absurd and contradictious to one another I pretend not this passage to be Translated word for word but 't is the sence of the whole tho the order of the Sentence be inverted The other is more plain 'T is in his Comment on the Word EI or those two Letters inscrib'd on the Gates of the Temple at Delphos Where having given the several opinions concerning it as first that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fignifies if because all the questions which were made to Apollo began with If as suppose they ask'd if the Grecians should overcome the Persians if such a Marriage shou'd come to to pass c. And afterwards that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might signifie thou art as the second person of the present tense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating thereby the being or perpetuity of being belonging to Apollo as a God in the same sense that God express'd himself to Moses I am hath sent thee Plutarch subjoyns as inclining to this latter opinion these following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes he signifies thou art one for there are not many Deities but only one Continues I mean not one in the aggregate sense as we say one Army or one Body of Men constituted of many individuals but that which is must of necessity be one and to be implies to be One One is that which is a simple being uncompounded or free from mixture Therefore to be One in this sense is only consistent with a Nature pure in it self and not capable of alteration or decay That he was no Christian is manifest Yet he is no where found to have spoken with contumely of our Religion like the other Writers of his Age and those who succeeded him Theodoret says of him that he had heard of our holy Gospel and inserted many of our Sacred Mysteries in his Works which we may easily believe because the Christian Churches were then spread in Greece and Pliny the younger was at the same time conversant amongst them in Asia tho that part of our Authors Workes is not now extant from whence Theodoret might gather those passages But we need not wonder that a Philosopher was not easie to embrace the divine Mysteries of our Faith A modern God as our Saviour was to him was of hard digestion to a Man who probably despis'd the vanities and fabulous Relations of all the old Besides a Crucfy'd Saviour of Mankind a Doctrine attested by illiterate Disciples the Author of it a Jew whose Nation at that time was despicable and his Doctrine but an innovation among that despis'd people to which the Learned of his own Country gave no credit and which the Magistrates of his Nation punish'd with an ignominious death the Scene of his Miracles acted in an obscure Corner of the world his being from Eternity yet born in time his Resurrection and Ascension these and many more particulars might easily choke the Faith of a Philosopher who believ'd no more than what he cou'd deduce from the principles of Nature and that too with a doubtful Academical assent or rather an inclination to assent to probability which he judg'd was wanting in this new Religion These circumstances consider'd tho they plead not an absolute invincible ignorance in his behalf yet they amount at least to a degree of it for either he thought them not worth weighing or rejected them when weigh'd and in both cases he must of necessity be ignorant because he cou'd not know without Revelation and the Revelation was not to him But leaving the Soul of Plutarch with our Charitable wishes to his Maker we can only trace the rest of his opinions in Religion from his Philosophy Which we have said in the General to be Platonick tho it cannot also be denyed that there was a tincture in it of the Electick Sect which was begun by Potamon under the Empire of Augustus and which selected from all the other Sects what seem'd most probable in their opinions not adhering singularly to any of them nor rejecting every thing I will only touch his belief of Spirits In his two Treatises of Oracles the one concerning the reason of their Cessation the other enquiring why they were not given in verse as in former times he seems to assert the Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration of Souls We have formerly shewn that he own'd the the Unity of a Godhead whom according to his Attributes he calls by several names as Jupiter from his Almighty Power Apollo from his Wisdom and so of the rest but under him he places those beings whom he styles Genii or Daemons of a middle nature betwixt Divine and Human for he thinks it absur'd that there shou'd be no mean betwixt the two extreams of an Immortal and a Mortal Being That there cannot be in nature so vast a flaw without some intermedial kind of life partaking of them both as therefore we find the intercourse betwixt the Soul and body to be made by the Animal Spirits so betwixt Divinity and humanity there is this species of Daemons Who having first been Men and following the strict Rules of vertue had purg'd off the grossness and faeculency of their earthly being are exalted into these Genii and are from thence either rais'd higher into an Aetherial life if they still continue vertuous or tumbled down again into Mortal Bodies and sinking into flesh after they have lost that purity which constituted their glorious being And this sort of Genii are those who as our Author imagines presided over Oracles Spirits which have so much of their terrestrial principles remaining in them as to be subject to passions and inclinations usually beneficent sometimes Malevolent to Mankind according as they refine themselves or gather dross and are declining into Mortal Bodies The Cessation or rather the decrease of Oracles for some of them were still remaing in Plutarchs time he Attributes either to the death of those Daemons as appears by the story of the Egyptian Thamus who was Commanded to declare that the great God Pan was dead or to their forsaking of those places where they formerly gave out their Oracles from whence they were driven by stronger Genii into banishment for a certain Revolution of Ages Of this last nature was the War of the Gyants against the Gods the dispossession of Saturn by Jupiter the banishment of Apollo from Heaven the fall of Vulcan and many others all which according to our Authours were the battles of these Genii or Daemons amongst themselves But supposing as Plutarch evidently does that these Spirits administer'd under the Supream Being the affairs of Men taking care of the vertuous punishing the bad and sometimes communicating with the best as particularly the Genius of Socrates always warn'd him of approaching dangers and taught him to avoyd them I cannot but wonder that every one who has hitherto written Plutarchs Life and particularly Rualdus the most knowing of them all should so confidently affirm that these Oracles were given by bad Spirits according
out A Lad being offered some Cocks of the Game so hardy that they would dye upon the place said that he car'd not for Cocks that would dye hardy but for such that would live and kill others Another would by no means be carried home in a Chair as he saw some others were because said he I cannot conveniently rise in it to pay respect to my betters In short their answers were so sententious and pertinent that one said well that to be a Philosopher or a Lacedemonian signified the same thing And though they were a very active people they exercised their Minds much more than their Bodies Nor were they less carefull to sing and compose well than to express themselves in proper terms and to speak to the point And their very Songs had such a life and spirit in them that they enflam'd and ravish'd mens minds with a desire to doe great and good Actions the style of them was plain and without affectation the subject always serious and moral most usually it was in praise of such men as had dy'd in the bed of honour for defence of their Country or in derision of those who would not venture their lives willingly in so good a cause the former they declared happy and almost Gods and the latter they describ'd as most miserable and below the condition of men In these Verses too they talk'd high of what feats they would doe or had done and vaunted of themselves as the bravest and most valiant people in the world The expression was different and sutable to their several ages for you must understand that they had three Choirs of them in their solemn Festivals the first of the old Men the second of the young Men and the last of the Children to give a taste of them the old Men began thus We have been though now spent and old Hardy in Field in Battel Bold The young men answered them singing We are so now let who dares try We 'll conquer or in combat dye The Children came last and said What ever ye can doe or tell We one day will you both excell Indeed if we will take the pains to consider their Compositions and the Airs on the Flute to which they were set when they march'd on to Battel we shall find that Terpander and Pindar had reason to say that Musick was not incompatible with but rather an help and incentive to Valour The first says thus of them Justice goes in procession through their Streets And Mars the Muses in sweet consort meets And Pindar Blest Sparta in whose State we find Things almost inconsistent join'd In quiet times your Martial toils not cease And Wars adorn'd with the soft arts of Peace Gray-headed Wisedom reigns in your Debates And well-bred Youth with equal Fire Handle their Arms or touch their Lyre Ye Gods the Musick of well ordered States So that these two Poets describe the Spartans as being no less musical than warlike and the Spartan Poet himself confirms it Our Sports prelude to War and Musicks charms Inspire deliberate Valour to our Arms. And even before they engag'd in Battel the King did first sacrifice to the Muses in all likelihood to put them in mind of the manner of their education and of the severe judgment that would be pass'd upon their actions and thereby to animate them to the performance of some gallant Exploit sometimes too the Lacedemonians abated a little the severity of their manners in favour of their young men suffering them to curle and perfume their Hair and to have costly Arms and fine Clothes and as well pleas'd they were to see them marching out full of metal and spirit to an Engagement as the other Graecians were to see their trim'd Horses neighing and pressing for the course And therefore when they came to be well-grown Lads they took a great deal of care of their Hair to have it parted and trim'd especially against a day of Battel pursuant to a saying of their Law-giver that a large head of Hair set off a good Face to more advantage and those that were ugly it made more ugly and dreadfull When they were in the Field their Exercises were generally more moderate their Fare not so hard nor so strict a hand held over them by their Officers so that they were the onely people in the world to whom War gave repose When their Army was drawn up in Battel array and the Enemy near the King sacrific'd a Goat commanded the Souldiers to set their Garlands upon their heads and the Pipers to play the Tune of the Hymn to Castor and himself advancing forwards began the Paean which serv'd for a signal to fall on It was at once a delightfull and terrible sight to see them march on to the Tune of their Flutes without ever troubling their Order or confounding their Ranks no disorder in their minds or change in their countenance but on they went to the hazard of their lives as unconcernedly and cheerfully as if it had been to lead up a Dance or to hear a consort of Musick Men in this temper were not likely to be possessed with fear or transported with fury but they proceeded with a deliberate Valour full of hope and good assurance as if some Divinity had sensibly assisted them The King had always about his person some one who had been crown'd in the Olympick Games and upon this account a Lacedemonian refus'd a considerable present which was offered to him upon condition that he would not come into the Lists and having with much to doe thrown his Antagonist some of the Spectatours said to him And now Sir Lacedemonian what are you the better for your Victory he answered smiling O a great deal Sir for I shall have the honour to fight by the side of my Prince After they had routed an Enemy they pursu'd him till they were well assured of the Victory and then they sounded a retreat thinking it base and unworthy of a Graecian people to cut men in pieces who durst not look them in the face or lift up their hands against them This manner of dealing with their Enemies did not onely shew their magnanimity but had a politick end in it too for knowing that they kill'd onely those who made resistance and gave quarter to the rest they generally thought it their best way to consult their safety by flight Hippias the Sophister says that Lycurgus himself was a very valiant and experienced Commander Philostephanus attributes to him the first division of the Cavalry into Troops of fifties in a square Body but Demetrius the Phalerian says quite the contrary and that he made all his Laws in a continued Peace And indeed the cessation of Arms procured by his means and management inclines me to think him a good-natur'd man and one that lov'd quietness and peace Notwithstanding all this Hermippus tells us that he had no hand in the Ordinance that Iphitus made it and
the Originalls You may expect the Remainder in four more One after another as fast as they may conveniently be dispatch'd from the Press It is not my business or pretence to judge of a work of this quality neither do I take upon me to recommend it to the world any farther then under the Office of a fair and a careful Publisher and in discharge of a trust deposited in my hands for the service of my Country and for a Common good I am not yet so insensible of the Authority and Reputation of so great a Name as not to consult the Honour of the Author together with the benefit and satisfaction of the Bookseller as well as of the Reader in this undertaking In order to which ends I have with all possible Respect and Industry Besought Sollicited and Obtain'd the Assistance of persons equal to the enterprize and not only Criticks in the Tongue but Men of known fame and Abilities for style and Ornament but I shall rather refer you to the Learned and Ingenious Translators of this first part whose Names you will find in the next page as a Specimen of what you may promise your self from the Rest After this Right done to the Greek Author I shall not need to say what profit and delight will accrue to the English Reader from this version when he shall see this Illustrious piece in his own Mother Tongue and the very Spirit of the Original Transfus'd into the Traduction And in one word Plutarchs Worthies made yet more famous by a Translation that gives a farther Lustre even to Plutarch himself Now as to the Booksellers Part I must justifie my self that I have done all that to me belonged That is to say I have been punctually Faithful to all my Commissions toward the Correctness and the Decency of the Work and I have said to my self that which I now say to the Publick It is impossible but a Book that comes into the World with so many circumstances of Dignity usefulness and esteem must turn to account A Table of the Lives contained in this first Volume Plutarch Written by Mr. Dryden Theseus Translated by Mr. Duke pag. 1. Romulus Mr. Smallwood p. 63. Lycurgus Mr. Chetwood 129. Numa Pompilius Mr. Rycaut 205. Solon Mr. Creech 275. Poplicoca Mr. Dodswell 329. Themistocles Dr. Brown 367. Furius Camillus Mr. Pain 427. Pericles Dr. Littleton 501. Fabius Maximus Mr. Carryl 601. PLUTARCH THE LIFE OF PLUTARCH Written by Mr. DRYDEN I Know not by what Fate it comes to pass that Historians who give immortality to others are so ill requited by Posterity that their Actions and their Fortunes are usually forgotten neither themselves incourag'd while they live nor their memory preserv'd entire to future Ages 'T is the ingratitude of Mankind to their greatest Benefactors that they who teach us wisdome by the surest ways setting before us what we ought to shun or to pursue by the examples of the most famous Men whom they Record and by the experience of their Faults and Vertues should generally live poor and unregarded as if they were born only for the publick and had no interest in their own well-being but were to be lighted up like Tapers and to waste themselves for the benefit of others But this is a complaint too general and the custom has been too long establish'd to be remedied neither does it wholly reach our Author He was born in an Age which was sensible of his vertue and found a Trajan to reward him as Aristotle did an Alexander But the Historians who succeeded him have either been too envious or too careless of his reputation none of them not even his own Country-men having given us any particular account of him or if they have yet their Works are not transmitted to us so that we are forc'd to glean from Plutarch what he has scatter'd in his Writings concerning himself and his Original Which excepting that little memorial that Suidas and some few others have left concerning him is all we can collect relating to this great Philosopher and Historian He was born at Chaeronea a small City of Boeotia in Greece between Attica and Phocis and reaching to both Seas The Climate not much befreinded by the Heavens for the air is thick and foggy and consequently the Inhabitants partaking of its influence gross feeders and fat witted brawny and unthinking just the constitution of Heroes Cut out for the Executive and brutal business of War but so stupid in the designing part that in all the revolutions of Greece they were never Masters but only in those few years when they were led by Epaminondas or Pelopidas Yet this foggy ayre this Country of fat weathers as Juvenal calls it produc'd three wits which were comparable to any three Athenians Pyndar Epaminondas and our Plutarch to whom we may add a fourth Sextus Chaeronensis the Praeceptor of the learned Emperour Marcus Aurelius and the Nephew of our Authour Choercnea if we may give credit to Pausanias in the ninth Book of his description of Greece was anciently call'd Arnè from Arnè the Daughter of Aeolus but being scituated to the west of Parnassus in that low land country the natural unwholsomness of the Ayre was augmented by the evening Vapours cast upon it from that Mountain which our late Travellers describe to be full of moisture and marshy ground inclos'd in the inequality of its ascents And being also expos'd to the winds which blew from that quarter the Town was perpetually unhealthful for which reason sayes my Author Chaeron the Son of Apollo and Thero made it be rebuilt and turn'd it towards the rising Sun From whence the Town became healthful and consequently populous in memory of which benefit it afterwards retain'd his name But as Etymologies are uncertain and the Greeks above all Nations given to fabulous derivations of Names especially when they tend to the Honour of their Country I think we may be reasonably content to take the denomination of the Town from its delightful or chearful standing as the word Chaeron sufficiently implies But to lose no time in these grammatical Etymologies which are commonly uncertain ghesses 't is agreed that Plutarch was here born the year uncertain but without dispute in the reign of Claudius Joh. Gerrard Vossius has assign'd his birth in the latter end of that Emperour Some other Writers of his Life have left it undecided whether then or in the beginning of Nero's Empire But the most accurate Rualdus as I find it in the Paris Edition of Plutarch's Works has manifestly prov'd him to be born in the middle time of Claudius or somewhat lower For Plutarch in the inscription at Delphos of which more hereafter remembers that Ammonius his Master disputed with him and his Brother Lamprias concerning it when Nero made his progress into Greece which was in his twelfth year and the Question disputed cou'd not be manag'd with so much learning as it was by meer Boyes therefore he was then sixteen
to Plutarch As Christians indeed we may think them so but that Plutarch so thought is a most apparent falshood 'T is enough to convince a reasonable Man that our Author in his old age and that then he doted not we may see by the Treatise he has written that old Men ought to have the management of publick Affairs I say that then he initiated himself in the Sacred Rities of Delphos and dyed for ought we know Apollo's Priest Now it is not to be imagin'd that he thought the God he serv'd a Cacodaemon or as we call him a Devil Nothing cou'd be farther from the opinion and practice of this holy Philosopher than so gross an impiety The story of the Pythias or Priestess of Apollo which he relates immediately before the ending of that Treatise concerning the Cessation of Oracles confirms my assertion rather then shakes it For 't is there deliver'd That going with great reluctation into the Sacred place to be inspir'd she came out foaming at the mouth her eyes gogling her breast heaving her voice undistinguishable and shril as if she had an Earthquake within her labouring for vent and in short that thus tormented with the God whom she was not able to support she died distracted in few dayes after For he had sayd before that the Devineress ought to have no perturbations of mind or impure passions at the time when she was to consult the Oracle and if she had she was no more fit to to be inspir'd than an instrument untun'd to render an harmonious sound And he gives us to suspect by what he says at the close of this Relation That this Pythias had not liv'd Chastly for some time before it So that her death appears more like a punishment inflicted for loose living by some holy power than the meer malignancy of a Spirit delighted naturally in mischief There is another observation which indeed comes nearer to their purpose which I will digress so far as to relate because it somewhat appertains to our own Country There are many Islands says he which lie scattering about Britain after the manner of our Sporades They are unpeopled and some of them are call'd the Islands of the Heroes or the Genii One Demetrius was sent by the Emperour who by computation of the time must either be Caligula or Claudius to discover those parts and arriving at one of the Islands next adjoyning to the foremention'd which was inhabited by some few Britains but those held Sacred and inviolable by all their Country-men immediatly after his arrival the air grew black and troubled strange Apparitions were seen the winds rais'd a Tempest and fiery spouts or Whirlwinds appear'd dancing towards the Earth When these prodigies were ceas'd the Islanders inform'd him that some one of the aerial Beings superior to our Nature then ceas'd to live For as a Taper while yet burning affords a pleasant harmless light but is noysome and offensive when extinguish'd so those Hero's shine benignly on us and do us good but at their death turn all things topsie turvy raise up tempests and infect the air with pestilential vapours By those holy and inviolable men there is no question but he means our Druydes who were nearest to the Pythagoreans of any Sect and this opinion of the Genii might probably be one of theirs Yet it proves not that all Daemons were thus malicious only those who were to be Condemn'd hereafter into human bodies for their misdemeanours in their aerial Being But 't is time to leave a subject so very fanciful and so little reasonable as this I am apt to imagine the natural vapours arising in the Cave where the Temple afterwards was Built might work upon the Spirits of those who enter'd the holy place as they did on the Shaphard Coretas who first found it out by accident and encline them to Enthusiasm and prophetick madness That as the strength of those vapours diminish'd which were generally in Caverns as that of Mopsus of Trophonius and this of Delphos so the inspiration decrea'd by the same measures That they happen'd to be stronger when they kill'd the Pythias who being conscious of this was so unwilling to enter That the Oracles ceas'd to be given in Verse when Poets ceas'd to be the Priests and that the Genius of Socrates whom he confess'd never to have seen but only to have heard inwardly and unperceiv'd by others was no more than the strength of his imagination or to speak in the Language of a Christian Platonist his Guardian Angel I pretend not to an exactness of method in this Life which I am forc'd to collect by patches from several Authors and therefore without much regard to the connection of times which are so uncertain I will in the next place speak of his Marriage His Wifes name her Parentage and Dowry are no where mention'd by him or any other nor in what part of his age he Married Tho 't is probable in the flower of it But Rualdus has ingeniously gather'd from a convincing circumstance that she was called Timoxena Because Plutarch in a Consolatory Letter to her occasion'd by the Death of their Daughter in her Infancy uses these words Your Timoxena is depriv'd by death of small enjoyments for the things she knew were of small moment and she cou'd be delighted only with triffles Now it appears by the Letter that the Name of this Daughter was the same with her Mothers therefore it cou'd be no other than Timoxena Her knowledge her conjugal vertues her abhorrency from the vanities of her Sex and from superstition her gravity in behaviour and her constancy in supporting the loss of Children are likewise Celebrated by our Author No other wife of Plutarch is found mention'd and therefore we may conclude he he had no more By the same reason for which we Judge that he had no other Master than Ammonius because 't is evident he was so grateful in his nature that he would have preserv'd their Memory The number of his Children was at least five so many being mention'd by him Four of them were Sons of the other Sex only Timoxena who died at two years old as is manifest from the Epistle above-mention'd The French Translater Amiot from whom our old English Translation of the Lives was made supposes him to have had another Daughter where he speaks of his Son-in-Law Crato But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Plutarch there uses is of a larger signification for it may as well be expounded Father-in-law his Wifes Brother or his Sisters Husband as Budaeus notes This I the rather mention because the same Amiot is task'd for an infinite number of mistakes by his own Country-men of the present Age which is enough to recommend this Translation of our Authour into the English tongue being not from any Copy but from the Greek Original Two other Sons of Plutarch were already deceas'd before Timoxena Hs eldest Autobulus mention'd in his Symposiaques and another whose Name
Nations and Enemies that it was seldom or never at peace onely in the time of Augustus Caesar after he had overcome Anthony that Temple was shut as likewise not many years before when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were Consuls but then it continued not so long before that Wars breaking out the Gates of Janus were again opened but during the Reign of Numa which continued for the space of forty three years those Gates were ever shut there being a profound quiet without the noise or clattering of Arms for not onely the people of Rome were animated with a spirit of peace which they enjoyed under the just proceedings of a pacifick Prince but even the neighbouring Cities as if they had been inspired with the same inclinations breathed nothing but a salubrious and gentle air of mutual friendship and amicable correspondence and being ravished with the delights which Justice and Peace produce every one apply'd himself to the management of his Lands and Farm to the education of his Children and worship of the Gods Festival days and Sports and Banquets were the common divertisements and Families entertained and treated their acquaintance and friends in such a free and open manner that all Italy securely conversed with each other without fears or jealousies or designs being all possessed with that Divine Spirit of Love and Charity which flowed from Numa as from a Fountain of Wisedom and Equity so that the Hyperbolies which the Poets of those days used and the flights which are allowable in Verse were flat and not able to reach with their highest expressions the happiness of those days When Spears and Swords and direfull Arms of War Were laid aside and rustied in their places No Trumpet sounds alarm'd the publick peace But all securely slept For during the whole Reign of Numa there was neither War nor Sedition nor Plots designed against the State nor did any Faction prevail or the ambition and emulation of great Men attempt upon the Government for indeed men so reverenced his Vertue and stood in such awe of his Person which they believed was guarded by a particular care of Divine Providence that they despaired of all success in their sinister intentions and then that happy Fortune which always attends the life of men who are pure and innocent bestowed a general esteem and good reputation on him and verified that saying of Plato which some Ages after he delivered in relation to the happiness of a well formed Commonwealth For saith he where the Royal Power by God's Grace meets with a mind and spirit addicted to Philosophy there Vice is subdued and made inferiour to Vertue no man is really blessed but he that is wise and happy are his Auditours who can hear and receive those words which flow from his mouth there is no need of compulsion or menaces to subject the multitude for that lustre of vertue which shines bright in the good example of a Governour invites and inclines them to wisedom and insensibly leads them to an innocent and happy life which being conducted by friendship and concord and supported on each side with temperance and justice is of long and lasting continuance and worthy is that Prince of all rule and dominion who makes it his business to lead his Subjects into such a state of felicity This was the care of Numa and to this end did all his actions tend As to his Children and Wives there is a diversity of reports by several Authours some will have it that he never had any other Wife than Tatia nor more Children than one Daughter called Pompilia others will have it that he left four Sons namely Pompo Pinus Calpus and Mamercus every one of which had issue and from them descended the noble and illustrious Families of Pomponi Pinari Calpurni and Mamerci to which for distinction sake was added the sirname of Royal. But there is a third sort of Writers which say that these pedigrees are but a piece of flattery used by the Heralds who to incurr favour with these great Families deduced their Genealogies from this ancient Lineage and that Pompilia was not the Daughter of Tatia but born of Lucretia to whom he was married after he came to his Kingdom howsoever all of them agree in opinion that she was married to the Son of that Martius who perswaded him to accept the Government and accompanied him to Rome where as a signal of honour he was chosen into the Senate and after the death of Numa standing in competition with Tullus Hostilius for the Kingdom and being disappointed of the Election in high discontent killed himself howsoever his Son Martius who had married Pompilia residing at Rome was the Father of Ancus Martius who succeeded Tullus Hostilius in the Kingdom and was but five years of age when Numa died Numa lived something above eighty years and then as Piso writes was not taken out of the world by a sudden or acute Disease but by a chronical Distemper by which he lingred long and at last expired At his Funerals all the glories of his Life were consummate for the kind people and his friendly companions met to honour and grace the rites of his Interment with Garlands and contributions from the publick the Senatours carried the Bier on which his Corps was laid and the Priests followed and accompanied the solemn procession the remainder of this dolefull pomp was composed of Women and Children who lamented with such tears and sighs as if they had bewailed the death or loss of a dearest relation taken away in the flower of his age and not of an old and out-worn King It is said that his Body by his particular command was not burnt but that he ordered two stone Coffins to be made in one of which he appointed his Body to be laid and the other to be a repository for his sacred Books and Writings and both of them to be buried under the Hill Janiculum thereby imitating the Legislatours of Greece who having wrote their Laws in Tables which they called Cirbas did so long inculcate the contents of them whilst they lived into the minds and hearts of their Priests till their understandings became living Libraries of those sacred Volumes it being esteemed a profanation of such mysteries to commit their secrets unto dead letters For this very reason they say the Pythagoreans forbad that their Precepts or Conclusions should be committed to paper but rather conserved in the living memories of those who were worthy to receive their Doctrines and if perchance any of their abstruse notions or perplexed cares such as were their positions in Geometry were made known or revealed to an impure person unworthy to receive such mysteries they presently imagined that the Gods threatned punishment for such profanation which was not to be expiated but by Sword and Pestilence or other judgments of the Gods Wherefore having these several instances concurring to render the Lives of Numa and Pythagoras agreeable we may
great addition of strength and firmness Rewards and honours shall be bestowed on every man according as he shall acquit himself in the action When the King had thus spoken the Gauls chearfully undertook to perform it and in the dead of night a good party of them together with great silence began to climb the Rock catching hold of the craggy Stones and drawing their Bodies into the broken places which though hard and untoward in it self yet upon trial prov'd not half so difficult as they had expected it So that the foremost of them having gained the top of all and put themselves into order they were not far from surprizing the Out-works and mastering the Watch who were fast asleep for neither Man nor Dog perceived their coming But there were sacred Geese kept near the Temple of Juno which at other times were plentifully fed but at this time by reason that Corn and all other provisions were grown strait their allowance was shortned and they themselves in a poor and lean condition This Creature is by nature of quick sense and apprehensive of the least noise so that being besides watchfull through hunger and restless they immediately discovered the coming of the Gauls so that running up and down with their noise and cackling they raised the whole Camp The Barbarians on the other side perceiving themselves discovered no longer endeavoured to conceal their attempt but with great shouting and violence set themselves to the assault The Romans every one in haste snatching up the next Weapon that came to hand did what they could on this sudden occasion Manlius a man of consular dignity of strong body and stout heart was the first that made head against them and engaging with two of the Enemy at once with his Sword cut off the right Arme of one just as he was lifting up his Poleaxe to strike and running his Target full in the face of the other tumbled him headlong down the steep Rock then mounting the Rampier and there standing with others that came running to his assistence he drove down the rest of them there having not many got up and those that had doing nothing brave or gallant The Romans having thus escaped this danger early in the morning took the Capt. of the Watch and flung him down the Rock upon the head of their Enemies and to Manlius for his victory they voted a reward which carried more honour than advantage with it which was that they contributed to him as much as every man had for his daily allowance which was half a pound of Bread and about half a pint of Wine Henceforward the affairs of the Gauls were daily in a worse and worse condition they wanted Provisions being kept in from forraging through fear of Camillus besides that sickness came upon them occasioned by the number of Carcasses that lay unburied in heaps Moreover being lodged among the Ruines the Ashes which were very deep blown about with the wind and mingled with the soultry heat caused a dry and pestilent Air which drawn in infected their Bodies But the chief cause was the change of their natural Climate coming out of shady and hilly Countrys which afforded pleasant retirements and shelter from the heat to lodge in low and champion Grounds naturally unhealthfull in the Autumn Season Another thing which broke their Spirits was the length and tediousness of the Siege for they had now sate seven months before the Capitol insomuch that there was vast desolation among them and the number of the dead grown so great that the living scarce sufficed to bury them Neither were things any thing better with the Besieged for famine encreased upon them and not knowing what Camillus did they remained in a languishing and desponding condition for it was impossible to send any to him the City was so narrowly guarded by the Barbarians Things being in this sad condition on both sides it came to pass that a motion of treaty was made by some of the Fore-guards as they happened to discourse with one another which being embraced by the better sort Sulpicius Tribune of the Romans came to parle with Brennus where it was agreed that the Romans laying down a thousand weight of Gold the Gauls upon the receipt of it should immediately quit the City and Territories The agreement being confirmed by oath on both sides and the Gold brought forth the Gauls used false dealing in the weights first privily afterwards openly pulling back the balance and violently turning it at which the Romans being moved and complaining Brennus in a scoffing and insulting manner pull'd off his Sword and Belt and threw them both into the Scales and when Sulpicius asked what that meant What should it mean says he but woe to the conquered which afterwards became a proverbial Saying As for the Romans some were so incensed that they were for taking their Gold back again and returning and with resolution to endure the uttermost extremities of the Siege Others were for passing by and dissembling a petty injury and not to account that the indignity of the thing lay in paying more than was due but the paying any thing at all which stood not with their honour to have done had not the necessity of the times made them yield unto it Whilst this difference was amongst themselves and with the Gauls Camillus was at the Gates and having learned what had passed he commanded the body of his Forces to follow slowly after him in good order and himself with the choicest of his men hastning on went presently to the Romans Where all giving way to him and receiving him as their sole Magistrate with profound silence and order he took the Gold out of the Scales and delivered it to his Officers and commanded the Gauls to take their Weights and Scales and depart Saying that it was customary with the Romans to deliver their Country with Iron not with Gold And when Brennus began to rage and say that he had injury done him in breaking the Contract Camillus answered that it was never legally made and the agreements of no force or obligation at all for that himself being declared Dictatour and there being no other Magistrate by Law that he had contracted with those who had no power to doe it But now they might use their own discretions for he was come as absolute Lord by law to grant pardon to such as should ask it or inflict punishment on those who had been authours of these disturbances if they did not repent At this Brennus flew out into rage and it came to a present quarrel both sides drawing their Swords and vigorously assaulting each other being mixed in confusion together as could not otherwise be amongst the ruines of Houses and narrow Lanes and such places where it was impossible to draw up in any order But Brennus presently recollecting himself called off his Men and with the loss of a few onely brought them to their Camp and rising in
that the Athenians had betray'd and surrender'd up to him both the Customs and Imposts of their subject Cities and the Cities themselves so as to bind up some and to let loose others and Stone Walls to build up what he pleas'd and again to throw them down Leagues of Alliance the interest and strength of the Nation their peace and their wealth and good fortune Nor was all this the business of a lucky hit by some emergent occasion nor was it the vigorous height and propitious favour of a State-management that flourish'd for a season but having for forty years together bore the bell away among such brave Statesmen as Ephialtes and Leocrates and Myronides and Cimon and Tolmides and Thucydides were he after the overthrow and banishment of Thucydides kept up his head still for no less than fifteen years longer and having gotten a place of command and power which was but one among the annual Magistracies or Offices and places of Trust to which there was a new Election every year he preserv'd himself free and unprevail'd upon as to money or bribes Though otherwise he was not altogether idle or careless in looking after his own advantage but as to his paternal and personal Estate which of right belonged to him he so order'd it that it might neither through negligence be wasted or lessen'd nor yet he being so full of business as he was give him any great trouble or cost him much time with taking care of it and put it into such a way of management as he thought to be the most easie for himself and the most exact for thrift For all his yearly products and profits he sold together in a lump and afterward buying every thing that he or his Family had or might have need of out of the Market he by this means supplied the concerns of his House as to sustenance and provision Upon which account it was that his Children when they grew to age were not well pleased with his menage and the Women that liv'd with him were treated with little cost insomuch that they complain'd of this way of expence in his House-keeping which was ordered and set down from day to day and contracted to the greatest exactness of thrift since there was not there as is usual in a great Family and a plentifull Estate any thing to spare or over and above but all that went out or came in all his disbursements and receipts were book'd and carried on as it were by number and measure Now there was but one Menial Servant of his Euangelus by name who kept up all this strictness of his Accounts one naturally fitted as no body else could be for such an imploy or at least bred up by Pericles himself to this Stewardship All this in sooth was but the effect of his Tutour Anaxagoras his wise instructions though he for his part by a kind of Divine impulse and greatness of Spirit which made him contemn the World voluntarily quit his House and left his Land to lie fallow and to be grazed by Sheep like a Common But I must rationally suppose that the Life of a contemplative Philosopher and that of an active Statesman is not to be one and the same thing for the one onely imploys his Mind and understanding about great and good things which Mind of his wants not the help of instruments nor needs the supply of any materials from without for what it hath to doe whereas the other who attempers and applies his Vertue to humane uses may have occasion sometimes for plenty and abundance of outward things not onely those which are necessary for his subsistence but those which are handsome also and sutable to his quality which was Pericles his case who relieved abundance of their poor And yet for all that there goes a story that his Tutour himself poor Anaxagoras while Pericles was taken up with publick affairs lay neglected and that now being grown old he muffled up himself with a resolution to die for want of Food which thing being by chance brought to Pericles his ear he was struck and instantly ran to the man and used all the arguments and intreaties he could to him lamenting not so much his condition as his own should he loose such a Counsellour of State as he had found him to be And that upon this as the story goes on Anaxagoras should unmuffle and shewing himself make answer Ah Pericles said he even those people who have occasion for a Lamp use to supply it with Oil meaning that if he would have him to live he must allow him a maintenance The Lacedemonians beginning to shew themselves troubled at the greatness of the Athenians and to be jealous of the increase of their power Pericles on the other hand to advance the peoples spirit and buoy it up yet more and to put them upon great actions and exploits proposeth an Edict or Decree in writing to summon all the Grecians in what part soever they dwelt whether of Europe or Asia and that every City little as well as great should send their Deputies to Athens to a general Assembly or Convention of Estates there to consult and advise concerning the Grecian Temples which the Barbarians had set fire to and burnt down and the Sacrifices which they were indebted upon vows they made to their Gods for the safety of Greece when they fought against those Barbarians and the Sea-affair that they might henceforward all of them pass to and fro and trade securely and be at a constant peace among themselves Upon this errand there were twenty men of such as were each of them above fifty years of age sent by Commission five whereof were to summon the Ionians and Dorians that were in Asia and the Islanders as far as Lesbos and Rhodes and five were to go over all the places in Hellespont and Thrace up to Byzantium now Constantinople and other five beside these to go to Boeotia and Phocis and Peloponnesus now called the Morea and from hence to pass through the Locrians Country over to the neighbouring Continent as far as Acarnania and Ambracia and the rest of the Commissioners were to take their course through Euboea to the Oetaeans and the Gulf of Malea and to those of Phthia and Achaia and Thessaly all of them to treat with the people as they past and to perswade them to come in and bear their share in the debates and concerts which would be for settling the peace and regulating anew the affairs of Greece When all came to all there was nothing done in this business nor did the Cities meet by their Deputies as was desired the Lacedemonians as it is said under-hand crossing the design the trial whereof was disappointed and baffled first in Peloponnesus However I thought fit to bring in this passage to shew the spirit of the Man and the greatness of his mind for State-projects In his military Imploy