favour of him that the Magistrates or Officers of Illyria should do nothing in that Province without the knowledge and approbation of Plutarch Now 't is my particular guess for I have not read it any where that Plutarch had the affairs of Illyria now call'd Sclavonia recommended to him because Trajan we know had Wars on that side the Empire with Decebalus King of Dacia after whose defeat and death the Province of Illyria might stand in need of Plutarchs Wisdom to compose and civilize it But this is only hinted as what possibly might be the reason of our Philosophers superintendency in those quarters which the French Author of his Life seems to wonder at as having no relation either to Chaeronea or Greece When he was first made known to Trajan is like the rest uncertain or by what means whether by Senecio or any other he was introduc'd to his acquaintance But 't is most likely that Trajan then a private Man was one of his Auditors amongst others of the Nobility of Rome T is also thought this wise Emperour made use of him in all his Councils and that the happiness which attended him in his undertakings together with the administration of the Government which in all his Reign was just and regular proceeded from the instructions which were given him by Plutarch Johannes Sarisberiensis who liv'd above six hundred years ago has transcrib'd a Letter written as he suppos'd by our Author to that Emperour whence he had it is not known nor the original in Greek to be produc'd but it pass'd for Genuine in that age and if not Plutarchs is at least worthy of him and what might well be suppos'd a Man of his Character would write for which reason I have here Translated it Plutarch to Trajan I Am satisfied that your modesty sought not the Empire which yet you have always studied to deserve by the excellency of your manners And by so much the more are you esteem'd worthy of this honour by how much you are free from the Ambition of desiring it I therefore congratulate both your vertue and my own good fortune if at least your future Government shall prove answerable to your former merit Otherwise you have involv'd your self in dangers and I shall infallibly be subject to the Censures of detracting Tongues because Rome will never support an Emperour unworthy of her and the faults of the Scholar will be upbraided to the Master Thus Seneca is reproach'd and his fame still suffers for the Vices of Nero. The miscarriages of Quintilians Scholars have been thrown on him and even Socrates himself is not free from the imputation of remissness on the account of his Pupil Alcibiades But you will certainly administer all things as becomes you if you still continue what you are if you recede not from your self if you begin at home and lay the foundation of Government on the command of your own passions if you make vertue the scope of all your actions they will all proceed in harmony and order I have set before you the force of Laws and Civil constitutions of your Predecessours which if you imitate and obey Plutarch is then your Guide of living if otherwise let this present Letter be my Testimony against you that you shall not ruine the Roman Empire under the pretence of the Counsel and Authority of Plutarch It may be conjectur'd and with some shew of probability from hence that our Author not only collected his materials but also made a rough draught of many of these parallel Lives at Rome and that he read them to Trajan for his instruction in Government and so much the rather I believe it because all Historians agree that this Emperour tho naturally prudent and inclin'd to vertue had more of the Souldier than the Scholar in his Education before he had the happiness to know Plutarch for which reason the Roman Lives and the inspection into ancient Laws might be of necessary use to his direction And now for the time of our Authors abode in the Imperial City if he came so early as Vespatian and departed not till after Trajan's death as is generally thought he might continue in Italy near forty years This is more certain because gather'd from himself that his Lives were almost the latest of his Works and therefore we may well conclude that having model'd but not finish'd them at Rome he afterwards resum'd the work in his own Country which perfecting in his old age he dedicated to his friend Senecio still living as appears by what he has written in the Proem to his Lives The desire of visiting his own Country so natural to all Men and the approaches of old age for he could not be much less than sixty and perhaps also the death of Trajan prevail'd with him at last to leave Italy or if you will have it in his own words he was not willing his little City shou'd be one the less by his absence After his return he was by the unanimous consent of his Citizens chosen Archon or Chief Magistrate of Chaeronea and not long after admitted himself in the number of Apollo's Priests in both which employments he seems to have continued till his death Of which we have no particular account either as to the manner of it or the year only t is evident that he liv'd to a great old age always continuing his Studies that he dyed a natural death is only presum'd because any violent accident to so famous a Man would have been recorded And in whatsoever Reign he deceas'd the days of Tyranny were over-pass'd and there was then a Golden Series of Emperours every one emulating his Predecessours vertues Thus I have Collected from Plutarch himself and from the best Authors what was most remarkable concerning him In performing which I have labour'd under so many uncertainties that I have not been able to satisfie my own curiosity any more than that of others 'T is the Life of a Philosopher not varyed with accidents to divert the Reader More pleasant for himself to live than for an Historian to describe Those Works of his which are irrecoverably lost are nam'd in the Catalogue made by his Son Lamprias which you will find in the Paris Edition dedicated to King Lewis the thirteenth But 't is a small comfort to a Merchant to peruse his bill of fraight when he is certain his Ship is cast away Mov'd by the like reason I have omitted that ungrateful task Yet that the Reader may not be impos'd on in those which yet remain t is but reasonable to let him know that the Lives of Hannibal and Scipio tho they pass with the ignorant for Genuine are only the Forgery of Donato Acciaiolo a Florentine He pretends to have Translated them from a Greek Manuscript which none of the Learned have ever seen either before or since But the cheat is more manifest from this reason which is undeniable that Plutarch did indeed write the Life of Scipio but he
Touroude de Vandrebanc fe PLUTARCHS LIVES Translated From the GREEK BY SEVERAL HANDS To which is prefixt the LIFE of PLUTARCH The First Volume LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Sign of the Judges-head in Chancery-lane near Fleet-street 1683. MANUS IUSTA NARDUS Charles Lord Maynard TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF Ormond c. My Lord LVcretius endeavouring to prove from the principles of his Philosophy that the world had a casual beginning from the concourse of Atomes and that Men as well as the rest of Animals were produc'd from the vital heat and moisture of their Mother Earth from the same principles is bound to answer this objection why Men are not daily form'd after the same manner which he tells us is because the kindly warmth and procreative faculty of the ground is now worn out The Sun is a disabled Lover and the Earth is past her teeming time Though Religion has inform'd us better of our Origine yet it appears plainly that not only the Bodies but the Souls of Men have decreas'd from the vigour of the first Ages that we are not more short of the stature and strength of those gygantick Heroes than we are of their understanding and their wit To let pass those happy Patriarchs who were striplings at fourscore and had afterwards seven or eight hundred years before them to beget Sons and Daughters and to consider Man in reference only to his mind and that no higher than the Age of Socrates How vast a difference is there betwixt the productions of those Souls and these of ours How much better Plato Aristotle and the rest of the Philosophers understood nature Thucydides and Herodotus adorn'd History Sophocles Eurypides and Menander advanc'd Poetry than those Dwarfs of Wit and Learning who succeeded them in after times That Age was most Famous amongst the Greeks which ended with the death of Alexander amongst the Romans Learning seem'd again to revive and flourish in the Century which produc'd Cicero Varro Salust Livy Lucretius and Virgil And after a short interval of years wherein Nature seem'd to take a breathing time for a second birth there sprung up under the Vespasians and those excellent Princes who succeeded them a race of memorable Wits such as were the two Plinies Tacitus and Suetonius and as if Greece was emulous of the Roman learning under the same favourable Constellation was born the famous Philosopher and Historian Plutarch Then whom Anquity has never produc'd a Man more generally knowing or more vertuous and no succeeding Age has equall'd him His Lives both in his own esteem and that of others accounted the Noblest of his Works have been long since render'd into English But as that Translation was only from the French so it suffer'd this double disadvantage first that it was but a Copy of a Copy and that too but lamely taken from the Greek Original Secondly that the English Language was then unpolish'd and far from the perfection which it has since attain'd So that the first Version is not only ungrammatical and ungraceful but in many places almost unintelligible For which reasons and least so useful a piece of History shou'd lie oppress'd under the rubbish of Antiquated words some ingenious and learned Gentlemen have undertaken this Task And what wou'd have been the labour of one Mans Life will by the several endeavours of many be now accomplish'd in the compass of a year How far they have succeeded in this laudable attempt to me it belongs not to determine who am too much a party to be a Judge But I have the honour to be Commission'd from the Translators of this Volum to inscribe their labours and my own with all humility to your Graces Name and Patronage And never was any Man more ambitious of an employment of which he was so little worthy Fortune has at last gratify'd that earnest desire I have always had to shew my devotion to your Grace though I despair of paying you my acknowledgments And of all other opportunities I have happen'd on the most favourable to my self who having never been able to produce any thing of my own which cou'd be worthy of your view am supply'd by the assistance of my friends and honour'd with the presentation of their labours The Author they have Translated has been long familiar to you Who have been conversant in all sorts of History both Ancient and Modern and have form'd the Idea of your most Noble Life from the instructions and Examples contain'd in them both in the management of publick affairs and in the private Offices of vertue in the enjoyment of your better fortune and sustaining of your worse in habituating your self to an easie greatness in repelling your Enemies in succouring your Friends and in all traverses of fortune in every colour of your Life maintaining an inviolable fidelity to your Soveraign T is long since that I have learn'd to forget the art of praising but here the heart dictates to the pen and I appeal to your Enemies if so much generosity and good nature can have left you any whether they are not conscious to themselves that I have not flatter'd T is an Age indeed which is only fit for Satyr and the sharpest I have shall never be wanting to launce its Villanies and its ingratitude to the Government There are few Men in it who are capable of supporting the weight of a just and deserv'd commendation But amongst those few there must always stand excepted the Illustrious Names of Ormond and of Ossory A Father and a Son only Worthy of each other Never was one Soul more fully infus'd into anothers breast Never was so strong an impression made of vertue as that of your Graces into him But though the stamp was deep the subject which receiv'd it was of too fine a composition to be durable Were not priority of time and nature in the case it might have been doubted which of you had been most excellent But Heaven snatch'd away the Copy to make the Original more precious I dare trust my self no farther on this subject for after years of mourning my sorrow is yet so green upon me that I am ready to tax Providence for the loss of that Heroick Son Three Nations had a general concernment in his Death but I had one so very particular that all my hopes are almost dead with him and I have lost so much that I am past the danger of a second Shipwreck But he sleeps with an unenvy'd commendation And has left your Grace the sad Legacy of all those Glories which he deriv'd from you An accession which you wanted not who were so rich before in your own vertues and that high reputation which is the product of them A long descent of Noble Ancestors was not necessary to have made you great But Heaven threw it in as over-plus when you were born What you have done and suffer'd for two Royal Masters has been enough to render you Illustrious so that
perceiv'd that his Laws had taken deep root in the minds of his Country-men that custom had rendred them familiar and easie that his Commonwealth grew apace daily and was now able to go alone he had such a calm joy and contentation of mind as Plato somewhere tells us the Maker of the World had when he had finish'd and set this great Machine a moving and found every thing very good and exactly to answer his great Idoea so Lycurgus taking an unspeakable pleasure in the contemplation of the greatness and beauty of his Work seeing every spring and particle of his new Establishment in its due order and course at last he conceived a vast thought to make it immortal too and as far as humane forecast could reach to deliver it down unchangeable to posterity To bring this to pass he called an extraordinary Assembly of all the people he told them that he now thought every thing reasonably well establish'd both for the good of the publick and for the happiness of each particular but that there was one thing still behind and that of the greatest importance which he thought not fit to impart untill he had consulted the Oracle in the mean time his desire was that they would punctually observe his Laws without any the least alteration untill his return and then he would doe as the God should direct him They all consented readily and prayed him to hasten his Voyage but before he departed he administred an Oath to the two Kings the Senate and Commons that they would inviolably observe his Ordinances during his absence This done he set sail for Delphos and having sacrific'd to Apollo ask'd him Whether he approv'd of the Laws he had establish'd the Oracle answered That his Laws were excellent and that the people which observ'd them should live in happiness and renown Lycurgus took the Oracle in Writing and sent it over to Sparta having sacrific'd the second time to Apollo and taking his leave of his Friends and his Son he resolv'd to dye in this Voyage that the Spartans might never be releas'd from the Oath they had taken He was now about that age in which life was still tolerable and yet a wise man would dye without regret especially when he considered That death comes then seasonably when life is at the best He resolved therefore to make an end of himself by a total abstinence from meat and even dying to set a copy of temperance to his Country-men for he thought that a Statesman and good Patriot should serve his Country with his last breath and that the end of their lives should be no more idle and unprofitable than all that went before especially since all men have a curiosity to know the end of great Personages and believe most firmly and remember longest what they did or said dying and in this he had a double end the one to secure and crown his own happiness by a death sutable to so honourable a life and the other that it might be a seal and confirmation of his Laws especially since that his Country-men had solemnly sworn the observation of them untill his return nor was he deceived in his expectations for the City of Lacedaemon continued the chief City of all Greece for the space of five hundred years mainly by their strict observance of Lycurgus's Laws in all which time there was no manner of alteration made during the reign of fourteen Kings untill the time of Agis the Son of Archidamus For the new Creation of the Ephori who at first were chosen in favour of the people were so far from diminishing that they very much confirm'd the power of the Senate In the time of Agis Gold and Silver found a way into Sparta and all those mischiefs which attend the immoderate desire of riches Lysander promoted much this disorder for by bringing in rich Spoils from the Wars although himself was incorrupt yet by this means he fill'd his Country with Avarice and Luxury directly against the Laws and Ordinances of Lycurgus which so long as they were in force Sparta resembled some holy Personage or particular Philosopher so unanimous they were and as it were acted by one Soul rather than a great Commonwealth and Metropolis of an Empire And as the Poets feign of Hercules that with his Lion's Skin and his Club he went over the world punishing the Wicked and extirpating Tyrants so may it be said of the Lacedemonians that with a piece of Parchment and a plain Frieze Coat they gained the Sovereignty of Greece and which is more their affections too they deposed all usurp'd Powers were the Commanders in War and the Arbitres of Peace and Judges in civil differences or seditions and this they often did without so much as taking their Buckler in their hand but barely by sending some plain Man without attendance who went under the Character of the Lacedemonian Ambassadour and they swarmed about him at his coming like Bees about their King to receive his Orders which without saucy Remonstrances and Provifo's they immediately put in execution Such a veneration they had for the equity and good conduct of this illustrious Common-wealth And therefore I cannot but wonder at those who say that the Spartans were good and obedient Subjects but not skill'd in the art of governing and for proof of it alledge a Saying of King Theopompus who when one said that Sparta held up so long because their Kings could command well he reply'd nay rather because the people know so well how to obey For indeed those who cannot command wisely are seldom or never well serv'd on the other hand a skilfull Leader is always readily followed And as it is the part of a good Rider to train his Horse to turn or stop or go on at his pleasure so is it the greatest piece of King-craft to teach their Subjects obedience wherefore the Lacedemonians so ordered matters that people did not onely endure but even desir'd to be their Subjects For they did not use to petition them for Ships or Money or a supply of armed Men but onely for a Spartan Commander and having obtain'd one us'd him with honour and reverence for so the Sicilians behav'd themselves to Gilippus the Chalcidians to Brasidas and all the Colonies of the Graecians in Asia to Lysander Agesilaus and Callicratidas in short they esteem'd and call'd them the Peace-makers the Reformers the Correctours of the licence both of Princes and People and had their eyes always upon the City of Sparta as the perfect model of good Manners and wise Government The rest seem'd as Scholars they were the Masters of Greece and to this Stratonicus pleasantly alluded when in merriment he pretended to make a Law that the Athenians should keep Processions in the mysteries of Ceres the Eleans should dispose of the Prizes at the Olympick Games as being best skill'd in matters of this nature and that if either of them did amiss the
instances there is a certain Dramatick Poet a very ancient Authour and a Scholar of Pythagoras who in a certain Book of his dedicated to Antenor reports that Pythagoras was made a Free-man of Rome and that Numa gave to one of his four Sons the name of Mamercus which was the name of one of the Sons of Pythagoras from whence as they say is sprung that ancient Patrician Family of the Aemilians for that the King superadded the sirname to him of Aemilius to denote the softness of his words and the fluency of his speech I remember that when I was at Rome I heard many say that when the Oracle directed two Statues to be raised one to the wisest and another to the most valiant man of Greece they presently erected two of Brass one representing Alcibiades and the other Pythagoras But to pass by these matters which are full of uncertainty and not so important as to be worth our time to insist long on we shall proceed to things more pertinent and shew that the original constitution of Priests which are called Pontifices is ascribed unto Numa and that he himself officiating in the first and primary Order took upon himself the name of Pontifex or High Priest assuming that title of Potens or powerfull as if those whose Office obliged them to an attendance on the Gods were endued with a super-eminent power and arbitrement above all others some will have this name to be given by way of super-excellence as to a sole Moderatour in whose power it is to ordain and appoint the times when Sacrifices and Divine Services are to be performed But the most common opinion is the most absurd which derives this word from Pons which Latin signifies a Bridge saying that anciently the most solemn and holy Sacrifices were offered on Bridges the care of which both in maintaining and repairing was the chief incumbence of the Priests and that it was not onely esteemed by the Romans to be unlawfull but an abominable impiety to demolish or disorder the Planks or Fabrick of a Bridge because that by appointment of the Oracle it was to be onely of Timber and fastned with wooden Pins without Nails or Cramps of Iron and that the Stone Bridge was built many years after when Aemylius was Questor and that the old Bridge of Wood was demolished in the Reign of Ancus Martius who was the Grand-son of Numa by his Daughter The Office of Pontifex or Chief Priest was to interpret the Divine Law and Prophesies and did not onely prescribe rules for publick Ceremony but regulated the Sacrifices of private persons not suffering them in the heat of their devotion to exceed the more solemn Offerings but directed in every thing with what Sacrifices the Gods were to be worshipped and appeased He was also Guardian of the Vestal Virgins the institution of whom and of their perpetual Fire was attributed to Numa who perhaps fancied the nature of pure and uncorrupted Flames to be agreeable to chaste and unpolluted Bodies or that Fire which consumes but produces nothing alludes best to the sterile condition of Virgins This Vestal Fire was ordained after the example of that in Greece and particularly at Delphos and Athens onely with this difference that here it was conserved by Virgins but there by Widows who were past the years and desires of Marriage and in case by any accident it should happen that this Fire became extinct as the holy Lamp was at Athens under the tyranny of Aristion and at Delphos when that Temple was burnt by the Medes and at Rome in the time of the War with Mithridates and of their own civil dissentions when not onely the Fire was extinguished but the Altar demolished and then afterwads to kindle this Fire again it was esteemed an impiety to light it from the common sparks or flame but from the pure and unpolluted rays of the Sun the which they performed by an Instrument framed of three equal angles which being placed in opposition to the Sun collects the rays into one centre and so attenuates the air that it immediately gives fire to any combustible matter from the intense reflexion and reverberation of the Sun beams Some are of opinion that these Vestals had no other care or business than the conservation of this Fire but others conceive that they were keepers of those Divine Secrets which are concealed and hidden to all others but themselves of which we have made mention in the life of Camillus so far as the revelations of such mysteries are consistent with due respect to Religion Gegania and Verenia as is reported were the names of the two first Virgins which were consecrated and ordained by Numa next Canuleia and Tarpeia succeeded them to which Servius afterwards added two more the which number of four hath continued to this our age The Statutes prescribed by Numa for the Vestals were these That they should vow to keep a lease of their Virginity or remain in a chaste or unspotted condition for the space of thirty years the first ten whereof they were like Novitiates obliged to learn the Ceremonies and practise themselves in the Rules of their Religion then they took the degree of Priestess and for other ten years exercised the Sacerdotal Function and the remaining ten they employed in teaching and instructing others Thus the whole term being compleated it was lawfull for them to marry and leaving then the sacred Order they were at liberty to choose such a condition of life as did most indulge and was gratefull to their own humour but this permission few as they say made use of because it was observed that their change of life was never accompanied with contentment being ever after sad and melancholy for which reason they confined themselves untill old age and the hour of death to the strict and decent rules of a single life But this severe condition was recompensed by other privileges and prerogatives as that they had power to make a Testament in the life-time of their Father that they had a free administration of their own affairs without Guardian or Tutor which was the privilege of women who were the Mothers of three Children when they went abroad they had the Fasces carried before them and if perchance in their walks abroad it were their fortune to encounter a Malefactour leading to execution they had the privilege to free him from death upon oath made that the occasion was accidental and not designed or of set purpose Whosoever pressed upon the Chair on which they were carried was guilty of a capital crime and immediately punished with death If these Vestals committed any faults they were punishable by the High Priest onely who as the nature of the offence required whipped them naked in a dark place and under the caution of a Veil or Curtain but she that had been defiled or permitted her self to be defloured was buried alive near the Gate which is called Collina
to Plutarch As Christians indeed we may think them so but that Plutarch so thought is a most apparent falshood 'T is enough to convince a reasonable Man that our Author in his old age and that then he doted not we may see by the Treatise he has written that old Men ought to have the management of publick Affairs I say that then he initiated himself in the Sacred Rities of Delphos and dyed for ought we know Apollo's Priest Now it is not to be imagin'd that he thought the God he serv'd a Cacodaemon or as we call him a Devil Nothing cou'd be farther from the opinion and practice of this holy Philosopher than so gross an impiety The story of the Pythias or Priestess of Apollo which he relates immediately before the ending of that Treatise concerning the Cessation of Oracles confirms my assertion rather then shakes it For 't is there deliver'd That going with great reluctation into the Sacred place to be inspir'd she came out foaming at the mouth her eyes gogling her breast heaving her voice undistinguishable and shril as if she had an Earthquake within her labouring for vent and in short that thus tormented with the God whom she was not able to support she died distracted in few dayes after For he had sayd before that the Devineress ought to have no perturbations of mind or impure passions at the time when she was to consult the Oracle and if she had she was no more fit to to be inspir'd than an instrument untun'd to render an harmonious sound And he gives us to suspect by what he says at the close of this Relation That this Pythias had not liv'd Chastly for some time before it So that her death appears more like a punishment inflicted for loose living by some holy power than the meer malignancy of a Spirit delighted naturally in mischief There is another observation which indeed comes nearer to their purpose which I will digress so far as to relate because it somewhat appertains to our own Country There are many Islands says he which lie scattering about Britain after the manner of our Sporades They are unpeopled and some of them are call'd the Islands of the Heroes or the Genii One Demetrius was sent by the Emperour who by computation of the time must either be Caligula or Claudius to discover those parts and arriving at one of the Islands next adjoyning to the foremention'd which was inhabited by some few Britains but those held Sacred and inviolable by all their Country-men immediatly after his arrival the air grew black and troubled strange Apparitions were seen the winds rais'd a Tempest and fiery spouts or Whirlwinds appear'd dancing towards the Earth When these prodigies were ceas'd the Islanders inform'd him that some one of the aerial Beings superior to our Nature then ceas'd to live For as a Taper while yet burning affords a pleasant harmless light but is noysome and offensive when extinguish'd so those Hero's shine benignly on us and do us good but at their death turn all things topsie turvy raise up tempests and infect the air with pestilential vapours By those holy and inviolable men there is no question but he means our Druydes who were nearest to the Pythagoreans of any Sect and this opinion of the Genii might probably be one of theirs Yet it proves not that all Daemons were thus malicious only those who were to be Condemn'd hereafter into human bodies for their misdemeanours in their aerial Being But 't is time to leave a subject so very fanciful and so little reasonable as this I am apt to imagine the natural vapours arising in the Cave where the Temple afterwards was Built might work upon the Spirits of those who enter'd the holy place as they did on the Shaphard Coretas who first found it out by accident and encline them to Enthusiasm and prophetick madness That as the strength of those vapours diminish'd which were generally in Caverns as that of Mopsus of Trophonius and this of Delphos so the inspiration decrea'd by the same measures That they happen'd to be stronger when they kill'd the Pythias who being conscious of this was so unwilling to enter That the Oracles ceas'd to be given in Verse when Poets ceas'd to be the Priests and that the Genius of Socrates whom he confess'd never to have seen but only to have heard inwardly and unperceiv'd by others was no more than the strength of his imagination or to speak in the Language of a Christian Platonist his Guardian Angel I pretend not to an exactness of method in this Life which I am forc'd to collect by patches from several Authors and therefore without much regard to the connection of times which are so uncertain I will in the next place speak of his Marriage His Wifes name her Parentage and Dowry are no where mention'd by him or any other nor in what part of his age he Married Tho 't is probable in the flower of it But Rualdus has ingeniously gather'd from a convincing circumstance that she was called Timoxena Because Plutarch in a Consolatory Letter to her occasion'd by the Death of their Daughter in her Infancy uses these words Your Timoxena is depriv'd by death of small enjoyments for the things she knew were of small moment and she cou'd be delighted only with triffles Now it appears by the Letter that the Name of this Daughter was the same with her Mothers therefore it cou'd be no other than Timoxena Her knowledge her conjugal vertues her abhorrency from the vanities of her Sex and from superstition her gravity in behaviour and her constancy in supporting the loss of Children are likewise Celebrated by our Author No other wife of Plutarch is found mention'd and therefore we may conclude he he had no more By the same reason for which we Judge that he had no other Master than Ammonius because 't is evident he was so grateful in his nature that he would have preserv'd their Memory The number of his Children was at least five so many being mention'd by him Four of them were Sons of the other Sex only Timoxena who died at two years old as is manifest from the Epistle above-mention'd The French Translater Amiot from whom our old English Translation of the Lives was made supposes him to have had another Daughter where he speaks of his Son-in-Law Crato But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Plutarch there uses is of a larger signification for it may as well be expounded Father-in-law his Wifes Brother or his Sisters Husband as Budaeus notes This I the rather mention because the same Amiot is task'd for an infinite number of mistakes by his own Country-men of the present Age which is enough to recommend this Translation of our Authour into the English tongue being not from any Copy but from the Greek Original Two other Sons of Plutarch were already deceas'd before Timoxena Hs eldest Autobulus mention'd in his Symposiaques and another whose Name
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
Nations and Enemies that it was seldom or never at peace onely in the time of Augustus Caesar after he had overcome Anthony that Temple was shut as likewise not many years before when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were Consuls but then it continued not so long before that Wars breaking out the Gates of Janus were again opened but during the Reign of Numa which continued for the space of forty three years those Gates were ever shut there being a profound quiet without the noise or clattering of Arms for not onely the people of Rome were animated with a spirit of peace which they enjoyed under the just proceedings of a pacifick Prince but even the neighbouring Cities as if they had been inspired with the same inclinations breathed nothing but a salubrious and gentle air of mutual friendship and amicable correspondence and being ravished with the delights which Justice and Peace produce every one apply'd himself to the management of his Lands and Farm to the education of his Children and worship of the Gods Festival days and Sports and Banquets were the common divertisements and Families entertained and treated their acquaintance and friends in such a free and open manner that all Italy securely conversed with each other without fears or jealousies or designs being all possessed with that Divine Spirit of Love and Charity which flowed from Numa as from a Fountain of Wisedom and Equity so that the Hyperbolies which the Poets of those days used and the flights which are allowable in Verse were flat and not able to reach with their highest expressions the happiness of those days When Spears and Swords and direfull Arms of War Were laid aside and rustied in their places No Trumpet sounds alarm'd the publick peace But all securely slept For during the whole Reign of Numa there was neither War nor Sedition nor Plots designed against the State nor did any Faction prevail or the ambition and emulation of great Men attempt upon the Government for indeed men so reverenced his Vertue and stood in such awe of his Person which they believed was guarded by a particular care of Divine Providence that they despaired of all success in their sinister intentions and then that happy Fortune which always attends the life of men who are pure and innocent bestowed a general esteem and good reputation on him and verified that saying of Plato which some Ages after he delivered in relation to the happiness of a well formed Commonwealth For saith he where the Royal Power by God's Grace meets with a mind and spirit addicted to Philosophy there Vice is subdued and made inferiour to Vertue no man is really blessed but he that is wise and happy are his Auditours who can hear and receive those words which flow from his mouth there is no need of compulsion or menaces to subject the multitude for that lustre of vertue which shines bright in the good example of a Governour invites and inclines them to wisedom and insensibly leads them to an innocent and happy life which being conducted by friendship and concord and supported on each side with temperance and justice is of long and lasting continuance and worthy is that Prince of all rule and dominion who makes it his business to lead his Subjects into such a state of felicity This was the care of Numa and to this end did all his actions tend As to his Children and Wives there is a diversity of reports by several Authours some will have it that he never had any other Wife than Tatia nor more Children than one Daughter called Pompilia others will have it that he left four Sons namely Pompo Pinus Calpus and Mamercus every one of which had issue and from them descended the noble and illustrious Families of Pomponi Pinari Calpurni and Mamerci to which for distinction sake was added the sirname of Royal. But there is a third sort of Writers which say that these pedigrees are but a piece of flattery used by the Heralds who to incurr favour with these great Families deduced their Genealogies from this ancient Lineage and that Pompilia was not the Daughter of Tatia but born of Lucretia to whom he was married after he came to his Kingdom howsoever all of them agree in opinion that she was married to the Son of that Martius who perswaded him to accept the Government and accompanied him to Rome where as a signal of honour he was chosen into the Senate and after the death of Numa standing in competition with Tullus Hostilius for the Kingdom and being disappointed of the Election in high discontent killed himself howsoever his Son Martius who had married Pompilia residing at Rome was the Father of Ancus Martius who succeeded Tullus Hostilius in the Kingdom and was but five years of age when Numa died Numa lived something above eighty years and then as Piso writes was not taken out of the world by a sudden or acute Disease but by a chronical Distemper by which he lingred long and at last expired At his Funerals all the glories of his Life were consummate for the kind people and his friendly companions met to honour and grace the rites of his Interment with Garlands and contributions from the publick the Senatours carried the Bier on which his Corps was laid and the Priests followed and accompanied the solemn procession the remainder of this dolefull pomp was composed of Women and Children who lamented with such tears and sighs as if they had bewailed the death or loss of a dearest relation taken away in the flower of his age and not of an old and out-worn King It is said that his Body by his particular command was not burnt but that he ordered two stone Coffins to be made in one of which he appointed his Body to be laid and the other to be a repository for his sacred Books and Writings and both of them to be buried under the Hill Janiculum thereby imitating the Legislatours of Greece who having wrote their Laws in Tables which they called Cirbas did so long inculcate the contents of them whilst they lived into the minds and hearts of their Priests till their understandings became living Libraries of those sacred Volumes it being esteemed a profanation of such mysteries to commit their secrets unto dead letters For this very reason they say the Pythagoreans forbad that their Precepts or Conclusions should be committed to paper but rather conserved in the living memories of those who were worthy to receive their Doctrines and if perchance any of their abstruse notions or perplexed cares such as were their positions in Geometry were made known or revealed to an impure person unworthy to receive such mysteries they presently imagined that the Gods threatned punishment for such profanation which was not to be expiated but by Sword and Pestilence or other judgments of the Gods Wherefore having these several instances concurring to render the Lives of Numa and Pythagoras agreeable we may
an easier task to have stop'd the rising Tyranny but now the greater and more glorious action to destroy it when it was begun already and had gathered strength But all being afraid to side with him he return'd home and taking his Arms he brought them out and laid them in the Porch before his Door with these words To the utmost of my power I have striven for my Country and my Laws and then he busied himself no more His Friends advising him to fly he refus'd but writ a Poem and thus rattled the Athenians If now you smart blame not the heavenly powers For they are good the fault is onely ours We gave him all our Forts we took the Chain And now he makes us Slaves yet we complain And many telling him that the Tyrant would have his Head for this and asking to what he trusted that he ventur'd to speak so boldly he reply'd my old Age. But Pisistratus having gotten the command so honoured Solon obliged and kindly entertained him that Solon gave him his advice and approv'd many of his actions for he kept many of Solon's Laws observed them himself and compelled his Friends to obey And he himself though then in power being accus'd of Murther before the Areopagus came quietly to clear himself but his accuser let fall the Indictment And he added other Laws one of which is that the maim'd in the Wars should be maintain'd at the publick charge this Heraclides Ponticus delivers and that Pisistratus followed Solon's example in this who had before determin'd it in the case of one Thersippus that was maim'd and Theophrastus asserts that 't was Pisistratus not Solon that made that Law against Laziness which was the reason that the Country was better manur'd and the City not so clogg'd with Inhabitants Now Solon having begun a great Work in Verse the relation or Fable of the Atlantick Islands which he had learn'd from the wise Men in Sais and was convenient for the Athenians to know grew weary of it not as Plato says by reason of his multitude of business but his age and being discourag'd at the greatness of the task for these Verses testifie that he had leisure enough Now I grow old yet still I learn And again I mind a Song a Miss and glass of Wine These are most mens delights and these are mine But Plato willing to improve the story of the Islands as if 't were a fair Estate that wanted an Heir and descended to him makes them stately Entrances noble Enclosures large Courts such as no Essay no Fable no Fiction ever had before but beginning it late he ended his Life before his Work and so the Readers trouble for the unfinish'd part is the greater as the satisfaction he takes in that which is compleat is extraordinary for as the City of Athens left onely the Temple of Jupiter Olympius unfinish'd so Plato amongst all his excellent Works left this onely Piece about the Atlantick Islands imperfect Solon liv'd after Pisistratus seiz'd the Government as Heraclides Ponticus asserts a long time but Phanias the Ephesian says not full two years for Pisistratus began his Tyranny when Comias was Archon and Phanias says Solon dy'd under Hegestratus who succeeded Comias Now the story that his Ashes were scatter'd about the Island Salamis is too absur'd to be believ'd or be any thing but a mere Fable and yet 't is written by many considerable men and Aristotle the Philosopher The End of Solon 's Life POPLICOLA M Burghers delin et sculp THE LIFE OF P. VAL. POPLICOLA Englished from the Greek By Mr. Dodswell NOW Solon making such a Figure to him we compare Poplicola which later Title the Roman people entail'd upon his merit as a noble access to his former name Publius Valerius He descended from Valerius a man amongst our ancestours reputed the principal reconciler of the differences betwixt Roman and Sabine and one that with the greatest success perswaded their Kings to assent thereunto and from a state of hostility compos'd them into a friendly union To this man Publius Valerius owing his Birth as they write whilst Rome remain'd under its Kingly Government obtain'd a name as great from his eloquence as his riches the one courteously employing in a liberal distribution to the poor the other generously in the service of justice as thereby assuring should the Government fall into a Republick he would become a chief state in the Community It happen'd afterwards that the unjust and illegal aspiring of Tarquinius Superbus to the Crown with his making it instead of Kingly rule the instrument of insolence and tyranny mov'd the people into an hatred and regret of his reign insomuch that from the death of Lucretia she sacrificing her own life to the vengeance of his violence they took an occasion of revolt And L. Brutus fitting things for a change aided with the conduct of Valerius depos'd the Kings And whilst the people inclin'd towards the electing one Leader instead of their King Valerius acquiesc'd in this that to rule was rather Brutus's due as the Authour of the Democracy But the name of Monarchy growing odious to the people and to live under a divided power carrying a complacency in the prospect they chose two to the managery thereof which put Valerius in hopes that with Brutus he might be elected Consul but was disappointed for instead of Valerius notwithstanding the endeavours of Brutus Tarquinius Collatinus was chosen the Husband of Lucretia a man no ways more vertuous than Valerius But the Nobles dreading the return of their Kings who still us'd all endeavours abroad and solicitations at home were resolv'd upon a Chieftain of an intense hatred to them and no ways indulging to their interest Now Valerius was troubled that his service for his Country should be suspected to be misemployed because he sustained no private injury from the insolence of the Tyrants withdrew himself from the Senate and practice of the Bar quitting all publick concerns which gave an occasion of discourse and fear too lest through malice reconcil'd to the King's side he should prove the ruine of the State tottering as yet under the uncertainties of a change But Brutus being jealous of some others determin'd to give the Test to the Senate upon the Altars upon the day appointed Valerius came with cheerfulness into the Forum and was the first man that protested neither to contribute to or promote Tarquin's designs but rigorously to maintain his liberty which gave great satisfaction to the Senate and assurance to the Consuls his actions soon after shewing the sincerity of his Oath For Ambassadours came from Tarquin with Letters affecting a populacy and full of insinuating expressions whereby they thought to wheedle the people assuring them the King had cast off all insolence and made moderation the onely measure of his desires To this Embassy the Consuls thought fit to give publick audience but Valerius oppos'd it and would
these instructions to Clausus That Poplicola was assur'd of his goodness and justice and thought it even in bad men unworthy especially in him though injur'd to seek revenge upon his Citizens yet if he pleas'd for his own security to leave his enemies and come to Rome he should be receiv'd both in publick and private with that honour his vertue deserv'd or their grandeur requir'd Appius seriously weighing those things which necessity propos'd as advantageous and advising with his Friends and they inviting others to the same persuasion came to Rome with five thousand Families with their Wives and Children being a people of a quiet and sedate temper Poplicola advertis'd of their approach receiv'd them with all the kind offices of a Friend and enfranchis'd them into the Community alloting to every one two Acres of Land by the River of Aniene but to Clausus twenty five Acres and admitted him into the Senate and made him an associate in the Government which he so prudently manag'd that it hasten'd his preferment and so improv'd his greatness that his posterity the Claudii became inferiour to no Family in Rome The departure of these men rendred things quiet amongst the Sabines yet the chief of the Community would not suffer them to settle into a peace but resented that Clausus what his presence could not atchieve by turning Renegade should obstruct their revenge upon the Romans for all their injuries and coming with a great Army sate down before Fidenae and plac'd an ambuscade of two thousand men near Rome in the obscure and hollow places with a design that some few Horsemen as soon as day should make incursions commanding them upon their approach to the Town so to retreat as to draw the enemy into the ambush but Poplicola soon advertis'd of these designs by the Renegado's dispos'd his Forces to their respective charges and Posthumius Balbus his Son-in-law coming with three thousand men in the evening was order'd to take the Hills under which the ambush lay there to observe their motions and the Collegue Lucretius attended with a Body of light and lusty men was commanded with his Horse to assail the van-curriers of the Sabines whilst he with another Army encompass'd the enemy and accidentally a thick mist falling Posthumius early in the morning with shouts from the Hills assail'd the ambuscade Lucretius charg'd the light Horse and Poplicola besieg'd the Tents so that things assur'd a defeat and ruine to the Sabines and those that made no resistence the Romans kill'd in their flight all their hopes expiring in their own destruction for each Army of the Sabines presuming safety in the other both ceas'd to fight or keep their ground the one quitting the Camp to retire to the Ambuscade the Ambuscade flying to the Camp met those in as great need of assistence to whom they fled in hopes of a security but the nearness of the City Fidenae became a preservation to several of the Sabines especially to those that upon the sacking deserted the Camp but those that could not recover the City either perish'd in the Field or were taken prisoners This Victory the Romans though usually ascribing such success to some God attributed to the conduct of one Captain and 't was observ'd to be heard amongst the Souldiers that Poplicola had deliver'd their enemies lame and blind onely not in chains to be dispatch'd by the Sword besides from the Spoil and Prisoners a great wealth accru'd to the Romans But Poplicola having ended his Triumph and bequeathing the City to the prudence of the succeeding Consuls soon died whose life was led with the goodness and vertue mortality would admit The people as not having gratify'd his deserts when alive but as in gratitude still oblig'd decreed him a publick Interrement every one contributing his Quadrans towards the charge besides the Women by a general consent in private mourned a whole year with a sincere veneration to his memory he was buried by the peoples desire in the Street call'd Velia where his posterity had the honour of burial but now none of the Family are there interred but the Body is carried thither and one places a burning Torch under it and then immediately takes it away as an attestation of the deceased's privilege and his receding from his honour and then the Body is remov'd THE COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA with SOLON NOW there appears somewhat singular in this parallel and what has not occur'd in any other of the Lives as the one to be the imitatour of the other and the other a witness of his vertue so that upon the survey of Solon's Sentence to Croesus applauding Tellus's happiness it seems more applicable to Poplicola for Tellus whose vertuous life and dying well had gain'd him the name of the happiest man yet was never celebrated in Solon's Poems for a good man or that his Children or his Government deserv'd his memorial but Poplicola as his life was the most eminent amongst the Romans as well for the greatness of his vertue as his power so at his death was accounted amongst the greatest Families and even in our days the Poplicolae Mesalae and Valerii for six hundred years acknowledge him as the fountain of their honour Besides Tellus though keeping his order and fighting like a valiant Captain yet was slain by his enemies but Poplicola what was more honourable slew his enemies and saw his Country victorious through his conduct and his honours and triumphs procur'd him what was Solon's ambition an happy end and what as a reproof to Mimnermus touching the continuance of Man's life he exclaimed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A silent unlamented death I hate Let sighs of Friends and tears attend my Fate attested his happiness his death did not onely draw tears from his Friends and acquaintance but became the object of an universal wish and sorrow through the whole City for the very Women deplor'd this loss as of a Son Brother or universal Father Solon said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Estate I love but not unjustly got lest vengeance should pursue the unjustice But Poplicola's riches were not onely the product of his justice but his distributions of them to the poor were the discretion of his charity so that if Solon was reputed the wisest man we must allow Poplicola to be the happiest for what Solon wish'd for as the greatest and most perfect good that Poplicola in its proper use enjoy'd to his death so that Poplicola became as well an honour to Solon as Solon to him in transmitting the exactest method of modelling a Commonwealth and stripping the Consulship of its pride made it easie and pleasant to the people he transplanted several Laws into Rome as his impowering the people to elect their Officers and allowing Offenders the liberty of appealing to the People as Solon did to the Judges Poplicola did not indeed create a new Senate
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
look'd upon as natives of the Country or right-bred Athenians but foreigners and strangers inasmuch as one's name was Lacedaemonius another's Thessalus and the third's Elius and they were all three of them as it was thought born of an Arcadian Woman Wherefore Pericles being but ill spoken of upon the account of these ten Galleys as having afforded but a small supply to the poor people that desired it and given a great advantage to those who might call him in question he sent out some more other Ships afterward to Corcyra which arrived after the Fight was over that is as we say came a day after the Fair when it was too late Now when the Corinthians being deadly angry with the Athenians accused them publickly at Lacedaemon the Megarians joined with them complaining that they were contrary to common right and the articles of peace agreed upon oath among the Grecians kept out and driven away from every Market and from all Ports where the Athenians had to doe to the hindrance of Commerce and the decay of their Trade And those of Aegina appearing to have been grievously ill used and treated with violence made their supplications in private to the Lacedemonians for redress as not daring openly to call the Athenians in question In the mean time the City Potidaea being under the dominion of the Athenians then but a Colony formerly of the Corinthians having revolted was beset with a formal Siege which prov'd an occasion of hastning on the War Nay and yet notwithstanding all this there being Embassies sent to Athens and Archidamus the King of the Lacedemonians endeavouring to bring several of those complaints and matters in dispute to a fair determination and decision and to pacifie and allay the heats of the allied parties it is very likely that the War would not upon any other grounds of quarrel have faln from all sides upon the Athenians could they have been prevail'd with to repeal that Ordinance and Decree of theirs against the Megarians and to be reconciled to them Upon which account since Pericles was the man who mainly opposed it and stirr'd up the people continuing in his peevish and stubborn resolution of unkindness and quarrelsomeness against those of Megara he alone bore the blame and was look'd upon as the onely cause and promoter of the War They say moreover that Ambassadours went by order from Lacedaemon to Athens about this very business and that when Pericles pretended a certain Law which forbad the taking down the Tablet wherein the Decree or publick Order was written one of the Ambassadours Polyarces by name should say Well! do not take it down then but turn the Tablet inward for there is no Law I suppose which forbids that This though it were prettily said and might have serv'd for a handsome expedient yet Pericles did not at all relent nor bate an ace of his resolution There was then in all likelihood some secret grudge and private animosity which he had against the Megarians Yet he upon the pretence of a publick and manifest charge against them as that they had cut down a holy Grove dedicated to the Gods or imbezilled a piece of ground consecrated to pious uses writes an Order that a Herald should be sent to them and the same person to the Lacedemonians with an accusation of the Megarians This Order of Pericles truth is shews an equitable and friendly proceeding enough But after that the Herald which was sent by name Anthemocritus died and it was thought that the Megarians had contrived his death and made him away then Charinus writes a Decree against them that there should be an irreconcileable and implacable enmity thenceforward betwixt the two Commonwealths and that if any one of the Megarians should but set his foot upon any part of the Attick Territories he should be put to death and that the Commanders when they take the usual Oath should over and above that swear that they will twice every year make an inroad into the Megarians Country and that Anthemocritus should be buried near the Thriasian Gates which are now called the Dipylon or Double Gate On the other hand the Megarians utterly denying and disowning the Murther of Anthemocritus throw the whole business and the guilt if any upon Aspasia and Pericles to which purpose they make use of those famous and commonly known Verses out of a Play of Aristophanes called the Acharnes Youngsters of Athens went to Megara Mad-fuddle-caps to keep blind Holiday And stole Simaetha the Town-Whore away Nettled at this Megarian Youths did plot Reprisal and to Town by stealth they got Where two Aspasian Harlots went to pot The true rise and occasion of this War what it might be is not so easie to find out But that that Decree we mentioned was not repeal'd and annulled all do alike charge Pericles with being the cause of that However there are some who say that he did out of a great sense and height of spirit stand it out stiffly with a resolution for the best accounting that the Precept and Order of those Embassies was designed for a trial of their compliance and yieldingness and that a concession would be taken for a confession of weakness as if they durst not doe otherwise And other some there are who say that he did rather in an arrogant bravado and a wilfull humour of contention to shew his own gallantry and power slight and set little by the Lacedemonians But that which is the worst cause and charge of all and which is confirmed by most witnesses we have in a manner such an account as this given of it Phidias the Plasterer or Image-maker had as hath before been said undertaken to make the Statue of Minerva Now he being familiarly acquainted with Pericles and a great Favourite of his had many enemies upon his account who envied and maligned him who also to make trial in a case of his what kind of Judges the Commons would prove should there be occasion to bring Pericles himself before them having tampered with Menon one who had wrought with Phidias they place him in the Court with a Petition desiring publick security upon his discovery and impeachment of Phidias for things done by him against the State The people admitting of the man to tell his story and the prosecution being agreed upon in the Assembly there was nothing of theft or cheat charged against him For Phidias had immediately from the very first beginning so wrought and wrapt the Gold that was used in the work about the Statue and that by the advice of Pericles that they might take it all off and make out the just weight of it which Pericles also at that time bade the accusers to doe But the glory and reputation of his Works was that which burthen'd Phidias and crush'd him with envy especially this that where he represents the Fight of the Amazons upon the Goddesses Shield he had express'd
for him in his own way and at his own Weapon And indeed the Army of Hannibal was at this time partly worn away with continual action and partly become soft and dissolute with great opulency and luxury When the Senate had before them the business of this Triumph Marcus Livius who was Governour of Tarentum when it was betrayed to Hannibal and then retired into the Castle which he kept till the Town was re-taken openly declared that by his resistance more than by any action of Fabius Tarentum had been recovered to whom Fabius laughing at his envy and ambition reply'd You say very true for if Marcus Livius had not lost Tarentum Fabius Maximus had never recover'd it The People of Rome thought no honour too great for him they gave his Son the Consulship of the next year who when he was entred upon his Office there being some business then on foot about provisions for the War his Father either by reason of Age and infirmity or perhaps out of design to try his Son came up to him on Horseback Whereupon the young Consul presently bid one of his Lictors command his Father to alight and tell him that if he had any business with the Consul he should come on foot This infinitely pleased the old man and although the standers by seem'd offended at the imperiousness of the Son towards a Father so venerable for his age and his authority yet he instantly lighted from his Horse and with open armes and great speed came up and imbraced his Son telling him Now thou art my Son indeed since thou dost understand thy self in the Authority thou hast received and knowest whom thou art to command This was the way by which we and our forefathers have advanced the dignity of the Commonwealth in preferring that to our own Fathers and Children And indeed it is reported that the great Grandfather of our Fabius who was undoubtedly the greatest man of Rome in his time both in Reputation and Authority who had been five times Consul and had been honour'd with several Triumphs for as many Victories obtained by him took pleasure in serving as Legate under his own Son when he went Consul into his Province And when afterwards his Son had a Triumph bestow'd upon him for his good service the old man followed on Horseback his triumphant Chariot as one of his Attendants and made it his glory to be the greatest man in Rome and to have such a Son and yet to be subject to the Law and the Magistrate But the praises of our Fabius are not bounded here his manly courage in bearing his losses more eminently shew'd the greatness of his Soul than his prosperous successes For loosing this Son of his in the flower of his age and in the height of his promotion with wonderfull moderation he did the part of a pious Father and of a Heroe whom nothing could daunt For as it was the custom amongst the Romans upon the death of any illustrious person to have a Funeral Oration recited by some of the nearest Relations he himself took upon him that office and delivered himself upon the subject to the great satisfaction and applause both of Senate and People After Publius Cornelius Scipio who was sent Proconsul into Spain had driven the Carthaginians defeated by him in many Battels out of that Province and had reduced several Towns and Nations under the obedience of Rome he was received at his coming home with a general joy and acclamation of the People who to shew their gratitude and high esteem of him design'd him Consul for the year ensuing Knowing what high expectation they had of him he thought the design of onely driving Hannibal out of Italy not great enough to answer the hopes and the happiness they promised themselves from his Consulship He therefore propos'd no less a task to himself than to make Carthage the seat of the War and so to oblige Hannibal instead of invading the Countries of others to draw back and defend his own To this end he made use of all the credit and favour he had with the People and assiduously courting them left no popular art untry'd that he might gain them to second his design Fabius on the other side oppos'd with all his might this undertaking of Scipio telling the People that nothing but the temerity of a hot young man could inspire them with such dangerous Counsels which by drawing away their Forces to parts so remote might expose Rome it self to be the conquest of Hannibal His authority and perswasions prevail'd with the Senate to espouse his Sentiments but the common People thought that he envied the Fame of Scipio and that he was afraid lest this young Conquerour should have the glory to drive Hannibal out of Italy and to end the War which had for so many years continued and been protracted under his Government To say the truth when Fabius first oppos'd this project of Scipio I believe he did it in consideration onely of the publick safety and of the danger which the Common-wealth might incur by such a way of proceeding but when he found Scipio every day increasing in the esteem of the People envy then and ambition took hold of him which made him so violent in his opposition For he apply'd himself to Crassus the Collegue of Scipio and perswaded him not to yield that Province to Scipio but that if his inclinations were for that War he should himself in person lead the Army to Carthage He also hindred the giving money to Scipio for the War who was forc'd to raise it upon his own credit and interest and was supply'd by the Cities of Hetruria which were wholly devoted to him On the other side Crassus would not stir against him nor remove out of Italy as being in his own nature an Enemy to strife and contention and also as having the care of Religion by his Office of high Priest Wherefore Fabius try'd other ways to break the design He declaimed both in the Senate and to the People that Scipio did not onely himself fly from Hannibal but did also endeavour to drain Italy of all their Forces and to spirit away the youth of the Country to a Foreign War leaving behind them their Parents Wives and Children a defenceless Prey to the Enemy at their doors With this he so terrified the People that at last they would onely allow to Scipio for the War the Legions which were in Sicily and three hundred of those men who had so bravely served him in Spain In these transactions hitherto Fabius onely seem'd to follow the dictates of his own wary temper But after that Scipio was gone over into Africa when news was brought to Rome of his wonderfull exploits and Victories of which the fame was confirm'd by the Spoils he sent home of a Numidian King taken Prisoner of a vast slaughter of their men of two Camps of the Enemy burnt and destroy'd and in them a