the inhabitants, all Romans, put to the sword, he sent home to Rome the main body of his forces and heaviest-armed, and taking with him the lightest and most vigorous soldiers, set suddenly upon the Tuscans, who were in the possession of the city, and mastered them, slaying some and expelling the rest ; and so, returning to Rome with great spoils, gave signal evidence of their supe- rior wisdom, who, not mistrusting the weakness and age of a commander endued with courage and conduct, had rather chosen him who was sickly and desirous to be excused, than younger men who were forward and ambitious to command. When, therefore, the revolt of the Tusculans was reported, they gave Camillus the charge of reducing them, choosing one 01 l)is five colleagues to go with him. And when every one was eager for the place, contrary to the expectation of all, he passed by the rest and chose Lucius Furius, the very same man who lately, against the judgment of Camillus, had rashly hazarded and nearly lost a battle ; willing, as it should se'^m, to dissemble that mis-carriage, and free him from the shame of it. The Tusculans, hearing of Camillus's coming against them, made a cunning attempt at revoking their act of revolt ; theii fields, as in times of highest peace, were full of ploughmen a30 CAMILLUS. and shepherds ; their gates stood wide open, and their chil- dren were being taught in the schools ; of th^e people, such as were tradesmen, he found in their workshops, busied about their several employments, and the better sort of citizens walking in the public places in their ordinary dress ; the magistrates hurried about to provide quarters for the Remans, as if they stood in fear of no danger and were conscious of no fault. Which arts, though they could not dispossess Camillus of the conviction he had of their treason, yet induced some compassion for their repentance ; he commanded them to go to the senate and deprecate their anger, and joined himself as an intercessor in their behalf, so that their city was acquitted of all guilt and admitted to Roman citizenship. Tliese were the most memorable actions of his sixth tribune- ship. Aftei these things, Licinius Stolo raised a great sedition in the city, and brought the people to dissension with the senate, contending, that of two consuls one should be chosen out of the commons, and not both out of the patricians. Tribunes of the people were chosen, but the election of con- suls was interrupted and prevented by the people. And as this absence of any supreme magistrate was leading to }'et further confusion, Camillus was the fourth time created dic- tator by the senate, sorely against the people's will, and not altogether in accordance with his own ; he had little desire for a conflict with men whose past services entitled them to tell him that he had achieved far greater actions in war along with them than in politics with the patricians, who, indeed, had only put him forward now out of envy; that, if success- ful, he might crush the people, or, failing, be crushed himself. However, to provide as good a remedy as he could ("or the present, knowing the day on which the tribunes of the people intended to prefer the law, he appointed it by proclamation for a general muster, and called the people from the forum into the Campus, threatening to set heavy fines upon such us should not obey. On the other side, the tribunes of the people met his threats by solemnly protesting they would fine him in fifty thousand drachmas of silver, if he persisted in obstructing the people from giving their sulTrages for the law. Whether it were, then, that he feared another banishment or condem- nation, which would ill become his age and past great actions, or found himself unable to stem the current of the multitude, which ran strong and violent, he betook himself, for the present, to his house, and afterwards, for some days together CAMILLUS. 231 professing sickness, finally laid down his dictatorship. The senate created another dictator ; who, choosing Stolo, leader of the sedition, to be his general of horse, suffered that law to be enacted and ratified, which was most grievous to the patricians, namely, that no person whatsoever should possess above five hundred acres of land. Stolo was much distinguished by the victory he had gained ; but, not long after, was found himself to possess more than he had allov/ed lo others, and suffered the penalties of his own law. And now the contention about election of consuls coming on (which was the main point and original cause of -he dis- sension, and had throughout furnished most matter of divis- ion between the senate and the people), certain intelligence arrived, that the Gauls again, proceeding from the Adriatic Sea, were marching in vast numbers upon Rome. On the ver)' heels of the report followed manifest acts also of hostil- ity ; the country through which they marched was all wasted: and such as by flight could not make their escape to Roma were dispersing and scattering among the mountains. The terror of this war quieted the sedition ; nobles and commons, senate and people together unanimously chose Camillus the fifth time dictator ; who, though very aged, not wanting much of fourscore years, yet, considering the danger and necessity of his country, did not, as before, pretend sickness, or depre- ciate his own capacity, but at once undertook the charge, and enrolled soldiers. And, knowing that the great force of the barbarians lay chiefly in their swords, with which they laid about them in a rude and inartificial manner, hacking and hewing the head and shoulders, he caused head-pieces entire of iron to be made for most of his men, smoothing and polish- ing the outside, that the enemy's swords, lighting upon them, might either slide off or be broken ; and fitted also their shields with a little rim of brass, the wood itself not being sufticient to bear of! the blows. Besides, he taught his sol- diers to use their long javelins in close encounter, and, by bringing them under their enemy's swords, to receive their strokes upon them. When the Gauls drew near, about the river Anio, dragging a heavy camp after them, and loaded with infinite spoil, Camillus drew forth his forces, and planted himself upon a hill of easy ascent, and which had many dips in it, with the object that the greatest part of his army might lie concealed, and those who appeared might be thought to have betaken themselves, through fear, to those upper grounds. And thfl 232 CAMILLUS. more to increase this opinion in them, he suffered them, with- out any disturbance, to spoil and pillage tiven to his very trenches, keeping himself quiet within his works, which were well fortified ; till, at last, perceiving that part of the enemy were scattered about the country foraging, and that those that were in the camp did nothing day and night but drink and revel, in the night time he drew up his lightest armed men, and sent them out before to impede the enemy while forming into order, and to harass them when they should first issue out of their camp ; and early in the morning brought down his main body, and set them in battle array in the lower grounds, a numerous and courageous army, not, as the bar- barians had supposed, an inconsiderable and fearful division. The first thing that shook the courage of the Gauls was, that their enemies had, contrary to their expectation, the honor of being aggressors. In the next place, the light-armed men, falling upon them before they could get into their usual order or range themselves in their proper squadrons, so disturbed and pressed upon them, that they were obliged to fight at random, without any order at all. But at last, when Camillus brought on his heavy-armed legions, the barbarians, with their swords drawn, went vigorously to engage them ; the Romans, however, opposing their javelins and receiving the force of their blows on those parts of their defences which were well guarded with steel, turned the edge of their weapons, being made of soft and ill-tempered metal, so that their swords bent and doubled up in their hands ; and their shields were pierced through and through, and grew heavy with the jave- lins that stuck upon them. And thus forced to quit their own weapons, they endeavored to take advantage of those of their enemies, laid hold of the javelins with their hands, and tried to pluck them away. But the Romans, perceiving them now naked and defenceless, betook themselves to their swords, which they so well used, that in a little time great slaughter was made in the foremost ranks, while the rest fled over all parts of the level country ; the hills and upper grounds Camil- lus had secured beforehand, and their camp they knew it would not be difficult for the enemy to take, as, through confi- dence of victory, they had left it unguarded. This fight, it is stated, was thirteen years after the sacking of Rome ; and from henceforward the Romans took courage, and surmount- ed the apprehensions they had hitherto entertained of the barbarians, whose previous defeat they had attributed rather to pestilence and a concurrence of mischances than to thei/ CAMiLLUS. a33 own superior valor. And, indeed, this fear had been formerly so great that they made a law, that priests should be excused from service in war, unless in an invasion from the Gaul. This was the last military action that ever Camillus per- formed ; for the voluntary surrender of the city of the Veli- trani was but a mere accessory to it. But the greatest of al) civil contests, and the hardest to be managed, was still to be fought out against the people ; who returning home full of victory and success, insisted, contrary to established law, to have one of the consuls chosen out of their own body. The senate strongly opposed it, and would not suffer Camillus to lay down his dictatorship, thinking that, under the shelter of his great name and authority, they should be better able to contend for the power of the aristocracy. But when Camillus was sitting upon the tribunal, despatching public affairs, an officer, sent by the tribunes of the people, commanded him to rise and follow him, laying his hand upon him, as ready to seize and carry him away ; upon which, such a noise and tumult as was never heard before, filled the whole forum ; some that were about Camillus thrusting the officer from the bench, and the multitude below calling out to him to bring Camillus down. Being at a loss what to do in these difficulties, he yet laid not down his authority, but, taking the senators along with him, he went to the senate-house ; but before he entered, besought the gods that they would bring these troubles to a happy conclusion, solemnly vowing, when the tumult was end- ed, to build a temple to Concord. A great conflict of op- posite opinions arose in the senate ; but, at last, the most moderate and most acceptable to the people prevailed, and consent was given, that of two consuls, one should be chosen from the commonalty. When the dictator proclaimed this determination of the senate to the people, at the moment, picased and reconciled with the senate, as indeed could not otherwise be, they accompanied Camillus home, with all ex- pressions and acclamations of joy ; and the next day, assem- bling together, they voted a temple of Concord to be built, according to Camillus's vow, facing the assembly and the forum ; and to the feasts, called the Latin holidays, they add- ed one day more, making four in all ; and ordained that, on the present occasion, the whole people of Rome should sacri- fice with garlands on their heads. In the election of consuls held by Camillus, Marcus ^mil- ius was chosen of the patricians, and Lucius Sextius the first of the commonalty ; and this was the last of all Camillus's 434 PERICLES. actions. In the year following, a pestilential sickness infected Rome, which, besides an infinite number of the common people, swept away most of the magistrates, among whom was Camillas ; whose death cannot be called immature, if we consider his great age, or greater actions, yet was he more lamented than all the rest put together that then died of that distemper. PERICLES. CiESAR once, seeing some wealthy strangers at Rome, car- rying up and down with them in their arms and bosoms young puppy-dogs and monkeys, embracing and making much of them, took occasion not unnaturally to ask whether the wo- men in their country were not used to bear children ; by that prince-like reprimand gravely reflecting upon persons who spend and lavish upon brute beasts that affection and kind- ness which nature has implanted in us to be bestowed on those of our own kind. With like reason may we blame those who misuse that love of inquiry and observation which nature has implanted in our souls, by expending it on objects un- worthy of the attention either of their eyes or their ears, while they disregard such as are excellent in themselves, and would do them good. The mere outward sense, being passive in responding to the impression of the objects that come in its way and strike upon it, perhaps cannot help entertaining and taking notice of every thing that addresses it, be it what it will, useful or unuseful ; but, in the exercise of his mental perception, every man, if he chooses, has a natural power to turn himself upon all occasions, and to change and shift with the greatest ease to what he shall himself judge desirable. So that it becomes a man's duty to pursue and make after the best and choicest of everything, that he may not only employ his contemplation, but may also be improved by it. CFor as that color is most suitable^to the eye whose freshness and pleasantness stimu- lates and strengthens the sight, so a man ought to apply his intellectual perception to such objects as, with the sense of delight, are apt to call it forth, and allure it to its own proper good and advantage, i Such objects we find in the acts of virtue, which also pro- duce in the minds of mere readers about them, an emulation PERICLES. 235 and eagerness that may lead them on to imitation. In other things there does not immediately follow upon the admiration and liking of the thing done, any strong desire of doing the like. Nay, many times, on the very contrary, when we are pleased with the work, we slight and set little by the work- man 01 artist himself, as, for instance, in perfumes and pur- ple dyes, we are taken with the things themselves well enough, but do not think dyers and perfumers otherwise than low and sordid people. It was not said amiss by Antisthenes, when people told him that one Ismenias was an excellent piper. " It may be so," said he, " but he is but a wretched huma»> being, otherwise he would not have been an excellent piper," And king Philip, to the same purpose, told his son Alexander, who once at a merry-meeting played a piece of music charm- ingly and skilfully, " Are you not ashamed, son, to play so well ? " For it is enough for a king or prince to find leisure sometimes to hear others sing, and he does the muses quite honor enough when he pleases to be but present, while others engage in such exercises and trials of skill. He who busies himself in mean occupations produces, in the very pains he takes about things of little or no use, an evidence against himself of his negligence and indisposition to what is really good. Nor did any generous and ingenuous young man, at the sight of the statue of Jupiter at Pisa, ever desire to be a Phidias, or on seeing that of Juno at Argos, long to be a Polycletus, or feel induced by his pleasure in their poems to wish to be an Anacreon or Philetas or Archi- lochus. For it does not necessarily follow, that, if a piece of work please for its gracefulness, therefore he that wrought it deserves our admiration. Whence it is that neither do such things really profit or advantage the beholders, upon the sight of which no zeal arises for the imitation of them, nor any im- pulse or inclination, which may promi)t any desire or endeavor of doing the like. But virtue, by the bare statement of its ac- tions, can so affect men's minds as to create at once both ad- miration of the things done and desire to imitate the doers of them. The goods of fortune we would possess and would enjoy ; those of virtue we long to practice and exercise : we are content to receive the former from others, the latter we wish others to experience from us. Moral good is 3. practical stimulus ; it is no sooner seen, than it inspires an impulse to practise ; and influences the mind and character not by a mere imitation which we look at, but by the statement of the fact, creates a moral purpose wiiich we form. »36 PERICLES. And so we have thought fit to spend our time and pains in writing of the lives of famous persons ; and liave composed this tenth book upon that subject, containing the life of I'ericles, and that of Fabius Maximus, who carried on the war against Hannibal, men alike, as in their other virtues and good parts, so especially in their mild and upright cCmper and de- meanor, and in that capacity to bear the cross-grained humors of their fellow-citizens and colleagues in otBce which mado them both most useful and serviceable to the interests o£ their countries. Whether we take a right aim at our intended purpose, it is left to the reader to judge by what he shall here find. Pericles was of the tribe Acamantis, and the township Cholargus, of the noblest birth both on his father's and moth- er's side. Xanthippus, his father, who defeated the king ot Persia's generals in the battle at Mycale, took to wife Agariste, the grandchild of Clisthenes, who drove out the sons of Pisis- tratus, and nobly put an end to their tyrannical usurpation, and, moreover, made a body of laws, and settled a model of government admirably tempered and suited for the harmony and safety of the people. His mother, being near her time, fancied in a dream that she was brought to bed of a lion, and a few days after was delivered of Pericles, in other respects perfectly formed, only his head was somewhat longish and out of proportion. For which reason almost all the images and statues that were made of him have the head covered with a helmet, the work- men apparently being willing not to expose him. The poets of Athens called him Schinocephalos, or squill-head, from schhios, a squill, or sea-onion. One of the comic poets, Cra- tinus, in the Chirons, tells us that — Old Chronos once took queen Sedition to wife : Which two brought to life That tyiant far-famed, Whom the gods the supreme skull-compeller have named And, hi the Nemesis, addresses him — Come, Jove, thou head of gods. And a second, Teleclides, says, that now, in embairassmeul with political difficulties, he sits in the city — P'ainting underneath the load Of his own head : and now abroad From his huge gallery of a pate Sends forth trouble to the stale. PERICLES. 237 And a third, Eupolis, in the comedy called the Demi, in a series of questions about each of the demagogues, whom he makes in the play to come up from hell, upon Pericles being named last, exclaims — And here bj' way of summary, now %ve've done, I'ehold, in brief the heads of all in one. The master that taught him music, most authors are iigfeed, was Damon (whose name, they sa}', ought to be pro- nounced with the first syllable short). Though Aristotle tells us that he was thoroughly practised in all accomplishments of tliis kind by Pythoclides. Damon, it is not unlikely, being a sophist, out of policy, sheltered himself under the profession of music to conceal from people in general his skill in other things, and under this pretence attended Pericles, the young athlete of poli'ics, so to say, as his training-master in these ex- ercises. Damon's lyre, however, did not prove altogether a successful blind ; he was banished the country by ostracism for ten years, as a dangerous intermeddler and a favorer of arbitrary power, and, by this means, gave the stage occasion to play upon him. As for instance, Plato, the comic poet, in- troduces a character, who questions him — Tell me, if you please, Since you're the Chiron who taught Pericles. Pericles, also, was a hearer of Zeno, the Eleatic, who treated of natural philosophy in the same manner as Parmen- ides did, but had also perfected himself in an art of his own for refuting and silencing opponents in argument ; as Timon of Phlius describes it, — Also the two-edged tongue of mighty Zeno, who, Say what one would, could argue it untrue. But he that saw most of Pericles, and furnished lum must especially with a weight and grandeur of sense, superior tc all arts of popularity, and in general gave hiin his elevation and sublimity of purpose and of character, was Anaxagoras of Clazomenae ; whom the men of those times called by the name of Nous, that is, mind, or intelligence, whether in admiration of the great and extraordinary gift he had displayed for the science of nature, or because that he was the first of the philosophers who did not refer the first ordering of the world to fortune or chance, nor to necessity or compulsion, but to a pure, unadulterated intelligence, which in all other existing ^333 PERICLES. mixed and compound things acts as a principle of discnmina- tion, and of combination of like with like. For this man, Pericles entertained an extraordinary es- teem and admiration, and filling himself with this lofty, and, as they call it, up-in-the-air sort of thought, derived hence not merely, as was natural, elevation of purpose and dignity ot language, raised far above the base and dishonest buffoonerier. of mob-eloquence, but, besides this, a composure of counte- nance, and a serenity and calmness in all his movements, which no occurrence whilst he was speaking could disturb, a sus- tained and even tone of voice, and various other advantages of a similar kind, which produced the greatest effect on bis hearers. Once, after being reviled and ill-spoken of all day long in his own hearing by some vile and abandoned fellow in the open market-place, where he was engaged in the de- spatch of some urgent affair, he continued his business in per- fect silence, and in the evening returned home composedly, the man still dogging him at the heels, and pelting him all the way with abuse and foul language ; and stepping into his house, it being by this time dark, he ordered one of his ser- vants to take a light, and to go along with the man and see him safe home. Ion, it is true, the dramatic poet, says that Pericles's manner in company was somewhat over-assuming and pompous ; and that into his high-bearing there entered a good deal of slightingness and scorn of others ; he reserves his commendation for Cimon's ease and pliancy and natural grace in society. Ion, however, who must needs make virtue, like a show of tragedies, include some comic scenes, we shall not altogether rely upon ; Zeno used to bid those who called Pericles's gravity the affectation of a charlatan, to go and affect the like themselves ; inasmuch as this mere counter- feiting might in time insensibly instil into them a real love and knowledge of those noble qualities. Nor were these the only advantages which Pericles derived from Anaxagoras's acquaintance ; he seems also to have be- coin?, by his instructions, superior to that superstition with which an ignorant wonder at appearances, for example, in the heavens, possesses the minds of people unacquainted with their causes, eager for the supernatural, and excitable through an inexperience which the knowledge of natural causes re- moves, replacing wild and timid superstition by the good hope and assurance of an intelligent piety. There is a story, that once Pericles had brought to him from a country farm of his, a ruin's head with one horn, and PERICLfcS. 239 that Lampon, the diviner, upon seeir.g the horn grow strong and solid out of the midst of the forehead, gave it as his judgment, that, there being at that time two potent factions, parties, or interests in the city, the one of Thucydides and the other of Pericles, the government would come about to that one of them in whose ground or estate this token or indica- tion of fate had shown itself. But that Anaxagoras, cleaving the skull in sunder, showed to the bystanders that the brain had not filled up its natural place, but being oblong, like an egg, had collected from all parts of the vessel which contained it, in a point to that place from whence the root of the horn took its rise. And that, for that time, Anaxagoras was much admired for his explanation by those that were present ; and Lampon no less a little while after, when Thucydides was overpowered, and the whole affairs of the state and govern- ment came into the hands of Pericles, And yet, in my opinion, it is no absurdity to say that they were both in the right, both natural philosopher and diviner, one justly detecting the cause of this event, by which it was produced, the other the end for which it was designed. For it was the business of the one to find out and give an account of what it was made, and in what manner and by what means it grew as it did ; and of the other to foretell to what end and purpose it was so made, and what it might mean or portend. Those who say that to find out the cause of a prodigy is in effect to destroy its supposed signification as such, do not take notice that, at the same time, together with divine prodigies, they also do away with signs and signals of human art and concert, as, for instance, the clashings of quoits, fire-beacons, and the shadows of sun-dials, every one of which has its cause, and by that cause and contrivance is a sign of some- thing else. But these are subjects, perhaps, that would better befit another place. Pericles, while yet but a young man, stood in considerable apprehension of the people, as he was thought in face and figure to be very like the tyrant Pisistratus, and those of great age remarked upon the sweetness of his voice, and his volubility and rapidity in speaking, and were stiuck wil^ amazement at the resemblance. Reflecting, too, that he had a considerable estate, and was descended of a noble family, and had friends of great influence, he was fearful all this might bring him to be banished as a dangerous person ; and for this reason meddled not at all with state affairs, but in military service showed himself of a brave and intrej)id 240 PERICLES. nature. But when Aristides was now dead, and Themistocles driven out, and Cimon was for the most part kept abroad by the expeditions he made in parts out of Greece, Pericles, see- ing things in this posture, now advanced and took his side, not with the rich and few, but with the many and poor, con- trary to his natural bent^ which was far from democratical j but, most likely fearing he might fall under suspicion of aim- ing at arbitrary power, and seeing Cimon on the side of the aristocracy, and much beloved by the better and more distin- guished people, he joined the party of the people, with a view at once both to secure himself and procure means against Cimon. He immediately entered, also, on quite a new course of life and management of his time. For he was never seen to walk in any street but that which led to the market- place and the council-hall, and he avoided invitations of friends to supper, and all friendly visiting and intercourse whatever ; in all the time he had to do with the public, which was not a little, he was never known to have gone to any of his friends to a supper, except that once when his near kins- man Euryptolemus married, he remained present till the cere- mony of the drink-offering, and then immediately rose from table and went his way. For these friendly meetings are very quick to defeat any assumed superiority, and in intimate familiarity an exterior of gravity is h-ard to maintain. Real excellence, indeed, is most recognized when most openly looked into ; and in really good men, nothing which meets the eyes of external observers so truly deserves their admira- tion, as their daily common life does that of their nearer friends. Pericles, however, to avoid any feeling of common- ness, or any satiety on the part of the people, presented hini- seli at intervals only, not speaking to every business, nor at all times coming into the assembly, but, as Critolaus says, reserving himself, like the Salaminian galley, for great occa- sions, while matters of lesser importance were despatched by friends or other speakers under his direction. And of this number we are told Ephialtes made one, who broke the power of the council of Areopagus, giving the people, accord- ing to Plato's expression, so copious and so strong a draught of liberty, that growing wild and unr liy, like an unmanageablft horse, it, as the comic poets say, — " got beyond all keeping in, Champing at Euboea, and among the islands leaping ia." PERICLES. 241 The style of speaking most consonant to his form of life and the dignity of his views he found, so to say, in the tones of that instrument with which Anaxagoras had furnished him ; of his teaching he continually availed himself, and deepened the colors of rhetoric with the dye of natural science. For having, in addition to his great natural genius, attained, by the study of nature, to use the words of the divine Plato, this height of intelligence, and this universal consummating power, and drawing hence whatever might oe of advantage to him in the art of speaking, he showed himself far superior to all others. Upon which account, they say, he had his nickname given him, though some are of opinion he was named the Olympian from the public buildings with which he adorned the city ; and others again, from his great power in public afifairs, whether of war or peace. Nor is it unlikely that the j^onfluence of many attributes may have conferred it on him. However, the comedies represented at the time, which, both ni good earnest and in merriment, let fly many hard words at him, plainly show that he got that appellation especially from his speaking; they speak of his " thundering and lightning " when he harangued the people, and of his wielding a dreadful thunderbolt in his tongue. A saying also of Thucydides, the son of Melesias, stands on record, spoken by him by way of pleasantry upon Pericles's dexterity. Thuc3^dides was one of the noble and distin- guished citizens, and had been his greatest opponent ; and, when Archidamus, the king of the Lacedcemonians, asked him whether he or Pericles were the better wrestler, he made this answer : " When I," said he, " have thrown him and given him a fair fall, by persisting that he had no fall, he gets the better of me, and makes the bystanders, in spite of their own eyes, believe him." The truth, however, is, that Pericles himself was very careful what and how he was to speak, insomuch that, whenever he went up to the hustings, he piayed the gods that no one word might unawares slip from him unsuitable to the matter and the occasion. He has left nothing in writing behind him, except some decrees ; and there are but very few of his sayings recorded j one, for- example, is, that he said ^gina must, like a gather- mg in a man's eye, be removed froni Piraeus ; and another, that he said he saw already war moving on its way towards them out of Peloponnesus. Again, when on a time Sophocles, who was his fellow-commissioner in the generalship, was going on board with him, and praised the beauty of a youth they met 16 242 PERJCLES. with ill the way to the ship, " Sophocles," said he, " a general ought not only to have clean hands, but also clean eyes." And Stesimbrotus tells us, that, in his encomium on those whs fell in battle at Samos, he said they were become immortal, as the gods were. " For," said he, " we do not see them them- selves, but only by the honors we pay them, and by the bene- fits they do us, attribute to them immortality ; and the like attributes belong also to those that die in the service of theis country." Since Thucydides describes the rule of Pericles as an aris tocratical government, that went by the name of a democracy, but was, indeed, the supremacy of a single great man, while many others say, on the contrary, that by him the common people were first encouraged and led on to such evils as appropriations of subject territory ; allowances for attending theatres, payments for performing public duties, and by these bad habits were, under the influence of his public measures, changed from a sober, thrifty people, that maintained them- selves by their own labors, to lovers of expense, intemperance, and license, let us examine the cause of this change by the actual matters of fact. At the first, as has been said, when he set himself against Cimon's great authority, he did caress the people. Finding himself come short of his competitor in wealth and money, by which advantages the other was enabled to take care of the poor, inviting every day some one or other of the citizens that was in want to supper, and bestowing clothes on the aged people, and breaking down the hedges and enclosures of his grounds, that all that would might freely gather what fruit they pleased, Pericles, thus outdone in popular arts, by the advice of one Damonides of GEa, as Aristotle states, turned to the distribution of the public moneys ; and in a short time having bought the peoj^le over, what with moneys allowed for shows and for service on juries, and what with other forms of jDay and largess, he made use of them against the council of Areopagus, of which he himself was no member, as having never been appointed by lot either chief archon, or lawgiver, er king, or captain. For from of old these offices were conferred on persons by lot, and they who had acquitted themselves duly in the discharge of them were advanced to the court of Areopagus. And so Pericles, having secured his power and interest with the populace, directed the exertions of his party against this council with such success, that mos* of these causes and matters which had been used to be triet PERICLES. 243 there, were, by the agency of Ephialtes, removed from its cog- nizance ; Cimon, also, was banished by ostracism as a favorer of the Lacedaemonians and a hater of the people, though in wealth and noble birth he was among the first, and had won several most glorious victories over the barbarians, and had filled the city with money and spoils of war ; as is recorded in the history of his life. So vast an authority had Pericles obtained among the people. The ostracism was limited by law to ten years ; but the Lacedasmonians, in the mean time, entering v^'ith a great army into the territory of Tanagra, and the Athenians going out against them, Cimon, coming from his banishment before his time was out, put himself in arms and array with those of his fellow-citizens that were of his own tribe, and desired by his deeds to wipe off the suspicion of his favoring the Lacedae- monians, by venturing his own person along with his country- men. But Pericles's friends, gathering in a body, forced him to retire as a banished man. For which cause also Pericles seems to have exerted himself more in that than in any battle, and to have been conspicuous above all for his exposure of himself to danger. All Cimon's friends, also, to a man, fell together side by side, whom Pericles had accused with him of taking part with the Lacedaemonians. Defeated in this battle on their own frontiers, and expecting a new and peril- ous attack with return of spring, the Athenians now felt regret and sorrow for the loss of Cimon, and repentance for their expulsion of him. Pericles, being sensible of their feelings, did not hesitate or delay to gratify it, and himself made the motion for recalling him home. He, upon his return, con- eluded a peace betwixt the two cities ; for the Lacedaemonians entertained as kindly feelings towards him as they did the reverse towards Pericles and the other popular leaders. Yet some there are who say that Pericles did not propose the order for Cimon's return till some private articles of agreement had been made between them, and this by means of Elpinice, Cimon's sister ; that Cimon, namely, should go out to sea with a fleet of two hundred ships, and be com- mander-in-chief abroad, with a design to reduce the king cf Persia's territories, and that Pericles should have the power at home. This Elpinice, it was thought, had before this time procured some favor for her brother Cimon at Pericles's hands, and in- duced him to be more remiss and gentle in urging the charge when Cimon was tried for his life ; for Pericles was one of the 244 PERICLES. committee appointed by the commons to pleavl against him. And when Elpinice came and besought him in her brother's behalf, he answered, with a smile, " O Elpinice, you are too old a woman to undertake such business as this." But, when he appeared to impeach him, he stood up but once to speak, merely to acquit himself of his commission, and went out of court having done Cimon the least prejudice of any of his ac- cusers. How, then, can one believe Idomeneus, who charges Pericles as if he had by treachery procured the murder of Ephialtes, the popular statesman, one who was his friend, and of his own party in all his political course, out of jealousy, forsooth, and envy of his great reputation ? This historian, it seems, having raked up these stories, I know not whence, has befouled with them a man who, perchance, was not alto- gether free from fault or blame, but yet had a noble spirit, and a soul that was bent on honor ; and where such qualities are, there can no such cruel and brutal passion find harbor or gain admittance. As to Ephialtes, the truth of tne story, as Aristotle has told it, is this ; that having made himself for- midable to the oligarchical party, by being an uncompromis- ing asserter of the people's rights in calling to account and prosecuting those who any way wronged them, his enemies, lying in wait for him, by the means of Aristodicus the Tana- graean, privately despatched him. Cimon, while he was admiral, ended his days in the Isle of Cyprus. And the aristocratical party, seeing that Pericles was already before this grown to be the greatest and foremost man of all the city, but nevertheless wishing there should be somebody set up against him, to blunt and turn the edge of his power, that it might not altogether prove a monarchy, put forward Thucydides of Alopece, a discreet person, and a near kinsman of Cimon's, to conduct the opposition against him ; who, indeed, though less skilled in warlike affairs than Cimon was, yet was better versed in speaking and political busi- ness, and keeping close guard in the city, and engaging with Pericles on the hustings, in a short time brought the govern- ment to an equality of parties. For he would not sutTer those who were called the honest and good (persons of worth and distinction) to be scattered up and down and mix themselves and be lost among the populace, as formerly, diminishing and obscuring their superiority amongst the masses ; but taking them apart by themselves and uniting them in one body, by their combined weight he was able, as it were upon the bal- ance, to make a counterpoise to the other party. TEKIChtS. 245 For, indeed, there was from the beginning a sort of con cealed split, or seam, as it might be in a piece of iron, mark- ing the different popular and aristocratical tendencies ; bul the open rivalry and contention of these two opponents made the gash deep, and severed the city into the two parties of the people and the few. And so Pericles, at that time more than at any other, let loose the reins to the people, and made his policy subservient to their pleasure, contriving continually to have some great public show or solemnity, some banquet, oi some procession or other in the town to please them, coaxing his countrymen like children, with such delights and pleasures as were not, however, un edifying. Besides that every yeai he sent out threescore galleys, on board of which there went numbers of the citizens, who were in pay eight months, learn- ing at the same time and practising the art of seamanship. He sent, moreover, a thousand of them into the Cherso- nese as planters, to share the land among them by lot, and five hundred more into the isle of Naxos, and half that num- ber to Andros, a thousand into Thrace to dwell among the Bisaltae, and others into Italy, when the city Sybaris, which now was called Thurii, was to be repeopled. And this he did to ease and discharge the city of an idle, and, by reason of their idleness, a busy, meddling crowd of people ; and at the same time to meet the necessities and restore the fortunes of the poor townsmen, and to intimidate, also, and check their allies from attempting any change, by posting such gar- risons, as it were, in the midst of them. That which gave most pleasure and ornament to the city of Athens, and the greatest admiration and even astonish- ment to all strangers, and that which now is Greece's only evidence that the power she boasts of and her ancient wealth are no romance or idle story, was his construction of the pub- lic and sacred buildings. Yet this was that of all his actions in the government which his enemies most looked askance upon and cavilled at in the popular assemblies, crying out how that the commonwealth of Athens had lost its reputatioc and was i'1-spoken of abroad for removing the common treas ure of the Greeks from the isle of Delos into their own cus- tody ; and how that their fairest excuse for so doing, n.£.iaely, that they took it away for fear the barbarians should seize il, and on purpose to secure it in a safe place, this Pericles had made unavailable, and how that " Greece cannot but resent it as an insufferable affront, and consider herself to be t^'ran- nized ovor openly, when she sees the treasure, which waa 246 PERICLES. contributed by her upon a necessity for the war, wantonly lavished out by us upon our city, to gild her all over, and to adorn and set her forth, as it were some vain woman, hung round with precious stones and figures and temples, which cost a world of money." Pericles, on the other hand, informed the people, that they were in no way obliged to give any account of those moneys to their allies, so long as they maintained their de- fence, and kept off the barbarians from attacking them ; while in the mean nme they did not so much as supply one horse or man or ship, but only found money for the service ; " which money," said he, " is not theirs that give it, but theirs that re- ceive it, if so be they perform the conditions upon which they receive it." And that it was good reason, that, now the city was sufficiently provided and stored with all things necessary for the war, they should convert the overplus of its wealth to such undertakings as would hereafter, when completed, give them eternal honor, and, for the present, while in process, freely supply all the inhabitants with plenty. With their variety of workmanship and of occasions for service, which summon all arts and trades and require all hands to be em- ployed about them, they do actually put the whole city, in a manner, into state-pay ; while at the same time she is both beautified and maintained by herself. For as those who are of age and strength for war are provided for and maintained in the armaments abroad by their pay out of the public stock, so, it being his desire and design that the undisciplined mechanic multitude that stayed at home should not go with- out their share of public salaries, and yet should not have them given them for sitting still and doing nothing, to that end he thought fit to bring in among them, with the approba- tion of the people, these vast projects of buildings and de- signs of works, that would be of some continuance before they were finished, and would give employment to numerous arts, 'io that the oart of the people that stayed at home might, no less than those that were at sea or in garrisons or on expe- ditions, have a fair and just occasion of receiving the benefit and having their share of the public moneys. The materials were stone, brass, ivor)', gold, ebony, cypress- wood; and the arts or trades that wrought and fashioned them were smiths and carpenters, moulders, founders and braziers, stone-cutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers, paint- ers, embroiderers, turners ; those again that conveyed them to the town for use, merchants and mariners and ship-maste*'8 PERICLES. 247 by sea, and by land, cartwrights, cattle-breeders, wagoners, rope-makers, flax-workers, shoemakers and leather-dressers, road-makers, miners. And every trade in the same nature, as a captain in an army has his particular company of soldiers under him, had its own hired company of journeymen and laborers belonging to it banded together as in array, to be as it were the instrument and body for the performance of the service. Thus, to say all in a word, the occasions and ser- vices of these public works distributed plenty through every age and condition. As then grew the works up, no less stately in size than ex- quisite in form, the workmen striving to outvie the material and the design with the beauty of their workmanship, yet the most wonderful thing of all was the rapidity of their execu- tion. Undertakings, any one of which singly might have required, they thought, for their completion, several succes- sions and ages of men, were every one of them accomplished in the height and prime of one man's political service. Although they say, too, that Zeuxis once, having heard Agatharchus the painter boast of despatching his work with speed and ease, replied, " I take a long time." For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty ; the expenditure of time allowed to a man's pains beforehand for the production of a thing is repaid by way of interest with a vital force for the preservation when once pro- duced. For which reason Pericles's works are especially ad- mired, as having been made quickly, to last long. For every particular piece of his work was immediately, even at that time, for its beauty and elegance, antique ; and yet in its vigor and freshness looks to this day as if it were just execu- ted. There is a sort of bloom of newness upon those works of his, preserving them from the touch of time, as if they had some perennial spirit and undying vitality mingled in the CO raj^osition of them. Phidias had the oversight of all the works, and was sui- reyor-general, though upon the various portions other great masters and workmen were employed. For Callicrates and Ictinus built the Parthenon ; the chapel at Eleusis, where the mysteries were celebrated was begun by Coroebus, who erect- ed the pillars that stand upon the floor or pavement, and joined them to the architraves ; and after his death Metagenes of Xypete added the frieze and the upper line of columns j Xenocles of Cholargus roofed or arched the lantern on top of the temple of Castor and PoHnx ; and ihe long wall, which 248 PERICLES. Socrates says he himself heard Pericles propose to the people, was undertaken by Callicrates, This work Cratinus ridicules, as long in finishing, — 'Tis long since Pericles, if words would do it, Talked up the wall ; yet adds not one mite to it. The Odeum, or music-room, which in its interior was fu/1 of seats and ranges of pillars, and outside had its roof made to slope and descend from one single point at the top, was constructed, we are told, in imitation of the king of Persia's Pavilion ; this likewise by Pericles's order ; which Cratinus again, in his comedy called the Thracian Women, made an occasion of raillery, — So, we see here, Jupiter Long-pate Pericles appear, Since ostracism time, he's laid aside his head, And wears the new Odeum in its stead. Pericles, also eager for distinction, then first obtained the decree for a contest in musical skill to be held yearly at the Panathenaea, and he himself, being chosen judge, arranged the order and method in which the competitors should sing and play on the flute and on the harp. And both at that time, and at other times also, they sat in this music-room to see and hear all such trials of skill. The propylaea, or entrances to the Acropolis, were finished in five years' time, Mnesicles being the principal architect. A strange accident happened in the course of building, which showed that the goddess was not averse to the work, but was aiding and cooperating to bring it to perfection. One of the artificers, the quickest and the handiest workman among them all, with a slip of his foot fell down from a great height, and lay in a miserabk condition, the physicians having no hopes of his recovery. When Pericles was in distress about this, Minerva appeared to him at night in a dream, and ordered a course of treatment, which he applied, and in a short time and with great ease cured the man. And upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass statue of jNIinerva, surnamcd Health, in the citadel near the altar, which they say was there before. But it was Phidias who wrought the goddess's image in gold, and he has his name inscribed on the pedestal as tlie workman of it ; and indeed the whole work in a manner was under his charge, and he had, as we have said already, the oversight over all the artists and workmen, through Pericles's PERICLES. 2,19 friendship for him ; and this, indeed, made him much envied, and his patron shamefully slandered with stories, as it Phid i^s were in the habit of receiving, for Pericles's use, freeborn vomen tliat came to see the works. The comic writers of the town, when they had got hold of this story, made much of it, and bespattered him with all the ribaldry they could invent, charging him falsely with the wife of Menippus, one who was liis friend and served as lieutenant under him in the wars ; and with the birds kept by Pyrilampes, an acquaintance ol Pericles, who, they pretended, used to give presents of pea- cocks to Pericles's female friends. And how can one wonder at any number of strange assertions from men whose whole lives were devoted to mockery, and who were ready at any lime to sacrifice the reputation of their superiors to vulgar envy and spite, as to some evil genius, when even Stesimbro- tus the Thrasian has dared to lay to the charge of Pericles a monstrous and fabulous piece of criminality with his son's wife ? So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of any thing by history, when, on the one hand, those who afterwards write it find long periods of time intercepting their view, and, on the other hand, the contemporary records of any actions and lives, partly through envy and ill-will, part- ly through favor and flattery, pervert and distort truth. When the orators, who sided with Thucydides and his party, were at one time crying out, as their custom was, against Pericles, as one who squandered away the public money, and made havoc of the state revenues, he rose in the open assem- bly and put the question to the people, whether they thought that he had laid out much ; and they saying, "'Poo much, a great deal," "Then," said he, "since it is so, let the cost not go to your account, but to mine; and let the inscription upon the buildings stand in my name." When they heaid him say thus, whether it were out of a surprise to see the greatness ui L's s|jir:*. or out of emulation of the glory of the works, [Iwj cited aL id, bidding liim to spend on, and lay out what he thought fit from the public purse, and to spare no cost, till all weie finished. At length, coming to a final contest with Th jcydides, which of the two should ostracize the other out of the country, and having gone through this peril, he threw his antagonist CLil, and broke up the confederacy that had been organized against him. So that now all schism and division being at an end, and the city brought to evenness and unity, he got all •Athens iiid all affairs that pertained to the Athenians iii-c- 2 5 J PERICLES. his own hands, their tiibutes, their armies, and their galleys the islands, the sea, and their wide-extended power, partly over other Greeks and partly over barbarians, and all that empire, which they possessed, founded and fortified upon sub ject nations and royal friendships and alliances. After this he was no longer the same man he had been be- fore, nor as tame and gentle and familiar as formerly with the populace, so as readily to yield to their pleasures and to com- ply with the desires of the multitude, as a steersman shifts with the winds. Quitting that loose, remiss, and, in some cases, licentious court of the popular will, he turned those soft and flowery modulations to the austerity of aristocratical and regal rule ; and employing this uprightly and unde\aa- tingly for the country's best interests he was able generally to lead the people along, with their own wills and consents, by persuading and showing them what was to be done ; and sometimes, too, urging and pressing them forward extremely against their will, he made them, whether they would or no yield submission to what was for their advantage. In which, to say the truth, he did but like a skilful physician, who, in a complicated and chronic disease, as he sees occasion, at one while allows his patient the moderate use of such things ai please him, at another while gives him keen pains and drugs to work the cure. For there arising and growing up, as was natural, all manner of distempered feelings among a people which had so vast a command and dominion, he alone, as a great master, knowing how to handle and deal fitly with each one of them, and, in an especial manner, making that use of hopes and fears, as his two chief rudders, with the one to check the career of their confidence at any time, with the other to raise them up and cheer them when under any dis- couragement, plainly showed by this, that rhetoric, or the art of speaking, is, in Plato's language, the government of the souls of men, and that her chief business is to address the affections and passions, which are as it were the strings and iieys to the soul, and require a skilful and careful touch to be played on as they should be. The source of this predomi- nance was not barely his power of language, but, as Thucy- dides assures us, the reputation of his life, and the confidence felt in his character ; his manifest freedom from every kind of corruption, and superiority to all considerations of money. Notwithstanding he had made the city Athens, which was great of itself, as great and rich as can be imagined, and though he were himself in power and interest more than equal PERICLES. 251 to many kings and absolute rulers, who some of them also bequeathed by will their power to their children, he, for his part, did not make the patrimony his father left him greater than it was by one drachma. Thucydides, indeed, gives a plain statement of the great- ness of his power ; and the comic poets, in their spiteful man- ner, more than hint at it, styling his companions and friends the new Pisistratidae, and calling on him to abjure any inten- tion of usurpation, as one whose eminence v.fas too great to be any longer proportionable to and compatible with a de- mocracy or popular government. And Teleclides says the Athenians had surrendered up to him — The tribute of tV.e cities, and with them, the cities too, to do with them as he pleases, and undo ; To build up, if he likes, stone walls around a town ; and again, if so he likes, to pull them down ; Their treaties and alliances, power, empire, peace, and war, their wealth and their success forever more. Nor was all this the luck of some happy occasion ; nor was it the mere bloom and grace of a policy that flourished for a season ; but having for forty years together maintained the first place among statesmen such as Ephialtes and Leo- crates and Myronides and Cimon and Tolmides and Thucy- dides were, after the defeat and banishment of Thucydides, for no less than fifteen years longer, in the exercise of one continuous unintermitted command in the office, to which he was annually reelected, of General, he preserved his integrity unspotted ; though otherwise he was not altogether idle or careless in looking after his pecuniary advantage ; his pater- nal estate, which of right belonged to him, he so ordered that it might neither through negligence be wasted or lessened, nor yet, being so full of business as he was, cost him any great trouble or time with taking care of it ; and put it into such a way of management as he thought to be the most easy for himself, and the most exact. All his yearly products and profits he sold together in a lump, and supplied his household needs afterwards by buying every thing that he or his fnmily wanted out of the market. Upon which account, his children, when they grew to age, were not well pleased with his man- agement, and the women that lived with him were treated with little cost, and complained of this way of housekeeping, where every thing was ordered and set down from day to day, and reduced to the greatest exactness ; since there was not there, as is usual in a great family and a plentiful estate, an) !f52 PERICLES ihing to spare, or over and above ; but all that went out oi came in, all disbursements and all receipts, proceeded as it were by number and measure. His manager in all this was a single servant, Evangelus by name, a man either naturally gifted or instructed by Pericles so as to excel every one in this art uf domestic economy. All this, in truth, was very little in harmony with Anax- agoras's wisdom ; if, indeed, it be true that he, by a kind o} divine impulse and greatness of spirit, voluntarily quitted his house, and left his land to lie fallow and to be grazed by sheep like a common. But the life of a contemplative phi- losopher and that of an active statesman are, I presume, not the same thing ; for the one merely employs, upon great and good objects of thought, an intelligence that requires no aid of instruments nor supply of any external materials ; whereas the other, who tempers and applies his virtue to human uses, may have occasion for affluence, not as a matter of mere ne- cessity, but as a noble thing; which was Pericles's case, who relieved numerous poor citizens. However, there is a story, that Anaxagoras himself, while Pericles was taken up with public affairs, lay neglected, and that, now being grown old, he wrapped himself up with a res- olution to die for want of food ; which being by chance brought to Pericles's ear, he was horror-struck, and instantly ran thither, and used all the arguments and entreaties he could to him, lamenting not so much Anaxagoras's condition as his own, should he lose such a counsellor as he had found him to be ; and that, upon this, Anaxagoras unfolded his robe, and showing himself, made answer : " Pericles," said he, *' even those who have occasion for a lamp supply it with oil.' 'I'he Lacednemonians beginning to show themselves troub- led at the growth of the Athenian power, Pericles, on the other hand, to elevate the people's spirit yet more, and to raise them to the thought of great actions, proposed a decree, to summon all the Greeks in what part soever, whether of Eu- rope or Asia, every city, little as well as great, to send theii deputies to Athens to a general assembly, or convention, there to consult and advise concerning the Greek temples which the barbarians had burnt down, and the sacrifices which were due from them upon vows they had made to their gods for the safety of Greece when they fought against the barbarians,' and also concerning the navigation of the sea, that they might hi'uceforward all of them pass to and fro and trade securely and be at peace among themseivcs. rKRICLES. 153 Upon this errand there were twenty men, of such as: were above fifty years of age, sent by commission ; five to summon the lonians and Dorians in Asia, and the islanders as far as Lesbos and Rhodes ; five to visit all the places in the Helles- pont and Thrace, up to Byzantium ; and other five besides these to go to Boeotia and Phocis and Peloponnesus, and from hence to pass through the Locrians over to the neighboring continent as far as Acarnania and Ambracia ; and the rest to take their course through Euboea to the (Etasans and the Malian Gulf, and to the Achasans of Phthiotis and the Thes- Eaiians ; all of them to treat with the people as they passed, and to persuade them to come and take their part in the de- bates for settling the peace and jointly regulating the affairs of Greece. Nothing was effected, nor did the cities meet by their deputies, as was desired ; the Lacedfemonians, as it is said, crossing the design underhand, and the attempt being disap- pointed and baffled first in Peloponnesus. I thought fit, how- ever, to introduce the mention of it, to show the spirit of the man and the greatness of his thoughts. In his military conduct, he gained a great reputation for wariness; he would not by his good-will engage in any fight which had much uncertainty or hazard ; he did not envy the glory of generals whose rash adventures fortune favored with brilliant success, however they were admired by others ; nor did he think them worthy his imitation, but always used to say to his citizens that, so far as lay in his power, they should continue immortal, and live forever. Seeing Tolmides, the son of Tolmaius, upon the confidence of his former successes, and flushed with the honor his military actions had procured him, making preparations to attack the Boeotians in their own country wlien there was no likely opportunity, and that he had prevailed with the bravest and most enterprising of the youth to enlist themselves as volunteers in the service, who besides his other force made up a thousand, he endeavored to withhold him and to advise him from it in the public assem- bly, telling him in a memorable saying of his, which still goes about, that, if he would not take Pericles's advice, yet he would not CO amiss to wait and be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all. This saying, at that time, was but slightly commended ; but within a few days after, when news was brought that 'I'olmides himself had been defeated and slain in battle near Coronea, and that many brave citizens had fallen vvi!h him, it gained him great repute as well as good-wiU 254 PERICLES. among the people, for wisdom and for love of his country- men. But of all his expeditions, that to the Chersonese gave most satisfaction and pleasure, having proved the safety of the Greeks who inhabited there. For not only by carrying along with him a thousand fresh citizens of Athens he gave new strength and vigor to the cities, but also by belting the aeck of land, which joins the peninsula to the continent with bulwarks and forts from sea to sea, he put a stop to the inroads of the Thracians, who lay all about the Chersonese, and closed the door against a con'^nual and grievous Avar, with which that country had been long harassed, lying exposed to the encroachments and influx of barbarous neighbors, and groaning under the evils of a predatory population both upon and within its borders. Nor was he less admired and talked of abroad for his sailing around the Peloponnesus, having set out from Pegae, or The Fountains, the port of Megara, with a hundred gal- leys. For he not only laid waste the sea-coast, as Tolmides had done before, but also, advancing far up into the main land with the soldiers he had on board, by the terror of his appear- ance drove many within their walls ; and at Nemea, with main force, routed and raised a trophy over the Sicyonians, who jtood their ground and joined battle with him. And having taken on board a supply of soldiers into the galleys, out of Achaia, then in league with Athens, he crossed with the fleet to the opposite continent, and, sailing along by the mouth of the river Achelous, overran Acarnania and shut up the CEniadae within their city walls, and having ravaged and wasted their country, weighed anchor for home with the double advantage of having shown himself formidable to his enemies, and at the same time safe and energetic to his fellow- citizens ; for there was not so much as any chance miscarriage that happened, the whole voyage through, to those who were under his charge. Entering also the Euxine Sea with a large and finely equipped fleet, he obtained for the Greek cities any new ar- rangements they wanted, and entered into friendly relations wjtli them ; and to the barbarous nations, and kings and chiefs round aboTJt them, displayed the greatness of the powei of the Athenians, their perfect ability and confidence to sail wherever they had a mind, and to bring the whole sea under their control. He left the Sinopians thirteen ships of waj'i with soldiers under the command of Lamachus, to assist then? rERTCLES. 2.1,5 against Timesileus the tyrant ; and when he and his accom plices had been thrown out, obtained a decree that six hundred of the Athenians that were wilHng should sail to Sinope and plant themselves there with the Sinopians, sharing among them the houses and land which the tyrant and his party had previously held. But in other things he did not comply with the gidoy im- (K.!ses of the citizens, nor quit his own resolutions to follow •iieit fancies, when, carried away with the thought o\ theii strength and great success, they were eager to interfere again in Egypt, and to disturb the king of Persia's maritime do- minions. Nay, there were a good many who were, even then, possessed with that unblest and inauspicious passion for Sicily, which afterward the orators of Alcibiades's party blew up into a flame. There were some also who dreamt of Tus- cany and Carthage, and not without plausible reason in their present large dominion and prosperous course of their affairs But Pericles curbed this passion for foreign conquest, and unsparingly pruned and cut down their ever busy fancies for a multitude of undertakings ; and directed their power for the most part to securing and consolidating what they had alreatly got, supposing it would be quite enough for them to do, if they could keep the Lacedsemonians in check ; to whom he entertained all along a sense of opposition ; which, as upon many other occasions, so he particularly showed by what he did in the time of the holy war. The Lacedaemonians, having gone with an army to Delphi, restored Apollo's temple, which the Phocians had got into their possession, to the Delphians ; immediately after their departure, Pericles, with another army, came and restored the Phocians. And the Lacediemonians, having engraven the record of their privilege of consulting the oracle before others, which the Delphians gave them, upon the forehead of the brazen wolf which stands there, he, also, having received from the Phocians the like privilege for the Athenians, had it cut upon the same wolf of brass on his right side. That he did well and wisely in thus restraining the exertions of the Athenians within the compass of Greece, the events themselves that happened afterward bore sufificient witness. For, in the first place, the Eubaans revolted, against whom he passed over with forces ; and then, immediately after, news came that the Megarians were turned their enemies ; and a hostile army was upon the borders of Attica, under the con- duct of Plistoanax, king of the Lacedaemonians. Wherefore 256 PERICLES. Pericles carre with his army back again in all haste out ol Euboea, to meet the war which threatened at home ; and did not venture to engage a numerous and brave army eager for battle ; but perceiving that Plistoanax was a very young man, and governed himself mostly by the counsel and adv'ce of Cl'iandrides whom the ephors had sent with him, by reason of his youth, to be a kind of guardian and assistant to him, he privately made trial of this man's integrity, and, in a short time, having corrupted him with money, prevailed with him to withdraw the Peloponnesians out of Attica, When the army had retired and dispersed into their several states, the Lace- deemonians in anger fined their king in so large a sum of money, that, unable to pay it, he quitted Lacedsemon ; while Cleandrides fled, and had sentence of death passed upon him in his absence. This was the father of Gylippus, who over- powered the Athenians in Sicily. And it seems that this covetousness was an hereditary disease transmitted from father to son ; for Gylippus also afterwards was caught in foul prac- tices, and expelled from Sparta for it. But this we have told at large in the account of Lysander. When Pericles, in giving up his accounts of this expe- dition, stated a disbursement of ten talents, as laid out upon fit occasion, the people, without any question, nor troubling themselves to investigate the mystery, freely allowed of it. And some historians, in which number is Theophrastus the philosopher, have given it as a truth that Pericles every year used to send privately the sum of ten talents to Sparta, wiili which he complimented those in office, to keep off the war ; not to purchase peace neither, but time, that he might prepare at leisure, and be the better able to carry on war hereafter. Immediately after this, turning his forces against the revolters, and passing over into the island of Euboea with fifty sail of ships and five thousand men in arms, he reduced their cities, and drove out the citizens of the Chalcidiaiis, called HippobotfE, horse-feeders, the chief persons for wcaUh and reputation among them ; and removing all the Hislia^ans out of the country, brought in a plantation of Athenians in their room ; making them his one example of severity, because they had captured an Attic ship and killed all on board. After this, having made a truce between the Athenians and Lacedaemonians for thirty years, he ordered, by public decree, the expedition against the Isle of Samos, on the ground, that, when they were bid to leave off their war wiih the Milesians^ they had not complied. And as these measntes PERICLES. 257 against the Saniians are thought to have been taken to please Aspasia, this may be a fit point for inquiry about the woman, what art or cliarming faculty she had that enabled her to cap- tivate, as she did, the greatest statesmen, and to give the phi- losophers occasion to speak so much about her, and that, too, not to her disparagement. That she was a Milesian by birth, the daughter of Axiochus, is a thing acknowledged. And they say it was in emulation of Thargelia, a courtesan of the old Ionian times, that she made her addresses to men of great power. Thargelia was a great beauty, extremely charming^ and at the same time sagacious ; she had numerous suirors among the Greeks, and brought all who had to do with her over to the Persian interest, and by their means, being men of the greatest power and station, sowed the seeds of the Median faction up and down in several cities. Aspasia, some say, was courted and caressed by Pericles upon account of her knowl- edge and skill in politics. Socrates himself would sometimes go to visit her, and some of his acquaintance with him ; and those who frequented her company would carry their wives with them to listen to her. Her occupation M'as any thing but creditable, her house being a home for young courte sans, ^schines tells us also, that Lysicles, a sheep-dealerj a man of low birth and character, by keeping Aspasia company after Pericles's death, came to be a chief man in Athens. And in Plato's Menexenus, though we do not take the introduction as quite serious, still thus much seems to be historical, that she had the repute of being resorted to by many of the Athenians for instruction in the art of speaking, Pericles's inclination for her seems, however, to have rather proceeded from the passion of love. He had a wife that was near of kin to him, who had been married first to Hipponicus, by whom she had Callias, surnamed the Rich ; and also sh« brought Pericles, while she lived with him, two sons, Xanthip pus and Paralus. Afterwards, when they did not well agree, nor like to live together, he parted with her, with her own "cnsent, to another man, and himself took Aspasia, and loved ier with wonderful affection ; every day, both as he wenj out and as he came in from the market-place, he saluted and kissed her. in the comedies she goes by the nicknames of the ne\^ Omphale and Deianira, and again is styled Juno. OatinuSj in downright terms, calls her a harlot. To find him a Juno the goddess of lust Bore that harlot past shame, Aspasia by name. f58 PERICLES. It should seem also that he had a son by her ; Eupolis, in his Demi, introduced Pericles asking after nis safety, and Myronides replying, " My son ? " " He lives ; a man he had been long, But that the harlot-mother did him wrong." Aspasia, they say, became so celebrated and renowned, that Cyrus also, who made war against Artaxerxes for the Persian monarchy, gave her whom he loved the best of all his concu bines the name of Aspasia, who before that was called Mil to. She was a Phocjean by birth, the daughter of one Plermotimus, and, when Cyrus fell in battle, was carried to the king, and had great influence at court. These things coming into my memory as I am writing this story, it would be unnatural for me to omit them. Pericles, however, was particularly charged with having proposed to the assembly the war against the Samians, from favor to the Milesians, upon the entreaty of Aspasia. For the two states were at war for the possession of Priene ; and the Samians, getting the better, refused to lay down their arms and to have the controversy betwixt them decided by arbitration before the Athenians. Pericles, therefore, fitting out a fleet, went and broke up the oligarchical government at Samos, and taking fifty of the principal men of the town as hostages, and as many of their children, sent them to the isle of Lemnos, there to be kept, though he had offers, as some relate, of a talent apiece for himself from each one of the hostages, and of many other presents from those who were anxious not to have a democracy. Moreover, Pisuth- nes the Persian, one of the king's lieutenants, bearing some good-will to the Samians, sent him ten thousand pieces of gold to excuse the city. Pericles, however, would receive none of all this ; but after he had taken that course with the Samians which he thought fit, and set up a democracy among Ihem, sailed back to Athens, But they, however, immediately revolted, Pisuthnes hav- ing privily got away their hostages for them, and provided them with means for the war. Whereupon Pericles came out with a fleet a second time against them, and found them not idle nor slinking away, but manfully resolved to try for the dominion of the sea. The issue was, that after a sharp sea-fight about the island called Tragia, Pericles ob- tained a decisive victory, having with forty-four ships routed seventy of the enemy's, twenty of which were carrying- sol diers. PERICLES. 259 Together with liis victor}'' and pursuit, having made him- self master of the port, he laid siege to the Samians, and blocked them up, who yet, one way or another, still ventured to make sallies, and fight under the city walls. But after that another greater f^eet from Athens was arrived, and that the Samians were now shut up with a close leaguer on every side, Pericles, taking with him sixty galleys, sailed out into the main sea, with the intention, as most authors give the account (o meet a squadron of Phoenician ships that were coming foi I he Samians' relief, and to fight them at as great distance as could be from the island ; but as Stesimbrotus says, with a lesign of putting over to Cyprus ; which does not seem to be probable. But, whichever of the two was his intention, it seems to have been a miscalculation. For on his departure, Melissus, the son of Ithagenes, a philosopher, being at that time the general in Samos, despising either the small number of the ships that were left or the inexperience of the com- manders, prevailed with the citizens to attack the Athenians. And the Samians having won the battle, and taken several of the rrien prisoners, and disabled several of the ships, were masters of the sea, and brought into port all necessaries they wanted for the war, which they had not before. Aristotle says too, that Pericles had been once before this worsted by this Melissus in a sea-fight. The Samians, that they might requite an affront which had before been put upon them, branded the Athenians, whom they took prisoners, in their foreheads, with the figure of an owl. For so the Athenians had marked them before with a Samagna, which is a sort of ship, low and flat in the prow, so as to look snub-nosed, but wide and large and well-spread in the hold, by which it both carries a large cargo and sails well. And it was so called, because the first of that kind was seen at Samos, having been built by order of Polycrates the tyrant. These brands upon the Samians' foreheads, they say, are the allusion in the passage of Aristophanes, where he says, — For, oh, the Samians are a lettered people- Pericles, as soon as news was brought him of the disastei i.hat had befallen his army, made all the haste he could to come in to their relief, and having defeated Melissus, who bore up against him, and put the enemy to flight, he immedi- ately proceeded to hem them in with a wall, resolving to master them and take the town, rather with some cost and time than with the wounds and hazards of his citizens. But 26o PERICLES. as it was a hard matter to keep back the Atlieiiians, who were vexed at the delay, and were eagerly bent to fight, he divided the whole multitude into eight parts, and arranged by lot that that part which had the white bean should have leave to feast and take their ease while the other seven were fighting. And this is the reason, they say, that people, when at any time Ihcy have been merr}', and enjoyed themselves, called •; V. i'jite day, in allusion to this white bean. Ephorus the historian tells us besides, that Pericles made use of engines of battery in this siege, being much taken with the curiousness of the invention, with the aid and presence ol Artemon himself, the engineer, who, being lame, used to be carried about in a litter, where the works required his at- tendance, and for that reason was called Periphoretus. But Heraclides Ponticus disproves this out of Anacreon's poems, where mention is made of this Artemon Periphoretus several ages before the Samian war, or any of these occurrences. And he says that Artemon, being a man who loved his ease, and had a great apprehension of danger, for the most part kept close within doors, having two of his servants tO' hold a brazen shield over his head, that nothing might fall upon him from above ; and if he were at any time forced upon necessity to go abroad, that he was carried about in a little hanging bed, close to the very ground, and that for this rea- son he was called Periphoretus. In the ninth month, the Samians surrendering themselves and delivering up the town, Pericles pulled down their walls, and seized their shipping, and set a fine of a large sum of money upon them, part of which they paid down at once, and they agreed to bring in the rest by a certain time, and gave hostages for security. Duris the Samian, makes a trag- ical drama out of these events, charging the Athenians and Pericles with a great deal of cruelty, which neither Thucy- dides, nor Ephorus, nor Aristotle have given any relation of, and probably with little regard to truth ; how, for example, he tuought the captains and soldiers of the galleys into the ni.uket-place at Miletus, and there having bound them fast 'o boards for ten days, then, when they were already all but half d'jad, gave order to have them killed by beating out their brains with clubs, and their dead bodies to be Hung out into [he open streets and fields, unburied. Duris, however, who e\eu where he has no private feeling concerned, is not wont to keep his narrative within the limits of truth, is the more iiLely upon this occasion to have exaggerated the calamities PERICLES. 261 which befell liis country, lo create odium against the Athenians. Pericles, however, after the reduction of Samos, returning back to Athens, took care that those who died in the war should be honorably buried, and made a funeral harangue, as the custom is, in their commendation at their graves, foi which he gained great admiration. As he came down fron. the stage on which he spoke, the rest of the women came and complimented him, taking him by the hand, and crov/n- ing him with garlands and ribbons, like a victorious athletf in the games ; but Elpinice, coming near to him, said. *' These are brave deeds, Pericles, that you have done, and such as deserve our chaplets ; who have lost us many a worthy citizen, not in a war with Phoenicians or Medes, like my brother Cimon, but for the overthrow of an allied and kindred city." As Elpinice spoke these words, he, smiling quietly, as it is said, returned her answer with this verse, — Old women should not seek to be perfumed. Ion says of him, that upon this exploit of his, conquering the Samians, he indulged very high and proud thoughts of him- self : whereas Agamemnon was ten years a taking a barbarous city, he had in nine months' tiine vanquished and taken the greatest and most powerful of the lonians. And indeed it was not without reason that he assumed this glory to himself, for, in real truth, there was much uncertainty and great hazard in this great war, if so be, as Thucydides tells us, the Samian state were within a very little of wresting the whole power and dominion of the sea out of the Athenians' hands. After this was over, the Peloponnesian war beginning to break out in full tide, he advised the people to send help to the Corcyvaeans, who were attacked by the Corinthians, and to secure to themselves an island possessed of great naval resources, since the Peloponnesians were already all but in actual hostilities against them. The people readily consent- ing to the motion, and voting an aid and succor for them, he despatched Lacedaemonius, Cimon's son, having only ten •iiips with him, as it were out of a design to affront him ; foi there was a great kindness and friendship betwixt Cimon's family and the Lacedaemonians ; so, in order that Laceda?nio- nius might lie the more open to a charge, or suspicion at least, of favoring the Lacedaemonians and playing false, if he performed no considerable exploit in this service, he allowed him a small number of ships, and sent him out against his will ; and indeed he made it somewhat his business to hinder Z62 PERICLES. Cimon's sons from rising in the state, professing that by their very names they were not to be looked upon as native and true Athenians, but foreigners and strangers, one being called Lacedaemonius, another Thessalus, and the third Eleus ; and they were all three of them, it was thought, born of an Arca- dian woman. Being, however, ill spoken of on account oi these ten galleys, as having afforded but a small supply to the people that were in need, and yet given a great advantage to those who might complain of the act of intervention, Peri- cles sent out a larger force afterwards to Corcyra, which ar- rived after the fight was over. And when now the Corinth- ians, angry and indignant with the Athenians, accused them publicly at Lacedaemon, the Megarians joined with them, complaining that they were, contrary to common right and the articles of peace sworn to among the Greeks, kept out and driven away from every market and from all ports under the control of the Athenians. The ^ginetans, also, profess- ing to be ill-used and treated with violence, made supplica- tions in private to the Lacedaemonians for redress, though not daring openly to call the Athenians in question. In the mean time, also, the city Potidaea, under the dominion of the Athenians, but a colony formerly of the Corinthians, had re- volted, and was beset with a formal siege, and was a further occasion of precipitating the war. Yet notwithstanding all this, there being embassies sent to Athens, and Archidamus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, endeavoring to bring the greater part of the complaints and matters in dispute to a fair determination, and to pacify and allay the heats of the allies, it is very likely that the war would not upon any other grounds of quarrel have fallen upon the Athenians, could they have been prevailed with to repeal the ordinance against the Megarians, and to be reconciled to them. Upon which account, since Pericles was the man who mainly opposed it, and stirred up the people's passions to persist in their contention with the Megarians, he wa3 le- garded as the sole cause of the war. They say, moreover, that ambassadors went, by order, from Lacedaemon to Athens about this very business, and that when Pericles was urging a certain law which made it illegal to take down or withdraw the tablet of the decree, one of the ambassadors, Polyalces by name, said, " Well, do not take it down then, but turfi it ; there is no law, I suppose, which for- bids that ; " which, though prettily said, did not move Pericles from his resolution. There may have been, in all likelihood PERICLES. 263 something of a secret grudge and private animosity which he had against the Megarians. Yet, upon a public and optn charge against them, that they had appropriated part of the sacred land on the frontier, he proposed a decree that a her- ald should be sent to them, and the same also to the Laceda> monians, with an accusation of the Megarians ; an order which certainly shows equitable and friendly proceeding enough. And after that the herald who was sent, by name An- themocritus, died, and it was believed that the Megarians had contrived his death, then Charinus proposed a decree against them, that there should be an irreconcilable and implacable enmity thenceforward betwixt the two commonwealths ; ana that if any one of the Megarians should but set his foot in Attica, he should be put to death ; and that the commanders, when they take the usual oath, should, over and above that, swear that they will twice every year make an inroad into the Megarian country ; and that Anthemocritus should be buried near the Thriasian Gates, which are now called the Dipylon, or Double Gate. On the other hand, the Megarians, utterly denying and disowning the murder of Anthemocritus, throw the whole matter upon Aspasia and Pericles, availing themselves of the famous verses in the Acharnians, To Megara some of our madcaps ran, And stole Simaetha thence, their courtesan. Which exploit the Megarians to outdo, Came co Aspasia's house, and took off two. The true occasion of the quarrel is not so easy to find out. But of inducing the refusal to annul the decree, all alike charge Pericles. Some say he met the request with a posi- tive refusal, out of high spirit and a view of the state's best interest, accounting that the demand made in those embassies was designed for a trial of their compliance, and that a con- cession would be taken for a confession of weakness as if they durst not do otherwise ; while other some there are who ?a) that it was rather out of arrogance and a wilful spirit of cun- tent^on, to show his own strength, that he took occasion to slight the Lacedaemonians. The worst motive of all, which is confirmed by most witnesses, is to the following effect. Phidias the Moulder had, as has before been said, under- taken to make the statue of Minerva. Now he, being ad niitted to friendship with Pericles, and a great favorite of his had many enemies upon this account, who envied and ma 264 PERICLES. ligned him ; who also, to make trial in a case of his, what kind of judges the commons would prove, should there be oc- casion to bring Pericles himself before them, having tampered with Menon, one who had been a workman with Phidias, sta- tioned him in the market-place, with a petition desiring public security upon his discovery and impeachment of Phidias The people admitting the man to tell his story, and the pros- ecution proceeding in the assembly, there was nothing of theft or cheat proved against him ; for Phidias, from the very first beginning, by the advice of Pericles, had so wrought and wrapt the gold that was used in the work about the statue, that they might take it all off, and make out the just weight of it, which Pericles at that time bade the accusers do. But the reputation of his works was what brought envy upon Phidias, especially that where he represents the fight of the Amazons upon the goddesses' shield, he had introduced a likeness of himself as a bald old man holding up a great stone with both hands, and had put in a very fine representa- tion of Pericles fighting with an Amazon. And the position of the hand which holds out the spear in front of the face, was ingeniously contrived to conceal in some degree the like- ness, which meantime, showed itself on either side. Phidias then was carried away to prison, and there died of a disease ; but, as some say, of poison, administered by the enemies of Pericles, to raise a slander, or a suspicion at least, as though he had procured it. The informer Menon, upon Glycon's proposal, the people made free from payment of taxes and customs, and ordered the generals to take care that nobody should do him any hurt. About the same time, As- pasia was indicted of impiety, upon the complaint of Hermip- pus the comedian, who also laid further to her charge that she received into her house freeborn women for the uses ot Pericles. And Diopithes proposed a decree, that public ac- cusations should be laid against persons who neglected reli- gion, or taught new doctrines about things above, directing suspicion, by means of Anaxagoras, against Pericles himself. I'he people receiving and admitting these accusations and complaints, at length, by this means, they came to enact a decree, at the motion of Dracontides, that Pericles should bring in the accounts of the moneys he had expended, and lodge them with the Prytanes ; and that the judges, carrying their suffrage from the altar in the Acropolis, should examine and determine the business in the city. This last clause Hagnon took out of the decree, and moved that the causes PERICLES. 265 should be tried before fifteen hundred jurors, whether they sb.ould be styled prosecutions for robbery, or bribery, or any kind of malversation. Aspasia, Pericles begged off, shedding, as yEschines says, many tears at the trial, and personally en- treating the jurors. But fearing how it might go with Anaxag< oras. he sent him out of the city. And finding that in Phid ias's case he had miscarried with the people, being afraid of Impeachment, he kindled the war, which hitherto had lingered and smothered, and blew it up into a flame ; hoping, by that means, to disperse and scatter these complaints and charges, and to allay their jealousy ; the city usually throwing herself upon him alone, and trusting to his sole conduct, upon the urgency of great affairs and public dangers, by reason of his authority and the sway he bore. These are given out to have been the reasons which in duced Pericles not to suffer the people of Athens to yield to the proposals of the Lacedaemonians ; but their truth is un- certain. The Lacedaemonians, for their part, feeling sure that if they could once remove him, they might be at what terms they pleased with the Athenians, sent them word that they should expel the " Pollution " with which Pericles on the mother's side was tainted, as Thucydides tells us. But the issue proved quite contrary to what those who sent the mes- sage expected ; instead of bringing Pericles under suspicion and reproach, they raised him into yet greater credit and es- teem with the citizens, as a man whom their enemies most hated and feared. In the same way, also, before Archidanms, who was at the head of the Peloponnesians, made his inva- sion into Attica, he told the Athenians beforehand, that if Archidamus, while he laid waste the rest of the country, should forbear and spare his estate, either on the ground of friendship or right of hospitality that w^as betwixt them, or on purpose to give his enemies an occasion of traducing him ; that t.ien he did freely bestow upon the state all that his land and the buildings upon it for the public use. The Lacedai monians, therefore, and their allies, with a great arm)', in- vaded the Athenian territories, under the conduct of king Archidamus, and laying waste the country, marched on as far as Acharnae, and there pitched their camp, presuming that the Athenians would never endure that, but would come out and fight them for their country's and their honor's sake. Bat Pericles looked upon it as dangerous to engage in battle, to the risk of the ciir/ itself, against sixty thousand 266 PERICLES. men-at-arms of Peloponnesians and BoeotiahS ; for so many they were in number that made the inroad at first ; and he endeavored to appease those who were desirous to fight, and were grieved and discontented to see how things went, and gave them good words, saying, that " trees, when they are lopped and cut, grow up again in a short time, but men, being once lost, cannot easily be recovered." He did not convene the people into an assembly, for fear lest they should force him to act against his judgment ; but, like a skilful steersman or pilot of a ship, who, when a sudden squall comes on, out at sea, makes all his arrangements, sees that all is tight and fast, and then follows the dictates of his skill, and minds the business of the ship, taking no notice of the tears and en- treaties of the sea-sick and fearful passengers, so he, having shut up the city gates, and placed guards at all posts for se- curity, followed his own reason and judgment, little regarding those that cried out against him and were angry at his man- agement, although there were a great many of his friends that urged him with requests, and many of his enemies threatened and accused him for doing as he did, and many made songs and lampoons upon him, which were sung about the town to his disgrace, reproaching him with the cowardly exercise of his office of general, and the tame abandonment of every thing to the enemy's hands. Cleon, also, already was among his assailants, making use of the feeling against him as a step to the leadership of the people, as appears in the anapaestic verses of Hermippus. Satyr-king, instead of swords, Will you always handle words i* Very brave indeed we find them, But a Teles lurks behind them. Yet to gnash your teeth you're seen, When the little dagger keen. Whetted every day anew, Of sharp Cleon touches you. Pericles, however, was not at all moved by any attacks, but took all patiently, and submitted in silence to the disgrace ihey threw upon him and the ill-will they bore him ; and, sending out a fleet of a hundred galleys to Peloponnesus, he did not go along with it in person, but stayed behind, that he might watch at home and keep the city under his own control, till the Peloponnesians broke up their camp and were gone. Yet to soothe the common people, jaded and distressed with the war, he relieved them with distributions of public moneys, PERICLES. 26; and ordained new divisions of subject Ian. I. For having turned out all the people of ^gina, he parted the island among the Athenians, according to lot. Some comfort, also, and ease in their miseries, they might receive from what theii enemies endured. For the fleet, sailing round the Pelcpon- nnse, ravaged a great deal of the country, and pillaged and plundered the towns and smaller cities ; and by land he him- self entered with an army the Megarian country, and made havoc of it all. Whence it is clear that the Peloponnesians, though they did the Athenians much mischief by land, yet suffering as much themselves from them by sea, would not liave protracted the war to such a length, but would quickly have given it over, as Pericles at first foretold they would, had not some divine power crossed human purposes. In the first place, the pestilential disease, or plague, seized upon the city, and ate up all the flower and prime of their youth and strength. Upon occasion of which, the people, distempered and afflicted in their souls, as well as in their bodies, were utterly enraged like madmen against Pericles, and, like patients grown delirious, sought to lay violent hands on their physician, or, as it were, their father. They had been possessed, by his enemies, with the belief that the occasion of the plague was the crowding of the country people together into the town, forced as they were now, in the heat of the summer-weather, to dwell many of them together even as they could, in small tenements and stifling hovels, and to be tied to a lazy course of life within doors, whereas before they lived in a pure, open, and free air. The cause and author of all this, said they, is he who on account of the war has poured a multitude of people from the country in upon irs within the walls, and uses all these many men that he has here upon no employ or service, but keeps them pent up like cattle, to be overrun with infection from one another, affording them fieitBer shift of quarters no. any refreshment. Witli the design to remedy these evils, and do the enemy some incon/enience, Pericles got a hundred and fifty galleys ready, and having embarked many tried soldiers, both foot and horse, was about to sail out, giving great hope to his citi- zens, and no less alarm to his enemies, upon the sight of so great a force. And now the vessels having their complement of men, and Pericles being gone aboard his own galley, it happened that the sun was eclipsed, and it gi'ew dark on a sudden, to the affright of all, for this was looked upon as eX' irem.ely ominous. Pericles, therefore, perceiving the steers 268 PERICLES. man seized with fear and at a loss what to do, took his cloak and held it up before the man's face, and, screening him with it so that he could not see, asked him whether he imagined there was any great hurt, or the sign of any great hurt in this, and he answering No, " Why," said he, " and what does that differ from this, only that what has caused that darkness there, is something greater than a cloak ? " This is a story which philosophers tell their scholars. Pericles, however, after put ting out to sea, seems not to have done any other exploit be fitting such preparations, and when he had laid siege to the holy city Epidaurus, which gave him some hope of surrender miscarried in his design by reason of the sickness. For it not only seized upon the Athenians, but upon all others, too, that held any sort of communication with the army. Finding after this the Athenians ill affected and highly displeased with him, he tried and endeavored what he could to appease and re- encourage them. But he could not pacify or allay their anger, nor persuade or prevail witli them any way, till they freely passed their votes upon him, resumed their power, took away his command from him, and fined him in a sum of money; which, by their account that say least, was fifteen talents, while they who reckon most, name fifty. The name prefixed to the accusation was Cleon, as Idomeneus tells us ; Sim- mias, according to Theophrastus ; and Heraclides Ponticus gives it as Lacratidas. After this, public troubles were soon to leave him unmo- lested ; the people, so to say, discharged their passion in their stroke, and lost their stings in the wound. But his domestic concerns were in an unhappy condition, many of his friends and acquaintance having died in the plague time, and those of his family having long since been in disorder and in a kind of mutiny against him. For the eldest ( f his lawfully begot- ten sons, Xanthippus by name, being naturally prodigal, and marrying a young and expensive wife, the daughtherof Tisan- der, son of Epilycus, was highly offended at his father's econ- omy in making hirnTbut a scanty allowance, by little and little at a time. He sent, therefore, to a friend one day, and bor- rowed some money of him in his father Pericles's name, pre- tending it was by his order. The man coming afterward to demand the debt, Pericles was so far from yielding to pay it, that he entered an action against him. Upon which the young man, Xanthippus, thought himself so ill used and disobliged that he openly reviled his father ; telling first, by way of ridi- cule, stories about his conversations at home, and the dis- PERICLES. 26g courses he had with the sophists and scholars that came to his house. As for instance, how one who was a practiser oi the five games of skill, having with a dart or javelin unawares against his will struck and killed Epitimus the Pharsalian, his father spent a whole day with Protagoras in a serious dispute, Avhether the javelin, or the man that threw it, or the masters of the games who appointed these sports, were, according to the strictest and best reason, to be accounted the cause of this rnischar.ce. Besides this, Stesimbrotus tells us that it was Xanthippus who spread abroad among the people the infa- mous story concerning his own wife ; and in general that this difference of the young man's with his father, and the breach betwixt them, continued never to be healed or made up till his death. For XanthipjDus died in the plague time of the sickness. At which time Pericles also lost his sister, and the greatest part of his relations and friends, and those who had been most useful and serviceable to him in managing the affairs of state. Howe\er, he did not shrink or give in upon these occasions, nor betray or lower his high spirit and the greatness of his mind under all his misfortunes ; he was not even so much as seen to weep or to mourn, or even attend the burial of any of his friends or relations, till at last he lost his only remaining legitimate son. Subdued by this blow, and yet striving still, as far as he could, to maintain his prin- ciple, and to preserve and keep up the greatness of his soul, when he came, however, to perform the ceremony of putting a garland of flowers upon the head of the corpse, he was van- quished by his passion at the sight, so that he burst into ex- clamations, and shed \:opious tears, having never done any such thing in all his life before. The city having made trial of other generals for the con- duct of war, and orators for business of state, when they found there was no one who was of weight enough for such a charge, or of authority sufficient to be trusted with so great a com- mand, regretted the loss of him, and invited him again to ad- dress and advise them, and to reassume the office of general. He, however, lay at home in dejection and mourning ; but was persuaded by Alcibiades and others of his friends to come abroad and show himself to the people ; who having, upon his appearance, made their acknowledgments, and apologized for their untowardly treatment of him, he undertook the pub- lic affairs once more ; and, being chosen general, requested that the statute concerning base-born children, which he him- self had formerly caused to be made, might be suspended ; »70 PERICLES. that so the name and race of his family might not, for abso lute want of a lawful heir to succeed, be wholly lost and ex- tinguished. The case of the statute was thus : Pericles, when long ago at the height of his power in the state, having then, as has been said, children lawfully begotten, proposed a law that those only should be reputed true citizens of Athens who were born of such parents as were both Athenians. Aftei this, the king of Egypt having sent to the people, by way of present, forty thousand bushels of wheat, which were to be shared out among the citizens, a great many actions and suits about legitimacy occurred, by virtue of that edict ; cases which, till that time, had not been known nor taken notice of ; and several persons suffered by false accusations. There were little less than five thousand who were convicted and sold for slaves ; those who, enduring the test, remained in the government and passed muster for true Athenians were found upon the poll to be fourteen thousand and forty per- sons in number. It looked strange, that a law, which had been carried so far against so many people, should be cancelled again by the same man that made it ; yet the present calamity and dis- tress which Pericles labored under in his family broke through all objections, and prevailed with the Athenians to pity him, as one whose losses and misfortunes had sufficiently punished his former arrogance and haughtiness. His sufferings de- served, they thought, their pity, and even indignation, and his request was such as became a man to ask and men to grant ; they gave him permission to enroll his son in the register of his fraternity, giving him his own name. This son afterward, after having defeated the Peloponnesians at Arginusae, was, with his fellow-generals, put to death by the people. About the time when his son was enrolled, it should seem, the plague seized Pericles, not with sharp and violent fits, as it did others that had k, but with a dull and lingering dis- temper, attended with various changes and alterations, leisurely, by little and little, wasting the strength of his body, .ind undermining the noble faculties of his soul. So that Theophrastus, in his Morals, when discussing whether men's characters change with their circumstances, and their moral habits, disturbed by the ailings of their bodies, start aside from the rules of virtue, has left it upon record, that Pericles, when he was sick, showed one of his friends that came to visit him, an amulet or charm that the women had hung abou< PERICLES. 271 his neck ; as much as to say, that he was very sick indeed when he would admit of such a foolery as that was. When he was now near his end, the best of the citizens uiid those of his friends who were left alive, sitting about him, were speaking of the greatness of his merit, and his power, and reckoning up his famous actions and the number of hia victories ; for there were no less than nine trophies, which, as Iheir chief commander and conquen^r of their enemies, he had set up. for the honor of the city. They talked thus to- gether among themselves, as though he were unable to under- stand or mind what they said, but had now lost his conscious- ness. He had listened, however, all the while, and attended to all, and, speaking out among them, said that he wondered they should commend and take notice of things which were as much owing to fortune as to any thing else, and had hap- pened to many other commanders, and, at the same time, should not speak or make mention of that which was the most excellent and greatest thing of all. " For," said he, " no Athenian, through my means, ever wore mourning." He was indeed a character deserving our high admiration not only for his equitable and mild temper, which all along in the many affairs of his life, and the great animosities which he incurred, he constantly maintained; but also for the high spirit and feeling which made him regard it the noblest of all his honors that, in the exercise of such immense power, he never had gratified his envy or his pas->i(-*i, nor ever had treated any enemy as irreconcilably opposed to him. And to me it appears that this one thing gives that otherwise childish and arrogant title a fitting and becoming significance; so dispassionate a temper, a life so pure and unblemished, in the height of power and place, might well be called Olympian, in accordance with our conceptions of the divine beings, to whom, as the natural authors of all good and of nothing evil,we ascribe the rule and government of the world. Not as the poets rep- resent, who, while confounding us with their ignorant fancies, are themselves confuted by their own poems and fictions, and call the place, indeed, where they say the gods make their abode, a secure and quiet seat, free from all hazards and commotions, untroubled with winds or with clouds, and eCjUally through all lime illumined with a soft serenity and a pure light as though such were a home most agreeable for a blessed and immortal nature ; and yet, in the meanwhile, affirm that the gods themselves are full of trouble and enmity and anger and other passions, which no way become or be 3 72 FABIUS. long to even men that have any understanding. But this will perhaps, seem a subject fitter for some other consideration, and that ought to be treated of in some other place. The course of public affairs after his death produced a quick and speedy sense of the loss of Pericles. Those who, while he lived, resented his great authority, as that which eclipsed themselves, presently after his quitting the stage, making trial of other orators and demagogues, readily ac- knowledged that there never had been in nature such a dis' position as his was, more moderate and reasonable in the height of that state he took upon him, or more grave and im- pressive in the mildness which he used. And that invidious arbitrary power, to which formerly they gave the name of monarachy and tyranny, did then appear to have been the chief bulwark of public safety ; so great a corruption and such a flood of mischief and vice followed, which he, by keeping weak and low, had withheld from notice, and had prevented from attaining incurable height through a licentious impunity. FABIUS. Having related the memorable actions of Pericles, our history now proceeds to the life of Fabius. A son of Her cules and a nymph, or some woman of that country, who brought him forth on the banks of Tiber, was, it is said, the first Fabius, the founder of the numerous and distinguished family of the name. Others will have it that they were first called Fodii, because the first of the race delighted in digging pitfalls for wild beasts, ^/l.-Zifr.? being still the Latin for to dig, and/ossa for a ditch, and that in process of time, by the change of the two letters they grew to be called Fabii. But be these things true or false, certain it is that this family for a long time yielded a great number of eminent persons. Our Fabius, who was fourth in descent from that Fabius Rullus who first brought the honorable surname of Maximus into his family, was also, by way of personal nickname, called Verrucosus, from a wart on his upper lip ; and in his child- hood they in like manner named him Ovicula, or The Lamb, oti account of his extreme mildness of temper. His slowness 273 in speaking, his long labor and pains in learning, his deliber- ation in entering into the sports of other children, his easy submission to everybody, as if he had no will of his own. made those who judged superficially of him, the greater num- ber, esteem him insensible and stupid ; and few only saw that this tardiness proceeded from stability, and discerned the greatness of his mind, and the lionlikeness of his tempei, But as soon as he came into employments, his virtues exerted and showed themselves; his reputed want of energy then was recognized by people in general, as a freedom of passion ; his slowness in words and actions, the effect of a true pru- dence ; his want of rapidity and his s]"o;gishness, as con- stancy and firmness. Living in a great commonwealth, surrounded by many enemies, he saw the wisdom of inuring his body (nature's own weapon) to warlike exercises, and disciplining liis tongue for public oratory in a style conformable to his life and charac- ter. His eloquence, indeed, had not much of popular orna- ment, nor empty artifice, but there was in it great weight of sense ; it was strong and sententious, much after the way ot Thucydides. We have yet extant his funeral oration upon the death of his son, who died consul, which he recited before the people. He was five times consul, and in his first consulship had the honor of a triumph for the victory lie gained over the Ligurians, whom he defeated in a set battle, and drove them to take shelter in the Alps, from whence they never after made any inroad or depredation upon their neigh- bors. After this, Hannibal came into Italy, who, at his first entrance, having gained a great battle near the river Trebia, traversed all Tuscany with his victorious army, and, desolating the country round about, filled Rome itself with astonishment and terror. Besides the more common signs of thunder and lightning then happening, the report of several unheard of and utterly strange portents much increas- ed the popular consternation. For it was said that some targets sweated blood ; that at Antium, when they reaped their corn, many of the ears were filled with blood ; that it had rained red-hot stones ; that the Fa!erians had seen the heavens open and several scrolls falling down, in one of which was plainly written, " Mars himself stirs his arms." But these prodigies had no effect upon the impetuous and fiery temper of the consul Flaminius, whose natural prompt- ness had been much heightened by his late unexpected vie i8 2/4 KABIUS. tory over the Gauls, when he fought them cnntrar)- to the order of the senate and the advice of his colleague. Fabius on the other side, thought it not seasonable to engage with the enemy ; not that he much regarded the prodigies, which he thought too strange to be easily understood, though many were alarmed by them ; but in regard that the Carthaginians were but few, and in wanr of money and supplies, he deemed it best not to meet in the field a general whose army had been tried in many encounters, and whose object was a bat- tle, but to send aid to their allies, control the movements of the various subject cities, and let the force and vigor of Hannibal waste away and expire, like a Hame, for want of aliment. These weighty reasons did not prevail with Fianiinius, who protested he would never suffer the advance of the enemy to the city, nor be reduced, like Camillus in foriner time, to fight for Rome within the walls of Rome. Accord- ingly he ordered the tribunes to draw out the army into the field ; and though he himself, leaping on horseback to go out, was no sooner mounted but the beast, without any apparent cause, fell into so violent a fit of trembling and bounding that he cast his rider headlong on the ground, he was no ways deterred ; but proceeded as he had begun, and marched for- ward up to Hannibal, who was posted near the Lake Thrasy- mene in Tuscany. At the moment of this engagement, there nappen so great an earthquake, that it destroy several towns, altered the course of rivers, and carried off parts of high cliffs, yet such was the eagerness of the combatants, that they were entirely insensible of it. In this battle Flaminius fell, after many proofs of hi.s strength and courage, and round about him all the bravest of the army ; in the whole, fifteen thousand were killed, and as many made prisoners. Hannibal, desirous to bestow funeral honors upon the body of Flaminius, made diligent search after it, but could not find it among the dead, nor was it ever known what became of it. Upon the former engagement near Tre- bia, neither the general who wrote, nor the express who told the news, used straightforward and direct terms, nor related it otherwise than as a drawn battle, with equal loss on either side ; but on this occasion, as soon as Pomponius the praetor liad the intelligence, he caused the people to assemble, and, without disguising or dissembling the matter, told them plain ly, " We are beaten, O Romans, in a great batde ; the consul i"'laminius is killed ; think, therefore, what is to be done for FABIUS. 275 your safety." Letting loose his news like a gale of wind upon an open sea, he threw the city into utter confusion : in such consternation, their thoughts found no support or stay. The danger at hand at last awakened their judgments into a res- olution to choose a dictator, who by the sovereign authority of his office, and by his personal wisdom and courage, mighl be able to manage the public affairs. Their choice unan imously fell upon Fabius, whose character seemed ecual to the greatness of the office ; whose age was so far advanced as to give him experience, witliout taking from him the vigor of action ; his body could execute what his soul designed ; and his temper was a happy compound of confidence and cautious- ness. Fabius, being thus installed in the office of dictator, in the first place gave the command of the horse to Lucius Minu- cius ; and next asked leave of the senate for himself, that in time of battle he might serve on horseback, which by an an- cient law amongst the Romans was forbid to their generals ; whether it were, that, placing their greatest strengtli in their foot, they would have their commanders-in-chief posted amongst them, or else to let them know, that, how great and absolute soever their authority were, the people and senate were still their masters, of whom they must ask leave. Fabius, however, to make the authority of his charge more observable, and to render the people more submissive and obedient to him, caused himself to be accompanied with the full body ot four and twenty lictors ; and, when the surviving consul came to visit him, sent him word to dismiss his lictors with their fasces, the ensigns of authority, and appear before him as a private person. The first solemn action of his dictatorship was very fidy a religious one : an admonition to the people, that their late overthrow had not befallen them through want of courage in their soldiers, but through the neglect of divine ceremonies in the general. He therefore exhorted them not to fear the ei e- my, but by extraordinary honor to propitiate the gods. This he did, not to fill their minds with superstition, but by relig- ious feeling to raise their courage, and lessen their fear of the enemy by inspiring the belief that Heaven was on their side. With this view, the secret prophecies called the Sibyl- line Books were consulted ; sundry predictions found in them were said to refer to the fortunes and events of the time ; but none except the consulter was informed. Presenting himself to the people, the dictator made a vow before them to offei 276 FABIUS. in sacrifice the whole p'-oduct of the next season, all Italy over, of the cows, goats, swine, sheep, both in the mountain* and the plains ; and to celebrate musical festivities with an expenditure of the precise sum of 2,ZZ sestertia and 2,32> dena- rii, with one-third of a denarius over. The sum total of which is, in our money, 83,583 drachmas and 2 obols. What tl e mysteiy might be in that exact number is not easy to de lermine, unless it were in honor of the perfection of the num ber three, as being the first of odd numbers, the first that con tains in itself multiplication, with all other propert'es what- soever belonging to numbers in general. In this manner Fabius having given the people better heart for the future, by making them believe that the gods took their side, for his own part placed his whole confidence in himself, believing that the gods bestowed victory and good fortune by the instrumentality of valor and of prudence ; and thus prepared he set forth to oppose Hannibal, not with in- tention to fight him, but with the purpose of wearing out and wasting the vigor of his arms by lapse of time, of meeting his want of resources by superior means, by large numbers the smallness of his forces. With this design, he always en- camped on the highest grounds, where the enemy's horse could have no access to him. Still he kept pace with them ; when they marched he followed them ; when they encamped he did the same, but at such a distance as not to be compelled to an engagement, and always keeping upon the hills, free from the insults of their horse ; by which means he gave them no rest, but kept them in a continual alarm. But this his dilatory way gave occasion in his own camp for suspicion of want of courage ; and this opinion prevailed yet more in Hannibal's army. Hannibal was himself the only man who was not deceived, who discerned his skill and de- tected his tactics, and saw, unless he could by art or force hring him to battle, that the Carthaginians, unable to use the arms in which they were superior, and suffering the continual drain of lives and treasure in which they were inferior, would in the end come to nothing. He resolved, therefore, with all the arts and subtilties of war to break his measures, and to bring Fabius to an engagement ; like a cunning wrestler, watching every opportunity to get good hold and close with his adversary. He at one time attacked, and sought to dis- tract his attention, tried to draw him off in various directions, and endeavored in all ways to tempt him from his safe policy. All this artifice, though it had no effect upon the firm judg FABIUS. 277 merit and conviction of the dictator, yet upon the common sol- dier, and even upon the general of the horse himself, it had too great an operation : Minucius, unseasonably eager for action, bold and confident, humored the soldiery, and him- self contributed to fill them with wild eagerness and empty hopes, which they vented in reproaches upon Fabius, calling him Hannibal's pedagogue, since he did nothing else but fol- low him up and down and wait upon him. At the same time, they cried up Minucius for the only captain worthy to com- mand the Romans ; whose vanity and presumption rose so high in consequence, that he insolently jested at Fabius's en- campments upon the mountains, saying that he seated them there as on a theatre, to behold the flames and desolation of their country. And he would sometimes ask the friends of the general, whether it were not his meaning, by thus leading them from mountain to mountain, to carry them at last (hav- ing no hopes on earth) up into heaven, or to hide them in the clouds from Hannibal's army ? When his friends reported these things to the dictator, persuading him that, to avoid the general obloquy, he should engage the enemy, his answer was, " I should be more faint-hearted than they make me, if, through fear of idle reproaches, I should abandon my own convictions It is no inglorious thing to have fear for the safety of our country, but to be turned from one's course by men's opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation, shows a man unfit to hold an office such as this, which, by such con- duct, he makes the slave of those whose errors it is his busi- ness to control." An oversight of Hannibal occurred soon ofter. Desirous to refresh his horse in some good pasture-grounds, and to draw off his army, he ordered his guides to conduct him to the district of Casinum. They, mistaking his bad pronunciation, led him and his army to the town of Casilinum, on the fron- tier of Campania which the river Lothronus, called by the Remans Vulturnus, divides in two parts. The country around is enclosed by mountains, with a valley opening towards the sea, in wh'ch the river overflowing fornis a quantity of marsh land with deep banks of sand, and discharges itself into the sea on a very unsafe and rough shore. While Hannibal was proceeding hither, Fabius, by his knowledge of the roads, succeeded in making his way around before him, and de- spatched four thousand choice men to seize the exit from it and stop him up, and lodged the rest of his army upon the neighboring hilJs in the most advantageous places ; at the 278 FABIUS. same time detacliing a party of his lightest armed men to fall upon Hannibal's rear ; which they did with such success, thaf they cut off eight hundred of them, and put the whole army in disorder. Hannibal, finding the error and the danger he was fallen into, immediately crucified the guides ; but considered the enemy to be so advantageously posted, that there was 10 hopes of breaking through them ; while his soldiers began to be despondent and terrified, and to think themselves sur-^ rounded with embarrassments too difficult to be surmounted, Thus reduced, Hannibal had recourse to stratagem ; he caused two thousand head of oxen which he had in his camp, to have torches or dry fagots well fastened to their horns, and lighting them in the beginning of the night, ordered the beasts to be driven on towards the heights commanding the passages out of the valley and the enemy's posts ; when this was done, he made his army in the dark leisurely march after them. The oxen at first kept a slow orderly pace, and with their lighted heads resembled an army marching by night, astonishing the shepherds and herdsmen of the hills about. But when the fire had burnt down the horns of the beasts to the quick, they no longer observed their sober pace, but, un- ruly and wild with their pain, ran dispersed about, tossing their heads and scattering the fire round about them upon each other and setting light as they passed to the trees. This was a surprising spectacle to the Romans on guard upon the heights. Seeing flames which appeared to come from men advancing with torches, they were possessed with the alarm that the enemy was approaching in various quarters, and that they were being surrounded ; and, quitting their post, aban- doned the pass, and precipitately retired to their camp on the hills. They were no sooner gone, but the light-armed of Han- nibal's men, according to his order, immediately seized the heights, and soon after the whole army, with all the baggage, came up and safely marched through the passes. Fabius, before the night was over, quickly found out the (rick ; for some of the beasts fell into his hands ; but for fear of an ambush in the dark, he kept his men all night to theii arms in the camp. As soon as it was day, he attacked the enemy in the rear, where, after a good deal of skirmishing in the uneven ground, the disorder might have become general, but that Hannibal detached from his van a body of Spaniards, who, of themselves active and nimble, were accustomed to the climbing of mountains. These briskly attacked the Roman troops who were in heavy armor, killed a good many, and ieL' FABIUS. 279 Fabius i\o longer in condition to follow the eneiiiy. 7'liis ac- tion brought the extreme of obloquy and contempt upon the dictator ; they said it was now manifest that he was not only inferior to his adversary, as they had always thought, in cour- age, but even in that conduct, foresight, and generalship, by which he had proposed to bring the war to an end. And Hannibal, to enhance their anger against him, marched with his army close to the lands and possessions of Fabius, and, giving orders to his soldiers to burn and destroy all the country about, forbade them to do the least damage in the estates of the Roman general, and placed guards for their security. This, when reported at Rome, had the effect with the people which Hannibal desired. Their tribunes raised a thousand stories against him, chiefly at the instigation of Metilius, who, not so much out of hatred to him as out of friendship to Minucius, whose kinsman he was, thought by depressing Fabius to raise his friend. The senate on their part were also offended with him for the bargain he had made with Hannibal about the exchange of prisoners, the conditions of which were, that, after exchange made of man for man, if any on either side remained, they should be re- deemed at the price of tv/o hundred and fifty drachmas a head. Upon the whole account, there remained two hundred and forty Romans unexchanged, and the senate now not only refused to allow money for the ransoms, but also reproached Fabius for making a contract, contrary to the honor and in- terest of the commonwealth, for redeeming men whose coward- ice had put them in the hands of the enemy. Fabius heard and endured all this with invincible patience ; and, having no money by him, and on the other side being resolved to keep his word with Hannibal and not to abandon the captives, he despatched his son to Rome to sell land, and to bring with him the price, sufficient to discharge the ransoms ; which was punctually performed by his son, aud delivery accordingly made to him of the prisoners, amoagst whom many, when they were released, made proposals to repay the money; which Fabius in all cases declined. About this time, he was called to i<.ome by the priests, to assist, according to the duty of his office, at certain sacrifices, and was thus forced to leave the command of the army with Minucius ; but before he parted, not only charged him as his commander-in-chief, but besought and entreated him not to come, in his absence, to a battle with Hannibal. His com- mands, entreaties, and advice were lost apon Minucius , co; 28o FABIUS. his back was no sooner turned but the new general immedi- ately sought occasisons to attack the enemy. And notice being brought him that f lannibal had sent out a great party of his army to forage, he fell upon a detachment of the re- mainder, doing great execution, and driving them to their very camp, with no little terror to the rest, who apprehended their breaking in upon them ; and when Hannibal had re- called his scattered forces to the camp, he, nevertheless, without any loss, made his retreat, a success which aggravated his boldness and presumption, and filled the soldiers with rash confidence. The news spread to Rome, where Fabius, on being told it, said that what he most feared was Minucius's success ; but the people, highly elated, hurried to the forum to listen to an address from Metilius the tribune, in which he infinitely extolled the valor of Minucius, and fell bitterly upon Fabius, accusing him for want not merely of courage, but even of loyalty ; and not only him, but also many other eminent and considerable persons ; saying that it was they that had brought the Carthaginians into Italy, with the design to destroy the liberty of the people ; for which end they had at once put the supreme authority into the hands of a single person, who by his slowness and delays might give Hannibal leisure to establish himself in Italy, and the people of Carthage time and opportunity to supply him with fresh succors to complete his conquest. Fabius came forward with no intention to answer the tribune, but only said, that they should expedite the sacrifices, that so he might speedily return to the army to punish Minu- cius, who had presumed to fight contrary to his orders ; words which immediately possessed the people with the belief that Minucius stood in danger of his life. For it was in the power of the dictator to imprison and to put to death, and they feared that Fabius, of a mild temper in general, would be as hard to be appeased when once irritated, as he was slow to be provoked. Nobody dared to raise his voice in opposition ; Metilius alone, whose ofiice of tribune gave him security to say what he pleased (for in the time of a dictatorship that mag- istrate alone preserves his authority), boldly applied himself to the people in the behalf of Minucius : that they should not suffer him to be made a sacrifice to the enmity of Fabius, nor permit him to be destroyed, like the son of Manlius Torquatus, who was beheaded by his father for a victory fought and triumphantly won against order ; he exhorted them to take away from Fabius ihnf absolute power of a dictator, and to FABIUS. 281 put it into more worthy hands, better able and moie inclined to use it for the public good. These impri:ssions very much prevailed upon the people, though not so far as wholly to dispossess Fabius of the dictatorship. But they decreed that Minucius should have an equal authority with the dictator in the conduct of the war ; which was a thing then without pie- cedent, though a little later it was again practised after the disaster at Cannae ; when the dictator, Marcus Junius, being with the army, they chose at Rome Fabius Buteo dictator, that he might create new senators, to supply the numerous places of those who were killed. But as soon as, once acting in public, he had filled those vacant places with a sufficient number, he immediately dismissed his lictors, and withdrew from all his attendance, and mingling like a common persoti with the rest of the people, quietly went about his own affairs in the forum. The enemies of Fabius thought they had sufficiently humiliated and subdued him by raising Minucius to be his equal in authority ; but they mistook the temper of the man who looked upon their folly as not his loss, but like Diogeaes, who, being told that some persons derided him, made ar-swer, *' But I am not derided," meaning that only those were really insulted on whom such insults made an impression, so Fabius, with great tranquillity and unconcern, submitted to what happened, and contributed a proof to the argument of the philosophers that a just and good man is not capable of being dislionored. His only vexation arose from his fear lest this ill counsel, by supplying opportunities to the diseased military ambition of his subordinate, should damage the public cause. Lest the rashness of Minucius should now at once run head- long into some disaster, he returned back with all privacy and speed to the army ; where he found Minucius so elevated with his new dignity, that, a joint-authority not contenting him, he required by turns to have the command of the army every other day. This Fabius rejected, but was contented that the army should be divided ; thinking each general singly would better command his part, than partially command the whole. The first and fourth legion he took for his own divis- ion, the second and third he delivered to Minucius; so also of the auxiliary forces each had an equal share. Minucius, thus exalted, could not contain himself fiou boasting of his success in humiliating the high and powerful office of the dictatorship. Fabius quietly reminded him that it was, in all wisdom, Hannibal, and not Fabiua» whom he 282 FABIUS. had to combat , but if he must needs contend with his coi league, it had best be in diligence and care for the preserva- tion of Rome ; that it might not be said, a man so favored by the people served them worse than he who had been ill-treated and disgraced by them. The young general, despising these admonitions as the false humility of age, immediately removed with the body o{ his army, and encamped by himself. Hannibal, who was not ignorant of all these passages, lay watching his advantage from them. It happened that between his army and that of Minucius there was a certain eminence, which seemed a very advantageous and not difficult post to encamp upon ; the level field around it appeared, from a distance, to be all smooth and even, though it had many inconsiderable ditches and dips in it, not discernible to the eye. Hannibal, had he pleased, could easily have possessed himself of this ground ; but he had reserved it for a bait, or train, in proper season, to draw the Romans to an engagement. Now that Minucius and Fabius were divided, he thought the opportunity fair for his purpose ; and, therefore, having in the night time lodged a convenient number of his men in these ditches and hollow places, early in the morning he sent forth a small detachment, who, in the sight of Minucius, proceeded to possess themselves of the rising ground. According to his expectation, Minucius swallowed the bait, and first sends out his light troops, and after them some horse, to dislodge the enemy ; and, at last, when he saw Hannibal in person advancing to the assistance of his men, marched down with his whole army drawn up. He engaged with the troops on the eminence, and sustained their missiles ; the combat for some time was equal ; but as soon as Hannibal perceived that the whole army was now sufficiently advanced within the toils he had set for them, so that their backs were open to his men whom he had posted in the hollows, he gave the signal ; upon which they rushed forth from various quarters, and with loud cries furiously at- tacked Minucius in the rear. The surprise and the slaughter was great, and struck universal alarm and disorder through the whole army. Minucius himself lost all his confidence ,• he looked from officer to officer, and found all alike unpre- pared to face the danger, and yielding to a flight, which, how- ever, could not end in safety. The Numidian horsemen were already in full victory riding about the plain, cutting down the fugitives. Fabius was not ignorant of this danger of his countrymea FABIUS. 283 he 'loresaw what would happen from the rasliness of Mhiucius, and the cunning of Hannibal ; and, therefore, kept his men to their arms, in readiness to wait the event ; nor would he trust to the reports of others, but he iiimself, in front of his camp, viewed all that passed. When, therefore, he saw the army of Minucius encompassed by the enemy, and that by (heir countenance and shifting their giound, they appeared more disposed to flight than to resistance, with a great sigh, striking his hand upon his thigh, he said to those about him, " O Hercules ! how much sooner than I expected, though later than he seemed to desire, hath Minucius destroyed him self! " He then commanded the ensigns to be led forward, and the army to follow, telling them, "We must make haste to rescue Minucius, who is a valiant man, and a lover of his country ; and if he hath been too forward to engage the enemy, at another time we will tell him of it." Thus, at the head of his men, Fabius marched up to the enemy, and first cleared the plain of the Numidians ; and next fell upon those who were charging the Romans in the rear, cutting down all that made opposition, and obliging the rest to save themselves by a hasty retreat, lest they should be environed as the Romans had been. Hannibal, seeing so sudden a change of affairs, and Fabius, beyond the force of his age, opening his way through the ranks up the hill-side, that he might join Minucius, warily forbore, sounded a retreat, and drew off his men into their camp ; while the Romans on their part were no less contented to retire in safety. It is reported that upon this occasion Hannibal said jestingly to his friends : " Did not I tell you, that this cloud which always hovered upon the mountains would, at some time or other, come down with a storm upon us .'' " Fabius, after his men had picked up the spoils of the field, retired to his own camp, without saying any harsh or reproachful thing to his colleague ; who, also on his part, gathering his army together, spoke and said to them : " To coiiduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the • force of human nature ; but to learn and improve by the faults we have committed, is that which becomes a good and sensible man. Some reasons I may have to accuse fortune, but I have many more to thank her; for in a few hours she hath cured a long mistake, and taught me that I am not the man who should command others, but have need of another to command me ; and that we are not to contend for victory ovei those to whom it is our advantage to yield. Therefoie 284 FABIUS. in ever}' thing else henceforth the dictator must be yoin com mander ; only in showing gratitude towards him I will still be your leader, and always be the first to obey his orders." Having said this, he commanded the Roman eagles to move forward, and all his men to follow him to the camp of Fabius. The soldiers, then, as he entered, stood amazed at the novelty of the sight, and were anxious and doubtful what the mean- ing might be. When he cnme near the dictator's tent, Fabi.jsj went forth to meet him, on which he at once laid his stand- ards at his feet, calling him with a loud voice his father; while the soldiers with him saluted the soldiers here as their patrons, the term employed by freedmen to those who gave them their liberty. After silence was obtained, Minucius said, " You have this day, O dictator, obtained two victories ; one by your valor and conduct over Hannibal, and another by your wisdom and goodness over your colleague ; by one victory you preserved, and by the other instructed us ; and when we were already suffering one shameful defeat from Hannibal, by another welcome one from you we were re- stored to honor and safety. I can address you by no nobler name than that of a kind father, though a father's beneficence falls short of that I have received from you. From a father I individually received the gift of life ; to you I owe its pres- ervation not for myself only, but for all these who are under me." After this, he threw himself into the arms of the dicta- tor ; and in the same manner the soldiers of each army embraced one another with gladness and tears of joy. Not long after, Fabius laid down the dictatorship, and consuls were again created. Those who immediately suc- ceeded, observed the same method in managing the war, and avoided all occasions of fighting Hannibal in a pitched battle ; they only succored their allies, and preserved the towns from falling off to the enemy. But afterwards, when Terentiua Varro, a man of obscure birth, but very popular and bold, had obtained the consulship, he soon made it appear that by ■his rashness and ignorance he would stake the whole ccm^ monwealth on the hazard. For it was his custom to declaim in all assemblies, that, as long as Rome employed generals like Fabius, there never would be an end of the war ; vaunt- ing that whenever he should get sight of the enemy, he would that same day free Italy from the strangers. With these promises he so prevailed, that he raised a greater army than had ever yet been sent out of Rome. There were enlisted eighty-eight thousand fighting men ; but what gave confidence FABIUS. 285 to the populace, only terrified the wise and experienced, atui none more than Fabius ; since if so great a body, and the flower ol the Roman youth, should be cut off, tliey could not see any new resource for tiie safety of Rome. They ad- dressed themselves, therefore, to the other consul, ^milius Paulus, a man of great experience in war, but unpopular, and fearfu' also of the people, who once before upon some iin- peacbment had condemned him ; so that he needed encout- sgernent to withstand his colleague's temerity. Fabius told hnn, it he would profitably serve his country, he must no less oppose Varro's ignorant eagerness than Hannibal's conscious readiness, since both alike conspired to deride the fate of Rome by a battle. " It is more reasonable," he said to him, " that you should believe me than Varro, in matters relating to Hannibal, when I tell you that if for this year you abstain from fighting v.ith him, either his army will perish of itself, or else he will be glad to depart of his own will. This evidently appears, inasmuch as, notwithstanding his victories, none of the countries or towns of Italy come in to him, and his army is not now the third part of what it was at first." To this Paulus is said to have replied, " Did I only consider myself, I should rather choose to be exposed to the weapons of Han- nibal than once more to the suffrages of my fellow-citizens, who are urgent for what you disapprove ; yet since the cause of Rome is at stake, I will rather seek in my conduct to please and obey Fabius than all the world besides." These good measures were defeated by the importunity of Varro ; whom, when they were both come to the army, noth- ing would content but a separate command, that each consul should have his day ; and when his turn came, he posted his army close to Hannibal, at a village called Cannae, by the river Aufidus. It was no sooner day, but he set up the scarlet coat flying over his tent, which was the signal of battle. This boldness of the consul, and the numerousness of his army, double theirs, startled the Carthaginians; but Hannibal commanded them to their arms, and with a small train rode out to take a full prospect of the enemy as they were now forming in their ranks, from a rising ground not far distant. One of his followers, called Gisco, a Carthaginian of equal rank with himself, told him that the numbers of the enemy were astonishing; to which Hannibal replied with a serious countenance, " There is one thing, Gisco, yet more astonishing, which you take no notice of ; " and when Gisco inquired what, answered, that '' in all those great numbers» 286 KAIJIUS. before us, there is not one man called Cisco." This unex pected jest of their gen.eral made all the company laugh, and as they came down from the hill they told it to those whom they met, which caused x general laughter amongst them all, from which they were hardly able to recover themselves. The army, seeing Hannibal's attendants come back from viewing the enemy in such a laughing condition, concluded that it must be profound contempt of the enemy, that made Iheiv general at this moment indulge in such hilarity. According to his usual manner, Hannibal employed strata- gems to advantage himself. In the first place, he so drew up his men that the wind was at their backs, which at that time blew with a perfect storm of violence, and, sweeping over the great plains of sand, carried before it a cloud of dust over the Carthaginian army into the faces of the Romans, which much disturbed them in the fight. In the next place, all his best men he put into his wings ; and in the body which was some- what more advanced than the wings, placed the worst and the weakest of his army. He commanded those in the wings, that, when the enemy had made a thorough charge upon that middle advanced body, which he knew would recoil, as not being able to withstand their shock, and when the Romans in their pursuit, should be far enough engaged within the two wings, they should, both on the right and the left, charge them in the flank, and endeavor to encompass them. This appears to have been the chief cause of the Roman loss. Pressing upon Hannibal's front, which gave ground, they re- duced the form of his army into a perfect half-moon, and gave ample opportunity to the captains of the chosen troops to charge them right and left on their flanks, and to cut off and destroy all who did not fall back before the Carthaginian wings united in their rear. To this general calamity, it is also said, that a strange nu'stake among the cavalry much con- tributed. For the horse of ^milius receiving a hurt and throwing his master, those about him immediately alighted to aid the consul ; and the Roman troops, seeing their com- manders thus quitting their horses, took it for a sign thai they should all dismount and charge the enemy on foot. At tlie sight of this, Hannibal was heard to say, "This pleases me better than if they had been delivered to me bound hand and foot." For the particulars of this engagement, we refer our reader to those authors who have written at large upon the subject. The consul Varro, with a thin company, fled to Venusia ; PAEIUS. 287 /TCmilius Paulus, unable any longer to oppose the flight ol his men, or the pursuit of the enemy, his body all covered with wounds, and his soul no less wound'id with grief, sat himself down upon a stone, expecting the kindness of a despatching blow His face was so disfigured, and all his person so stained with blood, that his very friends and domestics passing by knew him not. At last Cornelius Len- lulus, a young man of patrician race, pe;ceiving who he was alighted from his horse, and, tendering it to him, desired hioi to get up and save a life so necessary to the safety of the coinmonwealth, which, at this time, would dearly want so great a captain. But nothing could prevail upon him to accept of the offer ; he obliged young Lentulus, with tears in his eyes, to remount his horse ; then standing up, lie gave him his hand, and commanded him to tell Fabius Maximus that ^milius Paulus had followed his directions to his very last, and had not in the least deviated from those measures which were agreed between them ; but that it was his hard fate to be overpov.-ered by Varro in the first place, and secondly by Hannibal. Having despatched Lentulus with this commission, he marked where the slaughter was'greatest, and there threw himself upon the swords of the enemy. In this battle it is reported that fifty thousand Romans were slain, four thousand prisoners tal eyes, and to disturb his very soul. Yet sometimes he would abandon himself to flatterers, when they proposed to him varieties of pleasure, and would desert Socrates ; who, then, would pursue him, as if he had been a fugitive slave. He despised every one else, and had no reverence or awe for anyone but him. Cleanthes the philosopher, speaking of one to whom he was attached, says his only bold on him was by his ears, while his rivals had all the others offei'ed them ; and there is no question that Alcibiades was very easily caught by pleasures; and the expression used by Thucydides about the excesses of his habitual course of living gives occasion to be- lieve so. But those who endeavored to corrupt Alcibiades, took advantage chiefly of his vanity and ambition, and thrust him on unseasonably to undertake great enterprises, persuad- ing him, that as soon as he began to concern himself in puDlic affairs, he would not only obscure the rest of the generals and 304 ALCIBIADE5. Statesmen, b Jt outdo the authority and the reputation which Pericles himself had gained in Greece. Bui''ia the same man- ner as iron which is softened by the fire grows hard with tlie cold, and all its parts are closed again ; so, as often as Soc- rates observed Alcibiades to be misled by luxury or pride, he reduced and corrected him by his addresses, and made him humble and modest, by showing him in how many things he was deficient, and how very far from perfection in virtue. When he was past his childhood, he went once to a grammar- school, and asked the master for one of Homer's books ; and he making answer that he had nothing of Homer's, Alcibiades gave him a blow with his fist, and went away. Another school- master telling him that he had Homer corrected by himself; " How } " said Alcibiades, " and do you employ your time in teaching children to read ? You, who are able to amend Homer, may well undertake to instruct men." Being once desirous to speak with Pericles, he went to his house, and was told there that he was not at leisure, but busied in considering how to give up his accounts to the Athenians ; Alcibiades, as he went away, said, " It were better for him to consider how- he might avoid giving up his accounts at all." Whilst he was very young, he was a soldier in the expedi- tion against Potidaea, where Socrates lodged in the same tent with him, and stood next to him in battle. Once there hap- pened a sharp skirmish, in which they both behaved with signal bravery ; but Alcibiades receiving a wound, Socrates threw himself before him to defend him, and beyond any question saved him and his arms from the enemy, and so in all justice might have challenged the prize of valor. But the generals appearing eager to adjudge the honor to Alcibiades, because of his rank, Socrates, who desired to increase his thirst after glory of a noble kind, was the first to give evidence for him, and ])ressed them to crown him, and to decree to him the complete suit of armor. Afterwards, in the battle of Delium, when the Athenians were routed, and Socrates with a few others was retreating on foot, Alcibiades, who was on horse- back, observing it, would not pass on, but stayed to shelter him from the danger, and brought him safe off, though the enemy pressed hard upon them, and cut off many. But this happened some time after. He gave a box on the ear to Plipponicus, the father of Callias, whose birth and wealth made him n person of great influence and repute. And this he did ur provoked by any passion or quarrel between them, but only because, in a froHc, AI.CTRIADES, 305 he had agreed with his companions to do it. People were justly offended at this insolence when it became known through the city ; but early the next morning, Alcibiades went to his house and knocked at the door, and being admitted to him, took off his outer garment, and presenting his naked body, desired him to scourge and chastise him as he pleased. Upon this Hipponicus forgot all his resentment, and not only par- doned iiim, but soon after gave him his daughter Hipparete in marriage Some say that it was not Hipponicus, but his son Callias, who gave Hipparete to Alcibiades, together with a portion of ten talents, and that after, when she had a child Alcibiades forced him to give ten talents more, upon pretence that such was the agreement if she brought him any children. Afterwards, Callias, for fear of coming to his death by his means, declared, in a full assembly of the people, that, if he should happen to die without children, the state should inherit his house and all his goods. Hipparete was a virtuous and dutiful wife, but, at last, growing impatient of the outrages done to her by her husband's continual entertaining of court- esans, as well as strangers as Athenians, she departed from him and retired to her brother's house. Alcibiades seemed not at all concerned at this, and lived on still in the same luxury ; but the law requiring that she should deliver to the archon in person, and not by proxy, the instrument by which she claimed a divorce, when, in obedience to the law, she presented herself before him to perform this, Alcibiades came in, caught her up, and carried her home through the market- place, no one daring to oppose him nor to take her from him. She continued with him till her death, which happened not long after, when Alcibiades had gone to Ephesus. Nor is this violence to be thought so very enormous or unmanly. For the law, in making her who desires to be divorced appear in public, seems ^o design to give her husband an opportunity of treating with her, and endeavoring to retain her. Alcibiades had a dog which cost him seventy muias, and v\'as a very large one, and very handsome. His tail, which was his principal ornament, he caused to be cut off, and his acquaintances exclaiming at him for it, and telling him that all Athens was sorry for the dog, aud cried out upon him for this action, he laughed, and said, " Just what I wanted has hap- pened then. I wished tl e Athenians to talk about this, that they might not say somelhing worse of me." It is said that the first time he came into the assembly was upon occasion of a largess of monc 7 which he made to 3o6 ALCIBIADES. the people. This was not done b}' design, but as he passed along he heard a shout, and inquiring the cause, and having learned that there was a donative making to the people, he went in amongst them and gave money also. The multitude thereupon applauding him, and shouting, he was so transport- ed at it, that he forgot a quail which he had under his robe, and the bird, being frighted with the noise, flew off ; upon which the people made louder acclamations than before, and many of them started up to pursue the bird ; and one An- tiochus, a pilot, caught it and restored it to him, for which bs was ever after a favorite with Alcibiades. He had great advantages for entering public life ; his noble birth, his riches, the personal courage he had shown in divers battles, and the multitude of his friends and depend- ents, threw open, so to say, folding doors for his admittance. But he did not consent to let his power with the people rest on anything, rather than on his own gift of eloquence. That he v.'as a master in the art of speaking, the comic poets bear him witness ; and the most eloquent of public speakers, in his oration against Midias, allows tliat Alcibiades, among other perfections, was a most accomplished orator. If, how- ever, we give credit to Theophrastus, who of all philosophers was the most curious inquirer, and the greatest lover of history, we are to understand that Alcibiades had the highest capacity for inventing, for discerning what was the right thing to be said for any purpose, and on any occasion ; but aiming not only at saying what was required, but also at saying it well, in respect, that is, of words and phrases, when these did not readily occur, he would often pause in the middle of his discourse for want of the apt word, and would be silent and :jtop till he could recollect himself, and had considered what to say. His expenses in horses kept for the public games, and in the number of his chariots, were matter of great observation ; never did any one but he, either private person or king, send seven charots to the Olympic games. And to have carried away at once the first, the second, and the fourth prize, as Thucydides says, or the third, as Euripides relates it, outdoes Ear away every distinction that ever was known or thought of in that kind. Euripides celebrates his success in this maU' ner : — " — But my song to you, Son of CI\nias, is clue Victory is noble ; how much more To do as fever Greek before ; ALCIBIADES. 307 To obtain in the great chariot race The first, the second, and third pla>.e ; With easy step advanced to fame, To bid the herald three times claim The olive for one victor's name." The emulation displayed by the deputations of various states in the presents which they made to him, rendered this sue cess yet more illustrious. The Ephesians euected a tent foi him, adorned magnificently ; the city of Chios furnished him with provender for his horses and with great numbers of beasts for sacrifice ; and the Lesbians sent him wine and other pro- visions for the many great entertainments which he made. Yet in the midst of all this he escaped not without censure, occasioned either by the ill-nature of his enemies or by his own misconduct. For it is said, that one Diomedes, an Athe- nian, a worthy man and a friend to Alcibiades, passionately desiring to obtain the victory at the Olympic games, and having heard much of a chariot which belong to the state at Argos, where he knew that Alcibiades had great power and many friends, prevailed with him to undertake to buy the chariot. Alcibiades did indeed buy it, but then claimed it for his own, leaving Diomedes to rage al him, and to call upon the gods and men to bear witness to the injustice. It would seem there was a suit at law commenced upon this occasion, and there is yet extant an oration concerning the chariot, written by Isocrates in defence of the son of Alcibiades. But the plaintiff in this action is named Tisias, and not Diomedes. As soon as he began to intermeddle in the government, which was when he was very young, he quickly lessened the credit of all who aspired to the confidence of the people, except Phaeax, the son of Erasistratus, and Nicias, the son of Nicera- tus, who alone could contest it with him. Nicias was arrived at a mature age, and was esteemed their first general. Ph'sax was but a rising statesmen like Alcibiades ; he was descended from noble ancestors, but was his inferior, as in many other thi'ngs, so, principally, in eloquence. He possessed rather the art of persuading in private conversation than of debate before the people, and was, as Eupolis said of him, " The best of talkers, and of speakers worst." There is extant an oration written by Phaeax against Alcibiades, in which, amongst other things, it is said, that Alcibiades made daily use at his table of many gold and silver vessels, which belonged to the commonwealth, as if they had been his own, There was a certain Hyperbolus, of the township of Peri 3o8 ALCIBIADES. thcedne, whom Thucydides also speaks of as a man of bad character, a general butt for the mockery of all the comic writers of the time, but quite unconcerned at the worst things tliey could say, and, being careless of glory, also insensible of shame; a temper which seme people call boldness and courage, whereas it is indeed impudence and recklessness. lie was liked by nobody, yet the people made frequent use of him, when they had a mind to disgrace or calumniate any persons in authority. At this time, the people, by his persua- sions were ready to proceed to pronounce the sentence of ten years' banishment, called ostracism. This they made use of to humiliate and drive out of the city such citizens as out- did the rest in credit and power, indulging not so much per- haps their apprehensions as their jealousies in this way. And when, at this time, there was no doubt but that the ostracism would fall upon one of those three, Alcibiades con- trived to form a coalition of parties, and, communicating his project to Nicias, turned the sentence upon Hyperbolus him- self. Others say, that it was not with Nicias, but Phaeax, that he consulted, and by help of his party, procured the banish- ment of Hyperbolus, when he suspected nothing less. For, before that time, no mean or obscure person had ever fallen under that punishment, so that Plato, the comic poet, speaking of Hyperbolus, might well say, " The man deserved the fate ; deny 't who can ? Yes, but the fate did not deserve the man ; Not for the like of him and his slave-brands Did Athens put the sherd into our hands." But we have given elsewhere a fuller statement of what is known to us of the matter. Alcibiades was not less disturbed at the dist ictions which Nicias gained amongst the enemies of Athens than at the honors which the Athenians themselves paid to him. For though Alcibiades was the proper appointed person to receive all Lacedaemonians when they came to Athens, and had taken particular care of those that were made prisoners at Pylos, yet, after they had obtained the peace and restitution of the captives, by the procurement chiefly of Nicias, they paid him very special attentions. And it was commonly said in Greece, that the war was begun by Pericles, and that Nicias made an end of it, and the peace was generally called the peace of Nicias. Alcibiades was extremely annoyed at this, and being full of en\'y, set himself to break the league. First therefore, observing that the Argives, as well out of fear as hatred to ALCIBIADES. 309 the Lacedsemonians, sought for protection against them, he gave them a secret assurance of alhance with Athens. And communicating, as well in person as by letters, with the chief advisers of the people there, he encouraged them not to fear the Lacedaemonians, nor make concessions to tliem, but to wait a little, and keep their eyes on the Athenians, who, already, were all but sorry they had made peace, and would soon give it up. And afterwards, when the Lacedaemonians had made a league with the Boeotians, and had not delivered up Panactum entire, as they ought to have done by the treaty, but only after first destroying it, which gave great offence to the people of Athens, Alcibiades laid hold of that opportunity to exasperate them more highly. He exclaimed fiercely against Nicias, and accused him of many things, which seemed probable enough : as that, when he was general, he made no attempt himself to capture their enemies that were shut up in the isle of Sphacteria, but, when they were afterwards made prisoners by others, he procured their release and sent them back to the Lacedaemonians, only to get favor with them ; that he would not make use of his credit with them, to prevent their entering into this confederacy with the Boeotians and Corinthians, and yet, on the other side, that he sought to stand in the way of those Greeks who were inclined to make an alliance and friendship with Athens, if the Lacedcemonians did not like it. It happened, at the very time when Nicias was by these arts brought into disgrace with the people, that ambassadors arrived from Lacedaemon, who, at their first coming, said what seemed very satisfactory, declaring that they had full powers to arrange all matters in dispute upon fair and equal terms. The council received their propositions, and the people was to assemble on the morrow to give them audience. Alcibiades grew very apprehensive of this, and contrived to gain a secret. conference with the ambassadors. When they were met, he said : " What is it you intend, you men of Sparta ? Can you be ignorant that the council always act with moderation and respect towards ambassadors, but that the people are full of ambition and great desings ? So that, if you let them know what full powers your commission gives you, they will urge and press you to unreasonable conditions. Quit, therefore, this indiscreet simplicity, if you expect to obtain equal terms from the Athenians, and would not have things extorted from you contrary to your inclinations, and begin to treat with the people upon some reasonable articles, not avowing yourselves 3 I O ALCIBIADES. plenipotentiai ies ; and I will be ready to assist von, out o( good-will to the Lacedaemonians." When he had said thus, he gave them his oath for the performance of what he prom- ised, and by this way drew them from Nicias to rely e^ntirely upon himself, and left them full of admiration of the dis- cernment and sagacity they had seen in him. The next day, when the people were assembled and the ambassadors i'ltro- riuced, Alcibiades, with great apparent courtesy, demanded of them, With what powers they were come? They made an swer Ihat they were not come as plenipotentiaries. Instantly upon that, Alcibiades, with a loud voice, as though he had received and not done the wrong, began to call them dishonest prevaricators, and to urge that such men could not possibly come with a purpose to say or do any thing that was sincere. The council was incensed, the people were in a rage, and Nicias, who knew nothing of the deceit and the imposture, was in the greatest confusion, equally surprised and ashamed at such a change in the men. So thus the La- cedaemonian ambassadors were utterly rejected, and Alcibi- ades was declared general, who presently united the Argives, tlie Eleans, and th« people of Mantinea, into a confederacy with the Athenians. No man commended the method by which Alcibiades ef fected all this, yet it was a great political feat thus to divide and shake almost -all Peloponnesus, and to combine so many men in arms against the Lacedaemonians in one day before Mantinea ; and, moreover, to remove the war and the danger so far from the frontier of the Athenians, that even success would profit the enemy but little, should they be conquerors, whereas, if they were defeated, Sparta itself was hardly safe. After this battle at' Matinea, the select thousand of the army of the Argives attempted to overthrow the government of the people in Argos, and make themselves masters of the city ; and the Lacedaemonians came to their aid and abolished the democ- racy. But the people took arms again, and gained the advan- tage, and Alcibiades came in to their aid and completed the victory, and persuaded them to build long walls, and by that means to join their city to the sea, and so to bring it wholly within the reach of the Athenian power. To this purpose he procured them builders and masons from Athens, and dis- played the greatest zeal for their service, and gained no less honor and power to himself than to the commonwealth oi Athens. He also persuaded the people of Patras to join their city to the sea, by building long walls ; and when some one ALCICIADES. '311 told them, by way of warning, that the Athenians would swal- low them up at last, Alcibiades made answer, " Possibly it may be so, but it will be by little and little, and beginning at the feet, whereas the Lacedaemonians will begin at the head and devour you all at once." Nor did he neglect either to ad\'ise the Athenians to look to their interests by land, and often put the young men in mind of the oath which they had made at Agraulos, to the effect that they would account wheat and barley, and vines and olives, to be the limits of Attica ; by which they were taught to claim a title to all land that was cultivated and productive. But with all these words and deeds, and with all this sa- gacity and eloquence, he intermingled exorbitant luxury and wantonness, in his eating and drinking and dissolute living j wore long purple robes like a woman, which dragged after him as he went through the market-place ; caused the planks of his galley to be cut away, that so he might lie the softer, his bed not being placed on the boards, but hanging upon girths. His shield, again, which was richly gilded, had not the usual ensigns of the Athenians, but a Cupid, holding a thunderbolt in his hand, was painted upon it. The sight of all this made the people of good repute in the city feel disgust and abhorrence, and apprehension also, at his free living, and his contempt of law, as things monstrous in themselves, and indicating designs of usurpation. Aristophanes has well expressed the people's feeling towards him : — " They love, and hate, and cannot do without him." And still more strongly, under a figurative expression, " Best rear no lion in your state, 'tis true ; But treat him like a lion if you do." The truth is, his liberalities, his public shows, and other mu- nificence to the people, which were such as nothing could ex- ceed, the glory of his ancestors, the force of his eloquence. the grace of his person, his strength of body, joined with his great courage and knowledge in military affairs, prevailed upon the Athenians to endure patiently his excesses, to indulge many things to him, and, according to their habit, to give the softest names to his faults, attributing them to youth and good nature. As, for example, he kept Agatharcus, the painter, a prisoner till he had painted his whole house, but then dis- missed him with a reward. He publicly struck Taureas, who exhibited certain sho\Vs in opposition to him and contended with him for the prize. He selected for himself one of tha 3 J 2 ALCIBIADES. captive Meiian women, and had a son by her, whom he took care to educate. This the Athenians styled great humanity and yet lie was the principal cause of the slaughter of all the inhabitants of the isle of Melos who were of age to bear arms, having spoken in favor of that decree. When Aristophon, the ])ainter, had drawn Nemea sitting and holding Alcibiadeg in her arms, the multitude seemed pleased with the piece, and thronged to see it, but older people disliked and disrelished it, and looked on these things as enormities, and movements towards tyranny. So that it was not said amiss by Ar- chestratus, that Greece could not support a second Alcibi- ades. Once, when Alcibiades succeeded well in an oration which he made, and the whole assembly attended upon him to do him honor, Timon the misanthrope did not pass slightly by him, nor avoid him, as did others, but purposely met him and taking him by the hand, said, " Go on boldly, my son, and in- crease in credit with the people, for thou wilt one day bring them calamities enough." Some that were present laughed at the saying, and some reviled Timon ; but there were others upon whom it made a deep impression ; so various was the judgment which was made of him, and so irregular his own character. The Athenians, even in the lifetime of Pericles, had al- ready cast a longing eye upon Sicily ; but did not attempt any thing till after his death. Then, under pretence of aiding their confederates, they sent succors upon all occasions to those who were oppressed by the Syracusans, preparing the way for sending over a greater force. But Alcibiades was the person who inflamed this desire of theirs to the height, and prevailed with them no longer to proceed secretly, and by little and little, in their design, but to sail out with a great fleet, and undertake at once to make themselves masters of the island. He possessed the people with great hopes, and he himself entertained yet greater ; and the conquest of Sici- ly, which was the utmost bound of their ambition, was but the mere outset of his expectation. Nicias endeavored to divert the people from the expedition, by representing to them that the taking of Syracuse would be a work of great difficul- ty ; b.it Alcibiades dreamed of nothing less than the conquest of Catharge and Libya, and by the accession of these con- ceiving himself at once made master of Italy and Peloponne- sus, seemed to look upon Sicily as little more than a magazine for the war. The young men were soon elevated with these hopes, and listened gladly to those of riper years, who talked ALCimADES. 3:3 wonders of the countries they were going to ; so that you might see great numbers sitting in the w-iestlitig grounds and public places, drawing on the ground the figure of the island and the situation of Libya and Carthage. Socrates the phi- losopher and Meton the astrologer are said, however, never to have hoped for any good to the commonwealth from this war ; the one, it is to be supposed, presaging what would eu- Bue, by the intervention of his attendant Genius ; and the other, either upon rational consideration of the project or by use of the art of divination, conceived fears for its issue, and, feigning madness, caught up a burning torch, and seemed as if he would have set his own house on fire. Others report, that he did not take upon him to act the madman, but secret- ly in the night set his house on fire, and the next morning be- sought the people, that for his comfort, after such a calamity, they would spare his son from the expedition. By which ar- tifice, he deceived his fellow-citizens, and obtained of them what he desired. Together with Alcibiades, Nicias, much against his will, was appointed general : and he endeavored to avoid the command, not the less on account of his colleague. But the Athenians thought the war would proceed more prosper- ously, if they did not send Alcibiades free from all restraint, but tempered his heat with the caution of Nicias. This they chose the rather to do, because Lamachus, the third general, though he was of mature years, yet in several battles had ap- peared no less hot and rash than Alcibiades himself. When they began to deliberate of the number of forces, and of the manner of making the necessary provisions, Nicias made another attempt to oppose the design, and to prevent the war; but Alcibiades contradicted him, and carried his point with the people. And one Demostratus, an orator, propos- ing to give the generals absolute power over the preparations and the whole management of the war, it was presently de- creed so. When all things were fitted for the voyage, many "anlucky omens appeared. At that very time the feast of Adonis happened in which the women were used to expose, in all parts of the city, images resembling dead men carried out to their burial, and to represent funeral solemnities by la- mentations and mournful songs. The mutilation, however, of the images of Mercury, most of which, in one night, had their faces all disfigured, terrified many persons who were wont to despise most things' of that nature. It was given out that it was done by the Corinthians, for the sake of the Syracusans, who 314 ALCIBIADES. were their colony, in hopes that the Athenians, by such prodi gies,might be induced to delay or abandon the war. But the re- port gained no credit with the people, nor 3'et the opinion of those who would not believe that there was any thing ominous in the matter, but that it was only an extravagant action, commit- ted, in that sort of sport which runs into license, by wild young men coming from a debauch. Alike enraged and terrified at the thing, looking upon it to proceed from a conspiracy of per- r;onswho designed some commotions in the state, the council, as well as the assembly of the people, whick was held fre- quently in a few days' space, examined diligently every thiT'}» that might administer ground for suspicion. During this ex- amination, Androcles, one of the demagogues, produced cer- tain slaves and strangers before them, who' accused Alcibiades and some of his friends of defacing other images in the same manner, and of having profanely acted the sacred mysteries at a drunken meeting, where one Theodoras represented the herald, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Alcibiades the chief priest, while the rest of the party appeared as candidates for initiation, and received the title of Initiates. These were the matters contained in the articles of information, which Thes salus, the son of Cimon, exhibited against Alcibiades, for his impious mockery of the goddesses, Ceres and Proserpine. The people were highly exasperated and incensed against Alcibiades upon this accusation, which being aggravated by Androcles, the most malicious of all his enemies, at first dis turbed his friends exceedingly. But when they perceived that all the seamen designed for Sicily were for him, and the soldiers also, and when the Argive and Mantinean auxiliaries, a thousand men at arms, openly declared that they had un- dertaken this distant maritime expedition for the sake of Alcibiades, and that, if he was ill used, they would all go home, they recovered their courage, and became eager to make use of the present opportunity for justifying him. At this his enemies were again discouraged, fearing lest the people should be more gentle to him in their sentence, be- cause cf the occasion they had for his service. Therefore, to obviate this, they contrived that some other orators, who did not appear to be enemies to Alcibiades, but really hated him no less than those who avowed it, should stand up in the as sembly and say, that it was a very absurd thing that one who was created general of such an army with absolute power, after his troo])s were assembled, and the confederates were come, should lose the opportunity, whilst the people were Al.Cir.IADES. 315 chcK)sing his judges by 5ot, and appointing times for the hear- ing of the cause. And, therefore, let him set sail at once , good fortune attend him ; and when the war should be at an end, he might then in person make his defence according to the laws. Alcibiades perceived the nmlice of this postponement, and, appearing in the assembly, represented that it was monstrous for him to be sent with the command of so large an army, when he lay under such accusations and calumnies ; that he deserved to die, if he could not clear himself of the crimes ob- jected to him ; but when he had so done, and had proved his innocence, he should then cheerfully apply himself to the war, as standing no longer in fear of false accusers. But he could not prevail with the people, who commanded him to sail im- mediately. So he departed, together with the other generals, having with them near 140 galleys, 5,100 men at arms, and about 1,300 archers, slingers and light-armed men, and all the other provisions corresponding. Arriving on the coast of Italy, he landed at Rhegium, and there stated his views of the manner in which they ought to conduct the war. He was opposed by Nicias ; but La- machus being of his opinion, they sailed for Sicily forthwith, and took Catana. This was all that was done while he was there, for he was soon after recalled by the Athenians to abide his trial. At first, as we before said, there were only some slight suspicions advanced against Alcibiades, and ac- cusations by certain slaves and strangers. But afterwards, in his absence, his enemies attacked him more violently, and confounded together the breaking the images with the pro- fanation of the mysteries, as though both had been committed in pursuance of the same conspiracy for changing the govern- ment. The people proceeded to imprison all that were ac- cused, without distinction, and without hearing them, and re- pented now, considering the importance of the charge, that chey had not immediately brought Alcibiades to his trial, and given judgment against him. Any of his friends or acquaint- ance who fell into the people's hands, whilst they were in this t'ury, did not fail to meet with very severe usage. Thucydides has omitted to name the informers, but others mention Dio- elides and Teucer. Amongst whom is Phrynichus, the comic poet, in whom we find the following : — " O dearest Hermes ! only do take care, And mind you do not miss your footing there ; Should you get hurt, occasion may arise For a new Dioclides to tell I'.es." 3l6 ALCIBIADES. To which he makes Mercury return this answer : — "I will so, for I feel no inclination T J reward Teucer for m ore information." The truth is, his accusers alleged nothing that was certaia or solid against him. One of them, being asked how he knew the men who defaced the images, replying, that he saw them by the light of the moon, made a palpable mis-state- ment, for it was just new moon when the fact was committed This made all men of understanding cry, out upon the thing j but the people were as eager as ever to receive further ac- cusations, nor was their first heat at all abated, but they in- stantly seized and imprisoned every one that was accused. Amongst those who were detained in prison for their trials was Andocides the orator, whose descent the historian Hel- lanicus deduces from Ulysses. He was always supposed to hate popular government, and to support oligarchy. The chief ground of his being suspected of defacing the images was because the great Mercury, which stood near his house, and was an ancient monument of the tribe ^geis, was almost the only statue of all the remarkable ones, which remained entire. For this cause, it is now called the Mercury of Andocides, all men giving it that name, though the inscrip- tion is evidence to the contrary. It happened that Ando- cides, amongst the rest who where prisoners upon the same account, contracted particular acquaintance and intimacy with one Timceus, a person infe ior to him in repute, but of remarkable dexterity and boldness. He persuaded Andoci- des to accuse himself and some few others of this crime, urging to him that, upon his confession, he would be, by the decide of the people, secure of his pardon, whereas the event of judgment is uncertain to all men, but to great persons, such as he was, most formidable. So that it was better for him, if he regarded himself, to save his life by a falsity, than to suffer an infamous death, as really guilty of the crime. And if he had regard to the public good, it was comnienda- ble to sacrifice a few suspected men, by that means to rescue many excellent persons from the fury of the people. Ando- cides was prevailed upon, and accused himself and sonie others, and, by the terms of the decree, obtained his pardon, while all the persons named by him, except some few who had saved themselves by flight, suffered death. To gain the greater credit to his information, he accused his own ser- vants amongst others. But notwithstanding this, the people's ALCIBIADES. 31) anger was not m holly appeased ; and being now no longer diverted by the mutilators, they were at leisure to pour out their whole rage upon Alcibiades. And, in conclusion, they '.-.ent the galley named Salaminian, to recall him. But they expressly commanded those that were sent, to use no vio- lence, nor seize upon his person, but address themselves to him ir the mildest terms, requiring him to follow them to Athens in order to abide his trial, and clear himself before the people. For they feared mutiny and sedition in the army in an enemy's countiy, which indeed it would have been easy for Alcibiades to effect, if he had wished it. For the soldiers were dispirited upon his departure, expecting for the future tedious delays, and that the war would be drawn out into a lazy length by Nicias, when Alcibiades, who was the spur to action, was taken away. For though Lamachus was a soldier, and a man courage, poverty deprived him of authority and respect in the army. Alcibia- des, just upon his departure, prevented Messena from falling into the hands of the Athenians. There were some in tha*" city who were upon the point of delivering it up, but he, knowing the persons, gave information to some friends of the Syracusans, and so defeated the whole contrivance. When he arrived at Thurii, he went on shore, and concealing him- self there, escaped those who searched after him. But to one who knew him, and asked him if he durst not trust his own native country, he made answer, " In every thing else, yes ; but in a matter that touches my life, I would not even my own mother, lest she might by mistake throw in the black ball instead of the white." When, afterwards, he was told that the assembly had pronounced judgment of death against him, all he said was, " I will make them feel that I am alive." The information against him was conceived in this form :— " Thessalus, the son of Cimon, of the township of Lacia, lays iiiformation that Alcibiades, the son of Clinias of the township of the Scambonidas, has committed a crime against the goddess Ceres and Proserpine, by representing in derision the holy mysteries, and showing them to his companions in Ins own house. Where, being habited in such robes as are used by the chief priest when he shows the holy things, he tiamed himself the chief priest, Polytion the torch-bearer, and Theodorus, of the township of Phega^a, the hera-ld ; and salu- ted the rest of his company as Initiates and Novices, all which was done contrary to the laws and institutions of the Eumol- pidae, and the heralds and priests of the temple at Eleusis." 3l8 ALCIBIADES. He was condemned as contumacious upon his not ap- f>earing, his property confiscated, and it was decreed that all the priests and priestesses should solemnly curse him. But one of them, Theano, the daughter of Mencn, of the township of Agraule, is said to have opposed that part of the decree saying that her holy office obliged her to make prayers, bill not erecrations. Alcibiades, lying under these heavy decrees and sentences, 5vhen first he fled from Thurii, passed over into Peloponnesus and remained some time at Argos. But being there in fear of his enemies, and seeing himself utterly hopeless of return to his native country, he sent to Sparta, desiring safe conduct, and assuring them that he would make them amends by his future services for all the mischief he had done them while he vms their enemy. The Spartans giving him the security he Jesired, he went eagerly, was well received, and, at his very first coming, succeeded in inducing them, without any further caution or delay, to send aid to the Syracusans ; and so roused and excited them, that they forthwith despatched Gylippus into Sicily to crush the forces which the Athenians had in Sicily. A second point was to renew the war upon the Athenians at home. But the third thing, and the most im- portant of all, was to make them fortify Decelea, which above every thing reduced and wasted the resources of the Athe- nians, The renown which he earned by these public services was equalled by the admiration he attracted to his private life ; he captivated and won over everybody by his conformity to Spartan habits. People who saw him wearing his hair close cut, bathing in cold water, eating coarse meal, and dining on black broth, doubted, or rather could not believe, that he ever had a cook in his house, or had ever seen a perfumer, or had worn a mantle of Milesian purple. For he had, as it was observed, this peculiar talent and artifice for gaining men's affections, that he could at once comply with and really em- biacc and enter into their habits and ways of life, and change faster than the chameleon. One color, indeed, they say the chameleon cannot assume ; it cannot make itself appear white ; but Alcibiades, whether with gocd men or with bad, could adapt himself to his company, and equally wear the appearance of virtue or vice. At Sparta, he was devoted to nthletic exercises, was frugal and reserved ; in Ionia, luxuri- ous, gay, and indolent ; in Thrace, always drinking ; in Thes- saly, iivtr on horseback ; and when he lived with Tisaphernes ALCIBIADES. 319 the Persian satrap, he exceeded the Persians themselves in magnificence and pomp. Not that his natural disposition changed so easily, nor that his real character was so variable, but. whenever he was sensible that by pursuing his own inclinations he might give offence to those with whom he had occasion to converse, he transformed himself into any shapf*, and adopred any fashion, that he observed to be most agree- able to them. So that to have seen him at Lacedoemon, a man, judging by the outward appearance, would have said, " Tis not Achilles's, son, but he himself ; the very man " that Lycurgus designed to form ; while his real feeling and acts vi'ould have rather provoked the exclamation, " 'Tis the same woman still." For while king Agis was absent, and abroad with the army, he corrupted his wife Timaea, and had a child born by her. Nor did she even deny it, but when she was brought to bed of a son, called him in public Leotychides, but, amongst her confidants and attendants, would whisper that his name was Alcibiades. To such a degree was she transported by her passion for him. He, on the other side, would say, in his vain way, he had not done this thing out of mere wantonness of insult, nor to gratify a passion, but that his race might one clay be kings over the Lacedaemonians. There were many who told Agis that this was so, but time itself gave the greatest confirmation to the story. For Agis, alarmed by an earthquake, had quitted his wife, and for ten months after was never with her ; Leotychides, therefore, being born after these ten months, he would not acknowledge him for his son ; which was the reason that afterwards he was not admitted to the succession. After the defeat which the Athenians received in Sicily, ambassadors were despatched to Sparta at once from Chios and Lesbos and Cyzicus, to signify their purpose of revolting from the Athenians. The Bteotians interposed in favor o£ the Lesbians, and Pharnabazus of the Cyzicenes, but the Lacedaemonians, at the persuasion of Alcibiades, chose to assist Chios before all others. He himself, also, went in- stantly to sea, procured the immediate revolt of almost all Ionia, and, cooperating with the Lacedaemonian generals, did great mischief to the Athenians. But Agis was his enemy, hating him for having dishonored his wife, and also impatient of his glory, as almost every enterprise and every success was ascribed to Alcibiades. Others, also, of the most powerful and ambitious amongst the Spartans, were possessed with jealousy of him, and at last, prevailed with the magistrates in 326 ALCiniADES. ♦■he city to send orders into Ionia that he should be killed. Alcibiades, however, had secret intelligence of this, and in apprehension of the result, while he communicated all affairs to the Lacedasmonians, yet took care not to put himself into their power. At last he retired to Tisaphernes, the king of Persia's satrap, for his security, and immediately became the first and most influential person about him. For this bar- barian, not being himself sincere, but a lover of guile and wickedness, admired his address end wonderful subtlety. And, indeed, the charm of daily intercourse with him was more than any character could resist or any disposition escape. Even those who feared and envied him could not but take delight, and have a sort of kindness for him, when they saw him and were in his company. So that Tisaphernes, other- wise a cruel character, and, above all other Persians, a hater of the Greeks, was yet so won by the flatteries of Alcibiades, that he set himself even to exceed him in responding to them. The most beautiful of his parks, containing salubrious streams and meadows, where he had built pavilions, and places of retirement royally and exquisitely adorned, received by his direction the name of Alcibiades, and was always so called and so spoken of. Thus Alcibiades, quitting the interests of the Spartans, whom he could no longer trust, because he stood in fear of Agis, endeavored to do them ill offices, and render them odious to Tisaphernes, who by his means, was hindered from assisting them vigorously, and from finally ruining the Athe- nians. For his advice was to furnish thern but sparingly with money, and so wear them out, and consume them msensibly ; when they had wasted their strength upon one another, they would both become ready to submit to the king. Tisaphernes readily pursued his counsel, and so openly expressed the liking and admiration which he had for him, that Alcibiades was looked up to by the Greeks of both parties, and the Athenians, now in their misfortunes, repented them of their severe sentence against him. And he, on the other side, began to be troubled for them, and to fear lest, if that com- monwealth were utterly destroyed, he should fall into the hands of the Lacedemonians, his enemies. At that time the whole strength of the Athenians was in Samos. Their fleet maintained itself here, and issued from these head-quarters to reduce such as had revolted, and pro- tect the rest of their territories ; in one way or other still contriving to be a match for their enemies at sea. What ALCIBIADES. 32 1 ^hey stood :.i f-iar of was Tisaphernes and the Phnenician fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, which was said to be already under sail ; if those came, there remained then no hopes for the commonwealth of Athens. Understanding this, Alcibiades sent secretly to the chief men of the Athenian'-, who were then at Samos, giving them hopes that he woull make Tisaphernes their friend ; he was willing, he implied, to do some favor, not to the people, nor in reliance upon them, but to the better citizens, if only, lil e brave men, they A^ould make the attempt to put down the insolence of the people, and, by taking upon them the government, would en- cfeavor to save the city from ruin. All of them gave a ready ear to the proposal made by Alcibiades, except: only Phryni- chus, of the township of Dirades, one of the generals, who suspected, as the truth was, that Alcibiades concerned not himself whether the government were in the people or the better citizens, but only sought by anj'^ means to make way for his return into his native country, and to that end inveighed against the people, thereby to gain the others, and to insinu- ate himself into their good opinion. But when Phrjaiichus found his counsel to be rejected and that he was himself become a declared enemy of Alcibiades, he gave secret intel- ligence to Astyochus, the enemy's admiral, cautioning him to beware of Alcibiades and to seize him as a double dealer, unaware that one traitor was making discoveries to another. For Astyochus, who was eager to gain the favor of Tisapher- nes, observing the credit Alcibiades had with him, revealed to Alcibiades all that Phrynichus had said against him. Alcibiades at once despatched messengers to Samos, to accuse Phrynichus of the treachery. Upon this, all the commanders were enraged with Phrynichus, and set themselves against him, and he, seeing no other way to extricate himself from the present danger, attempted to remedy one evil by a greater. He sent to Astyochus to reproach him for betraying him, and to make an offer to him at the same time, to deliver into his hands both the army and the navy of the Athenians. This occasioned no damage to the Athenians, because Astyochus repeated his treachery and revealed also this proposal to Alcibiades. But this again was foreseen by Phrynichus, who, expecting a second accusation from Alcibiades, to anticipate him, advertised the Athenians beforehand that the enemy was ready to sail in order to surprise them, and therefore advised them to fortify their camp, and be in a readiness to go aboard their ships. While the Athenians were intent upoc 21 322 ALCIBtABfiS. doin^ these things, they received other letters from Akibia- des, admonishing them to beware of Phrynichiis, as one who designed to betray their fleet to the enemy, to wiiich they then gave no credit at all, conceiving that Alcibiades, who knew perfectly the counsels and preparations of the enemy, was merely ma-king use of that knowledge, in order to impose upon them in this false accusation of Phrynichus. Yet, after- wards, when Phrynichus was stabbed with a dagger in the market-place by Hermon, one of the guards, the Athenians, entering into an examination of the cause, solemnly condemned Phrynichus of treason, and decreed crowns to Hermon and his associates. And now the friends of Alcibiades, carrying all before them at Samos, despatched Pisander to Athens, \o attempt a change of government, and to encourage the aristocratical citizens to take upon themselves the government, and overthrow the democracy, representing to them, that upon these terms, Alcibiades would procure them the friend- ship and alliance of Tisaphernes. This was the color and pretence made use of by those who desired to change the government of Athens to an oli- garchy. But as soon as they prevailed, and had got the ad- ministration of affairs into their hands, under the name of the Five Thousand (whereas, indeed, they were but four hun- dred), they slighted Alcibiades altogether, and prosecuted the war with less vigor ; partly because they durst not yet trust the citizens, who secretly detested this change, and partly because they thought the Lacedaemonians, who always be- friended the government of the few, would be inclined to give them favorable terms. The people in the city were terrified into submission, many of those who had dared openly to oppose the four hundred having been put to death. But those who were at Samos, indignant when they heard this news, were eager to set sail instantly for the Piraeus ; sending for Alcibiades, they de- clared him general, requiring him to lead them on to put down the tyrants. He, however, in that juncture, did not, as it might have been thought a man would, on being suddenly exalted by the favor of a multitude, think himself under an obligation to gratify and submit to all the wishes of those who, from a fugitive and an exile, had created him general of so great an army, and given him the command of such a fleet. But, as became a great captain, he opposed himself to the precipitate resolutions which their rage led them to, and, by restraining them from the great error they were about to com ALCIBIADES. 323 mit, unequivocally saved the commonwealth. Foi if they then sailed to Athens, all Ionia and the islands and the Hellespont would have fallen into the enemies' hands without opposition, while the Athenians, involved in civil war, would have been fighting with one another within the circuit of their own waJ.'s. It was Alcibiades alone, or, at least, principally, who prevent- ed all this mischief ; for he not only used persuasion to the whole army, and showed them the danger, but applied him- self to them, one by one, entreating some, and constraining others. He was much assisted, however, by Thrasybulus of Stiria, who having the loudest voice, as we are told, of all the Athenians, went along with him, and cried out to those who wtre ready to be gone. A second great service which Alcibia- des did for them was, his undertaking that the Phcenician fleet, which the Lacedaemonians expected to besent to them by the king of Persia, should either come in aid of the Athenians or otherwise should not come at all. He sailed off with all expedition in order to perform this, and the ships, which had already been seen as near as Aspen dus, were not brought any further by Tisaphernes, who thus deceived the Lacedae- monians ; and it was by both sides believed that they had been diverted by the procurement of Alcibiades. The Lace- daemonians, in particular, accused him, that he had advised the Barbarian to stand still, and suffer the Greeks to waste and destroy one another, as it was evident that the accession of so great a force to either party would enable them to take away the entire dominion of the sea from the other side. Soon after this, the four hundred usurpers were driven out, the friends of Alcibiades vigorously assisting those who were for the popular government. And now the people in the city not only desired, but commanded Alcibiades to return home from his exile. He, however, desired not to owe his return to the mere grace and commiseration of the people, and resolved to come back, not with empty hands, but with glory, and after some service done. To this end, he sailed from Samos with a few ships, and cruised on the sea of Cnidos, and about the isle of Cos ; but receiving intelligence there that Mindaru.s, the S})artan admiral, had sailed with his whole army into tie Hellespont, and that the Athenians had followed him, he hurried back to succor the Athenian commanders, and, by good fortune, arrived with eighteen galleys at a critical time. For both the fleets having engaged near Abydos, the fight between them had lasted till night, the one side having the advantage on one quarter, and the other on another 324 ALCIBIADES. Upon his first appearance, both sides formed a false impres sion ; the enemy was encouraged and the Athenians terrified. But Alcibiadcs suddenly raised the Athenian ensigw in the ad- miral ship, and fell upon those galleys of the Peloponnesians which had the advantage and were in pursuit. He soon put these to flight, and followed tiiem so close that he forced them on shore, and broke the siiips in pieces, the sailors abandon- ing them and swimming away in spite of all the efforts of Pharnabazus, who had come down to their assistance by land and did what he could to protect them from the shore. In fine, the Athenians, having taken thirty of the enemy's ships, and recovered all their own, erected a trophy. After the gaining of so glorious a victory, his vanity made him eager to show himself to Tisaphernes, and, having furnished himself with gifts and presents, and an equipage suitable to his dignity, he set out to visit him. But the thing did not succeed as he had im- agined, for Tisaphernes had been long suspected by the Lace- daemonians, and was afraid to fall into disgrace with his king upon that account, and therefore thought that Alcibiades ar- rived very opportunely, and immediately caused him to be seized, and sent away prisoner to Sardis ; fancying, by this act of injustice, to clear himself from all former imputations. But about thirty days after, Alcibiades escaped from his keeping, and having got a horse, fled to Clazomenae, where he procured Tisaphernes additional disgrace by professing he was a party to his escape. From there he sailed to the Athe- nian camp, and, being informed there that Mindarus and Phar- nabazus were together at Cyzicus, he made a speech to tlie soldiers, telling them that sea-fighting, land-fighting, and, by the gods, fighting against fortified cities too, must be all one for them, as unless they conquered everywhere, there was no money for them. As soon as ever he got them on shipboard, he hasted to Proconnesus, and gave command to seize all the small vessels they met, and guard them safely in the interio! of the fleet, that the enemy might have no notice of his com- ing ; and a great storm of rain, accompanied with thunder and darkness, which happened at the same time, contributed nmch to the concealment of his enterprise. Indeed, it was not only undiscovered by the enemy, but the Athenians them- selves were ignorant of it, for he commanded them suddenly on board, and set sail when they had abandoned all intention of it. As the darkness presently passed away, the Pelopon- nesian fleet were seen riding out at sea in front of the harbor of Cyzicus.. Fearing, if Uiey discovered the number of his \LCIBIADES. 3*S ships, they might endeavor to save themselves by land, he commanded the rest of the captains to slacken, and follow him slowly, whilst he, advancing with forty ships showed him- self to the enemy, and provoked them to fight. The enemy, being deceived as to their numbers, despised them, ind, sup- posing they were to contend with those only, made them- selves ready and began the fight. But as soon as they were eagaged, they perceived the other part of the fleet coming down upon them, at which they were so terrified that they fled immediately. Upon that, Alcibiades, breaking through the midst of them with twenty of his best ships, hastened to the shore, disembarked, and pursued those who abandoned their ships and fled to land, and made a great slaughter of them. Mindarus and Pharnabazus, coming to their succor, were utterly defeated. Mindarus was slain upon the place, fight- ng valiantly ; Pharnabazus saved himself by flight. The Athenians slew great numbers of their enemies, won much spoil, and took all their ships. They also made themselves masters of Cyzicus, which was deserted by Pharnabazus, and destroyed its Peloponnesian garrison, and thereby not only secured to themselves the Hellespont, but by force drove the Lacedaemonians from out of all the rest of the sea. They in- tercepted some letters written .o tne ephors, which gave an account of this fatal overthrow, after their short laconic man- ner. " Our hopes are at an end. Mindarus is slain. The men starve. We know not what to do." The soldiers who followed Alcibiades in this last fight were so exalted with their success, and felt that degree of pride, that, looking on themselves as invincible, they dis- dained to mix with the other soldiers, who had been often overcome. For it happened not long before, Thrasyllus had received a defeat near Ephesus, and, upon that occasion, the Ephesians erected their brazen trophy to the disgrace of the Athenians. The soldiers of Alcibiades reproached those who «'ere under the command of Thrasyllus with this misfoi- tune, at the same time magnifying themselves and their own conmiander, and it went so far that they would not ex ercisc with them, nor lodge in the same quarters. But soon after, Pharnabazus, with a great force of horse and foot, falling upon the soldiers of Thrasyllus, as they were kying waste the territory of Abydos, Alcibiades came to their aid, routed I'harnabazus, and together with Thrasyllus pursued him till it was night ; and in this action the troops united, and returned together to the camp, rejoicing and congratulating one another. 326 ALCIBIADES. The next day he erected a trophy, and then proceeded to lay waste with fire and sword the whole province which was under Pharnabazus where none ventured to resist ; and he took divers priests and priestesses, but released them without ransom. He prepared next to attack the Chalcedonians, who had revolted from the Athenians, and had received a Lace- dcEmonian governor and garrison. But having intelligence that they had removed their corn and cattle out of the fields, and were conveying it all to the Bithynians, who were their friends, he drew down his army to the frontier of the Bithynians, and then sent a herald to charge them with this proceeding. The Bithynians, terrified at his approach, delivered up to him the booty, and entered into alliance with him. Afterwards he proceeded to the siege of Chalcedon, and enclosed it with a wall from sea to sea. Pharnabazus ad- vanced with his forces to raise the siege, and Hippocrates, the governor of the town, at the same time, gathering together all the strength he had, made a sally upon the Athenians. Alcibiades divided his army so as to engage both at once, and not only forced Pharnabazus to a dishonorable flight, but defeated Hippocrates, and killed him and a number of the soldiers with him. After this he sailed into the Hellespont, in order to raise supplies of money, and took the city of Selym- bria, in which action, through his precipitation, he exposed himself to great danger. For some within the town had un- dertaken to betray it into his hands, and, by agreement, were to give him a signal by a lighted torch about midnight. But one of the conspirators beginning to repent himself of the design, the rest, for fear of being discovered, were driven to give the signal before the appointed hour. Alcibiades, as soon as he saw the torch lifted up in the air, though his army was not in readiness to march, ran instantly towards the walls, taking with him about thirty men only, and commanding the rest of the army to follow him with all possible speed. When he came thither, he found the gate opened for him and entered with his thirty men, and about twenty more light-armed men, who were come up to them. They were no sooner in the city, but he perceived the Selymbrians all armed, coming down upon him ; so that there was no hope of escaping if he stayed to receive them ; and, on the other hand, having been always successful till that day, wherever he commanded, he could not endure to be defeated and fly. So, requiring silence by sound of a trumpet, he commanded one of his men to ALCIBIADES. 327 make proclamation that the Selymbrians should not take arms against the Athenians. This cooled such of the inhabitants as were fiercest for the fight, for they supposed that all their enemies were within the walls, and it raised the hopes of others who were disposed to an accommodation. Whilst they were parleying, and propositions making on one side and the other, Alcibiades's whole army came up to the town. And now, conjecturing rightly, that the Selymbrians were well in clined to peace, and fearing lest the city might be sacked b} the I'hracians, who came in great numbers to his army to serve as volunteers, out of kindness for him, he commanded them all to retreat without the walls. And upon the submis- sion of the Selymbrians, he saved them from being pillaged, only taking of them a sum of money, and, after placing an Athenian garrison in the town, departed. During this action, the Athenian captains who besieged Chalcedon concluded a treaty with Pharnabazus upon these articles : That he should give them a sum of money ; that the Chalcedonians should return to the subjection of Athens and that the Athenians should make no inroad into the prov- ince whereof Pharnabazus was governor ; and Pharnabazus was also to provide safe conducts for the Athenian ambassa- dors to the king of Persia. Afterwards, when Alcibiades re- turned thither, Pharnabazus required that he also should be sworn to the treaty ; but he refused it, unless Pharnabazus would swear at the same time. When the treaty was sworn to on both sides, Alcibiades went against the Byzantines, who had revolted from the Athenians, and drew a line of cir- cumvallation about the city. But Anaxilaus and Lycurgus, togethsr with some others, having undertaken to betray the city to him upon his engagement to preserve the lives and property of the inhabitants, he caused a report to be spread abroad, as if by reason of some unexpected movement in Ionia, he should be obliged to raise the siege. And, accord- higly, that day he made a show to depart with his whole fleet ; but returned the same night, and went ashore with all his men at arms, and silently and undiscovered, marched up to the walls. At the same time, his ships rowed into the harbor with all possible violence, coming on with much fury, and with great shouts and outcries. The Byzantines, thus surprised and astonished, while they all hurried to the defence of their port and shipping, gave opportunit}' to those who favored the Athenians, securely to receive Alcibiades into the city. Yet the enterprise was not accomplished without fight- 528 ALCIBIADES. ing, for the Peloponnesians, Boeotians, und Megarians, no*. only repulsed those who came out of the ships, and forced them on board again, but, hearing that the Athenians were entered on the other side, drew up in order, and went to meet them. Alcibiades, however, gained the victor}' after some sharp fighting, in which he himself had the commanti of the right wing, and Theramenes of the left, and took about three hundred, who survived of the enemy, prisoners of war. After the battle, not one of the Byzantines was slain, or driven out of the city, according to tke terms upon which the city was put into his hands, that they should receive no prejudice in life or property. And thus Anaxilaus, being afterwards accused at Lacedasmon for this treason, neither disowned nor professed to be ashamed of the action ; for he urged that he was not a Lacedaemonian, but a Byzantine, and saw not Sparta, but Byzantium, in extreme danger : the city so blockaded that it was not possible to bring in any new provisions, and the Peloponnesians and Boeotians, who were in garrison de- vouring the old stores, whilst the B3'zantines, with their v.'ives and children, were starving, that he had not, therefore, be- trayed his country to enemies, but had delivered it from the calamities of war, and had but followed the example of the most worthy Lacedsemonians, who esteemed nothing to be honorable and just, but what was profitable for their country. The Lacedaemonians, upon hearing his defence, respected it, and discharged all that were accused. And now Alcibiades began to desire to see his native country again, or rather to show his fellow-citizens a person who had gained so many victories for them. He set sail for Athens, the ship that accompanied him being adorned with great numbers of shields and other spoils, and towing after them many galleys taken from the enemy, and the ensigns and ornaments of many others which he had sunk and de- stroyed ; all of them together amounting to two hundred. Little credit, perhaps, can be given to what Duris the Samian., who professed to be descended from Alcibiades, adds, that Chrysogonus, who had gained a victory at the Pythian games, played upon his flute for the galleys, whilst the oars kept lime with the music ; and that Callippides, the tragedian, attired in his buskirs, his purple robes, and other ornaments used in the theatre, gave the word to the rowers, and that the admiral galley entered into the port with a purple sail. Neither Theopompus, nor Ephorus, nor Xenophon, mention them. Nor, indeed, is it credible, that one who returned ALCIBIADES. 329 from so long an exile, and such variety of misfortunes, should come home to his countrymen in the style of revellers break- ing up from a drinking-party. On the contrary, he ventured the harbor full of fear, nor would he venture to go on shore, till, standing on the deck, he saw Euryptolemus, his cousin, and others of his friends and acquaintance, who were ready to receive him, and invited him to land. As soon as he was landed, the multitude who came out to meet him scarcely seemed so much as to see any of the othe-r captains, but came in throngs about Alcibiades, and saluted him with loud ac- clamations, and still followed him ; those who could press near him crowned him with garlands, and they who could not come up so close yet stayed to behold him afar off, and the old men pointed him out, and showed him to the young ones. Nevertheless, this public joy was mixed with some tears, and the present happiness was allayed by the remembrances of the miseries they had endured. They made reflections, that they could not have so unfortunately miscarried in Sicily, or been defeated in any of their other expectations, if they had left the management of their affairs formerly, and the com- mand of their forces, to Alcibiades, since, upon his undertak- ing the administration, when they were in a manner driven from the sea, and could scarce defend the suburbs of their city by land, and, at the same time, were miserably distracted with intestine factions, he had raised them up from this low and deplorable condition, and had not only restored them to their ancient dominion of the sea, but had also made them everywhere victorious over their enemies on land. There had been a decree for recalling him from his banish- ment already passed by the people, at the instance of Critias, the son of Callaeschrus, as appears by his elegies, in which he puts Alcibiades in mind of this service : — From my proposal did that edict come, Which from your tedious exile brought you home The public vote at first was moved by me, And my voice put the seal to the decree. The people being summoned to an assembly, Alcibiades came iv amongst them, and first bewailed and lamented his own sufferings, and, in gentle terms complaining of the usage he haa received, imputed all to his hard fortune, and some ill genius that attended him : then he spoke at large of their prospects, and exhorted them to courage and good hope. The people crowned him with crowns of gold, and created him general, both at land a-nd sea, with absolute power 330 ALCIBIADES, They also ma<3e a decree that his estate should be restored to him, and that the Eumolpidce and the holy herald should absolve him from the curses which they had solemnly pro- nounced against him by sentence of the people. Which when all the rest obeyed, Theodorus, the high-priest, excused himself, " For," said he, " if he is innocent, I never cursed him." But notwithstanding the affairs of Alcibiadc* vent so prosperously, and so much to his gloiy, yet many v»ere stiL somewhat disturbed, and looked upon the time of his arrival to be ominous. For on the day that he came into the port, the feast of the goddess Minerva, which they call the Plynteria, was kept. It is the twenty-fifth day of Thargelion, when the Praxiergidffi solemnize their secret rites, taking all the orna- ments from off her image, and keeping the part of the temple where it stands close covered. Hence the Athenians esteem this day most inauspicious, and never undertake any thing of importance upon it ; and, therefore, they imagined that the goddess did not receive Alcibiades graciously and propitiously, thus hiding her face and rejecting him. Yet nolwithstand ing, every thing succeeded according to his wish. When the one hundred galleys, that were to return with him, were fitted out and ready to sail, an honorable zeal detained him till the celebration of the mysteries was over. For ever since Decelea had been occupied, as the enemy commanded the roads lead- ing from Athens to Eleusis, the procession, being conducted by sea, had not been performed with any proper solemnity ; they were forced to omit the sacrifices and dances and other holy ceremonies, which had usually been performed in the way, when they led forth lacchus. Alcibiades, therefore, judged it would be a glorious action, which would do honor to the gods and gain him esteem with men, if he restored the ancient splendor to these rites, escorting the procession again by land, and protecting it with his army in the face of the enemy. For either, if Agis stood still and did not oppose, it would very much diminish and obscure his reputation, or, in the other alternative, Alcibiades would engage in a holy war, 'n the cause of the gods, and in defence of the most sacred and solemn ceremonies ; and this in the sight of his country, where he should have all his fellow-citizens witnesses of his valor. As soon as he had resolved upon this design, and had conununicated it to the Eumolpidae and heralds, he placed sentinels on the tops of the hills, and at the break of day sent forth his scouts. Ard then taking with him the ALCIEIADES. 33» priests and Initiates and the Initators, and encompassing them with his soldiers, he conducted them with great order and profound silence ; an august and venerable procession, wherein all who did not envy him said he performed at once the office of a high-priest and of a general. The enemy did not dare to attempt any thing against them, and thus he brought them back in safety to the city. Upon which, as he yvTiS exalted in his own thought, so the opinion which the people had of his conduct was raised to that degree, that they looked upon their armies as irresistible and invincible while he commanded them ; and he so won, indeed, upon the lower and meaner sort of people, that they passionately de- sired to have him " tyrant " over them, and some of them did not scruple to tell him so, and to advise him to put himself out of the reach of envy, by abolishing the laws and ordinan- ces of the people, and suppressing the idle talkers ihat were ruining the state, that so he might act and take upon him the management of affairs, without standing in fear of being called to an account. How far his own inclinations led him to usurp sovereign power, is uncertain, but the most considerable persons in the city were so much afraid of it, that they hastened him on ship- board as speedily as they could, appointing the colleaguefi whom he ihose, and allowing him all other things as he Jesired. Thereupon he set sail with a fleet of one hundred ships, and, arriving at Andros, he there fought with and defeated as well the inhabitants as the Lacedaemonians who assisted them. He did not, however, take the city ; which gave the first occasion to his enemies for all their accusations against him. Certainly, if ever man was ruined by his own glor}', it was Alcibiades. For his continual success had produced such an idea of his courage and conduct, that if he failed in anything he undertook, it was imputed to his neglect, and no one would believe it was through want of power. For they thought nothing was too hard for him, if he went about it in good earnest. They fancied, every day, that they should heai news of the reduction of Chios, and of the rest of Ionia, and grew impatient that things were not effected as fast and as rapidly as they could wish for them. They never consid- ered how extremely money was wanting, and that, having to carry on war with an enemy who had supplies of all things from a great king, he was often forced to quit his armament, in order to procure money and provisions for the subsistence of his soldiers, "^'his it was which gave occasion for the lasf 332 ALCiniADES. accusation which was made against him. For Lysander, being sent from Lacech'emon with a comm'ssion to be admiral of their fleet, and being furnislied by Cyrus with a great sum of money, gave every sailor four obols a day, whereas before they had but three. Alcibiadcs could hardly allow his men three obols, and therefore was constrained to go into Caria to f'lrnish himself with money. He left the care of the fleet, in his absence, to Antiochus, an experienced seaman, but rash and inconsiderate, who had express orders from Alcibiadea not to engage, though the enemy provoked him. But he slighted and disregarded these directions to that degree, that, having made ready his own galley and another, he stood for Ephesus, where the enemy lay, and, as he sailed before the heads of their galleys, used every provocation possible, both in words and deeds. Lysander at first manned out a few ships, and pursued him. But all the Athenian ships coming in to his assistance, Lysander, also, brought up his whole fleet, which gained an entire victory. He slew Antiochus himself, took many men and ships, and erected a trophy. As soon as Alcibiades heard this news, he returned to Sanios, and loosing from hence with his whole fleet, came and offered baitle to Lysander. But Lysander, content with the victory he had gained, would not stir. Amongst others in the army who hated Alcibiades, Thrasybulus, the son of Thrason, was his particular enemy, and went purposely to Athens to accuse him, and to exasperate his enemies in the city against him. Addressing the people, he represented that Alcibiades had ruined their affairs and lost their ships by mere self-con- ceited neglect of his duties, committing the government of the army, in his absence, to men who gained his favor by drinking and scurrilous talking, whilst he wandered up and down at pleasure to raise money, giving himself up to every sort of luxury and excess amongst the courtesans of Abydos and Ionia at a time when the enemy's navy were on the watch close at hand. It was also objected to him, that he had for- tified a castle near Bisanthe in Thrace, for a safe retreat for himself, as one that either could not, or would not, live in his own country. The Athenians gave credit to these ir forma- tions, and showed the resentment and displeasure whiffi they had conceived against him, by choosing other generals. As soon as Alcibiades heard of this, he immediately forsook the army, afraid of what might follow ; and, collecting a body of mercenary soldiers, made war upon his own account agairst those Thracians who called themselves free, and ALCIBIADES. 333 acknowledged no king. By this means he amassed to himself a considerable treasure, and, at the same time, secured the bordering Greeks from the incursions of the barbarians. Tydeus, Menander, and Adimantus, the new-made gener- als, were at that time posted at ^gospotami, with all the ships which the Athenians had left. From whence they were used to go out to sea every morning, and offer battle to Lysander, who lay near Lampsacus ; and when they had done so, return- ing back again, lay, all the rest of the day, carelessly and without order, in contempt of the enemy. Alcibiades, who was not far off, did not think so slightly )i their danger, nor neglect to let them know it, but, mounting his horse, came to the generals, and represented to them that they had chosen a very inconvenient station, where there was no safe harbor, and where they were distant from any town ; so that they were constrained to send for their necessary provisions as far as Sestos. He also pointed out to them their carelessness in suffering the soldiers, when they went ashore, to disperse and wander up and down at their pleasure, while the enemy's fleet, under the command of one general, and strictly obedi- ent to discipline, lay so very near them. He advised them to remove the fleet to Sestos. But the admirals not only disre- garded what he said, but Tydeus, with insulting expressions, commanded him to be gone, saying, that now not he, but others, had the command of the forces. Alcibiades, suspecting some thing of treachery in them, departed, and told his friends, who accompanied him out of the camp, that if the generals had not used him with such insupportable contempt, he would within a few days have forced the Lacedaemonians, however unwilling, either to have fought the Athenians at sea or to have deserted their ships. Some looked upon this as a piece of ostentation only ; others said, the thing was probable, for that he might have brought down by land great numbers of the Thracian cavalry and archers, to assault and disorder them in their camp. The event, however, soon made it evi- dent how rightly he had judged of the errors which the Athe- nians committed. For Lysander fell upon them on a sudden, when they least suspected it, with such fury that Conon alone, with eight galleys, escaped him ; all the rest, which were about two hundred, he took and carried away, together with three thousand prisoners, whom he put to death. And within a short time after, he took Athens itself, burnt all the ships which he found there, and demolished their long walls. After this, Alcibiades, standing in dread of the Lacedas 334 ALCIBIADES. monians, who were now masters both at sea and land, retired into Bithynia. He sent thither great treasure before him, took much with him, but left much more in the castle where he had before resided. But he lost great part of his wealth in Bithynia, being robbed by some Thracians who lived in those parts, and thereupon determined to go to the court of Arta)cerxes, not doubting but that the king, if he would make trial nf his abilities, would find him not inferior to Themisto- cles, besides that he was recommended by a more honorable cause. For he went, not as Themistocles did, to offer his service against his fellow-citizens, but against their enemies, and to implore the king's aid for the defence of his country. He concluded that Pharnabazus would most readily procure him a safe conduct, and therefore went into Phrygia to him, and continued to dwell there some time, paying him great respect, and being honorably treated by him. The Athenians, in the mean time, were miserably afflicted at their loss ot empire ; but when they were deprived of liberty also, ana Lysander set up thirty despotic rulers in the city, in their ruin now they began to turn to those thoughts which, while safety was yet possible, they would not entertain ; they acknowledged and bewailed their former errors and follies, and judged this second ill-usage of Alcibiades to be of all the most inexcusable. For he was rejected without any fault committed by himself, and only because they were incensed against his subordinate for having shamefully lost a few ships, they much more shamefully deprived the commonwealth of its most valiant and accomplished general. Yet in this sad state of affairs, they had still some faint hopes left them, nor would they utterly despair of the Athenian commonwealth, while Alcibiades was safe. For they persuaded themselves that if before, when he was an exile, he could not content himself to live idly and at ease, much less now, if he could find any favorable opportunity, would he endure the insolence of the Lacedrcmonians, and the outrages of the Thirty. Nor was it an absurd thing in the people to entertain such imaginations, when the Thirty themselves were so very solicitous to be informed and to get intelligence of all his actions and designs Inline, Critias represented to Lysander that the LacediTemoni- ans could never securely enjoy the dominion of Greece, till the Athenian democracy was absolutely destroyed ; and, though now the people of Athens seemed quietly and patiently to submit to so small a number of governors, yet so long as Alcibiades lived, the knowledge of this fact would never sulifei ti.em Lu acquiesce in their present circumstances. ALCIBIAT)ES. 335 Yet Ivvsander would not be prevailed upon by these representations, till at last he received- secret orders from the magistrates of Laced^emon, expressly requiring him to get ^Icibiades despatched : whether it was that they feared hiiv energy and boldness in enterprising what was hazardous, c that it was done to gratify king Agis. Upon receipt of thil Older, Lysander sent away a messenger to Pharnabazus, desiring him to put it in execution. Pharnabazus committed the affair to Magajus, his brother, and to his uncle Susa- mithres. Alcibiades resided at that time in a small village in Phrygia, together with Timandra, a mistress of his. As he slept, he had this dream : he thought himself attired in his mistress's habit, and that she. holding him in her aims, dressed his head and painted his face as if he had been a woman ; others say, he dreamed that he saw Magasus cut off his head and burn his body ; at any rate, it was but a little while before his death that he had these visions. Those who were sent to assassinate him had not courage enough to enter the house, but surrounded it first, and set it on fire. Alcibi- ades, as soon as he perceived it, getting together great quan- tities of clothes and furniture, threw them upon the fire to choke it, and, having wrapped his cloak about his left arm, and holding his naked sword in his right, he cast himself into the middle of the fire, and escaped securely through it before his clothes were burnt. The barbarians, as soon as they saw him, retreated, and none of them durst stay to wait for him, or to engage with him, but, standing at a distance, they slew him with their darts and arrows. When he was dead the barbarians departed, and Timandra took up his dead body, and, covering and wrapping it up in her own robes, she buried it as decently and as honorably as her circumstances would allow. It is said, that the famous Lais, who was called the Corinthian, though she was a native of Hyccara, a small town in Sicily, from whence she was brought a captive, was the daughter of this Timandra. There are some who agree with this account of Alcibiades's death in all points, except that they impute the cause of it neither to Pharnabazus, nor I,ysander, nor the Lacedaemonians : but they say, he was keeping with him a young lady of a noble house, whom he had debauched, and that her brothers, not being able to endure the indignity, set fire by night to the house where he was living, and, as he endeavored to save himself from the flames, slew him with their darts, in the manner just related. ^3^ CORIOLANUS. CORIOLANUS. The patrician house of the Marcii in Rome produced many men of distinction, and among the rest, Ancus Maicius, grandson to Numa by his daughter, and king after Tullug Hostilius, of the same family were also Publius and Quintus Marcius, which two conveyed into the city the best and most .abundant supply of water they have at Rome. As likewise Censorinus, who, having been twice chosen censor by the people, afterwards himself induced them to make a law that nobody should bear that office twice. But Caius Marcius, of whom I now write, being left an orphan, and brought up under the widowhood of his mother, has shown us by experi ence, that, although the early loss of a father may be attended with other disadvantages, yet it can hinder none from being either virtuous or eminent in the world, and that it is no obstacle to true goodness and excellence ; however bad men may be pleased to lay the blame of their corruptions upon that misfortune and the neglect of them in their minority. Nor is he less an evidence to the truth of their opinion who conceive that a generous and worthy nature without proper discipline, like a rich soil without culture, is apt, v/ith it, better fruits, to produce also much that is bad and faulty. While the force and vigor of his soul, and a persevering con- stancy in all he undertook, led him successfully into many noble achievements, yet, on the other side, also, by indulging the vehemence of his passion, and through an obstinate re- luctance to yield or accommodate his humors and sentiments to those of a people about him, he rendered himself incapable of acting and associating with others. Those who saw with admiration ho'v proof his nature was against all the softnesses of pleasure, the hardships of service, and the allurements of gain, while allowing to that universal firmness of his, the respective names of temperance, fortitude, and justice, yet, in the life of the citizen and the statesman, could not choose but be disgusted at the severity and ruggedness of his deport- ment, and with his overbearing, haughty, and imperious tem- per. Education and study, and the favors of the muses, confer no greater benefit on those that seek them, than these humanizing and civilizing lessons, which teach our natural CORIOLANUS. 337 qualities to submit to the limitations prescribed by reason, and to avoid the wildness of extremes. Those were times at Rome in which that kind of worth was most esteemed which displayed itself in military achieve- ments ; one evidence of which we find in the Latin word for virtue, which is properly equivalent to manly courage. As if valor and all virtue had been the same thing, they used as the common term the name of the particular excellence. But M ircius, having a more passionate inclination than any ot tli^t age for feats of war, began at once, from his very child- hood, to handle arms ; and feeling that adventitious imple- ments and artificial arms would effect little, and be of small use to such as have not their native and natural weapons well fixed and prepared for service, he so exercised and inured his body to all sorts of activity and encounter, that besides the lightness of a racer, he had a weight in close seizures and wrestlings with an enemy, from which it was hard for any to disengage himself ; so that his competitors at home in dis- plays of bravery, loath to own themselves inferior in that respect, were wont to ascribe their deficiencies to his strength of body, which they said no resistance and no fatigue could exhaust. The first time he went out to the wars, being yet a strip- ling, was when Tarquinius Superbus, who had been king of Rome and was afterwards expelled, after many unsuccessful attempts, now entered upon his last effort, and proceeded to hazard all as it were upon a single throw. A great number of the Latins and other people of Italy joined their forces, and were marching with him toward the city, to procure his restoration ; not, however, so much out of a desire to serve and oblige Tarquin, as to gratify their own fear and envy at the increase of the Roman greatness ; which they were anxious to check and reduce. The armies met and engaged in a decisive battle, in the vicissitudes of which, Marcius, while fighting bravely in the dictator's presence, saw a Roman soldier stnick down at a little distance, and immediately scepped in and stood before him, and slew his assailant. The general, after having gained the victory, crowned him for this act, one of the first, with a garland of oaken branches ; it being the Roman custom thus to adorn those who had saved the life of a citizen ; whether that the law intended gome special honor to the oak, in memory of the Arcadians, a people the oracle had made famous by the name of acorn eaters ; or whether the reason of it was because they might 22 338 CORIOLANUS. easily, and in ali places where they fought, have plenty ol oak for that purpose ; or, finally, whether the oaken wreath, being sacred to Jupiter, the guardian of the city, might, there- fore, be thought a proper ornament for one who preserved a citizen. And the oak, in truth, is the tree which bears the most and the prettiest fruit of any that grow wild, and is the strongest of all that are under cultivation ; its acorns were the principal diet of the first mortals, and the honey found in it gave them drink. I may say, too, it furnished fowl and other creatures as dainties, in producing mistletoe for bird- lime to ensnare them. In this battle, meantime, it is stated that Castor and Pollux appeared, and immediately after the battle, were seen at Rome just by the fountain where their temple now stands, with their horses foaming with sweat, and told the news of the victory to the people in the Forum. The fifteenth of July, being the day of this conquest, became con- sequently a solemn holiday sacred to the Twin Brothers. It may be observed, in general, that when young men arrive early at fame and repute, if they are of a nature but slightly touched with emulation, this early attainment is apt to extinguish their thirst and satiate their small appetite ^ whereas the first distinctions of more solid and weighty char- acters do but stimulate and quicken them and take them away, like a wind, in the pursuit of honor ; they look upon these marks and testimonies to their virtue not as a recom- pense received for what they have already done, but as a pledge given by themselves of what they will perform here- after, ashamed now to forsake or underlive the credit they have won, or, rather, not to exceed and obscure all that ia gone before by the lustre of their following actions. Mar- cius, having a spirit of this noble make, was ambitious always to surpass himself, and did nothing, how extraordinary soever, but he thought he was bound to outdo it at the next occa- sion ; and ever desiring to give continual fresh instances of his prowess, he added one exploit to another, and heaped up trophies upon trophies, so as to make it matter of contest also among his commanders, the later still vying with the earlier, which should pay him the greatest honor and speak highest in his commendation. Of all the numerous wars and conflicts in those days there was not one from which he re- turned without laurels and rewards. And, whereas others made glory the end of their daring, the end of his glory was his mother's gladness ; the delight she took to hear him praised and to see him crowned, and her weeping for joy ir CORIOLANUS. 335 his embraces, rendered him, in his own thoughts, the most honored and most happy person in the world. Epaminondas is similarly said to have acknowledged his feeling, that it was the greatest felicity of his whole life that his father and mother survived to hear of his successful generalship and his victory at Leuctra. And he had the advantage, indeed^ to have both his parents partake with him, and enjoy the pleas- ure of his good fortune. But Marcius, believing himsell bound to pay his mother Volumnia all that gratitude and duty which would have belonged to his father, had he also been alive, could never satiate himself in his tenderness and re- spect to her. He took a wife, also, at her request and wish, and continued, even after he had children, to live still with his mother, without parting families. The repute of his integrity and courage had, by this time, gained him a considerable influence and authority in Rome, when the senate, favoring the wealthier citizens, began to be at variance with the common people, who made sad complaints of the rigorous and inhuman usage they received from the money-lenders. For as many as were behind with them, and had any sort of property, they stripped of all they had, by the way of pledges and sales ; and such as through former exac- tions were reduced already to extreme indigence, and had nothing more to be deprived of, these they led away in person and put their bodies under constraint, notwithstanding the scars and wounds that they could show in attestation of their public services in numerous campaigns ; the last of which had been against the Sabines, which they undertook upon a promise made by their rich creditors that they would treat them with more gentleness for the future, Marcus Valerius, the consul, having, by order from the senate, engaged also for the per- formance of it. But when, after they had fought courageously and beaten the enemy, there was, nevertheless, no moderation or forbearance used, and the senate also professed to remem- ber nothing of that agreement, and sat without testifying the least concern to see them dragged away like slaves and theii goods seized upon as formerly, there began rcwto be open disorders and dangerous meetings in the city ; t.nd the enemy, also, aware of the popular confusion, invaded and laid waste the country. And when the consuls now gave notice, that all who were of an age to bear arms should make their personal appearance, but found no one regard the summons, the mem- oers of the government, then coming to consult what course should be taken, were themselves again divided in opinion 34© CORIOLANUS. some thought it most advisable to comply a little in f Avor of the poor, by relaxing their overstrained rights, and mi;igating the extreme rigor of the law, while others withstood this pro- posal ; Marcius in particular, with more vehemence than the rest, alleging that the business of money on either side was not the main thing in question, urged that this disorderly [)io ceeding was but the first insolent step towards open revolt against the laws, which it would become the wisdom of th". government to check at the earliest moment. There had been frequent assemblies of the whole senate, within a small compass of time, about this difficulty, but with- out any certain issue ; the poor commonalty, therefore, perceiv- ing there was likely to be no redress of their grievances, on a sudden collected in a body, and encouraging each other in their resolution, forsook the city with one accord, and seizing the hill which is now called the Holy Mount, sat down by the river Anio, without committing any sort of violence or seditious outrage, but merely exclaiming, as they went along, that they had this long time past been, in fact, expelled and excluded from the city by the cruelty of the rich ; that Italy would everywhere afford them the benefit of air and water and a place of burial, which was all they could expect in the city, unless it were, perhaps, the privilege of being wounded and killed in time of war for the defence of their creditors. The senate, apprehending the consequences, sent the most moderate and popular men of their own order to treat with them. Meneniu- Agrippa, their chief spokesman, after much en treaty to the people, and much plain speaking on behalf of the senate, concluded, at length, with the celebrated fable. *' It once happened," he said, " that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labor to supply and minister to its appetites. The stomach, however, merely ridiculed the silliness of the members, who appeared not to be aware that the stomach certainly does receive the general noarishment, but only to return it again, and redistribute it amongst the rest. Such is the case," he said, " ye citizens, between you and the senate. The counsels and plans that are there duly digested, convey and secure to all of you your proper benefit and support." A reconciliation ensued, the senate acceding to the request of the people for the annual election of five protectors for those in need of succor, the same that are no.v called the CORIOLANUS. 341 tribunes of the people; and the first two they pitched upon were Junius Brutus, and Sicinnius Vellutus, their leaders in the secession. The city being thus united, the commons stood presently to their arms, and followed their commanders to the war with great alacrity. As for Marcius, though he was not a little vexed himself to see the populace prevail so far, and gain ground of the senators, and might observe many other patricians have the same dislike of the late concessions, he yet besought them not to yield at least to the common people in the zeal and for- wardness they now showed for their country's service, but to prove that they were superior to them, not so much in power and riches, as in merit and worth. The Romans were now at war with the Volscian nation, whose principal city was Corioli ; when, therefore, Cominius the consul had invested this important place, the rest of the Volscians, fearing it would be taken, mustered up whatever force they could from all parts, to relieve it, designing to give the Romans battle before the city, and so attack them on both sides. Cominius, to avoid this inconvenience, divided his army, marching himself with one body to encounter the Volscians on their approach from without and leaving Titus Lartius, one of the bravest Romans of his time, to com- mand the other and continue the siege. Those within Corioli, despising now the smallness of their number, made a sally upon them, and prevailed at first, and pursued the Romans into their trenches. Here it was that Marcius, flying out with a slender company, and cutting those in pieces that first engaged him, obliged the other assailants to slacken their speed ; and then, with loud cries, called upon the Romans to renew the battle. For he had, what Cato thought a great point in a soldier, not only strength of hand and stroke, but also a voice and look that of themselves were a terror to an enemy. Divers of his own party now rallying and making up to him, the enemies soon retreated ; but Marcius, not con tent to see them draw off and retire, pressed hard upon the rear, and drove them, as they fled away in haste, to the very gates of their city ; where, perceiving the Romans to fall back from their pursuit, beaten off by the multitude of darts poured in upon them from the walls, and that none of his followers had the hardiness to think of falling in pell-mell among the fugitives and so entering a city full of enemies in arms, he. nevertheless, stood and urged them to the attempt, crying out, that fortune had now sat open Corioli, not so much to shelter 342 CORIOLANUS. the vanquished, as to receive the conquerors. Seconded by a few that were wilh'ng to venture with him, he bore along through the crowd, made good his passage, and thrust himself into the gate through the midst of them, nobody at first daring to resist him. But when the citizens on looking about, saw that a very small number had entered, they now took courage, and came up and attacked them. A combat ensued of the aiost extraordinary description, in which Marcius,by s;reng*l of hand, and swiftness of foot, and daring of soul, overpower- ing every one that he assailed, succeeded in driving the enemy to seek refuge, for the most part, in the interior of the town, while the remaining submitted, and threw down their arms ; thus affording Lartius abundant opportunity to bring in the rest of the Romans with ease and safety. Corioli being thus surprised and taken, the greater part of the soldiers employed themselves in spoiling and pillaging it, while Marcius indignantly reproached them, and exclaimed that it was a dishonorable and unworthy thing, when the con- sul and their fellow-citizens had now perhaps encountered the other Volscians, and were hazarding their lives in battle, basely to misspend the time in running up and down for booty, and, under a pretence of enriching themselves, keep out of danger. Few paid him any attention, but, putting himself at the head of these, he took the road by which the consul's army had marched before him, encouraging his companions, and be- seeching them, as they went along, not to give up, and praying often to the gods, too, that he might be so happy as to arrive before the fight was over, and come seasonably up to assist Cominius, and partake in the peril of the action. It was customary with the Romans of that age, when they were moving into battle array, and were on the point of taking up their bucklers, and girding their coats about them, to make at the same time an unwritten will, or verbal testament, and to name who should be their heirs, in the hearing of three or four witnesses. In this precise posture Marcius found them ai his arrival, the enemy being advanced within view. They were not a little disturbed by his first appearance, s^.eing him covered with blood and sweat, and attended with a small train ; but when he hastily made up to the consul with gladness in his looks, giving him his hand, and recounting to him how the city had been taken, and when they saw Comin- ius also embrace and salute iiim, every one took fresh heart ; tiiose that were near enough hearing, and those that were at a distance gut 'sing, what liad h.ij)pened; and all died out tc CORIOLANUS. 343 be led to battle. First, however, Marcius desired to know of him how the Volscians had arrayed their army, and where they had placed their best men, and un his answering that he took the troops of the Antiates in the centre to be their prime warriors, that would yield to none in bravery, " Let me demand and obtain of you," said Marcius, " that we may be posted against them." The consul granted the request, with much admiiation for his gallantry. And when the conflict begap by the soldiers darting at each other, and Marcius sallied out before the rest, the Volscians opposed to him were not able to make head against him ; wherever he fell in, he broke their ranks, and made a lane through them ; but the parties turning again, and enclosing him on each side with their weapons, the consul, who observed the danger he was in, despatched some of the choicest men he had for his rescue. The conflict then growing warm and sharp about Marcius, and many fall- ing dead in a little space, the Romans bore so hard upon the enemies, and pressed them with such violence, that they forced them at length to abandon their ground, and to quit the field. And going now to prosecute the victory, they besought Marcius, tired out with his toils, and faint and heavy through the loss of blood, that he would retire to the camp. He re- plied, however, that weariness was not for conquerors, and joined with them in the pursuit. The rest of the Volscian army was in like manner defeated, great numbers killed, and no less taken captive. The day after, when Marcius, with the rest of the army, presented themselves at the consul's tent, Cominius rose, and having rendered all due acknowledgment to the gods for the success of that enterprise, turned next to Marcius, and first of all delivered the strongest encomium upon his rare exploits which he had partly been an eye-witness of himself, in the late battle, and had partly learned from the testimony of Lar- tius. And then he required him to choose a tenth part of all » the treasure and horses and captives that had fallen into their hands, before any division should be made to others ; besides which, he made him the special present of a horse with trap- pings and ornaments, in honor of his actions. The whole army applauded ; Marcius, however, stepped forth, and declaring his thankful acceptance of the horse, and his gratification at the praises of his general, said, that all other things, which he could only regard rather as mercenary advantages than any significations of honor, he must waive, and should be conteni with the ordinary proportion of such rewards. "I have only,' 344 CORIOLANUS. said he, " one special grace to beg, and this I hope you will not deny me. There was a certain hospitable friend of mine among the Volscians, a man of probity and virtue, who is become a prisoner, and from former wealth and freedom is now reduced to servitude. Among his many misfortunes let my intercession redeem him from the one of being sold as a common slave." Such a refusal and such a request on the part of Marcius were followed with yet louder acclamations ; and he had many more admirers of this generous superiority to avarice, than of the bravery he had shown in battle. The very persons who conceived some envy and despite to see him so specially honored, could not but acknowledge, that one who so nobly could refuse reward, was beyond others worthy to receive it ; and were more charmed with that virtue which made him despise advantage, than with any of those former actions that have gained him his title to it. It is the higher accomplishment to use money well than to use arms ; but not to need it is more noble than to use it. When the noise of approbation and applause ceased, Co- minius, resuming, said, '* It is idle, fellow-soldiers, to force and obtrude those other gifts of ours on one who is unwilling to accept them ; let us, therefore, give him one of such a kind that he cannot well reject it ; let us pass a vote, I mean, that he shall hereafter be called Coriolanus, unless you think that his performance at Corioli has itself anticipated any such resolu- tion." Hence, therefore, he had his third name of Coriola- nus, making it all the plainer that Caius was a personal proper name, and the second, or surname, Marcius, one common to his house and family ; the third being a subsequent addition which used to be imposed either from some particular act or fortune, bodily characteristic, or good quality of the bearer. Just as the Greeks, too, gave additional names in old time, in some cases from some achievement, Soter, for example, and Callinicus ; or personal appearance, as Physcon and Grypus j good qualities, Euergetes and Philadelphus ; good fortune,* Eudcemon, the title of the second Battus. Several monarchs have also had names given them in mockery, as Antigonus was called Doson, and Ptolemy, Lathyrus. This sort of title was yet more common among the Romans. One of the Metelli was surnamed Diadematus, because he walked about for a long time with a bandage on his head to conceal a scar ; and another, of the same family, got the name of Celer, from the rapidity he displayed in giving a funeral entertainment of gladiators within a few days after his father's death, his speed CORIOLANUS. 345 and energy in doing which was thought extraordinary. There are some too, who even at this day take names from certain casual incidents at their nativity ; a child that is born when his father is away from home is called Proculus ; or Postumus, if after his decease ; and when twins come into the world, and one dies at the birth, the survivor has the name of Vopiscus. From bodily peculiarities they derive not only their Syllas and Nigers, but their Caeci and Claudii ; wisely endeavoring to accustom their people not to reckon either the loss of sight, or any other bodily misfortune, as a matter of disgrace to them, but to answer to such names without shame, as if they were really their own. But this discussion better befits an- other place. The war against the Volscians was no sooner at an end, than the popular orators revived domestic troubles, and raised another sedition, without any new cause or complaint or just grievance to proceed upon, but merely turning the very mischiefs that unavoidably ensued from their former contests into a pretext against the patricians. The greatest part of their arable land had been left unsown and without tillage, and the time of war allowing them no means or leisure to im port provision from other countries, there was an extreme scarcity. The movers of the people then observing, that there was no corn to be bought, and that, if there had been they had no money to buy it, began to calumniate the wealthy with false stories and whisper it about, as if they, out of their malice, had purposely contrived the famine. Meanwhile, there came an embassy from the Velitrani, proposing to de- liver up their city to the Romans, and desiring they would send some new inhabitants to people it, as a late pestilential disease had swept away so many of the natives, that there was hardly a tenth part remaining of their whole community. This ne- cessity of the Velitrani was considered by all more prudent people as most opportune in the present state of affairs; since the dearth made it needful to ease the city of its super- fluous members, and they were in hope also, at the same time, to dissipate the gathering sedition by ridding themselves of the more violent and heated partisans, and discharging, so to say, the elements of disease and disorder in the state. The consuls, therefore, singled out such citizens to supply the desolation at Velitrne, and gave notice to others, that they should be ready to march against the Volscians, with the politic design of preventing intestine broils by employment abroad, and in the hope, that when rich as well as poor, plebeians and p.\tri 346 CORICLANUS. cians, should be mingled again in the same army and the same camp, and engage in one common service for the pub- lic, it would mutually dispose them to reconciliation and friend- ship. But Sicinnius and Brutus, the popular orators, interposed, crying out, that the consuls disguised the most cruel and bar- barous action in the world under that mild and plausible name of a colony, and were simply precipitating so many poor citizens inlo a mere pit of destruction, bidding them settle down in a country where the air was charged with disease, and the ground covered with dead bodies, and expose themselves to the evil influence of a strange and angered deity. And then, as if it would not satisfy their hatred to destroy some by hunger, and offer others to the mercy of a plague, they must proceed to involve them also in a needless war of their own making, that no calamity might be wanting to complete the punishment of the citizens for refusing to submit to that of slavery to the rich. By such addresses, the people were so possessed, that none of them would appear upon the consular summons to be en- listed for the war ; and they showed entire aversion to the proposal for a new plantation ; so that the senate was at a loss what to say or do. But Marcius, who began now to bear himself higher and to feel confidence in his past actions, con- scious, too, of the admiration of the best and greatest men of Rome, openly took the lead in opposing the favorers of the people. The colony was despatched to Velitree, those that were chosen by lot being compelled to depart upon high pen- alties ; and when they obstinately persisted in refusing to en- roll themselves for the Volscian service, he mustered up his own clients, and as many others as could be wrought upon by persuasion, and with these made inroad into the territories of the Antiates, where, finding a considerable quantity of corn, and collecting much booty, both of cattle and prisoners, lie reserved nothing for himself in private, but returned safe to Rome, while those that ventured out with him were seen la- den wi:h pillage, and driving their prey before them. This sight filled those that had stayed at home with regret for their per- verseness, with envy at their fortunate fellow-citizens, and with feelings of dislike to Marcius, and hostility to his growing reputation and power, which might probably be used against the popular interest. Not long after he stood for the consulship : when, how- ever, the people began to relent and incline to favor him, be- CORIOLANUS. 347 ing sensible what a shame it would be to repulse and affront a man of his birth and merit, after he had done them so many signal services. It was usual for those who stood for offices among them to solicit and address themselves personally to the citizens, presenting themselves in the forum with the toga on alone, and no tunic under it ; either to promote their supplications by the humility of their dress, or that such as had received wounds might more readily display those marks of their fortitude. Certainly, it was not out of suspicion of bribery and corruption that they required all such petitioners for their favor to appear ungirt and open, without any close garment ; as it was much later, and many ages after this, that buying and selling crept in at their elections, and money be- came an ingredient in the public suffrages ; proceeding thence to attempt their tribunals, and even attack their camps, till, by hiring the valiant, and enslaving iron to silver, it grew master of the state, and turned their connnonwealth into a monarchy. For it was well and truly said that the first destroyer of the liberties of a people is he who first gave them bounties and largesses. At Rome the mischief seems to have stolen se- cretly in, and by little and little, not being at once discerned and taken notice of. It is not certainly known who the man was that did there first either bribe the citizens, or corrupt the courts ; whereas, in Athens, Anytus, the son of Anthe- mion, is said to have been the first that gave money to the judges, when on his trial, toward the latter end of the Pelo- ponnesian war, for letting the fort of Pylos fall into the hands of the enemy ; in a period while the pure and golden race of men were still in possession of the Roman forum. Marcius, therefore, as the fashion of candidates was, show- ing the scars and gashes that were still visible on his body, from the many conflicts in which he had signalized himself during a service of seventeen years together, they were, so to say, put out of countenance at this display of merit, and told one another that they ought in common modesty to cieate him consul. But when the day of election was now come, and Marcius appeared in the forum, with a pompous train of sena- tors attending him, and the patricians all manifested greatc! concern, and seemed to be exerting greater efforts, than they had ever done before on the like occasion, the commons then fell off again from the kindness they had conceived for him, and in the place of their late benevolence, began to feel some- thing of indignation and envy ; passions assisted by the fear they entertained, that if a man of such aristocratic temper 348 CORIOLANUS. and so influential among the patricians, should be invested with the power which that office would give him, he might employ it to deprive the people of all that liberty which was yet left them. In conclusion, they rejected Marcius. Two other names were announced, to the great mortification of the senators, who felt as if the indignity reflected ratlier ufK)n themselves than on Marcius. He, for his part, could not beai the affront with any patience. He had always indulged his temper, and had regarded the proud and contentious element of human nature as a sort of nobleness and magnanimity ; reason and discipline had not imbued him with that solidity and equanimity which enters so largely into the virtues of the statesman. He had never learned how essential it is for any one who undertakes public business, and desires to deal with mankind, to avoid above all things that self-will, which, as Plato says, belongs to the family of solitude ; and to pursue, above all things, that capacity so generally ridiculed, of submission to ill-treatment. Marcius, straightforward and direct, and possessed with the idea that to vanquish and over- bear all opposition is the true part of bravery, and never imagin- ing that it was the weakness and womanishness of his nature that broke out, so to say, in these ulcerations of anger, retired, full of fury and bitterness against the people. The young pa- tricians, too, all that were proudest and most conscious of their noble birth, had always been devoted to his interest, and, adhering to him now, with a fidelity that did him no good, aggravated his resentment with the expression of their indigna- tion and condolence. He had been their captain, and their willing instructor in the arts of war, when out upon expedi- tions, and their model in that true emulation and love of ex- cellence which makes men extol, without envy or jealousy, each other's brave achievements. In the midst of these distempers, a large quantity of corn .cached Rome, a great part bought up in Italy, but an equal amount sent as a present from Syracuse,from Gelo,then reigning there. Many began now to hope well of their affairs, suppos- ing the city, by this means, would be delivered at once, both of its want and discord. A council, therefore, being presently held, the people came flocking about the senate-house, eageily await- ing the issue of that deliberation, expecting that the market- prices would now be less cruel, and that what had come as gift, would be distributed as such. There were some within who so advised the senate ; but Marcius, standing up, sharj^ly in- veighed against those who spoke in favor of tiie multitufie CX)RIOLANUS. 349 calling them flatterers of the rabble, traitors to the nobility, and alleging, that, by such gratifications, they did but cherish those ill seeds of boldness and petulance that had been sown among the people, to their own prejudice, which they should have done well to observe and stifle at their first appearance, an