easily pardon those who make a comparison between their temperament of Soul and manners of living believing that there was an intimate familiarity and conversation between them Valerius Antias writes that the Books which were buried in the aforesaid Chests or Coffins of Stone were twelve Volumes of holy Writ and twelve others in Greek containing the Wisedom and Philosophy of the Grecians and that about four hundred years afterwards when P. Cornelius and M. Bebius were Consuls there happening a great inundation of Water which with a violent torrent carrying away the Chests of Stone overturned them and displaced their Covers so that being opened one of them appeared empty without the Skeleton or Reliques of any humane Body in the other were the Books before-mentioned still remaining entire and not much worn out with time which when the Pretor Petilius had read and perused he made Oath in the Senate that in his opinion it was not fit for those Books to be divulged or made publick to the people whereupon the Edition of them was suppressed and all the Volumes by command carried to the Market place and there burnt Such is the fortune of good men that their Vertue survives their Bodies and that the envy and emulation which evil men conceive against them is soon extinguished but their reputation and glory is immortal and shines with more splendour after their death than in the time when they were living and conversant in the world and as to Numa the actions of the succeeding Kings served as so many Foils to set off the brightness of his majestick Vertues for after him there were five Kings the last of which was made an exile being deposed from his Crown of the other four three were by treason assassinated and murthered the other who was Tullus Hostilius that immediately succeeded Numa whilst he derided his vertues and especially his devotion and religious worship reproached his memory as a cowardly and mean spirited Prince and diverting the minds of the people from their peaceable and honest course of life to wars and depredations was himself surprized by an acute and tormenting Disease which caused him to change his mind and call upon the Gods but it was accompanied with such superstition and vain imaginations as was much differing from the true Piety and Religion of Numa and because he infected others with the contagion of his errours the Gods as is said were angry and revenged their own dishonour by a Thunder-bolt which stroke him dead THE COMPARISON OF NVMA with LYCVRGVS HAving thus finished the Lives of Lycurgus and Numa we shall now though the work be difficult compare their Actions in that manner together so as easily to discern wherein they differed and wherein they agreed It is apparent that they were very agreeable in the actions of their lives their Moderation their Religion their civil Arts and political Government were alike and both insinuated a belief in the people that they derived their Laws and Constitutions from the Gods yet in their peculiar manner of managing these excellencies there were many circumstances which made a diversity For first Numa accepted the Kingdom being offered but Lycurgus resigned it the one from a private person and a stranger was created King the other from the condition and publick character of a Prince descended to the state of a private person It was glorious to possess a Throne in Righteousness and Judgment and great bravery on the other side to prefer Justice before a Kingdom the same vertue which made the one appear worthy of Regal power exalted the other to a degree of so much eminence that it seemed a condescention in him to stoop unto a Crown lastly as Musicians tune their Harps according to their Note so the one let down the high flown spirits of the people at Rome to a lower Key as the other screwed them up at Sparta to a higher Note which were fallen flat by dissoluteness and riot For it was not so much the business and care of Lycurgus to reason his Citizens into peace or to perswade them to put off their Armour or ungird their Swords as it was to moderate their love to Gold or Silver or the profuseness of their Tables or to abate their extravagancies in rich Clothes and Furniture nor was it necessary to preach unto them that laying aside their Arms they should observe the Festivals and sacrifice to the Gods but rather that moderating the affluence of their Tables and excess of diet they should become temperate and abstemious and employ their time in laborious and martial exercises so that the one moulded his Citizens into what humour he pleased by a gentle and soft way of argument the other with danger and hazard of his person scarce worked upon the affections of a dissolute people It is certain that Numa was naturally endued with a more gentle and obliging way which mollified the harsh disposition of his people and made them tractable and lovers of justice but Lycurgus was more rigid and since we must mention it we cannot excuse his severity against the Ilotes or term it other than a cruel action and in the sum of all conclude that Numa was far the more moderate and plausible Legislatour granting even to Servants a licence to sit at meat with their Masters at the Feast of Saturn that so they also might have some taste and relish of the sweetness of liberty Some will have it that this custom was introduced by Numa on this just reason that because the Servants were instrumental in cultivating the grounds and gathering the Fruits which the Earth produced there should be a time appointed when they might enjoy the fruits of their labours in a more free and delightfull manner Others will have it to be in remembrance of that age of Saturn when there was no distinction between the Lord and the Servant but all lived as Kindred and Relations in a parity and condition of equality In short it seems that both aimed at the same design and intent which was to compose and incline their people to modesty and frugality but as to their other vertues the one availed himself most on Fortitude and the other on Justice unless we will attribute their different ways to the different temperaments of their people for Numa did not out of cowardise or fear affect Peace but because he would not be guilty of those injuries which are the necessary consequences of War nor did Lycurgus out of a principle of violence and fury promote and excite a spirit of War in his people but rather encouraged the art of War and inclined their minds which were soft and enervated by Luxury to martial Exercises that so they might be the better prepared to repell injuries and resist the invasions of their enemies in this manner both having occasion to operate on their Citizens and make a change and alteration in their humours and manners the one cut off the superfluities and excesses whilst
ended only in words some evil-speaking and a few old Peoples Curses the rest of the Youth's misery seems to proceed from Fortune so that so far a Man would give his Vote on Theseus's part But the chiefest matter in the other is this that his Performances proceeded from very small beginnings for both the Brothers being thought Servants and the Sons of Swineherds before they were Free-men themselves they gave liberty to almost all the Latines obtaining at once all the most honourable Titles as destroyers of their Countreys Enemies preservers of their Friends and Kindred Princes of the People Founders not removers of Cities for such an one was Theseus who raised and compiled only one House out of many demolishing many Cities bearing the Names of ancient Kings and Heroes But Romulus did the same afterwards forcing his Enemies to deface and ruine their own Dwellings and to sojourn with their Conquerors not altering at first or increasing a City that was before but building one from the ground acquiring likewise to himself Lands a Countrey a Kingdom Wives Children and Relations He kill'd or destroyed no body but encouraged those that wanted Houses and Dwelling-places if willing to be of a Society and become Citizens Robbers and Malefactors he slew not but he subdued Nations he overthrew Cities he triumph'd over Kings and Princes and as to Remus it is doubtful by whose Hand he was cut off it is generally imputed to others His Mother he apparently retriev'd from death and placed his Grandfather who was brought under base and dishonourable Vassalage in the ancient Throne of Aeneas to whom he did voluntarily many good Offices but never annoyed him no not through ignorance it self But Theseus in his forgetfulness and inadvertency of the Command concerning the Flag can scarcely methinks by any Excuses or before the most candid Judges avoid the imputation of Parricide which a certain Athenian perceiving it very hard to make an excuse for feigns that Aegaeus at the arrival of the Ship running hastily to a Tower to see what News slip'd and fell down either for want of accidental help or that no Servants attended him in that haste to the Sea-side And indeed those faults committed in the Rapes of Women admit of no plausible excuse in Theseus First In regard to the often repetition of the Crime for he stole Ariadne Antiope Anaxo the Trazaenian at last Helena when he was an old Man and she not marriageable being too young and tender and he at an Age past even lawful Wedlock Then the Cause for the Trazaenian Lacedaemonian and Amazonian Virgins beside that they were not betrothed to him were not worthier to raise Children by than the Athenians who were derived from Erestheus and Cecrops but it is to be suspected these things were done out of lust and the satisfaction of the flesh Romulus when he had taken near 800 Women he chose not all but only Hersilia as they say for himself the rest he divided among the Chief of the City and afterwards by the respect and tenderness and justice shewn towards them he discovered that this Violence and Injury was a most commendable and politick Exploit to establish a Society by which he intermix'd and united both Nations and made it the fountain of all after-Friendship and of Power with them And that it was the Cause of Reverence and Love and Constancy in Matrimony time can witness for in 230 years neither any Husband deserted his Wife nor any Wife her Husband but as the most curious among the Graecians can tell you the first Parricide so the Romans all well know that Spurius Carvilius was the first who put away his Wife accusing her of Barrenness The Circumstances of Matters do testifie for so long a time for upon those Marriages the two Princes shar'd in the Dominion and both Nations fell under the same Government But from the Marriages of Theseus proceeded nothing of Friendship or Correspondence for the advantage of Commerce but Enmities and Wars and the Slaughter of Citizens and at last the loss of the City Aphidnae where only out of the compassion of the Enemy whom they entreated and caressed like Gods they but just miss'd suffering what Troy did by Paris Theseus his Mother was not only in danger but suffered also what Hecuba did in being deserted and destitute of her Son unless that of her Captivity be not a fiction as I could wish both that and most other things of him were What is fabulously related concerning both their Divinity you will find a great difference in it for Romulus was preserved by the special Favour of the Gods but the Oracle given to Aegaeus commanding him to abstain from all strange and foreign Women seems to demonstrate that the Birth of Theseus was not agreeable to the Will of the Gods LYCURGUS Equality M Burg. delin dt sculp THE LIFE OF LYCURGUS Translated from the Greek of Plutarch By Knightly Chetwood Fellow of King's College in Cambridge THere is so much incertainty in the accounts which Historians have left us of Lycurgus the Law giver of Sparta that scarcely any thing is asserted by one of them which is not call'd into question or contradicted by the rest Their sentiments are quite different as to the Family he came of the Voyages he undertook the place and manner of his death but most of all when they speak of the Laws he made and the Commonwealth which he founded They cannot by any means be brought to an agreement as to the very Age in which this excellent person liv'd for some of them say that he flourished in the time of Iphitus and that they two jointly contrived the Ordinance for the cessation of Arms during the Solemnity of the Olympick Games Of this opinion was Aristotle and for confirmation of it he alledges an inscription upon one of the copper Coits used in those Sports upon which the name of Lycurgus continued undefac'd to his time But Eratosthenes and Apollodorus two learned Chronologers computing the time by the successions of the Spartan Kings pretend to demonstrate that he was much more ancient than the very Institution of the Olympick Games Timaeus conjectures that there were two of this name and in diverse times but that the one of them being much more famous than the other men gave to him the glory of both their exploits the elder of the two according to him was not long after Homer and some are so particular as to say that he had seen him too But that he was of great antiquity may be gathered from a passage in Xenophon where he makes him contemporary with the Heraclidae not but that the very last Kings of Sparta were Heraclidae too but he seems in that place to speak of the first and more immediate successours of Hercules But notwithstanding this confusion and obscurity of Writers who have gone before us in this Subject we shall endeavour to compose the History of his Life setting down those passages
which are least contradicted and following those Authours which are most worthy of credit The Poet Simonides will needs have it that Lycurgus was the Son of Prytanis and not of Eunomus but in this opinion he is singular for all the rest deduce the Genealogy of them both as follows Aristodemus Patrocles Sous Eurytion Prytanis Eunomus who by his first Wife had a Son nam'd Polydectes and by his second Wife Dianissa had this Lycurgus whose Life is before us but as Eutychidas says he was the sixth from Patrocles and the eleventh from Hercules Be this as it will Sous certainly was the most renown'd of all his Ancestours under whose conduct the Spartans subdu'd Ilotos and made Slaves of the Ilotes and added to their Dominions by Conquest a good part of Arcadia There goes a story of this King Sous that being besieged by the Clitorians in a dry and stony place so that he could come at no water he was at last constrained to agree with them upon these hard terms that he would restore to them all his Conquests provided that Himself and all his Men should drink of a Spring not far distant from his Camp after the usual Oaths and Ratifications he call'd his Souldiers together and offered to him that would forbear drinking half his Kingdom for a reward their thirst was so much stronger than their ambition that not a man of them was able to forbear in short when they had all drank their fill at last comes King Sous himself to the Spring and having sprinkled his face onely without swallowing one drop he marched off in the face of his Enemies refusing to yield up his Conquests because himself and all his men according to the Articles had not drank of their water Although he was justly had in admiration as well for his wit and abstinence as for his warlike exploits yet was not his Family sirnamed from him but from his Son Eurytion of whom they were call'd Eurytionides the reason of this was that Eurytion took a course never practis'd by his wise Predecessours which was to flatter and cajole his own Subjects by slackening the reigns of the Royal Authority But see what followed the people instead of growing more tractable by it made new encroachments upon him every day insomuch that partly by taking advantages of the too great easiness or necessities of the succeeding Princes partly by tiring out and vexing those which used severity they at last brought the Government into contempt and soon after the whole Kingdom into Anarchy and confusion In this miserable estate things continu'd a long time and amongst its other tragical effects it caused the death of the Father of Lycurgus for as the good King was endeavouring to quell a riot in which the parties were come to blows he was among them most barbarously butchered and left the title of King to his eldest Son Polydectes but he too dying soon after the right of Succession as every one thought rested in Lycurgus and reign he did untill he had notice that the Queen his Sister-in-law was with Child upon this he immediately declar'd that the Kingdom belong'd to her issue provided it were Male and that himself would exercise the Regal Jurisdiction onely as his Guardian and Regent during his minority soon after an overture was made to him by the Queen that she would make her self miscarry or some way destroy that she went with upon condition that he would marry her when he came to the Crown Though he was extremely incens'd against the Woman for this unnatural proposal yet wisely smothering his resentments and making shew of closing with her he dispatch'd the Messenger with a world of thanks and expressions of joy but withall dissuaded her earnestly from procuring her self to miscarry because that the violent means used in such cases would impair her health if not endanger her life withall assuring her that himself would so order it that the Child as soon as born should be taken out of the way By these and such like artifices having drawn on the Woman to the time of her lying in as soon as ever he heard that she was in labour he sent some of his Council to be by and observe all that past with order that if it were a Girle they should deliver it to the Women but if a Boy that they should bring it to him wheresoever he were and whatsoever a-doing It so fell out that as he was at Supper with his principal Magistrates the Queen was brought to bed of a Boy who was soon after presented to him as he was at the Table he taking him tenderly into his arms said to those about him behold my Lords of Sparta here is a King born unto us this said he laid him down upon the Chair of State and nam'd him Charilaus that is the Joy of the people because they were so much transported with joy both at the birth of the young Prince and the contemplation of the noble Mind and Justice of Lycurgus and yet his good reign lasted onely eight months But Lycurgus was in nature a Prince and there were more who obeyed him upon the account of his eminent Vertues than because he was Regent to the King and had the treasure and strength of the Nation in his hands Yet could not all this ensure him from envy which made a push at him as is usual before he was well settled in his high Trust the Heads of this Faction were the Kindred and Creatures of the Queen-mother who pretended not to have been dealt with sutably to her quality and her Brother Leonidas in a warm debate which fell out betwixt him and Lycurgus went so far as to tell him to his face that he was very well assured that e'er long he should sec him King by this reflecting insinuation he endeavour'd to make the people jealous of Lycurgus thus preparing the way for an accusation of him as though he had made away with his Nephew if he should chance to fail though by a natural death words of the like import were designedly cast abroad by the Queen-mother and her adherents Being exceedingly troubled at this and not knowing what it might come to he thought it his wisest course to decline their envy by a voluntary exile and so travel from place to place untill his Nephew came to marriageable years and by having a Son had secured the Succession setting sail therefore with this resolution he first arrived at Crete where having considered their several Forms of Government and got an acquaintance with the principal men amongst them some of their Laws he very much approv'd of and resolv'd to make use of them in his own Country and a good part of them he rejected as useless Amongst the persons there the most renown'd for their ability and wisedom in State matters was one Thales whom Lycurgus by repeated importunities and assurances of Friendship at last persuaded to go over to
To these reasons and perswasions several other auspicious Omens as is reported did concurr and when his own Citizens understood what message the Roman Ambassadours had brought him they all addressed themselves to him instantly intreating him to accept the offer being assured that it was the onely means to appease all civil dissentions and incorporate both people into one Body Numa yielding to these perswasions and reasons having first performed Divine Service proceeded to Rome being met in his way by the Senate and People who with an impatient desire came forth to receive him the Women also welcomed him with joyfull acclamations and Sacrifices were offered for him in all the Temples and so universal was the joy that they seem'd not to receive a King but the addition of a new Kingdom In this manner he descended into the Forum where Spurius Vetius whose turn it was to be Governour at that hour putting it to the Vote Whether Numa should be King they all with one voice and consent cried out a Numa a Numa Then were the Regalities and Robes of Authority brought to him but he refused to be invested with them untill he had first consulted and been confirmed by the Gods so being accompanied by the Priests and Augurs he ascended the Capitol which at that time the Romans called the Tarpeian Rock Then the chief of the Augurs covered his head and turned his face towards the South and standing behind him laid his right hand on the head of Numa and prayed casting his eyes every way in expectation of some auspicious signal from the Gods It is wonderfull to consider with what silence and devotion the multitude which was assembled in the Market-place expected a happy event which was soon determined by the appearance and flight of such Birds as were accounted fortunate Then Numa apparelling himself in his Royal Robes descended from the Hill unto the people by whom he was received and congratulated with shouts and acclamations and esteemed by all for a holy and a devout Prince The first thing he did at his entrance into Government was to dismiss the Band of three hundred men which had been Romulus's Life-guard called by them Celeres for that the maintenance of such a force would argue a diffidence of them that chose him saying that he would not rule over that people of whom he conceived the least distrust The next thing he did was to add to the two Priests of Jupiter and Mars a third in honour of Romulus who was called Quirinalis The Romans ancienâ—â—y called their Priests Flamines by corruption of the word Pilamines from a certain Cap which they wore called Pileus for in those times Greek words were more mixed with the Latin than in this age so also that Royal Robe which is called Laenas Juba will have it from the Greek Chlaenas and that the name of Camillus which is given to the Boy that serves in the Temple of Jupiter was taken from the same which is given to Mercury denoting his service and attendance on the Gods When Numa had by these actions insinuated himself into the favour and affection of the people he began to dispose the humour of the City which as yet was obdurate and rendred hard as iron by War to become more gentle and pliable by the applications of humanity and justice It was then if ever the critical motion of the City and as Plato properly styles it the time when it was in its highest fermentation For this City in its original was the receptacle of all bold and daring spirits where men of desperate Fortunes joyning their hopes and force together made frequent sallies and incursions on their neighbours the which being prosperous gave nourishment and increase to the City and was then grown wresty and settled in its fierceness as piles droven into the ground become more fixed and stable by the impulse and blows which the Rammer layes upon them Wherefore Numa judging that it was the master-piece of his Art to mollifie and bend the stubborn and inflexible spirits of this people began to operate and practice upon them with the principles of Religion He sacrificed often and used supplications and religious Dances in which most commonly he officiated in person being ever attended with a grave and religious company and then at other times he divertised their minds with pleasures and delightfull exercises which he ever intermixed with their devotions so as to cool their fiery martial spirits and then to affect their fancies with a fear and reverence of God he made them believe that strange Apparitions and Visions were seen and prophetick Voices heard and all to season and possess their minds with a sense of Religion This method which Numa used made it believed that he was much conversant with Pythagoras and that he drew and copied his learning and wisedom from him for that in his institutions of a Commonwealth he lays down Religion for the first Foundation and ground of it It is said also that he affected the exteriour garb and gestures of Pythagoras and to personate him in all his motions For as it is said of Pythagoras that he had taught an Eagle to come at his lure and stoop at his call and that as he passed over the heads of the people assembled at the Olympick Games he made him shew his golden Thigh with many other rare arts and feats which appeared miraculous on which Timon Philasius wrote this distick Pythagoras that he might common fame acquire Did with his golden Verse mens minds inspire In like manner Numa affected the story of a mountain Nymph to be in love with him and that he entertained familiar conversation with the Muses from whom he received the greatest part of his Revelations and having amongst them a particular devotion for the Lady which he named Tacita he recommended the veneration of her to the Romans which he did perhaps in imitation of the Pythagorean Silence His opinion also of Images is very agreeable to the Doctrine of Pythagoras who taught that the First Principle of Being which is not capable to be affected with sensual passions is invisible and incorrupt and onely to be comprehended by abstracted speculations of the mind And for this reason he forbad the Romans to represent God in the form of Man or Beast nor was there any painted or graven Image of a Deity admitted amongst them for the space of the first hundred and sixty years all which time their Temples and Chapels were free and pure from Idols and Images which seem'd too mean and beggarly representations of God to whom no access was allowable but by the mind raised and elated by divine contemplation His Sacrifices also had great similitude with the Victims of Pythagoras which were not celebrated with effusion of Bloud but consisted of the flour of Wheat or Wine and such sort of blended Offerings And to make appear the inclination that Numa had to Pythagoras by other