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The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch

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Title: The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch

Author: Plutarch

Editor: John S. White


        
Release date: January 1, 2001 [eBook #2484]
                Most recently updated: January 4, 2009

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2484

Credits: Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger


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THE BOYS' AND GIRLS' PLUTARCH

BEING PARTS OF THE "LIVES" OF PLUTARCH

By Plutarch

Edited for Boys and Girls With Introductions By John S. White

Head-Master Berkeley School




Table of Contents


     Life of Theseus
     Life of Romulus
     Comparison of Theseus and Romulus
     Life of Lycurgus
     Life of Solon
     Life of Themistocles
     Life of Camillus
     Life of Pericles
     Life of Demosthenes
     Life of Cicero
     Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero
     Life of Alcibiades
     Life of Coriolanus
     Comparison of Alcibiades and Coriolanus
     Life of Aristides
     Life of Cimon
     Life of Pompey
     The Engines of Archimedes; from the Life of Marcellus
     Description of Cleopatra; from the Life of Antony
     Anecdotes from the Life of Agesilaus
     The Brothers; from the Life of Timoleon
     The Wound of Philopoemen
     A Roman Triumph; from the Life of Paulus Aemilius
     The Noble Character of Caius Fabricius; from the Life of Pyrrhus
     From the Life of Quintus Fabius Maximus
     The Cruelty of Lucius Cornelius Sylla
     The Luxury of Lucullus
     From the Life of Sertorius the Roman, who endeavored to establish
     a separate Government for himself in Spain
     The Scroll; from the Life of Lysander
     The Character of Marcus Cato
     The Sacred Theban Band; from the Life of Pelopidas
     From the Life of Titus Flamininus, Conqueror of Philip
     Life of Alexander the Great
     The Death of Caesar




THESEUS

As geographers crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world
which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect
that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts,
unapproachable bogs, Seythian ice, or frozen sea, so, in this great work
of mine, in which I have compared the lives of the greatest men with one
another, after passing through those periods which probable reasoning
can reach to and real history find a footing in, I might very well
say of those that are farther off, Beyond this there is nothing but
prodigies and fictions; the only inhabitants are the poets and inventors
of fables; there is no credit, or certainty any farther. Yet, after
publishing an account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I
thought I might, not without reason, ascend as high as to Romulus, being
brought by my history so near to his time. Considering therefore with
myself

     Whom shall I set so great a man face to face?
     Or whom oppose? Who's equal to the place?

(as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as he who peopled the
beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be set in opposition with
the father of the invincible and renowned city of Rome. Let us hope that
Fable may, in what shall follow, so submit to the purifying processes of
Reason as to take the character of exact history. We shall beg that we
may meet with candid readers, and such as will receive with indulgence
the stories of antiquity.

Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many particulars. Both of
them had the repute of being sprung from the gods.

Both warriors; that by all the world's allowed.

Both of them united with strength of body an equal vigor of mind; and of
the two most famous cities of the world, the one built in Rome, and the
other made Athens be inhabited. Neither of them could avoid domestic
misfortunes nor jealousy at home; but toward the close of their
lives are both of them said to have incurred great odium with their
countrymen, if, that is, we may take the stories least like poetry as
our guide to truth.

Theseus was the son of Aegeus and Aethra. His lineage, by his father's
side, ascends as high as to Erechtheus and the first inhabitants of
Attica. By his mother's side, he was descended of Pelops, who was the
most powerful of all the kings of Peloponnesus.

When Aegeus went from the home of Aethra in Troezen to Athens, he left
a sword and a pair of shoes, hiding them under a great stone that had a
hollow in it exactly fitting them; and went away making her only privy
to it, and commanding her that, if, when their son came to man's estate,
he should be able to lift up the stone and take away what he had left
there, she should send him away to him with those things with all
secrecy, and with injunctions to him as much as possible to conceal his
journey from everyone; for he greatly feared the Pallantidae, who were
continually mutinying against him, and despised him for his want of
children, they themselves being fifty brothers, all sons of Pallas, the
brother of Aegeus.

When Aethra's son was born, some say that he was immediately named
Theseus, from the tokens which his father had put under the stone;
others that he received his name afterwards at Athens, when Aegeus
acknowledged him for his son. He was brought up under his grandfather
Pittheus, and had a tutor and attendant set over him named Connidas, to
whom the Athenians, even to this time, the day before the feast that is
dedicated to Theseus, sacrifice a ram, giving this honor to his memory
upon much juster grounds than to Silanio and Parrhasius, for making
pictures and statues of Theseus. There being then a custom for the
Grecian youth, upon their first coming to a man's estate, to go to
Delphi and offer firstfruits of their hair to the god, Theseus also went
thither, and a place there to this day is yet named Thesea, as it is
said, from him. He clipped only the fore part of his head, as Homer says
the Abantes did. And this sort of tonsure was from him named Theseis.
The Abantes first used it, not in imitation of the Arabians, as some
imagine, nor of the Mysians, but because they were a warlike people,
and used to close fighting, and above all other nations, accustomed to
engage hand to hand; as Archilochus testifies in these verses:

     Slings shall not whirl, nor many arrows fly,
     When on the plain the battle joins; but swords,
     Man against man, the deadly conflict try,
     As is the practice of Euboea's lords
     Skilled with the spear.--

Therefore, that they might not give their enemies a hold by their hair,
they cut it in this manner. They write also that this was the reason
why Alexander gave command to his captains that all the beards of the
Macedonians should be shaved, as being the readiest hold for an enemy.

Aethra for some time concealed the true parentage of Theseus, and a
report was given out by Pittheus that he was the son of Neptune; for the
Troezenians pay Neptune the highest veneration. He is their tutelar god,
to him they offer all their firstfruits, and in his honor stamp their
money with a trident.

Theseus displaying not only great strength of body, but equal bravery,
and a quickness alike and force of understanding, his mother Aethra,
conducting him to the stone, and informing him who was his true father,
commanded him to take from thence the tokens that Aegeus had left, and
to sail to Athens. He without any difficulty set himself to the stone
and lifted it up; but refused to take his journey by sea, though it was
much the safer way, and though his mother and grandfather begged him to
do so. For it was at that time very dangerous to go by land on the road
to Athens, no part of it being free from robbers and murderers. That
age produced a sort of men, in force of hand, and swiftness of foot, and
strength of body, excelling the ordinary rate, and wholly incapable of
fatigue; making use, however, of these gifts of nature to no good or
profitable purpose for mankind, but rejoicing and priding themselves
in insolence, and taking the benefit of their superior strength in
the exercise of inhumanity and cruelty, and in seizing, forcing, and
committing all manner of outrages upon everything that fell into their
hands; all respect for others, all justice, they thought, all equity and
humanity, though naturally lauded by common people, either out of
want of courage to commit injuries or fear to receive them, yet no way
concerned those who were strong enough to win for themselves. Some
of these Hercules destroyed and cut off in his passage through these
countries, but some, escaping his notice, while he was passing by, fled
and hid themselves, or else were spared by him in contempt of their
abject submission; and after that Hercules fell into misfortune, and,
having slain Iphitus, retired to Lydia, and for a long time was there
slave to Omphale, a punishment which he had imposed upon himself for
the murder. Then, indeed, Lydia enjoyed high peace and security, but in
Greece and the countries about it the like villainies again revived
and broke out, there being none to repress or chastise them. It was
therefore a very hazardous journey to travel by land from Athens to
Peloponnesus; and Pittheus, giving him an exact account of each of these
robbers and villains, their strength, and the cruelty they used to all
strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to go by sea. But he, it seems, had
long since been secretly fired by the glory of Hercules, held him in the
highest estimation, and was never more satisfied than in listening to
any that gave an account of him; especially those that had seen him,
or had been present at any action or saying of his. So that he was
altogether in the same state of feeling as, in after ages, Themistocles
was, when he said that he could not sleep for the trophy of Miltiades;
entertaining such admiration for the virtues of Hercules that in his
dreams were all of that hero's actions, and in the day a continual
emulation stirred him up to perform the like. Besides, they were
related, being born of own cousins. For Aethra was daughter of Pittheus,
and Alcmena of Lysidice; and Lysidice and Pittheus were brother and
sister, children of Hippodamia and Pelpos. He thought it therefore a
dishonorable thing, and not to be endured, that Hercules should go out
everywhere, and purge both land and sea from the wicked men, and he
should fly from the like adventures that actually came his way; not
showing his true father as good evidence of the greatness of his birth
by noble and worthy actions, as by the tokens that he brought with him,
the shoes and the sword.

With this mind and these thoughts, he set forward with a design to do
injury to nobody, but to repel and avenge himself of all those that
should offer any. And first of all, in a set combat he slew Periphtes,
in the neighborhood of Epidaurus, who used a club for his arms, and from
thence had the name of Corynetes, or the club-bearer; who seized upon
him, and forbade him to go forward in his journey. Being pleased with
the club, he took it, and made it his weapon, continuing to use it as
Hercules did the lion's skin, on whose shoulders that served to prove
how huge a beast he had killed; and to the same end Theseus carried
about him this club; overcome indeed by him, but now, in his hands,
invincible.

Passing on further towards the Isthmus of Peloponnesus, he slew Sinnis,
often surnamed the Bender of Pines, after the same manner in which he
himself had destroyed many others before. And this he did without having
either practiced or ever learnt the art of bending these trees, to show
that natural strength is above all art. This Sinnis had a daughter of
remarkable beauty and stature, called Perigune, who, when her father
was killed, fled, and was sought after everywhere by Theseus; and coming
into a place overgrown with brushwood, shrubs, and asparagus-thorn,
there, in a childlike, innocent manner, prayed and begged them, as if
they understood her, to give shelter, with vows that if she escaped she
would never cut them down nor burn them. But Theseus calling upon her,
and giving her his promise that he would use her with respect, and
offer no injury, she came forth. Whence it is a family usage amongst the
people called Ioxids, from the name of her grandson, Ioxus, both male
and female, never to burn either shrubs or asparagus-thorn, but to
respect and honor them.

The Crommyonian sow, which they called Phaea, was a savage and
formidable wild beast, by no means an enemy to be despised. Theseus
killed her, going out of his way on purpose to meet and engage her, so
that he might not seem to perform all his great exploits out of mere
necessity; being also of opinion that it was the part of a brave man to
chastise villainous and wicked men when attacked by them, but to seek
out and overcome the more noble wild beasts. Others relate that Phaea
was a woman, a robber full of cruelty, that lived in Crommyon, and had
the name of Sow given her from the foulness of her life and manners, and
afterwards was killed by Theseus. He slew also Sciron, upon the borders
of Megara, casting him down from the rocks, being, as most report, a
notorious robber of all passengers, and, as others add, accustomed out
of insolence and wantonness, to stretch forth his feet to strangers,
commanding them to wash them, and then while they did it, with a kick to
send them down the rock into the sea.

In Eleusis he killed Cercyon, the Arcadian, in a wrestling match. And
going on a little farther, in Erineus, he slew Damastes, otherwise
called Procrustes, forcing his body to the size of his own bed, as he
himself was used to do with all strangers; this he did in imitation
of Hercules, who always returned upon his assailants the same sort of
violence that they offered to him; sacrificed Busiris, killed Antaeus
in wrestling, and Cycnus in single combat, and Termerus by breaking his
skull in pieces (whence, they say, comes the proverb of "a Termerian
mischief"), for it seems Termerus killed passengers that he met by
running with his head against them. And so also Theseus proceeded with
the same violence from which they had inflicted upon others, justly
suffering after the same manner of their own injustice.

As he went forward on his journey, and was come as far as the River
Cephisus, some of the race of the Phytalidae met him and saluted him,
and upon his desire to use the purifications, then in custom, they
performed them with all the usual ceremonies, and having offered
propitiatory sacrifices to the gods, invited him and entertained him at
their house, a kindness which, in all his journey hitherto, he had not
met.

On the eighth day of Cronius, now called Hecatombaeon, he arrived at
Athens, where he found the public affairs full of all confusion, and
divided into parties and factions. Aegeus also, and his whole private
family, laboring under the same distemper; for Medea, having fled from
Corinth, was living with him. She was first aware of Theseus, whom as
yet Aegeus did not know, and he being in years, full of jealousies and
suspicions, and fearing everything by reason of the faction that was
then in the city, she easily persuaded him to kill him by poison at a
banquet, to which he was to be invited as a stranger. He, coming to
the entertainment, thought it not fit to discover himself at once, but,
willing to give his father the occasion of first finding him out, the
meat being on the table, he drew his sword as if he designed to cut with
it; Aegeus, at once recognizing the token, threw down the cup of poison,
and, questioning his son, embraced him, and, having gathered together
all his citizens, owned him publicly before them, who, on their part,
received him gladly for the fame of his greatness and bravery.

The sons of Pallas, who were quiet, upon expectation of recovering the
kingdom after Aegeus's death, who was without issue, as soon as Theseus
appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly resenting that
Aegeus first, as adopted son only of Pandion, and not at all related to
the family of Erechtheus, should be holding the kingdom, and that after
him, Theseus, a visitor and stranger, should be destined to succeed
to it, broke out into open war. And, dividing themselves into two
companies, one part of them marched openly from Sphettus, with their
father, against the city; the other, hiding themselves in the village
of Gargettus, lay in ambush, with a design to set upon the enemy on both
sides. They had with them a crier of the township of Agnus, named
Leos, who discovered to Theseus all the designs of the Pallentidae. He
immediately fell upon those that lay in amuscade, and cut them all off;
upon tidings of which Pallas and his company fled and were dispersed.

From hence they say is derived the custom among the people of the
township of Pallene to have no marriages or any alliance with the people
of Agnus, nor to suffer the criers to pronounce in their proclamations
the words used in all other parts of the country, Acouete Leoi (Hear ye
people), hating the very sound of Leo, because of the treason of Leos.

Theseus, longing to be in action, and desirous also to make himself
popular, left Athens to fight with the bull of Marathon, which did no
small mischief to the inhabitants of Tetrapolis. And, having overcome
it, he brought it alive in triumph through the city, and afterwards
sacrificed it to the Delphian Apollo. The story of Hecale, also, of her
receiving and entertaining Theseus in this expedition, seems to be not
altogether void of truth; for the townships round about, meeting upon a
certain day, used to offer a sacrifice, which they called Hecalesia,
to Jupiter Hecaleius, and to pay honor to Hecale, whom, by a diminutive
name, they called Hecalene, because she, while entertaining Theseus,
who was quite a youth, addressed him, as old people do, with similar
endearing diminutives; and having made a vow to Jupiter that he was
going to the fight, that, if he returned in safety, she would offer
sacrifices in thanks of it, and dying before he came back, she had these
honors given her by way of return for her hospitality, by the command of
Theseus, as Philochorus tells us.

Not long afterwards came the third time from Crete the collectors of
the tribute which the Athenians paid them upon the following occasion.
Androgeus having been treacherously murdered in the confines of Attica,
not only Minos, his father, put the Athenians to extreme distress by a
perpetual war, but the gods also laid waste their country; both famine
and pestilence lay heavy upon them, and even their rivers were dried up.
Being told by the oracle that if they appeased and reconciled Minos,
the anger of the gods would cease and they should enjoy rest from
the miseries they labored under, they sent heralds, and with much
supplication were at last reconciled, entering into an agreement to
send to Crete every nine years a tribute of seven young men and as many
virgins, as most writers agree in stating; and the most poetical
story adds that the Minotaur destroyed them, or that, wandering in the
Labyrinth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they miserably
ended their lives there, and that this Minotaur was (as Euripides hath
it)

     A mingled form, where two strange shapes combined,
     And different natures, bull and man, were joined.

Now when the time of the third tribute was come, and the fathers who
had any young men for their sons were to proceed by lot to the choice
of those that were to be sent, there arose fresh discontents and
accusations against Aegeus among the people, who were full of grief and
indignation that he, who was the cause of all their miseries, was the
only person exempt from the punishment; adopting and setting his kingdom
upon a foreign son, he took no thought, they said, of their destitution
and loss of their lawful children. These things sensibly affected
Theseus, who, thinking it but just not to disregard, but rather partake
of, the sufferings of his fellow citizens, offered himself for one
without any lot. All else were struck with admiration for the nobleness,
and with love for the goodness, of the act; and Aegeus, after prayers
and entreaties, finding him inflexible and not to be persuaded,
proceeded to the choosing of the rest by lot. Hellanicus, however, tells
us that the Athenians did not send the young men and virgins by lot,
but that Minos himself used to come and make his own choice, and pitched
upon Theseus before all others; according to the conditions agreed upon
between, namely, that the Athenians should furnish them with a ship, and
that the young men who were to sail with him should carry no weapon of
war; but that if the Minotaur was destroyed the tribute should cease.

On the two former occasions of the payment of the tribute, entertaining
no hopes of safety or return, they sent out the ship with a black sail,
as to unavoidable destruction; but now, Theseus encouraging his father
and speaking greatly of himself, as confident that he should kill the
Minotaur, he gave the pilot another sail, which was white, commanding
him, as he returned, if Theseus were safe, to make use of that; but
if not, to sail with the black one, and to hang out that sign of his
misfortune. Simonides says that the sail which Aegeus delivered to the
pilot was not white, but

     Scarlet, in the juicy bloom
     Of the living oak-tree steeped.

The lot being cast, and Theseus having received out of the Prytaneum
those upon whom it fell, he went to the Delphinium, and made an offering
for them to Apollo of his suppliant's badge, which was a bough of a
consecrated olive tree, with white wool tied about it.

Having thus performed his devotion, he went to sea, the sixth day of
Munychion, on which day even to this time the Athenians send their
virgins to the same temple to make supplication to the gods. It is
farther reported that he was commanded by the oracle at Delphi to make
Venus his guide, and to invoke her as the companion and conductress of
his voyage, and that, as he was sacrificing a she goat to her by the
seaside, it was suddenly changed into a he, and for this cause that
goddess had the name of Epitragia.

When he arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient historians as well as
poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by Ariadne, who had
fallen in love with him, and being instructed by her now to use it so as
to conduct him through the windings of the Labyrinth, he escaped out of
it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed back, taking along with him Ariadne
and the young Athenian captives. Pherecydes adds that he bored holes
in the bottom of the Cretan ships to hinder their pursuit. Demon writes
that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was slain by Theseus at the
mouth of the port, in a naval combat, as he was sailing out for Athens.
But Philochorus gives us the story thus: That at the setting forth of
the yearly games by King Minos, Taurus was expected to carry away
the prize, as he had done before; and was much grudged the honor.
His character and manners made his power hateful, and he was accused,
moreover, of too near familiarity with Pasiphae, for which reason, when
Theseus desired the combat, Minos readily complied. And as it was a
custom in Crete that the women also should be admitted to the sight of
these games, Ariadne, being present, was struck with admiration of the
manly beauty of Theseus, and the vigor and address which he showed in
combat, overcoming all that encountered with him. Minos, too, being
extremely pleased with him, especially because he had overthrown and
disgraced Taurus, voluntarily gave up the young captives to Theseus, and
remitted the tribute to the Athenians.

There are yet many traditions about these things, and as many concerning
Ariadne, all inconsistent with each other. Some relate that she hung
herself, being deserted by Theseus. Others that she was carried away
by his sailors to the isle of Naxos, and married to Oenarus, priest of
Bacchus; and that Theseus left her because he fell in love with another,

     "For Aegle's love was burning in his breast."

Now Theseus, in his return from Crete, put in at Delos, and, having
sacrificed to the god of the island, dedicated to the temple the
image of Venus which Ariadne had given him, and danced with the young
Athenians a dance that, in memory of him, they say is still preserved
among the inhabitants of Delos, consisting in certain measured
turnings and returnings, imitative of the windings and twistings of the
Labyrinth. And this dance, as Dicaearchus writes, is called among the
Delians, the Crane. This he danced round the Ceratonian Altar, so called
from its consisting of horns taken from the left side of the head. They
also say that he instituted games in Delos, where he was the first that
began the of giving a palm to the victors.

When they were come near the coast of Attica, so great was the joy for
the happy success of their voyage, that neither Theseus himself nor the
pilot remembered to hang out the sail which should have been the token
of their safety to Aegeus, who, in despair at the sight, threw himself
headlong from a rock, and perished in the sea. But Theseus, being
arrived at the port of Phalerum, paid there the sacrifices which he had
vowed to the gods at his setting out to sea, and sent a herald to the
city to carry the news of his safe return. At his entrance, the herald
found the people for the most part full of grief for the loss of their
king, others, as may well be believed, as full of joy for the tidings
that he brought, and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands
for his good news, which he indeed accepted of, but hung them upon his
herald's staff; and thus returning to the seaside before Theseus
had finished his libation to the gods, he stayed apart for fear of
disturbing the holy rites, but, as soon as the libation was ended, went
up and related the king's death, upon the hearing of which, with great
lamentations and a confused tumult of grief, they ran with all haste to
the city. And from hence, they say, it comes that at this day, in the
feast of Oschoporia, the herald is not crowned, but his staff, and all
who are present at the libation cry out "eleleu, iou, iou," the first of
which confused sounds is commonly used by men in haste, or at a triumph,
the other is proper to people in consternation or disorder of mind.

Theseus, after the funeral of his father, paid his vows to Apollo the
seventh day of Pyanepsion; for on that day the youth that returned with
him safe from Crete made their entry into the city. They say, also, that
the custom of boiling pulse at this feast is derived from hence; because
the young men that escaped put all that was left of their provision
together, and, boiling it in one common pot, feasted themselves with
it, and ate it all up together. Hence, also, they carry in procession
an olive branch bound about with wool (such as they then made use of in
their supplications), which they call Eiresione, crowned with all sorts
of fruits, to signify that scarcity and barrenness was ceased, singing
in their procession this song:

     Eiresione brings figs, and Eiresione brings loaves;
     Bring us honey in pints, and oil to rub on our bodies,
     And a strong flagon of wine, for all to go mellow to bed on.

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty
oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of
Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed,
putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this
ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical
question as to things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained
the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.

Now, after the death of his father Aegeus, forming in his mind a great
and wonderful design, he gathered together all the inhabitants of Attica
into one town, and made them one people of one city, whereas before they
lived dispersed, and were not easy to assemble upon any affair, for
the common interest. Nay, the differences and even wars often occurred
between them, which he by his persuasions appeased, going form township
to township, and from tribe to tribe. And those of a more private and
mean condition readily embracing such good advice, to those of greater
power he promised a commonwealth without monarchy, a democracy, or
people's government, in which he should only be continued as their
commander in war and the protector of their laws, all things else being
equally distributed among them;--and by this means brought a part
of them over to his proposal. The rest, fearing his power, which was
already grown very formidable, and knowing his courage and resolution,
chose rather to be persuaded than forced into a compliance. He then
dissolved all the distant state-houses, council halls, and magistracies,
and built one common state-house (the Prytaneum) and council hall on the
site of the present upper town, and gave the name of Athens to the
whole state, ordaining a common feast and sacrifice, which he called
Panathenaea, or the sacrifice of all the united Athenians. He instituted
also another sacrifice, called Metoecia, or Feast of Migration, which
is yet celebrated on the sixteenth day of Hecatombaeon. Then, as he
had promised, he laid down his regal power and proceeded to order a
commonwealth, entering upon this great work not without advice from the
gods. For having sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning the
fortune of his new government and city, he received this answer:

     Son of the Pitthean maid,
     To your town the terms and fates
     My father gives of many states.
     Be not anxious or afraid:
     The bladder will not fail to swim
     On the waves that compass him.

Which oracle, they say, one of the sibyls long after did in a manner
repeat to the Athenians, in this verse:

The bladder may be dipt, but not be drowned.

Farther yet designing to enlarge his city, he invited all strangers to
come and enjoy equal privileges with the natives, and it is said that
the common form, "Come hither all ye people," was the words that Theseus
proclaimed when he thus set up a commonwealth, in a manner, for all
nations. Yet he did not suffer his state, by the promiscuous multitude
that flowed in, to be turned into confusion and be left without any
order or degree, but was the first that divided the commonwealth into
three distinct ranks, the noblemen, the husbandmen, and artificers.
To the nobility he committed the care of religion, the choice of
magistrates, the teaching and dispensing of the laws, and interpretation
and direction in all sacred matters; the whole city being, as it were,
reduced to an exact equality, the nobles excelling the rest in honor,
the husbandmen in profit, and the artifices in number. And that Theseus
was the first, who, as Aristotle says, out of an inclination to popular
government, parted with the regal power, Homer also seems to testify,
in his catalogue of ships, where he gives the name of "People" to the
Athenians only.

He also coined money, and stamped it with the image of an ox, either
in memory of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, whom he vanquished, or
else to put his people in mind to follow husbandry; and from this coin
came the expression so frequent among the Greeks, as a thing being
worth ten or a hundred oxen. After this he joined Megara to Attica, and
erected that famous pillar on the isthmus, which bears an inscription of
two lines, showing the bounds of the two countries that meet there. On
the east side the inscription is,-"Peloponnesus there, Ionia here," And
on the west side,-"Peloponnesus here, Ionia there."

He also instituted the games, in emulation of Hercules, being ambitious
that as the Greeks, by that hero's appointment, celebrated the Olympian
games to the honor of Jupiter, so, by his institution, they should
celebrate the Isthmian to the honor of Neptune. At the same time he made
an agreement with the Corinthians, that they should allow those that
came from Athens to the celebration of the Isthmian games as much space
of honor before the rest to behold the spectacle in as the sail of the
ship that brought them thither, stretched to its full extent, could
cover; so Hellenicus and Andro of Halicarnassus have established.

Concerning his voyage into the Euxine Sea, Philochorus and some others
write that he made it with Hercules, offering him his service in the
war against the Amazons, and had Antiope given him for the reward of his
valor; but the greater number, of whom are Pherecides, Hellanicus,
and Herodorus, with a navy under his own command, and took the Amazon
prisoner,--the more probable story, for we do not read that any other,
of all those that accompanied him in this action, took any Amazon
prisoner. Bion adds, that, to take her, he had to use deceit and fly
away; for the Amazons, he says, being naturally lovers of men, were so
far from avoiding Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, that they
sent him presents to his ship; but he, having invited Antiope, who
brought them, to come aboard, immediately set sail and carried her
away. An author named Menecrates, that wrote the History of Nicaea in
Bithynia, adds, that Theseus, having Antiope aboard his vessel, cruised
for some time about those coasts, and that there were in the same ship
three young men of Athens, that accompanied him in his voyage, all
brothers, whose names were Euneos, Thoas, and Soloon. The last of these
fell desperately in love with Antiope; and escaping the notice of the
rest, revealed the secret only to one of his most intimate acquaintance,
and employed him to disclose his passion to Antiope. She rejected his
pretences with a very positive denial, yet treated the matter with much
gentleness and discretion, and made no complaint to Theseus of anything
that had happened; but Soloon, the thing being desperate, leaped into
a river near the seaside and drowned himself. As soon as Theseus was
aquainted with his death, and his unhappy love that was the cause of it,
he was extremely distressed, and, in the height of his grief, an oracle
which he had formerly received at Delphi came into his mind; for he had
been commanded by the priestess of Apollo Pythius, that, wherever in a
strange land he was most sorrowful and under the greatest affliction,
he should build a city there, and leave some of his followers to be
governors of the place. For this cause he there founded a city, which
he called, from the name of Apollo, Pythopolis, and, in honor of the
unfortunate youth, he named the river that runs by it Soloon, and left
the two surviving brothers intrusted with the care of the government and
laws, joining with them Hermus, one of the nobility of Athens, from whom
a place in the city is called the House of Hermus; though by an error
in the accent it has been taken for the House of Hermes, or Mercury, and
the honor that was designed to the hero, transferred to the god.

This was the origin and cause of the Amazonian invasion of Attica, which
would seem to have been no slight or womanish enterprise. For it is
impossible that they should have placed their camp in the very city,
and joined battle close by the Pnyx and the hill called Museum, unless,
having first conquered the country round about, they had thus with
impunity advanced to the city. That they made so long a journey by land,
and passed the Cimmerian Bosphorus when frozen, as Hellanicus writes,
is difficult to be believed. That they encamped all but in the city is
certain, and may be sufficiently confirmed by the names that the places
thereabout yet retain, and the graves and the monuments of those that
fell the battle. Both armies being in sight, there was a long pause and
doubt on each side which should give the first onset; at last Theseus,
having sacrificed to Fear, in obedience to the command of an oracle he
had received, gave them battle, in which action a great number of the
Amazons were slain. At length, after four months, a peace was concluded
between them by the mediation of Hippolyta (for so this historian calls
the Amazon whom Theseus married, and not Antiope), though others write
that she was slain with a dart by Molpadia, while fighting by Theseus's
side, and that the pillar which stands by the temple of Olympian Earth
was erected to her honor. Nor is it to be wondered at, that in events
of such antiquity, history should be in disorder. This is as much as is
worth telling concerning the Amazons.

The celebrated friendship between Theseus and Pirithous is said to have
been begun as follows: The fame of the strength and valor of Theseus
being spread through Greece, Pirithous was desirous to make a trial
and proof of it himself, and to this end seized a herd of oxen which
belonged to Theseus, and was driving them away from Marathon, and, when
news was brought that Theseus pursued him in arms, he did not fly, but
turned back and went to meet him. But as soon as they had viewed one
another, each so admired the gracefulness and beauty, and was seized
with such a respect for the courage of the other, that they forgot all
thoughts of fighting; and Pirithous, first stretching out his hand to
Theseus, bade him be judge in this case himself, and promised to submit
willingly to any penalty he should impose. But Theseus not only forgave
him all, but entreated him to be his friend and brother in arms; and
they ratified their friendship by oaths. After this Pirithous married
Deidamia, and invited Theseus to the wedding, entreating him to come and
see his country, and make acquaintance with the Lapithae; he had at the
same time invited the Centaurs to the feast, who, growing hot with
wine and beginning to be insolent and wild, the Lapithae took immediate
revenge upon them, slaying many of them upon the place, and afterwards,
having overcome them in battle, drove the whole race of them out of
their country, Theseus all along taking the part of the Lapithae, and
fighting on their side.

Theseus was now fifty years old, as Hellanicus states, when he carried
off Helen, who was yet too young to be married. Some writers, to take
away this accusation of one of the greatest crimes laid to his charge,
say that he did not steal away Helen himself, but that Idas and
Lynceus brought her to him, and committed her to his charge, and that,
therefore, he refused to restore her at the demand of Castor and Pollux;
or, indeed, they say her own father, Tyndarus, had sent her to be kept
by him, for fear of Enarophorus, the son of Hippocoon, who would
have carried her away by force when she was yet a child. But the most
probable account, and that which has witnesses on its side, is this:
Theseus and Pirithous went both together to Sparta, and, having seized
the young lady as she was dancing in the temple of Diana Orthia, fled
away with her. There were presently men in arms sent to pursue, but they
followed no farther than to Tegea; and Theseus and Pirithous being now
out of danger, having passed through Peloponnesus, made an agreement
between themselves, that he to whom the lot should fall should have
Helen to his wife, but should be obliged to assist in procuring another
for his friend. The lot fell upon Theseus, who conveyed her to Aphidnae,
not being yet marriageable, and delivered her to one of his allies,
called Aphidnus, and having sent his mother, Aethra, after to take care
of her, desired him to keep them so secretly that none might know
where they were; which done, to return the same service to his friend
Pirithous, he accompanied him in his journey to Epirus, in order to
steal away the king of the Molossians' daughter. The king, his own name
being Aidoneus, or Pluto, called his wife Proserpina, and his daughter
Cora, and a great dog which he kept Cerberus, with whom he ordered all
that came as suitors to his daughter to fight, and promised her to him
that should overcome the beast. But having been informed that the design
of Pirithous and his companion was not to court his daughter, but to
force her away, he caused them both to be seized, and threw Pirithous to
be torn to pieces by the dog, and put Theseus into prison, and kept him.

About this time Menetheus, the son of Peteus, grandson of Orneus, and
great-grandson to Erechtheus, the first man that is recorded to have
affected popularity and ingratiated himself with the multitude, stirred
up and exasperated the most eminent men of the city, who had long borne
a secret grudge to Theseus, conceiving that he had robbed them of their
several little kingdoms and lordships, and, having pent them all up in
one city, was using them as his subjects and slaves. He put also the
meaner people into commotion, telling them, that, deluded with a mere
dream of liberty, though indeed they were deprived both of that and
their proper homes and religious usages, instead of many good and
gracious kings of their own, they had given themselves up to be
lorded over by a newcomer and a stranger. Whilst he was thus busied
in infecting the minds of the citizens, the war that Castor and Pollux
brought against Athens came very opportunity to farther the sedition he
had been promoting, and some say that he by his persuasions was wholly
the cause of their invading the city. At their first approach they
committed no acts of hostility, but peaceably demanded their sister
Helen; but the Athenians returning answer that they neither had her nor
knew where she was disposed of, they prepared to assault the city, when
Academus, having, by whatever means, found it out, disclosed to them
that she was secretly kept at Aphidnea. For which reason he was
both highly honored during his life by Castor and Pollux, and the
Lacedaemonians, when often in after times they made excursions into
Attica, and destroyed all the country round about, spared the Academy
for the sake of Academus.

Hercules, passing by the Molossians, was entertained in his way by
Aidoneus the king, who, in conversation, accidentally spoke of the
journey of Theseus and Pirithous into his country, of what they had
designed to do, and what they were forced to suffer. Hercules was much
grieved for the inglorious death of the one and the miserable condition
of the other. As for Pirithous, he thought it useless to complain; but
begged to have Theseus released for his sake, and obtained that favor
from the king. Theseus, being thus set at liberty, returned to Athens,
where his friends were not wholly suppressed, and dedicated to Hercules
all the sacred places which the city had set apart for himself, changing
their names from Thesea to Herculea, four only excepted, as Philochorus
writes. And wishing immediately to resume the first place in the
commonwealth, and manage the state as before, he soon found himself
involved in factions and troubles; those who long had hated him had
now added to their hatred contempt; and the minds of the people were
so generally corrupted, that, instead of obeying commands with silence,
they expected to be flattered into their duty. He had some thoughts
to have reduced them by force, but was overpowered by demagogues and
factions. And at last, despairing of any good success of his affairs in
Athens, he sent away his children privately to Euboea, commending them
to the care of Elephenor, the son of Chalcodon; and he himself, having
solemnly cursed the people of Athens in the village of Gargettus, in
which there yet remains the place called Araterion, or the place of
cursing, sailed to Scyros, where he had lands left him by his father,
and friendship, as he thought, with those of the island. Lycomedes was
then king of Scyros. Theseus, therefore, addressed himself to him,
and desired to have his lands put into his possession, as designing
to settle and dwell there, though others say that he came to beg his
assistance against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, either jealous of the
glory of so great a man, or to gratify Menestheus, having led him up to
the highest cliff of the island, on pretense of showing him from thence
the lands that he desired, threw him headlong down from the rock and
killed him. Others say he fell down of himself by a slip of his foot,
as he was walking there, according to his custom, after supper. At that
time there was no notice taken, nor were any concerned for his death,
but Menestheus quietly possessed the kingdom of Athens. His sons were
brought up in a private condition, and accompanied Elephenor to the
Trojan war, but, after the decease of Menestheus in that expedition,
returned to Athens, and recovered the government. But in succeeding
ages, beside several other circumstances that moved the Athenians to
honor Theseus as a demigod, in the battle which was fought at Marathon
against the Medes, many of the soldiers believed they saw an apparition
of Theseus in arms, rushing on at the head of them against the
barbarians. And after the Median war, Phaedo being archon of Athens,
the Athenians, consulting the oracle at Delphi, were commanded to gather
together the bones of Theseus, and, laying them in some honorable place,
keep them as sacred in the city. But it was very difficult to recover
these relics, or so much as to find out the place where they lay, on
account of the inhospitable and savage temper of the barbarous people
that inhabited the island. Nevertheless, afterwards, when Cimon took the
island (as is related in his life), and had a great ambition to find
the place where Theseus was buried, he, by chance, spied an eagle upon
a rising ground pecking with her beak and tearing up the earth with her
talons, when on the sudden it came into his mind, as it were by some
divine inspiration, to dig there, and search for the bones of Theseus.
There were found in that place a coffin of a man of more than ordinary
size, and a brazen spear-head, and a sword lying by it, all which he
took aboard his galley and brought with him to Athens. Upon which the
Athenians, greatly delighted, went out to meet and receive the relics
with splendid procession and with sacrifices, as if it were Theseus
himself returning alive to the city. He lies interred in the middle of
the city, near the present gymnasium. His tomb is a sanctuary and
refuge for slaves, and all those of mean condition that fly from the
persecution of men in power, in memory that Theseus while he lived
was an assister and protector of the distressed, and never refused the
petitions of the afflicted that fled to him. The chief and most solemn
sacrifice which they celebrate to him is kept on the eighth day of
Pyanepsion, on which he returned with the Athenian young men from Crete.
Besides which, they sacrifice to him on the eighth day of every month,
either because he returned from Troezen the eighth day of Hecatombaeon,
as Diodorus the geographer writes, or else thinking that number to be
proper to him, because he was reputed to be born of Neptune, because
they sacrifice to Neptune on the eighth day of every month. The number
eight being the first cube of an even number, and the double of the
first square, seemed to be am emblem of the steadfast and immovable
power of this god, who from thence has the names of Asphalius and
Gaeiochus, that is, the establisher and stayer of the earth.




ROMULUS

From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great in
glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called, authors
do not agree.

But the story which is most believed and has the greatest number of
vouchers in general outline runs thus: the kings of Alba reigned in
lineal descent from Aeneas, and the succession devolved at length upon
two brothers, Numitor and Amulius. Amulius proposed to divide things
into two equal shares, and set as equivalent to the kingdom the treasure
and gold that were brought from Troy. Numitor chose the kingdom; but
Amulius, having the money, and being able to do more with that than
Numitor, took his kingdom from with great ease, and, fearing lest his
daughter might have children who would supplant him, made her a Vestal,
bound in that condition forever to live a single and maiden life. This
lady some call Ilia, others Rhea, and others Silvia; however, not long
after, contrary to the established laws of the Vestals, she had two
sons of more than human size and beauty, whom Amulius, becoming yet more
alarmed, commanded a servant to take and cast away; this man some call
Faustulus, others say Faustulus was the man who brought them up. He put
the children, however, in a small trough, and went towards the river
with a design to cast them in; but seeing the waters much swollen
and coming violently down, was afraid to go nearer, and, dropping the
children near the bank, went away. The river overflowing, the flood at
last bore up the trough, and, gently wafting it, landed them on a
smooth piece of ground, which they now call Cermanus, formerly Germanus,
perhaps from "Germani," which signifies brothers.

While the infants lay here, history tells us, a she-wolf nursed them,
and a woodpecker constantly fed and watched them. These creatures
are esteemed holy to the god Mars; the woodpecker the Latins still
especially worship and honor. Which things, as much as any, gave credit
to what the mother of the children said, that their father was the god
Mars.

Meantime Faustulus, Amulius's swineherd, brought up the children
without any man's knowledge; or, as those say who wish to keep closer to
probabilities, with the knowledge and secret assistance of Numitor; for
it is said, they went to school at Gabii, and were well instructed in
letters, and other accomplishments befitting their birth. And they were
called Romulus and Remus (from "ruma", the dug), because they were found
suckling the wolf. In their very infancy, the size and beauty of their
bodies intimated their natural superiority; and when they grew up, they
both proved brave and manly, attempting all enterprises that seemed
hazardous, and showing in them a courage altogether undaunted. But
Romulus seemed rather to act by counsel, and to show the sagacity of
a statesman, and in all his dealings with their neighbors, whether
relating to feeding of flocks or to hunting, gave the idea of being born
rather to rule than to obey. To their comrades and inferiors they were
therefore dear; but the king's servants, his bailiffs and overseers, as
being in nothing better men than themselves, they despised and slighted,
nor were the least concerned at their commands and menaces. They used
honest pastimes and liberal studies, not esteeming sloth and idleness
honest and liberal, but rather such exercises as hunting and running,
repelling robbers, taking of thieves, and delivering the wronged and
oppressed from injury. For doing such things, they became famous.

A quarrel occurring betwixt Numitor's and Amulius's cowherds, the
latter, not enduring the driving away of their cattle by the others,
fell upon them and put them to flight, and rescued the greatest part of
the prey. At which Numitor being highly incensed, they little regarded
it, but collected and took into their company a number of needy men and
runaway slaves,--acts which looked like the first stages of rebellion.
It so happened, that when Romulus was attending a sacrifice, being fond
of sacred rites and divination, Numitor's herdsmen, meeting with
Remus on a journey with few companions, fell upon him, and, after some
fighting, took him prisoner, carried him before Numitor, and there
accused him. Numitor would not punish him himself, fearing his brother's
anger, but went to Amulius and desired justice, as he was Amulius's
brother and was affronted by Amulius's servants. The men of Alba
likewise resenting the thing, and thinking he had been dishonorably
used, Amulius was induced to deliver Remus up into Numitor's hands, to
use him as he thought fit. He therefore took and carried him home,
and, being struck with admiration of the youth's person, in stature
and strength of body exceeding all men, and perceiving in his very
countenance the courage and force of his mind, which stood unsubdued and
unmoved by his present circumstances, and hearing further that all the
enterprises and actions of his life were answerable to what he saw of
him, but chiefly, as it seemed, a divine influence aiding and directing
the first steps that were to lead to great results, out of the mere
thought of his mind, and casually, as it were, he put his hand upon the
fact, and, in gentler terms and with a kind aspect, to inspire him with
confidence and hope, asked him who he was, and whence he was derived.
He, taking heart, spoke thus: "I will hide nothing from you, for you
seem to be of a more princely temper than Amulius, in that you give
a hearing and examine before you punish, while he condemns before the
cause is heard. Formerly, then, we (for we are twins) thought ourselves
the sons of Faustulus and Larentia, the king's servants; but since we
have been accused and aspersed with calumnies, and brought in peril of
our lives here before you, we hear great things of ourselves, the truth
of which my present danger is likely to bring to the test. Our birth is
said to have been secret, our fostering and nurture in our infancy still
more strange; by birds and beasts, to whom we were cast out, we were
fed--by the milk of a wolf, and the morsels of a woodpecker, as we lay
in a little trough by the side of the river. The trough is still in
being, and is preserved, with brass plates round it, and an inscription
in letters almost effaced, which may prove hereafter unavailing tokens
to our parents when we are dead and gone." Numitor, upon these words,
and computing the dates by the young man's looks, slighted not the hope
that flattered him, but considered how to come at his daughter privately
(for she was still kept under restraint), to talk with her concerning
these matters.

Faustulus, hearing Remus was taken and delivered up, called on Romulus
to assist in his rescue, informing him then plainly of the particulars
of his birth--not but he had before given hints of it--and told as much
as an attentive man might make no small conclusions from; he himself,
full of concern and fear of not coming in time, took the trough, and
ran instantly to Numitor; but giving a suspicion to some of the king's
sentry at his gate, and being gazed upon by them and perplexed with
their questions, he let it be seen that he was hiding the trough under
his cloak. By chance there was one among them who was at the exposing of
the children, and was one employed in the office; he, seeing the trough
and knowing it by its make and inscription, guessed at the business,
and, without further delay, telling the king of it, brought in the man
to be examined. Faustulus, hard beset, did not show himself altogether
proof against terror; nor yet was he wholly forced out of all: confessed
indeed the children were alive, but lived, he said, as shepherds, a
great way from Alba; he himself was going to carry the trough to Ilia,
who had often greatly desired and handle it, for a confirmation of her
hopes of her children. As men generally do who are troubled in mind and
act either in fear or passion, it so fell out Amulius now did; for he
sent in haste as a messenger, a man, otherwise honest and friendly to
Numitor, with commands to learn from Numitor whether any tidings were
come to him of the children's being alive. He, coming and seeing how
little Remus wanted of being received into the arms and embraces of
Numitor, both gave him surer confidence in his hope, and advised them,
with all expedition, to proceed to action; himself too joining and
assisting them, and indeed, had they wished it, the time would not have
let them demur. For Romulus was now come very near, and many of the
citizens, out of fear and hatred of Amulius, were running out to join
him; besides, he brought great forces with him, dividing into companies,
each of an hundred men, every captain carrying a small bundle of grass
and shrubs tied to a pole. The Latins call such bundles "manipuli," and
from hence it is that in their armies still they call their captains
"manipulares." Remus rousing the citizens within to revolt, and Romulus
making attacks from without, the tyrant, not knowing either what to do,
or what expedient to think of for his security, in this perplexity and
confusion was taken and put to death. This narrative, for the most part
given by Fabius and Diocles of Peparethos, who seem to be the earliest
historians of the foundation of Rome, is suspected by some because
of its dramatic and fictitious appearance; but it would not wholly be
disbelieved, if men would remember what a poet Fortune sometimes shows
herself, and consider that the Roman power would hardly have reached so
high a pitch without a divinely ordered origin, attended with great and
extraordinary circumstances.

Amulius now being dead and matters quietly disposed, the two brothers
would neither dwell in Alba without governing there, nor take the
government into their own hands during the life of their grandfather.
Having therefore delivered the dominion up into his hands, and paid
their mother befitting honor, they resolved to live by themselves, and
build a city in the same place where they were in their infancy brought
up. This seems the most honorable reason for their departure; though
perhaps it was necessary, having such a body of slaves and fugitives
collected about them, either to come to nothing by dispersing them, or
if not so, then to live with them elsewhere. For that the inhabitants of
Alba did not think fugitives worthy of being received and incorporated
as citizens among them plainly appears from the matter of the women, an
attempt made not wantonly, but of necessity, because they could not get
wives by good-will. For they certainly paid unusual respect and honor to
those whom they thus forcibly seized.

Not long after the first foundation of the city, they opened a sanctuary
of refuge for all fugitives, which they called the temple of the god
Asylaeus, where they received and protected all, delivering none back,
neither the servant to his master, the debtor to his creditor, nor the
murderer into the hands of the magistrate, saying it was a privileged
place, and they could so maintain it by an order of the holy oracle;
insomuch that the city grew presently very populous, for, they say,
it consisted at first of no more than a thousand houses. But of that
hereafter.

Their minds being fully bent upon building, there arose presently a
difference about the place where. Romulus chose what was called Roma
Quadrata, or the Square Rome, and would have the city there. Remus laid
out a piece of ground on the Aventine Mount, well fortified by nature,
which was from him called Remonium, but now Rignarium. Concluding at
last to decide the contest by a divination from a flight of birds, and
placing themselves apart at some distance, Remus, they say, saw six
vultures, and Romulus double the number; others say Remus did truly see
his number, and that Romulus feigned his, but, when Remus came to him,
that then he did, indeed, see twelve. Hence it is that the Romans,
in their divinations from birds, chiefly regard the vulture, though
Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules was always very joyful when
a vulture appeared to him upon any occasion. For it is a creature
the least hurtful of any, pernicious neither to corn, fruit-tree, nor
cattle; it preys only on carrion, and never kills or hurts any living
thing; and as for birds, it touches not them, though they are dead, as
being of its own species, whereas eagles, owls, and hawks mangle and
kill their own fellow-creatures; yet, as Aeschylus says,--

What bird is clean that preys on fellow bird?

Besides, all other birds are, so to say, never out of our eyes; they
let themselves be seen of us continually; but a vulture is a very rare
sight, and you can seldom meet with a man that has seen their young;
their rarity and infrequency has raised a strange opinion in some, that
they come to us from some other world; as soothsayers ascribe a
divine origination to all things not produced either of nature or of
themselves.

When Remus knew the cheat, he was much displeased; and as Romulus was
casting up a ditch, where he designed the foundation of the city wall,
he turned some pieces of the work to ridicule, and obstructed others:
at last, as he was in contempt leaping over it, some say Romulus himself
struck him, others Celer, one of his companions; he fell, however,
and in the scuffle Faustulus also was slain, and Plistinus, who, being
Faustulus's brother, story tells us, helped to bring up Romulus. Celer
upon this fled instantly into Tuscany, and from him the Romans call all
men that are swift of foot Celeres; and because Quintus Metellus, at
his father's funeral, in a few days' time gave the people a show of
gladiators, admiring his expedition in getting it ready, they gave him
the name of Celer.

Romulus, having buried his brother Remus, together with his two
foster-fathers, on the mount Remonia, set to building his city; and sent
for men out of Tuscany, who directed him by sacred usages and written
rules in all the ceremonies to be observed, as in a religious rite.
First, they dug a round trench about that which is now the Comitium,
or Court of Assembly and into it solemnly threw the first-fruits of all
things either good by custom or necessary by nature; lastly, every man
taking a small piece of earth of the country from whence he came, they
all threw them in promiscuously together. This trench they call, as they
do the heavens, Mundus; making which their centre, they described the
city in a circle round it. Then the founder fitted to a plough, a bronze
ploughshare, and, yoking together a bull and a cow, drove himself a
deep line or furrow round the bounds; while the business of those that
followed after was to see that whatever earth was thrown up should
be turned all inwards towards the city, and not to let any clod lie
outside. With this line they described the wall, and called it, by a
contradiction, Pomoerium, that is, "post murum," after or beside the
wall; and where they designed to make a gate, there they took out the
share, carried the plough over, and left a space; for which reason they
consider the whole wall as holy, except where the gates are; for had
they adjudged them also sacred, they could not, without offence to
religion, have given free ingress and egress for the necessaries of
human life, some of which are in themselves unclean.

As for the day they began to build the city, it is universally agreed
to have been the twenty-first of April, and that day the Romans annually
keep holy, calling it their country's birthday. At first, they say, they
sacrificed no living creatures on this day, thinking it fit to preserve
the feast of their country's birthday pure and without stain of blood.
Yet before ever the city was built, there was a feast of herdsmen and
shepherds kept on this day, which went by the name of Palilia. The Roman
and Greek months have now little or no agreement; they say, however, the
day on which Romulus began to build was quite certainly the thirtieth
of the month, at which time there was an eclipse of the sun which they
conceive to be that seen by Antimachus, the Teian poet, in the third
year of the sixth Olympiad. In the times of Varro the philosopher, a
man deeply read in Roman history, lived one Tarrutius, his familiar
acquaintance, a good philosopher and mathematician, and one, too, that
out of curiosity had studied the way of drawing schemes and tables, and
was thought to be a proficient in the art; to him Varro propounded to
cast Romulus's nativity, even to the first day and hour, making his
deductions from the several events of the man's life which he should be
informed of, exactly as in working back a geometrical problem; for it
belonged, he said, to the same science both to foretell a man's life
by knowing the time of his birth, and also to find out his birth by the
knowledge of his life. This task Tarrutius undertook, and first looking
into the actions and casualties of the man, together with the time of
his life and manner of his death, and then comparing all these remarks
together, he very confidently and positively pronounced that Romulus was
born the twenty-first day of the month Thoth, about sun-rising; and
that the first stone of Rome was laid by him the ninth day of the month
Pharmuthi, between the second and third hour. For the fortunes of
cities as well as of men, they think, have their certain periods of time
prefixed, which may be collected and foreknown from the position of the
stars at their first foundation. But these and the like relations may
perhaps not so much take and delight the reader with their novelty and
curiosity as offend him by their extravagance.

The city now being built, Romulus enlisted all that were of age to bear
arms into military companies, each company consisting of three thousand
footmen and three hundred horse. These companies were called legions,
because they were the choicest and most select of the people for
fighting men. The rest of the multitude he called the people; an hundred
of the most eminent he chose for counselors; these he styled patricians,
and their assembly the senate, which signifies a council of elders.

In the fourth month after the city was built, as Fabius writes, the
adventure of stealing the women was attempted. It would seem that,
observing his city to be filled by a confluence of foreigners, few
of whom had wives, and that the multitude in general, consisting of a
mixture of mean and obscure men, fell under contempt, and seemed to be
of no long continuance together, and hoping farther, after the women
were appeased, to make this injury in some measure an occasion of
confederacy and mutual commerce with the Sabines, Romulus took in his
hand this exploit after this manner. First, he gave it out that he had
found an altar of a certain god hid under ground, perhaps the equestrian
Neptune, for the altar is kept covered in the Circus Maximus at all
other times, and only at horse-races is exposed to public view. Upon
discovery of this altar, Romulus, by proclamation, appointed a day for
a splendid sacrifice, and for public games and shows, to entertain all
sorts of people; many flocked thither, and he himself sat in front,
amidst his nobles, clad in purple. Now the signal for their falling on
was to be whenever he rose and gathered up his robe and threw it over
his body; his men stood all ready armed, with their eyes intent upon
him, and when the sign was given, drawing their swords and falling on
with a great shout, they stole away the daughters of the Sabines, the
men themselves flying without any let or hindrance. Some say there
were but thirty taken, and from Curiae or Fraternities were named; but
Valerius Antias says five hundred and twenty seven, Juba, six hundred
and eighty-three.

It continues a custom at this very day for the bride not of herself to
pass her husband's threshold, but to be lifted over, in memory that the
Sabine virgins were carried in by violence, and did not go in of their
own free will. Some say, too, the custom of parting the bride's hair
with the head of a spear was in token their marriages began at first by
war and acts of hostility.

The Sabines were a numerous and martial people, but lived in small,
unfortified villages, as it befitted, they thought, a colony of the
Lacedaemonians to be bold and fearless; nevertheless, seeing themselves
bound by such hostages to their good behavior, and being solicitous
for their daughters, they sent ambassadors to Romulus with fair and
equitable requests, that he would return their young women and recall
that act of violence, and afterwards, by persuasion and lawful means,
seek friendly correspondence between both nations. Romulus would not
part with the young women, yet proposed to the Sabines to enter into an
alliance with them; upon which point some consulted and demurred long,
but Acron, king of the Ceninenses, a man of high spirit and a good
warrior, who had all along a jealousy of Romulus's bold attempts, and
considering particularly from this exploit upon the women that he was
growing formidable to all people, and indeed insufferable, were he not
chastised, first rose up in arms, and with a powerful army advanced
against him. Romulus likewise prepared to receive him; but when they
came within sight and viewed each other, they made a challenge to fight
a single duel, the armies standing by under arms, without participation.
And Romulus, making a vow to Jupiter, if he should conquer, to carry
himself, and dedicate his adversary's armor to his honor, overcame him
in combat, and, a battle ensuing, routed his army also, and then took
his city; but did those he found in it no injury, only commanded them to
demolish the place and attend him to Rome, there to be admitted to
all the privileges of citizens. And indeed there was nothing did more
advance the greatness of Rome, than that she did always unite and
incorporate those whom she conquered into herself. Romulus, that he
might perform his vow in the most acceptable manner to Jupiter, and
withal make the pomp of it delightful to the eye of the city, cut down a
tall oak which he saw growing in the camp, which he trimmed to the shape
of a trophy, and fastened on it Acron's whole suit of armor disposed
in proper form; then he himself, girding his clothes about him, and
crowning his head with a laurel-garland, his hair gracefully flowing,
carried the trophy resting erect upon his right shoulder, and so marched
on, singing songs of triumph, and his whole army following after, the
citizens all receiving him with acclamations of joy and wonder. The
procession of this day was the origin and model of all after triumphs.
But the statues of Romulus in triumph are, as may be seen in Rome, all
on foot.

After the overthrow of the Ceninensians, the other Sabines still
protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae,
Crustumerium, and Antemna, joined their forces against the Romans; they
in like manner were defeated in battle, and surrendered up to Romulus
their cities to be seized, their lands and territories to be divided,
and themselves to be transplanted to Rome. All the lands which Romulus
acquired he distributed among the citizens, except only what the parents
of the stolen virgins had; these he suffered to possess their own. The
rest of the Sabines, enraged thereat, choosing Tatius their captain,
marched straight against Rome. The city was almost inaccessible, having
for its fortress that which is now the Capitol, where a strong guard
was placed, and Tarpeius their captain. But Tarpeia, daughter to the
captain, coveting the golden bracelets she saw them wear, betrayed the
fort into the Sabines' hands, and asked, in reward of her treachery, the
things they wore on their left arms. Tatius conditioning thus with her,
in the night she opened one of the gates and received the Sabines in.
And truly Antigonus, it would seem, was not solitary in saying he
loved betrayers, but hated those who had betrayed; nor Caesar, who
told Rhymitalces the Thracian that he loved the treason, but hated the
traitor; but it is the general feeling of all who have occasion for
wicked men's services, as people have for the poison of venomous beasts;
they are glad of them while they are of use, and abhor their baseness
when it is over. And so did Tatius behave towards Tarpeia, for he
commanded the Sabines, in regard to their contract, not to refuse her
the least part of what they wore on their left arms; and he himself
first took his bracelet off his arm, and threw that, together with his
buckler, at her; and all the rest following, she, being borne down and
quite buried with the multitude of gold and their shields, died under
the weight and pressure of them; Tarpeius also himself, being prosecuted
by Romulus, was found guilty of treason, and that part of the Capitol
they still call the Tarpeian Rock, from which they used to cast down
malefactors.

The Sabines being possessed of the hill, Romulus, in great fury, bade
them battle, and Tatius was confident to accept it. There were many
brief conflicts, we may suppose, but the most memorable was the last, in
which Romulus having received a wound on his head by a stone, and being
almost felled to the ground by it, and disabled, the Romans gave way,
and, being driven out of the level ground, fled towards the Palatium.
Romulus, by this time recovering from his wound a little, turned
about to renew the battle, and, facing the fliers, with a loud voice
encouraged them to stand and fight. But being overborne with numbers,
and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, he
prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the
Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made
than shame and respect for their king checked many; the fears of the
fugitives changed suddenly into confidence. The place they first
stood at was where now is the temple of Jupiter Stator (which may
be translated the Stayer); there they rallied again into ranks, and
repulsed the Sabines to the place called now Regia, and to the temple
of Vesta; where both parties, preparing to begin a second battle, were
prevented by a spectacle, strange to behold, and defying description.
For the daughters of the Sabines, who had been carried off, came
running, in great confusion, some on this side, some on that, with
miserable cries and lamentations, like creatures possessed, in the midst
of the army, and among the dead bodies, to come at their husbands and
their fathers, some with their young babes in their arms, others their
hair loose about their ears, but all calling, now upon the Sabines, now
upon the Romans, in the most tender and endearing words. Hereupon both
melted into compassion, and fell back, to make room for them betwixt
the armies. The sight of the women carried sorrow and commiseration upon
both sides into the hearts of all, but still more their words, which
began with expostulation and upbraiding, and ended with entreaty and
supplication.

"Wherein," say they, "have we injured or offended you, as to deserve
such sufferings, past and present? We were ravished away unjustly and
violently by those whose now we are; that being done, we were so long
neglected by our fathers, our brothers, and countrymen, that time,
having now by the strictest bonds united us to those we once mortally
hated, has made it impossible for us not to tremble at the danger and
weep at the death of the very men who once used violence to us. You
did not come to vindicate our honor, while we were virgins, against our
assailants; but do come now to force away wives from their husbands
and mothers from their children, a succor more grievous to its wretched
objects than the former betrayal and neglect of them. Which shall we
call the worst, their love-making or your compassion? If you were making
war upon any other occasion, for our sakes you ought to withhold your
hands from those to whom we have made you fathers-in-law and grandsires.
If it be for our own cause, then take us, and with us your sons-in-law
and grandchildren. Restore to us our parents and kindred, but do not
rob us of our children and husbands. Make us not, we entreat you,
twice captives." Having spoken many such words as these, and earnestly
praying, a truce was made, and the chief officers came to a parley;
the women, in the meantime, brought and presented their husbands and
children to their fathers and brothers; gave those that wanted, meat
and drink, and carried the wounded home to be cured, and showed also how
much they governed within doors, and how indulgent their husbands were
to them, in demeaning themselves towards them with all kindness and
respect imaginable. Upon this, conditions were agreed upon, that what
women pleased might stay where they were, exempt from all drudgery and
labor but spinning; that the Romans and Sabines should inhabit the city
together; that the city should be called Rome, from Romulus; but the
Romans, Quirites, from the country of Tatius; and that they both should
govern and command in common. The place of the ratification is still
called Comitium, from "coire," to meet.

The city thus being doubled in number, an hundred of the Sabines were
elected senators, and the legions were increased to six thousand foot
and six hundred horse; then they divided the people into three tribes:
the first, from Romulus, named Ramnenses; the second, from Tatius,
Tatienses; the third, Luceres, from the "lucus," or grove, where the
Asylum stood, whither many fled for sanctuary, and were received into
the city. And that they were just three, the very name of "tribe" and
"tribune" seems to show. Then they constituted many things in honor to
the women, such as to give them the way wherever they met them; to
speak no ill word in their presence; that their children should wear
an ornament about their necks called the "bulla" (because it was like a
bubble), and the "praetexta," a gown edged with purple.

The princes did not immediately join in council together, but at first
each met with his own hundred; afterwards all assembled together. Tatius
dwelt where now the temple of Moneta stands, and Romulus, close by the
steps, as they call them, of the Fair Shore, near the descent from the
Mount Palatine to the Circus Maximus. There, they say, grew the
holy cornel tree, of which they report that Romulus once, to try his
strength, threw a dart from the Aventine Mount, the staff of which was
made of cornel, which struck so deep into the ground that no one of
many that tried could pluck it up; and the soil, being fertile, gave
nourishment to the wood, which sent forth branches, and produced a
cornel-stock of considerable bigness. This did posterity preserve and
worship as one of the most sacred things; and therefore, walled it
about; and if to any one it appeared not green nor flourishing, but
inclining to pine and wither, he immediately made outcry to all he met,
and they, like people hearing of a house on fire, with one accord would
cry for water, and run from all parts with bucketfuls to the place. But
when Gaius Caesar they say, was repairing the steps about it, some of
the laborers digging too close, the roots were destroyed, and the tree
withered.

The Sabines adopted the Roman months, of which whatever is remarkable is
mentioned in the Life of Numa. Romulus, on the other hand, adopted their
long shields, and changed his own armor and that of all the Romans, who
before wore round targets of the Argive pattern. Feasts and sacrifices
they partook of in common, not abolishing any which either nation
observed before, and instituting several new ones. This, too, is
observable as a singular thing in Romulus, that he appointed no
punishment for real parricide, but called all murder so, thinking the
one an accursed thing, but the other a thing impossible; and for a long
time, his judgement seemed to have been right; for in almost six hundred
years together, nobody committed the like in Rome; Lucius Hostius, after
the wars of Hannibal, is recorded to have been the first parricide. Let
thus much suffice concerning these matters.

In the fifth year of the reign of Tatius, some of his friends and
kinsmen, meeting ambassadors coming from Laurentum to Rome, attempted on
the road to take away their money by force, and, upon their resistance,
killed them. So great a villany having been committed, Romulus thought
the malefactors ought at once to be punished, but Tatius shuffled off
and deferred the execution of it; and this one thing was the beginning
of an open quarrel betwixt them; in all other respects they were very
careful of their conduct, and administered affairs together with
great unanimity. The relations of the slain, being debarred of lawful
satisfaction by reason of Tatius, fell upon him as he was sacrificing
with Romulus at Lavinium, and slew him; but escorted Romulus home,
commending and extolling him for just a prince. Romulus took the body of
Tatius, and buried it very splendidly in the Aventine Mount.

The Roman cause daily gathering strength, their weaker neighbors shrunk
away, and were thankful to be left untouched; but the stronger, out of
fear or envy, thought they ought not to give away to Romulus, but
to curb and put a stop to his growing greatness. The first were the
Veientes, a people of Tuscany, who had large possessions, and dwelt in a
spacious city; they took occasion to commence a war, by claiming Fidenae
as belonging to them. But being scornfully retorted upon by Romulus
in his answers, they divided themselves into two bodies; with one they
attacked the garrison of Fidenae, the other marched against Romulus;
that which went against Fidenae got the victory, and slew two thousand
Romans; the other was worsted by Romulus, with the loss of eight
thousand men. A fresh battle was fought near Fidenae, and here all men
acknowledge the day's success to have been chiefly the work of Romulus
himself, who showed the highest skill as well as courage, and seemed to
manifest a strength and swiftness more than human. But what some write,
that, of fourteen thousand that fell that day, above half were slain
by Romulus's own hand, verges too near to fable, and is, indeed, simply
incredible: since even the Messenians are thought to go too far in
saying that Aristomenes three times offered sacrifices for the death of
a hundred enemies, Lacedaemonians, slain by himself. The army being thus
routed, Romulus, suffering those that were left to make their escape,
led his forces against the city; they, having suffered such great
losses, did not venture to oppose, but, humbly suing him, made a league
and friendship for an hundred years; surrendering also a large district
of land called Septempagium, that is, the seven parts, as also their
salt-works upon the river, and fifty noblemen for hostages. He made his
triumph for this on the Ides of October, leading, among the rest of his
many captives, the general of the Veientes, an elderly man, but who
had not, it seemed, acted with the prudence of age; whence even now, in
sacrifices for victories, they led an old man through the market-place
to the Capitol, appareled in purple, with a bulla, or child's toy, tied
to it, and the crier cries, "Sardians to be sold;" for the Tuscans are
said to be a colony of the Sardians, and the Veientes are a city of
Tuscany.

This was the last battle Romulus ever fought; afterwards he, as
most, nay all men, very few excepted, do, who are raised by great and
miraculous good-haps of fortune to power and greatness, so, I say, did
he: relying upon his own great actions and growing of a haughtier mind,
he forsook his popular behavior for kingly arrogance, odious to the
people; to whom in particular the state which he assumed was hateful.
For he dressed in scarlet, with the purple-bordered robe over it; he
gave audience on a couch of slate, having always about him some young
men called "Celeres," from their swiftness in doing commissions. He
suddenly disappeared on the Nones of July, as they call the month which
was then Quintilis, leaving nothing of certainty to be related of
his death; the senators suffered the people not to search, or busy
themselves about the matter, but commanded them to honor and worship
Romulus as one taken up to the gods, and about to be to them, in the
place of a good prince, now a propitious god. The multitude, hearing
this, went away believing and rejoicing in hopes of good things from
him; but there were some, who, canvassing the matter in a hostile
temper, accused the patricians, as men that persuaded the people to
believe ridiculous tales, when they were the murderers of the king.

Things being in this disorder, one, they say, of the patricians, of
noble family and approved good character, and a faithful and familiar
friend of Romulus himself, having come with him from Alba, Julius
Proculus by name, presented himself in the forum; and taking a most
sacred oath, protested before them all, that, as he was travelling on
the road, he had seen Romulus coming to meet him, looking taller and
comelier than ever, dressed in shining and flaming armor; and he, being
affrighted at the apparition, said, "Why, O king, or for what purpose,
have you abandoned us to unjust and wicked surmises, and the whole city
to bereavement and endless sorrow?" and that he made answer, "It pleased
the gods, O Proculus, that we, who came from them, should remain so
long a time amongst men as we did; and, having built a city to be the
greatest in the world for empire and glory, should again return to
heaven. But farewell; and tell the Romans, that, by the exercise of
temperance and fortitude, they shall attain the height of human power;
we will be to you the propitious god Quirinus." This seemed credible to
the Romans, upon the honesty and oath of the relator, and laying aside
all jealousies and detractions, they prayed to Quirinus and saluted him
as a god.

This is like some of the Greek fables of Aristeas the Proconnesian,
and Cleomedes the Astypalaean; for they say Aristeas died in a fuller's
workshop, and his friends, coming to look for him, found his body
vanished; and that some presently after, coming from abroad, said
they met him travelling towards Croton. And that Cleomedes, being
an extraordinarily strong and gigantic man, but also wild and mad,
committed many desperate freaks; and at last, in a schoolhouse, striking
a pillar that sustained the roof with his fist, broke it in the middle,
so that the house fell and destroyed the children in it; and being
pursued, he fled into a great chest, and, shutting to the lid, held it
so fast that many men, with their united strength, could not force it
open; afterwards, breaking the chest to pieces, they found no man in it
alive or dead.

And many such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying
creatures naturally mortal; for though altogether to disown a divine
nature in human virtue were impious and base, so again to mix heaven
with earth is ridiculous. Let us believe with Pindar, that

     All human bodies yield to Death's decree:
     The soul survives to all eternity.

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

It was in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the thirty-eighth of his
reign that Romulus, they tell us, left the world.




COMPARISON OF THESEUS AND ROMULUS

Both Theseus and Romulus were by nature meant for governors; yet neither
lived up to the true character of a king, but fell off, and ran, the
one into popularity, the other into tyranny, falling both into the same
fault out of different passions. For a ruler's first end is to maintain
his office, which is done no less by avoiding what is unfit than by
observing what is suitable. Whoever is either too remiss or too strict
is no more a king or a governor, but either a demagogue or a despot,
and so becomes either odious or contemptible to his subjects. Though
certainly the one seems to be the fault of easiness and good-nature, the
other of pride and severity.

But Romulus has, first of all, one great plea, that his performances
proceeded from very small beginnings; for both the brothers, being
thought servants and the sons of swineherds, before becoming freemen
themselves gave liberty to almost all the Latins, obtaining at once all
the most honorable titles, as, destroyers of their country's enemies,
preservers of their friends and kindred, princes of the people, founders
of cities; not removers, like Theseus, who raised and compiled only one
house out of many, demolishing many cities bearing the names of ancient
kings and heroes. Romulus, indeed, did the same afterwards, forcing
his enemies to deface and ruin their own dwellings, and to sojourn
with their conquerors; but at first, not by removal, or increase of
an existing city, but by foundation of a new one, he obtained himself
lands, a country, a kingdom, wives, children, and relations. And, in so
doing, he killed or destroyed nobody, but benefited those that wanted
houses and homes, and were willing to be of a society and become
citizens. Robbers and malefactors he slew not; but he subdued nations,
he overthrew cities, he triumphed over kings and commanders. As to
Remus, it is doubtful by whose hand he fell; it is generally imputed
to others. His mother he clearly retrieved from death, and placed his
grandfather, who was brought under base and dishonorable vassalage,
on the ancient throne of Aeneas, to whom he did voluntarily many good
offices, but never did him harm even inadvertently. But Theseus, in
his forgetfulness and neglect of the command concerning the flag, can
scarcely, methinks, by any excuses, or before the most indulgent
judges, avoid the imputation of parricide. And, indeed, one of the
Attic writers, perceiving it to be very hard to make an excuse for this,
feigns that Aegeus, at the approach of the ship, running hastily to the
Acropolis to see what news there was, slipped and fell down; as if he
had no servants, or none would attend him on his way to the shore.




LYCURGUS

Those authors who are most worthy of credit deduce the genealogy of
Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, as follows:

      Aristodemus.
      |
      Patrocles.
      |
      Sous.
      |
      Eurypon.
      |
      Eunomus.
      |
     _________________________________________________
     Polydectes by his first wife. Lycurgus by Dionassa his second.

Sous certainly was the most renowned of all his ancestors, under whose
conduct the Spartans made slaves of the Helots, and added to their
dominions, by conquest, a good part of Arcadia. There goes a story of
this king Sous, that, being besieged by the Clitorians in a dry
and stony place so that he could come at no water, he was at last
constrained to agree with them upon these terms, that he would restore
to them all his conquests, provided that himself and all his men should
drink of the nearest spring. After the usual oaths and ratifications,
he called his soldiers together, and offered to him that would forbear
drinking, his kingdom for a reward; and when not a man of them was able
to forbear, in short, when they had all drunk their fill, at last comes
king Sous himself to the spring, and, having sprinkled his face only,
without swallowing one drop, marches off in the face of his enemies,
refusing to yield up his conquests, because himself and all his men had
not, according to the articles, drunk of their water.

Although he was justly had in admiration on this account, yet his family
was not surnamed from him, but from his son Eurypon (of whom they were
called Eurypontids); the reason of which was that Eurypon relaxed the
rigor of the monarchy, seeking favor and popularity with the many. They,
after this first step, grew bolder; and the succeeding kings partly
incurred hatred with their people by trying to use force, or, for
popularity's sake and through weakness, gave way; and anarchy and
confusion long prevailed in Sparta, causing, moreover, the death of the
father of Lycurgus. For as he was endeavoring to quell a riot, he was
stabbed with a butcher's knife, and left the title of king to his eldest
son Polydectes.

He, too, dying soon after, the right of succession (as every one
thought) rested in Lycurgus; and reign he did for a time, but declared
that the kingdom belonged to the child of his sister-in-law the queen,
and that he himself should exercise the regal jurisdiction only as his
guardian; the Spartan name for which office is prodicus. Soon after, an
overture was made to him by the queen, that she would herself in some
way destroy the infant, upon condition that he would marry her when he
came to the crown. Abhorring the woman's wickedness, he nevertheless
did not reject her proposal, but, making show of closing with her,
despatched the messenger with thanks and expressions of joy, with orders
that they should bring the boy baby to him, wheresoever he were, and
whatsoever doing. It so fell out that when he was at supper with the
principal magistrates, the queen's child was presented to him, and he,
taking him into his arms, said to those about him, "Men of Sparta,
here is a king born unto us;" this said, he laid him down in the king's
place, and named him Charilaus, that is, the joy of the people; because
that all were transported with joy and with wonder at his noble and just
spirit. His reign had lasted only eight months, but he was honored
on other accounts by the citizens, and there were more who obeyed him
because of his eminent virtues, than because he was regent to the king
and had the royal power in his hands. Some, however, envied and sought
to impede his growing influence while he was still young; chiefly the
kindred and friends of the queen-mother, who pretended to have been
dealt with injuriously. Her brother Leonidas, in a warm debate which
fell out betwixt him and Lycurgus, went so far as to tell him to his
face that he was well assured that ere long he should see him king;
suggesting suspicions and preparing the way for an accusation of him, as
though he had made away with his nephew, if the child should chance
to fail, though by a natural death. Words of the like import were
designedly cast abroad by the queen-mother and her adherents.

Troubled at this, and not knowing what it might come to, he thought
it his wisest course to avoid their envy by a voluntary exile, and to
travel from place to place until his nephew came to marriageable
years, and, by having a son, had secured the succession. Setting sail,
therefore, with this resolution, he first arrived at Crete, where,
having considered their several forms of government, and got an
acquaintance with the principal men amongst them, some of their laws
he very much approved of, and resolved to make use of them in his own
country; a good part he rejected as useless. Amongst the persons there
the most renowned for their learning and their wisdom in state matters
was one Thales, whom Lycurgus, by importunities and assurances of
friendship, persuaded to go over to Lacedaemon; where, though by his
outward appearance and his own profession he seemed to be no other than
a lyric poet, in reality he performed the part of one of the ablest
lawgivers in the world. The very songs which he composed were
exhortations to obedience and concord, and the very measure and cadence
of the verse, conveying impressions of order and tranquillity, had
so great an influence on the minds of the listeners that they were
insensibly softened and civilized, insomuch that they renounced their
private feuds and animosities, and were reunited in a common admiration
of virtue. So that it may truly be said that Thales prepared the way for
the discipline introduced by Lycurgus.

From Crete he sailed to Asia, with design, as is said, to examine the
difference betwixt the manners and rules of life of the Cretans, which
were very sober and temperate, and those of the Ionians, a people
of sumptuous and delicate habits, and so to form a judgment; just as
physicians do by comparing healthy and diseased bodies. Here he had
the first sight of Homer's works, in the hands, we may suppose, of
the posterity of Creophylus; and, having observed that the few loose
expressions and actions of ill example which are to be found in his
poems were much outweighed by serious lessons of state and rules of
morality, he set himself eagerly to transcribe and digest them into
order, as thinking they would be of good use in his own country. They
had, indeed, already obtained some slight repute amongst the Greeks,
and scattered portions, as chance conveyed them, were in the hands of
individuals; but Lycurgus first made them really known.

The Egyptians say that he took a voyage into Egypt, and that, being much
taken with their way of separating the soldiery from the rest of the
nation, he transferred it from them to Sparta; a removal from contact
with those employed in low and mechanical occupations giving high
refinement and beauty to the state. Some Greek writers also record
this. But as for his voyages into Spain, Africa, and the Indies, and his
conferences there with the Gymnosophists, the whole relation, as far as
I can find, rests on the single credit of the Spartan Aristocrates, the
son of Hipparchus.

Lycurgus was much missed at Sparta, and often sent for, "For kings
indeed we have," they said, "who wear the marks and assume the titles of
royalty, but as for the qualities of their minds, they have nothing by
which they are to be distinguished from their subjects;" adding that in
him alone was the true foundation of sovereignty to be seen, a nature
made to rule, and a genius to gain obedience. Nor were the kings
themselves averse to see him back, for they looked upon his presence as
a bulwark against the insolencies of the people.

Things being in this posture at his return, he applied himself, without
loss of time, to a thorough reformation, and resolved to change the
whole face of the commonwealth; for what could a few particular laws and
a partial alteration avail? He must act as wise physicians do, in the
case of one who labors under a complication of diseases,--by force of
medicines reduce and exhaust him, change his whole temperament, and
then set him upon a totally new regimen of diet. Having thus projected
things, away he goes to Delphi to consult Apollo there; which having
done, and offered his sacrifice, he returned with that renowned oracle,
in which he is called beloved of God, and rather God than man: that
his prayers were heard, that his laws should be the best, and the
commonwealth which observed them the most famous in the world.
Encouraged by these things, he set himself to bring over to his side the
leading men of Sparta, exhorting them to give him a helping hand in his
great undertaking: he broke it first to his particular friends, and then
by degrees gained others, and animated them all to put his design in
execution. When things were ripe for action, he gave order to thirty
of the principal men of Sparta to be ready armed at the market-place at
break of day, to the end that he might strike a terror into the opposite
party. Hermippus hath set down the names of twenty of the most eminent
of them: but the name of him whom Lycurgus most confided in, and who
was of most use to him both in making his laws and putting them in
execution, was Arthmiadas. Things growing to a tumult, king Charilaus,
apprehending that it was a conspiracy against his person, took sanctuary
in the temple of Athena of the Brazen House; but, being soon after
undeceived, and having taken an oath of them that they had no designs
against him, he quitted his refuge, and himself also entered into the
confederacy with them; of so gentle and flexible a disposition he
was, to which Archelaus, his brother-king, alluded, when, hearing him
extolled for his goodness, he said: "Who can say he is anything but
good? he is so even to the bad."

Amongst the many changes and alterations which Lycurgus made, the first
and of greatest importance was the establishment of the senate, which,
having a power equal to the kings' in matters of great consequence, and,
as Plato expresses it, allaying and qualifying the fiery genius of the
royal office, gave steadiness and safety to the commonwealth. For the
state, which before had no firm basis to stand upon, but leaned one
while towards an absolute monarchy, when the kings had the upper hand,
and another while towards a pure democracy, when the people had the
better, found in this establishment of the senate a central weight, like
ballast in a ship, which always kept things in a just equilibrium; the
twenty-eight always adhering to the kings so far as to resist democracy,
and, on the other hand, supporting the people against the establishment
of absolute monarchy. As for the determinate number of twenty-eight,
Aristotle states that it so fell out because two of the original
associates, for want of courage, fell off from the enterprise; but
Sphaerus assures us that there were but twenty-eight of the confederates
at first; perhaps there is some mystery in the number, which consists of
seven multiplied by four, and is the first of perfect numbers after
six, being, as that is, equal to all its parts. For my part, I believe
Lycurgus fixed upon the number of twenty-eight, that, the two kings
being reckoned amongst them, they might be thirty in all. So eagerly set
was he upon this establishment, that he took the trouble to obtain an
oracle about it from Delphi; and the Rhetra (or sacred ordinance) runs
thus: "After that you have built a temple to Jupiter Hellanius, and
to Minerva Hellania, and after that you have phyle'd the people into
phyles, and obe'd them into obes, you shall establish a council of
thirty elders, the leaders included, and shall, from time to time,
assemble the people betwixt Babyca and Cnacion, there propound and put
to the vote. The commons have the final voice and decision." By phyles
and obes are meant the divisions of the people; by the leaders, the two
kings; Aristotle says Cnacion is a river, and Babyca a bridge. Betwixt
this Babyca and Cnacion, their assemblies were held, for they had no
council-house or building to meet in. Lycurgus was of opinion that
ornaments were so far from advantaging them in their councils, that they
were rather an hindrance, by diverting their attention from the business
before them to statues and pictures, and roofs curiously fretted, the
usual embellishments of such places amongst the other Greeks. The people
then being thus assembled in the open air, it was not allowed to any one
of their order to give his advice, but only either to ratify or reject
what should be propounded to them by the king or senate.

After the creation of the thirty senators, his next task, and, indeed,
the most hazardous he ever undertook, was the making of a new division
of their lands. For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and
their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous
persons, while its whole wealth had centred upon a very few. To the end,
therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy,
luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate diseases of want and
superfluity, he obtained of them to renounce their properties, and to
consent to a new division of the land, and that they should live all
together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence,
and the disgrace of evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure
of difference between man and man.

Upon their consent to these proposals, proceeding at once to put them
into execution, he divided the country of Laconia in general into thirty
thousand equal shares, and the part attached to the city of Sparta into
nine thousand; these he distributed among the Spartans, as he did the
others to the country citizens. A lot was so much as to yield, one
year with another, about seventy bushels of grain for the master of the
family, and twelve for his wife, with a suitable proportion of oil and
wine. And this he thought sufficient to keep their bodies in good health
and strength; superfluities they were better without. It is reported,
that, as he returned from a journey shortly after the division of the
lands, in harvest time, the ground being newly reaped, seeing the stacks
all standing equal and alike, he smiled, and said to those about him,
"Methinks all Laconia looks like one family estate just divided among a
number of brothers."

Not contented with this, he resolved to make a division of their
movables too, that there might be no odious distinction or inequality
left amongst them; but finding that it would be very dangerous to go
about it openly, he took another course, and defeated their avarice
by the following stratagem: he commanded that all gold and silver coin
should be called in, and that only a sort of money made of iron should
be current, a great weight and quantity of which was worth but very
little; so that to lay up a hundred or two dollars there was required
a pretty large closet, and, to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of
oxen. With the diffusion of this money, at once a number of vices were
banished from Lacedaemon; for who would rob another of such a coin? Who
would unjustly detain or take by force, or accept as a bribe, a thing
which it was not easy to hide, nor a credit to have, nor indeed of any
use to cut in pieces? For when it was just red-hot, they quenched it in
vinegar, and by that means spoilt it, and made it almost incapable of
being worked.

In the next place, he declared an outlawry of all needless and
superfluous arts; but here he might almost have spared his proclamation;
for they of themselves would have gone with the gold and silver, the
money which remained being not so proper payment for curious work; for,
being of iron, it was scarcely portable, neither, if they should take
the pains to export it, would it pass amongst the other Greeks, who
ridiculed it so there was now no more means of purchasing foreign goods
and small wares; merchants sent no shiploads into Laconian ports; no
rhetoric-master, no itinerant fortune-teller, or gold or silversmith,
engraver, or jeweler, set foot in a country which had no money; so that
luxury, deprived little by little of that which fed and fomented
it, wasted to nothing, and died away of itself. For the rich had no
advantage here over the poor, as their wealth and abundance had no road
to come abroad by, but were shut up at home doing nothing. And in this
way they became excellent artists in common necessary things; bedsteads,
chairs, and tables, and such like staple utensils in a family, were
admirably well made there; their cup, particularly, was very much in
fashion, and eagerly sought for by soldiers, as Critias reports; for
its color was such as to prevent water, drunk upon necessity and
disagreeable to look at, from being noticed; and the shape of it was
such that the mud stuck to the sides, so that only the purer part
came to the drinker's mouth. For this, also, they had to thank their
lawgiver, who, by relieving the artisans of the trouble of making
useless things, set them to show their skill in giving beauty to those
of daily and indispensable use.

The third and most masterly stroke of this great lawgiver, by which
he struck a yet more effectual blow against luxury and the desire of
riches, was the ordinance he made that they should all eat in common,
of the same bread and same meat, and of kinds that were specified, and
should not spend their lives at home, laid on costly couches at splendid
tables, delivering themselves up into the hands of their tradesmen and
cooks, to fatten them in corners, like greedy brutes, and to ruin not
their minds only but their very bodies, which, enfeebled by indulgence
and excess, would stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom
from work, and, in a word, of as much care and attendance as if they
were continually sick. It was certainly an extraordinary thing to have
brought about such a result as this, but a greater yet to have taken
away from wealth, as Theophrastus observes, not merely the property of
being coveted, but its very nature of being wealth. For the rich, being
obliged to go to the same table with the poor, could not make use of or
enjoy their abundance, nor so much as please their vanity by looking at
or displaying it. So that the common proverb, that Plutus, the god of
riches, is blind, was nowhere in all the world literally verified but
in Sparta. There, indeed, he was not only blind, but, like a picture,
without either life or motion. Nor were they allowed to take food at
home first, and then attend the public tables, for everyone had an eye
upon those who did not eat and drink like the rest, and reproached them
with being dainty and effeminate.

This last ordinance in particular exasperated the wealthier men.
They collected in a body against Lycurgus, and from ill words came
to throwing stones, so that at length he was forced to run out of the
market-place, and make to sanctuary to save his life; by good-hap
he outran all excepting one Alcander, a young man otherwise not ill
accomplished, but hasty and violent, who came up so close to him, that,
when he turned to see who was near him, he struck him upon the face
with his stick, and put out one of his eyes. Lycurgus, so far from being
daunted and discouraged by this accident, stopped short and showed his
disfigured face and eye beat out to his countrymen; they, dismayed and
ashamed at the sight, delivered Alcander into his hands to be punished,
and escorted him home, with expressions of great concern for his ill
usage. Lycurgus, having thanked them for their care of his person,
dismissed them all, excepting only Alcander; and, taking him with
him into his house, neither did nor said anything severe to him, but
dismissing those whose place it was, bade Alcander to wait upon him
at table. The young man, who was of an ingenuous temper, did without
murmuring as he was commanded; and, being thus admitted to live with
Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, beside his gentleness
and calmness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable
industry, and so, from an enemy, became one of his most zealous
admirers, and told his friends and relations that Lycurgus was not that
morose and ill-natured man they had formerly taken him for, but the
one mild and gentle character of the world. And thus did Lycurgus, for
chastisement of his fault, make of a wild and passionate young man one
of the discreetest citizens of Sparta.

In memory of this accident, Lycurgus built a temple to Minerva. Some
authors, however, say that he was wounded, indeed, but did not lose his
eye from the blow; and that he built the temple in gratitude for the
cure. Be this as it will, certain it is, that, after this misadventure,
the Lacedaemonians made it a rule never to carry so much as a staff into
their public assemblies.

But to return to their public repasts. They met by companies of fifteen,
more or less, and each of them stood bound to bring in monthly a bushel
of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and
a half of figs, and some very small sum of money to buy flesh or fish
with. Besides this, when any of them made sacrifice to the gods, they
always sent a dole to the common hall; and, likewise, when any of them
had been a-hunting, he sent thither a part of the venison he had killed;
for these two occasions were the only excuses allowed for supping at
home. The custom of eating together was observed strictly for a
great while afterwards; insomuch that king Agis himself, after having
vanquished the Athenians, sending for his commons at his return home,
because he desired to eat privately with his queen, was refused them
by the polemarchs; and when he resented this refusal so much as to omit
next day the sacrifice due for a war happily ended, they made him pay a
fine.

They used to send their children to these tables as to schools of
temperance; here they were instructed in state affairs by listening to
experienced statesmen; here they learnt to converse with pleasantry, to
make jests without scurrility, and take them without ill humor. In this
point of good breeding, the Lacedaemonians excelled particularly, but
if any man were uneasy under it, upon the least hint given there was no
more to be said to him. It was customary also for the eldest man in
the company to say to each of them, as they came in, "Through this"
(pointing to the door), "no words go out." When any one had a desire to
be admitted into any of these little societies, he was to go through the
following probation: each man in the company took a little ball of soft
bread, which they were to throw into a deep basin, that a waiter carried
round upon his head; those that liked the person to be chosen dropped
their ball into the basin without altering its figure, and those who
disliked him pressed it betwixt their fingers, and made it flat; and
this signified as much as a negative voice. And if there were but one
of these flattened pieces in the basin, the suitor was rejected,
so desirous were they that all the members of the company should
be agreeable to each other. The basin was called caddichus, and the
rejected candidate had a name thence derived. Their most famous dish was
the black broth, which was so much valued that the elderly men fed only
upon that, leaving what flesh there was to the younger.

They say that a certain king of Pontus, having heard much of this black
broth of theirs, sent for a Lacedaemonian cook on purpose to make him
some, but had no sooner tasted it than he found it extremely bad, which
the cook observing, told him, "Sir, to make this broth relish, you
should have bathed yourself first in the river Eurotas."

After drinking moderately, every man went to his home without lights,
for the use of them was, on all occasions, forbid, to the end that they
might accustom themselves to march boldly in the dark. Such was the
common fashion of their meals.

Lycurgus would never reduce his laws into writing; nay, there is a
Rhetra expressly to forbid it. For he thought that the most material
points, and such as most directly tended to the public welfare, being
imprinted on the hearts of their youth by a good discipline, would be
sure to remain, and would find a stronger security, than any compulsion
would be, in the principles of action formed in them by their best
lawgiver, education.

One, then, of the Rhetras was, that their laws should not be written;
another is particularly leveled against luxury and expensiveness, for
by it it was ordained that the ceilings of their houses should only be
wrought by the axe, and their gates and doors smoothed only the saw.
Epaminondas's famous dictum about his own table, that "Treason and a
dinner like this do not keep company together," may be said to have been
anticipated by Lycurgus. Luxury and a house of this kind could not well
be companions. For a man must have a less than ordinary share of sense
that would furnish such plain and common rooms with silver-footed
couches and purple coverlets and gold and silver plate. Doubtless he
had good reason to think that they would proportion their beds to their
houses, and their coverlets to their beds, and the rest of their goods
and furniture to these. It is reported that King Leotychides, the first
of that name, was so little used to the sight of any other kind of
work, that, being entertained at Corinth in a stately room, he was much
surprised to see the timber and ceilings so finely carved and paneled,
and asked his host whether the trees grew so in his country.

A third ordinance or Rhetra was that they should not make war often, or
long, with the same enemy, lest they should train and instruct them
in war, by habituating them to defend themselves. And this is what
Agesilaus was much blamed for a long time after; it being thought that,
by his continual incursions into Boeotia, he made the Thebans a match
for the Lacedaemonians; and therefore Antalcidas, seeing him wounded
one day, said to him that he was very well paid for taking such pains
to make the Thebans good soldiers, whether they would or no. These laws
were called the Rhetras, to intimate that they were divine sanctions and
revelations.

In order to the good education of their youth (which, as I said before,
he thought the most important and noblest work of a lawgiver), he took
in their case all the care that was possible; he ordered the maidens
to exercise themselves with wrestling, running, throwing the quoit, and
casting the dart, to the end that they might have strong and healthy
bodies.

It was not in the power of the father to dispose of his child as he
thought fit; he was obliged to carry it before certain "triers" at a
place called Lesche; these were some of the elders of the tribe to which
the child belonged; their business it was carefully to view the infant,
and, if they found it stout and well made, they gave order for its
rearing, and allotted to it one of the nine thousand shares of land
above mentioned for its maintenance; but if they found it puny and
ill-shaped, ordered it to be taken to what was called the Apothetae, a
sort of chasm under Taygetus; as thinking it neither for the good of the
child itself, nor for the public interest, that it should be brought
up, if it did not, from the very outset, appear made to be healthy and
vigorous. Upon the same account, the women did not bathe the new-born
children with water, as is the custom in all other countries, but with
wine, to prove the temper and complexion of their bodies; from a notion
they had that epileptic and weakly children faint and waste away upon
their being thus bathed, while, on the contrary, those of a strong and
vigorous habit acquire firmness and get a temper by it like steel. There
was much care and art, too, used by the nurses; they had no swaddling
bands; the children grew up free and unconstrained in limb and form, and
not dainty and fanciful about their food; nor afraid in the dark, or of
being left alone; without any peevishness or ill humor or crying. Upon
this account, Spartan nurses were often bought up, or hired by people of
other countries.

Lycurgus was of another mind; he would not have masters bought out of
the market for his young Spartans, nor such as should sell their pains;
nor was it lawful, indeed, for the father himself to raise his children
after his own fancy; but as soon as they were seven years old they were
to be enrolled in certain companies and classes, where they all lived
under the same order and discipline, doing their exercises and taking
their play together. Of these he who showed the most conduct and courage
was made captain; they had their eyes always upon him, obeyed his
orders, and underwent patiently whatsoever punishment he inflicted; so
that the whole course of their education was one continued exercise of a
ready and perfect obedience. The old men, too, were spectators of their
performances, and often raised quarrels and disputes among them, to have
a good opportunity of finding out their different characters, and of
seeing which would be valiant, which a coward, when they should come
to more dangerous encounters. Reading and writing they gave them, just
enough to serve their turn; their chief care was to make them good
subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle. To
this end, as they grew in years, their discipline was proportionally
increased; their heads were close-clipped; they were accustomed to go
barefoot, and for the most part to play naked.

After they were twelve years old they were no longer allowed to wear any
under-garment; they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were
hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these
human indulgences they were allowed only on some few particular days
in the year. They lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the
rushes which grew by the banks of the river Eurotas, which they were
to break off with their hands without a knife; if it were winter, they
mingled some thistledown with their rushes, which it was thought had the
property of giving warmth.

Besides all this, there was always one of the best and most honest men
in the city appointed to undertake the charge and governance of them; he
again arranged them into their several bands, and set over each of
them for their captain the most temperate and bold of those they called
Irens, who were usually twenty years old, two years out of boyhood; and
the eldest of the boys, again, were Mell-Irens, as much as to say, "who
would shortly be men." This young man, therefore, was their captain when
they fought, and their master at home, using them for the offices of his
house; sending the oldest of them to fetch wood, and the weaker and less
able, to gather salads and herbs, and these they must either go without
or steal; which they did by creeping into the gardens, or conveying
themselves cunningly and closely into the eating-houses; if they were
taken in the act, they were whipped without mercy, for thieving so ill
and awkwardly. They stole, too, all other meat they could lay their
hands on, looking out and watching all opportunities, when people were
asleep or more careless than usual. If they were caught, they were not
only punished with whipping, but hunger, too, being reduced to their
ordinary allowance, which was but very slender, and so contrived on
purpose, that they might set about to help themselves, and be forced to
exercise their energy and address.

So seriously did the Lacedaemonian children go about their stealing,
that a youth, having stolen a young fox and hid it under his coat,
suffered it to tear out his very bowels with its teeth and claws, and
died upon the place, rather than let it be seen. What is practised to
this very day in Lacedaemon is enough to gain credit to this story, for
I myself have seen several of the youths endure whipping to death at the
foot of the altar of Diana surnamed Orthia.

The Iren, or under-master, used to stay a little with them after supper,
and one of them he bade to sing a song, to another he put a question
which required an advised and deliberate answer; for example, Who was
the best man in the city? What he thought of such an action of such
a man? They accustomed them thus early to pass a right judgment upon
persons and things, and to inform themselves of the abilities or defects
of their countrymen. If they had not an answer ready to the question,
Who was a good or who an ill-reputed citizen? they were looked upon as
of a dull and careless disposition, and to have little or no sense of
virtue and honor; besides this, they were to give a good reason for what
they said, and in as few words and as comprehensive as might be; he that
failed of this, or answered not to the purpose, had his thumb bit by his
master.

They taught them, also, to speak with a natural and graceful raillery,
and to comprehend much matter of thought in few words. For Lycurgus,
who ordered, as we saw, that a great piece of money should be but of
an inconsiderable value, on the contrary would allow no discourse to be
current which did not contain in few words a great deal of useful and
curious sense; children in Sparta, by a habit of long silence, came to
give just and sententious answers; for, indeed, loose talkers seldom
originate many sensible words. King Agis, when some Athenian laughed at
their short swords, and said that the jugglers on the stage swallowed
them with ease, answered him, "We find them long enough to reach our
enemies with;" and as their swords were short and sharp, so, it seems to
me, were their sayings. They reach the point and arrest the attention of
the hearers better than any others. Lycurgus himself seems to have been
short and sententious, if we may trust the anecdotes of him; as
appears by his answer to one who by all means would set up democracy in
Lacedaemon. "Begin, friend," said he, "and set it up in your family."
Another asked him why he allowed of such mean and trivial sacrifices
to the gods. He replied, "That we may always have something to offer to
them." Being asked what sort of martial exercises or combats he approved
of, he answered, "All sorts, except that in which you stretch out your
hands."

Of their dislike to talkativeness, the following apophthegms are
evidence. King Leonidas said to one who held him in discourse upon some
useful matter, but not in due time and place, "Much to the purpose, sir,
elsewhere." King Charilaus, the nephew of Lycurgus, being asked why his
uncle had made so few laws, answered, "Men of few words require but few
laws." When one blamed Hecataeus the sophist because that, being
invited to the public table, he had not spoken one word all supper-time,
Archidamidas answered in his vindication, "He who knows how to speak,
knows also when."

The sharp, and yet not ungraceful, retorts which I mentioned may be
instanced as follows. Demaratus, being asked in a troublesome manner by
an importunate fellow, Who was the best man in Lacedaemon? answered at
last, "He, sir, that is the least like you." Some, in company where Agis
was, much extolled the Eleans for their just and honorable management of
the Olympic games; "Indeed," said Agis, "they are highly to be commended
if they can do justice one day in five years."

We may see their character, too, in their very jests. For they did not
throw them out at random, but the very wit of them was grounded upon
something or other worth thinking about. For instance, one, being asked
to go hear a man who exactly counterfeited the voice of a nightingale,
answered, "Sir, I have heard the nightingale itself." Another, having
read the following inscription upon a tomb,--

     Seeking to quench a cruel tyranny,
     They, at Selinus, did in battle die,

said, it served them right; for instead of trying to quench the tyranny
they should have let it burn out. A lad, being offered some game-cocks
that would die upon the spot, said he cared not for cocks that would
die, but for such as would live and kill others. In short, their answers
were so sententious and pertinent, that one said well that intellectual,
much more truly than athletic, exercise was the Spartan characteristic.

Nor was their instruction in music and verse less carefully attended to
than their habits of grace and good breeding in conversation. And their
very songs had a life and spirit in them that inflamed and possessed
men's minds with an enthusiasm and ardor for action; the style of them
was plain and without affectation; the subject always serious and moral;
most usually it was in praise of such men as had died in defence of
their country, or in derision of those that had been cowards; the former
they declared happy and glorified; the life of the latter they described
as most miserable and abject. There were also vaunts of what they would
do, and boasts of what they had done, varying with the various ages, as,
for example, they had three choirs in their solemn festivals, the
first of the old men, the second of the young men, and the last of the
children; the old men began thus:

     We once were young, and brave and strong;

the young men answered them, singing,

     And we're so now, come on and try;

the children came last and said,

     But we'll be strongest by and by.

Before they engaged in battle, the Lacedaemonians abated a little the
severity of their manners in favor of their young men, suffering them
to curl and adorn their hair, and to have costly arms, and fine clothes;
and were well pleased to see them, like proud horses, neighing and
pressing to the course. And therefore, as soon as they came to be well
grown, they took a great deal of care of their hair, to have it parted
and trimmed, especially against a day of battle, pursuant to a saying
recorded of their lawgiver, that a large head of hair added beauty to a
good face, and terror to an ugly one.

The senate, as I said before, consisted of those who were Lycurgus's
chief aiders and assistants in his plan. The vacancies he ordered to be
supplied out of the best and most deserving men past sixty years old.
The manner of their election was as follows: the people being called
together, some selected persons were locked up in a room near the place
of election, so contrived that they could neither see nor be seen, but
could only hear the noise of the assembly without; for they decided
this, as most other affairs of moment, by the shouts of the people. This
done, the competitors were not brought in and presented all together,
but one after another by lot, and passed in order through the assembly
without speaking a word. Those who were locked up had writing-tables
with them, in which they recorded and marked each shout by its loudness,
without knowing in favor of which candidate each of them was made, but
merely that they came first, second, third, and so forth. He who was
found to have the most and loudest acclamations was declared senator
duly elected.

When he perceived that his more important institutions had taken root in
the minds of his countrymen, that custom had rendered them familiar and
easy, that his commonwealth was now grown up and able to go alone, then,
as Plato somewhere tells us the Maker of the world, when first he saw it
existing and beginning its motion, felt joy, even so Lycurgus, viewing
with joy and satisfaction the greatness and beauty of his political
structure, now fairly at work and in motion, conceived the thought
to make it immortal too, and as far as human forecast could reach, to
deliver it down unchangeable to posterity. He called an extraordinary
assembly of all the people, and told them that he now thought everything
reasonably well established, both for the happiness and the virtue of
the state; but that there was one thing still behind, of the greatest
importance, which he thought not fit to impart until he had consulted
the oracle; in the meantime, his desire was that they would observe the
laws without even the least alteration until his return, and then he
would do as the god should direct him. They all consented readily, and
bade him hasten his journey; but, before he departed, he administered
an oath to the two kings, the senate, and the whole commons, to abide by
and maintain the established form of polity until Lycurgus should
come back. This done, he set out for Delphi, and, having sacrificed
to Apollo, asked him whether the laws he had established were good and
sufficient for a people's happiness and virtue. The oracle answered that
the laws were excellent, and that the people, while it observed them,
should live in the height of renown. Lycurgus took the oracle in
writing, and sent it over to Sparta, and, having sacrificed a second
time to Apollo, and taken leave of his friends and his son, he resolved
that the Spartans should not be released from the oath they had taken,
and that he would, of his own act, close his life where he was. He was
now about that age in which life was still tolerable, and yet might
be quitted without regret. Everything, moreover, about him was in a
sufficiently prosperous condition. He, therefore, made an end of himself
by a total abstinence from food; thinking it a statesman's duty to make
his very death, if possible, an act of service to the state, and even
in the end of his life to give some example of virtue and effect some
useful purpose. Nor was he deceived in his expectations, for the city of
Lacedaemon continued the chief city of all Greece for the space of five
hundred years, in strict observance of Lycurgus's laws; in all which
time there was no manner of alteration made, during the reign of
fourteen kings, down to the time of Agis, the son of Archidamus.

King Theopompus, when one said that Sparta held up so long because their
kings could command so well, replied, "Nay, rather because the people
know so well how to obey." For people do not obey, unless rulers know
how to command; obedience is a lesson taught by commanders. A true
leader himself creates the obedience of his own followers; as it is
the greatest attainment in the art of riding to make a horse gentle and
tractable, so is it of the science of government to inspire men with a
willingness to obey.

It is reported that when the bones were brought home to Sparta his tomb
was struck with lightning, an accident which befell no eminent person
but himself and Euripides. But Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus, says
that he died in Crete, and that his Cretan friends, in accordance with
his own request, when they had burned his body, scattered the ashes
into the sea, for fear lest, if his relics should be transported to
Lacedaemon, the people might pretend to be released from their oaths,
and make innovations in the government.




SOLON

SOLON, as Hermippus writes, when his father had ruined his estate in
doing benefits and kindnesses to other men, though he had friends enough
that were willing to contribute to his relief, yet was ashamed to
be beholden to others, since he was descended from a family who were
accustomed to do kindnesses rather than receive them; and therefore
applied himself to merchandise in his youth; though others assure us
that he traveled rather to get learning and experience than to make
money. It is certain that he was a lover of knowledge, for when he was
old he would say that he

Each day grew older, and learnt something new.

But that he accounted himself rather poor than rich is evident from the
lines,

     Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor,
     We will not change our virtue for their store;
     Virtue's a thing that none can take away,
     But money changes owners all the day.

It is stated that Anacharsis and Solon and Thales were familiarly
acquainted, and some have quoted parts of their discourse; for, they
say, Anacharsis, coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door and told
him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a
friendship with him; and Solon replying; "It is better to make friends
at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship
with me." Solon, somewhat surprised at the readiness of the repartee,
received him kindly, and kept him some time with him, being already
engaged in public business and the compilation of his laws; which when
Anacharsis understood, he laughed at him for imagining the dishonesty
and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws,
which were like spiders' webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak
and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich. To this Solon
rejoined that men keep their promises when neither side can get anything
by the breaking of them; and he would so fit his laws to the citizens,
that all should understand it was more eligible to be just than to break
the laws. But the event rather agreed with the conjecture of Anacharsis
than Solon's hope. Anacharsis, being once at the assembly, expressed his
wonder that in Greece wise men spoke and fools decided.

Now, when the Athenians were tired with a tedious and difficult war that
they conducted against the Megarians for the island Salamis, and made
a law that is should be death for any man, by writing or speaking, to
assert that the city ought to endeavor to recover it, Solon, vexed at
the disgrace, and perceiving thousands of the youth wished for
somebody to begin, but did not dare to stir first for fear of the law,
counterfeited a distraction, and by his own family it was spread about
the city that he was mad. He then secretly composed some elegiac verses,
and getting them by heart, that it might seem extempore, ran out into
the market-place with a cap upon his head, and, the people gathering
about him, got upon the herald's stand, and sang that elegy which begins
thus:--

     I am a herald come from Salamis the fair,
     My news from thence my verses shall declare.

The poem is called "Salamis"; it contains a hundred verses, very
elegantly written. When it had been sung, his friends commended it, and
especially Pisistratus exhorted the citizens to obey his directions;
insomuch that they recalled the law, and renewed the war under Solon's
conduct. The popular take is, that with Pisistratus he sailed to Colias,
and, finding the women, according to the custom of the country there,
sacrificing to Ceres, he sent a trusty friend to Salamis, who should
pretend himself a renegade, and advise them, if they desired to seize
the chief Athenian women, to come with him at once to Colias; the
Megarians presently sent off men in the vessel with him, and Solon,
seeing it put off from the island, commanded the women to be gone, and
some beardless youths, dressed in their clothes, their shoes, and caps,
and privately armed with daggers, to dance and play near the shore till
the enemies had landed and the vessel was in their power. Things being
thus ordered, the Megarians were allured with the appearance, and,
coming to the shore, jumped out, eager who should first seize a prize,
so that not one of them escaped; and the Athenians set sail for the
island and took it.

For this Solon grew famed and powerful; but his advice in favor of
defending the oracle at Delphi, to give aid, and not to suffer the
Cirrhaeans to profane it, but to maintain the honor of the god, got him
most repute among the Greeks: for upon his persuasion the Amphictyons
undertook the war.

Now the Cylonian pollution had a long time disturbed the commonwealth,
ever since the time when Megacles the archon persuaded the conspirators
with Cylon that took sanctuary in Athena's temple to come down and stand
to a fair trial. And they, tying a thread to the image, and holding one
end of it, went down to the tribunal; but when they came to the temple
of the Furies, the thread broke of its own accord, upon which, as if the
goddess had refused them protection, they were seized by Megacles and
the other magistrates; as many as were without the temples were stoned,
those that fled for sanctuary were butchered at the altar, and only
those escaped who made supplication to the wives of the magistrates.

The Athenians, now the Cylonian sedition was over and the polluted gone
into banishment, fell into their old quarrels about the government,
there being as many different parties as there were diversities in the
country. The Hill quarter favored democracy; the Plain, oligarchy; and
those that lived by the Sea-side stood for a mixed sort of government,
and so hindered either of the parties from prevailing. And the disparity
of fortune between the rich and the poor at that time also reached its
height; so that the city seemed to be in a truly dangerous condition,
and no other means for freeing it from disturbances and settling it to
be possible but a despotic power.

Then the wisest of the Athenians, perceiving Solon was of all men the
only one not implicated in the troubles, that he had not joined in the
exactions of the rich, and was not involved in the necessities of
the poor, pressed him to succor the commonwealth and compose the
differences. Solon, reluctantly at first, engaged in state affairs,
being afraid of the pride of one party and the greediness of the other;
he was chosen archon, however, after Philombrotus, and empowered to be
an arbitrator and lawgiver; the rich consenting because he was wealthy,
the poor because he was honest. There was a saying of his current before
the election, that when things are even there never can be war, and this
pleased both parties, the wealthy and the poor; the one conceiving him
to mean, when all have their fair proportion; the other, when all are
absolutely equal. Thus, there being great hopes on both sides, the chief
men pressed Solon to take the government into his own hands, and, when
he was once settled, manage the business freely and according to his
pleasure; and many of the commons, perceiving it would be a difficult
change to be effected by law and reason, were willing to have one wise
and just man set over the affairs; and some say that Solon had this
oracle from Apollo:

     Take the mid-seat, and be the vessel's guide;
     Many in Athens are upon your side.

From which it is manifest that he was a man of great reputation before
he gave his laws. The several mocks that were put upon him for refusing
the power, he records in these words:

Solon surely was a dreamer, and a man of simple mind; When the gods
would give him fortune, he of his own will declined; When the new was
full of fishes, over-heavy thinking it, He declined to haul it up,
through want of heart and want of wit. Had but I that chance of riches
and of kingship for one day, I would give my skin for flaying, and my
house to die away.

Thus he makes the many and the low people speak of him. Yet, though he
refused the government, he did not show himself mean and submissive to
the powerful, nor make his laws to pleasure those that chose him. For
the first thing which he settled was, that what debts remained should
be forgiven, and no man, for the future, should engage the body of his
debtor for security. Though some, as Androtion, affirm that the debts
were not canceled, but the interest only lessened, which sufficiently
pleased the people; so that they named this benefit the Seisacthea,
together with the enlarging of their measures, and raising the value of
their money; for he made a pound, which before passed for seventy-three
drachmas, go for a hundred; so that, though the number of pieces in
the payment was equal, the value was less; which proved a considerable
benefit to those that were to discharge great debts, and no loss to the
creditors.

While he was designing this, a most vexatious thing happened; for when
he had resolved to take off the debts, and was considering the proper
form and fit beginning for it, he told some of his friends, Conon,
Clinias, and Hipponicus, in whom he had a great deal of confidence, that
he would not meddle with the lands, but only free the people from their
debts; upon which, they, using their advantage, made haste and borrowed
some considerable sums of money, and purchased some large farms; and
when the law was enacted, they kept the possessions, and would not
return the money; which brought Solon into great suspicion and
dislike, as if he himself had not been abused, but was concerned in the
contrivance. But he presently stopped this suspicion, by releasing his
own debtors of five talents (for he had lent so much), according to the
law; others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, say fifteen.

Soon becoming sensible of the good that was done, the people laid by
their grudges, made a public sacrifice, and chose Solon to new-model
and make laws for the commonwealth, giving him the entire power over
everything, their magistracies, their assemblies, courts, and councils;
that he should appoint the number, times of meeting, and what estate
they must have that could be capable of these, and dissolve or continue
any of the present constitutions, according to his pleasure.

First, then, he repealed all Draco's laws, except those concerning
homicide, because they were too severe and the punishments too great;
for death was appointed for almost all offences, insomuch that those
that were convicted of idleness were to die, and those that stole a
cabbage or an apple to suffer even as villains that committed sacrilege
or murder. So that Demades, in after time, was thought to have said very
happily, that Draco's laws were written not with ink, but blood; and
he himself, being once asked why he made death the punishment of most
offences, replied: "Small ones deserve that, and I have no higher for
the greater crimes."

Next, Solon, being willing to continue the magistracies in the hands
of the rich men, and yet receive the people into the other part of the
government, took an account of the citizens' estates, and those that
were worth five hundred measures of fruits, dry and liquid, he placed
in the first rank; those that could keep a horse, or were worth three
hundred measures, were made the second class; those that had two hundred
measures, were in the third; and all the other were called Thetes, who
were not admitted to any office, but could come to the assembly, and
act as jurors; which at first seemed nothing, but afterward was found an
enormous privilege, as almost every matter of dispute came before them
in this latter capacity. Besides, it is said that he was obscure and
ambiguous in the wording of his laws, on purpose to increase the honor
of his courts; for since their differences could not be adjusted by the
letter, they would have to bring all their causes to the judges, who
thus were in a manner masters of the laws. Of this equalization he
himself makes mention in this manner:

     Such power I gave the people as might do,
     Abridged not what they had, now lavished new.
     Those that were great in wealth and high in place,
     My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace.
     Before them both I held my shield of might,
     And let not either touch the other's right.

When he had constituted the Areopagus of those who had been yearly
archons, of which he himself was a member therefore, observing that
the people, now free from their debts, were unsettled and imperious,
he formed another council of four hundred, a hundred out of each of
the four tribes, which was to inspect all matters before they were
propounded to the people, and to take care that nothing but what had
been first examined should be brought before the general assembly. The
upper council, or Areopagus, he made inspectors and keepers of the
laws, conceiving that the commonwealth, held by these two councils like
anchors, would be less liable to be tossed by tumults, and the people be
more at quiet. Such is the general statement that Solon instituted the
Areopagus.

Amongst his other laws, one is very peculiar and surprising, which
disfranchises all who stand neuter in a sedition; for it seems he would
not have any one remain insensible and regardless of the public good,
but at once join with the good party and those that have the right upon
their side, assist and venture with them, rather than keep out of harm's
way and watch who would get the better.

Another commendable law of Solon's is that which forbids men to speak
evil of the dead.

Since the country has but few rivers, lakes, or large springs, and many
used wells which they had dug, there was a law made, that, where there
was a public well within a hippicon, that is, four furlongs, all should
draw at that; but then it was farther off, they should try and procure a
well of their own; and, if they had dug ten fathoms deep and could find
no water, they had liberty to fetch a pitcherful of four gallons and a
half in a day from their neighbors'; for he thought it prudent to make
provision against want, but not to supply laziness. He showed skill in
his orders about planting, for any one that would plant another tree was
not to set it within five feet of his neighbor's field; but if a fig or
an olive, not within nine, for their roots spread farther, nor can they
be planted near all sorts of trees without damage, for they draw away
the nourishment, and in some cases are noxious by their effluvia. He
that would dig a pit or a ditch was to dig it at the distance of its own
depth from his neighbor's ground; and he that would raise stocks of bees
was not to place them within three hundred feet of those which another
had already raised.

He permitted only oil to be exported, and those that exported any other
fruit, the archon was solemnly to curse, or else pay an hundred drachmas
(a drachma was about twenty cents.) himself; and this law was written in
his first table, and, therefore, let none think it incredible, as some
affirm, that the exportation of figs was once unlawful. He made a law
also, concerning hurts and injuries from beasts, in which he commands
the master of any dog that bit a man to deliver him up with a log about
his neck four and a half feet long-a happy device for men's security.

All his laws he established for an hundred years, and wrote them on
wooden tables or rollers, named axones, which might be turned round in
oblong cases; some of their relics were in my time still to be seen in
the Prytaneum, or common hall, at Athens. These, as Aristotle states,
were called cyrbes, and there is a passage of Cratinus the comedian,

     By Solon, and by Draco, if you please,
     Whose Cyrbes make the fires that parch our peas.

But some say those are properly cyrbes, which contain laws concerning
sacrifices and the rites of religion, and all the other axones. The
council all jointly swore to confirm the laws, and every one of the
Thesmothetae vowed for himself at the stone in the market-place, that,
if he broke any of the statutes, he would dedicate a golden statue, as
big as himself, at Delphi.

Now when these laws were enacted, and some came to Solon every day, to
commend or dispraise them, and to advise, if possible, to leave out, or
put in something, and many criticised, and desired him to explain,
and tell the meaning of such and such a passage, he, to escape all
displeasure, it being a hard thing, as he himself says,

     In great affairs to satisfy all sides,

As an excuse for traveling, bought a trading vessel and, having obtained
leave for ten years' absence, departed, hoping that by that time his
laws would have become familiar.

His first voyage was for Egypt, and he lived, as he himself says,

     Near Nilus' mouth, by fair Canopus' shore,

And spent some time in study with Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis
the Saite, the most learned of all the priests; from whom, as Plato
says, getting knowledge of the Atlantic story, he put it into a poem,
and proposed to bring it to the knowledge of the Greeks. From thence he
sailed to Cyprus, where he was made much of by Philocyprus, one of the
kings there, who had a small city built by Demophon, Theseus's son, near
the river Clarius, in a strong situation, but incommodious and uneasy
of access. Solon persuaded him, since there lay a fair plain below,
to remove, and build there a pleasanter and more spacious city. And he
stayed himself, and assisted in gathering inhabitants, and in fitting it
both for defence and convenience of living; insomuch that many flocked
to Philocyprus, and the other kings imitated the design; and, therefore,
to honor Solon, he called the city Soli.

That Solon should discourse with Croesus, some think not agreeable with
chronology; but I cannot reject so famous and well-attested a narrative,
and, what is more, so agreeable to Solon's temper, and so worthy his
wisdom and greatness of mind, because, forsooth, it does not agree with
some chronological canons, which thousands have endeavored to regulate,
and yet, to this day, could never bring their differing opinions to any
agreement. They say, therefore, that Solon, coming to Croesus at his
request, was in the same condition as an inland man when first he goes
to see the sea; for as he fancies every river he meets with to be the
ocean, so Solon, as he passed through the court, and saw a great many
nobles richly dressed, and proudly attended with a multitude of guards
and footboys, thought every one to be the king, till he was brought to
Croesus, who was decked with every possible rarity and curiosity, in
ornaments of jewels, purple, and gold, that could make a grand and
gorgeous spectacle of him. Now when Solon came before him, and seemed
not at all surprised, nor gave Croesus those compliments he expected,
but showed himself to all discerning eyes to be a man that despised the
gaudiness and petty ostentation of it, he commanded them to open all
his treasure houses, and carry him to see his sumptuous furniture and
luxuries, though Solon did not wish it; he could judge of him well
enough by the first sight of him; and, when he returned from viewing
all, Croesus asked him if ever he had known a happier man than he. And
when Solon answered that he had known one Tellus, a fellow-citizen of
his own, and told him that this Tellus had been an honest man, had had
good children, a competent estate, and died bravely in battle for his
country, Croesus took him for an ill-bred fellow and a fool, for not
measuring happiness by the abundance of gold and silver, and preferring
the life and death of a private and mean man before so much power and
empire. He asked him however, again, if, besides Tellus, he knew any
other man more happy. And Solon replying, Yes, Cleobis and Biton, who
were loving brothers, and extremely dutiful sons to their mother, and,
when the oxen delayed her, harnessed themselves to the wagon, and drew
her to Juno's temple, her neighbors all calling her happy, and she
herself rejoicing; then, after sacrificing and feasting, they went
to rest, and never rose again, but died in the midst of their honor a
painless and tranquil death. "What," said Croesus, angrily, "and dost
not thou reckon us amongst the happy men at all?" Solon, unwilling
either to flatter or exasperate him more, replied, "The gods, O king,
have given the Greeks all other gifts in moderate degree; and so our
wisdom, too, is a cheerful and a homely, not a noble and kingly, wisdom;
and this, observing the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions,
forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments, or to admire
any man's happiness that may yet, in course of time, suffer change. For
the uncertain future has yet to come, with every possible variety of
fortune; and him only to whom the divinity has continued happiness unto
the end, we call happy; to salute as happy one that is still in the
midst of life and hazard, we think as little safe, and conclusive as to
crown and proclaim as victorious the wrestler that is yet in the ring."
After this, he was dismissed, having given Croesus some pain, but no
instruction.

Aesop, who wrote the fables, being then at Sardis upon Croesus's
invitation, and very much esteemed, was concerned that Solon was so
ill-received, and gave him this advice: "Solon, let your converse with
kings be either short or seasonable." "Nay, rather," replied Solon,
"either short or reasonable." So at this time Croesus despised Solon;
but when he was overcome by Cyrus, had lost his city, was taken alive,
condemned to be burnt, and laid bound upon the pile before all the
Persians and Cyrus himself, he cried out as loud as he possibly could
three times, "O Solon!" and Cyrus being surprised, and sending some to
inquire what man or god this Solon was, whom alone he invoked in this
extremity, Croesus told him the whole story, saying, "He was one of the
wise men of Greece, whom I sent for, not to be instructed, or to learn
anything that I wanted, but that he should see and be a witness of my
happiness; the loss of which was, it seems, to be a greater evil than
the enjoyment was a good; for when I had them they were goods only in
opinion, but now the loss of them has brought upon me intolerable and
real evils. And he, conjecturing from what then was, this that now is,
bade me look to the end of my life, and not rely and grow proud upon
uncertainties." When this was told Cyrus, who was a wiser man than
Croesus, and saw in the present example Solon's maxim confirmed, he not
only freed Croesus from punishment, but honored him as long as he
lived; and Solon had the glory, by the same saying, to save one king and
instruct another.

When Solon was gone, the citizens began to quarrel; Lycurgus headed
the Plain; Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, those of the Sea-side; and
Pisistratus the Hill-party, in which were the poorest people, the
Thetes, and greatest enemies to the rich; insomuch that, though the
city still used the new laws, yet all looked for and desired a change of
government, hoping severally that the change would be better for them,
and put them above the contrary faction. Affairs standing thus, Solon
returned, and was reverenced by all, and honored; but his old age would
not permit him to be as active, and to speak in public, as formerly;
yet, by privately conferring with the heads of the factions, he
endeavored to compose the differences, Pisistratus appearing the most
tractable; for he was extremely smooth and engaging in his language,
a great friend to the poor, and moderate in his resentments; and what
nature had not given him, he had the skill to imitate; so that he was
trusted more than the others, being accounted a prudent and orderly man,
one that loved equality, and would be an enemy to any that moved against
the present settlement. Thus he deceived the majority of people; but
Solon quickly discovered his character, and found out his design before
any one else; yet did not hate him upon this, but endeavored to humble
him, and bring him off from his ambition, and often told him and others,
that if any one could banish the passion for preeminence from his mind,
and cure him of his desire of absolute power, none would make a more
virtuous man or a more excellent citizen. Thespis, at this time,
beginning to act tragedies, and the thing, because it was new, taking
very much with the multitude, though it was not yet made a matter
of competition, Solon, being by nature fond of hearing and learning
something new, and now, in his old age, living idly, and enjoying
himself, indeed, with music and with wine, went to see Thespis himself,
as the ancient custom was, act; and after the play was done, he
addressed him, and asked him if he was not ashamed to tell so many lies
before such a number of people; and Thespis replying that it was no harm
to say or do so in play, Solon vehemently struck his staff against the
ground: "Ay," said he, "if we honor and commend such play as this, we
shall find it some day in our business."

Now when Pisistratus, having wounded himself, was brought into the
market-place in a chariot, and stirred up the people, as if he had been
thus treated by his opponents because of his political conduct, and a
great many were enraged and cried out, Solon, coming close to him, said,
"This, O son of Hippocrates, is a bad copy of Homer's Ulysses; you do,
to trick your countrymen, what he did to deceive his enemies." After
this, the people were eager to protect Pisistratus, and met in an
assembly, where one Ariston made a motion that they should allow
Pisistratus fifty clubmen for a guard to his person. Now, the people,
having passed the law, were not nice with Pisistratus about the number
of his clubmen, but took no notice of it, though he enlisted and kept as
many as he would, until he seized the Acropolis. When that was done, and
the city in an uproar, Megacles, with all his family, at once fled; But
Solon, though he was now very old, and had none to back him, yet came
into the market-place and made a speech to the citizens, partly blaming
their inadvertency and meanness of spirit, and in part urging and
exhorting them not thus tamely to lose their liberty; and likewise then
spoke that memorable saying, that, before, it was an easier task to
stop the rising tyranny, but now the greater and more glorious action
to destroy it, when it was begun already, and had gathered strength.
But all being afraid to side with him, he returned home, and, taking his
arms, he brought them out and laid them in the porch before his door,
with these words: "I have done my part to maintain my country and my
laws," and then be busied himself no more.

But Pisistratus, having got the command, so extremely courted Solon, so
honored him, obliged him, and sent to see him, that Solon gave him
his advice, and approved many of his actions; for he retained most of
Solon's laws, observed them himself, and compelled his friends to obey.
And he added other laws, one of which is that the maimed in the wars
should be maintained at the public charge, following Solon's example in
this, who had decreed it in the case of one Thersippus, that was maimed.

Solon lived after Pisistratus seized the government a long time. But
the story that his ashes were scattered about the island Salamis is too
strange to be easily believed, or be thought anything but a mere
fable; and yet it is given, among other good authors, by Aristotle the
philosopher.




THEMISTOCLES

The birth of Themistocles was somewhat too obscure to do him honor. His
father, Neocles, was not of the distinguished people of Athens, but of
the township of Phrearrhi; and by his mother's side, as it is reported,
he was low-born.

     "I am not of the noble Grecian race,
     I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Trace;
     Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,
     I was the mother of Themistocles."

From his youth he was of a vehement and impetuous nature, of a quick
apprehension, and a strong and aspiring bent for action and great
affairs, the holidays and intervals in his studies he did not spend in
play or idleness, as other children, but would be always inventing or
arranging some oration or declamation to himself, the subject of which
was generally the excusing of accusing of his companions, so that his
master would often say to him, "You, my boy, will be nothing small,
but great one way or other, for good and else for bad." he received
reluctantly and carelessly instructions given him to improve his manners
and behavior, or to teach him any pleasing or graceful accomplishment,
but whatever was said to improve him in sagacity, or in management of
affairs, he would give attention to beyond one of years, from confidence
in his natural capacities for such things.

In the first essays of his youth he was not regular nor happily
balanced; he allowed himself to follow mere natural character, which,
without the control of reason and instruction, is apt to hurry, upon
either side, into sudden and violent courses, and very often to break
away and determine upon the worst; as he afterwards owned himself,
saying that the wildest colts make the best horses, if they only get
properly trained and broken in.

Yet it is evident that his mind was early imbued with the keenest
interest in public affairs, and the most passionate ambition for
distinction. It is said that Themistocles was so transported with the
thoughts of glory, and so inflamed with the passion for great actions,
that, though he was still young when the battle of Marathon was
fought against the Persian, upon the skillful conduct of the general,
Miltiades, being everywhere talked about, he was observed to be
thoughtful and reserved; he passed the nights without sleep, and avoided
all his usual places of recreation, and to those how wondered at the
change, and inquired the reason of it, he gave the answer that "the
trophy of Miltiades would not let him sleep." And when others were
of opinion that the battle of Marathon would be an end to the war,
Themistocles thought that it was but the beginning of far greater
conflict, and for these, to the benefit of Greece, he kept himself in
continual readiness, and his city also in proper training, foreseeing
from far before what would happen.

And, first of all, the Athenians being accustomed to divide amongst
themselves the revenue proceeding from the silver mines at Laurium, he
was the only man that durst propose to the people that this distribution
should cease, and that with the money, ships should be built to make
war against the Aeginetans, who were the most flourishing people in all
Greece, and by the number of their ships held the sovereignty of the
sea; and Themistocles thus, little by little, turned and drew the city
down towards the sea, in the belief that, whereas by land they were not
a match for their next neighbors, with their ships they might be able to
repel the Persian and command Greece; thus, as Plato says, from steady
soldiers he turned them into mariners and seamen tossed about the sea,
and gave occasion for the reproach against him, that he took away from
the Athenians the spear and the shield, and bound them to the bench
and the oar. He was well liked by the common people, would salute every
particular citizen by his own name, and always showed himself a
just judge in questions of business between private men; he said to
Simonides, the poet of Ceos, who desired something of him when he was
commander of the army that was no reasonable, "Simonides, you would
be no good poet if you wrote false measure, nor should I be a good
magistrate if for favor I made false law."

Gradually growing to be great, and winning the favor of the people,
he at last gained the day with his faction over that of Aristides, and
procured his banishment by ostracism. When the kind of Persia was now
advancing against Greece, and sent messengers into Greece, with an
interpreter, to demand earth and water, as an acknowledgement of
subjection, Themistocles, by the consent of the people, seized upon
the interpreter, and put him to death, for presuming to publish the
barbarian orders and decrees in the Greek language; and having taken
upon himself the command of the Athenian forces, he immediately
endeavored to persuade the citizens to leave the city, and to embark
upon their galleys, and meet with the Persians at a great distance from
Greece.

When the contingents met at the straits of Artemisium, the Greeks would
have the Lacedaemonians to command, and Eurybiades to be their admiral;
but the Athenians, who surpassed all the rest together in number of
vessels, would not submit to come after any other, till Themistocles,
perceiving the danger of this contest, yielded his own command to
Eurybiades, and got the Athenians to submit, persuading them that if in
this war they behaved themselves like men, he would answer for it after
that, that the Greeks, of their own will, would submit to their command.

Though the fights between the Greeks and Persians in the straits of
Euboea were not so important as to make any final decision of the
war, yet the experience which the Greeks obtained in them was of great
advantage; for thus, by actual trial and in real danger, they found
out, that neither number of ships, or riches and ornaments, nor boasting
shouts, nor barbarous songs of victory, were any way terrible to men
that knew how to fight, and were resolved to come hand to hand with
their enemies. This, Pindar appears to have seen, and says justly enough
of the fight at Artemisium, that

     There the sons of Athens set
     The stone that freedom stands on yet.

For the first step towards victory undoubtedly is to gain courage.
Artemisium is in Euboea, beyond the city of Histiaea, a sea-beach open
to the north; there is small temple there, dedicated to Diana, surnamed
of the Dawn, and trees about it, around which again stand pillars of
white marble; and if rub them with your hand, they send forth both the
smell and color of saffron.

But when news came from Thermopylae to Artemisium, informing that that
king Leonidas was slain, and that Xerxes had made himself master of
all the passages by land, they returned back to the interior of Greece.
Xerxes had already passed through Doris and invaded the country of
Phocis, and was burning and destroying the cities of the Phocians, yet
the Greeks sent them no relief; and, though the Athenians earnestly
desired them to meet the Persians in Boeotia, before they could come
into Attica, as they themselves had come forward by sea at Artemisium,
they gave no ear to their request, being wholly intent upon
Peloponnesus, and resolved to gather all their forces together within
the Isthmus, and to build a wall from sea to sea in that narrow neck of
land; so that the Athenians were enraged to see themselves betrayed, and
at the same time afflicted and dejected at their own destitution. For to
fight alone against such a numerous army was to no purpose, and the
only expedient now left them was to leave their city and cling to their
ships; which the people were very unwilling to submit to, imagining that
it would signify little now to gain a victory, and not understanding how
there could be deliverance any longer after they had once forsaken
the temples of their gods and exposed the tombs and monuments of their
ancestors to the fury of their enemies.

Themistocles, being at a loss, and not able to draw the people over
to his opinion by any human reason, set his machines to work, as in a
theatre, and employed prodigies and oracles. The serpent of Athena, kept
in the inner part of her temple, disappeared; the priests gave it out
to the people and declared, by the suggestion of Themistocles, that the
goddess had left the city, and taken her flight before them towards the
sea. And he often urged them with the oracle which bade them "trust to
walls of wood," showing them that walls of wood could signify nothing
else but ships; and that the island of Salamis was termed in it not
miserable or unhappy, but had the epithet of divine, for that it should
one day be associated with a great good fortune of the Greeks. At length
his opinion prevailed, and he obtained a decree that the city should be
committed to the protection of Athena, "queen of Athens"; that they
who were of age to bear arms should embark, and that each should see to
sending away his children, women, and slaves where he could. This decree
being confirmed, most of the Athenians removed their parents, wives, and
children to Troezen, where they were received with eager good-will by
the Troezenians, who passed a vote that they should be maintained at the
public charge.

Among the great actions of Themistocles at this crisis, the recall of
Aristides was not the least, for, before the war, he had been ostracized
by the party which Themistocles headed, and was in banishment; but now,
perceiving that the people regretted his absence, and were fearful that
he might go over to the Persians to revenge himself, and thereby ruin
the affairs of Greece, Themistocles proposed a decree that those who
were banished for a time might return again, to give assistance by word
and deed to the cause of Greece with the rest of their fellow citizens.

Eurybiades, by reason of the greatness of Sparta, was admiral of the
Greek fleet, but yet was faint-hearted in time of danger, and willing
to weigh anchor and set sail for the Isthmus of Corinth, near which the
land army lay encamped; which Themistocles, resisted; and this was
the occasion of the well-known words, when Eurybiades, to check his
impatience, told him that at the Olympic games they that start up before
the rest are lashed. "And they," replied Themistocles, "that are left
behind are not crowned." Some say that while Themistocles was thus
speaking things upon the deck, an owl was seen flying to the right hand
of the fleet, which came and sat upon the top of the mast; and this
happy omen so far disposed the Greeks to follow his advice, that they
presently prepared to fight. Yet, when the enemy's fleet was arrived at
the haven of Phalerum, upon the coast of Attica, and with the number of
their ships concealed all the shore, and when they saw the king himself
in person come down with his land army to the sea-side, with all his
forces united, then the good counsel of Themistocles was soon forgotten,
and the Peloponnesians cast their eyes again towards the Isthmus, and
took it very ill if any one spoke against their returning home; and,
resolving to depart that night, the pilots had order what course to
steer.

Themistocles, in great distress that the Greeks should return, and lost
the advantage of the narrow seas and strait passage, and slip home
very one to his own city, considered with himself, and contrived that
stratagem which was carried out by Sicinnus. This Sicinnus was a Persian
captive, but a great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his
children. Upon this occasion he sent him privately to Xerxes, commanding
him to tell the king that Themistocles, the admiral of the Athenians,
having espoused his interest, wished to be the first to inform him that
the Greeks were ready to make their escape, and that he counseled him to
hinder their flight, to set upon them while they were in this confusion
and at a distance from their land army, and thereby destroy all their
forces by sea. Xerxes was very joyful at this message, and received it
as from one who wished him all that was good, and immediately issued
instructions to the commanders of his ships that they should instantly
set out with two hundred galleys to encompass all the islands, and
enclose all the straits and passages, that none of the Greeks might
escape, and that they should afterward follow with the rest of their
fleet at leisure. This being done, Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, was
the first man that perceived it, and went to the test of Themistocles,
not out of any friendship, for he had been formerly banished by his
means, as has been related, but to inform him how they were encompassed
by their enemies. Themistocles, knowing the generosity of Aristides, and
much struck by his visit at that time, imparted to him all that he had
transacted by Sicinnus, and entreated him that, as he would be more
readily believed among the Greeks, he would make use of his credit to
help to induce them to stay and fight their enemies in the narrow seas.
Aristides applauded Themistocles, and went to the other commanders and
captains of the galleys and encouraged them to engage; yet they did not
perfectly assent to him till a galley of Tenos, which deserted from the
Persians, of which Panaetius was commander, came in, while they were
still doubting, and confirmed the news that all the straits and passages
were beset; and then their rage and fury, as well as their necessity,
provoked them all to fight.

As soon as it was day, Xerxes placed himself high up, to view his fleet,
as Acestodorus writes, in the confines of Megara, upon those hills
which are called the Horns, where he sat in a chair of gold, with many
secretaries about him to write down all that was done in the fight.

The number of the enemy's ships the poet Aeschylus gives in his tragedy
called the Persians, as on his certain knowledge, in the following
words:

      Xerxes, I know, did into battle lead
      One thousand ships; of more than usual speed
      Seven and two hundred. So is it agreed.

The Athenians had a hundred and eighty; in every ship eighteen
men fought upon the deck, four of whom were archers and the rest
men-at-arms.

As Themistocles had fixed upon the most advantageous place, so, with no
less sagacity, he chose the best time of fighting; for he would not run
the prows of his galleys against the Persians, nor begin the fight till
the time of day was come when there regularly blows in a fresh breeze
from the open sea, and brings in with it a strong swell into the
channel; this was no inconvenience to the Greek ships, which were
low-built, and little above the water, but did much hurt to the
Persians, which had high sterns and lofty decks, and were heavy and
cumbrous in their movements, as it presented them broadside to the
quick charges of the Greeks, who kept their eyes upon the motions of
Themistocles, as their best example, and more particularly because,
opposed to his ship, Ariamenes, admiral to Xerxes, a brave man, and by
far the best and worthiest of the king's brothers, was seen throwing
darts and shooting arrows from his huge galley, as from the walls of a
castle. Aminias the Decelean and Sosicles the Pedian, who sailed in the
same vessel, upon the ships meeting stem to stem, and transfixing each
the other with their brazen prows, so that they were fastened together,
when Ariamenes attempted to board theirs, ran at them with their pikes,
and thrust him into the sea; his body, as it floated amongst other
shipwrecks, was discovered by Artemisia, and carried to Xerxes.

The first man that took a ship was Lycomedes the Athenian, captain of
a galley, who cut down its ensign, and dedicated it to Apollo the
Laurel-crowned. And as the Persians fought in a narrow sea, and could
bring but part of their fleet to fight, and fell foul of one another,
the Greeks thus equaled them in strength, and fought with them till the
evening, forced them back, and obtained, as says Simonides, that noble
and famous victory, than which neither amongst the Greeks nor barbarians
was ever known more glorious exploit on the seas; by the joint valor,
indeed, and zeal of all who fought, but most by the wisdom and sagacity
of Themistocles.

After this sea-fight, Xerxes, enraged at his ill-fortune, attempted,
by casting great heaps of earth and stones into the sea, to stop up the
channel and to make a dam, upon which he might lead his land forces over
into the island of Salamis.

Themistocles, being desirous to try the opinion of Aristides, told him
that he proposed to set sail for the Hellespont, to break the bridge
of ships, so as to shut up, he said, Aisa a prisoner within Europe; but
Aristides, disliking the design, said: "We have hitherto fought with an
enemy who has regarded little else but his pleasure and luxury; but if
we shut him up within Greece, and drive him to necessity, he that is
master of such great forces will no longer sit quietly with an umbrella
of gold over his head, looking upon the fight for his pleasure; but he
will be resolute, and attempt all things. Therefore, it is noways our
interest, Themistocles," he said, "to take away the bridge that is
already made, but rather to build another, if it were possible, that he
might make his retreat with the more expedition." To which Themistocles
answered: "If this be requisite, we must immediately use all diligence,
art, and industry, to rid ourselves of him as soon as may be;" and to
this purpose he found out among the captives one named Arnaces, whom he
sent to the king, to inform him that the Greeks, being now victorious
by sea, had decreed to sail to the Hellespont, where the boasts were
fastened together, and destroy the bridge; but that Themistocles, being
concerned for the king, revealed this to him, that he might hasten
toward the Asiatic seas, and pass over into his own dominions; and
in the meantime would cause delays, and hinder the confederates
from pursuing him. Xerxes no sooner heard this than, being very much
terrified, he proceeded to retreat out of Greece with all speed. The
prudence of Themistocles and Aristides in this was afterward more fully
understood at the battle of Plataea, where Mardonius, with a very small
fraction of the forces of Xerxes, put the Greeks in danger of losing
all.

Herodotus writes that, of all the cities of Greece, Aegina was held to
have performed the best service in the war; while all single men
yielded to Themistocles, though, out of envy, unwillingly; and when they
returned to the entrance of Peloponnesus, where the several commanders
delivered their suffrages at the altar, to determine who was most
worthy, every one gave the first vote for himself and the second for
Themistocles. The Lacedaemonians carried him with them to Sparta, where,
giving the rewards of valor to Eurybiades, and of wisdom and conduct to
Themistocles, they crowned him with olive, presented him with the best
chariot in the city, and sent three hundred young men to accompany him
to the confines of their country. And at the next Olympic games, when
Themistocles entered the course, the spectators took no further notice
of those who were competing for the prizes, but spent the whole day
in looking upon him, showing him to the strangers, admiring him, and
applauding him by clapping their hands, and other expressions of joy, so
that he himself, much gratified, confessed to his friends that he then
reaped the fruit of all his labors for the Greeks.

He was, indeed, by nature, a great lover of honor, as is evident from
the anecdotes recorded of him. When chosen admiral by the Athenians, he
would not quite conclude any single matter of business, either public or
private, but deferred all till the day they were to set sail, that, by
dispatching a great quantity of business all at once, and having to met
a great variety of people, he might make an appearance of greatness
and power. Viewing the dead bodies cast up by the sea, he perceived
bracelets and necklaces of gold about them, yet passed on, only showing
them to a friend that followed him, saying, "Take you these things, for
you are not Themistocles." He aid to Antiphates, a handsome young
man, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson." He said that the
Athenians did not honor him or admire him, but made, as it were, a sort
of plane-tree of him; sheltered themselves under him in bad weather, and
as soon as it was fine, plucked his leaves and cut his branches. When a
Seriphian told him that he had not obtained this honor by himself, but
by the greatness of his city, he replied: "You speak truth; I should
never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been
of Athens." Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his
mother's means, his father also to indulge him, he told him that he had
the most power of any one is Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest
of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you
command your mother." Of the two who made love to his daughter, he
preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, saying he desired a
man without riches, rather than riches without a man.

When the citizens of Athens began to listen willingly to those who
traduced and reproached him, he was forced, with somewhat obnoxious
frequency, to put them in mind of the great services he had performed.
And he yet more provoked the people by building a temple to Diana with
the epithet of Aristobule, or Diana of Best Counsel; intimating thereby
that he had given the best counsel, not only to the Athenians, but to
all Greece. At length the Athenians banished him, making use of the
ostracism to humble his eminence and authority, as they ordinarily
did with all whom they thought too powerful, or, by their greatness,
disproportionate to the equality thought requisite in a popular
government. For the ostracism was instituted, not so much to punish
the offender as to mitigate and pacify the violence of the envious, who
delighted to humble eminent men, and who, by fixing this disgrace upon
them, might vent some part of their rancor.

Themistocles being banished from Athens, while he stayed at Argos the
detection of Pausanias happened. And after Pausanias was put to death,
letters and writings were found which rendered Themistocles suspected,
and his enemies among the Athenians accused him. In answer to the
malicious detractions of his enemies, he merely wrote to the citizens
urging that he who was always ambitious to govern, and not of a
character or a disposition to serve, would never sell himself and his
country into slavery to a barbarous and hostile nation.

Notwithstanding this, the people, being persuaded by his accuser, set
officers to take him and bring him away to be tried before a council
of the Greeks; but, having timely notice of it, he passed over into the
island of Corcyra, where the state was under obligations to him;
for, being chosen as arbitrator in a difference between them and the
Corinthians, he decided the controversy by ordering the Corinthians to
pay down twenty talents, and declaring the town and island of Leucas a
joint colony from both cities. From thence he fled into Epirus, and, the
Athenians and Lacedaemonians still pursuing him, he threw himself upon
chances of safety that seemed all but desperate. For he fled fro refuge
to Admetus, kind of the Molossians, who had formerly made some request
to the Athenians when Themistocles was in the height of his authority,
and had been disdainfully used and insulted by him, and had let it
appear plain enough that could he lay hold of him he would take his
revenge. Yet in this misfortune, Themistocles, fearing the recent hatred
of his neighbors and fellow-citizens more than the old displeasure of
the king, put himself at his mercy, and became an humble suppliant to
Admetus, after a peculiar manner, different from the custom of other
countries. For taking the king's son, who was then a child, in his arms,
he laid himself down at his hearth, this being the most sacred and
only manner of supplication, among the Molossians, which was not to be
refused.

Thucydides says, that, passing over land to the Aegean Sea, he took shop
at Pydna in the bay of Thermae, not being known to any one in the ship,
till, being terrified to see the vessel driven by the winds near to
Naxos, which was then besieged by the Athenians, he made himself
known to the master and pilot, and, partly entreating them, partly
threatening, he compelled them to bear off and stand out to sea, and
sail forward toward the coast of Aisa.

When he arrived at Cyme, and understood that all along the coast many
laid in wait for him (the king of Persia having offered by public
proclamation two hundred talents to him that should take him), he fled
to Aegae, a small city of the Aeolians, where no one knew him but only
his host Nicogenes, who was the richest man in Aeolia, and well known to
the great men of Inner Asia. There Themistocles, going to bed, dreamed
that he saw a snake coil itself up upon his belly, and so creep to his
neck; then, as soon as it touched his face, it turned into an eagle,
which spread its wings over him, and took him up and flew away with him
a great distance; then there appeared a herald's golden wand, and
upon this at last it set him down securely, after infinite terror and
disturbance.

His departure was effected by Nicogenes by the following artifice: the
barbarous nations, and among them the Persians especially, are extremely
jealous, severe, and suspicious about their wives, whom they keep so
strictly that no one ever sees them abroad; they spend their lives shut
up within doors, and, when they take a journey, are carried in close
tenets, curtained in on all sides, and set upon a wagon. Such a
traveling carriage being prepared for Themistocles, they hid him in it,
and carried him on his journey, and told those whom they met or spoke
with upon the road that they were conveying a young Greek woman out of
Ionia to a nobleman at court.

When he was introduced to the king, and had paid his reverence to him,
he stood silent, till the king commanding the interpreter to ask him who
he was, he replied: "O king, I am Themistocles the Athenian, driven
into banishment by the Greeks. The evils I have done to the Persians are
numerous; but my benefits to them yet greater, in withholding the Greeks
from pursuit, so soon as the deliverance of my own country allowed me
to show kindness also to you. I come with a mind suited to my present
calamities; prepared alike for favors and for anger; to welcome your
gracious reconciliation, and to deprecate your wrath. Take my own
countrymen for witnesses of the services I have done for Persia, and
make use of this occasion to show the world your virtue, rather than to
satisfy your indignation. If you save me, you will save your suppliant;
if otherwise, you will destroy an enemy of the Greeks."

In the morning, calling together the chief of his court, he had
Themistocles brought before him, who expected no good of it. Yet, when
he came into the presence, and again fell down, the king saluted him,
and spake to him kindly, telling him he was now indebted to him two
hundred talents; for it was just and reasonable that he should receive
the reward which was proposed to whosoever should bring Themistocles;
and promising much more, and encouraging him, he commanded him to speak
freely what he would concerning the affairs of Greece. Themistocles
replied, that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persians carpet, the
beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading
and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are
obscured and lost; and, therefore, he desired time. The king being
pleased with the comparison, and bidding him take what time he would,
he desired a year; in which time, having learnt the Persian language
sufficiently, he spoke with the king by himself without the help of an
interpreter; the king invited him to partake of his own pastimes and
recreations both at home and abroad, carrying him with him a-hunting,
and made him his intimate so far that he permitted him to see the
queen-mother, and converse frequently with her. By the king's command,
he also was made acquainted with the Magian learning.

They relate, also, how Themistocles, when he was in great prosperity,
and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table,
turned to his children and said: "Children, we had been undone if we
had not been undone." Most writers say that he had three cities given
him--Magnesia, Myus and Lampsacus--to maintain him in bread, meat and
wine; and some add two more, the city of Palaescepsis, to provide him
with clothes, and Percote, with bedding and furniture for his house.

He lived quietly in his own house in Magnesia, where for a long time he
passed his days in great security, being courted by all, and enjoying
rich presents, and honored equally with the greatest persons in the
Persian empire; the king, at that time, not minding his concerns with
Greece, being taken up with the affairs of Inner Aisa.

But when Egypt revolted, being assisted by the Athenians, and the Greek
galleys roved about as far as Cyprus and Cilicia, and Cimon had made
himself master of the seas, the king turned his thoughts thither, and,
bending his mind chiefly to resist the Greeks, and to cheek the
growth of their power against him, began to raise forces, and send out
commanders, and to dispatch messengers to Themistocles at Magnesia, to
put him in mind of his promise, and to summon him to act against the
Greeks. Yet this did not increase his hatred nor exasperate him against
the Athenians, but, being ashamed to sully the glory of his former great
actions, and of his many victories and trophies, he determined to put a
conclusion to his life, agreeable to its previous course. He sacrificed
to the gods, and invited his friends; and having entertained them and
shaken hands with them, drank bull's blood, as is the usual story; as
others state, a poison, producing instant death; and ended his days in
the city of Magnesia, having lived sixty-five years, most of which he
had spent in politics and in the wars, in government and command. The
king, being informed of the cause and manner of his death, admired him
the more than ever, and continued to show kindness to his friends and
relations.

The Magnesians possess a splendid sepulchre of Themistocles, placed in
the middle of their market-place. And various honors and privileges were
granted to the kindred of Themistocles at Magnesia, which were observed
down to our times, and were enjoyed by another Themistocles of Athens,
with whom I had an intimate acquaintance and friendship in the house of
Ammonius the philosopher.




CAMILLUS

Among the many remarkable things that are related of Furius Camillus, it
seems singular that he, who continually was in the highest commands,
and obtained the greatest successes, was five times chosen dictator,
triumphed four times, and was styled a second founder of Rome, yet never
was so much as once consul. The reason of which was the state and temper
of the commonwealth at that time; for the people, being at dissension
with the senate, refused to return consuls, but they instead elected
other magistrates, called military tribunes, who acted, indeed, with
full consular power, but were thought to exercise a less obnoxious
amount of authority, because it was divided among a larger number.

The house of the Furii was not, at that time, of any considerable
distinction; he, by his own acts, first raised himself to honor, serving
under Postumius Tubertus, dictator, in the great battle against the
Aequians and Volscians. For, riding out from the rest of the army, and
in the charge receiving a would in his thigh, he for all that did not
quit the fight, but, letting the dart drag in the would, and engaging
with the bravest of the enemy, put them to flight; for which action,
among other rewards bestowed on him, he was created censor, an office in
those days of great repute and authority. During his censorship one
very good act of his is recorded, that, whereas the wars had made many
widows, he obliged such as had no wives, some by fair persuasion, others
by threatening to set fines on their heads, to take them in marriage;
another necessary one, in causing orphans to be rated, who before were
exempted from taxes, the frequent wars requiring more than ordinary
expenses to maintain them. What, however, pressed them most was the
siege of Veii. Some call this people Veientani. This was the head city
of Tuscany, not inferior to Rome either in number of arms or multitude
of soldiers, insomuch that, presuming on her wealth and luxury, and
priding herself upon her refinement and sumptuousness, she engaged in
many honorable contests with the Romans for glory and empire. But now
they had abandoned their former ambitious hopes, having been weakened by
great defeats, so that, having fortified themselves with high and strong
walls, and furnished the city with all sorts of weapons offensive and
defensive, as likewise with corn and all manner of provisions, they
cheerfully endured a siege, which, though tedious to them, was no less
troublesome and distressing to the besiegers. For the Romans, having
never been accustomed to stay away from home except in summer, and for
no great length of time, and constantly to winter at home, were then
first compelled by the tribunes to build forts in the enemy's country,
and, raising strong works about their camp, to join winter and summer
together. And now the seventh year of the war drawing to an end, the
commanders began to be suspected as too slow and remiss in driving on
the siege, insomuch that they were discharged and others chosen for the
war, among whom was Camillus, then second time tribune. But at present
he had no hand in the siege, the duties that fell by lot to him being to
make war upon the Faliscans and Capenates, who, taking advantage of
the Romans being occupied on all hands, had carried ravages into their
country, and through all the Tuscan war, given them much annoyance, but
were now reduced by Camillus, and with great loss shut up within their
walls.

And now, in the very heat of the war, a strange phenomenon in the
Alban lake, which, in the absence of any known cause and explanation by
natural reasons, seemed as great a prodigy as the most incredible that
are reported, occasioned great alarm. It was the beginning of autumn,
and the summer now ending had, to all observation, been neither rainy
nor much troubled with southern winds; and of the many lakes, brooks,
and springs of all sorts with which Italy abounds, some were wholly
dried up, others had very little water in them; all the rivers, as is
usual in summer, ran in a very low and hollow channel. But the Alban
lake, which is fed by no other waters but its own, and is on all sides
encircled with fruitful mountains, without any cause, unless it were
divine, began visibly to rise and swell, increasing to the feet of the
mountains, and by degrees reaching the level of the very tops of some of
them, and all this without any waves or agitation. At first it was the
wonder of shepherds and herdsmen; but when the earth, which, like a
great dam, held up the lake from falling into the lower grounds, through
the quantity and weight of water was broken down, and in a violent
stream it ran through the ploughed fields and plantations to discharge
itself in the sea, it not only struck terror into the Romans, but was
thought by all the inhabitants of Italy to portend some extraordinary
event. But the greatest talk of it was in the camp that besieged Veii,
so that in the town itself, also, the occurrence became known.

As in long sieges it commonly happens that both parties on both sides
meet often and converse with one another, so it chanced that a Roman had
gained much confidence and familiarity with one of the besieged, a man
versed in ancient prophecies, and of repute for more than ordinary skill
in divination. The Roman, observing him to be overjoyed at the story of
the lake, and to mock at the siege, told him that this was not the only
prodigy that of late had happened to the Romans; others more wonderful
yet than this had befallen them, which he was willing to communicate to
him, that he might the better provide for his private interests in these
public distempers. The man greedily embraced the proposal, expecting to
hear some wonderful secrets; but when, little by little, he had led him
on in conversation, and insensibly drawn him a good way from the gates
of the city, he snatched him up the middle, being stronger than he, and,
by the assistance of others who came running from the camp, seized and
delivered him to the commanders. The man, reduced to this necessity, and
sensible now that destiny was not to be avoided, discovered to them the
secret oracle of Veii, that it was not possible the city should be
taken until the Alban lake, which now broke forth and had found out new
passages, was drawn back from that course, and so diverted that it
could not mingle with the sea. The senate, having heard and satisfied
themselves about the matter, decreed to send to Delphi, to ask counsel
of the god. The messengers returned with the answer that the Alban
water, if possible, they should keep from the sea, and shut it up in its
ancient bounds; but if that was not to be done, then they should carry
it off by ditches and trenches into the lower grounds, and so dry it up;
which message being delivered, the priests performed what related to the
sacrifices, and the people went to work and turned the water.

And now the senate, in the tenth year of the war, taking away all other
commands, created Camillus dictator, who chose Cornelius Scipio for his
general of horse, and, having made vows, marched into the country of the
Faliscans, and in a great battle overthrew them and the Capenates, their
confederates; afterwards he turned to the siege of Veii, and finding
that to take it by assault would prove a difficult and hazardous
attempt, proceeded to cut mines under ground, the earth about the city
being easy to break up, and allowing such depth for the works as would
prevent their being discovered by the enemy. This design going on in a
hopeful way, he openly gave assaults to the enemy, to keep them to the
walls, until they that worked underground in the mines might, without
being perceived, arrive within the citadel, close to the temple of Juno,
which was the greatest and most honored in all the city. It is said that
the prince of the Tuscans was at that very time at sacrifice, and that
the priest, after he had looked into the entrails of the beast, cried
out with a loud voice that the gods would give the victory to those that
should complete those offerings; and that the Romans who were in the
mines, hearing the words, immediately pulled down the floor, and,
ascending with noise, and clashing of weapons, frightened away the
enemy, and, snatching up the entrails, carried them to Camillus. But
this may look like a fable. The city, however, being taken by storm, and
the soldiers busied in pillaging and gathering an infinite quantity of
riches and spoil, Camillus, from the high tower viewing what was done,
at first wept for pity; and when the bystanders congratulated him upon
his success, he lifted up his hands to heaven, and broke out into this
prayer: "O most mighty Jupiter, and ye gods that are judges of good and
evil actions, ye know that not without just cause, but constrained by
necessity, we have been forced to revenge ourselves on the city of our
unrighteous and wicked enemies. But if, the the vicissitude of things,
there by any calamity due, to counter-balance this great felicity, I beg
that it may be diverted from the city and army of the Roma

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