Plutarch — Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans

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, Scythian 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 myself

Whom shall I set so great a man to face?

Or whom oppose? who's equal to the place?

(as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as him that peopled the

beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be set in opposition with the

father of the invincible and renowned city of Rome. Let us hope that

Fable may, in what shall follow, so submit to the purifying processes of

Reason as to take the character of exact history. In any case, however,

where it shall be found contumaciously slighting credibility, and

refusing to be reduced to anything like probable fact, we shall beg

that we may meet with candid readers, and such as will receive with

indulgence the stories of antiquity.

Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many particulars. 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 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 Pelops 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 round about him.

One of whom 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 his 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 they 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.

Aegeus, 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 Troezen,

and communicated 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 by persuasion or deceit, to

lie with his daughter Aethra. Aegeus 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, should be able 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 secrecy, and with injunctions to him as

much as possible to conceal his journey from every one; for he greatly

feared the Pallantidae, who were continually mutinying against him, and

despised him for his want of children, they themselves being fifty

brothers, all sons of Pallas.

When Aethra was delivered of a son, some say that he was immediately

named Theseus, from the tokens which his father had put @ under the

stone; others that he received his name afterwards at Athens, when

Aegeus acknowledged him for his son. He was brought up under his

grandfather Pittheus, and had a tutor and attendant set over him named

Connidas, to whom 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 him named

Theseis. The Abantes first used it, not in imitation of the Arabians,

as some imagine, nor of the Mysians, but because they were a warlike

people, and used to close fighting, and above all other nations

accustomed to engage hand to hand; as Archilochus testifies

in these verses: --

Slings shall not whirl, nor many arrows fly,

When on the plain the battle 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 their hair,

they cut it in this manner. They write also that this was the reason

why Alexander gave command to his captains that all the beards of the

Macedonians should be shaved, as being the readiest hold for an enemy.

Aethra for some time concealed the true parentage of Theseus, and a

report was given out by Pittheus that he was 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 understanding, his mother Aethra,

conducting him to the stone, and informing him who was his true father,

commanded him to take from thence the tokens that Aegeus had left, and

to 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 grandfather begged him to

do so. For it was at that time very dangerous 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 themselves. 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 submission; 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

Peloponnesus; and Pittheus, giving him an exact account of each of 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, Themistocles

was, when he said that he could not sleep for 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 him up to perform the like. Besides, they

were related, being born of cousins-german. For Aethra 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 endured, 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 tokens 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 himself of all those that

should offer any. And first of all, in a set combat, he slew

Periphetes, in the neighborhood of Epidaurus, 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, invincible.

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 practiced or ever 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

her father was killed, fled, and was sought after everywhere by Theseus;

and coming into a place overgrown with brushwood shrubs, and asparagus-

thorn, there, in a childlike, innocent manner, prayed and begged them,

as if they understood her, to give her shelter, with vows that if she

escaped she would never cut them down nor burn them. But Theseus

calling upon her, and giving her his promise that he would use her with

respect, and offer her 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 Oechalian, Theseus himself giving her to him.

Ioxus, the son of this Melanippus who was born to Theseus, accompanied

Ornytus in the colony that he carried with him into Caria, whence it is

a family usage amongst the people called Ioxids, both male and female,

never to burn either shrubs or asparagus-thorn,

but to respect and honor them.

The Crommyonian sow, which they called Phaea, 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

chastise villainous 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 borders 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 stretch 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, however, in contradiction to the received report, and, as

Simonides expresses 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 Aeacus, they

say, was 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 Aeacus, and

grandfather to Peleus and Telamon, who were both of them sons of Endeis,

the daughter of Sciron and Chariclo; it was not probable, therefore,

that the best of men should make these alliances with one who was worst,

giving and receiving mutually what was of greatest value and most dear

to them. Theseus, by their account, did not slay Sciron in his first

journey to Athens, but afterwards, when he took Eleusis, a city of the

Megarians, having circumvented Diocles, the governor. Such are the

contradictions in this story. 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 of his own 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 Termerian 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 men, who

underwent the same violence from him which they had inflicted 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 sacrifices to the gods, invited him and entertained him at

their 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 affairs full of all confusion, and

divided into parties and factions, Aegeus also, and his whole private

family, laboring under the same distemper; for Medea, having fled from

Corinth, and promised Aegeus to make him, by her art, capable of having

children, was living with him. She first was aware of Theseus, whom as

yet Aegeus 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 give his father the occasion of first finding him out, the

meat being on the table, he drew his sword as if he designed to cut with

it; Aegeus, 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 him publicly before them, who, on their part,

received him gladly for the fame of his greatness and bravery; and it is

said, that when the cup fell, the poison was spilt there where now is

the enclosed space in the Delphinium; for in that place stood Aegeus's

house, and the figure of Mercury on the east side of the temple is

called the Mercury of Aegeus's gate.

The sons of Pallas, who before were quiet, upon expectation of

recovering the kingdom after Aegeus's death, who was without issue, as

soon as Theseus appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly

resenting that Aegeus 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 make 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 receiving and entertaining Theseus in this expedition, seems to be

not altogether void of truth; for the townships round about, meeting

upon a certain day, used to offer a sacrifice, 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 of return for her hospitality, by the

command of Theseus, as Philochorus tells us.

Not long after arrived the third time from Crete the collectors of the

tribute which the Athenians paid them upon the following occasion.

Androgeus 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

labyrinth, 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 Androgeus, gave, as

a reward to the victors, these youths, who in the mean time were kept 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 Bottiaeans, is

manifestly of opinion that the youths were not 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 slaves 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 Bottiaeans

and that this is the reason why, in a certain sacrifice, the Bottiaean

girls sing a hymn beginning Let us go to Athens. This may show us how

dangerous a thing 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 theaters; neither

did Hesiod avail him by calling him "the most royal Minos," nor Homer,

who styles him "Jupiter's familiar friend;" 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 lawgiver, 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 Aegeus 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 rather partake of, the sufferings of his fellow citizens,

offered himself for one without any lot. All else were struck with

admiration for the nobleness and with love for the goodness of the act;

and Aegeus, after prayers and entreaties, finding him inflexible and not

to be persuaded, proceeded to the choosing of the rest by lot.

Hellanicus, 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 his

own choice, and pitched upon Theseus before all others; according to the

conditions agreed upon between them, namely, that the Athenians should

furnish them with a ship, and that the young men that were to sail with

him should carry no weapon 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 pilot another sail, which was white, commanding

him, as he returned, if Theseus were safe, to make use of that; but if

not, to sail with the black one, and to hang out that sign of his

misfortune. Simonides says that the sail which Aegeus delivered to the

pilot was not white, but

Scarlet, in the juicy bloom

Of the living oak-tree steeped,

and that this was to be the sign of their escape. Phereclus, son of

Amarsyas, according to Simonides, was pilot of the ship. But

Philochorus says Theseus 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 Nausithous and Phaeax, built by

Theseus near the temple of Scirus, confirm. He adds, also, that the

feast named Cybernesia was in honor of them. The lot

being cast, and Theseus having received out of the Prytaneum those upon

whom it fell, he went to the Delphinium, and made an offering for them

to Apollo of his suppliant's badge, which was a bough of a consecrated

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 Athenians send their

virgins to the same temple to make supplication to the gods. It is

farther reported that he was commanded by the oracle at Delphi to make

Venus his guide, and to invoke her as the companion and conductress of

his voyage, and that, as he was sacrificing a she goat to her by the

seaside, it was suddenly changed into a he, and for this cause that

goddess had the name of Epitrapia.

When he arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient historians as well as

poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by Ariadne, who had

fallen in love with him, and being instructed by her how to use it so as

to conduct him through the windings of the labyrinth, he escaped out of

it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed back, taking along with him Ariadne

and the young Athenian captives. Pherecydes adds that he bored holes in

the bottoms of the Cretan ships to hinder their pursuit. Demon writes

that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was slain 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 Pasiphae, for which reason, when

Theseus desired the combat, Minos 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 Daedalus 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 Athenians, 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 returned a very

gentle answer, excusing himself that he could not deliver up Daedalus,

who was nearly related to him, being his cousin-german, his mother being

Merope, the daughter of Erechtheus. In the meanwhile he secretly

prepared a navy, part of it at home near the village of the Thymoetadae,

a place of no resort, and far from any common roads, the other part by

his grandfather Pittheus's means at Troezen, that so his design might be

carried on with the greatest secrecy. As soon as ever his fleet was in

readiness, he set sail, having with him Daedalus and other exiles from

Crete for his guides; and none of the Cretans having any knowledge of

his coming, 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 Gnossus 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 captives 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

Oenarus, priest of Bacchus; and that Theseus left her

because he fell in love with another,

For Aegle'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 manner as he added

in Homer's Raising of the Dead, to gratify the Athenians, the line

Theseus, Pirithous, mighty sons of gods.

Others say Ariadne had sons also by Theseus, Oenopion and Staphylus; and

among these is the poet Ion of Chios, who writes of his own native city

Which once Oenopion, son of Theseus, built.

But the more famous of the legendary stories everybody (as I may say)

has in his mouth. In Paeon, however, the Amathusian, 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 Ariadne very kindly,

and did all they could to console and alleviate her distress at being

left behind. That they counterfeited kind letters, and delivered them

to her, as sent from Theseus, and, when she fell in labor, were diligent

in performing to her 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 of silver and the other of brass. Moreover, that

on the second day of Gorpiaeus, 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 worshiped by the island, but in a different 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 of Delos, consisting in certain measured turnings

and returnings, imitative of the windings and twistings of the

labyrinth. And this dance, as Dicaearchus writes, is called among the

Delians, the Crane. This he danced round the Ceratonian Altar, so

called from its consisting of horns taken from the left side of 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 to hang out the sail which should have been the token

of their safety to Aegeus, who, in despair at the sight, threw himself

headlong from a rock, and perished in the sea. But Theseus, being

arrived at the port of Phalerum, paid there the sacrifices 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 return. 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 garlands for

his good news, which he indeed accepted of, but hung them upon his

herald's staff; and thus returning to the seaside before Theseus had

finished his 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

feast of Oschophoria, the herald is not crowned, but his staff, and all

who are present at the libation cry out eleleu iou iou, the first 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, after 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 boiling 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 wool (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 procession 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 on.

Although some hold opinion that this ceremony is retained in memory of

the Heraclidae, 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 the time of

Demetrius Phalereus, for they took 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 as to things that grow; one side holding that the ship

remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the 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 youths of his acquaintance, of fair and

womanish faces, but of a manly and forward spirit, and having, by

frequent baths, and avoiding the heat and scorching of the sun, with a

constant use of all the ointments and washes and dresses that serve to

the adorning of the head or smoothing the skin or improving the

complexion, in a manner changed them from what they were before, and

having taught them farther to counterfeit the very 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 return 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 these

particularities we 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 sacrifices to him. And the

house of the Phytalidae had the overseeing of these sacrifices, Theseus

doing them that honor in recompense of their former hospitality.

Now, after the death of his father Aegeus, forming in his mind a great

and wonderful design, he gathered together all the inhabitants of Attica

into one town, and made them one people of one city, whereas before they

lived dispersed, and were not easy to assemble upon any affair for the

common interest. 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 all 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 Panathenaea, or

the sacrifice of all the united Athenians. He instituted also another

sacrifice, called Metoecia, 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

commonwealth, 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.

Be not anxious nor afraid;

The bladder will not fail so swim

On the waves that compass him.

Which oracle, they say, one of the sibyls long after did in a manner

repeat 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 ye people, was the words that Theseus

proclaimed when he thus set up a commonwealth, in a manner, for all

nations. Yet he 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 Commonwealth into

three distinct ranks, the noblemen, the husbandmen, 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 Athenians 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 there.

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 honor of Neptune. For those that were

there before observed, dedicated 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 memory 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, these games

were ordained by Theseus. At the same time he made an agreement with

the Corinthians, that they should allow those that came from Athens to

the celebration of the Isthmian games as much space of honor 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, Philochorus 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, write 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 carried her away. An author

named Menecrates, that wrote the History of Nicaea in Bithynia, adds,

that Theseus, having Antiope 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 acquaintance, and

employed him to disclose his passion to Antiope, she rejected his

pretenses with a very positive denial, yet treated the matter with much

gentleness and discretion, and made no complaint to Theseus of any thing

that 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 unhappy love that was the cause of

it, he was extremely distressed, 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 cause he there founded

a city, which he called, from the name 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 entrusted 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 that 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 womanish 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

impunity 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 thereabout 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 happened in the month

of Boedromion, in which to this very day the Athenians celebrate the

Feast Boedromia. Clidemus, desirous to be very circumstantial,writes

that the left wing of the Amazons 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, engaged,

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 fighting by Theseus's side, and that the pillar which

stands by the temple of Olympian Earth was erected to her honor. Nor is

it to be wondered at, that in events of such antiquity, history should

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 by her care recovered, but some that died were buried there in the

place that is to this time called Amazonium. 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 the solemn oath there

taken, Horcomosium; @ and also from the ancient sacrifice which used to

be celebrated to the Amazons the day before the Feast of Theseus. The

Megarians also show a spot in their city where 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 Chaeronea, and buried near the little rivulet,

formerly called Thermodon, but now Haemon, 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 Scotussa 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 Amazons, how Antiope, 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 Phaedra,

but that was after the death of Antiope, by whom he had a son called

Hippolytus, or, as Pindar writes, Demophon. The calamities which befell

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 Theseus, neither

honorable in their occasions nor fortunate in their events, which yet

were never represented in the Greek plays. For he is said to have

carried off Anaxo, a Troezenian, and, having slain Sinnis and Cercyon,

to have ravished their daughters; to have married Periboea, the mother

of Ajax, and then Phereboea, and then Iope, the daughter of Iphicles.

And further, he is accused of deserting Ariadne (as is before related),

being in love with Aegle the daughter of Panopeus, neither justly nor

honorably; and lastly, of the rape of Helen, which filled all Attica

with war and blood, and was in the end the occasion of his banishment

and death, as will presently be related.

Herodorus is of opinion, that though there were many famous expeditions

undertaken by the bravest men of his time, yet Theseus never joined in

any of them, once only excepted, with the Lapithae, in their war against

the Centaurs; but others say that he accompanied Jason to Colchis and

Meleager to the slaying of the Calydonian boar, and that hence it came

to be a proverb, Not without Theseus; that he himself, however, without

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 persuasion 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 recovering 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 Aeschylus in his Eleusinians, where Theseus himself relates the facts

as here told.

The celebrated friendship between Theseus and Pirithous is said to have

been thus begun: the fame of the strength and valor of Theseus being

spread through Greece, Pirithous was 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 news was

brought that Theseus pursued him in arms, he did not fly, but turned

back and went to meet him. But as soon as they had viewed one another,

each so admired the gracefulness and beauty, and was seized with such a

respect for the courage, of the other, that they forgot all thoughts of

fighting; and Pirithous, 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 forgave him all, but

entreated him to be his friend and brother in arms; and they ratified

their friendship by oaths. After this Pirithous married Deidamia, and

invited Theseus to the wedding, entreating him to come and see his

country, and make acquaintance with the Lapithae; he had at the same

time invited the Centaurs to the feast, who growing hot with wine and

beginning to be insolent and wild, and offering violence to the women,

the Lapithae 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, 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 account 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 ravishers, 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

Hippocoon, who would have carried her away by force when she was yet a

child. But the most probable account, and that which has most witnesses

on its side, is this: Theseus and Pirithous went both together to

Sparta, and, having seized the young lady as she was dancing in the

temple of Diana Orthia, fled away with her. There were presently men in

arms sent to pursue, but they followed no further than to Tegea; and

Theseus and Pirithous, being now out of danger, having passed through

Peloponnesus, made an agreement 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 Theseus,

who conveyed her to Aphidnae, not being yet marriageable, and delivered

her to one of his allies, called Aphidnus, and, having sent his mother

Aethra 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 Pirithous, 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 daughter 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 Pirithous and his companion was

not to court his daughter, but to force her away, he caused them both to

be seized, and threw Pirithous to be torn in pieces by his dog, and put

Theseus into prison, and kept him.

About this time, Menestheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus, and

great-grandson to Erechtheus, the first man that is recorded to have

affected popularity and ingratiated himself with the multitude, stirred

up and exasperated the 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. He put also the

meaner people into commotion, telling them, that, deluded with a mere

dream of liberty, though indeed they were deprived both of that and of

their proper homes and religious usages, instead of many good and

gracious kings of their own, they had given themselves 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 he by his persuasions was wholly

the cause of their invading the city. At their 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

Lacedaemonians, when often in aftertimes they made incursions into

Attica, and destroyed all the country round about, spared the Academy

for the sake of Academus. But Dicaearchus 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 fulfill some oracle, voluntarily offered himself to be

made a sacrifice before battle. As soon as they were arrived at

Aphidnae, they overcame their enemies in a set battle, and then

assaulted and took the town. And here, they say, Alycus, the son of

Sciron, was slain, of the party of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux),

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 Aphidna'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

benefactors 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

(Anokhe) of the war, or from the care they took that none should suffer

any injury, though there was so great an army within the walls; for the

phrase anakos ekhein is used of those who look to or care for any thing;

kings for this reason, perhaps, are called anactes. Others say, that

from the appearance 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 Aethra, 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,

Aethra of Pittheus born, and large-eyed Clymene.

Others reject this verse as none of Homer's, as they do likewise the

whole fable of Munychus, who, the story says, was the son of Demophon

and Laodice, born secretly, and brought up by Aethra at Troy. But

Ister, in the thirteenth book of his Attic History, gives us an account

of Aethra, different yet from all the 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 Aethra 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, accidentally 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 inglorious 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

Philochorus 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 generally 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, despairing of any good success of his affairs in

Athens, he sent away his children privately to Euboea, 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 Araterion, 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. Theseus, 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

assistance against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, 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 pretense of showing him from thence

the lands that he desired, threw him headlong down from the rock, and

killed him. 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 his 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, beside 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 Athenians, 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 find out the place where they lay, on

account of the inhospitable and savage temper of the barbarous people

that inhabited 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 ordinary

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 with 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 sanctuary and

refuge for slaves, and all those of mean condition that fly from the

persecution 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 him. The chief and most solemn

sacrifice which they celebrate to him is kept on the eighth day of

Pyanepsion, on which he returned with the Athenian young men from Crete.

Besides which, they sacrifice to him on the eighth day of every month,

either because he returned from Troezen the eighth day of Hecatombaeon,

as Diodorus the geographer writes, or else thinking that number to be

proper to him, because he was reputed to be born of Neptune, because

they sacrifice to Neptune on the eighth day of every month. The number

eight being the first cube of an even number, and the double of the

first square, seemed to be an emblem of the steadfast and immovable

power of this god, who from thence has the names of Asphalius and

Gaeiochus, that is, the establisher and stayer of the earth.

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, wandering over

the greater part of the habitable world, and subduing numerous nations,

fixed themselves 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 women, out of heart and weary with the sea,

on its being proposed by one of the highest birth and best understanding

amongst 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 entreating and pacifying their husbands.

Some again say that Roma, from whom this city was so called, was

daughter of Italus and Leucaria; or, by another account, of Telephus,

Hercules's son, and that she was married to Aeneas, or, according to

others again, to Ascanius, Aeneas'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, who had come from Thessaly

into Lydia, and from thence into Italy. Those very authors, too, who,

in accordance with the safest account, make Romulus give the name to the

city, yet differ concerning his birth and family. For some say, he was

son to Aeneas and Dexithea, daughter of Phorbas, 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 Aemilia, daughter of

Aeneas and Lavinia, had him by the god Mars; and others give you mere

fables of his origin. For to Tarchetius, they say, 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 answer 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 commanded

her to do this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity, sent her

handmaid. Tarchetius, hearing this, in great anger 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

meantime, 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 came and

continued to suckle them, while birds of various sorts brought little

morsels of food, which 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 they were saved, and,

when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and overcame him. This one

Promathion 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 its chief particulars, amongst the

Greeks by Diocles 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 Aeneas and the

succession 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 kingdom; 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, discovered 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 without 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 Faustulus was the

man who brought them up. He put the children, 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, and, gently

wafting it, landed them on a smooth piece of ground, which they now call

Cermanes, formerly Germanus, perhaps 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 of the day seek cover under it,

and there chew the cud; or, better, from the suckling of these children

there, for the ancients called the dug or teat of any creature ruma, and

there is a tutelar goddess of the rearing of children whom they still

call 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 constantly fed and watched them;

these creatures are esteemed holy to the god Mars, the woodpecker 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 mistake 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 lupae, 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 himself

beaten. Wishing to pay his stakes honorably, and holding 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 in 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 commanded her in

the morning to walk to the market-place, and, whatever man see met

first, to salute him, and make him her friend. She met one named

Tarrutius, who was a man advanced in years, fairly rich without

children, and had always lived a single life. He received Larentia, and

loved her 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 testament,

bequeathed to the people. It was reported of her, being now celebrated

and esteemed the mistress of a god, that she suddenly disappeared near

the place where the first 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 Maximus with sails, beginning at this spot.

Upon these accounts the second Larentia is honored at Rome.

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 ruma, the dug,) as we had before,

because they were found sucking the wolf. In their very infancy, the size

and beauty of their bodies intimated their natural superiority; and when

they grew up, they both proved brave and manly, attempting all

enterprises that seemed hazardous, and showing in them a courage

altogether undaunted. But Romulus seemed rather to act by counsel, and

to show the sagacity of a statesman, 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 the 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 between Numitor's and Amulius's cowherds, the

latter, not enduring the driving away of their cattle by the others,

fell upon them and put them to flight, and rescued 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 herdsmen, meeting with Remus

on a journey with few companions, fell upon him, and, after some

fighting, took him prisoner, carried him before Numitor, and there

accused him. Numitor would not punish him himself, 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 thinking he had been dishonorably

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 stature and

strength of body exceeding all men, and perceiving in his very

countenance the courage and force of his mind, which stood unsubdued and

unmoved by his present circumstances, and hearing further 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 hope, 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. Formerly, then, we (for we are twins) thought ourselves

the sons of Faustulus and Larentia, the king's servants; 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 present 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 effaced; which may prove hereafter unavailing tokens

to our parents when we are dead and gone." Numitor, upon these words,

and computing the dates by the young man's looks, slighted 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 plainly of the particulars

of his birth, not but he had before given hints of it, and told as much

as an attentive man might make no small conclusions from; he himself,

full of concern and fear of not coming in time, took the trough, and ran

instantly 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 children, and was one employed in the office; he, seeing the

trough and knowing it by its make and inscription, guessed at the

business, and, without further delay, telling the king of it, brought 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 confirmation 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 commands 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 and 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 citizens, 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 manipuli and from hence it is 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 Diocles of Peparethus,

who seem to be the earliest historians of the foundation of Rome, is

suspected by some, because of its dramatic and fictitious appearance;

but it would not wholly be disbelieved, if men would remember what a

poet fortune sometimes shows herself, and consider that 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, the two brothers

would neither dwell in Alba without governing there, 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 departure; 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, because they

could not get wives by good-will. For they certainly 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

Asylaeus, 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

consisted at first of no more than a thousand houses.

But of that hereafter.

Their minds being fully bent upon building, there arose presently a

difference about the place where. Romulus chose what was called Roma

Quadrata, or the Square Rome, and would have the city there. Remus laid

out a piece of ground on the Aventine Mount, well fortified by nature,

which was from 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 the number; others say Remus did truly see

his number, and that Romulus feigned his, but, when Remus came to him,

that then he did, indeed, see twelve. Hence it is that the Romans, in

their divinations from birds, chiefly regard the vulture, though

Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules was always very joyful when a

vulture appeared to him upon any action. For it is a 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 them, though they are dead, as being of its

own species, whereas eagles, owls, and hawks mangle and kill their own

fellow-creatures; yet, as Aeschylus 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 vulture 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 citywall, he

turned some pieces of the work to ridicule, and obstructed others: at

last, as he was in contempt 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's 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 foot Celeres; and because Quintus Metellus, at his

father's funeral, in a few days' time gave the people a show of

gladiators, admiring his expedition in getting it ready, they gave him

the name of Celer.

Romulus, having buried his brother Remus, 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

them in promiscuously together. This trench they call, as they do the

heavens, Mundus; making which their center, they described the city in a

circle round it. Then the founder fitted to a plow a brazen plowshare,

and, 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 let any clod lie outside. With

this line they described the wall, and called it, by a contraction,

Pomoerium, that is, post murum, after or beside the wall; and where they

designed to make a gate, there they took out the share, carried the plow

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 offense to religion, have given free

ingress and egress for the necessaries of human life, some of which are

in themselves unclean.

As for the day 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 birthday. At first, they say,

they sacrificed no living creature on this day, thinking it fit to

preserve the feast of their country's birthday pure and without stain

of blood. Yet before ever the city was built, there was a feast of

herdsmen and shepherds kept on this day, which went by the name of

Palilia. The Roman and Greek months have now little or no agreement;

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 conceive 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 nativity, even to the

first day and hour, making his deductions from the several events of the

man's life which he should be informed of, exactly as in working back a

geometrical problem; 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 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 he was born the twenty-first

day of the month Thoth, 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,

they 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; one

hundred of the most eminent he chose for counselors; these he styled

patricians, 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 of 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 senators the style of lords; but the Romans, making use of a more

honorable and less invidious name, call them Patres Conscripti; 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 between them, productive of great

justice in their dealings. For they were always their clients'

counselors in law cases, their advocates in courts of justice, in fine

their advisers and supporters in all affairs whatever. 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 a client against his patron, was what no law nor

magistrate could enforce. In after times all other duties subsisting

still between them, it was thought mean and dishonorable for the better

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

accounts 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 probable; 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,

either the god of counsel (for they still call a consultation consilium

and their chief magistrates consules, namely, counselors), 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,

Romulus, 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 sat in front, amidst his nobles, clad

in purple. Now the signal for their falling on was to be whenever he

rose and gathered up his robe and threw it over his body; his men stood

all ready armed, with their eyes intent upon him, and when the sign 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 Curiae or Fraternities were named; but Valerius Antias

says five hundred and twenty-seven, Juba, six hundred and eighty-three

virgins; which was indeed the greatest excuse Romulus could allege,

namely, that they had taken no married woman, save one only, Hersilia by

name, and her too unknowingly; which showed 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

contradicted 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 of

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 commended and applauded

them loudly, 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 Romulus gave this word

as a sign when to begin the onset; everybody, therefore, who made prize

of a maiden, cried out, Talasius; and for that reason the custom

continues so now at marriages. But most are of opinion (of whom Juba

particularly 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 this be the case, and if the Romans did at that 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 Romans, were

reconciled, conditions were made concerning their women, that they

should be obliged to do no other servile offices to their husbands but

what concerned spinning; 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 husband'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 marriages began at first by war and acts of hostility, of

which I have 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 lawful 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 insufferable, were he not

chastised, first rose up in arms, and with a powerful army advanced

against him. Romulus likewise prepared to receive him; but when they

came within sight and viewed each other, they made a challenge to fight

a single duel, the armies standing by under arms, without participation.

And 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

demolish the place and attend him to Rome, there to be admitted to all

the privileges of citizens. And indeed there was nothing 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 the 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-garland, 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 Romulus 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

Tolumnius 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 Romulus 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 Sabines still

protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae,

Crustumerium, and Antemna, joined their forces against the Romans; they

in like manner were defeated in battle, and surrendered up to Romulus

their cities to be seized, their lands and territories to be divided,

and themselves to be transplanted to Rome. All the lands which Romulus

acquired, he distributed among the citizens, except only what the

parents of the stolen virgins had; these he suffered to possess their

own. The rest of the Sabines, enraged hereat, choosing Tatius their

captain, marched straight against Rome. The city was almost

inaccessible, having for its fortress that which is now the Capitol,

where a strong guard was placed, and Tarpeius their captain; not Tarpeia

the virgin, as some say who would make Romulus a fool. But Tarpeia,

daughter to the captain, coveting the golden bracelets she saw them

wear, betrayed the fort into the Sabines' hands, and asked, in reward of

her treachery, 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 Sabines 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 feeling 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 of 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 prosecuted by Romulus, was found guilty of treason, as

Juba says Sulpicius Galba relates. Those who write otherwise concerning

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 close thereby,

Laid open Rome unto the enemy.

She, for the love of the besieging Gaul,

Betrayed the city's strength, the Capitol.

And 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.

Tarpeia afterwards was buried there, and the hill from her was called

Tarpeius, until the reign of king Tarquin, who dedicated the place to

Jupiter, at which time her bones were removed, and so it lost her name,

except only that part of the Capitol which they still call 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 it, 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 hills, seemed to enforce both parties to a sharp and

desperate conflict, 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 it did not appear much to the eye, and was

not easily avoided, at bottom was deceitful and dangerous; upon which

the Sabines being unwarily about 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 galloping on before the rest,

and mired his horse here, and, endeavoring for awhile by whip and spur

and voice to disentangle him, but finding it impossible, quitted him 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 Hostilius, who, they say, was husband to

Hersilia, and grandfather 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 the ground by it, and

disabled, the Romans gave way, and, being driven out of the level

ground, fled towards the Palatium. Romulus, by this time recovering

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, and nobody daring to face about,

stretching out his hands to heaven, he prayed to Jupiter 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 their

king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into

confidence. The place they first stood at was where now is the temple

of Jupiter Stator (which may be 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 defying 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 between 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 compassion? If you were

making war upon any other occasion, 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 and kindred,

but do not rob us of our children and husbands. Make us not, we entreat

you, twice captives." Hersilia having spoken many such words as these,

and the others earnestly praying, a truce was made, and the chief

officers came to a parley; the women, in the mean time, brought and

presented their husbands and children to their fathers and brothers;

gave those that wanted, meat and drink, and carried the wounded home to

be cured, and showed also how much they governed within doors, and how

indulgent their husbands were to them, in demeaning themselves towards

them with all kindness and respect imaginable. Upon this, conditions

were agreed upon, that what women pleased might stay where they were,

exempt, as aforesaid, from all drudgery and labor but spinning; that the

Romans and Sabines should inhabit the city together; that the city

should be called Rome, from Romulus; but the Romans, Quirites, from the

country of Tatius; and that they both should govern and command in

common. The place of the ratification is still called Comitium,

from coire, to meet.

The city being thus doubled in number, one hundred of the Sabines were

elected senators, and the legions were increased to six thousand foot

and six hundred horse; then they divided the people into three tribes;

the first, from Romulus, named Ramnenses; the second, from Tatius,

Tatienses; the third, Luceres, from the lucus, or grove, where the

Asylum stood, whither many fled for sanctuary, and were received into

the city. And that they were just three, the very name of tribe and

tribune seems to show; each tribe contained ten curiae, or brotherhoods,

which, some say, took their names from the Sabine women; but that seems

to be false, because many had their names from various places. Though

it is true, they then constituted many things in honor to the women; as

to give them the way wherever they met them; to speak no ill word in

their presence; not to appear naked before them, or else be liable to

prosecution before the judges of homicide; that their children should

wear an ornament about their necks called the bulla (because it was like

a bubble), and the praetexta, a gown edged with purple.

The princes did not immediately join in council together, but at first

each met with his own hundred; afterwards all assembled together.

Tatius dwelt where now the temple of Moneta stands, and Romulus, close

by the steps, as they call them, of the Fair Shore, near the descent

from the Mount Palatine to the Circus Maximus. There, they say, grew

the holy cornel tree, of which they report, that Romulus once, to try

his strength, threw a dart from the Aventine Mount, the staff of which

was made of cornel, which struck so deep into the ground, that no one of

many that tried could pluck it up; and the soil, being fertile, gave

nourishment to the wood, which sent forth branches, and produced a

cornel-stock of considerable bigness. This did posterity preserve and

worship as one of the most sacred things; and, therefore, walled it

about; and if to any one it appeared not green nor flourishing, but

inclining to pine and wither, he immediately made outcry to all he met,

and they, like people hearing of a house on fire, with one accord would

cry for water, and run from all parts with buckets full to the place.

But when Caius Caesar, they say, was repairing the steps about it, some

of the laborers digging too close, the roots were destroyed,

and the tree withered.

The Sabines adopted the Roman months, of which whatever is remarkable is

mentioned in the Life of Numa. Romulus, on the other hand, adopted

their long shields, and changed his own armor and that of all the

Romans, who before wore round targets of the Argive pattern. Feasts and

sacrifices they partook of in common, not abolishing any which either

nation observed before, and instituting several new ones; of which one

was the Matronalia, instituted in honor of the women. for their

extinction of the war; likewise the Carmentalia. This Carmenta some

think a deity presiding over human birth; for which reason she is much

honored by mothers. Others say she was the wife of Evander, the

Arcadian, being a prophetess, and wont to deliver her oracles in verse,

and from carmen, a verse, was called Carmenta; her proper name being

Nicostrata. Others more probably derive Carmenta from carens mente, or

insane, in allusion to her prophetic frenzies. Of the Feast of Palilia

we have spoken before. The Lupercalia, by the time of its celebration,

may seem to be a feast of purification, for it is solemnized on the dies

nefasti, or non-court days, of the month February, which name signifies

purification, and the very day of the feast was anciently called

Februata; but its name is equivalent to the Greek Lycaea; and it seems

thus to be of great antiquity, and brought in by the Arcadians who came

with Evander. Yet this is but dubious, for it may come as well from the

wolf that nursed Romulus; and we see the Luperci, the priests, begin

their course from the place where they say Romulus was exposed. But the

ceremonies performed in it render the origin of the thing more difficult

to be guessed at; for there are goats killed, then, two young noblemen's

sons being brought, some are to stain their foreheads with the bloody

knife, others presently to wipe it off with wool dipped in milk; then

the young boys must laugh after their foreheads are wiped; that done,

having cut the goats' skins into thongs, they run about naked, only with

something about their middle, lashing all they meet; and the young wives

do not avoid their strokes, fancying they will help conception and

child-birth. Another thing peculiar to this feast is for the Luperci to

sacrifice a dog. But as, a certain poet who wrote fabulous explanations

of Roman customs in elegiac verses, says, that Romulus and Remus, after

the conquest of Amulius, ran joyfully to the place where the wolf gave

them suck; and that in imitation of that, this feast was held,

and two young noblemen ran--

Striking at all, as when from Alba town,

With sword in hand, the twins came hurrying down;

and that the bloody knife applied to their foreheads was a sign of the

danger and bloodshed of that day; the cleansing of them in milk, a

remembrance of their food and nourishment. Caius Acilius writes, that,

before the city was built, the cattle of Romulus and Remus one day going

astray, they, praying to the god Faunus, ran out to seek them naked,

wishing not to be troubled with sweat, and that this is why the Luperci

run naked. If the sacrifice be by way of purification, a dog might very

well be sacrificed; for the Greeks, in their lustrations, carry out

young dogs, and frequently use this ceremony of periscylacismus as they

call it. Or if again it is a sacrifice of gratitude to the wolf that

nourished and preserved Romulus, there is good reason in killing a dog,

as being an enemy to wolves. Unless indeed, after all, the creature is

punished for hindering the Luperci in their running.

They say, too, Romulus was the first that consecrated holy fire, and

instituted holy virgins to keep it, called vestals; others ascribe it to

Numa Pompilius; agreeing, however, that Romulus was otherwise eminently

religious, and skilled in divination, and for that reason carried the

lituus, a crooked rod with which soothsayers describe the quarters of

the heavens, when they sit to observe the flights of birds. This of

his, being kept in the Palatium, was lost when the city was taken by the

Gauls; and afterwards, that barbarous people being driven out, was found

in the ruins, under a great heap of ashes, untouched by the fire, all

things about it being consumed and burnt. He instituted also certain

laws, one of which is somewhat severe, which suffers not a wife to leave

her husband, but grants a husband power to turn off his wife, either

upon poisoning her children; or counterfeiting his keys, or for

adultery; but if the husband upon any other occasion put her away, he

ordered one moiety of his estate to be given to the wife, the other to

fall to the goddess Ceres; and whoever cast off his wife, to make an

atonement by sacrifice to the gods of the dead. This, too, is

observable as a singular thing in Romulus, that he appointed no

punishment for real parricide, but called all murder so, thinking the

one an accursed thing, but the other a thing impossible; and, for a long

time, his judgment seemed to have been right; for in almost six hundred

years together, nobody committed the like in Rome; and Lucius Hostius,

after the wars of Hanibal, is recorded to have been the first parricide.

Let thus much suffice concerning these matters.

In the fifth year of the reign of Tatius, some of his friends and

kinsmen, meeting ambassadors coming from Laurentum to Rome, attempted on

the road to take away their money by force, and, upon their resistance,

killed them. So great a villainy having been committed, Romulus thought

the malefactors ought at once to be punished, but Tatius shuffled off

and deferred the execution of it; and this one thing was the beginning

of open quarrel between them; in all other respects they were very

careful of their conduct, and administered affairs together with great

unanimity. The relations of the slain, being debarred of lawful

satisfaction by reason of Tatius, fell upon him as he was sacrificing

with Romulus at Lavinium, and slew him; but escorted Romulus home,

commending and extolling him for a just prince. Romulus took the body

of Tatius, and buried it very splendidly in the Aventine Mount, near the

place called Armilustrium, but altogether neglected revenging his

murder. Some authors write, the city of Laurentum, fearing the

consequence, delivered up the murderers of Tatius; but Romulus dismissed

them, saying, one murder was requited with another. This gave occasion

of talk and jealousy, as if he were well pleased at the removal of his

copartner in the government. Nothing of these things, however, raised

any sort of feud or disturbance among the Sabines; but some out of love

to him, others out of fear of his power, some again reverencing him as a

god, they all continued living peacefully in admiration and awe of him;

many foreign nations, too, showed respect to Romulus; the Ancient Latins

sent, and entered into league and confederacy with him. Fidenae he

took, a neighboring city to Rome, by a party of horse, as some say, whom

he sent before with commands to cut down the hinges of the gates,

himself afterwards unexpectedly coming up. Others say, they having

first made the invasion, plundering and ravaging the country and

suburbs, Romulus lay in ambush for them, and, having killed many of

their men, took the city; but, nevertheless, did not raze or demolish

it, but made it a Roman colony, and sent thither, on the Ides of April,

two thousand five hundred inhabitants.

Soon after a plague broke out, causing sudden death without any previous

sickness; it infected also the corn with unfruitfulness, and cattle with

barrenness; there rained blood, too, in the city; so that, to their

actual sufferings, fear of the wrath of the gods was added. But when

the same mischiefs fell upon Laurentum, then everybody judged it was

divine vengeance that fell upon both cities, for the neglect of

executing justice upon the murder of Tatius and the ambassadors. But

the murderers on both sides being delivered up and punished, the

pestilence visibly abated; and Romulus purified the cities with

lustrations, which, they say, even now are performed at the wood called

Ferentina. But before the plague ceased, the Camertines invaded the

Romans and overran the country, thinking them, by reason of the

distemper, unable to resist; but Romulus at once made head against them,

and gained the victory, with the slaughter of six thousand men; then

took their city, and brought half of those he found there to Rome;

sending from Rome to Camerium double the number he left there. This was

done the first of August. So many citizens had he to spare, in sixteen

years' time from his first founding Rome. Among other spoils, he took a

brazen four-horse chariot from Camerium, which he placed in the temple

of Vulcan, setting on it his own statue,

with a figure of Victory crowning him.

The Roman cause thus daily gathering strength, their weaker neighbors

shrunk away, and were thankful to be left untouched; but the stronger,

out of fear or envy, thought they ought not to give way to Romulus, but

to curb and put a stop to his growing greatness. The first were the

Veientes, a people of Tuscany, who had large possessions, and dwelt in a

spacious city; they took occasion to commence a war, by claiming Fidenae

as belonging to them; a thing not only very unreasonable, but very

ridiculous, that they, who did not assist them in the greatest

extremities, but permitted them to be slain, should challenge their

lands and houses when in the hands of others. But being scornfully

retorted upon by Romulus in his answers, they divided themselves into

two bodies; with one they attacked the garrison of Fidenae, the other

marched against Romulus; that which went against Fidenae got the

victory, and slew two thousand Romans; the other was worsted by Romulus,

with the loss of eight thousand men. A fresh battle was fought near

Fidenae, and here all men acknowledge the day's success to have been

chiefly the work of Romulus himself, who showed the highest skill as

well as courage, and seemed to manifest a strength and swiftness more

than human. But what some write, that, of fourteen thousand that fell

that day, above half were slain by Romulus's own hand, verges too near

to fable, and is, indeed, simply incredible; since even the Messenians

are thought to go too far in saying that Aristomenes three times offered

sacrifice for the death of a hundred enemies, Lacedaemonians, slain by

himself. The army being thus routed, Romulus, suffering those that were

left to make their escape, led his forces against the city; they, having

suffered such great losses, did not venture to oppose, but, humbly suing

to him, made a league and friendship for an hundred years; surrendering

also a large district of land called Septempagium, that is, the seven

parts, as also their salt-works upon the river, and fifty noblemen for

hostages. He made his triumph for this on the Ides of October, leading,

among the rest of his many captives, the general of the Veientes, an

elderly man, but who had not, it seemed, acted with the prudence of age;

whence even now, in sacrifices for victories, they lead an old man

through the market place to the Capitol, appareled in purple, with a

bulla, or child's toy, tied to it, and the crier cries, Sardians to be

sold; for the Tuscans are said to be a colony of the Sardians, and the

Veientes are a city of Tuscany.

This was the last battle Romulus ever fought; afterwards he, as most,

nay all men, very few excepted, do, who are raised by great and

miraculous good-haps of fortune to power and greatness, so, I say, did

he; relying upon his own great actions, and growing of an haughtier

mind, he forsook his popular behavior for kingly arrogance, odious to

the people; to whom in particular the state which he assumed was

hateful. For he dressed in scarlet, with the purple-bordered robe over

it; he gave audience on a couch of state, having always about him some

young men called Celeres, from their swiftness in doing commissions;

there went before him others with staves, to make room, with leather

thongs tied on their bodies, to bind on the moment whomever he

commanded. The Latins formerly used ligare in the same sense as now

alligare, to bind, whence the name lictors, for these officers, and

bacula, or staves, for their rods, because staves were then used. It is

probable, however, they were first called litores, afterwards, by

putting in a c, lictores, or, in Greek, liturgi, or people's officers,

for leitos is still Greek for the commons,

and laos for the people in general.

But when, after the death of his grandfather Numitor in Alba, the throne

devolving upon Romulus, he, to court the people, put the government into

their own hands, and appointed an annual magistrate over the Albans,

this taught the great men of Rome to seek after a free and anti-

monarchical state, wherein all might in turn be subjects and rulers.

For neither were the patricians any longer admitted to state affairs,

only had the name and title left them, convening in council rather for

fashion's sake than advice, where they heard in silence the king's

commands, and so departed, exceeding the commonalty only in hearing

first what was done. These and the like were matters of small moment;

but when he of his own accord parted among his soldiers what lands were

acquired by war, and restored the Veientes their hostages, the senate

neither consenting nor approving of it, then, indeed, he seemed to put a

great affront upon them; so that, on his sudden and strange

disappearance a short while after, the senate fell under suspicion and

calumny. He disappeared on the Nones of July, as they now call the month

which was then Quintilis, leaving nothing of certainty to be related of

his death; only the time, as just mentioned, for on that day many

ceremonies are still performed in representation of what happened.

Neither is this uncertainty to be thought strange, seeing the manner of

the death of Scipio Africanus, who died at his own home after supper,

has been found capable neither of proof or disproof; for some say he

died a natural death, being of a sickly habit; others, that he poisoned

himself; others again, that his enemies, breaking in upon him in the

night, stifled him. Yet Scipio's dead body lay open to be seen of all,

and any one, from his own observation, might form his suspicions and

conjectures; whereas Romulus, when he vanished, left neither the least

part of his body, nor any remnant of his clothes to be seen. So that

some fancied, the senators, having fallen upon him ill the temple of

Vulcan, cut his body into pieces, and took each a part away in his

bosom; others think his disappearance was neither in the temple of

Vulcan, nor with the senators only by, but that, it came to pass that,

as he was haranguing the people without the city, near a place called

the Goat's Marsh, on a sudden strange and unaccountable disorders and

alterations took place in the air; the face of the sun was darkened, and

the day turned into night, and that, too, no quiet, peaceable night, but

with terrible thunderings, and boisterous winds from all quarters;

during which the common people dispersed and fled, but the senators kept

close together. The tempest being over and the light breaking out, when

the people gathered again, they missed and inquired for their king; the

senators suffered them not to search, or busy themselves about the

matter, but commanded them to honor and worship Romulus as one taken up

to the gods, and about to be to them, in the place of a good prince, now

a propitious god. The multitude, hearing this, went away believing and

rejoicing in hopes of good things from him; but there were some, who,

canvassing the matter in a hostile temper, accused and aspersed the

patricians, as men that persuaded the people to believe ridiculous

tales, when they themselves were the murderers of the king.

Things being in this disorder, one, they say, of the patricians, of

noble family and approved good character, and a faithful and familiar

friend of Romulus himself, having come with him from Alba, Julius

Proculus by name, presented himself in the forum; and, taking a most

sacred oath, protested before them all, that, as he was traveling on the

road, he had seen Romulus coming to meet him, looking taller and

comelier than ever, dressed in shining and faming armor; and he, being

affrighted at the apparition, said, "Why, O king, or for what purpose

have you abandoned us to unjust and wicked surmises, and the whole city

to bereavement and endless sorrow?" and that he made answer, "It

pleased the gods, O Proculus, that we, who came from them, should remain

so long a time amongst men as we did; and, having built a city to be the

greatest in the world for empire and glory, should again return to

heaven. But farewell; and tell the Romans, that, by the exercise of

temperance and fortitude, they shall attain the height of human power;

we will be to you the propitious god Quirinus." This seemed credible to

the Romans, upon the honesty and oath of the relater, and indeed, too,

there mingled with it a certain divine passion, some preternatural

influence similar to possession by a divinity; nobody contradicted it,

but, laying aside all jealousies and detractions, they prayed to

Quirinus and saluted him as a god.

This is like some of the Greek fables of Aristeas the Proconnesian, and

Cleomedes the Astypalaean; for they say Aristeas died in a fuller's

work-shop, and his friends, coming to look for him, found his body

vanished; and that some presently after, coming from abroad, said they

met him traveling towards Croton. And that Cleomedes, being an

extraordinarily strong and gigantic man, but also wild and mad,

committed many desperate freaks; and at last, in a school-house,

striking a pillar that sustained the roof with his fist, broke it in the

middle, so that the house fell and destroyed the children in it; and

being pursued, he fled into a great chest, and, shutting to the lid,

held it so fast, that many men, with their united strength, could not

force it open; afterwards, breaking the chest to pieces, they found no

man in it alive or dead; in astonishment at which, they sent to consult

the oracle at Delphi; to whom the prophetess made this answer,

Of all the heroes, Cleomede is last.

They say, too, the body of Alcmena, as they were carrying her to her

grave, vanished, and a stone was found lying on the bier. And many such

improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying creatures

naturally mortal; for though altogether to disown a divine nature in

human virtue were impious and base, so again to mix heaven with earth is

ridiculous. Let us believe with Pindar, that

All human bodies yield to Death's decree,

The soul survives to all eternity.

For that alone is derived from the gods, thence comes, and thither

returns; not with the body, but when most disengaged and separated from

it, and when most entirely pure and clean and free from the flesh; for

the most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out

of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud; but that which is clogged

and surfeited with body is like gross and humid incense, slow to kindle

and ascend. We must not, therefore, contrary to nature, send the

bodies, too, of good men to heaven; but we must really believe that,

according to their divine nature and law, their virtue and their souls

are translated out of men into heroes, out of heroes into demi-gods, out

of demi-gods, after passing, as in the rite of initiation, through a

final cleansing and sanctification, and so freeing themselves from all

that pertains to mortality and sense, are thus, not by human decree, but

really and according to right reason, elevated into gods, admitted thus

to the greatest and most blessed perfection.

Romulus's surname Quirinus, some say, is equivalent to Mars; others,

that he was so called because the citizens were called Quirites; others,

because the ancients called a dart or spear Quiris; thus, the statue of

Juno resting on a spear is called Quiritis, and the dart in the Regia is

addressed as Mars, and those that were distinguished in war were usually

presented with a dart; that, therefore, Romulus, being a martial god, or

a god of darts, was called Quirinus. A temple is certainly built to his

honor on the mount called from him Quirinalis.

The day he vanished on is called the Flight of the People, and the Nones

of the Goats, because they go then out of the city, and sacrifice at

the Goat's Marsh, and, as they go, they shout out some of the Roman

names, as Marcus, Lucius, Caius, imitating the way in which they then

fled and called upon one another in that fright and hurry. Some,

however, say, this was not in imitation of a flight, but of a quick and

hasty onset, referring it to the following occasion: after the Gauls who

had taken Rome were driven out by Camillus, and the city was scarcely as

yet recovering her strength, many of the Latins, under the command of

Livius Postumius, took this time to march against her. Postumius,

halting not far from Rome, sent a herald, signifying that the Latins

were desirous to renew their former alliance and affinity (that was now

almost decayed) by contracting new marriages between both nations; if,

therefore, they would send forth a good number of their virgins and

widows, they should have peace and friendship, such as the Sabines had

formerly had on the like conditions. The Romans, hearing this, dreaded

a war, yet thought a surrender of their women little better than mere

captivity. Being in this doubt, a servant-maid called Philotis (or, as

some say, Tutola), advised them to do neither, but, by a stratagem,

avoid both fighting and the giving up of such pledges. The stratagem

was this, that they should send herself, with other well-looking

servant-maids, to the enemy, in the dress of free-born virgins, and she

should in the night light up a fire-signal, at which the Romans should

come armed and surprise them asleep. The Latins were thus deceived, and

accordingly Philotis set up a torch in a wild fig-tree, screening it

behind with curtains and coverlets from the sight of the enemy, while

visible to the Romans. They, when they saw it, eagerly ran out of the

gates, calling in their haste to each other as they went out, and so,

falling in unexpectedly upon the enemy, they defeated them, and upon

that made a feast of triumph, called the Nones of the Goats, because of

the wild fig-tree, called by the Romans Caprificus, or the goat-fig.

They feast the women without the city in arbors made of fig-tree boughs

and the maid-servants gather together and run about playing; afterwards

they fight in sport, and throw stones one at another, in memory that

they then aided and assisted the Roman men in fight. This only a few

authors admit for true; For the calling upon one another's names by day

and the going out to the Goat's Marsh to do sacrifice seem to agree more

with the former story, unless, indeed, we shall say that both the

actions might have happened on the same day in different years. It was

in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the thirty-eighth of his reign

that Romulus, they tell us, left the world.

This is what I have learnt of Romulus and Theseus, worthy of memory. It

seems, first of all, that Theseus, out of his own free-will, without any

compulsion, when he might have reigned in security at Troezen in the

enjoyment of no inglorious empire, of his own motion affected great

actions, whereas the other, to escape present servitude and a punishment

that threatened him, (according to Plato's phrase) grew valiant purely

out of fear, and dreading the extremest inflictions, attempted great

enterprises out of mere necessity. Again, his greatest action was only

the killing of one king of Alba; while, as mere by-adventures and

preludes, the other can name Sciron, Sinnis, Procrustes, and Corynetes;

by reducing and killing of whom, he rid Greece of terrible oppressors,

before any of them that were relieved knew who did it; moreover, he

might without any trouble as well have gone to Athens by sea,

considering he himself never was in the least injured by those robbers;

where as Romulus could not but be in trouble whilst Amulius lived. Add

to this the fact that Theseus, for no wrong done to himself, but for the

sake of others, fell upon these villains; but Romulus and Remus, as long

as they themselves suffered no ill by the tyrant, permitted him to

oppress all others. And if it be a great thing to have been wounded in

battle by the Sabines, to have killed king Acron, and to have conquered

many enemies, we may oppose to these actions the battle with the

Centaurs and the feats done against the Amazons. But what Theseus

adventured, in offering himself voluntarily with young boys and virgins,

as part of the tribute unto Crete, either to be a prey to a monster or a

victim upon the tomb of Androgeus, or, according to the mildest form of

the story, to live vilely and dishonorably in slavery to insulting and

cruel men; it is not to be expressed what an act of courage,

magnanimity, or justice to the public, or of love for honor and bravery,

that was. So that methinks the philosophers did not ill define love to

be the provision of the gods for the care and preservation of the young;

for the love of Ariadne, above all, seems to have been the proper work

and design of some god in order to preserve Theseus; and, indeed, we

ought not to blame her for loving him, but rather wonder all men and

women were not alike affected towards him; and if she alone were so.

truly I dare pronounce her worthy of the love of a god, who was herself

so great a lover of virtue and goodness, and the bravest man.

Both Theseus and Romulus were by nature meant for governors; yet neither

lived up to the true character of a king, but fell off, and ran, the one

into popularity, the other into tyranny, falling both into the same

fault out of different passions. For a ruler's first end is to maintain

his office, which is done no less by avoiding what is unfit than by

observing what is suitable. Whoever is either too remiss or too strict

is no more a king or a governor, but either a demagogue or a despot, and

so becomes either odious or contemptible to his subjects. Though

certainly the one seems to be the fault of easiness and good-nature, the

other of pride and severity.

If men's calamities, again, are not to be wholly imputed to fortune, but

refer themselves to differences of character, who will acquit either

Theseus of rash and unreasonable anger against his son, or Romulus

against his brother? Looking at motives, we more easily excuse the

anger which a stronger cause, like a severer blow, provoked. Romulus,

having disagreed with his brother advisedly and deliberately on public

matters, one would think could not on a sudden have been put into so

great a passion; but love and jealousy and the complaints of his wife,

which few men can avoid being moved by, seduced Theseus to commit that

outrage upon his son. And what is more, Romulus, in his anger,

committed an action of unfortunate consequence; but that of Theseus

ended only in words, some evil speaking, and an old man's curse; the

rest of the youth's disasters seem to have proceeded from fortune; so

that, so far, a man would give his vote on Theseus's part.

But Romulus has, first of all, one great plea, that his performances

proceeded from very small beginnings; for both the brothers being

thought servants and the sons of swineherds, before becoming freemen

themselves, gave liberty to almost all the Latins, obtaining at once all

the most honorable titles, as destroyers of their country's enemies,

preservers of their friends and kindred, princes of the people, founders

of cities, not removers, like Theseus, who raised and compiled only one

house out of many, demolishing many cities bearing the names of ancient

kings and heroes. Romulus, indeed, did the same afterwards, forcing his

enemies to deface and ruin their own dwellings, and to sojourn with

their conquerors; but at first, not by removal, or increase of an

existing city, but by foundation of a new one, he obtained himself

lands, a country, a kingdom, wives, children, and relations. And, in so

doing, he killed or destroyed nobody, but benefited those that wanted

houses and homes and were willing to be of a society and become

citizens. Robbers and malefactors he slew not; but he subdued nations,

he overthrew cities, he triumphed over kings and commanders. As to

Remus, it is doubtful by whose hand he fell; it is generally imputed to

others. His mother he clearly retrieved from death, and placed his

grandfather who was brought under base and dishonorable vassalage, on

the ancient throne of Aeneas, to whom he did voluntarily many good

offices, but never did him harm even inadvertently. But Theseus, in his

forgetfulness and neglect of the command concerning the flag, can

scarcely, methinks, by any excuses, or before the most indulgent judges,

avoid the imputation of parricide. And, indeed, one of the Attic

writers, perceiving it to be very hard to make an excuse for this,

feigns that Aegeus, at the approach of the ship, running hastily to the

Acropolis to see what news, slipped and fell down, as if he had no

servants, or none would attend him on his way to the shore.

And, indeed, the faults committed in the rapes of women admit of no

plausible excuse in Theseus. First, because of the often repetition of

the crime; for he stole Ariadne, Antiope, Anaxo the Troezenian, at last

Helen, when he was an old man, and she not marriageable; she a child,

and he at an age past even lawful wedlock. Then, on account of the

cause; for the Troezenian, Lacedaemonian, and Amazonian virgins, beside

that they were not betrothed to him, were not worthier to raise children

by than the Athenian women, derived from Erechtheus and Cecrops; but it

is to be suspected these things were done out of wantonness and lust.

Romulus, when he had taken near eight hundred women, chose not all, but

only Hersilia, as they say, for himself; the rest he divided among the

chief of the city; and afterwards, by the respect and tenderness and

justice shown towards them, he made it clear that this violence and

injury was a commendable and politic exploit to establish a society; by

which he intermixed and united both nations, and made it the fountain of

after friendship and public stability. And to the reverence and love

and constancy he established in matrimony, time can witness; for in two

hundred and thirty years, neither any husband deserted his wife, nor any

wife her husband; but, as the curious among the Greeks can name the

first case of parricide or matricide, so the Romans all well know that

Spurius Carvilius was the first who put away his wife, accusing her of

barrenness. The immediate results were similar; for upon those

marriages the two princes shared in the dominion, and both nations fell

under the same government. But from the marriages of Theseus proceeded

nothing of friendship or correspondence for the advantage of commerce,

but enmities and wars and the slaughter of citizens, and, at last, the

loss of the city Aphidnae, when only out of the compassion of the enemy,

whom they entreated and caressed like gods, they escaped suffering what

Troy did by Paris. Theseus's mother, however, was not only in danger,

but suffered actually what Hecuba did, deserted and neglected by her

son, unless her captivity be not a fiction, as I could wish both that

and other things were. The circumstances of the divine intervention,

said to have preceded or accompanied their births, are also in contrast;

for Romulus was preserved by the special favor of the gods; but the

oracle given to Aegeus, commanding him to abstain, seems to demonstrate

that the birth of Theseus was not agreeable to the will of the gods.

There is so much uncertainty in the accounts which historians have left

us of Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, that scarcely anything is

asserted by one of them which is not called into question or

contradicted by the rest. Their sentiments are quite different as to

the family he came of, the voyages he undertook, the place and manner of

his death, but most of all when they speak of the laws he made and the

commonwealth which he founded. They cannot, by any means, be brought to

an agreement as to the very age in which he lived; for some of them say

that he flourished in the time of Iphitus, and that they two jointly

contrived the ordinance for the cessation of arms during the solemnity

of the Olympic games. Of this opinion was Aristotle; and for

confirmation of it, he alleges an inscription upon one of the copper

quoits used in those sports, upon which the name of Lycurgus continued

uneffaced to his time. But Eratosthenes and Apollodorus and other

chronologers, computing the time by the successions of the Spartan

kings, pretend to demonstrate that he was much more ancient than the

institution of the Olympic games. Timaeus conjectures that there were

two of this name, and in diverse times, but that the one of them being

much more famous than the other, men gave to him the glory of the

exploits of both; the elder of the two, according to him, was not long

after Homer; and some are so particular as to say that he had seen him.

But that he was of great antiquity may be gathered from a passage in

Xenophon, where he makes him contemporary with the Heraclidae. By

descent, indeed, the very last kings of Sparta were Heraclidae too; but

he seems in that place to speak of the first and more immediate

successors of Hercules. But notwithstanding this confusion and

obscurity, we shall endeavor to compose the history of his life,

adhering to those statements which are least contradicted, and depending

upon those authors who are most worthy of credit.

The poet Simonides will have it that Lycurgus was the son of Prytanis,

and not of Eunomus; but in this opinion he is singular, for all the rest

deduce the genealogy of them both as follows:--

Aristodemus

Patrocles

Sous

Eurypon

Eunomus

------------------------------------------

Polydectes by his first wife Lycurgus by Dionassa his second.

Dieuchidas says he was the sixth from Patrocles and the eleventh from

Hercules. Be this as it will, Sous certainly was the most renowned of

all his ancestors, under whose conduct the Spartans made slaves of the

Helots, and added to their dominions, by conquest, a good part of

Arcadia, There goes a story of this king Sous, that, being besieged by

the Clitorians in a dry and stony place so that he could come at no

water, he was at last constrained to agree with them upon these terms,

that he would restore to them all his conquests, provided that himself

and all his men should drink of the nearest spring. After the usual

oaths and ratifications, he called his soldiers together, and offered to

him that would forbear drinking, his kingdom for a reward; and when not

a man of them was able to forbear, in short, when they had all drunk

their fill, at last comes king Sous himself to the spring, and, having

sprinkled his face only, without swallowing one drop, marches off in the

face of his enemies, refusing to yield up his conquests, because himself

and all his men had not, according to the articles,

drunk of their water.

Although he was justly had in admiration on this account, yet his family

was not surnamed from him, but from his son Eurypon (of whom they were

called Eurypontids); the reason of which was that Eurypon relaxed the

rigor of the monarchy, seeking favor and popularity with the many.

They, after this first step, grew bolder; and the succeeding kings

partly incurred hatred with their people by trying to use force, or, for

popularity's sake and through weakness, gave way; and anarchy and

confusion long prevailed in Sparta, causing, moreover, the death of the

father of Lycurgus. For as he was endeavoring to quell a riot, he was

stabbed with a butcher's knife, and left the title of king

to his eldest son Polydectes.

He, too, dying soon after, the right of succession (as every one

thought) rested in Lycurgus; and reign he did, until it was found that

the queen, his sister-in-law, was with child; upon which he immediately

declared that the kingdom belonged to her issue, provided it were male,

and that he himself exercised the regal jurisdiction only as his

guardian; the Spartan name for which office is prodicus. Soon after, an

overture was made to him by the queen, that she would herself in some

way destroy the infant, upon condition that he would marry her when he

came to the crown. Abhorring the woman's wickedness, he nevertheless

did not reject her proposal, but, making show of closing with her,

dispatched the messenger with thanks and expressions of joy, but

dissuaded her earnestly from procuring herself to miscarry, which would

impair her health, if not endanger her life; he himself, he said, would

see to it, that the child, as soon as born, should be taken out of the

way. By such artifices having drawn on the woman to the time of her

lying-in, as soon as he heard that she was in labor, he sent persons to

be by and observe all that passed, with orders that if it were a girl

they should deliver it to the women, but if a boy, should bring it to

him wheresoever he were, and whatsoever doing. It so fell out that when

he was at supper with the principal magistrates the queen was brought to

bed of a boy, who was soon after presented to him as he was at the

table; he, taking him into his arms, said to those about him, "Men of

Sparta, here is a 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

people; 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 of 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 him and Lycurgus, went so far as to

tell him to his face that he 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, if 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.

Troubled at this, and not knowing what it might come to, he thought it

his wisest course to avoid their envy by a voluntary exile, and to

travel from place to place until his nephew came to marriageable years,

and, by having a son, had secured the succession; setting sail,

therefore, with this resolution, he first arrived at Crete, where,

having considered their several forms of government, and got an

acquaintance with the principal men amongst them, some of their laws he

very much approved of, and resolved to make use of them in his own

country; a good part he rejected as useless. Amongst the persons there

the most renowned for their learning all their wisdom in state matters

was one Thales, whom Lycurgus, by importunities and assurances of

friendship, persuaded to go over to Lacedaemon; where, though by his

outward appearance 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

lawgivers in the world. The very songs which he composed were

exhortations to obedience and concord, and the very measure and cadence

of the verse, conveying impressions of order and tranquility, had so

great an influence on the minds of the listeners, that they were

insensibly softened and civilized, insomuch that they renounced their

private 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 Ionians, 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 Creophylus; and, having observed that the few loose

expressions and actions of ill example which are to be found in his

poems were much outweighed by serious lessons of state and rules of

morality, he set himself eagerly to 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 really known.

The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that, being much

taken with their way of separating the soldiery from the rest of the

nation, he transferred it from them 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 relation, 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 distinguished 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 insolencies of the people.

Things being in this posture at his return, he applied himself, without

loss of time, to a thorough reformation and resolved 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 temperament, and then

set him upon a totally new regimen of diet. Having thus projected

things, away he goes to Delphi to consult Apollo there; which having

done, and offered his sacrifice, 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 it 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 thirty of

the principal men of Sparta to be ready armed at the market-place 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

execution, was Arthmiadas. Things growing to a tumult, king Charilaus,

apprehending that it was a conspiracy against his person, 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 quitted his refuge, and himself also entered into the

confederacy with them; of so gentle and flexible a disposition he was,

to which Archelaus, his brother-king, alluded, when, hearing him

extolled for his goodness, he said, "Who can say he is anything but

good? he is so even to the bad."

Amongst the many changes and alterations which Lycurgus made, the first

and of greatest importance was the establishment of the senate, which,

having a power equal to the kings' in matters of great consequence, and,

as Plato expresses 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 establishment 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 democracy,

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 consists 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 number 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 Hellanius, and to Minerva Hellania,

and after that you have phyle'd the people phyles, and obe'd them into

obes, 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 phyles and obes are meant the

divisions of the people; by the leaders, the two kings; apellazein,

referring to the Pythian Apollo, signifies to assemble; Babyca and

Cnacion they now call Oenus; Aristotle says Cnacion is a river, and

Babyca 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 hindrance, by diverting their

attention from the business before them to statues and pictures, and

roofs curiously fretted, the usual embellishments of such places amongst

the 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 counsel. It passed among the people, by their

management, as being equally authentic with the rest of the Rhetra, as

appears by these verses of Tyrtaeus,--

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 Rhetra among all be passed.

Although Lycurgus had, in this manner, used all the qualifications

possible in the constitution of his commonwealth, yet those who

succeeded him found the oligarchical element still too strong and

dominant, and, to check its high temper and its violence, put, as Plato

says, a bit in its mouth, which was the power of the ephori, established

one hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus. Elatus and his

colleagues were the first who had this dignity conferred 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 never experienced the

calamities of their neighbors at Messene and Argos, who, by maintaining

their prerogative too strictly, for want of yielding a little to the

populace, lost it all.

Indeed, whosoever shall look at the sedition and misgovernment which

befell these bordering nations to whom they were as near related in

blood as situation, will find in them the best reason to admire the

wisdom and foresight of Lycurgus. For these three states, in their

first rise, were 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 but of

small continuance, partly the tyrannical 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 overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous

persons, while its whole wealth had centered 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 diseases 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 Laconia in general into thirty

thousand equal shares, and the part attached to the city 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 Polydorus added

three thousand more. Others say that Polydorus doubled the number

Lycurgus had made, which, according to them, was but four thousand five

hundred. A lot was so much as to yield, one year with another, about

seventy bushels of grain for the master of the family, and twelve for

his wife, with a suitable proportion 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 equal and alike, he smiled, and said to those about him,

"Methinks all Laconia looks like one family estate just divided among a

number of brothers."

Not contented with this, he resolved to make a division of their

movables too, that there might be no odious distinction or inequality

left amongst them; but finding that it would be very dangerous to go

about it openly, he took another 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 but very little

worth; so that to lay up twenty or thirty pounds there was required a

pretty large closet, and, to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of

oxen. With the diffusion of this money, at once a number of vices were

banished from Lacedaemon; for who would rob another of such a coin? Who

would unjustly 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 pains to export it, would it pass amongst the other Greeks, who

ridiculed it. So there was now no more means of purchasing foreign

goods and small wares; merchants sent no shiploads into Laconian ports;

no rhetoric-master, no itinerant fortune-teller, no harlot-monger or

gold or silversmith, engraver, or jeweler, 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, but were shut up at home doing

nothing. And in this way they became excellent artists in common,

necessary things; 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 Critias 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, who, by relieving the artisans

of the trouble of making useless things, set them to show their skill in

giving beauty to those of daily 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 tradesmen 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 picture,

without either life or motion. Nor 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

throwing stones, so that at length he was forced to run out of the

marketplace, and make to sanctuary to save his life; by good-hap he

outran all excepting one Alcander, 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 near him, he struck him upon the face with

his stick, and put out one of his eyes. Lycurgus, so far from being

daunted and discouraged by this accident, stopped short, and showed his

disfigured face and eye beat out to his countrymen; they, dismayed and

ashamed at the sight, delivered Alcander 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 anything 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 ingenuous temper, without murmuring

did as he was commanded; and, being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus,

he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and

calmness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable

industry, and so, from an enemy, became one of his most zealous

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 young man one

of the discreetest citizens of Sparta.

In memory of this accident, Lycurgus built a temple to Minerva, surnamed

Optiletis; optilus being the Doric of these parts for ophthalmus, the

eye. Some authors, however, of whom Dioscorides is one (who wrote a

treatise on the commonwealth of Sparta), say that he was wounded indeed,

but did not lose his eye with the blow; and that he built the temple in

gratitude for the cure. Be this as it will, certain it is, that, after

this misadventure, the Lacedaemonians made it a rule never to carry so

much as a staff into their public assemblies.

But to return to their public repasts;--these had several names in

Greek; the Cretans called them andria, because the men only came to

them. The Lacedaemonians called them phiditia, that is, by changing l

into d, the same as philitia, love feasts, because that, by eating and

drinking together, they had opportunity of making friends. Or perhaps

from phido, parsimony, because they were so many schools of sobriety; or

perhaps the first letter is an addition, and the word at first was

editia, from edode, eating. They met by companies of fifteen, more or

less, and each of them stood bound to 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 had killed; for

these two occasions were the only excuses allowed for supping at home.

The custom of eating together was observed strictly for a great while

afterwards; insomuch that king Agis himself, after having vanquished the

Athenians, sending for his commons at his return home, because he

desired 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 learnt to converse with pleasantry, to

make jests without scurrility, and take them without ill humor. In this

point of good breeding, the Lacedaemonians 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 person to be chosen

dropped their ball into the basin without altering its figure, and those

who disliked him pressed it between their fingers, and made it flat; and

this signified as much as a negative voice. And if there were but one

of these pieces in the basin, the suitor was rejected, so desirous were

they 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 of this black

broth of theirs, sent for a Lacedaemonian cook on purpose 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 yourself 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, forbid, 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

pecuniary 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 according 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 leveled 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 have a less than ordinary share of sense

that would furnish such 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 entertained at Corinth in a stately room, he was much

surprised to see the timber and ceiling so finely carved and paneled,

and asked his host whether the trees grew so in his country.

A third ordinance 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 Boeotia, he made the Thebans a

match for the Lacedaemonians; and therefore Antalcidas, seeing him

wounded one day, said to him, that he was very well paid for taking such

pains to make the Thebans 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 consideration 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 sobriety, he was at last forced to leave 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-

bearing. And to the end he might take away their over-great tenderness

and fear of exposure to the air, and all acquired womanishness, he

ordered that the young women should go naked in the processions, as well

as the young men, and dance, too, in that condition, 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

rallied were as sensibly touched with it as if they had been formally

reprimanded; 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 wantonness was excluded. It taught them

simplicity and a care 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 of Leonidas, is said to have done, when some

foreign lady, as it would seem, told her that the women of Lacedaemon

were the only women of 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 appearing naked in

their exercises and dancings, were incitements 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 wintertime, 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 eminent 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 comes 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; afterwards comes the bridegroom, in his every-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 apartment, to sleep as usual with the

other young men. And so 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 observed; she,

also, on her part, using her wit to help and find favorable

opportunities for their meeting, when company was out of the way. In

this manner they lived a long time, insomuch that they sometimes had

children by their wives before ever they saw their faces by daylight.

Their interviews, being thus 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 continuance with

each other; while their partings were always early enough to leave

behind unextinguished in each of them some remainder fire of longing and

mutual delight. After guarding marriage with this modesty and reserve,

he was equally careful to banish empty and womanish jealousy. For this

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 favors 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 wellfavoredness 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 property 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 pay

money to procure fine breeding, 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 were rearing

them, and well-born children, in like manner, their 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

instance, 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 were ?" "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, "Why, 'tis impossible 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 certain triers at a place

called Lesche; these were some of the elders of the tribe to which the

child belonged; their business it was carefully to view the infant, and,

if they found it stout and well made, they gave order for its rearing,

and allotted 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 interest, 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 unconstrained in limb and

form, and not dainty and fanciful about their food; not afraid in the

dark, or of being left alone; without any 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, Pericles, as Plato

tells us, chose a servant for that office called Zopyrus,

no better than any common slave.

Lycurgus was of another mind; he would not have masters bought out of

the market for his young Spartans, nor 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

all lived under the same order and discipline, doing their exercises and

taking their play together. Of these, he who showed the most conduct

and courage was made captain; they 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 opportunity 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

proportionably increased; their heads were close-clipped, they were

accustomed to go bare-foot, and for the most part to play naked.

After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear

any under-garment; 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 indulgences 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 Eurotas, which they

were to break off with their hands without a knife; if it were winter,

they mingled some thistle-down with their rushes, which it was thought

had the property of giving warmth. By the time they were come to this

age, 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 strength

with one another, and this as seriously and with as much concern as if

they were their fathers, their tutors, or their magistrates; so that

there scarcely was any time or place without someone present to put

them in mind of their duty, and punish them if they had neglected it.

Besides all this, there was always one of the best and honestest men in

the city appointed to undertake the charge and governance of them; he

again arranged them into their several bands, and set over each of them

for their captain the most temperate and boldest of those they called

Irens, who were usually twenty years old, two years out of the boys; and

the eldest of the boys, again, were Mell-Irens, as much as to say, who

would shortly be men. This young man, therefore, was their captain when

they fought, and their master at home, using them for the offices of his

house; sending the oldest 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 whipping, but hunger, too, being 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

exercise 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 overburdened and oppressed

by too great a quantity of nourishment; which necessarily discharges

itself into thickness and breadth, do, by their natural lightness, rise;

and the body, giving and yielding because it is pliant, 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 configuration, 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 better-shaped and prettier children; the material they come

of having been more pliable and easily molded. 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 claws, and died upon the place,

rather than let it be seen. What is practiced to this very day in

Lacedaemon 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 them after supper,

and one of them he bade to sing a song, to another he put a question

which required an advised and deliberate 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 disposition, 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 his 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

before 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

magistrates, 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 friendship,

whilst they all jointly conspired to render the object of 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, as we 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

curious sense; children in Sparta, by a habit of long silence, came to

give just and sententious answers; for, indeed, as loose and incontinent

livers are seldom fathers of many children, so loose and incontinent

talkers seldom originate many sensible words. King Agis, when some

Athenian laughed 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 short and sententious, if we may trust the anecdotes

of him; as appears by his answer to one who by all means would set up

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 approved 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 consulted how they

might best oppose an invasion of their enemies, 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 apothegms 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 Charilaus, the nephew of Lycurgus, being asked why his

uncle had made so few laws, answered, "Men of few words require but few

laws." When one blamed Hecataeus the sophist because that, being

invited to the public table, he had not spoken one word all supper-time,

Archidamidas answered in his vindication, "He who knows how to speak,

knows also when. "

The sharp and yet not ungraceful retorts which I mentioned 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 extolled the Eleans for their just and honorable

management of the Olympic tames; "Indeed," said Agis, "they are highly

to be commended if they can do justice one day in five years."

Theopompus answered a stranger who talked much of his affection to the

Lacedaemonians, and said that his countrymen called him Philolacon (a

lover of the Lacedaemonians), that it had been more for his honor if

they had called him Philopolites (a lover of his own countrymen). And

Plistoanax, the son of Pausanias, when an orator of Athens said the

Lacedaemonians had no learning, told him, "You say true, Sir; we alone

of all the Greeks have learned none 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. For they did not

throw them out at random, but the very wit 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 that 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

answers were so sententious and pertinent, that one said well that

intellectual much more truly than athletic exercise

was the Spartan characteristic.

Nor was their instruction in music and verse less carefully attended to

than their habits of grace and good breeding in conversation. And their

very songs had a life and spirit in them that inflamed and possessed

men's minds with an enthusiasm and ardor for action; the style of them

was plain and without affectation; the subject always serious and moral;

most usually, it was in praise of such men as had died in defense of

their country, 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 abject. There were also vaunts of what they would

do, and boasts of what they had done, varying with the various ages, as,

for example, they had three choirs in their solemn festivals, the 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 compositions, 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 music 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 warlike; 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 animate 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 their young men,

suffering them to curl and adorn their hair, and to have costly arms,

and fine clothes; and were well pleased to see them, like proud horses,

neighing and pressing to the course. And therefore, as soon as they

came to be well-grown, they took a great 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 hand held over them by

their officers, so that they were the only people in the world to whom

war gave repose. When their army was drawn up in battle array and the

enemy near, the king sacrificed a goat, commanded the soldiers to set

their garlands upon their heads, and the pipers to play the tune of the

hymn 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 countenance, calmly and cheerfully moving

with the music to the 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 Lacedaemonian is said to have refused a considerable present,

which was offered to him upon condition that he would not come into the

lists; 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 retreat,

thinking it base and unworthy of a Grecian people to cut men in pieces,

who had given up and abandoned all resistance. 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.

Hippias the sophist says that Lycurgus himself was a great soldier and

an experienced commander. Philostephanus attributes to him the first

division of the cavalry into troops of fifties in a square body; but

Demetrius the Phalerian says quite the contrary, and that he made all

his laws in a continued peace. And, indeed, the Olympic holy truce, or

cessation of arms, that was procured by his means and management,

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 Iphitus made it, and Lycurgus came

only as a spectator, and that by mere accident too. Being there, he

heard as it were a man's voice behind him, blaming and wondering at 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 continued still after

they were full-grown men. No one was allowed 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. Therefore,

if they were commanded nothing else, they went to see the boys perform

their exercises, to teach them something useful, or to learn it

themselves of those who knew better. And, indeed, one of the greatest

and highest blessings Lycurgus procured his people was the abundance of

leisure, which proceeded from his forbidding to them the exercise of any

mean and mechanical trade. Of the money-making that depends on

troublesome going about and seeing people and doing business, they had

no need at all in a state where wealth obtained no honor or respect.

The Helots tilled their ground for them, and paid them yearly in kind

the appointed quantity, without 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

it, 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 said, 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 the festivals, in hunting, and in attendance on the

exercise-grounds and the places of public conversation. Those who were

under thirty years of age were not allowed to go into the marketplace,

but had the necessaries of their family supplied by the care of their

relations and lovers; nor was it for the credit of elderly men to be

seen too often in the marketplace; it was esteemed more suitable for

them to frequent the exercise-grounds and places of conversation, where

they spent their leisure rationally in conversation, not on money-making

and market-prices, 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, lessons of advice and improvement. Nor was

Lycurgus himself unduly 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 nor 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 devoted wholly to their

country. What their sentiments were will better appear by a few of

their sayings. Paedaretus, not being admitted into the list of the

three hundred, returned home with a joyful face, well pleased to find

that there were in Sparta three hundred 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 public, 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 better 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 competition 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 entrusted for ever after, as the reward of his merits, with the

supreme authority of the commonwealth, and with power over the lives,

franchises, and highest interests of all his countrymen? The manner of

their election was as follows: the people being called together, some

selected persons were locked up in a room near the place of election, so

contrived that they could neither see nor be seen, but could 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 another by lot, and passed in order through the assembly without

speaking a word. Those who were locked up had writing-tables with them,

in which they recorded and marked each shout by its loudness, without

knowing in favor of which candidate 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 applauses, 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 second allowance, which he took and put by. By the time

supper was ended, the women who were of kin to him had come about the

door; and he, beckoning to her whom he most esteemed, 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; upon which she was triumphantly waited upon

home by the women.

Touching burials, Lycurgus made very wise regulations; for, first of

all, to cut of all superstition, he allowed them to bury their 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 imagine 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 very short, eleven days; on the twelfth, they were to

do sacrifice to Ceres, and leave it off; so that we may see, that as he

cut off all superfluity, so in things necessary there was nothing so

small and trivial which did not express some homage 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 rules of morality, the habits

of ill-educated people, and different views of government. Withal he

banished from Lacedaemon all strangers who could 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 government (as

Thucydides says), or learn any thing to their good; but rather lest they

should introduce something contrary 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

discordant 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

dispatched 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 there lay close, but, in the

night, issued out into the highways, 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 being singled out for their bravery by the Spartans, garlanded, 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; and no man either then or since could give an

account how they came by their deaths. And Aristotle, in particular,

adds, that the ephori, so soon as they were entered into their office,

used to declare war against them, that they might be massacred without a

breach of religion. It is confessed, on all hands, that the Spartans

dealt with them very hardly; for it 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, forbidding

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 opinion that these outrages

and cruelties began to be exercised in 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 I cannot persuade

myself to ascribe to Lycurgus so wicked and barbarous a course, judging

of him from the gentleness of his disposition and justice upon all other

occasions; to which the oracle also testified.

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 somewhere tells us, the Maker of the world, when first he saw

it existing and beginning its motion, felt joy, even so Lycurgus,

viewing with joy and satisfaction the greatness and beauty of his

political structure, now fairly at work and in motion, conceived 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 reasonably 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 until he

had consulted the oracle; in the meantime, his desire was that they

would observe the laws without any the least alteration until his

return, and then he would do as the god 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

until Lycurgus should be come back. This done, he set out for Delphi,

and, having sacrificed to Apollo, asked him whether the laws he had

established were good, and sufficient for a people's happiness and

virtue. The oracle answered that the laws were excellent, and that the

people, while it observed them, 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

possible, 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, would secure

to his countrymen the enjoyment of the advantages he had spent his life

in obtaining 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 Lacedaemon 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 fourteen kings, down to the time of Agis, the

son of Archidamus. For the 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 government.

In the time of Agis, gold and silver first flowed into Sparta, and with

them all those mischiefs which attend the immoderate desire of riches.

Lysander promoted this disorder; for, by bringing in rich spoils from

the wars, although himself incorrupt, he yet by this means filled his

country with avarice and luxury, and subverted the laws and ordinances

of Lycurgus; 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 Lacedaemonians, 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 dissensions; 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 who say that 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 kings 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 willingness to obey. The Lacedaemonians inspired men

not with a mere willingness, but with an absolute desire, 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 Lysander, Callicratidas, and Agesilaus; they styled them 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 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

of a private man, consisted chiefly in the exercise of virtue, and in

the concord of the inhabitants; 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 model,

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 ended his life in Crete;

Aristoxenus adds that his tomb is shown by the Cretans in the district

of Pergamus, near the strangers' road. He 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 Lycurgides.

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 transported to Lacedaemon, the people might pretend

to be released from their oaths, and make innovations in the government.

Thus much may suffice for the life and actions of Lycurgus.

Though the pedigrees of noble families of Rome go back in exact form as

far as Numa Pompilius, yet there is great diversity amongst historians

concerning the time in which he reigned; a certain writer called

Clodius, in a book of his entitled Strictures on Chronology, avers that

the ancient registers of Rome were lost when the city was sacked by the

Gauls, and that those which are now extant were counterfeited, to

flatter and serve the humor of some men who wished to have themselves

derived from some ancient and noble lineage, though in reality with no

claim to it. And though it be commonly reported that Numa was a scholar

and a familiar acquaintance of Pythagoras, yet it is again contradicted

by others, who affirm, that he was acquainted with neither the Greek

language nor learning, and that he was a person of that natural talent

and ability as of himself to attain to virtue, or else that he found

some barbarian instructor superior to Pythagoras. Some affirm, also,

that Pythagoras was not contemporary with Numa, but lived at least five

generations after him; and that some other Pythagoras, a native of

Sparta, who, in the sixteenth Olympiad, in the third year of which Numa

became king, won a prize at the Olympic race, might, in his travel

through Italy, have gained acquaintance with Numa, and assisted him in

the constitution of his kingdom; whence it comes that many Laconian laws

and customs appear amongst the Roman institutions. Yet, in any case,

Numa was descended of the Sabines, who declare themselves to be a colony

of the Lacedaemonians. And chronology, in general, is uncertain;

especially when fixed by the lists of victors in the Olympic games,

which were published at a late period by Hippias the Elean, and rest on

no positive authority. Commencing, however, at a convenient point, we

will proceed to give the most noticeable events that are recorded of the

life of Numa.

It was the thirty-seventh year, counted from the foundation of Rome,

when Romulus, then reigning, did, on the fifth day of the month of July,

called the Caprotine Nones, offer a public sacrifice at the Goat's

Marsh, in presence of the senate and people of Rome. Suddenly the sky

was darkened, a thick cloud of storm and rain settled on the earth; the

common people fled in affright, and were dispersed; and in this

whirlwind Romulus disappeared, his body being never found either living

or dead. A foul suspicion presently attached to the patricians, and

rumors were current among the people as if that they, weary of kingly

government, and exasperated of late by the imperious deportment of

Romulus towards them, had plotted against his life and made him away,

that so they might assume the authority and government into their own

hands. This suspicion they sought to turn aside by decreeing divine

honors to Romulus, as to one not dead but translated to a higher

condition. And Proculus, a man of note, took oath that he saw Romulus

caught up into heaven in his arms and vestments, and heard him, as he

ascended, cry out that they should hereafter style him

by the name of Quirinus.

This trouble, being appeased, was followed by another, about the

election of a new king: for the minds of the original Romans and the new

inhabitants were not as yet grown into that perfect unity of temper, but

that there were diversities of factions amongst the commonalty, and

jealousies and emulations amongst the senators; for though all agreed

that it was necessary to have a king. yet what person or of which

nation, was matter of dispute. For those who had been builders of the

city with Romulus, and had already yielded a share of their lands and

dwellings to the Sabines, were indignant at any pretension on their part

to rule over their benefactors. On the other side, the Sabines could

plausibly allege, that, at their king Tatius's decease, they had

peaceably submitted to the sole command of Romulus; so now their turn

was come to have a king chosen out of their own nation; nor did they

esteem themselves to have combined with the Romans as inferiors, nor to

have contributed less than they to the increase of Rome, which, without

their numbers and association, could scarcely have merited the name of a

city.

Thus did both parties argue and dispute their cause; but lest meanwhile

discord, in the absence of all command, should occasion general

confusion, it was agreed that the hundred and fifty senators should

interchangeably execute the office of supreme magistrate, and each in

succession, with the ensigns of royalty, should offer the solemn

sacrifices and dispatch public business for the space of six hours by

day and six by night; which vicissitude and equal distribution of power

would preclude all rivalry amongst the senators and envy from the

people, when they should behold one, elevated to the degree of a king,

leveled within the space of a day to the condition of a private citizen.

This form of government is termed, by the Romans, interregnum. Nor yet

could they, by this plausible and modest way of rule, escape suspicion

and clamor of the vulgar, as though they were changing the form of

government to an oligarchy, and designing to keep the supreme power in a

sort of wardship under themselves, without ever proceeding to choose a

king. Both parties came at length to the conclusion that the one should

choose a king out of the body of the other; the Romans make choice of a

Sabine, or the Sabines name a Roman; this was esteemed the best

expedient to put an end to all party spirit, and the prince who should

be chosen would have an equal affection to the one party as his electors

and to the other as his kinsmen. The Sabines remitted the choice to the

original Romans, and they, too, on their part, were more inclinable to

receive a Sabine king elected by themselves than to see a Roman exalted

by the Sabines. Consultations being accordingly held, they named Numa

Pompilius, of the Sabine race, a person of that high reputation for

excellence, that, though he were not actually residing at Rome, yet he

was no sooner nominated than accepted by the Sabines, with acclamation

almost greater than that of the electors themselves.

The choice being declared and made known to the people, principal men

of both parties were appointed to visit and entreat him, that he would

accept the administration of the government. Numa resided at a famous

city of the Sabines called Cures, whence the Romans and Sabines gave

themselves the joint name of Quirites. Pomponius, an illustrious

person, was his father, and he the youngest of his four sons, being (as

it had been divinely ordered) born on the twenty-first day of April, the

day of the foundation of Rome. He was endued with a soul rarely

tempered by nature, and disposed to virtue, which he had yet more

subdued by discipline, a severe life, and the study of philosophy; means

which had not only succeeded in expelling the baser passions, but also

the violent and rapacious temper which barbarians are apt to think

highly of; true bravery, in his judgment, was regarded as consisting in

the subjugation of our passions by reason.

He banished all luxury and softness from his own home, and, while

citizens alike and strangers found in him an incorruptible judge and

counselor, in private he devoted himself not to amusement or lucre, but

to the worship of the immortal gods, and the rational contemplation of

their divine power and nature. So famous was he, that Tatius, the

colleague of Romulus, chose him for his son-in-law, and gave him his

only daughter, which, however, did not stimulate his vanity to desire to

dwell with his father-in-law at Rome; he rather chose to inhabit with

his Sabines, and cherish his own father in his old age; and Tatia, also,

preferred the private condition of her husband before the honors and

splendor she might have enjoyed with her father. She is said to have

died after she had been married thirteen years, and then Numa, leaving

the conversation of the town, betook himself to a country life, and in a

solitary manner frequented the groves and fields consecrated to the

gods, passing his life in desert places. And this in particular gave

occasion to the story about the goddess, namely, that Numa did not

retire from human society out of any melancholy or disorder of mind.

but because he had tasted the joys of more elevated intercourse, and,

admitted to celestial wedlock in the love and converse of the goddess

Egeria, had attained to blessedness, and to a divine wisdom.

The story evidently resembles those very ancient fables which the

Phrygians have received and still recount of Attis, the Bithynians of

Herodotus, the Arcadians of Endymion, not to mention several others who

were thought blessed and beloved of the gods; nor does it seem strange

if God, a lover, not of horses or birds, but men, should not disdain to

dwell with the virtuous and converse with the wise and temperate soul,

though it be altogether hard, indeed, to believe, that any god or daemon

is capable of a sensual or bodily love and passion for any human form or

beauty. Though, indeed, the wise Egyptians do not unplausibly make the

distinction, that it may be possible for a divine spirit so to apply

itself to the nature of a woman, as to imbreed in her the first

beginnings of generation, while on the other side they conclude it

impossible for the male kind to have any intercourse or mixture by the

body with any divinity, not considering, however, that what takes place

on the one side, must also take place on the other; intermixture, by

force of terms, is reciprocal. Not that it is otherwise than befitting

to suppose that the gods feel towards men affection, and love, in the

sense of affection, and in the form of care and solicitude for their

virtue and their good dispositions. And, therefore, it was no error of

those who feigned, that Phorbas, Hyacinthus, and Admetus were beloved by

Apollo; or that Hippolytus the Sicyonian was so much in his favor, that,

as often as he sailed from Sicyon to Cirrha, the Pythian prophetess

uttered this heroic verse, expressive of the god's attention and joy:

Now doth Hippolytus return again,

And venture his dear life upon the main.

It is reported, also, that Pan became enamored of Pindar for his verses,

and the divine power rendered honor to Hesiod and Archilochus after

their death for the sake of the Muses; there is a statement, also, that

Aesculapius sojourned with Sophocles in his lifetime, of which many

proofs still exist, and that, when he was dead, another deity took care

for his funeral rites. And so if any credit may be given to these

instances, why should we judge it incongruous, that a like spirit of the

gods should visit Zaleucus, Minos, Zoroaster, Lycurgus, and Numa, the

controllers of kingdoms, and the legislators for commonwealths? Nay, it

may be reasonable to believe, that the gods, with a serious purpose,

assist at the councils and serious debates of such men, to inspire and

direct them; and visit poets and musicians, if at all, in their more

sportive moods; but, for difference of opinion here, as Bacchylides

said, "the road is broad." For there is no absurdity in the account

also given, that Lycurgus and Numa, and other famous lawgivers, having

the task of subduing perverse and refractory multitudes, and of

introducing great innovations, themselves made this pretension to divine

authority, which, if not true, assuredly was expedient for the interests

of those it imposed upon.

Numa was about forty years of age when the ambassadors came to make him

offers of the kingdom; the speakers were Proculus and Velesus, one or

other of whom it had been thought the people would elect as their new

king; the original Romans being for Proculus, and the Sabines for

Velesus. Their speech was very short, supposing that, when they came to

tender a kingdom, there needed little to persuade to an acceptance; but,

contrary to their expectation, they found that they had to use many

reasons and entreaties to induce one, that lived in peace and quietness,

to accept the government of a city whose foundation and increase had

been made, in a manner, in war. In presence of his father and his

kinsman Marcius, he returned answer that "Every alteration of a man's

life is dangerous to him; but madness only could induce one who needs

nothing and is satisfied with everything to quit a life he is

accustomed to; which, whatever else it is deficient in, at any rate has

the advantage of certainty over one wholly doubtful and unknown.

Though, indeed, the difficulties of this government cannot even be

called unknown; Romulus, who first held it, did not escape the suspicion

of having plotted against the life of his colleague Tatius; nor the

senate the like accusation, of having treasonably murdered Romulus. Yet

Romulus had the advantage to be thought divinely born and miraculously

preserved and nurtured. My birth was mortal; I was reared and

instructed by men that are known to you. The very points of my

character that are most commended mark me as unfit to reign,--love of

retirement and of studies inconsistent with business, a passion that has

become inveterate in me for peace, for unwarlike occupations, and for

the society of men whose meetings are but those of worship and of kindly

intercourse, whose lives in general are spent upon their farms and their

pastures. I should but be, methinks, a laughing-stock, while I should

go about to inculcate the worship of the gods, and give lessons in the

love of justice and the abhorrence of violence and war, to a city whose

needs are rather for a captain than for a king."

The Romans, perceiving by these words that he was declining to accept

the kingdom, were the more instant and urgent with him that he would not

forsake and desert them in this condition, and suffer them to relapse,

as they must, into their former sedition and civil discord, there being

no person on whom both parties could accord but on himself. And, at

length, his father and Marcius, taking him aside, persuaded him to

accept a gift so noble in itself, and tendered to him rather from heaven

than from men. "Though," said they, "you neither desire riches, being

content with what you have, nor court the fame of authority, as having

already the more valuable fame of virtue, yet you will consider that

government itself is a service of God, who now calls out into action

your qualities of justice and wisdom, which were not meant to be left

useless and unemployed. Cease, therefore, to avoid and turn your back

upon an office which, to a wise man, is a field for great and honorable

actions, for the magnificent worship of the gods, and for the

introduction of habits of piety, which authority alone can effect

amongst a people. Tatius, though a foreigner, was beloved, and the

memory of Romulus has received divine honors; and who knows but that

this people, being victorious, may be satiated with war, and, content

with the trophies and spoils they have acquired, may be, above all

things, desirous to have a pacific and justice-loving prince, to lead

them to good order and quiet? But if, indeed, their desires are

uncontrollably and madly set on war, were it not better, then, to have

the reins held by such a moderating hand as is able to divert the fury

another way, and that your native city and the whole Sabine nation

should possess in you a bond of good-will and friendship with this young

and growing power?"

With these reasons and persuasions several auspicious omens are said to

have concurred, and the zeal, also, of his fellow-citizens, who, on

understanding what message the Roman ambassadors had brought him,

entreated him to accompany them, and to accept the kingdom as a means to

unanimity and concord between the nations.

Numa, yielding to these inducements, having first performed divine

sacrifice, proceeded to Rome, being met in his way by the senate and

people, who, with an impatient desire, came forth to receive him; the

women, also, welcomed him 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 expectation of some auspicious signal from the gods. It was

wonderful, meantime, with what silence and devotion the multitude stood

assembled in the forum in similar expectation and suspense, till

auspicious birds appeared and passed on the right. Then Numa,

appareling himself in his royal robes, descended from the hill to the

people, by whom he was received 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

thing 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 Camillus, 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 somewhat 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 incursions 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 rammer serve

to fix into the ground. Wherefore Numa, judging it no slight

undertaking to mollify and bend to peace the presumptuous and stubborn

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; thus

subduing and humbling their minds by a sense of supernatural fears.

This method which Numa used made it believed that he had been much

conversant with Pythagoras; for in the philosophy of the one, as in the

policy of the other, man's relations 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

assembled at the Olympic games, he showed them his golden thigh; besides

many other strange and miraculous seeming practices, on which Timon the

Phliasian wrote the distich,--

Who, of the glory of a juggler proud,

With solemn talk imposed upon the crowd.

In 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 incorrupt, 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

intellect. His sacrifices, also, had great similitude to the ceremonial

of Pythagoras, for they were not celebrated with effusion 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 Aemilii, for that the king gave him in sport the

surname of Aemilius, for his 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 of Greece, they erected two of brass,

one representing Alcibiades, and the other Pythagoras.

But to pass by these matters, which are full of uncertainty, and not so

important as to be worth our time to insist on them, the original

constitution of the priests, called Pontifices, is ascribed unto Numa,

and he himself was, it is said, the first of them; and that they have

the name of Pontifices from potens, powerful, because they attend the

service of the gods, who have power and command over all. Others make

the word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to

perform all the duties possible to them; if any thing lay beyond their

power, the exception was not to be cavilled at. The most common 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 unlawful, 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 Aemilius was quaestor, 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 suffering 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 of pure

and uncorrupted flames would be fitly entrusted to chaste and unpolluted

persons, or that fire, which consumes, but produces nothing, bears all

analogy to the virgin estate. In Greece, wherever a perpetual holy fire

is kept, as at Delphi 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 altar demolished, then, afterwards, in kindling

this fire again, it was esteemed an impiety to light it from common

sparks or flame, 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 isoceles rectangular triangle, all the

lines from the circumference of which meeting in a center, by holding it

in the light of the sun they can collect and concentrate all its rays

at this one point of convergence; where the air will now become

rarefied, and any light, dry, combustible matter will kindle as soon as

applied, under the effect of the rays, which here acquire 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 Camillus. 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 observed that their change was

not a happy one, but accompanied ever after with regret and melancholy;

so that the greater number, from religious fears and scruples, forbore,

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 tutor, 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

presses upon the chair on which they are carried, is put to death. If

these vestals commit any minor fault, they are punishable by the high-

priest 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 Collina, where a little

mound of earth stands, inside the city, reaching some little distance,

called in Latin agger; under it a narrow room is 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 consecrated 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 vow 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 circular form, not to

represent the figure of the earth, as if that were the same as Vesta,

but that of the general universe, in the center of which the

Pythagoreans place the element of 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 center of the globe, but that it keeps a circular motion

about the seat of fire, and is not in the number of the primary

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.

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

they were to worship the goddess Libitina, who presided over all the

ceremonies performed at burials; whether they meant hereby Proserpina,

or, as the most learned of the Romans conceive, Venus, not inaptly

attributing the beginning and end of man's life to the agency of one and

the same deity. Numa also prescribed rules for regulating the days of

mourning, 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 whatsoever 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 which

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 dispatched the Fecials, or heralds, to those who had offered

them injury, requesting satisfaction; and, in case they refused, they

then called the gods to witness, and, with imprecations upon themselves

and their country should they be acting unjustly, so declared war;

against their will, or without 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 quarrel, 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,

Fabius Ambustus was dispatched to their camp to negotiate peace for the

besieged; and, on their returning a rude refusal, Fabius 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; but 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, fled 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 Caminus.

The origin of the Salii is this. In the eighth year of the reign of

Numa, a terrible pestilence, which traversed all Italy, ravaged likewise

the city of Rome; and the citizens being in distress and despondent, a

brazen target, they say, fell from heaven into the hands of Numa who

gave them this marvelous 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 dimension 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 field 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; all despaired, until at length one Mamurius

Veturius, an excellent workman, happily hit upon it, and made all so

exactly the same that Numa himself was at a loss, and could not

distinguish. 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 story, 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 March they carry the sacred targets through the city; at which

procession they are habited in short frocks of purple, girt with a broad

belt studded with brass; on their heads they wear a brass helmet, and

carry in their hands short daggers, 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

intricate figures, with a great display of strength and agility. The

targets were called Ancilia from their form; for they are not made

round, nor like proper targets, of a complete circumference, but are cut

out into a wavy line, the ends of which are rounded off and turned in at

the thickest part towards 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 anecathen, from above; or from its akesis, or cure of diseases; or

auchmon Iysis, because it put an end to a drought; or from its

anaschesis, 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, he 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,

performing divine service, instructing the priests, or conversing with

them on sacred subjects. He had another house upon the Mount

Quirinalis, the site 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

perfunctory 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 all noises and cries

that accompany manual labor, and clear for the sacred solemnity. Some

traces of this custom remain at Rome to this day, for, when the consul

begins to take auspices or do sacrifice, they call out to the people,

Hoc age, Attend to this, whereby the auditors then present are

admonished to compose and recollect themselves. Many other of his

precepts resemble those of the Pythagoreans. The Pythagoreans said, for

example, "Thou shalt not make a peck-measure thy 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 denote the cultivation and subduing of the

earth as a part of religion; and as to the turning which the worshipers

are to use in divine adoration, it is said to represent the rotatory

motion of the world. But, in my opinion, the meaning rather is, that

the worshiper, 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 fulfillment

of his prayer to both divinities. Unless, indeed, this change of

posture may have a mystical meaning, like the Egyptian wheels, 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 blessing 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 done, to

seek favor of the gods for beginning something else. And this would

very well suit with what we had before; the lawgiver 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 received, with

an undoubted assurance, whatever he delivered, though never so fabulous,

and thought nothing incredible or impossible from him.

There goes a story that he once invited a great number of citizens to an

entertainment, at which the dishes in which the meat was served were

very homely and plain, and the repast itself poor and ordinary fare; the

guests seated, he began to tell them that the goddess that consulted

with him was then 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 entertainment. 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 demi-gods, 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, saying, "Your meaning is, the hairs

of men's heads." "No," replied Jupiter, "with living"--"pilchards,"

said Numa, interrupting him. These answers he had learnt from Egeria.

Jupiter returned again to heaven, pacified and ilcos, or propitious.

The place was, in remembrance of him, called Ilicium, from this Greek

word; and the spell in this manner effected.

These stories, laughable as they are, show us the feelings which people

then, by force of habit, entertained towards the deity. And Numa's own

thoughts are said to have been fixed to that degree on divine objects,

that he once, when a message was brought to him that "Enemies are

approaching," 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 solemn oath that they could swear.

They still use it; and to the god Terminus, or Boundary, they offer to

this day both public and private sacrifices, upon the borders and stone-

marks of 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 betrayed how much he had encroached on his

neighbors' lands, had he ever set limits to his own; for boundaries are,

indeed, a defense 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 whose

acquisitions Numa now divided amongst the indigent commonalty, wishing

to do away with that extreme want which is a compulsion to dishonesty,

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

defense of their own, while it destroys the license that breaks out into

acts of injustice and rapacity. Numa, therefore, hoping agriculture

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 several parcels, to which he gave the

name of pagus, or parish, and over every one of them he ordained chief

overseers; and, 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 rebukes and reproaches incited the

indolent and careless to improvement. But of all his measures the most

commended was his distribution of the people by their trades into

companies or guilds; for as the city consisted, or rather did not

consist of, but was divided into, two different tribes, the diversity

between which could not be effaced and in the mean time prevented all

unity and caused perpetual tumult and ill-blood, reflecting how hard

substances that do not readily mix when in the lump may, by being beaten

into powder, in that minute form be combined, he resolved to divide the

whole population into a number of small divisions, and thus hoped, by

introducing other distinctions, to obliterate the original and great

distinction, which would be lost among the smaller. So, distinguishing

the whole people by the several arts and trades, he formed the companies

of musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, skinners,

braziers, and potters; and all other handicraftsmen he composed and

reduced into a single company, appointing every one their proper courts,

councils, and religious observances. In this manner all factious

distinctions began, for the first time, to pass out of use, no person

any longer being either thought of or spoken of under the notion of a

Sabine or a Roman, a Romulian or a Tatian; and the new division became a

source of general harmony and intermixture.

He is also much to be commended for the repeal, or rather amendment, of

that law which gives power to fathers to sell their children; he

exempted such as were married, conditionally that it had been with the

liking and consent of their parents; for it seemed a hard thing that a

woman who had given herself in marriage to a man whom she judged free

should afterwards find herself living with a slave.

He attempted, also, the formation of a calendar, not with absolute

exactness, yet not without some scientific knowledge. During the reign

of Romulus, they had let their months run on without any certain or

equal term; some of them contained twenty days, others thirty-five,

others more; they had no sort of knowledge of the inequality in the

motions of the sun and moon; they only kept to the one rule that the

whole course of the year contained three hundred and sixty days. Numa,

calculating the difference between the lunar and the solar' year at

eleven days, for that the moon completed her anniversary course in three

hundred and fifty-four days, and the sun in three hundred and sixty-

five, to remedy this incongruity doubled the eleven days, and every

other year added an intercalary month, to follow February, consisting of

twenty-two days, and called by the Romans the month Mercedinus. This

amendment, however, itself, in course of time, came to need other

amendments. He also altered the order of the months; for March, which

was reckoned the first, he put into the third place; and January, which

was the eleventh, he made the first; and February, which was the twelfth

and last, the second. Many will have it, that it was Numa, also, who

added the two months of January and February; for in the beginning they

had had a year of ten months; as there are barbarians who count only

three; the Arcadians, in Greece, had but four; the Acarnanians, six.

The Egyptian year at first, they say, was of one month; afterwards, of

four; and so, though they live in the newest of all countries, they have

the credit of being a more ancient nation than any; and reckon, in their

genealogies, a prodigious number of years, counting months, that is, as

years. That the Romans, at first, comprehended the whole year within

ten, and not twelve months, plainly appears by the name of the last,

December, meaning the tenth month; and that March was the first is

likewise evident, for the fifth month after it was called Quintilis, and

the sixth Sextilis, and so the rest; whereas, if January and February

had, in this account, preceded March, Quintilis would have been fifth in

name and seventh in reckoning. It was also natural, that March,

dedicated to Mars, should be Romulus's first, and April, named from

Venus, or Aphrodite, his second month; in it they sacrifice to Venus,

and the women bathe on the calends, or first day of it, with myrtle

garlands on their heads. But others, because of its being p and not ph,

will not allow of the derivation of this word from Aphrodite, but

say it is called April from aperio, Latin for to open, because that this

month is high spring, and opens and discloses the buds and flowers. The

next is called May, from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom it is

sacred; then June follows, so called from Juno; some, however, derive

them from the two ages, old and young, majores being their name for

older, and juniores for younger men. To the other months they gave

denominations according to their order; so the fifth was called

Quintilis, Sextilis the sixth, and the rest, September, October,

November, and December. Afterwards Quintilis received the name of

Julius, from Caesar who defeated Pompey; as also Sextilis that of

Augustus, from the second Caesar, who had that title. Domitian, also,

in imitation, gave the two other following months his own names, of

Germanicus and Domitianus; but, on his being slain, they recovered their

ancient denominations of September and October. The two last are the

only ones that have kept their names throughout without any alteration.

Of the months which were added or transposed in their order by Numa,

February comes from februa; and is as much as Purification month; in it

they make offerings to the dead, and celebrate the Lupercalia, which, in

most points, resembles a purification. January was so called from

Janus, and precedence given to it by Numa before March, which was

dedicated to the god Mars; because, as I conceive, he wished to take

every opportunity of intimating that the arts and studies of peace are

to be preferred before those of war. For this Janus, whether in remote

antiquity he were a demi-god or a king, was certainly a great lover of

civil and social unity, and one who reclaimed men from brutal and savage

living; for which reason they figure him with two faces, to represent

the two states and conditions out of the one of which he brought

mankind, to lead them into the other. His temple at Rome has two gates,

which they call the gates of war, because they stand open in the time of

war, and shut in the times of peace; of which latter there was very

seldom an example, for, as the Roman empire was enlarged and extended,

it was so encompassed with barbarous nations and enemies to be resisted,

that it was seldom or never at peace. Only in the time of Augustus

Caesar, after he had overcome Antony, this temple was shut; as likewise

once before, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls; but

then it was not long before, wars breaking out, the gates were again

opened. But, during the reign of Numa, those gates were never seen open

a single day, but continued constantly shut for a space of forty-three

years together; such an entire and universal cessation of war existed.

For not only had the people of Rome itself been softened and charmed

into a peaceful temper by the just and mild rule of a pacific prince,

but even the neighboring cities, as if some salubrious and gentle air

had blown from Rome upon them, began to experience a change of feeling,

and partook in the general longing for the sweets of peace and order,

and for life employed in the quiet tillage of soil, bringing up of

children, and worship of the gods. Festival days and sports, and the

secure and peaceful interchange of friendly visits and hospitalities

prevailed all through the whole of Italy. The love of virtue and

justice flowed from Numa's wisdom as from a fountain, and the serenity

of his spirit diffused itself, like a calm, on all sides; so that the

hyperboles of poets were flat and tame to express what then existed;

as that

Over the iron shield the spiders hang their threads,

or that

Rust eats the pointed spear and double-edged sword.

No more is heard the trumpet's brazen roar,

Sweet sleep is banished from our eyes no more.

For, during the whole reign of Numa, there was neither war, nor

sedition, nor innovation in the state, nor any envy or ill-will to his

person, nor plot or conspiracy from views of ambition. Either fear of

the gods that were thought to watch over him, or reverence for his

virtue, or a divine felicity of fortune that in his days preserved human

innocence, made his reign, by whatever means, a living example and

verification of that saying which Plato, long afterwards, ventured to

pronounce, that the sole and only hope of respite or remedy for human

evils was in some happy conjunction of events, which should unite in a

single person the power of a king and the wisdom of a philosopher, so as

to elevate virtue to control and mastery over vice. The wise man is

blessed in himself, and blessed also are the auditors who can hear and

receive those words which flow from his mouth; and perhaps, too, there

is no need of compulsion or menaces to affect the multitude, for the

mere sight itself of a shining and conspicuous example of virtue in the

life of their prince will bring them spontaneously to virtue, and to a

conformity with that blameless and blessed life of good will and mutual

concord, supported by temperance and justice, which is the highest

benefit that human means can confer; and he is the truest ruler who can

best introduce it into the hearts and practice of his subjects. It is

the praise of Numa that no one seems ever to have discerned this so

clearly as he.

As to his children and wives, there is a diversity of reports by several

authors; some will have it that he never had any other wife than Tatia,

nor more children than one daughter called Pompilia; others will have it

that he left also four sons, namely, Pompo, Pinus, Calpus, and Mamercus,

every one of whom had issue, and from them descended the noble and

illustrious families of Pomponii, Pinarii, Calpurnii, and Mamerci, which

for this reason took also the surname of Rex, or King. But there is a

third set of writers who say that these pedigrees are but a piece of

flattery used by writers, who, to gain favor with these great

families, made them fictitious genealogies from the lineage of Numa; and

that Pompilia was not the daughter of Tatia, but Lucretia, another wife

whom he married after he came to his kingdom; however, all of them agree

in opinion that she was married to the son of that Marcius who persuaded

him to accept the government, and accompanied him to Rome where, as a

mark of honor, he was chosen into the senate, and, after the death of

Numa, standing in competition with Tullus Hostilius for the kingdom, and

being disappointed of the election, in discontent killed himself; his

son Marcius, however, who had married Pompilia, continuing at Rome, was

the father of Ancus Marcius, who succeeded Tullus Hostilius in the

kingdom, and was but five years of age when Numa died.

Numa lived something above eighty years, and then, as Piso writes, was

not taken out of the world by a sudden or acute disease, but died of old

age and by a gradual and gentle decline. At his funeral all the glories

of his life were consummated, when all the neighboring states in

alliance and amity with Rome met to honor and grace the rites of his

interment with garlands and public presents; the senators carried the

bier on which his corpse was laid, and the priests followed and

accompanied the solemn procession; while a general crowd, in which women

and children took part, followed with such cries and weeping as if they

had bewailed the death and loss of some most dear relation taken away in

the flower of age, and not of an old and worn-out king. It is said that

his body, by his particular command, was not burnt, but that they made,

in conformity with his order, two stone coffins, and buried both under

the hill Janiculum, in one of which his body was laid, and in the other

his sacred books, which, as the Greek legislators their tables, he had

written out for himself, but had so long inculcated the contents of

them, whilst he lived, into the minds and hearts of the priests, that

their understandings became fully possessed with the whole spirit and

purpose of them; and he, therefore, bade that they should be buried with

his body, as though such holy precepts could not without irreverence be

left to circulate in mere lifeless writings. For this very reason, they

say, the Pythagoreans bade that their precepts should not be committed

to paper, but rather preserved in the living memories of those who were

worthy to receive them; and when some of their out-of-the-way and

abstruse geometrical processes had been divulged to an unworthy person,

they said the gods threatened to punish this wickedness and profanity by

a signal and wide-spreading calamity. With these several instances,

concurring to show a similarity in the lives of Numa and Pythagoras, we

may easily pardon those who seek to establish the fact of a real

acquaintance between them.

Valerius Antias writes that the books which were buried in the aforesaid

chest or coffin of stone were twelve volumes of holy writ and twelve

others of Greek philosophy, and that about four hundred years

afterwards, when P. Cornelius and M. Baebius were consuls, in a time of

heavy rains, a violent torrent washed away the earth, and dislodged the

chests of stone; and, their covers falling off, one of them was found

wholly empty, without the least relic of any human body; in the other

were the books before mentioned, which the praetor Petilius having read

and perused, made oath in the senate, that, in his opinion, it was not

fit for their contents to be made public to the people; whereupon the

volumes were all carried to the Comitium, and there burnt.

It is the fortune of all good men that their virtue rises in glory after

their deaths, and that the envy which evil men conceive against them

never outlives them long; some have the happiness even to see it die

before them; but in Numa's case, also, the fortunes of the succeeding

kings served as foils to set off the brightness of his reputation. For

after him there were five kings, the last of whom ended his old age in

banishment, being deposed from his crown; of the other four, three were

assassinated and murdered by treason; the other, who was Tullus

Hostilius, that immediately succeeded Numa, derided his virtues, and

especially his devotion to religious worship, as a cowardly and mean-

spirited occupation, and diverted the minds of the people to war; but

was checked in these youthful insolences, and was himself driven by an

acute and tormenting disease into superstitions wholly different from

Numa's piety, and left others also to participate in these terrors when

he died by the stroke of a thunderbolt.

Having thus finished the lives of Lycurgus and Numa, we shall now,

though the work be difficult, put together their points of difference as

they lie here before our view. Their points of likeness are obvious;

their moderation, their religion, their capacity of government and

discipline, their both deriving their laws and constitutions from the

gods. Yet in their common glories there are circumstances of diversity;

for, first, Numa accepted and Lycurgus resigned a kingdom; Numa received

without desiring it, Lycurgus had it and gave it up; the one from a

private person and a stranger was raised by others to be their king, the

other from the condition of a prince voluntarily descended to the state

of privacy. It was glorious to acquire a throne by justice, yet more

glorious to prefer justice before a throne; the same virtue which made

the one appear worthy of regal power exalted the other to the disregard

of it. Lastly, as musicians tune their harps, so the one let down the

high-flown spirits of the people at Rome to a lower key, as the other

screwed them up at Sparta to a higher note, when they were sunken low by

dissoluteness and riot. The harder task was that of Lycurgus; for it

was not so much his business to persuade his citizens to put off their

armor or ungird their swords, as to cast away their gold or silver, and

abandon costly furniture and rich tables; nor was it necessary to preach

to them, that, laying aside their arms, they should observe the

festivals, and sacrifice to the gods, but rather, that, giving up

feasting and drinking, they should employ their time in laborious and

martial exercises; so that while the one effected all by persuasions and

his people's love for him, the other, with danger and hazard of his

person, scarcely in the end succeeded. Numa's muse was a gentle and

loving inspiration, fitting him well to turn and soothe his people into

peace and justice out of their violent and fiery tempers; whereas, if we

must admit the treatment of the Helots to be a part of Lycurgus's

legislations, a most cruel and iniquitous proceeding, we must own that

Numa was by a great deal the more humane and Greek-like legislator,

granting even to actual slaves a license to sit at meat with their

masters at the feast of Saturn, that they, also, might have some taste

and relish of the sweets of liberty. For this custom, too, is ascribed

to Numa, whose wish was, they conceive, to give a place in the enjoyment

of the yearly fruits of the soil to those who had helped to produce

them. Others will have it to be in remembrance of the age of Saturn,

when there was no distinction between master and slave, but all lived as

brothers and as equals in a condition of equality.

In general, it seems that both aimed at the same design and intent,

which was to bring their people to moderation and frugality; but, of

other virtues, the one set his affection most on fortitude, and the

other on justice; unless we will attribute their different ways to the

different habits and temperaments which they had to work upon by their

enactments; for Numa did not out of cowardice or fear affect peace, but

because he would not be guilty of injustice; nor did Lycurgus promote a

spirit of war in his people that they might do injustice to others, but

that they might protect themselves by it.

In bringing the habits they formed in their people to a just and happy

mean, mitigating them where they exceeded, and strengthening them where

they were deficient, both were compelled to make great innovations. The

frame of government which Numa formed was democratic and popular to the

last extreme, goldsmiths and flute-players and shoemakers constituting

his promiscuous, many-colored commonalty. Lycurgus was rigid and

aristocratical, banishing all the base and mechanic arts to the company

of servants and strangers, and allowing the true citizens no implements

but the spear and shield, the trade of war only, and the service of

Mars, and no other knowledge or study but that of obedience to their

commanding officers, and victory over their enemies. Every sort of

money-making was forbid them as freemen; and to make them thoroughly so

and to keep them so through their whole lives, every conceivable concern

with money was handed over, with the cooking and the waiting at table,

to slaves and helots. But Numa made none of these distinctions; he only

suppressed military rapacity, allowing free scope to every other means

of obtaining wealth; nor did he endeavor to do away with inequality in

this respect, but permitted riches to be amassed to any extent, and paid

no attention to the gradual and continual augmentation and influx of

poverty; which it was his business at the outset, whilst there was as

yet no great disparity in the estates of men, and whilst people still

lived much in one manner, to obviate, as Lycurgus did, and take measures

of precaution against the mischiefs of avarice, mischiefs not of small

importance, but the real seed and first beginning of all the great and

extensive evils of after times. The re-division of estates, Lycurgus is

not, it seems to me, to be blamed for making, nor Numa for omitting;

this equality was the basis and foundation of the one commonwealth; but

at Rome, where the lands had been lately divided, there was nothing to

urge any re-division or any disturbance of the first arrangement, which

was probably still in existence.

With respect to wives and children, and that community which both, with

a sound policy, appointed, to prevent all jealousy, their methods,

however, were different. For when a Roman thought himself to have a

sufficient number of children, in case his neighbor who had none should

come and request his wife of him, he had a lawful power to give her up

to him who desired her, either for a certain time, or for good. The

Lacedaemonian husband on the other hand, might allow the use of his wife

to any other that desired to have children by her, and yet still keep

her in his house, the original marriage obligation still subsisting as

at first. Nay, many husbands, as we have said, would invite men whom

they thought like]y to procure them fine and good-looking children into

their houses. What is the difference, then, between the two customs?

Shall we say that the Lacedaemonian system is one of an extreme and

entire unconcern about their wives, and would cause most people endless

disquiet and annoyance with pangs and jealousies? The Roman course

wears an air of a more delicate acquiescence, draws the veil of a new

contract over the change, and concedes the general insupportableness of

mere community? Numa's directions, too, for the care of young women are

better adapted to the female sex and to propriety; Lycurgus's are

altogether unreserved and unfeminine, and have given a great handle to

the poets, who call them (Ibycus, for example) Phaenomerides, bare-

thighed; and give them the character (as does Euripides) of being

wild after husbands;

These with the young men from the house go out,

With thighs that show, and robes that fly about.

For in fact the skirts of the frock worn by unmarried girls were not

sewn together at the lower part, but used to fly back and show the whole

thigh bare as they walked. The thing is most distinctly given

by Sophocles.

--She, also, the young maid,

Whose frock, no robe yet o'er it laid,

Folding back, leaves her bare thigh free,

Hermione.

And so their women, it is said, were bold and masculine, overbearing to

their husbands in the first place, absolute mistresses in their houses,

giving their opinions about public matters freely, and speaking openly

even on the most important subjects. But the matrons, under the

government of Numa, still indeed received from their husbands all that

high respect and honor which had been paid them under Romulus as a sort

of atonement for the violence done to them; nevertheless, great modesty

was enjoined upon them; all busy intermeddling forbidden, sobriety

insisted on, and silence made habitual. Wine they were not to touch at

all, nor to speak, except in their husband's company, even on the most

ordinary subjects. So that once when a woman had the confidence to

plead her own cause in a court of judicature, the senate, it is said,

sent to inquire of the oracle what the prodigy did portend; and, indeed,

their general good behavior and submissiveness is justly proved by the

record of those that were otherwise; for as the Greek historians record

in their annals the names of those who first unsheathed the sword of

civil war, or murdered their brothers, or were parricides, or killed

their mothers, so the Roman writers report it as the first example, that

Spurius Carvilius divorced his wife, being a case that never before

happened, in the space of two hundred and thirty years from the

foundation of the city; and that one Thalaea, the wife of Pinarius, had

a quarrel (the first instance of the kind) with her mother-in-law,

Gegania, in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus; so successful was the

legislator in securing order and good conduct in the marriage relation.

Their respective regulations for marrying the young women are in

accordance with those for their education. Lycurgus made them brides

when they were of full age and inclination for it. Intercourse, where

nature was thus consulted, would produce, he thought, love and

tenderness, instead of the dislike and fear attending an unnatural

compulsion; and their bodies, also, would be better able to bear the

trials of breeding and of bearing children, in his judgment

the one end of marriage.

Astolos chiton, the under garment, frock, or tunic, without anything,

either himation or peplus, over it.

The Romans, on the other hand, gave their daughters in marriage as early

as twelve years old, or even under; thus they thought their bodies alike

and minds would be delivered to the future husband pure and undefiled.

The way of Lycurgus seems the more natural with a view to the birth of

children; the other, looking to a life to be spent together, is more

moral. However, the rules which Lycurgus drew up for superintendence of

children, their collection into companies, their discipline and

association, as also his exact regulations for their meals, exercises,

and sports, argue Numa no more than an ordinary lawgiver. Numa left the

whole matter simply to be decided by the parent's wishes or necessities;

he might, if he pleased, make his son a husbandman or carpenter,

coppersmith or musician; as if it were of no importance for them to be

directed and trained up from the beginning to one and the same common

end, or as though it would do for them to be like passengers on

shipboard, brought thither each for his own ends and by his own choice,

uniting to act for the common good only in time of danger upon occasion

of their private fears, in general looking simply to their own interest.

We may forbear, indeed, to blame common legislators, who may be

deficient in power or knowledge. But when a wise man like Numa had

received the sovereignty over a new and docile people, was there any

thing that would better deserve his attention than the education of

children, and the training up of the young, not to contrariety and

discordance of character, but to the unity of the common model of

virtue, to which from their cradle they should have been formed and

molded? One benefit among many that Lycurgus obtained by his course was

the permanence which it secured to his laws. The obligation of oaths to

preserve them would have availed but little, if he had not, by

discipline and education, infused them into the children's characters,

and imbued their whole early life with a love of his government. The

result was that the main points and fundamentals of his legislation

continued for above five hundred years, like some deep and thoroughly

ingrained tincture, retaining their hold upon the nation. But Numa's

whole design and aim, the continuance of peace and good-will, on his

death vanished with him; no sooner did he expire his last breath than

the gates of Janus's temple flew wide open, and, as if war had, indeed,

been kept and caged up within those walls, it rushed forth to fill all

Italy with blood and slaughter; and thus that best and justest fabric of

things was of no long continuance, because it wanted that cement which

should have kept all together, education. What, then, some may say, has

not Rome been advanced and bettered by her wars? A question that will

need a long answer, if it is to be one to satisfy men who take the

better to consist in riches, luxury, and dominion, rather than in

security, gentleness, and that independence which is accompanied by

justice. However, it makes much for Lycurgus, that, after the Romans

deserted the doctrine and discipline of Numa, their empire grew and

their power increased so much; whereas so soon as the Lacedaemonians

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 Numa, that he was an alien, and yet courted to come and accept a

kingdom, the frame of which though he entirely altered, yet he performed

it by mere persuasion, and ruled a city 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.

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 Euphorion, 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 Pisistratus'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 proof against

beauty, nor of courage to stand up to passion and meet it,

Hand to hand as in the ring--

we may conjecture by his poems, and one of his laws, in which there 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 had friends enough

that were willing to contribute to his relief, yet was ashamed to be

beholden to others, since he was descended 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 traveled 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,

and yet no admirer of riches, esteeming as equally wealthy the 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 concern 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 barbarous

nations enjoyed, was the occasion of friendship with their kings, and a

great source of experience. Some merchants have built great cities, as

Protis, the founder of Massilia, to whom the Gauls near the Rhine were

much attached. Some report also that Thales and Hippocrates the

mathematician traded; and that Plato defrayed the charges of his travels

by selling oil in Egypt. Solon's softness and profuseness, 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

enjoyments; but that he accounted himself rather poor than rich is

evident 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 call take away,

But money changes owners all the day.

At first he used his poetry only in trifles, not for any serious

purpose, but simply to pass away his idle hours; but afterwards he

introduced moral sentences and state matters, which he did, not to

record them merely as an historian, but to justify his own actions, and

sometimes to correct, chastise, and stir up the Athenians to noble

performances. Some report that he designed to put his laws into heroic

verse, and that they began thus,--

We humbly beg a blessing on our laws

From mighty Jove, and honor, and applause.

In philosophy, as most of the wise men then, he chiefly

esteemed the political part of morals; in physics, he was very plain and

antiquated, as appears by this,--

It is the clouds that make the snow and hail,

And thunder comes from lightning without fail;

The sea is stormy when the winds have blown,

But it deals fairly when 'tis left alone.

And, indeed, it is probable that at that time Thales alone had raised

philosophy above mere practice into speculation; and the rest of the

wise men were so called from prudence in political concerns. It is

said, that they had an interview at Delphi, and another at Corinth, by

the procurement of Periander, who made a meeting for them, and a supper.

But their reputation was chiefly raised by sending the tripod to them

all, by their modest refusal, and complaisant yielding to one another.

For, as the story goes, some of the Coans fishing with a net, some

strangers, Milesians, bought the draught at a venture; the net brought

up a golden tripod, which, they say, Helen, at her return from Troy,

upon the remembrance of an old prophecy, threw in there. Now, the

strangers at first contesting with the fishers about the tripod, and the

cities espousing the quarrel so far as to engage themselves in a war,

Apollo decided the controversy by commanding to present it to the wisest

man; and first it was sent to Miletus to Thales, the Coans freely

presenting him with that for which they fought against the whole body of

the Milesians; but, Thales declaring Bias the wiser person, it was sent

to him; from him to another; and so, going round them all, it came to

Thales a second time; and, at last, being carried from Miletus to

Thebes, was there dedicated to Apollo Ismenius. Theophrastus writes

that it was first presented to Bias at Priene; and next to Thales at

Miletus, and so through all it returned to Bias, and was afterwards sent

to Delphi. This is the general report, only some, instead of a tripod,

say this present was a cup sent by Croesus; others, a piece of plate

that one Bathycles had left. It is stated, that Anacharsis and Solon,

and Solon and Thales, were familiarly acquainted, and some have

delivered parts of their discourse; for, they say, Anacharsis, coming to

Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him, that he, being a

stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him;

and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis

replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me." Solon,

somewhat surprised at the readiness of the repartee, received him

kindly, and kept him some time with him, being already engaged in public

business and the compilation of his laws; which when Anacharsis

understood, he laughed at him for imagining the dishonesty and

covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws,

which were like spiders' webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak and

poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich. To this Solon

rejoined that men keep their promises when neither side can get anything

by the breaking of them; and he would so fit his laws to the

citizens, that all should understand it was more eligible to be just

than to break the laws. But the event rather agreed with the conjecture

of Anacharsis than Solon's hope. Anacharsis, being once at the

assembly, expressed his wonder at the fact that in Greece wise men spoke

and fools decided.

Solon went, they say, to Thales at Miletus, and wondered that Thales

took no care to get him a wife and children. To this, Thales made no

answer for the present; but, a few days after, procured a stranger to

pretend that he had left Athens ten days ago; and Solon inquiring what

news there, the man, according to his instructions, replied, "None but a

young man's funeral, which the whole city attended; for he was the son,

they said, of an honorable man, the most virtuous of the citizens, who

was not then at home, but had been traveling a long time." Solon

replied, "What a miserable man is he! But what was his name?" "I have

heard it," says the man, "but have now forgotten it, only there was

great talk of his wisdom and his justice." Thus Solon was drawn on by

every answer, and his fears heightened, till at last, being extremely

concerned, he mentioned his own name, and asked the stranger if that

young man was called Solon's son; and the stranger assenting, he began

to beat his head, and to do and say all that is usual with men in

transports of grief. But Thales took his hand, and, with a smile, said,

"These things, Solon, keep me from marriage and rearing children, which

are too great for even your constancy to support; however, be not

concerned at the report, for it is a fiction." This Hermippus relates,

from Pataecus, who boasted that he had Aesop's soul.

However, it is irrational and poor-spirited not to seek conveniences for

fear of losing them, for upon the same account we should not allow

ourselves to like wealth, glory, or wisdom, since we may fear to be

deprived of all these; nay, even virtue itself, than which there is no

greater nor more desirable possession, is often suspended by sickness or

drugs. Now Thales, though unmarried, could not be free from solicitude,

unless he likewise felt no care for his friends, his kinsmen, or his

country; yet we are told he adopted Cybisthus, his sister's son. For

the soul, having a principle of kindness in itself, and being born to

love, as well as perceive, think, or remember, inclines and fixes upon

some stranger, when a man has none of his own to embrace. And alien or

illegitimate objects insinuate themselves into his affections, as into

some estate that lacks lawful heirs; and with affection come anxiety and

care; insomuch that you may see men that use the strongest language

against the marriage-bed and the fruit of it, when some servant's or

concubine's child is sick or dies, almost killed with grief, and

abjectly lamenting. Some have given way to shameful and desperate

sorrow at the loss of a dog or horse; others have borne the deaths of

virtuous children without any extravagant or unbecoming grief; have

passed the rest of their lives like men, and according to the principles

of reason. It is not affection, it is weakness, that brings men,

unarmed against fortune by reason, into these endless pains and terrors;

and they indeed have not even the present enjoyment of what they dote

upon, the possibility of the future loss causing them continual pangs,

tremors, and distresses. We must not provide against the loss of wealth

by poverty, or of friends by refusing all acquaintance, or of children

by having none, but by morality and reason. But of this too much.

Now, when the Athenians were tired with a tedious and difficult war that

they conducted against the Megarians for the island Salamis, and made a

law that it should be death for any man, by writing or speaking, to

assert that the city ought to endeavor to recover it, Solon, vexed at

the disgrace, and perceiving thousands of the youth wished for somebody

to begin, but did not dare to stir first for fear of the law,

counterfeited a distraction, and by his own family it was spread about

the city that he was mad. He then secretly composed some elegiac

verses, and getting them by heart, that it might seem extempore, ran out

into the place with a cap upon his head, and, the people gathering about

him, got upon the herald's stand, and sang that elegy which begins

thus:--

I am a herald come from Salamis the fair,

My news from thence my verses shall declare.

The poem is called Salamis, it contains one hundred verses, very

elegantly written; when it had been sung, his friends commended it, and

especially Pisistratus exhorted the citizens to obey his directions;

insomuch that they recalled the law, and renewed the war under Solon's

conduct. The popular tale is, that with Pisistratus he sailed to

Colias, and, finding the women, according to the custom of the country

there, sacrificing to Ceres, he sent a trusty friend to Salamis, who

should pretend himself a renegade, and advise them, if they desired to

seize the chief Athenian women, to come with him at once to Colias; the

Megarians presently sent of men in the vessel with him; and Solon,

seeing it put off from the island, commanded the women to be gone, and

some beardless youths, dressed in their clothes, their shoes, and caps,

and privately armed with daggers, to dance and play near the shore till

the enemies had landed and the vessel was in their power. Things being

thus ordered, the Megarians were allured with the appearance, and,

coming to the shore, jumped out, eager who should first seize a prize,

so that not one of them escaped; and the Athenians set sail for the

island and took it.

Others say that it was not taken this way, but that he first received

this oracle from Delphi:

Those heroes that in fair Asopia rest,

All buried with their faces to the west,

Go and appease with offerings of the best;

and that Solon, sailing by night to the island, sacrificed to the heroes

Periphemus and Cychreus, and then, taking five hundred Athenian

volunteers (a law having passed that those that took the island should

be highest in the government), with a number of fisher-boats and one

thirty-oared ship, anchored in a bay of Salamis that looks towards

Nisaea; and the Megarians that were then in the island, hearing only an

uncertain report, hurried to their arms, and sent a ship to reconnoiter

the enemies. This ship Solon took, and, securing the Megarians, manned

it with Athenians, and gave them orders to sail to the island with as

much privacy as possible; meantime he, with the other soldiers, marched

against the Megarians by land, and whilst they were fighting, those from

the ship took the city. And this narrative is confirmed by the

following solemnity, that was afterwards observed: an Athenian ship used

to sail silently at first to the island, then, with noise and a great

shout, one leapt out armed, and with a loud cry ran to the promontory

Sciradium to meet those that approached upon the land. And just by

there stands a temple which Solon dedicated to Mars. For he beat the

Megarians, and as many as were not killed in the battle he sent away

upon conditions.

The Megarians, however, still contending, and both sides having received

considerable losses, they chose the Spartans for arbitrators. Now, many

affirm that Homer's authority did Solon a considerable kindness, and

that, introducing a line into the Catalog of Ships, when the matter was

to be determined, he read the passage as follows:

Twelve ships from Salamis stout Ajax brought,

And ranked his men where the Athenians fought.

The Athenians, however, call this but an idle story, and report, that

Solon made it appear to the judges, that Philaeus and Eurysaces, the

sons of Ajax, being made citizens of Athens, gave them the island, and

that one of them dwelt at Brauron in Attica, the other at Melite; and

they have a township of Philaidae, to which Pisistratus belonged,

deriving its name from this Philaeus. Solon took a farther argument

against the Megarians from the dead bodies, which, he said, were not

buried after their fashion but according to the Athenian; for the

Megarians turn the corpse to the east, the Athenians to the west. But

Hereas the Megarian denies this, and affirms that they likewise turn the

body to the west, and also that the Athenians have a separate tomb for

every body, but the Megarians put two or three into one. However, some

of Apollo's oracles, where he calls Salamis Ionian, made much for Solon.

This matter was determined by five Spartans, Critolaidas, Amompharetus,

Hypsechidas, Anaxilas, and Cleomenes.

For this, Solon grew famed and powerful; but his advice in favor of

defending the oracle at Delphi, to give aid, and not to suffer the

Cirrhaeans to profane it, but to maintain the honor of the god, got him

most repute among the Greeks: for upon his persuasion the Amphictyons

undertook the war, as, amongst others, Aristotle affirms, in his

enumeration of the victors at the Pythian games, where he makes Solon

the author of this counsel. Solon, however, was not general in that

expedition, as Hermippus states, out of Evanthes the Samian; for

Aeschines the orator says no such thing, and, in the Delphian register,

Alcmaeon, not Solon, is named as commander of the Athenians.

Now the Cylonian pollution had a long while disturbed the commonwealth,

ever since the time when Megacles the archon persuaded the conspirators

with Cylon that took sanctuary in Minerva's temple to come down and

stand to a fair trial. And they, tying a thread to the image, and

holding one end of it, went down to the tribunal; but when they came to

the temple of the Furies, the thread broke of its own accord, upon

which, as if the goddess had refused them protection, they were seized

by Megacles and the other magistrates; as many as were without the

temples were stoned, those that fled for sanctuary were butchered at the

altar, and only those escaped who made supplication to the wives of the

magistrates. But they from that time were considered under pollution,

and regarded with hatred. The remainder of the faction of Cylon grew

strong again, and had continual quarrels with the family of Megacles;

and now the quarrel being at its height, and the people divided, Solon,

being in reputation, interposed with the chiefest of the Athenians, and

by entreaty and admonition persuaded the polluted to submit to a trial

and the decision of three hundred noble citizens. And Myron of Phlya

being their accuser, they were found guilty, and as many as were then

alive were banished, and the bodies of the dead were dug up, and

scattered beyond the confines of the country. In the midst of these

distractions, the Megarians falling upon them, they lost Nisaea and

Salamis again; besides, the city was disturbed with superstitious fears

and strange appearances, and the priests declared that the sacrifices

intimated some villanies and pollutions that were to be expiated. Upon

this, they sent for Epimenides the Phaestian from Crete, who is counted

the seventh wise man by those that will not admit Periander into the

number. He seems to have been thought a favorite of heaven, possessed

of knowledge in all the supernatural and ritual parts of religion; and,

therefore, the men of his age called him a new Cures, and son of a

nymph named Balte. When he came to Athens, and grew acquainted with

Solon, he served him in many instances, and prepared the way for his

legislation. He made them moderate in their forms of worship, and

abated their mourning by ordering some sacrifices presently after the

funeral, and taking off those severe and barbarous ceremonies which the

women usually practiced; but the greatest benefit was his purifying and

sanctifying the city, by certain propitiatory and expiatory lustrations,

and foundation of sacred buildings; by that means making them more

submissive to justice, and more inclined to harmony. It is reported

that, looking upon Munychia, and considering a long while, he said to

those that stood by, "How blind is man in future things! for did the

Athenians foresee what mischief this would do their city, they would

even eat it with their own teeth to be rid of it." A similar

anticipation is ascribed to Thales; they say he commanded his friends to

bury him in an obscure and contemned quarter of the territory of

Miletus, saying that it should some day be the marketplace of the

Milesians. Epimenides, being much honored, and receiving from the city

rich offers of large gifts and privileges, requested but one branch of

the sacred olive, and, on that being granted, returned.

The Athenians, now the Cylonian sedition was over and the polluted gone

into banishment, fell into their old quarrels about the government,

there being as many different parties as there were diversities in the

country. The Hill quarter favored democracy, the Plain, oligarchy, and

those that lived by the Sea-side stood for a mixed sort of government,

and so hindered either of the other parties from prevailing. And the

disparity of fortune between the rich and the poor, at that time, also

reached its height; so that the city seemed to be in a truly dangerous

condition, and no other means for freeing it from disturbances and

settling it, to be possible but a despotic power. All the people were

indebted to the rich; and either they tilled their land for their

creditors, paying them a sixth part of the increase, and were,

therefore, called Hectemorii and Thetes, or else they engaged their body

for the debt, and might be seized, and either sent into slavery at home,

or sold to strangers; some (for no law forbade it) were forced to sell

their children, or fly their country to avoid the cruelty of their

creditors; but the most part and the bravest of them began to combine

together and encourage one another to stand to it, to choose a leader,

to liberate the condemned debtors, divide the land,

and change the government.

Then the wisest of the Athenians, perceiving Solon was of all men the

only one not implicated in the troubles, that he had not joined in the

exactions of the rich, and was not involved in the necessities of the

poor, pressed him to succor the commonwealth and compose the

differences. Though Phanias the Lesbian affirms, that Solon, to save

his country, put a trick upon both parties, and privately promised the

poor a division of the lands, and the rich, security for their debts.

Solon, however, himself, says that it was reluctantly at first that he

engaged in state affairs, being afraid of the pride of one party and the

greediness of the other; he was chosen archon, however, after

Philombrotus, and empowered to be an arbitrator and lawgiver; the rich

consenting because he was wealthy, the poor because he was honest.

There was a saying of his current before the election, that when things

are even there never can be war, and this pleased both parties, the

wealthy and the poor; the one conceiving him to mean, when all have

their fair proportion; the others, when all are absolutely equal. Thus,

there being great hopes on both sides, the chief men pressed Solon to

take the government into his own hands, and, when he was once settled,

manage the business freely and according to his pleasure; and many of

the commons, perceiving it would be a difficult change to be effected by

law and reason, were willing to have one wise and just man set over the

affairs; and some say that Solon had this oracle from Apollo--

Take the mid-seat, and be the vessel's guide;

Many in Athens are upon your side.

But chiefly his familiar friends chid him for disaffecting monarchy only

because of the name, as if the virtue of the ruler could not make it a

lawful form; Euboea had made this experiment when it chose Tynnondas,

and Mitylene, which had made Pittacus its prince; yet this could not

shake Solon's resolution; but, as they say, he replied to his friends,

that it was true a tyranny was a very fair spot, but it had no way down

from it; and in a copy of verses to Phocus he writes.--

--that I spared my land,

And withheld from usurpation and from violence my hand,

And forbore to fix a stain and a disgrace on my good name,

I regret not; I believe that it will be my chiefest fame.

From which it is manifest that he was a man of great reputation before

he gave his laws. The several mocks that were put upon him for refusing

the power, he records in these words,--

Solon surely was a dreamer, and a man of simple mind;

When the gods would give him fortune, he of his own will declined;

When the net was full of fishes, over-heavy thinking it,

He declined to haul it up, through want of heart and want of wit.

Had but I that chance of riches and of kingship, for one day,

I would give my skin for flaying, and my house to die away.

Thus he makes the many and the low people speak of him. Yet, though he

refused the government, he was not too mild in the affair; he did not

show himself mean and submissive to the powerful, nor make his laws to

pleasure those that chose him. For where it was well before, he applied

no remedy, nor altered anything, for fear lest,

Overthrowing altogether and disordering the state,

he should be too weak to new-model and recompose it to a tolerable

condition; but what he thought he could effect by persuasion upon the

pliable, and by force upon the stubborn, this he did,

as he himself says,

With force and justice working both one.

And, therefore, when he was afterwards asked if he had left the

Athenians the best laws that could be given, he replied, "The best they

could receive." The way which, the moderns say, the Athenians have of

softening the badness of a thing, by ingeniously giving it some pretty

and innocent appellation, calling harlots, for example, mistresses,

tributes customs, a garrison a guard, and the jail the chamber, seems

originally to have been Solon's contrivance, who called canceling debts

Seisacthea, a relief, or disencumbrance. For the first thing which he

settled was, that what debts remained should be forgiven, and no man,

for the future, should engage the body of his debtor for security.

Though some, as Androtion, affirm that the debts were not canceled, but

the interest only lessened, 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 before passed for seventy-three drachmas, 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 discharge great 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

--so 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 happened; 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 purchased 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

contrivance. But he presently stopped this suspicion, by releasing his

debtors of five talents (for he had lent so much), according to the law;

others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, say fifteen; his friends, however,

were ever afterward called Chreocopidae, 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 reduced 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 modeling his state; and, applying force more than

persuasion, insomuch that he lost his eye in the scuffle, was able 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, being but a citizen of the middle

classes; yet he acted fully up to the height of his power, having

nothing but the good-will 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,

He 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 make laws for the commonwealth, giving him the

entire power over everything, their magistracies, their assemblies,

courts, and councils; that he should appoint the number, times of

meeting, and what estate they must have that could be capable of these,

and dissolve or continue any of the present constitutions,

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 offenses, 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 offenses, 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 citizens' estates, and those that

were worth five hundred measures of fruits, 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 Zeugitae, that had two hundred

measures, were in the third; and 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 he assigned to the

archons' 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 differences

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 of the laws. Of

this equalization he himself makes mention in 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 any one was beaten,

maimed, or suffered any violence, any man that would and was able, might

prosecute the wrongdoer; intending 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 this law,

for, being asked what city was best modeled, "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 council 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 inspectors and keepers of the laws,

conceiving that the commonwealth, held by these two councils, like

anchors, would be less liable to be tossed by tumults, and the people be

more at quiet. Such is the general statement, that Solon instituted 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: "Whoever before Solon's archonship were disfranchised, let

them be restored, except those that, being condemned by the Areopagus,

Ephetae, or in the Prytaneum by the kings, for homicide, 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 laws, 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 convicted of such offenses 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 restored; of this the reader must judge.

Amongst his other laws, one is very peculiar and surprising, which

disfranchises all who stand neuter in a sedition; for it seems he would

not have any one remain insensible 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 husband'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 to pay to a virtuous, chaste wife; it takes off all petty

differences, and will not permit their little quarrels

to proceed to a rupture.

In all other marriages he forbade dowries to be given; the wife was to

have three suits of clothes, a little inconsiderable 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 birth of children.

When the mother of Dionysius desired him to marry her to one of his

citizens, "Indeed," said he, "by my tyranny I have broken my country's

laws, but cannot put a violence upon those of nature by an unseasonable

marriage." Such disorder is never to be suffered in a commonwealth, nor

such unseasonable and unloving 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!

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 deceased 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 temples, 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 permitting them, if they had no

children, to bestow it on whom they pleased, showed that he esteemed

friendship a stronger tie than kindred, and affection 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 between deceit and necessity, flattery and compulsion,

there was little difference, since both may equally suspend

the exercise of reason.

He regulated the walks, feasts, and mourning of the women, and took away

everything that was either unbecoming 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

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,

unless at the very funeral; most of which are likewise forbidden by our

laws,@ but this is further added in ours, that those that 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 should 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 should 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 unoccupied and

leisurely 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 that avoids the honorable form of union shows that

he does not take a woman for children, but for pleasure, and thus gets

his just reward, and has taken 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; for 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 hire them. He made it unlawful to sell a

daughter or a sister, unless, being yet unmarried, she was 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 for reward a

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 asserts, was the value of an ox, the latter, of

a sheep. The prices which Solon, in his sixteenth table, sets on choice

victims, were naturally far greater; yet they, too, are very low 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 different sorts of occupation that they followed; the

soldiers were called Hoplitae, the craftsmen Ergades, and, of the

remaining two, the farmers Gedeontes,

and the shepherds and graziers Aegicores.

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 hippicon, that is, four furlongs, all should

draw at that; but, when it was farther off, they should try and procure

a well of their own; and, if they had dug ten fathom 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 them within three hundred feet of those which another

had already raised.

He permitted only oil to be exported, and those that exported any other

fruit, the archon was solemnly to curse, or else pay an hundred drachmas

himself; and this law was written in his first table, and, therefore,

let none think it incredible, 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 injuries from

beasts, in which he commands the master of any dog 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

participation 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 (parasitein 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 concluded 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 cyrbes, 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 swore to confirm the laws, and every one of the

Thesmothetae vowed 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 the 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 conjunction to

the old moon, and the rest to the new, he being the first, it seems,

that understood that verse of Homer,

The end and the beginning of the month,

and the following day he called the new moon. After the 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 Solon every day, to

commend or dispraise them, and to advise, if possible, to leave out, or

put in something, and many criticized, and desired him to explain, and

tell the meaning of such and such a passage, he, knowing that to do it

was useless, and not to do it would get him ill-will, and desirous to

bring himself out of all straits, and to escape all displeasure and

exceptions, it being a hard thing, as he himself says,

In great affairs to satisfy all sides,

as an excuse for traveling, bought a trading vessel, and, having

obtained 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 incommodious 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 defense 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 Aepea.

And Solon himself, in his Elegies, addressing Philocyprus, mentions this

foundation in these words--

Long may you live, and fill the Solian throne,

Succeeded still by children of your own;

And from your happy 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 not agreeable 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 differing opinions to any

agreement. They say, therefore, that Solon, 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 Croesus, 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 expected,

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 sumptuous 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,

Croesus asked him if ever he had known a happier man than 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 Croesus, angrily, "and dost

not thou reckon us amongst the happy men at all?" Solon, unwilling

either to flatter or exasperate him more, replied, "The gods, O king,

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 insolent upon our present enjoyments, 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 and 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.

Aesop, who wrote the fables, being then at Sardis 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 seasonable." "Nay, rather," replied Solon, "either

short or reasonable." 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, whom alone he invoked in this extremity, 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 me look to the

end of my life, and not rely and grow proud upon uncertainties." When

this was told Cyrus, who was a wiser man than 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 another.

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 were the 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 thus, 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 differences, 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 prudent 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 his 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 off 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: "Ay," 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

marketplace in a chariot, and stirred up the people, as if he had been

thus treated by his opponents because 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 your countrymen, what he did to deceive his enemies." After

this, the people were eager to protect Pisistratus, and met in an

assembly, where one Ariston making 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 dote upon his words and taking phrase;

and again,--

True, you are singly each a crafty soul,

But all together make one empty fool.

But observing the poor men bent to gratify Pisistratus, and 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 passed 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 marketplace and made a speech to the citizens, partly

blaming their 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 saying, that, before, it was an easier task to

stop the rising tyranny, 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 then he busied himself no more. His friends advising him to

fly, he refused; 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 for 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 honored him, obliged him, and sent to see

him, that Solon gave him his advice, and approved many of his actions;

for he 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 Theophrastus 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

discouraged 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 Island, 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 unfinished 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 imperfect. Solon lived after Pisistratus seized the government,

as Heraclides Ponticus asserts, a long time; but Phanias the Eresian

says not two full years; for Pisistratus began his tyranny when Comias

was archon, and Phanias says Solon died under Hegestratus, who succeeded

Comias. The story that his ashes were scattered about the island

Salamis is too strange to be easily believed, or be thought anything

but a mere fable; and yet it is given, amongst other good authors, by

Aristotle, the philosopher.

Such was Solon. To him we compare Poplicola, who received this later

title from the Roman people for his merit, as a noble accession to his

former name, Publius Valerius. He 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

instrumental 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, charitably 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

republic, 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 instrument 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 people 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, Tarquinius 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 withdrew from the senate and practice of

the bar, quitting all public concerns; which gave an 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 as yet

under the uncertainties of a change. But Brutus being doubtful of some

others, and determining 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 Tarquin'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 specious proposals, whereby they

thought to seduce the people, as though the king had cast off all

insolence, and made moderation 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 offered 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 banishment. Now, several inclining to the request, and

Collatinus in particular favoring it, Brutus, a man of vehement and

unbending 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 assembly 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 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

question, however, of his property, was the least part of Tarquin's

design; the demand sounded the feelings of the people, and was

preparatory to a conspiracy which the ambassadors endeavored to excite,

delaying their return, under pretense of selling some of the goods and

reserving others to be sent away, till, in fine, they corrupted two of

the most eminent families in Rome, the Aquillian, which had three, and

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 companions, the Vitellii seduced to join in the plot, to ally

themselves 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 they termed violence, 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

convenient to bind themselves in a solemn and dreadful oath, by tasting

the blood of a murdered man, and touching his entrails. 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

within, 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 overhear 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 father

Brutus, or the nephews before the uncle Collatinus, seemed equally (as

indeed it was) shocking; yet he knew no private Roman to whom he could

entrust secrets of such importance. Unable, however, to keep silence,

and burdened with his knowledge, he went and addressed himself to

Valerius, whose known freedom and kindness 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 the king's palace, and seize, if

possible, the writings there, and secure the domestics, whilst he, with

his constant attendance of clients and friends, and a great retinue of

attendants, repaired to the house of the Aquillii, 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 round their

opponents' necks, at last, 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 conveyed 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, Vindicius 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 Collatinus, 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 defense against

the indictment?" The question being thrice proposed, 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 to look at; Brutus, however,

is said not to have turned aside his face, nor allowed the least glance

of pity to soften and smooth his aspect of rigor and austerity; but

sternly watched his children suffer, even till the lictors, extending

them on the ground, cut off 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 common, 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; in the Romans' opinion, Brutus did a greater

work in the establishment of the government than Romulus in the

foundation of the city.

Upon Brutus's departure out of the forum, consternation, horror, and

silence for some time possessed all that reflected 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 accusers. 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 rescue. Valerius's friends headed the

resistance, and the people 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, indeed, already rendered him

suspicious, and his second name, too, had made him obnoxious to the

people, who were loath to hear the very sound of Tarquin; but after this

had happened, perceiving himself an offense to every one, he

relinquished his charge 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

deserved 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 received the right of suffrage a

long time after from Appius, who thus courted popularity; and from this

Vindicius, a perfect manumission is called to this day vindicta. This

done, the goods of the kings were exposed to plunder, and the palace to

ruin.

The pleasantest part of the field of Mars, which Tarquin had owned, was

devoted to the service of that god; 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 river side, 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 them 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 working the mass into a firmness, and washing down 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 temples of the gods, and walks,

and is called in the Latin tongue inter duos pontes. Though some say

this did not happen at the dedication of Tarquin's field, but in after-

times, 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 story.

Tarquin, despairing of a return to his kingdom by the 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 Aesuvian meadow. When they came into action,

Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, not

accidentally encountering each other, but out of hatred and rage, the

one to avenge tyranny and enmity to his country, the other his

banishment, set spurs to their horses, and, engaging with more fury than

forethought, disregarding their own security, 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 of the

day was, and seeing his men as well dismayed at the sight of their own

dead, as rejoiced at the loss of the enemy; so apparently equal in the

number was the slaughter on either 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 the Tuscans had lost one man more than the

Romans; clearly a divine announcement; and the Romans at once received

it with 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 prisoners, 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 Valerius triumphed in honor

of it, being the first consul that drove in with a four-horse chariot;

which sight both appeared magnificent, and was received with an

admiration free from envy or offense (as some suggest) on the part of

the spectators; it would not otherwise have been continued with so much

eagerness and emulation through all the after ages. The people

applauded likewise the honors he did to his colleague, in adding to his

obsequies a funeral oration; which was so much liked by the Romans, and

found so good a reception, that it became customary for the best men to

celebrate 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 offense and disgust to the

people, because Brutus, whom 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, centering

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 demolished had not been statelier, those actions showed him

an imitator of Tarquin. For, indeed, his dwelling house on the 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 of coming down, a stately and royal spectacle. But Valerius

showed how well it were for men in power and great offices to have ears

that give admittance to truth before flattery; for upon his friends

telling him that he displeased the people, he contended not, neither

resented it, but while it was still night, sending for a number of

workpeople, pulled down his house and leveled it with the ground; so

that in the morning the people, seeing and flocking together, expressed

their wonder and their respect 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 government; 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 satisfaction, which they

expressed by calling him Poplicola, or people-lover, which name had the

preeminence of the rest, and, therefore, in the sequel of this narrative

we shall use no other.

He gave free leave to any to sue for the consulship; but before the

admittance of a colleague, mistrusting the chances, lest emulation or

ignorance should cross his designs, by his sole authority enacted his

best and most important measures. First, he supplied the vacancies of

the senators, whom either Tarquin long before had put to death, or the

war 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 usurp any magistracy without the people's

consent; a third, for the relief of poor citizens, which, taking off

their taxes, encouraged their labors; another, against disobedience to

the 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, a 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 caprae, 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 evidence of the crime; for though it was not

probable for a man, whose designs were so great, to escape all notice;

yet because 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 unwilling 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 treasury, 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

orphans 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 succeeded 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 great 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 entrusted the workmanship to Tuscans of

the city Veii, but soon after lost his kingdom. The work thus modeled,

the Tuscans set in a furnace, but the clay showed not those passive

qualities which usually attend its 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 delivery 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 kindom 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 dedication 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 destined against his will to

the expedition, the other to the dedication; and what happened in the

performance seems to intimate some ground for this conjecture; for, upon

the Ides 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 performance of other ceremonies,

holding the doors, according to custom, was proceeding to pronounce the

words of dedication, when Marcus, the 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 camp;" which made a great

impression upon all others who heard it, yet in nowise discomposed

Horatius, who returned merely the reply, "Cast the dead out whither you

please; I am not a mourner;" and so completed the dedication. The 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 destruction, as

Sylla was the reverse in dying before the dedication 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

foundations; 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 length 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 embellishment, 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, or 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,

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 converting 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 from Lars Porsenna, then one of

the most powerful princes of 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, returning to Rome, to show a spirit yet loftier than

Porsenna's, built the city Sigliuria when Porsenna was already in the

neighborhood; and, walling it at great expense, there placed a colony of

seven hundred men, as being little concerned 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 dismayed, 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 Cocles, 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 mispronunciation

they called him Cocles. This Cocles kept the bridge, and 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 Tuscan 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 gave him as much land as he could plow round

in one day, and besides erected a brazen statue to his honor in the

temple of Vulcan, as a requital for 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 of the Tuscans making incursions into the

country, Poplicola, a third time chosen consul, designed to make,

without sallying out, his defense against Porsenna, but, privately

stealing forth against the new army of the Tuscans, put them to flight,

and slew five thousand. 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 looking 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, by 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. All other writers call this man Mucius

Scaevola, yet Athenodorus, 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 dangerous to Rome as

his friendship and alliance serviceable, was induced to refer the

controversy with Tarquin to his arbitration, and several times undertook

to prove Tarquin the worst of men, and justly deprived of his kingdom.

But Tarquin proudly replied he would admit no judge, much less Porsenna,

that had fallen away from his engagements; and Porsenna, resenting this

answer, and mistrusting the equity of his cause, moved also by the

solicitations of his son Aruns, who was earnest for the Roman interest,

made a peace on these conditions, that they should resign the land they

had taken from the Tuscans, and restore all prisoners and receive back

their deserters. To confirm the peace, the Romans gave as hostages ten

sons of patrician parents, and as many daughters, amongst whom was

Valeria, the daughter of Poplicola.

Upon these assurances, Porsenna ceased from all acts of hostility, 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 the 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 the 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, commanding one of his horses to be brought,

sumptuously adorned, made her a present of it. This is produced as

evidence by those who affirm that only Cloelia passed the river or.

horseback; those who deny it call it only the honor 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. Porsenna, thus reconciled to the Romans, gave them a fresh

instance of his generosity, and commanded his soldiers to 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 Romans, 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 all accession to his triumph, with an

house built in the Palatium 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 intimate 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

appears 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 threatened 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

certain games commanded by Apollo, restored the city to more cheerful

assurance in the gods, and then prepared against the menaces of men.

There were appearances of treat preparation, 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 promote the Roman interest,

with a view, it was thought, to obtaining 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 to assist him, raised a tumult amongst the Sabines, which

delayed the war. Neither was Poplicola wanting, not only to understand

the grounds of the sedition, but to promote and increase it, and he

dispatched emissaries with instructions to Clausus, that Poplicola was

assured of his goodness and justice, and thought it indeed unworthy in

any man, however injured, to seek revenge upon his fellow-citizens; yet

if he pleased, for his own security, to leave his enemies and come to

Rome, he should be received, both in public and private, with the honor

his merit deserved, and their own glory required. Appius, seriously

weighing the matter, came to the conclusion that it was the best

resource which necessity left him, and advising with his friends; and

they inviting again others in the same manner, he came to Rome, bringing

five thousand families, with their wives and children; people of the

quietest and steadiest temper of all the Sabines. Poplicola, informed

of their approach, received them with all the kind offices of 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, that 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 Romans, which, while at home, he had

unsuccessfully opposed. Coming with a great army, they sat down before

Fidenae, 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

deserters, disposed his forces to their respective charges. Postumius

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 morning, with

shouts from the hills, assailed the ambuscade, 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 ambuscade flying; to the

camp, fugitives thus met fugitives, and found those from whom they

expected succor as much in need 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 the city either perished in the field, or were taken prisoners.

This victory, the Romans, though usually ascribing such success 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 dispatched 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

contributing 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 people'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 someone places a burning torch under

it, and immediately takes it away, as an attestation of the deceased's

privilege, and his receding from his honor; after which the body is

removed.

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 best evidence. Upon the survey of

Solon's sentence to Croesus in favor of Tellus's happiness, it seems

more applicable to Poplicola; for Tellus, whose virtuous life and dying

well had gained him the name of the happiest man, yet was never

celebrated in Solon's poems for a good man, nor have his children or any

magistracy of his deserved a memorial; but Poplicola's life was the most

eminent amongst the Romans, as well for the greatness of his virtue as

his power, and also since his death many amongst the distinguished

families, even in our days, the Poplicolae, Messalae, and Valerii, after

a lapse of six hundred 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. But Poplicola'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 happiest; 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 institutions; in reducing, for example, the

excessive powers and assumption 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 augmented 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

character, be withdrawn from greater matters; or, if bad, have the

greater temptation to injustice, by holding both the government 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 Solon justly gloried, that, when arbitrary power was

absolutely offered to him by circumstances, and when his countrymen

would have willingly seen him accept it, he yet declined it; still

Poplicola merited no less, who, receiving a despotic command, converted

it to a popular office, and did not employ the whole legal power which

he held. We must allow, indeed, 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 poor 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

anywhere at the beck and bidding of the rich. A yet more extraordinary

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 discredit 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,

engraven 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 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 commander. In domestic politics, also, Solon, in

play, as it were, and by counterfeiting madness, induced the enterprise

against Salamis; whereas Poplicola, in the very beginning, exposed

himself to the greatest risk, took arms against Tarquin, detected the

conspiracy, and, being principally concerned both in preventing the

escape of and afterwards punishing the traitors, not only expelled the

tyrants from the 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 reconciliation 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

according to the times in which they were performed. The conduct of a

wise politician is ever suited to the present posture 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 controversy to his

adversary, he not only got the victory, but likewise 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 virtue and gallant disposition of the Romans which their

consul had impressed upon him.

The birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him honor. His

father, Neocles, was not of the distinguished people of Athens, but of

the township of Phrearrhi, and of the tribe Leontis; and by his mother's

side, as it is reported, he was base-born.

I am not of the noble Grecian race,

I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace;

Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,

I was the mother of Themistocles.

Yet Phanias writes that the mother of Themistocles was not of Thrace,

but of Caria, and that her name was not Abrotonon, but Euterpe; and

Neanthes adds farther that she was of Halicarnassus in Caria. And, as

illegitimate children, including 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

Cynosarges; 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 Lycomedae; 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 is confessed by all that from his youth he was of a vehement 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 subject of which was generally the excusing or accusing his

companions, 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." He received reluctantly and carelessly instructions given him to

improve his manners and behavior, or to teach him any pleasing or

graceful accomplishment, but whatever was said to improve him in

sagacity, or in management 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 highly accomplished, by the somewhat

arrogant retort, that he certainly could not make use of any stringed

instrument, could only, were a small and obscure city put into his

hands, make it great and glorious. Notwithstanding this, Stesimbrotus

says that Themistocles was a hearer of Anaxagoras, and that he studied

natural philosophy under Melissus, contrary to chronology; for Melissus

commanded the Samians in their 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 Themistocles

was an admirer of Mnesiphilus the Phrearrhian, who was neither

rhetorician nor natural philosopher, but a professor 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.

In the first essays of his youth he was not regular nor happily

balanced; he allowed himself to follow mere natural character, which,

without the control of reason and instruction, 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. 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, certainly 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 ambition 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

attached to the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, as Ariston the philosopher

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

interests of the state consistently with safety and honesty, he was

often forced to oppose Themistocles, and interfere against the increase

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

inflamed with the passion for great actions, that, though he was still

young when the battle of Marathon was fought against the Persians, upon

the skillful conduct of the general, Miltiades, being everywhere talked

about, he was observed to be thoughtful, and reserved, alone by him

self; 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 answer, 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 dared propose to the people that this distribution

should cease, and that with the money ships should be built to make war

against the Aeginetans, 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 persuade them,

avoiding all mention of danger from Darius or the Persians, who were at

a great distance, and their coming very uncertain, and at that time not

much to be feared; but, by a seasonable employment of the emulation and

anger felt by the Athenians against the Aeginetans, he induced them to

preparation. So that with this money a 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 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 assembly, against the opposition, as Stesimbrotus

relates, of Miltiades; and whether or no he hereby injured the purity

and true 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 himself would be sufficient evidence, who, though his

land-forces were still entire, after his 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. He desired Diphilides,

who was a breeder of horses, to give him a colt, and when he refused 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 entreated Epicles of Hermione,

who had a good hand at the lute and was much sought after by the

Athenians, to come and practice at home with him, being ambitious of

having people inquire after his house and frequent his company. When he

came to the Olympic games, and was so splendid in his equipage and

entertainments, in his rich tents and furniture, 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. In a dramatic

contest, the play he paid for won the prize, which was then a matter

that excited much emulation; he put up a tablet in record of it, with

the inscription, "Themistocles of Phrearrhi 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 men; he said to Simonides, the poet of Ceos, 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 magistrate if for favor I made false

law." And at another time, laughing at Simonides, he said, that he was

a man of little judgment to speak against the Corinthians, who were

inhabitants of a great city, and to have his 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 general, 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 Euphemides, 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 acknowledgment 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 commended for, as also for what he did to Arthmius of

Zelea, who brought gold from the king of Persia to corrupt the Greeks,

and was, by an order from Themistocles, degraded and disfranchised, he

and his children and his posterity; but that which most 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

during the war with the Persians; and in this great work, Chileus the

Arcadian was, it is said, of great assistance to him.

Having taken upon himself the command 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 anything; and it

was known that not only the Thessalians, but all as far 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

guard the straits of 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 persuading 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 moderation 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 Aphetae, Eurybiades 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

their fleet might join, for he looked upon the Persian forces to be

altogether unassailable by sea. But the Euboeans, fearing that the

Greeks would forsake them, and leave them to the mercy of the enemy,

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 affair 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 was much surprised, and took it

very ill; but Themistocles immediately sent him in a chest a service of

provisions, and at the bottom of it a talent of silver, desiring him to

sup tonight, and tomorrow provide for his seamen; if not, he would

report it amongst 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

Euboea 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 barbarous 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

the pillars these verses are engraved,--

With numerous tribes from Asia's regions 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, in the middle

of a great heap of sand, they take out from the bottom a dark powder

like ashes, or something that has passed the fire; and here, it is

supposed, the shipwrecks and bodies of the dead were burnt.

But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium, 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 the command of the rear, the place of honor and danger,

and much elated by what had been done.

As Themistocles sailed along the coast, he took notice of the harbors

and fit places for the enemies' 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 Ionians to

forsake the Medes, if it were possible, and come over to the Greeks, who

were their proper founders and fathers, and were now hazarding all for

their liberties; but, if this could not be done, at any rate to impede

and disturb the Persians in all engagements. He hoped that these

writings would prevail with the Ionians to revolt, or raise some trouble

by making their fidelity doubtful to the Persians.

Now, though Xerxes had already passed through Doris and invaded the

country of Phocis, and was burning and destroying 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

Artemisium, they gave no ear to their request, being wholly intent 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 Athenians 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 purpose, and the

only expedient now left them was to leave their city and cling to their

ships; which the people were very unwilling 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

temples of their gods and exposed the tombs and monuments of their

ancestors to 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

theater, 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

untouched, 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 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 decree that the city

should be committed to the protection of Minerva, "queen of Athens;"

that they who were of age to bear arms should embark, and that each

should see to sending 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

proposed 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 Piraeus, 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 applied to the public

use; and with this the soldiers and seamen 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, pass 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 howling, 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 is

still called the Dog's Grave, is said to be his.

Among the 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, Themistocles proposed a decree that those who

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 admiral of the

Greek fleet, but yet was faint-hearted in time of danger, and willing to

weigh anchor and set sail for the isthmus 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

impatience, told him that at the Olympic games they that start up before

the rest are lashed; "And they," replied Themistocles, "that are left

behind are not crowned." Again, Eurybiades 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 become those who had

neither city nor house to lose, to persuade others to relinquish their

habitations and forsake their 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, consisting 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 Athenians possessing as fair a country, and as large

and free a city, as that they have lost." These expressions of

Themistocles made Eurybiades suspect that if he retreated the Athenians

would fall off from him. When one of Eretria began to oppose him, he

said, "Have you anything 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 sat upon the top of the mast; and

this happy omen so far disposed the Greeks to follow his advice, that

they presently prepared to fight. Yet, when the enemy's fleet was

arrived at the haven of Phalerum, upon 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 seaside, 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 their returning

home; and, resolving to depart that night, the pilots had order what

course to steer.

The Teuthis, loligo, or cuttlefish, is said to have a bone or

cartilage shaped like a sword, and was conceived to have no heart.

Themistocles, in great distress that the Greeks should retire, and lose

the advantage of the narrow seas and strait passage, and slip home every

one to his own city, considered with himself, and contrived that

stratagem that was carried out by Sicinnus. This Sicinnus was a Persian

captive, but a great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his

children. Upon this occasion, he sent him privately to Xerxes,

commanding 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

counseled him to hinder their flight, 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 Yet out with two hundred 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

Lysimachus, 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 enemies. Themistocles, knowing the generosity

of Aristides, 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 the Greeks, 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 perfectly assent to him, till a galley of Tenos, which

deserted from the Persians, of which Panaetius was commander, came in,

while they were still doubting, and confirmed the news that all the

straits and passages were beset; and then their rage and fury, as well

as their necessity; provoked 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 Hercules, 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 that

a man sneezed on the right, which was an intimation of a fortunate

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 Aeschylus gives in his tragedy

called the Persians, as on his certain knowledge, in the following

words--

Xerxes, I know, did into battle lead

One thousand ships; of more than usual speed

Seven and two hundred. So is it 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 against the Persians, nor begin the fight till

the time of day was come, when there regularly blows in a fresh breeze

from the open sea, and brings in with it a strong swell into the

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 by 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 Sosicles 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 carried 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 Iacchus, 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 Aegina before the Grecian galleys; and supposed

they were the Aeacidae, 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 equaled 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-fortune, 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 of Salamis.

Themistocles, being desirous to try the opinion of Aristides, 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 regarded little else but his pleasure and luxury; but if

we shut him up within Greece, and drive him to necessity, he that 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 occasions, 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 inform 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 Themistocles, 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 fully understood at the battle of Plataea,

where Mardonius, 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, Aegina 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 suffrages at the altar, to determine who was most

worthy, every one gave the first vote for himself and the second for

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, but spent the

whole day in looking upon him, showing him to the 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

dispatching 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 his city, he replied, "You speak truth; I should never have

been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens."

When another of the generals, who thought he had performed considerable

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 come at all." "Even so,"

he said, "if Themistocles had not come before, where had you been now?"

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 me, and you command your

mother." 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.

After these things, he began to rebuild and fortify the city of Athens,

bribing, as Theopompus reports, the Lacedaemonian ephors not to be

against it, but, as most relate it, overreaching and deceiving them.

For, under pretest of an embassy, he went to Sparta, where, upon the

Lacedaemonians charging him with rebuilding the walls, and Poliarchus

coming on purpose from Aegina 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 countrymen as hostages for him;

and so, when the Lacedaemonians knew the truth, they did him no hurt,

but, suppressing all display of their anger for the present, sent him

away.

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, endeavoring 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 declared 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 dependent and the

adjunct of the port, and the land of the sea, which increased the power

and confidence 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

land; implying their opinion that the empire by sea had been the origin

of the 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 Pagasae, 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 was of such a nature, that it could not be made generally public.

The Athenians ordered him to impart it to Aristides only; and, if he

approved of it, to put it in practice. And when Themistocles had

discovered to him that his design was to burn the Grecian fleet in the

haven of Pagasae, Aristides, coming out to the people, gave this report

of the stratagem contrived by Themistocles, 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 council of the

Amphictyonians, that the representatives of those cities which were not

in the league, nor had fought against the Persians, should be excluded,

Themistocles, fearing that the Thessalians, with those of Thebes,

Argos, and others, being thrown out of the council, the Lacedaemonians

would become 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 excluded, and the general council should

come to be ruled by two or three great cities. By this, chiefly, 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 return, while abandoning himself, who was his

guest and friend. The verses are these:--

Pausanias you may praise, and Xanthippus he be for,

For Leutychidas, a third; Aristides, I proclaim,

From the sacred Athens came,

The one true man of all; for Themistocles Latona doth abhor

The liar, traitor, cheat, who, to gain his filthy pay,

Timocreon, his friend, neglected to restore

To his native Rhodian shore;

Three silver talents took, and departed (curses with him) on his way,

Restoring people here, expelling there, and killing here,

Filling evermore his purse: and at the Isthmus gave a treat,

To be laughed at, of cold meat,

Which they ate, and prayed the gods some one else might give the feast

another year.

But after the sentence and banishment of Themistocles, Timocreon 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.

The story is, that it was put to the question whether Timocreon should

be banished for siding with the Persians, and Themistocles 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 besides; nor is it only mine that fails,

But other foxes have lost tails. --

When the citizens of Athens began to listen willingly to those who

traduced and reproached him, he was forced, with somewhat 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 person, 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 district 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. There is to this

day a small figure of Themistocles in the temple of Diana of Best

Counsel, which represents him to be a person, not only of a noble mind,

but also of a most heroic aspect. At length the Athenians banished him,

making use of the 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 the violence of the

envious, who delighted to humble eminent men, and who, by fixing this

disgrace upon them, might vent some part of their rancor.

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 Themistocles, 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

assistance, showing him the king of Persia's letters, and exasperating

him against the Greeks, as a villainous, ungrateful people. However,

Themistocles immediately rejected the proposals of Pausanias, and wholly

refused to be a party in the 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 Themistocles suspected, the

Lacedaemonians were clamorous against him, and his enemies among the

Athenians accused him; when, being absent from Athens, he made his

defense 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, having timely notice of it, he passed over into the

island of Corcyra, where the 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 Corinthians to

pay down twenty talents, and declaring the town and island of Leucas a

joint colony from both cities. From thence he fled into Epirus, and,

the Athenians and Lacedaemonians still pursuing him, he threw himself

upon chances of safety that seemed all but desperate. For he fled for

refuge to Admetus, 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, Themistocles, fearing the recent

hatred of his neighbors and fellow-citizens more than the old

displeasure of the king, put himself at his mercy, and became a 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 pursuers, 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, that when Hiero sent

race-horses to the Olympian games, and erected a pavilion sumptuously

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 Aegaean Sea, he took

ship at Pydna in the bay of Therme, not being known to any one in the

ship, till, being terrified to see the vessel driven by the winds near

to Naxos, which was then besieged by the Athenians, 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 believe 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 forward

towards the coast of Asia.

A great part of his estate was privately conveyed away by 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 a hundred; though Themistocles was never worth

three talents before he was concerned in public affairs.

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 hunting 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 Aegae, a small city of the Aeolians, where no one knew him but only

his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in Aeolia, 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 away with him a great distance; then there

appeared a herald's golden wand, and upon this at last it set him down

securely, 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 within doors, and, when they take a journey, are carried in

close tents, curtained in on all sides, and set upon a wagon. Such a

traveling carriage being prepared for Themistocles, they hid him in it,

and carried him on his journeys and told those whom they met or spoke

with upon the road that they were conveying 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, Heraclides, and many others, write that he came to Xerxes.

The chronological tables better agree with the account of Thucydides,

and yet neither can their statements be said to be quite set at rest.

When Themistocles was come to the critical point, he applied 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

honorable 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 account this the most excellent, to honor

the king, and to worship 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 anyone that doth not fall down before him."

Themistocles, 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 so it hath pleased the god who exalteth the Persian

empire to this greatness, but will also cause many more to be

worshippers 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, O Artabanus, must be informed of this before the king himself."

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 he obtained this audience and interview with him.

When he was introduced to the king, and had paid his reverence to him,

he stood silent, till the king commanding the interpreter to ask him who

he was, he replied, "O king, I am Themistocles the Athenian, driven

into banishment by the Greeks. The evils that I have done to the

Persians are numerous; but my benefits to them yet greater, in

withholding the Greeks from pursuit, so soon as the deliverance of my

own country allowed me to show kindness also to you. I come with 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 for witnesses of the services I have done

for Persia, and make use of this occasion to show the world your virtue,

rather than to satisfy your indignation. If you save me, you will save

your suppliant; if otherwise, will destroy an enemy of the Greeks." 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 understood 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; 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 the chief of his court, he had

Themistocles 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 language. As he came forward

towards the king, who was seated, the rest keeping silence, passing by

Roxanes, a commander of a thousand men, he heard him, with a slight

groan, say, without stirring out of his place, "You subtle Greek

serpent, the king's good genius hath brought thee hither." Yet, when he

came into the presence, and again fell down, the king saluted him, and

spoke to him kindly, telling him he was now indebted to him two hundred

talents; for it was just and reasonable that he should receive the

reward which was proposed to whosoever should bring Themistocles; and

promising much more, and encouraging him, he commanded him to speak

freely what he would concerning the affairs of Greece. Themistocles

replied, that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian 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

obscured and lost; and, 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 language

sufficiently, he spoke with the king by himself without the help of an

interpreter, it being supposed that he discoursed only about the affairs

of Greece; but there happening, at the same time, great alterations at

court, and removals 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 the honors conferred on him; the king invited

him to partake of his own pastimes and recreations both at home and

abroad, carrying him with him a-hunting, and made him his intimate so

far that he permitted him to see the queen-mother, and converse

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, and it should immediately 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, Mithropaustes, 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 behalf. 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 Themistocles had been. They

relate, also, how Themistocles, when he was in great prosperity, and

courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table turned

to his children and said, "Children, we had been undone if we had not

been undone." Most writers say that he had three cities given him,

Magnesia, Myus, and Lampsacus, to maintain him in bread, meat, and wine.

Neanthes of Cyzicus, and Phanias, add two more, the city of

Palaescepsis, to provide him with clothes, and Percote, with bedding and

furniture for his house.

As he was going down towards the sea-coast to take measures against

Greece, a Persian whose name was Epixyes, 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 him 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, "Themistocles, 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 Themistocles, 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 goodness of the goddess that appeared to him, built, in memory 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.

When he came to Sardis, he visited the temples of the gods, and

observing, at his leisure, their buildings, ornaments, and the number 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 waters at Athens, out of the fines of those whom he detected in

drawing off and diverting the public water by pipes for their private

use; and whether he had some regret to 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 Persian officer, 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 appeased 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. Yet this did not increase his hatred nor exasperate him against

the Athenians, neither was he 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 particular, 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 producing

instant death; and ended his days in the city of Magnesia, having lived

sixty-five years, most of which he had spent in politics and in the

wars, in government and command. The king, being informed of the cause

and manner of his death, admired him more than ever, and continued to

show kindness to his friends and relations.

Themistocles left three sons by Archippe, daughter to Lysander of

Alopece, -- Archeptolis, Polyeuctus, and Cleophantus. Plato the

philosopher mentions the last as a most excellent horseman, but

otherwise insignificant person; of two sons yet older than these,

Neocles and Diocles, Neocles died when he was young by the bite of a

horse, and Diocles 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 Magnesia, 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 Themistocles, placed in

the middle of their market-place. It is not worthwhile taking notice

of what Andocides states in his Address to his Friends concerning his

remains, how the Athenians 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 Phylarchus 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 certain 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; 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 'twill 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.

Among the many remarkable things that are related of Furius Camillus, it

seems singular and strange above all, that he, who continually was in

the highest commands, and obtained the greatest successes, was five

times chosen dictator, triumphed four times, and was styled a second

founder of 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 obnoxious amount of authority, because it was divided

among a larger number; for to have the management of affairs entrusted

in the hands of six persons rather than two was some satisfaction to the

opponents of oligarchy. This was the condition of the times when

Camillus was in the height of his actions and glory, and, although the

government in the meantime 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 former 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 considerable

distinction; he, by his own acts, first raised himself to honor, serving

under Postumius Tubertus, dictator, in the great battle against the

Aequians and Volscians. For riding out from the rest of the army, and

in the charge receiving a wound in his thigh, he for all that did not

quit the fight, but, letting the dart drag in the wound, and engaging

with the bravest of the enemy, put them to flight; for which action,

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, whereas the wars had made many

widows, he obliged such as 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

of soldiers, insomuch that, presuming on her wealth 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 defeats, so that, having fortified themselves with high and strong

walls, and furnished the city with all sorts of weapons offensive 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 accustomed 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

commanders 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 ravages 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 phenomenon 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 summer now ending had, to all observation, been neither rainy

nor much troubled with southern winds; and of the many lakes, brooks,

and springs of all sorts with which Italy abounds, some were wholly

dried up, others drew very little water with them; all the rivers, as is

usual in summer, ran in a very low 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 plowed 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 extraordinary event. But the

greatest talk of it was in the camp that besieged Veii, 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 familiarity with one of the besieged, a man

versed in ancient prophecies, 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 befallen 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, decreed to send to

Delphi, to ask counsel of the god. The messengers were persons of the

highest repute, Licinius 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 possible, they should keep from

the sea, and shut it up in its ancient bounds; but if that was not to be

done, then they should carry 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 Veii, 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

discovered 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 were, without being perceived,

arrived within the citadel, close to the temple of Juno, which was the

greatest and most honored 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 victory to those that should

complete those offerings; and that the Romans who were in the mines,

hearing the words, immediately pulled down the floor, and, ascending

with noise and clashing of weapons, frightened away the enemy, and,

snatching up the entrails, carried them to Camillus. But this may look

like a fable. The city, however, being taken by storm, and the soldiers

busied in pillaging and gathering an infinite quantity of riches and

spoil, Camillus, from the high tower, viewing what was done, at first

wept for pity; and when they that were by congratulated his good

success, he lifted up his hands to heaven, and broke out into this

prayer: "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. But if, in the vicissitude of things,

there 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

astonishment 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 accept 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, Camillus 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

fortune of the city, which, from a small and contemptible beginning,

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 have been told by men of

our own time, that are not lightly to be rejected; but to give too easy

credit to such things, or wholly to disbelieve them, is equally

dangerous, so incapable is human infirmity of keeping 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 moderation is best, and to avoid all extremes.

Camillus, however, whether puffed up with the greatness 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 territories and

their fortunes in general. The people, therefore, who 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 Veii, 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 time afterwards, when his

authority was 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 anger, 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 public the tenth part of his gains.

This occasioned many annoyances and hardships to the soldiers, who were

poor men, and had endured much in the war, and now were forced, out of

what they had gained and spent, to bring in so great a proportion.

Camillus, being assaulted by their clamor and tumults, for want of a

better excuse, betook himself to the poorest of defenses, 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 the tenths of the

citizens. Nevertheless, every one having brought in his due proportion,

it was decreed 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 themselves, 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, therefore, three of the noblest citizens

as a deputation, they sent them in a vessel of war, well manned and

sumptuously adorned. Storm and calm at sea may both, they say, alike be

dangerous; as they at this time experienced, being brought almost to the

very brink of destruction, and, beyond all expectation, escaping. For

near the isles of Solus 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, Timesitheus 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, to accompany them in their voyage and assist them at the

dedication; for which he received honors at Rome, as he had deserved.

And now the tribunes of the people again resuming their motion for the

division of the city, the war against the Faliscans luckily broke out,

giving liberty to the chief citizens to choose what magistrates they

pleased, and to appoint Camillus military tribune, with five colleagues;

affairs then requiring a commander of authority and reputation, as well

as experience. And when the people had ratified the election, he

marched with his forces into the territories of the Faliscans, and laid

seige 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 very common remedy, indeed, with the Romans, who thus

carried off, like good physicians, the ill humors of their commonwealth.

The Falerians, trusting in the strength of their city, which was well

fortified on all sides, made so little account 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 company.

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 them home again. Afterwards by

degrees he drew them farther 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

that, 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! Certain laws, however, all good men observe even in war

itself; nor is victory so great an object 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

commanded 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 city. By this time the Falerians had

discovered the treachery of the schoolmaster, and the city, as was

likely, was full of lamentations and cries for their calamity, men and

women of worth running in distraction about the walls and gates; when,

behold, the boys came whipping their master on, naked and bound, calling

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 confess themselves

to be inferior in strength, as they must acknowledge them to be superior

in virtue. The senate remitted 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. Afterwards, 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

inveighing boldly against the promoters of it, and so urging and