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
these Women after they had burnt the Ships did make use of such like Allurements to pacifie their Husbands and allay the displeasure they had conceiv'd Some say that Roma from whom this City was so call'd was Daughter of Italus and Leucaria others of Telephus Hercules's Son who was married to Aeneas others again of Ascanius Aeneas's Son But then some say Romanus the Son of Vlysses and Circe built it some that Romus the Son of Emathion whom Diomede sent from Troy and others that it was founded by Romus King of the Latines that drove out the Thuscans who came originally from Thessaly into Lydia and from thence into those Parts of Italy Nay those very Authors who by the clearest Reasons make it appear that Romulus gave Name to that City do yet strangely differ concerning his Birth and Family For some write he was Son to Aeneas and Dexithea Daughter of Phorbas who with his Brother Remus in their Infancy was carried into Italy and being on the River when the Waters were very rough all the Ships were cast away except only that where the young Children were which being safely landed on a level Bank of the River they were both unexpectedly sav'd and from them the Place was call'd Rome Some say Roma Daughter of that Trojan Lady who was married to Latinus Telemachus's Son was Mother to Romulus others that Aemilia Daughter of Aeneas and Lavinia had him by the God Mars and others give you little less than meer Fables of his Original As to Tarchetius King of Alba who was a most wicked and cruel Man appear'd in his own House a strange Vision which was the Figure of a Man's Yard that rose out of a Chimney-hearth and stay'd there for many days Whereupon the Oracle of Tethys in Thuscany being consulted the result of it was that some young Virgin should accept of its Court and she should have a Son famous in his Generation eminent for Vertue good Fortune and strength of Body Tarchetius told the Prophecy to one of his own Daughters and commanded her to entertain the Lover but she slighting the Matter put her Woman on the execution of it Tarchetius hearing this in great indignation imprison'd the Offenders purposing to put 'em to death but being deterr'd from Murder by the Goddess Vesta in a Dream enjoyn'd them for their punishment the working a piece of Cloth in their Chains as they were which when they finish'd they should be suffer'd to marry but what-ever they work'd by day Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night In the mean time the Waiting-woman was deliver'd of two Boys whom Tarchetius gave into the hands of one Teratius with strict Command to destroy 'em but he expos'd 'em to Fortune by a River-side where a Wolf constantly came and suckled 'em and the Birds of the Air brought little morsels of Food which they put into their mouths till a Neat-herd spying 'em was first strangely surpriz'd but venturing to draw nearer took the Children up in his arms This was the manner of their preservation and thus they grew up till they set upon Tarchetius and overcame him This Promathion says that writ the History of Italy but Diocles Peparethius deliver'd first amongst the Graecians the most principal Parts of the History that has most credit and is generally receiv'd him Fabius Pictor in most things follows Yet here too are still more Scruples rais'd As for Example The Kings of Alba descending lineally from Aeneas the Succession devolv'd at length upon two Brothers Numitor and Amulius Amulius to divide things into two equal shares put in equivalency to the Kingdom all the Treasury and Gold that was brought from Troy Numitor chose the Kingdom but Amulius having the Money and being able to do more with that than Numitor he both with a great deal of ease took his Kingdom from him and withal fearing lest his Daughter might have Children made her a Vestal Nun in that condition for ever to live a single and Maiden Life This Lady some call'd Ilia others Rhea and others Sylvia however not long after she was contrary to the establish'd Laws of the Vestals discover'd to be with Child and should have suffer'd the most cruel punishment had not Antho the King's Daughter mediated with her Father for her nevertheless she was confin'd and debarr'd all humane conversation that she might not be deliver'd without his knowledge In time she brought forth two Boys extraordinary both in the bigness and beauty of their Bodies Whereupon Amulius becoming yet more fearful commanded a Servant to take and cast 'em away this Man some call Faustulus others say Faustulus was the Man who brought them up who-ever the Servant was he put the Children in a small Trough and went towards the River with a design to cast them in but seeing the Waters flow and pouring in mighty surges upon him he fear'd to go nigher but dropping the Children near the Bank went himself off the River overflowing the Flood at last bore up the Trough and gently wafting it landed 'em on a very pleasant Plain which they now call Cermanum formerly Germanum perhaps from Germani which signifies Brothers Near this Place grew a wild Fig-tree which they call'd Ruminalis either from Romulus as it is vulgarly thought or from Ruminating because Cattel did usually in the heat of the day seek Cover under it and there chew the Cud or chiefly from the suckling of these Children there for the Ancients call'd the Dug or Teat of any Creature Ruma and the tutelar Goddess of all young Children they still call Rumilia in sacrificing to whom they made no use of Wine but Milk While the Infants lay here History tells us a she-Wolf nurs'd 'em and a little Wood-pecker constantly fed and foster'd 'em these Creatures are esteem'd holy to the God Mars and for the Woodpecker the Latines still egregiously worship and honour it Whence it was not altogether incredible what the Mother of the Children said that she conceiv'd with Child by the God Mars tho' they say that mistake was put upon her by Amulius himself being by him robb'd of her Honour who appear'd to her all in Armour and so committed a Rape upon her Body Others think the first rise of this Fable came from the Childrens Nurse purely upon the ambiguity of a word for the Latines not only call'd Wolves Lupae but also lewd and prostitute Women And such an one was the Wife of Faustulus who nurtur'd these Children Acca Laurentia by Name to her the Romans offer Sacrifices and to her in the Month April the Priest of Mars does offer up a special Libation and they call it the Laurentian Feast they honour also another Laurentia much upon the like occasion as thus The Keeper of Hercules's Temple having it seems little else to do propos'd to his Deity a Game at Dice laying down that if he himself won he would have something valuable of the
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
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
and Admetus were beloved by Apollo or that Hippolytus the Sicyonian was so much in the favour of a certain God that as often as he sailed from Sicyon to Cirrha the God rejoyced and inspired the Pythian Prophetess with this heroick Verse Now doth Hippolytus return again And venture his dear life upon the Main It is reported also that Pan became enamoured of Pindar for his Verses and that a beatified Demon honoured Hesiod and Archilochus after their deaths by the Muses it is said also that Aesculapius sojourned with Sophocles in his life-time of which many instances are extant to these days and that being dead another Deity took care to perform his Funeral-rites wherefore if any credit may be given to these particular instances why should we judge it incongruous that a like Spirit of the Gods should inspire Zaleucus Minos Zoroaster Lycurgus Numa and many others or that the Gods should conferr a meaner proportion of their favours on those who were Founders of Commonwealths or busied in making Laws and administration of the political affairs of Kingdoms Nay it is most reasonable to believe that the Gods in their sober humour are assistent at the counsels and serious debates of these men to inspire and direct them as they do also Poets and Musicians when in a more pleasant mood they intend their own divertisement but as Bacchylis said thoughts are free and the way is open to every man's sentiment yet in reallity it cannot be denied but that such men as Lycurgus Numa and others who were to deal with the seditious humours of Fanatick Citizens and the unconstant disposition of the multitude might lawfully establish their Precepts with the pretence of Divine Authority and cheat them into such Politicks as tend to their own happiness But to return to our purpose Numa was about forty years of age when the Ambassadours came to make him offers of the Kingdom the Speakers were Proculus and Velesus the first was an ancient Roman and the other of the Tatian Faction and zealous for the Sabine party Their Speech was short but pithy supposing that when they came to tender a Kingdom there needed no long Oration or Arguments to perswade him to an acceptance but contrary to their expectation they found that they were forc'd to use many reasons and intreaties to allure him from his quiet and retir'd life to accept the Government of a City whose Foundation was laid in War and grown up in martial Exercises wherefore in presence of his Father and Martius his Kinsman he returned answer in this manner That since every alteration of a man's life is dangerous to him it were mere madness for one that is commodious and easie and provided with all things necessary for a convenient support to seek or endeavour a change though there were nothing more in it than that he prefers a turbulent and an uncertain life before a quiet and a secure condition It is not difficult for a man to take his measures concerning the state of this Kingdom by the example of Romulus who did not escape a suspicion of having plotted against the life of his Collegue Tatius nor was the Senate free from the accusation of having treasonably murthered their Prince Romulus And yet Romulus had the advantage to be thought of Divine race and to be conserved by a miraculous manner in his infancy how then can we who are sprang from mortal seed and instructed with principles and rudiments received from the men you know be able to struggle with such apparent difficulties It is none of the least of my commendations that my humour renders me unfit to reign being naturally addicted to studies and pleased in the recesses of a quiet life I must confess that I am zealous of Peace and love it even with passion and that the conversation of men who assemble together to worship God and to maintain an amicable charity is my chief business and delight and what time may be spared from this more necessary duty I employ in cultivating my Lands and improving my Farms But you Romans whom Romulus perhaps may have left engaged in unavoidable Wars require an active and brisk King who may cherish that warlike humour in the people which their late successes have encouraged and excited to a warm ambition of enlarging their Dominions and therefore such a Prince as in this conjuncture should come to inculcate Peace and Justice and Religion into the minds of the people would appear ridiculous and despicable to them who resolve on War and Violence and require rather a martial Captain than a pacifick Moderatour The Romans perceiving by these words that he refused to accept the Kingdom were the more instant and urgent with him that he would not forsake and desert them in this condition by suffering them to relapse into their former sedition and civil discord which they must unavoidably do if he accepted not their proffer there being no person on whom both parties could accord but on himself and at length his Father and Martius taking him aside perswaded him to accept this offer which was important and rather was conferred from Heaven than from Men. Though said they you remain contented with your own Fortune and court neither Riches nor Power yet being endued with excellent Vertue you may reasonably imagine that such a Talent of Justice was not given by the Gods to be hidden or concealed and that since the just Government of a Kingdom is the greatest service a man can perform towards God he ought therefore by no means to decline and refuse Empire and Rule which was the true sphere and station of wise and renowned men and in which they had such an ascendant over mankind as to influence their Souls with affections to Vertue and to a religious worship of the Gods in the most solemn and pompous manner it being natural to men to fashion and conform themselves by the example and actions of their Prince Tatius though a Foreigner was yet acceptable and in esteem of the Romans and the memory of Romulus was so pretious to them that after his decease they voted Divine Honours to be paid to him and now who knows but that this people being victorious may be satiated with the War and with the Trophies and Spoils they have acquired and may gladly entertain a gentle and pacifick Prince who being a lover of Justice may reduce the City into a model and course of Laws and judicial proceedings And in case at any time the affections of this people should break forth into a furious and impetuous desire of War were it not better then to have the reigns held by such a moderating hand as is able to divert the fury another way and spend it self on Foreigners by which means those malignant humours which are the causes of civil discord will perspire and evaporate and all the Sabines and neighbouring people be reconciled and joined in an inseperable union and alliance with the City
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
disgust to the people because after Brutus whom they esteem'd as Patriot of their Liberty had not presum'd to Lord it without a Collegue but still assum'd one and then another to him in his Commission but Valerius said they carrying all things by his power seem'd not a Successour to Brutus having no deference to the Consulship but an aim to Tarquin's Tyranny and notwithstanding his verbal Harangues to Brutus's memory yet when he was attended with all the Rods and Axes and came from an House as stately as that he demolish'd of the Kings those actions shew'd him an imitatour of Tarquin besides his dwelling House call'd Velia was more magnificent which hanging over the Forum overlook'd all transactions there the access to it was hard and the return from it difficult but to see him come down was a stately prospect and equall'd the majesty of a King But Valerius shew'd how much it imported men in power and great Offices to give admittance to truth before flattery for upon his Friends remonstrances that he displeas'd the people contended not neither resented it but that very night sending for Carpenters pulled down his House and levell'd it with the ground so that in the morning the people flocking thither saw the ruines they lov'd and admir'd the generosity of the man and deplor'd the Consul's loss who wanting an House was forc'd to seek a foreign habitation and wish'd a repair of so much beauty and magnificence as to one to whom malice had unjustly procur'd the ruine His Friends receiv'd him till the place the people gave him was furnish'd with an House though less stately than his own where now stands the Temple call'd Vicus Publicus He resolv'd to render the Government as well as himself instead of terrible familiar and pleasant to the people and parted the Axes from the Rods and always upon his entrance into the Assembly with an humble submission vail'd them to the people as restoring thereby the excellency of a Common-wealth and this the Consuls observe to this day But the humility of the man which the people thought real was but a device to abate their envy by this moderation for as much as he detracted from his liberty so much he advanc'd in his power the people still submitting with satisfaction which they express'd by calling him Poplicola i. e. a popular man which name had the preheminence of the rest and therefore in the sequel of this History we shall use no other He gave free leave to any to sue for the Consulship but before the admittance of a Collegue mistrusting futurity lest the emulation or the ignorance of him should cross his designs by his own authority enacted some good and noble Constitutions First he supply'd the vacancies of the Senatours which either Tarquin long before put to death or the War lately out off those that were registred they write amounted to one hundred threescore and four afterwards he made several Laws which added much to the people's liberty as one granting offenders the liberty of appealing to the people from the censure of the Consuls a second that made it death to usurp the magistracy without the peoples consent a third for the relief of poor Citizens which taking off their taxes encourag'd their labours another against disobedience to the Consuls which was no less popular than the rest and rather to the benefit of the Commonalty than to the advantage of the Nobles for it impos'd upon disloyalty the penalty of ten Oxen and two Sheep the price of a Sheep was ten Oboli of an Ox an hundred For the use of Money was then infrequent amongst the Romans their wealth consisting in a plenty of Cattel so that afterwards their Estates were call'd Peculia from Pecus i. e. Cattel and had upon their ancient Money engrav'd an Ox a Sheep or an Hog and hence sirnam'd their Sons Suilli Bubulci or Caprarii they calling Caprae Goats and Porci Hoggs These Laws shewed the evenness and the popularity of the giver yet amidst this moderation he instituted one excessive punishment for he made it lawfull without accusation to take away any man's life that aspir'd to a Tyranny and acquitted the executioner if he produc'd evidences of the crime for though 't was not probable whose designs were so great to escape all notice yet because 't was possible his power might prevent judgment which the usurpation it self would then take off gave a licence to any to prevent the Vsurper He was honour'd likewise for the Law touching the Treasury and because necessity engag'd the Citizens out of their Estates to contribute to the maintenance of Wars and he being unwilling himself to be concern'd in the care of it or to permit his Friends or indeed that the publick Money should be entrusted into private hands allotted the Temple of Saturn for the Treasury in which to this day they reposite the Tribute-money and granted the people the liberty of chusing two young men as Questors i. e. Treasurers and the first were P. Veturius and Minucius Marcus there being a great Sum collected for they assess'd one hundred and thirty thousand excusing Orphans and Widows from the payment Affairs standing in this posture he admitted Lucretius the Father of Lucretia as his Collegue and gave him the precedence in the Government by resigning up the Fasces i. e. Rods to him as due to his years which humble observance to age was deriv'd to posterity But within a few days Lucretius dy'd and Marcus Horatius succeeded in that honour and continu'd the remaining part of the year Now whilst Tarquin was making preparations in Tuscany for a second War against the Romans 't is said a portentous accident fell out When Tarquin was King and having not compleated the buildings of the Capitol he designing whether from a Divine impulse or his own pleasure to erect an earthen Chariot upon the top entrusted the workmanship to Tuscans of the City Veies but soon after was oblig'd to retire from his Kingdom The Work thus model'd the Tuscans set in a Furnace but the Clay shew'd not those passive qualities which usually attend its nature to subside and be condens'd upon the exhalations of the moisture but rose up and swell'd to that bulk that being consolidated and firm notwithstanding the removal of the head and breaking down the walls of the Furnace it could not be taken out without much difficulty The wise men look'd upon this as a Divine prognostick of success and power to those that should enjoy it and the Tuscans resolv'd not to deliver it to the Romans who demanded it but answer'd that it rather belong'd to Tarquin than to those that forc'd him into exile A few days after there happen'd an Horse-race with the usual shews and solemnities the Chariotier with his Crown on his head softly driving his victorious Chariot out of the ring the Horses upon no apparent occasion affrighted but either out