Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Vol. 1 by Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus

1 00 - Introduction 7:21

Introduction to Volume One of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Graham Redman.

Volume I of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Introduction Plutarch's Life and Writings Plutarch was born at Ciranaia, a small town on the northern confines of Boeotia, about the middle of the first century of our era, and towards the close of the reign of the Emperor Claudius. He belonged to a family of ample means and generous culture, and was liberally educated. He studied at Athens, the most attractive university town in his day for both Greeks and Romans, and was a disciple of Ammonius of Lamp-Tree, a peripatetic philosopher deeply versed in religious law. Returning to his native town, he was soon called upon to represent it as deputy to the Roman governor of the province of Greece.

That he travelled extensively over Greece, visited Asia Minor, Egypt and Italy, and resided much at Rome, may be inferred from his writings, as most that is known about him must be inferred. At Rome he was in charge of certain public business, so that he had not time to learn thoroughly the Latin language, as he himself confesses in the introduction to his Demosthenes. But Greek was the language of literary and polite society at Rome, and cultivated Greeks, especially philosophers, were welcome there. As a Greek philosopher, and a popularizer of Platonism, Plutarch read and lectured at Rome much as he did in the small but select circle of his intimates and friends at home. He made and retained a large acquaintance with the prominent Romans of his day, and was familiar with the questions which most occupied the minds of men at the political centre of the world.

Then, after athenian education, generous travels, diplomatic missions, modest literary celebrity, and considerable residence at Rome, he seems to have retired to his little country home, with his books, notes, lectures, essays, and gentle philosophy, And there, in a leisure not all too much encroached upon by local magistracies and certain religious offices at neighboring Delphi, to have elaborated the sketches of his lectures and essays which have come down to us under the collective name of Morals, and to have composed the work on which his fame chiefly rests, the parallel lives of Greeks and Romans. He lived through the reigns of Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, and, leaving the world as he did about a hundred and twenty a d, must have rejoiced at the accession of Hadrian to the imperial throne.

His world had grown steadily better while he lived, and was now to enjoy its second golden age. The models were composed, for the greater part, before the lives, and are an invaluable prelude to and commentary on them, especially if we would know just what manner of man the author of the Lives was. They tell us, as the Lives do not, of the points of view, moral and religious, from which he contemplated not this man's life or the others, but the whole life of men. Nor is it too much to affirm that of the two halves of Plutarch's writings, of his lives and his morals, each constitutes a complement of the other, the one setting forth to us, and so far as this was possible, from ideal points of view, what the ancient world had accomplished in the world of action, and the other what, in like manner, it had aimed at and accomplished in the world of thought.

But even in the lives Plutarch is far more moralist than historian. Greece, after passing under Roman sway, lost sight gradually of her great men of action, and contented herself with the glories of her men of thought. Here, surely, the dominant Romans could not vie with her. It was to prove that the more remote past of Greece could show its lawgivers, commanders, statesmen, patriots, and orators, as well as the nearer and therefore more impressive past of Rome, that the parallel lives were written. With Scipio Africanus, the elder, the greatest man of Rome, Plutarch matched Epaminondas, the greatest man of Greece. This pair, or book, of lives, is unfortunately lost. With Camillus, who saved Rome from the Gauls, he matched Themistocles, who saved Athens from the Persians.

Then followed, as nearly as the order can be determined, for the order of the lives in our collection is not the original one, the Simon and Lucullus, the Lycurgus and Numa, the Demosthenes and Cicero, the Pelopidas and Marcellus, The Lysander and Sulla, the Philippimen and Flamininus, the Pericles and Fabius Maximus, the Aristides and Cato Major, and thirteen other pairs. Eighteen of the 22 pairs which have come down to us close with a formal comparison of the two careers and characters. This is often fanciful and forced, Abounds in contrasts rather than resemblances, and is seldom of any special historical value, although it often has great literary charm. There are also four single lives in our collection, Artaxerxes, Aretus, Galba, and Otho, and we get traces of twelve more that are now lost.

One of the pairs is a double one, where, to match the two Plutarch selects the two reforming Spartan kings, Aegis and Cleomenes. We have in all, therefore, fifty lives by Plutarch. End of introduction.

2 01 - Theseus pt. 1 23:05

I of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Reading by Robin Cotter. October, 2008. Volume I. of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.

Theseus.

Just as geographers, O Sosius Senesio, crowd on to the outer edges of their maps the parts of the earth which elude their knowledge, with explanatory notes that, What lies beyond is sandy desert, without water and full of wild beasts, or blind marsh, or scythian cold, or frozen sea. So in the writing of my parallel lives, now that I have traversed those periods of time which are accessible to probable reasoning, and which afford basis for a history dealing with facts, I might well say of the earlier periods, quote, What lies beyond is full of marvels and unreality. A land of poets and fabulists, of doubt and obscurity.

But after publishing my account of Lycurgus, the lawgiver, and Numa, the king, I thought I might not unreasonably go back still farther to Romulus, now that my history had brought me near his times. And as I asked myself, it seemed to me that I must make the founder of lovely and famous Athens the counterpart and parallel to the father of invincible and glorious Rome. May I therefore succeed in purifying fable, making her submit to reason and take on the semblance of history. But where she obstinately disdains to make herself credible, and refuses to admit any element of probability, I shall pray for kindly readers, and such as receive with indulgence the tales of antiquity. It seemed to me, then, that many resemblances made Theseus a fit parallel to Romulus.

For both were of uncertain and obscure parentage, and got the reputation of descent from gods, both were also warriors, as surely the whole world knoweth.

And with their strength combined sagacity. Of the world's two most illustrious cities, moreover, Rome and Athens, Romulus founded the one, and Theseus made a metropolis of the other, and each resorted to the rape of women. Besides, neither escaped domestic misfortunes, and the resentful anger of Kindred, but even in their last days, both are said to have come into collision with their own fellow-citizens, if there is any aid to the truth in what seems to have been told with the least poetic exaggeration. The lineage of Theseus on the father's side goes back to Erechtheus and the first children of the soil, on the mother's side to Pelops, for Pelops was the strongest of the kings in Peloponnesus, quite as much on account of the number of his children as the amount of his wealth.

He gave many daughters in marriage to men of highest rank, and scattered many sons among the cities as their rulers. One of these, named Pythias, the grandfather of Theseus, founded the little city of Troizen, and had the highest repute as a man versed in the lore of his times, and of the greatest wisdom. Now the wisdom of that day had some such form and force as that for which Hesiod was famous, especially in the sensuous maxims of his works and days. One of these maxims is ascribed to Pythias, namely, payment pledged to a man who is dear must be ample and certain.

At any rate, this is what Aristotle, the philosopher, says, and Euripides, when he has Hippolytus addressed as, "'Nursling of the pure and holy Pythias,' shows what the world thought of Pythias. Now, Aegeus, King of Athens, desiring to have children, is said to have received from the Pythian priestess the celebrated oracle in which she bade him to have intercourse with no woman until he came to Athens. But Aegeus thought the words of the command somewhat obscure, and therefore turned aside to Troison, and communicated to Pythias the words of the god, which ran as follows. Loose not the wine-skin's jutting neck, great chief of the people, until thou shalt have come once more to the city of Athens.

This dark saying Pythias apparently understood, and persuaded him, or beguiled him, to have intercourse with his daughter, aethra. Aegeus did so, and then learning that it was the daughter of Pythias, with whom he had consorted, and suspecting that she was with child by him, He left a sword and a pair of sandals hidden under a great rock, which had a hollow in it, just large enough to receive these objects. He told the princess alone about this, and bade her if a son should be borne to her from him, and if, when he came to man's estate, he should be able to lift up the rock, and take away what had been left under it, to send that son to him, with the tokens, in all secrecy, And concealing his journey as much as possible from everybody.

For he was mightily in fear of the sons of Pallas, who were plotting against him, and who despised him on account of his childlessness. And they were fifty in number, these sons of Pallas. Then he went away. When aethra gave birth to a son, he was at once named Theseus, As some say, because the tokens for his recognition had been placed in hiding. But others say that it was afterwards at Athens, when Aegeus acknowledged him as his son. He was reared by Pythias, as they say, and had an overseer and tutor named Conidus. To this man, even down to the present time, the Athenians sacrifice a ram on the day before the festival of Theseus, Remembering him and honoring him, with far greater justice than they honor Silano and Parhasius, who merely painted and molded likenesses of Theseus.

Since it was still a custom at that time for youth who were coming of age to go to Delphi and sacrifice some of their hair to the god, Theseus went to Delphi for this purpose, and they say there is a place there which still to this day is called the Thesea from him. But he sheared only the forepart of his head, just as Homer said the Abantas did, and this kind of tonsure was called Theseus after him. Now the Abantas were the first to cut their hair in this manner, not under instruction from the Arabians, as some suppose, nor yet in emulation of the Mesians, but because they were warlike men and close fighters, who had learned beyond all other men to force their way into close quarters with their enemies.

Archilochus is witness to this in the following words, Not many bows indeed will be stretched tight, nor frequent slings be whirled, when Ares joins men in the moil of war, upon the plain, but swords will do their mournful work, for this is the warfare wherein those men are expert, who lord it over Euboea, and are famous with the spear.

Therefore, in order that they might not give their enemies a hold by their hair, they cut it off, and Alexander of Macedon doubtless understood this, when, as they say, he ordered his generals to have the beards of their Macedonians shaved, since these afforded the readiest hold in battle. During the rest of the time, then, Aethra kept his true birth concealed from Theseus, And a report was spread abroad by Pythias that he was begotten by Poseidon. For Poseidon is highly honored by the people of Troison, and he is the patron god of their city. To him they offer first-fruits in sacrifice, and they have his trident as an emblem on their coinage. But when in his young manhood, Theseus displayed, along with his vigor of body, prowess also, and a firm spirit united with intelligence and sagacity, Then aethra brought him to the rock, told him the truth about his birth, and bade him take away his father's tokens, and go by sea to Athens.

Theseus put his shoulder to the rock, and easily raised it up. But he refused to make his journey by sea, although safety lay in that course, and his grandfather and his mother begged him to take it. For it was difficult to make the journey to Athens by land, since no part of it was clear, Nor yet without peril from robbers and miscreants. For verily that age produced men who, in work of hand, and speed of foot, and vigor of body, were extraordinary and indefatigable, but they applied their powers to nothing that was fitting or useful. Nay, rather, they exulted in monstrous insolence, and reaped from their strength a harvest of cruelty and bitterness, mastering and forcing and destroying everything that came in their path.

And as for reverence and righteousness, justice and humanity, they thought that most men praised these qualities for lack of courage to do wrong, and for fear of being wronged, and considered them no concern of men who were strong enough to get the upper hand. Some of these creatures Heracles cut off and destroyed as he went about, but some escaped his notice as he passed by, crouching down and shrinking back, and were overlooked in their abjectness. And when Heracles met with calamity, and, after the slaying of Iphitus, removed into Lydia, and for a long time did slaves service there in the house of Ompheli, then Lydia indeed obtained great peace and security. But in the regions of Hellas the old villainies burst forth and broke out anew, there being none to rebuke, and none to restrain them.

The journey was therefore a perilous one for travelers by land from Peloponnesus to Athens, and Pythias, by describing each of the miscreants at length, what sort of a monster he was, and what deeds he wrought upon strangers, tried to persuade Theseus to make his journey by sea. But he, as it would seem, had long since been secretly fired by the glorious valor of Heracles, and made the greatest account of that hero, and was a most eager listener to those who told what manner of man he was, and, above all, to those who had seen him and been present at some deed or speech of his. And it is altogether plain that he then experienced what Themistocles many generations afterwards experienced, When he said that he could not sleep for the trophy of Militaides.

In like manner Theseus admired the valor of Heracles, until by night his dreams were of the hero's achievements, and by day his ardor led him along, and spurred him on his purpose to achieve the like. And besides, they were kinsmen, being sons of cousins German, for aethra was the daughter of Pythias, as Alcmene was of Lysidice. And Lysidice and Pythias were brother and sister, children of Hippodamia and Pelops. Accordingly he thought it a dreadful and unendurable thing that his famous cousin should go out against the wicked everywhere, and purge land and sea of them, while he himself ran away from the struggles which lay in his path, disgracing his reputed father by journeying like a fugitive over the sea, and bringing to his real father as proofs of his birth, only sandals and a sword unstained with blood, instead of at once offering noble deeds and achievements as the manifest mark of his noble birth.

In such a spirit and with such thoughts he set out, determined to do no man any wrong but to punish those who offered him violence. And so, in the first place, in Epidoria, when Periphetes, who used a club as his weapon, and on this account was called Club Bearer. Laid hold of him and tried to stop his progress, he grappled with him and slew him. And being pleased with the club, he took it and made it his weapon, and continued to use it, just as Heracles did, with the Lion's Skin. That hero wore the skin to prove how great a wild beast he had mastered, and so Theseus carried the club to show that although it had been vanquished by him, In his own hands it was invincible. On the isthmus, too, he slew Sinus the pinebender, in the very manner in which many men had been destroyed by himself, and he did this without practice, or even acquaintance with the monster's device, but showing that valor is superior to all device and practice.

Now Sinus had a very beautiful and stately daughter named Paragune. This daughter took to flight when her father was killed, And Theseus went about in search of her. But she had gone off into a place which abounded greatly in shrubs and rushes and wild asparagus, and with exceeding innocence and childish simplicity was supplicating these plants, as if they understood her, arid vowing that if they would hide and save her, she would never trample them down, nor burn them. When, however, Theseus called upon her, and gave her a pledge that he would treat her honorably and do her no wrong, She came forth, and after consorting with Theseus, bore him Melanippus, and afterwards lived with Daeoneus, son of Eurytus, the Ocalian, to whom Theseus gave her.

For Melanippus, the son of Theseus, Ioxes was born, who took part with Ornitus in leading a colony into Caria, whence it is ancestral usage with the Ioxids, men and women, Not to burn either the asparagus thorn or the rush, but to revere and honor them. Now the Cromionian sow, which they called Theia, was no insignificant creature, but fierce and hard to master. This sow he went out of his way to encounter and slay, that he might not be thought to perform all his exploits under compulsion, and at the same time because he thought that while the brave man ought to attack villainous men only in self-defense, He should seek occasion to risk his life in battle with the nobler beasts. However, some say that Phaea was a female robber, a woman of murderous and unbridled spirit, who dwelt in Cromion, was called Tsao because of her life and manners, and was afterwards slain by Theseus.

He also slew Siron on the borders of Megara by hurling him down the cliffs. Siron robbed the passers-by, according to the prevalent tradition, But as some say, he would insolently and wantonly thrust out his feet to strangers, and bid them wash them, and then, while they were washing them, kick them off into the sea. Megarian writers, however, taking issue with current report, and, as Simonides expresses it, waging war with antiquity, say that Siron was neither a violent man nor a robber. But a chastiser of robbers, and a kinsman and friend of good and just men. For Aeacus, they say, is regarded as the most righteous of Hellenes, and Cicreus the Salaminian, has divine honors at Athens, and the virtues of Peleus and Telamon are known to all men.

Well, then, Ciron was a son-in-law of Cicreus, father-in-law of Aeacus, and the grandfather of Peleus and Telamon, who were the sons of Endius, daughter of Ciron, and Characlo. It is not likely, then, they say, that the best of men made family alliances with the basest, receiving and giving the greatest and most valuable pledges. It was not, they say, when Theseus first journeyed to Athens, but afterwards, that he captured Eleusis from the Megarians, having circumvented Diocles, its ruler, and slew Ciron. Such, then, are the contradictions in which these matters are involved. In Clusis, moreover, he out-wrestled Circion the Arcadian and killed him, and going on a little farther at Aries he killed Damastes, surnamed Procrustes, by complimenting him to make his own body fit his bed, as he had been wont to do with those of strangers, and he did this in imitation of Heracles, For that hero punished those who offered him violence in the manner in which they had plotted to serve him, and therefore sacrificed.

Buseris wrestled Antaeus to death, slew sickness in single combat, and killed Termerus by dashing in his skull. It is from him, indeed, as they say, that the name Termarian mischief comes, for Termerus, as it would seem, used to kill those who encountered him by dashing his head against theirs. Thus Theseus also went on his way, chastising the wicked, who were visited with the same violence from him which they were visiting upon others, and suffered justice after the manner of their own injustice. As he went forward on his journey, and came to the river Cephasis, he was met by men of the race of the Phaetilidae, who greeted him first, and when he asked to be purified from bloodshed, Cleansed him with the customary rites, made proprietary sacrifices, and feasted him at their house.

This was the first kindness which he met with on his journey. It was then on the eighth day of the month Cronius, now called Hecatombeon, that he is said to have arrived at Athens. When he entered the city he found public affairs full of confusion and dissension, and the private affairs of Aegeus and his household in a distressing condition. For Medea, who had fled thither from Corinth, and promised by her sorceries to relieve Aegeus of his childlessness, was living with him. She learned about Theseus in advance, and since Aegeus was ignorant of him, and was well on in years, and afraid of everything because of the faction in the city, she persuaded him to entertain Theseus as a stranger guest, and take him off by poison.

Theseus accordingly, on coming to the banquet, thought best not to tell in advance who he was, but wishing to give his father a clue to the discovery, when the meats were served, he drew his sword, as if minded to carve with this, and brought it to the notice of his father. Aegeus speedily perceived it, dashed down the proffered cup of poison, and after questioning his son, embraced him, and formally recognized him before an assembly of the citizens, who received him gladly because of his manly valor. And it is said that as the cup fell, the poison was spilled where now is the enclosure in the Delphinium, for that is where the house of Aegeus stood, and the Hermes to the east of the sanctuary is called the Hermes at Aegeus's gate.

Now the sons of Pallas had before this themselves hoped to gain possession of the kingdom when Aegeus died childless, but when Theseus was declared successor to the throne, exasperated that Aegeus should be king, Although he was only an adopted son of Pandion, and in no way related to the family of Erechtheus, and again that Theseus should be prospective king, although he was an immigrant and a stranger, they went to war. And dividing themselves into two bands, one of these marched openly against the city from Svetis, with their father, the other hid themselves at Gangetus, and lay in ambush there, intending to attack their enemies from two sides. But there was a herald with them, a man of Agnes, by name Leos.

This man reported to Theseus the designs of the Palantidae. Theseus then fell suddenly upon the party lying in ambush, and slew them all. Thereupon the party with Pallas dispersed. This is the reason, they say, why the township of Paline has no intermarriage with the township of Agnes. And Wilde will not even allow heralds to make their customary proclamation thereof. Acuiti lioi. Hear, ye people! For they hate the word on account of the treachery of the man Leos. But Theseus, desiring to be at work, and at the same time courting the favor of the people, went out against the Marathonian bull, which was doing no small mischief to the inhabitants of the Tetropolis. After he had mastered it, he made a display of driving it alive through the city, and then sacrificed it to the Delphinian Apollo.

Now the story of Hecale and her receiving and entertaining thesis on this expedition seems not to be devoid of all truth. For the people of the townships round about used to assemble and sacrifice the Hecalesia to Zeus Heclus, and they paid honors to Hecalae, Calling her by the diminutive name of Heceline, because she, too, when entertaining Theseus, in spite of the fact that he was quite a youth, caressed him as elderly people do, and called him affectionately by such diminutive names. And since she vowed, when the hero was going to his battle with the bull, that she would sacrifice to Zeus if he came back safe, but died before his return, She obtained the above-mentioned honors as a return for her hospitality at the command of Theseus, as Philochorus has written.

End of Theseus.

3 02 - Theseus pt. 2 28:50

October 2008. Volume I of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.

Theseus.

Not long afterwards there came from Crete for the third time the collectors of the tribute. Now, as to this tribute, most writers agree that because Androgeos was thought to have been treacherously killed within the confines of Attica, Not only did Minos harass the inhabitants of that country greatly in war, but heaven also laid it waste, for barrenness and pestilence smote it sorely, and its rivers dried up. Also that when their god assured them in his commands that if they appeased Minos and became reconciled to him, the wrath of heaven would abate, and there would be an end of their miseries. They sent heralds, and made their supplication, and entered into an agreement to send him every nine years a tribute of seven youths and as many maidens.

And the most dramatic version of the story declares that these young men and women, on being brought to Crete, were destroyed by the Minotaur in the labyrinth, or else wandered about at their own will, and, being unable to find an exit, perished there, and that the Minotaur, as Euripides says, was A mingled form and hybrid birth of monstrous shape, and that two different natures, man and bull, were joined in him. Philochorus, however, says that the Cretans do not admit this, but declare that the labyrinth was a dungeon, with no other inconvenience than that its prisoners could not escape. And that Minos instituted funeral games in honor of Androgeos, and as prizes for the victors, gave these Athenian youth, who were in the mean time imprisoned in the labyrinth, and that the victor in the first games was the man who had the greatest power at that time under Minos.

And was his general, Taurus by name, who was not reasonable and gentle in his disposition, but treated the Athenian youth with arrogance and cruelty. And Aristotle himself also, in his Constitution of Bottia, clearly does not think that these youths were put to death by Minos, but that they spent the rest of their lives as slaves in Crete. And he says that the Cretans once, in fulfillment of an ancient vow, sent an offering of their firstborn to Delphi, and that some descendants of those Athenians were among the victims, and went forth with them, and that when they were unable to support themselves there, they first crossed over into Italy, and dwelt in that country round about Iapigeia, and from there journeyed again into Thrace, and were called Botiens, And that this was the reason why the maidens of Bottia, in performing a certain sacrifice, sing as an accompaniment, To Athens, let us go.

And verily it seems to be a grievous thing for a man to be at enmity with a city which has a language and a literature. For Minos was always abused and reviled in the Attic theatres, and it did not avail him either that Hesiod called him, quote, most royal, unquote, or that Homer styled him A confidant of Zeus. But the tragic poets prevailed, and from platform and stage showered Obliki down upon him, as a man of cruelty and violence. And yet they say that Minos was a king and lawgiver, and that Radamanthus was a judge under him, and a guardian of the principles of justice defined by him. Accordingly, when the time came for the third tribute, and it was necessary for the fathers who had youthful sons to present them for the lot, fresh accusations against Aegeus arose among the people, who were full of sorrow and vexation, that he who was the cause of all their trouble alone had no share in the punishment, but devolved the kingdom upon a bastard and foreign son, and suffered them to be left destitute and bereft of legitimate children.

These things troubled Theseus, who, thinking it right not to disregard, but to share in the fortune of his fellow-citizens, came forward and offered himself independently of the lot. The citizens admired his noble courage, and were delighted with his public spirit, and Aegeus, when he saw that his son was not to be won over or turned from his purpose by prayers or entreaties, cast the lots for the rest of the youths. Hellenicus, however, says that the city did not send its young men and maidens by lot, but that Minos himself used to come and pick them out, and that he now pitched upon Theseus first of all, following the terms agreed upon. And he says the agreement was that the Athenians should furnish the ship, and that the youths should embark and sail with him, carrying no warlike weapon, and that if the Minotaur was killed, the penalty should cease.

On the two former occasions, then, no hope of safety was entertained, and therefore they sent the ship with a black sail, convinced that their youth were going to certain destruction. But now Theseus encouraged his father, and loudly boasted that he would master the Minotaur, so that he gave the pilot another sail, a white one, ordering him, if he returned with Theseus safe, to hoist the white sail, But otherwise to sail with the black one, and so indicate the affliction. Simonides, however, says that the sail given by Aegeus was not white, but, quote, a scarlet sail dyed with the tender flower of luxuriant home oak, unquote, and that he made this a token of their safety. Moreover, the pilot of the ship was Pherocles, son of Amersias, as Simonides says, But Philochorus says that Theseus got from Scurus of Salamis Nesithous for his pilot, and Phax for his lookout man, the Athenians at that time not yet being addicted to the sea, and that Scurus did him this favor, because one of the chosen youths, Menestheus, was his daughter's son, And there is evidence for this in the memorial chapels for Nesathoes and Phax, which Theseus built at Felerum, near the temple of Scyrus.

And they say that the festival of the Cybernesia, or Pilate's festival, is celebrated in their honor.

When the lot was cast, Theseus took those upon whom it fell from the Praetenaeum, and went to the Delphineum, where he dedicated to Apollo, in their behalf, his suppliance badge, This was a bough from the sacred olive-tree, wreathed with white wool. Having made his vows and prayers, he went down to the sea on the sixth day of the month of Munishon, on which day even now the Athenians still send their maidens to the Delphinium to propitiate the god. And it is reported that the god at Delphi commanded him in an oracle to make Aphrodite his guide, and invite her to attend him on his journey, and that as he sacrificed the usual she-goat to her by the sea-shore, it became a he-goat, Tregos, all at once, for which reason the goddess has the surname Epiturgia.

When he reached Crete on his voyage, most historians and poets tell us that he got from Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, the famous thread And that having been instructed by her how to make his way through the intricacies of the labyrinth, he slew the Minotaur and sailed off with Ariadne and the youths. And Pheresides says that Theseus also stayed in the bottoms of the Cretan ships, thus depriving them of the power to pursue. And Daemon says also that Taurus, the general of Minos, was killed in a naval battle in the harbor as Theseus was sailing out. But, as Philochorus tells the story, Minos was holding the funeral games, and Taurus was expected to conquer all his competitors in them, as he had done before, and was grudged his success.

For his disposition made his power hateful, and he was accused of too great intimacy with Pasiphae. Therefore, when Theseus asked the privilege of entering the lists, it was granted him by Minos. And since it was the custom in Crete for women to view the games, Ariadne was present, and was smitten with the appearance of Theseus, as well as filled with admiration for his athletic prowess, when he conquered all his opponents. Minos also was delighted with him, especially because he conquered Taurus, in wrestling and disgraced him, and therefore gave back the youths to Theseus, besides remitting its tribute to the city. Caledemus, however, gives a rather peculiar and ambitious account of these matters, beginning a great way back.

There was, he says, a general Hellenic decree that no trireme should sail from any port with a larger crew than five men, and the only exception was Jason, the commander of the Argo, who sailed about scouring the sea of pirates. Now, when Daedalus fled from Crete in a merchant vessel to Athens, Minos, contrary to the decrees, pursued him with his ships of war, and was driven from his course by a tempest to Sicily, where he ended his life. And when Deucalion, his son, who was on hostile terms with the Athenians, sent to them a demand that they deliver up Daedalus to him, and threatened, if they refused, to put to death the youth whom Minos had received from them as hostages, Theseus made him a gentle reply, declining to surrender Daedalus, who was his kinsman and cousin, being the son of Merope, the daughter of Erechtheus.

But privately he set himself to building a fleet, part of it at home in the township of Thaumotidae, far from the public road, and part of it under the direction of Pythias in Troizen, wishing his purpose to remain concealed. When his ships were ready, he set sail, taking Daedalus and exiles from Crete as his guides, and since none of the Cretans knew of his design, but thought the approaching ships to be friendly, Theseus made himself master of the harbor, disembarked his men, and got to Knossos before his enemies were aware of his approach. Then, joining battle with them at the gate of the labyrinth, he slew Deucalion and his bodyguard. And since Ariadne was now at the head of affairs, he made a truce with her, received back the youthful hostages, and established friendship between the Athenians and the Cretans, who took oath never to begin hostilities.

There are many other stories about these matters, and also about Ariadne, but they do not agree at all. Some say that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus. Others, that she was conveyed to Naxos by sailors, and there lived with Onaris, the priest of Dionysus, and that she was abandoned by Theseus because he loved another woman. Dreadful indeed was his passion for Agil, child of Panopius. This verse Pace's Stratus expunged from the poems of Hesiod, according to Herias the Megarian, just as, on the other hand, he inserted into the inferno of Homer the verse, Theseus Parathos, illustrious children of heaven, and all to gratify the Athenians. Moreover, some say that Ariadne actually had sons by Theseus, Onopeion and Staphylus, and among these is Aeon of Chios, who says of his own native city, This once Theseus' son founded Onopeion.

Now the most auspicious of these legendary tales are in the mouths of all men, as I may say, but a very peculiar account of these matters is published by Paeon the Amethusian. He says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm to Cyprus, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child, and in sore sickness and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he himself, while trying to succor the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women of the island accordingly took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters, purpeting to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her child was born.

Paeon says further that Theseus came back, and was greatly afflicted. and left a sum of money with the people of the island, enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne, and caused two little statuettes to be set up in her honor, one of silver and one of bronze. He says also that at the sacrifice in her honor on the second day of the month, Gorpais, one of their young men lies down and imitates the cries and gestures of women in travail. And that they call the grove in which they show her tomb, the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite. Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysus in Naxos, and bore him Staphylus and his brother, and the other of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus, and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Corsini, whose tomb they show.

And that this Ariadne also died there, and his honors paid her unlike those of the former, for the festival of the first Ariadne is celebrated with mirth and revels, but the sacrifices performed in honor of the second are attended with sorrow and mourning. On his voyage from Crete, Theseus put in at Delos, and having sacrificed to the god and dedicated in his temple the image of Aphrodite which he had received from Ariadne, he danced with his youths a dance which they say is still performed by the Delians, being an imitation of the circling passages in the labyrinth, and consisting of certain rhythmic involutions and evolutions. This kind of dance, as Dicaearchus tells us, is called by the Delians the Crane, and Theseus danced it round the altar, called Caraton, which is constructed of horns Carata, taken entirely from the left side of Tin Head.

They say that he also instituted athletic contests in Delos, and that the custom was then begun by him of giving a palm to the victors. It is said, moreover, that as they drew nigh the coast of Attica, Theseus himself forgot, and his pilot forgot, such was their joy and exultation, to hoist the sail which was to have been the token of their safety to Aegeus, who, therefore in despair, threw himself down from the rock, and was dashed in pieces. But Theseus, putting into shore, sacrificed in person the sacrifices which he had vowed to the gods at Philarum when he set sail, and then dispatched a herald to the city to announce his safe return. The messenger found many of the people bewailing the death of their king, and others full of joy at his tidings, as was natural, and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands for his good news.

The garlands then he accepted, and twined them about his herald's staff, and on returning to the sea-shore, finding that Theseus had not yet made his libations to the gods, remained outside the sacred precincts, not wishing to disturb the sacrifice. But when the libations were made, he announced the death of Aegeus. Thereupon, with tumultuous lamentation, they went up in haste to the city. Whence it is, they say, that to this day, at the festival of the Oscophoria, it is not the herald that is crowned, but his herald's staff, and those who are present at the Libations cry out, Elilou, Lo, Lo! The first of which cries is the exclamation of eager haste and triumph, the second of consternation and confusion.

After burying his father, Theseus paid his vows to Apollo on the seventh day of the month of Pionepcion. For on that day they had come back to the city in safety. Now the custom of boiling all sorts of pulse on that day is said to have arisen from the fact that the youths who were brought safely back by Theseus put what was left of their provisions into one mess, boiled it in one common pot, feasted upon it, and ate it all up together. At that feast they also carry the so-called erisioni, which is a bough of olive wreathed with wool, such as Theseus used at the time of his supplication, and laid in with all sorts of fruit-offerings, to signify that scarcity was at an end, and as they go along they sing, Erisioni for us brings figs and bread of the richest, brings us honey in pots and oil to rub off Some writers, however, say that these rites are in memory of the Heraclidae, who were maintained in this manner by the Athenians, but most put the matter as I have done.

The ship on which Theseus sailed with the youths and returned in safety, the thirty-oared galley was preserved by the Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Filarius. They took away the old timbers from time to time, and put new and sound ones in their places, so that the vessel became a standing illustration for the philosophers in the mooted question of growth, some declaring that it remained the same, others that it was not the same vessel. It was Theseus who instituted also the Athenian festival of the Oscophoria. For it is said that he did not take away with him all the maidens on whom the lot fell at that time, but picked out two young men of his acquaintance, who had fresh and girlish faces, but eager and manly spirits, and changed their outward appearance almost entirely by giving them warm baths and keeping them out of the sun, by arranging their hair, and by smoothing their skin and beautifying their complexions with unguents, He also taught them to imitate maidens as closely as possible in their speech, their dress and their gait, and to leave no difference that could be observed, and then enrolled them among the maidens who were going to Crete, and was undiscovered by any.

And when he was come back, he himself and these two young men headed a procession, arrayed as those are now arrayed who carry the vine branches. They carry these in honor of Dionysus and Ariadne, and because of their part in the story, or rather because they came back home at the time of the vintage, and the women, called Diepnoferoi, or supper-carriers, take part in the procession, and share in the sacrifice, in imitation of the mothers of the young men and maidens on whom the lot fell, for these kept coming with bread and meat for their children. And tales are told at this festival, because these mothers, for the sake of comforting and encouraging their children, Spun out tales for them. At any rate, these details are to be found in the history of demon.

Furthermore, the sacred precinct was also set apart for Theseus, and he ordered the members of the families which had furnished the tribute to the Minotaur, to make contributions towards sacrifice to himself. This sacrifice was superintended by the fatalidae, and Theseus thus repaid them for their hospitality. After the death of Aegeus, Theseus conceived a wonderful design, and settled all the residents of Attica in one city, thus making one people of one city out of those who up to that time had been scattered about, and were not easily called together for the common interests of all. Nay, they sometimes actually quarrelled and fought with each other. He visited them then, and tried to win them over to his project, township by township, and clan by clan.

The common folk and the poor quickly answered to his summons, to the powerful he promised government without a king, and a democracy in which he should only be commander in war and guardian of the laws, while in all else every one should be on an equal footing. Some he readily persuaded to this course, and others fearing his power, which was already great, and his boldness chose to be persuaded, rather than forced to agree to it. Accordingly, after doing away with the town halls and council chambers and magistracies in the several communities, and after building a common town hall and council chamber for all, on the ground where the upper town of the present day stands, he named the city Athens, and instituted a Panathenaic festival.

He instituted also the Metusia, or festival of settlement, on the sixteenth day of the month, Hekotombion, and this is still celebrated. Then, laying aside the royal power, as he had agreed, he proceeded to arrange the government, and that too with the sanction of the gods, for an oracle came to him from Delphi, in answer to his inquiries about the city as follows. Theseus, offspring of Aegeus, son of the daughter of Pythias, may indeed the cities to which my father has given bounds and future fates within your citadel's confines. Therefore be not dismayed, but with firm and confident spirit, counsel only. The bladder will traverse the seas and its surges.

And this oracle, they say the sybil afterwards repeated to the city when she cried, bladder may be submerged, but its sinking will not be permitted.

Desiring still further to enlarge the city, He invited all men thither on equal terms, and the phrase, Come hither all ye people, they say, was a proclamation of Theseus, when he established a people, as it were, of all sorts and conditions. However, he did not suffer his democracy to become disordered or confused from an indiscriminate multitude streaming into it, but was the first to separate the people into noblemen, and husbandmen, and handicraftsmen. To the noblemen he committed the care of religious rites, the supply of magistrates, the teaching of the laws, and the interpretation of the will of heaven, and for the rest of the citizens he established a balance of privilege, the noblemen being thought to excel in dignity, the husbandmen in usefulness, and the handicraftsmen in numbers.

And that he was the first to show a leaning towards the multitude, as Aristotle says, and gave up his absolute rule, seems to be the testimony of Homer also, in the catalogue of ships, where he speaks of the Athenians alone as a people. He also coined money and stamped it with the effigy of an ox, either in remembrance of the Marathonian bull, or of Taurus, the general of Minos. Or because he would invite the citizens to agriculture. From this coinage they say ten oxen and a hundred oxen came to be used as terms of valuation. Having attached the territory of Magara securely to Attica, he set up that famous pillar on the isthmus, and carved upon it the inscription giving the territorial boundaries.

It consisted of two trimeters, of which the one towards the east declared, "'Here is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia,' and the one towards the west, "'Here is the Peloponnesus, not Ionia,' and He also instituted the games here, in emulation of Heracles, being ambitious that as the Hellenes by that hero's appointment celebrated Olympian games in honor of Zeus, so by his own appointment they should celebrate Isthmian games in honor of Poseidon. For the games already instituted there in honor of Melasertes were celebrated in the night, and had the form of a religious rite rather than of a spectacle and public assembly. But some say that the Isthmian games were instituted in memory of Scyron, and that Theseus thus made expiation for his murder, because of the relationship between them.

For Scyron was a son of Canathus and Heniochi, who was the daughter of Pythias, and others have it that Sinus, not Scyron, was their son, and that it was in his honor, rather, that the games were instituted by Theseus. However that may be, Theseus made a formal agreement with the Corinthians that they should furnish Athenian visitors to the Isthmian games with a place of honor as large as could be covered by the sale of the state galley which brought them thither, when it was stretched to its full extent. So Hellenicus and Andron of Halicarnassus tell us. He also made a voyage into the Eucine Sea, As Philochorus and sundry others say, on a campaign with Heracles against the Amazons, and received Antiope as a reward of his valor.

But the majority of writers, including Pharisides, Hellenicus, and Herodorus, say that Theseus made this voyage on his own account, after the time of Heracles, and took the Amazon captive. And this is the more probable story. For it is not recorded that any one else among those who shared his expedition took an Amazon captive. And Bayon says that even this Amazon he took and carried off by means of a stratagem. The Amazons, he says, were naturally friendly to men, and did not fly from Theseus when he touched upon their coasts, but actually sent him presents, and he invited the one who brought them to come on board his ship. She came on board, and he put out to sea. And a certain Menecrates, who published a history of the Bithynian city of Nicaea, says that Theseus, with Antiope on board his ship, spent some time in those parts, and that there chanced to be with him on this expedition three young men of Athens, who were brothers, Junios, Thoas, and Solois.

This last, he says, fell in love with Antiope, unbeknown to the rest, and revealed his secret to one of his intimate friends. That friend made overtures to Antiope, who positively repulsed the attempt upon her, but treated the matter with discretion and gentleness, and made no denunciation to Theseus. Then Solus, in despair, threw himself into a river, and drowned himself, and Theseus, when he learned the fate of the young man and what had caused it, was grievously disturbed, and in his distress called to mind a certain oracle which he had once received at Delphi, for it had there been enjoined upon him by the Pythian priestess that when in a strange land he should be sorest vexed and full of sorrow.

He should found a city there, and leave some of his followers to govern it, For this cause he founded a city there, and called it from the Pythian god Pythopolis, and the adjacent river Solus, in honor of the young man. And he left there the brothers of Solus, to be the city's presidents and lawgivers, and with them Hermas, one of the noblemen of Athens. From him also the pithipolitans call a place in the city the house of Hermes, incorrectly changing the second syllable, and transferring the honor from a hero to a god. End of Theseus.

4 03 - Theseus pt. 3 23:35

October 2008. The End of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Theseus.

Well, then, such were the grounds for the war of the Amazons, which seems to have been no trivial nor womanish enterprise for Theseus. For they would not have pitched their camp within the city, nor fought hand-to-hand battles in the neighborhood of the Pinks and the Museum had they not mastered the surrounding country, and approached the city with impunity. Whether now, as Hellenicus writes, they came round by the Cimmerian bosporus, which they crossed on the ice, may be doubted. But the fact that they encamped almost in the heart of the city is attested both by the names of the localities there, and by the graves of those who fell in battle. Now for a long time there was hesitation and delay on both sides in making the attack, but finally Theseus, after sacrificing to fear, in obedience to an oracle, joined battle with the women.

This battle, then, was fought on the day of the month On which, down to the present time, the Athenians celebrate the Bodromia. Cletimus, who wishes to be minute, writes that the left wing of the Amazons extended to what is now called the Amazonium, and that with their right they touched the pinks at Croesa, that with his left wing the Athenians fought, engaging the Amazons from the museum, and that the graves of those who fell are on either side of the street, which leads to the gate by the chapel of Chalcodon, which is now called the Piraeic Gate. Here, he says, the Athenians were rooted and driven back by the women as far as the shrine of Eumenides. But those who attacked the invaders from the Palladium and Ardetus and the Lyceum drove their right wing back as far as to their camp, and slew many of them.

And after three months, he says, a treaty of peace was made through the agency of Hippolyta, for Hippolyta is the name which Cleidemus gave to the Amazon whom Theseus married, not Antiope. But some say that the woman was slain with a javelin by Molpadia while fighting at Theseus' side, and that the pillar which stands by the sanctuary of Olympian earth was set up in her memory, and it is not astonishing that history When dealing with events of such great antiquity, should wander in uncertainty. Indeed, we are also told that the wounded Amazons were secretly sent away to Chalchis by Antiope, and were nursed there, and some were buried there, near what is now called the Amazonium. But that the war ended in a solemn treaty is attested not only by the naming of the place adjoining the Theseum, Which is called Horcomosium, but also by the sacrifice which, in ancient times, was offered to the Amazons before the festival of Theseus.

And the Megarians, too, show a place in their country where Amazons were buried, on the way from the market-place to the place called Rus, where the rhomboid stands. And it is said likewise that others of them died near Chironia, and were buried on the banks of the little stream, which in ancient times, as it seems, was called Thermodon, but nowadays Haman, concerning which names I have written in my life of Demosthenes. It appears also that not even Thessaly was traversed by the Amazons without opposition, for Amazonian graves are to this day shown in the vicinity of Scotusa and Cenocephalae.

So much, then, is worthy of mention regarding the Amazons, for The Insurrection of the Amazons, written by the author of The Theseid, telling how, when Theseus married Phaedra, Antiope and the Amazons who fought to avenge her attacked him, and were slain by Heracles, has every appearance of fable and invention. Theseus did indeed marry Phaedra, but this was after the death of Antiope, and he had a son by Antiope, Hippolytus, or, as Pindar says, Demiphune. As for the calamities which befell Phaedra and the son of Theseus by Antiope, Since there is no conflict here between historians and tragic poets, we must suppose that they happened as represented by the poets uniformly. There are, however, other stories also about marriages of Theseus, which were neither honorable in their beginnings nor fortunate in their endings, but these have not been dramatized.

For instance, he is said to have carried off an axo, A maiden of Troizen, and after slaying Cynis and Circion, to have ravished their daughters. Also to have married Periboah, the mother of Aeas, and Pheriboa, afterwards, and Iope, the daughter of Iphocles, and because of his passion for Agul, the daughter of Panopius, as I have already said, he is accused of the desertion of Ariadne, which was not honorable, nor even decent. And finally his rape of Helen is said to have filled Attica with war, and to have brought about at last his banishment and death, of which things I shall speak a little later. Of the many exploits performed in those days by the bravest men, Herodorus thinks that Theseus took part in none, except that he aided the Lapithae in their war with the Centaurs.

But others say that he was not only with Jason at Colchis, but helped Melegar to slay the Caledonian boar, and that hence arose the proverb, Not without Theseus. That he himself, however, without asking for any ally, performed many glorious exploits, and that the phrase, Lo, another Heracles, became current with reference to him. He also aided Adrastus in recovering for burial the bodies of those who had fallen before the walls of the Cadmea, not by mastering the Thebans in battle, as Euripides has it in his tragedy, but by persuading them to a truce, for so most writers say, and Philochorus adds that this was the first truce ever made for recovering the bodies of those slain in battle. Although in the accounts of Heracles it is written that Heracles was the first to give back their dead to his enemies.

And the graves of the greater part of those who fell before Thebes are shown at Eleutherae, and those of the commanders near Eleusis. And this last burial was a favor which Theseus showed to Adrastus. The account of Euripides in his Suppliance is disproved by that of Aeschylus in his Eleusinians, where Theseus is made to relate the matter, as above. The friendship of Perithoas and Theseus is said to have come about in the following manner. Theseus had a very great reputation for strength and bravery, and Perithoas was desirous of making test and proof of it. Accordingly, he drove Theseus's cattle away from Marathon, and when he learned that their owner was pursuing him in arms, he did not fly, but turned back and met him.

When, however, each beheld the other with astonishment at his beauty and admiration of his daring, they refrained from battle, and Perithoeus, stretching out his hand, the first, bade Theseus himself be judge of his robbery. For he would willingly submit to any penalty which the other might assign. Then Theseus not only remitted his penalty, but invited him to be a friend and brother in arms, whereupon they ratified their friendship with oaths. After this, when Perathoes was about to marry D. Damia, he asked Theseus to come to the wedding, and see the country, and become acquainted with the Lapithae. Now he had invited the centaurs also to the wedding feast, and when these were flown with insolence and wine, and laid hands upon the women, the Lapithae took vengeance upon them.

Some of them they slew upon the spot, the rest they afterwards overcame in war, and expelled from the country, Theseus fighting with them at the banquet and in the war. Herodorus, however, says that this was not how it happened, but that the war was already in progress when Theseus came to the aid of the Lapithi, and that on his way thither he hid his first sight of Heracles, having made it his business to seek him out at Trachys, where the hero was already resting from his wandering and labors, and he says the interview passed with mutual expressions of honor, friendliness, and generous praise. Notwithstanding, one might better side with those historians who say that the heroes had frequent interviews with one another, and that it was at the instigation of Theseus that Heracles was initiated into the mysteries at Eleusis, and purified before his initiation, when he requested it on account of sundry, rash acts.

Theseus was already fifty years old, according to Hellenicus, when he took part in the rape of Helen, who was not of marriageable age. Wherefore some writers, thinking to correct this heaviest accusation against him, say that he did not carry off Helen himself, but that when Idus and Alincius had carried her off, he received her in charge, and watched over her, and would not surrender her to the Dioscuri when they demanded her, or, if you will believe it, That her own father, Tyndarius, entrusted her to Theseus for fear of Inosporus, the son of Hippocoon, who sought to take Helen by force while she was yet a child. But the most probable account, and that which has the most witnesses in its favor, is as follows.

Theseus and Perithois went to Sparta in company, seized the girl as she was dancing in the temple of Artemis or Thea, and fled away with her. Their pursuers followed them no farther than Tygeia, and so the two friends, when they had passed through Peloponnesus and were out of danger, made a compact with one another, that the one on whom the lot fell should have Helen to wife, but should assist the other in getting another wife. With this mutual understanding they cast lots, and Theseus won, and taking the maiden, who was not yet ripe for marriage, conveyed her to Aphidne, Here he made his mother a companion of the girl, and committed both to Aphidnus, a friend of his, with strict orders to guard them in complete secrecy.

Then he himself, to return the service of Perathoes, journeyed with him to Epirus, in quest of the daughter of Eodynaeus, the king of the Molotians. This man called his wife Phosphony, his daughter Cora, and his dog Cerberus, with which beast he ordered that all suitors of his daughter should fight, promising her to him that should overcome it. However, when he learned that Parathoius and his friend were come not to woo, but to steal away his daughter, he seized them both. Parathoius he put out of the way at once by means of the dog, but Theseus he kept in close confinement.

Meanwhile, Menestheus The son of Petios, grandson of Orneus, and great-grandson of Erechtheus, the first of men, as they say, to effect popularity, and ingratiate himself with the multitude, stirred up and embittered the chief men in Athens. These had long been hostile to Theseus, and thought that he had robbed each one of the country nobles of his royal office, and then shut them all up in a single city, where he treated them as subjects and slaves. The common people, also he threw into commotion by his reproaches, they thought they had a vision of liberty, he said, but in reality they had been robbed of their native homes and religions, in order that, in the place of many good kings of their own blood, they might look obediently to one master who was an immigrant and an alien.

While he was thus busying himself, the Tyne Derridae, came up against the city, and the war greatly furthered his seditious schemes. Indeed, some writers say outright that he persuaded the invaders to come. At first, then, they did no harm, but simply demanded back their sister. When, however, the people of the city replied that they neither had the girl nor knew where she had been left, they resorted to war. But Academus, who had learned in some way or other of her concealment at Aphidne, told them about it. For this reason he was honored during his life by the Tyndereidae, and often afterwards, when the Lacedaemonians invaded Attica, and laid waste all the country round about, they spared the Academy for the sake of Academus.

But Dicararchus says that Eschedemus and Marathus of Arcadia were in the army of the Tynderidae at that time, from the first of whom the present academy was named Academia, and from the other the township of Marathon, since in accordance with some oracle he voluntarily gave himself to be sacrificed in front of the line of battle. To Aphidne, then, they came. One pitched battle, and stormed the town. Here they say that among others, Alakas, the son of Scyron, who was at that time in the army of the Dioscuri, was slain, and that from him a place in Megara, where he was buried, is called Alakas. But Herias writes that Alakas was slain at Aphidne by Theseus himself, and cites in proof these verses about Alakas.

whom once in the plain of Aphidne, where he was fighting, Theseus, ravisher of fair-haired Helen, slew.

However, it is not likely that Theseus himself was present when both his mother and Aphidne were captured. At any rate, Aphidne was taken, and the city of Athens was full of fear. But Menestheus persuaded its people to receive the Tyne Derridae into the city And show them all manner of kindness. Since they were waging war upon Theseus alone, who had committed the first act of violence, but were benefactors and saviors of the rest of mankind. And their behavior confirmed his assurances, for although they were masters of everything, they demanded only an initiation into the mysteries, since they were no less closely allied to the city than Heracles. This privilege was accordingly granted them. After they had been adopted by Aphidnus, as Pileus had adopted Heracles.

They also obtained honors like those paid to gods, and were addressed as Anakos, either on account of their stopping hostilities, or because of their diligent care that no one should be injured, although there was such a large army within the city. For the phrase Anakos echion is used of such as care for. Or guard anything, and perhaps it is for this reason that kings are called Anactus. There are also those who say that the Tyndaridae were called Anactus because of the appearance of their twin stars in the heavens, since the Athenians use Anikas and Anikathan for Anno and Anothan, signifying above or on high. They say that Aethra, The mother of Theseus, who was taken captive at Aphidne, was carried away to Lacedaemon, and from thence to Troy with Helen, and that Homer bears witness to this when he mentions as followers of Helen, Aethra of Pythias born, and Chimene large-eyed and lovely.

But some reject this verse of Homer's, as well as the legend of Municus, who was born in secret to Laodice from Demaphune, and whom Aethra helped to rear in Ilium. But a very peculiar and wholly divergent story about Aethra is given by Ister in the thirteenth book of his Attic History. Some write, he says, that Alexander, Paris was overcome in battle by Achilles and Patroclus in Thessaly along the banks of the Sperchius, but that Hector took and plundered the city of Troizen, and carried away Aethra, who had been left there. This, however, is very doubtful. Now, while Heracles was the guest of Aedonius, the Moletian, the king incidentally spoke of the adventure of Theseus and Parathoius, telling what they had come there to do.

And what they had suffered when they were found out. Heracles was greatly distressed by the inglorious death of the one, and by the impending death of the other. As for Perathoes, he thought it useless to complain, but he begged for the release of Theseus, and demanded that this favor be granted him. Eugenius yielded to his prayers, Theseus was set free, and returned to Athens, where his friends were not yet altogether overwhelmed. All the sacred precincts which the city had previously set apart for himself he now dedicated to Heracles, and called them Heraclea, instead Aethesia, for only excepted, as Philichorus writes. But when he desired to rule again as before, and to direct the state, he became involved in factions and disturbances.

He found that those who hated him when he went away had now added to their hatred contempt, and he saw a large part of the people were corrupted, and wished to be cajoled into service, instead of doing silently what they were told to do. Attempting then to force his wishes upon them, he was overpowered by demagogues and factions, and finally, despairing of his cause, he sent his children away privately into Euboa, to Elephanor, the son of Chalcodon, while he himself, after invoking curses upon the Athenians at Gargetus, where there is to this day the place called Eryterion, sailed away to the island of Scyros, where the people were friendly to him, as he thought, and where he had ancestral estates.

Now Lycomedes was at that time king of Scyros. To him, therefore, Theseus applied with the request that his lands should be restored to him, since he was going to dwell there, though some say that he asked his aid against the Athenians. But Lycomedes, either because he feared a man of such fame, or as a favor to Menestheus, led him up to the high places of the land, on pretence of showing him from thence his lands, threw him down the cliffs, and killed him. Some, however, say that he slipped and fell down of himself, while walking there after supper, as was his custom. At the time no one made any account of his death, But Menestheus reigned as king at Athens, while the sons of Theseus, as men of private station, accompanied Elephanor on the expedition to Ilium.

But after Menestheus died there, they came back by themselves and recovered their kingdom. In after-times, however, the Athenians were moved to honor Theseus as a demigod, especially by the fact that many of those who fought at Marathon against the Medes thought they saw an apparition of Theseus in arms, rushing on in front of them against the barbarians. And after the Median wars, In the archon ship of Phaedo, when the Athenians were consulting the oracle at Delphi, they were told by the Pythian priestess to take up the bones of Theseus, give them honorable burial at Athens, and guard them there. But it was difficult to find the grave and take up the bones, because of the inhospitable and savage nature of the Dolopeans, who then inhabited the island.

However, Simon took the island, as I have related in his life, And, being ambitious to discover the grave of Theseus, saw an eagle in a place where there was the semblance of a mound, pecking, as they say, and tearing up the ground with his talons. By some divine ordering he comprehended the meaning of this, and dug there. And there was found a coffin of a man of extraordinary size, a bronze spear lying by its side, and a sword. When these relics were brought home on his trireme by Simon, the Athenians were delighted, and received them with splendid processions and sacrifices, as though Theseus himself were returning to his city. And now he lies buried in the heart of the city, Near the present gymnasium, and his tomb is a sanctuary and a place of refuge for runaway slaves, and all men of low estate, who are afraid of men in power, since Theseus was a champion and helper of such during his life, and graciously received the supplications of the poor and needy.

The chief sacrifice which the Athenians make in his honor comes on the eighth day of the month, Pionepsion, the day on which he came back from Crete with the youths. But they honor him also on the eighth day of the other months, either because he came to Athens in the first place from Troison, on the eighth day of the month Hecatombeion, as Diodorus, the topographer states, or because they consider this number more appropriate for him than any other, since he was said to be a son of Poseidon. For they pay honors to Poseidon on the eighth day of every month. The number eight, as the first cube of an even number, and the double of the first square, fitly represents the steadfast and immovable power of this god, to whom we give the epithets of Securer and Earth Stayer.

End of Theseus

5 04 - Romulus pt. 1 23:37

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Romulus.

From whom and for what reason the great name of Rome, so famous among mankind, was given to that city, writers are not agreed. Some say that the Pelascians, after wandering over most of the habitable earth and subduing most of mankind, settled down on that site, and that from their strength in war they called their city Rome. Others say that at the taking of Troy some of its people escaped, found sailing-vessels, were driven by storms upon the coast of Tuscany, and came to anchor in the river Tiber. that here, while their women were perplexed and distressed at thought of the sea, one of them, who was held to be of superior birth and the greatest understanding, and whose name was Roma, proposed that they should burn the ships.

That when this was done, the men were angry at first, but afterwards, when they had settled of necessity on the palatine, seeing themselves in a little while more prosperous than they had hoped, since they found the country good, and the neighbors made them welcome, they paid high honors to Roma, and actually named the city after her, since she had been the occasion of their founding it. And from that time on, they say, it has been customary for the women to salute their kinsmen and husbands with a kiss. For those women, after they had burned the ships, made use of such tender salutations as they supplicated their husbands and sought to appease their wrath. Others again say that the Roma who gave her name to the city was a daughter of Italus and Lucaria, or, in another account, of Telephus, the son of Heraclus, and that she was married to Aeneas, in another version to Ascanius, the son of Aeneas.

Some tell us that it was Romanus, a son of Odysseus and Circe, who colonised the city. Others said that it was Romus who was sent from Troy by Diomedes, the son of Emathion, and others still that it was Romus, tyrant of the Latins, after he had driven out the Tuscans, who passed from Thessaly into Lydia, and from Lydia into Italy. Moreover, even those writers who declare in accordance with the most authentic tradition that it was Romulus who gave his name to the city do not agree about his lineage. For some say that he was the son of Aeneas and Dexithia, the daughter of Phobos, and was brought to Italy in his infancy along with his brother Romus. That the rest of the vessels were destroyed in the swollen river, but the one in which the boys were was gently directed to a grassy bank, where they were unexpectedly saved, and the place was called Roma from them.

Others say it was Roma, a daughter of the Trojan woman I have mentioned, who was wedded to Latinus, the son of Telemachus, and bore him Romulus. Others, that Emilia, the daughter of Aeneas and Lavinia bore him to Mars, and others still rehearse what is altogether fabulous concerning his origin. For instance, they say that Tarquiteus, king of the Albans, who was most lawless and cruel, was visited with a strange phantom in his house, namely a phallus rising out of the hearth and remaining there many days. Now there was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany from which there was brought to Tarquetius a response that a virgin must have intercourse with this phantom, and she should bear a son most illustrious for his valour, and of surpassing good fortune and strength.

Tarquetius, accordingly, told the prophecy to one of his daughters, and bade her consort with the phantom. But she disdained to do so, and sent a handmaiden to it. When Tarceus learned of this, he was wroth and seized both the maidens, proposing to put them to death. But the goddess Hestia appeared to him in his sleep, and forbade him the murder. He therefore imposed upon the maidens the weaving of a certain web in their imprisonment, assuring them that when they had finished the weaving of it, they should then be given in marriage. By day, then, these maidens wove, but by night other maidens, at the command of Tarceus, unraveled their web. And when the handmaid became the mother of the twin children by the phantom, Tarquitius gave them to a certain Terecius, with orders to destroy them.

This man, however, carried them to the river-side, and laid them down there. Then a she-wolf visited the babes, and gave them suck, while all sorts of birds brought morsels of food and put them into their mouths, until a cowherd spied them, conquered his amazement, ventured to come to them, and took the children home with him. Thus they were saved, and when they were grown up, they set upon Tarcetius and overcame him. At any rate, this is what a certain Promethian says, who compiled a history of Italy. But the story, which has the widest credence and the greatest number of vouchers, was first published among the Greeks, in its principal details by Diocles of Papyrithus, and Fabius Pictor follows him in most points.

Here again there are variations in the story, but its general outline is as follows. The descendants of Aeneas reigned as kings in Alba, and the succession devolved at length upon two brothers, Numitor and Amulius. Amulius divided the whole inheritance into two parts, setting the treasures and the gold which had been brought from Troy over against the kingdom, and Numitor chose the kingdom. Amulius, then, in possession of the treasure, and made more powerful by it than Numitor, easily took the kingdom away from his brother, and fearing lest that brother's daughter should have children, made her a priestess of Vesta, bound to live unwedded and a virgin all her days. Her name is variously given as Ilya, or Rhea, or Sylvia.

Not long after this she was discovered to be with child, contrary to the established laws for the Vestals. She did not, however, suffer the capital punishment which was her due, because the king's daughter, Antho interceded successfully in her behalf, but she was kept in solitary confinement, that she might not be delivered without the knowledge of Aemulius. Delivered she was of two boys, and their size and beauty were more than human. Wherefore, Aemulius was all the more afraid, and ordered a servant to take the boys and cast them away. This servant's name was Faustulus, according to some, but others give this name to the man who took the boys up. Obeying the king's orders, the servant put the babes into a trow, and went down towards the river, proposing to cast them in.

But when he saw that the stream was much swollen and violent, he was afraid to go close up to it, and setting his burden down near the bank, went his way. Then the overflow of the swollen river took and bore up the trow, floating it gently along, and carried it down to a fairly smooth spot which is now called Cermulus, but formerly Germanus, Perhaps because brothers are called Jermani. Now there was a wild fig tree hard by which they called Ruminalis, either from Romulus, as is generally thought, or because cut-chewing or ruminating, animals, spent the noontide there for the sake of the shade, or, best of all, from the suckling of the babes there. For the ancient Romans called the teat Rumma, and a certain goddess who is thought to preside over the rearing of young children is still called Rumilia, In sacrificing to whom no wine is used, and libations of milk are poured over her victims.

Here then the babes lay, and the she-wolf the story here gave them suck, and the woodpecker came to help in feeding them, and to watch over them. Now these creatures are considered sacred to Mars, and the woodpecker is held in a special veneration and honour by the Latins, and this was the chief reason why the mother was believed when she declared that Mars was the father of her babes. And yet it is said that she was deceived into doing this, and was really deflowered by Aemilius himself, who came to her in armour and ravished her. But some say that the name of the children's nurse, by its ambiguity, deflected the story into the realm of the fabulous, for the Latins not only called she-wolves lupae, but also women of loose character, and such a woman was the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants, Acca Laurentia by name.

Yet the Romans sacrifice also to her, and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honor, and the festival is called Larentalia. They pay honors also to another Laurentia for the following reason. The keeper of the temple of Hercules, being at a loss for something to do, as it seems, proposed to the god a game of dice, with the understanding that if he won it himself, he should get some valuable present from the god, but if he lost, he would furnish the god with a bounteous repast and a lovely woman to keep him company for the night. On these terms the dice were thrown, first for the god, then for himself, when it appeared that he had lost. Wishing to keep faith, and thinking it right to abide by the contract, he prepared a banquet for the god, and engaging Laurentia, who was then in the bloom of her beauty, but not yet famous, he feasted her in the temple, where he had spread a couch, and after the supper locked her in, assured, of course, that the god would take possession of her.

And verily it is said that the god did visit the woman, and bade her go early in the morning to the forum, salute the first man who met her, and make him her friend. She was met, accordingly, by one of the citizens who was well on in years, and possessed of considerable property, but childless and unmarried all his life, by name Terusius. This man took Laurentia to his bed and loved her well, and at its death left her heir to many and fair possessions, most of which she bequainted to the people. And it is said that when she was now famous and regarded as the beloved of a god, she disappeared at the spot where the former Laurentia also lies buried, This spot is now called Vellabrum, because when the river overflowed, as it often did, they used to cross it at about this point in ferry-boats to go to the forum, and the word for ferry is Vellatura.

But some say that it is so called because from that point on the street leading to the Hippodrome from the forum is covered over with sails by the givers of a public spectacle, and the Roman word for sail is Vellum. It is for these reasons that honors are paid to this second Laurentia amongst the Romans. As for the babes, they were taken up and reared by Faustulus, a swinehout of Aemilius, and no man knew of it. Or, as some say with a closer approach to probability, Numitor did know of it, and secretly aided the foster-parents in their task. And it is said that the boys were taken to Gaebie to learn letters and the other branches of knowledge, which are meet for those of noble birth. Moreover, we were told that they were named, from ruma, the latin word for teal, Romulus, and Romus, or Remus, because they were seen sucking the wild beast.

Well, the noble size and beauty of their bodies, even when they were infants, betokened their natural disposition, and when they grew up, they were both of them courageous and manly, with spirits which courted apparent danger, and a daring which nothing could terrify. But Romulus seemed to exercise his judgment more, and to have political sagacity, while in his intercourse with their neighbors in matters pertaining to herding and hunting, he gave them the impression that he was born to command rather than to obey. With their equals or inferiors, they were therefore on friendly terms, but they looked down upon the overseers and chief herdsmen of the king, believing them to be no better men than themselves, and disregarded both their threats and their anger.

They also applied themselves to generous occupations and pursuits, not esteeming sloth and idleness generous, but rather bodily exercise, hunting, running, driving off robbers, capturing thieves, and rescuing the oppressed from violence. For these things, indeed, they were famous far and near. When a quarrel arose between the herdsmen of Numiter and Amulius, and some of the latter's cattle were driven off, the brothers would not suffer it, but fell upon the robbers, put them to flight, and intercepted most of the booty. To the displeasure of Numiter they gave little heed, but collected and took into their company many needy men and many slaves, exhibiting thus the beginnings of seditious boldness and temper.

But once, when Romulus was busily engaged in some sacrifice, being fond of sacrifices and of divination, the herdsman of Numiter fell in with Remus as he was walking with few companions, and a battle ensued. After blows and wounds given and received on both sides, the herdsman of Numiter prevailed and took Remus prisoner, who was then carried before Numiter and denounced. Numiter himself did not punish his prisoner, because he was in fear of his brother Amulius, who was severe, but went to Aemilius and asked for justice, since he was his brother, and had been insulted by the royal servants. The people of Alba, too, were incensed and thought that Numiter had been undeservedly outraged. Aemilius was therefore induced to hand Remus over to Numiter himself, to treat him as he saw fit.

When Numiter came home, after getting Remus into his hands, he was amazed at the young man's complete superiority in stature and strength of body, and perceiving by his countenance that the boldness and vigor of his soul were unsubdued and unharmed by his present circumstances, and hearing that his acts and deeds corresponded with his looks, but chiefly as it would seem because a divinity was aiding and assisting in the inauguration of great events, He grasped the truth by a happy conjecture, and asked him who he was, and what were the circumstances of his birth, while his gentle voice and kindly look inspired the youth with confidence and hope. Then Remus boldly said, Indeed, I will hide nothing from thee, for thou seemest to be more like a king than Amulius.

Thou nearest and weighest before punishing, but he surrenders man without a trial. Formerly we believed ourselves, my twin brother and I, children of Faustulus and Laurentia, servants of the king. But since being accused and slandered before thee, and brought in peril of our lives, we hear great things concerning ourselves. Whether they are true or not, our present danger is likely to decide. Our birth is said to have been secret, and our nursing and nurture as infants stranger still. We were cast out to birds of prey and wild beasts, only to be nursed by them, by the ducks of a shear wolf and the morsels of a woodpecker, as we lay in a little trough by the side of the great river. The trough still exists, and is kept safe, and its bronze girdles are engraved with letters now almost effaced, which may perhaps hereafter prove unavailing tokens of recognition for our parents when we are dead and gone.

Then Numiter, hearing these words, and conjecturing the time which had elapsed from the young man's looks, welcomed the hope that flattered him, and thought how he might talk with his daughter concerning these matters in a secret interview, for she was still kept in the closest custody. But Faustulus, on hearing that Remus had been seized and delivered up to Numiter, called upon Romulus to go to his aid, and then told him clearly the particulars of their birth. Before this also he had hinted at the matter darkly, and revealed enough to give them ambitious thoughts when they dwelt upon it. He himself took the throne and went to see Numiter, full of anxious fear lest he might not be in season. Naturally enough, the guards at the king's gate were suspicious of him, and when he was scrutinised by them and made confused replies to their questions, he was found to be concealing the trough in his cloak.

Now by chance there was among the guards one of those who had taken the boys to cast him into the river, and were concerned in their exposure. This man, now seeing the trough, and recognising it by its make and inscription, conceived the suspicion of the truth, and without any delay told the matter to the king, and brought the men before him to be examined. In these dire and pressing straits, Faustulus did not entirely hold his own, nor yet was his secret wholly forced from him. He admitted that the boys were alive and well, but said they lived at a distance from Alba as herdsmen. He himself was carrying the trout to Ilya, who had often yearned to see and handle it, in confirmation of her hope for her children.

As then men naturally fare who are confounded and act with fear or in a passion, so it fell out that Amulius fared. For he sent in all haste an excellent man and a friend of Numiter's, with orders to learn from Numiter whether any report had come to him of the children's being alive. When, accordingly, the man was come and beheld Remus almost in the affectionate embraces of Numiter, he confirmed them in their confident hope and entreated them to proceed at once to action, promptly joining their party himself and furthering their cause, and the opportunity admitted of no delay, even as they wished it, For Romulus was now close at hand, and many of the citizens who hated and feared Amelius were running forth to join him.

He was also leading a large force with him, divided into companies of a hundred men, each company headed by a man who bore aloft a handful of hay and shrubs tied round a pole. The Latin word for handful is Manipulus, and hence in their armies they still call the men in such companies Manipularis. And when Remus incited the citizens within the city to revolt, and at the same time Romulus attacked from without, the tyrant, without taking a single step or making any plan for his own safety from sheer perplexity and confusion, was seized and put to death. Although most of these particulars are related by Fabius and Diocles of Papyrithus, who seems to have been the first to publish a founding of Rome, some are suspicious of their fictitious and fabulous quality.

But we should not be incredulous when we see what a poet fortune sometimes is, and when we reflect that the Roman state would not have attained to its present power had it not been of a divine origin, and one which was attended by great marvels.

Amulius being now dead, and Metus settled in the city, the brothers were neither willing to live in Alba unless as its rulers, nor to be its rulers while their grandfather was alive. Having therefore restored the government to him, and paid fitting honors to their mother, they resolved to dwell by themselves, and to found a city in the region where, at the first, they were nourished and sustained. This surely seems a most fitting reason for their cause. But perhaps it was necessary, now that many slaves and fugitives were gathered about them, either to disperse these and have no following at all, or else to dwell apart with them. For that the residence of Alba would not consent to give the fugitives the privilege of intermarriage with them, nor even receive them as fellow-citizens, is clear, in the first place, from the rape of the Sabine women, which was not a deed of wanton daring, but one of necessity, owing to the lack of marriages by consent.

For they certainly honoured the women, when they had carried them off beyond measure. And in the second place, when their city was first founded, they made a sanctuary of refuge for all fugitives, which they called the sanctuary of the God of Asylum. There they received all who came, delivering none up, neither slave to masters, nor debtor to creditors, nor murderer to magistrates, but declaring it to be in obedience to an oracle from Delphi that they made the asylum secure for all men. Therefore the city was soon full of people, for they say that the first houses numbered no more than a thousand. This, however, was later. But when they set out to establish their city, a dispute at once arose concerning the site.

Romulus, accordingly, built Roma Quadrata, which means square, and wished to have the city on that site. But Remus laid out a strong precinct on the Aventine Hill, which was named from him Remonium, but now is called Regnerium. Agreeing to settle their quarrel by the flight of birds of omen, and taking their seats on the ground apart from one another, six vultures, they say, were seen by Remus, and twice that number by Romulus. Some, however, say that whereas Remus truly saw his six, Romulus lied about his twelve, but that when Remus came to him, then he did see the twelve. Hence it is that at the present time also the Romans chiefly regard vultures when they take auguries from the flight of birds.

Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules also was glad to see a vulture present itself when he was upon an exploit, for it is the least harmful of all creatures, injures no grain, fruit-tree or cattle, and lives on carrion. But it does not kill or maltreat anything that has life, and as for birds, it will not touch them even when they are dead, since they are of its own species. But eagles, owls, and hawks smite their own kind when alive, and kill them. And yet, in the words of Aeschylus, how shall a bird that preys on a fellow-bird be clean? Besides, other birds are, so to speak, always in our eyes, and let themselves be seen continually. But the vulture is a rare sight, and it is not easy to come upon a vulture's young.

Nay, some men have been led into a strange suspicion that the birds come from some other and foreign land to visit us here. So rare and intermittent is their appearance, which soothsayers think should be true of what does not present itself naturally, nor spontaneously, but by a divine sending. When Remus knew of the deceit, he was enraged, And as Romulus was digging a trench where his city's wall was to run, he ridiculed some parts of the work and obstructed others. At last, when he leapt across it, he was smitten by Romulus himself, as some say, according to others, by Sela, one of his companions, and fell dead there. Faustulus also fell in the battle, as well as Pleistinus, who was a brother of Faustulus, and assisted him in rearing Romulus and Remus.

Scylla, at any rate, betook himself to Tuscany, and from him the Romans call such as are swift and speedy Scyllares. Quintus Metellus, for instance, when his father died, took only a few days to provide gladiatorial contests in his honour, and the people were so amazed at his speed in preparing them that they gave him the surname of Scylla. Romulus buried Remus, together with his foster-fathers, in the Ramonia, and then set himself to building his city, after summoning from Tuscany men who prescribed all the details in accordance with certain sacred ordinances and writings, and taught them to him as in a religious rite. A circular trench was dug around what is now the Commitium, and in this were deposited first-fruits of all things, the use of which was sanctioned by custom as good and by nature as necessary.

And finally every man brought a small portion of the soil of his native land, and these were cast in among the first-fruits, and mingled with them. They call this trench, as they do the heavens, by the name of Mundus. Then, taking this as a centre, they marked out the city in a circle round it, And the founder, having shot a plough with a brazen ploughshare, and having yoked to it a bull and a cow, himself drove a deep furrow round the boundary lines, while those who followed after him had to turn the clods which the plough threw up inwards towards the city, and suffer no clod to lie turned outwards. With this line they mark out the course of the wall, and it is called, by contraction, pomerium, that is, postmurum, behind or next the wall.

And where they proposed to put in a gate, there they took the share out of the ground, lifted the plough over, and left a vacant space. And this is the reason why they regard all the wall as sacred except the gates. But if they held the gates sacred, it would not be possible, without religious scruples, to bring into and send out of the city things which are necessary and yet unclean. End of Romulus Part One

6 05 - Romulus pt. 2 26:00

The End of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Now, it is agreed that the city was founded on the twenty-first of April, and this day the Romans celebrate with a festival, calling it the birthday of their country. And at first, as it is said, they sacrificed no living creature at that festival, but thought they ought to keep it pure and without stain of blood, since it commemorated the birth of their country. However, even before the founding of the city, they had a pastoral festival on that day, and called it Perilia. At the present time, indeed, there is no agreement between the Roman and Greek months, but they say that the day on which Romulus founded his city was precisely the thirtieth of the month, and that on that day there was a conjunction of the sun and moon with an eclipse, which they think was the one seen by Antimachus, the epic poet of Tios, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad.

And in the times of Vero, the philosopher, a Roman who was most deeply versed in history, there lived Taurusius, A companion of his, who, besides being a philosopher and a mathematician, had applied himself to the art of casting nativities, in order to indulge a speculative turn of mind, and was thought to excel in it. To this man, Vero gave the problem of fixing the day and hour of the birth of Romulus, making his deductions from the conjunctions of events reported in the man's life, just as the solutions of geometrical problems are derived. For the same science, he said, must be capable not only of foretelling a man's life when the time of his birth is known, but also from the given facts of his life of hunting out the time of his birth.

This task, then, Taurusius performed, and when he had taken a survey of the man's experiences and achievements, and had brought together the time of his life, the manner of his death, and all such details, He very courageously and bravely declared that Romulus was conceived in his mother's womb in the first year of the second Olympiad, in the month Coac of the Egyptian calendar on the twenty-third day and in the third hour, when the sun was totally eclipsed, and that he was born in the month Thoth on the twenty-first day at sunrise, and that Rome was founded by him on the ninth day of the month Pharmuti between the second and third hour, For it is thought that a city's fortune, as well as that of a man, has a decisive time which may be known by the position of the stars at its very origin.

These and similar speculations will perhaps attract readers by their novelty and extravagance, rather than offend them by their fabulous character. When the city was built, in the first place Romulus divided all the multitude that were of age to bear arms into military companies, Each company consisting of three thousand footmen and three hundred horsemen. Such a company was called a Legion, because the warlike were selected out of all. In the second place he treated the remainder as a people, and this multitude was called Poplars. A hundred of them, who were the most eminent, he appointed to be councillors, calling the individuals themselves patricians, and their body a senate. Now the word senet means literally a council of elders, and the councillors were called patricians, as some say, because they were fathers of lawful children, or rather, according to others, because they could tell who their own fathers were, which not many could do of those who first streamed into the city, according to others still, from patronage, which was their word for the protection of inferiors, and is so to this day, And they supposed that a certain patron, one of those who came to Italy with Evander, was a protector and defender of the poor and needy, and left his own name in the word which designates such activity.

But the most reasonable opinion for any one to hold is that Romulus thought it a duty of the foremost and most influential citizens to watch over the more lowly with fatherly care and concern, while he taught the multitude not to fear their superiors, nor be vexed at their honours, but to exercise good-will towards them, considering them and addressing them as fathers, whence their name of Patricii. For down to the present time foreign peoples call the members of their Senate chief men, But the Romans themselves called them conscript fathers, using that name which has the greatest dignity and honor, and awakens the least envy. At first, then, they called them simply fathers, but later, when more had been added to their number, they addressed them as conscript fathers.

By this more imposing title, Romulus distinguished the Senate from the commonalty, and in other ways, too, he separated the nobles from the multitude, calling the one patrons, that is to say, protectors, and the other, clients, that is to say, dependents. At the same time he inspired both classes with an astonishing good will towards each other, and one which became the basis of important rights and privileges. For the patrons advised their clients in matters of custom, and represented them in courts of justice. In short, were there counselors and friends in all things, while the clients were devoted to their patrons, Not only holding them in honor, but actually, in cases of poverty, helping them to dower their daughters and pay their debts.

And there was neither any law nor any magistrate that could compel a patron to bear witness against a client, or a client against a patron. But in later times, while all other rights and privileges remained in force, the taking of money by those of high degree from the more lowly was held to be disgraceful and ungenerous. So much, then, on these topics. It was in the fourth month after the founding of the city, as Fabius writes, that the rape of the Sabine women was perpetrated, and some say that Romulus himself, being naturally fond of war, and being persuaded by sundry oracles too, that it was the destiny of Rome to be nourished and increased by wars till she became the greatest of cities, thereby merely began unprovoked hostilities against the Sabines, For he did not take many maidens, but thirty only, since what he wanted was war rather than marriages.

But this is not likely. On the contrary, seeing his city filling up at once with aliens, few of whom had wives, while the greater part of them, being a mixed rabble of needy and obscure persons, were looked down upon and expected to have no strong cohesion, And hoping to make the outrage an occasion for some sort of blending and fellowship with the Sabines after their women had been kindly entreated, he set his hand to the task, and in the following manner. First, a report was spread abroad by him that he had discovered an altar of a certain god hidden underground. They called this god Sensus, and he was either a god of council, for consilium is still their word for council, and they call their chief magistrates consuls, that is to say, counsellors, or in equestrian Neptune.

For the altar is in the Circus Maximus, and is invisible at all other times, but at the chariot-races it is uncovered. Some, however, simply say that since council is secret and unseen, it is not unreasonable that an altar to the god of council should be hidden underground. Now, when this altar was discovered, Romulus appointed by proclamation a splendid sacrifice upon it, with games and a spectacle open to all people. And many were the people who came together, while he himself sat in front among his chief men, clad in purple. The signal that the time had come for the onslaught was to be his rising and folding his cloak, and then throwing it round him again. Armed with swords, then, many of his followers kept their eyes intently upon him, and when the signal was given, drew their swords, rushed in with shouts, and ravished away the daughters of the Sabines, but permitted and encouraged the men themselves to escape.

Some say that only thirty maidens were seized, and that from these the curie were named, but Valerius Anthius puts the number at five hundred and twenty-seven, and Juba at six hundred and eighty-three, all maidens, And this was the strongest defence which Romulus could make, namely, that they took only one married woman, Hercilia, and her by mistake, since they did not commit the rape out of wantonness, nor even with a desire to do mischief, but with a fixed purpose of uniting and blending the two peoples in the strongest bonds. As for this Hercilia, some say that she was married to Hercilius, a most eminent Roman, and others to Romulus himself, and that she also bore him children. One daughter, Prima, so called from the order of birth, and one son only, whom Romulus named Aeolius, from the great concourse of citizens under him, but later ages, Avilius.

However, Zenodotus of Terzen, who gives us this account, is contradicted by many. Among those who ravished away the maidens at that time, it chanced, they say, that certain men of meaner sort were dragging along a damsel who far surpassed the rest in beauty and stature. And when some men of superior rank met them and tried to rob them of their prize, they cried out that they were conducting the girl to Talacius, a young man but one of excellent repute. The other party then, on hearing this, shouted and clapped their hands inapproval, and some of them actually turned back and accompanied them, out of good will and favour, to Talacius, shouting his name as they went along. Hence, indeed, down to the present time, Talacius is the nuptial cry of the Romans, as Hymenaeus is of the Greeks, for they say that Talacius was fortunate in his wife.

But Saxius Sulla, the Carthaginian, a man who lacks neither learning nor charm, Told me that tellasius was the word which Romulus gave as a watchword for the rape. All those, therefore, who took the maidens away, shouted tellasius, and on this account the custom now prevails at marriages. But most writers are of the opinion, and Duba is one of them, that the cry is an exhortation and incitement to industry, and tellasie, as the Greeks call spinning, Italian words having not yet at that time entirely submerged the Greek. Now, if this is right, and the Romans did at that time use the word, for spinning, as we do, then a more credible reason for the custom might be conjectured as follows. When the Sabines, after their war against the Romans, were reconciled with them, it was agreed that their women should perform no other tasks for their husbands than those which were connected with spinning.

It was customary, therefore, at subsequent marriages for those who gave the bride away, or escorted her to her new home, or simply looked on, to cry, Talacius, merrily, in testimony that the woman was led home for no other task than that of spinning. And it continues to be a custom down to the present time that the bride shall not of herself cross the threshold into her new home, but be lifted up and carried in, Because the Sabine women were carried in by force, and did not go in of their own accord. And some say also that the custom of parting the bride's hair with the head of a spear is a reminder that the first marriage was attended with war and fighting, on which topic I have spoken more fully in my Roman questions.

Leaving such matters aside, the rape was committed on the eighteenth day of the month, once called Sextalus, but now August, On which day the festival of the Consuelia is celebrated. Now the Sabines were a numerous and warlike people, and dwelt in unwalled villages, thinking that it behoved them, since they were Lacedaemonian colonists, to be bold and fearless. Nevertheless, seeing themselves bound by precious hostages and fearing for their daughters, they sent ambassadors with reasonable and moderate demands, namely, that Romulus should give back to them their maidens, disavow his deed of violence, and then, by persuasion and legal enactment, establish a friendly relationship between the two peoples.

But Romulus would not surrender the maidens, and demanded that the Sabines should allow community of marriage with the Romans, Whereupon they all held long deliberations and made extensive preparations for war. But there was one exception. Akron, king of the Kininenses, a man of courageous spirit and skilled in war, had been suspicious of the daring deeds of Romulus from the beginning, and now that this violence had been done, the women, thinking him a menace to all peoples, and intolerable, unless chastised, at once rose up in arms, and with a great force advanced against him. Romulus also marched out to meet him. But when they were face to face and had surveyed each other, they challenged mutually to single combat before battle, while their armies remained quiet under arms.

Romulus then, after making a vow that if he should conquer and overthrow his adversary he would carry home the man's armor and dedicate it in person to Jupiter, not only conquered and overthrew him, but also routed his army in the battle which followed and took his city as well. To the captured citizens, however, he did no harm beyond ordering them to tear down their dwellings and accompany him to Rome, where, he promised them, they should be citizens on equal terms with the rest. Now this, more than anything else, was what gave increase to Rome. She always united and incorporated with herself those whom she conquered. But Romulus, after considering how he might perform his vow in a manner most acceptable to Jupiter, and accompany the performance with a spectacle most pleasing to the citizens, cut down a monstrous oak that grew in the camp, hewed it into the shape of a trophy, and fitted and fastened to it the armor of Akron, each piece in its due order.

Then he himself, girding his raiment about him and wreathing his flowing locks with laurel, set the trophy on his right shoulder, where it was held erect, and began a triumphal march, leading off in a paean of victory, which his army sang as it followed under arms, and being received by the citizens with joyful amazement. This procession was the origin and model of all subsequent triumphs, and the trophy was styled a dedication to Jupiter so named from the Roman word, farire, to smite, for Romulus vowed to smite his foe and overthrow him. And such spoils were called Operna, because, as Pharaoh says, opus is the Roman word for richness. But it would be more plausible to say that they were so called from the deed of valor involved, since opus is the Roman word for deed or exploit.

And only to a general who with his own hand has performed the exploit of slaying an opposing general has the privilege of dedicating the spolia opima been granted. Furthermore, only three Roman leaders have attained this honour. Romulus I, for slaying Acron the Cinenensian, next Cornelius Cossus, for killing Telemnius the Tuscan, and lastly Claudius Marcellus, for overpowering Brittomartus, King of the Gauls. Cossus, indeed, and Marcellus already used the four-horse chariot for their entrance into the city, carrying the trophies themselves. But Dionysius is incorrect in saying that Romulus used the chariot. For it is matter of history that Tarquin, the son of Demaratus, was first of the kings to lift triumphs up to such pomp and ceremony, although others say that Publicola was first to celebrate a triumph riding on a chariot.

And the statues of Romulus bearing the trophies are, as may be seen in Rome, all on foot. After the capture of the Cinnanetians, while the rest of the Sabines were still busy with their preparations, the people of Phidene, Crasstimerium, and Antemne banded together against the Romans, and in a battle which ensued, they were likewise defeated, and surrendered to Romulus their cities to be seized, their territory to be divided, and themselves to be transported to Rome. Romulus distributed among the citizens all the territory thus acquired, excepting that which belonged to the parents of the ravished maidens. This he suffered its owners to keep for themselves. At this the rest of the Sabines were enraged, and after appointing Tertius their general, marched upon Rome.

The city was difficult of access, having as its fortress the present capital, on which a guard had been stationed, with Terpius as its captain, not Tarpeia, a maiden as some say, thereby making Romulus a simpleton. But Tarpeia, a daughter of the commander, betrayed the citadel to the Sabines, having set her heart on the golden armlets which she saw them bearing, and she asked as payment for her treachery that which they wore on their left arms. Tatius agreed to this, whereupon she opened one of the gates by night and let the Sabines in. Antigonus was not alone then in saying that he loved men who offered to betray, but hated those who had betrayed, nor yet Caesar in saying of the Thracian, Romitalchus, that he loved treachery, but hated a traitor.

But this is a very general feeling towards the base on the part of those who need their services, just as they need certain wild creatures for their venom and gall. For while they feel the need of them, they put up with them, but abhor their vileness when they have obtained from them what they want. This, too, was the feeling which Tatius then had towards Terpia when he ordered his Sabines, mindful of their agreement, not to begrudge the girl anything they wore on their left arms. And he was first to take from his arm not only his armlet, but at the same time his shield, and cast them upon her. All his men followed his example, and the girl was smitten by the gold and buried under the shields, and died from the number and weight of them.

And Tarpeius also was convicted of treason when prosecuted by Romulus, as, according to Juba, Supitius Galba relates. Of those who write differently about Tarpeia, they are worthy of no belief at all who say that she was the daughter of Thetius, the leader of the Sabines, and was living with Romulus under compulsion, and acted and suffered as she did at her father's behest. Of these, Antigonus is one. And Similus, the poet, is altogether absurd in supposing that Tarpeia betrayed the capital not to the Sabines but to the Gauls, because she had fallen in love with her king. These are his words.

And Tarpeia, who dwelt hard by the Capitolian steep, became the destroyer of the walls of Rome. She longed to be the wedded wife of the Gallic chieftain, and betrayed the homes of her fathers.

And a little after, speaking of her death, Her, the Boi, and the myriad tribes of Gauls, did not exulting cast amid the currents of the Po, but hurled the shields from their belligerent arms upon the hateful maid, and made their ornament her doom.

However, Tarpeia was buried there, and the hill was called from her Tarpeius, until King Tarquin dedicated the place to Jupiter, when her bones were removed and the name of Tarpeia died out, except that a cliff on the capital is still called the Tarpeian rock from which they hurl malefactors. The citadel thus occupied by the Sabines, Romulus angrily challenged them to battle, and Tatius was bold enough to accept, since he saw that the Sabines, if worsted, had a strong place of retreat. For the intervening space in which they were to join battle, being surrounded by many hills, seemed to impose upon both parties a sharp and grievous contest, Owing to the difficulties of the field, where flight and pursuit must be narrowly confined and short.

It happened, too, since the river had overflowed not many days before, that a deep and blind slime had been left in the valley where the forum is now. Wherefore, it was not apparent to the eye, nor yet easy to avoid, and besides it was soft beneath the surface and dangerous. On to this the Sabines were ignorantly rushing, when a piece of good fortune befell them. Curtius, a conspicuous man among them, eager for glory in high design, was advancing on horseback far in front of the rest, when his horse sank in the gulf of mud. For some time he tried to drive him out with blows and cries of encouragement, but since it was impossible, he abandoned his horse and saved himself. Accordingly, the place to this day is called from him, Iacus Curtius.

But the Sabines, having avoided this peril, fought a sturdy fight, and one which was indecisive, although many fell, among whom was Hostilius. This man, they say, was husband of Hercilia, and grandfather to the Hostilius, who was king after Numa. Afterwards, many conflicts raged within a short time, as might be expected, but one is most memorable, namely the last, in which Romulus was hit on the head with a stone and almost fell to the ground, abandoning his resistance to the Sabines. The Romans thereupon gave way and began to fly to the palatine, now that they were repulsed from the plain. But presently Romulus, recovering from his blow, wished to stem the tide of fugitives and renew the battle, and called upon them with a loud voice to stand and fight.

But as the waves of flight encompassed him, and no man dared to face about, he stretched his hands towards heaven and prayed Jupiter to stay his army and not suffer the Roman cause to fall, but to restore it. No sooner was his prayer ended than many stopped out of reverence for their king, and courage returned to the fugitives. They made their first stand then, where now is the temple of Jupiter's tete, which epithet might be interpreted as Staea, Then they closed their ranks again, and drove the Sabines back to where the so-called Reija now stands, and the temple of Vesta. Here, as they were preparing to renew the battle, they were checked by a sight that was wonderful to behold, and a spectacle that passes description.

The ravished daughters of the Sabines were seen rushing from every direction, with shouts and lamentations, through the armed men and the dead bodies, as if in a frenzy of possession, up to their husbands and their fathers, some carrying young children in their arms, some veiled in their dishevelled hair, and all calling with the most endearing names, now upon the Sabines and now upon the Romans. So then both armies were moved to compassion, and drew apart to give the women place between the lines of battle. Sorrow ran through all the ranks, and abundant pity was stirred by the sight of the women, and still more by their words, which began with argument, and reproach, and ended with supplication and entreaty.

Wherein, pray, they said, have we done you wrong or harm that we must suffer in the past, and must still suffer now such cruel evils? We were violently and lawlessly ravished away by those to whom we now belong. But though thus ravished, we were neglected by our brethren and fathers and kinsmen until time had united us by the strongest ties with those whom we had most hated, and made us now fear for those who had treated us with violence and lawlessness, when they go to battle, and mourn for them when they are slain. For ye did not come to avenge us upon our ravishers while we were still maidens, But now you would tear wives from their husbands, and mothers from their children, and the succour wherewith you would now succour us, wretched women that we are, is more pitiful than your former neglect and abandonment of us.

Such is the love which we have here enjoyed, such the compassion shown to us by you. Even if you were fighting on other grounds, it were meet that you should cease for our sakes, Now that ye are become fathers-in-law and grandsires, and have family ties among your enemies. If, however, the war is on our behalf, carry us away with your sons-in-law and their children, and so restore to us our fathers and kindred, but do not rob us of our children and husbands. Let us not, we beseech you, become prisoners of war again. Many such appeals were made by Hercilia, and the other women added their entreaties, until a truce was made, and the leaders held a conference. Meanwhile, the women brought their husbands and their children, and presented them to their fathers and brothers.

They also carried food and drink to those that wanted, and bore the wounded to their homes for tender nursing. Here they also made it evident that they were mistresses of their own households, and that their husbands were attentive to them, and showed them all honour with goodwill. Thereupon agreements were made that such women as wished to do so might continue to live with their husbands, exempt, as aforesaid, from all labour and all drudgery except spinning. Also that the city should be inhabited by Romans and Sabines in common, and that the city should be called Rome from Romulus, but all its citizens, Quirides, from the latest city of Tertius, and that Romulus and Tertius should be joined kings and leaders of the army.

The place where these agreements were made is to this day called comitium, from the Roman word conere, or coere, to come together.

7 06 - Romulus pt. 3 29:26

Translated by Bernadette Perrin. Romulus. The city, thus doubled in its numbers, A hundred of the Sabines were added by election to the Patricii, and the legions were enlarged to six thousand footmen and six hundred horsemen. The people, too, were arranged in three bodies, the first called Remnensis, from Romulus, the second Taciensis, from Tacius, and the third Lucerensis, from the grove into which many betook themselves for refuge when a general asylum was offered, and then became citizens. Now, the Roman word for grove is Lucius. That these bodies were three in number, their very name testifies, for to this day they call them tribes, and their chief officers tribunes. And each tribe had ten fratries, or brotherhoods, which, as some say, were named after the thirty Sabine women.

But this seems to be false, since many of them bear the names of places. However, they did make many other concessions to the women, To do them honor, some of which are as follow, to give them the right of way when walking, not to utter any indecent word in the presence of a woman, that no man should be seen naked by them, or else that he be liable to prosecution before the judges of homicide, and that their children should wear a sort of necklace, the bulla, so called from its shape, which was that of a bubble, and a robe bordered with purple. The two kings did not at once hold counsel in common with one another, But each at first sat with his own hundred counsellors apart, then afterwards they united them all into one body, as at the present time.

Tatius dwelt where now is the temple of Moneta, and Romulus beside the so-called Steps of Fair Shore. These are near the descent into the Circus maximus from the Palatine. There also, it is said, grew the sacred Cornel-Tree, of which the following tale is told. Romulus once, in trial of his strength, cast thither from the Aventine hill a spear, the shaft of which was made of cornel-wood. The head of the spear sank deep into the ground, and no one had strength to pull it up, though many tried. But the earth, which was fertile, cherished the wooden shaft and sent up shoots from it, and produced a cornel-trunk of good size. Those who came after Romulus preserved this with religious care as one of the most sacred objects, and walled it in.

And if any visitor thought that it was not green nor flourishing, but likely to wither away and die, he immediately proclaimed it loudly to all he met, and these, as though helping to save a house on fire, would cry, Water! Water! and run together from all sides, carrying full buckets to the place. But when Caius Caesar, as they say, was repairing the steps about the enclosure, and the workmen dug here and there in the neighborhood, The roots were inadvertently destroyed, and the tree withered away. The Sabines, then, adopted the Roman months, about which I have written sufficiently in my life of Numa. Romulus, on the other hand, made use of their oblong shields, and changed his own armour and that of the Romans, who before that carried round shields of the argive pattern.

Feasts and sacrifices they shared with one another, not discarding any which the two peoples had observed before, but instituting other new ones. One of these is the matronalia, which was bestowed upon the women to commemorate their putting a stop to the war, and another is the carmentalia. This carmenta is thought by some to be a fate presiding over human birth, and for this reason she is honored by mothers. Others, however, say that the wife of Avenda the Arcadian, who was a prophetess and inspired to utter oracles in verse, was therefore surnamed carmenta, since carmina is their word for verses, Her own proper name being Nicostrati. As to her own name, there is general agreement, but some more probably interpret Carmenta as meaning bereft of mind, because of her ecstasies under inspiration, since Carrere is the Roman word for to be bereft, and mens for mind.

Of the Perilia I have spoken before. As for the Lupercalia, judging by the time of its celebration, it would seem to be a feast of purification, For it is observed on the inauspicious days of the month of February, which name can be interpreted to mean purification, and the very day of the feast was anciently called but the name of the festival has the meaning of the Greek Lykia, or Feast of Wolves, which makes it seem of great antiquity, and derived from the Arcadians in the following of Vavanda. Indeed, this meaning of the name is commonly accepted, for it can be connected with the she-wolf of the story. And besides, we see that the Luperzi begin their course around the city at that point where Romulus is said to have been exposed.

However, the actual ceremonies of the festival are such that the reason for the name is hard to guess. For the priests slaughter goats, and then, after two youths of noble birth have been brought to them, some of them touch their foreheads with a bloody knife, and others wipe the stain off at once with wool dipped in milk. The youths must laugh after their foreheads are wiped. After this they cut the goats'-skins into strips and run about with nothing on but a girdle, striking all who meet them with the thongs, and young married women do not try to avoid their blows, fancying that they promote conception and easy childbirth. A peculiarity of the festival is that the Luperzi sacrifice a dog also.

A certain Butes, who wrote fabulous explanations of Roman customs in elegiac verse, says that Romulus and Remus, after their victory over Amulius, ran exultantly to the spot where, when they were babes, the she-wolf gave them suck, and that the festival was conducted in imitation of this action, and that the two youths of noble birth ran, smiting all those whom they meet as once with brandished weapons down from Alba's heights, Remus and Romulus ran. And that the bloody sword is applied to their foreheads as a symbol of the peril and slaughter of that day, while the cleansing of their foreheads with milk is in remembrance of the nourishment which the babes received. But Caius Aecilius writes that before the founding of the city Romulus and his brother once lost their flocks, and after praying to Faunus ran forth in quest of them naked, that they might not be impeded by sweat, and that this is the reason why the Luperzi run about naked.

If the sacrifice is a purification, one might say that the dog is sacrificed as being a suitable victim for such rites, since the Greeks, in their rites of purification, carry forth puppies for burial, and in many places make use of the rites called perusculachismoi. And if these rites are performed in grateful remembrance of this she-wolf that nourished and preserved Romulus, it is not without reason that the dog is slain, since it is an enemy to wolves. Unless, indeed, the animal is thus punished for annoying the Luperzi when they run about. It is said also that Romulus first introduced the consecration of fire, and appointed holy virgins to guard it, called Vestals. Others attribute this institution to Numa, although admitting that Romulus was in other ways eminently religious, and they say further that he was a diviner, and carried for purposes of divination the so-called Lituus, A crooked staff with which those who take auguries from the flight of birds mark out the regions of the heavens.

This staff, which was carefully preserved on the palatine, is said to have disappeared when the city was taken at the time of the Gallic invasion. Afterwards, however, when the barbarians had been expelled, it was found under deep ashes unharmed by the fire, although everything about it was completely destroyed. He also enacted certain laws, and among them one of severity, which forbids a wife to leave her husband, but permits a husband to put away his wife for using poisons, for substituting children, and for adultery. But if a man for any other reason sends his wife away, the law prescribes that half his substance shall belong to his wife, and the other half be consecrated to Sirius, and whosoever puts away his wife shall make a sacrifice to the gods of the lower world.

It is also a peculiar thing that Romulus ordained no penalty for parasites, but called all murder parasite, looking upon one as abominable and upon the other as impossible. And for many ages his judgment of such a crime seemed to have been right, for no one did any such deed at Rome for almost six hundred years. But after the war with Hannibal, Lucius Hostius is reported to have been the first parasite. So much, then, may suffice concerning these matters. In the fifth year of the reign of Tatius, some retainers and kinsmen of his, falling in with ambassadors from Laurentum on their way to Rome, attempted to rob them of their money, and when they would not stand and deliver, slew them. It was a bold and dreadful crime, and Romulus thought its perpetrators ought to be punished at once.

But Tatius tried to put off and turn aside the course of justice. This was the sole occasion of open variance between them, In all other matters, they acted in the utmost concert and administered affairs with unanimity. The friends of the slain ambassadors, shut out as they were from all lawful redress through the efforts of Tatius, fell upon him as he was sacrificing with Romulus at Lavinium and killed him, but escorted Romulus on his way with loud praises of his justice. Romulus brought the body of Tatius home and gave it honorable burial, and it lies near the so-called Armelustrium, on the Aventine Hill. But he took no steps whatsoever to bring his murderers to justice. And some historians write that the city of Laurentum, in terror, delivered up the murderers of Tatius, but that Romulus let them go, saying that murder had been requited with murder.

This led some to say and suspect that he was glad to be rid of his colleague, but it caused no disturbance in the government, nor did it lead the Sabines into faction, nay, some threw the good will they had for him, Others, through their fear of his power, and others because they regarded him as a benevolent god, all continued to hold him in reverence to the end. Romulus was held in reverence also by many foreign peoples, and the earlier Latins sent ambassadors and established friendship and alliance with him. Fidini, a neighboring city to Rome, he took, as some say, by sending his horsemen of a sudden with orders to cut away the pivots of the gates, and then appearing himself unexpectedly. But others say that the men of Phaidone first made an incursion, driving off Booty and devastating the territory and outskirts of the city, and that Romulus set an ambush for them, killed many of them, and took their city.

He did not, however, destroy or raze it to the ground, but made it a colony of Rome, and sent thither twenty-five hundred colonists on the Ides of April. After this, a plague fell upon the land, bringing sudden death without previous sickness upon the people, and afflicting the crops with unfruitfulness, and the cattle with barrenness. There was a rain of blood also in the city, so that many superstitious fears were added to their unavoidable sufferings, and when similar calamities visited the people of Laurentum, All agreed at once that it was the miscarriage of justice for the death of Taceous and the slain ambassadors which brought the wrath of heaven down upon both cities. The murderers, therefore, were delivered up on both sides and punished, and the mischief visibly abated.

Romulus also purified the cities with lustral rites, which they say are celebrated to this day at the Carantine gate. But before the pestilence had ceased, the people of Chimria attacked the Romans and overran their territory, thinking them incapable of defending themselves by reason of their distress. Romulus, therefore, at once marched against them, overcame them in battle, and killed six thousand of them. He also took their city, transplanted half of the survivors to Rome, and sent to Chimria as colonists from Rome twice the number he had left there, and this on the first of August. So many citizens had he to spare after dwelling in Rome less than sixteen years. Among other spoils, he brought also a bronze four-horse chariot from Cimmeria, and dedicated it in the temple of Vulcan.

For it he had a statue made of himself, with a figure of victory crowning him. The Roman state thus gathering strength, its weaker neighbours submitted to it, and were satisfied to be let alone, But the powerful ones, out of fear and jealousy, thought they ought not to tolerate, but to resist and check the growing power of Romulus. And of the Tuskans, the people of Vaei, who possessed much territory and dwelt in a great city, were the first to begin war with a demand for Phaidone, which they said belonged to them. Now this was not only unjust, it was actually ridiculous that they, who had not come to the aid of the people of Phaidone when they were in the perils of war, but suffered them to perish, then demanded their houses and land from those who had come into possession of them.

Accordingly, Romulus gave them contemptuous answers, upon which they divided themselves into two armies, attacked Phidene with one, and confronted Romulus with the other. Before Phidene, then, they overpowered two thousand Romans and slew them, but they were defeated by Romulus with a loss of eight thousand men, Once more a battle was fought near Fidene, and here all agree that the victory was chiefly due to Romulus himself, who displayed every possible combination of skill and bravery, and seemed endowed with strength and swiftness far beyond the lot of men. But there is a statement made by some writers which is altogether fabulous, nay, rather wholly incredible, namely, that of the fourteen thousand tuscans who fell in this battle, more than half were slain by Romulus with his own hand, For even the Massinians seemed to have been boastfully extravagant in saying that Aristomenes thrice offered sacrifice for a hundred Lacedaemonian enemies slain.

After the rout of the enemy, Romulus suffered the survivors to escape, and moved upon their city itself. But they could not hold out after so great a reverse, and suing for peace made a treaty of friendship for a hundred years, giving up a large portion of their territory, called Septampagium, or the Seven Districts, Abandoning their sold-works along the river, and delivering up fifty of their chief men as hostages. Romulus also celebrated a triumph for this victory on the Ides of October, having in his train, besides many other captives, the leader of the Veintes, an elderly man who seems to have conducted the campaign unwisely, and without the experience to be expected of his years. Wherefore, to this very day, in offering a sacrifice for victory, they lead an old man through the forum to the capital, wearing a boy's toga with a bulla attached to it, while the herald cries, Sardians for sale!

For the Tuscans are said to be colonists from Sardis, and Vey is a Tuscan city.

This was the last war waged by Romulus. Afterwards, like many, nay, like almost all men who have been lifted by great and unexpected strokes of good fortune to power and dignity, even he was emboldened by his achievements to take on a heartier bearing, to renounce his popular ways, and to change to the ways of a monarch, which were made hateful and vexatious first by the state which he assumed. For he dressed in a scarlet tunic, and wore over it a toga bordered with purple, and sat on a recumbent throne when he gave audience, and yet always about him some young men called Saleris from their swiftness in doing service. Others, too, went before him with staves, keeping off the populace, and they were girt with thongs with which to bind at once those whom he ordered to be bound.

To bind, in the Latin language, was formerly ligera, though now it is allegera, whence the wand-bearers are called lictores. and the ones themselves baculae, from the use, in the time of Romulus, of bacteriae, which is the Greek word for staves. But it is likely that the c in the word Lictorus, as now used, has been added, and that the word was formerly Litoes, which is the Greek Laiturgoi, meaning public servants, for the Greeks still call a public hall Laiton, and the people Laos.

But when his grandfather Numitor died in Alba, and its throne devolved upon Romulus, he courted the favor of the people by putting the government in their hands, and appointed an annual ruler for the Albans. In this way he taught the influential man at Rome also to seek after a form of government which was independent and without a king, where all in turn were subjects and rulers. For by this time not even the so-called patricians had any share in the administration of affairs, But a name and garb of honor was all that was left them, and they assembled in their council-chamber more from custom than for giving advice. Once there, they listened in silence to the commands of the king, and went away with this advantage only over the multitude that they learned earlier what he had decreed.

The rest of his proceedings were of lesser importance, but when of his own motion merely he divided the territory acquired in war among his soldiers, and gave back their hostages to the Vaintis, Without the consent or wish of the patricians, he was thought to be insulting their Senate outright. Wherefore, suspicion and calumny fell upon that body when he disappeared unaccountably a short time after. He disappeared on the nones of July, as they now call the month, then quintilus, leaving no certain account, nor even any generally accepted tradition of his death aside from the date of it, which I have just given. For on that day, Many ceremonies are still performed which bear a likeness to what then came to pass.

Nor need we wonder at this uncertainty, since, although Scipio Africanus died at home after dinner, there is no convincing proof of the manner of his end, but some say that he passed away naturally, being of a sickly habit, some that he died of poison administered by his own hand, and some that his enemies broke into his house at night and smothered him. And yet Scipio's dead body lay exposed for all to see, and all who beheld it formed therefrom some suspicion and conjecture of what had happened to it. Whereas Romulus disappeared suddenly, and no portion of his body or fragment of his clothing remained to be seen. But some conjectured that the senators convened in the temple of Vulcan fell upon him and slew him, then cut his body in pieces, Put each a portion into the folds of his robe, and so carried it away.

Others think that it was neither in the temple of Vulcan, nor when the senators alone were present, that he disappeared, but that he was holding an assembly of the people outside the city near the so-called Goat's Marsh, when suddenly strange and unaccountable disorders with incredible changes filled the air. The light of the sun failed, and night came down upon them, Not with peace and quiet, but with awful peals of thunder and furious blasts, driving rain from every quarter, during which the multitude dispersed and fled, but the nobles gathered closely together, and when the storm had ceased, and the sun shone out, and the multitude now gathered together again in the same place as before, anxiously sought for their king, the nobles would not suffer them to inquire into his disappearance, nor busy themselves about it, but exhorted them all to honour and revere bromulus, since he had been caught up into heaven, and was to be a benevolent god for them instead of a good king.

The multitude, accordingly, believing this and rejoicing in it, went away to worship him with good hopes of his favour, But there were some, it is said, who tested the matter in a bitter and hostile spirit, and confounded the patricians with the accusation of imposing a silly tale upon the people, and of being themselves the murderers of the king. At this pass, then, it is said that one of the patricians, a man of noblest birth, and of the most reputable character, a trusted and intimate friend also of Romulus himself, and one of the colonists from Alba, Julius Proculus by name, went into the forum, and solemnly swore by the most sacred emblems before all the people that, as he was travelling on the road, he had seen Romulus coming to meet him, fair and stately to the eye as never before, and arrayed in bright and shining armour.

He himself then, affrighted at the sight, had said, O king, what possessed thee, or what purpose hadst thou, that thou hast left us patricians a prey to unjust and wicked accusations, and the whole city sorrowing without end at the loss of its father? Whereupon Romulus had replied, It was the pleasure of the gods, O Proculus, from whom I came, that I should be with mankind only a short time, and that after founding a city destined to be the greatest on earth for empire and glory, I should dwell again in heaven. So, farewell, and tell the Romans that if they practise self-restraint, and add to it valour, they will reach the utmost heights of human power. And I will be your propitious deity, Quirinus.

These things seemed to the Romans worthy of belief, from the character of the man who related them, and from the oath which he had taken. Moreover, some influence from heaven also, akin to inspiration, laid hold upon their emotions, For no man contradicted Proculus, but all put aside suspicion and calumny, and prayed to Quirinus, and honored him as a god. Now this is like the fables which the Greeks tell about Aristeus of Proconesis, and Cleomedes of Astepeleia. For they say that Aristeus died in a fuller shop, and that when his friends came to fetch away his body, it had vanished out of sight, and presently certain travelers returning from abroad said they had met Aristeus journeying towards Croton.

Cleomedes also, who was of gigantic strength and stature, of uncontrolled temper, and like a madman, is said to have done many deeds of violence, and finally, in a school for boys, he smote with his fist the pillar which supported the roof, broke it in two, and brought down the house. The boys were killed, and Cleomedes, being pursued, took refuge in a great chest, Closed the lid down, and held it so fast that many men with their united strength could not pull it up. But when they broke the chest to pieces, the man was not to be found alive or dead. In their dismay, then, they sent messengers to consult the oracle at Delphi, and the Pythian priestess gave them this answer. Last of the heroes, he, Cleomedes, Asteapelian.

It is said also that the body of Alcmeny disappeared as they were carrying her forth for burial, and a stone was seen lying on the byre instead. In short, many such fables are told by writers who improbably ascribe divinity to the mortal features in human nature as well as to the divine. At any rate, to reject entirely the divinity of human virtue were impious and base, but to mix heaven with earth is foolish. Let us therefore take the safe course and grant with Pindar that our bodies all must follow death's supreme behest, but something living still survives, an image of life, for this alone comes from the gods.

Yes, it comes from them, and to them it returns, not with its body, but only when it is most completely separated and set free from the body, and becomes altogether pure, fleshless and undefiled. For a dry soul is best, according to Heraclitus, and it flies from the body as lightning flashes from a cloud. But the soul which is contaminated with body, and surfeited with body, like a damp and heavy exhalation, is slow to release itself, and slow to rise towards its source. We must not, therefore, violate nature by sending the bodies of good men with their souls to heaven, but implicitly believe that their virtues and their souls, in accordance with nature and divine justice, ascend from men to heroes, from heroes to demigods, and from demigods, after they have been made pure and holy, as in the final rites of initiation, and have freed themselves from mortality and sense, to gods, not by civic law, but in very truth and according to right reason, thus achieving the fairest and most blessed consummation.

To the surname of Quirinus bestowed on Romulus, some give the meaning of Mars, others that of citizen, because the citizens were called Quirites, but others say that the ancients called the spearhead, or the whole spear, Quiris, and gave the epithet Quiritus to the Juno whose statue leans upon a spear, and the name Mars to his spear consecrated in the regia, and his spear as a prize to those who performed great exploits in war, And that Romulus was therefore called Quirinus as a martial or spear-wielding god. However that may be, a temple in his honour is built on the hill called Curnales after him, and the day on which he vanished is called People's Flight, and Capra Tine knows, because they go out of the city and sacrifice at the goat's marsh, and Capra is their word for she-goat.

And as they go forth to the sacrifice, they shout out many local names, like Marcus, Lucius, and Caius, in imitation of the way in which, on the day when Romulus disappeared, they called upon one another in fear and confusion. Some, however, say that this imitation is not one of flight, but of haste and eagerness, and explain it as referring to the following occasion. After the Gauls had captured Rome, and been driven out by Camillus, And when the city was still too weak to recover itself readily, an expedition was made against it by many of the Latins, under the command of Livius Posthumius. This general stationed his army not far from Rome, and sent the herald with the message that the Latins wished to renew their ancient relationship and affinity with the Romans, by fresh intermarriages between the two peoples.

If, therefore, the Romans would send them a goodly number of virgins and their widows, they should have peace and friendship, Such as they had formerly made with the Sabines on the like terms. On hearing this message, the Romans hesitated between going to war, which they feared, and the surrender of their women, which they thought no more desirable than to have them captured. But while they were in this perplexity, a serving-maid called Philotis, or as some say, Tutela, advised them to do neither but by the use of a stratagem to escape alike the war and the giving of hostages. Now, the stratagem was this, that they should send to the enemy Philotis herself, and with her other comely serving-mates arrayed like free-born women.

Then, in the night, Philotis was to display a signal fire, at which the Romans were to come in arms and deal with their enemies while asleep. This was done, with the approval of the Latins, And Philotus displayed the signal fire from a certain wild fig-tree, screening it behind with coverlets and draperies, so that its light was unseen by the enemy, but visible to the Romans. When, accordingly, they beheld it, they sallied forth at once in great haste, and because of their haste, calling upon one another many times at the gates. They fell upon their enemies, when they least expected it, and mastered them, and now celebrate this festival in memory of their victory. And the nones on which it falls are called Capritine from the wild fig-tree, the Roman name for which is Caprifugus, and they feast the women outside the city in booths made of fig-tree boughs.

Then the serving-mates run about in companies and play, after which they strike and throw stones at one another, in token that on that earlier day they assisted the Romans and shared with them in their battle. These details are accepted by many historians, but their calling out one another's names in the daytime and their marching out to the goat's marsh as for sacrifice seem to be more consonant with the former story, unless, to be sure, both actions happened to take place on the same day in different periods. Romulus is said to have been fifty-four years of age and in the thirty-eighth year of his reign when he disappeared from among men.

Part Three.

8 07 - Comparison of Theseus & Romulus 12:23

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Comparison of Theseus and Romulus.

I.

Such, then, are the memorable things about Romulus and Theseus, which I have been able to learn. And it appears, first of all, that Theseus, of his own choice, when no one compelled him, but when it was possible for him to reign without fear at treason, as heir to no inglorious realm, Of his own accord reached out after great achievements. Whereas Romulus, to escape present servitude and impending punishment, became simply courageous out of fear, as Plato phrases it, and through the dread of extreme penalties proceeded to perform great exploits under compulsion. In the second place, the chief deed of Romulus was the slaying of a single tyrant of Alba. Whereas for mere by-adventures and preliminary struggles Theseus had Scyron, Synes, Procrestes, and Cornides.

By slaying and chastising him, he freed Greece from dreadful tyrants before those who were saved by him knew who he was. Theseus might have travelled to Athens by sea without any trouble, and suffering no outrage at the hands of those robbers. Whereas Romulus could not be without trouble while Aemilius lived. And there is strong proof of this, for Theseus, although he had suffered no wrong at their hands himself, sallied out in behalf of others against those miscreants, while Romulus and Remus, as long as they themselves were not harmed by the tyrant, suffered him to wrong everybody else. And surely, if it was a great thing for Romulus to be wounded in a battle with the Sabines, and to slay Acron, and to conquer many enemies in battle, With these exploits we may compare, on the part of Theseus, his battle with the centaurs and his campaign against the Amazons.

But as for the daring which he showed about the Cretan tribute, whether that was food for some monster, or a sacrifice on the tomb of Androgeus, or whether—and this is the mildest form of the story—he offered himself for inglorious and dishonorable servitude, Among insolent and cruel men when he volunteered to sail away with maidens and young boys. Words cannot depict such courage, magnanimity, righteous zeal for the common good, or yearning for glory and virtue. It is, therefore, my opinion, that the philosophers give an excellent definition of love when they call it a ministration of the gods for the care and preservation of the young. For Ariadne's love seems to have been More than anything else.

A God's work, and a device whereby Theseus should be saved. And we should not blame her for loving him, but rather wonder that all men and women were not thus affected towards him, and if she alone felt this passion, I should say, for my part, that she was properly worthy of a God's love, since she was fond of virtue, fond of goodness, and a lover of the highest qualities in man.

Two.

Although Theseus and Romulus were both statesmen by nature, neither maintained to the end the true character of a king, but both deviated from it and underwent a change, the former in the direction of a democracy, the latter in the direction of a tyranny, making thus the same mistake through opposite affections. For the ruler must preserve, first of all, the realm itself, And this is preserved no less by refraining from what is unbecoming than by cleaving to what is becoming. But he who remits or extends his authority is no longer a king or a ruler. He becomes either a demagogue or a despot, and implants hatred or contempt in the hearts of his subjects. However, the first error seems to arise from kindliness and humanity, the second from selfishness, and Seventy.

Three, if the misfortunes of men are not to be attributed altogether to fortune, but to the different habits and passions which will be found underlying them, then no one shall acquit Romulus of unreasoning anger, or hasty and senseless wrath in dealing with his brother, nor Theseus in dealing with his son, although the cause which stirred his anger leads us to be more lenient towards the one who was overthrown by a stronger provocation, As by a heavier blow. For since the difference between Romulus and his brother arose from a deliberate investigation of the common welfare, there could have been no good reason for his flying into such a passion, while Theseus was impelled to wrong his son by love, jealousy, and a woman's slanders, the overmastering power of which very few men have escaped.

And what is of greater weight? The anger of Romulus vented itself in action, and a deed of most unfortunate issue. Whereas the wrath of Theseus got no farther than words of abuse and an old man's curse, and the rest of the youth's calamities seemed to have been due to fortune. On these counts, therefore, one would give his vote of preference to Theseus.

Four.

But Romulus has, in the first place, This great superiority, that he rose to eminence from the smallest beginnings. For he and his brother were reputed to be slaves and sons of swineards. And yet they not only made themselves free, but freed first almost all the Latins, enjoying at one and the same time such most honorable titles as slayers of their foes, saviors of their kindred and friends, kings of races and peoples, founders of cities, Not transplanters, as Theseus was, who put together and consolidated one dwelling-place out of many, but demolished many cities bearing the names of ancient kings and heroes. Romulus, it is true, did the latter, compelling his enemies to tear down and obliterate their dwelling, and enroll themselves among their conquerors.

But at first, not by removing or enlarging a city which already existed, But by creating one from nothing, and by acquiring for himself at once territory, country, kingdom, clans, marriages, and relationships, he ruined no one and killed no one, but was a benefactor of men without homes and hearths, who wished instead to be a people and citizens of a common city. Robbers and miscreants, it is true, he did not slay. But he subdued nations in war, laid cities low, And triumphed over kings and commanders.

V.

Besides, there is dispute as to who actually slew Remus, and most of the blame for the deed is put upon others than Romulus. But Romulus did unquestionably save his mother from destruction, and he set his grandfather, who was living in inglorious and dishonorable subjection, upon the throne of Aeneas, Moreover, he did him many favors of his own accord, and he did him no harm, not even inadvertently. Theseus, on the contrary, for his forgetfulness and neglect of the command about the sale, can hardly, I think, escape the charge of parricide, be the plea of his advocates ever so long and his judges ever so lenient. Indeed, a certain Attic writer, conscious that would be defenders of Theseus have a difficult task, Feigns that Aegis, on the approach of the ship, ran up to the Acropolis in his eagerness to catch sight of her, and stumbled, and fell down the cliff, as though he were without a retinue, or was hurrying down to the sea without any servants.

6 Furthermore, the transgressions of Theseus in his rapes of women admit of no plausible excuse. This is true, First, because there were so many, for he carried off Ariadne, Antiope, Anaxo of Trezon, and at last Helen, when he was past his prime and she had not reached her prime, but was an unripe child, while he was already of an age too great for even lawful wedlock. It is true, secondly, because of the reason for them, for the daughters of Trezonians and Laconians and Amazons, were not betrothed to him, and were no worthier, surely, to be the mothers of his children than the daughters of Erechtheus and Cecrops at Athens. But one may suspect that these deeds of his were done in lustful wantonness.

Romulus, on the other hand, in the first place, although he carried off nearly eight hundred women, took them not all to wife, but only one, as they say, Hercilia, And distributed the rest among the best of the citizens. And in the second place, by the subsequent honor, love, and righteous treatment given to these women, he made it clear that his deed of violence and injustice was a most honorable achievement, and one most adapted to promote political partnership. In this way he intermixed and blended the two peoples with one another, and supplied his state with a flowing fountain of strength and good-will for the time to come. And to the modesty, tenderness, and stability which he imparted to the marriage relation, time is witness.

For in two hundred and thirty years no man ventured to leave his wife, nor any woman her husband. But, just as the very curious among the Greeks can name the first parricide or matricide, so the Romans all know that Spirius Carvilius was the first to put away his wife, accusing her of barrenness. And the immediate result of his act, as well as the long lapse of time, witness in favor of Romulus. For the two kings shared the government in common, and the two peoples the rights and duties of citizenship, because of that intermarriage. Whereas from the marriages of Theseus the Athenians got no new friends at all, nor even any community of enterprises whatsoever, but enmities, wars, slaughters of citizens.

And at last... The loss of Apidonai, and an escape from the fate which Troy suffered by reason of Alexander, only because their enemies took compassion on them when they called upon them worshipfully as gods. However, the mother of Theseus was not only in danger, but actually suffered the fate of Hecuba, when she was deserted and abandoned by her son, unless, indeed, the tale of her captivity is fictitious, and it may well be false. As well as most of the other stories. For example, the tales told of divine intervention in their lives are in great contrast, for Romulus was preserved by the signal favor of the gods, while the oracle given to Aegeus, forbidding him to approach a woman while in a foreign land, seems to indicate that the birth of Theseus was not agreeable to the will of the gods.

End of comparison of Theseus and Romulus.

9 08 - Lycurgus pt. 1 33:25

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.

Lycurgus.

Concerning Lycurgus the lawgiver, in general nothing can be said which is not disputed, since indeed there are different accounts of his birth, his travels, his death, and, above all, of his work as lawmaker and statesman, and there is least agreement among historians as to the times in which the man lived. Some say that he flourished at the same time with Iphitus, and in concert with him established the Olympic truce. Among these is Aristotle, the philosopher, and he alleges as proof the discus at Olympia, on which an inscription preserves the name of Lycurgus. But those who compute the time by the successions of kings at Sparta, like Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, Prove that Lycurgus was many years earlier than the first Olympiad, and Timaeus conjectures that there were two Lycurgus at Sparta at different times, and that to one of them the achievements of both were ascribed, owing to his greater fame.

He thinks also that the elder of the two lived not far from the times of Homer, and some assert that he actually met Homer face to face. Xenophon also makes an impression of simplicity in the passage where he says that Lycurgus lived in the time of the Heraclidae. For in lineage, of course, the latest of the Spartan kings were also Heraclidae. But Xenophon apparently wishes to use the name Heraclidae of the first and more immediate descendants of Heracles so famous in story. However, although the history of these times is such a maze, I shall try, in presenting my narrative, to follow those authors who are least contradicted, or who have the most notable witnesses for what they have written about the man.

For instance, Simonides the poet says that Lycurgus was not the son of Eunomus, but that both Lycurgus and Eunomus were sons of Pritinus, whereas most writers give a different genealogy as follows. Aristodemus begat Procles, Procles begat Psoas, Psoas begat Euripone, and he begat Prytines, from whom sprang Eunomus, and from Eunomus Polydectes by a first wife, and Lycurgus, who was a younger son by a second wife, Dianassa, as Diutychidas has written, making Lycurgus sixth from Procles and eleventh from Heracles. Of these ancestors of Lycurgus, Psoas was most famous, under whom the Spartans made the helots their slaves, and acquired by conquest from the Arcadians a large additional tract of land.

It is also related of this Psoas that when he was besieged by the Clitorians in a rough and waterless place, he agreed to surrender to them the land which he had conquered, If he himself and all his men with him should drink from the adjacent spring. After the oaths to this agreement were taken, he assembled his men, and offered his kingdom to the one who should not drink. No one of them, however, could forbear, but all of them drank. Whereupon Zoas himself went down last of all to the water, sprinkled his face merely, While the enemy were still at hand to see, and then marched away and retained his territory on the plea that all had not drunk. But although on these grounds he was held in great admiration, his royal line was not named from him, but were called Euripontids from his son, because Euripone appears to have been the first king to relax the excessive absolutism of his sway, seeking favor and popularity with the multitude.

But in consequence of such relaxation the people grew bold, and succeeding kings were some of them hated for trying to force their way with the multitude, and some were brought low by their desire for favor or through weakness, so that lawlessness and confusion prevailed at Sparta for a long time, And it was owing to this that the father of Lycurgus, a reigning king, lost his life. For as he was trying to separate some rioters, he was stabbed to death with a butcher's knife, leaving the kingdom to his elder son Polydectes. Polydectes also died soon afterwards, and then, as was generally thought, the kingdom devolved upon Lycurgus. And until his brother's wife was known to be with child, he was king.

But as soon as he learned of this, he declared that the kingdom belonged to her offspring, if it should be male, and himself administered the government only as guardian. Now the guardians of fatherless kings are called Prodicoi by the Lacedaemonians. Presently, however, the woman made secret overtures to him, proposing to destroy her unborn babe on condition that he would marry her when he was a king of Sparta, and although he detested her character, he did not reject her proposition, but pretended to approve and accept it. He told her, however, that she need not use drugs to produce a miscarriage, thereby injuring her health and endangering her life. For he would see to it himself that as soon as her child was born, it should be put out of the way.

In this manner he managed to bring the woman to her full time, and when he learned that she was in labour, he sent attendants and watchers for her delivery, with orders, if a girl should be born, to hand it over to the women, but if a boy, to bring it to him no matter what he was doing. And it came to pass that as he was at supper with the chief magistrates, a male child was born, and his servants brought the little boy to him. He took it in his arms, as we are told, and said to those who were at table with him, A king is born unto you, O man of Sparta. Then he laid it down in the royal seat, and named it Carillaeus, or People's Joy, Because all present were filled with joy, admiring as they did his lofty spirit and his righteousness.

And so he was king only eight months in all. But on other accounts also he was revered by his fellow-citizens, and more than those who obeyed him because he was guardian of the king and had royal power in his hands were those who clave to him for his virtues, and were ready and willing to do his bidding. There was a party, however, which envied him, and sought to impede the growing power of so young a man, especially the kinsmen and friends of the Queen Mother, who thought she had been treated with insolence. Her brother, Leonidas, actually railed at Lycurgus once quite boldly, assuring him that he knew well that Lycurgus would one day be king, thereby promoting suspicion, and paving the way for the accusation, in case anything happened to the king, that he had plotted against his life.

Some such talk was set in circulation by the Queen Mother also, in consequence of which Lycurgus was sorely troubled, and fearful of what might be in store for him. He therefore determined to avoid suspicion by travelling abroad, and to continue his wanderings until his nephew should come of age and beget a son to succeed him on the throne. With this purpose he set sail, and came first to Crete. Here he studied the various forms of government, and made the acquaintance of their most distinguished men. Of some things he heartily approved, and adopted some of their laws that he might carry them home with him and put them in use. For some things he had only contempt. One of the men regarded there as wise statesmen was Thales, whom Lycurgus persuaded, out of favour and friendship, to go on a mission to Sparta.

Now Thales passed as a lyric poet, and screened himself behind this art, But in reality he did the work of one of the mightiest lawgivers. For his odes were so many exhortations to obedience and harmony, and their measured rhythms were permeated with ordered tranquillity, so that those who listened to them were insensibly softened in their dispositions, insomuch that they renounced the mutual hatreds which were so rife at that time, and dwelt together in a common pursuit of what was high and noble. Thales, therefore, after a fashion, was a forerunner in Sparta of Lycurgus and his discipline. From Crete Lycurgus sailed to Asia with the desire, as we are told, of comparing with the Cretan civilization, which was simple and severe, that of the Ionians, which was extravagant and luxurious, Just as a physician compares with healthy bodies those which are unsound and sickly.

He could then study the difference in their modes of life and forms of government. There, too, as it would appear, he made his first acquaintance with the poems of Homer, which were preserved among the posterity of Creophilus. And when he saw that the political and disciplinary lessons contained in them were worthy of no less serious attention than the incentives to pleasure and license which they supplied, he eagerly copied and compiled them in order to take them home with him. For these epics already had a certain faint reputation among the Greeks, and a few were in possession of certain portions of them, As the poems were carried here and there by chance. But Lycurgus was the very first to make them really known.

The Egyptians think that Lycurgus visited them also, and so ardently admired their separation of the military from the other classes of society, that he transferred it to Sparta, and by removing mechanics and artisans from participation in the government, made his civil polity really refined and pure. At any rate, this assertion of the Egyptians is confirmed by some Greek historians. But that Lycurgus visited Libya and Iberia also, and that he wandered over India, and had conferences with the Gymnosophists, no one has stated, so far as I know, except Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus, the Spartan. The Lacedaemonians missed Lycurgus sorely, and sent for him many times. They felt that their kings were such in name and station merely, but in everything else were nothing better than their subjects, while in him there was a nature fitted to lead, and a power to make men follow him.

However, not even the kings were averse to having him at home, but hoped that in his presence their subjects would treat them with less insolence. Returning then to a people thus disposed, he at once undertook to change the existing order of things and revolutionise the civil polity. He was convinced that a partial change of the laws would be of no avail whatsoever, But that he must proceed as a physician would with a patient who was debilitated and full of all sorts of diseases. He must reduce and alter the existing temperament, by means of drugs and purges, and introduce a new and different regimen. Full of this determination, he first made a journey to Delphi, and after sacrificing to the god and consulting the oracle, He returned with that famous response in which the Pythian priestess addressed him as, "'Beloved of the gods, and rather god than man,' and said that the god had granted his prayer for good laws, and promised him a constitution which should be the best in the world.

Thus encouraged, he tried to bring the chief men of Sparta over to his side, and exhorted them to put their hands to the work with him, explaining his design secretly to his friends at first, then, little by little, engaging more, and uniting them to attempt the task. And when the time for action came, he ordered thirty of the chief men to go armed into the market-place at break of day, to strike consternation and terror into those of the opposite party. The names of twenty of the most eminent among them have been recorded by Hermippus, but the man who had the largest share in all the undertakings of Lycurgus, and co-operated with him in the enactment of his laws, bore the name of Arthmiadas.

When the tumult began, King Carillaeus, fearing that the whole affair was a conspiracy against himself, fled for refuge to the brazen house. But he was soon convinced of his error, and having exacted oaths for his safety from the agitators, left his place of refuge, and even joined them in their enterprise, being of a gentle and yielding disposition, so much so, indeed, that Archelaus, his royal colleague, is said to have remarked to those who were extolling the young king, How can Carillaus be a good man? When he has no severity even for the bad. Among the many innovations which Lycurgus made, the first and most important was his institution of a senate or council of elders, which, as Plato says, by being blended with the feverish government of the kings, and by having an equal vote with them in matters of the highest importance, Brought safety and due moderation into councils of state.

For before this the civil polity was veering and unsteady, inclining at one time to follow the kings towards tyranny, and at another to follow the multitude towards democracy. But now, by making the power of the Senate a sort of ballast for the ship of state, and putting her on a steady keel, It achieved the safest and the most orderly arrangement, since the 28 senators always took the side of the kings when it was a question of curbing democracy, and, on the other hand, always strengthened the people to withstand the encroachments of tyranny. The number of the senators was fixed at 28, because, according to Aristotle, Two of the thirty original associates of Lycurgus abandoned the enterprise from lack of courage.

But Spheros says that this was originally the number of those who shared the confidence of Lycurgus. Possibly there is some virtue in this number, being made up of seven multiplied by four, apart from the fact that, being equal to the sum of its own factors, it is the next perfect number after six. But in my own opinion, Lycurgus made the senators of just that number in order that the total might be thirty when the two kings were added to the Eight-and-Twenty. So eager was Lycurgus for the establishment of this form of government that he obtained an oracle from Delphi about it, which they call a Rhetra, and this is the way it runs. When thou hast built a temple to Zeus, Silenius, and Athena, Silenia, divided the people into Philae and into Obae, and established a senate of thirty members, including the Archegite, then from time to time appell adzyne between Barbica and Nacion, and there introduce and rescind measures.

But the people must have the deciding voice and the power. In these clauses the phylae and the obae refer to divisions and distributions of the people into clans and phratries or brotherhoods. By archegietae the kings are designated, and apelladzine means to assemble the people, with a reference to Apollo, the Pythian god, who was the source and author of the polity. The babica is now called Chimarus, and the Gnacion Enus. But Aristotle says that Gnacion is a river, and Babica a bridge. Between these they held their assemblies, having neither halls nor any other kind of building for the purpose. For by such things Lycurgus thought good counsel was not promoted, but rather discouraged, Since the serious purposes of an assembly were rendered foolish and futile by vain thoughts as they gazed upon statues and paintings, or scenic embellishments, or extravagantly decorated roofs of council halls.

When the multitude was thus assembled, no one of them was permitted to make a motion, but the motion laid before them by the senators and kings could be accepted or rejected by the people. Afterwards, however, when the people by additions and subtractions perverted and distorted the sense of motions laid before them, Kings Polydorus and Theopompus inserted this clause into the Rhetra. But if the people should adopt a distorted motion, the senators and kings shall have power of adjournment. That is, should not ratify the vote, But dismiss outright and dissolve the session, on the ground that it was perverting and changing the motion contrary to the best interests of the state. And they were actually able to persuade the city that the god authorized this addition to the reacher, as Tertyus reminds us in these verses.

Phoebus Apollos, the mandate was, which they brought from Pytho, voicing the will of the god, Nor were his words unfulfilled. Sway in the council, and honors divine belong to the princes, under whose care has been set Sparta's city of charm. Second to them are the elders, and next come the men of the people, duly confirming by vote unperverted decrees. Although Lycurgus thus tempered his civil polity, nevertheless the oligarchical element in it was still unmixed and dominant, and his successors, seeing it swelling and foaming, as Plato says, imposed, as it were, a curb upon it, namely the power of the Ephors. It was about a hundred and thirty years after Lycurgus that the first Ephors, Zeletus and his colleagues, were appointed in the reign of Theopompus.

This king, they say, on being reviled by his wife because the royal power when he handed it over to his sons would be less than when he received it, said, Nay, but greater in that it will last longer. And in fact, by renouncing excessive claims, and freeing itself from jealous hate, Royalty at Sparta escaped its perils so that the Spartan kings did not experience the fate which the Messenians and Argives inflicted upon their kings, who were unwilling to yield at all, or remit their power in favour of the people. And this brings into the clearest light the wisdom and foresight of Lycurgus, when we contrast the factions and misgovernment of the peoples and kings of Messenia and Argos, who were kinsmen and neighbors of the Spartans.

They were on an equality with the Spartans in the beginning, and in the allotment of territory were thought to be even better off than they, and yet their prosperity did not last long, but what with the insolent temper of their kings and the unreasonableness of their peoples, their established institutions were confounded, And they made it clear that it was in very truth a divine blessing which the Spartans had enjoyed in the man who framed and tempered their civil polity for them. These events, however, were of later date. A second and very bold political measure of Lycurgus is his redistribution of the land. For there was a dreadful inequality in this regard. The city was heavily burdened with indigent and helpless people, and wealth was wholly concentrated in the hands of a few.

Determined, therefore, to banish insolence and envy and crime and luxury, and those yet more deep-seated and afflictive diseases of the state, poverty and wealth, he persuaded his fellow-citizens to make one parcel of all their territory, and divide it up anew, and to live with one another on a basis of entire uniformity and equality in the means of subsistence, seeking preeminence through virtue alone, assured that there was no other difference or inequality between man and man than that which was established by blame for base actions and praise for good ones. Suiting the deed to the word, he distributed the rest of the Laconian land Among the Perioicae, or free provincials, in 30,000 lots, and that which belonged to the city of Sparta in 9,000 lots to as many genuine Spartans.

But some say that Lycurgus distributed only 6,000 lots among the Spartans, and that 3,000 were afterwards added by Polydorus. Others still that Polydorus added half of the nine thousand to the half distributed by Lycurgus. The lot of each was large enough to produce annually seventy bushels of barley for a man and twelve for his wife, with a proportionate amount of wine and oil. Lycurgus thought that a lot of this size would be sufficient for them, Since they needed sustenance enough to promote vigour and health of body, and nothing else. And it is said that on returning from a journey some time afterwards, as he traversed the land just after the harvest, and saw the heaps of grain standing parallel and equal to one another, he smiled and said to them that were by, "'All Laconia looks like a family estate newly divided among many brothers.' Next he undertook to divide up their movable property also, in order that every vestige of unevenness and inequality might be removed, and when he saw that they could not bear to have it taken from them directly, he took another course, and overcame their avarice by political devices.

In the first place, he withdrew all gold and silver money from currency, and ordained the use of iron money only. Then to a great weight and mass of this he gave a trifling value, so that ten miners' worth required a large store-room in the house and a yoke of cattle to transport it. When this money obtained currency, many sorts of iniquity went into exile from Lacedaemon. For who would steal, or receive as a bribe, or rob, or plunder that which could neither be concealed nor possessed with satisfaction, nay, nor even cut to pieces with any profit. For vinegar was used, as we are told, to quench the red-hot iron, robbing it of its temper, and making it worthless for any other purpose when once it had become brittle and hard to work.

In the next place he banished the unnecessary and superfluous arts, and even without such banishment most of them would have departed with the old coinage, since there was no sale for their products. For the iron money could not be carried into the rest of Greece, nor had it any value there, but was rather held in ridicule. It was not possible, therefore, to buy any foreign wares or bric-a-brac, No merchant seamen brought freight into their harbours. No rhetoric teacher set foot on Laconian soil. No vagabond soothsayer. No keeper of harlots. No gold or silversmith. Since there was no money there. But luxury, thus gradually deprived of that which stimulated and supported it, died away of itself, and men of large possessions had no advantage over the poor, Because their wealth found no public outlet, but had to be stored up at home in idleness.

In this way it came about that such common and necessary utensils as bedsteads, chairs, and tables were most excellently made among them, and the Laconian cothone, or drinking-cup, was in very high repute for usefulness among soldiers in active service, as Critias tells us. For its colour concealed the disagreeable appearance of the water which they were often compelled to drink, and its curving lips caught the muddy sediment and held it inside, so that only the purer part reached the mouth of the drinker. For all this they had to thank their lawgiver, since their artisans were now freed from useless tasks, and displayed the beauty of their workmanship in objects of constant and necessary use.

With a view to attack luxury still more, and remove the thirst for wealth, he introduced his third and most exquisite political device, namely the institution of common messes, so that they might eat with one another in companies of common and specified foods, And not take their meals at home reclining on costly couches at costly tables, delivering themselves into the hands of servants and cooks, to be fattened in the dark, like voracious animals, and ruining not only their characters but also their bodies, by surrendering them to every desire and all sorts of surfeit, which call for long sleeps, hot baths, abundant rest, And, as it were, daily nursing and tending. This was surely a great achievement, but it was a still greater one to make wealth an object of no desire, as Theophrastus says, and even unwealth, by this community of meals and simplicity of diet.

For the rich man could neither use nor enjoy, nor even see or display his abundant means, when he went to the same meal as the poor man, so that it was in Sparta alone of all the cities under the sun, that men could have that far-famed sight, a Plutus blind, and lying as lifeless and motionless as a picture. For the rich could not even dine beforehand at home, and then go to the common mess with full stomachs, but the rest kept careful watch of him who did not eat and drink with them, and reviled him as a weakling, and one too effeminate for the common diet. It was due, therefore, to this last political device above all, that the wealthy citizens were incensed against Lycurgus, and banding together against him, denounced him publicly with angry shouts and cries.

Finally, many pelted him with stones, so that he ran from the market-place. He succeeded in reaching sanctuary before the rest laid hands on him, but one young man, Alcander, otherwise no mean nature but hasty and passionate, pressed hard upon him, and as he turned about smote him with his staff and put out one of his eyes. Lycurgus, however, was far from yielding in consequence of this calamity, but confronted his countrymen, and showed them his face besmeared with blood and his eye destroyed. Whereupon they were so filled with shame and sorrow at the sight, that they placed Alcander in his hands, and conducted him to his house with sympathetic indignation. Lycurgus commended them for their conduct, and dismissed them, but took Alcander into the house with him, where he did the youth no harm by word or deed, But after sending away his customary servants and attendants, ordered him to minister to his wants.

The youth, who was of a noble disposition, did as he was commanded, without any words, and abiding thus with Lycurgus, and sharing his daily life, he came to know the gentleness of the man, the calmness of his spirit, the rigid simplicity of his habits, and his unwearied industry. He thus became a devoted follower of Lycurgus, and used to tell his intimates and friends that the man was not harsh nor self-willed as he had supposed, but the mildest and gentlest of them all. Such, then, was the chastisement of this young man, and such the penalty laid upon him, Namely, to become, instead of a wild and impetuous youth, a most decorous and discreet man. Lycurgus, moreover, in memory of his misfortune, built a temple to Athena Optyletis, so called from Optylus, which is the local Doric word for I.

Some writers, however, of whom one is Dioscorides, who wrote a treatise on the Spartan civil polity, Say that although Lycurgus was struck in the eye, his eye was not blinded, but he built the temple to the goddess as a thank-offering for its healing. Be that as it may, the spartan practice of carrying staves into their assemblies was abandoned after this unfortunate accident.

10 09 - Lycurgus pt. 2 37:42

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Lycurgus.

As for the public messes, the Cretans call them Andraia, but the Lacedaemonians Phiditia, either because they are conducive to friendship and friendliness, Phiditia being equivalent to Phyllitia, or because they accustom men to simplicity and thrift, for which their word is Phido. But it is quite possible, as some say, that the first letter of the word phiditia has been added to it, making phiditia out of editia, which refers merely to meals and eating. They met in companies of fifteen, a few more or less, and each one of the messmates contributed monthly a bushel of barley meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, Two and a half pounds of figs, and, in addition to this, a very small sum of money for such relishes as flesh and fish.

Besides this, whenever any one made a sacrifice of first-fruits or brought home game from the hunt, he sent a portion to his mess. For whenever any one was belated by a sacrifice or the chase, he was allowed to sup at home, but the rest had to be at the mess. For a long time this custom of eating at common mess-tables was rigidly observed. For instance, when King Aegis, on returning from an expedition in which he had been victorious over the Athenians, wished to sup at home with his wife, and sent for his rations, the polymarks refused to send them to him, and when on the following day his anger led him to omit the customary sacrifice, they laid a fine upon him. Boys also used to come to these public messes as if they were attending schools of sobriety.

There they would listen to political discussions and see instructive models of liberal breeding. There they themselves also became accustomed to sport and jest without scurrility, and to endure jesting without displeasure, Indeed, it seems to have been especially characteristic of a Spartan to endure jesting, but if any one could not bear up under it, he had only to ask it, and the jester ceased. As each one came in, the oldest of the company pointed to the door and said to him, "'Through that door no word goes forth outside.' And they say that a candidate for membership in one of these messes underwent the following ordeal. Each of the messmates took in his hand a bit of soft bread, and when a servant came along with a bowl upon his head, then they cast it into this without a word, like a ballot, leaving it just as it was if he approved of the candidate, but if he disapproved, squeezing it tight in his hand first.

For the flattened piece of bread had the force of a perforated or negative ballot, and if one such is found in the bowl, the candidate is not admitted to the mess, because they wish all its members to be congenial. The candidate thus rejected is said to have been caddished, for caddicus is the name of the bowl into which they cast the pieces of bread. Of their dishes the black broth is held in the highest esteem, so that the elderly men do not even ask for a bit of meat, but leave it for the young men, while they themselves have the broth poured out for their meals. And it is said that one of the kings of Pontus actually bought a Spartan cook for the sake of having this broth, and then, when he tasted it, disliked it, whereupon the cook said, O king, those who relish this broth must first have bathed in the river Eurotas.

After drinking moderately, they go off home without a torch, for they are not allowed to walk with a light, either on this or any other occasion, that they may accustom themselves to marching boldly and without fear in the darkness of night. Such, then, is the fashion of their common messes. None of his laws were put into writing by Lycurgus. Indeed, one of the so-called Rhetras forbids it. For he thought that if the most important and binding principles which conduce to the prosperity and virtue of a city were implanted in the habits and training of its citizens, they would remain unchanged and secure, having a stronger bond than compulsion in the fixed purposes imparted to the young by education, which performs the office of a lawgiver for every one of them.

And as for minor matters, such as business contracts and cases where the needs vary from time to time, it was better, as he thought, not to hamper them by written constraints or fixed usages, but to suffer them, as occasion demanded, to receive such modifications as educated men should determine. Indeed, he assigned the function of law-making wholly and entirely to education. One of his reitres, accordingly, as I have said, prohibited the use of written laws. Another was directed against extravagance, ordaining that every house should have its roof fashioned by the axe, and its doors by the saw only, and by no other tool. For, as in later times Epaminondas is reported to have said at his own table that such a meal did not comport with treachery, so Lycurgus was the first to see clearly that such a house does not comport with luxury and extravagance.

Nor is any man so vulgar and senseless as to introduce into a simple and common house silver-footed couches, Purple coverlets, gold drinking-cups, and all the extravagance which goes along with these, but one must of necessity adapt and proportion his couch to his house, his coverlets to his couch, and to this the rest of his supplies and equipment. It was because he was used to this simplicity that Leotychides the Elder, as we are told, when he was dining in Corinth and saw the roof of the house adorned with costly panelings, asked his host if trees grew square in that country. A third reta of Lycurgus is mentioned. which forbids making frequent expeditions against the same enemies, in order not to accustom such enemies to frequent defense of themselves, which would make them warlike.

And this was the special grievance which they had against King Agesilaus in later times, namely that by his continual and frequent incursions and expeditions into Boeotia he rendered the Thebans a match for the Lacedaemonians. And therefore when Antalcidas saw the king wounded, he said, This is a fine tuition fee which thou art getting from the Thebans for teaching them how to fight when they did not wish to do it and did not know how. Such ordinances as these were called Rhetras by Lycurgus, implying that they came from the god and were oracles. In the matter of education, which he regarded as the greatest and noblest task of the lawgiver, he began at the very source by carefully regulating marriages and births.

For it is not true that, as Aristotle says, he tried to bring the women under proper restraint, but desisted because he could not overcome the great license and power which the women enjoyed on account of the many expeditions in which their husbands were engaged. During these the men were indeed obliged to leave their wives in sole control at home, and for this reason paid them greater deference than was their due, and gave them the title of mistress. But even to the women Lycurgus paid all possible attention. He made the maidens exercise their bodies in running, wrestling, casting the discus, and hurling the javelin, In order that the fruit of their wombs might have vigorous root in vigorous bodies, and come to better maturity, and that they themselves might come with vigour to the fullness of their times, and struggle successfully and easily with the pangs of childbirth.

He freed them from softness and delicacy and all effeminacy by accustoming the maidens no less than the youths to wear tunics only in processions, and at certain festivals to dance and sing when the young men were present as spectators. There they sometimes even mocked and railed good-naturedly at any youth who had misbehaved himself, and again they would sing the praises of those who had shown themselves worthy, and so inspire the young men with great ambition and ardour. For he who was thus extolled for his valour and held in honour among the maidens went away exalted by their praises, while the sting of their playful raillery was no less sharp than that of serious admonitions, especially as the kings and senators, together with the rest of the citizens, were all present at the spectacle.

Nor was there anything disgraceful in this scant clothing of the maidens, for modesty attended them, and wantonness was banished, Nay, rather it produced in them habits of simplicity, and an ardent desire for health and beauty of body. It gave also to womankind a taste of lofty sentiment, for they felt that they too had a place in the arena of bravery and ambition. Wherefore they were led to think and speak as Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas is said to have done. When some foreign woman, as it would seem, said to her, "'You spartan women are the only ones who rule their men?' She answered, "'Yes, we are the only ones that give birth to men.' Moreover, there were incentives to marriage in these things—I mean such things as the appearance of the maidens without much clothing in processions and athletic contests where young men were looking on, for these were drawn on by necessity, Not geometrical, but the sort of necessity which lovers know, as Plato says.

Nor was this all. Lycurgus also put a kind of public stigma upon confirmed bachelors. They were excluded from the sight of the young men and maidens at their exercises, and in winter the magistrates ordered them to march round the market-place in their tunics only, And as they marched, they sang a certain song about themselves, and its burden was that they were justly punished for disobeying the laws. Besides this, they were deprived of the honour and gracious attentions which the young men habitually paid to their elders. Therefore there was no one to find fault with what was said to de Cylidas, reputable general though he was. As he entered a company, namely One of the younger men would not offer him his seat, but said, "'Indeed thou hast begotten no son who will one day give his seat to me.' For their marriages the women were carried off by force, not when they were small and unfit for wedlock, but when they were in full bloom and wholly ripe.

After the woman was thus carried off, the bridesmaid, so called, took her in charge, Cut her hair off close to the head, put a man's cloak and sandals on her, and laid her down on a pallet on the floor alone in the dark. Then the bridegroom, not flown with wine nor enfeebled by excesses, but composed and sober after supping at his public mess-table as usual, slipped stealthily into the room where the bride lay, loosed her virgin's zone, and bore her in his arms to the marriage-bed. Then, after spending a short time with his bride, he went away composedly to his usual quarters, there to sleep with the other young men. And so he continued to do from that time on, spending his days with his comrades, and sleeping with them at night, but visiting his bride by stealth and with every precaution, Full of dread and fear, lest any of her household should be aware of his visits, his bride also contriving and conspiring with him that they might have stolen interviews as occasion offered.

And this they did not for a short time only, but long enough for some of them to become fathers before they had looked upon their own wives by daylight. Such interviews not only brought into exercise self-restraint and moderation, but united husbands and wives when their bodies were full of creative energy and their affections new and fresh, not when they were sated and dulled by unrestricted intercourse, and there was always left behind in their hearts some residual spark of mutual longing and delight. After giving marriage such trays of reserve and decorum, he nonetheless freed men from the empty and womanish passion of jealous possession by making it honourable for them, while keeping the marriage relation free from all wanton irregularities, to share with other worthy men in the begetting of children, Laughing to scorn those who regard such common privileges as intolerable, and resort to murder and war rather than grant them.

For example, an elderly man with a young wife, if he looked with favour and esteem on some fair and noble young man, might introduce him to her, and adopt her offspring by such a noble father as his own. And again, a worthy man who admired some woman for the fine children that she bore her husband, and the modesty of her behaviour as a wife, might enjoy her favours, if her husband would consent, thus planting, as it were, in a soil of beautiful fruitage, and begetting for himself noble sons who would have the blood of noble men in their veins. For in the first place Lycurgus did not regard sons as the peculiar property of their fathers, but rather as the common property of the state, and therefore would not have his citizens spring from random parentage, but from the best there was.

In the second place he saw much folly and vanity in what other peoples enacted for the regulation of these matters. In the breeding of dogs and horses, They insist on having the best sires which money or favour can secure, but they keep their wives under lock and key, demanding that they have children by none but themselves, even though they be foolish or infirm or diseased, as though children of bad stock did not show their badness to those first who possessed and reared them, and children of good stock contrariwise their goodness. The freedom which thus prevailed at that time in marriage relations was aimed at physical and political well-being, and was far removed from the licentiousness which was afterwards attributed to their women, so much so that adultery was wholly unknown among them.

And a saying is reported of one Geradas, a Spartan of very ancient type, Who, on being asked by a stranger what the punishment for adulterers was among them, answered, Stranger, there is no adulterer among us. Suppose, then, replied the stranger, there should be one. A bull, said Gerardas, would be his forfeit. A bull so large that it could stretch over Mount Tyegitus and drink from the river Eurotas. Then the stranger was astonished, and said, "'But how could there be a bull so large?' To which Gerardas replied with a smile, "'But how could there be an adulterer in Sparta?' Such, then, are the accounts we find of their marriages.

Offspring was not reared at the will of the father, but was taken and carried by him to a place called Lesce, where the elders of the tribes officially examined the infant, and if it was well built and sturdy, they ordered the father to rear it, and assigned it one of the nine thousand lots of land. But if it was ill-born and deformed, they sent it to the so-called Apotheti, a chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Tygitus, in the conviction that the life of that which nature had not well equipped at the very beginning for health and strength was of no advantage either to itself or the state. On the same principle, the women used to bathe their newborn babes not with water, but with wine, thus making a sort of test of their constitutions.

For it is said that epileptic and sickly infants are thrown into convulsions by the strong wine, and loose their senses. While the healthy ones are rather tempered by it, like steel, and given a firm habit of body. Their nurses, too, exercised great care and skill. They reared infants without swaddling bands, and thus left their limbs and figures free to develop. Besides, they taught them to be contented and happy, not dainty about their food, nor fearful of the dark, nor afraid to be left alone, Nor given to contemptible peevishness and whimpering. This is the reason why foreigners sometimes bought Spartan nurses for their children. Amychla, for instance, the nurse of the Athenian Alcibiades, is said to have been a Spartan.

And yet Alcibiades, as Plato says, had for a tutor set over him by Pericles one Zopyrus, who was just a common slave. But Lycurgus would not put the sons of Spartans in charge of purchased or hired tutors, nor was it lawful for every father to rear or train his son as he pleased, but as soon as they were seven years old, Lycurgus ordered them all to be taken by the state and enrolled in companies, where they were put under the same discipline and nurture, and so became accustomed to share one another's sports and studies. The boy who excelled in judgment, and was most courageous in fighting, was made captain of his company. On him the rest all kept their eyes, obeying his orders and submitting to his punishments, so that their boyish training was a practice of obedience.

Besides, the elderly men used to watch their sports, and by ever and anon egging them on to mimic battles and disputes, Learned accurately how each one of them was naturally disposed when it was a question of boldness and aggressiveness in their struggles. Of reading and writing, they learned only enough to serve their term. All the rest of their training was calculated to make them obey commands well, endure hardships, and conquer in battle. Therefore, as they grew in age, their bodily exercise was increased. Their heads were close-clipped, and they were accustomed to going barefoot and to playing for the most part without clothes. When they were twelve years old, they no longer had tunics to wear, received one cloak a year, had hard, dry flesh, and knew little of baths and ointments.

Only on certain days of the year, and few at that, did they indulge in such amenities. They slept together in troops and companies on pallet-beds which they collected for themselves, breaking off with their hands, no knives allowed, the tops of the rushes which grew along the river Eurotas. In the winter-time they added to the stuff of these pallets the so-called lycophon or thistledown, which was thought to have warmth in it. When the boys reached this age, They were favoured with the society of lovers from among the reputable young men. The elderly men also kept close watch of them, coming more frequently to their places of exercise, and observing their contests of strength and wit, not cursorily, but with the idea that they were all, in a sense, the fathers and tutors and governors of all the boys.

In this way, at every fitting time and in every place, The boy who went wrong had some one to admonish and chastise him. Nor was this all. One of the noblest and best men of the city was appointed pedanome, or inspector of the boys, and under his directions the boys in their several companies put themselves under the command of the most prudent and warlike of the so-called Airenes. This was the name given to those who had been for two years out of the class of boys, and Melirene's, or would-be Irene's, was the name for the oldest of the boys. This Irene then, a youth of twenty years, commands his subordinates in their mimic battles, and indoors makes them serve him at his meals. He commissions the larger ones to fetch wood, and the smaller ones pot-herbs.

And they steal what they fetch, some of them entering the gardens, and others creeping right slyly and cautiously into the public messes of the men. But if a boy is caught stealing, he is soundly flogged as a careless and unskilful thief. They steal, too, whatever food they can, and learn to be adept in setting upon people when asleep or off their guard. But the boy who is caught gets a flogging, and must go hungry. For the meals allowed them are scanty, in order that they may take into their own hands the fight against hunger, and so be forced into boldness and cunning. This is the main object of their spare diet. A secondary one is to make them grow tall. For it contributes to height of stature when the vitality is not impeded and hindered by a mass of nourishment which forces it into thickness and width, but ascends of its own lightness and when the body grows freely and easily.

The same thing seems also to conduce to beauty of form, for lean and meagre habits yield more readily to the force of articulation, Whereas the gross and overfed are so heavy as to resist it. Just so, we may be sure, women who take physic while they are pregnant bear children which are lean, it may be, but well-shaped and fine, because the lightness of the parent matter makes it more susceptible to moulding. However, the reason for this I must leave for others to investigate.

The boys make such a serious matter of their stealing that one of them, as the story goes, who was carrying concealed under his cloak a young fox which he had stolen, suffered the animal to tear out his bowels with its teeth and claws, and died rather than have his theft detected. And even this story gains credence from what their youths now endure, Many of whom I have seen expiring under the lash at the altar of Artemis Orthia. The Irene, as he reclined after supper, would order one of the boys to sing a song, and to another would put a question requiring a careful and deliberate answer, as, for instance, who is the best man in the city, or what thinkest thou of this man's conduct? In this way the boys were accustomed to pass right judgments, and interest themselves at the very outset in the conduct of the citizens.

For if one of them was asked who was a good citizen, or who an infamous one, and had no answer to make, he was judged to have a torpid spirit, and one that would not aspire to excellence. And the answer must not only have reasons and proof given for it, But also be couched in very brief and concise language, and the one who gave a faulty answer was punished with a bite in the thumb from the Irene. Oftentimes, too, the Irene punished the boys in the presence of the elders and magistrates, thus showing whether his punishments were reasonable and proper or not. While he was punishing them, he suffered no restraint, But after the boys were gone, he was brought to an account if his punishments were harsher than was necessary, or, on the other hand, too mild and gentle.

The boys' lovers also shared with them in their honour or disgrace, and it is said that one of them was once fined by the magistrates because his favourite boy had let an ungenerous cry escape him while he was fighting. Moreover, though this sort of love was so approved among them that even the maidens found lovers in good and noble women, still there was no jealous rivalry in it, but those who fixed their affections on the same boys made this rather a foundation for friendship with one another, and persevered in common efforts to make their loved one as noble as possible. The boys were also taught to use a discourse which combined pungency with grace, and condensed much observation into a few words.

His iron money, indeed, lycurgus made of large weight and small value, as I have observed. But the current coin of discourse, he adapted to the expression of deep and abundant meaning with simple and brief diction, by contriving that the general habit of silence should make the boys sententious and correct in their answers. For as sexual incontinence generally produces unfruitfulness and sterility, so intemperance in talking makes discourse empty and vapid. King Aegis, accordingly, When a certain Athenian decried the Spartan swords for being so short, and said that jugglers on the stage easily swallowed them, replied, And yet we certainly reach our enemies with these daggers. And I observe that although the speech also of the Spartans seems short, yet it certainly reaches the point, and arrests the thought of the listener.

And indeed Lycurgus himself seems to have been short and sententious in his speech, if we may judge from his recorded sayings, that, for instance, on forms of government, to one who demanded the establishment of democracy in the city, "'Go thou,' said he, "'and first establish democracy in thy household.' That, again, to one who inquired why he ordained such small and inexpensive sacrifices, that we may never omit, said he, to honour the gods. Again, in the matter of athletic contests, he allowed the citizens to engage only in those where there was no stretching forth of hands. There are also handed down similar answers which he made by letter to his fellow-citizens. When they asked how they could ward off an invasion of enemies, he answered, By remaining poor, and by not desiring to be greater the one than the other.

And when they asked about fortifying their city, he answered, A city will be well fortified, which is surrounded by brave men, and not by bricks. Now, regarding these and similar letters, Belief and skepticism are alike difficult. Of their aversion to long speeches, the following apothemes are proof. King Leonidas, when a certain one discoursed with him out of all season on matters of great concern, said, My friend, the matter urges, but not the time. Carileus, the nephew of Lycurgus, when asked why his uncle had made so few laws, answered, Men of few words need few laws. Archidamidas, when certain ones found fault with Hecateus the sophist for saying nothing after being admitted to their public mess, answered, He who knows how knows also when to speak.

Instances of the pungent sayings not devoid of grace of which I spoke are the following. Demaratus, when a troublesome fellow was pestering him with ill-timed questions, and especially with the oft-repeated query, who was the best of the Spartans, answered at last, "'He who is least like thee.' And Aegis, when certain ones were praising the Eleans for their just and honourable conduct of the Olympic Games, said, And what great matter is it for the Eleans to practise righteousness one day in five years? And Theopompus, when a stranger kept saying, as he showed him kindness, that in his own city he was called a lover of Sparta, remarked, My good sir, It were better for thee to be called a lover of thine own city.

And Pleistoenex, the son of Pausanias, when an Athenian orator declared that the Lacedaemonians had no learning, said, True, we are indeed the only Hellenes who have learned no evil from you. And Archidamus, when some one asked him how many Spartans there were, replied, Enough, good sir, to keep evil men away. And even from their jests it is possible to judge of their character, for it was their wont never to talk at random, and to let slip no speech which did not have some thought or other worth serious attention. For instance, when one of them was invited to hear a man imitate the nightingale, he said, "'I have heard the bird herself.' And another, on reading the epitaph, Tyrannes fires they were trying to quench when panoplied Ares slew them.

Selinus looked down from her gates on their death, said, The men deserved to die. They should have let the fires burn out entirely. And a youth, when someone promised to give him game-cocks that would die fighting, said, Don't do that. But give me some of the kind that kill fighting. Another, seeing men seated on stools in a privy, said, May I never sit where I cannot give place to an elder. The character of their apothemes, then, was such as to justify the remark that love of wisdom rather than love of bodily exercise was the special characteristic of a Spartan. Nor was their training in music and poetry any less serious a concern than the emulous purity of their speech. Nay, their very songs had a stimulus that roused the spirit and awoke enthusiastic and effectual effort.

The style of them was simple and unaffected, and their themes were serious and edifying. They were for the most part praises of men who had died for Sparta, calling them blessed and happy, censure of men who had played the coward, picturing their grievous and ill-starred life, and such promises and boasts of valour as befitted the different ages. Of the last it may not be amiss to cite one by way of illustration. They had three choirs at their festivals, corresponding to the three ages, and the choir of old men would sing first, We once did deeds of prowess, and were strong young men. Then the choir of young men would respond, We are so now, and if you wish, behold and see. And then the third choir, that of the boys, would sing, We shall be sometime mightier men by far than both.

In short, if one studies the poetry of Sparta, of which some specimens were still extant in my time, and makes himself familiar with the marching songs which they used to the accompaniment of the flute when charging upon their foes, he will conclude that Tapanda and Pindar were right in associating valour with music. The former writes thus of the Lacedaemonians, Flourish there both the spear of the brave and the muses' clear message, Just as, too, walks the broad streets. And Pinder says, There are councils of elders and young men's conquering spears, And dances the muse and joyousness. The Spartans are thus shown to be at the same time most musical and most warlike. In equal poise to match the sword hangs the sweet art of the harpist, as their poet says.

For just before their battles the king sacrificed to the Muses, reminding his warriors, as it would seem, of their training, and of the firm decisions they had made, In order that they might be prompt to face the dread issue, and might perform such martial deeds as would be worthy of some record.

11 10 - Lycurgus pt. 3 31:08

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Lycurgus.

In time of war, too, they relaxed the severity of the young men's discipline, and permitted them to beautify their hair and ornament their arms and clothing, rejoicing to see them, like horses, prance and neigh for the contest. Therefore they wore their hair long as soon as they ceased to be youths, And particularly in times of danger they took pains to have it glossy and well combed, remembering a certain saying of Lycurgus, that a fine head of hair made the handsome more comely still, and the ugly more terrible. Their bodily exercises, too, were less rigorous during their campaigns, and in other ways their young warriors were allowed a regimen which was less curtailed and rigid, So that they were the only men in the world with whom war brought a respite in the training for war.

And when at last they were drawn up in battle array, and the enemy was at hand, the king sacrificed the customary she-goat, commanded all the warriors to set garlands upon their heads, and ordered the pipers to pipe the strains of the hymn to Castor. Then he himself led off in a marching paean, and it was a sight equally grand and terrifying when they marched in step with the rhythm of the flute, without any gap in their line of battle, and with no confusion in their souls, but calmly and cheerfully moving with the strains of their hymn into the deadly fight. Neither fear nor excessive fury is likely to possess men so disposed. But rather a firm purpose full of hope and courage, believing as they do that heaven is their ally.

The king marched against the enemy in close companionship with one who had been crowned victor in the great games. And they tell of a certain Spartan who refused to be bought off from a contest at Olympia by large sums of money, and after a long struggle outwrestled his antagonist. When some one said to him then, "'What advantage, O spartan, hast thou got from thy victory?' he answered with a smile, "'I shall stand in front of my king when I fight our enemies.' When they had conquered and routed an enemy, they pursued him far enough to make their victory secure by his flight, and then at once retired. Thinking it ignoble and unworthy of a hellene to hew men to pieces who had given up the fight and abandoned the field.

And this was not only a noble and magnanimous policy, but it was also useful. For their antagonists, knowing that they slew those who resisted them, but showed mercy to those who yielded to them, were apt to think flight more advantageous than resistance. Hippias the sophist says that Lycurgus himself was very well versed in war, and took part in many campaigns, and Philostephanus attributes to him the arrangement of the Spartan cavalry by Ulamoi, explaining that the Ulamos, as constituted by him, was a troop of fifty horsemen in a square formation. But Demetrius the Phalyrian says he engaged in no warlike undertakings, and established his constitution in a time of peace. And indeed, the design of the Olympic truce would seem to bespeak a man of gentleness and predisposed to peace.

And yet there are some who say, as Hermippus reminds us, that at the outset Lycurgus had nothing whatever to do with Ifitus and his enterprise, but happened to come that way by chance, and be a spectator at the games. That he heard behind him, however, what seemed to be a human voice, chiding him, and expressing amazement that he did not urge his fellow-citizens to take part in the great festival. And since, on turning round, he did not see the speaker anywhere, he concluded that the voice was from heaven, and therefore betook himself to Ifitus, and assisted him in giving the festival a more notable arrangement and a more enduring basis. The training of the Spartans lasted into the years of full maturity.

No man was allowed to live as he pleased, but in their city, as in a military encampment, they always had a prescribed regimen and employment in public service, Considering that they belonged entirely to their country and not to themselves, watching over the boys if no other duty was laid upon them, and either teaching them some useful thing, or learning it themselves from their elders. For one of the noble and blessed privileges which Lycurgus provided for his fellow-citizens was abundance of leisure. Since he forbade their engaging in any mechanical art whatsoever, and as for money-making, with its laborious efforts to amass wealth, there was no need of it at all, since wealth awakened no envy and brought no honor.

Besides, the helots tilled their ground for them, and paid them the produce mentioned above. Therefore it was that one of them who was sojourning at Athens when the courts were in session, and learned that a certain Athenian had been fined for idleness, and was going home in great distress of mind and attended on his way by sympathetic and sorrowing friends, begged the bystanders to show him the man who had been fined for living like a free man. So servile a thing did they regard the devotion to the mechanical arts and to money-making. And lawsuits, of course, vanished from among them with their gold and silver coinage, for they knew neither greed nor want, but equality in well-being was established there, and easy living based on simple wants.

Choral dances, and feasts, and festivals, and hunting, and bodily exercise, and social converse occupied their whole time when they were not on a military expedition. Those who were under thirty years of age did not go into the market-place at all, but had their household wants supplied at the hands of their kinsfolk and lovers. And it was disreputable for the elderly men to be continually seen loitering there, instead of spending the greater part of the day in the places of exercise that are called Leskai. For if they gathered in these, they spent their time suitably with one another, making no allusions to the problems of money-making or of exchange, Nay, they were chiefly occupied there in praising some noble action or censuring some base one with jesting and laughter which made the path to instruction and correction easy and natural.

For not even Lycurgus himself was immoderately severe. Indeed, Sir Sibius tells us that he actually dedicated a little statue of laughter, and introduced seasonable jesting into their drinking-parties, and like diversions, to sweeten, as it were, their hardships and meagre fare. In a word, he trained his fellow-citizens to have neither the wish nor the ability to live for themselves. But like bees they were to make themselves always integral parts of the whole community, Clustering together about their leader, almost beside themselves with enthusiasm and noble ambition, and to belong wholly to their country. This idea can be traced also in some of their utterances. For instance, P. Darytus, when he failed to be chosen among the three hundred best men, went away with a very glad countenance, as if rejoicing that the city had three hundred better men than himself.

And again Polycratidas, one of an embassy to the generals of the Persian king, on being asked by them whether the embassy was there in a private or a public capacity, replied, If we succeed in a public capacity, if we fail in a private. Again Argilionis, the mother of Brasidas, when some amphipolitans who had come to Sparta paid her a visit, asked them if Brasidas had died nobly and in a manner worthy of Sparta. Then they greatly extolled the man, and said that Sparta had not such another, to which she answered, Say not so, strangers. Brasidas was noble and brave. But Sparta has many better men than he. The senators were at first appointed by Lycurgus himself, as I have said, from those who shared his counsels.

But afterwards he arranged that any vacancy caused by death should be filled by the man elected as most deserving out of those above sixty years of age. And of all the contests in the world, this would seem to have been the greatest and the most hotly disputed. For it was not the swiftest of the swift, nor the strongest of the strong, but the best and wisest of the good and wise who was to be elected, and have for the rest of his life as a victor's prize for excellence, what I may call the supreme power in the state, Lord as he was, of life and death, Honour and dishonour, and all the greatest issues of life. The election was made in the following manner. An assembly of the people having been convened, chosen men were shut up in a room near by so that they could neither see nor be seen, but only hear the shouts of the assembly.

For as in other matters, so here the cries of the assembly decided between the competitors. These did not appear in a body, but each one was introduced separately as the lot fell, and passed silently through the assembly. Then the secluded judges, who had writing tablets with them, recorded in each case the loudness of the shouting, not knowing for whom it was given, but only that he was introduced first, second, or third, and so on. Whoever was greeted with the most and loudest shouting, him they declared elected. The victor then set a wreath upon his head, and visited in order the temples of the gods. He was followed by great numbers of young men who praised and extolled him, as well as by many women who celebrated his excellence in songs, and dwelt on the happiness of his life.

Each of his relations and friends set a repast before him, saying, "'The city honors thee with this table.' When he had finished his circuit, he went off to his mess-table. Here he fared in other ways as usual, but a second portion of food was set before him, which he took and put by. After the supper was over, The women who were related to him being now assembled at the door of the mess-hall, he called to him the one whom he most esteemed, and gave her the portion he had saved, saying that he had received it as a meed of excellence, and as such gave it to her. Upon this she, too, was lauded by the rest of the women, and escorted by them to her home. Furthermore, Lycurgus made most excellent regulations in the matter of their burials.

To begin with, he did away with all superstitious terror by allowing them to bury their dead within the city, and to have memorials of them near the sacred places, thus making the youth familiar with such sights, and accustomed to them, So that they were not confounded by them, and had no horror of death as polluting those who touched a corpse or walked among graves. In the second place he permitted nothing to be buried with the dead. They simply covered the body with a scarlet robe and olive leaves when they laid it away. To inscribe the name of the dead upon the tomb was not allowed unless it were that of a man who had fallen in war, or that of a woman who had died in sacred office. He set apart only a short time for mourning, eleven days.

On the twelfth they were to sacrifice to Demeter and cease their sorrowing. Indeed nothing was left untouched and neglected, But with all the necessary details of life he blended some commendation of virtue or rebuke of vice, and he filled the city full of good examples, whose continual presence and society must of necessity exercise a controlling and moulding influence upon those who were walking the path of honour. This was the reason why he did not permit them to live abroad at their pleasure and wander in strange lands, Assuming foreign habits and imitating the lives of peoples who were without training and lived under different forms of government. Nay, more, he actually drove away from the city the multitudes which streamed in there for no useful purpose, not because he feared they might become imitators of his form of government and learn useful lessons in virtue, as Thucydides says, But rather that they might not become in any wise teachers of evil.

For along with strange people, strange doctrines must come in, and novel doctrines bring novel decisions, from which there must arise many feelings and resolutions which destroy the harmony of the existing political order. Therefore he thought it more necessary to keep bad manners and customs from invading and filling the city than it was to keep out infectious diseases. Now in all this there is no trace of injustice or arrogance which some attribute to the laws of Lycurgus, declaring them efficacious in producing valour, but defective in producing righteousness. The so-called cryptia, or secret service of the Spartans, if this be really one of the institutions of Lycurgus, as Aristotle says it was, may have given Plato also this opinion of the man and his civil polity.

This secret service was of the following nature. The magistrates from time to time sent out into the country at large the most discreet of the young warriors, Equipped only with daggers and such supplies as were necessary. In the daytime they scattered into obscure and out-of-the-way places, where they hid themselves and lay quiet. But in the night they came down into the highways and killed every helot whom they caught. Oftentimes, too, they actually traversed the fields where helots were working, and slew the sturdiest and best of them. So, too, Thucydides, in his history of the Peloponnesian War, tells us that the helots, who had been judged by the Spartans to be superior in bravery, set wreaths upon their heads in token of their emancipation, and visited the temples of the gods in procession.

But a little while afterwards all disappeared, more than two thousand of them, In such a way that no man was able to say, either then or afterwards, how they came by their deaths. And Aristotle in particular says also that the Ephors, as soon as they came into office, made formal declaration of war upon the helots, in order that there might be no impiety in slaying them. And in other ways also they were harsh and cruel to the helots, For instance, they would force them to drink too much strong wine, and then introduce them into their public messes to show the young men what a thing drunkenness was. They also ordered them to sing songs and dance dances that were low and ridiculous, but to let the nobler kind alone.

And therefore in later times, they say, when the Thebans made their expedition into Laconia, they ordered the helots whom they captured to sing the songs of Terpanda, Alcman, and Spendone the Spartan. But they declined to do so on the plea that their masters did not allow it, thus proving the correctness of the saying, In Sparta the free man is more a free man than anywhere else in the world, and the slave more a slave. However, in my opinion, such cruelties were first practiced by the Spartans in later times, particularly after the great earthquake, when the helots and Mycenaeans together rose up against them, wrought the widest devastation in their territory, and brought their city into the greatest peril.

I certainly cannot ascribe to Lycurgus so abominable a measure as the Kruptia, judging of his character from his mildness and justice in all other instances. To this the voice of the god also bore witness. When his principal institutions were at last firmly fixed in the customs of the people, and his civil polity had sufficient growth and strength to support and preserve itself, Just as Plato says that deity was rejoiced to see his universe come into being and make its first motion, so Lycurgus was filled with joyful satisfaction in the magnitude and beauty of his system of laws, now that it was in operation and moving along its pathway. He therefore ardently desired, so far as human forethought could accomplish the task, to make it immortal, and let it go down unchanged to future ages.

Accordingly, he assembled the whole people, and told them that the provisions already made were sufficiently adapted to promote the prosperity and virtue of the state, but that something of the greatest weight and importance remained, which he could not lay before them until he had consulted the god at Delphi. They must therefore abide by the established laws, and make no change nor alteration in them until he came back from Delphi in person. Then he would do whatever the god thought best. When they all agreed to this, and bade him set out on his journey, he exacted an oath from the kings and the senators, and afterwards from the rest of the citizens, that they would abide by the established polity, and observe it until Lycurgus should come back.

Then he set out for Delphi. On reaching the oracle, he sacrificed to the god, and asked if the laws which he had established were good and sufficient to promote a city's prosperity and virtue. Apollo answered that the laws which he had established were good, and that the city would continue to be held in highest honour while it kept to the polity of Lycurgus. This oracle Lycurgus wrote down, and sent it to Sparta. But for his own part he sacrificed again to the god, took affectionate leave of his friends and of his son, and resolved never to release his fellow-citizens from their oath, but of his own accord to put an end to his life where he was. He had reached an age in which life was not yet a burden, and death no longer a terror, when he and his friends, moreover, appeared to be sufficiently prosperous and happy.

He therefore abstained from food till he died, Considering that even the death of a statesman should be of service to the state, and the ending of his life not void of effect, but recognized as a virtuous deed. As for himself, since he had wrought out fully the noblest tasks, the end of life would actually be a consummation of his good fortune and happiness, and as for his fellow-citizens, He would make his death the guardian, as it were, of all the blessings he had secured for them during his life, since they had sworn to observe and maintain his polity until he should return. And he was not deceived in his expectations. So long did his city have the first rank in Hellas for good government and reputation, observing as she did for five hundred years the laws of Lycurgus, In which no one of the fourteen kings who followed him made any change, down to Aegis, the son of Archidamus.

For the institution of the Ephors did not weaken, but rather strengthened the civil polity, and though it was thought to have been done in the interests of the people, it really made the aristocracy more powerful. But in the reign of ages, gold and silver money first flowed into Sparta, and with money, greed, and a desire for wealth prevailed through the agency of Lysander, who, though incorruptible himself, filled his country with the love of riches and with luxury, by bringing home gold and silver from the war, and thus subverting the laws of Lycurgus. While these remained in force, Sparta led the life, not of a city under a constitution, but of an individual man under training and full of wisdom.

Nay, rather, as the poets weave their tales of Heracles, how with his club and lion's skin he traversed the world chastising lawless and savage tyrants, So we may say that Sparta, simply with the dispatch staff and cloak of her envoys, kept Hellas in willing and glad obedience, put down illegal oligarchies and tyrannies in the different states, arbitrated wars and quelled seditions, often without so much as moving a single shield, but merely sending one ambassador, Whose commands all at once obeyed, just as bees, when their leader appears, swarm together and array themselves about him. Such a surplus fund of good government and justice did the city enjoy. Wherefore, I, for one, am amazed at those who declare that the Lacedaemonians knew how to obey, but did not understand how to command.

And quote with approval the story of King Theopompus, who, when some one said that Sparta was safe and secure because her kings knew how to command, replied, Nay, rather because her citizens know how to obey. For men will not consent to obey those who have not the ability to rule, but obedience is a lesson to be learned from a commander. For a good leader makes good followers. And just as the final attainment of the art of horsemanship is to make a horse gentle and tractable, so it is the task of the science of government to implant obedience in men. And the Lacedaemonians implanted in the rest of the Greeks not only a willingness to obey, but a desire to be their followers and subjects. People did not send requests to them for ships or money or hoplites, But for a single Spartan commander.

And when they got him, they treated him with honor and reverence, as the Sicilians treated Gylipus, the Chalcidians Brasidas, and all the Greeks resident in Asia, Lysander, Callicratidas, and Gesileus. These men, wherever they came, were styled regulators and chasteners of people and magistrates, And the city of Sparta from which they came was regarded as a teacher of well-ordered private life and settled civil polity. To this position of Sparta, Stratonicus would seem to have mockingly alluded when, in jest, he proposed a law that the Athenians should conduct mysteries and processions, and that the Ilians should preside at games, since herein lay their special excellence, But that the Lacedaemonians should be cudgelled if the others did amiss.

This was a joke, but Antisthenes the Socratic, when he saw the Thebans in high feather after the battle of Leuctra, said in all seriousness that they were just like little boys, strutting about because they had thrashed their tutor. It was not, however, the chief design of Lycurgus then to leave his city in command over a great many others, but he thought that the happiness of an entire city, like that of a single individual, depended on the prevalence of virtue and concord within its own borders. The aim, therefore, of all his arrangements and adjustments, was to make his people free-minded, self-sufficing, and moderate in all their ways, and to keep them so as long as possible. His design for a civil polity was adopted by Plato, Diogenes, Zeno, and by all those who have won approval for their treatises on this subject, although they left behind them only writings and words.

Lycurgus, on the other hand, produced not writings and words, but an actual polity which was beyond imitation, and because he gave, to those who maintain that the much-talked-of natural disposition to wisdom exists only in theory, an example of an entire city given to the love of wisdom, his fame rightly transcended that of all who ever founded polities among the Greeks. Therefore, Aristotle says that the honors paid him in Sparta were less than he deserved, although he enjoys the highest honors there. For he has a temple, and sacrifices are offered to him yearly as to a god. It is also said that when his remains were brought home, his tomb was struck by lightning, and that this hardly happened to any other eminent man after him except Euripides, who died and was buried at Arethusa in Macedonia.

The lovers of Euripides therefore regard it as a great testimony in his favour that he alone experienced after death what had earlier befallen a man who was most holy and beloved of the gods. Some say that Lycurgus died in Syrah, Apollo Themis that he was brought to Elis and died there, Timaeus and Aristoxenus that he ended his days in Crete, and Aristoxenus adds that his tomb is shown by the Cretans in the district of Pergamos near the public highway. It is also said that he left an only son, Antiorus, On whose death, without issue, the family became extinct. His friends and relations, however, instituted a periodical assembly in his memory, which continued to be held for many ages, and they called the days on which they came together Lycurgid.

Aristocrates, the son of Hipparchus, says that the friends of Lycurgus after his death in Crete Burned his body, and scattered the ashes into the sea, and that this was done at his request, and because he wished to prevent his remains from ever being carried to Sparta, lest the people there should change his polity on the plea that he had come back, and that they were therefore released from their oaths. This, then, is what I have to say about Lycurgus.

End of Lycurgus, part three.

12 11 - Numa pt. 1 23:59

B. Volume I of Plutarch's Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Translated by Bernadotte Peron.

Numa.

There is likewise a vigorous dispute about the time at which King Numa lived, although from the beginning down to him the genealogies seem to be made out accurately. But a certain Clodius, in a book entitled An Examination of Chronology, insists that the ancient records were lost when the city was sacked by the Gauls, and that those which are now exhibited as such were forged, their compilers wishing to gratify the pride of certain persons by inserting their names among the first families and the most illustrious houses, where they had no cause to appear. Accordingly, when it is said that Numa was an intimate friend of Pythagoras, Some deny utterly that Numa had any Greek culture, holding either that he was naturally capable of attaining excellence by his own efforts, or that the culture of the king was due to some barbarian superior to Pythagoras.

Others say that Pythagoras the philosopher lived as many as five generations after Numa, but that there was another Pythagoras, the Spartan, who was Olympic victor in the foot-race for the Sixteenth Olympiad. In the third year of which Numa was made king, and that in his wanderings about Italy he made the acquaintance of Numa, and helped him arrange the government of the city, whence it came about that many spartan customs were mingled with the Roman, as Pythagoras taught them to Numa. And at all events Numa was of Sabine descent, and the Sabines will have it that they were colonists from Lacedaemon. Chronology, however, is hard to fix, and especially that which is based on the names of victors in the Olympic Games, the list of which is said to have been published at a late period by Hippias of Elise, who had no fully authoritative basis for his work.

I shall therefore begin at a convenient point, and relate the noteworthy facts which I have found in the life of Numa. For thirty-seven years now, Rome had been built and Romulus had been its king, and on the fifth day of July, which day they now call the Capretinonus, Romulus was offering a public sacrifice outside the city at the so-called Goat's Marsh, in the presence of the Senate and most of the people. Suddenly there was a great commotion in the air, and a cloud descended upon the earth, bringing with it blasts of wind and rain. The throng of common folk were terrified and fled in all directions, but Romulus disappeared, and was never found again either alive or dead. Upon this, a grievous suspicion attached itself to the patricians, and an accusing story was current among the people to the effect that they had long been weary of kingly rule, and desired to transfer the power to themselves, and had therefore made away with the king.

And indeed it had been noticed for some time that he had treated them with greater harshness and arrogance. This suspicion the patricians sought to remove by ascribing divine honors to Romulus on the ground that he was not dead, but blessed with a better lot. And Proculus, a man of eminence, took oath that he had seen Romulus ascending to heaven in full armor, and had heard his voice commanding that he be called Quirinus. The city was beset with fresh disturbance and faction over the king to be appointed in his stead, for the newcomers were not yet altogether blended with the original citizens, but the commonality was still like a surging sea, and the patricians full of jealousy towards one another on account of their different nationalities.

It is indeed true that it was the pleasure of all to have a king, but they wrangled and quarreled, not only about the man who should be their leader, but also about the tribe which should furnish him. For those who had built the city with Romulus at the outset thought it intolerable that the Sabines, after getting a share in the city and its territory, should insist on ruling those who had received them into such privileges. And the Sabines, since on the death of their king Tatius they had raised no faction against Romulus, but suffered him to rule alone, had a reasonable ground for demanding that now the ruler should come from them.

They would not admit that they had added themselves as inferiors to superiors, but held rather that their addition had brought the strength of numbers and advanced both parties alike to the dignity of a city. On these questions, then, they were divided into factions. But in order that their factions might not produce utter confusion from the absence of all authority, now that the administration of affairs was suspended, it was arranged by the senators, who were one hundred and fifty in number, that each of them in his turn should assume the insignia of royalty, make the customary sacrifices to the gods, and transact public business for the space of six hours by day and six hours by night. This distribution of time seemed well adapted to secure equality between the two factions, and the transfer of power likely to remove all jealousy on the part of the people when they saw the same man, in the course of a single day and night, become king and then a private citizen again.

This form of government the Romans call interregnum.

But although in this way the senators were thought to rule constitutionally and without oppression, they roused suspicions and clamorous charges that they had changed the form of government to an oligarchy, and were holding the state in tutelage among themselves, and were unwilling to be ruled by a king. Therefore it was agreed by both factions that one should appoint a king from the other. This was thought the best way to end their prevailing partisanship, and the king thus appointed would be equally well disposed to both parties, being gracious to the one as his electors, and friendly to the other because of his kinship with them. Then, as the Sabines gave the Romans their option in the matter, It seemed to them better to have a Sabine king of their own nomination than to have a Roman king made king by the Sabines.

They took counsel, therefore, among themselves, and nominated Numa Pompilius from among the Sabines, a man who had not joined the emigrants to Rome, but was so universally celebrated for his virtues that, when he was nominated, The Sabines accepted him with even greater readiness than those who had chosen him. Accordingly, after making their decision known to the people, the leading senators of both parties were sent as ambassadors to Numa, begging him to come and assume the royal power. Numa belonged to a conspicuous city of the Sabines called Curis. From which the Romans, together with the incorporated Sabines, took the joint name of Quirites. He was a son of Pompon, an illustrious man, and was the youngest of four brothers.

He was born, moreover, by some divine felicity, on the very day when Rome was founded by Romulus, that is, the twenty-first day of April. By natural temperament, He was inclined to the practice of every virtue, and he had subdued himself still more by discipline, endurance of hardships, and the study of wisdom. He had thus put away from himself not only the infamous passions of the soul, but also that violence and rapacity which were in such high repute among barbarians, believing that true bravery consisted in the subjugation of one's passions by reason. On this account he banished from his house all luxury and extravagance, and while citizen and stranger alike found in him a faultless judge and counsellor, he devoted his hours of privacy and leisure not to enjoyments and money-making, but to the service of the gods and the rational contemplation of their nature and power.

In consequence he had a great name and fame, so that Tatius, the royal colleague of Romulus at Rome, made him the husband of his only daughter, Tattia. He was not, however, so exalted by his marriage as to go to dwell with his royal father-in-law, but remained among the Sabines, ministering to his aged father. Tattia, too, preferred the quiet life which her husband led as a private citizen to the honor and fame which she had enjoyed at Rome because of her father. But she died, as we are told, in the thirteenth year after her marriage.

Then Numa, forsaking the ways of city folk, determined to live for the most part in country places and to wander there alone, passing his days in groves of the gods, sacred meadows, and solitudes. This, more than anything else, gave rise to the story about his goddess. It was not, so the story ran, from any distress or aberration of spirit that he forsook the ways of men, but he had tasted the joy of more august companionship, and had been honored with a celestial marriage. The goddess Egeria loved him and bestowed herself upon him, and it was his communion with her that gave him a life of blessedness and a wisdom more than human. However, that this story resembles many of the very ancient tales which the Phrygians have received and cherished concerning Attis, the Bithynians concerning Herodotus, the Arcadians concerning Endymion, and other peoples concerning other mortals that were thought to have achieved a life of blessedness in the love of the gods is quite evident.

And there is some reason in supposing that deity, who is not a lover of horses or birds but a lover of men, should be willing to consort with men of superlative goodness, and should not dislike or disdain the company of a wise and holy man. But that an immortal god should take carnal pleasure in a mortal body and its beauty. This, surely, is hard to believe. And yet the Egyptians make a distinction here which is thought plausible. Namely, that while a woman can be approached by a divine spirit and made pregnant, there is no such thing as carnal intercourse and communion between a man and a divinity. But they lose sight of the fact that intercourse is a reciprocal matter, and that both parties to it enter into a like communion.

However, that a god should have affection for a man, and a so-called love which is based upon affection, and takes the form of solicitude, for his character and his virtue is fit and proper. And therefore it is no mistake when the ancient poets tell their tales of the love of Apollo Borphorbus, Hyacinthus, and Admetus, as well as the Siconian Hippolytus also, of whom it is said that, as often as he set out to sail from Sicyon to Syra, the Pythian priestess, as though the god knew of his coming and rejoiced thereat, Chanted this prophetic verse, Lo, once more doth beloved Hippolytus hither make voyage. There is a legend, too, that Pan became enamored of Pindar and his verses, and the divine powers bestowed signal honor on Archilochus and Hesiod after their deaths, for the sake of the Muses.

The Delphian oracle pronounced a curse on the man who killed Archilochus, because— He had slain the servant of the Muses, and the same oracle told the people of Orchomenus, when a plague had fallen upon them, that the only remedy was to bring back the bones of Hesiod from the land of Nopactus to the land of Orthomenus.

There is a story still well attested that Sophocles during his life was blessed with the friendship of Esculapius, and that when he died, Another deity procured him fitting burial. Is it worthwhile, then, if we concede these instances of divine favor, to disbelieve that Zoleucus, Minos, Zoroaster, Numa, and Lycurgus, who piloted kingdoms and formulated constitutions, had frequent audience of the deity? Is it not likely, rather, That the gods are in earnest when they hold converse with such men as these, in order to instruct and advise them in the highest and best way, but use poets and warbling singers, if at all, for their own diversion? However, if any one is otherwise minded, I say with Bacchylides, broad is the way.

Indeed, there is no absurdity in the other account which is given of Lycurgus and Numa and their like, namely, that since they were managing headstrong and captious multitudes, and introducing great innovations in modes of government, they pretended to get a sanction from the god, which sanction was the salvation of the very ones against whom it was contrived.

But to resume the story, Pneuma was already completing his fortieth year when the embassy came from Rome inviting him to take the throne. The speakers were Proculus and Velisus, one or the other of whom the people was expected to choose as their king. Proculus being the favorite of the people of Romulus, and Velisus of the people of Tatius. These speakers, then, were brief, supposing that Pneuma would welcome his good fortune. It was, however, no slight task, but one requiring much argument and entreaty, to persuade and induce a man who had lived in peace and quiet to accept the government of a city which owed its existence and growth, in a fashion, to war.

His reply, therefore, in the presence of his father and one of his kinsmen named Marsius, was as follows. Every change in a man's life is perilous. But when a man knows no lack, and has no fault to find with his present lot, nothing short of madness can change his purposes, and remove him from his wonted course of life, which, even though it have no other advantage, is at least fixed and secure, and therefore better than one which is all uncertain. But the lot of one who becomes your king cannot even be called uncertain, judging from the experience of Romulus, since he himself was accused of basely plotting against his colleague, Tatius, and involved the patricians in the charge of having basely put their king out of the way.

And yet those who bring these accusations laud Romulus as a child of the gods, and tell how he was preserved in an incredible way, and fed in a miraculous manner when he was still an infant. But I am of mortal birth, and I was nourished and trained by men whom you know. Moreover, the very traits in my disposition which are commended are far from marking a man destined to be a king, namely, my great love of retirement, my devotion to studies inconsistent with the usual activities of men, and my well-known strong and inveterate love of peace, of unwarlike occupations, and of men who come together only for the worship of the gods and for friendly intercourse, but who otherwise live by themselves as tillers of the soil or herdsmen.

Whereas unto you, O Romans, Whether you want them or not, Romulus has bequeathed many wars, and to make head against these the city needs a king with a warrior's experience and strength. Besides, the people has become much accustomed to war, and eager for it because of their successes, and no one is blind to their desire for growth by conquest. I should therefore become a laughing-stock if I sought to serve the gods, and taught men to honor justice and hate violence and war, in a city which desires a leader of its armies rather than a king. With such words did Numa decline the kingdom. Then the Romans put forth every effort to meet his objections, and begged him not to plunge them again into faction and civil war, Since there was none other on whom both parties could unite.

His father also and Marcius, when the envoys had withdrawn, beset him privately, and tried to persuade him to accept so great a gift of the gods. Even though, they said, thou neither desirest wealth for thyself, because thou hast enough, nor covetest the fame which comes from authority and power, Because thou hast the greater fame which comes from virtue, yet consider that the work of a true king is a service rendered to God, who now rouses up and refuses to leave dormant and inactive the great righteousness which is within thee. Do not therefore avoid nor flee from this office which a wise man will regard as a field for great and noble actions. Where the gods are honored with magnificent worship, and the hearts of men are easily and quickly softened and inclined towards piety through the molding influence of their ruler.

This people loved Tatius, though he was a foreign prince, and they pay divine honors to the memory of Romulus. And who knows but that the people, even though victorious, is sated with war? And, now that it is glutted with triumphs and spoils, is desirous of a gentle prince, who is a friend of justice, and will lead them in the paths of order and peace. But if, indeed, they are altogether intemperate and mad in their desire for war, then were it not better that thou, Holding the reins of government in thy hand, should turn their eager course another way, and that thy native city and the whole Sabine nation should have in thee a bond of goodwill and friendship with a vigorous and powerful city?

These appeals were strengthened, we are told, by auspicious omens, and by the zealous ardor of his fellow-citizens, who, when they learned of the embassy from Rome, begged him to return with it and assume the royal power there in order to unite and blend together the citizens. Numa therefore decided to yield, and after sacrificing to the gods, set out for Rome. The Senate and people met him on his way, filled with a wondrous love of the man. Women welcomed him with fitting cries of joy. Sacrifices were offered in the temples, and joy was universal, as if the city were receiving Not a king, but a kingdom. When they were come down into the forum, Spurius Vettius, whose lot it was to be Interrex, at that hour called for a vote of the citizens, and all voted for Numa.

But when the insignia of royalty were brought to him, he bade the people pause, and said his authority must first be ratified by heaven. Then, taking with him the augurs and priests, he ascended the capital, which the Romans of that time called the Tarpeian Hill. There, the chief of the augurs turned the veiled head of Numa towards the south, and he himself, standing behind him, and laying the right hand on his head, prayed aloud, and turned his eyes in all directions to observe whatever birds or other omens might be sent from the gods. Then an incredible silence fell upon the vast multitude in the forum, who watched in eager suspense for the issue, until at last auspicious birds appeared and approached the scene on the right.

Then Numa put on his royal robes and went down from the citadel to the multitude, where he was received with glad cries of welcome as the most pious of men and most beloved of the gods. His first measure on assuming the government was to disband the body of three hundred men that Romulus always kept about his person, and called celeres, that is, swift ones, for he would not consent to distrust those who trusted him, nor to reign over those who distrusted him. His second measure was to add to the two priests of Jupiter and Mars a third priest of Romulus, whom he called the Flamen Quirinalis. Now before this time, the Romans called their priests Flamines, from the close-fitting Piloi, or caps, which they wear upon their heads, and which have the longer name of Piloamenae, as we are told, there being more Greek words mingled with the Latin at that time than now.

Thus also the name Lena, which the Romans give to the priestly mantle, Juba says is the same as the Greek, Lenea, and that name, Camillus, which the Romans give to the boy with both parents living, who attends upon the priest of Jupiter, is the same as that which some of the Greeks give to Hermes from his office of attendant.

End of Numa. Part One.

13 12 - Numa pt. 2 24:22

XII. PLUTARCH'S PARALLEL LIVES OF THE NOBLE GREEKS AND ROMANS. After taking such measures to secure the goodwill and favor of the people, Numa straightway attempted to soften the city, as iron is softened in the fire, and change its harsh and warlike temper into one of greater gentleness and justice. For if a city was ever in what Plato calls a feverish state, Rome certainly was at that time. It was brought into being at the very outset by the excessive daring and reckless courage of the boldest and most warlike spirits, who forced their way thither from all parts, and in its many expeditions and its continuous wars it found nourishment and increase of its power, and just as what is planted in the earth gets a firmer seat the more it is shaken, So Rome seemed to be made strong by its very perils.

And therefore Numa, judging it to be no slight or trivial undertaking to mollify and newly fashion for peace so presumptuous and stubborn a people, called in the gods to aid and assist him, It was for the most part by sacrifices, processions, and religious dances, which he himself appointed and conducted, and which mingled with their solemnity a diversion full of charm and a beneficent pleasure, that he won the people's favor and tamed their fierce and warlike tempers. At times, also, By heralding to them vague terrors from the god, strange apparitions of divine beings and threatening voices, he would subdue and humble their minds by means of superstitious fears. This was the chief reason why Numa's wisdom and culture was said to have been due to his intimacy with Pythagoras.

For in the philosophy of the one, and in the civil polity of the other, religious services and occupations have a large place. It is said also that the solemnity of his outward demeanour was adopted by him because he shared the feelings of Pythagoras about it. That philosopher, indeed, is thought to have tamed an eagle, which he stopped by certain cries of his, and brought down from his lofty flight, also to have disclosed his golden thigh as he passed through the assembled throngs at Olympia. And we have reports of other devices and performances of his which savored the marvelous, regarding which Tymon the Fallasian wrote. Down to a juggler's level he sinks with his cheating devices, laying nets for his men.

Pythagoras, lover of the bombast. In like manner, Numa's fiction was the love which a certain goddess or mountain nymph bore him, and her secret meetings with him, as already mentioned, and his familiar converse with the Muses. For he ascribed the greater part of his oracular teachings to the Muses, and he taught the Romans to pay especial honors to one Muse in particular, whom he called Tacita, that is, the silent or speechless One, thereby, perhaps, handing on and honoring the Pythagorean precept of Silence. Furthermore, his ordinances concerning images are altogether in harmony with the doctrines of Pythagoras. For that philosopher maintained that the first principle of being was beyond sense or feeling, was invisible and uncreated, and discernible only by the mind, And in like manner Numa forbade the Romans to revere an image of God which had the form of man or beast.

Nor was there among them in this earlier time any painted or graven likeness of deity. But while for the first hundred and seventy years they were continually building temples and establishing sacred shrines, they made no statues in bodily form for them. Convinced that it was impious to like an higher things to lower, and that it was impossible to apprehend deity except by the intellect. Their sacrifices, too, were altogether appropriate to the Pythagorean worship, for most of them involved no bloodshed, but were made with flour, drink-offerings, and the least costly gifts. And apart from these things, other external proofs are urged to show that the two men were acquainted with each other. One of these is that Pythagoras was enrolled as a citizen of Rome.

This fact is recorded by Epicarmus, the comic poet, in a certain treatise which he dedicated to Atenor. And Epicarmus was an ancient, and belonged to the school of Pythagoras. Another proof is that one of the four sons born to King Numa was named Mamersus, after the son of Pythagoras. And from them they say that the patrician family of the Aemili took its name, Aemilius being the endearing name which the king gave him for the grace and winsomeness of his speech. Moreover, I myself have heard many people at Rome recount how, When an oracle once commanded the Romans to erect in their city monuments to the wisest and the bravest of the Greeks, they set up in the forum two statues in bronze, one of Alcibiades and one of Pythagoras.

However, since the matter of Numa's acquaintance with Pythagoras is involved in much dispute, to discuss it at greater length and to win belief for it would savor of youthful contentiousness. To Numa is also ascribed the institution of that order of high priests who are called Pontifices, and he himself is said to have been the first of them. According to some, they are called Pontifices because employed in the service of the gods, who are powerful and supreme over all the world, and potens is the Roman word for powerful. Others say that the name was meant to distinguish between possible and impossible functions. The lawgiver enjoining upon these priests the performance of such sacred offices only as were possible, and finding no fault with them if any serious obstacle prevented.

But most writers give an absurd explanation of the name. Pontifices means, they say, nothing more nor less than bridge builders from the sacrifices which they performed at the bridge over the Tiber, sacrifices of the greatest antiquity and the most sacred character, for pons is the Latin word for bridge. They say, moreover, that the custody and maintenance of the bridge, like all other inviolable and ancestral rights, attached to the priesthood, for the Romans held the demolition of the wooden bridge to be not only unlawful, but actually sacrilegious. It is also said that it was built entirely without iron, and fastened together with wooden pins in obedience to an oracle. The stone bridge was constructed at a much later period, when Aemilius was quaestor.

However, it is said that the wooden bridge also was later than the time of Numa, and was completed by Ancus Marcius, the grandson of Numa, by his daughter, when he was king. The chief of the Pontifices, the Pontifex Maximus, had the duty of expounding and interpreting the divine will, or rather of directing sacred rites, not only being in charge of public ceremonies, But also watching over private sacrifices, and preventing any departure from established custom, as well as teaching whatever was requisite for the worship or propitiation of the gods. He was also overseer of the holy virgins called Vestals, for to Numa is ascribed the consecration of the Vestal virgins, and in general the worship and care of the perpetual fire entrusted to their charge.

It was either because he thought the nature of fire pure and uncorrupted, and therefore intrusted it to chaste and undefiled persons, or because he thought of it as unfruitful and barren, and therefore associated it with virginity. Since wherever in Greece a perpetual fire is kept, as at Delphi and Athens, it is committed to the charge not of virgins, but of widows past the age of marriage. And if by any chance it goes out, as at Athens during the tyranny of Aristion, the sacred lamp is said to have been extinguished, and at Delphi when the temple was burned by the Medes, and as during the Mithridatic and the Roman civil wars, when the altar was demolished and the fire extinguished, then they say it must not be kindled again from other fire, but made fresh and new by lighting a pure and unpolluted flame from the rays of the sun.

And this they usually affect by means of metallic mirrors, the concavity of which is made to follow the sides of an isosceles rectangular triangle, and which converge from their circumference to a single point in the centre. When, therefore, these are placed opposite the sun, so that its rays, as they fall upon them from all sides, are collected and concentrated at the centre, The air itself is rarified there, and very light and dry substances placed there quickly blaze up from its resistance, the sun's rays now acquiring the substance and force of fire. Some, moreover, are of the opinion that nothing but this perpetual fire is guarded by the sacred virgins, while some say that certain sacred objects, which none others may behold, are kept in concealment by them.

What may lawfully be learned and told about these things, I have written in my life of Camillus. In the beginning, then, they say that Gagania and Verenia were consecrated to this office by Numa, who subsequently added to them Canuleia and Tarpeia, that at a later time two others were added by Servius, making the number which is continued to the present time. It was ordained by the king that the sacred virgins, should vow themselves to chastity for thirty years. During the first decade they are to learn their duties, during the second to perform the duties they have learned, and during the third to teach others these duties. Then, the thirty years being now past, any one who wishes has liberty to marry and adopt a different mode of life after laying down her sacred office.

We are told, however, that few have welcomed the indulgence, And that those who did so were not happy, but were a prey to repentance and dejection for the rest of their lives, thereby inspiring the rest with superstitious fears, so that until old age and death they remained steadfast in their virginity. But Numa bestowed great privileges upon them. Such as the right to make a will during the lifetime of their fathers, and to transact and manage their own affairs without a guardian, like the mothers of three children. When they appear in public, the Fasces are carried before them, and if they accidentally meet a criminal on his way to execution, his life is spared. But the Virgin must make oath that the meeting was involuntary and fortuitous, and not of design.

He who passes under the litter in which they are born is put to death. For their minor offenses the virgins are punished with stripes, the Pontifex maximus sometimes scourging the culprit on her bare flesh in a dark place with the curtain interposed. But she that has broken her vow of chastity is buried alive near the Colline gate. Here, a little ridge of earth extends for some distance along the inside of the city wall. The Latin word for it is ager.

Under it, a small chamber is constructed, with steps leading down from above. In this are placed a couch with its coverings, a lighted lamp, and very small portions of the necessaries of life, such as bread, a bowl of water, Milk and oil, as though they would thereby absolve themselves from the charge of destroying by hunger a life which had been consecrated to the highest services of religion. Then the culprit herself is placed on a litter, over which coverings are thrown and fastened down with cords so that not even a cry can be heard from within, and carried through the forum. All the people there silently make way for the litter. and follow it without uttering a sound, in a terrible depression of soul.

No other spectacle is more appalling, nor does any other day bring more gloom to the city than this. When the litter reaches its destination, the attendants unfasten the cords of the coverings. Then the high priest, after stretching his hands toward heaven and uttering certain mysterious prayers before the fatal act, Brings forth the culprit, who is closely veiled, and places her on the steps leading down into the chamber. After this he turns away his face, as do the rest of the priests. And when she has gone down, the steps are taken up, and great quantities of earth are thrown into the entrance to the chamber, hiding it away, and making the place level with the rest of the mound. Such is the punishment of those who break their vow of virginity.

Furthermore, it is said that Numa built the temple of Vesta, where the perpetual fire was kept, of a circular form, not in imitation of the shape of the earth, believing Vesta to be the earth, but of the entire universe, at the center of which the Pythagoreans place the element of fire, and call it Vesta, and unit, And they hold that the earth is neither motionless nor situated in the center of surrounding space, but that it revolves in a circle about the central fire, not being one of the most important, nor even one of the primary elements of the universe. This is the conception, we are told, which Plato also, in his old age, had of the earth, namely that it is established in a secondary space, and that the central and sovereign space is reserved for some other and nobler body.

The Pontifices also explain and direct the ancestral rites of burial for those who desire it, and they were taught by Numa not to regard any such offices as a pollution, But to honor the gods below also with the customary rites, since they receive into their keeping the most sovereign part of us, and particularly the goddess called Libetina, who presides over the solemn services for the dead, whether she is Prosperina, or, as the most learned Romans maintain, Venus. thereby not inaptly connecting man's birth and death with the power of one and the same goddess. Numa himself also regulated the periods of mourning according to ages. For instance, over a child of less than three years, there was to be no mourning at all.

Over one older than that, the mourning was not to last more months than it had lived years, up to ten. And no age was to be mourned longer than that, but ten months was the period set for the longest mourning. This is also the period during which women who have lost their husbands remain in widowhood, and she who took another husband before this term was out was obliged by the laws of Numa to sacrifice a cow with calf. Numa also established many other orders of priesthood, of which I shall mention two besides, those of the Salii and the Fetiales, which more than any others give evidence of the man's reverent piety. The Fetiales were guardians of peace, so to speak, and in my opinion took their name from their office, which was to put a stop to disputes by oral conference or parley, and they would not suffer a hostile expedition to be made before every hope of getting justice had been cut off.

For the Greeks call it peace when two parties settle their quarrels by mutual conference and not by violence. And the Roman fetalies often went to those who were doing them a wrong, and made personal appeals for fair treatment. But if the unfair treatment continued, they called upon the gods to witness Invoked many dreadful evils upon themselves and their country in case they resorted to hostilities unjustly, and so declared war upon them. But if they forbade it, or withheld their consent, neither soldier nor king of Rome could lawfully take up arms. War had to begin with the verdict that it was just, and the ruler, on receiving this verdict, must then deliberate on the proper way to wage it.

And it is said that the dreadful disaster which the city experienced at the hands of the Gauls was in consequence of the illegal treatment of these priests. For when the barbarians were besieging Clusium, Fabius Ambustus was sent from Rome to their camp to bring about a cessation of hostilities on behalf of the besieged. But on receiving an unseemly answer, He thought his office of ambassador was at an end, and committed the youthful folly of taking up arms for the Clusiaees, and challenging the bravest of the barbarians to single combat. Fabius fought successfully, unhorsed his adversary, and stripped him of his armor. But when the Gauls discovered who he was, they sent a herald to Rome, denouncing Fabius for violating a truce, Breaking his oath and fighting against them before war was formally declared.

At Rome, the Fetiales tried to persuade the Senate to deliver Fabius into the hands of the Gauls, but he took refuge with the multitude, and through the favor of the populace evaded his punishment. After a little, therefore, the Gauls came up and sacked Rome, with the exception of the capital. But this story is more fully given in my life of Camillus. The priesthood of the Salii Numa is said to have been established for the following reason. In the eighth year of his reign, a pestilence, which traversed Italy, distracted Rome also. The story goes that while the people were disheartened by this, a bronze buckler fell from heaven, which came into the hands of Numa, and a wonderful account of it was given by the king, which he had learned from Egeria and the Muses.

The buckler came, he said, for the salvation of the city, and must be carefully preserved by making eleven others of like fashion, size, and shape, in order that the resemblance between them might make it difficult for a thief to distinguish the one that fell from heaven. He said further that the spot where it fell, and the adjacent meadows where the muses usually had converse with him, must be consecrated to them. And that the spring which watered the spot should be declared holy water for the use of the Vestal virgins, who should daily sprinkle and purify their temple with it. Moreover, they say that the truth of all this was attested by the immediate cessation of the pestilence.

When Numa showed the buckler to the artificers and bade them do their best to make others like it, they all declined, except Viturius Memorius, A most excellent workman, who was so happy in his imitation of it, and made eleven so exactly like it, that not even Numa himself could distinguish them. For the watch and care of these bucklers, then, he appointed the priesthood of the Salii. Now, the Salii were not so named as some tell the tale from a man of Samothrace or Mantinea, named Salius, who first taught the dance in armor, But rather from the leaping which characterized the dance itself. This dance they perform when they carry the sacred bucklers through the streets of the city in the month of March, clad in purple tunics, girt with broad belts of bronze, wearing bronze helmets on their heads, and carrying small daggers with which they strike the shields.

But the dance is chiefly a matter of step. For they move gracefully and execute with vigor and agility certain shifting convolutions, in quick and oft-recurring rhythm. The bucklers themselves are called Ancelia, for their shape. For this is not round, nor yet completely oval, like that of the regular shield, but has a curving indentation, the arms of which are bent back and united with each other at the top and bottom. This makes the shape, Ancelon, the Greek for curve, or they are named from the elbow on which they are carried, which in Greek is Ancon. This is what Juba says, who is bent on deriving the name from Greek. But the name may come from the Greek Anacaphan, inasmuch as the original shield fell from on high, or from Akisis, because it healed those who were sick of the plague, or from Okmun Lysis, because it put an end to the drought.

Or further, from Anasceses, because it brought a cessation of calamities, just as Castor and Pollux were called Anaches by the Athenians, if, that is, we are bound to derive the name from the Greek. We are told that Mamertius was rewarded for his wonderful art by having his name mentioned in a song, which the Salii sing as they perform their war-dance. Some, however, Say that the song does not commemorate Vitturius Memorius, but Vetterem Memoriam, that is to say, ancient remembrance.

End of Numa.

14 13 - Numa pt. 3 28:49

The New York Times.

After Numa had thus established and regulated the priestly orders, he built, near the temple of Vesta, the so-called Regia, or royal house. Here he passed most of his time, Performing sacred functions, or teaching the priests, or engaged in the quiet contemplation of divine things. He also had another house on the Quirinal Hill, the site of which is still pointed out. At all public and solemn processions of the priests, heralds were sent on before through the city, bidding the people make holiday, and putting a stop to all labour. For, just as it is said that the Pythagoreans do not allow men to worship and pray to their gods cursorily and by the way, but would have them go from their homes directly to this office with their minds prepared for it, so Numa thought that his citizens ought neither to hear nor see any divine service while they were occupied with other matters and therefore unable to pay attention.

They should rather be free from all distractions, and devote their thoughts to the religious ceremony as a matter of the highest importance. They should also rid their streets of noise and clatter and clamor, and all such accompaniments of menial and manual labor, and clear them for the sacred ceremonies. And the Romans still preserve some traces of this earlier feeling. When a magistrate is busy taking auspices or sacrificing, the people cry, Hoc Adje, which means, Mind this, and helps to make the bystanders attentive and orderly. Many of his other precepts also resembled those of the Pythagoreans. For instance, the Pythagoreans said, Don't use a quart measure as a seat. Don't poke the fire with a sword.

When you set out for foreign parts, don't turn back, and— To the celestial gods, sacrifice an odd number, but an even number to the terrestrial. And the meaning of all these precepts they would keep hidden from the vulgar. So in some of Numa's rules the meaning is hidden, as, for instance, don't offer to the gods wine from unpruned vines, don't make a sacrifice without meal, turn round as you worship, and— Sit down after worship. The first two rules would seem to teach that the subjection of the earth is a part of religion, and the worshipper's turning round is said to be an imitation of the rotary motion of the universe. But I would rather think that the worshipper who enters a temple, since temples face the east and the sun, has his back towards the sunrise, and therefore turns himself half round in that direction, And then wheels fully round to face the god of the temple, thus making a complete circle, and linking the fulfillment of his prayer with both deities.

Unless, indeed, this change of posture, like the Egyptian wheels, darkly hints and teaches that there is no stability in human affairs, but that we must accept contentedly whatever twists and turns our lives may receive from the deity. And as for the sitting down after worship, We are told that it is an augury of the acceptance of the worshipper's prayers and the duration of his blessings. We are also told that, as different acts are separated by an interval of rest, so the worshipper, having completed one act, sits down in the presence of the gods in order that he may begin another with their blessing. But this, too, can be brought into agreement with what was said above. The lawgiver is trying to accustom us not to make our petitions to the deity when we are busied with other matters and in a hurry, as it were, but when we have time and are at leisure.

By such training and schooling in religious matters, the city became so tractable and stood in such awe of Numa's power that they accepted his stories, though fabulously strange, and thought nothing incredible or impossible which he wished them to believe or do. At any rate, the story goes that he once invited a large number of the citizens to his table, and set before them mean dishes and a very simple repast. But just as they began to eat, he surprised them by saying that the goddess with whom he consorted was come to visit him, and lo, on a sudden, the room was full of costly beakers, and the tables were laden with all sorts of meats and abundant furniture. But nothing can be so strange as what is told about his conversation with Jupiter.

When the Aventine Hill, so runs the tale, was not yet a part of the city, nor even inhabited, but abounded in springs and shady dells, two demigods, Picus and Farnus, made it their haunt. In other ways, these divinities might be likened to satyrs or pans. But they are said to have used powerful drugs and practiced clever incantations, and to have traversed Italy playing the same tricks as the so-called Edian dactylae of the Greeks. These demigods, Numa is said to have caught by mixing wine and honey with the water of the spring from which they were wont to drink. When captured, they dropped their own forms and assumed many different shapes, Presenting hideous and dreadful appearances. But when they perceived that they were fast caught and could not escape, they foretold to Numa many things that would come to pass, and taught him besides the charm against thunder and lightning which is still practiced with onions, hair, and sprats.

Some, however, say that it was not the imps themselves who imparted the charm, but that they called Jupiter down from the heaven by their magic, and that this deity angrily told Numa that he must charm thunder and lightning with heads. Of onions? asked Numa, filling out the phrase. Of men? said Jupiter. Thereupon Numa, trying once more to avert the horror of the prescription, asked— "'With hair?' "'Nay,' answered Jupiter. "'With living.' "'Spratz,' added Numa, as he had been taught by Egyria to say. Then the god returned to heaven in a gracious mood. "'Hilios,' as the Greeks say. And the place was called Elysium from this circumstance. And that is the way the charm was perfected. These stories—' Fabulous and ridiculous as they are, show us the attitude which the men of that time from force of custom took towards the gods.

And Numa himself, as they say, had such implicit confidence in the gods that once, when a message was brought to him that enemies were coming up against the city, he smiled and said, "'But I am sacrificing.' He was also the first, they say, to build temples to faith and terminus. And he taught the Romans their most solemn oath by faith, which they still continue to use. Turminus signifies boundary, and to this god they made public and private sacrifices where their fields are set off by boundaries. Of living victims nowadays, But anciently the sacrifice was a bloodless one, since Numa reasons that the god of boundaries was a guardian of peace and a witness of just dealing, and should therefore be clear from slaughter.

And it is quite apparent that it was this king who set bounds to the territory of the city, for Romulus was unwilling to acknowledge, by measuring off his own, how much he had taken away from others. He knew that a boundary, if observed, fetters lawless power, and if not observed, convicts of injustice. And indeed, the city's territory was not extensive at first, but Romulus acquired most of it later with the spear. All this was distributed by Numa among the indigent citizens, He wished to remove the destitution which drives men to wrongdoing, and to turn the people to agriculture, that they might be subdued and softened along with the soil they tilled. For there is no occupation which produces so keen and quick a relish for peace as that of a farmer's life, where so much of the warrior's daring as prompts a man to fight for his own is always preserved, While the warrior's license to indulge in rapacity and injustice is extirpated.

Numa, therefore, administering agriculture to his citizens as a sort of peace potion, and well pleased with the art as fostering character rather than wealth, divided the city's territory into districts to which he gave the name of Paghi, and in each of them he set overseers and patrols. But sometimes he would inspect them in person, and, judging of the characters of the citizens from the condition of their farms, would advance some to positions of honor and trust, while others who were indolent and careless he would chide and reproach, and so try to make them sensible. But of all his measures, the one most admired was his distribution of the people into groups according to their trades or arts.

For the city was supposed to consist of two tribes, as has been said, although it had no consistency, but was rather divided into two tribes, and utterly refused to become united or to blot out its diversities and differences. On the contrary, it was filled with ceaseless collisions and contentions between its component parts. Numa, therefore, Aware that hard substances which will not readily mingle may be crushed and pulverized, and then more easily mix and mingle with each other owing to the smallness of their particles, determined to divide the entire body of the people into a greater number of divisions, and so, by merging it in other distinctions, to obliterate the original and great distinction, which would be lost among the lesser ones.

He distributed them, accordingly, by arts and trades, into musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, leather-workers, couriers, braziers, and potters. The remaining trades he grouped together, and made one body out of all who belonged to them. He also appointed social gatherings and public assemblies, and rites of worship befitting each body. And thus, at last, he banished from the city the practice of speaking and thinking of some citizens as Sabines, and of others as Romans, or of some as subjects of Tatius, and others of Romulus, so that his division resulted in a harmonious blending of them all together. Praise is also given to that measure of his whereby the law permitting fathers to sell their sons was amended.

He made an exception of married sons, provided they had married with the consent and approval of their fathers, for he thought it a hard thing that a woman who had married a man whom she thought free should find herself living with a slave.

He applied himself also to the adjustment of the calendar, not with exactness, and yet not altogether without careful observation, for during the reign of Romulus, They had been irrational and irregular in their fixing of the months, reckoning some at less than twenty days, some at thirty-five, and some at more. And they had no idea of the inequality in the annual motions of the sun and moon, but held to this principle only, that the year should consist of three hundred and sixty days. But Numa, Estimating the extent of the inequality at eleven days, since the lunar year had three hundred and fifty-four days, but the solar year, three hundred and sixty-five, doubled these eleven days, and every other year inserted after the month of February the intercalary month called Mercadenas by the Romans, which consisted of twenty-two days.

This correction of the inequality which he made was destined to require other and greater corrections in the future. He also changed the order of the months. March, which had been first, he made the third month, and January, which had been the eleventh under Romulus, he made the first month. February, which had been twelfth and last, thus became the second month as now. But there are many who say that these months of January and February were added to the calendar by Numa, and that at the outset the Romans had only ten months in their year, as some barbarians have three, and as among the Greeks the Arcadians have four, and the Akarnanians six. The Egyptian year had at first only a single month in it, afterwards four, as we are told, And therefore, though they inhabit a very recent country, they have the credit of being a very ancient people, and loathe their genealogies with a prodigious number of years, since they really count their months as so many years.

That the Romans had at first only ten months in their year and not twelve is proved by the name of their last month, for they still call it December, or the tenth month, And that March used to be their first month is proved by the sequence of months after it, for the fifth month after it used to be called Quintilus, the sixth, Sextilus, and so on with the rest. Therefore, when they placed January and February before March, they were guilty of naming the above-mentioned month Quintilus, or Fifth, but counting it Seventh. And besides, it was reasonable that March, which is consecrate to Mars, should be put in the first place by Romulus, and April in the second place, since this month is named after Aphrodite.

In it they sacrificed to the goddess, and on its first day the women bathe with myrtle garlands on their heads. Some, however, say that April with its smooth pea cannot be derived from Aphrodite with its rough pH, but that this month of high springtime is called April, because it opens and discloses the buds and shoots in vegetation, this being the meaning of the word apeirio. The next month in order is called May, from Maya, the mother of Mercury, to whom it is sacred, and June is so named from Juno. There are some, however, who say that these months get their name from an age, older and younger, for, Majores is their name for the elder, Juniores for the younger men. Each of the remaining months they named from its arithmetical position in the list, the fifth, Quintilus, the sixth, Sextilus, and so on.

September, October, November, and December. Afterwards, the fifth month was named Julius, from Julius Caesar, the conqueror of Pompey, and the sixth month Augustus, from the second Caesar, who was given that title. The seventh and eighth months bore for a short time the names Germanicus and Domitianus, which the Emperor Domitian gave them. But when he was slain, they resumed their old titles of September and October. Only the last two months, November and December, preserved the names derived from their position in the list, just as they were at the outset.

Of the months which were added or transposed by Numa, February must have something to do with purification, for this is the nearest to the meaning of the word, and in this month they make offerings to the dead, and celebrate the festival of the Lupercalia, which, in most of its features, resembles a purification. The first month, January, is so named from Janus, and I think that March, which is named from Mars, was moved by Numa from its place at the head of the months, because he wished in every case that martial influences should yield precedence to civil and political.

For this Janus, in remote antiquity, whether he was a demi-god or a king, was a patron of civil and social order, and is said to have lifted human life out of its bestial and savage state. For this reason he is represented with two faces, implying that he brought men's lives out of one sort and condition into another. He also has a temple at Rome with double doors, which they call the gates of war, for the temple always stands open in time of war, but is closed when peace has come. The latter was a difficult matter, and it rarely happened, since the realm was always engaged in some war, as its increasing size brought it into collision with the barbarous nations which encompassed it round about.

But in the time of Augustus Caesar it was closed, after he had overthrown Anton, and before that, when Marcus Antilius and Titus Manlius were consuls, it was closed a short time. Then war broke out again at once, and it was opened. During the reign of Numa, however, it was not seen open for a single day, but remained shut for the space of forty-three years together, So complete and universal was the cessation of war. For not only was the Roman people softened and charmed by the righteousness and mildness of their king, but also the cities round about, as if some cooling breeze or salubrious wind were wafted upon them from Rome, began to experience a change of temper, and all of them were filled with longing desire to have good government, to be at peace, to till the earth, to rear their children in quiet, and to worship the gods.

Festivals and feasts, hospitalities and friendly converse between people who visited one another promiscuously and without fear, these prevailed throughout Italy, while honor and justice flowed into all hearts from the wisdom of Numa as from a fountain, and the calm serenity of his spirit diffused itself abroad. Thus even the hyperboles of the poets fall short of picturing the state of man in those days.

And on the iron-bound shield handles lie the tawny spider's webs.

Rust now subdues the sharp-pointed spears and two-edged swords. No longer is the blast of brazen trumpets heard, nor are the eyelids robbed of delicious sleep. For there is no record either of war or faction or political revolution while Numa was king. Nay, more, no hatred or jealousy was felt towards his person, nor did ambition lead men to plot and conspire against his throne. On the contrary, either fear of the gods who seemed to have him in their especial care or reverence for his virtue, or a marvellous felicity, which in his days kept life Free from the taint of every vice and pure, made him a manifest illustration and confirmation of the saying which Plato, many generations later, ventured to utter regarding government, namely, that human ills would only then cease and disappear when, by some divine felicity, the power of a king should be united in one person with the insight of a philosopher, thereby establishing virtue in control and mastery over vice.

Blessed, indeed, is such a wise man. In himself and blessed, too, are those who hear the words of wisdom issuing from his lips. For possibly there is no need of any compulsion or menace in dealing with the multitude, but when they see with their own eyes a conspicuous and shining example of virtue in the life of their ruler, They will of their own accord walk in wisdom's ways, and unite with him in conforming themselves to a blameless and blessed life of friendship and mutual concord attended by righteousness and temperance. Such a life is the noblest end of all government, and he is most a king who can inculcate such a life and such a disposition in his subjects. This, then, as it appears, Pneuma was pre-eminent in discerning.

As regards his marriages and offspring, histories are at variance. Some say that he had no other wife than Tattia, and no other child than one daughter, Pompilia. Others ascribe to him four sons besides, Pompon, Pinus, Calpus, and Mimurcus, each one of whom was the founder of an honorable family. From Pompon? The Pomponii are descended from Pinus, the Pinarei, from Calpus, the Chalpurnii, and from Mamurchus, the Mamurchii, who for this reason also had the surname of Regis, or Kings. But there is a third class of writers who accuse the former of paying court to these great families by forging for them lines of descent from Numa, and they say that Pompilia was not the daughter of Tattia, but of Lucretia, another wife whom Numa married after he became king.

However, all are agreed that Pompilia was married to Marsius. Now this Marcius was a son of the Marcius who induced Numa to accept the throne. That Marcius accompanied Numa to Rome, and there was honored with membership in the Senate. After Numa's death, he competed for the throne with Hostilius, and being defeated, starved himself to death. But his son Marcius, the husband of Pompilia, remained at Rome, and begat Ancus Marcius, who succeeded Tullus Hostilius in the kingdom. This Ancus Marsius is said to have been only five years old when Numa died, not a speedy nor a sudden death, but wasting away gradually from old age and a mild disorder, as Piso writes. He was something over eighty years old when he died.

His obsequies were as much to be envied as his life. The peoples which were in alliance and friendship with Rome assembled at the rites with public offerings and crowns. The senators carried his bier, the priests of the gods served as its escort, and the rest of the people, including women and children, followed with groans and lamentations, not as though they were attending the funeral of an aged king, but as though each one of them was burying some dearest relation taken away in the flower of life. They did not burn his body, because, as it is said, he forbade it, but they made two stone coffins, and buried them under the geniculum. One of these held his body, and the other the sacred books which he had written out with his own hand, as the Greek lawgivers their tablets.

But since, while he was still living, he had taught the priests the written contents of the books, and had inculcated in their hearts the scope and meaning of them all, he commanded that they should be buried with his body, convinced that such mysteries ought not to be entrusted to the care of lifeless documents. This is the reason we are told why the Pythagoreans also do not entrust their precepts to writing, but implant the memory and practice of them in living disciples worthy to receive them. And when their treatment of the abstruse and mysterious processes of geometry have been divulged to a certain unworthy person, they said the gods threatened to punish such lawlessness and impiety with some signal and widespread calamity.

Therefore we may well be indulgent with those who are eager to prove, on the basis of so many resemblances between them, that Numa was acquainted with Pythagoras.

Anteus, however, writes that it was twelve pontifical books, and twelve others of Greek philosophy, which were placed in the coffin. And about four hundred years afterwards, when Publius Cornelius and Marcus Bibius were consuls, heavy rains fell, and the torrent of water tore away the earth and dislodged the coffins. When their lids had fallen off, one coffin was seen to be entirely empty, without any trace whatever of the body. But in the other the writings were found. These who was then praetor, is said to have read, and then brought to the Senate, declaring that, in his opinion, it was not lawful or proper that the writings should be published abroad. The books were therefore carried to the Commitium, and burned.

It is true, indeed, of all just and good men, that they are praised more after they have left the world than before, since envy does not long survive them, and some even see it die before them. But in Numa's case, the misfortunes of all the kings who followed him made his fame shine all the brighter. For of the five who came after him, The last was dethroned and grew old in exile, and of the other four not one died a natural death. Three of them were conspired against and slain, and Tullus Hostilius, who reigned next after Numa, and who mocked and derided most of his virtues, and above all his devotion to religion, declaring that it made men idle and effeminate, turned the minds of the citizens to war.

He himself, however, did not abide by his presumptuous folly, but was converted by a grievous and complicated disease, and gave himself over to a superstition which was far removed from the piety of Numa. His subjects, too, were even more affected with superstition, as we are told, when he died by a stroke of lightning.

End of Numa, part three.

15 14 - Comparison of Lycurgus & Numa 15:00

I. Now that we have recounted the lives of Numa and Lycurgus, And both lie clearly before us. We must attempt, even though the task be difficult, to assemble and put together their points of difference. For their points of likeness are obvious from their careers—their wise moderation, their piety, their talent for governing and educating, and their both deriving their laws from a divine source. But each also performed noble deeds peculiar to himself. To begin with, Numa accepted, but Lycurgus resigned, a kingdom. One got it without asking for it, the other had it, and gave it up. One was made by others their sovereign, though a private person and a stranger. The other made himself a private person, though he was a king.

It was a noble thing, of course, to win a kingdom by righteousness. But it was also a noble thing to set righteousness above a kingdom. For it was virtue which rendered the one so famous as to be judged worthy of a kingdom, and virtue too which made the other so great as to scorn a kingdom. In the second place, then, it is granted that, just as musicians tune their lyres, so Lycurgus tightened the strings at Sparta, which he found relaxed with luxury, and Numa loosened the strings at Rome, where the tones were sharp and high. But the task was more difficult in the case of Lycurgus. For his efforts were to persuade the citizens not to take off their breastplates and lay aside their swords, but to cast away gold and silver, and abandon costly couches and tables, not to cease from wars and hold festivals and sacrifices, but to give up feasting and drinking, and practice laboriously as soldiers and athletes.

Wherefore the one accomplished all his ends by persuasion through the goodwill and honor in which his people held him, But the other had to risk his life and suffer wounds, and scarcely then prevailed. Numa's muse, however, was gentle and humane, and he converted his people to peace and righteousness, and softened their violent and fiery tempers. And if we must ascribe to the administrations of Lycurgus the treatment of the helots, a most savage and lawless practice, we shall own that Numa was far more Hellenic as a lawgiver, Since he gave acknowledged slaves a taste of the dignity of freedom, by making it the custom for them to feast in the company of their masters during the Saturnalia, for this, too, was one of the institutions of Numa, as we are told, who thereby admitted to the enjoyment of the yearly fruits of the earth, those who had helped to produce them.

Some, however, fancy that this custom was a reminder of the equality which characterized the famous Saturnian age. When there was neither slave nor master, but all were regarded as kinsmen and equals. Two. In general, both alike manifestly strove to lead their peoples to independence and sobriety. But as regards the other virtues, the one set his affections more on bravery, the other on righteousness. Unless, indeed, the different natures or usages on which the government of each was based required different provisions, For it was not out of cowardice that Numa put a stop to the waging of war, but to prevent the commission of injustice. Neither was it to promote the commission of injustice that Lycurgus made his people warlike, but that they might not suffer injustice.

Accordingly, in removing the excesses and supplying the deficiencies of their citizens, both were forced to make great innovations. And surely, as regards the arrangement and classification of citizens under their respective governments, Numa's was strongly popular and inclined to favor the masses, resulting in a promiscuous and variegated commonality of goldsmiths, musicians, and leatherworkers. But that of Lycurgus was rigid and aristocratic. Relegating the mechanical arts into the hands of slaves and aliens, but confining the citizens themselves to the use of the shield and the spear, so that they were artificers of war and servants of Ares, but knew and cared for nothing else than to obey their commanders and master their enemies.

For free men were not even permitted to transact business, that they might be entirely and forever free, but the whole apparatus of business was turned over to slaves and helots. Just like the preparation and serving of their meals. Numa, on the contrary, made no such distinctions, but while he put a stop to military rapacity, he permitted no other gainful occupation, nor did he reduce the great inequalities resulting therefrom, but left the acquisition of wealth wholly unrestricted, and paid no attention to the great increase of poverty and its gradual influx into the city. And yet it was his duty at the very outset, While as yet there was no general or great disparity of means, but people still lived on much the same plane to make a stand against rapacity as Lycurgus did, and take measurements of precautions against its mischiefs.

For these were not trifling, but furnished the seed and source of the most and greatest evils of after-times. But as regards the redistribution of the land, Lycurgus, in my opinion, is not to be censured for making it, nor Numa for not making it. In the one case, the resulting equality was the foundation and base for his polity, but in the other, since the allotment of lands was recent, there was no urgent reason for introducing another division, or for disturbing the first assignment, which probably was still in force. Three. With regard to the community in marriage and parentage, though both, by a sound policy, inculcated in husbands a freedom from selfish jealousy, still, Their methods were not entirely alike.

The Roman husband, if he had a sufficient number of children to rear, and another, who lacked children, could persuade him to the step, relinquished his wife to him, having the power of surrendering her entirely, or only for a season. But the Spartan, while his wife remained in his house, and the marriage retained its original rights and obligations, Might allow anyone who gained his consent to share his wife for the purpose of getting children by her. And many husbands, as we have said, would actually invite into their homes men whom they thought most likely to procure them handsome and noble children. What, then, is the difference between the two customs? We may say, perhaps, that the spartan implies a complete indifference to the wife and to the jealous emotions which confound and consume the hearts of most men.

While the Roman, as if with shamefaced modesty, makes a veil of the new betrothal, and concedes that community of wives is really insupportable. Still further, Numa's watchful care of young maidens was more conducive to feminine decorum. But the treatment of them by Lycurgus, being entirely unconfined and unfeminine, has given occasion to the poets. They call them Phanomorides, Bare-Thighed, Soibicus, And revile them as mad after men. Thus Euripides says, They leave their homes to mingle with the youths. Their thighs are naked, flying free their robes. For in fact the flaps of the tunic worn by their maidens were not sewn together below the waist, but would fly back and lay bare the whole thigh as they walked.

Sophocles pictures the thing very clearly in these words. And that young maid, whose tunic, still unsewn, Lays bare her gleaming thigh, Between its folds, Hermione. And so their women, it is said, were too bold, Putting on men's airs with their husbands even, To begin with, since they ruled their houses absolutely, And besides, on public occasions taking part in debate, And the freest speech on the most important subjects. But Numa, While carefully preserving to the matrons that dignified and honorable relation to their husbands, which was bestowed on them by Romulus, when he tried by kindly usage to efface the memory of the violence done them, nevertheless enjoined great modesty upon them, forbade them all busy intermeddling, taught them sobriety, and accustomed them to be silent.

Wine they were to refrain from entirely, and were not to speak even on the most necessary topics, Unless their husbands were with them. At any rate, it is said that when a woman once pleaded her own cause in a forum, the Senate sent to inquire from an oracle what the event might pretend for the city, and for their usual gentleness and readiness to obey. There is strong evidence in the specific mention made of those who were less amiable. For just as our Greek historians record the names of those who first slew kinfolk, or made war on their brothers, or were parricides or matricides, So the Romans make record of the fact that Spurius Carvilius was the first to divorce his wife, two hundred and thirty years after the founding of Rome, there being no precedent for it.

Also that the wife of Pinarius, Thalaia by name, was the first woman to quarrel with her own mother-in-law, Gagania, in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus. In such fitting and proper manner were marriages regulated by their lawgiver. Four further, The practice of the two peoples in the matter of giving their young maids in marriage conforms to their education of them in general. Lycurgus made them brides only when they were fully ripe and eager for it. In order that intercourse with a husband, coming at a time when nature craved it, might produce a kindly love, instead of the timorous hate that follows unnatural compulsion. Also that their bodies might be vigorous enough to endure the strain of conception and childbirth.

Convinced as he was that marriage had no other end than the production of children. The Romans, on the other hand, gave their maidens in marriage when they were twelve years old, or even younger. In this way, more than any other, it was thought both their bodies and their dispositions would be pure and undefiled when their husbands took control of them. It is clear, therefore, that one practice regarded nature more, with children in view, and the other regarded more the formation of character, With married life in view. But surely, by his careful attention to boys, by their collection into companies, their discipline and constant association, and by his painstaking arrangements for their meals and bodily exercise and sports, Lycurgus proves that Numa was no more than an ordinary lawgiver.

For Numa left the bringing up of the ewes to the wishes or necessities of their fathers. A father might, if he wished, make his son a tiller of the soil, or a shipwright, Or might teach him to be a smith or a flute-player, as if it were not important that all of them should be trained with one and the same end in view from the outset, and have their dispositions formed alike, but rather as if they were like passengers on a ship, each coming with a different object and purpose, and each therefore uniting with the rest for the common good only in times of peril, through fear of private loss, but otherwise consulting only his own interests, Now it is not worth while to censure the common run of legislatures, who fail through ignorance or weakness.

But when a wise man has consented to be king over a people newly constituted and pliant to his every wish, what should have been his first care? Unless it was the rearing of boys and the training of youths, so that there might be no confusing differences in their characters, but that they might be moulded and fashioned from the very outset, As to walk harmoniously together in the same path of virtue. This, indeed, was what helped Lycurgus to secure, among other things, the stability and permanence of his laws. The Spartans took oaths to maintain these laws, it is true. But this would have availed little had he not, by means of his training and education of the boys, infused his laws, as it were, into their characters, and made the emulous love of his government An integral part of their rearing.

The result was that for more than five hundred years, the sovereign and fundamental features of his legislation remained in force, like a strong and penetrating die. But that which was the end and aim of Numa's government—namely, the continuance of peace and friendship between Rome and other nations—straightway vanished from the earth with him. After his death, the double doors of the temple which he had kept continuously closed, As if he really had war caged and confined there, were thrown wide open, and Italy was filled with the blood of the slain. Thus not even for a little time then the beautiful edifice of justice, which he had reared, remained standing, because it lacked the cement of education.

What, then, some one will say, was not Rome advanced and bettered by her wars? That is a question which will need a long answer if I am to satisfy men who hold that betterment consists in wealth, luxury, and empire, rather than in safety, gentleness, and that independence which is attended by righteousness. However, it will be thought, I suppose, to favor the superior claims of Lycurgus that, whereas the Romans increased in power as they did after abandoning the institutions of Numa's time, The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, just as soon as they forsook the precepts of Lycurgus, sank from the highest to the lowest place, lost their supremacy over the Greeks, and were in danger of utter destruction.

Nevertheless, this remains a great feature in Numa's career, and one really divine, that he was a stranger and yet was summoned to the throne, where he changed the whole nature of the state by force of persuasion alone. And mastered a city which was not yet in sympathy with his views, and that he accompanied this without appeal to amos or any violence, unlike Lycurgus, who led the nobles in arms against the commons, but by his wisdom and justice won the hearts of all citizens, and brought them into harmony.

16 15 - Solon pt. 1 30:30

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Solon, the grammarian, in his reply to Asclepiades on Solon's tables of law, mentions a remark of one Philocles, in which it is stated that Solon's father was Euphorion, contrary to the opinion of all others who have written about Solon, for they all unite in saying that he was a son of Exesestides, a man of moderate wealth and influence in the city, But a member of its foremost family, being descended from Codrus. Solon's mother, according to Heraclides Ponticus, was a cousin of the mother of Pisistratus. And the two men were at first great friends, largely because of their kinship, and largely because of the youthful beauty of Pisistratus, with whom, as some say, Solon was passionately in love.

And this may be the reason why, in later years, when they were at variance about matters of state, their enmity did not bring with it any harsh or savage feelings, but their former amenities lingered in their spirits, and preserved their, smouldering with a lingering flame of Zeus-sent fire, the grateful memory of their love. And that Solon was not proof against beauty in a youth, and may not so bold with love as to confront him like a boxer hand to hand, may be inferred from his poems. He also wrote a law forbidding a slave to practise gymnastics or have a boy lover, thus putting the matter in the category of honourable and dignified practices, and in a way inciting the worthy to that which he forbade the unworthy.

And it is said that Pisistratus also had a boy-lover, Carmus, and that he dedicated the statue of love in the academy where the runners in the sacred torch-race light their torches.

Solon then, after his father had impaired his estate in sundry benevolent charities, as Hermippus tells us, might have found friends enough who were willing to aid him, but he was ashamed to take from others, Since he belonged to a family which had always helped others, and therefore while still a young man embarked in commerce. And yet some say that he travelled to get experience and learning rather than to make money. For he was admittedly a lover of wisdom, since even when he was well on in years he would say that he grew old, ever learning many things. And he was not an admirer of wealth, But actually says that two men are alike wealthy, of whom one, much silver hath, and gold, and wide domains of wheat-bearing soil, horses, and mules, while to the other only enough belongs to give him comfort of food and clothes and shoes, enjoyment of child and blooming wife when these two come, and only years commensurate therewith are his.

However, in another place, he says, "'Wealth I desire to have, but wrongfully to get it I do not wish. Justice, even if slow, is sure.' And there is no reason why a good statesman should either set his heart too much on the acquisition of superfluous wealth, or despise unduly the use of what is necessary and convenient.' In those earlier times, to use the words of Hesiod, work was no disgrace, nor did a trade bring with it social inferiority, and the calling of a merchant was actually held in honour, since it gave him familiarity with foreign parts, friendship with foreign kings, and a large experience in affairs. Some merchants were actually founders of great cities, as Protis, who was beloved by the Gauls along the Rhône, was of Marseilles.

Thales is said to have engaged in trade, as well as Hippocrates, the mathematician, and Plato defrayed the expenses of his sojourn in Egypt by the sale of oil. Accordingly, if Solon's way of living was expensive and profuse, and if, in his poems, he speaks of pleasure with more freedom than becomes a philosopher, This is thought to be due to his mercantile life. He encountered many and great dangers, and sought his reward, therefore, in sundry luxuries and enjoyments. But that he classed himself among the poor rather than the rich is clear from these verses. For often evil men are rich, and good men poor. But we will not exchange with them our virtue for their wealth, Since one abides alway, while riches change their owners every day.

And he seems to have composed his poetry at first with no serious end in view, but as amusement and diversion in his hours of leisure. Then later he put philosophic maxims into verse, and interwove many political teachings in his poems, not simply to record and transmit them, but because they contained justifications of his acts, and sometimes exhortations, admonitions, and rebukes for the Athenians. Some say, too, that he attempted to reduce his laws to heroic verse before he published them, and they give us this introduction to them. First, let us offer prayers to Zeus, the royal son of Cronus. that he may give these laws of ours success and fame. In philosophy he cultivated chiefly the domain of political ethics, like most of the wise men of the time, and in physics he is very simple and antiquated, as is clear from the following verses.

From clouds comes sweeping snow and hail, and thunder follows on the lightning's flash. By winds the sea is lashed to storm, but if it be unvexed, it is of all things most amenable. And in general it would seem that Thales was the only wise man of the time who carried his speculations beyond the realm of the practical. The rest got the name of wisdom from their excellence as statesmen. The names usually given in the list of the seven wise men are Byas of Priene, Chylon of Sparta, Cleobulus of Lindus, Periander of Corinth, Pitycus of Mytilene, Solon of Athens, and Thales of Miletus. They are all said to have met together at Delphi, and again in Corinth, where Periander arranged something like a joint conference for them and a banquet.

But what contributed still more to their honour and fame was the circuit which the tripod made among them, its passing round through all their hands, and their mutual declination of it, with generous expressions of goodwill. Some coans, as the story goes, were dragging in a net, and some strangers from Miletus bought the catch as yet unseen. It proved to contain a golden tripod, which Helen, on her voyage from Troy, is said to have thrown in there when she called to mind a certain ancient oracle. First the strangers had a dispute with the fishermen about the tripod, and then their cities took up the quarrel and went at last to war, whereupon the Pythian priestess of Apollo told both parties in an oracle, that the tripod must be given to the wisest man.

So in the first place it was sent to Thales at Miletus, the Coans willingly bestowing upon him alone that for which they had waged war against all the Milesians together. But Thales declared that Bias was a wiser man than he, and the tripod was sent to Bias. From Bias in his turn it was dispatched to another As wiser than he. So it went the rounds, and was sent away by each in turn, until at last it came to Thales for the second time. Finally, it was carried from Miletus to Thebes, and dedicated to Ismenian Apollo. Theophrastus, however, says that the tripod was sent in the first place to Bias at Priene, and in the second place to Thales at Miletus at the instance of Bias, and so passed through the hands of all the wise men until it came round again to Bias, and finally was sent to Delphi.

These, then, are the more common versions of the tale, but some say that the gift thus passed from hand to hand was not the tripod now seen at Delphi, but a bowl sent there by Croesus. and others that it was a beaker left there by Bethicles. In particular we are told of private intercourse between Solon and Anachasis, and between Solon and Thales, of which the following accounts are given. Anachasis came to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and said that he was a stranger who had come to make ties of friendship and hospitality with him. On Solon's replying that it was better to make one's friendships at home, "'Well, then,' said Anacarsis, "'do thou, who art at home, make me thy friend and guest.' So Solon, admiring the man's ready wit, received him graciously, and kept him with him some time.

This was when he was already engaged in public affairs and compiling his laws. Anacarsis, accordingly, On learning what Solon was about, laughed at him for thinking that he could check the injustice and rapacity of the citizens by written laws, which were just like spiders' webs. They would hold the weak and delicate who might be caught in their meshes, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful. To this Solon is said to have answered that men keep their agreements with each other when neither party profits by the breaking of them, and he was adapting his laws to the citizens in such a manner as to make it clear to all that the practice of justice was more advantageous than the transgression of the laws.

But the results justified the conjecture of Anarchasis rather than the hopes of Solon. It was Anarchasis, too, who said, after attending a session of the assembly, that he was amazed to find that among the Greeks the wise men pleaded causes, but the fools decided them. On his visit to Thales at Miletus, Solon is said to have expressed astonishment that his host was wholly indifferent to marriage and the getting of children. At the time Thales made no answer. But a few days afterwards he contrived to have a stranger say that he was just arrived after a ten days' journey from Athens. When Solon asked what news there was at Athens, the man, who was under instructions what to say, answered, "'None other than the funeral of a young man, who was followed to the grave by the whole city.' For he was the son, as I was told, of an honoured citizen who excelled all others in virtue.

He was not at the funeral of his son. They told me that he had been travelling abroad for a long time. "'Oh, the miserable man,' said Solon, "'pray, what was his name?' "'I heard the name,' the man said, "'but I cannot recall it. Only there was great talk of his wisdom and justice.' Thus every answer heightened Solon's fears, and at last, in great distress of soul, he told his name to the stranger, and asked him if it was Solon's son that was dead. The man said it was, whereupon Solon began to beat his head and to do and say everything else that betokens a transport of grief. But Thales took him by the hand and said with a smile, This it is, O Solon, which keeps me from marriage and the getting of children.

It overwhelms even thee who art the most stout-hearted of men. But be not dismayed at this story, for it is not true. Such at any rate, according to Hermippus, is the story of Petycus, who used to boast that he had Aesop's soul. However, it is irrational and ignoble to renounce the acquisition of what we want for fear of losing it, for on this principle a man cannot be gratified by the possession of wealth or honour or wisdom for fear he may be deprived of them. Indeed, even virtue, the most valuable and pleasing possession in the world, is often banished by sickness and drugs. And Thales himself, though unmarried, was nevertheless not wholly free from apprehension, unless he also avoided having friends or relations or country.

On the contrary, he had a son by his own adoption, as we are told, Sybisthus, his sister's son. For the soul has in itself a capacity for affection, and loves just as naturally as it perceives, understands, and remembers. It clothes itself in this capacity, and attaches itself to those who are not akin to it, and just as if it were a house or an estate that lacks lawful heirs, this craving for affection is entered and occupied by alien and illegitimate children, or retainers, who, along with love for them, inspire anxiety and fear in their behalf. So that you will find men of a somewhat rugged nature who argue against marriage and the begetting of children, and then, when children of their servants or offspring of their concubines fall sick and die, these same men are racked with sorrow and lament abjectly.

Some, too, at the death even of dogs and horses, have been plunged into shameful and intolerable grief. But others have borne the loss of noble sons without terrible sorrow or unworthy conduct, and have conformed the rest of their lives to the dictates of reason. For it is weakness, not kindness, that brings men into endless pains and terrors when they are not trained by reason to endure the assaults of fortune. Such men do not even enjoy what they long for when they get it, but are filled with continual pangs, tremors, and struggles by the fear of future loss. However, we must be fortified not by poverty against deprivation of worldly goods, nor by friendlessness against loss of friends, nor by childlessness against death of children, but by reason against all adversities.

This, under present circumstances, is more than enough on this head. Once, when the Athenians were tired out with a war which they were waging against the Megarians for the island of Salamis, they made a law that no one in future, on pain of death, should move, in writing or orderly, that the city take up its contention for Salamis. Solon could not endure the disgrace of this. And when he saw that many of the young men wanted steps taken to bring on the war, but did not dare to take those steps themselves on account of the law, he pretended to be out of his head, and a report was given out to the city by his family that he showed signs of madness. He then secretly composed some elegiac verses, and after rehearsing them so that he could say them by rote, He sallied out into the market-place of a sudden, with a cap upon his head.

After a large crowd had collected there, he got upon the herald's stone, and recited the poem which begins, Behold in me a herald come from lovely Salamis, with a song in ordered verse instead of a harangue. This poem is entitled Salamis. and contains a hundred very graceful verses. When Solon had sung it, his friends began to praise him, and Peisistratus in particular urged and incited the citizens to obey his words. They therefore repealed the law and renewed the war, putting Solon in command of it. The popular account of his campaign is as follows. Having sailed to Cape Colias with Pisistratus, he found all the women of the city there performing the customary sacrifice to Demeter. He therefore sent a trusty man to Salamis, who pretended to be a deserter, and bade the Megarians, if they wished to capture the principal women of Athens, to sail to Colias with him as fast as they could.

The Megarians were persuaded by him and sent off some men in his ship. But when Solon saw the vessel sailing back from the island, he ordered the women to withdraw, and directed those of the younger men, who were still beardless, arraying themselves in the garments, headbands, and sandals which the women had worn, and carrying concealed daggers, to sport and dance on the sea-shore until the enemy had disembarked and the vessel was in their power. This being done as he directed, the Megarians were lured on by what they saw, beached their vessel, and leapt out to attack women, as they supposed, vying with one another in speed. The result was that not a man of them escaped, but all were slain, and the Athenians at once set sail and took possession of the island.

Others, however, say that the island was not taken in this way, but that Solon first received this oracle from the god at Delphi. The tutelary heroes of the land where once they lived with sacred rites propitiate, whom the Esopian plain now hides in its bosom. There they lie buried with their faces toward the setting sun. Thereupon Solon sailed by night to the island, and made sacrifices to the heroes Periphemus and Cycreus. Then he took five hundred athenian volunteers, a decree having been made that these should be supreme in the government of the island if they took it, and setting sail with a number of fishing-boats convoyed by a thirty-awed ship, he anchored off the island of Salamis, at a point of land looking towards Euboea.

But the Megarians in the city of Salamis, hearing only an uncertain report of what had happened, armed themselves hurriedly and set out for the place, at the same time dispatching a ship to spy out the enemy. This ship came near, and was captured by Solon, who put her crew in confinement. Then he manned her with the best of his Athenians, and ordered them to sail against the city, keeping themselves as much concealed as was feasible. At the same time, with the rest of his Athenians, he engaged the Megarians on land, and while the fight was still raging, the crew of the ship succeeded in capturing the city. Now there seems to be a confirmation of this story in certain ceremonies afterwards established.

Viz. An Attic ship would approach the island in silence at first, then its crew would make an onset with shouts and cries, and one man in full armour would leap out with a shout of triumph, and run to the promontory of Cyradium to inform those who were attacking by land. Hard by that place is the temple of Enialius, which was erected by Solon. For he conquered the Megarians, and all who were not slain in the battle were released on parole. Notwithstanding all this, the Megarians persisted in their opposition, and both sides inflicted and suffered many injuries in the war, so that finally they made the Lacedaemonians arbiters and judges of the strife. Accordingly, most writers say that the fame of Homer favoured the contention of Solon, for after himself inserting a verse into the catalogue of ships, he read the passage at the trial thus, Ajax from Salamis brought twelve ships, and bringing stationed them near the Athenian hosts.

The Athenians themselves, however, think this an idle tale. And say that Solon proved to the judges that Phileas and Euryceces, the sons of Ajax, became citizens of Athens, made over their island to them, and took up their residence in Attica, one at Braroun, and the other at Meliti. And they have a township named after Phileas, namely Philaidae, to which Pisistratus belonged. They say, too, that Solon, wishing to refute the claims of the Megarians still further, made the point that the dead on the island of Salamis were not buried after the Megarian, but after the Athenian fashion. For the Megarians bury their dead facing the east, but the Athenians facing the west. However, Herias the Megarian denies this.

and says that the Megarians also turn the faces of their dead to the west. And what is still more important than this, he says that the Athenians use one tomb for each body, whereas the Megarians, like the early inhabitants of Salamis, place three or four bodies in one tomb. However, they say that Solon was further supported by sundry Pythian oracles in which the gods spoke of Salamis as Ionian. This case was decided by five Spartans, Cretolaidas, Amomphiritus, Hypsecidas, Anaxelas, and Cleomenes. These events, then, presently made Solon famous and powerful. But he was even more admired and celebrated among the Greeks for what he said in behalf of the temple at Delphi, namely, that the Greeks must come to its relief, And not suffer the people of Syrah to outrage the oracle, but aid the Delphians in maintaining the honour of the god.

For it was by his persuasion that the Amphicteans undertook the war, as Aristotle, among others, testifies, in his list of the victors at the Pythian games, where he ascribes the measure to Solon. He was not, however, appointed general for this war, as Evanthes the Samian says. According to Hermippus. For Ischines, the orator makes no such statement, and in the records of Delphi it is stated that Alcmeon and not Solon commanded the Athenians. Now this Silonian pollution had for a long time agitated the city, ever since Megacles the Archon had persuaded Silone and his fellow-conspirators, who had taken sanctuary in the temple of Athena, to come down and stand their trial. They fastened a braided thread to the image of the goddess, and kept hold of it, but when they reached the shrine of the Orinyes on their way down, the thread broke of its own accord, upon which Megacles and his fellow-arkens rushed to seize them on the plea that the goddess refused them the rights of suppliants.

Those who were outside of sacred precincts were stoned to death, and those who took refuge at the altars were slaughtered there. Only those were spared who made supplication to the wives of the archons. Therefore the archons were called polluted men, and were held in execration. The survivors of the followers of Silone also recovered strength, and were forever at variance with the descendants of Megacles. At this particular time the quarrel was at its height, and the people divided between the two factions. Solon, therefore, being now in high repute, interposed between them, along with the noblest of the Athenians, and by his entreaties and injunctions persuaded the men who were held to be polluted to submit to a trial, and to abide by the decision of three hundred jurors selected from the nobility.

Myron of Phyla conducted the prosecution, and the family of Megacles was found guilty. Those who were alive were banished, and the bodies of the dead were dug up and cast forth beyond the borders of the country. During these disturbances the Megarians also attacked the Athenians, who lost Nicaea, and were driven out of Salamis once more. The city was also visited with superstitious fears and strange appearances, and the seers declared that their sacrifices indicated pollutions and defilements which demanded expiation. Under these circumstances they summoned to their aid from Crete Epimenides of Phaestus, who is reckoned as the seventh wise man, By some of those who refuse periander a place in the list.

He was reputed to be a man beloved of the gods, and endowed with a mystical and heaven-sent wisdom in religious matters. Therefore the men of his time said that he was the son of a nymph named Balthe, and called him a new Kyres. On coming to Athens he made Solon his friend, assisted him in many ways, and paved the way for his legislation. For he made the Athenians decorous and careful in their religious services, and milder in their rites of mourning by attaching certain sacrifices immediately to their funeral ceremonies, and by taking away the harsh and barbaric practices in which their women had usually indulged up to that time. Most important of all, by sundry rites of propitiation and purification, and by sacred foundations, He hallowed and consecrated the city, and brought it to be observant of justice and more easily inclined to unanimity.

It is said that when he had seen Municia and considered it for some time, he remarked to the bystanders that man was indeed blind to the future. For if the Athenians only knew what mischiefs the place would bring upon their city, They would devour it with their own teeth. A similar insight into futurity is ascribed to Thales. They say that he gave directions for his burial in an obscure and neglected quarter of the city's territory, predicting that it would one day be the market-place of Miletus. Well then, Epimenides was vastly admired by the Athenians, who offered him much money and large honours. But he asked for nothing more than a branch of the sacred olive-tree with which he returned home.

End of Solon.

17 16 - Solon pt. 2 31:18

But the Athenians, now that the Silonian disturbance was over and the polluted persons banished, as described, relapsed into their old disputes about the form of government, the city being divided into as many parties as there were diversities in its territory. The Hill Men favored an extreme democracy. The Plain Men an extreme oligarchy. The Shore Men formed a third party, which preferred an intermediate and mixed form of government, was opposed to the other two, and prevented either from gaining the ascendancy. At that time, too, the disparity between the rich and the poor had culminated, as it were, And the city was in an altogether perilous condition. It seemed as if the only way to settle its disorders and stop its turmoils was to establish a tyranny.

All the common people were in debt to the rich, for they either tilled their lands for them, paying them a sixth of the increase, whence they were called Hectimorioi and Thetes, or else they pledged their persons for debts, and could be seized by their creditors, some becoming slaves at home, and others being sold into foreign countries. Many, too, were forced to sell their own children, for there was no law against it, or go into exile because of the cruelty of the moneylenders. But the most and sturdiest of them began to band together and exhort one another not to submit to their wrongs, But to choose a trusty man as their leader, set free the condemned debtors, divide the land anew, and make an entire change in the form of government.

At this point, the wisest of the Athenians cast their eyes upon Solon. They saw that he was the one man least implicated in the errors of the time, that he was neither associated with the rich in their injustice, Nor involved in the necessities of the poor. They therefore besought him to come forward publicly, and put an end to the prevailing dissensions. And yet Phanias, the lesbian, writes that Solon, of his own accord, played a trick upon both parties in order to save the city, and secretly promised to the poor the distribution of land which they desired, and, to the rich, validation of their securities. But Solon himself says that he entered public life reluctantly, and fearing one party's greed and the other party's arrogance.

However, he was chosen Archon to succeed Philombrotus, and made mediator and legislator for the crisis, the rich accepting him readily because he was well-to-do, and the poor because he was honest. It is also said that a certain utterance of his which was current before his election, to the effect that equality bred no war, pleased both the men of substance and those who had none, the former expecting to have equality based on worth and excellence, the latter on measure and count. Therefore both parties were in high hopes, And their chief men persistently recommended a tyranny to Solon, and tried to persuade him to seize the city all the more confidently now that he had it completely in his power.

Many citizens, too, who belonged to neither party, seeing that it would be a laborious and difficult matter to effect a change by means of argument and law, were not reluctant to have one man, the justest and wisest of all, Put at the head of the state. Furthermore, some say that Solon got an oracle at Pytho, which ran as follows. Take thy seat amidships. The pilot's task is thine. Perform it. Many in Athens are thine allies. And, above all, his familiar friends chid him for being averse to absolute power because of the name of tyranny, As if the virtues of him who seized it would not at once make it a lawful sovereignty. Euboea, they argued, had formerly found this true of Tynondas, and so had the Mytylleneans, now that they had chosen Pittacus, to be their tyrant.

None of these things shook Solon from his resolution. To his friends he said, as we are told, that a tyranny was a lovely place. But there was no way down from it. And in his poems he writes to Phocas, And if, he says, I spared my land, my native land, and unto tyranny and violence implacable did not set hand, polluting and disgracing my frail fame, I'm not ashamed. In this way rather shall my name be set above that of all other men. From this it is clear that even before his legislation he was in high repute. And as for the ridicule which many heaped upon him for refusing the tyranny, he has written as follows. Solon was a shallow thinker, and a man of counsel void. When the gods would give him blessings, of his own will he refused.

When his net was full of fish, amazed he would not pull it in, all for lack of spirit, and because he was bereft of sense. I had certainly been willing for the power and boundless wealth, and to be tyrant over Athens no more than a single day, than to have a pouch flayed from me, and my lineage blotted out. Thus he represents the multitude and men of low degree as speaking of him. However, though he rejected the tyranny, he did not administer affairs in the mildest possible manner, nor in the enactment of his laws did he show a feeble spirit, nor make concessions to the powerful, nor consult the pleasure of his electors. Nay, where a condition was as good as it could well be, he applied no remedy, and introduced no innovation, fearing lest, after utterly confusing and confounding the city, he should be too weak to establish it again and recompose it for the best.

But those things wherein he hoped to find them open to persuasion or submissive to compulsion, these he did, Combining both force and justice together, as he says himself. Therefore, when he was afterwards asked if he had enacted the best laws for the Athenians, he replied, The best they would receive. Now, later writers observed that the ancient Athenians used to cover up the ugliness of things with auspicious and kindly terms, giving them polite and endearing names. Thus they called harlots companions, taxes contributions, the garrison of a city its guard, and the prison a chamber. But Solon was the first, it would seem, to use this device when he called his cancelling of debts disburdenment, for the first of his public measures was an enactment that existing debts should be remitted, and that in future no one should lend money on the person of a borrower.

Some writers, however, and Androtion is one of them, affirm that the poor were relieved not by a cancelling of debts, but by a reduction of the interest upon them, and showed their satisfaction by giving the name of disburdenment to this act of humanity and to the augmentation of measures and the purchasing power of money which accompanied it. For he made the miner to consist of a hundred drachmas, which before had contained only seventy-three, so that by paying the same amount of money, but money of a lesser value, those who had debts to discharge were greatly benefited, and those who accepted such payments were no losers. But most writers agree that the disburdenment was a removal of all debt, and with such the poems of Solon are more in accord, for in these he proudly boasts that from the mortgaged lands he took away the record-stones that everywhere were planted, Before earth was in bondage, now she is free.

And of the citizens whose persons had been seized for debt, Some he brought back from foreign lands, uttering no longer attic speech, so long and far their wretched wanderings, and some who here at home in shameful servitude were held, he says he set free. This undertaking is said to have involved him in the most vexatious experience of his life, for when he had set out to abolish debts, and was trying to find fitting arguments and a suitable occasion for the step, he told some of his most trusted and intimate friends, namely Conon, Cleinias, and Hipponicus, that he was not going to meddle with the land, but had determined to cancel debts. They immediately took advantage of this confidence, and anticipated Solon's decree by borrowing large sums from the wealthy, and buying up great estates.

Then, when the decree was published, they enjoyed the use of their properties, but refused to pay the moneys due their creditors. This brought Solon into great condemnation and odium, as if he had not been imposed upon with the rest, but were a party to the imposition. However, this charge was at once dissipated by his well-known sacrifice of five talents. For it was found that he had lent so much, and he was the first to remit this debt in accordance with his law. Some say that the sum was fifteen talents, and among them is Polyzelus the Rhodian. But his friends were ever after called cryocopidi, or debt-cutters. He pleased neither party, however. The rich were vexed because he took away their securities for debt, And the poor still more, because he did not redistribute the land as they had expected, nor make all men equal and alike in their way of living as Lycurgus did.

But Lycurgus was eleventh in descent from Heracles, and had been king in Lacedaemon for many years. He therefore had great authority, many friends, and power to support his reforms in the Commonwealth. He also employed force rather than persuasion, insomuch that he actually lost his eye thereby, and most effectually guaranteed the safety and unanimity of the city by making all its citizens neither poor nor rich. Solon, on the contrary, could not secure this feature in his commonwealth, since he was a man of the people and of modest station. Yet he in nowise acted short of his real power, relying as he did only on the wishes of the citizens and their confidence in him. Nevertheless he gave offence to the greater part of them who expected different results, as he himself says of them in the lines, "'Then they had extravagant thoughts of me,' But now, incensed, all look askance at me as if I were their foe.

And yet had any other man, he says, acquired the same power, he had not held the people down, nor made an end until he had confounded all and skimmed the cream. Soon, however, they perceived the advantages of his measure, ceased from their private fault-finding, and offered a public sacrifice which they called seizechthia, or disburdenment. They also appointed Solon to reform the Constitution and make new laws, laying no restrictions whatever upon him, but putting everything into his hands—magistracies, assemblies, courts of law, and councils. He was to fix the property qualification for each of these, Their numbers and their times of meeting, abrogating and maintaining existing institutions at his pleasure.

In the first place, then, he repealed the laws of Draco, all except those concerning homicide, because they were too severe and their penalties too heavy. For one penalty was assigned to almost all transgressions, namely death. So that even those convicted of idleness were put to death, and those who stole salad or fruit received the same punishment as those who committed sacrilege or murder. Therefore, Demades, in later times, made a hit when he said that Draco's laws were written not with ink, but blood. And Draco himself, they say, being asked why he made death the penalty for most offences, Replied that in his opinion the lesser ones deserved it, and for the greater ones no heavier penalty could be found.

In the second place, wishing to leave all the magistracies in the hands of the well-to-do, as they were, but to give the common people a share in the rest of the government, of which they had hitherto been deprived, Solon made an appraisement of the property of the citizens. Those who enjoyed a yearly increase of five hundred measures, wet and dry, he placed in the first class, and called them Pentecostium Adymnoe. The second class was composed of those who were able to keep a horse, or had a yearly increase of three hundred measures, and they were called Hippeter Tillantes, since they paid a knight's tax. The members of the third class, whose yearly increase amounted to two hundred measures, wet and dry together, were called Zugitai.

All the rest were called Thetes. They were not allowed to hold any office, but took part in the administration only as members of the assembly and as jurors. This last privilege seemed at first of no moment, But afterwards proved to be of the very highest importance, since most disputes finally came into the hands of these jurors. For even in cases which Solon assigned to the magistrates for decision, he allowed also an appeal to a popular court when any one desired it. Besides, it is said that his laws were obscurely and ambiguously worded on purpose to enhance the power of the popular courts. For since parties to a controversy could not get satisfaction from the laws, the result was that they always wanted jurors to decide it, and every dispute was laid before them, so that they were in a manner masters of the laws.

And he himself claims the credit for this in the following words. For to the common people I gave so much power as is sufficient, Neither robbing them of dignity, nor giving them too much. And those who had power, and were marvellously rich, even for these I contrived that they suffered no harm. I stood with a mighty shield in front of both classes, and suffered neither of them to prevail unjustly. Moreover, thinking it his duty to make still further provision for the weakness of the multitude, he gave every citizen the privilege of entering suit in behalf of one who had suffered wrong. If a man was assaulted and suffered violence or injury, it was the privilege of any one who had the ability and the inclination to indict the wrong-doer and prosecute him.

The lawgiver in this way rightly accustomed the citizens, as members of one body, to feel and sympathise with one another's wrongs. And we are told of a saying of his which is consonant with this law. Being asked, namely, what city was best to live in, that city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, Exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers. After he had established the council of the Areopagus, consisting of those who had been Archons year by year, and he himself was a member of this body since he had been Archon, he observed that the common people were uneasy and bold in consequence of their release from debt, and therefore established another council besides, consisting of four hundred men, one hundred chosen from each of the four tribes.

These were to deliberate on public matters before the people did, and were not to allow any matter to come before the popular assembly without such previous deliberation. Then he made the upper council a general overseer in the state, and guardian of the laws, Thinking that the city with its two councils, riding as it were at double anchor, would be less tossed by the surges, and would keep its populace in greater quiet. Now most writers say that the council of the Areopagus, as I have stated, was established by Solon, and their view seems to be strongly supported by the fact that Draco nowhere makes any mention whatsoever of Areopagites, But always addresses himself to the Ephetai in cases of homicide.

Yet Solon's Thirteenth Table contains the eighth of his laws recorded in these very words. As many of the disfranchised as were made such before the archonship of Solon shall be restored to their rights and franchises, except such as were condemned by the Areopagus or by the Ephetai, Or in the Pritanaum by the kings, on charges of murder or homicide, or of seeking to establish a tyranny, and were in exile when this law was published. This surely proves to the contrary that the Council of the Areopagus was in existence before the archonship and legislation of Solon, For how could men have been condemned in the Areopagus before the time of Solon, if Solon was the first to give the counsel of the Areopagus its jurisdiction?

Perhaps, indeed, there is some obscurity in the document, or some omission, and the meaning is that those who had been convicted on charges within the cognisance of those who were Areopagites and Ephetai and Pritonese when the law was published, Should remain disfranchised, while those convicted on all other charges should recover their rights and franchises. This question, however, my reader must decide for himself. Among his other laws there is a very peculiar and surprising one, which ordains that he shall be disfranchised who, in time of faction, takes neither side. He wishes, probably, that a man should not be insensible or indifferent to the common weal, arranging his private affairs securely and glorying in the fact that he has no share in the distempers and distresses of his country, but should rather espouse promptly the better and more righteous cause, share its perils, and give it his aid, instead of waiting in safety to see which cause prevails.

That law, too, seems absurd and ridiculous, which permits an heiress, in case the man under whose power and authority she is placed by law is himself unable to consort with her, to be married by one of his next of kin. Some, however, say that this was a wise provision against those who are unable to perform the duties of a husband, and yet, for the sake of their property, marry heiresses, and so, under cover of law, do violence to nature. For when they see that the heiress can consort with whom she pleases, they will either desist from such a marriage, or make it to their shame, and be punished for their avarice and insolence. It is a wise provision, too, that the heiress may not choose her consort at large, but only from the kinsman of her husband, that her offspring may be of his family and lineage.

Conformable to this also is the requirement that the bride eat a quince, and be shut up in a chamber with the bridegroom, and that the husband of an heiress shall approach her thrice a month without fail, for even though they have no children, still this is a mark of esteem and affection which a man should pay to a chaste wife, It removes many of the annoyances which develop in all such cases, and prevents their being altogether estranged by their differences. In all other marriages he prohibited dowries. The bride was to bring with her three changes of raiment, household stuff of small value, and nothing else. For he did not wish that marriage should be a matter of profit or price, But that man and wife should dwell together for the delights of love and the getting of children.

Dionysius, indeed, when his mother asked him to give her in marriage to one of his citizens, said that, although he had broken the laws of the city by being its tyrant, he could not outrage the laws of nature by giving in marriage where age forbade. And so our cities should not allow this irregularity, Nor tolerate unions which age forbids and love does not invite, which do not fulfil the function of marriage, and defeat its object. Nay, to an old man who is marrying a young wife, any worthy magistrate or lawgiver might say what is said to Philoctetes. Indeed, poor wretch, thou art in fine state for marrying. And if he discovers a young man in the house of a rich and elderly woman, waxing fat like a cock-partridge in her service, he will remove him and give him to some marriageable maid that wants a husband.

Thus much, then, on this head. Praise is given also to that law of Solon which forbids speaking ill of the dead, for it is piety to regard the deceased as sacred, Justice to spare the absent, and good policy to rob hatred of its perpetuity. He also forbade speaking ill of the living in temples, courts of law, public offices, and at festivals. The transgressor must pay three drachmas to the person injured, and two more into the public treasury. For never to master one's anger is a mark of intemperance and lack of training, But always to do so is difficult, and for some impossible, and a law must regard the possibilities in the case if its maker wishes to punish a few to some purpose, and not many to no purpose.

He was highly esteemed also for his law concerning wills. Before his time no will could be made, But the entire estate of the deceased must remain in his family, whereas he, by permitting a man who had no children to give his property to whom he wished, ranked friendship above kinship, and favour above necessity, and made a man's possessions his own property. On the other hand, he did not permit all manner of gifts without restriction or restraint, But only those which were not made under the influence of sickness, or drugs, or imprisonment, or when a man was the victim of compulsion, or yielded to the persuasions of his wife. He thought, very rightly and properly, that being persuaded into wrong was no better than being forced into it, and he placed deceit and compulsion, gratification and affliction, in one and the same category, Believing that both were alike able to pervert a man's reason.

He also subjected the public appearances of the women, their mourning and their festivals, to a law which did away with disorder and license. When they went out, they were not to wear more than three garments, they were not to carry more than an obel's worth of food or drink, nor a pannier more than a cubit high, And they were not to travel about by night unless they rode in a wagon with a lamp to light their way. Laceration of the flesh by mourners, and the use of set lamentations, and the bewailing of anyone at the funeral ceremonies of another, he forbade. The sacrifice of an ox at the grave was not permitted, nor the burial with the dead of more than three changes of brahment. Nor the visiting of other tombs than those of their own family, except at the time of interment.

Most of these practices are also forbidden by our laws, but ours contain the additional proviso that such offenders shall be punished by the board of censors for women, because they indulge in unmanly and effeminate extravagances of sorrow when they mourn. Observing that the city was getting full of people who were constantly streaming into Attica from all quarters for greater security of living, and that most of the country was unfruitful and worthless, and that seafaring men are not wont to import goods for those who have nothing to give them in exchange, he turned the attention of the citizens to the arts of manufacture, and enacted a law that no son who had not been taught a trade should be compelled to support his father.

It was well enough for Lycurgus, whose city was free from swarms of strangers, and whose country was, in the words of Euripides, for many large, for twice as many more than large. And because, above all, that country was flooded with a multitude of helots whom it was better not to leave in idleness but to keep down by continual hardships and toil, it was well enough for him to set his citizens free from laborious and mechanical occupations, and confine their thoughts to arms, giving them this one trade to learn and practice. But Solon, adapting his laws to the situation rather than the situation to his laws, and observing that the land could give but a mere subsistence to those who tilled it, and was incapable of supporting an unoccupied and leisured multitude, gave dignity to all the trades, and ordered the council of the Areopagus to examine into every man's means of livelihood and chastise those who had no occupation.

But that provision of his was yet more severe, which, as Heraclides Ponticus informs us, relieved the sons who were born out of wedlock from the necessity of supporting their fathers at all. For he that avoids the honorable state of marriage clearly takes a woman to himself not for the sake of children, but of pleasure, And he has his reward, in that he robs himself of all right to upbraid his sons for neglecting him, since he has made their very existence a reproach to them.

18 17 - Solon pt. 3 33:19

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.

But in general, Solon's laws concerning women seem very absurd. For instance, he permitted an adulterer caught in the act to be killed, but if a man committed rape upon a free woman, he was merely to be fined a hundred drachmas. And if he gained his end by persuasion, twenty drachmas, unless it were with one of those who sell themselves openly, meaning, of course, the courtesans. For these go openly to those who offer them their price. Still further, no man is allowed to sell a daughter or a sister unless he find that she is no longer a virgin. But to punish the same offence now severely and inexorably, and now mildly and pleasantly, making the penalty a slight fine, is unreasonable, unless money was scarce in the city at that time, and the difficulty of procuring it made these monetary punishments heavy.

In the valuations of sacrificial offerings, at any rate, a sheep and a bushel of grain are reckoned at a drachma. The victor in the Isthmian games was to be paid a hundred drachmas, and the Olympic victor five hundred. The man who brought in a wolf was given five drachmas, and for a wolf's whelp one. The former sum, according to Demetrius the Phalyrian, was the price of an ox, the latter that of a sheep. For although the prices which Solon fixes in his sixteenth table are for choice victims, and naturally many times as great as those for ordinary ones, still even these are low in comparison with present prices. Now the Athenians were from of old great enemies of wolves, since their country was better for pasturage than for tillage.

And there are those who say that their four tribes were originally named not from the sons of Ion, but from the classes into which occupations were divided. Thus the warriors were called Hoplitae, the craftsmen Ergadeis, and of the remaining two the farmers were called Gileontes, the shepherds and herdsmen Aegecorais. Since the country was not supplied with water by ever-flowing rivers or lakes or copious springs, but most of the inhabitants used wells which had been dug, he made a law that where there was a public well within a hippicon, a distance of four furlongs, that should be used, but where the distance was greater than this, people must try to get water of their own, If, however, after digging to a depth of ten fathoms on their own land, they could not get water, then they might take it from a neighbour's well, filling a five-gallon jar twice a day, for he thought it his duty to aid the needy not to provision the idle.

He also showed great experience in the limits which he set to the planting of trees. No one could set out a tree in a field within five feet of his neighbor's field, or, in case it was a fig-tree or an olive-tree, within nine. For these reach out farther with their roots, and injure some trees by their proximity, taking away their nourishment, and emitting an exhalation which is sometimes noxious. He that would dig a pit or a trench must dig it at the distance of its own depth from his neighbors, and he that would set out hives of bees must put them three hundred feet away from those which another had already installed. Of the products of the soil, he allowed oil only to be sold abroad, but forbade the exportation of others, and if any did so export, The archon was to pronounce curses upon them, or else himself pay a hundred drachmas into the public treasury.

His first table is the one which contains this law. One cannot therefore wholly disbelieve those who say that the exportation of figs was anciently forbidden, and that the one who showed up or pointed out such exporters was called a sycophant or fig-shower. He also enacted a law concerning injuries received from beasts, according to which a dog that had bitten anybody must be delivered up with a wooden collar three cubits long fastened to it. A happy device, this, for promoting safety. But the law concerning naturalized citizens is of doubtful character. He permitted only those to be made citizens who were permanently exiled from their own country, or who removed to Athens with their entire families to ply a trade.

This he did, as we are told, not so much to drive away other foreigners, as to invite these particular ones to Athens with the full assurance of becoming citizens. He also thought that reliance could be placed both on those who had been forced to abandon their own country, and on those who had left it with a fixed purpose. Characteristic of Solon also was his regulation of the practice of eating at the public table in the town hall, for which his word was parasytein. The same person was not allowed to eat there often, but if one whose duty it was to eat there refused, he was punished. Solon thought the conduct of the first grasping, That of the second contemptuous of the public interests.

All his laws were to have force for a hundred years, and they were written on axonies or wooden tablets which revolved with the oblong frames containing them. Slight remnants of these were still preserved in the Pritinaeum when I was at Athens, and they were called, according to Aristotle, Cretinus also, the comic poet, somewhere says, "'By Solon and by Draco, too, I make mine oath, whose curbice now are used to parch our barley-corns.' But some say that only those tablets which relate to sacred rites and sacrifices are properly called curbice, and the rest are called axones. However that may be, the council took a joint oath to ratify the laws of Solon, and each of the thesmotheti, or guardians of the statutes, swore separately at the herald's stone in the market-place, vowing that if he transgressed the statutes in any way, he would dedicate at Delphi a golden statue of commensurate worth.

Observing the irregularity of the month, and that the motion of the moon does not always coincide with the rising and setting of the sun, but that often she overtakes and passes the sun on the same day, he ordered that day to be called the Old and New, assigning the portion of it which preceded the conjunction to the expiring month, and the remaining portion to the month that was just beginning. He was thus the first, as it would seem, to understand Homer's verse, which speaks of a day when, This month is waning, and the next is setting in, and the day following this he called the first of the month. After the twentieth he did not count the days by adding them to twenty, but by subtracting them from thirty, on a descending scale, like the waning of the moon.

No sooner were the laws of Solon put into operation than some would come to him every day with praise or censure of them, or with advice to insert something into the documents, or take something out. Very numerous, too, were those who came to him with inquiries and questions about them, urging him to teach and make clear to them the meaning and purpose of each several item. He saw that to do this was out of the question, and that not to do it would bring odium upon him, and wishing to be wholly rid of these perplexities, and to escape from the captiousness and censoriousness of the citizens, for, in great affairs, as he says himself, it is difficult to please all. He made his ownership of a vessel an excuse for foreign travel, and set sail, After obtaining from the Athenians leave of absence for ten years.

In this time he hoped they would be accustomed to his laws.

In the first place, then, he went to Egypt, and lived, as he himself says, where Nile pours forth his floods near the Canobic shore. He also spent some time in studies with Cenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Cais, who were very learned priests. From these, as Plato says, he heard the story of the lost Atlantis, and tried to introduce it in a poetical form to the Greeks. Next he sailed to Cyprus, and was greatly beloved of Philocyprus, one of the kings of the island. This prince had a small city, founded by Demophon, the son of Theseus, and lying near the river Clarius, in a position which was strong, but otherwise incommodious and sorry. Solon therefore persuaded him to remove the city to the fair plain which lay below it, and make it more spacious and pleasant.

He also remained and took charge of the new city's consolidation, and helped to arrange it in the best possible manner both for convenience of living and for safety. The result was that many colonists flocked to Phyllocyprus, and he was the envy of the other kings. He therefore paid Solon the honour of naming the new city after him, and called it Solai. Its name had been Ipaia. Solon himself also makes mention of this consolidation. In his elegies, namely, he addresses Philocypros, and says, Now mayest thou long time be lord and master for the Soli here, dwelling in this city thyself and thy family after thee. But may I and my swift ship, as we leave this storied isle, be brought upon our way in safety by Cyprus of the Violet Crown.

Upon this settlement of thine may she bestow favour and glory, and upon me an auspicious return to my fatherland.

As for his interview with Croesus, some think to prove by chronology that it is fictitious. But when a story is so famous and so well attested, and, what is more to the point, when it comports so well with the character of Solon, and is so worthy of his magnanimity and wisdom, I do not propose to reject it out of deference to any chronological canons, so called, which thousands are to this day revising, without being able to bring their contradictions into any general agreement. So then, they say that Solon, on visiting Sardis at the invitation of Croesus, had much the same experience as an inland man who goes down for the first time to the sea. For just as such a man thinks each successive river that he sees to be the sea, So Solon, as he passed through the court and beheld many of the king's retainers in costly apparel, and moving proudly amid a throng of courtiers and armed guards, thought each in turn to be Croesus, until he was brought to the king himself, who was decked out with everything in the way of precious stones, dyed raiment, and wrought gold that men deem remarkable or extravagant or enviable, in order that he might present a most august and gorgeous spectacle.

But when Solon, in this presence, neither showed any astonishment at what he saw, nor made any such comments upon it as Croesus had expected, But actually made it clear to all discerning eyes that he despised such vulgarity and pettiness, the king ordered his treasure-chambers to be thrown open for the guest, and that he should be led about to behold the rest of his sumptuous equipments. Of this there was no need, for the man himself sufficed to give Solon an understanding of his character. However, when Solon had seen everything and had been conducted back again, Croesus asked him if he had ever known a happier man than he. Solon said he had, and that the man was Tellus, a fellow-citizen of his own.

Tellus, he went on to say, had proved himself an honest man, had left reputable sons behind him, And had closed a life which knew no serious want with a glorious display of valour in behalf of his country. Croesus at once judged Solon to be a strange and uncouth fellow, since he did not make an abundance of gold and silver his measure of happiness, but admired the life and death of an ordinary private man more than all this display of power and sovereignty. Notwithstanding, he asked him again whether, next to Tellus, he knew any other man more fortunate than he. Again Solon said he did, naming Cleobis and Baito, men surpassing all others in brotherly love and in dutiful affection towards their mother.

For once, he said, when the car in which she was riding was delayed by the oxen, They took the yoke upon their own shoulders, and brought their mother to the temple of Hera, where her countrymen called her a happy woman, and her heart was rejoiced. Then, after sacrifice and feasting, they laid themselves to rest, and never rose again, but were found to have died a painless and tranquil death with so great honour fresh upon them. What? said Croesus, who by this time was angered. Dost thou not count us among happy men at all? Then Solon, who was unwilling to flatter him, and did not wish to exasperate him further, said, O King of Lydia! As the deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid.

This wisdom such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change. For the future, which is advancing upon every one, is varied and uncertain. But when the deity bestows prosperity on a man up to the end, that man we consider happy. To pronounce any one happy, however, while he is still living and running the risks of life, is like proclaiming an athlete victorious and crowning him while he is still contending for the prize. The verdict is insecure and without authority. When he had said this, Solon departed, leaving Croesus vexed, but none the wiser for it.

Now it so happened that Aesop, the writer of fables, was in Sardis, having been summoned thither by Croesus, and receiving much honour at his hands. He was distressed that Solon met with no kindly treatment, and said to him by way of advice, "'O Solon, our converse with kings should be either as rare or as pleasing as is possible.' "'No, indeed,' said Solon, "'but either as rare or as beneficial as is possible.' At this time, then, Croesus held Solon in a contempt like this. But afterwards he encountered Cyrus, was defeated in battle, lost his city, and was taken alive and condemned to be burnt. And then, as he lay bound upon the pyre in the sight of all the Persians and of Cyrus himself, With all the reach and power of which his voice was capable, he called out thrice, O Solon!

Cyrus then, astonished at this, sent men to ask him what man or god this Solon was, on whom alone he called in his extremity. And Croesus, without any concealment, said, This man was one of the sages of Greece, and I sent for him, not with any desire to hear or learn the things of which I stood in need, but in order that he might behold and, when he left me, bear testimony to the happiness I then enjoyed. The loss of which I now see to be a greater evil than its possession was a good. For when it was mine, the good I derived from it was matter of report and men's opinion, but its departure from me issues in terrible sufferings and irreparable calamities which are real. And that man, conjecturing this future from what he then saw, bade me look to the end of my life, And not let insecure conjectures embolden me to be proud and insolent.

When this was reported to Cyrus, since he was a wiser man than Croesus, and saw the word of Solon confirmed in the example before him, he not only released Croesus, but actually held him in honour as long as he lived. And thus Solon had the reputation of saving one king and instructing another by means of a single saying. But the people of Athens were again divided into factions while Solon was away. The plain men were headed by Lycurgus, the shore men by Megacles, the son of Alcmeon, and the hill men by Pisistratus. Among the last was the multitude of thetes, who were the bitter enemies of the rich. As a consequence, though the city still observed the new laws, yet all were already expecting a revolution, and desirous of a different form of government, not in hopes of inequality, but each party thinking to be bettered by the change, and to get the entire mastery of its opponents.

Such was the state of affairs when Solon returned to Athens. He was revered and honoured by all, but owing to his years he no longer had the strength or the ardour to speak and act in public as before. He did, however, confer privately with the chiefs of the opposing factions, endeavouring to reconcile and harmonise them, And Pisistratus seemed to pay him more heed than the others. For Pisistratus had an insinuating and agreeable quality in his address. He was ready to help the poor, and was reasonable and moderate in his enmities. Even those virtues which nature had denied him were imitated by him so successfully that he won more confidence than those who actually possessed them. He was thought to be a cautious and order-loving man, one that prized equality above all things, and would take it ill if any one disturbed the existing order and attempted a change.

On these points, indeed, he completely deceived most people. But Solon quickly detected his real character, and was the first to perceive his secret designs. He did not, however, treat him as an enemy, but tried to soften and mold him by his instructions. He actually said to him, and to others, that if the desire for pre-eminence could but be banished from his soul, and his eager passion for the tyranny be cured, no other man would be more naturally disposed to virtue or a better citizen.

Thespis was now beginning to develop tragedy, and the attempt attracted most people because of its novelty, although it was not yet made a matter of competitive contest. Solon, therefore, who was naturally fond of hearing and learning anything new, and who, in his old age more than ever before, indulged himself in leisurely amusement, yes, and in wine and song, Went to see Thespis act in his own play, as the custom of the ancient poets was. After the spectacle he accosted Thespis, and asked him if he was not ashamed to tell such lies in the presence of so many people. Thespis answered that there was no harm in talking and acting that way in play, whereupon Solon smote the ground sharply with his staff, and said, Soon, however, if we give play of this sort so much praise and honour, we shall find it in our solemn contracts.

Now, when Pisistratus, after inflicting a wound upon himself, came into the market-place riding in a chariot, and tried to exasperate the populace with the charge that his enemies had plotted against his life on account of his political opinions, and many of them greeted the charge with angry cries. Solon drew near, and accosted him, saying, O son of Hippocrates, thou art playing the Homeric Odysseus badly, for when he disfigured himself it was to deceive his enemies, but thou doest it to mislead thy fellow-citizens. After this the multitude was ready to fight for Pisistratus, and a general assembly of the people was held. Here Ariston made a motion that Peisistratus be allowed a bodyguard of fifty club-bearers.

But Solon formally opposed it, and said many things which were like what he has written in his poems. Ye have regard indeed to the speech and words of a wily man. Yet every one of you walks with the steps of a fox, And in you all dwells an empty mind. But when he saw that the poor were tumultuously bent on gratifying Paesistratus, while the rich were fearfully slinking away from any conflict with him, he left the assembly, saying that he was wiser than the one party and braver than the other, wiser than those who did not understand what was being done, and braver than those who, though they understood it, were nevertheless afraid to oppose the tyranny. So the people passed the decree, and then held Paesistratus to no strict account of the number of his club-bearers, but suffered him to keep and lead about in public as many as he wished, until at last he seized the Acropolis.

When this had been done, and the city was in an uproar, Megacles straightway fled with the rest of the Alcmeonidae. But Solon, although he was now a very old man, and had none to support him, went nevertheless into the market-place and reasoned with the citizens, partly blaming their folly and weakness, and partly encouraging them still and exhorting them not to abandon their liberty. Then it was, too, that he uttered the famous saying, that earlier it had been easier for them to hinder the tyranny while it was in preparation, but now it was a greater and more glorious task to uproot and destroy it when it had been already planted and was grown. No one had the courage to side with him, however, and so he retired to his own house, took his arms, and placed them in the street in front of his door, saying, "'I have done all I can to help my country and its laws.' From that time on he lived in quiet retirement, and when his friends urged him to fly, he paid no heed to them, but kept on writing poems in which he heaped reproaches on the Athenians.

If now ye suffer grievously through cowardice all your own, cherish no wrath against the gods for this, for ye yourselves increased the usurper's power by giving him a guard, and therefore are ye now in base subjection. In view of this, many warned him that the tyrant would put him to death, and asked him on what he relied that he was so lost to all sense, to which he answered, My old age. However, when Paesistratus had become master of the situation, he paid such court to Solon by honoring him, showing him kindness, and inviting him to his palace, that Solon actually became his counselor and approved of many of his acts. For he retained most of Solon's laws, observing them first himself, and compelling his friends to do so.

For instance, he was summoned before the Areopagus on a charge of murder, when he was already tyrant, and presented himself there to make his defence in due form, but his accuser did not put in an appearance. He also made other laws himself, One of which provides that those who are maimed in war shall be maintained at the public charge. But Heraclides says that even before that Solon had caused a decree to be passed to this effect in the case of Thersippus, who had been so maimed, and that Pisistratus was following his example. Moreover, Theophrastus writes that the law against idleness In consequence of which the country became more productive and the city more tranquil, was not made by Solon, but by Pisistratus.

Now Solon, after beginning his great work on the story or fable of the lost Atlantis, which, as he had heard from the learned men of Sais, particularly concerned the Athenians, abandoned it, not for lack of leisure, as Plato says, but rather because of his old age, fearing the magnitude of the task.

There is no trace of any such work of Solon's, and the attribution of it to him is probably a play of Plato's fancy.

For that he had abundant leisure, such verses as these testify. But I grow old, ever learning many things. And again, but now the works of the Cyprus-born goddess are dear to my soul, of Dionysus, too, and the Muses, which impart delights to men. Plato, ambitious to elaborate and adorn the subject of the lost Atlantis, as if it were the soil of a fair estate unoccupied, But appropriately his, by virtue of some kinship with Solon, began the work by laying out great porches, enclosures, and courtyards, such as no story, tale, or poesy ever had before. But he was late in beginning, and ended his life before his work. Therefore the greater our delight in what he actually wrote, The greater is our distress in view of what he left undone.

For as the Olympiaeum in the city of Athens, so the tale of the lost Atlantis in the wisdom of Plato is the only one among many beautiful works to remain unfinished. Well then, Solon lived on after Pisistratus had made himself tyrant, as Heraclides Ponticus states, a long time, But as Phanias of Eresos says, less than two years. For it was in the archonship of Comeas that Pisistratus began his tyranny, and Phanias says that Solon died in the archonship of Hegestratus, the successor of Comeas. The story that his body was burned and his ashes scattered on the island of Salamis is strange enough to be altogether incredible and fabulous, and yet it is given by noteworthy authors, and even by Aristotle, the philosopher.

End of Solon, part three.

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Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Publicula. Part I.

Such was Solon, and with him we compare Publicula, to whom the Roman people gave this surname later as a mark of honour. Before that he was called Publius Valerius, and was reputed to be a descendant of that ancient Valerius, who was most instrumental in making the Romans and the Sabines one people instead of enemies. For it was he, more than anyone else, that persuaded their kings to come together and settle their differences. Such being his lineage, Valerius, as we are told, while Rome was still a kingdom, was conspicuous for his eloquence and wealth, always employing the one with integrity and boldness in the service of justice, while with the other he gave liberal and kindly aid to the poor and needy.

It was therefore clear that, should Rome become a democracy, he would at once be one of its foremost men. Now Tarquinius Superbus had not acquired his power honorably, but by the violation of divine and human laws, nor did he exercise it in kingly fashion, but after the manner of an insolent and haughty tyrant. The people therefore hated him, resented his oppressions, and found occasion for revolt in the fate of Lucretia, who made away with herself after violence had been done to her. Lucius Brutus, engaging in the revolution, came to Valerius first of all, and with his most zealous assistance drove out the kings. Then, as long as the people were likely to elect one man as their commander in place of the king, Valerius acquiesced, thinking it more fitting that Brutus should have the office, because he had led the way to freedom.

But the very name of monarchy was odious to the people, who thought it would be less vexatious to submit to an authority which was divided, and therefore proposed and demanded that two men should be elected to the highest office. Then Valerius, who hoped that he would be chosen next to Brutus, and would be consul with him, was disappointed. For, against the wishes of Brutus, Tarquinius Colettinus, the husband of Lucretia, was elected as his colleague, instead of Valerius. He was a man of no greater excellence than Valerius, but the influential citizens were afraid of the kings, who were still putting forth many efforts outside, and trying to appease resentment inside the city, and they therefore desired to have as their commander the most pronounced enemy of the royal family, believing that he would make no concessions to them.

Valerius, accordingly, vexed that his desire to do his utmost for his country should be doubted, merely because he had received no private injury at the hands of the tyrants, withdrew from the Senate, gave up his practice as an advocate, and abandoned entirely his public activities. This caused anxious remark among the multitude. They feared lest in his wrath he should attach himself to the royal exiles, and subvert the established order of the city, which was in a dangerous pass. But when Brutus, who had his suspicions of certain others also, desired the senators to take a sacrificial oath, and set a day for the ceremony, Valerius went down with a glad countenance into the forum, and was the first to take oath that he would make no submission or concession to the Tarquins, but would fight with all his might in defense of freedom.

This pleased the Senate and inspired the consuls with courage, and his actions speedily confirmed his oath. For envoys came from Tarquin, bringing letters calculated to seduce the people, and speechless words by which they thought the multitude were most likely to be corrupted, coming as they did from a king who seemed to have humbled himself, and to ask only moderate terms. These envoys, the consuls thought, should be brought before the assembled people. But Valerius would not suffer it. He was unalterably opposed to giving poor men, who considered a war a greater burden than tyranny, occasions and excuses for revolution. After this, other envoys came, announcing that Tarquin abdicated his throne, and ceased to wage war upon the city, but demanded for himself, his friends, and his kinsmen, their moneys and effects, wherewith to maintain themselves in exile.

Many were inclined to grant this favour, and Cullatinus in particular joined in advocating it, but Brutus, A man of harsh and unyielding temper ran forth into the forum, and denounced his colleague as a traitor, because he would bestow the means for waging a war, and maintaining tyranny on men to whom it were a terrible mistake to vote even a bare subsistence in exile. And when an assembly of the citizens was held, the first to speak among them was Gaius Minicius, a private man, who exhorted Brutus, and advised the Romans to see to it that the treasures fought with them against the tyrants, rather than with the tyrants against them. However, the Romans decided that, since they had the liberty for which they were at war, they would not sacrifice peace for the sake of wealth, but cast this also out along with the tyrants.

Now, the wealth, of course, was of very slight consequence to Tarquin, but the demand for it was at once a test of the people's disposition, and a means of instigating treachery among them. And it was with this that the envoys busied themselves, making the property merely a pretext for remaining in the city, and saying that they were selling part of it, and reserving part, and sending part of it away. At last they succeeded in corrupting two of the noble families of Rome, that of the Achillei, which had three senators, and that of the Viteleii, which had two. All these, by the mother's side, were nephews of Coletinus, the consul, And besides, the Vitellii were related in another manner to Brutus.

For Brutus had married a sister of theirs, and she had borne him several sons. Two of these, who had come to manhood, and were near kinred and close companions, the Vitellii won over, and persuaded to join the plot for betraying the city, and to ally themselves with the great family and the royal expectations of the Tarquins, and rid themselves of the stupidity and cruelty of their father, For they gave the name of cruelty to that father's inexorable treatment of criminals, and as for his stupidity, he had for a long time, as it appears, feigned, and assumed this, to ensure his safety among the cruel designs of the tyrants, and afterwards the surname of Brutus, which had been given him for it, clung to him.

When, accordingly, the youths had been persuaded, and held conference with the Aquilii, it was decided that all the conspirators should swear a great and dreadful oath, pouring in libation the blood of a slain man, and touching his entrails. For this purpose they met in the house of the Aquilii. Now the room in which the ceremony was to be held was, as was natural, dark, and somewhat desolate. Without their knowing it, therefore, a slave named Vindicius had concealed himself therein, not with design or with any inkling of what was to happen there. He merely chanced to be there, and when they came in with anxious haste, he was afraid to be seen by them, and hid himself behind a chest that lay there, so that he saw what they did, and heard what they resolved upon.

Their decision was to kill the consuls, and when they had written letters to Tarquin to this effect, they gave them to his envoys, who were living there as guests of the Aquilae, and were then present at the conspiracy. Their business transacted, the conspirators departed, and then Vindicius stole secretly away from the house. He knew not what use to make of what had befallen him, but was at a loss, considering it a dreadful thing, as it really was, to arraign the sons of Brutus before their father, or the nephews of Colatinus before their uncle, on the most abominable charges. and yet believing that no roman in an important station should be entrusted with important secrets. The last thing he could do, however, was to hold his peace, and was driven on by his knowledge of the affair.

He made his way somehow to Valerius, attracted especially by the affable and kindly ways of the man, for he was easily accessible to all the needy, always kept open house, and never refused to hear or help one of the lowly. Accordingly, when Vindicius came to him and told him the whole story, in the presence of his brother Marcus only, and of his wife, Valerius was struck with consternation and fear, and would not let the man go, but shut him up in a room, and sent his own wife to guard the door. Then he ordered his brother to surround the royal residence, seize the letters, if possible, and to take the servants into custody. He himself, with the numerous clients and friends who were always about him, and with a large company of retainers went to the house of the Aquilae, who were not at home.

Therefore, to the surprise of everybody, he forced the door, and came upon the letters lying in the quarters where the envoys were lodged. Meantime the Aquilae came up in hot haste, joined battle at the door, and sought to take away the letters. But Valerius and his party resisted the attack, threw their togas about their opponents' necks, and, after much struggling on both sides, at last succeeded in pushing them through the streets into the Forum. The same success was had at the royal residence, where Marcus laid his hands on other letters which were to be conveyed away in the baggage, seized as many of the king's people as he could, and hailed them to the Forum. When the consuls had quieted the tumult, Valerius ordered Vindicius to be brought from his house.

The denunciation was made, the letters were read aloud, and the accused had no courage to reply. Most of the people held their peace for very sorrow, but a few spoke of exile as a penalty, wishing to do Brutus a kindness. They were also somewhat encouraged to hope by the tears of Colatinus, and the silence of Valerius. But Brutus, calling each of his sons by name, said, Come, Titus, come, Tiberius, why do ye not defend yourselves against the denunciation? But when they made no answer, though he put the question to them thrice, he turned to the lictors and said, "'It is yours now to do the rest.' These straightway seized the young men, tore off their togas, bound their hands behind their backs, and scourged their bodies with their rods.

The rest could not endure to look upon the sight, But it is said that the father neither turned his gaze away, nor allowed any pity to soften the stern wrath that sat upon his countenance, but watched the dreadful punishment of his sons, until the lictors threw them on the ground, and cut off their heads with the axe. Then he rose and went away, after committing the other culprits to the judgment of his colleague. He had done a deed which it is difficult for one either to praise or blame sufficiently. For either the loftiness of his virtue made his spirit incapable of suffering, or else the magnitude of his suffering made it unsensible to pain. In either case was his act a trivial one, or natural to a man, but either godlike or brutish.

However, it is right that our verdict should accord with the reputation of the man, rather than that his virtue should be discredited through weakness in the judge. For the Romans think that the work of Romulus in building the city was not so great as that of Brutus in founding and establishing its form of government. After Brutus had left the forum, at this time, after a long consternation, horror and silence prevailed among all who remained, as they thought of what had been done. But soon the weakness and hesitation of Colatinus gave the Aquilae fresh courage. They demanded time in which to make their defence, and the surrender of Vindicius to them, since he was their slave, and ought not to be in the hands of their accusers.

Coletinus was willing to grant this request, and was about to dissolve the assembly with this understanding. But Valerius was neither able to surrender the slave, who had mingled with the throng about him, nor would he suffer the people to release the traitors and withdraw. So at last he seized the persons of the Aquilii, and, summoning Brutus to the scene, Crying aloud that Colatinus was acting shamefully and laying upon his colleague the necessity of killing his own sons, and then thinking it necessary for himself to bestow upon their wives the lives of his country's betrayers and foes. The consul was indignant at this, and ordered that Vindicius should be taken away, whereupon the lictors pushed their way through the crowd, seized the man, and beat those who tried to rescue him.

Then Valerius and his friends stood forth in the man's defense. While the people shouted for Brutus to come. He turned back, therefore, and came, and when silence had been made for him, said that for his sons, he himself sufficed as judge, and he would leave the fate of the other traitors to the votes of the citizens, who were free, and anyone who wished might speak and try to persuade the people. However, by this time there was no need of oratory, but a vote was taken which unanimously condemned the men, and they were beheaded. Colatinus, as it would seem, was already under some suspicion on account of his relationship to the royal family, and the second of his names was also hateful to the people, who loathed the sound of Tarquin.

But after these recent events he saw that he was altogether obnoxious, and therefore resigned his office, and withdrew secretly from the city. A new election was consequently held, and Valerius was triumphantly declared consul, thus receiving a worthy reward for his zeal. In this reward he thought that Vindicius ought to share, and therefore had a decree passed which made him, first of all, a freedman, a citizen of Rome, and entitled him to vote with any curia in which he chose to be enrolled. Other freedmen received the right of suffrage in much later times from Appius, who thus courted popularity. And from this Vindicius, as they say, a perfect manumission is to this day called Vindicta. After this, the property of the royal family was given to the Romans to plunder, and their house and palace was raised to the ground, but the pleasantest part of the field of Mars, which had belonged to Tarquin, was dedicated to that god.

Now it chanced that it had just been reaped, and the grain still lying upon the ground. But since the field had been consecrated, they thought it not right to thresh it, or use it in any way. They therefore, with one accord, carried the sheaves to the river, and cast them in. In like manner they also cast in the trees which had been cut, and left the place wholly untilled and barren for the god of war. The quantities of stuff thus heaped together were not borne along by the current very far, but the advanced portions stopped and accumulated at the shallows which they encountered. The portions that followed these could not get through them, but impinged upon them, and blended inexorably with them, and the aggregation was made increasingly firm and fast by the action of the stream.

For this brought great quantities of mud, and the addition of which increased the size and cohesion of the mass. And besides, the impacts of the current were not rude, but with a gentle pressure pushed and molded everything together. Owing to its size and position, The mass acquired fresh size, and an extent sufficient to receive most of which was brought down by the river. It is now a sacred island over against the city, containing temples of the gods and covered walks, and is called in the Latin tongue Inter Duos Pantes. Some, however, say that this did not happen when the field of Tarquin was consecrated, but in later times when Tarquinia devoted another field adjacent to this. Now Tarquinia was a holy virgin, one of the Vestals, and received great honors for this act, among which was this, that of all women her testimony alone should be received.

The people also voted her permission to marry, but she did not avail herself of it. This is how the thing appeared, as the tale tells. But Tarquin, despairing of attempts to regain his throne by treachery, was eagerly welcomed by the Tuscans, who set out to restore him with a great force. The consuls led the romans out to meet them, and arrayed their forces in certain sacred precincts, one of which was called the Arcian Grove, the other the Isuvian Meadow. When the engagement began, Aruns, son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, encountered each other. It was not by chance, but both were driven on by hatred and wrath, the one to attack a tyrant and foe of his country, the other to avenge himself on the author of his exile.

They urged their horses to the combat, but since they engaged with fury rather than calculation, they were reckless of themselves, and fell by one another's hands. The battle, which had such a dreadful beginning, ended no less disastrously. The armies, after inflicting and suffering equal losses, were separated by a tempest. Valerius was therefore in perplexity. Not knowing what the issue of the battle was, But seeing his soldiers as much disheartened by their own losses as they were encouraged by those of their enemies. So indistinguishable and equal was the slaughter on both sides. Each army, however, was more convinced of defeat by the near sight of its own dead than it could be a victory by conjecturing those of the enemy.

When such a night came on as must needs follow such a battle, and both camps were quiet, they say that the grove was shaken. And a loud voice issued from it, declaring, The Tuscans had lost one man more in the battle than the Romans. The utterance was manifestly from some god, for at once the Romans were inspired by it to loud shouts of courage, while the Tuscans were panic-stricken, and abandoned their camp in confusion, and were, for the most part, dispersed. As for those that remained, a little less than five thousand in numbers, the Romans fell upon them, and took them prisoners, and plundered the camp. And when the dead on both sides were numbered, those of the enemy were found to be eleven thousand three hundred, and those of the Romans as many less one.

It is said that this battle was fought on the last day of February. Valerius celebrated a triumph for it, being the first consul to drive into the city on a four-horse chariot, and the proceeding afforded a spectacle which was imposing and magnificent. Not odious and offensive to the spectators, as some say, Otherwise, it would not have been continued with such ardor and emulation for countless years. The people were also pleased with the honors which Valerius bestowed upon his colleague at the funeral ceremonies. He even delivered a funeral oration in his honor, which was so admired by the Romans and won such favor, that from that time on, when their great and good men died, encomiums were pronounced upon them by their most distinguished citizens.

And this funeral oration of his is said to have been earlier than any among the Greeks, unless Anaximenes the orator is right in saying that the custom originated with Solon. But that which the rather displeased and offended the people of Valerius was this. Brutus, whom they regarded as the father of their liberties, would not consent to rule alone, but once and again chose a colleague to rule with him. But this Valerius, they said, in concentrating all power upon himself, is not a successor to the consulate of Brutus, to which he has no right, but to the tyranny of Tarquin. Yet, why should he extol Brutus in words, while in deeds he imitates Tarquin, descending to the forum alone, escorted by all the rods and axes together, from a house no less stately than the royal house which he demolished?

For, as a matter of fact, Valerius was living in a very splendid house, on the so-called Velia, It hung high over the forum, commanded a view of all that passed there, and was surrounded by steeps and hard to get at, so that when he came down from it, the spectacle was a lofty one, and the pomp of his procession worthy of a king. Accordingly, Valerius showed what a good thing it is for men in power and high station to have ears, which are open to frankness and truth, instead of flattery. For when he heard it from his friends, who spared him no detail, that he was thought by the multitude to be transgressing. He was not obstinate or exasperated, but quickly got together a large force of workmen, and while it was still night, tore the house down, and raised it all to the ground.

In the morning, therefore, the Romans saw what had happened, and came flocking together. They were moved to love and admiration for the man's magnanimity, but were distressed for the house, and mourned for its stately beauty, As if it had been human, now that envy had unjustly compassed its destruction. They were also distressed for their ruler, who, like a homeless man, was now sharing the homes of others. For Valerius was received into the house of his friends, until the people gave him a site, and built him a house, of more modest dimensions than the one he had lived in before, where now stands the temple of Vicopota, so called. Wishing now to make not only himself, but also the government, instead of formidable, submissive, and agreeable to the multitude, he removed the axes from the lictor's rods, and when he came into the assembly, inclined and lowered the rods themselves to the people, emphasizing the majesty of the democracy.

This custom the consuls observe to this day, and before the multitude were aware of it, He had succeeded, not by humbling himself, as they thought, but by checking and removing their envious feelings through such moderation on his part, and adding to his real influence over them just as much as he seemed to take away from his authority. And the people submitted to him with pleasure, and bore his yoke willingly. They therefore called him Publicula, a name which signifies people-cherisher. This name prevailed over the older names which he had borne, and it is a name which I shall use for him in the remainder of this life.

For he permitted any who wished to enter the lists and sue for the consulship, but before the installation of his colleague, not knowing who he would be, but fearing an opposition due to some jealousy or ignorance, he used his sole authority for the enactment of his best and most important measures. In the first place, he filled up the Senate, which was much reduced in numbers, For some had long before been put to death by Tarquin, and others had recently fallen in the battle with the Tuscans. Those who were enrolled in this body by him amounted, they say, to one hundred and sixty-four. After this he enacted several laws, one of which especially strengthened the position of the commons, by allowing a defendant to appeal to the people from the judgment of the consuls.

A second made it a capital offense to assume a magistrate which the people had not bestowed, A third, following these, came to the relief of the poor. It lifted the taxes from the citizens, so that all engaged more zealously in manufactures and commerce. And the one which was enacted against disobedience to the consuls was thought to be no less popular in its character, and to be in the interest of the many rather than of the powerful. For the fine which it opposed on disobedience was only the worth of five oxen and two sheep. Now the value of sheep was ten obols, and that of an ox a hundred, for the Romans at that time did not use much coined money, but their wealth consisted in flocks and herds.

Therefore, to this day, they call their substance peculium, from pecus, cattle, and their oldest coins are stamped with the figure of an ox, a sheep, or a hog, and they actually gave their own sons such surnames as Suilius, Buboccus, Caparius and Porcius, the last two from Capra and Porcus, their words for goat and pig. End of Publicula, Volume 1.

20 19 - Publicola pt. 2 24:57

But although in these particulars he showed himself a popular and moderate lawgiver, in the case of an immoderate offense he made the penalty severe, for he enacted a law by which anyone who sought to make himself tyrant might be slain without trial, and the slayer should be free from blood-guiltiness if he produced proofs of the crime. For although it is impossible for one who attempts so great a task to escape all notice, It is not impossible for him to do so long enough to make himself too powerful to be brought to trial, which trial his very crime precludes. He therefore gave any one who was able to do so the privilege of anticipating the culprit's trial. He also received praise for his law concerning the public treasury.

When it was necessary for the citizens to contribute from their substance means for carrying on the war, he was unwilling to assume the administration of it himself, Or to allow his friends to do so, or, indeed, to have the public moneys brought into any private house. He therefore made the temple of Saturn a treasury, as it is to this day, and gave the people the privilege of appointing two young men as quaestors or treasurers. The first to be thus appointed was Publius Vittorius and Marcus Minucius, and large sums of money were collected. For one hundred and thirty thousand names were on the assessment lists. Orphans and widows being excused from the contribution. This matter regulated, he caused Lucretius, the father of Lucretia, to be appointed his colleague in the consulship.

To him he yielded the precedence, as the elder man, and committed to him the so-called facies, a privilege of seniority which has continued from that day to this. But Lucretius died a few days afterwards, and in a new election Marcus Horatius was chosen consul, and shared the office with Pubicula for the remainder of the year. While Tarquin was stirring up in Tuscany another war against the Romans, a thing of great portent is said to have happened. When Tarquin was still king, and had all but completed the temple of Jupiter Capitolanus, either in consequence of an oracle, or else of his own good pleasure, he commissioned certain Tuscan craftsmen of Aii to place upon its roof a chariot of terracotta.

Soon after this he was driven from his throne. The tuscans, however, modelled the chariot and put it in a furnace for firing, but the clay did not contract and shrink in the fire, as it usually does when its moisture evaporates. Instead of this it expanded and swelled, and took on such size, strength, and hardness that it could with difficulty be removed, even after the roof of the furnace had been taken off and its sides torn away. To the seers, accordingly, this seemed a divine portent of prosperity and power for those who should possess the chariot, and encouraged and incited Horatius to claim the privilege of consecrating the temple. At a time, then, when Publicola was necessarily absent on military service, they got a vote passed that Horatius should perform the consecration, and conducted him up to the capital, feeling that they could not have gained their point had Publicola been in the city.

Some, however, say that Publicula was designated by lot against his inclination for the expedition, and Horatius for the consecration. It is possible to infer how the matter stood between them from what happened at the consecration. It was the Ides of September, a day which nearly coincides with the full moon of the Attic month, Metagitnion. The people were all assembled on the Capitol. Silence had been proclaimed. And Horatius, after performing the other ceremonies, and lying hold upon the door of the temple, as custom is, was pronouncing the usual words of consecration. Just then, Marcus, the brother of Publicola, who had long been standing by the door, and was watching his opportunity, said, O consul, thy son lies dead of sickness in the camp.

This distressed all who heard it. But Horatius, not at all disturbed, merely said, Cast forth the dead, then, whither ye please. For I take no mourning upon me, and finished his consecration. Now the announcement was not true, but Marcus thought by his falsehood to deter Horatius from his duty. Wonderful, therefore, was the firm poise of the man, whether he at once saw through the deceit, or believed the story without letting it overcome him. A similar fortune seems to have attended the dedication of the Second Temple. The first, as I have said, was built by Tarquin, but consecrated by Horatius. This was destroyed by fire during the civil wars. The second temple was built by Sulla, but Catullus was commissioned to consecrate it, after the death of Sulla.

This temple, too, was destroyed during the troublous times of Vitellius, and Vespasian began and completed the third, with the good fortune that attended him in all his undertakings. He lived to see it completed, and did not live to see it destroyed, as it was soon after, and in dying before his work was destroyed, He was just so much more fortunate than Sulla, who died before his was consecrated. For upon the death of Vespasian, the capital was burned. The fourth temple, which is now standing on the same site as the others, was both completed and consecrated by Domitian. It is said that Tarquin expended upon its foundations forty thousand pounds of silver. But the greatest wealth now attributed to any private citizen of Rome would not pay the cost of gilding alone of the present temple, which was more than twelve thousand talents.

Its pillars are of pentelic marble, and their thickness was once most happily proportioned to their length, for we saw them at Athens. But when they were recut and scraped at Rome, they did not gain as much in polish as they lost in symmetry and beauty, and they now looked too slender and thin. However, if any one who is amazed at the costliness of the capital Had seen but a single colonnade in the palace of Domitian, or a basilica, or a bath, or the apartments for his concubines. Then, as Epicarmus says to the spendthrift, "'Tis not beneficent thou art. Thou art diseased. Thy mania is to give." So he would have been moved to say to Domitian, "'Tis not pious, nor nobly ambitious. Thou art diseased.

Thy mania is to build." Like the famous Midas, thou desirest that everything become gold and stone to thy touch. So much, then, on this head. But, to return to Tarquin, after the great battle in which he lost his son in a duel with Brutus, he fled for refuge to Clusium, and became a suppliant to Lars Porsena, the most powerful king in Italy, who was thought also to be a man of worth and noble ambitions. He promised Tarquin his aid and assistance. So, in the first place, he sent to Rome, and ordered them to receive Tarquin as their king. Then, when the Romans refused, he declared war upon them, proclaimed the time and place of his attack, and marched thither with a great force. Pubicula was chosen consul for the second time, in his absence, and Titus Lucretius as his colleague.

Returning, therefore, to Rome, and wishing in the first place to surpass Porcena in the loftiness of his spirit, he built the city of Sigliuria, although his adversary was already near at hand. After he had fortified it at great expense, he sent to it a colony of seven hundred men, indicating that he had no concern or fear about the war. However, a sharp assault was made upon its wall by Porsena, and its garrison was driven out. They fled to Rome, where the pursuing enemy almost followed them into the city, but Publicola promptly sallied out to their aid, in front of the gate, joined battle by the river-side with the enemy, who pressed on in great numbers, and held out against them until he was desperately wounded, and carried bodily out of the battle.

The same fate overtook Lucretius, his colleague, also, so that dismay fell upon the Romans, and they fled for safety towards the city. But as the enemy was forcing their way onto the wooden bridge, Rome was in danger of being taken by storm. Horatius Cocles, however, first and with him two of the most illustrious men of the city, Herminius and Lartius, defended the wooden bridge against them. Horatius had been given his surname of Cocles because he had lost one of his eyes in the wars. Some, however, say that his nose was flat and sunken, so that there was nothing to separate his eyes, and his eyebrows ran together, and that for this reason the multitude wished to call him Cyclops. But by a slip of the tongue the name of Cocles was generally prevalent instead.

This kokles, standing at the head of the bridge, kept the enemy back until his companions had cut the bridge, and two behind him. Then, all ecoutred as he was, he plunged into the river, and swam across to the other side, in spite of a wound in the buttocks from a Tuscan spear. Pubicula, out of admiration for his valor, proposed that every Roman should at once contribute for him as much provisions as it could be consumed in a day, and that afterwards he should be given as much land as he could plow round in a day. Besides this, they set up a bronze statue of him in the temple of Vulcan, to console him with the honor for the lameness consequent upon his wound. While Parseno was closely investing the city, a famine afflicted the Romans.

and another Tuscan army on its own account invaded their territory. Pubicula, who was now consul for the third time, thought that Parsena must be met by a quiet and watchful resistance within the city, but he sallied out upon the other Tuscan army, engaged it, routed it, and slew five thousand of them. The story of Mucius had been often and variously told, but I must give it as it seems most credible to me. He was a man well endowed with every virtue, but most excellent in war. Designing to kill Porsena, he stole into his camp, wearing a Tuscan habit, and using the speech to correspond. After walking around the tribunal, where the king was sitting with others, not knowing him certainly, and fearing to inquire about him, he drew his sword, and slew that one of the group that he thought most likely to be the king.

Upon this he was seized, and was being questioned. When a sort of pan containing live coals was brought to Porsena, who was about to offer sacrifice. Mucius held his right hand over the flames, and while the flesh was burning, stood, looking at Porsena with a bold and steadfast countenance, until the king was overcome with admiration and released him, and handed him back his sword, reaching it down to him from the tribunal. Mucius stretched out his left hand and took it. On account of which, they say, he received the surname of Scyvola, which means left-handed. Then he said that, although he had conquered the fear which Parcena inspired, he was vanquished by the nobility which he displayed, and would reveal out of gratitude what he would not have disclosed under compulsion.

Three hundred Romans, then, said he, with the same resolution as mine, are now prowling about in thy camp, and watching their opportunity. I was chosen by lot to make the first attempt upon thee, and I am not distressed at what has happened. So noble is the man whom I failed to kill, and so worthy to be a friend rather than an enemy of the Romans. On hearing this, Parcena believed it to be true, and felt more inclined to come to terms, not so much, I suppose, through fear of the three hundred, as of wondering admiration for the lofty spirit and bravery of the Romans. All other writers agree in giving this mucius, the surname of Scyvola, but Athenodorus, the son of Sandon, in his book addressed to Octavia, the sister of Augustus Caesar, says that his surname was Posthumus.

Pubicula himself, moreover, thinking that Porcena would be more valuable as a friend and ally of the city than he was dangerous as an enemy, did not shrink from making the king an arbiter in his dispute with Tarquin, but often boldly challenged Tarquin to do so, Confident in proving that he was the basest of men, and justly deprived of his kingdom. And when Tarquin gave him a rough answer, saying that he would make no man his judge, least of all Porcena, seeing that he was swerving from his alliance with him, Porcena was displeased, and perceived the weakness of his cause. His son, Aruns, also pleaded earnestly with him in behalf of the Romans. Consequently, he put an end to his war against them, On condition that they give up the territory of Tuscany which they had taken, sent back their prisoners of war, and receive back their deserters.

In confirmation of these conditions, the Romans gave as hostages ten young men from their noblest families, and as many maidens, of whom Valeria, the daughter of Pubicula, was one. After these stipulations had been carried out, and when Perseno had already remitted all his warlike preparations through his confidence in the treaty, These Roman maidens went down to the river to bathe, at a place where the curving bank formed a bay, and kept the water especially still and free from waves. As they saw no gardener, nor any one else passing or crossing the stream, they were seized with a desire to swim away, notwithstanding the depth and whirl of the strong current. And some say that one of them, named Cloelia, crossed the stream on horseback, exhorting them and encouraging the rest as they swam.

But when they came in safety to Pupicola, he bestowed no admiration or affection upon them, but was distressed because he would be thought less true to his word than Parsena, and because the daring exploit of the maidens would be called a base fraud on the part of the Romans. He seized them, therefore, and sent them back to Parsena. But Tarquin and his men got timely intelligence of this, set an ambush for the convoy of the maidens, and attacked them in superior numbers as they passed along. The party attacked, defended themselves, nevertheless, and Valeria, the daughter of Pumbicola, darted through the combatants and fled, with the help of three attendants, who broke through the crowd with her, and made good her escape.

The rest of the maidens were mingled with the combatants, and in peril of their lives. But Aruns, the son of Porsena, learning of the affair, came with all speed to their assistance, put their enemies to flight, and rescued the Romans. When Porsena saw the maidens thus brought back, he asked for the one who had begun the enterprise, and encouraged the rest of it. And when he heard Cloelia named as the one, he looked upon her with a gracious and beaming countenance, and ordering one of the royal horses to be brought, all fittingly comparisoned, he made her a present of it. Those who say that Cloelia, and Cloelia alone crossed the river on horseback, produced this fact as evidence. Others dispute the inference.

and say that the Tuscan merely honored in this way the maiden's courage. But an equestrian statue of her stands, by the Via Sacra, as you go to the Palatine. Some say that it represents not Cloelia, but Valeria. Porcena, thus reconciled with the Romans, gave the city many proofs of his magnanimity. In particular, he ordered his Tuscan soldiers, when they evacuated their camp, to take with them their arms only, and nothing else, leaving it full of abundant provisions and all sorts of valuables which he turned over to the Romans. Therefore it is that, down to this very day, when there is a sale of public property, Porcena's goods are cried first, and thus the man's kindness is honoured with perpetual remembrance.

Moreover, a bronze statue of him used to stand near the Senate House of simple and archaic workmanship. After this, when the Sabines invaded the Roman territory, Marcus Valerius, a brother of Publicola, was made consul, and with him Postumius Tubertus. Insomuch as the most important steps were taken with the advice and assistance of Publicola, Marcus was victorious in two great battles, and in the second of them, without losing a single Roman, slew thirteen thousand of the enemy. Besides his triumphs, he also obtained the honour of a house built for him at the public charge on the palatine, and whereas the doors of the other houses at the time opened inwards into the vestibule, they made the outer door of his house and of his alone to open outwards, in order that by this concession he might be constantly partaking of public honour.

They say that all Greek doors used to open outwards in this way, and the conclusion is drawn from their comedies where those who are about to go out of a house beat noisily on the inside of their own doors, in order that persons passing by or standing in front of them may hear, and not be taken by surprise when the doors open, out into the street. In the following year, Pubicula was consul again for the fourth time, when there was expectation of a war with the Sabines and Latins combined. At the same time, also, a sort of superstitious terror seized upon the city, because all the women who were pregnant were delivered of imperfect offspring, And all births were premature. Wherefore, by direction of the Sibylline books, Pubicula made propitiatory sacrifices to Pluto, and renewed certain games that had been recommended by Apollo.

And after he thus made the city more cheerful in its hopes and expectations from the gods, he turned his attention to what it feared from men. For their enemies were plainly making great preparations, and a powerful league against them. Now, there was among the Sabines one Appius Clausus, a man whose wealth made him powerful, as his personal prowess made him illustrious, but who was most eminent for his lofty character, and for his great eloquence. He could not, however, escape the fate of all great men, but was an object of jealous hate, and when he tried to stop the war, those who hated him charged him with trying to increase the power of Rome, with a view to making himself tyrant and master of his own country.

Perceiving that the multitude gave a ready ear to these stories, and that he himself was obnoxious to the war party and the military, he feared the issue, but, with a large and powerful coterie of friends and kinsmen to defend him, continued his opposition. This made the Sabines put off and delay the war. Pubicola, accordingly, making it his business not only to know about these matters, but also to foment and promote the faction, kept some of his followers employed in bringing to Clausius from him such messages as this. Pubicula thinks thee too worthy and just a man to inflict any evil upon thy fellow-citizens in self-defense, even though thou art wronged by them. But if thou wishest, for thine own safety, to change thine allegiance, and flee from those who hate thee, he will receive thee with public and private honors, which are worthy of thine own excellence and splendor of Rome.

On repeated consideration of the matter, this course seemed to Clausius the best that was open to him. He therefore summoned his friends, who, in like manner, persuaded many more to join him. And taking five thousand families from their homes, wives and children included, the most peaceful folk among the Sabines of gentle and sedate lives, he led them to Rome. Pubicula knew beforehand of their coming, and gave them an eager and kindly welcome, admitting them to all rights and privileges, For he at once incorporated the families in the Roman state, and gave each two acres of land on the river Anio. To Clausius, however, he gave twenty-five acres of land, and enrolled him among the senators. This was the beginning of a political power which he used so wisely that he mounted to the highest dignity and acquired great influence.

The Claudian family which is descended from him is no less illustrious than any in Rome. Though the schism among the Sabines was thus removed by the emigration of these men, their popular leaders would not suffer them to settle down into quiet, but complain bitterly that Clausus, by becoming an exile and an enemy, should bring to pass what he could not effect by his persuasions at home, namely, that Rome pay no penalty for her outrages. Setting out, therefore, with a large army, they encamped near Fidenae, and placed two thousand men-at-arms in ambush just outside rome in wooded hollows. Their intention was that a few of their horsemen, as soon as it was day, should boldly ravage the country.

But these had been ordered, whenever they approached the city and were attacked, to retire gradually until they had drawn the enemy into the ambuscade. That very day, Pubicula learned of this plan from deserters, and took measures accordingly, dividing up his forces. Pustumus Balbus, his son-in-law, while it was not yet evening, went out with three thousand men-at-arms, occupied the hills under which the Sabines were lying in ambush, and kept the enemy under observation. Lucretius, his colleague, retaining in the city the lightest armed and most impetuous troops, was ordered to attack the enemy's horsemen as they ravaged the country. He himself took the rest of the army, and encircled the enemy in their camp.

Favored by a heavy fog, at the break of day, Postumius, with loud shouts, fell upon the ambuscade from the heights, while Lacratius hurled his troops upon the horsemen as they rode down towards the city, and Publicula attacked the camp of the enemy. At all posts, then, the Sabines were worsted and undone. Wherever they were, they made no defence, but fled, and the Romans straightway slew them. The very hopes that they placed in one another proved most fatal to them, for each party, supposing that the other was safe, had no thought of holding their ground in fighting, But those in the camp ran towards those in the ambuscade, while those on their part ran to those in the camp, so that fugitives encountered fugitives, and found those needing succour from whom they expected succour themselves.

And all the Sabines would have perished, had not the neighbouring city of Fidenae afforded a refuge to some, especially to those who fled from the camp when it was captured. All who did not gain the city were either slain, or brought back to Rome as prisoners. This success, the Romans, although they were wont to attribute all such great events to the influence of the gods, considered to be the work of their general alone. And the first thing his soldiers were heard to say was that Pubicula had delivered their enemies into their hands, lame, blind, and all but imprisoned, to be dispatched by their swords. Great wealth also accrued to the people from the spoils and prisoners. But Pubicula immediately, after celebrating his triumph, and handing the city over to the consuls appointed to succeed him, died.

So far as it can possibly be achieved by men who are regarded as honorable and good, he had brought his life to perfection. The people, as if they had done nothing to show their esteem for him while he was alive, but owed him every homage, decreed that his body should be buried at the public charge, and that every man should contribute a quadrance toward the honor. The women also, by private agreement amongst themselves, mourned a whole year for him, with a mourning which was honorable and enviable. He was buried, too, by express vote of the citizens, within the city, near the so-called Velia, and all his family were to have the privilege of burial there. Now, however, none of his family is actually buried there, But the body is carried thither and set down, and some one takes a burning torch, and holds it under the bier for an instant, and then takes it away, attesting by this act that the deceased has the right of burial there, but relinquishes the honor.

After this the body is borne away.

End of publicula.

21 20 - Comparison of Solon & Publicola 9:12

Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.

Comparison of Solon and Publicula.

There is, then, something peculiar in this comparison, and something which has not been true of any other thus far, namely, that the second imitated the first, and the first bore witness for the second. For it must be plain that the verdict concerning happiness which Solon presented to Croesus is more applicable to Publicula than to Tellus. Tellus, whom Solon pronounced the most blessed man he knew, because of his fortunate lot, his virtue, and his goodly offspring, was not celebrated in Solon's poems as a good man, nor did his children, or any magistracy of his achieve a reputation. Whereas Publicula, while he lived, was foremost among the Romans in influence, and repute for virtue, and since his death the most illustrious family lines of our own day, like the Publiculae, the Messalae, and the Valeriae, have for six hundred years ascribed the glory of their noble birth to him.

Tellus, moreover, though he kept his post and fought like a brave man, died at the hands of his enemies, whereas Publicula slew his enemies, which is a better fortune than to be slain by them, saw his country victorious through his efforts as consul and general, and enjoyed honours and triumphs before he came to the end, which Solon pronounced so enviable and blessed. Still further, what Solon says to Mibnermis in arguing with him on the proper duration of human life, May not an unlamented death be mine, but unto friends, let me be cause when dead for sorrow and for sighing, argues Publicula, a happy man. For when he died, his loss filled not only his friends and kinred, but the entire city, numbering many tens of thousands with weeping and yearning and sorrow.

For the women of Rome mourned for him as though they had lost a son, or a brother, or a common father. Wealth I desire to have, says Solon, but wrongfully to get it I do not wish, believing that punishment would follow. And Publicola's wealth was not only not ill-got, but also nobly spent in benefactions to the needy. So that if Solon was the wisest, Publicola was the most happy of men, since what Solon prayed for is the greatest and fairest of blessings, These Publicula was privileged to win, and continued to enjoy until the end. Thus did Solon enhance the fame of Publicula, and Publicula, too, in his political activities, enhanced the fame of Solon, by making him the fairest of examples for one who is arranging a democracy.

For he took away the arrogant powers of the consulship, and made it gracious and acceptable to all, and he adopted many of Solon's laws, For instance, he put the appointment of their rulers in the power of the people, and gave defendants the right of appealing to the people, as Solon to the jurors. He did not, indeed, create a new Senate as Solon did, but he increased the one already existing to almost double its numbers. And his appointment of quaestors over the public moneys had a like origin. Its purpose was that the consul, if a worthy officer, might not be without leisure for his more important duties, and, if unworthy, might not have greater opportunities for injustice by having both the administration and the treasury in his hands.

Hatred of tyranny was more intense in Publicola than in Solon, for in case anyone attempted to usurp the power by Solon's law, he could be punished only after conviction, whereas Publicola made it lawful to kill him before any trial. Moreover, though Solon rightly and justly plumes himself on rejecting absolute power, even when circumstances offered it to him, and his fellow-citizens were willing that he should take it, it redounds no less to the honor of Publicola that, when he had received a tyrannical power, he made it more democratic, and did not use even the prerogatives which were his by right of possession. And of the wisdom of such a course, Solon seems to have been conscious even before Publicola, when he says that a people— Then will yield the best obedience to its guides, when it is neither humored nor oppressed too much.

Peculiar to Solon was his remission of debts, and by this means especially he confirmed the liberties of the citizens. For equality under the laws is of no avail, if the poor are robbed of it by their debts. Nay, in the very places where they are supposed to exercise their liberties the most, there they are most in subjection to the rich, since in the courts of justice The offices of state, and in public debates, they are under their orders and do them service. And what is of greater moment here, though sedition also follows an abolition of debts, in this case alone, by employing opportunely, as it were, a dangerous but powerful medicine, Solon actually put an end to the sedition which was already rife, for his own virtue and high repute prevailed over the overpute and odium of the measure.

As regards their political careers in general, Solon's was the most brilliant in the beginning, for he led the way, and followed no man, and it was alone and without colleagues that he effected the most and greatest of his public measures. But in the ending the other was the more fortunate and enviable, for Solon lived to see with his own eyes the dissolution of his polity, while that of Publicola preserved order in the city down to the civil wars. Solon, as soon as he had made the laws, left them inscribed on wooden tablets, and destitute of a defender, and departed from Athens, whereas Publicula, by remaining in the city, serving as consul, and busying himself in public affairs, firmly and safely established his form of government.

And further, though Sola knew beforehand of the designs of Pisistratus, he was not able to hinder them, but yielded to his tyranny in its incipiency, Whereas Publicola subverted and drove out a kingly power which was strong with the might which many ages bring. Thus, while exhibiting virtues equal to Solon's, and a purpose identical with his, he enjoyed a good fortune and an efficacious power which supplemented his virtues. When we consider their military careers, moreover, Diomachus of Plataea does not allow Solon even the conduct of the war against the Megarians, as we have described it. But Publicola, Fighting and commanding in person brought the greatest struggles to a successful issue. And still further, comparing their political activities, Solon, in play, so to speak, and counterfeiting madness went forth to plead for the recovery of Salamis.

But Publicola, without any subterfuges, ran the greatest risks, set himself in opposition to the party of the Tarquins, and detected their treachery. Then, after being mainly instrumental in the capture and punishment of the traitors, he not only drove out the tyrants themselves from the city, but extirpated their very hopes of return. And if he thus sturdily and resolutely confronted situations which call for active and spirited opposition, still better did he deal with those which required peaceable intercourse and gentle persuasion, as when he tactfully won over Porsena, an invincible and formidable foe, and made him a friend of Rome. But here, perhaps, some will say that Solon won back Salamis for the Athenians when they had given it up, whereas Publicola relinquished territory which the Romans had acquired.

But we must view men's actions in the light of the times which call them forth. The subtle statesman will handle each issue that arises in the most feasible manner, and often saves the whole by relinquishing a part, and by yielding small advantages secures greater ones. And so Publicola, in that instance, by yielding the territory which belonged to others, saved all that was assuredly his own, and procured besides, for those that were hard put to it, to save their city, the camp of their besiegers with all their stores. He made his adversary judge in the controversy, won his case, and received besides what his people would gladly have given for the victory. For Presena put a stop to the war, and left the Romans all his provisions for carrying it on, owing to the confidence in their virtue and nobility with which their consul had inspired them.

End of comparison of Solon with Publicola. End of Plutarch's Lives of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Volume I.

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