nature and all generation is motion or at least with motion all other parts of matter without warmth lie sluggish and dead and crave the influence of heat as their Soul which when it comes upon them they presently fall to doing or suffering something wherefore Numa a man very curious in such things and for his wisedom thought to converse with the Muses did consecrate Fire and ordained it to be kept ever burning in resemblance of that eternal Power which preserveth and acteth all things Others say that that Fire was the same they burned before the Sacrifices and was no other than what the Greeks call Purifying Fire but that there were other things hid in the most secret part of the Temple which were kept from the view of all except those Virgins which they call Vestals The most common opinion was that the Image of Pallas brought into Italy by Aeneas was laid up there others say that the Samothracian Gods lay there telling a story How that Dardanus carried them to Troy and when he had built that City dedicated them there that after Troy was taken Aeneas stole them away and kept them till his coming into Italy But they who pretend to understand more of these things affirm that there are two Barrels not of any great size one of which stands open and has nothing in it the other full and sealed up But that neither of them is to be seen but by the most Holy Virgins others think that they who say this are deceived because the Virgins put most of their holy things into two Barrels and hid them under ground in the Temple of Quirinus and that from hence that place to this day bears the sirname of Barrels However it be taking the choicest and most venerable things they had they fled away with them shaping their course along the River side where Lucius Albinus a simple Citizen of Rome who among others was making his escape overtook them having his Wife Children and Goods in a Cart who seeing the Virgins lugging along in their armes the Holy Relicks of the Gods in a helpless and weary condition he caused his Wife and Children to descend and taking out his Goods put the Virgins in the Cart that they might make their escape to some of the Grecian Cities This extraordinary devotion of Albinus and respect to the Gods in such an exigence of time and extremity of his own affairs is so remarkable as deserves not to be passed over in silence But the Priests that belonged to other Gods and the most ancient of the Senatours such as had run through many Consulships and Triumphs could not endure to think of leaving the City but putting on their holy Vestures and Robes of State and Fabius the High Priest performing the Office they made their Prayers to the Gods and devoting themselves as it were for their Country sate themselves down in Ivory Chairs in the Market-place and in that posture expected the uttermost of what should follow On the third day after the Battel Brennus appeared with his Army at the City and finding the Gates to stand wide open and no Guards upon the Walls he first began to suspect it was some design or stratageme never dreaming that the Romans were in so low and forsaken a condition But when he found it to be so indeed he entered at the Colline Gate and took Rome in the three hundred and sixtieth year or a little more after it was built if it be likely that an exact account of those times has been preserved when there is so much confusion and dispute in things of a later date The report of the City's being taken presently flew into Greece though in different and uncertain rumours for Heraclides of Pontus who lived not long after these times in his Book of the Soul relates that a certain report came from the West that an Army proceeding from the Hyperboreans had taken a Greek City called Rome seated somewhere upon the great Ocean But I do not wonder that such a fabulous and bumbast Authour as Heraclides should foist into the truth of the story such high-flown words as Hyperborean and Ocean Aristotle the Philosopher appears to have heard an exact account of the taking of the City by the Gauls but he calls him that recovered it Lucius but Camillus his sirname was not Lucius but Marcus but this is spoken by way of conjecture Brennus having taken possession of the City set a strong Guard about the Capitol and going himself to view the City when he came into the Market-place he was struck with an amazement at the sight of so many men sitting in that order and silence observing that they neither rose at his coming or so much as changed colour or countenance but without fear or concern leaned upon their Staves and in that fullen majesty sate looking one upon the other The Gauls for a great while stood wondring at the object being surprised with the strangeness of it not daring so much as to approach or touch them taking them for an Assembly of the Gods But when one bolder than the rest drew near to M. Papirius and putting forth his hand gently touched his Chin and stroked his long Beard Papirius with his Staff struck him on the Head and broke it at which the Barbarian enraged drew out his Sword and slew him this was the introduction to the slaughter for the rest of his fellows following his example set upon them all and killed them and continuing their rage dispatched all that came in their way in this fury they went on to the sacking and pillaging the Houses for many days together lugging and carrying away Afterwards they burnt them down to the ground and demolish'd them being incensed at those who kept the Capitol because they would not yield to summons or hearken to a surrender but on the contrary from their Walls and Rampiers galled the Besiegers with their Slings and Darts This provoked them to destroy the whole City and put to the Sword all that came to their hands young and old Men Women and Children And now the Siege of the Capitol having lasted a good while the Gauls began to be in want of Provision wherefore dividing their Forces part of them stay'd with the King at the Siege the rest went to forage the Country destroying the Towns and Villages where they came but not all together in a Body but in different Squadrons and Parties and to such a confidence had success raised them that they carelesly rambled about without the least fear or apprehension of danger But the greatest and best ordered Body of their Forces went to the City of Ardea where Camillus then sojourned having ever since his leaving Rome sequestred himself from all business and taken to a private life but now he began to rouse up himself and cast about not how to avoid or escape the Enemy but to find out an opportunity how to be revenged of them And
farther than to Tegea and Theseus and Peirithous being now out of danger having escap'd out of Peloponnesus made an agreement between themselves that he to whom the lot should fall should have Helen to his Wife but should be oblig'd to be ready with his assistance to procure another for his Friend The lot fell upon Theseus who convey'd her to Aphidnae not being yet marriageable and deliver'd her to one of his Allies callâ—d Aphidnus and having sent his Mother Aethra after to take care of her Education desir'd him to keep them so secretly that none might know where they were Which done to return the same service to his Friend Peirithous he accompani'd him in his Journey to Epirus in order to steal away the King of the Molossians Daughter This King his own Name being Aidoneus or Pluto call'd his Wife and his Daughter Proserpina and a great Dog which he kept Cerberus with whom he order'd all that came as Suitors to his Daughter to fight and promis'd her to him that should overcome the Beast But having been inform'd that the design of Peirithous his coming was not to court his Daughter but to force her away he caused them both to be seized and threw Peirithous to be torn in pieces by his Dog and clapt up Theseus into Prison and kept him in Chains About this time Menestheus the Son of Peteus who was great Grandson to Erectheus the first Man that is recorded to have affected Popularity and ingratiated himself with the Multitude stirr'd up and exasperated the most eminent Men of the City who had long born a secret grudge to Theseus and possest them with a belief that Theseus had taken from them their several little Kingdoms and Lordships that so having pent them all up in one City he might use them as his Subjects and Slaves He put also the meaner sort into no small Commotion by accusing them sharply that being deluded with a meer dream of Liberty tho' indeed they were depriv'd both of that and of their Countreys and their Temples 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 busi'd 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 perswasions 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 knew not where she was dispos'd of they prepar'd to assault the City when Academus by what means he came to the knowledge of it is uncertain discover'd to them that she was secretly kept at Aphidnae For which Reason he was both extreamly honour'd during his Life by Castor and Pollux and the Lacedaemonians when in after-times they made several Incursions into Attica and destroy'd all the Countrey round about spar'd the Academy for his sake But Dicaearchus writes that there were two Arcadians in the Army of Castor and Pollux the one callâ—d Echedemus and the other Marathus from the first that which is now call'd the Academy was then nam'd Echedemia and the Village Marathon had its Name from the other who according to the Oracle willingly offer'd up himself a Sacrifice for the prosperous success of the Army As soon as the Lacedaemonians were arriv'd at Aphidnae they first overcame their Enemies in a set Battel and then assaulted it and took the Town And here they say Alycus the Son of Sciron was slain on the Lacedaemonians side from whom a Place in Megara where he was buri'd is call'd Alycus to this day And Hereas writes that it was Theseus himself that kill'd him in witness of which he cites these Verses concerning Alycus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Alycus on fair Aphidna 's Plain By Theseus in the Cause of Helen slain Tho' it is not at all probable that Theseus himself was there when both the City and his own Mother were taken Aphidnae being now won by Castor and Pollux and the whole City of Athens being in great Consternation Menestheus perswaded the People to open their Gates and receive them with all manner of Civility and Friendship who he told them design'd no violence or injury to any but Theseus who had first done them wrong but were Benefactors and Saviours to all Mankind beside And their behaviour to the conquer'd gave credit to what Menestheus promis'd for having made themselves absolute Masters of the Place they demanded no more than to be initiated in the Ceremonies of the Goddess Ceres since they were as nearly related to their City as Hercules was who had receiv'd the same Honour This their Desire they easily obtain'd and were adopted by Aphidnus as Hercules had been by Pylius They were honour'd also like Gods and were call'd by a new Name Anaces either from the cessation of the War or from the singular care they took that none should suffer any injury tho' there was so great an Army within the Walls of the City for the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as much from whence it is likely that Kings were call'd Anactes Others say that from the appearance of their Star in the Heavens they were thus call'd for in the Attick Dialect this Name comes very near the words that signifie Above Some say that Aethra Theseus his Mother was here taken Prisoner and carri'd to Lacedaemonia and from thence went away with Helen to Troy alledging this Verse of Homer to prove that she waited upon Helen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aethra of Pittheus born and Clymene Others reject this Verse as none of Homers as they do likewise the whole Fable of Munychus who the Story says was the Son of Demophoon and Laodice and was brought up privately by Aethra at Troy But Istrus in the 13th Book of his Attic History gives us an account of Aethra different yet from all the rest That after the Fight wherein Achilles and Patroclus overcame Paris in Thessaly near the River Sperchius Hector sack'd and plunder'd the City of the Troezenians and took Aethra Prisoner there But this seems to be an absurd and groundless Tale. Now it happen'd that Hercules passing once by the Countrey of the Molossians was entertain'd in his way by Aidoneus the King who in Discourse accidentally fell upon a Relation of the Journey of Theseus and Peirithous into his Dominions and what they had design'd to do and what they were forc'd to suffer Hercules was extreamly concern'd for the inglorious Death of the one and the miserable condition of the other As for Peirithous he thought it but in vain to expostulate with the King concerning his being put to Death but Theseus being yet kept in Prison he begg'd to have him releas'd for his sake and obtainâ—d that Favour from
Lycurgus came onely as a Spectatour and that by mere accident too Being there he heard a voice of one behind him blaming and wondering at him that he did not encourage his Country-men to resort to so illustrious an Assembly turning about and seeing no man he concluded that it was a voice from Heaven and thereupon immediately went to Iphitus and was assistant to him in ordering the Ceremonies of that Feast which by his means were better establish'd more famous and magnificent than before that time they were To return to the Lacedemonians Their discipline and order of life continued still after they were full grown men No one was allowed to live after his own fancy but the whole City resembled a great Camp in which every man had his share of provisions and business set out and look'd 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 Lads perform their Exercises to teach them something usefull or to learn it themselves of those who knew better And here I cannot but declare my opinion that one of the greatest blessings Lycurgus procur'd to his people was the abundance of leisure which proceeded from his forbidding to them the exercise of any mean and mechanical Trade for it was but lost labour to waste themselves with anxiety and toil to heap together a great deal of money which when they had got was but useless lumber in their house for the Ilotes till'd their ground for them and paid them yearly in kind the quantity above-mention'd without any trouble of theirs To this purpose there goes a story of a Lacedemonian who happened to be at Athens in Assises time in which a Citizen had been punish'd for idleness and came home much discontented and comfortless the Lacedemonian was much surpriz'd at it and desired his Friend to shew him the man who was condemned for living like a Gentleman so much beneath them they esteemed all mechanical employments and the care of heaping up riches I need not tell you that upon the prohibition of Gold and Silver all Law-suits immediately ceas'd for there was now no griping avarice or poverty oppressed but equality with abundance and a quiet life with sobriety All their time except when they were in the Field was taken up in dancing in feasting in their exercises and hunting matches or places where good company us'd to meet Those who were under thirty years of age were not allow'd to go into the Market-place but had the necessaries of their Family supply'd by the care of their Relations and Lovers nor was it for the credit of elderly men to be seen too often in the Market-place it was esteem'd more honourable for them to frequent the Academies and places of conversation where they discours'd agreeably not of the price of Pepper and interest of Money but gravely pass'd their judgment on some action worth considering extoll'd the good and blam'd those who were otherwise and that in a facetious way so that the Feather of the Jest made the Arrow pierce the deeper and left some usefull remark or correction behind it Nor was Lycurgus himself so sullen and cynically grave but that now and then he would ruffle his gravity and sacrifice an hour to the little God of Laughter to whom he dedicated a Statue in his House to the end that by sprinkling and seasoning their conversations with mirth they might more willingly endure the trouble of their strict and hard life To conclude this he bred up his Citizens in such sort that they neither would nor could live by themselves but endeavour'd to incorporate them all together like swarms of Bees in a cluster about their King wholly devesting themselves of their own narrow interests and forgetting themselves by the continual ecstasie they were in to promote the publick interest and honour What their Sentiments were will better appear by a few of their Sayings Paedaretus not being admitted into the List of the three hundred who were chosen to make good the pass at the Thermopyle return'd home very joyfull and well pleas'd saying That it did his heart good to find that there were in Sparta three hundred better men than himself And Pisistratidas being sent with some others Ambassadour to the Lords Lieutenants of the King of Persia being ask'd by them Whether they came of their own accord or were sent by the State answered That if they obtain'd what they came for they were commission'd by the Publick if not they came of themselves Argileonide asking some strangers who came from Amphipolis if her Son Brasidas dy'd couragiously and as became a Spartan they fell a-praising him to a high degree and said There is not such another left in Sparta She took them up short Hold Gentlemen Brasidas indeed was a valiant man but there are still in Sparta many more valiant than he The Senate as I said before consisted of them who were his chief aiders and assistants in the forming of the Government and the vacancies he ordered to be supply'd out of the best and most deserving men who were full threescore years old and we need not wonder if there was much striving and stickling for it for what more glorious competition could there be amongst men than this in which it was not disputed who should bear away the prize of swiftness or strength but who was the wisest and most vertuous man in the City to whom should be entrusted for ever after as the reward of his merits the power and authority of the whole Commonwealth and in whose hands should be deposited the honour the lives and fortunes of all his Country-men The manner of their Election was as follows The people being called together some persons deputed by the Senate were lock'd up in a Room near the place of Election which was so contriv'd that they could neither see nor be seen by the Competitours or people but onely 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 Competitours were not brought in and presented all together but one after another as by lot fell out and through the Assembly they pass'd in order without speaking a word Those who were lock'd up had writing Tables with them in which they set down the number of the shouts and the greatness of them without knowing to which of the Candidates each of them were made But he who was found to have the most and loudest acclamations was declar'd Senatour 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 making the streets to echo with his praises The young Ladies too sung Verses in his honour and a blessed man they call'd him who had led so vertuous a life As
says distributed to every one that was listed eight Drachms which was a great help to the setting out of the Fleet but Clidemus ascribes this to a stratageme of Themistocles who when the Athenians went down to the Haven of Piraea said that the shield wherein the Head of Medusa was engraven was taken away from the Statue of Minerva and he being employed to search for it and ransacking in all places found among their Goods great sums of Money which he brought back for the use of the publick and with this the Soldiers and Sea-men were well provided for their Voyage When the whole City of Athens were going on Board it afforded a spectacle worthy of pity and admiration for who would not have commiserated those who were to leave their Country and at the same time admired their courage and resolution to see them send away their Fathers and Children before them and not be moved with the cries and tears and last embracings of their ancient Parents and nearest Relations when they passed over into the Island but that which moved compassion most of all was that many old men by reason of their great age were left behind and even the tame domestick Animals moved some pity running about the Town clocking mewing houling as desirous to be carried along with their Masters that had nourished them among which it is reported that Xantippus 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 Salamine where he fainted away and died and that part of the Island in which he was buried is still called the Dog's Grave Among the great actions of Themistocles the return of Aristides was not the least for before the War he was oppressed by a Faction stirred up by Themistocles and suffered Banishment but now perceiving that the people regretted the absence of this great Man and fearing that he might go over to the Persians to revenge himself and thereby ruine the affairs of Greece Themistocles proposed a Decree that those who were banished for a time might return again to give what assistence they could to the Grecians both by their counsel and valour with the rest of the Athenians Eurybiades by reason of the greatness of Sparta was Admiral of the Grecian Fleet but yet was faint-hearted in time of danger and willing to weigh Anchor and set Sail for the Gulf of Corinth near which the Land Army lay encamped but Themistocles violently opposed him upon which happened many remarkable passages and when Eurybiades to blame his impatience told him that at the Olympian Games they that rise up before the rest are lashed Themistocles replied and they that are left behind are never crowned Eurybiades lifting up his Staff as if he were going to strike Themistocles minding nothing but the interest of Greece cryed Strike if you will but hear what I say Eurybiades wondring much at his moderation desired him to speak and Themistocles hereby brought him to a better understanding of his affairs but one who stood by him told him that it did not become those who had neither City nor House nor any thing left to loose to perswade others to relinquish their habitations and forsake their Countries to which 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 those things that have no Life nor Soul and yet our City is the greatest of all Greece as 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 perceive that the Athenians will possess as fair a Country and as large and free a City as that already 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 any thing to say of War that are like an Ink-Fish you have a Sword but no Heart Some say that while Themistocles was discoursing of these things upon the Deck there was an Owl seen flying to the right hand of the Fleet which came and sate upon the top of the Mast this happy Omen so far disposed the Greeks to follow his advice that they presently prepared to fight yet when the enemies Fleet was arrived at the Haven of Phaleris upon the Coast of Attica and with the number of their Ships had shadowed all the Shore and when they saw the King himself in person come down with his Land Army to the Sea side with those multitudes and all his Forces united then the good Counsel of Themistocles soon vanished and the Peloponnesians cast their eyes again towards the Isthmus and took it very ill if any one spake against their returning home and resolving to depart that night the Pilots had order what course to steer Themistocles being highly concerned that the Grecians should retire and loose the advantage of the narrow Seas and strait Passages and slip home every one to his own City considered with himself and contrived that stratageme that was carried on by Sicinus This Sicinus was a Persian Captive but a great lover of Themistocles and Tutour to his Children upon this occasion Themistocles sent him privately to Xerxes commanding him to tell the King that the Admiral of the Athenians having espoused his interest had sent early to inform him that the Greeks were ready to make their escape and that he counselled 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 he might destroy all their Forces by Sea Xerxes was very joyfull at this message and received it as from one who wished all things prosperous to him and therefore immediately issued out instructions to the Commanders of his Ships that they should presently set out two hundred Sail to encompass all the Islands and enclose all the Straits and Passages that none of the Greeks might escape and to follow with the rest of their Fleet at better leisure This being done Aristides the Son of Lysimachus was the first man that perceived it and went to Themistocles into his Cabbin not out of any peculiar Friendship for he had been formerly banished by his means as hath been related but to inform him how they were encompassed by their enemies Themistocles knowing the generosity of Aristides and being much taken with his Visit at that time imparted to him all that he had transacted by Sicinus and intreated him that having great authority among the Greeks he would now make use of it in joyning with him to induce them to stay and fight their enemies in those narrow Seas Aristides applauded Themistocles and went to the other Commanders and Captains of the Galleys and encouraged them to
what he did in the time of the Holy War For whereas the Lacedemonians having gone with an Army to the City Delphi restored Apollo's Temple which the Phocians had got into their possession to the Delphians again immediately after their departure Pericles coming with another Army brought in the Phocians again And the Lacedemonians having engraven an Oracle or be it a privilege of consulting the Oracle before others which the Delphians gave them upon the forehead of a brazen Wolf which stands there he also having received from the Phocians an Oracle or the like privilege for his Athenians had it cut upon the same Wolf of Brass on his right side Now that he did well and wisely in this that he kept the force and power of the Athenians within the compass of Greece the things and passages themselves that happen'd afterward did bear sufficient witness For in the first place the Euboeans revolted against whom he past over with Forces and then immediately after news came that the Megarians were set upon in War and that the Enemies Army was upon the borders of the Attick Country under the command and conduct of Pleistonax King of the Lacedemonians Wherefore Pericles went with his Army back again in all haste out of Euboea to the War which threatned home and because there were a many brave fellows in Arms on the other side who dared him to fight he did not venture to engage or to come to handy-blows with them but perceiving that Pleistonax was a very young man and that he govern'd himself mostly by the counsel and advice of Cleandrides whom the Overseers or Curatours of the State whom they call Ephori had sent along with him by reason of his youth to be a kind of Guardian and Assistant to him he privately applied his temptation to him and in a short time having corrupted him with money he prevailed with him to withdraw the Peloponnesians out of the Attick Country When the Army was retir'd and dispersed into several quarters through their Towns and Cities the Lacedemonians being grievously offended at it amerced their King in a great sum of money by way of Fine which he being not able to pay quitted his Country and removed himself from Lacedemon the other Gentleman Cleandrides who fled for it having a sentence of death past upon him by them for betraying them This man was the Father of that Gylippus who defeated the Athenians and beat them so at Sicily And it seems that this covetousness was an hereditary disease that past from Father to Son for he also whom we last mention'd was upon a like account caught in foul practices and was turned out of Town at Sparta for it But this is a story we have told at large where we discourse the affairs of Lysander Now when Pericles in giving up his accounts of this Expedition had set down a disbursement of ten Talents which comes to about 1500 pounds Sterling as laid out upon a fit and usefull occasion the people without any more adoe not troubling themselves to canvass the mystery how it was expended freely allow'd of it And some Historians in which number is Theophrastus the Philosopher have reported it for a truth that year by year Pericles sent privately the foresaid sum of ten Talents to Sparta wherewith he complemented those that were in any Office or place of Trust to keep off the War not to purchase peace neither but to redeem time to the intent that having at leisure provided himself he might the better make a War hereafter Wherefore presently upon this turning his Forces against the revolters and passing over into the Island Euboea with fifty Sail of Ships and five thousand Men in Arms he overthrew and won their Cities and drove out those of the Chalcidians whom they called Hippobotae i. e. Horse-feeders the chief persons for wealth and reputation among them and removing all the Hestiaeans out of the Country brought in a Plantation of his own Country-men the Athenians in their room to dwell there by themselves treating those people with that severity for that they having taken an Attick Ship prisoner had put all the men on board to death After this was over having made a truce between the Athenians and Lacedemonians for thirty years he orders by publick Decree an Expedition against the Isle of Samos upon this pretence that they when they were bid to leave off the War they had with the Milesians did not as they were bid to doe But by reason that what he did against the Samians he is thought to have done it in favour of Aspasia and to gratifie some humour or design of hers she being that Country-woman here in this place may be a fit occasion most properly for us to make inquiry concerning this Woman what cunning art or charming force she had so great as to inveigle and captivate as she did the chief persons of the Government and to afford the Philosophers occasion so much to discourse about her and not to her disparagement neither Now that she was a Milesian by birth the Daughter of one Axiochus is a thing acknowledged And they say that she in imitation of one Thargelia a Courtisan one of the old Ionian stamp used to make her addresses to personages of the greatest power and to clap them on board For that same Thargelia being a handsome Woman to see to and having a gracefull carriage and a shrewd wit into the bargain kept company with a great many of the Greeks and wrought all those who had to doe with her over to the Persian King's interest and by their means being men of the greatest power and quality she sowed the seeds of the Median Faction up and down in several Cities And for this Aspasia they say that she was courted and caressed by Pericles upon the account of her wisedom and knowledge in State affairs For Socrates himself would sometimes go to visit her and fome of his acquaintance with him and those who used her company would carry their Wives along with them to her as it were to Lecture to hear her discourse though by the way the House she kept was little other than a Vaulting School she being a Governante of no modest or creditable imploy but keeping a parcel of young Wenches about her who were no better than they should be Now Aeschines saith also that there was one Lysicles a Grasier or Mutton-monger who of a great Clown and a pitifull Sneaksby as naturally he was did by keeping Aspasia company after Pericles his death come to be a chief man among the people of Athens And in a Book of Plato's intitled Menexenus though the first part of it is written with some pleasantry and sport yet there is so much of History in it that she was a Woman with whom many of the Athenians convers'd and often resorted to as the common opinion was upon the account
or Lyrick Verses King of Satyrs Woman-haunter In thy words of War a Vaunter Why as to action dost thou saunter Why wilt not carry Lance or Spear Or heave up Pike what makes thee fear As if thou didst the Soul of Teles wear Brave Cleon rasps thee to the Bone As Morglay 's edge is sharp'd with Stone Whet Whet he cries Courage O Hone O Hone However Pericles was not at all moved by any of these practices of theirs but took all patiently and in silence underwent the disgrace they threw upon him and the ill will they bore him And sending out a Fleet of a hundred Sail to Peloponnesus he did not go along with it in person but staid behind that he might look after home and keep the City in order till the Peloponnesians should break up Camp and be gone Yet to court and caress the common people who were jaded and in disorder about the War he reliev'd and refresh'd them with distributions of publick moneys and made a Law for the division of Lands by lot and the plantation of Colonies For having turn'd out all the people of Aegina he parted the Island among the Athenians according as their lot fell And it was some comfort to them and ease in their miseries even from what things their enemies endured For they in the Fleet sailing round the Peloponnese ravaged a great deal of the Country and pillaged and plundred the Towns and smaller Cities And by Land he himself went with an Army into the Megarian Country and made havock of it all By which means it appears that the Peloponnesians though they did the Athenians a world of mischief by Land yet suffering as much themselves from them by Sea would not have drawn out the War to such a length but would quickly have given it over as Pericles at first foretold they would had not some divine power crost humane purposes Now in the first place there was a pestilential Disease or Murrain that seiz'd upon the City and ate up all the flower and prime of their youth and strength Upon occasion of which Distemper the people being afflicted in their Souls as well as in their Bodies were utterly inraged like Madmen against Pericles and in the same nature as Patients being grown delirious in a high Fever use to behave themselves toward their Physician or be it their Father were ready to fall foul upon him and doe him a mischief For it had been buzz'd in their ears by his enemies as if he were in the fault perswading them that the occasion of the Plague was the crowding of so many Country people together into Town in that they were forced now in the Summer time in the heat of the weather to dwell a many of them together higgledy piggledy in pitifull little Tenements and sultry Hovels enough to stifle them and to be tied to a lazy course of life within doors when as before they lived in a pure open and free air The cause and authour of all this said they is he who upon the account of the War hath poured a multitude of people from the Country in upon us within the Walls and puts so many men as he has here upon no imploy or service but keeps them pent up like Cattel in a pound and lets them be overrun with infection from one another affording them neither shift of quarters nor any refreshment He designing to remedy these things and withall to doe the enemy some inconvenience got a hundred and fifty sail of Ships ready and fill'd them with men and having imbarked a many stout Souldiers both Foot and Horse was about to weigh Anchor giving great incouragement of hope to his Citizens and no less an alarm of fear to his Enemies upon the sight of so great a force And now the Vessels having their complement of men and Pericles being gone aboard the Admiral his own Galley it happened that the Sun was in an Eclipse and it grew dark on a sudden to the extreme affrightment of them all looking upon it as a dismal token and an unlucky ill-boding Omen Wherefore Pericles perceiving the Pilot or Steersman seis'd with a great fear and at a stand what to doe he took his Cloak and put it before the man's Face and muffling him up in it that he could not see he ask'd him whether he did imagine there was any dreadfull thing or great hurt in this that he had done to him or whether he thought it was the sign of any hurt he answering No Why said he and what does that there differ from this onely that that which hath caused that darkness there is something greater than a Cloak But these are things fit to be discoursed in the Schools of Philosophy Well Pericles after he had put out to Sea as he seems not to have done any other exploit befitting such an apparade and equipage so when he had besieged the holy City Epidaurus which gave him some hope as if it would or might be taken he miscarried in his design by reason of the Sickness For it did not onely seise upon the Athenians and destroy them but also without any difference any others that upon any occasion mix'd with them or had ought to doe in the Army it carried them off too for company After this finding that the Athenians were very ill affected towards and highly displeased with him he tried and indeavoured what he could to appease them by giving them good words and to reincourage their confidence in him But he could not pacifie or allay their anger nor perswade them to any thing or prevail with them any way till they freely past their Votes upon him and taking the staff into their own hands they took away his command from him and fined him in a round sum of money which by their account that say least was fifteen Talents and they which reckon most name fifty Now he who was set down at his Trial to be his Accuser was Cleon as Idomeneus tells us but Simmias according to Theophrastus and Heraclides Ponticus has named Lacratidas for the man After this the publick heats and affairs too might quickly come to a repose and be at quiet the Commonalty having discharged their spleen and passion upon him as Wasps do their sting together with the mortal wound they gave him But his private domestick concerns were in a wretched untoward condition he having lost not a few of his Friends and acquaintance in the plague time and those of his Family having long since been in disorder and in a kind of mutiny against him For the eldest of his lawfully begotten Sons Xanthippus by name being both by nature given to expense and marrying a young and costly Dame the Daughter of Isander who was the Son of Epilycus was highly offended at his Father's niggardly thrift making him but a scanty bare allowance and giving it him by little and little
is not Recorded The youngest was called Charon who also dyed in his Infancy The two remaining are suppos'd to have surviv'd him The Name of one was Plutarch after his own and that of the other Lamprias so call'd in memory of his Grand-father This was he of all his Children who seems to have inherited his Fathers Philosophy And to him we owe the Table or Catalogue of Plutarchs Writings and perhaps also the Apothegms His Nephew but whether by his Brother or Sister remains uncertain was Sextus Chaeroneus who was much honour'd by that learned Emperour Marcus Aurelius and who taught him the Greek tongue and the principles of Philosophy This Emperour professing Stoicism as appears by his Writings inclines us to believe that our Sextus Chaeroneus was of the Stoick Sect and consequently that the World has generally been mistaken in supposing him to have been the same man with Sextus Empiricus the Sceptick whom Suidas plainly tells us to have been an African Now Empiricus cou'd not but be a Sceptick for he opposes all Dogmatists and particularly them But I heard it first observ'd by an ingenious and Learned old Gentleman lately deceas'd that many of Mr. Hobbs his seeming new opinions are gather'd from those which Sextus Empiricus expos'd The Book is extant and I refer the curious to it not pretending to arraign or to excuse him Some think the Famous Critick Longinus was of Plutarchs Family descended from a Sister of his but the proofs are so weak that I will not insert them They may both of them rely on their proper merits and stand not in want of a Relation to each other T is needless to insist on his behaviour in his Family His Love to his Wife his Indulgence to his Children his care of their Education are all manifest in that part of his Works which is call'd his Morals Other parts of his disposition have been touch'd already as that he was courteous and humane to all Men free from inconstancy anger and the desire of revenge which qualities of his as they have been prais'd by the Authority of other Writers may also be recommended from his own Testimony of himself I had rather says he be forgotten in the memory of Men and that it shou'd be said there neither is nor was a Man call'd Plutarch then that they should report this Plutarch was unconstant changeable in his temper prone to anger and revenge on the least occasions What he was to his Slaves you may believe from this that in general he accuses those Masters of extream hardness and injustice who use Men like Oxen sell them in their age when they can drudge no longer A Man says he of a merciful disposition ought not to retrench the fodder from his Cattle nor the provender from his Horses when they can work no longer but to cherish them when worn out and old Yet Plutarch tho he knew how to moderate his anger was not on the contrary subject to an insensibility of wrongs not so remiss in exacting duty or so tame in suffering the disobedience of his Servants that he cou'd not correct when they deserv'd it As is manifest from the following story which Aulus Gellius had from the mouth of Taurus the Philosopher concerning him Plutarch had a certain Slave a saucy stubborn kind of fellow in a word one of those pragmatical Servants who never make a fault but they give a reason for it his justifications one time wou'd not serve his turn but his Master commanded him to be strip'd and that the Law should be laid on his backside He no sooner felt the smart but he mutter'd that he was unjustly punish'd and that he had done nothing to deserve the Scourge At last he began to bawl out lowder and leaving off his groaning his sighs and his lamentations to argue the matter with more shew of reason And as under such a Master he must needs have gain'd a smattering of learning he cryd out that Plutarch was not the Philosopher he pretended himself to be That he had heard him waging War against all the passions and maintaining that anger was unbecoming a wise Man Nay that he had written a particular Treatise in commendation of Clemency That therefore he contradicted his precepts by his practises since abandoning himself over to his Choler he exercis'd such inhumane cruelty on the body of his fellow Creature How 's this Mr. Varlet answered Plutarch by what signes and tokens can you prove I am in passion Is it by my Countenance my voice the colour of my face by my words or by my gestures that you have discover'd this my fury I am not of opinion that my eyes sparkle that I foam at mouth that I gnash my teeth or that my voice is more vehement or that my colour is either more pale or more red than at other times that I either shake or stamp with madness that I say or do any thing unbecoming a Philosopher These if you know them not are the Symptoms of a Man in rage In the mean turning to the Officer who scourg'd him while he and I dispute this matter mind you your business on his back His love to his Friends and his gratitude to his Benefactors are every where observable in his dedications of his several Works and the particular Treatises he has written to them on several occasions are all suitable either to the characters of the Men or to their present condition and the circumstances under which they were His love to his Country is from hence conspicuous that he professes to have written the Life of Lucullus and to have preserv'd the memory of his actions because of the favours he conferr'd on the City of Chaeronea which tho his Country receiv'd so long before yet he thought it appertain'd to him to repay them and took an interest in their acknowledgment As also that he vindicated the Baeotians from the calumnies of Herodotus the Historian in his Book concerning the malignity of that Author In which t is observable that his zeal to his Country transported him too far for Herodotus had said no more of them than what was generally held to be true in all Ages concerning the grossness of their wits their voracity and those other national vices which we have already noted on this account therefore Petrarch has accus'd our Authour of the same malignity for which he tax'd Herodotus But they may both stand acquitted on different accounts Herodotus for having given a true Character of the Thebans and Plutarch for endeavouring to palliate the vices of a people from whom he was descended The rest of his manners without entering into particulars were unblameable if we excuse a little proneness to superstition And regulating his actions by his dreams But how far this will bear an accusation I determine not tho Tully has endeavour'd to shew the vanity of Dreams in his Treatise of Divinations whether I refer the curious On what occasion he repair'd to Rome
splendour and number of his Triumphs in his comparison betwixt him and Agesilaus I believe says he that if Xenophon were now alive and would indulge himself the liberty to write all he could to the advantage of his Heroe Agesilaus he would be asham'd to put their acts in competition In his comparison of Sylla and Lysander there is says he no manner of equality either in the number of their victories or in the danger of their Battels for Lysander only gain'd two naval fights c. Now this is far from partiality to the Grecians He who wou'd convince him of this vice must shew us in what particular Judgment he has been too favourable to his Countrymen and make it out in general where he has faild in matching such a Greek with such a Roman which must be done by shewing how he could have pair'd them better and naming any other in whom the resemblance might have been more perfect But an equitable Judge who takes things by the same handle which Plutarch did will find there is no injury offer'd to either party tho there be some disparity betwixt the persons For he weighs every circumstance by it self and judges separately of it Not comparing Men at a lump nor endeavouring to prove they were alike in all things but allowing for disproportion of quality or fortune shewing wherein they agreed or disagreed and wherein one was to be preferr'd before the other I thought I had answer'd all that cou'd reasonably be objected against our Authors judgement but casually casting my eye on the works of a French Gentleman deservedly famous for Wit and Criticism I wonder'd amongst many commendations of Plutarch to find this one reflection As for his Comparisons they seem truly to me very great but I think he might have carried them yet farther and have penetrated more deeply into humane nature There are folds and recesses in our minds which have escap'd him he judges man too much in gross and thinks him not so different as he is often from himself The same person being just unjust merciful and cruel which qualities seeming to bely each other in him he Attributes their inconsistences to forreign causes Infine if he had discrib'd Catiline he wou'd have given him to us either prodigal or Covetous That alieni appetens sui profusus was above his reach He could never have reconcil'd those contrarieties in the same subject which Salust has so well unfolded and which Montaign so much better understood This Judgment cou'd not have proceeded but from a man who has a nice taste in Authors and if it be not altogether just 't is at least delicate but I am confident that if he please to consider this following passage taken out of the life of Sylla he will moderate if not retract his censure In the rest of his manners he was unequal irregular different from himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He took many things by rapine he gave more Honour'd men immoderately and us'd them contumeliously was submissive to those of whom he stood in need insulting over those who stood in need of him So that it was doubtful whether he were more form'd by nature to arrogance or flattery As to his uncertain way of punishing he would sometimes put men to death on the least occasion at other times he would pardon the greatest Crimes So that judging him in the whole you may conclude him to have been naturally cruel and prone to vengeance but that he could remit of his severity when his interests requir'd it Here methinks our Author seems to have sufficiently understood the folds and doubles of Sylla's disposition for his Character is full of variety and inconsistences Yet in the conclusion 't is to be confess'd that Plutarch has assign'd him a bloody nature The clemency was but artificial and assum'd the cruelty was inborn But this cannot be said of his rapine and his prodigality for here the alieni appetens sui profusus is as plainly describ'd as if Plutarch had borrow'd the sense from Salust And as he was a great Collector perhaps he did Nevertheless he judg'd rightly of Sylla that naturally he was cruel For that quality was predominant in him and he was oftener revengeful than he was merciful But this is sufficient to vindicate our Authors Judgment from being superficial and I desire not to press the Argument more strongly against this Gentleman who has Honour'd our Country by his long Residence amongst us It seems to me I must confess that our Author has not been more hardly treated by his Enemies in his comparing other Men than he has been by his friends in their comparing Seneca with him And herein even Montaign himself is scarcely to be defended For no man more esteem'd Plutarch no man was better acquainted with his excellences yet this notwithstanding he has done too great an honour to Seneca by ranking him with our Philosopher and Historian him I say who was so much less a Philosopher and no Historian T is a Reputation to Seneca that any one has offer'd at the comparison The worth of his Adversary makes his defeat advantagious to him and Plutarch might cry out with Justice Qui cum victus erit mecum certasse feretur If I had been to find out a parallel for Plutarch I should rather have pitch'd on Varro the most learned of the Romans if at least his Works had yet remain'd or with Pomponius Atticus if he had written But the likeness of Seneca is so little that except the ones being Tutor to Nero and the other to Trajan both of them strangers to Rome yet rais'd to the highest dignities in that City and both Philosophers tho of several Sects for Seneca was a Stoick Plutarch a Platonician at least an Academick that is half Platonist half Sceptick besides some such faint resemblances as these Seneca and Plutarch seem to have as little Relation to one another as their native Countries Spain and Greece If we consider them in their inclinations or humours Plutarch was sociable and pleasant Seneca morose and melancholly Plutarch a lover of conversation and sober feasts Seneca reserv'd uneasie to himself when alone to others when in Company Compare them in their manners Plutarch every where appears candid Seneca often is censorious Plutarch out of his natural humanity is frequent in commending what he can Seneca out of the sowrness of his temper is prone to Satyr and still searching for some occasion to vent his gaul Plutarch is pleas'd with an opportunity of praising vertue and Seneca to speak the best of him is glad of a pretence to reprehend vice Plutarch endeavours to teach others but refuses not to be taught himself for he is always doubtful and inquisitive Seneca is altogether for teaching others but so teaches them that he imposes his opinions for he was of a Sect too imperious and dogmatical either to be taught or contradicted And yet Plutarch writes like a man of a confirm'd probity Seneca like one
never cut 'em down or burn 'em but Theseus calling upon her and giving her his promise that he wou'd use her with all respect and offer her no injury she came forth and being enjoy'd by Theseus bore a Son to him nam'd Menalippus but afterwards she was married to Deioneus the Son of Euritus the Oechalian Theseus himself giving her to him And Ioxus the Son of this Menalippus who was born to Theseus accompany'd Ornytus in the Colony that he carried with him into Caria from whom the people call'd Ioxides have their name who have this custom deriv'd down to 'em from their Fathers never to burn either Shrubs or Rushes or wild Asparagus but to honour and worship ' em About this time the Cromyonian Sow which they call'd Phaea was a Beast not to be past by or despis'd being of great fierceness and very hard to be overcome her Theseus kill'd going out of his way to meet and engage her 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 not onely to chastise villainous and wicked Men but also to fight and expose himself to the fury of the most fierce and hurtfull Monsters and wild Beasts Others relate that this Phaea was a Woman a Robber full of cruelty and lust that liv'd in Cromyon and had the name of Sow given her from the beastliness of her life and conversation and that afterwards she was kill'd 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 say accustom'd out of insolence and wantonness to stretch forth his feet to strangers commanding them to wash 'em and then with a kick to thrust them down the Rock into the Sea but the Writers of Megara in contradiction to the receiv'd report and as Simonides expresses it fighting with all antiquity contend that Sciron was neither a Robber nor committer of injuries and affronts but a punisher of all such and full of all humanity and friendship to good and just men that Aeacus was ever esteemed a man of the greatest sanctity of all the Greeks and that Cychreus the Salaminian was honoured at Athens with divine worship and that the vertue of Peleus and Telamon were not unknown to any one and that Sciron was Son-in-law to Cychreus and Father-in-law to Aeacus and Grandfather to Peleus and Telamon who were both of 'em Sons of Erideis the Daughter of Sciron and Carichlo that therefore it was not probable that the best shou'd make these alliances with the worst of men giving and receiving mutually what was of greatest value and most dear to 'em but they relate that Theseus 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 Governour whom together with Sciron he there slew These are the contradictions which are between the Writers of this Story In Eleusis he kill'd Cercyon the Arcadian in a wrestling Match And going on a little further in the City Hermione he slew Damastes otherwise call'd Procrustes by force making him even to his own Beds as he himself was us'd to doe with all strangers this he did in imitation of Hercules For he returning always to the committers of these outrages the same sort of violence that they offer'd to others sacrific'd Busyris wrestled with Antaeus fought with Cycnus hand to hand and kill'd Termerus by breaking his Skull in pieces from whence they say comes the Proverb of A Termerian Mischief for it seems Termerus kill'd passengers that he met by running with all his force his Head against theirs Thus proceeded Theseus in the punishment of evil men who underwent the same torments 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 Phytalidoe met him and saluted him and upon his desire to use the purifications then in custom they perform'd them with all the usual Ceremonies and having offer'd propitiatory Sacrifices to the Gods they invited him and entertain'd him at their House who before in all his Journey had not met the like civility On the eighth day of June which was then call'd Cronius he arriv'd at Athens where he found the publick affairs full of all confusion and divided into Parties and Factions Aegeus also and his whole private Family labouring under the same distemper for Medea having fled from Corinth and promis'd Aegeus to make him by her Art capable of having Children was entertain'd by him and admitted to his Bed she had the first knowledge 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 perswaded him to poison Theseus at a Banquet to be prepar'd for him as a civility to a Stranger He coming to the Entertainment thought it not fit to discover himself first but being 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 design'd to cut with it Aegeus upon the sudden perceiving the Token threw down the Cup of poison and discovering his Son embrac'd him and having gather'd together all his Citizens he own'd him publickly before them who receiv'd him with great satisfaction for the fame of his Greatness and Bravery and 't is said that when the Cup fell the poison was spilt there where now is the enclosure in the Delphinian Temple for in that place stood Aegeus's House and the Statue of Mercury on the East side of the Temple is call'd the Mercury of Aegeus his Gate Now the Sons of Pallas who before were quiet upon hopes and expectation of recovering the Kingdom at least after Aegeus's death who was without Issue as soon as Theseus appear'd and was acknowledg'd the Successour to the Crown highly resenting that Aegeus first an adopted Son onely of Pandion and not at all related to the Family of Erectheus shou'd obtain the Kingdom and that after Theseus one of another Country again and a stranger shou'd obtain the Crown broke out into an open War And dividing themselves into two Companies one part of them march'd openly from Sphetta 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 Cryer of the Town of Agnus nam'd Leo who discover'd to Theseus all the designs of the Pallantidae He immediately fell upon them that lay in Ambuscade and cut 'em all off which Pallas and his company hearing fled and were dispersed
the same time he made an agreement with the Corinthians that they should allow them that came from Athens to the celebration of the Isthmian Games as much space to behold the Spectacle in as the Sayl of the Ship that brought them thither stretcht to its full extent could cover and that in the first and most honourable Place Concerning the Voyage that he made in the Euxine Sea there are different Relations for Philochorus and some others write that he undertook this Expedition with Hercules offering him his Service in the War against the Amazons and had Antiope given him for the reward of his Valour but others as 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 and indeed this seems to come nearest the truth for we do not read that any other of all those that accompani'd him in this Action took any Amazon Prisoner Different from the former Bion writes that he stole her away by deceit and fled for the Amazons he says being naturally Lovers of Men were so far from flying from Theseus when he touch'd upon their Coasts that they entertain'd him with great civility and sent him Presents to his Ship but he having invited Antiope who brought them to come aboard immediately set Sayl and carri'd her away 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 Noblemen of Athens that accompani'd him in this Voyage all Brothers whose Names were Euneus Thoas and Soloon The last of these fell desperately in Love with Antiope but conceal'd it with all possible care only to one of his most intimate acquaintance he reveal'd the Secret and employ'd him to break his passion to Antiope she rejected his pretences with a very sharp denial yet carri'd her self to him with all outward appearances of Civility and very prudently made no complaint to Theseus of any thing that had happen'd but Soloon urg'd by despair leap'd into a River near the Sea-side and drowned himself As soon as Theseus was acquainted with his Death and his unhappy Love that was the cause of it he was extreamly concern'd and in the heighth of his grief an Oracle which he had formerly receiv'd at Delphos came into his mind for he had been commanded by the Priestess of Apollo Pythius that where-ever in his Travels he was most sorrowful and under the greatest affliction he should build a City there and leave some of his Followers to be Governours of the Place For this cause he there founded a City which he call'd from the Name of Apollo Pythopolis and in honour of the unfortunate Youth he nam'd the River that runs by it Soloon and left the two surviving Brothers entrusted with the care of the Government and Laws joyning with them Hermus one of the Nobility of Athens from whom a certain Place in the City is call'd The House of Hermus tho' by an error in the accent of the word it has been falsly taken for the House of Hermes or Mercury and the Honour that was design'd to the Heroe transferr'd to the God And this was the rise and ground of the Amazonian War a War of no small consequence or in which the Athenians might think they had to do with Cowards or Women For it is impossible that they should have plac'd their Camp in the very City and joyn'd Battel in the middle of it near the Temple of the Muses unless having first conquer'd the Country round about they had without any delay or fear mov'd boldly on to Athens That they made so long a Journey by Land and passed an Arm of the Cimmerian Bosphorus that was frozen as Hellanicus writes is difficult to be believ'd This is certain that they encamp'd in the City and may be sufficiently confirm'd by the Names that the Places thereabout yet retain and the Graves and Monuments of those that fell in the Battel Both Armies now being in sight there was a long pause and doubt on each side which should give the first Onset At last Theseus having sacrific'd to Fear in obedience to the Command of an Oracle he had receiv'd gave them Battel and this happen'd in the Month of August in which to this very day the Athenians celebrate the Feast that is nam'd from that Month wherein this Battel was fought But Clidemus desirous to be very nice in each particular of this Affair writes that the left Wing of the Amazons mov'd towards the Place which is yet call'd Amazonium and the right to a Place call'd Pnyx near Chrysa upon which the Athenians issuing from behind the Muses Temple fell upon them and that this is true the Graves of those that were slain to be seen in the Street that leads to the Gate call'd Piraica by the Temple of the Hero Chalcodus are a sufficient proof And here it was that the Athenians were routed and shamefully turn'd their backs to Women as far as to the Temple of the Furies But fresh supplies coming in from Palladium Ardettus and Lyceum charg'd their right Wing and beat them back into their very Tents in which Action a great number of the Amazons were slain At length after four months a Peace was concluded between 'em by the mediation of Hippolyta for so this Historian calls the Amazon which Theseus marri'd and not Antiope tho' others write that she was slain with a Dart by Molpadia fighting by Theseus side and that the Pillar which stands by the Temple at the entring into the Olympian ground was erected to her Honour Nor is it to be wonder'd that the History of things so very ancient should be so various and uncertain It is farther said that those of the Amazons that were wounded were privately sent away by Antiope to Chalcis where many by her care recover'd but those that dy'd were buri'd in the Place that is to this time call'd Amazonium That this War was ended by a mutual League and Agreement is evident both from the Name of the Place adjoyning to the Temple of Theseus call'd from the solemn Oath there taken Horcomosium and also from the ancient Sacrifice which is celebrated to the Amazons the day before the Feast of Theseus The Megarians pretend also that some of the Amazons were buried in their City and shew for one of their Monuments a Tomb in the figure of a Lozenge in the passage from the Market-place to a Place call'd Rhus It is said likewise that others of 'em were slain near Chaeronea and buried near a little Rivulet formerly call'd Thermodon but now Haemon of which I have formerly wrote in the Life of Demosthenes It appears further that the Passage of the Amazons through Thessaly was not without opposition for there are yet to be seen many of their Sepulchres near Scotussaea and Cynocephalae And
admiring his expedition gave him the Name of Celer Romulus having buried his Brother Remus together with his two Foster-fathers on the Mount Remonius fell a building his City and sent for Surveyors out of Thuscany who directed him in all the Ceremonies to be observ'd and instructed him by drawing of Schemes how every thing should be done First They dug a Trench round that which is now the Comitium or Hall of Justice and into it did they solemnly throw the First-fruits of all things either good by Custom or necessary by Nature lastly every Man taking a small Turf of Earth of the Countrey from whence he came they all threw 'em in promiscuously together This Trench they call'd Mundus the whole World making which their Center they design'd the City in a Circle round it Then the Founder fitted to a Plow a brazen Plow-share and yoking together a Bull and a Cow drew himself a deep Line or Furrow round the Bounds the business of them that follow'd after was to see what-ever Earth was thrown up should be turn'd all inwardly towards the City and not to slip a Clod that fell outwards With this Line did they describe the Wall all within which were the Territories of the City which they call'd Pomaerium from Post murum or Pone maenia by the cutting off or changing some Letters where they design'd to make a Gate there they lifted up the Plow and left a space for it whereupon they esteem the whole Wall as holy only where the Gates are for had they adjudged them also sacred they could not without offence to Religion have had a free ingress and egress for the Necessaries of humane Life some whereof are in themselves unclean As for the day they began to build the City 't is confess'd of all hands to be the 21st of April and that day the Romans do anniversarily keep holy calling it their Countreys Birth-day at first they say they sacrificed no living Creature on this day thinking it very decent and behoveful to celebrate the Feast of their Countreys Birth-day purely and without the stain of blood nevertheless before the City was ever built there was a Feast of the Herdsmen and Shepherds kept on this day which went by the Name of Palilia But now the Roman and Graecian Months have little or no Analogy these say the day Romulus began to build was infallibly the 30th of the month at which time there was an Eclipse of the Moon which happen'd in the 3d. year of the 6th Olympiad which the Graecians imagine Antimachus the Teian Poet saw In the Times of Varro the Philosopher a Man very well read in Roman History liv'd one Tarrutius his familiar Friend and Acquaintance both a good Philosopher and a skilful Mathematician and one too that out of curiosity of Speculation had studied the way of drawing Schemes and Tables and seem'd to be excellent in the Art to him Varro propounded to cast Romulus's Nativity even to the first day and hour and to make his Deductions from the several Events of the man's Life which he should be inform'd of as the solutions of Geometrical Problems do require for it belongs to the same Science both to foretel 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 pronounc'd that Romulus was conceiv'd in his Mothers Womb the first year of the 2d Olympiad the 23d day of the month the Aegyptians call Chaeac which may be said to answer our December and the 3d. hour after Sun-set that he was born the 21st day of the month Thoch which is September about Sun-rising and that the first Stone of Rome was laid by him the 9th day of the month Pharmuthi April between the 2d and 3d. hour for as to the Fortune of Cities as well as Men they think they have their certain periods of Time prefix'd which may be collected and foreknown from the Positions of the Stars at their first foundation These and the like Relations may perhaps rather take and delight the Reader with their Novelty and Extravagancy than offend him because they are fabulous The City now being built all that were of Age to bear Arms Romulus listed into military Companies each Company consisting of 3000 Footmen and 300 Horse These Companies were call'd Legions because they were the choicest and most select of the People for Fighting-men the rest of the Multitude he call'd Populus the People An hundred of the most eminent Men he chose for his Counsellors these he styl'd Patricians and the whole Body of 'em the Senate which signifies truly a Consistory of venerable old Men. The Patricians some say were so call'd because they were the Fathers of honest and lawful Children others because they could give a good account who their Fathers were which every one of the Rabble that pour'd into the City at first could not do others from Patrocinium a Patronage by which they meant an Autority over the common People and do still attributing the origine of the word to Patronus one of those that came over with Evander a Man signal for being a protector and defender of the weak and needy But perhaps the most probable Judgement 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 withal encouraging the Commonalty not to dread or be aggriev'd at the Honours of their Superiors but with all good will to make use of 'em and to think and call 'em their Fathers might from hence give them the Name of Patricians For at this very time all Foreigners style those that sit in Council Lords and Presidents but the Romans making use of a more honourable and less invidious Name call them Patres Conscripti at first indeed simply Patres but afterwards more being added Patres Conscripti and by this honourable Title was the Senate distinguish'd from the Populacy the rest of the wealthier sort he distinguish'd from the common People by calling Them Patrons and These their Clients by which means he created a wonderful Love and Amity betwixt 'em which begat great justice in their dealings For They were always their Clients Councellors in litigious Cases their Advocates in Judgements in fine their Advisers and Overseers in all Affairs what-ever These again faithfully serv'd their Patrons not only paying them all respect and deference but also in case of Poverty helping them to place their Children and pay off their Debts and for a Patron to witness against his Client or a Client against his Patron that no Law nor Magistrate could enforce but in after-Times all other Offices of Equity continuing still between 'em
yet at bottom was very deceitful and dangerous upon which the Sabines being unwarily about to enter had good luck befel them for Curtius a gallant Man eager of Honour and of aspiring thoughts being mounted on Horse-back gallop'd a good distance before the rest but his Horse was mired and he endeavour'd a while by Whip and Spur to disintangle him but finding it impossible he quitted his Horse and saved himself the Place from him to this very time is call'd the Curtian Lake The Sabines having escaped this danger began the Fight very smartly the fortune of the day being very dubious tho' many were slain amongst whom was Hostilius who they say was Husband to Hersilia and Grandfather to that Hostilius who reign'd after Numa It is probable there were many other Battels in a short time after but the most memorable was the last in which Romulus having receiv'd a Wound on his Head by a Stone and being almost fell'd to the ground by it and disabled to sustain the Enemy the Romans upon that yielded ground and being driven out of the Field fled to the Palatium Romulus by this time recovering his Wound a little running upon his Men in flight remanded them to their Arms again and with a loud voice encouraged them to stand and fight But being overpowr'd with the number and no body daring to face about he stretching out his hands to Heaven pray'd to Jupiter to stop the Army and not to neglect but rather maintain the Roman Cause which was now in extream danger This Prayer both wrought a great Reverence in many for their Prince and a strange resolution too on the sudden in their minds The Place they first stood at was where now is the Temple of Jupiter Stator which may be interpreted the Stayer there they rallied their Forces and repuls'd the Sabines even to the Place call'd now Rhegia and the Temple of Vesta where both Parties preparing to renew the Fight were prevented by a strange and unexpressible sight for the Daughters of the Sabines which were formerly stoln came running in great confusion some on this side some on that with miserable cryes and lamentations like distracted Creatures into the midst of the Army and among the dead Bodies to come at their Husbands and at their Fathers some with their young Babes in their Arms others their Hair loose about their Ears but all calling now upon the Sabines then upon the Romans in the most tender and endearing words Hereupon both melted into compassion and fell back that they might stand betwixt the Armies Now did a strange lamentation seize all and great grief was conceiv'd at the sight of the Women and at their Speech much more which from Expostulations and high words ended in Entreaties and Supplications Wherein say they have we injured or offended you that we formerly have and now do suffer under these Calamities We were ravish'd away unjustly and violently by those whose now we are that being done we were so long neglected by our Fathers our Brethren and Countreymen that time having now by the strictest bonds united us to those whom we once mortally hated has brought it about that the very Men who once used violence to us we now have a tenderness for in War and lament their deaths So that you do not now come to vindicate our Honour as Virgins from them that injured us but to force away Wives from their Husbands and Mothers from their Children making this your rescue more grievous to us Wretches than your former betraying and neglect of us was so great is their Love towards us and such your Compassion if you make War upon any other occasion for our sakes you ought to desist who are our Fathers our Grandfathers our Relations and Kindred if for us take us and your Sons-in-law and restore us to our Parents and Kinsfolk but do not rob us we humbly beseech you of our Children and Husbands lest we again become Captives Hersilia having spoken many such words as these and others earnestly praying a Truce was made and the chief Officers came to a Treaty the Women during that time brought and presented their Husbands and Children to their Fathers and Brethren gave those that would eat Meat and Drink and carried the wounded home to be cured and shewed also how much they govern'd within doors and how indulgent their Husbands were to 'em in demeaning themselves towards 'em with all kindness and respect imaginable Upon this Conditions were agreed upon that what Women pleas'd might stay where they were exempt from all drudgery and labour but Spinning that the Romans and Sabines should inhabit the City promiscuously together that the City should be call'd Rome from Romulus but the Romans Quirites from the Countrey of Tatius and that they both should govern and command in common The Place of this Ratification is still call'd Comitium from Coire to agree The City being thus doubled in number an 100 of the Sabines were elected Senators and the Legions were increas'd to 6000 Foot and 600 Horse then they divided the People into three Tribes the first from Romulus were named Rhamnenses the second from Tatius Tatienses the third were call'd 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 does testifie each Tribe contained then ten Curiae or Wards which some say took their Names from the Sabine Women but that seems to be false because many had their Names from different Regions Tho' 't is true they then constituted many things in honour to the Women As to give them the way where-ever they met them to speak no ill word in their presence not to appear naked before them that they should not be summon'd into Court before a Judge sitting on Cases of Blood that their Children should wear an Ornament about their Necks call'd the Bulla because it was like a Bubble and the Praetexta a Garment edged with purple The Princes did not immediately joyn 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 tryed could pluck it up Now the Soyl being fertil nourish'd the Wood and sent forth Branches and produced a Trunk of considerable bigness this did Posterity preserve and worship as one of the most sacred things and therefore wall'd it about and if to any one it appear'd not green nor flourishing but inclining to fade and wither he
of his Copartner in the Government Nothing of these things either disturbed or rais'd any Feud 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 lived peacefully in admiration and awe of him many foreign Nations too did much admire Romulus the ancient Latines they sent and enter'd into League and Confederacy with him Fidenae he took a neighbouring 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 and he himself afterwards unexpectedly came upon them Others say they having first made the Invasion in foraging and spoyling the Countrey and Suburbs Romulus lay in ambush for them and so having kill'd many of their Men took the City nevertheless he did not raze or demolish it but made it a Roman Colony and sent thither on the Ides of April 2500 Inhabitants Presently after a Plague broke out which kill'd suddenly without any manner of Sickness it infected also the Corn with Unfruitfulness and Cattel with Barrenness there rained Blood too in the City insomuch as besides the Evils which came of consequence Men dreaded the wrath of the Gods But when the same Mischiefs fell upon Laurentum then every body 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 deliver'd up and punish'd the Pestilence visibly abated and Romulus purified the Cities with Lustrations which they say even now are perform'd at the Gate call'd Ferentina But before the Plague ceased the Camerians invaded the Romans and over-ran the Countrey thinking by reason of the Distemper they were unable to withstand them but Romulus presently made Head against them and gain'd the Victory with the slaughter of 6000 Men he then took their City and brought half of them he found there to Rome and sent from Rome to Cameria double the number he left there This was done the 1st of August so many Citizens had he to spare in 16 years time he inhabited Rome Among other Spoyls he took a brazen Chariot from Cameria which he placed in the Temple of Vulcan adding thereon his own Statue crown'd with Victory The Roman Cause thus daily gathering strength the weaker Neighbours submitted and willingly embraced security the stronger out of Fear or Envy thought they ought not to give way to Romulus but to curb him and put a stop to his Greatness The first were the Veientes a People of Thuscany who had large Possessions and dwelt in a spacious City they took an occasion to commence a War upon remanding of Fidenae as belonging to them this was not only unreasonable but very ridiculous that they who did not assist them in the greatest Extremities of War 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 attack'd the Garrison of Fidenae the other march'd against Romulus that which went against Fidenae got the Victory and slew 2000 Romans the other was worsted by Romulus with the loss of 8000 Men. They afterwards fought near Fidenae and all Men acknowledge the greatest Actions of the day were done by Romulus himself who shewed all manner of Skill as well as Courage and seem'd to perform with strength and swiftness more than humane But what some write that of 14000 that fell that day above half were slain by Romulus's own hand is both very fabulous and altogether incredible Such an Ostentation do the Messenians make of Aristomenes who they say offer'd 300 Victims for as many Lacedaemonians he himself slew The Army being thus routed Romulus suffering those that were left to make their escape drew up his Forces against the City they having suffer'd such great damages did not venture to oppose him but humbly suing to him contracted a League and Friendship for an 100 years but he nevertheless divested them of a great quantity of Lands call'd Septimagium which was the 7th part of their Patrimony as also of several salt-Springs upon the River and took 50 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 ancient Man but one who seem'd to have managed his Affairs imprudently and unbecoming of his Age whence even now in Sacrifices for Victories they lead an old Man through the Market-place to the Capitol apparell'd in purple with a Bulla or Child's-Toy tyed to it and the Cryer cryes Sardianians to be sold for the Thuscans are said to be a Colony of the Sardianians and the Veientes are a City of Thuscany This was the last Battel 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 for relying upon his own great Actions and growing of an haughtier mind he forsook his popular Behaviour and took upon him in exchange a strange Lordliness which was odious and intolerable to the People And first upon the Habit he chose to wear for he dress'd in scarlet with purple Robes over it then he gave Audience in a Chair of State having always about him some young Boys call'd Celeres from their swiftness in doing business there went before him others with Staves to make room with several Cords about them presently to bind whom ever he commanded Now the Latines formerly used ligare as now alligare to bind whence the Lictors were so call'd and the Rods they carried were called Fasces but it is probable they were first call'd Litores afterwards by putting in a C Lictores for they are the same the Graecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Officers for the People and the Graecians do still call the People in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the common People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When after the death of his Grandfather Numitor in Alba that Kingdom devolv'd upon Romulus he put the Government into the hands of Magistrates and elected yearly one to superintend the Sabines But that taught the Senators of Rome to seek after a free and Anti-monarchical State wherein all might share in the Rule and Government For the Patricians as they call them were not now concern'd in State-Affairs only had the Name and Title left them convening in Council rather for fashion-sake than Advice where they in silence heard the King's Commands and so departed exceeding the Commonalty only in this that they heard first what was done These and the like were Matters of small moment but when he of his own accord parted among his Souldiers what Lands were acquired by War and restored the Veientes their Hostages the Senate neither consenting
ended only in words some evil-speaking and a few old Peoples Curses the rest of the Youth's misery seems to proceed from Fortune so that so far a Man would give his Vote on Theseus's part But the chiefest matter in the other is this that his Performances proceeded from very small beginnings for both the Brothers being thought Servants and the Sons of Swineherds before they were Free-men themselves they gave liberty to almost all the Latines obtaining at once all the most honourable Titles as destroyers of their Countreys Enemies preservers of their Friends and Kindred Princes of the People Founders not removers of Cities for such an one was Theseus who raised and compiled only one House out of many demolishing many Cities bearing the Names of ancient Kings and Heroes But Romulus did the same afterwards forcing his Enemies to deface and ruine their own Dwellings and to sojourn with their Conquerors not altering at first or increasing a City that was before but building one from the ground acquiring likewise to himself Lands a Countrey a Kingdom Wives Children and Relations He kill'd or destroyed no body but encouraged those that wanted Houses and Dwelling-places if willing to be of a Society and become Citizens Robbers and Malefactors he slew not but he subdued Nations he overthrew Cities he triumph'd over Kings and Princes and as to Remus it is doubtful by whose Hand he was cut off it is generally imputed to others His Mother he apparently retriev'd from death and placed his Grandfather who was brought under base and dishonourable Vassalage in the ancient Throne of Aeneas to whom he did voluntarily many good Offices but never annoyed him no not through ignorance it self But Theseus in his forgetfulness and inadvertency of the Command concerning the Flag can scarcely methinks by any Excuses or before the most candid Judges avoid the imputation of Parricide which a certain Athenian perceiving it very hard to make an excuse for feigns that Aegaeus at the arrival of the Ship running hastily to a Tower to see what News slip'd and fell down either for want of accidental help or that no Servants attended him in that haste to the Sea-side And indeed those faults committed in the Rapes of Women admit of no plausible excuse in Theseus First In regard to the often repetition of the Crime for he stole Ariadne Antiope Anaxo the Trazaenian at last Helena when he was an old Man and she not marriageable being too young and tender and he at an Age past even lawful Wedlock Then the Cause for the Trazaenian Lacedaemonian and Amazonian Virgins beside that they were not betrothed to him were not worthier to raise Children by than the Athenians who were derived from Erestheus and Cecrops but it is to be suspected these things were done out of lust and the satisfaction of the flesh Romulus when he had taken near 800 Women he 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 shewn towards them he discovered that this Violence and Injury was a most commendable and politick Exploit to establish a Society by which he intermix'd and united both Nations and made it the fountain of all after-Friendship and of Power with them And that it was the Cause of Reverence and Love and Constancy in Matrimony time can witness for in 230 years neither any Husband deserted his Wife nor any Wife her Husband but as the most curious among the Graecians can tell you the first Parricide so the Romans all well know that Spurius Carvilius was the first who put away his Wife accusing her of Barrenness The Circumstances of Matters do testifie for so long a time for upon those Marriages the two Princes shar'd 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 where only out of the compassion of the Enemy whom they entreated and caressed like Gods they but just miss'd suffering what Troy did by Paris Theseus his Mother was not only in danger but suffered also what Hecuba did in being deserted and destitute of her Son unless that of her Captivity be not a fiction as I could wish both that and most other things of him were What is fabulously related concerning both their Divinity you will find a great difference in it for Romulus was preserved by the special Favour of the Gods but the Oracle given to Aegaeus commanding him to abstain from all strange and foreign Women seems to demonstrate that the Birth of Theseus was not agreeable to the Will of the Gods LYCURGUS Equality M Burg. delin dt sculp THE LIFE OF LYCURGUS Translated from the Greek of Plutarch By Knightly Chetwood Fellow of King's College in Cambridge THere is so much incertainty in the accounts which Historians have left us of Lycurgus the Law giver of Sparta that scarcely any thing is asserted by one of them which is not call'd 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 this excellent person liv'd 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 Olympick Games Of this opinion was Aristotle and for confirmation of it he alledges an inscription upon one of the copper Coits used in those Sports upon which the name of Lycurgus continued undefac'd to his time But Eratosthenes and Apollodorus two learned Chronologers computing the time by the successions of the Spartan Kings pretend to demonstrate that he was much more ancient than the very Institution of the Olympick 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 both their exploits 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 too But that he was of great antiquity may be gathered from a passage in Xenophon where he makes him contemporary with the Heraclidae not but that the very last Kings of Sparta were Heraclidae too but he seems in that place to speak of the first and more immediate successours of Hercules But notwithstanding this confusion and obscurity of Writers who have gone before us in this Subject we shall endeavour to compose the History of his Life setting down those passages
to the Inhabitants of the City as he did the others to them who dwelt in the Country Some Authours say that he made but six thousand lots for the Citizens of Sparta and that King Polydore added three thousand more Others say that Polydore 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 sutable proportion of Oil and Wine And this he thought sufficient to keep their bodies in good health and lusty and as for superfluities he design'd wholly to retrench them It is reported that as he returned from a Journey some time after the division of the Lands in harvest time the ground being newly reap'd observing the Sheaves to be all equal and the Shocks of the same bigness he smilingly said to those about him methinks Lacedaemon is like the inheritance of a great many Brothers which have newly made a division amongst themselves Not contented with this he resolv'd 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 bethought himself of this stratagem He commanded that all Gold and Silver Coin should be cry'd down and that onely a sort of Money made of Iron should be current whereof a great weight and quantity was but very little worth so that to lay up twenty or thirty pounds there was requir'd a pretty large Chamber and to remove it nothing less than a yoke of Oxen. By this invention it is scarcely to be imagin'd how many execrable Vices were banish'd Lacedaemon for who would rob another of such a scurvy sort of Coin who would injustly detein it who would cheat and circumvent be brib'd or turn Knight of the Post to compass it when that it was not easie to be hid when a man had it nor brought a man any credit in the world by the possession of it nor could serve for any use when you had cut it in pieces for when it was red hot and just stamp'd they quench'd it in Vinegar and by that means made it almost unmalleable by its hardness In the next place he banish'd all Arts that were not absolutely necessary but here he might almost have spar'd his Proclamation for they of themselves would have gone after the Gold and Silver the money which remain'd being not so proper payment for curious Pieces for being of Iron it was scarcely portable neither if they should take so much pains as to export it would it pass amongst the other Grecians who were so far from valuing it that they thought it one of the most ridiculous things in the world Thus was foreign Traffick almost utterly cut off for neither could the Lacedemonians buy any Merchandise of Strangers neither did any Merchants think it worth the while to bring in their Goods to any part of Laconia For the same reason they were not pestered with any pedantical Teachers of Rhetorick with Gypsies Fortune-tellers and Calculatours of Nativities No pimping corrupters of youth brought their Ladies of composition or their Boys to be unnaturally abus'd there no Gold-smiths and Engravers no Jewellers and Perfumers were to be found amongst them for there was no money so that Luxury being depriv'd of that which fed and fomented it being quite starv'd out was forc'd to quit their Country and seek it self one elsewhere For the rich had no preeminence here over the poor and their riches and abundance having no opportunity of appearing and boasting of it self in publick were forced to remain useless at home a costly prey to the rust and the moth Their thoughts being thus taken off from things superfluous they became excellent Artists in those which were necessary so that Bedsteads Chairs and Tables and such like staple Utensils in a Family were admirably well made there particularly their Cup was very much in fashion and bought up by Souldiers as Critias reports for the colour and thickness of the Cup hindred the muddiness of the dirty water which upon marches must often be drunk from being perceived and the figure of it was such that the mud sank to the bottom or stuck to the sides so that onely the purest part of the water came to the mouth of him that drank in it And this skill of theirs though in minute things was mainly owing to their Law-giver who took off their minds from the endless care of providing the means and instruments of Luxury to attend onely to those things which were of daily and indispensable use The last and most masterly stroke of this excellent Philosopher by which he struck at the very roots of Luxury and exterminated utterly the desire of riches was the Ordinance he made that they should all eat in common of the same meat and of such kinds as were specify'd in the Decree by which it was expresly forbid to pamper themselves in private to use rich Couches and magnificent Tables abusing the labours of excellent Workmen and delivering themselves up into the hands of their Butchers and Cooks who us'd to cramme them in corners as they fatted up the Beasts and the Poultery they fed on by this way of life their manners were not onely corrupted but their bodies too were enfeebled so that giving the rein to their sensual appetites they stood in need of long sleep and hot Bagnio's 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 an enterprise as this but a greater yet to have effected by the frugality of their publick Tables that their riches should be privileg'd from the hands of rapine nay rather as Theophrastus observes should be utterly degraded losing their property and almost their very nature so that they no longer were the objects of envy For the rich being oblig'd to partake of the same fare with the poor they could not make use of or enjoy their choice viands nor so much as please their vain humours by making a shew and vaunting of them to the world So that the common Proverb that Plutus the God of Riches is blind was no where so literally verify'd as in Sparta for there he was kept continually blind or rather like a dead Carcase senseless motionless as when he lay wrapt up in the dark entrails of the earth Nor could they take any refection in private before they came to the publick Halls for every one had an eye upon them who did not eat and drink with a good stomach and reproached them with the name of dainty and effeminate This last Ordinance bore very hard upon the wealthier sort of men so that being out of all patience they made an insurrection against Lycurgus and from ill words came to blows so that at
fit condition art thou to be married and if he finds a young Man with a rich old Woman like a Partridge growing fat upon the duty remove him to a Virgin that needs a Husband and of this enough Another commendable Law of Solon's is that which forbids men to speak evil of the Dead for 't is pious to think them sacred and just not to meddle with those that are gone and politick to prevent the perpetuity of discord He likewise forbad them to speak evil of the Living in the Temple before the Tribunal in the Court or at the Games or else to pay three Drachmas to the private person and two to the publick for never to be able to rule passion shews a weak nature and ill-breeding and always to moderate it is very hard and to some impossible Now the matter of Laws must be possible 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 none could be made but all the wealth and Estate of the deceased belonged to his Family but he permitted them if they had no Children to bestow it on whom they pleased esteeming Friendship a stronger Tye than Kindred and Affection than Necessity and thus made every man's Estate in the disposal of the possessour yet he allow'd not all sorts of Legacies but those onely which were not extorted by the phrenzy of a Disease charms imprisonment force or the perswasions of his Wife with good reason thinking it all one between deceit and necessity flattery or compulsion since both are equally powerfull to perswade a man from Reason He regulated the Walks Feasts and Mourning of the Women and took away every thing that was either unbecoming or immodest when they walk'd abroad no more than three Coats were allow'd them a half penny-worth of meat and drink nor a Basket above a cubit high and at night they were not to stir but in a Chariot with a Torch before them The Mourners tearing themselves to raise pity and their lamentations at Strangers Funerals he forbad To offer an Ox at the Grave was not permitted nor to bury above three Garments 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 farther 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 the Women He observing the City was fill'd with persons that flock'd from all parts into Attica for security of living and that most of the Country was barren and unfruitfull and the Traders at Sea imported nothing to those that could give them no exchange he brought his Citizens to Trade and made a Law that no Son should be oblig'd to relieve his Father who had not bred him up to any Calling 'T is true Lycurgus having a City free from all Strangers and enough or according to Euripides sufficient for twice so many and abundance of Labourers about Sparta who should not be kept idle but be broken with continual toil and work he did well to take off his Citizens from Trades laborious and mechanical and keep them to their Arms and teach them onely the Art of War But Solon fitting his Laws according to the state of Things and not ordering Things according to his Laws and finding the ground scarce rich enough to maintain the Farmers and altogether unable to feed the lazy multitude he brought Trades into credit and ordered the Areopagites to examine how every man got his living and chastise the idle But that Law was more rigid which as Heraclides Ponticus delivers declar'd the Sons of Harlots not oblig'd to relieve their Fathers for he that will not marry doth not take a Woman for Children but for pleasure and thus hath his just reward having no pretence to upbraid his Children to whom he hath made their very Birth a scandal and reproach But in short many of Solon's Laws about Women are absurd for he permitted any one to kill an Adulterer that found him in the Act if any one forc'd a free Woman an hundred Drachma's was the Fine if he entic'd her twenty except those that traded for a price I mean common Whores for they go openly to those that hire them He made it unlawfull to sell a Daughter or a Sister unless being yet unmarried she was found wanton with a Man Now 't is irrational to punish the same Crime sometimes very severely and without remorse and sometimes very lightly and as 't were in sport with a trivial Fine unless there being little Money then in Athens that scarcity made those Mulcts the more grievous punishment The value of Sacrifices must be one Sheep and a Drachma for a Bushel The Victor in the Isthmian Games was to have for reward an hundred Drachma's The Conquerour in the Olyman five hundred He that caught a Dog Wolf five Drachma's he that kill'd a Bitch one the former sum as Demetrius Phalereus asserts was the value of an Ox the latter of a Sheep but those prices which in his sixteenth Table he sets on the choice Sacrifices were certainly far greater for else they are very little in comparison of the present The Athenians their Fields being better for Pasture than Corn were from the beginning great enemies to Wolves and some affirm their Tribes did not take their names from the Sons of Javan but from the different sorts of Occupation that they followed the Souldiers were call'd Hoplitae the Crafts-men Ergatae and of the remaining two the Farmers Georgi and the Shepherds and Grasiers Aigicorae Besides since the Country hath but few Rivers Lakes or large Springs and many us'd Wells which they had dug there was a Law made that where there was a publick Well within a Hippicon that is four Furlongs all should draw at that but when it was farther off they might provide a private Well and if they had dug ten fathom deep and could find no Water they had liberty to fetch ten Gallons a day from their neighbours for he thought it prudent to make provision against want but not encourage laziness Besides he shew'd his skill in the orders about planting for any one that would plant another Tree was not to set it within five foot of his neighbour'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 hurt some by their venomous effluviums He that would dig a Pit or a Ditch was to dig it at as far a distance from his neighbour's Ground as it was deep and he that would raise stocks of Bees was not to raise them within three hundred feet of those which another had already rais'd He
of a Divine instigation or an accidental hurried away their driver full speed to Rome neither did his holding them in prevail or his gentle soothings but with violence was forc'd along till coming to the Capitol was there thrown by the Gate call'd Ratumena This occurrence rais'd wonder and fear in the Veians who upon this permitted a delivery of the Chariot Now Tarquin the Son of Demaratus warring with the Sabines avow'd the building of the Capitol which Tarquinius Superbus Grandson to the avower began yet could not dedicate it because he lost his Kingdom before 't was finish'd when 't was compleated and adjusted with all its ornaments Poplicola had a great ambition to the dedication but the Nobility envy'd him that honour as well as those his prudence in making Laws and conduct in Wars entitled him to and presuming he merited not the addition of this they importun'd Horatius to sue for the dedication and whilst Poplicola was engag'd to lead the Army into the Field voted it to Horatius and accordingly conducted him to the Capitol assuring themselves that were Poplicola present they should not have prevail'd Yet some write Poplicola was by lot destin'd against his will to the Army the other to the dedication and what happen'd 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 flocking to the Capitol and silence enjoyn'd Horatius after the performance of other Ceremonies holding the Doors according to custom pronounc'd the words of dedication then Marcus the Brother of Poplicola who had stood for some time at the Door observing his opportunity cry'd O Consul thy Son lies dead in the Camp which made great impressions upon the Auditory yet in no wise discompos'd Horatius receiving onely this reply Then cast the dead out whither you please for I shall not admit of sorrow and so pursu'd his dedication this news was not true but Marcus thought the lye might avert him from his performance This argued him a man of an admirable constancy whether he presently saw through the cheat or believ'd it as true shewing no discomposure in his passions The same success attended the dedication of the Second Temple the first is said to be built by Tarquin and dedicated by Horatius which was burnt down in the civil Wars The Second Sylla built and dying before the dedication bequeath'd that honour to Catulus but when this was demolish'd in the Vitellian Sedition Vespasian with somewhat like success began a Third and saw it finish'd but liv'd not to see its ruines which accompany'd his death yet surviving the dedication of his Work seem'd more fortunate than Sylla who dy'd before his though immediately after his death 't was consum'd by Fire A Fourth was built by Domitian and dedicated 'T is said Tarquin expended forty thousand pound of Silver in the very Foundations but the greatest treasure of any private man in Rome would not discharge the guilding of this Temple in our days it amounting to above twelve thousand Talents the Pillars were cut out of Pentelick Marble having length sutable to their thickness and these we saw at Athens but when they were cut a-new at Rome and embellish'd they gain'd not so much beauty as they lost in proportion being render'd too taper and slender Now whosoever should admire the excellency of the Capitol and afterwards survey a Gallery in Domitian's Palace or an Hall Bath or the Apartments of his Concubines what Epicarmus wrote of a profuse man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art not gen'rous thy bounty's vice within Thy gifts thou lavish'st and glory'st in the sin he might readily apply it to Domitian Thou art neither pious or noble onely pleasing thy self in the itch of Building and a desire like Midas of converting all into Gold and pretious Stones and thus much for this matter Tarquin after the great Battel wherein he lost his Son in an engagement with Brutus fled to Clusius and sought aid from Clara Porsenna then the most powerfull Prince of Italy and a person of singular candour and generosity who assur'd him his assistence immediately sending his commands to Rome that they should receive Tarquin as their King and upon the Romans refusal proclaim'd War and having signified the time and place where he intended his asfault approach'd with a great Army Now Poplicola in his absence was chosen Consul a second time and Titus Lucretius his Collegue but returning to Rome with intentions of appearing more generous than Porsenna built the City Sigliuria when Porsenna layt encamp'd in the neighbourhood and walling it at great expence there plac'd a Colony of seven hundred men as being little concern'd at the War but Porsenna making a sharp assault oblig'd the defendants to retire to Rome who had almost in their entrance admitted the enemy into the City had not Poplicola by sallying out at the Gate prevented them and joining Battel by Tiber side oppos'd the enemy that press'd on with their multitude but at last sinking under his honourable wounds was carried out of the Fight The same fortune fell upon Lucretius so that the Romans being dismay'd retreated into the City for their security and Rome was in great hazard of being taken the enemy making good their pursuit to the wooden Bridge where Cocles Horatius seconded by two of the eminentest men in Rome Hermenius and Lucretius made head against them This name he obtain'd from the loss of one of his Eyes in the Wars or as others write from the depressure of his Nose which causing a seeming coalition of his eye-brows made both eyes appear but as one and hence they intending to call him Cyclops by a cadency of the Tongue usually call'd him Cocles This Cocles kept the Bridge and repuls'd the enemy till his own party broke it down behind and then in his Armour cast himself into the River and swam to the hither side being wounded upon his Hip with a Tuscan Spear Poplicola admiring his courage invited the Romans every one to gratifie him with a present of as much provisions as he spent in a day and afterwards gave him as much Land as he could encircle with a Plough in one day besides erected a brazen Statue to his honour in the Temple of Vulcan as a requital for the lameness he contracted from his wound But Posenna laying close siege to the City and a Pestilence raging amongst the Romans besides a new Army of the Tuscans making incursions into the Country Poplicola a third time chosen Consul design'd without sallying out to make his defence however privately stealing out upon the Tuscans put them to flight and slew five thousand Now the History of Mutius is variously deliver'd but this relation shall follow the common reception he was a person endow'd with every vertue but most eminent in warfare and resolving to kill Porsenna
a good sum of Money which he accepted and gave it to Eurybiades as Herodotus reports In this affair none opposed him so much as Architeles Captain of a Galley called the Powerfull who having not money to supply his Sea-men made haste to set sail 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 surpris'd and took it very ill but Themistocles immediately sent him in a Chest a service of all provisions and at the bottom of it a Talent of Silver desiring him to sup for the present and to provide for his Sea-men and Souldiers for the future if not he would report it amongst the Athenians that he had received money from the enemy thus Phanias the Lesbian relates it Though the Fights between the Grecians and the Persians in the Straits of Euboea were not so great in the whole as to make a final decision or determination of the War yet the experience which the Greeks learnt hereby was of great advantage for thus they effectually understood that neither the number of Ships their riches and ornaments nor their boasting shouts nor barbarous Songs of Victory were any ways terrible to men that dare 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 the Poet Pindarus took notice of and hath not ill expressed it speaking of the Fight at Artemisium To glorious Liberty Athens did this day By bold attempts a deep foundation lay For boldness is the beginning of victory Artemisium is above the City of Estioea upon the coast of Euboea which lies open to the North but over against it is Olizon and a Country which formerly was under Philoctetes where there is a small Temple of Diana of the East and Trees about it which are encompassed again with Pillars of white Stone and if you rub them with your hand they send forth both the smell and colour of Saffron in one of the Pillars these Verses are engraved Within these Seas the brave Athenians shew Their matchless valour when they overthrew The numerous Nations that from Asia spring And the great Navy of the Persian King And trophies won by such a glorious fate To bright Diana here did consecrate There is a place still to be seen upon this Shoar where in the middle of a great heap of Sand they take out from the bottom a dark powder like Ashes or something that hath passed the Fire and here they think the Shipwrecks and Bodies of the dead were burnt But on the other side as soon as 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 into Greece the Athenians having the command of the Rere the place of honour and danger as those who by their former actions had testified both their skill and courage in War As Themistocles sail'd along the coast he took notice of the Harbours and fit places for the enemies Ships to retire into 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 these inscriptions he required the Ionians to forsake the Medes if it were possible and come over to the Greeks who were their ancient Founders and Progenitours and were now hazarding all for their liberties but if this could not be done then to be a hindrance and disturbance to the Persians in all their Fights He hoped that these writings would prevail with the Ionians to revolt or raise some great disorders by causing them to be much suspected by the Persians Now though Xerxes had already passed through Doris and invaded the Country of Phocis and had burnt and destroyed the Cities of the Phocians yet the Greeks sent them no relief and though the Athenians earnestly desired them to oppose the Persians in Boeotia before they could come into Attica as they themselves had given assistence to the Greeks by Sea at Artemisium yet the Grecians 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 strait neck of Land which parts the Saronick Bay from the Gulf of Corinth so that the Athenians were enraged to see themselves thus betrayed and at the same time afflicted and dejected at their being forsaken by the Greeks to fight alone against such a numerous Army was to no purpose and this onely expedient was left them for the present to leave their City and betake themselves to their Ships which the people were very unwilling to hearken to imagining that it would signifie little to regard their own safety or to desire victory when they had once forsaken the Temples of their Gods and exposed the Tombs and Monuments of their Ancestours to the fury of their Enemies Themistocles being at a loss and not able to draw the people over to his opinion by any humane reason he set his machines on work as in a Play and brought in his Divine Revelations wonderfull Signs Prodigies Oracles and mystical answers of the Gods The Dragon of Minerva kept in the inward part of the Temple near to her Statue served him for a Prodigy for Themistocles having gained the Priests they gave it out to the people that the Dragon refused to eat that the offerings which were set before it were found untouched that at last it disappeared that the Goddess had left the City and taken her flight before them towards the Sea He often repeated to them the Oracle which bad them trust to Walls of Wood shewing them that Walls of Wood could signifie nothing else but Ships and that the Island of Salamine was not to be termed miserable or unhappy but Apollo had given it the name of Divine for that it should be one day very fortunate to the Greeks at length his opinion prevail'd and he obtain'd a Decree that the City should be recommended to the protection of Minerva the Tutelary Goddess of the Athenians that they who were of age to bear Arms should embark and that all possible care should be taken to save the Children the Women and the Slaves This Decree being confirmed most of the Athenians removed their Parents Wives and Children to Troezena where they were received very courteously and the Troezenians made an Order of Council that they should be maintained at the publick charge distributing daily two oboli to every one gave leave to the Children to gather Fruit where they pleased and paid the Schoolmasters who instructed them This Order was made when Nicagoras was Register There was no publick treasure at that time in Athens but the Senate of Areōpagus as Aristotle
passionately concerned for the King revealed this to him that he might hasten towards the Asiatick Seas and pass over into his own Dominions and in the the mean he would cause delays and hinder the Confederates from pursuing him Xerxes no sooner heard this but being very much terrified retreated out of Greece with all speed The prudent conduct of Themistocles and Aristides and the advantageous management of this affair was afterwards more fully understood at the Battel of Plataea where Mardonius with a very small portion of the Forces of Xerxes put the Greeks in danger of losing all Herodotus writes that of all the Cities of Greece Aegina performed the best service in the War in which also all men yielded to Themistocles though some out of envy did it unwillingly and when they returned to the entrance of Peloponnesus where the Souldiers delivered their Suffrages by laying a Stone upon the Altar to determine who was most worthy every one gave the first Vote for himself and the second for Themistocles The Lacedemonians carried him with them to Sparta where giving the rewards of Valour to Eurybiades and of Wisedom and Conduct to Themistocles they crowned him with Olive gave him precedency presented him with the richest Coach in the City and sent three hundred young men to accompany him to the confines of their Country and at the next Olympian Games when Themistocles entred the place where those Exercises were performed the Spectatours took no further notice of those who strove for Mastery but spent the whole day in looking upon him shewing him to the Strangers admiring him and applauding him by clapping their hands and all other expressions of joy which so delighted him that he confessed to his Friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his labours for the Greeks he was in his own nature a great lover of honour as is evident from those things which are recorded of him When he was chosen Admiral by the Athenians he ended no business fully publick nor private but deferred all till the day they were to set sail that dispatching much business together and having to doe with all sorts of men he might appear great and able to perform all things Viewing the dead Bodies cast up by the Sea he perceived Collars and Chains of Gold about them yet passed on onely shewing them to a Friend that followed him saying Take you these things for you are not Themistocles He said to Antiphates a young Nobleman who had formerly behaved himself haughtily towards him but now in his glory obsequiously waited upon him young man we are in the right and now we doe both as we should doe He said that the Athenians did not honour him or admire him but when they were in danger they sheltred themselves under him as they do in stormy foul weather under a Plane-tree and when they have fair weather again they pull off its Leaves and Fruit and cut down its fairest Branches A Seriphian telling him that he had not obtained this honour by himself but by the greatness and splendour of his City he replied You speak truth for I should never have been esteemed if I had been of Seriphus nor would you have come to any thing though you had been of Athens A Commander of the Army who thought he had performed considerable service for the Athenians boasting and comparing his actions with those of Themistocles he told him that the day after the Festival reproached the Festival that upon her day those who were laborious and industrious refreshed themselves but upon the Festival the sluggard and luxurious enjoyed all things to which the Festival replyed it is true yet if I had not been before you you had not been at all so if Themistocles had not been before you where had you been now Laughing at his own Son who was somewhat too bold through the indulgence and fondness of his Mother 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 Cryer to give notice that there were good neighbours near it Of two who made love to his Daughter he preferred the Vertuous before the Rich saying he desired a Man without Riches rather than Riches without a Man with many such expressions After these things he began to build and wall the City of Athens having with Money corrupted the Lacedemonian Ephori and perswaded them not to be against it as Theopompus reports but as most relate it by over-reaching and deceiving them for being chosen by the Governours of Athens he went to Sparta where the Lacedemonians accusing him for rebuilding the Walls of the City of Athens and Poliarchus being sent on purpose from Aegina to plead against him he denied the fact bidding them to send to Athens to see whether it were so or no by which delay he got time for the building of the Wall and ordering the Athenians to seize upon those who were sent and keep them as Hostages for him when the Lacedemonians knew the truth they did him no hurt but hiding their anger for the present sent him away After this considering the great advantage of good Ports he fortified the Haven of Piraea and joyned the whole City to the Sea ordering the publick affairs contrary to the judgment of the old Kings of Athens who endeavouring to withdraw their Subjects from the Sea and sailing about and to accustom them to live by planting and tilling the Earth published the Discourse between Minerva and Neptune and how they contended for the patronage of the Athenians when Minerva by shewing to the Judges an Olive Tree was declared to be their tutelary Goddess but Themistocles did not onely joyn the Haven of Piraea to the City as the Poet Aristophanes observes but he joyned the City to the Haven and the Land to the Sea which encreased the power of the People against the Nobility the Authority coming into the hands of Watermen Mariners and Masters of Ships and ordered that the Pulpit built in the Market-place for publick Orations should be placed towards the Sea which the thirty Tyrants afterwards turned towards the Land supposing that great power by Sea would give life and encouragement to a popular Government but that Labourers and Husbandmen would be less offended at the greatness of the Nobility but Themistocles had a higher opinion of Sea forces After the departure of Xerxes when the Grecian Fleet was arrived at Pagasa where they wintered Themistocles in a publick Oration to the people of Athens telling them that he had a design to perform something that would be very beneficial and advantageous to the Athenians but that it was of such a nature that it could not be made publick or communicated to the people in general The Athenians ordered him to
they invited any considerable Grecian into their service to encourage him they would signifie to him by Letters that he should be as great with them as Themistocles was with Xerxes They relate also how Themistocles when he was in great prosperity and courted by many seeing himself splendidly served at his Table he 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 Percotes to provide him with Clothes and Palaescepsis with Bedding and Furniture for his House As he went down towards the Sea side to provide against the attempts and practices of the Greeks a Persian whose name was Epixyes Governour of the upper Phrygia laid wait to kill him having for that purpose provided a long time before a crew of Pisidian murtherers who were to set upon him when he came to reside in a City that is called Lyons-head but Themistocles sleeping in the middle of the day the Mother of the Gods appeared to him in a Dream and said unto him Themistocles never come at the Lyon's-head for fear you fall into the Lyon's Jaws for this advice I expect that your Daughter Mnesiptolema should be my servant Themistocles was much astonished and when he had poured forth his prayers and made his vows to the Goddess he left the great Road and taking a compass about 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 part of the Furniture for his Tent having fallen that day into a River his Servants spread out the Tapestry which was wet and hanged it up to drie it 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 to be dried they thought it was the Tent of Themistocles and that they should find him resting himself within it but when they came nigh and lifted up the Hangings those who watched there fell upon them and took them Themistocles having escaped this great danger was in admiration of the goodness of the Goddess that appeared to him and in memory of it he built a Temple in the City of Magnesia which he dedicated to Cybele Dindymene Mother of the Gods wherein he consecrated and devoted his Daughter Mnesiptolema unto 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 or she that brought the Water back again into its right Chanel Themistocles had caused this to be made and set up when he was Surveyor of the Aquaeducts at Athens out of the Fines and Forfeitures of those whom he had discovered to have taken away the Water or to have turned it out of its due course by other Pipes fitted for their private use and whether he had some regret to see this fair Image in Captivity and the Statue of a Grecian Virgin kept Prisoner in Asia or whether he was desirous to let the Athenians see in what great credit he was with the King and what authority he had in all the Persian affairs he entred into discourse with the Governour 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 whom he gained with money and by their means mitigated the fury of the Governour and afterwards carried himself more reservedly and circumspectly fearing the envy of the Persians and gave over travelling about Asia and lived quietly in his own House in Magnesia where for a long time he passed his days in great security as Theopompus writes being courted by all and presented with rich Gifts and honoured equally with the greatest persons in the Persian Empire the King at that time not minding his concerns with Greece being incessantly busied about the affairs of the upper Provinces But when Aegypt revolted being assisted by the Athenians and the Grecian Galleys roved about as far as Cyprus and Cilicia and Cimon had made himself master of the Seas the King turned his thoughts and bending his mind chiefly to resist the Grecians and to hinder their increasing power against him raised Forces sent out Commanders and dispatched Mâ—ssengers to Themistocles at Magnesia to put him in mind of his promise and to incense him and irritate him against the Greeks yet this did not increase his hatred nor exasperate him against the Athenians neither was he any ways elevated with the thoughts of the honour and powerfull command he was to have in this War but either imagining that this undertaking could not prosperously be carried on nor the King easily compass his designs the Greeks having at that time great Commanders and amongst them Cimon wonderfully successfull in the affairs of Greece or 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 days sutable to his former great deeds and to make an end agreeable to the whole course of his life he sacrificed to the Gods and invited his Friends and having kindly entertained them and shaked hands with them he drank Bulls Bloud as the general report goes but some say he took poison which dispatched him in a short time and ended his days in the City of Magnesia having lived sixty five years most of which he had spent in the State and in the Wars in governing of Countries and commanding of Armies The King being informed of the cause and manner of his death admired him more than ever and continued to shew kindness to his Friends and Relations Themistocles left three Sons by Archippa Daughter to Lysander of Alopece Archeptolis Polyeuctus and Cleophantus Plato the Philosopher mentions the latter as a most excellent Horseman but relates nothing else of him worthy of memory of his eldest Sons Neocles and Diocles Neocles died when he was young by the bite of a Horse and Diocles was adopted by his Grandfather Lysander to be his Heir He had many Daughters of which Mnesiptolema whom he had by a second Marriage was Wife to Archeptolis her Brother-in-law by another Mother Italia was married to Panthedes of the Island of Scio Sybaris to Nicomedes the Athenian After the death of Themistocles his Nephew Phrasicles set sail for Magnesia and married his Daughter Nicomachia receiving her from the hands of her Brothers and brought up her Sister Asia the youngest of all the Children The Magnesians possess the splendid Sepulchre
unrevenged The first token that seemed to threaten some mischief to ensue was the death of the Censor in the Month of July for the Romans have a religious reverence for the office of a Censor and esteem it a sacred thing The second was That just before Camillus went into exile Marcus Cedicius a person of no great quality or of the rank of Senatours but esteemed a sober and creditable man reported to the Military Tribunes a thing worthy their consideration That going along the Night before in that Street which is called the new Way and being called by some body in a huge voice he turned about but could see no body but heard a voice bigger than a Man's which said these words Go Marcus Cedicius and early in the morning tell the Military Tribunes that suddenly they are to expect the Gauls But the Tribunes made a mock and sport with the story and a little after Camillus his business fell out The Gauls are descended originally of the Celtae and are reported by reason of their vast numbers to have left their Country not able to sustain them all and to have gon in search of other places to inhabit And being many thousands of them young Men and able to bear Arms and carrying with them a greater number of Women and young Children some of them passing the Riphaean Mountains fell upon the Northern Ocean and possessed the uttermost bounds of Europe others seating themselves between the Pyrenaean Mountain and the Alpes for a long time lived near to the Sennones and Celtorii But afterwards tasting of the Wine which was then first brought them out of Italy they were all so much taken with the Liquor and transported with the unusual delight that snatching up their Arms and taking their Parents along with them they marched directly to the Alpes to find out that Country which yielded such Fruit esteeming all others barren and unpleasant He that first brought Wine among them and was the chief instigatour to draw them into Italy is said to be one Arron a Tuscan a man of noble extraction by nature not evil but happened to be in these untoward circumstances he was Guardian to an Orphan one of the richest of that Country and much admired for his beauty his name Lucumo From his Childhood he had been bred up with Arron in his Family and now grown up he left not the House pretending to take great delight in his conversation thus for a great while together he secretly enjoyed Arron's Wife corrupting and being corrupted by her But when they were both so far gone on in their passions that they could neither refrain their lust or conceal it the young Man seised the Woman and openly carried her away The Husband going to Law and overpower'd in multitude of Friends and Money left his own Country and hearing of the state of the Gauls went to them and was Conductour of that Expedition into Italy At first coming they presently possessed themselves of all that Country which anciently the Tuscans inhabited reaching from the Alpes to both the Seas as the names themselves witness for the North Sea Adria is so called from the Tuscan City Adria and that which lies on the other side to the South is called the Tuscan Sea All the Country is well planted with Trees has pleasant and rich Pasture and well watered with Rivers It had eighteen fair and stately Cities excellently seated for industry and Trade and plentifully provided for all pleasures and delights The Gauls casting out the Tuscans seated themselves in them but these things were done long before But the Gauls at this time were besieging Clusium a Tuscan City The Clusians sent to the Romans for succour desiring them to interpose with the Barbarians by their Letters and Ambassadours There were sent three of the Family of the Fabii persons of the greatest quality and most honourable in the City The Gauls received them courteously in respect to the name of Rome and giving over the assault which was then making upon the Walls came to conference with them where the Ambassadours asking what injury they had received of the Clusians that they thus invaded their City Brennus King of the Gauls smiling made answer The Clusians doe us injury in that not able to till a small parcel of ground they must needs possess a great Territory and will not communicate any part to us who are strangers many in number and poor In the same nature O Romans formerly the Albanes Fidenates and Ardeates and now lately the Veiens and Capenates and many of the Falisces and Volsces did you injury upon whom ye make War if they do not yield you part of what they possess ye make Slaves of them ye waste and spoil their Country and ruin their Cities neither in so doing are ye cruel or unjust but follow that most ancient of all Laws which gives the things of the feeble to the strong beginning from God and ending in the Beasts for all these by nature seek the stronger to have advantage over the weaker Leave off therefore to pity the Clusians whom we besiege lest ye teach the Gauls to be good and compassionate to those that are oppressed by you By this answer the Romans perceived that Brennus was not to be treated with so they went into Clusium and encouraged and stirr'd up the inhabitants to make a sally with them upon the Barbarians which they did either to try the strength of the Clusians or to shew their own The sally being made and the fight growing hot about the Walls one of the Fabii Quintus Ambustus being well mounted and setting Spurs to his Horse made full against a Gaul a man of huge bulk and stature whom he saw was rode out a great distance from the rest At the first he was not perceived through the sharpness of the encounter and the glittering of his Armour that hindred the sight of him but when he had overthrown the Gaul and was going to gather the Spoils Brennus knew him and invoking the Gods to be witnesses that contrary to the known and common Law of Nations which is holily observed by all mankind that he who came an Ambassadour should act hostility against him he drew off his men and bidding the Clusians farewell led his Army directly to Rome But not willing it should look as if they took advantage of that injury and were ready to embrace any slight occasion and pretence of quarrel he sent a Herald to demand the man in punishment and in the mean time marched leasurely on The Senate being met at Rome among many others that spoke against the Fabii the Priests called Feciales were the most violent prosecutours who laying Religion before the Senate advised them that they would lay the whole guilt and expiation of the fact upon him that committed it and so acquit the rest These Feciales Numa Pompilius the mildest and justest of Kings constituted the Conservatours of Peace and the
perceiving that the Ardeans wanted not men but rather heart and courage through the unskilfull management of their Officers At first he began to deal with the young men flinging out words among them That they ought not to ascribe the misfortune of the Romans to the courage of their Enemy or attribute the losses they sustained by rash counsel to the conduct of those who brought nothing with them to conquer but were onely an evidence of the power of Fortune That it was a brave thing even with danger to repell a foreign and barbarous War whose end in conquering was like Fire to lay waste and destroy But if they would be courageous and resolute he was ready to put an opportunity in their hands to gain a Victory without hazard at all When he found the young men embraced the thing he went to the chief Officers and Governours of the City and having perswaded them also he mustered all that could bear Arms and drew them up within the Walls that they might not be perceived by the Enemy who was near who having scoured the Country and returned heavy laden with booty lay encamped in the Plains in a careless and negligent posture so that the night coming upon them who had been disordered with Wine there was a great silence through all the Camp Which when Camillus understood by his Spies he drew out the Ardeans and in the dead of the night passing in silence those grounds that lay between he made himself master of their Works and then commanding his Trumpets to sound and his Men to shout and hollow he struck such terrour into them that even they who took the alarum could hardly recover their Senses Some were so overcharged with Wine that all the noise of the Assaylants could not awaken them A few whom fear made sober getting into some order for a while resisted and so died with their Weapons in their hands But the greatest part of them buried in Wine and Sleep were surprized without their Arms and dispatched But as many of them as by the advantage of the night got out of the Camp were the next day found scattered abroad and wandring in the Fields and were pick't up by the Horse that pursued them The fame of this Action presently flew through the neighbouring Cities and stirred up the Youth of all Parts to come and join themselves with him But none were so much concerned as those Romans who escaped in the Battel of Allia and were now at Veii thus lamenting with themselves O heavens what a Commander has Providence bereaved Rome of to honour Ardea with his Actions And that City which brought forth and nursed so great a man is lost and gone and we destitute of a Leader and living within strange Walls sit idle and see Italy ruin'd before our eyes Come let us send to the Ardeans to have back our General or else with Weapons in our hands let us go thither to him for he is no longer a banisht man nor we Citizens having no Country but what is in the possession of the Enemy They all agreed upon the matter and sent to Camillus to desire him to take the Command but he answered that he would not untill they that were in the Capitol should legally chuse him for he esteemed them as long as they were in being to be his Country that if they should command him he would readily obey but against their consents he would intermeddle with nothing When this answer was returned they admired the modesty and temper of Camillus but they could not tell how to find a Messenger to carry these things to the Capitol and what was more it seemed altogether impossible for any one to get to them whilst the Enemy was in full possession of the City But among the young men there was one Pontius Cominius of indifferent birth but ambitious of honour this man proffered himself to run the hazard but he took no Letters with him to those in the Capitol lest that being intercepted the Enemy might learn the intentions of Camillus But putting on a poor garment and carrying Corks under it the greatest part of the way he boldly travelled by day and came to the City when it was dark The Bridge he could not pass by reason it was guarded by the Barbarians so that taking his Cloaths which were neither many nor heavy and binding them about his head he laid his body upon the Corks and swimming on them got over to the City And avoiding those Quarters where he perceived the Enemy was awake which he guessed at by the lights and noise he went to the Carmentale Gate where there was greatest silence and where the hill of the Capitol is steepest and rises with craggy and broken stones By this way he got up though with much difficulty by reason of the abruptness of the passage and presented himself to the Guards saluting them and telling them his name he was taken in and carried to the Commanders And a Senate being immediately called he related to them in order the victory of Camillus which they had not heard of before and told them the proceedings of the Souldiers advising them to confirm the Command to Camillus as in whose conduct alone the whole Army abroad relied Having heard and consulted of the matter the Senate declared Camillus Dictatour and sent back Pontius the same way that he came who with the same success that he came got through the Enemy without being discovered and delivered to the Romans the Election of the Senate who received it with great acclamations of joy and Camillus coming to them found twenty thousand of them ready in arms with which forces and those Confederates he brought along with him which were more in number he prepared to set upon the Enemy But at Rome some of the Barbarians passing by chance that way by which Pontius by night had got into the Capitol spied in several places the print of his feet and hands as he caught and clammered and the Moss that grew to the Rock tore off and broken and reported it to the King who coming in person and viewing it for the present said nothing But in the Evening picking out such of the Gauls as were nimblest of body and by living in the Mountains were accustomed to climb He thus spake unto them The Enemy themselves have shown us a way how to come at them which we knew not of before and have taught us that it is not so difficult and impossible but that men may overcome it It would be a great shame for us who command having begun well to fail in the end and to give over a place as impregnable when the Enemy himself chalks us out the way by which it may be taken for in the same place where it was easy for one man to get up it will not be hard for many one after another nay when many shall undertake it their mutual assistence of one another will be a
the night with all his Forces left the City and going on about eight mile encamped upon the Gabinian way As soon as day appeared Camillus came up with him excellently provided and his Souldiers full of courage and confidence and there engaging with him in a sharp Fight and which lasted a long while he overthrew his Army with great slaughter and took their Camp Of those that fled some were presently cut off by the Pursuers others of whom was the greatest number being scattered here and there the people of the Villages and neighbouring Cities came running out and dispatched them Thus Rome was strangely taken and more strangely recovered having been seven whole months in the possession of the Barbarians who entered her about the fifteenth day of July and were driven out about the fourteenth of February following Camillus triumphed as he deferved having saved his Country that was lost and brought the City back again to it self For they that had lived abroad together with their Wives and Children accompanied him in his triumph and they who had been shut up in the Capitol and were reduced almost to the point of perishing with hunger went out to meet him imbracing each other and weeping for joy and through the excess of the present pleasure scarce believing the truth of their deliverance But when the Priests and Ministers of the Gods appeared bearing those sacred Relicks which in their flight they had either hid there or conveyed away with them and now openly shewed that they were preserved it yielded a most joyfull and desireable spectacle to the Citizens who took it as if with them the Gods themselves were again returned unto Rome After Camillus had sacrificed to the Gods and purged the City the Priests leading the Procession and performing the customary Ceremonies he restored the present Temples and erected a new one to the God called the Speaker or Caller chusing the very same place in which that voice from Heaven came by night to Marcus Cedicius foretelling the coming of the Barbarian Army It was a business of great difficulty and an exceeding hard task amidst so much Rubbish to discover and set out the consecrated Places but by the unwearied diligence of Camillus and the incessant labour of the Priests it was at last accomplished But when the business came to the rebuilding the City which was wholly demolished an heartless despondency seised the Multitude and a backwardness to the work as those who wanted all necessary materials and had more need of some refreshment and rest from their labours than to toil and wear out themselves already broken both in body and fortunes Thus by leisure they turned their thoughts again towards Veii a City ready built and excellently provided of all things which gave occasion to many who sought to be popular by following and nourishing the humour to raise new tumults and many seditious words were flung out against Camillus that out of ambition and self-glory he withheld them from a City fit to receive them forcing them to live in the midst of Ruines and to raise such a pile of Rubbish that he might be esteemed not the chief Magistrate onely and General of Rome but setting Romulus aside the Founder also The Senate therefore fearing a sedition would not suffer Camillus though desirous to lay down his authority within the year though no other Dictatour had ever held it above six months Besides they endeavoured by kind persuasions and familiar addresses to appease and sweeten their minds and chear up their spirits Sometimes they would lead them to the Monuments and Tombs of their Ancestours often calling to their remembrance the sacred Oratories and holy Places which Romulus and Numa or any other of their Kings had consecrated and left unto them but amongst the chief of their holy Relicks they set before them that fresh and raw Head which was found in laying the foundation of the Capitol as a place destin'd by fate to be the head of all Italy What a shame would it be to them by forsaking the City to lose and extinguish that holy Fire which since the War was re-kindled by the Vestal Virgins to see the City it self either inhabited by Foreigners and Strangers or left a wild Pasture for Cattel to graze on Such reasons as these mixt with complaints and intreaties they used with the People sometimes in private taking them singly one by one and sometimes in their publick Assemblies But still they were afresh assaulted by the outcries of the multitude protesting and bewailing their present wants and inability beseeching them that seeing they were just met together as from a shipwreck naked and destitute they would not constrain them to patch up the pieces of a ruin'd and shattered City when they had another at hand ready built and prepared Camillus thought good to refer it to the Senate and he himself discoursed largely and earnestly in behalf of his Country as likewise did many others At last calling to Lucius Lucretius whose place was first to speak he commanded him to give his sentence and the rest as they followed in order Silence being made and Lucretius just about to begin by chance a Captain without passing by the Senate-house and leading his Company of the Day-guard called out with a loud voice to the Ensign-bearer to stay and fix his Standard for that was the best place to stay in This voice coming in that nick of time was taken as a direction what was to be done so that Lucretius embracing the Omen and adoring the Gods gave his sentence for staying as likewise did all the rest that followed Even among the common people it wrought a wonderfull change of affection every one heartning and encouraging his Neighbour and setting himself chearfully to the work proceeding not in any regular lines or proportions but every one pitching upon that plot of ground which came next to hand or best pleased his fancy by which haste and hurry in building they raised the City with narrow and intricate Lanes and Houses huddled together one upon the back of another For it is said that within the compass of the year the whole City was raised up anew both in its publick Walls and private Buildings But the persons appointed by Camillus to recover and set out the consecrated places in that great confusion of all things searching about the Palatium and coming to that place which is called Mars's Close it happened that whilst they were clearing the place and carrying away the rubbish they lit upon Romulus his magick Staff buried under great and deep heaps of Ashes This Staff is crooked at one end and is called Lituus They make use of this Lituus in quartering out the regions of the Heavens when they are upon that sort of divination which is made by the flight of Birds which Romulus himself also made use of being most excellently skilled in Augury But when he disappeared from among men the
their case the Sutrians hanging on them resolved not to defer revenge but that very day to lead his Army to Sutrium Conjecturing that the enemy having just taken a rich and plentifull City and not left an Enemy within it nor expecting any from without he should find them wallowing in all riot and luxury open and unguarded Neither did his opinion fail him for he not onely pass'd through their Country without discovery but came up to their very Gates and possessed himself of the Walls there was not a man left to guard them but every one was scattered about from house to house drinking and making merry nay when at last they did perceive that the Enemy had seised the City they were so overcharged with Meat and Wine that few were able so much as to endeavour an escape but in the most shamefull posture either waited for their death within doors or if they were able to carry themselves submitted to the will of the Conquerour Thus the City of the Sutrians was twice taken in one day and it came to pass that they who were in possession lost it and they who had lost their possession gained it again by the means of Camillus for all which actions he received a triumph which brought him no less honour and reputation than both the former for those very Citizens who before most envied and detracted from him ascribing the rest of his successes to a certain hit of fortune rather than steddy virtue were compelled by these last acts of his to allow the whole honour to the great abilities and industry of the man Of all his adversaries and enviers of his glory Marcus Manlius was the most considerable he who gave the first repulse to the Gauls and drove them out that night they set upon the Capitol for which he was sirnamed Capitolinus This man affecting the first place in the Common-wealth and not able by the noblest ways to out-doe Camillus's reputation took the trite and usual methods of Tyranny namely to gain the multitude especially such as were in debt some he would defend against their Creditours and plead their Causes others rescue by force and not suffer the Law to proceed against them insomuch that in a short time he had gotten great numbers of indigent people about him who making tumults and uproars in the Courts struck great terrour into the principal Citizens After that Quintus Capitolinus who was made Dictatour to examine into these disorders had committed Manlius to prison the people immediately changed their apparel a thing never done but in great and publick calamities The Senate fearing some tumult ordered him to be released who set at liberty was never the better but rather more insolent in his practices filling the whole City with his Faction and Sedition Wherefore they chose Camillus again Military Tribune and a day being set for Manlius to answer to his charge the prospect of the place was a great hindrance to his accusers for the very place where Manlius by night fought with the Gauls over-look'd the Court from the Capitol so that stretching forth his hands that way and weeping he called to their remembrance his past actions raising compassion in all that beheld him Insomuch that the Judges were at a loss what to doe and several times forced to adjourn the Trial not willing to acquit him of the crime proved by manifest circumstances and yet unable to execute the Law that noble action of his being always in their eyes by reason of the place Camillus considering this removed the Judgment Seat out of the Gate to the Peteline Grove from whence there is no prospect of the Capitol Here his accuser went on with his charge and the Judges being now at liberty to consider of his late practices he received a just recompense and reward of his wicked actions for being carried to the Capitol he was flung headlong from the Rock having the same place witness of his greatest glory and monument of his most unfortunate end The Romans besides rased his House and built there a Temple to the Goddess they call Moneta ordaining for the future that none of the Patrician Order should ever dwell in the Capitol Mount And now Camillus being called to the sixth Tribuneship desired to be excused as being aged and perhaps not unjealous of the malice of Fortune and those unlucky changes which usually attend great and prosperous actions But the most apparent pretence was the weakness of his Body for he happened at that time to be sick but the people would admit of no excuses but crying that they wanted not his strength for Horse or for Foot service but onely his counsel and conduct they constrained him to undertake the command and with one of his fellow Tribunes to lead the Army immediately against the Enemy These were the Praenestines and Volsces who with great Forces wasted the Countries of the Roman Confederates Having march'd out his Army he sate down and encamped near the Enemy meaning himself to draw out the War in length or if there should be necessity or occasion of fighting in the mean time to strengthen his Body for it But Lucius his Collegue carried away with the desire of glory was not to be held in but impatient to give Battel inflamed with the same eagerness the Captains and Colonels of the Army so that Camillus fearing he might seem out of envy to rob the young men of the glory of a notable exploit gave way though unwillingly that he should draw out the Forces whilst himself by reason of weakness staid behind with a few in the Camp Lucius engaging rashly and headily was soon discomfited when Camillus perceiving the Romans to give ground and fly he could not contain himself but leaping from his Bed with those Servants and retinue he had about him ran to meet them at the Gates of the Camp and making his way through them that fled he drove furiously to oppose the pursuers insomuch that those who were got within the Camp presently turned back and followed him and those that came flying from without made head again and gathered about him exhorting one another not to forsake their General Thus the Enemy for that time was stop'd in his pursuit But the next day Camillus drawing out his Forces and joining Battel with them overthrew them by main force and following close upon them that fled he entred pell mell with them into their Camp and took it slaying the greatest part of them Afterwards having heard that the City Sutrium was taken by the Tuscans and the inhabitants all Romans put to the Sword the main Body of his Forces and heaviest arm'd he sent home to Rome and taking with him the lightest and best appointed Soldiers he set suddenly upon the Tuscans who were in the possession of the City and having master'd them some he drove out others he slew and so returning to Rome with great spoils he gave a signal evidence
did distribute and scatter the plentifull advantage and benefit of them among the people of the Town through all ages and conditions of whatsoever Trade and Occupation they might be As the Works then grew up being as stately and extraordinary for bulk and greatness so inimitable for beauty and gracefulness the Work-men striving to out-vy the matter and grandeur of the Work with the neat contrivance and artificial beauty of it the thing that was most to be admired was the haste and speed they made For of those things which every one of them singly they did imagin could hardly be finished and brought to an end in several successions of Governours and ages of Men all of them had their complement and perfection in the height and prime of one man's Government Although they say too that about the same time Zeuxis having heard Agatharchus the Picture-drawer boast himself for dispatching his Work with speed and ease replied But I am a long time about mine For the easiness and hastiness in doing of a thing doth not put upon the Work a lasting solidity or exactness of beauty but time being allow'd to a man's pains aforehand for the production of a thing doth by way of interest return a vital force for the preservation of the thing after it is once produced For which reason Pericles his Works are the more admired having been done so well in a little time as to hold good for a long time For every several Piece of his Work was immediately even at that time for its beauty and elegance Antique as if it had been performed by some ancient Master and yet for its vigour and freshness it looks to this day as if it were spick and span and newly wrought There is such a kind of flourishing gloss upon those Works of his which continually preserves the sight of them from being sullied by time as if they had an ay-green spirit and a never-fading soul mingled in the composition of them Now Phidias was he who had the oversight of all the Works and was his Surveyour-general though in the several Designs and Pieces there were great Masters and rare Artists imployed For Callicrates and Ictinus built the Parthenon that is the Temple of the Virgin Pallas which was in measure an hundred Foot every way and the Chapel at Eleusin where the sacred Rites of the Goddess Ceres were celebrated was begun by Coroebus who also placed the Pillars that stand upon the Floor or Pavement and join'd them with Architraves but after his death Metagenes the Xypetian rais'd the Girth or Waste of it and set up the Pillars that are above and Xenocles the Cholargian roofed or arched the Lanthorn or Loover on the top of the Temple of Castor and Pollux As for the Long Wall which join'd the Port or Harbour with the Town concerning which Socrates saith he himself heard Pericles deliver his opinion and give order about it Callicrates took that a-great This brave piece of Work Cratinus like a Poet as he was sneeringly flouts at by reason it was so long a finishing saith he 'T is long since Pericles if words would do 't Talk'd up the Wall but yet sets no hands to 't The Choir or Musick-room which for the contrivance of it on the inside was full of Seats and ranges of Pillars and on the outside in the Roof or covering of it was made from one point at top with a great many bendings all shelving downward they say that it was so made after the Copy and in imitation of the King of Persia's Pavilion and this by Pericles his order likewise Upon which occasion Cratinus again in his Comedy called The Thracian Women plays upon him with rallery thus Here comes along our goodly Jove God bless Who 's that I pray' Iobbernoll Pericles The Shells being scap'd he now has got the Moddle O' th' Musick-room help Goddess in his Noddle Then Pericles out of an ambition to doe something to be talk'd of did first enact or make a Decree that a Prize should be plaid in the Science of Musick every year at the solemn Feasts of Minerva which lasted five days together called Panathenaea whither all the people of City and Country were used to resort and he himself being chosen Judge of the Prizes and Bestower of the Rewards gave order after what manner those who were to play the Prizes were either to sing with the Voice or to play upon the Flute or upon the Cittern or Guitarr And both at that time to wit at the Feast and at other times also they were wont to sit in this Musick-room and see and hear those Prizes and trials of Skill Further the Foregate and entrance of the Cittadel or Castle were finished in five years time Mnesicles being the chief undertaker of that Work Now there was a strange accident happened in building of the Cittadel which shewed that the Goddess was so far from disliking the Work or being averse to it that she help'd to carry it on and to bring it to perfection For one of the Artificers who was the quickest and the handiest Work-man among them all with a slip of his Foot fell down from a great height and lay ill of it in so miserable a condition that the Physicians and Chirurgeons gave him over having no hopes of his recovery Pericles being at a loss and not knowing what to doe Minerva appeared to him at night in a Dream and order'd a Medicine which Pericles applying to the Man did in a short time and with great ease cure him And upon this occasion it was that he set up a brass Statue of Minerva called hence the Statue of Health in the Cittadel near an Altar which as they say was there before But it was Phidias who wrought the Goddesses Image in Gold and hath his name inscribed on the Pedestal as the Workman thereof And indeed the whole Work in a manner was under his charge and he had as we have said already the oversight over all the Artists and Workmen because Pericles had a kindness for him And this made the poor man to be much envied and his Patron to be very ill spoken of and horribly abused with stories as if Phidias had been his Pimp and took up Ladies and Gentlewomen that came to see the Works for Pericles his use The Comick Wits of the Town when they had got this story by the end made much of it and bedash'd him with all the ribaldry they could invent as if he had been the arrantest Whoremaster that ever liv'd charging him falsely with the Wife of Menippus one who was his Friend and had been a Lieutenant General under him in the Wars and with the Volaries or Bird-cages of Pyrilampes who being an acquaintance of Pericles they pretended and made as if he were wont to present Peacocks and such fine Birds to Pericles his Misses the Women whom he gallanted and kept company
these marks or brands upon the Samians foreheads they say that that passage in Aristophanes hath a secret allusion where he saith The Samian people fy for shame For store of Letters have great fame Pericles as soon as news was brought him of the disaster that had befaln his Army made all the haste he could to come in to their relief and having got the better of Melissus who bore up against him and having put the Enemies to flight he presently hemm'd them in with a Wall resolving to master them and take the Town rather with some cost and time than with the wounds and hazards of his Citizens But inasmuch as it was a hard matter to keep in or hold back the Athenians who were vexed at the delay and were eagerly bent to fight he dividing the whole multitude into eight parts or bodies of men ordered the business by lot so that that part which had the white Bean should have leave to feast and take their ease while the other seven were busie a fighting For which reason they say also that people when at any time they have been merry and enjoy'd themselves call such a day a white day in allusion to this white Bean. Ephorus the Historian tells us besides that Pericles made use of Engins of Battery in this Siege being much taken with the strangeness of the invention and that he plaid them in presence of Artemo himself the Engineer who being lame was used to be carried about in a Litter or Sedan upon occasion of business where his attendance was required and for that reason was called Periphoretus But Heraclides Ponticus disproves this out of Anacreon's Poems where mention is made of this Artemo Periphoretus several Ages before the Samian War or any of those passages And he says that Artemo being a man who lov'd his Belly and his ease and had a tender apprehension of danger so as to be struck down with fear at the very thoughts of it did for the most part keep close within door having two of his Servants to hold a brazen Shield over his Head that nothing might fall upon him from above and if he were at any time forced upon necessity to go abroad that he was carried about in a Pallankeen or little hanging Bed close to the very ground almost and that for this reason he was called Periphoretus In the ninth month the Samians surrendring themselves and delivering up the Town Pericles pull'd down their Walls and seis'd their Shipping and set a Fine of a great sum of money upon them part of which they paid down upon the nail and the rest they agreed to bring in by a certain time and gave Hostages for security Now Duris the Samian makes a Tragical outcry of this Story charging the Athenians and Pericles with a great deal of cruelty which neither Thucydides nor Ephorus nor Aristotle hath given any relation of but it is likely enough that that Authour had little regard to truth in his so doing as how that he brought the Captains of the Galleys and the Sea-men into the Market-place at Miletum and there having bound them fast to Boards for ten days he then gave order to have them poor Wretches who were already as good as half dead to be kill'd by beating out their Brains with Clubs and their dead Bodies to be flung out into the open Streets and Fields unburied But as for Duris he being one who even where he hath no private concern of his own is not wont to keep his historical accounts he gives within the compass of truth it is the more likely that upon this occasion he hath aggravated the calamities which befell his Country on purpose to draw an odium upon the Athenians Pericles after the overthrow of Samos as soon as he returned back to Athens he took care that those who died in the War should be honourably buried and made such a Funeral Harangue as the custom is in their commendation at their Graves and Monuments that he was highly admired and esteemed for it As he came down from the Pulpit or place where they delivered their Speeches the rest of the Ladies came and complemented him taking him by the hand and crowning him with Garlands and Rubans as they used to do with Gamesters that won the publick Prizes onely Elpinice coming near to him saith she These are brave things Pericles that you have done and such as deserve our Chaplets who have lost us a many brave worthy Citizens not in a War with Phoenicians or Medes Enemies and Foreigners as my Brother Cimon wont to doe but for the overthrow of a City that was in alliance and of the same Country and Kindred with us As Elpinice spoke these words he gently smiling as 't is said returned her this Verse of Archilochus for answer Old Woman as you are You should not powder Hair Nor as you walk perfume the Air Leave these things to the Young and Fair. Now Ion saith of him that upon this exploit of his conquering the Samians he entertain'd a strange and high conceit of himself in that whereas Agamemnon was ten years a taking a barbarous City he had in nine months time vanquished and taken the chiefest and the most powerfull people among all the Ionians And indeed it was not without reason that he assumed this glory to himself for to say the truth there was much uncertainty and great hazard in this War if so be as Thucydides tells us the Samian State were come to that pitch that they were within a very little of wresting the whole power and dominion of the Sea out of the Athenians hands After this was over a War from Peloponnesus being already breaking out in full tide he advised the people to send help and assistance to the Corcyraeans the people of the Island now called Corfu who were invaded and set upon by the Corinthians and to take into their protection and alliance an Island so strengthened as that was with naval power seeing that the Peloponnesians were already more than ever made Enemies against them The Commons readily consenting to the motion and voting an aid and succour for them he dispatch'd away Lacedaemonius Cimon's Son having onely ten Ships along with him as it were out of a design to affront and abuse him For there was a great kindness and friendship betwixt Cimon's Family and the Lacedemonians wherefore that Lacedaemonius might lie the more open to a charge or suspicion at least of favouring the Lacedemonians and playing booty with them if he performed no considerable or handsome exploit in this conduct and service he allowed him such a small number of Ships and sent him out against his will and indeed he did wholly by all means he could make it his business to hinder Cimon's Sons from rising in the State pretending that by their very names they were not to be
the weaker side and put themselves like a weight into the lighter Scale untill they had reduced the other to a Ballance As for the determinate number of Twenty Eight Aristotle is of opinion that it so fell out because two of the 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 multiply'd by four and is the first of perfect numbers after six being as that is equal to its sides For my part I cannot believe that Lycurgus had any such niceties in his head but pitch'd upon the number of Twenty Eight that the two Kings being reckoned amongst them they might be Thirty in all So eagerly set was Lycurgus upon this Establishment invented by himself that he took a Journey to Delphi to credit it by the approbation of the Oracle who gave him the famous Rhetra or fundamental Statute which runs thus After that you have built a Temple to Jupiter the Syllanian and to Minerva the Syllanian and after that you have divided the people into Tribes you shall establish a Council of thirty Senatours in the number of which the two Kings shall be compriz'd and shall from time to time call the people to an Assembly betwixt Balyca and Cnacion where the Senate shall propound things to the Commons who shall not have power to debate upon their proposals but onely to give or refuse their assent and it shall be in the power of the Senate to dissolve the Assembly Betwixt this Balyca and Cnacion now called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Assemblies were held for they had no spacious Council-house richly hung and furnished to receive them in for Lycurgus was of opinion that such theatrical Ornaments were so far from advantaging them in their Counsels that they were rather an hinderance by diverting their attention from the business before them to gape upon the Statues and Pictures and Roofs curiously fretted the usual embellishments of such places amongst the other Graecians The people then being thus assembled in the open air it was not allow'd to any one of their order to give his advice but onely either to ratifie or reject what should be propounded to them by the King or Senate But because it fell out afterwards that the people made glosses and explanations of Laws contrary to the intent of the Kings and Senate and sometimes too by adding or rasing out whole Sentences perverted the sense King Polydorus and Theopompus to be even with them in their own kind inserted into the Rhetra or grand Decretal the following Clause That if the people should go about to make alteration in the Decrees of the Senate or to enlarge or limit the sense of them that it should be lawfull for the King and Senate to make void their resolutions and to dissolve the Assembly This business was so dextrously managed that it past among the people for as authentick as the rest of the Rhetra as appears by these Verses of Tyrtaeus If Spartans ye desire that heaven should bless Your New-born State with lasting happiness Hear what Apollo 's Oracle commands Jove puts the Sceptre into Princes hands Let them command let Senatours debate The deep affairs and interests of State Hear ye and give assent and reverence pay And know 't is Subjects privilege to obey Although Lycurgus had in this manner us'd all the qualifications possible in the Government of his Commonwealth yet those who succeeded him thought that the smallness of the number of which the Senate consisted made them somewhat imperious and pressing and therefore as Plato says they wanted a bridle which bridle was the power of the Ephori establish'd an hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus Elatus was the first who had this dignity conferr'd upon him in the reign of King Theopompus whom when his Queen upbraided one day that he would leave the regal power to his Children less than himself had received it from his Ancestours he told her that she was much mistaken for he should leave it so much greater than he found it by how much it was more likely to last For indeed the Prerogative being thus kept within some reasonable bounds at once he freed himself from the envy and secur'd himself from the danger to which an unlimited jurisdiction lies exposed So that the Spartan Kings fared much better after it than their neighbours at Messene and Argos who by screwing their Prerogative too high crack'd it and for want of yielding a little to the populacy lost all Indeed whosoever shall take a prospect of the Seditions and civil Wars which befell these bordering Nations to whom they were as near related in bloud as situation will find good reason to admire the profound wisedom and providence 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 decision of the Country were more fortunate than the Spartans yet was their flourish but of small continuance soon falling into confusion partly by the tyrannical disposition of their Kings and partly by the ungovernableness of the people so that now their servile and disgracefull condition makes it appear to the whole world that it is one of the greatest blessings which heaven can send down upon any Nation to give them so wise a Law-giver who could set bounds to those two intersering powers and of such jarring elements frame an orderly Commonwealth But of this I shall say more in its due place After the creation of the thirty Senatours his next task and indeed the most hazardous he ever undertook was the making a new division of their Lands For there was a very strange inequality amongst the inhabitants of Sparta so that the City was surcharged with a multitude of beggarly and necessitous persons whilst the Lands and Money were engrossed by a few therefore to the end that he might banish out of the State Luxury and Arrogance the vices of the rich and Envy and Knavery the usual faults of the poor and the source of all mischiefs Want and Superfluity he obtained of them to renounce their properties and to consent to a new division of the Land that they should live all with the equality and friendliness of co-heirs and Brothers so that there being no other way left to mount to a degree of eminence above the rest than to become more valiant and more vertuous than they ambition began to be a good subject and set men upon the use of those means by which true honour is to be acquir'd Having got their consent to his proposals he immediately put them in execution and having exactly survey'd the whole Country of Laconia he divided it into thirty thousand equal shares and the Liberties of the City of Sparta into nine thousand and these he distributed