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
great a power and interest with the Populace imbroiled and routed this Council so that most of those Causes and Matters which had been used to be tried there were through Ephialtes his assistance discharged from the cognisance of that Court and Cimon was banished by Ostracism upon pretence of his being a favourer of the Lacedaemonians and a hater of his own people of Athens notwithstanding that he was one who came behind none of them all for greatness of estate and nobleness of birth and that he had won several famous and signal Victories upon the Barbarians and with a great deal of monies and other spoils of war taken from them had mightily inriched the City as in the history of his Life hath been set down So vast an authority had Pericles gotten among the people The Ostracism or banishment by Shells I mentioned which they us'd in such Trials was limited by Law to ten years during which term the person banished was not to return But the Lacedaemonians in the mean time making an inroad with a great Army on the Country of Tanagra which lay upon the Attick borders and the Athenians going out against them with their Forces Cimon coming from his banishment before his time was out put himself in arms and array with those of his Fellow-citizens that were of his own tribe and resolved by his deeds to wipe off that false accusation of his favouring the Lacedaemonians by venturing his own person along with his Country-men But Pericles his Friends gathering in a body together drove him away as one under the sentence of exile and forced him to retire For which cause also Pericles seems to have laid about him the more behaving himself very valiantly and stoutly in the fight and to have been the gallantest man among them all in the action of that day having exposed himself to all hazard and hardship All Cimon's Friends also to a man fell together in that Battel whom Pericles had impeached as well as him of taking part with the Lacedaemonians And now the Athenians heartily repented them for what they had done to Cimon and long'd to have him home again being in the close of this Fight beaten and worsted upon the confines and borders of their own Country and expecting a sore war to come upon them next Spring or Summer season All which Pericles being sensible of did not boggle or make any delay to gratify the peoples desire but having wrote an Edict or Order for that purpose himself re-call'd the man home And he upon his return concluded a peace betwixt the two Cities for the Lacedaemonians had a respect and kindness for him as on the contrary they hated Pericles and the rest of the Demagogues or Leading-men Yet some there are do say that Pericles did not write that Edict or Order for Cimon's revocation and return till some private Articles of agreement had been made between them and that by means of Elpinice Cimon's Sister Which were that Cimon should go out to Sea with a Fleet of two hundred Ships and should be Commander in chief of all the Forces abroad with a design to harrass and lay wast the King of Persia's Countrys and Dominions and that Pericles should have the power at home and govern in the City This Elpinice it is thought had before this time procured some favour for her Brother Cimon at Pericles his hands and made him more remiss and gentle in drawing up and setting home the charge when Cimon being tried for his life escaped the Sentence of death and was onely banished For Pericles was one of the Committee appointed by the Commons to implead him And when Elpinice made her applications to him and besought him in her Brother's behalf he with a smile in merriment said O Elpinice you are too old a woman to undertake such businesses as this is Moreover when he came to the Bar to impeach him he stood up but once to speak as if he made slight of his commission playing booty as it were and went out of Court having done Cimon the least prejudice of any of his Accusers How then can one believe Idomeneus who charges Pericles as if he had by treachery contrived and order'd the murther of Ephialtes the Demagogue or Counseller of State one who was his Friend and of his Party in the menage of the Government out of a jealousy forsooth saies he and an envy of his great reputation This Historian it seems having raked up these Stories I know not out of what Kennel has thrown them up like vomiting stuff to bespatter this worthy man one who perchance was not altogether free from fault or blame but yet was one who had a generous noble spirit and a soul that affected and courted honour and where such qualities are there can no such cruel and brutal passion find harbour or gain admittance But as to Ephialtes the truth of the Story as Aristotle hath told it is this that having made himself formidable to the Oligarchists those who would have all the power lodged in some few hands by being a severe asserter of the peoples rights in calling to account and prosecuting those who any way injured them his Enemies lying in wait for him did by the means or help of Aristodicus the Tanagrian privately rid themselves of him and dispatcht him out of the way Now Cimon while he was Admiral ended his days in the Isle of Cyprus And the Aristocratians those who were for the Nobless seeing that Pericles was already even formerly grown to be the greatest and formost man of all the City and being withall willing there should be some body set up against him to give him check and to blunt and turn the edge of his Power that it might not without more adoe prove a Monarchy they set up Thucydides of Alopecia a sober discreet person and a near Kinsman of Cimon's to take up the Cudgels against him Who indeed though he were less skill'd in warlike Affairs than Cimon was yet was better versed in the Courts of Law and business of State who keeping close guard in the City and being ingaged with Pericles in the pleading place where the publick Harangues were made in a short time brought the Government to an equal interest of parties For he would not suffer those who were call'd the Honest and Good persons of worth and fashion to be scatter'd up and down and jumbled in a huddle with the Populace as formerly by that means having their honour and credit smutted and darkned by the mixture of the Rabble but taking them apart by themselves and gathering into one the power and interest of them all which was now grown considerable he did as it were upon the balance make a counterpoise to the other party For indeed the contrast of the two parties at first was but as a thing of secret grudg that made but a shallow impression like a thing cut upon
and had the first impressions of his Image what Creatures cou'd be made They were of kin to Eternity it self and wanting only that accession to be Deities Their fall was therefore more opprobrious than that of Man because they had no clay for their excuse Though I hope and wish the latter part of the Allegory may not hold and that repentance may be yet allow'd them But I delight not to dwell on so sad an object Let this part of the Landschape be cast into shadows that the heightnings of the other may appear more beautiful For as Contraries the nearer they are plac'd are brighter and the Venus is illustrated by the Neighbourhood of the Lazar so the unblemish'd Loyalty of your Grace will shine more clearly when set in competition with their stains When the Malady which had seiz'd the Nobler parts of Britain threw it self out into the limbs and the first sores of it appear'd in Scotland yet no effects of it reach'd your Province Ireland stood untainted with that pest The care of the Physician prevented the disease and preserv'd the Country from infection When that Ulcer was rather stop'd than cur'd for the causes of it still remain'd and that dangerous Symptoms appear'd in England when the Royal Authority was here trodden under foot when one Plot was prosecuted openly and another secretly fomented yet even then was Ireland free from our contagion And if some venemous Creatures were produc'd in that Nation yet it appear'd they could not live there They shed their poyson without effect They despair'd of being successfully wicked in their own Country and transported their Evidence to another where they knew 't was vendible Where accusation was a Trade where forgeries were countenanc'd where perjuries were rewarded where swearing went for proof and where the Merchandize of Death was gainful That their Testimony was at last discredited proceeded not from its incoherence For they were known by their own party when they first appear'd but their folly was then manag'd by the cunning of their Tutors they had still been believ'd had they still follow'd their Instructors But when their witness fell foul upon their friends then they were proclaim'd Villains discarded and disown'd by those who sent for them they seem'd then first to be discover'd for what they had been known too well before they were decry'd as inventours of what only they betray'd Nay their very wit was magnified lest being taken for fools they might be thought too simple to forge an accusation Some of them still continue here detested by both sides believ'd by neither for even their betters are at last uncas'd and some of them have receiv'd their hire in their own Country For perjury which is malice to Mankind is always accompanied with other Crimes and tho not punishable by our Laws with death yet draws a train of vices after it The Robber the Murderer and the Sodomite have often hung up the forsworn villain And what one sin took on trust another sin has pay'd These travelling Locusts are at length swallow'd up in their own Red-Sea Ireland as well as England is deliver'd from that flying Plague for the Sword of Justice in your Graces hand like the Rod of Moses is stretcht out against them And the third part of his Majesties Dominions is owing for its peace to your Loyalty and vigilance But what Plutarch can this age produce to immortallize a life so Noble May some excellent Historian at length be found some Writer not unworthy of his Subject but may his employment be long deferr'd May many happy years continue you to this Nation and your own may your praises be celebrated late that we may enjoy you living rather than adore you dead And since yet there is not risen up amongst us any Historian who is equal to so great an undertaking let us hope that Providence has not assign'd the workman because his employment is to be long delay'd because it has reserv'd your Grace for farther proofs of your unwearyed duty and a farther enjoyment of your fortune In which tho no Man has been less envy'd because no other has more Nobly us'd it yet some droppings of the Ages venom have been shed upon you The Supporters of the Crown are plac'd too near it to be exempted from the storm which was breaking over it 'T is true you stood involv'd in your own Vertue and the Malice of your Libellers cou'd not sink through all those folds to reach you Your Innocence has defended you from their attacks and your pen has so Nobly vindicated that Innocence that it stands in need of no other second The difference is as plainly seen betwixt Sophistry and truth as it is betwixt the stile of a Gentleman and the clumsy stifness of a Pedant Of all Historians God deliver us from Bigots and of all Bigots from our Sectaries Truth is never to be expected from Authors whose understandings are warp'd with Enthusiasm For they judge all actions and their causes by their own perverse principles and a crooked line can never be the measure of a streight one Mr. Hobbs was us'd to say that a Man was alwaies against reason when reason wasagainst a Man So these Authors are for obscuring truth because truth would discover them They are not Historians of an Action but Lawyers of a party They are retain'd by their principles and brid'd by their interests Their narrations are an opening of their cause and in the front of their Histories there ought to be written the Prologue of a pleading I am for the Plaintiff or I am for the Defendant We have already seen large Volumes of State Collections and Church Legends stuffd with detected forgeries in some parts and gaping with omissions of truth in others Not penn'd I suppose with so vain a hope as to cheat Posterity but to advance some design in the present Age For these Legerdemain Authors are for telling stories to keep their trick undiscover'd and to make their conveyance the more clean What calumny your Grace may expect from such Writers is already evident But it will fare with them as it does with ill Painters a Picture so unlike in all its features and proportions reflects not on the original but on the Artist For malice will make a piece more unresembling than ignorance And he who studies the life yet bungles may draw some faint imitation of it But he who purposely avoids nature must fall into grotesque and make no likeness For my own part I am of the former sort And therefore presume not to offer my unskillfulness for so excellent a design as is your illustrious life To pray for its prosperity and continuance is my duty as it is my Ambition to appear on all occasions Tour Graces most obedient and devoted Servant JOHN DRYDEN THE Publisher to the Reader YOV have here the first Volume of Plutarchs Lives turn'd from the Greek into English And give me leave to say the first attempt of doing it from
absurd and contradictious to one another I pretend not this passage to be Translated word for word but 't is the sence of the whole tho the order of the Sentence be inverted The other is more plain 'T is in his Comment on the Word EI or those two Letters inscrib'd on the Gates of the Temple at Delphos Where having given the several opinions concerning it as first that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fignifies if because all the questions which were made to Apollo began with If as suppose they ask'd if the Grecians should overcome the Persians if such a Marriage shou'd come to to pass c. And afterwards that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might signifie thou art as the second person of the present tense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating thereby the being or perpetuity of being belonging to Apollo as a God in the same sense that God express'd himself to Moses I am hath sent thee Plutarch subjoyns as inclining to this latter opinion these following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes he signifies thou art one for there are not many Deities but only one Continues I mean not one in the aggregate sense as we say one Army or one Body of Men constituted of many individuals but that which is must of necessity be one and to be implies to be One One is that which is a simple being uncompounded or free from mixture Therefore to be One in this sense is only consistent with a Nature pure in it self and not capable of alteration or decay That he was no Christian is manifest Yet he is no where found to have spoken with contumely of our Religion like the other Writers of his Age and those who succeeded him Theodoret says of him that he had heard of our holy Gospel and inserted many of our Sacred Mysteries in his Works which we may easily believe because the Christian Churches were then spread in Greece and Pliny the younger was at the same time conversant amongst them in Asia tho that part of our Authors Workes is not now extant from whence Theodoret might gather those passages But we need not wonder that a Philosopher was not easie to embrace the divine Mysteries of our Faith A modern God as our Saviour was to him was of hard digestion to a Man who probably despis'd the vanities and fabulous Relations of all the old Besides a Crucfy'd Saviour of Mankind a Doctrine attested by illiterate Disciples the Author of it a Jew whose Nation at that time was despicable and his Doctrine but an innovation among that despis'd people to which the Learned of his own Country gave no credit and which the Magistrates of his Nation punish'd with an ignominious death the Scene of his Miracles acted in an obscure Corner of the world his being from Eternity yet born in time his Resurrection and Ascension these and many more particulars might easily choke the Faith of a Philosopher who believ'd no more than what he cou'd deduce from the principles of Nature and that too with a doubtful Academical assent or rather an inclination to assent to probability which he judg'd was wanting in this new Religion These circumstances consider'd tho they plead not an absolute invincible ignorance in his behalf yet they amount at least to a degree of it for either he thought them not worth weighing or rejected them when weigh'd and in both cases he must of necessity be ignorant because he cou'd not know without Revelation and the Revelation was not to him But leaving the Soul of Plutarch with our Charitable wishes to his Maker we can only trace the rest of his opinions in Religion from his Philosophy Which we have said in the General to be Platonick tho it cannot also be denyed that there was a tincture in it of the Electick Sect which was begun by Potamon under the Empire of Augustus and which selected from all the other Sects what seem'd most probable in their opinions not adhering singularly to any of them nor rejecting every thing I will only touch his belief of Spirits In his two Treatises of Oracles the one concerning the reason of their Cessation the other enquiring why they were not given in verse as in former times he seems to assert the Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration of Souls We have formerly shewn that he own'd the the Unity of a Godhead whom according to his Attributes he calls by several names as Jupiter from his Almighty Power Apollo from his Wisdom and so of the rest but under him he places those beings whom he styles Genii or Daemons of a middle nature betwixt Divine and Human for he thinks it absur'd that there shou'd be no mean betwixt the two extreams of an Immortal and a Mortal Being That there cannot be in nature so vast a flaw without some intermedial kind of life partaking of them both as therefore we find the intercourse betwixt the Soul and body to be made by the Animal Spirits so betwixt Divinity and humanity there is this species of Daemons Who having first been Men and following the strict Rules of vertue had purg'd off the grossness and faeculency of their earthly being are exalted into these Genii and are from thence either rais'd higher into an Aetherial life if they still continue vertuous or tumbled down again into Mortal Bodies and sinking into flesh after they have lost that purity which constituted their glorious being And this sort of Genii are those who as our Author imagines presided over Oracles Spirits which have so much of their terrestrial principles remaining in them as to be subject to passions and inclinations usually beneficent sometimes Malevolent to Mankind according as they refine themselves or gather dross and are declining into Mortal Bodies The Cessation or rather the decrease of Oracles for some of them were still remaing in Plutarchs time he Attributes either to the death of those Daemons as appears by the story of the Egyptian Thamus who was Commanded to declare that the great God Pan was dead or to their forsaking of those places where they formerly gave out their Oracles from whence they were driven by stronger Genii into banishment for a certain Revolution of Ages Of this last nature was the War of the Gyants against the Gods the dispossession of Saturn by Jupiter the banishment of Apollo from Heaven the fall of Vulcan and many others all which according to our Authours were the battles of these Genii or Daemons amongst themselves But supposing as Plutarch evidently does that these Spirits administer'd under the Supream Being the affairs of Men taking care of the vertuous punishing the bad and sometimes communicating with the best as particularly the Genius of Socrates always warn'd him of approaching dangers and taught him to avoyd them I cannot but wonder that every one who has hitherto written Plutarchs Life and particularly Rualdus the most knowing of them all should so confidently affirm that these Oracles were given by bad Spirits according
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
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
the Island receiv'd Ariadne very kindly and administred all manner of comfort to her that was extremely afflicted and almost dead with grief for being left behind That they counterfeited kind Letters and deliver'd them to her as sent from Theseus and when she fell in Labour were very diligent in performing to her all the offices that belong to Women But that she dy'd in Child-bed before she could be deliver'd and was by them honourably interr'd That soon after Theseus return'd and was greatly afflicted for her loss and at his departure left a considerable sum of money among those of the Island ordering them to sacrifice and pay divine honour to Ariadne and caused two little Images to be made and dedicated to her one of Silver and the other of Brass Moreover that on the second day of September which is sacred to Ariadne they have this Ceremony among their Sacrifices to have a youth lye in and with his voice and gesture counterfeit all the pains of a Woman in Travail and that the Amathusians call the Grove in which they shew her Tomb the Grove of Venus Ariadne Different yet from this account some of the Naxians write that there were two Minos's and two Ariadne's one of which they say was married to Bacchus in the Isle of Naxos and bore a Son nam'd Staphylus But that the other of a later age was ravished by Theseus and being afterwards deserted by him retir'd to Naxos with her Nurse Corcyna whose Grave they yet shew That this Ariadne also dy'd there and was worship'd by the Island but in a different manner from the former for her day is celebrated with Feasts and Revels and an universal Joy but all the Sacrifices perform'd to the latter are mingled with sorrow and mourning Now Theseus in his return from Crete put in at Delos and having sacrific'd to the God of the Island and dedicated to the Temple the Image of Venus which Ariadne had given him he danc'd with the young Athenians a Dance that in memory of him is still preserv'd among the Inhabitants of Delos which in a certain order had turnings and returnings that imitated the intricate windings of the Labyrinth And this Dance as Dicaearchus writes is call'd among the Delians The Crane This he danc'd round the Ceratonian Altar so call'd from its being compacted together and adorn'd onely with Horns taken from the left side of the Head They say also that he instituted Games in Delos where he was the first that began the custom of giving a Palm to the Victors When they were come near the coast of Attica so great was the joy for the happy success of their Voyage that neither Theseus himself nor the Pilot remembred to hang out the Sail which should have been the token of their safety to Aegeus who knowing nothing of their success for grief threw himself headlong from a Rock and perish'd in the Sea But Theseus being arriv'd at the Port of Phalera paid there the sacrifices which he had vow'd to the Gods at his setting out to Sea and sent a Herald to the City to carry the news of his safe return At his entrance into the City the Herald found the people for the most part full of grief for the loss of their King others as may be well believ'd as full of joy for the message that he brought and wholly bent to make much of him and crown him with Garlands for so acceptable news which he indeed accepted of but hung them upon his Heralds staff and thus returning to the Sea side before Theseus had finish'd his libation to the Gods he stay'd without for fear of disturbing the holy Rites but as soon as the Sacrifice was ended he entred and related the whole story of the King's Death upon the hearing of which with great lamentations and a confused tumult of grief they ran with all haste to the City And from hence they say it comes that at this day in the Feast Oscophoria the Herald is not crown'd but his staff and that the People then present still break out at the Sacrifice into this shout 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eleleu iou iou of which confus'd sounds the first was wont to be used by men in haste or at a triumph the other is proper to those that are in great consternation or trouble Theseus after the Funeral of his Father paid his Vows to Apollo the seventh day of October for on that day the Youth that return'd with him safe from Crete made their entry into the City They say also that the custom of boyling Pulse at this Feast is deriv'd from hence because the young men that escap'd put all that was left of their provision together and boiling it in one common Pot feasted themselves with it and with great rejoycing did eat all together Hence also they carry about an Olive branch bound about with Wool such as they then made use of in their supplications which they call Eiresione crown'd with all sorts of Fruits to signifie that scarcity and barrenness was ceas'd singing in their Procession this Song 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eiresione Figs produce And wholsome Bread and cheerfull Oil And Honey labouring Bees sweet toil But above all Wines noble juyce Then Cares thou in the Cup shalt steep And full of joy receive soft sleep Although some hold opinion that this Ceremony is retain'd in memory of the Heraclidae who were thus entertain'd and brought up by the Athenians But most are of the opinion which we have above deliver'd The Ship wherein Theseus and the Youth of Athens return'd had thirty Oars and was preserv'd by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalareus for they took away the old Planks as they decay'd putting in new and stronger Timber in their place insomuch that this Ship became a standing Example among the Philosophers when-ever they disputed about things that encrease one side holding That the Ship remain'd the same and the other as fiercely contending that it was not the same The Feast call'd Oscophoria or the Feast of Boughs which to this day the Athenians celebrate was then first instituted by Theseus For he took not with him the full number of Virgins which by lot were to be carri'd away but selected two Youths with whom he had an intimate familiarity of fair and womanish faces but of a manly and forward spirit and having by frequent Baths and avoiding the heat and scorching of the Sun with a constant use of all the Oyntments and Washes and Dresses that serve to the adorning of the Head or smoothing the Skin or improving the Complexion in a manner chang'd them from what they were before and having taught them further to counterfeit the very voice and carriage and gate of Virgins so that there could not be the least difference perceiv'd he undiscover'd by any put them into the number of the Athenian Maids design'd
for Crete At his return he and these two Youths led up a solemn Procession with Boughs and Vine-branches in their hands and in the same habit that is now worn at the celebration of the Feast of Boughs These Branches they carri'd in honour of Bacchus and Ariadne for the sake of their Story before related or rather because they happen'd to return in Autumn the time of gathering the Grapes The Women whom they call Deipnophorae or Supper-carriers are taken into these Ceremonies and assist at the Sacrifice in remembrance and imitation of the Mothers of the young Men and Virgins upon whom the lot fell for thus busily did they run about bringing Banquets and Refreshments to their Children and because the good Women then told their Sons and Daughters a great many fine Tales and Stories to comfort and encourage them under the danger they were going upon it has still continu'd a Custom that at this Feast old Fables and Tales should be the chief Discourse And for all these Particularities we are beholden to the History of Demon There was then a Place chose out and a Temple erected in it to Theseus and those Families out of whom the Tribute of the Youth was gather'd were obliged to pay a Tax to the Temple for Sacrifices to him And the House of the Phytalidae had the overseeing of these Sacrifices Theseus doing them that Honour in recompence of their former Hospitality Now after the death of his Father Aegeus framing in his mind a great and wonderful design he gather'd together all the Inhabitants of Attica into one Town and made them one People of one City that were before dispers'd and very difficult to be assembled upon any Affair tho' relating to the common benefit of them all Nay often such Differences and Quarrels happen'd between them as occasion'd Bloud-shed and War these he by his Perswasions appeas'd and going from People to People and from Tribe to Tribe propos'd his design of a common agreement between them Those of a more private and mean condition readily embracing so good advice to those of greater Power and Interest he promis'd a Commonwealth wherein Monarchy being laid aside the power should be in the People and that reserving to himself only to be continued the Commander of their Arms and the Preserver of their Laws there should be an equal distribution of all things else between them and by this means brought them over to his Proposal The rest fearing his Power which was already grown very formidable and knowing his courage and resolution chose rather to be perswaded than forc'd into a Compliance He then dissolv'd all the distinct Courts of Justice and Council-Halls and Corporations and built one common Prytaneum and Council-Hall where it stands to this day and out of the old and the new City he made one which he nam'd Athens ordaining a common Feast and Sacrifice to be for ever observ'd which he call'd Panathenaea or the Sacrifice of all the United Athenians He instituted also another Sacrifice for the sake of Strangers that would come to fix in Athens call'd Metaecaea which is yet celebrated on the 16th day of June Then as he had promis'd he laid down his Regal Power and settled a Common-wealth entring upon this great change not without advice from the Gods For having sent to consult the Oracle of Delphos concerning the Fortune of his new Government and City he receiv'd this Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear Theseus Pittheus Daughters Son Hear what Jove for thee has done In the great City thou hast made He has as in a Store-house laid The settled Periods and fixt Fates Of many Cities mighty States But know thou neither Fear nor Pain Solicit not thy self in vain For like a Bladder that does ' bide The fury of the angry Tide Thou from high Waves unhurt shall bound Always tost but never drown'd Which Oracle they say one of the Sibyls long after did in a manner repeat to the Athenians in this Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bladder may be wet but never drown'd Farther yet designing to enlarge his City he invited all Strangers to come and enjoy equal Priviledges with the Natives and some are of opinion that the common form of Proclamation in Athens Come hither all ye People were the words that Theseus caused to be proclaim'd when he thus set up a Commonwealth consisting in a manner of all Nations Yet he suffer'd not his State by the promiscuous Multitude that flow'd in to be turn'd into Confusion and be left without any order or degree but was the first that divided the Commonwealth into three distinct Ranks the Noblemen the Husbandmen and Artificers To the Nobility he committed the choice of Magistrates the teaching and dispensing of the Laws and the interpretation of all holy and Religious things the whole City as to all other Matters being as it were reduc'd to an exact Equality the Nobles excelling the rest in Honour the Husbandmen in Profit and the Artificers in Number And Theseus was the first who as Aristotle says out of an inclination to Popular Government parted with the Regal Power and which Homer also seems to witness in his Catalogue of the Ships where he gives the Name of People to the Athenians only He then coyned Money and stamp'd it with the Image of an Ox either in memory of the Marathonian Bull or of Taurus whom he vanquish'd or else to put his People in mind to follow Husbandry and from this Coin came the expression so frequent among the Greeks of a thing being worth ten or a hundred Oxen. After this he joyned Megara to Attica and erected that famous Pillar in the Streights of Peloponnesus which bears an Inscription of two lines shewing the bounds of the two Countreys that meet there On the East-side the Inscription is thus This is not Peloponnesus but Ionia And on the West-side thus This is Peloponnesus not Ionia He also instituted annual Games in emulation of Hercules being ambitious that as the Greeks by that Hero's appointment celebrated the Olympian Games to the Honour of Jupiter so by his institution they should celebrate the Isthmian Games to the Honour of Neptune For those that were there before observ'd dedicated to Melicerta were perform'd privately and in the night and consisted rather of Religious Ceremonies than of any open Spectacle or publick Feast But some there are who say that the Isthmian Games were first instituted in memory of Sciron at the Expiation which Theseus made for his Murder upon the account of the nearness of kindred which was between them Sciron being the Son of Canethus and Heniocha the Daughter of Pittheus tho' others write that Sinnis and not Sciron was their Son and that to his Honour and not to the others these Games were ordain'd by Theseus and Hellanicus and Andro of Halicarnassus write that at
this is as much as is worthy the Relation concerning the Amazons For the account which the ancient Author of a Poem call'd Theseis gives us of this Invasion of the Amazons how that Antiope to revenge her self upon Theseus for refusing her and marrying Phaedra came down upon the City with her Train of Amazons was defeated and had most of her Followers slain by Hercules is manifestly nothing else but Fable and the Invention of a Poet. It is true indeed that Theseus marri'd Phaedra but that was after the death of Antiope by whom he had a Son call'd Hippolytus or as Pindar writes Demophoon As to the Calamities which befel both Theseus and his Son since none of the Historians have contradicted the Tragick Poets that have written of them they are altogether to be receiv'd for truths as they are deliver'd from the Stage There are also other Reports concerning the Marriages of Theseus the beginnings of which were neither honourable nor their events fortunate which yet were never represented in the Grecian Plays He forc'd Anaxo the Traezenian having slain Sinnis and Cercyon he ravish'd their Daughters he marri'd Peribaea the Mother of Ajax and then Pheribaea and then Jope the Daughter of Iphicles Further he is accus'd for deserting Ariadne as is before related being in Love with Aegle the Daughter of Panopeus an action neither just nor honourable And lastly for the Rape of Helen which fill'd all Attica with War and Blood and was in the end the occasion of his Banishment and Death as shall hereafter be related Herodorus is of opinion that tho' there were many famous Expeditions undertaken by the bravest and most honourable Captains of his Time yet Theseus never made One amongst them nor appear'd in any great and publick Action once only excepted when he joyn'd with the Lapithae in their War against the Centaurs but others say that he accompani'd Jason to Colchos and Meleager to the slaying of the Calydonian Boar and that hence this came to be a Proverbial Speech Not without Theseus Also that Theseus without any aid of the Heroes of his Time did himself perform very many and very great Exploits and that from the high esteem the World set upon his Valour it grew into a Proverb This is another Theseus He was also very instrumental to Adrastus in recovering the Bodies of those that were slain before Thebes but not as Euripides in his Tragedy says by force of Arms but by perswasion and mutual agreement and composition for so the greater part of Historians write nay Philochorus adds farther that this was the first Treaty that ever was made for the recovering and burying the Bodies of the dead tho' the History of Hercules says that he was the first that ever gave leave to his Enemies to carry off the Bodies of their slain The Burying-places of the Common Souldiers are yet to be seen in the Village call'd Eleutherae and those of the Commanders at Eleusis where Theseus allotted them a Place for their Interment to oblige Adrastus And that the dead Bodies were thus recover'd Aeschylus is Witness in his Tragedy call'd the Eleusinians where Theseus himself is brought in relating the Story as it is here told which quite overthrows what Euripides writes on this Subject in his Play call'd The Suppliants The extraordinary and so much celebrated Friendship between Theseus and Peirithous is said to have been thus begun The Fame of the matchless Strength and Valour of Theseus being spread through all Greece Peirithous was enflam'd with a desire to be satisfi'd and make a tryal himself of what he had heard so much by Report to this end he seized a Herd of Oxen which belong'd to Theseus and was driving them away from Marathon when News was brought that Theseus pursu'd him in Arms upon which disdaining to fly he turn'd back and went on to meet him But as soon as ever they had view'd one another each so admir'd the Gracefulness and Beauty and was seiz'd with such a Reverence for the Bravery and Courage of the other that they forgat all thoughts of Fighting and Peirithous first stretching out his hand to Theseus bade him be Judge in this Case himself and promis'd to submit willingly to what-ever he demanded in satisfaction for the injury he had done But Theseus not only forgave him all the damages he had sustain'd but entreated him to be his Friend and Brother in Arms and there immediately they swore an inviolable friendship to each other After this Perithous married Deidamia and invited Theseus to the Wedding entreating him to come and see his Countrey and enter into alliance with the Lapithae he had at the same time invited the Centaurs to the Feast who growing hot with Wine began to be very insolent and lewd and offer'd violence to the Women which so enrag'd the Lapithae that they took immediate revenge upon them slaying many of them upon the Place and afterwards having overcome them in Battel drove the whole Race of them out of their Countrey Theseus all along taking their part and fighting on their side But Herodotus gives a different Relation of these things That Theseus came not to the assistance of the Lapithae till the War was already begun and that it was in this Journey that he had the first sight of Hercules having made it his business to find him out at Trachine where he had chosen to rest himself after all his wandrings and his labours and that this Enterview was honourably perform'd on each part with extream Civility Respect and Admiration of each other Yet it is more credible what other Historians write that there were before frequent Enterviews between them and that it was by the means of Theseus that Hercules was initiated and admitted to the Ceremonies of the Goddess Ceres having by his intercession also been first purifi'd upon the account of several rash Actions of his former Life Theseus was now fifty years old as Hellanicus reports when he ravish'd Helen who was very young and not of Age to be marri'd Wherefore some Writers to take away this Accusation of one of the greatest Crimes that is laid to his charge say that he did not steal away Helen himself but that Idas and Lynceus were the Ravishers who brought her to him and committed her to his charge and that therefore he refus'd to restore her at the demand of Castor and Pollux or according to others that her own Father Tyndarus sent her to be kept by him for fear of Enarsphorus the Son of Hippocoon who would have carri'd her away by force when she was yet a Child But the most probable Relation and that which has most Witnesses on its side is this Theseus and Peirithous went both together to Sparta and having seiz'd the young Lady as she was dancing in the Temple of Diana Orthia fled away with her There were presently Men in Arms sent to pursue the Ravishers but they followed the pursuit no
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
these and dissolve or continue any of the present Constitutions according to his pleasure First then he repeal'd all Draco's Laws except those concerning Murther because they were too severe and their punishments too great for Death was appointed for almost all offences insomuch that those that were convicted of Idleness were to dye and those that stole a Cabbage or an Apple to suffer as the Villains that committed Sacrilege or Murther And therefore Demades is famous for saying that Draco's Laws were not writ with Ink but Bloud and he himself being once ask'd Why he made Death the punishment of most offences reply'd Small ones deserve that and I have no higher for the greater Crimes Next Solon being willing to continue the Magistracy in the hands of the rich Men and yet receive the People into the other part of the Government he took an account of the Citizens Estates and those that were worth five hundred Measures of Wet and Dry he plac'd in the first rank calling them Pentacosiomedimnoi those that could keep an Horse or were worth three hundred Measures were nam'd Hippada telountes and made the second Class the Zeugitae that had two hundred Measures were in the third and all the others were call'd Thetes who were not admitted to any Office but could come to the Assembly and give their Voices which at first seem'd nothing but afterwards appear'd a considerable privilege for most of the Controversies came to their hearing because in all matters that were under the cognizance of the other Magistrates there lay an appeal to that Assembly Beside 't is said that he was obscure and ambiguous in the wording of his Laws on purpose to encrease the honour of his Courts for since their differences could not be adjusted by the Letter they were to bring all their Causes to the Judges who were as Masters and interpreters of the Laws and of this Equality he himself makes mention in this manner What power was fit I did on all bestow Not rais'd the Poor too high nor prest too low The Rich that rul'd and every Office bore Confin'd by Laws they could not press the Poor Both parties I secur'd from lawless might So none prevail'd upon another's right And for the greater security of the weak Commons he gave all liberty to enter an Action against another for an injury so that if one was beaten maim'd or suffer'd any violence any man that would and was able might prosecute the injurious intending by this to accustom the Citizens like members of the same Body to resent and be sensible of one anothers injuries and there is a saying of his agreeable to this Law for being ask'd what City was best modell'd That says he where those that are not injur'd equally prosecute the unjust with those that are when he had constituted the Areopagus of the yearly Magistrates of which he himself being Archon was a member still observing that the People now free from their Debts grew proud and imperious he settled another Court of four hundred a hundred out of each of the four Tribes which were to inspect all matters before they were to be propounded to the People and to take care that nothing but what had been diligently examin'd should be brought before the general Assembly The upper Council he made inspectours and keepers of the Laws supposing that the Commonwealth held by these two Councils as by firm Anchors would be less liable to be tost by tumults and the People be more at quiet Thus most deliver that Solon instituted the Areopagus which seems to be confirm'd because Draco makes no mention of the Areopagites but in all capital Causes applies himself to the Ephetae Yet Solon's thirteenth Table contains the eighth Law set down in these words Whoever before Solon's Archonship were disgrac'd let them be restor'd except those that being condemn'd by the Areopagites Ephetae or the Kings for Murther or designs against the Government had fled their Country when this Law was made and these words seem to shew that the Areopagus was before Solon's Laws for who could be condemn'd by that Council before his time if he was the first that instituted the Court unless which is probable there is some defect and obscurity in this Table and it should run thus Those that are convicted of such offences as belong to the cognizance of the Areopagites Ephetae or the Prytanes when this Law was made should remain still in disgrace whilst others are restor'd and this was his meaning Amongst his other Laws that is very peculiar and surprising which makes all those infamous who stand Neuters in a Sedition for it seems he would not have any one insensible and regardless of the Publick and securing his private affairs glory that he had no feeling of the distempers of his Country but presently joyn with the good party and those that had the right upon their side assist and venture with them rather than shift out of harms way and watch who would get the better But that seems an absurd and foolish Law which permits an Hieress if her lawfull Husband prove impotent to lye with his nearest Kinsman yet some say this Law was well contriv'd against those who conscious of their own inability yet for the sake of the portion would match with Hieresses and make use of Law to put a violence upon Nature for now since she can lye with whom she please they must either abstain from such Marriages or continue them with disgrace and suffer for their covetousness and design'd affront besides 't is well done to confine her to her Husband 's nearest Kinsman that the Children may be of the same Family and agreeable to this is the Law that the Bride and Bridegroom shall be shut into a Chamber and eat a Quince together and that her Husband is oblig'd to go in to such an Heiress thrice a Month for though he gets no Children yet 't is an honour and due affection which an Husband ought to pay to a vertuous chaste Wife it takes off all petty differences and will not permit their little quarrels to proceed to a rupture In all other Marriages he forbad Dowries to be given the Wife was to have three suits of Clothes a little inconsiderable Houshold-stuff and that was all for he would not have Marriages contracted for gain or an Estate but for pure Love kind Affection and to get Children Dionysius when his Mother advis'd him to marry one of his Citizens Indeed says he by my Tyranny I have broken my Country's Laws but cannot put a violence upon those of Nature by an unseasonable Marriage Such disorder is never to be suffer'd in a Commonwealth nor such unseasonable and unperforming Marriages which neither attain their due end nor fruit but any provident Governour or Law-giver might say to an old Man that takes a young Wife what is spoken to Philoctetes in the Tragedy Poor Wretch in what a
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
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
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
morning he brought down his main Body and set them in battel-array in the lower grounds being a numerous and courageous Army whereas the Barbarians had taken them for an inconsiderable and fearfull party The first thing that abated the pride and courage of the Gauls was that they were to fight when they least expected it and that their Enemies had the honour of being aggressours In the next place the light-armed men falling upon them before they could get into their usual order or range themselves in their proper squadrons did so force and press upon them that they were obliged to fight confusedly and at random without any discipline at all But at last when Camillus brought on his heavy-armed Legions the Barbarians with their Swords drawn went vigorously to engage them but the Romans opposing with their Javelins and receiving the force of their blows on that part of their Shield which was well guarded with steel they turned the edge of their Weapons being made of a soft and ill-tempered metal insomuch that their Swords immediately bent in their hands and stood crooked to the Hilts as for their Bucklers they were pierced through and through and grown so heavy with the Javelins that stuck upon them that forced to quit their own Weapons they endeavoured to make advantage of those of their Enemies so that gathering up the Javelins in their hands they began to return them upon the Romans But the Romans perceiving them naked and unarm'd presently betook themselves to their Swords which they so well used that in a little time great slaughter was made in the foremost ranks and the rest of them fled dispersing themselves all over the Champain Country for as for the Hills and upper Grounds Camillus had possessed himself beforehand of them and they knew it would not be difficult for the Enemy to take their Camp seeing through confidence of victory they had left it unguarded They say this Fight was thirteen years after the sacking of Rome and that from henceforward the Romans took courage and laid aside those dismal apprehensions they had conceived of the Barbarians thinking now that their first defeat was rather the effect of sickness and the strange concurrence of evil chances than the steddy courage or true force of their Enemy And indeed this fear had been formerly so great that they made a Law That Priests should be excused from war-like service unless in an invasion from the Gauls This was the last military Action that ever Camillus performed for as for the City of the Velitrani it was but a by accession to this victory it being surrendred unto him without any resistance But the greatest contention in civil Affairs and the hardest to be managed against the People was still remaining for they returning home full of victory and success violently insisted contrary to the ancient custom to have one of the Consuls chosen out of their own body The Senate strongly opposed it and would not suffer Camillus to lay down his Dictatourship thinking that under the shelter of his great name and authority they should be better able to contend for the power of the Nobility When Camillus was sitting upon the Tribunal dispatching publick affairs an Officer sent by the Tribunes of the people commanded him to rise and follow him laying his hand upon him as ready to seise and carry him away upon which such a noise and tumult followed in the Assembly the like was never heard of before some that were about Camillus thrusting the people from the Bench and the multitude below calling out to pull him down Being at a loss what to doe in this exigent of affairs yet he laid not down his authority but taking the Senatours along with him he went to the Senate-house but before he entred he besought the Gods that they would bring these Troubles to a happy conclusion solemnly vowing when the Tumult was ended to build a Temple to Concord A great contest arising in the Senate by reason of contrary opinions at last the most moderate and agreeable to the people prevailed which yielded that of two Consuls one of them should be chosen of the Commonalty When the Dictatour had proclaimed this determination of the Senate to the People they were immediately as it could not otherwise be pleased and reconcil'd with the Senate and for Camillus they accompanied him home with all the expressions and acclamations of joy and the next day being assembled together they voted a Temple of Concord to be built according to Camillus his Vow facing the Assembly and Market-place and to those Feasts which are called Latines they added one day more making them four Festivals in all and for the present they ordained that the whole people of Rome should sacrifice with Garlands on their heads In the election of Consuls held by Camillus M. Aemilius was chosen of the Nobility and Lucius Sextius the first of the Commonalty and this was the last of all Camillus's actions In the year following a pestilential sickness infected Rome which besides an infinite number of the common sort swept away most of the Magistrates among whom was Camillus Whose death cannot be called immature if we consider his great Age or greater Actions yet was he more lamented than all the rest put together that then died of that distemper The End of Camillus 's Life PERICLES Samos Collins sculp THE LIFE OF PERICLES Translated from the Greek By Adam Littleton D. D. CAesar on a time seeing belike some Strangers at Rome who were people of Quality carrying up and down with them in their Armes and Bosoms young Puppy-dogs and Monkeys and hugging and making much of them took occasion to ask whether the Women in their Country were not used to bear Children by that Prince-like reprimand gravely reflecting upon such persons who spend and lavish that affection and kindness which Nature hath implanted in us upon brute Beasts which is due and owing to humane Creatures those of our own kind Now inasmuch as even the Whelps and Cubs of Dogs and Apes have a kind of inclination to learning and knowledge and love to look about them and to take notice of things the Soul of Man hath by Nature a higher principle of Reason so as to find fault with those who make ill use of that inclination and desire upon idle discourses and sights that deserve no regard while in the mean time they carelesly pass by good and profitable things of that sort For indeed as to the outward Sense that being passive in receiving the impression of those objects that come in its way and strike upon it it is peradventure necessary for it the Sense to entertain and take notice of every thing that appears to it be it what it will usefull or unusefull but every man if he will make use of his Vnderstanding hath a natural power to turn himself upon all occasions and to change and shift with the greatest ease to what
at a time Wherefore he sent to a Friend one day and borrow'd some money of him in his Father Pericles name pretending it was by his order But the man coming afterward to demand the debt Pericles was so far from yielding to pay it that he arrested the man and entred an action against him Upon which the young man Xanthippus thought himself so heinously used and highly disobliged that he openly reviled his Father And first by way of droll and raillery he ridicul'd him by telling stories what his carriages and conversations were at home and what kind of discourses he had with the Sophisters and Scholars that came to his House As for instance how Epitimius the Pharsalian one who was a practiser of all the five Games of Skill having with a Dart or Javelin unawares against his will struck and kill'd a Horse that stood in the way his Father spent a whole day with Protagoras in a serious and learned dispute whether the Javelin or the Man that threw it or the Masters of the Game who appointed these Sports were according to the strictest and best reason to be accounted the cause of this mischance or Horse-slaughter whereas and make the worst of it it was but chance-medley Further beside this Stesimbrotus tells us that it was Xanthippus self who spread abroad among the people that infamous story concerning his own Wife how his Father should make him Cuckold and that this untoward grudge of the young man 's against his Father and unnatural breach betwixt them which was never to be healed or made up continued with him till his very dying day For Xanthippus died in the Plague-time of the Sickness At which time Pericles also lost his Sister and the greatest part of his Kinsfolks and Friends and those who had been most usefull and serviceable to him in managing the affairs of State However he did not shrink or give out upon these occasions nor did he betray or lower his high spirit and the greatness of his mind under all his misfortunes and those calamities which befell him Nay so unconcern'd and so great a master of his passions he was or at least seemed to be that he was never known to weep or to mourn and pay the Funeral Rites to any of his dead Friends nor was so much as seen at the Burial of any of his Relations till at last he lost the onely Son which was left of those who were lawfully begotten his Son Paralus This touch'd him home and made him bow and relent and yet he striv'd what he could to maintain his principle of gravity and to preserve and keep up the greatness of his Soul but all would not doe for when he came to perform the ceremony of putting a Garland or Chaplet of Flowers upon the Head of the Corps he was vanquished by his passion at the sight so that he burst out a crying and pour'd forth abundance of tears having never done any such thing in all the rest of his life before After all the City having made trial of other Generals for the conduct of War and Oratours for business of State when they found there was no one who was of weight enough to counterballance such a charge or of authority sufficient to be trusted with so great a Command then they hankerd after their old Friend and Servant Pericles and solemnly invited him to the Tribunal or pleading place and desired him to accept of the Office of General or Commander in chief again He was then in a very pensive condition and kept in at home as a close Mourner but was perswaded by Alcibiades and others of his Friends to come abroad and shew himself to the people who having upon his appearance made their acknowledgments and apologized for their ingratitude and untowardly usage of him he undertook the publick affairs once more and being chosen Praetor or chief Governour he brought in a Bill that the Statute concerning Bastard-issue which he himself had formerly caused to be made might be repealed that so the name and race or off-spring of his Family might not for want of a lawfull Heir to succeed be wholly and utterly lost and extinguished Now the business of that Statute or Law stood thus Pericles when long ago he flourished in the State and had as hath been said Children lawfully begotten proposed a Law that those onely should be reputed true Citizens of Athens who were born of such Parents as were both Athenians After this the King of Egypt having sent to the Commons by way of present forty thousand Bushels of Wheat which were to be distributed and shared out among the Citizens there sprung up a great many Actions and Suits against Bastards by vertue of that Edict which till that time had not been known nor taken notice of and several persons besides were trepann'd and insnar'd by false accusations There were little less than five thousand who were caught in this State-trap and having lost the freedom of the City were sold for Slaves and those who induring the test remained in the Government and past muster for right Athenians were found upon the Poll to be fourteen thousand and forty persons in number Now though it look'd somewhat odd and strange that a Law which had been carried on so far against so many people should be broken and cancell'd again by the same man that made it yet the present calamity and distress which Pericles labour'd under as to his Family broke through all objections and prevail'd with the Athenians to pity him as one who by those losses and misfortunes had sufficiently been punished for his former arrogance and haughtiness And therefore being of opinion that he had been shrewdly handled by divine vengeance of which he had run so severe a Gantlop and that his request was such as became a man to ask and men to grant they yielded that he should inroll his Bastard-son in the register of his own Ward by his paternal name This very Son of his afterward when he had defeated the Peloponnesians in a Sea-fight near the Islands called Arginusae was put to death by the people together with his fellow-Captains his Colleagues in that Commission About that time when his Son was inroll'd it should seem the Plague seis'd Pericles not with sharp and violent fits as it did others that had it but with a dull and lingring Distemper through various changes and alterations leisurely by little and little wasting the strength of his Body and undermining the noble faculties of his Soul So that Theophrastus in his Morals having made a moot-point Whether mens Manners change with their Fortunes and their Souls being jogg'd and disturb'd by the ailings of their Bodies do start aside from the rules of Vertue hath left it upon record that Pericles when he was sick shew'd one of his Friends that came to visit him an Amulet or Charm that the Women had
hung about his Neck as much as to say that he was very sick indeed when he would admit of or indure such a foolery as that was When he was drawing on and near his time the best of the Citizens and those of his Friends who were left alive sitting about him were discoursing of his Vertue and Authority how great it was and were reckoning up his famous Actions and Atchievements and the number of his Victories for there were no less than nine Trophies which he as their chief Commander and Conquerer of their Enemies had set up for the honour of the City and State These things they talk'd of together among themselves as though he did not understand or mind what they said but had been utterly bereft of his senses But he had listned all the while and given good heed to all the passages of their discourse and speaking out among them said that he wondred they should commend and take notice of those things in him which were as much owing to Fortune as to any thing else and had happen'd to many other Captains in former times as well as to him and that at the same time they should not speak or make mention of that which was the most excellent and greatest thing of all For said he there was never any of all my Fellow-Citizens that ever wore Black or put on Mourning upon my account or long of me meaning that he had not in all his Government been the cause of any ones death either by ordering or procuring it A brave Man a wonderfull great Personage without all peradventure not onely upon the account of his gentle behaviour and mild temper which all along in the many affairs of his life and those shrewd animosities which lay upon him he constantly kept up and maintain'd but also of his generous great spirit and high sentiment that he esteem'd that to be the best of all his good qualities that having been in such an absolute uncontrollable power as he had had he never had gratified his envy or his passion in any thing to any other man's hurt nor ever had treated any enemy of his as if he were incurable that is unreconcileable and one who in time might not become a friend And to me it appears that this one thing of him did make that otherwise childish and arrogant Title they gave him in Nicknaming him Olympius that is the Heavenly or Godlike to be without envy and truly becoming him I mean his kind and courteous carriage and a pure and untainted unblemish'd conversation in the height of power and place According to those apprehensions and resentments we have of the Gods themselves in their kind whom upon this account that they are naturally the authours of all good things and are not the authours of any evil we do think worthy to rule and govern the World Not as the Poets rudely fancy who confounding us with their foolish unmannerly conceits and opinions are taken tardy in their own Poems and fictious Stories when they call the place indeed wherein they say the Gods make their abode a secure and quiet seat free from all hazards and commotions not troubled with Winds nor darkned with Clouds but at all times alike shining round about with a soft serenity and a pure light inasmuch as such a temper'd station is most agreeable and sutable for a blessed and immortal nature to live in and yet in the mean while do affirm that the Gods themselves are full of trouble and enmity and anger and other passions which no way become or belong to even Men that have any understanding But this will perhaps seem a subject fitter for some other consideration and that ought to be treated of in some other place Well! the success of publick affairs after Pericles his death did beget a quick and speedy sense of his loss and a want and desire of such a conduct as his had been For those who while he lived ill resented his great authority as that which eclipsed them and darkned their lights presently after his quitting the Stage makeing trial of other Oratours and Demagogues did readily acknowledge that there never had been in nature such a disposition as his was either more moderate and reasonable in the height of that state he took upon him or more grave and solemn in the methods of that mildness which he used And that invidious pretended arbitrary power about which they made such a splutter and formerly gave it the name of Monarchy and Tyranny did then appear to have been the chief rampart and bulwark of safety which the Government and Commonwealth had So great a corruption and murrain and such abundance of wicked ill humours had got into publick affairs which he by keeping them weak and low did cover and disguise from being much taken notice of and by snubbing of them did hinder them from growing incurable through a licentious impunity The End of Pericles 's Life The Translatour of Pericles 's Life his Advertisement to the Reader OVR great Authour having a peculiar Idiom of his own and a propriety of style by himself in the use of such Words and Phrases as are hardly to be met with in any other Greek Writer it would require as much pains and take up as much paper to justifie the Translation as it did to make it I shall onely charge this vacant Page with two or three brief Notes of that nature Caesar seeing belike took occasion to ask In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 standing in the middle as it doth is referible to both Verbs that he saw them as it hapned that is belike and that as it was meet or apt for one to doe he askt them that is as I express it he took occasion to ask Ioâ—t-head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clot-head in allusion to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cloud-gatherer an Epithet given by Homer to Jupiter Bitch-fac'd So properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies That which follows and Born without a Maiden-head alludes to a passage in Petronius Arbiter where Quarâ—illa I take it speaking of her self saith thus Junonem iratam habeam si me unquam memini fuisse virginem meaning that she had been a Whore time out of mind and could not her self remember that ever she was a Maid FABIUS MAXIMUS THE LIFE OF FABIUS M. Englished from the Greek By John Caryl Esq HAving related the memorable actions of Pericles let us now proceed to the Life of Fabius It is said that the first of the name was a Son of Hercules and of a Nymph or some Woman of that Country who brought him forth on the banks of Tyber and that he was a Person famous and powerfull in Rome Others will have it that they were first called Fodians because the Race of them delighted in digging pit-falls for wild Beasts and that in process of time and by corruption of language
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
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
of Themistocles placed in the middle of their great Piazza and it is not worth the taking notice of what Andocides writes to his Friends concerning the Reliques of Themistocles how the Athenians robbed his Tomb and threw his Ashes into the Air for he feigns this to exasperate the Nobility against the people and there is no man living but knows that Phrasicles is mistaken in his History where he brings in Neocles and Demopolis for the Sons of Themistocles to incite or move compassion as if he were writing of a Tragedy yet Diodorus the Cosmographer writes in his Book of Sepulchres but by conjecture rather than of his certain knowledge that near to the Haven of Piraea where the Land runs out like an Elbow from the Promontory of Alcimus and when you have doubled the Cape and passed inward where the Sea is always calm there is a vast Foundation and upon this the Tomb of Themistocles in the shape of an Altar and Plato the Comedian seems to confirm this in these Verses Thy Tomb is fairly placed on the Strand Where Merchants from all parts may pass or land Where Ships from every quarter come in sight And may engage in many a bloudy Fight So that thy Ashes placed on the Shore Both Sea and Land may honour and adore Divers honours also and privileges were granted to the Kindred of Themistocles at Magnesia which were observed down to our times and another Themistocles of Athens enjoyed them with whom I had a particular acquaintance and Friendship in the House of Ammonius the Philosopher The End of Themistocles 's Life Furius Camillus Vandrebanc fe THE LIFE OF F. CAMILLUS Englished from the Greek By Mich. Payne Trin. Coll. Cant. Soc. AMong the many remarkable things that are related of Furius Camillus this above all seems most singular and strange that he who for the most part was in the highest commands and had performed the greatest Actions was five times chosen Dictatour triumphed four times and was styled a Second Founder of Rome yet never was so much as once Consul The reason whereof was the state and temper of the then Commonwealth for the People being at dissention with the Senate stifly refused to return Consuls but in their stead elected other Magistrates called Military Tribunes who though they acted every thing with full Consular Power and Authority yet their Government was less grievous to the People by reason they were more in number for to have the management of affairs entrusted in the hands of six persons rather than two was some ease and satisfaction to those who could not endure the Dominion of a few This was the condition of the times when Camillus flourished in the height of his actions and glory and although the Government in the mean time had often proceeded to Consular Elections yet he could never perswade himself to be Consul against the good-will and inclination of the People In all other his administrations which were many and various he so behaved himself that when he was alone in Authority his power was exercised as in common but the honour of all actions redounded intirely to himself even when in joint Commission with others the reason of the former was his moderation commanding without pride or insolence of the latter his great judgment and wisedom wherein without question he excelled all others And whereas the House of the Furii was not at that time of any considerable quality he was the first that raised himself to honour serving under Posthumius Tubertus Dictatour in the great Battel against the Aeques and Volsces for riding out from the rest of the Army and in the charge receiving a wound in his Thigh he for all that gave not over the fight but plucking out the Dart that stuck close in the wound and engaging with the bravest of the enemy he put them to flight for which action among other rewards bestowed on him he was created Censor an Office in those days of great esteem and authority During his Censorship one very good act of his is recorded that whereas the Wars had made many Widows he obliged such as had no Wives some by fair perswasion others by threatning to set Fines on their heads to take them in marriage Another necessary one in causing Orphans to be rated who before were exempted from Taxes the frequent and chargeable Wars requiring more than ordinary expences to maintain them But that which pinched them most was the Siege of Veii some call them Venetani This was the head City of Tuscany not inferiour to Rome either in number of Arms or multitude of Souldiers insomuch that presuming on her wealth and magnificence and priding her self in the variety of pleasures she enjoyed she had fought many a fair Battel with the Romans contending for Glory and Empire But now they had quitted their former ambition having been weakned and brought low in many notable encounters so that having fortified themselves with high and strong Walls and furnished the City with all sorts of Weapons offensive and defensive as likewise with Corn and all manner of Provisions they cheerfully endured the Siege which though tedious to them was no less troublesome and vexatious to the besiegers For the Romans having never been accustomed to lie long abroad in the heat of Summer and constantly to winter at home they were then first compelled by the Tribunes to build Forts and Garrisons in the Enemies Country and raising strong Works about their Camp to joyn Winter and Summer together And now the seventh year of the War drawing to an end the Commanders began to be suspected as too slow and remiss in driving on the Siege infomuch that they were discharged and others chosen for the War among whom was Camillus then second time Tribune But at present he had no hand in the Siege his lot being to make War upon the Falisces and Capenates who taking advantage of the Romans being busied on all hands had much spoiled their Country and through all the Tuscan War given them sore diversions but were now reduced by Camillus and with great losses shut up within their Walls And now in the very heat of the War an accident happened to the Alban Lake no less wonderfull than the most incredible things that are reported and by reason no visible cause could be assigned or any natural beginning whereto to ascribe it it became matter of great amazement It was the beginning of Autumn and the Summer before had neither been very rainy nor in appearance over troubled with Southern winds and of the many Lakes Brooks and Springs of all sorts wherein Italy abounds some were wholly dried up others drew very little Water with them But all the Rivers as they constantly used in Summer ran in a very low and hollow Chanel But the Alban Lake that is fed by no other waters but its own being compassed about with fruitfull Mountains without any cause unless it were Divine began